Trying to be healthy is a real pain.

In the last few weeks, I've started working again.  It's been great, even though paychecks are on a month delay...yay....more waiting!  I still have some craft projects to work on though, and since I'm still part time, I will have some time to work on them.

This weekend I get a bit of excitement!  I'm puppy sitting for my sister and her boyfriend.  They have the cutest little corgi puppy and I'm going to convince my husband we need a dog!  (Good luck with that!)

How could you not fall in love with this cuteness?!

The biggest bummer over the last two weeks has been an almost constant headache.  It might go away for a day or two, but I've had a headache for 12 out of the last 19 days.  It was so noticeable, I decided to start tracking my health stuff using this app on my iPad:  Track & Share

So far, the app has been well worth the $5.00.  You can pretty much track whatever you want.  It comes with items (like happiness, stress, sleep) ready to track, that are already set up into different categories (Mood items, Health items, Gratitude Diary, etc), but it's fully customizable and super easy to use.  It even produces a graph for you.  For those of us who like to work with data, it's convenient because I was about to make my own spreadsheet in Excel to track this stuff.

In light of the headaches, and the fact that I don't have health insurance, I've been trying to research what it could be that triggered it.  There are a number of variables at the moment, and it's hard to pinpoint a cause/effect situation.

Issue 1:  I have allergies.  There could be a mold problem in my house, and there is definitely mold at my client's house.  And it's been a surprisingly wet spring/summer.

Issue 2:  I'm back to work after having a few months off.  Stress levels jumped significantly in the first few weeks back, particularly paperwork as I never had a training at the new company.

Issue 3:  I have celiac disease and at least one other autoimmune disorder. It could be any number of things related to that.  I'm pretty positive I haven't been glutened, since we haven't been eating out.  Everything in the house except a single loaf of bread and some frozen biscuits for my husband is gluten free, and the hubs is good at avoiding cross contamination for me.

Issue 4:  I have mild scoliosis.  My mattress isn't good for me, and we were using the guest room mattress until we realized switching it wasn't comfortable for guests either.

Something has to change.  It's hard to get anything done with a headache, nevermind trying to work with kids with autism where you need to be alert.  Soooo....I came up with a plan of action.  Start taking my claritin daily again (I was feeling excessively dry so I stopped).  Stay on top of my paperwork so it doesn't overwhelm me.  Change supplements so that I'm targeting my inflammatory response to different things.  Use a heating pad to help relax my back at night, paired with a cup of hot green tea and some aromatherapy.  Start back with daily yoga.  Switch out the mattress for a better one that my mother left in our attic.

Hopefully that will help get my body back on track!

Hooray for corgi puppies over the weekend!!!

Fun fact:  Welsh folklore says that Corgis are the preferred mounts of fairy warriors!  

Escarole and Bean Soup: A Tutorial

A lot of non-Italians might be asking:  "What is escarole?"  Well, it's related to chicory and looks like this.  Looks kinda like lettuce, but it certainly doesn't taste like it.  It's a bitter green, in my mind, comparable to kale or collards.  We live in Virginia, and escarole isn't the easiest thing to find.  Collards are in abundance in the regular grocery store, but escarole is harder to hunt down.  I found this bunch at a locally owned natural food store, Ellwood Thompson's.  And this escarole was local to boot, grown right in Henrico County!

A popular Italian American dish is escarole and beans.  I decided to try my hand at making an escarole and bean soup.  It's really healthy, easily modified to your tastes, and simple to make with few ingredients.

Ingredients:

A head of escarole
1/2 an onion (red, white, yellow...doesn't matter really)
a few cloves of garlic
1 can of cannellini beans (or great northern beans)
4 cups of chicken stock (I used a box of low sodium, organic, but use what you like, homemade is best!)
salt and pepper
crushed red pepper (optional)
olive oil
Parmesan cheese

Step 1:  Clean your escarole.  Isn't it pretty?!  Just chop off the bottom and rinse really well.  Use a salad spinner if you have one, to get most of the moisture off.  Just treat it like you would lettuce.

Step 2:  Chop your onion and garlic.  Honestly, the onion is optional, I just happen to like the extra flavor.  You could use extra garlic if you want.  I use a LOT of both.  I coarse chopped the garlic, and the onion could have probably been sliced a little thinner in retrospect.

My husband felt that I should remind you of the all important beer drinking (in my case, cider or wine drinking!) that should occur while you prep the food!

Step 3:  When everything is prepped, heat up some olive oil in a decent size pot (I think mine was a 6 quart).  Medium heat.  Saute the onion first, until it starts to sweat a little.  Then add the garlic and continue to saute.  Sprinkle with a little salt.  Right before I add the escarole, I add my crushed red pepper to help bring out the flavor.

Step 4:  Once the aromatics have sweat a little (onions will be getting translucent), you can add your escarole.  As you can see, it will cook down quite a bit.  

Step 5:  When the escarole is starting to soften, add your beans, and your stock.  Some recipes suggest adding a chunk of parmesan while you simmer, but that's optional...it adds some extra salt and flavor.  Cover the pot, and bring to a simmer.

Step 6:  Let it simmer for a while.  Add some salt and pepper, at whatever level you prefer.  Taste it, taste it, taste it!  Add herbs if you feel like it needs them!  You want the beans to warm through, and flavors to meld together.  It shouldn't take too long, maybe 20 minutes maximum.  You don't want a big bowl of mush.  In the meantime, grate your parmesan.  I'm sure a nice romano would work here too.

Tada!  Finished and ready to eat!

I had never made escarole for my husband before this dinner, and he enjoyed it.  If you like collards, kale, or other greens, you'll probably like it.  This is just one of many ways you can use it!  Experiment!  

Possible Glutening? I'll Know in an Hour....

Coincidentally, this is the last day of Celiac Awareness Month!  And I may have been glutened...

Tonight, the hubs and I decided to get a small bit of sushi from a local place.  I've been there many times before, but they do their carry out orders from a location across the street.  When I called to place the order, I asked about whether the spicy sauce they use has any soy sauce (which isn't gluten free).  She said no, but there is soy sauce in the rice.  In my head, I was screaming "What?! Are you sure?!"  But I was at a loss...I'd never heard this before...from this place, or at any sushi place I'd gone to.  So I just said "Uhhhhhhh, I'll have to call you back" and hung up on her.

At my husband's suggestion, I got on the phone with the main store, and told them of the interaction I just had with their "to go" store.  The lovely lady informed me that there was indeed, no soy sauce in the rice.  Wonderful...I'll call back and place an order.

But...this had me second guessing EVERYTHING.  What if the original person was correct, and they had mixed the rice differently that day?  Did they get the rice from the main store, or did they make their own in the "to go" store?  The "to go" menu didn't have the same (gf) or (gfo) labels (gluten free or gluten free option)...maybe they make it differently all the time?  Maybe the main restaurant server was new and didn't know?  Who gave me the right information?!  AHHHHHH!

This is a good example of the difficulty that happens when attempting to eat out with a food allergy or sensitivity of any kind, not just Celiac disease.  It's a risk every time...because that server just has to not remember something correctly, or not remember to go the kitchen and read a label for you...and you're sick.   In most cases, I would ask more questions, be specific, or just pass on anything questionable.  In this case, I decided that calling back or getting upset wasn't worth it.  I decided to trust that one of my favorite restaurants, who has never glutened me before, would not steer me wrong this time.

I finished my sushi about 20 minutes ago, and no tummy rumbles yet...I may have escaped without consequence...

May is Celiac Awareness Month!

May is the "real" Celiac disease awareness month.  It used to be October, which is why I posted information back in October about the disease and my own difficulties with it.  I'm going to post some relevant information this month, again, because I know it's important to increase awareness and understanding. 

Did you know:  An estimated 1 in 141 Americans has Celiac disease, yet 83% of those who have it are either undiagnosed or misdiagnosed.  That's an awful lot of people.  But even with the large numbers of people who are undiagnosed, the numbers of diagnosed individuals has been steadily increasing....and it's not just because of more accurate diagnostics.

The availability and popularity of gluten free (GF) food has increased, but many people have mixed feelings.  Like many trendy, fad diets, the public exposure can trivialize the real need.  I've been exposed to people on the internet who have very negative opinions when someone goes into a restaurant and asked for gluten free items.  Some restaurant workers have shared anecdotes of customers who insisted they were gluten free but ordered a beer to drink.  Behavior like this does have an impact on public perception of the whole gluten free movement. After 9 months of gluten free living, eating out is still the most difficult part for me.  I've learned to specify that I have Celiac disease when at a restaurant.  And even then, I've had salads served to me with croutons, when I specifically asked for no croutons.  I've had to send back sandwiches that came to me on a bun, after asking for no bun...and I had to emphasize that I can't just pull food off the bread.  Celiacs can get sick from the crumbs left over if they try to pick the croutons off.  I don't want to know what goes on behind the scenes in the kitchens, and I'm thankful I have only been visibly sick from eating out a handful of times.  But lack of symptoms does not equal lack of internal damage.

Let me start with the fact that I'm extremely thankful to have figured out what was going on with my body.  I'm thankful that Celiac isn't a more serious disease where I have to take daily drugs, or need to cope with physical deterioration.  However, Celiac disease does have serious consequences on the body, mostly when individuals continue to eat gluten, but sometimes even when an individual sticks to a gluten free diet.

Some of these complications include:

• Malnutrition
• Infertility
• Rickets, Osteoporosis, and other bone density related issues
• Lactose intolerance
• Cancer:  increased risk of bowel cancers and lymphoma
• Nerve issues:  including seizures and peripheral neuropathy.  

It's important for me, and other Celiac individuals to stick to the gluten free diet, minimize cross contamination, and work on healing our body systemically to minimize the risks of other complications.

In addition, if you or someone you love has been diagnosed with one of those more vague conditions, such as chronic fatigue syndrome or irritable bowel syndrome, encourage testing for food allergies and food related disorders like Celiac.  It gives new meaning to the old saying "You are what you eat."

"America's health care system is in crisis precisely because we systematically neglect wellness and prevention."  ~Tom Harkin