Surviving Weekends on an Elimination Diet

OK, I'm really looking for help here! How in the [beep] do you get through the weekend without all the usual go-to foods and beverages? As desperate as I might sound (and feel at times), the weekend wasn't too bad. I'm quickly finding that skipping foods every other day (not eating the same thing two days in a row) isn't as easy as it might sound. I'm a busy girl. I appreciate the convenience of leftovers. So tomatoes, garlic, and onion are very likely going to end up in my stomach two days in a row. How does my stomach know 24 hours from 48 hours anyway? And what constitutes skipping a day. If I go 25 hours in between foods, that's more than a day, right? (sigh...)

Say Cheese!

So actually the hardest thing has been the cheese. I really want cheese. Stinky, creamy, yummy cheese. The stinkier, the better. In fact, my husband makes a dirty martini with blue cheese and olives that he calls a dirty boot. It's awesome. But I did buy some Daiya shredded soy cheese, the mozzarella style, and it's not bad. I'm hearing more and more about how soy isn't good for people with Thyroid issues, or maybe it's just those with Hashimoto's, so I'll have to dig into that some more. However, at the moment, it's the only form of cheese I can have that's reminiscent of the normal stuff. I'm absolutely dying to experiment with a gluten free pizza. I know there are many recipes and options out there. I aslo bought some Tofutti "Better than Cream Cheese" and it, plus the Daiya, were great on a baked potato!

I think the best thing about getting my mindset right with regards to this dietary lifestyle change - because let's face it, it's not just a "diet" - is that I don't spend so much time looking at a lot of the junk in the grocery store. I'm starting to have this mental dialogue running that just "knows" that stuff is bad for me and doesn't care about it, doesn't even want to look at it. Some of it is tempting, probably out of old habits, but for the most part it's like I'm on a mission in the store. Get in, grab what I came for, and get out! Although, it has been fun wandering some of the aisles, looking for things that I can add to my menu.

Gluten Free Vodka

So if you're like me and you like an adult beverage or two to unwind on the weekend, there are definitely options. There are many potato-based vodkas out there, and Tito's, based out of Austin, Texas is great! It's getting amazing reviews (and I can vouch for how smooth it is) and the Tito's web site is very clear about being gluten free. I've even seen Tito's advertised in Southwest Airline's Spirit magazine. A little lime or lemon, a little cranberry juice, or a little gluten free Bloody Mary mix, and you're all set. I'm also a huge fan of the hard apple ciders, like Angry Orchard, Crispin, Ace, and Woodchuck. Each of them are clear on their web sites about being gluten free.

Gluten Free at Big Lots? Sweet!

My best find of the week, thanks to my mother in Texas, is that Big Lots carries a smorgasbord of Bob's Red Mill brand flours and mixes! We're talking good prices, expiration dates that were NOT in the next 6 months, and lots of variety!  This is really cool, because if you've shopped for gluten free products for very long, you know that things cost quite a bit more than your normal processed I would never have even looked there! I came home with more of the gluten free and rice free brownie mix and cornbread mix that I made earlier this week. I also bought a package of cinnamon raisin bread mix, which I figure will do in a pinch this week if I'm craving breads or sweets. I'll post an update with how that turns out.

This afternoon was spent planting another round of seeds with my husband in our fairly new organic garden. He's really gotten into it and I think we're going to have a much better harvest than our 1st attempt at the beginning of the year. The seeds are taking nicely, and many of the plugs (tiny transplants) are doing OK so far. Maybe I'll post on the garden periodically to show it's progress. It's amazing to realize how much I've learned in such a short time, considering I was juicing kale and other things that aren't good for people with thyroid issues. For more on that, the Livestrong web site has a pretty good write-up on how the brassica family of plants suppresses the thyroid gland. Cooking them cuts the goitrogenic properties down quite a bit, so we're still planting kale and bok choy. I just won't be eating large quantities of them raw.

Well, my brain is tapped for the day. Heading out for some more ALCAT blood work in the morning. 'Til next time!