Tag Archives: health

Feb13

Whole 30 Update

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Courtesy of: http://whole9life.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/keep-calm-whole30-pinterest.jpg

Whole 30 Update:

I finished up my Whole 30 on January 30…and I decided to keep going with it.  So today is actually Day 44 for me (I’m not really counting but figured it out for the sake of this post.)!  Not sure how long I’ll go – maybe through the end of February.  We’ll see…I really don’t mind it at all.

Some observations:

I had been having some back pain and joint pain in my hands before I started.  And during the night, my hands would fall asleep and would ache and have “pins and needles”.  Around Day 5-6, it all cleared up.

I had more energy, and I slept better.

I lost 14 pounds…woot woot!

I had some slight eczema…gone.

And…the acne that I have had for the past 30 years cleared up within three weeks.  I can only attribute this to a dairy sensitivity.  When we were on GAPS, I never had that long of a break from dairy.  Maybe a week.   I had myself convinced that dairy and I were OK.  Sigh.  I love cheese.   Pretty cool though to finally get that resolved…after only three decades lol.  And I have still been able to eat ghee (clarified butter) – seemingly without problem.

I’m going on longer because I have a little more weight I’d like to shed, and I also have one ginormous Sugar Dragon.  I think it is slain 🙂 but I don’t want to quit too soon and find out otherwise.  I have fallen off the wagon more than once…finding myself pigging out on Trader Joe’s honey patties and grain free homemade chocolate donuts…and claiming  “It’s all good because they’re GAPS legal…”

I am using this as a transition to long term Paleo.  THIS IS NOT A FAD DIET.

Sleep Update:  I started that with the greatest of intentions.  Really, I did.  I have managed to move my bedtime from 11:30 to earlier so that is a positive thing.  For awhile, I was really good about being in bed by 10:00…and then I was not so good again.  Been reading in the “Paleo Approach” by Dr. Sarah Ballantyne about the importance of sleep, protecting your circadian rhythms, etc….and I know that’s definitely an area to work on SOON.

So from here…I am actually planning to start the Autoimmune Paleo Protocol soon.  Maybe in March.  Probably in March.  I’m mentally ready today but don’t actually have a plan lol so I know it would be bad to just start today.  I think I’d like to just end the Whole 30 and launch right into AIP so I don’t have to give up chocolate all over again.

That’s all I know for right now…so as the sign says…”Keep Calm and Whole 30 On!” 🙂

Heather

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Feb1

Offal Isn’t Awful…and A Few Grain Free Recipes That Prove It (Whole 30, Paleo, GAPS)

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Since we started my Whole 30 and my five year old daughter’s Paleo diet January 1…we have been trying to get more nutrient dense organ meats (offal) into our diet for healing purposes.  Not that it’s at all bad for the rest of the family either.  Problem being…everyone hates liver (including me).   They can usually sniff it out a mile away.  I have been playing around with some of our suppers, etc. to see how I can sneak it in UNDER THE RADAR.  Here is a great article from The Paleo Mom on why everyone should eat more organ meats.

I pay close attention to sourcing grass fed/pastured/organic as much as possible when dealing with organ meats.  We have had good luck getting beef liver and heart upon request from our favorite farmer, so if you have one, check with them first.

I recently placed my first order to US Wellness Meats and got a stash:  beef heart, duck livers, lamb kidney and beef kidney (and some fantastic sugar free Whole 30 compliant beef and pork bacon – bacon makes me HAPPY).  I was really pleased with the quality, shipping method and speed of shipping.  It is a bit expensive, and you do have to place a minimum order of $75 to order.  So I strategically shopped.  (I am not at all disputing WHY it is expensive, just noting that it is.  As with anything, you get what you pay for and the quality is excellent!).

The chicken livers shown below are from Whole Foods.

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I’ll list a few recipes in order of trickery, from least to greatest. 🙂  Sneaky, sneaky mom.

Duck Liver Pate:

I loved this.  I have been trying to eat bit at least a few days a week.  My girls were OK with it, my son not so much.  Very low on the level of trickery of children…it’s pretty much blatant liver.  But it tastes good.

1 lb poultry livers (I used a package of duck livers from US Wellness Meats, and a whole container of chicken livers as shown above.)

1/4 c. bacon grease and or lard (I used a combo of the two)

1 onion

3 garlic cloves

1 handful fresh parsley

salt, rosemary and thyme to taste

Saute everything in a large frying pan until thoroughly cooked.  Process in food processor until smooth.  Easy peasy.  I served this with raw snap peas and baby carrots.   The bacon grease totally makes it.  Doesn’t bacon make everything better???

 

Hopped Up Meatballs:

2 pounds of ground beef

random miscellaneous veggies (I used carrots, leeks and kale, as much or as little as your want.  I have no formula!)

1 pkg organ meat (I used 1 lamb kidney from US Wellness Meats for this. You could use whatever you want.  I didn’t put alot in because I didn’t want to take chances with refusals to eat supper.  You could always add more if you wanted.)

Salt and pepper to taste

Puree veggies and organ meat in food processor.  Mix well into ground beef in large bowl.  Form meat mixture in to meatballs, and fry up in a large pan.

I was almost found out on this one.  My littlest hollered “It tastes like liver!”  I hate lying, and wasn’t about to lie to her about it…but then she promptly changed her mind, and chowed down.  No one else was the wiser.

 

Veggie Meatloaf:

I did this post awhile back about grain-free veggie meatloaf.  I added a 1 lamb kidney – and again pureed all the veggies and kidney in the food processor and added to the meat.  I added a couple of tablespoons of homemade Herbamare seasoning to mine for some extra flavor.  Good stuff.  I made sweet potato fries to go with this, and it was really good!  Not even a suspicion on what was in this one. 🙂

 

Enjoy!  Coming soon…Whole 30 update!

Heather

 

Dec31

New Years’ Whole 30 and a Mental Detox

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Our family ended the GAPS Diet last May.  It’s been hectic, and I just haven’t gotten around to posting in a long time.  Long story short – we generally saw what we wanted to see across the board, and the price of meat went up drastically so it just wasn’t practical to think a family of 5 would do it indefinitely.  So that was that.  My five year old daughter and I have remained gluten free since then – mostly because we were a little freaked out to do otherwise because she’s been GF for so long.  And I don’t seem to do well any which way with gluten myself, or grain in general.

I know my comment about seeing what we wanted to see was pretty vague, but I’ve posted on it in the past.  If anyone wants any specific info, please ask and I’d be happy to share.  My little girl is going grain free with me again – not as strict as a Whole 30 – she has regained her allergic shiners and our doctor is recommending a three week Paleo trial to see if it helps.  If it does, we’ll keep on.

After several months of being a grain eater (and ingesting copious amounts of sugar), I have learned some things.  I have no will power.  I need a totally rigid and structured program like GAPS to succeed, or I will flip flop and waiver and talk myself into eating whatever.  Quickly.  If I’m doing the rigid program, it’s all fine.  It’s a mental thing, I know.   I’ve lost my ability to know what my body needs for food and nutrients, and I’ve become a carboholic again.  And I was so burned out after two and a half years on GAPS and working full time…I just got lazy.

So…30 pounds later (in the wrong direction), and regaining the joints of an old lady, I decided it is probably time to take care of it now before things really fall apart.  I’m starting a Whole 30 on New Years Day!  No sugar (or other sweeteners), no grain and no dairy, among other things.  In spite of the sad fact that I’m going to be chocolate-free and no one will probably want to be around me for awhile…I’m really looking forward to losing said weight, getting rid of said inflammation and having more energy.  I’m also doing the Cutler protocol for mercury chelation, and I just think it’s a good idea overall to clean up my act so I can more effectively get rid of all that junk too.  That is a separate post though, that I hope to get to soon.

If it goes well and I can deal with the whole no-chocolate thing, I hope to go longer than 30 days.  I actually ordered the book “The Paleo Approach” by Sarah Ballantyne, and I am tentatively, and skeptically hopeful that I may transition to that at some point soon (sounds so rock solid, I know – I can’t imagine life without eggs, tomatoes or chili powder right now and it all seems quite impossible).  Psyching myself up for that one.  I think it would be hugely beneficial…but again…that “mental thing.”  I’ll get there.  If anyone reading this has any Paleo Autoimmune Protocol testimonies, I’d sure appreciate it!

I was blessed to be near a Whole Foods Market yesterday…and got all stocked up for the Whole 30.  Here’s a bit of my “stash”:

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MMMMMM…chicken livers!  Pate, perhaps?  Nutrient dense nutrient dense nutrient dense.  That’s the name of the game. 🙂

At least I can have kombucha – I see that GT Dave’s is on the “OK” list.  🙂

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Bone broth in the crock pot…

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And on the note of mental things.  I hate New Years’ Resolutions so I won’t even call it that, but I’m also going to try to tackle two things that have been problematic for a long, long time.  I’m going to try to impose a 10:00 pm bedtime for myself.  Every.Single.Night.  Sigh.  I’m a big night owl and I can ALWAYS find things to do with myself right about 11:00 pm.  Like writing this post.  I’ve been seeing so much good info about the importance of sleep and healing, and I have the feeling that this is something that is a missing piece to the puzzle for me.

I’m also going to power down from Facebook for awhile.  I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook.  I love it, and I love my news that I get from pages that I like and friends, and I love keeping in touch with folks.  However, it has taken a negative turn lately and people seem SO HORRENDOUS to total strangers (none of my friends, if any of you are reading this!).  Where is the kindness???  I don’t know, and I am a little tired of getting my poor, sad adrenals all worked up over people I don’t even know and some of the terrible, terrible comments I see.  So it’s just time to take a break.  Plus, more importantly, I just need to refocus and reprioritize in general and I have realized what a time sucker it can be.  I hope I can come back to it in a few weeks and put it in it’s proper place.

Well, that’s about all I’ve got tonight…and I hope to be more regular at posting this next year.  Got several things I’d like to tackle, and would like to clean up this blog a bit.  Hopefully time will allow more than it has lately.

Wishing you all a blessed 2015!