My Experience w/ Elimination Diets
In my early twenties, I struggled with orthorexia (more on that here). As I was healing from this, my first goal was to have food freedom. Meaning, no food rules, simply looking at food as food and nothing else. No counting calories. No counting macronutrients. No rules about when and when not to eat.
Having food freedom helped me mentally heal from all the years of restrictive/fad dieting and gave me the mental space to actually listen to my body. When I started having major gut health issues, I realized I needed to work towards a different mentality around food - food peace. Meaning, having contentment with the food choices I make every day. These choices being based off of the awareness I have around what foods work well with my body.
With food freedom, I was free of rules around food, which was great, but my body was sending me signals that I needed to take a deeper look at what I was feeding it on a daily basis. I was constantly bloated, not digesting my food, and had very low energy. It got to a point where anything I ate would cause a painful flare-up. These flare-ups were causing me to miss work - simply put, I was not thriving. Eventually, I had enough and started working with a functional medicine doctor to help me figure out the root cause of these issues.
When I decided to work with a functional medicine doctor instead of a conventional doctor, I knew part of my healing process would involve some form of an elimination diet. As someone who used to struggle with orthorexia, elimination diets were difficult to follow because oftentimes, the restriction would bring up negative feelings around food. The main reason I could mentally get through the food protocol my doctor prescribed to me was because I was experiencing food peace.
Because I had such painful symptoms, my doctor and his team put me on a food protocol similar to GAPS**. Long-story short, I went back to basics to help relieve my symptoms as we healed SIBO and leaky gut. I was pretty much eating bone broth, cooked vegetables, fish, and soups. Because of the dysbiosis***, I was also avoiding FODMAPs, starches, and fruit. I followed this protocol for a period of time, until SIBO was gone and the leaky gut showed signs of improvement both from a lab and symptom perspective.
Once I was through the elimination phase of the protocol, I was able to slowly reintroduce new foods. I’m talking one by one, with at least 3 days in between any new foods (talk about patience). This required a lot of patience around my food choices - especially in social situations or when I was traveling. As impatient as I am, I stuck with it - I had come so far and I knew in the end, I would have the powerful tool of knowing what foods my body loves and doesn’t love.
Having awareness of what your body loves and doesn’t love is powerful stuff.
This is why I want to share a copy of the food journal I used on a daily basis that helped me understand not only how food affects me but also how other factors such as stress, movement, and mindfulness, affect my mental and physical health.
Even if you are not following an elimination diet, you can still start to develop awareness around how certain foods (and other choices) affect you. Keeping a journal like this is super helpful when trying to identify patterns. I still refer to my journal when I’m in a flare or when I want to research symptoms I’ve had in the past. I also now have a list of foods that I never eat, foods I avoid most of the time, and foods that I know my body loves.
Food can be healing if we choose to listen to our bodies. And we don’t have to eat “perfectly'“ 100% of the time in order to take better care of ourselves. The simple tool of self-awareness can help us make better choices every day. If you need support in developing more awareness, send me a message or read more about my coaching programs here.
Note: If you’re struggling with your relationship with food, please refrain from using this and reach out to a mental health professional to help you heal this relationship first.
*This article is shared for educational purposes only. Please consult with your doctor to see if an elimination diet is right for you.
**To learn more about GAPS, read this article. Work with your doctor before implementing major changes to your diet.
***To learn more about dysbiosis, read this article.
Photo by Bluebird Provisions on Unsplash