Elimination Begins...!

Dum dum dummmm. The elimination diet started today. I went to Harris Teeter on my way home from UNCC last night for a meeting that apparently I didn't have to go to since I'm dropping my classes this semester and taking them next year (hassle of the century). That was irrelevant. What's relevant is that, in my quest to fix my unidentified rheumatological issues, this is what I'll be eating for the next week:

Yep. Like, literally. That's it. No oil, no tea (!!!), no grains, dairy, red meat, eggs, nuts, booze, sugar or anything other than what's in the picture. Except trout. The fish in the photo is salmon, which I can also eat. Salmon, trout, carrots, sweet potatoes, pears, and sea salt. Tasty treats. If anyone's interested, it's a diet developed by some British doctor named Mansfield. A slightly less severe version of it is here: What I'm kind of concerned about is eating enough calories to like, live. In looking back through what I've eaten the last month (yes, in Excel form) I probably eat between 1000 and 1200 calories on an average day. It seems my only real option to keep that up is to eat a pound of fish every day. I'm not trying to be skeletor in a week, so it's a good thing I like fish, I guess. Bad thing I can't do anything WITH it except bake it, or poach it, plain, with sea salt. I'm going to desperately miss oil and flour.

While I can't say I'm looking forward to this, I also know that if I let Dr. Nami the rheumatologist put me on some daily pharmaceutical product, I'm going to constantly be wondering if it's really necessary or if I could have fixed my problem in a more natural and permanent way. I don't want to treat symptoms if I could fix the problem. I also know it could totally do nothing. I could just feel like shit for a week, not notice any of the promised symptoms of "withdrawal," or the eventual "clearing," and not notice any reactions to any of the foods I test. It could just be a sad, sad month of food deprivation and misery. I'm hoping, of course, that won't be the case. I guess only time will tell. Time, and my magical, wonderful Excel charts.

So today I've had a pear and a bag of baby carrots for lunch. I drank hot water in my travel mug this morning instead of tea. I have two salmon fillets in the broiler and cut up sweet potatoes in the oven. I have a headache and feel vaguely dizzy. Let's get started!!!
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