The Elimination Diet
You're probably wondering what an elimination diet is, sounds intense, right? Well, it is! You have to cut out major food groups for 3 weeks then reintroduce each one back in for 2-3 days to see if you have any symptoms. If you do, then you know to cut that out for a while or forever. The gut microbiome is constantly changing so if you are intolerant to something, like corn, it may not be forever but it’s good to cut it out. They say it takes 21 days to cut something out for your gut to get rid of it, then you can add it back in to see how you feel - if you have any intolerances than you will feel symptoms within those 3 days. I felt mine right away.
So, I started the elimination diet exactly a month ago and wanted to share my experience here. I was pretty adamant about trying this, as I learned in school and from JJ Virgin that this is a good way to figure out food intolerances. I thought it would be best to try it myself before teaching my clients. But in order to do it, I wanted an accountability partner, so I convinced my husband to try it with me. We spread the word about this diet and a couple of friends decided to join in, it was perfect, we could all keep each other on track - so we decided March 2nd was a good time to implement this and we kept each other in check and on track.
I cut out dairy, eggs, corn, soy, gluten and artificial sweeteners for 3 weeks… it was actually 23 days. It was so tough the first 4 days but after that I felt so good. I was able to sustain energy by implementing a few different carb options and fruit. I didn’t want to add something back in right away and feel like crap again, but I had to do it to know. So, on day 23 I added organic sourdough back in. I chose this gluten food first because, not only do I love sourdough, but I also know that it has less wheat gluten than regular bread. Within 20 minutes I noticed symptoms including swelling and achy joints, okay great, no more bread for me! I waited a couple of days for my symptoms to go away and added corn back in, organic tortilla chips and noticed the same thing. Then I added A2 brown cow cheese for the dairy category and luckily had no symptoms. It was different for A1 black and white cow (conventional) dairy, I immediately felt symptoms including stomachache and brain fog. These different dairy proteins A1 & A2 affect people’s digestion differently. Also, pasteurization and homogenization processes destroy the nutrients and oxidize the fats in raw milk so it’s not even worth buying. Now I occasionally will have A2 cheese and grass-fed butter, it just tastes so much better. I have learned from the Bulletproof diet that grass-fed and grass-finished dairy increases nutrients - you are eating whatever what you ate ate, if that makes sense?! I’m sensitive to nightshades, soy and artificial sweeteners but that’s okay because there is so much that I can still eat. By the way, I lost 8 pounds eating this way and my husband lost 15 pounds in 3 weeks. It may not be like that for everyone but that’s how much our food intolerances affect us!
Don’t get discouraged, there’s still so much that you can eat! Here’s what my husband and I loved to cook on this diet; we eat protein and make that the star of our dishes! So chicken, beef, bacon and turkey mostly. Then we add lots of herbs and seasonings and do a lot of different lettuce wrap options. We also do proteins on white rice. For dessert or snacks we will eat low sugar fruit or make smoothies with coconut milk and they are delicious! We’ve learned to love cooking over the years and it’s extra special to make your own food at home, making healthy food with love has a way of healing your gut and your life.
