USA vs Japan 10-0

What can I say, big up to the US for being so a head in their gluten-free game. Something that was so tricky a few weeks ago is now the easiest thing in the world. There are “gluten-free” stickers on the shelves here, and I can read the ingredient lists! This is awesome!!

You can eat and not feel like you have to miss out on anything here, as for in Japan, all you do is cut stuff out.

Even Sprinkles (the best cupcakes ever) makes gluten-free and vegan cupcakes every day. That literally made me shed a tear out of happiness.

And the tons of gluten-free breads to choose from! Hamburger buns, hotdog buns..I can have toast and coffee for breakfast, just like the good old days..

My favorite bread after trying a few so far, is the “7 Grain” from “Canyon Bakehouse” . Anyone have any other suggestions on yummy brands to try?

Together with my gluten intolerant and fellow expat wife, we’ll try to bring in some gluten-free products to Japan for next season, and map out where to find the few they already have. Fingers crossed that we’ll be able to work something out..

And I’m taking the kids to Sweden later this summer so I’m looking forward to seeing what type of spread they have to offer as well.

Oh you lucky people of the US of A….

Back on the meat wagon

I am back on the meat wagon and feeling pretty ok with it, for now. A couple of weeks before leaving Japan I started feeling extreme fatigue. So tired that I was literally falling asleep as I was playing with my kids. Migraine like headaches and heart palpitations. I didn’t connect the dots until I one morning noticed that my lips were seriously pale. And the inside of my eyelids, or the bottom what ever that part is called, pale going on white almost. Holy mother, anemia!

And on top of that I’m constantly hungry, it’s like I never feel full.

I was already taking my daily multivitamin plus extra iron and B12, i was thinking that would be enough, but now my spontaneous reaction was “I need red meat!” so I ran down to the market and I got myself three steaks of Kobe beef. I fried them with just a hint of salt and pepper…..

oh my God!..it was so indescribably good. I ate red meat for about 2-3 days and noticed how I got my energy back, I wasn’t out of breath anymore and no more irregular heartbeats.

Blood type A’s might thrive on grains and vegetables, but I listened to my body and I felt better. Right now I’m back to eating meat 1-2 times a week. Haven’t decided if I’ll keep it up or not but I’m feeling preeeeetty good…I just can’t get that thought out of my head that I have decomposing cow in my body…

Dieting the diet

I’ve been struggling lately to keep my dietary “restrictions” up. I kind of slid in by accident on the whole “blood type diet” thing. I wasn’t out to lose weight, just boost my body’s all over potential, and the benefits were hugely noticed after just a week. I’m all for the blood type diet, it makes a lot of sense to me. And of course I have it all to thank for my discovery of my food allergy.

But I’m pretty tired of being so high maintenance with my food. The nit-picking with all the avoids, neutrals and beneficials. I have a limit for what I’m willing to put in to this. Japan is first of all a sucky country to live in if you’re gluten intolerant or like me, allergic to wheat. There’s nothing else out there for you. Every sauce is soy sauce based and therefore contains wheat. Not gluten free breads or pastries..nothing. The dango’s I was so happy over, I later learned that they have added wheat gluten in them, to make them so yummy and soft. So I can cross those of my list too. So basically I’ve just cut a ton of foods out and have nothing to substitute with.

So I’ve decided, for my own sanity and wellbeing that “arigato” blood type diet, for giving me a nudge, insight and pushing me in the right direction, I’m gonna keep some of it up, but I have to focus first hand on avoiding the stuff I’m allergic too, what gives me an instant allergic reaction.

I’m doing my own personal thing,

My main avoid list

• beef
• pork
• processed cheese
• wheat and gluten (due to allergy)
• tree nuts (due to allergy)

It’s gonna be my happy medium.

Anyways, I do recommend though for anyone, dealing with weight issues, or general health issues to give the BTD a try. Even a few tweaks to your diet can make a big difference.

Right now I can’t wait to go home for the summer. I can’t wait to go to a full variety grocery store! Hello supermarket!!! Hello gluten-free isle! Hello to be able to read ingredients labels!!

Layne Staley

Yesterday marked 10 years since the loss of Layne Staley, lead singer of Alice in Chains.

One of my favorite bands, one of my absolute favorite voices.

So much talent, lost to drugs.

Waiting to inhale..

We discovered we have a leak of some sort in our daughters room. The wall is wet, water coming from the ceiling or…who knows. And it’s all ending up in the corner by the floor, in a blossoming mold growth. I’m terrified of mold and while we’re waiting for someone to come have a look at the problem and fix it, remove it, I don’t want the kids to be in the room. I think if we inhale it, it will start growing in the lungs and spread to the brain and then we’ll die. Not good.

My husband thinks I’m blowing it out of proportions and don’t think it’s that big of a deal.. Hello, it’s mold…my arms are literally falling off as I type this…

Our daughter is camping on a futon in our bedroom till this problem is solved.

Buttons

I bought a collection of some gorgeous vintage buttons a while ago, and made this necklace out of some of them.

~

“When hell freezes over”..

That’s what I always told my friend about cooking two completely different meals for dinner. She’s a vegetarian and her husband is not, so that’s what she does every night, bless her heart.

But yesterday, hell froze. My husband wanted seafood pasta, but it has cream and soy sauce in it and I really wasn’t feeling it, so I made another pasta dish.

Perfect A type pasta

Brown rice pasta, Maitake mushrooms, broccoli, sliced raw onion, garlic, spinach, oregano and crumbled feta cheese. Super simple and super good!

 

what ever it takes to be healthy, I tell my self…

I thought, until I started digging in to the Blood type diet, that I was a healthy eater, but the more I learn about food in general, I realize, that wasn’t the case at all. I’ve been selectively oblivious to chemicals and powdered this and that, that goes in our food.  I’m really enjoying this food enlightenment I’m experiencing.

After making the drastic change in my eating habits when I cut out meat and dairy, meat is by far the easiest one to “spot”, I know beef when I see it.  ;)

Milk is in a lot of products that I wasn’t aware of, simply because I’ve never really cared, till now. Wheat….allow me to laugh….I’m fucked…

With the wheat, it’s gonna be trial and error till I get it down. I was definitely mega overwhelmed at first, now I’m just overwhelmed, but I’m taking it all in, learning, slowly.

I found this helpful link about wheat, that roughly narrowed it down for me. And thank the Gods for iHerb, where I can get rice pasta and other wheat/gluten-free products sent to Japan. I put in an order the other night and my box is on its way.

My everyday might have gotten a little trickier but it’s a small price to pay, as you can see.. This was my hand on a daily basis, for the past 3 years.

cracks...

and…

every finger peeling..

Today…

big improvement

After  my dietary changes and cutting wheat out, this is my hand today. Still might look horrifying to most of you, but this is nothing compared to what I’ve been through. Go meat, wheat, dairy free life!! …..oh gosh..I just wanna vomit on my high maintenance self…

Me and the chicken filé

I don’t have a very good relationship with chicken breasts…. It never comes out good when I try to cook it. Not in the pan or oven. I don’t know what it is, I just can’t get it right…

My friend gave me a simple recipe of filled chicken filé, that sounded delicious so I attempted to make it for tonight’s dinner. My family sat down at the table as I took the casserole dish out of the oven and I could see right away…oh boy, you could kill someone with these…

Chicken should never be shiny and look like it’s made of plastic when it comes out of the oven, nor should your steak knife  ricochet back at you when you try to cut it. But there are times when I have freaked out by the look of my food and then tried it and it was ok, so I stayed positive…until I saw my husbands face as he was trying to chew it…and he chewed and chewed…ok, I had failed again.

I don’t get it though, my friend made the same dish tonight, they have the same oven as we do and I even called her while I was prepping my filé’s, to double-check all the steps. Hers came out perfect and juicy, mine the opposite. Obviously it’s me. Chicken file is not my thing and I’m over it, I’m done!

A baby and Atlantis rising from the sand…

I had such a weird dream the other night..

I woke up (in my dream) and saw I had a pretty big belly, I was obviously pregnant! (nooooooooo!!) I started crying hysterically, cuz I didn’t want to be pregnant again. I was crying, talking to my husband and we tried to figure out how far along I was…I was confused in my dream. I thought maybe 4-5 months. I was crying, feeling trapped in my body. Our building was in the desert and had no walls on the front, you could see straight in to everyones apartments, like a doll house. And all of a sudden everything starts shaking and making this rumbling noise. Large stone statues and building ruins are starting to rise from out of the sand everywhere.  It goes quiet and I’m standing in the sand getting an ultrasound done by a nurse, who informs me I’m 9 months pregnant and we’re having a daughter. She hands me a printout from the ultrasound and I see a fully developed baby girl on there. So pretty and she’s smiling at me, staring right at me! Now my despair over being pregnant totally shifts to being overjoyed! I’m telling my husband we’re having another girl and we’re so excited….

..then I woke up….feeling kind of empty, almost a little sad. What is my dream trying to tell me?

…all I know is that feeling of sadness waking up not being pregnant, when I really don’t want to be pregnant is…..a very strange feeling….