Forget SAD, get MAD. Developing a Mongolian-American Diet! page 3

[Khainag]

Been back in the US for about 3 months now... Happy New Years to all! (Shine Jilin Mend Hurgee!) Looking forward to Lunar New Years in February though of course .

Doing pretty well now that I've found some good standby sources of good food. Dairy has been especially challenging... but I recommend Seven Stars Farm Plain Original Yogurt, which seems to be available in the NE broadly perhaps as the farm is in VT but I'm in NJ. Also found a good whole grass pastured milk, which like the yogurt is available at the local "homegrown natural foods" store (which I can walk to!) as well as Whole Foods.

My brushes with non-primal food seem to have gotten more disastrous digestively... constipation with cake (too much sugar or flour or bad oil or what?) and the opposite with onions (?) now. I suspect/hope that the onion issue (white onions, which are the strongest variety) is a result of irritation after eating bad stuff-- just got back from 10 days with my boyfriend's family which was pretty ok but maybe too much ice cream, wine and coffee. Yogurt before bed seemed to fix it nicely though.

[Khainag]

Went to the dr. today, now a bit freaked out and having a hard time concentrating. PA (physician's assistant) found a sore spot in my lower left abdomen and called in the actual dr. (freaky I know, right?).

She took a listen and got kinda serious. She's the GI specialist and the endocrine one so lucky me. They're running another set of thyroid tests but also testing for celiac, liver function, giardia and doing specimen culture and ultrasound.

Good news: the PA said yeah, don't worry too much though, bowel inflammation is common and it can take a few months to have your body recalibrate after living far away for such a long time. Thankfully they also didn't question at all when I replied to weight loss questions with saying I felt tired so I decided to try cutting out bread etc. and going kind of low carb. I'm not in pain or anything just worried now about what the hell to eat.

Eggs and bacon this morning went down great! For now going to avoid onions and garlic and spicy stuff at least and try to keep the meat nice and tender.

[Khainag]

Got my stool specimen all ready last night so we can rule out parasites (lots of fun...) and now I've got a bit of a sinus thing going on, slept in and hopefully that will do the trick. Will go into the office here in an hour or so so I can drop off the specimen at the lab and not miss them at lunch time.

Grandma sent me some of the family Christmas treats: homemade almond roca and caramel. Ate several pieces of each, at least it's homemade with lots of real butter. Seems like it wasn't good for my nose or stomach last night though with all the sugar? Will be more careful with it.

[Khainag]

Something I really really hate about Mongolian food is the practice of drivers (who have to drive for days on end through the roadless countryside... yes there are literally no roads) to live off of canned fish (sprats or in Russian/Mongolian "shproti").

I just made some of the fish cakes from canned salmon in the Primal Cookbook though and they were awesome! Unfortunately I ended up throwing one can away though because our can openers really really suck.

Re: bowel issues, I think that sugar is a problem, but also wondering if I need to increase vegetable intake. I had a green salad with cherry tomatoes, peccorino, lime juice and olive oil just now as well and it was amazing.

[Khainag]

hmm some more problems last night post dinner, going to try and do fasting and chicken soup today (water down some homemade stock) and maybe some ginger tea...

[Khainag]

The soup seemed to work great, normal BM in the morning as well! I also tried to braise some lamb last night but it cooked to long barely so had to throw it out... and now I'm out of stock. Tonight I have a work-related dinner that I'm a bit nervous about, I don't think it's going to be at a restaurant so I don't know what they'll be serving and I don't want to be a complete weirdo by not eating or eat something that will make me feel like crap. So maybe a good thing that I have the sinus stuff going on, and I am getting a lot of tests done so I can always just cite that I have a possible parasite . Anthropologists should understand...

Made GINGER TEA last night and it seemed to help some: Ginger tea - YouTube Went a bit easier on the honey though... Korea is truly a land of metabolic syndrome...

[Khainag]

Ate some roasted turkey/squash for lunch from the university food services and just had some apricot/brie chicken with green beans for dinner. No problems so far! Just were pretty dry, would like to try the apricot/brie chicken thing at home. I got a replacement for the dinner in a complicated series of events, which is good I think, because my nose is about back to normal but not quite. Unfortunately my office is not well ventilated at all and was causing me problems all day, going home here soon.

[Khainag]

Had my followup appt. and I've got something funky on my spleen that Doc said she isn't too worried about and gallbladder polyps without stones. Referral to gastroenterologist...

Was having problems last night, after eating kielbasa, turnip hash and mashed parsnips. I suspect though that most of the issues are coming from having gone to two nice restaurants the day before and doing fixed price with dessert and some bread. Maybe will have to try and consume chicken broth again for a day and see how that goes down...

[Khainag]

How to Enjoy Bacon without a Gallbladder | Paleo Parents

[Khainag]

Just was reading this: How To Gain Weight Eating Primal | Mark's Daily Apple

And did a FitDay analysis. I think I haven't been eating enough! I'm definitely scared to eat when having these digestion issues, but I think I do also have some problems with not eating enough, getting hungry and starting to eat sugar and crap.

Last night had pretty nasty acid reflux, I suspect now because of some really bad post-nasal drip. Chicken broth cooled it down and I was able to sleep pretty well! Going for the Primal Blueprint Cookbook Bison Chili (one of our favorite recipes) with plenty of sour cream, and putting a Primal Pot Roast in soon! (all grass-fed ) I'm a bit afraid to eat salad as I seem to have some digestion issues with it, but would like to do that too later.