I’ve got news that may be a little hard to hear. We all have certain foods that we like to eat. They taste good or they give us a sense of comfort or they are just what we have always eaten for breakfast or brunch or Thanksgiving or whatever.
But unfortunately, our minds may like something that our bodies do not like at all. And our bodies respond, sometimes with just run of the mill discomfort, sometimes with outright embarrassing effect. (Like that time you went ahead and ate the dang bread and you blew up so big so fast that you busted a button on the dance floor at your best friend’s wedding.) 😳
Taking Action Against Potentially Problematic Foods
Having suffered enough, you make a decision to take action. You may decide it’s time to speak to a local nutritionist or join a legit weight loss program. Any nutritionist in Denver worth their fee is going to start asking questions about potentially problematic foods. If they hear anything about common symptoms of food sensitivities or allergies, they are going to suggest that you remove those foods from our diet for a period of time.
At Whole Woman Health, we call this pausing but you will also hear it referred to as an elimination diet or simply eliminating. Pausing or eliminating is a fact-finding mission to figure out if your body is having an inflammatory response to particular foods or not.
There are many reasons why a woman may choose to pause or even eliminate certain foods from her diet. It could be at the suggestion of a nutritionist or within a weight loss program. It could be because you are completing a cleanse with a health coach. It could be because you’re tired of belching like Grampa Joe and Charlie from that one scene in the Willy Wonka movie every taco Tuesday.
Whatever your reason is for pushing the pause button on those potentially problematic foods, there will come a time when you want or need to reintroduce your body to it. Why would you do that, you ask? Are you a glutton for punishment or something?
No my dear, taking the food out of the diet is only a half-completed mission. You have to put the foods back into your diet in a structured, methodical, empirical way to find out if you need to say “yes please” or “I’ll pass” when the bread basket, cheese tray, or cake comes your way.
Let’s cover some guidelines for the first half, eliminating the problematic foods, and then we will get into a simple five-step process to let your body say “hello, again” and possibly, “Bye Felicia” forever.
Guidelines for Removing Foods from Your Diet
Anytime you decide to remove certain foods from your diet, you need to prepare yourself internally and in your environment. There’s a super sneaky thing about this process. The foods that tend to disagree with our bodies–sugar, dairy, gluten, alcohol–can bite back when we stop swallowing them down.
Once we stop eating them, we crave them intensely. You are going to need to adjust your mindset for that, first of all. But also, you need a firm plan in place for dealing with those urges and cravings. (For detailed info on handling withdrawal from problem foods, check out this article we put together on that.)
Prep your fridge and pantry, too. Physically remove all of the products or whole foods that are being paused. If you’re cutting dairy, pull out the cheese, milk, and creams of every kind. If you’re eliminating alcohol, give your girlfriends your stash of whites and reds. Remove the temptations because remember, they are going to start talking to you and it’s going to get a bit rough.
The great news is that you only need to remove a food from your diet for about three weeks to totally cleanse it out of your system and have a clean slate. Three weeks can feel like a super long time so lean on your support systems and you’ll get through it! Once you are successfully through the three weeks needed to cleanse your system, it’s time to do some experimenting.
The Key to Reintroducing Foods
You’ve invested three weeks in eliminating the foods so you’re probably wondering how long it will take to reintroduce them. It really depends on how many different foods you paused, but in general, it takes 1-3 weeks. Here’s why.
Everytime you bring a food in that was paused, you need to give your body 72 hours to present any symptoms, feedback, or results. If you bring all of the foods back at once, how will you know what is causing you discomfort?
If identifying problematic foods that are causing inflammation, bloating you up, and making you uncomfortable–with a bigger body size and higher weight to boot–if that’s important to you, then you have to reintroduce those potential trouble makers methodically and thoughtfully.
5 Simple Steps to Reintroduce Foods Back into Your Diet
This is a super simple, easy to follow plan for reintroducing problematic foods. Let’s take an old crowd favorite as an example. Let’s say that you decided to put the pause on your cheese consumption because you suspected that it may be incompatible with your body.
So, for three weeks you stopped eating any cheese of any kind. Your cleanse is complete and you are ready to take some cheese for a ride to see how it feels in your body.
Here’s what you do.
- Weigh yourself.
- Eat the cheese.
- Weigh yourself again the next morning.
- If your weight has increased, it’s a solid indication that your body has had an inflammatory response to the dairy.
- Record this information somewhere you can see, like on your fridge.
Now, there is a chance that you will have an immediate reaction to a food that you had eliminated and are reintroducing. And I’m even sorrier about this one, because the symptoms are definitely uncomfortable and can also be pretty gross. People usually warn you not to try something at home. Well, this time around, the advice is the opposite. Maybe it’s best to only try this at home because things can get real, real quick.
Things can quickly happen like…
😕bloating
😕gassy all around
😕tummy ache
😕headache
😕irritability
😕fatigue
And when that happens, you can pretty well bet that the food you just took for another test drive is not a food you should bring home and park in the pantry. It may seem like a daunting task, but investing 3-6 weeks in yourself to initiate a life change is something you definitely have in you and well worth the effort. If you need some support, we are here to help.
Exclusive Health Coaching in Denver
Whole Woman Health is the top health clinic for women in Denver and we are here to help you get back to your healthiest self. Other weight loss programs in Denver fail to provide the emotional and psychological support that is so necessary to long-term success. Not us.
We are a team of nutritionists and life coaches in Denver offering a weight loss program exclusively for women called The SHED and it covers all the bases, bridging the gap between mind and body and changing your relationship with food. If you are ready to invest in getting back to the best version of yourself, register today.