wiser participates in Science in Anarchy's first experiment

There's an experiment going on, starting today, to test the hypothesis that taking an OTC anti-inflammatory pill can help you feel better after you've eaten food that the body deems is hostile or poisonous (such as processed food). You can read the details here.

So I thought I'd participate by being in the control group #sa1g0. I need to eat what I normally eat but document it, so that's what these posts are about. I won't be offended in the slightest if you don't want to read them, but please don't downvote them thinking it's trivial stuff. It may be boring, but it's science. Actually it's #scienceinanarchy.

I'm starting this post now and adding onto it throughout the day, taking advantage of the fact that I can edit my posts up until the time of payout, approximately 12 hours.

I started my day by taking four pills of the Green Pastures brand fermented cold liver oil and butter oil blend, chasing them down with a glass of homemade lime-aid. I had three slices of homemade quiche for breakfast. Ingredients are whole wheat flour, olive oil, salt, eggs, milk, ground beef and cheddar cheese. I don't have the package to photograph since we already subdivided it, but here is a link to the product itself. I also had one or two slices each of red delicious apple and yellow bell pepper.

I haven't had lunch yet but will have a bowl of homemade chicken noodle soup. Ingredients include boneless skinless (and cut up) chicken breasts, carrots, celery, homemade chicken broth, yellow onion, garlic powder, dried basil, dried oregano, bay leaf, ground pepper, and whole wheat noodles. 

As a snack while cooking lunch I had three Hershey's almond kisses. Here is a picture of them before I ate them and the wrappers.

My mood and interactions today were pretty typical of what you'd expect trying to get the family to a church service on time when you overslept and had to rush everything. A little frazzled and tense but civil. My interactions with people at the service were unremarkeable. A slightly tense interraction with my husband when he realized he'd forgotten his computer, which he needed to take with him afterwards. I was also a bit annoyed when I found out he'd dumped the entire box of noodles into aforementioned soup when we slow cooked it yesterday rather than one cup as the recipe called for. The same old "Didn't I tell you it was only one cup?" followed by "I don't remember."

Having to document more details about my social interactions is going to make me be more thoughtful about what I say and how I say it before I open my mouth. This could be some good accountability, but not exactly the purpose of the experiment.

By the way, not sure if this is important to the experiment, but I am a nursing mother. Partly why I'm reluctant to put myself into a group that requires me to take an OTC drug just because I feel ill or depressed, though I will not hesitate for a full blown headache.

More to come later when I eat more. Now off to enjoy that chicken noodle soup.

***

After eating the chicken noodle soup, I am enjoying a pomegranate Outshine popsicle for dessert along with some more lime-aid. The ingredients in the lime-aid are limes, water and white sugar.

I am feeling sleepy, so will now try to catch a nap while the baby is still sleeping and before the rest of my family gets home and makes the house noisy.

***

I had three slices of home made pizza for dinner. Ingredients include whole wheat flour, olive oil, water, tomato sauce, ground beef, mild cheddar cheese and canned black olives. Finished off the lime-aid.

Next I went to pick up oldest daughter from youth group. We then worked on invitations for her upcoming birthday party. During that time I had some gastro-intestinal distress. Oops. I remember there was milk in the quiche and straight milk does not agree with me, something I've only recently admitted (because I really, really like milk). I can drink cream, so no need to sacrifice my occasional cup of heavily creamed coffee. But straight milk, even unprocessed raw milk, causes all kinds of intestinal rumblings. I'm hoping to eventually try some different enzymes, but in the mean time I avoid it, except when I don't.

When my daughter and I got home, the baby was fussing, so I nursed him. I always feel on edge when he's upset and today was no different. It's a relief to me when he latches on and is no longer fussy. Nursed him for about 20 minutes until he got sleepy while working on writing this. This was about 8:30 pm. I will next make sandwiches for children's lunches tomorrow and eat some leftover lettuce, then call it a night.

***

Nursed the baby to sleep at 10 pm. (hopefully he'll sleep for a good four or five hours). I just finished some leftover salad consisting of yellow peppers, lettuce, carrots, and Ranch Dressing (oh no, do I have to photograph the bottle?). I'm feeling tired and slightly annoyed that I can't just make some quick peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the kids. One of the classmates is anaphylactically allergic to peanuts so all food containing peanuts is banned from the school this year. I get it, but it's still annoying. I made sourdough bread earlier, so now I will slice it up and make the sandwiches. Cheese and butter because I think we're out of lunch meat. I have to volunteer at the school so I'll be fixing my lunch as well.

***

Sandwiches are made. I had a slice of fresh sourdough bread with butter. It was yummy. For the past two weeks I've been making sourdough bread for my family. I got the starter from a friend. Several weeks ago I stopped by his house to pick up a tablet I'd ordered, and walked out with the tablet and some starter. I fed it for about a week and then made the first loaves. They were so easy to make and delicious I decided to make a set of loaves every week so the kids could have home made bread for their sandwiches. This bread has only three ingredients: flour, water, and salt. I use whole wheat flour. 

I found another half gallon of lime-aid hiding in the back of the fridge. That made me happy. I thought we'd run out. I will definitely have to make this again. I made a whole bunch last week because I needed two limes for a make ahead crock pot recipe. You don't just walk into Sam's Club and buy two limes. So I made lime-aid out of the rest of the bag.

I have to wake up early tomorrow so I need to call it a night. This has been fun. We'll see if I can keep it up for thirty days. It's for science :)