The moment we've all been waiting for -- YES, I am parasite-free!!! Yipee!!! Whew, the milk cleanse and all the food restrictions for the past two months have paid off. My energy is significantly better, according to the doctor. Best of all, those pesky parasites are gone. Now I'm just dealing with their aftermath.

The gas and bloating still linger, annoyingly, but the doc thinks it's because I still am dealing with fungus/candida overgrowth. My liver is still a bit congested, so I'm having trouble moving all the toxins that have built up, creating the fungal party. So it's time to shut down this party!

I await the next program in the mail - one that includes another round of Olive Leaf Extract and some more pills/tinctures (hopefully more tinctures than pills). But this time with the following things added back:

• Cooked oil
• EGGS
• Alcohol (distilled only -- time for the Mexican Martini)
• Sunflower seeds

I'm so excited to come up with some more recipes with these things! I'm also to add more vegetables and squash, as well as rotate the protein between chicken and fish. Oh boy, this pescatarian is going need help with the chicken.

So, here's what I had tonight, in hopes to inspire me to get through the next two months of more liver/candida cleanse program.

Salmon with leeks and lemon zest, grilled asparagus, acorn squash and sticky rice
with aduzki beans (beans and rice courtesy of Steven's mom!)

Last but not least, I think I found one of the culprits of the gas and bloating -- the oat milk I've been having with cereal has 19 grams of sugar (what?! how did I misread that?). So that much sugar everyday when I'm not supposed to be having ANY sugar. Well, we'll see in the next couple days if that was it.

It's the home stretch until I find out if I got rid of the parasites! My appointment is Friday with the doctor. I'm really trying not to get my hopes up too much, even though I keep dreaming of ice cream (coconut bliss sweetened with agave, mind you) and wine. And looking forward to trying to make that Mexican Martini I had in Austin. Something tells me I'm not going to be able to go back to ALL the foods I used to eat.

But as long as I have the motivation to cook stuff like this (no oil was used cooking this!):

Salmon with roasted beats, beet greens, carrots on a bed of quinoa,

I think I'll be OK for a bit longer.

Since the last post, the intestinal gas has not gotten any better. In fact, it got worse when taking the homeopathic remedy the doctor prescribed to take until Friday (nux vomica). I stopped taking it and it has evened out a bit. It became a really odd type of bloating -- distention that felt like it extended all the way to my solar plexus. What helped, besides not taking the nux vomica, was going to this breathing class on Sunday, with audio accompaniment by the Gameltron.

The Gamelatron!

What is the Gameltron, you ask? Its website calls it "the marriage of Balinese sonic and ritual tradition with modern robotics. The video interview from Wired magazine does not do it justice! The composition creator Tayler Kuffner premiered during the class went beautifully with Baja native Peter Domecq's Dynamic Hatha Yoga breathing exercises. These exercises can be quite challenging and with the undulating rhythms of the Gamelatron, flowing much like the wave of breath in the ideal state(s) of the exercise -- sometimes chaotic, sometimes soothing  -- really aid in being with what's happening in the moment. Imagine lying down, out-breaths like a sigh, in-breaths happening naturally, with no pauses. It's harder than it sounds.
Much like my experience with the didgeridoo, it got some things moving!

I've been bad. Not only about posting, but also with the cleanse. I knew it was coming -- the week I would "cheat" when I went to a friend's wedding in TX. Ft Worth, TX of all places, nicknamed Cowtown. Not an easy place to find dairy, sugar, yeast, cooked oil and vinegar-free foods. I asked the doctor which of those would be the worst to ingest. She said, 'do the best you can.'
I had ALL of them at some point over the week. Cheese, sugar, butter and oil were the biggest culprits. All that amazing, mouth-watering REAL Mexican and Tex-Mex just does not come without cheese. Unless you're ordering from Taco Cabana (<3). But then it does not come in a corn tortilla. Only flour.

But first, I cheated with butter. Even though the crab buckets said "Naked Crab" there is no doubt there was at least some butter in that water used to steam 'em. Along with the new potatoes and corn on the cob. YUM.

Steven at Eat at Joe's in Irving, TX
(my pic didn't turn out as well)

The rest was a whirlwind of Tex Mex from Taco Cabana (3 times) and Taco Bueno (only once -- I was desperately hungry and it was after 10pm when EVERYTHING closes down in Ft.Worth except for the bars), sushi (surprisingly good, actually, but def had the sushi rice cut with vinegar and sugar), Indian food -- hello SPICY cooked oil and some not so good indigestion -- and twice cooking at our friend's house. That was a life saver. We cooked them homemade marinara one night (no oil, no cheese!) with spinach. I had quinoa pasta while everyone else had the norm. They loved it, yay! I think I inspired them to try cooking their own tomato sauce, too. For breakfast, I had oatmeal with blueberries and Starbucks coffee every morning. And once for brunch/lunch curry-spiced potatoes with greens sauteed in ginger and garlic over brown rice.
The worst day was 4th of July, though. Although Steven got to sample real Texas BBQ (not the crap they serve at Dallas BBQ, mind you). Real brisket with sauce on the side that he said was not too sweet. I was stuck with an iceburg lettuce salad and too many bites of mac and cheese that I immediately regretted. The green beans had bacon in them (of course). No, I didn't eat them.

Backing up a bit, there was the wedding, where I had 1/2 glass of wine (it was SO sweet!), salad (yep, I brought the dressing I made earlier), buttery mashed potatoes, oil slathered grilled vegetables and two helpings of some amazing jalapeno cornbread. And cake. Half of the grooms cake and half of the lovely towering Bavarian bakery goodness.

Who can resist this yumminess
(don't think I can quit you forever, sugar)

I knew that was going to hurt later. I did the best I could, really! Seeing family and old friends was a great distraction from the reaction I was dreading following the wedding day/night. Luckily, most the reaction came as being incredibly tired all the time, headache-y sometimes and feeling bloated until the coffee helped to flush that all out. Unluckily, I am now officially addicted to morning coffee.


Now the good stuff (kinda). Austin!!!! Where more amazing Tex Mex was consumed. And a gluten free gingerbread pancake from Kerbey Lane. I only put butter on it -- no syrup! Made up for it by having black bean and guac tacos with no cheese. And corn tortillas. So good and fresh! But then came another misstep: the Mexican Martinis at Baby Acapulco after a day of chillin at Barton Springs. Food was OK. But that drink was one of those things unavailable anywhere else. An Austin specialty, so I'm told. And oh, yes it was tasty -- who would have thunk tequila and olives with a twist of lime are good together?

Now, one of the best we had in our short day/overnight trip: Polvos!
Three different salsas and guacamole. Now this is real chips and guac! Corn tortilla chips were also quite the staple of my cheating. Not a one was from a bag -- all were freshly fried up. Mmmmmm. The tamales I had, yes TAMALES, were OK. One was bean with no cheese, but I was ecstatic to have vegetarian tamales available to me (at least I think, not sure what the beans were cooked in).

OK, now I've been back and am now back on the cleanse while adjusting/trying to cycle through all the bad stuff. Yep, I'm paying for it with some painful intestinal gas, bloating and headaches along with some phlegm from the dairy (or the plane) that I'm hoping will subside by tomorrow. And I know I did not drink enough water. That could be one of the main factors -- not enough water to flush out the hard to digest things that I have not been eating!
So expect more food shots like this until the end of this month (hopefully):

Breakfast this morn: lox with grapefruit and strawberry arugula salad
Bran crisps for some crunch factor

Well, I did it. The colonic. As a first timer, I gotta say that I expected to feel ten million times lighter. And in a sense, I definitely felt better. But hell, I had a LOT of gas. I feel like I still do, though it's not as heavy nor painful. A lingering feeling if you will. Who knows, maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and evacuate the rest and feel like flying. The process was very far from comfortable. Don't know if I'll ever do it again. It was a little like someone taking a vacuum cleaner -- no, a room temperature steam cleaner -- on a low setting in reverse and using it to massage my insides. And then flicking the setting to high at times. Ugh. Crampy, bloated feeling followed by a bit of pressure release over and over again. I'm not convincing anyone here to get one, huh?

One of the many buddah statues at the Nectar House!

This past weekend I met up with some old friends in Kingston, NY (20 mins from Woodstock). We rented a house (The Nectar house) for the weekend for much needed catching up and rest. Keeping to the diet was not so bad, but MAN, the delicious baked goods from my pastry chef friend (she totally held back, even!) was so hard to resist. But resist I did, despite the glowing reactions from the swiss chard pie (drool). And the cocktails they made, whew! Lots of fresh juices. Those were actually easier to resist. One friend even made moonshine blueberry/cucumber/agave popsicles (for me without the booze and agave).
Here's some pics of what I made/refashioned for my food limitations:

Variation on the potato/spinach bowl --
this time I used quinoa's cousin, 
kañiwa ( pronounced kah-nyee-wah)     

Breakfast tostadas -- w/ handmade corn tortillas 

getting ready to grill some corn by the pool!
No oil or butter -- they were FANTASTIC

Pair that with some grilled talapia

And you have this bundle of goodness

It was really hard to come back to the city!

Whew, busy couple days of cooking, working -- and Sound/Music Institute class this weekend. A quick update on what the Dr said: my body is trying to balance out from milk - solid food, so what I'm experiencing is normal. BUT, if I continue with the constipation, she recommended a colonic. Never gotten one of those, so any suggestions there from anyone who has gotten one? I'm giving it a couple more days before I make an appointment with who she recommended.
So here's the run down of what I've made since last I posted.

Spinach, potato, leek parsnip sauteed in garlic ginger curry spice with rice. LOVED this one. Have to try to make it again.
Then it was parsnips, asparagus, potatoes and shrimp with garlic and leeks over quinoa during the Sound Music Institute weekend. Not too bad! And definitely more filling. I think I'm getting the hang of it.
In the fridge is acorn squash and kale over rice (had that today -- the crushed pepper, paprika, salt and pepper really make this one). I think it needs some kind of bean added to it though.
OK are you ready for this one? Steven's mom insisted she make chicken soup from scratch since I was worried about losing too much weight. After some cajoling, I told her I would try it IF she could find free range chicken without hormones or antibiotics. She went a step further and found some vegetarian chicken. Yeah, I know, what an oxymoron, but I'd rather know that what I'm about to eat didn't eat ground up bones of other chickens in their feed.
So I just ate some. Chicken soup with rice noodles and carrots, onions (cooked waaay down to nothing), celery and garlic. I was not brave enough to eat the chunks of chicken. Maybe I'll work up to that one.
YES, it was good! I got a spike of energy right after I ate it AND my bowels moved! Maybe I won't need the colonic after all :)

I'll also be doing another thing that I think helped today with moving the bowels: toning. It's something I've been studying in the sound/music institute. Making different sounds or tones with your voice activate different parts of the body. For those that know about yogic philosophy, those parts would be called chakras. There's one that corresponds to the lower abdomen, where the intestines are housed. That sound is LAM in some traditions and HUM in others. In Siliva Nakkach's Yoga of the Voice workshop, she expresses that these sounds are seed syllables, and are not always fixed on a certain part of the body; it depends on the intention and context. Today we also got to hear a classmate play the digeridoo. I really feel those low swirling bass vibrations helped move things along, too. I actually felt some gas move while listening to it! This guy can really make some amazing sounds come out of it. I highly recommend going to one of his workshops and/or performances to experience it for yourself (regardless if you need to move some gas).

It could get old fast, all this cooking and sticking to restricted foods.
So far, so good though -- no "cheating" and lots of experimenting to see what not only tastes good, but leaves me full and feeling good.
Monday I used the leftover quinoa to mix with lentils, shrimp and spinach, spiced with leeks, paprika, cumin and garlic. The shrimp tasted devine! (Sorry no beauty shot). But I put too much cumin in the lentils. I had the same amount as the butternut squash, but quickly learned at lunch today that butternut squash is more filling than the quinoa/shrimp and got hungry at work a couple hours after. So, just before book club tonight, I grabbed some raspberries and corn "thins" that looked like rice cakes at the health food store.

Tonight, though I made some beans and rice -- it's taco time tomorrow! Corn tortillas and an avocado are goin' in the bag, along with this some fresh salsa. Here's the rice, with some cilantro on top while I'm waiting for the beans to cook:

I did hear back from the Dr. about the heartburn. She had me lessen one of the doses of herbs that has cayenne in it. Definitely helped. As for the gas/bloating, that also seems to have lessened as well, woo hoo!
I'm soaking some garbanzo beans tonight, so something with hummus is next? Haven't decided yet.

FOOD. Solid food! Not as hard as I thought today. But it's a weekend instead of a busy weekday, where I had time to really think about what I wanted to eat vs what I could eat. The run down of restrictions: NO: dairy products (including eggs), yeast, sugar, fermented foods, vinegar, nuts, seeds, or heated oil. So it's just grains, veggies, fruits (only berries, kiwi, and grapefruit, tho). Not so easy when I think about what my usual pre-milk cleanse foods were.
The last day, up at Lake Peekskill was quite challenging. The ladies brought an awesome spread. I kept drooling over the Foccacia.. And check out this beauty shot of the forbidden grapes and cheese! And let me tell you, it was hard to keep regular at a foreign place. I only shat once (not at all at the place), before I left the house to get on the Hudson Line.

BUT, now is past the time to keep talking shit. It's food and recipes from here on out. And more pills. And still some gas and bloating. A call is in to the doctor to see if I should still be experiencing this.

Breakfast: Oatmeal with STRAWBERRIES! I devoured it so I forgot to take a pic. I was also drowning in pills. Have I already said I hate pills? I'm now taking a total of 9 of them (4 different herbs) in the morning, 6 of them 30 mins before the meal, and only 1 plus two drops of two different tinctures after meals. The other 3 are the colon builder, to be taken at night, too. Even one of those pill boxes that are separated by day of the week won't help this case. Shiiiiiiiiit. 

Lunch: pills 30 mins before. They tend to give me a feeling like heartburn that goes away in about 15 mins. Also checking with Doc on this....

I waited too late to cook something before I started to get hungry again, so I went down the street to Samurai for --

SUSHI!!!

Tuna roll, salmon roll and avocado roll. I stared longingly at the wasabi, and my favorite, pickeled ginger, which I can't have. And no soy sauce either. I could really tell how fresh the fish was. The salmon was the best. Next time I may just go with 1veggie roll and sashimi. Will skip the tuna, though.

Dinner: plenty o time to go to Whole Foods then search the internets for some good recipes. I had a butternut squash in the fridge, so I took it from there and came up with --

BUTTERNUT SQUASH with QUINOA and HIJIKI

I steamed the squash with garlic, paprika, pepper, sea salt, and a sprig of fresh rosemary. This was my favorite meal of the day! Slightly sweet, salty and savory (also thanks to the quinoa cooked in vegetable broth).

I didn't find that recipe online, but I did find that I can make popcorn without oil, some good recipes for hummus without oil, too (although I can use cold-pressed virgin olive oil and flaxseed oil as long as I don't heat it) AND salad dressing without vinegar. Got a whole slew of beans soaking overnight for tomorrow. YAY. 

So how am I feeling? No more fuzzy tongue, so my mouth no longer feels like I swallowed moss. There is still some gas in the form of burping, but that might be from all the pills I'm forcing down my gullet. My energy level is still up and down (still getting tired after meals). BUT there is no pain, gas or bloating, or burping WHILE I'm eating so far, so that in itself is a nice change.