Change in Diet, Change in Life

Change in Diet, Change in Life
A Guest Post by Gail Kellogg Hope of Oakhill Clothiers.


Heather & I briefly talked about "change-in-diet, change-in-life" and it got me thinking about this very long road of listening to my own body, overcoming social pressures and BEING picky about what I put into it, how I treat it & how I feel both emotionally and physically. We only get one body for this life, and while spare parts are sometimes available, they are a poor substitute for the originals!

Food allergies have been a life-long battle for me, and we'll likely have to do the same monitoring & assessing for our son. I hope he doesn't have my food issues, hopefully he'll have John's constitution, and we'll just have to be aware of the typical childhood food sensitivities that he may (hopefully) outgrow.

As adults, figuring out our own food allergies/sensitivities/intolerances is a little more difficult than for children. We've been eating these things so long it's habit. We don't even think about it.

The Food Diary

So, in order to think about it, the first thing to do is keep a food diary. This is rather difficult for many people because it seems too much like dieting. It makes you hyper-conscious about what you are eating & drinking. You forget to write things down.

Weigh daily - it's just a number. If you treat a food diary like a number, just a record & don't analyze it to begin with, it's easier. It's not there for criticism, it's just there. You do this for yourself because you love yourself, you enjoyed what you ate & drank and now you celebrate it by writing it down. See? Much easier!

Next is to write down how you feel. Physically & emotionally. No judgement. Just facts.
What physical activity did you do? How did you spend your day?
"Dear Diary, Today I played on FB, weeded the garden, worked on X, went out to eat with Dear Husband I had XY&Z and came home cranky/happy/tired/energized."
If you go to the dr. in that time, what was your BP, blood-work, etc?
Just write it down.

Analyzing the Diary

Now, after several months of this, you can go back & read through what you've done. VERY IMPORTANT!!!
Are there any patterns to moods or energy levels relating to foods or activity?
Were you consistently cranky after eating pasta/beans/other?
When did you have to take anti-acids?
Did you have unexplained jumps or drops in weight? Are they food related or attached to your body cycles? (men have cycles too, FYI).

Making it Work

After this brief analysis, it's time to remove/reduce certain foods or ingredients from your diet for 3 weeks - 2 months. Keep recording. Reanalyze.
Have things improved? If yes, put those foods on your "do not eat" list. If no, slowly reintroduce them & see if there's a change or not. If no change, go ahead & eat them... if there is a change for the worse, reduce or eliminate. If a change for the better, go ahead!

What are things are your family members allergic to? Target those first.

It's important to only do a few foods at a time. Once you've isolated certain problem ingredients, look to their close kin. I'm allergic to latex & tropical fruits - all related! Yet I can still eat bananas... go figure.

Read labels! You'll be amazed how many ingredients go into commercial foods. If there's something in it you can't eat, just move on to the next brand & read that label. Write down the brand names of foods you CAN eat, but never stop reading the labels. A change in packaging usually means a change in ingredients. If you don't know what an ingredient is, google it. Be proactive about what you put in your body. Just because something has packaging that claims it's "health food" doesn't mean its healthy for YOU (or healthy at all for that matter).

Other Methods

Other things you can do is go see an allergist & have a food test done. They screen for the most common food allergies & those tests are pretty good. Not fun, but they work. They won't help you change your eating habits, but they will show you any major red flags... of course, sensitivities & intolerances are NOT included in those tests, only allergies. But it should give you a place to start.
As a side-note, sensitivities & intolerances can be just as harmful as allergies. All 3 are reactions to substances. You aren't allergic to arsenic, but you sure are intolerant of it.

There are a multitude of medical tests you can have done, but again, they won't change habits. Only give you the information - it's up to you what you do with that.

Notes

Just because a food doesn't cause intestinal discomfort doesn't mean you should eat it. Foods are a Whole Body experience. It's your fuel. If you are putting crap in, you'll get crap out. Many foods won't hurt your body, they'll hurt your moods. Lactose intolerance is often associated with anxiety disorders... and that's just one of many examples; too many to get into here.

I can't eat commercial apples. Not because I'm allergic to apples, but because I'm horribly allergic to a chemical used on them. Which one that is is beyond me, and there's no real way to isolate it... so I buy organic. No problems.
It's complex, and it's hard work and it's habit.

And she adds:

I still struggle with weight, but once I found my weight trigger foods (barley mostly) I've been able to maintain or lose (with a lot of exercise).
I should mention that this is just how I've managed my food issues. This won't work for everyone, and it's certainly not the only way.
Food issues can be just as much psychological as physiological & every person is going to have a different combination of those factors. Do what works for you. But it's all going to take work. (I don't even care what your goals are - healthy is a good goal, but how you define that is up to you).


Thank you, Gail. That's really good advice, and it's how I know things like going without protein breakfast makes me flakey, and just never to drink ruby red grapefruit juice no matter how much I love it. Among other things. Listen to your body, and it will talk to you.

The Search for the Ideal Ice Cream Maker

I like to eat healthy food and I like to eat ice cream. This is only a problem if you don't make your own. However, I have been looking for the ice cream maker of my dreams for a few years now.

You may remember my early blog post about making ice cream in plastic bags. If not, you can read it here. This works. You can make single servings of ice cream, and it's fun... Of course, it is true that sometimes a plastic bag breaks... It still is the way to go for camping, or for a fun thing to do at parties where everyone can make their own and choose their own flavor...

But I did want an ice cream maker.

I tried a bowl-in-the-freezer kind, but it made too much for one person to eat, and homemade ice cream doesn't really keep as well as if it had all the nasty conditioners and stuff in it. It's best eaten fresh.

I found a smaller bowl-in-the-freezer one, with a hand crank. That was good. But still too big for one.

I gave those away and then got the kind you put ice and salt around the ice cream tub. It's not the traditional round tub - this one's more trash can shaped. Smaller. Fits nicely in the motorhome. But I made a half-tub of ice cream and fed 2 people and still put away a quart in the freezer. I'll keep it, but it's not for regular personal use.

This week, I solved the problem.

I was in Target for something else and happened to notice an ice cream machine in a box that was way too small for any ice cream machine I've ever seen.




Hamilton Beach Half Pint. It comes with 2 pretty blue freezer bowls and a motor with paddle.



These bowls are small enough for even my RV freezer and hold about a cup of ice cream to be. Pop the motor on top, plug it in, turn it on, wait 10-15 minutes, and it's ready to eat as soft serve or you can ripen it which makes it harder. That's about as convenient as it gets. You can eat it in the bowl.



You can make a cup, or a half-cup, as you wish.

Stevia-sweetened ice cream, fruit-sweetened ice cream, sherbet...

Today is Non-GMO Day

Today is Non-GMO day. Please spread awareness about frankenfoods vs Real Food. Rather than write anything myself, I will suggest you go to Non-GMO Project and read and download their guide and....

I am impressed.

This has nothing to do with eating healthy. But when something works really really well, I want to tell about it. I have a copper coffee pot in my 18th century camp, which has seen many fires and had years of soot baked on.

After trying lots of things, none of which made even a dent in the black crud, I found SOKOFF. This stuff really works.



Read the full post in my other blog,

My other favorite kitchen item

I've told you about my Soda-Stream. My other cool thing in my tiny RV kitchen is my Bullet-To-Go. This is what I mix my breakfast shake in, or scramble eggs, or... so you know I use it daily. (and no, this is not an affiliate link.)
You've seen the Magic Bullet on TV, certainly - and you can get them in retail stores - but the existence of the Bullet-To-Go is not so widely known.
The truth is I'm not overly fond of their website. It's kind of As Seen On TV hype-ish, and I prefer to just be given straight-forward information and ordering... but the product itself makes up for it. The blender parts and cups and lids are the same as the regular plug-in version, but it comes with a battery base and charger. It holds its charge quite a long while and is easy to use. And it's LOTS more versatile than the smoothie blender I used to use.

Soda Stream

A reader asked which model Soda Stream I have. Although I answered in the comments, I thought I'd also answer up here so it won't be missed. I have the Fountain Jet.
And yes, well over a year after I first bought it, I'm still loving my Soda Stream. And it's contagious. Quite a few people have seen mine and are now loving theirs.

Yogurt

I remember when Yogurt was first getting attention as a healthy food - when it first turned up in supermarkets... Now it has a whole section of its own. But most of the yogurt on the shelves is sweetened with sugar or NutraSweet... Whatever happened to healthy yogurt?

Personally, as I am quite capable of adding my own fruit, I have always bought the large tubs of plain yogurt. Store brand... Dannon... oooh, Stonyfield organic....

And then I picked up a tub of Greek Gods yogurt.
And now I make regular trips to the Kroger that carries it, buying 3 or 4 tubs at a time so I don't run out and have to buy some other brand.

Just sayin'.

Truth in Advertising -

Alternative HFCS ad from the folks over at Pay Now Live Later

On my way from Santee to Jackson Springs I stopped at a farmer's market and bought a GALLON of seedless blackberries. Ripe, juicy, huge, delicious blackberries. A gallon is pretty many for one person to eat before they get old, but I think I'll manage. *wink*
I decided to try a blackberry soda. Delicious. I put some blackberries in my Magic Bullet with a little water, which pretty much liquified them. Added soda from my SodaStream, and there it was. Try finding Blackberry Soda in the grocery store. With real blackberries? NOT.
I drink mine as is. Some people might like to use a straw or strain it as there is a little pulp.

Pitting Cherries made Easy

Cherries are in season. Cherries are delicious. So - I'm eating cherries.
Problem: cherries have pits. One or two of them always seemed to make it down my throat before I could catch them, so I went looking for a cherry stoner on the internet (a local market search having been fruitless, so to speak). I found lots of expensive items suitable for someone with a whole orchard of cherries, but nothing for a single woman who lives in a motorhome with a tiny little kitchen. So I made one, and it works very very well.

I took the smallest wire wisk they make and bent back 2 of the 3 loops toward the handle. I squeezed the remaining loop so it was only about half an inch wide at the most. That's it. New kitchen gadget!

How to use it:
Pull stem off cherry.
Insert loop into cherry where the stem was.
Hook it under the stone and pull it out.

That simple. A little practice and it gets amazingly easy.

Then you take some unsweetened yogurt, add the cherries, and - YUM!

Blog Award

Annalisa of Indulging My A.D.D. just made my day by nominating me for a blog award!! Cool!

Before passing on this award, you must follow the RULES:

1. Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his/her blog link.
2. Pass the award to other blogs that you've newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Now, I have the pleasure of passing it on. After much thought, I am passing it on to Jared Akers at Spiritual Zen, who writes the only blog (other than by personal friends in real life) that I absolutely always, without fail, without skimming, read word for word every time he writes.

Loving my SodaStream!

OK, I've had my SodaStream for 6 months now. It is no longer a new toy. It is an essential part of my kitchen and worth every square inch of space it takes up in my motorhome. Believe me, if you live in a motorhome, an appliance MUST justify its space.

It's summer now so cold drinks are essential. A squirt of lemon juice, a few drops of STEVIA, a bunch of ice and carbonated soda water is delicious. A little orange juice and soda water beats any orange soda I've ever had. How about cherry vanilla? Use the 100% cherry juice from the health food section of the supermarket and a splash of vanilla extract.

I have given some of these as gifts and the recipients have loved theirs as much as I do mine.

If you are a regular reader, you know this is not a business site and do not do this blog for money. The affiliate link is to make it easy for you to find it. I will only ever put links up for something I 100% believe in.

Fish & Felons - Interesting

I found this quite interesting.

http://neopaleo.typepad.com/the_neopaleo_gourmet/2007/02/fish_oil_and_fe.html