My new treatment, and a small treat recipe

[TendrTummy]

Hi all!

I'm on my third day of my elimination diet and liver detoxification program. I'm currently taking one dose of the rice protein drink a day and will upgrade to 2 doses on Tuesday. The third step is on week two, (day 8) to eliminate all meat from the diet and rely solely on the protein drink, which you up to 3 doses a day.

Anyway, I'm exhausted... but.. I feel better mentally than I have in a very long time. I feel like this is going somewhere, I'm improving already.

Fyi, I'm taking USANA Vitamins - 2 daily vitamins 3x a day, 1 iron/folate supplement 1 time a day, and 2 Permaclear twice a day. The Permaclear is like a probiotic and enteral antiinflammatory, but it's based solely on herbs.

The USANA brand is well known and nearly the best in the industry when it comes to actual absorbtion. Most vitamins are only absorbed by the body up to 30% (these are the kind you buy in the grocery store.. and *some* of them only give you 2% absorbency!!!). These give you 98% absorbancy for maximum benefit, and are reasonably priced, for what they are.

So I started on the Permaclear a week prior to starting the detox program. That alone made my D increase to almost liquid consistency; however, the very day I started the iron and liver detox/elimination diet, my D turned to "norm", and has been since. Also, gas restarted. I haven't had ANY sort of gas for probably a year now. Now I feel "regular"!!! Honestly, I don't know if it's the iron supplement, the elimination diet, or the program itself.

So my diet was already free of soy, gluten, egg, dairy (casein), and refined sugars/corn syrup. For the elimination diet, I then had to eliminate tomatos and corn altogether, as well as any meats except fish, chicken, and turkey sausage (for some reason).. basically any processed meats.

As mentioned, on the 2nd week, I have to also eliminate fish and chicken (all meat and beans actually), and up the protein drink to 3 times a day.

Then I get another week of light meats and less protein drink.

After the program, I can only add one food back at a time; you have to eat it twice a day for 3 days. If you have no reaction, you can then add another food. If you have a reaction, obviously you don't eat it ever again.

So I may find a hidden allergen here. I'm kind of excited about all of this. I'm killing a lot of birds with one stone here. I had a feeling after my gall bladder was removed that a lot of burden was being put on my liver, with all of my allergies.

Lately, I've been reacting more to things I hadn't previously been, and more severely. It made me suspect I need to clean it out, so when this opportunity presented itself, I took it.

The program costs a bit over $150 total, not including all of the extra vitamins I'm taking. My vitamins cost me a total of $70 a month, and thru USANA are automatically sent to me and the money automatically taken from my account. It's very convenient for me, as I'm too busy in my schedule to do much else.

Now, some problems with the program are "what do I eat for lunches??". I mean.. I don't often eat salads.. I suspect lettuce doesn't do much good for me, plus dressings are a temptation I don't need. So I went to the nearest natural foods mart.

So in all the time I've been trying, and I have been trying (!!), I haven't found one "good" bread, or rather, impersonation of bread. Well, I finally found it.

Ener-G's tapioca hamburger buns. I believe they had others.. like sliced bread, but I didn't like the texture. The buns are bread-like texture!!! (wheat bread, I mean) I got some of those, as well as some almond-butter, freshly ground, and ONLY contains almonds (because peanuts are out with the elimination diet - tree nuts are ok), and I also got some FRESH honey!!!!! I put these together by cutting the bun in half, toasting it, spreading a very thin layer of the almond butter on it, and topping it with a very light coating of honey.

The result somewhat resembles a glazed donut!!!! A sweet cakey-bread covered with nutty crunchiness and the best, sweetest honey I ever have had.

And the best part is I've had two and I haven't had any reaction - I feel almost great! ( I say almost because it's been so dang cold up here that I've been shivering often - this has caused both of my arms and my sides to be completely sore!! And I also have the beginnings of a horrid cold )

I really think this is a solution for me. I'm cleaning out my system, I'm nailing down any remaining allergies, I'm actually starting to look like I have a little weight to spare, and I haven't had stomach pain in a few days.

My back hurts of course - I don't think I've mentioned this, but they did an X-ray and found that my sacrum is hyperflexed (bent outward - not sure if hyperflexed is the right word for that) - so the boney process of your vertebrae that stick out (where you can feel your "spine") are growing extra bone, because they're all shoved together. Anyway, it hurts. The doc is going to use traction to spread it all back out, so to speak, and bend my sacrum a bit downward, where it should be. On top of it, I have the scoliosis, which causes my pelvis to shift one way, and the base of my back to be very stiff and immobile. We're doing good with keeping that movable - if I skip a week tho, I can really feel it. The pain has stopped going from hip to knee so constantly tho, so I think we've made a huge stride.

Anyway, sorry for the novel, I just wanted to share my progress. I feel a glimmer of hope for the first in a long time.

Christine

[tex]

Well, thanks for the novel. LOL. Seriously, I agree. It sounds like you're making some real progress, for a change.

If you're feeling better already, that's hard to argue with. You're right about the gas, too, it's a very good indicator of digestive system operation, and it's impressive that it returned so quickly when you started the program.

I like the way food items are reintroduced, too--twice a day for 3 days. Some of the "allergy elimination" diets floating around, are based on whether or a not a reaction occurs after eating a food a single time. That's unrealistic, as far as I'm concerned. That will work for people who are truly allergic to a food, but from an intolerance standpoint, many of us don't react without repeat doses.

Please keep us informed. It sounds like you're taking the bull by the horns, and you won't let up, until you've got him under control. It sure looks as though you've got things going your way, right now. I hope your winning streak continues.

Wayne

[JJ]

Wow...I am impressed with your will power....and so happy you are seeing results....good luck kiddo...Love, JJ

[Mars]

I'm glad to see that you are feeling better and found something that is helping you! Yea for the treat too!

Keep up the good work!

[TendrTummy]

You know, will power is one thing.. but at this point, things that I've reacted to make me nauseated by just smelling them.. so it's not as hard as it sounds. My diet was already so limited that taking away the extra things for a few weeks wasn't really a big deal at all. The biggest deal is the protein drink. It doesn't taste the best in apple juice but better in apple/raspberry juice.

Anyway, I forgot to mention some of my other mishaps! lol Regarding the turkey sausage - this was one of the only meats I can eat, so of course we got some at the Natural foods store. It was free range meat. I threw 2 sausage patties in the frying pan this morning for breakfast, and I could barely bring myself to even throw them in the garbage or rinse out the pan. The smell was so gamey and rank, I almost puked. There is no way I will ever be able to eat that stuff. I also bought some free range chicken.. we'll see how THAT goes.. I have a feeling it'll be the same. I just can't bring myself to eat something that smells so vile.

Anyone else tried or actually can stomach free range meat?

Also, I found some cereal and milk combo that suits me and I actually had a pretty severe craving for it when I read about it. Arrowroot (brand) Maple Buckwheat flakes with Almond milk. OMG people, it's almost like eating frosted flakes and milk! Except that it gets soggy a bit sooner. But the stuff is awesome.

Anyway, just had to add those tidbits.. I'll also see if I can post them in the kitchen area.

Christine

[tex]

Something is wrong with that turkey sausage. Free range meat shouldn't taste gamey, unless maybe it's free range bear or kangaroo.

I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for some of those maple buckwheat flakes.

Wayne

[TendrTummy]

Well, LOL I didn't taste it.. I just smelled it.. that's all it took. It was all I could do to breathe while tossing the stuff in the garbage. It smelled like a dirty, then wet dog. LOL MMmmmmmm appetizing!

[Lucy]

Hi Christine,

That IS good cereal. Haven't had any almond milk in quite some time, but for the life of me, can't remember why I stopped that.

Weren't there some people on here who had a problem with some ingredient? Was it caregeean (sp)?? Now that I've been ok for a while, sure would like to try it again, unless of course it's got d,c,e,y, or s in it.

Free range meat is certainly different, but we get ours at Whole Foods, and it doesn't turn me off at all. Other wild meats definitely do, so theirs must not be too gamey.

There are a few companies that sell meats in some of the better regular stores, like for instance, Buddies distributes chicken that is free of most things. They can't label it organic though because the feed would have to be organic, so they just label it "natural" with all the qualifiers listed on front of the package.

Place near us that sells that also sells beef under the Coleman label which is sort of like what Buddies is to chicken. I've never had a problem with either of these.

I doubt that a brand called Saunderson Farms is in your area just yet, but it's not range fed, but is free of the same things. Good part about it is that it can be bought at stores around here that have a little better prices overall, as well as some of the more expensive stores. At any rate, I wonder if perhaps some of the better regular stores in your area wouldn't have chicken products that would be regular chicken, yet be safe for you to eat (as in minus the injected additives, etc.)?? My sister got some turkey that's supposed to be ok, and I didn't have any trouble with it, just can't remember the brand name right now. Will hafta check on that next time I see her. At any rate, look around cause I know there must be some non-range fed products in your area.

I'm glad that your elimination is otherwise going well, and hopefully, you'll find the answers you seek. Meanwhile, take care of the more temporary other illnesses. Bummer to get sick at this time of year!

Wow, getting sleepy already!!
Yours, Luce

[starfire]

I'm really impressed too, Christine!! I wish all the benefit possible from your experiment.

I agree with Wayne that your sausage was already spoiled. I haven't had free range turkey sausage but I've had free range beef and chicken and they were both great.

Maybe they put some seasoning in that you can't stand - can't imagine what it would be that would make it smell that bad though. I tend to think it was spoiled.

Best of luck to you and please keep us up to date on how you are doing.



Shirley

[TendrTummy]

*CRINGE* Smelled just like the deer meat while we were butchering this year. Altho I have to say the deer smelled better than this. I can't describe it.. but I guess it's a "musky" smell. Not one you want to associate with something you're about to eat.

I'll look into nonrange-fed injection-free meat as a possible future solution.. otherwise, I'm doing fine on chicken, and fish. I had meat that was tenderized today, and all I can say is - I'm getting a tenderizer. I cooked it in a little olive oil and a sage rub for about 15 minutes total, on medium heat. It was quicker, it was more tender, and the spices get all up in there, so it tastes awesome. I'm going to tell Trent right now - Christmas present - I'm *getting* a tenderizer! lol Gonna smack my meat around a bit. That can be taken whatever way you want to take it ;)

Lucy, please let me know when you find out the brand of that meat your sister had.. a turkey sounds yummy.. I'll check the ingredients again, but I did look at it in the store and it passed my ingredient list, which is elimination diet right now - has to be safe for anyone, unless you're allergic to rice. Unless one little spice did it.. that'd be odd. I'll look and post the ingredients.

Thanks for the encouragement folks :) I feel pain at times but overall I'm starting to feel a change, and I'm liking it a little more than before.. I guess this diet is teaching me it could be worse than it currently is.. and I am having some experiments in foods, which to me seems to odd - to have less foods to choose from and yet things I have never tasted before. I had fresh beets - I cut them up and steamed 'em in a pan and they were stainful but yummy. I've got some fresh carrots and potatos and a zuchini - all organic :)

Christine

[TendrTummy]

A Maple Buckwheat - O - Gram:

Here're the ingredients for the Arrowhead Mills (sorry, earlier I said the brand was Arrowroot - shows how much I pay attention to names of cereal!!) Maple Buckwheat flakes:

Organic whole gran buckwheat grits, organic whole grain brown rice flour, organic evaporated cane juice, organice whole grain buckwheat flour, organic maple syrup, sea salt, honey, ascorbic acid (vitamin c) and natural vitamin e (to preserve freshness).

Christine