Change... expected and unexpected (part two)

Change.  The first thing to do was to eliminate every offender on each of our lists for a minimum of 90 days without cheating even once!  Easier said than done with 8-9-12 year old children.  Once we ridded the pantry and fridge of all the forbiddens, honestly, there wasn't much left.  Once I started reading the nutrition labels and ingredients lists on everything packaged from the grocery store, it looked even more bleak.  But, I'm resilient and resourceful, and I set my mind to it and figured it out.  I had a handful of friends that I knew were dealing with various and similar diet restrictions.  What an overwhelming blessing they were!  They knew lots of the tricks- where to buy what, how to substitute this, and lots of trial and error notes and recipes.  They literally got me "us" through the first 90 days.  So what did we eat, you are wondering.... eating out was no longer much fun.  Socials were a nightmare.  School lunches were pretty much off-limits with few exceptions.  Regan's school was so helpful in trying to cook for Regan's restrictions.  Those ladies are gems!  The public school, the other hand, wouldn't even bend to let the girls use the microwave for a hot lunch even once a week!  We ate at home, period.  When we left home, we took our food with us.  When we started this, I had no idea how much food my family consumes in a day!  I was cooking and shopping and cooking and shopping all the time!  It was just amazing to me to realize what we were eating and where it was coming from.  What did we eat?  Roast beef (pot roast), chili... thank heavens for frito chili pies in the concession stands through the winter!!  Stew and several variations of soups.  Gluten-free pancakes, bacon, jello, several different cookie recipes I gleaned from my friends.  Steak and baked potatoes.  Cold cereal with rice milk.  Hamburger patties, corn pasta for spaghetti, dairy free butter spread, soy cheese & soy "fake" sour cream, skittles, jelly beans, popcorn.  Eventually I found lots of really tasty things to replace some of the staples, but these things were not to be found in rural western Oklahoma and even hard to track down in Oklahoma City.  Tulsa seemed to be where all the gluten-free (GF), dairy-free (DF) people lived and shopped.... said with heavy sarcasm. The internet became my dry good resource and I buy in bulk.  Even though Amazon carries much of my preferred products, finding these GF/DF products came with a price... about 30-40% increase in costs.  But still, even willing to pay for the higher prices and shopping online, there were just some things that I couldn't replace easily.  Bread was a biggie.  We'd tried a couple different kinds that were just bad.  I was read to give up on bread and did for about 6 months.

The first three months ended right at Thanksgiving.  Was it worth it?  Absolutely!  Regan's inflammation was completely GONE.  She could breath through her nose easily, effortlessly.  First time ever.  Her skin had cleared up, she slimmed down and toned up to a very healthy weight.  Rosalind's tummy troubles were GONE.  Rayne's skin mysteries were GONE!  No more steroid cream for her!  Rodney felt better and lost around 20 pounds.  I had just come through the easiest allergy season since its onset and felt great and had lots of energy.  All five of us were feeling amazing.

Thanksgiving day I gave my family permission to "cheat" with some self-control.  We maintained our diets through December with occasional splurging on the holiday favorites.  I can say for myself that I ate one item (a cookie or a roll) about once a week for 4 weeks, and it took all of January to recover.  It was so-not-worth-it for me, so I went back to the rigid elimination diet.  First week of January, Rodney had gotten into some oreo balls that he didn't know were full of forbidden ingredients.  I watched him eat them... several of them.  I thought, "he's a big boy.  He can make those decisions for himself."  He had just told me the night to two before how eating gluten upset his stomach and made him miserable.  He wasn't too happy when those balls started reeking havoc in his tummy.... and when I told him that I watched him eat them without saying anything.

I expected it to be hard- really hard.  I expected some mourning over the eliminated foods.  I expected to feel some better because of my efforts (fallacy).  I expected to receive help and support from those closest to me (um, false).  I expected it to be costly.  I expected to get sick of the meals on the approved food list.  I expected to be cooking all the time.  I expected the battle with the children.

I didn't expect the resistance from family and friends.  I didn't expect to be treated and spoke to like I was completely crazy.  I didn't expect to feel 100% better.  I didn't expect my whole family to benefit from it so quickly and visibly.  I hadn't thought through the social aspect of food and the challenge of eating at someone else's house or at a party or group social.  I hadn't realized how much I would miss going out to eat.  But it doesn't end here.