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). 

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.