My whole 30 - The verdict

For the past three days I've deliberated on how to write this post. Since I had counted on singing the praises of The Whole 30, I thought it'd be a doddle, but I'm afraid it's not quite that simple. At least it won't be boring, right?! Firstly, I'm glad I did it, I want to be clear about that point, but I feel it was the wrong time for me to do it. I feel that I was unable to do it the way it ought to be done, and I am not convinced that paleo is right for me, especially not right now. I think that more than anything else, The Whole 30 served to remind me that not only is there no 'one size fits all' diet, but our dietary requirements do change and fluctuate depending on our lifestyles.

My lifestyle at the moment is one of a breastfeeding, cosleeping, homeschooling 24/7 parent. Those of you who have done it will agree this lifestle gives quite a high nutritional requirement, possibly not dissimilar to that of an elite athlete! I wish I was joking.  One reason that I found the whole 30 challenging was that it unexpectedly reduced my supply of breast milk. I'm not 100 % sure why this happened. According to the Australian Breastfeeding Association, a breastfeeding woman can virtually eat any diet she wants, provided she's not starving, and still produce enough milk to feed her baby (I have misgivings about this theory but they pertain more to the quality of  said milk).  I have a couple of theories, one is that while the body is detoxifying heavily, the mammary glands might 'hold back' to protect the baby from toxins, and the other is that detoxification increases the body's water requirement, and I wasn't meeting that requirement. In other words I may simply have been dehydrated. I'm inclined to think it was the latter. Either way it was the wrong time for me to undertake a huge cleanse, but I'm glad I did it anyway. Little one didn't lose out too much, and supply is now right back where it should be. (Had she been under 18 months old I would have stopped the cleanse when I noticed the supply drop and introduced some quinoa and soaked brown rice back into my diet. I don't recommend cleansing while breastfeeding a young baby. If you're very unwell and need to change your diet, do it by degrees.)

I found I was eating more meat than felt good for my body, just to get full. This wasn't the fault of the diet, it was the result of my failure to plan and shop, and also a function of needing to fill up to produce milk. Whole 30 does not prescribe amounts of foods. I only ate so much meat for Sofia's sake, and it made me feel a little heavy and sluggish. Had I not been breastfeeding I'd have been content to feel hungry some of the time, and would happily have eaten plenty of veggies in its place. If I'd planned better I would have made myself more bone broths and drunk coconut juice, both of which I find help with milk production.  

Another reason that I found it challenging was that it was a bit of a shock to me. As a paleo 'virgin' I had to scramble to figure out what to eat all the time. When I took the kids out and about I had to plan ahead to ensure I didn't get caught without enough snacks for myself. This took quite a bit more 'getting used to' than I'd anticipated, and I was often left hungry for too long. I gradually learned little tricks, like that trips to the fruit and veggie shop were the easiest and cheapest way to begin a day out, curries without rice are a good food court option, and at home, broth is a great snack. To anyone thinking of trying the whole 30, I'd recommend doing an intro to paleo eating first, by  cutting out one thing at a time, first dairy, then legumes, then rice perhaps, then quinoa... This would be a far 'friendlier' way to approach the idea. It is, after all, a very different way of eating than most of us are accustomed to.

Now I'll turn to all the awesome things that happened. The first thing I noticed was blood sugar balance! It was such a freeing feeling not to crave all the time. The next was a reduction in inflammation, that is my face, arms and collarbones became more defined, so I appeared to have lost weight within the first week. Along with the apparent signs of reduced inflammation, I had less pain in my feet and the back pain cleared altogether. My feet eventually stopped hurting too, by week 3. I'm hard on my feet, they took longer!  The next thing I realised was that I don't think I actually need to / should be completely grain free. The benefits I experienced were no greater than when I cut refined carbs loose. I also felt a little ungrounded, and the ayruvedics do say that grains keep us grounded, centred in our bodies. While there is no one right way to eat for everyone, if you want to figure out how you should eat, look to the diet of your own ancestors. For example my Mum's side of the family hark from the Irish and Scottish. They do much better when they exclude most fruits, and exclude grains altogether. I however, seem to have taken more from the Italian heritage on my fathers side, and while this does not mean I can have a pasta party, it does seem to make my body more accepting of sprouted legumes and soaked whole grains. For me this is a welcome thing, because I like variety. Finally, in the last week of the cleanse I noticed my skin was smoother and my ankles had come back. Hazzar. Who would sneeze at that?

Those were the physical changes, but they weren't the greatest payoff. The greatest payoff was how I felt! To wake feeling energetic day after day, when you face two toddlers and a list of chores enough to make 'War and Peace' seem like light reading is no small thing, but I did, by about week three. But above all, there was the clarity of mind. I mentioned feeling ungrounded, and I did, but I somehow simultaneously felt clear and peaceful, and life with the little ones flowed with virtually no upsets or conflicts. I suddenly had no need to get angry with anyone, I was on top of the situations, and things just seemed not to be so bad after all. This is a feeling I HIGHLY recommend! And it's also motivation enough to maintain my health from here on.

The whole 30 has changed my approach to my diet in several ways. I'm welcoming legumes back into my life, never to be cast out again! I feel that, for me, as long as they're properly soaked and sprouted, there's nothing wrong with a handful of lentils in a plate of soup. However I do believe in and prescribe this diet, and those who benefit from it include people with autoimmune diseases, sufferers of severe digestive complaints, those unsuccessfully trying to conceive, and those with pain and inflammation problems to name a few. Aside from losing the dairy, I'm going to commit to staying clear of refined grain products. I love my rye sourdough but I'm afraid it doesn't love me back. In fact eating it now gives me indigestion, I tried. I'll also be careful to soak my rice and quinoa before I cook it, and perhaps tend more to quinoa than rice, since I seem averse to rice too, thanks to the cleanse. We were definitely eating too much rice. I tend to rely on it as a quick meal option when I've failed to plan. And that's the other thing I'll commit to, menu planning. Knowing what I'm making and using my slow cooker will make all the above much easier. Next I need to figure out how to keep all this from costing too much, and as soon as I do I'll be posting about it to be sure!

A much healthier, happier Mamma. Thanks to all of you who expressed your support, it means a whole lot! During the difficult times, it was the accountability of you guys reading my words that gave me the requisite kick in the proverbial to forge on. Much love xxx

My whole 30 post series

Owing to some very unhealthy (albeit delicious) personal food habits in the wake of Easter, I decided it was time I cleansed. The last cleanse I did was in college, way too long ago. That was a four day juice fast, retreat style. Many happy memories of Ballingup bush surrounds, friends and vegetables! Much as I'd love to relive that time, it's just not practical for a breastfeeding mother of two to fast for any length of time, much less head to a quiet bush retreat for the duration. It has to be a different sort of cleanse for me!

I chose the whole 30 cleanse for a couple of reasons. Foremost, it can be done at home, and requires no special effort or expense. Big bonus. It's based on whole foods, JERF, just eat real food, for a month. This promises to reset my digestion and eliminate cravings. Great, much needed! But I also chose it for a more, shall we say, 'investigative' reason.

With all the hoopla around the paleo diet of late, many people, including high profile personalities, have put their two cents into the debate 'for what it's worth'. I happened to flick past that unfortunate tv show 'the circle' recently to hear a bleach blonde drag queen-like woman in her 40s declare that in her opinion cutting out entire food groups wasn't healthy. I wasn't aware she held any qualifications to that end...

But why not put it to the test? There are thousands of testimonials online by people whose lives have been changed for the better to various degrees by paleo and similar diets. While it doesnt suriprise me that eliminating processed food does anyone a world of good, I'd like to see what it can do for me. I'm a perfect candidate at present as my health is wanting. My senses of smell and taste are diminished, a sign of zinc deficiency. I have chronic plantar fasciitis (sore feet) and lower back pain, signs of low magnesium. I'm increasingly tired, which could be my baby's night waking, or anaemia, or both...my baby's night waking is itself possibly due to my milk being high in sugar and low in essential nutrients, I strongly suspect this to be the case as she had been sleeping through prior to my diet completely falling off the proverbial wagon. At present, my diet is like many western diets, inclusive of all types of food, real or otherwise. So I'm going to cut a few out and report the changes! 

The whole 30 diet essentially eliminates sugar, grains, dairy and legumes. While grains have been on my hit list for ages, legumes and dairy are a different story. I still think legumes should be ok provided they are bought dried and soaked til sprouted, but for the sake of science I'll forego the pleasures until the end of the cleanse, then reintroduce them. Its been a long time since I've consumed pasteurised milk, and I do feel that raw milk is a wonderful thing, but in the spirit of cleansing and investigating, I'll forego that too. Sugar is something I regularly eliminate...long story!

In addition to the whole 30 protocols, I'm going to drink warm lemon water before meals, and take a gut cleansing herbal formula, as well as my usual handful of probiotics every evening. 

I'm certain that my health will be amazing by the end of the month. I'm sure my zinc, magnesium and iron levels will return to normal, I'll lose some weight, have heaps of energy, feel light and happy and calm. I'm looking forward to it, and I hope to inspire others to try it too. 

And finally, for the sake of accountability, Im posting a selfie, before and after style!

I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to an improvement in that dial! (to say nothing of everything south thereof).

My baby (no. 2) led weaning

It's been a really long blogging hiatus, but I'd like to think I've collected some wisdom during that time!  First I'd like to introduce baby number two, my little lady, Sofia Rose. How delightful a daughter is! She's 13 months old at present, and it seems like she will always be a baby to me!

 

 

But she's an independent little thing, in every way. After being exclusively carried and worn on my chest, and sleeping by my side at night, she asked to be put on the floor the day she turned 5 months old. To the astonishment of all present, she began to commando crawl along the mat. And that was it, she was on the move! She was on all fours a few weeks later, by 6 months she was crossing rooms. At 9 months she took her first step, by 10 months she was walking.

Her food journey has had a similar element of precocious independence. I'd made up my mind to keep her exclusively breast fed through her first year, believing this was the healthiest start to life... But my baby had other ideas! At just barely 4 months she mastered grabbing food from my hand and stuffing her fist into her mouth before I could stop her! Far from 12 months on milk, it was all I could do to make it to 5 months!



Sprung!...Is that a beetroot Sofia? Delicious?

So I abandoned my grand plans of breastfeeding exclusively, and, with the encouragement of a friend and colleague who's opinion I respect, we went ahead with her first foods. As it was very much Sofia's choice to begin to eat solids, she seemed like a perfect candidate for baby led weaning (BLW). We had intended to use this style for Antonio, but wimped out when he gagged on a green bean! I fed him all of the same foods that I offered to Sofia, only as purees. Sofia had a combination of baby led weaning and Weston A Price baby feeding recommendations, which means I gave her certain very important, nutrient dense foods in a cup or spoon, which is not strictly in line with baby led weaning practices.  First I fed her chicken broth from a small cup. Broth is a wonderful first food as its warm, nourishing, and helps to seal the little gut, and promote gut flora balance, which is the most important thing a food can do! She loves her broth still, these days she drinks it through a straw. 

Following the broth was egg yolk. A perfect baby food, yolk is very similar in it's nutritional profile to breast milk, and I always think it's as though it was made for little ones! Both my babies loved it. Yolk provides fats and fat soluble vitamins, needed for immune system function and the rapid brain development of the little ones, plus iron, which can begin to deplete in mothers milk, but it's so much more easily absorbed from an egg yolk than those awful fortified cereals (which just constipate the poor little things anyway). I found the easiest way to give yolks was like the broth, in a small cup. I prepared them in a little pot, first melting about 5g of butter, then adding the yolk, stirring, over a very low heat for just a few seconds, to warm it through. Now she eats whole eggs, scrambled, and has raw yolks in smoothies. I continue to ensure she gets at least two yolks per day for optimal growth and development. 

 

The final food I offer to her on a spoon is butter. My babies both love organic, grass fed butter. It's a great source of fat soluble vitamins and saturated fats, important for gut health, brain and bone development.
 

In addition to these, I offered her vegetables, boiled until soft in salted water, and smothered in butter! She tasted fruit pieces, yoghurt and avocado. Her first meat experiences were with chicken drumsticks, with most of the meat removed. This was always an amusing sight, especially as she was such a little thing. 

 

According to the BLW recommendations, I allow Sofia to govern her food intake, to play with foods and experiment with them, and stop when she feels full. I never made her puréed food unless the family was having dhal or soup. However there are certain foods I've withheld from her. I've limited her intake of grain based food, since babies lack the digestive enzymes necessary to break them down. (This is one of the arguments put forward for breastfeeding exclusively for 12 months.) Giving floury foods like bread and pasta at a young age kills off beneficial bacteria in the gut, creates leaky gut syndrome by degrading gut integrity, and feeds opportunistic flora like candidia albicans. This is a situation worth avoiding, since its much easier to prevent than cure. Needless to say, she has never had refined sugar. When kids do consume these foods early the result is frequent infections like cold and flu, gastro, uti, ear infections and tonsillitis. Sofia certainly isn't deprived though! She enjoys treats like medjool dates, berries, cream and raisins, and her first birthday cake was a variation on a GAPS recipe, based on eggs, nuts and dates. (I'll post about her first birthday cake next week.)

 Our families have been very supportive of BLW. I've heard that sometimes mums have to battle with family members who are pro puréed food til a certain age, which can make it trickier for a new mum to stick to BLW. If you're seeking advice on how to respond to histrionics from family I would suggest you find your own certainty of your conviction. When you are sure, you convey this in your manner and tone of voice, and you'll find the argument simply doesn't come up. Have confidence in your child, and remember you must do what you believe in. If you cave in to others criticism and do it their way you'll feel guilty about it. (That applies to everything!)
 

A question I've often seen asked by mums new to BLW is how to introduce 'meals' to the baby. I have to say I didn't and don't. My focus is to ensure I provide Sofia with enough nutrients, so I mostly offer single foods at a time, except at dinner time, when she has a plate of what the family are eating. I feel it's preferable to give one thing at a time, so the child can really immerse themselves in the sensory experience of the broccoli or the asparagus or the chicken. Each day I work out when Sofia will have her eggs, whether she'll have some meat, which veggies I'll prepare and which snacks to take when we go out. This method is also far easier for me, because lets face it, I have enough to do! But if you want to offer meals to you baby led weaning bub, I'd recommend doing it 'tasting plate' style. For example a little cheese, a few boiled carrot sticks, some avocado, some peas and a lamb chop. I'd also say that soups are the easiest and one of the most nourishing ways to feed baby and yourself alike! 

 

Every household will do it differently, but I hope my story will inspire you in some way. 

Leave a comment if you have a funny BLW story, pic, or any questions etc. 

My Tea Habit

Isn't it a wonderful relief that Summer is finally over! Three solid months of 35 degrees plus just isn't fair on a pregnant chick! But now it's cool at last. And that means I can drink tea again!




Antonio cultivating his tea habit

His favourite is chamomile













Herbal tea drinking is a habit I cultivated. My family's tea habit is a traditional Irish addiction to very strong cups of English Breakfast many times a day! While I don't object to a 'propper' cup of tea, I found it much more useful for me, health-wise, to cultivate a habit of drinking herbal teas. It's a perfect example of how to choose a health enhancing option over a health degrading one. (There are many stories floating around about how wonderful tea is for our health. The truth is the benefits are outweighed by the effect of the tannins on the stomach. A leather stomach doesn't digest food very well.) So during my years at the Perth Academy of Natural Therapies, where the student's common room kitchen was well stocked with some "out there" herbal blends, I learned to love the stuff.

I mean really love the stuff! I'm very proud of my extensive and eclectic tea cupboard! I feel that my approach to tea drinking is probably akin to that of our ancestors. Thousands of years ago, and until recently, people drank tea as a tonic, choosing herbal blends to suit the time of day, the season, their constitution or state of health. I use it simultaneously as a source of comforting warmth, a gesture of self care, and as medicine. I often turn to a tea for relief before any other treatment, if I feel 'below par'.

Right now my tea choices are influenced most by my pregnancy. During the first two trimesters I choose nettle and rosehip, sometimes separately and sometimes blended together. Rosehip is a great source of vitamin C, while nettle is a great iron source, as well as a good kidney tonic. After the 30th week of the pregnancy I will add raspberry tea, to strengthen and tone up my uterus for birth.

If I was feeling bloated or overfull,  I might choose peppermint tea, which is a calming and uplifting digestive aid. Chamomile is calming and soothing, and also a wonderful remedy for an unsettled stomach. I might even blend it together with peppermint for this purpose. I often order these teas when I'm out for a meal, partly because they're often the only ones available, and partly because they can be an antidote to any dietary indiscretions that may have transpired!

When a cold strikes I actually use tea as a primary source of relief. Besides taking such things as garlic tablets and tablespoons of coconut oil, I take teas containing such herbs as sage, calendula and golden seal. These three are antibacterial and help with lymphatic drainage, alleviating sore throats from glandular enlargement or infection. I also squeeze the juice of half a lemon into a cup, add a splash of water and drink this several times a day as it is a strong antiviral remedy, and I find it very relieving. Last week I had a cold, and, being pregnant, these gentle remedies became some of my only options. I also ate a handful of small, young nasturtium leaves daily as an immune boost. The cold was mild and lasted all of three days before I was fully recovered.

If I felt anxious or stressed I might choose white tea, vata tea (see below) or chamomile. Any of these would bring me down to earth. If I was feeling sad I might choose peppermint, lavender, rosemary or my personal indulgence tea, a cup of chai! (I've posted the recipe as I make it in the thermomix below)

Teas are a part of my beauty regimen. My beauty regimen is almost entirely focused on keeping my gut healthy, I do very little to my skin on the outside as I consider it too late by the time the skin cells have reached the surface! Ginger tea is especially good for the stomach and intestines, helping them break down the food we eat. Green tea is also a digestive aid, and mild liver tonic. In addition to gut health, hydration is important for the complexion. Any herbal tea is hydrating, while tea and coffee are dehydrating.

Ayruvedic medicine, which is the ancient Indian medicine system, offers tea tonics as wonderful daily balancers. I discovered in college that 'Vata' tea helped to relieve my period pains. Vata tea is also a wonderful digestive aid, and soothing to personalities prone to stress and anxiety. However if you are a 'hot' type of person, say you might suffer from reflux, or arthritis, dislike eating chilli and work in a creative or athletic capacity, the Pita tea is for you. Finally the Kapha tea is for those of us who are 'smell the roses' types, heavier set, robust and grounded people. Kapha tea can get you motivated and help with weight loss, sinus congestion, a sluggish bowel and even help alleviate depression.

Finally, my indulgence tea is another Indian inspired one, chai! I love a good chai. When I feel a hankering I take a teaspoon of black leaf tea and put it in the thermomix with a stick of cinnamon, some cloves, some cardamom pods, a star anise, a good chunk of fresh ginger and some peppercorns. I blitz them for 10 seconds on speed 9, then add a cup of water. I boil this at 100 for about 7 minutes, then add raw honey and raw milk, and strain into a big mug! Sometimes I make a big batch of the brew (before adding milk and honey) and put it in the fridge in a milk bottle. Then I can use it as a cold chai smoothie. I put a third of a cup of the brewed tea into the thermomix with a banana, some raw or nut milk, 2 raw egg yolks and some honey and blitz at speed 7 for 20 seconds. Great breakfast on the go!

What is your tea habit? Get eclectic and try something different next time you have a tea break!

The predigestive power of raw honey

Good health is all about good digestion. In India there's a saying, "with strong digestion, one can withstand poison. With poor digestion, even nectar is poison". This is so very true and wise, and something every naturopath must remember when we treat. To heal the body, restore digestion.

There are loads of ways to improve your digestive strength, there's lemon juice, cider vinegar, probiotics, bitter herbs, raw foods, lacto-fermentation... The list goes on! But while reading my copy of 'Nourishing Traditions' today, I found a great little nugget of info I want to share. Raw honey. A favourite sweetener of mine for baking. But what I hadn't realised is that it's so high in amylase, the digestive enzyme for carbohydrate, that it will begin the digestive process in just 15 minutes of contact!! So this means if you spread raw honey on bread and leave it on the bench while you shower, the honey will begin to break down the carbohydrate in the grains, doing some of the digestive work for you.

You can also use raw honey when you pre-soak your organic rolled oats for breakfast. You can use it in biscuits or cake batter, and let it stand before baking. Whenever or however you use it, remember the 15 minute rule.

For those who haven't used raw honey before, don't go looking for it in the supermarket, it's in the health shop. Unfortunately the stuff in the supermarket is processed, not raw. Processing the honey at high temperature kills the enzymes and also the vitamins present in the raw honey. This renders the processed product plain old sugar. No natural buffers. To quote Marco Pierre White on masterchef this week, "The more you do to food, the more you take away from it".