Pregnancy can be a real B on the body, some women do so well. I am not that woman, but the babies- SO worth it!! I was diagnosed with a rare pregnancy related issue called cholestasis of pregnancy in my 37th week of pregnancy with Gwen in 2010 (and then induced that night). I probably had dangerous levels of bile in my blood around 35 weeks. Around the 25th or so week of my pregnancy with Gwen I started to have gallbladder attacks, which weren't diagnosed until 6 months after I had her. Needless to say that was removed a few months later. I guess biliary issues are a part of my life. Now, sitting at 16 weeks pregnant I am fine- phew! But still apparently have a 60 to 90% chance of getting cholestasis again. I thought- those statistics suck! Let's see what we can do about it!
Here is a rundown of what I've heard/found so far:
Itchy mom's website: only really helpful in diagnosis, not in prevention (p.s. the diet tips suck, never eat a low fat diet in pregnancy you are just starving your fetus): http://www.icpcare.org/
My OB: "nothing can prevent ICP, eat what you want." Really??
My Acupuncturist: "Let's help your liver with blood flow, eat less dairy and no sugar"
My Nutritionist: A New Diet and Vitamin Routine! to help with inflammation, digestion and liver function. She said "you won't be getting it again." She also said that I need to follow this for life, to prevent further biliary/liver issues.
I have been following this New Routine! for a whole week now. I do have less joint pain and other things we won't mention are better, but I need about 20 more weeks to really know if I'm not going to get this again. I will do anything I can to prevent this from happening. I consider myself an experiment.
One thing that I like is being able to do something. Nothing else has given me that power.
If you are here, and wondering what I was told I highly suggest you see a nutritionist, in fact if you are in the midwest, go to Weight and Wellness. That is what I did. The person I worked with has had experience with other pregnant cholestasis moms.
A mini rundown of what I'm doing.
-Really high quality prenatal vitamins (not avoiding fat soluble vitamins)
-Other digestion and pregnancy related supplements (this is where you need a nutritionist)
-Eating liver healthy fats (I had no idea certain fats were terrible for your liver- see a nutritionist!)
-Eating almost no sugar
-Meals that include a small amount of healthy fat, lots of veggies and a healthy meat protein
-Not eating much for carbs, apparently they just turn into sugar before they get to the liver
-Not eating tons of fruit (natural sugar...)
-All organic meats and dairy, the pesticides and crap they load into meat is hard for the liver to process
So basically sugar just makes your liver sad. So does alcohol, but that isn't a problem during pregnancy but afterwards uggghhhhh, I will hopefully be happy as an occasional drinker. Sugar will be my biggest problem. I really really really love sugar, borderline addicted. I have had these feelings of mild desperation and panic at some points just thinking that I won't be able to eat sugary foods regularly. I wonder how much is going to be "o.k." to eat, do I just do Bday parties? Or, do I eat none of it? I haven't figured that out yet. I think I need to conquer my semi-addiction first.
So- we'll see!
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Back- for a While Maybe
I have always had a hard time committing to certain things, like tasks that require you to be consistent. Blogging is only interesting to me if the writer actually posts regularly and unlike my BFF A, I am no writer nor am I consistent in most things I do. I would like however to document and share some of the cool things I've come to learn in the last months since blogging here. Things like how to make cloth diapering a success for you, or don't ever eat canned food again (unless you HAVE to have your black olives). Maybe topics like, hey, if you have the chance of getting cholestasis of pregnancy again and want to avoid it, maybe do a diet like this... Just randomness. So, here it goes again, let's give it another shot.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Obvious Trial End
Just like "Dharma and Greg" only came out for 1 season on DVD, I think I only had about 1 season of blogging in me.
Maybe someday I'll be back, when my enthusiasm gets the better of me and I have to share again- but for now I'll leave blogging to those who don't have commitment issues. :)
Take care!
maega
Maybe someday I'll be back, when my enthusiasm gets the better of me and I have to share again- but for now I'll leave blogging to those who don't have commitment issues. :)
Take care!
maega
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
There is such thing as too much advice in marriage
I was bipping around my Knot.com newsletter, which surprisingly has some good article references, and I found an article about new marriages (up to 5 yrs) and the detriment TOO much advice can have. Mike and I went through A LOT of education and prep for marriage and we never read/heard this.
The premise is simple, too much of a well intentioned thing is bad. Here is an excerpt: "In recent studies of heterosexual couples in their first few years of marriage, researchers learned that too much support is harder on a marriage than not enough. When it comes to marital satisfaction, both partners are happier if husbands receive the right type of support, and if wives ask for support when they need it."
So gals- that means guys actually CAN'T read your mind, so you have to tell them what you need. Guys, just ask us what we need, it will make things a little more simple. I find it interesting that guys need support, but the right kind is key. Check out the whole article here. I know I FOR SURE have been a culprit of giving too much advice. Poor Mike married a Lund, and we come fully stocked with wisdom, whether it is ego motivated or not is sometimes hard to tell. ;)
I will be trying to give the right support to Mike here on out- he is in school and could probably use the right kind of support.
The premise is simple, too much of a well intentioned thing is bad. Here is an excerpt: "In recent studies of heterosexual couples in their first few years of marriage, researchers learned that too much support is harder on a marriage than not enough. When it comes to marital satisfaction, both partners are happier if husbands receive the right type of support, and if wives ask for support when they need it."
So gals- that means guys actually CAN'T read your mind, so you have to tell them what you need. Guys, just ask us what we need, it will make things a little more simple. I find it interesting that guys need support, but the right kind is key. Check out the whole article here. I know I FOR SURE have been a culprit of giving too much advice. Poor Mike married a Lund, and we come fully stocked with wisdom, whether it is ego motivated or not is sometimes hard to tell. ;)
I will be trying to give the right support to Mike here on out- he is in school and could probably use the right kind of support.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
A Great Article
A best gal pal of mine sent me a link to this article. It is excellent and I agree with it! In fact, Mike and I went to Mississippi Market to buy tomato paste in the JAR!!! So exciting! And I'm not kidding people!!
10 Tips to Detoxify Your Diet
by Janelle Sorensen
I will openly admit I love cheese puffs, cheese curls, pretty much any kind of baked cheese snack - the more neon in color, the better. I also really love artisanal cheeses - and, oddly, cheese puffs, cheese curls, and their brightly colored cousins really taste nothing like any type of real cheese. How do we come to crave these fake flavors? (I know I'm not the only one). More importantly, when did food become so un-natural?
And, our food hasn't simply become more synthetic than ever before, it's also laced with ingredients and contaminants that pose distressing health risks. They aren't like salmonella, e-coli, or other pathogenic pollutants that can cause immediate illness or even death. These toxic impurities are more insidious - subtly causing harm over time.
Reduce your exposure to unwanted ingredients by following these 10 tips to detoxify your diet.
1. Ease up on animal fats. Animal products can contain synthetic hormones, antibiotics and organochlorine chemicals, such as dioxin, DDT and other pesticides, which concentrate in animal fat. The same chemicals that accumulate in animal fats are transferred to our own when we eat them. Then they linger there for years quietly causing damage. When you buy meat, poultry or dairy, look for low fat options (get the unsaturated fats your body needs from plant sources like walnuts, flax seeds, and avocados). Trim all fats and skins and broil meats and fish so that the fats drain away. Avoid frying, which will lock in the contaminants. You can also do your body a favor by reducing how much meat you eat. Making even one vegetarian meal a week can make a big difference.
2. Select safer seafood. Eating seafood is the primary way we are exposed to methylmercury, a potent neurotoxin. Fish can also be contaminated with PCBs, which the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the Environmental Protection Agency have declared a probable carcinogen. Use the Environmental Defense Fund's Safe Seafood Selector to find species that are lowest in chemical and heavy metal contamination and that are fished in ways that are not harmful to our Oceans. Or access the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch, one of the more popular seafood guide's online, who have now made it possible to get their website information with ease when you're standing in front of the seafood case by using their free iPhone app.
3. Go organic. According to the Environmental Working Group, you can lower your pesticide exposure by 90 per cent simply by avoiding the most contaminated conventionally grown produce: peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, lettuce, imported grapes, carrots, and pears. If you're really craving one of these foods, opt for organic. Conventionally grown fruits and vegetables that have the lowest levels of pesticide residue include: onion, avocado, sweet corn, pineapple, mango, asparagus, sweet peas, kiwi, cabbage, eggplant, papaya, watermelon, broccoli, tomato, and sweet potato. You can download the EWG pocket guide that lists these and the dirty dozen from Foodnews.org.
4. Prep your produce. Wash all fruits and vegetables well to remove surface chemicals (and pathogens). It's easiest and most efficient to wash everything right when you bring it home. You should even wash foods with inedible peels - like melons, bananas, and oranges. If there's a contaminant on the surface, you can get it on the knife you use to cut it or on your hand, and then spread it to the part you eat.
5. Ban the can. Canned foods and beverages are lined with a resin that contains bisphenol-A, a hormone-disrupting chemical that's building up in our environment and our bodies. Most manufacturers are beginning to explore safer alternatives, but in the meantime you should choose foods that are fresh, dried or frozen or packaged in glass jars or tetra packs.
6. Bulk up. Bulk foods are often less processed so you reduce your exposure to questionable food additives. Buying it bulk can also save you up to $500 a year! Bulk cook staples like beans and other legumes and store them in your freezer in serving sizes that are appropriate for your family size. You can also buy dried pasta, nuts, seeds, and many other staples in bulk.
7. Cook your cuisine safely. If you enjoy grilling or well-done meat, be advised - you are adding to your cancer risk. Grilling creates smoke laden with carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, which end up on the surface of whatever you're cooking. When meat, chicken and fish are cooked at high temperatures for a long time (aka "well-done"), it creates carcinogenic heterocyclic amines, or HCAs.
8. Read a food label - for real. Ever stop to read the ingredients label on packaged, processed foods? It's usually a mouthful of words most of us have a hard time pronouncing, so what exactly are you eating? You can learn which food additives are safe and which are not by visiting The Center for Science in the Public Interest's food safety guide, but it's even easier to simply choose whole foods. Whole foods are not processed, so they have all their natural nutritional gifts. Look for foods made from whole grains (think whole wheat bread, oatmeal and brown rice) - and it should say "whole" on the label. Make more foods from scratch (it's easier than you think). You'll end up saving money, eating healthier and reducing all the waste created from packaging and processing foods.
9. Wet your whistle with water. Americans drink an overwhelming amount of sodas, sports drinks, energy boosters, juices (that often contain little juice), and other bottled beverages. The first problem with this is that most of these drinks are loaded with sweeteners and artificial flavors and colors. The second is that they're bottled in plastic, which can leach additional chemicals into the drink. Your body is 70-75% water, so hydrate it with water! And, skip the single-use bottled water. Again, it can be contaminated by the plastic bottle. Also, it's less regulated than tap water. Make an investment in a water filter and reusable stainless steel water bottles. They quickly pay for themselves.10. Eat-in more often. When you eat at a restaurant or pick something up from a deli you have very little control over what you're getting. Save money and protect your health by making food at home. When you do go out, make healthier choices.
10 Tips to Detoxify Your Diet
by Janelle Sorensen
I will openly admit I love cheese puffs, cheese curls, pretty much any kind of baked cheese snack - the more neon in color, the better. I also really love artisanal cheeses - and, oddly, cheese puffs, cheese curls, and their brightly colored cousins really taste nothing like any type of real cheese. How do we come to crave these fake flavors? (I know I'm not the only one). More importantly, when did food become so un-natural?
And, our food hasn't simply become more synthetic than ever before, it's also laced with ingredients and contaminants that pose distressing health risks. They aren't like salmonella, e-coli, or other pathogenic pollutants that can cause immediate illness or even death. These toxic impurities are more insidious - subtly causing harm over time.
Reduce your exposure to unwanted ingredients by following these 10 tips to detoxify your diet.
1. Ease up on animal fats. Animal products can contain synthetic hormones, antibiotics and organochlorine chemicals, such as dioxin, DDT and other pesticides, which concentrate in animal fat. The same chemicals that accumulate in animal fats are transferred to our own when we eat them. Then they linger there for years quietly causing damage. When you buy meat, poultry or dairy, look for low fat options (get the unsaturated fats your body needs from plant sources like walnuts, flax seeds, and avocados). Trim all fats and skins and broil meats and fish so that the fats drain away. Avoid frying, which will lock in the contaminants. You can also do your body a favor by reducing how much meat you eat. Making even one vegetarian meal a week can make a big difference.
2. Select safer seafood. Eating seafood is the primary way we are exposed to methylmercury, a potent neurotoxin. Fish can also be contaminated with PCBs, which the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the Environmental Protection Agency have declared a probable carcinogen. Use the Environmental Defense Fund's Safe Seafood Selector to find species that are lowest in chemical and heavy metal contamination and that are fished in ways that are not harmful to our Oceans. Or access the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch, one of the more popular seafood guide's online, who have now made it possible to get their website information with ease when you're standing in front of the seafood case by using their free iPhone app.
3. Go organic. According to the Environmental Working Group, you can lower your pesticide exposure by 90 per cent simply by avoiding the most contaminated conventionally grown produce: peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, lettuce, imported grapes, carrots, and pears. If you're really craving one of these foods, opt for organic. Conventionally grown fruits and vegetables that have the lowest levels of pesticide residue include: onion, avocado, sweet corn, pineapple, mango, asparagus, sweet peas, kiwi, cabbage, eggplant, papaya, watermelon, broccoli, tomato, and sweet potato. You can download the EWG pocket guide that lists these and the dirty dozen from Foodnews.org.
4. Prep your produce. Wash all fruits and vegetables well to remove surface chemicals (and pathogens). It's easiest and most efficient to wash everything right when you bring it home. You should even wash foods with inedible peels - like melons, bananas, and oranges. If there's a contaminant on the surface, you can get it on the knife you use to cut it or on your hand, and then spread it to the part you eat.
5. Ban the can. Canned foods and beverages are lined with a resin that contains bisphenol-A, a hormone-disrupting chemical that's building up in our environment and our bodies. Most manufacturers are beginning to explore safer alternatives, but in the meantime you should choose foods that are fresh, dried or frozen or packaged in glass jars or tetra packs.
6. Bulk up. Bulk foods are often less processed so you reduce your exposure to questionable food additives. Buying it bulk can also save you up to $500 a year! Bulk cook staples like beans and other legumes and store them in your freezer in serving sizes that are appropriate for your family size. You can also buy dried pasta, nuts, seeds, and many other staples in bulk.
7. Cook your cuisine safely. If you enjoy grilling or well-done meat, be advised - you are adding to your cancer risk. Grilling creates smoke laden with carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, which end up on the surface of whatever you're cooking. When meat, chicken and fish are cooked at high temperatures for a long time (aka "well-done"), it creates carcinogenic heterocyclic amines, or HCAs.
8. Read a food label - for real. Ever stop to read the ingredients label on packaged, processed foods? It's usually a mouthful of words most of us have a hard time pronouncing, so what exactly are you eating? You can learn which food additives are safe and which are not by visiting The Center for Science in the Public Interest's food safety guide, but it's even easier to simply choose whole foods. Whole foods are not processed, so they have all their natural nutritional gifts. Look for foods made from whole grains (think whole wheat bread, oatmeal and brown rice) - and it should say "whole" on the label. Make more foods from scratch (it's easier than you think). You'll end up saving money, eating healthier and reducing all the waste created from packaging and processing foods.
9. Wet your whistle with water. Americans drink an overwhelming amount of sodas, sports drinks, energy boosters, juices (that often contain little juice), and other bottled beverages. The first problem with this is that most of these drinks are loaded with sweeteners and artificial flavors and colors. The second is that they're bottled in plastic, which can leach additional chemicals into the drink. Your body is 70-75% water, so hydrate it with water! And, skip the single-use bottled water. Again, it can be contaminated by the plastic bottle. Also, it's less regulated than tap water. Make an investment in a water filter and reusable stainless steel water bottles. They quickly pay for themselves.10. Eat-in more often. When you eat at a restaurant or pick something up from a deli you have very little control over what you're getting. Save money and protect your health by making food at home. When you do go out, make healthier choices.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Tomatoelove
I. LOVE. TOMATOES.
Here is my ode to tomatoes:
Spring is here, alas I till and toil
For preparation for growth
Is most important in the soil.
To my baby plants I profess my oath
I will water thee, prune weeds
As you grow up and out.
I wait for heat, and watch for my favorite color
To emerge, it is something my soul needs.
German heirloom so rich, Early Girl so stout.
Savoring, enjoying, all I need is another.
Especially the ones from my garden.
Here is my ode to tomatoes:
Spring is here, alas I till and toil
For preparation for growth
Is most important in the soil.
To my baby plants I profess my oath
I will water thee, prune weeds
As you grow up and out.
I wait for heat, and watch for my favorite color
To emerge, it is something my soul needs.
German heirloom so rich, Early Girl so stout.
Savoring, enjoying, all I need is another.
Monday, November 9, 2009
This Flavor Makes Me Happy
Ever since I was a little girl, my mom would talk about the bread pudding that her mom made, for which she didn't have the recipe. We would be at a restaurant, she would see bread pudding on the menu and consider getting it just in case it was somewhat close to what her mom made, just to savor that flavor once more. Any time she would order, it would never compare, and the disappointment wasn't worth the ordering any more so she just stopped. I had always wondered what the flavor was, or was it just that her mom made it and that was what made it great? There were of course other dishes that my mom loved because they reminded her of growing up, and her mom.
I discovered a flavor that reminds me of my mom (which is a really good thing). Thyme! She 
used it in a lot of savory dishes, I never really noticed- because I grew up with it I think. When I got married and started doing the majority of cooking I never really considered using thyme. I recently made one of her dishes that called for thyme and the taste really brought me back to the dinner table on Lindig Street. So I started using it more. It is amazing that flavor can really spark a feeling and memories. It is a great feeling for me to cook with and eat thyme, it brings me closer to my mom.
used it in a lot of savory dishes, I never really noticed- because I grew up with it I think. When I got married and started doing the majority of cooking I never really considered using thyme. I recently made one of her dishes that called for thyme and the taste really brought me back to the dinner table on Lindig Street. So I started using it more. It is amazing that flavor can really spark a feeling and memories. It is a great feeling for me to cook with and eat thyme, it brings me closer to my mom.
In fact, scientists say that smell (which is a huge part of taste) calls up powerful memories using our "emotional brain." So, you can feel happiness by just smelling something. I think most of us have heard/read that smells can remind us of events, people and a time in our lives. But what I haven't read much about, is if we know something tastes or smells so wonderful because of the memories associated, why not "pepper" our lives with it more? It just might make us a little bit happier, or more fulfilled.
I especially think this taste/memory experience happens around the holidays, with all the food we make that has been on the menu for years. Tradition is full of these flavors.
-What flavors remind you of something good or happy?
-Can you/do you work it into your regular menu?
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