When we set off on our travels, Mike had started with a few physical issues. Some of them came from all of the work that he had put into the house in the last year or so (digging ditches, taking out fence posts, etc.) and luckily, most of those seemed to get better as the trip went on. Some issues came and went (back and toes) and he was still in the middle of a long recovery period for a torn tendon in his wrist. The only (years-long) thing that didn’t seem to make any improvement was the eczema on his hands, mostly fingers. He suffered through countless cracked fingertips and thick calluses, trying different lotions and ointments, only finding one that helped some.
And so, in a somewhat last ditch effort, we decided to try one version of an elimination diet. We cut out all dairy, eggs, added sugar, wheat, corn, meat other than chicken, turkey and cold-water fish, caffeine, and alcohol. We couldn’t quite go whole anti-inflammatory protocol as we just couldn’t figure out what we would be eating if we also cut out nuts, beans, and nightshades.
We ate our way through any foods that would go bad and were not on the protocol and packed away the rest. We weaned ourselves off coffee and finished the last of our bottles of bourbon and gin.
On to a whole new way of eating! As of April 26th, no more sandwiches to take with us on the trail or in the car – chickpea dip and rice cakes now. Overnight oats instead of omelets for breakfast, herbal tea instead of coffee. And seltzer for happy hour.
I wasn’t sure how this would all work out on the road, but two weeks in, it is ok. The biggest change is how many more dishes there are to wash. We have way fewer hand foods, other than the handfuls of nuts and pumpkin seeds we snack on. We certainly miss the old way of eating and are hoping we can get back to most of it at some point, but there are preliminary signs that the change in diet may be affecting Mike’s hands in a positive way. We just have to get past the odd craving for ice cream or coffee and we will be doing alright.