Monday, December 7, 2009

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.

8 comments:

Heather L. said...

It sounds like you've done a wonderful job figuring out how to make things appetizing. The plate in the picture looks so good!!!! I thought you were very brave for staying for fellowship last night but I was glad you did. Your rice dish was so good -- you should post the recipe on your food blog.And I should get that bread recipe so Christina could make it.

Andrea said...

Yes - it's the things like Joseph & the brownie that bug me the worst about this. Sundays are particulally hard for us. My kids whined and fussed at me yesterday, even though I had sent them with raisans, rice cakes, AND special GF/DF banana muffins! I was so irritated that even after almost 2 years of this, they still want what everyone else has. But isn't that the case with kids (and us too!)??
I keep reminding myself that we are to be in the world but not 'of' the world. We deny ourselves other things that are prevelent in this culture (bad tv, bad, literature, excessive spending, etc.) and God wants us to be god stewards of the ONE body that He gave us. They will hopefully learn that what we've been given is not just "good enough" but a true blessing to have!
Keep on keeping yourself prepared with prayer and advance food prep....you're doing great!
Blessings,
Andrea

SentimentsbyDenise said...

I love hearing how each member of your family is adjusting to the diet and your insight on how our society views the abundance of food we have access to is convicting, to say the least.

Saralyn said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Saralyn said...

Can you eat coconut? There are some great (and I mean kids shouting "Mom's the best") recipes for ice "cream" made with coconut milk and natural sweeteners at The Nourishing Gourmet. We've tried them all!

Monica said...

Saralyn, THANK YOU for this link! I've loved what I've seen there in just a short 5 minutes of looking. And, yes, we can have coconut.

Saralyn said...

Great! Here's another one I just found--fudge! My MIL is on the elimination diet, too, and is always looking for treats she can eat. I'm going to make a whole batch for her for Christmas.

mindi said...

Wow - you guys are very strong to be doing this. I'm not sure I could :) Thankfully our kids don't have any of the problems you mentioned, at least not yet. We don't have a history of allergies in our family though.
You are so strong, I'll keep you all in my prayers. Maybe it will make the diet a bit easier to bear:D