I'm starting my fifth week on the Sally K. Norton program for autoimmune. It's like the fifth week of Atkins, or Carnivore, from my experience. Like those changes, I'm looking forward to staying on it. It's another instance of how my body and moods are already so upgraded, I'd be a fool not to.

The benefits after a month:

• hormone balancing in the morning has gone from being managed with neurotransmitters, d-ribose, and other supplements to fixing itself so I'm only supplementing niacin with B complex, iodine, and the Norton mineral reccs
• reduced need of bio-identical estrogen and legal herb as a result. (Both are expensive so that's a win.)
• better sleep with this last week containing three nights of total eight hours. This does not include pitstop time, but I go back to sleep quickly. If I don't, I know it's over, but I am more refreshed. Even though what might have been an allergic reaction on my eyelids have made me wary of sleeping with a mask and I had to let it go during the Pandemic.
• happy mood is real and that means happy tummy which leads to happy brain and I sing ridiculous things like that to the cats. That's how cheerful.
• bulk investment is a measure of my regard as I now buy remaining supplements in bulk

In such cases, only if I can dose using spoons. If I have to weigh it in grams while canceling out the weight of my waxed paper, I can. I don't want to do it twice a day. Like the potassium citrate comes in only one size, 99g, and you can take more. But you can't accidentally take a higher dosage than you meant and kill yourself, you have a multiple pill margin. So I buy the pills.

Someone is trying to tell me something.

But I'm saving at least some money by dropping, or not reordering, supplements which helped but are no longer needed. Which I am thinking is a long list that makes me seem smarter than I actually was at the time

But my pregnenolone experiments with bulk impressed me with the benefits and drawbacks. Like my niacin, it's actually easier to take a half teaspoon twice a day than juggling all the little bottles. I'll get them when needed, like in my purse or something. I've gone apothecary, but not pushing my limits. L-theanine is still around, in pills and bulk, but I don't have the nausea issues I used to.

I think that's an astounding thing all by itself. I've been trying to get my cortisol more self-regulated since (looking back) 2010. Probably half of that was it getting steadily worse, which I couldn't begin to address until the Pandemic, ironically.

I realized I had been overly cautious about minerals. My increased dairy intake was doing wonders for me, and the book explains why. So I'm following her major reccs under the detailed guidance of the book.

Our next town over supermarket has the best lemon juice, and cheapest. I have cute little jars to keep my supplements in, and I need more measuring spoons. I have also rediscovered yogurt smoothies, with whey protein in whole milk Greek yogurt, small portions of fruit, and flavor extracts. I can put my portion of lemon or lime juice in it, so my personal smoothie maker is back on the counter again.

I am controlling my oxalate dump with fruit, as my least damaging source of carbs. Giving my body some carbs helps it use the energy to dump oxalate with less inflammation. And yes, I can eat a whole mango and slow down the body aches, fever, thirst, and lack of appetite.

When my hunger returns, it gets met with cold cuts and cheese, so it's a complete meal that is highly satisfying. It can act as a safety net so I can stop symptoms which are too uncomfortable. That's a sign it's doing more harm than good. I should slow it down with a measured helping of an oxalate/carb mix.

In my smoothie recipes (the pineapple lime coconut one, for instance!) all the fruit is low oxalate, I get my 1/4 cup of citrus juice, and small portions. Mango and cocoa are in my diet with portion control. I can have extra helpings of such if I need to slow down or brake my dumping for a while.

It's okay for me to have more cocoa in my smoothie or a whole mango, to sleep better and wake up the next morning okay to run errands. Not dreading it for the first time in three years? Priceless.

When there's a bounce there's no craving it, either, since I can use extracts for different tastes and there's low oxalate fruits like Bartlett pears, apples, grapes, and cherries. Like I'm eating it for healthy reasons and when I'm healthier it shuts itself off.

I had worked out adding fruit with carnivore, and now I realize it did me good to manage the oxalate dumping from eating zero oxalate for a couple of months.

But this has worked less predictably as I started Herxing. I'm dumping toxin so I've pulled my oxalate consumption down enough to do so. And now I must stop lowering.

I can drive when I'm feeling sick, but Herxheimer reactions make me dizzy, distort vision and hearing, and odd bursts of tiredness and energy as toxins are released and cleaned up. DH went through it with an intensive antibiotic therapy, and that's how I know what it is. And it's a good thing, warned in the book, as well.

Herxing is a new and welcome sign, though. It might make my responses less predictable as I'm dealing with a moving target. I also took it as a sign that I should keep my remaining mid-level favorites since going too low is a danger.

It made me realize that I'd dropped certain things that no longer seemed important, like a mixed Italian spice for Italian on a coconut wrap, instead of all that basil. No more nightshade vegetables, even if it was low lectin. I wasn't eating dangerously high, before, but I should hold steady and get my ability to not dread errands in return.

Even when I feel worse from a new baseline, I understand why it's happening. I control it, it slows or ends, and I get an upgrade.

I'm supposed to think of it as a long term commitment. A long healing journey. But I can still bring chocolate and fruit