Life's Lemonade

We're all familiar with the expression "when life hands you lemons, make lemonade". I always thought it was a cute saying, and while I thought I could relate to it now and then I never really lived it. Until last year. 2011 served me up a big ole bushel of lemons with the rapid onset and diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. I've detailed the onset of my RA already in My Story so let's jump ahead a bit to the lemonade recipe I've been working on.

I'm an optimistic person by nature, so when I became ill I knew that somewhere in my future there had to be a reason, a silver lining, a recipe for "lemonade". My illness forced me to make some really big changes, really fast. I had to re-order my priorities so I could take better care of myself. In one year's time I changed every single part of my life outside of my personal relationships. The process was painful, but it was necessary.

On a personal level my lemonade recipe has included making more time for family, moving to a smaller house to lighten my financial burden, and saying no to projects and commitments that would spread me too thin. My recipe also involved a very important change in attitude and perspective. As trite as it may seem, I no longer sweat the small stuff. I worry less and trust more. I don't put my time or energy into toxic people. I know that the only things that truly matter in this world are relationships and health. On the professional side I restructured my business to allow me more control over my time. I closed my storefront, downsized my custom cakes business, and canceled many of my commitments. I found a new professional path that has greater personal meaning and allows me to help others with chronic illnesses. I'm launching a new business offering culinary wellness services, going back to my culinary roots to work again as a personal chef and instructor, but with a twist- now my food is all about health and healing. I've gone back to school to study nutrition and become a holistic health coach. I've never been happier, or healthier. My lemonade is tasting pretty damn good right now. And moreover, I've learned to be thankful for the lemons I was handed.

In hindsight I realize that the personal and professional changes I made in response to my health crisis had been necessary for quite some time, I just couldn't or wouldn't see it. Life does have a way of kicking us in the ass when we're not paying attention to the more gentle hints it serves us, and I got one heck of an ass-kicking last year. I'm telling you all this in the hope that someone out there may relate to it,  perhaps someone who has just been handed some lemons and is having a hard time understanding the "why?" of it all. Hang in there, take care of yourself, and look for the silver lining. It's there, and so is that lemonade recipe that will make your life so much sweeter.

Fave Sources: Health and Wellness Magazines

I'm an information junkie. I'm insatiable. I have a stack of mags and books at my bedside, in the kitchen, and on the table by "my side" of the couch in the family room. The storage ottoman in the living room is chockablock full of healthy eating and wellness reading material and cookbooks. And let's not even get started on how much time I spend with my pal Google.

Information is power, and it's with this power that I was able to heal my rheumatoid arthritis without medication. Magazines are generally avoided in my home, their throw away nature makes them decidedly NOT "green", so I purchase mags I consider worthy of a permanent spot on my book shelf. If they aren't keepers I don't bring them home. I definitely have my favorites that I turn to again and again.The mags here are my top pics for healthy eating advice, recipes, and wellness tips.

DR ANDREW WEIL'S SELF HEALING, or anything written by this man for that matter, is tops on my list. Dr. Weil is a Harvard trained MD and integrative health guru who brings health and wellness facts, figures and scientific research to life in a straightforward way that neither confuses the reader nor talks down to them. In short, Dr. Weil is da bomb.

LIVING WITHOUT magazine is a must-have for anyone on a gluten free diet. Their recipes are all 100% gluten free. They also offer ingredient substitutions for dairy, egg, peanuts and soy. This magazine is a lifesaver for those with food allergies or sensitivities.

WHOLE LIVING magazine's tag line is "body + soul in balance". That balance is what we're all striving for and this Martha Stewart Publication definitely delivers. Don't let the Martha Stewart thing scare you away, there's none of that condescending "it's a good thing" talk here. Whole Living covers more than just food too. Health and beauty, style, travel, home, they're all covered here in the beautiful pages.

NATURAL HEALTH is one of the first publications to print on recycled paper. Kudos to them for that and for an absolutely fabulous mag. Natural Health focuses on food, health, beauty and exercise. I've made many of their recipes and they are fantastic. Love, love, love their natural beauty product reviews and their attainable tips for managing stress. And PS, this month's cover girl, Dancing With The Stars judge, Carrie Ann Inaba, manages her arthritis pain with an anti-inflammatory diet. Just sayin'.

Healthy Cooking Fake Out: Bacon Flavor Without the Oink

I admit it, I used to be an "everything's better with bacon" girl. In fact, I was that girl until just a few months ago, when I decided to take my health into my own hands and treat my rheumatoid arthritis without drugs. Bacon is not on my arthritis diet for a number of reasons. First, my anti-inflammatory diet is low in protein and allows no beef or pork. Second, foods containing nitrosamines and other curing agents are off limits. And lastly, my nutritional research has led me to make some personal choices about what I'm eating. While I'm not technically vegan since I eat fish and pastured eggs, I have given up all "meat with feet".

But the foodie in me still craves that rich, meaty, "umami" flavor in my dishes, so I started doing some experimenting to recreate those flavors in another, healthier, form. I found the answer in, believe it or not, shiitake mushrooms! Cooking sliced or diced mushrooms at relatively high heat until browned and crisp, and adding coarse sea salt at the end of cooking produces a fantastic "fake out" bacon. Now, this isn't going to stand in for bacon on your breakfast plate next to your pancakes, but added to pasta, vegetables, quinoa, omelets, etc, you'll never notice the difference. And the bonus is that shiitake mushrooms are super healthy, containing antiviral and anticancer properties.

I eat shiitake nearly every day so I always have them on hand, but you could substitute crimini or baby portobellos although the result will be more meaty than crispy unless you slice very thinly. Skip the white button mushrooms as they are nutritionally inferior. Measurements are not included here because you can make these in whatever quantities you need for your particular dish.

Fake Out "Bacon" Mushrooms

olive oil

Shiitake mushrooms, sliced or diced (see Tips below)

coarse sea salt

1. Heat oil in saute pan over medium-high heat. You want just enough oil to lightly coat your pan (see Tips below). If your oil starts to smoke, turn down the heat a bit.
2. Add the mushrooms and saute until browned and crispy. Don't move the mushrooms around too much or they won't brown properly, just give them a shake or stir every minute or so. Use a wooden spoon to scrape up the browned bits as they cook, there's lots a flavor in those bits so you want them in your finished dish, not on the saute pan to be washed down the drain.
3. When finished cooking add freshly ground course sea salt and toss together.

TIPS:

• Don't wash your mushrooms or they will absorb the water and become soggy. Take a clean kitchen towel or a piece of paper toweling and brush any visible dirt from the mushrooms.
• The thinner you slice your mushrooms the more crispy they will be when sauteed. If you like your "bacon" a bit meatier then slice your mushrooms thicker.
• Make sure your pan is hot before you add the mushrooms or they will get soft before they brown.
• You don't need much oil here, just enough to lightly coat the pan, we're not frying. 
• Mushrooms are about 80% water and that water comes out as they cook and then is reabsorbed. If you add salt during the cooking process it will be reabsorbed with the water in the later stages of the cooking process. We want our salt on the outside of our mushrooms so wait until the very end to add it.
• I add these mushrooms to just about everything: pastas, veggies, quinoa and rice, salads, bean dishes. They also make a wonderful garnish for soups. I often add toasted walnuts to the same dishes, the flavors complement each other very well.

Last night I added my Fake Out "Bacon" Mushrooms to sauteed broccoli, roasted garlic and toasted walnuts. Yum!

Drug-Free Rheumatoid Arthritis Program Part 1: "What's Eatin' You?"

So, what's eatin' you?

If you have Rheumatoid Arthritis or any other chronic illness, this is a very important question to ask yourself. When I was first diagnosed with RA I knew there would be important lifestyle and diet changes that I would make to support my treatment. But it was several months before I realized that the lifestyle and dietary changes would BE my treatment. It was several months before I realized it wasn't just what I was eating, it was what was eatin' me.

I spent those months struggling through the initial phases of what I can only call "the mourning process". Learning you have an incurable, chronic illness is a bit like dealing with a death. I'm not trying to be melodramatic here, if you've been through it you'll understand. There's the denial phase, the bargaining phase, the anger phase, and finally, acceptance. I got stuck in anger. Really stuck. Really angry. I won't digress into all the details of what I was angry about, I could write about that all night. I only mention it because in hindsight I realize it was a very useful time for me. Anger is an "active" emotion, it's energizing, it's motivating. Anger propelled me towards an understanding of the cause of my illness, namely a malfunctioning immune system. Anger fueled the hours of research. Anger made me look for a fix for my immune system. Anger forced me to ask myself, "what's eatin' me"?

The single most important aspect of my drug-free RA program is my diet. I'll say it again: You. Are. What. You. Eat. Think about it. Junk in, junk out. Toxins in, toxins out. If you're eating foods that offend your immune system then your foods are EATING AT YOU. If you don't believe me just give this program a try for a couple of weeks. But I warn you, it's not for the faint of heart. Oh no, you gotta have balls to do this. You gotta be committed. You gotta want to heal. But I figure, if I can do it, anyone can. You see, I live for food. I'm a foodie. I've been in the food industry for nearly 20 years now and part of my anger was tied up in the realization that I would have to give up certain foods that I love.

I did the research, I read the books (Dr. Weil, thank you very much!), I frequented the chat-rooms. I decided to go on the most restrictive anti-inflammatory diet I could find. I would eliminate ALL of the potential arthritis triggers for one month, and then, one by one, add them back to see which were offending my body (this is called an "elimination diet" and you can find lots of info about it online). That was the plan anyway. After a couple of false starts (this was NOT an easy transition) I was on my way. Two weeks into it I felt dramatic improvement. My joints moved freely and my pain was greatly decreased. I desperately missed the eliminated foods, especially gluten and corn. But I felt so good that I resisted cheating. I kept telling myself that those foods were poison to my body, it really helped me psychologically. After a month I was free of symptoms completely. It felt like a miracle to have my body back.

The time had finally come to add something back to my diet. This was the moment I had waited for! But I couldn't decide which potential offender I would try first. And then I had a thought, "what if it makes me sick again?", "what if the pain comes back?". I decided I was feeling too good to risk it so I waited another week. And another. And another. I was two months along when I decided to test gluten. Fail. Within 8 hours of eating a tiny slice of whole grain bread my wrists tightened and became sore. Ok, no gluten for me. Ten days later I tested corn. Fail. Again, my body let me know very quickly that it did not want corn. That was enough for me. So here I am, still on the super-restrictive diet, completely symptom-free (and 10 pounds lighter, I might add). And here I will stay. It may take several more months to heal my immune system to the point of being able to reintroduce those foods, or several years, I honestly don't know. I do know that this diet is powerful, that it is healing my body, that it has changed my life for the better. Not only am I free of RA symptoms but I sleep better, have more energy, think more clearly, and have lost 10 pounds. My body feels like a perfectly functioning machine for the first time in my life. And just to reiterate, I take NO MEDS. None for RA, none for allergies, none for pain, none for acne, etc, etc. I am completely med free. I support my body with supplements, Chinese herbs, homeopathic treatments, and acupuncture, all of which I will detail in upcoming posts.

So here's the nuts and bolts of my eating program. Make sure you clean out your pantry of offending foods and stock up on the good stuff. Buy a juicer if you can, they are good as gold. Prepare yourself mentally too. It's not easy at first, but it does get easier as you go along. For me, the first 4 days were pretty hellish. But seriously, 4 days of feeling deprived isn't a terrible price to pay for the miracle of healing.

The No's

No processed sugar

No gluten- wheat flour, spelt, barley, rye, triticale, bulgur, farina, semolina, durham, graham

No oats unless specifically labeled gluten free

No peanuts

No dairy

No corn

No citrus

No eggs

No nightshades- tomatoes, potatoes (sweet potatoes are ok), peppers, eggplant

No red meat or pork

No alcohol

No caffeine 

No artificial anything, no MSG, nothing fried, nothing you can't pronounce

I know what you're thinking. "What the hell do you EAT"? I eat LOTS of vegetables and fruit, beans, rice, quinoa, nuts and seeds, salmon and tuna. I have found that I can cheat on a couple of these too. I have never given up my morning coffee, I just couldn't wrap my head around facing caffeine withdrawal on top of everything else. I don't have any other caffeine the rest of the day, just the one cup in the morning. I also have a glass of red wine now and then, but for the first 6 weeks I abstained completely. Only one glass, a couple of nights a week. Any more than that and I feel dull, foggy and sore. The other cheat is citrus. I use lemon and lime juice in my cooking, in small amounts for flavor balance, but I don't drink citrus juice or eat the fruit.

The Yes's

Eat vegetables, especially leafy greens like kale, mushrooms, ginger and turmeric

Eat fruits, especially berries

Eat beans (and Beanitos Chips)

Eat quinoa (this is a seed but is treated like a grain in the kitchen. it's a complete protein)

Eat salmon (VERY important! you need lots of omega 3 oils to fight inflammation)

Eat rice (including rice noodles found in the Asian foods aisle)

JUICE DAILY (veggies mostly, but some fruit too, see my "BACK to health blend")

Push your flavonoids (spinach, blueberries)

Push your quercetin (apples, onions)

Push your omega 3's (salmon, walnuts, flax seeds)

Push the turmeric and ginger

Drink lots of filtered water and green tea

Goji Berry Tea

 

What I Eat (or juice) EVERY SINGLE DAY

beets

apples

carrots

kale

ginger

turmeric

brocolli

shiitake mushrooms

onions and garlic

salmon or tuna

beans

walnuts or flaxseeds

Beanitos Chips

Mrs Mays Cran-Blueberry Crunch or a Kind Macadamia & Apricot bar

turmeric tea 

Ready to make dinner!

Ok. So there you have it. Give it some time to sink in. It's not an easy program to follow at first but when you start feeling the benefits it gets so much easier. I've discovered new foods and flavors, and have challenged myself in the kitchen like never before. I spend time perusing aisles at Central Market that I used to skip over, specifically the Asian section and the bulk bins. It can get a little boring if you eat the same things every day, so mix it up. I can make broccoli 10 different ways now and all are absolutely delicious. And if the thought of beets makes you go "eeewwwww...", all I can say is don't knock it until you try it prepared properly! Oven-roasted beets are heavenly! And yes, I'll share my recipes with you in future posts.  

For now, I'm signing off, it's time to head to Central Market for fresh kale, mushrooms and beets. And remember, you are what you eat, so don't let your food eat at you!