Trish was doing an elimination diet with some of her clients at Discover Health Functional Medicine Center, so I decided to go along with it as well. For thee weeks – no caffeine, alcohol, dairy, eggs, honey, maple syrup, refined sugar, beef, pork, shellfish or nightshades. 😞

At the start it seemed impossibly restrictive. After a few days, I realized it was a bit easier than expected. We eat most of our meals at home, so Trish tossed all of the offending foods into a box and left acceptable food in the cabinets. I moved our wine into the basement. Out of sight, out of mind worked pretty well.

It reinforced the lesson that it is easy to eat healthy food if that is the only food at home. When we were low on food and I popped into a store to find something quick, it was much more challenging.

One big positive was that I felt no difference in energy from the lack of caffeine. In fact, after a couple of days with an unusually low resting heart rate in the morning, I wondered whether it was because the caffeine was completely out of my system.

After 10 days, I had slimmed down a few pounds, but I did not feel much of a difference. I decided to start reintroducing foods one at a time instead of continuing on. To be sure of any lagging sensitivity, the food is introduced for three days before adding back anything else.

First up was red wine and thankfully I felt fine. 😂 There is just something about the taste and experience of wine that I find hard to resist.

Next was dairy. I was a bit nervous as some of my siblings, nieces and nephews cannot tolerate it. Three days of heavy cream in my coffee twice per day, plus some cheddar cheese with meals and still felt great! 😌

I have continued introducing other foods and all continues to go well. One thing I have stuck with is decaf coffee most days. Although I will have caffeine occasionally, I have decided that I am better off not having it every day.

It was interesting to do the elimination diet and have more confidence that my eating habits are good and that I do not have sensitivities to the foods I eat regularly. Due to the restrictions, we also tried some new recipes and brought back some old favorites that we had not had in a while.

Have you ever taken something out of your diet and been surprised that you are better off without it?