Challenge Phase! So far…

March 21, 2012

Sorry I haven’t been super-awesome about updates here lately.  We are pretty much winging the elimination at this point. We’re no longer being super detox-y: we’re eating (grass-fed and free range) meat again. We’re avoiding sugar still, but aren’t being totally uptight about it anymore (for example, we will consume things that contain evaporated cane juice, but not corn syrup). We are still being picky about oils, but we’re not avoiding oils other than olive and coconut altogether. I would probably consume a hard cider, at this point. Today we are also having gluten-free wraps (made from brown rice) for lunch.

We aren’t following the exact rules of the diet in terms of adding things back in, either. The rules are to add everything back in three-day intervals, where we have that specific food three times per day. Not only would that take forever, because we cut out EVERYTHING, but I guess that if it takes three days for me to react to something, I’m just not interested in worrying about it. Those are things that I will continue to eat all the time, and maybe detox from once per year. What I’m interested in knowing about are the things that are so toxic for me that they make me sick. Along that vein, here’s what we’ve discovered so far:

Food Alissa David
Cashews: No problem No problem
Cheese (pasteurized cow’s milk): Problem: GI bloating , gas, extreme discomfort No problem
Chili powder/Paprika: Itchy mouth, gas, restless leg Itchy mouth, restless leg
Cow’s Milk (Pasteurized): Problem: minor GI discomfort No problem
Eggs: No problem No Problem
Fresh bell peppers, tomatoes, Potatoes: No Problem No Problem
Lemon/Lime: No Problem No Problem
Peanuts: Problem: minor GI discomfort/gas Hasn’t tested
Pineapple: Itchy mouth/throat Hasn’t tested
Strawberries: No problem Itchy mouth
Soy (soy milk & gluten-free soy sauce ): Problem: sharp GI pains and nausea No problem
Vinegar: No Problem Hasn’t tested

We will probably still be working on testing things for a couple weeks. The big things that are left are gluten, corn, raw dairy, and various types of alcohol; but we really want to isolate those things out (for example: cheese vs. milk vs. yogurt), so it could take a bit!

Category:

Food, Health

Leave a comment

Tagged with:

Elimination Diet: Starting Phase 3

March 13, 2012

This week we are able to slowly add a whole bunch of stuff back into our diet, starting with nightshade vegetables. At this point, I’m not really looking for detoxification anymore; I feel pretty stable in terms of symptoms. Now it’s really about trying to figure out what causes the symptoms. I have to say, I’m a little disappointed with the physical results of the detox phase. I do feel good; my guts aren’t bothering me nearly as much, and my sinuses are more clear than they’ve been in years. I am sleeping really well now, and my mind is definitely calmer. However, I am bummed (and surprised) that I haven’t lost more weight. I’ve been eating rabbit food for three weeks, and have only lost about three pounds. I was losing an average of two pounds per week on Weight Watchers. But, it could be partially attributed to the fact that my issues with chronic constipation have not gone away.

I guess that the lack of weight loss could have some other causes too. It could be hormonal, it could be that I’m still overeating, despite eating really healthy food (a distinct possibility – I’m only 5’3,” so it doesn’t take a lot of calories to keep me going), and I still haven’t been feeling particularly energetic, so my exercise has been pretty low key (a lot of walking and yoga, not a lot of higher impact cardio). Another possibility is that my muscle mass is increasing quickly from all the yoga (dude, I have, like, biceps now. It’s pretty crazy. I don’t think that’s ever happened!). Maybe I’m just paying too much attention to the scale; muscle weighs more than fat. Or, maybe the carb to protein ratio in this way of eating is not quite right for my body.

In terms of my other long-term problem, my husband the body worker (he is also a natural healer, and can do energy work), thinks that I have a physical blockage that causes me to be unable to go #2 as much as I should. He thinks that, while changing my diet will definitely help the issue, since it brings down inflammation in my body (it has helped some, and at least there hasn’t been gas or pain associated with it), the real problem is that I have a twist in my intestine. It kind of makes sense. It would explain why physicians and fiber have not been able to help me! A twist wouldn’t show up on an ultrasound, and fiber can only help if things are sluggish, not if they’re at a stop. Anyhow, he thinks I should look into Mayan Abdominal work. Unfortunately, that is not in the budget right now.

Overall, despite the lack of “wow-factor” results, I’m still glad to be doing this thing. Aside from intolerances, it is a good jump-start for getting completely off processed food. Speaking of intolerances, thus far I have had no trouble with lemons, limes, or wheat-free tamari (soy sauce). I had my weekend screw-up: I had cheese and sour cream. The result of which was painful gas and bloating throughout my guts, and sharp pains in some places in my intestines. It really, really breaks my heart to think about having a problem with dairy. I LOVE dairy products.  I am going to ride out the rest of the eliminations, and try dairy again at the end, but with grass-fed dairy products that haven’t been denatured (unpasteurized dairy still has the enzymes intact that can aid digestion).  If that doesn’t work, I will probably try products made with goat’s milk.

Last night we had tomatoes and paprika (both nightshades). Both David and I had a reaction, but we’re not sure if it was the paprika, the tomatoes, or both.  For me it was a respiratory reaction in my lungs, for him it was in his sinuses. Really weird – I just felt like coughing. So, we’ll have to try again tonight to isolate the tomatoes from the peppers. I hope it’s not tomatoes! I heart tomatoes. Anyhow, I guess this is the fun part – turning ourselves into science experiments!

Category:

Food, Health

2 Comments

Tagged with:

Hiking the MN Valley SRA: Lawrence Unit

March 8, 2012

I’ve been meaning to write a little more about what I do for exercise! During the winter it is primarily daily walks around the city with my dog, and  some yoga 2-3 times per week. It’s just been recently that I’ve been able to justify paying for a monthly yoga pass, so I’m pretty novice in the yoga studio. However, hiking all over Minnesota (and a lot of other places in the U.S.!) is something that I’ve been doing and loving all my life.

David, Stella and I often get together with my mom and dad, and their dog Molly, for Sunday hikes.

Stella & Molly

Typically these will be pretty mellow trails with not a lot of big hills, and we’ll do about 2-3 miles at a time. This winter (if you could even call it that!) we’ve been doing a lot of exploring along the Minnesota River in the Minnesota Valley State Recreation Area.

I don’t tend to be a big fan of the MN Riverbottoms, particularly out by Belle Plaine, during the summer because they get swampy and so full of mosquitoes that you feel like they might pick you up and carry you away. Pretty soon, if we’re lucky (it’s been a very dry winter), spring rains will make these trails a mucky mess. However, fall and winter are a different story. In early January, and a couple of weeks ago in February, we did  two pieces of the Lawrence Unit. The trails were easygoing, and the winter landscapes have a stark kind of beauty:

Trumpeter Swans!

Stella & Molly on a Frozen Lake

On a sunnier day it can look quite beachlike along the river!:

Or, just bright and autumnal:

Category:

Fitness, The Great Outdoors

Leave a comment

Tagged with:

Running on Empty

March 7, 2012

Today is the first day that I have felt better since falling off the detox wagon over the weekend. Basically the last two days were very low energy, irritable, and full of muscle and abdominal pain. I also experienced a return of my most problematic (to me) GI issue: I hadn’t been able to go #2 since Sunday (sorry, I struggled with how specific to get about GI issues, since a lot of people are grossed out by poop. But, in the end, as they say, “everyone poops!). That doesn’t make for feeling very awesome or energetic.  So, the good thing is that I am now thoroughly convinced that I am doing the right thing by trying to figure out my food intolerances (and by completely cutting out processed food).

Because it took me a few days to get back on track, I do not have an update on my results from Phase 1 of detox. Tonight at dinner I’m going to go ahead and start phase 2, which is just the addition of lemon and lime back into my diet. I am actually really looking forward to a variation in flavor! I am getting kind of sick of some of the common flavors in the recipes for phase one, particularly cumin and turmeric (both of which I normally like). I’m going to try this phase 2 recipe for sunflower pate wraps tonight. I’m kind of excited about it!

The other major drawback of falling off the wagon has been that I have been behind on cooking and food-prep. Usually I have rice, quinoa, and beans cooked in advance. Sometimes I have veggies chopped up in advance as well. What I’ve discovered is that without the prep, a lot of the recipes on this plan are not nearly as easy as they seem when I’m prepared. Furthermore, I don’t have a dishwasher, so being behind at all leads to huge stressful messes in the kitchen.  It usually means that I have to wash dishes first in order to make anything new. The end results are situations like last night, where it took me about 3 hours to make this soup! Yikes! Then, because I want at least a little time to relax before going to bed, I end up getting to bed too late, and then I’m tired.  It’s a chain reaction!  

Final point: I did have a fantastic time over the weekend, and I still wouldn’t trade it. But man, did I pay. So, my resolve to make it through the rest of the diet with no slip-ups is iron-clad!

Category:

Cooking, Food, Health

Leave a comment

Tagged with:

Retox. Now What?

March 5, 2012

Well team, I screwed up. Two weeks into the detox phase of my elimination diet, I broke. David and I were invited to go so the MN Rollergirls with some friends on Saturday night. We met up with them at a bar. I couldn’t handle the temptation; I had a glass of wine at the bar (which wouldn’t have been so bad, since it doesn’t have any of the allergens that I want to test for). When we got to the arena I was good for about an hour and a half. Then I had a beer.  Then our friends wanted to go to another bar following the bout. I was good there and just drank water. At the end of the night I was dead sober. Unfortunately, I still woke up feeling like death on Sunday.

I probably shouldn’t have subjected myself to such temptation, but I was really wanting to do something fun and different. I’ve been finding it really psychologically exhausting to go cold-turkey on everything at once: food, drinking, smoking, AND socializing. I’ve also never gone to the roller derby before, and I was really excited to get a chance check it out! I wasn’t about to pass that up. So, I guess I need to figure out ways of keeping myself entertained that won’t lead me into temptation.  Another thing that I need to do: If I fall, get back up immediately. On Sunday, since we’d already screwed up, we rationalized screwing up even more and had beer & pizza for dinner. Big mistake to pile so much on my organs when they’re no longer used to dealing with that much. Within an hour of finishing dinner I felt so sick that I eventually threw up. I know. Gross.

Today I am still feeling very bad about myself, and also a bit sick. I have pain in my abdomen, I have a light rash on my cheeks, and I feel achy. Of course, I have no idea what specifically is causing what, since nothing was isolated. It could simply be the alcohol; it could be gluten, cheese, hops, yeast, whathaveyou. My guts are all inflamed again at this point, so I’m not sure what to do.  Maybe I should extend phase 1 a little longer to get me over this hill and back into a proper state for the elimination process to begin…but then again, this clearly isn’t easy for me to do, so I’m not sure I want to drag it out any longer. I wish that there was an easier way to know what my intolerances are, so I could just get on with eating the way that will be normal for me, whatever that turns out to be, and don’t have to avoid so MANY things. What to do, what to do…

Category:

Emotional Health, Health

1 Comment

Tagged with:

Detox Phase 1 Wrap-up

March 2, 2012

Happy Friday everyone! I am really looking forward to having some time to chillax this weekend.

To start with, here are some photos of some of the recipes I mentioned on Monday:

Adzuki Yam HashSunflower Seed Burgers & Sweet Potato Oven Fries: Num!

I continue to be grateful for the presence of a lot of warm foods in this detox plan! I’m not a big fan of cold food, overall, as I tend to feel cold alot.

The remains of the week have had their ups and downs. David and I have been alternately kind of sad and/or irritable. But, for me at least, there could be some hormonal reasons for that, too. The main difference that I’ve noticed in my level of wellbeing is that my mind isn’t running away with me so much. I feel much more calm; less anxious. I wish that I was feeling more present in general, but I’m not. My energy level has remained pretty low, thus far. I hypothesize that my low-energy level has to do with  two things: 1. I’m not getting enough sleep, and am actually aware of how tired I am because I’m not consuming any caffeine, 2. My body is de-sludging and making repairs, and that takes up a lot of energy.

My low-energy has been leading to a little less exercise than normal; I went to yoga once this week instead of three times (though I plan to squeeze a second time in tomorrow!), and my daily walks with my dog have been around 30 minutes instead of 60 (poor puppy- girl! Though the weather in Minneapolis hasn’t exactly been pleasant for walking this week, either). I guess that I’ve been trying to be gentle on myself while in the hardcore stage of detox. Unfortunately that hasn’t included more sleep. I’ve been averaging about six hours per night all week (I’m a person that functions best on nine hours!).

It is very common for people to feel sick in the first week of a detox while the body is working hard to kick out toxins. I haven’t felt sick, per se. But there have been a couple of weird things that have happened. I have had some kind of funny pains around some of my organs; especially my kidneys and liver. My pee (sorry to get graphic; but it’s totally relevant!) is kind of a weird color. My digestional issues have not yet completely resolved, but they seem to be getting better. If I was doing anything other than changing my diet, such as fasting, or eating a bunch of supplements, or colon flushing, I might be concerned. But the fact that all I’ve done is cut out anything processed or inflammatory makes me feel pretty secure that the symptoms are withdrawal related.

 I haven’t been very crave-y, still. Except for coffee, and even that has lightened up a bit. I did have kind of a general craving for a “treat” on Wednesday, so I made some of these Sunflower Cinnamon Truffles:

The are really, really good! I mean, they ain’t no chocolate, but I do love cinnamon! And, since they are made with sunflower seeds and dates, they are actually a satiating snack. Otherwise, so far my snacks have just been fresh fruit and herbal tea (not my favorite. I need to find an herbal tea that can stack up in some way to coffee!).

We are not actually completely done with Phase 1; we’ll be done on Sunday. I will post some more about the positive results so far on Monday! Have a great weekend!

Category:

Fitness, Food, Health, Women's Health

Leave a comment

Tagged with:

F@*$% You, Google!

So, I just opened my dashboard to write tomorrow’s post, and I see this under “Top Searches” :

Woman Fat Face

WTF?! Rude! AND! Even if my body is a little lumpy, my face isn’t even fat! Nice. Real Nice.

 

Category:

Did that really just happen?

Leave a comment

Tagged with:

True Faith

February 29, 2012

On Friday night David and I were talking about why it feels so difficult to give up smoking, drinking, and junk food.  Well, smoking makes some sense. We had both been pretty heavy smokers. When it comes to drinking we weren’t exactly pouring whiskey on our Wheaties, and I would say that we were already healthier than average eaters. There are many arguments, some personal, some general, for why it feels difficult. But in this particular conversation, we whittled it down to a question of faith.

David had said that for some reason, deep down, he didn’t have faith that detoxing was going to make his life better. His lack of faith was leading to feelings of anger over being deprived of his “security blankets”: even though we don’t have horrific physical addictions to overcome; smoking, drinking, and eating have been our comfort responses for a long time. So I asked him, “well, if you don’t have faith that getting healthy will make life better, what do you have faith in?” By default he had faith in smoking, drinking, and junk food, because they give him a feeling of instant gratification. Those things offer us a feeling of escape from stress or sadness. The problem is that they don’t remove the causes of stress and sadness, they make it worse by making us more ill-equipped to ultimately deal with the causes. So essentially, he was putting his faith in things that have actually been proven, time and again, to make life worse.

We hadn’t really deconstructed the “rage and crave” feelings in that way before, and it really makes sense to us. By giving up the things that make us too sick or too drained to respond to the demands and callings of life, we will definitely be gaining better ability to remove stressors permanently. And, though it’s not proven yet, we may possibly even gain the energy to go after our passions in life. Ultimately it’s not a choice between faith in health and faith in toxins, it’s a choice between faith in toxins or faith in yourself. I don’t want to live my life putting faith in a drink, a smoke, and a bag of chips. I want to have faith that I can make happen the things that I want to have happen in my life.

Category:

Health

2 Comments

Tagged with:

Phase 1 of Detox So Far

February 28, 2012

In phase 1 of the detox/elimination diet that David and I are doing, there are a whole bunch of things that are not O.K. to eat. No animal products, no sugar, no caffeine, no gluten, soy, corn …you get the picture. What has been most surprising to me so far has been that the recipes have actually been very satisfying and delicious, despite being vegan as well as gluten and soy free. I have never, in all the diets I’ve tried to date (there have been A LOT), encountered so many simple and tasty ways of combining foods just in the first week.

One of my major problems with previous diet detox plans has been that they are excessively complex. I mean, the covers of the books always include the word “simple,” but then, as a normal person, I try to do make the recipes, and I’m slaving away for hours to create one small snack. I don’t want to spend my whole life cooking. I am neither a chef nor a nutritionist. I also want to enjoy cooking – I don’t want to feel chained to doing it for hours on end. The other problem has been that they all say their recipes are “delicious” – yeah, they’re delicious all right. Delicious if you haven’t eaten anything but vegetables for 20 years. I mean, really? Food that tastes like straw or bark is not delicious!

Me: “This is supposed to be delicious?! What kind of  kool-aid have they been drinking?!”

David: “They haven’t. They’ve been drinking wheatgrass.”

I want to enjoy my food. I want it to have a variety of textures and flavors. I don’t want to have to try to convince myself that eating hay is satisfying my sensory needs for food. It’s already a question of mind over matter in staying off the processed crap; and the people who put together this plan seem to be more aware of that than most!

So far we have made Sunny Sunflower Seed Burgers from The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook. We have also made the Adzuki Bean & Yam Hash, and lettuce wraps with green sauce. All of these recipes were really good and really easy. For real: they are easy for a normal person. Otherwise we have pretty much been able to wing it. I just cooked up big pots of rice, quinoa, and beans and threw them in the fridge. I also prepared some mashed yams (they add a nice creamy texture to just about anything) to keep on hand. Then all that has to be done to prepare a fresh warm meal is throw in some veggies and spices. There are endless combinations!

My emotional state has been O.K. There have definitely been some ups and downs. If you care to take a peek, I have been blogging this week on my more general blog, Chaos to Clarity, about some of the deeper issues involved in getting healthy.

Category:

Food, Health

Leave a comment

Tagged with:

Detox Kick-off: 2 Days of Smoothies

February 24, 2012

The first couple of days of the elimination diet involve consuming nothing but smoothies. The smoothies should be home-made and can have almost any kind of raw greens or fruit. Oh, except for any of the fruits I like most: strawberries, bananas, citrus, and pineapple. Also no papaya or kiwi. The point of drinking smoothies for two days is to give your body a break. Actually, the point of the entire first 28 days of the diet is to give the body a break from any foods that might be causing your body to freak out.

In theory I agree with the idea that drinking smoothies for a couple of days does give your body, especially your guts, a rest. However, I had a little trouble with the restrictions on this one. The first problem is that I’m not a big fan of raw greens just on their own. They are very bitter to me. I need a little bit of fat with them to take the edge off. The second problem is that most of the fruits that are supposed to be O.K. are known problems for me. I’m mildly allergic to tree fruits (apples, pears, peaches, etc.).

On day one I just drank the green smoothie (pictured above) like I was supposed to. It has apples and pears in it, as well as A LOT of greens.  I didn’t really feel hungry, but I felt kind of groggy and off-kilter. I also felt freezing cold all day.  My mind was fuzzy , but there weren’t any meltdowns. I didn’t feel crabby like I expected to, I just felt out of it. I think that a lot of the grogginess could be attributed to caffeine withdrawal – but who knows! For dinner that night I made this antioxidant smoothie, but I added coconut milk to it. The added fat really gave me a boost and made me feel more satiated. I was still “fuzzy,” but I had the energy to make it through my yoga class that night (though just barely – I was pretty low-energy).

On day two I brought this beet smoothie to work with me to drink during the day. But then I discovered that I’m apparently allergic to beets. One sip and I could feel my sinuses slamming down and my throat swelling. Beets are the only thing in the smoothie that I don’t commonly eat, so I figured they must be the culprit. I couldn’t go all day at work without consuming anything; so I searched high and low downtown for any smoothie that might fit the parameters of the diet. All of the smoothies I looked at had gluten, soy, or dairy in them. Finally I looked at some of the bottled Naked brand smoothies. There were several that didn’t have the big three allergens, but all of them had either strawberries, bananas, or citrus. I made the executive decision that none of those fruits is any more inflammatory for me than apples, and I bought 2 Naked smoothies and one coconut water. Those got me through the day pretty well! I will probably refrain from eating any fruit but berries, grapes, cherries and melon for the remains of the diet; just to see what happens!

Right now, the morning of day three, when I’m allowed to eat again, I’m feeling pretty good. The caffeine withdrawal seems to have lifted. My mind is pretty alert for early in the morning. My sinuses are still pretty stuffy, and I have yet to gain relief from my GI symptoms, but it has only been two days! Best of all, my husband seems to be coming out of his nicotine withdrawal and is nice to be around again! Woohoo! Wish us luck on our first toxin free weekend!

Category:

Food, Health

Leave a comment

Tagged with:

Tag Cloud

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.