To our faithful readers

Pictures soon to come from Lindsey’s epic 30th Bday bash.  Birthday bash number one: fondue.  You don’t want to miss this post.

Picts will be up soon.

Yay for fondue!

“Bad Bug” diet

Okay.  Betty #2 again.

I think I have a bug, in my gut, from Nicaragua.  A Nicaragua bug.

So what better thing to do than write a blog about it and tell you all what you should do if you ever think you have a bug.

I’ve had several bugs in my lifetime, in fact, some medical professionals believe that EVERYONE has stuff in their gut.  We already know that probiotics are very good for the gut, and yes, those are bugs too.  In your gut.  Anyway, I guess the point I wanted to make right now is once you’ve had a bug, you know what it’s like, and I’m experiencing many of those same symptoms now, that I’ve experienced in my travels to India, Thailand and Cambodia.

So, anyway in my readings and research, the best thing to get rid of bugs is to make your gut into a place that’s a harsh environment for them to live in.  Which means: staying away from sugar and meat (and other bad things).  Beta-carotene is good for knocking bugs, and it’s the pre-cursor to vitamin A.  But by overwhelming your body and gut with good foods: fruits, veggies, yogurts… it will help kill the bugs.

I’ve been drinking tons of water today.  That also helps expel toxins.

There is a ton of information out there on what to eat, herbs to take etc…. so, here’s what I’ve been eating today:

Breakfast: Protein shake, with frozen strawberries, blueberries, mango, papaya, also with a tablespoon of ground flaxseeds, blended with unsweetened coconut milk.

Snack: Organic apple, sweet potato and beet chips

Lunch: Squash soup (a delicious recipe I made a couple months ago that’s been in the freezer… made with coconut milk, tomatoes, cayenne pepper… some things I’ve read suggest cayenne helps with parasites too!)

I plan to head to the health food store later today, but I’ve been taking wellness pills with an extreme amount of Vitamin C, garlic and all kinds of other good herbs.  I plan to buy some organic apple cider vinegar (to mix with water) as this helps kill bad bacteria in the gut!

Monday Monday

Cleaning today.  It’s my day off (Betty #2).  Editing pictures, drinking a banana chocolate protein shake.

Pandora Station: Matt Maher (he’s great.. check him out)

I just found Henry:

And here is our edited picture.  This started it all!

From Betty #2

Okay, I have no idea who is who, but this is me- Meridith.

Just returned from a 10 day Mission trip to Managua, Nicaragua, which perhaps is part of the reason the three betty’s haven’t cooked another delicious meal together yet.  Looks like Jones has kept you abreast of her own cooking.

The trip was wonderful, how do I begin to describe it?  This was my second trip down there- second trip in like a 3 month span.  For so long, I dreaded the trip, just things going on, and life being busy, but can I say… it was such a blessing.  I, we, America, my friends… we’re all so blessed and have so much.  Seriously.  We are overflowing with so much.  Here are a few photos… if you’d like to know more about the trip, here is the blog we kept during our trip: CCHS Nicaragua.

Jones family visit to the Hamlet

Hello Friends!

My folks hopped over for a weekend of fun, fishing, food, jokes, laughs, Psych, and Portlandia.  I love my family. 

Thursday pm, I took them to Lees for dinner.  Great food, staff, and the owner comes out at the end of the night and has a chat with everybody.  Everything we ate was super.  And I think the green tea was matcha …

chef's special- and it was. nice choice, Dad!

thin sliced greens atop rice, with Krab (fake), two types of tuna and calamari, topped with tobiko and a raw quail egg. add hot chili sauce that has a unique plum flavor and mix together. so good. Lees has Japanese and Korean foods.

udon noodles, red chilis, onion, carrots, broccoli, beef... spicy chili sauce...yum.

Green Drinks & Mitochondria

So in  reading a book:  Minding My Mitochondria this weekend, a personal story of a physician went from being held down by the seeming crippling disease MS, I have come to desire being even more proactive in allowing food to be my medicine.

She shares her experience of being crippled to the point of using a wheel chair, and her miraculous use of food and supplements to get her not only out of the wheel chair but back to normal function.

Keys:

1.  Getting rid of the foods that are not tolerated by her body.  For her, these were gluten grains, eggs, and dairy.

2.  Next, ridding her body of processed stuff like white sugar and white flour, as well as white potatoes.  Also avoiding grains for the most part.  If all the other foods are eaten, then a serving of grains such as brown rice is permissible.  This helps promote a healthy and working digestive tract for absorption of nutrients that your body needs.  It also helps create healthy bacteria, not supporting a colony of bacteria that can disrupt absorption, and promote inflammation and GI problems.  Using a probiotic to help colonize the gut with healthy bacteria may be useful.

3.  Eating 7 or 9 (can’t recall right now)  various fruits and vegetables of color that are loaded with antioxidants and fiber that keep our cells and mitochondria working to make the most of the food we put in our mouths to create energy from it, as well as protecting our cells from free radicals:  4 cups greens, the others cups of various color- black/purple, red, orange, yellow.  These also provide the colon with prebiotics, the food that probiotics like to eat and thrive on.

4.  Eating healthy proteins:  organic, grass fed animals and eggs (if not intolerant):  beef, lamb, wild game, salmon, chicken.  These lack hormones, steroids, antibiotics and other chemicals that factory farmed meats contain.

5.  Eating healthy trace minerals from sea vegetables like:  kelp (you can get kelp flakes in a shaker at grocery stores that have a “health food”  section), and nori (think the green wrapper on your sushi), you can sprinkle these in your soups, add them to smoothies, add to a dressing, on top of fish or steamed vegetables, or make your own vegetable and rice nori wraps.  These sea vegetables have trace minerals such as iodine that help our thyroid to function, and carry out many important metabolic processes in the body.

6.  Utilize bone broths for healthy bone mineralization and supportive structures like cartilage.  This is easily done by saving the carcas of a chicken, then putting it in a pot half filled with water, as well as with any vegetable scraps you may have.  Boil down for a few hours, strain, and save in containers to use a broth for soups, stews, and stir frys.

These are the main things I took away from the book that can be applied to my life.

So today I made a drink of:  spinach, avocado, banana, pineapple, and water.  This is loaded with magnesium, potassium, Vitamin K, folate and fiber, and trace minerals.  So, give it a shot!  It’s like a multivitamin.  And guess what?  All those things are 30% more available for my body to absorb them versus eating them in a salad.  So, cheers my friends!  May our foods be our medicine.

green goblin

minding my mito's

Sixes River Ranch: Oregon GrassFed Beef.

This is not a hamburger. (and according to the dad, not too appetizing in appearance, BUT it is SUPER tasty. Trust me.)

It is velvety, beef goodness stacked with veggies and supported by an onion bun.

There’s no corn in this meat… just plain, ol’ chompings off the hillside!

Visit Oregon GrassFed.  They make Portland deliveries!

Pick it up at Langlois Market.