Lessons Learned: Elimination Diet

No more cheese with my wine!

Now that we've finished the interesting experiment that was the Elimination Diet, it's time for a little reflection.

In some ways, this diet was actually fun. It gave us an excuse to try new foods, to complain together about missing pizza, and to share ideas about healthy eating with our friends and colleagues. In many other ways, this diet was a HUGE PAIN. We literally had to plan every meal. If we didn't have a plan for our next meal, we weren't going to eat. We couldn't take advantage of free lunches and snacks at work, and we couldn't order take out. Sometimes it felt like all we did was cook and wash dishes and talk about recipes. We were forced to rethink our concept of specific meals time and time again. What would we eat for breakfast that didn't include gluten, flour, dairy, sugar, nuts, bananas? What would we have for a snack when nuts, yogurt, and granola bars weren't an option?

The first few days were hard, really hard. Cravings for sugar, bread, etc. were high. They went away for about the next two weeks, then came back with a vengeance. Sean and I both had a list of foods we planned to consume immediately upon finishing the diet (cupcakes and macaroni and cheese). However as we neared the end and added things like gluten, dairy, and eggs, we found ourselves not feeling as great and missing the earlier weeks of the diet. This was completely unexpected. It seems that the 8 weeks really were enough time for us to build a habit of plant-based-home-cooked eating.

There are many lessons that I hope we can apply to our life now that we're finished and have enjoyed our cheeseburger reward. I hope we can keep having fresh fruit and veggies for snacks instead of yogurt, processed granola bars, and crackers, and keep bread and cheese for special occasions rather than daily staples. I also hope we can keep cooking almost all our meals and not return to ordering take out a few nights each week. However I know how easy it might be to fall into these old habits. If that ends up happening, I can now clearly see why someone (Miriam!) would want to repeat this diet. Yes it was difficult, but it also made us feel really great. And once you know how great you can feel and how much energy you can have, it's difficult to not feel that way.

Sean says: It's important to control the foods you're putting in your body and the best way to do that is cook most of your own meals. Without knowing the ingredients that went into something, it's difficult to know what you're really eating. Now that I know what is making me feel bad, I want to avoid those foods and be more aware of what I'm consuming.

I have to give a special thanks to Sean, for doing this diet with me. It took him about 8 months to come around to the idea, to not think it was insane, and to even suggest that we try it. I think he agrees that it was well worth it.