My Organic Thanksgiving

This year, I decided that I wanted to keep with my endo diet and cook an all organic Thanksgiving meal. I have never cooked such a large meal for Thanksgiving before. I was so nervous that the food wouldn't turn out that good, but I was so shocked! It tasted great! I prepped all the food the night before because I felt a terrible endo flare coming on. By the end of cooking the meal on Thanksgiving, I was bed ridden. But it was worth it. 

Starting from the top left, I made organic red potato salad, next to that I made gluten free southern- style dressing, below that is organic green bean and ruby red grapefruit salad, next to that is organic brined turkey breast (I couldn't see myself cooking a whole turkey, let alone eating it all), under that is gluten free macaroni with organic cheese, and at the bottom right is organic brussels sprouts and left over organic green beans from the green bean salad. 

Some things that surprised me when I brought home the organic food was that organic sour cream is the same consistency of mayonnaise, the organic cheese stuck to itself when I tried to make the cheese sauce to pour over the noodles. My organic journey has been so much fun because I've been able to create different recipes in the kitchen. It's not easy always eating organic because it can get to be very expensive, but I am managing with Trader Joe's. It's a grocery store with all organic and all natural foods. You have to really read the label because some items do contain wheat and soy. Some of the food there is wayy cheaper than regular grocery stores. 

Another way that i keep costs down is by going to the farmer's market and trying to catch sales at coop stores. I had so much fun making this meal, I hope you had fun for Thanksgiving as well. I will update you with my Christmas and New years plans. 

Asana supplement shake mix by ladies balance

A couple weeks ago a received a message from one of my lovely Twitter followers. She told me that she really liked my blog and that she had a company that made hormonal balance supplements. I was soo honored that she took time to read my blog, that I immediately went to her website; http://www.ladiesbalance.com. There was so much information on hormonal balance. To every woman out there that struggles with endometriosis or PCOS or any fertility issue for that matter should really look into this (and consult your dr. or specialist before you try anything). Today, I made a fruit and veggie smoothie. Here is the recipe:

In the juicer:

-1 small organic carrot

-1 large organic honey crisp apple

Combined juice with 20 frozen organic hand picked raspberries, 1 organic peach and organic juice

After I made the smoothie in the blender, I mixed in 2 tbs of asana ladies balance supplement. The taste of the supplement compliments this smoothie really well. A lot of supplements out there don't taste very well, but I can honestly say that asana is pretty good. Even though it is my first day taking it,  I can already see a difference. I have a little more energy since i've been fatigued all week. I will be posting more recipes with the asana supplement mix. I love how it is gluten free, dairy free, soy free and wheat free. This supplement mix goes so well with the endo diet because it's vegan. My system is very sensitive to new things and if something irritates my endo, trust me my body with let me know with bloating. If you have the time please check out +Ladies Balance on Twitter and please go to the website, it will be worth your while. Thank you to Ladies Balance for sending me this supplement mix, I am very pleased with it.

Vegetarianism

So….

For the past month I have been a vegetarian and I am not going to lie, it's been really hard. I have been eating nothing but dark green vegetables like red and green swiss chard, collard greens, mustard greens, kale, arugula… the list goes not. I have allowed myself to eat eggs so that I can add a little more protein to my diet. I do eat beans for some protein, but it doesn't compare to the taste and the feeling of eating eggs. The reason that I am a vegetarian (or a oovotarian) is for health reasons. I still wear fur and leather  (I know Peta is frowning upon me) and if I need a small portion of meat, I buy organic. The thing about organic meat is that it is soo expensive, I cannot afford to pay 40 something dollars just on meat every couple days. Don't get me wrong, organic veggies aren't cheap either but I manage from going to the farmers market for now. I do have a plan to build an indoor greenhouse starting in September. I have some ideas from pinterest, if you would like to take a look by all means follow me on pinterest to see what I am doing. http://www.pinterest.com/ameriej/

Let me get back on topic, so I have not had meat in a month and I do not feel like it's working. I have had zoo much pain the past couple of days that I even had to suck it up and take a controlled substance and I hate that! On top of it, I had the worst depression spell of my life. I am always hungry, I have to eat like 8 times a day (small meals of course). The benefits of being a vegetarian with endo is that I don't get bloated, no matter how much I eat. That's the only result that I can see so far. I think it might take two to four months for it to start effecting my hormones and the pain. I do admit that I need to exercise more (because I don't at all) to minimize the anxiety and the depression (endorphins and all). I have an idea for Thanksgiving, I want to go turkey hunting with my fiancé and his brother and donate the money that I would save from buying an organic turkey to a local food bank. I think I would save approximately 50-100 dollars on a turkey and I would donate all of it. 

I am going to the NYS fair this summer and I don't know how well I am going to do with being a vegetarian and being tempted with meat. I usually have to have a pulled pork sandwich, sausage sandwich, tullys tenders, hot dog, hamburger etc etc… I think that I will focus on eating more of the crazier things at the fair that aren't meat like fried pickles, roasted corn, fried oreos, funnel cake, fried dough. Stuff like that. A couple of things that i noticed while being a vegetarian is that I cannot stay away from carbs and dairy. I really want to switch to healthier carb and dairy alternatives eventually because I really think it would help my pain. 

Eating Habits

Soo…
Today I was contemplating on becoming a Vegetarian. At this point, I'm starting to think that I'm allergic to all types of meat. I remember when I was younger I had such an amazing digestive system. I could eat Chinese food, pizza, and ice cream in one sitting and feel fine the next day. And on top of that, I wouldn't gain any weight! Now I'm 15 lbs heavier (not saying it's a lot) and I feel miserable. I know that in the past, I have felt so much more happier weighing 100-105lbs. I know I know… seems vain, but to each his own. Being that I'm 5'3 inches tall I just feel more comfortable at that weight. My endo belly is less noticeable as well when I'm that size.
One thing that I like to do when I've been good with eating the right foods is rewarding myself with something that tastes great. Well… That's exactly what I did last week, I rewarded myself with 3 slices of pepperoni pizza because I didn't eat meat for a month and here's what happened…

My stomach swelled to the size of a basketball. I look like I'm about 5 months pregnant. It became soo uncomfortable that I had to lay on on my side the whole night. I'm sure you all know exactly what I'm talking about. When I look at this picture, it makes me sad because I work so hard to eat the right things and sometimes eating junk makes me happy. When I started college, I became an emotional eater. When I eat comfort foods… you know the kind… deep fried and smothered in chocolate :) I feel 1000 times happier and it makes me feel better, but my body responds negatively with bloating and pain.
So it had me thinking that maybe I should become a vegetarian. I thought about veganism, but I love dairy. Avoiding meat seems to be like a more realistic goal. I have fallen off the endo diet ban wagon soooo many times because it's just not realistic. At least for me it's not. Being on the endo diet feels like veganism and that's the hardest thing possible, especially when starting out because you're so used to eating certain things that when you stop it makes you feel soo unhappy… at least that's they way that I feel. I hope my Vegetarian journey is an easy one… I will keep you updated with what I eat :) 

Interesting

Hello Endo followers, 

I am so happy to back and feel much better. I haven't blogged in a while because I've been going through a lot with my health, which many of you understand. 

So.. I saw this picture on Facebook and I just had to post it here and talk about how I feel about it. Underneath the photo it said… "Endometriosis is known as an "invisible disease" because we look just fine on the outside and are experts at smiling. This is what's going on inside. The pic on the right is during a laparoscopy (a surgery us Endo Sisters have been through often more than once or twice to look around and remove scar tissue and separate organs again). This appears to be stage IV Endo. Fact: Even stage I Endo could hurt worse than than stage IV. Some women with late stages are not even aware they have Endo until they have some of kind of surgery and it is found." When I saw this photo, it made me happy because finally people were keeping it real about this disease. A lot of people talk about how they have endometriosis and then they took some bc or had a shot and are fine now. Okay, that's fine and dandy for you, but all women aren't the same. The fact is that SOME women who have stage IV endometriosis don't experience any pain, and SOME women who have stage can experience a lot of pain. When I was first diagnosed with endo I was stage I now I am stage II  and from the start of adolescence I had very bad, debilitating cramps. I still have bad cramps and they seem to get worse every month. Lately, I have been experiencing a lot of back pain. My surgical incision near my inguinal canal is larger than before so any attempts of waxing is very painful. It's very hard for me to wear jeans now even without the bloating because my right inguinal area is always swollen days after my period. 

I want people to walk away from this blog with a better understanding of what women like me go through every day. Having endo sisters is a big help to me because I don't feel alone in a world full of judgmental people. 

I always try to wake up early so that I can acclimate myself to it. but halfway through the day I get so tired, I'm sure you all can relate. People make judgements about me and say that I'm lazy, but if they were going through the same pain that I did, they would feel like they ran a marathon too. Also when I have mood swings, people make judgements that I'm bipolar when it's just the fact that my hormones are out of wack. The more that I talk to my endo sisters, and the more that I blog I feel better and better. 

Supplements Video

I know you all have been waiting for this video and I finally made it. I was feeling a bit under the weather yesterday and I just mustered up the courage to post it. I hope you like it. Please subscribe if you like what you see and give me any feedback you can, positive and negative. Please consult a professional (dr, nurse, nutritionist, etc) before you take any of these supplements. Thank you. Enjoy!
http://youtu.be/8803ZyGmhwY

Second Topic of the year

Hello again,
First, I'd like to say that I hope everyone is starting 2014 off pain free. I can say that the pain this month was semi-effortless for me, but the bleeding wasn't. Gotta love endo. I created this blog because I have a lot to say about how I feel about living with endometriosis. Like all of you I didn't wish this on myself and I'm hear to share all of my experiences with you. I like how I am free to say what ever I want to online, and yet there are some things that are too taboo to say in public. Which leads me to the 2nd topic of the year, it may not be as endo related as my other posts, but it's necessary to talk about. One of my endo readers gave me a topic to address today. The topic is the way in which society views talking about menstruation. I think this is a great topic because sometimes people make you feel like you're gross or weird for talking about something that is absolutely natural. I remember being taught about menstruation in sex education and everyone would laugh and get so embarrassed. I was also one of those people, but then when I went to high school I felt more secure with myself and it didn't bother me anymore. Also, by then all the girls had their periods. Although all the girls were going through the same things with me I was the only girl in my school who was the one screaming her head off because of cramping. (I'll leave that story for next time) The only people who were still embarrassed in high school about menstruation were the boys…
 Even though sexism between men and women has evolved, I still think that some men think menstruation is something that makes women weaker. I won't make this out to be a man vs woman feminism speech but in my opinion if a woman is acting like b*tch (excuse my French) one day then "she's on her period. Let me give you all a quick story. I was taking a science course when I was in college which had a lab. In the lab, I had an annoying partner who was always hovering over me (in my personal space), talking about how smart he was and he was always double checking my answers (even though they were right). Finally, I just got so irritated that I started ignoring him. So he told one of his friends "I think she's on her period". I over heard him and said, no I'm not on my period, I'm just allergic to rude people lol. I hear about professional women not getting promoted because they want a family or have a family, and honestly that goes wayyyyy beyond menstruation prejudice. I'm not saying that women can do everything a man can do or that women are super heroes and can juggle everything, but we shouldn't be seen as lepers either just because we bleed once a month.
Lets get back to the topic, I think that the reasons behind society's issue with menstruation is deep rooted from way back in ancient times. Ughhhhh more history I know…. I know that Cherokee Native Americans would put women in huts when they started their periods because they thought that they had  powers. In ancient Egypt, menstrual blood was used in different medicines, and they even invented tampons from soft papyrus. In Britain in the 1800's period blood was thought to spoil food so women weren't allowed to work in food packaging factories when they were on their periods. Talking about periods is very natural and I don't see anything wrong with it, it's all about how you view the subject. If you see menstruation as something that's gross and dirty well just remember that about 50% of the population goes through it every single month. It's natural and shouldn't be taboo. Look for my video tomorrow on youtube. I would like to know what you think about my blog and if you have any topics. You can e-mail me at annie.knight18@gmail.com
Can't wait to hear from you xxxxxx Yellow Hugs xxxxxxx