How To Plan a Low Carb 4 Day Allergy Rotation Diet – Keto Allergy KISS Day 1
If you’re wondering about how to implement a low carb keto food plan that incorporates an allergy elimination and rotation diet, then congrats! You’re in the right place. Fluffy Chix Cook explains the basic steps to create a low carb, four day allergy rotation/elimination diet, and explains why intermittent fasting might also be an advantageous addition to your keto allergy KISS plan. Follow the Fluffys as they test the Keto Allergy Kiss Diet on Mr. Fluffy over the next 30 days in order to eliminate and identify hidden food, medication, and environmental product allergies. Learn why KISS (keep it simple sweetie) food is imperative!
Two low carb keto mid-hedonists walk into a bar and the bartender says to them, “What can I get you?”
Ha! Yeah, this didn’t really happen, but it was a great opening line of a dream sequence. But why didn’t this happen in real life? Because Mr. Fluffy has a serious case of the allergic reactions going down right now and it feels like almost everything I shove down his pie hole—including booze or wine—makes his lips or tongue swell up like Mr. Toad on a wild ride! And as if that wasn’t bad enough, queue the giant hives down his arms! Yahtzee!!!
We’ve been dealing with Mr. Fluffy’s allergy flare up, that may or may not be related to fall allergies and an abundance of ragweed and tree pollen wafting through the air, or it may be related to a new medication: Keflex or Erythromycin Opthalmic Cream which he was given for an eye infection. These allergic reactions are terrifying and all-consuming, or at least it is for this Fluffy Chix, helicopter-mate. I hover, fret, flap my fluffy wings, and dispense feathery consolation in an overbearing smothering manner. Hey! I can’t help it if I have an innate need to flutter and nest and broodingly protect within an inch of my life. Right?
So in light of this new Fluffy reality, it’s time to get back to the basics with our low carb food plan. We’ll take 3 HUGE steps to morph it into a Keto Allergy KISS Diet:
Step 1—Take foods/recipes back to KISS (keep it simple sweetie), and go Induction—old school style, a la Dr. Atkins ’72. Some of you might like to try it, but we warn you, it’s gonna be VERY basic. Like “no recipes need apply,” relying instead on basic cooking skills or kitchen wizardry. No fancy sauces or ingredients.
Step 2—IF (intermittent fasting) 16:8 plan. (Most of you won’t need this part.)
Step 3—4 day allergy rotation diet protocol to reduce inflammation, and identify/eliminate any food sensitivity causing the allergic reactions or stalling weight loss. (Most of you won’t need this part, but you can watch in outright shock as you would if watching a train wreck—remember, we’re mid-hedonists so we might make up a few of our own rules.)
Apologies in advance, because this is going to be a long-arse post so that we can acquaint you to the system we will be following for the next 30 days. Feel free to skip down to the bottom if you’re only interested in the low carb keto KISS recipe for Pan Seared Cod with Lemon and Capers!
For an Allergy Rotation, omit the grape tomatoes and artichoke relish.
Most of you won’t need Step 2 (or Step 3), but let’s talk about them anyway! The Fluffys (IF) intermittent fast as part of our low carb lifestyle and will be continuing IF over the next 30 days. Find information about the different fasting programs here on our sister blog, Fast Days Healing Days (which we’ve been too swamped to update for ages, but we need to update soon).
Family members who aren’t on an allergy rotation can quickly jazz up any meal with creative pre-made relishes like this Artichoke Bruschetta Spread from Elki, for only 0.7g carbs.
AND if intermittent fasting isn’t enough gyration, we’re throwing Step 3, food elimination/rotation, into the mix. What that means is we’re cutting out suspicious food families and also not eating the same food more than once every 4th day. (i.e. Eat a food on Monday, then not eat it again until Friday.) We will allow some laxness and allow eating different foods within the same family (just not the same exact food) every 2nd day, unless we see he’s having a worse issue than we think! Fish is an exception to this rule. We’ll rotate the entire fish family every 4th day.
On fish day, one meal might be cod and another meal might be salmon. Both fish are in different families so may be eaten on the same rotation day.
Now, this whole plan might not seem like a simple feat to you—and honestly, it’s not. It’s far from KISS! After all, low carb keto Induction can feel daunting to newbies all by itself, but when you add in the sometimes tricky IF, as well as food rotations it could make a lot of people cra cra!!! That’s why KISS is imperative for the actual foods. Let’s keep the low carb keto food simple and no brainer, right?
How do you start to figure out and implement a low carb keto, intermittent fasting, allergy elimination/rotation food plan?
(Whooooo doggey! That’s a mouth full!) Well, if you are new to low carb keto, then follow the book, any low carb book and don’t try the other two steps—unless you’re a freaking masochist (and you may well be a masochist, not that there’s anything wrong with that). We like Atkins ’72 (no netting carbs) or ‘92 (DANDR=Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution) if you want to net carbs. They’re both great gateway books into a low carb keto lifestyle.
If you have some low carb keto experience and want to explore IF, read about it on our FDHD blog and jump in. We’re presently doing a 16:8 IF schedule. A 16:8 IF plan simply means that each day we fast 16 hours and have an 8 hour window in which we consume anything with calories—including beverages. (i.e. We start dinner at 7:00pm and finish eating by 8pm the previous night and then fast (water, black coffee, black tea—no artificial sweeteners or cream) until at least 12pm the following day. That means from 12pm until 8pm, we can consume meals—if/when we’re hungry. We eat only to hunger and not because a meal is scheduled or because the clock says we should be having a meal, stopping at the first sign of being satisfied.) Studies show that IF (intermittent fasting) helps reduce inflammation, hyperinsulinemia, and insulin resistance. We know it helps us tremendously.
Low Carb Keto Allergy Rotation Food doesn’t have to be boring! Even without the non-rotation tomatoes and artichoke relish, Cod with Lemon and Capers is beautiful and tastes so satisfying!
But hey, then what’s all this rotation/elimination nonsense? It’s not part of a low carb lifestyle, is it? No. It’s a third step we are throwing into the mix due to Mr. Fluffy’s intense allergic reactions. We will follow a rotation plan for 30 days. The advantage to following a 4 day rotation/elimination diet is to further reduce inflammation and reduce allergic responses in the IgG and IgE immune response loop, while identifying food sensitivities and food allergies.
Something (s) is/are causing him to have tongue, lip, and eye swelling—and now, giant hives. We suspect it’s one or both of his antibiotics for an eye infection, but it could also be exposure to airborne allergies (ragweed and tree pollen) which are bad right now. It could also be exposure to mildew (we found a little area around an air vent and have cleaned it), or even chemicals—he’s been working with chlorine lately too. So we think it’s just smart to see if we can assist his body and help get Mr. Fluffy back to the basics of living, while reducing his inflammatory load as much as we can. Rotating foods helps reduce the inflammatory burden on your immune system and can also help identify foods that cause reactions that might even include weight loss stalls! Here’s a really helpful book, The Ultimate Food Allergy Cookbook and Survival Guide: How to Cook with Ease for Food Allergies and Recover Good Health, by Nicolette M. Dumke, if you are contemplating a rotation/elimination diet for allergies.
6 Steps to Implementing a Rotation Food Plan
1. So to begin, we made a list of all the foods Mr. Fluffy likes and routinely eats (and that we have in the fridge and freezer). That’s the easy part. This next part isn’t so easy, but once mapped out, it becomes super simple, Simon. And most of you who are just following the KISS part will want to omit the rotation planning part—Steps 2, 3, 5, and 6.
2. Next, take all those foods and arrange them into Food Families using the Allergy Rotation Diet protocols that are available online. We found a really nice, downloadable one here.
We will try to omit the following items 99.9% of the time: dried herbs, coffee, tea, foods that grow under the ground like mushrooms and fungus, dried legumes (beans and peas), and leftovers from the fridge older than 24 hours as we attempt to reduce mold allergens, as much as possible. However, due to our coffee addiction, we will be allowing black coffee as part of the rotation unless/until we see it’s a source of problems. We will also be a little lax on rotating the fresh herb and lettuce family unless we see he’s having a terrible issue with them. This is to help reduce food boredom and increase compliance! We also will not try to rotate fats/oils as much because experience shows that they are fairly low on the list of allergy culprits (exception is peanut oil).
3. Arrange the families into a 4 day rotation schedule. The book we listed in Step #2 explains it and lists the Food Families very clearly. Excel spreadsheets come in super handy for keeping track of rotations and reactions, as does a food tracking system, if you are one of the unfortunate few who have to identify allergens. We use our MasterCook recipe database for this but, My Fitness Pal, Keto Diet App, and FitDay all work great! (In fact, we figured out the Erythromycin Opthalmic Cream connection because of using a spreadsheet!) And yes, we admit, using a spreadsheet is FAR from KISS, which is why we have to keep foods simple.
4. Weigh and measure yourself prior to beginning. Measuring is so important because most times people claim a stall when they are actually losing inches. A stall is only a stall when there is no movement on the scale or measuring tape beyond a certain amount of time. (I think Dr. A. said it’s 3 or 4 weeks without movement of either device?) Note any allergy, inflammation symptoms prior to eating and starting your rotation. Note any symptoms prior to eating or drinking the first item of the day as well as after any meal: stuffy/runny/itchy nose, stuffy chest, watery eyes, sighing, yawning, coughing, itching, hives, swelling, pain in tummy or abdomen, pain in joints, pain in muscles, etc. If you track blood sugar, make sure to note those readings as well, both fasting and pre-meal/post meal at 2 hours.
5. Eat according to your strategic low carb keto KISS Allergy Plan. Don’t forget to have some foods in reserve for emergencies. Don’t stray. If you’re gonna stray, it’s better to eat a food out of rotation than it is to eat a food outside of your plan.
6. Make notations of any weird reactions after eating or prior to eating the first day’s meal. Include the time the reaction occurs. Be sure to include anything that goes in or on your body, including medicines, hair and body care products, dish soap, laundry soap, perfumes, cosmetics, even mouthwash and toothpaste! Cuz just like the Erythromycin Eye Cream, you wouldn’t necessarily think it could cause the same kind of allergic response as taking an oral dose of penicillin, but it absolutely can!
Now, to repeat, most of you are NOT gonna want to bother making an allergy rotation system. But, you can still benefit from following our daily KISS meals! We’ll warn you right now, we won’t be eating 3 squares and a spare. We’ve been IF and LCHF for so long, that we only eat to hunger. Some days, that’s only 1 meal, or a small snack and a meal. But other days, it’s 3 full meals and snacks! Depends on how hungry we are, so be prepared for wildly varying food quantities (calories) and varying carbs. We will try 99.9% of the time to remain at or under 20g of carbs. Most of the times those will be total carbs, but we’re not gonna wig out if a day or two turns out to be net effective carbs.
The pictures are usually gonna be spotty and not up to great standards, because we’ll be trying to take snap shots to capture our plates rather than trying to go through the angst of staging and pretty photography. So prepare yourselves for many CIEATMD (crap I eat at my desk) photos! Some of the photos won’t appear until the day following the post!
Hope you will join us! And post and comment often! I’ll post pictures of tonight’s dinner tomorrow!
Here’s Mr. Fluffy’s Day 1 MENU PLAN (Fish & Egg Day: each fish is from a different fish family. We’re avoiding eating the same fish family more than 1 time every 4 days. This is different from other family rotations because it’s fish.)
DAY 1 – MR. FLUFFY’S LOW CARB KETO ALLERGY MENU
B-2 cups Black Coffee
3 fluid ounces heavy cream (it’s doubtful he’s allergic to dairy so we’re allowing this for compliance for now)
L-4 large eggs—Perfect Soft Boiled Eggs (no truffle salt, just eggs and butter, sea salt, pepper)
2 tablespoons Kerrygold unsalted butter
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
D-Cod Loins with Lemon and Capers (Recipe Follows Below)
Green Beans with Butter (nuke 3 minutes and add butter, sea salt and black pepper)
4 ounces frozen Sam’s green beans
1/2 tablespoon Kerrygold unsalted butter
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
(Variation for non-allergy family members: Add 1/2 ounce sliced grape tomatoes and a couple of tablespoon prepared relish like the Artichoke Bruschetta Spread from Elki for only 1.7g carbs and 0.7g net effective carbs. Takes not one second more and adds diversity without making your family member on the rotation feel crappy about having to eat different food. You only prepare one simple meal for the entire family! Win! Win!)
Daily Totals: 1484 Calories; 127g Fat (76.0% calories from fat); 75g Protein; 15g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 12g Net Carbs
DAY 1 FOOD FAMILIES (for those of you who want/need to geek out)
Coffee
Bovid (Cream, KG Butter)
Pheasant/Fowl (Eggs)
Fish (Cod w/Lemon & Capers)
Citrus (Cod w/Lemon & Capers)
Capers (Cod w/Lemon & Capers)
Legumes (Green Beans)
Free: sea salt, black pepper (All the Things!)
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Pan-fried Cod with Lemon and Capers
Notes
Such a simple low carb fish dish filled with healthy omega 3 fatty acids. If using IQV (individually quick frozen) fish, leave the cod frozen until 15-20 minutes before you're ready to cook. Place individually vacuum sealed fish fillets into a cold water bath. It takes 10-15 minutes to defrost. Remove package from water when thawed and proceed with the recipe. We can have this dish made within 20 minutes of taking frozen filets from the freezer and most of that time is passive time we use to do other tasks.
Serving Ideas Serve with your favorite veggie family rotation suitable for Fish Day.
Nutritional Information
per serving 471 Calories; 36g Fat (68.0% calories from fat); 36g Protein; 2g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 2g Effective Carbs
Copyright © 2015 Fluffy Chix Cook. All rights reserved.
Ingredients
- 7 ounces Pacific cod loin or fillet
- Celtic Sea Salt
- fresh ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter (Kerrygold)
- 1/2 teaspoon capers, drained and rinsed
- 2 lemon wedges, divided
- 2 tablespoons fresh basil leaves, sliced into thin ribbons (julienne)—optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Rinse and dry cod. Season with sea salt (we like Celtic sea salt) and freshly ground black pepper.
- Melt 2 tablespoons unsalted butter in a nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Brown cod on 2-3 sides depending how thick the cod is cut (about 1 minute per side). Transfer pan to a preheated oven and cook an additional 3-4 minutes until fish begins to flake in the thickest part when pressed lightly with your thumb). Transfer cooked fish to a plate.
- Add the last tablespoon of butter to the hot skillet used to cook the fish. Add drained capers and squeeze 1 lemon wedge into the pan. Shake until butter is incorporated and sauce is thick and evenly combined. Pour sauce over fish and serve immediately. Scrape up and browned bits and pour over filet—these bits are tasty, tasty “pan gold!”
Nutrition Facts
Pan-fried Cod with Lemon and Capers
Serves: 1 serving
|
Amount Per Serving: about 6 ounces cooked cod with sauce
|
||
|---|---|---|
| Calories | 471 | |
| % Daily Value* | ||
| Total Fat 36g | 55.4% | |
| Saturated Fat | 0 | |
| Trans Fat | ||
| Cholesterol | 0 | |
| Sodium | 0 | |
| Total Carbohydrate | 0 | |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 | |
| Sugars | ||
| Protein | ||
| Vitamin A | Vitamin C | |
| Calcium | Iron | |
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
Fluffy Chix Cook
Copyright © 2015 Fluffy Chix Cook. All rights reserved.
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