Natural Deodorant

In an effort to detox my body of toxins, I have started using a natural deodorant. 

I have this weird thing going on with my underarms anyway.  Fox Fordyce is what it's called.  Okay, so I need to be clear...I have never been diagnosed with it.  My friend's sister has it.  She's been diagnosed.  I have the same symptoms as she does.  I self-diagnosed. 

Also, they are super duper itchy. 

I have avoided deodorants for the past two years and have been a stinky person. 

That has all ended.  No more stink-a-roo.

A small dab of coconut oil applied to the underarm moisturizes.  Then take that same finger and poke it into some baking soda.  Rub that onto the coconut oiled underarm.  Wait a moment so that you're not too greasy putting on lovely clothes you don't to get oiled. 

Whallah!

I have not been stinky.  AND if you skip a day, it's okay.  You still won't smell.  I don't shower every day.  It is sooo not by choice.  I have three little ones.  Sometimes, it just doesn't happen.  Plus, I'm too busy cooking soup to shower. 

Day 18, Stage 4 (day 2)

Today was pretty boring as far as food goes.  I was out a lot, so I made my ol' standby - broccoli and ground beef soup with onions and garlic.  I made a big pot and brought it from place to place, stopping at home to fill up as needed. 

My cravings are disappearing.  People can eat bread and sweets in front of me and I don't feel like taking them down like a crazed hyena only to rip away their sacred treat. 

I start the day off with a glass of water and my probiotics. 

A half hour to an hour later (depending on how the morning is going) I have my juiced carrots, celery, beet and ginger along with my cod liver oil supplements. 

I just think it's so pretty, don't you?

I do mix it before drinking. 

While I'm drinking the juice, I'm cooking either pancakes, eggs or soup. 

There is plenty of time to allow for my body to digest the probiotics, juice and cod liver oil.  I simmer the soup for 25 minutes.  And then it needs to cool.  If I'm making pancakes, it takes that long, too. 

I made soured cream the other day.  I poured a gallon of raw milk into a pitcher.  I waited 24 hours.  I took it out of the fridge and carefully scooped the cream off the top.  Use a pitcher you can see through.  There will be a definitive line separating the cream from the milk.  I put the cream into a 32oz glass jar.  I added 3 heaping tablespoons of greek yogurt.  I wrapped it in a towel, put it next to my crockpot and left it there for 24 hours.  It went into the fridge until I needed it. 
It definitely smelled soured.  But not bad...just sour.  And it was thick.  I mean thick. 

I was able to incorporate it into soups very nicely.  It went into yesterday's asparagus soup.  Yum.  It doesn't taste sour in the soups.  It was pretty yummy on it's own, too.  It'll be nice when I can have a little honey with it.  *drool*

Day 17, Stage 4 (day 1)

Non-boiled food.  *heavenly sigh*
Tonight I had a pork chop.  Baked w/sage, salt and pepper sprinkled on it.  I had wanted to brine it overnight but I just plum forgot.  I read a awhile ago that pork negatively affects your red blood cells.  When you eat it, it's makes them all go crazy.  That is, unless it is marinated for 8+ hours in apple cider vinegar, or some acv concoction - like bbq sauce.  Also, bacon does not have this same effect because it's salted and smoked.  So, I try to soak my pork before I eat it.  I can imagine what the pork chop I just ate is doing to my precious little blood cells right now. 
The following pictures are from the Weston A. Price Foundation site.


FIGURE 1. Microphotograph of blood of male, 52, before consuming the unmarinated cooked pork chop. RBCs are seen as round cells, and small white patches of platelet aggregates are seen. This is the picture of normal, healthy blood.




FIGURE 3. Microphotograph of blood of male, 52, five hours after consuming the unmarinated cooked pork chop. RBCs are entirely stuck together in rouleaux (stacks of coins) formations, and a high level of fibrin, white threads, means that early blood clotting has transpired.


I didn't have time to take a picture of anything tonight...dinner was rushed and I was starving.

I made a delicious creamy asparagus soup:

1 bunch of asparagus cut into chunks
1/2 sweet onion
1 clove garlic
3 cups of chicken broth
sea salt
pepper
4 tbs. coconut oil/butter or both

1 cup soured cream

Saute the onion and garlic on medium in the fat until translucent.  I used 1/2 coconut oil and 1/2 butter to appease my family's tastes.
Add in asparagus, salt and pepper.  Saute a little longer...maybe 5 minutes.
Pour in chicken broth, bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes.
Puree in blender or using an immersion blender.  Puree well - the asparagus is stringy and if you don't puree enough you'll end up with thread-like stringy pieces that compromise the overall enjoyment of the soup.  My kids can attest to that. 
Stir in 1 cup soured cream until throroughly mixed in.  Yum.

It was a beautiful light green and super creamy.  It was good even after it was room temperature.  I'll be making this one again. 

I've also been doing well with the soured cream.  I have not been gassy at all.  Hopefully my blood cells will settle down and stop clotting for no good reason.

My Period (aka Menstruation)

Prior to GAPS, my menstrual cycle was regular, but the PMS symptoms were awful.  I only say "awful" because before I had children, I didn't really have any noticeable PMS symptoms.  In high school, my friends would all complain about cramping; some staying home from school it was so bad.  I was fortunate enough to not be able to relate. 
Fast forward to mommyhood.  I would get a migraine 3 to 5 days before getting my period.  It took quite a few instances for me to make the correlation.  Then I'd get painful constipation and super gassy.  Yes, I'm sharing quite a bit. 
My periods would be heavy, requiring to double up on pads, especially at night during the first few days.  They would last completely for 7 to 8 days. 

Since starting GAPS, my period has changed dramatically.  I'm on the 5th day right now and I've been spotting for 2 days.  I spotted for the first day, had medium flow for 2 days and then began spotting again.  I have had no pain, constipation or migraines. 

I wanted to see if this was normal.  So I went to the GAPS Guide site.  It seems to be a positive side-effect of GAPS!   Win-Win. 

Heal the gut, heal my ovaries. 

Day 16 - Psoriasis Update

It's been 16 days since I began the GAPS diet.  It's been one month since psoriasis came into my life.  Here is what my psoriasis looks like now:

The only other thing I did besides GAPS is lather my hands and feet in coconut oil and wear vinyl gloves on my hands and wrap my feet in plastic bags with socks over them.  I wore them like this pretty much all day.  My heels are still a little cracked, but not nearly as bad as they were a week ago.  With each step my feet hurt. 

Day 16, Stage 3

The blob in the background is on my window, not the glass...not that it makes it better...



I juiced the celery last.  Hence, the greenish juice on top.

I really like juicing.  Let's not talk about the 5 2lb bags of carrots I buy a week, though.  Fortunately, my chickens love the pulp.  They won't eat a carrot, but they'll snack on the pulp.  Whatever they don't eat will become compost, so all is good.  This concoction, which a good photographer would have shot without the dribbles down the side, was yummy. 

Today's Juice:

6 organic carrots
2 organic stalks of celery
1 slice of ginger, about 1/2 inch thick and round.
chunk of beet  (I've read that beet should only be 5% of your juicing veggies)
1 kale leaf

Day 15, Stage 3, Day 6

I made the pancakes again.  This time I used raw sunflower seeds.  I blended all the ingredients in the food processor.  They were not smooth and thin like the other ones.  They were puffier and had bits of sunflower seed in them, giving them texture.  I liked them much better. 


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New pancake recipe:  2 eggs (we have chickens, so our eggs are super fresh), 1 cup cooked butternut squash, 1 cup sunflower seeds. 

Mix everything up until it's all blended.  It won't be totally smooth, or at least my very old food processor didn't let it get smooth, but that's okay. 

See how much fluffier they are?  Well, maybe not fluffy, but they're thicker and dense and nuttier...or seedier.  Nuttier sounds more delicious than seedier.  Seedier just sounds...suspect. 

I also scrambled an egg, with leftover egg whites from all those egg yolks I had been eating, with some coconut oil.  I have not made any ghee yet. 

Combined with half an avocado and I was totally content with my breakfast.  My husband even enjoyed some and actually had another serving.  I think aliens might have taken over his body.