Experimenting for Paisley’s Elimination Diet & Props to Some Companies

My eight year old, Paisley, has started an elimination diet. 😩😩😩 (This is where I try not to blame myself for the genetics that I seem to have passed on 🙄🔫) She has a couple different kinds of rashes, gets sick fairly easy (as in the throw-up kind of sick 😷 🤢) and has been dealing with acid reflux since she was a baby. Her doctor has ran some labs but because her immune system is so hyped up and completely focused on something else going on in her body, her labs came back almost spotless. We already know that she has issues with dairy and we’re pretty positive that she has an egg allergy. So for those things to come back spotless, we knew it wasn’t right. So… Welcome to the wonderful world of an elimination diet. 😭

I knew that we were going to have to do this so around the holidays I tried to start pulling out some of the foods that are on the common allergens list. Those are gluten, soy, corn, dairy, eggs, tree nuts, peanuts, shellfish, oranges, and bananas. Basically anything that a kid wants to shove in their mouth has at least one of these ingredients! (I was so surprised by oranges and bananas!! Who knew?!?!) We are choosing to allow her nuts for now. The only exception is peanuts because most children who have an egg allergy are also allergic to peanuts. We’re not 100% sure she has an egg allergy but we are pretty positive. So for precautions, we are avoiding peanuts. We don’t think she has an allergy to any other nuts but more importantly, all the things I want to make her that will help her feel somewhat normal, seem to include almond flour.

When the holidays were here, I knew treats were going to be involved. So I decided to try to make a cookie. I also wanted to make it be a little bit better for you so that I wouldn’t feel so guilty eating it myself or allowing my kids to eat it.

Now keep in mind, I never encourage anyone to eat a bunch of sugary treats. Even though these cookies are a little better, they are still full of sugar so they’re still not something that I would encourage anyone to over eat on.

At Christmas, the peanut butter blossom cookies are one of my absolute favorite. I wanted to make them this year so I decided to experiment. I made a batch following the exact recipe (for those who have no dietary restrictions) and I made a batch that had better ingredients. These are the regular recipe.

Sooooooo good!!!!

But for Paisley’s dietary restrictions, I changed out several ingredients. I swapped out white flour with cassava flour (my new favorite), applesauce for the egg, coconut sugar for granulated, almond butter for peanut, almond milk for milk, and sea salt for salt. Only thing I might try next time is butter for shortening or Nutiva’s shortening made with palm fruit oil and virgin coconut oil. Unfortunately, I did not have either on hand. These turned out pretty amazing and you wouldn’t know the difference by looking at them!

But because Paisley isn’t able to have the Hershey kisses, I substituted those with Enjoy Life chocolate chips. These turned out pretty well too and Paisley approved!

Before I move on, I have to give some props to a particular company, SIMPLE MILLS! I cannot tell you how much easier it’s been to do this diet because of them. I love that there are only a few ingredients in each item they sell, and more importantly, you know what every ingredient is. There’s nothing that you can’t pronounce on the ingredient list and I absolutely love that! They make their foods with none of the common allergens (with the exceptions of almond flour, of course) and that has been huge for us! When you are someone that is used to eating grains, it’s very hard to remove them cold turkey. Simple Mills has made this process so much easier!!

Their company sells things like muffins, pizza dough, cookies, pancake and waffle mix, crackers, etc. All things that typically you would have to give up on an elimination diet. But this brand has been huge in helping me substitute some of the items Paisley was having on a regular basis.

Bob’s Red Mill…another company that I should give props too. We use their almond flour, coconut flour, pizza crust mix, pancake mix, and the best, their egg replacer. There are some recipes that I just can’t find the right substitute for eggs and their egg replacer is my saving grace! Another thing that we’ve experimented with is pancakes. Both of my girls love them so figuring out a way to make them without gluten and eggs was a must. I’ve used both Simple Mills and Bob’s Red Mill and truly have enjoyed them both.

This particular time, I used Bob’s for my pancake mix. I used coconut oil for my oil, added a little vanilla, and for the eggs, I used a combination of things. I used the entire mix so it called for multiple eggs. For half of the eggs, I used applesauce. Because we were out of actual applesauce, I used my kids applesauce pouches and they worked just fine! For the other half of eggs, I used 1 teaspoon of baking soda dissolved in 1 tablespoon of white vinegar per egg.

My girls like chocolate chip pancakes so I opted for the Enjoy Life dark chocolate morsels. Enjoy Life also makes their products with none of the common allergens… Which makes this mom super excited! For syrup, I would love it if my girls would use 100% pure maple syrup but, of course, they have to be picky and won’t eat it. So, I use the Log Cabin brand and use their all natural table syrup. It tastes like pancake syrup but does not contain any corn syrup. The pancakes turned out great and we all love them!

I’ve actually enjoyed the challenge of making things that Paisley can eat that aren’t made with any allergens. It’s forced me to be a little more creative than normal and I actually get excited when I make something and it turns out! 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼 I would prefer that she eat lean meats, nuts, vegetables, and berries and then cooking would not really be required (except for the meat, of course). 😬 However, she is an American kid raised in the American culture and we definitely have not enforced good eating habits. 🤷🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️ I am hoping that we can continue to work on better food choices but in the meantime, finding substitutes for the common allergens, and choosing better ingredients for the treats that she likes, will help us continue to make steps in that direction.

Until next time…

A World of Contradictions

So when I started this blog, my purpose behind it was to share my story about my Hashimoto’s and the path that hopefully leads me to healing. However, I come across several things throughout each day that are health related, but aren’t always directly related to Hashimoto’s, that I feel I need to share. Although, I would probably argue the point that anything health related can be related to Hashimoto’s, or any autoimmune condition or disease for that matter. Anyway, I came across one of these things yesterday and it about blew my mind! So, I had to share.

My eight-year-old was due for her annual wellness check up back in October but it just slipped past us. So, she had an appointment yesterday and my husband took her. Probably a good thing after reading the information they sent home with us. I like to think that I can keep my mouth shut when it’s not an appropriate time to say things however, I might have had to say something yesterday.

I was reading through the information and looking at her height, weight, her percentiles, etc. because all of those things I find fascinating. I can’t believe how much kids grow in a year! Then I got to the section titled “healthy eating habits”. As I read through the information provided (cause now I’m REALLY interested in what they have to say), it became very apparent to me why we have children, more than ever, dealing with diseases, illnesses, obesity, allergies, asthma, diabetes, etc. I could not believe some of the information that they provided as healthy options. I could talk about several things mentioned throughout the nine suggestions they gave but the one that sticks out the most is their discussion of grains and sugar.

In one particular suggestion they say, “provide several servings of grains (bread, cereal, pastas). Whole grains (oatmeal, brown rice, whole wheat bread) are much better than highly processed grains (refined sugars and flour). Limit sugary drinks like soda and juices.”

The amount of contradictions in this one suggestion is insane! Let’s start with this one: bread, cereals, pastas are suggested as servings of grains. Yes, they absolutely are. But a few sentences later it says “whole grains are much better than highly processed grains” and then tells you that refined sugars and flour are highly processed grains. (This is absolutely true, by the way) What do they think bread, cereal, and pastas are made of?!?! REFINED SUGARS AND FLOUR!!! Yet they just stated them as grain options one can give their child. The worst part is that they say “whole grains are much better than highly processed grains” giving you an indication that highly processed grains are actually OK for you, just not as good as whole grains. The problem is, highly processed grains aren’t good for you What. So. Ever.!!

The second thing on here is that they say oatmeal, brown rice, and whole wheat bread are whole grains. The only whole grain that is listed is brown rice. Whole wheat bread is not a whole grain nor is oatmeal! They are both processed! Anything that has flour in it or has something done to it to change it from it’s original state is processed! I guess they could possibly argue that they’re not “highly processed”, but they’re still processed!

I love that they say to limit sugary drinks like soda and juices! They absolutely should! However, the problem with grains in general is that they all break down to sugars. I’m not saying that I am anti-grain (for people who tolerate grains, real, true-whole grains can be fine), but I am saying that having several servings a day isn’t necessarily a great thing. If you’re telling someone to limit their sugar and then you’re telling them to eat several servings of grains, and then you mention later on to have calcium fortified orange juice to increase their calcium intake (after you’ve said to limit juice intake), I have to question you!

My other issue with them mentioning to limit sugary drinks, indicating that they want you to watch your child’s sugar intake, is that they say to “provide other dairy servings like yogurt or cheese” if your child doesn’t drink that much milk. My problem isn’t with the cheese, as long as your child tolerates it, my problem is that the yogurt that most people will grab at the store for their kids, contains a lot of sugar.

The last thing that kind of fired me up on here was that they say to “limit “extras” like oil, butter, salad dressing, mayonnaise etc.” I would very much argue oil and possibly butter. Good oil’s like avocado, olive and coconut oil contain wonderful things for your body and should be a part of a healthy diet. You have to have fat. They do say to avoid fried foods so I will give them that.

I just wish they could be more clear on some of these things. Some of this is just bad information. I wish they would talk about the healthy fats and how they are a necessary part of a persons diet. I wish they would give examples of healthy fats versus bad fats. I wish they would have accurate information on whole grains versus processed grains and what a true whole grain is. Maybe even a food comparison chart to show the difference between things like a kids yogurt that is packaged in bright colors, making it appealing to the kid, and is full of sugars, to an organic yogurt without added sugars, just so parents can see the difference. And even better, compare that organic yogurt to a serving of greens. Just so parents can really see the difference and why vegetables are so important and where sugars can sneak in. And I wish instead of having one simple sentence that says “provide at least five servings a day of a variety of fruits and vegetables”, they would have a whole page on the importance of adding vegetables into your child’s diet. It’s really sad to me to read this. And it definitely helps me understand why, as a culture, we have such a skewed view of what healthy food really is.

Rant over.

Labs & More…Step 1.

I have to be honest, I’d rather be writing about something fun today, but I feel like it’s important to write about the first step I took on my path to healing. It’s been a few weeks since I wrote this, so there have been some updates to this already, which is why I felt it was important to get this out now. Annnddd there’s the whole thing that I started this to blog my Hashimotos journey, so it might be important to write about it every now and then. 😉

I️ made a an appointment a few weeks back to have some labs done. I basically wanted to know what I’m working with. First and foremost I wanted to know how many thyroid antibodies I have to see how active my Hashimotos is. I also wanted to know what my vitamin B, iron, T3, T4, and TSH levels look like.

The Results:

My thyroid antibodies: I wanted to know these because I plan to not be taking thyroid medicine forever. I’m a firm believer that the body can heal itself, by itself, given half the chance. Knowing what my antibody levels look like helps me to know what kind of a battle I have ahead of me. I got GREAT news in this regard! My Anti-Thyroglobulin is at a 14 and my Anti-TPO is at a 22. You want your Anti_TPO to be <9 and your Anti-Thyroglobulin to be <4. So even though my numbers are higher than that, relative to what they could be, they are actually on the lower side, which means my Hashimotos isn’t very active. This is great news!

The iron: Only reason I really wanted to have my iron levels run is because I’ve been taking iron since my last pregnancy (6 years ago) and wanted to see if it’s something that I could get off of. some more good news here! My levels look good which means that I can stop taking the iron supplement that I’ve been taking.

Vitamin B…. oh dear vitamin B… how I hate taking my liquid vitamin B supplement. It might be the nastiest liquid vitamin I’ve ever taken…worse than Agricept. And if you’ve ever taken Agricept, you know how nasty that stuff is! But, looks like I’m going to have to continue taking it because I am pretty deficient.

And this is where all the not-so-great news I got today comes into play. Apparently I’m deficient in multiple areas, not just my Vitamin B. This not only surprised me, but it surprised my doctor as well. I eat extremely well, including lots of different superfoods, and I take lots of supplements. I’m very cautious about what goes into, and on my body. I use organic/natural toiletries, laundry detergent, dish detergent, etc. So being deficient in multiple areas was a bit of a shock.

The other piece that was a big flag was my white blood cell count. It’s been low before and I kind of had dismissed it. But it was still low again today. (And when I say low before, we’re talking 6+ years ago) It’s a 2.2 where, for this particular lab, a 4 is a good number.

So we talked about the mineral deficiencies and the low white blood cell count. Doc talked about several different things that could be coming into play but the two that I’m going to focus on moving forward are heavy metal toxicity and, well basically, my gut. Out of the few possible explanations for what’s going, my gut was the one that, well my gut told me was what I needed to focus on.

For the heavy metal toxicity, I’m going to have my wonderful filling removed. I, apparently, and I say “apparently” because I didn’t even know I had one until a few months ago, received a filling sometime back in middle school. From what I understand, dental work can be a big contributing factor to heavy metal toxicity. So I’m going to have that fixed and move on from there.

For the deficiencies, my doctor thought that I might not be absorbing what I take in, especially since I eat as well and take all the supplements that I do and I’m still deficient. So, I’m starting something called SpectraZyme Metagest. It’s a stomach acid support. Basically, if we’ve done something to compromise the amount of stomach acid we have, then we don’t digest our foods properly. The stomach is in charge of breaking our food down to small bits so that when it travels into our intestines, our little guys (our gut bacteria) can “be fed”, break it down, or do whatever it is that they do with it. (Again, I’m not a doctor and I’m just learning about this stuff so this is how I take it) So, I’m gonna start this SpectraZyme to get some help in that department.

I’m also going to start back up on my Complete Mineral Complex and continue my Restore (for balancing the gut, combating environmental exposures, promoting immune function, and enhancing mental clarity), and my probiotics, among the many other supplements that I already take.

So, next thing I need to do is schedule to have my filling replaced. In two weeks I will go back and have my antibodies tested again (can’t say I remember why – too much was said during the apt!). Eight weeks after I have my filling removed, I will have my labs done again. And then twelve weeks from now I will see my doctor again to see if I’ve made any progress with the changes that I’m making. Oh, I forgot, I also have to remove my beloved grains from my diet. (Insert crying emoji here) Even though I’ve been tested and I have no sensitivities or allergies to them, they’re known to wreck havoc on the gut for a lot of people who have autoimmune diseases. This is partially because they can block the absorption of nutrients, which I apparently don’t need any additional help in that department. I don’t tend to eat a lot of crappy grains anyway but I LOVE my morning oats and I enjoy quinoa and brown rice as well. So taking those things, especially my oats, out of my diet is going to be quite a change for me.

So my take away from all of this? Yes I have Hashimotos and yes that was my focus when I went into this process of trying to heal. But what I’m finding out is that there are other things going on in my body (improper digestion, low wbc count, heavy metal toxicity) that, in my personal opinion, are the actual cause for the Hashimotos. I believe that if I work on these things, I may have the chance to heal and be medication free! This is a big deal! But again, I think I’ve got a little bit of a journey ahead of me to figure it all out. But, I know this. I’m going to learn a ton in the process and I will do my absolute best to help others so they can heal themselves too.

The last thing that I want to mention is this, BE YOUR OWN ADVOCATE. It took a few doctors, four to be exact, before I found someone who was willing to dig further than just telling me that I needed to take a medication. Someone that was willing to find a cause instead of band-aiding a symptom. Someone who was willing to listen to all my thoughts about how I feel and understand me when I say that I want to be HEALHTY. Not someone who looks healthy but takes a daily medication for the rest of her life. Someone that gets me and wants me to be healthy too. But even so, I had to ask to have these latest labs done. I wanted to know about my thyroid antibodies. I believe that my body can be healed. If you don’t advocate for yourself, who will?? Only you know how you feel on the inside. Only you can make the changes that are required. When someone tells you that you just need to take a medication, walk away and go get a second opinion. You shouldn’t be tired all the time, you shouldn’t have a low sex drive, you shouldn’t be in the bathroom all the time, you shouldn’t have to deal with anxiety on a daily basis, you shouldn’t have to feel depressed, you shouldn’t have stomach aches or acid reflux…. YOU SHOULD BE HEALTHY. And if you’re not?? Then you should start searching for the reasons why. Life is too short to not enjoy it to it’s fullest. Be your own advocate… and find someone who believes that the body was created by the greatest Healer of all time…the body knows how to heal itself, you just have to stay out of it’s way.

Morning Coffee ☕️

I love coffee. I mean I really LOVE coffee. So when I felt like my morning cup of joe was potentially a driving factor for my anxiety, and after a couple of years fighting myself on it, I gave up and decided to stop drinking I️t.

Not drinking coffee only lasted for a few days. I literally found myself walking in circles not knowing what to do because my coffee, and my morning routine, was gone. At that point I decided I wasn’t giving I️t up.

So I started drinking my coffee again, but I opted for decaf instead of caffeinated. I cannot begin to even tell you how much this helped my anxiety from day 1 of giving up the caffeine! I️t was crazy! Yes, I miss the boost in the morning (but I️ don’t miss the crash after) and sometimes I will have a half-caf in the afternoon, but how much less anxiety I have makes I️t completely worth I️t! ** So giving up caffeine was half my battle. The other half has been decreasing my sugar intake as well. And one of the places I was getting excess sugar was in my creamer. So lately, I’ve been doing my own version of Bulletproof coffee. *** I️ call I️t Bulletproof coffee but I️t really isn’t all that close. 😂 I thought I would share my version of this because I know lots of people who have a hard time giving up their lattes and their creamers. I️ love sugar so if I feel this is sweet enough, I promise I️t is!

My recipe:

I️ love a lot of coffee, I’m not going to lie. So I make about 20 oz of coffee. I fill my Yeti up and then have some left for a cup. My Yeti stays perfectly hot while I drink my first cup. 😊 But you can make this for any amount of coffee. Speaking of, as far as coffee goes, picking an organic, whole bean is best. Unfortunately, I don’t always have the time (or the patience), so we have ground coffee and a Keurig. After my coffee is brewed, I put I️t in a blender. I use a Vitamix and to be honest, I could write a whole blog on my Vitamix and what I do with I️t! And yes, before you ask, I️t has to be blended, not just stirred. That’s what helps to give I️t it’s “frothiness”.

Once I have my coffee in the blender, I add a tsp of coconut oil. I usually use Nutiva coconut oil. You want to make sure you use virgin or unrefined, cold-pressed. You can add up to 1 Tbsp, which I would much prefer, but as I said, I do count my macros so I keep an eye on my fats. Plus, adding much more than my 1 tsp would prevent me from wanting to eat (fat helps with satiety), and food is fuel! As you see above, I also put in a half scoop of PlantFusion chocolate protein. I always feared plant-based proteins because I thought they would taste “grassy” but this doesn’t at all! I️t actually is really good.

Once I have both those added to my coffee, I blend I️t on high for about :30. As it’s blending, I add a little bit of almond milk to it (I used to love lattes and this make me think of a latte). I don’t have an exact amount, but if I had to guess, I would say it’s about 1/4 of a cup. Turn the blender off after about :30 and you got yourself a fabulous cup of morning coffee!

Let me know if you try this or what your version of Bulletproof looks like! My next version, I will be adding Young Living’s peppermint oil to make a peppermint mocha! I can’t wait to try this for Christmas!!

** I should mention that coffee wasn’t the only thing that I changed. I also reached out to MacrosLab to change my nutrition. That also had a powerful affect on how I fueled my body creating more energy. Reach out to http://www.macroslab.com for more information and ask for Coach Stacy

*** For the actual recipe for Bulletproof coffee, click this link https://blog.bulletproof.com/how-to-make-your-coffee-bulletproof-and-your-morning-too/

First blog post

November 17, 2017… my first blog post. Well, I have no idea where this is going to go or if it will even go somewhere, but I’ve felt like I needed to do this for a couple of months now. And after an important doctor’s appointment for me this morning, followed by a phone call from my sister urging me to blog, I’ve decided it’s time to start.

I don’t know what all I’ll be posting, where this will lead, who I will meet through this, and most importantly (and my #1 goal), who I may help doing this.  But, I hope that I can reach and help at least one.

So, I probably should tell you why I started this blog!  In 2003 I was diagnosed with seasonal allergies, neurocardiogenic nearsynchope (if that’s even right – basically random times of my blood pressure dropping and almost passing out), generalized anxiety disorder, and hypothyroidism.   Like any other ill-informed patient, I jumped right on the band wagon of medications to band-aid the problems.  I have long believed that it wasn’t a random coincidence that all of these things came up within the same year, but never had any knowledge or information to back up my thoughts. (I know better now!) I was told (not diagnosed because that never really happened) that I had Hashimotos sometime around 2010-2012.  I’m not for sure the exact year to be honest.  I know that it took me four doctors before someone actually told me that’s what I had and when my doctor told me, he was surprised that I didn’t know and none of the other doctors had mentioned it.  At this point, I no longer deal with the blood pressure thing or the allergies.  I just continue to deal with my hashimotos and anxiety.

Off and on I’ve tried little things here and there to help my thyroid and my anxiety.  Over the years, my diet has shifted (for the better), I’ve started seeing a chiropractor and exercising again.  I believe the combination of those three things is what helped me so that I no longer deal with allergies or the whole dropping-of-the-blood pressure-thing.  I’ve actually not dealt with either of those for several years now.  I’ve tried several other things to help with my thyroid, all great options, but never stuck to any of them and I’ve never tried them all together.  I’ve done a 20 day stint at doing the AIP diet, several months of just Paleo (although I was trying to drop baby weight, not using it for my health), taken multiple supplements (which I continue to take) continued seeing my chiropractor (but not doing the homework exercises), and I’ve done Vitamin B and amino acid injections (but stopped them because I was over training and stressing my body too much to allow them to work).  The crazy thing is, I actually think that doing all of these things as they’re intended to be done, and all at once, will be the path to my healing!

So, that’s where this blog comes into play.  I fully plan to heal my thyroid, and I plan to blog about my journey the entire time so that I can hopefully help someone else.  I want to not only share my path, but I want to share tips that I come across, knowledge that I learn, and foods that I eat.  I know it’s not going to be easy, I know I will have struggles, I know that I’ll want to quit, I know that I will feel that it’s unfair… but I also know that there’s a light at the end of this tunnel that I’ve been crawling through for 14 years… and that light’s the closest and the brightest it’s ever been.

If you’re reading this, I appreciate you.  You will be what holds me accountable when I’m at my weakest moments.

’til the next time…