Inexact Science: Raising Healthy Families

Public conference call with Agriculture Secretary Vilsack

2010-02-14T19:16:00.005-05:00

“This is a different USDA,” announced Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack last week on a conference call with members of the public to share information about the agency’s response to First Lady Michelle Obama’s new Let’s Move initiative to combat childhood obesity. The call was a great opportunity to hear about high-up efforts to address the federal school lunch program and more general issues of helping people gain health through nutrition.

From my perspective as a whole foods and local foods advocate, there was much to cheer about what Secretary Vilsack had to say about changes in the school lunch program. As an advocate of traditional foods, however, there are still a lot of concerns to address. If this is a different USDA, I'd still like to wait for the next version.

Background

The four main pillars of the Let’s Move Initiative are to 1) give parents the support they need to make healthy choices (including support for breastfeeding as a healthy start), 2) provide healthier food in schools , 3) promote physical activity, and 4) increase the availability of affordable healthy food.

The Child Nutrition Act was up for reauthorization by Congress in 2009, as it is every five years, but it has been extended through the Agriculture Appropriations Bill and is now up for reauthorization in 2010. The USDA puts out a plan and a budget, and it is up to Congress to decide where the funding will come from and to make adjustments and changes. The purpose for the conference call was to get folks aware of the Child Nutrition Act reauthorization and to describe the efforts of the USDA in light of the Let’s Move initiative.

I'm all for education, and some of these efforts sound great, but I still found myself shaking my head during parts of this call.

First, the heartening news

The USDA is paying attention to the fact that the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has produced a report that is highly critical of the quality of school lunches. Secretary Vilsack explained that 31 million children participate in the school lunch program and 11 million in the breakfast program, both of which he said offer foods that have too much sugar and sodium, and not enough dark green and orange vegetables.

Secretary Vilsack said that the USDA wants to give schools incentives make healthy options more appealing to kids. “We are looking for a way in which we can significantly improve foods in school outside of lunch,” Secretary Vilsack said, including a la carte offerings and vending machines. “We want a consistent message” in schools, which would include getting sugary drinks and snacks out of vending machines.

The Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food program is one effort to get schools connected with local sources of food and to help students see a connection to food. Secretary Vilsack said the USDA is expanding research into organic farming and is trying to increase the number of small businesses in agriculture. “We are looking for creative ways for these guys to make ends meet,” he said, noting that the USDA does not want to arrive at a day and age with just a handful of really large producers and, on the other hand, very small producers.

One of the current areas of research, Secretary Vilsack explained, is how to make nutritious food compelling for children and how to encourage them to make healthy choices. “This requires us to focus on early childhood, to encourage kids at a young age to put a rainbow on their plate,” Secretary Vilsack said. Parents and educators alike need to explain the difference between everyday foods and sometimes foods. There has been work on a textbook and toolkit for parents participating in the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program to “get them started in the right direction.”

If parents are more engaged in these kinds of conversations, Vilsack said, perhaps they will be more involved in school board decisions. Sometimes school boards see extra money in their food budget and direct it to another area that needs funding. “Part of our challenge,” Secretary Vilsack said, “is to make sure people understand that this is as important as any other thing that goes on in school.”

Educating consumers

In the Q&A portion of the call, Nutritionist and Silicon Valley Moms blogger Alix, the moderator for this call, shared her concern about “nutritional illiteracy” of parents who, for example, don’t realize that Goldfish crackers have a glycemic index as high as a lollipop. Secretary Vilsack responded that we need better labeling so that people know what the better choices are. He spoke highly of a NuVal, a numerical system currently in place in stores in his home state of Iowa that rates items on a scale of 1-100, with 100 being the most nutritious. Having this information helps consumers, he said, which will then lead to better options. “As we make those more nutritious choices,” he said, “the market will be compelled to do better.”

A quick look at the NuVal website shows that 2% Horizon Organic milk gets a rating of 55, while 1% Organic Valley milk gets a much better rating of 81, and Garelick Farms Over the Moon Fat Free Milk gets a super-high rating of 91. Nevermind that the less of the naturally-occurring milkfat you take out of the milk, the harder it is to digest (and that pasteurization kills milk’s enzymes!)

Since NuVal gives Silk Soymilk Light Chocolate a decent rating of 56, I am guessing that this “patent-pending algorithm” does not take hormone and endocrine disruption into consideration. Probably not the difference in products made from grassfed vs. industrial feedlot cows, either. I am just learning about this system and look forward to investigating it further.

What about the food pyramid?

Alix pointed out that the IOM is basing its conclusions on the food pyramid, a construct that many health-minded writers and practitioners find problematic, preferring to look at the way author Michael Pollan talks about what should be in our diets, including the ida that “real food” usually does not contain more than five ingredients.

Secretary Vilsack said that the food pyramid guidelines are going to be revised. With some 20-30 people working on this “extensive effort based on what we didn’t know five, ten years ago,” the pyramid will be adjusted. He explained that what the USDA is going to want to see are “steps being taken by local school districts to better align with the IOM study” and with the new food pyramid guidelines.

There are many areas of concern about the current food pyramid, and it will be interesting to see what the revisions include. For one, traditional foods enthusiasts might want to see the “oils” page differentiate between chemically-produced unhealthy oils like canola oil and margarine compared to naturally-occurring fats that are necessary for optimum absorption of nutrients. Healthy fats include butter and coconut oil, which is not even on the list of oils at http://www.mypyramid.gov/pyramid/oils.html

If the researchers working on the food pyramid are familiar with this research on traditional diets and fats, then perhaps they will veer away from the low-fat craze. But based on Secretary Vilsack’s insistence that we do not have enough of a focus on “low-fat dairy products,” I’m concerned. It’s unfortunate that people think that incomplete foods are somehow better recognized and utilized by our bodies than foods in their natural states (i.e. full fat). The real fats to avoid are manufactured fats like canola oil, corn oil, and soybean oil that were never intended to be removed from the rest of the food and that hold no nutritional value or provide assistance with the absorption of nutrients.

That pesky corn issue

Alix asked Secretary Vilsack if we could get a commitment that school lunches would not have foods with more than five ingredients and if the school lunch program will respond to parent desire to get high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) out of all foods that cross the school threshold. The answer, in short, was no. “I’m not sure we’d be a prescriptive as that,” Secretary Vilsack began. This might get pushback from members of Congress, so the better way to go, he said, is for the USDA to push for incentives for schools to make better options available. “What we can say is that food has to be consistent with dietary guidelines.” And then, he said, we have to trust people.

The next concern came from Sophia, a mother whose children’s school lunches are run by a private company that has told her it has gotten questionable food off of its menu except for “what the government sends us,” which includes HFCS and meat raised with hormones and antibiotics. She questioned the subsidy system that makes it profitable for farmers to grow genetically-modified corn. Secretary Vilsack initially respondd that organic farmers can qualify for a number of USDA regular programs in which they can receive direct payments if they raise “certain crops.” And he added that the USDA under the Obama administration has increased its participation in conservation programs that the Bush administration tried to get rid of.

Secretary Vilsack thought that roughly one-quarter of what is provided to schools is in the form of commodities, adding “If a district is insistent on what they want for their kids, we need to figure out how to be more responsive to their needs.” But he went on to explain that in the U.S., “we’re going to continue to grow corn for a lot of reasons.” This includes corn as a source of power, and Secretary Vilsack went on to reference other alternative power sources being developed. The USDA is not, he said, going to stop providing resources to those who grow corn but will try to support more mid-size farms.

Where to go now?

The call inspired me not so much to sing the praises of the Child Nutrition Act but simply to continue to share my concerns about mainstream ideas about food, problematic ideas that include promoting whole grains (despite a lot of research that says many people have gluten sensitivities) as a health food and low-fat dairy as a necessary ingredient in the fight against childhood obesity. We were healthier when we ate real food with full fat and not so darn much bread!

Although my son is not yet in public school, I look forward to learning more about the efforts Secretary Vilsack referenced and how they are being implemented in my local area. As a chapter leader with Holistic Moms Networ k, I will continue to try to educate my community about healthy eating. I hope to find ways to make healthy food more widely available and to share information about how to access affordable healthy food.

Related posts:
Sophia's blog post about the call and Secretary Vilsack's response to her question
A post at the Slow Food USA blog about what sounds like a similar call with a larger audience

Homemade Chicken Stock

2010-02-09T15:56:00.004-05:00

One of the easiest things to do to stay – or get – healthy in the winter is to make your own chicken stock, or bone broth. Some people like to claim that healthy eating costs a lot of money, but broth is something you can make from the bones of a chicken you already ate, plus some apple cider vinegar and veggies (see recipe below).

The result is a protein-rich and mineral-rich healing liquid that can be drunk on its own as a tonic for upset tummies, as a base for soups, or as an addition to a stir-fry or any kind of cooking of veggies. If you make your own baby food, use stock instead of water to add fat, which will help your child absorb any vitamins & minerals in the veggies (and the stock adds nutrients and protein of its own).

Our house is gluten-free by necessity, but I also avoid processed rice pasta most of the time preferring to cook whole grains like brown rice and millet in broth. It’s so much tastier and healthful. And, often, cheaper!

I recently attended another great cooking class with whole food chef and holistic health educator Monica Corrado of Simply Being Well. If you’ve never made stock before, watching it done in person might be a good motivator to get on the homemade bandwagon. It’s instructive to see the process done in person, and learning in a community is fun and rewarding.

But if you’ve got a carcass just about picked clean and you’re ready to go, here is the simple recipe to get you started.

It’s best to have two chicken carcasses or one carcass and a bunch of wing bones (or other bones if you can get them from your farmer or butcher). If you have only one carcass, you might cut the recipe in half to avoid a weak broth. It’s fine to store one carcass in the freezer until you have a second ready.

Starting ingredients:

4 quarts (filtered) water
2 Tablespoons raw, unpasteurized apple cider vinegar (or another kind of vinegar if necessary, the milder the better. Try rice vinegar before grain vinegar. I don’t think balsamic works for this purpose).
Chicken* bones (two carcasses if available)

* Use good quality chickens that have been bred on pasture. Organic or “pastured” from a farmer you trust is best. Be sure at a minimum that they are hormone & antibiotic-free. Organic chickens at the store might be pricey, but you can get them directly from farmers at markets or through co-ops for $3.00/lb.

Step 1:

Mix the above in a stock pot.

Step 2:

Let sit for 30-60 minutes at room temperature.

During this time, the vinegar is pulling out the calcium and other minerals from the bones. It might help if you’ve cut up or snapped some of the bones.

Step 3:

While the water/vinegar/bones sit, cut up one onion, three celery stalks and two carrots. Big pieces are fine.

Note: celery and carrots are both on the “dirty dozen” list, meaning they are among one of the foods it’s most important to eat organic.

Step 4:

Add the veggies to the pot and put on heat to a boil.

Step 5:

When the pot starts to boil, try to skim off anything that looks like scum – tiny particles and bubbles that are impurities. If you don’t do this, life will go on, but you’ll notice that your final product will look not so pure.

Step 6:

After skimming, lower the temp of the pot to a low simmer. The top of the stock-in-progress should be relatively still while there is rolling going on under the surface. Cover for the remainder of the cooking.

Step 7 (aka “Wait”)

Let this roll (covered) as long as possible - no fewer than 6 hours. The closer you can get to 24 hours, the better. The flavor will be rich, and it will be a wonderful healing food full of gelatin. You can turn it off if you go to work or to bed and leave it on the stove to bring back to a boil hours later. Skim the scum each time you bring it back up to a boil, and then turn the heat back down each time.

Step 8:

When you’re ready to call it quits, put a bunch of parsley in for last 10 minutes for an extra wallop of minerals (and flavor).

Step 9:

Now you’re ready to strain the stock into a big bowl (using a mesh strainer and going slowly so your bones and veggies don’t fall in).

Any remaining meat and the veggies have all been stripped of their nutritional value by now. Toss them out or feed the meat to the cat.

If you did a short run of this stock, you might save the bones for a second use.

Step 10:

Let the stock cool some before you ladle it into jars for storage. Whether you cool it in a bowl or in smaller containers, it’s nice to let the stock completely cool in the fridge before you use it so you can take off the top layer of fat if you wish and so that you can see how solidly the stock “set up” – how gelled it got.

Don’t put warm stock in the fridge; it will just warm up your fridge! Let it sit out and get to room temperature first.

Future use:

If you don’t plan to use the stock right away, you can store in Mason jars (be sure to leave at least an inch at the top so they don’t burst in the freezer) or freeze in cube trays for small uses here and there. Stock keeps in the fridge for a few days; use your nose, but I’d feel very comfortable with 3-4 days, and some folks would go up to a week. Bringing to a boil again is a good idea.

Enjoy this wonderful, delicious healing food that is far superior to anything you could get in a box or can!

For more on this and other traditional foods, see Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions and the Weston A. Price Foundation.

Mama gets the sniffles

2010-01-25T13:51:00.003-05:00

Here is a health-focused piece cross-posted from my main blog, Crunchy-Chewy Mama. I had been putting more health-focused pieces here and more snippets from life on the alternative mainstream divide over there, but I now that I am writing for The Washington Times Communities at "Reading Ingredients: Tales of a Health-Conscious Mom," I'm re-evaluating my blog strategy (which includes looking for someone to help me upgrade them all or combine at least these two blogs.)

Here is my tale of a recent illness and how I fought it off the pharma grid.

***

We've got 60 degrees here in Metro DC and I think I'm finally getting over a cold that started two weeks ago. I never get sick and stay sick. This was annoying. Not so bad that I had to make the husband stay home or back out on a major event I was planning, but bad enough that I sounded like the woman from "The Nanny" if she had a sinus infection. Not pretty!

We don't do drugs in our house, so I did my best to self-medicate. This starts with food -- lots of nutrient-dense homemade (from pastured chickens) bone broth and a limit on refined carbs. When I look back, the weekend before I got sick I had hot rice cereal for breakfast one day and French toast another day (GF millet bread, but still) and a bunch of rice crackers. That's way more packaged food than usual. So I cut out what I could but still allowed myself some antioxidant-rich raw cacao.

When I started to feel an illness on I restarted the flower essences I maybe should have been taking all season long from Perelandra. On Tuesday the 12th, I tried the homeopathic remedy Hepar. Sulph. Calc. and promptly got worse with a sore throat and swollen glands. I think I honestly fell asleep on the floor of my bathroom while my son played with toys in an empty bathtub. A homeopath said it was most likely that this reaction was just pushing the natural course of events forward and that now I just had a cold I might as well let run its course. So I gave up on the homeopathy - none of the indications seemed 100% right on anymore,anyway - and just tried garlic & ginger in hot lemon water in the morning, eating well, getting sleep, staying in bed even if I couldn't sleep well (instead of getting up to work), and putting some eucalyptus in my shower. I kept meaning to get even just a basic saline nasal spray but didn't, and we found our humidifier but never got it working.

Well, all that, and a lot of water and a lot of bodywork. My head was killing me with major sinus pressure, so I looked for whatever healing hands had openings. On Wednesday, the day after I felt terrible, I had a chiropractic adjustment and acupuncture. On Saturday morning I had a massage, primarily of craniosacral therapy. On Monday afternoon I had another bodywork session, a combo of craniosacral therapy and lymphatic drainage massage. Each time I handed over my credit card after a session, I did feel better. But it didn't last to the next day, not as much as I wanted. I still had a lot of nose-blowing and some coughing.

Then, on Wednesday when I'd been sick for a week, my eye looked red in one corner, which I thought was from not sleeping well until the next morning when it was sticky and red all over. This was the day of my event. None of the many homeopathic remedies for conjunctivitis sounded spot-on for my symptoms, but I got so weepy when my friend rang the doorbell while I was trying to have my son nap, that I decided to take pulsatilla. And I found some homeopathic eye drops at CVS, which I think helped, for sure with the redness. The eye was cleared up a day later. (The second eye got it too and also cleared up after a day).

Friday I saw an osteopath who worked a lot on my head in general, my sinuses and even in my mouth and upper palette. I sounded like a different person after that appointment -- much less nasal. But the next morning I slept in and still felt like I'd regressed. Maybe shopping for a sofa, meeting friends for coffee and walking a mile in mild winter day were too much. But we did get a new rebounder, which I used twice, hoping that it would help my lymphatic system clear out. And I did fit in a little yoga.

Sunday I had to drag myself out of bed but felt a lot better after starting the morning off with Vitamin C before my lemon/ginger/garlic drink, to which I added turmeric and elderberry. And then I had a full breakfast and set to work on some reorganization of the house, which felt great. I even had a little decaf coffee and some GFCF sugar-free (maple syrup only) chocolate cake my son and I had made as a celebration of my successful event Thursday night (adaptation of this cake recipe but using mashed cherries instead of applesauce and adding cacao and coconut flakes).

Despite this indulgence, I could tell I'd turned the corner Sunday afternoon. It's now Monday afternoon, and though I still am not ready to go out and do a full run in this gorgeously warm day (or to be too far away from a tissue), I am glad I was able to ride this out and that so far, no one else in the house seems to have any symptoms.

Applesauce Cake - Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Low-Sugar

2010-01-04T12:48:00.008-05:00

At my son's Waldorf school, birthdays are celebrated with applesauce cake. We always pack my son a wheat-free, gluten-free alternative for the baked goods. I also make them dairy-free so that I can eat them and because we try to keep my son's dairy intake down.

I was very pleased with the cake we made yesterday after I'd cobbled together several different gluten-free recipes. I substituted almond flour for most of the flour and drastically reduced the sugar (though did not omit for fear of a too-soggy cake).

Next time I will make a double batch so that we can have plenty to munch on at home! This time we had to reserve three servings for two birthdays this week (and one we'll freeze for next week). I will also increase the spices from the numbers used here, but I'll leave them for those who prefer a milder taste.

GFCF Applesauce Cake Recipe

Dry ingredients

1 1/2 cups almond flour
1/2 cup potato starch flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour (Could use other GF flours per your preference, but the almond makes it moist and sweet and gives the cake more protein)
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp (real with minerals) sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
shake of ground ginger

(increase all spices if you want more flavor)

Mix the above in one bowl and set aside.

Then mix the following in another bowl:

2 (pastured or at least organic!) eggs, beaten (and warmed so the coconut oil will not harden)
1/3 cup warmed (to liquid) coconut oil
1/4 cup Sucanat, Rapadura, date sugar, or maple sugar

Add to that mixture

1 cup applesauce (organic or local from an orchard you trust)
1/4 cup coconut milk mixed with water (so not too thick)
1/2 cup grade B maple syrup
1/4 tsp black strap molasses (could add more)
1 tsp vanilla (try for GF/alcohol-free. Could increase quantity if desired)

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry bowl. Mix well, with electric mixture for a short time if necessary.

Optional to add in nuts or raisins. If adding raisins, cut down on the sugar and/or maple syrup.

Grease pan(s) with coconut oil prior to filling them or use parchment paper to line if you don't want your food touching non-stick/Teflon surfaces.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes. This should fill one 13x9" pan.

(I used a square pan and put the additional batter in a pumpkin-shaped pan, per my son's request. That one cooked in 25-30 minutes as it was not as thick.)

Enjoy!

Craniosacral therapy for my son

2009-12-01T21:03:00.002-05:00

Originally posted at my other blog, Crunchy-Chewy Mama.

I don't claim to understand exactly what craniosacral therapy (CST) does, but I believe in it. I've read some books by Dr. John Upledger, and I've talked a whole lot with my practitioners about my body and my son's body.

And I've seen its results firsthand.

I've been getting CST for six years, since I first started pursuing alternative therapies, which ended up including diagnoses of celiac disease and autoimmune thyroid disorder en route to dealing with infertility.

I learned about the therapy through my sister and her work with her son, who is on the autism spectrum. CST has been immensely powerful for me, helping me to let go of a whole lot of energy I'd been holding onto, which caused physical and emotional problems. (For more, see my article in the Winter 2008/2009 issue of the Journal of Attachment Parenting).

I had my craniosacral therapist there at my son's birth, which was supposed to be all-natural in a birth center but instead was a c-section due to my baby's breech position and extremely short umbilical cord (see my poem about that in Exhale magazine). So instead, the therapist videotaped the birth, which gave her great insight into how to treat my son hours later. "There's a lot of unwinding in his hips," she said; I later learned breech babies sometimes need to wear harnesses because of their in-utero position (hip dysplaysia).

My son is now 3.5 years old. I schedule CST for him every few months, when it seems like he's just kind of off or working on something I don't know how to address. I'm so grateful that she's been seeing him since he was an infant -- really since even before he was born.

A few months ago I asked the therapist what might have been different if he hadn't been seeing her. I trust her with my life. She does tell some people they don't need to come back. She's never said that to me. "It's hard to tell. Maybe speech or other development issues. Maybe ADD or sensory integration problems."

I've had several different practitioners work on him, and they all say the same things about tight parietal bones and jaw intensity. Lately, E has been chewing on his shirt in a way that disturbs me. A lot of kids have oral fixations, but this one is causing my son's skin to be chapped, and, well, it just looks like an anxious reaction. So I made an appointment.

Usually she just plays with him on the floor with toys while they work in a gentle way. The appointment lasts a full hour. Today, after a while, she invited him up to the table, where she tucked him in. It was the first time I'd ever seen him laid down like a patient. It was a little freaky, but he looked so nurtured and cared for in the soft glow of the massage center room.

She said her recent sensory disorder training recommends letting kids follow their interest/obsession while they are getting treatment. So she did. He chewed on a toy and then, when she felt a big release, he was done with the mouthing and just sort of flopped into relaxation.

After seeing him so manic and wound up recently, it was a real gift to see him so calm under her hands. She explained some other physical things and gave me more ideas for ways to work with his particular needs, including broad and heavy strokes on his body and heavy weight on his legs in front of him, and offering him straws and other mouthing options. Her questions about other behaviors -- "does he seem to need to run full boar into things?" -- seemed so spot on. He's never gotten any kind of diagnosis, and I don't understand all the ins and outs of sensory integration issues and proprioception. But I do feel very good that I have this therapist on my team.

She said that it felt like a phase but like there was also an emotional component that was not yet resolved. His neck and chest were pouring off heat, she said.

I left a little poorer but more resolved to model and live the grounding, solidifying presence he and I both shun but deeply crave.

For more information on CST and children, see "Craniosacral Therapy and Scientific Research, Part II" by John Upledger, DO, OMM. The website for the Upledger Institute is pan style="font-weight:bold;">http://upledger.com/. Find practitioners at http://www.iahp.com/

Gluten-free, dairy-free pumpkin pie!

2009-11-27T12:02:00.008-05:00

I finally took a photo of a gluten-free, dairy-free pumpkin pie this year! Two different times!

The crust was largely hazelnut and rice flour with all the spices of pumpkin pie. I used coconut oil and put a little vanilla in with the cold water, using this crust recipe (with mostly nut flour/meal). I baked the shell for 15-20 minutes before filling it with the pumpkin mix.

I used essentially the spices in the proportions on the can of pumpkin (there were no pie pumpkins available this week) with just a little extra of each spice. For one pie, Libby's calls for

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 nutmeg (that's my addition)

The liquid filling for my one pie omitted the "3/4 cup granulated sugar" and instead included:

2 pastured eggs from the farm
about 1 1/2-2 cups of coconut milk (full fat, unsweetened, organic - see brand discussion below)
a half cup of maple syrup
a dollop of molasses
less than a teaspoon of Sucanat (actually this was probably in with the dry spices)
about a teaspoon of vanilla.

I put just a little arrrowroot in a tiny bit of water and mixed that with the coconut milk (and syrup) just to add a little stiffness. I think that was about right.

Another time I used pumpkin, which we roasted and then scooped out, but I added too much starch. That time, I included arrowroot and a few Tablespoons of rice flour in the mix, and the result was too solid, as you can see -- more like a quiche instead of velvety.

The rest of the mainstream directions I followed, after baking my mostly-nut meal crusts for 15 min first:

Mix dry ingredients in a small bowl. Beat eggs in a larger bowl. Add in pumpkin and spices and mix well. Slowly mix in in coconut milk/maple syrup/vanilla mixture.

Bake in preheated 425° F oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° F; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean.

In all cases, the pies were delicious. People who need more sweet can add ice cream. We used So Delicious Coconut Milk Ice Cream though I am not a fan of that brand's coconut milk in a carton and always use the canned organic coconut milk that has no weird additives besides a little guar gum and water. And it tastes a lot better than the So Delicious cartons. As for coconut milk brands, Thai Kitchen is a little more expensive where I live than Native Forest, so I usually go with NF. The Whole Foods Brand is cheapest but is often more watery and less flavorful. I found I couldn't really tolerate the Tropical Traditions Coconut Cream Concentrate very well, and I didn't like having to warm up and add water.

GFCF rolls with hazelnut flour

2009-11-27T11:50:00.003-05:00

I wanted to share a photo of the GFCF rolls I made for Thanksgiving this year and an update on the recipe. The bulk of the flour this time was Hazelnut flour from Bob's Red Mill with some sorghum, rice, and tapioca. Also, I got away with using hardly any sugar and a little more molasses (along with a little more flour) than in my original recipe, which, I believe should be in the new Holistic Moms Network cookbook (I haven't seen a copy yet).

Ideally I would soak and dry my own organic nuts (or use nuts from Wilderness Family Naturals) and then grind those for my flour since Bob's nut flour is not organic. But at least the rolls don't send anyone's blood sugar through the roof!

Healing a Face Wound (and more?)

2009-11-14T20:20:00.004-05:00

Almost a month ago, I went to the grand re-opening of Holeco Wellness Medi Spa, the first holistic/wellness medispa recognized by Green America as a Green company and listed in their Green Pages. The owner is a wonderful woman who recently spoke at a Holistic Moms meeting. They are in a building that just underwent some lobby renovations, including new glass doors. On my way into the event, where I hoped I might win some fun beauty or energy door prize, I got instead the most ironic of injuries -- I walked right into the glass door that I thought was open, cutting my nose bridge with my glasses and giving myself a huge blow that resulted in a mild black eye a few days later.

As someone who has gotten a ton of craniosacral therapy, I knew that this blow was going to be with me for a while. The knowledge that I was setting myself back hurt more than the immediate physical trauma, though that was pretty bad, too. I was so upset that I was not aware enough to prevent this injury. Honestly, a perpendicular piece of glass did sort of look like the door, but I still should have seen that the door was closed before I rammed into it.

So after I bled all over the ground, went up to the open house and got some ice (and got looked at by a nurse), I drove home as soon as I felt it was safe to do so. When I got home, I immediately took Emergency Trauma Solution and then later Arnica. This was a Tuesday, and on Friday I had a previously-scheduled craniosacral appointment. The therapist said there was quite a bit of trauma, and he recommended Traumeel cream and anything to help with lymphatic drainage.

The next Tuesday, a week after the incident, I saw an acupuncturist and chiropractor who, before he did acupuncture, used an activator on my sinuses, which kind of freaked me out. But some stuffiness cleared up right away, and when I saw the craniosacral therapist again on Friday, he said I seemed much better than he would have expected. He gave props to the acupuncturist. Two weeks later, I saw him again, and he said that the intense jarring of energy actually let him work more deeply into my birth strain than he's been able to before.

So even though I really hadn't planned to spend that much money on treatment and time without exercising (even after three weeks, I still felt the injury in my nose when I first went jogging), I am trying to believe that there is/was/will be something good to come out of this injury, as the spa owner suggested when she kindly called me the day after the injury to check up on me!

Traditional, GFCF, and Low-Carb Eating 101

2009-11-07T15:06:00.000-05:00

I just attended a local hospital's women's health expo and spoke to a diabetes nutrition educator who was horrified that I would pursue a low carb diet. "Why would you do that?" she asked. I dropped a lot of names, none of which she was familiar with. I just wrote her an email and decided to post it here and at my other blog for my own (and anyone else's) future reference.

Dear health practitioner,

Different people find health and wellness through different means, but it is through a gluten-free, casein-free, low-carb, low-grain “traditional” diet that I personally was able to reverse autoimmune hyperthyroidism, regain my fertility and address chronic depression.

A powerful book about the wisdom of limiting or avoiding grains is on the site of author Melissa Diane Smith. She wrote a book called Going Against the Grain that explains connections between grain intolerance and other health issues and explains why grains give so many people problems.
http://www.melissadianesmith.com/

I recently saw two speakers talk about avoiding grains at a Gluten Intolerance Group gathering in Richmond, VA.
Dr. Stephen Wangen, author of The Irritable Bowel Syndrome Solution, has written a new book called Healthier Without Wheat. Information is available at www.HealthierWithoutWheat.com
Dr. Rodney Ford makes the case that gluten has neurological impacts on people who do not have celiac disease. Information is available at www.DrRodneyFord.com
These men both gave fascinating presentations.

In terms of traditional eating, the group I referenced is the Weston A. Price Foundation
http://www.westonaprice.org/
Some quick information from the WAPF on healthy vs. unhealthy fats is at
http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/index.html
An article on proper preparation of grains is at
http://www.westonaprice.org/foodfeatures/be_kind.html
and in Sally Fallon’s book, Nourishing Traditions

A growing number of people are finding better health through increasing their intake of vegetables and decreasing their carbohydrates. Some people even point to a theory of food combining that claims putting carbohydrates with animal proteins inhibits proper digestion of food and leads to an acid/alkaline imbalance, which contributes to inflammatory conditions and to an overgrowth of Candida (yeast).

Some of this information can be found at The Body Ecology Diet - http://www.bodyecologydiet.com/ and in the BED book by Donna Gates.
Some general resources on the benefits of limiting carbohydrates can also be found at
The Gut and Psychology Syndrome - http://gapsdiet.com/
The Specific Carbohydrate Diet - http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/

A great read on why follow the wisdom of our ancestors is Nina Planck’s book, Real Food: What to Eat and Why. A farmers' daughter and a proponent of farmers markets, Nina also has a new book out for fertility, mom and baby. See her website at http://www.ninaplanck.com/

I hope you’ll get a chance to look into some of these resources and share this information with your patients.

In health,
Crunchy-Chewy Mama
http://crunchychewymama.blogspot.com/

Balancing action with rest

2009-10-10T12:35:00.003-04:00

I had a fabulous week last week of attending three (partial) days of the NVIC conference and then all day of "Perinatal: A Symposium on Birth and Reproductive Rights." But now, instead of volunteering at the Holistic Moms Network table at the Green Festival, I'm home with a slight fever. I don't feel that bad, but I'm taking the advice of the health gurus I saw at NVIC that when the body is responding to too much stimulus, you need to give it a rest. Plus it wouldn't be very nice if the germ theory is really true and I get other people sick while I'm talking to them about holistic health!

It's humbling to be side-lined, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised that my body went on strike after such little sleep (and some sugar). I ate pretty well, packing in all my food and not buying anything other than a decaf, and I've been good about immune-boosting supplements and tonics, but it still was a stressful week. Now I've got all day to roll a new batch of chicken stock (and catch up on laundry).

I might not have paid as much attention to my own health as I needed to if my son hadn't been having a really hard time this morning. He is only a little stuffy and doesn't seem feverish, but he was really weepy, which prompted me to go up and take my own temp. After one dose of pulsatilla, he seems to be doing better -- less weepy and less surprisingly changeable in his moods. I need to buy a homeopathic kit so we have everything on site.

For more on the birth symposium, see my other blogs Crunchy-Chewy Mama on a woman being threatened with a court-ordered c-section instead of what would be a second VBAC and Mama's Mouth on art as activism.

Vaccine conference: Dr. Lawrence Palevsky

2009-10-04T19:34:00.006-04:00

Seeing Dr. Lawrence Palevsky made me appreciate my pediatrician even more than I already do. The basic message of both is that we want symptoms to be expressed because they are a way for us to understand what is going on in our bodies. It's crazy to expect kids to be well all the time. When they are ill, the immune system is working because it's getting something out of their bodies that doesn't belong there.

What I especially liked was how holistic Dr. Larry was in his description of what that stuff is we might want to get out. He pointed out that we receive info in the following ways:
-genetics
-in utero info from our mothers
-air - what we breathe
-nervous system including all of our senses and anything that affects the senses, including electro magnetic fields
-skin - what we put on it
-intestines - what we eat
and then, through what we insert into the body via injections, if we choose to do so.

Every day, we all eliminate toxins through breathing, through our skin (sweating), through our intestines (bowel movements) and through our senses showing up in things like sleep issues and mood changes.

What we don't know is how kids eliminate the information they get from vaccinations, which contain not only chemical compounds and adjuvants but viruses, which are protein-coated pieces of RNA or DNA from some other being.

Vaccines aside, Dr. Larry described chronic illness as the failure to allow the symptoms of acute illness to cleanse our bodies -- for yucky stuff to leave. When we give kids drugs to lower their fevers or in some way change their symptoms "for the better," we're overloading them with information. The stuff stays inside and on top of that they have to deal with more chemicals and more info that confuses their body. This leads to a loss of resilience.

Dr. Larry also noted that there are trillions of viruses around and that we have more microorganisms in our bodies than there are people on earth or cells in our bodies! We fear and so vaccinate against 15 bacteria and 20 viruses -- 35 out of trillions. Doctors are taught in medical school that vaccinations "teach" us to recognize these organisms before we encounter them, but Dr. Larry says we are more likely to encounter them naturally (and that 98% of polio is cleared out through gastroenteritis).

Kids get sick because there is inflammation that their bodies are working to release/resolve. Dr. Larry pointed out that kids often make a developmental breakthrough after a fever, including one 10.5-month old who had a fever for 5-7 days and then, when it broke, got up and walked. My son had a high fever and ear infection (which we did not treat) just after he turned one. He was exclusively breastfed and had, before the illness, almost zero interest in food except for amusing crunchy items like lettuce and celery. After the fever broke and he was back in good health, he was suddenly ready to eat solid food.

It's great to hear people present a paradigm of health that views illness as one piece of the picture and not as some fire to be extinguished.

Dr. Larry works with patients in a way that sounds a lot like our doctor -- talks to them, emails with them, looks at photos. He told the audience that we should demand this kind of attention from our doctors. He said he works with patients to help them decide what is right for their family with regard to vaccinations. In 2000, the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics acknowledged that reductions of most diseases went down before vaccines were introduced, and that contributed to Dr. Larry's understanding that diseases come and go on their own and in response to other factors (like what's in the water and in the air, etc.). In the debate with Dr. Bob Sears that followed, Dr. Larry called for a rethinking of the allopathic model of medicine.

So much to learn and think about!

From the vaccine conference

2009-10-02T21:54:00.004-04:00

Among the information I learned today at the National Vaccine Information Center's Fourth International Public Conference were the following:

-The majority of flu-like illnesses -- 86% -- are not caused by the influenza virus. The flu vaccine addresses only 14% of flu-like illnesses that are, in fact, caused by the influenza virus (as opposed to other viruses or bacteria) (from Peter Doshi's talk)

-There have been only a small number of trials of the new H1N1 vaccine on pregnant women and on children. There has been no formal study of potential for fetal harm. Trials all had adjuvants, but the H1N1 given to people en masse will not. Thimerosal will be in the vaccine unless patients specifically request a Thimerosal-free vaccine.

-Last year there were 171 child deaths from the flu in general. So far this year there have been 48 child deaths from H1N1 out of 600 total deaths in the U.S. (3,900 worldwide in 191 countries). Predictions in August expected 90,000 deaths from H1N1. (from Vicky Debold's talk)

-The Gardasil vaccine has an unknown duration of protection and only postpones the possibility of cervical cancer and does not prevent it (from Diane Harper's talk).

More from Doshi's talk at Crunchy-Chewy Mam a.

Looking to learn: vaccine conference

2009-10-02T00:53:00.002-04:00

It's too late to be up when you're planning to be at a conference at 8 a.m., but I just have to say how excited I am to be attending the 4th International Public Conference on Vaccination sponsored by the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC).

There is lots to learn!

One place to start: To say nothing of the whole immunity issue, I recently found an interesting list of the chemicals in vaccines at the blog of Beth Greer, Super Natural Home.

Apple picking... in our yard?

2009-09-28T14:12:00.005-04:00

We just realized that our new home has an apple tree in the back yard. It's probably not going to get a whole lot of light, and I doubt the apples will fully ripen, but we've enjoyed using the apples in the juicer with carrot (and some beet, celery, parsley and ginger). Since organic u-pick seems impossible to find in this part of the mid-Atlantic, I'm thinking now that we should consider transplanting the apple -- or planting another apple tree in the front yard.

Helping children with aggression

2009-09-21T09:23:00.003-04:00

"But he showed remorse," said my kind friend when I called her crying to apologize that my son had bitten hers at school. "What more could you want?"

Um, for him to not do it at all?

Really, what I want is for my son not to feel that kind of out-of-control anger. I know he's three and a half and that some socially inappropriate behavior is, well, developmentally appropriate. But I also know that when he went through a similar phase two years ago, some body work and energy work really seemed to help.

And I know that as someone who suffered from undiagnosed depression all through my childhood, it's no fun to feel unhappy inside. Although medication helped through a few dark periods in my adulthood, it's become crystal clear to me that what has made the most profound difference has been a combination of non-drug remedies: a gluten-free, casein-free diet; regular exercise and yoga; and body work and energy work, including acupuncture, chiropractic and craniosacral therapy (CST).

So when my son had a biting episode a few weeks back for the first time (a 12-hour playdate is a rough thing for overtired cousins inhabiting a small space on a rainy cold day), I made an appointment with the acupuncturist who saw us when he had an ear infection months ago. While I waited the three weeks before that opening, I also got him in for CST work, which I though was probably more useful for him (lasting a full hour) but is twice as expensive as the acupuncturist who works with kids.

The acupuncture was scheduled for Friday at the end of the first week of school. E seemed to enjoy school fine and had none of the crying some other kids did upon leaving their moms for the first time. But on Tuesday, the second day, he did bite the arm of his friend, G, in what was probably a tussle over a toy. "It might have been provoked," the teacher said, having not seen the lead-up. But I was deeply troubled.

My kid is nice. He's usually patient and kind. When he does physical stuff, something seems like it's just not right inside. That's an awful feeling, and I don't want him to have it. To me, the biting is a symptom. Maybe he's feeding off of my stress. Maybe it's partly the change of season, as the acupuncturist suggested. Maybe it's that we've been trying some dairy in his diet, and maybe it doesn't agree with him any more than it does with me.

What I do know is that he and I both had a nice day Friday and a pretty mellow weekend after a week of volatility and meltdowns. All the doctor did was use a little roller on a few spots and then put little acupressure stickers on his ears, hands and feet. Thinking we might try needles on him next time, she did a demo on me with a quick insertion to two points that address the kidney meridian and fear. "You'll have a good day, too," she nodded to me.

And I did. Within a few hours, the sense of urgency and crisis was gone. My son and I had a lovely time together. We'll see if he can hold onto that calm through today, the first day of the second week of school.

Fighting the flu naturally

2009-09-10T12:20:00.004-04:00

I haven't been pro-vaccine for a long time, since I got the flu vaccine in my 20s and felt terrible.

Now that we're facing a potentially bad flu year, there is a lot of talk about vaccines for flu and specifically for H1N1/Swine Flu. I'm hoping that the alternative folks are right that the best way to avoid getting seriously ill is by avoiding refined foods -- especially sugar and flour -- and generally eating a healthy diet, along with giving our bodies assistance in fighting things naturally by getting chiropractic work, acupuncture or craniosacral therapy.

But we don't always get the sleep, exercise, or nutrition that we need, so I've ordered from Perelandra the 2009-2010 Flu Season Balancing Solution from the Microbial Balancing Program and also FSBS+, which is supposed to address pandemic strains of the flu. These bottles are $10-15 and from a farm local here in Virginia. I know some folks are hoping their homeopaths can make a homeopathic version of the standard vaccine.

I hope that we can do okay, as we did last winter on health and wellness except for the week after the Holistic Moms chapter launch (and the Inauguration, which was an exciting but very long day). The following week, my son came down with an ear infection that I'm pretty sure was his system's response to his mom's stress. That lasted over a week but cleared without drugs. We were still nursing at the time, though, and this year, he won't have that protection.

This season, I hope we can find the inner balance we need and can count on the Perelandra solutions (the above, as well as the Immune and Lymphatic solutions) to stay healthy.

What did the boy inherit?

2009-08-18T23:59:00.005-04:00

A few months back, I finally did a cheek swab test on my son to see if he did in fact inherit gluten sensitivity from me. I'd ordered the test from Enterolab almost a year earlier on the advice of Melissa Diane Smith, author of the fabulous book, Going Against the Grain. For some reason, I just had a block against finding out. I wanted to keep my boy gluten-free until he was three anyway. With all the added gluten in today's grain and the increase in gluten sensitivity, I don't think it's healthy for anyone to have much of it period, and certainly not when the gut is so immature.

The results showed that my son has one of the main genes that predisposes to gluten sensitivity and celiac sprue and one "non-celiac" gene that also predisposes to gluten sensitivity. Mainstream doctors would not diagnose celiac disease without blood testing and/or an endoscopy, but those would likely not yield positive results unless he had eaten enough gluten to do damage to his gut. That's not a risk I'm willing to take.

However, we are trying him now on cow's milk and will then do a stool test to see if he shows casein sensitivity. The idea is that the more integrity we can build in his gut now, the healthier he will be in the long run. But I don't want to keep him off of all dairy unless we know. There is so much good to be had in full-fat, farm-fresh dairy -- real milk.

So we're trying to just be up front with him, always pointing out that different people eat different things. Since this is not an issue of allergy, I want to keep out the fear, but I do want him to understand that we sometimes make choices based on information that doesn't have an immediate impact. That's next-to-impossible for someone his age to get, but I'm trying to present it just as things are and hope that it will help him eventually make choices that are good for his body rather than get stuck in some kind of right/wrong dichotomy.

Jaw and hip pain

2009-07-07T00:08:00.005-04:00

I have a friend who thought she had an ear infection but instead was told by a D.O. that she has TMJ - jaw pain. I mentioned to her the connection between hips and the jaw but had no resources to share to back me up. I've heard it from numerous practitioners from dentists to birth professionals, but I didn't get the windfall I expected upon Googling. Most of the info is more general about posture & alignment.

Here are some of the links that came up. It's way too late and I think I'm clenching my jaw and tensing my legs & hips as I type!

Whole Health Dental Center: info on body/alignment and TMJ - the Cranial-Dental Balance: http://www.wholehealthdentalcenter.com/carnail-dental.htm

Fairlington Dental's TMJ info and treatment overview: http://www.fairlingtondental.com/tmj-treatment.html

Upledger Institute: article giving overview of CranioSacral Therapy in general at http://www.upledger.com/pdf/CS0307E.pdf

Weg Der Mitte (Berlin): Article: "The Symbiotic Partnership of Dentistry And Craniosacral Therapy"
http://www.wegdermitte.de
/index.php?/english/publications/cranio-article1.htm

Delicious Living Magazine: article on TMJ and healing modalities: http://deliciouslivingmag.com/health/conditions/oral-health/dl_article_2361/

In Light Times: article on TMJ and other connections (by a dentist): http://www.inlightimes.com/archives/2005/08/tmj.htm

About.com article from massage therapist on using massage and Reiki (including working on hips) to alleviate jaw pain: http://healing.about.com/cs/uc_directory/a/uc_sadler03.htm

Yoga Forums: A casual Q& A at http://www.yogaforums.com/forums/f16/the-jaw-hip-connection-2211.html

North Bay Chiropractic and Laser Center: Just some info about TMJ and overall health & possible other health connections: http://www.northbaylaserdoc.com/help_tmj.shtml

Ogden Dental: Info on TMJ and other issues like joint problems: http://www.ogdendental.net/gpage7.html

Yorkville Centre for Integrative Health: massage therapist talking about connections with TMJ and the rest of the body: http://www.balancefacilitator.com/Articles/tmj-article.html

Whole foods come from the ground

2009-06-21T23:15:00.004-04:00

We didn't plant a whole garden this year because of the move, but at least we've got a little bit of a harvest on our patio and in the yard. At least my kid knows what green beans, peas, blueberries and black raspberries look -- and taste -- like in their original home.

Now if I can just get him to stop picking sage all the time.

What I eat

2009-06-16T15:09:00.002-04:00

For a long time, I've been eating a lot of calories. A typical breakfast would be sausage, one or two eggs (mostly just the yolk), raw/cultured sauerkraut, sprouts (usually pea, lentil or azuki bean -- not alfalfa), sauteed zucchini and some kind of green vegetable cooked in homemade chicken stock. Kombucha and supplements on the side. If I was still hungry after that, I'd have some coconut milk and nuts and/or berries.

But once I was done nursing, I really didn't need to do that. And I wanted to cleanse my liver, plus lose a little extra in the belly. I can't afford to lose much weight, but I wouldn't mind toning. I'm sure going to bed earlier and doing more yoga & meditation to help with stress would also help with the belly pooch. No longer keeping the house ready to sell helps a lot, but I will be most happy when we've closed and have moved into the new place.

I'm now juicing every morning with a real juicer, not just the Vita-Mix (and I'm finally composting everything else again, as evidenced by my son's grape vines). I'm also spending a few days without meat or eggs. The hope is that my body will let go of some toxins and of the idea that I have to eat 2,000 calories at every meal.

I am trying to keep a low profile on fruits since I don't tolerate sugar well. But now we actually have blueberries and black raspberries growing in our yard, and the farmer's market has pesticide-free strawberries.

Gluten-free pancakes at Original Pancake House

2009-06-05T23:00:00.006-04:00

The Original Pancake House in Falls Church, VA now offers gluten-free pancakes using Bob's Red Mill GF blend, milk, egg and canola oil. The pancakes did taste good -- we got one order of blueberry and one of pecan -- (choices also include plain, banana and chocolate chip -- not as many choices as the regular pancakes boast at OPH). Shredded potatoes tasted like canola oil, which does no one any favors. We got some turkey links that were okay (not guaranteed nitrite-free or anything), an a fried egg that wasn't too pale in the yolk, and the real maple syrup was indeed probably worth the extra money (can't remember if it was 50 cents or $1.50, but who wants anything that's probably half corn syrup?). Decaf was not memorable either way.

I was calling it my last big carb binge before trying to seriously start a more veg-focused diet (including juicing and more raw food), but it was fun to be able to have breakfast out in the world for once. It's better at home, of course, but I'm still really glad they are offering the GF cakes.

Visit http://www.originalpancakehouse.com/

I have my kitchen back!

2009-06-05T22:56:00.003-04:00

After weeks of needing to keep a clean house in the hopes that someone would buy it, I'm so excited to finally have my kitchen back! I've finally got stock rolling (from bones I'd had to stuff in the freezer), I soaked millet last night in whey and water and made porridge this morning, I've been juicing. More on my exploits to come, I hope, but this is what a busy kitchen looks like. Forget those empty counters!

Potato Pancakes (gluten-free, dairy-free)

2009-05-19T10:56:00.005-04:00

This is not the most stellar recipe post, but I thought I'd share that lately I've been making a quick side dish out of the extra farm eggs we have now that I'm no longer nursing and eating two each morning (and I keep forgetting to decrease my order size!). My son loves eating these savory pancakes. I essentially beat a couple of eggs and add to them grated potato, zucchini, carrot and chopped onion (maybe some spinach, too) with some herbs, salt and pepper. Then I add some tapioca flour or rice flour and/or arrowroot. It's very unscientific. I just add until I feel like the mixture will hold together. I think I tried adding in some coconut milk once -- maybe I mixed that with the flours first and then added to the egg. At any rate, I fry the mixture in a pan with olive oil or coconut oil and flip at least once. Pretty simple and good.

Gluten-Free Rhubarb-Apple-Strawberry Pie (no dairy, low sugar)

2009-05-13T20:33:00.005-04:00

Mother's Day was also my husband's birthday. I got my special time running a half-marathon, and then we went out for brunch with friends. He didn't get much special time, having promised a neighbor we'd babysit for them. D'oh! But he did mention an idea to buy a slice of rhubarb pie for himself, so I got motivated. We also had way too many eggs because I keep forgetting to reduce my farm order to one dozen now that I'm not longer a nursing mom eating for two. So I thought, as long as I'm making crust and heating up the oven, I might as well make some quiche and a pie!

The results were yummy. I used my no-frills gluten-free pie crust recipe. For the quiche, this time I used sorghum flour, a little millet flour and rice flour with coconut and olive oils plus some oregano, pepper and basil. For the pie, I used almond flour and rice flour, coconut oil and butter plus some cinnamon and nutmeg, and maybe a dash of vanilla.

I cobbled together a few recipes for the pie with some GF substitutions and came up with this;

Gluten-Free Rhubarb-Apple-Strawberry Pie (no dairy, low sugar)

Mixture to coat fruit:
3 Tablespoons arrowroot and tapioca flours
1/4 tsp sea salt
juice of half a lemon
1/3 cup Sucanat (most recipes called for a cup or more of sugar)
1/4-1/2 tsp cinnamon
dash-1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp vanilla (alcohol-free would be better)

Fruit:
A bunch of rhubarb cut into 1" pieces
Half a pint of strawberries cut up
One apple cut into chunks -- I used half of a gala and half of a granny smith

Mix all the dry ingredients together & then mix with fruit to set for 15 minutes.
Before I put mixture into the pie crust, I tossed it with about a Tablespoon or more of coconut milk (not low fat) just for a little creaminess and a little extra sweetness.
I added a little coconut oil on top too, just because the other recipes said to dot with butter and I thought maybe it could stand some more goo. I did not put a top crust on this even though all the recipes I saw called for it. The pie baked fine.

Bake time and temp I have to make a best guess as I was also cooking the two quiche and a chicken.
375-400 worked for me, and I would guess about 45 minutes, though I would check before that and not be surprised if you didn't like the looks of it until an hour.

All agreed that it was delicious. My husband got his supplemental sugar with ice cream. I just poured some extra coconut milk on mine. Rice dream or coconut sorbet would work, too. We served it mildly warm and loved it, but it was just as good out of the fridge the next two days.

Second spring foot soak

2009-05-08T13:57:00.002-04:00

About a month after my first ionic foot soak (since pregnancy, since weaning), I did another. I think it looks a little less dark (less black/heavy metals) this time. But who knows if that's good or not! Does it just mean I'm holding on instead of excreting? I'm so stressed out with showing the house to sell/to move, I can't tell if my returned knee skin issue is a bad sign that I'm burning out or a good sign that my body is releasing more toxins. I hope that we sell soon so that I can finally use my infrared sauna again after almost 4 years. Right now it's out of the way in a friend's basement.

Stress is something to let go of, too

2009-05-02T14:40:00.004-04:00

I'd hoped that this spring season would find me happily detoxing away. I made a good start nutritionally, and I did the one dramatic foot soak. But I haven't gotten much beyond that.

We have been planning to move but had to do some unexpected negotiation after the home we want to buy got a lower appraisal than anyone expected, which put us in decision-limbo for a few days. Then we decided to move forward but still have had to prep our house to sell, which we're trying to do by ourselves to save money (and because it's been done successfully in our neighborhood several times). My husband has been between consulting gigs, so it seemed like we ought to do as much ourselves as possible since neither of us was really earning any money, and we will still be writing a huge check for the new home in a few weeks, employment or no.

But we're finding that this FSBO business takes a lot of time and requires a lot of decisions -- not as many as an addition would have, but still. I have enjoyed doing some of it -- taking the photos, prepping the house. But there are so many questions and so much unknown, I'm getting to an I-can't-take-it place. I am healthy when I take care of myself, and I'm not when I don't. Add to that the money concerns that have totally tabled any extra detox and body wellness protocols I'd hoped to do this spring. If LJ's expected new job starts up on Wednesday as we hope it will, I'm picking up the phone to get some appointments scheduled. Because I have to admit I need help to really be in the healthy zone -- and if I get too far out of that zone, it will not look pretty. I can feel my thyroid reminding me that it didn't heal on its own; it had a lot of help from my positive thinking and all the advice I got. The idea of trying for another child is, as far as I'm concerned, completely off the table until my body is not a walking stress-bomb.

And if tomorrow's open house comes and goes with no serious interest logged by the time LJ goes back to work, I think we are going to have to hire an agent or the money we save by eventually selling on our own is going to by out-paced by my medical bills.

Coconut flour cupcakes

2009-04-21T20:18:00.004-04:00

This recipe adaptation comes from Bruce Fife's Cooking with Coconut Flour

I've reduced the sugar and replaced butter with coconut oil to make a fully dairy-free and gluten-free cupcake.

These are high protein, high-fiber and rich, even without the butter.

3 Tablespoons coconut oil (melted)
3 eggs (warmed in water first so they don't clump up the coconut oil by resolidifying it)
2-3 Tablespoons sugar (pref. Sucanat, Rapadura or date or maple sugar, or regular brown sugar)
2 Tablespoons coconut milk (not low-fat)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla (preferably alcohol-free if you are being strict about being gluten-free)
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Blend the following:
oil
eggs
sugar
coconut milk
salt
vanilla

Combine coconut flour (first sifted or at least de-lumped) with baking powder. Whisk dry mix into wet and mix until there are no lumps. Pour/spoon into muffin tins.

Bake at 400 degrees for 8-15 minutes (shorter length for mini-muffins).
Supposed to make 6 full-sized muffins.

Variations/Notes:
-Add in some carob powder to the whole batter for a chocolate-like flavor
-Add almond flavoring for more of a marzipan taste
-Don't add in cinnamon -- in my opinion, it just doesn't really work well with the coconut flavor unless you're making some more nuanced concept dish.

-You could easily double the recipe and go up to only 1/2 cup of flour, but then you're in for a half-dozen eggs! A little coconut flour goes a long way! But it also requires a lot of egg! (No, I've never tried this with egg substitute.)

Spring cleaning

2009-04-07T21:40:00.002-04:00

I went to a great detox class the other night with Monica Corrado of Simply Being Well. She talked about ways to use nutrition to support your liver and why spring is the best and most natural time to do detox. I hadn't realized that a "cleanse" is the most intense thing you can do -- and shouldn't unless you're in great health and have support to live very low key while you undertake it. A "flush" is the next level of cleansing -- maybe a special liver-cleansing drink the morning and eat nothing for a 4 hrs. Again, this could result in headaches and other yucky symptoms if you're particularly toxic or too run-down for your body to handle the dumping well.

So really, what I did last spring was not a cleanse but a gentle "detox." I thought detox was a more intense term, but apparently it's the mildest of the three processes.

This spring I was hoping to step it up, now that my son has weaned. But I began from a chubby, chocolate-addicted, mildly-caffeine-addicted and sugar-happy place.

On March 31, I ate a ton of cake a friend gave me -- really gorged on it knowing the next day was April and I was going off sugar. So I made myself really feel plenty sugared up and ready to kiss it goodbye when I flipped the calendar.

Since then, I've had only minimal fruit, no refined sugar and only a little honey. I'm keeping the carbs to a minimum -- trying to do only real-food carbs, as in veggies and rice cooked in stock. I'm cutting back on meat, giving up the nut butter again but not soaked & roasted nuts and (store-bought) sprouts; I hope to start sprouting nuts and seeds myself.

I'm eating lots of salad with added dandelion greens. I'm starting the morning with lemon & turmeric in hot water and am turning to my parsley-lemon-celery juice for snacks during the day. I did have half a Lara bar today between breakfast and lunch, and I ate a salad at Corner Bakery tonight, including some dressing and currants. So I'm not a purist. But I have made changes that have resulted in having already lost 2 lbs. I'm generally feeling pretty good. I ran 9.5 miles on Saturday. I did snack more that night on coconut milk and sprouted sunflower seeds with a few raisins. But that's not bad.

Oh, and chocolate? After eating most of half a bag of chips in conjunction with decorating my son's bday cake a few weeks ago, I'm now off. The sole source for the past week has been unsweetened, raw, organic cacao nibs from Wilderness Family Naturals with a spoon of their centrifuged coconut oil and maybe some almonds or apricot kernals.

One goal is indeed to lose a little pudge but mostly I want to get my liver and the rest of my body happy and healthy (my dry skin is back a little on my knees) and generally break some unhealthy habits so that I can eventually get back to a place of more moderation and a happy relationship with my body.

Ionic foot soak

2009-04-03T12:40:00.004-04:00

So, now that my son has weaned, I'm ready to do some detox. I tried an ionic foot bath twice the year I got pregnant. The water turned very yellow both times -- like egg yolk. I heard at the time that this was connected to hormone issues.

Last week I tried it again, and you can see from the before and after pictures, the results were brown and black. According to the information at Whole Health and Wellness, this indicates liver and heavy metal issues. A recent trip to a holistic doctor came up with liver toxicity and heavy metals as concerns for me, too.

I'm planning to do some nutritional liver cleansing in the next few months, but this visual makes me think I might need some other help, too! Especially if I'm thinking we might want another baby. To be continued...!

Planting seeds of unknown future

2009-03-29T23:00:00.004-04:00

So, we might be moving - nearby, but still. A move is a move. It's hugely exciting to think of having a house that works better for our family, but it means I'm not sure what to do about planting anything. I don't want to invest in creating a big raised bed (a la Square Foot Gardening) if we're going to be having to show our current house in the next month. Even if we didn't mind the look, could we move the garden to the new place? I don't think I'm up for the investment of time with so much else going on.

Still, I want to have my son see things come to life, so we'll at least do some container gardening again. We started some seeds a few weeks ago, and I decided to try some more after transplanting what I had. After a ton of rain the next day, I'm pretty sure we'll be starting over from scratch and hope the next batch of seeds take off in the yogurt cups as well as the first ones did. Not sure if these efforts will yield anything, but at least we're digging in the dirt and creating green.

Birthday happenings

2009-03-27T23:50:00.006-04:00

Our birthday celebration this year was to have a bunch of friends over just to play on a Monday morning. It was a little too crowded (too cold to go outside), but it was nice. I did get balloons, but all the food was pretty natural/low-processed -- fruit, kale chips (baked kale), rice pasta with veggies, a few bags of Terra and veggie chips, hummus & veggies and my friend's homemade dosas -- soaked rice & lentil pancakes (she added shredded coconut this time, and they were a big hit!). The spread was almost all gluten-free and dairy-free (just some pita for the hummus). I'll share about the cake another time, but the images I like best were from the Waldorf-y aspects.

We only gave my son three gifts (which I don't think he would have missed after all the gifts from grandparents and the playdate, balloons and dinner out at the Afghan restaurant he requested to go to). The gifts were just two Melissa & Doug puzzles and an outfit for his Waldorf doll, a gift last year, from Joy's Waldorf Dolls. I wrapped them in plain paper and painted watercolors on them -- numbers, his name, balloons. And I placed them on a rainbow silk I got a long time ago from A Toy Garden. His response upon coming in the door after dinner was wide eyes and "ooh, look at that!" I was so excited that he responded to the natural looking stuff with as much or more wonder as he respond to the UPS truck and the stuff it brings!

I also liked the birthday ring I got for him at Nova Naturals. I just learned that Wooden Wagon has a lot more choices, but I like what we did this year, and he seemed to, too. Thanks to my friend Paula for the lovely centerpiece!

Experimenting with Quail Eggs

2009-03-04T17:50:00.005-05:00

Last week at Whole Foods, we spent some time looking at the fresh, loose eggs, which I'd never purchased there. (We get our chicken eggs through a farm share, and I just placed my first order through Joel Salatin's Polyface farms). Quail was a new word for us, thanks to the one bit of TV I'd recently gotten my son: YogaKids ABCs video. (Tech disclaimer: The original Yoga Kids DVD we got a while back is the only packaged TV he's seen, and the only other TV he sees is occasional weekend sports). This video is very nature-heavy, and we were just learning that Q is for Quail. So I took the time to talk about the eggs. "I want to get some!" he said, so we bought four. They were two for a dollar.

The short version is that he loved them. After we made one and he ate it up in just a few minutes, he asked for another. I fried another one up (so fast!). Then his dad made him one and had just a bite. I got to have the fourth with breakfast the next day. It had no distinctive taste, but for some reason I felt a little funny eating it -- maybe because I didn't know as much about its background as I do about my pastured chicken eggs from our local farm.

A nutritionist had told me a long time ago that quail eggs are often more easily digested by people who have trouble with ovalb umin (the protein in chicken egg whites). I'm not sure why it took me so long to try them.

I haven't done a ton of research, but here are some links:

Nutrition facts for quail eggs from nutritiondata.com
Comparison data on different eggs from dietbites.com
Pro-quail egg info from geniuscook.com
Cooking quail eggs in a ladle instructions from lunchinabox.net blog
Recipe with chevre from Diary of a Locavore blog
Recipes from Rosi's Organic Quail Farm
Lovely photos, info and recipe from The Well-Seasoned Cook blog
Some info and tips from Recipetips.com

Choose the right ingredient

2009-02-22T22:58:00.004-05:00

This is what coconut flour waffles (with a little almond meal and flax meal) should look like:

This is what they will look like if you accidentally put in 2 T of xanthan gum instead of arrowroot (which we use instead of corn starch in this recipe, and we use coconut milk and almond milk)

Gluten-Free Rolls (low-sugar muffins with nut flour)

2009-02-18T20:25:00.005-05:00

At our Waldorf school's Parent-Child class, the daily snack kids make is whole wheat rolls, which are eaten with freshly churned (shaken in a jar with marbles) butter. When the rolls come out of the oven and we sit down to give "blessings on the meal," fresh organic apples are cut as well. The teacher was open to us substituting a gluten-free recipe until we came to the realization that you don't knead GF flour, which defeats the pedagogical purpose of children getting involved in the tactile experience of moving their hands in the dough.

So we decided that we'd just bring our own GF rolls. At first I brought in yeasted rolls like those at school, but they looked nothing like the nice, round wheat rolls. I decided that for a mama (and maybe her son) with Candida issues, I might as well avoid the yeast and instead make more of a mini-muffin. Since we don't have anyone with a nut allergy in class, I've started using almond flour to make these less carby, empty calories. Here is the recipe I've hit on that I think works.

Dry mixture

2 cups flour -- I used almost a cup of almond flour and the rest a mixture of brown rice, millet and arrrowroot
1 T baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp salt

Wet mixture

1/2 cup coconut oil and olive oil mixture per your preferences (or go with butter if you can tolerate it)
1/2 cup coconut milk (not low-fat)
2 eggs beaten (organic, preferably pastured from a farm)
1 T sucanat (or rapadura, date sugar or maple sugar)
1 tsp molasses
1 tsp ground flax

Mix the wet ingredients together with a mixer and then add to the dry mixture

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-12 minutes
Makes 30 or so mini muffins

I didn't try using cup liners and allowed my food to touch the evil Teflon, so I don't know about the sticking factor with cup liners.

Addendum:
My son wanted to make "heart cookies" again. Although this was not cookie dough, we did have some success after I froze the dough. They weren't exactly pretty, but they made the kid happy. Cooked them 6-8 min.

Dropping some silver on supplements

2009-02-14T23:47:00.003-05:00

I just spent $132 at the Vitamin Shoppe. Wow. My husband has an eardrum that has been ruptured for over 48 hours and still hurts a lot. I bought some tea, colloidal silver supplement and nasal spray, grapefruit seed extract ear drops and nasal spray, some probiotic (on sale), calendula tincture (seemed like a good idea) and some more homepathic remedies (including something that my son grabbed because it came with a little Curious George pouch - even the alternative stuff markets to kids! He's been sick, too, so I cut him some slack, especially after he agreeably put several items back on the shelves and since he'd been whining a whole lot before we got into the car).

When I first went on my Save-My-Adrenals-and-Thyroid health kick starting in early 2004, I spent that kind of coin on capsules often. A lot was at the Vitamin Shoppe, where you get little coupons every so often if you spend a lot, and I also shopped at Village Green Apothecary in Bethesda, where they carry brands usually only practitioners have but at a better price. Since my thyroid has stabilized and my nutrition is so much improved, I haven't been as much of a supplement junkie. And certainly in this economy with a one-income family, I'm usually more reserved before throwing $25 bottles of dried mushrooms into my basket (my sister-in-law swears that one helped her). But since the hubby isn't of a mind to get energy work and is still in a lot of pain, he told me to get "whatever looks good." After a week at home with my sick son, who was on a nursing binge to fight his fever (which also turned into an ear infection), I was ready to jack up the credit card for our health at the supplement store (and I already have with craniosacral therapy and an acupunturist who used some cute little tools on my boy to open his meridians and did a few needles on me when I mentioned his clinginess. It always comes back to me!)

Considering a possible run for reconception, I'm also thinking that it's probably time for me to actually see a doctor -- a holistic-minded one for sure, and preferably one who starts with some energy work, but someone who can make sure I'm in a safe place to possibly go forward with trying for a bigger family. That will cost a pretty penny, too, I'm sure!

Gluten-Free (Low)Sugar Cookies

2009-02-11T21:04:00.007-05:00

My camera battery died before the cookies came out of the oven, but here are a few of our successful baking experience making cookies to take to our Waldorf school tomorrow, where the class will be be baking Valentine cookies with whole wheat. We always bring our own gluten-free alternative to our Parent-Child class.

I always like to add almond or another nut flour in recipes to add to the protein and fat content so that the cookies don't cause a crazy sugar reaction. They are also quite low in sugar compared to some other recipes, but I'd still rather have something good with my something not-so-good.

These recipes have been adapted from The Gluten-Free Gourmet and Gluten-Free Baking Classics (via adaptation by Monica Corrado of Simply Being Well)

Dry ingredients to mix together first:
- 2 1/4-1/2 cups of GF flour
I used maybe 1/3 almond flour, 1/3 arrowroot, 1/3 tapioca and the rest brown rice flour
If you use only dry sugar/sucanat/rapadura (or date sugar or maple sugar), use closer to 2 or 2 1/4 cups of flour
If you want to substitute some molasses or maple syrup (or honey) for sweetener, add in a little more flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon salt

optional
up to 3/4 or 1 teaspoon cinnamon
a shake (1/8 teaspoon) nutmeg

Set this dry mixture aside

Gooey mixture
- 3/4 cup to 1 cup oil -- I used half coconut oil and half butter. We can tolerate a little dairy, and I do think butter makes for better cookies. Use a little more oil if using less wet ingredients (i.e. no liquid sugar)
- 1/3 cup sucanat, rapadura, date sugar or maple sugar -- sugar that still retains some of its food quality and hasn't been stripped of everything
- a small glob (maybe 1 teaspoon) of black strap molasses

Mix these together with a hand mixer. You might want to heat the oil/butter some first to encourage the chunkier natural sugar to melt/mix well.

Add to the gooey mixture:
- 1 egg (could try a few tsp. flax meal in hot water set aside for a few minutes as egg replacer, but I didn't)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla (Frontier GF/no alcohol)
optional:
- 1/2 teaspoon almond flavor or another flavoring (Frontier GF/no alcohol)

Add dry to gooey and mix with mixer until it looks like dough you could roll into a log to chill in the freezer for a bit

Put some rice flour on your rolling pin and parchment paper and roll out the chilled dough to cut into shapes

Place on cookie sheet (grease first with coconut oil if it's a sticky one, or put on parchment paper if you want to avoid Teflon)

Bake at 350 degrees for 7-14 minutes. I made my cookies quite thin (so I'd have plenty of them) and baked for 7-8 minutes. I also did a few trials in small balls and they cooked well in 8-9 minutes.

These cookies were light and had a shortbread quality -- not particularly chewy or soft. And of course with the natural sugar, they are on the brown side (and uneven in color since I didn't warm my oil and also added the egg at the same time as the oil and sugar instead of after). But they were perfect for cutting into shapes, and they sure were tasty and satisfying!

"Feed me" said the Fever

2009-02-02T16:01:00.005-05:00

I've always intended to learn more about both homeopathy and herbalism, but I don't get serious about either until an illness prompts me to drag out some books and to poke around online.

When my son woke the other night before 9:30, we could tell something was off. He'd had a small cough and looked a little peaked, and his dad had been fighting off a cold for a few days. E was so out of it and resistant to going back to sleep in his bed/alone, I brought him downstairs, and he snuggled in and fell asleep, staying asleep as we finished a rare night of actually watching a movie (actually, we'd started the movie the night before and were really hoping to finish it this time!). The boy had some twitching and seemed mildly delirious, as though he was having vivid dreams and thinking he was awake.

But still, it wasn't until after midnight that I felt the heat radiating off of him and started to smell on the acrid tinge to his breath that told me his body was becoming a bug-killing cooking machine.

Even eHow has an article that explains a fever is a body doing good work. We have never tried to artificially lower our son's fevers with Tylenol or Motrin, even when it once went up to 104.7. I'm sure we'll have to resort to allopathic medicine at some point, but whenever possible, I hope to let his body's immune system do its job and help it out only with natural means.

Our doctor said he thought frequent applications of belladonna might help. That I actually had at home, so we started it a few hours later when the boy woke up from drowsing on the couch with his dad. He did seem to perk up a bit, and he ate some. I put him in the Ergo and we all took a short walk in the unseasonably warm, 50-degree afternoon.

The night was a little smoother, but he still had lots of desire to be near me, and I nursed him in bed even though we'd stopped that weeks ago (we also are using diapers during this illness even though we'd had our first very successful diaper-free week).

But still, he was around 102 this morning, and the cough sounded worse. So we asked the doctor to fit us in. E ate a little bit this morning and drank some of his blue Odwalla juice that he'd randomly demanded in the middle of the night, but for the most part, he slept all morning.

The doctor was not worried about the chest sounds and saw nothing in the ears. We discussed symptoms, and he determined that gelsemium might be the new remedy to try.

I used the Ergo again in the grocery store and gave him some pellets once they'd been rung up. The boy was about to check out, too, practically asleep and drooling on my front, all 30 pounds of him.

After we got home and he wanted to be up from resting, he requested coconut juice and then mango coconut yogurt. I put it in front of him after spooning him a few bites and offered that I could feed him if he needed me to. A minute later, he demanded, "Feed me!" a phrase I never thought I'd serious hear from my almost-three-year-old, or from anyone outside of Little Shop of Horrors or a TV sitcom, for that matter.

But he only wanted a few bites and then said he needed to poop on the potty, which I took as a good sign. After that, more rest, more nursing, more rest, more nursing. It's like I have a baby again. It's much calmer and quieter around here than I'm used to, and I can appreciate that, but I sure do hope the little guy is back to his old self soon.

Taking a Fall

2009-01-18T10:09:00.002-05:00

Two weeks ago, I fell taking a step onto a neighbor’s basement stairs. My foot just slipped on the carpet and I was about to bounce down the stairs on my bottom. Having sprained my ankle in September 2007 two weeks before I was going to run a half-marathon, I was determined not to let my legs take any of the ill effects of this fall.

So I braced myself with my hands – I let all the weight fall into my upper body. Within minutes, I knew my arms were going to hurt. I was in a fragile emotional state before the fall, and I knew that the feeling of upset and the trauma were going to settle into my body in a powerful way. I went home and sobbed for a few minutes after I took my first round of drops of Perelandra’s Emergency Trauma Solution (ETS Plus). I repeated the drops every 5 minutes four or five times. Then I took arnica and applied Traumeel lotion topically.

But it hurt a lot to raise my arms out to the side, and I knew that whatever I did, I was going to need help. I kept taking arnica – no OTC painkillers and the next morning called the massage therapy center where I’ve been going for over a decade. I knew my regular craniosacral therapist wasn’t working that day, but the other one was, and she had an opening. Fortunately, my husband had a few days off of work, so I could take the appointment.

The session was very powerful. Not only did I leave feeling like almost all the pain was gone, I was profoundly relaxed. It was clear that I needed the session anyway; CST simply needs to be part of my regular life, at least as long as I’ve not got a consistent yoga and meditation practice going on.

I happened to get in this past week with another CST practitioner I used to see a lot before my son was born. He has more experience with visceral manipulation and other aspects of Upledger training. He worked on my son for 30 minutes and for me for the remaining 20 minutes. The work felt deeply therapeutic. He said I was still locked up from the incident and that he worked to release the tension. That night I actually felt tired before 11:00 for the first time in a long while. That would not be the first time that CST helped me to chill out enough to be able to get to sleep at a decent hour.

I’m very glad to have these practitioners in my life to keep me from holding on to negative patterns and then compensating for them in other problematic ways.

When needs diverge

2009-01-03T21:23:00.005-05:00

I am being pulled in opposing directions. Now, my wanting to do several things at once is not a new thing, I freely admit. However, I was starting to feel good about the idea of going to bed early in order to get up early and do yoga or work out and write before my son got up for the day. If I get up at 5:00, I figured, (something I did regularly while teaching high school), I can do 20 minutes of yoga practice at home and then write until he comes downstairs with his dad at 7:00. We'll get him used to sleeping or at least resting until 6:30, and then he can play quietly in his room or in the hallway while LJ showers and gets dressed. Or, on alternate days, I will write for just a short bit and then go to the gym to return at 7:15, when LJ has started breakfast but is about to be needing to leave for work.

Either way, I thought, I will feel refreshed from an early bedtime, exercise, centering and creative expression. Surely this will make me more than ready to face a day of focusing on my son when we're together -- being fully present with him. And on the days I do have some childcare, I'll be more on-task for having gotten some ideas down on paper already. I'll either be able to move ahead on that or work on work or leadership for the moms group I'm starting.

That sounds lovely, but I'm feeling like it just ain't gonna happen, not without a few rough days of habit change. Why? Because my son is no longer sleeping soundly through the night on his own or in his own room. He paddles into our bed sometimes as early as midnight. Sometimes he just snuggles in, but other times he tries asking to nurse first. I tell him it's sleepy time, not morning yet, and he usually complies, especially if I have some almond/coconut milk ready for him to drink. But when he wakes at 4:00 and I say no to nursing, he sometimes gets pissed. He whines, telling me "No!" and wriggling his hand back up or down my shirt. This also happens on occasion when I cut him off from the allowed post-5:00 feeding(s). I essentially feel like I'm done with my night's sleep at 4:00, and that is just too early even if I were getting to bed by 9:00. In fact, on New Year's Eve, I stayed reading on the couch when my husband took him up to bed, and for some reason that image would not let the boy rest without his mama. So we all went to bed together early that night. And 4:00 still felt just plain wrong.

Yet I never fell back under solidly, and he wanted access to the bar at 5:00 and 6:00, and then he was just up and wanting us all to be up for the day. That is now becoming the norm: he whines, "I'm hungry! I want to go downstairs!" He used to be willing to go play in his room for a bit, maybe bring in a doll or some books to us, but now the suggestion that he amuse himself just upsets him more.

I don't know what we're going to do. Since my husband will probably not start his new job this week, I think I'm going to say we bite the bullet and I just leave the upstairs at 5:00 and let them deal with it. I've planted seeds of suggestion about this to the boy, which he ignores to ask some unrelated question that seems to be a cue he doesn't want to hear about whatever I'm saying. I am not in a hurry to wean for good before age three, but we may have to morning-wean or bed-wean. I don't know if he's just coming on like gangbusters now in a last-ditch effort to claim the goods before he drops them or what. We had been down to just morning and night until just after Thanksgiving (also just after I ovulated for only the fourth time since he was born); then he was asking around the clock for a few weeks. Since that period ended, he's tapered back to morning and night, sometimes before nap and only asking otherwise if he gets hurt or is just feeling needy. I ought to read more of How Weaning Happens and Mothering Your Nursing Toddler. My friend's 13-month-old just stopped on his own -- was crying when she'd try to feed him. I just can't imagine my boy ever wanting to stop. I wonder if there's something I'm contributing to that dynamic -- some need to be needed?

I would like to wean and cleanse before the summer, before considering trying for another child if that's what we decide to do. If we do go for #2, I would want my body to have some recovery time and to get to the healthiest possible state, which it clearly is not right now. Seeing as it took 29 months to get my first postpartum period, I want to be gentle with myself.

One other thought about the boy is to get serious about restarting remedies. Tonight I gave him Bach Flower Essences Impatiens and Vervain in addition to our first time trying Rescue Sleep -- and I could get him back to the craniosacral therapist and get us both into one of our healers who helped before. I also read in Peggy O'Mara's "A Quiet Place: Your Child's First Healer" in the new (Jan/Feb 2009) issue of Mothering magazine that the homeopathic remedy Nux Vomica is a go-to helper if you're waking at 3 or 4 a.m. If I don't find that I have any in my medicine chest, I think I will pick some up tomorrow and give it a try. And I will also call my pediatrician (a homeopath) to finally get in for an appointment!

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

2008-12-21T21:14:00.003-05:00

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

2008-12-20T09:36:00.004-05:00

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!

2008-11-27T20:40:00.005-05:00

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

2008-11-18T11:01:00.002-05:00

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

2008-11-10T22:49:00.003-05:00

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

2008-11-06T22:53:00.005-05:00

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

2008-10-30T23:48:00.005-04:00

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

2008-10-22T23:27:00.004-04:00

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

2008-10-19T20:21:00.005-04:00

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

2008-10-14T23:27:00.004-04:00

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

2008-09-27T21:02:00.002-04:00

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

2008-09-18T08:49:00.005-04:00

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

2008-09-17T00:15:00.005-04:00

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

2008-08-17T23:51:00.003-04:00

"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

2008-08-04T00:42:00.003-04:00

"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

2008-07-14T22:28:00.006-04:00

“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?

2008-07-04T23:31:00.009-04:00

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?

2008-06-19T14:36:00.002-04:00

"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’

2008-06-06T21:45:00.001-04:00

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

2008-05-24T22:46:00.001-04:00

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

2008-05-18T00:25:00.001-04:00

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

2008-05-16T00:10:00.001-04:00

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

2008-05-12T11:32:00.002-04:00

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

2008-05-02T22:47:00.000-04:00

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

2008-05-01T00:36:00.000-04:00

"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.