The Beginning

Welcome to the beginning.

This blog is partly my own personal crusade against sugar and salt and their overabundance in my life. It is also partly my personal journey to self-discovery, food-wise, that is.

I don’t want to preach, but I am convinced there is too much salt and sugar added to the processed foods we have come to rely on. Not just pre-packaged meal kits (frozen or dry). Even the ordinary canned foods. Did you know they add sugar to canned beans? Seriously, beans? Since when do we need our beans to be sweet? And I don’t even want to think about the amount of salt in a can of mushroom soup. Still, I have both in my pantry. Cans of beans and cans of soup. And I use them, too. And maybe that’s why so many foods have so little taste. I believe our tastebuds start to ratchet themselves down when we expose them to too much salt and sugar.

Additives aside, I am starting to experience food-related problems. Bloating and issues sleeping, not to mention extreme thirst, sugar-crashes, and other problems. Including depression. Some of them I can probably blame on diabetes. Am I diabetic? I think so. I haven’t had a test to say so yet, but I have my suspicions. Some of the problems, though, are most likely from food ‘allergies’. I guess that officially they are actually called food sensitivities. Whatever we call them, I mean reactions to food that are unpleasant. I don’t like it, my body doesn’t like it, and I want it to stop.

I’ve decided to kill three birds with one stone. Of course, it’s a pretty big stone, but hey, if it works, it works! I’m going on an elimination diet. And I’m going to try to use it to reset my taste buds, stabilize my blood sugar, and find out what foods I can and cannot eat with abandon! (I love the idea of eating with abandon. It sounds so decadent. Even when what I’m eating is lettuce.)

What is an elimination diet? Well, a very good explanation exists here. Or here. Or here. The short version - if you suspect you have a food "allergy" or food sensitivity, you can find out without the benefit of a doctor or expensive tests. You start by eating a very restricted diet. No potential trigger foods. Then, after you have a chance to adjust to the new diet and flush the toxins out of your body, you start testing various foods. Adding them back into the diet, one isolated food at a time. Find out if you react to it. That's it in a nutshell.

I begin this week. Not tomorrow. Tomorrow I have to prepare for it. Mainly cooking up all the out of bounds foods I have in the house and getting them ready for my husband to reheat. I’m going to hide them in the downstairs freezer. He can bring them out when he wants them. We have an agreement. When I’m home, he eats my way. When I’m gone, he can cook what he wants. Just don’t expect me to clean up after them. This cooking binge I’m going on tomorrow is my last great gift to him before I begin the health thing.

Wish me luck.