PCOS

How Kelp can Help

/ Grow Your Health Gardening Owner & Certified Hydroponic Grower / Leave a comment

When I read that kelp was highly beneficial for my body as a great source of iodine, I was a bit dumbstruck. How on earth was I going to get kelp into my diet? Sushi was off the list because of rice, and I knew that I did NOT want to take another pill. So online I went in search of an easy win. And this is what I came up with …

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I have found it’s easy to add to scrambled eggs, on top of a salad – you name it! You can’t notice the flavor at all which is a win for me after I had tried one of those kelp “snacks” which was just a flavored sheet of kelp.

I’m following the Blood Type eating plan, but many of these foods can be beneficial for those looking to eat better. The Blood Type eating plan focuses on limiting foods where the lectins in the foods react like poison, if you will, within your body. All plants have lectins in them to help protect them against predators. It’s not just insects, birds, and animals that can be influenced by these lectins in plants, but also our bodies. And, research has shown that each blood type reacts differently to different lectins in foods. The lectins can do several harmful things within your body. It can settle in an area and act like a glue. It can also act like the hormone, insulin and let in glucose to fuel the cell, but unlike the insulin, it won’t release and so the cell just continues to fill. If you want to learn more, you can watch this short video that helped me to understand what happens within our bodies with lectins. I was really skeptical when I first started eliminating foods that were on my “do not eat” list because of how the lectins in them reacted with my blood, but I can tell you that after only two weeks of eating according to this food plan, MY JOINT PAIN WAS GONE!  I’m now thinking there is something to this after personally experiencing more energy and no more chronic pain. So, if you have O+ blood type you’ll definitely want to add kelp to your diet as it is highly beneficial (it will help your body heal).

Update: I also found this dropper of kelp that you can add to your water or other liquids while cooking. I just add a dropper to my morning and afternoon water and I don’t even taste it! Awesome!

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Food Prep

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In one hour, my husband and I knocked out three food preps: mangos on the dehydrator, making some almond milk, and prepping the sweet potato fries. Easy peasy breasy!

 

How a Chick-fil-a salad saved the day…

/ Grow Your Health Gardening Owner & Certified Hydroponic Grower / Leave a comment

I was struggling with my day of not being able to have the foods that I was use to eating. I had been strong for two weeks and on this particular day, I was still eating what I should and studying recipes, but I did so begrudgingly.

My husband had planned to take me out that evening to meet at a Starbucks to purchase some old doorknobs we needed for a home project and I just became more surly as I declined having him get anything from Starbucks for me. So, he got his door knobs and coffee and I sat there feeling hungry. Again.

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Saw this funny Instagram photo from the Rosepepper and it fit the way the day had been going that I had to laugh!  Laughing is good for the soul!

So, I asked if we could grab something to eat – that I needed to get a salad because I needed more vegetables to log for my day. We decided to try Chick-fil-A and as I stood and looked at the menu screens, I quickly realized that I couldn’t eat some things in many of the salads. “Your salads are probably homemade, aren’t they?” I asked the Clark who stood at the register. “Yes, Ma’am.” I turned to my husband and I said, “Well, I can’t have the cabbage, (because of how the lectins will react in my body.) I can’t have the bacon (because that’s pork.) And I can’t have the corn, (because I’m allergic to corn.)” So, Clark, quickly responded saying, “Oh, we can make the salad however you’d like!” I thanked him and he responded, “My pleasure.”Music to my ears!

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So, I waited a few short moments for my salad to be made and chose a dressing that fit my eating profile and gobbled it up. And I felt better. Something about having a salad made that I didn’t have to pick apart felt great. And it did fill me up.

We decided to stop at a grocery store on the way home and check out their gluten free section (yeah, we’re pretty wild on our date nights – haha) and after a 40 minute shopping trip putting great stuff in our cart, we pull up behind the coupon lady. She was dressed in blue scrubs and it was evident she was a health professional who had recently gotten off work. She was ringing multiple like items together and paying only 11 cents and 10 cents for 6 Minute-Maids and other radome sugar-laden foods. (Her last purchase, they paid her 65 cents!)  My cart rang up for $165.  It became quickly evident that there was a disconnect between good food and junk food. The manufacturers are to blame for this as they are willing to give away their free sugar-laden foods in hopes of getting someone hooked on their sweet treat. They are sugar-crack dealers. And I just thought it was a bit of irony that the coupon clipping “health” professional was feeding her family JUNK and the obese woman with the expensive cart was buying the healthy food!

On the way home, I thought about my choices and how the day had gone. I was thankful for my supportive husband. I was thankful I had money to buy the foods I needed to eat. and I realized that my attitude had improved. It was a great reminder to me that at any time, we can hit the reset button with our attitude. Change is a daily choice to make even just one area of our lives better. When we are trying to make changes for ourself as well as our family, that’s a lot. It’s a reminder that I have a relationship with sugar-laden food and we are breaking up. And that’s OK. There are other better choices out there (like my Chick-fil-A salad) that I can make and feel GREAT!