19: Almonds

TEAM CAKE! Almonds are a go!!

18c: Peanuts (still)

MNLS, elimination coach extraordinaire, advised that I take a day off from reintroducing. She thinks the rashes and breakouts might be residual hot pepper, or a pepper/peanut combo (goodbye, thai food). I don't itch EVERYWHERE today, so that's good...

18b: Peanuts

In addition to rash on chest, slight rash on left arm and ear. Covered in Benadryl.

18: Peanuts

So, I have decided, not on the advice of MNLS, I've had enough of nightshades for now. The important thing is potatoes seem OK, but I am going to cut nightshades out again and revisit at the end, one project at a time (raw tomatoes, salsa, pasta sauce, different kind of hot pepper, etc. Ugh, and eggplant. So today I reintroduced peanuts. My pulse ticked up slightly - 10-12 bpm. And today my chest is even more broken out, but that might be from the pepper. I suspect peanuts are something to avoid, but obviously not life threatening.

17: Peppers and hot peppers

Regular peppers seem OK, but I hate them anyway so it's not really relevant. However, hot peppers...after eating spicy food my nose started to itch, and actually itched the next day, along with the rest of my face, but not to the same extent, and my wrists. My chest is also breaking out which will be lovely for the wedding. The interesting thing is, I have a really strong memory of having an itchy nose as a child whenever we went to Leo's Pizza, where there was always a big old shaker of how pepper flakes slapped on the table. Do you know how hard it is to satisfyingly scratch a nose?

16: Tomatoes

Raw tomato tasted terrible, heart rate went up around 10bpm. Had tomato sauce as well tonight, heart rate not up but feeling jittery.

15: French fries

Not even sure what to do here, I am so in shock. First off, let me say that after vehemently denying that I would EVER eat fries cooked in disgusting LARD, I wrote to my favorite fry place in town and found out that they cook their fries in beef fat. Um, OK. Maybe that's something you should put on the menu?

But anyways, I ascertained Chez Victor cooks their fries in canola oil, so off I went. And I ordered them, and I ate them, and something weird happened. My stomach maybe wasn't 100% thrilled, but really everything went fine. I just didn't LIKE them that much. I mean, I ate all of them just to be sure, but it was grudging...

14: Potatoes

I inadvertantly liveblogged my potato reintro. Here is a transcript:

CARA: OMFG POTATOOOOOOOO
MNLS: So, no?
CARA: I think yes. Was just eating at that moment.
CARA: Pretty sure swallowing without chewing was not the best idea though.
MNLS: Oh dear.
MNLS: Any reaction?
CARA: Aside from nearly choking to death?
CARA: No.
MNLS: Cool!
MNLS: Did you decide on a fry place?
CARA: I have to call a few regarding their oil.
CARA: Probably Frites Alors.
MNLS: Mmm, laaaaard.
CARA: Lol
MNLS: Would you eat lard fries?
CARA: I fine lard disgusting tasting.
CARA: Reading that sentence made me throw up in my mouth a little.
MNLS: So, maybe?
CARA: No.

But potatoes seem OK - yay!

13: Coffee

Coffee seemed to go down just fine, but I think now that I am weaned I will stick to decaf black tea! Was still bloated today from something so ate a ton of sauerkraut. Feel much better now!

11b: Sheep's Cheese and 12: Tea

So, my initial excitement regarding sheep's cheese has been greatly diminished. I think it's just the non-aged causing me issues, so I will cut that out immediately. Stomach has reached a roundness not seen in about six weeks, since I started this project. Tea, however, seems to have gone well but will have to keep an eye on that situation as well due to cross-contamination with the sheep's cheese project. Once I get to potatoes (Wednesday) I will be a lot more willing to take a few days to reintro something but dammit I want a potato!!!

11a: Sheep Cheese

Might have jumped the gun a bit - having some internal rumblings and upset. I will keep you posted - sure you are all (Suzanne) on the edge of your seats. May postpone further dairy reintros, and not just because I want tea, coffee and potatoes SOOO BAAAAAD.

11: Non-aged Sheepie Cheese

The Carotte Joyeuse has a great selection of local cheeses. Bought a couple and will look into the treatment of animals on the farms - according to The Grain Brain, I want to eat cheese from grass-fed animals only. The non-aged sheep's cheese produced a tummy grumble or two, but seems to have no real issues. Also bought raw cow's milk cheese, and a plain yogurt from a local farm. 

10: Aged Sheep's Cheese

I tried full-sheep Pecorino Romano. It actually went just fine, which was a surprise! Will move on to non-aged sheep tomorrow, and then replace the non-aged cow day with raw cow on Suzanne's suggestion. 

9: Aged cow's cheese

So, my resting heart rate is usually around 60-65bpm. This morning for some reason it was quite high - nearly 80bpm. I checked it a few times to see if it would go down at all, and it didn't. I ate the cheese, and within five minutes my stomach was grumbling angrily and my heart rate was 101bpm. That, I think, is a thumbs down for cheese, right?

8: Butter

So, I was not very excited about eating a block of butter alone so I melted it and mixed it in with some buckwheat groats. I guess the butter was really salty so it was a wildly unpleasant experience. I felt nauseated afterwards, but I guess that's because I ate a bunch of melted butter and that it fegging disgusting. However, no adverse reactions, I don't think. 

7: Citrus

I ate an orange earlier in the day to no ill effects. Somehow tonight I decided it would be an awesome idea to chug some straight lemon juice. While lying down. So, no allergic reaction, just raging heartburn. Nice one, dumbass.

6: Edamame

This went totally smoothly, no issues. Still plan to stay away from tofu and soy milk.

5: Rye and an oats do-over

I am not sure I am doing this right. I was fine with oats yesterday, had them today as a proper breakfast and my heart rate went up. Felt OK though. Had rye later in the day - pulse fine, but sore stomach. I don't really know what I am looking for here in terms of symptoms.

4: Oats and a wheat do-over

Oats this morning - no problems, as expected. So I got some nice bread this afternoon just the see what would happen. Well, nice bread sucks without butter, for one thing. Also, stomach and intestinal distress, for another. Pulse fine.

3: Barley

Do you know how disgusting plain barley is? Well, I do. Very disgusting. My pulse has stayed the same but stomachache and bloat came quickly.

2: Wheat

Ate a few forkfuls of pasta, Heart rate fine, some mild stomach pain but nothing to bad so far. Think I may add a day in at the end of the rest of the grains to try bread - all the bread I find here, no matter how simple the list of ingredients, has malted barley in it. Or maybe do bread on barley day, if my reintroduction coach allows it.

Day two was a wash

I got a stomachache from lunch that never faded, so plans to try a few bites of pasta went down the drain. Can't figure out the reason for the stomach issues - no other new food yesterday. However, some good news is that I ate a few corn tortillas and they settle my stomach, and I woke up feeling awesome.

1: Corn

Ate a corn tortilla. Pulse 80bpm. Dropped to 74bpm where it has stayed. Cat has finally calmed the f**k down and is sitting in my lap, but I believe that is unrelated.

Heavy metal

Ate rice noodles and walnut sauce for dinner, now have metallic taste in mouth. Huh.

The nefarious Chinese Gooseberry

OK, I am feeling a bit silly now - I realized I ate something else yesterday that I had not had in a while - a kiwi. I remembered this AS I was biting into a kiwi just now. This might actually be the culprit. It seems to not have friends that I will also have problems with, but it cross-reacts with birch pollen, avocado, banana, rye grain and hazelnuts. I have been eating a metric ton of avocado, and some hazelnuts as well.

Cucumber Hangover

Lips and palate feel like sandpaper today. This is going to be an interesting month. Cucumbers are in the same family as squash (zucchini, pumpkin, butternut SOB) and melon (less of a heartbreak) and ragweed. So, all of these will now get reintroduced near the middle of August (Apparently this is a new invention, a rolling elimination diet, TM and patent pending MNLS).

You never see the cucurbitaceae coming.

So, this blog was supposed to start tomorrow, but nature had other ideas. After a 10-day elimination diet, carefully monitored by my sister, I was meant to start the reintroduction of corn tomorrow. This morning, as I was grabbing food for lunch, however, I grabbed the still-perky remains of a cucumber. I had the cucumber as a late-afternoon snack, and pretty soon the roof of my mouth stated to itch. I might have piled more trouble on by also eating zucchini, which is in the same family. Right now my mouth itches, my throat hurts, my eyeballs itch...I am also having some severe intestinal issues but that might have been the week-old lentil soup with sauerkraut mixed in. I did not see this one coming - it's the whole squash family, as well as melons, so I think eight extra days just got tacked onto the end of my "reintroduction" time.