AIP Forever, Whenever, Whoever Group Log

[LadyM]

Thanks Beets! Steak is for lunch. No cast iron and they are thin. Good luck to me. I have to over come meat cooking phobia.

Thin cut beef is the hardest to cook right imho. I like my meat rare to medium rare and that just doesn't happen with a thin cut.

[Beets]

Agreed: thin cut is difficult. Once you sear each side it's pretty much cooked.

Calee, I also didn't feel great until maybe Day 31. This AIP thing is tough though. I feel you. I think you'd be interested in the link above--Chris Kessler on why some people have a hard time detoxing. Frankly though I'm confused about "detox" symptoms. Is it detox? Is detox an internet myth? Is it real? Do I need to quit sweet pots now? Do I have SIBO? Or do I need to add back in more grains and eat less meat? (My gut says no, but the Michael Pollan piece in Sunday's NYT on gut bacteria has me a little bit confused and skeptical.)

I miss the taste of coffee but I never want to feel beholden to it again.

Maintaining a loss of 100 lbs! Wow. That is wonderful. I can see why you'd be wondering if this hardship is worthwhile. I think it is. I hope it is.

I feel like I keep peeling back the onion skins. Will I get somewhere or will I throw up my hands and eat a box of chocolate covered sea salt marshmallows? (Haunting me.)

Right now I have to keep pushing forward. Like Lady M, I can't go back.

[Moluv]

Beets- I haven't finished the Michael Pollan piece yet- what is it that makes you think grains would be more beneficial than meat? I have like, nine pages to go .

[Moluv]

Calee- feeling worse could mean something major is happening. I felt HORRIBLE during much of my w30 and the only thing that got me through was daily enemas (warm filtered water only). I would feel so so much better afterwards. I believe detoxing is very real, and keeping the elimination channels working is important. I did a lot of skin brushing too.

Coffee is a known gi tract irritant. I don't think it has much of a place in a regime designed for optimal health. I think it would most def make you feel better tomorrow, but that doesn't mean it's good for you.

I also cannot purport to tell you what you should or should not do regarding W30, or eating in general. I know only my own experience and a little snippet of yours. My thoughts are merely the first things that jump out.

A hundred pounds?! Wowza good for you!!!

[Beets]

Beets- I haven't finished the Michael Pollan piece yet- what is it that makes you think grains would be more beneficial than meat? I have like, nine pages to go .

Oh nothing really. He is just bragging about his wonderful gut flora that is much closer to traditional hunter/gatherers (who have a, he says, high grain/low meat diet) than typical Western SAD eaters. Of course the gut flora difference could be from other things.

It was just my typical self-doubt creeping in. I know he eats and advocates a mostly veg diet and that he comes from that perspective.

It was much easier to read the physical magazine than on my phone. My parents were here this afternoon and I was able to sit and read it.

Otherwise, it's completely fascinating! Not like he goes into an anti-meat stance or anything.

[Beets]

And I do believe detox is real. There is just so much conflicting info on the Internet. I tend to read only the things that support my beliefs (as most ppl do) and sometimes I need to reassure myself I'm not just crawling down a rabbit hole.

Or, If I am, that I've got the right rabbit hole.

[calee]

Thank you thank you thank you! I'm not quitting! In the last few hours since I wrote,mi went into the city for a film. Walking back to the subway I realized I was at my old quick pace. I found myself skipping down stairs. I stayed awake for the entire film. I've felt bone tired for days and suddenly a glimmer of my old self appeared. Exactly when I needed it most! I think our bodies are pretty darn smart.

All of your experiences helped me. I also read the Troubleshoot your W30 section and saw others saying exactly what I was about outrageous fatigue.

LadyM, I wanted to let go of the coffee because I was starting to feel addicted. Beets, like you, I don't want to feel beholden to it. I started using it last year when I was unemployed nd hiking 40 miles a week. That one morning cup gave me a huge boost. Not so good now and I won't take it back till much later and only occasionally.

Heck yes to theonion peeling Beets. So many wonderful layers to explore.

Mo, I'm going with "something major is happening". That's a great way to look at it.

I read the entire Pollan article today. My take away was, stay away from antibiotics as much as possible, eat food in its natural state, ive been an organic gardener since the 50's (I started as a child), so keep getting my hands dirty, and eat lots of fermented foods.

Thank you all again for offering support. Oh, and I can't decently cook a thick steak either! That's why I love going out for steak.

[dukunbayi]

Anyone remember Steak'ums? Or am I dating myself? Those were novel.

My take away from my obsessive Paleo View podcast listening yesterday and today: organ meats, bone broth, fermented foods, kombucha, amber tinted glasses.

I really respect the group of fun, smart, loving, solid people who are the vanguard of this growing paleo/primal/ancestral community.

[Beets]

Listening to a podcast (Zencast on iTunes) about Transformation and being in a limbo state. It's perfect right now.

Comparison of the limbo state to being about to give birth, waiting to give birth to something. Talk about not rushing to fill the void, fix it, solve but just be with it--even though it's painful. Talk about stripping things away and giving yourself space to experience the transformation. Thinking more about going to Buddhist retreat center upstate for my b'day present.

Also the speaker, whom I love and am listening to daily, is talking about Spiritual Midwifery.

Dating yourself? I'm going to be 39 in 32 days. Not that I'm counting. Loved Steak Ums. Preferred them to "real" shaved steak sandwiches that always had chewy bits of meat. I'll check out the Paleo View podcast. I'm obsessed now with the iOS podcast app. Super slick.

[Nadia B]

Babywizard, ha, I was listening to it the whole Monday as a cooking radio. It's very informative 100% and I like the science part, but the fact they talk about scales and treat all the time sort of annoying, don't you think? Maybe it's too many episodes at once. I loved one with Mark Sisson. Dirt soup, anyone?

IOs podcast app is kick ass agreed Steak turned out well done, but SO good! I did a happy dance!

Article about grass fed and that it's a seasonal thing (makes sense) from the website of my butcher.

[dukunbayi]

Babywizard, ha, I was listening to it the whole Monday as a cooking radio. It's very informative 100% and I like the science part, but the fact they talk about scales and treat all the time sort of annoying, don't you think?

I don't recall them talking about scales a lot. I listened from Ep. 30 and on, so maybe in the earlier episodes? I know Stacy had been morbidly obese and lost a ton of weight. There are some things about the podcast that bug me... one of them does one of my big grammatical pet peeves repeatedly and it makes my hair stand on end momentarily, and some of the stuff about pregnancy and breastfeeding they get wrong, and all sorts of sciency stuff is mispronounced (hazard of obtaining info via reading, so forgivable), so I find myself talking out loud correcting them like a crazy person with my headphones on. But I guess it all reminds me that they, like me, are human learners, And they struggle with scales and sugar and donuts and figuring it all out. Blah blah blah.

I am a sponge these days and can't get enough. I'll have to listen to Mark Sisson and Chris Kresser next for variety. I want to see if they, too, have the cadence and vocal fry that seem ubiquitous these days and that I just can't get used to.

[dukunbayi]

Listening to a podcast (Zencast on iTunes) about Transformation and being in a limbo state. It's perfect right now.

Comparison of the limbo state to being about to give birth, waiting to give birth to something. Talk about not rushing to fill the void, fix it, solve but just be with it--even though it's painful. Talk about stripping things away and giving yourself space to experience the transformation. Thinking more about going to Buddhist retreat center upstate for my b'day present.

Also the speaker, whom I love and am listening to daily, is talking about Spiritual Midwifery.

Dating yourself? I'm going to be 39 in 32 days. Not that I'm counting. Loved Steak Ums. Preferred them to "real" shaved steak sandwiches that always had chewy bits of meat. I'll check out the Paleo View podcast. I'm obsessed now with the iOS podcast app. Super slick.

I'll have to give that one a listen! I use pregnancy and birth metaphors for pretty much everything. And of course I love Ina May. She paved the way for what I do.

Beets, 40 was the best year of my life. Who knew?

[Moluv]

I'm so ready for Friday y'all. I don't care much about adding more stuff, I'm just so sick of having rules. Honestly I was making better choices while I was just strictly post w30- now I feel pressure to stick to rules which is just a mindf#+* for me. I also realized that it was the IBS type changes that were really beneficial and I've been sort of neclecting them- eating raw vegetables is a set up for more trouble. It makes me tired and cranky and that's prime time for making less and less ideal choices.

Phew that feels better. I love a good glass of whine.

[LadyM]

OMG are we done Friday?

Doing this has helped me figure out a few things moving forward. It's good for me to not do nightshades and real nuts and seeds. I don't think I have the kind of sensitivity that would preclude me from having cumin and berries, but sunflower seeds and hands full of nuts? No go. Same goes for coconut milk and flesh. Only a little bit on the rare occasion in a recipe. No more toasted coconut flakes by the handful or coconut butter by the spoonful or regularly having coconut milk in my tea. It's too much and it stops me up. Boooo. I might reintroduce eggs. Definitely ghee. And I'm aiming to make my W30 at least a W60. The way I see it is I was sick for the first 30 days, so I'm giving myself a healthy W30 to see how it goes. I'm finally properly feeling the effects. My body's taking its sweet time. I'm glad for it to have its way with me.

[almcc]

Hi All,

Well I planned to be really slow with reintros but I got worried about company coming and eating out. So I doubled/tripled up the last few days. This is what I have learned so far:

I reintroduced Ghee and almond meal yesterday. The ghee made my stomach a little queasy. Mild and lasted about an hour. The almond meal -I'm assuming- gave me stomach pains.

Today I reintroduced eggs and tomatoes and peppers (the last two were at a restaurant). The eggs this afternoon seemed to go ok. Finished dinner abut an hour ago and still doing ok. A good experiment so far.

Tomorrow - I will lay low and eat AIP. Thursday eggs again. Friday Tomatoes and peppers. No nuts for me. Maybe Ghee again - maybe not.

Hope you all have a good night.

[Moluv]

Stayed compliant today- no news here. Day 7 done!

[Beets]

Thanks for the report.

I am hoping I can add ghee back. Though I don't actually miss it as much as I feared.

I'm not sure where I'm going after Friday. I will prob stick with this till it makes me crazy or my psoriasis improves further.

I'm also getting sick--sneezing, throat feeling. Daughter has a cold, elsewise I'd be paranoid about something i ate. Pissed I didn't strain and drink bone broth with ginger. Tomorrow am. And my kids disappeared my sleep mask. Grrr.

[calee]

Is Friday our last day or our done day? My Whole30 goes until the 30th and I will most likely extend. After 30 I'd like to reintroduce a few things one at a time and leave tine to gauge reactions. What I'm missing most is beef. I'd like to test and see if the eczema comes back. Who knows, I may just stick with AIP longer since this last week showed that I have a lot of healing going on. I'm getting used to this,

My news of the day is much better energy. Starting to feel like my old self. Took a 75 minute walk in the woods tonight after a full daybt work.

I had am Olympic Event today. I made a poop that had the judges standing on their chairs, yelling 10 10 10! I'm sure that it's part of the healing and letting go process. Ok, TMI sorry.

Beets, I hope you wake up feeling better.

almcc thanks for sharing your reentry. I hope you have fun with your friends that are coming.

Mo, I'm sorry you're cranky. I like a good glass of wine too. Just not yet.

[dukunbayi]

I'm getting used to this too. I like how it's made me stretch in different directions, and expand my perception of my options. I feel great without eating nuts and seeds. Don't know that I've noticed any other differences, but reintro will be telling. Soaked nuts first for moi! I better get those tomorrow so I can soak and roast.

1st batch of booch underway! So rad.

Oh, BTW, I listened to Chris Kresser podcasts Ep 1 & 2. I found him kind of hard to listen to, drones on. Maybe he found the knack and later episodes are easier. Or maybe I just need to read him, rather than listen to him!

[Moluv]

Oh you guys I meant I like WHINING! I didn't drink wine! Yuck. I'm still running damage control after the mistakes of the weekend.

What I am whining about specifically is the mind game of thinking "I can't have x,y, z," versus "I know a, b,c,d,e,f always make me feel good so I'll choose that". That's what I was doing right before we started this and I found that framework to be much more positive and healthy FOR ME. It is what I will return to. And it's what I'm trying to think of now too.

Despite my infinite crankiness yesterday (which had little to do with this actually) I literally forced myself to work on my wall mural. I didn't get much done but I made some progress and swatched my paint choices so at least I know where I stand on that.

I found my list if goals from my original w30 and I've accomplished some things and still need to work on others. Particularly my art work ethic and avoiding permanently things I know to give me big problems (alcohol, coffee) instead of continuing to test them every two weeks. I did the same thing with gluten a year ago, until eventually it sunk in, it was over.

Today is a much happy day.

Friday is day 10.

[calee]

I like that you're happy Mo. I didn't even read it as Whine. Sorry about that.

I hear ya about not returning to things that we know don't work. This is my forst foray into committed GF etc. while I've been low carb for decades it wasn't with this level of commitment to avoid grains. I came to Primal 1/1/2013 and made my way to Whole30 for more structure and commitment. I won't take back grains but may slowly test things like nightshades, beef and eggs. Who knows about dairy. Will be interesting to see how and when my story unfolds.

Happy Wednesday Team Inflamation!

[Nadia B]

I will stay the only happy AIPer here Clearly I have multiple issues to resolve and need to go for a longer time. The only thing I am adding is ghee made from goat cream butter. I am happy that most of you don't feel the need to go on with the AIP and can enjoy more freedom in your food choices. I am sort of happy that I have all these restrictions, not sure why. Maybe because I was egg free for quite a while. I am thrilled to be off coffee and chocolate. THRILLED. Month ago I though it will never happen. If I didn't have my Americano in the morning all I could think of for the whole day was a cup of coffee. Will I ever drink it? Yes. Good quality coffee, as a treat, after some time.

Babywizard, they were doing a 21 sugar detox and were constantly talking "I want date rolls" and "I've lost 2 pounds but it's probably this or that". It's good that they are not pretending to be perfect "I don't eat treats" women, but still. Another thing is that they support paleofying (bread, muffins etc) to make the transition easy. I guess it's just a whole30 pet peeve. They are still one of the best there in terms of content. I also like "On diet and health" with Stefani Mayer. All podcasts I've listened have their specialty - Wolf has weighliftin/keto followers, Everyday Paleo - stop cardio, eat well and calories/scales/body image rant (love Jason Seib), Balanced Bites has all kind of girly chatter. Problem with podcasts is that I start to overthink it. Like in tragedy of a healthy eater. I shared this long time ago and then it went viral too. Good laugh, but sometimes it feels exactly as described. You know what I mean?

I guess best plan is to focus on sleep and stress rather then agonizing over food. Sometimes I think that stressing about not eating something does more harm to my system than eating it. Easy to say

[Moluv]

I think I will continue on too Nadia- I just cannot stand being bound by rules. I want, nay, NEED to feel the choices coming from an internal desire to take care of myself, not an external drive to follow some rules set forth by an outside entity. It's only a subtle shift in attitude but for me, it makes all the difference. One reason for this is that this week of Aip I've been very careless with the types of vegetables I'm eating. Before I was more cautious to only eat the things I knew I could digest (low insoluble fiber) and I at least wasn't eating many raw. This week I just kind of said f it, it's compliant. Then I started feeling sluggish and worn down and bloated and then I was like double f it and drank, gasp, weak coffee yesterday. I'm so tiiiiiiiiired today and I hate it. My clockwork digestion halted. Eeeeep! So I just need a head change, not more and different kinds of food.

I'm going on a little road trip this weekend (alone, meeting my husband where he is working) and had thought about soaking some nuts and making Wallerbars but I think a better choice is a cooler full of meatballs and sweet pots and kombucha. If we eat out and there are bell peppers in a veg medley or something I won't worry about it, but really I think I'm on the right track too.

[Beets]

I like that the Paleo Parents (that's who we are talking about, right?) are very forthright about being regular people who embraced this lifestyle--and I'm sure they are a good starting point for many people--but I agree that they focus way too much on Paleofied treats.

I think this is dangerous for most ppl because

-they never change their relationship to food, subbing one form of junk for another, never learning to not eat desserts or not see treats as a reward

-all that almond meal is not that much better than flour.

I've never listened to a Kessler podcast. I like to read him. I haven't listened to any paleo podcasts that I've completely loved. Though I do think Jason Seib (Paleo Coach) has a wicked sexy voice. [insert ninja emoticon --on phone and can't figure out the code.] I never say stuff like that about guys, but I dig it.

Sarah Fragoso (?) can sound a little air heady at times but overall I think they are helpful. Robb Wolf's writing rubs me the wrong way. But I've never listened to his podcast.

I'm actually good with AIP now. I'm over the WAH! I WANT PEPPERS AND CUMIN! phase. I have a BBQ this weekend and I am going to drink some wine possibly. But I'll also bring something I can eat. It's potluck so that'll be fine.

I'm filtering out the extras, digging in for my transformation, settling into this liminal phase, eating very basic food, repeating the same meals over and over. This is fine. It's helping me move away from food as "delicious" to food as fuel. I think it IS delicious, but I am also enjoying it as nourishment in and of itself. Food qua food, if you will, not entertainment.

[dukunbayi]

And I do believe detox is real. There is just so much conflicting info on the Internet. I tend to read only the things that support my beliefs (as most ppl do) and sometimes I need to reassure myself I'm not just crawling down a rabbit hole.

Or, If I am, that I've got the right rabbit hole.

I just re-read your post and, yes, agreed! I was just thinking about this last night, and thought, you know... I might want to listen to some podcasts of alternative viewpoints just to check my position on the map. Just for fun, because I do believe I am where I need to be.

Anyhoo, I have been having headaches and allergy symptoms (crazy-making throat itching), and leg cramps, and my back and neck arthritis (oy, my aching back have had injections, chiro, acupuncture, drugs.. the who 9 yards) and post-surgical toe (surgery Oct 2011) are all acting up. I'm hobbling around like an old lady. Detox? I don't know, I really don't (my foam roller and I have been bonding).

I'm not complaining (yes I am).

Gooood stuff I hear you all saying.

Mo, I am in a different place than you in that I need the rules. I still need to be parented through this. The motivation for following the rules is definitely internal, but I still need the external rules, and within that, I am discovering a certain freedom.

Nadia, you are playing a huge role for me in discovering that freedom. I think we could do an online offal bootcamp. Yea?

Okay, gotta run and get my 17 yo from her internship... it's diving test day! After 2 fails, she and I are both ready for her to get her license.