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!

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!

Grocery list

Goose is not doing the wellness diet with me, but he is wanting to follow his Blood Type's list of foods.  Since we are two different blood types, I thought well this will SUCK for us eating...do I make him one meal while I eat another?  I then laughed and said, "don't be silly, you won't make TWO dinners at night...PSH!"  So I thought the best thing to do was to write down every single "allowed" and "neutral" food (which is still allowed, it just won't hurt you nor will it benefit you) on both our lists.  I then cross referenced them to see what foods we would have in common.  Turns out, more than I thought.

I thought, wouldn't it be nice if I could shop for us off of what we DO have in common instead?  Well yes, but that's a lot of memorization, and I don't do well on test day.  I'd get to the grocery store and forget everything I memorized!


*idea bulb*

Wanna know more?

I was perusing through my FB news feed, like I do all the time :D and I came across this link from PaleoHacks.com.   This little short e-read is a great book to check out if you're just curious about what the Paleo/Primal diet is.  It's pretty short and sweet, great for beginners to read.  I don't think I could explain it any better than this!  So, if you're wondering what foods you can or can't eat, you'll find out here.  It's amazing how I don't feel limited with foods, like other diets.  "Oh, I'm cutting back carbs and calories, I need to count them to make sure I don't go over!"  No more.  I don't even count calories or fats anymore!  I know everything I going into my body is REAL food and those fats and calories are good for me.  I am eating the way my body was intended to eat and I like how I feel because of it, plain and simple.

http://blog.paleohacks.com/sq/

You will have to enter an email to get access to the book, but you can opt out of future emails at anytime.

Back in the saddle. Again.

Man, things have been CRAY around here.  I have been so incredibly busy but now I am back and ready to blog!  It's been a very busy summer and my workouts and super clean eating all but halted.  Basically I failed my workout challenge I gave myself.  We were living back and forth between the old house and the hotel.  I did pretty well the first couple weeks at the hotel with the workouts, doing some swimming and taking advantage of the gym but then things got so hectic (and the chromebook broke down again, had to get it replaced) that I just had to stop.  Even though we had a kitchenette in the little hotel room, and we went to the farmers market on the regular, we still went out to eat a lot.  And we craved ice cream.  To say that I was knocked off my routine is an understatement.  Now that we are into our new house, and things have settled into a normal routine, I am jumping right back into our lifestyle.

Week 3.

I will not bore you with the details of this weeks workout, it was the same as last weeks.  What I will say is I CANNOT get into the Fire45 for the life of me.  I don't know what it is about that workout, but OMG I just glaze over and would rather run in place for 45 minutes.  Which I actually did Monday.  HEY! At least I still worked out.  And I of course did the fire drills.  Okay, I did some of the workout, but for the most part I just ran in place for 45 minutes.  I'm changing it up this week.

I did get a fun different workout in on Saturday, actually I only call it a workout because I got sweaty.  We went sledding.  Well, "icing" is the better term.  Thursday WinterStormQ mauled us with ice pellets, I kid you not there was three minutes of snow...the rest was sleet and ice.  It looked like a sno-cone machine exploded.  So, the yards were solid ice sheets.  We would step out of our door and get down to the sidewalk (which was clear, thanks Goose!) and step over to the ice, and we basically skateboarded down the yard to the curb.  Our yard is fun and slope-y like that.  So we  took off to the park with our sleds and dog in tow and had a blasty blast of a workout.  I don't know how many flights of stairs I climbed, but by today my arms are sore from the sledding.  We really had a great time because it was so icy, we just went on and on forever!

TurboFire
Week 1:
Fire 45
HIIT 25
Fire 60
HIIT 30
Fire 30, Core & Stretch 40

Chalean Extreme
Burn Phase (month 1):  Burn Circuits 1, 2, & 3
Burn intervals
Ab Burner
Burn it off
Recharge

Week two

Done! Well, minus the 40 min yoga stretch.

Monday:
Fire 45 --can't say this is really my favorite at all.  I struggled getting through it.  There's others I like better.
Burn Circuit 1 --no big thang! I pumped iron right along with them!

Tuesday:
HIIT 20 + stretch -- I NEEDED the stretch after this one! I was huffing and puffing all over! Love these HIITs!
Ab Burn -- all I have to say is ow.

Wednesday:
I exchanged Fire 45 for Fire 60, much better! I love that one the most I think.  Nothing was really dry at all afterward.
Burn Circuit 2 --not long after I finished this workout my arms turned to jello and my legs were on fire.  I call that a success.

Thursday:
HIIT 15 -- short, super intense.  I feel like I'm cheating on those but I know how effective they are
Burn it off -- this is real similar to a HIIT but a little longer and less crazy...good day for it and I really felt everything from the day before

Friday:
Fire 30 -- easy little workout to get my blood going
Burn Circuit 3 -- I only thought I was jello-y on Wednesday....

Saturday:
Okay, this isn't done yet but if I don't do it I'll not be able to walk.  Can't go wrong with 40 min of yoga and stretching.


TurboFire
Week 1:
Fire 45
HIIT 20
Fire 60
HIIT 15
Fire 30, Core & Stretch 40

Chalean Extreme
Burn Phase (month 1):  Burn Circuits 1, 2, & 3
Burn intervals
Ab Burner
Burn it off
Recharge

30 day challenge

We blew that one right out of the water!  We did our 30 day paleo eating challenge, and lemme tell you...it was so easy a caveman could do it!  *slaps knee*  Okay, maybe it was the transitioning period we had going into it, maybe it was that we were mostly on that mindset as it were.  I don't think there was a day where we were like "I want pizza" or "I need cheese!", it just kinda went seamless.

Day one, I went through all our sauces and spices, and condiments since it was the last thing in our kitchen to purge.  Anything that had fake flavor, msg, wheat (no matter how they tried to disguise it), rice, added colors or preservatives, or dairy went into a bag and into the basement.  We've since thrown it all out knowing we can live without it.  We instead use herbs from our garden, spices that were just that...spices, sea salt, pepper, evoo, coconut oil, pork fat, ACV, liquid aminos and white balsamic vinegar.  The flavor of the actual food is allowed to really shine without disguising it with "fake flavors".  We still to try to buy as much of our meat we could from the market, but sometimes just had to do with "store bought" and that is okay.  It's how we've been living for months already.  Nothing else really changed except we got smarter about looking for hiding items listed above and didn't buy those.  Oh, and no more rice, pasta, bread, potatoes, or beans.  No problem. *shrugs*

As for what we ate, I was amazed at some of the things we had.  Let's start with breakfast.  I mean how can you have a bad day when you start it off with a fat filet and a veggie omelet?  Or how about "paleo breakfast burritos" for a nice change?  Maybe you want something totally different like cereal?  Well, how about "paleo granola"?  I have tried several variations, but most always have a base of this one.  Every day I had eggs and meat in one way or another.  I figured out the very first week that for my body; if I ate the combo of steak, eggs, and a veggie that I would stay full until dinner time and not even think about food or hunger.  So whaddya know, for me breakfast really is the most important meal!  And to think I had gone SO MANY years without it.  Most mornings we either had a pork chop or bacon with either fried or scrambled eggs because it's just easy.  As we got farther into the month I experimented from probably my favorite website so far: paleomg.com .  She has some of THE coolest breakfast ideas!  I made a meat crust quiche that we couldn't stay out of, and just tonight I prepped a "mexican hash egg bake" for breakfast this week.

Lunch was usually a handful of granola for Goose, or a piece of fruit for myself, if I even thought about it.  Dinner time was Goose's culinary godlike abilities time to shine.  We did some experimenting with sauces.  He ended up  throwing some different flavors together and came up with a very delicious Asian Stir Fry sauce with a tahini base.  I do love tahini.  We liked the flavor so much we've repeated it three times.  We also pulled some great mexican dishes together, paleo style.  We did attempt to make a paleo tortilla for fajitas, but I think for the time it took to make them, it wasn't totally worth my time so I'd rather just eat the fajitas without the tortilla.  Carnitas were also amazing!  Of course steaks for dinner! On those nights I would usually save my steak for the next morning and put it towards my breakfast.

Now, lets talk about the sweets.  Sometimes a girl needs a glass of wine or a piece of chocolate, amirite?  Have no fear! I was not deprived of my two favorite things.  I just had to savor them in severe moderation.  I made my own chocolate (a process that can't be easier, and so settling knowing what's actually in it) and stored it in the freezer...you know, for the times I just need to fix my sweet tooth.  Eventually I forgot that it was in there.  I did make a couple desserts that I will most definitely do again and I found chia seed pudding.  Wow, where has it been all my life?  I should have tried out coconut milk long ago...yum!  I made the original version the first time, and put some into a big fruit salad (which didn't last a full 24 hours, fyi) and just yesterday I whipped up a chocolate version that will be divine over the strawberries in my fridge.  For me, I think knowing that these treats are in my freezer and are super healthy (calorie dense, yes but still), makes it easier to not crave them.  I just have a small morsel on occasion, and I'm satiated.

On February 1, we celebrated our 30 days with blue cheese atop our steaks for dinner.  But as far as sticking to strictly paleo, we will.  Every now and then we will have a little cheese, or a bit of potato if we want but really, we are stuck this way.  :)  It was so much fun finding out how some of these super tasty meals were so healthy for us.  For Goose's birthday (today) I surprised him with chorizo and mozz stuffed, bacon wrapped poppers and I nearly died at how wonderful this concoction ended up being!  I have said several times this month, "I can't believe THAT'S PALEO!"  Giving up rice, grains, potatoes, beans, and processed foods may not be for everyone but in this house it's the perfect way to go.  I mean, how bad can it be to be able to enjoy a steak for breakfast?  And any lifestyle that promotes bacon, is a real winner in my book!

As far as our health, I know Goose's BP has dropped significantly along with his weight.  Lucky jerk :) I also have dropped a few pounds but its very slow going, since I'm really close to where I want to be anyway.

Paleo n00bs here

After some researching on the "right" food plan for my household, I came across the Paleo diet.  It's not like I hadn't heard of it before, but I didn't pay much attention to it.  I knew without a doubt that vegan or semi-vegan was not going to work.  Besides, I'm crazy enough as it is.  I don't need meat deprivation (or protein deprivation, whatevs.) to make me a loony.  Since we had already tried to curb as much processed foods out of our lives, the transition will be fairly easy.  Once the Goose got over the idea of having to give up beans, rice and potatoes, he came around fairly quickly.  I like to think its because I armed myself with facts and science, to which he responds to more than hearsay.

Goose is a fan of the cavemen, so this wasn't as far fetched of an idea to give him.  Eat what the cavemen eat.  Hunt and forage for food.  Shy away from processed because clearly that wasn't around back then.  We still have our setbacks.  Come on, STL Style pizza is to die for.  We will have to give up grains because farming was in the NEXT era. Goose decided if he's boarding the Paleo train, he refuses to even cheat with flours to do breads/tortillas/pastas.  Good.  That's a lot of work.  I am already finding I have a lot of work ahead of me.  Boy, for a girl who said she'd marry a guy who cooks for her (and she did! I win.) I sure am taking over a lot of creative responsibility in the kitchen.  I'm not sure I can handle this. :)

I checked out website after website on recipes because as yummy as steak and salad sound, and even steak and eggs...that can get boring.  What I found was that I could make LOTS of things, lots of slight variations from what we already eat!  I can make paleo granola for Goose who needs his fix of "cereal" sometimes.  I even learned I could make my own chocolate.  Uh. Sold!

So I started cleaning out my food stuffs.  I started looking into alternate flours for those "in case" moments.   I had already ordered some coconut flour (which also came with manna, coconut flakes, and coconut sugar to replace brown sugar for ribs) and I gave away all the conventional flours and sugars in my pantry because I felt bad just throwing it out.  Out the door went oats for granola, brown sugar, flours, corn starch, corn meal, panko, Italian bread crumbs, etc.  We had already eliminated any teflon/aluminum cooking skillets because well, I paid almost $100 PER SKILLET and the frickin' things peeled right off and junk within the first 3 years.  O.o  We are sticking with cast iron skillets cuz the Goose says so.  For Christmas I got a Paleo basket with almond flour, coconut oil/flour, flax meal, and a Paleo cookbook.  I was so excited!

I am officially ready for us to do the 30 day challenge (the contest part is expired), especially after all the chocolates and treats and sweets that have made it in here over the holidays.  My dad even came up over Thanksgiving break and I made him aware we were going to be doing as much Paleo as we could. We did pretty well!  They came home one morning with Sonic and I furrowed my brow.  Other than that, the meals were quite close to Paleo, if not full Paleo.

I don't even think I have scratched the surface with this whole new lifestyle, but I am excited to try.  We will eventually be experts!  Meanwhile, here are a few meals we created while trying to be total paleos!

Some GREAT recipe sites:
http://fastpaleo.com/
http://paleomg.com/
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/#axzz2GNVtltVX
http://nomnompaleo.com/recipeindex
http://www.paleoplan.com/recipes/

Chicken Soup w/ Quinoa

Steak and eggs 

Kale Salad

Paleo Pork Roast

Mexican Carnitas (sans tortilla)

Duck in Red Wine Sauce 

Rosemary ACV marinated chicken
(topped with mushroom and onion)

Beatiful ribs!

Steak and Kale Salad

You just never know

I used to be an avid Big Lots shopper because let's face it, I love a good deal.  I loved shopping their foods section because things were just SO CHEAP.  I also loved Aldi for the same reason!  However once we decided to jump on the organic bandwagon I stopped going to those places.  I hardly even shop at the organic sections in the normal grocery stores, except for Kroger, since I found my little nature store.  Last week I got an email ad for Big Lots.

The ad featured Bob's Red Mill products from $2-7 depending on the item.  I got really excited because I had seen these items and they aren't cheap where I was shopping around.  So I gathered up the grillz and we headed out to just see what they had.  I ended up with a few items mentioned in my other post and went home.  Today, I went back because I was thinking about picking up some bean soup mixes.  It's getting colder here and I'm craving soups.

While I didn't end up with the beans for soup, I was pilfering and found several surprise items!

The Cascadian Farm cereal I had found actually at Kroger on sale for $3 a box and so I grabbed one of each to test out.  The granola was a winner, so when I see it I pick up a couple boxes.  However, when I found it hiding on the bottom shelf at Big Lots for $2.30 I put six boxes in my basket (one's missing because Goose stole it)! The Almond Breeze coconut/almond milk was $1.50 and SALE prices at Kroger were $2.50.  I don't even want to talk about the price at the nature store.  I got that very tall container of sea salt for a whole $2 because I love coarse salt, and I was almost out.  I was excited to see these organic chocolate snacks for the tiny humans too.  They were $2 and I cannot wait to try out the peppermint tea.  The couscous didn't actually say organic but when you read the label and the ONLY ingredient is whole wheat couscous, I'm betting it's pretty safe.

I knew Big Lots had some cool finds if you were looking for them, but I am so excited to see some of these organic products there because they always have a really good price.  So I guess you never know where you'll find good treats if you just look!

*Disclaimer: After some peeking around, I realized Cascadian Farms is owned by General Mills and works in conjunction with Monsanto. *BAD WORDS*  So, that also goes to show, even though it says USDA organic on the front, it may still associate with GMO's.  Now I'm super ashamed that I supported Monsatan! BEW!  It really sucks when you find a good deal and then research where the company came from.  Note to self...gonna have to not trust Cascadian Farms. :( 

HCG

HCG.  I know by now most people have heard of this.  I know there are some very differing opinions of this "diet".  I know there aren't a whole lot of people who have enough willpower for it.  I wondered about it for a while but at the time only the injections prescribed by a doctor were available so I blew it off.  My mother eventually went on it (the injections), and it took me a whole year afterwards to see she kept the weight off before I actually decided I needed to know more for myself.  I am well aware that there are negative responses to this diet.  "How can anyone survive on 500 calories a day? That's so unhealthy!  You can't lose that weight that rapidly, its not safe!" etc. etc.  I am also well aware that there are people who tried it and didn't like it, couldn't handle it, made them sick, etc.  This isn't a story to make you just go out and buy HCG.  Because if you aren't willing to commit the entire time to it for a true reset, you will fail. Period.  Just settle down there sassy and let me just tell you MY story!

red, green, lean

The bottles aren't mine, I SWEAR!
This isn't even Saturday, either!
The apples and tomatoes are being divas and asked not to be photo'd. 

Lately I have been working reaaaaaal hard on getting my diet squared away.  When I say diet, I don't mean "Oh, let me starve and not eat anything at all so I can lose weight.", I mean my regular foods.  With the current workout I am doing, I need to eat a lot of proteins and junk so I can't just eat less and call it good.  However, it feels like I am holding onto the extra carbs and I decided to do some digging and figure things out.  How can I cut carbs from an already low-carb plan?  Where is the extra sugar coming from?

Because I want to get old.

People who truly have jumped on the "healthy bandwagon" usually have reasons why they did.  I'm not talking the fad dieters who choose to drop a few lbs this month, or join a workout group for a month and quit after.  I mean the people who had their eyes opened right up and slapped in the face with "you NEED to get better for YOU".

Here's my reason.  I don't like divulging this as a conversation starter, I don't want to be pitied.  In fact, most people would never know or guess that I have a disease.  I don't tell this story for pity and I refuse to let it define me.  But it is a part of me, and a major factor in my health changes no matter how big or small they are and will be.