Hello everyone, welcome to my 2 week update. Most of us don't realise it but the foods were eating daily are corrupting our health, that's why the 21 day elimination diet is used often by health practitioners. This is the gold standard way to test if foods are causing inflammation ranging from (autoimmune arthritis, irritable bowel to acne). After 10 days on the diet myself, cutting out the most common problematic foods - eggs, wheat, dairy, soy, corn, and alcohol, I've definitely realised that the elimination diet isn't easy. On Friday Day 10, I randomly made an executive decision to have a day off from the diet, I was out for a lovely dinner with friends that had been booked in the diary long before booking in the 21 day elimination challenge. So after breaking the diet Friday, I made another executive decision to blow out the whole weekend as I had already reintroduced foods to early and knowing that by doing that I would have to start over ahhhhh, I figured I'd enjoy the break and start again Monday. The reason for having to start over is because antibodies which are the proteins your immune system makes when reacting to foods generally take 21 days to turn over, so we need to keep suspect foods out of the diet for the 21 days to get the full effect of the elimination diet. I've decided now I'll probably be trying to get this diet right for the rest of my life as I also have a weekend away planned in 2 weeks’ time, unless I make some changes to it that work for me. I'm so glad I have done this experiment as I fully understand now why my clients struggle with being told to cut out wheat, dairy, sugar, grains etc. all at once. What I realised was I felt better off those foods I just haven't finished the experiment to find out which foods are the problem for me. I now have a new plan, I'll do the elimination diet 1 to 3 offending food only at a time. Consequently I'm restarting the 21 days with just cutting the wheat, soy, eggs, which I know I can still succeed while I'm away on holidays, I'll do dairy, corn, alcohol next and so on. For anyone else that wants to use this diet to recognise what foods are affecting you, you will still get the same result it will just take longer, but since good health is a life long journey I think that's still a reasonable way to go as long as your condition is not chronic. So as of today, no wheat, eggs or soy for the next 21 days! I look forward to continuing to keep you all updated on my journey. Yours in health, Maria X
