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.