I usually agree with Dr. Laura. And even on this point I sort of do, but not completely. I find her comments on weight loss and fitness highly motivating, and she's probably part of the reason I started Tae Kwon Do, and part of the reason I've gained more control over what I eat.

However... I've been there. I've been everywhere, that is, when it comes to weight loss. My initial weight gain, before discovering BTD, was very stubborn. I can tell you now that eating less and moving more did nothing for me. I ate less and less and less, and worked out 2 hours a day, 6 days a week, at the gym. I didn't lose a pound, in fact I gained one. I did gain understanding, however. If that didn't work, then something was weird about me, and if I hadn't embarked on the eat less move more approach so heavily, I wouldn't have figured it out. To lose weight sometimes requires some great motivation and out of the box thinking.

What was weird about me was that I'd had mono, which screwed up my detoxification processes. My body ended up storing everything, and refused to burn it off because it couldn't get rid of the junk that was stored along with it. Mono also triggered celiac disease, which resulted in wrecking my metabolism because I wasn't absorbing the nutrients along with the calories. When I finally tried BTD, and realized the error of my "Breakfast of Champions", and eliminated those foods from my diet that were compounding my problems, the weight did fall off. 14 pounds in two weeks, initially. I continued working out and adjusting my diet, with great results. I was very hungry, so I ate as much as I wanted of the beneficial foods, and kept losing weight...no more counting calories.

I used BTD O-non to lose the weight from my first pregnancy, and then some, to weigh almost my high school weight when I got pregnant with my second. I had trouble dealing with the stresses of juggling two children and a hard-working husband, and have to take full and individual accountability for not losing that pregnancy weight yet. With taking responsibility comes power, though, and I'm enjoying that.

So yes, eat less, move more, but also eat right...give your body the foods it needs, and cut out the junk, regardless of the calories in the junk.

I didn't go to kickboxing today, as I was feeling a bit under the weather. My husband was sick, and his father has pneumonia, so I didn't want to push too much. I seem to be bouncing back though, so maybe I'll hit the hills with my boys in a bit. I hope my father in law recovers quickly and fully, we're all praying for him.

Oh, a TKD note...we broke boards on Thursday. I did it! I almost didn't go after being wiped out on Tuesday (still not fully recovered, energy-wise, from gastroenteritis), but I'm glad I went. However, we did side kicks to break the board, and my body is nowhere near accustomed to that kick...I can barely do it at all, much less with much power, fortunately I practiced the motion in the pool a couple weeks ago. I have a couple sore muscles behind my hip joints that I didn't know were there. Hooray for sore muscles...these are good ones to strengthen, as I can tell they really help my balance and posture.

I spoke too soon of victory, as Thursday night it hit me. This one seems to strike at night. I ate nothing all of yesterday, just drank some. I did find a recipe for home-made electrolyte solution online, for those who don't want all the additives in pedialyte and such. It's just 2 Tablespoons honey (or agave), 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp baking soda, and 4 cups water. Not too bad tasting, and a great way to rehydrate. Broth is also a good option.

I just ate a bowl of rolled quinoa mush, after more than 24 hours of fasting. I'm getting some energy back. Hopefully my digestion will return to normal soon. The aches and chills are gone also, it's not a good idea to do break-falls a couple days before getting sick! Everything that could hurt did hurt yesterday, but I'm happy to say it was because of the illness, not an injury. (I did manage to do a flip, with no arms supporting me, onto the cushion to land in a nearly perfect side breakfall...as somebody who never could do cartwheels or anything, even as a kid, that's pretty amazing)

The night before last my little O (now 3 years old) went to bed and threw up, with frequent wakings throughout the night. Needless to say, I got very little sleep. Usually that result in Zombie-Mom the next day. This time was a little different, however. I was tired, but my brain was alert and my mood was resilient. I even managed to sort through my last month's worth of paper piles on my desk and take care of lots of little to-do's while little O rested through the day.

Today I didn't set my alarm, as I thought I might need to sleep in to make up for the night before. I did wake in time to go to taekwondo, so I went. I'm still sore from Tuesday's class were we did break-falls (ouch) and double kicks (which my knees haven't acclimatized to yet). It was a gentle day today with lots of forms and just enough kicking the bags to get the sweating requirement fulfilled.

Nobody else has gotten sick, and I'm very glad for that. This makes the third immune challenge I've been exposed to since pneumonia, and the third victory, as nothing has slowed me down.

I never thought I'd say this, but I love this season of the year.

In my recent hypochondriac diagnostic odyssey I had an abdominal ultrasound and we did find an ovarian cyst. It's no longer bothering me one bit, but it is another motivation to be super compliant to the explorer diet. Hormonal imbalances are a common problem for explorers, and I have a personal and family history of them, so here's to finding balance. If my fall mood could be balanced by diet, then anything can.

I'm thankful for my overall health, recent progress, and my progress in the last 9 years. 10 years ago you could not have convinced me that I'd be in the position I'm in now...I've gone from needing more than 10 hours sleep a night, constant and slow-healing back and joint pain, constant need for antidepressants and difficulty even climbing a set of stairs. Now I have a family with two busy children and one very hard-working husband, a fairly clean house, and I am doing Martial arts. (As I've learned this last year, just any gluten-free diet doesn't achieve those results, even though gluten was a big problem for me. Diet can be so much more powerful than just what you don't eat.)

I have to make it all the way to black belt, that would really be something.

I just had my 6 month follow up on my vitamin D deficiency. A couple months ago I realized I'd been taking the prescription for D2 of 50,000 units a week, for two years, with little upward movement in my blood levels. I also had a bit of tummy trouble on the day of the week that I took it. I decided I'd had enough of that, so I switched to D3 (lanolin derived) from the HFS. It meant more pills to get the 50000 units a week, but now it means fewer pills because my levels finally bumped up. My endocrinologist was surprised that I'd started absorbing it after all this time, then I admitted to the switch, and she agreed that I definitely absorb it better. I'm now taking a more normal 1000 IU a day. I also had a follow up bone scan, as it was starting into the osteopenia range a couple years ago, but now it's just right.

Last night I cleaned up my house pretty well, as I needed a bit of a workout anyway. It was weird to do as much as I did without feeling tired afterward. Maybe part of that is attitude, since I consider it a gentle workout I'm doing something for myself at the same time...that takes out some of the drudgery. I think I really do just have more energy. Housework is never quite the workout I'd like, though I do try to do squats and lunges at every opportunity, even if it's inefficient.

It's so weird for me to have any sort of renewal at this time of year, but I'm feeling it. Since bipolar can be a problem for Explorers, this diet and exercise plan must be helping me solve it.

What is my alternate universe? If I hadn't found BTD would I have taken phen-fen and or vioxx, and how many antidepressants, and how many other prescriptions and interventions. What would the side-effects have been? Explorers may be the most vulnerable to the side effects. Even though BTD wasn't quite the harmony and synergy that the explorer diet is, it was definitely better than anything else out there. I daresay that I've found my match here, however, with Explorer GTD.

So much to write about, so little time. This adjustment to the explorer diet has been very exciting for me. I read the explorer monograph (I think that was where I read it) and it mentioned that explorers can get bi-polar disorder or schizophrenia. I have bipolar SAD, though not too bad since starting BTD. It's usually bad this time of year (late October, and right after the time change). Sometimes I just get tearful easily for a week, have intense carb cravings, and have bouts of weakness at random times for a month or two (the type of weakness that drains you and makes you want to lie down wherever you are, and go to sleep). I realized today that I haven't had that. A bit teary at times, but my energy level has stayed consistently high, and the oddest thing is that I've been waking up earlier, awake, instead of wanting or being able to sleep in all morning. That's a major change. I went to a kickboxing class early Saturday morning and got back before anybody else woke. If I don't get 8 hours a night, then I do require one brief nap, but wow, weird. Saturday I also went swimming with my husband for our date night (eating out doesn't really appeal to us anymore, and I had some pinto bean soup in the crock pot anyway). I hadn't been swimming for quite a while, and it's quite a workout for me, as inefficient as I am in the water. I mostly practiced some kicks I'm having trouble getting down at taekwondo, so my body can learn the motions a bit easier. The side kicks definitely made me sore in a little-used muscle on the side of my hip. My shoulders are sore from kickboxing, but overall that was just a good sweat...just like explorers need. I may make those two workouts into habits, since tkd is only twice a week and explorers need at least 4 workouts a week.

Wow, I wanted to blog more about food. I made a "potato pizza" out of some of the jerusalem artichokes I planted last spring. Just rice crust, mozzarella, thin sliced and well-steamed j.artichokes, thyme, olive oil, onions, and pinenuts. I don't have a recipe for the crust, this time I bought one as I was already experimenting with the topping, but next time I'll devise a crust and post a recipe. Potato pizza is something you usually only see in Italy...I went there in 1998 before BTD and indulged in such things. My recipe is mainly from a recipe that was in Sunset long ago, 98 or 99. I haven't made it since back when I used to make spelt pizza crusts. My youngest son (hunter or explorer) loved it, and so did I. My husband gave his stamp of approval as well (even though teachers shouldn't eat j.artichokes, I had to get his opinion as somebody who has eaten the real thing).

I also marinated some canned quail eggs in lemon juice and salt water. It took a week of that (in the refrigerator) to get out the tinny taste. I served them on a "nest" of radish sprouts. So I did have eggs one morning this week!

Oh, and yes, I am eating some dairy again. I plan to rotate it, eating it a couple days a week, then being dairy free the rest of the week. That way I shouldn't have any trouble with mucus buildup, if that's an issue. I blamed dairy for my illnesses, but it could have just been explorer toxins that I was eating as a mistaken gatherer. I'm treading carefully there, and only with the superfoods.

This is a great cake! Explorers can have tapioca, so I'm enjoying adding that to my baking, it makes up for the loss of eggs. I made these in muffin and bun pans, but I think it would work in larger cake pans (I always start small, to get things cooked through without falling, as those can be problems with gluten free baking)

Explorer Applesauce Cake
2 Cups applesauce
3/4 or 1 cup agave (use the lower amount if applesauce is sweetened)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking power (I forgot to put this in, and it still worked)
2 cups flour mix (about 1/2+ cup tapioca, 1/2 cup sweet rice, 1/2 cup teff and 1/2 cup amaranth)
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup dried fruit (optional, I left out)
1 cup chopped macadamias or pecans (optional, I left out)
1/2 cup grapeseed oil and/or melted ghee

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, prepare pan with oil or ghee and a dusting of flour (I like teff's color for this cake)

Combine wet ingredients in one bowl, dry ingredients in another, then blend together. (the original recipe has more detailed instructions than this, but I liked the results I got, perhaps adding the fruit and nuts makes the other steps necessary.)

Bake cake size for 45-50 minutes, smaller muffin sizes for 20-30 minutes, until the cake springs back when lightly touched.

This should work with pureed pumpkin or similar purees, just use the higher amount of agave. So if you can't have apples, try it with something you can have.

Granted, you could make a waldorf that is more like a waldorf than the one I made this morning, out of explorer neutrals and superfoods. This one however was interesting, in a fun way.

I finally broke out my sprouter that I've never used, and made radish sprouts. It only takes a tablespoon of seeds to get a lot of sprouts, and they're so fresh and nice compared to storebought. Radish sprouts have a lot of heat in them, and I had a lot of sprouts to eat, so I decided to combine them with something sweet...diced apples. I dressed it with a little olive oil, lemon juice and a bit of sea salt. It was a great way to wake myself up!

Now to break out my flaker, because I'm out of storebought quinoa flakes. They have been a breakfast staple. I don't know if it will work for tiny little quinoa, but I have other grains it should work on if not quinoa. I did realize I was going wrong to put butter on the porridge, butter in an explorer toxin, but there's a new HFS in town that sells organic ghee for a pretty decent price, so I'm stocked up on that again.

I also finally faced my fear and ate some fresh mozzarella. It was yummy. I think I'll keep dairy to once or twice a week for now.

I don't think I've ever eaten so many vegetables and live foods in my life. I feel like my mind and body are really getting into the groove of this plan. Yesterday's taekwondo was tough, but it really makes me tougher, more than just physically. My past periods of noncompliance may have been due to explorer dietary needs, which were a tiny bit mismatched, or it may have been just stress and lack of discipline...probably all of the above. I'm glad to move forward yet again, with a plan I can stick with.

One of our favorite movies to watch repeatedly (next to Princess Bride) is Joe Versus The Volcano. The main character, Joe Banks, is most certainly an Explorer. He's constantly sick or coming down with something, until he's told that his worst fear is true and he is dying. He then embarks on a great journey to a tropical volcano, when he rediscovers his inward strength (and tests his longevity a few times). It's a quirky movie, with some impressive symbolism and music.

One of the main symbols is a lightning bolt

It symbolizes the crooked path he takes to finally find love and courage.

Another small thing it reminds me of is the crooked path I've taken in discovering health and expanding my life beyond myself.

At one point he asks a woman, who is contemplating suicide because she's miserable living off her father's money, he says something like "if you have to choose between doing what you're afraid of doing and killing yourself, then do what you're afraid of doing?" (become independent from her father).

I was afraid to try the BTD, and I was afraid to really see if I might be an explorer, I was afraid to start Tae Kwon Do, and of course I was very afraid to become a mom. It's all about taking risks, taking a leap, and putting yourself in the vulnerable position that allows you to discover and grow. As an adult it's too easy to forget that and to forget "how big" life is, we need to step outside of ourselves and our established ways of thinking, to find reminders.