Meat-less

And so we begin a new endeavor at the Barnes'.....

Funny thing, I have said that the author of the book "The Five Love Languages" missed one.  My husband's love language is FOOD.  Haha!  I am serious.  It is true that the way to his heart was through his stomach.  He feels loved when I cook for him.

Well, it looks like I am going to be preparing food for him even more than I have!  I now need to learn how to cook (he is determined that we not call it "vegetarian") meat-less other than eggs and fish.  Oh boy...this is going to be an adventure.

It will be an adventure for me of trying to be creative and have enough time to prepare food to taste hearty even though it doesn't have animal protein.  It will be an adventure for him of...well, of accepting the fact that there really is such a thing as a meal without meat.

My friend, Billie, connected me with a naturopath in Seattle that has really, really helped her MS a great deal. In fact, decades after being diagnosed, she is off all western medicine and doing incredibly well.  That being said, she gave me her naturopath's number and I gave him a call this week.

Upon telling him of Caleb's condition he was pretty direct with me.  He said it was one of the hardest conditions to treat, including cancer.  That really didn't surprise me, but was still pretty hard to hear.  However, he has seen his own mother, who has Rheumatoid Arthritis, go from hardly being able to pull up her own pants year ago, to now at 88, being able to live and function on her own and is not on harsh medications.  So I listened to him.  And I have to say we are intrigued. 

So the first step....eek!!!...eliminate meat, sugar, tomatoes, and nightshades from Caleb's diet.  That is including all of the other things we have eliminated (gluten, dairy, soy, alcohol, caffeine, and potatoes).  POOR BUDDY!!!!  Although I will really try to stay on a similar diet when at home, I just don't know if even I can do it!  But, as I have done with the other foods, I will keep all things Caleb can't eat out of the house. 

I know this may sound extreme to some, but considering the prognosis and the severity of Caleb's condition, even if it helps only partly, it is absolutely worth a shot!   We will simply try it out and see if he does better or not.  If he doesn't, well, I don't know how long he will try it for before giving in again.  :)  The naturopath said his mother was a vegetarian (I mean, meatless except eggs and salmon...haha) for three years before adding some foods back into her diet here and there, from time to time.

He also explained that this is not the only thing he needs to do.  There are a few things he can take that are food-based while he is on western medicines.  But he said, if we can get him of methorexate and prednisone (as we did last year for months) then there is more naturopathically we can do to get down to the problem.  If we end up going this route, it will takes months to get to that point again.  He is pot committed right now to the drugs he is on.  There is no way we can take him off them right now or who knows how many joints would flare up. 

So....this means I have a lot of preparing food ahead of me!  And it also means I am gladly taking any recipes that fall into those dietary restrictions!  We just want Caleb healthy....and I will continue to try to make his tummy happy in the process...