Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Get your D on!

I can't believe it's December tomorrow, and I wore shorts and a short sleeve shirt outside today. What a beautiful day!

My oldest son is deficient in Vitamin D, along with over 60% of Americans! Vitamin D is soooo important for overall health! Why are we so deficient? Because we live inside. With the computer age, we all of a sudden didn't have to go anywhere. We can bank online, pay our bills online, shop online, and even grocery shop online. Most of us work inside, and if we do go outside, we slather ourselves and our kids with sunscreen. I used to do this as well, until I found out that skin cancer is really a weakening of our cells caused by toxins and chemicals that we ingest or that seep through our skin. Sunscreen is just adding to the total toxic burden.

When I really think about it, humans have lived outside for millions of years. We were meant to be outside. I don't think the sun would be so huge, cover the entire earth and shine brightly for many hours a day, if we were suppose to hide from it. I also think of other living things like plants. They need the basics; water, food, and sun in order to grow and live. I'm pretty sure we are the same.

This entire blog post was written for me, to rededicate myself to getting outside. We had done pretty good for a while, but preparing for birthdays and holidays the last couple of months have kept me inside for the majority of time. Today we got out, and it felt great!

For us, we will get out daily, at least 30min. to an hour. Work up slowly, so you don't burn. For me there are exceptions for sunscreen use. I would never go to the beach for 6 hours without it, but I would try and find a sunscreen with the most natural ingredients and take plenty of big umbrellas for shade.

So enjoy! Go outside, ride bikes, go for walks, play with your kids, and for those of you in cooler weather, go snowboarding, or have a snowball fight! Don't fear the sun, enjoy the sun!

...and I hear, that the more good fats you eat, the less you burn, so keep eating fats!


Brittney

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Chronic Allergies

My oldest son had/has chronic allergies.  It was pretty sad and annoying at the same time. He would snort and sniff all day long. He was so used to it, he just thought it was apart of life. His teachers thought he was always sick with a cold, sneezing and stuffy. I had to tell them it was allergies and that he wouldn't get anyone else sick. His worse season was Sept-March, and then it would come and go. Summers were pretty good, but every September, it would creep in again like clock work.

Since starting the GAPS diet, his allergies came and went. The summer was pretty good, so I thought, YES, his allergies have been healed, but then, September came, and so did his allergies. It was the same time I was introducing egg whites, so it was hard to tell if it was his regular allergies coming back, or if it was a reaction to the egg whites. I finally stopped the egg whites, and with it, his allergies stopped. It's been about 8 weeks, and he has been allergy free. 8 weeks, it's crazy! He was so chronic, even on the GAPS diet, that I'm in awe that it's November, (when it's typically the worst), and he has been breathing clearly. I'm sure his allergies are not over, as there is still alot of healing to take place, but it's amazing to me that he has been this clear, for this long.

A lot of times, allergies occur because your body is overwhelmed by toxins, and the liver (which is your major detoxifying organ), may be too backed up, and not able to detoxify the body. So, inflammation occurs. A good way to clean out the liver, is with essential oils. I love essential oils, I can't say it enough about them. They can be used instead of medicine, to help with sickness.  For the liver cleanse, I use:

1 drop of lemon essential oil
1 drop of peppermint essential oil
in 1 Tbl. of lemon juice

I would take it in the morning about 15 min. before I ate anything. You should take it 3 weeks on, and one week off.

This can be pretty strong, and hot, so you can dilute it with water at first in order to get use to it. I added a little stevia (pre-gaps) in order to make it like a little lemonade for my kids.

My oldest son's liver must be getting stronger! I used the liver cleanse on him last year, and when he was on it for the three weeks, he did fabulously. When I would take him off for a week, all of his allergies would come rushing back. This year, I haven't had to use it. Yeah!!

It took about 2 months on the liver cleanse before I saw results in him last year. Everyone's body is different. I hope this helps!

Keep eatin' fat!

Britt

Friday, November 4, 2011

My Fav!

There have been a few recipies that have been my fav, since starting the GAPS Diet. I'm going to name a few in hopes to post them all at some point.

Homemade Chocolate Bar
Homemade PB (So Yummy!) (Spread a little PB on the chocolate bar, and Heaven has been made!)
Cauliflower Potatoe, Sausage Soup
Graham Crackers
Honey Sausages
Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Brussel Sprouts w/ Bacon
Crepes
Butternut Squash/Spaghetti Squash (Ok, this isn't really a recipie, but my kids insisted I post this too!)


Since we are licking every drop of our bowls tonight, I thought I would post the Cauliflower Potatoe, Sausage Soup. (And for those of you who tried it on Halloween night, I made it with ground beef instead of sausage, and it was YUCK, in comparison to the sausage.) Tonight it has warmed my soul!

CAULIFLOWER POTATOE, SAUSAGE SOUP

2 T. Butter (plus a chunk of butter for later)
1 onion Chopped
4 cloves of garlic minced
3 Lrg. heads of Cauliflower
4 C. of Chicken broth (Try to make some of your own if u can!)
3 T. salt
1 T. Pepper
6 carrots diced into smaller chunks
1 lb. of ground pork, seasoned with about 1/4 tsp. salt, pepper, sage, thyme and fennel

I feed 5 in this family, and always try to make double or triple of everything we eat, so we can have leftovers. So, when your done, this fills an 8 qt. Stock pot.

Ok, put about 2 T. of butter or Ghee in a stock pot on medium heat. Throw in the onion and minced garlic. Stir it around til' the onions become translucent. (About 5-10 min.) Chop up your cauliflower and add it to the pot. At this point I add more butter, (maybe another Tablespoon).  Stir til it's all mixed up a bit. Add your Chicken stock. Put the lid on, and bring it to a boil. Once it's at a boil, I turn it down to a medium heat, (still boiling). Let it cook til' the cauliflower is really soft. (About 20-25 min.) While that is going, I boil my chopped up carrots until soft, and I make up my ground sausage w/ seasonings in a medium skillet. Once the Cauliflower is soft, I take my immersion blender and blend the whole soup together til' it's all smooth. I then add the chopped carrots, sausage, salt and pepper, and a hunk of butter. (A hunk is usually about 2 T.) Enjoy!

On the Gaps Diet, we can't have any starches. Unfortunatly the bad bugs like them too much, so lucky enough, cauliflower can be steamed, blended up with butter, salt and pepper, and you have mashed potatoes. I was missing a creamy potatoe soup, and I thought, well why can't I make soup with cauliflower to mimic potatoes, luckily I had made some sausage that morning, and I thought that sounded good in it too. So, with a few carrots later, our Cauliflower Potatoe/Sausage Soup was born!

 I can't leave you hangin', so I wanted to post a treat too! The Carrot Cake Cupcakes are not my recipe, but you can search for it over at wellfedhomestead.com. There called "Coconut Flour Carrot Muffins". Super Delish!!

Keep Eatin' Fat!

Brittney






( I think it's more fun when pics. are posted. This is my now 6 year old daughter at 2 yrs. old. So cute, they grow so fast!)