Dem Bones... (chicken bones)

I have to admit I've gotten REALLY lazy about making (and drinking) bone broth as of late.

It's probably been a month or more since I've made any and really, I've consumed so much broth in the last 6 months, it was starting to make me a bit queasy.

I usually use the remnants of a chicken I've either made or purchased (thank you Costco Bachelor Chickens for being so convenient).  Most of the time though, the broth won't gel.

Why is this important, you may wonder?  Well, it's a good sign that the collagen and gelatin have leached from your carcass and are readily available for your body to utilize.  It's actually a sign of a good broth. If you get it to gel, you've done a great job.

I've found the key to getting a good gel pretty much every time is using chicken feet.

I read about it in Nourishing Traditions.

 

I was a bit off put by the idea of putting a bunch of feet in my broth.

But I went to the market in Justin's neighborhood and purchased a package of feet (this was a few years back and chicken feet are remarkably hard to find - if you are looking, check your local Asian or Hispanic market. You'll be hard pressed to find them at Safeway or Raley's).

I threw those feet in with my carcass and veggies and let it simmer away.  It didn't seem any different until it cooled down.... Chicken Jello.

Since that time, chicken jello has become a staple of my diet.  When I started AIP back in January, I was consuming broth with every meal.  I had considered GAPS, which used broth based soups for every meal, but wasn't that willing to commit.

I can say with pretty good certainty that my joint health is markedly better when I am getting a good and continuous source of gelatin and collagen.  I don't sound like a bowl of rice crispies when I move.  Lay off the broth for a while and it's back to snap, crackle and pop.

It also is a great food to soothe your intestines and help improve digestion.

But when you are drinking that much broth, it gets old. Fast.

Enter gelatin.

It blends in pretty easily to whatever I'm drinking. I add it to cold beverages, hot beverages and the like. It seems to blend in pretty easily if you add it to a small amount of room temperature liquid before adding it to hot or cold liquids. 

I'm drinking it three times a day currently to see if it has similar effects.  I'll let you know how it goes. If my knees stop making a snapping noise, I'd say we're good.  (the snapping sounds far more painful that in actually is)

I found this list at my mom's house the other day. This was the list I went to my doctor with in 2011 outlining the pain I was in (and had been in for as long as I could remember). I'm glad to say that it's 2013 and aside from the occasional flare up (usually of my shoulder or hip), I'm free of most of those symptoms. 

Might I add that I'm not taking ANY NSAIDS or anti-inflammatory medications for probably the first time in my adult life.  Through diet and lifestyle changes, I've managed to turn all of this around (though it's still hard to straighten my hair - so I don't). 

Tasty Foods: Zucchini Hummus

I'm tempted to run upstairs and whip up a batch of zucchini hummus just so I can take some photos for this post, but I'm out of avocados and there are no grocery stores open after 10 PM in SOMA (don't get me started on the EBAY Now ads that make ZERO sense to me.  Who goes to the park, thinks they are starting to burn and orders sun screen for delivery in about an hour????? By the time your sun screen arrives you WILL have a sunburn, I'm sorry to say.). 

Rod and Judy were awesome enough to share the recipe they served for zucchini hummus when we went over for dinner at their place the first time. I have to say, I like it more than "standard" hummus, and I really like hummus. 

Zucchini hummus is amazingly light and doesn't have the same heaviness that a bean based hummus has (though I guess you may be okay with that fullness). It's raw, it's vegan and it's delicious.  

I made two batches for our wedding. Originally I was going to make a double batch using the recipe from ibreatheimhungry, which is pretty darn delicious on it's own. It was the morning before the wedding and I had a couple of avocados that needed to be used so I decided to throw them in the mix.  

Zucchini hummus + Avocados = AMAZING!  

The original recipe is as follows.  I made it the first few times using my Ninja and it took a while to really break everything down and get it smooth.  We got a BlendTec (of Will it Blend? fame) and it made short work of the hummus (about 45 seconds).  Play with what you've got to find out how awesome this recipe is.  

It's amazing as a dip but I've also discovered how rad it goes with just about everything. Top a steak with it. Top a chicken breast with it.  Breakfast sausage?  It's delicious. 

ORIGINAL LOW CARB HUMMUS (from ibreatheimhungry.com)

Ingredients:

4 cups peeled & chopped raw zucchini

3/4 cups tahini (sesame paste)

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup olive oil

4 cloves of garlic, peeled

2 teaspoons kosher salt (or to taste)

1 Tbl ground cumin

Combine all ingredients in a blender and puree until thick and smooth.  Taste and adjust seasonings to your preference.  Pour into a shallow bowl and garnish with parsley, paprika and a drizzle of olive oil if desired.  

My modified version of this recipe swaps out the 1/4 cup of olive oil for 2 avocados.  The remaining ingredients remain the same as do the instructions.  
 
This was one of the first non-AIP foods I tried eating and it appears I can tolerate seeds (sesame paste), which made me really happy.  Cumin is technically not AIP friendly, but I was going a bit nuts and just wanted "regular" food. I haven't had any sort of noticeable reaction to this recipe, so it's in regular rotation. 
 
Speaking of AIP, I think I need to get back to being super serious about it. For days now, my sinuses have been swollen (they feel like they "pop") and I've had terrible headaches. I'm not sure if it's the pressure changes due to the rain or what, but I'm pretty miserable. Loosening up made getting through the wedding a bit easier, but I really need to isolate foods to find out what is tolerable and what is not (the sunbutter cookies I came up with last week were amazing. Hopefully they weren't the issue). 

Waging a war.......... on YOU

I've been really terrible at updating the blog lately.

I've been busy with work, school, wedding prep and projects.

We finally got the invitations done and mailed out.  It was the perfect excuse for me to buy a craft cutter and now I just need to find enough time to work on .svg files for paper crafting as well as creating jewelry designs and finishing out the semester :)

I've noticed that weight loss/health has taken sort of an angry path these days.  Everyone is intent on getting ripped, demolishing fat, getting their asses kicked, etc. I'm not sure why every woman thinks they need to get below 20% body fat and needs six pack abs. I really don't want to "kill it", whatever "it" may be. I'm sick of the screaming commercials for some new ass kicking workout.

Does it really have to be that way?

Don't get me wrong. I don't think there is anything wrong with being strong.  I don't think there's anything wrong with being muscular. I've worked plenty of jobs in my life that required me to be strong.  But really, do we need to look like body builders (I've always been rather grossed out by them personally).

Is this necessary? Or attractive?

I'm not sure what people are into killing, but if killing it equals the above, I'll let it live.

I have to say if I've learned anything in the last 3 years its to be gentle with myself.  I didn't get that principle in all the years I did yoga. I pushed myself to be the most flexible in a class. I pushed myself as hard as I could. Which is totally NOT what yoga is about. I pushed my body by working out 3 hours a day, 7 days a week.

My shoulder injury has taught me to be gentle with myself. I have learned my limits. I may not like my limits all of the time, but I accept them.

I don't need to destroy fat. I don't need to punish myself for my food choices by spending an extra hour at the gym if I eat something "bad". Hell, my entire diet is "bad" by the standards of most of the diet industry. I eat fat. Lots of fat.  I eat protein, a pretty good amount of protein. I eat veggies, probably more than I ever did as a vegetarian in my youth.

As much as it pained me, I threw out everything I thought I new about health and fitness and I've changed my life for the better. Without supplements. Without shakes. Without punishing my body. Without punishing my spirit.

Take a second to think about it before you wage another war with yourself.  Take a second to think about being gentle and kind to yourself.  It might make all the difference in your life and in the world. Our lives are full of enough crap - everyone's a warrior, everything needs to be destroyed, killed, ripped, etc.

Think about the impact those words have. Affect a positive change in your mind and you will see positive changes in your body.

Back to the Basics

After four months, I thought it was about time to start reintroducing foods. I had pretty successfully ended my runny nose, congestion and sneezing and it had been a while since those symptoms had been present. I also lost 30 pounds since the beginning of the year.  

Also, the wedding is rapidly approaching and I wanted to be able to have a few less restrictions on what I can eat by then.  (No eggs and no nuts makes it hard to make a good cupcake.)

A couple of weeks ago, we had some wonderful fresh eggs (from my aunt's chickens and from Ray and Rebecca's chickens). I didn't really notice any issues after eating those delicious eggs. (I'm not sure if you've ever done a side by side comparison of pastured hen eggs and grocery store eggs, but the difference in color is AMAZING.)

Last weekend, we went to dinner at a friend's house and they were gracious enough to try to accommodate my dietary restrictions (The whole meal was amazing). Rod and Judy bought an assortment of raw goat and cow milk cheeses and raw cream to make whipped cream for dessert.  

That was the first time I had dairy other than butter since November. OMG! It was divine. I did not have any noticeable reaction to the cheese or cream, which gives me hope!  

They also made an amazing hummus from zucchini (I'm still not eating legumes) and tahini.  It was AWESOME. I have some zucchini in the fridge now. I just need a bit of down time to make it! 

I wanted to do some baking to see if I could at least work out some combination of coconut flour/tapioca flour cupcakes since I haven't reintroduced nuts (I usually use almond flour for cupcakes), so I picked up some organic eggs at Costco the other day. 

I was excited at the prospect of bacon and eggs for breakfast.  That did not work out so well.  

I have been sneezy and runny nosed (and have had terrible sinus pressure) for several days now. The only difference in anything has been the eggs.  

Time to reset.  No eggs until my symptoms go away again and then try to get some eggs from Ray (or some other pastured eggs).  

Its amazing how much food effects us. It's also amazing how much food effects our food.  

It's also amazing how long it took for me to realize that the way I felt was not normal, even though it was normal for me (at least adult life normal for me).  I never had allergies as a kid.  I hit my 20's and fell apart.  I was discussing this with my chiropractor and a lot of it started after developing an allergy to latex as an EMT. It was an interesting correlation, but I also look back at several other factors that may have played a part. 

I was on low dose antibiotics for years as a teenager to try to clear up my acne.  It didn't help my acne very much, but that whole time it WAS killing off all of my good bacteria in my gut. Then I was switched to the pill to help with my acne. Again, messing with my gut.  I also have been on and off of NSAIDS and various anti-inflammatory medications since about the age of 20. 

All of those things can destroy your gut, resulting in permeability of the intestines, which allows microscopic food particles into the bloodstream.  Those microscopic particles are seen as invaders and your body tries to fight them off.  The end result - a variety of symptoms that include allergic reactions and inflammation.  

While my diet has been a pain in the ass, I can see marked differences in how I feel.  A big part of healing is to remove the "offending foods" (which may seem like EVERYTHING at first) and getting a good amount of bone broth (which soothes and heals the gut lining) and ferments (living food - kombucha, sauerkraut, fermented veggies) to rebuild.  

Some people say they've reversed their food allergies through these changes and can now enjoy most foods they thought they would never be able to again.  I haven't reached that point, but I have changed how I feel. 

It's a Miracle

I know I had been frustrated with the whole elimination diet thing.  I wanted to give up more than a few times.

Well, I just have to say I'm glad I didn't.

I made it through today without sneezing more than a couple of times.  I made it through today only blowing my nose once or twice (not including my netti pot time, as my nasal passages feel so dry now that they are not running like a faucet).

In fact, after I started thinking about it, I've made it through the last few days without sneezing or a runny/stuffy nose.  After the effects of the miso soup faded (which took about 3 days), I've been pretty allergy symptom free for an entire weekend.

I know that sounds like a weird thing to be excited about, but considering the last 10 years of my life have been filled with nasal misery (at times going through 2-3 boxes of tissues a week and sneezing so uncontrollably that I would have to pull my car off the road), 3 days of minimal sneezing (maybe 3-5 times in a day) and a scant handful of nose blows (maybe 2-3) is a miracle.

I am going to wait a couple of weeks to see how long this lasts (or if it was just a fluke) before I attempt to start adding foods back into my diet.  There are somethings I find I don't really miss as much as I thought I would (nightshades) and others I can't wait to add back (eggs and nuts).

It will be a SLOW process trying to add things back in.  I plan to try a food and wait 72 hours to evaluate how I feel.  If all seems to be good, I will try that food item in small quantities for a week to see if that changes any sort of reaction.  If no reaction is present, I will wait an additional week to add the next food.

Let's use an egg as our example.

I try a single yolk (the least allergenic part of the egg) on 2/25.  I will observe how my body reacts until 2/27.  If all seems good, I will then eat a yolk a day until 3/6.  If that seems to be working for me, I will wait until 3/13 to add a new food while continuing to keep to 1 yolk a day.

It really seems like more work than I really want to do, but I have to say that not sneezing and not having a constantly runny/stuffy nose feels AWESOME!

I still have the feeling of some sinus pressure though and I would love to have my sinuses adjusted sometime in the near future.  I've taken some time away from the adjustment process to know if my diet is really helping my allergies or if the adjustments were a part of  the reduction as well.

Where are you hiding now?

Okay, it's been a few days now since the soy and I am STILL all nasally and gross.  The day after having the miso soup, I swear I felt like I had been hit by a truck.

It's good to know though.

I was aware that unfermented soy was a bad deal, though I bought into the health benefits of soy in all states when I was younger. I've learned the importance of fermenting for any number of foods we eat, be it soy, wheat, veggies, etc. 

Fermenting helps neutralize anti-nutrients that make foods difficult for us to digest.  If you  eat grains, make sure you soak or ferment those grains.  If you're going to eat soy, make sure it is fermented soy such as tempeh, miso, natto or traditionally made soy sauce.  

One of the biggest downfalls of soy (at least here in the US) is that most of our soybeans are GMO.  I personally don't know the long term effects of eating GMO foods, and don't care to be a part of some grand experiment.  

Unfortunately soy is hidden in a great number of processed foods even when they are considered natural or health food using names that may or may not indicate they have soy in them. Especially when switching to gluten free, soy seems to be an additive that is in EVERYTHING.  Here are a few that may contain soy but are entirely ambiguous (I pretty much avoid these due to the possibility of containing wheat as well): 

Artificial flavoring 

Asian foods (e.g. Japanese, Chinese, Thai, etc.)

Hydrolyzed plant protein 
Hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) 
Natural flavoring 
Vegetable broth 
Vegetable gum 
Vegetable starch 

I never really gave much though to the idea that soy was part of my allergy issue.  I had started cutting it out for other reasons but wasn't really diligent about the ambiguous soy sneaking in until I went on an elimination diet.  

After about 7 weeks of no soy at all, I figured trying miso, which is properly fermented wouldn't hurt.  It did and now I know to avoid soy.  It eliminates a lot of things such as chocolates (most commercial chocolates are made with soy lecithin), but hey, not having my face feel like it will explode or my sinuses make a weird popping noise is not a bad trade off.  

Kids with Food Allergies is a pretty comprehensive resource for food allergens and possibly ambiguous allergen additives.  

I honestly think if you don't feel as well as you think you could, AIP (autoimmune paleo) or GAPS (gut and psychology syndrome) or SCD (specific carbohydrate diet) can really help you see how what you eat effects you over all.  

Even though I haven't fully been able to ditch my nasal allergies, I have to say that I feel better than I can really ever remember.  

You don't soy

I think I may have pinpointed one of my allergens tonight.  I went to dinner tonight and tried a bowl of Miso Soup.

By the time the meal was over my nose was running, my sinuses swelling and I had started sneezing.

The only other thing I had was a sashimi plate and if I'm allergic to raw fish, I'm screwed.

At first I thought it was the obnoxious VS fragrance of a patron at the table next to us.  Earlier in the day, the drunk girls on the train started spraying that garbage and the nose running and sneezing started but went away within an hour of getting away from the stink.

It's been more than 5 hours now and my symptoms have NOT gone away at all.  My poor nose is raw from tissues (and yes, mom, I have the ones with "potion").

I had to take a box of tissues upstairs with me when I was working on my homework.  I haven't had to take a box of tissues up to the common area since prior to the start of my AIP diet.  For me, more than a month of not having to have tissues available in every room of the house (or in my car, in my purse, in my messenger bag, etc.) is a miracle.

With the obvious triggers, like that VS garbage (how does anyone think that stuff smells good and why do people feel it necessary to carry fragrances and reapply throughout the day?  If you shower on a regular basis, you should be good to go.), I have found that smelling something else can ease the reaction.  So far the "other smell" that is working for me is peppermint essential oil.  It seems to "reset" my sense of smell so I can no longer smell/taste the offending odor, but it doesn't linger and cause me to smell peppermint for a period afterward.

The peppermint oil does NOT alleviate the symptoms I am currently experiencing.  I am miserable.  I sound like crap. I feel like crap.  My nose is running so badly that it's actually dripping.  The right side of my sinuses are totally swollen (I can still move some air through the left side of my nose).

The good thing is though, I can live without soy.  That is one of the many things that I have eliminated that I can care less about consuming again.  It DOES eliminate any number of "convenience foods" that I may have consumed before because almost anything that has an ingredient list has soy or some soy derivative in it.  But, if that's the case, so be it.  I've grown accustomed to making almost all of my own meals.  It's not that hard to do (although if you ask the people in my CA Art in Cultural Context Class, people have no choice but to eat convenience foods because, like, cooking is haaaaaaaaaaaaard.)

What I can't wait to reintroduce are nuts and eggs.  I tried an egg yolk a couple of days ago (apparently the whites have proteins that can be more allergenic than the yolk as a defense mechanism).  My sinuses felt slightly swollen, but I can't tell if that was coincidence or a reaction to the egg.  After my sinuses calm back down from this incident, I will try another yolk to see what happens.

This whole process has been annoying and time consuming but not needing to carry tissues with me everywhere I go or having intense sneezing fits has been pretty awesome.  I can say I still feel as though NST adjustments may help with any alignment issues of my sinus cavities but until I get the food sorted out, I'm not going to get my sinuses adjusted.

For the love of sauerkraut

I ran out of sauerkraut last week.  I didn't plan ahead.  I haven't even started a new batch yet.

And do I miss it already.

I never thought I would love sauerkraut.  I remember trying it when I was a kid on hot dogs or with sausage. I thought it was gross and mushy.  You couldn't have paid me to eat it.

In 2010 I discovered a book (well, there were two actually) that changed the way I thought about food and my body.

Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions

One of the most important things I got from this book was the importance of fermented foods.  

I had already been making my own Kombucha tea for years.  But that was really the only source of "good" bacteria I was getting at that time.  (There was yogurt too, but I was eating low fat, pasteurized stuff that really isn't that beneficial)

There are ads everywhere for Probiotic supplements, beverages, even chocolates.  That's all good and fine, but what is the point of adding good bacteria to "dead" foods?

Enter SAUERKRAUT.  I spent a lot of time that fall fermenting.  It's addicting.  Seriously addicting.  I was making my own sourdough starter.  I made sourdough pancakes, bread, crackers.

I got up the nerve to buy a head of cabbage and make my first batch of kraut.  All I remember about it was that it seemed too salty to me.  I probably let it age about a week before trying it. I can't say I loved it right off the bat.  But it definitely wasn't the commercial kraut I remembered trying before.

What makes sauerkraut (and other fermented real foods) so great?  Lactic Acid Bacteria.  This bacteria helps aid digestion and create good gut health (the health of your gut can make or break your whole body health).  Lactofermentation (the use of lactic acid bacteria) has been used for thousands of years to preserve food.  Long before we had sterile factories producing our foods, our ancestors used bacteria to help preserve the fall harvest into winter.

Among the benefits are:
Adding Vitamin C to your diet (sauerkraut was once used to prevent scurvy)
Reduction in inflammatory bowel disorders
Increase healthy gut flora (which can help aleviate systemic symptoms)
Reduction in constipation
Reduction in allergies

And it tastes good!

According to most people, sauerkraut is good to go after 2 weeks of fermentation.  I have to say the best I've made had been sitting for about 4 months.  I say check it at 28 days.  It's usually pretty good to go.  Don't worry about eating it quickly.  The longer it sits, the better it tastes.

I didn't get my step by step photos done tonight (I'll post those tomorrow), but I've got some lovely purple cabbage upstairs calling my name.

Also, another thing to note about the wonders of sauerkraut is that it is recommended as a part of many healing diets, such as GAPS and AIP.  I'm currently doing AIP and I have to say one of my favorite meals is homemade pork sausage (no sugar, nitrates or nitrites and EASY TO MAKE) with sauerkraut.  In fact, I think that is where the entire half gallon of kraut went this month between Justin and I.

What the SMELL?

I have to say that doing AIP doesn't seem to be eliminating whatever is causing my sneezing and nasal congestion.  Which is really disappointing.  I miss a LOT of foods.  But I'm sticking it out.  I started on January 6.  It is now January 31.  For the most part I've made it 25 days (I did have a couple slip ups Sushi and Manhattan Chowder).

My sneezing is less than it was when I started (this is a REALLY HARD thing to quantify), but with the deprivation I feel (it's all psychological - I don't like being told I can't have/do something) I had really hoped for better results.

On the up side, I was down close to 10 pounds the last time I weighed myself (almost 2 weeks ago, which was 2 weeks into it).  I pretty much only weigh myself when I go visit my mom, so I have no idea what my current weight is.  I can tell you my jeans are considerably looser than when I started this.

The other night all I could smell was the Dial hand soap from our bathroom after Justin had washed his hands.  There are a lot of smells that once they hit my nose, they don't go away.  I can taste them. Every breath I take is tainted by these smells.  They linger no matter how long it has been since I was exposed to them.  Dial soap happens to be one of them.  (I think the list could go on for days, but one of the worst offenders are the garbage sold by Victoria's Secret as fragrance)

An idea struck me as we were sitting on the couch.  Maybe I could replace that smell with another!?  I ran downstairs to my drawers of essential oils (for my witchery as Justin calls it), grabbed the peppermint oil and started sniffing it.  Never mind that I felt like a junior high kid sniffing markers or glue.  My nose had just started the sneeze tickle as I was in the process of doing this.  After a few strong inhalations, I felt the spasms  that I was on the verge of subside.  While I didn't have a lingering scent of peppermint stuck in my nose, I no longer had the Dial stuck there.

Is it possible to "reset" my sense of smell?   Really, scents have caused me to feel overloaded and overstimulated for years.  I despise most things scented (natural occurring scents tend to be okay in moderation) because the overwhelming smell and resulting taste are unbearable).

I've been testing this "reset" idea for the last few days.  When I can feel the "tickle" or spasms creeping up on me, I inhale a few times with the bottle of peppermint essential oil right below my nose.  It doesn't work 100% of the time, but it seems to cut down on the frequency and severity of my sneezing attacks.  Again, it's super hard to quantify unless I start counting the number of times I sneeze each day.

My next question to resolve in this "reset" idea is the scent itself.  Is there a specific scent that is going to work?  Is it just any scent that is more pure and not artificial?  I started Sunday night with peppermint (it was the first bottle in my drawer).  Would Tangerine work?  Thyme?  Cypress? Clove?

I plan to switch it up to and test other oils.

Another question is will I become dependent upon a scent in order to control my sneezing?  Will I have to "wean" myself off of this method?

Does this all mean that my sneezing is purely psychological in nature?  Perhaps it is a neurological dysfunction?

I don't know.  All I know is that I can't wait to add foods back into my diet.  I really miss eggs, nuts and chocolate.

Apples and Alpine Mail

I woke up this morning stuffed up, sneezing and my nose running (I know it sounds weird to be stuffed up and running like a faucet at the same time, but that's how my nose chooses to behave some days).

I've been doing AIP for 21 days now with 2 set backs (the sushi and Manhattan style GF chowder last weekend and I had a single cocktail on Friday night when Justin and I went to dinner).  For the most part, I've been doing pretty good.  Blowing my nose only once or twice in the mornings or actually even waking up clear headed.

Well this morning was the suck! I had a mound of tissues next to me and my nose didn't stop running until I had been out of bed for 2 hours.  I tried really hard to enjoy a Sunday morning in bed with Pi and Justin (Pi was trying to "help" me read 1984 by turning the page on my Kindle.  Not very helpful.)

I can't think of anything out of the ordinary I had yesterday, other than apples.  I haven't had an apple in a while.  I really wanted something dessert-y.  I had some AMAZING toasted coconut sorbet at LuLu on Friday, which really made me want dessert.  (By the way, the food there is amazing. I had Flat Iron Steak with mashed sweet potatoes and chard with bacon).  I had a couple of granny smith apples in the kitchen and made some tasty baked apples last night.

I totally didn't think to photograph the apples, but the recipe was simple.  
3 Granny Smith Apples, sliced
2 Tablespoons Honey
1 Cup shredded coconut
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
1 Teaspoon Cloves
1 Teaspoon Nutmeg
1 Tablespoon Melted Nutiva Organic Coconut Oil Extra-Virgin 29 oz. 218566 (Google Affiliate Ad)

Mix all ingredients together.  Bake at 400 until apples are soft and coconut is toasted.

Well, I wasn't really thinking about the fact that Nutmeg isn't AIP (This angers me - I love nutmeg).  If it was nutmeg that made me all sneezy, I might cry.  It could have been dust as well.  We're cleaning and reorganizing the Gnomery and the HEPA filter has apparently been doing it's job.  The back intake was covered with dust bunnies.  Which then got on the bed.  We did our best to brush them off.

One of the more exciting (well, exciting for me anyway) was getting my Brown Bag Company Alpine Mail Bag.

I saw this bag at Cole Fox Hardware and immediately wanted it.  I've been waiting for weeks to see if I still wanted it.  Well, I did.  I have been looking for the perfect messenger style bag for ages.  I had a laptop bag that was cute, but my laptop barely fit in it.  I started looking at canvas/nylon messenger bags (think Timbuk2).  Well, they are $100 + and I've never had anything canvas/nylon last longer than a few years.  Plus, I was sort of disheartened at their "designed in SF, made with pride world wide" spin for "Made In China".

Well, the Alpine Mail Bag is made in Incline Village (Tahoe) from American leather (Milwaukee).  Apparently this company makes made to last tool bags.  This bag appears to be made to last as well!  It's heavy duty leather with quality stitching and brass fittings.  It has two compartments (one zippered and a main compartment divided into 2) with two pen holders and a business card holder.  It does not have a billion places to lose something in (I've had purses with so many pockets I could lose things for years in them.  Wallets too for that matter.).  I have a 17" laptop which barely fit into laptop bags designed for a 17" laptop.  Well, it fits wonderfully in this bag with room to spare.  It's more than enough for my commute to work on train days AND it fits my rain boots in it!

I'm excited to finally have a well made bag!  

Armpits aren't supposed to feel that much pain!

I've been looking for a massage therapist that does orthopedic massage for over a year now.

Getting a regular "relaxation" massage only exacerbates my shoulder issues.  I've had a Massage Envy membership for a while now and once the therapist I had been seeing in Folsom was unable to keep working, I hadn't used many of my prepaid massages.  In fact, I gifted most of them over the holidays and had planned to cancel.

I had called the Massage Envy near my place (at the Metreon) several times asking if they had anyone who did Orthopedic massage and was told no every time.

Well, Massage Envy didn't process my cancellation and charged me for another prepaid in December.  I really didn't want to get a massage that was going to increase my pain.  I scheduled a facial instead.  While I was waiting I took a look at their therapist bios.  Wouldn't you know, they had TWO therapists that do orthopedic massage.

I booked an appointment with Kim for the next evening when I saw that!   I figured I would give her a shot and cancel the next day if she didn't work out.

A thing to know about orthopedic massage: it is NOT pleasant. It is not a relaxing massage that relieves stress.  It is painful. VERY painful.

Kim poked and prodded and pushed and pulled.  In fact, most of my one hour session was spent on my left shoulder's inflamed connective tissues and scar tissue.  But I didn't mind.  I knew I was there for specific body work and Kim seemed very knowledgeable. It hurt like hell though.  After 13 years of physical therapy, surgery and discomfort, I knew it would be.  If you've never had anyone "poke" you in the armpit, the armpit is capable of feeling intense pain.  I don't recommend testing it out though.

She had a few recommendations for me diet-wise (most of which I have already adopted, she was impressed with my natural health knowledge).  One of which was to make a super strong ginger tea using about 1 inch to 1 1/2 inches of fresh ginger and 6 cups of water.  Let it boil to reduce it to about 2 cups of "tea" and drink that throughout the day.  I'm going to give that one a shot since I'm not taking any supplements during this phase of AIP, including turmeric.

I know that the amount of inflammation in my shoulder is less than usual, but I had hoped that AIP would possibly eliminate it.  On the plus side of AIP, I think my nasal allergy symptoms are improving.  They are not gone yet, but they are improving.  I was able to have a massage laying face down and not sneeze or have my nose run.  I was even able to mostly breathe through my nose during the entire session (the right side of my nose still gets "stuffed up" when I lay down. It is really bothersome, but it seems to drain faster when I change positions than it used to).

I did find a resource that would have helped immensely when I started on my AIP journey almost 3 weeks ago.  Paleo Plan is a fantastic website that helps make the paleo lifestyle easier and more convenient.  I've gone there for recipes and info over the last year.  What I didn't realize was how comprehensive their 21 Day Paleo Cleanse eBook was.  I purchased the Toadally Primal Wellness Bundle and the 21 Day Paleo Cleanse was included.  

I highly recommend checking it out.  The $25 price is a drop in the bucket when it comes to the ease with which you will be able to make the transition.  It has 3 weeks of menus, shopping lists and even tells you what days you need to do prep work for another meal.

Even if you don't think you have allergy or autoimmune issues, give it a shot.  I have to say I'm down 8 pounds since the 6th of January and almost down to my goal weight.

Weekend Cheat

I've made it through about 2 weeks of the AIP diet.  I've had a couple of set backs, but I won't let those deter me.

I made it through 12 days without any cheats.  Until I went shopping for my wedding dress.  I went back home to look for a dress with my mom (and found the perfect one at the first store!).  After looking for my dress, my mom and I were starving.  Old Town Grill was the first option (they used to have Emu burgers, which were awesome!), but I was feeling a bit burned out on bunless burgers.

I love sushi a lot, so my mom and I went to Amerikan Ichi.  I was going to go for sashimi to stick to the plan, but I couldn't really pass up all you can eat sushi!  Oh sweet saba! So I ate rice.  Quite a bit of rice.  It was super delicious.  I stuck to only nigiri, not that that makes a huge difference when I'm not supposed to be eating rice.

I was pretty phlegmy the next morning and sneezing more than I have in the last 2 weeks.  I was also achy, but I think that was more due to my spill down the stairs the day before. I was super sore.

We drove to the coast on Sunday to remember my brother.  I made a tasty breakfast of kale and GF sausage before we hit the road.  I stuck to it and had a couple of sausages as a snack, but was still starving.  We stopped in the tiny town of Bodega, where they have crab mac n' cheese.  Justin tried it (and it smelled delicious!).  There weren't a lot of options and I was hungrier than a small piece of smoked salmon would have taken care of.  The store had an amazing number of gluten free items (so surprising), even their chowders were gluten free.  They had several options.  I would have loved to have had a traditional chowder, but sort of figured that dairy and nightshades would have been worse than just the nightshades in the manhattan style.  It was super tasty!

But I've been sort of congested and runny nosed for the last 2 days.

I'm not giving up yet, though.  Several of the real food bloggers out there claim to have reversed food allergies by following an elimination diet.  Hoping it can happen!

On the up side of this diet, I'm down 8 pounds in 2 weeks.  I'm down 24 pounds since moving last August.  Even though I was making tasty treats throughout the fall, the weight was staying off.  I'm not having any treats at the moment though and my starch consumption is way down (no potatoes, which means no fries!).  I do walk more, so I think I'll bust out my pedometer and track it.  I know one or two days a week, I walk to the train and then walk from the train to work (about 2 miles).

Weight loss wasn't really the goal of doing AIP, but I'm almost down to my goal weight.