What the Liver Wants, the Liver Gets

Since I have decided that I am not going to have HELLP syndrome, I have focused mainly on the dietary needs of my liver, red blood cells, and platelets.  My desire is to have each as strong as can be.  That way (at least in my mind- this is in no away medical advice) when my liver thinks, Hey, Blythe's pregnant! Time to go buck wild, and swell up to the size of a watermelon, it will be in peak condition.  I believe, as mentioned in my previous post, in a lot of mind of matter.  If you think all day about how you are going to get sick, you are probably going to get sick.  If you gear yourself up to be well, the power of positive thinking is strong.

I started by getting myself a notebook.  I love that school just started and I actually still find uses for marble bound notebooks.  *sigh*  I love school supplies.  Anywho, this notebook is the keeper of all things related to my second pregnancy.  I started with possibly my favorite thing in the world:  food.

I love food.  I would never quit eating if I did not have to.  As a pescetarian who likes to experiment with recipes, I am actually quite excited to have a challenge with what to eat a lot and what to avoid.  Does that make me a food nerd?  Whatever.  So I made a list of foods that make my liver (and yours, too!) happy.


Happy Liver Foods!
Garlic
Grapefruit
Beets
Leafy greens
Avocados
Cruciferous vegetables (like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and kale)
Lemons
Turmeric (Safe only after the first trimester and only as a spice!!!)
Walnuts
Endive
Bittergourd   Not safe when paired with hemolysis
Fenugreek  Not safe for pregnancy
Carrots
Flaxseed  Not safe for pregnancy
Onions
Apples

While these are not the only foods I can consume, they should be the rockstars of my diet.  Each detoxifies or simply gives my liver a break.  After I made the list, I cross checked each of the foods with pregnancy safety and how they interact with hemolysis and low platelet issues, hence the modifications.  Of course one blanket need for each and every food is that it be organic.  I don't necessarily preach the organic need in everyday life (though I do think it is a healthier way to go), it is necessary if you're going for complete liver health.  If it is not organic, your liver has to filter all the yuck that is leached into the produce.  No good.  The next logical step was to research foods my liver wanted me to avoid.

Ew, Yuck, said your liver
High Fructose Corn Syrup
Fructose
Processed food
Artificial Additives
Coloring
Preservatives
Refined sugar and sweeteners
Margarine, shortening, or commercial oils
MSG
Alcohol

Clearly, these are all to be generally avoided in life, but when pampering your liver, these are waaayy gross and uncalled for.  My heart dropped when I read the repetitive discouragement from refined sugar because that is definitely my weakness.  Cake. Candy.  Muffins.  Ice Cream.  Do I really have to say no to these for the next nine months?  Yes and no.  I can eat sweets (within moderation- or total crazy binge) that I make myself with raw cane sugar or a natural sweetener like honey or agave.  That is an awesome thing because, really, who wants to eat plain grapefruit without a little sugar on top?  Not I, said the fly.

taken from http://drlauraimola.wordpress.com

The last thing I will write for this post is that warm lemon water is awesome.  If you drink a large glass of warm lemon water in the morning when you first wake up, it will help your liver push out all the toxins it filtered in your body the night before.  Think of it as running an empty dishwasher once in a while.

That's it for now.  Happy Pregnancy and Happy Liver!

I got a fever... and the only prescription... is more cowbell.

Or more protein, as the case may be.  Yes, protein is even more essential than normal for a preggo diet, and even harder for me to come by since I'm a pescetarian who can only have seafood two days a week.

So what's a gal to do?  Well, for me, it omelets, omelets, and more omelets.  Not only does this help with protein, it gives me a chance to throw in some liver super foods like onions, garlic, and spinach and other vegetables.  They never get boring because I can always swap up the ingredients.  Some people warn against eating too many eggs because of the cholesterol, but when you are a vegetarian, barring any genetic contribution, cholesterol is not something you have to worry about much.  If cholesterol is something that you need to be concerned with, exclude the yolks and make egg white omelets!

Where do you get your protein??

This was my first omelet....I missed the shape a bit, and I forgot to shred the cheese before hand.  It made not be very pretty, but let me tell you, it really hit the spot.

 This is the same as the omelet above, but I made it prettier.  I sauteed garlic, onions, and red peppers in some Earth Balance Vegan Butter and add some thyme.  Then I add to a two egg omelet and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.  Yum!

This omelet has mushrooms swapped out for the red peppers.  So yummy, but I should have added some fresh diced tomatoes on top.  I think the more color the better, personally.

To tide you over

While I have been blogging a ton lately, not much has been publish because most of the posts are time sensitive.  For example, we have been working on a home remodel, and I don't want to reveal beginning pictures until we're ready with completed pictures.

That being said, get excited because cool stuff is coming.  And now some cuteness to tide you over until the other blogs are published.

This is how I realized we were in so. much. trouble. this summer.  Watch out, parents, I can I reach the fridge.  

Riding the carousel at the zoo on our Mama-Ezra outing. 

This kid loves a hat.  Eating DQ with PopPop.

"I'm not getting into mischief, Mama, honest."

Where has the money gone?!

Yesterday I spent yesterday going grocery shopping.  Weird, you say, grocery shopping doesn't take me  an entire day to do.  Well, it might if you had to drive 35 minutes to get to the Farmer's Market and Whole Foods, just to drive home and finish your shopping at Bi Lo.  The Farmer's Market is actually a pretty cool place to spend a Saturday morning.  There are so many crafts to see and organic, locally farmed food that is cheaper than grocery stores.

I have to admit that I am grateful for a reason to swap over to a GMO-free, more organically inclined lifestyle.  It is something I have thought about for a while but could not justify the extra money.  I wish I could go on and on about how I feel amazing and have all this energy that I didn't before, but the truth is with New Baby (NB) on the way, everyday I feel pretty much the same:  exhausted, hungry, and nauseous.  However, the good news is this:  Intellectually, I know why planning out a natural, organic diet is best for me and NB.  First off, I know that I need to keep as many toxins out of my body as possible so that my liver does not have to filter them because I am trying to keep my liver in tip top condition (Hopefully this will make it really hard to succumb to HELLP syndrome).  Secondly, you, quite literally, are what you eat.

However, I'm sure you've been wondering when I am going to start posting about the expense of eating organic,  That starts now.  HOLY COW.  It is so stinking expensive.

The hard part is that eating organic is truly a worthwhile venture.  The difference in my life due to eating organic food and/or food that does not have GMOs, artificial ingredients, or food coloring is unmistakable.  I have more energy and fewer routine illnesses.  I can count the number of headaches I have in a year on one hand.  My ADD is reined in.  My skin color even looks healthier.  Those are descriptions of my life personally.  Eating organic is also good for the environment and keeps all kinds of cancer causing toxins out of your body.

So how am I supposed to balance organic consumption with a pocketbook that is now going to be looking out for four human beings??

While there doesn't seem to be any such thing as bargain shopping at Earth Fare, I have come up with somewhat of a middle ground.  Below I have listed both the "Dirty Dozen" (which is actually 14 at this point) and the "Clean Fifteen."  As you might guess the "Dirty Dozen" is a list of foods that if you don't buy anything else organic, you should these, either due to the nature of the food or the accepted process of growing the conventional variety of these particular foods.  The "Clean Fifteen" are foods that are considered to be generally as good conventionally as they are organically, and my pocketbook approves of the conventional prices.

Dirty Dozen

• Apples
• Strawberries
• Grapes
• Celery
• Peaches
• Spinach
• Sweet Bell Peppers
• Nectarines
• Cucumbers
• Potatoes
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Hot Peppers
• Summer Squash
• Leafy Greens

Clean Fifteen

• Onion
• Sweet Corn
• Pineapple 
• Avocado
• Cabbage
• Sweet Peas
• Asparagus
• Mangoes
• Eggplant
• Kiwifruit
• Cantaloupe
• Sweet Potatoes
• Grapefruit
• Watermelons
• Mushrooms

Technically not in the "Clean Fifteen" but still fine to buy conventionally

• Smelly produce like garlic and shallots (thought shallots count as onions, don't they?)
• Cruciferous veggies (pests are warded off by the sulfurous smell)

The bad news is that with my liver healthy diet, I am supposed to eat a lot of berries and fruit on the dirty list.  I try to think about it in the way that if I would eat the skin of the fruit, it's generally a good idea to buy is organic.  That being said, of the clean food, onions, avocados, and grapefruit were on my list of liver super food.  So...whoop! whoop!  There's definitely some workability.  I think the skill is going to come in budgeting our meals by balancing the organic with conventional.  

What are your money saving tricks for your natural/ organic life style?