Healthy Food – Naturally

Last nights dinner

Woke up at 2:30, then again at 4:30 when I just gave up and read in bed. Luckily for me today if I get too tired, I can take a nap. No more chimes or milk. Just as there is a lot of freedom on the milk cure, for me there is also regimentation. I finally got up at 6 am and puttered. I put the last of the yogurt into the strainer, I put stuff in the dishwasher and then I came downstairs and blogged.

I finally had some chicken stock. The first sip was slightly sweet, then the salty and slightly sour flavors came rushing in. My taste buds are re-generated from this. It takes time for them to subside. It took me 40 minutes to sip that chicken stock. While I was doing that, I could feel hunger pangs start, wanting something more. (Apparently, chicken stock is not as satisfying as raw milk to my body).

I rapidly ate the one egg I cooked for myself in raw butter. Boy did that taste good. After that a few tablespoons of my homemade yogurt went down slowly. Finally, after protein and fats my hunger was satiated.

Around 10 am I went out to run some errands, when I got back I was hungry. It’s so nice to see that my hunger reaction is back so quickly. Last year I wasn’t hungry during the day at all and had to force myself to eat and drink. Before eating, I decided to test my blood sugar at a true 2 hour post priandal. Lunchtime blood sugar came in at 91. I happily stuffed some roast beef into provolone slices and ate those and was still hungry.

One of the things I’ve learned through the years is that it takes time for my body to signal that it has enough food. Therefore, my habit after eating something is to wait at least 15 minutes to see if the hunger is real or not. After that time, the hunger was faded, but still there, so I ended up eating a few walnuts that I had soaked and dried.

And then I napped. It was glorious. 2 hours of napping in the afternoon with no chimes. I woke up feeling vaguely hungry but not really. It was still a few hours before my favorite sushi restaurant opened, so I studied for my next class, herbalism.

I finally got to the restaurant and ordered a sashimi dinner. The waitress had to make sure I understood there was no rice. It came and was delicious. I also had some Japanese pickles. I managed to eat all the sashimi, but not all the pickles. Everything tasted amazing, I love how vibrant food tastes after three weeks of just milk (especially the wasabi). I even ate one piece of roll that the sushi chef gave me.  It was delicious, but I didn’t need anymore rice. In fact I turned down another piece they offered shortly before I got up from the sushi bar.

Before I went to bed I even ate a small bowl of frozen berries (blueberries and strawberries).

One of the reasons I was so hungry today is that I didn’t get enough fat until dinner. Since I’ve done so well on the food I did eat today, I’m going back to my regular eating habits tomorrow, which will include bacon and cheese and coconut and of course raw milk. (Not at the same time).

It’s been a wonderful journey and I will definitely do it again. Cyana, while I’m not sure about blogging it next year, that portion is definitely not off the table.  I’m just not sure how much people want to hear about it.  If you do, please let me know so that I can make a decision that works for everyone.

I’m going to be taking a few weeks off from blogging.  I need to concentrate on my camping trip so you probably won’t see any new posts from me for a few weeks.  But

I’ll Be Back…..

Related Posts from Last Year:

• Milk Cure 2012: The Day After

Vital Statistics

Weight is slightly up today, but no big deal. (For the record, the morning after I broke my fast, I was down to 174.2).  If you go from my baseline, I lost a total of 2.4 pounds during this time period.

Fasting glucose (before any food) was nice and low and is in fact, the lowest that I’ve seen for fasting. I know that had I stayed on the milk, that my glucose numbers would stay in that steady range. Surprisingly even with the japanese pickles (which might have had some sugar in them) and the berries before bed, my blood glucose range stayed really low at bed (and again the next morning when it was 88).  I’m going to track fasting and bedtime numbers for a number of weeks to see if the raw milk really did make a lasting difference.

My tongue is almost completely pink today.

Related articles

• Is Raw Milk Cheese as Dangerous as the FDA Suggests? (wedgeintheround.com)

Tags: milk cure, milk diet, milk fast, Raw Milk, raw milk cure

Day 21 of my Raw Milk Cure. The last day

I woke up to rain out my open window at 5:00. Better than the 4:30 wake ups though. I felt good this morning.

Today is the last day of this milk cure. 3 weeks, subsisting on whole raw milk (there really isn’t any other kind) and some water. I knew I could do it and it would be easy since I had last year’s experience to go on. But I didn’t know what the changes and fixes that would occur this year. Secretly I was hoping for major weight loss, which did not happen. But my glucose numbers have delighted me.

Given the benefits I’ve derived from this both year’s that I’ve done it, I’m definitely doing it again next year. I am not sure I’ll be blogging it though. I think two years of data is enough for other people to look at to decide whether or not they should attempt it.

Continue Reading »

Tags: milk cure, milk diet, milk fast, Raw Milk, raw milk cure

Week 3 and day 20 of my raw milk cure journey

Along with falling asleep at 8:30, comes a wake up at 4:30. I know why I’m falling asleep so early, but I’m hopeful that once I’m off all this milk, that I’ll be able to push my bedtime to 9:30 (I still need 8 hours of sleep). Only two days left on just pure milk. I’m both happy and sad that I’m almost at the end of this journey.  And I call it a journey because it has become one.  Three weeks, where I take myself out of parts of my regular life and choose to focus on healing myself and discovering what raw milk can do for me.

Last year was all about my weight loss and it really kicked off my weight loss focus.  As of today I’ve lost 25.8 pounds from the original weight of 200 I started at.  While many of you might look at that as a slow weight loss, I’m grateful.  I’m 50 years old and while I don’t look it, (or act it) there are parts of my body that work like a 50-year-old woman. Weight loss seems to be one of those areas. I’m almost half way to my goal and if I don’t hit my goal but come close, I’ll be happy.

This year’s cure is totally related to my blood sugars and diabetes. Since Day 12, my blood sugars have steadily been below 100 (with one reading only just barely above). I’ve conclusively proved that at least for myself, the milk sugars in raw milk do not affect my blood sugar count.  I know it was different last year, but I think that the benefits of a raw milk cure are cumulative.

One of the questions I went into this with was “Will I derive any benefits from doing this yearly or is this really a one shot deal when I’ve had a rough year health-wise?”  I think I’ve answered that question for myself. With different beneficial effects for each of the two years I have done this, I think doing the milk cure in the spring will become a yearly rite.

Today was a good day in many ways.  I not only felt good, but I got my grade back for my pharmacology class. I submitted a 46 page exam and received 100%.  That felt good.  The other good thing is that I’m finally finished with the basics of this degree, the stuff I wasn’t excited about, but had to buckle down and take.  Now I get to start on the fun stuff. My next class is herbology.  Which given how well my herbal cold medicines worked, I’m really looking forward to.

Today was also the first time I felt regular in my restroom trips.  No hurried trips, no constipation.  Instead everything was regular. I’m not bloated, I’m feeling good.  I also felt yesterday’s workout.  My pectorals, upper arms and obliques really were sore today.  I’m supposed to do it again tomorrow. I hope the soreness resides so I can.

Sleepy and in bed at 8:30.

Related Posts from Last Year:

• Milk Cure 2012: Day 20

Vital Statistics

Weight is steady from yesterday. I know I’ll be moving down to the 173′s shortly. Whether it will be in the next few days or not remains to be seen. My tongue is now pink on the edges, but a white furrow has appeared in the middle.

Glucose numbers are still below 100 consistently. Is this my new normal?  Or will it change once I go off all this milk?

Tags: milk cure, milk diet, milk fast, Raw Milk, raw milk cure

The third week and 19th day  of my raw milk cure journey

Early to bed, early to rise?  I was asleep by 8:30 and woke up at 4:30.  That is 8 hours of sleep so I guess I’m okay.  Keeping in mind that milk does have tryptophan in it and I am drinking milk that gets warmer during the day (I leave the gallon jug out all day on my counter). I’m not surprised that I’m so sleepy so early each night.  Did you know that pasteurized milk destroys the tryptophan? So if you are trying to go to sleep by drinking warm milk from the grocery store, it won’t happen.

My day was pretty usual, drink milk and work. I also started some preparations for coming off the milk cure in 3 days. I started a batch of kefir and a chicken bone broth in the slow cooker. I might not be able to handle the kefir on my first day coming off the cure, but I am sure that I’ll be back to my regular kefir shakes after that first day.  Bone broth is pretty much a staple in my house and I love it not only as an adjunct to recipes and soups, but also as a hot drink.  Continue Reading »

Tags: milk cure, milk diet, milk fast, Raw Milk, raw milk cure

Week 3 and the 18th day of my raw milk cure journey

I slept well last night, I woke up once around 3 am, but went right back to sleep until my alarm at 5:30. I’m feeling pretty good today, but do think I could have used a bit more sleep.

Good days for me are boring days for my blog. Continue Reading »

Tags: milk cure, milk diet, milk fast, Raw Milk, raw milk cure

Week 3 and the 17th day  of my raw Milk Cure Journey

Slept well last night, but woke up around 5:30 with my mind full of programming.  Stop it brain, I still have one more day off!

I know it’s probably boring to read the “I feel good” portions, but really I feel good. One of the reasons I did a daily post last year and now this year is that when I was deciding to do this for the first time, I wanted to find out what people were actually experiencing.  While there were some posts, I didn’t find what I was trying to do here.  I’m a numbers gal, so being able to see my vital statistics and recording my physical state (good or bad) is important both for my decision to go ahead next year as well as for other people who are trying to decide whether or not to do this. Continue Reading »

Tags: milk cure, milk diet, milk fast, Raw Milk, raw milk cure

Week 3 and the 16th day of my raw milk cure journey

For the first time since this started, I “slept in”. Meaning I didn’t wake up until 6:30. That’s 9 1/2 hours of sleep. No headache, and I felt really good this morning.

I spent part of this morning, prepping a pork shoulder roast for the stock pot. Yesterday I put it in a marinade of 2:1 white vinegar and water with some salt. Today, I poured off some of the marinade, added onions and a spice mix of cumin, chili, mustard and brown sugar. Except I didn’t use regular brown sugar. Most brown sugar sold in stores is made with beet sugar which is GMO. I’m avoiding GMOs, so instead I mixed 1/2 cup of organic cane sugar with 1/2 tablespoon of molasses. Since that is what brown sugar is anyways, it works. I don’t normally use sugar for anything but canning and even then I use the least I can get away with. (Sugar has antiseptic properties). But I’ve been informed that proper pulled pork needs some sweeteners. I used less than the recipe called for though.

Continue Reading »

Tags: milk cure, milk diet, milk fast, Raw Milk, raw milk cure

Starting the third week, day 15 of the raw milk cure.

I slept well last night, had the window open and the fan going. A storm is coming in and the front dropped the temperatures down about 20 degrees. I think the storm caused a headache though. I woke up at 3:30 with it. I’m not susceptible to pressure headaches, but maybe the milk is making me more sensitive? I don’t know. I just know that while I go to sleep with a headache, I don’t wake up with them. Except this morning of course.

It’s the beginning of my third week of the milk cure. I’m still at 13 cups of milk today.

Today I spent part of the day changing out my closet. All of the 14′s were too large. I’m solidly in a size 12 now. Unfortunately, I’m still not able to wear any of my size 10 clothes. After that I ran a few errands, It’s hard to fit a lot of errands into a short period (45 minutes). I have to be frugal with my time and plan it well. I guess I did since I made it home with 5 minutes to spare until my phone chimed. Continue Reading »

Tags: milk cure, milk diet, milk fast, Raw Milk, raw milk cure

Second Week and 14th Day of my Raw Milk Cure

Woke up this morning at 4:30.  As usual for most mornings on the cure, I’m feeling fine. Ready to do my regular work today.

Output is still not coming anywhere close to input, despite feelings of urgency.   I am down to 3 1/4 quarts of milk (13 cups) now.  Since I’m losing less than an ounce per hour, I’m not noticing it too much. I did feel slight hunger pains in the evening, but not enough to make me want to eat anything. Continue Reading »

Tags: milk cure, milk diet, milk fast, Raw Milk, raw milk cure

Second week and the 13th day of my raw milk cure journey

I didn’t sleep well last night. It was a combination of things. First, it was still 70 degrees outside at 3 in the morning. Yes, I was awake then. Even with all the windows in the upstairs open and a fan blowing from the window, it was still warm. I only slept with a sheet and even that felt like too much. Also, my stomach was really giving me issues last night. So I slept fitfully until 3am and then not at all. Today I’m a bit sluggish and tired. I really needed a better night’s sleep.

As usual, the first milk of the day is the most deeply satisfying. I love cold milk and the hardest thing on this cure is having to leave my milk outside of the refrigerator so that it warms up during the day. I don’t mind the room temperature milk, but I prefer cold. That first drink of milk in the morning is cold and sweet and just oh so good. I’m breaking a 12 hour fast and while I’m never hungry for it, it’s still a wonderful way to start each morning. Continue Reading »

Tags: milk cure, milk diet, milk fast, Raw Milk, raw milk cure