The end of the cleanse? Not quite. .

Greetings,

Nathan and I are now officially done with the cleanse! Or so we thought. The last day of the cleanse was our first anniversary - we celebrated with a night out. We enjoyed bread slathered in butter, a couple glasses of Cabernet, and a flourless torte. Oh yeah, and snails. Six hours later, we were both wide awake with stomach pains, racing hearts, and the sweats.

The next morning, we had our follow-up with Dr. Martinez. Apparently our anniversary dinner didn't completely negate the last 3 weeks. She said that we're in the 99% of people who celebrate the end of the cleanse, somehow - and not to worry.

After a few days of doing the cleanse diet again, we're now ready for reintroduction.  Now that our gut flora has had a nice vacation from common inflammatory foods like gluten, dairy, sugars, caffeine, and more -- it's time to begin the real work.

Over the next couple of weeks, we'll be re-introducing foods individually, followed by a two-day return to the cleanse diet and so on. We even have diet journals. Geeky, yes, but this helps pin-point exactly which food causes which symptoms. Taking an allergy test can produce similar information, but does not reflect the actual experienced sensitivity like a cleanse diet followed by a reintroduction does.

Sounds laborious, but as I said in the beginning, this is like a chemistry experiment with my body. Like any scientific experiment, its fascinating, frustrating, and jaw-dropping all at once.

The celebratory night was full of many culprits - one of them (or all of them!) caused all sorts of havoc in my body. Not surprising, but now it's time to track down which one.

Stay tuned. . .