A new Adventure..

So I decided to revive this old blog for a new adventure.

I have recently started an elimination diet to try to learn more about how/what food impacts my body. I have severe eczema that has just grown increasingly worse over the years. This winter has been the worst by far. My hands are the worst and I have had constant severe blistering and cracking for over 10 years now. When I was younger it would show up and I was able to get it under control and it never spread past my right hand little finger. Now it has spread to both hands, palms and all fingers. Many days I wake up and cannot open my right hand. I drop things... a lot. I have trouble gripping most things most of the time. One of my biggest triggers is water. Yeah, try to avoid water in a normal daily life ( shower, dishes, house cleaning, hand washing, cooking, etc) but add to the mix that I have two little boys under the age of two(dirty diapers, more hand washing, bath time, etc etc etc.)-so to avoid water is an impossibility. Also this winter my asthma has gotten significantly worse with my skin. After seeing over 8 doctors in this area who have all tried something as well as docs who made attempts when I lived in Colorado and Pennsylvania, and trying over 100 different creams/ointments/oils in script and OTC form, I have decided to try this elimination diet to try to pinpoint what the biggest triggers are. I usually have a major flair up in my hands every morning when I wake up so it would imply it was coming from something I am eating the day before. So after some research I have cut out most major allergens from my diet. I will keep it up for 2-3 weeks and then start the reintroduction process. I am journaling everything I eat/make and will see what happens as time goes on.

So the rules I am trying to follow:

NO:
*Gluten
*Dairy
*Sugar
*Potatoes
*Eggplant
*Wheat
*Soy
*Red Meat
*Pork
*Shellfish
*Tomatoes
*Peanuts

The things that I am not being so strict on that are normally included:

*Coffee
*Tree Nuts
*Black Beans
*Very small amount of honey
*Grilled Chicken Breast
*I may allow 1 glass of wine twice a week but I haven't decided yet

My staple items are brown rice flour, coconut oil, brown rice, turkey, veggies and fruit.

I have been on Metformin for insulin resistance for over 8 years now. I also take cinnamon which helps with this issue, as well as many other issues. So I am dropping the Met and sticking with the cinnamon for this time. I am going to stick with my daily vitamin combo at this point but will drop them if I don't see an improvement soon. That includes B-complex, D3, Saw Palmetto, Cinnamon, Women's Multi, and Calcium + D.

So other than learning what foods have the biggest negative impact on me hopefully I can lose a little weight and start my cholesterol moving downward during this process. The goal is to determine what has the biggest negative impact and cut that out permanently or find other ways to incorporate those foods that have less of an impact. I've already found a few recipes I intend to keep around after this because they are healthy and tasty.

I'll try to post every day or so what foods I am eating and after a few weeks we'll get to the fun part- adding stuff back in and watching what it does.

Thanks for going on this adventure with me.