allergy elimination diet fail . . . sort of

Well this week (Jan. 15-21 2012) I added chicken, which was awesome! I cooked some up in a crock pot and ate it like it was going out of style. Symptoms were . . . still the same. At this point I was getting really frustrated. How was I supposed to figure out what foods affected me if I never had symptom relief??

But, I continued on. Adding sugar and soy. I was able to eat a modified meal at noodles and co. (they have rice noodles!) and it was super yummy! I also got a bubble tea (the bobas have sugar) and it was super yummy (I got two in one trip to the MOA). Symptoms were . . . still the same.

I went to a party on Saturday night were I was tortured with BBQ wings and cupcakes. But I stayed strong and ordered some plain chicken and a plain salad. On our way home, I expressed my frustration with the diet to Jill.  I was hoping that surely by now I would be feeling great and that the feeling great would be my motivation to stick with the diet. However, I wasn't feeling great. In fact, my body was reacting the same as it was before the diet (albeit better than the first week with caffeine withdrawal and massive legume overload). But I also expressed my concern with not finishing the diet to completion. I didn't want to fail.

Jill, being the awesome best friend that she is, reminded me that I was doing the list for myself. Once the elimination diet was no longer helpful to me, stopping wouldn't be failing, because the goal was to help me. I pondered this after I dropped her off. When I got home I did some research. I tried to stick to good medical sites (you know how the internet can be) and I found some really helpful information.

I had previously been casually diagnosed with a condition when the doctors could no longer explain my symptoms. I took this with a grain of salt, because it is a syndrome (aka not a lot of science to back it up). While not life threatening, the syndrome explained my symptoms perfectly, but so did a lot of other things (for example, food allergies or sensitivities). Well, low and behold, one of the reasons why symptoms don't subside on an allergy elimination diet is if the person has that syndrome. With that I knew that I was on to something.

After more research I found that the syndrome is not at all caused by food or inflammation from food, and has more to do with the chemical reactions in your body. It can be caused by stress, hormones, etc. But it has more to do with your nerves than food. Now, certain foods can make symptoms worse, such as legumes and caffeine (aha, now I knew I was on to something). Also, one medication that is used to help symptoms is my previous tension headache medication (because it relieves stress). The time I went off of my medication lined up with the time when I started noticing my symptoms had worsened.

So my casual diagnosis turned legitimate in my mind (and my husband gloated because he always thought my symptoms were caused by stress). And with that, I felt justified in quitting the allergy elimination diet. The next day I grabbed some pizza at target and ate some chocolate and greek yogurt (yum!). My quitting was justified when my symptoms remained the same after I started eating everything again.

So, if completing the allergy elimination diet was how my success was measured than I failed. If figuring out why I have my symptoms is the measure of success (which I think it is!) then I succeeded. Now I know how to better manage my symptoms (less caffeine, NO legumes, no artificial sugar, and stress management, which I am constantly working on), which I think is a win.

#1 on the list complete!

*disclaimer: I don't want to share the actual syndrome for the world wide web to know, but for enquiring minds, it is (as I said earlier) NOT life threatening or harmful to my body, just inconvenient to me*

allergy elimination diet week 2

Well this week was similar to last. Same foods are allowed. I didn't have any trouble eating the required foods (or more importantly, not eating the forbidden foods), but the trouble was, my symptoms stayed the same.

I didn't have the caffeine withdrawal problems, but the symptoms that I am trying to decipher were still present, and this was a little bit frustrating to me. I decided to continue to stick with it, hoping that by the end of the week the symptoms would get better. However, they did not. I am a bit perplexed, but I think I will start adding in neutral foods next week. (for reference, most people see relief in symptoms within 3-5 days, 8 days at the most.)

The break down of this week:

What I learned: Nothing new compared to last week. Symptoms are better now that I am off legumes, but still not at 100%, or even 75%.

What I craved: Bubble tea! For some reason I just really wanted some. Good thing I can add sugar next week and then I can go and get some herbal bubble tea!

Best Food: Cashew pancakes are still my favorite and a daily staple. However I am also loving the smoothie concoctions I have been coming up with. The best so far: frozen strawberries, frozen mango, fresh spinach, pomegranate juice, and almond butter. YUM!

Next week comes chicken, sugar, and soy!

Book #2: A Game of Thrones

The second new book I read was one that I had heard about from my friend Cassie (yup, same one who lent me Divergent, we have similar taste!) and from Chris. Now having Cassie recommend it was enough for me to read it, but a book that my husband (who is not a reader at all) was interested in was surely something I had to look into.

So while we were on our cruise I used the kindle app on my phone to read the book that Chris had bought, A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. It is the first of a series called A Song of Ice and Fire.

via (no you can't actually click to look inside, but the pic from amazon was the only one I could find)

It was a good one, although different than the books I usually read. A medieval fantasy adventure with a lot of fighting, drama, and love. Although an incredibly well-written book, it isn't one that everyone would love. The fighting is gory and every detail is vivid. Characters you love die and horrible things happen to children, that well, shouldn't. But, if you enjoy a well written story and are looking for a book that will pull you in and keep you interested every step of the way then this series is for you.

I'm excited to read the rest of the series eventually, but right now I've got a couple of other books I want to get to.

Now i've finished 2/30 . . . 28 to go.

Update: #8 Pass the Texas Bar

Well I don't know if I passed yet, but one thing I do know for sure, I completed the Texas Bar Exam.

I endured 2 months of intense studying which may or may not have included: multiple emotional breakdowns, numerous stress eating trips to the grocery store/burger king/whatever I was craving, and a couple pounds of weight gain.

However it also included an awesome bar survival kit from Jill:

The best part:

(you can read more about the kit, and "alphaing" here)

Then I flew to Texas to take the bar exam.

I stayed in a hotel right next to the convention center, which was a huge sanity saver (our rental house was about 45 minutes away without traffic). Each morning I woke up early and started my day with caffeine and more protein than any person should ever have to consume in one sitting:

The protein consumption was worth it. I was never once distracted by hunger (which was the goal).

I would be lying if I didn't tell you that it was 3 days of horrible. I would also be lying if I told you that I just breezed in, took the test, and breezed out. I was a stressed out mess.

2 days before the exam we had eaten dinner with Phil and Jill. Phil had told me about how in his college running days they would have big races. And before those big races they would sit around and say:

"What are we going to do?"

"We are going to complete the race."

It takes the stress and pressure off of winning or beating someone. You just have to focus on completing it. And this was how I got through those stressed out mess moments. I would say in my head, "you just need to complete today's exam." No need to focus on passing, just complete it.

And that is just what I did, completed the exam :)

A quick rundown of the days:

Day 1: Practical Test (they give you a practice senario and you have to write a memo about it), and Texas Civil Procedure and Evidence short answer test (40 questions with 5 lines following each for you to answer in). This was by far my best day, or at least that was how it felt. I felt really good about the practical, and pretty good about the short answer. The only bummer is that this day only counts for 20%

Day 2: Multi-State Multiple Choice Exam. 3 hours to answer 100 questions in the morning, and 3 hours to answer 100 questions in the afternoon. It was really hard, and I didn't feel great about it, but I feel like I performed at a passing level. Counts for 40%

Day 3: Texas Essays. 3 hours to do 6 essays in the morning and 3 hours to do 6 essays in the afternoon. This day was BRUTAL. I felt decently prepared for it when I walked in, but the more questions I read, the worse I felt about it. They asked about little nuanced things some of which I didn't know. Luckily BarBri (my prep course) had prepared me for making up answers, and I made up some awesome answers like a boss :) Counts for 40% (unfortunately)

Results don't come out until summer. I'm not super confident that I passed, because those Texas Essays were brutal. But you never know, the reality is that you only have to pass and I am hoping that the other days might balance out my horrible day. Either way, until the results come out I am hoping for the best!

Allergy Elimination Diet Week 1

I decided to start the allergy elimination diet on Jan. 2, 2012 for a couple of reasons. First, I was just going to be studying for the bar. No work, no school (except for a week long j-term class) no where to be. This meant that the eating restrictions would be easier because I wouldn't be out and about. Second, Chris would be in Texas. He wouldn't have to live with all of my crazy restrictions, and i wouldn't have to be tempted by his yummy food.

So on Jan. 2 I headed to target and whole foods and stocked my pantry with phase 1 eliminating foods.

look at all that fruit, yum!

The first week is supposed to be pretty rough. your body is detoxing chemicals and caffeine and that isn't always pleasant. Safe to say my body had a lot of detoxing to do. The caffeine withdrawal was awful! i had an almost constant headache for about 4 days. The withdrawal peaked on day 3 ( mid-point of my j-term class, fun!) with really bad nausea and a headache. but by day 5 I was back to normal headache and nausea wise. The symptoms i was attempting to figure out through the diet, however, were still present throughout the week. i am hoping they will get better next week.

what i learned: legumes and my stomach do not mix. i had to switch to nuts and lamb as my primary proteins because the mass amounts of legumes were tearing up my stomach. I definitely noticed the difference once i switched. Also, living without bread isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I also learned what a caffeine headache feels like. As some one with chronic headaches, this was very helpful. i would guess that 1/4 of my headaches could be cured with a coke, good to know.

what i craved: Pizza! on the horrible day of caffeine withdrawal Jill heated up some pizza for lunch and my first craving hit me hard. My rice pasta and salad just didn't compare! Then i was at target later in the week and smelled the pizza at the cafe and had to get out of there quick!

best food: cashew pancakes: ground cashews, rice flour, water, and oil. the texture is just like pancakes and they taste super yummy.

Done: #7. Move to Texas

It's official, we have moved to Texas! I am writing this blog post from our rental house in Plano, TX (A northern suburb of Dallas). Last night, as Chris and I lounged by the pool watching Arty swim we marveled at the fact that we were here, in Texas, living the dream.

We set a goal for ourselves: move to Texas this year. And here we sit, having completed that goal and so proud of ourselves for doing so!

So here are some pictures of our journey down south:

It all started with one box

And then it magically turned into 200 boxes. Or I slaved away at packing 200 boxes (with some help of course . . .)

Seriously, do we really have that much stuff !?!?!? Yes, yes we do. I can't help it, I like my stuff. (it is important to note that this is after we purged a giant dumpster full of stuff last summer . . . what can we say, we will never be minimalists)

Then the lovely orange truck came and picked up our stuff:

Yeah, we decided to get movers. Why? Well have you ever seen our bed? It weighs thousands of pounds, and that is just the mattress! Plus, who wants to drive a giant truck filled with 7,400 pounds (yup, that was our final count) of Larson stuff 1000 miles? Not us.

So we just drove our car, and D'artagnan

(Note: Arty and Chris's car had already made the trip in January when Chris started working)

The drive, even minus the stuff, was not easy. Mostly because we drove through this

and even better, this

Yeah, see that blue dot? It was us. See the red "line" of horrible rain? That was our path. Not fun, not fun at all! But we made it safe and sound, and two days later, so did our stuff

So there you have it, our moving journey in pictures. And my first item to officially cross off the list!

Book #1: Divergent

Well I read my first new book for the list, and it was a good one.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

My friend Cassie, who likes the same types of books as I do, had borrowed it to me last summer and I wanted to make sure I finished it before we moved, so it was the first book I read while we were on our post-bar cruise.

Here is how the author describes the book on her blog:

"In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris, and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together, they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes-fascinating, sometimes-exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret: one she’s kept hidden from everyone, because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly-perfect society, she also learns that her secret might be what helps her save those she loves . . . or it might be what destroys her."

via

As for me, I really liked it. It was no Harry Potter or Hunger Games, but it was a really good story intertwined with a really good romance. There was some action, some suspense, and some sweet and tender moments. Which to me has all of the makings of a good book. The story was also written really well, making it a pretty easy read. All in all I would recommend it, especially if you like the Hunger Games/Eragon type books. The next book in the Trilogy comes out this Spring and I am super excited to read it as well!

1 down . . . 29 to go!