Bloating

As I have said previously I am undergoing an elimination diet to try and get information on foods that I may be intolerant to. There are many different signs that show if you disagree with a certain food but my most obvious is bloating.

Until I did my first elimination diet I didn’t really understand that it wasn’t normal for my stomach to be THAT extended. During the detox I have found that I will drop anywhere from 2-4kgs within about two days and my stomach shrinks markedly. This is all my bloating!

When I had a bit of a baking session with a friend we happened to make something that contained oranges in it. Now, I knew from my first elimination diet that I am pretty intolerant to oranges but I thought that perhaps having the orange diluted down in a whole cake might make it better for me. I snaffled a piece and within around four hours I was bloated and was having some pretty crazy stomach cramps. Definitely not the nicest.

Now there are some ‘quick’ cures to try and help get rid of the cramps that come with bloating:

• Drink lots of water
• Apple cider vinegar
• Exercise
• Aloe vera juice and
• Dandelion tea

I do think though that you just have to give your body time. If you’ve eaten something that you are having a bad reaction to try and eat raw, healthy foods for the rest of the day so that your body can focus on getting rid of only one bad thing rather than many.

I believe that it is important to undergo detoxes. Not only to give our bodies a break from all of the bad foods that we may put into ourselves but to get everything back to its normal working order. It’s amazing to see the difference eating a clean, raw diet can make on our digestive health and well, once you realize how good you can feel there really is no turning back…

 

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Natural Remedies – Apple Cider Vinegar

I introduced myself to apple cider vinegar after reading some of the benefits that it could have for my digestive health and it has become my new obsession.

Apple cider vinegar is made by crushing fresh apples and allowing them to mature in wooden barrels. It is then left in these barrels to ferment and when ready it should contain dark, cloudy foam which is called the ‘mother’ – this is the most important part. Cider vinegar is an effective natural bacteria fighting agent that contains many different elements such as potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, chlorine and iron all of which are vital for a healthy body. (info retrieved from here http://www.healthintel.co.nz/nurturefamily/apple-cider-vinegar-benefits/ )

Now I’m not going to lie, apple cider vinegar does not taste delicious. It doesn’t taste like apples and it definitely doesn’t taste like cider so that only leaves vinegar. Yep. It has a distinct vinegary taste which I am unsure you can ever truly get used to… fortunately the benefits of it out weigh its disgustingness for me. Some of the benefits include…

Detoxification

As this cider vinegar is rich in natural minerals and vitamins it a good addition to any type of detox. Apparently apple cider vinegar is able to bind to toxins in our bodies and actually help us eliminate them more effectively and efficiently.

Promote weight loss

I probably had you at weight loss but apple cider vinegar can stabilize the blood sugar for long periods of time which helps to control our appetites – it does need to accompany a healthy, balanced diet though.

To help with digestion

This is the main reason I begun taking shots of this cider vinegar. It can help with common indigestion problems and helps to get rid of bloating that we get after meals.

Topical treatments

It has been found that using apple cider vinegar as a topical treatment can help clear up acne and when used as a shampoo it can help make it extra shiny

It is recommended that you take around 1-3 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar in a glass of warm water around 2-3 times a day – so before each of your meals. Get into a good habit and do this religiously to get the full benefits of it.

 

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Positive Affirmations

Affirmation n the assertion that something exists or is true, a statement or proposition that is declared to be true

Ask yourself….

How many times have you found yourself saying something negative about yourself?

• I am too fat
• I am too skinny
• I am not strong enough yet
• I am too lazy

It’s so easy to just say these to ourselves and to someone else…

Every word that we say and all of our self talk is a stream of affirmations. The affirmations that we think and say are a reflection of our inner truths and beliefs; they are the things that make us who we are. What we need to realize is that some of the affirmations that we say are not true and are called negative affirmations. Our negative affirmations have been built from skewed perspectives and will actually inhibit our ability to succeed in the real world. We need to learn how to turn our negatives into positives.

It is believed that using positive affirmations has the ability to keep us focused on our inner goals and reminds us to think consciously about our words and thoughts to ensure they reflect our positivity. Affirmations technically ‘reprogram’ our beliefs and will change the way you think and feel about things.

Affirmations are easy to use and work for everybody no matter what you’re dealing with or who you are. They can help to remove all of the negative beliefs that have prevented you from achieving your goals; they can enable you to achieve the life you have always wanted.

Affirmations and Me

I believe that in order to be healthy we need to look at it holistically; if I am wanting to achieve my goals I am going to have to believe in myself.  I am slowly teaching myself to stop my negative thoughts and turn them into positives such as

• I am making healthy decisions for myself
• I am more than good enough and I am getting better every day
• I give up the right to criticize myself
• Giving up is easy and it’s always an option, let me delay it for another day
• I have all that I need to make this a great day

Pretty simple and they are slowly replacing the negative thoughts that I was telling myself about my progress and the challenges that I have embarked on.

My Challenge to You

On this website there are 100 positive affirmations that can be used for many different situations that we might find ourselves in

http://www.prolificliving.com/blog/2012/08/27/100-positive-affirmations/ 

Choose one affirmation that is going to help you with your goals and when you wake up in the morning say it to yourself three times – do this every morning for a whole week and find out how positive affirmations can help you

 

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Elimination Diet – Day 5

The first few days on this diet are always ridiculously hard and even in this short amount of time there have been moments where I have been ready to throw in the towel already.

Having to cut out things like raw honey has meant that a lot of the things I was eating while on sugar free I am no longer able to so I am getting faaaaar more sugar cravings this time round (UGH). To help combat this I am eating a lot of fruit and vegetables and keeping myself busy, something that isn’t hard to do with assignments and tests coming up at university.

The support from my partner has been amazing, he has given me many a pep talk this weekend convincing me that I do not need any kind of pudding and reminding me of the progress that I have already made.

Good thing is, having done this before I know that once my body detoxes a lot of the cravings end up disappearing so I’m holding out till then.

My Progress

Already I have started noticing a change which is definitely motivational to keep going. My bloating is rapidly decreasing and everything is getting back to their normal, non-sluggish ways. From this I am concluding that it is definitely some kind of nut that has been causing this problem so will be introducing them back in, one at a time, to try and find if it’s all or just one.

Foods that I cannot go without…

On elimination I have a few ‘go to’ foods that are in the house at all times as the are easy and fast to prepare.

• A mixture of roast vegetables – it’s a good idea if you are embarking on this to roast up a whole heap of sweet potato and pumpkin. This way its easy to toss into a salad or blend into a soup
• Fruit – and lots of it, currently getting through a ridiculous amount of grapes and pineapples at the moment
• Milks – coconut milk mixed with fresh spices creates a sauce that you can use over all your veggies
• Brown rice – cook in bulk so that if you get hungry it’s right there

Preparation on any diet is key and having all the right foods that you know you can eat handy makes everything a lot easier.

 

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The Benefits of Exercise

Having endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) means that I am constantly on the look out for ideas that others have found worked and one that kept popping up was simply getting out there and doing some exercise.

Research has shown that doing medium-high intensity exercise like running and cycling can help lesson the symptoms. Regular exercise helps to reduce estrogen and prostaglandin level – two hormones that are released during our cycles. Yoga and Pilates can also be used to stretch the pelvic tissues and muscles that can be bound together by endometriosis, not only that but it helps to reduce stress which can also aggravate inflammation in the body more.

With PCOS exercise has been shown to help with our insulin sensitivity and cholesterol. When we exercise the glucose (sugars) are taken from the blood and moved to the muscles, this lowers the need for insulin at that time. When we are able to effectively manage insulin then we are able to manage the testosterone in our body, the cause of our PCOS symptoms.

Exercise and Me

Now I am a slight exercise nut. I admit that it is probably a slight addiction but the benefits of getting out there and being regularly active are just too much to ignore. I try to do some kind of physical activity at least 5 times a week. I mix this up with both high intensity aerobic exercise and strength training as well.

My best advice when jumping on the exercise train is to simply start and stick to it. Find something you enjoy doing! I started off doing a lot of classes that were offered at the gym like step and pump. These classes meant that I was surrounded by like minded people that helped motivate me to keep going and helped when I had no idea where to find equipment. I also bought Jillian Michaels DVD, “30 Day Shred,” which allowed me to do a 20 minute workout at home.

Any questions you have about my workouts feel free to ask

 

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My Mirena and Me

At the same time I was having surgery for my endometriosis I had a Mirena inserted. This was recommended to me by my gynecologist who believed that this would help prevent the endometriosis from coming back and would also help to control some of the symptoms that I was having.

What is it?

A Mirena is an IUS (intrauterine system). It has a small plastic frame that is fitted into your uterus, once inserted it will release small amounts of hormone at a constant rate meaning that your levels remain stable.

My opinion

When I was considering getting the Mirena I remember sifting through vast amounts of information – some of it good and some of it terrible. I read shocking stories of women and even now there is a current lawsuit about young women who have suffered uterine perforations after the Mirena decided to migrate somewhere else – http://www.newsday.com/business/mirena-lawsuits-continue-to-mount-as-claims-in-new-jersey-litigation-surpass-200-bernstein-liebhard-llp-reports-1.6097550

Despite all of this I decided to listen to the advice that my gynecologist gave me and went for it. I have had it in for just over two years now and it has been totally amazing. For the first couple of months I did bleed a lot, but I was unsure if this was due to the surgery I had or the Mirena. After many discussions with both my mum and doctor, I decided to give it a chance and after about five months my periods stopped completely; even now I’ll have maybe spotting every six months or so. Another upside is that my cramps have completely gone and I don’t have to worry about what might happen if I go on holiday and the pills that I need to bring with me as ‘just in case’ precautions.

I’ve found it extremely useful, I was terrible at remember to take my pills and because my periods were shocking I would often roll my contraceptive pills together so I didn’t have to put up with one every month.

As this lasts for five years I have quite a long time to decide what I’ll do next but for now, its definitely staying put.

Now this is just my opinion so if you were considering getting one make sure you listen to your health professionals

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Gratitude is My New Attitude

Gratitude n – the state of being grateful; thankfulness, the quality or feeling of being grateful or thankful

We need to welcome gratitude into our lives. Gratitude moves us into a position of having instead of wanting. Too often do I hear of peoples wants – I want to be skinny, I want to bulk up, I want to have a better job and I want to have more money. As Kris Carr said “when we throw wanting into the universe all we will ever get back is more wanting…”

We need to realize that life doesn’t begin when we have everything good and sorted; in fact it is happening right now as you read this. We need to focus of what we do have instead of what we don’t otherwise life will just pass you by.

We need to learn to humble ourselves, to hold a small gratitude session. Remove all distractions and sit down, close your eyes, and think about what or who you are grateful for. This gratitude session helps to remind you of all the positive things in your life, it can turn the bad things into good things, it reminds you of what’s really important and it reminds you to thank others.

Ask yourself…

If all your problems disappeared today, would you be instantly happy?

I believe not. I think that we need to learn to be thankful for the things that we do not already have, if we did then what would there be for us to look forward to? If we didn’t have difficult time, how would we ever grow? If we weren’t limited, then how would we have opportunities for improvement? If we weren’t challenged, then how would we grow stronger?

Kris Carr talks about the state of the art infrastructure we create to house our ego’s negative voice – sturdy platforms for doubt and despair. We need to stop feeding the negativity with our insistent wanting that hold these structures in place in order for us to tear them down.

Our holistic health is able to benefit from getting rid of all negativity in our lives, to realize that everything that happens to us has a purpose no matter how challenging, difficult and problematic it may be. Gratitude has the ability to turn all of our problems into gifts, our failures in successes and allows us to make sense of our past.

We need to learn to be thankful, to make gratitude our new attitude.

“Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.” 
―    A.A. Milne,    Winnie-the-Pooh

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Holistic Health

 

Out comes perhaps my slightly hippy-ish nature but here goes…

I believe that there so much more to health than just ideas related to food and nutrition; that in order to be truly healthy we need to look at it holistically.

Holistic health is a concept that states all aspects of people’s needs – psychological, physical and social, to be taken into account and viewed as a whole. In theory illnesses are said to be caused by physical, emotional, spiritual and social/environmental imbalances.

Now holistic health isn’t talking about anything religious in fact it’s about the essence of who we are. The body, mind and spirit are all interconnected with one another, what affects one will affect the others.

Within this concept there are a variety of different approaches such as:

• Massage
• Homeopathy
• Meditation
• Dietary changes
• Vitamin supplementation and
• Exercise

This approach does not only look at the individual but also the society and planet. It encourages us to engage in self care and educating ourselves about the area of health. Using holistic health makes you an active participant rather than giving all of the power to a health care provider.

This view of holistic health is something that is quite new to me so I am definitely learning as I go and I would be grateful for any advice or tips that anyone has.

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Elimination Diet

So on my last post I mentioned that I was going to do an elimination diet.

What is This?

An elimination diet is a method used to identify foods that an individual can’t have without having some kind of adverse effects. For me a lot of the effects are due to food intolerances rather than a full blown food allergy.

Pretty much this is a trial and error diet. For two weeks you detox your body by removing all foods that you may potentially have a food intolerance to – this can pretty much be described as a wheat-free, sugar-free, mostly raw diet. After this period you introduce one food for one day, eliminate it for two and record down how your body reacts to it.

Elimination and Me

This is my second time doing an elimination diet and I must admit I am excited to do this again because of the success I had with it the first time around.

My sexual health doctor – Dr. Jane Morgan, who is absolutely amazing, recommended that I give this diet a go after I told her about some of the problems that I was having. She suggested that perhaps the reasons that I was getting bloated and feeling crampy could be due to foods that I was eating that I could be having trouble digesting.

Now Jane isn’t a nutritionist but she gave me the low down on what I needed to do and directed me to a few different sites where she said I would be able to find enough information in order to begin this challenge.

After my two week detox all of my bloating was gone and I no longer looked as if I was a few months pregnant. This in itself was motivation enough to keep going. During this first elimination I focused on introducing foods that I was eating on a daily basis and had some shocking results. From this diet I was able to include that fruits such as oranges and mandarins would make me bloat and feel absolutely terrible. By taking out these simple foods my health markedly improved.

Now…

After going sugar free I have introduced a few new foods that I wasn’t eating that much of before especially nuts and dried fruits. Something that I have been eating over the last three weeks has caused me to have some adverse side effects so I have decided to embark on another elimination diet.

Here is pretty much a run down on the foods that I can and can’t eat during the detoxing stages.

	Foods to Include	Foods to Exclude
Fruits	Almost all fresh fruit	Citrus fruits (orange, grapefruit, lemon,   lime etc)
Vegetables	Almost all fresh raw, steamed, sauteed, or roasted vegetables	Tomotoes, eggplant, potatoes (sweet potato and yams are okay)
Starch	Brown or wild rice, buckwheat, quinoa	Wheat, corn, barley, spelt, kamut, rye, oats, all gluten   containing products
Legumes		Soybeans, tofu, tempeh, soy milk, all beans, peans, lentils
Nuts and Seeds		All seeds and nuts
Meat and Fish	Fish, turkey, lamb, wild game	Beef, chicken, pork, cold cuts, bacon, hotdogs, canned meat,   sausage, shellfish, meat substitutes made from soy
Dairy Products and Milk Substitutes	Unsweetned rice milk, almond milk, coconut milk	Milk, cheese, cottage cheese, cream, yogurt, butter, ice cream,   non-dairy creamers, eggs
Fat	Cold-expeller pressed olive oil, flaxseed oil, coconut oil	Margarine, butter, processed and hydrogenated oils, mayonnaise,   spreads
Beverages	Drink plenty of fresh water, herbal teas	Alcohol, caffeine (coffee, black tea)
Spices and Condiments	Sea salt, fresh pepper, fresh herbs and spices	Chocolate, ketchup, mustard, relish, chutney, soy sauce,   barbeque sauce, vinegar
Sweetners	Stevia (if needed)	White or brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, corn syrup, desserts

 

BUT!

Although the name implies ‘diet’ I see this more as a detox. Getting rid of all the bad stuff in your body so that it can actually function at its best. Even though there is a list of foods that you can’t eat, it doesn’t mean you can’t stock up on as many fruits and veggies as you want

 

Initially I thought that something like this would be crazy difficult but when you learn how good your body can feel… you kind want to keep it that way.

Any questions you have on this feel free to ask

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New Goals for Sugar Free

Goals. One word that I used to hate hearing when I was at school “today we are going to set goals…” and over time I learnt to hate them and thought they were only used by teachers to kill at least half the lesson. Now I realize the benefit goals actually have.

Today is officially the last day on my sugar free challenge. My long term goal was to be able to simply get rid of all refined sugars from my diet. Now unfortunately as of last night I didn’t really achieve this goal… last night I forgot, yes that’s FORGOT I was sugar free. Without thinking I dipped my hand into the lolly bowl at my friend’s house and had one. Two bites in I remembered, screamed and spat it out. Disappointment doesn’t begin to describe the feelings that I had. Despite this I am still crazy proud of myself for getting through officially 21 days of no sugar with only one hiccup.

Now though it is time to re-evaluate my goals…. To do this I’m asking myself:

• Is going sugar free long term reasonable for my wants and desires?
• Am I still inspired to reach them?

After thinking about this thoroughly I have concluded that I am going to be aiming for 80/20 living. To sum this up sugar free is still going to be my lifestyle change as I have enjoyed the benefits that have come from this. My wants and desires are centered on going out, having fun and not worrying; so going sugar free was something that was often problematic when I was out with friends. I feel that the 80/20 rule may be one that will benefit me. This is where 80% of the time I am sugar free, eat healthy and mostly raw whereas the other 20% is for the times I go to parties or I just feel like baking a cake for the hell of it. I feel like that I am able to do this diet because I have kicked my addiction to the sugar, it is something that I no longer feel I need so I’m pretty sure I’m not going to instantly start binge-ing on sugary foods again…

New Goals

I am going to hold myself accountable to all of the goals I set and now that they are out there in the big wide world of web then at least perhaps you can help me stick to them too….

• Never go two days – never go two days in a row of bad eating, in fact I should be aiming for really only one bad refined sugar meal every two weeks
• Do not use sugar as a reward – I am not an animal, when I do something well I do not treat myself with food. Instead if I accomplish a goal I will treat myself to a massage or some new bake ware
• Plan ahead – always plan ahead make sure that every day I am packing healthy lunches and snacks
• Ditch Discouragement – Remind myself about how far I have come on my journey

 

But….

Unfortunately the 80/20 lifestyle is going to be put on hold as I am going to be going on an elimination diet for around the next month. Going raw and sugar free means that I have introduced some new foods into my diet especially nuts and seeds. At least one thing I have introduced has made me bloat up like a whale. So I am going to investigate this a little bit more (will probably do a blog post on how this works)

 

Wish me luck

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