“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).
- 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
Synopsis of Breakfast: Definitely one of the better smoothies of the bunch. Nice even taste & the texture is a little chunky.
- 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)
- ¼ cup pumpkin seeds
- 1 Brazil nut
- 4 medium carrots, carrots (subbed 2)
- Added raisins
1 large apple, cored1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated6 to 8 ounces filtered
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.
Okey dokey, now you should have a more alkaline system. Now you can begin eating the Dr. Fuhrman way. Get the book eat to live and join the “club” on Fuhrmans site, if you can, and you will get a mix of raw and “nearly ” cooked meals. Amazon or Whole foods.
If you check your Embrel label you will see that you are probably having side effects like “withdrawal” from the Embrel itself along with detoxing you are just feeling punished all around!
I am hoping you will take the next step and become one of Dr. Fuhrmans patients and have him help you detox off the Embrel or find that you can somehow use less.
The Embrel is a road block to healing, BUT, you need to have someone with history on this drug to help you.
I will be searching for an alternative to the Embrel, as well as, searching for someone who has further experience with Embrel detox.
We do a smoothie every morning and eat raw, fresh foods all day as needed. We also have legumes, not beans, with brown rice most everyday. Nuts and seeds are easy to carry with you anywhere. And remember no drinking while eating!
Keep up the blog, you are fabulous and this helps keep track of the progress.
You will succeed!!!!
Jamie,
Ok, I’ll look for Dr. Furhman’s book and start the reading. The Enbrel definitely has it’s side effects, but shooting pains are Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) specific. It’s my litmus test to see if other methods (like food as medicine) are compensating for the Enbrel. I’m happy to say that with food, it localizes my pain to my right hip & leg – this was the starting point of my AS. So it’s working, but it’ll take much longer than a 21-day detox to see results. I’m working on a blog post now that will explain what I’ll be doing from today until the next 6 months.
For my food in the future, I’ll introduce fringe-based “starch” food like legumes & brown rice into my diet. I can only handle, for now, up to two handfuls of nuts & seeds as they are harder for my body to digest. I’ll also add to my blog that I don’t drink 1/2 hour before / 1 1/2 hours after my meals. Snacks are a different case because you’d never get time to drink anything!