Fun Way to Score Clean Cookies & Elf Paleo Menu

Our clean cookie exchange was a delicious success! Everyone brought dozens of clean cookies. I made a pot of Peppermint Hot Cocoa. The movie, Elf, was ready to go in the player. We were set. One member of our party had never watched Elf, so that made it extra fun for us. It’s always fun when one person has never seen a movie that you enjoy so much. It’s fun to hear them laugh and smile at some of your favorite parts in the movie.

The idea was to grab some cookies and hot cocoa to have while watching the movie. However, this is when the party came to a halt. There were four different households in attendance thus the request to bring 4 dozen cookies each. (Omg! I just realized that I had almost 200 cookies in my house at one time! Awesome!) Each household was going home with 4 dozen different cookies. So, as the cookie munching began, all you had to do was Continue reading

Eating Out and Food Restrictions

PC: McLovin 2.0 https://www.flickr.com/photos/negativeproof/13122415165/

PC: McLovin 2.0

I find myself doing A LOT of cooking on this RepairVite / AIP diet. Here’s the thing, I love cooking, but on this program, it does seem to take up quite a bit of my day. I have completed five full days of the program (not even a third of the way through the food elimination phase). My DH asked me today if we were almost done. He is doing a modified version of the program. He eats dried fruit and nuts as snacks.  He is also drinking coffee (with sugar!). I introduced him to coconut sugar today. He had it in his coffee, but I don’t think it’s going to stick.

Thankfully some days we do plain ol’ leftovers—nothing fancy. However, we had unexpected guests on a leftover day, so we ordered out. It (the food) was a nice change for me/us. My DH and I ordered a rotisserie chicken and a green salad from our local Mediterranean restaurant. It worked! And it was easy and yummy. And we were able to have our guests order whatever they wanted meaning we didn’t have to submit them to our no-this no-that diet. It was a win-win situation. It was such a great experience that it got me thinking, “where else could we order food from and stay within the diet’s parameters?” Continue reading

Good Snack Options for AIP/Paleo Diets

Vegetable Root Chips are great on the go!

Vegetable Root Chips are great on the go!

A lot of things went wrong today. I went to my rheumie appointment by myself. I haven’t gone by myself in months. But I have been feeling better, and the only appointment available didn’t work with my DH’s schedule. So off I went. Traffic was bad, and the carpool lane wasn’t an option as it usually is. I called the doctor’s office to let them know I’d be about 10-15 minutes late. What I thought was a professional courtesy did not work in my favor. The receptionist said that I would have to reschedule and that he was cancelling my appointment for the day. What?! I couldn’t believe it. I reiterated that I was calling to let them know I was going to be late not to reschedule. Ha! And he just reiterated right back—I needed to reschedule the appointment; they wouldn’t see me today since I was late. Ugh! I was incredibly frustrated. I told him I’d have to call him back when I could access my calendar (i.e. not driving). So what could I do? I was already across town. I might as well make the most of it. So, I went shopping–Whole Foods shopping that is. I grabbed a few ingredients and headed on out. The plan was to go to Whole Foods after my appointment and have lunch there, but no appointment, so I was there early. I decided to pass on WH’s lunch and just eat at home. Plus, it was before noon.

I hopped on the freeway and bam! Complete. stand. still. You know the kind that only happens after you get on the onramp? Here I was stuck. And then the worst thing happened. Continue reading

Starting my AIP Paleo Hybrid Food Plan

Tomorrow is the day I say no to sugar, no to gluten, no to soy, no to dairy, and YES to a healthy gut. I will be starting my food elimination diet for the next 3 weeks+. My naturopath describes the RepairVite program as a cross between the Paleo and Autoimmune Protocol diets.

It should be known that I had a s’mores with breakfast and an ice cream sundae for dessert tonight. Seven thirty p.m. was my cut off time. Not only am I starting this crazy gut-repairing diet tomorrow but I also have to go in for labs first thing in the morning. I have to fast for 12 hours. The fasting is a piece of cake; I can drink water. But the piece of cake that I will no longer be able to eat for three weeks will be missed…I think. I hear that a lot of people who give up sugar actually don’t crave it anymore. I am pretty sure I have a sugar addiction which is dangerous because Continue reading