Ultra Simple Diet

[Nienna]

So maybe you just haven't given yourself enough time to notice any differences?

I haven't given up, but it is a bit ironic. It is not unheard of to react this way to flaxseed, but it is rare from what I have read. I had trouble even finding information about this type of reaction, but I finally came across this.

FWIW. I cannot have flaxseed in any form. It makes me itch all over. So you are not alone in the flaxseed department. Actually, all seeds I have tried have this affect on me.

But my consolation is that I keep feeling better with every food I find that I have an intolerance to and remove it from my diet. :)

 

[shellycheval]

Mrs. Tigersoap

my sense of smell has just gotten really sharper. Suddenly I can smell the mushroomy aroma in a tea, or the 'soapy/flowery' smell of a particular Italian boloney.
My taste buds are sharper as well. And I had not even noticed that these senses were dulled in the first place until I stopped W&D.

I am having the same reaction--sharper senses all around after giving up all wheat and dairy--amazing.
shellycheval

 

[Seamus]

I am trying to follow the vitamin supplementation guidelines in the UltraMind Solution and I have a question about B vitamins.

I started taking a B vitamin complex about a week and a half ago and I take it with breakfast, along with a multivitamin, Calcium and Magnesium. I've noticed that my urine is very yellow and smelly all morning and through the early afternoon. I have upped my water intake, I try to drink between 32 and 48oz each morning.

My question is, why are the B vitamins making my urine yellow and smelly? Is it a result of my body flushing out excess vitamins, as conventional 'wisdom' would suggest, or are the b vitamins helping my body flush extra toxins from my system in the morning?

Thanks!
Seamas

 

[Tina]

The vitamin B that isn't absorbed will cause your urine to be bright and sometimes neon yellow. I'm not sure about all the b's, but niacin causes the capillaries to dilate, which allows more blood flow. The increase in blood flow helps to flush the toxins out of fatty tissue.

Hope that helps.

 

[Seamus]

That helps, Thanks!

 

[Gertrudes]

I thought I'd give a quick update.

I'm only on my 3rd day of the Ultra simple diet and woke up this morning with an headache and a feeling of spaciness. Since I rarely, if ever, have headaches, I am putting it down to a detox effect. I find it curious that I had done the ultra simple diet before and had no effects, that I am aware of, from detoxing. This time however, I am much stricter, no legumes or grains (except for quinoa) until the end of this week.

Also, for the past 2 days I have been eating fish, and today I ate a chicken breast. After I finished my headache got worse and I actually had to lie down for a moment because I felt really strange, as if being drunk. Not sure what to make of it, I'm not even close to the testing phase.... :/ I'm glad I'm not working today though.

It's been a few hours since lunch and the headache is basically gone. I'm thinking of having fish for dinner and tomorrow's lunch, and chicken for tomorrow's dinner again to see how I react to it.

 

[ScarletBegonias]

I too am on my third day of the Ultra Simple Diet! :D

I spent weeks preparing my kitchen and making the broth and this last time I actually created something that I enjoy the taste of! I think adding salt, nori and a sweet potato helped make it more suitable for my taste buds. I just printed out Laura's version of the broth, which is much simpler than the one in the book, and I look forward to trying that out tomorrow too. I am also going to purchase virgin olive oil for cooking, as Psyche suggested earlier in this thread. Right now I am cooking with hemp oil.

One thing Laura mentioned in the breakfast section of her version of the plan is herbal Yogi tea. I drink many versions of this brand of tea and have been refraining from the ones that contain stevia since I started this program. I would really like to have a cup of Yogi's "Egyptian Licorice Mint" herbal tea, but have refrained because it has stevia leaf in the ingredients.

I would also like to put a little stevia in my shakes, as I had been when I was practicing making them. My current shakes consist of rice protein powder, flax or hemp seeds, blueberries or strawberries, filtered water and ice. I know Laura recommended adding a banana to help sweeten them, but I have a banana in the morning already when I first wake up before I go to the gym.

Does anyone on here think it would be a problem for me to include stevia while on the diet? I apologize if I am being redundant by asking, but I can't find anything in this post regarding using it before the reintroduction stage.

I also think I might be consuming too much salt. I'm not feeling bloated, but I notice that I am putting salt in the broth, in the veggies and in the rice too. I add other spices as well, but nothing tastes as good as when I put salt..:P

Well, I just want to thank everyone who has taken the time to do the research and post on this thread and the whole site for that matter! I have gotten such great tips and my diet has changed for the better. The biggest improvement I have noticed so far has been from excluding dairy from my diet. I recently discovered that yogurt gives me terrible headaches and I believe dairy has also been causing the eczema on my hands to erupt. I am a teacher and I had been attempting to eat yogurt daily, because I save the containers for use in my classroom. Well, now my friend and mother are helping me save containers because I don't think I'm ever going to touch the stuff again. BTW I had been eating organic plain yogurt from Trader Joe's and my friend who also eats it has reported no problems. For someone who takes 1000mg of Naproxen daily for arthritis I have been so amazed that my body was experiencing such terrible headaches which bordered on being migraines. I knew my body was trying to tell me something and it was screaming at me to STOP EATING YOGURT!!

Also, this may be off topic, but a few days ago I saw my rheumatologist and for the first time since I have been seeing him he told me I have no inflamed joints on the macroscopic level. I couldn't believe it when he said that and it still hasn't sunk in yet. I have had arthritis for almost two years now and have experienced some of the worst pain in my life because of it. My doctor says if my joints are still this way in eight weeks he promises to take me off of some of the meds!! I know my improved diet has been helping and I am so excited!!!!!

So from the bottom of my heart again, thank you, thank you, thank you!! I really can't thank you all enough. I never would have thought that my interest in the supernatural would lead me to discover the truth about dairy, lol. I start teaching again next week and look forward to telling my students about dairy when I return. I also look forward to painting tonight with what could just be arthritic-free hands.

Next lesson to learn: The benefits of a gluten-free diet. :)

 

[Beau]

Does anyone on here think it would be a problem for me to include stevia while on the diet? I apologize if I am being redundant by asking, but I can't find anything in this post regarding using it before the reintroduction stage.

If it's not listed as being OK to have on the list of foods, then it's something that you have to wait to re-introduce to the diet to test for any reactions. Try to wait a week or two and then you can add it back in. Don't worry, it'll go by fast. ;)

I also think I might be consuming too much salt. I'm not feeling bloated, but I notice that I am putting salt in the broth, in the veggies and in the rice too. I add other spices as well, but nothing tastes as good as when I put salt..:P

As long as you are using sea salt, you shouldn't worry about using too much salt. It's actually a rather beneficial part of the diet. It's been given a bad rap in the mainstream. And, as you mentioned, it also works very well as a flavor enhancer.

Well, I just want to thank everyone who has taken the time to do the research and post on this thread and the whole site for that matter! I have gotten such great tips and my diet has changed for the better. The biggest improvement I have noticed so far has been from excluding dairy from my diet. I recently discovered that yogurt gives me terrible headaches and I believe dairy has also been causing the eczema on my hands to erupt. I am a teacher and I had been attempting to eat yogurt daily, because I save the containers for use in my classroom. Well, now my friend and mother are helping me save containers because I don't think I'm ever going to touch the stuff again. BTW I had been eating organic plain yogurt from Trader Joe's and my friend who also eats it has reported no problems. For someone who takes 1000mg of Naproxen daily for arthritis I have been so amazed that my body was experiencing such terrible headaches which bordered on being migraines. I knew my body was trying to tell me something and it was screaming at me to STOP EATING YOGURT!!

Also, this may be off topic, but a few days ago I saw my rheumatologist and for the first time since I have been seeing him he told me I have no inflamed joints on the macroscopic level. I couldn't believe it when he said that and it still hasn't sunk in yet. I have had arthritis for almost two years now and have experienced some of the worst pain in my life because of it. My doctor says if my joints are still this way in eight weeks he promises to take me off of some of the meds!! I know my improved diet has been helping and I am so excited!!!!!

So from the bottom of my heart again, thank you, thank you, thank you!! I really can't thank you all enough. I never would have thought that my interest in the supernatural would lead me to discover the truth about dairy, lol. I start teaching again next week and look forward to telling my students about dairy when I return. I also look forward to painting tonight with what could just be arthritic-free hands.

That's a great story, kudos to you for making the changes!!

 

[Gaby]

Hello Scarlet,

I too am on my third day of the Ultra Simple Diet! :D

I spent weeks preparing my kitchen and making the broth and this last time I actually created something that I enjoy the taste of! I think adding salt, nori and a sweet potato helped make it more suitable for my taste buds. I just printed out Laura's version of the broth, which is much simpler than the one in the book, and I look forward to trying that out tomorrow too. I am also going to purchase virgin olive oil for cooking, as Psyche suggested earlier in this thread. Right now I am cooking with hemp oil.

There is an update here on which oils are best for cooking. The follow up posts also have useful information. We use duck fat.

Does anyone on here think it would be a problem for me to include stevia while on the diet? I apologize if I am being redundant by asking, but I can't find anything in this post regarding using it before the reintroduction stage.

The reason to cut down on natural sweeteners during the strict phase of the elimination diet, is to calm down the "sweet tooth." It allows for less carb cravings.

I also think I might be consuming too much salt. I'm not feeling bloated, but I notice that I am putting salt in the broth, in the veggies and in the rice too. I add other spices as well, but nothing tastes as good as when I put salt..:P

Your body might need as well, we can crave salt when we have adrenal fatigue.

Also, this may be off topic, but a few days ago I saw my rheumatologist and for the first time since I have been seeing him he told me I have no inflamed joints on the macroscopic level. I couldn't believe it when he said that and it still hasn't sunk in yet. I have had arthritis for almost two years now and have experienced some of the worst pain in my life because of it. My doctor says if my joints are still this way in eight weeks he promises to take me off of some of the meds!! I know my improved diet has been helping and I am so excited!!!!!

So from the bottom of my heart again, thank you, thank you, thank you!! I really can't thank you all enough. I never would have thought that my interest in the supernatural would lead me to discover the truth about dairy, lol. I start teaching again next week and look forward to telling my students about dairy when I return. I also look forward to painting tonight with what could just be arthritic-free hands.

Next lesson to learn: The benefits of a gluten-free diet. :)

Thank you for the update. Upwards and onwards :)

 

[gaman]

There have been some encouraging updates in this thread so hopefully this will be another one that will help with motivation when diet-times are tough.

I started the diet last year, got to feeling pretty good, and then fell off the wagon and got to feeling really bad (almost debilitating depression).

I had started not with the focus on loosing weight (although I was very obese) but with the focus on detox after being put on lots of different meds and then pushing my doctor to take me off of them because they were having no effect.

So, with the encouragement of others, and the supreme help of my wife, I (we actually) got back on the diet in January. In about 6 weeks a lot of the depression symptoms improved drastically. They aren't completely gone away but most of the time they are greatly reduced (although I still almost crash sometimes -- still working on this).

So, I went from almost totally debilitated to being able to hold down a job again and function. Also, I've lost 100 pounds. That part totally astounds me that the diet has been so effective in this area.

I'm still trying to tune things to my situation and improve my normal mood more through various means including diet and supplement modification, but the effort so far has been well worth it!

So, hang in there and give things time to work and start functioning better. I think you'll be glad you did.

 

[Nathan]

I'd just like to chime in and sing the praises of the Ultra Simple Diet. I honestly didn't think it would work so well so quickly, but I've been on it for only 2 days and even the most stubborn of my dry skin problems (dry scalp, eyebrows) that did not go away from the anti-candida diet, have instantly disappeared. This is the first time my skin has been like this since I was a little boy, so I'm pretty excited by this!

It's great reading everyone's experiences here, and I can't wait for the two weeks to finish so I can start to test foods. Look out date loaf, you're next.

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Thank you everyone for the replies and words of encouragement!

There is an update here on which oils are best for cooking. The follow up posts also have useful information. We use duck fat.

Hi Psyche, I appreciate you including this link to the list of recommended cooking oils. I was just rereading it yesterday when I decided I should get virgin olive oil. I went to the store today and purchased grapeseed oil instead, because it was also recommended on here and the bottle says it has a "high smoke point of 485° F." It was on sale too so that was also an incentive for me to try it out..;D I remember reading before that you cook with duck fat, but I am attempting to follow a pescatarian diet so I do my best to minimize consuming animal products whenever possible. Perhaps one day I will try out duck fat though so I do appreciate you mentioning it!

The reason to cut down on natural sweeteners during the strict phase of the elimination diet, is to calm down the "sweet tooth." It allows for less carb cravings.

Oh I see, thanks! I have been doing a good job cutting them out, but it is day 4 and I still am having cravings for sweets. I ate an extra banana last night when I wasn't hungry just to taste the sweetness. It would be so very nice for this sweet craving to go away.

Your body might need as well, we can crave salt when we have adrenal fatigue.

This is fascinating! I read about adrenal fatigue on this site and thought it sounded a lot like me. I crave salt a lot actually and know that's a bit odd. Perhaps this has something to do with it. Thanks so much for the lead!!

If it's not listed as being OK to have on the list of foods, then it's something that you have to wait to re-introduce to the diet to test for any reactions. Try to wait a week or two and then you can add it back in. Don't worry, it'll go by fast. ;)

Hello Heimdallr and thank you for offering input and for the support as well!! These last four days already flew by so I know I can do three more..:D However, I am still carrying around little chocolate mints in my purse that are just waiting for me. I have been so strong resisting them and also resisting stevia. I'm really glad it's not that annoying time of the month for me right now because my sweet cravings are worst then.

As long as you are using sea salt, you shouldn't worry about using too much salt. It's actually a rather beneficial part of the diet. It's been given a bad rap in the mainstream. And, as you mentioned, it also works very well as a flavor enhancer.

I am SO glad you mentioned using sea salt because I thought I was, but realized I was not! I have had the same 4lb box of salt for years now and it just says "table salt" on the label. I purchased Himalayan salt a while back, but used it up and got back into this old box. I moved recently and also don't get paid in August so I have been doing my best to save money, which is the reason I decided to use this old box again. Well, sea salt was only $1.69 in the grocery store so I just bought some tonight and have replaced the table salt with it. Thank you so much for reminding me that I should be consuming sea salt!! Now that I am using it more regularly I know that was an important change to make.

Also, I've lost 100 pounds. That part totally astounds me that the diet has been so effective in this area.

I'm still trying to tune things to my situation and improve my normal mood more through various means including diet and supplement modification, but the effort so far has been well worth it!

So, hang in there and give things time to work and start functioning better. I think you'll be glad you did.

Hello Gaman, You should give yourself mega props for being able to lose 100lbs the healthy way! Great job!! Thank you also for the words of encouragement and for sharing your inspirational story. I find I am often criticizing myself when I don't do what is good yet not praising myself when I do do what is good! This is something I have been working on and maybe it could help you too. After I go to they gym in the morning I have been telling myself what a good job I did. I also tell myself I feel good when I eat healthy foods. I think that has helped me a lot, because I used to just scold myself if I didn't work out or ate poorly. I also think the EE breathing program has really helped me, in addition to meditating, working out, getting enough sleep, eating better and taking 5HTP which I have been doing now for about a month or so.

I'd just like to chime in and sing the praises of the Ultra Simple Diet. I honestly didn't think it would work so well so quickly, but I've been on it for only 2 days and even the most stubborn of my dry skin problems (dry scalp, eyebrows) that did not go away from the anti-candida diet, have instantly disappeared. This is the first time my skin has been like this since I was a little boy, so I'm pretty excited by this!

It's great reading everyone's experiences here, and I can't wait for the two weeks to finish so I can start to test foods. Look out date loaf, you're next.

That's amazing that this diet was able to help you in this way, Nathan! That's great news and also very inspirational for me to read. Oohh date loaf, now that sounds yummy!! Gahh there goes the sweet cravings again, lol..

 

[Gaby]

Also, I've lost 100 pounds. That part totally astounds me that the diet has been so effective in this area.

I'm still trying to tune things to my situation and improve my normal mood more through various means including diet and supplement modification, but the effort so far has been well worth it!

So, hang in there and give things time to work and start functioning better. I think you'll be glad you did.

Hello Gaman, You should give yourself mega props for being able to lose 100lbs the healthy way! Great job!! [...]

I'd just like to chime in and sing the praises of the Ultra Simple Diet. I honestly didn't think it would work so well so quickly, but I've been on it for only 2 days and even the most stubborn of my dry skin problems (dry scalp, eyebrows) that did not go away from the anti-candida diet, have instantly disappeared. This is the first time my skin has been like this since I was a little boy, so I'm pretty excited by this!

It's great reading everyone's experiences here, and I can't wait for the two weeks to finish so I can start to test foods. Look out date loaf, you're next.

That's amazing that this diet was able to help you in this way, Nathan! That's great news and also very inspirational for me to read.

I second this. It is very inspirational to read. Upwards and onwards :)

 

[Gertrudes]

I second this. It is very inspirational to read. Upwards and onwards :)

And I third it! It was definitely an inspiring read.
We might loose one or two battles, maybe fall of the wagon as gaman mentioned, but what is important is the ability to pick ourselves up and keep the fight for what ultimately is an incomparably better state of health. Onwards and upwards indeed :)

 

[nicodemusliam]

This does indeed work, I did it for a week and lost 6 pounds, it’s usually very difficult for me to lose any weight since i never really have much to lose. i did take the olive oil and lemon juice in the morning, i mixed it in a shot glass and just drink it all at once, it’s actually not that bad, just tastes like salad dressing. i bought the ingredients for the shake.