You’ve been to see your doctor or naturopath, you’ve been having issues. Maybe digestive, maybe other. And they have recommended you to try an elimination diet to see if it relieves the discomfort.
You look at the list.
Its crushing.
Not only can you not eat any of your favourite foods anymore, you literally can’t eat anything. You’re going to starve. Your world is shrinking. All you want to do is cry. So you do.
Can I offer you the compassion that this feeling is completely normal?
Food is a HUGE part of our lives. Its not just nourishment. Food is culture, social life, identity, and comfort. It is so many things outside of just eating. Sometimes we really don’t realize how much we have to lose until we lose it.
I want to offer you a light at the end of the tunnel. I want to offer you hope. I want to offer you all that I have learned form my experience as you’re going through this.
Mindset is Key
Firstly, mourn your loss. Don’t try to tell yourself that this is no big deal. Because it is! You’re losing something big. Allow yourself to feel the loss, because feeling it is healthy. You’ll feel the weight of it at some point, might as well be now
Secondly, don’t tell yourself that this is temporary. I know this sucks, but tell yourself that you’re giving up all of this food. If you tell yourself that its temporary, then when you have to give up a food for good you’ll experience that same loss and disappointment all over again.
If you give it all up now, have a massive pity party and bawl your eyes out and do it all proper, then you MAY experience the joy of being able to successfully reintroduce some of your favourites back into your diet. However, there is no guarantee. Go with worst case scenario and hope for the best. I want to offer you real hope, not false hope.
Let’s Look At The List
Now that we have allowed ourself to feel all of the feels, lets go back and look at the list. We are going to look through it thoroughly piece by piece, until we find our peace with it (or at least a bearable standing agreement for the moment)
I’d suggest to make a photocopy of your elimination diet… because we are going to mark all over this.
If This is NOT your first Elimination Diet grab the list and cross off all of the items that you have already had eliminated from your diet. They’re just adding bulk to the list of things you can’t have and making it look worse. Get rid of that clutter.
Grab a pen and cross off all of the items that you don’t eat honestly there’s no point in mourning that you can no longer have eggplant if you hate it anyway. Just cross it off the list so its not bulking up the list of can’t haves again.
Next cross off all of the foods that you can live without would it be nice to have hot dogs? Sure! But if its on the list, and its not something you’re really upset about, cross it off the list. (But do remember that it is still on the naughty list)
Here is where we get creative! Because you are capable of hard things. Everything that is left on the list is presumably something that is in your primary diet that needs to be removed. We are going to look at foods one by one to find suitable replacements
| Eliminated Food | Replacements |
| Citrus Fruit | Apples, pears, melons, grapes, blueberries, plums |
| Bacon | Sliced pork belly with salt |
| Spinach | Romaine, iceberg lettuce |
| Tomato | Red pepper, ‘nomato sauce’ |
| Peanuts | Almonds, cashew, sunflower butter |
| Dairy | Dairy alternatives, almond milk |
| Gluten | Gluten free alternatives |
| Chocolate | Carob, white chocolate |
| Soda | Fruit infused water on ice |
| Soy sauce | Coconut aminos |
Its going to be different for each diet, but you’ll see that there are replacements for so many foods. Are they exactly the same? No. But they can serve a very similar purpose.
After this is all done, are there going to be foods that you did not find a replacement for? Probably. However there is a lot that you can find with a little research.
If you’re still having trouble coming up with a suitable replacement for something, contact me at kaitlyn@kaitlynsglutenfreekitchen.com and if I know of any solutions I’m happy to help.
Reward Yourself especially when things are tough reward yourself with all of the most delicious foods and replacements that you can find. Treating yourself to will make you feel better and will show you that there is still joy to be had in food. Even with a limited diet!
Want To Work Through Your Elimination Diet With Me? Because everything is more fun with a friend… join me as I work through my most recent elimination diet and see how much more manageable it becomes when you work through it little by little.
Many elimination diets eliminate gluten… and if you’re at a loss with that let me help. I can offer gluten free meal planning to suit your needs with five delicious recipes either delivered to your inbox or find the most recent meal plan here.
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