So, what do I eat, you ask? I will tell you. I don’t touch gluten and very rarely sugar. I don’t eat anything processed but I do indulge in some gluten free bread and tortilla chips here and there. I am still allergic to most raw fruits, vegetables and nuts so it’s slim pickings sometimes. But with fresh herbs, fresh food and a good quality sea salt, what I eat is still delicious and filling.
Here are some things I enjoy:
Arugula, carrots, green beans, broccoli, brussels sprouts, tomatoes, cauliflower, onions and garlic. I like to roast up a batch of vegetables with zucchini, onions tomatoes and peppers.
Grass fed beef, bison, lamb, organic cage free eggs, organic free range chicken, wild caught fish.
Potatoes here and there.
Chick peas, lentils, and split peas sparingly.
Gluten free bread, sparingly. I love Trader Joe’s more so than the kind in the frozen section. Those usually have corn syrup and preservatives.
Organic tortilla chips. Again, this is not the best choice, but I do eat them occasionally.
Guacamole and Salsa.
Brown rice pasta or spaghetti squash. I like to brown up some grass fed beef or buffalo and add some homemade marinara (a good quality jar of it is fine too) to top it off. Fresh basil and crushed red pepper add a lot of flavor.
Pumpkin Seeds and Almonds. I buy them raw and roast them myself. Just bake them at 350 about ten minutes or until the delicious nutty smell is in the air. Then I put a drop of olive oil on with some sea salt or cayenne pepper and give them a toss. If you can tolerate other nuts that’s fine but peanuts and cashews tend to have a lot of mold.
Goat Cheese and Mozzarella Cheese – Believe it or not, I have slowly brought these back in and they don’t seem to cause a problem. But dairy is an issue for many people and can be inflammatory so keep a food diary and see for yourself.
Homemade Soups – You can make soup from anything! I usually start with the old celery, onion and carrot combo and then add split peas, lentils, chicken, spices, whatever I have in the fridge. I NEVER use chicken stock or broth. There’s absolutely no need for it. If you have spices for flavor that’s all you need. Even the “organic” and “MSG free” stocks are not good. If you cook some boneless chicken breasts right in there it will add flavor. Just shred it up after it’s been simmering a while. The longer the better.
Salads – I love arugula or baby kale as the base and just some olive oil and fresh lemon juice. I either use fresh lemons or I always have some Santa Cruz lemon juice in my fridge. Add any other veggies, pumpkin seeds, chick peas, hard boiled eggs, chicken or whatever you enjoy. I have a small food processor that works great for mixing up salad dressings. You can usually find them at the local grocery store for under $15. Even if it’s just olive oil and lemon juice – mixing it in the processor gives it a nice creamy consistency. Add a fresh garlic clove for a little kick. Also balsamic vinegar, olive oil, a squeeze of dijon mustard, a garlic clove and a couple kalamata olives or capers (if you have them on hand) make a delicious dressing in the food processor.
Drinks – Black coffee or espresso with water. Club soda with a splash of Santa Cruz lemon, lime or grapefruit juice. Lots and lots of water from a home delivery non BPA water cooler. White wine, typically from New Zealand or other countries where they do not have pesticides. You always have to remember to include drinks when you are logging food or thinking about what is included in your diet. Even some of the drinks we think are healthy are really not. The juices with all the sugar, teas filled with artificial flavors or those massive coffee drinks filled with artificial flavors and sugar.
When you are buying something that is packaged, always read the ingredients. If it’s a huge paragraph with things you have never heard of, put it back on the shelf!! Let’s say for example you are buying a jar of marinara. If it has tomatoes, garlic, basil, olive oil and sea salt that is perfectly fine. If it has those but also soybean oil, sugar, corn syrup, citric acid….I would not buy that. There are some canned and packaged foods out there that are not bad. Let’s say you’re buying cocktail sauce. If you read the ingredients it has a BOAT load of crap. But if you make your own with tomato paste that only has tomatoes listed as the ingredients and horseradish that only has horseradish and vinegar listed as the ingredients, you’ve now gone from a mountain of fake ingredients, corn syrup and flavorings to something with 3 natural ingredients.
I love buffalo sauce. But instead of wings that are fried and soaked in blue cheese I will grill some chicken and put my own buffalo sauce on it. If you buy “buffalo sauce” it’s going to be full of unnatural ingredients like “natural butter type flavor”. Seriously, what is that? I just take Frank’s Red Hot and cut it with a little butter. Real butter folks. Don’t mess around. I also love to put that sauce on shrimp. I get the Argentinian shrimp in the frozen section from Trader Joe’s, boil them, and toss them in buffalo sauce. Delish.
Always be prepared. Have a day of food prep. Make a big batch of soup for the week, have salads and homemade dressings ready to go. Boil up some eggs. Roast some chick peas and pumpkin seeds. If you’re starving and there’s nothing around, chances are you’re going to give up and eat something bad.
A lot of people, and especially sick people, are finding they feel better doing intermittent fasting. This is where you only eat certain hours of the day and the rest of the time your body is getting a break. It’s usually 8 hours of eating and 16 hours of fasting. I did not even realize this is the way I eat. I’m not hungry in the morning so I don’t eat until around 11:00 A.M. I eat dinner around 6:30 P.M. It’s rare I snack after that. I feel better eating this way and it’s worth looking into. We have become so obsessed with food and eating. Almost every social event, holiday, family get together and work outings revolve around food. Try and take a step back and think about how we were created. We were not made to gorge on food all day long. You’re not going to die without ice cream and chips. Take a breath. Do you really need that food? What is the best choice you can make in the situation you’re in?
Today around 11:30 A. M. I had arugula with roasted pumpkin seeds, red onion, kalamata olives with a dressing made of lemon juice, olive oil and fresh garlic. I put my nice coarse sea salt from my salt grinder on and a little cracked pepper. I also had two fried eggs. I had the salad ready to go and had salad dressing made up in a container in the fridge. Be prepared! Delicious. Tonight I’m making tacos and rice for the family. Instead of the taco seasoning from the store that is filled with artificial ingredients, I just add dried oregano, cayenne pepper and cumin. I will probably have some of this with lettuce and salsa on it. I have some organic taco shells which only have corn, oil and lime as ingredients so I might whoop it up and put it on a shell. If I do put cheese on, it will be some fresh cheese with only a few ingredients. Not the mexican fiesta blend. Are you getting the point? All these little changes make a huge difference. It’s not always about how much you’re eating or the calories consumed but it is how ingredients in food is affecting your body or making your symptoms flareup.
Do I miss eating pizza, cake and chips? I do not!! When I first gave all that up, yes I did. If I had insomnia I would dream about what foods I would eat if I could eat anything. But I have to say now, if I was allowed to eat anything for a day and it would not cause me adverse reactions, I don’t even think I would splurge. It’s usually the critters in your body that are telling you how badly you want the food so once you get rid of them, your cravings go away.
Here is just one story to give as an example, even though I could give many. A few years back we were out of town at a volleyball tournament. We all went out at night for Hibachi and ice cream afterwards. I normally would never eat ice cream or hibachi, but, when in Rome, right? I got back to the hotel and thought, HA HA body, I ate that food and I feel fine! Well the next day I just started swelling up and swelling up, the fatigue and brain fog were like this cloud that just followed me around. It was hard to breathe, the lights and sound in the gymnasium were too much for me to take. I couldn’t even speak to anyone and I was just in this horrible funk. I couldn’t get home fast enough to lay down in bed. So, was the flavor and tastes of that food good enough to feel that terrible? Absolutely not. Remember, we eat to sustain ourselves and live. And when your symptoms just start disappearing, it’s worth it.
Desperate for Health 