Health Kick

I'm taking advantage of the fact that both my son and my husband are away, to go on a little health kick/detox. I've had some rather nasty health issues this year. In April I was told that I had a tumour on my spinal cord. Yikes!!  Fortunately upon seeing a second neurosurgeon he informed me that he wasn't convinced that it was a tumour at all, but rather something of an inflammatory nature. After asking me whether I had had any vaccines recently and hearing that I had had a yellowfever vaccine in June last year, he said that he was sure that that was probably the cause of whatever was on my spinal cord, causing me all sorts of neuropathic symptoms such as burning, pins and needles, shocks and general weakness in my limbs. He sent me back to the neurologist, who wasn't convinced, but after he had consulted with some of his colleagues at Groote Schuur Hospital, decided that the surgeon was probably right. So I'm none the wiser really, and no-one is going anywhere near my spinal cord as long as the situation is so uncertain. A second MRI showed that it had decreased in size and a lumbar puncture and numerous blood tests have ruled out most other possible causes. I've found that large dosages of vitamin B complex and B12 helps to relieve the symptoms but just when I think I'm starting to feel better, WHAM! it hits me again. What has helped me A LOT is  Body Stress Release   which is a non-therapeutic complementary health technique which assists the body to release stored tension.

So now I've decided to cut out all meat, dairy, grains as well as coffee and alcohol for a few days and give myself a bit of a detox. See if it helps.

Basically all I'm eating is fruit and vegetables and lots of water and Rooibos tea with lemon juice. For breakfast I've been eating fruit. I'm finding it quite boring so I try and do things to make it more interesting. This is what I did this morning.

I combined a handful of blueberries, Raspberries, 1 kiwifruit sliced up and half a banana sliced up. I mashed up the other half banana, added a pinch and a half of cinnamon and 2 teaspoons of honey. After pouring the banana mixture over the fruit I sprinkled on some pumpkin seeds and almond flakes. All of these fruits, nuts and seeds are rich in vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants. You can look it all up here

Another vegetable I really like is the artichoke and there are lots of them in the shops right now. They are very easy to cook. Just put some lemon juice in a pot of water and steam for about 20-30 minutes. Each leaf has a little bit of the heart on it and after dipping it into some vinaigrette dressing or hot butter you can just scrape it off with your teeth and discard the leaf. When you get to the middle you must then scrape away the "choke" and you can eat the heart with some dressing. You can also trim and remove the heart before cooking, in which case it looks like this, and a lot more elegant, especially for entertaining.

ARTECHOKE WITH BALSAMIC VINEGAR AND OLIVE OIL

Yesterday I had the Mother of all headaches. I hope that's a good sign. It is, I know, a normal symptom of detox. Still got all the neuropathy symptoms. I will be posting some more vegetable recipes because as that's all I can eat, I'm trying to at least make it more interesting.