{How This Blog Became Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free and Mostly Vegan} Week 9 or Foods I Miss

by Valerie on August 29, 2009 · 10 comments

 Update June 2010 on How This Blog Became Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free and Mostly Vegan – I had originally named this series the Detox Diet Diaries, but my experience with these changes in my diet, while incredibly positive, has made me decide I really do not like the concept of  a detox diet.   It is ironic in that the diet my naturopath put me on was incredibly helpful, and a year later, it has become clear I have non-Celiac gluten intolerance, as well as a strong dairy intolerance.  I continue to avoid all dairy and gluten, as well as other problematic foods such as corn, but have grown to really dislike the concept of “detox” – the term promotes the concept of a quick fix, which is just nonsensical.  I firmly believe that the vast improvements in my health are based on the long-term changes I made, and want my posts on the experience to convey this.     
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Background: The Detox Diet Diaries recounts my story of doing a detox diet for health reasons and to isolate food allergies which may have been a contributing factor to some of my health problems. This diet involves real food. I am not on the Master Cleanse, or Gwyneth Paltrow’s latest cleanse, or Oprah’s cleanse, nor are my posts on my diet a way to support their actions. As I explained in my background post, I am doing this under the care of a naturopathic doctor.

Week 9 is when I had my worst “I miss so many foods” episodes since Week 1. I am not sure what triggered in week 9 in particular. I discovered the previous week that I had lost 7 pounds since starting the detox diet, which somehow did not cheer me up in any way. If anything Week 9 was one of the hardest weeks.

I also found that I missed certain foods for different reasons and with different frequency. Like I missed skim greek yogurt almost every day for the first 3 weeks, because it was such a staple in my diet, but by Week 9, when I missed it, I missed the taste more than the fact I used to eat it every day. And, I did not miss it as often either.

Anyways, to give you some insight, here is my list of top 10 foods I missed a lot during Week 9, but it is actually pretty reflective of foods I miss in general (I am now on Week 13, and nothing much has changed}:

1. Spicy tuna sushi {I miss most sushi on account of not eating white rice, but I found Tono Sushi in Washington, DC , which serves brown rice sushi. That said, spicy tuna is still off-limits because it contains mayo and/or msg and/or other preservatives from the spicy sauces}

2. Indian food {I was hoping to find some vegan options, but most Indian restaurants use a lot of butter even in vegetarian dishes. I do make some at home, but I miss eating out}

3. Crusty baguette and cheese {once every couple of months, husband and I would do a bread and cheese and salad evening. They were one of our favorite things to do – we did them on Valentine’s Day and New Year’s and just because}

4. Hot chocolate from ACKC

5. My favorite dark chocolate from 3400 Phinney.

6. Gelato {though I could do without plain ice cream forever but, then again, I rarely ate it. Gelato has always been my ice cream preference}

7. Prosciutto

8. Some pizzas {I am pretty picky about pizza – I only will eat it if it’s homemade or the thin crust artisanal fire-oven types}

9. Macarons

10. Smoked salmon

There were other things that narrowly missed the list, like shrimp, scallops, certain cupcakes, Vosges chocolate, decaf lattes, green tea {I can have decaf green tea though, I just have not yet found one}. Oddly, I would not put french fries anywhere near the top of the list of foods I miss. Or anything fried except maybe something like softshell crab rolls or shrimp tempura rolls or falafel. But I do not miss having chicken tenders or fried chicken or donuts but, then again, I rarely ate them.

More than anything, though, I miss the freedom of trying new foods and new restaurants and not worry about ingredients and labels.
Disclaimer: I am just a regular person posting about my experience doing a detox diet for health reasons and, ultimately, to isolate food allergies that may be the underlying cause of said health problems. I am not a medical professional or nutritionist. Please do not use information from these posts to do your own detox diet. Rather, seek advice from a doctor, naturopath or nutritionist to determine what the correct course of action for your health is.

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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Lauren August 31, 2009 at 12:31 am

Whole Foods has brown rice sushi and Nirvana at Farragut West has their vegan options marked on the menu!

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2 Melita August 31, 2009 at 1:51 am

yowza! i would miss these things terribly too. esp the sushi, indian food & chocolate.

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3 Lavanya August 31, 2009 at 4:24 am

I hear you on the cheese and baguette – I don't think i could go without cheese for too long. With Indian food, I've always preferred home-made Indian food (especially North Indian style) to the stuff in restaurants- even when I lived in India. It is usually too heavy/buttery in restaurants. Though I can imagine missing not eating Indian food out, atleast once in a while.

I must congratulate you, though- You seem to doing great with this diet. Very Inspiring!!

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4 Emily August 31, 2009 at 10:08 am

I read your list saying yes, yes, yes to myself as I went. Sometimes I dabble in the foods I don't eat much anymore if I really fancy them ~ such as if we go to a restaurant or I'm making something for a group of us for dinner. I admire you for standing your ground, for I am certainly not ready to give up things like shrimps yet! Though I have cut out the lattes and not looked back.

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5 Jen of A2eatwrite August 31, 2009 at 2:08 pm

It's pretty easy to make a lot of Indian foods vegan. Could you make that a challenge to yourself? Are you still feeling better on the detox diet? I hope you're doing well.

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6 City Girl August 31, 2009 at 2:14 pm

Lauren – thanks for letting me know about Nirvana. That must be relatively new as I don't remember that. As for WF – my WF on P street has bad brown rice sushi, though the one near you in Arlington has delicious brown rice sushi.

Melita – le sigh indeed.

Lavanya + Emily – you gals give me too much credit. I am doing really well physically, but I really have trouble staying positive about it. Months of restriction {some of which is more temporary than others} is really making me negative.

Jen – you are so right, and I do cook quite a bit of it myself. Honestly, I miss eating out , you know?

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7 Lauren August 31, 2009 at 3:43 pm

Ahhh yep–my Whole Foods does indeed have delicious brown rice sushi! I wonder why the difference? As for Nirvana, the menu has these little arrow icons next to the menu item and the key at the bottom indicates them as vegan depending on which way the arrow is pointing.

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8 Carolyn August 31, 2009 at 4:01 pm

Reading this list has made me SO hungry…

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9 Anonymous August 31, 2009 at 8:02 pm

Do you have plans to reintroduce some of the "forbidden" foods into your diet over time? Is there an end date to the detox diet?

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10 Haj September 8, 2009 at 6:25 am

Have you seen the detox diaries at http://www.detoxdiaries.com – interesting findings…

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