Day 4, Round 2, Elemental Diet

Weight: 120.2 lbs

I planned on doing the just elemental meals yesterday (and today) but my son didn't finish his scrambled eggs yesterday or this morning so I ate them so they didn't go to waste.  We raise our own chickens and barely get enough eggs as is.  

We have 2 CornishX meat chickens going in for processing tomorrow.  Can't wait to roast one up this weekend!

I stopped taking all my herbal abx. I'm still taking probiotics (Lactoprime Plus and Align) and my biofilm busters (just finished Interfase Plus, now switching to Lipophos EDTA).  I like the idea of switching back and forth for some reason.  I also think the Lipophos EDTA might work better but that's only because it tastes horrible :)

Still feeling fine.  No nausea, headaches or anything.  I might be a bit more tired than usual but I just got back from vacation so that's to be expected.

What I Ate Camping

A lot of meat!  

My usual breakfast was scrambled eggs with a bit of avocado (under 30g) and homemade low FODMAP salsa and a banana or a banana walnut muffin (made with nut/coconut flours).  Some mornings I would grill up a couple of sausages.  Illegal ones as I know they were seasoned with a small amount of onion and garlic.

Lunch was a mismash, sometimes on the run, cold beef vegetable soup (not the most satisfying), kale salad with a salmon patty or beef jerky, a banana and some potato chips or plantain chips.  Not that I advise eating potato chips, but they are low FODMAP if you don't eat too many.  I packed 3 servings of stir fry with peanut sauce as well and that was great because it's not that bad cold.  Between the stirfy and the soup it was easy to pack 6 lunches.  We were gone 2 weeks and sometimes we were driving or cycling over lunch which is where the beef jerky and chips comes in handy :)  I packed a lot of kale from our garden and made a handful of kale salads because they pack really well.

Dinner was either hot dogs, turkey burger or bison burger on a mac nut bun.  So filling there is no need for sides.  My guys sometimes wanted to go out for a meal and in that case I almost always ordered a burger and smuggled in my own bun.  I'm not going to lie, eating out is the hardest part.  I indulged in a bit of bbq sauce one meal out and totally cheated toward the end. Beer!  Bend, Oregon is the capital for beer, I swear.  The last restaurant we went to had burgers but they were 1/2 lb of meat.  1/2 of a pound!  There was no way, so I ordered chicken satay with peanut sauce.  I knew the sauce would probably have garlic and onion in it but when the chicken came it was covered in a curry seasoning that probably had garlic and onion as well. That was the last meal before the drive home so I just ate it.  I think I would have been more strict if my last breath test had been better.  

Surprisingly I didn't experience any bloating outside the norm even though I sometimes when overboard on the FODMAPs or downright illegal on all accounts.

Oh and wine, I drank way too much wine.

Day 3, Round 2, Elemental Diet

Weight: 121.0 lbs

So it seems even if you keep the carbs up you still shed a significant amount of water weight in the beginning.  I think it's helpful to understand this is not real weight loss otherwise you start to panic.  By real weight loss I mean the weight comes back on within a few days of resuming a normal diet.  I've been taking magnesium citrate every night as well and this could be contributing to water loss since it pulls water into the intestines.

Yesterday because I had a 2 hour appointment at 11:30 I ended up packing scrambled eggs in a thermos and eating them for lunch, only about 320 calories.  I had an early elemental dinner before work, then a snack of salmon when I got home from work (around 8:30pm).  I normally do not snack and work to keep all my food consumption 3-4 hours apart to give my digestive tract time to do it's thing.  Today I will do all elemental, eating an actual protein meal isn't doing anything to prevent me from losing weight and is just contributing to constipation, so what's the point!  My body doesn't process protein easily probably because my open bite prevents me from chewing and breaking down food adequately.  Which is why I had the 2 hour appt, braces! The things we do to get healthy :)

Research by Dr. Pimental has shown that bacteria does not eat when being starved so I'm contemplating stopping my herbal antibiotics.  They are expensive and if they are not doing anything or there's no proof that they work during the elemental diet then what's the point.  From what I have read Dr. Pimental doesn't have his patients alter their diet until after they kill off the bacteria.  I have an appt with my ND next week so I may stop until then.  Have a nice little pill break.

Day 2, Round 2, Elemental Diet

Weight: 122 lbs

Let's hope the 1.2 lbs of loss from yesterday to today is just water.  Here's a picture of last nights dinner.  I take them in this order (left to right).

Dinner (coconut oil, aminos, honey)

Yesterday was hard.  The first day always is.  I tried to convince myself that maybe I should slowly transition in, have hot chocolate or tea, just today.  Thankfully I was able to resist.  When it comes to food though I am an all or nothing kind of person.  I did end up eating scrambled eggs for lunch.  I didn't want to but I was nauseous, tired, hungry and my ND encouraged me to eat some protein each day.  

Going to a movie after "dinner" was probably not the best idea in the world.  I wanted popcorn so bad!

Today should be interesting.  Yesterday I napped instead of going shopping to buy more coconut oil, so after breakfast I'm out.  I have a long appt scheduled over lunch so need to figure out how/what to eat, probably scrambled eggs in a thermos.  A can of salmon would be easier but it's an orthodontist appointment so that would be kind of rude.

Day 1, Round 2, Elemental Diet

Starting weight: 123.2 lbs

Meals consist of: 

• 3 Tablespoons Coconut oil in small jar, microwave 15 seconds then slurp down.  I also bought some Bulletproof MCT Oil to incorporate.
• 2 Tablespoons Pure Form 21 Blend Amino Acid in a small jar mixed with a small amount of water, let it sit and hopefully dissolve, stir again and down it.
• 2 Tablespoons of Honey mixed with a bit of hot water so it goes down quick and easy.
• 2 Pure Encapsulations Nutrient 950 with Vitamin K multivitamins

And of course, all the various supplements I am currently taking.  I am a few doses of being done with Purge the Whorl, the treatment for the Blastocystis Hominis.  It will be nice to be done with that.  My ND will probably want to retest to see how much is still in there but since it's a stool test it may have to wait until I'm done with the elemental diet so there's enough of a sample.

As usual I procrastinated starting and didn't have breakfast until 10:30.  Experience has taught me I need to make a meal schedule and keep to it otherwise I crash.

I'm back!

Back from camping.  Will post later about what I ate and how things went.

Found this in my email.  It's an interesting read.  I will start my second round of the elemental diet tomorrow. 

My current protocol....

Too many bottles to pack for camping that's for sure.  I'm going to be gone for a couple of weeks.  See you all when I get back for round 2 of the elemental diet!

Vacation and then Elemental Diet Round 2!

I skyped with my NCNM doctor this morning and she added Berberine Complex to my regimen.   I'll start with one capsule 3 times a day and work up to 6 capsules.  If you are working on gut healing you would go up to 9 capsules but my gut lining is good (knock on wood) so 6 will probably do it for me.  Glad to hear that since I call the medicinary yesterday and requested a mail order of it.  We talked about my results and she says I could certainly do the elemental diet again but only for 3 weeks (instead of a month) and only that long if I ate meat for dinner (prepared just like the breath test prep diet, no spices).  It's funny you would think I would be all over adding a meal but it just doesn't appeal.  I get really backed up when I do the meat fast for the breath test.  But if I am able to keep the Erythromycin in maybe it won't be a problem.  

I cut and pasted my last three breath test results together since the tests were really close in time 5/2/14, 6/12/14 and 6/30/14.  It was interesting to see the changes made by each attempt by me to kill the little buggers off.  I tried to get a good picture of it to post but it just gets blurry when you try to enlarge it so you can read the numbers.

Made this jam to take camping.  I used frozen strawberries because if I can I buy most things frozen and in bulk, so much less expensive.  Hope it turns out!

Breath Test #5 - Post Elemental Diet

My test results were emailed to me today.  We are in triple digits now!!  It looks like the elemental diet (and everything else I have done) has just continued to move most of the bacteria further down my small intestine. But the methane has increased throughout this time.  At least the last couple of times the test showed several zeros.  This time there was only one zero on the methane.  Kind of a bummer but I like the fast results with the elemental diet.  My husband is encouraging me to do it for a month next time.  My mother would have a fit.  I would really have to make an effort to choke down all the honey required or see if I can find some dextrose that isn't from GMO corn.  If I can get down enough carbs I won't get ketogenic and dump a bunch of water weight.

So what now? I have a skype appt with the SIBO center at NCNM on Thursday.  Maybe they will add Berberine.  Then I'm going on vacation for 2 weeks.  I'm going to unplug and just have fun.  I will still eat low FODMAP, probably mostly protein since we will be camping and when I return I will do the elemental diet again to see if I can make more progress.  How long I do it depends on what my NCNM doc recommends and what my Seattle ND says when I see him mid-August.

It's funny because both docs told me my case was going to be tough to resolve.  I'm not sure I've every really gotten clarification why.  My levels were not very high to begin with and the only real symptoms I had were constipation, bloating and an itchy belly (which I didn't realize was related at the time).  I do know the methane is more difficult to resolve.  Oh well.  I'm making slow steady progress and it's better than none at all!

Chicken Stir Fry with Peanut Sauce

I made a chicken stir fry yesterday for lunch.  I always make a big batch to divide into 3-4 meals. The whole low FODMAP thing makes cooking meals on the fly a pain.  I usually add bell peppers (under 150g)  and zucchini (under 200g) but I didn't have them and it was fine without. I spiralize the zucchini. If you don't have a spiralizer, you need one of these.  Don't believe me? Check out this blog. I buy large bags of frozen organic peas, green beans, and broccoli at Costco to keep on hand.  I also buy organic chicken breasts from Costco too, bake them, chop them up and freeze them.  When I am making meals I just thaw out what I need.

So here's what I did...

Chicken Stir fry with Peanut Sauce
Peanut Sauce:
1/3 cup Peanut Butter (or a mix of nut butters)
1 T rice (or coconut) vinegar
1/4 cup Tamari (or coconut aminos)
1 T fish sauce (Red Boat is the best)
1 T honey
Srirachi sauce optional (recipe here, leave out the dates!)

Place it all in a bowl and stir in enough hot water to get it to the consistency you desire.

Veggies:
275g Cabbage, sliced into fine shreds
74g Carrots, sliced thin
150g Broccoli
70g Peas
140g Green Beans
150g Bell Pepper (I use orange, yellow or red)
200g Zucchini, spiralized

12oz cooked diced chicken breast (or other protein)
1 T garlic infused oil
Ginger, about an inch

Heat oil over medium heat in your wok or large pan.  Use a microplane or fine shredder to shred ginger into pan.  I like about an inch or so.  Add the cabbage and carrots and stir.  Place a small amount of water in the pan, a tablespoon or two and cover.  Let steam for 3-5 minutes. The longer you let it steam the softer the vegetables.  Add the rest of the vegetables and the chicken, give it a stir and add in a bit more water to prevent sticking and put the lid back on.

Once the vegetables and chicken are thawed/warm, add the peanut sauce.  Stir well and turn the heat down to med-low to prevent burning.  You can let it continue to cook to soften or eat when vegetables are crisper.  Divide equally into 4 servings.

There is a lot of sauce so you don't taste much of the vegetables, just the way I like it.  You can use less sauce and if you are having trouble with nuts you can leave the nut butter out.  I actually dislike most vegetables but the sauce makes the stir fry yummy.

The estimated calorie breakdown is:
345 calories per serving
31.5g protein  (36% of the calories)
16g fat  (46% of the calories)
15g carbs (17% of the calories)

If you want more calories, you can add in 1/2 cup of coconut milk to the peanut sauce, this will boost calories by 50 per serving.  Or you could increase protein and fat by scrambling an egg and stirring it in your bowl.  And I just realized I didn't include any green onions or chives.  These can be added to the stir fry toward the end or sprinkled on top as a garnish.

How did I get SIBO?

It seems like no one really knows for sure.  For me it has been a perfect storm.  My digestion has always been sluggish.  8 years ago I had a c-section that left me with surgical adhesions and pain prior to bowel movements.  I found an ND who specialized in visceral manipulation who helped me break the adhesions and stop the pain.  About 6 years ago I had 2 bouts of gastroenteritis within 6 months.  Over the last 10 years my bite has continued to open more and more making it hard to properly chew food.  We started growing our own food and our diets got really clean, hello FODMAPs!  I eat pretty seasonally and it wasn't uncommon to spend my spring eating asparagus by the pound.  All summer long I ate HUGE salads.  My winters were full of sweet potatoes to the point where my sister complained because my skin gets an orangish hue.  And don't get me started with beans.  I love beans and ate them every day.  It took years of going to different Naturopaths getting different tests, trying different diets, before one of them put me on Heather's tummy fiber and when I reacted he said, "I think you have SIBO". 

My NDs think it's important for me to work on any of the issues I can resolve.  So I went to see an orthodontist this morning about my bite issues.  I've been putting it off because my dentist thought they were going to have to break my jaw in 3 places.  But if I can't chew my food properly then things are never going to get better.  The orthodontist thinks he can resolve my issues with braces and rubber bands and that I won't need surgery (yay!).  I really, really don't want to have my jaw broken and wired shut so was happy with the news. Maybe by the end of July I'll have braces.

I started working with an acupuncturist a few months ago to see if he could improve my sluggish digestion.  But I didn't feel like we were getting anywhere because he was just fighting against the methane producing bacteria.  I don't have a lot of acupuncture benefits so decided I would stop and wait until the bacteria was cleared or at least significantly knocked down to start back up.  For now, the low dose erythromycin is doing the trick. 

More camping prep

Made a batch of these granola bars today to take camping.  To make them FODMAP compliant, substitute macadamia nuts for cashews, omit the dates and the chocolate chips.  I add in cocao nibs in place of the chocolate chips because my gut is good and my ND says it's okay.  I also add in 1/4 cup of goji berries 'cause I like them.  I'm not sure where gojis fall in terms of FODMAPs but I only use 1/4 cup and get more than 32 servings out of a batch so I figure the amount I'm eating would be low anyway.  I eat these like dessert, not as a meal or snack since snacks go out the door with the SIBO diagnosis.

I made a version of these hamburger buns.  Again, substitute macadamia nuts for cashews. The updated version of the recipe in her cookbook doesn't require separating the eggs.  I make 8 buns instead of 4.  I don't like that much "bread".  If you can't use ghee, use palm shortening.  I think the coconut oil would make them flatten too much.  I keep these in the freezer and thaw them when I use them. 

I made these crepes for breakfast this morning.  I didn't use the arrowroot powder.  They are quite eggy but serve their purpose.  I topped them with peanut butter, bananas and chocolate.  I made the chocolate by putting about 1 Tbl cocoa with 1 tsp honey and 1/2 tsp coconut oil, microwave 15 seconds and stir.  

If you don't have Danielle Walker's cookbook Against All Grain I really encourage you to get it, it's only $9.99 on the kindle.  I've been able to make most of the recipes low FODMAP and they are all great.  I've checked out just about every paleo cookbook in the 4 library systems I have access to and her recipes are by far the most adaptable.  I used to love Elana's Pantry but she often uses large amounts of almond flour and to keep it low FODMAP the servings would be miniscule.  Spunky Coconut also has several ingredients she uses that are high FODMAP, dates for one, and she uses stevia in a lot of recipes, which is low FODMAP but I don't do well with it.

Elemental is Ketogenic

So I did some poking around last night because I was really curious about the quick weight loss and even quicker weight gain while on the homemade elemental diet.  Turns out the homemade elemental diet can be ketogenic if you are not eating enough carbs (in my case in the form of honey).  I tried my best to consume all the honey but it's so incredibly sweet tasting I just couldn't get down 2-3 tablespoons per meal.

For the first 1-2 weeks while on a ketogenic diet you end up losing a lot of water weight.  In real simple terms, cause I'm a simple girl :) your body burns off all the glycogen stores which releases a lot of water initially. Then your body turns to your fat stores for fuel and the byproduct is ketones which for some reason causes a diuretic effect on the kidneys and the water continues to go. Once you end the diet and start eating carbs again this whole effect reverses and you restore your water reserves.  

So it's interesting because you don't really lose much actual weight if you only do the homemade elemental diet for 2 weeks because in those first couple of weeks the only thing you really lose is water and it bounces right back within a week of stopping the diet.  Especially since you only do the elemental diet for 2 weeks and it takes longer than that to start to really burning off body fat.

I'd still do the homemade elemental diet again and will do it if it turns out I still have bacteria lingering around in my gut.  It would be much easier to pack food for camping if all I needed to bring was coconut oil, aminos, multis and honey :)

Camping preparation

We are going camping soon so I have been trying to plan food.  It's going to be hard to eat enough fruits and veggies while staying in low FODMAP territory.  My guess is I'll be living off of protein and nuts.  So today I am making beef jerky.  This is a good roundup of recipes.  You need to modify for FODMAPs.  I made a BBQ beef jerky using the bbq sauce recipe in this book.  I also made the carne asada beef jerky from the same book.  For the 3rd I wanted a smoked pepper jerky so I used tamari (or coconut aminos), liquid smoke, a touch of honey and lots of fresh ground pepper.  We'll see how that turns out.  I think all in all I sliced and marinated about 4 lbs of meat.  I really wanted to try this recipe but I wasn't sure my cookie press would do what a jerky gun would do :)  Store bought jerky is obviously out of the question since it always contains onion and garlic or sugar.

I continue to bloat during the day.  It's hard for me to tell if it's as bad as it was before I did the elemental diet.  Still waiting for test results but my guess is I starved some but not all of the bacteria.  Hopefully camping and further limiting my FODMAP intake will help.

Yesterday I actually drank coconut oil with my fruit and veggie smoothie.  I have been adding full fat coconut milk to the smoothie for the healthy fats but figured I'd just do a shot of oil instead.  I've been reading about the ketogenic diet.  My body did so well on the high fat/low carb homemade elemental diet that it got me wondering.  I'm not sure it's healthy longterm so I need to do some more reading..   Have any of you tried it??

4 lbs up post Elemental Diet

The weight is coming back on quicker than it came off.  It's really weird because I have been eating mostly blended soups and smoothies.  This morning I had scrambled eggs with a bit of low FODMAP salsa and avocado (staying well under the allotted amount of 30 grams), and a small side of sweet potato salad.  It's by far the most solid meal I've had since ending the elemental diet.  Potatoes and sweet potatoes are not SCD compliant but are low FODMAP.  All my tests have shown that other than the bacteria, my gut lining is healthy so I sometimes "cheat" and eat foods that are outside SCD but within FODMAP.

I made the salsa last night. I roasted about 6 sm roma tomatoes along with a bunch of tomatillos and a few spicy peppers.  While they were cooling I removed the skins from the tomatoes.  I threw them in the food processor with chives, cilantro, juice from one lime, and a good sprinkling of cumin and blended to the thickness I desire.  I wouldn't go crazy and eat a bunch since there is no information in the Monash University FODMAP app about limes or tomatillos but there are lots of low FODMAP recipes out there that use tomatillos instead of tomatoes so one could make the assumption that they are okay.  But I figure a tablespoon here and there as a topping should be fine.

I really have to say that things were so much easier while doing the elemental diet.  It was really nice not having to think about what to eat, not being hungry all the time and not having to plan ahead.  Just down the oil, aminos, multis and honey and go.  I would do it again in a heartbeat.  The post weight gain is really annoying because I like being thinner than I normally am, especially around the middle!  My stomach is a lot fuller looking.  Is it water?  Is it gas?  Is it just built up food lingering in my gut?

Speaking of which the Erythromycin 50mg at bedtime has been a very effective prokinetic whereas the herbal concoction Motilpro didn't do much of anything for me.  Not having to worry about getting backed up is so nice.

For those of you in the US, have a great 4th of July.  We usually don't get summer until after the 4th of July but it has come early this year and it's a beautiful day.

Let the gain begin...

On Sunday after my breath test I ate the blended vegetable soup for lunch and dinner.  Monday morning I work up and had gained a full pound.  I didn't do much physical activity on Sunday but I also didn't ingest many calories, probably not more than 1,200.  

Monday I started the day with a smoothie - spinach, carrots, strawberries, 1/2 banana, pineapple, blueberries, coconut milk and pea protein powder.  A good balance of fat and protein to keep me full but not too many calories, about 350. All the ingredients were weighed to make sure the FODMAPs were kept low.  I worked out hard lifting weights.  Had the blended vegetable soup for lunch and dinner, again around 300-400 calories..  Walked over 3 miles after dinner.  Gained another 0.6 pounds!  My husband is a science guy and believes calories in/calories out = weight loss or gain.  So he is pretty stunned that my body can gain weight when I have eaten so few calories.

The good part is I feel better.  Sunday was pretty rough.  My body didn't really like the quick transition back to eating.  Monday I felt pretty much back to normal.  I'm still sticking to the blended soup and smoothies for a few days.

Oh, and the reason for the pea protein is that I have a dairy allergy and yes, I am allergic to all of it, lactose, casein, whey, all of it.  I used egg white protein for a while but I was having a lot of problem with my stomach itching and thought it was the eggs in my diet.  In hindsight  I think it was just FODMAPs in general that made me itch.  Chris Kresser mentioned in a recent podcast that there is a new brand of beef protein powder out there called PurePaleoProtein by Designs for Health but it's 3 times the price (at $68) of your regular protein powder and is sweetened with stevia.

It's beautiful here today, sunny and close to 90, not something we generally see in the Pacific Northwest prior to 4th of July.  Hope you all have an awesome day!