Saturday, May 9, 2009

SCD alternatives

I have been feeling stressed out about going to camp lately. It would be a great spiritual experience, but would mean temporarily going off the SCD, which is NOT a good idea, from what I have heard. Good cause for stress and conflict, huh?
I finally came up with a good compromise - enzymes. My hopes are that the enzymes will enable me to go to camp, go off the SCD, and be healthier without all the fuss of eating different meals. I could, however, use your prayers. Thanks!

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Delicious Stage 1 muffins!

I was looking at a blog called "The SCD girl and her kid" and it has some awesome recipes that anyone early on SCD should try. Included was a recipe for carrot pancakes, which I had made before instead of squash pancakes. There was also a recipe for muffins. It called for 2 cups pureed fruit of veggie, so I used 1 cup each of applesauce and mashed carrots. I used the eggs, honey, and coconut oil, but omitted the cinnamon and vanilla. Best grain free muffins without nuts I ever tasted!

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Church for the Neurogically Impaired

Does anyone else with neurological problems such as autism or schizophrenia have difficulty with church? I know I do. Of course our church is liturgical, which is nice but is practically a recipe for sensory overload.
Today, at church, I kept feeling angry and frustrated for no reason, hitting myself and stomping my feet. At one point I even tried to crawl under the pew. I was quite embarassed afterwards, but what can you do?
In the end, my dad had to take me out and I ended up sitting with Mom in the choir loft. Then I was fine.
What could this be? How can I be having problems in one part of church and not in another? The only real factor was that my sister wasn't in the choir loft. She was bothering me. I feel so guilty for being bothered, which is an ongoing problem for me. And all I can do is trust God to forgive me.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

A trip to Farmer's Market

This morning my mother and I went to farmer's market. Or I should say one farmer's market, because it can't be the only one! There was nice fiddle music playing and we found local honey, eggs, beef, and lard! These things are hard to get. We also got vegetables and basil and cilantro to plant in pots, which I did. It was overall charming, and I commented: "This is how shopping should be!"

Yay! I'm back to spinning newspaper!

I figured out the secret to spinning newspaper. It's all in the joining. You simply hold the unspun strands together and then twist them. So now I am back to spinning newspaper.

The $500 Question for Today

People frequently make health claims for the 'Paleo diet'. This is supposedly the diet we evolved to eat, as hunter-gatherers, and is incedentally grain-free.
But what if you don't believe in evolution? What if you believe that God created everything around the same time, and that He taught humans to farm? What if the 'diseases of civilization' are not from civilization itself but from an unbalanced diet? It was my mother who brought up these questions, incidentally.
I do not believe that diseases of civilization do not exist, but I also do not think that cavemen were completely healthy, seeing as how they starved half the time, or at least many of them did. I think diseases of civilization are caused by newer things, such as pesticides and antibiotics. Not farming.
There is evidence that antibiotics and vaccines can cause autism. You can make an argument on either side, but I stand in the middle. I think that vaccines and/or antibiotics can make an autistic condition worse, where it may not have manifested otherwise. I also think that not all forms of autism are alike, and that the 'autism epidemic' may be from different things such as antibiotics, vaccnes, all combined with industrial food. But I am not a certified health specialist, so I cannot say for sure.
So maybe we would all be perfectly healthy if we ate properly processed, organic food and everything was in moderation. Maybe if the doctors didn't shove antibiotics at you to make you go away, there would be fewer cases of autism. Maybe if everyone prepared their grains properly and there was no such thing as packaged, processed junk, there would be no need for grain-free diets that are necessary for healing in some people. This is just a theory, but maybe. Just maybe.

Why I am on the SCD diet

First you might ask "What is the SCD diet?" So first I will answer that. SCD is Specific Carbohydrate Diet, and the basic idea is that the only food you eat is easy to digest, so it doesn't feed bad microbes in your gut that cause brain problems. This means no grains, no sugar, and no starches (potatoes, tapioca, arrowroot . . .). Also the only dairy allowed is lactose-free. It has recently been approved as a treatment for autism and there is evidence that it can help schizophrenia. So what is there to lose?
I have been on this diet before for 'autistic' symptoms because I just felt awful. But after only a few months, I had a major psychotic break, was hospitalized and diagnosed with catatonic schizophrenia, and taken off the diet. I was soon back on the GFCF diet because I felt drunk when I ate gluten. But going back on the SCD diet was not the plan - until a friend of my mother's went on it. Mom flipped through the book, and before I said good night, I mentioned:
"You know, when I was on that diet, my brain and my tummy felt way better."
So now I am back on the SCD diet and all I am eating is meat, eggs, carrots, bananas, honey and Welch's grape juice. Do I feel deprived. No. Apart from occasional sweet cravings, I feel sorry for everyone else when I see the junk they are putting into their bodies. Not all of them are, so I am not trying to be judgemental. I just want to feel my best. And this is how I do it. It may not be the same for everyone, but this is what works for me.

A Spinning Misadventure

So I asked for a spindle and some wool for my birthday present. The pair of spindles finally came in the mail. I had checked out a library book on handspinning, and it mentioned recycled fibers such as blue jean cotton or wool mixed with recycled plastic bottles. I wanted to see if these fibers were cheaper than wool, which can be pricey. So I searched and searched, and all the recycled fibers were at least as expensive as wool, if not more. Finally I stumbled across a website on making 'newspaper yarn'. I looked at the instructions and theoretically, all you had to do was cut newspaper into strips, twist it to make a leader, and twist the strips together with a spindle. Did it work?
No, of course not? The paper kept breaking. So that was the end of my 'new project enthusiasm'. I do admire the person who managed to pull it off though, and would be grateful for tips! So I will try not to be too pessimistic and wait to get some wool to spin.