Healing your body from the inside out

A bunch of people have asked me about my new diet aka my new way of living. Apparently through my craziness I have inspired some people to start eating clean and healthy themselves. (Which is awesome!) I know a lot of you are wondering what I'm eating and want some recipes so.... I figured I would take some time to talk about this. Once a week I'm going to try and post what we ate for dinner the week before.

First I need to say- this is what I CHOSE to do for myself... This does not mean you need or have to do this. You may just want to detox from sugar or maybe nothing at all. Maybe you just want to eat less processed, chemical containing food. Great! Hopefully you will take something from this post but it's nothing personal, I think you all are great the way you are ... This is strictly me sharing what I am doing and if you want to join then keep reading...

Right now I am eating gluten, dairy, and sugar free. This is NOT to lose weight although the pounds do literally drop off of you. I am doing this strictly because I have had chronic back pain for years and after that third baby my back when down hill fast. Because of the pain (and Gavin's diagnosis) my occasional anxiety attacks turned into general anxiety that I was suffering with everyday. I did a ton of research on healing my gut to heal my mind and body. I will spare you all the details, google it if you are interested on the "why?" But the first week of giving up sugar and caffeine made a HUGE difference in the anxiety. Let me so say this was THE hardest thing in the world. I was eating a few butterfingers a day on top of sugary creamer in my coffee, baked goods, cookies, ice cream every night. Halloween was becoming my favorite holiday. So if I can do it,  YOU can do it. After a couple weeks it got easier to say no and find alternatives (ie: I drink pumpkin spice chai tea with French vanilla coconut creamer). Then I went a but harder ... Bread and cheese! Nooooo! I don't know anyone that doesn't love bread and cheese. But for pain reasons, they went bye bye. Fast forward to a month later and I am still doing this. I survived the hardest part! Is my pain gone? No not yet, but it takes time, it took years for my body to process all these chemicals and sugars so it will take longer than a few weeks to detox. My mind however can handle my pain a little more. My anxiety is completely under control.

Now.... What do I eat? What is left to eat? Hmmm NOTHING. I snack on some grass and some leaves.. Lol no really I eat and I eat every 5 min because I'm starving half the time. The veggies and fruits do not like to stay with you. Basically you have to get creative and once you do you will find there is a ton of food to eat. Your taste buds change and you start trying new things. I was told to give up grains too but since I am still nursing and my milk supply has already went down, I cannot give grains up right now. I have also needed to supplement with more protein since I'm not a huge meat eater for every meal. 

Let me also state that I am trying my best to switch the boys over since this is ultimately where I want us all to be (especially GAVIN). But they are kids and as you all know kids do not like change. I do make them eat a few bites of what we are having but I add cheese, or bread (sprouted bread) to their meal. So basically I take what we are having and modify it for them. I got Lukas ( who put himself on the beige diet: pretzels, bread, goldfish) to eat an entire plate of asparagus by bribing him with bacon. Bacon plus asparagus is much better that beige diet and NO veggie. I love to sneak veggies in their foods. Be creative!

I have done a very mild detox but once I am done nursing I will do a crazy strict whole entire body detox which will hopefully jump me up to the next level. So when that time comes please let me know if you are interested in it too and we can all hold each other accountable. 

Here is a sample of what I eat in a day

Breakfast: oatmeal with fruit and a smoothie -( I call it "the mix every supplement and powder I have that I don't know what to do with", smoothie) 

Start with these: Almond or coconut milk (put everything in a Vitamix, Ninja, whatever high powered blender you have). Just make sure it can break down the cell wall in the raw veggies.

Then add these:

I finish by adding some ice, because its usually warm when I am done blending. Yuck :(

Lunch: a variety of things: hard boiled egg, veggies and dip, salsa, gluten free bread with hummus. 

Snacks: almonds, fruit, dried fruit, another smoothie. Basically anything I can find. Kombucha which you can make whole made or this store bought already made one is my favorite !! 

Dinner:  I have a variety of dinners that have been successful so we stick mostly with those. Mainly a grass fed organic meat, lots of veggies and a grain (millet, brown rice, quinoa, gluten free pasta). Weekly dinner meal plan to come...

Dessert : fruit or my go to is a rice cake with some dark chocolate, or almond butter. I have made some delicious baked goods with gluten free or almond flour and the kids love them. They have no added sugar in them. The trick is to put dark chocolate chips. The higher the cacao % the better. I strive for anything over 75%. Dark chocolate is very high in antioxidants and has barely any sugar, but I still call it my "cheat" item. I need this sweetness (actually very bitter) so that I don't punch someone in the face for some candy, because my sugar withdrawals are so bad lol.  It's my one little thing that I can look forward to each day. So this is what I have to say about "cheat " items. It has to be something small and preferably once a day. Say you just HAVE to put a sprinkle of cheese on a vegetable... Ok.  But that's it, not the whole block. You can't have 5 cheats a day. Or if you absolutely have to have a little cream or a little sugar in your coffee or tea. Fine! Give yourself that little bit of happiness....But that doesn't mean go get a grande caramel macchiato with whipped cream. That is not called a "cheat" that is called, "I'm not ready to give up sugar and dairy". So be smart and aware of what you are putting into your body. Your body will thank you for it. 

I will get my meal plan together and post soon... Be on the lookout

Oh and please feel free to ask me any questions you may have:)