After a phone call and referral to a R.N, Melissa Phillips, I was on my way. Starting early September 2020, I started the 6-food elimination diet. This restricted me from eating dairy, eggs, soy, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, and seafood as well as eating out at nearly every restaurant because of cross-contamination. You see, my diet up until this point was ramen, cereal, pizza, mac n cheese, Subway, Culver's, and maybe a smoothie here and there. I had not eaten a salad in my life nor many vegetables, and fruit entered my system only a few times a week. Initially, the cravings were overwhelming and I would ask my friends to smell their pizza to get some sort of satisfaction, strange I know, very strange. I remember the first day grocery shopping after starting this diet caused me to have a mental breakdown in Target and feel defeated when I spent three hours reading label after label. But this, like many new challenges, got better. I started remembering brands to look for and learning how to be efficient. Such as most things with "creamy" as an adjective will have milk, and most junk foods are off limits. After a month, the food cravings stopped when I was sober but were still strong when under the influence. Then, about six weeks in, the cravings stopped all together. This doesn't mean I didn't want to get in the Chick-Fil-A drive-thru but it was increasingly easier to not feel envious or frustrated when seeing my friends get to eat Cosmos Pizza at 2am. My roommates and friends showed and sent me recipes of foods I hadn't heard of before but came to be staples: cauliflower gnocchi, risotto, and tolerable salads. For those two months, I was back to being able to eat without needing a drink, not choking once but still difficulty swallowing foods every once in awhile.