Reintro Day 1: Training Wheels

[jpketz]

Observations:

Because black coffee with coconut cream is still black coffee no matter how much you add, I bought some half and half yesterday in anticipation of Day 1. So I got up this morning and upon closer inspection realized I'd actually bought some weird Organic French Vanilla dreck with sugar and lots of other toxic waste in it.

The odd thing is I was almost relieved to go back to my BC with CC. Thinking I grabbed the mutant half and half kinda accidentally on purpose?

I had also planned my Foray Back to Dairy Land to include cottage cheese pancakes for breakfast, plain greek yogurt for lunch and Breyer's coffee ice cream after dinner (none of which I'm craving, by the way, which I find fascinating).

Now I'm wondering whether I should throttle back a bit lest the wheels on my "bike" come off before the seat is even warm. Especially since I have a Farmer's Market trip planned for today that requires public transportation and being about an hour from home. And after several accounts of G.I. distress after the first day of dairy re-introduction, I'm thinking eat clean today and start with the cow's milk tomorrow. Or just the Breyer's ice cream after dinner. Training wheels.

[jpketz]

So it turned out the trip to the Farmer's Market was like running the gauntlet. The Ferry Building in San Francisco is a "foodie" amusement park on Saturdays—a two-side, double soccer pitch-long expanse of olive oil makers, artisanal chocolatiers, organic wine makers, charcuteries and chi-chi restaurants...and that's just what's indoors. Outside are the veggie vendors, which is what I came for but mainly for root crops and alliums, which were not well represented as It's the height of citrus season. Just to lend some color, there was a full-on protest going on in the street median extolling the evils of GMO Salmon and the FDA, which I completely support, but you just gotta love San Francisco.

I did locate one of a scant few sugar-free bacon makers among the inside vendors, Prather Ranch Meat Company, and scored a pound of rustic bacon which I used in Nom Nom's Asian inspired cauliflower fried rice last night. Amazing recipe, btw.

Back to the dairy re-intro...I did look for some relatively innocuous way of injecting myself with some dairy while at the Market and decided Ciao Bella gelato would be the substance of choice. So I ordered a scoop of coconut. You'd think I'd had enough coconut to last a lifetime after a Whole30 but somehow it just felt safer. And it tasted great. First real sucrose in a month so somewhat of a sweet shock. Then as I was about to gloat to my wife that I'd had some dairy and it seemed to be going down okay, she pointed out that I had ordered the coconut sorbet—not the gelato. No dairy. Again, like the backfire with the half and half that morning, I'd subconsciously avoided real dairy. Kinda sorta accidentallyonpurpose. Short of being kidnapped by cows, I wasn't sure at that point what it was going to take to get some dairy back up in here.

Fast forward to last night's dinner of roast chicken and aforementioned cauliflower fried rice. At this point, still no significant dairy re-intro, save some shaved parmesan on a Caesar salad for lunch. So I dive into a bowl of Breyer's coffee ice cream—my drug of choice for many years of night time carbohydrate overconsumption. It tasted great, I won't lie. And it didn't bother me...right away. Then around 2 a.m., I woke up with my stomach clenched like a fist—the ice cream was clearly saying hello. Bottom line...I didn't sleep much, but no major side effects other than that.

To complete the testing of former habit-forming dairy products I had some real half-and-half this morning in my coffee. Interesting. I couldn't taste the coffee. After drinking it black with a spoonful of coconut cream for 30 days, I'd kinda gotten used to the coffee in my coffee and now realize just how much cream masks the flavor, aroma and subtleties of the brew I'd always claimed to love so much.

The Take-aways from Day 1...ice cream "maaaaybe" once in a while when I don't have important stuff to do the next day. And I'll probably go back to coconut cream in my coffee.

Today's re-intro candidates: cottage cheese and plain, unsweetened yogurt.

BTW...I found some yogurt brands made from almond milk. They're fruit juice sweetened and contain rice starch and locust bean gum so maybe on non-gluten grain day? Anybody tried them?