After finding out what food I was reacting to, It was time to eliminate and reintroduce food. Lifestyle and Eating Performance created this program to help calm the immune system, which is why it is called immunocalm diet.
The program has 6 phases where you slowly introduce food and see how you react to them. My nutritionist made me fill up a survey and made me list down what I ate to help facilitate the healing process.
I never used to enjoy cooking but I had to make everything from scratch, and I had to eat separately from my family since they eat food that I react to. At first I was craving a lot of food, but as of now, I learned how to be content. It was really challenging to come up with meal plans, budgeting and doing grocery shopping, but over time, I am actually enjoying it.
To know more about LEAP, you can go to this website: LEAP
Friday, December 17, 2010
The Results Are In
Bommmmmm. And so the day finally came and I was able to find out what food I was sensitive to. By the way, as with any test, this test is 94% accurate, so it has room for error. The test results look like the example chart below. Green means you're not sensitive to the food. Yellow means you're moderately reacting to it, And red means stay away from it. Stay away!
I have already deduced some of the results beforehand to be reactive like citrus, dairy, soy etc. My gut feelings were on the ball with those but I was surprised to find out what other food I was sensitive to. Pistachios, mango, rice, watermelon, tea, yeast, pork, garlic, onion, mint, oat, ... T_T ohohoh and the list goes on! I'm also allergic to dyes, which explains a lot why I get hives and breakouts whenever I take medications or just plain vitamins.
When I got home, I looked at our pantry, my toiletries, and I was shocked. Everything I was using, I was reactive to. I had to throw out my dental floss, my mouthwash, my lotions. I did not want to eat anything. I guess you could say I got a little paranoid. Hahaha. I had to start the LEAP program earlier than planned....
sources:
Mediator Release Test
I am way way way behind in blogging about this, i'm already on the third phase of the program, but it is better late than never, right? Remember when I was talking about food sensitivities and how they can affect our skin? Well, sometimes your gut feelings aren't always up to par with what you are sensitive to. Even if I was very careful with what I ate, I was still breaking out. It was about time I got some help. I was searching on the internet about something-- can't really remember what, but I stumbled upon a nutritionist that does Mediator Release Testing here in Austin. What is it you ask? Well, this test determines food sensitivities, not food allergies. The good thing about this is that food sensitivities don't appear as quickly as food allergies, and they come in different forms such as fatigue, headaches, constipation, and many other symptoms that we don't really think of as having to do with food sensitivity. Which is why we don't suspect these certain foods that are actually harming us. x_X
The test is a little pricey, $350, but my nutritionist was nice enough to show me a link where Hershey's (yes, the chocolate makers) partnered with dieticians to help people become more aware of their health. They sponsored upto 250 dollars for a first time visit to a nutritionist or dietician, which saved me a lot of money, since my insurance doesn't cover this testing.
Here is a link if you want to know more about Hershey's and good nutrition: Hershey's
As I have said, I did the testing a few months ago and was not able to document it, but here is a crappy representation of what I did.
1. Get kit. Make sure to keep the box in a cool area.
2. Get your blood drawn. You need to fill up 4 vials so drink up! The blood draw has to be after 1 pm, and you should have eaten before having your blood drawn.
3. Send blood. The kit contains a fedex bag so all you have to do is seal up the blood, fill up the papers, label the box and send it to a fedex store that accepts blood or blood products.
The test took about two weeks and my nutritionist emailed me and I set up an appointment with her to find out what the results were. Bom bom bommm...
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Updates Part 3!
How did you spend your Thanksgiving?
This turduckie had fun but met an untimely demise x_x.
Nah, he's hanging out on one of the shelves here along his other duck friends.
Earlier, we went to Black's barbecue at Lockhart. They say it's one of the best barbecues in Texas. The place looks like a quaint little area. It wasn't crowded when we went there. I wasn't able to get a lot of pictures, but the food was pretty good.
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| Their barbecue sauce was super good. I really liked their turkey. |
What else did we do? Oh yeah, we just got our Christmas tree the other day! We got it at South Congress, right in front of South Congress Cafe.
While waiting we looked around and me and my dad saw a boot shop. And boy did we have fun!
Hopefully we can decorate the tree soon!
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