AIP Paleo - Day 3

Hey everyone!

It is day 3 of the AIP Paleo diet and let me tell you, I am having so many cravings. I will not cave but I have to say, it is not helping my mental state. I am constantly waring against myself. I am trying to stay strong in the face of this & it is challenging. I really want rice. I grew up on it thanks to my Japanese background. For me, it is a staple. I probably eat rice 3-4 times a week between Poke bowls, sushi, chili & rice, etc. Not having that in my diet is awkward. I must also be going through Dr. Pepper withdrawal's because I don't know how many times I have felt myself reach for a can in the fridge. I didn't drink any! So self control is still there! lol. I'm also craving pasta & pizza. I've looked up pasta recipes AIP style but none of them looking appetizing. Sorry, using zucchini in lieu of real pasta just doesn't cut it. I did see some interesting recipes for AIP friendly breads & crusts, so there may be hope for my pizza craving after all.

I do have to say, I feel WAY better than I have these past 2 days. I woke up with some actual energy, which isn't normal. It was like someone gave me a shot of coffee & zing! I woke right up. I continued with my usual ShakeO routine this morning. I cannot say this enough, but I am just so happy I kept this as part of my holistic healing approach. I don't drink coffee (Maybe that's my problem?!) so I have never had a morning ritual to get me up and moving. Shakeology definitely changed all of that! I was mentally alert this morning, I had no traces of fatigue & no bloating. I call that a win. These tiny battles I must overcome because that is what is keeping me going right now.

Jason & I made a trip down to Growers Direct & picked up everything we needed for dinner tonight, plus stuff for our shakes & acai bowls to last us 4 days. We walked out with 5 bags of groceries, overflowing full! Want to know how much we paid? $30! I know! Can you believe it? That would have easily been $50 anywhere else. We purchased a few things of strawberries, blueberries, plums, pears, artichokes, cucumbers, limes, watermelon, mangos, bananas, carrots, rutabaga, onions & sweet potatos, I swear, I know I am missing more but that is all I can think of right now. $30 bucks! Y'all need to jump on this place if you are close to the area. It is well worth it. Their produce is always fresh too. I have been coming here for years & have never had issues with quality.

For lunch, Jason and I just had a snack. I made a Watermelon-Cucumber-Lime beverage & Jason boiled up some artichokes. I found this recipe on Pinterest for the watermelon beverage because I have been drinking nothing but water the past 3 days. I need to change it up because it is getting booooring. I modified the recipe but it tasted great. (If you want to see my modified version of this recipe, click here.) It was really refreshing. It is something I think I will have on hand on a regular basis. I also forgot to mention in yesterdays blog, I made a Tzatziki sauce except it wasn't very Tzatziki. lol. I messed up on my hunt for today's dinner and instead of getting canned coconut milk, I picked up a box of coconut concentrate. Totally not the same thing! So with that being said, my Tzatziki turned into a dressing/marinade. It was still good. I was hoping to use it as a sauce for the chicken patties. Instead, we used it for the salad along with the avo-coco dressing. We had a bit left over, so I used it as my dressing with the artichoke. It was good but it definitely was not the same. I like to have Italian dressing with my artichokes. I tried a marinade with the items I had on hand & it quickly was washed down the sink. Then in a moment of weakness, I searched for a bottle of Italian dressing in the fridge. Let's just say the good Lord saved me from making a dire mistake because there wasn't even a trace of Italian dressing up in this joint. I resorted to using the Tzatziki screw up which I lovingly renamed Coconut-Lemon Dressing. It is really good, just not the same when you are expecting a sauce. (Here is my Coconut-Lemon Dressing recipe.)

Dinner is where the real magic happened. I have been wanting to make this recipe for quite some time. I had pinned it to my AIP Paleo board when I first started researching what was happening to me. What I made was Moroccan Chicken & a side salad w/ avo-coco dressing. It was fantastic! You know when you have a recipe that smells SO good while you are making it that you just hope it tastes just as good as it smells. This was one of those recipes. The chicken was so tender & juicy. The flavors traveled you to the culinary style of Morocco. Paired with the side salad, it became a refreshing meal full of so much flavor. My family was generous enough to let me make this for them. They are not following the AIP diet with me, only Jason is for support. Didn't I say how loving he is? To their amazement, they loved it too! Just goes to show there are really tasty meals on the AIP. (Here is my slightly modified version of the original recipe here.)

Jason loved it so much, he went for seconds on the chicken thigh. We both found a new love for sweet potatoes. I've had sweet potatoes in the past and they were okay. I loved them as yams with marshmellows. I hated them as fries. I'm a potato girl but I am the russet kind. Idaho & I would get along, that's how much I like "regular" potatoes. Maybe it's the German in me.

Despite the way I felt mentally today - it was a hard road today, I haven't felt this great physically in a long time. This is just confirmation that I am on the right path to recovery. I wish hair grew back as fast as a change in how I feel does. Mentally today it was harder because my hair is falling out at an accelerated rate. When we were in the grocery store picking up some odds & ends, Jason kept pulling my hair over my bald spot. My hair covered it fine on its own before. I can also see & feel my hair thinning along my hairline and where my sideburns are. When I pull my hair into a ponytail, it feels half as thick as it use to. I do not have very thick hair to begin with so it is a bit discouraging. On a better note, where there was absolutely no hair before, a few strands are beginning to grow back. If I can just focus on that positive note, rather than the missing hair around it, I can see it as a win also. I realize at this stage, only Jesus and positive perspectives can keep my spirits up about the situation. I will keep pushing forward until I am 100% better, then I will keep pushing after that. :)

Mahalo,

Brittany Bowman

#HashimotoThyroiditis #AlopeciaAreata #Autoimmunedisease #Journey