Food Sensitivity and Lipedema: Week 4 Elimination

And just like that the 4 week elimination of highly and moderately intolerant foods (based on the hair test I took in July) is done.

Basically I ate the same meals from week to week, and lunch was usually some combination of a Ground Chicken Stir Fry. I would saute the chicken in olive oil and various things on my non tolerant list, like: baked potato, onion, jalapeño peppers, bell peppers, kalamata olives, etc. and I would sometimes add Kimchi (huge fan) and more recently found spicy Wholly Guacamole, a great topper (I use as a sour cream substitute)!

Week 2 went very similarly to week 1, I kept my focus on the positives, the things I could eat, especially the things I had not been eating by following a low carb way of eating, things like potatoes and apples.

Week 3 was going along well, but by the middle of it, I was DONE WITH CHICKEN!

That was my concern from the beginning, I'm not a huge chicken fan, and I was about to crack when my lovely husband pulled out a blast from the past; something he had made me when we were dating, homemade, best I have ever had, Sweet and Sour Chicken. 

Did you know pineapple is a great source of bromelain, and bromelain is good for reducing inflammation and swelling? Very good when you have Lipedema!

It saved me for real. It was delicious, it brought back amazing memories, and kept me on track with the things I could have.

It gave me the boost I needed, and then the last week went back to being very tolerable.

So what does that mean, when you finish the 4 weeks of elimination? It means you slowly start to add in (one item at a time) from your moderate list and keep track to see if you notice an intolerance. 

Can you guess what my first item was? 

If you said a big juicy steak you would normally have been correct, but I opted instead to try to help out my hubby/chef, and the item I added back in was GARLIC. It just makes cooking easier and opens up more options for meals. And honestly, who wants a steak made without garlic?

So what did I notice?

• I didn't miss dairy as much as I thought I would - a huge shocker
• I did miss butter and cheese, but nearly as much as I thought I would
• I did find myself feeling guilty eating carbs that I had grown used to not eating
• I did see a 5.6lb. loss, but I hated having to weigh myself every morning
• I did have more gas (bloating) than eating low carb, didn't love that

I think this was a huge eye opener for me, especially combined with fasting (18:6 - I would eat between 1pm and 7pm); I have learned so much about my body.

Physically and emotionally. I liked feeling empty right before my first meal, I liked being able to feel what drinking a cold glass of water felt like going into my body and how it really cooled me down from the inside. I liked being able to understand food as fuel. That is something coach/hubby has talked about a lot, but something I got a much better understanding of after this experiment.

I might go back to a more low carb way of eating and eliminate those high tolerant foods (so no dairy, etc.) on a more regular basis. As I am curious to see how my body would respond. I have become very interested in experimenting to learn more and more about my body.

Another big change I have seen is a real improvement to my skin texture. I have seen my fibrosis softening, so now I can literally see the Lipedema beads and larger nodules, and realizing I have them in places I didn't realize I had Lipedema; and while I don't think it was because of the elimination way of eating alone, it might have played a part.

I am curious. Curiosity about our bodies is good. I am looking forward to keep learning more about how my body responds to different foods and truly looking at it as fuel for my wonderful Lipedema Body.