Frax Flax and Snacks

FRAX FLAX AND SNACKS

Hello!

I know it's been a few days but hubby and I have been busy trying to gather up all the holistic nutritional goodies needed for my new diet from Cleveland clinic. It's somewhat a stretch to find organic meat in this area, but we will figure it out.

Meanwhile, I got brave and energized the blender to mix up some of the recommended smoothies...it's was...interesting. The first featured flax and Chia seeds in almond milk with blueberries. It was a texture sensation...not very yum. The second features kale blended in almond milk, protein powder and cocoa. It was every bit as 'ERK' as I thought it might be. Guess the seed smoothie is the one.

Actually, I've been pretty much on the diet since November...that's when this blog started, and my health started improving...due to the Cleveland Clinic functional medicine diet. Go to their website, and read all about it. It's an amazing take on western meets eastern medicine.

Western medicine pretty much has failed me these last three years. I've had short bouts of IBS, irritable bowel syndrome since I was sixteen years old. It would run it's course, I would recover, and forget about it till the next time I was ill and retching in the bathroom. Only this time, I wasn't getting better, and my MS was making everything ten times worse, with seizure control issues...yadayadayada.

After many shrieking trips in the back of an ambulance, tons of medical bills and the worries attendant with that, I chanced upon the website. And read. And it made perfect sense. Cleveland Clinic is curing IBS...and many other worse bowel issues with their functional medicine clinic. I needed a MD who would be open to new ideas. I went to a new MD and we started on the program as closely as we could long distance. My new local MD got me a referral to the Cleveland Clinic and eight months later...this August, I went!

It's going to still be a radical change, despite following the program fairly closely the past eight months. I'm trying to heal my gut from the cells out, so my diet has to be fairly 'clean' for it to work. Every time I've tried to 'add back' things over the past eight months or so, there are few things that my gut tolerates. It's difficult in this world we live in to eat 'fresh' or 'clean' foods. A great nutritionist I studied under way back in the 80's said it best: 'eat the foods from the outer portions of the supermarket, don't go down the aisles where the processed foods are!' I really tried to follow that for so many years, but it's hard isn't it? They don't call 'em 'convenience' foods for nothing.

I even went to a High School that had a McDonald's in it! Seriously. For a kid prone to being a bit on the chubby side to begin with, that didn't help! Cafeteria food is still notorious for being a processed carbohydrate hell. I will tell you a great secret that has helped with my gut. NO PROCESSED SUGAR! The second: NO WHEAT OR GLUTEN! If you do nothing else with your diet, avoiding these three things will set your gut to healing if you have a tender tummy like mine. It isn't a cure, but it's a great help. If you can steal yourself to stop drinking soda and taking in artificial sweeteners, colors, and all the **** stuff they add to food that will also help.

Have you noticed the real push for “all natural” dog foods? Why can't we as a country have the ability to give our citizens with unprocessed natural foods? When my Mom was a kid they fed the dog, Betsy from the scraps off the dinner table. She thrived and lived to a ripe old age. Of course, I do wonder if a dog in today's world would actually get the nutrients needed from that type of diet, since our produce has suffered due to fertilizers and genetic manipulation. Seriously. You can read all over the internet about it. Our soils are depleted of the good minerals to sustain crops that actually are nutritious!

Anyhow, aside from the shakes, the diet is fine. I would prefer to eat to live than live to eat at this point. After so much pain connected with eating, it's just not worth it anymore to drink soda, eat bread or down sugar like I have since I was a kid.

At the Health Food store yesterday, I picked up some fabulous fish oil (really, I'm not joking here...it really is!) The stuff is a miracle...it comes refrigerated, you take a tsp a day...no fish burp, no upset tummy, and best of all: no fish taste! It comes in two flavors, one is Key Lime, and the other is Orange Smoothie. The orange is the best, although the lime is OK too. The name is “Bar leans”. Amazing stuff! I've struggled for years to get fish oil in my diet, but gave up due to the fish side effects. If you've had issues, give it a whirl, you will be amazed.

Frax has watched with some amazement the change in the kitchen. He couldn't believe the processed foods (mainly leftover processed frozen foods) that we had cleaned out the week before. He discovered he loves steel-cut oats when I inadvertently opened a brand-new container and spilled most of it on the floor! I put what I could get off the floor in our bird house with some peanuts...and Frax got up and sampled it!>sigh< I guess I will find some oatmeal-based doggie cookie recipes. When we went to the Health Shoppe they also said that they had a special doggie fish oil made by the same folks as Bar leans. Since Frax is healthy as a horse, knock on wood, we demurred and said we would remember that they carried it! I'm sure Frax would eat it...he will eat pretty much anything once. We must defer to Canine Assistants and their suggestions about how their dogs are to be fed and how much, etc. It's worked the last eight years, so we follow their

instructions always in these matters.

So...that's what I've been up to. I'm no Martha Stewart, so I'm sure we can laugh over many future burned meals as I learn my new diet. Poor Bill! Poor Frax! At least Frax has his dog food...Bill is trapped eating what I'm eating! LOL!

Later...