Grateful for Gold

After spending four days 'on the road' with our first roadtrip to South Dakota, I am so very thankful for the Feigngold Diet.

After I'd first heard of it from an amazing friend and we started implementing the diet, we started noticing changes. Good changes. Gone was the fidgeting, the flapping 'wings' the fast paced unrelenting chatter and the dark gloomy anger or manic laughter that accompanied our dinners and evening homework sessions.

He is in control of himself, his emotions and actions. And he is so pleasant to be with. We've had actual conversations in which everyone has an active role in the discussion.

To date, our biggest frustration is that BW is so picky over the tastes and textures that he will eat. Foods that he has at Grace's house and enjoys with abandon are rejected at home because 'they taste funny.'

At one point this spring during a week of frustration and uneaten foods I asked Charles at the end of a long weekend if following the diet was worth the extra effort and expense. It seemed appropriate since he was the one who was hesitant to start the diet, skeptical that changing the foods he ate could really be that effective.

Without missing a beat, he replied "Yes, yes it is worth every single extra penny, every single extra minute of preparation and every single missed step with the foods that are offered. Going back (to the old way of eating) is not even an option."

For me though, it wasn't so obvious. Not until our Roadtrip.

After four days on the road, in an area of the country where 'Whole Paycheck' and other non-artificial foods don't exist, we had to fall into our old diet... our typical American diet. By day two BW was 'high as a kite' on artificial colors, flavors, preservatives and High Fructose Corn Syrup and it was astounding the difference in the little guy.

The amount of patience that was required by JB, Charles and I was impressive as we accommodated his emotional and jittery state.

It's been nine days since our return, and it took seven days without 'the artificials' before we started to see BW's reliably calm demeanor.

When we ask him how he feels, his reply is that his skin isn't itchy on the inside anymore. But he still misses all the really cool and fun foods that he used to be able to eat.

We do too little guy. We do too. But going 'back' isn't an option. We love you too much and we love the sanity that we have now.