Our New Life

We are now parents :D It has been a long while since I have posted. Mostly because it has been a really tough time for me. Pregnancy was not easy. Morning sickness stuck with me for more than half the pregnancy. I also had a major Crohn's flair. Such a bummer. I felt so sick all the time and ended up giving in to things I shouldn't have eaten. Because of that, my pregnancy magnified my Crohns. When I am in a flair, it attacks my joints and skin really bad, not just my digestion. So I started getting a lot of pain in my legs, my ankles would swell up, and I got a really bad case of erythema nodosum. I was on crutches in December because it was too painful to walk, all while dealing with pregnancy. It was so hard and I was so hard on myself. Why couldn't I have been stronger and not given in to bread and pasta??? My biggest mistake was not preparing meals and snacks ahead of time. I didn't have the energy to make myself meals and with my diet, everything has to be hand made. So I know for next time that I need to prepare better. haha Because I was in such a bad flare, I had no choice but to get on antibiotics. Once again, I felt like such a failure. I wanted so badly to be med free but it wasn't an option for me. So I was put on Cimzia. Cimzia is a self injection. I had to inject twice, one in each thigh. It definitely is painful and I would have way rather been on Remicade instead. Cimzia helped with all my arthritis pain and erythema nodosum but it didn't help with the rest of my symptoms. I was devastated thinking about having to go on prednisone. I was in the last trimester of pregnancy and wondered if I should hold out. I didn't trust my gastro doctor. He was so hard on me in our appointment. He doesn't believe in diet of course so I spent the whole appointment being ridiculed for my decisions to be med free. I am telling you, I hate doctors!! haha I really miss my old doctor who always encouraged diet and has healed me time and time again. SO I decided to give her a call and get her advice. It was the only way I would be able to find peace and make a decision for my treatment. She called me back and I was in tears. I needed guidance and I was so relieved that she would be able to give it to me. She told me that I was doing great, gave me so much support, but told me also that at this point in my pregnancy, the prednisone would be better for me. It was too much of a risk for me to not take it. So I followed her advice.

I labored at home for three days and on that third day, it was time to go to the hospital. I had wanted zero medical intervention, hired a doula and everything, but my plans changed and surprisingly I am totally happy and okay that it did. By that third day, I was so exhausted and in so much pain, I just knew that I wasn;t going to be able to deliver this baby without some rest and without an epidural. When we got to the hospital, I was dilated to a 4. They were able to admit me and gave me an epidural about 30 minutes later. Man, even after being given the epidural, I was anticipating the pain to come back. I was so tense haha It was definitely wonderful to have some relief. Within a couple hours, I was dilated at a 9 and I was feeling that pressure. It was about time to push. What a crazy feeling that was, knowing that pretty soon, our lives were going to change. Ready or not, here she comes. haha I pushed for and hour and a half. Probably the hardest thing I have ever done. I pushed with all my being and was surprised that I didn't pass out. After screaming from feeling that ring of fire I had heard so much about, my baby girl was finally placed on my chest; May 17th  at 4:23 pm. 7 lbs 8 oz and 20 inches long, Scarlett was born. I was in tears. What an incredible experience.

 

 

After staying in the hospital for 2 nights, we brought our baby home. Post partum was rough. I felt like I had been hit by a truck. Every part of my body hurt. It took a while to recover and the lack of sleep was really hard on me. Nursing was hard and painful for quite a while. I got mastitis which was hard. Luckily, we had so many meals brought to us and help from friends. The months felt slow but we are now at almost 3 months, and things are so much easier. Nursing is a breeze, I am getting more sleep since Scarlett sleeps so well at night and goes longer between nursing during the day. Finally feel like I am getting my life back which means it is time for me to focus on getting my health back. I went off of prednisone quite a while back because I hated being on meds while nursing, plus I hate how prednisone makes me feel. I came across a doctor on Facebook. His name is Dr. Josh Axe and he teaches all about a condition called Leaky Gut and how it is a root cause for all of our health problems. I was very intrigued and wanted to learn more. Luckily my mom had ordered his book a while back and I asked to borrow it. It is called EAT DIRT.

I have learned so much more from reading this book. I knew a lot about what he taught but he definitely broadened my knowledge and helped fill in some gaps. I am understanding more clearly why I have Crohns disease and how to heal myself without meds. Meds make every condition worse. They are just a Band-Aid covering up your problems, depleting you of nutrients your body needs, and killing all the good bacteria in our body. When we have health problems, it is important to feed our bodies healthy bacteria to heal our intestinal tract. So I have been drinking bone broth, taking probiotics, and prebiotics, and about to take collagen supplements and a leaky gut support supplement that I ordered through Dr. Axes website. I am already seeing improvement with my energy levels and anticipating the day where my digestion is back on track. I am back on my diet. No grains, dairy, or processed sugar/food. Anxious to be healthy like I was before I got pregnant. I felt so amazing at that time. Diet heals and it works. I have a testimony of it, no matter what people say or how many people doubt me. I am continuing to stay strong and do what I feel is right for myself. I recommend everyone read Dr. Axe's book, Eat Dirt. It will really open your eyes. I will update this blog when I start to make more progress :D I feel so blessed and I am so lucky to have a husband who supports me through all of this! I love my little family.

Baby on the Way!

We are so happy to announce that we are expecting a baby, due this coming May! We are so excited but it is all still so surreal feeling. I am just so grateful that I was able to get my body to a healthy state to be able to get pregnant. After reading that Beautiful Babies book that I had mentioned before, I was able to get pregnant in the 4th month of trying just as it had said. Coincidence? Who knows. But I am glad I took the fertility advice either way to prepare my body.

I am 14 weeks now and still feeling pretty sick. Hoping to find some relief soon. I have craved everything I am not supposed to eat and it has been pretty torturous. I am trying my very hardest to stick to my diet and stay as healthy as possible.

I found out I was pregnant when I was 5 weeks. I surprised Clay by telling him that I got him a surprise for his diligent gym attendance. (He was going to the gym every morning before work). I taped the pregnancy test inside an amazon box, put that box inside of a gift bag, and then had him open it. He wasn't expecting to see a positive pregnancy test. When he saw it though, he wouldn't stop smiling and gave me a huge hug. The feeling was surreal but we were still so excited. Couldn't wait for our first appointment. We had the first appt at 7 weeks and heard a strong heart beat. Such a neat experience. I couldn't help but cry. Our second appt was at 11 weeks and once again, there was a strong heart beat and the baby had been growing. We love our little peanut so much already!

Healthy Body, Healthy Life

I am still symptom free everyone!!!!! HOORAY! Some days I think about how amazing it is that I am actually still symptom free. Living with Crohns, you can't help but have anxiety that something you eat may cause your body to get sick again. You always consider it a possibility. I am almost to that point where I feel like I will never have to worry about being sick again. I say almost because I can't seem to get rid of that possibility that I may have to deal with another flare up one day. I just need to bury that fear. I will get there. But I just feel so much joy now where I feel like I am in control of my body. It is such an amazing feeling.

I am also continuing to learn ways to take care of myself. I just recently read a book called Beautiful Babies. WOW, it is absolutely wonderful. It helped extend my knowledge on the things that I had common knowledge about. It basically connected the dots for me and answered a lot of my why? questions about diet. It is directed towards women and pregnancy which is why I wanted to read it. I am trying to prepare my body to have a healthy pregnancy in the future. But after reading it, I found that this book is beneficial for everyone and anyone.

So there are some wonderful things I have started to include in my diet now that I had never considered or thought of before. Recently I had blood work done and found that my levels of B12 were very low along with my Vitamin D and even though all my other numbers were normal, I still felt like they could improve. Even though I eat such a healthy diet, I exercise at least 4-5 days a week, and I get sufficient amount of sleep, I was ALWAYS drowsy. I just didn't get it. Why was I so sluggish? It made sense that being low in B12, and other nutrients, that my body was struggling to keep going. SO, back to my point haha after reading that book, Beautiful Babies, it introduced me to some ways of getting the nutrients I need; the healthy way and the easy way.

First off, it is so important for us to eat balanced meals with the protein and the veggies or fruit together in one sitting. Different foods compliments each other and work together to help the body digest and absorb the nutrients it needs. SO, yes I eat healthy, but am I actually including enough variety of vegetables and fruit in my diet and at every meal? Not even close. No wonder my body has such a hard time absorbing what it needs. I am in control and need to do a better job.

Another thing I learned about is the benefit of consuming cod liver oil and beef liver. Sounds gross but the benefits are endless. Cod liver oil actually isn't too bad tasting, have yet to try the fermented kind. Fermented cod liver oil is supposed to be even more of a powerhouse of nutrients that can benefit your body, I just cant afford it right now. The regular cod liver oil is obviously a little fishy tasting, but I don't mind it. The grass-fed beef liver I started to consume is in pill form. Literally raw liver cut into pill size and I swallow them hole. Click here to learn more about the benefits and how to prepare the pills for yourself. Lets just say I have only added the beef liver in my diet for a week and have already felt a huge improvement in my energy levels and in my attitude. I feel so much happier and positive.

Another thing that I have added more of in my diet is sauerkraut. Fermented vegetables are so great for our bodies. Its a natural probiotic. I have found that sauerkraut is the best type of fermented food for me but there are other things out there if you want to do some research to find what you want to try.

My daily routine in the morning now includes taking:
1. 2 scoops of my prebiotic: Healthy Trac    This has been my lifesaver and has caused me to be completely symptom free. This is a "natural fermentable prebiotic fiber which acts as a food source for the growth of beneficial bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract."

2. 2 Capsules of my probiotic: VSL #3  I buy this over the counter at the Costco Pharmacy. This is a "probiotic medical food that delivers the highest available concentration of beneficial live bacteria of any probiotic in the world."

3. A spoonful of Cod Liver Oil  I bought mine from Whole Foods. I grabbed the one with the most natural ingredients, unflavored. Luckily it was on sale the day I bought it.

4. 3-4 'pills' of raw grass-fed beef liver. I swallow them whole with juice. I don't suggest you smelling them haha I made that mistake. Just toss them in your mouth and swallow with drink of choice. Easy and done.

5. And since my levels were so low, I began supplementing with B-Complex and B12 pills. I found some that were clean ingredients. I don't plan to have to take them for much longer. I take one B-complex pill and take one B12 pill twice a day.

6. Magnesium Oil. I bought magnesium oil when I learned that the easiest way to absorb magnesium is through the skin. Many issues that our bodies have are caused by magnesium deficiency. I have been trying to spray my body with the magnesium oil every time I get out of the shower.

And there you have it. I am adding a lot more vegetables to my meals and trying to drink even more water than before. We are in control of our bodies. Lets not allow our bodies to control us.

If you read this post and have some other great ideas or insights you want to share about keeping our bodies healthy and our diets nutrient dense, let me know :) Thanks for reading!

Hello Summer!

Hello, Hello! So it has been a few months since I have posted. I have been a busy bee. Great news! I am off medication once again and have held strong for over a month now by just managing my diet and taking my prebiotic and probiotics. It seriously is such an amazing feeling to have come this far and see my hard work pay off.

It is time for me to manage my recipe list. I am going to only keep the best of the best recipes that I have found. Still believe the Against All Grain cookbooks to be topnotch!! There are a few recipes throughout that I do not make because of certain ingredients but most of the recipes I can have. Have not tried one recipe from her books that I did not love! For my birthday last month, I made myself a birthday cake using Danielle Walkers cookbook. It was a chocolate cake with a chocolate buttercream frosting. Seriously was to die for. I am pretty sure this frosting was the creamiest, most delicious frosting I have ever had, including the unhealthy frostings from my past haha Here was the very last piece of cake I ate. I forgot to take a picture of the cake before I starting eat it, whoops :P I ended up eating it the entire weekend and was sad to know that it was almost gone. So go buy those cookbooks if you haven't already ;)

For my church, there was an activity planned for women and there are many members who have allergies or are gluten free; so, I was asked to help make a dessert that people like me would enjoy. I was thrilled to do it.  They were making pink lemonade, no-bake cheesecake in jars for everyone else so I decided to make a similar dessert. I found the most amazing 'cheese'cake recipe online and am excited to share it with you! click here for the recipe.

I put a little bit of crust at the bottom of each jar and then divided the cheese cake into each jar. To make the raspberry puree, I used a mini food processor. I put some raspberries and a pinch of honey into the processor and processed until it was all blended. Scooped a little on top of each before I served them, along with a whole raspberry on top. This recipe made 12 jars.

I received so many compliments on them. They tasted amazing. Nobody could believe that cashews would do the trick to be able to make such a creamy texture. If you enjoy cheesecake, make this recipe!! It is perfect!

Banana Cake

Came across a delicious new recipe. Super easy, Super delicious. I made it the other night. Have to share it.

Click the link, Banana Cake, for the recipe.

Instead of adding coconut sugar to the top of the cake, I drizzled a mixture of melted coconut oil, honey and cinnamon over the top. Turned out delicious. My husband wouldn't stop eating off my plate haha

New Year, New Recipes

 

 So it is 2015. Crazy! Where does the time go?? I am so glad that I have been able to start this new year feeling healthy and on the right track. It is so easy for me to eat healthy and I definitely feel like eating SCD/Paleo has become second nature to me. I no longer sit around wondering what I am going to eat. THERE IS SO MUCH FOR ME TO EAT :)
I try to only share the best recipes on my blog. Some of my recipes I have come up with myself and shared on here, I am not going to lie...aren't the best haha but for me, sometimes I cant always have the best things on hand (to make the most delicious waffles for example. haha) so I apologize if you have tried one of my own recipes and it didn't turn out so amazing. haha please forgive me. Anyways, I can tell you that these recipes I am about to share ARE amazing. One is a recipe I kind of came up with myself and the other I came across because I had way too many blueberries on hand and needed a good way to use them.

First, I want to share my salad recipe. I made it for the New Years party I went to and I had tons of compliments. It is super easy and HEALTHY of course haha and delicious nonetheless.

Honey Poppy Seed Salad  

 

 

Ingredients:

Romaine Lettuce

Baby Spinach

Strawberries

Blueberries

Crushed Pecans

Poppy Seed

Honey

Olive Oil

Lemon Juice

 

Optional: Grilled Chicken

 

Cut up the amount  of romaine lettuce you want and mix it with baby spinach. Cut up the strawberries into halves or quartered. Place the berries, and pecans on top. Pour some olive oil, squeeze some lemon juice, drizzle honey, and shake some poppy seeds all over the salad and mix. It is ready to serve. Add some chicken to the salad if you so desire. :)

 

I made this salad at my moms wedding this last month as well. People loved it. I had a ton of blueberries left that weren't used and needed a way to use them. I found a recipe for some delicious grain free scones.

 

Lemon Blueberry Scones

 

Click here to get the recipe :)

Breakfast.

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day! So many things you can make and this apple coffee cake I discovered is incredible. Danielle Walker is amazing and I am so glad I bought her cookbooks and follow her blog. She creates amazing recipes and saves me a lot of time trying to come up with these myself haha I totally recommend her cook books Against All Grain and Meals Made Simple. You can find them on Amazon for great prices. Anyways, here is the link to this amazing Apple Coffee Cake recipe. I am sure you will love it as much as I did.

Hers is way prettier than mine, but its the taste that counts ;)

Apple Coffee Cake

ENJOY!