Healthy Food – Naturally

(For 3 weeks, I did the milk cure, drinking 3 1/2 quarts to 1 gallon of raw milk each day. Except for water, all I had was milk. This is a series of posts (25) keeping track each day. For the entire series, start out on “Trying Something Old“). All links to the series is at the bottom of each article.)

The last day of my raw milk cure. 21 days, 322 cups or 20.125 gallons of raw milk. In three weeks my nutrition has been a total of:

• calories – 47,012 total / 15,670 per week
• fat – 2,553.46 g total / 851.15 g per week
• sodium – 31,556 mg total / 10,518 mg per week
• carbohydrates – 3551.66 g total/ 1,183.89 per week
• protein – 2530.92 g total / 843.64 per week

That’s a lot of carbohydrates and calories for me. Before this cure I was eating (on a weekly basis)

• calories – 11,135 on average per week
• fat – 311 grams on average per week
• sodium – 12551.7 mg on average per week
• carbohydrates – 355 grams on average per week
• protein – 663.6 grams on average per week

Looking at those number I can see how little I actually ate on a daily basis before this. And even though my calorie count was so little (1,300 – 1700 calories per day) I couldn’t lose weight and was actually up 1 1/2 pounds when I started the milk cure. In 3 weeks on the milk cure, I lost 5 pounds. Given the numbers up there and the popular characterization of weight loss being that it’s all calories in/ calories out I know you are wondering how can this be? Stay tuned next Tuesday for what went on. I’ve been giving it plenty of thought. I haven’t had anything but milk for the last week. Prior to that when I was thirsty, I would have some water. But I haven’t been thirsty this week. Or hungry.

 

Sometimes I forget there is milk in my glass when I am doing something and I have to remember to drink it. My stomach woke me up this morning at 3am. I’m in another full detox phase. I’m of two minds about it. One mind would very much like to continue with the cure, get through this detoxing phase and see what happens on the other end. The other mind is very glad today is my last day and I can get back to a normal life. If I were continuing this process, I’d back off on the quantity of milk again, but since I only have today it’s not that big of a deal and I’ll drink the full 14 cups.

 

I was talking to GC last night and had an insight. The milk cure is a series of detoxes and plateaus. Its like the milk and my body search out and start fixing the issues in my body and that is when I feel ill and have the detoxing symptoms. The milk isn’t making me ill, the milk is helping my body to heal. Its like when our body fights an infection. We get fevers and feel sick. The times I’m feeling good are the plateaus between the healing when my body is adjusting. I don’t know how scientific this is, but it makes sense to me.

 

One of the reasons I know I’m detoxing rather than ill, is that the detoxing seems to hit after 12 noon. Before that I’m fine and have no issues. But from noon on my symptoms and discomfort increase. If I was simply coming down with something I would be feeling it on a constant basis. So obviously, if I’m on another detox cycle, I have more healing to do and no more time to do it right now. I might do this again next year. I’m going to give it serious consideration and thought over this coming summer and winter.

 

While I’m kind of, sort of looking forward to real food again, I’m not that excited. I’m worried about how my body will react to anything but milk after 3 weeks. I’m going to give myself a week to get into my new eating habits. (Mostly because I would like to have one sushi dinner before I swear off grains). I have my yogurt made and ready to go and also my bone broth is simmering in my crock pot for tomorrow. I finished my grocery shopping and in a very serendipitous turn of events, my spring meat order from my farmer is ready for me to pick up tomorrow (50 pounds of grass-fed beef and 1/4 of a pastured pig).

 

Most of this journey has been a blast, even the detoxing parts. It’s given me new insights into myself, and also how much I want to continue to be able to eat something so life-giving. The books and blogs I’ve read through this journey have given me so much knowledge, but the greatest teacher has been my body and how it’s reacted to this process.

 

I can safely say that I’ve met my expectations on the milk cure and even more. I wasn’t really expecting weight loss, but 5 pounds is awesome. I’ve been trying to get below 200 for about a year now and kept losing and re-gaining that same 3 pounds. To get past that is just amazing. I’m hopeful I will be able to see more weight loss in the future. Watching my vital statistics (specifically my blood glucose) has been edifying. I’m going to continue to track these vitals for a few months, just to see.

 

I know my digestive system has been given a good rest. Its been very efficient as well. In between the detoxing phases, I can feel a difference in my body. No issues at all. Headaches and shoulder aches no longer exist. I had someone remark on how nice my skin was yesterday! Although its allergy season here in the DC area, I don’t have any this year (this might also be because I started eating local honey a few years ago also). I’m definitely rested and ready for the rigors of the spring/summer preserving season!

I’m going to do one more post tomorrow before I go back to my once a week Tuesday posts.  That will be basically on how hard (or easy) it was to come off 3 weeks of Raw Milk only.

Being My Own Human Guinea Pig

Weight went up slightly to 196.4. My basal temperature is the same this morning as it was yesterday. Given the pattern, I’m not surprised my weight is up a bit. Blood Glucose was 124 this morning. With all my other symptoms, I’m definitely going through another detoxing phase My white tongue is still hanging in there, the white has receded from the side and is now only white in the middle.

Day	Weight	Basal Temp	Glucose: Fasting	Glucose: Noon	Glucose: Bed
Baseline	201.4	97.9	114	104	110
Day 1	200.2	98.2	115	120	103
Day 2	198.2	100.2/99.1	124	115	129
Day 3	197.2	97.9	150	96	119
Day 4	198.0	98.1	151	116	107
Day 5	197.4	98.1	116	105	101
Day 6	198.0	97.8	134	113	106
Day 7	198.2	98.2	134	107	85
Day 8	197.8	97.9	99	102	107
Day 9	197.8	98.1	105	95	93
Day 10	196.6	98.3	94	112	105
Day 11	196.8	97.9	142	114	92
Day 12	196.8	97.9	98	103	103
Day 13	196.8	98.0	112	100	89
Day 14	197.2	98.1	107	107	95
Day 15	197.2	98.1	91	92	81
Day 16	196.2	98.2	97	96	96
Day 17	195.6	98.3	107	110	97
Day 18	196.0	97.8	116	110	106
Day 19	196.0	97.5	N/A	108	105
Day 20	196.0	98.1	132	98	105
Day 21	196.4	98.1	124	106	98

Tags: milk cure, milk diet, Raw Milk