Warning: Only read if you are interested in strict dieting and digestive issues. Remember, I tried to warn you!
Yesterday I posted a picture of celery and peanut butter on Facebook with the caption, “Day 6 of clean eating (no da
iry, gluten or sugar) and I have reverted back to kindergarten snacks. Surprisingly awesome!” and received a handful of requests to blog about my newly prescribed “diet.” Unfortunately, this is not a diet of choice, it is one that has been made out of a necessity to make my body not feel like it’s been stuck in a bouncy house with a dozen gorillas. If this feeling sounds familiar to you, I have so so much empathy for your belly!
If you know me (even in the slightest bit!) than you know that I have had digestion issues for as long as I can remember. When I was at sleepovers in middle school I was always so embarrassed of the noises my stomach made as well as um, some other things (my apologies for that comment). To say that it is time to do something about it is the understatement of my life time. In the past I have gone to doctors and specialists to no avail. The good news is that they have ruled out anything serious and have diagnosed me with the rather (unfortunately) common irritable bowel syndrome. So that is my wickedly awesome gut history, I am so sorry that I felt like it was okay to share that with you!
Now we skip ahead to the present time and there are some serious issues going on. I sought out the help of holistic nutritionist, Rachel Gerlach of Nutrition Works. With her incredibly patient listening and intuition, she came up with a 30 day nutrition plan to help my body out of the distress that it has been in. This about sums it up, “no gluten, no dairy, no sugar, no caffeine, no alcohol and nothing spicy.” On top of that she gave me lots of vitamins to help regulate my digestive system. If you are interested in learning more about that, please contact Rachel (I am nowhere near educated enough to give you accurate information about how those vitamins can help).
When I first heard what I was not allowed to eat I freaked out a bit. What the heck could I eat?! No pizza for an entire month? That does not sound like a diet, that sounds like hell. Dramatics were allowed for only a few minutes. I eventually cleaned up my attitude and stocked my cart at Sprouts with approved food. A
week has gone by that I have been strictly adhering to the diet and I no longer miss the sugar or the carbs. I can almost guarantee that part of the reason I do not feel like I am missing out on food is because I feel better. When I feel better, I do not want the crap that made me feel like I was hit by a stampede of elephants.
If you are anything like me, then hearing what people actually do eat when their diet is very restrictive is more interesting than hearing about the diet. Here is what my I am putting in my body today:
- Breakfast: gluten-free oatmeal with sliced almonds, almond milk, banana
- Snack: sliced vegetables with hummus
- Lunch: green smoothie (apple, spinach, cucumber, carrots, mint, water and protein powder)
- Snack: celery with natural peanut butter
- Dinner: mushroom risotto with shrimp
- 80-100 ounces of water (including peppermint tea and hot water with lemon to spice it up)
And this is what I ate yesterday:
- Breakfast: protein smoothie with vanilla soy protein powder, banana and almond milk
- Snack: Kind bar
- Lunch: rice, veggie burger and olives
- Snack: celery with peanut butter
- Dinner: spaghetti squash with vegan meatballs and broccoli
- Same amounts of water and tea
Honestly, I can admit that I do not feel like anything has been taken out of my diet and it is way easier than my dramatic self anticipated. If you are looking to clean up your eating habits a bit- whether it is medically needed or for other reasons, I highly encourage you to do it. Get over whatever fear you have of missing out on certain foods and allow yourself to be fulfilled with other things in life. If you try it out, let me know how it goes or drop me an email with your favorite recipe! This newly converted strict diet(er) will appreciate it greatly!
365 Days, 365 Workouts 