The Northeast/Mid-Atlantic had their taste of some real snow, which meant cocooning in the house doing “work” work while regularly going out to shovel.  There will be a snowblower for the next storm!  Until then it was more a neighborly effort to keep shoveling before it got too deep since three houses share a 250 foot driveway.  Despite all that I was able to get some good eating in and to try a new way of cooking chicken.

Today I woke up feeling about the same as I did yesterday morning, and it continued through the afternoon and evening.  It’s nothing horrific but enough to be a nuisance and for me to try to avoid contact with people.  Sadly due to poor schedule management on my part my diet for the day wasn’t altogether bad, but it wasn’t that diverse either.

I had gone to bed feeling a bit dehydrated and woke up with a splitting headache.  On a Sunday morning when I wasn’t abstaining from alcohol that would have been a clear indication I had too much alcohol the night before, which sadly with my metabolism can be as little as three beers sometimes.  I tried nursing it off but to no avail, so I just kept trying some nourishment to fill in the gaps and lots of water/seltzer trying to fight it down.

The second week is now down and while I certainly am getting used to the restrictions I can’t say I have gotten to the point where I’m not missing certain foods anymore.  It is great to notice that I can pick up the scents of these foods I used to eat all the time, often from across the room.  Unfortunately that creates a craving not revulsion sensation.  I think part of the reason for that is because I’m actually not sensitive to any of these foods that I’ve excluded.  Perhaps it is too early to tell, and in the coming weeks I will have a revelation about something that is just not agreeing with my system.  There is only one way to find out, of course.

With several friends in from out of town I decided for once to bring myself down into the city to enjoy some sites and tastes and spend some time with friends.  The inertia against going out in the city versus out in the suburbs, especially after a week of work, often overcomes any desire to go.  That becomes less so every year as more local good restaurants open up and our own social circles out here get solidified.  Every time I do get downtown though, like this day, I am reminded that I need to do it more frequently.

After a pretty busy week with a lot of eating out, I ended the work week doing more of the same.  I think I may have had a minor slip up but interestingly (or sadly) I don’t think it affected me one iota.  Overall best intentions were still met, and I sort of treated Friday (as I will Saturday) as a bit of a “cheat day” without actually violating any of the rules of the elimination diet.

Since my schedule kind of sucks in terms of making time to cook, I’ve been relying heavily on eating out this week.  Today is no exception.  Tomorrow and Saturday won’t be either.  I’ve learned my lesson from the past and just plan ahead a bit to get around the problems.  In so doing I’ve nailed down the whole restaurant experience, at least where I can find at least one item I can eat, or at least modify, from the entree section.

A busy day of work meant that most of my meals, actually all but breakfast, were going to be eating out.  A little homework ahead of time made that process a bit more streamlined than it has been in the past though.

With one week of the elimination diet now behind me I wanted to do a summary of how things are going so far.  I think as the diets unfold it’s good to look at the state of the nutrition, how I was feeling, if there were any problems et cetera.  So while this is important, I also think it’s good practice for the real deal.

Day 10 was a rather blase day, diet wise.  I had a typical shake for breakfast.  I followed that up with a typical huge salad for lunch.  Mid-to-late afternoon was a huge container of carrots and celery with a heaping serving of the homemade garlic hummus.  I was kind of hungry by dinner time and didn’t have any big things planned so it was a trip to Wegman’s for an assortment of sushi followed by some of that homemmade almond butter fudge for “dessert.”  I entered all of that into the computer and out popped the fact that I was pretty low on several vitamins and minerals.  That’s nothing that a bowl full of pumpkin seeds, almonds and cashews couldn’t take care of.  The problem is that eating that many nuts and seeds at the same time does not make for a happy stomach.