I have started a journal over at marksdailyapple.com – but I thought that I would post my entries here too – to the people who are following my thoughts about diet it might bring you something.
I am also micro-blogging on Instagram. You can follow my Instagram feed on the right side of the blog and click any picture to go to my Instagram account.
Tuesday 08-15-2017
So – I have been on the Autoimmune protocol (AIP) for some 3 months now. Today I am starting a 7 day fast – I will have bone-broth, so it will be a bit GAPS-like – and when I break fast, I will try to do it with GAPS friendly foods. I am doing this because ever since my summer holiday I haven’t been able to get rid of my eczema. Last time I fasted I didn’t get enough electrolytes and ended up with a horrible head-ache. I haven’t been 100% strickt on the AIP since I came home from holiday – and I know I need to be to get rid of the eczema.
My reasons for being primal/paleo is the following: I have just reached a BMI of 30 – I would like to get to 25, preferably 22. I have eczema – when I started the AIP I had eczema on my legs and my hands (really really bad on my hands). I had seasonal hayfever – which became worse and worse every year, and the season became longer and longer. After starting AIP, my hayfever has dissapeared. To get rid of the eczema I have to be really low carb – I more or less follow the guidelines in Wahls paleo plus, and have a max of 2 cups of cooked tubers pr. week. I had joint and muscle pain, it dissapeared with removing gluten from my diet. When ever I ate a little sugar my hart would start racing, it was incredibly scary and I really want to improve my insulin sensitivity.
All of my complaints have been improved on this diet. Now I need to stick to it, and only reintroduce foods slowly so that I know what I react to.
Yesterday I had icecream with my kids – the first time all summer. It was an organic chokolate icecream – a teeny tiny little cup, not even 1dl I think – and on my way home my eyes itched, and my legs where I used to have eczema. Last night we were at a birthday party and I also had some birthday cake. What I noticed was that even though I did feel bloated afterwards, I did not have the racing hart that I have experienced 3 months ago before going on the AIP.
I know it sounds a little confusing with the AIP, Wahls and the GAPS protocol all mixed in with each other… most of the foods on these 3 protocol are actually the same. But I will just clarify: I know that if I am strict AIP, and very low carb, my eczema is gone. The Wahl’s protocol guidelines is what I use as guidelines for quantities – I can feel that my brain benefits from this. The GAPS is again, very very close to the other two, and I will use it as a guide to reintroduce foods after my fast, hopefully seal my gut along the way. The most important though is the AIP/low carb, because I know it can keep me symptom free – the other two are more like references, because I think their guidelines are a good measure on how I can feed my gut and my brain optimally.
Exercise:
- I do yoga every morning – depending on how I feel, I do anything from 5min to 20min (already a habbit)
- I do the Primal Blueprint Fitness lift heavy things 2x a week (already a habbit)
- I am working on getting a daily walk in – 20min (a habbit I am working on)
- I will work to incorporate sprints in my walk once a week (next habbit to implement)
- I need one longer walk every week on top of that (a habbit to implement)
- The days that I don’t do the Primal Blueprint Fitness I play with my kids (swim, trampoline, dance, gymnastics, roller skating etc)
Sleep: I go to bed at 10PM on all weekdays, and get up at 7:30 at the latest (usually wake up at 6)
Anti-stress: I meditate every morning after yoga – yoga is also part of my anti-stress strategy, and is mostly stretching and balance exercise.
Food: After my fast get back on a strict AIP diet and stay there until completely symptom free. After that reintroduce one food at a time, to get as much lee-way as possible in my diet, without my health suffering.
Wednesday 08-15-2017
Yesterday I started my fast – and for some reason I was famished and sluggish! I think it might have been the cake and ice-cream from Monday? I only did 2 sun salutes for my yoga practise, but managed to get a little vinyasa flow into them, after that 5 min of meditation.
I had forgotten to put a pot on for broth, and when I put one on I took beef bones out of the freezer instead of chicken – so that took most of the day… So I didn’t have any broth before around 4PM. The sluggishness continued until after I had my broth, then half an hour later I was ready to go for a walk, and after I walked 20min I did 8 20sec. sprints uphill – it has been two weeks since I did them last, but I still did better than I did last – I am NOT a runner, and with some 10-20kg excess weight running is HARD – but I managed to run the first 3 sprints, and then just “power walked” the rest. Last time I only managed to run 2 sprints and walk the rest and gave up on the last one. I almost made it all the way up the hill on those 4 minutes, which is the walk that usually takes me 10 min.
I slept pretty bad… our neighbor moved a donkey and her foal in on his field next door and my little terrier went completely mad and kept barking at them, and my Sct. Bernard joined him, and then all the other dogs on our entire mountain… I finally came out and tied up the little one, but did so right under my bedroom window – and the result was that he was wimping all night… finally around 3 o’clock I closed the window and managed to go to sleep. The advantage of being a stay at home mom – and my husband not being at home this week – is that I can sleep until I wake up, which was at 7:30
I did 20min yoga this morning – and feel great: Not hungry, not sluggish – clear headed, just good. I signed up for Chris Kressers ADAPT academy this morning, can’t really get myself to leave the computer, it is SO interesting!
PS. My eczema is already noticably less – less scabbing, less redness and swelling. I am positive that it will be gone by the end of the week.
Thursday 08-16-2017
So yesterday I spent most of the day on the ADAPT site – really interesting stuff there.
In the afternoon I went for a walk – up to my well and back 10min either way on my mountain – and after that we went to the public pool in the village at the foot of our mountain for 3 hours. I mostly played with the kids but also swam some laps. When I got back home I was famished and tired – as always when I have been swimming. I took at cup of bone-broth, but after af few sips I couldn’t drink anymore, it is simply too much in this heat (~40C). Later I managed to put in half an hour of cleaning in my house. So not 100% sendentary yesterday.
Today I found a new yoga-video to try out – 17min – it was a little more challenging, without making me tired – just waking up the body. I plan on lifting some heavy things today, and going for a walk again.
I am not hungry this morning, the fast does not feel hard at all, and no head-aches – I think I must be fat adapted by now.
I have slept great, even if my terrier did go bonkers over the donkey again (I tied him up again and closed the bedroom window immediately). I woke up at 7 o’clock feeling rested and ready for the day.
Friday 08-18-2017
Yesterday ended up a little different than expected: One of my friends texted me and asked if we wanted to go swimming – the local pool was closed so we went down to the river where we stayed for hours, swimming in a small natural pool there, walking, playing etc. On the way home I went by the animal feed store and bought 3 chickens and a rooster – so when we came home we installed them in our rabbit pen (rabbits are dead due to a virus they caught from the wild rabbits around here). In about a month I should be able to get my own eggs. Now I just need to teach the terrier not to eat them… last night he egged the Sct. Bernard on to start chasing the donkey foal, tied the terrier up – and the Sct. Bernard just went back to the terrace and relaxed. Well at 8PM we were done – I warmed the kids some food, they ate and we went to bed.
I woke up around 4 this morning. I have already done yoga and meditated. I choose a more challenging video again this morning – I will do that a couple more times: I am still so locked in my right shoulder – I could do all the poses on the left side of my body, but simply couldn’t on the right.
My eczema is almost gone! It is amazing how this fasting makes my inflammation levels plummet – would have been interesting if I had done some blood work before I started. Anyway – I am not much into the whole quantified self, don’t have much patience for measuring everything – more into feeling how my body reacts. The fast has evolved into a water only fast – I can’t get myself to drink the bonebroth in this heat, I will have to do the GAPS type thing in the fall/winter.
Saturday 08-19-2017
Well it was a good thing that I did a more challenging yoga session yesterday – because that was all I did that day. I am totally geeking out on the ADAPT acadamy (my kids are a little annoyed with my ADHD hyper-focusing…).
I had 3 cups of bone broth yesterday – and I was famished last night. Maybe I should just continue water fasting these 3 last days – it seems to work better for me. Also – maybe not cook a whole chicken for the kids… it smelled amazing. But they had run out of the stew I made them Tuesday, so they clearly needed something to eat.
I woke up quite a bit later this morning – 7:30, and usually I take that as a sign that I am to tired for yoga, but this morning I decided to do a session anyway – I choose a video that was a little longer, and it was def more challenging than what I have done in the past few weeks. A lot of balancing.
I also weighed myself this morning -3kg since last Saturday, including ice-cream and cake Monday. The measurements haven’t really budged, but I can see that my upper abdomen right under the ribs is flatter, I can now see my key-bone and my chin-bone is also more define. I also have more wrinkles – such is life, I am 41 and have been overweight most of my life. If I get out of this with minimal saggy skin, I am happy.
After my weigh-in and yoga work out, I decided to try the Wim Hoff breathing method. I have tried it before but came away from it. I did 3 rounds of 30 breaths – and afterwards I felt AMAZING. So full of energy that I dropped down and did 20 push-ups (hands-feet) in a row – for the first time in my life YAY! After that I figured that since I hadn’t lifted heavy things yesterday, I might as well do it immediately – so I did the entire Primal Blueprint Fitness lift heavy things workout, and took a cold shower afterwards. Man I feel good now. I have decided to try to do the Wim Hoff breathing thing every time I feel sluggish – I think it might be a good way to keep myself going. And then do it in the evening, but breathing through the nose, I have heard that it can drastically improve your sleep.
[QUOTE=DawnHoff;n3004926]So yesterday I cleaned the whole house before my husband came home – being preoccupied with the ADAPT academy was quite visible everywhere… the water-pump wasn’t working so I was worried that I had to do all the dishes by hand… fortunately it only delivers water to the washing mashine, the dishwasher and the toilets – the rest of the house is gravity fed. But mysteriously it suddenly started working again and I was able to run the washing mashine once and the dishwasher twice yesterday (Imagine doing two hole loads of dishes by hand!!).
My terrier is gone! He has run away several times before – but always it has been because he was following us when we left and then couldn’t find his way back, this time he has left on his own accord. We really don’t have much luck with those terriers – the first one died less than a week after we got her – from internal bleeding (the vet said she had been in an accident before we got her from the animal rescue station, and they’d had her less than a day), the second was stolen (he was very pretty) and this third one keeps running away. It is a shame because I would really like to be able to keep rats away from the house without poison… My son is theorizing that he followed the donkey when the came to get her yesterday. I think I will go down to the village today and see if I can find him. Otherwise I will have to report him as lost.
I didn’t walk yesterday, but with all the cleaning I think I have achieved the same number of steps. At one point I felt myself completely lacking the energy to go on and went into the bedroom to lie down and do the Wim Hoff breathing – it completely revitalized me and I was able to finish cleaning.
At some point during the afternoon I had stomach pain, it kept coming and going – so at first I just figured it was a single cramp – but it came back several times, and in the end I decided to break my fast. I had a salad with lettuce (not iceberg – don’t know the name in English, not even in Danish – it is called Corazones de Lucas, small heads, like the ones you use instead of tacos), chicken, avocado, cucumber, EVOO, ACV, baked nori flakes and herbamare salt. Last night my finger, where the last bit of eczema is, was itching. I will totally die if I am allergic to avocado too! Sometimes I feel like I can’t eat anything. The stomach cramps disappeared though so that is good.
I had to pick my husband up at the air-port at midnight – I really hate those late flights, but the alternative is that he gets a plane so early in the morning that he has to take a taxi to the airport in Copenhagen, because the trains aren’t running yet. And the taxi fare would be more than the plane tickets (and the Danish government has closed down Über). I didn’t go to bed before 1 o’clock and then I couldn’t fall a sleep, so I am pretty tired now. Sleep hygiene is really important to me – not that I have to go to bed at a certain time – but the minute I feel tired I need to get in there, because otherwise I toss and turn. So I haven’t done any yoga today… I should be doing the Wim Hoff thing – but I am so tired I don’t really feel like not being tired … or something – I just feel like lying down with an iPad. I promised my son that I would do strength training with him today – don’t know if that is a good idea when I did it yesteday, but he was disappointed that I did it without him.[/QUOTE]
Sunday 08-20-2017
So yesterday I cleaned the whole house before my husband came home – being preoccupied with the ADAPT academy was quite visible everywhere… the water-pump wasn’t working so I was worried that I had to do all the dishes by hand… fortunately it only delivers water to the washing mashine, the dishwasher and the toilets – the rest of the house is gravity fed. But mysteriously it suddenly started working again and I was able to run the washing mashine once and the dishwasher twice yesterday (Imagine doing two hole loads of dishes by hand!!).
My terrier is gone! He has run away several times before – but always it has been because he was following us when we left and then couldn’t find his way back, this time he has left on his own accord. We really don’t have much luck with those terriers – the first one died less than a week after we got her – from internal bleeding (the vet said she had been in an accident before we got her from the animal rescue station, and they’d had her less than a day), the second was stolen (he was very pretty) and this third one keeps running away. It is a shame because I would really like to be able to keep rats away from the house without poison… My son is theorizing that he followed the donkey when the came to get her yesterday. I think I will go down to the village today and see if I can find him. Otherwise I will have to report him as lost.
I didn’t walk yesterday, but with all the cleaning I think I have achieved the same number of steps. At one point I felt myself completely lacking the energy to go on and went into the bedroom to lie down and do the Wim Hoff breathing – it completely revitalized me and I was able to finish cleaning.
At some point during the afternoon I had stomach pain, it kept coming and going – so at first I just figured it was a single cramp – but it came back several times, and in the end I decided to break my fast. I had a salad with lettuce (not iceberg – don’t know the name in English, not even in Danish – it is called Corazones de Lucas, small heads, like the ones you use instead of tacos), chicken, avocado, cucumber, EVOO, ACV, baked nori flakes and herbamare salt. Last night my finger, where the last bit of eczema is, was itching. I will totally die if I am allergic to avocado too! Sometimes I feel like I can’t eat anything. The stomach cramps disappeared though so that is good.
I had to pick my husband up at the air-port at midnight – I really hate those late flights, but the alternative is that he gets a plane so early in the morning that he has to take a taxi to the airport in Copenhagen, because the trains aren’t running yet. And the taxi fare would be more than the plane tickets (and the Danish government has closed down Über). I didn’t go to bed before 1 o’clock and then I couldn’t fall a sleep, so I am pretty tired now. Sleep hygiene is really important to me – not that I have to go to bed at a certain time – but the minute I feel tired I need to get in there, because otherwise I toss and turn. So I haven’t done any yoga today… I should be doing the Wim Hoff thing – but I am so tired I don’t really feel like not being tired … or something – I just feel like lying down with an iPad. I promised my son that I would do strength training with him today – don’t know if that is a good idea when I did it yesteday, but he was disappointed that I did it without him.
Actually – now that I look a little closer: My finger is actually noticeably better than yesterday. Cross my fingers I don’t have to cut out more foods!
I stayed on the straight and narrow path I have chosen for myself – and felt quite proud of myself. I had no new blisters Sunday morning.
Solo en España 
