Short one this week. Some things came up last week so I was not able to do my gallbladder diet. I hope to get to it very soon, but as long as things are as hectic as they're promising to continue to be this week, it'll be too hard to start something new. But when I do, I'll let you know if I experience any improvement in my symptoms.
Until then.. I have been slowly trying to eliminate unhealthy foods in my house and simply not replenish them. We've gotten to the bottom of the flour barrel! I have decided not to buy flour for now and see how it goes. This one will be particularly interesting because there are so many unhealthy things that I can and do make with flour that it'll be nice to have no choice but to make something else. So far we've been out of flour a week and it hasn't been a concern.
Another one is cream. I love cream in my coffee, and as soon as it's out, I won't be buying more. Without cream, I'm pretty sure my coffee intake will dwindle quite a bit too. So that's knocking a few birds out with one stone.
This approach has worked with pop and sweets so far, and I'm excited to see just how healthy I can get my cupboards.
The other issue: exercise. I was out of town for most of last week, so exercise resumes tonight. I am determined to do Insanity again, and I think I have figured out the best time and way to get it done. I'm going to start fresh. The next time I post, I will have completed the first week of Insanity. I PROMISE.
My weight is down only two tenths of a pound for now. Haven't done measurements but I'll do some tomorrow morning. So... baby steps. But we'll get there.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Sunday, October 2, 2011
October 2, 2011
Hahaha! Yeah, I’m laughing. That’s how much of a joke this blog is. It, admittedly, has been a long time since I’ve updated or even cared if I updated. Lots of things going on as usual, but particularly convention and preps. It’s a busy time and a very hard time to focus on diet and exercise!
But worse, I’ve been derailed by increasing bouts of gallbladder pain. It’s an epidemic in my family. Almost everyone in my family has had issues with gallbladder failure eventually, so it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to believe I was headed down the same path. But if you know me at all, you know I’m going to try the natural route first.
First of all, what leads to gallbladder pain? Bad bile. Bile that has formed stones, bile that has become stagnant, bile that is too concentrated. This can often just be hereditary, and in my case I believe that’s a huge part of it, but I still believe there are other things at play. I have a diet high in sugar, flour, and saturated fat. It’s low in unsaturated fat and water, unfortunately. Bile becomes too concentrated when a person becomes dehydrated, and over time leads to stone formation. However, once the stones have formed, you can’t just drink water and hope to cure yourself.
So.. I’m going to do a gallbladder/liver cleanse.
Oh come on, you knew that was coming.
Here’s how it works. When you consume fat, your body uses bile to emulsify it and prepare it for absorption. Your body prepares bile in anticipation of a meal, so whether you eat fat or not, your body is going to build up its store. So let’s say you skip breakfast regularly. There’s bile sitting in your gallbladder waiting to be used but isn’t needed. It becomes stagnant and more prone to stone development. Let’s say for lunch you just grab a banana and have steamed vegetables and brown rice. You are eating zero fat, therefore your bile is again not needed and left in your gallbladder unused. It’s very important to eat a healthy amount of unsaturated fat at every meal to empty the gallbladder so that it doesn’t sit unused and cause problems. Does that make sense? So remember in the 80s and 90s when low-fat diets were the biggest thing? I haven’t checked statistics or anything, but I’m willing to bet that gallbladder removals skyrocketed after that. As for my sisters, they had done juice fasts immediately prior to suffering severe gallbladder pain. As someone who has also done juice fasting, I’m sure it has contributed to the pain I have now. In fact I remember quitting the very first fast I did because of the horrible pain I now know is gallbladder pain. I’m also a serial breakfast skipper (not by choice but because of busy mornings) and I don’t eat a lot of healthy fat. I eat a lot of carbs and might eat one meal that contains an enormous amount of saturated fat after which I’m suffering terrible gallbladder pain.
Bile is formed in the liver and simply stored in the gallbladder until it is needed. Therefore, gallstones can be present in both places. The cleanse or flush I want to try would remove stones from both places because it uses the body’s normal process of bile formation to flush out stones. The process is just greatly intensified.
Think of a hose that is filled with marbles. What is needed to remove the marbles from the hose? Water pressure. However, the water pressure is greatly diminished by the presence of the marbles. You can see where it would become a vicious cycle with gallstones. As stones form and diminish the flow of bile over time, the decreased pressure leads to stagnation and development of further stones, etc. But what if you could greatly increase the pressure within the hose for a brief time? And make the hose just a bit bigger temporarily so that the marbles could come out more easily? Some of the marbles would come out of the hose, and any other marbles in the hose would be pushed forward. This is the action of a gallbladder cleanse. It’s simply increasing the size of the ducts and the pressure inside the liver and gallbladder so that stones can be pushed forward and, best case scenario, dislodged altogether.
Here’s how I will attempt it:
Days 1-5
• Drink lots and lots of water. The body uses a tremendous amount of water to create bile. Drinking enough water helps to prevent further stones from forming.
• Drink lots and lots of apple juice. The malic acid in apple juice can help to soften and dissolve gallstones in preparation.
• Take double doses of magnesium taurate. Magnesium is what will serve to dilate the bile ducts and make it easier for stones to pass through unimpeded. (i.e. without triggering a full blown attack)
• Cut out dairy and sugar. Eat plenty of unsaturated fat throughout the day, as well as lots of vegetables, fruits, and other good carbs.
Day 6
• I will eat NO FAT in my breakfast or lunch. This will serve to build up pressure for the cleanse.
• Breakfast: Fruit and apple juice
• Lunch: Steamed vegetables and brown rice, apple juice
• 2-4 pm: Combine 4 oz of walnut oil with 4 oz of apple juice and drink. Follow by 4 oz of fresh squeezed lemon juice. Do this process four times total in two hours.
• As you might guess, drinking a full 16 oz of pure fat in the form of walnut oil combined with the increased pressure in the gallbladder from a morning of no fat at all combined with the dilating effect of the magnesium taurate leads to a highly effective and powerful “flush” of the liver and gallbladder that allows for the removal of stones and chaff and bad bile. Sounds good in theory, right?
Post-cleanse
After the cleanse I will begin my “white-out” diet. Low sugar, no flour or dairy or potatoes. But that’s a blog entry for another day. Hah! I need to buy things for this cleanse, so I will begin on Tuesday of this week. I intend to do an official start of Insanity tomorrow. I did one workout last week but didn’t count it. Also.. I have been off pop for a week. Anxious to see what this week brings!
First of all, what leads to gallbladder pain? Bad bile. Bile that has formed stones, bile that has become stagnant, bile that is too concentrated. This can often just be hereditary, and in my case I believe that’s a huge part of it, but I still believe there are other things at play. I have a diet high in sugar, flour, and saturated fat. It’s low in unsaturated fat and water, unfortunately. Bile becomes too concentrated when a person becomes dehydrated, and over time leads to stone formation. However, once the stones have formed, you can’t just drink water and hope to cure yourself.
So.. I’m going to do a gallbladder/liver cleanse.
Oh come on, you knew that was coming.
Here’s how it works. When you consume fat, your body uses bile to emulsify it and prepare it for absorption. Your body prepares bile in anticipation of a meal, so whether you eat fat or not, your body is going to build up its store. So let’s say you skip breakfast regularly. There’s bile sitting in your gallbladder waiting to be used but isn’t needed. It becomes stagnant and more prone to stone development. Let’s say for lunch you just grab a banana and have steamed vegetables and brown rice. You are eating zero fat, therefore your bile is again not needed and left in your gallbladder unused. It’s very important to eat a healthy amount of unsaturated fat at every meal to empty the gallbladder so that it doesn’t sit unused and cause problems. Does that make sense? So remember in the 80s and 90s when low-fat diets were the biggest thing? I haven’t checked statistics or anything, but I’m willing to bet that gallbladder removals skyrocketed after that. As for my sisters, they had done juice fasts immediately prior to suffering severe gallbladder pain. As someone who has also done juice fasting, I’m sure it has contributed to the pain I have now. In fact I remember quitting the very first fast I did because of the horrible pain I now know is gallbladder pain. I’m also a serial breakfast skipper (not by choice but because of busy mornings) and I don’t eat a lot of healthy fat. I eat a lot of carbs and might eat one meal that contains an enormous amount of saturated fat after which I’m suffering terrible gallbladder pain.
Bile is formed in the liver and simply stored in the gallbladder until it is needed. Therefore, gallstones can be present in both places. The cleanse or flush I want to try would remove stones from both places because it uses the body’s normal process of bile formation to flush out stones. The process is just greatly intensified.
Think of a hose that is filled with marbles. What is needed to remove the marbles from the hose? Water pressure. However, the water pressure is greatly diminished by the presence of the marbles. You can see where it would become a vicious cycle with gallstones. As stones form and diminish the flow of bile over time, the decreased pressure leads to stagnation and development of further stones, etc. But what if you could greatly increase the pressure within the hose for a brief time? And make the hose just a bit bigger temporarily so that the marbles could come out more easily? Some of the marbles would come out of the hose, and any other marbles in the hose would be pushed forward. This is the action of a gallbladder cleanse. It’s simply increasing the size of the ducts and the pressure inside the liver and gallbladder so that stones can be pushed forward and, best case scenario, dislodged altogether.
Here’s how I will attempt it:
Days 1-5
• Drink lots and lots of water. The body uses a tremendous amount of water to create bile. Drinking enough water helps to prevent further stones from forming.
• Drink lots and lots of apple juice. The malic acid in apple juice can help to soften and dissolve gallstones in preparation.
• Take double doses of magnesium taurate. Magnesium is what will serve to dilate the bile ducts and make it easier for stones to pass through unimpeded. (i.e. without triggering a full blown attack)
• Cut out dairy and sugar. Eat plenty of unsaturated fat throughout the day, as well as lots of vegetables, fruits, and other good carbs.
Day 6
• I will eat NO FAT in my breakfast or lunch. This will serve to build up pressure for the cleanse.
• Breakfast: Fruit and apple juice
• Lunch: Steamed vegetables and brown rice, apple juice
• 2-4 pm: Combine 4 oz of walnut oil with 4 oz of apple juice and drink. Follow by 4 oz of fresh squeezed lemon juice. Do this process four times total in two hours.
• As you might guess, drinking a full 16 oz of pure fat in the form of walnut oil combined with the increased pressure in the gallbladder from a morning of no fat at all combined with the dilating effect of the magnesium taurate leads to a highly effective and powerful “flush” of the liver and gallbladder that allows for the removal of stones and chaff and bad bile. Sounds good in theory, right?
Post-cleanse
After the cleanse I will begin my “white-out” diet. Low sugar, no flour or dairy or potatoes. But that’s a blog entry for another day. Hah! I need to buy things for this cleanse, so I will begin on Tuesday of this week. I intend to do an official start of Insanity tomorrow. I did one workout last week but didn’t count it. Also.. I have been off pop for a week. Anxious to see what this week brings!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
