Feeling Overwhelmed

Oh geesh. Things were going so well for so long (ok, so it seemed) and I'm just not handling it so well now...

Just spent 24 hours in the mountains with my cousins, and that was awesome. But when we went out to eat, there was absolutely NOTHING I could eat on the menu. I anticipated that, but to sit and watch them eat nachos and sweet potatoes and elk shepherds pie and burgers and salmon slathered in butter, and I only had a granola bar to gnosh on, it was honestly really difficult. Often I can push through and not let it get me down, but last night was no such night. It didn't help either when we wandered downtown Estes Park and stopped at this toffee/fudge/ice cream shop. It was KILLER. And who was the one eating a can of olives while everyone chowed down on their toffee while we played board games? Yah... :-/ Sooo just kinda sucked.

Then, at my nutritionist meeting yesterday, I found out I lost my clearing for cocoa powder again (ie, chocolate.......)...which explains why I've been feeling full/bloated and just really nasty. But if I lose a clearing, that's most likely something I'm pretty sensitive to (like the almond flour and grapes and apples and strawberries that I had previously been cleared for, kept out of my diet for 3 months, and tried again...and reacted). So that means chocolate is most likely going to be out of the picture the rest of my life. That sucks. That really doesn't leave much in the way of sweets for me to eat. Those Quinoa Tahini cookies are awesome, but again, b/c of the sugar, I can't have much since I react to sugar.

Then tonight, I came home from the mountains and have to leave for Bible study soon and have a lot to do in between...and have an empty fridge. I figured I'd have a salad tomorrwo for work - and dinner tonight. Just realized that not only is my coconut oil all gone but so is my olive oil. Hence, no dressing. Plan B: Pumpkin smoothie for dinner.

The nutritionist also kinda scolded me nicely...she said my stomach is still getting inflamed, and b/c I'm autoimmune IN the stomach -t hat's where the autoimmune has a party when it gets flared up - it's a double whammy. I really, really have to be careful of what I eat. I'm not absorbing the nutrients right now (my count of teaspoons of magnesium keeps rising, when it had been decreasing, so that tells her that I'm not absorbing them well). Plus, my nose is often stuffy, which tells me that the lining of my stomach is inflamed. Sigh. So she told me I need to stick with the same things for a month to let my stomach rest. Try absolutely nothing new. As soon as I have any sort of reaction, my stomach is jacked until I take care of it. So I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed. I'm going on the repair diet for 5 days (veggies, meats and a few fruits) and then will add in nuts and beans and quinoa again. Then I'm going to have to stick with that for a month. And I just printed off all these new recipes to try too. Sigh.

AND she told me that I need to be careful to not eat too many raw veggies/day (in the family of broccoli/kale/brussels sprouts) b/c that can tell my thyroid to stop producing something (medical term... ;)) I don't know if that is for everyone or just me. I'm special, clearly.

On top of that, she's telling me I need to get some cardio in daily to get the blood moving and that will help me feel better too. She's right. And that's important anyways for so many reasons. AND my physical therapist for my sciatica also has told me to be getting in cardio. But on top of all the stretches and exercises he has me doing daily. Which would add up to about an hour if I did all of them. And sadly, I don't have time. I mean, an hour of stretches, 30 minutes cardio, plus time to grocery shop and cook, which is extra for me. I mean, I don't even know where to start.  So I don't start any of them b/c I'm too overwhelmed. Which is uncharacteristic of me.

The one silver lining in the day tho, is that after hiking with my cousins, we stopped by Safeway to get some lunch. I was looking at granola bars and found one by Two Moms in the Raw. I'd never heard of them before, but could eat all the ingredients! I grabbed it and left, then was like dude, go back for more b/c this is awesome. So I walked back and there was no box, no more, nothing. So it was like someone had just left it there...I saw it as a miracle. When I went to check out, the register didn't recognize it...(which now makes me think that someone dropped it there? Or an angel literally dropped it there? I don't know!) and the cash register guy was like, well, how about I charge you...$1.49? I was like yah!

I came home and looked them up on line and they are normally $4... I feel SUPER blessed to have gotten that. There is no way I can sp end $4 on a granola bar. I thought the Lara Bars were tough enough to splurge on at $1.69/bar!

Then the three granola/power bars I just made to experiment with this week - two of which were amazing - but both have cocoa powder/chocolate. Sigh. Back to square one.

Power Bars

I got overly ambitious today and tried three power bar recipes...! Mostly because I finally found the liquid stevia at King Soopers (of all places!) that the recipes called for but I had never seen...

The the first was the easiest - cherry vanilla almond bars. They were ok, but I'm not a huge fan of them.

THEN came the chocolate cranberry power bars (recipe here) and they were delicious!

LASTLY - and bestly - are simply titled Power Bars (recipe here) and are to die for! I think it's the salty combo of almond butter, combined with decadent chocolate. Seriously. I could eat the entire pan. Except then I'd go into anaphylactic shock... So I think I'll show some restraint.

Anyways, so exciting to have two bar recipes now!

Um, delicious!

Tonight I had company...even if it was just my cousin Michelle and her boyfriend passing through on a road trip, it was still people I wanted to cook for. So we grabbed some groceries and I introduced them to some food...and they were SO complimentary... I felt good!! :) 

I made this tomato salad with an oil/wine vinegar/dijon mustard/garlic sauce. Seriously so good.

 The way I cook up my chicken is thin sliced with coconut oil and liberal amounts of garlic and onion powders and some salt. It gets crispy and is just darn good! Hot or Cold. I think David said 4 times how great the chicken was :D

 Sauteed zucchini and yellow onion and basil...they added goat cheese and this dish screams summer to me. SO GOOD!

 Michelle helped me figure out a peach cobbler! The peaces are in from Palisade and are SO good, I could eat an entire tree's worth. So we cut up fresh and juicy peaches, then mixed together quinoa flower, quinoa (add crunch), agave, cinnamon, nutmeg and some salt. Then baked it. They found a vanilla coconut ice cream that I could tentatively have... I think it had natural flavors in it so I won't do it much, but so far I'm not reacting too badly to it. We decided that the topping, however, should be made from coconut flour next time, add in coconut, and add quinoa for the crunch. It was pretty earthy tasting...not bad, but probably not great for palates that don't have to eat this way.

I, however, ate until I was beyond stuffed, and had way too much sugar. I knew I shouldn't but I was ECSTATIC to find this! So, thank you Michelle!

 Lastly, we made the 30 minute trip to the one store I know that sells wine I can have. technically I can't have sulfites yet - I haven't been cleared for them - and this has them...but I'm doing ok right now. I also picked up a peach and a cherry and another blueberry wine...OH YAH! :) Small quantities b/c of the amount of sugar...but still, I'm pretty stoked!

So I have quite the full tummy, and a very happy heart that they loved the meal so much. I'm so thankful to have an entire meal that was so well-recieved!

Digging out of the hole...

Just saw my nutritionist... I'm SO sensitive to almond flour that once again, I've developed a sensitivity to it, even tho I haven't eaten much of it :-/ Guess that one is going to be out forever. Dang it! But when I had a scone this morning, my stomach was revolting so much that I knew pretty quickly, no almond flour. Sooo I guess at least I'm learning my body well enough to know reactions...

I noticed that with guava yesterday too when I had a guava kombucha. I thought I had drinken a volcano and it was going to erupt from within my stomach! That was awful!

Today I got muscle tested for some of my organs...my adrenals are good, which means that my body is getting better and pulling out of the pit it has been in. My hormones are off, but I guess they will be getting back on track now that my adrenals are good...my lg and sm intestines are inflamed - but at least it's not leaky gut. Probably from the sugar, almond flour and guava lately. Man, this whole "little sugar" is REALLY HARD.

She mentioned that I would benefit from doing the repair diet twice a week...at least that's only 2 days, not five...and taking that powder daily to help calm my intestinal linings... makes sense...

To my daily routine she will also be adding HCL - hydrochloric acid. This breaks down protein and b/c I have vertical ridges in my nails, I'm not producing enough HCL. Which, according to my blood type, I should be... so probably with all the stress and duress my body has been under, it's not producing that...so for the rest of my life, I will be taking an HCL tablet before every meal.

Whew.

The good news is that eventually I'll have my minerals back in alignment and only have to take repairvite, clearvite, and HCL each day. Which isn't that bad, considering that "healthy people" should be taking a daily vitamin...mine is just a bit more complex ;) However, currently I'm also taking zinc, magnesium, selenium, potassium, vitamin D and molybdenum... and have noticed a difference in my nails for sure - they've stopped peeling and are a lot stronger. My reward for myself is to get a french manicure once the nails are a lot better ;)

As my friend at work told me, if I can't reward myself with food, I can reward myself with clothes... ok, or nails  ;)

On another note, for my Bible study on Wednesday, I made chocolate dipped figs, rolled in toasted almonds... I've never really eaten a fig before...and they are AWESOME! So the food allergies is forcing me to branch out and try new foods...

Dr Oz Validates Leaky Gut

Thank you, Mom, for pointing out this article. It reinforces what I have learned and experienced... So, I'm saving it on this blog because I think it's spot on... Interesting that he says, "leaky gut is likely to emerge as one of the most significant medical concepts of our time." 

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/could-leaky-gut-be-troubling-you

Since I'm blogging anyways... I just successfully camped for 4 days on restricted food! It took a lot of prep ahead of time, but I had plenty of food! So my food allergies can't stop me from camping! It was nice to go with a girl friend who has some allergies also, so that when we both pulled out our bags of shake powder and medicine drops...we didn't feel like the only granny ;)

The benefit of living in Colorado and visiting mountain towns is that hippy is "in"... teas are natural now...so I was able to stop at 3 different coffee shops and enjoy tea!

I mighta been sad I couldn't have s'mores while camping... :( .... but it wasn't the end of the world...

Anyways... I feel like a guinea pig on the edge of a medical breakthrough, in a way...but I'm glad that things are going better, overall... :) Thank God.