24 March, 2010

Second week of grain free

Day 7/8 of the grain free diet. The past week was rough, no doubt about it. I felt achy and extremely irritable, like i was coming down with the flu. The thing that surprised me the most has been the lack of desire for grains. I thought i would be craving big slabs of warm bread or light cake, but it simply hasn't been an issue. I haven't been any hungrier than normal, in fact, i felt less hungry. I was able to pass up cake at fellowship meal Sunday and it wasn't hard. It certainly looked good and i would've certainly enjoyed eating it, but it simply wasn't a big deal. My cravings for sugar has gone way down, and that's awesome. And yesterday something shifted in my body. The terrible irritability left and i could feel my energy coming back. I love how I'm starting to feel and if it continues, i may just keep grains, or at least wheat, out of the house for a very long time. After all, with coconut and almond flour, i think we can do without wheat and be better for it. When i get the craving for something sweet and rich, i simply make smoothies, latte's, brownies, or any other number of goodies.

The biggest thing i've noticed with Josh is that he's been sleeping much better at night. He no longer wakes up sobbing but actually has been sleeping til 8 or past. And that's a blessing!

5 comments:

  1. Hi Darla!
    You have my curiosity up. What symptoms did your family have that made you go wheat free? And tell me about Joshs' sleep. Did he not sleep well? Maybe this is something that our family should try, due to some issues we are having, especialy one particular person. Do you see changes in all of your children?

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  2. Two of the biggest reasons is Marlin and Josh. As Marlin puts it, "i'm sick and tired of being sick and tired." Marlin's blood pressure has continued to climb, along with intense fatigue. His liver has tested repeatedly as not working right (by bloodwork) so we felt best to simply give his body a rest from digesting grains and focus on treating his liver. One of the best ways to help heal that is to eat raw liver, which he is willing to do if he can get a hold of a trustworthy source.

    Josh has been dealing with joint pain, nightmares, belly aches, yeast rashes, along with dark circles under his eyes. I've suspected for a while that he has lymes but then his symptoms would subside and to be honest, i wasn't sure what to do. We finally connected with a nutritionist that specializes in Lymes and after talking with her (over phone, he has an appt in May)she said it sounds classical lymes. After discovering that Emily also struggles with much bellyache and yeast, she strongly encouraged us to go off grains. She said grains are mostly GMO and contain fungus's that they aren't able to get rid of, hence causing a myriad of problems. Ironically, we had just researched Doug Kauffman and his anti-fungal diet, who was recommended to me by a friend who's health advice i highly trust. Both Marlin and i felt it was the right thing to do so we're going to do this for 6 weeks and go from there. Marlin and Josh are the strictest, with no grains, no rice and no potatoes. Josh has had a few potato chips but that's it. I also give him coconut oil in smoothies, which is a natural fungus fighter.

    Emily and i are completely grain free, although i do eat rice and limited potatoes, simply for Jacob's sake. I'm really curious to see how we feel at the end of 6 weeks. Eric and Zac have never showed signs of anything, so i give them freedom when we go away.

    I would definitely encourage it, and if you set a time limit, it's not so hard. I really thought it would be a lot harder, but the hardest part has been the detox. I'm climbing out of that, so we'll see how it goes from here.

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  3. Thank you so much for the explanation. I ordered some books from library and am going to do some reading on it to see if maybe some of the symptoms that Solomon has could be due to this. His symptoms are different than that of your family except the fatique and he has achy joints and mood swings (which could be due to him being a teenager). Ben is experiencing some issues too, so maybe we will give it a try? I will continue to watch for your updates to see how it is going for you. Thanks again! Have a great day!

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  4. Hi Guys, I'm encouraged by your post Darla. Glad to hear that you're coming thru detox okay. I wanted to tell you that Josh's symptoms do not sound much different than the ones my kids have. According to Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride these are all gut issues. When ever you get a chance you should look her up, she has an excellent book called GAPS, which is the diet we are on. Sounds much like the diet you guys are doing, but would be interesting to check out the many related symptoms.

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  5. I'm somewhat familiar with GAPS, and i've had to wonder if he just has serious gut issues due to much antibiotics when little..........we're not going to just jump on the nutritionist's vitamin bandwagon but will come home and do our own research after the visit. We do have friends with lymes and his symptoms do match up with theirs....guess we'll see.

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