Planning...planning....and more planning

Once I decided that I was tired of having daily stomach issues, I went on a search for what to do about it.

I've always had a good idea that some foods were causes. For example, I think I am lactose intolerant so I avoid drinking milk, and use Lactaid pills when I do have dairy. Maybe it helps some, but it certainly did not solve my issues.

I think that corn causes my joints to hurt....then again maybe that is in my head too!

Instead of guessing or assuming,  have decided to find out for sure once and for all. Once I have set my mind to something, I like to plan and plan some more before I start. My plan so far is to find out what foods are normally good for starting an elimination diet so I can get my baseline and keeping a food diary (this is a MUST!). Here is what I have:

On the initial elimination diet, you can eat the following foods:

• any vegetable but corn, peas or beans
• any meat but bacon, sausage, hot dogs or luncheon meat
• rice, oats, barley and the grain alternatives amaranth, quinoa and buckwheat (available at health food stores)
• any fruit but citrus (also avoid any fruit you currently eat more than once a week)
• bottled, spring or distilled water and herb teas.

This info was picked from www.cfids.com relating to chronic fatigue. I don't suffer from this, but the idea for finding out what foods cause physical issues is the same.

I will stay on a diet of these foods for about 6 days. If at the end of the 6 days, I feel better and don't have the same stomach issues, it will be time to start to add certain foods back in the days that follow. If I still have issues, I will be eliminating foods that I ate that week.

The planning I am still doing is what I will eat at least for the first 2 weeks. My husband and daughter are not doing the elimination diet, but are on board for the change to healthy eating.  I don't think I would be able to do it if they were not on board (thanks family!)

My sister has similar digestion issues like I do, so she is planning on doing the same elimination diet as me. We are working together to come up with good recipes to keep us on track.