If Life Gives You Lemons….

Spending the past two years without any medication for my Crohns beast has gone well for the most part. Recently my symptoms have increased a bit which makes me wonder how much longer I can go without meds. After the last medication sent me to the ICU I am very hesitant to start any new medication. The changes in my diet were helpful for a while but in the past six months or so the gluten free and dairy free diet just has not been helping. As a matter of fact upon hearing that the coconut (milk/ice cream/yogurt) products I had been eating may have been the culprit leading me to 3 kidney stones in three months I have just gone back to just eating limited dairy. My nails have thanked me, they were getting very brittle and ridged. So far no more kidney stones either. I have been focusing more on organic foods and choosing REAL food instead of processed. Being on the gluten free diet I was eating a lot more processed foods that I'm convinced have more sugar. I've switched to sourdough bread. Apparently the gluten breaks down in the process of making the sourdough. The best tip I've read regarding real food is to look at the ingredients list. If there are more than 4 or 5 ingredients leave it in the store. You would not believe some of the stuff they put in the food we have been eating. If you want to know go to foodbabe.com She tells you exactly what is in all kinds of foods/products and the labeling is very misleading.

Now for the lemons! I've know for some time that lemons are very good for you. I put them in my water all the time. Lemons are cleansing so when I had my first kidney stone I started drinking hot lemon water in the mornings instead of tea. Once summer kicked in I decided to start making fresh squeezed lemon aid. I looked for some recipes and "holy sugar". A small pitcher of lemon aid calls for 1 cup of sugar. No thank you. So I tweaked it:

Cut 4-6 Lemons in half and squeeze the juice out.
Next make a simple syrup (they used 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar)
I used 1 cup of water and 1/4 cup sugar. (I would prefer to use honey but my honey supply has been low)
heat water until sugar is dissolved

add squeezed lemon juice to simple syrup, stir

Pour mixture through a strainer and into a pitcher
Add 4-6 cups of water
Refridgerate
Enjoy :)

Its also a great source of vitamin C. I haven't had any colds since I started drinking this!

Love, Laugh, and Always know where the nearest bathroom is