Seasonal and Food Allergies

Every year, this time of year my body normally shuts down. It goes into a hyper-sensitive, constantly sneezing ooze fest of watery, itch eyes, runny nose, scratchy throat joyousness of seasonal allergies that comes with living in rural Maine.

I have always had allergies even in CA. When I visit, Dad always adoringly mentions how he knows I am home, because the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is blow my nose. My seasonal allergies were never as bad as they are until I moved to Maine. Every spring and fall it feels like my face is going to fall off, between the constant sneezing and blowing and itching, I bring my tissue box in tow where ever I go.

Before I was gf and lf, my seasonal allergies were horrendous. Coupled with my asthma, eating gluten regularly and the seasonal pollens, I regularly couldn't breathe. I would wake up in the night gasping for air, only to find temporary relief from my rescue inhaler; doze off sitting up, only moments later startled awake gasping for air.

Fall, while beautiful here, is one of my most dreaded seasons. I first discovered my gluten allergy in the fall. And I have spent many years hyper-aware of my body freak out that inevitably happens as the air cools and the leaves turn colors. The first year my body started shutting down, I barely was getting a few hours of sleep a night, I had started a new job, I couldn't eat, I couldn't breathe, I could barely walk up the stairs without getting winded. I was scared. That fall was the start of my Elimination Diet into trying to figure out and potentially eliminate my food allergies. 

That was 3 years ago. I removed gluten from my diet 3 years ago and lactose 1 year ago. But up until this fall, every fall would come the sleepless nights, the panic-y gasping for air in the middle of the night. The endless attempts from my sweet Man to try to help me. Rubbing my back as I sat up on the side of the bed, panicking, crying and struggling to breathe as I disrupted his sleep. He has bought countless HEPA air purifiers over the years. Ones with cool air because he knows the warm air makes it worse and makes me feel claustrophobic. Last year he rigged a window sized air filter that filters out the finest of air particles and pollutants, "See babe," he said, pointing at the long list of things it would trap and strain out of the air; in our bedroom window, sealing the edges with plastic and duct tape. He makes me extra strong peppermint tea in the middle of the night, sitting on the floor in the dark as I sit in the reclining chair in our living room with a fan on my face, attempting to calmly breathe in the soothing mint and eventually be able to fall asleep in an upright position. He has been there through it all, supported me the entire time and never once complained that I disrupted his sleep or was keeping him awake, even though he might have to get up in a few hours for work. Even after I would snap at him out of panic, exhausting and frustration he still waits to see what he could do to help and make me more comfortable and less scared. (And yes I know he is a KEEPER!).

He noticed the other day that "it" hasn't happened yet this year. He's right. September is almost over and none of my typical seasonal allergy madness has happened. Yes I sneeze about 50 times a day. And I blow my nose a lot. And I can't wear my contacts all day. But none of the super scary, middle of night gasping for air, panic attacks are happening. Even as I am typing this I am worried about saying it out loud for fear that it will happen tonight. My many, many sleepless fall nights and inability to breathe will haunt me forever.

Normally my seasonal allergies will start with the typical signs: sneezing, itchy eyes and throat, blowing my nose constantly, then it will transition into feeling overly full after every meal even when I consciously didn't overeat, then it will turn into waking up in the middle of the night to pee or drink water only to turning into a sniffling, stuffy nose escapade where I can't fall back asleep for hours due to a stuffy nose, which eventually turns into repeated fitful nights where I just barely fall asleep and then wake up in a panic gasping for air and my rescue inhaler does nothing to help, repeating throughout the entire night.

Normally this time of year, I really pare down my diet to basically an Elimination Diet of organic, gluten free brown rice and veggies, with smoothies, green juices and simple salads during the day, no dairy, no gf products, no nightshade veggies, no extra seasonings, no meats. Last fall, I introduced anti-inflammatory supplements and supplements that aide with seasonal allergies: slippery elm, tumeric, ginger, licorice, ginko biloba, quercetin and stinging nettle. While I have trimmed my normal diet down and started my supplements again in anticipation of the immanent seasonal doom, I am still able to occasionally eat gluten free bread and some lactose free cheeses. I even made gf scones this morning. And I am still not getting that telling overly full feeling. Something is different this year....

I noticed last week that I can't drink alcohol right now, which is a normal cutback for my fall. I can tell when I have to cut it out, because I will have a small drink and immediately get stuffed up and get this really weird pressure behind my eyes and nose. I noticed this the other day after a few sips into a glass of wine. I tested it again the other day, same thing, so booze is out for now, but if that is it, I will gladly give it up!

I am not sure what is different this year. I know the pollen levels and pollutant levels have been extraordinarily high this season. So what gives? Not that I am by any means looking for the usual body freak out, trust me! It just seems too good to be true, I am knocking on wood right now just in case. I have noticed some mild versions of my typical allergy freak out but not the full on I feel like I am going to die scenario, phew.

A couple things that are different this year that I am considering might be helping: 

I practice yoga daily. This is new for me this year. I started daily practice back in February. So this is my first fall with regular practice. I have heard yoga has amazing benefits for those with asthma. Possibly yoga is helping in yet another amazing way. I heart yoga. Exercise is normally impossible for me in the fall because it asks too much of my already drained body and requires me to breathe harder, which normal breathing is already a challenge. Especially outside exercise, but I have even been practicing outside regularly with no additional aggravation.

The other thought is we recently tore out the carpet in our house. We have talked about tearing out the carpet for years and we finally did it over Labor Day, but come to think of it, my seasonal freak out normally starts around the last week of August or the first of September, and I wasn't reacting then either....hmmm. We pulled out the carpet which was god-knows-how-old and put down hardwood flooring. I always thought the carpet was evil, not just because it was a heinous old-lady-blue, but because I swore it made my allergies worse, and now it's gone. So maybe it was the carpet...who knows!?

Either way, something is different this year. I have limited my diet like normal, but actually not as strictly in years past. I normally let my body reactions and allergies guide me, right now my body is not making rigid demands. So far I am actually surviving a fall season! No sleepless gasping-for-air-nights. And I can exercise daily, yoga, running, TRX and all. I haven't even used my rescue inhaler yet. Just the typical sneezes and nose blowing. Here's hoping that's all it will be this year, maybe I have finally found some relief to this seasonal allergy madness. I have worked so hard to control my diet and remove the probable causes of food allergies. Maybe the perfect combination of yoga, clean eating, added supplements and a hypoallergenic home have lead me to seasonal allergy nirvana.

Fingers crossed....

"Balance is key. In everything you do. Dance all night long and practice yoga the next day. Drink wine but don't forget your green juice. Eat chocolate when your heart wants it and kale salad when your body needs it. Wear high heels on Saturday and walk barefoot on Sunday. Go shopping at the mall and then sit down to meditate in your bedroom. Live high and low. Move and stay still. Embrace all sides of who you are and live your authentic truth! Be brave and bold and spontaneous and loud and let that complement your abilities to find silence and patience and modesty and peace.

Aim for balance. Make your own rules and don't let anybody tell you how to live according to theirs."

#love #live #life #balance #yoga #yogaeverydamnday #beach #inspiration#freedom #happiness

Rachel Brathen

Be Kind to Yourself, You Are Beautiful

A few things have crossed my path in the last week or so that have made me think about women; our perception of self, of beauty, of each other and our insecurities. The concept of beauty remains to be this unattainable entity that every woman strives to achieve, yet never fully feels they get there, even when verified by others. Women hold themselves to incredibly unfair standards, constantly comparing and judging others, and more harshly themselves.

I went to a remote island with a group of friends last week. It was perfect day. The sun was shining, the water was cool and clear. We had the entire beach to ourselves. It was spectacular. There were women, men, a bunch of kids and a dog. It was a sand-sun-filled day. As I enjoyed the obvious beauty and freeing nature of an island beach all to ourselves, I noticed something else; women covered head to toe, sweating in the sun, more concerned about their bodies than enjoying the day. This broke my heart. I will take any excuse to be in a bathing suit. Maybe it is because I grew up on a beach and a beach to me means free, clothing-less happiness and lots of swimming. I just assume everyone has the same enthusiasm at the first hint at a beach day. But then I realized the reality is more like anxiety for most women around a beach day.

The perception of our bodies is completely unfair, media and Hollywood culture lead us to believe we should stay covered up unless we have perfect chiseled muscle definition and no extra fat anywhere, but the reality is most of the women in this world aren't like that. We are busy women, moms, career women, moms with careers and houses to maintain, mortgages to pay, an insane amount of responsibility to maintain our lives, that fitness gets bumped down on the priority list, naturally. Hollywood women and women depicted in magazines are paid to look like that, that is there full-time job to work that hard to look like that. It is completely unrealistic that the everyday woman compare and judge herself to that perception of body image, it is like comparing apples and oranges. So stop.

From www.theexposeproject.com

I came across The Expose Project, Shedding Light on Collective Beauty, these beautiful photographs of real women. Women who we can relate to because they look like us. Women of all shapes and sizes, because that is what is real, women like you and me. We should not judge each other on our rolls or stretch marks, we should not judge each other at all, because the reality is we are all just living our lives and trying to find our own individual happiness.

I loved clicking through the images of The Expose Project because the women looked happy and comfortable in their own skin; and beautiful. The beauty came from the twinkle in the eye, the huge smile and the ability to bare it all regardless of the potential judgment. I love how liberating that looked and I suspect felt.

Back to my day on the beach. I was surrounded by beautiful women, mostly moms, who refused to take off their clothes. This meant not digging in the sand with their kids, going for a swim in the cool water, playing football and bocce ball in the sand or trying the paddle-board out. But it made me wonder what if we were all easier on each other and subsequently ourselves. If we all cared a little less about what others thought and willingly showed our bodies, extra rolls, stretchmarks, cellulite, 6-pack abs, thigh gap, or lack thereof, showed it all, #loveyourlines we would all start to actual see what real bodies look like. We would start to see real as beautiful rather than having this skewed sense of reality because we only see "perfect" bodies in bathing suits. And even then by the time we see those images in magazine they have been so re-touched that the realness of the model/actress is entirely removed. We need to learn to love what our bodies are, not what they aren't so we can help others and especially younger girls know that there is no shame in wearing a bikini regardless of what your body looks like.

By not taking of our clothes, society doesn't see that are other definitions and images of beauty. By covering up we are claiming silently that there is reason to be ashamed. Young girls around us get used to seeing only magazine bodies uncovered, not mom's or auntie's or grandma's and they instantly compare and question why. If we all wore our bathing suits with pride, the illusion of perfect bodies would diminish because we would all see that we are all beautiful in our own right. Our bodies are what allow us to move and live on this Earth in this form. For women it allows us to bare children and create new life. We all have stories to tell, inner strength and a beauty that if more people would see, would start to see the real you, not the image of the you you struggle to portray; holding your breath, covering up and sucking your stomach in for others to not see what you judge so harshly.

Men are not concerned by judgement or fat or paleness or stretchmarks. They take it off and run around with pride. Men always can look at themselves and find strength and pride to be a man. Women should and can do the same. Find something to be proud of that makes you a woman. I think we can all learn from men, they willingly take their shirts off at a moments notice and they aren't ashamed to show their bellies, hairy chests and backs, moobs, pasty-whiteness. If they can do it, why can't we?

As uncomfortable as it might be, the next time you go to the beach with a group of friends, bring your bathing suit and actually let people see it. If one of you is gutsy enough in the group to bare it all, eventually others will too. It is a domino effect. We see other women, normal women, having fun, enjoying the sun and the water, enjoying the whole point of being at the beach that you stop noticing her cellulite and stretchmarks, but instead notice the beauty from within of having fun, smiling and participating in life. We can't just let our lives pass by covered up. Think of the message that perpetuates to the younger generation of girls. We are getting further and further away from allowing them to find beauty in self if we insist on portraying that we are not beautiful, involved and loving life, because we are too concerned about what our bodies look like in bathing suits.

So suit up, put on your sunscreen, head out to the beach and have no shame. At first you might be self-conscious and nervous, but as soon as you start digging in the sand with your kids, or killing it at football in the waves, or even just laying and reading your magazine feeling how nice it is to have the warm sun on your rarely exposed skin, you will forget that you are indeed in a bathing suit, but instead will notice how beautiful the day is and how beautiful your life is.

And if you need one last bit of encouragement, look at all the beautiful photos of The Expose Project as a reminder that beauty comes in all packages. We could all be a little bit more confident and less apologetic like the beautiful women in these photos. Thanks Liora K and Jes Baker for shedding light on the real beauty each woman is born with, by showing us the beauty in others, so we may see it in ourselves.

Cleanse Complete

I decided to go 5 days with my juice cleanse. 5 days felt right and sufficient enough to purge my body of the last month of debauchery, well not quite debauchery, but definitely more than normal of everything for me.

Today, first day after the cleanse I feel great. I don't feel bogged down or lethargic. I feel light and clearheaded. My skin is clear and body feels good from the inside. My bowel movements are a little irregular, but that is to be expected with a cleanse. I can already feel them normalizing again. On my cleanse the schedule was not that erratic, just less volume. I still had my usual morning and mid-day movements.

The last 2 days of the cleanse I added 1 small meal to the day. It was either a bowl of fruit or a salad. Although I wasn't feeling poorly, I was more or less sick of juice. By day 5 morning juice I found myself gritting my teeth and sipping my juice slightly gagging each time, like enough already.

I did yoga each day of my cleanse and some paddle boarding yesterday. My practice was less intense than normal and I really let my body lead each practice. Some days my balance was horribly off, other days inversions made me lightheaded, so I just moved slowly and paid attention to what my body could handle. What I found amazing was my centering and focus. For my 1 hour or so of practice each day, my head was silent and all I could focus on was the position I was holding or transitioning into. While my body did not feel weak, I was mesmerized by the stillness of my mind. Part of the reason I love yoga is because it, and any form of exercise with intent really, calms my mind. My mind is always busy, always planning or making to do lists. I love the forced silence of yoga, but doing yoga while on my cleanse was a whole new level of stillness. I usually find my mind wandering during my normal practice and I have to consciously refocus. These past 5 days however, I had no wandering, just complete and utter focus on calm breathing, balance and transitions. So cool! If fasting gets me to that level of silence, I may do them more often than every few months, maybe even once a month.....

I always do juice cleanse when I feel the need to. My body just doesn't feel "right" and no matter how clean I eat or consciously I consume, there is a focus that a cleanse always reestablishes. I also like the time after a cleanse, hunger is not as obvious and I can consciously identify real hunger verses boredom. Also I consume much less, portions are smaller and less food fills me up. I like this sense of  body/mind control around food. We forget how much of our day and thoughts are focused around food. It is neat to remove that energy around food. It is a test of will and self control, but also a priority shift away from our food driven lives.

As with any cleanse do not want to immediately jump into eating everything. You should ease back into your normal diet. Restrict portions (which your stomach will naturally do for you) and eat mostly veggies, fruits and whole grains. You will notice that you get fuller faster, but also I would highly recommend staying away from simple carbs, sugar, excessive amounts of dairy, meat and definitely alcohol. You don't want to shock your system after it has been so nicely purged. Use your body as your guidance, as always listen to what your body tells you, often you will feel "off" if you jump into eating something to quickly. Always start with a small amount of something from the list above, don't go eat a whole steak dinner, you will not be a happy camper.

I would highly recommend a juice cleanse, with guidance, to anyone. Always start with only 3 days and as you get used to the way your body responds you can ad more time with each new cleanse. Many cultures fast and I think there is an interesting mind-body-soul connection that comes with a fast. In a world where we over consume daily and are guided by advertising, agribusiness and food conglomerates in our eating choices, a forced separation is quite liberating.

Cleanse Day 3

Breakfast smoothie day 3 

Almond, banana, date, cinnamon, almond milk smoothie with the usual healthy suspects: sunflower seeds, chia seeds, bee pollen, grapefruit seed extract, liquid minerals, spirulina, flax, psllium #drinkyourbfast #healthyeats #juicecleanse #feelinggood

Lunch and mid-day juice. 

Green one = "gazpacho juice" kale, garden toms, celery, cucumber, parsley Orange one: carrots, apple, sweet potato, cucumber, celery, ginger 
Both super delish!