Naturopath Visit
My acne hasn’t gone away completely but it is a little bit better. I’m sticking with dairy-free for probably a few more months. My naturopath wants me to get hormone levels tested so I’ll be doing that this week. Once she has a clearer picture of whats going on she’ll start me on a new plan. In the meantime I’m taking a few supplements for hormones and acne, including Vitamin B5 (plus small doses of B-complex I’m already taking), zinc, cod liver oil, fish oil, evening primrose oil. She also told me to try a clay mask and suggested a good natural cleanser. I couldn’t find the cleanser but got some clay for a mask and it was quite soothing.
Tomatoes
It’s my first time gardening tomatoes and I really should have gotten cages to hold them up. I have just metal rods that I’m tying the branches of the plants to, which worked fine until they actually got tomatoes on them. Now all the tomatoes have weighed down the branches and they’re each sitting in a heap on the ground. They still seem to be healthy and producing lots of tomatoes so I’m not worried. But, every now and then I get an orange tomato that falls off the vine. A few friends on Twitter said they should ripen fine on the counter, and sure enough they do. Here’s a picture of various stages of ripening. The one on the left has been on the counter 4 days and looks fully ripe, while the one on the right has only been on the counter 1 day and is still ripening. They taste just as delicious as the ones that ripen on the vine.
Coconut Macaroons
I finally got around to using my KitchenAid Stand Mixer to do some mixing. Up until now I’ve used the attachments a lot, shredding, slicing and griding food. I made some coconut macaroons from Elana’s Pantry which are so good when you actually whip the egg whites properly! I made them before by hand but the macaroons would always fall flat. These were fluffy and light. I substituted honey in place of agave nectar for that recipe to be SCD-legal.
Bacon
I used to be able to find a honey-cured organic nitrate-free bacon in Ottawa. Lately I haven’t been able to get it. So, I decided to start trying out different kinds from the store or local farmers. Now sugar is not legal on SCD, but even Elaine said it was ok to have crisp-fried bacon once a week. It is such a treat on SCD! I have 3 kinds to try right now and at least 3 other ones from local farmers to pick up once I finish with these. Hopefully out of those 6 I’ll find one I like that doesn’t have too much sugar. So far I tried the Woodstown Farms one and it’s too sweet.
Kat,
Just to let you know the BearBrook Farms bacon is not nitrate free. I asked them already, when I bought it last time. So far i’m just buying Side Pork since it’s not cured. If you find a good nitrate free one please let mek now.
@B-L Interesting.. they told me probably over a year ago that it was nitrate-free. I don’t like the Bearbrook one either (just eating it now) so if the 3rd one isn’t good, I’ll be picking up different ones next weekend to try.
Hey Kat,
I’ve been silently rooting for you to figure out this acne thing as I’m still dealing with a bit of it myself. The SCD diet has really helped actually all my body acne is gone now and my face is the best it has ever been, but I just can’t get it “clear”. I did want to suggest you check out the acne.org products, http://www.danielkern.com/, if you haven’t already. Like you I’m pretty sure I’ve tried almost everything out there and these have been the only ones I’ve ever kept around. No weird side-effects (rashes, dry-skin, burning etc) and very cost effective (the big bottles last forever). Take Care and Good Luck
Hi Kat,
Just so you know my ice cream and topping are totally dairy free. The ice cream is coconut milk, honey and vanilla bean and the chocolate is dark, dairy free. It’s ingredients are cocoa powder, cocoa butter, sugar, natural bourbon vanilla beans. It is Lindt Excellence 85% Cocoa Chocolate. The only SCD illegal is the sugar.
@Steve Wright Thanks, I don’t think I’ll be trying a cleanser with chemicals again. Tried enough of those ;). I’m going to get the cleanser my naturopath suggested and hopefully soon enough I’ll figure out the hormone imbalances to fix it from the inside.
@Karen Ok, I might just have to try some coconut milk ice cream again then!
Hey Kat,
Having your tomato plants weighed down is a GREAT PROBLEM TO BE having in the world these days. I think you should consider yourself lucky!!! That would be my dream come true, however, we are left with the very lightweight(maybe some would consider invisible) tomato plants over here.
Good job farming,
Adam
Kat, what brand of vitamins do you use, and evening primrose, cod liver and fish oil? I suffer from acne, and was wondering what the evening primrose oil does to reduce acne and am on the SCD, but it’s sometimes difficult finding soy-free, sugar-free, vitamins. Thanks!
@Adam I think this is just a good growing year for us. Our cherry tree got it’s first fruit this year too. One thing I found helped was to water the garden with milk (2 cups milk to a gallon of water) which seemed to bring out more tomatoes. Other than that I didn’t do anything but water!
@Chrissy I haven’t had any problems finding vitamins at health food stores or natural stores that are free of gluten, soy or dairy. They’re all different brands, I just check the label carefully. Individual vitamins are easier to find legal than multis. For cod liver oil I use Green Pastures brand. For evening primrose I use Udo’s Choice. And fish oil is Carlson’s.
The evening primrose is more to help with hormones. I have heard some people on SCD don’t do well with it so if you try it, make note of any symptoms.
How are you? I remembered the thing about acne that I kept forgetting when I would post. Beet kvass!! Do you drink beet kvass? I wish I had the link, but maybe you can google for it… someone was writing that it had cleared up their skin once they started drinking it. I just made my first batch and haven’t had any yet.
I’m dealing with yeast again. Bleh!
@Chickiepea Down and out with a cold this past week so I’m trying to relax and take it easy. I have made Beet kvass a lot, but not lately. I might try that again, I never noticed it helping my acne but it is great for the liver!