November Update

As we speak, I’m living in 600 sq ft with no oven, two screaming toddlers who are very upset with me and little to no will to live. The last couple of months have been so hectic that we’ve been completely overwhelmed. I’ve gone from a 2100 sq ft home, with full-time day care and supportive family around to this – practically overnight. My husband is in the military and in August we received word that we were moving to Phoenix, Arizona, ready or not, by the end of October. We spent most of the month of September out of the country and partying as much as possible with friends we’d never see again. That left October for us to get packed, landscape/sod an entire neglected backyard, look after two toddlers, repair damages to the house, clean it, load up the cars and hit the road. Just parenting these two … Continue reading

Hidradenitis Suppurativa Book/Guide

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Hey guys!

I’ve taken a short break from writing my book to write another book. I’m still getting overwhelming comments on my Hidradenitis Suppurativa posts, and I decided that I needed to get all the information and tips I have in one, easy to read — and easy to understand — format.

I hope to have this book finished and available on for download and purchase by the end of the month. I’ll be using a lot of the comments that you guys have posted over the last couple months but I need to know if you have any more questions about specific things that you want me to address.

So, here’s what I need:

1. Questions/comments/testimonials
2. I’m searching for potential names for the book. Some people I’ve talked to refer to their HS as “Bumps.” This is my working title, but if you have a better suggestion, please let me know!! The name is pretty important and I’m at a loss. The subtitle is definitely going to be: “A field guide for surviving — and overcoming — the painful condition Hidradenitis Suppurativa.”
3. Any pictures you have (or want to take) that you will let me use in the book. I can give you credit, or post them anonymously. They do NOT have to show your face. I will NEVER, EVER “out” you if you don’t want me to.
4. Lists of your triggers and reactions. Send it to me with the following subjects: 1. Known triggers, 2. Potential triggers, 3. Major Symptoms (Body Wide), incl. joint pain, endometriosis, 4. Specific Digestive symptoms, 5. Skin conditions, incl. rashes and acne, 6) Mood/Pain Level

You can either comment on this post, contact me directly by clicking on the “contact” tab in the upper right corner of this page. Anyone interested in sending pics, please let me know and I’ll send you my email address.

Thank you! I’m excited to have this book out for you to read and hopefully it will help you out a great deal.

Homemade Coconut Milk, Coconut Cream and Coconut Butter

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Coconut is amazing. You can turn it into flour, milk, oil or butter. You can drink the water. You can simply eat the coconut. You can buy it shredded or in cans. Most of us don’t think about how simple it is to make things ourselves and so we pay $14 for a jar of coconut butter or $2.50 for a can of coconut milk and resign ourselves to shelling out for it because it’s awesome. My kids have to take milk to school to fulfill some bullshit calcium requirement and since they’re dairy free, we’ve been sending them off with coconut milk. I’ve tried watering down canned coconut milk but it tastes…canned. I had started buying coconut milk “drink” in tetra paks, but at $2 each, it was getting expensive. Plus, one look at the “vitamins” on the side revealed that all the additives were artificial – even in … Continue reading

Vitamin D, CBS and Pickle Mayonnaise

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Vitamin D and Sleep Dr. Seth Roberts (a PhD and biohacker who presented at AHS last year) has been blogging about my Vitamin D and sleep connection for several months now and has been trying it out for himself. Seth has been trying to improve his sleep for years and definitely thinks I’m on to something. You can read about his experiments here. He’s currently writing a publication on the subject, which I can’t wait to read. He’s also been referring to the topic during some of his talks. I know some of you have tried and have had success with changing the timing of your supplementation – we believe it’s more important than previously thought and can impact the outcome. Paleo on CBS Paleo’s been on the news again! Dr. Kim Mulvihill at CBS San Francisco recently came to PaleoFX and interviewed some of us. There’s tons of great … Continue reading

May Day Reflections and PrimalCon

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May Day. A day to herald the coming of Spring with song and dance, a day for children with flowers in their hair to skip around beribboned maypoles, a time to crown May Day queens. A day for blog posts, apparently. And phone calls, texts, emails, dings from Twitter, pings and pongs from Facebook, returns to Amazon and endless hours in Starbucks. I’m trying to recapture the feeling I had at PrimalCon a couple weeks ago, sitting in the sweet-smelling grass, basking in the sunshine, surrounded by bare feet with the wind whipping through my hair and the sound of the waves crashing on the shore. I’ve written a review of PrimalCon down below. I’m feeling the pull of Harbin Hot Springs, the need to disconnect and get back to nature. To start my cold thermogenesis therapy in their cold pools, to say ‘to hell with the cold, I’m getting … Continue reading

PrimalCon and Preparing for a Road Trip When You’re Paleo

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I’m getting ready to leave for PrimalCon in a few hours and I am super excited. Not only will I be talking to others about how I transformed myself, I’m planning on concentrating on how I have dealt with the litany of doctors I have seen over the years – to date, I have seen about 50 doctors from four different countries for the various ailments I used to suffer from. I continue to visit the doctor occasionally, if only to test their knowledge and spread the word about things like “gliaden” and natural, nutritional interventions as opposed to pharmaceuticals – the go-to of every conventional doctor I’ve ever seen. Perhaps you get to choose the doctor you go to, but as part of the socialized, industrial machine that is military medicine, I don’t. I get to see a new one every time I go to the office. So, I … Continue reading

Dear Primalgirl: Paleo’s Gonna Kill Ya

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Okay, maybe I’m being a little mellow dramatic with the title of this post but when Ancel Keys is brought up, I get a little pissed off. I received this comment the other day on a post I did a while back called Can Going Paleo Give You Celiac Disease? The comment was just too long and complicated for me to write a simple rebuttal underneath. Instead, I decided to turn it into a post. I will address each point in black text so it is easier to distinguish who is “talking.” In case you don’t feel like reading the original post, I concluded that going Paleo hadn’t given me any new diseases or syndromes; instead the removal of particular foods from my diet caused me to be highly-aware of the immediate problems they created when reintroduced. Written by Scotty from www.mycollegenutrition.com:  I Highly Disagree, it’s totally possible to get an … Continue reading

School Lunches, the USDA and a Review of Eat Like a Dinosaur

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Click here to jump right to my review of Eat Like a Dinosaur: Recipe & Guidebook for Gluten-free Kids by Paleo Parents Matt and Stacy. Before I get to my review, I need to vent about a couple things. We’ve had a base wide power outage this morning so I am experiencing a rare treat: people who normally meet elsewhere in private on base are having to go to Starbucks, the only place within 10 miles that has electricity. This is what I am witnessing: a base doctor, studying radiology and drinking diet Mountain Dew. I am itching to ask him if he knows the effects of the brominated vegetable oil he is drinking, but I’m pretty sure that he doesn’t care. a pharmaceutical rep pushing a new drug on a hospital administrator. He even has fancy new toys for the doctors, stethoscopes and models of joints and bones. I’m … Continue reading

Level Health and Nutrition Classes

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Just a quick post for all you guys that are struggling to find support in your area. Like I said in a previous post, I bet a lot of you don’t know a lot of other Paleo people in real life, or if you do, they live far away. That’s the way it is for me. Other than my family, none of my friends that live close to me are Paleo. We need support to make it, a lot of times. We need someone to guide us with advice, tips and sometimes, we just need an understanding person to vent to. That’s why I’m teaming up with Orleatha and Chris Smith at Level Health and Nutrition. They are offering free online Paleo classes, training and support for a limited time. The first class starts this Sunday, April 1 at 3 p.m. PST. You can sign up here: Level Health – … Continue reading

The Paleo Movement Sweeps Australia

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As a person who was raised in Canada and then spent almost a decade in Europe, I have seen how the rest of the world pays attention to what’s going on. The United States doesn’t. Watch the news here and you’re lucky to even hear about that 7.0 earthquake in Asia. If you’re American, it’s more likely you know all the Republican candidates by heart and where they stand in the polls. The rest of the world isn’t like this. They pay attention to themselves, their neighboring countries and the rest of the world. They pay attention to us. The Paleo movement is starting to gain major momentum around the world. I don’t care where it started, who invented it and who does it best. I care that the message is spreading. People are adapting the Paleo/Primal diet and lifestyle to suit themselves, their families and their nations. Butter is … Continue reading