Category Archives: Organic

Day 21 Food Reboot

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“Uniqueness” of the Day:  What I thought was a flare-up, turned out to be getting worse. On day 19, the coconut water & coconut meat may have activated it or not.  This time I honestly thought that the food would come in & start to reverse some of the shooting pains & inflammation.  In reality (for now), AS flares up and won’t let go until I take the Enbrel and when I start to get this kind of pain, I need to get  back on Enbrel as soon as I can.  Instead of cycling it 1X / 2 weeks, I will start using it as-needed while my body heals itself through healthy food. If I don’t, my body continues to degrade the longer I delay taking Enbrel after the initial shooting pains arrive.  Even after the Advil wore off, the inflammation continued to be reduced.  For now, combinations of Enbrel and eating healthy are working.

UPDATE 12/2/12:  February 7th is the last time I took Enbrel.

Waking Up:  Went to bed at 10:30 and got up at  3:30am and the inflammation and shooting pains are unbearable at this point.  Although I did not want to, I ended up taking an Advil for the immediate pain and took my Enbrel at 4am.  I went back to bed at 4:45am and got up at 7:45am with much less pain (but still some shooting pains coming out of bed).

Breakfast:  Green Smoothie
  • 2 cups red grapes
  • 1 banana, peeled
  • 1 large pear, cored
  • 1 cup wild frozen blueberries
  • 2 cups fresh organic baby spinach, chopped
  • 1 head romaine lettuce, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon of dulse flakes
  • 6 to 8 ounces filtered water
  • 1 tablespoon bee pollen
  • 1 small slice of turmeric (look at #11) & ginger root – both reduce pain & inflammation
Directions:  Blend together water, banana and grapes. Then, add blueberries and blend. Add remaining ingredients and blend on high for 30 seconds or until smooth.

Synopsis of Breakfast: Definitely one of the better smoothies of the bunch.  Nice even taste & the texture is a little chunky.

Lunch Menu: Avocado-Lime Soup
  • 2 green apples, cored
  • 2 large cucumbers, chopped
  • ½ lime, peeled
  • ½ medium avocado, peeled and pitted
  • about ¼ cup water

Directions:  Chop 1 apple, 1 cucumber and the lime. Add the chopped ingredients the avocado and water to your blender. Blend until creamy. Add more water for a thinner consistency. Next, finely chop the remaining apple and cucumber and mix into soup base right before serving.

Synopsis of Lunch:  Tasted better than I thought & I did eat it unheated.  The soup’s consistency is thick enough to make as a light dip for other vegetables too.  This recipe made for two bowls and in the future I would suggest making 1/2 this recipe + adding some collard green wraps and/or something else to balance the dish out with enough variety.

Dinner Menu:  Green Smoothie

  • 5 oranges, peeled and deseeded
  • 3 cups kale, chopped (subbed swiss chard – all out of kale)
  • 2 bananas, peeled (subbed 1)
Directions:  Blend the fruit together. Add kale and blend on high for 30 seconds.
…and I decided to combine this as a side meal with parts of my “snack” they suggested:
  • ¼ cup pumpkin seeds
  • 1 Brazil nut
  • 4 medium carrots, carrots (subbed 2)
  • Added raisins
  • 1 large apple, cored
  • 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
  • 6 to 8 ounces filtered
Carrot Soup Directions:  Blend together the water and apple. Add remaining ingredients and blend on high for 1 minute.

Synopsis of Dinner: Just before dinner I felt full due to drinking the water + fiber supplement + whatever else I had today.  But I know I’m hungry because I’m feeling light-headed.  During the meal I was able to eat the carrots, raisins, & nuts & 1/2 the smoothie and it took me 2 1/2 hours to finish the other glassful of smoothie.  Although I don’t feel shooting pains, I’m feeling kind of woozy.  I’m pretty sure it’s the excessive amount of food I had.  As a sidenote, I found the drink to be warm which I was told was due to the chemical reaction in the smoothie or the way that oranges get blended makes it combustive.

Evening inflammation check:  Inflammation is a 2 out of 10 vs. yesterday which was more like an 8 out of 10 on the pain scale.

Gas / Bloating Check:  Standard day during the food reboot & had some BMs due to large amounts of food.  The bloating & gas was there, but minimal compared to the rest of the days.

We Made It!:  Hopefully by now you can tell that my intentions were helping others as I’ve been helped.  If you’ve just finished, send me a comment & let me know your experience.

Day 20 Food Reboot

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“Uniqueness” of the Day:  This is my hardest day.  My head isn’t in doing this that much after last night’s horrible smoothie.  Most of today is smoothies and tomorrow are soups; knowing makes it even tougher.  And what makes it the hardest is I’ve gotten the worst shooting pains today from my AS (getting in & out of bed is like getting out of a bed of nails) I’ve had in weeks.  I got an encouraging phone call today from Jamie and got some fantastic recommendations from her new doctor – Dr. Furhman.  I learned that I need to really amp up my Vitamin d3 intake (more than the sun) + you can do up to 300 billion Probiotics per day (currently doing 10 billion) in smaller doses.  Basically, you can’t have enough of those since my gut has a lot of work to do in repairing.

Waking Up:  Went to bed at 11:30 and got up at  4:45am, got water & stretched until 5am, went back to bed & got up at 7:15am.  Stiffness in mid-lower back & left hip sends pain when I twist too much (it’s not much though).  Right hip, behind the right leg & right buttocks area are inflamed + I’m getting the worst shooting pains I’ve had in over a week.

Breakfast:  Green Smoothie
  • 2 bananas, peeled (subbed 1 banana, 1 kiwi)
  • 1 cup pineapple, cubed
  • 1 cup papaya, cubed (papaya not ready, subbed 1 mango)
  • 1 head romaine lettuce, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon of dulse flakes
  • 1 tablespoon bee pollen
  • 1 small slice of turmeric (look at #11) & ginger root – both reduce pain & inflammation
  • 6 to 8 ounces filtered water
Directions:  Blend together water, bananas and papaya / mango. Then add romaine lettuce and pineapple. Bend for 30 seconds or until smooth.

Synopsis of Breakfast:  Tastes fine & much less thicker than yesterday dinner’s smoothie.  Also a little ginger & tumeric goes a long way.  So don’t cut too big of a piece when you start out.  Also some smoothies will mask it better than others.  Makes around 30 fl. oz. or 2 glassfuls.  Lastly, I’ve noticed my stomach making lots of noises.  Maybe it’s due to the turmeric / ginger root?

Lunch Menu: Green Smoothie
  • 3 bananas, peeled (subbed 1 banana, 1 mango, and 1 kiwi)
  • 3 cups pineapple, cubed
  • ½ avocado, peeled and pitted
  • 4 stalks celery, chopped
  • 3 cups fresh baby spinach, chopped
  • 3 cups kale, chopped
  • 6 to 8 ounces filtered water

NOTE: If this smoothie is to big for you to drink all at once, drink half
for lunch and the other half mid afternoon.  I decided to make a 1/2 smoothie for lunch & half for the afternoon.  I cut the recipe in 1/2 and made one batch during lunch & one in the afternoon.

Directions:  Blend together the water, bananas and avocado. Then add remaining ingredients and blend for 30 seconds or until smooth.

Synopsis of Lunch & Afternoon Meal:  The pineapple makes this too acid-like (especially since I had some in the morning).  The taste is fine overall, but doing 1/2 now & 1/2 later worked out well.

Dinner Menu:  Fruit Salad

Directions:  Slice bananas and mangoes. Add blueberries. Squeeze juice from orange over salad. Add remaining pulp.

Synopsis of Dinner: This one was simple and a welcome change.  I ate the rest of the filling from the collard green wraps from yesterday along with some blueberries & strawberries.  The Day 19 filling had a bit too much cayenne pepper, so the berries offset the taste allowing a savory / sweet taste while making the meal neutral each time I had the berries.

Evening inflammation check:  Fought inflammation and shooting pains all day long.  If this continues tomorrow, I’m taking my Enbrel as it’s been exactly two weeks since my last shot (Day 7).

Gas / Bloating Check:  Had a few BMs today but gas & bloating was manageable.  As with a few days this week, the amount of food can make my stomach / intestines feel stuck or backed up.  This is due to all the food I’m eating.

Day 19 Food Reboot

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“Uniqueness” of the Day:  Today is my biggest test of wills.  After drinking over 50 fl. oz. of smoothie (look at my “dinner”), I am greeted with a variety of old foods I used to have at a Super Bowl party.  Temptation everyone, I couldn’t eat anything and watch everyone full of snacky-goodness while everyone else does.  Today is one of those days I wish to never repeat.

Started taking my vitamin B12 spray.  I’ll start with 2 per day since 6 per day yields a 20,000% daily intake of B12.

Waking Up:  Went to bed at 11:30 and got up at 6:00am with stiffness in the mid to lower back areas + my shoulder areas at the top are stiff too.  Both my right and left hip areas are slightly inflamed and it might be due to sleeping on my side.  Before today, I couldn’t sleep on my left side due to the right hip inflammation.  Since my inflammation was low last night, I slept on both sides and now I see inflammation on  both sides.  I’ll add a stretching routine before I go to bed tonight to see if I can sleep on my back all night.

Breakfast:  Green Smoothie
What I was suppose to have.  I did not have the ingredients needed:
  • 1 head romaine lettuce, chopped
  • 2 bananas, peeled (subbing 1)
  • 1 mango, peeled and deseeded
  • 1 oranges, peeled and deseeded
  • 2 kiwifruit, peeled
  • 1 tablespoon of dulse flakes
  • 4 to 6 ounces filtered water
  • 1 tablespoon bee pollen
Directions:  Pour the water into the blender. Add bananas, mango, and oranges and blend. Then, add remaining ingredients and blend for 30 seconds or until smooth.
  • 8 ounces unsweetened coconut milk (Used a real coconut & added some coconut meat to the smoothie)
  • 2 oranges, peeled and deseeded (subbed OJ)
  • 1 medium banana, peeled
  • 3-and-1/2 cup kale, chopped
  • 1/2 lime, peeled
Directions:  Add all the ingredients except for the greens to your blender and hit the “pulse” button a few times. Next, add the greens and blend on high for 30 seconds or until the smoothie is creamy.

Synopsis of Breakfast:  The kale is too powerful for this meal.  I suggest using spinach and/or swiss chard.  It make around 20 fl. oz. – 1/2 of what I normally make in the morning.  After 20 minutes I’m feeling more inflamed.  Although I cannot find the research on starch in raw coconut, I will not be buying or making coconut smoothies again.  However, I have used coconut flakes before & I don’t get inflamed.

Lunch Menu: Cucumber-Pumpkin Seed Soup Classic Salad (Panera Bread)
No time again since I needed to run up to Whole Foods & get my food for the rest of the food reboot.  I had what you see in the picture minus the fruit cup.
For those interested, here’s what I was supposed to make a Cucumber-Pumpkin Seed Soup:
  • 2 organic vine tomatoes, chopped
  • ¾ cup pineapple, cubed
  • 1 cup cucumber, cubed
  • ¼ cup parsley, chopped
  • 1 brazil nut
  • 3 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
  • 1/8 cup pumpkin seeds (or 3 tablespoons shelled hemp seeds)

Directions:  In your blender, mix everything except the hemp seeds and half of the cucumber. Just before serving, add the chopped cucumber and hemp seeds to the soup.

Synopsis of Lunch:  To be honest, I really dislike cold soup and was glad to substitute the salad + apple at Panera.

“Snack”:  Collard Wraps
  • 1 cucumber, chopped
  • 3 medium tomatoes, chopped
  • 3 to 5 sprigs fresh cilantro
  • 3 to 4 slices red onion, chopped
  • 1 cup red grapes, halved
  • juice from ½ lemon or lime
  • ½ avocado, chopped
  • dash of sea salt
  • dash black pepper
  • dash of cayenne pepper (optional to taste)
  • 2 large collard leaves

Directions:  Add all the ingredients except the collard leaves in a large bowl and mix gently. Divide the mixture into two and fill each collard leaf.

Synopsis of Meal: Not as good as the other collard green mix I made, but still tasty enough to get me to eat 4 collard green leaves.  The salad at Panera just isn’t enough and this “snack” is what my body needed.

Dinner Menu:  Green Smoothie

  • 4 cups organic kale, chopped
  • 1 banana, peeled (subbed 1 mango)
  • 1 cup frozen wild blueberries
  • 2 oranges, peeled and deseeded
  • 6 medium carrots, chopped
  • 1 zucchini, chopped
  • 4 to 6 ounces filtered water
  • 1 tablespoon bee pollen
  • 1 brasil nut & small handful of pumpkin seeds
  • 1 small slice of turmeric (look at #11) & ginger root – both reduce pain & inflammation
Directions:  Blend together the water, banana / mango, and oranges. Then, add the remaining ingredients and blend for 30 seconds or until smooth.

Synopsis of Dinner: Has anyone ever told you that you are crazy?  After drinking  52 oz. & having your blender make angry sounds at you, they have every reason to.  Clearly you need to cut back on the carrots as it makes the drink too fibrous & unappealing.  There’s very little on the visual scale – the color is about as nasty brown as you can imagine.  I know this is part of rebooting, but this was the worst tasting smoothie I’ve ever had.  I only suggest this recipe for the hardcore, stick-exactly-to-the-plan-kind of person.

Evening inflammation check:  Fought inflammation all day long after the coconut drink in the morning.  Some times were good (running around at Whole Foods) while other times not so good (getting up after a nap & the evening time).

Gas / Bloating Check:  Good day with only one issue the whole day (after having the coconut drink in the morning, there was a big BM that combined with the inflammation with the drink, made me miserable until after lunch).