My Elimination Diet - Day 1 & 2

Below are some notes on the first two days; mildly unpleasant would be one way of describing it.

Day 1

The hardest thing so far is being without coffee. Caffeine withdrawal for me comes with a pretty intense head ache and some serious brain fog. I couldn't do any work on the first day, I was completely brain dead. Any reserves I had was to care for my 1 year old son.

Its weird though, I allow my self green and black tea which has caffeine in it and I was still brain dead for most of the day. There must be something else in the coffee that I am also experiencing withdrawal from or it could just be the psychological phenomenon of not having it; I do enjoy the taste.

Day 2

BUSTED!!!

Bad news, I broke my diet (accidentally). It is not like I ate a dozen donuts with a liter of milk plus a pot of coffee, but I did eat a food that is on my DO NOT EAT LIST.

It was actually a very honest mistake; this is what happened.

I live in a foreign country (Denmark) where I do not speak or understand the language very well.

Yes, I blame it all on the Danes!

I was buying frozen spinach the other day and bought one that was spinach with cream sauce. I meant to buy just plain frozen spinach. I didn't realize my mistake till after eating the first package with my chicken. Oops! Of course the entire package is in Danish but if I looked more closely I would of saw that the ingredients had more then just spinach on it and that would of raised a red flag for this product.

Another error I made in these two days was with my fish oil. I have been using liquid fish oil that is flavored with citrus oil. So, I will need to switch to capsules for the next three weeks.

I am also taking some other supplements that I will go into detail in a later post.

No, it's not the Danes fault, I only have my self to blame. It is my own personal responsibility to care for my own personal body, no one else. Anyway, mistakes are good, this is how you learn.

By the way my two mistakes came with somewhat processed foods. When on a restricted diet, the simplest way of avoiding these mishaps is to consume mostly whole foods. Actually every healthy diet should be focused on whole foods.

Whole foods are those that are unprocessed and unrefined, or processed and refined as little as possible before being consumed. They typically do not contain added ingredients, such as sugar, salt, or fat.

"Diets rich in whole and unrefined foods, like whole grains, dark green and yellow/orange-fleshed vegetables and fruits, legumes, nuts and seeds, contain high concentrations of antioxidant phenolics, fibers and numerous other phytochemicals that may be protective against chronic diseases." 

B Bruce, G Spiller, L Klevay, S Gallagher. A Diet High in Whole and Unrefined Foods Favorably Alters Lipids, Antioxidant Defenses, and Colon Function. Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Vol. 19, No. 1, 61–67 (2000) http://www.jacn.org/cgi/reprint/19/1/61

Be Well,

Mike Reid

www.michaelreid.ca

www.WaterPoloTraining.net