Great update on Gracie!
Good morning!
So we’ve been busy this week with dr appts, cooking, and babies, of course. I just made my first trip to Whole Foods this week and can’t wait to go back. I am very impressed. The selection they have was incredible and pricing was pretty good, great with some items.
Many of our friends and family have been inspired to make some changes to their ways of eating, and have been asking where to start. It’s so overwhelming at first. Some of them are ready for big changes and others are looking for baby steps. I tell them all the same things:
- Find one or two recipes a week you’d like to try. They are pretty easy to find on the internet, if you know where to look. I’ll give some resources at the end of this post. Get the items you need into your house, and two thirds of your task is done!
- Change to brown rice pasta. The brand we use is Tinkyada and can be found at PickNSave and all health food stores I’ve been to. Be sure to undercook it just a bit and you’ll never know the difference from your old stuff. I always keep some in the house along with some Neuman’s Spaghetti Sauce(simple ingredients in his products). This, along with tacos, are my fall back dinners.
- Start making shakes. To get more veggies into us, I throw basically anything I have in my fridge into a blender. Carrots, zucchini, celery, cucumber, red cabbage, kale, avacado, fresh parsley, etc. Then to sweeten a bit, I’ll throw a banana and some frozen berries, and pour either water or rice milk and sometimes even some ground flax. I got this idea from the Montel Williams show and ran with it. They used an orange, a head of romaine lettuce, and water. A blender is all you need. Very simple and you get so much out of it!
What I did at first was to take a field trip with Todd and the kids to a health food store, i.e. Outpost, Whole Foods, Health Hut, and wandered around for a bit. It took a while to find things without dairy, eggs, gluten, white potatoes and almonds, but once you find a few starters, it gets easier from there. Your restrictions probably aren’t as strict as Grace’s.
Many people have been asking me when we’ll know if things are working. Well, the nephrologist is going to be looking at her blood tests every three months, and we have another one coming up at the end of March. BUT……..we visited Dr. Kim Saxe, our naturopath on Monday. After evaulating Grace, Dr. Kim feels that Grace is definately improving. One of the tools many alternative medicine physicians use for evaulation is feeling for a pulse in your wrist. It’s a very subtle thing, and gives an idea of the general strength or energy of certain organs. Kidney, liver, spleen and other organ pulses are what they feel for. Dr. Kim checked Grace’s wrist pulses on Monday and mentioned that when we first came to her, she could barely get a kidney pulse from Gracie. Now, she is actually feeling an improved kidney pulse, not a terribly strong one, but better than before. This in combination with the dark circles under Grace’s eyes lightening and some other factors, make Dr. Kim feels there is definite improvement.
The next day at Dr. Gandy’s office, Grace was rechecked by means of Muscle Response Testing. Dr. Gandy checked for overall energy, emotions, chemistry, structure, integration, and a few other things. Grace tested very strongly for all except structure. Dr. Gandy, also a chiropractor, adjusted her, and then Grace tested well for everything. I told Dr. Gandy about the wrist pulse improving and she was very impressed. She stated that it’s such a subtle thing to begin with that any improvement is signifigant. Both Dr. Kim and Dr. Gandy were very happy with Gracie’s progress. WooHoo!
Dr. Gandy is keeping Grace on the Standard Process protomorphigen and the NET remidies for Scars & Adhesions and Water(the water system of your body i.e.kidneys, bladder, etc.). Dr. Kim has changed now from draining/cleansing Grace’s systems to building up the kidneys and adrenals. (In naturopathic medicine, the physician alternates between draining and building). On that note, with Dr. Kim Saxe’s permission, I’m going to give a link to her website. I’ve tried many times to explain naturopathic medicine when asked, and find it difficult. Her website does an excellent job of clearly explaining the basic principles of this type of medicine. It is:
http://www.milwaukeenaturopathic.com/
One of our new favorite shows is on BBCA, or the BBC America channel, just on basic cable. Dr. Gillian McKeith hosts “You are What You Eat”, and she is awesome!! Gillian is a holistic nutritionist and offers much knowledge and creativity in her quest to help people to improve their health. Basically all her recipes are anti-inflammatory, which is basically what my family is on. I just got her cookbook, ”You Are What You Eat Cookbook” from Amazon.com for about $21.00. It is honestly the best cookbook I have ever had. The few recipes I’ve tried are simple, colorful, flavorful, and very good for your body. (If you do decide to get it, be careful to get the cookbook, not the one that’s her “You Are What You Eat” program). She does a great job of prefacing every recipe with an explanation of what the ingredients will do for your body. (Good for increasing energy, or kidneys, or for your liver, or to lose weight, etc). I love having specific health intentions for my cooking!
Anyway, to find samples of her recipes, google “Gillian McKeith recipies” and you’ll find quite a few. The lettuce wrap is one of our favorites.
Well, that’s it for now. I’m off to eat some Golden Lentil Stew. Yum!
Love, Angie