Melissa Jones

Happy New Year! Here's to one that's better than the last.

I've realized that I'm probably deficient in zinc. I did a taste test (Zinc Status), and could hardly taste it after 10 seconds. If you taste it strongly, then you're not deficient, if it just tastes like water then you're deficient, and to me it started to taste like mineral water after 10 seconds. It would explain a lot of things, and I'm hopeful that turning around the deficiency will make this a better year than last, illness-wise. I have a lot of the lists of symptoms, so things are now looking up.

I'm happy to be off the large doses of vitamin D (and I'm still happy to have that one figured out 3 years ago), but whenever you take a lot of one thing, other things often get out of balance.

I've been sick twice since I last blogged, and have gotten quite fed up with the whole matter. We never even got our family picture done for Christmas cards, despite trying 6 times, because I kept getting too sick to do it (or worried I'd be contagious to the photographer). It was kind of a big deal this year, and just one of many things that I never got done.

Such is life, being a celiac explorer. I thought I'd ruled out all deficiencies, but bingo, now one makes itself known. Sometimes you have to get pretty low before you see the way up.

I'll still get my tonsils checked next week, since I've waited 3 months to get into the ENT, but I won't be in a big hurry for surgical options if things improve without them. I also plan on strictly avoiding all dairy except ghee, until further notice.

I noticed my first ever reaction to eggs when I cheated over Christmas. Perhaps they've been causing absorption problems ... the white lines may tell over time.

I'm sick again, after feeling awesome for more than a few weeks and getting into a pretty good exercise routine, it's a bit of a setback. I can't help but think that if I'd refrained myself a bit more for Thanksgiving, I wouldn't have gotten as sick as I did. I did pretty well on choices, other than some cream in a couple spots, but just ate too much and went into a stupor afterwards. That night my nose started running and within a day or two had a full fledged sinusitis, pink eye, ear congestion, and laryngitis.

Other than a slight residual cough and sinus headache, I'm feeling pretty ok today. Tomorrow I might start getting back into the swing of things. I have gotten back into cooking and eating, trying to eat more frequent small meals as my blood sugar seems to swing a bit when I'm sick.

It's that lovely sniffly time of year, but this was the last straw for me and my tonsils. I'm going to see an ENT about them and if he strongly recomends removal, I'll go for it. It was also the last straw for me and any dairy. It's only ghee for me from here on out. I'm also doubting my affections for many sweet things, and pulling out the vegetable glycerine as my primary sweetener. Basically, I'm way into vegetables. I've been eating a lot of them. Tonight I made peasant soup (swiss chard, dandelion, broth, simmered 30 minutes, and dressed with garlic, nice olive oil, and sea salt to taste). Today I haven't had any grains, sugars, or dairy. Some grains will come back, in modest amounts, but veggies and a few fruits are my first priority, followed by some lean protein.

I tried a prickly pear for the first time today, I blended it up, strained it (ate most of the pulp), then put the rest into some v.glycerine sweetened lemonade. It's got a very mild, refreshing, flavor. Star fruit (carambola) is pretty popular around here lately too. It's surprisingly crisp and not too sweet but sweet enough.

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.