Updates and a Recipe: Yeast Cleanse, PUFAs and NaPoWriMo

Happy Sunday! Day 3 of NaPoWriMo and I'm loving it so far. Since my major New Year intention for this year was to be a more excellent reviewer and stayer-on-track, I want to dedicate this post to a few updates. I plan to do some review and updating at the beginning of every month: this didn't happen quite so well last month, but now I'm back on track. So, today is an update on my yeast cleanse, which is now one-third through; my latest thoughts on nutrients, particularly PUFAs; and I also have some additional thoughts about Poetry Writing for this coming month to share.

Yeast Cleanse Progress
I've finished my course of ketoconazole, which I was taking along with grapefruit seed extract for a bacterial infection. I have two more months of the restricted diet (which still seems quite lenient to me, with its permitting of root veggies and even some fruit), together with probiotics and berberis tincture (to eliminate more bad-boy bacteria). I'm happy with progress so far: it has been fairly uneventful, for the most part.

Better yet, my energy has been returning, even since before I quite finished the ketoconazole. This medication is hard on the liver, and together with die-off and toxins exiting, it promises a debilitating time. For the first couple of weeks, I was slammed. In Chinese medicine too, Liver governs anger. I have often seen the connection, and definitely these past four weeks. I've been cranky! And even with Tapping, and all the other tools I have to help me, it's been hard to curb that. Sometimes emotions have such a strong physiological base that they can be hard to neutralize with the mind. I try to remember this when I'm dealing with others and it helps me to be compassionate when someone is being unpleasant.

So, no more cranky, is my intention! :)

PUFAs and Others
When I started the yeast cleanse and shared its restrictions on here, Bitt asked the very sensible question: Would I continue to restrict PUFAs, as I have been for a few months now, in addition to those other restrictions? At the time, I wasn't sure of the answer. So many experts do insist that omega-3's are not only essential, but anti-inflammatory and otherwise beneficial. Many people, especially plant-based types, share the experience that the omega-3 seeds help tremendously with mood regulation. I was seriously considering incorporating flax and chia seeds again.

However, I just carried on doing my thing, opening myself to guidance, tuning in and listening to my body, and I haven't added them back in. I'm not restricting all PUFAs completely: I've been eating some beans, which have a few, and when I've made cheesecakes, with cashews (fairly low in PUFA as nuts go), I've had a taste of them. I've also been having a little avocado (zealous PUFA-avoiders would avoid all of these). But otherwise, I haven't felt moved to add any of them in. I can't guarantee that I'm feeling generally 'better' as a result of PUFA avoidance, as it could be due to the added starch alone, and at some point I should probably try adding omega 3's and keeping everything else as close to the same as possible.
For now, though, I'm not even putting olive oil on my salads most of the time: they're plenty juicy with some lemon or lime juice, tomatoes, julienned beets--

 --and I've been making my snacks mostly out of some form, or several forms, of coconut. Coconut pulp from making my coconut milk, shredded coconut, coconut butter. These bars (sorry for the poor picture)--

--are made from the zest and juice of a lemon,
about a cup and a half of coconut pulp,
a quarter cup of shredded coconut,
a quarter cup of coconut butter,
a quarter cup of irish moss gel,
an eighth cup of xylitol,
a teaspoon of ginger--all whizzed in the cuisinart.

These are really good, but a little more crumbly than most snack bars. Maybe best kept in the freezer. But isn't this odd? I was making energy bars with 'chia sweet' for such a long time (and there are tons of posts on it)--stevia-sweetened chia gel replacing dried fruit because I was avoiding sugar--and now I'm replacing the chia! Doesn't it seem a little reductive?

Well, part of the reason that this cleanse is feeling so easy is that I'm enjoying the starches so much. It's been a while since I mentioned that I'm feeling so good eating a fair amount of starch : before embarking on the cleanse, this included increasing amounts of fruit. And my blood sugar has only gotten better since making these changes. Until the last couple of years, I'd been a big fruit-eater (and fruit geek) my whole life. I feel that I have had enough of a break from fruit, and no longer need to demonize it, nor to demonize high-glycemic foods (I think the whole concept is far too reductive anyway, and will talk about it more if there's interest). So, come June, watch out for some recipes on here that feature fruity goodness again after all! Yes, I'm a nutritional whirling dervish, but I do feel that I get closer to the truth, for me anyway.

NaPoWriMo
I set myself a few additional guidelines for my daily poem effort. While part of the attraction of a daily poem is that it places the emphasis on generating material rather than on polishing it, I have required of myself that every poem I write, even if it isn't polished, should be worthy of polishing later, should be taking me somewhere. I've also decided that using ideas that are scribbled in my notebook waiting to be born into poems is allowable too: what a good opportunity to give them birth! I want to use the opportunity to play with some forms that I haven't yet played with, although not all poems need to be form poems. Finally, I've suggested to myself that I produce at least one 'funny' poem per week.

I'm not going to reproduce poems in full on the blog here, but I will share snippets and updates.

Thus far, Friday's poem was a braided poem, whose first line is "Panorama has no intentions."
And yesterday's poem was my first try at a Triolet.
Today's is yet to be written, and I'm off to do it!

We're off to Anchorage tomorrow again for a couple of days. Hopefully my wonderfully slimmed down new bag and netbook will make the whole thing easier and smoother.

Reflections on Self-Love - Purpose; Two Outings, Two Dinners - Homer Events

We had guests over tonight - a lot of fun - but now it's past 9pm here, which means it's way late everywhere else. I was doing my work and fixing the dinner all day but had my photos uploaded and ready to go, and have been percolating this post in my head, so hopefully I'll keep it brief but have it make sense.

Today's reflection on self-love is about a sense of purpose - recognizing our own uniqueness and connecting with our role in the world. Tina asks, "In what ways does your life have purpose?"

I'll come back to this at the end of the post, but it's been a very perplexing question for me at times. I have struggled with the lack of clarity over whether I'm at liberty to create/recognize my own life purpose, or if my purpose emerges as I'm tugged along by events. Today, I felt like working on my translating job and preparing a dinner for guests were parts of my purpose, but Phil had invited the guests, whom I didn't know very well, and my translating job is translating a dictionary, so parameters are tight!

Be that as it may, while I gave up trying to fix 'compromise' foods that would work for both of us a long time ago, and now fix wholesome but regular omnivore food for Phil and any guests, always with a big salad with  good dressing on it, I know that part of my purpose is to feed myself so that I'm at my most functional.

Here's part of the experiment: I actually went out both Saturday night and Sunday night. Neither time did we get home that late, but two evenings out in a row is a lot for me - I'm not much good come evening. I had two very different dinners those two nights and there were definite results and consequences.

On Saturday night, I went to hear Corrina Delgado, a performance poet from Anchorage. I love going to poetry events and hearing what other people are doing. I loved that she performed everything from memory and used rhyme and rhythm to make it a very oral (and aural) medium. A fascinating meld of hip-hop-type rhythm, intense confessional and mythological comparisons.

I kind of wanted a smoothie beforehand but couldn't be bothered to make it (tired already), so had this instead;

It's soaked wakame, pickled beets, peeled and chopped-up broccoli stalks, broccoli flowers, cilantro, some coconut kefir whey, curry powder, bit of avocado. With some romaine lettuce on the left and some coconut kefir (which I promise I'll explain soon) on the right.

Then, on Sunday night, I had this for dinner

(smoothie with nettles, mint, cilantro, kefir whey, herbal tea, flax, chia gel, slice of avocado, spirulina, chlorella) (oh yeah, and the end of the spoon in my hand when I was taking the photo! No photoshopping here, lol)

before we went out to be part of the basket-burning party.

Above is how it was the day before...

On the evening itself, there were a couple hundred people there, and it was festooned and garlanded. It is an 'impermanent art exhibit' - a monster basket built/woven from local materials. People were invited to add notes saying what they wanted to release.

The sun came out for the only time that day, just in order to set, which was the signal to set the basket on fire! There was lots of drumming and dancing.

And as it got darker, the flames of the basket mounted higher!

It was magical - very social and community-feeling but also intimate. There were folks spinning poi, some of them very good (couldn't get decent pictures in the dark). And then there were these amazing fire-lanterns - like a parachute in reverse, or a miniature hot-air balloon. They were lit and released, and they went up and up and up until you could no longer see them. So cool...

And the verdict on the two dinners? Well, beautiful though the first one was, I was definitely 'aware' of it in an uncomfortable kind of way while listening to the poetry performance. Whereas on Sunday night, I felt lightly but well-nourished. I was wiped out at the end, because we had a hike to get to the gathering and then stood for a long time, but my guts were no problem at all.

So much gratitude for the Vita-Mix! I talked myself out of smoothies with all kinds of rationalizations for ages - blenders are expensive, they pull too much power, have to wash them, etc... And then, when I was trying to make the same food for both Phil and me, he abhors the texture of smoothies and blended food - he'd rather have something to crunch on. Good enough for him, good enough for me, I thought. Well, that was foolish. Phil has an extremely strong digestion, and I have the opposite. There's probably a reason why I'm drawn to smoothies and love them: I tend to feel better afterwards. Now, when I start up inner talk about 'shouldn't use the blender,' I remind myself that making smoothies is being loving to myself.

Is smoothie or salad more self-loving to you?

Back to self-love and a sense of purpose: I mentioned above the dichotomy between the feeling of choosing and connecting to life's purpose and that of having it emerge as you're tugged along by all the different things that bump up against you. For me, I feel that perhaps both are valid. My purpose in any given moment or situation may be somewhat governed by the situation: but I will have a special role and response that won't be just like anyone else's. Furthermore, as I'm bumped around by all these events, I am compelled to write about them. I feel that my poetry writing is my truest life purpose and that part of what I need to do is to fulfill my given role in a situation to the best of my (not anyone else's) ability, and then I need to go do my writing!

How does sense of purpose relate to self-love for you?

Amazing Grass Product Reviews #1; Are You a Pessimistic Label Reader?

Are you a pessimistic label reader? I know I am - I read every label pretty much in the expectation that sooner or later, I'm going to run into something that rules the item out for me. Too much sugar, some gluten or dairy, soy, rice - almost everything has something like that. This is why, when I first came across Amazing Grass Green Superfood, I thought it was too good to be true!

Not only is it full of good quality powdered greens: it also contains antioxidants, probiotics, enzymes and  fiber! And it is sugar free, and uses stevia (several other sugar-free mixes use alternatives that I really wouldn't prefer!) The type that grabbed me was the chocolate flavor: as I mentioned the other day, mixing chocolate with tons of greens and superfoods is the best strategy. I was a little hesitant about the small amount of oat fiber in the fiber complex, but gave it a try anyway (gluten is a protein, and is unlikely to be present in the fiber). And the product is certified gluten free (which gave me more courage around the oat ingredient) and vegan, and seems to be raw too. So, this pessimistic label reader found something to try after all!


It is a little pricey, but I love it so much that I get it anyway. It featured in my no-sugar raw birthday pie, and I often add a little to my morning smoothie (except when I'm completely avoiding cacao). Sometimes mid-afternoon, I have a tablespoon of it with a little nut milk or herbal tea - it's remarkably filling and satisfying for the low calorie count. I really enjoy the complexity of the green-ness and how it balances the chocolate flavor.


So when the folks at Amazing Grass sent me a package of samples to review, I knew I had a delightful opportunity. I think it's going to take several posts to cover all the products they sent - what generosity!

There are energy bars, superfood powders of several different kinds, and meal replacement powders. I couldn't possibly have tasted them all in one go, let alone given a fair reflection of how they felt after consumption, so I'm going to do several review posts over the next few days once I have tried them. Since the green superfood powder is where it all started for me, and since I've already reviewed the 'chocolate infusion' green superfood powder above, I'll start with those powders.


I started out by trying the wheatgrass powder. It's labeled as gluten free and vegan: this is reassuring to me, since I'm very much allergic to wheat and have often been nervous about trying wheatgrass products even though I understand that gluten is a protein formed within the grain, not the grass.

This powder was a rich, dark green - much darker than my wheatgrass powder from Wilderness Family (I don't know if this is a good thing but I enjoyed the color). A little taste of the powder 'straight' showed it to be sweet and full-bodied in flavor.


I mixed it up with my little balloon whisk (works best if you put the water in the glass first).

I really enjoyed the taste and that calm-buzz feeling of having just had something very green. I have to say, this is a big serving of wheatgrass! In retrospect, I should have had it on an empty stomach: I had it as part of my mid-afternoon snack, after I'd had half of one of the energy bars (to be reviewed soon) and one of my own no-sugar cookies, and my tummy felt a little insulted by doing things in that order. Wheatgrass is so detoxifying... I think that in future, I would take this on an empty stomach, and maybe only take half the serving at once, until I got used to it.

Well, wheatgrass is the very basic, but the next most basic is their unflavored Green Superfood powder. 

I've talked before about how I generally prefer to add my own flavorings/protein powders/superfoods to something basic, rather than using someone else's formulation, but I love the mix of ingredients in this green superfood. I wanted to try the unflavored version to see how it is without the cacao (to see whether potentially I could get this kind and add my own cacao at times when I'm actually able to tolerate a bit of it). This would be a great addition to a smoothie, I thought - but this afternoon, I tried it straight up, mixed only with water. This was part of a mid-afternoon snack, but I ate my no-sugar cookie when we were hiking on the beach and drank this when we got home, a little later.

Whisked it up with my balloon whisk just like the wheatgrass - and whoops! Had drunk half of it before remembering to take a picture! Yes, it was really good. I love the addition of peppermint to the formulation. I love the slight grittiness of the texture - it disperses very well in the liquid but has enough of a texture to remind you to really 'chew your juice' - to savor every mouthful. To me, this is an important feature when you're taking in green products: mindful consumption, whole body at attention.

It tastes satisfyingly 'green' without any bitterness. I felt a clear, calm energy after consuming it, fairly satisfied without being too full to eat a few raspberries from our garden! (There are still two more flavors of green superfood powder I have to try: I'll update this post when I've tried them.)

OK - Update #1 - Lemon-Lime Energy Drink Green Superfood. With mate and green tea. Sugar free, stevia sweetened, but 85mg caffeine in the serving - I'm supposed to avoid caffeine. A point I'll probably make a couple of times during these reviews: aside from the superfood powders, there are ingredients in some of these samples that I ordinarily have to avoid (caffeine, sugars, rice). I am exercising caution and sampling them anyway, so that I can give a good reflection of each product. However, products, like the bars and meal replacements, that contain extra sugar, will inevitably taste very sweet to me. I also have a high tolerance for gritty textures (because, as I mentioned above, I generally think they enhance your appreciation). So please bear in mind that my reviews are inevitably going to be somewhat subjective and idiosyncratic.

I love green tea but it's hell on my adrenals at the moment, and whilst I like the taste of mate, I really don't do well with it. I know that this is not the standard story, so please understand the idiosyncrasies of this tester! I tried this mid-morning, and just used half the package with a small amount of water. Straight up, the powder has a pleasantly 'green,' citrus-enhanced taste. Mixed with water, I found that it didn't disperse quite as well as the 'original' green superfood powder. The mate flavor was intense to me, as were the citrus notes - a good combination, I think. I was surprised that it didn't seem to mix as well, considering that I only had half the amount of powder - but it could have been that I didn't whisk it as well! Just this small amount definitely put me on the 'adrenal edge,' like drinking green tea or eating a lot of cacao, but I suspect that for a person without adrenal problems this would be a great, and great-tasting energy boost!

Just one more flavor of superfood powder to try - berry - and then this post will be complete!

And for my final update: Green superfood drink powder - berry flavor. Again, I simply mixed this with water. I'm sure it would be great in nut milk or smoothies too. I noticed that they say 'natural flavors' in the ingredients, without divulging what these ingredients that produce the berry flavor are. In addition to the acai that all the flavors have, this one also has goji berries in the antioxidant blend. 

Just like the 'natural' and 'chocolate' flavors, I liked both the taste and the texture of this - I enjoyed how well it dispersed and yet how it retains enough of a texture to remind you that 'this juice is food.'

Another thing I noticed was that only the chocolate flavored superfood powder contains oat fiber in the fiber blend. The rest of them contain just flax and apple pectin. For me personally, this is yet another signal that I should get the 'original' flavor and add my own cacao when I'm actually better able to tolerate it (or use the flavor essence!), since the cacao flavor alone has that one ingredient that is questionable for my system. I do think that this is a wonderful superfood powder.

Speaking of our garden, we're still harvesting herbs, beets, lettuce, chicory, cauliflower, broccoli, those weird carrots, kale, chard, peas, raspberries. We've been making delicious mint tea with fresh leaves from the garden. I froze some raspberries today and am going to make raspberry jam for Phil this evening. I've been eating massaged chard/kale salads lunch and dinner the last couple days. 

And we're taking advantage of the fall tides to fertilize our gardens in preparation for over-wintering and for next year! Phil loves any excuse to do some more strenuous, heavy work, so our beach hikes have been featuring the truck and a pitchfork, he loads up with kelp (sometimes has me drive alongside the tideline very slowly as he loads) and has been putting it on the garden beds back home!

It was a beautiful day here again! Happy Sunday...