8 Things that Worsen Inflammation!

Below is my first article for The Crohn's Journey Foundation. I'll post the link once it's published on their site.

Did you know that the body creates inflammation as a way to help you heal? In the case of Crohn’s, generally, toxic matter poisons the gut and the immune system creates inflammation as a way to purify the area.  Once the area is purified, you heal, and then the inflammation goes away.

Inflammation is caused when the body sends elements of the immune system, white blood cells or T cells, to the affected area. These T cells produce antibodies, which bind toxins and leads to healing.  The last thing we need to do is interrupt this healing process by aggravating the situation.  

There are things we eat and do every day that can either help our gut heal, or throw us into a full-fledged flare up.

Raw Vegetables

Vegetables are great for us, and essential in assisting with healthy iron levels, which is often a challenge for people who suffer from Crohn’s. However, eating raw vegetables and salads can irritate the bowel since they are difficult to digest. Avoid eating them when your gut is inflamed. Drink them instead by including them in your favorite juice or smoothie.

Fatty Foods

Your body is impaired when you’re inflamed and fatty foods cannot be digested properly. Avoid all fatty foods including meats, dairy, oils, avocados, olives, and especially nuts and seeds. Nuts and seeds are difficult to digest even when you’re healthy, and depending upon your type of Crohn’s, they may be indigestible when you’re inflamed, and hard undigested particles can create complications like fistulas. Ultimately, stay away from fatty foods. Even the good fatty foods are not good for you when inflammation is present.

Citrus Fruits

High acid citrus fruits and tomatoes also must be avoided. They’re too harsh for a healing gut. Lemons and limes are the worse as they are extremely acidic and for those with Crohn’s, even during healthy times, should always be used in moderation, diluted with other juices or water, or used with other ingredients. Avoid them entirely and stick with sweet fruits instead when you’re inflamed.

Acid Forming Foods

This is a tough one, because it encompassed sooo many foods we love to eat, but it is well worth the effort in results. Our GI tract’s ideal state for healing and health is slightly alkaline, except the colon, which is slightly acidic. However, the only way to accomplish this is to eat predominately alkaline forming foods. Creating a highly acidic GI tract is problematic and will perpetuate your inflammation. Acid forming foods include all meats, dairy, beans, most grains, nuts and seeds, sugar, soft drinks, coffee, and alcohol.

Spicy Foods

Any food or drink that is spicy hot to the palate or makes your eyes water is an aggravant to the gut. Garlic, cayenne pepper, onions, leeks, etc. can create additional unneeded irritation. Avoid them during times when your gut is inflamed.

Overeating

An overloaded bowel is an overworked and stressed bowel, which will worsen an inflamed bowel. Don’t stuff yourself.

In addition to changing your eating habits there are a couple of other things you should consider when it comes to healing your inflammation.

Your nerve energy plays a significant role in healing. If you have ample, you are more likely to heal sooner than later. But if your gut is deprived of nerve energy, your inflammation is apt to worsen.

At the beginning of each day you are filled with nerve energy and you use it up throughout the day. The more you physically, mentally and emotionally do and handle, the more nerve energy you use. 

Nerve energy to your gut comes from your celiac plexus. Your celiac plexus is the largest plexus, or network of nerves and arteries in the body. It connects and regulates many of your organs, including the stomach, pancreas, liver, small and large intestines.

When your celiac plexus expands, it is radiating nerve energy throughout this network.  For this reason, the celiac plexus is often also referred to as your solar plexus. When it is contracts, it is depriving its network of the nerve energy it needs, and this will certainly make healing difficult, if not impossible.

So what makes your solar plexus contract instead of expand? What things do you do that wastes nerve energy?

Stress and Other Negative Feelings

Your ability to manage negative emotions is essential to healing for several reasons. First, negative emotions and disempowering thoughts wastes nerve energy. You need your nerve energy focused on healing, not on stressful situations.  You only get so much nerve energy a day. Do you want to use your nerve energy for healing or for managing useless emotions?

Second, when you are stressed, unhappy, depressed, or have any negative feelings, your celiac plexus contracts. Often your blood pressure and pulse rise. You may begin to breathe faster. Ultimately, the physical changes that negative emotions bring to your body over time simply are not healthy.

“Stress doesn’t only make us feel awful emotionally,” says Jay Winner MD, author of Take the Stress Out of Your Life. “It can also exacerbate just about any health condition you can think of.”

Managing stress and other negative emotions is challenging at times, especially if you’re not feeling well due to your Crohn’s symptoms, but get the stinking thinking out of your head if you want to accelerate your healing.

Lack of Sleep

Your nerve energy is only rejuvenated when you sleep. If you use up all of your nerve energy before you get to the end of your day, there is nothing left for healing. No organ can function properly without a supply of nerve energy. Therefore, lack of sleep is problematic.

You must get plenty of rest. The lack of appropriate nerve energy to heal will only make matters worse. Listen to your body. It tells you how much sleep you need.  If you’re fatigued or tired during times of inflammation or any other illness, you should sleep. You can never get too much sleep when it comes to healing.

Conclusion

I take a holistic approach to managing illnesses in my life, and this has required me to make massive changes in my lifestyle as a result of my Crohn’s diagnosis. I am learning every day better ways to manage my disease, and know that learning how to live a healthy life with Crohn’s is a process. I also know that change is not easy.  Yet one thing is abundantly clear to me. Eliminating these eight things during times of inflammation has been essential to managing my disease without medication and living a healthy life.

Ultimately, the items above are inflammatory. I regularly tell myself that a temporary pleasure of the palate is not worth the repercussions that could lead to a month or more of unpleasant symptoms. Even during healthy times when my gut is 100%, moderation is the key.

I realize that each of us is uniquely different and our bodies react to our actions individually. I’m hopeful that my experience and suggestions will help you, and I recommend that if you have any of these eight things in your life, you also make some changes. I hope that by eliminating these eight inflammatory things, you too will get as much comfort in your gut as I.

Raw Stuffed Portobello and Chocolate Mouse... Yum!

If you can eat delicious food that's raw, it's easier on your digestive tract than eating cooked foods and it's more nutritious. The enzymes in the food help with digestion which gives your own GI tract a little break from having to do all the work itself. Give these a try. They're delicious and good for you too!

Organic Raw Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms
All ingredients are raw. Start with a couple portobello mushrooms. I marinated the portobello in sesame seed oil, balsamic vinegar and some spices for about 30 minutes. The spices included cilantro, oregano, rosemary, Himalayan salt and pepper. The stuffing ingredients are as flows:

• Juice from one lime
• 1/2 cup of cashews soaked for a couple hours or over night
• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 1 clove garlic
• A few basil leaves
• A couple pinches of Himalayan salt

The stuffing ingredients are blended together.  All three dishes are placed in a dehydrator for about 30 minutes. Then remove the dishes, stuff the mushrooms, and place back in the dehydrator for about an hour.

Raw Chocolate Mouse
I had left over soaked cashews and cashew cream added to raw chocolate pudding makes a great mouse. There was about 1 cup of soaked cashers remaining, so I blended them with water to make a cream. I added two avocados, a heaping table spoon of raw cocoa and some agave syrup to taste. Yum yum.

The Crohn's Journey Foundation

Today I've agreed to become a writing with a 6 month contract for The Crohn's Journey Foundation. You can view the site at www.thecrohnsjourneyfoundation.org. I'm excited!

On another note, my gut has not been 100% and I've been a little fatigued. I've been needing more sleep that when I'm at my best. So I have to do some mitigation again. I'll go to my juicing routine if my healing diet doesn't get things back under control within a few days.

Wish me luck and make sure to check out The Crohn's Journey Foundation page.

My Crohn's Life

I've had the website www.mylifewithcrohns.com and have unsuccessfully been able to renew it. When I started the blog, I secured the domain name from Google as the blog platform I use is Blogger.com, which is a Google app.

Google sent me notice about the domain registration expiring and the links they gave me to pay for the renewal wouldn't work. I had messaged the three times asking for help, and attempted to call them as well. Over a two month period I wasn't able to renew the domain name successfully. Crazy…

So I found out through GoDaddy that Google would charge $80 to restore the name and that they could help me get it restored. Then once restored, they could reassign it to themselves.  GoDaddy is who Blogger/Google used for domain names but since it was purchased through Google, they couldn't restore the name without going through Google.

Well, out of principle, I was not going to pay Google $80 to restore a name that should not have expired if they would have responded to any of my customer service requests. So, please make a note of the new domain name: mycrohnslife.com.

I'm So Blessed!

This is not my typical post, but I will give a quick update. I feel great. Dr. Azar is a blessing! 

So… I was sitting on the hearth of my down stairs fireplace looking at how my home is shaping for the holidays, and as I began to think for how great it's looking, I also began to think of all my blessings, and I began to cry and cry. I think the tears are because I don't feel worthy, or maybe these really are tears of happiness…

I couldn't have imagined life to be this good. I'm not sure how it gets better than this. I wonder what I have done to deserve such a wonderful life. 

First came to mind my family. My son seems to finally be on the right path. He is going to school and following his passion, and he even has a job. He only has a couple more years and he'll finally have the education he needs to pursue his dream.

My brother has grown so much. I'm so proud of him. All my prayers for him seem to have come true. I love him so much. My mom and dad, in spite of their ups and downs with jobs and such, are financially stable and healthy. My sister, has such a beautiful family and they always seem to be stable and having great lives.

I found a wonderful man, that I think I've been needing in my life my entire life. Gosh, if I can't make things work with someone as wonderful as he, then I guess I'm destined to be single. But something tells me, that's not the case and that he'll be in my life for a very long time, if not forever.

Then, I reflected on an email I received today from one of my staff. How fortunate am I to have found something I love to do, that pays well, and where I get a chance to mentor young aspiring people. Jamie doesn't realize how nice her email was today.

I never seem to have to worry about finances these days. My bills are less than I earn, and I'm just preparing for the future. 

Then, of course, I have my health. I still have yet to hear of anyone that lives a life with Crohn's without hospitalization, medication, and a lot of pain. With one call to Dr. Azar, I'm back on the right track and am feeling great. How blessed am I to have her in my life. 

I love to ride motorcycles and snowboard, and a new passion of mine is tennis. I basically can do all of these things I want without any real challenges getting in my way.

I'm not really sure how life gets any better than this. Family, career, health, relationship…

Thank you Lord! You've touched me today like I haven't been touched in a while. I'm so grateful for all that you are and all that you've given me! I'm not sure how I'm worthy, but I will do my best for you. 

Appointment with Dr. Azar. Very interesting… I always learn so much from her!

Very interesting…

I explained to Dr. Azar why I was so confused as to why I'm having a flare up. I cleansed for twelve days, just about a week ago and I was certain that my colon was in a very healthy condition. Within a week after finishing my cleanse, I'm having all of these Crohn's symptoms. Fatigue, joint pain, irregular bowel movements, mild fever, etc.

I continued to explain to her what I ate the day after returning to solid foods, and she simply explained very easily why I'm having these symptoms. Something I never considered…

Twelve days of cleansing put my body into a very deep cleanse. The cells in my body were working at dumping toxins into my blood stream so they could be carried to my kidneys, liver, and GI tract for elimination. All of the symptoms I'm describing are also symptoms of cleansing. Haha.

So I was in a deep cleansing state, and adding food to that state could easily create a reaction if  the body is not prepared. That really isn't too difficult to understand. A Crohn's flare up is just another way your body cleanses. Even for those without Crohn's or colitis, all of the symptoms I just described an occur in a deep cleanse.

When I explained to her the juice I was having, she confirmed that I put my body in a very deep detox state. Any one if not all of my symptoms could be considered the body's intelligent response ridding the body of toxins.

So when I came off the cleanse, my GI tract was not ready for food I gave it. It had been cleansed of the good bacteria needed to operate properly, so it responded as anyone's body would if not prepared for digesting food, not to mention the acidic food that I gave it.

Toxins that should have been eliminated by my GI tract settled in my joints and elsewhere in my body, and this creates joint pain, fatigue, fever, etc.

She coached me today as to what to do to gently introduce solid foods back into my system. My colon needs to begin to get used to doing its job again, and it needs to develop bacteria in order to do so.

Today for breakfast I had a banana, apple smoothie, with cinnamon and vanilla (tastes a little like apple pie filling), yum! For lunch I've had some mushroom soup and I have vegetable soup planned for this evening. I'll fill in the day with some of my miracle juice (see my juice recipes), and be hopeful that my body accepts this gentle food better than it did the acidic tomato sauce I had when I finished my cleanse the other week.

Another interesting fact we discussed, is that pectin, which is really very good for the colon and found in apples, carrots and bananas among other fruits, doesn't digest in the colon unless there is bacteria created by feces present. It needs the good bacteria to metabolize properly. So during a cleanse, all of the pectin I was drinking with juice, never got metabolized in the colon.

Ultimately, when I came of the cleanse and ate some inflammatory foods, my body continued to cleanse it out. I got scared and returned to juice, which ultimately continued the cleanse. Now I need to gently get off of this cleanse, which is what she has instructed me to do. Wish me luck. So far, so good :)

Juice Recipes

I've posted some good juice recipes in the past, but I have more now! Here are the past recipes:


Bloody Mary Substitute: You may want to pass this through a cold press juicer a second time, or strain the pulp from the juice if you have a centrifugal juicer.

• 2 Large very ripe tomatoes
• 2 Large zucchinis
• 1 clove of garlic 
• 1 sprig of fresh basil 
• a dash of cayenne pepper to taste 
• a dash of Himalayan sale to taste 
• 2 dashes of ground cumin to taste

Tomato Juice with a Twist:  I like to add a little sparkling water to this juice.

• 2 Large tomatoes
• Medium sized apple
• Large cucumber
• Clove of garlic
• Cilantro to taste

Daily Veggies:  This is a recipe from Luna's Living Kitchen. Although mine tastes a little different, it is still delicious.  I believe this is around 170 calories. This is filled with iron, by the way.

• 4 Medium carrots
• Large zucchini
• Large cucumber
• Large tomato
• 3 Celery stalks
• 4 Large leaves of kale
• 1/3 Clove of garlic
• 1/8 Lemon
• 4-6 Leaves of fresh basil
• Dash of cayenne
• Dash of Himalayan salt

My Daily Meds: As you know if you've been reading my blog, carrot and apple juice has been a major factor in healing my Crohn's due to the pectin in both that is digested in the colon and acts as a cleanser and protectant. Well, a small change to the ingredients zests up the tase for post healing. This is about 210 calories. Also, pectin is great for lowering cholesterol.

• 3 Apples
• 5 Carrots
• 1/4 Orange including peel
• 1/8 Lemon including peel
• Cilantro to taste

Purple Pleasure:  This is amazingly delicious. It's about 300 calories.

• Small head of red cabbage
• Large bosc pear
• 2 Stalks of mint

Here are some additional recipes I jotted down during my most recent cleanse. I'll have to figure out some names. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. I intend to research the ingredients and nutrients of these juices and identify any illnesses or nutrient deficiencies that these juices can help with. 

If you're diabetic, too much sweet fruit juice is not recommended. Otherwise, please enjoy these recipes and let me know which is your favorite!

A Little Bit of Both: This has fruits and veggies. It's delicious. I haven't figured out calories on these yet.

• 2 Mangos
• Large cucumber
• 2 Carrots
• An apple
• 2 Persimmons

Ki-berry-wi: Yum yum!

• 1 Cup blackberries
• 4 Kiwi
• 1 Canteloupe
• 1/4 Lime with peel

Good Luck with a Name for this One:

• 1 Cup strawberry
• 2 Mangos
• 4 Persimmons
• 1 Cucumber
• 1/4 Lime with peel

Refrigerator Leftovers:

• 2 Mangos
• 2 Persimmons
• 1/2 Pear
• 4 Apples
• 1/4 Orange with peel
• 2 Plums

Orange Delight!

• 2 Mangos
• 2 Persimmons
• 1/2 Pear
• 3 Apples
• 6 Carrots
• 2 Plums
• 1/4 Lemon with peel

Grape Cuke Juice:

• 2 Cucumbers
• 14 oz juice from white grapes
• 1/4 orange with peel
• Cilantro to taste

Mangolicious

• 1 Mango
• Red delicious apples to fill 16 oz.
• Cilantro to taste

Joint Pain

I've been trying to figure out why my joints hurt so much when I have colon inflammation, and ultimately, I've learned that the GI tract is responsible for ridding the body of dangerous substances. If the colon is damaged and not doing its job, then toxic substances can enter the body and cause inflammation elsewhere. These toxins can collect in the fluid of the joints, which can cause inflammation of the joints.

This is called peripheral arthritis and is common among people who have ulcerative colitis or Crohn's of the colon. The level of inflammation in the joints generally mirrors the extent of inflammation in the colon. So to get rid of the joint pain, you have to reduce the colon inflammation.

Fortunately, from what I'm reading, IBD related peripheral arthritis usually does  not cause any permanent damage. Yay!

So i water fasted a day, then juiced, now water fasting again for a day and a half, and in those few days my joint pain has reduced to being very mild. And by no surprise, my gut feels a lot better too.

I have an appointment with Dr. Azar tomorrow. I'm excited to talk to her since I haven't done so in almost two years. I really need some advise as to how I can transition to food again because I obviously cannot stay on water and be healthy.

I assume she's going to suggest going to juice and smoothies, but we will see...

A Flareup After Eighteen Months

Well, I'm officially having a flare up. I don't consider inflammation mitigation a flareup, which is what I regularly do, to avoid a flareup. What I mean, is if I ate something that caused a little inflammation, I would immediately juice for a day, or begin my healing diet, and things would get back to normal quickly. Unfortunately, however, that is not the case this time.

Since my diagnosis in September, 2011, I've really only had one flareup and that was in March, 2012. I remember March 17 as being the worst medical day of my life. I was in so much pain with my gut and my muscles and joints. I was throwing up and had diarrhea, and needed to sleep all the time if I could get past the pain. I vowed to do whatever I needed to do with my life and diet to ensure that I didn't feel like that again.

A couple of weeks ago, I knew that I had something more going on than a little inflammation when I decided to go on a water/juice fast. I water fasted for 3 days, then juiced for an additional 9 days. You would think that I would have gotten my colon back to normal by doing that, but no. Less than two weeks after the conclusion of the fast, here I am experiencing a full fledged flareup.

Yesterday, I could hardly walk. My joints are inflamed and the pain in my knees and heels, strangely enough, make it very difficult to get around. Twelve hours sleep wasn't nearly enough to give me the energy to work a full day. I ended up coming home early and napped between 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. I still lacked energy, so I went to sleep around 9:00 p.m. and slept until about 9:30 a.m. this morning. It wasn't solid sleep as I got up about 5 times during the night due to cramps in my colon. 

I also had a fever last night, with the highest temperature at 102.5. It was clear based upon how I felt that I couldn't play tennis this morning, so I cancelled a doubles match that was scheduled for 11:00 a.m. That clearly was a wise decision.

I've gone back to water fasting since about 8:00 p.m. last night in hopes that the body inflammation will subside quickly. I've also messaged Dr. Azar, my holistic doctor, to get some advise. Twelve days of water and juice should have gotten my colon back to normal, so I'm hoping she can give me some suggestions that I haven't considered.

So ultimately, joint and muscle pain, fatigue, fever, cramping in my gut, and unusual bowel movements clearly means I'm having a flareup. I know water fasting for a day or two will make me feel better, but what to do after than is my concern. At present, I'm planning on water fasting for 2 days, then juicing for 3. Then I'll water fast for a day, then juice for 3, water for 1, juice for 3, and so on until I feel 100%. This may change once I hear from Dr. Azar…

When I feel 100% I'll juice for a few more days just to make sure everything is fine. I think this is going to be a long journey back :(

Juice Fast Conculsion…

Monday, November 4

I woke up is morning and decided I'd start a water fast immediately, instead of starting this evening. It wasn't in my plans when I went to sleep last night, but when I awoke, the thought crossed my mind since I had not eaten since 7 pm Sunday night.

It's now 5:01 pm and I'm almost 24 hours with nothing but water. I'm a little tired and have a mild headache. My gut, however, is feeling better than it has in weeks. I intend on water fasting through Wednesday evening, and then juicing. I'll update this blog entry each day with my diet and activity. Here's the plan:

Monday: Water fast
Tuesday: Water fast
Wednesday: Water fast through 6 pm. Then watermelon juice only
Thursday: Melon juice only
Friday:  Fruit juice
Saturday-Monday: Luna's 3-Day Cleanse
Tuesday and beyond: Fruit and vegetable juice


Tuesday, November 5

Today was amazing! I took the day off work since I didn't expect to have much energy without eating for over 24 hours. It's amazing how just two days of water makes the symptoms go away. I had more energy today than I've had in weeks. My joint and muscle pain is gone. Completely gone. Crazy actually.

Today at 7:00 p.m. it will be 3 full days on water. I'll introduce watermelon juice only with no pulp. Watermelon juice is extremely alkaline forming, so this will help heal any inflammation, and will be an easy transition for my GI tract to accept and digest.

I even had enough energy to play tennis this evening. That is absolutely crazy if you think about it. I had more energy with only water than I've had eating the last few weeks. Now, of course the body can't live this way long term, but it's a great way to give my GI tract a rest. Let's pray than when I begin juicing that my healing stays on tract.


Wednesday, November 6

Everything went well today. I slept quite a bit, then took my Thunderbird in to get a drive belt replaced (motorcycle, not the car). Water all day went well. All symptoms other than my bowel movements have disappeared. Yay!

On another note, my son turned 23 today. I don't feel old enough to have a 23 year old;)

Thursday, November 7

Today was an easy day up until when I arrived in Austin. I went there on M/I Homes business. I have traveled many many times with my juicer, but this time I forgot an important part to my juicer.

I traveled with a small watermelon, cantaloupe, apple, carrots and persimmons in my luggage. my small carry on luggage weighed a ton. Upon my arrival, I went to my room and  I began preparing my fruit for juicing. I cut the watermelon and cantaloupe in small pieces just to realize that my juicer wasn't going to work with the missing part.

Ultimately, I had the woman at the front desk of the hotel call me a cab and I went to Whole Foods for some juice. Fortunately, there was one less than 2 miles away. I found some cold press juice by Sujo. I was very thankful to find this because not only was it cold pressed, but it was free of pulp. Perfect!

When I returned to the hotel, I gave my cut up melon to the helpful front desk agent, and was set for juice for the night and for Friday. The only real issue with today was that it cost me $50 in juice and $20 in cab fare. Otherwise, all is well.

My energy levels are fine and body inflammation appears low. My colon is not normal yet, but I'm sure every day it is getting better :)

Friday, November 8

Today has been an easy day as well.  I had all of my juice from Whole Foods and the day was uneventful as it relates to Crohn's. no improvement in my bowels, however. From a business perspective, it was a wonderful day in Austin. I'm on the return flight at the moment, and should arrive around 8 pm.

Saturday, my sweetie and I were going to start Luna's Living Kitchen 3 Day cleanse, but we will have to delay that. When I called to order the cleanse today, I was informed that we had to make the order yesterday in order to have it for the weekend. So, I'm not quite sure what we are going to do. We may end up going to Luna's and buying juice by the jar, to get us through until Monday, or we will just make our own juice this weekend and maybe start with Luna's on Monday.

I thought it would be nice to take a break from having to spend an hour or more in front of a juicer this weekend, but plans evidently have changed…

On another note, this weekend I have two tennis matches: a singles match on Saturday at 5:00 pm, and a mixed doubles match Sunday at 3:00 pm with a partner I've never met. It's the Blakeney vs Weddinton club competition. This should be fun. I'm hopeful that my energy levels will be normal. The last few matches I've played, I was clearly fatigued. I play a really good woman on Saturday. i have no idea about the doubles team we play.

Saturday, November 9

Today was a relatively long day. I'm tired so I'm going to keep this short. In the scope of things, I had a reasonable amount of energy today, but I really didn't have much sleep last night. During a cleanse you should really get more sleep than usual and I likely only had about 6 hours sleep. 

I lost my singles match this afternoon against a very strong player. The first set she whooped me 6-2. The second set I was up 4-1, then got a charlie horse in my left calve. She ultimately beat m3 7-5. In looking at what causes charlie horses from a nutritional standpoint, a lack of calcium or potassium can cause it. Also, dehydration can cause it. So I've made juice with kiwi, which is him in potassium, and will have some almond milk this evening for calcium. I'm also going to make sure I'm fully hydrated.

I have a doubles match in the morning at 9:00 a.m. as well as one to 3:00 p.m. No more charlie horses please.

I'm a bit tired, so I'm off to sleep soon. Sweet dreams!


Sunday, November 10

I'm on my 10th day of no solid foods. I've had a major improvement in the last day. If you don't want to hear about bowel movements, then now is the time to stop reading.  Ultimately, I slept through the night last night without having a bowel movement. Better yet, is that today's stool was free of mucous. 

I've been having several bowel movements a day of not much other than mucous, but today was the first day that was not the case. So I am certain my inflammation has subsided and I'm on the way to eliminating the inflammation. Yay.

Also, I've been writing down some of the juice recipes. I will start a blog just with some of the recipes here in the near futures. Some times, I simply put things together of what I have left in my refrigerator, and duplicating it isn't likely. For example, if I have one pear, an apple, plum, peach, and cantaloupe, I may just put them all together without the thought of it becoming a recipe. Now and then I get a combination I really like.

So look for a blog on recipes soon.

Otherwise, my day was pretty good. When you're cleansing, your body is cleaning house and it uses more nerve energy than  when 100% healthy, so I'm a little more tired at the end of the day during this cleanse.


Monday, November 11

I'm so tired of juicing. Because my boyfriend is juicing too, we spend about 2 hours in front of the juicer each day. Arrrrgh....

Otherwise, all is well. I'm a little more tired at the end of the day, but that is expected while your body is cleansing. It is using much of its nerve energy cleaning house and there is not much left at the end of the day.

My gut doesn't seem to be improving much. It certainly has improved since when I started, but I've plateaued it seems...


Tuesday, November 12

Not sure why, but I am thinking of food way too much today. I'm not really hungry, but I'm missing the taste of food. Tonight we pick up Luna's Living Kitchen's 3 Day Cleanse. Yay. I get a break from the juice machine. Very cool. 


Wednesday, November 13

Today is my 10th day. I needed to start with Luna's cleanse. I'm needing a little motivation to continue and buying Luna's cleanse helps keep me vested in continuing. At least I know I'll stick it out until Friday since I've invested about $200 for the next three days of juices.

My bowel movements still don't show the improvement I would have like to have seen by now. I suspect I will discontinue the juice fast by Monday. I'll introduce blended bananas over the weekend and solid food on Monday. Depending upon how my body reacts to solid food, particularly, how my bowels react, I will decide whether or not to go back on the juice. 

I'm kind of over it at the moment, but I don't really know what alternative I have. I certainly don't want to have to go back on medication, so juice is my primary solution otherwise. Cross your fingers that the next few days brings healing to my gut.

Other than the bowel not being back to normal yet, I do feel substantially better. Fatigue is gone, and the pain in my joints and muscles are gone, meaning my body inflammation has subsided significantly. The only Crohn's symptom I'm showing of any sort is too much mucous in my bowel movements. Let's hope the next couple days fixes that :)


Thursday, November 14

Perfect timing. I think I'm ending this juice fast tomorrow or Sunday at the latest. If once on solid foods, it appears there has been not enough improvement, I'll very quickly return. However, some times it is hard to tell if bowel movements are normal when you're not eating normal. 

I will say that I believe the past day and a half have shown improvement. The Crohn's mucous is nonexistent today. Yay. 

I'm still a bit tired at the end of the day, which is normal when juicing. So I will need to go back to a plant based whole foods diet soon to see if my energy and bowel movements returns to normal. 

I have a mixed doubles tournament this weekend, so I'm not sure if we're going off the cleanse on Saturday morning, or if we're going to stick it out through the weekend, in spite of the tournament. 

Otherwise, I'm just missing the taste of food, and chewing. Haha. 


Friday, November 15

So today will be the last day of the juice cleanse. At about 7:00 p.m. this evening it will have been 12 days now. I feel great. I'll eat some type of fruits this evening and then see how things turn out in the morning. Wish me luck!


Saturday, November 16

Yay. Bowel movement is normal. No hint of Crohn's. Inflammation evidently was handled. I'll transition and have some steamed squash tonight.

By the way, I have the playoffs for your mixed doubles Charlotte Tennis Association Ladder 8.0 mixed doubles today. I'm excited and feel great! We're going to do awesome :)

Symptoms…

So I'm feeling some Crohn's symptoms: fatigue, joint and muscle pain, and of course irregular bowel movements. I've immediately transitioned to a healing juice diet. You can check out this blog for a reminder:  My Water Fast and Juice Healing Retreat

Right now I'm just juicing. I'll water fast two days next week, Tuesday and Wednesday, and then revert to the balance of this fast.

My boyfriend is such a sweetie. He's going to cleanse with me. This way it will be easier since there won't be as many temptations having the person I spend most of my spare time with joining me.

Wish me luck!

A Home Cooked (and uncooked) Meal

It's interesting how life has changed from two years ago. Saturday night I had and great whole foods plant based meal prepared with organic ingredients. It was absolutely delicious. It started out with a salad. Everything was fresh organic veggies and fruit. Two years ago, I wouldn't have considered such a meal...

Salad:
Spiraled zucchini and carrots
Vegan rice (cauliflower)

Cashew Curry Dressing:
Soaked cashews
Curry powder
Clove of garlic
Himalayan Salt
Agave Syrup

I also had veggie fajitas. After steaming the veggies, I simply poured the sauce that had been warmed on top of the steamer over the veggies.:

Steamed veggies:
Cauliflower
Broccoli
Crimini mushrooms
Red Onion
Serrano peppers
Red and yellow sweet peppers

Veggie Sauce:
Fresh tomato juice
Sesame seed oil
Cumin
Turmeric
Himalayan salt
Cracked pepper

The sales and guacamole was also made from scratch:

Guacamole:
Avocado
Tomato
Red Onion
Cilantro
Lime juice
Serrano pepper
Himalayan salt

Salsa:
Serano and poblano peppers
Tomatilla
Tomatos
Lime juice
Cilantro
Cumin
Garlic clove
Himalayan salt
Red Onion

Add all of this to some organic corn tortillas and you get an extremely healthy meal! The only ingredient that is acid forming is the corn tortillas. Otherwise, it's all alkaline forming, Who would have known you can eat healthy and delicious :)

For those with Crohn's or colitis, the onion and garlic can create inflammation; and the Serrano and jalapeno peppers, and tomatoes are irritants; so this is only for those in remission.

Why Do Doctors Give You Nutrition Through an IV?

How many of us with Crohn's or ulcerative colitis have found ourselves in the hospital, getting our nutrition through an IV because your GI tract doesn't absorb or digest properly?

It is a regular occurrence that when things get really bad, doctors do this so that we get the proper nutrients while giving our digestive system a rest. When things are this bad, we don't care that we don't get to eat our favorite foods. The only objective is to get the nutrients we need so that all of the cells of the body can be nourished, without having our digestive tract have to do any work so it can heal.

Well... with that in mind, doesn't it make sense that you can avoid a flare up the same way? If you got all of your nutrients through an IV you wouldn't have to ever worry about a flare up because your digestive system would have nothing to digest and nothing to irritate it, and therefore you don't get inflammation or ulcers. Right?

Sure, that makes sense! But...

It's not like you can be on an IV all your life. And you can't just stop eating and expect to be healthy. You have to have nutrients and good luck self administering an IV;)

So what do you do?

You can come close to accomplishing the same benefits by juicing.

There are two things juicing does that helps dramatically. First, raw fruits and vegetables are enzymatically alive, which means these foods have live enzymes within them to help digest 40-60% of that particular food.

Cooked and processed foods are enzymatically dead or denatured, which means there are no live enzymes within that food to help with digestion of that food. Your digestive system has to do all the work on its own. These dead foods will stress the entire body including the digestive system, the pancreas, the immune system, the body’s energy and the body’s enzyme reserves.

Easing our digestive functions by consuming enzymatically alive foods will help significantly.

Second, juice without fiber or pulp is the easiest way to get the nutrients we need. Fresh juice is not only full of enzymes, but it is already broken down and ready for absorption. Juicing gives us the nutrients without having our digestive system have to do much work. Removing the pulp from the juice helps reduce the amount of wast that the colon has to process. Your entire GI tract gets a rest.

There are only two basic rules to follow when juicing: the body needs to be slightly alkaline, so the fruits and vegetables juiced need to be alkaline forming, and you should not include foods that are irritants to the GI tract.

I use juice like medicine, but also as half my meals each day. Here's some things I suggest you include in your juice daily:

• Apples
• Carrots
• Watermelon
• Any other melon

Avoid adding any of these to your juice:

• Garlic
• Spinach
• Kale
• Collard Greens