Chinese Herbs

As I mentioned before, my acupuncture doctor prescribed some Chinese herbs a couple of years ago that I briefly tried and didn't get any results from. I decided to try them again this week because I researched what they do, and it says they help when the liver is stagnate. I've done liver flushes and herbal detox since the doctor gave me these pills (called xiao yao wan), so I figured my liver might be a lot more receptive to the herbs now.

The good news is, I think they are really helping with the body odor. I've been feeling smelly for the past two months, and I know the carbs, etc. that I had been eating played a big part in that. But after starting on the herbs, I could no longer smell my odor in the house. Yesterday I had a real chance to test the theory, and passed the test with flying colors at a meeting I had to attend with eight other people in a very small room that lasted about an hour and a half. No one in the room sat with their hand to their nose. That confirmed to me that things are at least better. So it may be that the diet is helping, but I also think the herbs are responsible for the improvement overall.

As I mentioned, the reason I think the herbs may be working now, is that I've done lots of liver cleansing during the past year and a half. I think that is key. Another benefit I've noticed from the herbs is that I can sleep now that I'm taking them. Insomnia has been a problem for me for years.

It may be too early to talk about results from something I've only been taking a few days, but I think that the more good/hopeful news about this condition that there is, the better off we all are.

Buying organic food

I'm making a commitment to start buying organic food as much as I can even though it does get expensive. There are times when I can't find what I want in the organic version, but I'm not going to make an exception where certain foods are concerned (I'd rather go without), because of the large amounts of pesticides in certain foods. The worst ones according to A.L. Gittleman are strawberries, cherries, apples, Mexican cantaloupe, apricots, blackberies, pears, raspberies and fresh peaches. The non-organic vegetables are spinach, hot and sweet peppers, celery, and potatoes.

I can always find organic eggs, and haven't made the switch totally to organic meat, but at the point the chicken and most of the beef I get for the family is labeled "all natural, no hormones or antibiotics administered", so that's a step up from where we were a few months ago.

I really enjoyed reading Gittleman's book. It has so many good ideas and information in it, I think it will really help me make the change over to a much healthier lifestyle. My other two favorite books are The Cure, by Dr. Timothy Brantley, and The Detox Book, by Bruce Fife, N.D.
I refer back to them all the time for information on a host of topics concerning detoxification.

Soup Recipes

The following are two recipes that are the the A.L. Gittleman book, "Fast-Track One Day Detox Diet": I'm going to make the artichoke soup today. Now that the weather is cooling off here, I am more in the mood for hot food, so these sound good to me.

A Cabbage Soup for All Seasons

makes 12 servings

This soup can be eaten hot or cold, chicken, turkey or beef can be added for a complete meal.



1 head of green cabbage
(tough leaves removed), coarsely sliced
1 cup sliced carrots
6 celery stalks, sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium sweet onion, cut into chunks
1 medium zucchini, halved and sliced
1 medium yellow squash halved and sliced
one 28 ounce can whole tomatoes
one 28 ounce can diced tomatoes
one 28 ounce can tomato puree
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley
1/4 cup minced fresh basil
1/4 cup minced fresh chives
salt or cayenne to taste

1. Place all the vegetables and the tomatoes, tomato puree, and 6 cups of filtered water in a large stockpot; bring to a boil then cover.

2. Lower the heat and simmer until the veggies are soft but not mushy, about 1 hour.

3. Add the herbs and salt or cayenne to taste.




Absolutely Artichoke Soup

2 servings

1 tablespoon chickbroth or olive oil
1 small onion, minced
4 garlic cloves, minced
one 14 ounce can artichokes, rinsed, drained, and chopped
2 cups broth or stock
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
salt to taste (optional)
Cayenne to taste (optional)
fresh lemon juice to taste (optional)

1. Heat the broth or oil in a stockpot over medium heat.
2. Saute the onion and garlic until translucent.
3. Stir in the artichokes, broth and herbs. Add the salt, cayenne and/or lemon juice, if using.
4. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.



Gittleman is big on using organic foods as much as possible, right down to the spices, and herbs.

Signs of Detox

Up to this point, things haven't been too bad as far as detox symptoms. I feel more tired than usual, and a little more achey. My breasts are tender, which always happens when I start a new plan. I woke up in the middle of the night with a stuffed up nose. I haven't slept really well in a number of years, always waking up between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. In the Gittleman book, she says that is a sign of being toxic, and I remember when I saw an acupuncturist a few years ago mentioning it to her. She said that the liver activity is at it's peak between 1 and 3 a.m., and my chi (energy needed for optimal organ function) is unbalanced due to toxins, so it wakes me up at that time. She gave me some Chinese herbs to balance the chi, but I never took many of them. I'm thinking about giving them a try again, just to see if they have any effect.

The intestinal cleanser by Nature's Way that I started yesterday seems pretty helpful. I think it's going to help prevent constipation, which a new diet always seems to cause.

I know I have a lot of work ahead in order to heal my body and turn this around, but I feel very optimistic that it's going to happen. I've never been this focused before, and this time around I'm armed with so much more information. I think that all the reading and experimenting I've done over the past two years has prepared me for this. Two and a half years ago, I discovered that others had this problem too, and I started researching, and looking at the body odor forums each day. At that time, I really had no clue as to what to do, where to start, or even what the hell was happening to me. I knew I had a problem for a while, but was really good at sticking my head in the sand, and thinking it would just go away by itself. I didn't really start making any useful changes until a year ago, but I didn't stick to anything very long because I lacked the discipline to do it. There is a saying (maybe Chinese?) that says, "The teacher doesn't come until the student is ready". I'm ready now. School is officially open!

Today is the day!

I'm back on the diet, and am glad to have all the obligations of the last few days behind me so I can focus on it. Between exercising, shopping for food/juice stuff, making the food and juice, etc. it keeps me pretty busy. I wonder sometimes how I'll keep this up and go back to work, but I'll find a way. More than anything in the world, I want to be back to work, and around people again. I really don't want to go through another lonely winter in this house. Now there's some incentive!

So far today, I've just had my green tea, water, green drink, Colonix, and some soaked, raw walnuts (ground up) with a little cinnamon and kefir. I decided to keep a small serving of nuts in the diet, at least for now, because I'm trying to avoid becoming super skinny. My family really gives me a hard time when I'm too thin, and I don't need the hassle right now. In Dr. Timothy Brantley's book "The Cure, Heal Your Body, Save Your Life", he says that nuts are ok as long as they are soaked first. He says that grains, seeds and nuts contain enzyme inhibitors. It's only when water hits the grain, seed or nut that it would activate, then we can digest them properly. This seems to be true in my case, so I decided to leave walnuts and almonds (organic, raw) in for now. I soak about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of nuts overnight in filtered water.

Same thing with the kefir - a little bit each day. If my progress isn't fast enough in a month or two, then I'll have to eliminate the kefir and nuts, but I'm hoping that's not the case.

I'm also looking into a diet by Ann Louise Glittleman, Ph.d. She is an expert in the world of nutrition. She has a plan - called a fat flush plan to clean the liver and colon in which you fast one day a week on unsweetened cranberry juice. I was wondering what the significance of cranberry juice was as opposed to vegetable juice, and read that cranberry juice is a fat emulsifier. If you have a fatty liver (like I'm sure I do) then this could be a good way to improve that condition. I'm not going to start my one day a week fasts for probably a week and a half, until I'm used to my new way of eating.

That's it for now. I always get brain fog for a while when I start detoxing, so please excuse me if I ramble, or don't make a lot of sense.

starting a new diet

I'm getting ready to get back on this diet after being only semi-strict for the past couple of months. I'm actually excited to do it this time, even though I know it's tough, because I know I won't be doing it alone.

I can tell you from experience with this particular diet that it is a powerful liver and colon cleansing diet. It's also very healing for the colon if you have leaky gut. The way I know that it's powerful, is that when I get serious about it and start on it, I have some pretty heavy cleansing reactions. Everyone is different, but you can probably expect some changes for awhile that are uncomfortable. It is never a bad idea to transition into a few diet for this reason. Especially if you have been drinking caffeine, eating lots of junk food, etc.

What I have experienced in the past is fatigue, headaches, muscle aches, and insomnia. I also have a temporary increase in body odor. I think it's harder on me, because I'm older, so don't be discouraged if you are reading this. This is all temporary. The faster you go into the diet, the more severe your reaction will be. Experts call this a "healing crisis", so try to think of it that way. It is what your body is supposed to do.

What helps to alleviate this is to drink lots of water (at least 84-96 oz per day), exercise (even if you don't want to) and probably the most important, move your bowels (every day, but twice if you can). I usually have to take an herbal laxative to be sure that I go. If I don't go, what is a dull headache, usually turns into a migraine that can last up to 3 days. I recently read that for muscle aches you can take a hot bath with two cups of apple cider vinegar, but I haven't tried that yet. For exercise, I usually walk/run on my treadmill, but when I have muscle pain, I jump several times a day on my mini trampoline. That really seems to help right away.

Also, this time, I'm taking Colonix, which I'm hoping will help move toxins out of my body faster and help me to get to feeling good again. Any herbal colon cleanser may help this process go faster, but I haven't looked into any others. I welcome any and all suggestions to make this time easier for us.

Just keep thinking about how much better will feel when you get through the healing crisis. It is totally worth it. YOU are totally worth it.

Dietary Specifics

Welcome, Gella and Mybloomnart! I'm glad to hear from you.

Gella, I know exactly how you feel, and that's why I'm thinking that if we band together, we'll be stronger, and beat this thing. My new motto is, "whatever it takes". That's what I'm going to do. I want to wake up in the morning and go to bed at night not thinking about FBO at all. Keep your chin up. I'll post what I eat every day - that will help me stick to it, and maybe give you some new ideas.

Mybloomnart, yes, I agree, this diet is extremely hard to stick to, but the payoffs will be great when we return to our normal lives, and that IS going to happen. Below is my basic diet. I'd like to have more variety, so if you have any ideas for new foods/meals, please share.

Every morning I take my supplements (Probiotics, Earth's Bounty Colon Conditioner, and vit c. with a green drink called Perfect Food). I do the same thing in the afternoon. I recently started back on Colonix, which is a colon cleanse, because I have been on a not so good diet lately, and could stand a cleanse. I used this product in the past and got good results, so I'm trying it again while I transition to the low-carb diet again.

I only drink water (filtered, at least 84 oz a day) and organic decaf green tea. This is one of the hardest things for me to do, because my husband is a coffee lover (I'm an ex-coffee addict), and he makes a whole pot every morning. The first thing I do each morning as I walk into our coffee scented kitchen is dump out what is left in the pot after he leaves for work, so I'm not smelling it all day.

I exercise after I drink my first green drink of the day (about 40 minutes on the treadmill, 6 days a week). Then I'm usually not hungry until about 10 a.m. At about that time, I had been eating raw vegetables, like celery, or broccoli and some raw nut butter - usually almond butter or tahini. Those were great, because they filled me up, and I was able to maintain my weight because the nut butter is very high in calories. Recently I started reacting to the almond butter - it seems to cause inflammation in my gut (I do have leaky gut by the way), so I know I have to find a substitute for that. I use a product called Super Seed by Garden of Life mixed with a little organic flax seed oil as a dip for my veggies now, and it seems to be working out better. Doesn't taste as good as the nut butters, but I'll get used to it. The Super Seed is a mixture of ground seeds that also contains probiotic strains and enzymes, so I think that's why my system likes it better. In the late morning, I cut up vegetables for my serving of fresh juice that I have each day around noon. I juice spinach, cucumber, cabbage (very healing for the gut) a carrot and celery. It's mostly a green juice, but the carrot gives it a little nicer color. I dilute the juice with a little water to keep my blood sugar at a normal level.

I'm not a salad person, so for lunch I make a plate of various vegetables and a half a broiled chicken breast, or piece of fish. Other days I have two scrambled eggs (cooked in olive oil) with onions, peppers, etc. Some days, instead of the meat, I puree some avacado, and add seasoning to it (some organic salsa, etc.) and use that as a dip for my vegetables. I usually don't eat lunch until 2 - 3 p.m. because the juice I have at noon fills me up, and that way, I don't need much for dinner. Dinner can be some more raw veggies, or some sauteed or steamed veggies. This is the best time of year to be on a very veggie diet because the vegetables are so plentiful in the stores.
Our garden is producing lots of juicy tomatoes right now, so sometimes I just go out and pick one and slice it up for a snack. They are so good. I stay away from the carby vegetables such as corn. The cruciferous vegetables, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower are the best for liver cleansing, and healing of the intestinal tract.

At night, so I don't have to go to bed hungry, I eat a bowl of kefir mixed with Super Seed. I know dairy is supposed to be bad for us and kefir is dairy, but it is so full of good bacteria that it is pretty much a pre-digested food. Regular cow's milk doesn't have the probiotics, so it's hard for the body to break down. As far as I can tell, the kefir doesn't cause me to smell worse, but if I was to drink a glass of milk, I can tell the smell increases, so I stay away from it.

That's pretty much it - a very bizarre diet from the standpoint of the rest of the world, I'm sure. I try to look at my plates of colorful vegetables and lean organic meat and be thankful for it. I tell myself, it's good, nourishing food and I'm lucky to have it. It seems to taste much better when I do that.

I'd love to have more variety, though, and have been experimenting with a few new things. I'll let you know if they are in any way edible. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.