Hey y’all,
I wanted to put an update out about my skin.
Things are going so great! I’ve had some patches of eczema completely disappear. Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures of the eczema patch on my hip, but it was about the size of an apple, and now it’s gone.
I do have pictures of the healing on my hand. This was from November 2020 to early January 2021.
This is amazing! This was only 2 months, and I reduced my inflammation completely with diet!
I’m obviously not done with my healing yet; I still have a ways to go, but I’m well on my way.
I’ve been doing some light exercises, but for the most part, I’ve just been eating a lot of raw veggies. I have a smoothie every day and a salad almost every day with dinner.
My smoothies used to have a whole bunch of stuff in them, and they were actually a little difficult to consume since they would end up being 2+ quarts. They were also more expensive than I liked, so I’ve pared down my recipe to the bare essentials that still keep me healing but aren’t as expensive.
Now, every morning I throw in:
-a leaf of kale (which will likely change to another type of green when I begin gardening in the spring)
-a bit of cruciferous veg (which is usually 1 leaf off of a red cabbage head)
-2 Tbsp sunflower seeds (for vitamin E)
-1/4 c gf oats (for silica and calories)
-1/4 c brown rice (for calories)
-2 Tbsp flax meal (for Omega-3)
-1/2 an avocado (since they’re on sale, and the extra oils are good for making a baby)
-1/2 c frozen berries (for antioxidants)
-1 banana (for sweetness)
-1.5-2 c water
-and I’ll throw in anything I need to use up that would go well in a smoothie
This smoothie is about $1 (unless my math is wrong). Ideally, I’d like it to be more about $.50, but I’m not going to sabotage this wave of healing that I’m on, so it is what it is.
This new smoothie recipe also only makes about 1 quart or less, so I’m not struggling to drink it all.
In the evenings I have a big salad with my meals. I cut up a head of iceberg lettuce with about half a package of kale and 1/3-1/2 a head of shredded red cabbage. Sometimes I’ll use my veggie peeler and shave a carrot into the mix; I don’t think I get many nutrients from a single carrot divided into several days, but the color is nice. This mix of greens will last for 4 or 5 days. I don’t like greens on their own (even with a salad dressing), so I eat them with whatever I’m having for dinner, which is usually a rice, bean, or potato dish. I like to sprinkle some nutritional yeast on top of my greens with a clove of raw, chopped garlic. Then I squirt some vinegar on top (I have to be careful to only use a little, because too much vinegar gives me the sweats).
The rest of the day is mine to eat whatever (healthy) foods I want. I love making bean cupcakes because they’re so good for a quick snack. I also need to eat as many beans a day as possible, so these also help me get those in. I also like that an entire pan of this is only about $.50 or less, so I can pretty much eat however much of this I want.
I also love baking up potatoes or cooking up some rice to eat for dinner with my salad greens (and some more beans/maybe some kind of meat). Not only are these dirt cheap, but the dense carbohydrates make me enjoy the salad more.
That’s pretty much my food for the day: smoothie, bean snacks, salad and potatoes/rice. I eat this every single day. The only times I don’t are holidays when I’m going over to other people’s houses. This may seem boring, but I utilize different spices and mix up flavors all the time. If I do get bored or just want something different on a particular day, then I’ll have it. If I’m able to work in my smoothie/salad, I do, but if I can’t, I don’t stress about it. I just make sure not to skip my veggies more than once every week or two. In the future, I hope to have a bit more variety in my meals, but for now, we’re on a pretty strict budget (trying to pay off $40K in five years or less when I don’t work and am pregnant kind of strict), and I’m going to do what needs to be done to adhere to our budget.
Frugal Treehugger 