A friend of mine has been dealing with chronic and debilitating back pain issues. She’s tried most of the conventional (non-invasive) approaches. Nothing has worked. Her primary care doc decided to send her to a naturopath, who asked her to do an elimination diet. Oh, and she suggested that she recruit a friend to do it with her, for moral support.
Guess who she recruited?
So, for the next 10 days, I’ll be joining her in living off of an extremely limited diet. In addition to my typical gluten-free/dairy-free restrictions, I’ll be adding nuts, nightshades, most seeds, all animal products, dried fruits, very starchy vegetables, and tropical fruits to the list of forbidden foods.
What will I be eating? Vegetables, vegetables, and more vegetables. A couple of fruits a day. Unrefined coconut oil. Flax seed, pumpkin seed, chia seed, or sunflower seeds.
We officially start our 10 days tomorrow. But, today is prep day for me, which means I’m going to stick as closely as I can to it today, while I try to figure out just how much food I’m going to need to eat each day. Hint. It’s going to be a lot.
The naturopath wants all the seeds we eat to be ground. So, today I made a pumpkin seed coconut oil butter, and added it to my morning green smoothie.
I already miss my almond butter.
Peach, Blueberry, and Pumpkin Butter Smoothie
Peach Berry Pizzazz Smoothie
1 small peach
85 g. frozen blueberries
3/4 cup water
2 cups (85 g) fresh spinach
1 T. (12 g) pumpkin butter (see below)
Put all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Serves 1. 168 calories, 8 grams fat, 6 grams protein, 6 grams fiber, 12 grams sugar.
Pumpkin Coconut Butter
2 cups (240 g.) raw pumpkin seeds
5 T. (70 g.) coconut oil
1/8 t. salt
Put all ingredients in a food processor or high speed blender and process until smooth – about 15 minutes in a food processor. 24.5 servings. Serving size 1 tablespoon. 8 grams fat, 3 grams protein, 1 gram fiber.
For more healthy weekend eats, check out Wellness Weekends.
The Mommy Bowl 
Oh boy, am I ever familiar with this routine, heh. Good luck! It’s not so bad. 😉
I immediately thought of you, Amber! And, I am jealous that you get to eat coconut. (I’m really not sure why that one is limited.) Hopefully, this will help my friend, and I might find some new things that I like/that work for me/or that don’t work for me along the way, too.
My ND keeps telling me I’m going to have to do an elimination diet, but so far, I haven’t. Though as you said, it’s not that far off from my (or your) regular diet!! 😉 Best of luck with it. I’ll be looking forward to what you cook up. 🙂 (And wow, what a nice friend you are!)
Thanks, Ricki. I think it will be interesting. I have a HUGE pan of root veggies roasting in the oven right now for lunches. And, I’m currently eating an apple with some pumpkin butter and mesquite powder. Massive quantity of broccoli slaw was consumed for lunch. It hasn’t been a bad food day at all, really. Just takes more prep time than grabbing a handful of almonds.
Good luck over the next few days! I just did an elimination diet myself and the first thing I wanted to test/ add back in was chocolate- looks like I might have some sensitivities to my lovely dark friend. Boo! Here’s hoping you don’t find yourself in the same boat 🙂
Oooo, dang. I’ve never had any problems that I’ve noticed with chocolate. I HOPE that’s not the case for me. Though I’ve given it up for years in the past without too much effort. Sorry to hear that it doesn’t agree with you. 😦
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