Day 3 - Hey Good Lookin', Whatcha Got Cookin'?

Well, I'm starting to feel pretty rough from the die off.  I woke up this morning and I was covered in eczema.  Whee!  I went out and about and had trouble holding a conversation with the sample-girl at Trader Joe's.  Usually we chat forever.  Today I apologized after a few minutes and kept walking.  "Um, I've got this yeast overgrowth, like, in my intestines, and I'm trying to kill it off and it's making me loopy because of all the toxins being released.... yeahhh"  Anyway, at least I know it's working!  That makes me happy.

I'm trying to focus on *healing* myself, and trusting that things like, say, weight loss will come once I am healthy.  Alas, I couldn't help but feel a little glum that I woke up swollen and .5lb heavier today than three days ago.  What's that all about?  I'm ignoring my catty inner voice.  I'll get back out of these fat pants again, damnit. I should just take the batteries out of the scale.

In the mean time, I've had fun using my new gadgets.  First, I made bulgarian yogurt that I got in the mail from Cultures for Health.  I used raw milk and some raw cream that I purchased from the people at Calico Dairy in Conroe, TX.  YUM!  I usually try to stick to goat milk, but winter is breeding time and I'm having a hell of a time finding raw goat milk.  (Some day I'll have my own dairy goats!!)  I picked up some pasteurized today at the store and will try my hand at that in my next yogurt batch. 

I also made some flax crackers that I found in a raw cookbook.  I"m not sure if these are technically legal in GAPS or not.  They're sort of grains, I guess?  At any rate, they'll have about zero impact on my blood sugar, so I think a cracker here and there isn't going to be a big deal.  I put lemon juice, Braggs Liquid Aminos, diced onion and garlic in them.  Not bad... for a fake cracker made out of flax that was dehydrated for 8 hours. 

I also made a dairy free quiche with almond meal crust.  I love this recipe.  The pie crust is just
1.5c almond meal
1/2 t salt (although I think this might be just a hair too much)
1/2t baking soda
1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
1 T water
Dump it in a pie pan, push it out to the edges, Bake at 350 until golden brown ~13 min.  Fill with goodies and cook again for another 20 min. 

This time I sauteed asparagus pieces with shallots in butter (which I also made today!), added salt and pepper and then dumped that all into 6 beaten eggs.  I put it in the baked pie crust and then added little dollops of goat cheese. Twenty three minutes later, dinner was ready. 

Day 1 - Pumpkin Chili

Today I started the GAPS candida protocol.  After probiotics, probiotic foods, bone broth and some natural antifungals... I feel about as craptastic as I thought I might.  Hooray!  It's working!

I did make some super yummy pumpkin chili for lunch, which was really nice while watching the cold drizzling rain.  I'm not going to think about the cornbread that I didn't eat with it...


























Here is the recipe:
Pumpkin Chili
About 2c of bone broth
1 lb ground beef (grass fed)1/2 onion chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 red pepper, diced

Cook ground beef in bone broth.  Add other ingredients and sautee together for a few minutes.  Add

1t+ of sea salt*
~1T smoked paprika*
~1t of cumin*
~1T of mild chili powder*
Stir, and let this cook a few more minutes

Add 1 28oz can of diced tomatoes (I like to use Muir Glen organic fire roasted diced tomatoes because it compliments the smoked paprika.)
The pureed innards of one baking pumpkin, or about 2c of pumpkin (I got mine from Trader Joes.) I'm sure that one can of Libby's is probably fine.  This isn't a REALLY pumpkin-y soup.  It just gives it a little something different.

Simmer on low for about 20 minutes.  You can also add one can of white beans, which I like a lot. Fire roasted vegetables of any variety are awesome to add as well.  *Adjust spices to your liking.  These measurements are just a jumping off point. 

365 Days of Gut Health

I just hosted my first family Christmas gathering.  I'm sure that during the two weeks my family was visiting they likely grew pretty tired of hearing about "gut bacteria".  Beneficial gut bacteria, opportunistic gut bacteria, gut bacteria out of whack, gut bacteria in check, probiotics, kefir, raw sauerkraut, omega 3s... yadda yadda yadda.  When pressed by my mother on exactly what I meant by my 'gut', I had to own up to the fact that I'm fascinated to the point of obsession with the foreign objects that live in intestines.  The, uh, shit that lives in your shit.

I think about it all the time.  What's going on in my intestines, my kids', my husband's, family members'.  I have a candida overgrowth, but what about my mom, who has MS?  My husband has heart palpitations and an immune system that's seen better days.  What opportunistic flora is flourishing in his intestinal tract?  I'm FASCINATED that up to 80% of your immune system is in your gut.  And it's controlled by living organisms that, among other things, 1. are not part of your body, genetically and 2. were passed down to you from your mother.

Statement #2  prompted a heated discussion about vaginal flora and a resounding "I did NOT get my immune system from my mother's vagina!".  Perhaps that was too much to spring on someone raised 60 years on the food pyramid?  I should have known how that was going to go over.  She's still fighting me on the 'benefits' of whole wheat bread. Indicating that my grandmother's hoo-ha played any part in the myriad immune issues in my family... well, that's a bit of a jump. 

In any event, it is my intention to improve my own gut flora and wrangle those opportunistic bastards into submission.  I'm using the GAPS method, developed by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. I'm starting with the "full GAPS diet", but omitting all sugars such as honey and date sugar and fruit.  I'm also utilizing some natural anti fungal medicines such as grapefruit seed extract and oil of oregano for good measure, as they were recommended by the thecandidadiet.com people.  My plan is to see how this goes over and, if I feel that I need some extra healing, I'll visit the introduction diet and drown myself in bone broth.  For now, I'm going to do my little hybrid plan and see what happens.

I'm starting this on December 31st because I know that every New Years Resolution is doomed to fail.  So, I'm not waiting for the new year.  I've got my yogurt cultures on the way, Santa brought me my yogurt maker, I've got freshly fermented kefir in the fridge, bone broth in the freezer (along with some chicken soups), raw sauerkraut and kim-chi in the fridge and all my probiotics purchased.  I've talked my husband into going at least Yeast Free for the next 28 days, so I'll have some support and someone going through miserable die off with me.  Won't we be a blast for the next week?!?

I'm also introducing the kids (2 years old and 4 years old) to the full GAPS diet - slowly.  Once I'm through a lot of the initial die off and I'm not a miserable bitch, I'm going to take out that last stronghold: bread.  Hopefully I'll have the energy to make alternatives and stand my ground about where their favorite cheeses and smoothies and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are.  Sigh.  But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Here's to you, Grandmom, and whatever crazy bacteria you passed to your kids, who passed it to theirs, and so on.  The buck stops here.  I'm not interested in an autoimmune disorder for me or my girls.  No, not even Lupus, but thanks for asking.