TODAY IS THE DAY: Day 10 - Oats

(click here to read Day 9)

I'm happy to report that I used my new pillows for the first time last night, and I had just a tiny bit of a stuffed nose when I went to bed...and it was the same when I got up! Maybe I really am allergic/sensitive to the down/feathers that were in my old pillows. I think after I break them in a bit more (I'm used to my pillows being a little less fluffy) they will be perfect! Otherwise my tummy feels better this morning, and my foot is just a bit sore (read about possibly why, below).

Yesterday was a bit of a messed up day, as far as testing for oats (besides the fact that my safe list of foods was very short so I was hungry...). I had oats for breakfast and after a couple hours I didn't see any reactions...so I decided to go off track and have Cherries again (I had had them on Day 6 as an afternoon snack). Things seemed ok, until shortly after I ate lunch; my stomach became rumbly/gassy (which continued into the evening). Later in the afternoon I had oats again for a snack before running into town to collect more boxes - but those didn't seem to affect me. Then, after dinner my feet became sore (similar to Day 7 after eating oranges).

It was a very off day. I had yellow summer squash with my lunch (which I hadn't had before)...so I don't know if it was maybe that that affected my stomach, or maybe a combination of the cherries and squash...not sure. My guess is that my body does not like the cherries. If that is the case, it would make sense because the only times I've had the foot issues that bad, were many hours following me eating cherries. A delayed reaction. So, maybe Citrus is ok afterall? Oats, as well? I will be avoiding cherries and summer squash for the remainder of my allergy discovery challenge. I may add a couple days to the end and re-test citrus and oats; if they give me no reaction, then I will be testing cherries and squash as well - my own little experiment :-)

Here is what I ate on Day 10-Oats*:

Breakfast: Hot Oatmeal; Fresh Pears
Snack: Cherries
Lunch: Summer Squash/Zucchini Saute
Snack: A couple Cherries here and there (won't do that again!)
Snack: Cold Oatmeal w/Fresh Pears
Dinner: Beef Cube Steak w/Olive Oil & Dry Mustard

*I also drink 2+ quarts of water throughout the day.

Now it's time to go reintroduce Eggs! I'm half way through my challenge, and I've really been looking forward to having a fried egg this morning :-) The kids will be home tomorrow (I've missed them!) so we have a lot of work yet to get through today while we don't have little ones underfoot :-)  My mom is also coming up this morning to help clean up gardens and such in the yard (THANK YOU MOM!!!).

Have a wonderful Saturday!

TODAY IS THE DAY: Day 9 - CHICKEN

(click here to read Day 8)

Remember yesterday morning I was wondering if I might have an actual cold? I'm pretty sure it is. I'll just say that my mucous color has changed, which is most often an indicator of a cold. It's not a full blown cold (just more stuffed up than usual) so I will continue on my adventure here. I splurged last night and made myself a strawberry-banana-spinach-coconut milk smoothie, so maybe the vitamin C boost will help a bit. Not mention it was absolutely the most delicious thing I have had in over a week...I even told my hubby that I would maybe.MAYBE even choose it over eating something made out of cookie dough. I just said maybe though ;-)  Bananas and Spinach were on yesterday's list, and Coconut isn't for a couple days (so I'll just skip it then)...so I didn't stray too much. Strawberries aren't on any list but they didn't have an effect on me when I chanced it last week, so it seemed safe to me!

I didn't get around to the pillow/bedding thing last night since I came home from watching our friends kids, ate dinner, and got to packing for the rest of the night. No place to go today, so it will definitely happen on this day.

Back to the matter at hand...Chicken! I got a slight rumbly tummy after eating the soup I made for lunch (I served the kiddos pasta w/tomato sauce...it smelled so good...). But, I'm thinking it was because I may have added a bit too much salt (I didn't want to bring my salt grinder, so I brought the extra that I put into the grinder...a little too much may have slid out of the bag...oops! Lesson learned.) and then I drank extra water because of it, but the water was cold from in the fridge - I'm used to drinking room temp water. Anyways, I diluted my soup and ate it again for dinner - with no effect afterwards, so I think I'm safe.

I better wrap this up so I can eat a quick breakfast and get to work on the house! Today I will be reintroducing oats! Yay!

Here is what I ate on Day 9-Chicken*:

Breakfast: Kasha w/Ginger & a sliced Banana
Lunch: Soup (chicken, celery, kasha, salt, water)
Snack: Banana Ice Cream (frozen bananas simply blended!)
Dinner: Soup (chicken, celery, kasha, salt, water)
Snack: Crunch Chickpeas (chickpeas soaked, cooked, and baked)
Snack: Strawberry-Banana-Spinach-Coconut Milk Smoothie

*I also drink 2+ quarts of water throughout the day.

Ready to tackle Day 10 with some Oats!

TODAY IS THE DAY: Day 8 - CORN

(click here to read Day 7)

I woke up this morning feeling a little more stuffed up than usual (wondering if I'm getting a bit of an actual cold), but it's not as bad after my hot shower. Foot is feeling fine though, so that makes for a good morning :-)

I am happy to say that I didn't seem to notice any adverse reactions after eating corn yesterday! My stuffy nose seemed to stick around most of the day (some days is clears up after I've been up and moving around for a bit) but it didn't change after eating, so being it stayed consistent I am not too concerned about the corn.

I picked up new pillows yesterday (thank you Kohls for Buy-One-Get-One-Free!) to see if that will make a difference at all with my stuffy nose. I want to completely strip the bed and put on new sheets and pillow cases before I test them out (and I just changed bedding the other day...before I had thought about doing this) but after running all my errands and collecting a car full of boxes I was back to packing until past my bedtime and I ran out of time.

Today I am caring for our friends three children since their daycare is closed, so I will resume packing/cleaning/organizing when I get home late this afternoon. I'll also get the bed switched up so I can start seeing if the non-down feather pillows make a difference. Crossing my fingers that they'll help!

Here is what I ate on Day 8-Corn*:

Breakfast: Hasty Pudding (Cornmeal Mush) with Cinnamon and Maple Syrup (yum!); Pink Lady Apple; Cinnamon Stick Tea
Snack: Hot Air Popped Corn w/Olive Oil & Salt
Snack (Lunchtime): Sweet Potato
Snack (Afternoon): Hasty Pudding; Granny Smith Apple
Dinner: Baked Pork Chop w/Olive Oil & Rosemary; Broccoli; Sweet Potato

*I also drink 2+ quarts of water throughout the day.

Now I am on to Day 9 - reintroducing Chicken!

TODAY IS THE DAY: Day 7 - CITRUS

(click here to read Day 6)

Good Morning! This will be short and sweet and to the point, because I have lots of packing/cleaning/organizing/etc. to do today and I am ready to have at it!

Yesterday was the reintroduction of citrus. It seems that my body was not a big fan of it...I ate an orange with breakfast and within an hour or two my minor 'setback' had flared up again, my throat became very phlegmy, and my voice was raspy.

(Ok, ok, I'll stop calling it a minor 'setback'; it is the foot pain that I experienced many years ago, and it started to come back and that is why I am trying so hard to figure things out...my fear is that it would come back full force, because I feel like it took 3 years of my life away from me; it was that BAD - I WON'T let that happen again. You can read about it here under Out With It, starting on paragraph 4).

The reactions continued for several hours, and my foot became worse and my left one even became a bit sore in the arch (it has mainly been the right foot since I began this challenge). Needless to say, I did not eat any more citrus during the day. I took that as enough of a sign that my body did not appreciate it.

I went to bed late last night since we were working on the house, and I am happy to wake up this morning with my usual stuffed up nose and just a tiny tinge of a sore foot (just the right one); only enough to let me know that I need to be aware of it. I am SO thankful!

Here is what I ate on Day 7-CITRUS*:

Pre-Bfast Snack: Pear
Breakfast: Honey Millet Cereal; Orange
Snack: Millet
Lunch: Baked Salmon; Roasted Carrots w/Olive Oil & Oregano
Dinner: Soup-Salmon/Carrot/Green Bean/Millet
Snack: Pear

*I also drink 2+ quarts of water throughout the day.

Today is Day 8 and I'll be reintroducing Corn. I'm praying that I find I have no reaction to many of the 15 - and this is a big one. I L.O.V.E. air popped popcorn, and corn tortilla chips with salsa & sour cream...two of my favorite quick snacks. Although I love many things made with the other foods items I have yet to reintroduce...so we will just wait and see! I will work around anything I will need to avoid, because feeling good and having a healthy body is SO much more important to me than eating whatever I want :-)

Have a wonderful day, and we'll see you back tomorrow morning for results of Day 8...

Thank you for reading!

Packing it up...

Packing up part of our life today brings a simple sadness, and sheer excitement! Working hard on the next chapter of our lives.

Thank you mom for supporting us and caring for the kids while we put in some hard work to make things happen...we've decided to move things along a bit quicker - our goal is the end of June...so we are B.U.S.Y.!

Back to work packing boxes, while the hubby paints...

TODAY IS THE DAY: Day 6

(click here to read day 5)

I realized this morning that I've been so focused on my persistent stuffy nose, that I have failed to mention my digestive health, or other issues. I can say for certain that my digestive health has improved! I used to feel so bloated after eating, and often times would experience a rumbly (gassy) tummy. After Day 1, I've only experienced this mildly a time or two, which happened to be when I had gone too long in between meals, and then eaten. If I snack in between meals that may be spread apart quite a bit, I am just fine. So, I woke up this morning feeling stuffed up again, but realizing that my tummy feels good - seems like a step in the right direction.

As far as being on my "own plan", I can see a big improvement in my energy level, just by adding a few extra fruits and/or veggies! I have been used to eating a lot of fruits and vegetables, and it seems my body has just been craving more the past few days! Day 5 extras were Carrots, Cucumbers, Pears, and another superly awesome creamy sweet potato. Day 6's extras were Strawberries, a tad bit of Honey, and fresh Cherries.

This small change has made a HUGE difference in my motivation to continue on with this challenge.

I will be honest though...there are many times throughout the day that I am thinking about eating cookie dough*** , peanut butter, bacon, and other various foods that either are - or are made out of - items on the list of 15 commonly problematic foods.  ***(Check out this cookbook by Lindsay Landis, also author of the blog Love & Olive Oil - I CAN NOT wait to own her cookbook...and drool over it...and make every recipe...mmm.)

BUT

I am going to continue on...6 days...6 DAYS! I thought Day 5 may have been the end for me (especially when I started thinking about Papa Murphy's Pizzas for dinner, while hubby and I were out and about with the kiddos grabbing a few groceries...mostly fresh produce) but at this point I am feeling that I have made it this far - how can I just give up? And, now that I've realized how much better my digestive health is, I will have a better indicator (besides my stuffy nose, that I still have) as to whether or not the 15 foods are affecting my body in an adverse way. Hopefully making up some of my own rules doesn't affect any results that I may discover (or NOT discover, because of breaking the rules!).

Here is what I ate on Day 6*:
Breakfast: Cream of Rice with Cinnamon
Snack: Apple
Lunch: Hamburger with Dry Mustard
Snack: Fresh Cherries
Dinner: Ground Beef/Green Bean Casserole; Cucumbers
Snack: Smoothie (Strawberries, Unsweetened Coconut, Honey, Coconut Milk)

*I also drink at least 2+ quarts of water throughout the day.

Ahh...Day 7. The first day of the Reintroduction Phase. Citrus will be up today...

TODAY IS THE DAY: Day 5

(click here to read day 4)

I woke up this morning just the same as ever...stuffed up again. Day 5 brought about changes with the food rotation... I felt so drained of energy (just as I had on Day 4) that I just couldn't take it anymore. This is a big week for us - my hubby has a week off work (although he works Wednesday through Saturday so he has off yesterday through Tuesday, June 19th!!!) Tomorrow is my official last day of licensed daycare, and I just have the daycare kids for a few hours later today and tomorrow morning (after that I will have them once a week during the summer, but not every week). And Tuesday mid-day I will be dropping our kiddos off at Grandma's house where they will spend a couple nights (THANK YOU MOM!!!), before heading to the other Grandma's house to spend another few nights (THANK YOU V!). I will miss them A LOT, but we will have a chance to get a TON of work done this week. So TODAY starts some big projects around the house for us, in preparation for selling....Thus, I will need all the energy I can get to be super productive this week, so I think my new plan will be very beneficial!

 I'm on my own plan now, still avoiding the problematic 15 until their designated days, but I came up with my own lists of Grains/Meats/Beans/Seasonings/Fruits & Vegetables to rotate. I started a bit with lunch and dinner, and today will write up my complete plan with the lists I came up with. I love fruits and vegetables and think that I need more (and more variety) than what was suggested in the book I have been referencing. We'll see how it goes; and it's still quite possible food is not the culprit, but still worth a try.

Last night I had a thought - what if it's my down pillows?!?! I only have THREE of them that run from head to toe each night ;-)  I've had them for about 10 years, they get washed occasionally (just yesterday in fact), and they are soo comfortable. BUT...I always seem more stuffed up when I go to bed and wake up...We also have two huge down pillows upstairs that I covered with fun fabric for the kids, to use in their reading area, but they do end up on the couch some days. Hmm. Has anyone else had allergies/sensitivities to down/duck feathers?

I'm trying to look at other possibilities because I've been dealing with this nose issue for years now, and something is causing it, because it's not 'normal'. I don't take any medications ever, or vitamins on a regular basis. I don't drink caffeinated beverages. I don't wear make-up. I don't work with many chemicals (and mostly use vinegar/water/baking soda for cleaning). I use shampoo/conditioner occasionally (Suave Naturals/Professionals), alternating it with a baking soda/water wash, and apple cider vinegar/water rinse. My body wash is Body Essence-Tea Tree Oil. (I shower every-other-day, so I use those EOD). Our handsoap is generic Milk & Honey. I use face lotion (Olay Complete for Sensitive Skin) and hand lotion (Vaseline Intensive Rescue - Moisture Repair, Fragrance Free). I use a Brita Pitcher/Filter for my water.

Has anyone found themselves to be allergic/sensitive to any of the above - or any other non-food related item, that you wouldn't normally think of as being allergenic?

I just wonder if I'm missing something?! I am on a mission to free myself from this...

Back to my food challenge here...

Here is what I ate on Day 5*:

Breakfast: Tapioca w/Maple Syrup; Cantaloupe/Banana Smoothie
Lunch: Ground Turkey w/Thyme & Dried Mustard; Carrot Chips; Cucumber Slices
Dinner: Ground Turkey w/Thyme & Dried Mustard; Fresh Pears; Sweet Potato
Snack: Cranberry Banana Pudding (cranberries, bananas, tapioca, maple syrup)

*I also drink at least 2+ quarts of water throughout the day.

Time to start Day 6 with some breakfast...and then tackle a few things around the house (including cuddle time/reading/games with my kiddos) before the daycare kids come at lunch time!

Hope everyone is having a great start to their week!