20-something allergies and counting...

Chili, French Fries, and Some Recipes

2012-02-28T11:17:00.000-05:00

Today is a comfort food kind of day.

It's Monday. It's cold. It's gloomy. It's a perfect day for a big pot of Primal/GAPS chili and some crispy french fries.

Chili at the witch doctor's house is a two day process. I started this batch yesterday, so today it's been simmering in my favorite dutch oven ready to eat anytime we want a bowl. The basic recipe is based on my good ol' standby Betty Crocker (still my go to cookbook after all the food changes we've morphed through over the last few years).

Chili
servings: it feeds two of us multiple meals for about 3 days; could I be any more general?

Ingredients:

3 pounds 100% grass-fed ground beef
3 large organic onions
2 large organic garlic cloves OR 1 teaspoon organic garlic powder
optional: 1/2 cup of diced organic green chiles (or cheat like me and add a 4 ounce can of them, undrained)
3/4 tablespoon organic cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon unrefined salt
1 teaspoon chipotle powder (smoked jalapenos) OR 1/4 cup diced chipotle peppers
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon cinnamon (in place of cocoa powder since I'm sensitive to it)
1 15 ounce can of diced tomatoes, undrained

2 tablespoons fat of your choice, duck fat is my preference

Break beef down into small pieces as you brown it to avoid big chunks in the final product. Once beef has browned, remove it from the pot. Add diced onions, salt, and 2 T fat to the hamburger drippings left in the pot and cook on medium low until translucent. Add garlic and spices and cook for another minute on medium. Stir in tomatoes and chiles (if using fresh) and cook on medium for 5 minutes, stirring frequently, to deepen flavor. Add browned beef back in with 3 1/2 cups of water, stir and simmer until desired chili consistency. I cook it for 3 hours the first day, put it into the refrigerator overnight, then cook it for another hour the following day. Voila.

Chili ingredients vary dramatically based on region and taste preferences. What is your favorite recipe?

French Fries
serving size: 1 hungry 3.5 year old and a couple fries for you on the sneak

Ingredients:

2 small organic white potatoes
3-4 Tablespoons cooking fat of your choice, duck fat again here but the next batch will be beef tallow to mimic McDonald's mouth-watering fries from days gone by
1/2 teaspoon unrefined salt (this will be based on your salt preference)

Extra salt for sprinkling on finished fries

Cut the potatoes into thin ribbons while the fat is warming on medium heat in your pan. Add the potatoes to the heated oil in a single layer, sprinkle with salt, and stir with a fork to coat in oil. When edges start to turn slightly brown (think a very lightly toasted marshmallow), begin to lightly stir and turn while gently loosening any stuck potatoes with the tines of the fork. Keep stirring every few minutes as the edges brown and try to turn any uncooked sides down into the oil to help all sides crisp up. When most sides are a light brown, I turn every minute or so until they reach a perfect crispy medium brown. Turn out onto a paper-covered plate (a paper grocery bag or paper towel work well) to drain and cool and sprinkle with a layer of salt to taste. Note: Any fries that get too brown while the others cook should be fished out and put on the plate to drain.

I prefer to cook my potatoes on medium so they are well-cooked when brown. Most medium-high methods leave the potatoes uncooked in the middle for me and then have to be steamed, losing their crunch. They do soak up a bit of the oil when cooked at a lower temp, but I find it's a good way to get extra fat in and is tastier that way. ;)

I love me some comfort food.

How Do You Feed A Family With All Those Restrictions?! A Weekly Menu Plan

2012-02-24T21:22:00.000-05:00

Anyone else feel like this? Scratch that, anyone not?

I thought cooking was an imposition before having a family. Whine. Whine. Boo. Hiss. Now I can't get around it to save my life, and I have to do it while navigating the minefield that is dietary restrictions of my household. Katie's food sensitivities (the results of her allergy test are due any day now so this list will change), hubby's recovering diabetes - almost recovered! - and possible sensitivities (waiting for results too), my newly found sensitivities, and the cat's food issues. Yes, I said cat.

We got George the Lady Cat a year ago. She's 12 years old, and I could tell she suffered from food allergies. She got uber cranky when you touched anywhere near her belly, was quite overweight, had a bad dander problem, and shed in clumps. Her kidneys were also showing signs of malfunction. Her previous people are totally in love with her so she wasn't neglected, just another victim of SAD (Standard American Diet). Pet food is an area I don't even want to delve into on here. Suffice it to say it's horrid. In the last 5 years, I have had a ferret and two cats pass away from kidney disease and have quite a bit of experience with it and the cause of much of it. I changed her to a real food diet within the month. There is also the added bonus that Katie's no longer allergic to anything in her food. ~~I still have trouble getting her to~~ I find it impossible to get her to eat offal and anything raw but she LOVES her bone broth. Her diet mainly consists of poultry, occasional pork, decreasing amounts of fish as she reacts to certain ones, and lots of bone broth. She is allergic to eggs and beef and won't touch any type of milk product, raw or pasteurized. She's my picky child #2.

Hubby will eat just about anything. He's always been a good boy like that. As long as he doesn't have to cook it, he's game. He doesn't have the restrictions that he used to now that his diabetes is almost healed and is able to eat some fruit and most sweet vegetables without problem. Now that his pancreas is healing, I see other signs of dis-ease surfacing more strongly. Taxed adrenals, darker under eye circles, worsening skin conditions, lack of patience, and general malaise. Food sensitivities? I'm thinking so. Oh and it's Lent so he can't have meat on Fridays until after Easter (technically Good Friday). As a bit of a side note, hubby and Katie are both Catholic. I am...open to exploration. :) I see the overlapping spiritual truths of the many religions and the shortcomings of them also. On to Katie...

My little miss is our biggest bump in the road when it comes to food. She is sensitive to more foods than I can count (hey I went to public school; what do you expect?), or possibly components of them like sulfur or oxylates or fructose or a hundred other things. The most obvious signs now are bellyaches, bloating, eczema, pilaris keratosis (bumps on the back of the arms) and behavior problems. When she is not reacting to foods, she is smooth, soft, and sweet as honey. She is normally a great eater but needs variety to keep her happy like her daddy and turns into picky child #1 when constant bellyaches become an issue. She doesn't want a food after it hurts her tummy. Who could argue? We began the GAPS diet last April to correct this issue and are still plugging away, quite imperfectly I might add.

Most of my posts to this point have been about my issues, so I'll be brief with my issues. I am recovering from a dairy and sugar addiction, anxiety, skin issues like acne and rashes, moodiness, brain fog, tendinitis/joint pain, back pain...I'm sure there are others I missed but you get my drift. No major illnesses to date. I recently completed an allergy test that shows enough food sensitivities to convince me a rotation diet will be beneficial to all of us.

Why did I just tell you all of that? That is the background of why menu planning is one of the hardest things I've ever done. EVER. In case that wasn't bad enough, I try to buy locally and seasonally as much as possible and almost exclusively buy organic. We are under budgetary constraints as we continue on a GAPS/primal lifestyle, so this week I decided we were only eating what we already had in the house. No more quick jaunts to Whole Foods to grab last minute meals or snacks if I was too tired to cook what was here or even figure out what to cook. Enter the menu plan and corresponding headache.

This is nothing fancy. No links to recipes, ingredients, or explanations of what we're eating. It's just my outline on what to cook. If I can keep this up or if anyone's interested, I can make this a regular feature and go all professional on it with recipes and the like.

Link to the larger file: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ar?id=tH8TN-ZySltgzu7BpiY8UPQ.08654588058875190247.7062614466296717188&action=1&tile=0&rpert=20&srow=0&erow=12&scol=0&ecol=8&fprt=false&tfe=vb_241&gsessionid=yDhg6WAJyKg

You will find a couple of grains on here, because they still make it into our diet on occasion. It's most often done when I don't feel well enough to cook and Katie is refusing everything in the kitchen.

Genova Diagnostics Allergy Test - Jennifer

2012-02-23T22:55:00.003-05:00

Note: I am woeful about rereading and editing this post, so I will come back to it at a later date. For now, I'm just tired of working on it. Please ignore my grammatical and writing style errors in the meantime. :)

My doctor recently recommended that I have an allergy test done. Though we've focused on traditional foods/WAPF and GAPS for almost a year, there are still issues to overcome. My biggest complaints have been continued water retention (though relatively minor) and significant fatigue. I thought the fatigue was probably due to adrenal fatigue from all of the abuse my body has gone through for thirty some odd years. My MD thought the core issue may be food allergies. She was apparently on to something...

Insurance: Blue Cross Blue Shield covered half of the cost of the blood test through my MD's office though they claim they don't cover it at all if you call and ask. The total out of pocket was $184.

_________________________________________________

IgG Food Antibody Assessment (food sensitivity/latent allergy): These are reactions from a delayed immune response. Latent allergies often cause chronic illnesses that include symptoms like migraines, water retention, lethargy, emotional instability, crankiness, sleeplessness, back pain, joint pain, restless leg syndrome, and many more. I believe the chronic exposure is also causing high blood pressure in my mother. When partially undigested foods leaking into the bloodstream from a perforated gut (commonly known as leaky gut). My MD recommended that I rotate the foods that I'm sensitive to - the green VL category up to twice a week, the yellow 1+ category up to once a week, and to avoid all pinks and reds. Gluten and casein are no-nos as we heal. This hybrid method of eating will be a temporary change while my gut is healing. Long-term, all grains, seeds, and dairy will be very occasional treats since they are not optimal foods for the human diet. We'll mainly follow The Primal Blueprint once we're off the GAPS diet for gut healing. Once we're healed, I will try to be sure that any dairy and grains/seeds we consume are fermented and properly prepared for cheat times like holidays.

Now this is the most interesting part of the test for me. Some of these crack me up like wheat (like white flour) is very low on the list but wheat bran is off the charts. Beans send my antibodies to war. Navy beans? When do I eat those?! I know they're hard to digest - though I've not had any digestive upset with them or any food -, but eggs are super easy and high on my list too. I'm a bit of a glass half full gal, and I see the sea of greens and yellows as a positive. I don't have a reference from before changing my diet [I may be able to get a copy of my original allergy results as a child soon], but I believe that these should be much higher with the quantity of things I react to. My allergies are not recent so are not increasing. Combined with my total antibodies, this tells me that I am on the right road...but, boy, do I wish I could stick with it 100%. I'll have some more posts on allergies coming up and will address what the cravings really are and why they are so darn enslaving. There are real reasons that food is kryptonite for so many of us.

Be careful of testing your reactions. I was completely shocked that eggs are a problem. I tried to eat some store-bought brownies to gauge my reaction and that little experiment knocked me on my butt for a full 24 hours. No wonder I still felt ill most of the time. That experience also inspires a future blog post. In short, it totally sucked.

'True Relief' Rotation Schedule: I didn't add the scan of the recommended rotation diet and disregarded it at the recommendation of my MD and my own instincts. It cycles in food that should be avoided (like dairy and those in the pink category) and is mainly for people who are not ready to strictly limit their diets.

IgE Food Antibody Results (classic allergy): I am lucky in that I don't suffer from any classic food allergies. That means I will most likely not have any restrictions in the future after my gut is fully healed and is no longer leaking. YAHOO!

Total IgE: This is the level of antibodies floating around my system. My results are surprisingly low at 29.7 compared to the reference range of 87.0. My MD was shocked that it was so low with the amount of foods I react to. What does that tell me? My body is responding well to the healing methods I have been utilizing. Becoming a witch doctor has its advantages. ;)

IgE Inhalants Profile: Yep. My nemesis ragweed is still there. The severity of my reactions have improved leaps and bounds from when I was a child and are pretty low if you look at the numbers. If I even walked by it as a child, my eyes would swell almost completely shut, my nose would turn into a faucet, the itching would start, and I would feel nausea from my body freaking out. I lived on Benadryl when little. Benadryl in school is like a torture device. Snooze city. Mold is no surprise either, but it's much more mild that I expected. Mites was a surprise and so was the fact that of the others have disappeared. I was highly allergic to them all as a child.

Celiac (IgA) and Gluten Sensitivity (IgG): I am definitely negative for Celiac disease. Another sigh of relief but not really a shock. I've never had any symptoms to make me think I suffered from it. I am also negative for a gluten sensitivity, but my IgG results are half way to a positive result. It's possible that it's increasing and I could have a problem in the future if I go back to a Standard American Diet (SAD), or it could also be going down since we have already changed our diet and begun the process of healing. I choose to think the latter...glass half full girl that I am.

Well, if you made it all the way though that, I'm impressed. There's just no way to make that zippy and witty and fun to read while keeping it a reasonable length. I will post Katie's and hubby's results also when I receive them. If you are having trouble reading the images and would like an e-mail copy of the results, please contact me at 20somethingallergies@gmail.com. I'll be happy to share and/or answer any questions you may have.

Home Remedies for Cold/Flu (Allergy Style)

2012-02-22T09:38:00.000-05:00

Since my little Katie is sick, I thought I would share my witch doctor remedies for eradicating those bad bugs that knock us down from time to time.

There are many wonderful remedies out there involving garlic, onions, raw honey, lemon, raw apple cider vinegar, mustard, cayenne pepper, chamomile, echinacea, fermented cod liver oil, etc. that we can't use with Katie's plethora of allergies. Then there's the standard home treatment that I grew up with - popsicles, canned fruit cocktail, canned chicken noodle soup, Jell-O, oranges and/or ascorbic acid chewables (a component of vitamin C), and bottled juice. When it was available, watermelon, cantaloupe and strawberries were always on the menu too. I washed those down with cough syrup, Tylenol, or other pharmacy medication liberally supplemented with antibiotics as "needed" (there's that word again) depending on how ill I was. With allergies and those foods on the menu, it's no wonder I used to get so sick so often.

Here are the tried and true remedies that keep us all out of the MD's office and support our bodies as they heal themselves. I also use the above mentioned remedies for hubby and I as needed.

electrolyte tonic - about 1/8 teaspoon unrefined salt to 8 ounces filtered water
good for replenishing fluids and replaces the "need" (read the sarcasm dripping from that word?) for chemical-laden Gatorade or Pedialyte drinks

'vapor rub' - There are many versions of this on the web. Here's mine:

1/4 cup raw shea butter
60 drops eucalypus essential oil*
15 drops peppermint essential oil*
15 drops sage essential oil*
15 drops rosemary essential oil*
1 drop tea tree oil*
1 drop red thyme oil*

*be sure to use a very good quality EO

It smells fantastic. A little like vanilla somehow. I know it's the right mix for us because it smells good. If it smells awful to you, your nose is telling you that's not your mix and to keep trying. I'm scientific like that. ;) I mix and store in a glass jar with the date I made the batch and the recipe written directly on it with a permanent marker. A thin layer on the soles of the feet, chest, and back covers all bases. Apply two to three times a day depending on congestion level. I generally do every twelve hours.

freshly-pressed juices - A super cool resource for the healing benefits of many fruits and vegetables http://www.juicing-for-health.com/healing-foods.html

chicken stock and boiled chicken - Gentle, anti-inflammatory, and full of goodness. This link is the most comprehensive source on bone broth I have discovered http://www.townsendletter.com/FebMarch2005/broth0205.htm.

vitamin C (the reason we only use complex, not isolated ascorbic acid)- raw organic goji berries, rose hips, raw organic acerola cherry powder

elderberry - We use Natural Sources elderberry concentrate; the only ingredient is elderberry. I'll be searching for local sources of fresh organically grown elderberries this summer to freeze for the year.

ginger tea - Useapproximately ½-1 inch of fresh ginger per cup of water. I use about 3 ½ inchesin 7 cups of water). Peelginger and grate or slice into paper-thin slices and add to pot of water. Bringto boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Strainginger from tea and drink. You may add freshly squeezed lemon and honey totaste.

humidifier - pretty self-explanatory

steam room - Since we can't do a steam tent with a 3 year old (for the obvious wiggling, impatient, can't sit still, don't want to burn her reasons), I take her in our smallest bathroom, shove a towel against the bottom of the door to create a better seal, and turn on the shower and sink to full hot while we sit in there and play. We stay until the water starts to cool and the steam begins to dissipate. Plastic blocks like Mega or Duplo are great to take in, since they're easy to dry.

probiotics - Used to counteract the bad bug invaders and to boost the soldiers of the immune system. We use Custom Probiotics 11-strain.

Katie Update

2012-02-11T16:08:00.002-05:00

Currently, Katie has significantly improved her toxic load and GI issues but still has leaky gut and digestion problems. After a recent visit to our MD, we have added an enlarged thyroid to the list. WHAT?! Yeah, I'm still a little freaked out. She's three and should not have to worry about anything more than how to aggravate the cat without getting bit. My MD is very relaxed about all of her symptoms, and that has made my stress level power down a bit. I took her in to ask about the significant itching Katie often has. I keep seeing references to liver dysfunction linked to excessive itching and it's been worrisome. Funny that after the visit I realized it was probably a histamine issue. :sigh: Way to over complicate things mom. Our doc is happy that we are on GAPS and doesn't believe that we need to draw her blood for any allergy testing or do more than give her a small amount of seaweed daily (10 mcg of iodine) for her thyroid. I'm always happy with her gentle approach.

I have reconsidered the allergy testing though. I have had such dramatic results from avoiding the foods I'm most sensitive to and I want that for Katie also. Hubby and Katie will both have theirs done at the same time to help ease her into it. I stopped vaccinating her at three months and she hasn't been touched by a needle since. We're all a little nervous.

Her skin is generally clear unless she is exposed to an allergen. If she ingests a food that her body is incompatible with, she gets small red bumps on her belly, thighs, nether region, and cheeks (face). If the exposure is continuous, we will start to see signs of rough skin that verges on scaly on her cheeks and shins (eczema). I'm happy to say that her feet are baby soft again. The skin on the bottom was getting rough - another sign of body dysfunction -. There has been a return of cradle cap recently that definitely doesn't please me. I think that's due to introducing grains again and moving too far away from the healing broths of GAPS. All in all, we're moving in a positive direction with her skin issues.

I'm not totally sure where we stand on digestive issues. Based on her stools, she does digest food better overall. But does she have trouble digesting certain foods like raw food or is it based on the foods she's eaten with and around it that make her belly sensitive? There are still issues with gas and bellyaches unless we're very close to an intro diet. I just can't diagnose until I know exactly what her food sensitivities are. Frustrating but at least we're getting somewhere.

I'll add her allergy test as a blog post that mirrors mine (as soon as I finish mine and post it).

GAPS Re-Intro Day 7, Stage 1 to 6 or Somewhere In Between

2012-01-30T15:04:00.001-05:00

I have to say today was not our best day. I started with low blood sugar. I didn't eat enough fat, since I don't have a stockpile of various fats to rotate yet and can't have chicken schmaltz too often. I wish my ducks would hurry and thaw! Then, detox settled in and I was cranky as could be. Hubby was headachey, had joint and lower back pain, felt sick, and was also cranky. Then we have little miss Katie who is reacting to an allergen. Of course I overdid it and gave her a few new things in quick succession - the new digestive enzyme, onion, honey, and coconut cream -. Nice job mom. :eye roll: Her symptoms have been hiccups, frustration with the world, and yelling...very, very unlike her. Hubby felt much better after finally taking a Redmond Clay detox bath (1/2 cup in full tub of water). Katie felt better after a beet kvass bath (1/4 cup in full tub of water) but still had the previously mentioned symptoms. I just took a little time to myself to rest and read as I was too tired for a bath by the time I could take one. I'll take my bath tomorrow while Katie's at preschool. I started freaking out about my food options, and Katie was pretty miserable too, so we dove back into some raw food. After stuffing ourselves with some treats, I felt quite a bit better. I had quite dark under eye circles and Katie's were darkening also as the day went on. Once we ate some raw food, they have almost disappeared. We have had big issues with the lack of raw food each time we have tried intro. I feel like I'm failing if I can't go through intro as described, but I have to listen to my instincts and our bodies' reactions over the protocol laid out in a book. Luckily, Dr. Natasha agrees. Katie's bellyaches are few and far between already (SUPER YAY!!!!), but we still have much healing to do and hubby is just starting his journey. I need to find a path close to intro that we can stick with and works well for us.

Overall, I can definitely tell we're all healing and improving well enough for me to be satisfied with the progress. My favorite thing about today is that Katie and I learned we LOVE goji berries! With her severe vitamin C deficiency, I'm happy we have rose hips, acerola cherry powder, and goji berries to rotate through now. Once she can digest raw veggies well, they'll factor more into the equation too. I may juice occasionally, but that's mostly on the back burner right now until i get the urge to.

Here's my new game plan:

Full GAPS but an allowance for small cheats up to twice a month if desperately needed
GAPS intro soup for at least one to two meals daily
One baked/sauteed meal per day
Raw foods kept to two servings a day at most (may need to be reevaluated and Katie may only be able to have one)
Stick to the rotation diet and repeat foods no more than twice a week (this is too new of a feature in our diet, so I'm leaving wiggle room here during the learning curve)

Today's soups:

Hamburger, carrot, S.O.L.E. onion, and turnip in bison broth; tomato paste added to mine [the acid in the tomatoes was a much welcome addition to cut the well-cooked foods]
Bison roast, rutabaga, and fresh spinach in bison broth

Today's foods: crockpotted bison chuck roasts with carrots, acerola cherry and elderberry juice, raw honey (Katie), raw honey and coconut oil (me), leftover broccoli soup with one raw garlic clove and freshly-cracked black pepper (hubby), rice congee, raw goji berries, soaked and deydrated raw pecans, and coconut cream.

GAPS Re-Intro Day 6, Stage 1

2012-01-29T09:36:00.002-05:00

Still brain-fogging it today so pardon the random stream of consciousness...

Today went quite well. I had more energy today than I've had in a long time. I almost felt normal! The biggest complaint for me over the last couple of days is that I feel shaky at times. It's almost like low blodd sugar shaky but my glucose levels are normal. Once I start moving around and doing tasks, it tends to disappear. Strange. My instincts say it's an issue with energy conversion, so, if it continues, I might look into some supplements or foods that will help support my body with that. If you're interested, check out this neurosurgeon's site and poke around a bit. Dr. Jack Kruse is fantastic. I've just started looking into his blog recently, and I'm very impressed. A couple more symptoms that have improved are the ketratosis pilaris (bumps on the back of my arms) is almost gone again, the discoloration is almost gone - it was still a bit green and purple today but the darkness is lessening -, and my skin is smoother though quite dry. I've started to feel a bit achy so will have a detox bath in the morning. I so look forward to those now.

Katie is still doing much better. Bellyaches are fewer and less severe, and chicken is definitely a trigger. I've suspected chicken and it's broth for awhile, but thought it may just trigger a healing reaction. After getting my food antibody test back, I know chicken causes more of a reaction with me that other meats (probably the frequency that we eat it), so we will be eating chicken no more than once a week and poultry no more than twice. I hope to stay away from chicken and rely on duck and turkey for poultry for a couple of months. The dark circles under her eyes are much lighter and are concentrated on the inside corners of her eyes/nose like mine. There were NO TANTRUMS, whining, or arguing. My Katie is back. Happy mommy. Happy daddy. Happy baby. She does have a few bumps on her cheeks still, so I wonder if it's the additional vitamin C in the acerola cherry powder. I'll consider it a healing reaction unless it presents otherwise. Her appetite's improved dramatically and she's mostly back to Katie portions (or should I say adult portions?). I found a new digestive enzyme complex at Whole Foods that I'm trying with her. She likes the taste and seems to be okay so far, so I will try rotating it with the Betaine HCl with pepsin that we have.

Hubby has a cold, but he's following the diet for now. I think he may go back to milk in his coffee come Monday but we'll see. He's getting dramatically better, and I think his biggest complaint of neck and head pain are detox. He won't take a bath (anyone surprised?), so I'm going to see if I can convince him to take a foot bath tonight if his shower isn't enough to help today.

I have been supplementing more than I planned on, but I feel these are necessary right now. Vitamin C & D especially with the virus that's been hovering around the house.

We've all been fine with the food, but hubby keeps talking about things like pancakes and dairy products. The popcicles that I made kept Katie happy with her sweet, crunchy, cold cravings. I'll stick with those in different flavors (mostly teas) until she tires of them.

Overall a really good day! Easing into intro was definitely the way to go for us.

Today's supplements/teas: hubs
                                           cod liver oil (cinnamon tingle; it tastes like Big Red gum)
                                          vitamin D3 (ran out of Carlson's; Katie needs olive oil as a base)
                                           ginger tea (recipe to come)
                                           white peony tea

                                           Katie
                                           Digest Spectrum
                                           acerola cherry powder
                                           elderberry syrup
                                           vitamin D3

                                           me
                                           Adrenal Complex
                                           white peony tea

Soup 1: broccoli, and leek in beef broth

Soup 2: butternut squash soup [S.O.L.E. butternut squash, Celtic sea salt, and filtered water]

Today's food: crockpotted S.O.L.E. round steak (Katie & I), pureed broccoli soup (all), boiled chicken (all), squash soup (all), raw coconut butter (me) [cheat - didn't realize this was made from whole coconut until I read the label], peas boiled in water (katie) with chicken schmaltz, broccoli boiled in water with a bit of chicken schmaltz & turkey fat, green beans boiled in water with chicken schmaltz (hubby)

GAPS Re-intro Day 5, Tomorrow Begins Stage 1!

2012-01-27T21:30:00.001-05:00

I knew today would be a bit off with food. We had an appointment with our family MD around lunchtime, and that throws the morning into arrears. I went to ask about Katie's constantly itchy skin (liver dysfunction) and almost manic desire for cold and crunchy (possible iron deficiency) and came away with a huge thumbs up for starting up intro again. She suggested I add in liver and bone marrow twice a week to clear up any iron issues and to see if the diet changes clear up her itching. She surprised me by noticing that Katie thyroid is swollen. What?! Like we don't have enough issues. A recommendation for 100 mcg of seaweed daily was welcome since I just got my first order of it in from Mountain Rose Herbs. How fortuitous. :) Though it's not compatible with intro, it's such a small dose that I'm not worried about it hindering the gut healing. The wakame flakes taste pretty salty and awesome too, so I'm excited to have that to play with on our food. I've decided to start stage 1 of intro tomorrow, and I am fervently praying that Katie does well without the rice. We used to be able to get rid of her bellyaches with a couple meals of just meat, but that seems to be thrown on it's head right now. Meat is not a friend of her belly.

The digestive enzymes I use with her on occasion seem to really help the first couple of times I use them. Then, it seems to create more bellyaches. I want to try one derived from beets that has not even a speck of dairy. I'm going to ask our MD about this one from Premier Research Labs. I measure in pinches, usually 1-2 and sprinkle it on her first bite of food. Apple cider vinegar causes reactions when given internally - baths with it seem to be fine - and lemon is on her no-no list along with tropical fruits. That cuts out just about every digestive enzyme out there.

I'm going to cut tonight's summary short. I received the results of my Genova food sensitivity test and have a lot of menu planning to do tonight to incorporate my new rotation diet into GAPS intro taking into account Katie's food sensitivities and hubby's overworked pancreas (formerly diabetic). Phew. This should be interesting!

Breakfast: rice congee with sage (Katie); canned tuna with avocado, lemon, Celtic sea salt, & freshly-cracked black pepper (me)

kalamata olives with Betaine HCl, digestive enzymes (Katie)

raisins

soup - chicken broth, S.O.L.E. white potatoes, carrots, S.O.L.E. collard greens, green peas, Celtic sea salt pretty bad bellyache for Katie

acerola cherry powder & elderberry syrup (Katie)

acerola cherry powder & elderberry syrup mixed with water for juice (me); rice congee with wakame flakes [seaweed] (Katie) Katie bellyache

acerola cherry powder & elderberry syrup (Katie) bellyache

shredded coconut, cold-pressed virgin coconut oil, raw local honey (me) gearing up for a long stretch of no snacks and want a treat while I navigate a menu plan for intro/rotation for food sensitivities

2 dates (Katie)

85% grass-fed hamburger with organic, loca, pastured, 100% grass-fed, beef bone marrow and rice congee with sage (Katie); more of the potato, carrot, collard greens, pea soup bellyache for Katie

GAPS Re-Intro Day 4, [Insert Witty Phrase Here]

2012-01-27T20:44:00.003-05:00

I keep forgetting to write 'organic' next to our foods so assume it's organic unless I note otherwise for expediency's sake. Just about the only things that we use that aren't organic are duck fat, Celtic sea salt, and elderberry syrup.

We both slept well and feel refreshed this morning. Katie woke with a bellyache and neither of us were hungry, so breakfast started a little late. The dark circles under Katie's eyes are now purple smudges, and her color is nice and peachy with a few skin-colored eczema spots left (no redness).

I'm going to keep this synopsis short since it's a day late in getting finished. Suffice it to say we survived, and I'm really getting ready for true intro to start. Katie wanted sugary foods all day and I relented a bit knowing that the end will come very soon. Poor kiddo.

She went to sleep so well! As soon as I said lights out, she plopped down and was ready to go. So lovely. Hubby and I both put her to sleep, and she usually sleeps in our bed unless she feels up to sleeping in hers (usually when she's feeling well).

Breakfast: boiled organic chicken, organic homemade chicken schmaltz, Celtic sea salt, lacto-fermented pickle (me); couple of bites of cauliflower/carrot soup, couple sips of chicken broth in a mug, rice congee with sage

organic milk thistle tea [ground 1 tsp whole seeds in mortar & pestle, added water just off the boil - turn boiling water off & add water to tea when it stops bubbling -, and steeped, covered - to keep nutrients from dissipating with steam -, for 20 minutes] (me)

nettle tea with elderberry syrup (Katie) bad, short duration bellyache

ginger tea with lemon and raw honey

elderberry syrup with ginger tea (Katie)

Lunch: boiled chicken with Celtic sea salt & freshly-cracked black pepper; chicken w rice & raw honey Hcl

Snack: raw apple

Dinner: roast with celtic sea salt, garlic powder, & black pepper; roast with rice Katie bellyache followed by Hcl which helped a bit

Snack: raisins

raw apple (me)

GAPS Re-intro Day 3, Here Comes The Soup

2012-01-26T09:54:00.001-05:00

And the true random rambles of brain fog set in...

Today, we are getting slightly cranky. Katie is more short of patience than I am, but I'm also feeling detox creeping in a bit. I feel like San Francisco with the brain fog that is sweeping over my head. I'm happy to note that I want to play with her today more than I have in quite awhile (I'm often 'wrong' no matter how I play the last few weeks or, as soon as we set something up, she's onto another activity). She's playing more and using her imagination very well today, so I think she's definitely over the virus. The bellyaches not so much. Very frustrating when the foods that are supposed to help make her belly hurt.

We both had a water detox bath today. Mine felt luxurious and very welcome. I used Dr. Bronner's lavendar soap for the first time and it was wonderfully calming. I normally use the unscented for bathing and peppermint for cleaning. Lavendar is definitely my new go to soap for an evening bath. The bedroom smelled wonderful when we went to bed. Katie is feeling very good after her bath, happy and running around. She's felt hungry but only eats a couple bites at a time. The dark circles under her eyes that return with trialing grains and some packaged foods (like cereal and potato chips) are quite dark as the day goes on. Mine are still a bit puffy underneath, have darkness in the corners close to my nose, and are slightly purple under that (new signs of food intolerance since starting GAPS; I used to always have complete undereye circles and some puffiness). I'll take it as a good sign of detox that hers are getting darker as the toxins release. Milk thistle starts tomorrow for more liver support.
Hyperactive is the word of the day. Holy moley. Katie got more whiny as the day went on but stayed hyper, usually happens when she's not feeling her best and she had pent up energy from being sick and resting too much. She needed Colic Calm later in the afternoon and had much more frequent bellaches towards evening.

I surprisingly wasn't too hungry in the evening and was able to just have an apple about an hour before I went to bed. No serious cravings bothered me today.

chicken broth in a mug with Celtic sea salt (Katie)

couple bites of boiled chicken (Katie) bellyache

raw organic date (Katie) bellyache continues

ginger tea with lemon and raw honey (me)

Breakfast: soup - carrot, celery for flavor, cauliflower, chicken broth, sea salt

Breakfast x2: white rice in chicken broth Celtic sea salt mixed with cauliflower and carrots (Katie) ; soup from above with boiled chicken, duck fat, and freshly-cracked organic black pepper (me)

organic ginger tea with organic lemon and raw local honey (me) I can't get enough of this stuff right now! Yummy.

elderberry juice (Katie)

Snack: organic date (Katie), boiled chicken with Celtic sea salt (me)

Snack: 4 kalamata olives (Katie)

Midafternoon meal: soup - broccoli & red potato in chicken broth with Celtic sea salt Katie bellyache-Colic Calm

organic rose hips tea, raw organic apple (me)

Snack: organic white rice cooked in chicken broth (Katie)

Dinner: boiled chicken with duck fat & Celtic sea salt and lacto-fermented pickles (me); bite of boiled chicken then organic white rice cooked in chicken broth with peas boiled in chicken broth (Katie) bellyache

Late night snack: raw apple (me)

GAPS Re-intro Day 2, Another Inch Forward

2012-01-25T09:54:00.002-05:00

The day's summary gets a little less succinct as it goes on. Brain fog begins to kick in...

We started this morning with GAPS Kitchen Syndrome (here's a visual from a GAPSter braver than I), so I have the first load of dishes running in the dishwasher now while I eat breakfast. I forsee some extra time spent in there today, since Katie's feeling better. Speaking of Katie, she went to sleep at eight o'clock last night and slept through until seven o'clock this morning. Bliss. She also feels much better today. I think after a bone broth marathon today, we just be just about back to normal and ready for full intro. I have two butternut squash that are just crying out for a Dark Days Challenge soup perfect for intro.

Katie's so much better this morning already. This is the second sickest I've seen her yet. I'm very grateful the worst of it was short-lived. Her coloring is no longer pasty white with red-rimmed eyes, the cheek bumps (eczema) that she's had for a couple of weeks are almost gone, her various scrapes and scratches are healing more quickly again (her skin is almost always very itchy and she scratches herself; we have an appt with our MD in two days to go over my food sensitivity test and talk about the possibility of the itching a manifestation of liver toxicity). Her increasing attitude issues are coming to a head where she is intolerant if she doesn't get her way. Luckily, I understand why it's happening and know it will disappear soon. After her almost return to wellness, the marked decrease in bellyaches is the best news of the day. It is such a relief. It was really bad before bed though and she needed Colic Calm to go to sleep. We'll stay away from all fruit (except elderberry syrup and the acerola cherry powder I'm expecting any day), and harsh foods like grilled meat is completely out of our diet now. Non-intro foods are almost gone!

I'm pretty symptom-free. I've been having backaches when I wake up and a bit of joint pain again. My muscles are stiff but it's mostly only noticable when I try yoga. My temper is much shorter than it has been in a long time and my patience has flown with it. The bellyache I had this evening followed eating an egg again, so eggs are now out for me also (Katie's allergic/sensitive). My biggest symptom is I'm freakin' cold. I'm cold all of the time again. Can't wait til that's gone.

We also both had detox baths. One quarter cup each of raw apple cider vinegar and epsom salts for Katie. 2 cups of epsom salts for me. I was super cold and didn't finish mine. I apparently need ultra-hot while I'm so cold. We ran out of hot water so today we'll stagger bath times.

Late evening update: Oh the PIZZA CRAVING!!! Wow. I almost caved on that one. I wanted breadsticks and a thin crust pizza so bad I could literally taste it. I was super hungry and wanted so heavy stick-to-your-ribs food with a side of quick energy. No sweet craving strangely enough. I relented to eat almost a whole jar of kalamata olives. That helped. Phew!

Custom probiotic (me)

elderberry syrup

Breakfast: cold rice congee (Katie); S.O.L.E. applesauce (me) no bellyache

Breakfast x2: boiled organic chicken with a bit of broth and Celtic sea salt (Katie) bellyache but more mild than yesterday

Still eating... (10 am): more rice congee for Katie, boiled chicken in broth and Celtic sea salt for me still trying to make my first soup

Lunch: a couple of bites of rice for Katie while soup cooled; soup of carrots, S.O.L.E. collard greens, and S.O.L.E. potatoes in chicken broth - potatoes are for belly-soothing properties - (added celery just for flavor, not eaten) no bellyache

white tea (me), elderberry juice (Katie)

Snack: raw organic apple (me)

Snack: hard-boiled egg, 1/2 grapefruit (me)

Dinner (kind of): rice in broth & boiled chicken, 1/2 grapefruit (me) bad bellyache for me; got too hungry but I'm sure it's from the egg earlier

Diner (kind of): 1/4 grilled hamburger (Katie) bellyache

boiled chicken in broth bellyache

Before bed snack: applesauce (Katie) bellyache / Colic Calm

Late night snack: kalamata olives, applesauce (me)

GAPS Re-intro, Day 1 - Easing Into It

2012-01-24T07:33:00.001-05:00

Last night, I managed to accomplish almost five hours of very broken sleep thanks to little miss Katie (3.5 years old). She fell asleep just after six o'clock on the way home from a birthday party. I mentioned in yesterday's post how tired she has been lately. She slept restlessly and woke up often, whining and finally crying. I gave her Colic Calm (baby version of activated charcoal) for her upset tummy at eight o'clock and rubbed her torso front and back to relieve some of the discomfort. She slept marginally better until 2:45 when she woke up hungry and thirsty. It took an hour to get her back to sleep after a bathroom break, drink of water, and a couple bites of rice. It took me even longer, but we slept well until seven...though I could have happily continued snoozing away. Thankfully, I am surprisingly chipper for such a rough night.

I was not prepared to begin GAPS intro today, and we have some non-intro food to finish up before hitting it hardcore. That means our meals will look more like intro as the day goes on. I still need to boil a chicken for meat and broth and whip up a couple of soups. I have some broth in the fridge, but it's not a hard gel and is getting old. I'm just going to toss it and make a new batch. Katie is not one for repeating the same meal too often, so I don't have the luxury of making one big pot of soup and heating that up for a couple of days.

2 pm update: Katie hasn't been well today. Red-rimmed eyes that occasionally water, runny nose, and some lethargy. She is still my loving, happy girl though. :) I think she picked up a virus from the birthday party, so I'm glad I kept her home from school. What a perfect day for intro! Rainy, dreary, cold, and virus-laden. Ick.

4:30 pm: Katie is dehydrated. She's been drinking but must have been dehydrated from yesterday. I'm going to rely on ice, since she's been asking for something cold and crunchy most of the day and is enjoying it. It's ice from the automatic ice machine in my freezer, so I'm going to make some with our reverse osmosis water tonight. I'm feeling fine but could really use some cookies. :)

Evening wrap up: My little munchkin was really sick all day with a slight fever and got progressively worse until about 5:30 when she perked up a little and played for a bit. She's previously been on the sofa all day watching TV, almost threw up once and wouldn't let me get up to do anything (my poor kitchen!). Her hunger returned by dinner and she was very receptive to the rice congee I made, but I have to admit that it was pretty delicious. Sometimes sick food really hits the spot. I'm going to try for two soups tomorrow. I'm hoping it's the last day of rice for Katie. I'm going to try to stay away from it. Cookie cravings started in late afternoon for me but weren't too bad. My energy was going downhill at that point though, so much so that I almost napped at six o'clock. Here's hoping that tomorrow is better!

Beginning of day: Custom Probiotic 11-strain

Breakfast: smashed organic avocado with Celtic sea salt, mashed organic potatoes (boiled in filtered water) with Celtic sea salt and duck fat; additional grapefruit for me, segments cut out to avoid much of the fiber; Adrenal Complex (me)

Snack: grilled leftover grass-fed, grain-finished organic hamburger (Katie); S.O.L.E. applesauce [apples and filtered water] then some boiled organic, somewhat local chicken with Celtic sea salt (me) A bit of tummy upset after the meat for both of us.

white tea, elderberry syrup; Adrenal Complex (me) Katie needed Colic Calm not too long after the elderberry syrup; not sure if it's a coincidence

Snack: mashed potatoes, boiled chicken in broth (Katie) Katie almost threw up after this but I think it's more the virus than the food or a low blood sugar issue

Mid/late afternoon meal: boiled chicken with guacamole [organic avocado, organic lemon juice, Celtic sea salt] (me); ice (Katie) Katie had been craving something cold and crunchy all day; she was very happy with the ice and it helped get more fluids into her

Munchie: organic date (Katie) No mention of a bellyache but she doesn't always like to tell me if it's not a bad one

Dinner: white rice congee [white rice, chicken broth, filtered water, Celtic sea salt] Katie required time for her belly to settle once during eating but wolfed down this meal; first sign of real hunger today

Late night munchies (me): clementine, 3 olives, mashed potatoes with duck fat and Celtic sea salt

Done with GAPS? Nope

2012-01-22T22:26:00.000-05:00

Who has two thumbs and is contemplating another round of GAPS intro? This gal. The flu is making it's second big cold weather round in the Detroit metro area. That means the bad bugs are flourishing and we are not. I was hit with the flu about three weeks ago and have only had a couple of days where I've felt completely well since. Plus, the lymph nodes under my jaw are still mildly swollen. On a positive note, the Adrenal Complex that I've been taking is making an extremely marked difference in my energy levels. I don't feel like I have mono anymore (even mild illnesses wipe me out for weeks in the energy department and it feels like I get mono every time I'm sick). Katie's GI situation has deteriorated rapidly where bellyaches now accompany every food that goes into her mouth (this has been going on for a couple of days and sends me into GAPS intro every time), and she's tired almost all of the time. The hubs has been off and on headachy, nauseous, and experiencing joint pain. So...it looks like we will be easing into stage 1 of the GAPS intro over the next week. The long term plan is to follow a GAPS-focused primal lifestyle from here on out.

What's the GAPS intro you ask? For those not familiar with the protocol, the short version is that we eat a lot of meats and vegetables slow cooked in bone broth to help heal our guts and therefore our immune systems. In stage one, all of our meals will be cooked this way. If you are curious about GAPS and want more information, feel free to start with this post. I'll blog our way through the changes until we're back on an even keel and get boring again.

If you want to learn more than you ever wanted to know about the primal diet and lifestyle or just want to know what it is, check it out here on Mark's Daily Apple. I've found his site to be a great resource in taking our new lifestyle into the next, and hopefully final, stretch.

Tomorrow: GAPS stage 1 + white rice and potatoes (to help calm upset bellies)

Dark Days Challenge - S.O.L.E. Roasted Chicken with Brussels Sprouts, Green Beans, Potatoes, and DUCK FAT!

2012-01-17T20:49:00.000-05:00

the last local organic pastured chicken from my freezer roasted to optimal crispy skin deliciousness

local, organic Brussels sprouts roasted in yep, you guessed it, duck fat

the non-local dish: organic haricots verts sauteed in duck fat (we like them well done)

lovely local, organic potatoes roasted in duck fat

Okay we're going short and sweet here. I have a hunnerd and eleventy things to do, but I'm not putting off this blog post again! :) I have been ill with adrenal fatigue and couple of viruses that knocked me out for most of the last two months, so blogging got knocked way down on the to do list. Thanks to a couple of fabulous little roots that are giving extra support to my adrenal glands [Standard Process Adrenal Complex], I'm back in action and eager to catch up. Woohoo!

There are a couple of non-local components to this meal, but they sounded really good so I decided not to exclude them. The Celtic sea salt and duck fat are neither organic nor local and the green beans are from somewhere yonder also. I always keep a few bags of our favorite frozen veggies in the freezer as back up and tear into them when the urge strikes or we need an extra veggie at mealtime.

All of the local items were purchased from The Garden Gate Farm at the Farmington Farmers' Market (now The Old Winery Farmers' Market for winter), one of our two favorite farms to buy from.

Ta ta for now friends. May your days be filled with good food and great friends and your nights with restful slumber.

Quick Update

2012-01-13T15:48:00.000-05:00

Let's unleash the randomness of run-on sentences and rambling thoughts!

Boy have I been quiet lately. With an uber busy December and the flu to help start my new year on a humble note, I have been kicking ideas around in my head for blog posts but nothing is quite ready to spew forth. I began seeing Katie's doctor and she is a beacon of light in a medical world gone sour. I have just started on Adrenal Complex by Standard Process and hope it works as well for me as it does for my doctor. She has gone through a gut healing protocol herself for food sensitivities and has adrenal fatigue. Plus, she believes in bone broth. Can you believe it?! The only time I've ever taken Katie for a sick visit, she suggested breast milk in Katie's eyes for mucous discharge and white tea to drink to help our bodies fight the germ. I was so grateful to have such natural remedies suggested for a 4 month old. They worked like a charm and I've been a big fan ever since. What was I saying? Oh yeah. In December, I had blood drawn for the Genova food sensitivity test (full panel) and the results just came in, so I hope that takes care of most of the remaining symptoms I have and it's not all related to adrenal fatigue. I'm getting pretty tired of feeling ewwy so often. Food sensitivities are much easier to take care of short term than adrenal fatigue. The only supplementation I'm currently taking is 10,000 IU of vitamin D [for 2 months or until it improves, on recommendation of my doctor since my level tested at 23 last month] + 1/2 t-1T fermented cod liver oil almost daily and the Adrenal Complex (I'm on day 1 of that one). Katie has been doing pretty well but the dark circles under her eyes are back and her demeanor is slightly less sweet at times. Yep, we've been eating grains. I am about ready to completely remove them from our diets again except on rare occasions, but I need to find my footing again first. Right now, my body is craving raw foods and white tea...and pizza with strawberry shakes but that's another story. Sick = cravings for junk food. I'd love to reset that trigger. I'd like to move our diet to 50-70% raw depending on the time of year and the needs of our body that day. I think that will be a summer time goal when my long-awaited garden is planted and producing and plant abundance has returned to SE Michigan. :deep breath: I think that about covers the main points.

DDC (Dark Days Challenge): I have been keeping up with eating seasonally and locally as much as is feasible for my family, and the challenge has allowed me to see how much I have incorporated local products into each meal. I don't set aside food for a DDC meal necessarily, but use local ingredients in whatever I cook. Staples lately are beef, eggs, raw milk, oats, Brussels sprouts, potatoes, and cabbage. DDC will be my first official post to get me back in the game. I'm hoping this weekend.

Happy germ dodging everyone! According to the posts on facebook, it's that time again.

Dark Days Challenge - S.O.L.E. Chicken with Onion Salad

2011-12-05T11:39:00.001-05:00

S.O.L.E. sustainable organic local ethical

My first contribution to S.O.L.E. cooking is a dish of boiled chicken, a dollop of chicken schmaltz, and a simple salad of sliced onions and parsley (Celtic sea salt and Bariani olive oil from California are non-local additions). Through my real food journey, I have learned that meals do not have to be complicated to be satisfying. My journey through the Dark Days Challenge will be full of stumbles and scrounging so simple is #1 in my menu plan. You see, I have no SOLE food put away for the winter. I am going into this challenge with sweat on my brow and a lot of blind faith in my Michigan farmers. I first began my sojourn into local foods at the beginning of this year and am still getting my feet wet. I have seeds for an heirloom garden that never got started, canning jars for food that never got preserved, and a dusty dehydrator. Oops. On a brighter note, I do have a contract with a raw milk co-op, about 1/4 of a cow left in my deep freezer with a ton of bones for broth, a bushel of apples to process, three small winter squash, a few onions and potatoes, some herbs that I just cut from my flower garden to freeze, and access year-round farmers' markets. This should be interesting.

My first DDC post: http://20somethingallergies.blogspot.com/2011/11/what-is-locavore-dark-days-challenge.html

December Deep Clean, Week 1 Plan

2011-12-02T11:44:00.000-05:00

Here is this week's cleaning list. For full explanations of what things like detail dusting are and why I dust mop the walls, see the FlyLady's website. She gives wonderfully detailed instructions that will allow you to tweak the cleaning to your needs. These lists may require some adjustments as I go through them. I apparently didn't finish my control journal, ahem. :blush: I am the queen of half finished projects. Good luck if you're following along!

Master Bedroom/Closet

¥ Clean off surfaces/declutter

¥ Dust mop ceiling and walls

¥ Damp wipe doors

¥ Detail dust

¥ Detail vacuum

¥ Change sheets

¥ Wipe baseboards

¥ Wash window

¥ Wash light

Master Bath

¥ Clean scale

¥ Dust mop ceiling and walls

¥ Damp wipe doors

¥ Wipe drawers and cabinets inside and out

¥ Wipe medicine cabinet inside and out

¥ Wipe closet shelves

¥ Wash countertop, sink, and faucet

¥ Wash toilet

¥ Scrub floor

¥ Vacuum closet

¥ Scrub shower and shower liner

¥ Wipe shower rod

¥ Wash shower curtain and liner

¥ Wash lights

Stairs/upstairs hallway

¥ Declutter hot spot

¥ Dust mop ceiling and walls

¥ Damp wipe doors

¥ Detail dust

¥ Detail vacuum

¥ Wipe baseboards

¥ Detail linen closet

¥ Wash lights

FlyLady December Deep Clean - Get your Home Ready for the Holidays!

2011-12-02T11:08:00.000-05:00

During the month of December, I will complete a floor to ceiling deep clean of my home to get ready for Christmas and the new year ala FlyLady. The FlyLady is Marla Cilley, an amazing woman who selflessly shares her tips for organizing and cleaning and has built a conglomeration of self-help gurus freely offering helpful information through her website and e-mails. It’s quite impressive. I have found that most of her cleaning methods work very well for me. Once I had Katie three and a half years ago, life took some serious twists and turns. Having a high-needs child with chemical sensitivities and food allergies who needed my attention 24/7 and only slept 30 minutes at a time obliterated my schedule. I had to learn how to do everything differently. Enter FlyLady. Have I mentioned her advice is FREE? It's almost a crime to not try it. She taught me how to make a control journal to organize my cleaning and be sure that everything got done before it became a problem area. Things like doing a load of laundry every day frees up the day I used to devote exclusively to washing clothes for the 1,001 other tasks that are always waiting for my attention. The reason I'm doing an intensive whole house clean now is because I haven’t followed my control journal after beginning the GAPS diet and turned my kitchen into a traditional foods kitchen at the beginning of the year. My hands were full enough! Now that I am in the swing of things and have a much greater level of health, it's time add another layer back into the mix. January will start a clean slate and I'll be able to begin my FlyLady routine again in full. The cleaning that I will do this month is something I normally split into seven weeks and is a continuous process that allows you to avoid the need for deep cleaning. It's also great for dust and mold allergies. You never have to wonder if you cleaned the ceiling fan this decade or if the underside of your fridge has dust hippos. Free yourself from dust and clutter (well, mostly) and enjoy your home again!

Here is my master plan for the month. Each week I will post a detailed list of what is to be cleaned at the beginning of the week and will recap with a post of what I was able to complete. Please feel free to jump in with me! Just modify the areas and tasks to fit your household. I have 15 areas in a 4 bedroom/3 bath house and just over 1700 square feet to clean.

Week 1, Dec 1-7

1. Master bedroom

2. Master bathroom

3. Stairway/upstairs hallway

Week 2, Dec 8-14

4. Guest room

5. Playroom

6. Kt bedroom

7. Kt bathroom

Week 3, Dec 15-21

8. Powder room

9. Laundry room

10. Kitchen

11. Entryway

Week 4, Dec 22-28

12. Living room

13. Dining room

14. Front porch

Dec 29-31

missed tasks

What is a Locavore? The Dark Days Challenge

2011-11-29T15:16:00.000-05:00

What is a locavore?

With all the new buzzwords, it can be hard to keep up. Sustainable, eco-friendly, WAPF, traditional foods, lacto-fermented, and slow food are some of the relatively new terms that are increasingly important to people tired of the mass-produced everything in our lives. Taking that one step further, a locavore is someone who strives to consume foods that are produced close to home, within a 100 mile radius for our purposes (150 officially for this challenge). Click on this link for a great article on where and how to begin eating locally. Being a locavore allows me to support my local Michigan economy, direct my money toward small farms where families work hard - very hard - to provide local families with life-sustaining food out of the goodness of their hearts, and it maximizes the nutrient content of my family's food. With all of the health scares that come out almost daily now, I don't have to worry that my lettuce may have come from a contaminated factory farm, my meat could contain salmonella from dirty animals or a dirty processing plant, or my honey is illegally sourced from China. My lettuce comes from farmer Neil and his wife Martha, and the cow in my freezer, raw unfiltered honey, and raw milk come from Kevin and Jenny who run Hicks Dairy Farm. It is a satisfaction that I can't put into words. We do still buy some of our food from Whole Foods Market but are well on our way to becoming partially self-sustaining locavores. My goal is to be at least 85% locavore by the end of 2012 and to have a successful mini-suburbanite homestead that provides vegetables, plants for medicine, and berries. I can't wait!

I have teamed up with a sizable group of like-minded adventurists in The Dark Days Challenge. We will each attempt to create at least once meal per week as locally-sourced as possible and blog about it. The rules are here, put up by the (no so) urban Hennery, and the Sunday bi-weekly recaps will be here at Not Dabbling In Normally. I have to admit that this is definitely going to be a challenge for me. With my daughter's many food allergies, our healing diet (GAPS), and having no preserved local produce on hand, we are limited with our food choices. With those extra hurdles in mind, I'm still very excited and hope you will join me on my journey. :)

All my best,
Jennifer

30 day Health Challenge - Day 26-30, Sick, My Issues with an Allopathic Doctor, and What's Next!

2011-11-29T12:30:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm not finishing out the challenge very well. I've been down and out with an unfriendly virus or bacteria. When I get sick, my endocrine system tends to crash and my main symptoms become tiredness and weakness. It feels a bit like a cross between mono and the side effects of a lengthy fast. Not fun. The lymph nodes just under my jaw are slightly swollen and my throat is a bit red. I went into the doctor's office to have blood work taken so I could confirm an infection and have a nutrient and hormone panel done. It's time to do more specific healing, so I need to know exactly where my issues lie. It was a frustrating visit, but at least I was able to have the tests run. Most of what I told her flew over her head. I told her my symptoms were excessive weakness, tiredness, occasional nausea and shaking when I overexert myself, adema (water retention), listlessness, swollen lymph nodes, trouble digesting for a couple of weeks, and recent noise sensitivity that makes me irritable. She was looking for specific information so she could diagnose me with something obvious like the flu or pneumonia and was stumped with what I gave her. She believes I must be pregnant since I seem too healthy to have anything wrong with me and that I need to take an acid inhibitor for the nausea and digestion issues. I did explain that I have an endocrine issue and have had one as long as I can remember. The whole thing was very frustrating. I had to tell her twice that I don't take man-made medications when she tried to prescribe an acid inhibitor. As she walked out the door, she did tell me that I'm doing a good thing by taking care of myself and not filling my body up with medicines. No thanks to her. Grr. One thing I am happy about is my heart rate. It has gone from the low 80's to the high 50's-low 60's. My cardiovascluar system is much stronger from the change in diet and exercise. Yay!

What I believe my true diagnosis is: My entire endocrine system is damaged (very common in today's world) and the glands are not able to properly do their job, affecting each other and the rest of my body's processes - and accounting for most of my symptoms -. With the extra stress it is putting on my body lately, there isn't enough energy left to do the 'heavy lifting' jobs properly like digestion. I'm happy to say a lot of symptoms I used to have have been healed already. Right now, it seems to be my pituitary, thyroid, and adrenal glands that need special attention. The nausea is just a warning system that I'm in rough shape, have extra toxins in my system, and need to rest. The adema issue can be attributed to a sluggish lymph system which corresponds to the chronic illnesses and stress my body has been under for 33 years. The overwhelming weakness, tiredness, and swollen lymph nodes are due to an acute infection that my body is fighting.

Two very different diagnoses. I wonder who will be right. ;)

I won't be posting any more on the challenge. We're at the end and all of the items I was focused on are already part of my daily life. I'm going to set up a routine, so I can be sure I keep up on the things that are important to my health. I need to finish healing so I can focus solely on hubby, my munchkin, and the rest of my 'patients'.

Thanks for following me through this month of self-discovery. :) Next up will be a December challenge of deep cleaning the house with the FlyLady's methods to get ready for Christmas. I've been a little lax on the heavy cleaning and recently saw a cobweb, so I'm on a mission to get back on track there too! I've also joined another challenge (see a pattern here?) to cook locally one meal a week from now through the middle of March. I'll be posting more on those over the next couple of days.

30 day Health Challenge - Day 25

2011-11-29T11:26:00.000-05:00

Update 11/29/11: I've been sick so didn't finish the log for day 25. The egg nogg did not go voer well at all. My stomach was not happy with it in any way so that will not be a repeated treat. I don't remember the rest of the day so there's not much of a synopsis for the day.

Workout: (new workout to trial for one week to finish out my challenge; I think I'll incorporate it with BodyRock)
Brazil Butt Lift - High and Tight, Abs Rapido http://www.beachbody.com/product/fitness_programs/brazil_butt_lift.do

Eats:
grapefruit
1/2 Larabar-peanut butter cookie
pumpkin custard
leftovers: turkey, cranberry rose hips sauce, squash, swiss chard, quinoa dressing
turkey breast with mustard
about 10 oz 'eggnog' [2 c homemade coconut milk, 4 pastured raw egg yolks, 1 T raw local honey, 3/4 t vanilla, freshly-grated nutmeg, cinnamon, and added probiotic as insurance against bad bacteria since the egg yolks are not local]

Cheats:
nuts, quinoa

Water:
40 oz ?

Items I was able to tick off the list:
oil pulling
dry brushing
detox bath
juicing
fermented cod liver oil
~~probiotics~~
herbal teas (counting green tea since it's medicinal)
~~bone broth~~
raw liver pills
~~coconut oil~~

30 day Health Challenge - Day 24, A Clean Eats Thanksgiving!

2011-11-25T08:41:00.000-05:00

That is one of the most enjoyable Thanksgiving days that I can remember. Though we were missing some key family members, it was filled with laughter, happiness, good company, and wonderful food. I cannot stress how comfortable I was with my food decisions. I.had.no.urge.to.cheat. My mother-in-law also makes pretty healthy dishes. She's from northern Italy and definitely didn't grown up cooking out of boxes and cans. It was so easy to choose some of her dishes and supplement with mine. Quinoa dressing/stuffing (depending on where you're from; it was officially dressing since I didn't stuff it) is one of my new favorite menu items. I'll add a blog post about dinner with recipes soon. It will definitely be a new staple in our holiday menu. Though not GAPS legal, I'm okay with it on special occasions. It was nice to feel good all day. There was no sleepy, overstuffed, dull feeling that comes with eating foods that bother me or filling up on chemicals and preservatives. We have reached another level of healing folks, and it feels FANTASTIC!

I have a bit of water retention. I don't know if it's due to starting my monthly cycle or not working out these last couple of days. I do notice a definite difference when I am working out and drinking enough water, so I'll have to see if it makes a difference when I work out tomorrow. I may have a sluggish lymph flow. Luckily, it's an easy fix. :) My days have been starting with 20 oz of water. I think it's a good way to begin my morning with the amount of toxins that need to be flushed out of my system. Another new healthy habit. :)

Workout:
none - I could have worked out, but I decided to enjoy my holiday evening with a little tv with hubs and go to bed early.

Eats:
grapefruit
1/2 Larabar - peanut butter cookie
grass-fed hamburger with mustard, cayenne, and garlic powder
Thanksgiving dinner: 2 olives [from the olive bar, not American-style canned], roasted turkey [flavored with only herbs], turkey gravy (demi-glace of turkey broth), quinoa stuffing/dressing [quinoa, turkey broth, celery, carrots, chicken fat, Celtic sea salt], cranberry & rose hips sauce [cranberries, rose hips, water, maple syrup], sweet potatoes and apples [nothing added], mashed winter squash with cinnamon [nothing added], sauteed green beans [olive oil and Celtic sea salt], spinach salad with tomatoes [dressing of lemon juice and olive oil], pumpkin custard [pumpkin puree, eggs, local unfiltered raw honey, spices, Celtic sea salt]
leftovers bowl - green beans, quinoa stuffing, peas, turkey, gravy (yum)

Cheats:
maple syrup (since Katie's allergic to honey, it is my only natural sweetener alternative), nuts, sweet potatoes

Water:
30 oz ?

Items I was able to tick off the list:
oil pulling
dry brushing
detox bath
juicing
fermented cod liver oil
probiotics
herbal teas (counting green tea since it's medicinal)
~~bone broth~~
raw liver pills
coconut oil

30 day Health Challenge - Day 23

2011-11-24T20:23:00.000-05:00

After a good night's sleep, I feel great. I'm very much looking forward to Thanksgiving tomorrow and getting some of the cooking done today. Have not had any trouble with the nuts in the Larabars. I guess that's a good sign even though I would like to keep them out of my diet for now due to my reaction in the past. The sausage and eggs I ate late morning were a BAD idea. I was sick after that with what felt like digestive upset, kidney pain, muscle aches in my lower back, and pre-cramps. I've been reading again on olive oil and citrus liver/gall bladder cleanses, and it sparked the idea to have some citrus. After my first glass of grapefruit juice, I started feeling a bit better. I stayed with very light vegan foods for the rest of the day and followed my cravings for citrus. By evening, I felt rebalanced and restored. Nice. Maybe one day a week should be dedicated to cleansing. Let's see how things go.

Workout:

Eats:
Larabar - blueberry muffin
pastured eggs cooked in chicken schmaltz (fat) with Applegate Farm hot pepper sausage
green tea with lemonbalm (my absolute favorite drink right now)
grapefruit juice with honey, freshly squeezed
orange juice, freshly squeezed
larabar - peanut butter cookie
1/2 grapefruit
carrot and apple juice, freshly juiced
grapefruit & cucumber

Cheats:
nuts

Water:
28 oz?

Items I was able to tick off the list:
oil pulling
dry brushing
detox bath
~~juicing~~fermented cod liver oil
~~probiotics~~
~~herbal teas~~ (counting green tea since it's medicinal)
bone broth
raw liver pills
coconut oil

30 day Health Challenge - Day 22

2011-11-23T09:14:00.000-05:00

Today was a day off from blogging. Since I only had a couple of hours of sleep and was dealing with the after-effects of the muffin fiasco, ahem, I took a break. I did have my elderberry and tart cherry juice, oil pulled, drank green and nettle teas, has pizza from Whole Foods and Morning O's but otherwise ate nourishing foods that were soothing to my body, and then went to bed early. Katie and I spent much of the evening cuddling and watching movies (Tinkerbell and Santa Paws) which was more wonderful than words can convey. Another good day in spite of recovering.

30 day Health Challenge - Day 21

2011-11-22T16:58:00.000-05:00

Today was so much better. My thyroid either kicked back into gear or got a break (if it is my thyroid for sure), because I was able to go all day long with minimal breaks and was happy to spend much of my time playing with Katie in between cleaning tasts. I can't wait until just about every day feels like this. That's worth all the hard work, effort, and setbacks. :) I didn't feel overhyper either, just nice and calm and able to plod along. I could have used an eensy weensy more pep and really wanted a nice caffe latte to put a spring in my step. All in all, a nice normal day.

Edited to add: Woke up at 3:30 throwing up. Something in the muffins is not my friend though all the ingredients have proven to be okay in the past. I got about 2 1/2 hours of sleep and spent the night with swollen glands and a clogged sinus - I believe from all of the acids that were in my GI tract and came out the wrong end -. Not so fun. At least it's something new though! lol

Workout:
50 sec. exercise / 10 sec. rest, run through routine 3 times
plank jacks
side lunge kick ups, right leg
side lunge kick ups, left leg
burpees

Eats:
1/2 Larabar - banana bread (tasted off so didn't finish)
soup [chicken bone broth, water, carrots, green peas, spinach, local potatoes, Celtic sea salt, freshly-cracked black pepper]
Larabar - peanut butter and jelly
green beans sauteed in olive oil (oil added at the end on low heat)
elderberry and tart cherry juice
boiled chicken with spices, raw onion slices, and celery salad [diced celery, olive oil, Celtic sea salt]
2 'kitchen sink' muffins [homemade - date sugar, maple syrup, rice flour, quinoa flour, raisins, carrots, apples, baking powder, baking soda, Celtic sea salt, duck egg, pumpkin puree]
5 a.m. to settle the burning in my stomach - Morning O's (Whole Foods GF Cheerios)

Cheats:
potatoes, quinoa flour, rice flour, baking soda, maple syrup, nuts, Morning O's

Water:
48 oz

Items I was able to tick off the list:oil pulling
dry brushing
detox bathjuicing
fermented cod liver oil
probiotics
herbal teas (counting green tea since it's medicinal)
~~bone broth~~
raw liver pills
coconut oil

30 day Health Challenge - Days 18-20

2011-11-21T08:35:00.000-05:00

Besides general cleaning and minor cooking, I spent the weekend in bed. I felt weak and shaky which would make me very tired as soon as I started a task. I made sure to eat enough so it wasn't calorie depletion. I also have not been anywhere close to starving myself or restricting calories. I don't feel the need to restrict calories when eating the right foods. I did try to calorie binge with the pizza but it didn't help. After the pizza, the inside corners of my eyes turned dark showing a build up of toxins (also known as allergic shiners). Eating well wasn't a problem for the majority of the weekend. There weren't too many cravings battling for attention. Sunday felt a little better with regards to being tired but my muscles still felt quite weak. I incorporated calisthetics here and there throughout the day - 5 pushups then back in bed - to keep from getting too stiff, get my blood moving, and to avoid losing the muscle tone that I've been working hard to grow. There was no meat thawed for dinner last night and I couldn't find the quinoa that I wanted to pair with veggies so decided to order ribs from a local restaurant. I wanted a heavy, indulgent meal as I felt unsatisfied with food and kind of hungry most of the day no matter what I ate. Strangely enough, I started to feel better once I finished my meal. Hmm. That one has me stumped. If it was only calorie related, the pizza should have had the same effect. My best guess right now is that it is all hormone related and corresponds to my cycle, so I'll be doing some research to see what information I can find. I will beat this lethargy! It's horribly debilitating and affecting my life in too profound a way.

Workouts: 18-19th none; 20th 10 push ups, 10 kick lunges, 20 squats, high knees marching and racing with Katie :)

Eats:
leftover pizza [takeout]
grass-fed hamburgers with ketchup, mustard, and Cholula (ketchup and mustard GAPS legal, no sweeteners)
lacto-fermented cauliflower & carrots
Larabars - pecan pie, blueberry muffin, cashew cookie
almond butter
green beans
canned tuna with diced celery, onions, cayenne, mustard powder, Celtic sea salt, and freshly-cracked black pepper
elderberry and tart cherry juice
scrambled eggs (accidently scrambled with butter by hubby)
pork ribs, french fries, and coleslaw [takeout]
?

Cheats: pizza, barbecue sauce, french fries, coleslaw, nuts (not a GAPS cheat but I react to nuts), Cholula (contains xanthan gum), butter (accidental)
apple with dip - coconut oil, local raw honey, cayenne, cinnamon, and ground cloves

~~Water:~~
I tried to drink at least 60 oz each day but I'm not sure where I ended up.
Items I was able to tick off the list:
oil pulling
dry brushing
detox bath
juicing
fermented cod liver oil
probiotics
herbal teas (counting green tea since it's medicinal)
bone broth
raw liver pills
~~coconut oil~~

30 day Health Challenge - Day 17

2011-11-18T10:58:00.000-05:00

The day wasn't awful, but I was dragging through it again. That's starting to get old. Being home with a three year old and having a traditional foods, grain-free kitchen does not leave much time for rest. These are the days I wistfully thing of slugging away at my desk, crunching numbers while I chug coffee and tea and nosh on sweets. A sugar and caffeine buzz would definitely give me the kick in the butt I need to feel perky again. All day I felt depleted, tired, and in need of a rest from everything I've been doing lately. The hubs was out of town again overnight for work so there was no help there. I decided to spend the evening chilling in front of the tv, and it turned into an indulgent evening of ordering pizza. The good thing? Everything tasted bland and wrong. There is a definite shift going on with my taste preferences. Time for a taste memory adjustment. :) I wanted baked goods yesterday but was craving my own clean cookies yesterday more than the GFCF sugar cookies that we have leftover in the pantry. That would be uber great if I could have grains. Coconut and nut flours are legal on GAPS but not Katie allergy friendly so a no go unless I bake and eat them late at night. Frustrating. I notice that my need for something illegal overwhelms me about once a week. It brought me to the idea of a cheat day that many choose as part of their healthy food lifestyle. Why do we need those days for foods that make us feel unwell and aren't good for us? It it due to a simple imbalance in nutrients, enzymes, or the like? It can't be straight calories, since I've tracked my calorie intake before. I'm going to have to start looking into what supplements I can trial to see if it makes a difference. Money is too tight right now for me to join Katie in her nutrition testing. On a side note, I'm about to start looking into ways to whittle down my food budget. I'll try to blog about it for anyone who's having the same struggles. It's more than many people's mortgage payment, and I could use some of that money back!

Workout: none

Eats: (all organic but sea salt and elderberry & tart cherry syrups used to make juice)
apple with dip [organic coconut oil, raw local honey, cayenne, cinnamon, and ground cloves]
carrot, apple, ginger juice (freshly juiced)
carrot, spinach, cauliflower, green pea soup
elderberry and tart cherry juice
green tea
carrot, spinach, cauliflower, green pea soup with added chicken and a duck egg stirred in
local pastured beef roast with cayenne, mustard powder, and garlic powder alongside local mashed potatoes with olive oil and both seasoned with Celtic sea salt
Hungry Howie's pizza and breadsticks with ranch dressing - medium thin crust 1/2 plain, 1/2 pineapple and onion, no flavored crust

Cheat: white potatoes, takeout pizza & breadsticks with ranch dressing

Water:
40 oz (?)

Items I was able to tick off the list:
oil pulling
dry brushing
detox bath
~~juicing~~
~~fermented cod liver oil~~
probiotics
~~herbal teas~~ (counting green tea since it's medicinal)
~~bone broth~~
raw liver pills
~~coconut oil~~

30 day Health Challenge - Day 16

2011-11-17T09:01:00.000-05:00

Today was another tired day. I did some housework, cooking and mommy stuff, but mainly I rested. I was moderately irritable and felt fed up with everything which tells me I definitely needed a break and a time out. I just wanted to order pizza for dinner and curl up on the sofa so I didn't have to have anything to do with the kitchen. Sometimes, I really miss convenience foods. I had no urge to eat something so detrimental to my health as takeout pizza but wanted the ease of it for the three of us...not that hubs or munchkin can eat it anyway with his [recovering] diabetes and her allergies. Katie has also been very finicky with food lately and only has a bite or two of what I make before she's unsatisfied and wants something else. That is maddening when everything is cooked from scratch. The "fun" foods that she cheated with over the last week was almost the only thing she was happy to eat, and it was so nice to take the pressure off. I know it's not the best for her health or healing progress but it was good for both of our mental health, and that has to take precedence on occasion.

12 DAYS WITH NO DAIRY! I'm very proud of myself. :) A definite first for me. I have been wanting it today but I think I'm low on nutrients, so tomorrow will be a big day for catching up on juicing, bone broth, and nettle tea.

I'm more than half way done now but it seems like this challenge is stretching on forever. I'm a true sprinter and bust out of the gate full boar but then tend to lose focus. Ooh! Something shiny...and then I want to chase the new shiny that takes my focus. I've been working very hard on learning to follow through when I feel it's important to. This challenge being so short, I am definitely sticking with it. I'd feel pretty pathetic giving up now when there's nothing holding me back from completing it. And I would absolutely regret quitting. I'm sure after a day or two, I'll be raring to go again.

Workout: none

Eats:
boiled chicken with cumin and cayenne powders and Celtic sea salt with raw sliced onion
green tea
green beans sauteed in duck fat, crockpotted beef roast, and raw shredded carrot
rose hips tea with elderberry and tart cherry concentrates
sauteed green beans and pumpkin custard
egg drop soup with black pepper, garlic powder, cayenne, and Celtic sea salt
shredded chicken with cumin, black pepper, garlic powder, cayenne, and Celtic sea salt
half an apple

Water:
60 oz

Items I was able to tick off the list:oil pulling
dry brushing
detox bath
juicing
~~fermented cod liver oil~~
probiotics
~~herbal teas~~
~~bone broth~~
raw liver pills
coconut oil

30 day Health Challenge - Day 15, Half Way Through!

2011-11-16T09:07:00.001-05:00

Overall I definitely feel better than when I started the challenge just over two weeks ago. It's been almost a week since I had the last illegals, and it's been easier than I thought to stay away from them. A health challenge was definitely what I needed to refocus. I checked my weight and took my measurements. The change in numbers isn't too impressive, but I'm okay with that. There has been a definite change in how much fat I can pinch and I was able to fasten my smallest pair of jeans (size 4) today. I can't sit in them comfortably yet but, about a week and a half ago, they were about an inch away from closing. Wahoo! I am working on building muscle and whittling my shape, so the last of this extra fat isn't my main focus. It's still coming off and I'm pleased with the progress. I'm going to try a Beachbody program for the last week of the challenge. Some of my biggest motivators are Beachbody coaches and have seen pretty amazing results with the Insanity and Asylum programs. Top athlete is the best way to describe it! I won't be trying those but I'm thinking of P90X. We'll see. I'm looking for something without the cheese factor that won't kill me. Wussy. :D If I like it, I'll probably follow it for the full prescribed time and then go back to BodyRock for maintenance and to keep myself fit and healthy. I feel so much better when I work out so I better stick to my guns and keep it up. My energy is also steadily improving. I do get quite tired in the afternoon but I feel the need to get things done around the house more often, especially those little things that get pushed down the to do list.

Stats: (measurements are in pounds and inches for my international readers)

height: 5 feet 1 inch

about 1-2 weeks prior to starting the challenge:
weight - 124.6 lbs.
biceps - right, 11 in. left, 11.75 in.
ribcage - 30.5
waist - 27.5
hips - 37.5
thigh - 22.75
calf - 14

day 1
weight - 127.8-128.7 ? (forgot to write it down)
biceps - right, 11.5 left, 11.5
ribcage - not taken
waist - 29
hips - 37.75
thigh - 23.5
calf - 14.25

day 15 (very similar to my first stats but the fat:muscle ratio has definitely changed and my arms are growing!)
weight - 124.6
biceps - right, 12 left, 11.5
ribcage - 30
waist - 27.5
hips - 37.5
thigh - 23
calf - 14.25

Workout: (I almost didn't work out but ended up talking myself into it. I first thought I wouldn't work out. Then, I decided to at least do some yoga. After watching Hawaii 5.0, I was all pumped up so just did my workout anyway. Yay! I made up my own non-impact routine from BodyRock exercises, since I cracked my shin today on the wood stairs in the basement and it's all swollen and bruised.)
plank up - 10
backward lunge leg lift - 25 each leg
one leg bridge leg lift - 25 each leg
one arm side push up - 10 each arm
side plank lifts - 10 each side
one leg wall sit - 25 small pulses each leg

Eats: (95% organic)
1 can tuna with shredded carrots, diced celery, finely diced onion, olive oil, and Celtic sea salt
cranberry rosehips sauce [cranberries, water, rosehips, & raw honey blended until smooth]
butternut squash soup [butternut squash, water, Celtic sea salt, and drizzled with olive oil; raw honey and cinnamon added to mine]
elderberry and tart cherry juice
boiled chicken with raw celery salad (sounds uber boring and tasteless but it was actually really good!)
pumpkin custard [pumpkin puree, duck eggs, honey, Celtic sea salt; I added cinnamon, cardamom, and ground cloves to mine]

Water:
about 64 oz

Items I was able to tick off the list:
oil pulling
dry brushing
detox bath
juicing
~~fermented cod liver oil~~ [no more butter oil since I have removed dairy from my diet]
~~probiotics~~
herbal teas
bone broth
raw liver pills
coconut oil

30 day Health Challenge - Day 14

2011-11-15T01:07:00.001-05:00

I was fairly tired today and spent much of the day resting. I didn't feel too bad overall but I felt the need to give myself a break (though I did the same yesterday). It may have been the rough night of sleep Katie - and therefore I - got last night or detox or healing or hormones or who knows; regardless I took a break. My mood was pretty darn good through the day. Getting the motivation to work out tonight was a bit rough though. I would have rather climbed into bed early but realized I was starting to not feel as well as evening went on and knew I needed a detox bath. If I didn't, then tomorrow's plan would have gone out the window. Katie goes to school in the morning and I have an hour at home until I have to return to pick her up. I need that hour to catch up on some housework and I would have needed to take my bath then if I chose to skip it tonight. So, if I'm going to take my bath tonight, I might as well work out first because I don't want to get back in the habit of not working out like I have in the past. I'm glad I reasoned myself into it. :) Luckily, I have a good support system of friends who are willing to help keep me going and keep the positive stream of thoughts in my head. It's been a great help in fully sticking to GAPS (no cheating since Thursday and this through ovulation, quite an impressive feat for me) and completing my workouts.

Workout: 2 sets, 50/10 second split - sliding push ups, butterfly crunches, right leg lunges, left leg lunges, monkey push ups, jump squats

Eats: (95% organic)
curried vegetable soup [carrot, celery, green peas, cauliflower, onions, roasted garlic, curry powder, Caltic sea salt, olive oil]
8 oz elderberry & tart cherry juice with 1/2 t Natural Calm
1/2 can of tuna with finely diced celery, shredded carrot, diced onion, olive oil, and black pepper and green beans sauteed in olive oil (steamed then turned down to medium low before adding olive oil)
apple with dip [coconut oil, raw local honey, cinnamon, cayenne pepper]
roast duck with cranberry rose hips sauce [fresh cranberries, dried roships, and water simmered and pureed until smooth then raw honey added to taste after cooling], leftover green beans, and raw celery salad [diced celery, olive oil, Celtic sea salt]
coconut flakes [unsweetened, dehydrated]
raisins

Water:
about 54 oz

Items I was able to tick off the list:
~~oil pulling~~dry brushing
~~detox bath~~juicing
~~fermented cod liver oil~~ [no more butter oil since I have removed dairy from my diet]
~~probiotics~~
herbal teas
~~bone broth~~
raw liver pills
~~coconut oil~~

30 day Health Challenge - Week 2

2011-11-14T10:17:00.000-05:00

The weekly update isn't working well for me. I have gotten off track and am not diligent in making sure I get everything that I wanted done. I am still trucking along though and have noticed a difference in how my body looks and I can squeeze less. ;) The highlights of the week: 1) my increased water consumption - 60-80 oz so far - that has really helped me release the extra water I was retaining and allowed my body to detox further than the other methods were able to. I was apparently missing the foundation. :) 2) I am conquering my cravings even during a hormone cycle. I cheated a bit during the earlier part of the week, but yesterday, 11/13, I was craving fast food, Cool Ranch Doritos, Pop Tarts, brownies, blondies, pastries, donuts, and a number of other toxic foods but was able to curb the compulsion to eat them with extra water, an individual size box of raisins, and good healthy REAL FOOD. I've managed to form a wonderfully supportive group of friends who make it easier to stay strong. As soon as I acknowledged the cravings publicly, they were no longer overwhelming. That's new and a very welcome change! Those childhood comfort food cravings can rage out of control until I become a raging bear if I don't indulge. If I can make it through the PMS cravings and finish out the month strong, I will consider one giant mountain scaled and on the way to conquered!!

I'm going back to daily updates from here on out so I can better keep track of things and monitor my progress.

Workout:
11/8 - none
11/9 - http://www.bodyrock.tv/2010/11/27/the-trainer-who-loved-me-workout/ (-30 breakdance pushups) + 14 burpees
11/10 yoga
11/11 ?
11/12 20 burpees
11/13 6 crawling push ups (had a rest day but made sure I got a little bit in)

CHEATS: quinoa, cashews, cocoa powder, oatmeal, GFCF (no gluten, no dairy) sugar cookies and CF/wheat-free Fig Newmans

The list of things I would like to incorporate daily during the challenge:
oil pulling
dry brushing
detox bath
juicing
fermented cod liver oil [no more butter oil since I have removed dairy from my diet]
probiotics
herbal teas
bone broth
raw liver pills
coconut oil

Items I missed:

11/8
herbal teas
raw liver pills
coconut oil

11/9
oil pulling
herbal teas

11/10-11/13
?

30 day Health Challenge - Day 7, One Week In!

2011-11-09T08:29:00.000-05:00

After an evening chiropractic adjustment, I started feeling achy in all my joints like I was getting the flu. My kidneys then started hurting enough that I took some activated charcoal for the first time to help absorb some toxins. I'm not sure if my decision to not work out and take my detox bath was a good decision so my body could rest of hindered my body in releasing those toxins. I should have probably have taken the bath but definitely skipped the workout.

11/9 update: My kidneys hurt again the next day and my face looked slightly jaundiced, but I skipped the coconut oil, raw liver pills, and workout to slow down the detox and added chlorella with fermented tumeric to help clean my blood and I feel fine this morning.

Workout:
none (hubby's last night home before a week long business trip so I skipped it; I also felt pretty awful)

Eats: (all organic)
Tart cherry concentrate and elderberry syrup with enough water to make a juice (cherry and elderberry not organic)
dandelion root tea
local, pastured beef roast with 2 local, pastured scrambled eggs, roasted garlic, cold-pressed olive oil (not organic), celtic sea salt, freshly-cracked black pepper
pomegranate
pomegranate, apple, celery juice
carrot, cauliflower, green pea, hard-boiled egg, and roasted chicken soup with Celtic sea salt
apple with dip - coconut oil & raw local honey with cardamom, cinnamon, curry, and chipotle powders

Items I was able to tick off the list:
~~oil pulling~~
dry brushing
detox bath
juicing
fermented cod liver oil [no more butter oil since I have removed dairy from my diet]
~~probiotics~~
~~herbal teas~~bone broth - had small amount from cooking veggies but not enough to count
raw liver pills
~~coconut oil~~

30 day Health Challenge - Change in posting format for weeks 2-4

2011-11-09T08:21:00.000-05:00

Since daily posts for 30 days will become too monotonous for all of us, I'll start doing weekly posts and just add small details to Facebook when there's something interesting to share.

30 day Health Challenge - Day 6

2011-11-07T00:10:00.001-05:00

I'm not finding much of interest to put in today's synopsis. We were home all day since our plans were postponed. I was very sleepy tired this morning (not die off tired) but managed to do more cooking, cleaning, and playing, fell asleep on the sofa for about an hour while my amazingly wonderful daughter quietly watched Eloise next to me, and then cooked, cleaned, and played some more. I didn't feel like I had a lot of energy today, but I was able to keep going as long as I took breaks. That's still a major improvements of how I used to feel almost daily. I went to bed early last night but Katie didn't sleep well and therefore I didn't either. I spent a couple of hours reading in the middle of the night, because I couldn't get back to sleep. Fun. Still dealing with brain fog and it's getting to be problematic. I walk into a room and completely forget what I was doing. Hubby answered me this evening and I had already forgotten what I initially said to him. This lack of functioning has been gone for many months now, and I don't want it back! I need to be able to multitask again. Okay enough yick yacking, my tired body is going to drag my dull brain off to bed.

Workout:
http://www.bodyrock.tv/2011/11/04/set-fire-to-your-abs-workout/

Eats: (all organic)
local, pastured roasted chicken with chipotle powder, freshly cracked black pepper, and Celtic sea salt
rose hips tea with tart cherry concentrate and elderberry syrup (cherry and elderberry not organic)
carrot, cauliflower, green pea, roasted garlic, and roasted chicken soup with curry and chipotle powders and Celtic sea salt
raisins
even more roasted chicken, sauteed green beans with olive oil, organic & local sweet pepper salad all with Celtic sea salt
apple with dip - coconut oil & raw local honey with cardamom, cinnamon, and curry powders

Items I was able to tick off the list:
oil pulling - forgot this morning, don't want to cut into sleep time for it tonight
dry brushing - forgot until I was done with my workout; have to remember to do it before
~~detox bath~~ - 1/2 c Bragg raw apple cider vinegar
juicing
~~fermented cod liver oil~~ [no more butter oil since I have removed dairy from my diet]
~~probiotics~~ - beet kvass, not commercial probiotic
herbal teas
bone broth
raw liver pills
coconut oil

30 day Health Challenge - Day 5

2011-11-06T19:51:00.000-05:00

I was feeling much better today and had good energy, enough to work in the kitchen from 9-4 with only an hour break in the middle for lunch and a rest. I roasted two chickens, made butternut squash soup, carrot, cauliflower, and green pea stoup (stew/soup), a big batch of nettle and rose hips tea for the evening, apple/pear sauce, some other odds and ends that I can't think of right now and did some of the endless dishes that cooking everything from scratch entails. It was nice to leave the kitchen cleaner than it began after batch cooking. No milk cravings today - thank goodness - but some intense sweet cravings occasionally that made me turn to raisins. I'll use them to help with the sweet cravings but will eliminate them in a few days. We went to see friends for dinner at their house and that was surprisingly easy. Se our friends are from Italy and made pizza. Italian pizza with homemade crust and cheeses straight from the Italian market. I brought our dinner and, while hubby indulged a bit, I did just fine with what I brought. My only splurge was a small glass of red wine that my in-laws brought. It tasted divine, but I remembered afterward that I think I'm sensitive to the sulfites. I was swollen and my knuckles were quite painful afterward. I don't think Katie was feeling well stomachwise. She only ate a bite here and there throughout the evening and has had hiccups. A classic food reaction for her. Sigh. As soon as we got home, I went up to bed. I can rarely go to bed before midnight (night owl) so I was excited to think I'd get some extra sleep. I usually feel run down by the weekend and hoped some extra sleep would help my energy level and muscle recovery since I'm still sore and stiff. Well, that about sums it up for day 5. Nothing too interesting. :)

Workout: skipped for extra sleep

Eats:
juice - carrot, radish, cabbage with beet kvass
apple with dip (coconut oil, raw honey, cinnamon, cardamom, and curry powder)
poached chicken thighs
raisins
roasted chicken, butternut squash soup, veggies boiled in chicken broth - carrots, cauliflower, green peas
2-3 oz. red wine
*I might have missed something, since I'm updating this the following evening.

Items I was able to tick off the list:
oil pulling
dry brushing
detox bath
~~juicing~~
fermented cod liver oil/butter oil
~~probiotics~~
~~herbal teas~~
~~bone broth~~
~~raw liver pills~~
~~coconut oil~~

30 day Health Challenge - Day 4

2011-11-05T12:53:00.000-04:00

I am so tired today - falling asleep while doing dishes, just want to crawl into bed tired. I'm also very stiff and sore. Can you say detox with a capital D? Wow. I feel like there's a red neon sign blinking overhead that says "Die Off" with an arrow pointing to my head. Brain fog has still not cleared out though I'm functioning marginally better than yesterday. My knuckles still feel tight and swollen and get worse at night. To top it off, I'm a bit short of patience today while feeling so crummy so being a good mom is taking up a lot of energy and effort that I don't really have. Overall, today can just take a long walk off a short pier.

We picked up the stool test kit for Katie (to test for bacteria/yeast concentrations, parasites, and digestive patterns) and her doctor said no milk...ever. She's our alternate doctor (two at the practice), and I'm learning that she's a bit of a witch doctor herself. She is familiar with GAPS and has gone through a gut healing protocol herself (nice that the other doctor didn't think to tell us that when we were there in June for Katie's 3 yr check up). She said that she was off of the major allergens for five years, and, after three months of reintroduction, she regained symptoms and had to start all over again. I'll post more about that in a separate post. I took that as my final sign to give up dairy for good. An occasional splurge a couple of times a year? Fine. Not at any time a part of my diet again unless I feel the need for it's healing properties that I can't get anywhere else. Am I sad? Yes. It's hard to not feel deprived of all of those wonderful emotionally satisfying foods of childhood. Do I need it? Not if I want to get and stay healthy!

I feel SO MUCH BETTER after the workout and a detox bath!! I had been craving a clay bath all day and I added an entire cup to water much hotter than I normally soak in. It felt divine. I've also noticed that the swelling and water retention has gone down, so I'm back to baseline. Since I can't measure or weigh myself for these 30 days, I'm not sure how much water I lost. I'm using the fit of a couple pair of pants to guage how the challenge is slimming me down for the month.

Workout:
http://www.bodyrock.tv/2010/12/04/exercise-challenge-100-rep-super-girl-plank/
20 minute yoga routine

Eats:
3 local, pastured eggs scrambled with butter, roasted garlic, and 1/2 of a local onion, freshly cracked black pepper, and Celtic sea salt (all organic)
2 clementines
raisins
squash soup
raw cookies
apple with dip (coconut oil, local raw honey, cinnamon, curry powder, cardamom) [I was skeptical when I was making it, but it was AWESOME!]
Echinacea elder tea
poached chicken thigh, hamburger soup (hamburger, roasted garlic, & peas in chicken broth with Celtic sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper)

Items I was able to tick off the list:
oil pulling
dry brushing
detox bath - Redmond clay
juicing
fermented cod liver oil/butter oil
~~probiotics~~
~~herbal teas~~
~~bone broth~~
raw liver pills
~~coconut oil~~

30 day Health Challenge - Day 3

2011-11-04T08:02:00.000-04:00

I had some serious brain fog today, like turning in circles trying to figure out how to get Katie ready for preschool and then having to really think about how to open the back door of my truck from the front lock kind of . It's been so long since I felt like that. I didn't realize what a moron I had become before GAPS. :) Katie and I were out all day. I was snack mom so we went to preschool in the morning, traded her Halloween candy for money at the dentist ($2/lb and he sends it to the troops!), hit Target for some toys and movies in exchange for the candy, and then made a run to Whole Foods. All in all, we were out running for seven hours and we had a great time. I had great energy and was happy and patient. I'm starting to feel like that better version of myself again. My skin is smoother too. That tells me that the toxins I was consuming are definitely getting ousted. Legs are quite sore this evening, so I'm calling an active rest day of yoga for my workout.

Workout:
20 minute pm yoga session (AM/PM Yoga for Beginners with Rodney Yee and Patricia Walden from Gaiam)

Eats:
Starbucks: 16 oz. caffe latte with one shot and whole milk, dry roasted almonds (almonds, sea salt)
3 local, pastured eggs with butter, raw cookies [(all organic) coconut, sprouted sesame seeds, dates, carrot, nutmeg]
nettle tea
raisins
raw milk with my liver pills and FCLO/BO

Items I was able to tick off the list:
oil pulling
dry brushing
detox bath - Epsom salt/Celtic sea salt (didn't have enough Epsom salt left so I mixed)
juicing
fermented cod liver oil/butter oil
probiotics
herbal teasbone broth
raw liver pills
coconut oil (ate enough coconut in the cookies that I'm happy)

30 day Health Challenge - Day 2

2011-11-02T23:48:00.000-04:00

My energy was really good again today, so I was able to catch up on a lot of housework that got behind while I was under the weather this past weekend. I wasn't very hungry today but soup was very satisfying. I love good soup days. I hit a wall and was super tired by the time it was time to work out (10 pm) but I powered through it with thoughts of my challenge reward shoes in mind. :) My skin is much smoother already and I have been peeing like crazy so I can tell I'm releasing toxins and am getting back to a healthier me. Yay! I've decided to include milk with my BodyRock workouts. With my diet, my body seems to really need it. Today, I went without and my workout was ROUGH. I was craving it like crazy about 1/4 of the way through. I didn't crave it today at all otherwise though, so I think I'm narrowing things down with my milk cravings. It's definitely not a candida issue that's doing it. I'm still looking for a real food pre/post workout fuel source to substitute for the milk so I can do a true no dairy trial. Okay, I'm pooped and my muscles are so weak that it's hard to type so I'm going to watch a little boob tube and head off to bed. Good night all!

Workout: http://www.bodyrock.tv/2011/10/21/set-fire-workout-beating-personal-best/

Eats:
coconut oil/butter oil/cinnamon/cocoa powder dip with a local, organic apple [cocoa powder okay on advanced GAPS; I see it as okay on occasion at the level I'm at]
soup (twice) - chicken broth, wild salmon, local organic cauliflower & carrots, roasted organic garlic, Celtic sea salt
juice - (all local & organic) celery, carrot, apple with added beet kvass
organic roasted dandelion root tea
2 glasses raw milk with raw liver pills

Items I was able to tick off the list:oil pulling
dry brushing
detox bath - Redmond clay
~~juicing~~
fermented cod liver oil/butter oil
probiotics
herbal teas
bone broth
raw liver pills
coconut oil

30 day Health Challenge - Day 1!

2011-11-02T00:03:00.001-04:00

I'm super tired right now, so I'll make this brief. Today's workout felt great! I haven't worked out in a couple of weeks and I felt strong and ready for anything. My breathing was more labored than I'd like - I think it's scar tissue from a very serious case of pneumonia when I was young -, but it wasn't too bad. Luckily, I now know the feeling completely dissipates when I am eating properly and working out. :) Woohoo! I love healing foods. My nose ran like crazy today while I worked out, oil pulled, and raked leaves so I know my lymph system is clearing out. All in all it was a good day. My mood was great, and my only food infraction is that darn dairy. I think it will take me a couple of days to master that. I crave it so much - it's especially bad when I work out -, and it helps with my protein intake and keeps me from getting sore after workouts. I'll continue to work on it. I may need a couple of days to tweak my diet.

Workout: http://www.bodyrock.tv/2011/04/04/not-afraid-workout/

Eats:
3 glasses raw milk :sigh:
local, 100% grass-fed round steak with local organic carrots (crockpotted)
nettle tea
rose hips tea
carrot, apple, ginger juice
hot italian pork sausage
3 local, pastured scrambled eggs with nicoise olives

11/2/11 Edited to add: 3 clementines

Items I was able to tick off the list:
~~oil pulling~~
~~dry brushing~~
~~detox bath~~
~~juicing~~
~~fermented cod liver oil/butter oil~~
~~probiotics~~
~~herbal teas~~
bone broth
raw liver pills
coconut oil

30 day Health Challenge - Gearing Up

2011-10-31T20:19:00.002-04:00

Can you say incentive?! I have been feeling miserable lately as I eat foods that make me sick like grains and sugar. Last night - knowing the end is nigh -, I polished off about 15 coconut macaroons. Thank goodness I only have about 10-15 more pounds to lose or I would have been absolutely devastated; instead I'm just disgusted. "Betcha Can't Eat Just One?" Yep. Written for me. This morning? SO SICK. I was so swollen by the time I went to bed that it hurt, and I woke up toeing the line of vomiticious (yeah it's a word). Once my stomach started to calm down about midday, cramps settled in. C'mon! It's Halloween and I have a 3 year old daughter. Thank goodness hubs took the day off. It is after 8 pm, and I am finally out of bed. Way to ruin the holiday...but, at the same time, a perfect way to start a health challenge. :) Needless to say, I started back to my diet a day early and my body is thanking me for it.

The following is what I want to focus on during this challenge, so it becomes habit by the end of the challenge. These are all things that I already do but am not consistent with them daily.

oil pulling

dry brushing

exercise - I will list my daily workout in each blog post (the bulk of them will be using Bodyrock.tv)

detox bath (Redmond clay, Bragg raw apple cider vinegar, epsom salt, baking soda, plain water)

juicing

fermented cod liver oil/butter oil (FCLO/BO)

only foods allowed on the GAPS diet [a healing protocol to heal the gut and immune system from chronic illnesses]

herbal teas (mainly nettle, rose hips, and dandelion root)

probiotics

bone broth

raw liver pills

coconut oil

I will be posting daily during the challenge to keep myself on track and to keep me honest. :D

I will try to include what I ate/drank each day, the things I was able to incorporate from the above list, my workout, and my ruminations on the day including cravings. No holds barred here peeps. I want anyone who reads this and is going through the same thing to know they are not the only ones growling at the fridge or offering narrowed-eyed death looks at their significant others during TV time on those bad days.

Next up...measurements and stats.

A 30-day Health Challenge

2011-10-30T22:10:00.000-04:00

I have decided to challenge myself to follow the GAPS diet for 30 days with no cheating while ensuring I follow certain things that I find important [take detox baths, incorporate certain foods, and get some form of exercise]. We've been on it for seven months now but I too often deviate from the program. I will follow this protocol Every.Single.Day starting on Tuesday (11/1/11) for 30 days and 'weigh in' on how I feel and the changes I have made on 12/1/11. I have seriously fallen off the wagon with the incredibly strong need I have for certain comfort foods lately. A few friends have pointed to die off as the cause. I'm not sure I can pinpoint the exact cause(s), but I do know that these foods - like Cool Ranch Doritos, really great crusty, chewy breads, milk, and sweets - absolutely do not carry critical nutrients that I am lacking. Friends, it's time to hit the reset button.

The Universe seems to have led me to this latest venture. I have a friend who recently issued a fitness challenge http://fatmomtofitmom.wordpress.com/; I have fallen off the wagon with a hard core need for illegals as I already mentioned; and I have been kicking around the idea for a couple of months of using a pair of Christian Louboutin red bottom shoes (knock offs for any of you who know how much they cost) that I want really really really bad as incentive to not cheat on GAPS for 30 days straight. I always manage to sneak something in around the peak time in my hormone cycles (ovulating and menstruation). For some reason, I want to earn these shoes. Absolutely NOT a previous word in my vocabulary. This trifecta of events/ideas is what's going to get me back on course and onto the next level of healing.

Tomorrow, I'll post my measurements, weight, and before pics with the details of what I'd like to include into my daily routine to take my health journey to another level. LET'S DO THIS BABY!

...And So The Testing Begins

2011-10-26T14:10:00.001-04:00

A missing post from 10/26/11 that never got published...

HELLO STRESS!

I've been drained with all of the energy and work I've between pouring into healing my 'patients' and catching the welcome back to school virus. Katie's in her first year of preschool (3 yrs old), so we're being initiated with some congestion for Katie and major fatigue for me and hubby. Here's a quickie update post:

We have been on GAPS and traditional foods for more than six months now. I believe that six months of dietary changes should be implemented and followed before supplements (like enzymes) or medical intervention are implemented, unless there are extreme and/or severe issues. Since our bodies have methods of healing that we do not fully understand, I think it helps to minimize all unnecessary and possibly detrimental intervention.

I have now completed and have the results for Katie's Loomis 24-hour Urinalysis. We have an appointment with her (allopathic) doctor next Friday, 11/4, to 'determine' if she needs a stool analysis (ahem, to GET the analysis kit says this witch doctor). We'll be using the Genova Comprehensive Digestive Stool Analysis (CDSA) with Parisitology. I'm happy to say that Blue Cross Blue Shield partially covers the tests and should cut my costs in half. :sigh of relief: I plan on using these tests to tweak what we have been doing, since she still has bellyaches and malabsorbtion issues. My instincts tell me that her body is working hard but now needs some help to finish healing. I know that her detox pathways are clearing and are not as congested but we still have a lot of work ahead of us. I hope we can use certain combinations of food to boost her enzyme production and intake so I can avoid supplements as much as possible. My recent observations tell me that her greatest problem is digesting cellulose and that's what gives her bellyaches and gas, so we'll see what the stool test says. I hope to avoid any other testing besides the urine and stool tests except a hair analysis at one year, eighteen months, and two years to see what toxic metals her body is releasing. My worst fears are having to subject her little self to a blood test. I want to avoid that at all costs!

Next blog post will be the results of the urinalysis and dietary changes I've implemented based on them.

I'm happy to see that some of you on GAPS are on to the next stage of getting answers also and are making progress. Nice work!

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” ― Hippocrates

GAPS Intro (3rd attempt) Day 1

2011-10-02T21:33:00.000-04:00

Today's post will be rather abbreviated since I'm tired and my laptop is down (I'm on on hubby's Ipad). We're a day late beginning the group intro, but I needed yesterday to recoup and regroup. Today went rather well. I stayed motivated and cooked and cleaned quite a bit - hence the tired -. Katie had bellyaches all day but was in a good mood even though she was extremely tired after skipping a nap. I'm hopeful that they will disappear tomorrow after another day of well-cooked nourishing foods. If not, I'm going to reevaluate the type and amount of veggies I'm using. Oh and hubby's decided to join us on this round so we'll see how things go for all of us.

Breakfast: mini-meatballs (ground beef rolled into balls) cooked in chicken broth with carrots and shredded cabbage. Reread stage 1 of GAPS after breakfast and noticed cabbage is illegal. Oops. I'm super bummed since it was so good.

Lunch: cream of broccoli soup (broccoli in chicken broth blended with a hand blender) with boiled chicken either served on the side with Celtic sea salt or mixed in the soup

Drinks: filtered water, ginger tea, mint tea

Dinner: Bollito (boiled chuck roast) sliced thin and served alongside cauliflower, carrot, and pea soup in chicken broth

I'll take a bit of a tv break then make soup for breakfast and enough for hubby to take to work tomorrow in a Thermos to keep warm. Sooo wish I could go right to bed. I think I'll eat again first though to prevent low blood sugar. We all went a long time with no food between lunch and dinner but then all got hungry this evening after dinner. Curious what tomorrow will bring & think I'll make some bone broth applesauce just in case Katie needs it for the night or morning if she didn't get enough fuel. Night all. Hope those of you doing intro are faring well!

GAPS Intro Delayed Until Oct. 1

2011-09-29T23:29:00.000-04:00

We had a death in the family so will be delaying this round of GAPS intro until Saturday. I'm excited to say that it will be right on target with the official start date of Cara's (Health, Home, and Happiness) big challenge. bring it on baby! I'm READY!

On a side note, I haven't been enjoying dairy lately so I removed all of it from my diet in anticipation of intro and to listen to my body. I have dropped two and a half pounds in three days. I always try to put my health and healing before vanity, but I'm a very happy mama. Thirty one pounds down and eight to go.

14 Days Til GAPS Intro, Resources for Bone Broth, Ferments, Probiotic, and Cod Liver Oil

2011-09-15T23:49:00.000-04:00

Though I'm a little behind the 8 ball, it's time to stock up on bone broth and start some ferments for this upcoming round of intro.
My new motto for intro is "Failing to plan is planning to fail." I sure proved that on our first round of intro when I gave myself about 12 hours to plan and prep. I found that Katie needs a lot of variety with intro meals especially, so I will be making as many soups as I can think of. That way she can have a different soup for just about every meal. I plan to stay on stage 1 until her bellyaches mostly or completely disappear, so we may be on it for the full four days.

Here's a few resources to help you along. Feel free to use your favorites or access the almighty Google for more.

If you are scratching your head and wondering what the GAPS intro is: http://www.gapsdiet.com/INTRODUCTION_DIET.html

If you are completely new to this stuff and wondering what on Earth the GAPS diet is:
http://www.realfoodwholehealth.com/2011/02/what-is-gaps-or-the-gaps-diet-gut-and-psychology-physiology-syndrome/

And if you'd like to know what conditions this healing diet addresses, here is a good comprehensive list (you will be astounded at the range of conditions it addresses):
http://gapsguide.com/about/conditions-addressed-by-gaps/

Bone broth information/recipes/methods:
http://www.traditional-foods.com/bone-broth/

There are innumerable recipes for ferments on the Internet but Starlene recently posted a good size list of links to get you started:
http://gapsdietjourney.com/2011/09/super-list-of-ferments-recipes-vegetables-and-others/

Our GAPS diet is based on traditional, local, and organic foods [you'll see references to WAPF (Weston A. Price Foundation, dentist who is mainly credited with starting traditional foods movement) or NT (Nourishing Traditions, recipe and traditional foods factoid book). Here's a good snapshot of what eating a traditional foods diet involves:
http://www.plantoeat.com/blog/2011/09/ten-staples-for-the-traditional-foods-kitchen/

Our probiotic:
http://www.customprobiotics.com/custom-probiotics-11-strain.htm

Our fermented cod liver oil / butter oil (FCLO/BO):
http://www.greenpasture.org/public/Products/ButterCodLiverBlend/index.cfm
I prefer the cinnamon tingle

That should be enough to get us started. :) Please feel free to comment, message, or e-mail me with any questions if you are considering joining us or just want to know more about it. I am more than happy to share!

GAPS day 162, New GAPS Intro Scheduled for 9/29!

2011-09-13T21:19:00.000-04:00

Cara from Health, Home, and Happiness is starting up a group GAPS intro on October 1st http://www.healthhomehappy.com/2011/09/gaps-intro-challenge.html and it's over 100 strong already! Whether it's your first or your fifth round of intro, it's a great opportunity to have such a huge community of supporters and commisorators. There should be plenty of both. :) I really enjoyed the sense of community we achieved the last time we did a group intro. Baden from The GAPS Guide was the ring leader and did an amazing job with helping, encouraging, and honestly sharing her insights, gains, trials, and tribulations throughout. Katie and I didn't do so well but I'm very encouraged after five months on a modified allergy-friendly version of full GAPS that we can successfully complete it this time. I encourage doing full GAPS for some time before starting intro unless the patient(s) needs to begin healing extremely quickly or won't eat GAPS food. Our bodies need the time to adjust, rebalance, and detox at a reasonable pace if at all possible. If you start with full GAPS, still begin the challenge with us! The support is amazingly helpful no matter what stage you are at.

Our start date is slightly before the official day based on logistics for my family. Katie just started preschool today (yay!), so we attend Tuesday and Thursday mornings. [We joined a co-op so I can attend with her as long as she needs me to.] We will be starting intro the Thursday afternoon before everyone else so we have four and a half days to regain some equilibrium before her next day of school.

Tomorrow I'll share some online preparation resources. It's time to stock up on broth and casseroles and get some ferments going! Preparation is the absolute the key to success on a GAPS intro.

I can already hear the wheels turning in your head... :)

Pure Salon and Day Spa Review - Thumbs Up!

2011-09-12T08:52:00.056-04:00

If you have never been to a day spa, they are just this side of Heaven. If they were free and didn't include the jolt of reality after you walk back out the door, they would definitely be on the far side of the pearly gates. Pure Salon and Day Spa in Commerce Township, Michigan does not disappoint. Those of you who follow my blog know that I avoid chemicals and mainly use food-based health products like homemade deodorant to reduce my toxic load. I was worried about being bombarded with synthetic poisons and leaving sick from the fumes and the oils. I even brought my own olive oil just in case their massage oils were too perfumed for me. Not a whiff of a problem. Nada. Nothing. Lovely.

To my great mortification, I was late. I scurried through the front door and was greeted by a large reception room that opened into an even larger sitting area just beyond the front desk. High-end finishes, warm colors, inviting sitting areas, and genuine smiles from the staff made a great first impression. No sight or smell of the salon chaos I expected to see upon entering. This looked promising. The reception staff were all busy greeting other, ahem, on time guests so I expected a long wait. My massage therapist greeted me almost immediately and whisked me away. She said that I could check in after we finished, so it didn't cut in to the massage time. No punishment for making her wait? No eye rolling and sighing? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you! Once she guided me into the well-appointed locker room to change into my robe and slippers, another staff member smilingly told me I could step into a sauna before my massage since she had just turned one on. Um, I'm sorry. Me? Is this what celebrities feel like? Though the staff is usually quite pleasant at other spas, I've always felt a bit like a nameless number. Number 12? Right this way please. Per the advice of my massage therapist, I left the locker room, cozy in my fuzzy white robe, and entered the lounge to wait while my room was prepared. The lounge was spacious with plush chairs spaced at comfortable intervals. The lights were quite dim and my senses immediately took in the sound of a large, bubbling fountain as I settled down to relax. The outside world had definitely retreated. I snuggled in to stare at the flames at the fireplace across the room. There were no artificial scents piped into any of the rooms I had visited thus far. No chemical air 'fresheners' peppered about to offend my senses, no smell of treatments, or clash of perfumed oils. It was refreshing to not struggle for clean air.

Then came Shirley, my massage therapist, to lead me down another hallway to my room. Seriously? This place keeps going? It is conveniently located in a popular, high-end strip mall and looks deceivingly small from the outside. We entered the massage room and I was pleased to see it was spacious, calming, and soothed my senses even further. The air was cool but the bed was warm as I slipped into its cocoon of blankets. The cooler air was a nice touch that kept me from getting overheated during the massage. I was in awe of Shirley's knowledge of qi, chakras, and her ability to know what type of massage I most needed. I happily put myself in her capable hands. Her wisdom as a healer and Reiki master made this witch doctor envious. My time there transcended a normal massage, but I don't anticipate this to be everyone's experience. Even so, there is no way you will leave disappointed. She lulled me into relaxation and energy balance with hot stones, wise hands, and pure, healing essential oils. What really blew me away was her genuine devotion to clearing my energy stagnation and healing.

After I dressed and floated back to the front desk, the owner offered to personally escort me on a tour of the 14,000 square foot edifice. No wonder it seemed so vast. It is. Wait a minute. It's Saturday and they're busy. A tour? For me? Sweet! I don't have to pass through those doors and go back to reality yet. The owner, Debra Lock, is sweet and refreshing. She genuinely loves being in the business of making people happy. What a job! The salon - which I was not looking forward to visiting for the toxic cloud I expected - was filled with pleasant scents, laughter, and happy, beautiful people. Every space I visited was clean, clean, clean. I love this place!

The salon and day spa is a combination of warm and cool colors with refined yet lush furnishings. The overall environment is soothing in the spa and vibrant in the salon, a perfect balance for the retreat that we all wish for when entering an establishment of pampering. I go beyond recommending a visit and say you MUST go. Save your pennies, ask for an early Christmas present, or just plain splurge but definitely treat yourself. You deserve it.

Summer Defies Routines

2011-09-11T21:34:00.003-04:00

What is it about summer that makes me unable to stick to a routine? I have been avoiding anything that remotely feels like one and choosing to put together meals of whatever inspires me at that exact moment (eating a lot of raw food consequently), cleaning haphazardly instead of following my normal schedule, feeling restricted by the thought of writing a whole blog post, and generally flying by the seat of my pants. I've never noticed the pattern before but summer must be a time to indulge my soul and let it fly free. It's not something I have much time for anymore being an adult, wife, and mom to a three year old. I've been working on taking care of myself more - exercising, resting, taking time for to enjoy the things I like to do, trying to eat well though my body rebelled at the ultra-nourishing foods til the cold snap last week -. It's helping a lot. I have been balking lately at the restrictions of GAPS. I added grains and some packaged foods back into Katie's and my diet just before and while we were in Las Vegas for my brother's wedding at the end of August. I needed the ease and we weren't much into eating meat and cooked veggies without the light and easy foods - cold cereal, gluten-free pretzels, rice and quinoa pasta, oatmeal, squeezable applesauce, etc. -. Katie's bellyaches continue but come and go so are often frustratingly inconsisent with the foods she's eating. We are definitely not ready to get off the diet yet. Now that the weather's on it's way to cooperating with GAPS intro, we'll be starting it by the end of the month or soon thereafter. I'll post on that once we are about to start and continue with daily posts through intro.

Hopefully, we are back to our regularly scheduled blogging...next up is my first day spa review (witch doctor style)!

GAPS 3 months in (day 109) - I'm Turning into a Superhero! (Healing with GAPS/Traditional Foods)

2011-07-21T17:02:00.000-04:00

[As I wrote this today, I trialed an entire glass of raw milk with Katie. She has done well on small amounts of sour cream, ghee, and milk over the past week. It has been 4 hours and the only symptom is a bellyache. She has happily played and painted through a time when she would have been huddled up, screaming as a baby just from having it in breastmilk. Her bellyache is the same one she's had off and on for weeks - no worse - and I think it can be atrributed to hunger (never ending) and extreme tiredness until I learn differently. I don't believe she will be totally symptom free, so we will see how the next two days go and I will watch for hiccups, hyperactivity and clingyness, stool issues, and skin rashes. Even so...SHE JUST HAD A GLASS OF MILK! I am on top of the world! I DID THIS! I am healing my baby.]

Not only are we healing internally and feel wonderful as we progress through GAPS (semi-GAPS for me as I still have copious amounts of raw milk and butter daily), we heal quickly when cut, burnt, bruised, or otherwise beat up. Let me add the disclaimer that we do NOT feel great all of the time. You are not the only one with hiccups and bad days! A couple of examples of our super healing powers: Katie scratches herself often. Within three days, it now scabs up, heals, and there is not a trace of it left. Me? I am notorious for burning myself, in the kitchen, with the iron, etc. You name it, I've done it. The other day, I poured boiling chicken broth over my thumb - A LOT of it - while I was pouring Katie a mug. Right into a cool glass of milk my thumb went for about twenty minutes. It started burning again about thirty minutes later so I plunked it back in for another fifteen minutes. When it came out, the redness was gone though the skin was tender to the touch for a couple of hours. After that...GONE. As in no blisters, burnt skin, redness, soreness, nada. What?!

Dah dah dah dah ... :gasp: it's Super GAPSter!

I've also been able to stick with a workout routine this past week. My last attempt a couple of weeks ago exhausted me into couch potato status, so I took a break from it. I have now become a Body rocker and have gained enough strength from healing and cutting out the problem foods that I can actually do these exercises! Well, for the most part. I'm impressed that I can do any of them right out of the gate. I still tend to get nervous just before a workout thinking I'm going to fall flat on my face but then pump my fist in triumph when I finish. I also have a recent bum hip (retracing old injuries?) that could be anything from tendinitis to arthritis so my chiropractor says. After a quick session of traction (or pulling on my leg as I call it), I only feel an occasional twinge and am able to easily modify my workouts to accommodate the 'no impact' recommendation he gave me. Before healing, I would have never attempted to exercise with such an issue. I would have babied it and ultimately made it worse. The doc specifically said not to baby it, but I wouldn't have listened. I know my body, right? :eye roll: I know I was lazy and would jump on any opportunity to capitalize on that. Not anymore! Even more amazing than my ability to do the work - that seems so intimidating when you look at it -, is the fact that I'm hardly.sore.at.all afterward. You know the next day "OMG I can't get out of bed!" stiffness and pain. Not there. Really. I think the raw milk and raw liver pills are the biggest contributors. I still get pretty tired throughout the day, but the short workouts (I've only done the 10 & 12 minute ones so far) and liver give me more energy than I had before I started them and a ton more since before GAPS/WAPF (Weston A. Price Foundation/traditional foods).

Liver is my new superfood (anti-fatigue factor?! I need that!!). I have it in the form of Green Pasture fermented cod liver oil/butter oil in cinnamon tingle and raw liver pills (freeze pastured liver for at least 14 days to keep any possible pathogens, cut into small pill-size pieces - kitchen shears work best for this -, and keep in freezer until you're ready to eat them. They'll keep awhile while you work up the nerve. ;) ). They go down nicely with a glass of raw milk. Just be careful about having liver later in the day. Those B vitamins pack an energy punch!

Here's a nice page that sums up the right foods to eat for beginners to traditional foods (adjust for any special dietary needs like no grains for GAPS), but don't forget your cod liver oil in addition to the organ meats during healing! http://www.whatishealing.com/Traditional%20Foods.pdf I'll get more into the nutrient-dense foods in future posts.

Sorry for Ducking Out!

2011-07-17T10:57:00.000-04:00

I have been so busy with new witch doctor patients, cooking, working out, life, and Facebook lately that I've been very lax with my blog posts. I'd like to get a little deeper into topics I'm interested in and post some more health remedies and recipes. If you want to know what's up with me, check out my Facebook page! I'll get back to here soon and clear out the dust bunnies. :)

Best to everyone,
Jen

So much to say and yet so little...so I started a Facebook page! (and an update)

2011-06-28T01:01:00.000-04:00

This is so exciting! I have so many unimportant things to say and most of them don't seem to inspire a whole blog post. I'd love to be more interactive with all of you who somehow find your way to my page and come back for more (1600 times so far in the last couple of months). This will make it so much easier to share information, articles, and ideas with each other instead of just talking at you.

Here's the temporary link. I need 25 likes to get my own URL and then I'll be able to add a like box.
https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/20-something-allergies-and-counting/211630042212481

:happy dance:

I do have two inspiring updates.

I have been craving FATS! This is the first time I have ever craved fats outside of baked goods or chocolate. That is hands-down confirmation that I am healing. Less than three months in, I have been able to pile them on with no side effects of that repugnant mouth feel, gagging, or nausea. I made chicken soup with carrot, turnip, peas, and ...something else? and recognized the strong need for fat so added some curry powder to mine for flavor and a large pat of pastured butter. It.was.divine. The intense fat craving was only for a few days and has already waned, but I still feel like I want and need more fats now. My salt cravings have stabilized now also so no more electrolyte drinks or super heavily salted dishes. The Celtic Sea Salt still tastes amazing though. I also seem to be moving into the deisre for herbs and heavy, complex spices.

I've also been craving exercise. Fitness. Who craves that? My body is ready to detox in a whole new way. Since I've worked out quite a bit in the past in spurts and sputters, I know the muscle memory is there. I'm slowly dipping my toes in the water and seeing what happens. I tried a bit of belly dancing the other day and some calisthenics today - lunges, squats, incline push-ups on the stairs -. My body gets tired very quickly and needs extra rest, but it still feels good. That tells me I'm on the right path. Tip: if you want to see if you are interested/able/willing, try going very slowly. Especially if you are on GAPS or any healing program, you need to take baby steps to know if your body will tolerate it. You can try five push-ups leaning against a chair and ten squats or whatever works best for you. Stretch out and see you how feel for the rest of the day and the next. Better to take it slow than have any relapses. Plus, what we generally think of as exercise isn't for everyone. Instead of muscle training, running, aerobics, etc., try vigorously scrubbing the floor or clean the house (or a room) as quickly as you can. Sprint to the end of your driveway to get the mail (or back so you can collapse when you get inside). Light a fire under your butt and chase your kids up into the bath...so you can sit down once you get there. :) There are some different viewpoints that I've come across recently and I'm intrigued by them all. Chris Kesser of The Healthy Skeptic thinks we should move like our ancestors. Baden from the GAPS Guide shares some reasons why some people shouldn't indulge. Mark Sisson from Mark's Daily Apple believes in the paleo diet and short, explosive workouts. And then, I have a friend who's training like mad to get ready for a bodybuilding competition. I think for now I fall somewhere between Chris, Baden, and Mark. It just depends on how I feel that moment, day, or week.

Katie has been having daily bellyaches and gas again. #@%$* Last week, I realized the digestive enzymes that Dr. Natasha recommends doesn't say 'no dairy' in its list of things not included. Come to find out, there is only one vegan source of HCL and it's by Premier Research Labs. I just need to figure out how to order them. I think it may have to be through our pediatrician, since the website requires a practitioner login. Drat. I know the enzymes were working well to digest the raw veggies and fruits she wants in copious amounts, so we're on to something there. I also found this article on allergies and enzymes by Lita Lee Ph.D. and am very intrigued at how enzymes can work as a crutch as our bodies are healing. In addition, I ordered and received the kit for Katie's Loomis 24-hour urinalysis. Her pediatrician doesn't offer this particular one but was happy that I'm doing it and wants a copy of the report. She knows nothing of GAPS but leans toward the alternative and is quite supportive of all I do, including not vaccinating. She said the extended urine test is a mirror image or a shadow of a blood test and that a blood test is unnecessary and too invasive unless Katie has some serious health issues. I agree. Lita Lee also offers the test (as do others) with a consultation of the lab results and recommendations. I love the in-depth information she shares on the test results, but I prefer to spend less money on just the report, do my research, and then decide how to proceed. I'll collect Katie's urine for 24 hours within the next week and send a sample back to the lab for analysis. I'll update on Facebook and then blog about it when I have comprehensive information to share.

There's so much to say all of a sudden! The last thing I will mention is this article by The Center for Advanced Health on Eating Right for Your Blood Type. It has my brain abuzzin' and feels like it may be another piece for our dietary/lifestyle puzzle, though not the whole solution.

So we've been pretty mundane in the day to day, but there are explosive things in the works. I can't wait to see where everyone else is at in the coming weeks who are 'newer' to GAPS and at the beginning of this long road to health. I'm excited to see who else joins us on Facebook in the future that may be following different healing paths and protocols and have some new insight to share.

We've also been frequenting the farmer markets at least twice a week and can almost completely locally source our meats, eggs, dairy, and fruits/veggies right now. Love, love, love that.

Oh and a teensy, weensy note at the bottom to say I'm still cheating about once a week. It corresponds to my monthly cycle (whether ovulation or my flow) and emotional habits. So far - I'm happy to report -, it's never worth it. Okay, the blueberry key lime scones from Cheeky Monkeys that taste like a cross with a cookie kinda were. that said, the food no longer tastes like my memory thinks it does. Yay!

Raw Shea Butter (and a Butters-N-Bars coupon offer til 6/27/11)

2011-06-21T13:16:00.000-04:00

The store I exclusively buy shea butter from is having a sale for their website relaunch! I have done much Internet research and found Sharika's prices to be most reasonable for a fair trade product, and I love supporting a mama run company. She was wonderfully supportive when I thanked her and let her know I was using her products for my daughter with food allergies and eczema. She has six children so knows the ropes with taking care of little ones!

Use the code NEWBNB to get 15% off your entire order through June 27, 2011. I'm not affiliated with her company, just love her products and customer service! I always order in 5 pound increments for a bit of cost savings. I even saved an additional few dollars by changing my shipping from priority mail to ground. I think we can all be happy saving a few pennies these days (especially us GAPSters).

Remember how Gus used Windex in the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding? Yeah, that's how I use shea butter. We use it on cat bites (Katie likes to antagonize the cat), scratches, eczema, bruises, burns (after the heat is gone), cysts (some acne-related are popping up as I heal with GAPS), dry skin and lips, wrinkles, as sunscreen, furniture polish, and I'm about to try it as a hair deep conditioner. It is also reportedly used as a cooking oil in Africa, so I feel completely safe putting it on our skin and have used it since I was pregnant with Katie.

Raw shea butter has all the benefits of traditional fats. It's unrefined so teeming with good stuff. Instead of rambling on about the health benefits, here's a couple links that tout them.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/324195-what-are-the-benefits-of-raw-shea-butter/

http://www.akomacooperative.com/shea_butter_benefits.html

(did a search for 'shea butter' on my favorite natural remedies website and it popped up for quite a few conditions) http://www.earthclinic.com/search.html?cx=partner-pub-2476760853251960%3Ax02k6x73rw9&cof=FORID%3A10&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=shea+butter&sa=GO&siteurl=www.earthclinic.com%2F#1400

GAPS day 70, Been MIA...in a good way!

2011-06-12T21:56:00.000-04:00

Wow. It has been longer than I thought since my last post. I see the other intro bloggers have hit the same stage. For me, it's been for a handful of reasons.

Katie has stopped napping and that has set off some rearranging of tasks and timing. I don't get my midday down time or evening time while hubby is giving her a bath. I am very happy to be getting more done with the extra energy GAPS has given me and the loss of my relax/down time. I'm even just about caught up with household duties and started my garden today!
I have been researching for and helping another family member with healing diabetes. Hubby is doing fantastic and his fasting and post-meal glucose numbers fall within the healthy, normal range at all times now (in just over two months!!!) The other family member had recently started insulin and will probably be off of it soon just with the diet changes. A-mazing. REAL FOOD HEALS!
I am rereading Gut and Psychology Syndrome to add another layer to what we've been learning and experiencing and doing research on making herbal medicines (mostly from the medicinal plants we mistakenly call weeds), diabetes as I mentioned above, enzymes for healing (this sounds most promising while we in the earlier stages of GAPS!), the Loomis 24 hour urine test that we will be sending out to a lab for analysis (very excited about this most of all), and anything related to alternative healing, especially with food, and traditional foods that I come across.
I don't need the constant support and therapy that blogging was providing me at the beginning of our journey. I may need to do it again during our autumn intro though.

We have been eating too many raw fruits and veggies for Katie's belly, so she has been gassy and getting bellyaches again. To counteract that, I added in some well cooked veggies and applesauce and increased her digestive enzymes to a pinch with two meals a day. The veggies and apples both get simmered in full-fat chicken broth for 25-30 minutes. I puree the apples with my immersion blender and refrigerate for one of Katie's favorite treats. We aren't drinking broth right now, so it's a great way to sneak it in. Chicken broth has been one of the best remedies and preventatives for her upset tummy. Love that stuff.

We have also trialed tomato and egg white. I have deduced that Katie has major sulphur sensitivities - common with GAPSters -, so decided to try about 1/3 of an egg white poached in chicken broth. I've trialed yolks but never whites, since I assumed it was the egg protein. She did much better with whites but still had pretty significant GI and eczema reactions. Thank goodness for detox baths! Tomatoes seem to be fine in small amounts and only occasionally. I have been giving her a grape tomato or two every 3-4 days. My instinct is telling me to wait on foods that bother her though, so I'm happy to know she's healing and feel hopeful for our next intro phase.

I have had quite a few infractions over the last week and a half and felt many of my old symptoms come back. Joint pain in all extremities, irritability, nightmares, trouble sleeping and waking up exhausted, back pain upon waking, tendinitis in my hand, muscle weakness, facial breakouts and ruddy skin tone, dark circles and puffy undereyes, and the nasty return of Restless Leg Syndrome. The cravings started when I started my monthly cycle quite early and definitely corresponded with that. My candida issues seems to be the most active during that time, and I'm going to start researching why. There must be some way to balance things so I can control or eradicate the cravings and the candida flare up. I'm going to look into increasing my magnesium - chocolate cravings -, but I'm sure that won't be enough. Today was completely GAPS legal but for the raw milk products, and it's been easy. I don't have the massive NEED for sugar that I used to when falling off the wagon. I also has a ton of energy and got a lot accomplished. I am definitely healthier.

Ran out of time again. Hope all is well with all of you!

GAPS day 57, Dare I Say We're Coasting?

2011-05-31T21:15:00.000-04:00

Oh my, what a run on thought this post is and not even proofread (though that seems to happen often with this blog. The perfectionism is lurking in the shadows but more quietly now.)

What a nice little Memorial Day break. We spent the time as a family, took Katie to the zoo, and I took a little blogging break. It helped me to focus on gauging where we are with our diet and the healing that accompanies it. Things are pretty darn peachy. I'm glad Dr. Natasha says to keep moving forward even if all symptoms aren't cleared. It gave me added perspective with Katie's summer diet. We're concentrating mostly on grilled beef and roasted or boiled chicken with raw veggie salads (raw veggies cut and mixed with olive oil and sea salt) for meals and fruit for some snacks. She is gassy from all of the raw foods we've been eating and the increased fruit but is in a cleansing period so really seems to need them. I can tell because I just finished with that phase. I hadn't eaten meat for days since I couldn't stand the thought of it. Luckily, Katie's still eating meat but in much smaller amounts. I could handle chicken broth (boiled with onion and garlic for the first time in individual portions for me), a couple of eggs, and copious amounts of milk so was able to maintain some level of protein and animal fat intake and not force it. Since Katie's growth spurt finished, she isn't eating too much and wants fruit just about all the time. She has no gastrointestinal complaints from her, um, intestinal fermentation. :) I am using a pinch of digestive enzymes once per day when she eats a protein heavy meal, and I think it might be one of the contributing factors of her slowed eating. It's a bit of a relief to know that she may be getting more nutrients from her food. We both had sore throats after first trying the enzymes three times in the first day (only a pinch each time). I stopped taking them, since I wasn't eating meat, and changed Katie to once daily. It seems to be working great, so I'll stick here awhile with them. We have also been juicing. Every day up until Sunday. It's been a great way to herald in the summer - a typical time when I'm too hot to eat so carb binge -, and help Katie get those raw veggies for cleansing without having to digest them. With a couple of days in the 90's, we're feeling the summer here in MI already! Hmm, what else? Oh, I had a fresh, juicy ripe mango the other day. It was way too much sugar for me. I could feel the echo of sugar cravings. It was very strange. They were definitely there and strongish but like a false craving. Really weird. I've never had anything like that before. It's otherwise been like slavering demons until I indulge. Yay GAPS! And yay me too! I did have one cheat and stopped at Starbucks on Sunday evening. We were both disappointed. I'm happy to say I enjoy my homemade chai better and am very glad I started making it a couple of weeks ago. Hubby and I are very happy to have a 'sweet' in the house. A HUGE win for me was not getting a baked good when we stopped. I don't particularly like theirs, but I have had a lingering craving for a pastry-like confection and am willing to compromise my taste buds to have one. At the last second, I refrained and completely on my own. That.was.awesome. I'm also really enjoying where our diet is right now. I am back in a building phase and really craving meat and fat - still in pretty small amounts like an ounce of chicken, 1/4 pound of beef -. I'm able to add a couple of teaspoons of ghee into my diet on a daily basis and not feel sick from the extra animal fat. It's been pretty yummy with peanut butter since I over browned it and it smells like dessert-worthy brown butter. I'll be stewing some frozen peaches, honey and spices with a good amount of ghee for a nice mommy treat. Okay, a couple more things and then I really need to stop jabbering like a runaway train. Katie's skin looks better from the detox and yeast rashes. The twice daily (most days) detox baths have been wonderful for that, and the sun may be helping too - now that our 40 days and 40 nights of rain have ended -. She has at least one apple cider vinegar bath a day. I need to start taking detox baths more than once a week. I guarantee I wouldn't be so tired and have so many worn out days if I would. I also had a calf muscle cramp yesterday evening so will be getting Natural Calm from my chiropractor to see if helps with the strange constipation that cropped up with both of us and maybe is contributing to my cravings. We'll only take it for a short time to help any imbalances and will be sure to take it with calcium rich foods to keep it balanced. I think that's enough updating for now. Phew!

Simple Homemade Deodorant

2011-05-28T00:51:00.001-04:00

Edited on 7/21/11 to note: I am now experiencing redness and irritation from the baking soda with the summer heat. I will begin using straight coconut oil tomorrow. I'm hoping with the reduced toxicity of my body and clean diet that it will do the trick (though it may have worked just as well before now). As Clee noted in the comments, many people use coconut oil only so I'm happy to have such a simple solution!

I have been getting a kick out of making my own products to use at home. Toothpaste, laundry detergent, lotion, medicines, and one of my favorite...deodorant. Those of you who are quite toxic from your diet probably know how it can materialize in the form of body odor. If I regularly eat sugar, I tend to smell like onions when I sweat or, occasionally, beef stew as hubby laughingly shared. Lovely. I cannot believe that I'm sharing this publicly. Candid honesty by some of my fellow bloggers has gone a long way toward helping me and others, so I am passing on the goodwill (to my everlasting chagrin). There are quite a few versions of this recipe in bloggerland that all work for different people, but I tend to prefer one with the least ingredients that is simple to make and store. I can normally apply it once every 2-3 days with great results. Only three times over the last two months of using it, I have needed a second application in the same day. Not too shabby when commercial deodorants couldn't perform as well. Mine also contains no toxins and is naturally anti-microbial.
My recipe (I use a soup spoon to loosely measure 3 Tablespoons of oil to 1 Tablespoon baking soda):

3 parts organic coconut oil
1 part aluminum-free baking soda

variations:
additional 1 part arrowroot if baking soda is too strong
a couple of drops of tea tree oil for additional anti-bacterial action
a couple drops of various essential oils for scent - orange, lemon, lavender, etc.

Mix coconut oil and baking soda until thoroughly combined and place in a vessel of your choosing. I mix and keep it in a small glass bowl. You can also put into an old, cleaned out deodorant tube and keep refrigerated for stick deodorant. To use, apply a small amount to underarms with your fingers or the tube as needed. If there is excess oil that has not been absorbed, you can blot with a tissue before getting dressed. I've read about oil stains though I haven't experienced any.

Happy, um, noses everyone? Underarms? Forget it. I hope you find success with it! :)

The Reason I Crave Milk, Contemplations, and Could this really explain 'die off'?

2011-05-26T21:13:00.000-04:00

This is only a small portion of what has been whirling around in my brain while GAPS resurrects it. How did I not notice how severe the mind fog was until it began to lift???

I am so pleased with Dr. Natasha's blog post that tells us to listen to our bodies and why when it comes to nourishment. I have been feeling at odds with the diet insomuch as it was starting to feel like a one size fits all - especially intro -, and that just doesn't sit well with me. Though I have no medical training, I have intuition and a lot of research into natural healing that allows me to interpret what is working for me. Plus, my body tells me differently. I am so glad she felt the need to write this blog post, as I have been reading over and over lately about how people are floundering with different issues and feel too restricted to use help not outlined in the GAPS protocol. It's made me question if this is the right avenue for us or if I need to research some other similar nutritional advice and tweak things to work for us. GAPS has done too much for us in this short time to completely abandon it. I'm amazed at its healing capabilities and the gains we have seen in less than two months. I just feel a tickle in the back of my mind that I'm skipping over some things that we need. I'll keep you all updated as I find them. I have a feeling that most, if not all, will be GAPS appropriate just a little mind tweak towards food as alternative medicine than 'meal' food if that makes sense.

I still have too much of that most frustrating mind fog to be able to discuss or cite things intelligently in these early stages of GAPS and having a toddler in tow all day - and to be honest, they suck out a bit of your life force when you're around them. Where do you think they get all of that energy from??? -, so bear with me as I ramble about the things that are bumping around my brain. It will get better as the cobwebs clear.

Here's what has really caught my attention lately. There was a post in GAPShelp that I came across that kinda knocked me back. I have been looking into the theory like mad, because it really resonates with me. I like the slow and low approach to healing and this explains a great reason to do so. I don't think overwhelming our bodies with die off is healthy. That's why I hands down support doing full GAPS for some time and then increasingly incorporating intro soups until your body tells you that it's ready for the intro program. This approach may not work for everyone, but from reading the blogs that have been part of our 'intro community' and the comments of those who are/were doing it with us, I can tell you that those who have been on GAPS for some time had an amazing experience on intro and the rest of us were just wrecked. Here's the thread for those of you who can login. Here is the main post for those of you who can't:
___________________________________________________________________________

This is something I found while doing research about oxalates, autism, candida, etc. I will post the entire quote, it explains what happens when we have 'die-off' or 'oxalate dumping' when going on elimination diets and how heavy metals are very much intertwined in all of it.

I hope you will find the information useful as well! It is from a low oxalate group on a celiac forum, they obviously don't know about the healing GAPS diet, but for some reason I thought this was the best explanation of why we might react to oxalates or anything that causes die-off, its not necessarily the toxins released by the bacteria or yeast, its actually the heavy metals being released back into the body... because actually candida is a protective mechanism to prevent you from being poisoned by mercury! I would love for Dr. Natasha to have explained this better in the book because it is VERY dangerous to allow those heavy metals to circulate in the body without having something to remove them or to assist the kidneys in excreting them, they can do a lot of harm when released (I found that out the hard way when on a raw food 'cleanse').

This is taken from the bottom post from this thread: http://www.celiac.com/gluten-free/topic/38564-oxalates-and-nightshades/page__st__330

"It makes sense that candida would flare during "dumping".

Our bodies are a whole eco-system...there are metals, bacteria, yeast, oxalates....and all sorts of toxins playing a role when we have symptoms of chronic illness.

These things are not hanging out seperately...they are very much living together in the most toxic areas of our bodies. You cant treat one thing without also disturbing all the rest. If oxalates are binding with yeast and metals....if the oxalates start moving...so do the metals and yeast. This causes a flare-up of symptoms...die-off, dumping, mobilized metals....whatever you choose to call it...its basically the same thing.

Every one of my Dr.'s explained this to me at the start of my treatment. Once we start chelating metals....*anything* to move the metals will cause yeast symptoms to increase...significantly. Same thing with yeast treatment...if there is nothing in place to protect from the release of metals and redistribution....we will most definately feel it taking place.

I imagine that its no different with oxalates...there will be mobilization of metals and a flare up of yeast as well. Metals and yeast go hand-in-hand....in nature yeast/molds have the highest ability to bind heavy metals.

This is where toxin binders are important...especially when it comes to the metals. You dont want metals to be redistributed (where they can possibly cause even more damage)...you want them to be excreted.

Also the kidneys are particularly vulnerable because they are usually already heavily burdened by heavy metals (mercury tends to accumulate in the kidneys). A release of metals from other areas can put a great deal of stress on the kidneys. The kidneys really require alot of support during detoxification. Lots and lots of water, toxin binders as well as some type of kidney support can prevent alot of the symptoms of "dumping".

I believe that these are all tied in together....its not likely that the increase in symptoms or "flare-ups" are solely caused by oxalates. These are typical symptoms of heavy metal redistribution.

Personally, I think all toxins which are released and circulating are putting alot of stress on the body...but the ones that can do the most damage are the metals.

Its very well known that yeast binds with mercury. The worlds most experienced Dr. with regards to heavy metal detox had his own theory about yeast die-off. Basically, he didnt feel that it was yeast toxins causing these terrible die-off symptoms...he believed it was the metals which are released into the system when we do anything to kill off the yeast.

To "test" his theory when he had patients who were going through major die-off symptoms he gave them a shot of DMPS...(a strong chelator of heavy metals). Whenever he did this the die-off would immediately stop. DMPS is a treatment for heavy metals....nothing else. If it truelly were yeast toxins causing those symptoms...DMPS would have no effect on the symptoms.

From what I've read about oxalates...they seem to have an affinity for binding with minerals....including heavy metals.

I did not have a problem with either yeast or oxalates until I became mercury toxic.

I know that there is an unproven theory (with studies currently underway) that the immune system *allows* for a yeast overgrowth in a situation of heavy metal toxicity.

This is the theory..

Quote
Most - if not all - chronic infectious diseases are not caused by a failure of the immune system, but are a conscious adaptation of the immune system to an otherwise lethal heavy metal environment.

Mercury suffocates the intracellular respiratory mechanism and can cause cell death. So, the immune system makes a deal: it cultivates fungi and bacteria that can bind large amounts of toxic metals. The gain: the cells can breathe. The cost. the system has to provide nutrition for the microorganisms and has to deal with their metabolic products ("toxins").

That does not imply that the tolerated guest cannot grow out of control, as it sometimes clearly does. Therefore, there is still a limited place for antifungal antibacterial treatment - but only for the acute phase of the disease.

A so-called "die-off effect" (the sometimes severe crisis or even lethal reaction a patient can have in the initial stages of aggressive pharmaceutical antifungal or antibacterial treatment) is often nothing else but acute heavy metal toxicity - metals released from the cell walls of dying microorganisms as suggested by my own correlation of clinical syndromes and urinalysis for metals.

Colleagues in Germany are working on a study at this time. Preliminary results show a dramatic improvement in clinical and scientific parameters in chronic Candidiasis using the Klinghardt protocol or heavy metal detoxification. END quote
I personally very much believe that there is truth in this.

It makes me wonder about oxalates. If they have the ability to bind metals (in the same way that yeasts and molds do) it seems that as long as the metals remain in the body we will continue to have problems with oxalate containing foods.

As long as a person is toxic from heavy metals.... the body will always hold onto yeasts and molds for the purpose of protecting us. Maybe it does the same with oxalates??

The metals can do some serious damage if not for the yeasts ability to bind with them...preventing so much cell death and damage caused by metals moving around the body. "
__________________________________________________________________________

GAPS day 51, What's New and What We Are Eating

2011-05-25T23:08:00.000-04:00

My mood is pretty good and my energy level is not too bad after a few days of there.are.sandbags.in.my.extremities please-someone-come-over-and-take-care-of-me kind of tired. I miss days of tons of energy and strength. They are far and few between if not non-existent right now. Katie is in after growth spurt mode of little eating and tons of energy. She's been burning it by jumping and hopping. A lot. She was pretty tired today - as were we all - after not sleeping the last couple of nights due to a stuffy nose. I think seasonal allergies rolled in and have almost rolled right out again in three days time! Mine have abated the last few years after years and years of Hell. I was a once a week allergy shot kid. Sick through the whole season, and sicker for a couple days each week after my shots. Hubby developed them a few years ago but mostly has them in fall. We'll see how we all do with ragweed this year after a few months on GAPS. There is also a bit of plump happening in the last few days since little missy ma'am stopped sprouting up. She is up a pound (back to 24.5 where she was before starting GAPS). With her at 36 inches and 24.5 pounds just shy of her third birthday, I'll take it! Her height is about 10-15 percent higher than she's been averaging, so I just need to get her weight up. Since she's not losing anymore after those first few days of intro, I'm comfortable with waiting until the cold weather to see any real gains. I can't wait to see how she plumps up this fall for the Midwest winter weather! I'm excited!!

Since we've been a little back and forth with what we are eating on the GAPS diet, I thought I would list what we are eating right now for those in the 'what are people eating on this diet?' category. We're mostly avoiding raw fruits and vegetables for Katie as of last week, since I now know she gets an upset belly and some bloating with them. She was constipated when I recently removed fruit, so I added it back in. I hope to make it more occasional than daily due to our Candida imbalance and hope that juicing will do the trick instead. If she drinks broth (chicken broth 99% of the time in our house) around the time she has raw food, there seems to be no tummy trouble or it clears it up if she has some after a bellyache starts (amazing!). I try for no more than raw foods once or twice a day max with her, and start our day with a juice such as carrot, celery, and beet. I've also recently juiced bok choy, cucumber, and apple (once), all in various combinations. We own a twin gear juicer, and I highly recommend them.

Hubby, Katie, and I

100% pastured (grass-fed) local organic beef (we have a 1/2 cow in the freezer that we just purchased from Hicks Dairy Farm)
free-range organic chicken (having the hardest time finding pastured)
organic broccoli
organic cucumbers (lately only juiced)
organic radishes, red and daikon
organic peas (only ok to eat as of today, well-cooked)
organic carrots (only juiced)
organic cauliflower
organic celery (lately only juiced)
organic beets (only a small amount juiced)
organic turnips
organic bok choy
organic spinach
organic asparagus
organic eggplant (only once recently)
organic zucchini
organic summer squash
organic green beans (only ok to eat as of today, well-cooked)
organic avocados
organic apples
organic blueberries (mostly frozen)
organic parsley (in small amounts very occasionally)
organic rosemary (in small amounts very occasionally)
organic sage (in small amounts very occasionally)
organic bay leaves (in small amounts very occasionally)
Celtic sea salt
stone-crushed, cold-pressed organic Bariani olive oil
elderberry syrup
organic olives
organic jarred artichoke hearts
Custom Probiotics 11-strain Probiotic Formulation (full doses)

Hubby and I (additional foods that Katie is allergic to)

local 100% pastured organic chicken eggs, soy-free from Hicks
local 100% pastured organic sour cream from Hicks
local 100% pastured organic raw milk from Hicks
fish
shellfish
nuts (though I should stay away from them and am working on it due to my reactions)
organic true berries - strawberries & raspberries
100% pastured organic yogurt (not local or raw so will make my own soon)
illegal organic bacon (cured with sugar) on rare occasions diced in eggs
organic garlic (rarely)
organic onions (today was the first for me since starting GAPS)
organic tomatoes (another first since starting GAPS)
organic cumin
organic curry powder
organic cinnamon
raw local honey
black pepper
organic coconut oil (for oil pulling)
100% pastured organic May-September butter
homemade fermented sauerkraut (organic cabbage, sea salt; fermented 4-6 weeks; Katie cannot handle fermented foods yet)
Green Pastures fermented cod liver oil, unflavored capsules (for hubby's diabetes)

GAPS update

2011-05-24T14:47:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone! I checked out everyone's blogs, and it's nice to know the other GAPS mamas are keeping afloat. :) I survived single parenthood quite well while hubby was away. Things did get hairy after too many days without dairy and a slip of a pizza order, but my patience level and energy were fantastic for the first five days. In an effort to save you from reading a blog post the length of War and Peace, I am going to bullet point what I think is notable from the last week and a half and then start with normal blog posts tomorrow.

Katie had a major growth spurt and grew 1/2 an inch in less than 5 days.
This growth spurt caused her to cry and whine that she was hungry ALL THE TIME, even during eating. There were record amounts of meat consumed.
Today, I just started HCl with pepsin for both of us; so far, we've had 1 small pinch with breakfast with no side effects. I'll keep updating on that also. I hope it helps Katie to eat less meat and me to eat more. She seems to have major tummy troubles with raw foods, so that's the main reason I ordered them. I now think it might be a cellulose issue, since she seems to get quite bad with her probiotic lately. We're now both taking mine as of today - Katie has done well with it the few times she has tried it -.
With warm weather here, I can't seem to eat any meat and have to choke it down when I do. Milk, freshly pressed juices, and raw veggies are much easier for my system right now. Eggs are okay in small amounts.
Katie fell asleep to me singing and put herself back to sleep without assistance after getting up to pee int he middle of the night. [We normally have to sing while bouncing her on an exercise ball to get her to sleep, and shake her butt back and forth while she's laying down to get her back to sleep.] We're back to bouncing now with her growth spurt over. She has way too much energy to settle down.
I figured out the little red spots on my hand are dyshidrotic eczema. I only get them when I eat nuts.
I made 'hot dogs' for Katie. I will share the source and recipe in another post.
I cheated with pizza & breadsticks twice in deperation of something palatable to eat (would not have if I had milk but was trying to give it up while hubby was gone) and chocolate from Italy.
The chocolate gave me major side effects from the caffeine and sugar, and I felt like I had a major hangover the next day. They are banned from the house, since I binge.
My milk cravings must nutritional, since they never abated but got worse as the week went on. My mood also seriously deteriorated as I went longer without it.
The full moon was awful on our moods and physical health.
The most amazing thing I've seen on this diet so far is Katie's latest growth spurt. In addition to the 1/2 inch of growth, she's starting to pack on weight in the last couple of days, her face and nostrils seem wider (look up Weston A. Price if you're unfamiliar with his work), and her feet have changed. Her toes have always been a bit weird in that the second toes are higher (higher towards the ceiling not longer) than her other toes and those toes have also been growing longer than her big toes. As of last week that has reversed, and her big toes grew to surpass the second ones! She still has a bit of an indent where her second toes are a bit higher but that seems to be reversing also. I can't even describe how thrilled I am at this sign of the positive changes we've made with this diet. If you are familiar with the traditional foods movement, you are probably familiar with the effects of malnutrition. If not, I'll go over it in a future post since it will be a lengthy one. I highly recommend Dr. Price's book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.

That about catches us up. More later!

On Hiatus

2011-05-14T20:54:00.000-04:00

While hubby is away, I need all my energy for miss Katie, cooking, and housework. We're still on GAPS and I've cut out milk and nuts while he's gone. My mood is great - and so is my patience level - and much appreciated by me and Katie. I'm be back online in another week when The Man is back and the train is back on it's tracks. Lots of things to share!

I miss hearing how everyone's doing!

GAPS days 35-36, Content

2011-05-10T22:22:00.000-04:00

I have a new vigor for life these last couple of days. I don't have the energy to go with it, but the spirit is there. I am eager to pick piles of flowers from the dandelions and wild violets that are painting my lawn with brilliant colors and turn them into syrups and honey and wine. I want to identify all of my 'weeds', so I can make healing salves. I also need to plant my new blueberry bushes asap. Instead I've been slowly plodding through housework. I have to catch up from "WEEK FOUR". That's the new moniker for the craziness that hit the other ladies last week also. I don't have a ton of energy - might be the semi-fasting -, but I am able to keep going from task to task even without the caffeince zip I usually need. There's a bit of resting in between and playing with Katie to keep me from burning out.

I need more detox baths. Yeah, that'll happen.

Hubby leaves for an eleven day trip to visit family in Italy, and we're staying behind for the very last time. Next year, Katie will hopefully...sleep through the night, be able to handle greater amounts of noise to deal with the constant hum of big city life and the vast number of family and friends that we be surrounded by, and have an easier time with foods to allow for small amounts of cross-contamination (as in eating at a restaurant). Things are vastly improving with each year, and now we have another layer with GAPS, and I even feel we would have been okay this year but it's not ideal yet.

first meal: Katie - boiled chicken and broccoli

second meal: Katie - 1/2 avocado, more boiled chicken; me - boiled chicken with curry powder (was that ever good) and the other 1/2 of the avocado

third meal: Katie - cucumber, peeled and seeded

fourth meal: Katie, sauteed zucchini, more boiled chicken; me - 2 fried eggs, sauteed zucchini

snack: me - glass of milk to be able to finish dinner prep

fifth meal (dinner): roasted chicken with mashed cauliflower

GAPS day 34, Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-10T21:48:00.001-04:00

The GAPS outing was a success!

Katie and I setting out our picnic lunch

Mother's Day was a beautiful day filled with fun, fresh air, sunshine, and wonderful friends. Hands down, my favorite Mother's Day ever. I'd love to start planning outings for all our special days.

My pretty little peanut felt well enough to not have it affect her day, and I felt glorious. That's the reason I'm committed to sticking with the GAPS protocol. Those days that give me a glimpse of what the rest of my life will be like. LIVING instead of growing old before my time. And the end of heavy detoxing!!! Oh GAPSters, won't that be great?

The day of semi-fasting (two meals instead of my normal six) and drinking homemade electrolyte drinks restored me. Though my muscles were a little trembly from lack of food, it didn't overshadow how wonderful I felt. After the horrid week that is week four, I could have wept with gratitude to not have that dragging, exhausted feeling anymore. I started the day with an apple cider vinegar detox bath. I have been having a horrible, horrible time trying to get my hair clean for about a week. It smelled very dirty and felt kind of sticky - instead of just oily when I haven't showered -. I just love sharing these details. It helps a lot when everyone shares their problems as well as successes, so share away I will! Not even time out in the sun and fresh air rid me of it. I was flummoxed and not a little embarrassed. So I tried the vinegar bath to see if it would cut through whatever was stuck to my hair that no soap, shampoo, or shower gel would get out. It did help a bit, and, combined with two scrubbings with Dr. Bronner's soap, my hair was almost back to normal. Could it be heavy metals and other junk that is being released from my brain? My best guess is yes. Since I'm so much more clear-headed that a few weeks ago, my moods aren't so volatile (when I'm not in a healing crisis anyway), and my mind doesn't feel so dull, it seems quite plausible. Creepy huh?

Happy belated Mother's Day to all the mamas!

GAPS day 33, Our First Big Outing and Food Prep, Food Prep, Food Prep!

2011-05-07T22:07:00.000-04:00

I am happy to say tomorrow will be our first all day outing since starting GAPS. I'm also very relieved that I'm happy and not stressed about the food/lack thereof and the prep work. I think I'm getting the hang of this! We're going to visit Greenfield Village instead of doing our usual lunch with the moms for Mother's Day. It's one of my favorite places, and we can take Katie to a Day out with Thomas the Tank Engine. Win win. :)

Tomorrow's food:

roast with mashed cauliflower
zucchini 'noodles' in olive oil and sea salt (I boiled mine to keep the raw veggies to a minimum)
sliced cucumber in olive oil and sea salt
sliced radishes in olive oil and sea salt (I see a pattern emerging here)
hard-boiled eggs (for hubby and me)
apple (only for a Katie emergency if I can't get her to eat anything else and we're trying to go home; she will not sit in her seat and has a meltdown if she's hungry before a car ride)
almonds (for hubby; none for me thanks!)
ginger tea
electrolyte drink (for me)
avocado (i'm still debating on that one depending on the ripeness of them and my mood)

Thanks to Baden for the food inspiration. Reading her post gave me a bolt of clarity. We need A LOT of food, and we need variety.

Yesterday's drop of egg yolk in chicken broth did not make for a happy Katie today. She was up early, didn't eat for two hours, then wanted a dose of Colic Calm and a nap by 9:30 am. Her skin looks quite translucent and is accompanied by the dark under eye circles that screams Warning! Warning! She was a much happier girl after her nap and ate mostly hamburger with a small amount of raw or very well cooked veggies all day. No tummy bloating or gassiness like the beginning of the week. Bringing her diet back closer to intro was the key. I removed fruit and peas temporarily and she's none too pleased but her belly's happier. What a lovely feeling to be able to help her so much now. Her really funky eczema patch is way down to my relief, but that has given way to another issue. A cold sore. Her first one. Both sides of my family were plagued by them as children, so I will choose to see this as her body ridding itself of the virus instead of the beginning of a painful affliction. She's oddly had some seriously chapped lips lately. I've been shea buttering them like crazy, but it took me until today when they look much better to figure out they were caused by a cold sore. The crazy eczema patch and the emergence of the herpes virus feels like healing signs and I'm very excited. That and Katie's improved sleeping - going back to sleep after light sleep slightly wakes her, duration of sleep without waking, and her level of noise tolerance from non-existent to a 2/3 -. The extended length baths are also a fantastic addition. I added a small amount of bentonite clay to her bath for the first time this evening. So far, so good.

On to me. I woke up like a raving lunatic this morning. I was not pleasant to be around. Same feelings as yesterday but today they magically disappeared. Ahhhhhhh. I did have to take it super easy today though and set aside my super long list of to-dos, because I was a big to-don't. Thank goodness for hubby as usual. I tried coffee during the middle of the day, since I didn't really have the luxury to rest all day. That just made feel just gross. I can now joyfully replace the happy memory of a nice caffe latte with the current one. One step closer to health! I really, really craved a detox bath today but it never panned out...again. Note to self: get in at least some detox baths. I will close out on my new discovery. I feel pretty darn good when I don't really eat much. I discovered the electrolyte drink after avidly perusing Healing Naturally by Bee today and remembering the positive effects it had on Baden. It was exactly what I've been looking for!!! Today, I had fried eggs in butter with sauerkraut (needed to sleep after), water with lemon, mashed avocado with two or three celery pieces (a bit of belly heaviness and discomfort with lagging tiredness after), caffe latte - milk, espresso, small amount of sugar - (felt face tingle, expansion like described with nightshade reactions but probably a histamine response to milk, and a strange pressure headache), the electrolyte drink (felt relieved, nourished, and calm after that), then chicken broth with sauerkraut juice and sea salt (same feelings after the previous drink but a greater sense of nourishment). I have found another piece to my GAPS puzzle and I hope to be that much closer to intro after including my new wonder drink in for the digestion help. Wait, it just hit me. When did I start having digestive issues??? Ah GAPS, what a love/hate relationship we are developing. Luckily, today has finished off on a love note.

GAPS day 32, Some Observations with a Side of Crankiness

2011-05-06T22:49:00.000-04:00

I am a cranky mess and feeling a great deal of aggression, but I will try to keep the tone out of my writing. :deep breath: As I age (32 for those of you wondering), I begin to mellow but I traditionally have a very strong personality. I'm not physically agressive - though I love aggressive sports like kickboxing - but better than though, opinionated, and always right. Well, don't I sound like a nightmare? I'm not really that bad. Well, I don't think so anyway. Anyway, I regress. I've been trying to stay away from the nuts and, more unsuccessfully, the milk. It isn't working completely, but I can keep myself from binging. I can stay away from them both during the day, but evening is my downfall. Tonight, I stirred some cinnamon and curry powder into my almond butter (oh yeah, it was pretty yummy) and had two glasses of raw milk. Now I sit here with swollen fingers and aching finger joints (usual symptoms), but I've now added chest tightness, slight anxiety, adrenaline, and my thoughts have an aggressive bent to them. Yeah, that's a definite sign. I have been toying with the idea that the milk is giving me a bit of a healing crisis. I'm not sure if it's a true intolerance and/or only an intolerance, but I really struggle with the raw milk being so bad if it's so darn healing. I know the science behind it, but instinct tells me it's doing good things for me...that tells me I must be confused or bi-polar about milk. I think I'm going to have to yogurt most of it, because I hear a distinct "ahhhhhh" like singing angels when I open the fridge and see those lovely glass bottles staring at me. I can't get rid of them completely as we're on a cow share and the raw dairy is doing wonders for my husband as his body heals from diabetes. Hmm, maybe there's some transference going on. Whatever it is, I have to conquer it NOW. The slight chest tightness is the immediate catalyst. Though I did have a lot of cinnamon and the curry powder was a first since GAPS. Argh! - closing that door - I'll stick with the items that I know have been bothering me. The worst part? It gets easier and easier every day to visualize the sweets I crave and turn them down. After all that progress, why can't I just have a glass of freakin' milk? %$#&^* Oops. Forgot to take a deep breath. :deep breath:

Here are some observations and revelations I've been carefully observing and/or working through the past few days:

aggressive feelings about restriction of desired food; want to keep that away from family and attempting to use alternate coping mechanisms (a bumbling attempt at a crocheting skill from childhood with good grandma memories attached and classical music are helping so far)
battle of wills is VERY difficult when I'm battling me, myself, and I and heightens previous bullet-pointed issue
not eating enough; have the ingrained belief that food portions should be certain sizes causing me to short change myself and give Katie the lion's share, ex. one cucumber/daikon/avocado for two people though we may have a few in the house; one chicken breast or thigh is a serving, etc. (I have no idea where this one came from and am completely stunned and stumped. What a weird thing for me to have an issue with.)
based on the warmer weather, I prefer milk and eggs to meat most days; normal, instinctual seasonal eating patterns I think
fatigue increasing post-meals; each day gets worse in that I have the most energy in the morning before I eat, and once I eat - very late morning now -, I turn into a slug and would almost nap each time if I had the luxury
I believe my cravings that seem to be insurmountable are during increased die off times; reasons to stand as mine are later evening after I've been sticking with the diet all day; the beasties are hungry!
I'd rather go without eating than eat my allowed foods most of the time, then I'm starving and reach for the milk and nuts; I did eat well and increased the level of fats today but I reached for the milk and nut butter though I had chicken in broth and soup warm on the stove; I thought to turn on some classical music to help test if it would help my ride out the craving, but that was after it was already prepared and ready to be happily, if guiltily, consumed
sunshine and nice spring days did wonders for my mood and the cravings the last couple of days, though I'm just as happy to spend a rainy day indoors on occasion
more frequent and lengthy water-only baths have helped Katie deal with her reactions to what she's eaten lately; thanks Baden for mentioning your son's three hour baths!
Katie's eczema patch/rash that has recently taken residence on the right side of her lower back was worse than I've ever seen her skin mid-morning. I slathered a thick layer of raw shea butter (only thing we use for lotion, cuts, burns, rashes, etc) on it 3 times over a couple of hours, and put her amber and hazelwood necklaces back on that were left off at her request after bathtime last night; It was soon back to what it has been the last few days albeit a little more red.
the last 2/3 days of extra gassiness and slightly bloated belly for miss Katie are gone after removing most raw foods from her diet and adding in more broth/soups; frozen peas are now on the no-no list. Poor baby's list of allowable foods keeps shrinking. I may try to do full intro again soon and supplement mine with non-intro foods after her bedtime until I can conquer the intolerance to all of the animal products and overcooked veggies.

One last random thought to spew from my spinning mind is that Katie trialed one drop of egg yolk in chicken broth. This was of course, right before she pointed out that her back was bumpy. I'm not sure how I feel about continuing that right now, especially considering that her sleep has been so off again lately.

Well, this is a spewing forth of random thoughts and a rant and a half that I would rather not post. Thanks to my fellow GAPS ladies who are so refreshingly honest, I will do so anyway!

GAPS day 30, (We're already a month in? Really?) A Much Needed Day in the Sunshine

2011-05-05T01:01:00.000-04:00

Strange day today but lovely overall. Katie woke at 5 am after only 9 hours of sleep. Since she recently dropped her afternoon nap :sob:, she now sleeps between 11-12 hours a night. Hubby got up with her, but I had trouble getting back to sleep, then had to get up not too long after I finally did. I was a bonefide wreck and felt very fragile during the early hours. I almost had coffee (caffe latte with milk and sugar) to get me through the jam-packed day - and the smell so lovingly wafted under my nose from the espresso pot to lure me in -, but I managed to hold steady in five minute increments until Katie decided she was tired and let me persuade her into an early nap around 9 am. Bless that child. That revived me and I was able to forgo the coffee. Don't cheer me on just yet. Keep reading. Between the nap, Katie feeling the need to eat every second even after she's just claimed she's full, a water only detox bath for her, and a shower for me. The morning and early afternoon was gone and we were on our way to pick up our farm order of raw milk, pastured eggs, and sundry pastured cow parts. This was our first pickup on a sunny day, and I planned to stay at the church pickup spot and play awhile. Katie throws a fit when we have to leave right away. I thought this would be a nice treat. It so was.

A day in the sunshine was a gift more precious than gold. We played tag and went on a treasure hunt for sticks, pinecones and rocks. We ran through the grass and named the flowers. Sunshine rained on our heads and the sky was a beautiful cerulean blue with just enough wispy clouds to name the shapes (which we did while munching an apple in the car on a snack break). We ran and smiled and giggled. It was lovely. Then we came home, and, reluctant to end the afternoon, we stayed outside and planted some herbs and flowers that had been somewhat patiently waiting for a non-rainy day. The sandbox was rummaged through, the grass was trampeled, emerging plants were named and blooming flowers were admired. I weeded a bit which is surprisingly cathartic for me. The only damper? I didn't get a chance to eat again for most of the day. That brought on the milk and almond butter, but it's a broken record lately so I won't go there. Suffice it to say, I'm working on and through it. Even with a bit of anxiety (that I don't usually see anymore) and and emotionally-exhausting day, I was able to stay away from non-GAPS food.

Katie has been very gassy the last couple of days and in a bit of discomfort overall with the worse-than-I've-seen-before rash on her lower back and general signs of food intolerance. No more garlic for now. I think the gastric distress is from too many raw and frozen foods (yes, she's weird and will cry if I don't give her blueberries and peas still frozen) the last couple of days. She's been shying away from beef, so chicken will go in for stock in the morning. The day calls for a heavy hand with intro soups, ginger tea, and well-cooked veggies. I hope it settles her tummy enough to know when she's actually hungry and then eat enough to satisfy her.

Food today was pretty much same ol' stuff. I'm only feeling in the mood for a half-hearted attempt at a post but had to share our wonderful outing. I'm feeling a bit withdrawn after such an emotional morning and rush rush afternoon trying to get our order within the thirty minutes they're at the church for drop off. Looking forward to the comforting smell of chicken broth in the morning. I think I'll add some ginger tea to the to do list for some extra soul soothing.

Still reading and enjoying everyone's posts. I may take tomorrow off, readjust, and just be a passive participant in the blog roll. :)

GAPS day 29, The Renaming of Sugar, Conquering the Cravings, and Katie Tries Garlic

2011-05-04T00:00:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Rufus' recent post, I'm now calling my intolerant foods poison. Especially sugar. Every sugar-laden confection I pass while out will be labeled as such to hopefully trigger the negative associations I've spent years creating. I don't have a Carl Smithers in my life (confused? read Rufus' linked post!) to mimic the association, but poison is the first repugnant word that came to mind. Right now, everything that my body does not respond well to and makes me sick is poison. Let's see how the word associations helps. Great. Now I've written the word poison enough times that I can't tell if it's spelled right.

Katie's first attempt with garlic was today. I added a teeny bit to her broth and let it steep, so she'd only get a bit of garlic oil to start. Seems to have gone ok but I'll go very slow and, as most of you know, it will take a few days until I really know. She has many patches of spots all over, so I don't know if it's a detox reaction from the sauerkraut (my detox reactions are a lot more pronounced also now that my body can get rid of things faster), her synthetic tutu (she normally only wears 100% cotton with no flame retardants or spf built in) or maybe the garlic...and, if it's the garlic, is it detox? Die off? Intolerance? Sulpher sensitivity? I'm going to keep it in for now and move like a snail with increased doses. She was happy today, so I feel comfortable trying again in a couple of days.

I had a serious backlash of cravings and psychological symptoms with food today. I got hungry and couldn't stomach anything in the house. I worked through it really well by using the poison reference, imagery and taste memories to remind me the things I wanted weren't that good and weren't worth the damage I'd do to my body and the crankiness that my family has to deal with, and checked my blood glucose to make sure it wasn't too low so I could wait out the cravings. After making a cucumber to share that Katie ate by herself, I didn't have the energy or mental fortitude to make more food that I didn't really want to eat (and I didn't want to waste one of Katie's favorite snacks on myself--gotta stop thinking that Katie deserves all the food. We have enough for all of us and only need to shop to get more.) I got dizzy so caved and had a spoonful of almond butter and a glass of milk really quickly. Being able to take care of Katie was more important than skipping the food. The funny thing? These are healthy, GAPS legal foods that I am piling on the guilt about. Yes, my body's not responding well to them right now, but I didn't go out and eat a box of cookies or binge on a box of chocolates. It's funny the way our mind can change gears so quickly. I also had the sour cream and blueberry concoction that I mention below in our food for the day. No words to describe the yummiliciousness of that. It made me want to curl up like a contented cat and purr. That beat a Starbucks muffin hands down and I'm stunned. I love that GAPS is doing that for me. It also revved up my moping appetite, so I could eat some eggs. Today, dinner at 10 pm was better late than never, since it wasn't the pizza I was on the verge of ordering. Emotional eating - 0, me - 2!

I'm probably missing a bunch of things, but I already rattled on quite a bit and I'm tired.

first meal: frozen blueberries with snow for Katie

snack?: beef bone broth for both of us - sea salt, rosemary, and garlic for Katie and additional black pepper for me. Not as good as yesterday and a bit hard to choke down.

second meal: hamburger soup - hamburger, beef bone broth, a bit of marrow, carrot, cauliflower, turnip, bay, rosemary, sea salt for both (got a bit of marrow and had to run to the kitchen to spit it out; thank goodness Katie likes it)

snack: apple (Katie had flesh; I had skin)

snack: peeled and seeded cucumber in olive oil with Celtic seal salt for Katie; spoon of almond butter and glass of milk for me

third meal: more hamburger soup for Katie sans all veggies but carrot except for what I snuck in the bites while she wasn't paying attention; a bit more almond butter for me

snack (after Katie bedtime): frozen blueberries with raw pastured sour cream, about 1/2 t of honey, and cinnamon - DIVINE! The sour cream froze, and it reminded me of sour cream coffee cake or a muffin. Very unexpected and a welcome treat.

dinner: two fried eggs, Cholula [cheat: xanthan gum], sauerkraut (It was no pizza but it was nourishing and I could stomach it.)

GAPS day 28, nothing interesting so a quick update

2011-05-03T00:45:00.000-04:00

Today: no urge for nuts, dairy, or sugar. not very hungry but not feeling sick. Evening: so hungry I had a glass of milk to hold me til a very late dinner. Ate and then had another glass, not needed and indulgent. The second glass did me in. I was rumbly in my tummy and now a bit itchy everywhere. Fingers are starting to get tight and I think my feet are swelling a bit too. Since I've not had nuts, I can now isolate it to dairy. Our sewers were being 'revitalized' today and we couldn't really use our water, so food prep took a nose dive. I'm happy to report that Katie only had a normal toddler size serving of the marrow and oxtail from my beef broth, so I feel that her system has had a bit of a cleansing. I really have trouble with all of the muscle meat she eats. But she is sleeping amazingly well. So much that she's not napping lately. Between her new amber necklace that works better than I could have ever imagined or dreamed of making her feel better, sleeping with a fan again, and this diet, she is no longer as noise sensitive or comes into such a light sleep so often. We've had to go back to nighttime diapers, since she started reacting so heavily to all of the ferments in her diet a few weeks ago. Those are drier lately so another sign of a smaller toxic load. She took my big boy, heavy-duty probiotic (Custom Probiotics 11-strain/linked in my other posts) for the first time this morning and did wonderful with it so I'm so very happy and encouraged. I didn't notice any die off symptoms. Sweet. For me, after almost spitting out my first mouthful of a mug of the aforementioned broth this morning, I doctored it up sucessfully. I find it pretty tasty with fresh garlic, fresh cracked black pepper, sea salt, and rosemary left to marinate for about 20 minutes. YAY!!! That is a huge jump forward for me in doing GAPS and especially intro. Such small victories and yet so large.

Just remembered another couple of good things. I had big chunks of fat in my milk and happily drank them down. No shivering, shuddering, or gagging. Big gains for a fat avoider! Katie claims she's hungry no matter how much she's eaten up until bed but has gone to bed on my orders without the extra 1/2 hr-45 minutes of 'one more snack' that she's been almost compulsively lately. She's always needed to eat a substantial amount right before bed, but now it's like she can't get enough even if she says she's full two seconds before. Glad I'm not the only mom going through this. It's helping me cope and pay attention to when she really needs food without throwing food at her anytime she asks and having it follow her to bed.

What a nonsensical ramble. Off to bed.

first meal: frozen blueberries for Katie; beef bone broth with raw garlic, rosemary, black pepper, seal salt for me

seond meal: chicken bone broth, bok choy, carrots, celery added for flavor & removed for Katie; bok choy ended up being fished out and eaten by me when Katie decided she no longer liked it

third meal: oxtails and marrow from broth with sea salt for Katie (and she ate it happily, super squishy parts and all!); two eggs fried in butter for me

snack: shared apple

fourth meal: raw daikon (radish) and cauliflower with olive oil and celtic sea salt, then artichoke hearts, then frozen peas, then smashed cauliflower for Katie; 2 glasses of milk and a grilled tuna steak with a spoon of sour cream for me

GAPS day 27, Cosi, blood sugar, and a surprising twist

2011-05-01T23:45:00.000-04:00

Well, today ended up being a cheat day. Hubby and I really needed to spend a bit of time just the two of us, so Katie spent a couple of hours with her grandparents. We walked one of our favorite downtown locales and stopped at Whole Paycheck - oops, I mean Whole Foods - to pick up a few things. I was pretty ravenous by the time we reached our destination and battling the happy food emotions that always accompany our outings. Grabbing a coffee or chai tea and food has been central to our outings for nine years. No way we're going to be able to drop the routine cold turkey. We've got some work to do. I think I'll work through my food issues and associations in another post. It's turning out to be a doozy of an issue.

We ended up at a local favorite sandwich shop of mine, Cosi for those who know it. I went in fully expecting to use this as a learning experience. How do I feel eating it? Is it necessary for a good time with my hubby? Does it taste as good as my memory remembers? How do I feel after? Was it worth it? I learn lessons best by the act of doing. Also, my psychology background leads me to process issues in a way that works for me and allows me to make new associations that will lead to permanent changes. Blah blah blah. So I got my favorite sandwich and A COOKIE and was super excited. The little kid in my was grinning like it was Christmas morning. Light of mood. Buoyed. I took my first bite. Eh. It was ok. Half way through my nose was running from the honey mustard. Huh? That's new. It seemed super spicy, even though I'm fine with things like raw garlic, fresh ground black peper, and hot chili sauce. The turkey, sauce, brie, and bread (fresh baked flatbread) began the 'brick' phase of digestion even before I finished the sandwich. I almost didn't finish it. I swear I can still feel it sitting like a rock six hours later, though it luckily didn't cause any digestive issues. I then proceeded to the chocolate chunk cookie. The dough tasted heavenly when I first touched my tongue to it. I should have just licked it and stayed happy. After the first two bites I didn't feel the need for it anymore though I had to finish it. As a sugar addict, you don't throw out sugar especially when you are denying yourself of it and only have this one chance.

I FELT CRUMMY. We both did.

I felt weird like I was having an adrenaline rush. My heart was racing. My face was red. We briskly walked the street of downtown - led by usually poky little me with my short legs -, but I didn't feel any better. By the time we got back into my truck, I was so tired that I just wanted to curl up and sleep but still felt the body racing. Hubby checked his blood sugar as soon as we got back to his parent's house and it was 263. Dangerously, can-cause-damage high. His diabetes has been well controlled with diet recently, but this is our first real experiment with 'bad' foods. [He is going to Italy very soon to visit his family (he's first generation American), so I wanted to test what will happen when he goes off the diet for pizza. Not having it is not an option. Honestly, I totally understand.] This drastic sugar spike was unexpected. Another walk after dinner (really a stroll since miss Katie came) gave him another opportunity to drop it a bit before we headed home. A funny premonition had me checking my blood sugar levels even though I tend toward the hypoglycemic end. 162 FOUR hours after we finished eating! It should have been below 100. No wonder I felt so sick. I did some sprints on the stairs because I like what this article says "high-intensity training is superior to chronic cardio because it produces a greater stimulus and thus more effectively empties the muscles and liver of glucose." The quick sprints didn't feel like enough so I did a set of squats, standing push ups, and some shadow kick boxing for a few minutes. I definitely felt better after that and my glucose was down to 126 within half an hour of the first test. Hubby was on his way back to safe levels after one of these diabetic supplements. Water has also been my constant companion for the last couple of hours, plus an evening dose of probiotic. I'm having trouble spelling and specific words I want to write are hard to grasp from a bit of brain cloudiness. Now that is incentive to stay away from my trigger foods. Let's see how this gets processed and fits in with my deep seated associations of food, comfort, and happiness.

Anyone else feel like they have someone else's body while on GAPS???

Mine is freaking out in the strangest ways. Those funky spots on the underside of my hands. A hive showing up next to my eye after mopping today (must have been nuts or dairy being released through my skin while sweating). My face had been red and patchy from yeast overgrowth from my first cheat after intro, sometimes itchy. Yeast infections in unmentionable places if I take an epsom salt bath. Ugh.

Tomorrow? Broth, broth, broth. The beef broth of knuckle, oxtails, and horizontal cut marrow bones has been in the crockpot with Celtic sea salt (we're not having vinegar with Katie's ferment sensitivity) and should be done by tomorrow evening. We'll finish the chicken broth in the morning and another batch is going on the stove after breakfast for lunch. Some healing is in order for this poor beat up body.

GAPS day 26, No Nuts or Milk!

2011-05-01T11:27:00.001-04:00

Today I took a time out and spent most of the day in bed while hubby and Katie played outside. Sun and fresh air for her and a nice comfy bed for me. It worked wonders. Cravings continued but it was easier to hold them in check, partly because I have been able to conquer them over the last few days. Who wants to backslide after all that work?

Sauerkraut. My joy and my nemesis. Katie and I started back on a bit of sauerkraut a couple of days ago. I love that I can make such nourishing and healing foods for my family...until Katie had a reaction. It wasn't her typical die off reaction, it was an allergy reaction. Very significant bumps on her girly parts, bum, hand, belly, and back, itching, hiccups, whining, trouble sleeping. Sigh. Luckily, GAPS has helped assure me of new things she reacts to. Fermented foods seem to be a no no for now (I love being able to say 'for now'). The reason I started GAPS so abruptly was the frustration with her reactions and not knowing where they came from. We were eating a lot of sourdough pancakes and quite a bit of sauerkraut in the few weeks leading up to GAPS. Thank goodness she is now on a probiotic that her body is responding well to. Luckily, sauerkraut is a go for me and hubby so it doesn't sit forlorn and unused with my sourdough starter. I'm also taking quite a large dose of my probiotics and feel better and better the more I take. Road to recovery here we come!

And yes, you read the title correctly. I have not had nuts or milk for about 36 hours now (moving into day 27). There was a pat of butter in my morning eggs. Almost all of my swelling has gone down, though under my eyes is still a bit puffy. That should disappear in the next day or two. There is no back pain on waking. I can spring out of bed without having to catch my breath from lower back and hip pain...or I would be able to if I wasn't extra tired lately. :) The red bumps I was complaining of on the underside of my hands are almost gone. I do have some joint pain in my fingers this morning and a couple of angry new bumps, but the original and subsequent ones are gone or almost so. I'm also starting to lose weight again.

Since hubby had Katie almost the entire day, no food journaling for the day. I had some fruit - a bit of blueberries and an apple - but did fine with it. No extra itching. Sweeeet. I'm now craving beef so will pull out the crockpot and start the stock from my new marrow bones and oxtails in a bit. Yum.

Tomorrow, we're going to place the official order for our first pastured side of beef!! Who knew it would be so nerve-wracking and research laden? Which cuts do I want? What does that mean? Luckily, after delving into much internet research, I figured it out. I think. More on that in a separate post.

Happy day peeps!

GAPS day 25, back on track

2011-04-30T01:10:00.000-04:00

The cravings are still there but manageable and dwindling. Phew! Another notch on my headboard is that I didn't have a single nut today. It's SO HARD to do. They're just there. Like a glass of milk. Ready to consume. No warming up, cutting, chopping, or sauteeing of anything. I'm not a big meat eater and I'm getting super tired of prepping veggies. I don't like to prep them early, since they lose their nutrients too fast. Whine whine whine. Ahem. I didn't have any honey or fruit either. It wasn't too hard to stay away with visions of donuts dancing in my head. I'm not sure if I'm more mad at donuts or my head at this point. I could really use some of my rye sourdough pancakes with butter and maple syrup. My neglected sourdough starters (I currently have five) stare accusingly at me every time I open the fridge. The nut version or even just squash and egg are currently no-no's. I can't eat them in front of Katie, and I'm ~~afraid~~ absolutely sure I'll binge.

Chicken broth is back in its spot in the fridge. Beef broth will begin tomorrow. I'm pulling out the crock pot for that one as we'll be out of the house, and I really don't like leaving the gas on for any length of time. Too toxic. I can't find the fascinating article I read on it right now. In a nutshell, a man wore a pollution meter for a day. He traveled in rush hour traffic behind some heavily polluting vehicles, sat in an office all day, and then came home. Amazingly, his kitchen was by far the most polluted area he visited. I crack my kitchen window when I cook now. That's a total 'better to be safe than sorry' story for me. We're in the kitchen way too much to risk it.

I'm again contemplating how to make intro work better for me. Mostly veggie soups and meat only when the craving hits? Soft bits only a couple of times a week? Less fat? I'll keep knocking that around awhile. Stupid intro. Why can't I just let it go for a bit? #1 I hate feeling like a failure. I never followed through on things growing up, so now it's very important to me to do so if i deem it important. #2 I feel like Katie is going to be permanently damaged if I don't hurry up and get her the full gamut of foods that she's been missing. Like rightnow. #3 I have so many wonderful examples of people doing intro right now, and I want to do it while the support is there. Instead, I'm falling on my face.

Katie had a tummy ache after a pear today. Coupled with the whining the last two times she had them, they're off the list for now. Our food choices are dwindling more and more. I was allowing her apples, pears, and blueberries two to three times a day - due to her love of fruit, ease of preparation, and lack of good organic veggies that early spring makes problematic -. Neither of us are good at heavy foods first thing in the morning, so she usually does a bowl (okay, a really big bowl) of frozen blueberries covered in snow (her probiotic) right when she gets up. I start my day with oil pulling for twenty minutes, follow with brushing and flossing, then have my probiotic and wait the prescribed half hour before eating. I'm usually pretty hungry by the time I can eat, so I'm happy to dig into something a little heartier these days.

Katie seems to be doing pretty well. She has been a little spotty today in her nether regions and has a patch of significantly raised red bumps on the fleshy pad of her palm. Reaction? Die off? Petting the cat who has been eating wild caught poached salmon for the last couple of days? Hard life that cat has. I increased by half both of our doses of probiotic the last couple of days - two? three? four? I'm a little fuzzy still - and added a bit of saurkraut juice back in. Die off usually results in pretty red cheeks for both of us, but I didn't see any. I guess I'll just let the broth do it's job and see what happens.

Food today is a bit of a jumble, seemingly, along with this post.

first meal (breakfast): big bowl of blueberries for Katie; scrambled eggs with a diced garlic clove and saurkraut

second meal (mid morning meal): carrot sticks and guacamole - smashed avocado with salt and saurkraut juice - for both, though I only had a couple bites and Katie inhaled the entire avocado and three carrots; I had some cold poached salmon a bit later with a squeeze of lemon juice

snack: pear for Katie

third meal (late lunch): boiled chicken; added two jarred artichoke hearts for Katie and glass of milk for me

fourth meal (dinner): boiled chicken in broth with sauteed summer squash (sauteed in its own water; works amazingly well with zucchini also); added raw pastured sour cream and smashed avocado with Cholula [cheat: has xanthan gum] to mine

late evening snack: glass of milk for me

GAPS days 23-24, Oh the CRAVINGS!!!

2011-04-29T12:06:00.000-04:00

Donuts. Cookies, Pastries. Chocolate. Kit Kat. Caramello. Whatchamacallit. Peanut butter and jelly. Holy Moses! I almost did not survive yesterday. On a scale of 1 to 10 for withdrawal symptoms, it was a 12. It's the first real issue I've had with withdrawal cravings since we started GAPS.

I CONQUERED THE DAY!

NO donuts. NO cookies. No pastries. NO chocolate. Hardest thing EVER. Nobody but an addict can truly understand how difficult it is to abstain. Alcohol, drugs, sugar, it's all the same. It causes the same painful withdrawal symptoms and overwhelming need, mental, physiological, and physical. Starlene's recent post kept playing in my head and thinking of all the wonderful GAPS ladies doing intro were really instrumental in keeping me on track. I had no intention of sticking to my guns at least a dozen times throughout the day, and tv last night almost killed me. I did find that most of the foods I was seeing made me think how awful they taste. I'd be happy to have a gourmet version, but the cheap commercial version we're used to just wouldn't do. Example? An ice cream drumstick. I'd rather have frozen custard. A cookie? The Chips Ahoy version now tastes metallic and tasteless. It's not worth the aggravation. These are very new developments. I think the thing that ultimately kept me away from indulging is how much worse I'd feel day after day if I did. I have a family who is counting on me to be around, happy, and instrumental in taking care of them. I just don't have the option of checking out. I was wrung out from being sick, die off (took a lot of detox foods yesterday to help hurry the die off of candida albicans and other unidentified sugar eaters to get rid of the cravings faster), and had to camp out on the sofa for most of yesterday. I was angry at the world and ready to snap at anyone who looked at me. I almost chewed off my lips a few times to keep my mouth shut. :) Katie wasn't happy about the mostly non-play day, but I knew I needed to take care of myself so i can take care of her. I started the day with a clove of garlic diced into my eggs and it caused some serious amounts of mucous to erupt. I made some homemade cough syrup once my throat starting filling up and the coughing began and all was well again. Another detox concoction. Then I upped my dose by another half on my probiotic. Die bugs die! I took it easy after that. The serious cravings started later. GAPS has allowed me to realize cravings escalate as starvation of the candida - and whatever else - escalates, and I will feel much better the next day if I hold off.

I'm pretty sure it was bit of cheating over the extended Easter weekend and no nourishing broth thart was the cause. I think the broth and nourishing soups was the key. I've been avoiding broth for the last few days from an aversion to it, but I'm craving that now too! I just have to figure out how to keep it in my diet without burning out. I got my first order of marrow bones and oxtails from US Wellness Meats and am keen to make some beef broth. Until today, I was rather disgusted at the thought of anything but chicken broth. Not sure why. It may have been the lamb broth I tried to make. Blech. I am feeling better (thank you, thank you, thank you to every deity by whatever name they go by) and am really looking forward to getting some bones on to bubble. Today, the beef bones go into the crockpot and a chicken will go in the stockpot. I just bought Celtic sea salt and we love it. I can't wait to try it in the broth.

Cheats I allowed yesterday: 2 T almond butter with cinnamon and frozen blueberries, apple (yuck), and a small glass of milk. Not too shabby.

Homemade Cough Syrup, Witch Doctor style

2011-04-29T11:45:00.000-04:00

I recently added to my concoctions of home remedies and came up with one that remedied bronchitis that was creeping up on me. I had a cold that I wasn't taking care of. Hack hack, cough cough, lo and behold...bronchitis. I stopped coughing within three minutes of taking this, coughed minimally the next day - even though I have an almost three year old that does not allow me the option of resting my voice -, and haven't coughed since. Diet will also make a difference. Consuming large amounts of sugar and processed foods will greatly hinder recovery.

Cough Syrup

2 Tablespoons *raw apple cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon *raw local honey
1 Tablespoon elderberry syrup
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Mix together until honey 'melts' a bit and all ingredients are incorporated. Slurp spoonfuls of syrup from any size spoon until finished. Breathe in lightly as you slurp to help distribute the syrup closer to your bronchial tubes. You may cough like a madman for a few minutes while taking the syrup and directly afterward like I did but, I assure you, it is temporary. :)

*raw is not necessary but helps greatly with the healing process

Happy healing.

A List of Katie's Food Allergies/Intolerances

2011-04-27T23:08:00.001-04:00

1. Dairy

2. Wheat

3. Soy

4. Eggs

5. Onion

6. Garlic

7. Tomato

8. Pork

9. Fish

10. Bananas

11. Peanuts

12. Tree nuts

13. Berries (true)

14. Tropical fruit

15. Citrus fruit

16. Sesame

17. Sunflower seeds

18. Coconut

19. Agave

20. Cinnamon

21. Mustard

22. Seafood

23. Chocolate

24. Yeast

I have grouped a few of these into types of foods for sanity's sake.

GAPS day 19-22, confessions, Easter and bronchitis

2011-04-27T10:06:00.001-04:00

I've been off blogging for a few days while hubby was on a four day vacation for Easter. I love those.

This will be a somewhat quick update. I am trying to rest as much as possible. Though with an almost three year old at home, it's not easy. I caught Katie's cold last week and didn't take care of it well. I now have a touch of bronchitis and am slowing down to tend to it. Lots of lemon juice, elderberry syrup, raw apple cider vinegar, raw honey, ginger tea, probiotics, and garlic. I tried chicken broth but my body's not really fond of animal products right now. Super bummer.

Food has been on track for Katie. I even brought soup for all of us for a trip to IKEA, since we'd be there awhile. I love that IKEA is an event instead of just a shopping trip. It's so much more fun that way. It was the first time we used hubby's new Thermos that I'd bought him to haul soups to work and to double as travel food for us. Katie cannot have food that I don't make with her food allergies even without GAPS. It rocks by the way. Me, on the other hand, have had infractions. They weren't as bad as they usually would be while sick, but being sick really triggers an emotional eating response in me. I've decided to work through my emotional issues with food being a comfort or reward as we go through GAPS, so I will be progressing slower than I'd like. I am comfortable with full GAPS but I know there will be backslides on occasion. After pizza and breadsticks, dessert on Easter, caffe latte with sugar, and swedish meatballs over a four day period, symptoms have resurfaced that were disappearing. Mottled complexion, joint stiffness, back pain while lying for long periods or sleeping, foot discomfort and tightness, irritability, and itchiness from yeast. I have been following the diet otherwise sans broth which is mighty impressive. No infractions since Monday and it's not as hard as it usually is or as I'd imagined. I normally have to sugar binge until I'm sick before I can cut it back out. Sugar addictions are lovely.

Enough for now. Time to rest and entertain Her Highness. I hope everyone has a lovely day.

GAPS day 18, 'GAPS Kitchen Syndrome', a virus, and CHICKEN FEET

2011-04-22T20:29:00.002-04:00

I have some weird spots popping up the last few days that are small, red, and painful. They are also clear inside where a whitehead would be. I have them mostly on my palms and the underside of my fingers and have about seven of them on my hands today. Nuts? Dairy? Regular die off? They've gotten much better since washing dishes and cleaning the kitchen for two hours, but they're still there. Yes, I cleaned for two hours and am still not done, but I'm channeling the FlyLady today so I'm hopeful to get all of this week's chores caught up. I now have what will henceforth be known as 'GAPS Kitchen Syndrome'.

I just gained another foot of counter space! Hubby put the toaster oven in the basement as it just takes up space and is a big hulking reminder of the toast we can't have (though strangely enough, the cravings for it are fleeting and mostly for the convenience). Now I have more room for the dirty dishes that accumulate so rapidly lately. :eye roll:

I was just reading a new GAPS blog and had a blinding revelation. I need to do a lot of prep and get a boatload of stock made up and in the fridge and freezer. Yes, I did read about doing this before I started but it didn't penetrate my hard head well enough. I can't make it as I need it, otherwise we don't have the bone stocks and soup as often. I need ready made food. I need a good variety of soup recipes - that exclude allergens - with our limited ingredients, and I think if we can juice and start out with avocados it will help with my need for raw foods. Hmm. It sounds like I'm moving back towards intro. Everyone is so inspiring that I'm constantly wavering. Am I doing things right? Do I just need to make smaller modifications to get in raw until we can get off of it for a few days/weeks? I really want Katie to at least be able to have egg yolks before we move on but that's a long haul of stage one, since I'll need to move soooooo slow with her allergy/intolerance. I'd like to give her four days on stage one before we start it, then start with 1/4 teaspoon per day again. She got cranky the last time we tried, but I don't know if it was from the yolks or something else. We did two days of 1/4 teaspoon in soup. That may have been tolerated though I think I should try with 1/8 teaspoon if doing it daily. If I wait four days on 1/8 teaspoon, then we'll have been on just soups for 8 days. Way too long for me. I hate to jump ahead of her though. I know the bit of yolk from my medium-boiled egg without broth was a HUGE no-no on day 3 of egg. She had a very quick reaction and needed a good dose of Colic Calm to settle her belly. Skin bumps followed the next day so it was definitely a reaction for her. Maybe hiccups too; I don't remember now. We have been doing probiotics for a few days (Katie's first time on them since she reacts to the Shaklee brand and store bought all have dairy/soy) and been off grains for a couple of weeks, so this time might be better. Grrarrargh. So frustrating! Full GAPS is pretty easy for me. The roller coater that is intro? Not so much. There is a reason I'm hovering around it though. Any others on such a meandering path to GAPS? :)

My throat's been hurting all morning, increasingly so. I have energy and a super long laundry list of things to do, but maybe I should just curl up with my trashy romance novel and rest while Katie naps. ...later on...Well, I have a cold. I don't feel too bad but, as my sinuses slowly clog up and my head fills with cotton, the whining in my head increases. I made a fresh batch of ginger tea earlier and have been adding raw honey to it plus took my elderberry syrup. A mug of chicken broth - as soon as it's done bubbling - with a clove of raw garlic in my belly and a bit of probiotic on my tongue before bed (forgotten last night), and I hope to be right as rain tomorrow.

Are you ready for this? Are you ready for it? There are CHICKEN FEET in the broth bubbling away on my stove. I did it! Justine is my new food muse, because I'm about to order oxtail for the first time and am excited to continue expanding my horizons. Unfortunately, the farm I buy from is out of stock right now. U.S. Wellness Meats come highly recommended by these local doctors and moms who order from them, and I don't feel like calling local farms to see who has any in stock. I'm not a huge fan of beef stock, but I think some oxtails and beef knuckles are in order so I can make a nice one. We've been relying on chicken too much lately. I feel the need for a better balance of nutrients.

I think I'll call off a bit early and work on evicting the unwelcome tenants in my nasal cavities.

first meal: turkey with peas for Katie in pea broth; I find I'm not hungry in the morning so only had my probiotic in water

second meal: frozen blueberries for Katie; two soft-boiled eggs with butter and spinach for me (still craving spinach) with a cup of roasted dandelion root tea (I think I'll start pulling some from the yard this week!)

2 glasses of milk for me - I need to quit milk!!!

third meal(lunch): hamburgers with sour cream and Cholula hot sauce with celery salad (celery, salt, olive oil) sans Cholula and sour cream for Katie

snack: apple - bite for me but not appealing so most of it went to Katie

fourth meal(dinner and super late again): Boiled chicken in butter lettuce leaves as a wrap and olives for miss Katie; daikon radish slices in olive oil and poached salmon filets for hubby and I since he's Catholic and it's Good Friday; yes, ignore the hamburgers for lunch. whoops.

GAPS day 17, still intro'ishing it

2011-04-21T22:21:00.003-04:00

As I ruminated on and stewed over why I'm diverging off the path of true intro - when I normally tend towards perfectionism -, I think something - or many somethings - must require the enzymes in raw food to heal. Much of the healing the must take place in hubby's organs to start producing insulin and process glucose comes from raw foods, so there must be something inside me that is requiring the same. Sugar and carb cravings are pretty short-lived when they pop up (amazing with my sugar addiction). Those I avoid like the plague, but they often just require a glass of water or something to eat to disappear. Sweet. I have trouble avoiding the raw food though since we're craving it. It just feels wrong to not eat it, so I'm definitely in a different spot that many people going through intro. Since Katie and I are so similar, and she did get her gut flora from me after all, I'm taking her on a modified version of my path. She seems to get whiny after fruit and had problems with gas all day, so I'm going to try to limit it to nonexistence for awhile. Her diet is much closer to intro than me.

"And then the witch doctor he told me what to do. He said ooh ee ooh ah ah ting tang ..."

I ran out of bone broth this morning, so I'll have to whip up another batch tomorrow using chicken feet. Those are going to be fun to process. Guess what folks? It pays to be a kooky witch doctor. Katie's cold is GONE. Besides her chicken broth, ginger tea, and elderberry syrup that is part of my routine for illness, I put a teensy bit of my probiotic on her tongue just before bed and gave her nothing to eat or drink after. I've been reading about it on the Yahoo! GAPS message boards for things like ear infections and thrush, so I thought it may help. She woke feeling perfectly fine, and I can only hear a bit of congestion in her sinuses when she drinks or eats. Right on! I'll do a steam tent if it's not gone tomorrow. I also added the probiotic to my tongue and woke up to some crazy die off at 1:30 am. My mind was so fuzzy I could hardly figure out how to walk into the bedroom when Katie awoke again from congestion. She was sideways in my bed and hubby had the other side, so I slept in the guest room until she woke me up. There was no way I could make it back to the other bed after getting her to sleep, so I shuffled her over and hugged the edge. Did I mention we have a king bed and none of us are very big? My brain was amazingly clear this morning. Pretty crazy stuff. Plus, my vocabulary is back. It's been strangely absent lately and has made me sad. I LOVE words. Ever see the movie Threesome with Stephen Baldwin? Kinda like Lara Flynn Boyle's character but without the weird kinky twist.

Today was pretty uninteresting. We played and watched a bit of tv. I did dishes and made dinner while hubby and Katie played outside. Hubby's off work for the next four days for the Easter holiday, so we'll be working on the to do list and having some fun. SO ready for him to be home for a few days. I'm hoping to soak up a bit of culture that has sorely been lacking with a toddler in tow and praying for a visit to the DIA, our main art museum in Detroit. I am happy to proclaim that it's one of the top six in the nation. Though strangely that reminds me to mention that anyone feeling a little stressed may want to look into buying a coloring book and a pack of crayons or grab some lying around the house. The most calm I have been is when Katie and I are coloring. I'm debating on getting a couple of coloring books that remind me of my childhood (Strawberry Shortcake anyone?) and a fistful of crayons to hole up with when I need a sanity check. :)

first meal: pear for Katie

second meal: boiled chicken for katie and mugs of chicken broth for both of us

treat: ginger tea with elderberry syrup (it's nice when a cold treatment becomes a treat!)

third meal: leftover hamburger 'soup' for Katie (hamburger, chicken broth, peas); soft-boiled egg mashed with frozen spinach and lots of butter with my first teeny bit of saurkraut since starting GAPS for me

snack during naptime: mixed nuts and glass of raw milk for me (why can't I stop eating them???)

fourth meal: last of hamburger soup with 2 small jarred artichoke hearts

fifth meal (dinner): turkey thigh (GAPS illegal since I pressure cooked it) with sage, rosemary and sea salt - 1st time using herbs since we started the diet -, spinach (I'm craving spinach), and broccoli for Katie and hubby; butter on my veggies and olive oil on theirs added after cooking; veggies cooked in water

last snack: apple for Katie (her belly hurts & she's asking for Colic Calm and an apple; we'll start with the apple) and a glass of milk and any leftover apple that may remain for me

Eye of Newt and Puppy Dog Tails

2011-04-20T23:03:00.001-04:00

I've been braving my way into traditional foods recently and am using them to try to heal our guts. Katie's food allergies, my sugar addiction, and hubby's diabetes (update on that as soon as we get his latest bloodwork report but he's off meds and better than I even had hoped) are all symptomatic of gut dysbiosis or leaky gut and we're using the GAPS diet - or, ahem, trying - to heal ourselves. Though originally used for autism, researchers and those following it have found it heals and/or cures a great myriad of issues.

On to the title of this post! Beyond the saurkraut that we eat after it sits in our basement fermenting away for months on end and the sourdough starter I had fermented from plain old rye flour and water before we gave up grains, I have recently been ordering 100% pastured - not pasturized :) - meat and raw dairy from a local farm. People, I have decided to take the plunge into...animal parts. I currently have a beef heart (a very large and scary beef heart vacuum sealed in see-thru plastic) in my freezer that I'm still afraid of, chicken feet (chicken feet?!?) in my fridge for a gut-friendly extra gelatinous bone broth tomorrow, and a beef liver that has been in the fridge for a tad too many days to use I'm relieved to say. My friends and family have been indulging in a bit of friendly ribbing and calling me witch doctor due to my use of food based home remedies for illness. My friends, this is a whole new ball game. Ginger tea and elderberry syrup don't hold a candle to what I'm about to do to my family. Thank goodness my daughter is still not yet three years old, has the curiosity and open mind of a child, and is open to new foods. My husband says he just doesn't want to know. Don't ask, don't tell has become the new motto in my house. ;)

GAPS day 16, intro...ish?

2011-04-20T22:00:00.002-04:00

10:53 am We'd be officially on day 2 of intro if I were strictly following the protocol. The idea teased around in my head all yesterday to keep going, but I just can't do it. As of right now, we can't knock out all raw foods. I feel, well, gross by the evening of day one when we do. Katie seems to feel the same. As soon as I have something fresh, I almost immediately start to feel better. Foods that still contain their enzymes do such a great job in helping to digest food and clean up the body (detox), that I really feel it when I don't have any. I understand how the program works, but my body doesn't seem ready to follow intro to the letter. We'll try modified intro (lots of soups, some well-cooked and some steamed veggies, fresh pressed juices, fruit, and occasional raw veggies) and see how that goes for us for now. I'll adjust based on how we're doing with each food. It feels like the right path for us for now.

Katie had trouble sleeping all night, was up from 2-4 so ate an apple and watched tv with daddy, and woke up with her nonna's cold. Pbhpbhpbhpbh - that's Jen language for a raspberry-. We took Katie's probiotic (I thought I'd start light and use hers today instead of mine), dosed with elderberry syrup (we use it whenever we need an immunity boost), ate, and are now enjoying a tv day with a mountain of tissue until we have to pick up our raw milk and sundry animal parts order from Hicks Dairy Farm.

I had a handful of nuts just after midnight, since I was starving and couldn't stomach any more meat or broth. NO NUTS on intro for me. Yikes! I got very irritable, then my joints started burning, concentrated in my hands and knees. Then came flushed skin, elevated heart rate, slight feeling of anxiety, breathlessness, and slight nausea. With Katie up and feeling so miserable, I curled up in bed at 2 and read a trashy romance novel (a weakness of mine). I ate an apple about 4 and I felt much better then finally fell asleep just after 4:30 am. Surprisingly, I don't feel extremely awful and didn't want any caffeine after four hours of sleep.

9:46 pm We survived today pretty well. It was rainy, cold and gloomy so perfect for a down day. Katie's mucous stayed clear. She wasn't happy about her nose dripping like a faucet but it almost cleared up a couple of times, amazingly I think it was after she had some raw apple. I'll have to keep an eye on that. No other symptoms but tired. That could have been from an awful night sleep and no nap, so I'll reevaluate tomorrow. Some ginger tea and a teeny bit of my probiotic on her tongue to see if it would help eradicate those bad bugs and clean house and she was off to sleep by 8...up every 1/2 hour since, but hubby just took her pee so hopefully she'll settle down. It sounds like she's breathing better. Fingers crossed! This is her third cold ever, and I get a dose of anxiety when she's congested and can't sleep. Sleep is too important to miss especially when your body needs to heal. Oh and the nuts I ate! If I have them with a glass of raw milk, I apparently don't notice the problems that kept me up last night. The powers of raw food! I just had a couple more without the milk and I already feel my knuckles hurting. Time for some milk and then the kitchen is closed for the night.

First meal (1st breakfast): 1/2 pear for Katie; avocado with lemon juice for me

Second meal (2nd breakfast - yes, we are hobbits): meatball soup (mini meatballs in chicken broth) for Katie; I'm not ready to eat yet so maybe just a cup of chicken broth in a bit

Third meal (late lunch): finally having my broth with some boiled chicken (went a little too long without food); Katie had an avocado with boiled chicken meat

Forth meal (snack): apple for Katie; mixed nuts and glass of raw milk for me (too tired to look inside for strength right now to avoid them)...snuck two pieces of apple and went back for a second glass of milk to accompany a ten minute unavoidable nap at 6 pm

Fifth meal (dinner): ground beef simmered in chicken broth with frozen peas for Katie; I can't eat boiled ground beef, especially when it's tough pastured meat so hubby and I whipped up a Mexican inspired dish (shredded boiled chicken, sour cream I just picked up from the farm, Cholula hot sauce, and butter lettuce to wrap it in)

GAPS day 15, stage 1 intro...again

2011-04-19T19:34:00.001-04:00

I'm changing up my format a bit and trying to be a little more cohesive - even with the fuzzy die off brain I've aquired -, since I may be up to two readers(!) after linking to Baden's wonderful GAPS blog. She's a gem for writing a book and keeping a blog to navigate this foreign world we call the GAPS diet.

morning (it's nice and cloudy to complement a day of eating soup) - Well, today starting out miserably but took a much needed turn for the better. I came down to a dirty dishwasher, an extra load of laundry since I didn't do yesterday's load (I wash at least one load a day), and the 2 chickens and broth that I made last night still sitting on the stove. Grr. I put the chicken back in the broth and reboiled it for an hour. Then, I made our first soup of the day and distracted Katie while it was cooking, quickly started a load of laundry and ran the dishwasher, and cleaned up a bit as I was detoxing yesterday from all the junk I ate and left some clutter out. I oil pulled with coconut oil while I was tidying and then we ate. Quite a productive morning all in all.

We've been sipping ginger tea all morning. I hope it will help with the problem I seem to have digesting fat (can't eat too much of it or I get super nauseous). It's a very nice change of flavor when your diet doesn't vary much. I may make some tummy tea later if we get tired of ginger.

2:30 pm I have all sorts of crazy nervous energy and I'm a bit short tempered.

7:10 pm I feel great! Katie is content, calm, patient, and happy. What a change from our first go of intro.

7:30 pm headache. hmm. maybe the sweet from the squash and the honey? I'm definitely craving something sweet now but not overwhelmingly so. I think I'll wrap it up for the day. I hope my novella updates aren't turning anyone off from reading. Note to self: talk less :)

First meal: Chicken broth with a slice of turnip, a carrot, some frozen broccoli, sea salt, boiled chicken meat and skin simmered for 1/2 an hour and then blended with a stick blender. Katie reacts to onion, garlic and pepper, plus I don't agree with pepper for the beginning stages of belly healing. I pulled some of the veggies out for Katie's second soup, so she didn't have the 'cream' soup twice with her need for variety. I had trouble with mine so only had a few bites and put in in the fridge for later. The 'creamy' taste of the blended skin and soft bits doesn't have the great mouth feel that other people seem to enjoy. I like texture. Crunchy would be nice. Even some almond butter and honey. Argh! Shut up Jennifer.

Second meal: I had more of my soup from this morning with some boiled chicken. I kinda choked it down but managed to finish it and I'm full after only about a half cup. I added a bit of the cream soup to Katie's veggie soup. She wasn't too fond of it so is alternating it with cut up boiled chicken. No whining this morning about the food yet like last time on intro.

A mug of chicken broth with sea salt using one of Katie's new glass straws (we both love love love them) and a big glass of water for me during naptime. I've been drinking one the last few days when I need some energy but am not hungry and it usually is enough for at least an hour.

A 3 HOUR NAP! I love that rarest of occasion. Munchkin woke up and needed me to put her back to sleep, so I got to sleep for the last hour also. Bliss.

Third meal: boiled chicken & a mug of broth

Fourth meal (dinner): mugs of broth, boiled butternut squash in broth & boiled chicken -added about 1/2 teaspoon of raw honey to my squash to conteract all of the savory flavors that were starting to overwhelm me.

GAPS day 14, off the wagon + allergic reaction = stage 1 intro for tomorrow

2011-04-18T21:49:00.001-04:00

Well, well, well. I fell off the wagon yesterday and had Wendy's (yes, absolutely disgusting) and a chai latte plus blueberry scone from Starbucks. I actually managed to wrench back control and turned down the Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich and fries but hubby didn't hear me before he left. I had some raw (unsoaked) almonds and raisins while he was grabbing ~~poison~~ lunch, and felt pretty good, but, lo and behold, the food was here and I'm not at a point where I can turn it down after not eating all morning. It didn't even taste good, so I ended up throwing out almost all of the fries. Not even counting that one a victory. The chai later was fantastic though, so I'm happy I can make a GAPS friendly one. Since we're going to fully do intro soon, I'll wait until we're officially on full GAPS instead of the limbo we're in now. Then, although the scone was slightly tasty, it sat like a boulder in my gut and I had to skip dinner. Luckily I did learn from this setback, and we all have to make mistakes sometimes. It helps retrain my brain with regards to food. Going into the diet - like so may others -, I didn't think I would have all of these issues. I did it for Katie and figured I had overcome many of mine. :buzzer sounds: Um, no.

Katie has not been feeling well belly wise off and on every day. I have no idea what caused her reaction yesterday, but I'm thinking it was eating at my in-laws. My mother-in-law is so super careful but it's either problems where she slips up sometimes while cooking, or Katie is reacting to the dog food. Dogs are often notoriously messy while eating and the pooch transfers it onto her fur while cleaning herself. Since there isn't a reaction every time, I can't be sure. I can be sure that Katie was rashy, hurting, and got hiccups (a classic sign for her) so had a small dose of Colic Calm before bed. All was good in the hood today after a nuclear meltdown about daddy leaving for work. :( I hate those.

Result of the above issues? The ginger tea is boiling and there are two roasting chickens on to boil for soup. It's time for intro...at least for one day to recoup. If it works out, we'll stay on it. if not, I'll start in the next couple of weeks and be fully prepared. Though I do not plan this to be our full dive back into intro yet, I think we both need at least one strict day of it tomorrow. :sigh: I can already hear the whining for fruit and artichokes now. Time to buck up. On a side note, I've been reading this blog and this one by two wonderful ladies willing to share their journey and have been bolstering my confidence with each post I read. Full intro is creeping closer every day. Thank goodness. Katie is gassy again, and it makes me feel like a bad mom.