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I started my elimination diet at the end of May and completed it about 60 days later. For a few weeks, I did a very good job of only eating real food with clean ingredients. Towards the end of the summer, though, things started to go down hill. I returned to school with a determination to eat well. That lasted, oh, a week.

I really struggled with the lack of options in my school’s cafeteria. The pasta was white, and the only nightshade-free sauces are cream-based. The tortilla and Asian lines are filled with nightshade spices. The “home” line (usually my favorite” almost always has potatoes or tomato sauces. The “grains” line, the go-to line for clean food, always has tomatoes in it. The soups always have tomatoes.

Curse you, tomatoes, for being so healthy for people without sensitivities!

What does that leave me? A few types of fruit, yogurt, salad, roasted broccoli and zucchini, two types of meat, and sandwiches with questionable bread. On the weekends I can have eggs.

So, yeah, that didn’t happen. I quickly started eating white pasta and desserts again. I had low energy and I didn’t feel good about myself, especially since I was gaining weight, but I couldn’t stop. I had awakened the carb monster again. My eczema thankfully didn’t flare, but it I had a few patches that stopped healing. And by last week, my eating was getting so sloppy that I started to notice problems with my skin.

I had been planning on detoxing over my fall break and then testing potatoes, but my eating had become enough of a problem, I decided to just stick to the detox. I ate clean meals that I had prepared at the end of the summer – stews, soups, and smoothies – as well as some meat and spaghetti squash I made up. I didn’t feel great, but I felt better about myself and I noticed changes in my body that made me feel better.

I have only been back at school for two days, now, but my will power has already triumphed a few times. I haven’t been perfect, but I have avoided the foods most dangerous to my self control.  I am feeling good about myself, and I really hope to continue improving.

More than anything, I am looking forward to finally having my own place, and being able to prepare my own food.

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