I got my appendix out a few weeks ago. It was not planned and happened while on vacation, not exactly my idea of a good time! I felt fine when I woke up, but by around noon I was feeling weird pain that I thought maybe was GERD. After throwing up Malox and realizing I hadn’t kept anything down all day, I figured it was something I should get checked out. It was a pretty clear case of appendicitis and by the next morning I had it out and was feeling better. Thankfully it was a surgery done by laparoscopy with no complications and I was up walking the same day. A few weeks later I’m feeling fine. Big huge thank you to Chuck and An for taking such good care of me!

Since appendicitis is an acute infection and I had antibiotics and pain medications while in the hospital, I figured I should do my best to help my gut recover. The doctor also said it looked like I had some inflammation in my stomach, possibly related to H. Pylori. So, I’m back on having tons of broth and have cut out starches completely. I was using potatoes and rice in my diet because I liked them and wanted to maintain weight. Well, I think I’m leaving them out for a while. For one, they are completely unnecessary for me to feel well and have energy. I also don’t think I have the proper gut flora balance to support eating that much starch. I’ve cut down the carbs considerably but am still enjoying some fruit and honey. I’ve added in some anti-microbial foods like coconut oil and raw garlic. I’m taking probiotics, eating homemade yogurt, and taking Betaine HCL (with pepsin) with meals. So far so good.

I’m also soaking up lots of sun on my extended holiday. For once I have a vacation to recover from my vacation. While I’m here, I’m working on a few things including some nutrition reading. After the conference I read Paul Jaminet’s Perfect Health Diet which is super useful for anyone dealing with illness and gives some much needed attention to infections (bacterial, fungal and viral). I’m now reading Ray Peat who talks a lot about hormones, sugars, cancer, inflammation etc (basically everything). Very interesting stuff that I plan to write about in future blog posts. I will write more blog posts I swear!

It’s been a while since I’ve done an update! Things got pretty stressful for me before Christmas but the holidays themselves were very relaxing. Coming down to such a relaxed state just made me even more aware of what that stress was doing to my health and happiness. Now I’m pretty focused on not letting myself feel that again. I’m slowly learning how to prioritize, take care of my health and ask for more help. Time will tell, but so far since Christmas I have been dealing much better. Oh and I got an awesome Le Creuset french oven from my family for Christmas that I really need to make something with and do a post on!

Nuts

Over the holidays I ate quite a lot of almonds and walnuts. This was after months of not eating nuts at all anymore, other than one or two days around Thanksgiving. For Christmas I had nuts in the stuffing I made for the turkey dinner and pumpkin pie for dessert. I ate them over about 5 days and felt gross. My stomach just does not like nuts at all. I find it interesting that these actually give me more digestive problems than other non-legal SCD foods like rice, soy sauce, and dairy. If you’re on SCD/GAPS and eating nuts everyday, I’d suggest a week or two off them to see how you do. I know most people think it’s not satisfying if you can’t have baked goods, but as a former cookie/cake/bread-aholic I can assure you’ll survive!

Dairy

I have been buying raw milk since late spring, both cow and sheep milk. I absolutely love it and it makes the best SCD yogurt ever. The texture is completely different from any milk I used from the store. I seem to be tolerating raw cream (not SCD-legal) so I have been enjoying that for some time now. My favorite dessert is just some cream with berries and honey. Raw kefir is another addition that has been great. It’s much easier to make than yogurt and I find it really delicious (after a first few tastes where I thought it was gross!). I have found from my dairy-free period and then dairy re-intro challenge that I don’t tolerate cheese well at all. So I’ve been cheese-free since August and although I miss it, I do feel a lot better off it.

Vitamin D

With each post about my acne issues I was getting comments and suggestions to check my vitamin D levels. I guess I never posted here about vitamin D because I was never deficient so it wasn’t a concern of mine during the time I’ve had this blog. I was tested before I started on SCD and had normal status. Then when I learned about the proper test to ask for I got that test done and my levels were high in the optimal range so I never bothered again. The optimal range was reached without me even taking a high dose D3 supplement. I took multivitamins on and off for many years (which probably contained about 400IU), plus I’m very pale and sunbathe most days for about 6 months of the year. Sometimes I was taking a fish oil that contained extra vitamin D and now I take cod liver oil that naturally contains some vitamin D. In any case, my levels were already in the optimum range when I was at my sickest, had just gotten over mono, had the worst acne and digestive issues. I can’t be certain vitamin D deficiency didn’t play a role in my getting sick, but it apparently isn’t something that is affecting me now.

Juicing

The juicing is going great! I always thought the recommendation on SCD to water down the juices meant that we shouldn’t have too much. On GAPS more importance is placed on juicing a larger quantity. Well, in my experience early on in SCD I did just fine with fresh juices made at home, not diluted. And now I’m doing great with them in large amounts. What’s nice about juicing is that it can be a good way to take raw egg yolks (mixed in the juice), even raw grated liver, and in my case, extra raw cream. After a couple months of doing this, I’m noticing my skin is a lot clearer. Also my nails which have always had deep ridges (lengthwise) are much smoother. I definitely think this is helping with nutritional deficiencies, both the juicing and getting more raw animal foods in my diet.

That’s all for now, still working on getting healthier, sleeping a lot and getting happier. Hope to post more soon.

Acne
My acne is still present although less severe than a month ago. I’m still dairy-free and believe that has helped. I’m taking zinc and pantothenic acid, as well as eating lots of oysters, some liver, juicing vegetables and herbs. I’m hoping to get lots of nutrients to help with hormone regulation and acne.

Nightshades
I have decided the next step in changing up my diet will be removing nightshades. This may sound simple for someone on SCD since it’s just tomatoes, peppers and paprika (we don’t eat potatoes) but I tend to eat a lot of these foods, almost daily. Over the past few weeks I have cut down considerably the frequency of having them and this past week I started a complete elimination of them. I plan on giving it about 6 weeks before reintroducing to be able to see if they are causing any problems. As someone with a history of acne and joint pain, this is something I just have to test out.
Read more…

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.

I had quite a reaction the first two weeks I went off dairy. I have gone dairy-free before but that was when I still had some digestive symptoms and was gauging a reaction based on those. This time without any digestive changes, I noticed other effects.

The first thing that happened is I quickly lost weight. The first week I lost at least 5 lbs. I’m pretty sure it was due to lack of calories. I should have prepared snacks better, got some shredded coconut, bananas, avocado and nuts ready, but for some reason I just didn’t think to. The second week went better and I started gaining some weight back.

The second thing I noticed was my hands started cracking. I ended up with about 6 ‘cuts’ on my hands that I thought at first was from cutting myself with a knife while preparing food. But I quickly realized it was just my skin splitting. It was painful but only lasted about a week. A few people on Twitter said they had the same thing during periods of stress, so I’m assuming it was that.

The third thing I noticed was how my appetite seemed much more normal. At first it felt like I was hungry all the time, but now it seems like an appropriate hunger feeling. I feel hungry (but still energetic) before breakfast, lunch and dinner. I don’t know if I ever felt normal hunger before.

And finally, I noticed the first week my skin did get a lot better. The acne on the back of my shoulders disappeared and my face stopped getting new pimples. Then, all of a sudden it all came back. I woke up one morning a couple days ago with a fresh batch of acne. Sigh.

If I didn’t have such a crazy reaction when I went off dairy I probably would have added it back into my diet by now, but I want to keep it out a bit longer. I’m not sure if dairy was contributing to nutritional deficiencies (I have read it can block zinc absorption – important nutrient for acne) and I don’t want to take any chances.

I have gotten a lot of help from people commenting here about acne. So I plan on trying a few more things nutritionally before looking into anything else. I’m remembering to take my B-complex more often. It’s a low dose one that I can take a few times a day, so I seem to do ok with it. I’ve added to that a B5 (pantothenic acid) which is supposed to help with acne, hormones and fat metabolism. I also am taking a zinc supplement most days, cod liver oil and fish oil. My next naturopath appointment is this week and I’ll be sure to ask her about other things I can try.

Raw Oysters
After trying raw oysters last week at a restaurant, I decided to get some to eat at home. I went to the Whalesbone Sustainable Oyster & Fish Supply where I got some oysters, horseradish, an oyster knife and some lessons on how to use it. I managed to shuck 6 oysters at home without hurting myself! They were yummy.

Still Dairy-free
I’m still eating dairy-free. Most days have been nut-free as well. I’m not doing so great coming up with snack ideas other than eating lots of fruit. I might try to get back into making some coconut flour treats this week. The last batch of coconut flour pancakes I made only lasted about 2 days so I think muffins might be a better one to try. I’ll give a full update on the dairy-free situation later today.

Hamburger Press
I keep forgetting to show one of my favorite kitchen tools. I got this from my grandparents and we have used it every time we make homemade burgers. It’s just a simple burger press that can do a thin burger or full thick burger. You push a little disc into the side you want (thin or thick) and then pack it full of ground meat. Pop the disc + patty out by pushing on the backside of it and you get a perfectly shaped burger. I have seen electric burger makers or fancy things that make 8 at once, but I think this is easier to clean and works well.

Online Meat & Seafood e-Course
The cooking e-course I’m taking starts this week! I’m excited and have planned out a bit of time each week to be able to keep up with it. I’ll take pictures of everything I make while the course is going on. If you want to take it, Ann Marie has extended the enrollment until this Saturday, August 21. Click here to sign up!

Oysters
I have been buying oysters from a great seafood shop in Ottawa called The Whalesbone Sustainable Oyster & Fish Supply. Usually I will steam them and them eat them with some buttery garlic sauce. They are a super-food when it comes to nutrient density, especially for zinc, B12 and vitamin D. I heard they are even better for you when raw but didn’t feel comfortable preparing them at home. So I went to the Whalesbone Oyster House restaurant and ordered a few raw oysters. Something about having them served on a nice platter with some fresh lemon and horseradish made them seem easier to eat. I absolutely loved them! The texture of raw oysters is so much better than cooked. I don’t think I’ll ever cook them again.

Dairy-free
I’m still going strong on the dairy-free challenge. It’s actually been more enjoyable than I thought. I’m experimenting a bit more with snacks since I don’t have yogurt to rely on. Also I have been rendering lard and tallow, which are great for cooking with. Expect to see some new snack ideas this week (hint: bananas!).

Wild Weekend
This weekend was a great weekend of wild food. I found some wild-picked blueberries at the Dekok Family Berry Farm stand. They had just been picked that day and were absolutely amazing. Expensive, but worth the price for the most delicious berries ever. I think I ate about 3 cups worth and put the rest in freezer bags to freeze for later.

I also found a hunter on a local classified site who was looking to trade wild boar meat. They had hunted it on a reserve in Quebec last fall and were tired of eating it. I could only offer them some grass-fed beef but they seemed pretty happy with it. So I traded them some grass-fed beef steaks, stew and ground for wild boar chops, ribs and ground. I can’t wait to try it.

Meat & Seafood Cooking Class
At first I was very excited for the organ meat lessons, and I still am, but even more so now I’m looking forward to the oyster shucking and raw fish lessons! It starts in a little over a week (August 18). The giveaway is over and if you didn’t win but still want to register, email me for a $20-off coupon kat.garson @ gmail.com. You can sign up for the course by clicking here.

I’ve mentioned a couple times in my updates that I’m giving dairy-free SCD a try. The decision has been a long time in the making. Last October my Naturopath suggested it and I lasted a few weeks. This time I plan on trying it for over a month.

Dairy-Free in the Past
Before starting SCD I had already been dairy-free for over 2 years. No butter, no cheese, no milk, no yogurt for over 2 years. It was a miserable time I have to say! I was pretty much terrified of dairy because of the many scientific studies and natural health sites saying that it caused digestive problems, cancer and heart disease (along with red meat and fat in general). The first month on SCD without yogurt I was probably lacking in calories. I did end up eating nut butter baked goods earlier than I should have simply because I was always hungry. I was still scared of meat too so really the first month was just a lot of light meals and I lost a few pounds that I really didn’t want to lose.

The SCDiet places quite an emphasis on the homemade 24-hour yogurt and I was both underweight and not responding to probiotic capsules. So I decided to try it and did well with it. I used only organic, hormone-free milk and also tried goat milk thinking that I did better with it. Off and on for the next 2 years I used high fat cow’s milk or goat’s milk to make my yogurt, and ate some SCD-legal raw milk cheeses.

Last November I decided to finally get off the Birth Control pill and work on addressing some hormone and menstrual problems naturally. My naturopath told me how dairy, even organic, can affect hormones and is implicated in endometriosis and that it might be worthwhile to go dairy-free at least to start with. I was also having signs of my liver not doing a good job of detoxing and stopping dairy could help. I did but only for a few weeks. Once my cycle returned and was completely pain-free (yay SCD!) I added the dairy back in. With going off the pill, my acne became worse and has persisted.

Acne History
I first got mild acne in my early teen years that cleared up completely when I started on the Birth Control pill. My late teen years I saw it come back and seemed more difficult to manage. I have never had cystic acne so I always thought I had a mild case of acne, but really it has been quite severe at times with spots all over my face (even though each spot is small). So I started trying all the commercial things like different soaps and cleansers (Nutrogena, SpectroGel, Clearasil etc etc) and even Proactiv which chemically burned my face upon first application (I stopped using it right away). I used spot treatments that worked but didn’t prevent breakouts. My doctor prescribed Retin-A which irritated my skin and made it flake off.

When I started learning more about natural health I tried quite a few natural remedies, usually one at a time. Apple cider vinegar, tea tree oil, natural cleansers, selenium, zinc, magnesium, drinking lots of water, taking fish oil, vitamin D, getting sun on my face, avoiding sun, exercising/sweating each day, steaming, probiotics, oatmeal mask, honey mask, yogurt mask, egg mask, avocado mask, coconut oil, and finally a short trial with the oil cleansing method. Nothing worked. Some made it worse.

The more I read, the more I realize acne starts from within and will never ‘go away’ until the real problem is addressed. I’m sure some people can manage their acne with strict cleansing routines using gentle products but it hasn’t worked for me. So, I finally decided I’m going to focus on addressing it through nutrition starting with giving up dairy. Here’s a ‘before’ picture during the two weeks I was trying the oil cleansing method. It actually got a bit worse after this, but has evened out back to this state with the first week of being dairy-free. I also have a bit of ‘bacne’ (acne on my shoulders) which I have never bothered trying to address with cleaning techniques.

My Plan
I was trying to be patient and let hormones balance out themselves while following full SCD but it seems like I need to try something different again. Since going off the pill, my cycle has not been regular and my acne out of control. The fact that these two problems are occurring and both can be related to eating dairy makes that a good place to start with tweaking my diet. I realize there is an expected period of time after stopping the pill for things to return to normal, but I want to try what I can to speed up that process. I have also gotten a lot of advice on what else to try for acne, and will keep those things in mind for later.

I stopped eating all dairy over a week ago (July 26th to be exact) including butter. After one week of that I realized I don’t do well AT ALL without a good dose of saturated fats. I was feeling cold all the time and cranky. Butter has always been the easy fat to use in cooking, baking and just eating on its own so I was having lots of it. I decided to make clarified butter, called ghee, and include that as my one dairy food. No butter, no cheese, no yogurt for all of August now.

I plan on posting an update halfway through August. I’ll also try to post some examples of what I am eating for a day doing SCD without dairy. I only eat nuts in small quantities and not every day too. Hopefully I’ll see some changes in my skin and I’ll also make note of any changes in my digestion. In September I will reassess if I want to try adding dairy back or if I want to give it a bit longer. If I do start back on it, I will try butter first for 2 weeks, then yogurt for a month, then raw milk cheese, then raw fluid milk (not SCD-legal) and try not to overindulge in anything.

So far I have been feeling pretty motivated. It helps that on Twitter right now, over two dozen people have joined in an “August Primal Challenge” about following a diet very similar to SCD, eating cleanly, exercising, and supporting each other. Also with the upcoming cooking class on meat & seafood, I’m hoping I’ll be busy creating delicious meals and won’t even notice that I’m missing the dairy.

Quebec City
I went on a 2-day family road trip to Quebec City this weekend. It was fun! The drive was quite long, about 5 hours each way, but just more proof that my digestive problems are a thing of the past. I used to hate long car rides but this time boredom and hunger were the only reasons I wanted it to end. We got a chance to show Hong’s family some good old fashioned French Canadien food including meat pies, duck, and some meal and dessert crepes. They loved the food but I didn’t get to eat any of it. Seems the places we chose were just not gluten-free friendly. It wasn’t a matter of language barrier, I speak French and managed to explain to the waitresses my dietary restrictions. No one had even heard of Celiac disease but they understood food allergies and managed to prepare my meals free of contamination. I had a roasted duck leg served in duck fat with a nice vinaigrette salad for dinner (the only item on the menu I could have!), and a bacon, eggs and fruit breakfast (not even on the menu, the waitress jut prepared it herself). The rest of the time I just ate the food I brought with me. It was nice to be able to show Hong’s family authentic French Canadian food, but next time I think I’ll look up some gluten-free restaurants. My favorite stop on the trip was to the chocolate shop, where I could have spent all day but resisted and left with only a fun picture.

Ghee
I went dairy-free last week and plan to stick to that for the entire month of August. I’ll re-evaluate whether or not to add it back in right away at the end of the month. I did go completely dairy-free including giving up butter but to make it easier to get lots of healthy fats I decided to include clarified butter, called ghee. It’s butter with all of the milk solids removed so I’m pretty sure it will be ok to have and still benefit from being able to test out if dairy-free makes a difference in my health. Here’s what I ended up with on my first attempt at making ghee.

Egg Farmer

I went to visit my egg farmer this week to pick up some eggs. He normally brings them into town during the school year but during summer break I went to pick them up at his place. The hens were just so cute! I’ll do a full post on that soon. For now here’s a really blurry picture of me holding one.

Garden Update
We’ve had a couple peppers and finally got one nice red tomato. It was delicious! I’m a bit surprised how long these take to ripen after they grow to full size. It does take some patience to get nice fully red peppers and tomatoes. I’m not sure what variety tomato I have planted, but it’s supposed to be an Italian type good for making sauces. Anyone recognize it?

Surf & Turf e-Course Giveaway
If you saw my previous post you’ll know I’m pretty excited about Cheeseslave’s e-course starting in just a couple weeks. Well if it’s too costly but you still want to do it, I will be doing a giveaway for one free course enrollment! Check back later today for details on that and in the meantime make sure to watch the introductory video here.

Blueberries
I went blueberry picking both days this weekend. It was tough work! Strawberry and raspberries seemed easier to pick a few baskets worth. Blueberries definitely take a bit longer. The first day I went to Canaan Blueberry and picked one 4-liter basket. This is not an organic farm so I made sure to wash the berries well when I got home. I froze most but left some out to snack on.

The next day I went to Rubicon Farms which is all organic. The first thing I noticed was how the berry bushes had a couple ants, spiders, and ear wigs crawling around. Definitely no pesticides used on these ones! I only saw a couple of ants and spiders on some of the overly-ripe berries while the perfectly ripe berries were clean and easy to pick. I spent a bit more time this day and picked three 4-liter baskets, a mix of two varieties of berries. The larger berries were easy to pick but the small berries were so tasty it was worth a bit of extra effort. I also got some local honey while I was there.

Freezer Status
My deep-freezer is now full of berries and meat, just how it should be. There’s about 12 liters of strawberries, 4 pints of raspberries and now about 14 liters of blueberries. I have some beef, lamb, pork and chicken left over too. All my organ meats are kept in the door shelves so you can’t see them in this picture. I keep them handy to make sure I eat them often.

Garden
We got our first red sweet pepper and have plenty more ripening on the plants. Our 2 varieties of hot pepper plants are starting to get more and we’ll get to taste test those soon. I have to say it takes some patience growing tomatoes and peppers. They stay green for so long, it’s hard to resist picking them too early.

Dairy-free
I have been dealing with acne issues for a long time and lately nothing I have tried has helped. I did end up giving up on the Oil Cleansing Method early because it was causing more breakouts. My next plan is to try a month (August) dairy-free – no yogurt, no cheese, no butter. I tried this before but it was around the same time as going off the birth control pill so hormones may have been all out of whack anyway. So this time I hope with making this one change I will notice a difference. I’ll post more detailed info of my struggles with acne, what I have tried, and why I’m choosing to do this. I’ll also post up a few raw milk recipes I had been indulging in this summer before switching to only posting some good dairy-free SCD legal recipes in August.