Meal Prep 2/13/17

Hello, and happy Monday! I'm FINALLY starting to feel back to normal after that no-joke bout of the flu. My appetite has been really off since I got sick two weeks ago. I had absolutely no appetite for a few days there, and then even when my appetite did come back, it was difficult to find foods that actually sounded good. I threw caution to the winds and ate broth cooked rice as one of my first foods after I got back on my feet, and fortunately, it didn't seem to affect me negatively. I'm still evaluating the big picture of histamine though, because even though I've been following a LH diet for 3-4 weeks now, I've been sick for half of it! One of the only other things that has sounded good to me is almond butter and apples, so I've been eating plenty of both. Sometimes you just have to make it work! Speaking of apples, they used to be totally off limits due to their high FODMAP content. (Bloat city!) I'm thrilled that I've been tolerating them better, and have added some other higher FODMAP foods into my meals this week too! Fingers crossed that I do as well with them. I've had issues with FODMAPs for over two years now, so any progress is hugely encouraging.

Breakfast: Protein Shake // 1 scoop Vanilla Build protein by PureWOD mixed with homemade almond milk frozen into ice cubes, 1 tsp Bulletproof Brain Octane, and 1 cup frozen blueberries, cherries, or peaches. 

Lunch: Ginger Cilantro Chicken Meatballs with Roasted Sweet Potato and Shredded Radish // These meatballs are pretty similar to what I made last week. 1# chicken, about 2 cups of chopped green onions, 2 cups minced cilantro, 1/2 cup minced ginger, and 1 tsp salt. I mixed everything together, scooped them out using a 1 oz scoop onto a parchment lined baking sheet, and baked at 425 for 12 minutes. I source my meat from two places: US Wellness Meats or Da-Le Ranch at my local farmer's market. At the same time, I roasted two large sweet potatoes cut into cubes and some shredded radish. (I love shredded radish!! My favorite is with ghee, cinnamon, and salt, but this time I used garlic to keep it LH.) 

Dinner: Smoky Chicken Meatballs with Toasted Collards and Creamy Cauli Rice // All the meatballs this week, apparently! When I was doing my meat shopping last week all that sounded good was chicken, so that's what was in my freezer. I mixed 1# of meat with 1 tsp salt, a couple cups of chopped green onions, and about 1/4 tsp liquid smoke. Most smoked foods are off limits with LH (I miss bacon!), and truthfully I have no idea where liquid smoke would fall on the scale, but it's just water and smoke flavor, so I decided to give it a try. I also toasted up some collards using my recipe for Perfect Kale Chips and sautéed a bag of Trader Joe's riced cauliflower on the stovetop with some ghee and salt. I stirred in some creamed coconut at the end to make it extra delicious! 

Snacks: Artisana Coconut Butter // I'll also keep a Primal Kitchen Collagen Bar on hand just in case. These bars are overall pretty low in histamine, but I'll only be using them as a backup this week as I continue to test the absence of collagen/gelatin. 

Have a great week!

Meal Prep 1/30/17

This past week of my low-histamine trial was not quite as successful as the first week. I had a few more symptoms (the return of some faint abdominal pain and some sinus congestion), and I suspect that it might have been the carob, which I found conflicting opinions on. As such, this week I'm taking it back to the basics! 

Breakfast: Protein Shake // 1 scoop Vanilla Build protein by PureWOD mixed with Native Forest Simple Coconut Milk, Bulletproof Brain Octane, and 1 cup frozen blueberries, cherries, or peaches. This is a slight change from last week, because I'm leaving out my favorite collagen peptides to see if they also might have been a factor. Gelatin is generally regarded as safe on a low-histamine diet, but some people do react to it. Since I use it almost daily, I decided I should try leaving it out and see if it makes a difference.

Lunch: Ginger Scallion Chicken Meatballs with Bok Choy, Zucchini, and Roasted Roots // Meatballs are so convenient because they cook up in a flash! To make these, I started with 1# of ground chicken from US Wellness Meats, added in about a cup of chopped green onions, 1 tsp salt, and 1/4 cup of chopped fresh ginger. I used my 1 ounce cookie scoop to make meatballs and baked on parchment paper at 425 for 12 minutes. At the same time, I sautéed about 1# of bok choy on the stovetop with more scallions and ginger, and also roasted about 1.5# of zucchini (in ghee) alongside the meatballs. When all of that was done, I portioned it out into single serving containers and immediately chilled before transferring to the freezer. Next up: the roots! I sliced about 2# each of carrots and parsnips into coins, tossed with a generous amount of ghee and salt, and roasted until golden at 400, then added them to my pyrex containers and froze. (I like these containers the most because they work perfectly with my Hot Logic Mini!)

Dinner: Sweet Potato Soup with Pumpkin Seeds // I basically made up this soup recipe on the fly. I started with about 2 cups each of carrot, celery, and onion, and sautéed those until soft in some ghee. At the same time, I peeled and chopped up two large sweet potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes and roasted them at 425 until tender and golden. (I roasted them for the depth of flavor, but you could also just throw them into the pot with everything else.) I added about 1# of chopped organic yellow squash and a can of full fat additive free coconut milk, then let everything simmer until soft before blending until smooth! Normally I would add two scoops of Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides as the protein, but since I'm testing a week without it, I'm using pumpkin seeds. It's a lower protein meal than I'm used to, but the fat should keep me satiated!

Snacks: Artisana Coconut Butter // I'll also keep a Primal Kitchen Macadamia Nut Sea Salt bar (definitely my favorite of the four flavors!!) on hand just in case. These bars are overall pretty low in histamine, but I'll only be using them as a backup this week as I test the absence of collagen/gelatin. 

Here's to another week of learning which foods work for me. This process takes planning and patience, but it's so worth it!!

Daily Routines: Morning

I've always been a morning person. There's just something about the freshness of a new day that I love! I tend to naturally wake up around 5:30 these days, though in the past I have had my fair share of 4am wake up calls in order to get to work by 6:30am. I have also always been a very organized and regimented person, so I often get questions about what my morning and evening routines look like. Truthfully, a smooth morning comes from preparing well the night before, but we'll get to that in my Evening post. 

Here's how I start my days, at least during the workweek! The time schedule might vary a little, but the routine is the same.

5-5:30am: Wake naturally without an alarm.

5:35am: Take temperature as part of FAM (fertility awareness method) and to track thyroid health + take thyroid supplement.

5:40-5:55am: Measure heart rate variability, decide which workout to do (based on HRV), get dressed. (Note: I have a loose plan for my workouts at the beginning of my week, but will modify if needed based on HRV. I use the Polar H7 with two apps, Elite HRV and HRV4Training, and I love it! It's been neat to see how my body is physiologically responding to my exercise and lifestyle changes.)

5:55am: Drink Rootz pre-workout or about 4-8 oz of coldbrew coffee (lately from Superfood Coffee Co) and head to the gym.

6-7am: Workout! I rotate between Kayla Itsines workouts, Metabolic Prime workouts, walking with sprints, or most recently, a class at the YMCA (bodypump, some kind of dance cardio, strength, yoga, etc.). I always spend at least 10 minutes stretching before heading home. I love staring my day with a workout, and don't like to feel rushed!

7-7:05am: Bounce on the janky hand-me-down rebounder in my garage for a few minutes to get that lymph flowing!

7:05am: Take 5gm L-Glutamine (Thorne is top quality! This bottle lasts me for about a month.) in water with 2 MegaSporebiotic capsules (These have really been making a difference for me and are only available through practitioners. Let me know if you want to try them out for yourself!) and 25 bil cultures of probiotic from Custom Probiotics.

7:10am: Dry brush (more lymphatic support), shower, get dressed for work. I use lots of essential oils throughout my day, and they are part of my daily getting ready routine. On my abdomen I use lavender, lemongrass, and marjoram to help with digestive health/abdominal pain, and on my feet I use myrrh, sandalwood, and frankincense to support thyroid health, nerve health, and reduce inflammation. Sometime I put on a podcast (see below for favorites), music, or Gilmore Girls while I'm getting ready, but I also enjoy a quiet morning before the busyness of the day sets in. My hair/makeup routine is minimal, so getting ready doesn't take me too long. (Hallelujah for the top knot, my style of choice 99 days out of 100. Someday I'll get better about styling my hair, but now is not that time.) 

7:45-8am: Eat something. It depends on what workout I did, but I might have a couple of eggs, go ahead and have my shake, or have some BCAA's with MCT oil and save my shake for when I get into work. Regardless, if I eat, I always make sure that I'm sitting and not feeling rushed. If I'm short on time, I wait to eat until I get to work so that I'm not eating in a stressed state, which makes a HUGE difference for me in my digestion/bloating.

8-8:20am: Grab my lunch bag and head to work! My start time varies depending on the day, so depending on how much time I have, I might respond to a few emails, catch up on Instagram comments, read for a few minutes, etc. I almost always listen to a podcast on my drive (about 25 minutes), and I listen to it at 1.5x speed so I can pack in even more information! Some of my favorites are High Intensity Health, The Keto Diet Podcast, The Nourished Podcast, Bulletproof Radio, Fat-Burning Man, The Paleo View, Revolution Health Radio, The Ben Greenfield Podcast, and most recently, The Happier Podcast. See why I have to listen to them at 1.5x speed?? There are so many good ones!! 

That's my morning, in a nutshell! A few things I do to keep things snappy and organized: I get out all my clothes beforehand (more on this in the Evening post). I always put my things in the same place. My Polar heart rate monitor goes on the bathroom counter, as does my thyroid medication. My essential oils are there too. The thermometer lives on my nightstand. I have the same 8 or so outfits that I rotate through every two weeks for work, so those all stay on the left side of my closet, ready to go. I have my breakfast supplies all portioned out and ready to go, same with my supplements. You get the idea. I thrive on structure!

How do you do mornings? Do you have any routines in place to make them go more smoothly? I'm always open to trying something new! 

Macadamia White Chocolate Truffles (Low-Histamine, Low-FODMAP)

If you've been following me for any time at all, you know that I LOVE chocolate. My usual go-to is a hearty chunk of Eating Evolved Signature Dark bar. Unfortunately, cocoa powder is a no-go on a low-histamine diet. From my research, it is on the lower end of the spectrum of histamine containing foods, but for these first few weeks I am avoiding all foods that contain a noted amount. The good news is, cacao butter isn't on that list! Macadamia nuts are also on the "low-histamine" list, so I decided to get creative in the kitchen and come up with a fun sweet treat that I could enjoy. What I ended up with is a batch of macadamia nut butter "cookie dough" and some makeshift white chocolate. I originally intended to chop up the white chocolate and mix it in with the dough, but ended up making some "truffles" out of it instead!

Macadamia Nut Cookie Dough:

• 1 cup raw macadamia nuts

• 2 tbsp brown butter (or sub coconut oil)

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 1-2 tbsp pure maple syrup

• 1-2 tbsp coconut flour

• 1/4 tsp salt

1. Blend all ingredients except the coconut flour in a food processor until a smooth paste forms.

2. Add 1 tbsp of the coconut flour and process until combined. If the mixture still seems thin, add the second tbsp of coconut flour. 

3. Scoop into balls using two spoons or a cookie scoop onto a parchment lined plate and place in fridge to set. 

White Chocolate:

• 1 oz cacao butter

• 1 oz coconut butter (Artisana is by far my favorite brand!)

• sweetener to taste (I used 1/2 tbsp maple syrup and 1/2 tbsp coconut sugar)

1. Place all ingredients in a small saucepan over low heat and stir until melted and well combined.

2. Transfer to small molds or a glass dish to later cut into chips.

To make the truffles, I put about 1/2 tsp of the white chocolate in the bottom of a silicone mold, a added a small ball of the macadamia dough, and topped it off with another 1/2 tsp of the white chocolate! 

Store any leftovers in the freezer. Enjoy!

Meal Prep 1/23/17: Low Histamine Continued

Last week's low histamine trial required some adjusting to my usual meal prep routines, but all in all, I made it work without much trouble! I was fighting off a bit of a cold early in the week, so it's hard to say with confidence if I noticed a difference in any symptoms, but I do think it was beneficial (with the most notable change being an increase in focus and a decrease in abdominal pain). The most difficult thing so far has been missing having an acid of some kind (vinegar/lemon) and a daily piece of Eating Evolved (use code "traceygtmt" for TWO free bars with your order through the end of this month!!), but I've found that an extra pinch of salt fixes the lack of vinegar in salad dressings and carob and coconut butter makes a good substitute for chocolate! 

Here's my meal plan for this week:

Breakfast: Protein Shake // 1 scoop Vanilla Build protein by PureWOD and 1 scoop Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides, mixed with Native Forest Simple Coconut Milk, Bulletproof Brain Octane, and 1 cup frozen blueberries, cherries, or peaches. 

Lunch: Lamb Skillet with Sweet Potatoes and Chard // The basic ingredients in this meal are very similar to my lunches last week (which turned out amazing, by the way), but I'm mixing up the spices and veggies for variety. I'm trying to cook use the meats I have in my freezer, hence lamb on back to back weeks! (As always, I purchased my lamb in my bulk order from US Wellness Meats.) For this one, all I did was caramelize an onion in my Le'Creuset, then add the lamb and cook until done. After that I tossed in the chopped chard and covered the pot until the greens were wilted. At the same time, I roasted the chopped up sweet potato in the oven until tender and starting to brown, portioned everything out, chilled for 15 minutes, then froze.

Dinner: Green Soup with Simple Chicken // Loosely based on this recipe, I modified my version to make it more histamine friendly by leaving out the sherry, cayenne, and lemon and replacing the broth with water. I also used a sweet potato in place of the Yukon gold. I cooked the chicken separately and froze it immediately after portioning into jars. 

Snacks: Boiled Eggs + Carob Coconut Butter Bites // The carob bites are my current substitute for chocolate. I have found conflicting information on the histamine content of carob, so I'm being cautious, but sure am enjoying the chocolate-like flavor! All I did to make them was mix up 1/2 cup coconut butter with 1/4 cup carob powder until smooth, then portion into a silicone mold to set. 

Have a great week!