When choices become actions

Monday is the big day.  Monday I begin the comprehensive elimination diet. There has been quite a bit of preparation that has gone into this process and more preparation to come.

The first thing I decided to do was search for recipes on the internet and Pinterest . When I began, I could hardly find anything that would work without a lot of substitutions, but as I kept looking, I found more than I thought I would. I've compiled them onto a Pinterest board elimination-diet-recipes.

The second thing was to make a grocery list. Usually we make a menu before a shopping list, but as I tried to figure out what to buy and where to buy it (looking at local ads) the anxiety of what I was about to do started to overwhelm me. That's when my DH reminded me that it wouldn't be that complicated since I've been gluten and dairy free for more than 2.5 years. There would be some changes to my diet, but we could keep making some of the same recipes we already have ingredients for with just a few changes. So, going on the idea that what we really need are "staples" (free range chicken breasts, salmon, ground turkey, frozen fruit and veggies), my DH went shopping. I wanted to go with him (and he wanted me to go too), but with four kids who would not be amused to go shopping for hours, he went by himself. 

The shopping left me happy and a bit shocked. DH was able to get many items at our local Costco. He bought cold pressed olive oil, cases of coconut milk and rice milk, and even found canned tuna without soy! I was most surprised at what he couldn't find, free range chicken! Organic grain fed chicken was available, but since the idea is to be 100% gluten free, grain fed chicken isn't going to work; even if it is organic.) After spending hours at Costco (checking labels, lots of labels) we decided for him to come back home and possibly go to the grocery store tomorrow.

Since I have gluten and dairy free for so long, we figured that many of the "staples
 we've used for years would still work; unfortunately we were wrong. When looking through our own pantry, we found that some of our "staple" items (quinoa with brown rice, Food Should Taste Good Chips, gluten free pasta and flour mixes) won't work for this diet due to the oil that is added or nut and bean flours. On this diet, it is imperative to check labels. So many foods have soy and unhealthy oils in them. I had no idea! 

Tomorrow, I'm planning on cutting up a lot of the fresh produce we've purchased and putting it into quart size freezer bags so that when it comes time to making lunch and dinner, it won't be quite so time consuming and labor intensive. I'm also planning to make smoothies, pour about a cup into quart size freezer bags that can easily thaw overnight for a nice easy breakfast in the morning. 

I still need to work out the menu for the week so I know what I'm making when, but at least now I have many recipes to choose from and know what ingredients we have that I can put together. :-)

I'm pretty excited to start this new chapter. I've heard great things about this diet, and I'm really hoping that I can get my old self back.