AIP Elimination Diet Meal Ideas -Week 5 (while traveling)

These elimination diet meal ideas are what I followed during the fifth week of my elimination diet.

(Jump to Meal Plans HERE)

If you haven’t checked out my post on Elimination Diet- Week 1 , then go take a look before you continue to read this post. It will give you an idea of what an elimination diet is, and why I’m trying it out!

Elimination Diet Week 2 , Elimination Diet Week 3 and Elimination Diet Week 4 here!

This past week I traveled out of state from Wednesday through Sunday. Read below to see how I accommodated this elimination diet while traveling! It was NOT easy, but I made it work! 🙂

8 Week Elimination Diet Plan

After reading Dr. Will Cole’s Inflammation Spectrum book and taking the inflammation quiz, it showed I have inflammation in a slew of areas. The top two were in the brain/nervous system and the hormonal (endocrine) system. In order to see if food is at the core of these problems, I’ve decided to follow his 8 week plan.

What I’ll be eliminating for 8 weeks

1. grains
2. dairy
3. added sweeteners (all sugar)
4. inflammatory oils (vegetable oils)
5. legumes (lentils, beans, peanuts, soy)
6. nuts and seeds
7. eggs
8. nightshades (tomatoes, tomatillos, sweet and hot peppers, white potatoes, eggplant, goji berries)
9. coffee (sob)
10. alcohol

Week 5 Elimination Diet Meal Ideas

Below are meal ideas that I ate during week five of the elimination diet (out of 8).

Morning tea (7:00am)

I start each morning with a large glass of water, then a Pique tea. This week I drank their mint green tea each morning.

Breakfast (8:30am)

Smoothie- This week I had a strawberry and spinach smoothie with avocado all week long.

1/2 cup frozen strawberries
1 large handful spinach
20g vital proteins collagen
1/4 avocado
1 cup water
1/2 lemon (juiced)

Morning Snack

If I had a morning snack, it was either cucumbers and avocado, Bare apple chips or an apple with cinnamon.

Lunch (between 11:30 and 12:30)

1. Monday– grilled chicken breast, steamed broccoli and spinach, 1/2 baked sweet potato with salt and pepper.
2. Tuesday- grilled chicken, sauteed carrot and spinach salad, roasted broccoli and avocado.
3. Wednesday (traveling)-grilled zucchini, roasted sweet potato, ground beef, avocado and homemade dressing.
4. Thursday- (same lunch as Wednesday).
5. Friday- (traveling): beach day! Lunch at the beach was tuna mixed with avocado, carrots and celery over spinach. Drizzled with olive oil and sea salt.
6. Saturday- (traveling) used the chicken from last nights dinner to make a chicken salad with greens, celery, carrots and avocado.
7. Sunday- (traveling) avocado and tuna salad.

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Dinner (between 5:30 and 6:00)

1. Monday– Chicken, salad, broccoli and sweet potato fries.
2. Tuesday- Chicken, baked sweet potato, sauteed zucchini.
3. Wednesday- (traveling)-grilled zucchini, roasted sweet potato, ground beef, avocado and homemade dressing. This is the same thing I had for lunch, just repeated.
4. Thursday- (traveling): homemade burgers (no bun), raw veggies and fruit.
5. Friday- (traveling)- grilled chicken salad with cucumbers and fresh fruit. Olive oil and apple cider vinegar drizzled on top.
6. Saturday- (traveling) taco night! I made a taco salad with greens, ground beef, mashed avocado, onion and coconut chips. I mashed some coconut chips on top of the salad for some crunch (since everyone else was eating tortilla chips and Doritos and I obviously can’t eat those). Turns out, the coconut chips I used had cane sugar, so although I didn’t have a lot of them, this was the first time I’ve eaten something on the “do not eat” list. I’m going to continue on, and will NOT be starting over because of this mistake. I just have to check ingredients very carefully from now on!
7. Sunday- (traveling) used the leftover taco meat from last nights dinner and made a taco salad to eat on the road!

Evening magnesium (7:30)

Every night before bed, I have warm lemon water with magnesium powder to help me sleep.

Other Snacks

When I was traveling, I had more snacks than normal because I was bored in the car and am used to snacking on long car rides. More detailed list in “How to Eat Healthy While Traveling.” Here I go into full detail on all things snacks and traveling while staying healthy!

Bare carrot chips, apple chips
Raw carrots, cucumbers and celery
Sparkling water
Epic venison protein bars
The New Primal classic beef sticks
Grapes, apples

How I feel after week 3

(During this time I’ll be tracking energy levels, acne, bloating, cravings and sleep.)

1. Energy- Wednesday through Sunday I was on vacation, visiting family. I feel like I had pretty good energy the whole trip, even though I was staying up later than normal. I think it was because I was more socially active than normal, and it really brought out more energy!
2. Acne- looking rough. I felt like it was getting better and then this week it looks worse again. Not sure if it was the stress leading up to the trip and traveling with toddler twins, or has to do with hormones… No clue! 🙁
3. Bloating– much better! Bloated off and on, but no belly aches! (Still constipated though for whatever reason)…
4. Cravings- I don’t know if they were really cravings, but while traveling, I had a tough time not wanting the food I was around. While I packed my food for the trip, my hubby picked up food on the road. It was tempting to grab fast food or the processed food I was around, but I stuck to my elimination diet! Really proud I was able to do it!
5. Sleep- trouble falling asleep, and staying asleep all night. I fell asleep faster while on vacation. I wasn’t on technology hardly at all while on our trip, and think it helped me fall asleep! Working on no electronics at least an hour before bed.