TOMATO

It's been six weeks and it's time to introduce my first food! I'm choosing tomatoes because we have a million in the backyard, and it's been hard to avoid them in things like sauces. Think about all the ways in which tomatoes really enhance other foods: barbecue sauce, ketchup, pasta sauce, Indian veggie dishes, salads, sandwich and egg toppings, the list goes on.

To sum up: I've missed them.

Justin and I decided to make fried green tomatoes since we had so many green tomatoes. We planted late, and then we didn't have that much sun (Portland, go figure). So, we rented the movie and made a night of it. And to make the meal as southern as possible, we ate the tomatoes with lentils and rice.

Simple Fried Green Tomatoes

1) Mix barley flour with salt and pepper.
2) Cut green tomatoes into slices.
3) Cover tomato slices with flour mixture
4) Fry in oil!

Tomato week was a success. I had no symptoms, so tomatoes are back in the diet!

Week Six: Substitutions

Here are some things I've learned over these 6 weeks:

1) Baking powder has corn in it (unless you get the kind with potato starch). A good substitute is:
For each 1 teaspoon baking powder called for in a recipe, use 1/4 teaspoon baking soda plus 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar.

2) Soy/rice/hemp milk can almost always be substituted for milk

3) Barley flour is my new favorite discovery. You can always substitute it for flour. Barley flour does have a very small amount of gluten, but I have been ok with it. Here is a list of many kinds of flour and their amounts of gluten. I never knew there were so many kinds of flour!

4) Egg whites can usually be used instead of egg yolks. So if a recipe calls for 1 egg, I use two egg whites and no yolk.

5) Any ingredient that you don't understand is probably corn. Including: natural flavor, citric acid, caramel color, dextrose, lactic acid....all the scientific names that make us want to be farmers so we don't have to be scientists. For an in depth and fascinating account of how corn rules the world and makes Americans fat and farmers poor, read the literary delicacy Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

6) Coping with Food Intolerances by Dick Thom, DDS, ND lays out this whole testing-elimination-reintroducing process. It's easy to read and accessible. Also has cool recipes and lots of substitution ideas. My favorite recipe in there is Sweet Potato Buns.

In other news, I have been working early morning shifts at a large garden, going to school, and working part-time...and I feel great! I could not have done this (especially the early-morning gardening) before these 6 weeks.

At this point, I feel like I know how to cook way more than I did, and I am empowered to feed myself. I know, that sounds ridiculous, but cooking everything at home AND eliminating migraines has made me feel self-sufficient in a way that I think I really needed.

Week Five: The Real Test

One of the reasons I knew something was wrong with my body (or what I was putting in it) was that every Sunday I would struggle to get up to teach Sunday school. I teach Rhythm and Movement, so in addition to working with excited children, my whole class is based on running and jumping and clapping. I would see all the other teachers awake and cheerful, maybe tired because it was a weekend, but more or less awake. Sometimes I would marvel at the plans some people had after Sunday school...hiking, going out with friends, doing homework. I knew that after Sunday school (which is 9-12:15) I would bike home (with difficulty) and take a nap.

The real test, therefore, was if this diet would make a difference when it came to Sundays. And lo and behold, I passed with flying colors. I couldn't believe how much easier it was to get up on Sunday morning. My stomach didn't hurt, which is often a problem for me when not getting enough sleep. I did not feel drained biking to or from work, and I was able to go home and have the rest of my day without needing to reclaim the hours of sleep Sundays had previously taken from me. This was the real test, and the motivation I need to continue this crazy, strict, no-social-life-at-cafes diet.

Week Four: Nuts and Raisins

The one amazing thing about being a migrainista is that I have learned to tell exactly when one is coming on. I think most migrainists can name a few warning signs. Often, my sign is feeling tense in my shoulders and neck.

With that in mind, here's a journal entry from this week that made me happy:

"At about 5 pm I started to feel this feeling in my head and shoulders--that tense feeling where I can assume I will get a headache. BUT no headache came...I feel like before this diet, this would have been a headache or migraine."

So I guess I have eliminated enough stressors from my system that when I do feel a bit stressed, it doesn't turn into a migraine. Yay!

In other news, I have been snacking on nuts and raisins. Since I can't eat out, I make sure to always have food with me when I leave the house. I have started carrying around a tupperware of nuts, raisins, dried cherries, and sunflower seeds, which makes a great healthy snack, and is an easy to-go item when I didn't plan ahead and make lunch like I should have.