Body Ecology Diet's List of 29 Healthy Things to Do

I get e-newsletters from the Body Ecology Diet from time to time. The most recent one contained a list called "29 Most Important Things You Can Do to Improve Your Health in 2009". There are, as you would expect, several specific nutrition recommendations, like adding in fermented foods and eliminating sugar, but I like that the list also includes lifestyle choices and general wellness practices, like breathing for stress reduction. Each tip has a link to an article on the BED site so you can easily find the answer to how and why.

Fancy Dinner: CityZen

We had splurge Merry Christmas dinner the other night at CityZen at the Mandarin Hotel. Fortunately it wasn't until the following night that my son woke a few times before midnight. Thankfully, on our night out, all was quiet. We left at 7:30 and didn't return until 11:00 after a lovely dinner (with a neighbor babysitting for free as a swap! score!)

It's already been a week (things have been busy), but I hope I can still capture most of the intricacies of our meal. I hadn't called ahead to mention being gluten-free and dairy-free because the menu looked fairly forgiving on that front. The actual menu was a little more of a challenge, but once we mentioned the issue to our server, I felt very watched out for and taken care of.

The meal began with two amuse-bouches for each of us. My husband got a wild mushroom "pretzel" with a wild mushroom sauce. I was given three small pieces of roasted beet (two gold and one red) a tiny amount of greens. It was hard to hear the server describe the next mini-course, but it was something like jicama. He said it was Japanese potato, something I love to roast at home, but this one was marinated or pickled or something. It came with a date relish. I'm afraid the details are already blurring! LJ got a mini souffle (what he is calling custard) -- he thought it had some kind of rich cheese but was told it was just egg, cream and olive oil with paprika. We heard a woman at the next table equally incredulous being given the same explanation upon inquiring about what type of cheese was used.

The menu's seafood selections looked the safest for me, but I didn't want an appetizer and entree that were both fish. She explained that the "ravioli" in the pork belly appetizer was just some fruit inside a folded-over shaving of persimmon. So, despite concerns about nitrates, I went for the pig, and it was very yummy. This is why I ordered the Cabernet Sauvingon instead of a white wine, and, since it was on the chilly side in the restaurant, I was glad I'd gone with red. LJ got a Manhattan that came with a marinated sour cherry and was prepared "old school" with bitters. He later got a glass of Sangiovese Chianti.

LJ's appetizer was a parnsip souffle inside of a crepe with a clam sauce. He describes the experience as "cosmic." LJ was offered bread during the meal - country, foccacia or something else. He says they were good, and he had the choice of unsalted and salted butter.

His entree was duck breast that came with duck sausage and French lentils. I had a bite was rich and yummy. LJ called it "exquisite" if not perhaps a tad too salty. My entree was local Rockfish (not listed on my wallet mercury chart) - crispy skin filet - that came with citrus potato hash, baked cauliflour and a green sauce that was delightful, but I can't remember what vegetable it was supposed to come from. The fish itself was unremarkable, but all the flavors of everything on the plate were amazing.

To cleanse our palates, I was given some kind of a pear dish that was divine, and LJ had something else I'll have to check with him about when he gets out of the shower.

Desserts are usually a challenge for the bluten- and dairy-challenged. I am not usually a big citrus-eater, but the CityZen Tequila Sunrise was out of this world : poached blood orange suprêmes, orange confiture, sherbet (currently says lime on the menu but I think mine was rasberry) and a drizzling of tequila offered like pepper on a salad. I held back out of respect for my liver but wish I'd asked the server for a few more shakes. The ginger beignets went to my husband with a regretful "these have gluten." We had actually only said wheat was a concern, so it was nice to know they understood what we really meant.

LJ had a pumpkin bread pot au feu with flowering quince (whatever that means) and ice cream. It also came with some type of cookie/sweetbread.

We savored every bite of the meal and sip of our drinks and decafs. There were lots of morons smoking under the warming lights as we waited for the valet (which still cost $7 even with the restaurant stamp), but otherwise, the intake for the night was impeccable and worth the pricier-than normal nice meal we might normally pursue. With all the extra little touches, I would say it's worth the money of $75 for the fixed price. If you are flexible enough to be happy with any of the smaller number of choices (and don't have any dietary restrictions), I would guess the $50 for sitting at the bar would be the way to go, as long as it comes with all the fun extras.

Gramma's Kitchen: Better than Wendy's!

On the day before Thanksgiving, we had the pleasure of a lovely little breakfast at Gramma's Kitchen outside of Mansfield, Pennsylvania. This is the only photo I successfully snapped before my camera battery died, which is a shame, because I'd have loved to snap one of the cute grannies on duty or the vegetable omelet with fresh and perfectly cooked broccoli inside! The hash browns were yummy, crunchy strings of potato. Our server could not have been nicer and didn't blink an eye when I asked her to hold the mushrooms and cheese or when I said I wouldn't need the toast.

I usually order fried eggs so that I know I'm getting real eggs, but we could see where the breakfasts were being cooked and had no doubt that our eggs would come from cartons. I don't imagine they were organic, and if the meat wasn't local (I didn't try any), I doubt the eggs were. But it was nice to support a local joint, and they had a natural foods stores advertising on their paper placemats, which my son enjoyed drawing on with the crayons his mama had in the car.

The place is largely a bakery, those of us avoiding gluten will miss out on enjoying the sources of the wonderful smells inside. My husband said his muffin was very pumpkin-y!

This is the third Thanksgiving we've driven from the DC Metro area to visit family in upstate New York. The second year my son was seven months old. He'd had a short tummy bug, and we thought about not going at all. Once we decided to, it was a hurry to get out the door, and we didn't pack all the safe gluten-free, dairy-free food we usually do. We missed our best opportunities to stop at a grocery store and found ourselves pretty hunger on Rt. 15 in northern Pennsylvania. We stopped at a Wendy's and ate only about a third of our sodium-saturated meal before getting back in the car to nurse my son and drive as fast as we could out of the mountains and toward the closest Wegmans. (We'd missed the exit for one in Williamsport and unintentionally did the same thing this time).

We got the recommendation for Gramma's Kitchen from a gas station attendant and then looked it up on my husband's Blackberry. It was a little over a mile from the second (I think) Mansfield, PA exit off of Rt. 15 (going North). It's hard to know where you're going to want to get some food, but it seems worth the time to wait for a small town and some food that might be seriously made by people.

Gramma's Kitchen is located at 1080 S Main St., Mansfield, PA Tel: (570) 662-2350

Mama Bloggers Show Motrin What Pain Is

If you're not on Twitter, you might possibly still not know about this phenomenon (I didn't until yesterday).

Motrin released a snarky anti-babywearing ad in the hopes of garnering more pill-popping consumer support. What the company got was a big dose of mad mamas. Women started Twittering about the condescending ad in droves.

Here is a story about the flap in Ad Age Magazine that references Silicon Valley Moms Blog, the parent (?) mother group of the DC Metro Moms Blog I write for under Claire Jess.

There's another story (and the video) at Marketing Pilgrim. Check it out!

My take?
1) Disheartening that a company would come up with this ad.
2) Inspiring that so many mamas would rally to shoot it down.

Crossposted at Crunchy-Chewy Mama

Coconut Oil - new study shows it might help with pneumonia

The Washington Post recently published an article entitled "Coconut Oil May Help Fight Childhood Pneumonia."

The study was only done on folks taking antiobiotics (no group that wasn't on meds), but it did show that the folks who also consumed coconut oil daily had a quicker recovery and had lower levels of the "crackling" sound in the lungs. The kids on coconut oil also showed better levels of oxygen in their blood. One theory is that the antimicrobial properties of the lauric acid are what makes the difference.

We cook with Tropical Traditions oil because we can buy it buy the gallon for a good price, but my favorite for taste -- and yes, eating right off the spoon -- is the much pricier Jungle Products brand.

Check out "The Latest Studies on Coconut Oil" at the Weston A. Price Foundation.

Acupunture and Cupping for Tight Muscles

My neck and shoulders used to hurt all the time. Long before I was diagnosed with Graves' disease (autoimmune hyperthyroidism) or celiac disease, my health problems manifested in a more physical way. I've had some issues on and off since my son was born, especially when I was wearing him in a sling all day, but nothing was like my recent right-should spasm. I think we can blame this one in large part on one weekend of car trouble followed by another of plane travel (including wearing my 30-lb. toddler in the Ergo) and unfamiliar (and harder beds). Of course the lack of a regular home yoga practice followed by a few classes in a row in short succession might have something to do with it, too!

So I called the acupuncture center I used to go to. I love that they provide a back massage before doing the needles on the back side and then have you flip over so they can do some more massage (especially with the sinuses, but whatever part of the body needs it, too) before placing needles on the front. This is a two-hour ordeal but costs less than most 60-minute massages in my area.

I figured this time that they would want to use the suction cups because my shoulder was a rock. Cupping is supposed to help release tension and free up energy. It essentially feels like a bunch of extra people squeezing your muscles at once. The cups go to work while the therapist is massaging another area.

When I was seeing these folks back four years ago as part of my effort to heal my thyroid and regain my fertility, I was also getting treatments in an oxygen sauna. The sauna woman said I should not be bruising so much, and she claimed that one woman came in after getting cosmetic surgery for the express purpose of minimizing her bruising, and it did. As I got more regular acupuncture treatments and also got more oxygen sauna treatments, the bruising did indeed become much less severe and shorter-lived.

I saw these folks a few times a month when my son was a year old. My thyroid was threatening to go low, and I was exhausted from all the night nursing (and nursing around the clock!). When I made this most recent appointment, it had been many months since I'd been to the acupuncture clinic and maybe months since I'd had any bodywork of any kind (at least several weeks). With a lot of projects in the air and my toddler no longer napping, time has been a hot commodity! But I've felt pretty good physically, until the shoulder flared up. Or so I thought. My body has probably been storing up toxins from my late bedtimes and other unhealthy habits, so it was perhaps only a matter of time until something screamed at me to get me to pay attention.

The treatment felt good. The morning after the presidential election and its late-night results, it was easy to fall into a deep sleep once the needles were in. I asked both the assistant who did the bulk of the massage and the doctor who did some more before inserting the needles about the bruising and what it meant. They both said that someone in good health and with good energy will hardly bruise at all. People whose energy is weak or who are ill are the ones with the more purple, longer-lasting marks. The ones pictured here are much lighter than some rounds I've had, but they certainly followed me out of the office, and they're still there 36 hours later. The pain is not completely gone but is dramatically milder; I don't feel like that section of my body is ruling the rest of me as I did a few days ago.

The doctor put an herbal patch on my shoulder and told me to stretch more by pulling my arm across my body with the other arm. She could have also written a prescription for my son to resume sleeping through the night so that I don't join him on his hard futon!

Fitting in with carbs: gluten-free rolls

Kneading dough is part of our Waldorf school's curriculum, and it turns out you don't really knead gluten-free dough. The xanthan gum is what adds the elasticity. So rather than use gluten-free dough in the classroom, my son's teacher and I decided the class would use wheat as usual and we'd just bring in our own pre-made rolls.

That's fine, except that it means I need to bake! I love the taste of fresh yeasted rolls, but they are easy to get addicted to. After living two and a half years with essential no bread products, my son has quickly come to adroe these rolls! This carb-dependence is a bit of a compromise on my part (since I tend to agree with the ideas presented in Gut and Psychology Syndrome and the Body Ecology Diet that complex carbs do harm our guts), but I think the other aspects of the Waldorf curriculum are really great.

Right now we are using the recipe in the October/November 2008 Living Without magazine. I won't detail the recipe while it's still on newstands, but essentially I'm using millet, rice and potato starch flours in the rolls. The dough (pictured here before rising and after 4 minutes in high with a hand blender) is very fluffy and light after it rises -- does not roll well into balls. But they do taste pretty good. I am letting my son eat a little of the butter that is also made fresh at the school. I tried some and it sure is good. But at home, we'll try to stick to cultured butter and hopefully eventually make ghee out of unsalted butter.

I've been making one batch of twelve, but the rolls are so popular at home I think I need to make a larger batch or I'll be doing this every week!

Snacks to Go

My son has always been into things he could chew -- munching on celery at 10 months but pushing away purees. Now that he sees other toddlers eating chips and pretzels and cereal, he really wants more crunchy options than rice crackers. One new gluten-free option our local My Organic Market just started carrying is the new Mary's Gone Crackers Sticks & Twigs. I like that these have no corn in addition to not having any gluten or dairy ingredients and being organic. There is a small amount of soy from wheat-free tamari. We have enjoyed the sea salt and the curry flavors but haven't tried the chipotle. My husband can't tolerate quinoa, which is in these snacks, so they don't get eaten up by anyone but us!

We also like the breakfast crusts and mineral rich crusts from Mauk Family Farms. They claim that "All seeds have been germinated and then dehydrated at 105 degrees," which should make them more digestible. At least they are not extruded, a process Sally Fallon discusses in the "Dirty Secrets of the Food Processing Industry," an article taken from her 2002 talk, a version of which I heard her give at the Weston A. Price Foundation' s fall 2007 conference.

Real, whole foods - nuts, vegetables, fruit, meat -- are always better, but when something dry and more complex is demanded, these are some of the options I reach for.

New vaccine book and info

In the next few weeks, I intend to highlight some of what I got out of the Holistic Moms Network national conference in more detail. For now, though I want to at least mention what an inspiring and yet frightening talk I heard from the founder of the National Vaccine Information Center, Barbara Loe Fisher. If you haven't checked out the NVIC site lately, please do and consider supporting the important work this non-profit does to ensure that all parents have the ability and the right to make informed decisions about their children's health.



I bought and look forward to reading Fisher's new brand-new book, Vaccines, Autism and Chronic Inflammation: The New Epidemic. Other books on the topic are listed at http://www.nvic.org/ResourceCenter/VaccineBooks.htm

Let that fever go

After my son's first illness in a while, I'm so glad I'm still nursing and that we can still create a family bed.

Last night my son said he had a "stomachbake," and he clearly had some gas, but he fell asleep fairly easily around 7:30. Then, when he woke at 9:00 p.m. crying, I was worried he'd caught the tummy virus my friend's child had. He felt hot, and the temp read 100.2. This is the first fever he's run in a very long time. I've never medicated for anything, including for a fever, believing that it really is the body's way of healing itself (see NY Times article). I've given my son homeopathics and flower essences and will entertain herbs, but he's never had any over-the-counter medicine.

This was also the first time he's really been sick since he became verbal. It was a real throwback to deal with a child who was upset but unable to tell us what was wrong. If he smooshes his finger or scrapes his knee, he usually says either, "Aw, I just hurt myself," or "I'm okay, Mom." This time, it was just unhappy tears.

Thinking this was a tummy bug, I suggested, "Let's give you some drops." Since this is familiar to him, he sat and opened his mouth. I gave him Perelandra Microbial Balancing Program drops for the Digestive system and also for Immune and Lymphatic. Then I remembered he sounded a bit stuffy when I put him down for bed, so I threw Respiratory in there for good measure. I added celery and tomato and F-1 and F-2, which a practitioner had previously told me to use in case of a tummy bug or ingested mold or other icky stuff.

I tried to keep both a sympathetic tone so he knew I knew he understood he was not happy but also a lighthearted and reassuring approach, counting out one set of drops in English, one in French, another in Spanish. Although he's been sleeping through the night for over six months, and we generally don't nurse until after 5:00 a.m. at the earliest, I nursed him back to sleep.

Around midnight, he woke again and I had to use the bathroom. I can't remember if we nursed again before I got up or not, but when I left he followed me, and then he saw my husband and said he wanted Daddy. So LJ went to sleep in the boy's room for a while, and I went back to the much comfier bed down the hall.

It's been a few weeks since we moved E's double futon into his own room. The bed takes up half the floor, but we figured one thing at a time. I think we all sleep better without our son in his own room now that he's two and a half, and it has made afternoon quiet (read: nap-resistance time!) calmer. However, I'm very glad that we can still share sleep when it's clearly the thing our son needs. (Or any of us needs. One day I'd had to say goodnight to him early before going to a meeting, I woke at 4:30 and crawled into bed with him just to be close. I still love the snuggling, but I also know he's ready for his own space.)

I have had my frustrations with nursing a grabby toddler, but I haven't yet gotten the desire to wean the way I got the desire to move bedrooms. According to Mothering Magazine's article "Extend Breastfeeding's Benefits"by Kyla Steinkraus (September/October 2007 - Issue 144), breastfed toddlers do seem to be healthier physically, and emotionally. I figure that with a child with food sensitivities, the longer he can get nutrition from me, the better. And in a child with an intense and gregarious personality, the longer he can have quiet closeness with his mama, the better. Since he hadn't been sick in so long, I took for granted the health benefits.

Now that our nursings have gotten down to just morning, before nap and night (and sometimes skipping the pre-nap if we're out & about), I feel freer but after this illness, I also feel like my son is more vulnerable to illness with less breastmilk intake. I'm not ready to put him out into the world without that layer of protection.

He woke this morning temping in a 98.1 and was in fine spirits all day. So far he's been sleeping soundly since a few minutes after we gave him his drops again four hours ago. If he needs to nurse tonight, I'll turn the clock back a few months to make sure he gets well.

Celebrating changes, looking ahead

Around here, we are finally feeling ready for a big purge and reorganization. There is too much stuff, and we're ready to simplify. In some cases, the stuff we will toss (or recycle, or Freecycle, or sell) just doesn't reflect how we live anymore. I keep thinking that once I get rid of all the clutter associated with shortcuts we no longer take, I'll finally have the space and time to invest in more involved ways of living with respect to food, health and medicine, housekeeping. And work -- writing, editing, tutoring. I spent way too much energy trying to clear a space -- literally and figuratively.

I wanted to create a list of goals for the next year but thought I should first celebrate the changes I have made in this past year.

Things I've started doing since last summer:

-Made chicken stock from scratch regularly and used it to cook vegetables and rice. (I'd made stock before occasionally before but didn't know about getting it to gel, and I didn't use it for cooking everything like I do now)

-Gotten on a coop to get a good price on coconut oil, so I never run out

-Gotten in a coop to get pastured eggs, grassfed meat and real milk for my husband

-Learned a little bit about flower essences and started using them

-Learned a little bit about essential oils and started using them. Also set up an auto ship account with Young Living Oils so that I build up my collection through monthly shipments

-Started using Miessence skin products

-Researched skin product safety for sunscreen and replaced what I had (which I thought was safe) with less toxic kinds (and other skin products)

-Started drinking kombucha regularly and eating cultured veggies more often

-Started soaking nuts and drying them and sometimes sprouting them

-Started making waffles from gluten-free flours and nut flour or from coconut flour and then freezing them (instead of buying Van's)

-Did a cleanse that succeeded in helping me feel better and clearing up my psoriasis

-Recovered from a sprained ankle; trained for and ran a half-marathon

Things I've stopped or greatly cut back on doing that seemed detrimental to my health

-Eating tons of nut butter addictively

-Eating rice pasta, rice tortillas, rice crackers as often

-Eating goat milk cheese -- even the raw seemed to affect me negatively

-Using plastic containers to store food

Things I hope to do in the coming year, in addition to purging the house of what we don't need and creating workable spaces on all three levels -- office and basement storage and play area, kitchen, living room and play area, well-organized and clean (tiny bathroom), bedroom for my son, parent bedroom without two mattresses next to each other on the floor

-Establish a sense of rhythm and routine with respect to home life, exercise and wellness practices (like meditation and yoga), and work. This will include regular bedtimes (before 11:30 p.m.) and waking times (not sure yet)

-Focus on possibilities rather than shoulds and take action to get past emotional blockages when I feel thwarted in my attempts to follow through on the more mundane goals outlined below

-Eliminate paper towel use in our home

-Establish a cleaning schedule and make cleaners I feel good about

-Become knowledgeable about herbs for healing, some basic Ayurveda, and homeopathy and delve deeper into essences and essential oils

-Replace current herbs, salt and pepper with new, mineral-rich, fresh

-Make my own ketchup regularly

-Culture my own veggies regularly

-Try making water kefir and possibly other fermented drinks. Research fermented beverages in general

-Tend the compost consistentely

-Tend the garden and yard such that weeds don't get out of control and plants don't die. This includes figuring out a good hose and/or sprinkler system.

-Get rid of all plastic dishes and containers and replace with items I've researched and feel good about

-Make chicken stock weekly

-Make beef stock occasionally and roast grassfed meat regularly

-Soak rice when time allows

-Soak and sprout beans

-Make ghee

-Learn about GF baking

-Get refined sugar back out of diet, possibly including another carb-free, fruit-free (possibly legume-free) cleanse

-Learn about the best source for chocolate if I'm going to eat it

-Learn more about non-supplement forms of calcium and other vitamins and minerals and EFAs

-Possibly do a cleanse if my son weans before we decide we are ready to try to have another child. If I have this time, I would also use my infrared sauna and chi machine, which are of questionable safety while breastfeeding

I actually started this post over a month ago and found it helpful to return to it again before publishing. I look forward to having this info accessible whenever I need a reminder!

Gluten-Free Baking

I took another great cooking class last night with Monica Corrado of Simply Being Well: Cooking for Well Being. This one was on gluten-free muffins and quick breads, which were delicious!

We did a touch test to feel the difference between three types of rice flours: Bob's Red Mill and Arrowhead Mills, which were very grainy, and Authentic Foods, which was super silky. We are going to look into their growing practices as they are not organic -- want to make sure they're no-GMO and at least sustainable practices.

I had no idea that shaking/fluffing your flours could make such a difference with texture! Monica's mixture, adapted from Analise Roberts' Gluten-Free Baking Classics, is 6 parts rice flour, two parts potato starch and one part tapioca flour Make a big batch and have it on hand so you can bake on demand!

Take Monica's classes for fun, education and yummy treats!

Giving up the Goat

I really hoped we could tolerate some goat cheese, my son and I. We bought some of the same kind we were eating a year ago until the chiropractic neurologist muscle-tested us and said "Absolutely not," literally tossing the morsel I'd brought aside. "I just adjusted him!" she exclaimed, as though eating something his body couldn't handle would mess with all that energy work.

Well, he did turn around after that first visit last October -- stopped biting, transitioned better to me separating from him, and just generally seemed to feel more comfortable in his own skin. I was adjusted on many levels that day, and I went from weepy to dealing pretty well with life. So I think she was onto something.

But I figured now that I'd cleared some other issues, maybe it was worth a try again. My sister was bringing her daughters to town, one of whom doesn't eat gluten, and I thought it was a good time to try a GF pizza crust. (I'll post a link when I get to confirm the brand. It was good, but tough for those of us sensitive to yeast!)

I told E, "We're going to try this cheese and see if we like it, if it makes our bodies feel good." The next day he remembered and went looking for it in the fridge. He loved it. He told my visiting sister with gleaming eyes, "I ate cheeeese!" (I think it might be this Shiloh Farms Raw Goat Cheddar, but I'll have to check next time I'm at the store.)

I loved it, too. It was creamy and rich. I'd missed that texture and taste. There weren't any obvious stomach problems right away, but I just think it made both of us kind of off. E got a runny nose for the first time in I don't know how long. It didn't last but for two days, perhaps in part because I took Thieves oil from Young Living (and he's still nursing) and gave us both the Respiratory, Immune and Lymphatic MBP solutions from Perelandra. But still, it was a runny nose, and his behavior seemed a little challenging.

My neck started to get very stiff. I used to feel like this all the time but just haven't seen I've been on an allergen-free diet and especially since last October when I saw that chiropractor.

I hope that maybe some day I will be able to tolerate raw milk, or at least raw goat milk, that I can try to culture myself into yogurt or kefir. Cheese, I'm told, isn't the best way to get raw dairy, which is believed by some to be so much better than pasteurized because it retains the active enzymes. See the Campaign for Real Milk from the Weston A Price Foundation.

I did enjoy a lovely (pasteurized) honey goat cheese that my friend gave me a few days later. I figured once I was trying one new thing and realizing it wasn't optimal, I might as well go all the way. I could stand to do more research on the subject and will share what I learn when I do.

Now that both cheeses are gone, I'm not planning to buy any more. E did not ask again for the cheese after we had the pizza. I was surprised because he's usually pretty relentless about remembering stuff that he likes and wants. Maybe he knows it's just not right for us right now.

Internal Egg Hunt

"I'm helping you take your temperature, Mom," said my two-year-old son as he reached for the thermometer on the dresser. A 7:00 a.m. reading of 98.5 after a few days of similarly elevated readings seemed to indicate that I'd ovulated for the first time since he was born, 28.5 months ago.

I hadn't been charting my temperature too closely yet but did take it on the occasions I seemed to be showing other signs of fertility, like cervical fluid. To confirm my suspicions and refresh my memory, I got out my books on Fertility Awareness, especially Katie Singer's Garden of Fertility, which has a great accompanying web site with info and charts at gardenoffertility.com and now has a slimmer companion, Honoring Our Cycles. Another important resource is Toni Weschler's Taking Charge of Your Fertility. Singer's and Weschler's books were invaluable to me when I was dealing with a thyroid disorder and long cycles and trying to conceive (TTC). If I hadn't been paying attention at least to my temperature, I might have thought I was pregnant several times instead of being sure I was simply not ovulating (a problem that was resolved when I stopped eating soy and began taking in animal fat and protein. See Soy Alert page from the Weston A. Price Foundation).

Moreover, my charting helped me claim my pregnancy in the face of at least one disbeliever. The midwifery practice believed me when I gave them May 14 as my last menstrual period but June 26 or so as the date of conception. However, the sonogram technician at our 20-week appointment was incredulous, literally asking, "How can that be?" My response: "I have long cycles." If I hadn't been charting and hadn't done an early dating sonogram, we might have been told our son was too small for his age, and I might have been induced far too early.

Indeed, my son was conceived on about day 35 of what would have been an almost 50-day cycle -- far from the 28 days women are sold as "normal," with a standard ovulation date assumed to be around day 14. Watching my cervical fluid and my thermometer gave me peace of mind and saved me a whole lot of money on ovulation predictor kits, not to mention spared me a lot of potential grief from healthcare providers.

Some doctors are less willing to believe in a patient's knowledge of her own body than my midwives were. A friend of mine was induced at what her chart said was 41 weeks because her practice calculated her to be at 42. Mainstream doctors might push me to stop nursing my son or to get testing done to check on a reason for my amenorrhea. By contrast, my alternative care providers encouraged me to trust in my body's wisdom. Recently, as people have started to ask if we want a second child, I've told them it's up to my son. If I think the person will feel comfortable with me sharing, I mention that I've not started cycling. All women are different, but in a culture where new mothers start taking the Pill only a few short months after giving birth, it's hard to learn about what happens to bodies without interference. So I talk about it.

Having taken the Pill for eleven years prior to TTC, I understand the convenience. However, there is a gold mine of information in the books mentioned above, including recommendations for nutritional changes that can affect fertility and explanation of how night lighting in the bedroom can influence cycles. The biggest details for me have been those clues our bodies give us, clues I wish were taught in all health ed classes so that young girls would grow into women who know these strategies exist as much as they know about over-the-counter and prescription contraceptives. Those interventionist methods certainly have their place, but I hope to see a shift toward more self-knowledge and less willingness to let drugs (and products, like the ovulation kits) rule our lives where there's a lot of great information our bodies will tell us if we can just pause to listen.

The belly is back

"Sugar is a bigger deal for you than gluten," concluded my doctor as she perfomed muscle-testing on me. A chiropractic neurologist, she was very happy with my progress since my first visit back in October, 10 months ago. At that appointment, I was weepy and not very hopeful. Plus my son was clingy and grabby, a little uncomfortable in his own skin. This time, Dr. Julie just adjusted me and didn't have to give me any homeopathic remedies. The last time she gave me something that was supposed to address my being revved up and not wanting to stop, pause, or go to bed. I almost fell asleep on the drive home that time.

But this past Wednesday, just back from vacation, I was told I was doing well, but that I had to watch the sugar. This I knew. After I brought fruit back into my diet, my belly started to return. I'd had almost six-pack abs while I was fruit-free and mostly grain-free training for the June 1 half-marathon. But then all those summer fruits beckoned, and I also decided I'd freed myself from an emotional intolerance to chocolate, so I even introduced that along with some refined sugar, of which I'd had very little in recent years.

On vacation in Maine, I enjoyed lots of rice flour and buckwheat pancakes and many a tasty blueberry; see the page with the bears in the book Goodnight Maine. I wish I could show a photo of the book and also of my poor posture/looks pregnant belly. But, alas, my camera either fell out of my pocket or was enticed by my son into the toilet at Burke Lake Park. We were able to download the photos of the train and merry-go-round, but the picture-taking ability is no more.

Trust me, it's a different look, and I've gained back close to six pounds. For a while, I ran out of probiotic -- I use Kyodophilus these days because it's safe to share with my son, who even asks for it in his "special drink," a spoonful of cod liver oil. But I just don't think I can tolerate much fruit, and I think I've also suffered from non-organic restaurant food that is probably not been gluten-free and dairy-free. In fact, I saw after I'd eaten some brown rice sushi at Whole Foods that the rice includes corn, another no-no for me.

So now do I go back to being as strict with my diet as I was in April? Or is it the lack of running and less yoga that's making a difference? My back sure is more tired. Or is it the fact that I'm staying up late again so my liver is flushing toxins back into my body instead of out? I can't seem to get religion about an early bedtime during the summer, but this bloat has got to give me some motivation, unless I'm really choosing it for some reason.

We'll see how I feel after I get back from three days in a bathing suit on the beach in North Carolina!

Gluten-Free Casein-Free Pie Crust

“I’d given up on pie until I tasted yours,” said my friend S, who recently went gluten-free and dairy-free. I think she’s exaggerating, but I admit I was pleasantly surprised to taste the GFCF strawberry-rhubarb pie I made when we gathered at her parents’ lakehouse with three other families from our Bradley childbirth class. Yes, that’s a total of five families with toddlers, plus a new baby. We’ve had gatherings and potlucks before, but this was our first on-site living and eating extravaganza. Everyone seemed to think the pie turned out pretty well. It was nice to have a large kitchen to play in and to have my son busy playing with other kids instead of using my legs as a tunnel, but I’m still always trying to do a lot of things at once, so I rarely know exactly what I’ve done.

The filling recipe will have to come later, but I’ll start with the crust. This is a simple, easy version I came up with after scouring the in-ter-nets, including Gluten-Free Girl, (whose book I look forward to reading). I’ve decided to post this recipe and whatever others seem to work fairly well both for my friend and so that maybe I can keep a little less paper around for my son to plant stickers on and possibly refine the recipe.

It worked for me, but I encourage anyone else to use their own experience and intuition to tweak as necessary. Chemistry is not my forte, so take all the additional suggestions with something like 1/16 tsp of salt.

Gluten-Free Casein-Free Pie Crust

Ingredients
1 ½ cups GF flour. I use a combination of rice and tapioca flours
¼ tsp salt
½ cup oil

(After the above): 4 Tablespoons cold (filtered) water

I used mostly coconut oil (virgin unrefined) and a little ghee (clarified butter without the milk proteins or sugars). If making a quiche or another savory dish, try olive oil. No soy-based oils or hydrogenated oils! If you can tolerate a little butter (as some otherwise dairy-free folks can), get the good pastured, grass-fed stuff and go for it.

Basic directions

1) Combine flour and salt.
2) Combine dry mixture with oil. Should get crumbles
3) Add 4 Tablespoons cold (filtered) water and mix
4) Fill a 9-inch pie pan. I honestly didn’t try to roll the dough out – just plopped it in the Pyrex and spread it out with my hands. Time is, well, time.
5) Bake in preheated oven (375 ish) for 10-15 min before removing to put in pie filling – maybe longer if the filling is very wet (like a key-lime pie or all berry with no thickener). Eyeball it. Your oven light works, right?

Optional additions (depending on recipe you’re combining this with):
Combine with dry (flour & salt):

• A little brown sugar
• A little cinnamon
• Additional salt (for a savory dish, as a counterpoint to very sweet, or to help with lack of buttery flavor)
• A little xantham gum and a tiny bit of baking soda if you’re trying to make more of a cookie-type crust.
  

Combine with wet (mixture of flour, salt and oil):

• A little molasses, agave or rice syrup
• GF vanilla flavoring
• GF almond flavoring
• GF maple flavoring (good for making graham cracker-like flavor, along with molasses)
  

Who wears short shorts?

It's time to show my knees again.

A year ago, last July 4th, a trip to a friend's pool pushed my skin irritation over the edge. The dermatologist had called it likely psoriasis, and my knees were red, itchy and flaky. It was getting bad on its own, and I was already embarrassed to wear a suit at her pool, but after the chlorine, I reached a new level of ouch.

The rest of the summer, my knees looked so raw, I wore capris all the time. If I knelt on my knees with thin pants or, at home, shorts, they seemed to catch on fire. By the fall, I'd started scratching my knees compulsively a few times a day such that they bled. It was like an addiction with an endorphin rush. I'd tried everything topical I could think of -- vitamin E, aloe, shea butter, calendula, msm, among others. Steroid cream hadn't done much, either, certainly not enough to make me feel okay about the chemicals going into my body and possibly my son's through nursing. There was an emotional toll on my son as well; he was learning to scratch himself as a nervous habit and also started coming up to scratch my knees as though he were helping me out. The pattern had to be broken.

On this Independence Day, I went back to the pool a changed woman. I was still scratching back in early April but now, other than a bruise, my knees look fine, even after the chlorine.

I could write a whole tome on this, but the short version is that my healing occurred, I believe, from work primarily on two levels: emotional/psychological/spiritual and physical (internal) with some assistance from external physical changes. I'll list these in reverse order.

Physical - External
After trying so many products, I think these two actually made a difference:

• Epicurean Ebony Tar Shea Butter Soap
• Miessence Soothing Line Skin Essentials -- cleanser, conditioner, lotion and also couperouse gel and mineral clay mask

Physical - Internal
My body is in a very different place than it was two years ago, a few months after my son was born. Among the recent changes are the following:

• A cleanse that included:
  
• Elimination of fruit and all processed food (including nut butter) and rice products for a short time, followed by limited quantities
• Daily juice of celery, parsley, garlic and lemon
• Lacto-fermented foods
• Sprouts and more raw and cooked vegetables
• Local pasture-raised eggs and more grassfed meat

• Overall more alkaline diet that includes kombucha with most meals
• Less frequent breastfeeding, less night waking
• Somewhat improved commitment to my yoga practice and increased attendance at yoga classes
• Regular exercise, including training for and running a half-marathon in June
  
• Physical therapy, acupuncture, craniosacral therapy, and Muscle Activation Technique (MAT) to heal from sprained ankle last August
  

Emotional/psychological/spiritual
Two years after my son's birth, I started to reach a place of acceptance about my c-section and a sense that it's not up to me to control everything in my life. Strategies that helped me on this journey include:

• Work with BioSET allergy elimination, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), and Byron Katie's The Work through the Center for Natural Cures
• Applied Kinesiology with chiropractic
• Work (reviewed) I previously did with Landmark Education
• Work with Bach flower essences, including Crab Apple, Gentian and Holly
• Work with Young Living Oils, including the blends Joy, Gentle Baby, and Valor
• Increased time writing
• Craniosacral therapy that included somato-emotional releases
• Reading (recalled) related to Buddhism, including Pema Chodron, and some meditation
• Reading (recalled) by Caroline Myss
  

I came to see that this health challenge was just part of a necessary process and that the itching would subside when it was time for me to be done with it. This skin problem was, at least in part, my way of processing my shame and guilt at having had to have a c-section, which gave me a sense of failure for not starting out my son's life in the drug-free, gentle way I'd hoped. Part of the reason the c-section was so jarring for me had to do with a longstanding belief -- a belief that has ancestral roots -- in the idea that something always has to be wrong with me. Going to the source to address this core belief -- through the strategies above -- helped me release my hold on this problem and its hold on me.

What bruise?

"What did you give him?" This was my friend's question after she saw my two-year-old son a few days after her son rolled a rock down a slide onto my boy's head. There was hardly a mark on my son where we both expected a goose-egg or at least some royal shades of blue.

First I gave him two pellets of Arnica, a homeopathic remedy for bruising and soreness. I started with this because he is keen to take "pellets" as though they are candy (which he never has!). Then, as I searched for the Emergency Trauma Solution (ETS) from Perelandra, I put on some topical Traumeel lotion, a homeopathic ointment that contains arnica and a number of other things. Since I couldn't find the ETS, I gave him some drops of Rescue Remedy then and a little while later. This combination of five Bach flower essences is supposed to help his electrical system recover from the shock and give his physical body the freedom to use all its energy repair itself. I added individual essences of Star of Bethlehem and Rock Rose for fright and shock. Later I found the ETS and gave him a few doses.

In my interactions with my son and our friends, I tried to stay calm. I remember very clearly a scary incident from my childhood. It was the first time I removed my new earrings, and in all the excitement, I rinsed my mouth out with hydrogen peroxide instead of water when I was brushing my teeth. I now know this is absolutely no big deal, but I was scared at the time, and when I told my parents, my father shouted to my brother, "Start the car!" I thought I was going to die on the way to the emergency room. Poison Control set us straight, but my father's overreaction caused traumatic fear for me. So when my son got hit with the rock, I didn't want to belittle my son's pain or shock from the blow of the rock to his head, but I wanted to be sure I didn't add unnecessarily to his feeling a lack of control. Children look to parents to decide how to read a situation, and I figure that if I overreact, my son probably will, too.

I calmly accepted my friend's apology while looking at the injury site and saying, "I'm sure that hurt. That was probably scary. We'll take care of it, and it will be okay." I kissed my son's head and walked at a normal pace back into the house. When I asked EJ if he was okay, he said through his tears, "Yes, I just bumped my head."

He wasn't very excited about the ice, so we made a game of it by holding the pack to his head to the count of ten a few times. I doubt this helped much, but at least we gave it a shot, and he giggled. I also took some responsibility without turning it into blame, acknowledging to my friend, "I could have made a no-rock rule for the slide, and that probably would be the thing to do." Before the incident happened, she was going to tell her son to stop and looked to me to set the rules, since it was my house. I said I didn't mind kids learning about gravity, as long as no one's head was at the bottom. Then I failed to notice when my two-year-old's noggin was right in the middle of Rock Central. I reassured her we were fine and apologized to my son for not seeing what was going to happen. I didn't belittle her apologetic overtures to us. I just said, "I know he didn't mean to hurt EJ. Accidents happen, and that's how we learn." Fortunately, she did not castigate her son or spiral down a cycle of blame, either.

Of course, I was upset that my son was injured, and hoped he would recover. I took some Rescue Remedy myself to remain calm. My friend told me to look at his pupils later, but I knew the bonk was just on hard bone and was unlikely to have done any serious damage.

Later I asked EJ what happened, and he was able to articulate that his buddy had put the rock on his head. I replied, "Yes, he was playing with rocks and didn't realize your head was in the way. He's sorry that he hurt you. We will all be more careful next time. Let's remember this the next time we are playing with rocks.

I hope that my son can learn to accept his pain and fear but not let it define him. I want him to be compassionate with himself and others to take time to heal and to apologize but not to live in the land of regret and blame.

Drinkin’ and a-Runnin’

Who knew that May 31st was the day before June 1st?

When my friend’s husband asked if I was available to come to a surprise birthday party for her, I didn’t put it together that the half-marathon I’d just registered for was the following morning, Sunday, at 7:00 a.m. – a hour away. We talked at length about the ideal time for the party – 5:00-7:00 p.m. – to maximize the chances of folks getting childcare and enjoying the catered wine tasting.

Once I set out to make hotel reservations for the race city, I realized the problem with the dates. Don had already booked the caterers for Saturday night, so I decided we’d skip spending the day in Annapolis and instead head there after a decent dinner at home. The boy would fall asleep on the way, we decided, and I just wouldn’t do more than sip a few of the wines.

Once we got dressed up and dropped our son off at a friend’s, where he was happy to play with her and her daughter, it was hard to hold back from fully enjoying the night. This was the first time my birth class buddies and I had been together without our children in tow! I sipped and sipped some more, and by the sixth out of eight wines to be sampled, I realized I’d moved beyond mildly buzzed. My head felt only a little warped, and I was happy to have had so much fun with my friends. I’m so sensitive in my body now, that’s where I felt it. I had the sensation of my blood becoming toxic and my liver getting perturbed. But I had a race to run in less than twelve hours, and there was still dinner to make and eat, packing to finish, a toddler to nurse (not the cleanest milk he’d ever had, I know), and a drive to do (with my husband behind the wheel). I didn’t feel great about exposing my son to the alcohol, but now that he’s over two and doesn’t nurse a whole “meal,” I decided he could handle what came into my milk from less than three (maybe even only two) glasses of wine over two and a half hours.

My real concern was with myself -- would I be in running condition the following morning? I hadn’t ever studied up alternative tonics to mitigate intoxication – I hadn’t needed to. But this night, I’d imbibed beyond any level I’d had for years. I tried to focus on believing I could cleanse my body and purge the toxins. While my husband drove, I placed my hands on top of my liver and on my back, trying to send healing energy to move the alcohol through my body rather than settle and store itself in my tissues, a technique I learned by reading John Upledger’s primer on craniosacral therapy, Your Inner Physician and You. I took deep breaths and tried to cultivate compassion for myself and my body and not to shame or blame myself. I had, indeed, had a great time with my friends, and I realized that the party and wine buzz may have given me some freedom from the fear I might have otherwise had about the race. Six months earlier I sprained my ankle less than two weeks before the first half-marathon I’d registered for, and it’s been a long recovery of body and mind to believe I could come back to health and complete my goal without another major snag. Maybe I needed the push out of my over-analyzing brain.

On the solely physical level, I drank lots of water in small sips and also drank some of the Vita Coco coconut water I’d purchased on a whim for post-race recovery, noting its claim as a “nature’s sports drink” and “natural rehydrant” at the bottom of the package and being impressed with the vitamin content and claims to replace electrolytes with no added ingredients – no salts or sugars. Shortly before we got in the car, I saw in my race materials that Zico, another brand of coconut water, was going to be giving away samples at the finish line (see Zico's nutritional information), so I figured this was a good hangover buster.

Alcohol has always affected my metabolism, making me ravenous. After a big dinner of chicken and vegetables and a snack of banana and nuts in the car, I nursed EJ back to sleep in the hotel bed around 11 p.m., said goodnight to my husband, and stayed up get my gear ready and to finish dinner’s leftovers (and snack some more on top of that). I took a few doses of Perelandra’s Emergency Trauma Solution (ETS), and of a solution of few Bach flower essences – Crab Apple for cleansing, Gentian for discouragement , Larch for fear of failure, Impatiens for desiring a hasty recovery, Walnut for major transition and White Chestnut for monkey mind/thoughts going round and round in the head.

There were wedding guests in the hotel who’d had a lot more to drink than I had, and the sleep I found between 12:30 and 5:45 a.m. was disturbed by hallway noise more than once. I started the morning with some water, coconut water and the remainder of the green juice I’d made right before we hopped in the car the night before – parsley, celery, lemon and garlic. I sipped it slowly as I got ready. Before I put on my shoes I mixed some Valor essential oil blend from Young Living Oils into some lotion and rubbed my feet with it. Young Living claims: “Valor® is an empowering combination of therapeutic-grade essential oils that works with both the physical and spiritual aspects of the body to increase feelings of strength, courage, and self-esteem in the face of adversity. Renowned for its strengthening qualities, Valor enhances an individual's internal resources. It has also been found to help energy alignment in the body.” Ingredients are: Spruce (Picea mariana), rosewood (Aniba rosaeodora), blue tansy (Tanacetum annuum) and frankincense (Boswellia carteri) in a base of almond oil.

At about 6:30, I ate a half a banana and a few small leftover coconut flour pancakes before leaving to walk the 0.8 mile from the hotel to the start of the race. My husband waved goodbye from bed, but EJ stayed asleep next to him, marking the first time we’d start the day without nursing. In fact, he later told me, “I slept with Daddy the whole time!”

The run was great. I felt strong through mile nine and only then felt a little like the slight uphill should have been in the other direction. When we exited the bike trail for the last mile along a steamy, sunny highway, I was glad to be almost done. But, cheered on by another runner, I finished very strong and have smiling race photos to prove it. My time was better than I’d expected, and I felt no ill effects upon finishing. After the race I drank a lot more coconut water, ate nuts, seeds, and chocolate-covered goji berries, took some Rescue Remedy and ETS, had a great shower, ate a lot of food and enjoyed the day -- including getting lost and walking another two miles back to the hotel with my boys. I could have fallen asleep on the way home, but once I got past that, I had so much energy, I stayed up until 1 a.m. that night.

The next day my muscles felt used but not especially sore. I was happy that I’d finished the race and enjoyed myself and also that I’d been able to manage the ill effects of unwise decisions in drinking. Later in the week I went to bed early and felt more tired than I had in a while. After that post-CST exhaustion I described in the last post –and my lofty goal of turning in before midnight and getting up to at least walk early in the mornings – I’d reverted to my night-owl habits. Since the race, I’m finding it easier to honor more reasonable hours. And I’m looking for the next candidate for a long race to keep up my momentum.

Tired for the Very First Time

It was like I'd forgotten what it meant to be sleepy.

I wrote a few weeks agoabout trying to see sleep as the gentle restorative time it's supposed to be rather than the time I'm not getting things done - cleaning, cooking, writing, exercising. That was all a nice idea, but I was still pretty revved up and having a hard time putting my brain and my computer on standby before 1:30 a.m. Not until I had a craniosacral therapy appointment did I realize how profoundly not tired I'd been.

The therapist did not say my system seemed agitated or "upregulated" as she's said before. In fact, she thought I was doing well; my rhythm had more "amplitude" and I seemed generally calmer than the last time I saw her. But she also said we had a "really deep session," which I knew. I completely dropped down into another level of calm. After the session was over and she left the room with the instructions to take my time and get up gently, I fell asleep.

Later on that night, my husband I had 9:00 p.m. reservations for Restaurant Nora, the organic restaurant near Dupont Circle in Washington, DC. My mother-in-law was visiting, and she's the only one who's ever put our son to bed. We had a nice drive in, and I was still glad we were having date night, but I was so tired I could hardly see straight. All I kept thinking about was being home and being asleep. I remembered the same thing happening several months before -- for a few weeks after a treatment I actually felt like going to bed early. This work is powerful.

The contrast between that feeling and my regular pep was profound. I've enjoyed having high energy, but I also know I've been a little snippy and impatient with my son, the kind of attitude that comes from the body not replenishing its sleep stores for several days in a row. I'm pretty sure my son was feeling that energy, too. Sleeping only from 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. (or earlier, if my son wakes to nurse earlier) and then nursing in a half-sleep off and on until 7:30ish does not give me the space and my body the time to unwind. And clearly, I was wound up, literally and energetically. My therapist helped me through some unwinding in my neck; that was when I stopped chatting and really sunk back into a quiet dark space behind my eyelids.

I enjoyed the food at dinner but, once we got home, I could hardly get into jammies fast enough. I was in bed by 11:30 p.m. and didn't wake until E woke at 6:00 a.m. -- a good run of sleep for him and for me. Normally I get up to pee before 5:00 even if I've only been in bed for three hours. This time I slept for seven uninterrupted. That's probably a 26-month record!

A week from tomorrow morning, I will be running a half-marathon at 7 a.m., so this week's project is to commit to going to bed before midnight so I can reasonably get up at 6:00 with rested rather than revved adrenals.

Getting the Groove Back

Back in August, I sprained my ankle two weeks before I was going to run a half-marathon (what would have been my longest race). It's been a long recovery that I'll write about from various perspectives in the future. What I'm feeling good about right now is that I am starting to imagine exercise being not a struggle that is at odds with my parenting.

I've had a hard time feeling totally okay with taking time to exercise and focus on my body even though I know it makes me more grounded, happier, more centered, more patient... in short, a better mom, partner, friend. Some moms I know just do it without a second thought and go about their business, and other moms act like they couldn't imagine running a mile or leaving their kids in childcare at a gym. I haven't felt comfortable on either end or in the middle.

After having had early and intense separation anxiety, my 25-month-old son has recently started to do fine at neighbors' houses for short babysitting, especially when there's another kid around. I decided that if I was going to pay for this gym membership, I had to start using their childcare. It's small, safe and fun. I watched EJ the first time on the video monitor and he did fine for the 30 minutes I spent on the treadmill. The time I tried an hour-long yoga class wasn't so great. I kept looking over and saw the childcare worker holding him, and before sivasana, I saw he was crying at the door, so I did my own quick corpse pose early and left before everyone else settled in. That was a few months ago, and I hadn't tried again, instead fitting in exercise around other times I had childcare at home, usually from my husband.

Last week the gym held a mommy and me yoga class and then a mother's day tea party after. EJ enjoyed playing with the big exercise balls and eating the (GF, homemade) cookies I brought for him and the fruit the gym provided. The experience seems like it might have accomplished my goal of setting a positive association in his head about the place.

This week, I jogged him down to the gym and told him we were going to play with Cassie for a few minutes and then come home. We did, and he found some toys that whetted his appetite, but we stuck to our plan and left together. Later that day, he was asking for Cassie, so I told him he'd see her the next day while I went to a yoga class. It seemed like I finally got in my head that this really could be okay -- we were both going to get something good out of the experience. He'd get to see some kids and play with new toys, and I'd get Zen. Or something.

My now-running-again legs were happy for the attention, and I realized how out of practice I am on my mat. On my run today, I spent some time thinking about working trips to the gym into our schedule more regularly. It just needs to be something we do rather than the thing that only happens if everything else aligns just perfectly. I don't need to apologize for caring about my body. If I want my son to grow up making his own health a priority, he needs to see his parents do the same.

Flower essences and trauma

I've been taking a class recently on using flower essences with infants and children. I'll go further into my experience with them in the past once I merge it in my head with the more detailed info I'm learning.

For now, I want to highlight Emergency Trauma Solution by Perelandra (available online only). I've given this to my son and taken it myself when we've had a few scares - one when we worried he might have ingested some Visine and another when he tumbled a bit down the hill in our backyard. The idea is that the solution can help stabilize you -- your electrical field and all that is affected by that -- after a trauma of any kind - physical, emotional, mental. It can help speed healing on all levels. I have a lot to learn about this modality, but so far I feel like ETS has, in fact, kept me from leaping to an anxious space, which I normally would have then inhabited for a very long time.

Some people also use Rescue Remedy for this kind of gentle balancing in the face of fear or trauma. A Bach flower remedy, Rescue Remedy is a mixture of five flower essences and can be found at most health food stores, the Vitamin Shoppe, and places like Whole Foods Market. It's in a small brown bottle and costs somewhere $5-12 depending on where you are and how big the bottle is. There are also sprays and creams of Rescue Remedy and 38 individual essences if you want to address specific emotional issues. Essences can safely be used on anyone, even pets!

For babies, one drop on the crown of the head or wrists will do. Toddlers and children can be given a drop or two orally if they'll cooperate. You can also put a drop in the palm of your non-dominant hand, focus, and "send" it to the person who needs it if he or she is not with you -- kind of like ordering a grande prayer with an extra shot.

Sleep is not an adversary

When I decided to undertake a cleanse and make some changes in my diet, I also set out to change my sleeping habits.

My natural tendency has always been that of a night owl, even when, as now, I've been without caffeine. For the past several months, I had been in the habit of staying up until almost 2:00 a.m. to write, clean, cook, prepare for the next day. I loved how quiet the house was and hated to abandon my free time to head up to bed. This worked for a while because I was also spending part or most of my son's naptime asleep and because my son would wake to nurse around 1:30 or 2:00 a.m. So I essentially stayed up until he started to fuss, and then I would charge upstairs, nurse him and get the oxytocin boost to help me fall asleep. Going to bed any earlier seemed inefficient because my mind was whirring with all the things I could be doing, and I was just waiting for him to wake up before I could really go under. It didn't seem reasonable to try to get to bed before 10:30 p.m. since I was tutoring many nights until 10:00 p.m. and needed considerable wind-down time once I got home.

All these rationalizations aside, I know that there are many health benefits to an earlier bedtime. The adrenals need to rest and repair themselves so that the body is not constantly in high-alert, fight-or-flight mode. Cortisol spikes at the wrong time of day can negatively impact the nervous system. The liver and gallbladder supposedly flush out toxins in the late evening, and they aren't effective at doing so if the body is in an alert state.

There was also the matter of feeling robbed if I spent all of my son's nap sleeping next to him instead of getting some time for myself or a head-start on dinner. Being in a super-dark room during the middle of the day was disorienting. I wanted my afternoons back, but getting through the day without a nap was tough if I'd only slept 2:30-6:30 a.m.!

I had hoped to start going to bed by 11:30 (some naturopathic doctors say 9:00 is a good target, others 10:30 at the latest, and I've also read that sleep before midnight is significantly more restorative than sleep after midnight). However, I did not approach this goal with the same commitment as I approached my diet changes. I merely thought to myself, "It would be nice to get my bike fixed up and try to go to the gym for their 6:00 a.m. yoga class twice a week." A month later, the bike is finally out of the shed and in the trunk of the car, but I haven't gotten it to the shop for a much-needed professional tune-up. I could be rising early to do yoga on my own, as I did when I was a teacher (getting up at 5:00 instead of 5:30 a.m.), but I'm not.

I can't quite get myself to give up all my late-night solo time. I have, however, been more successful at staying awake when I put my son down or just dozing with him for part of his nap and then shooting for going to bed before midnight unless there's a real pressing need to finish something. The one morning I woke surprisingly alert at 5:45 a.m.. The persistent rain of the previous few days had abated, and the fresh spring air and early morning glow through the window were sweet. Having run 10 miles the previous day, it was a delight to have some time on my yoga mat. When my son awoke about 6:10, I went upstairs to nurse him in bed in case he might be able to fall back asleep. But he was ready to be up for the day. Having already gotten centered, I was happy to enjoy reading books on the couch with him without rushing around in a flurry to get breakfast started. With such an early and gentle start, the day seemed much longer and less hurried, and I was ready to go to bed at 10:45, even though I tutored until 10 p.m.

I'm hopeful that if I take a gentle but consistent approach with my bedtime, I can scale it back to a more reasonable hour and eventually (depending on my son's nursing habits) rise before anyone else is up and get in some yoga or some writing.

Food + JH = TruLv4Evr

I usually try to avoid using the word “change.” It implies that there is something bad or wrong, and it doesn’t provide a vision the way a more descriptive, active verb would. And yet, when I tell people I’m doing something of a cleanse, the phrase I keep coming back to is, “I want to change my relationship to food.”

To love my body is to give it food it can handle. And now that I have a young child, I’m conscious of the behaviors and attitudes I model. It’s not an issue of what I feed him; I feel good about that and even enjoy figuring out healthy alternatives to the junk he might be faced with in social situations. So far, he’s playing along well, happily eating his own snack of homemade rice and tapioca flour cookies (sweetened with a tiny bit of brown sugar, some agave syrup, maybe molasses, and applesauce) or, in a pinch, frozen gluten-free waffles with ghee and coconut oil while the other kids eat Goldfish or animal crackers out of a box. Although we sometimes fall back on rice crackers, nuts and raisins if we’re in a hurry, his no-fail go-to snack or addition to a meal is green peas or green beans (cooked in homemade chicken stock and a little ghee so he digests them better).

What I want to be sure about is that he picks up on eating as an act of enjoyment, and food as something to be savored. I do him no favors if I gripe about needing to be gluten-free and casein-free and fret in front of him about how to protect him if he’s inherited my sensitivities. It’s also tough to convey an attitude of gracious enjoyment when I’m constantly smearing sunflower butter out of a jar on top of a banana, or spooning another dollop of coconut milk into anything and everything, and up from the table twenty times in furious attempts to get full. I was behaving as though each experience with food was the fuel stop that had to get me through as many laps as possible until almost running completely out of gas.

The analogy may have been true when he was younger, exclusively breastfed, and demanding to be held most of his waking hours, but now it’s time for us both to calm down. I don’t need that many calories, and I don’t need the extra tire around my gut.

After I attended a cooking class on spring detoxes, I decided I needed to make some changes. Since I’m still breastfeeding, there’s a limit to what I can do. But I had the sense that my liver needed a break from all the heavy foods and that a skin problem (with compulsive scratching) I’d had since a few months after my son’s birth was connected both to liver toxicity and also, on an emotional level, to this sort of addicted, “cram it in” mentality.

So I decided that once I returned home from a family function, I would try to step out of my habits dramatically for a while so that I could eventually settle back into a more measured way of eating and approaching my life.

What I initially stopped or greatly reduced:

• Eating fruit – sweet fruits and tomatoes. I added avocado back in after a short time
• Eating potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips
• Eating processed foods such as rice crackers, rice tortillas, rice pasta, GF waffles, store-bought hummus and store-bought almond milk. I continued eating nitrite-free, hormone-free sausage and deli meat for breakfast and occasionally for lunch. All other meat was organic and most beef grassfed
• Combining rice (soaked for 7 hrs in vinegar or cooked in stock to increase digestibility) with meat
• Eating nuts at all – lasted for only a few days
• Eating nuts other than almonds – lasted for a little longer but then I made my son some crispy pecans, and they were too good to pass up
• Eating nut butters unless homemade using crispy nuts (nuts that have been soaked overnight and then dried gently in a dehydrator to break down their phytic acid)
• Eating so much coconut milk and spoonfuls of coconut oil – although these foods both have some great benefits, I was sucking them down at an alarming rate

What I started:

• Beginning my day with warm water and apple cider vinegar to alkalinize the body
• Having a fresh vegetable juice before breakfast – celery, parsley, garlic and lemon or lime made with full food/fiber using a Vita-Mix blender
• Eating more green vegetables cooked in homemade chicken stock, sometimes with miso
• Eating more seasonal vegetables, including greens like dandelion and beet and herbs that are supposed to support the liver and kidneys
• Eating sprouted beans and seeds
• Eating a salad daily at both lunch and dinner - lettuce; cucumber; celery, sprouted seeds, peas, beans or nuts; cultured vegetable; dressing of coconut milk/olive oil/apple cider vinegar
  
• Eating lacto-fermented/cultured vegetables with each meal or at least drinking Kombucha or using apple cider vinegar in salad dressing
• Adding more fresh garlic to everything

What I continued that might seem inconsistent with “cleansing” to some folks:

• Eating one or two egg yolks a day, usually eggs from pastured chickens that I buy from a farm
• Eating some coconut milk and oil, using olive oil with no restriction, using ghee
• Eating meat but adding in more grassfed beef and wild salmon for additional Omega-3's

How I’ve felt

The first few days, I felt weak and shaky as though I was having withdrawal from sugar and from calories. However, once I got the Vita-Mix going, the fresh shot of nutrient-packed drink made a big difference, and adding back in nuts seemed necessary. My cravings subsided, and I was surprised to see that I lost about two pounds in just a week even though I’d added back in a good amount of high-fat food. I’m now a pound below my pre-pregnancy weight and don’t expect (or want) to go any lower, especially if I continue to increase my level of exercise and gain muscle. I don’t care as much about the number as I do with the tighter tummy and lighter feeling.

My appreciation of food has indeed increased. I breathe more when I eat, which helps my digestion probably as much as the improved content of my bowl. I’ve developed a craving now for sauerkraut or another cultured veggie, as though my meal is not complete without it. According the Sally Fallon in Nourishing Traditions, the Weston A. Price Foundation and the Body Ecology Diet – my main nutritional reference sources – this is much more typical of traditional ways of eating that almost disappeared in industrialized societies once processed foods made their way into our kitchens. I've also consulted Paul Pitchford's Healing with Whole Foods a bit.

It’s been less than three weeks since I began, and I’ve started allowing for some flexibility and have even eaten restaurant food a few times. Moderation was what I was going for – the ability to not be extreme. I want for my son – who has a similarly intense temperament – to have a more balanced model. This is something I’m working on at many levels, some just in my own head and some with other practitioners, which I’ll discuss in future posts. Food was the most fundamental example with a physical connection, with my compulsive scratching a close second. The one day I got up late and rushed to make breakfast and pack a lunch and ate both on the go was the first in almost a week that I scratched.

What I've taken away so far

In the world that I inhabit, I have to hope for positive results and come up with a proactive statement that is steeped in possibility: “I want to have a loving relationship with food.” At the same time, I need to be careful not to fantasize about a day when I hang a “mission accomplished” banner, because I know that looking for a product is missing the crucial point that this is an ongoing process.

Introduction

"No one in my family has food allergies, so I'm not worried about starting the baby on solids in any special way."

I've heard lots of well-meaning mamas utter these words with a shrug. On one hand, I admire their faith that everything will work out okay. Optimism and hope can go a long way.

However, we are living in an age in which food sensitivities are real, dangerous, and far more common than they used to be. Our world is not the same one our grandparents inhabited. Lots of folks claim that they ate whatever they wanted and so did their parents, and "we all turned out okay." The definition of "okay" is relative. With today's rates of cancer, autoimmune disorders, autism, depression, obesity and diabetes, I'd venture to say we could be a lot more "okay" than we are.

When I look at photos of me as a little girl, the dark circles under my eyes are alarming. After struggling with depression from a very young age, gastrointestinal problems for most of my life, and infertility in my 30's, I finally figured out that I cannot tolerate gluten or casein, the proteins in wheat and some other grains, and cow's milk, respectively.

My health journey has taken me down many roads. As a result of all I've experienced and learned with various healing modalities, I am committed to giving my son the healthiest possible start and to helping other parents support their children's health. In many ways, the path toward health for our children starts with our own paths toward health.

On this blog, I'll share stories and information about allergy elimination, nourishing food, homeopathy, craniosacral therapy and other modalities to support your family's health.