Day Off: Leftovers, Yoga and Strolls in Garden

Yoga in the morning sun.  Feeling grateful today.

We have been on autoimmune paleo diet for a week now and I feel like I have spent a week in the kitchen. Today I took some time off, did some yoga and we have been eating leftovers. No meal planning, no recipe searching. We had the fridge full of GAPS soup and Finnish cabbage casserole (we experimented making a lower fructan version of it, recipe coming up soon!). For breakfast we had cold smoked salmon with cucumber and avocado in nori sea weed wraps.

I have been very happy to note that I don't need much snacks anymore. I used to have to eat several times a day because my blood sugar dropped (hypoglycemia) but now I am ok with just the main meals, maybe a bowl of soup or some raw veggies in between if the meals have been light.

After school I took the kids to Descanso Gardens with friends and we strolled in the gardens. The kids climbed trees and played in the leaves. It was a beautiful sunny day and I feel I recharged my batteries. It is important too. If we feel stressed and the stress hormones go up, it decreases our immunity. I realized today that no matter what kind of diet I am on, I need to also take care of myself in other ways. For healing it is important too to feel at peace, find happiness and calm mind and connect with nature.

While we were in the gardens my almost three year old found a puddle (almost a rarity in Southern California!) and he went straight in and jumped there with shoes and pants on. He did that for a while and I let him, why not. An older came a little later to me and said that my kids will be just fine when they grow up because I let them jump in puddles and get dirty. The thought made me happy. All is well.

Another sweet moment today was when I received an email from Eileen Laird whose autoimmune paleo blog Phoenix Helix I have been admiring and studying in the last days. I had posted a link to my site to her Facebook group for autoimmune paleo diet and she sent me a note about her blog's round table where anyone can post autoimmune paleo friendly recipes. I posted my first one there today. Check it out, there are a lot of great recipes (and valuable info). As a new paleo blogger I felt so honored that she had read my blog and even complimented the AIP postings. Thanks Eileen. It is always nice to know there is a whole community on the same journey.