Japanese Soup

This recipe was given to me by my friend from Japan.  She heard Goose makes kimchi and was very interested in making her own.  So we had a kimchi making party, and in return she showed us how to make this most simple but delicious soup.  We trekked over to the China Town markets to get some supplies, and she didn't even know all the English names.  The base soup is very easy, and you could strain it as a veggie broth, or eat it with all the veggies.  Around here we have just been calling it seaweed soup!

Yummy meals and my pot garden

  My pot garden is well on its way to producing yummies for me.  

Lots of pots going on out there!

reminds me of my granny :)

Already producing cherry maters!

We aren't sure if this tomato plant will make it.

We have rosemary, basil, chives, oregano, thyme, sage, lavender, 3 ancho chili peppers, 1 great marconi pepper, 1 "mexican big jim pepper", 1 banana pepper, 1 cherry tomato plant, 1 black cherry tomato plant, and one purple plum tomato plant.  Hopefully the bunnies stay far away from our tomatoes!

I lost count of the days -- 83? 93? or something?

I know I haven't been blogging weekly, that's because I'd only be reporting the same old story...the GMO disease is out of this spot but still in this place.  Each week little by little it moved out of my system.  That's all we needed to focus on, so it would have been monotonous to blog it each week.  Four weeks have gone by.  I went in weekly, disgusted at the government allowing this GM virus to be exposed to us humans, yet not one iota surprised.  *glares at Monsanto*. I am still annoyed about it, so lets look at this picture of the ocean together and breathe.

*waves* 

A few things to catch you up on that aren't GMO related:

After my trip to Texas and their super early spring, I had to recover from that.  While the Healer is working his magic on me, I still have a damaged immune system that I have to rebuild.  33 years of damage does not go away overnight.

Two weeks ago I had a real wake up call.  I was cleaning my bathroom on a normal Tuesday afternoon, trying to get rid of shower floor stains when all else had failed.  So I picked up the bleach spray and went at the shower.  Not 45 seconds later I was choking, and couldn't breathe.  I was coughing so hard I was gagging, my eyes were watering and I barely made it to the next bathroom before my violent coughs gave way to puking my lunch up.  Come Thursday, I started coughing and it "felt different" for lack of better words, so I jumped up from the couch during my shows and ran to the bathroom to spit.  It was blood.  I couldn't tell at the time if it was from my lungs or my ripped up throat from the violent coughing.  I'd bet it was from the lungs though.  I had a bit of a panic attack but since I had just refilled my ACS Silver spray I didn't feel freaked out enough to wake Goose to go to the hospital.  However I did wake him to tell him "Don't freak out, but" which he totally freaked out.  I did a breathing treatment of Silver, and managed to fall asleep somehow.  The next day, the blood was minimal in my cough. I did two more breathing treatments with ACS and I repeated this to Goose and he hugged me very tightly and said "we can't lose you, you can't leave us yet" and that made all my heart strings rip apart.  I knew that moment, I might just have to outlive the "we" in that sentence, and that makes my heart swell with love knowing those people, who know who they are, kinda need me around.  By my next doctor appointment, I was all clear but still told Healer what happened and he had the same look in his eye as Goose and worried I was suffering chemical burns.  He did test me, and I had done the right thing with the ACS breathing treatments because I was all clear of chemical burns.  Also, I don't plan on using bleach EVER again.  Whites will just have to white some other way.  Shower stains will just have to cease to exist I guess.

I also had mentioned how it had been 50+ days or so without dairy and pork.  I won't be eating cheese again, I don't think, because I prefer to have clear skin.  It makes sense as I Would usually crave cheese with a burning desire about once a month.  Even more so than chocolate.  Also, we smoked a ham to put on a pot of beans Goose was wanting.  I thought, why not try some out?  So I ate a little bit of ham, and yes it was still delicious as I remember.  However, I was sick the next day from it.  It's really a bittersweet moment coming to grips with these food sensitivities.  I am really going to miss it, but its also nice to finally clue into what my body has been trying to tell me.

Hey girl, you know you want me.

Yeah, you want me too!

Today was my final WEEKLY visit, it's gone.  I AM FREE!  Well at least of genetically modified diseases and previous pathogens.  I know that there is a good chance that something else might pop up in my healing process, but as I continue to visit him for monthly checkups, those can be dealt with if they arise.  I took a couple of ingredients I used to use into the Healer's office.  I had heard he can test your reaction to certain foods and well, I needed to know.  I took in coconut oil because, really why would coconut anything be bad for you? I also grabbed our black pepper at the last second.  I'm so glad I did.  I tested with the coconut oil, and I CAN handle it.  I tested with the black pepper and failed bigtime.  It was great I took pepper with me since most spices/seasonings include black pepper.  I had been doing my best to avoid it, and now I know I'm "allergic" to it, so to speak.  All the more reason to say no.  It sucks because most restaurants use pepper.  Luckily, Goose had been mindful of my pepper avoidance when he grilled.  The food still tasted great without so I'm not upset about it.  It's just one more thing to be cautious of.

The next steps are to continue with my supplements and general health.  That includes Vitamin B, Vitamin D, Super omegas 3-6-9, ACG (Glutathione), DHEA drops, curcumin, ACS (by choice to keep these silly lungs in check, miracle thing I tell you!)  aaannndd...I feel I'm missing something.  OH! The once a month probiotic.  I will continue to stick to the basic fundamentals to keep this up.  Take said supps, exercise and eat accordingly to my blood type, hydrate, and sleep well.

In my experience, I hope what I learned can be passed along to others that I love.  I know its not all going to be reciprocated, but maybe some of it will, and it's one more step in the right direction.  I am sure there's more to come but for now, I'm happy with where I'm at.  I've really learned a lot.  I'm working out, my clean eating is at its prime, my pathogens are clear...now I just focus on my workouts and real food. No problem mon!

Vacation, Day 52, and a bit of a rant

I had a busy 2 weeks, and a startling doctor visit.  Don't worry, I am not dying but I will get to that in a bit. This will probably be a long post. Let's start off with my attempt at a healthy vacation.

Day 35

It's been 35 days since I've had cheese.  It's been 35 days since I had any type of pig.  To say my junk food cravings are gone is a joke.  In fact this week was the worst week I've had in the "I need a son of baconator!  No! I need some super gross Taco Bell nachos and a quesadilla!  No wait! I got it, queso...melty gooey cheesy cheese dip from any mexican joint.  I will have you know, I almost failed myself twice this week.  Once, I took Goose to the airport for one of his work trips, and I thought "ooh breakfast, I can get some and no one will know..."  I almost stopped twice.  Almost.  Then I found myself driving right past it all and the next thing I knew I was in my driveway.  The next time, I was at Dierbergs, and I picked up a sammich with extra cheese and put it in my cart.  I felt so guilty that I didn't even make it out of the aisle before putting it all back.

I did find a 98% safe remedy for chips and salsa.  Expensive salsa made without weird junk, (and why should it have weird junk in it?) and Beanitos chips.  Granted, that's still a "rare treat" because beans.  But it's better than tortilla chips which I cannot have...because corn.  You can bet your bippy when tomato season comes back, I will be making salsa for myself.  Also hummus is a good alternative, with some broccoli and carrots.  The other day, Goose told me he liked raw carrots better than cooked.  I pondered it for half a second and said "I am an equal opportunist carrot consumer.  I love them any way I can eat them."   It's been a busy day and I've not had much other than an apple and a little bit of turkey stir fry from my leftovers container.  Can you tell?

I didn't write this on Friday because I came home from the doc with my Adrenal Stress Test to do, and wanted to include that.  So here's my update from Friday:  Things are going super swell, and I don't need to come back for another two weeks since we are out of the crucial stage.  That said, Healer did the DNA damage testing on me and I have brain damage!!! Whee!   Well, no for real...due to the viruses hanging out in my brains, the DNA is damaged in there.  Also some DNA damage in my lungs, DUH and my gallbladder, and another organ I have since forgotten.  Just like when he reset my dopamine levels and voodoo'd my intestines, he did the same thing.  Okay, they call it integrating, but thanks to Goose that just sounds all Math-y to me.  But that's what he did to all my DNA damage.  He reset it with his magical Healer powers.  I have to believe it now, he's proven me otherwise several times with this "reset button".

At least I don't need resetting every 108 minutes.

I am to continue taking all the things until next time.  I did run out of the ACS silver, but since my lung fungus is gone I don't need it unless I chose to have it as a maintenance dosage.  Since my Tri-guard has silver in it already, I opted out of it this time.  My liver cleanse drink, Protoclear, will be gone I think by Friday and that's it with my liver cleanse.  Healer sent me home with a mega strong probiotic, in fact it's so strong I only have to take one pill a month.  Every seven days it regenerates all its probiotic friends to do their magic to my flora in my gut and its one less thing a day I have to deal with.  I talked to him about my oil pulling concerns, since coconut is a no-no for my blood type (I'm still dubious on that, since coconut is everyone's best friend, but that's for another day).  Since I'm already taking the zeolite, right now oil pulling isn't a concern for me.  Otherwise, I can use sesame oil as I suspected.  But because I want to get on top of my tooth game, I took home curcumin because its the best ever and that's all that matters.  Hahah! No no, I kid.  That's for another post.  All that is important now, is that its AMAZING for the body, and swishing with it in your mouth kills all that nasty bacteria you wanna get rid of.

Onto the Adrenal Stress Test.  It's pretty easy, you wake up and follow the directions.  Four times a day you must wear a cotton ball in your mouth til is soaked and place it lovingly in a vial marked "morning, noon, afternoon, midnight" respectively.  For the noon test though I had to do a carb simulation test and eat 75 grams of carbs an hour before drooling on the cotton.  They have a list so that's helpful and I chose the highest carb items because well I didn't want to be eating all day.

Super Easy Dinner

Okay, so with this new lifestyle food plan one might think it would be impossible to have variety in my daily meals.  Not so much the case.  True, I am limited by having to omit some of my regulars (here's looking at you, black pepper) but I'm not even missing it so far.  Even though I can live off a salad every day, and I still like to try, I like to tinker around with stuff.  I haven't really talked about what goes into our food planning, and I think I should.  It's not much different than the paleo life we have been used to for over a year.

Of course, I have to shop weekly or a little less because I solely buy produce and we all know that doesn't keep so well.  It makes shopping simple.  I often get confused in the store when I need something that's not in the produce section, like maple  syrup.  One day Goose and I walked up and down the store twice looking for bottled water.  It's with the pop btw which is STUPID.  So honestly, I only know what's in my produce section and the two aisles dedicated to "organic/GF/etc".  Oh, and I know the wine aisle but that's not relevant right now.

Since it's just me for breakfast/lunch I tend to be pretty boring.  Like today, I had 1/2 a burger patty from this weekend I made up, topped it with a fried egg and onions and ate a small kale salad on the side.  Later on I grabbed an apple.  I also might have had a spoonful or two of almond butter...with a dab of chocolate in it.  Don't judge, I needed a sweet.

I'm really lucky Goose loves the grill and the smoker.  Seems like every other weekend we are replenishing our smoked meat stock.  It makes lunches and dinner portions easy because I don't have to cook AS much at dinner unless I plan on the leftovers for breakfast or lunch for myself.

I guess I should include a rough description of the lunches I send with Goose to work.  While he's not on this wellness plan with me, he's doing the Blood Type Diet Lifestyle as well, albeit with cheats.  I do not cheat, I have invested too much money to do that.  But alas, since he's not following my path to a T, he's allowed to sneak some goodies here and there.  With that said, he still would much rather not eat fast food every day.

His lunch usually goes like this:

• a nice portion of smoked meat (fish or chicken) or some leftover from dinner  
• sauteed broccoli or asparagus
• another veggie like sweet potato, raw carrots or even some rice.
• a hard boiled egg, 1/2 avocado if we have it
• green onions and his beloved kimchi (Don't forget the kimchi, or I'm going to hear about it after work!  :D ).
• a fruit for snack

At work, Goose keeps a jar of almonds.  So it's not difficult to stick to this style with some REALLY simple planning ahead.  I'm not a menu planner by any means, and I manage to do okay.

A couple weeks ago, we checked out some spice shops downtown in search of some spices that don't have all that extra junk in them like at the store.  I found a salt grinder there, and picked up some roasted chicken spices that were acceptable for even me to eat.  Do you know how hard it is to find pre-made spices that don't have black pepper?

4 chicken thighs
1 sweet potato, cubed
2 C kale, stems removed
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
2-3 TBSP EVOO
1/4 C of spices of your choice

I tossed 4 thighs (I probably only needed to do 3 but I did an extra one for my lunch) in EVOO and the spices and then roasted them in the oven at 400 for maybe 25 minutes.  I didn't pay that close attention because I used  my thermometer to pull them out at 160 degrees.  While that was roasting I sauteed the sweet potatoes until they were soft and starting to brown.  Once I removed the sweet potatoes from the pan, and right away added the kale and onions and tossed them,  Once the kale started to wilt (it won't wilt much because kale is a super food and it's super strong!) I put the sweet potatoes back in and gave it a stir and  topped that with my finished chicken

TA-DA! 

Day 28

I'm still working on my health...told you this wouldn't be a quick fix.  Good news to report, all the pathogens/viruses/bacteria detected in Day 1's test is cleared from my body!  Now to focus on Phase II of this detox.  Everything was gone last week except for the virus, and that's finally gone.  Good.  Get outta here!  I didn't want you in my brains anyway!

Today I did the NeuroLink testing for toxins and metals in my body, and boy do I have some doozies!  No surprise here, considering the country we live in, and its love for crap food.  Last week he had sent me home with some Zeolite(ACZ) to draw out the heavy metals I have in my system.  Those include: PCB's, fluoride, aluminum, cadmium, mercury, lead, and *drumroll* pesticides!  Thanks SAD.  You've really done your job at attempting to ruin my life.  Sucks for you, I'm fighting back!

I've been dealing with some intestinal issues that I'm not sure I really want to get into detail over on a blog, but it's an issue that Healer is working on with me.  Last week I brought it up to him, and I got some decent results this week.  It's still not functioning normally like it should be because of some chemical imbalances but...hey, did you know your intestines have these valves called "The Valve of Houston" and the "Ileocecal Valve"?  I would like to quote the Goose when I first mentioned that these valves are out of whack "Houston, we have a problem."  Hahah!  So today, the Healer adjusted me (it was GLORIOUS) stating that my L5 was out of alignment, and that actually effects the intestines position so this should also help.

I've been a wee bit run down this week, or it's lack of motivation maybe.  I wasn't sure but I made sure to tell the Healer anyway because I didn't want to have any emotional issues again because that first week was so awful!  I also wondered if it had something to do with adding the ACZ and the ACG (Glutothione) to my routine as well.  New helpers to attack the bad guys, maybe I reacted by being tired-ish.  Anyway I let him know, I didn't feel I was remotely where I thought I should be as far as the weight loss slump I'm in.  I told the Healer, I was realistic that it wouldn't just start dropping during Phase I because my liver had to straighten itself out, but given that I've been incredibly strict on my diet (not a single cheat day like we used to) I would have expected to see SOMETHING change.  Healer told me "this tells me then that the Adrenals and Thyroid are most likely really off balance and we need to work on getting those fixed."  Of course, I am also aware that my intestines need to get fixed too and I should start seeing results.  But c'mon, I'm a month into this now and I just thought I would see SOME change.  I'm being patient, because as I pointed out there's still toxins/metals in me that need to GO AWAY.

Only because they didn't have one in stock in the office, did I not go home with a super cool Adrenal test kit.  So next week I will be taking a test kit home to send off my spit to some lab who will tell the Healer what's up with my Adrenal Glands.  Next week will also be fun because he wants to test how badly my DNA has been damaged and work on reversing said damage.  I'm gonna guess lots, thanks virus!