I think we need a change...of diet...

I have a bad case of the blah's. No energy, EXTREMELY limited patience with my children (more limited than my usual short fuse), general grumpiness, and just MEH. I think it's the heat, the kids being out of school, the stress of having a house on the market that no one seemingly even wants to LOOK at....but I suspect a huge underlying cause is my diet.

I've been Gluten Free for over 7 years now and it's been quite a journey. But before that I definitely had an unhealthy diet. I was raised on sugary, fried, high fat, high calorie foods. Greens? Hah! Veggies?? HAH HAH! I come from the land of "if it moves, kill it and fry it.". My mother showered me with sugary snacks and treats rather than deal with me. (When she went into the hospital before she died her blood sugar was over 600....it was obviously an addiction for her.)

I too have a rampant sweet tooth. Now, my diet is LIGHTYEARS ahead of where it was as a kid. Now I WILL eat fruits and veggies, in a variety of forms. But I live with three very very picky eaters, one big and two little.

We've had a major food battle here for years. Our oldest is slightly better than the younger, but the youngest, E, eats very little. Nothing much healthy and we can use his Autism excuse all day long, but in the end, it's been that I don't want to deal with the epic battle that will ensue when I cut off his normal snacking and force healthy food. It's going to be uuuuuuuuuuuuugly.

What I'm thinking is, the only way for me to do this is to drastically change what is IN the house for us to eat. Now I'm not one who thinks you can't ever have dessert, sodas, etc. Even the great "health gurus" say if you want to lose weight to not cut out your faves ENTIRELY. Then you will feel extremely deprived and gorge.

But if the unhealthy food is IN the house, you will eat it. Therefore I am vowing to cut out some things from our diet. I'm sure this will be a process. I am not throwing out food we already have, because I don't have the funds to just toss food. But I made a small victory today when I refused to buy the kids the fruit chewy gummy treats they suck up like crazy. Yes they were 1.99 on sale, but NO, I walked away!

I found this site and it seems much more manageable. 100Days of Real Food. I want to look at food as God intended. If it has 8 thousand ingredients, put it back. If I cannot pronounce or explain where the ingredient comes from, put it back. Check out her Meal Plans here: http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/our-free-meal-plans/

So here's the foods I'd like to change out:


NO MORE:                                                 INSTEAD EAT:
"fruit" gummy treats                                        Natural, organic gummies, in less amount
Candy at home                                              Fruit, Organic Gummies
Soda at home                                                Soda only bought while "out" (church, out to dinner, special
                                                                     treat)


Daily Must Eats: (adapted from site linked above)

• 2 Different Fruits/Veggies with EVERY meal (this will be hard and vary depending on how often I go to the store)

• Only coffee, water, and 1 serving of juice allowed for me. Water may be sweetened with Crystal Light Pure to make it easier on me. Coffee is stevia and light creamer.

• For kids: Limit 2 milks per day, for E slowly cutting back the amount of Nesquik until A) we run out B) he's off it completely, whatever comes first. 1 Juice per day for each boy, water the rest of day.***NOTE, since I wrote this blog post, E now drinks WHITE milk with NO Nesquik!***

• As much as I'd love to only buy locally raised, organic meats...it's just not available or in the budget. So I will instead: Make 2 red meat meals, 3 chicken/poultry meals, and the rest meatless or fish.

• No fried foods. This is fairly easy for us as the only thing I ever deep fry is sometimes chicken nuggets, so we'll limit that to a monthly meal. Being gluten free, makes this one easier.

• Fast food once per week. (Soda can be consumed this night.)

• No low fat, reduced fat versions of food. We already do that, I found most of the "light" versions of foods are full of chemicals. I'd rather reduce the amount of the full fat item than eat a subpar substitution. Don't get me started on margarine...

• 100% Whole Grain, this is a harder goal for us, being Gluten Free.  I will say this, whenever possible, if there is a high fiber/high grain gluten free version of a GF Item (i.e. bagels), I will choose that one when possible.

• Stop eating when full, very doable. I hate that "oh my God, I ate way too much" feeling. Blech. For my husband, not so easy.

• Limit refined sugars. I'm not saying "no refined sugars" as this blog does. I just think that's too much to ask. I think stevia, agave, honey, and even good ol' sugar are fine in small amounts.

• Limited food dyes. Just by cutting the fruit gummies this will help alot. I have KoolAid mixes on hand for emergencies but mostly they are used for my yarn dyeing, so no worries there! LOL

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I think if I can implement these suggestions, we will all feel a lot better. Will we slip up? I'm sure. Will we have days where we still feel bad? Of course. But I know that for example, both my boys have digestive issues on top of our need for the Gluten Free diet. How much better would that be if they ate better? I can't blame it on them, I am the one putting food on the table. I am the one stocking the fridge and pantry. So if I DO NOT stock certain items, then they will have no choice but to eat what's there.

My new motto...."Eat it or starve."

Here's to better health! I'll let you know how I do!
~~Amy

girl disconnected...4 more days

4 more days and I get my online life back.

I think I have learned what I needed to learn. I'll recap:

1. I do not NEED the internet and social networking. Should tragedy befall us and we had to cut things...I'd turn it off, no problem.
2. Although I do not NEED social networking...I WANT social networking. Being a WAHM generally surrounded by humans under 4 feet tall, a dog, no one or a combination of those three....I need the connection sites like facebook bring me. I also, apparently, like to talk and social networking helps me ease that.
3. I did not accomplish many of the goals I wanted to accomplish. I did start making small changes to our diet and grocery purchases. I'm still a coupon fanatic but am seeking out more healthy purchases with the coupons. But in these tight times, I gotta do what I gotta do to feed my family!
4. I did not create much at all. But this has little do with with disconnecting. My kids are home on summer break and all consuming. So summer was probably NOT a great time to try disconnecting.
5. I did see how disconnecting is valuable and am trying to decide what day each week I want to be my "unplugged" day.


here is how my goals broke down. (Mind you these were long term goals listed here, but I wanted to update my progress.) (Updates are in Red)
*Integrate stevia and blue agave nectar into diet more.--Working on! They no longer make Sun Crystals, my sweetener of choice for my coffee, but I can make my own by mixing stevia and real cane sugar. I also got some local honey and agave nectar and have been using them in coffee and smoothies!

*Use up current stockpile of all items that contain high fructose corn syrup, and multiple chemicals on the label. Working on....slowly and surely.

*As we use that stock up, research alternatives for such items.Working on....slowly and surely.

*Limit our soda intake. Once it’s used up...purchase natural sodas without HFCS. Working on....slowly and surely.

*Drink more Water. Working on....slowly and surely. Sort of failing in this one...

*Cut back on sugar.   Working on....slowly and surely. Sort of failing in this one...
 
*Eliminate or drastically cut back on food dyes. Working on....slowly and surely. I think I'm doing good in this one, it was mostly for the boys and as I look at their diet, they don't eat much with food dyes. Their fruit jerky (fruit strips) are colored with fruit and veggie dyes. Their cereals don't contain dyes. Their juices are all natural. Probably their biggest downfall is the occasional popsicle at PawPaw's house, but I also want to be realistic, the sometimes popsicle isn't going to kill them. Fruit Chewy Treats are probably the last majorly dyed food they ingest, and again, I'm not going to go all Gestapo on their butts.

*Purchase meats, dairy and produce that I KNOW where it came from. Working on....slowly and surely. This information is harder to get than I thought.
    *Purchase red meat and chicken only from our local grocery store Working on....slowly and surely. Local and organic meats are SUPER costly.
    *Purchase the ‘dirtiest’ produce list http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2010/04/29/2010-dirty-dozen-produce-list-released-by-the-ewg/ organic and preferably, locally grown.Working on....slowly and surely.
    *Purchase locally grown and organic fed dairy products. Working on....slowly and surely. Thankfully most of the milk I buy is from local farmers who supposedly don't use hormones or any of that. Still trying to find a good, clean, quiet source of Raw Milk. Since it's illegal I can't even tell you if I find one anyways.

*Exercise more! FAILED miserably. I've walked the dog...that's about it. I've put on about 8 lbs in the past six months. I'm a new mission to get ripped.

*Spend more time in bible study. Working on....slowly and surely. I've not done enough of this, absolutely not.
 
*Cleaning and Housework.  Working on....slowly and surely. Getting better. I'm still trying to make myself get on a good schedule, but I'm not a good schedule keeper. But I've done okay keeping things going, since it is summer and both kids are home...it's a lot harder to keep things clean!

*Purge some of the plastic. Working on....slowly and surely. Purged some and am working on purging more. Slowly (it's costly!) replacing my plastic items with glass.
*Read More! Doing good! I'm up to 9 books finished on my kindle alone. I think my goal to read in 2011 was 20-25. I'm reading a few books off the kindle (what are these called now, In Real Life books?) and as always, my stack of magazines.

*Un-Plug More. Semi Accomplished!! As this girl disconnected series draws to a close, I admit I've sneaked on some social networking sites, I've still used my iPad and I've still done what I needed to do for my business online. But I was offline a WHOLE lot more than I've ever been in recent years. I of course didn't have a ton of time to BE online since it's summer, but not even being ALLOWED online helped ease my stress and guilt for 'not getting enough done.'

So, overall, I'm not doing TOO terrible I think!!

See ya'll soon! FOUR MORE DAYS!
~~amy 

girl, disconnected...day 3

I accomplished one of my goals today. If you'll remember I blogged a few days ago my VERY lofty goals on WHY this disconnect was important to me. One of my to-do's is to ensure I start my family on a healthier lifestyle. I watched "Food, Inc" and I must say. If you've NOT seen this movie. You absolutely must. No, it didn't make me a vegetarian but it did make me ANGRY. Now if you read this, you KNOW I am a big fan of capitalism, business and personal responsibility. However, what the food industry has done to us is shameful, horrifying and disgusting.

I wonder am I powerless to change anything? But as the end of the movie points out, you CAN make a change...with every bite you put in your mouth. Every time you buy groceries you are voting...you are making a difference by shopping. If you only purchase Twinkies and YooHoo's, that's what the industry is going to provide.

I've been on a lifelong battle to eat better. I was raised on high fat, high sugar, cheap, "low income" kind of foods. Food shouldn't be based on a class system. Just because you make more money you shouldn't be able to feed your kids healthier food than others. So how do I, a middle class stay at home mother cause change?

By re-examining our diet. It will be a sloooooooooow process, I know that. I am a big fan of couponing and saving money...and it's said you CAN'T coupon on a natural/organic diet. Well, that sounds like a challenge to me. And I am INCREDIBLY hard-headed and stubborn. I want to see if that's really true.

What I have to remember, every time I go shopping, is at what price is it worth my kids health? I've been a 'natural' or "crunchy" kinda gal for some time now...which is hard for people to understand because I do so love my sugary treats, and I am at heart a libertarian....which means I'm all for keeping the government OUT of my life.

But what infuriates me more, is that there are government agencies (the FDA, the USDA) that are FAILING us. Every day. Every meal. I am not a fan of government, you know that. But for those of you who ARE....how does this not infuriate you?? How does this not make you angry? How do you support such institutations that are KILLING people? I hear much talk about how many politicians are in bed with the meat industry, the corn industry, etc....what about those in bed with Monsanto? What about those who turn a blind eye to high fructose corn syrup? It's NOT just Republicans and you are niave if you think so.

I, for one, never had much faith in our government. Not since I've been alive. So it's up to me and my faith in God that we stay healthy. So I have to do MY part. I have to purchase responsible foods. Even if it's at a cost. Maybe this means we eat a little bit less. Maybe this means I coupon and donate the foods we don't use to food banks. Maybe this means I help my friend with her garden and NEXT year I try it myself??

I don't know ALL the changes I will be able to make. Massive change always starts with one small step. So my challenge for this month is simple.

*Grocery shop only at a local store and Whole Foods. Conciously examine WHERE the food is coming from and how the meat is fed and cared for. Let's see JUST how much more costly eating better is. And how can I save money in other ways to MAKE this happen??

I have a Whole Foods gift card burning a hole in my pocket. Let's just see how much of my normal groceries I can get there and at our locally owned grocery store and for HOW much more money??

And if you're brave enough, consider checking out Millions Against Monsanto. If there ever has been an evil corporation...they are it. And this is me...the girl who's a big fan of personal responsibility and business....saying this. Pure evil.

Thus ends day 3 of my disconnect. We're off to meet our dog tomorrow and hopefully tomorrow I can introduce you to Maxwell the dog!!
~~Amy