Sometimes I truly can’t stand the clean diet plans. They are often filled with wonderful detoxifying ingredients… that no one has ever. Every now and then, however, a helpful guide comes along like this one here in goop.
You may not be able to afford any clothes GP suggests, but I’m pretty sure you can make some of these recipes.
Image Source: goop
I like drinking. I don’t need to be totally sloshed to be having a good time but I have always associated a fun night out with a few cocktails. I read about people who have cut alcohol completely out of their diets as part of a cleanse to alleviate their ailments and that’s super for them. I, however, refuse to accept that it will be a solution for my condition. I’ve mentioned before I wasn’t always cursed with a toxic stomach, so I prepared a probably too long brief background for your reading pleasure.
As a high school student, I could eat anything I wanted. I have always had a mild intolerance to dairy (thanks mom) but nothing too severe. I managed to eat a slice of pizza almost every day after school so I managed just fine. I drank a cup of coffee every morning and I can’t remember ever worrying about how I would feel after.
Just as I entered college, I saw a Gastroenterologist who diagnosed me with IBS or Irritable Bowel Syndrome. This is basically the diagnosis gastro doctors give patients when there is nothing physically wrong. In hindsight, I know that my body was rejecting my new college diet of Subway sandwiches, cereal and Easy Mac. However, I was not properly instructed to fix my diet and instead was given supplements to help with my symptoms.
As I was finishing my Freshman year of college, still symptomatic, I coincidentally had come down with the H.Pylori infection. This is a fairly common infection that causes pretty uncomfortable gastro symptoms. The treatment involves an antibiotic and acid-reducer and I felt relief once that was treated. What I didn’t know then, and no one told me, was that H.Pylori is forever in my system and can resurface at any time (much like Mono).
Shortly after entering my sophomore year, I started experiencing a brand new symptom of persistent indigestion. As you can imagine, acid reflux isn’t the most common ailment for a 19-year-old and I just wanted immediate relief. I did the obvious and went back to the same gastro doctor and she put me on an acid reducer, convinced I developed indigestion as part of my IBS. I naively did as I was told, which was to stay in the acid medication indefinitely. Once again, looking back, my indigestion was probably the H.pylori acting up and just needed to be treated for a few weeks.
Jump to seven years later. My body has been dependent on acid blockers for so long that I can’t make it through the day without them. Since I know managing my diet will be a major tool in this weaning process, I am constantly trying new elimination diet plans and the like. I’ve tried eating mostly raw food, avoiding food raw completely, eating only alkaline-forming foods, eating no meat, avoiding all gluten.. and the list goes on.
My words of advice for anyone who might be taking any type of acid-reducer or acid-blocker, do not stay on them longer than a few weeks. Alter your diet instead of relying on these medications. Taking them is the only regret I have, besides the drinker’s remorse I’ll have tomorrow morning. Cheers.
If you live in DC and have not gone to Ceiba yet, I would highly suggest it. This restaurant features a fusion of Central and South American cuisine, blending specialties from the different regions in inventive ways. Better yet, I can actually find great dishes to eat here that fall within range of my eating restrictions. There were only a few things I could choose from, but I was so happy with both my appetizer and entrée that I actually forgot that I can’t eat 90% of the menu items.
We started with the grilled octopus salad and got a few for the table. I was eating with 5 people and we all agreed this is one of the best octopus dishes we’ve ever had (including DC and NYC restaurants). It was cooked perfectly, soft and not even slightly rubbery. This is in contrast to another Latin restaurant in DC where the octopus dish should have been served with a steak knife to cut and t-rex jaws to eat. Ceiba’s dish was in a gazpacho vinaigrette and was complimented by a little red onion and celery for crunch and a tiny drop of Queso Fresco. (I know- dairy is a no-no, but I let it slide when it’s what I consider to be a negligible amount of which I can control how much I consume.)
My entree was Atlantic Salmon (didn’t ask if it was wild), in a Jamaican jerk sauce with sautéed spinach over Fufu mash. Fufu is smashed plantain dish that Ceiba prepared as a combination of sweet potato and plantain mashed together with a whipped consistency like traditional mashed potatoes. This likely means it had some butter in there, but I would make it with olive oil and onions in food processor and believe I can get the same texture.
While this dinner wasn’t as good for me as if I ate a homemade meal with controlled amounts of cooking oils and starches, it was highly encouraging that I could eat such a fantastic meal and not feel guilty about breaking too many food rules. Also, I know that 80% of the time, I eat meals that I make myself and know every single ingredient in them is diet-friendly. So, instead of posting a picture of a meal produced by a professionally trained chef, today I will show you the two meals I made for breakfast and dinner. First, the infamous daily smoothie and second, a dinner made of a hodge-podge of items I cooked today. 
Yes, the smoothie usually is green in color which is actually preferable to the dirt-brown it becomes with darker berries or strawberries are added. Note: if you are trying a green powder in a smoothie for the first time, be prepared that it will look like the image above. As for my dinner, I bought arugula at the farmers market today because I was so excited to see it back in action. However, if you remember by restrictions, raw food is not allowed. I saw a sign underneath the arugula suggesting to make a pesto so that’s exactly what I did- with pine nuts, olive oil, salt, and a drop of pecorino cheese (again, negligible). This is only the second food processor item I’ve made and I was extremely excited. I paired that with a portabello mushroom and a little brown rice. I probably should have cooked up another green vegetable with this, but I’ve been dying to try making sweet potato fries for a few weeks. Those were baked for about 40 min with olive oil, salt and pepper at 425 and came out great!
So after looking over my last post, I wanted to be clear to my readers (all 4 of them) that I don’t typically go out for lavish lobster dinners. And I definitely don’t ever drive outside of DC for a meal. That happened to be an awesome birthday gift from some friends who knew of my love for food and Top Chef.
The truth is, my everyday meal plan is pretty bare-bones. I mentioned in my first post some of the things I was told not to eat by my new nutritionist, which doesn’t sound so strict, but maybe you’ll think otherwise after reading the following. Here is what I’m actually supposed to eat everyday for at least 2 months before evaluating my condition:
Breakfast:
Smoothie: Almond, hemp or cashew milk with banana and one cup of frozen fruit. Supplements: Flax oil, Supergreen powder, whey protein powder. (If you’re looking for the other breakfast options, you’ve found them. It’s a smoothie. Everyday. )
Lunch: Homemade soups that include any lean protein, beans vegetables. OR any combination of lean protein, quinoa or millet with vegetables and beans. I know what you’re thinking- the possibilities are endless.
Snacks: Hummus, avocado, rice crackers, small portion of carrots, tuna salad, chicken salad (little to no mayonnaise)
Dinner: Any protein among the following: eggs, fish, chicken, turkey, quinoa, beans and any vegetables.
My nutritionist was very specific about not having any sweets after dinner (even fruit) and avoiding added sugar as much as possible. I haven’t completely cut out sugar out but have stopped eating bread, pasta, oatmeal, and snacks like pretzels and wheat crackers.
I’ve been coffee and alcohol free for over a week ( that boat was harder to get on) and I did experience a serious withdrawal this week that resulted in a pounding headache for 2 days straight. If I didn’t already have enough motivation to give up coffee because of its effects on my stomach, this headache was enough to convince me to stay away from it for a while.
While I was supposed to begin this “fast’ on February 7th and did begin the supplements and new eating habits just then, I would say the true first day of this elimination was actually only this past Monday, February 20th. I consider the prior weeks a kind of prep time where I collected a bunch of soup recipes, made a few, and tried every smoothie combination possible. I also ate many bean dishes, which I would advise people do with caution if they are not used to eating beans regularly. And maybe I also drank my face off at a work event on my home turf in NYC.
Basically, I’ve only just begun and while I already am seeing how hard it will be to commit (pork belly, really?), I am going to try for the sake of my poor compromised stomach.
I heart food. I’ve always enjoyed eating out, getting drinks, and more recently, cooking. But I can barely go one day without a stomach ache. It sounds like irony but it’s more like my personal purgatory.
For about 9 years, I’ve struggled with a plethora of stomach conditions and have attempted more remedies and diets than I can recount. It is only recently that with the help of a holistic nutritionist, I am finally finding some relief. With this relief comes a restrictive diet, which at first, I will admit, did not seem worth the effort. (I mean I literally eat a smoothie every morning- EVERY MORNING??)
After slowly becoming convinced that this may be a permanent change, and not one of the short-lived attempts I’ve tried in the past, I am realizing real changes need to be made. I’ll be cooking much more, but more importantly, I’ll be reporting what types of foods I’ll be eating when dining in as well as out in DC.
This blog may interest you if you a) love food, b) have any type of diet restrictions, c) need to find good food in Washington, because let’s be real- this isn’t New York.
Tomorrow night, I’ll be eating at Volt out in Frederick, MD. While I wish my first real post could be how I maintained by super diet at one of the best restaurants in the metro area, but I’ve been waiting for this dinner for over a year (I’ve literally had a gift card since January 2010), and likely, I will cave just a little. But I’ll try my best and report how it goes.
My last first note will be the guidelines of this diet so you know what I’m dealing with, and choose to keep reading or find something way more interesting.
No Dairy, Coffee, Alcohol, Nuts (whole), Raw Foods/ Limited amounts of Sugar & Wheat/ Only Lean Proteins. Kill me. I mean Let’s Do It!!!
Food is my Frenemy 