Broccoli and chilli bake

Pea, Yogurt and Mint Salad

Yum!

Neglected blog!

Well it is ages since I last posted and I have some news and recipies!

News is I feel loads better sticking to my anti-inflammatory way of eating and have lost well over a stone in the process. My weight is 9st 3.5 at the moment.

I have had twinges of the endo but oddly after my periods so I will need to do more digging as I thought the worst pain would be before them and there was virtually none. Still, loads better and not the really awful pain of before.

Some pains

IBS twinge on Friday 17th then another on Sunday 19th both after eating later and including rice in the meal. I will not have any white rice at all in future.

Slight odd tummy today and very tired. Gone to bed with (late) tax return!

Gig on Friday so want to be at best for that if at all possible!

Veggie stew

Made this stew for our flat decorator - went down very well and was pretty easy to make!

Another twinge this morning from IBS so I took a tablet then had breakfast (avocado smoothie) which then made it worse, I think just as it went through my system. About half an hour later it had gone.

Rice cake with my favourite lime and coriander hummus and half a tub of sainsburys tomato and basil soup for lunch.

I had a delicious butternut squash stew last night at my sister in laws, it was from Ainsley Harriot low fat meals in 30 minutes - http://amzn.to/wfjsq8

More food

Still feeling well, I had a little twinge of IBS this morning but took a pill and it went right away.

Lovely big salad of falafel and salad leaves, sprouted broccoli and radish with a dressing made of coriander, garlic, red onion, tomatoes and extra virgin olive oil. The best dressing has avocado and chives (instead of the coriander) but Sainsbury's is limited in it's choices.

I made the boys home made burgers with chilli, coriander, garlic and red onion which went down well, I didn't feel I was missing out too much!

They had beer and I had my pure blueberry superjuice and pellegrino, must look for other healthy soft drinks at http://www.realfoods.co.uk/

My favourite lunch at the moment is Dr Karg spelt crackers with lime and coriander hummus, can't wait to get my blender back so I can make my own hummus with lots of anti inflammatory turmeric.

While I remember I need to look for curcumin that a friend told me a member of her family had taken after cancer treatment with amazing results. It is extracted from turmeric and a really incredible spice.

Susan Sarandon Poster Girl for Endo

Watched a quite moving speech by Susan Sarandon who is a spokesperson for the Amerian Endometriosis Foundation of America - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IetE1BOjEYs she spoke about the need to talk more about endometriosis and the fact that it wasn't a women's lot in life to suffer. I definitely felt alot of what she said resonated with me. Felt quite teary watching it (well I am on my period ;0)

Feeling really well this morning and raring to go which makes my food yesterday totally worth it.

Strawberry Smoothie

Falafal with salad leaves and sprouting seeds

hummus and pepper

handful of cashews

blueberry superjuice and sparkling water

9st 13 today which is a 5 pound weight loss since I started the endo diet - good side effect especially as estrogen (which I produced too much of) lives in fat.

Almost a week

Very pleased that after a birthday meal out, dinner with family friends and a numerous other tempting evenings I have stuck to my anti-inflammatory diet! I have turned down any number of delicious morsels and most of all had superblueberry juice and elderflower cordial and water rather than all the G&T's, beer and wine I have been offered.

The pain has eased off considerably and I got my periods on Sunday. Therefore as the pain came the previous Monday that means that was a week of pain as the endometrium grew, and as it now is draining away I would expect it to be less sore so I won't really be able to tell until next month if diet is working.
The 29th Feb is when I have to next look for any signs.

I am writing this after having a strawberry smoothie for breakfast (the rice only puffs and oat milk went down the sink - yuk).

Going to my mums for food tonight so until I have better idea of what to ask people for and to avoid them having to fuss about I will take some hummus and pepper.

Breakfast

with yoghurt and blueberries - I might try with rice milk too....

Day Three

Pain not completely gone today but shifted somehow and more manageable with, yesterday was just a really uncomfortable day. I was using my heatpad continually. But it is a very pretty heat pad so that cheers me up!

I drank an actimel first thing yesterday although not sure if it has the right flora in it, so I will be buying some proper stuff with Lactobacillus acidophilus in it to make sure I am having the right thing. I then had half a tin of tuna as a mid morning snack.

Lunch was plain hummus (can't wait to get my food processor back and make my own!) with red onion chopped into it and carrots for the beta carotene (a good estrogen receptor blocker).

I had delicious salmon made for me by my flatmate, with asparagus, broccoli, green beans, chilli and potatoes. Only thing bad in that was honey and sugar which I really have to cut out altogether. It was very tasty and good to know how much goodness the fish was giving me.

Pretty exhausted with the pain so fell asleep around 9.30 on the couch then went to bed at 10.

More things what I learned

Some notes from last nights reading - I downloaded recipe book from endo-resolved website, so far very interesting (not got on to recipes yet just lots of good info) and very empathetically written.

Some notes:

Cold-pressed, virgin coconut oil

Improves Crohn’s, IBS, and other digestive disorders

For those with Crohn’s and IBS, the anti-inflammatory and healing effects of coconut oil have

been shown to play a role in soothing inflammation and healing injury in the digestive tract.

For women with Endometriosis, this oil can be incorporated into your diet in many ways - as

cooking oil, added to salads in a dressing, as a spread in place of butter, or added to your

baking. And don’t forget that you can use it straight on your skin as a moisturiser.

Aloe vera juice

Pineapple to help with pain as it contains something called bromelaine

Decaffeinated green tea - caffeine is inflammatory

Lactobacillus acidophilus - get this from health food store to restore gut flora

Water – spring water or filtered 8 glasses daily

Sea salt only, others too loaded with additives

Noni Juice - miracle drink but as I have not heard of it I am more wary!

Supplements - confirmation that I was right to order Magnesium, zinc and calcium, Omega 3 and Vitamin B complex.

Still uncomfortable today but it is an at home day. I need to get on and read some recipes and decide what I am eating today.

My mum is lending me her smoothie maker as that will be my breakfasts for the forseeable future!

First Day

So I have known that I have had endometriosis for a long time, around 7 or 8 years. Two major operations and one ovary down and I have never experienced pain with it. Until about a year ago, a pain which has got slowly worse (although I attributed it to my IBS – I have had that for about 6 years) the pain this month was much stronger – and for the first time I realised monthly, so I went searching on the internet to find out how endometriosis pain was described.

I had said to my boyfriend that it felt like someone was grabbing my internal organs and pulling them down, I also had a pain in my lower back and leg at the same time.

This is wikipedia’s explanation of endometriosis pain:

• a sense of their insides being pulled down
• Throbbing, gnawing, and dragging pain to the legs

Such Fun!!

Also a huge revelation to me today is the fact that it is accepted that there is a link between endometriosis and IBS - felt like I had been punched in the side of the head when I read that - doctors have said to me before that in no way are they connected. Things are starting to make a little sense.

I found this brilliant site with loads of useful information including dietary and started to read...

Well there is alot that I shouldn't be having - inflammatory foods and lots that I should - anti inflammatory foods so I decided to gently start this today. It seems madness to be eating things that could be making my pain and my endometriosis worse.

This morning I had some strawberries (yuk totally out of season) and cherries but then I read that the soft fruit needs to be organic due to the pesticides on them. I also had some nuts and berries but again I need to make sure that there are no preservatives on the dried berries before I eat.

I had lovely piri piri humous for lunch with a bell pepper, and a sweet potato (one of the AI Gods) with tuna and a yoghurt dip that had cucumber, garlic, lemon and coriander in it. Not too bad at all. I ordered a special endo diet book as I think I may run out of ideas myself with no meat (except occasionally organic) no wheat at all and very limited dairy.

Feeling particularly bad today (had to come home at lunchtime and work from home but fortunately have an understanding boss!)

The picture is what I needed today to feel better, lying down with the dog and watching Borgen!