The First Few Days

     The past few days have been exciting and you guys are awesome! I keep receiving links to yummy recipes, ideas for restaurant food I can eat, and cookbook suggestions that have helped other people. Thank you so much!!!
     Since we've gone dairy-free and gluten-free in the past, the changes haven't been too drastic. The hardest part really are the eggs and garlic. Many of the Paleo or gluten-free cookbooks use lots of eggs. If you go out to eat, garlic is included in EVERYTHING! Those both have been tricky for finding good foods to make at home and what I can eat when we go out. I also don't want to get into a snack rut, like having a Larabar everyday. Yes, they're yummy and fit my restrictions, but part of this for me is to get away from the processed foods also.
     Now, I'm more serious about these changes than I have been in the past. In the past, we've "tried it out" for 30 days but aren't completely committed during that time and don't have the intentions of continuing after the 30 days. This time is different for me because of the health implications. I just want to feel better all around!
    This is from my "everything to get started" shopping trip:

    This past week, I've had a few "discoveries" to help make my week, and future weeks, easier. The discoveries consist of morning shakes, two easy-to-prep foods, and two eating out wins. I'm using the word "discovery" loosely because these all weren't too hard to find!

     Discovery 1 - My JuicePlus+ morning shake has been such an easy "go to" and fits all of my criteria! Almond milk, JuicePlus+ Complete, chia seeds, and a little Starbucks Via Iced Coffee (I use 1/3 to 1/2 a pack) has been amazing. It gets me going and is easy to make in my shaker bottle. If I want something fancier, I throw it all into the NutraBullet and add frozen or fresh fruit, spinach, and/or carrots. There are so many options! I used to put Greek yogurt in my smoothies for the extra protein but can't use that anymore. I was using coconut milk yogurt (which tasted good!) until I realized there is 0 protein in it. Whoops! Next, I'm going to try goat milk or sheep milk yogurt.

     Discovery 2 - I found a recipe for an easy snack to make ahead of time that's a grab-n-go snack and delicious. I ate one while driving the other day! Easy peasy, and I'm sure it's even easier without a 4-year-old helping!!! Coconut Bonbons!!!

     Discovery 3 - Grilled Chicken Patties - I found this recipe in my snack Paleo cookbook to create 12 mini-patties with 1 pound of ground chicken. I thought it would help me a lot more if it was burger-sized and I could have it with spinach for lunch. Yummers!!!

     Discovery 4 - I found something I can eat at Willow Street Pizza and was very excited!!! This is a "go to" restaurant for our family, and I was a little worried because I typically order pizza or pasta from there. Our server was nice and helpful and helped me to pick a winner. This is the Summer Steak Salad with Grilled Peaches. The goat cheese on it is fine for me, and the dressing it typically comes with has garlic in it, so I swapped it out for a simple balsamic vinaigrette. It was delicious and filling!

Discovery 5 - I found something I can eat at Aqui, a regular Ladies Night hang out! Aqui makes it SO EASY for people with food intolerances/allergies/preferences! First, the server supplied a gluten-free and vegan (2 separate) menus to me. The menu included a description of how they make their food and in which dishes you may find typically "food intolerance" type foods. This was a great place for me to start. From there, I asked our server specific questions about the food - Does this sauce have dairy in it? Does this sauce have soy sauce (gluten) in it? Etc. She had a laminated menu with ALL OF THE INGREDIENTS of each dish. It was amazing! It took a few questions, but the lemon chicken bowl was a winner! It was brown rice with chicken, broccoli, papaya, cantaloupe, and a lemon sauce (no dairy or garlic!) It was super yummy, and I was so happy to find a dish there I can regularly eat.

Oh yeah, and I lost 2 1/2 pounds this past week! Woo hoo!!!

The Results!

     First off, thank you to so many friends for their kind emails and comments. It means a lot to hear from you!!!
     Dun, dun, duuuunnnnn... The Results... I found the results from the food panel were the most interesting, some surprising, some not. The foods I need to AVOID are:

Casein (dairy)
Gluten
Cottage Cheese
Ricotta
Cow's Milk
Spelt
Egg White
Egg Yolk
Wheat
Whey
Garlic
Yogurt
Gliadin (wheat)

I think the one that hit me the hardest on this list was eggs. Huh? Aren't eggs suppose to be a great protein and diet food??? I've gone dairy-free and wheat-free in the past, and felt a bit better, but it was good to find out they are "no-no's" for me! I thought garlic was a culprit of many tummyaches in the past, and now I know I wasn't making it up. Implementing all of these changes in one diet is going to be tough.

The foods I can have in MODERATION (once every 4 days) are:
Barley
Black Beans
Bleu Cheese
Cheddar Cheese
Chili Powder
Kidney Beans
Malt
Mozzarella Cheese
Navy Beans
Parmesan
Pineapple
Triticale (hybrid of wheat and rye)

All other foods are fine. The naturopath said I need to try an egg-free Paleo diet. She wants me to 100% stick to this for 6 weeks to flush the bad stuff out, keep the good stuff in, and see how I feel. I found out my friend who had already done these tests was also intolerant of almonds. I'm so happy almonds and soy are not on my list!!! Those are regulars in my current diet.

The other interesting results from the test were that my cholesterol is good, but my triglycerides are high. I have low iron but am not anemic. I'm borderline low on a few vitamins, but nothing too bad, and adjustments in my food should take care of those. The other doozy result was my stress hormone, cortisol. It is more than 2 times the highest it should be. The naturopath immediately asked if I was stressed and I started to tear up. Me? Stressed??? Ha! :)  She suggested I start taking a pill to help with the stress, and I thought that was a great idea! The other result to be aware of was my sugar was too high - this didn't surprise me at all. I don't eat crap, but I also don't eat the good stuff.

So, after my appointment with the naturopath, I went to Whole Foods, and thought, "This will be easy, I'll just read some labels and make sure these ingredients aren't in them." Well, guess what??? Garlic is in everything! And if it doesn't have garlic, then it has eggs in it!!! YIKES!!! That was a quick and sobering reality check that this will be harder than I thought!!! I will now be preparing many of my meals at home. Garlic and eggs sneak their way into all kinds of foods!

The naturopath recommended a cookbook to help me on this journey:

And I found another book that should help with yummy snacks throughout the day:

She suggested I find 10 restaurants with "go to" items on their menus that I can order. Any suggestions here would be awesome. So far, I've come up with Thai food, Chipotle, and Aqui.

The day I received my results from the naturopath, I weighed myself that morning, and weighed more than I've ever weighed, other than when I was pregnant. I'm excited to start this journey and feel better on the outside, and more importantly, feel better on the inside. I've created my meal plan for the upcoming week and am ready to kick some bootie. I will be doing another blood test in a couple of months and am ready for some better results!!! I know my food intolerances won't go away, but my stress levels, sugar levels, and triglycerides should go down, and my vitamin levels should be in a better zone. I can't wait to share more with you!!!

Before the Journey

     Some interesting (exciting?) stuff is going on at the Bonomi house. For years and years (through high school, college, and beyond), I've had regular stomachaches, headaches, anxiety issues, depression issues, trouble sleeping, etc. It's been a roller coaster at times!
     In high school, after many missed days of school, I realized I was lactose-intolerant. VERY lactose-intolerant. If I drank any milk, I would be curled up in a ball from the cramping pain. It took awhile to figure out, but it was a life-changer once I realized it. To this day, if I go to Starbucks and they put regular milk instead of soy in my drink, I am hurting. A lot! So I've known about my milk issues for awhile.

     When I was a senior in college, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder (it was a fairly popular diagnosis at the time), and later re-diagnosed with depression. I was on depression meds for 5ish years until Jeff convinced me to go off of them. Poor guy has had to deal with a lot! In grad school, I was diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Basically, this was the doctor's way of saying, "We know something you eat causes an extremely painful upset stomach, but we don't know what it is." Great, thanks!

     Clearly, over the years, I've had plenty of issues with food and other stuff in my life. Other than the obvious mood swings and aches & pains, one of the hardest to deal with has been the weight issues. I've always had to "watch my weight" and seem to self-sabotage at times. I started puberty early, and had someone tell me in 8th grade, "You'd be really pretty if you lost 20 pounds." Ouch! In high school, I was working out quite a bit and would eat fairly healthy, for a teenager. I remember my mom telling me one time, "Wow, the muscles on your back make you feel like a boy", and soon after when I was trying on my dress for Senior Prom, she told me, "You better not eat anything this week if you want to fit into the dress." The dress fit me perfectly, but to hear those words from my mom really hurt (which is why they're still with me). It was also confusing - how was I suppose to look? In college, I had my ups and downs, and after college, the weight seems to stick to me.
     In addition to these specific issues, I've also had extreme exhaustion over the last few years. At first, I chalked it up to motherhood, but even with a few good nights of sleep, I still feel like crap. That's IF I can even sleep. 1-2 nights a week I've been dealing with insomnia. Not fun!

     Fast forward to 10 months ago, I started having trouble taking regular deep breaths. Since I've always had allergies, I thought I was being extra sensitive to something seasonal. Well, that wasn't the case, so finally a month ago, I decided it was time to take a step in the right direction. A friend had told me about a naturopath she had seen. Part of the process was extensive blood tests to test for food intolerances, vitamin deficiencies, hormones, and a few other things that were over my head. I was tired of feeling "messed up" all of the time, and I decided to go for it and just found out the results!