New things (problems) and existing things (solutions)

I'm having a really hard time coping.  I know I need to take my exercise down cause I'm stressed out. After a phone consult with Dr.Allen - he said you are lifting heavy 5 days per week, take it down to 3.  YIKES!  He is the guru and I am learning a lot from working with him and this will help since I am stating my NTC classes in September.  I figure by the time I get through my issues I will be more than able to help anyone out there!

First though, I thought I would dump some food photos from this week.  

My breakfast for the mornings, smoothie bowls, but it doesn't always have yogurt, or bananas.  Typically I smash a whole small avocado and mix my protein powder in it.  Then I have been topping it with cocoa nibs, coconut butter and hemp seeds.  I will get back to the hemp seeds in a moment, I love the crunchiness.  

 Lunch, lots of veggies with kale pate made with hemp seeds instead of sunflower seeds that should be in the recipe.  So good!  I used bacon this time, but the meat always varies.  It's all about keeping it simple.  I throw everything in a cast iron skillet and cook.

Maple bacon sausage sautéed with vegetables and jackfruit!   I found this interesting package at Whole Foods in the vegetarian refrigerated section.  This was Thai style.  Pretty tasty and paired well with any protein.

My Thursday night dinner - cassava flour pancakes with bacon, an egg and coconut butter.  Nostrand loves when I have any plate.  She always needs to see what I am doing! Hahaha!  I was working on my new training schedule.

Now we come to today's photo!  Keeping it true and real.  Yes, broken out and it has NOT gotten any better.  This is the worse it's been in many months.  This is why I said I would get back to those hemp seeds.  I love the texture they give my smoothie bowl in the morning but I think this is what is keeping the breakouts from healing.  I also have noticed some scaly patches on my arm and back.  So sad!!  So they are out for now!  I haven't had nut butters or nuts in 2 weeks and I have kept dairy and eggs to a minimum.  This must be the cause since I have been eating them daily.

I have made a list of the foods I should keep to eating 3 times or less per week.  In no particular order - hemp seeds, eggs, dairy, banana, seeds (in general) nuts and nut butters.  I think that is really about it.  These are typically the cause of leaky gut and I am clearly not completely healed.  

Going back to workouts.  Dr Allen suggests that I still have too much stress going on which is causing me to not have periods, continue to be bloated and constipated.  That is why I am going to 3 days per week for heavy lifting.  I'm thinking 2 to 3 days of easy yoga in the morning. I already have switched my cardio to walking and typically fall into "fat burn".  I'm keeping my Sunday running and may possibly run on Wednesdays depending on how I feel.

It has me freaking out but it's all in may head.  I know I will be stronger because of it.  More recovery time is sometimes better.

What do you tend to freak out about?

Any foods that you have a negative reaction to but you still love?

Bad reaction to ? Nuts?

I was feeling fine yesterday.  I ate my normal breakfast and lunch was my shake and an RxBar.  The RxBar was the Maple Sea Salt and tasted so good.  

Not huge on sugar and I know cashews are okay.  Pecans?  Maybe the problem?  Egg whites (doubtful)  Like I said I was feeling fine all day and I was hungry around 3:30 and couldn't wait to get home.  Once I got through the door I ate 2 pieces of goose liver pate, which I ate yesterday too without any problem.  Dinner was what I had below.  2 eggs and 2 pieces of bacon and 3 cassava flour pancakes topped with coconut/peanut butter mix.  That's when I felt sick to my stomach!

Tasty dinner!  I love Thursday's!

So, how do I know it wasn't dinner that bothered me?  I have always been able to pin point what bothered my stomach other times.  It's always the meal I had prior and it doesn't happen until after I eat my next meal. I ended going to bed early.  I still took my supplements and even had some heartburn too.  I found it woke me in the middle of the night and I couldn't really go back to sleep either and I had a hard time falling asleep.

I still have a little heartburn and my stomach was a little off when I got out of bed.  My brain feels a little on the foggy side.  I felt good enough to go the gym and lift and run without an issue.  I was still able to have breakfast - but felt gassy afterwards.  I drank dandelion tea and had an extra activated charcoal.

So how am I going to move forward?  Well it's all experimental.  I have limited my nut consumption anyway.  So maybe if it's just for Thursday nights.  I have a peanut butter RxBar to try next, so will see how I react to that one too, but not for a few days.  I haven't gone overboard (more than 3 days) with anything else.  Maybe it was just an overload of things on one day that I have more of a reaction too when I consume them too much- eggs, cassava flour, nuts, coffee.  I had been curious about it.

I think this is one of the times that nothing can be done but waiting it out and maybe being a little more mindful.

Elimination Diets and Reactions to Foods

As a first note, I have to say that EVERYONE reacts differently.  Sure there can be some similarities but in general my reactions will be different from the next persons.  A friend of mine says she doesn't have a reaction to certain foods but has IBS.  To me that is a signal that something that is being consumed is not sitting well hence causing the IBS.  Well all know what IBS is right, yup!  It's the doctors way of saying that they don't know what is going on and will throw a pill at you.  For me it was Linzess.  Despite eating paleo, there was something still going on in my gut that just wasn't working. Trust me I fought it the whole time.  I'm learning though what is causing my leaky gut and taking not to either eliminate those things or cut down on them.  

My biggest obsession is peanut butter or nut butters in general.  I have tried about every company out there and every flavor combination there was to buy.  When I eat too much it shows on my face and yet I continue to eat it because damn it just tastes delicious.

Love is an understatement!

Now this Elvis Presley sandwich I would totally get into - except the bread.  Bacon, pb, jelly and bananas.  How can it get any better then that?!  I'm sure I can make a paleo/AIP bread that could more than substitute for this gluten yuck fest! LOL - sorry - I love the smell of certain breads, but really don't care about them or miss them.  I would rather have more of the fillings.

So reactions - I have already mentioned that when I eat too many nut butters - whether it's a legume (peanut) or a tree nut.  I get chin acne.  My digestion seems to be fine - I haven't noticed anything abnormal.  I think I need to have them no more than 3 times per week.

Eggs - another that I loved so much and would start every morning why them - minimum of 4 per day, plus mayo.  OMG, nothing quite like fried eggs with mayo on top and avocado!

So, again too many eggs and it's breakout city!  So again I have been sticking to 2 eggs or mayo no more than 3 times per week.  So generally I will have eggs twice and mayo once.

My last food that I have reactions to is dairy, no this one can show up in 2 ways.  I only have dairy twice a week and it's grass fed full fat plain greek yogurt.  If I have any cheese then in about 30 minutes to an hour I am running to the bathroom.  I can also have a number of breakouts.  Typically around the chin area and the occasional forehead monster.

My favs are Stonyfield (not greek), Maple Hill Creamery and Wallaby.

I believe that anyone that has digestive issues, autoimmune conditions, acne, achy joints and pain, the list goes on should do an elimination diet.  Even if they think they don't have any reactions.  How do you really know?  What if you are missing the key to what's wrong?  Wouldn't you want to live without some sort of drug if you really didn't have to?  I know I do!  I know there are some that I do need to be on and stay on that will not change and I am ok with that.  If I don't have to add on any others than that's a win in my book.

There are so many protocols to follow that can help uncover so much: paleo, primal, keto, low carb, AIP.

Which one(s) have you tried, what has worked?  What did you find out about yourself?  How long did it take you to accept that you couldn't eat a food that you ate all the time?  What did you continue to eat despite what you learned?