how are we supposed to eat? trying Paleo without the side order of smugness...

Good morning blog friends! I am back from my short birthday trip to LA to see my family, and even though my husband and dog and I had a fantastic trip, it is always good to be home. Jared and I talk a lot about food, and how we eat, and what we should eat... food has been on the forefront of our minds since we realized that gluten has been wreaking havoc on me for years. We ate some great food this past week (lots of birthday celebrating with food), but we are both feeling a bit sluggish after all the indulging (think lots of fantastic cheese). We have been talking about eliminating some foods from our diet for a while now, but we decided to wait until after our trip to make travel a little easier on us. So today begins our first day of Paleo eating. The Paleo "diet" (I HATE THE WORD DIET) is very popular right now, with people who follow it claiming weight loss, clear skin and increased energy. Now, I have a very strong opinion about "DIETS". I basically think diets are crap. I think you should eat foods that don't have ingredient labels (think: kale. salmon. kidney beans. sesame seeds. peaches.) I think you should cook at home as much as possible. I think you should do your best to eat the best available foods, but I also strongly believe you have to live your life and not punish yourself when you indulge in things that are not as good for you. The stress of following a strict diet will do more damage to your body then the occasional brownie or burger! That is why I have never really followed a "diet" (except now being g-free).  Now that I know so much more about digestion and our bodies ability to heal, I am a firm believer that most of us probably have some foods that are just not good for us individually.  And I don't mean not good in a "oooh onion rings" way, I mean in a "I have an intolerance to _____ and it makes me feel like crap but I keep eating it because it is too yummy to cut out so I'll just deal with the consequences" way. You may only be noticing gas and mental fog after eating dairy, and think "no big deal", but it IS a big deal. Depending on how severe your intolerance/allergy/discomfort is, your poor little intestinal lining could be under attack and you might not notice until things get really bad (I am a prime example of this- I had years of varying symptoms, but it took it getting really sick before we figured it out- no more gluten, EVER.) My husbands D.O, my Acupuncturist, and my M.D  have encouraged us in the past to do an elimination diet, and it has helped both of us so much to learn what we can tolerate and what we can't (my hubs has some issues with dairy- he is not lactose intolerant, but he has some side effects after he eats it). I don't have any diagnosed issues with dairy, but when I eat it I break out, and my sinuses get yucky and clogged- so clearly something is not happy when I put dairy into my body...

Now, back to the Paleo thing. I can't tell you how much I hate the smug label "Paleo". Ugh. I am educated in biology, and I smirk every time I hear someone talk about how they eat Paleo, and how it is how our bodies are supposed eat, and how it is how our ancestors ate and so that's how we should eat. I want to yell "did you miss the section on Evolution in science class??!!" We haven't been cavemen for quite some time. Grains and legumes are traditional parts of most diets across the world, and have evolved with us (and by us) as ancient hunter gatherer cultures became agricultural cultures. (Also, if you were truly paleo, you would be eating already starting to decompose meat that you found more then you were actually hunting and killing that free range buffalo. And cavemen didn't sit around churning grass fed butter. Just saying.) Many traditional cultures that still eat their traditional foods (including grains and beans) are some of the healthiest populations in the world. That said, we in the western world are seriously screwing up our systems with our crappy diet. Clearly, our current system of food is making us sick. And in order to heal ourselves, we have to stop eating that way. I have been doing a lot of reading on healing the gut, which is a must after being diagnosed intolerant/allergic to a food- some damage, mild to severe, has been done to your intestines if you have an intolerance or allergy. Damage may even be happening if you have no diagnosed issues, but you are still feeling bad and can't figure out why. This is when you should consider removing inflammatory foods from your diet- whatever you think might be making you feel crappy, remove it for a few weeks to a few months, and see how you feel. Jared and I are "going Paleo" for a few months because I know now that (besides being Celiac), we both have some issues with grains and legumes and dairy, but we both actually function better eating meat and good fats. So Paleo it is for a few months. Jared told me last night "I am worried because I think I am going to feel better." I told him to look at it differently- be happy because you might be feeling so much better!

So we will see how this adventure into the "Paleo lifestyle" goes. I am predicting increased energy and happier bowels. I am excited to try out some new recipes, and will share the ones that turn out particularly yummy with you guys. Let me know if you have done an elimination diet, or you eat Paleo, or if you have cut out anything and feel better- I love hearing peoples stories about taking back their health. Cheers!

Neti pot love...

Today I am going to talk about the wonderful world of the Neti pot. This will be familiar to some, and to others using a Neti pot is going to sound pretty crazy. A few years ago, when I was in the midst of being sick and worn down, I had an allergy season that kicked my butt. It was rough, particularly because I had never had allergies before in my life. Now I know that my immune system was seriously compromised, so of course I would react to environmental allergens, but at the time I was so irritated by the constant sneezing and drippy nose that I would have done anything for some relief (enter Benadryl and Sudafed- neither of which actually helped anything at all). Then I heard about the Neti pot. Nasal irrigation is a great way to alleviate sinus/nasal congestion, keep your mucous membranes happy and not dried out, and to remove anything from your nose that may irritate your sinuses and throat. I was also dealing with serious sinus headaches, so when someone told me about using the Neti pot to alleviate headaches and allergies, I went right out and bought one without even knowing how it was used. If you haven't seen a Youtube tutorial on Neti pot usage, you should watch one, they are hilarious. There is no possible way to not look disgusting and totally weird while using a Neti pot. Essentially, you use the little pot pictured above to pour water through one nostril and out the other, with you head tilted forward and to the side you are pouring the water out of (so the water doesn't just go down the back of your throat). This takes a few tries to get it process down, but trust me, it is worth it. The first time I used one, I was so congested the water didn't move AT ALL through one side of my nostrils. Totally blocked. But I didn't give up, and finally that nice warm saline water was able to move through and move out the gross mucous and pollen that had been sitting in there, stuck up on my nasal membranes, and it brought so much relief I nearly cried. Now my husband and I regularly use the neti pot, especially after cleaning the chicken coop, being in the garden, being around a sick person, after surfing, or anytime my head hurts or my nose feels dry. That way I am always making sure my nasal membranes are functioning happily (moist clean membranes=happy membranes) and that I am washing away any pollen, dirt or bacteria that may have gotten up there in a quest to aggravate me.

I have a few recommendations that are very important with the Neti pot about the water you use- there has been one incident in the news in the last few years saying that a person contracted a brain parasite via Neti pot usage, from the water that they used in their Neti pot. Who knows if that is actually how the person got the parasite, but it is always good to be safe, so: use distilled or filtered and then boiled water, that is then cooled down to a little above room temperature (play around with the temp you like- mine has to be just right, not to cold, not too hot). It is imperative that you use clean, filtered/distilled and then boiled water, to make sure there are no little buggies that are going to crawl into your brain (I Neti almost daily and always used filtered boiled water, and so far, no brain parasites). I don't used distilled water since my only way of getting it would be in plastic bottles, and I don't use any plastics (another post for another day), but my Berkey filtered water (Best water filter ever- another post to come as well) that I then boil and cool and use is nice and clean. Tap water is not a good idea, since the chlorine put into it will dry out your membranes and make using the Neti pot pretty useless. I also buy sea salt (I actually have the exact Neti pot and salt pictured), but Kosher salt works as well- just don't use table salt (ever, but there is yet another post!)

So go watch a Youtube video on using a Neti pot, get in a good chuckle, and then go out to your nearest health food store and pick one up and give it a try- I promise you, it will be worth it. Cheers to no allergies!

Homemade Almond Milk

Hello everyone! a note before we jump into today's post- I have been having major computer issues, which is why I haven't posted in a week- I am hoping to get them fixed next week, so until then I will be trying to post whenever my computer is having a good day... but I will be posting more frequently after I get the old machine tuned up. Onto more interesting things...

Did you know most "convenience" foods that we buy in the store to save us time can actually be quick and easy to make from scratch? My husband and I made the switch from dairy (organic whole milk) to organic almond milk a few months back, after noticing that we both get congested and break out when we eat too much dairy. For those of you that know me, you know how much I love my cheese, but I have cut back on it drastically and have noticed such a difference! And now when I do eat dairy, I have a sinus headache for days afterwards... so fast forward to almond milk. We decided not to go the soy milk route, since soy is almost always GMO, and is very inflammatory to the body (if it is fermented, then it is not inflammatory but actually very good for you- yay miso!). So we settled on almond milk, and I bought a few of cartons of organic almond milk and I was excited to make the switch. Now, normally I am a label reading fiend in the grocery store, but perhaps that day I was off my game, and when I came home I realized that not only do the cartons have BPA in them (duh) but my almond milk listed carrageenan as an ingredient (mainly used as a stabilizer and a preservative, sourced from algae), which is a very controversial ingredient that has been linked to severe digestive complaints and disorders as well as cancer. As you know, I have an auto immune disease, and many doctors believe that the cause of all auto immune diseases is leaky gut (abrasions and holes in the gut lining that allow food particles to pass from the gut to the blood stream and are then attacked by the immune system as invaders that then leads to an auto immune response any time that substance is ingested, basically). and I try to avoid anything that is a known gut irritant while I am trying to heal my gut (which I am trying to do as I write this). Therefore packaged almond milk was not an option, so I poked around the internet and found out that almond milk is crazy easy to make on your own! so without further ado, here is the recipe:

You will need:
a blender
a mesh "nut bag" or cheesecloth
almonds

Simply soak a quantity of almonds over night in a large pot that is filled with enough water to cover all the nuts. The amount of almonds you need will vary on your usage of the almond milk, but remember since it's fresh it's best to make a smaller amount every few days since it will go bad after a week or so in the fridge. After the almonds have soaked (about 8 hrs), put them into a blender and add water (you also have to play with this ratio of almonds to water, depending on how thick you like your milk to be- more water, thinner milk) and blend away. When it is all blended up and nice and smooth, place a pot or a pourable container on your counter and pour the almond slurry into your nut bag or cheese cloth over the pot/container, and squeeze the liquid almond milk (milk the bag!) out of the nut bag into the container. You will have a lot of left over almond meal when you have milked all of your milk out, which I use for cooking (pies and tarts are super yummy with almond meal crusts) or we give it to our chickens who love it, and you will have a fresh batch of almond milk with only two ingredients: almonds and water! No preservatives or BPA to worry about, and it only takes 5 minutes to do the "milking". Voila!

I hope you try making this at home, and remember, you can use any nut you want- cashew, hazelnut... I am sure if you wanted to get fancy you could get hemp seeds or flax seeds and do the same thing to them. Let me know what you think!

Natural Jewelry Cleaner

Ahhhhh, baking soda. Oh how I love thee. When you make the switch to a "nasty chemical" free home, baking soda is one of those extremely versatile substances that you will have to buy in bulk. I recently went into my jewelry box and realized that a lot of my stuff was tarnished. Mostly my pretty delicate silver necklaces that I love to layer, that don't look so fantastic on when they are dark and tarnished. Now, this is a normal thing, and it is actually quite easy to clean without toxic chemicals. As some of you may know, jewelry cleaners and silver polishes are HIGHLY toxic, and can cause rashes (of which I have seen some really nasty ones that took months to heal from jewelry cleaner) and are terrible for you to breathe in. I promptly sat down at the trusty computer (what would we do without google?!) and found an easy technique for cleaning silver and gold jewelry with... you guessed it... baking soda. This "recipe" is courtesy of the awesome website, Organic Authority,  which I urge you to check out- it is a great place for health information, recipes and other insightful articles. So without further ado, here is the recipe:

You will need:

Aluminum foil
Baking Soda
Hot water
a shallow dish/bowl (I used a pyrex lasagna dish)

Simply lay foil along the bottom of the dish, covering it as best you can. Place your jewelry onto the foil, and try to make as much of the jewelry touch the foil as possible. Boil a pot of water. While it boils, spread baking soda all over your jewelry, as much as you need to make sure it is covered well. When the water is boiling, pour it into your dish and over your jewelry, and wait for the magic to happen! This takes anywhere from a few minutes up to 30 minutes.

When I did this the other day, the concoction fizzed like crazy and I could see (and, oddly, smell) the tarnish lifting off the jewelry. I let it sit for about 15 minutes, and then inspected the pieces, and a few of them were bright and clean and didn't need more time, and some of them still had some tarnish on them, so I actually did a whole second round with fresh baking soda and boiling water, and then they came out nice and clean.

I encourage you to try this if you want your tarnished jewelry to look like new, and are trying to avoid nasty chemicals. It really does work, and I was so pleased that it was so easy to do. Please let me know if you try it and what you think!

Oil cleansing

So today, I thought I would talk about some skincare stuff. As my friends know, I am pretty obsessed with my skin. I have had struggles with it in the past, mainly when I was super sick and on gluten, and then when I went off the pill (hello cystic acne on my chin for the very first time!). Once I changed my diet*, learned some tools to deal with my stress, and started getting my hormones back in balance, my skin has gotten much better. When I did the major "chucking everything with any kind of crazy horrible chemical in it", I got rid of 99% of my body products, which is a lot (my husband will tell you- I am a body product junkie!). And then I went, "well shit, what do I use now?". So I started researching. I had used oils on and off when I was living a gluten heavy life, and they had worked for me, so that was the direction I went. There are some great clean-ish bath product companies, but I am very very staunch about putting no weird chemicals on my bod, so even those were out. I like to frequent healthy living blogs, and was realizing that I was going to have to start becoming a body product chemist (which is cool 'cause I love chemistry) in order to make stuff for my skin that was chemical free and worked for me (I do use some things from the Annmarie Gianni and Pratima lines, which are both amazing and satisfy my need for fancy face stuff). And that is when I stumbled upon the "oil cleansing method". What is the oil cleansing method, you ask? Well, it is exactly what is sounds like- you wash your face with oil...

Ok, I know to some of you that is going to sound crazy- those of us that have grown up any time in the last 40 years or so have been sold a bill of goods, being told that in order to get rid of acne we have to dry the hell out of our faces with intense astringents and chemicals. Now we know this is bull. If you use the right oil for your skin and the time of year, it actually cuts down on the skins production of its own oils (think about it- if you dry out your face really badly, your skin wants to make more oil to help with the dryness. Hence, more acne). Oil cleansing is super easy, and my skin LOVES IT. Overnight I felt a difference, and I have been doing it for 6 months and haven't looked back. I don't think I could buy face cleanser ever again. The oil is also the best makeup remover I have ever used, so if you wear makeup this is a plus (I am addicted to mascara). So, without further ado, here is how to Oil Cleanse:

(all oils should be Organic and cold pressed- you don't want to put chemicals and pesticides on to your beautiful face!- I love Mountain Rose Herbs oils)

Castor Oil
Other oil of your choice:
         -For dry skin: Olive oil, Macadamia nut oil, Avocado oil (think nice of yummy fats)
         -For oily/combo skin:  Grapeseed oil, Jojoba oil, Sunflower oil, Rosehip oil
          (Rosehip oil is great if you have sun spots, it helps to lighten them)
         -Oils that are good to add if you have dermatitis: Evening Primrose oil, Borage oil
Depending on your skin, mix the Castor oil and other oil as such:
         -Dry skin: 1/3 castor oil to 2/3 other oil
         -Combo skin: 1/2 castor oil to 1/2 other oil
         -Oily skin: 2/3 castor oil to 1/3 other oil.

Mix the oils in a glass container with a pump, and every night pump a little bit onto your fingers and rub it all in your skin. Don't take your makeup off first, since the oil will get it all off. When you feel like it is all nice and rubbed in, take a hot wet washcloth and put it over your face and let the steam work its magic. I usually "re-hot water" my washcloth a few times, to really open up my pores. As you do this, the Castor oil works to pull dirt and bacteria out of your pores. Then when you are done, simply wipe off the oils and you are fresh and clean and your face won't have that weird tight feeling like when you strip it of all it's happiness with soap. Viola! You look gorgeous! and your skin will thank you.

Let me know if you try it and what you think, and if you have any questions! 

*If I over indulge in dairy, which I did other night with homemade clam chowder (do you know how much dairy is in clam chowder??!!), I have a breakout the next day. I can also feel increased congestion in my body, so it makes sense that it would increase my skin congestion. But mostly my skin likes my diet of lots of veggies, good protein and no gluten, as long as I go easy on the parmesan.

**a note on coconut oil- I have used coconut oil before, and in the summer sometimes still use it because it does have a small amount of spf occurring in it naturally, but I find that for many people it makes them break out due to the medium chain fatty acids (which make it so yummy!) so use caution on your face with it at first if you choose to try it.

Bone Broth

I thought I should follow up that doozy of a first post with a simple one. One of the easiest, yummiest, and healthiest things I have done to improve my health and heal my gut was to start making and cooking with/drinking homemade bone broth. The stuff in the store is crap, do not buy it! Cans and cartons have BPA in them, and most store bought broths have chemicals in them that you don't want to ingest. And making broth is so freakin' easy!!! If you have a crock pot it is the easiest, but doing it on the stove is doable too, you just have to be home to do it. The calcium and minerals in bone broth are readily available to your body (great for healing deficiencies) and the gelatin from the cartilage in the bones helps heal the mucosal lining in your gut (if you have an auto immune disease or a food allergy, this is imperative). I prefer organic grass fed beef marrow bones from one of our fab butchers in SC, but you should be able to get marrow bones from the butcher at most grocery stores. You can also make broth with a chicken carcass, but you won't get as much gelatin from their smaller bones. Here is how I do it:

3-4 marrow bones (organic grass fed beef)
1 knuckle bone- if I can get it (organic grass fed beef)
2 tablespoons vinegar per quart filtered water (I use Bragg's ACV)- the vinegar helps pull the minerals out of the bones.

I plop the bones in the crock pot, fill the pot with water, add the appropriate amount of vinegar, and turn it on low for 48 hours. Beef bones take longer, and it is recommended to cook them like this for at least 48 hours. Chicken bones can be cooked for less time. I usually leave my broth on for 3-4 days, stewing away, because I like my broth really nice and rich. I usually have a batch going on the counter in the kitchen, since we cook with it and sometimes just drink mugs of it, and I like to have a least one gallon mason jar full of it in the fridge to use when I want it.

If you try it, let me know what you think! Cheers.

In the beginning...

  

Well, here we are. This blog has been bouncing around in my brain for about 6 months, living way in the back dusty cobweby area, filed under "things I want to do but haven't and just need to get off my butt and do them 'cause what the hell is stopping you??!!" (It's a big file back there... I'm working on it). I am really still not sure what the flow of things will be around here- mostly recipes for nourishing foods and homemade body care, healthy tidbits and personal stories here and there- but I am going to let it evolve into what it wants to be on its own (no pressure!)

Maybe the best thing to do is to tell you who I am, and why I am here, sitting in front of my computer on a sunny July day, starting this blog. My name is Stepheni. I am 31 years old, soon to be 32. I am married, and I have two furry babies, a dog named Ptilota (I'll get to explaining her weird name) and a cat, Miss Cosmo. My husbands name is Jared, he may appear on the blog from time to time (he has been encouraging me to write for a long time now, so look honey! I'm doing it!) I have an education  in Marine Biology (sidebar- my dogs name is Ptilota, which is a marine red alga -a seaweed- I LOVE SEAWEED. We call her Pty, and to make it more complicated the P is silent, 'cause she is cool like that). I live in Santa Cruz, California, and I grew up in Manhattan Beach, California. I love all things nature, love dogs, love all animals really (except I am really freaked out by spiders- I know, being a biologist, that they are super important for many reasons, but they scare the crap out of me none the less). I really like cooking, which is becoming more of a love lately, I love gardening, I love really strong black tea, I love kale,  and I love red wine (only a little though, 'cause man do I get wicked hangovers!)

About 3-4 years ago, I started to get sick. It started gradually, a bloody nose here or there, increasingly bad headaches, tummy troubles, occasional random chronic full body hives that lasted for weeks. Horrible, but honestly nothing that I really paid much attention to or thought might be caused all by the same thing (I was in grad school at the time, I was busy... and not in tune with my body at all). Then, in the spring of 2011, I broke my knee. How does one break their knee, you ask? Well, in my case, I was training to run a 10k and apparently was so vitamin deficient (my vitamin D level was at 17- healthy is between 80-100) that the repetitive motion of running caused stress fractures and a tibial bone bleed. How does a late 20's "healthy" woman have such severe vitamin deficiencies?! At the time, my doctors couldn't figure it out, and told me to just eat more dairy (now I know better). The other crap continued, and got progressively worse. I got to a point, in fall/winter of 2011/2012, where I had a headache EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.  A pounding headache. Nasal bleeding. Polyps in my sinus cavities that the ear nose and throat "specialist" told me to take Sudafed for the rest of my life to deal with. I actually named my sinus polyp (Sally) and would tell my husband that Sally was acting up on a bad headache day. That, combined with some really lovely digestive trials and tribulations that I won't gross you out with, was not awesome. On top of it all, I was just starting to process a family trauma that had happened to me when I was 17 and had internalized and never dealt with. I was a mess. And it all came to a head. And that's when I freaked out, and decided to overhaul my life.

We moved, out of the fog, into the sun. I stopped speaking to some family members who were treating me like I didn't deserve to deal with my sh*t and wanted me to just shut up about it. I started going to acupuncture weekly. I stopped working. I started sleeping more.  I spent hours online and reading books, learning about food allergies and trying to figure out what the hell was going on with my body. I started going to therapy weekly. I started going to the chiropractor. I eliminated gluten and dairy from my diet entirely, as that I had a suspected that gluten was the cause for many of my ailments. I went off my birth control pill (all those artificial hormones- no good). I got rid of as much of the plastic in the house as was humanly possible. I removed anything with an ingredient in it that I couldn't pronounce from my kitchen and my bathroom. I was a CRAZY WOMAN. Luckily, my husband is very open minded and supportive, so he went along with all of the craziness (and maybe even added some of his own- more on this another time). And I started to get better. Slowly but surely, the pain lifted. 

I ate bread (a few slices of gorgeous bread with olive oil) one evening in the summer of 2012, after a few months of avoiding obvious gluten sources (but not the tricky weirdly labeled sources that are hidden in lots of foods). I looked like I had two black eyes the next morning. My head was pounding. I had hives starting to break out. I had horrible digestive upset. My doctor and my acupuncturist were both like "That's it! you're allergic. No more gluten." I didn't have formal testing done for Celiac disease, since my doctor felt that the required 3 months of ingesting gluten daily before the testing process would be too damaging, and it was clear that I was having an autoimmune reaction. So there went all forms of gluten, and along with it most processed foods. Most of my favorite places to eat out were no longer safe, and at parties and social events I became the girl who couldn't eat (thank god I live in Santa Cruz, where living g-free isn't weird at all). And I got better. A lot better. I haven't had a gluten exposure in 10 months. And almost all of my symptoms are gone. Hallelujah! 

The one last thing that was sitting, waiting to be looked at a little closer, was that, since I chucked my birth control pills in April of 2012, I have been hoping to get pregnant. Now, I knew my body needed to do a lot of healing, and that it still may. I still had that little hope that once I got the poisonous gluten out of my system, and started processing my family trauma/grief, that I would just get pregnant, like *poof*! Here we are, 15 months later, and I am not pregnant. They say it can take Celiacs years. So we are working on that too. Always a work in progress. 

Sooooo.... long story, NOT so short, this blog is my foray into putting information into the world, about my health and experiences and recipes and lifestyle tips in the hopes that it may encourage other people to take charge of their health. Who knows, maybe some of this will resonate with someone the way that some blogs resonated with me when I first started learning about food and the body and how toxic we make ourselves, and most importantly, how to heal.  And if not, maybe someone will like a recipe or a tidbit and take it with them in their life. Either way, it's mostly about me putting something out there. Hopefully you enjoy it. Mazel Tov!