Flax to the Max: Week 2

It's been ten days since I've had grains. Ten whole days of protein, fruit, vegetables and more flax than I ever imagined that I could ingest. I cheated and had two chocolate chip cookies on Sunday. And Ben made me eat one Cheet-o.
I saw Sydney (my nutritionist) yesterday. "Have you been strict with the grains?" she asked. I can't lie for a moment so I told her about the cookies. I think she forgave me. At least she took my check.

She asked me how I was feeling. "Grouchy," I told her. "I think my serotonin is too low." She dismissed that comment rather quickly and told me that I would be going on an even more restrictive, or, "thyroid friendly" diet in the coming weeks. Basically, I have two more weeks to live it up on the fruit and the coffee. I have the feeling that the hammer is coming down.

Leaving her office, I was loaded down with supplements in the way of support for my thyroid, adrenals and endocrine system. I made the HUGE mistake this morning of downing all the pills with my coffee and shuttling Ben off to school - about an hour round-trip - on a completely empty stomach. I didn't stop on the side of the road only because I thought it would be very traumatizing for Ben to see his beloved mom with her head in the bushes, tossing up thirty-three different pills and way more coffee than anyone should have before 8am. Lesson learned.

The hardest part of this plan (aside from the extreme cravings for anything starchy) is gulping down huge quantities of flax oil. Barlean's makes a great flax oil that is strawberry flavored and it's pretty darn yummy. A few tablespoons in a smoothie is easy to take. I gave Ben a spoonful this morning. Never too early to start kids on the omegas. He asked for more. I use several tablespoons of Trader Joe's flax oil on my salad, along with some fresh lemon juice. You can't cook with flax oil but it does work nicely used in place of butter on sauteed or steamed vegetables. I especially like it on sweet potatoes.

"The big guy on the block" theory - as shared by Sydney - has resonated with me and that's why I've been so vigilant with the flax intake. It makes sense, when you think about it, that the body is going to absorb what it gets the most of. Trans fats, saturated fats, omegas, whatever. I want to have my body to have the best of the best. And I think it's starting to show.

My skin has taken on a healthy glow in the last couple of weeks. I definitely have more shine; in fact my doctor said yesterday, "Your skin looks luminous!" That might be a stretch, but I have found that I need less heavy moisturizer and make-up.

For the most part, I'm pretty settled into the no grains routine but I have had some moments - like this morning - when a protein shake sounded horrible. I broke the rules and had a bowl of plain Greek yogurt. It was either that, or a huge stack of pancakes.

I won't see Sydney for two weeks. At our appointment this week, she dangled a big carrot, or as the case may be, a slice of whole wheat bread. "Try one piece of whole wheat bread in two weeks," she advised. "See what happens in the following 24 hour period."

What will likely happen is I will keel over from pleasure. But in the meantime, I've got a big shot of flax oil waiting...