DD18 seeing nutritional response practitioner (NRP)

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I have to tell you, NRP is super sweet to DD18.  When I saw NRP, with both girls, it was on a triage/emergency basis during the custody trial.....it was like boot camp.  Zero coddling for me or the girls.  NRP had no bedside manner, was super critical and could tell if I veered off course by a tic tac.  She actually made me spit one out, in her hand, like I was a child, come to think of it.  This 3rd appointment DD walked out of the office with yummy snack bars containing 4gr of sugar. DD obviously has more choice in foods.

What I want to say is....,I'm glad DD is having a better experience, but I couldn't look NRP in the eye the first visit.  It reminded me of....never mind what it reminded me of.  It's better.

Food is easier, bc I know what to buy and DD is 100% on board, which was a waiting game for her to ask for help.  DD pancreas, gallbladder and adrenal system weren't online, bc of digestion issues we're addressing now.  DD eating solid food 3x daily and her system beginning to function again with support of good food and 5 supplements.

I ordered one of the Whole 30 cookbooks for myself and a friend struggling with chronic fatigue. See?  I didn't blather on there about HOW she GOT CF battling a sociopath ex in court for many years while asshat male Judges failed her till
ONE
DID
NOT.

I won't erase that.  I SEE it, note it and breathe.....I want to change it.  I AM changing it.  Noticing is the first step.

So, eating 3 full protein/complex carb/good fat meals is doing its job.  Breakfast sets up our adrenals and hormones for the day.  Everything rolls out from there.  Cravings have gone after 3 weeks, blessedly.

I gave up all dairy, which might be the hardest part for me.  Monk fruit and whole leaf Stevia work as sweeteners. Gluten replacements already in place, but I'm baby stepping back to only 1 carb a week.  It's happening naturally, bc cravings releasing their grip....tough tough first 2 weeks.
We bought a used Blentec blender for the lake (70.00)and like it better than the Vitamix at home.  It has cycles to choose from, can't say enough about it.  Much easier. Less fussing and struggling with buttons.  DD18 makes shakes with ice, almond butter, vanilla, monkfruit sweetener, raw zucchini, raw egg, salt and Veg-E Complete Pro Vanilla protein powder from Standard Process and whatever sf nut/oat or flax milk she's feeling.  We tried a different powder last week...it tasted like dried and powdered bile ducts, perhaps bonine.  Blech.

It would be amazing if DD20 wanted to eat this way, bc we're lining up for a struggle back home.  DD20 will have to keep her food in her room.  I'm taking a small fridge home for her.  Moving boxes of tile tweaked my shoulder again, 2hich is worrisome and slows my roll getting that fridge upstairs.

My cousin has a new Grandaughter.  Just lovely and I'm keeping my silence as she struggles to feed and comfort a bf baby.  Oy, it doesn't always have to be that hard, or dies it?

Dunno'mate.  I'm shopping for larger shower bench tiles today.  It is glorious outsude!

Lighter

[lighter]

I ordered wrong Whole 30 book.  Need THE book and not a cookbook.

[Meh]

Good luck.

It will be interesting to see what cutting out dairy does. Probably better digestion if nothing else.

[lighter]

Thanks, Mouse.

Dairy always upset DD's stomach, but there are other problems now with digestion. 

J added Bernadine back into mix of supplements bc of digestion distress.  Gallbladder, pancreas and adrenal system are holding their own now.

I decided to see J again bc we drive 3.5 hours for one 15 minute appointment.  I feel better than I have in 15 years, emotionally.  Might as well tackle the physical.

Last night I ate what will be a last piece of fruit for a while....maybe forever.  The last time I saw J she had me 100% off g/s/d, including all fruit.  I was allowed 1 gf carb a week.

That looks a little crazy but my brain for cleared, my body changed in amazing and unexpected ways I didn't expect it even care about.  My nose stopped running, but eating pristine us really really really hard.  Particularly since the world is full of non food and people enjoying it all around.

And there are sticking points....
Loved whole milk in coffee.  Now it's ghee and Stevia....coffee no longer a happy pleasure.  It's sadness.

Having clean irganic protein on hand, in amounts making up for zero simple carb intake, is hard.

Eating that much protein is a chore, but the cravings leave pretty quick, ime. 

Giving up the things I enjoyed....a tangerine for instance, which dd18 CAN have....I think I'm in a sort if mourning. 

If anyone has a 100% monkfruit or whole leaf Stevia source, please hook me up.

Whole Foods us dropping prices on organic greens, btw. 

An added stress is helping a GA friend eat clean, bc she asked and her health us critical at this point.  DD and I leave J's office, drive to friend's (D's) house and I spend 2 hours cleaning, organizing and last night cooked a bug meatloaf and bone broth, leaving an organic rotisserie chicken in the fridge for quick meal prep.

And her fridge is stuffed with fresh produce.  I was overwhelmed....did she buy a months worth of groceries at one go?  I can't be there to do this for her, so things are whonkey.  I think of things to tell her on 1.5 drive to lake, then forget in morning.

And things will calm down, I know.  Routines will be shaped.  Routines will be grappled with.

Everything moving in upward trajectory. 

I want to share J's rule about NOT eating the same food 2x in a row.  We're supposed to mix things up, which is another stucking point.

The journey continues and I'm not winching about this.  I'm on board.  Change isn't easy, that's all.

Lighter

So, I'm relieved on one hand and so so sad

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Maybe I'm reading the labels wrong, CB.  I'm not seeing whole leaf on packaging in our stores.

::heading to Amazon to look::

DD18 prefers the monk fruit, but that seems impossible to find 100% mf.

I'll check our local Co-Op.  Thanks for your input, CB: )
Lighter

[lighter]

Dd18 doing well her food choices.  I'm on second week and the cravings have gone.  Mostly we're not hungry, but every once in a while WE ARE.  Planning ahead is imperative or we're cooking 3 full meals every day.

Taste buds are changing.  Food is different when the brain all but stops sugar seeking and sugar is in everything, often hidden.

I guess food feels kind of flat.  Coming up with new ideas isn't easy.  Eating zero simple carbs is an altered state of being, IME.

I'm sleeping better. 

DD18's digestion keeps improving.  Things were very scary for a while.

Nutritionist said I have an immune challenge....not a fire, but low coals smoldering....viral.  Gallbladder and liver need support.  Adrenals, of course, need support.  The plan is pristine eating, supplements 3x a day and weekly appointments till balance is restored and body handles challenges on its own.

I'm walking minimum of 10 brisk minutes a day.  DD joins half the time.  Cold blasts of water in the shower. Daily one nostril breathing prescribed.....slowly breathing 10x through nostril with least air flow.  It's really hard bc left nostril always mostly blocked.  I had to build up to 10x.  It feels like suffocating.

To bed now.

Lighter

[lighter]

DD18 is asleep.  She went to bed early last night and got up at 7am.  Her body is repairing itself as she sleeps.  Her digestion continues to improve.

We don't limit the amount we can eat.  What a strange landscape to find ourselves eating on schedule when we're not really hungry....trying to eat more instead of limit portions.

It's the upside down world.

We made "muffins" last night with
1 c coconut flour
1 tsp baking powder
12 whole eggs
8 Tbs melted ghee
4 Tbs canned coconut milk
2 TBS honey
Vanilla and salt to taste

We sifted the dry ingredients together then mixed lightly to incorporate ingredients, careful n9t to overmix.

The timing was about 15 minutes, bc recommended 20 burned the bottoms a bit.

I'll add more salt next time, but I have to tell you....
Muffin, any way you like it, warm, cold or room temp, is fantastic with coconut milk whipped cream.  There's 1 gram sugar, not a good thing, but those bites are spectacular in the mouth, ime.  Highly recommend if you like custard like cake tasting a bit like coconut.  Last night I added raspberries, such a great.

The temp was 400 DEGREES!  DD set the oven.  If you add cinnamon it tastes like French toast muffins. 

Recent meals include white chili with pork and plenty of fresh jalapenos with added pickled peppers.
Baked chicken breasts with crunchy almond and parm topping.  We can have hard cheese bc dairy removed.

Baked chicken legs with ghee and dry bbq rub, yum.  Will be making those different ways, bc easy to find irganic and so inexpensive.  I can make a Sheetpan full for about 6.00, whoo hoo.  Yummy leftovers.

We like sauteed greens with garlic.  I mix leftovers into other things or have them later.....easier to cook more ahead to have on hand.

We enjoy curry chicken every week.  Sometimes we make curry zucchini ahead to have on hand.

There's no rice or bread or pasta and, shockingly,  we don't miss it.  I think feeling full makes our brains feel obligated to eat the nutritional stuff, knowing there's no hunger or room for big carbs.

DD has been craving dark chocolate and I have not.  Nutritionist said it's an indicator DD missing magnesium....maybe other things. 

This is one of the big mysteries, bc DD typically hates chocolate of all kinds and I love it.

Upside down world.

Lighter

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NRP told Jenna it will take her body 18months, not weeks, to heal her gut.  Much longer for me, bc I'm not shooting all those growth hormones younger people have to spare.  Week 1, DD's gallbladder, pancreas and adrenals weren't online.  She wasn't digesting.  Digestion threw everything off.

This put things in perspective, for me.  This is getting off the Western treadmill of eating, to become sick so big pharm can treat my symptoms with drugs, creating more problems with symptoms to be treated with drugs, creating more symptoms till I die in a spiral if sickness and medical treatments isn't how I want to spend the years I have left.

 I read over that paragraph and think...that's dramatic, but is it?  Unfortunately, it's the norm in this culture.  Not my opinion.  That's how I see it.

Everything has sugar.  We need a degree in chemistry to understand labels.  We need a magnifying glass to SEE labels in some cases.
OK.  DD supplements are standard Process
Berberine Active
Cholacol
Multizyme
Zypan
Choline
Garlic Forte just added to handle something bacterial....gallbladder related.

We're both on Adrenal Tonic Phytosynergist, double the recommended dose.  DD18 just finished that and maybe one other thing....I'm on second week of Adrenal Tonic.  Adrenals messed up, but I feel SO MUCH BETTER with therapy....I forget better isn't healed or normal.  I don't really remember normal, truthfully.

 I also take:
Antronex
Immuplex
Betafood
The Tonic ingredients are:
Rehmannia Root
Ashwaganda Root
Echinacea Root with purified water, alcohol
and maltodextrin.
My gallbladder and liver needed support.  They improved, but adrenals took a dive, bc but I'm trying to work on that.

Lighter










 

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I have some healthy anger coming up around eating "healthy"food, while omitting chemicals and inflammatory food stuffs being labeled "dieting", generally, in our culture.

It's negative and destined for failure if one shifts back to eating things considered "normal". 

We're sheep?  Maybe, but we're conditioned and programmed from birth.  With man made baby formula and advertising. 

Eating real food isn't dieting, but we single ourselves out as difficult, I know.

Hard to feed, eat with, be fed by.  When we explain it, bc people ask, we're preaching crazy talk, bc they do
Not
Want
To
Hear
What
We're
Saying
About their food choices.

I don't want to say it, believe me.  I'm tired of saying it and more tired of people having surgery, taking meds and spending their life savings in the final months of their lives.

And this is my thread, so I will go on about it a bit more.

I know I hurt my liver with meds to calm my shoulder injury.  I'm tending to it now.  Will take some time. 

I know the majority around me will always see healthy food choices as dieting, a fad, stupid, elitist hippy dippy stuff...and May be a little scary, bc.....look at our society.  There's undeniable truth about what we do to ourselves with food....just look around.  Look at ourselves.

And I'm working on not feeling anger, though it's useful just now, imo.

I'm wirking my way towards acceptance and turning away from what's taking my attention, over and over.

I have other things I want to feel and do with that time.

Lighter

[sKePTiKal]

Whatever other people choose to eat, is their job to decide. You do you - and if that means you bring something you CAN eat with you to social gatherings, so be it. I've often eaten (not religiously) in alternative ways. "Diet" as a word, isn't accurate enough to explain to others because of the connotation with weight issues. No way that association is going to change quickly.

Other ways to express your food choices would be:

conscious eating
clean food philosophy
medicinal nutrition

I like that last one the best, because it means you've accepted that the food you eat contributes to your overall well-being; you are responsible to you for adopting that -- and in no way does it imply that others should eat this way; they are free to make their own choices without judgement against those choices. It also, I think, makes discussing commercial food and alternatives, a little easier without triggering people's auto-reflexes of defensiveness.

Do I see the parallel between my parsing & selection of words and how they're presented? OH YEAH. (The irony of this being a "voicelessness" board hasn't escaped me.) To my own ears, it's overly "precious" and self-effacing. But that's our world these days. Even just saying what personal choices you've made is often taken by others as a prescription for everyone to follow - or else. Annoys the hell outta me, but this too shall pass... and I have full permission from my self to blurt out the blunt truth (as I see it) without consideration of time, place, audience or "appropriateness". Knowing full well, I bear the brunt of any hurt feelings or consequences. The irrepressible "know it all" and "smartass" in me, simply can't be restrained ALL the time.

LOLOLOLOLOL.   So be angry; I'm OK with that. One of the reasons I hate being "out in the world" is because there are so few options for eating good clean food. McDonalds even found a way to over-process salads for cryin' out loud.

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Really rough morning, but not with food.  Applegate ham, Turkey and breakfast sausages are expensive, but easy quick meals, at least for me.  I enjoy avocado, tomato and primal mayo wrapped up in ham...si quick.  Has everything.  No cooking.

Last night dd20 sat and talked with me as I happily munched down an entire package of ham like that.  Perfectly ripe avocado and tomatoes....mixed greens already washed.

Dd20 said she'd likely want to eat the same thing when she gets home from work today.  That would be great since she's been living in ramen noodles like a college student.  It's devastating to her health. 

We clean out fridges and freezers this weekend.

I decided to get rid of the non stick pans, which will serve several purposes.. decluttering, organizing and any health risks nonstick coatings pose.  Anyone research nonstick coatings?

Amber, using terms like "prescriptive" eating appeals to me very much.  No hoo hoo hippy in that to trigger people.  My brother and his gf were super defensive about food after his gall bladder removal.   My sister and I went a little frantic sending and making food...,trying to explain eating clean vs eating inflammatory foods.  Even after sis and I stopped talking about it, brother and particularly gf just kept talking and talking about it.  I wanted to stab my ears till so finally pointed out they were the only ones still talking about it.  I knew I wasn't their mother.  I agreed what they are was none of my business.  I stopped short of apologizing for caring and going out of my way to do what I could....trying to help in my own way. 

It's the same feeling I had when I tried to stop my father's brain surgery debacle.  I so clearly SEE where it's leading.  The consequences will affect my life too, but it's not my business.

CB, it IS hard raising kids around everyone else's kids whoofing down McDonald's and candy and cokes.  It got better once we moved here, but it's exhausting.  I would have had more grocery store breakdowns if I had diabetic children, I can tell you that. 

Taking a break from cooking 3 meals a day is helping.  If we can clean out freezers, begin stocking easy to heat  leftovers and organizing the food and travel better....foid will get easier.

Thbanks for the input.  It's helpful.

Lighter

[Twoapenny]

Lighter, I personally don't offer advice or suggestions to the majority of people any more.  I've found over the years that whatever the other person's situation is (and whatever it is that might help them) that if they want to find out or know about something, they'll ask or go looking for it.  There are some people I know are open to it but I think most of us are on a path and other people offering information that involves change maybe feels more stressful?  People who know me know my lifestyle and know which things I know plenty about, and they know I'm happy to help.  So if someone asks, I'll say, but other than that I tend to not mention things - or I might mention once (if you want info about x then I've got some you can have) and I leave it there.  One example is a friend of mine who had cancer a good while ago (ten years or so).  I had a cancer scare when my son was young - pap smear result suggested cancer was present and urgent action was needed.  I bought a nutrition book, ate everything it suggested and took large doses of the supplements they listed.  I had further exploratory tests done a few weeks later and everything came back clear.  The doctors were so surprised they thought there had been a mix up at the lab and sent everything back to be tested again.  I don't know whether those large doses of vitamins cleared that cancer away or if it was a mistake and it wasn't there in the first place, but it didn't hurt me to take them so I'd do it again in the same situation, you know?

So when my friend got cancer I bought her that book, bought some of the supplements listed in it for her, kept sending her articles about don't eat this, don't touch that and so on.  She ignored pretty much all of it, cut down on smoking and drinking but didn't stop, the cancer did go away but the treatment was aggressive and made her very ill.  She has the cancer again now and I did send her some info about getting hold of cannabis to treat it (it's illegal here but there's a 'network' of people that grow and supply it for medical situations) but she's not gone down that road.  It's unlikely she'll survive, even with treatment and if it were me I'd be rubbing bird poo in my eyes if there was some random chance it might help but she isn't and that's her choice.  I think maybe that's the thing - other people's choices are theirs to make.  It's hard but I think we can only walk our own path and other people have to walk theirs.  i am liking the sound of avocado, tomato and ham wraps You're doing a grand job xx

[lighter]

So true, Tupp.  We can't walk anyone else's path.  No matter how badly we'd like to help.

Lighter

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NRP listed coconut oil and ghee as safe for higher heat cooking.  Olive oil for lower heats. Avocado oil good, forget what for.

Pretty much everything else is bad, so we threw out the grapeseed oil we'd been using for some high heat cooking.

By the time NRP explained Canola oil, from Canada, originally used for engines or something mechanical till someone got the idea CHEAP, let's sell it for cooking oil too...I was not ok.

When water came up, RO filters were, in her opinion, best.  The expensive little Britta filters were "useless."

Before Covid I was schlepping 5g water bottles to fill with RO water, but switched to the Britta, bc I didn't have to leave the house to manage it.

For some reason, and partially bc I'm already stressed, and my brother had just asked why his kids, who eat junk, are healthy as horses while my kids aren't....
I just lost the thread of keeping myself together.

I reminded my brother, gently, in that earlier discussion his DD had seizure disorder and ADHD  when she was very young and her Neuro doc finally admitted to my brother nutrition played a large part.

Brother drifted away from the subject at that point, but I was picturing my niece, blue, dead in his arms as far as he could tell, terrified......I was thinking about his son's skin problems, and then my brother's gallbladder surgery and fatty liver and how often I'm left standing there....truly horrified I'm"right" again came to mind.  I'm so tired, bone deep, of being " right." 

Then I had a flashback...

My brother didn't know I secured my father's MRIs from the hospital, made 2 appts with neurosurgeons and attempted to stop my father's brain surgery, bc it was likely to go worse than it actually did.

And there's something for my mindfulness thread, bc I have always neeeeded people around me to be OK, responsible, just.

So, yesterday when the NRP talked about the chemicals we shower with and drink and eat I was not ok.

I couldn't really form words. Or breathe.  Pretty much all day.

She stopped the session and suggested I "see someone I can talk to"  The despair dropped away for a moment.  I've heard that so many times.  Oh....and I'm supposed to breathe out of one nostril of my completely clogged up nose.  I saw the humor...for a moment.

It's really difficult to eat clean, healthy food exclusively.

It's compounded by everyone I know and love, almost exclusively, eating chemicals and unbelievable amounts of sugar at every meal and snack. 
All around me. 
Sometimes smugly.

Maybe it's old trauma from Dad's brain debacle.  Maybe I'll outlive my little brother and watch his likely BPD ex wife parent my now grown niece and nephew into....

See?  I knew this belonged on the mindfulness thread.

I'm going to try breathing for a while.

Lighter

[Twoapenny]

Aw, Lighter  ((((((Lighter))))))))).  It is hard to manage these big changes, new information, old stuff coming up, and then smug conversations with people eating burgers I think the thing with health is that so much is hidden, and we all start from different places.  I remember moaning about people I knew (when I was seeing a nutritionist) who smoked, drank, ate loads of crap, while I was busy making beetroot and carrot juice at 5 in the morning and spending most of my day washing and prepping veggies and 'healthy' cakes for son.  I said "it's not fair - we've got loads of health stuff to deal with and they don't have any health problems at all".  She said, "they don't have health problems - yet".  People can be literal ticking time bombs; we all know someone who just had a massive heart attack and dropped dead, despite never having had any heart problems that they knew of, and others who live a really healthy lifestyle in order to cope with trauma from childhood or rehabilitate after addiction and they still get ill - there can be so many factors, some within our control, some not.  You're doing what's right for you, and that need to be responsible for everyone else can cause sooooo much stress.  Maybe just take a break from people for a while, so you don't see others eating all that stuff and you can just focus on what you need to do.  It's alright for it all to feel crappy for a while, under the duvet with ham and avocado is perfectly fine for a while xx