The biggest reason for the challenge is due to a “last resort” option. I’ve got some persistent and personally scary symptoms that I don’t want to live with anymore (e.g., eczema, heart burn, and serious throat burning reflux etc.). The theory is, if I eliminate foods, my symptoms will improve and then after 3 weeks I start adding foods back in slowly to see if symptoms re-appear. Get a symptom = find a food allergy. Sounds easy, all the stuff I’ve read says , “easy, enjoyable and fun”. Hmmmm ... We'll see about that. BUT first… take away all the good, yummy, melt in your mouth, taste so good foods!
That’s right – no more wheat, dairy, eggs, and inflammation causing fruits and veggies. In describing this to Jeff: he’s like “So… what do you eat?” Hard sell on the hubby but little does he know, he’s joining me in the challenge as I’ll be cooking dinners!
So day 1:
I am a brown rice fiend! All my meals are gonna take lots of thought and time (which I don't have = challenge #1) and as for snacks - rice cakes and apple butter are my new best friends!
I am embracing it and frankly gulping down crazy new foods and liquids just praying it works…
I cooked Adzuki bean rice bowl and here’s what I observed at dinner tonight:
-Kai immediately stated, “I don’t like this green celery!" (It was baby bok choy). He ignored my labour intensive adzuki bean stew and ate the rice but only with buckets of soy sauce.
-Jeff ate suspiciously slow tonight, chewing lots with several of gulps of water per mouthful. His pace was akin to some sort of glacial plate movement. There was NOT a lot of content hmmm and hawww sounds emerging but lots of questioning, “what is this?”, “what’s the sauce?” and then, “It’s kinda spicy eh?”. To this I thought out loud, “Man up Quigs, it’s a bit of garlic for cleansing thy bod”.
-I was shocked with the first bite, Yep definitley a little bit of garlic in there, but then it grew on me. I enjoyed the chewiness of the brown rice and the labour intensive Adzuki beans grew on me too. At the end, I felt unusually satisfied with one bowl of the gruel!
Jeff took ages to finish and I must assume he’s already planning a few surprise night meetings over the next 3 weeks.
So stay tuned and I attempt this excruciating challenge. In fact… pray for me. This might be the most difficult thing I’ve done… oh wait, I do remember birthing 2 Q boys naturally … will this compare?