Living With Psoriasis - Healing Through Diet

One of my favourite salads: mixed greens, carrots, celery, cauliflower, radishes and cheddar cheese topped with oil and lemon juice

As indicated in my introductory post about living with Psoriasis, I am documenting my goal of healing (or at least controlling) my Psoriasis through natural means. One of the major changes I am undertaking is overhauling my diet. Most of my inspiration and guidance has come from  the book 'Healing Psoriasis: The Natural Alternative'. It should be noted that  I am not strictly adhering to all of the suggestions in the book, I am focusing on diet for now.

Another favourite: mixed greens, cucumber, carrots, radishes, celery and feta, topped with oil and lemon juice

After reading the book and exploring suggestions on Psoriasis forums I have come up with an individualized plan that suits my lifestyle and goals. Here is what I came up with:

 

Plan A

*This is my first attempt and is a little less strict in regards to dietary limitations

* I am going to follow this plan for 3 months and evaluate my progress. If I do not see any improvement I will move onto plan B. (more about that later)

 

-My Diet will consist of 80% alkaline foods and 20% acidic foods

-I will not eat gluten, red meat or nightshades

-I will greatly limit my consumption of sweets and alcohol

-I will eat a large salad at least once a day

-I will drink 8 glasses of water every day.

Pesto pasta (recipe coming soon)

 So far I am loving this diet! I am feeling very healthy and satisfied and have not had much of an issue sticking to my self-imposed guidelines. My diet now features an abundant amount of fresh fruits and vegetables, poultry, fish, nuts and gluten free grains. It's amazing how easy it is to make dietary changes when your motivation is increased health :)

I have had a few challenges to overcome, but I am still feeling very positive and motivated now that I am a few weeks in.  I look forward to sharing my journey as I move forward. Some upcoming posts will include: my challenges so far, my favourite new recipes, and other lifestyle changes I have made that aren't related to my diet.

Homemade Christmas Candy

Our New Slow Cooker

We recently bought ourselves a slow cooker so that we could come home to a fresh meal after work every once in a while.

 It's such a nice break not having to come home and make dinner right away after working all day.  Walking through the door to a delicious smelling, piping hot meal is so awesome.

 So far our favourite meal is 'Enchilada Chicken Stew' from PaleOMG.  It makes at least six servings, which is a bonus.  I put all of the ingredients in a large ziploc bag the night before and pop the contents into the slow cooker in the morning before I leave for work.  We are also going to start making multiple bagged meals and freezing them in preparation for our life with a newborn.

 This meal is so delicious, its really the only way Luke will eat chicken and enjoy it!

Thanksgiving Dinner for Two

 We are getting so much better at pulling this off now.  I think this was our first year that we had everything ready at the same time.   

 Everything was so delicious - Halal Chicken, acorn squash, baby carrots, mashed potatoes with real gravy and apple crisp.

And yes, we cheat and eat gluten on thanksgiving, although next year I'm thinking of trying a gluten free topping. 

Delicious Breakfast made by Luke

Doesn't this spread look delicious?  I'm so glad that the clouds have finally broken up and I have some natural light to play with again.

Crafty Idea - Weekly Menu Board

 Oh Martha, how I love your new office supplies at Staples!  I spent a few dollars on some chalk board labels and finally brought one of my ideas to life.  The 'week at a glance' Menu chalk board.  I purposely designed it vertically so that it would fit in a specific section of our kitchen wall. That is one of the reasons I love making things from scratch: you can always make them in a way that suits your needs and tastes.

Hot Chocolate Station

My First Homemade Pie

Recently I had the opportunity to bake an apple pie with homemade pastry and real filling, and let me tell you it was worth the effort!  The ladies at work and I planned an afternoon to make pie together, drink wine, watch Magic Mike and just enjoy each others company outside of work. It was a lovely evening and I got to bring home a delicious apple pie that I made from scratch - and then promptly ate it with Luke for dinner :)

Also, I want to explain that I haven't been posting in the last couple of weeks because blogger is experiencing a glitch or something...  I can't upload photos to my blog anymore without first re-sizing them so that pixel count is low enough to be considered 'free' toward my storage limit.  Anyway, I waited for a while to see if the issue would go away but it hasn't. Luckily, I found a work around by visiting some help forums, apparently lots of people are having this problem.

Anyway, it takes me longer to make posts now, but I'm not going to let that deter me :)  In fact, I have quite a back log of posts that I can't wait to put up. Stay tuned!

Luke's Delicious Curry

 Yep, I have an amazing boyfriend! He made this curry from scratch and it tastes even more delicious than it looks.  It has real lemon grass in it, which makes the house smell wonderful for the rest of the night. This version had bok choy, sweet potato, shrimp, mushrooms and white potato, with lots of lemon grass, red curry and coconut milk of course. It's a hot and hearty meal, perfect for the approaching winter season.

Homemade Sushi Night

We made some sushi at home last night while Luke's Mom is visiting.  I was quite impressed at how the final products turned out, at least artistically.  I must admit, the sushi just didn't taste as good as most of the sushi we can buy here.... I don't know what they were missing but boy were they fun to make.  I think we are going to continue to experiment with homemade sushi until we master it :)

 We had wasabi, ginger and soy sauce to compliment our sushi rolls

 Loving the new chopsticks!

 So pretty and delicate looking

 Luke and Rita enjoying their creations

And yes, that IS ketchup, and no that is not my sushi roll.... it's Luke's of course

Summer Foods

Luke made this delicious pasta tonight, with fresh ingredients from our very own garden!  The carrots and zuchinni were especially yummy because we knew we grew them ourselves.

 Mexicana chopped salad has been a summer staple at our house

 Our new grill basket was put to use on the BBQ

 Summer snack plate 

This is my mexicana salad bento - also know as my ugly or blurry bento :)  At least it tasted delicious!

Chicken Quinoa Salad and Bento

 It has been the summer of salads at our house this season.  One of our favourite new summer recipes is this delicious quinoa salad and BBQ chicken dinner. (recipe here)  I always make extra so that we can enjoy a yummy bento the following day as well.

Contents: Quinoa salad, BBQ chicken leftovers, baby carrots and fresh picked BC cherries

Pumpkin Pancakes, Pineapple and Bacon

This is my absolute favourite Weekend Breakfast, MMMMmmm MMMMmm

Almond Chicken

Just delicious, you can find the recipe here

Paleo BBQ