Further Update on J. J. Virgin Elimination Diet

Lost another couple pounds this week--hooray!  I owe it to adding fiber-rich beans to at least one of my meals in a day.  The other trick may have been eating cottage cheese.  With a hectic schedule, it is a boon.

I have found eating dairy gives me a stopped-up nose during the night, causing me to sleep with my mouth open and wake up with the temporary sore throat and dry mouth because of all that.  I can still have some dairy, but it needs to be minimal amounts.  I choose between cheese on my meatless taco salad (with garbanzos) or cream in my coffee, for instance.  The taco salad is good even without the cheese.

On the coffee note, I can still have my cold coffee drink first thing in the morning using up yesterday's leftover brew.  I cannot find unsweetened Coconut Creme in my local markets, but I dilute it with unsweetened Almond milk--with a ratio usually a little heavier on the CC side than the AM portion, say three-fifths CC to two-fifths AM.  Just to get it to that certain caramel-like coloring.  I have a particular glass I drink it from so the proportions work when I fill in the rest with yesterday's coffee and add ice.

I even have a couple cups of hot coffee with one scant teaspoon of real cream in it.

So I'm happy.  But the elimination diet version you will need is as different as you and I are.  So experiment.

I am avoiding processed foods as much as possible as well as white foods--although I think rice is exempt.  I prefer Jasmine and had it a couple times this week with my Crock-Pot chicken dish and still saw the old numbers on the scale go down.

But it is a balancing act and a substitution process--taking out the bad carbs and replacing with the good.  For example, if I am craving old-fashioned potato chips, I can usually talk myself out of it with either ten-to-twelve smoked almonds or a whole avocado.  If it is sweets that I'm craving, I look first to a drink:  adding Stevia to my coffee or brewing some mint tea with honey or having some of the uberperfect Good Earth Sweet & Spicy Tea & Herb Blend just as is--no sugar needed, but I do add in an extra tea bag to make it good and strong and sweeter.

If I need something sugary-tasting to chew, I can have old-fashioned oatmeal with real maple syrup or a tablespoon of almond butter mixed with a little bit of honey.  Or I indulge in raw dark-chocolate chunks where one equals a carb and I can enjoy three to five.

I now automatically rethink dessert recipes to take out the crust for fruit pies and cobblers and such, doing without the pastry altogether or adding an oatmeal-based crumble along with almond flour and Stevia.

And the best part is:  It's working!

Denise Barker, author + blogger +

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Deep-Dish Fruit Pizza from The Pioneer Woman

Here's her link:  http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2012/01/fruit-pizza/ for the basic recipe.

Note:  Allow three hours from start to finish on this one.  There's the one-hour-in-the-fridge time and then the cool-off-the-cookie-crust-before-frosting-it time.

My taste test of the raw cookie dough (yes, I know) and the icing each passed my muster.  Meanwhile, my baked cookie crust is cooling.

Since I'm now post-28-Day-Break-Free Plan of JJ Virgin's, I did some substitutions.  After you go "Break-Free," you cannot turn it off.  It's like copyediting.  Once that spotlight is turned on, I find mistakes everywhere--in my pleasure reading, in professional blogs, in TV show headers (like telling us the time, date and/or place), even in freelance contracts.  Now I have that same attention to detail with my meals, snacks and desserts.

Since I was playing around big time with substitution of ingredients, per JJ Virgin's list of seven food items most likely to upset our system, I cut the original recipe in half.  This is my first day reintroducing elements back into my diet and I didn't want to overstress my body with the shock of corn (oil), sugar, eggs, butter, milk and gluten.

So, here's what I did to Ree's original recipe (which I have never tried before but I'm sure was wonderful, as is).  I used coconut oil instead of butter (one less possible food sensitivity to ponder).  I bought organic sugar specifically for use in this dessert but I went with Stevia to avoid the "sugar" element.  After all, I made oatmeal raisin cookies with Stevia per the recipe on the package and Stevia survives the oven.

Now, I did use less Stevia than the sugar listed.  That works sometimes.  A half recipe calls for 3/4 c. sugar and I used 1/2 c. Stevia.  [Okay.  I stopped to put it all together and have a piece.  I couldn't wait.]  Even for me, with my sugar cravings under control, I'd use the full 3/4 c. for a half recipe next time.  I wanted the iced sugar cookie experience, not really a cheesecake one.  At this time.

I didn't have an orange, so I used lemon zest.

I used one regular egg (not organic).  Should have gone organic.  I maintain an underlining assumption--if I am to eat one of the seven "sensitive" foods--that going organic's gotta help, along with four-day-apart spacing, if and when needed.  Maybe next time I'll spring for the free-range versions.

Instead of whole milk, I used cream.  After all, I had some in my fridge and needed to use it up.

I replaced all the flour with gluten-free.  I used Hodgson Mill's Gluten-free All Purpose Baking Flour.  It is pure white and light.  Beautiful.  This was my first voyage with this flour and it rates five stars, in my book.  (I am not getting paid by any of these brands to promote them.)

I forgot to halve the 3 tsp. baking powder but wasn't worried about it too much.  Sometimes with these "other" flours, you need the extra leavening added in.  Not here though.  I ended up with a crumb crust texture, instead of a solid cookie.  Now I know for next time.

Onto the icing part.  I realize this may come as a shock to many of you, but yesterday was the first day I ever bought marshmallow creme.  Weird, right?  I don't like my chocolate fudge diluted.  Although I do like that Mississippi Mud cake with the layer of marshmallows or the creme between the cake and the icing.  Yum.

Boy was I surprised to find out that marshmallow creme is just seven-minute frosting in a can, IMO.  So next time I make this recipe, I'll do my own icing, maybe even from Stevia.  Who knows?  It might work.  If not, I'll try it with the organic sugar I bought.  In fact, I think the icing alone will serve me, sans the cream cheese.

I topped my dessert pizza with all strawberries as they were the oldest fruit in my fridge and needed to be eaten soon.

Oh, and my raw cookie dough was pressed directly into the 9x9 pan I both chilled it in for an hour and thereafter baked it in.  I did grease the pan with 1 T. coconut oil (great oil for moisturizing your face as well as high-heat frying, with no odor, thus better for desserts than olive oil).

I cooked the crust at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.  Maybe my crust was thicker than intended.  Plus my oven cooks a little hot so I like to start off 25 degrees lower.  I can always brown at a higher temp at the end.

My stomach was all aflutter (and not the good kind) with the influx of "new" foods, having denied myself sugar/marshmallow creme, eggs and dairy cream for almost a month.  All from a single 1/12th square from a 9x9 pan.  I was actually having a sugar high for about ten minutes, but it has since calmed down.  Now I'm left with a too-full feeling and I'm trying to aid that with drinking a lot of water.  Maybe following up with a cup or two of some hot peppermint tea will cure what ails me.

Before JJ Virgin's elimination diet, I had no discipline when it came to serving size.  Boy, has that changed.  I note my stomach's reception of each meal now.  I stop to decide what to eat with great care, making wiser choices.  Thank you, JJ!

Denise Barker, author
Good Ole Boys, a love story
Professional Freelance Copy Editor

Day 28 of J. J. Virgin's 28-Day Break Free Diet

This diet eliminates seven food items (gluten, peanuts, soy, dairy, eggs, sugar and corn) that most people have sensitivities to and therefore their bodies attack them like toxins, all of which may cause weight retention.

It's call "break free" because we may be addicted to foods bad for our particular systems.

It is Day 28 for me.  I made it!  Me, a girl who can eat three meals a day of sugar.  But I had been slowly making better choices here and there which prepared me for J. J. Virgin's "total fast" from foods that taste good but maybe which weren't.  And I made it without cream in my coffee and bread!

From what I understand from the free literature on J. J. Virgin's site, this routine is meant to reset our bodies and now we add back in one element, test for any adverse reactions.  Mine will be the fruit dessert pizza on The Pioneer Woman's website.  Tomorrow!  Can't wait.

But I'm also "craving" bread and the aforesaid cream in my coffee.  "Craving" may be the wrong word because it does not contain the force and power of my previous cravings.  So I am able to choose one out of the others to indulge in.

Then four days later (time to watch for any sensitivities reactions), I'll switch from my sugar-cookie-with-fruit "pizza" to cream in my coffee.  Then maybe I'll have some really good homemade bread next.

I've also learned to substitute.  Instead of brown sugar in my oatmeal, I opted for maple syrup.  No sugar listed in the ingredients.  But sometimes substitutions don't work.

Usually I can swap out one-half cup Stevia in the Raw for one full cup of white granulated sugar.  It works for my tea.  And the oatmeal raisin cookies recipe on the Stevia package is really good.

But I can tell you firsthand, when I tried the powdery Stevia atop French toast (pre-elimination diet), it does not work.  For me.  If I indulge in French toast, it will be with real powdered sugar atop.

Butter (the Dairy element).  I cannot imagine a baked potato without it.  Yet, I made French fries from scratch and fried them in coconut oil while on J.J.'s plan.  How can an eating regimen be called a "diet" with French fries on it?  Yum, yum.

While I prefer bacon drippings to season my green beans and other dried bean varieties, I prefer butter for my other veggies:  broccoli, cauliflower, green peas, corn, carrots, etc.  And I haven't come up with a viable alternative.

In the grand scheme of things, cream rises to the top of milk and requires no real processing, so I'm hoping my body is not "allergic" to it.  Then butter is just the cream churned.  No chemicals necessary.  I'm hopeful my body has no reaction to it, either.  I'll reintroduce them into my eating separately just to be sure.

Breads.  I love good bread.  I can forgo the sandwich variety to have some artisan sourdough.  I've enjoyed BLT salads so much I don't see me wanting a BLT sandwich.  However, at some point, I will desire occasionally a real roast beef sandwich, complete with mayo and onions and lettuce.

While pizza never really calls my name (unless it has a white sauce), I can gladly give it up.  YET, at the grocery story the other day, I saw a specialty bread stuffed with pepperoni and cheese.  Depending on the presence of red sauce (or the quantity), I could get into that!

And the zero-carb pizza crust--that you heat up in a skillet with some Parmesan cheese and almond flour (1:1) or add 1-3 T. water and make a sticky roll that you pat out into your favorite shaped pan and bake--I've been craving that.  But mine would have no sauce whatsoever, just a drizzle of olive oil and some choice herbs and spices, some tomato slices with basil and fresh mozzarella or sauteed mushrooms, black olives and caramelized onions.

Maybe I should have done this post tomorrow.  You know, after my Day 28 was over and done with.

What have I found out?  That I can go seven hours without getting hungry some times.  That oatmeal and maple syrup are a nice snack.  That I will make better choices.  I'm eating as close to what God made as possible.  I can now "deny" myself things I love as long as I can have them four days later.  It's a process, so I have to experiment as I go.

And it's been a really good experiment.

Now, I'm off to see if I have all the ingredients to make that dessert pizza . . . ha!

Copy editor disclaimer: Per CMS(15) Rule 8.6, initials have periods (and spaces when used with the whole last name like "J. J. Virgin" or no spaces when just the first two initials like "J.J." or no periods at all when three initials, like JJV or JFK or LBJ). Which explains what I've done above.  However, J.J.'s preference is no periods, no spaces, as in "JJ" per her own site. FYI.  

Denise Barker, author
Good Ole Boys, a love story
Professional Freelance Copy Editor

Update re J. J. Virgin Elimination Diet

It is Day 16 for me of the 28-day program outlined by J. J. Virgin.  I've done amazingly well giving up all sugar, all fake sugars, all corn (no matter how disguised in foods), all gluten, all dairy (a tough one), eggs (but what do I eat for breakfast?), peanuts (easy), soy (easy, but watch out for it appears in almost everything).

Since I'm going from free info gathered off the Net, I'm not sure about her take on Stevia in the Raw and/or fruit.  But in my book, both are allowed.

My cravings are gone.  Already.

Days 5 and 7 were filled with extra bathroom trips.  Don't know why.  But instead of what were the normal hourly interruptions due to the intake of eighty or more ounces of water on top of my coffee addiction, it seemed to recur every twenty minutes.  Probably not that often, as I wasn't timing it, but still . . . it was A LOT.  Thankfully that has toned down ever since.

Day 14 and I woke to a flatter belly.  Overnight.  Weird, but much appreciated.

I've lost about 3.5 inches total from various points on my body since beginning this program.  Nice--and seems to be continuing.

I've also shed about 10 pounds (I understand that's the equivalent of one dress size--Wahoo!), but with my old-timey scale on a not-so-flat surface and starting off heavy with the needle between 3 and 5 instead of 0, who really knows the exact amount?

This is without the aid of exercise although, now that it is spring, I am doing yard work.  Still I hope to add in some aerobics on an every-other-day schedule, once my current writing project settles down a bit.

Anyway, I'm just happy to see downward movement on inches and pounds.

Unhappily, temptation arose in the form of a fruit pizza recipe today.  Grrr.  But nothing will deter me from completing the full 28-day cycle to rid my body of toxins.  Then I understand I add back in one element at a time to see if my body reacts with allergic sensitivities.

My only decision at this time is:  Should I start with cream in my coffee again or go straight to the dessert pizza?  Ha!

P.S. Copy editor disclaimer: Per CMS(15) Rule 8.6, initials have periods (and spaces when used with the whole last name like "J. J. Virgin" or no spaces when just the first two initials like "J.J." or no periods at all when three initials, like JJV or JFK or LBJ). Which explains what I've done above.  However, J.J.'s preference is no periods, no spaces, as in "JJ" per her own site. FYI.