I'm a living vapor...

Katie & Jasmine! Wednesday (Day 18) was an incredibly bad cheat day, lol! I ate lunch at this great Mexican restaurant with one of my supervisors and a classmate from my internship. (You can already tell where this is going...). I had the chicken tacos with rice and beans, as well as some tortilla chips with salsa and guacamole...man, did I enjoy every bite of that delicious goodness! I monitored my joints to see if they have been affected by the change in my diet. There were no major changes and no pain, thank God! Since that day, I'm still continuing with watching what I eat. With Isabel, my boyfriend's youngest sister! Today is a special lunch date with the girls: my sister, Katie; my friend, Jasmine; and my boyfriend's sister, Isabel! This morning, I was looking up vegan restaurants in Miami and a place called Choices Cafe came up. It's located in the downtown area and I had to use the GPS because one way streets can be confusing and intimidating. Tha...

I can't believe I survived my first week of the "Elimination Diet." As I have stated in my previous posts, this diet change is really hard. It's so challenging to figure out what dishes to make without using tomatoes, parsley, or citrus fruits. However, today I was able to make something pretty decent. I call it..."Yellow-brown rice with black beans and lettuce," haha! I guess until I can perfect the dish, I shall give it a creatively clever name. :] Here were my ingredients: 1/4 tsp Turmeric 1/4 tsp Cumin 1/4 tsp Onion powder 1/4 tsp Garlic powder 1/8 tsp Black pepper powder 1/8 tsp Oregano 1 can of black beans 2 cups of brown rice 1/2 head of lettuce Nutritional Yeast My simple directions: 1. Cook the brown rice. 2. Drain the black beans. 3. When the rice is just about halfway cooked, add the black beans & the seasoning. 4. Chop up the lettuce. 5. When the rice and black beans are cooked, mix it with the lettuce and sprinkle with ...

As I'm updating this blog about the progress I'm making with the diet, I forget to take pics and post them here. I say this because I've been perusing through Pintrest, drooling over all the different kinds of delicious healthy meals, and I've noticed that many people who post "food pics" originated from a blog (complete with the actual recipe). Once I am able to create some good meals, I shall make my official "food pic" post on this here blog! But speaking of Pintrest, I'm constantly being inspired to try so many cool things whenever I'm on it. I've discovered many neat things you can do with zucchini, mushrooms, and quiona!! However, this "Elimination Diet" is keeping me mindful of the things I cannot eat right now. I know I should avoid eggs, cheese, poultry, and meats...but it's kinda hard to find something without things like tomatoes, lime/lemon, corn, and celery. The "Elimination Diet" causes me to appre...

So, that long awaited day has finally arrived. It is now time to start this diet which could change how I live my life! As discussed with Dr. Benson, the first 3 weeks are going to be the most restrictive part of the diet...aka, the "Elimination Diet." The idea behind the Elimination Diet is where we can create a baseline of the foods that don't aggravate inflammatory symptoms, then after a while, we start introducing different kinds of food (a little at a time) to find out if a particular food item can or cannot worsen the arthritis. When introducing a food item, it would take about 2-3 days to notice a difference in how it affects my body. And introducing food items should be done one at a time. I'm totally looking forward to the 4th week because the Elimination Diet is really really restrictive and super hard! Elimination Diet Protocol: AVOID: gluten (wheat, barley, rye), oats, dairy, meats, eggs, poultry, seafood, all nuts, soy, citrus fruits, corn, nights...