Day .5

As an overweight, and fed-up teenager, I’m glad that I’m finally taking a step towards becoming the self-sufficient farmer and healthy human being I’ve always wanted to be.

This diet is fairly easy, except for a few tiny things: no sugar, grains, beans or starches. I’m not saying that I’m not allowed to have bananas or apples, in fact they’re welcome to join the party! I’m talking about refined, processed sugars. It isn’t natural and our bodies don’t need the excess that we already have from our veggies and fruits. This is a HUGE thing for me, because I have sugar every day. I didn’t always used to be this way, but for the past 6 months, it’s been sugar non-stop. I don’t drink pop and don’t eat much candy or chips. The sugar comes from desserts that my mom is constantly baking for my healthier brothers, especially in this Christmas season, which brings up the other culprit; grains. Grains are in everything, from that awesome loaf of banana bread, to that top-secret-recipe, family Christmas Eve stew. This is going to be interesting…

This diet basically encompasses the natural diet that I would be eating if I was living off of my land. I’ll be eating a lot more veggies and meats, depending on the season.

According to Dr. Michael R. Eades, a nutritionist who helps his clients start eating a low-carb diet, the key to this diet is meat WITH the fat (quite contrary to what many diets have you doing), plenty of water, salt (to replenish your body’s electrolytes), and supplements. The reason why he pushes for fatty meat is because in the beginning, when showing carbs and sugars out the window, your body doesn’t know what to do. It’s been so busy producing energy with glucose, rather than the healthier ketones. The fat in the meat helps trick your body, in a way. Much like a smoker feeling the insistent tobacco addiction after quitting smoking, a person who has been diving into sweet deliciousness will feel the same sort of addiction, calling them to just dig into that homemade, dutch-apple crisp pie. The fats from the meat help divert your body’s attention, and will usually also shorten the lethargic period of this diet. As a reminder, without the normal glucose levels your body is used to, you will start to feel tired and will barely be able to keep awake during the day. This is the transition period for your body, from using sugars, to using ketones.

The next, water, is a very important aspect. He explains that during your low-carb diet transition, your body may require more water. This does not mean coffee or even sparkling water. It must be the true H2O. Obviously, with more water comes less salt. With this, he suggests consuming a homemade bone broth, or mixing water with a pinch or two of sea salt, or just cooking with a lot of it. This is salt that hasn’t nearly been processed and bleached to the extent of regular table salt. Sea salt is 70% of what the normal table salt contains. The rest of the 30% is healthy minerals that have been taken out of the table salt. Consuming sea salt is a lot healthier for this reason, which is why I’ll be promptly be buying some kind of a slightly-colored salt.

As he was describing the side effects of dehydration, I saw the two words postural hypertension. This is when you stand up suddenly and your vision starts going black and you feel faint, and you either feel like you’re going to pass out, or you do. As soon as I read that, everything clicked. I had been suffering from this for years, and I couldn’t ever figure out what was up. My parents thought I was just crazy, but now I know that from now on, I’ll need to drink more water.

With the supplements, he recommends magnesium, potassium, alpha lipoic acid (ALA), CoQ10, Vitamin D3, and 5-HTP. Since his explanations are very in-depth, here’s the links to his Part 1 and Part 2 blog posts, so you can check those out.

So far, at 2am, I haven’t had anything to eat so I doubt I’m breaking any rules. However, inside health isn’t the only thing I’m working on at the moment. I’m also experimenting with my health on the outside of my body as well. This includes homemade shampoos, “no-poo” movements, lotions, body scrubs, etc.

Here’s a brief explanation of my skin and hair type: The skin on my face is excessively oily, but for the rest of my body, it’s very dry. My hair becomes incredibly oily in just one day and it’s impossible for me to leave the house without washing it, or else I look dirty. For today, I washed my hair with a new recipe I haven’t used yet, which was:

1/4 cup coconut milk (apparently, homemade is best, but all I had was canned)

1/3 cup castille Soap (such as Dr. Bronner’s)

10 drops of essential oils, such as grapefruit or orange for oily skin, and ylang-ylang for dry.

All you do is mix everything around and WHA-LA! Just make sure to shake it up before using it again. The thing is, the castille soap we have already has essential oils in it, so I disregarded the last ingredient. As I was making this recipe, my mom came nosing her way into the bathroom, wondering what I was making. When I told her it was a shampoo, she explained that castille soap is very harsh on hair, so I really wouldn’t need as much as the recipe called for, especially since the soap is super condensed. In the end, I only measured out 2.5 Tbsp. of the castille soap.

My mom also told me to use honey, as it’s a very pure substance and has antibacterial and healing properties. Intrigued, I decided to add that into the regimen.

First, I added about 2-3 tsp. of the castille/coconut milk to my palm, rubbed it between my hands to form a lather, and then applied it to my hair. I had difficulties reaching my scalp, and ended up having to use, in total, about 1 Tbsp. of the mixture to get it inside my mass of thick hair. Next time, I think I’ll pour it straight on my scalp and rub it in this way. You’re only supposed to use about 1-2 tsp. of this for each use, so I used a lot more than I was supposed to. After I rinsed my hair well, I gathered up some honey in my palm, added a little water, rubbed it around and then applied it to my hair, trying to get it into the roots. I immediately felt this greasiness with the honey, and I’m not sure if I like the way it made my hair feel or not.

After both of these cleanses, I rinsed my hair very well and then used a drop of honey to wash my face, like normal. Again, the greasiness ensued, but I know that honey works wonders on my face, so I try to use it as often as possible. After leaving the shower and drying off, I noticed that my hair definitely felt clean, but also had the “greasy” feeling that the honey left. I wondering if, since honey is the gentlest cleanser, I should only wash my hair with the castille soap/coconut milk mixture once every three days and the rest of the time I’ll use the honey. Does anyone have experience with this?

I’d love to know whether or not I’m on the right track! By the way, I refuse to use baking soda on my hair ever again because it absolutely destroyed my scalp’s pH. Baking soda has a pH that is way off track from the pH of human hair, which is what you want to mirror when cleaning it. Some people do a vinegar rinse immediately after washing with baking soda, effectively bringing the pH back down. I’ve heard that this works, but I don’t want to chance it.

Anyways! Day One through Seven will probably be a roller coaster of hormonal-teenager ramblings, because of the sugar and grain cut-back. Please bear with me!