Over sugared and under the weather

I have not been posting lately.  I have had limited progress with my allergy challenge diet and decreasing my pain.   I got so stressed that I broke down and got cupcakes.  I had not had processed sugar since Thanksgiving.  I ate three of them before I felt sick.  I did not feel as sick as I expected but I am now having to break off the sugar cravings again.  Sugar is like any drug and my body wants MORE.  I know thats how humans were designed back when sweet things were rare.  Now that you can eat a metric ton of sugar every day in every way (candy, pop, sports drinks, etc) its hard for the body to know when to stop because its programed not to.  So my sugar addictions is back after not craving sugar for a few months.

Cupcakes are my Kryptonite.  My arch nemesis would have a box of cupcakes and I would totally forget about them destroying the city until after my sugar crash.  There is a gluten free bakery that feeds my addiction.  They are a really wonderful bakery but I should not be having sugar.

Salted Carmel, Carrot, and Dairy Free Vanilla

http://www.sweetalis.com/

If you want to feed your sugar addiction too.

Also I got sick so that has kept me from moving forward on my diet challenge.  I think I am up to trying a different meat (ground beef?) and sunflower seed butter.  I am back to trying to kick sugar cravings, trying hot yoga for my pain, and moving on to a new food in the allergy challenge diet.  Its been a while and there have been a few bumps in the road but I feel like I am doing okay.  I have trimmed up my body and cary less fat now due to being very mindful of what I eat and cutting out sugars.

 

Stress

What comes first the chicken or the egg?  Stress or pain?  They seem to come together and its hard to separate the two.  Lots of stress equates to increase in pain.  Maybe it is that I don’t deal as well with the same amount of pain but it feels like the more stress I get the more pain I am in.

I have been keeping pretty steady on the diet. Eggs were tested and semi rejected after some time in my deit.  Maple syrup has also been tested and semi rejected.  Maple syrup increased the rosacea back to pre diet level but the redness quickly went away the next day.

Really at this point I am so low on reserves that I am going to get cake.  I have had a terrible week and there is nothing left.  I cant tolerate how much stress and pain I feel right now.  I have been doing well in reducing stress with out food for weeks but I may just break down tomorrow.  All I can think about is sugar treats that I logically know will make me feel like crap but I want them anyways.

Scotch Eggs

Scotch Eggs sound difficult but are in fact simple and yummy.  Its basically hard boiled eggs covered in meat and baked.  I had a free night so I got creative with getting my last two eggs in for the first day of egg challenge.

Scotch Eggs Step 1

I used ground lamb even if the recipes called for pork or beef.  It was really tasty and had a good enough fat content to work well.  I seasoned it with cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and a dash of pepper.

Scotch Egg and Deconstructed Stuffed Peppers

High protein dinner of eggs and lamb with some rice and veggies to even it out.  I am not great a plating food but its sure as hell tasty even if its not perfect looking.  So far I am okay with eggs.  I am a little lethargic but not too much.  I will continue to try tomorrow.  I have one more scotch egg for breakfast and  I might make them again tomorrow.

 

 

Eggs

After weeks and weeks of eating non reactive foods I jumped off into the unknown of the ‘Big 8′ Allergens.  Eggs are a staple of many diets and a big part of paleo cooking.  Paleo cooking is close enough to allergy challenge or allergy restricted that I can modify most of the recipes to fit what I am doing as long as I can eat egg.  So that brings us up to eggs now even if I did plan to stay away from the ‘Big 8′ for a longer time.  If in the next two days I can tolerate eggs I will be well on my way to having a modified paleo diet plan in action.

This morning I scrambled an egg with some olive oil and sea salt.  I might hard boil some of the rest.  There are a few paleo recipes for ‘scotch egg’ which is covering a hard boiled egg in ground meat (usually pork but I am going to use lamb) to making a little meat/egg ball of yummy.  That might be my saturday project this week.

Totally unoriginal but very yummy smoothing recipe to follow that I stumbled on the other day in trying to make a smoothy other than strawberry banana.  It tastes like what I remember the good squish filling of PB&J sandwiches did when I was little and was able to eat gluten.

Faux PB&J Smoothy

1 whole ripe banana

1.19oz single serve squeeze pack of Artisana Raw Almond Butter

1/2 cup to 1 Cup Frozen Raspberries

So Delicious Coconut Milk (unflavored)  - enough to make the smoothy liquid consistency

Bad Blogger No Cookie…well maybe just one cookie

I have not blogged in a while.  Bad Blogger.  Its been due to pain, holidays, holidays spent in pain, and family fun times. The holidays were rough for me.  I did not do well with the noise level at my honey’s family house.  They do not have inside voices.  I ended up in an upstairs bedroom in the dark crying.  Nothing says xmas like leaving a family function crying and in pain.  I have managed to keep up my allergy challenge diet even with holidays and family visits.

In the process of this diet I have learned a bit about my self.  On bad days I cope with food.  That is pretty limited for me now.  I used to cope by eating junk foods.  I am pretty sure there was a bad three months where I lived off Five Guys, Pei Wei, and Chipotle every day.  Five Guys Fries and Chipotle were top of the list.  Chipotle is not really ‘junk’ food as they have standards that the food has to meet and do a lot for organic options being part of their menu. Its still very high fat and not part of my allergy challenge diet.

Today I broke.  I had a bad day.  I forgot my pain medication in the morning so it was a bad day.  I really wanted cheese fries.  Like I would have gone crazy over a burger and fires to the point of tears.  As I recall I did a fair amount of crying this afternoon because I was so unhappy and I wanted food to comfort me.  My way of coping with stress is to self sooth with food.  Not the best  way to handle my stress but its been my way for 25+ years.  Hard to stop now.  I was steps away from going to find my cheese fries and feed this feeling of hurt some good old comfort food.

I ended up eating a bag of raw gluten free vegan Macaroons as my self soothing with food.  Its not the best choice since its a bit more sugar (maple syrup) than I should have but its way better than cheese fries.  I found a company that makes raw cookies that fit pretty close to my allergy challenge diet regulations and still tastes like a cookie.  I am now kind of hooked on them and may eat half another package before bed because I still hear the siren song of the cheese fries.

You can find and order the cookies here http://www.hailmerry.com/snacks

Also retested coconut milk and thats a go – makes a great smoothy and has good texture

Up next coconut flour and if I get stir crazy/adventurous butter or eggs.

 

 

Pain

I have not challenged a new food this week because I have had more pain.  I have not had the ability to even think about a new food with my head pain.  This week has been worse pain wise and I am just not able to plow through the pain like I have been able to.  It may be the holidays are wearing me thin and I dont have the reserves to take on the same amount of pain.

Chronic pain is some thing new for me and its taking a lot of adjustment.  I am mostly eating lamb, brown rice, and sweet potatoes this week because I don’t really have the energy  to make much else.  I am lucky to have a great partner in life who has had dinner made for me so I don’t have to do it.

I hope that after the holidays I can challenge Coconut Milk again along with a few others.  This week will be a mulligan but thats how life goes at some times with chronic pain.

Apples, Pears, and Coconuts Oh My

It has been a bit since I updated.  So I have a few new things to add to the progress of the diet.  The test of raw apples was not good.  I think because of the acidity of the raw apples.  Tested cooked/baked apples.  The baked apples with honey and cinnamon were tasty but proved to have the same reaction as raw apples i.e. rosacea and upset tummy.

Pears dont seem to cause this reaction so I can still eat some fruit.  I have also had luck with raspberries in their fresh form as well.  Most of my sweet still comes from honey.  Some of the  specialized diets cut out honey but I cant seem to give it up.  I eat mostly raw unprocessed white honey but I still need sweet things.  Pre allergy challenge diet I had a major sweet tooth.  Some times I still come home and just eat a spoonful of raw honey to calm down the sugar cravings (I know that just continues my need for sweet things but I feel I will be so unhappy with out any sweets that its worth the continued small dependance on some sweetener)

Coconut Milk has been my latest test.  Some what inconclusive to say the least.  I have had no facial or digestive reaction to the milk but I have had to majorly bad days with my headaches.  This may be due in part to an emergency medication or a change in environment. So next week will be a retest of coconut milk.  I do hope that I can drink it because it makes a nice hot chai spiced drink.

Coconut Milk Fake Chai Latte

1 Tea Mug full of Unsweetened Unflavored (Un-fun) Coconut Milk

1 Tablespoon Clover Honey (processed honey but a very sweet honey works best for this drink)

1/8-1/4 teaspoon of Penzeys Pumpkin Pie Spice (China cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, mace, cloves) I usually put in like 4-6 shakes from the little jar.  I think thats about 1/8 a teaspoon. Adjust to your own tastes.

Heat Coconut Milk and Pumpkin Pie Spice in a sauce pan over med-low heat.  When warm add honey and stir until combined.  Heat until just under boiling and serve warm.