One week down!
This was pretty similar to yesterday, food-wise. Banana and Spritzer for breakfast (strawberry – yum!), rice and steamed baby brussel sprouts for lunch, those same garlic onion rice crackers in the afternoon, and Rice Chex by the handful on the couch again for the evening. I will be planning real meals Saturday with Mandee, so hopefully that will end. 
Biking has continued on the stationary, flossing is continuing every evening, and waking has continued at 7:00AM every morning.
I woke up feeling 100% better. Either that was a very short-lived stomach bug, or it was the soup. Either way, I’m happy to be feeling better.
I began the day with oatmeal, a banana, another R.W. Knudsen Spritzer, this time Black Cherry. I’ve got to say, that was just awful. It tasted OK, but the aftertaste was really unpleasant. Lunch was just some brown rice and tea, and some fun little garlic and onion rice crackers and a Cherry Pie Larabar for an afternoon snack. I wasn’t as good when I got home from work. I grabbed the Rice Chex and sat on the couch eating it by the handful. 
Biking has continued on the stationary, flossing is continuing every evening, and waking has continued at 7:00AM every morning.
Today was rough, but in an entirely different way than yesterday. I started the day off well with oatmeal and juice, I had some lemonade mid-morning, and then for lunch I had a cup of herbal tea, a very tasty frozen veggie dish recommended by Jen – the Green Giant Immunity blend, and the 14-bean soup I made over Christmas break. I had the hardest time eating the soup. At one point I turned to the lady next to me and said, “This soup kinda sucks.” I don’t really know what it was about it, but I just could not eat the darn thing. I ended up choking it down and then washed it down with the tea and veggie dish that I did want to eat. I had a few peas within the next hour or so, but I mostly just felt miserable for the rest of the day. I got home intending to make some quinoa, among other things, and found myself scared to eat. I felt like crap, and I didn’t want to eat anything and make that mental link between that feeling and any of the food I had. I’ll spare you the gruesome details, but I’ll just say that I did end up vomiting and finally just went to bed.
Here’s hoping that’s short-lived. I’m thinking either it was the soup or I got the same little stomach bug that Mandee had. Either way, I never want to eat that soup again. 
Biking has continued on the stationary, flossing is continuing every evening, and waking has continued at 7:00AM every morning.
Today I am writing the entry as I go throughout my day so that I can keep a record of what I’m eating.
I went grocery shopping after work, and that was HARD. The cereal aisle made me want to cry. I finally found something I could have: Rice Chex. It has to be the brand name, I can’t even have the knock-off Rice Squares. I was so happy; I bought two boxes. Mandee called while I was there and cheered me up, so I didn’t have a complete meltdown in Cash Wise. Thanks, Mandee!
The head of the natural foods section was there when I reached that section, and we chatted a bit about various products I was looking for. She said they’re changing suppliers in about 6 weeks and they might be able to get some hemp ice cream in, which would be awesome. Even the rice ice cream has soy in it, so I currently can’t have any. She also said they might be able to get in some Sunshine Burgers which have just 5 ingredients, all of which I can eat: Ground raw sun-flower seeds, Brown rice, Carrots, Herbs, Sea Salt. Also, they taste super awesome. Hemp Ice Cream and a Sunshine Burger are what I had when I went to VG Burgers with Rosie this summer, and it was heavenly. I suppose it could just be easier to move to Boulder and go back there. I’ll work on that, too.
I returned home with a fair amount of fresh produce: a variety of potatoes, carrots apples oranges and a citrus juicer (it’s juice time!), sugar-snap peas, bananas, and a bag of salad mix; a bunch of frozen veggies: green beans, baby brussel sprouts, one of Jen’s Immunity Blends, some sort of winter squash mush, oven-bake potato-wedges, hash browns, and probably more that I’m not remembering at the moment; and some shelf-type items: a loaf of bread that I can eat, two boxes of Rice Chex, two different varieties of quinoa, a rice cereal that looks like Malt-o-Meal, a larabar (the only one without walnuts is the cherry pie one!), some Veggie Crisp chips, some egg-replacer, ground flax, and a few cans of carbonated juice.
After the cereal aisle it was a lot better, but it still wasn’t easy. A lot of the gluten-free stuff has egg in it, which is frustrating.
Here’s what I ate today:
Organic lemonade (not the best, but it’s sweetened with organic dehydrated cane juice solids and colored with turmeric), instant oatmeal (I’m using this up and then will switch to the normal kind once this is gone), Vegetable soup (veggies and lima beans! My mom and I made this when I was in Bismarck over Christmas break), raisins, Rice Chex and Hemp Milk. I don’t think I ate enough. Today was a hard day.
Biking has continued on the stationary, flossing is continuing every evening, and waking has continued at 7:00AM every morning.
I began the day today with every intention of going to the grocery store. But I needed to find my camera for my brother to borrow first, and then when looking for that I got the organization bug and started cleaning out the entire close. It’s getting close to being totally done, which is awesome. I’ve got a pile of stuff to get rid of, too. Woo! But because I did this instead of grocery shopping, I don’t have much food at home yet.
I didn’t write anything down again, but it went something like: salad+dressing, almonds, oatmeal, raisins, and likely more. Tomorrow I will begin recording!
Biking has continued on the stationary, flossing is continuing every evening, and waking has continued at 7:00AM every morning.
Today my friend Mandee came over, and I sent her home with two big bags of groceries and a huge bag of knock-off-brand Cheerios. (Scooters!) All that’s left in my kitchen with any allergens now is just a small bit of corn and peanuts.
Food has included salad+dressing, almonds, oatmeal, soup, and I didn’t write down anything, so probably quite a bit more.
Biking has continued on the stationary, flossing is continuing every evening, and waking has continued at 7:00AM every morning.
So, I’m using the word “Macrobiotic” rather loosely here. Officially, a Macrobiotic diet involves a lot of whole grains (such as wheat) and soy. Well that would be all fine and dandy if I didn’t have an appointment today at the allergy clinic where they informed me that I am allergic to both wheat and soy. (And dairy. And egg. And corn and peanuts to some extent as well. And this isn’t even all of the results yet!) So I’m just following the spirit of the diet, really. Also, another thing I’d like to clarify: When I say “diet” I mean “way of eating” not “I’m going to do this until I lose 50 pounds and then go back to eating normally” because I plan to maintain this indefinitely.
What I intend to do is eat whole foods, nothing processed, make things from scratch, avoid allergens, etc. Ideally, a person would grind her own flour to use in baking, but I am going to go ahead and just pick up a bag of Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour and call it good.
Avoiding soy, egg, dairy, wheat, corn, and peanuts? And I already don’t eat meat? What will I eat, you ask? Well first of all, corn and peanuts were lower on the allergy test results than the rest and they did mention that those two are probably OK, so I’m just going to keep them in moderation. I’ll avoid eating straight corn or HFCS, but I’m keeping my bag of frozen veggies that has some corn in it. I won’t eat handfuls of peanuts, but I won’t throw away my peanut butter soup.
Right now what I’m doing is going through my food at home and cleaning everything out that I’m allergic to. Early next week I will hit up the grocery store and get some new food. This weekend will be a little off, but I’ll really get into the swing of things on Monday.
Today’s food has included oatmeal, mandarin oranges, Tings (which are mostly corn, I know.), fat-free hash browns (just cook them on a non-stick griddle/skillet without the oil. They’re so light and fluffy that way!), almonds, salad+dressing, an likely some other things I’m forgetting.
Biking has continued on the stationary, flossing is continuing every evening, and waking has continued at 7:00AM every morning.
