Once again I need to adjust the way I think about food and the way I feed my family.
For years I tried to feed my family healthfully. I studied nutrition and read up on all the experts advice in the field that I could find. Then I came down with an auto immune disease that. turned my world upside down.
With this new disease the foods that I had tried to avoid in the name of health such as white bread, cream, mashed potatoes, and meats, where the only foods that I was able to eat.
Inversely the foods that I had tried to incorporate into my diet such as tomatoes, onions, garlic, avocados, bananas and almonds, where the foods that exacerbated my illness and caused great pain. Even my beloved dark chocolate treat became something to avoid at all costs. Watermelon remained the only fruit or healthy treat that I was able to tolerate.
With the help of modern medicine my body has been restored to health. Gradually I have been able to introduce fruits and nuts back into my diet. Spices again have been used to liven up our meals.
Yet I am faced with a new dilemma. My husband has been complaining of extreme fatigue. So once again believing that we have more power to control our physical well-being than we sometimes take advantage of, I am going to try to alter what we eat in an effort to reverse this condition.
Today is the start of that endeavor. To begin with we are going to cut out dairy, meats and most fruits in an effort to alkaline the ph balance in our system.
One symptom of my disease is that I am continually getting yeast accumulating on my tongue. My family knows I am getting too run down because the yeast will grow and leave my breath unbearable. This is one thing I will be watching closely to see how if is affected by our change in diet and my husband insists that I begin to exercise more regularly.
With this change of diet (and exercise under duress) I will be watching to see
- Will the yeast go away and stay away?
- Will our energy level change?
- Will our weight change. Right now I am in the middle of my highest adult weight and my lowest adult weight?
- Will the amount of money I spend on food change?
- Will I be able to keep up the ability to prepare the food that we need to succeed?
Today began with a kale smoothy that had a handful of blueberries, five strawberries, and a table spoon of Chia Seeds, a cup of water and a very large handful of Kale. I also tossed in 1/4 tsp. of stevia. It wasn't inedible but it did take some getting used to.
Lunch was a salad littered with veg and pumpkins seeds with olive oil and lemon juice seasoned with some Italian seasoning to top it off.
Snacks where a small handful of peanuts (against the rules), a few almonds (that should have been soaked first), watermelon (only a fraction of what I would normally eat), and a 1/2 cup of garbanzo beans.
Dinner was another salad infused with kidney beans, cucumber, cabbage, and again topped with olive oil, lemon juice and spices. Blanched broccoli and cauliflower rounded up the meal.
At this point I am left feeling uncomfortably full and considerably shy of the amount of water I should be drinking.
Our new motto for eating is to chew our food well enough that we could drink it and to drink slow enough that we could chew our liquids. So far we failed in this motto often today.