My second Whole30

Tomorrow I will be embarking on my second Whole30.  This is a 30 day clean eating challenge.  It's not necessarily a weight loss challenge though some participants do see weight loss. It's more about giving your body a break and letting it heal.  I do have to make some adjustments since I have the j-pouch.  I can't do a ton of raw vegetables.  Eating a bunch of raw veggies is basically a waste of time and money for me as they just don't digest well.  I highly recommend reading through the program and pretty much through Dallas and Melissa Hartwigs' site. They are brilliant.

Here is a quick rundown of what kinds of things I'm avoiding:

• Dairy- I'm pretty certain I'm lactose intolerant anyway, but oh how I love cheese. 
• Grains- I mostly avoid these already, but sometimes the call of pizza or a buttery croissant is too loud. 
• Grain/seed based vegetable oils- I don't cook with these at home but almost all restaurants use them.
• Sugar- All added sugar including my beloved maple syrup. Juice counts as this as well. 
• Legumes- I can't digest them so this one is easy.  Peanuts are also legumes though :(
• Alcohol- Goodbye wine. I don't drink a lot normally because I dehydrate so quickly but I do love some red wine.  Or margaritas. 

I'm going to be driving to the other Vancouver down in Washington (the original Vancouver btw) to visit my family.  I'm hoping to convince my sister to do the Whole30 with me because she has some crazy health issues of her own.  I would like to be able to document everything, but it might have to be after the fact due to spotty computer access. 

UPDATE 1/3/14: Obviously, this did not happen as I was sad and lazy. 

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Capilano Suspension Bridge and Stanley Park

Last weekend one of my close friends from Seattle came up to visit for a few days.  We spent most of the time exploring by foot and by the time she left I had acquired a couple of blisters.  The first day we walked around the False Creek Seawall from David Lam Park to Granville Island and then took the ferry back across False Creek. 

The second day we took a shuttle up to Capilano Suspension Bridge. My sister and I went here back in March and I thought it was pretty cool. Unfortunately I forgot that this was a weekend in summer rather than a weekday in early spring.   It was jam packed with people and I felt bad for bringing everyone up there.  It was still pretty though. 

The shuttle dropped us off near Stanley Park on the way back into Vancouver so we hiked around there for a bit before heading to Second Beach and taking the Seawall back home. 

I forgot to take any pictures during both of those walks except for when we saw an owl in Stanley Park.

 

On Sunday we were dead on our feet, so we drove up the Sea to Sky highway towards Squamish again. This is the view from this cute little coffee shop along the highway. 

We then went to Shannon Falls Park. Again, super busy but gorgeous. 

Monday before she left we went and walked around Gastown and Chinatown. Once again, I didn't take any pictures except for this funny sign.  By this time, I think a combo of dehydration and eating super bad over the weekend made things very uncomfortable for me and I was running to the bathroom every hour or so. Lesson not learned, of course. I'm not sure why I keep doing this to myself.  

Here are a couple of pictures of my cat in our rooftop garden :)

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Alice Lake Park

My fiance and I have decided that each weekend we are going to pick someplace awesome looking and go hiking. Last Saturday was the first hike and I picked the Four Lakes Trail at Alice Lake Park.  The trail is about 6 km and took about 2 hours.  The hike itself was pretty easy, except we started from the wrong direction so the very first part of the hike was very steep.  I guess it's for the best as it got my heart rate up pretty good.

It was my first time driving up the Sea to Sky highway and it was gorgeous.  The water was this beautiful greenish blue and the view of the mountains was amazing. I'm glad we got there nice and early because there was plenty of parking and it was full when we left.

Enjoying our picnic lunch at Alice Lake. 

Right at the beginning of the trail we saw a ghost plant. I've only ever seen one once before.  They are cool plants that get their energy via parasitic action on certain types of fungi that are symbiotic with trees. 

Edith Lake which is the second lake on the Four Lakes trail. For some reason I didn't take any pictures at either Fawn Lake or Stump Lake. 

 The north part of the trail runs along the Cheekye River before it turns down to Stump Lake. 

It was a great day and I'm looking forward to many more hikes.

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Two weeks later

Ugh, I didn't realize it has been two weeks since I've posted anything.  I still haven't been feeling very well.  The hardest part for me is that I've felt completely exhausted for no apparent reason and have had no motivation.  I'm doing a little better this week and have been able to be a little more active. My diet took a huge nosedive and I was eating a lot of gluten-y sugar-y junk food.  I've got it back on line this week and that might be the reason why I've been feeling better.

A friend of mine from Seattle is coming up this weekend and I'm really looking forward to it.  Hopefully my energy level continues to rise.

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Rough Week

The past week or so has been a giant pit of suckiness.  I haven't been feeling well digestive wise and then the muscle spasm problems I have been having flared up again. The combo of having to go to the bathroom forty thousand times a day plus having your muscles freak out and spasm when you try to move is just the worst.  Luckily I think I'm coming out of it.

I went and got a massage yesterday.  Getting therapeutic massage for me is more like an hour long torture session. Pretty much all my muscles are tense and tender to the touch.  I usually feel better afterwards so the pain is worth it I suppose. The massage therapist thinks that most of my issues stem from my weak postural muscles.  So, gotta strength train those back and shoulder muscles along with my core. A few years ago I took a hard fall on my right hip and every since then my hips and back have been out of whack.  I wish I had gone to the chiropractor right away, I probably could have prevented these problems by not walking weird for three years.

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Doing aloe shots

I got my bottle of aloe juice the day before yesterday.  I've been taking it a couple of times a day.  It still tastes vile, but luckily my college days have prepped me for taking shots of gross things.  Just treat it like Jager: plug your nose, get it down quick, and have something on hand to chase it with.

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In which Canadian healthcare wins me back

Three weeks before we moved up here I ended up in the emergency with a ridiculous amount of pain. We had gone to the beach to visit my fiance's mother and by the time we got back I felt like I was dying.  I delayed going to the ER until the next morning and only went because I could not sit still the pain was so intense.  I am very stupid for waiting.

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Managing Ulcerative Colitis with diet

A large part of my experiment revolves around my diet.  I can't even remember how I stumbled upon a post of Mark's Daily Apple about inflammation, but it completely changed my outlook on how to manage my disease. I then borrowed a copy of The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet by Robb Wolf.  I loved it because he actually gets into the nitty gritty science of what is causing so many health issues.  If you get bored with the super in-depth explanations, I highly recommend Practical Paleo by Diane Sanfilippo.  She does a great job laying all the information out in an easy to understand way.

Anyway, like I said before, the big thing I try to stay away from is gluten.  I saw a huge improvement when I cut gluten completely out of my diet.  It is slowly creeping back in and my digestion is suffering for it.  I didn't really have a problem avoiding it until we moved up here, but there are just so many good and new things to eat!

I read this article from World Journal of Gastroenterology and it also has given me some guidance in both diet and supplementation.  The major beneficial dietary components it recommends are probiotics, omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants, and aloe.  This seems like an opportunity to add another goal to my list!

Consume probiotics, omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants, and aloe every single day. 

I have a prescription strength probiotic that I've been taking, but I'm not very consistent with it.  Same thing with my omega-3 supplement (and now I'm out and haven't gotten a new bottle).  I love pretty much all seafood and try to eat as much as possible so hopefully that's helping.  As far as antioxidants go, I try to include a lot of different fruits and vegetables in my diet.  However, my big problem is that I don't really digest higher fiber foods very well seeing how I'm lacking a large intestine.  I think that I need to be more vigilant with taking digestive enzymes when I eat to get the most benefit from my food.

I haven't tried aloe since it was forced on me when I first was diagnosed with UC.  It was pretty horrible if I remember correctly.  I guess I'm going to have to suck it up and go get a bottle. Ugh.

I've also been taking an encapsulated whole food based multivitamin.  Without a colon (meaning short bowel transit time) I'm at risk for developing nutritional deficiencies.  This is something I have been pretty good about doing since last year.  I was having a lot or problems with just being exhausted all the time and then my hair started falling out it huge clumps. I went to my doctors a couple of times, but they said that my blood work was fine.  I finally went to a naturopath and she looked at me, bent my nails, and said I was probably anemic.  She did the blood work for that and she was totally right! I was severely anemic and therefore have been anemic for quite a while.  I can't believe the other two doctors I went to never checked for that.  She put me on a multivitamin and some extra iron.  I started feeling better a couple of months and my hair started growing back.  So I'm pretty much going to be taking a multivitamin until a doctor tells me to stop.

So there you have it.  The basis for my diet and supplementation.  I'll be tweaking things as I go along to account for my j-pouch (it doesn't like a lot of raw veggies) and how I react.  I'm still not looking forward to forcing down the sliminess that is aloe, but if it helps I can't complain too much, right?

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Happy Canada Day!

Today is going to be a nice warm day.  I made sure to get up early enough so that I could work out and not feel like I was going to die. So far I'm on track for one of my goals! I've worked out every day for 14 days. Unfortunately I did not eat very well over the weekend and my guts are paying for it.  When it's warm it's hard to resist the siren call of the chocolate milkshake.  

I'm hoping that we can go and participate in some of the Canada Day festivities, but the fiance really messed up his shoulder so it's not looking good for wandering around.  We should still able to get a good view of the fireworks though. 

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Exploring Vancouver

We have lived in downtown Vancouver for about 4 months now.  Obviously we've already done a bit of exploring around here, but none of it has been documented.  I'll probably start posting more of this in an effort to actually remember to take pictures.

Yesterday I went to the Vancouver Public Library to pick up the copy of World War Z I had on hold (so far the book is fantastic). The downtown library is a gorgeous building and is a great place to come and read.

Not only is it supposed to be nice and warm this weekend, but Monday is Canada Day so it should be a good time to walk around.  I think we should be able to see the fireworks from our apartment too!

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Setting some realistic goals

Anytime I have set goals in the past, they have always been pretty vague.  Goals like "get in shape" or "eat healthy" don't really give me any concrete to work with. In my first step to personal wellness, I'm going to set a goal.  The first goal I will set is actually setting specific and obtainable goals that I can expand on as I can complete them and track them here.

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Introduction and purpose

My name is Emily and I am 28 years old. I recently moved to Vancouver BC from Seattle and have been given the opportunity to spend some time focusing on me. I'm mostly writing all of this down as a way to measure my progress and maybe help someone else along the way.  Due to the nature of disease and a gastrointestinal disease on top of that, sometimes things may get gross.  I'll try to keep it as ick-free as possible, but that's not always going to be the case.  If you still don't want to believe that girls poop, this probably isn't the place for you.  However, chances are that if you found your way here you are someone who wants or needs to learn more about living life with colitis or a j-pouch. I'm about to drop a lot of background here, but it's necessary context for everything that will follow.

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