Eating Journal

Ever tried to figure out what foods or drinks are triggering an allergic reaction?  I have spent the past several years of my life trying to figure the cause of my skin condition.  This year I decided to look to the inside for clues.  I have seen a nutritionist GP that got me started and have read and read and even had some food allergy testing done of which I showed allergies to so many things.  It is hard to change my way of eating and take out certain elements that I have been used to my whole life.

When I was in my twenties I kept getting mouths sores inside my mouth like ulcers.  They hurt and bothered me whenever I ate anything.  I decided I needed to cut some things out to figure out what was causing them.  I changed my toothpaste, stopped drinking coffee and orange juice, cut out berries and all sorts of things.  I decided to cut out all soft drinks completely and to my surprise my sores went away.  I gradually added the other things back over a few weeks and didn't get another sore.  One day I drank a Coke... nothing.  I started feeling silly until another day I had a Pepsi to drink.  Within just a few minutes I could feel a tingling in my mouth and knew that a sore was coming on.  I haven't drank a Pepsi since and luckily haven't had a mouth ulcer since either.  Something in the chemical make up of that soft drink triggered the allergic reaction.

So why not my skin?  Something is bound to be causing my breakouts.  And I know they say that psoriasis is an auto immune disorder and people who suffer from it know it will never go away.  But!  Since my diet changes and herbal detox from my doctor, I do feel better.  My skin isn't as aggravated and mean feeling as it has been and patches on my arms and torso have gone away, just leaving white "scars".  My main problem is patience and sticking with my diet changes.  I assume it is like any diet you go on.  But my cravings are still there for junk food.  Junk food meaning simply things that are or contain items that I have "cut out" and showed allergies to.

I made myself a little journal the other day, tailored to my needs, thinking that if I made myself write down it might be easier to stick to.  Also, I have an area where I log how my skin looked and felt that day and how I felt that day.  This part stemmed from making a casserole Sunday night that included beef and lots of dairy and my skin feeling like it was on fire the next day.  I'm just a few days in and already I feel better and a little proud of myself for taking action and forcing discipline on myself which isn't easy to do.  I am the first one to say "awe... that delicious casserole isn't going to hurt you that bad!" but it did.

It's a work in progress.  My skin problems didn't come up over night therefore will not go away over night!

Seriously... if you like the way my journal looks and thought to yourself "now that's what I need"... message me and we will create one for you.  It's simple really and I was able to print four days on one sheet of paper and simply fold and string them together with a piece of card stock as the cover.  Mine has enough room for 28 days.

I modeled my journal pages after the one I found HERE.

If you really want to read more about my skin you may do so HERE , and a little bit on my diet changes HERE.

literally on the library hold shelf

some of these books i am on the waiting list for and others are waiting on me.  in my quest to eat healthier and overcome my autoimmune disorder, psoriasis, i check out lots of books on eating healthy and a more plant based diet.   i have to realize that these things take time.  my psoriasis did not come up over night therefore will not go away over night.  but with studying, learning and a bit of creativity i feel i have a symptom free future.  

learn to let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food  ~Hippocrates

this does not mean getting the low fat stuff.  it is a whole diet change and a tough one to stick to.  i already feel better.  i am more conscious of what goes in to my body, i am becoming a label reader, i am a daily green smoothie drinker, i sprinkle flax seed on my whole grain cereal.  this may not sound strange to some but it is strange to the way i learned to eat.  not that it is wrong, it is just hard to get away from.  i don't know where i will land, be it vegan, vegetarian or raw.  there is a difference you know between vegan and vegetarian.  i didn't know that before... see how much i'm learning?

anyone else have a total change in eating?  do you want to or need to?  

a support system wouldn't be bad either.  i will be yours if you will be mine!

also another really good book on smoothies that i also checked out from the library is 

365 vegan smoothies

by Kathy Patalsky of Healthy-Happy-Life.com

this book not only has tons of smoothie recipes, it also gives you the low down on different ingredients further than oranges are full of vitamin c.  awesome book.

i am also wondering, can you freeze smoothies for later? like a couple of days later? like if you were going camping you could stick the frozen smoothie in a cooler later?

Meal Planning

Normally I am not a big planner.  I also officially began to refuse to be a list maker when I turned forty professing that I refuse to live by my own rules anymore.  Not sure where this meal planning agenda fits in to that plan.  It started when I was at the day care today making a new lunch planning menu for the weeks ahead.  Sometimes I do this but most of the time I do not.  I just make sure I have enough and fix what I have each day.  When my little menu was done for the week I felt better knowing what we would have the next few days, so I went further and planned the next few weeks.  I realize that people do this all the time, I am just normally not one of them.  I will get a few ideas for lunches and suppers and take it to the grocery and call it done. 

 

I started out by writing down (not an official list) main dishes, side dishes and fruit for the DC.  Then picked one off each... um... list... and wrote them down for each day.  It wound up looking like this.

 

Yes, I have only part time kids and no kids on Fridays!  I try to feed them as healthy as I know how.  The hot dogs are turkey dogs, the jello is sugar free and I throw veggies in to the paddies that they don't know they are eating sometimes.  I try to make sure there is a meat, vegetable, fruit and a bargaining chip to get the plates cleaned off.

 

Then... are you ready for this... I went a little crazy and did the same thing for suppers at home.  I obviously cook a lot and no, we don't go out to eat much.  Although I will alter any of these evening plans for the occasional supper out.  I will also plan my grocery lists accordingly. 

 I really figured this planning would help get me started in the Holiday season and take a bit of stress off what's for supper. 

 

 

AND... I made a blank one for you.  Just in case you want to get in on the fun.  Just copy and paste it or right click and print... however your fancy pc lets you do it.

 

 

By the way, I am on an "eat what's in the freezer" kick, so I told Shaun this morning.  So the majority of the meals are planned around what we have on hand.  We have four deep freezers and three refrigerators and could probably eat for two months without going to the grocery except for bread and milk.  We keep deer meat in one, our pork in another, garden vegetables in the third freezer and the rest in the upright.  You would think we fed a huge family.  But, we like to eat what we grow and raise and it's time to stop buying anything but fish and chicken and who knows, we might just become fisherman to avoid buying fish!