The Incredible Shrinking Woman July 4, 2008

I stepped on the scale this morning and was very pleased to see this number: 142!

This means I’ve lost 12 pounds in just under a month. Which means I am losing at a rate of 3 pounds per week. Not bad!

It’s all due to my hunger scale method. I tried high-fat low-carb back in December/January but the most I lost was 7 pounds. I stalled out at around 150 and could not go any lower.

Now I’ve lost a total of 15 pounds. And the pounds are just falling off using this hunger scale method.

The other thing I am doing is visualizing. I visualize looking down at the scale and seeing the number I want.

If I keep this up, I’ll be back to my pre-baby weight within 5-6 weeks.

Of course, Nancy said that as soon as you lose the weight, you’ll get pregnant again. LOL! I hope not. I want to be slim for a little while before I’m ready to have another little one. I think we’ll try to conceive again next spring.

At least I know how to lose the weight now — after the next baby.

Hooray!

You can read my whole weight loss journey here.

Weight and Temperature Update June 22, 2008

I’ve got exciting news.

I weighed myself this morning and guess what – I’ve lost a total of 9 pounds. I’m down to 145 now. This is a new low. Still 15-20 pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight, but still! I’m happy! I had been stuck at 149 for months. I’ve lost 4 pounds just in the past two weeks.

The other good news is my temperature is steadily going up. Seth’s is, too. I didn’t get to take my temperature all last week since I was out of town, but for the past four days it has been over 98. Today I had a record high: 98.3!

Seth has also lost weight — he has lost 5 pounds in the past three weeks.

I’m sure it helps that we are taking the Iodoral and our temperatures are raising (hence, our metabolism is speeding up). But I think the bigger thing is that I’ve been eating less and he’s been doing an exercise boot camp five times a week. I’m so excited now, and I have so much more energy, that I’m ready to start getting back to exercising. I just couldn’t hack it before — I had no energy. But I’m ready now!

What’s my secret for eating less? I only eat when I’m hungry. I’m eating nutrient dense foods — just less of them.

I’ve used this technique before and it is the only thing that has ever worked for me. I’m normally naturally slim and never gain weight — but twice in my life (now three times) I gained extra weight and this was the only thing that worked.

What you do is you go by a scale in your mind of 0-5. Zero is not hungry at all and five is so famished you could faint.

You are only allowed to eat when you are a 3 or 4.

If you’re a 0 or 1, you don’t eat.

If you’re a 2, you have a teaspoon or two of peanut butter or a small piece of fruit or a handful of nuts or a small piece of cheese. That satisfies the craving and keeps you going for another hour or two — until you truly are hungry.

If you’re a 3 or 4, you eat.

You don’t let yourself get to a 5 (because that’s when you binge).

The only other rule is to eat as slowly as possible and enjoy and savor your food. You are only allowed to eat when you are hungry. This means, you have to eat slowly and not let yourself get full. If you think you’re starting to get full, stop and take a break. 90% of the time, you don’t go back and take another bite.

You are allowed (even encouraged) to eat whatever you want. The idea is not to deprive yourself — so you don’t feel the need to obsess about food or binge.

It really works. And you know — I’ve noticed that I’m almost never hungry in the morning. So I’ll have a little Dandy Blend with raw milk and that keeps me going until lunchtime.

The last time I did this, it was just after my divorce. I had gained 25 extra pounds. I used this method and I dropped the weight effortlessly in about three months — with no exercise.

I think the reason I was overeating was twofold: (1) I had gotten used to eating more when I was pregnant and nursing and (2) I was trying to rebuild my nutritional stores for the next baby.

I’ve decided to just try to eat more organ meats (liver, heart, kidney, etc.), as well as butter and cream. And lots of seafood! That should help to rebuild my nutritional stores — and I don’t have to eat as much. You’re going to see a lot more recipes for offal on this blog!

I’ll keep you posted on our progress.

GAPS Diet: Day 14 May 10, 2008

Just got back from the farmer’s market.

Here are the meals I’m going to make this week (not in any particular order, although I know we are doing ribs tonight and brisket tomorrow night):

BBQ Pork Spare Ribs with Beet Greens sauteed in chicken fat, tomato and cucumber salad — and broth
Brisket with Sauerkraut and some vegetables (not sure what yet), and Carrot Ginger Soup
Roast Chicken, salad, broth or soup
Bratwurst with Sauerkraut and a green salad — and broth
Miso Soup, Seaweed Salad and Sashimi
Ribeye Steak, Salad, and maybe I’ll try to make Onion Soup (sans cheese and bread, of course)
Chicken Cacciatore with an arugula and fennel salad and soup

Both the brisket and the chicken will provide leftovers which I will use for lunches. I also got 5 dozen eggs. Jungleen asked me, “Do you really go through that many eggs in one week?” Yes, we really do. Seth usually eats 4 eggs for breakfast, and Kate and I split 4 eggs. That’s 8 eggs per day right there. And we eat eggs every morning so that’s 56 eggs. Plus we use eggs to make the coconut oil mayonnaise (which we eat almost every day for lunch — either chicken salad, tuna salad or egg salad — oops more eggs for the egg salad).

And I often make smoothies with 2 egg yolks for lunch. That’s actually one of my favorite lunches. Two raw egg yolks, some strawberries or blueberries, 2-3 TBS of coconut oil, 1 TBS of Frontier brand nutritional yeast, and either kefir or coconut milk, and sweetened with a TBS or two of raw honey. (I am still doing kefir. That is the only dairy I still eat. I don’t have any problems with dairy like Seth does and Dr. Cowan said if you can tolerate kefir, you can eat it from the beginning.)

I need to check the papers from Dr. Cowan to see when we can start eating beans. I’d love to have some lentil soup. Or make black beans and taco meat.

But I don’t want to start introducing anything new until I’m sure Seth’s gut pain is totally gone and he’s not having any constipation or diarrhea.

I’m also really excited to start making my own ketchup. Seth loves ketchup and eats a lot of it. It will be great to have real lacto-fermented ketchup. Same thing with salsa. I’m going to stake my tomatoes today. We should have tomatoes in another month to 6 weeks.

It’s a perfect day to garden. Nice and cool outside.

I have some potatoes we never gotten around to eating that started sprouting… Cute little purple ones. I think I’m going to throw those into a big container I have (used to have a palm in it but it died). We’ll see if they grow. We can eat potatoes right now but maybe by the time these come up we will be able to.

Oh, PS: I’ve lost somewhere between 6 and 7 pounds now. (Sometimes the scale says 148, sometimes 147.) Yes, it’s true, I may have lost weight because we are eating so low-carb. But I was on a low-carb diet for a few months starting in December and I couldn’t lose past a certain point. I really think the Iodoral is what’s helping. Anyway, we’ll see how next week goes.

I also bought a Lumiscope thermometer — the kind Dr. Rind recommends on his website — from Drugstore.com. It was only $6. He says it’s the most accurate. I’m going to start charting my temperature every few hours like he recommends.

Iodine Update May 7, 2008

I’ve been taking Iodoral for two and a half weeks now.

My resting temperature (taken first thing in the morning) used to range between 97.5 to 98.0.

Now it has stabilized at 98.6. It has been 98.6 every morning for four or five days.

And I lost 5 pounds. I was back up to 154 and am down to 149 now.

I suppose this could be the GAPS diet, too. But I think it is my thyroid. If your temperature does not get high enough, your metabolism is too slow and you can’t burn the calories.

I have a lot more energy. I can go all day now — gardening, running errands, working, whatever — instead of feeling like I need to rest on the couch.

The tingling/numbness in my hands/fingers is almost completely gone.

I am taking 50 mg of Iodoral each day (I will reduce this to 12.5 after a month or two).

I am also taking the following Standard Process products (3-4 tablets of each daily):

Catalyn (3 per day)
Cataplex F (3)
Thytrophin PMG (3)
Immunoplex (2)
Adrenal Gland (1-2)

I am taking 1 New Chapter whole food selenium tablet (to help with the iodine uptake). And 6 Solgar liver tablets. And 2 Biokult per day.

I may start taking a zinc supplement since I am reading a lot about high copper causing melasma. If my melasma doesn’t start to clear up, I will start taking zinc.

Thyroid Recovery March 15, 2008

I’ve been thinking about this hypothyroid situation. Seth asked me today, “Why are you having a problem with your thyroid if you’ve been eating so healthy the past few months?”

Good question. I have an answer.

It’s due to the fact that I carried a baby for 9 months, then nursed her for 9 months. That’s 18 months of intense stress on my body.

I only started eating well (traditional foods) 5 months ago. However, I didn’t eat too bad before I got into traditional foods.

Ever since I cured myself of candida almost 15 years ago, I haven’t eaten much sugar at all. And I rarely ate fast food.

And I’ve been eating sprouted bread (Alvarado St. Bakery) most of the time since I was like 20 years old. I always liked the taste better than white bread.

I’ve also never been big on the whole low-fat diet thing. I’ve always eaten real butter and lots of cheese and meat and eggs. No margarine or low-fat cheese. And I always ate the skin on my chicken and ate full-fat meats.

This is probably why I was in relatively good health when Kate was conceived. I think the people who have a harder time are the ones who either eat lots of junk food and/or low-fat and/or are vegetarians — especially vegans.

And when I was carrying Kate, I ate a lot. I didn’t know about WAPF, so I ate stuff like donuts and burritos and cheeseburgers. But I was also eating a lot of things like eggs and steak and butter and drinking a lot of whole organic milk.

I ate this way when I was nursing, too. In fact, I think I ate even better after she was born (since I wasn’t suffering from morning sickness or heartburn). Every day, I would drink lots of milk and eat ice cream and every night I’d make a big dinner consisting of chicken or beef or fish, often with brown rice and butter and a big salad with oil and vinegar.

My health was fine until after I stopped nursing — in December. That was when I stopped eating well. I wanted to lose weight so I cut out grains and ate very low-carb. Not only that, but I really cut down on calories. I have only been eating one meal a day for the past few months.

Which may be fine under normal circumstances (before I got pregnant, I used to only eat one meal a day) but I think my body is run down now. I still need to rebuild my nutritional stores. Even though I am longer breastfeeding, I still need to eat a very nutrient dense diet — to rebuild what was depleted during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

Pregnancy and nursing take a huge toll on our bodies. It’s no wonder that we are nutritionally deficient after pregnancy and childbirth and extended breastfeeding.

So… here’s what I think… in addition to the supplements I’m taking (the ones Dr. Cowan recommends, which I started on yesterday), I need to eat more, and more nutrient dense foods. I’m going to try to go back to 2-3 meals a day.

The problem is — maybe it’s the thyroid thing — but I’m just not very hungry. I will have to eat smaller meals and eat more often during the day.

Today I actually felt a lot better. I had two meals. For breakfast, we went to Dinah’s Fried Chicken. I know, restaurant food. Not optimal. But at least I was eating!

I ordered 3 eggs over easy and hash browns and I asked them to cook them in butter, not oil. With that I had 1.5 pieces of fried chicken (I know, not ideal — but it’s Dinah’s; I could not resist) and some fresh fruit. No white flour — so that was good.

I had a glass of kefir in the afternoon. For dinner, I made seared ahi tuna on a bed of steamed spinach with rice wine vinegar, with a salad of apples and pears with “crispy walnuts” dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. And brown rice that I made with chicken broth instead of water.

I’ll drink a big glass (10-12 ounces) of raw milk or kefir before bed.

I’m going to start eating something every morning — either toasted sprouted bread with butter and raw honey or eggs and cheese… or oatmeal with butter and raw whole milk.

I’m not a big lunch person but I’ll try to snack during the day with kefir or cheese or eggs. I’ll try to eat at least two eggs a day.

I’ll make a nice big dinner every night. Meat lasagna or steak or fish with salad or homemade soup. And potatoes or rice.

And I’m going to drink a lot more raw milk. I think I will make some raw milk ice cream tomorrow and try to eat that every night for dessert.

And I’m going to try to incorporate broth into as many soups and sauces as possible.

I’m going to hold off on doing the GAPS diet with Seth. Right now I need to focus on getting myself healthy. I don’t want to limit dairy or other foods for now.

And I’m going to be better about taking my cod liver oil. I’ve been lax lately. And incorporate more coconut oil.

Yeah, it may take me a while to lose the baby weight. But right now I need to focus on getting healthy. I don’t think my thyroid condition is going to improve until I build up my nutritional stores. And I need to be really healthy so before can even think about trying to conceive again.

My friend Marcia said she didn’t lose the baby weight until 4 years after she gave birth. I think sometimes your body hangs on to the weight because it needs to. And trying to diet too soon is risky.

The thing is, if your thyroid is screwed up due to nutritional deficiencies, you can’t lose weight anyway, not matter how much you try.

I didn’t realize how hard it is on your body to be pregnant and carry a child. Add nursing on top of that and it’s a huge undertaking. It’s like running a marathon — for over a year!

Greasy Hair and Clogged Caps: Living the Artful Life February 10, 2008

I realized something when I was in the shower yesterday.

Even the Dr. Bronner’s bottle of castille soap says that if it clogs (and it does, frequently), you should stick something sharp in there to unclog it.

Raw milk separates, castille soap clogs, every batch of kombucha tastes different. But I’d rather drink wine than Diet Coke, rather eat homegrown vegetables than Pringles potato chips that all come out shaped exactly the same — and all taste the same because they all have the exact same mix of chemicals.

Living an artisanal slow life is not about being perfect. It’s about eating well. It’s about enjoying life.

Here’s the definition of artisan in the dictionary:

ar·ti·san \ˈär-tə-zən, -sən, chiefly British ˌär-tə-ˈzan\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French, from northern Italian dialect form of Tuscan artigiano, from arte art, from Latin art-, ars
Date: 1538

1 : a worker who practices a trade or handicraft : craftsperson 2 : one that produces something (as cheese or wine) in limited quantities often using traditional methods

The word artisan comes from art. Not science. While it’s fun to try to figure out why things work, if I had to choose, I would always opt for an artful life over a scientific one.

Meanwhile, my hair looks and feels fabulous today. I washed with the Terressentials plain clay wash yesterday. No grease whatsoever. (And thanks, Rachel for commenting about your hair. I’m going to try your homemade clay mixture.)

As far as my weight loss, thanks, everyone for reminding me that I have a lot to be grateful for. It takes a body a while to readjust after having a baby. I’m going to do what a couple of you suggested and start trying to get more exercise in every day. Won’t be hard, considering I have a lot of gardening to do. The weight will come off when it’s ready.

I’m going to go plan my garden now!

Flunking Out of Hippie University February 9, 2008

I’m a failure.

I gunked up the homemade dish washing liquid, my hair is a greasy mess, and I’ve been stuck at a plateau of 149 pounds for 2 weeks now.

To be fair, my hair got greasy because I used that stupid Terressentials body wash. They say in their instructions that you can use the body wash on your hair to speed up the detox. I was suspicious, because the body wash contains castille. My experience with castille soap on my hair is unadulterated grease. I suppose this could be part of the speeding up of the detox. I don’t think so, though. I think they are wrong about this castille soap.

Regardless, today I’m going to wash my hair with plain bentonite clay (I bought it from Mountain Rose Herbs).

I don’t know why I’m not losing weight. I’ve tried reducing the calories and increasing the calories. I haven’t cheated. So last night I was tired and didn’t feel like cooking. So I ordered a pizza. I haven’t eaten pizza in months.

It wasn’t really worth it. Most takeout pizza in Los Angeles tastes like crap. I only like homemade pizza. But whatever — I was tired.

I found a recipe for homemade pizza with sprouted flour and real sourdough. That should be really good. We’ll try that one day soon.

I may just give up on the weight thing for a while. We’ll see how it goes this week. If I drop another pound, I’ll keep going but if not, I’m going to pack it in. At least for a while. I’ve got enough going on what with working half-time and taking care of Kate and trying to cook healthy and I’ve got to get my garden going.

We are planning to have another baby in the next year or two anyway. Maybe I should just stay fat since I’m going to gain weight again anyway.

Alla says I’m not fat. She says I look normal and healthy. She says, in her Russian accent, “I don’t like skinny women.”

Weight Update January 24, 2008

I’ve been waiting to say anything about my weight until I could report more progress. Every day I step on the scale (okay, I’ll admit it, it’s several times a day) and sometimes I see a change, most times I don’t.

But I’m happy to tell you that I have lost two more pounds! I am now at a steady 148.

Down from 157 when I started dieting on December 18th.

I’m still using FitDay to track my carbs and protein and fat each day. I’m averaging around 10% carbs, 20% protein, 60% fat, and 10% alcohol (I normally have 2 glasses of wine in the evening).

I’d like to get a little more fat in my diet but it’s not so easy. We are so trained to eat low-fat! I’d like to bump it up to 65-75% fat. I’m trying to increase my consumption of coconut oil — I think that will make a big difference.

Weight Update January 13, 2008

Well I just weighed myself and I’m down to 150.

That’s down from 157 when I started this high-fat low-carb diet plan, just under a month ago on December 18.

Not bad!

I haven’t been hungry at all and haven’t had any cravings for refined sugar or starches. I think it’s due to the fact that I am eating a high percentage of fat (mostly saturated) and am consuming lots of fermented foods.

I think the probiotics help quell the cravings. It’s the yeast overgrowth in your gut that CRAVES flour, starches, and sugar. Oh, and parasites crave those things, too. (Ugh, I’ve been reading about them lately after I watched Dr. Oz talking about them on Oprah. Disgusting! Did I mention that I’m going to do a parasite cleanse?)

Anyway, I think this is one of the reasons most Americans can’t lose weight. Most of us have an overgrowth of yeast in our gut because we don’t have enough good bacteria. And we keep feeding the yeast with sugar and white flour.

We can’t help it — white sugar (and high fructose corn syrup) and flour is in everything! Pizza, pasta, bread, burritos, hamburgers, sodas, Chinese food, anything fried… it’s in almost everything we eat! And the more we eat, the more it feeds the yeast. The more yeast, the harder it is for our good bacteria to stay alive.

And we’re also unintentionally doing all kinds of things to kill off our good bacteria: taking antibiotics, taking birth control pills, drinking chlorinated water, etc.

I think this is also why kids crave sugar and carbs. They are like hard-core addicts demanding their Mac & Cheese and chicken nuggets and candy and pancakes and white bread. It’s because they have huge communities of yeast in their guts screaming “FEED ME, SEYMOUR!”

What’s the solution? Fermented foods. Kombucha, kefir, sauerkraut, homemade sourdough bread, beet kvass, yogurt, creme fraiche, cultured raw butter, homemade mayonnaise (made with whey).

Pick your poison — better yet, eat a variety of these things every day. In order to beat the yeast, the good bacteria in your gut needs to colonize. The more varieties of strains you have, the better.

Weight Update January 4, 2008

It’s been two weeks since I started my high-fat low-carb diet.

I’ve lost 5 pounds.

Although we can’t really count the week and a half of Christmas/New Years because I wasn’t really following my diet exactly. We ate more grains than usual and had figgy pudding and some Christmas cookies and the like.

I still lost 5 pounds.

Not bad, eh?

I’m back on this week — keeping my carbs down to 10-15% and trying to keep my fat consumption up to 65-75% (not so easy!).

I’ll post another update next week.

High-fat, Low-carb December 22, 2007

OK let me first post a disclaimer: Our scale is not the most reliable. I don’t trust it. That said, I am going to weigh myself at the gym today and see what it says.

Now, let’s go on to my news.

I just weighed myself and it looks like I lost 6 pounds since Tuesday.

All I can say is holy moley, maybe this high-fat low-carb thing really does work!

I posted a while back about how Seth lost 7 pounds. We were following the Eat Fat Lose Fat program. However, we slacked off of it due to a number of reasons:

(1) One day we ate too much coconut oil (we were trying to ramp up quickly to 3.5 TBS per day) and both felt nauseous and had diarrhea. (This happens. Most of us are used to eating a low-fat diet, so it’s important to ramp up slowly. See the top question on this FAQ.)

(2) Seth kept badgering me about how this diet could possibly healthy (he hasn’t read the book). Kept worrying that he would gain weight.

(3) We were eating too many grains and not enough fat. I didn’t realize this until I started using this online tool that keeps track of everything you eat. It charts everything on a pie graph so you can see the percentages of carbs, fat, and protein you are eating every day.

So for the past 4 days, I entered everything into FitDay and tried to eat at least 50% fat and keep my carbs down to 10-15%. It is not the easiest thing to do. You have to eat lots of butter, coconut oil (I have taken to drinking at least one cup per day of herbal tea with a tablespoon of coconut oil), and olive oil.

I’ve also found that it is hard to include grains in your diet in order to make the numbers work. They are way too high in carbs.

I don’t mind not eating grains since we don’t eat that many of them anyway. They are hard to digest (unless they are soaked and/or sprouted). Plus, since Seth has been diagnosed with leaky gut, we are going off gluten until further notice.

So I’ve been making lots of salads with meat and cheese. I’ve been eating lots of eggs and dairy and meat and fish, lots of fresh organic (raw and cooked) vegetables. Lots of good fats. I still have my coffee (organic) with whole (raw) milk in the mornings, and a little stevia. And I have a glass of wine or two in the evening.

I’m excited. We are leaving now for swimming class. I will let you know what the scale says at the gym. (If it says any different, I’m throwing our scale in the garbage.)

UPDATE: I weighed myself at the gym. The scale there said the same thing. So I lost 6 pounds!

UPDATE 2: I was wrong… it was only 4 pounds. I had my starting weight wrong! Still, 4 pounds in 4 days is a lot!

Eat Fat, Lose Fat November 19, 2007

This diet we are on is working.

Seth weighed himself this morning — first time in a month or two (which is how long we've been on the diet). He lost 7 pounds! He hasn't been working out or anything.

And we haven't actually been following the diet plan in “Eat Fat, Lose Fat”. I kept saying we would get around to following it strictly, but then I kept being busy with lots of other things so I couldn't put a meal plan together.

Here's what we have been consuming a lot of:

Raw milk
Raw butter
Raw milk cheese
Pastured eggs
Whole grain sprouted bread (Eziekel brand, available at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods)
Whole grain rye bread (Mestemacher German bread)
Whole grain crackers (Wasa and Finn Crisp)
Organic free-range chicken and turkey
Organic grass-fed beef and bison
Organic antibiotic- and hormone-free pork sausage and bacon
Wild-caught fish (mostly salmon, mahi mahi and tuna — you want wild, not farm-raised)
Lots of organic fruits and vegetables (we have a salad nearly every evening)
Brown or white rice
Oatmeal (unprocessed rolled oats, soaked to improve digestion)
Coconut oil and butter for cooking
Olive oil and apple cider vinegar for salad dressing
Kombucha
Kefir
Chicken stock (homemade, organic)
Some nuts and popcorn (popped in coconut oil and served with melted butter and sea salt)
Sea salt
Organic coffee
Coconut milk in smoothies and sauces and curries
Coconut juice
Filtered water
Sparkling water
The only sweeteners we use are stevia, rapadura, and raw honey
Wine — I try to get organic (Seth still drinks a cocktail in the evening — usually Scotch or Bourbon)

What we have been avoiding:

Processed foods
Fast foods
Restaurant foods (very little compared to what we used to eat)
White sugar or anything made with it
White flour or anything made with it
Vegetable oil, canola, shortening, etc.
Industrial corn
Soy
Aspartame or other laboratory sweeteners
Sodas
Juices (unless I squeeze it fresh)
Tap water
Things with MSG or other “mystery” ingredients
I don't buy anything in a box or package unless it has VERY FEW ingredients (under ten) and I can pronounce them all and know what they are
I don't buy anything that is advertised on television

We have not been perfect. We had In & Out one night because we were too tired to cook. Seth eats out more than I do. But he is still losing weight.

A typical day goes like this:

Breakfast is coffee AND strawberry smoothie (raw milk or kefir, organic bananas, organic strawberries, egg yolks, stevia) OR eggs/bacon/toast OR oatmeal with raisins OR toast and homemade cream cheese

Lunch is usually an apple and some cheese and crackers/bread OR a salad OR grilled cheese sandwich OR the like. If we are in meetings, we eat out.

Dinner is wine (or Seth's cocktail) AND a big salad AND either fish or chicken or beef AND vegetables (butternut squash, artichoke, zucchini, what-have-you) AND/OR rice (usually only a couple of times a week)

I'll expand to other grains like amaranth and quinoa and whatnot eventually. Tonight we are eating bratwurst (hormone- and antibiotic-free shipped from Sweet Briar Farms) and homemade sauerkraut and maybe some potoates.

I have not lost any weight but I don't expect to. I think that as long as I'm nursing, I'll carry this extra 20 pounds. I've heard that happens to lots of women. I'm sure the weight will come off when Kate starts walking and I'm constantly running after her.

My teeth are really clean, too, now that I'm using this Tooth Soap. Seriously, when I'm done brushing (and I'm not spending any extra time — just doing it like I normally do), it feels like I just went to the dentist and had a professional cleaning. My teeth are SQUEAKY clean. They have never felt this way using toothpaste.

They are also not sensitive like they used to be. I used to have a dull pain most of time. It's gone. After only two weeks! I think the diet is helping this too. Especially the raw milk and cod liver oil. I seriously think something good is happening with my teeth.

I read that you can use Dr. Bronner's too. I read that Dr. Bronner's has a very small amount of glycerin (like 2-3%) so it should not inhibit remineralization of the teeth. Just squirt it on your toothbrush and use it in lieu of toothpaste.

Anyway, I like the way the Tooth Soap tastes so I'm going to keep using it. They are having a 25% off sale right now, too. (http://www.perfect-prescription.com/special.htm) Time to stock up!

Meanwhile I'm researching ways to filter our water to remove the fluoride. The more I read, the more I am convinced that fluoride CAUSES cavities. It's an aluminum waste product that they needed to get rid of. Why not put it in the drinking water and say it's good for you? They used to say cigarettes were good for you, too. And margarine. And vegetable oil.

OK I have to go now and get dinner and render the leaf lard which I keep saying every day that I am going to do and I still haven't done it. I have to make the pies on Tuesday!

Oops that is tomorrow. It MUST be done tonight! No more foolin' around.