Pantries and Preparedness. Our biggest asset.

All year we have covered topics on pantry building, preparedness and getting ahead.  And it has been a good year to for this in my household. Over the last three years I have come so far!  From that first inkling that I should turn my empty cellar into food storage to now... what a journey!  We added a rain water tank, generators, first aid and so many things, too many to list! 

This is all very good for our family but there is something else.... one of the biggest things we can do is be as healthy as we can be. 

Currently I am taking a class with A Working Pantry.  We are only on day one as I am writing and already I can see that the unfit are going to have a lot of trouble in this scenario.  (Patsy has a scenario she runs and so you can imagine for yourself the things that happen along the way!) In a crisis there is a lot of work. Even if the power is out suddenly there is an enormous amount of things to do!   

Whatever it is... growing our own veggies, a day of canning and preserving.... it all takes energy! 

Many of us have our own health issues.  Some things we can do something about and some things not. Sometimes also we think we can't do anything about things but maybe we can!

Well, I am just sharing what I am doing which is in no way advice to anyone else.  I hope it is just taken as encouragement to look after our health, work on improvements and see looking after yourself as such an important thing. 

Learning to modify.... zoodles  instead of noodles!

A couple of weeks back I shared how I have been trying a completely different diet to try and get over the pain in my arms in particular.  I started on October the 1st.  At the time I wrote down a list of things I was unhappy with and experiencing.  Now like everyone I had to feel pretty bad before I was willing to try something really different.  I wrote down....  constant aching of legs and arms.  Pain killers to get relief so I could go to sleep.  Sometimes pain killers AM and afternoon to get through the day.  Exhaustion.  Exercise was not worth the pain levels and exhaustion that it caused.  I wrote a long and specific list.

These are good!  Andy announced he prefers them so thats easy! 

Wednesday being the fist of November I wrote down how I am feeling now.  Looking back on my old list I was horrified!  This month I only had three days with pain and aching. Three instead of thirty one!  I had energy and FELT LIKE exercising and about mid month I got to exercising half an hour a day. Swimming and evening walks...  and enjoying it and no pain!  Basically no pain medication!  Also a weird side effect... I have at least two more hours in my day as I am more energetic I am up earlier.  I wrote a long list of improvements.  

Overall I feel 200 x better in one month!  I noticed dramatic benefits from day four. Maybe one of the biggest is being free of cravings which I got badly.

I always knew I was allergic to barley and oats.  And I always knew when I eat bread I am hungry and my heart races.  Then I came across a lot of information that going grain free can help with pain and many people even with severe pain and exhaustion and suffering from everything from Fibromyalgia to Chronic Fatigue are finding diet a way to help. So I decided I had nothing at all to lose by trying it for a week!

In this time I saw the Doctor and I expected her to be doubtful but she was thrilled and said as I am in menopause and having so much pain and inflammation (from infection and bites I had) going grain free was the best thing I could do!  Really?  (so why did she never suggest it in the first place?)

Doctors appointments being brief I never got to ask her WHY does this help? How does this help? Or WHO does this help.  

But I know it has helped me.  

Several people have been very helpful to me with this.  Lynette has been hugely helpful and encouraging as she is GF.  Mimi is also GF along with her daughter and she has lovely recipes.  Glenda is GF and a wealth of information. I have been learning so much from you all. My Mum is GF and has a lot of allergies.... so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that I am affected too.

My flour free cookies. 

Cookie has been wonderful and patient as I slowly get the idea!  So I am turning over to Cookie who has far greater experience and understanding about how going grain free helped her with chronic pain....

Over to Cookie...

 I have lived in pain most of my life, first with having polio as a child and then being diagnosed later in life with late effects of polio syndrome.  The pain can often times be so excruciating that I could hardly walk.  After this last awful bout with my back in March of this year my chiropractor suggested I go on a gluten free diet and that worked well for a time.  Then the tests came back and my functional medicine doctor who is now treating me for the celiac disease said  I would do best on a grain free diet.  So I have been grain free for several months now.  He also took me off the pseudo-grains ( which are actually seeds) for the time being, meaning quinoa, rice, buckwheat, chia.   However he let me keep flaxseeds.  I  have found many great recipes on Pinterest under  Paleo or Primal recipes.  All are grain free.  My favorite grain free sites are elana'spantry.com, ditchthewheat.com, whole30.com.  and sugarfreemom.com  Sugar free mom has a great recipe for a microwave grain free english muffin that rivals the Thomas brand that we get here in the states.  As a matter of fact I stopped buying Thomases for Bill because he likes the ones I make.  They're also a 1 serving recipe. They also have facebook pages.  I found that Costco has the best deal on Almond flour.  Amazon has the best deal on coconut flour.  I use arrowroot instead of cornstarch as cornstarch doesn't agree with me at all.  Come to find out that corn in my body acts like a grain not a vegetable.   Anyway, if you google "paleo blogs" you'll come up with heaps of websites with grain free recipes for just about everything.

I have never taken anything stronger than aspirin or some herbal things for pain,preferring to stay away from prescription drugs which can have myriads of side effects that I wasn't interested in experiencing.  

My doctor's opinion and my humble opinion now as well is that our food supply is not the food supply of our grandparents and even great grandparents.  Industry has grown up over genetically modifying seeds (think Monsanto), pesticides that are specifically designed to kill weeds but not the genetically modified foods.  I recently read an article that wheat had been genetically modified over 400 times since the 1940s.And so-called foods that are manufactured in the laboratory using nothing but chemicals and flavorings to make them palatable.  Just take a look at some food labels.  Natural flavors are words for MSG and artificial flavorings.  Modified-food starch means cornstarch from genetically modified corn, different food dyes, chemicals to flavor water.   And, even things that purport to be so-called "gluten free" have been processed in a shared facilities plant that also processes allergens such as wheat, milk, nuts, peanuts and soy.  Is it any wonder that a huge population of us are experiencing chronic pain?  These frankenfoods can also cause something in some of us called "leaky gut" particles of food leak through the gut and get into the blood stream causing pain as well as many other symtpoms and autoimmune disease. 

Staying within our food budget and doing what needed to be done food wise I count as one of my biggest accomplishments this year.  We are blessed with the internet and so many people who have gone before us in this field and have blogs with recipes and advice in how to make the most of things.  Even though this new way of life may at first seem a lonely lot, we are not alone.  I am so thankful to the grain-free and/or paleo/primal websites that I found that it made this transition for me like a walk in the park.  

I found where the best prices were for alternate flours.  I found recipes, and when eggs were taken out of my diet (and later I could eat them), I learned how to use beef gelatin in place of eggs.  I learned how to view breakfast as just another meal and that it didn't matter whether I was eating oatmeal (which now I can't, even gluten free oats) or having   tuna salad.  It's just a meal.  I also had to throw away all of my ground purchased ground spices a start over as the particular place where they were processed used shared facilities.  I found a brand that has a dedicated facility and buy whole spices like cumin seed, coriander, cinnamon sticks, all spice, etc. and grind them myself in a little coffee grinder that was found at a yard sale.  And wow, what a difference fresh ground spices make in cooking.  I grow most of my own herbs.  And the real kicker was that I had to change coffee brands as there's only one brand of coffee in the US that's totally grain and gluten  free because they only roast coffee and do not share facilities with anyone. It's pretty famous and there's usually a shop on every corner in the US.   I make yogurt using Cath's method and also drain it to make yogurt cheese.  When dairy was off the menu I learned how to make almond and coconut milk with no additives, giving purchases of nuts and coconut more uses.  I also learned that if the whey is saved after the yogurt cheese is made and used as part of the liquid in the next batch of yogurt that it boosts the starter from your previous batch and ferments faster. 

It took approximately a week for my chronic pain to subside and about a month for it to go away completely.  However, in order to stay pain free I have to be extremely vigilant, which means, no cheats because if I cheat within a day or two I'm in pain again.  Doesn't seem fair, but that's just the way it is. and I often bring my own food to someone elses house if we've been invited for dinner.  I have a list of "safe" places I can eat  for that very occasional resturant meal.  Some places in the US even have dedicated cooking grills and pans for gluten and grain free food.  

 I know this sounds like a lot of work but  for me it was just a shift of focus.  I have not gone over our food budget, and since employing more of Laine's advice in menu planning etc. I find myself spending even less, and that's a huge accomplishment.  I forgot to mention that I drink ginger tea that I make myself either using grated fresh ginger or 1/2 tsp per cup of dried ground ginger.  It can be mixed in with your favorite tea or just alone in hot water with a little lemon and honey.  It works just the same as turmeric.  For some reason turmeric cause inflammation in my body rather than stopping it.  I also find that apple cider vinegar in water with ice is great to as it supplies potassium.

Thank you so much to Cookie.  To have had a life of pain like that and now be pain free is amazing.  This is what encouraged me to try this!

I had to include this: Jen in NS grew these carrots!  Check out the size! 

The other person who has really influenced me to try altering my diet is Laine. She also lives with a chronic health condition with great pain.  She also like Cookie got rid of most of this pain with diet.  Her condition requires a specialist and her Doctor is the leading specialist in this area in the world.  And going grain free has had the hugest impact on her life.  I have asked Laine if she would write about this and health in general and she has agreed!

What agrees with us and what doesn't is very personal and individual.  The whole point of my post is that trying something I never considered has made a huge difference to me.  One thing for sure is if something isn't working don't keep doing that!

Everything is a learning process.  And I just had a big fail as I decided to try Chai seeds and make little Chai puddings. They were delicious!  I made three serves and had one a day.  Each day I didn't feel good.  But I thought it can't be the chai ...  the fourth day I had all my pain back and then some extra.  Aching joints, sore legs, aching arms, shoulders, elbows, headache, tired and BLAH.  YUK.   This all reminded me of how I felt before I started.
Now I know it was the chai.  For me grains or seeds is just splitting hairs.  Neither Laine nor Cookie can eat seeds either and can explain why in detail and their specialists agree.  So good bye yummy chai pudding.  It took four days to get back to feeling good again.  Another lesson learned.


I hope this helps someone.  And I hope that you will put your health number one as we cannot look after everyone and do all we hope to be able to do without it.  It is one of the best investments we can make.
We often put up with things quietly and they get worse and worse.  It can take a lot to decide to do something new.  Whatever you do please do the research, ask a lot of questions,  ask different professionals including your doctor.

I am spending November working very hard on gaining ground with my health.  It is exciting to feel I am going upwards rather than downwards!

I hope you have a good week!  See you on Wednesday for Show and Tell! This is running late due to me being away last week.  I have lots of amazing things to show you!  If you would like to send in photos of your crafts and cooking please do on the Bluebirds FB page or email me brinkzi21@hotmail.com
xxx