Since this quest to get pregnant I have been trying several different things I have not tried before. The thing I have done most recently is start eating more meat and dairy. In the past five years those were things I hardly touched.
One of the reasons I decided to start eating dairy is because I wanted to try Kefir. A probiotic rich liquid made from milk. It tastes a bit like yogurt and is filled with healthy probiotics. While I have known for a little while now that kefir would be a good way to get more probiotics into my system, I didn’t want to touch dairy – AT ALL.
I was extremely ill five years ago and it started after eating three bowls of cereal with milk. I have always loved milk my whole life. I liked to make coffee milk, yes it was my grandmother who made those drinks with that syrupy stuff that tasted like coffee, I liked coffee yogurt, coffee ice cream – I’ll talk about coffee on another blog. I used to fill my regular coffee up with at least 1/3 milk or cream.
Getting off dairy and unhealthy food was a bit difficult at first for me even though I was quite ill. Without wanting to I thought about milkshakes, hamburgers, cake, and cookies – A LOT. I struggled for about year and half through trial and error eating bad foods, drinking green smoothies, feeling bad stopping more bad food, repeating that cycle until I was eating almost vegan. I ate fish and chicken rarely; I hardly ever ate eggs, or sugar and ALL dairy was out unless I forgot to ask a restaurant about ingredients which was not very often because I hated feeling bad after eating.
Now after all that I am starting to eat Kefir?! Well I have to say it went well. All the prayers my husband said over my body for the last two years for healing has started to almost fully manifest. Even the food allergy tests I recently had redone showed that the dairy allergy was extremely lessoned and one showed I had no dairy IgG sensitivity at all. I’ll explain IgG in a moment. After seeing those tests I felt freer to try Kefir. One side effect that I have not liked much at all is that I have gained 10 lbs. I had finally lost those last 10 lbs in my recent juice feast and felt great. Minor candida symptoms have gone away after eating Kefir and upping my probiotic intake. I did all that because I had severe gum infection this past February that I needed to correct so I used so much hydrogen peroxide and other bacteria killing mouth washes that my tongue hurt very badly. I had given myself a candida infection on my tongue and mouth. I’ll tell you about that in another blog.
I really wanted to make sure I will get enough protein during pregnancy. I know many people talking about health out there in internet land say that Americans as a whole do not have any protein deficiency and I would for the most part agree except that under certain conditions having protein deficiencies is not uncommon like during or after surgery, trauma, and stress and stress can include anxiety and depression.
In a previous blog I talked about a urine amino acid test I had done last December that came out almost all normal except three amino acids I was thrilled because the one I had done in 2009 showed extreme deficiency even though I was eating a lot of protein at that time. I was deficient in ALL the proteins and their metabolites. How was that possible – STRESS. I was under extreme emotional, physical, mental, spiritual, and even financial stress at that time.
Needless to say I want to make sure that I have all the proteins I need to make healthy babies. I just did another urine amino acid test after eating fish, beans, and more meat and legume protein every day than I usually do. I usually eat lots of veggies and smaller amounts of fruit but a test I had done in May showed more amino acid deficiencies. That was not a 24 hour test and I was two days into my juice feast and I thought for sure it would come out great because I was even JUICING when I took the test. I got alarmed and wanted to see how I will do with eating more animal protein. We’ll see how that turns out in a couple of weeks.
In the meantime I will be eating less but more varied foods while doing a little more exercise with my new trampoline and weights to lose those ten pounds again. I do know that it was the dairy, cheese, and large portions of meat that caused that weight gain. I also usually gain weight when I eat larger portions of nuts which I was doing too, just so I could get more protein into me.
I plan to make a protein drink that is uniquely suited to me and not one already out in the store because I still have problems with some beans like garbonzo beans, peas and grains like brown rice which most protein drinks are made with some combination of unless they are dairy. While I have enjoyed eating Kefir I do not plan to return to eating processed dairy or large amounts of cheese, sour cream or butter. I can do them in very small amounts and I thank God I can live more normally now but I also like to feel healthy, energetic, and clear minded and don’t want to compromise those benefits I get from a seemingly restricted diet.
I am confident I will be able to create a protein drink that I like and has all the protein I need without too much grain, or dairy. This will be a challenge. If you have any protein ideas please post them below I’d love your feedback.
Joan
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