Meet Marc and Craig Kielburger

Who writes this stuff, anyway?

Hello there!Thanks for reading. 

I blog because the more I looked into sugar, wheat hybridization, food as a commodity, low fat diets, “healthy whole grains,” paleo nutrition, leaky gut, and related topics over the past year, the more I felt that I needed some sort of venue with which to make sense of it all. This blog serves as both a record of my personal healthy eating adventures as well as a place to post any syntheses I make of nutrition-related research. I plan to write about gluten cross-reactivity, the involvement of biased parties in the grain-heavy USDA dietary guidelines, and the addictive properties of sugar and wheat, among other topics, so stay tuned.

I hope this blog inspires others to take charge of their health through dietary changes, whether they have autoimmune, weight, craving, mood, or energy issues, or are generally healthy but want to feel even more amazing!

                                                                                                          To your good health, Emma 

Day 22

Day 21

Not pictured: steak, another chicken thigh

So, I'm getting pretty tired of this diet.

 I've just been feeling hungry a lot lately, and not wanting to eat the few things I'm allowed to eat.

 It's going to be a long process of reintroducing and testing each new food, so I better start soon, right?

The Paleo Mom writes that you should avoid starches for a few weeks at first with the SCD and GAPS diets, and I've been doing that for 3 weeks now, so maybe reintroducing starchy foods that are safe on the Autoimmune Protocol paleo diet one at a time would be a good place to start (such as low glycemic organic fruits like apples, apricots, avocados, blueberries, cherries, grapefruit, lemons, oranges, peaches, pears, plums, raspberries, and strawberries and the organic starchy vegetables like yams and sweet potatoes).

Day 20

Beautiful organic swiss chard from Kanu at the downtown farmer's market. Unfortunately I had to cook it to death to reduce its goitrogens. 

Not pictured: coconut oil and unsweetened shredded coconut, 2 grass-fed burgers with sea salt and allowed spices

Next on the diet agenda, I need to read Breaking the Vicious Cycle and Gut and Psychology Syndrome and consult The Paleo Mom blog to figure out how best to start reintroducing foods. More on that to come....

Day 19

Not pictured: basic burger in salad form from the Burger Joint (grass-fed local beef and lettuce)

Day 18

First time trying mackerel, one of the oily fish I should be eating. Tasted just like tuna to me!

This broccoli was delicious! I fried it in a bunch of olive oil and sea salt before steaming it for the remainder of its 30 minutes of cooking.

Not pictured: filtered water

Day 17

Today's sustenance:

I know, I know, the picture above is of processed meat, which technically isn't allowed. I was hungry, and walking through Costco's seas of food that I am not allowing myself to eat this month, and feeling anxious and deprived and really not wanting to run a caloric deficit like I apparently have been, since doing so makes it harder for the body to heal...so, I ate an all-beef hot dog without the bun.

The treat in the silver wrapper is an elimination diet "coconut macaroon," consisting of unsweetened coconut flakes and melted coconut oil mixed together and then frozen. With a flavor similar to almond joys and some calories to keep me full, all while supplying my daily coconut oil quota, these things are lifesavers.

Day 16: A Bit More Than Halfway Through This Elimination Month!

To mark this halfway point, I thought it would be fitting to share some of the foods I'm looking forward to reintroducing over the course of the next few months after January  (following The Paleo Mom's/Chris Kresser's/the-SCD-and-GAPS-books' recommendations for how to successfully test if I tolerate certain foods, of course):

• Bacon! Oh my gosh. I spent a great deal of 2012 joyfully consuming bacon. I miss it. 
• Avocado! Mmm. Avocados have always been a favorite of mine. I love the creaminess and texture. They add so much to salads, burgers, dips, you name it. Except that weird avocado chocolate "pudding" some people love so much. Ick. 
• Chocolate! I so hope that I find that my body tolerates chocolate. I love creating food wonders with chocolate, and  I love enjoying it. It will be interesting to experience chocolate without a sugar addiction, and I will be trying to go as dark as possible with this delicacy. I realized recently that plain cacao is not something I desire to eat (currently, at least - maybe my taste buds will adjust!), so that maybe the sugar that is in different types of chocolate to varying degrees was really what had me hooked. 
• Blueberries! I ate a lot of blueberries in 2012, and I miss my frozen bowls of blueness a great deal. Something to look forward to! 
• Come to think of it, I am looking forward to ALL FRUIT! Nature's candy, man. That nature knows her sweets better than any candy store - mango, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, lilikoi (passionfruit), strawberries, bananas, nectarines, peaches, raspberries, and plums are just some of her wondrous creations that I am so looking forward to eating again. Maybe it's just me, but I would take a fruit orchard over a candy store any day. 
• Nuts! In particular macadamia nuts. YUM. 
• Garlic!
• Onions!
• Sweet potatoes
• Taro
• Cassava
• Eggs
• Things made out of almond flour and eggs! 
• Carrots
• Pumpkin (mm with cinnamon!)
• Dairy

Now, I know some of these items may turn out to be ones that one of my various sources recommends staying away from. For instance, I think eggs are cross-reactive with gluten, and Dr. K and Chris Kresser recommend that anyone with an AITD (Autoimmune Thyroid Disorder) avoid gluten for the rest of their life. So, maybe no eggs. And, sadly, The Paleo Mom blogged that people with autoimmune conditions often cannot succesfully reintroduce dairy into their diets. :( But, only thorough and thought-out experimentation with my diet can tell. So, wish me luck! 

Until the 1st, it's meat, leaves, and olive and coconut oil...in the context of the world's population, I'm so very lucky to have such healthy sustenance. 

Day 15's Menu

Not Pictured: filtered water, unsweetened coconut flakes 

Day 14

...and raspberry leaf tea, many glasses of filtered water, and a bit of beef tongue. 

Day 13

Menu:

• 2 organic free range chicken thighs
• steamed allowed plant matter (a mix of watercress, beet greens, and red swiss chard I believe)
• probiotic supplement
• grass-fed burger with extra grass-fed burger grease and chives
• lettuce
• my homemade bone broth from grass-fed beef
• leftover pork chop 
• more steamed veggies 
• more bone broth
• And, not pictured, organic unsweetened coconut flakes and organic unrefined coconut oil

 

 I think even Dr. Terry Wahls would be satisfied with the quantity of vegetables I consume these days. I probably will have consumed more vegetable matter in this one detox month than I did during the entire last year (eek, right!).

I saw an ad for V8 vegetable juice in a TIME magazine today, and it referenced the fact that most people don't eat the 5 servings of vegetables that are recommended by the USDA. Other food groups so easily crown  out the vegetables, even as the health benefits of vegetables are touted by groups as varied as vegans and Paleo eaters.

So, here's to eating those veggies! This year I can say that I am actively cultivating a healthy habit.