Friday

Scrambled eggs with spinach, goat cheese, and avocado.

Smoothie time! Waited too long to post and now I don’t remember what I put in it. I think bananas, cherries, carob, maca, and dates.

Alkalizing greens: kale, cucumber, yellow pepper, apples.

Leftover moqueca (Brazilian fish stew).

Spinach, cranberries, and goat cheese in orange vinaigrette.

Carrot-beet juice. Nice nutrient boost before bed. TMI side note- I no longer experience beeturia (red/pink urine and/or poo after consuming beets). I’d read somewhere that beeturia was a sign of weak digestion, but figured that might be bogus since pretty much everyone gets it when they eat beets or drink beet juice. Yet, I’ve noticed in the last couple of weeks that beets no longer have that effect. I’d love to think this means I’ve made improvements in my digestive system. I’ll take it as a sign I’m moving in the right direction. Not much matters if I keep flaring and I I can’t get off prednisone, but I’ll take a small win where I can get it. (And I’m not currently flaring, so… Yay- Big Win!)

Thursday

Feeling fantastic today. Got a great night’s sleep (9 1/2 hours!) and woke up energized and refreshed. This energy lasted ALL. DAY. LONG. I did not experience a single slump (which is unheard of!) When baby girl went down for her nap, I deep cleaned the bathrooms. I also mowed the front lawn as a surprise for my husband (he never looks at the blog, so it’ll still be a surprise). I’ve NEVER mowed our lawn before. EVER. Raked the leaves once last year… Anyway, I’d love to know where all this energy is coming from and how I can hold onto it.

What I ate today:

An alkalizing green juice to start the day right.

That’s a half gallon jar, so I was drinking on this all day.

After spending so much time juicing, ran out of time for breakfast before our play date. Scarfed down these crackers and pear goat cheese. And juice.

Lunch salad to counteract all the cheese and chocolate I’ve been eating today: mixed greens, chicken breast, fermented veggies, all drizzled with orange vinaigrette.

My friend served these cupcakes at our play date. Gluten free, egg free, soy free, corn free, dairy free, and sweetened with agave nectar. The texture was fantastic. Sooooo good. I ate 3.

Dinner was “cookie dough” and watermelon. The cookie dough is made from pumpkin seeds, Brazil nuts, medjool dates, and cinnamon. Once you blend them up enough in a food processor, they start to stick together and you can form yummy raw cookies or truffle balls. But lately I’ve just been skipping that step and eating the “dough” by the handful. (You can do this with almost any nut and dried fruit, by the way.)

And a little more cheese. I’m really making up for lost time with these goat cheeses. Should probably lay off and stick with 1 ounce a day. I read somewhere that goat’s milk (and it’s products) are actually alkalizing to the body (whereas cow’s milk makes you acidic), but I don’t understand the science behind that and I’m not sure I believe it.

Tuesday

Breakfast: avocado fruit bowl with hemp seeds.

Lunch: rosemary garlic farmhouse seed bread with daiya cheese dipped in homemade chunky marinara. Pizza craving? Crushed.

Green juice: fennel, cucumber, celery.

Peppermint and lavender from the garden made into tea, with just a smidge of honey.

Dinner: spring greens with grapes, tuna salad, and orange vinaigrette, plus purple potatoes and Brussels sprouts sautéed in garlic infused olive oil. The whole purple/green theme was completely unintentional, but delicious.

I felt alright most of the day. Maybe just a bit better than previous days. But started feeling significantly better this evening. Wonder if its all the leaves I’ve been eating. It’s really hard and time consuming to eat leaves with an injured tongue, but green leafy vegetables are great prebiotics for beneficial gut bacteria, they’re alkalizing for the body… they have to be the foundation of any healthy diet- whether you’re paleo or low carb or vegan or doing a candida cleanse- nobody ever says to cut back on greens. I’m going to focus on getting even more of them into my diet. If I can’t eat them, I’ll juice them. But as long as my tongue is in reasonably good shape, I’ll be having lots of salad in the near future.

Also, in an effort to further alkalize my body, I’m putting a couple of drops of YL peppermint oil and lemon oil under my tongue throughout the day. Gross TMI alert: oral lesions, especially the bigger ones, are basically chunks of dead, rotting flesh in your mouth. They create a prime environment for fungus (like thrush) and give you what my family calls “lesion breath”. It’s disgusting. The oils are really helping with all of that. Regular gum and mints just cover up the problem and either feed the fungus with sugar or expose me to awful artificial sweeteners. I think I’m going to start carrying peppermint oil around in my purse…

Sunday

Physically, feeling about the same as yesterday. Emotionally, feeling much better. Amazing service at church today. Feel recharged and ready to keep fighting.

Also came across this statement in my devotional from Joyce Meyer: “It has been said that fear is the opposite of faith, and that is true. We can’t live in faith and fear at the same time. Fear paralyzes us and keeps us from receiving God’s promises. It keeps us from stepping out and obeying what God has called us to do.”

I’ve definitely been dealing with a little bit of fear lately. Fear that this is as well as I’m ever going to get. Fear that I’ll never be able to contribute financially again. Fear that if I push myself too hard, I’ll end up back in the hospital. I’m afraid to make commitments because of the fear of getting sick and not being able to keep them. But each of these fears is completely irrelevant in God’s bigger plan for my life. They just don’t matter. And allowing myself to focus on them just holds me back.

Breakfast was homemade granola (gluten free oats, walnuts, almonds, brazil nuts, sunflower seeds, coconut flakes, coconut oil, honey, and maple syrup) and blueberries with almond milk. And a green juice (kale, celery, fennel, apple, cucumbers).

Lunch was leftover chicken soup (the last of it 😦 ) and more of the same green juice.

Dinner was tuna salad. Canned, chunk light tuna (lower mercury than albacore) with raw sauerkraut, soy-free vegenaise, and organic Dijon mustard. I desperately wanted to put this on a big bed of leafy greens, but knew I wouldn’t be able to eat them. Need a few more days of healing for my tongue to tackle raw leaves.

My version of a milkshake. This juice tastes incredibly sweet to me, so it’s a perfect dessert/sweet treat. I should try blending it with frozen strawberries! That would be sooo good! It’s 3 beets, one HUGE carrot, a sweet potato, and a big chunk of ginger. Adding an apple would’ve made it even sweeter, but it didn’t need it.

I’ve been struggling to get in my samento and banderol treatments. They’re the herbal tinctures I take to treat Lyme. They have to be taken on an empty stomach, at least 15 minutes apart from each other, and at least 15 minutes before eating a meal. This is easy to do in the morning, but I’m supposed to do it twice a day, and I forget to time it correctly. I’ve usually just eaten or am sitting down to eat when I think of it. I’ve also been trying to take L-glutamine to heal my leaky gut, but it also has to be taken on an empty stomach. I know it’s possible to get all these supplements in during the day, I just need a better system for taking them correctly. I did get in 2 servings of L-glutamine today. Mixed it in pomegranate juice. That’s motivation to remember to take it- it’s the only way I’d allow myself such a sweet, processed juice.

Took my end-of-day probiotics with a few watermelon slices. I’m currently taking 3 high potency probiotic capsules and 3 probiotic HSO (homeostatic soil organisms) tablets. Since I’m still taking nystatin and other herbal antifungals (grapeseed extract, oregano oil) during the day (even though it doesn’t appear to be working) I can only take the probiotics before bed. The antifungals would kill off the probiotics before they got a chance to colonize.

Saturday

Totally struggling to stay positive right now. And it just seems ridiculous because I’m not even that sick. This flare is pretty minor. But I guess I had gotten excited that I was seeing progress, so I wasn’t mentally prepared for this setback.

Physically, I’m about the same today as yesterday. But emotionally, I’m dragging. I’ve been so focused, and working so hard, and my family has made so many sacrifices to help me get well. What if this doesn’t work? Am I doing something wrong? Or am I just being impatient? I’m so glad tomorrow’s Sunday. I need some church!

I had two slices of sandwich bread (gluten, egg, dairy, soy, and corn free) with ghee for breakfast.

And juiced half a fennel bulb with fronds, 5 big cucumbers, celery, 2 green apples, and kale. That’s a half gallon jar. Drank all of it throughout the day.

Lunch was leftover chicken soup and lemongrass tea (from the garden).

Dinner was sautéed sweet potatoes with spinach and garlic, fermented carrots and cauliflower, cabbage and beet salad (jarred), and rosemary garlic seed bread with olive oil.

And a smoothie for dessert. Frozen cherries and mango, banana, 3 dates, almond milk, hemp protein powder, and maca powder. Very rich and sweet.

Thursday

Woke up with a pretty swollen lip and tongue. We’re having tropical storm weather. Totally matches my mood and general health today: dreary.

Buckwheat cinnamon rolls for breakfast. With sweet potato “cream cheese” frosting. And a mug of ginger tea. That cheers me up a bit.

Lunch was leftover and frozen baked spaghetti (gluten free-of course) with grassfed meat sauce.

Juiced 2 of those ginormous carrots from the farmer’s market, and a chunk of ginger.

Snacked on watermelon.

And an alkalizing green juice. Kale, fennel (has natural TNF inhibitors), cucumbers, an apple, and I squeezed in lemon juice at the end. Yum!

Sent the husband to the grocery store for a whole organic chicken because I was craving comfort food. Perfect chicken soup. So healing when you add a little vinegar to the water- helps extract minerals from the bones and makes the soup much more nutritious than a soup made with store bought broth. Plus the combination of carrots, onions, garlic, celery, and fresh herbs from the garden. And Himalayan sea salt and pepper. So simple. So delicious.

So, this is the first significant flare I’ve had since starting the elimination diet. I’ve had lesions, but no fatigue. The fatigue set in yesterday afternoon, and it’s still here. I napped for over an hour this morning in my daughter’s bed while she played around me. And I fell asleep again during her actual nap time. This is after a good 8-9 hours of sleep last night. I haven’t had any major achy-ness with this one. The lesions aren’t even that bad. The one on my lip is swollen and ugly, but it doesn’t interfere much with eating, so it’s not a big deal. The one on my tongue is more of a problem, but as long as I eat on the other side of my mouth, I’m good. I do have a few “sore spots” that are uncomfortable while eating, but don’t seem like true lesions. All-in-all, the fatigue is the most debilitating with this one.

I’m really starting to think my flares may be linked to hormonal changes in my body. It would make sense, since the disease manifested its first symptoms when I was pregnant. I also think the worst flares are sometimes linked to my “cycle” if ya know what I mean. Though that is hard to track since I have an IUD and don’t have a normal period. Also, I used to have horrible night sweats regularly, but haven’t had them at all for a while. Just had my first one (though really minor- didn’t even have to change my clothes) the night before last.

I was doing so well with the elimination diet (no gluten, no soy, no eggs, no dairy, no corn) until now. I did eat crackers with dairy (butter flavor or fat or something) in them a few days ago. Not sure if that triggered the immune response, or if my body’s been fighting off this pathogen that got my family sick last week, and just finally got confused (or worn out) and started attacking my healthy “self” cells. Or if I made a mistake somewhere in my diet that triggered this inflammation.

Either way, just gotta push through and keep building a stronger foundation for good health.

Wednesday

Woke up feeling alright despite not sleeping well. Lesions were marginally worse than the previous day, but no big deal. Had granola with pears and almond milk for breakfast, then dragged baby girl out to the farmer’s market with the promise of popcorn (the kettle corn vendors give out little sample cups- she loves them!)

We got there a little late, and everything was sort of picked over. Still found some great produce, but had to stop at the grocery store for some things on the way home.

Here’s the combined bounty from both trips. Grocery store stuff on the left, farmers market stuff on the right. Check out those carrots!

I was exhausted when we got home. This is the first time in a while that I’ve felt that bone-deep fatigue. Easy lunch of stuffed grape leaves.

And a ginormous juice.

That’s a half gallon jar. I drank 6 cups of this stuff throughout the afternoon.

And ate some easy, microwaveable comfort food.

Made a new dinner for the family by mixing up leftovers: steak, rice, black bean purée- all sautéed with coconut oil and salsa verde, then topped with chopped spinach, tomatoes, and peppers.

But I was so full on juice (and really wasn’t feeling well) I couldn’t eat. I was still feeling very tired and had a headache brewing. Took an Epsom salt bath with essential oils. The pain wasn’t completely gone, but I was very relaxed and fell asleep quickly.

Saturday

Feeling great this morning! Mouth is significantly better (thanks to all who were praying for me!)

Excited to try this recipe from Nourishing Meals. (You can buy the book here- http://www.nourishingmeals.com/ – it’s awesome.)

Based on what I’m reading in The Immune System Recovery Plan, I’m considering a more strict elimination diet. I’ve realized that dairy definitely triggers an inflammatory response for me (sinus congestion and headaches). Without having eliminated it, I never would have noticed the difference. Cheese has always been one of my favorite foods, so this is a little sad for me. I remember seeing one of those tattoo shows where a dude got a tattoo in memory of cheese because he couldn’t eat it any more for medical reasons. My love of cheese is close to his level. Not quite, but close.

The Immune System Recovery Plan recommends that you initially eliminate gluten, dairy, corn, and soy. Based on my self-assessments, I likely have leaky gut syndrome. She (the author, Susan Blum) suggests also eliminating eggs if you have this issue. I have already eliminated gluten for some time now, and eliminating dairy will be pretty easy since I’ve severely limited it and I now know the negative effects it has on me. I’m going to try to eliminate the other 3 (corn, soy, eggs) for three weeks or so, then slowly reintroduce to see if any of these have similar negative effects (like dairy does).

This pancake/waffle recipe is perfect! I made a double batch of the mix to fill up my container. Then made a double batch of the waffles to have enough leftover to freeze. I was skeptical of the no-egg situation. No need. They’re awesome. Topped ours with ghee (yes, it’s dairy, but from what I understand won’t cause a reaction because all the proteins have been removed and it is actually very healing to the digestive system because of its high levels of butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid that reduces inflammation and balances immune cells in the gut) and a sprinkling of xylitol for sweetness.

Lunch was a veggie rice bowl. I mixed in some umeboshi paste with the rice. Sautéed frozen veggie mix (carrots, broccoli, cauliflower) with onions, and topped it off with vegan cheese sauce. This was the first time I’ve used umeboshi paste, and I used just a bit too much, so the rice was pretty salty, but it was still good. Umeboshi plums are supposed to be great for the digestive system (my biggest concern) among other things. Here’s a link for more info about umeboshi. http://www.earthclinic.com/mobile/Remedies/umeboshi.html

Dinner was Moroccan Roasted Chicken from Nourishing Meals.

And mixed greens with this homemade salad dressing. I didn’t pay close attention to the measurements. Just kind of eyeballed it. And mine came out really garlicky. I think it’ll be fine after it marinates overnight and the vinegars mellow out the garlic, but it was overpowering.

And an alkalizing green juice. This yielded more than 32 ounces. Yum! I missed my green juice yesterday.

Wednesday

Quinoa muffins and mini-quiche with watermelon. Strawberries and chia pudding. (Yes, I almost forgot the pic. The quiche is missing a couple of bites.)

Leftover buckwheat pizza.

Alkalizing green juice. Celery, cucumber, apple, ginger, lemon.

Pecan crusted chicken on a bed of romaine. Rosemary roasted root veggies. And roasted cauliflower with garlic and onions.

Generally feeling ok today. Starting to notice trends in my energy level. I usually feel great first thing in the morning, then get tired after breakfast, then feel exhausted and about to pass out in the early afternoon. Then I get a boost of energy around 8pm. This leads to me trying to do too much late at night and not getting to bed early enough. And I really struggle through the bulk of the day because I am so freaking tired. Just the severity of my exhaustion varies depending on how badly I’m flaring. A lot of what I’ve been reading describes similar energy patterns as a symptom of low functioning adrenals. So, one of my main goals moving forward is going to be getting on a more manageable schedule. This will be a challenge with my non-napping 2 year old, and my life-long night owl tendencies. But my exhaustion during the day has been really crippling lately. I can’t think straight and literally stumble around because I can barely stand up. I dozed off on the back of my daughter’s head the other day while helping her with a learning game on the computer.

On another note… my natural doc has agreed to shorten the duration of doxycycline (Lyme treatment) as long as I do an herbal “tail” of samento and banderol for 2-3 months. Soooo, one more week of antibiotics and I can knock that off! Three more weeks of antifungals, and that should be done. Hoping I can detox from all that and be primed for tapering prednisone by my next appointment! I got the sense that he felt he was going against his better judgment by cutting the antibiotic treatment short. But I’m balancing here between conventional and natural medicine and the information I’m getting is completely conflicting. And I’m no scientist. Besides, if the scientists can’t agree on this issue (Lyme disease in general) how are regular people supposed to make educated decisions about their own healthcare. It’s a crapshoot. So I found a bit of a compromise that I think will work for me. For now, anyway.

Tuesday

Tongue is slightly less swollen this morning. Lesions all still in the healing process- all seem to be on the way out rather than getting worse. And I just realized this morning that I cannot remember the last time I had bad night sweats. That’s pretty significant. Not sure what may have caused that change.

Breakfast was easy- warmed up the quiches I made yesterday, and sliced up a watermelon.

My husband is home, so I’m making his favorite for lunch- pizza. Though I’m sure he’d rather have a slice from our old neighborhood Italian joint in Queens than have this healthy version…

Got the crust recipe from “Nourishing Meals.”

Dry ingredients…

Wet ingredients…

Finished product…

Herbs from the garden that made it into the pizza- basil, oregano, rosemary.

I used a no salt added jarred marinara sauce. Dressed it up with herbs and himilayan salt and boosted the nutrition (and thickened it up) with carrot pulp leftover and frozen from juicing.

Roasted cauliflower, onions, and garlic and layered those on top of a layer of whole basil leaves. Then sprinkled daiya cheese over the top and finished it off with a bit more chopped basil and oregano.

Great flavor, though the texture of the crust was a bit cakey. I’d definitely make this again.

Love me some coconut water.

Alkalizing green juice.

Carrot juice.

Had a kombucha explosion in the car. Have GOT to try to make this stuff myself soon. Very soon.

Dinner was veggie sushi with spiralized jicama, red pepper, avocado, bragg’s liquid aminos, hemp seeds, and hemp oil. A simple salad and leftover miso soup (diluted and stretched with organic vegetable broth.)

Somebody is loving spiralized jicama. And apparently, miso soup is now her favorite food. She ate 3 bowls of it.