Adding Foods Back

The first week or two of any Phase will pose a challenge. You will see all these great new foods and recipes but sadly you can't have them all at once. The nature of the elimination diet is that you'll be adding in only one food or food group no sooner than every other day. This means you'll need to enforce that willpower once again. Here are some pointers:

• Decide what you'll be adding in first. For me it will be white meat chicken and turkey. Having done Phase 1 for two weeks I'm more than ready to move on from fish. I suspect this is the case for many of us. The meal planning tool will help you with this.
   
• Download the Allowable List of Foods. We have a list that shows you the foods that you can add incrementally – Phase by Phase – on our web site. This visual layout will help you with planning because you'll see all the Phase 1 allowable foods to the left of the new foods. You can view it on the site and download a printable version to use as a reference.
   
• Helpful recipe during waiting period. The Mixed Herb Pesto with Brown Rice Pasta (page 141) is fine to add on the same day you add a new food group. The reason it's not in Phase 1 is because brown rice flour is allowed starting in Phase 2. However, you've already been eating it in the form of the full grain and all the other foods in the recipe are from Phase 1 making this a passable recipe to eat right away. This can help with the waiting period until you can add another food group.

You're almost there – only one day left and we're on to Phase 2!

On deck this week

This week I'll be discussing these other helpful topics:
• Natural sweetener substitutions
• Making brown rice milk for those who may not be able to do coconut or tree nuts

If you have a topic you'd like me to discuss, please let me know.