Lab Values --Woo Hoo!

It's been a bit over a year since I started Body Ecology... and the results are in. This is the first year I did not receive a warning from my doctor about my borderline blood pressure and my high cholesterol. The first time in 28 years, my friends. My triglicerides went from 167 to 68 (normal is 40 to 100). That is the direct result from getting off sugar.

Based on reactions from friends and co-workers, most people think it is just nuts completely eliminating sugar from my diet. This is table sugar... note that I do get naturally occurring sugars from starchy vegetables and fruits, etc. But the lab values speak for themselves. It was horrible for a few weeks and is now effortless.

As soon as you can get yourself to do it... just bite the bullet and give that poison up!

One Good Sweetener Deserves Another

A little something sweet is critical to success. If you're running around craving sweets all the time you'll never stick with it. If you don't stick with it, you'll eat something to make you feel lousy. If you feel lousy you'll want to eat more sweets-- that's how it works. It is so worth making the effort to convert to natural low/no calorie sweeteners we are lucky to have access to these days.

 Another good sweetener is Lakanto, which is also known as Monk Fruit. It's nearly calorie free and delicious. Stevia is great for tea, kefir and other beverages and for sprinkling over berries. Monk Fruit is nice for more solid foods like butternut squash with butter.

Sometimes Lakonto is combined with a sugar alcohol called Erythritol. This is the one sugar alcohol that does not tend to set off people with IBS. I have yet to find a use for this combination. I get the sense it would be good for baking as it's quite granular and seems to take a lot of heat in order to dissolve. It's just that I no longer do any baking. If I think of something, you'll be the first to know.

When combined together Stevia and Monk fruit often make an even better sweetener. I put them together in kefir and Coconut Kefir "cheese" (a fermented food, that I use as a dessert, made with the soft meat from young coconuts), I also like those foods with cinnamon and (alcohol free) vanilla.

Sprouted Nuts and Seeds

The Body Ecology Diet recommends eating only nuts and seeds that have been sprouted. This involves soaking them in water for 8 to 24 hours. I have read that this makes nuts and seeds easier to digest. It seems to work for me, though does involve a bit of extra effort. If you want to try some before putting in any effort, pick up sprouted almonds at Whole Foods --they are quite delicious. Whole Foods has other sprouted nuts and seeds; however, I do not care for them.

Unfortunately, if you buy them already sprouted they cost about twice as much as garden variety nuts. Thankfully, making them takes only a bit of extra effort. I buy raw nuts and seeds, soak overnight, let them dry out for a few hours, and then roast on a low temperature until they are crunchy again. They get a little sweeter after soaking. I generally skip the salt, as I do not find it necessary even though I really love salt.

Magical Foods

Once I discovered magical probiotic foods, I really started to heal. There are many foods made in old fashioned ways that are loaded with probiotics. Not the level of probiotics that you take in a pill... I mean seriously loaded.

I began with cultured vegetables. I bought some at health-food stores (check the refrigerator case). My favorite cultured vegetables I can by are Bubbies pickles. These are pickles made the old fashioned way. Not made by pickling with heat that kills probiotics. Rather the cucumbers are slowly pickled on your counter. All cultured vegetables are sour as the probiotics grow by "eating" the sugars that are in the vegetables. I had to grin and bear it in the beginning and then they really grew on me.

Once I started liking them I started adding in more and more and learning how to make them myself. They start off as a kind of healing medicine and become something you never want to live without. I now love Kombucha*(fermented tea originating from China), Kefir (fermented milk similar to drinkable yoghurt), Coconut Kefir (fermented coconut water from young coconuts), Coconut Kefir Cheese (fermented coconut meat from young coconuts). I hope to discover many more in the future!

*Note the Body Ecology folks do not support the use of kombucha, as they have not researched it thoroughly and have concern that it may contain too much yeast that is harmful. Having said that, I love it and feel it brought me to the next level. Time will tell.

My Food IS My Medicine

When I started seeing results, from my simple first step of 80% non-starchy veggies and 20% animal protein or starchy veggies... my thinking began to change. I thought... my medicine will be my food. I will stop trying to make everything tasty and comforting and spend a few months healing myself.

I read that if I stuck with it my tastes would change. I decided to SIU (suck-it-up) and at least temporarily give up some of my comfort foods and add in foods I found less appetizing.
I took a couple of big steps.  Grains and table sugar were eliminated from my diet.You read it correctly... no added sugar (glucose, fructose, sucrose, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, rice syrup, tapioca syrup... nothing!)  With the goal to keep natural, calorie-free sweet tasting foods in my diet, I shunned artificial sweeteners and used only stevia as a sweetener. I will point out I truly detested stevia at that time. This was no small sacrifice.

Sobe Lifewater helped me make that first big leap. It was the one stevia sweetened thing I found that tasted okay, note it also has erythritol. It gave me something sweet at least. I like the Strawberry Dragonfruit, Fuji Apple Pear, and Black Raspberry varieties best. I admit they were a total crutch, but hey, it got me there. Now it serves as an occasional treat.

Starting Small

I spent a long time thinking of starting the Body Ecology Diet. I just could not bring myself to begin.   My friend, who got over her chronic fatigue with the diet, suggested starting small. I picked two small ways to start:
1) First, I bought the Kindle edition of the book so I would have it available on my smart phone. My friend suggested reading the book slowly as it is a bit challenging.
2) Second, I tried the most basic aspect of the diet.  I made 80% of my plate non-starch vegetables and 20% either starchy vegetables or animal protein.
It was an easy way to start and it got me going. It seemed manageable and after that point I decided I would think of my food as medicine... But, that's another thought for another day.

My Body Hates Sugar

One thing I learned from following a low FODMAPS diet last year --My body HATES sugar in pretty much any form. Many who do the FODMAPs  elimination diet find they can add some of the FODMAPs categories back into their diet. Not me, I failed every challenge. I am okay with that fact. Once I accepted that sugar just isn't for me it all got easier.