All About February (CNY, Valentine's Day, Bri Visits And More)

February was a busy month for us. Despite my daily struggle with chronic illness, I really try to keep going. We had holidays to celebrate, I needed/wanted to see my friends again after my month long elimination diet and we spent some time with our best girl.

I already blogged all about our visit to SCAD TV Fest weekend - which was a lot of fun...

I also talked about (in my food post) having a few lunches throughout the month with some of my close gal pals to get back into life again.

The morning of Groundhog Day, I woke up and watched Punxsutawney Phil predict 6 more weeks of winter. Well, he was a bit off for the south because we are full on springtime here in Georgia now...

It was kind of nice that Valentine's Day and CNY didn't overlap this year. Valentine's Day gets a little drowned out here sometimes because of CNY. Doug and I decided to have a quiet lunch together that day and we didn't exchange gifts this year. It just wasn't necessary. We would rather spend time together.

I decorated my dining room with my favorite Valentine's Day goodies - even though Bri wasn't here...

Doug and I went to one of our favorite sushi restaurants for lunch. We got a little dressed up...

I was so excited because I hadn't had sushi in weeks. The restaurant was decorated with balloons...

The ambiance was lovely and the food delicious...

Briana had a Galentine's evening on Valentine's Day with some of her school besties...

She looked so lovely in her dress...

A couple of days after Valentine's Day, it was the start of CNY. Of course, I decorated my house (Bri was coming home for a visit)...

Year of the Horse...

I made magnets out of some of my favorite erasers...

I keep this display/pictures up all year round...

I keep these out all year round as well...

I actually discovered these right after CNY, but I bought a couple of them for next year. They are Baby Three (Blind Boxes). This is their CNY collection. They are so cute...

Briana came home for a weekend during CNY. It is always the best getting to see her and spend time with her...

We went to our favorite Chinese restaurant for a nice dinner. This was my outfit...

A lovely dinner...

SCAD also wished everyone a Happy CNY...

While B was home, we also voted in a local election...

Bri and I made a much needed trip to World Market...

And B spent lots of time with her favorite furry person...

So that was our February - minus a number doctor appointments and blood draws for me (but what else is new). 

Briana is coming home again in a few days for her spring break. I am excited to see her. She is looking so forward to sleeping in her own bed and having some alone time. Living with 3 other girls every day - even though they are friends - can be exhausting for an introvert at heart. I will probably do a quick update on how she has been doing at SCAD in my next post. 

My Elimination Diet (And Reintroducing Foods)

 When my stomach started acting up the day before I started my food reintroduction, I was feeling pretty devastated. I wondered if I should even bring things in because I couldn't really tell what was going to bother me since I was already bothered.

 

But, I needed to bring things in for my mental state. This diet was pretty restricting. So I tried to use other measurements to see how the foods were affecting me. Honestly, I don't think anything that I brought back in had any sort of negative affect on me. My doctor thinks that gluten is the main culprit for me not feeling the best - and I still haven't brought that back in. I have had very, very limited dairy (I started to allow myself some butter). No alcohol or caffeine yet. I am limiting sugar (unsweetened ketchup is criminal) and artificial sweeteners as well. 

 

I don't know how I did it, but I did pretty well overall for those first four weeks. And even when I brought foods back in during the second four weeks, I had to wait for 2 days in between before I brought anything else back in. So I was still leaning on a lot of the foods I been eating the first month. I learned to make a delicious honey mustard chicken (I ate that a lot). I started making a panko chicken (gluten free) and a lot of seasoned chicken. I tried gluten free pasta - not too bad. I also ate veggies, salads, ground turkey, fruit, potatoes and rice. I started to lay off of the chili and the tomato based foods to try to help my stomach...

 

The first food I reintroduced was eggs (I am not really an egg person - but I was missing eggs by then)...

 

Then I brought in beef...

The bottom two pictures in the above collage were taken when we were staying at the hotel in Atlanta. Doug and I split the dishes. I ate some of the beef with the shoestring potatoes and then I had some of the hamburger but removed the bun and cheese. And I ate some fries. It was all really good.

 By Valentine's Day, I wanted to bring in shellfish and gluten-free soy. We ate at a Thai restaurant that afternoon (top two photos - I missed sushi so much)...

 

The bottom two photos are of the Chinese food I ate when Briana came home for CNY. I am not sure if these dishes had some gluten in them or not (probably did have some), but I ate some egg drop soup and garlic chicken with vegetables. No egg rolls, wontons, crab rangoon or dumplings. No regrets regarding what I ate that night.

 Then I brought in pork...

 

And then I brought in corn (I ate some corn chips that day) and then I ate some cornflake chicken (with a little hot sauce)...

I then brought in cured and processed meats - ham, turkey and some bacon bits. I ate a Honey Baked chef salad. I plan to make this a limited food group though. I forgot to take a picture of my chef salad (this is an internet image) - I ordered it with no cheese or croutons and topped with Italian dressing...

 

I've brought in limited sweets - I had gluten free macarons (and I did eat a chocolate one too, so I guess I brought back in limited chocolate too)...

 

I am also learning to eat gluten-free bagels...

 

 I was so nervous about eating at Bri's school for SCAD TVfest and at the hotel, but I made it work. I already told you about the beef, but I had grilled chicken for lunch at SCAD and at the hotel, also ate salads and a delicious au jus chicken (skipped the puree)..

 

We had lunch at Papi's again when visiting Bri...

I was pretty much a hermit during those first 4 weeks of my elimination diet, so when I started bringing some things back in, I started seeing my friends for lunch again.

 

My lunch with my friend Amy (Longhorn)...

 

My lunch with my friend Kelly (Mellow Mushroom)...

My lunch with my friend Julie (Chicken Salad Chick)...

 

Doug and I ate at the Anchor Bar (grilled chicken; removed the croutons; brought my own dressing but did taste the ranch dressing)...

Doug and I ate Mexican food (I ordered a gluten free rice bowl)...

 

 And finally, Doug brought me home some Chick Fil A (I hadn't had it in months)...

 

Do I miss things - YES. I miss cheese dip. I miss bread. I miss breaded chicken tenders and nuggets. I miss hamburgers on buns. I miss sandwiches. I miss sour cream. I miss real crackers (I do eat gluten-free ones). I miss pizza and real pasta. I miss cookies, brownies and cake. I miss soft drinks.

 But, I am adjusting. I don't think I will go without ever having a piece of cake or some bread ever again, but I am going to try my hardest to make better choices and stay as gluten-free as possible.

 

I do have more energy and I do have less joint pain. I sleep better. So something is working. I just need to get my stomach under control.

 

 So that is my diet story. I have brought most things back in except dairy (minus butter) and gluten.

 

I will keep you posted on how it is going. If I eat something very exciting, I will share it. I'm pretty proud of myself for sticking with this - even when I didn't feel well.

 

(I did schedule my gastric emptying study for next week and I have a less expensive breath test on the way.) 

 

My next post will be what we were up to in February (besides dieting!).