...Aaaand the diet is still going

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In my head, that title is totally pronounced in the same voice as Bill Murray in Ghostbusters: "Aaaaand the FLOWERS are STILL standing!" I think I'm starting to forget what cheese tasted like.

That's right, it's been over 6 weeks since I last had any dairy, soy, or gluten on purpose. I'm sure there's been slips here and there (and last weekend in New Orleans we TOTALLY splurged on some bread), but my dietary life has been pretty awfully regulated. And although sometimes it makes me want to cry (why do they stick soy in EVERYTHING??), some positives have come out of it.

  • Recipes! I'm actually cooking now! Before it was only whenever we didn't order pizza, and now it's basically every day. Here are some successes I've had:
  • Weight loss - Okay, so I wasn't trying to lose weight necessarily, but it was kind of nice to see some pounds of pure cheese and bread melt away. Mmm ... melllltttt ....
  • Attitude adjustment - Although I can't claim that I've been happier these last couple of weeks (i.e. see cheese post), it has been nice to not be so obsessed with food. I'm a big gorger. Going out to eat, parties of any kind, Thursday nights, etc. were all reasons for me to binge. And it's true, I did have an awfully depressing soy/gluten/dairy free birthday cake, but there are better things in life than food, right? Right??
  • Better Sleep - Not eating bread or cheese means no more late night cheese n' cracker fests, which I'm sure we could all agree on as a bad idea anyway. So take that stuff away and what do I have to Midnight Snack on? Just wine. Mmmm .... wine ....

So I'm not out of the woods yet - in a couple more weeks I have a follow-up with my nutritionist and she has some more stuff to test out on me. A happy little beaker of experimentation, I am. But this has been an interesting trial overall, and boy has it made me realize life from the other side of the fence. The most difficult thing by far seems to be traveling. I've resigned myself to mainly salads and chicken when we go out to eat, but when you can't cook your own meals and are thrown to the wolves of the chain restaurants of the world, it can get a little panic-inducing. I can't count how many "Say what now?" responses we've gotten for asking for something gluten-free. I'm just going to keep my head down these next few weeks and forget that my nutritionist gave me a look when I told her I was surviving on a lot of packets of Fruit Snacks. (y'know, artificial flavoring and coloring and all that nonsense)

How about anyone else out there? Have your dietary experimentations/restrictions paid off?