The Diet From Hell

As part of my CFS/FM treatment the docs want to find out if I have any other food allergies/sensitivities.  I just got back from the nutritionist with the diet from hell.  It is a full elimination diet specifically for CFS/FM.  For 6 weeks I can't eat any form of the following:

Milk/dairy
Eggs
Wheat
Gluten
Corn
Soy
Sugar in any form
Chocolate
Cola
Citrus
Coffee/black tea
Alcohol
Vinegars
Fungi
Yeast
Artificial anything: coloring, flavoring, additives
Dried fruits: raisins, mango, apple, etc
Nightshade vegetables: tomato, white potato, eggplant, peppers

After six weeks is up, I can introduce one food at a time in large doses: i.e. pure form at every meal.  Then wait and see if there is a reaction anytime during the next four days.  If not I get to add another food.

Thankfully there is a lot on this list I don't eat anyway.  If my energy levels stay as they are now I should be able to handle this.  However, she did say there is typically a herx reaction during the first four days of the elimination so I would get worse.  This is going to cause problems since I've been doing mostly crock pot cooking and the recipies have lots of ingredients on the forbidden list.  Luckily I do have a couple of allergy cookbooks so I'm going to have to take a look and see if there are any recipes I can modify for the slow cooker.

She did provide me with extensive lists of things I can eat and where to buy them locally.  She gave me a flexible sample menu and lots of ideas for snacks so that I can eat smaller meals instead of three large ones.  She also had me buy rice protein powder to add to foods since I do better with at least some protein at every meal.  I was frequently using dairy to fulfill this need. 

This is one of my own personal quirks.  Everyone is different.  I was like this before I got sick with CFS.  While I was training for skating competitions I always had a bit of protein with each meal and snack I had.  It kept my energy level much more even and stopped me from grabbing cookies or sweets.

I'm not going cold turkey on this one.  I still have yogurts and dried fruit that will go bad during the six week time frame so I will eat those.  As I have to replace groceries I will make the substitutions.  Hopefully this will reduce the herx reaction not to mention the caffeine withdrawal symptoms.  Besides Easter is coming up and my birthday.  I want chocolate and cake and pizza.  So I've given myself two weeks to cheat and ease into this.  The first to go off my list is eggs since I ran out today along with milk and GF bread.  No more soft boiled eggs, tea and toast for breakfast.  I'm going to try GF oatmeal made with almond and coconut milk tomorrow.  If it tastes any good I'll post the recipe on Fast Foodie.  Wish me luck!