Sometimes, all you need is a little push to get out of your comfort zone.
“Each time you try something for the first time, a little piece of fear of the unknown is removed and replaced with a sense of empowerment.”
Quote by Annette White
These days, I’m stepping out of my own comfort zone, food wise. Because, even though I’m quite familiar with a healthy lifestyle, there’s always things that I haven’t tried. Healthy options that nourish my body, taste amazing and are also perfect to fit with a busy lifestyle.
PALEO FOR FIBRO
For many years, I only ate paleo style (my own version of it, that is). No refined sugars, no bread / other dough products, no dairy, but I ate lots of greens. This was all due to the fact that – after many doctor visits thanks to inexplicable health issues – the rheumatologist had given me the diagnosis of Fibromyalgia.
Fibromyalgia is a “disorder” characterized by pain all over your body. It’s not pain in your bones, but actual pain in the soft tissue surrounding the ligaments and joints. It is seen as a rheumatic condition, but the big difference with any other rheumatic disorder, is that it does not involve pain in the bones. It’s also often accompanied by fatigue, sleep, memory and mood issues.
Fibro pain is often described as this all over pins and needles sensation. For me, it also felt as if there was a elastic tie wrapped around one (or all) of my limbs. That would then decrease the blood flow and make your limb feel numb. Also, the joint where the pain would be, would also feel like this elastic band was getting tighter and tighter. I know this might not make any sense to those who never experienced it, but to those who are familiar with fibro…. I know you know.
Doctors seem to still be quite clueless about the cause of fibromyalgie. However, research has shown that symptoms often begin after a traumatic event. This can be physical trauma, surgery, infection, but is also often the case with those who have had significant psychological stress.
The very moment that the Dr told me his “diagnosis”, I also knew that there was no cure for it. The only thing that can be done, is to prescribe you a very low dose of anti-depressants. And since I’m not a big fan of taking medications, when it’s not needed, I instantly said no to this. I KNEW – in my gut – that I would find my own cure. And I also knew that I would not just leave it with that, which was pretty much what the Dr told me to do. “There’s nothing you can do, so just accept it as it is.”
NO THANK YOU!
GETTING RID OF FIBRO PAIN
I invested a lot of time in researching for other things that might help me. As it turned out, so many others had amazing results with various things they did. Basically, it all came down to the elimination of as many stress factors as I could. Sounds really simple, but when it comes down to actually doing this, it really isn’t that easy.
FOOD AS MEDICINE
Eating the “wrong” types of food, really added to the stress levels that my body was already experiencing. Some foods are simply extremely hard to digest for the human body, other foods are just filled with non-nutritional ingredients, and others are contributing to the inflammation process in your body. And that’s exactly where so many fibro fighters found “help”. Reduce the inflammation in your body and therefore you reduce the pain levels. So it really comes down to making food your medicine.
But yeah… The better I started to feel over the years, the more I let go of this concept. These days, I hardly ever experience fibro pain anymore. Yay for me! I know what levels of “unhealthy” foods I can eat, I know the signals of when to stop and also know what to do to give myself a nice little reset (yay for detoxing). That’s such a big positive for having spent so many years learning about food intake, plus learning what my body needs.
But to be honest? The past year, all I’ve done was trying to survive. The Covid-19 virus really did a number on my body and I can finally say that things are looking bright again. So time to clear this body up, by getting started again with a healthier lifestyle.
SAY HI TO CAULIFLOWER RICE
Today, I thought it would be an amazing time to try something new. Yes, even in all my years of eating paleo style, I’ve never had this before. Can you believe it?!
Because I am a huge fan of the super delicious Jasmin rice or Pandan rice, I was a bit cautious about this fake rice. I mean, what’s the chance that this will only taste like cauliflower? That would be bad! Then that’s not a proper substitute for rice at all!
THAI INSPIRED FRIED CAULIFLOWER RICE
Because I was a bit hesitant using the cauliflower rice, I decided to go for something that would be packed with flavour. No way that I was going to taste actual cauliflower… And now that I’ve made it and tasted it? Damn, I really don’t understand why I haven’t tried this before. It’s so good! This will definitely be on my list of super yummy and healthy foods.
Time to share my recipe!
Ingredients for Thai inspired cauliflower rice
- 1 pack of cauliflower rice (I used 400 grams)
- 1 onion
- 1 Garlic clove
- Variety of vegetables (I had broccoli, cabbage and carrots)
- Leftover chicken (optional, we just had some in the fridge so I used it)
- Black pepper
- Dark soy sauce (I used Kikkoman)
- Fish sauce
- 1 Tbsp Honey
- Cooking oil, such as olive oil
Cooking directions
- Roughly chop the onion, finely chop the garlic. Put oil in a pot (preferably a wok), add in garlic and onion. Fry until the aroma’s start coming off and the onion softens.
- Cut vegetables into small pieces and add to the wok. Let it cook for a few minutes so that the aromas can start to come off and so that the vegetables can soften a bit.
- If you have leftover chicken (or meat substitute) add it in and stir fry it with the other ingredients.
- Now add the cauliflower rice to the wok. The cauliflower rice needs a few minutes to soften, but make sure you don’t burn it.
- Meanwhile, start preparing the wok sauce in a small cup. Simply take 1 tbsp of honey, mix it with a good amount of soy sauce and an equal amount of fish sauce. The picture above shows you how much soy sauce I used. I never measure foods, but always make things based on how it tastes. If you need more wok sauce, just make some more. Mix all 3 ingredients until the honey is nicely dissolved. Now drizzle the mix over the cauliflower rice and mix it all through.
- Lower the heat as soon as the cauliflower rice softens a bit. Add some ground black pepper to taste and wait for the cauliflower rice to be done.
- Optional: add a bit of fire to it, by mixing in a bit of freshly grated ginger at step 2. Or go for even more spiciness, by adding in some red chillies.
Dutch 
English