For Realz...

I have a baby. Sometimes, that doesn't even still seem real. I'm a mom. Crazy stuff!!

Due to the above facts, no time for blogging. Even less than before. This whole crazy diet thing and small babies don't really jive too well together. No time.

I spend all my time taking warm baths and sipping hot chocolate, reading a good novel, holding my quiet, always happy little one, etc. Riiiiiight.

I have done some research, though, that I will share sometime when life lets me breathe for a minute. (All together now- Riiiiight.)

Little girl is doing pretty well, FYI. She does seem to have some tummy troubles, but has gotten a LOT better with no dairy for me and probiotics for both of us. Plus, just growing up a little has helped.

She's pretty daggone cute. Not like I'm biased or anything.

Off to take a shower for the first time in a few days. Ick.

Trial and Error

I've been going along pretty well with my modified diet. Basically still all whole foods and SCD/GAPS legal except (and it's a BIG except) some Tinkyada pasta and Kinnikinnick pizza crusts. They don't seem to bother me more than anything else.

Until, I tried making a cake. I even used a mostly GAPS-friendly recipe. I'd been fighting a craving for chocolate cake for so long... I just finally had to do it. So I made it with coconut flour (which was new), honey (???), baking powder (most likely a no-no), coconut milk, obviously safe cocoa powder, and butter. I think that's about all.

Can't for the life of me figure out what exactly it was. I know lots and lots of ppl who use the traditional Clabber Girl baking powder with no probs. Don't think it was the cornstarch in it, as the pizza crusts I eat have corn. They apparently don't share lines in processing.

I had more of the Thai Kitchen coconut milk a few days later with no probs.

The honey was a weird one. It is dark honey I got from a local producer. It tastes fine, but I've suspected it before and thus put it in the back of the cabinet... But how would honey bee a problem?? (har-dee-har)

Got the coconut flour from Tropical Traditions. Appears to be as safe as you can get, gluten-wise.

Don't think it's just the coconut, since the milk has been fine since.

Anyway, have been dwelling on this for awhile now. Just need to think through all the possibilities.

Only other confounding factors: my awesome friends threw me a little baby shower last weekend. I ate some watermelon that one friend had cut up, although she said she was incredibly careful about CC. I also drank some Naked juice. Says GF, but does have natural flavors. I have wondered about it before. Can't just be from drinking juice, as I typically have some sort of juice about every day.

Hmm... just looked at the Naked juice site. Looks like there is shared production with a product that contains wheatgrass... interesting...

Perhaps my poor little cake is not to blame??

Too scared to take the rest out of the freezer and try it again. No matter how good it was. I was miserable, super hormonal (after all, I am about 9 months pregnant), and so beyond exhausted after last weekend that I vowed not to rock the boat again. At least til after SC Junior is here.

I will not eat cake, I will not eat cake, I will not eat cake.

SC

I once was lost...

but I'm back. Well, back as much as I was here before, which isn't much. Too much cooking to do! Oh, and there's this whole thing called work, too.

Ok, world, I think I'm ready to admit it for posterity. In case you didn't figure it out, your favorite sarcastic celiac is preggo.

Yep. One month of my new diet and BAM!! Oops.

I stuck with the "SCD/GAPS/pas de nightshades diet" for about a month after I was expecting, then had to give it up. Why?

Because sometimes, meat makes a preggers person want to throw up. And broccoli has a distinctive flavor of Mr. Clean. (not kidding). There was something about chicken, especially dark meat, that smelled like rot.

Plus, there was one day when I just hadn't eaten enough, and I got a terrible migraine aura. Freaked me out entirely. It had been awhile since the last one (years), so I was wondering if I was having a stroke... luckily, I figured it out before rushing to the ER, but not til after scaring my husband to death. The carrots and an orange I'd eaten that afternoon just hadn't cut it.

So that's when I started eating bad things like pasta, potatoes, tomatoes, even some sugar. I still stuck to whole foods as much as possible. The first trimester was basically me fighting cravings for things that I was unwilling to chance. I did give in to the chocolate chip cookies at one point though. (See previous post)

We're working on week 23 at this point, just for a frame of reference. The cravings/aversions aren't as bad. Things seem to be going ok other than the residual fatigue. (That I was JUST starting to get rid of by doing my diet... sigh...).

So anyway, I may post meal ideas and what I'm eating at the moment. I'll warn you though, it may have nothing to do with GAPS/SCD, and it may include nightshades. In fact, cooked tomatoes don't seem to bother me too much, so I've been doing a LOT of pizza and pasta. With cheese.

Well, that's my story. I'm sticking to it. Have a great week!

SC

I'm still here

Fell off the face of the earth for a month or so, but for good reason. I'll fill you in on the details in the future...

Not really doing SCD/GAPS anymore, due to the good reason alluded to above. Trying to stay away from more processed stuff, but gave in a few times. The nice part is that whatever healing I achieved over the two months on SCD must have helped with some of the insults! I still get somewhat sick with new foods, but I can't always tell what to attribute it to. Kinda feel like I'm back at square one.

I'll stop being cryptic soon, I promise. BTW- French Meadow Bakery chocolate cookies are super. Kinda ripped my gut apart, but totally worth it. Major potato starch-ness on my previously nightshade free guts?

What am I eating??

List of foods I eat (don't worry, it's short):

• Meat/Seafood: Pastured chicken, grass-fed beef, wild salmon, tilapia, shrimp (no preservatives, so have to peel/devein myself)
• Non-starchy vegetables: asparagus, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, spring mix, spinach
• Fruit: apples, very ripe bananas, kiwi, pomegranate, mandarins, berries
  
• Yogurt: 24-hour SCD yogurt, made with starter and whole milk (usually organic, but really no proven benefit to organic milk... may try raw milk sometime although would kill the bugs in it anyway with yogurt)
• Coffee and tea: as previously mentioned, trying to get off of these.
  

List of things I take:

• Florastor. Haven't tried other brands yet. S. boulardii does really seem to help though, more than anything else I've tried so far, although that isn't saying much.
  
• Occasional multivitamin from Freeda
• Occasional vitamin D 5000 units from Freeda, taken with a meal to help with absorption. FYI- I read a study not long ago about levels improving significantly just by changing the administration time to the largest or fattiest meal of the day. My 25-OH level was 26 at last check, so borderline low or low depending on who you talk to.
• That's really it. I don't do drugs. Even my last few headaches, I've just toughed out. Which sucks beyond belief, but I just didn't want to screw up my gut healing.

Meal options:

• Typically- a piece of fish and a vegetable
• Cabbage wraps- either make these into tacos with ground beef, or with shredded jerk chicken, either one dipped in a yogurt/lime juice sauce
• Chicken soup of some sort

"Recipes":

I throw a whole chicken in the crock pot. I let it cook for awhile, depending on when I put it in. I then take the meat off and save it, throwing the carcass back into the pot with the juicy goodness. I add an onion, some carrots and celery, garlic, a bay leaf, some rosemary, 1 tsp salt. Fill it up to the top with water. I then put it on high and let it simmer for 4-6 hours, it takes a while to get to a simmer. Strain, and make soup! Or just sip for breakfast! (Or poach an egg in it if you are lucky enough to eat eggs). I do this about once a week. Chickens are expensive!

Marinate some shrimp in EVOO, lemon juice, garlic, shallot, and some spices (usu. chili powder, cumin, salt, a touch of honey, or use the fish grill/broil spice mix) along with some cooked spaghetti squash. Saute until shrimp are cooked through.

Use lettuce leaves or cabbage (put into boiling water for a minute or so to soften) as wraps for shredded chicken or ground beef. Dip in plain yogurt as described above. Not too bad. Messy though.

That's about it for now. Getting tired of it after two months on the diet already... but trying to stick it out. Definitely have noticed an improvement.