More home made chicken soup

My loving wife made me some more of her awesome homemade chicken soup.  She cooked some chicken carcasses all night and then made soup out of it today.  I really appreciate all her help and understanding with all of this. 

Eliminating sunflower butter

Been eating this natural sunflower butter for about 2 days now.  Despite the garlic salt incident yesterday I'm still on the fence about this sunflower butter.  I'm going to stop eating it for the next few days and see where I'm at then.  Just been too much discharge an blood for my liking. 

Doubt it's still the garlic salt; I ate so little of it that I can't imagine it still bothering me.  However I'm almost positive that stuff is bad for me though.  I was burping garlic for the rest of the day yesterday.  Read the ingredients (should have done that BEFORE eating it!) and it has sugar, some junk I can't even pronounce, and garlic oil was the LAST ingredient.  That stuff is just bad news.  It's sad because I love garlic salt. 

Already missing the sunflower butter =(  It was like the only condiment I had.  I was putting it on chicken and bananas.  Tasted so good. 

Back to chicken, carrots, and avocado exclusively for the next 3 or 4 days.  We'll see if there's a marked improvement. 

I feel like I screwed up today

This is day two with adding in the sunflower butter.  I didn't add it until dinner yesterday so I haven't had it in me a long time.  Ate it with nearly ever meal now; about 2 tablespoons per meal.  Today I've had a couple of BMs with more blood and mucus than the days before. 

BUT

I also put some garlic salt on my avocado's twice today!  Stupid ... I know...  I thought "what's the harm in a little garlic salt?"  It tasted so flip'n good BTW.  Here's the catch.... which is bothering me?  The sunflower butter or the garlic salt? 

This is why I have to be super strict with this.  I shouldn't have added the garlic salt.  Now I've likely set myself back at least a day.  I think I'll stick with the sunflower butter, stop with the garlic salt, and will NOT add anything else. 

Elimination Diet - 2014.05.27

Another pretty good day as far as symptoms go.  I didn't have any chicken or carrots at lunch; forgot I had brought them all home over the long weekend.  Some people were going out for lunch so I went.  I got Pho Ga soup, no noodles, extra carrots, and ONLY ate the chicken and carrots.  I felt bad leaving the other veggies but I have to stick with this.  I didn't add in all the other things everyone else was adding either like soy sauce, hot sauce, etc.  I ate that at 11:30 AM and felt fine the rest of the day. 

Today I added a new food.  "Natural" Sunflower Butter; think peanut butter but made from sunflower seeds.  Had a couple table spoons with my chicken as a condiment / dipping sauce at dinner.  I think I may eat another tablespoon with frozen bananas. 

Hope this all goes well since it's loaded with calories which I need right now.  It's also a great new taste and I love any sort of condiment / dipping sauce which are almost all out of the question now and likely indefinitely. 

So Tired... So Sore...

There wasn't much vacation for me on this vacation weekend.  SAT was nice since we spent the day with our oldest kids.  However one thing we did was bike about 10 miles and I haven't ridden a bike that far in at least 13 years.  SUN we went out with friends and walked about 13 blocks after I was already very tired.  The whole weekend I worked on the bathroom which was a lot of work kneeling, walking up and down the stairs dozens of times, drilling through tile, lifting a heavy toilet multiple times, etc. etc.  Just really feeling it this morning.  Headache, sore all over, and so very tired.  I wanted to take today off from work very badly but I have meetings most the day.

My wife bought me these great chicken burgers.  They have hardly anything added... less than 2% of a couple bad things.  She grilled them up for lunch one day and they were amazing.  Last night I ate out for the first time on this diet.  Famous Dave's has this 'Country Roasted Chicken' with a fairly simple marinade and grilled... it was also amazing!  The chef was kind enough to steam my carrots for me which was great.

I've lost another 3 to 5 pounds which is unfortunate.  Down to 160 now.  My belt wasn't holding my pants up anymore so I had to put another notch in it myself.  I'd already bought this one because my other one was too big so I've gone down two whole belt sizes since DEC 2013.  It probably sounds good but honestly I weighed more as a senior in high school; it's actually a little scary. 

OK positive thinking now... I get to add a new food today... what shall it be?  This will be good =^.^=

Elimination Diet - 2014.05.26

This morning's BM was almost blood free!  Hard to believe; I haven't been blood free in like almost 6 months.  Heh as I wrote this though... off to the bathroom again; this time with some blood.  I'll try not to get discouraged. 

Avocados went well yesterday.  I'll be eating more today.  If today goes just as well then I'll add something to my diet tomorrow.  Not sure what exactly; I'd kill for something sweet right about now. 

Cravings for sugar and chocolate are almost unbearable.  It's crazy how much I dwell on it.  I'd say almost every 3rd to 5th thought is about it... all day long.  As old as chicken, carrots, and bananas has gotten...  this sugar craving is far worse.  Easily the hardest part about this. 

Elimination Diet - 2014.05.25

Pretty happy with how things are progressing.  It's no miracle but symptoms are getting less and less.  Gas was frequently bothering me all day and causing such urgency that I had to run to the bathroom.  It would wake me up in the night and have to scamper off to the bathroom.  I couldn't really lay on my side or it would just force it out even more.  Now it rarely bothers me; maybe once or twice a day.

Blood and mucus has gone from several tablespoons during every BM to just trace amounts or maybe a tablespoon.  Only going about 1 to 3 times a day instead of 5 to 8.  Things are slowing down too; food isn't shooting through me so quickly. 

Today I've added in avocado!  It was a nice change of pace from chicken, carrots, and bananas =)  Hopefully I'll have no negative reactions and this will be a new staple. I think it's a great addition as I'll get some healthy fats and it's a rich, dense, super food. 

We'll see how it goes!

Elimination Diet - Recap

Just to recap and clarify my elimination diet here.  There's tons of info out there about this but it's so unclear, contradictive, and rarely specific. 

This is ALL I've eaten for 5 days:

• Bananas: RIPE, smell and taste with a hint of fermentation.
• Diced up and frozen; it's almost like ice cream!
• Right out the husk, mmmmm.
• Carrots:  Steamed or boiled; NOT RAW.
• Chicken:  Unprocessed, baked, or grilled.  
• Boneless, skinless, chicken breasts.
• Ground chicken with nothing added.
• Rotisserie from a store or deli
• Home made chicken soup
• Rotisserie chicken (picked clean, just bones)
• Chicken leg quarters
• Carrots
• Salt
•  Salt:  Used as needed for flavor but sparingly.
• Olive Oil:  Used as little as possible. 

That's literally it.  It sounds crazy and I know some are thinking "OMG you need <insert stuff here> to survive!"  It's not that I disagree but the WHOLE point of this is to figure out what I can eat with no bad reactions.  If I eat 10 or even 5 different things a day... and my symptoms don't chill out... how do I figure out what's bothering me?  Yeah you can keep eliminating things and figure it out.  My approach is to just eliminate everything and add one back after a week.   Then ever 2 or 3 days I can add something new since it can take a day or more for reactions to surface and if they do it can take a day or three to work them out again. 

Elimination Diet - Started 2014.05.20

My wife and I were inspired by many people but one thing in particular that really struck us from other people with UC is the Paleo diet and the Elimination diet.  Lots of resources out there about both so let me just focus on how I'm implementing them.

I eliminated EVERYTHING.  I'm only eating chicken, carrots, and bananas.  Chicken is unprocessed, baked, or grilled (not fried!).  The only 'processed' chicken I'm eating is ground chicken with nothing added.  Also eating rotisserie chicken with as few seasons / ingredients as possible.  My wife made this awesome homemade soup by throwing in what was left of a rotisserie chicken, boneless, skinless, chicken breasts, and carrots. Made some patties out of ground chicken, cooked in a pan with a tablespoon or so of  olive oil, and once the center hits 160 they are good.

Carrots are boiled or steamed; NOT RAW!  That's very key and a mistake I made.  Raw carrots are hard to digest and the gas came back for a day.  The steamed carrots have great flavor and keep their nutrients.

Bananas are RIPE; I mean most people look at them and are like "um, gross..."  I think people are too picky on their bananas.  A FEW brown spots / streaks are FINE!  You peal it and there's no brown spots so don't be scared of some brown on the peel.  The smell and taste should have a hint of fermentation.  Peel shouldn't be green at all. A great treat is to dice up those bananas, throw them into a dish, and freeze them.  Later that day or the next day pull them out and eat them.  Oh man; it's ALMOST like ice cream! 

Imma Blogger!

First post; Im a blogger! WOOO! =)