It has been a crazy summer, but now that life is getting settled again I hope to settle back in to journaling/blogging.
I am going to see a GI doctor this friday about all my IBS issues so I look forward to talking about that, and I hope to have a few books to review soon. Fun times!
Spending time with my family this summer was a little different than last Thanksgiving. During Thanksgiving I was super strict and careful about what I ate. I think I wanted to make an impression on my family and show them that you can eat this way and still enjoy yourself.
Well I must have felt I already made that impression because I went a little sugar crazy over the summer. I suppose I still ate my five guys sans bread, and my birthday cake was gluten free and the icing was made with rice milk (which by the way all that was made by me for my own birthday. I only asked that I didn’t have to clean up, haha.)
It was a great time getting to be with the whole family again and it definitely makes more sense to visit my sisters house during the summer. Wisconsin in the fall is just no fun at all.
I did it!! Finally! nearly 2 years later and I’m FINALLY at my pre pregnancy weight. That also means that I have officially lost 50lbs!! WOOT WOOT! Praise God! It’s of course still overwhelming to think I need to lose at least another 50lbs until we can start trying again for baby #2. And that I could actually do with losing more like 80lbs. But I know that I’m so much more reliant on God now than I was back when all this started. Also he has just showed me so many amazing ways in which the Paleo diet can do amazing things for me and my family. And even now how to start incorporating more whole foods that maybe aren’t “paleo” But are still super nutritious when prepared the right way. That makes this adventure so much more exciting and sustaining!
So I’m sick, like really sick
On Wednesday I was helping out a friend of mine who just had her baby and watching her other two kids at her house. I decided to pick up some Boston Market on the way over so my daughter and I could have something to eat as well. Usually I would just pick up a whole chicken and some veg with maybe some red skinned potatoes as a treat. But for some reason when I went into the store the amount of apple pies and brownies overwhelmed me. I was also extremely hungry at the time so instead of getting the brownie I went for the cheesey, bacon mashed potatoes. I know, really? I should have just had the brownie.
To make it even worse I ate the mashed potatoes in the car on the way there, and I ate all of them. *sigh* I started feeling a bit sick while I was there. And for some reason decided to eat a fun sized twix bar and down a glass of apple juice. Because of course that would make me feel better right? (Ok seriously writing this all down after the fact makes me so angry how stupid I was)
This also doesn’t count the Ghirardelli pepermint bark, dark chocolate squares I’ve been eating daily since we got home or the previously mentioned chocolate mousse excape. (Ok seriously what is wrong with me?!)
So now I sit here going on about 48 hours of straight up pain. I can tell all the pain is in my large intestine, there’s like an actual outline around my tummy of pain. The thing is my IBS pain has never been this bad before. Usually it starts sometime in the early morning hours. But this time it started at 10pm on Wed. It was like once I got home from my friends house I was able to finally give into the pain and the cramps started, and still haven’t let up.
I had to get my husband to come home from work early on Thursday it was getting so bad and by Thursday evening it was the absolute worse. I thought when I woke up on Friday morning that I was feeling better but as I started moving around the nausea started up again and the cramping came back. Blah
I called the 24 hour nurses line but they’re never any help. “I’m sure you just have the stomach flu, eat some toast and drink some gatorade” Seriously I just wanted to throw the phone across the room. But what was I expecting? “Here’s a list of supplements we recommend you take to heal your gut fast, and be sure to stay away from anything irritating to your gut like gluten, dairy and sugar”. Nope I wouldn’t expect that, which is why I called my chiropractor. Here’s hoping he can be a bit more helpful. I just don’t think I can continue on this way any longer without completely medicating and taking vicodin all the live long day.
I’ve been recently searching for a turmeric supplement to help with my chronic inflammation. I got a bit overwhelmed with all the different strengths and brands so I did some research. And to save you from having to do all the work I’ve compiled my research in this tidy blog post for you.
The active ingredient in turmeric is curcumin. What you’re looking for in a proper turmeric supplement is one that has at least 95% curcumanoids. Curcuminoids are actually responsible for turmerics distinctive yellow color. This isn’t something that you would think is common practice in the supplement either. For example a search on Amazon for some turmeric supplements yields some super cheap and super expensive options. And though, yes, you get what you pay for. You also pay for a name and sometimes can be over charged simply to buy a brand name. Or by a supplement that has added unnecessary ingredients.
Swansons may have a supplement that has 720mg in each serving, which is a lot more than say some of the others with only 450mg. But upon closer inspection you see it has only “3% to 6% Curcuminoids”. Don’t be fooled! Turmeric is about 2-3% curcumin by weight. That means that in order to consume 1,000mg of curcumin, you would have to take in 33-50 grams of turmeric! This is the reason that it’s better to buy a concentrated curcumin supplement rather than a turmeric supplement.
Curcumin is a very strong supplement with beneficial effects, but it is also very hard for your body to digest all of it as it works it’s way through your system. Curcumin is fat soluble not water soluble which means if you take that turmeric supplement on an empty stomach or with that glass of low fat milk it will be rendered useless. Scientist and supplement companies are spending loads and loads of money trying to figure out a way to make curcumin more bioavailable (a measure of how much of the curcumin you ingest is circulated through your body) and more stable so that it will last long enough to get past your gut.
There are already some supplements out there that are trying to reproduce this in your body. You may see some tumeric supplements that read “More bioavailable” But then they’re about $10 more expensive. You could take your turmeric this way, OR you could just be sure to take your turmeric with your meal and make sure that meal has plenty of fat.
But crap! It’s bed time and I forgot to take my pills. Will taking my turmeric now being useful since it’s not with a meal? Well no it won’t. But just scoop out a tablespoon of coconut oil, and swallow it down with your pill. Voila!
What is Tumeric good for?
I’m glad you asked! Let’s take a look at the numerous benefits this amazing spice has.
So there you have it! Are you using or thinking about use turmeric? Do you have anymore questions that I haven’t covered in this post? Feel free to ask!
The Organic Christian 