Eat, sleep, move!

There's not a lot of new things to share right now.  Life is moving along!  Actually, I'm feeling pretty good, now that I stop and think about it.  This would likely be due to:

1) Eating better (with the goal to lose weight)
2) Getting enough sleep
3) Starting an exercise program
4) Re-starting antibiotics at the beginning of January

I sure had developed some BAD habits in the fall, and now I'm trying to break them.  I think I've FINALLY gotten it through my head that I need a multi-pronged approach to keeping this Lyme in check.  Honestly, if you think you can just stop the antibiotics when you feel well, but slip into your old habits of eating refined sugar and Cheetos, and staying up until 1:00 a.m., then you are likely to have a rude awakening......like I did.

Exercise has been good, but I'm sore!  I'm trying to pace myself, and listen to my body so that I give it ample time to recover from a workout before going to the gym again.  I aim to work out 3 times per week.  I have to keep reminding myself of ALL of the benefits of exercise, besides weight loss.  It boosts the immune system, helps with lymph drainage, gets those antibiotics pumping through the body better, improves sleep, and boosts the mood.  I'm also so amazed and grateful every time I work out, when I think back to how terribly weak I was in early 2011.  As I've stated before, when I was really ill with Lyme, washing and drying my hair was exhausting!  Now, I can do the treadmill for 30 minutes followed by 20 minutes of strength training.  Quite the miracle!

In the food department, my naturopath says that it takes 21 days to break the sugar habit.  OK, I'm on Day 4, and I've already blown it.  But I'm learning that healthy eating is not just a day to day goal, but sometimes an hour to hour goal.  If I blow it one hour, I need to get right back on that wagon and carry on.  Sugar is SO bad for Lyme disease.  It suppresses the immune system, which is the exact opposite to what you're hoping to do.  It also feeds yeast, and the last thing you need in addition to your Lyme is a systemic yeast infection.  I'm trying to use stevia and xylitol in place of sugar.  I can't say that I'm thrilled with stevia in my coffee, but I'll put up with it, or maybe learn to drink it with cream only.  I've also got some recipes for treats made with xylitol, so when I allow myself to indulge, at least I won't be feeding the yeast in my intestines.

I recently purchased the book Wheat Belly Cookbook.  If you haven't read Wheat Belly, I really encourage you to.  And if you feel like jumping on board (and frankly, I don't know how anyone wouldn't want to after reading that) then the Wheat Belly Cookbook is a fantastic companion to the original.  Dr. William Davis, a cardiologist, explains why the genetically modified wheat we grow today is so bad for our bodies, how it elevates the blood sugar, and produces fat storage from the resulting insulin spike.  And in addition to that, inflammation occurs all over the body and manifests itself in various ways, depending on the person.  All I can say is....it is a very, very convicting book!  And it will scare the living daylights out of you if you LOVE your pastas and breads!

I have decided to greatly reduce my grain consumption, and to try to eliminate wheat, although I don't think I'm going to go to the extent of reading every label on every canned good I buy.  If it is an obvious source of wheat, then I'll eliminate it, e.g., bread, crackers, pasta.  The key is to find suitable and tasty substitutes for those things.  Instead of wheat crackers, I've bought brown rice crackers or Mary's Crackers (which Costco sells big boxes of).  Instead of wheat pasta, I found pasta at Costco made from amaranth + quinoa + brown rice.  As my "starch" at diner, I'll eat 1/2 cup of brown rice or barley or quinoa, and sometimes a 1/2 potato, though sweet potato would be better.  The bread is the hard part!  I will occasionally allow myself some sprouted grain bread such as Ezekiel or Silver Hills, though Dr. Davis would say that this is like putting "lipstick on a pig"!  They're still wheat.

I have no idea how a cardiologist has the time to come up with so many lovely looking recipes!  But honestly, if you really do want to embark on a wheat-free diet, or if you need to be gluten-free, Dr. Davis has many recipes for making "bread-like" creations that should satisfy you.  They involve the use of almond flour for the most part:  muffins, biscuits, pizza dough, etc.  I haven't tried any of them yet.  For one thing, I would only be able to eat them at home, as my workplace is "nut free" due to allergies. 

I'd still be interested in knowing what Dr. Davis would think of the spelt flour that I wrote about recently.  It's not made from the same type of wheat we regularly consume, so perhaps it would not have the same effect on the blood sugar.(?)

I'll leave you with an amazing fact from Dr. Davis' book:  Two slices of whole wheat bread have a higher glycemic index than a Snickers Bar!  No....that doesn't mean we should run out and grab a Snickers bar guilt-free, but perhaps we need to re-think our morning toast.

Spelt - a healthier flour

I'm beginning to wonder why I don't have a food blog, instead of a Lyme blog!  In my search to find healthy recipies for my family and me, I keep coming across some good dishes that I must share.  And you know that somehow I'll manage to tie it into Lyme disease.  Here goes...

My first LLMD insisted on a yeast-free sugar-free diet for her patients.  Eating this way helps to prevent yeast overgrowth which is so prevalent with antibiotic use.  The sugar-free part is to help to stop feeding the Lyme bacteria, which loves sugar.

In some cases, people might even have to go gluten-free to feel OK.  As many of you will know by now, Lyme disease can wreak havoc on the digestive system, so it's important not to introduce foods into the intestines that will aggravate the already-inflamed tissues.

Over the years, I have learned about spelt flour, which is a cousin to wheat flour.  It is apparently more easily digested than regular flour, and has more protein and nutrients.  Therefore, it might be wise to switch to this type of flour for your baking, if you have Lyme disease.  A word of caution:  It still has gluten, so those on a gluten-free diet may need to stay away from spelt, too. 

The gluten in spelt has some different properties than the gluten in regular flour, so a few changes need to be made to your recipe if you choose to substitute spelt for regular flour.  Firstly, use 1/4 less liquid in your recipe.  The spelt gluten cannot absorb as much liquid as regular gluten.  Secondly, don't overwork your dough!  If you do, you may end up with an end product that is too flat, too dense, or hard.  So be careful!  I encourage you to do a little research online about spelt.  There are many bakers out there with much more experience than me in dealing with spelt.  I mainly use it in muffins or quick breads (e.g. banana bread).  I've never tried it in cookies or regular bread.

Tonight I was serving up a homemade soup, and I wanted some "bready" thing to accompany it.  I opened my cookbook called Babycakes, and there was a recipe for spelt biscuits staring me in the face.  By the way, BabyCakes NYC is a bakery in New York City that caters to those who need gluten-free products.  If you MUST eat gluten-free, then you MUST get a hold of this cookbook!  There are recipes for all sorts of breads, cakes, cookies, you name it.  And they look wonderful. 

Now to tell you the truth, I bought the cookbook long ago, when I thought I might need to go gluten-free.  But I never ended up pursuing that, and honestly, I don't really think I have a gluten intolerance.  So this cookbook, beautiful as it is, was just collecting dust on my shelf.  Until tonight.

Now let me reiterate that these biscuits are NOT gluten-free.  Most of the recipes in the book ARE gluten-free, but not the biscuit section.  They are a healthier choice, however, not only because of the spelt flour, but because of the coconut oil used in them.  They taste really rich, even without slathering them with butter.  And I love the salt sprinkled on top to give them a bit of extra flavour.
My batch didn't rise as well as I thought they would, but they were still delicious with the soup.

Spelt Biscuits

2 cups white spelt flour, plus more for dusting
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt, plus more for sprinkling
1/3 cup coconut oil, plus more for brushing
3/4 cup hot water

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Pour the oil and hot water into the dry ingredients and mix with a rubber spatula until fully combined and a dough is formed.  If the batter is dry, add more hot water, 2 tablespoons at a time, until the dough is sticky.
3. Dust the counter with spelt flour.  Place the dough on the prepared surface and drag it through the flour.  Pat the dough gently until it is 1 inch thick.  Using a 3-inch round cookie cutter, cut out biscuits and arrange them on the prepared baking sheet, leaving 1 inch between the biscuits so they can spread.  Brush each with oil and sprinkle with salt.
4. Bake the biscuits on the center rack for 8 minutes, rotating the sheet 180 degrees after 4 minutes.  The finished biscuits will have a golden, flaky crust.
5. Let the biscuits stand on the sheet for 5 minutes before serving.  Cool completely and store in plastic wrap at room temperature for up to 2 days.

Source:  Babycakes, by Erin McKenna