Social Pleasures

At first regulating sugar to every 3-4 days was going great.  I was simply grateful to have it again.  Period.  And then vacation came.  And, I was careful to stop myself when I was nearing too much and only had it when out of the house.  However, the trouble began after.  I kept reaching for sugar.  Justifying my reaches.  The consequence was weeks of feeling like crap again.  I was tired.  I was constantly distracted by anything and everything.  Needless to say, I started to grow frustrated at the things I knew I should be doing but could not find the energy or focus for.  I wasn't able to spend time writing.  My devotions were suffering. I was getting through fewer and fewer books.  Letters and emails fell through.  After a month I finally found the courage within me somewhere to stop, accepting the truth that too much sugar is often a catalyst for regret and iniquity.  It's not worth the cost; but alas, it is so easy to reach for.  So easy to apply false excuses to.

I prayed for wisdom, and basically the contents of Matthew 5:30 revealed to me that I need to keep sugar out of the house and not have it at work either (unless there is a special occasion).  And then if I go to friend's house who is offering some sort of sugar substance, fine -- as long as I am keeping to the prescribed intake of once every 3-4 days.  If I want ice cream, JP Licks and Coldstone are very close.  I can save the cool coffees for times I am out with friends.  Potlucks, great!  The rare restaurant outing, fantastic!  But on a day to day basis, the answer is no.  No more sugar.  I know I can live without it.  I've done it for over seven months.  Sugar is now a social thing -- like alcohol once was. (Plus the less I have on my own will, the more I can have when socializing!)  I don't need it, but it's nice to have once in a while -- especially when it breaks the food barrier of isolation I know so very well.

Now that I'm past the sugar withdrawal -- intense cravings, headaches, etc. -- I feel great!  I'm clean!  And it's actually a lot easier to say no.  You don't really crave it very much once it's completely out of the system.  However, with it being Thanksgiving, my birthday, Christmas and all those activities in between coming up, it's going to be interesting juggling my sugar intake - especially on the weeks with 3+ events that involve food. Kind of regretting the two cartons of ice cream in my freezer...they may have to stay in there for a while.  The great thing about the freezer, though, is that if I do have sugar and I can freeze it, I can't use the excuse oh, it will go bad so I need to eat it now and I won't see it all the time as a reminder of eat me, I taste so amazing.  No, keep eating me; you know you want more of me. Hey look, I've moved myself closer to you.

This week I decided to deep clean my room and I found a note I wrote when I first had to give up sugar pretty much cold turkey (as well as natural sugars and was only allowed 2 pieces of fruit per day max).  I said I was feeling so much better now that my body was being cleansed from sugar.  But I found myself staring at sugar-containing products, from cookies to sauces and salsas.  I was hoping the allergy test was wrong about sugar -- though it was the most accurate one.  I tried sugar again and needless to say, it was not fun.  After one gram I had to fight to stay awake and be functional.  My only fix was a dosage of Benedryl -- not a cure-all, but a big help.  I wanted sugar so bad I contemplated putting up with exhaustion, headaches, and fragmented thought processes again.  It's hard to believe how food is a such a stronghold...  It's wonderful to not be controlled by it any more!

Go forth in determination!

"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." - 1 Cor 10:13

FREE!

Or, closer to it.  This past week I accidentally had sugar twice with NO reaction.  During three trial runs, my reaction revealed itself as a fraction from what it was.  No immediate super-drowsyness or the many other symptoms associated with sugar.  This is the last food group that was completely off limits!

After two and a half years, I can go out and order anything I want.  I don't have to constantly check ingredients and ingredients of the ingredients in restaurants. No more long discussions with the head chef, back and forth between staff members to take apart the menu, nervous or incorrigible waitresses, no scouring over notebooks and webpages to view the truth about the food being sold in every restaurant that is run differently.  I wasn't sure if having sugar back in my diet was ever possible.  This week has been very surreal and I am still trying to comprehend the fact that I can eat out and participate in potluck-like dinners.

Sugar is not something I can have all the time, and probably never will be.  For one, this intolerance has a high likelyhood of getting worse again if I over do it.  Therefore, I have to be strict on dosages.  Also, it's sugar.  If It start eating too much of it, it's straight back to Appleton's Suicide from Sugar to regain my perspective.

Whether I have sugar only when I go out, on rare occasion, or once or twice a week, I don't know yet.  Depends on how my body will handle it now and in what amounts. Having experience with 9+ food allergies, I can say with out hesitancy that sugar is the hardest.  It's just in too many things.  And there is a HUGE difference between being able to have something a little and not being able to have a single gram of it. 

I think the next milestone will be to not be dependent on 9 supplements or to not have to "rotate" so many foods -- wheat, eggs, yeast...

(Really excited about the holidays this year!)  Whoo!

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, 

coming down from the Father of lights
James 1:17a

To be assembled, or pre-assembled...

Love this cookbook!

Power Foods from the editors of Whole Living Magazine (which I might add is a great magazine to peruse for recipes)

It's always hard to get enough vegetables into one's intake without creating numerous side dishes.  However, this book uses vegetables as the basis of nearly every meal.  Many recipes don't involve wheat either!

I love cooking -- as I'm sure my regular readers have read before.  There is something comforting about making your own meal and knowing what's in it.  And it's necessity, so you might as well make it great, right?  Yeah, I know it takes time.  And no, I do not have all the time in the world.  Having to work 50+ hours a week often leaves its mark.  You just get used to the time it takes and use it to relax, talk, listen to great music, or catch up on audiobooks.  It also helps scrape off the rush-rush attitudes that feed us Americans, as well as sticking with portion control. 

God gave us the ingredients to use.  Not using them...well, I think we've paid our price.  I honestly believe all these chemicals in the environment and food we are using (ridiculous amounts of sugar, too) is a huge contributor to rising behavioral disorders and numerous cancers.  What's even sadder is that there are a lot of people who do not know how to cook a basic vegetable or piece of chicken.  Unless it goes in the microwave, instant-add-water, or comes from a restaurant, it's a foreign concept.  I'm not saying it's necessarily wrong to enjoy such things once in a while, but it is awful to think that humans cannot even cook food unless it comes pre-assembled any more.  Why has it come to this?

Even when I do try the few pre-made frozen meals that I can have, my body and taste buds always relent with "what the heck is this!?"  Fresh always gives me better energy.  Seriously, it's amazing and totally worth the time.

Next up: a very, very big change!  Stay tuned.

Oh yes, this cookbook rocks!  This is "poached salmon with asparagus, herbs, and baby greens."

--
Quick Stir Fry:
Throw some vegetables (snow peas, peas, corn, garlic, carrots, broccoli, etc.) that need to be used up into a skillet with a bit of preferred food oil.  Once cooking, put the lid on to keep in the steam.  Stir occasionally.  Meanwhile boil rice noodles (or what ever pasta).  Once vegetables are soft but still bright in color -- about 10 minutes, I think -- put in drained, cooked noodles.  Mix well. Add some oregano or other favored spices.  Then (the best part) grate desired cheese over stir fry.  I used Vermont sharp-cheddar and it was great.

If you put thinly sliced veggies -- like zucchini, radishes, and asparagus  -- on a panini grill or cast iron grill it makes some great tastes -- with or without adding oils and spices.  It's pretty quick too!

Artificial what?

What can better be better than fresh donuts in the morning?  Donuts made with pronounceable every day ingredients.  Yep!  Real food.

Now sugar is the only food group that I completely have to avoid.  From 9+ down to 1 -- praise God! -- I call that success.  However, this is America and sugar is in practically everything.  It's pretty sad that I can't eat at some places because their menu is literally 99% sugar.  Seriously, does pizza crust need sugar?  Grilled chicken in a salad? Come on!

There is an awesome picturebook put out by Candlewick press entitled: How did That Get in My Lunchbox?  This book helps illustrate what is used and how bread, cookies, and apple juice is created from the very beginning (such as growing wheat or picking an apple) to being displayed on the shelves for public consumption.  The sad part is that this book was created because most (urban) kids don't know that true food does not magically appear at a grocery store.  As a matter of fact, they think unpronounceable ingredients is the way food has always been consumed.

Feeling gross yet?  Apparently there was an ending "We like sweets a lot, but they make your insides rot.  So, remember it's your body And the only one you've got."  Personally I like this latter ending better.  From this video, it's hard to decipher whether they are pro or con "modern technology food."

Ode to Cheez-Its

Ode to Cheez-Its (which will soon turn into Annie's Organic Cheddar Bunnies, as there is less unnecessary ingredients)

Orange squares transfer
salt crystals to my tongue. 
A zesty crunch to the 
taste of melted cheese 
throughout my mouth, spreading to
my whole being.
Dear Cheez-Its, your 
wheat does not turn my stomach or head, your 
dairy does not swell my throat. 
I can enjoy you now,
every square your red box gives.

Happpeeee!  My wheat reaction used to cause an itching of the hand upon a mere touch, and one fragment would send my body into attack.  Now, two years later, it's almost gone!  Only very few reactions remain after eating six or so servings of wheat.  Miracle?  Yes, thanks to skilled doctors and the grace of God!  The severe reaction I had had led me to believe that I would never get wheat back.   It's also a milestone in that wheat was the first established allergy, and now I'm leaving more and more behind.    Next battle is bringing down those genetically pre-determined ones...

System Crash

This past week my supplements were changed.  Why?  Well in one word: grass.  Turns out, even though the allergy to trees is gone, I am still reactive to grass.  The odd thing is that it wasn’t really attacking my sinuses that much.  It was attacking the gut, in turn, releasing too many toxins into the body and disrupting the steady incline of health that was happening.  And, in that instability something kept giving me wicked cramps. Could not for the life of me figure out the trigger.  Eventually I was able to link it to chocolate.  For reasons unknown, the grass aggravation led my body to dislike chocolate – which is one of the harder foods to digest.

Yes, I can’t have chocolate for at least three more weeks.  Really, at this point, taking away a small food group isn’t that bad.  Even though it is chocolate, and yes I keep stopping myself from counting down the days – just in case the re-introduction doesn’t go well— until I can have it again.  I will admit that it was very hard to peel myself away from the bag of chocolate chips I had just opened.  I think it took about three days to stop digging into it.  To distract myself I began experimenting with caramel (with great success).  The domino effect of chocolate was a reminder over and over to press on.  When something causes that much pain…STOP…even though it’s frustrating and becomes yet another deprivation. 

Speaking of, did you know that almost every broth has added sugar?  There is no reason for it to be there!  Yeah, let’s just say going grocery shopping during an energy crisis is like trying to pick apples, only to find that 95% of them are rotten and no good.  But you still need the apple, less you have the room, skills, and time to grow an apple tree from a bit of earth. F-R-U-S-T-R-A-T-I-O-N.

Anyways, the subtraction of one specific supplement completely depleted me of energy and focus. Replacing it with stress, frustration, anxiety, and a very scrambled thought process.  Hence, the crash.  Going back to the life of making it through work, eating, only then to lay down till it’s time to go to sleep is not fun – no matter how many Adventures in Odyssey, audiobooks, or movies I can catch up on all week.  Energy is a precious gift; don’t waste it!

Right now I am perusing Laura Martin’s Green Market BakingBook: 100 Delicious Recipes for Naturally Sweet and Savory Treats by Laura Martin.  It uses maple syrup for most of its recipes, separates everything out by seasons, and seems to understand the concept of allergy/restrictive cooking. So far, I am loving this book.  I just had the best blueberry scone ever!  I especially loved the contrast between the moist bread and berries against the honey-topped glaze.  Where would we be without cooking? (And please don’t say fast food.  Nauseating hazardous disguises of food that stuff is.)

Too Amazing to Not Share

A friend's brother was diagnosed with bone cancer in December.  But he didn't do chemo.  Instead, he completely cut meat, sugar, juice, and canned foods from his diet. For 3 months he ate nothing but organic veggies, Quinoa, wild rice, as well as some flax seed oil, cottage cheese, and berries. A few days ago I received word that the cancer is completely gone!  That is amazing!  It is INCREDIBLE what natural foods will do!

Spring Fever No More!

Baby green balls sprouting from the trees.  Cherry blossom petals painting the streets.  Grassy and flowery smells of spring.  It's so great to be able to enjoy all this without my head exploding and my eyes itching.  Besides the fact that my Allersode drops are working -- basically an allergy shot for the pollen stuff without the trauma of the needles -- my body is healing itself.  Yeah spring!  Yeah no Kleenex desperation every other minute.

And, speaking of healing, I can have yeast and aspergillus again!  That brings my allergies from nine to three food groups -- sugar, wheat, and eggs.  Yes, these are still restrictive, especially not even being able to have a fraction of a gram of wheat or sugar, but the absence of six other food groups is massive.  Hallelujah!

My new cooking fascination is 100% fruit concentrate -- yep, that frozen stuff in a can you use to make juice.  Turns out it is a great sweetener like maple syrup.  I learned about it from Fruit Sweet and Sugar Free by Janice Feuer.   The cookies in it have the consistency of Chips Ahoy, seriously! They were fantastic.  The cherry pie was pretty great, too.  I did learn though, to keep the concentrate flavor in mind when baking.  Let's just say that orange concentrate in zucchini bread had a pretty interesting taste.

Hard to believe I've been sugar free for two months now.  And, I don't miss it.  Well, okay, truth be told here, I do miss it when it seems everyone else can have it.  After all, this is America where people enjoy HFCF in applesauce (blech!).  Plus the convenience factor -- I mean, making practically everything by hand is time consuming.  It is here that I have to remind myself that in hindsight being allergic to sugar is really good (wheat, too), and that I have my kitchen.

In my shoebox of a kitchen, I can make anything from lasagna to candy bars to lamb stew to donuts.  I have been blessed with the ability to cook very well.  And to be creative.  For me creativity is a must and one of my sanities.  I've meant other people on similar diets who are in a rut or struggle to use a cookbook, especially when almost every recipe requires a conversion of some kind.  How?  Personally I'm all for playing with my food. :)

Sweet Butterflies!

A few weeks ago I received my latest food test results.  No more eggs.  No more fruit and sugar together (within a five hour window, at least).  And, these will always be the case.  This test determines genetic allergies, so to speak.  Basically my body does not have the proper digestive enzymes to break down these foods, so when ingested it causes various toxic reactions.  Good news is that my other allergies should start to lessen now.  (For those of you who don’t know, I am completely off restriction for corn and dairy!)

I’ve always wondered how much sugar I would be using in my kitchen in the future.  This new change solves it…NONE!

The trick is fruit derivatives are everywhere.  The most surprising places are: citric acid, most tea bags, various food oils, some vinegars, Vitamin A Palmitate, some nuts (in the manufacturing process), most vanilla extracts, nutmeg, …  Yeah, so avoiding sugar is definitely easier (and more healthier) than avoiding fruit.  Even one half of a gram of sugar will spin internal chaos.  Trust me, I tried.  It was not fun.

So, life without sugar? The difference is astounding!  Turns out sugar (with fruit) was responsible for: inner ear pain, other gut irritations, not being able to fully comprehend things at times, difficulty concentrating, blanking out for minutes at a time, being overly tired or exhausted, being socially inept at times...   It will be frustrating at times, especially out in the world, but sugar isn’t worth the risk.  I know that Benadryl Allergy (Dye-Free) dramatically lessens my reactions, so the hope is that someday (when things calm down) I will be able to eat out without restrictions – for special occasions, of course. Yeah, I know, Benadryl is not natural, but it is fairly a benign drug and, hey, it makes a huge difference!

Random thought: I wonder why so many food manufacturers use things like aspartame-based sugars – they taste horrible and have now proven to cause nerve damage and degeneration.  I feel like a poster child for 100% Maple Syrup.  So good with a few health benefits!  And I always have a large jug in the fridge.  So, now that I already know how to bake without sugar – yes, even sweet things — it’s just a matter of perfecting the art.  And, on days when I do have sugar I will have to plan very carefully and make my sugar date well worth it :o).

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

James 1:2-4

--

Animal Crackers! 

(Personally I would like to have a zoo, but my butterflies and little flowers will do for now.)

•2 cups flour (add 2 teaspoons of xantham gum if gluten free)

•1 teaspoon salt

•2.5 teaspoons baking powder

•½ cup unsalted butter

•½ cup maple syrup

•1 egg (or 1 tablespoon flaxmeal and 2 tablespoons hot water, let stand for 5 minutes)

•1 teaspoon vanilla (I use a sugar and alcohol free vanilla powder)

•¼ whole unhomogenized milk (or preferred dairy beverage)

•[For chocolate add ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder to dry ingredients.  Mine tasted like dark chocolate, so adjust the maple syrup accordingly for a lighter taste if desired.]

Blend with whisk all dry ingredients in one large bowl.  In another bowl (or sauce pan), combine maple syrup and melted butter.  (If maple syrup and butter refuse to blend, an electric whisk is a wonderful thing!) Now combine the rest of the wet ingredients in with the butter mixture.  Whisk until well blended.  Scrape bowl of liquid ingredients into the dry.  Mix well with spatula.  Roll into ball and then cover with plastic wrap.  Chill dough for one hour. 

Roll out dough onto desired work surface.  You’ll want the thickness to be 1/8 (crispier) to 1/4 (chewier, but they don’t last as long) of an inch.  Cut out with desired cookie cutters (the smaller the better).  Fit shapes flatly onto baking sheet.  Bake for 10-15 minutes at 375˚F.  For the dual look, place a small ball of chocolate dough next to the vanilla before rolling.

Enjoy!  

(And, just sayin’, they go great with chocolate homemade chocolate pudding.)

Cracker recipe altered from Moose Racks, Bear Tracks, and Other Alaska KidSnacks 

In Which We Say Good-Bye to the Flu

Last week I noticed muscle aches deeply embedded within my back and neck.  And, they weren’t those I slept wrong kind of aches.  It was the flu setting up camp.  But, no worries here.  On my last appointment I asked my ND what to do on the onset of the flu.  Besides avoid sugar, naturally, the answer is drink immune tea generously. 

What is immune tea?  Well, you take 1-2+ gloves crushed garlic and place it into the infuser -- that’s basically a tea bag for you non-tea folks.  After the kettle begins to whistle, pour water into your favorite mug and seep infuser for about 5 minutes at least.  I usually ended up leaving the infuser in the water the whole time.  Add a small amount of lemon, and a small bit of honey if necessary.

I drank this immune tea, and another medicinal tea that lessens inflammation, constantly for three days.  I could feel a bit of tug-o-war in my body as the battle ensued, garlic vs flu.  Muscles tried to keep on aching, there were moments of stomach unstableness, headaches that weren’t food affiliated coming on….  Garlic won!  I was definitely more tired than usual, but I was able to go on as normal.  And now, there is no trace of the icky flu within me. :)  No needles necessary.  Nothing pharmaceutical based.  (Though I did take a few dosages of Zyflamed (natural remedy for aches and inflammation) to help with the body’s natural tendency to inflame itself during such illness.)

Garlic is amazing stuff!  It is one of the most powerful natural sources of antioxidants out there and is helpful in preventing a wide array of medical maladies.

Eat up!

Sorry, no new recipes right now.  However, I have found it very useful to store fruits and vegetables -- when they are already cut up and awaiting their culinary fate – in a small bit of water and closed container.  Their freshness expanded to a week as opposed to a few days.  No shriveled greens or rotting reds or soggy yellows.  Still crisp, bright, and full of flavor!  Just watch out for that extra water they tend to absorb…whoa!

The Road to Healing (…Yeah, a post is long overdue!)

For the past year and a half it has always felt like I’ve been going two steps forward and one step back…until now.  It really feels like I’m moving forward.  Now that I know how to treat the three root causing culprits of these food allergies and failing health – missing good gut flora, sticky ileoceacal valves, and Candida – healing is overcoming the drastic ick.  There have been many days – praise God! – where I am now feeling fantastic and everything is clear and energetic.

On my most recent food test, I challenged dairy, nuts, and (accidentally) wheat.  Turns out that I am still ridiculously reactive to wheat (but can now touch it without a reaction – so there is some improvement -- and can have an extremely small fraction once a week through oats), I can have a little more nuts (still on a rotation diet), and (the most exciting) I can have dairy again!  In all seven trials of dairy servings, I barely had any reactions.  I thought that I would have to rotate dairy in (as in, like, once every 3-4 days), but I am actually allowed to have one serving a day.:-D

I can’t find the words to say how amazing this is.  It’s all so surreal and incredible.  When I could rotate in corn that was just corn chips, corn itself, and on rare occasions corn syrup products (a rarity to due their sugar and high-processed nature).  With dairy, it opens up so much more!  Ice cream, yogurt, gluten free mac and cheese (I won’t let this be a staple in my house, but it’ll be nice to have every now and then), real milk, cheese, and so much more!

But, this healing is more than being able to have more food options.  It’s one less hassle when eating out or when someone else cooks for me.  It shows so much healing at work, too!  It’s freedom; and, suddenly the other foods that I still must avoid, or have in strictly regulated dosages, don’t seem as constricting as before. 

I had often found myself saying: Dear God, when I said I wanted to be healthier, being allergic and sensitive to over eight food groups is not what I meant!  And there have been many nights were I’ve lost it – overwhelmed by the fact that I can’t eat (fill in the blank food that every one else can have) and if I do I’ll get really sick for a week.  And there’s also the bazillion alternative and alterated names food now has to check every time I go grocery shopping (for example, dairy is also case-in, whey, lactose, lactaid, carmel color, curds, lactoferrin, and on and on).  Yet, through it all, what often felt like seeds of adversity, have bloomed into healthful prosperity.

There is a taste for life and enjoyment of God’s provisions in a while new way.  I’m eating the best meals I’ve ever had for the most part.  Yeah, there are some flops, but you have to learn from them.  And let me tell you, healthy does not mean revolting food and it still means chocolate :).  And, some day, it will mean less medical expenses (seriously cannot wait for that day!!!).

I often wonder why I never really stopped to truly enjoy food before.  God gave us taste buds to enjoy and savor food, not shove it in our mouths on the run (which also is very hard on the digestive system…).  There’s such an abundance of earthly grown, minimally processed great tasting food out there.  If you doubt that, go without your favorite fruit, vegetable, nut, or whatever else for a year.  Then savor the flavor.  Taste buds are beautiful and awesome things!

You learn who your real honest friends are – those who have respected my diet, those who don’t brag or laugh about what I can’t have in front of me, and especially those who try to cook for me! -- mean more than I could ever express.  Being supportive is active, not passive.  A challenge, such as food allergies, can make you enjoy the things you have taken for granted and focus more on experiences and moments, rather than stuff. You have to acknowledge that there is more to life than food, less you be suffocated – figurative and literally.

Seeing a naturopathic doctor has really opened my eyes to how poisoned the food industry is becoming and how all these medications we have may be helping us in one way, but giving seed and light to many other health risks and factors. To me, there is a clear link between western illnesses and the western diet.  I am blessed by an incredible ND doctor – two actually – who honestly care about my health over the act of just making money.  No matter how many curve balls my health has thrown – trust me, there’ve been many – they are committed to furthering my optimal wellness and health education.

God has had a plan all along.  It’s not a coincidence that when food allergies were suspected, that my aunt called that weekend and opened my eyes into the world of naturopathic care.  Ailments – more than I can list on all my fingers and toes – that doctors told me to forget about are now being healed.  It’s amazing how much more alive you feel when burdens that have nailed you down are released, and you didn’t even know how heavy they really were.

I still have a long road ahead of me, and there may be many more days where I travel backwards against my will or just want to sleep the stress/pain away, but perseverance and faith is what I rely on.

---

Recipes:

Gluten Free Potato Italian Sausage Gnocchi

Though they suggest using a tomato-ish type sauce, I found butter and minced garlic to be quite delightful.

http://www.livingwithout.com/recipes/gluten_free_potato_italian_sausage_gnocchi-2265-1.html

Because all sausage has some form of case-in (a dairy protein) I made my own sausage.  Mix all dry ingredients below together and then add to 1 pound ground beef (or turkey):

- 2 tsp dried sage

- 2 tsp salt

- 1 tsp oregano

- 1 tsp ground black pepper

- 1/8+ tsp crushed red pepper flakes

- a pinch ground cloves

- a very generous dash of turmeric