Back on Rifaximin

I didn't really plan this.  I am both a planner and spur of the moment decision person.  Imagine how fun it is to be my spouse!

I ran out of all my herbals at once (Allimed, Neem and Berberine) and I have a TON of Rifaximin and Neomycin (from Canada) so I decided to just use it instead of spending the money to buy more herbals.  I'm not sure how effective they are given they are from India and I didn't have great results last time.  But I'm doing it again.  I did get some Lipophos EDTA because I do like to switch up my biofilm buster.  I usually do Interface Plus.  I really haven't thought about how long I'll stay on the abx but I think I have 5 weeks worth.  Maybe I'll test at 3 or 4 weeks and then decide whether or not I'd like to continue.

I'm also still taking iodine, between 10-12.5 mg per day (4 drops at 2%).  Haven't noticed anything remarkably different.  Will up the dose again in a few days.

Homemade Mayonnaise

I have been searching and searching for a homemade mayonnaise recipe that actually tastes like mayonnaise.  Every one I've come across just tastes like emulsified oil.  Tonight I made a mayo that I can actually tolerate.  I love my mayo!  It's always been my favorite condiment.  The recipe was in the book Keto Clarity by Jimmy Moore.  I haven't read the book but when I saw the mayonnaise recipe I had to give it a try.  I'd recommend some adjustments.

Mayonnaise

1 duck egg (room temp)

2 duck egg yolks (room temp)

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbl ground mustard

1 Tbl lemon juice

1 Tbl rice vinegar (or white wine)

1/2 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup avocado oil

Mix all the ingredients except the oil in a high speed blender or with an immersion blender. Slowly drizzle in the oil while blending.  Stop adding oil when the mayonnaise is the desired thickness.  Because of the coconut oil the mayo should solidify a bit more when chilled.  For more flavor substitute some of the oil with garlic infused olive oil.

Sandwich bun trial from Against All Grain

I finally got around to making these sandwich buns tonight.  The recipe says it makes 10 but I'm not much of a bread person so I'd make them into at least 18.  

This thing's almost as thick as a muffin!  I'll never get it in my mouth with a burger in it. I like just enough bread to hold the condiments and toppings, not to mention the FODMAP load if you just make 10.  Oh, and I also subbed macadamia nuts for the cashews.  I miss cashews.

My husband tasted the batter and said, "that tastes like bread", the highest compliment he could give since he bakes with real flours and is very picky about his bread.

I got the best result for a thin bun by just spreading the batter in a circle on the pan.  It spread a little bit and was pretty thin but even when I spread the batter thinly in the muffin rings they still puffed up quite a bit. 

These were the same thickness when I put them in the oven. The one on the right was in the ring, the one on the left not (my kind of bun).  The giants in the back were the ones that I filled 2/3rds full as the recipe calls for.

The real test will come when I make an actual burger.  These babies are not supposed to fall apart which her previous recipe had a tendency to do.  The addition of arrowroot took care of that, of course If you leave the arrowroot out they will be a bit fragile but will still be delicious!

Verdict:  Yum!  I froze the buns and then thawed and used one today.  It wasn't crumbly and it didn't get too soggy.  I'll definitely be keeping these in the freezer!

Iodine update and recipe

Have you tried this strawberry jam recipe?  If you haven't, you should.  Not that there's much we can put it on :)  The occasional muffin I guess or some gf bread if you are inclined to eat a bit of low FODMAP grains (I am not at this point).

So, I started the Lugol's Iodine 2%.  I am doing 2 drops with breakfast which is around 5-6 mg.  I have been doing it for a few days.  I'm going to increase tomorrow by adding 2 drops with dinner so I'll be around 10-12 mg per day.  The plan is to keep increasing until I get up to 15-16 drops (50mg) per day.  Of course I won't have pre and post breath test to see the actual results. And my doctors never give credit to one supplement I've added.  They always say it's more likely all the supplements working together. It would be really nice to see the before and after results, but who has the $$ to test every time you add something new??  

Quick Breakfast (sort of)

I wasn't feeling thrilled about my usual breakfast this morning so I threw 2 eggs in the blender with a banana, a pinch of baking powder, a sprinkle of cinnamon and about a tablespoon of almond flour. Viola! Pancakes.  I cooked them over the lowest heat in my cast iron skillet.  It made 9 small pancakes.  If you don't want to add any almond flour or nut flour, you don't have to.  This recipe turns out okay with just 2 eggs and a banana.  I have a tendency to use more maple syrup than I should so I put a little peanut butter and a drizzle of honey on these.  They were pretty good.  Not something you'd find in your local pancake house but pretty darn good for not having all the FODMAPs or a list of ingredients that you don't have in your kitchen.

Pancakes/Waffles from Deliciously Organic

These look interesting.  I think I'll give them a try this weekend.  I'm trying to keep any sort of baked goods to once or twice a week.  It's really easy for me to rely on baked goods (muffins, quick breads, "granola" bars) when I'm in a hurry but I don't seem to digest nuts very readily (constipation) so I try to keep them to a minimum.  Not to mention that we should be focusing on vegetables, protein and healthy fats, delicious but sometimes *yawn*.  

It can be hard to find time to prepare all the food required for these crazy diets (FODMAP, SCD, GAPS).  That's why I love to prep foods and freeze or keep leftover in the refrigerator. While chopping vegetables for fajitas the other night I realized I had a bit of extra time and all the veggies out so I made a batch of stir fry.  Bam!  4 lunches ready to go.  I always keep soup in the freezer as well, currently beef/vegetable.  My son is in swimming lessons this week and next and we don't get home until almost 1:00.  By then I am starving so it's nice to have something to quickly heat up so I don't start rifling through the cupboards.  I don't cheat in terms of FODMAPs but the calories from grazing while preparing a meal can quickly add up.

I'm thinking about moving to 4 meals a day this fall when school starts again.  With breakfast at 7, it makes for a long haul to lunch and then a longer span to dinner.  I know ideally us SIBO people stick to 3 meals to help our MMC (migratory motor complex) do it's thing but it's hard to go without food for that long, especially if you are active.  I often wonder if it slows metabolism because your body is hungry and in need of calories but you deny it.  All the fitness magazines and many of the "diet" books I read say you should ideally eat 5 times a day, every 3 hours. These are not meals mind you, it's generally protein and veggies for meals, and light snacks, a bit of nut butter, hummus or cheese with fruit/veggies for snacks.  I'm also thinking about doing a little homemade elemental meal after workouts so it feeds the body but doesn't require digestion.  I just need to find a way to make it taste better :)

Iodine

I asked my ND about using Iodine to treat SIBO and he said he's never seen or heard anything to indicate it's been used. He did say that most people are low in Iodine and it wouldn't hurt to try it because it's water soluable and I don't have any thyroid issues.  Iodine is antibacterial so who knows, it's worth a try.  I ordered some Lugol's Iodine off of Amazon.   I think I ordered the 2% solution,  probably should have got the 5%.

So far this is the best information I can find on dosing. "The best dose is 10 mg – 12 mg daily. You can go up to 50 mg daily for loading purposes but not for long."  from this site.

Breakfast

2 scrambled eggs with a bit of sundried tomatoes and some steamed green beans.  Need to get some avocados!  If you stay under 30g avocados are low in FODMAP according to Monash University and oh so healthy.  I'm going to down a bit of MCT oil as well since there weren't many calories in my breakfast and I need it to stick around a while.

I'm going to check out a bunch of low carb books today from the library.  Mostly because I think there could be some good recipes since FODMAPS are carbs but also because I'm wondering what the heck these people eat since their diet is mostly fat.  I'm also grabbing Chris Powell's book on carb cycling because I have no idea what that is and if it's rotating from low carb to mod or even high carb and back that's probably a better thing then just being low carb.  I wonder how low carb people get their fiber.  While fiber can be problematic for us SIBO folks you really need it to keep your gut healthy.

Did you know that your skin is 60% transdermal??  And that chemicals you put on your skin are absorbed directly into your bloodstream, bypassing the liver???  I heard this the other day on a podcast and it kind of blew my mind.  I'm really careful about what I put on my skin.  The first thing my naturopath commented on was my dry skin.  My last batch of lotion did not turn out very well and my ND told me I should be making my own oils.  He also busted me for not taking my fish oil.  Oops!

Has anyone tried fermented cod liver oil?  It seems to be all the rage with the Paleo folks right now and I don't know anything about it.

Stick a fork in me

I hate throwing in the towel, but I saw my ND today and my digestion was locked up tight.  All the sphincters in my intestines were tightly shut allowing bacteria to fester and the blood supply to my intestines was really restricted.  He got everything open and hopefully moving. He says I need to focus on stimulating my digestion not starving out the bacteria.  All the supplements and biofilm busters won't do any good if everything is shut down.  

Last time I did the elemental diet my energy stayed good and my strength strong.  This time I just bonked, low energy and just mental exhaustion.  Not really sure why, could have been the protein, could have been the timing (too close to the last time).  My ND says next time I want to do it I can schedule some time with him for some intravenous amino acids.

So I came home and made myself some hot chocolate and downed some herbal muscle relaxers for my back and all my supplements.  I ate a few steamed green beans.  Now I'm relaxing with heat on my back.

Day 11, Round 2, Elemental Diet

Weight:  118.2 lbs

I had scrambled eggs for dinner.  Hard to believe that made me gain a full pound but this diet and my body's reaction to it is crazy.

I'm really, really close to throwing in the towel.  My back has been spasming all week and it hurts.  Not sure if my magnesium is too low or if it just needs time to heal.  My massage therapist has been sick or on vacation since I've been back so I haven't been able to see him.  It's really hard not to eat when I'm hurting all the time.  I know you shouldn't use food (or wine :) for comfort but it what I really want.  You can probably guess that when my back flares up I usually gain weight.

I'll see my Naturopath today and hopefully my Massage Therapist tomorrow.  At that point I will be at day 12 and might as well keep this up until day 14.  Still haven't decided if I'm going to test at the end to see if the different biofilm buster (Lipophos EDTA) or the MCT oil made a difference.

Green Onion Powder

Most recipes out there call for onion and garlic.  I haven't figured out what to do about the garlic but as I was dehydrating tomatoes it dawned on me that I could dehydrate green onions and grind them up to use in recipes.  If you don't have a dehydrator you can dry them in you oven on the lowest heat (usually 170 degrees).  It took quite a while for them to feel dry but I kept adding fresh tomatoes (moisture) to the dehydrator so I'm not sure how long it should take.  Once I thought they were dry enough I threw them in my blender and ground them up.  They smell like sour cream and onion potato chips!!  Hope it tastes just as good when I add them to recipes.

Day 10, Round 2, Elemental Deit

Weight:  117.6 lbs

I am just not hitting my groove this time.  By the time I hit day 10 last time I was feeling great, working out, not minding not eating.  Now I still struggle.  I still feel indecisive.  Should I quit, should I keep going?  Should I test when I'm done or not spend the $$?  What's the point of doing it if I'm not going to get results to see if it was effective.  Should I start a round of Rifaximin/Neomycin when I'm done to kill all the remaining bacteria who start to eat again?  Hoping my ND can help me answer some of these questions tomorrow.

Day 9, Round 2, Elemental Diet

Weight:  118.0 lbs

No more protein.  It just stops up my digestion and at some point the bacteria will just adapt and start eating it.  All the magnesium citrate finally did the trick.  That made for a pleasant day ;)

I'm past my feelings of nausea.  It felt like that took longer to resolve this time.  Although I can't really say for sure how long it's been gone.

Can't believe I'm almost to the halfway point.  Wow!  What didn't seem doable a couple of days ago is all good now.  I'm sure that will change.  Evening has been the hardest in terms of feelings of wanting to give up.

Beer and Pizza

This is what my husband is having for dinner.  My son wanted pizza so I started the crust so my husband could make it when he got home.  Smells so good!  But I am strong.  I couldn't eat it anyway, elemental diet or not.

Day 8, Round 2, Elemental Diet

Weight: 119.4 (another gain!)

Don't ever let yourself quit part way through the day.  I really wanted to throw in the towel last night.  This would have been my excuse.

This is our harvest from yesterday alone (with a bunch of crap in the background).  Our house is a war zone on the weekends.  We just don't spend time cleaning up after ourselves.
What I did do was told myself if I still felt the same way tomorrow than sure I would consider it.  But I didn't allow myself to eat last night.  Why?  Because I knew what I was feeling would probably pass and that I would really regret messing up 7 days of fasting if I woke up feeling like I could continue.  If I woke up feeling like I didn't want to do it anymore than maybe this would be an entirely different post.

I did take a boatload of mag citrate yesterday.  1000mg with breakfast and 600mg with lunch and 600mg again at dinner.  I need to stop eating meat.  I'm afraid with starving the bacteria and meat sitting in my gut the bugs will just learn to eat it, then where will I be??

There was a person who posted several comments on the recent Chris Kresser article about the elemental diet.  She says she used Iodine to cure her SIBO and was really upset that people weren't listening to her.  I did a search last night and couldn't find anything about using Iodine to kill SIBO.  Has anyone heard anything about this?? 

Day 7, Round 2, Elemental Diet

Weight:  119.2

Ha!  I managed to gain weight on this crazy diet :)  We processed our meat chickens on Friday and I cooked one up yesterday.  I didn't think I ate THAT much!  I'm not moving waste out which is typical both on the elemental diet without meat and when I do the meat fast for the breath test.  I'm going to down a handful of magnesium citrate with breakfast to see if I can get things moving today.

Day 6, Round 2, Elemental Diet

Weight: 119.0

I did fairly okay through the day yesterday but then evening came and I started in with the, "I hate this", "I don't want to do this", "I'm just not into this" stuff.  I need to get over myself.  I'm 6 days in for goodness sake, pretty much 1/3 of the way done.  I did get a bit nauseous in the evening.  Lunch has been late just about everyday, 2:00 instead of my usual between 12 and 1.  I'm sure that's not helping.  

Day 5, Round 2, Elemental Diet

Weight: 120.2 (Yahoo! No weight loss)

I stopped taking the magnesium citrate.  So perhaps I'm not losing water.  I'm not losing any solids either so that could be a problem if I keep eating.

This is from last night:
"Ugh!  I am so not into this diet this go around.  I have been so tired.  Our garden is overflowing with fresh veggies and I just want to give up and do in the winter when there isn't such an abundance of food.  My husband thinks I just need to stop eating protein.  I do too and I need to tap.  I wonder about the amount of honey I am eating as well, 2 T per meal.  That's about 32 grams of carbohydrate and it's all sugar.  The 3 T of coconut oil works out to about 42 g of fat.  My elemental meals are around 550 calories.  I don't remember experiencing such exhaustion the first time around."

I did my tapping and I do feel better today.  Took our chickens out to a local farm for processing and hit the local mountain bike park for a quick ride with my son.  Felt good to be out and active.  We'll see how the rest of the day goes!

My favorite blogger/cookbook author posted a sandwich bun recipe today from her new cookbook.  This is similar to the hamburger bun recipe I use. I generally swap macadamia nuts for cashews or a combination of almond flour, sunflower seeds and mac nuts.  I also usually make much smaller portions to keep FODMAPs in check.  For her burger bun recipe, it says it makes 4 buns and I think I make at least 8-10 thinner buns.  Her bun recipe does not use arrowroot which means they tend to crumble a bit more.  Can't wait to give this new recipe a try. Only 16 or so more days.