As many of you know I have been on an elimination diet the last few weeks for health reasons. I am only eating some healthy fats, meats and fish, and four vegetables (carrots, zucchini, green beans, and spinach). It has been pretty difficult but I am feeling so much better that I am becoming more and more motivated to stick with it.

Tonight we went out to eat. Yup, out to a restaurant and I stuck to my elimination phase rules and had a great meal and a nice night out; plus no dishes, woohoo!!!!!!

​Hubby's birthday is coming up and we had planned to go to Tavola. Plans were made before I started this diet and I felt bad not going since Hubby was really looking forward to it. I called the restaurant earlier in the week and explained I was on a special diet and could only eat certain, limited foods. They were very helpful and accommodating on the phone and assured me that my dietary needs could be met :) Yay!

For an appetizer I had scallops, simply fried in olive oil with a little salt. Very simple but still delicious. Hubby had baked oysters with bacon, panko and Parmesan and thought they were delicious.

For my main I had salmon (it was the fish they had as a special tonight), again simply pan-fried with olive oil and salt only. I also had some wilted spinach and carrots. All very simple but still really nice, and within the rules of the elimination phase of Digestive Health with Real Food :) Hubby had the Tagliatelle, what he has been talking about having for the last month now :)
It is fresh made pasta done different ways depending on the night. Tonight it was made with house-made sausage, fennel, and tomato sauce. Hubby's comment was "the hand-made pasta was light, delicate, and delicious." He said "it is among the best he has had outside of Italy". High ratings. I couldn't taste it but will take his word for it :)

The apps and meals were wonderful, the staff was very accommodating and understanding, and our server was fantastic :) Will definitely be going back again soon :)

Starting week 3 of my elimination diet today :) I am doing very well with it now. It is still difficult but having more good days then bad. I have lost over 8 lbs in 2 weeks and am very happy with the results. Before people start thinking well you can't eat like that forever and when you start eating "normal" again it will all come back on, just let me say it is only the first phase. I am dealing with very high levels of inflammation that have my doctors stumped. I think this is the main cause of my weight gain and my inability to lose weight. My body is in a constant state of inflammation which is not good over time and can lead to loads of health problems (many of which I am experiencing). I fully believe there is something in my diet that is causing this inflammation and if I can pinpoint those foods and eliminate just those then I will hopefully start feeling normal again :) Once the elimination phase is complete I will start reintroducing foods (one at a time) and see which ones are causing problems.

Enough about the diet and health, lets get to the important stuff....food :)
Had a great breakfast yesterday. I fried up chopped pork belly with a little salt. When it was crispy I added left-over roasted veggies to the pan and stir-fried it all. It was excellent and similar to regular breakfast foods, yay!

Had the last of my Beef Soup for lunch and roasted a local chicken and local carrots in olive oil last night for dinner.

Since starting this diet I am starting to feel better health-wise and am losing weight. The foods are good, you just need to find food you enjoy and look forward to eating. I am finding I am not nearly as hungry as I usually am and I am actually eating less then I did before; very little snacking. I tend to have my three meals and a rooibos tea blended with coconut oil at night. If I do get a little hungry through the day I may just have some cooked veggies to tide me over. If you find you are hungry between meals, ensure you are eating enough at meal times, especially protein :)

Having a great day! I had three great meals that I really enjoyed today and I'm feeling much better :) 

​Started the day with thick cut pork belly (soaked in water and salt overnight) baked in the oven and pan-fried some leftover roasted veggies :) It was delicious :) Also had a rooibos tea blended with coconut oil, it does taste a little odd but it's growing on me, and I think it is helping keep me full longer :)

Lunch was leftover Beef Soup that I made yesterday :) Still great.

Dinner was a pan-fried beef tenderloin with oven roasted veggies in olive oil. I do the roasted vegetables (carrots, zucchini, green beans) a lot because it's my favorite way to have them. I make a huge pan full and then eat them throughout the week. 

It is day 11 of Digestive Health with Real Food, elimination diet, and I am doing much better now. I was doing pretty well the first few days but I was finding it pretty hard the last couple of days. I was having cravings and was getting a little turned off with all the meat. I found I wasn't enjoying meal times at all and had started eating for simple hunger and not for the love of good food. Now this can be good and bad but I will admit I love to eat. I love enjoying my food and I was really missing that and starting to feel a little down.

I recently started cutting my meat back a little, to better suit me. I eat a little less at meal times and sometimes a little more often.

​Also, I was having trouble finding proteins to eat as I am not a huge meat or fish eater. I was finding breakfast especially hard. The mere thought of eating meat first thing in the morning was making me nauseous. I ended up usually having some fried ground chicken or pork with green beans and even that was starting to get old, quick. 

I had a little break-down and Hubby was very helpful by suggesting some other meat ideas I hadn't really thought about. I was stuck on a regular handful of meats and fish we usually eat. Today we bought Cornish hens, pork belly to make bacon without any sugar (I can't wait for this tomorrow), local turkey, and lobster that I ate for lunch. Tonight I made a delicious beef soup. I was surprised how good it actually was just using minimal ingredients. The trick was the homemade broth I think. I simmered local beef bones all day yesterday, after first roasting them in the oven. I made the soup today with beef, carrots, green beans, salt, and garlic oil. It was great :)

I am feeling much better since starting this. My fatigue is less, my joints are getting better, my knees don't hurt at all, and my IBS symptoms are diminishing. I also lost about 6 lbs so far :)  

Day 5 is almost at an end and I must admit I am doing better than I thought. Digestive Health with Real Food is a very strict meal plan but I am feeling a little better after only five days and I am not as hungry as I thought I would be. I have realized I do not eat nearly enough protein or healthy fats during meal times.
​I do find the diet difficult at times; especially breakfast times with no actual breakfast foods, and cravings are hard, which I have been having lately. I am planning to stick with it though and am hoping I will only need to stay in the strict full elimination phase for the minimal amount of time - 3 weeks.
​Some of my meals over the past few days.

I am doing surprisingly well so far and day one is almost complete. I have come to realize today that I do not eat nearly enough protein and healthy fats on a daily basis. 

I am finding the no breakfast foods a little odd and I have trouble eating early in the morning. I had to have an early breakfast today as I had a morning class. I had chicken, carrots and olive oil; I did feel a little nauseous eating it. I did find I wasn't famished by lunch time today though. Lunch was pork and green beans with ghee. Snack was green beans and ghee. Dinner was wild salmon cooked with ghee and spinach cooked with olive oil. That's it. I may have some roasted carrots later if I get hungry and a rooibos tea with coconut oil. Yummy yummy :)

For those who follow my posts you know I have been dealing with several health issues and am trying to address them in a more natural way. I believe a lot of our health problems and general feelings of well being is linked to what we eat. We are eating so many chemicals, additives and non-food items how can we assume it is not affecting us in a negative way. About 2 years ago we started the real food challenge and eliminated processed foods and additives for 100 days. it went really well and we still try to follow those rules most of the time today.

Even though we tend to eat pretty well most of the time I am still having some troublesome and worrisome health issues. I am seeing my family doctor regarding my problems and awaiting other appointments. I am also seeing a homeopath who has made a few suggestions that have helped a little but there are still issues causing major problems. I did get a blood test done to show food sensitivities in hopes I could find some foods I could eliminate in hopes of feeling better. The test was done over two months ago and the results are still delayed. This is just to long to sit and wait and do nothing. My homeopath is already questioning the validity of the results even if they do show up since it's been so long, sigh. So I am going with my last resort. I am starting an elimination diet tomorrow: "Digestive Health with Real Food". I have had the book for about a year and have wanted and not wanted to start it several times. It is very daunting but I am feeling that it is the only thing left to try besides going on powerful medications for an unknown time with tons of nasty side effects. 

The idea behind it is to eliminate most problematic foods from your diet for a minimum of three to four weeks, possibly as long as eight weeks. Then you start reintroducing foods, one at a time and see which ones are a problem for you. The problematic ones get eliminated again and may be tried at a later time. Some foods may always be problematic and some you may tolerate later or in small amounts. The biggest problem with this diet for me is the minimal amount of food selection during the elimination phase: you can eat most meats, healthy fats,and four vegetables. Yup, that's it. Another problem is I am not a huge meat eater so it will be difficult for me :(

I have started prepping tonight to start tomorrow. I cooked a chicken to have the meat available and I will make a chicken stock tomorrow so I can make a soup. I cooked a pork chop, roasted carrots and boiled green beans. My breakfast and lunch tomorrow will come from these foods. No more breakfast foods for awhile as there are no grains, dairy, caffeine, or eggs. 

I also made ghee for the very first time :) One of the allowed healthy fats is ghee which seems to be clarified butter. Made it tonight and it wasn't too hard, hoping it tastes good but I can't see how it wouldn't since it's just butter :)

I will admit I am happy to be getting started as I have been feeling so horrible lately. I know many people will look at this diet and think it's not worth it but when you start feeling so bad for so long you get to a point where you are willing to try just about anything to feel better. 

If I had to choose my one most favorite meal I think I'd have to go with my Mom's cooked turkey dinner with all the fixings (salt meat, dressing, mashed turnip with brown sugar and butter, pease pudding, potato, carrot, and gravy). This was the main meal I craved while living away and I can't make it the same way and nobody else's tastes as good.
Yay for Thanksgiving and turkey dinner spent with family :)​

Then for supper we had some of the leftover veggies fried up as hash :) Delicious.

Tonight is Taco Thursday at Savvy and we have been partaking in this for the last few Thursdays. I like the fact that it is a local restaurant and the food is made fresh to order. What we ordered tonight was not 100% real food due to sugar and white flour, but it depends on what you order as well. There are definitely healthier options :) Tonight's choice was also not gluten-free. I have been eating gluten lately but I think I may need to cut it out completely, but that's another post.
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​Tonight's tacos were:
*Spiced Pork with Kale/Apple slaw
*Potato, Poblano & Chorizo
*Blackened Salmon with Pico de Gallo
These were some of favorites so far :) I had one of each. The pork and the potato ones were my favorites, as I am not a huge salmon lover. Also, a bonus for tonight was a treat bag of churros with dark chocolate dipping sauce; oh so yummy :) They are like a fresher/moister Timbit but covered in sugar and with chocolate dipping sauce.