Elimination Diet: Week One

Thank you all for your encouraging words and interest. It really has helped considerably this past week.

I would be lying if I didn't admit that this first week hasn't been hard. It's true that much of our family life revolves around food and the comfort it brings. A jolting change has taken it's toll in different ways. I think for the most part the older members of the family have become acclimated to our current diet, while the little ones are just now realizing that things aren't going back to "normal' any time soon.

Last night at church was a particular challenge. We had our monthly fellowship meal after the evening service. I brought food that our family could eat, realizing that there was likely nothing else that would be available. As I was helping them through the line, poor Joseph stood in front of the brownies with big tears dropping. It was really hard for me to resist his pleas.

On the way home, we asked everyone to talk about how hard the situation was for them to say "no" to such yummy food on a scale from one to ten. The answers ranged from 3-9.5 (Joseph). He later recanted and changed his number to a "10".

Not that I love torturing my kids, but I'm seeing more value in the Elimination Diet then just nutritional/health. We know many people with food sensitivities that for a lifetime have to do what we did last night. We've seen people on the street walking past a restaurant with just the shirt on their backs looking in the window at the warm plates of food. It's a good thing in an all-you-can-eat world to just say "no" sometimes. Though it's hard now, I pray that these lessons will stick with them (and me).

We hit a low point on day four when my friend Jennie graciously called. She not only offered to have us over for dinner, but to teach us how to make bread. You would have thought that the National Guard had come in and swept us off our rooftop! Jennie's children have autism with food allergies, so she is well accustomed to cooking in this manner. It was a great encouragement and comfort to us.

We celebrated Lydia's birthday Friday night and I did my best to make it extra special. We ate coconut breaded fish, sweet potatoes, mushrooms/zuchinni, bread and applesauce cake. The cake didn't turn out as I had hoped, but they gobbled it down anyway. It tasted like warm apple pie.

We've been keeping a chart on the physical changes that have occurred in the past week. Stay tuned for those tomorrow. Also, throughout the week I'll be sharing some of our recipes and price comparisions that I've gathered from various stores.