LEAP Diet - Phase 2

So, I seemed to survive Phase 1 of the LEAP diet and am on to phase 2

I started Phase 2 on Wednesday December 17, 2014

Foods allowed on Phase 2 are…

Proteins: Garbanzo beans, Beef, Egg

Grains and Starches: Rice, Amaranth, Tapioca

Vegetables: Cabbage, Onion, Broccoli, Zucchini

Fruits: Blueberry, Pineapple, Apple

Dairy & Miscellaneous: Decaf Coffee 

Nuts and Seeds and Oils:  Walnut, Olive Oil (*not olives), Sesame

Flavor Enhancers: Maple, Basil, Cane Sugar, Parsley

Other than a pizza, which I will never have again, my favorite food is steak. I think I went straight from the dietitian to the supermarket to get a New York strip.  It was one of the best foods I've had in quite some time.

I used to make a good salad with quinoa, garbanzo beans, cucumbers, lemon juice and olive oil, so I had to figure out how to make this work without the cucumbers and lemon. I was able to replace the cucumbers with steamed broccoli and just left out the lemon juice. It was ok, but not as good as it could be. I get lemon back in phase 3 and that will help. It seems to get more flavor as it chills, so it needs to be made ahead of time.

Rice was a good addition on this phase because it's something I have used a lot in the past. I really haven't figured out what to do with the amaranth and tapioca though. If you have any good ideas, let me know. I generally use white rice, but brown rice is good for baking.

These vegetables make life a little better. Zucchini is easy to just grill or broil with a little olive oil and steamed broccoli is just a staple in my diet now. It is one of those vegetables that it's ok to buy frozen and always have it in the freezer for quick addition to dinner. I haven't figured out what to do with cabbage. I've always liked it raw, but that's just weird to me. I have heard it is good roasted, but I haven't been brave enough to try it. Having never been a fan of brussel sprouts, I will need to find a way to make them tasty.   Zucchini and broccoli are also good with eggs in an omelet.

Fruits...Yes!  Blueberries and apples are great additions to oatmeal and fresh pineapple is a real treat. I quickly got out my pineapple slicer and corer and indulged in that sweet treat.  All of these fruits are good with pork too.

Decaf coffee?  Why bother?    Occasionally, I like something warm to drink and we have an espresso machine, so I got the decaf espresso and have one every once in a while just for the taste.

It is great to have olive oil back!  I haven't bothered with sesame oil or walnut oil yet, but I'm sure I will soon. In phase 3, I get chicken back and see a stir fry in my future. I have had walnuts though, but am not a big fan anymore.  Without butter, I am using olive oil for scrambled eggs. I cook with it a lot

The flavor enhancers are my favorite group in this phase.  Maple, basil, cane sugar and parsley...
Maple and cane sugar make oatmeal go from paste to yummy!!! You can also add them to apples or blueberries with a little basil and use them for pork chops or just pork in general to add a lot of flavor.  I haven't used parsley, because I generally view it as a garnish or something in pesto. Without pine nuts and parmesan cheese, pesto isn't going to be good. If you have any suggestions, I'm willing to try anything.

The only symptoms I have noticed is that when I introduce a food to my body for the first time, I seem to have a reaction such as stuffy nose and scratchy/closed throat and it last for about 15 minutes. The next time I have the food, I don't have a reaction.

I also figured out that my indigestion was coming from my Orange Listerine which makes since, since I am sensitive to oranges and they are on my "never ever" list...

But the best part of this blog...I'm feeling much better!  My symptom numbers have gone from 144 a few weeks ago to 25 at the end of this phase.

Looking forward to getting through Phase 3 and reintroducing new foods and food ideas in my menu planning.

The LEAP Diet Phase 1

Once my dietitian got my results from the MRT (see previous post), she developed a specialized diet based on my personal food sensitivities.  The diet is in 6 phases and each phase last 10+ days. 

I started Phase 1 on Saturday, December 6, 2014

Foods allowed on Phase 1 are…

Proteins: Pinto Beans, Pork, Pea Protein (NOW brand only)

Grains and Starches: Green Pea, Oat, Quinoa, Corn

Vegetables: Cauliflower, Yellow Squash, Lettuce, Beet

Fruits: Grapefruit, Watermelon

Dairy & Miscellaneous: Homemade Almond Milk

Nuts and Seeds and Oils:  Hazelnut, Sunflower seed, Corn oil

Flavor Enhancers: Mint, Cumin, Leek, Mustard, Garlic

Other: Baking Soda, Sea Salt

Let me start out by saying I HATE peas!  I remember when I was in college, my "friends" tied me down and force fed me peas.  I HATE them!   However, I was willing to give them a try if it meant I would have a green vegetable to eat.  Also, Pea Protein sucks!  I have forced myself to drink it several times and it keeps me full, but the taste is horrible!

I have been known to eat pinto beans in the past, but that was with corn bread and onions.  I had no idea what to do with them.  But, I am usually a pretty good cook so, I knew I would figure out something.  Also, there are only so many ways to cook pork before you feel like you are going to die from boredom.

I happen to like oatmeal, but with nothing on it, it taste like paste. I like quinoa, but have only cooked it with stock and added other things to it and as for corn, I was taught years ago in a protein book that corn is what they give to pigs to make them fat and it should be avoided.  I guess I have to learn to love corn all over again.  That was pretty easy. Corn tortillas, corn on the cob and frozen corn are all good and popcorn is a good lunch or light dinner.

As for the vegetables, From this group, I basically only like lettuce, I think I can stomach beets, but only sparingly. If I can learn to cook yellow squash where it's not slimy, it might be ok too. I discovered yellow squash was ok and beets were better as juice on a make shift salad of watermelon and lettuce drizzled with beet juice and seasoned with sea salt.  That is what my world has become.  Yuck!

Fruits…I LOVE watermelon! I could and do eat it daily.  I've only eaten grapefruit sliced in half for breakfast with sugar. I've learned it's ok without sugar, but I like it better as a fresh squeezed fruit juice.

I don't have a blender at this time, so I purchased raw almond butter and mixed it with water to make almond milk.  Very boring!  Would not recommend with oatmeal unless you could sweeten with sugar and in that case, just put the sugar on the oatmeal and have a good breakfast.

I have traditionally cooked with olive oil and grape seed oil over the years, so I was kind of stumped with what to do with the oils. I find myself using more sunflower seed oil since it is good for high heat cooking and I like to brown my pork before putting it in the oven or cooking over a low heat on the stove. 

As for flavor enhancers, I'm find I'm using more ground mustard and mixing with water to make traditional mustard. It has a strong taste that is pretty good with pork.  I used the leeks to make a stock with pork that I've been using to cook the pinto beans in and cumin and garlic have been used sparingly.  I've learned to live without garlic and don't really like the taste or smell now. 

And…THANK GOD FOR SEA SALT!!!!

As we all know, the food is the least important part of this diet. The most important part is my health.  They say that everyone goes through a detox and has withdrawal. I didn't have any withdrawal since I have been through 2 elimination diets this past year and caffeine was already out of my system. However, I did have a psychological detox. If that's what you would call it. For several days, I went through a deep depression and had several mild anxiety attacks and major mood swings. They were accompanied with major brain fog.  My poor husband has to bear the brunt of it, and it wasn't good. Thankfully, those have lifted and I seem to be back to "normal" again.  I'm not having as many GI issues, but noticed a small increase in my weight on day, but it's back to normal now. I have actually lost almost 5 lbs so far.  My muscle and joint aches and pains seem to be be better and my complexion is good and the bags under my eyes are going away.  I think I'm on the right track!

I realize a lot of my health problems come from external elements in my life. For instance, I know I'm allergic to the cats and will have to stay on anti-histamines due to that reason alone. I have dust mite allergies and have had to change the bedding. I also know the carpet and window treatments will need to be take care of for those same reasons too.  Scented candles give me migraines and perfumes and certain laundry detergents are a big no-no.  If working in a dusty or dirty environment, I get a shortness of breath and dizziness followed by headache and lethargy.  If I can remember to remove myself from that environment and take a short walk, I will be ok. 

Hopefully, I will be able to start phase 2 of the LEAP diet tomorrow and will begin to add new foods I have been missing back into my diet.  Phase 2 works differently than Phase 1 and I can only add one new food a day.   I'll let you all know the results soon!

MRT test results

After several years of playing around with my diet, a few weeks ago, I told Kurt I thought I wanted to try a nutritionist and see if I could get some help with my diet and learn to take the few foods I thought I could eat and find out how to turn that into a healthy diet and lifestyle.   I did a Google search for a nutritionist and dietitian in Chicago and found a woman that specialized in sports nutrition and has written several books. She's been in the business for 20+ years and seemed like she knew what she was doing.   I called to make an appointment with her office and she answered the phone. I told her what I was going through and she suggested an MRT test and I made an appointment to see her at her Chicago office on that Wednesday.

Simply put, the MRT is the Mediator Release Test.  They take your blood and test it against 120 foods and 30 chemicals to find out what your body is sensitive to.   Here are my test results…

 

The stuff in green is considered safe for me, but the stuff in yellow is not safe and should be avoided.

The dietitian also has taken out foods that are high in histamine due to my Urticaria Pigmentosa (UP).

My Histamine Issues

As many of you may know, I have a condition called Urticaria Pigmentosa (aka…UP).  I was diagnosed with UP at the age of 30 by a dermatologist in Charlotte and they did a number of test to make sure it wasn't systemic and sent me on my way.   The underlying cause of UP is that I have too much histamine in my body.  Lucky for me, it went to my skin and not my organs. So, other than the constant spots and itching on my trunk, legs, back and arms, I haven't really been bothered by it much over the years. I have always had GI issues, so I thought it was normal to have them after eating certain foods.  I had nightmares since I was a kid from eating pizza at night before bed.  I love nothing more than a pepperoni pizza, so I continued to eat it and knew what my reaction was going to be.

Over the years, I have had my fair share of depression, anxiety and reactions to certain medications I've taken for the cold or sinus infections, but I got used to that struggle and moved on with my life.  In other words, I found ways to justify what I was going through and thought it was just a normal part of life.  Doesn't everyone get an upset stomach after eating spicy foods?  Evidently not…

When Kurt and I moved to Chicago, we like to have "date night" every Friday night.  This was a continuation of something we started in Charlotte. We would order a pizza, drink a bottle (or two) of wine and watch a few movies.  It's something we looked forward to all week until we noticed how bad I felt of Saturday mornings.  Either I would wake up with a stuffy nose and headache or I would be the biggest BITCH!   When we started to notice the routine, we analyzed what was different and discovered it had something to do with restaurant foods.  I felt "fine" if I had cooked at home, but horrible if we ate out.  Even if eating "out" was someone delivering us a pizza.  So, we got more selective about restaurants and only started eating at places where everything was made "in house" and the food was fresh.

As time passed, I started to notice more migraines, GI issues, dizziness, depression (it's winter in Chicago, I should be depressed), anxiety, weight gain and a few other things I can't recall at the moment.  He put me on an antidepressant, told me I should see a GI doctor and told me there was nothing he could do about the dizziness. He also did some blood work and didn't find anything out of the ordinary so, he sent me on my way.  

When we first moved to Chicago, I started noticing my eyes were burning and watering. I have always suspected a cat allergy and since Kurt has two, I just thought it was from being around them. However, it would happen in restaurants or just walking down the street. Again, I made an excuse and just thought it was the dirty city or dirty air conditioning vents in buildings. After a few years, this got worse and I started to notice the tears coming from my eyes were burning my eyelids. Strange right? Well, this past February, I was suffering from insomnia a lot and one night about 2am I was in bed with my iPad and did a Google search about my eyelids.  A story I found said it could be caused by too much histamine in the body.  Hallelujah!!!  That's the first time I had thought about that word in years.  It made perfect sense to me…After searching even further, I ran across a low-histamine/elimination diet. I started that a few days later and felt so much better. Not perfect, but much better.

The diet lasted 3 weeks and after that, I was to add a food into my diet and see how my body reacted to it.  The first thing I tried was bread (a bagel to be exact) and within 30 minutes, I was flushed, lethargic and sick to my stomach.  That would point to a wheat allergy and I knew I had to be gluten-free.  Several months prior to that, I started an on-line bakery and baked scones for a living. Good scones too!  I also noticed that every food I added back into my diet was an issue.  Tomatoes were causing me to have sores on my mouth, garlic upset my stomach and olives were burning my lips.

After a short time, I was able to add some of these foods back in and just live with the consequences. However, the GI issues were not going away and seemed if possible to be getting worse.  I tried my hand at making gourmet marshmallows, but the made me sick. I made homemade jam, but that made me sick. A simple meal of steak frittes (I love french food) even made me sick. WTF?????

I had basically taken everything out of my diet except turkey, grapes, watermelon, chicken, potatoes (sweet and russet). I was eating a low-histamine, gluten-free, dairy-free (with a few exceptions) diet and was still suffering along with not feeling healthy.  I was eating limited vegetables, salads were gone and my weight was still fluctuating on a daily basis.  Also, every time I would start an elimination diet, I would spend several days vomiting and having diarrhea.  I'm sick of this stuff!