Melissa Jones

I talked to my sister-in-law about how she lost a lot of weight. She's not on BTD or anything, but ate the same things every day and nothing more, with absolutely no cheating. These things were simple, easy and predictable. So I'm trying to come up with a similar plan. I like to mix things up, and try new recipes and foods, but I've been very lacking in the routine department since my second was born. Giving up eggs as an explorer made it harder, because those were my breakfast routine for oh so long.

The benefits of a routine are that it doesn't require much thinking or advanced planning, just toss the same thing together. In the long run, it's healthier to mix things up and get more variety, but routine is my weak point, mixing up is my specialty. The point is to avoid skipping meals or being low on vital nutrients, that helps avoid cravings and cheating.

The mush in my last blog is my new breakfast routine. I sometimes chop a whole apple into it, instead of apple sauce, and grated apple would be great in it too. It's filling enough on its own, but adding some natural turkey bacon or a vegetable on the side is always a nice touch. I could probably add whey protein powder to it, but I prefer to save that for a smoothie. If I feel bored of mush, my second option is salad...it's great at breakfast time.

Lunch routine is tougher, as I usually have a pretty late breakfast. Lunch is a good time to chop up some raw vegetables and maybe cook a turkey or bison burger. Fresh mozzarella makes a frequent occurence at lunch time. I can snack on the veggie stick later in the day if I crave something crunchy...raw kohlrabi, raw turnips, radishes, they're all good.

I don't do any real major cooking until dinner time. I don't really need a dinner routine for that reason, I'm usually more organized by dinnertime and can make a healthy dinner with veggies and salad.

I'll start with the recipe:

1 cup water (bring to boil)
pinch of salt
1/2 Cup Quinoa Flakes or Rolled quinoa*
2 Tablespoons chia seeds (whole, or ground)
1/2 cup applesauce (apple juice sweetened)
1 Tablespoon vegetable glycerine or agave nectar

Add the quinoa and chia to boiling water, reduce heat and let bubble slowly for a couple minutes, turn off heat, and let sit for another couple minutes. Add applesauce and sweetener, stir and enjoy.

*azure standard has a good price on these in bulk, I've made them with a grain flaker as well, and it worked fine although they weren't as pretty, not that pretty matters once it's mush.

Recently I've come to the conclusion that what I've been lacking since the birth of my second child has been routine. I need a fall-back menu, something that's healthy, to always have on hand for times when I don't plan or shop for anything more exciting.

This was my third IfHI conference, and I can't pick a favorite, but if I did, it might be this one... even though it was a hard trip for a number of reasons unrelated to the conference.

My favorite thing about it was all the usable information. That's to be expected since Dr. D'Adamo lectured for so many more hours than in previous conferences. Here are a few tidbits that I found relevant:

White Lines: these usually go across the fingerprint horizontally, side to side, not vertically from tip to end like most of mine are. That means I have less of them then I thought. Vertical ones are often caused by hormonal changes (I'm guessing mine are since I've had hormonal imbalances since puberty).

I AM Explorer: My ring fingers are longer than my index fingers, despite much controversy on the matter (many people I've had measure me have thought the other way around, but in women, 2 mm is enough of a difference to not count as equal). I was ready to stay in explorer camp whatever my fingers said when I found this out, due to a few other things I learned at the conference, but it was nice to know I'm measuring correctly.

Genotype Mix-Ups: If somebody is unsure and follows the wrong genotype diet, as long as it's within their blood type's possibilities, it won't do any harm. It won't have as much therapeutic value as the right one, but it's still good. So trying one or two to see which works best is just fine. (I tried two, and felt better on the explorer diet, so that's where I'll stay). Why did the gatherer diet make me sick? It didn't. Some things were going on that made me sick (hormonal imbalances and/or candida), and the explorer diet addressed them better.

SWAMI Genotype is Awesome: look for an IfHI practitioner near you! After seeing how it works, I can see how individualized it truly is, not only taking into account all the measurements, but also allowin the practitioner to input different goals and problems to address for the individual. I can't wait to get my own report.

Candida: It thrives even in the saliva of non-secretors. Os don't usually get a ton of it, but their immune system overreacts to even a little. In Os, candida activates a primitive part of the immune system, the complement system, which doesn't use antibodies, but damages cells. I'd imagine this can wreak havoc in the digestive tract as well as the immune system. Addressing the inflammation and strengthening the digestive tract are two strategies I'm using. The inflammation reducing aspect of the explorer diet seems to help me greatly. I have to say that I haven't totally "believed" in candida before, but now I think it's a big problem for me. It's not worth using antifungal medications because it will just bounce right back, in fact it seems that it's not really worth "fighting" the candida directly, but fighting the inflammation of damage therefrom seems to be the way to go. As I review my notes, I'll post more about this. Oh, and celiac disease makes one more likely to have candida problems. So, an O-non-secretor with celiac disease can have an interesting time of it.

Teachers and intestinal overgrowth. Once again, celiac disease makes this more of a problem (this applies to my son). There are a number of dietary things that can help with this. Burdock root is the first one that comes to mind. I think I'll do a blog about this subject and about the candida...so stay tuned.

This week I was surprised to learn, through a bit of a medical adventure, that a person can be regular and constipated at the same time. Meaning that things move along slowly, even though they generally keep moving. Without getting things in gear, I'm at risk for diverticulitis, colon cancer, and according to some sources, appendicitis. I was constipated most of my young life, thanks to celiac disease, and although it has improved significantly, I still consider it status quo and often think nothing of it.

I think this is a good turning point for me as far as my health goals go, and I've started to lose weight again, whereas I had stalled pretty well despite being quite compliant for a week or two. I'm now ingesting soluble fiber whenever possible (with lots of water). The doctor prescribed Miralax, but I prefer something natural, as opposed to eating some weird polymer. It takes a lot of natural soluble fiber to have the same effect, so I'm currently getting that from many sources.

The fiber section at the HFS is extensive...and few products say on the front what they actually are. So it took a while, but once I got past all the slightly scary products, I found some interesting things. (Don't forget NAP's arabinoglactan, which is probably the best of the best).

Fiber Xpress, inulin fiber, 2 grams of soluble fiber per packet. Derived from chicory root, with nothing added. There are other inulin fibers with artificial sweeteners and all kinds of additives, so I was happy to find this, and it's so convenient to use. It's taste/texture is quite undetectable in a liquid.

I also found soluble fiber from rice (which the label says usually gets rinsed away in the preparation of brown rice), that looked promising. There was also apple fiber powder, with pectin, although it was only 25% soluble fiber and 75% insoluble. I think soluble fiber is the best at first, at least initially.

Explorers can also have most glucomannan sources, including shirataki noodles (they say they're made from yams, but these are not the yams that are avoids, these are actually konjac, an explorer superfood). I didn't seen any glucomannan powder at the HFS, but have seen it online.

Chia seeds are also great. They can be ground or eaten whole, and used in a variety of different ways. Sprinkled on cereal or porridge is the way I usually eat it, but stay tuned to this blog for news on my first attempt at making chia crackers.

Of course nothing beats a bowl full of jerusalem artichokes, or some dandelion peasant soup!

Funny how just wishing something pushes you into the right place to make it happen. Just recognizing that something is attainable, makes it so.

My wish list number 2 was for soft hands and feet. They have definitely been trouble areas, often leading to cracks on my heels and the knuckles of my fingers. I can't wear nylons, or tights, because my dry skin wrecks them before I even get them on. I have trouble doing taekwondo because when I pivot on my heels sometimes the scales catch on the floor, causing the skin to crack further. I tried some martial arts shoes but my feet just aren't shaped right for shoes that aren't adjustable on the top. I've ordered some "fight socks" that look promising. Until they come, I just use a wrap tape to cover my heels in class.

Right now though, I'm happy to say that my hands and feet are soft! I've tried so many things to moisturize and/or exfoliate. Many hand lotions are too heavily scented for me to enjoy using often enough. Many foot lotions either don't penetrate well or don't last long enough. My TKD instructor recommended using coconut oil as a moisturizer, and I've been amazed that that stuff. It workes better than all the many specially formulated things I've tried. It soaks in as well a my grandma's turpentine-smelling lotion, but the softness lasts the whole day (the aformentioned lotion fades after a few hours seeming to leave my feet drier than they were to begin with). The exfoliating stuff (kerasal, callex, etc) do help a bit if I use them often enough, but exfoliation without intense moisturizing seems to leave my feet vulnerable to more cracks.

Then for my hands I tried some DHC CoQ10 hand cream. I've long been a fan of DHC, with my sensitive skin (and nose) their products are often the only way to go, gentle but also highly effective. The hand cream is unscented, it penetrates well and is long lasting, rather than just slathering on top and soon disappearing. It worked so well that I've begun to think that CoQ10 is some missing link for my skin. All the fat soluble vitamins are so important to skin, and with my celiac problems and digestive trouble they are still hard for me to absorb. I've ruled out or successfully treated deficiencies in the major ones (ADEK), but there are others to consider, like CoQ10. So, I've begun cutting open a CoQ10 capsule and stirring it into the coconut oil that I put on my feet. It seems to have really kicked it up a notch, as far as effectiveness goes. (it's a bit orange, so if you try this at home, put socks on after, which is a good idea anyway)

My feet are now a normal pink color and seem to be gradually exfoliating themselves. My hands feel soft and normal again as well. I can feel the texture of what I step on, which is interesting after so many calloused years.