The Poisoned Crown by Maurice Druon

The Poisoned Crown by Maurice Druon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

i'm starting to slow down on these. i'm still into the bigger story, but it felt like not a lot happened in this particular book. it felt like more of a bridge to the next book.

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Naan

I had some naan today. It was tasty but I feel kind of gassy and constipated. Hopefully it is the reminder I needed about what gluten does in my particular GI tract.

Need to refocus

The last couple days it feels like all my hard work in the Whole30 has been for naught. I have added honey to my tea, and eaten a ton of snacks, and had cake again. I haven't made cake, yet I have had access to it all week it seems. And I keep having "just a little" dairy, instead of eating cleanly.

I need to focus on more vegetables and more water and less dairy.

So good

Joëlle made chocolate mousse tonight! So delicious! And maybe it is the fat content, but the crappy sugar crash isn't as bad as from the cake yesterday.

Mixed success today

I pretty much avoided dairy (except I ate some of lumi's hot dogs and they have milk added) and I feel much better snot-wise. I'm not nearly so stuffy.

But we had a fun meet up at a local playground and one of the mom's baked a potato flour cake and I ate some of it, so I definitely had too much sugar.

On the upside, we had a pretty healthy dinner: chicken breasts thinly sliced and fried in olive oil, sautéed zucchini, and only partially thawed mix of broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower. Lumi had about 100g of chicken and then tons of "frozen vegetables" which she would not stop eating. Go figure.

More advances

I don't think a small amount of gluten feels like a problem for me, but I think I need to remove dairy again and see how it goes. For this re-intro, you are supposed to sample some, then go back to the Whole30 structure. But I have been weak and have been eating quite a bit of dairy. It just feels like such a relief to be able to eat it again! Of course, the problem is that I have been a little bit stuffy ever since. My nose has been running. I don't know why I have had such a problem sucking it up and stopping for a couple more days.

But now I have finished my kefir (which only I consume in the house), so I am going to spend the next two days avoiding dairy again. If my stuffy nose goes away, then I will know what the problem is. 

...and sugar

i made rhubarb pie today, using white sugar. it was delicious. i would like to try kind of a 6 days on, 1 day off type of schedule to see how it works for me. do i have the willpower for it? i don't know.

Gluten!

Today I wrecked the careful experimentation. I had chocolate that had a bit of gluten in it. I guess tomorrow I will be able to tell something, but it was a very little bit and I'm not sure I will be able to separate chocolate effects vs. sugar effects vs. gluten effects.

Either way I have been itching to try some of this stuff. I think I am not very sensitive to gluten, but I have been feeling better since I stopped eating it. Is it because it is inflammatory? Maybe. It might also be because it means I eat fewer carbs and sugar overall and thus I'm a little less weighed down when I avoid gluten. I recently read a blog post by a guy who says he needs one cheat day per week to really feel good on the other days and keep the magical paleo effect going. It's an interesting concept. Could I limit myself to gluten and sugar and such only on Saturdays? It would be worth trying.

Day after legumes

After the lentils experiment I am going back a couple of steps. I ate mostly clean today, well, my old version of clean: I had some yogurt, and I definitely had added sugar. I had worcestershire sauce and I had a bit of mixed berry jam.

Right now I am feeling bored with my meal choices. I'm planning to try to make Indian food at home this weekend, and that sounds fun. Spice shopping soon...

More on legumes

The baby definitely cried more than usual last night, with many unhappy wake ups. I am blaming the lentils.

Reintro: legumes

This evening I cooked a lentil dish I used to love: http://www.food.com/recipe/monastery-lentils-41384

It's tasty and easy to make (though I did leave out the sherry and it wasn't as good that way). It has only been a couple of hours since dinner so I can't give a full report, but the baby seemed unusually scream-y at bedtime (though in fairness that could be due to a crazy schedule today with insufficient napping). My belly feels okay. Maybe a tiny bit bloated?

No news is good news

I'm just on auto-pilot today. I had a couple pieces of apple and banana, and am only a little gassy. I had rice in my breakfast, but otherwise it was a mostly whole30 day. Tomorrow I want to try to introduce legumes.

No dairy and no fruit

Today I had no dairy and no fruit. The gas is gone. So, success? I don't know. I miss the fruit of course because of the taste. And the ease of grabbing an apple. But what about the vitamin c? I worry about that.

UPDATE: I completely forgot about the half a grapefruit I had in the afternoon. No ill effects so far.

Oh and I am eating tons of broccoli these days. And we eat red peppers. That should do it for vitamin c, right? I should eat more spinach and dark greens, but they aren't easy to come by at the local grocery store so I get lazy about it.

Another day, another experiment

OK so I'm definitely not following the pattern you are supposed to for the Whole30 reintro. Today I had fruit (banana, grapes, kiwi) and no dairy and no rice. By midday I was gassy again. So I think I can safely conclude that as long as I am not having something like rice in my diet then fruit will make me gassy. Especially sweeter fruit like grapes.

I hope I'm not feeling stuffy tomorrow. If I feel fine again then I think I have to conclude that dairy makes me stuffy. And that is really sad: I love dairy! I love milk in my tea and cream on my berries and creamy soups and cheesy quiche and lots of other things.

The Light Princess by George MacDonald

The Light Princess by George MacDonald
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

charming and fun to read.

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Stuffiness

I am definitely a bit stuffy today. They say that's a common response to dairy. It's not really bad, but it's definitely something I don't want to deal with all the time. The question is this: is it better to be stuffy and get to eat cheese, or is it better to not be stuffy but never eat cheese?

But the bigger issue is that last night the loose stools got to be too much. I'm breastfeeding, and staying hydrated is hard enough without that draining water and nutrients. So I ate rice. I had some rice last night, and then more with our traditional fried eggs and rice for breakfast. And I didn't eat fruit today, just to see what would happen. So far the gas and gross poo have slowed significantly. I don't know if that's due to the addition of rice or the lack of fruit.

I miss the apple slices and oranges and the like, but I thought I had to try this for a day to see what happens. Tomorrow I would like to maintain the rice but try to have fruit too to see what happens.

The Strangled Queen by Maurice Druon

The Strangled Queen by Maurice Druon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

i'm hooked now, and i can't wait for book #3. my only regret is not knowing more french history.

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Continuing dairy re-intro

I don't feel great. The gas and weird stools have increased. I had kefir again today and also a cream-based soup and also some feta cheese.