Oh happy day...

I need to cheer up.

I’m in a bad mood right now. I have food intolerances, and I thought I had all the substances that make me ill pretty well nailed down. But for the last year or so, I’ve been on a downward slide as far as health. It’s been a slow descent, to be sure, but it’s there. And it’s time to do something about it.

So I’m on an elimination diet.

If you are at all familiar with allergies/intolerances, you probably have heard of this, and may have even done it. An elimination diet is simply where you eliminate foods that may be causing you problems.

I’m not going to get deeply into the mechanics of the diet here. You can Google it if you want the nitty gritty details. There are a few ways you can go about this, and I’m doing what I like to think of as a “rice fast.” Basically I’m eating rice, and not much else, for several days. Then I slowly get to add one food back into my diet every day or two, until I can pinpoint whatever has been bothering me.

I’ve done this before and it sucks. The first week or so is especially awful. Even though I feel better rather quickly, the rice fast leaves me hungry. All. The. Time.

And when I’m hungry, I’m crabby.

You may not have picked this up, but I love food. A lot. So not having any food variety in my life, not being able to cook for a few weeks, just kills me.

Writing hasn’t been helping much, because I normally do a lot of noshing while I write. I know, bad habit. And you should see my keyboard…

So to get through this, I’m trying to think up ways to distract myself from thinking about food. Little emotional pick-me-ups. Here are my top ten, in no particular order:

1. Go for a walk or run (a favorite).

2. Take a nap (another favorite).

3. Write something (trying to break the association with food).

4. Read.

5. Watch something funny on TV.

6. Cuddle a cat.

7. Meditate (I really should do this more).

8. Surf the web (staying away from food blogs, natch).

9. Knit something.

10. Did I mention naps?

Okay, it’s obvious I missed a whole bunch of good distractions. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to leave them in the comments.