The Maker's Diet

I've taken a break from blogging the last few weeks...I've been reading more online about various healing diets. I've known this is the direction that I would like to take our menu planning, but I was not sure exactly which direction that would be :) We have several chronic health issues (Fibromyalgia in myself, sinus infections in both kids & my husband and stomach issues in all). We have mostly followed the Eat Right for Your Type diet (we are all blood type A's) and find that we really do much better while eating the foods that are right for our type (mostly chicken/turkey, vegetables, fruits, and gluten-free grains).

However, I think we need to take things to a new level. I know that certain foods have negative effects on our bodies, but I truly believe that certain foods can be healing to our bodies as well. So, we are starting The Maker's Diet today. I went to the health food store last night to stock up on more foods that we can eat, and I removed (and hid) all of the foods in our pantry that we cannot eat right now. The first two weeks on the "diet" are the most restrictive, but in stage 2 (the next two weeks) more foods are added back in. And finally in the 5th week, more are added back in and you reach the maintenance stage. It's a 40 day diet at the end of which I hope just mostly stay at that level. We are not taking their supplements, but we are all taking a high-quality probiotic as well as other vitamins/supplements. So, I feel that we are ok in that area.

I hope to chronicle what we are doing so that I can look back and see what did or did not work for us. In the first two weeks, the diet consists mostly of good quality meats/fish/poultry/eggs (no pork and no shellfish being the main restrictions), only goat's milk yogurt and goat/sheep's milk cheese (we already eat plain goat's milk yogurt), coconut oil/organic butter/extra virgin olive oil for fats/oils, lots of vegetables, a good variety of raw nuts/seeds (no peanuts at this stage), fresh seasonings, berries/grapefruit/lemons/limes and mostly purified water to drink. So the biggest restriction in stage 1 is no beans/legumes (except for lentils) and no grains! That will be the biggest issue with my kids as they snack on dry cereal, granola, and crackers! But, I am finding some good recipes for muffins and pancakes made with almond meal instead of grains. I'll post about those when I try them out.

So far for day 1 we've had:

Breakfast:
**smoothie for the kids (& sent one to work with hubs for a snack)...small handful of spinach, water, goat yogurt, raw almond butter, frozen blueberries & fresh strawberries, maybe 1 tsp of coconut oil -- SO yummy!!!!! And they also had some turkey sausage (allowed but probably not the best as it's not nitrate/nitrite free).
** scrambled eggs with tomatoes & turkey sausage for hubs and myself.

Mid-Morning snack:
**raw sunflower seeds and dehydrated peas for the kids
**they also finished up our banana/clementine supply with one each (not allowed on this stage but they were in the refrigerator!)

Lunch:
**nitrate/nitrite free turkey hot dogs for the kids
**then later, tuna salad for the kids with strawberries & raw almonds (soaked & dried in the oven)
**egg salad & green salad for myself
**leftovers for the hubs (chicken, okra & green salad)

Afternoon Snack:
**plain goat yogurt with flaxmeal and frozen blueberries for the kids

Dinner:
It will be baked tilapia for all with a large green salad for the adults (still working on getting the kids to really eat salad) and carrot sticks/fruit for the kids.

I can see all of us being hungry between meals during these first two weeks without beans and grains. We'll see...