Day 8 (of the first 25)

You all are actually joining me on day 8 of my self-selected 25 days of elimination.  The link I put in the last entry says 3 to 4 weeks.  I've seen mention of as little as 2 weeks in other places.  But because I'm a pretty stubborn person with (I think) strong will-power, I decided on 25 days, long enough to detox, but short enough that we get to the point of the whole thing: figuring out what I can eat.

I didn't even bother getting rid of or hiding the "no-no foods" around the house.  A neighbor showed up the night before I planned to start the diet and begged me (okay, I needed no begging) to take her two sons during the day until the woman's brother either died or got better.  I told her I don't know what the boys eat nor have a lot in the house for them.  She said she'd send their food with them.  So, it was pointless for me to hide food when I'd have their food in the house anyway.  It's really sweet how they always want to share with me as well.  Depending on how long their uncle is sick, I might actually be able to accept one of these days.

I started a journal in a notebook.  However, after a few days, I started getting pretty lax.  I guess some people deal with a lot of cravings and withdraw symptoms.  I didn't or at least haven't; so, it seems pretty pointless to take notes when there is nothing to take notes on.  And, yes, I quit cold turkey.  I figured that the sooner I got started, the sooner I'd get it over with.  However, last night, I just started writing in that notebook about my thoughts and feelings, and I realized that perhaps there are people out there who might be looking to do the same sort of diet but what to hear the inner process, not just the scientific details.

So far, my slow cooker has been my best friend on this diet (besides Lyndsey always answering my questions).  It assures that there is always rice on hand in the house, and, quite frankly, that's what I've been eating a lot of.  Plain rice, rice with celery, rice with cabbage, rice with onion, rice, rice, rice.

I should note that there are a few additions to my eatable list since I started the diet:

• regular table salt (That diet link calls for sea salt.  That wasn't easily accessible to me; so I figured it wasn't going to happen.  However, as I have never been a big salt user, I decided it was okay for me to continue using my regular amount of salt in dishes.)
• Cabbage (So, it was never really prohibited; however, it's one of those veggies that I wasn't thinking about when I made the list.)
• Olive oil (Not the cold-pressed kind, but at least not the billion-times-heated kind)
• Lemons (You may have noticed the lack of fruit on my diet.  That is due to my doctor's doctor-friend who was concerned about the sugar content.  Admittedly, I didn't eat a lot of fruit anyway because it is more expensive than vegetables.  However, lemons aren't very sweet--or don't seem it--and are a basic staple of our diet here.  I don't use a lot of lemon, just for the rare occasion that I eat salad and want a dressing...lemon and salt, if you're curious.)

The biggest problems I have faced with this diet are the lack of snackable foods and agonizing over what order to reintroduce the foods based on the recipes which I typically use.  However, the point of this diet was to address some GI pain, and I have been pain-free for 8 days.  Or at least that kind of pain.  I've dealt with dehydration headaches (which I have once in a while anyway since I don't like drinking water), hunger pains (because I didn't cook the rice ahead of time), and pain from the cold (my toes have always been like this...or at least since I was about 12; I think it is something to do with my blood pressure).

And yes, there are some things which sound yummy (such as bread and milk), but I know I just have to wait.  At this point, I'm 1/3 of the way done.  At some point it gets pointless to cheat as the end is closer than the beginning.  I can't say I've been perfect, but it hasn't been as a result of cheating.  Most of it has been as a result of watching two boys aged 6 and under and having unblocked cement stairs in my house.  If I don't have time to grab an extra stirring utensil before heading up to the stove, I'll just use my rice spoon to stir their soup...and then stick it back in my rice all contaminated because I won't have time to grab something else for my rice until 6:30 when their sisters come to get them...and I'm hungry.

Today I've been trying to find a solution to the snack food issue.  This is mostly a problem right before bed when I notice I'm hungry but don't have time to cook anything.  I'm currently working on figuring out a recipe for rice crackers.  Once I have something that works, I'll share it here.  (I ran out of rice flour this morning; so I'll buy some more tomorrow and get back to work on my experiment.)