TLC Update Sunday #1

I've decided to start a weekly Sunday update/audit/review of how well I followed the Therapeutic Lifestyle Change (TLC) program from The Depression Cure book by Dr. Illardi

This is only a partial update as I only started reading the book last week. 

Omega 3 Fatty Acids

Last Thursday (April 26th), I recieved the Green Pastures Blue Ice Royal Butter Oil and Fermented Cod Liver Oil (BO/CLO for short) blend; 3 of the Cinnamon Tingle and 1 of the Chocolate Cream. 

I recieved the Ohhira Professional Probiotic capsules (OPP) I ordered about a day before. I know this isn't an omega 3 fatty acid but my mother was told by a doctor when I was a baby that I did not have enough healthy gut flora and so I needed to take probiotics.

As an aside and for semi-scientific purposes, I am currently only taking the BO/CLO and OPP and Zyflammend. No extra Vit-D, no green-lipped mussel extract, no EPO, CoQ10....well you get the picture. 

So far I've taken 8 doses of Green Pastures BO/CLO, 1/2 tsp morning and night and I've taken 10 capsules of the OPP. 

I found the BO/CLO in Cinnamon Tingle surprisingly easy to take. I put the bottle in the fridge where it solidified into a warm brown colored paste. I scoop it up with a 1/2 tsp measuring spoon and scrape it against the side to level it and because it is so small and soft, it goes down whole easily especially when I follow it with a swig of milk which I swish around my mouth to remove any lingering oils on my tongue.

Occasionally, I have had a rather rank whiff or taste around my lips if I haven't been careful not to touch it with my lips but more often than not, I find it faintly and pleasantly cinnamony.

Mmmmmm....yummy

I hope the Chocolate Cream proves as nice. 

How did I choose Green Pastures? 

I read a blog article http://beautyeditor.ca/2010/09/02/the-single-best-product-evah-for-your-skin-is-not-in-fact-an-actual-skincare-product/ where the author wrote about the positive effect this product had on her skin. As I had been experiencing a very similar crisis to hers (I had also tried the Oil Cleansing Method and my chin and cheeks had exploded into a disfiguring cystic pimply rash and I was desperate to try anything that would heal my skin fast). 


It's too early to comment on any mental aspects but I will continue taking 1 tsp daily for 1 month and then try increasing it to 1 1/2 tsp daily.

To me, some downsides: 

Green Pastures touts the fact that they are only naturally fermented cod liver oil product on the market and being naturally fermented, they can only give approximate figures on how much DHA and EPA are contained in each serving. So I am not sure if I am getting enough DHA/EPA in the right rations as per Dr. Illardi's book. 

Some of the blurb on the bottle and website just sounds downright hokey and full of New Age earnestness. 

I mean listen to this:

HISTORICALLY SACRED FOOD

During his travels around the world, Dr. Weston A. Price came across cultures that were strong of mind, body, and spirit; he noticed the relationship between their extraordinary well-being and the sacred and natural foods they consumed. 

Uh-huh, yeah, sure. Do you mean the native people of this world who in almost every single country have the highest levels of infant mortality and highest rates of diabetes, heart disease and renal failure and overwhelming social issues with drug and alcohol abuse? Maybe Dr. Weston encountered cultures that hadn't been touched by western culture, way back when....

Lastly, the expense but I would rather keep buying this if it works rather than an antidepressant.

So it's been about four days and I haven't noticed anything great happening with my skin. In fact, it's kind of getting worse. Still breaking out with fresh pimples, still that awful blotchy red-purple post-acne scarring everywhere....

The OPP is harder to take despite being conveniently encapsuled and not needing to be refrigerated because the capsules are meant to be taken an hour before food or an hour and a half after food. 

As I believe Jeffrey Steingarten, bon vivant, and writer of The Man Who Ate Everything noted when he had to take some medication with similar rules, that he found it terribly difficult to take because his stomach was rarely empty. I am much the same. 

As soon as I am awake, I like to eat otherwise I get strong stomach pains that persist much like colic if I don't head it off in time and I am too distracted an hour and a half to remember to take it. I suppose I should try.

I have been trying to take the capsule as soon as I wake up and then have a lie down in bed for another half an hour and distract myself with ablutions for the next fifteen minutes so that the capsule has had at least forty-five minutes to make its way down. 

Exercise

Today I walked home from work. That took about 30 minutes and that is pretty much the only exercise I did all week.

As for:

sunlight exposure

engaging activity

social support

sleep

I still need to read those chapters.

Here's hoping...The Depression Cure by Dr Steve Ilardi

This is going to be an ongoing post where I read and follow the book and blog about my experiences. 

So...honesty time. 

I do have depression. I've had it for more than half my life and so I don't know where I begin and depression ends. Who could I have been without this depression? I wonder all the time. I am reminded of a tree that used to grow near my home when I was a child. It grew so closely next to a chain link fence that after about a foot of growing alone, the trunk pressed against and eventually enveloped a part of the chain links. I would stare at this section, wondering if it hurt the tree very much. The tree grew away from the fence eventually when the fence ended and likewise, I hope also to grow away from this depression. 

To give an idea of how I am affected...

I wish almost every day that I wasn't alive. 

But I do live, everyday, only myself knowing. Is this courage? Is this stupidity? Just plain dumb animal living? Eating, drinking, excreting. It's all I can do sometimes. 

I know that the pain of living never ends. I brace myself, knowing that the death of my mother, father, brother will come, three devastating blows yet to come, and one day myself. I know we all die alone. I know it everyday. 

I know the pain of being old and alone already because I am young and alone now. 

Sometimes, I just want life to be over and done with and yet sometimes, I am angry that this is all I want and I want to believe that I can have a good life, a fulfilling life despite the sorrows yet to come. 

So onto the book. 

The author of this book pretty much promises that his Therapeutic Lifestyle Change (TLC) program will if not cure, at least alleviate depression. 

There are six components:

omega-3 fatty acids

engaging activity

physical exercise

sunlight exposure

social connections

enhanced sleep

I am open to trying this program because as Dr. Ilardi points out in his book and as I well know, antidepressant medications aren't all that effective. 

The downside to this program is that one must be at a certain level of depression i.e. not the paralysed with depression stage in order to be able to start and keep going with this program.

I think that the only thing that can brick this for me is that I know I tend to give up just like that, out of the blue. Self-sabotage issues, I know. I do plan on working on this with a therapist but for now, I want to focus on moving out of my crappy flat where there are pigeons living in the bathroom. 

Library Haul

 

I figured out how to make a photo collage today using MS Paint. (thanks ehow.com!) I know out there, there is a big scary (and extremely expensive program) called PHOTOSHOP, but for now, for today, I only have the strength to deal with Paint.  Some day Photoshop....some day, your time will come and I will conquer you. Probably with a Dummies Guide and an Idiots Guide beside me. Also, Google. 


I'll write a post about the books from my library haul as I get through them but for now I'm going to try this new thing where I borrow a cookbook and actually cook something from. it. Novel concept eh? No pressure, minimum 1 new recipe a week. I should be able to do that as long as I don't borrow more than say 5 cookbooks at a time. I usually salivate over the photos in the library, dreaming big dreams and struggle home with a heavy armful (they're not light, cookbooks), then I pile the cookboos in a corner of my room where they usually stay until they're due and sometimes long after.


So from Foodies of the World, I like the look of:


Salted Caramel and Toasted Walnut Shortbread Bars (page 17)
Bobotie (page 33)
Spaghettini with Tomatoes, Lemon, Feta and Pinenuts (page 42)
Senate Bean Soup (page 45) 
Lemon and Garlic Rack of Lamb with Fresh Mint Sauce (page 52)
Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms on Quinoa (page 61)
Best Cornbread Ever (page 69)
Morning Glory Oat Muffins (page 74)
Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (page 97)
Raspberry and Lemon Frangipane Slice (page 105)
Tom Yom Goong (page 112)
Curry Laksa (page 150)
Warm Butter Beans with Rosemary and Garlic (page 166)
Eetch (page 177)
Baked Eggs (page 224)


Now I have to pick ONE!


I'm tempted by the Lemon Garlic Lamb because it's 5 pm and I'm thinking of dinner. Also, this recipe wins because it doesn't require a scale not like the Salted Caramel and Toasted Walnut Shortbread Bars which was my first choice.  Will my dinner look like this?

8:26 pm


Unfortunately, I give the Lemon and Garlic Rack of Lamb with Fresh Mint Sauce recipe the thumbs down. 


Here's why:
The 1/4 c of olive oil was way too much and pooled around the bottom, add that to the amount of fat that comes off a lamb and the meat was just sitting in a cringe-worthy amount of oil and fat. It would have been better to just mix the lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper, and add just enough oil to make a liquidy paste and rub it over the lamb. 


The picture of the lamb rack shows that the fat was scored (I think). No mention of scoring the fat in the recipe. I don't know it's just basic cooks knowledge that that's what you do but I don't know this kind of stuff.  


The mint sauce was a disappointment. Made according to the recipe, the 'sauce' was basically a sweet liquid.  I simmered it longer to thicken but then the mint flavour seemed to disappear as well as any tartness from the vinegar. 


Other than that, well, I roasted chunks of Kent pumpkin and broccoli tossed with some of the lemon oil mix, made a nice green salad with some brilliant tomatoes from Victoria Market and dinner was alright in the end.