It’s been about a month since I was released from hospital, so I thought it’d be good to write a general update on my progress, and my thoughts and conclusions so far, as it feels like a bit of a milestone.
Month: March 2015
Kavi and Amoda’s Divine Chocolate recipe
Kavi Jezzie Hockaday and Amoda Maa are two dear friends who have opened up our Food, Nutrition and Wellness worlds considerably since we first met.
One of the first recipes they showed us was for this Divine Chocolate, made from Raw Cacao. We went wild for it on first taste, and now make it ourselves on a regular basis.
A setback, a lesson learnt, and a new resolve
TMI alert; the following sentence probably isn’t for the squeamish…
I had a bit of a scare yesterday evening, as for the first time since I left hospital, I had some diarrhoea, blood and mucus in my bowel movement, which wobbled me a little.
Ayurveda for Crohn’s Disease, IBD’s and stress
I was recently very fortunate to have a consultancy session with Dr Marouf Athique and his wife, from the College of Ayurveda. I’ve yet to transcribe the recording of the meeting, so I’m going to describe my personal consultation in a separate post; naturally the advice that follows there will be for my Vata type, and of course for the healing of the Crohn’s symptoms, but I will say now that it was a fascinating, enlightening and incredibly helpful meeting, and I’m very glad we went.
In the meantime I wanted to write about Auurveda in general, with the disclaimer that this is all still very new to me.
Kavi Jezzie Hockaday – The Power of Illness to Change your Life.
Kavi Jezzie Hoackaday
Kavi Jezzie Hockaday was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis 10 years ago, and was given the same ‘you need to go on Immune Suppressant drugs for the rest of your life’ prognosis as I recently received.
Kavi, however, took the natural route, and utilised Ayurveda, Chinese Medicine and Elimination diets, as well as undertaking a huge inner transformation, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
Tom Malterre & Dave Asprey: Gluten, the Gut Microbiome, & the Elimination Diet
I’ve been a fan of Dave Asprey and his Bulletproof Diet for a while; even though his Bulletproof Coffee is out of bounds while my digestive system is in a spin, the coffee powers our office on a daily basis (but I have tried it, and it’s awesome), and his biohacking tips are useful, insightful and empowering.
This episode of his regular Bulletproof podcast is a great interview with Tom Malterre, an advanced Functional Medicine-trained Nutritionist with particular expertise in nutrient deficiencies and the Gut Microbiome.
Homemade Ghee Mayonnaise
I love mayonnaise. But with my being on a cross between Jini Patel Thompson’s diet and a low residue diet following my surgery, Hellman’s, with its additives and fillers, is simply out.
So it occurred to me this evening that it must be really easy to make my own – and I was totally right. My Ayurvedic consultant has recommended lots of warm, sweet, cosy foods, and lots of Ghee, to help keep my Vata Dosha under control – I’ll write about this soon in a different post – so I was delighted to find a recipe for Ghee Mayo on Mark Sisson’s excellent Paleo site. The Mayo will certainly help add the cosy comfort factor to my food.
My Chinese herbs have arrived!
I’m very excited, as I’ve just received my personalised mixture of Chinese medicinal herbs from Simon Jones.
I’m to take 10g per day, split into two 5g doses, mixed with warm water. Simon has asked me to look out for any adverse reaction, as I have such a sensitive system; if my stomach doesn’t like it at all, I’m to split the dose into four 2.5g servings instead, to let my body get used to the herbs.
Paul’s raw Cacao protein shake
I thought I’d mix up the taste of my morning shake today, so I added a couple of teaspoons or Peruvian Raw Cacao powder, and really like the result. The raw Cacao is a super food, rich in anti-oxidants, and tends to give me an energy boost too, which is great. I don’t know for sure whether Cacao is an ‘allowed’ food for people with IBD; the SCD diet says no chocolate of any kind, but others say that Cacao is fine. Jeannie’s divine chocolate doesn’t seem to be doing me any harm, so I’m sticking with it until I feel otherwise.
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT, or Tapping) – Part one
I went for my first EFT session yesterday, and it was profoundly powerful.
EFT was developed by Gary Craig, and is now practiced in many forms all over the world; the basic principles are very easy to learn for yourself, by advanced techniques can go very deep.