... but the last few days my knee has not popped, creaked, and groaned when I got out of bed. My shoulder joint, the one that pops out of socket easily if I move just right, or someone pulls on it a certain way (think giving me a hand up etc), has felt better than when I was lifting weights to strengthen the muscles. I'm not doing anything different right now except drinking homemade broth like it's tea. In fact I'm having a cup of hot beef bone broth right now, because I woke up cold, and feeling congested as hell. It's like a savory soup without the chunks in it.
My knee has crackled and popped, and so have both my ankles, for years now. I chalked it up to "getting old," but I'm only 34 (as of tomorrow). That's not old. So other than my being fat, I figured it was just the start of that slow decline. Well I have a feeling that won't be the case.
One of the things I do to keep motivated to eat healthy is read other people's blogs and websites about their healthy eating etc. One of my favs lately has been Food Renegade. The author is all about eating real food, not processed crap, and eating more primal. What does that mean? Well for one thing it means eating meats from happy grass fed animals, veggies, raw dairy, and some sprouted foods (it's healthier if it's sprouted first so we humans can actually get the nutrients). One of the things I read from her blog was all about bone broth recently. I've heard of it before, and I have always made homemade stock, but I've never had it on a daily basis. I use it in soups, to cook my risotto, or millet, and to make things like chili and stew. Reading the Food Renegade site lead me to a new book.
I've just finished reading Deep Nutrition by Dr. Catherine Shanahan, and it was very interesting. She goes into the ways good nutrition benefits our bodies, as well as just how nasty sugar and vegetable oils are for us. This book really packed in the info, and I loved it. The writing style is easy to read and really absorb, even when it goes into the science behind it all. One thing Dr. Shanahan promotes is eating the foods our great-great-grandparents ate regularly: meat off the bone, bone stocks, veggies, and raw dairy. Why? Because they have the real nutrients our bodies need to make everything work right.
I've read about this before in other books, from other websites promoting eating this way, and I started changing over a year ago. But until now I was not as motivated. I missed bread, and sweet treats. It was hard to avoid eating stuff that was crappy for my body when everyone around me was eating it. I watch my fiance eat candy, chips, and sandwiches (he does try to hide the fact so he's not blatantly eating it in front of me, but he's in the house, and I see the leavings. Think things like Subway sandwich wrappers and Taco Bell bags) and I would be tempted to eat shit like that. However, when I stuck to my guns, and went to the gym to lift weights, I started to slim down. It was slow still, but it was happening, and I was excited. Then I hit a plateau, got depressed, and figured it was just another failure on my part. So I started eating bread again. While not eating bread and wheat products, my mood is elevated, I don't get strong feelings of anxiety (especially around people), and my mind is clear and more focused. When I'm on wheat, I get depressed, fatigued, anxious, and just feel down right gross.
These last three weeks I've had to deliberately eat gluten so I can get tested for a gluten allergy or Celiac. After the first week I was sorta ok. The fatigue set in almost immediately, and right away my sleep was screwed up. I'd fall asleep, but I couldn't stay asleep, or I'd sleep but I'd still wake feeling like I hadn't slept a wink. Sure it was nice eating a real grilled tuna sandwich on wheat bread, or the homemade pizza, and I made homemade french bread to go with some soup one night. I bought a box of Cheeze-its (I've loved them since I was a kid), and thought things were ok. After that first week though I noticed I was craving the foods I was eating before. It wasn't that I wasn't allowing myself to eat them, it was just that I had to remember to eat foods normally off limits, and that would take the place of some of my regular foods. I wanted red meat, roasted broccoli, eggs (the eggs from my parent's chickens, not store bought eggs), brussels sprouts with bacon, onion, and lots of garlic, and soups with my homemade stock. Sure that homemade pizza was delicious, but it didn't satisfy me. I'd be hungry again an hour later.
The first week of my winter break from school, I finally had the time to get the ox tail out of the freezer from the half steer I bought from my parent's neighbor. The butcher guy that comes out in his nifty truck to slaughter and process the steers gave me the ox tail, heart, and tongue right away. The rest of the side of beef had to hang for a week or two to age the meat. So while I was still waiting for my beef to be cut and wrapped, I had this lovely ox tail to make stock. The only problem is that it takes 24 hours to simmer if you want all the great benefits of bone broth. While worrying about finals and writing final papers, I didn't have the time. Now I wish I had made the time, because this stuff seriously perked me up.
I simmered the meaty ox tail for a full day last week. Usually people braise ox tail and eat the really tasty meat on it, but after 24 hours the meat was pretty much stringy and flavorless. All that flavor had gone into the broth. The dog appreciated the meat chunks in his kibble though, so it didn't go to waste. I had some broth in a mug, canned up the majority, and had a half gallon mason jar in the fridge to use for cooking and such. Most of that jar went into a homemade chili the day I finally got my cuts of grass fed beef. For 3 days in a row I had grass fed beef in chili, bone broth. On Thursday for breakfast, instead of my usual eggs and spinach, I had a beef patty and some sauted cabbage. I swear to gawd that burger was the best thing ever. It was like my body finally got what it wanted. What fat was ground in with the meat (it's 90% lean) was trapped inside, making it juicy. It was seriously like eating a really tender steak. I didn't eat gluten until later that day, and for dinner I had braised pork, and a fake risotto made with cauliflower and butternut squash (no rice). I felt good. I felt more energized than I had in weeks. Eating nutrient dense foods really makes you feel better. Granted I wasn't 100% since I did eat gluten that evening, but for awhile before that I felt more like my normal self. Also my blood sugar was below 200 for the first time since I started glutenating. And that was without taking glipizide before the meal.
It's now been 4 days that I've had both beef and chicken bone broth at least once or twice a day. I've had it like tea when I felt the munchies instead of eating a snack. My sleep is still wacky (I went to sleep at 1:30am and woke up at 7am today), but I woke up without the usual creaking joints. Literally my knees and ankles pop and crackle and thunk every time I get out of bed and start walking around. I didn't suddenly get younger. The only explanation I have is the bone broth. It's full of collagen, vitamins and minerals, and glucosamine among other things. The book Deep Nutrition talked about how eating meat on the bone, and bone broths especially, would help turn your body on to repairing things like your joints, but honestly I didn't think it would make a difference with me being over weight. Obviously that isn't the case, so it gives me hope that if I keep eating this way, and exercising of course, my body will truly slim down and become healthier. I had been contemplating gastric bypass, but I'd rather not go to that extreme to slim down. Now that I have the tools that work (and if I keep motivated!), I can remember to just push past the plateaus. Obviously eating this way isn't like a fad diet. I'm getting real nutrition, and I don't have to starve myself, or feel guilty eating a steak, or heaven forbid, cheese. Not having to be obsessed with how many calories I've had, or how many I've burned off lets me focus my energy on just being happy and doing the things I want to do. If I keep eating healthy real food, my body will repair itself by turning the fat into muscle and other more useful tissues. It won't be such a chore or feel like such a hopeless battle. That I think is what is so frustrating about "dieting"... Everybody tells you how hard it is to lose weight. I don't think it has to be hard. It will take time, yes, for my body to repair, but it won't be hard. The hard part will be making sure I don't give in to temptation and eat any processed junk. My body will do what it needs to as long as I feed it well. That is what I'm going to keep in my mind anyway. I really want to lose the weight, be healthy, and feel good without feeling like a failure, or thinking gastric bypass is my only out.
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