New job and things to come!

This week called for some changes.  My last job ended and a new job began just as quick and I am loving it.  I've headed back a foodie job!  Not back to Plum, but to Birmingham Roast where I am working the back of the house.  I'm cooking and hopefully creating.  I get to make food with organic and gluten free ingredients (not everything is gluten free) and I've jumped completely in.

One thing that makes me very happy about this company is that they try to be sustainable.  We recycle everything we can.  Unlike the last job which was all about waste.  Nothing was about being compostable or biodegradable.  Can we talk about how good the coffee is?!

I HIGHLY suggest the Kuppa Joy or the Almond Joy - OMG!  SO good.  Probably not the best place to work when you consider yourself a coffee snob! I did get decaf though.  I certainly don't need any caffeine.  I do have to mention that I have been purely wiped out when I get home.  I mean total crash!  I haven't worked a manual job like this in 10 months, so I really didn't think I would have such a hard time with it.

I have taken naps and meditating as well as doing yoga.  On days off I will be lifting, so as of right now I do have 3 days off so it works perfectly with my schedule and I walk to work.

My stress level has for sure peaked, so I need to do everything I can to keep it in check.

  So mediation, walking, yoga.  This is mental and physical stress and I can appreciate both.  The most stressful thing about this is the hit in pay.  It's so dramatic that I have to pinch every penny I possibly can and only spend on things I really need to and push back the wants for needs.

On the positive side it frees up my time to teach some classes (yoga and kick boxing in September) and I will have more time to study for NTC and try to build my Beautycounter business.  If you haven't looked into it yet please do so!  The products are the best.  I haven't found one thing I didn't like and all the products are clean.  WHA?!?  Beautycounter.com/heathermattice.

As a side note to all this, my sister called me and wanted to talk to me about being happy and finding a job I love.  She said cold calling is not my thing and I have to agree.  I think that is the one thing that can freak me out.  Almost every job required some form of cold calling.  I mean I will certainly do it and if I believe in what I am calling about I am all in.  It was the same when I was at Plum Market.  If I believed in the product I could sell it like nothing.  Do you find that you are happy with your job?  Or are you the type that believes no one likes their job and should be miserable?!  I have heard the later fear too much recently and I don't believe that should be true.  I don't mind hard work at all and if is mine the hours put in around the clock make it all worth it.  So, where do you fall?

I thought I would add some recent eats too.  I have been playing around with my morning smoothie bowl when I came across this coconut yogurt from GT's.

I go back and forth between mixing my protein powder with yogurt or an avocado.  This morning I just had the yogurt mixed with it and maca and I was so hungry later that I snacked on grass fed ground beef, coconut butter and finished the bag of Siete Tortilla chips.  Lessen learned!  I need more fat!

Then you know I am all about one skillet cooking, so nothing has changed there!

They all look the same I know.  I need to branch out and really start creating!

Pancake fail, temperature drop and meditation

I have been able to do a lot more reading!  YES!  That's two-fold.  First reading, just something that I have enjoyed doing in the past.  Second, that I can read without falling asleep almost instantly.  I know I am still a long way from completely being in remission from Hashimoto's and I say say remission since you can never be cured of it.  In the past any time I picked up a book I would get drowsy or I could really comprehend what I was reading and had to go over the sentence, paragraph or page over again.  Completely frustrating as you may know!  So this is huge anyway since I will be starting classes in September (NTC - Nutritional Therapy) and need to have my brain!  I did purchase all my books and hope to read a majority of them before that time.

Currently I am reading Izabella Wentz's book The Root Cause.

It's been eye opening and so factual and happy that I am doing most of the things in the book and thinking of the things that are keeping my symptoms around.  Like a broken tooth (maybe?), the spot on my leg I just had biopsied.  This books really gets you thinking on how your Hashimoto's started, why it could be getting worse and what you need to do to heal yourself so you can manage the autoimmune disease.  I have mentioned for me there are certain things that I need to keep in check and sometimes it's harder than others to manage them.

Now to my pancake fail and that I will be trying again this week.  I think my problem with the gelatin egg was that I was doing too many other things and I let it sit too long (it was a blob!) so I couldn't get it to incorporate well and the pancakes turned into a gooey mess!  The mix was super chunky.  When I post this it will be Thursday and it's breakfast for dinner night and I will try out my recipe again and hopefully have success.

Except they were gooey and almost translucent, okay yeah I had one goop apart too!  UGH!!

I feel like I'm all over the place but this is the top things that are happening right now!  I changed my thyroid meds recently as I mentioned earlier from Armour to a natural thyroid and my body temp has been low, but I feel hot as hell!  I am running between 94.6 and 96.8 on an average.  I know this is a sign of my thyroid not being too happy but I know I need to wait it out and see the adjustments.  I'm cooler in the morning and then higher in the afternoon and then go back down in the evening, typically.  I'm still tracking it and will for a while.

Stress management and meditation!  This is so important to mine and everyone's health and it's the thing I have had a problem with doing the most of!  I mean I struggle with it.  It's nothing that takes a long time - 5, 10 maybe more minutes.  This is not a lot and yet I find I can't even do it.  I feel like I need to be doing all the there things and I don't.  I have the mind set that I need to do all the things during the morning and day and at night when I get home I don't want to do anything or go anywhere.  Probably why I don't like to go to the gym after work and it's just insanely crowded (more on weekly workouts soon).

I think I'm nailing it this week, like a boss.  I'm not setting any time goal.  If it's before bed and I can do 5 minutes I will do that.  I was at the doctor's office waiting and I took the time to meditate while I sat there on the table.  I mean come on!  This can be done anywhere!  I don't have to be at home on some yoga pillow.  If I have a few minutes at work I am going to do that there as well.  I think taking those breaks at work will be extremely helpful.  So much going through my head right now and I know meditation is the way to go.  Not only will it help keep my stress level down but also help me shuffle through my thoughts and make clear decisions on things to do and how to plan.

Autoimmune sugar reaction

It was Monday night.  D and I decided we would go out for dinner and Mexican sounded good.  We went to a place not far from us Mohave Cantina in Clawson.  We have been there a few times before and the food has been good.  We go have dinner (I didn't eat much, got fajitas - like 3 bites, just not hungry) and a drink.  I got everything that went with it, just didn't eat it.

 Then we wanted to go to a new coffee place that just opened in downtown Birmingham, appropriately named Birmingham Roast.

I check out the reviews on FB and everyone is stating how much they love it.  I'm game, I love coffee and don't even think about getting decaf since Tuesday was the 4th and I would be off work anyway.  I get the Kuppa Joy - no decaf and he didn't do almond milk....  It was described as a creme brûlée with dark chocolate.  Sounded so good and tasted even better!  I drink about half and we get home and take the dogs for a walk.  We get back and I drink the rest of it.  A while later I was hungry so ate some more of my dinner and shortly after I began to feel nauseous.  

I know what you are thinking - it was dinner.  Yes you may think that but nope.  It's never been how I work.  It's never what I ate last, it's what I ate before that.  So me eating the Mexican food triggered the milk and sugar I ate prior.  Does that even make sense?

Ok, so bad stomach, bathroom trip (only one) and I went to bed.  I woke up feeling the same way.  It didn't stop me from lifting heavy (in my basement gym), going for my long walk or even eating.  But I certainly felt horrible ALL DAY LONG!  I didn't get much sleep Tuesday night since it was the 4th and big dawg hates the loud noise!  I ended up waking early because I was so warm.  I decided to get up and go to the gym.  I did a HIIT treadmill workout.  Here is a breakdown I did for 45 minutes.

1 minute @ 4.0 @ 4%

1 minute @ 4.0 @ 6%

1 minute @ 4.0 @ 8%

3 minute run @ 6.0 @ 0%

Repeat several times for approximately 45 minutes.  I then did 5 rounds of 20 kettlebell swings with 25 lbs and bodyweight squats.

The rest of the day remained the same.  I didn't feel great for about half the day.  I had some brain fog in the morning but that all seemed to lift after lunch and I have been feeling pretty good.  Only slightly tired.  I'm still trying to get use to my very minimal cardio/lifting routine.  Thursday morning is lifting, no cardio, only walking.  Friday is yoga.

Thursday night is pancake night and will post up an AIP friendly recipe, hopefully!

Monday - Extended Weekend!

Today, Monday has been a fabulous day!

I was of course up early since the cat wanted me up and feeding her right away.  I decided to get my steps in for the day and went out on a long walk around Birmingham.  For a Monday it was so quiet and beautiful.  I made my way around the downtown, hitting some spots that I usually go to.  Booth Park and it's quiet, rustic trail.  

Can you believe this is the city?!

The up the hill where I am always reminded of London.  I want to say Regents Street, but it's been so long.  Every time I come up this hill to this view I am taken back to London.  Anyone else see it or is it just me?

I went down a few streets that I have never been and one even stated that it was under security screening - with the camera on top of the sign.  I figured once I saw that I should just turn around and go back the way I came.  I certainly didn't want to be yelled at for being down a street that wasn't even labelled as private.

The morning seemed like Sunday and not too many people where on the road.  I am assuming most were off today - taking advantage of the long holiday weekend like I was.  I hit Dunkin' Donuts a quarter mile from home so I could get Derek his iced coffee with cream and butter pecan (his new favorite), along with a double chocolate donut for him and a sour cream donut for the animals to share.

Instead of heading to Starbucks as I do on the weekend, I thought I would just make a pot of coffee at home and refrigerate the rest for iced coffee during the week.  I made my smoothie bowl with avocado and topped it with cocoa nibs and coconut butter.  The avocado just make it so much more filling than with any other combination I have tried.

Derek stisllwasn't up so I did 30 minutes of yoga with my new Down Dog app.  Have you tried it yet?!  I love it.  No sure why I would want to spend money on the paid version at this point since what I have done has been great!  I also want to try Adaptiv, but want to wait until I go to Traverse City and only have the hotel gym.

I did a few errands - including one that puppy went on with me.  He loves car rides and just going anywhere with his momma.

I did some painting and ate some bbq.  Yesterday, I didn't time my food properly and was starving and had a headache when we were out.  So, I figured I should eat sooner than waiting until I was grumpy.  I feel so incredibly full now!  I feel more bloated, so I am going to chalk it up to the candida since I typically feel more bloated in the afternoon once I eat a second meal..

Speaking of candida, I did get my new supplement, GI-Synergy, today of which I will begin tomorrow.  I take it 3x a day.  I've had odd mouth reactions in the past to walnut, which this has black walnut in it.  I will be interested to see if I have any reaction.  My allergy tests have zero intolerance to walnuts so I am willing to try!  So I have that switch as well as being off from Armour Thyroid.  Per Dr. Allen I am switching to a natural thyroid supplement and take 1 capsule 2x daily.  I started that on Saturday morning and pretty sure I haven't had any issues.  I will try to keep a careful watch if I notice any minor changes.  So, I removed a few things as I stated I was going to do and noticed my face is getting more clear.  YAY!  So, I know I am on the right path!  I will post on what is happening later on this week as I am more into the new supplements.

Thursday is pancake night of course.  I need to make a new pancake recipe.  If all goes well I will post that up Thursday night.  One without eggs!

What recipes need to be tweaked for AIP compliance or even to lower the sugars?  What should I do?

SaveSave

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?

New Old Things to talk about

As I move along on my autoimmune journey with intros and pulling back on some things (nuts) and trying new combos (smoothie bowls with minimal fruit).  Food aside, I have found three things that I am having issues with and are being worked on.  I have even scaled back on any endurance/cardio besides my Sunday runs.  I mean seriously, I am not stopping all running.  It's nothing where it use to be and that makes me sad because I loved to compete and I did a lot of races.  I'm just not at that level anymore and at times it does make me sad.

So, I posted that I read Elle Russ's book The Paleo Thyroid Solution and that I am switching to a natural thyroid medication with the help of my fabulous functional medicine doctor - Dr. Brett Allen (seriously you should have him help you!  it's all over Skype consult, revolutionary!). That I actually get in the mail on Monday and we have to talk about the hows to move from Armour to this.  I'm excited about ditching my endocrinologist.  She amused me with all the testing I have wanted to do but when it came down to treating me she was so 1973!  UGH!  So, there will be more on that topic as I switch over.  I want to talk about any pros and/or cons that come with it.  I'm thinking that since my labs have never been off the chart that it will be pretty manageable.

The next is bowel movements or lack there of AND that they are still not "normal".  I don't think I have ever mentioned it but I have a neurogenic bowel dysfunction.  Plainly put is when I have to go there is zero waiting.  I have to go and I have to go right now and not in one minute.  There is no such thing as "holding it".  I have had some serious issues when I have gone on runs and try to make sure I have gone to the bathroom prior, otherwise it can be disastrous and humiliating.  Right now I would say I have been a number 4 on the chart.  Come on let's be honest - this is real life and we are learning here so we can help ourselves and help others at the same time!

While I still have candida (massively).  The bloat has been slightly better but still not great.  I'm trying to not have the same foods everyday, except avocado!  I am hoping by the end of this coming week I will up the game with something stronger in my protocol.  So that is a TBD too.

Yes I am both - when I am not constipated I have to go RIGHT NOW!!

The other issue that I was hoping was worked out but D had pointed out the other day.  I haven't had a period again for several months.  So clearly hormones are out of balance and I have been wondering if I have been getting enough calories and fat.

I love Xena!  I can be like this at a drop of a hat for no frickin' reason!  It's better than what it has been but still.  I have to try and catch myself.  Remember it's better to think before we speak.  It doesn't help when you have a husband that likes to joke around and you just happen to fly off the handle all the time.  Yet, according to my endocrinologist I don't have an issue.  I'm thinking now if I really need to keep my gynecology appointment this week.  What's it going to do?  Do I really need to go?  Is she going to test anything and will she put a bandage on it by suggesting birth control pills. UGH!!  I so hate conventional medicine!

I think I'm spent!  Just thinking about conventional medicine has exhausted me!

What issues are you still facing with your autoimmune (your root cause)?  What have you read that you think is a must for all with autoimmunity?

Beautycounter Consultant

This is something I have been wanting to do for sometime now as my journey progresses toward becoming an NTC (I started writing this a month ago!).  It fits right in, right?!  I mean you clean up your foods and you clean up what you put on your skin.  It is the largest organ after all!

Why did I decide BeautyCounter?  When did I start using it?  I think it was just over a year ago.  I was and still kinda using CocoKind.  Purely coconut oil based and it was so simple and the line had expanded but I needed more.  My makeup was ZuZu and I knew it wasn't as clean as I wanted it to be.  Then many bloggers in the Paleosphere were posting about this new line called BeautyCounter.  I think it started with mascara.  Everyone I tried made my eyes itchy.  Did this one?  Not at all and it looked fabulous on and didn't clump!  Boom.  I was hooked.  Ah but before the mascara I had won the rejuvenating night cream from Maria Mind Body Health.

I can't say enough good things about the mascara!  I have tried so many and even the hypo allergenic ones and my eyes still itched and burned until this one.  I have never had a problem and it lengthens and looks perfect!

I certainly have almost all the products.  Next I am trying the sunscreen and charcoal mask.  I would appreciate the love by shopping on my page!  This post is short and more Beautycounter coming!

http://www.beautycounter.com/heathermattice

Tell me what you think!  Have you used Beautycounter before?  Do you care about the garbage that's in your products knowing that your skin is absorbing all this and leads to a host of problems?  What are you curious about?  I'm sure I have tried it!