Jamie, Thank you so much, you are very sweet! I am always glad to see how you are doing, you are an insiration to me as well! It is my opinion that you are more disciplined and persistent than I am, and it helps out me a lot to have your example to follow.
Veggie Lover, thank you!
Dr McDougall, Thank YOU for everything you have done, and for putting it out there for all to benefit from. If this site was not here, I would not have changed my life, and my life and health would be miserable.
Leslie, see, now I feel like I should have waited until you got here so we could hang out!
But, you're right, gas is expensive. Thank you.
It feels both like a short time and like forever that I have been doing this. Now it is just what I do, and occasionally I'll remember what I used to do - say, eat boxed macaroni and cheese with hot dogs - and I'll be like, "Who WAS that?" It does not even feel like me. It's like I live in another dimension now or something.
Hm, I can now eat: a bunch of different kinds of beans, arugula and watercress (which used to make my skin and joints burn, like a sunburn under the skin, very strange but noticeable sensation), zucchini and summer squash, some fruit I used to not be able to eat (but not bananas), almost all seeds except chia (digestive issues). I have not yet tested true ED biggies like wheat, soy, citrus and nightshades, but aside from avoiding those I am not really on an Elimination Diet, per se. Just a limited diet, if that makes sense. Or rather, a limited McDOugall diet. Grains still bother me in general, so my starches are starchy veggies like sweet potatoes, squashes, celeriac, turnips, etc, and then smaller amounts of beans and black or wild rice (only grains I've tried that are OK for me, for now)
I will say this - my theory (not theory as in scientific theory that is actually proven, but theory as in "Amateur, experiential, cobbled-together explanation of something I don't understand") is that I had intestinal permeability which is slowly healing, very slowly, and the more it heals, the more variety of foods I can tolerate.