I’ve been thinking a lot about elimination diets lately, in part because a family member is currently giving that a try. Elimination diets aren’t about losing weight or going on a “diet.” It’s the process of totally not consuming a distinct type of food that might be making you sick. Then you slowly reintroducing that food item to see if you can feel any positive or negative impact on your body. Here’s a good short read about it on WebMd.

Wish it was as easy as getting a blood test, but that’s just not how it works sometimes. Soy, dairy, meat, wheat, you name it. With no rhyme or reason, there just might be a food item that keeps you feeling tired and crummy. Maybe it bothered you as a kid and you thought you outgrew it, but probably not. Maybe just manifests itself differently now?

It’s how I freed myself from a life of debilitating migraines (by eliminating wheat/gluten) and eventually led me to understand the interconnectivity between gluten intolerance and thyroid problems. You can read prior blog posts about that and how it got me off of thyroid meds I had been taking for nearly 30 years and getting past a childhood cancer scare and an eventual Hashimoto’s Disease medical diagnosis. One is called “Love, Hate + Cheese” and the other is about “Gluten/Wheat and my KFC Last Supper.”

If you read this blog, you know that I am totally gluten free and about 99% vegan. I will occasionally make an exception and eat some meat or dairy but it’s an exceedingly rare occurrence (perhaps once a month or so).

So my husband and I are spending the weekend in Fayetteville while my ex-husband, son and one of our dogs takes the full run of our house for the weekend. Although I’m now vaccinated, we continue to play it very very COVID safe. We had a rare meal from a local restaurant and decided to share a 12” gluten free pizza with actual REAL cheese. We also shared 8 chicken wings. There were certainly times when we both would have gotten our own small pizza AND a full order of wings, but since we were going to otherwise BAD, we shared the food to control portion sizes.

I almost had a foodgasm. It was sooooooo dang good. It was the first time since July that I ate a full load of real cheese on a pizza. Shout out to Marley’s Pizza. They make GF pizza that actually tastes like real pizza! Excellent really hot wings, too. Please give them some business to help them survive this pandemic.

Fast forward to 4 o’clock a.m. and I wake up sick-ish. Headache, foggy, bloated, icky. Took Advil and a Benadryl and went back to sleep. I’m up this morning but I don’t feel lovely. There’s one explanation. That dinner.

I guess sometimes I need to be reminded to not stray from this really good thing I have going. And despite feeling crappy, I’m glad I ate that food last night to remind me. Back sliding foolish sinner. Won’t be doing that again for a long time.

I’ve sure had my fair share of much more nefarious stupid Friday nights. Last night was downright wholesome. A dinner that I didn’t have to cook, support a local woman-owned business and home by 8:00 pm to read after a brisk walk home with my honey.

But I thought some of you would enjoy reading about me falling off the food wagon and how dairy clearly makes me sick-ish. Dang it.