Rebuild from Depression Blog

The emails are increasing as this book moves further from its launch date. I am sorry for the delays. We have had hiccups and are working in absolutely the final stages of production of the book Rebuild from Depression. I still cannot say exactly when it will be available in stores, but what I am going to do is make a limited number available as soon as possible on this website given the fact that this book is already late.

In the next week or two, you will have the opportunity to buy a combination of an e-book version and a print version for the price of the print version. For those of you overseas who just want an electronic copy, you will have that opportunity. For those who want just the print version, you can buy the combo for the price of the print version or wait and buy the print version for the price of the print version.

In the meantime, what I am going to do every single day until we start selling the book is posting something about a depression buster food. That commitment alone may inspire me to get the book done faster. :)

The long march is coming to an end. I have a final copy to approve and some index changes. My daily penance of posting about depression busting foods on this blog every single day until the book is available is becoming a long march in itself. It looks like I missed my obligation entirely yesterday and today I can hardly hold my arms at the computer because they have been dragging brush and decaying wood to a burn pile. We're cleaning the place up for a wedding in early August that will be right here on our property. The amount of trash around here is unbelievable. This was my parents' house for many years and my father saved every piece of scrap wood from his projects. You shouldn't have to haul 18" 2x4s to a burn pile that should have been disposed of twenty years ago.

I said to the guys who were here helping, "If you are wood recyclers and if it's going to make you cry to see me burn this stuff, this isn't the job for you."

"That pile of junk?"

We fueled ourselves on egg salad sandwiches, a great depression-fighting food. I am trying to keep up the dried liver regimen as well.

Just over one year ago I announced here on this blog that I was expecting a baby in December. “I don’t know if I am feeling more fear or excitement, but it’s definitely a combination of the two,” I wrote in 95% excitement and 5% fear. We did not plan to have a second child, though I do admit now that we really did want a second one more than just anything else.

This week was baby Alastair's first "half-birthday." He is six months old and I realize that perhaps my greatest achievement (ever) is making it this far healthy and sane. With my first son Frederick, the depression began in pregnancy. I had some psychotic episodes just before the birth and in the first few months postpartum. Major down cycles continued for years. For two years I was pretty much incapacitated. From there, my mental health improved each year. In this second pregnancy and postpartum period I had one bad episode that I wrote about, surrounding a surgery for Alastair, but I weathered the surgery well with some focus and tools. I stayed out of "the pit" as I call it here.

At this six month milestone I reflect the tools that got me here.

Technorati Tags: Amanda Rose, B vitamins, iron, magnesium, Omega 3, postpartum depression, pregnancy, Rebuild from Depression, zinc

This book is so long in coming, I have written two versions of the Afterword.

The "Afterword" in a book is supposed to be that last-minute, stick-it-in-there-before-it-hits-the-press part of the book. You are supposed to write it and then actually print the book. If you write it and then suddenly get pregnant and stop all of life, you might end up with two versions of the Afterword. To show how slowly the wheels of publishing can sometimes turn, you will note that even the new Afterword is a bit dated if you have already read my more recent postpartum depression story. I thought you might find it of interest to read both the old and the new posted below the jump.

If you have not seen sample chapters of the book, you can find them on the book page (where, finally, you can conveniently even buy the book).

Or learn more about the book.

I know that when people look for a book for years and cannot find it, that they may be in disbelief that it does actually exist. Apparently it does. My husband reports a sighting. For my part, I slept for fourteen hours last night and missed the first book sighting in this household. I am told it's a good-looking book.

You can find out more about the book, Rebuild from Depression, on the book page. There is a buy button there as well and below. If you buy from this site, you will receive a signed copy. The retail price is $19.97 and you will get free shipping as well. Californians are taxed, of course. I considered taxing everyone and sending the revenue to the California State Board of Equalization because it really needs the money but I decided that 8% of a few book sales won't really go very far to bridge the $26B gap in the latest budget talks.

If you have won the book in one of the now ages-old contests on this blog, leave a comment and I'll get it to you. Otherwise, it may be a while before I can track you down.

Read the two versions of the Afterword as well if you would like. The book page has excerpts and endorsements as well.

The book is about depression, not specifically postpartum depression. However, my own story that makes up part of the book is about depression in pregnancy and postpartum depression. Based on the story and the nutrition information in the book, Nina Planck mentioned it in her newest Real Food book.

Nina Planck wrote:

The best book on postnatal depression and food I've seen is Rebuild from Depression, by Amanda Rose, who understands the condition from bitter experience.

Technorati Tags: Nina Planck, Rebuild from Depression

I was reading the Afterword for the book (which is now available) that I wrote about six months ago now. I describe in the new version of the Afterword how emotional I was when I realized that not only did I have another baby, but I had a second that looked just like the first. Postpartum depression steals so much from you. You cannot enjoy those tender moments with your baby and they grow up so fast. I had grieved the loss of Frederick's infancy a great deal over the past seven years and found myself so emotional when I realized that not only did I have a second healthy baby, I had one who looked just like the first. I wrote a recap about a month ago about the postpartum depression story on Alastair's six-month birthday.

In this context, I thought I would be self-indulgent and post pictures of these twin-like boys. Here is their birth, also twin-like in the c-sections and their NICU stay for pneumothorax:

Here we are at about a month or so postpartum:

I may be just about the luckiest person in the world.

~~~

Giveaway
Congratulations to Jessica Flohr, my FaceBook friend, who won in the latest supplement giveaway. She wins the jumbo pack of Omega 3s, B vitamins, and magnesium. She should contact me within the next week or so to claim her prize. Jessica could leave a comment right here with her address (and I'll remove the address before posting) or contact me on Facebook. Apparently I have been having comment problems here, problems with my email, and my Facebook account was hacked this morning. So if you have problems, it's probably on my end. I wonder who has time to hack.

We have two more winners in the coming week, one for the jumbo pack like Jessica won and one for a desiccated liver product. Early in the week is the liver, later the jumbo pack.

If you are just joining this contest, enter to win by leaving a comment anywhere on this blog. I will ship to any U.S. address. Increase your chances by doing the following:

• Friend me or follow me on Facebook(here) or Twitter(here): 1 point each
• Stumble this entry, one of the food science pages, or anything that has caught your fancy.: 1 point.
• In Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or LinkedIn provide a link to some of the content here (see the recent food science post for a lot of ideas): 1 point
• Provide a link to this contest from your blog: 2 points (but gosh, this just increases your competition, LOL)
• Blog about some of the content on this website (see the recent food science post for a lot of ideas or check FoodGraphs.net): 3 points

Remember to contact me to claim your prize.

Technorati Tags: giveaway, postpartum depression, pregnancy, Rebuild from Depression

Things have been wild around here in the last week. We have been scrambling to tie the knots on two new information products we are selling from this site. I will surely be posting about the products in more detail in the coming weeks, but I'll just introduce them briefly now.

Phytic acid paper

Since December of 2006, I have offered a phytic acid ecourse on this blog. Phytic acid is a substance found in grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds that reduces your ability to absorb minerals from those foods. There are simple kitchen techniques we can use to break down phytic acid and absorb more minerals from our food.

The e-course was packed with information, but it is admittedly clunky, and wasn't updated in over three years. I went back to the original research and created nearly twenty different graphic displays of the research, like this one I have posted before on this blog (that also happens to be at FoodGraphs.net):

The paper walks you through the processes you should use to prepare grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds to reduce the phytic acid, providing visual displays of research along the way. It addresses some of the topics left lingering in the e-course, like what to do with rice and what is the best process for corn. More importantly, it provides a collection of recipes so that you can immediately implement the processes in your kitchen. If you are aware of the phytic acid issue, the recipes are not more soaked flour recipes. These are easy and the breads are about as close to no-fail as you can get. I'm pretty excited about them. Of course, I have probably gained ten pounds testing them.

The paper is digital and buying will entitle you to any later versions. One of those later versions could be available any day since I just talked to my mom and she said, "We must test that biscuit recipe." I may well be back in maternity clothes soon (and not because I have any particular news, just that I really like biscuits).

Read more about the phytic acid paper.

Raw milk paper

If you read this blog regularly, you surely must know that I have been involved in a wee bit of raw milk politics. I wrote an article on the Ethicurean last month about the information environment for raw milk consumers called "Memo to raw milk advocates: Improve information, or get sued." It describes the threat by food injury lawyer William Marler to sue the Weston A. Price Foundation. Probably stronger than is my desire for raw milk is my desire that consumers be informed about the choices they are making. On the Ethicurean, we discussed misinformation among consumers about a specific raw milk safety issue: whether raw milk has components that kill pathogens. From that discussion I announce a raw milk white paper:

Does raw milk kill pathogens? A visual analysis of the literature on competitive exclusion

As with the phytic acid paper, this raw milk paper is packed with visual displays of the research that describes what happens to a pathogen when it is inserted into fresh raw milk. There are urban legends about raw milk killing pathogens within hours. Urban legends are sometimes true and sometimes false. Sometimes they are a mixture of both. Read the paper to learn more about this urban legend. It is available for sale here now.

Read more about the raw milk paper.

Contest winners

We had some funny entries in our latest supplement giveaway. All you had to do to enter was tell us a funny story. Thank you for your entries.

Julie and Missy are the lucky winners of fizzy magnesium and a book. Missy actually won a book in a previous contest so she may end up with a library. That makes me think to offer Missy and Julie both the chance to switch things around if they want. Let me know if you would rather have one of the new digital papers instead of either the magnesium or book.

Congratulations ladies!

I have been also totally remiss in mailing out prizes. I am going to do that tomorrow! Really! (She says hopefully to herself.)

Technorati Tags: Ethicurean, giveaway, magnesium, phytic acid, raw milk, William Marler

Our international sales option has been down for a few weeks. If you have tried to order, you may do so now.

The Rebuild book ships free in the U.S., for $3 to Canada, and for $8 elsewhere. The phytic acid paper and raw milk white paper are delivered digitally and, thus have no shipping fee.

Californians will pay sales tax for the Rebuild book but there is no sales tax on the digital papers.

Check it out at Rebuild Market.

In the meantime, we are chugging along here enjoying a nice spring-like week here in the Sequoia National Forest. I have been getting exercise and vitamin D working on the old road near "the lost road" each day after some hours of focus on this computer.

Here's one of the views near the lost road: