Adventures in Raw Food! 

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Eat the Rainbow!

I’ve been meaning to write this post for some time now! I ventured into a raw plant based diet back in May, and I kept it up for a month and a half. Anytime you make changes in your diet to clean, whole foods rich in enzymes & nutrients, you will experience a detox. I was already eating very clean…I was eating a plant based, vegan whole foods diet pior to going raw. I guess because my diet was so clean beforehand, I didn’t think that I would’ve experienced a detox. But sheesh, what a detox it was!

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Currently Reading – Your Health, Your Choice by Ted Morter

Hey guys! I’m about half way into this book and I wanted to share with all so you can check it out as well! It’s all about healing with food and the importance of the acid alkaline balance in foods.

From the back of the book….

INSIDE THESE PAGES YOU’LL DISCOVER:

  • The food you ate in the past determines how healthy you will be in the future.
  • Age is no excuse for disease, aches or pains.
  • You can evaluate your health before symptoms of disease appear.
  • Too much protein is hazardous to your health.
  • Healing is automatic if you give your body a chance.

If you check it out, lemme know what you think! 🙂

-Jen

Deep detox/Cleanse with fruit

All hail plants! Great video on detoxification, the best way to cleanse and heal the body of any illness!!! “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine thy food” -Hippocrates

More posts on fruit:

Detox Food Pyramid

#gofruityourself

 

Inspirational Sticky Notes

If there’s anything that I’ve learned through these 3 past years of withdrawing from topical steroids as well as getting through cancer years ago, it’s that your attitude is truly everything. We all go through times of suffering, some more than most, and to keep your sanity, it is so important to keep your mind right. To stay faithful, positive and full of gratitude, I feel is the key to getting through the rough times. Negative, despondent thoughts can keep you just as sick as the illness you’re fighting, so it’s super important to change your thinking.

I’ve been going through it pretty hard core these past few weeks. I’ve been experiencing a healing crisis with my skin to where spots on my feet and both of my calves have been oozing then crusting and flaking, with extreme itchiness. I know exactly why it’s doing this…I started going fully raw vegan with my diet and implementing enzymes therapy to help speed up healing…I’ll be doing a blog post on this later ;). After a few weeks of ups and downs, I feel like I can confidently say the worst of the cycling is over, and I’m coming out of the healing crisis into a calm (hopefully the end!!!) stage. My skin is feeling stronger, softer and much better off than before I implemented a raw diet. Although it was hell to go through at times, it was well worth it because I feel that this healing crisis was the last push my body needed.

Through these rough few weeks, I’ve had to really hold it together, dig deep, and find my strength to keep pushing through. I’d like to share with you all some sticky notes that I’ve had on my wall for years to keep me inspired. I’ve taken these stickies with me through two moves, one from North Carolina to New York, to another apartment also in New York. I look at them daily and since I’ve said the words from them over and over again, it’s ingrained in my mind so I repeat them throughout the day. I hope that the affirmations, and spiritual scriptures that I’ve scribbled on them can give you some inspiration to help keep you fighting through this eczema healing journey ❤

-Jen

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Recipes! – Papaya Boat with Banana Mango Nice Cream!

Papaya Boat with Banana Mango Nice Cream - eczemaholistichealing.wordpress.com

This is just about the easiest breakfast you can make! So sweet, delicious and nourishing, you’ll feel like you’re treating yourself to dessert! Papaya and mango are so awesome for skin health, and the banana gives it the creaminess and calorie density to keep you full. I like to keep it pretty simple for breakfast, lots of fruit to give my body the wonderful carby energy that it needs. Fruit is also great to have for breakfast because your body has been fasting while you’ve slept, so it’s nice to introduce easily digestible foods to the body so you’re not overworking it or shocking the system with something heavy that will take forever to digest and make you feel sluggish. I’ll either do something like this delicious papaya boat, raw fruit, lots of melon (quickest digestible fruit) , nice cream or fruit smoothies for breakfast. 🙂

*tip! Save the seeds from the papaya, wash and freeze. You can use these as a natural anti-germ remedy for parasites, infections and as a natural antibiotic. Just take a spoonful on an empty stomach, crush (I like to just crush with my teeth…holding my nose of course) and swallow with water. I’ve used this remedy many times while going through an intense flare with oozing skin. It helps to keep any infection away, and in my opinion it speeds up healing. It seemed to draw out the ooze and heal it up quicker! All of those wonderful enzymes go to work to heal the body! Gotta love natural, drug free remedies!

 

Papaya Boat with Banana Mango Nice Cream! 

  • 1/2 ripe papaya
  • 3 frozen bananas
  • 1/2 cup frozen mango
  • add a knob of grated ginger for a nice kick!

Super simple….

  1. Wash the papaya, cut in half (lengthwise), scoop out seeds
  2. Take frozen banana, mango and optional grated ginger and place in a high speed blender. While using the tamper (tool used to push down contents in blender while blending) blend the frozen fruit until it’s a creamy ice cream consistency. You can add a tiny bit of water if you want it like a soft serve consistency, but I like it without liquid.
  3. Scoop into the papaya boat and enjoy!

Recipes! – Collard Burritos with Purple Cauliflower Rice!

Collard Burritos with Purple Cauliflower Rice - eczemaholistichealing.wordpress.com

Collard Burritos with Purple Cauliflower Rice

Yea, this recipe came out pretty amazing! So simple to make, colorful and super filling! We eat with our eyes first and this dish is definitely enticing to the eyes. I’ll for sure be making more veggie burritos and wraps in the future with different fillings and different spices. 🙂

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Recipes! – Blood Orange Banana Nice Cream!

Blood Orange Banana Nice Cream - eczemaholistichealing.wordpress.com

There’s nothing better than having a nourishing smoothie for breakfast….oh yes, this can make it better!!! Blend up your fruits without much liquid using a tamper (tool to push down the contents in the high speed blender) turning it into a thick ice cream consistency! Ice cream for breakfast or in this case “nice cream”, no dairy in sight!

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Fellow TSW warrior, Thomas shares his story on Instagram!

My homie Thomas has decided to share his Topical Steroid Withdrawal story with his friends on Instagram! I’m super proud of him for being so courageous, it takes a lot of guts to put yourself out there, and I’m sure that he will reach many others just by honestly sharing his experience & his passion for healing with a whole foods plant based diet. He’s been in TSW now for about a year and has been pushing through like a trooper. Cheers to you Thomas! Keep on keepin’ on! 🙂

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I think its time to share what my life has been like for the past year. For all of you that have normal skin, take a moment and appreciate the hell out of it. Not only do I look like sh*t, but my confidence is non existent, it sometimes hurts to fully extend my arms, and I cant sleep through the entire night without waking up to an itch fest. Every day is a struggle just to get by. This is the worst its ever been so it can only get better right? What I have is eczema. In an attempt to cure this “incurable” condition, I changed my diet to only organic fruits and veggies. With the help of all the nutrition, my body now has enough energy to start dumping out all the bad stuff. Diseased cells and tissues are being disposed of and malfunctioning organs are being restored to life, and the toxins are coming out of my skin. The good news is eventually there is an end date to this misery, just don’t know when. All I can do now is have faith that my body will restore itself as long as I continue to provide it with good food, water, light, and love.

That dang maddening itch!!!

 

Just did a lil post sharing info on the Eczema & Topical Steroid Withdrawal -Red Skin Syndrome Support Group on facebook about why we itch and why it’s best to not suppress it…..

Hey guys! Here’s some info I’d like to share with y’all about that dang itching we’re all experiencing and have ever since we got eczema. This is from the book Food is Your Best Medicine by Henry Bieler MD.

We gotta keep in mind that the body doesn’t make any mistakes. All that heat and itching is for a reason. Just like having diarrhea or fever is the body’s mechanism to kill or get rid of germs, there is reasons for itching and heat in the body with eczema.

The following information is what I found to be the most logical explanation of why you should not use drugs to suppress the severe itching associated with eczema, it’s truly a part of the process as maddening as it may be

Henry Bieler, MD, in his book “Food is Your Best Medicine” said that he always explained to his patients that their pain and illness is the result of their dietary mistakes and intake of drugs. He said that when the normal chemistry of digestion is upset because of unhealthy living habits, toxins are stagnated in the blood which can impair the filters and eliminative organs, chief of which are the kidneys, liver, bowels, and skin. He explained that skin problems like eczema is a “terrific attempt” by the body to get rid of toxins since the normal channels of elimination such as the liver is no longer functioning normally. If the bile poisons in the blood come out through the skin, we get the various irritations of the skin and itching is one of these irritations. The itching is necessary so the poisons can come out of the skin. “Thus, the skin is substituting for the liver, or a vicarious elimination is occurring through the skin” (Bieler, pg. 43).

He describes eczema as a hyper secretion of the thyroid gland. “This gland, located at the base of the neck, controls all functions of the body’s three layers of skin: the outer skin… the inner skin… and the middle skin. The normal function of the outer skin is to exhale gases, sweat out water and certain toxic salty substances and oil itself and its hair with special oil glands. The vicarious elimination, which results from forcefully exuding gases, acid sweat, and toxic oils and greases through the outer skin (can be the cause of) chronic eczema…Skin diseases…are really signs of toxic irritation…” (Bieler, pg. 46). To stop the itching, hyperthyroidism must be brought under control through diet changes and complete elimination of offending toxins.

Itching as Henry Bieler explains in his book is a “terrific attempt” by the body to get the toxins out of the body. So itching leading to skin lesions that become infected is nothing more than channels of elimination to remove toxins out of the body. This will only stop when the natural channels of elimination (liver, kidneys and intestinal tract) function normally.

  • Natural antihistamine like foods that are high in Vitamin C such as kiwi, pineapples, oranges and bell peppers will help with the itching since one of the main causes of increased histamine levels in the body is a vitamin C deficiency. Black cumin seed oil and using the crushed seeds with a spoonful of honey is also a good natural antihistamine remedy. Also taking plant based digestive enzymes at night such as bromelain will help reduce itching. Here’s the digestive enzymes I take to keep the itching down as much as possible. Bee pollen also helps because it has quercitin in it which minimizes the histamine response. 

Vitamin C has an effect on histamine in your system, and your body’s vitamin C levels also regulate your level of histamine release. Adequate vitamin C consumption maintains relatively low levels of histamine in your system, while a vitamin C deficiency can raise your body’s levels of histamine, according to a study published in the “Journal of the American College of Nutrition” in 1996. The abnormal histamine levels as a result of vitamin C deficiency can have an effect on your overall health. SOURCE  SOURCE

  • I haven’t personally tried this remedy, but taking some activated charcoal can help because it will absorb circulating toxins and remove them quickly from your system. However, activated charcoal is indiscriminate in what it absorbs.  Therefore, it should not be taken with food or medicines as it would absorb them too, and it should not be taken over long periods of time.  It is, however, good for instant relief of circulating toxins.  
  • To overcome itching and heat at night so you can sleep, grind fennel seeds and cumin seeds and allow this powder to soak in half a glass of water for 2 hours or longer. Drink this mix and all the soaked powder content and this takes away the heat and itching with the cooling action of the ingredients.
  • There is also a product that I’ve found effective to calm down the itching too, it’s an essential oil blend made for allergies called TriEase. You can get it HERE (just click on the “shop” tab and type it in a search). I also did a whole post on it HERE

Recipes! – Chunky Roasted Red Pepper Hummus!

Chunky Roasted Red Pepper Hummus - eczemaholistichealing.wordpress.com

I love experimenting with different hummus recipes and this one in particular ended up becoming my fave!  It ended up having this amazing pizza like flavour with all of the delicious Italian seasonings I added.  I don’t really follow recipes too much, I kinda just wing it when I’m in the kitchen, so if you’d like your hummus to be a bit smoother, you can just add more liquids to it.  I like to eat this with organic tortilla chips, slather it on a rice cake, or have it with celery.  Spreading this on a sprouted toasted tortilla wrap (like the Ezekiel brand) would be a great idea with  some other tasty veggies and some nutritional yeast for a nice cheesy flavour…instant pizzas!  There’s so many options with this super easy protein packed veggie snack, the possibilities are endless 🙂

Chunky Roasted Red Pepper Hummus - ingredients - eczemaholistichealing.wordpress.com

 

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