Week eight was a challenging week due to insomnia, but I continue with my quest to consume as many phytonutrients as possible for gut health. Consistently waking up in the middle of the night and needing several hours to fall back asleep is causing me to eat too little during the day, typically only eating brunch and dinner.

So, in case the insomnia is connected to not eating enough and not due to the current treatment regime we’re doing, I decided on Friday night that I would get up and eat something in the middle of the night every time I wake up and can’t go back to sleep quickly to see if that would help. It’s hard to get the phytonutrients you need for gut health if you aren’t eating enough.

The new treatment of consuming large amounts of phytonutrients for gut health, which is connected with this diet and the testing and work with my practitioner that I posted about in my initial post in this series, has completely eliminated all of my pain and restored me to normal functioning with everything except the insomnia and still having to keep a casual eye towards not eating too much histamine. We will see if it has had any effect on my periods during my next cycle.

But I have returned to functioning well, no brain fog, no pain, and all of the other symptoms have left me. I can now leave the house, do housework, parent well, do my job and I have resumed living normally again.

But I have returned to functioning well, no brain fog, no pain, and all of the other symptoms have left me. I can now leave the house, do housework, parent well, do my job and I have resumed living normally again. Click To Tweet

I will continue the treatment plan carefully, knowing that my long-term adherence to consuming large amounts of phytonutrients for gut health is what will permanently change the landscape of my gut and keep it where we need it. This doesn’t mean it’s time to slack off on eating 40 plants. It means that it is time to double down and make sure I stay on the path, to keep such wonderful results going!

Sunday

After a 1:30am bedtime on Saturday night thanks to the winter homeschool formal plus having overnight guests as a result of the formal, we all slept through breakfast and had a huge brunch.

Bacon, toast, scrambled eggs, hot chocolate, pumpkin butter, strawberry preserves, coffee and more. That gave me white rice and brown rice in the toast, pumpkin in the pumpkin butter, cocoa and coconut in the hot chocolate.

Dinner was kinda forgotten in between naps.

Monday

Still dealing with insmonia on top of a messed up sleep schedule, a very late breakfast was a bowl of oatmeal with peanut butter.

Dinner was Indian Butter Chicken over rice that I boiled instead of cooking as usual, to reduce the amount of arsenic in it. The results were good, and I will continue to use this method with white and brown rice to reduce the amount of arsenic we are exposed to.

The recipe calls for garam masala, and that is a spice mix I don’t keep on hand. I used this recipe to make some.

For a snack, I had a few gluten-free pretzels and some chocolate chips.

Tuesday

Tuesday morning began with a cookie bar. We had made them the night before so the kids could eat something in the car on the way to school, and then they called a snow day. Because I slept in, I didn’t eat until noon.

For ‘linner’ we had cornbread muffins, vegan sour cream and taco soup. For the soup, I used frozen instead of canned corn, freshly cooked black, kidney and pinto beans instead of canned (and I doubled the amount of beans). I used my homemade taco seasoning mix and I skipped the ranch mix.

For the cornbread muffins, we used a mix from Bob’s Red Mill. As we are still working on using up items from the pantry, the mixes are a couple of months from expiration, so it was time for them to go.

This gave me corn, rice, cashews, black beans, pinto beans, green chilies, tomato, onion, green pepper, chilies and garlic. I put black olives on top. I would have also put cilantro on top, but we are out.

I had trouble falling asleep, I couldn’t get warm thanks to the polar blast weather, so I got up and had a big spoonful of peanut butter to warm me up. That helped me warm up. I didn’t get enough food during the day.

Wednesday

I had leftover taco soup and cornbread muffins for both lunch and dinner.

Thursday

Breakfast was chocolate chip pumpkin muffins from the freezer. These contained pumpkin, white rice and red apple.

Dinner was scrambled eggs and hash browns with a lot of freshly cracked black pepper. During the meal, I encountered what I thought was a piece of eggshell. Turns out, it was a piece of the cast iron pan!

Friday

Friday morning started with a nice Buddha Bowl for brunch. A base of cooked teff. Left to right: walnuts, finely shredded coconut, fruit compote and a mixture of almond milk yogurt and black chia seeds. Drizzled with peanut butter mixed with almond milk and sprinkled with carob powder.

The fruit compote is cherry, strawberry, blueberry, prunes, dates and cranberries.

For dinner, we had Mexican. I made chicken taquitos. It contained corn, green chilies, cumin, garlic, onion and red chilies.

The sour cream was made with cashews. We followed this recipe as written, and we like it. This recipe is our go to sour cream replacement.

The Mexican rice contained white rice, tomato, garlic, onion and red chilies. It was loosely based on this recipe.

The creamy pinto beans contained pinto beans, onion, garlic, cumin, and red chilies. I adapted this recipe and did not mash the beans. The potato masher was MIA. I used a little bit of bacon grease instead of the vegetable oil.

The cheese sauce contained nutritional yeast, garlic, onion, cumin, chilies, and turmeric. I followed this recipe, my first time trying it. I give it three out of five stars.

The salad is sunflower seeds, black olives, and the standard spinach and Spring mix that I purchase weekly. The dressing is cumin and lime. That gave me lime, cumin. The Spring greens contained spinach, green leaf lettuce, mizuna, tango lettuce, green oak lettuce, red leaf lettuce and chard greens.

I had some dark chocolate and a few pieces of ginger for a snack.

Saturday

I was up at 3am with insomnia, so I ate leftover taquitos, cold, out of hand while standiing in front of the fridge. I was finally able to go back to sleep about 7am.

For breakfast at 11am, I had leftovers from Friday’s Buddha bowl. Teff, fruit compote, peanut butter drizzle and walnuts.

For lunch at 3pm, I had leftover Mexican rice and creamy pinto beans, heated up and wrapped in a corn shell. The kids liked this well enough that this will likely become a standard, fast lunch as both the pre-made rice and the beans can be frozen. So I will make huge batches of each to freeze, put in ziplock bags containing one-meal portions, and freeze.

For dinner, we had Hoppin John. It contained black-eyed peas, carrot, celery, and onion, over rice.

I had several pieces of ginger as a snack.

Final Tally

1. White rice
2. Brown rice
3. Pumpkin
4. Cocoa
5. Coconut
6. Oat
7. Peanut
8. Corn
9. Cashew
10. Black beans
11. Pinto beans
12. Kidney beans
13. Green chilies
14. Tomato
15. Onion
16. Green pepper
17. Red chilies
18. Garlic
19. Black olives
20. Red apple
21. Walnuts
22. Cherry
23. Strawberry
24. Blueberry
25. Prune (plum)
26. Dates
27. Cranberries
28. Black chia seeds
29. Almond
30. Teff
31. Carob
32. White potato
33. Black pepper
34. Cumin
35. Lime
36. Sunflower seeds
37. Spinach
38. Green leaf lettuce
39. Mizuna
40. Tango lettuce
41. Green oak lettuce
42. Red leaf lettuce
43. Chard greens
44. Black-Eyed Peas
45. Celery

Photo credits- wsilver,  Robert Couse-Baker, Damian Gadal, and John Morgan on Flicker.

Sometimes, there’s the good, the bad and the ugly. Last week was ugly. This week, we work on recovery.

Remember that container of homemade chocolate bark I mentioned last week? I put it in the freezer. We’re focusing on no white sugar, lots of veggies and a variety of color this week.

I’m also focused on a pantry challenge. As part of a no-spend January, I am only allowing myself to spend money on fresh and frozen produce (and dairy for hubby). So all meat, pantry staples and the like must come from what’s already here. I’m also going to try to send food with hubby every day he’s going to be at his office for lunch. He sometimes does have to eat out due to site visits or client meetings, so we will allow for those days. But if he’s at his desk, the plan is for him to take lunch with him to cut down on eating out.

Sunday

Sunday began with me feeling very sick after waking up early. So I ate a very small piece, about two inches square, of uniced, plain vanilla cake to try to settle my stomach, which was a huge mistake. I went back to bed an hour later. When I woke up again at noon, it was very plain that I was going to have a bad day.

Through the day, I ate one ounce of dry-roasted peanuts, some ginger slices, and a large bowl full of carrots and hummus. Later, I had a big plate of scrambled eggs with onion, bell pepper, tomato and dairy-free cheese. I was finally feeling better and more stable by evening.

This day made me determined to get it together and to do better with my food and work hard to figure out my sleep issues, which has gone from only being 2-3 days around ovulation and my period starting to being constant the last three weeks.

This gave me carrot, chickpeas, rice, peanut, ginger, bell pepper, onion, tomato, and sesame seed.

Monday

Today began with a red apple and peanut butter at 5am. I was awake at 4:20, so I got up and had a snack while working on the blog until I felt sleepy again, then back to bed.

Once I was back up, I ate a bowl of rolled oats and black chia seeds soaked in almond milk overnight in the fridge. I wanted to make a compote to go on top, but I was out of energy.

For lunch we had chicken nuggets and roasted green beans. We had planned a savory New Year’s Eve celebration, but I didn’t have everything prepped in time, so we dropped it.

For dinner we did a big taco salad. That gave me pinto beans, black olives, lime, corn, cilantro and lettuce.

For a snack, I had two very small pieces of cranberry pecan bark that was homemade with cocoa powder, maple syrup and coconut oil.

Tuesday

I finally got a full night of sleep, more or less! I was awoken by fireworks at different points throughout the night, but was able to go back to sleep quickly. Now that I’ve stopped eating so much sugar, my inflammation is rapidly decreasing and I’m feeling a lot better.

After sleeping in, Tuesday brunch was waffles. Trey made them as he was the first one up. He is often an early riser who gets a jump on making breakfast, that way he gets to choose what we have. We snacked on them through lunchtime, so we didn’t have a formal lunch.

For dinner we had Hoppin’ John, our traditional New Year’s dish. Black-eyed peas, pork sausage, rice and veggies. I always use whatever veggies I have on hand for this dish. This gave me celery, onion, black-eyed peas, white rice, carrot, garlic, parsley, green onions and kale. We substituted kale for collard greens which is the traditional green for this dish. Trey helped serve the meal, and he forgot to add the parsley and the green onions until after I took the picture.

For snack I had a green apple with peanut butter, and 3 Smashmallow marshmallows. I drank ginger and turmeric tea with aloe and collagen and also had a cup of vanilla cinnamon tea. I also had several slices of ginger to help further decrease my inflammation and one ounce of peanuts at bedtime so I could take my supplements with something small.

Wednesday

Wednesday began with ginger and turmeric tea after a wonderful, blissful full night of sleep. Once the kids were up, we had hash browns for breakfast and dove into house work to be ready for our company arriving in the afternoon.

Lunch was leftover Hoppin’ John from New Year’s Day. So plenty of veggies to eat, but none that are new.

That evening, we had some teen guests over for dinner. So we had chicken nuggets and fries for the teens. Instead of fries, I made roasted broccoli, cauliflower and carrots for the adults.

For dessert, I had a couple of ginger slices and a couple of dark chocolate covered strawberries.

Thursday

I had sleep trouble during the night, as expected by where I am in my cycle. So my teens decided to cook breakfast for our overnight guests. We had pancakes.

For lunch, I ate a large plate of leftover Hoppin’ John in blissful silence. After our company left, my kids went to their grandparent’s house and left me with the leftovers in the fridge.

For dinner, hubby and I were alone, so he asked if he could make bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches.

Friday

I woke up voraciously hungry and I basically felt like I ate all day.

I began the morning with rose tea and cold, soaked rolled oats and white chia seeds soaked in almond milk overnight, with a fruit compote on top. That compote contained cherries, cranberries, elderberry, strawberry, a red apple and a green apple.

This was my first time using elderberries to make anything other than elderberry syrup. I found out that they need to simmer a lot longer than other dried fruits. In the future, I will put them into a half-cup of water and simmer until almost tender before adding the other ingredients.

For lunch, I had yet more Hoppin’ John. Since the kids haven’t been home or available to help me eat it, I wound up eating three of the four leftover servings myself.

For dinner, someone took me out to Chick-Fil A. It was a nice treat! I had the grilled chicken sandwich without the bun and the kale salad. That gave me walnuts, almonds, broccoli, kale, cherries, tomato and lettuce.

For mid-morning snack I had about an ounce of almonds and some ginger chews. My afternoon snack was a big plate of carrots and hummus. I had a handful of peanuts here and there all day, and a couple of Smashmallows.

Saturday

For breakfast, I had the other half of yesterday’s fruit compote over quinoa, with walnuts sprinkled on top.

For lunch, I made an omellete with carrots, white potato, red bell pepper, green bell pepper, green chilies, black olives, tomato, onion and green onion.

For dinner, I had two hot dogs and roasted broccoli, carrots and cauliflower. This meal wasn’t supposed to happen, so we threw whatever we had from the freezer together after a few hours of hassle. We were supposed to be at a wedding reception in another state, but were in a fender bender on the way out of town right after lunch which rendered the vehicle undriveable. So we missed the reception.

For mid-morning snack, I had a Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Lara Bar. After dinner I had a Cashew Cookie Lara Bar. That gave me cashews and dates.

Final Tally

1. Carrot
2. Chickpea
3. White rice
4. Peanut
5. Ginger
6. Red Bell pepper
7. Onion
8. Tomato
9. Sesame seed
10. Red apple
11. Oats
12. Black chia seeds
13. Almond
14. Green beans
15. Pinto beans
16. Black olives
17. Lime
18. Corn
19. Cilantro
20. Lettuce
21. Cranberry
22. Pecan
23. Celery
24. Garlic
25. Kale
26. Green apple
27. Black-eyed peas
28. Parsley
29. Green onion
30. Turmeric
31. Broccoli
32. Cauliflower
33. Strawberry
34. White chia seed
35. Cherry
36. Elderberry
37. Hazelnut
38. Walnuts
39. Quinoa
40. White potato
41. Green bell pepper
42. Green chilies
43. Cashews
44. Dates

Photo credits- wsilver,  Robert Couse-Baker, Damian Gadal, and John Morgan on Flicker.