Back to Natural Basics

Happy New Year!!!

2012-01-01T09:14:00.002-05:00

I want to set resolutions. I do.

I think I'll do the Dave Ramsey approach and set small, realistic goals instead of the huge, long-term goal. I definitely need to consider the long-term goal in determining my goals that will be the stepping stones towards the long-term goal.

The ultimate goal being that we live a purely natural lifestyle using only natural, organic foods as close to their natural state as possible. However, living in our society today is challenging and we need to continue to remind ourselves that it's OK if we don't do it perfect. It's not an all or nothing thing. Just because I "accidentally" eat a jar of Nutella doesn't mean I can't continue on my journey to eating healthy, whole foods.

It's good right now since our baby (10.5 months old) is eating food and we are very careful to make sure she eats only whole foods. Our son (3.5 years old) is a good eater as well but for some reason I continue to bring hidden treats for myself in to the house. (Or my husband does with his nightly treat of Ben and Jerry's!)

Being more physically active is a goal too. I am not sure what goal to set though. I have talked to my husband about doing an intense 5-minute Crossfit style workout every other day. Obviously I'll fit in a complete workout when I can or try to go for a nice walk, but unfortunately our schedule is something we are not good at managing and my workout time is always put on the back burner. So he will be coming up with 10 5-minute workouts for me to rotate through as I can. FIVE minutes - I can do that right?

Here's to 2012...and knocking out the tiny goals in pursuit of the larger, ultimate goal!

One of my problems with the Paleo diet made right.

2011-10-14T19:28:00.002-04:00

I have a few issues with the Paleo diet/lifestyle. A lot of it makes sense to me (whole foods in the form of lean meat, fresh veggies/fruit, nuts, etc.) but there are parts that don't make any sense whatsoever in our modern age.

One of my issues was that I was understanding the Paleo diet in the sense that you must eat a lean protein source at each meal plus plenty of leafy veggies and some source of quality fat. Ok, fine. Great. However, that is not Paleo....not in my definition. You mean to tell me that a caveman kills an animal and he is thinking, "Oh, let me go find a plateful of leafy things to accompany this meat at every meal." Heck no! He's going to eat that animal from top to bottom until it's gone. Then, there may be a week where he doesn't have any protein from an animal source.

So that was really throwing me for a loop. I just did not understand how it was Paleo if your meals were perfectly proportioned.

Last night, my husband and I were discussing something about eating and I brought up my issue with the Paleo diet thinking. He said something that made me understand SO much about it. He said that the Paleo diet isn't about the proper proportion of protein, carbs, fats. It's about the TYPE of food. Duh. Of course, that's it. I get that. That makes perfect sense. I was just over thinking...as I tend to do!

I guess what I was doing was combining the Zone diet with the Paleo diet. Since we're doing this challenge through Crossfit, they obviously want the portions to be ideal if possible for maximum results in performance (both in the gym and in everyday life). Since we are in the modern age, we can obviously do that because we don't have to kill an animal and eat it until it's gone immediately.

So I am now more ok with the Paleo diet. I think after this challenge we'll probably be an 80/20 Paleo eating family. Not that the 20% will be junk foods, but probably more along the lines of dairy, white potatoes, corn, beans, etc. As long as things are as close to the natural source as possible, I am ok with that.

So although I am not a 100% on board with the Paleo diet lifestyle, I definitely think it's the best guideline out there for the health of our bodies/lives.

Beets and a Paleo Problem

2011-10-12T20:01:00.000-04:00

We are in week two of our Paleo Challenge. I am not doing well. Although some may think I'm doing extremely well since I lost 6 pounds the first week. Which, to many, may be exactly what they want. However, since I am still breastfeeding my eight-month old, it did not do well for me. It affected my milk supply drastically. Whereas my baby was waking around 2-3 a.m. to nurse before the challenge, she then started waking every 1.5 hours. I was exhausted.

It's not that I'm not eating enough food ...or so I think. I eat avocado at breakfast with eggs and always on any salad. I eat bacon in the mornings. I eat more beef than on a typical Paleo diet. I eat more nuts than is recommended. I eat more protein than normal. I eat more snacks throughout the day than recommended. And STILL my body apparently needed more. I freaked and bought some Nutella to eat. Not because I craved the sugar. I actually am doing MUCH better this go around than before when the sugar cravings were killing me! I got that because it was full of fat and at least I'd get a tiny bit of protein (yes, I realize it is made with lots o' sugar and milk) BUT let me tell you that the next two nights I slept so much better because my baby decided that my milk now was sufficient.

I do not want to eat that much sugar. So I found several other high calorie/fat snacks to add in. I feel as though my meals are sufficient since I'm eating more than average with the proteins and fats, so I feel making my in between small meals as fatty and high calorie as possible may help. Who knows. It's just not something I'm willing to play around with. I am eating very healthy...well, much healthier than I was, so at least my milk is better for my baby. I'm hoping the new way to get fat/calories will work. If not, I will absolutely eat some more Nutella. I need sleep and my baby does too. And if Nutella is a way to do it, then fine. It's MUCH less sugar/dairy than I ever have consumed in my life, so I'm okay with it for now. After she weans, I'll definitely go back at it super strict.

Now....onto a new subject. Beets. Beets are weird.

It's the first time I've ever cooked beets and the first time I've ever tasted them. I wasn't very impressed. Well...I wasn't impressed with the taste. I was very impressed with the incredible color that came out of them. I can see why people use beets as a source to color other things.

I roasted them and then made a balsamic glaze to pour over. They smelled very 'earthy' as they were cooking. When I put them on a plate to try, I admit I was not excited about putting them in my mouth. I made my husband taste them first! :) He didn't think they were bad. In fact, he ate them again the next day. Maybe he was just trying not to waste food! I tasted one and although it was awful, it's just not something I thought was great. I'll continue to try them. But until someone else makes them, I may just hold off for now.

I tried...but I could not make them look appealing at all.

Only 4 days in

2011-10-04T17:05:00.001-04:00

This Paleo challenge is kicking my butt. Seriously.

I am hungry all the time. I eat additional snacks and eat more protein than a typical serving since I am still breastfeeding our daughter, but I feel like it's not enough. I am going to make guacamole tomorrow to eat for breakfast in hopes that it'll help add some calories in. It's a little tough since I have been dealing with a low supply for a few months now, so I hope this doesn't hurt it.

It doesn't help that we are up every night multiple times a night with our kids. We simply don't get the sleep our bodies need. We get plenty sleep time, it's just that it's interrupted. I'm thinking if I were able to have more sleep, then it wouldn't be *as* hard.

I have been scouring the Internet for Paleo dessert recipes. The fact that we can't even use honey is really hard. I'm not even sure why on this challenge we can't. I did find tons of great dessert recipes that I've pinned for future use.

We have had some pretty good meals from the Paleo Plan. Tonight we are having chicken in a mushroom sauce. We'll also cook up veggies to go with it. Tomorrow is some kind of roast. I'm pretty excited about that!!!

The coconut milk in my coffee isn't great. I wish it were, but it's just not. We've let it thicken in the fridge overnight to see if it would help, but it didn't. So I'm not drinking nearly the caffeine I was (which is great) but it's really affecting me. I really hope I can make it at least the first week without a slip up.

Blah. Day four. Almost behind me.

Late night coffee...with half & half

2011-09-30T21:47:00.000-04:00

I am going to enjoy a half cup of coffee so I can enjoy my half & half in it before I go 30 days without. That is truly one thing I know I will miss in this 30-day Paleo challenge. BUT I know I can do it. Maybe.

Tomorrow officially begins the challenge. You know what the worst part is? I have to get my fat pinched. Measured. Yeah...not good. I will be going to the gym in the a.m. to get the fatness pinched and then do our first challenge which is something called Crossfit Total. It is the total (weight I'm guessing) of your one-rep max of each of the following: back squat, shoulder press, and deadlift. Considering I haven't worked out since the baby was born over 7 months ago, this should be interesting. It's great to have a starting point (and photos...don't forget the horrific "before" photos that must be taken) but honestly this won't really let me know how the Paleo diet affects my workouts since I'm starting it all at once! Haha! So I only have room to improve, right?

I went grocery shopping today. I got all of the food for our first week. Except almond milk. Not at Publix. Yes...I do realize they actually do sell almond milk there, however, read the ingredients. So much crap in those that there is no way it is Paleo. So I'll try the natural food store tomorrow while we're downtown. We are still allowing our son to eat cheese but we're not buying anymore milk for the 30 days. We'll slowly wean him off dairy since he ate so much of it.

Here's what he thought of the new and improved fridge contents:

Haha, just kidding. He wanted to take a silly photo and this is what I got. Just happened to be as I was putting the groceries away! :) Seriously, after our last challenge, he started eating more of the vegetables he'd gotten away from. Now he sword fights me with asparagus spears before we eat them. That was one food he used to love and then after we let too many crackers, bread, etc. come into play, he has started losing his taste for veggies. Slowly but surely we are bringing it back!

Well...off to have my last cup of coffee full of yummy cream and milk. For 30 days at least!

Enough already

2011-09-29T21:39:00.003-04:00

I've had it with these intense sugar cravings. I'm over it. I don't think I necessarily want to be over sugar forever, but I'd love not to consume it every day.

I overheard last night at the Paleo Potluck we had at the Crossfit gym where my husband coaches that craving sugar could be an indicator you aren't getting enough sleep. Well, that explains it. Considering both of my children think it's hysterical to start out as newborns sleeping wonderfully and then after 4 months of age decide to mix it up a bit and start waking every 3 hours after going to sleep. So yeah...sleep deprivation is definitely at play here. I've never heard of a sugar craving having anything to do with it, so I'm definitely going to ask more. It makes sense because it's been very strong after the births of each my children. But...I also love sugar. So it could just be that!

Anyways, we'll be starting our 30-day Paleo Challenge soon. Yes...again. However, this time we are giving up dairy. One - I want to eliminate it to see if it helps with the congestion/allergies I've suffered from since being a kid. Two - I've mentioned our daughter's skin issues. So hopefully this challenge will help see if the dairy is the culprit. We're getting a little help from the folks over at Paleo Plan. They seriously make it too easy to NOT at least try Paleo for 30 days. Such a great site. So very easy to navigate (and it has pretty photos, so that's always a plus in my opinion!).

I am also truly starting to workout again. A friend of mine is currently doing the intro classes at the gym and she'll be finished next week. We've already got our twice a week workouts on the calendar. I really have no excuses.

So here we go. Again. I did it for 6 weeks last time...surely I can do another 30 days...with no dairy...which means no cheese. Ugh.

Must. Focus.

2011-09-21T11:06:00.000-04:00

As I sit here and eat straight out of the jar of Nutella with a spoon, I realize I'm not following the diet I started several months ago.

I did awesome on my 30-day challenge. I never cheated. Not once. I even made it to 6-weeks before I had something with grains/sugar. Even after that, it was fine. We continued to shop for good meats, veggies, and the good fats. We did allow some grains/sugar back into our diet, but it was outside of our house. That I didn't mind. However, now Nutella makes an appearance *at least* once a week. We have snack bars for our son, cookies, ice cream...yeah...we lost focus.

Our son's behavior has also reflected it. He's not a bad kid by any means. He's 3, which sometimes makes me want to go hide away for the next year, but all in all, he's actually pretty well behaved. However, getting the sugar and more grain back into his diet has also brought back the unfocused, poor listening, etc. He doesn't even ask for bread any more at the house (we still don't have it here), but he is expecting sweet treats a lot. And, yes, I know I can make sweet Paleo-ish treats, but of course busy lives take over and convenience crap products enter in.

So, we're back to having to refocus. It's tough because you have it so together...you realize you CAN do this...and then you slip, which is fine, but then you do it again and again. And then, because you and your husband are trying to work multiple jobs, keep the house at just above the gross level, entertain a 3 year old and a 7 month old, the food becomes back burner and you're back to eating pure crap. Honestly, we still eat better than the SAD, but it's a noticeable difference when we were eating clean.

Now, we're considering taking dairy out. At least I am. Our daughter (7 months) has been battling eczema since she was 2 months old. It's been awful on her cheeks. We've realized we have to cover her hands at night to prevent her from scratching her cheeks so that has helped. But in reading, I've realized that much of the skin issues deal with eczema can come from food related issues. Dairy is one of the major culprits. So I'm going to try and try and try to remove it from my diet. I LOVE dairy. Love it. It's one of my favorite things ever. I've cut back on drinking straight milk already. I am going to have the biggest issue with cheese....and cream in my coffee. I am already OK with no sugar (thanks to my challenge in the summer of no sugar) in my coffee although I occasionally add a tiny bit of honey to change things up from time to time, so I am hoping to take the cream away may not be as difficult. I know I can use coconut milk. We'll see....

So, I don't even have a plan this time. Basically our plan is to spend at least 30 minutes each week making a complete meal plan (to include all meals and snacks) so we have no room for error. We've done it before so I know we can do it again.

One week to go

2011-06-12T19:47:00.000-04:00

I am almost finished with my 30 day challenge of no sugar/grains. It's been surprisingly easy. Even when I was making cupcakes for my son's third birthday party, I was able to resist. I am proud of myself for that moment because I LOVE to eat raw batter. I also love to eat frosting straight from a can. And I also used Oreo cookies to crush and make the "dirt" part of the cupcake...I can't even tell you how much I love dunking those cookies in milk. I resisted every sweet thing possible that day!

I almost gave in and got just a spoonful of frosting. I'm so glad I did. I need to keep it a matter of the mind. If I can resist, then I know I can always resist. Now, I'm definitely looking forward to having a very special sweet treat as soon as this is over. But I want to make it worth it and canned frosting will NOT be worth it. The problem I have is that I only want to add back in either grains or sugar first to truly test out the effect.

I keep getting asked if I've noticed a difference. I have noticed that I don't feel bloated at all...ever. Which is nice, you know? But as far as energy levels...no change, but that could be because I am not getting sleep at night since I'm still getting up 2-3 times a night to nurse my daughter. So the broken sleep is kind of outweighing any positive energy change I might experience from this.

Preparation, again, is key. We went to my mom's today and had no snacks. Thankfully she had some good food for us to eat, but we really need to get better in having snacks with us.

I'm looking forward to my special treat...now, what to choose? :)

I suck at farming...

2011-06-07T22:22:00.000-04:00

So I'm not technically a farmer. And I really don't even have a garden. But I do have a few veggie plants! Not that it freaking matters because my tomatoes have rot! I'm sure there is a technical word for it, but I don't even care at this point. I am sooo mad. AND I only have myself to blame. I knew when I planted my lone tomato plant this year in the SAME bucket with the SAME soil as last year (I added a bit of new soil and mixed) that I was taking a chance, but I was in a hurry and just did it.

At first the plant looked awesome. It grew tall and strong and before long there were tons of blooms. Then the blooms started falling off. So I kind of wrote it off as a good plant, but then I started seeing tomatoes! I went out this afternoon to water things and this is what I saw:

SERIOUSLY? And it's not just that one. See the little one to the left of it? Don't worry, it'll get the black funk too. ALL of the bigger tomatoes have it. This ticks me off. I can't imagine how farmers feel when they have issues in an entire crop. This is my one little measly plant and I am super disappointed.

So after that I decided I needed something to make me happy. I looked around and saw my dill. I love dill. It's one of those herbs that I can eat on pretty much anything! It's supposedly time to snip the flowers off if I want it to continue producing the herb, but look how pretty they are! I'm not sure I can do that. Perhaps I'll let it grow a little longer and try to harvest the seeds for next time!

I enjoy gardening, but the past two summers have not been good for us. Last summer, although our garden looked great, I found out in June I was pregnant and was then sick for 16 weeks and couldn't bear the thought of eating, much less working outside in the heat tending to my veggies! And this year I didn't prepare very well since I was having a baby around the time I should have been starting my seeds indoors!

I still have cucumbers to come and bell peppers. I planted peas and green beans and although they are producing right now, I just didn't plant enough for it to be worth it you know? I need to figure out what is best to plant in a small garden for high yield. If a bell pepper produces enough, that will surely be worth it because I can freeze those. Have you seen the price for any bell pepper other than the green ones? Crazy high! So that would definitely be one to grow.

Well...I guess it's just one plant that has the funk. At least I don't have 100 tomato plants that have it.

Choices upon choices!!!

2011-06-05T20:45:00.001-04:00

When it comes to eating healthy, there are a million different opinions. And many times those opinions evolve over time. However, I believe that we can't be that wrong from a pretty healthy diet if we eat our whole, natural foods as close to their natural state as possible, right?

For veggies, we know to try to eat organic. And if we can get them locally, then it's a bonus! Many times I think we, as a society, are under the impression that if it grows locally, it's better for us. Well, in my opinion it is...if it's not laden with pesticides or genetically modified. Sure, if you buy it locally you help reduce transportation issues (gas costs, pollution, etc.), but if you are putting chemicals in your body as the trade off, is that really worth it?

Now, all that being said, if you can't afford the higher priced organics, then make sure you really wash off your fruits and veggies before eating. I really believe that eating commercially grown produce that has been thoroughly washed by you before eating, is sooooo much better than eating one of those all-in-one processed meals you buy in a box or the freezer section.

As far as meats go...this is a scary area for me. Yes, the poisons that are applied to our growing produce is horrible but when you start thinking about meat, it makes me sick to my stomach to think of the way the meat is produced. The farmers actually think it's a good thing to pump the animal full of hormones, antibiotics, etc., because it's what the consumer wants, right? I mean, aren't we now trained to think that chicken breasts have to be ginormous or else there "must be something wrong" with it if it's on the smaller side. The growth hormones they give to the animals should be enough to scare everyone. A living, breathing, growing animal is given a hormone to help them grow faster and bigger than what nature intends. And then we, as a society, think it's acceptable to eat that type of meat. Does this scare anyone else? I mean, I love eating meat. But I'd MUCH rather eat meat from an animal that has been allowed to grow at a normal pace while eating its natural diet and be on fresh pasture as it wishes. Because everything that goes into that animal during its infancy, youth and finally mature life will then be consumed by you!

Would you willingly inject yourself with a growth hormone? What about your child? What about antibiotics just because? I'm guessing the answer is a big fat NO. So why are we continuing to support these farmers who doing these things? This is scary stuff.

We recently watched "Food, Inc." and were happy and horrified to watch it. It's a great documentary on our food in this country. It's so disturbing to watch and it makes me sad. I think it is something that should be shown in schools in their health classes to help educate the children at an earlier age. Yes, I know many of them will not be affected by it and will continue to eat fast food several times a week. But just maybe there will be some that are saddened by what's happening to the food supply in our country and be part of the change to help make us a healthier society.

We do our best to find pastured meats. Yes, it is ridiculously expensive, but guess why? Because there is such a small population of us that want it that for it to be worth a farmer's time and effort, the prices have to be higher to cover all of the costs associated. The conventional crap meat is much cheaper because unfortunately price rules over health in our society today and the vast majority of consumers will HAVE to buy it to feed their family because they simply cannot afford the higher priced meat.

Yes, I understand that the argument is out there that you and your family will be healthier because you have less doctor visits, etc. and the cost will be offset. Well....my family and I *rarely* had doctor visits that weren't well checkups, so we don't see the savings in that way. Perhaps down the road, sure, but now we are having to make what money we have work for us now.

We have found a great beef source. It's pastured beef and it's so much cheaper than some of the other grass fed beef farms around here, but the one big problem with it is that it's finished with grains. But it's the best choice we can make for our family right now. For $2.50/pound, it is a MUCH better alternative than the crap beef that is pumped full of hormones that is sold for the same price and higher than we get our beef.

We have a great egg source. It's a little pricey for us, but we eat so many eggs that I can't bear to eat the conventional eggs from chickens in houses. I want my eggs to come from chickens that actually see daylight and eat their natural diet.

We have not found a great source for chicken and pork. Well, that's not true. We know of several places to get pastured chicken and pork, but it is SO expensive that unfortunately we're not able to buy it right now.

It's such a difficult thing to get to know the sources of your food and realize that is less than ideal. Then you have to research and research to realize that much of the "healthy" foods you've been consuming is actually harmful to you. It's such a struggle and challenge to eat healthy as it is, but when you have to peel back the layers of what the truth is, it makes it that much harder.

I want...

2011-06-04T07:43:00.000-04:00

chocolate cake. Or brownies. Or the flourless chocolate torte from Garibaldi's. Slightly freaking out.

Our son....on the Paleo Diet too?

2011-05-29T22:51:00.000-04:00

Our son will be 3 next month. He is a pretty good eater in general. He started off loving tons of veggies, but we became lazy and started introducing convenience foods because...well, it was convenient. So guess what? Now our son who used to love to eat salad, asparagus, raw bell peppers, etc. has developed a taste for bread, crackers, anything salty. This was something that slowly happened over time. And when we finally realized what had happened, we knew we needed to change it, but how?

My husband and I have always tried to eat somewhat healthy. I fell way off the healthy eating train while early pregnant last year and am now just recovering. I think that was the time that our son began developing a taste for lots of processed junk. My husband also enjoyed my cravings for Blizzards and other such treats! And while I don't think anything in moderation is horrible, we were eating WAY too much.

My husband is the one who introduced us to the Paleo Diet by way of Crossfit. The two seem to go hand in hand! I bought the book last year sometime and read about it and thought it made sense, but just wasn't ready to dive in. He's been pretty good about his diet and rarely would eat the pasta or breads in our meals. He would usually have a big salad every night in addition to what we had. Something started feeling wrong though when he wouldn't eat pasta, yet we would feed it to our two year old. Same with all of the "treats" we were giving him. Once I realized it, I talked to my husband and we agreed we needed to not feed our son what we didn't want to eat (although at this time, I was still scarfing down the bad-for-us foods too).

Timing was perfect because within a week I read about the release of a new book "Everyday Paleo" and thought it was perfect for us to try. I was talking to my sister in law about it and she ordered it as soon as it was available. She called as soon as she received it and raved about it. So I ordered one. I'm glad I did. It's a great guide to starting the paleo diet as a family. There are great recipes, a fabulous meal plan and even a starter workout plan.

I liked the philosophy in her book regarding crap foods. Just don't keep them in the house. Period. So we got rid of everything as you see in the photo a couple of posts back. Guess what? Everything's OK. Our son is perfectly fine without bread in the house. And this is the boy that was eating honey toast two or three times a day just the week before the change. He's still "picky" about what snacks he wants, but because we only have good snacks around, that's all he has to choose from. So I really don't care that he wants the same snack every day! He even tried salad yesterday from my husband's plate. He had stopped eating lettuce last year and while we encourage him to always try it again, he never wants to. So to our surprise, he said he wanted daddy's salad and took a big piece of lettuce out and ate it. Yay! It was only the one piece but he didn't spit it out! Hopefully if we can continue, he'll start eating it again. He ate the lasagna I made last night. No noodles. Well, it kind of had noodles....in the form of zucchini strips! He ate it all.

Yes, if your diet consisted of a lot of bread, processed foods, etc., your child will probably protest - especially if they are older than mine...we are pretty lucky that he's still so young. But the answer is clear - don't have the junk in the house and they won't eat it. Yes, they will complain, pout, maybe even cry. But stick to it and within two weeks, they'll realize you are serious.

Now, like I mentioned before, we aren't going at this hard core. We will allow some flexibility, but it'll be outside of our house and our normal routine. For example, we may go to a baseball game tomorrow. Our son will probably have a hot dog....with the bun. It'll be OK. He may even have a juice box. But because it's not part of his daily or even weekly routine, it'll be just fine!

Our hope is that we can build a foundation that he can come back to. I know that there may come a time where all he wants to eat is chicken fingers, but so long as we can control what he's offered 90% of the time, we'll do it. Once he gets into high school and wants to make poor eating choices away from us, that will be his decision. Hopefully by the time he has a family one day he'll come back to the basics of good, natural, whole foods and pass it on to his children.

Temptation

2011-05-26T21:05:00.000-04:00

I was at a restaurant with friends last night and was sooo afraid I was going to cave....especially with the bread basket. I'm not really craving grains but I LOVE bread and that is always a highlight of dining out for me! But I didn't and even with the gigantic, wonderful brownie dessert came at the end of the meal, I was able to resist!

I am hoping this 30 days of no sugar will really help me change my taste for sugar. I hope that when I do eat some kind of dessert with sugar again that it'll be super sweet and just a little will satisfy my sweet tooth. Eating an entire pan of brownies in a day is just too much, you know? I want to be happy eating just one.

So I am on the hunt for desserts that are sugar and grain free without tasting like cardboard. Ha, yeah right. But I am sure I can find one and I've got several recipes to try. "Everyday Paleo" has a couple that I am super interested in. The pumpkin pie is something I'll definitely try (especially since I have 6 cans of pumpkin in my pantry) and even her sweet potato recipe from Thanksgiving looks like it would be a treat in itself!

My husband caved last night! :) He was slightly freaking out and wanted to get something sweet. We went to Walgreens and read tons of labels. I am still shocked at what I see in "healthy" snacks on the shelves. He ended up getting a pint of ice cream to share with my mom. It was the only thing that had real ingredients. He also got some peanut butter...which is a no-no on the Paleo diet. But honestly, in my opinion, I think that's not too bad of a special treat. I am really hoping I can make it the full 30 days without caving. I'm just thinking how great that my special treat will be if I can wait that long!

And so it begins...

2011-05-21T20:50:00.000-04:00

I did it. I gave up sugar.

I want to really keep it out of my system for 30 days so I can truly gauge what I feel like without it. And at the end of the 30 days, if I do decide to try a little to see how my body reacts, I'm hoping I'll get a clearer picture of how it does affect me.

Here is a photo of what we cleaned out of the pantry (sorry, it's a crappy cell phone photo)

We are only on day 4 of 30. It's already HARD. Yesterday I thought I was going to freak out. I'm not really missing the grains so much (although I think my body is definitely adjusting), but I am craving sugar. I really didn't like my husband yesterday and I KNOW he didn't like me. I was reacting very badly to the lack of sugar I am apparently addicted to.

Now, to be fair, I think that the timing of this is quite challenging. Our 3 month old is apparently going through a growth spurt and has decided that she wants to nurse every couple of hours through the night again. So combine the sleep deprivation with no sugar and no grains all of sudden AND the reduced caffeine consumption (since there is no sugar in my coffee, I'm drinking less), it's been pretty tough. Yesterday I could barely keep my eyes open. I was exhausted. So I ran up to the newest little coffee shop and got a Queen Bee Latte that's sweetened with, can you guess? Honey! Finally something sweet! It was wonderful...actually it was a little too sweet! But I completely forgot to ask for it to be half-caff. Yeah, I was a little overwhelmed a little while later with the caffeine high!

So all in all, it's not been bad. We've eaten great meals and love cooking at home so it makes it that much better. I'll list a few of the meals we've eaten:

DAY 1
- Whole chicken in the crockpot with onions (so delicious and gave us plenty of leftovers)
- Red cabbage slaw with cucumber and mango (YUM!)
- BLAT salad - yummy, yummy, yummy, but how can you go wrong when you have bacon and avocado in the same bowl?

DAY 2
- Steak skewers with sweet onions, tomatoes, zucchini, mushrooms
- grilled pinapple (oh so good)
- Cauliflower "rice" - not quite mashed cauliflower, but cooked down to be softer than raw

DAY 3
- Spring mix (from our own garden!) salad with leftover chicken for me and leftover steak for hubby, pears, candied (with pure maple syrup) pecans, red onion and avocado. Dressing was just squeezed lemon and olive oil. Sooo yummy. Not sure if maple syrup is "allowed" in Paleo eating, but honey is and I'm assuming if a caveman found some sticky stuff running of out of tree and tasted it, he'd eat it
- leftovers and tons of them! I was a bit worried when I saw the grocery shopping list for days 1-5 in the "Everyday Paleo" book, but we've had tons of leftovers and will definitely be stretching the meals out in the future.

With our son, we've decided that we'll do Paleo at the house, but outside of the house we'll be lenient. For example, his school had an end of the year performance and they had a special cookie as a treat. Fine with us. We just don't want to keep it at the house anymore. We were so good for so long allowing that type of stuff to be special treats, but because we knew the stuff was in the house, it was so easy to just give it to him often. After the 30 days, we will allow ourselves the same type of flexibility. I'm not saying I'll never eat another cookie, brownie, etc. again, but for the next few weeks I want to avoid them!

As far as exercise, I was doing great following the workout plan in the back of "Everyday Paleo" which I started the week before. But once I started the no sugar/grain thing and my exhaustion set in, I couldn't imagine trying to even do one squat. Just walking around the house is wearing me out! I hope that my body recovers a bit over the next day or so to be able to add the workouts in. I have been walking some, so I am not completely being a couch potato!

Oh, and I've lost 3.5 pounds this week. Which sounds great, but my first thought was that it's too much since I'm breastfeeding. I want to make sure my supply stays up. But I think I'm ok since I'm actually eating MUCH better than I was for the first three months of my daughter's life! I've just cut out the pure crap I was eating and I knew it would probably help me drop weight very quickly initially. I'm just going to make sure I keep plenty of protein and enough good fats in the daily eating to help keep my supply going strong.

So far, so good!

Yet again...

2011-05-12T00:03:00.000-04:00

So it begins yet again. Another attempt at eating healthier. This society we have sucks in the fact that we are all geared towards convenience. We were sucked back into the processed foods again. And we're tired of it and want to change. Thankfully we didn't get too far into processed stuff. We are still mindful at the grocery store and stay on the outer perimeter as much as possible, so I'm hoping this won't be as drastic as a change for us this time.

We will soon be starting a modified Paleo Diet lifestyle. Basically the Paleo diet is eating "cave man" style. Lean meats, lots of leafy veggies, fruits, nuts and seeds. That's it. No grains, no dairy. Seriously? I don't 100% agree with the Paleo Diet, but that's another blog. I do, however, completely 100% agree with the fact that it's all real food. To me, that's the ultimate goal.

I'll talk more about it later, but first what's happened here since my last blog post? A new baby arrived!!! It's a GIRL! She is now 3 months old and absolutely wonderful. She's smiling at everything and everyone. She was born on my birthday over 2 weeks early! She was determined to share my birthday with me. It was a fast and furious birth...I'll have to share the story another time. It was fabulous. We did it at the birth center again and left four hours after she was born. Amazing stuff!

Big brother is very happy to be a big brother. He's always trying to kiss and hold her. We'll see how long that lasts! :) Her arriving and our son's shift in food preferences has prompted our desire to get back on track. He was the kid who ate "crazy" stuff that the average child does not, but now, guess what's taken over? Bread. The amount of veggies he wants has fallen and it's totally our fault. We've succumbed to the whole "we don't have time" excuse. And that's exactly what it is...an excuse. We are poor planners. So instead of the good snacks he once got, they now consist of gummy gums (like gummy bears), crackers, chips, etc. It sucks. He still does eat veggies, just not as many. We are ready to get him back to veggies.

So we bought this book by Sarah Fragoso called "Everyday Paleo" It's a great book. It has a basic overview of Paleo eating and her own personal experience plus recipes, a menu plan and exercise help. We are starting the 30 day Paleo challenge next week. I'm excited. And nervous. And completely freaked out about giving up sugar. I am addicted to sugar. Seriously.

So again, this blog has been revived to help me put out there what I am doing to get back to a healthier, more natural lifestyle. I'm not sure what I'll blog about, but maybe writing down things will help me continue on. I'll write about what I eat, my exercise and my general outlook on life...beware - I will be coming off of sugar and grains. I cannot be held responsible for what comes out of my mouth during the transition time!

I have a good excuse....

2010-10-23T22:20:00.000-04:00

Well, at least it was a good excuse for about 8-10 weeks. Then I was just lazy to get back to the blog!

We found out in the middle of June that we are expecting baby #2. Due to arrive at the very end of February! It was not long before the sickness kicked in high gear. Seriously it was so very awful. We had to ask my mother in law to fly down to help (ok, to completely take care of our son) while I just moaned and groaned on the couch/bed feeling like death. As soon as she got here, my husband got a stomach bug. It was the sickest I've seen him ever. Then I got it. Then our son got it. Both my husband and I got dehydrated and had to have IV fluids. Ugh. Thank goodness MIL was here to save the month!

So, then I started feeling better. But I went to Italy with some girlfriends! For 12 days! It was absolutely freaking fabulous. We just visited the Tuscany area with one night in Cinque Terre on the Mediterranean Sea and then an overnight layover in Paris. There really are no words to describe how great it was. And the pictures hardly do it justice.

I come home feeling great. I felt the best on my trip than I have this entire pregnancy. I was excited to come home and be active with my family for the first time in months. The morning after I got home, I woke up with a sore throat. Stupid cold found me on the plane ride back. So almost a week of congested head/nose and sinus issues kept me down again. Seriously? Give me a break! Then our son got a touch of it. Thankfully it was just a cold, but still enough to keep us down for a total of two weeks. Blah.

BUT, I'm feeling much, much better now and decided that since I was, it was a great time to start exercising to prepare for labor. Squats. Lots of them. Crossfit loves squats. I took my final class that I started right when I got pregnant and now I am officially able to do the group exercises. Well....when I'm able to actually lift my leg without the assistance of grabbing onto my pants leg to do so!

I do plan to get back to this blog. Obviously we're getting back to natural basics again with planning for this labor and delivery. Looking back at our last birth and what we loved and what we want to try to plan to change if possible. So there may be a lot of birth stuff for a while since I'll be preparing and have already been researching several topics that I'd like to write about.

Eating. Well, the fact that I *can* eat is wonderful right now! Seriously at the beginning of the pregnancy I lost weight because I could not even get water down. Stupid acid reflux. The pain was so bad, I swore that it was a gall bladder attack and since I had mine out a year ago, I knew it wasn't possible. So, once I was able to eat, I ate whatever sounded good at the time. And since I didn't cook for over two months for my family (seriously couldn't even stand the smell of the oven/stove turning on), my family has slacked too on eating healthy, whole, natural foods. We're getting back to it though and have to get rid of some bad habits that were easy to pick up again.

So bear with me. I'll probably jump around very randomly with my topics. :)

I'm back with a brand new menu plan :)

2010-07-05T15:15:00.000-04:00

I seriously suck.

I have neglected my blog. I have lots to talk about but just not the time to write it down! We have also been eating so very poorly because of our lack of planning in our busy lives. But we know that it's the lack of meal planning that adds to the "busy" of our life.

So, I have this week's menu plan and I had help! I was visiting my mom last week and she had a Woman's Day magazine. In the back of it, it has a monthly menu plan for dinner. And it looked like some good recipes!

So, the beauty of it is, you can go to their website and it has the entire month planned out where you can click on day and it takes you to the recipe!!! AND it has a shopping list set up by the week. It's fantastic!

So here are our dinner plans for this week. We haven't planned lunch this week, but we've got to get back in the groove and if we at least have dinner planned, it helps!

Monday - Pasta Primavera with side salad (or any veggie on sale at store)
Tuesday - leftovers
Wednesday - Homemade fish sticks, corn on cob and coleslaw
Thursday - Korean Beef Bok Coy and brown rice with scallions
Friday - leftovers
Saturday - Stuffed Eggplant with spinach, tomato and feta salad
Sunday - Salman Burger with rice and carrot/scallion salad

Doesn't that sound WONDERFUL? And it's such a variety which is always my hold up. I love different things, but I drive myself crazy looking at recipe after recipe and never deciding.

So, again, a super boring post. I promise I'll get better. I've got tons of things to talk about, just like the recipes, I can't pick just one! Maybe I'll put the topics in a hat and draw out one!

My birth story...

2010-06-12T11:24:00.001-04:00

Two years ago yesterday. It's already and only been two years ago since my son made his grand appearance into this world! What a wonderful experience it has been so far to be a mother to this little guy. He is amazing and has my my family even more amazing. I love his father more each day because of the man he is with his son. I could not have DREAMED for a more perfect husband.

I have decided to share my birth story in remembrance of the amazing day/night he arrived. Like I mentioned in the previous post, I did not have the most enjoyable pregnancy. But, the birth was amazing. It was still painful, believe me. Unfortunately I was not one of the ones who experienced a pain-free birth. But I would do it all over again tomorrow to have my little guy with us! I wish more women got to experience childbirth the way our bodies were designed to handle it without the intervention and scare tactics of doctors.

Oh, and it's very long. Very. Warming - there are also pictures at the end. Nothing graphic, but you'll see some of my skin, so watch out! :) Lots of pictures!

I was due Sunday, June 8^th, 2008. It came….and went.

I only went “overdue” 2 days. Labor began Tuesday, June 10^th at 3:30 p.m. The day began like usual. I finally hoisted myself out of the mountain of pillows (I think we counted 11 at one point) and got up for the day.

My friend called and said she was coming by to take me to breakfast – yay, the outside world! So she, my husband and I went to breakfast.

When we got back to the house, my friend gave me a little bag with some DVD’s to watch along with some brownies. So of course I scarfed down two brownies immediately. This was probably around 11 a.m. I then had a little bathroom visit soon after breakfast and now looking back my body was definitely preparing for labor!

My husband and I went to a friend’s house to get in the pool for some relief from my heavy belly. Right when we walked in her front door (3:30 p.m.), my first contraction came. I instantly knew it was real. It wasn’t painful…just a mild version of the horrible menstrual cramps I used to have. The Braxton-Hicks I’d been having for months were definitely more uncomfortable. I didn’t say anything though because I don’t want anyone to freak out.

We get in the pool... I know what most of you are thinking. “WHAT? Why aren’t you headed to the hospital immediately?” That’s another blog for another day! I’d prepared myself to know labor is a normal, natural thing that is usually not an emergency.

There were only a few people there – my husband, friend, her daughter and my friend’s parents. I tell my husband quietly that I was having contractions and I needed his watch to time them. They were about 10 minutes apart for an hour. The water was amazing. I’m not sure if it was the water or if my contractions were just that mild. They never hurt. There was definitely a lot of pressure, but not painful at all. We stay at my friend’s house for about an hour and a half. Then I felt the need to empty my bladder, but I didn’t want to do it there. Somehow I just had a feeling that I needed to get home!

I got home and immediately headed to the bathroom and had a lot of mucus plug/bloody show happening. Very exciting and scary! I hop in the shower – contractions are about 8 minutes apart. Get out, decided to lie down – because that’s what I read – lie down and if contractions continue, it’s active (although I already knew it was at this point!)

I got on the couch and WHOA….something happened and my back started to feel as though it were breaking! I guess he turned somehow. It was instantly painful and there was no break between contractions. (Um, hello? Why didn’t I get those minutes in between peaks?)

I leaned over my exercise ball on the bed to take pressure off my back but it didn’t help at all. My husband was trying to time contractions – they were very sporadic. Sometimes 2 minutes apart – sometimes 7. Lasting different times. Although because the pain never stopped, I’m not sure how accurate we were in timing them. I still have the piece of paper from where my husband tried to keep up with my contractions and me!

I then called the birth center and told the midwife that I was definitely in labor, feeling pain and having contractions. She said to continue on my hands and knees and wait until there was a more definite pattern. Oh, and she made sure to demand that I eat! I tried a leftover hamburger but could only eat half. I then totally regretted not eating as soon as I felt that first contraction earlier in the day!

Not 30 minutes went by and I called the midwife back and told her I couldn’t take it any longer. So she said she’d meet me at the center – 40 minute drive. I had to hold onto my husband’s shoulders to get out of the house and into the truck. I can only imagine what we looked like to passing cars! He called our parents and my cousin who was supposed to come take pictures. It was about 8:30 or so at this point, so very short from the time my first contraction started. Sitting down was not pleasant to my back, however, the ride didn’t seem long, surprisingly.

I'm checked and then heard the midwife say, “Oh, we’re definitely having a baby tonight, you’re 7 centimeters dilated!” This was just after 9 p.m. So not quite 6 hours past first contraction. Thank goodness! I could hear my husband breathe a huge sigh of relief!

I go to the wonderfully large queen sized bed and strip off my shirt – I never understood why women always seem to get naked during natural births, but I get it now! I had to lie down on my side; it’s the only thing that helped my back somewhat.

I got a shot of nubaine, although now, looking back, I so wish I would have tried something first – tub, shower, etc. It took the edge off and although it was still very painful, allowed my back to take a break between the contractions.

I think I was there for about an hour when our midwife suggested the tub. She checked me first and I was 9 centimeters, so she wanted to break my water since I was so close and wanted to check for meconium (couldn’t deliver in tub if there was any present).

Into the tub I went and I still remember how wonderful that felt. Instant pain relief! I was full dilated in no time and began to feel the slight urge to push. I started pushing when I felt like it, but didn’t feel quite right. I was checked and still had lip of cervix, so that’s why it didn’t feel right.

I started pushing again soon, but the tub wasn’t feeling great to push because of my back labor. So I got back in bed. I tried to push, but again, not quite right. My wonderful midwife told me to just relax and rest and try to nap. I rested for about an hour! It was so wonderful, I’m sure if I were with an OB in a hospital, they would have forced me to push immediately when I was fully dilated and I would have ended up with a horrible tear or worse!

I began feeling this incredible urge to push and it felt better this time! It was a welcome relief! I could feel a weird pressure in the front of my pelvis while pushing though. It took me several pushes to finally get it right. The best thing our midwife told me was to try to push him up to the ceiling. When I tried it that way, I felt him move so much with each push!!! Very motivating!

I was so exhausted though – due to my lack of food that day (really wish I would have chowed down immediately when I went into labor!) so between each push I would fall back down on the bed. My husband and cousin had to hold each leg back during a push and the midwife knotted a sheet on two ends and she and I each pulled during my contraction. It was so helpful because I was thoroughly exhausted!

After 42 minutes of pushing, my son was born at 2:00 a.m. on June 11. We realized why I had the front pressure/pain during pushing and why I had back labor. He wasn’t quite posterior, but just cocked slightly. His poor little cone head was waay off to the side and back!

I held him for an hour! Then the proud father finally received a chance to hold him. No one took him away, he stayed with us, we made the rules! My little family all got in bed and slept for several hours together. We were so comfy, that we didn’t leave until 5:00 that afternoon! I'd wanted to leave earlier and definitely felt fine, but I was just sleeping so wonderfully there!

Best experience ever!

Oh, and remember my last blog entry about suspected "large" babies? Well, I had a "large" baby of 9 pounds, 4 oz. and believe it or not, my pelvis is still in tact! Not only did I "survive" but I went home the very same day and had a very easy recovery. Thank goodness I was with a care provider that knew that birth was normal and not something to intervene in. The midwives knew not to say ridiculous things like, "Wow, you've got a big one. Hopefully we can get him out." No estimates were ever made. No fear was ever in my mind about a large baby. My labor started and I pushed him out. I knew I could do it. My body was made to birth him!

Happy Birthday to my sweet little boy who is more charming each day and has brought more joy to my life than I could have ever imagined!

Due Dates - our worst enemy

2010-06-08T23:06:00.000-04:00

On this date two years ago, my husband and I got a million phone calls. Okay, not really, but we were questioned so very much about reaching my due date and the baby wasn't here yet. Shocking, I know, since most women these days feel as though they are going to immediately self-implode if they reach their due date and baby isn't here.

Well, since I was pretty miserable during pregnancy and especially the end, I was sick and tired of the phone calls. I know, I know, everyone just had innocent intentions but I wanted to shout, "Don't you think I want this baby out?"

I was not one of those glowing women that we read about. I was far from it. During early pregnancy, I had the classic morning (all day) sickness. I didn't even want anything touching my belly. Exhaust from cars made me want to hurl and brushing my teeth had to be done over the toilet because for about a month I threw up every time I brushed my teeth. In fact, it got so bad, I just bought mouthwash and rinsed for about a week so I didn't have to stick the toothbrush in my mouth!

Then I felt good for about two weeks after getting into my 2nd trimester. Then I woke up throwing up. Seriously, vomit in the mouth. I guess it was then determined that I had acid reflux and something else that is escaping my memory right now. It got so bad that I actually took some medication for it. I do not, do not, do not like taking medication period and especially while I was pregnant, but it got so bad, I needed to do something allow me to eat.

Oh, and physically I HURT and ACHED. I had what was called Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction (SPD). Just to get out of bed was a challenge and not in the normal pregnant lady style. I seriously couldn't move my legs without extreme pain. My hip. Oh, my hip. It still hurts to this day. I think my son was buried into my right hip most of the pregnancy.

The swelling of the feet and legs. Seriously? I knew women talked about swelling happening. I had NO clue it would be that extreme. Thankfully it didn't develop into pre-eclampsia. I wanted to be out and about, but the swelling, although it didn't hurt, was incredibly uncomfortable. I only had one pair of flip flops that would fit and they would even leave an indention in my feet. It got to the point that even in the morning after having my feet elevated most of the night, they were still swollen. I began to really hate my couch at this point. Really detested the living room. I'd spent months at this point on that blasted couch. Thank goodness for laptops! I also played a lot of Super Mario Brothers on the Wii during the early sickness. I guess it helped me focus on something and took my mind temporarily off of the nauseating feeling in my guts!

So why am I "complaining?" I'm not really. I'm just telling the story of my pregnancy. My long, sick, painful pregnancy. And yet, I never considered induction. Yes, I was absolutely miserable. I couldn't WAIT to get that baby out of me. But I knew that induction was not the answer. This was a human life I was carrying. Every single second in the womb is essential for development. Baby knows when it's time to come.

Yes, yes, I realize that there are extenuating circumstances where we MUST induce, but they are far and few between. However, many Ob's are now convincing pregnant women that there are many reasons for induction. My favorite - the suspected large baby. An OB tells an almost full-term pregnant woman that he/she is in danger of not being able to deliver a large baby because of different reasons - broken pelvis, broken shoulder of the baby, horrendous tear or painful episiotomy, or the worst outcome - a C-section. So most of these women, terrified and rightfully so, agree to an induction before the due date, in most cases. And guess what happens in the majority of those cases - a C-section, exactly what the OB convinced the woman to induce to avoid. Rarely is the child a giant!

If you don't believe me, start asking questions of the people you know who have children. Of the ones you know who had a C-section, ask them if they were induced. Chances are, yes there were. Then ask why they were induced. Most of these women truly believe their doctors were helping them by doing the induction. Their doctors made them afraid of giving birth. It makes me sad. Our society has taken birth from us. It's put birth in a hospital. A hospital is for illnesses. Again, yes, yes, I know that C-sections are sometimes necessary, but NOT at the rate it's currently at. Over 1/3 of all deliveries are c-sections. That is absolutely absurd. One-third of all deliveries should not be c-sections.

I wish I could remember (or have the energy to go search for it) the statistic about first time moms. Typically, first time moms go into labor after 41 weeks. I'm thinking it's 41 weeks, 1 day (maybe 2 days). That's a FULL week after the due date. Oh the horror! There is a reason babies are born when they are. The NEED the development. Why strip them out a week or two early. A woman is only pregnant for 40 weeks on average. One week can be huge for development.

So do me a favor. Educate yourself. Don't agree to an induction, or worse yet, ask for one. I know you may be miserable. Seriously, I have a video of myself at the end of my pregnancy. I remember. It was tough. But it's so very temporary and so very important to your baby's development. If your OB scares you with the whole "large baby" thing and tells your horror stories of what *could* happen, ask your OB how many babies he/she has delivered that had broken shoulders or how many women had her pelvis broken. Ask about the true risks...chances are they are very low.

Get back to the basics especially here. Baby will let you know when it's time to be born! Enjoy the anticipation (even though it may be hell sometimes!)

Learning to sew...

2010-06-03T09:31:00.000-04:00

I feel like I'm not even qualified to mention the word 'sewing'. I seriously can't even sew on a button. OK, I can, but it wouldn't be pretty, and I'm not even sure it would stay on for long.

Sewing is on my list of things to learn. My father's mother sewed and made my sister and I several dresses when we were younger. Why do most of the women I know not know how to sew? I guess when households transformed and went to both husband and wife having a full-time job, sewing went out the window as well as most other domestic things. Now, I'm not saying that women have to stay at home and the men have to work. I'm just making an observation.

I think we rely too much on others and pay too much for what we need in life. I don't think I even know anyone who could sew me a simple skirt if I wanted. I have no desire to become a sewing legend but it would be nice to be able to take some of my husband's clothes that are now too big and make them fit again. We paid too much money for them to just sit around now because they are an inch or two too large. I know we could use a seamstress, but why pay money to someone when I'm sure I could learn to do it myself? Also, if you saw my poor son in pants that are way too short, you'd probably encourage me to learn to sew the poor boy some clothes that fit!

So, I have signed up for sewing classes at an incredibly charming store called Fabrika in downtown Savannah. The fabrics alone sold me. I don't know about you, but most of the fabric stores I've seen don't have any "fun" fabrics. I am taking the Saturday and Sunday class in July if anyone wants to join me. :)

Friend to the environment...me?

2010-06-02T13:25:00.000-04:00

I had a very interesting conversation with one of my closest friends the other day. During it, I discovered that she thought I was all natural and into saving the environment. Although now I am definitely more eco-friendly, I didn't start out becoming that way to save the earth! The real reason we do the things we do is to save money, plain and simple. However because of the changes we've made to our lifestyle, we've come to realize that we are indeed nicer to the environment than most and we're kind of liking it now!

How did it start? We had a baby. We realized we didn't want to put baby into daycare. However we could not live off of my husband's salary alone, so we were forced to cut where we could. First change - cloth diapers. I know, I know, but they are not like the cloth diapers of yesteryear, I promise! In fact, they are now ridiculously cute. So much so that at one point I thought I was actually going to be spending more than if we were to have used disposables! I am a bargain shopper so I scored some great deals off of eBay for brand new cloth diapers. I bought 10 of them for $11 each, which was a savings from the $16.96 regular retail price! The best part about that purchase - I sold them a few months ago for $10 each on diaperswappers.com!!!! Isn't that fantastic? I've also bought several off of diaperswappers which is the best way to try out the different styles of cloth diapers. I'm telling you, these aren't the white squares that you use pins for. They are CUTE and easy to use. So after switching to cloth diapers, we learned that the average disposable diaper takes up to 500 years in a landfill to decompose. 500 years. Think about all of the disposable diapers you've thrown away....yeah, it adds up. Then you add in the poop in the diaper. That's not good. We're throwing poop into our landfills which means the birds and flying bugs that frequent our landfills could be contaminated with the bad stuff that happens with poop. Yuck.

So, that's what started us off. With the cloth diapers came a clothes line. The diapers last longer if you don't blast them in the heated dryer, so we started hanging them to dry. And imagine my surprise when the sun got rid of the stains! Wow, who knew? So, we started paying attention. If our diapers would last longer, then obviously our clothes would last longer, so we started hanging our clothes out too. If you have an "old-fashioned" electric meter, go take a look at it spinning around super fast when your clothes dryer is running and then look at it when it's not. That look helped us realized we needed avoid the dryer as much as possible. Since we moved back into our house the last week of March, I think we've used our dryer maybe 10 times and part of that was because we had tons of laundry we had to do and it was raining!

Other things we do:
- unplug things that we don't use all the time - toaster, cell chargers, coffee pots, hair dryer, etc. WAIT, did you just say coffee pot, hair dryer and cell phone charger? Yes, I did and yes, we use them every day, however we don't leave them plugged in when not using them. It really wasn't that difficult to get in the habit. Now, as soon as I pour the last cup of coffee, I unplug the coffee maker. When finished drying my hair, I now automatically unplug the dryer.

- Use the quickest setting on the dishwasher and turn it off as soon as it hits the dry part of the cycle. I certainly don't need to pay for 20 minutes of electricity just to have heat setting not even dry my dishes all the way. I open it up and slide the racks out and let them air dry.

- We don't fill up both areas in our dishwasher with the soap. We only use the main one and only fill it halfway up. Good for us, our dishes, the environment, and our wallet!

- We keep our air set at 78. I think we turned it on once in April, but we've had it on recently because it has gotten quite stuffy. We keep the blinds closed where the sun shines in so the heat from the sun isn't working against our a/c. And we use ceiling fans to help circulate the air better

- We eat real food. I know you are wondering how this is friendly to the environment. Well, we don't throw away tons of packaging anymore like we did when we were eating processed stuff. We don't even throw away our vegetable scraps anymore. They go into a freezer bag for when I make vegetable or chicken stock.

- We now grow our own food. Again, cheap and we know what's going in our food. We are therefore not buying food that has been shipped using fuel to get it to it's destination. We buy local as much as we possibly can.

- We use cloth napkins and try to use plates more than once. Obviously if either gets too dirty, then we get a new one! But if I have a plate that I've just eaten a sandwich off of, then I'll brush the crumbs away and put it on the counter for the next meal.

- We buy used clothes. Especially for our growing son! We love consignment sales and stores. I love paying $1-2 per clothes item for my son and love it even more when I'm packing them away again in 4 months because he's outgrown them! We have recently discovered Goodwill and love the prices! Although, my friend has told me that once I start going to yard sales, that I'll think Goodwill is too expensive. :) Still haven't managed to drag my butt out of bed early enough to hit them up yet! I think this friendly to the environment because we are using second hand clothes that could have easily been thrown away and we are not buying new things to add to things that will eventually end up in the landfills.

- We have no TV. Yet more electricity we are not using. And we get to spend more quality time together and use our imagination and find things to do. It's nice. And we do not miss TV at all.

- Oh, I forgot dryer balls! We no longer use fabric softener sheets. Again, it wasn't to save the earth, although we do feel good that we are helping to reduce waste by not using 1-2 dryers sheets per load! We are saving lots of money there...dryer sheets are expensive!

So the bottom line is everything we do is purely selfish! We need to save money and by doing that, we are in turn saving our earth. We are realizing with every choice we've made we are being "earthy" people. We certainly didn't start out that way, but we kind of like where we've come!

My beautiful little urban garden....

2010-05-20T01:26:00.001-04:00

This is just a post of pictures of my garden that I love! It's tiny, it's perfect. Next year will be even better! I'll have my seeds well ahead of time and start them inside early and plant, plant, plant until I run out of room to plant things! Hopefully I'll learn a thing or two this year about gardening that I can build on for next year.

My little raised bed using free bricks, the chain link fence as a trellis for the peas was free as well!

Below are peas growing in the same bucket as a sunflower. The sunflower provides support as a trellis for the growing vines of the peas!

STRAWBERRIES!!! However, this is an early picture taken a couple days ago. Since then, my son has bitten the ends of two of them off and I'm guessing birds got another two?

My cucumbers! This is supposed to be for a small garden, but it's apparently very happy and wants to take over the world...

3 buckets of strawberries! They were given to us, so I'm hoping they produce a little more on them this year.

Eggplant! Very exciting!

Red bell peppers

Go peas, go!

I think these are radishes...

Cucumber!

I'm not quite sure what this is. It's not happy though. I'm thinking it may be red cabbage?

Tomatoes!!!!

Again, I'm not sure what this is. Cauliflower perhaps?

No problem growing mint!

My dill looks sick!

Parsley isn't that happy either...

Poor, poor basil. I know nothing about how to grow this stuff.

Sooo excited about my gutter system that is growing my lettuce!

Yellow squash

This is a corner of the yard with banana trees. I've planted peas there to grow up the banana tree stalks.

Fat and calories welcome here....

2010-05-14T21:55:00.000-04:00

ONLY IF they are REAL fat and calories.

We are trying to change our eating to all real foods as you know and although we slip on more than one occasion, we are doing fairly well. One great thing that has come from our change of eating lifestyle is the weight loss. OH YEAH!

I've lost 13 pounds since changing the way I eat. And believe you me, I still eat! Again, I am in no way a perfect eater (says the woman who just made cake pops last night with a box mix and canned frosting) but the bulk of our eating is now real food. Many are amazed to learn that I've lost 13 pounds by simply changing my eating, but it's so very true. And the best part - I now eat bacon...and real butter....and full fat dairy. I love every bit of it!

The best book I've read so far is Nina Planck's book "Real Food." It tells in plain language (except when it comes to the meat section - kind of lost me there) the benefits of eating real food, including fats. I recommend it as an easy read to introducing you to real food again. She has also come out with a new book about real baby food that I can't wait to read. Although my son is no longer a baby *sniff*, I still am very interested in food in our society today.

So, we have switched to full fat dairy. Raw milk is SO good. We still have to get our raw milk from South Carolina though. It's our turn to drive the 2 hours each way to get it tomorrow for our small group. We drive once every 5 months, so it's not bad. We have come to learn to enjoy milk as a food and not a beverage. We use only full fat cheese and yogurt, although the yogurt is a bit tough to find and you have to be careful not to grab the "light" yogurts because they have even more fake stuff because there is no sugar added (not that I'm saying sugar is good). I did find that Stonybrook has an organic cream-top yogurt. So freaking good. Of course, I should be making my own yogurt from my fresh, raw milk, but that's another learning project for another day. Oh, and butter. How could I forget wonderful butter? Again, no margarine for us. We want the real thing. That does not mean that we eat a stick of butter a day, but if I want to butter my toast, I do it. Again, I should be making my own from my raw milk, but I need 4 more hours per day please!

We eat real meat.

Meat is one of those things that we believe you should spend money on. You have GOT to buy pastured meat, period. Obviously look for meat that has not been given growth hormones as well. I've recently discovered that we have a farm near where I grew up that the beef is $3.50/pound and you don't even have to buy the whole cow! Many places that sell this type of beef sell a whole cow, a half or a quarter. Usually the smaller quantity you buy, the more per pound you pay. But not this place! It's $3.50/pound even if you buy a quarter of a cow!

Chickens also must be pastured and let alone to feed on their natural diet. I grew up in chicken country with long, stinky chicken houses at every turn. I knew it was how the farmers made money but it never sank in until recently that those chickens were the ones that were processed and sold in our local grocery stores for us to eat. I wish I had pictures to post of these absolutely horrible living conditions for the chickens. They see no sun, no grass, no bugs. They are pumped full of feed and I'm sure full of hormones. After a shorter than should be maturity cycle, they are then shipped to the processing plant to be made ready to put on grocery shelves. After my realization that those same chickens that I knew we smashed into those chicken houses wing to wing with no room to move were the same chicken packages we bought to bring home and eat, it was definitely enough for me to rearrange my budget and add more to the grocery column.

Wild game. Mainly venison. Yes, deer. We eat deer. And we like it. After my husband shot his first deer this past fall, he was amazed at how lean the animal was. We then realized that although we live in a polluted world, that deer is probably the most natural meat we've consumed in a long time. The deer had not been caged without access to fresh air, grass, water. It had not been fed supplemental "fattening" food. It was as it should be. And if you are a meat eater, which I'm sure most of you are, you should start paying very, very close attention to the type of meat you are buying and consuming. I'm not saying become a hunter and go shoot your own. But perhaps make friends with a hunter! Pack your freezer full of ground venison that is easily interchangeable for beef in all the recipes I've ever tried.

The one issue we are having is sugar. I love sugar. I know how bad white sugar is for you. I'm really trying to cut it out. I've even tried alternative sweeteners and so far nothing is working for me. However, I am getting better. I used to go by McDonald's for the giant sweet tea for $1 several times a week. Now, I cannot drink the stuff. It's like syrup to me. I haven't had one in months. And at Starbucks, I used to get a grande vanilla latte and add 2 splendaewww, fake stuff that we do not touch anymore). Now if I get a grande vanilla latte, I ask for only 2 pumps of the syrup instead of 4. I think I'm to the point I can now ask for only one! This is a challenge area for us and we are constantly working at it.

So after my success at losing the weight by simply eating real food, I'm even more of a believer of READING THE LABELS! I've become quite good at it and although we aren't perfect and still buy crappy stuff (hello...boxed cake mix and canned frosting) we have definitely changed our eating lifestyle and love it.

Slacker has a new menu plan....

2010-05-11T13:12:00.000-04:00

Yes, I am a slacker. But I don't want to be! I've been so busy in real life that I cannot seem to find time to even say hi! It's a good busy though, so I'm not really complaining!

I'm not even sure if I've mentioned this earlier and I'm too lazy (and busy) right now to go look! My husband and I are watching a friend's baby girl during the week while she is at work. We've been watching her for just over a month now and so far, so good! It's also given my husband and I a glimpse of what it would be like if we had two children. We're so torn on whether or not our son will be an only child or not!

So between watching the baby during the day, spending time with our son and cooking dinner in the early evening, working on my two part-time jobs during the evening, I've not found the time to blog recently! However, we did manage to come up with our next menu plan. Seriously, will it ever get easier? This is definitely a challenge that we want to overcome because it makes life SO much easier to have a menu for us! I love being able to look at our menu each day and knowing what's for lunch and dinner and I love the fact that all of the groceries are in the house to make those meals!

Here is our menu plan for this week (yes, sorry I'm a day late in posting for Monday!)

Monday
  L - Grilled tuna salad sandwich
  D - BLAT wrap (again, one of our absolute favorites). Just crispy bacon, lettuce, avocado and diced tomatoes wrapped up in a wheat or whole-grain tortilla!

Tuesday
  L - Avocado Bean Wrap - new recipe for us. We omitted the chiles. It was really good! Our son wasn't too wild about the cabbage as I knew he wouldn't be. He has a tough time chewing it up raw. So he just got the other fillings!
  D - Salmon Patties with Creamy Dill Sauce, jasmine rice and Baby Bok Choy  The Salmon patties were great the last time I made them. Usually the recipes I've tried are too dry, but this wasn't. The dill sauce is sooo yummy! Bok choy - never ever made it or even ate it, so big experiment for us! I will probably omit the cashews because I don't want to spend the extra money!

Wednesday
  L - Leftover salmon patties (maybe on a sandwich or in a wrap) and probably some roasted carrots and broccoli
  D - Chicken en papillote - from The Sonoma Diet cookbook. SO good!

Thursday
  L - Quesadillas - whatever we have goes in it. Typically leftover chicken, black beans, artichokes, roasted red peppers, mushrooms, onions, etc. We'll probably use leftovers from dinner on Wednesday
  D - Turkey burgers, probably roasted veggies again since I'm sure we'll still have broccoli, onions and carrots and we'll also have some baked sweet potato rounds.

Friday
  L - Pasta Salad - haven't decided which yet. I want to try a new recipe.
  D - Roast with potatoes, carrots, onions and probably a side of cabbage

Saturday
  L - leftover pasta salad - will be good since we're traveling to SC to pick up our raw milk for the month (again, isn't that ridiculous that the farms in SC can't sell in GA? Crazy laws)
  D - Carry out from our favorite Japanese place!

Sunday
  L - leftover roast and veggies
  D - Mexican casserole - we do not put the tortilla chips on the bottom. We did the first time and did not like the weird thick crust it made.

I'm still working on what I can do ahead of time. For example, today's lunch of the Avocado bean wrap - I could have already had the carrot, cabbage and cheese shredded. I could have already made the creamy dill sauce for tonight's meal, etc. So I'm working a little at a time on it. I think I'm going to have to devote an hour on Sunday evening to looking at the menu for the week and figuring out what I can do to prepare ahead.

The end is here....

2010-04-24T00:20:00.000-04:00

My nursing relationship with my son is quickly coming to an end.

It is so very bitter-sweet. I am going to miss this look.

He is now 22 months old and my joy. He has grown up so fast and although I was told by a million people that time would fly by, I really didn't believe them. I knew it would pass quickly. I had NO idea that I would literally blink and it would pass.

I knew back in December that my milk supply was getting lower and lower. When my husband and I took vacation without our little guy in January, I was convinced that when we returned that my son wouldn't want to nurse anymore, but he surprised me. He still nursed every morning and most evenings before bed.

When we moved from my mother's house back to our house at the end of March, I never thought that he would want to stop nursing then. I figured that such a big change would prompt him to ask for "nurse" more. So I was surprised when he only asked twice the first week we moved back home. He's nursed a few more times since and actually nursed this morning, but I don't think I have any milk anymore at all.

I cannot believe I breastfed my son for over 22 months. As I posted before, I thought people who nursed longer than a year were nuts. I'd simply never heard or seen it. When I got pregnant, I knew I'd breastfeed...for the first six months. That time came and went so quickly and I was so amazed that I had completely nourished my son, another human being, for half of a year. How huge is that? My body produced what my son needed to sustain and flourish. How miraculous and wonderful is that? Once that six month period passed, it never occurred to me to abruptly stop nursing him simply because I'd reached a time deadline. I was still his food source and doing well at it, if I don't say so myself! Again, like I've mentioned before, it is said that babies need breast milk or formula for the first year of life. Why in the world would I give my baby something processed and manufactured when I was producing the best food in the world for him? My milk was customized for him. Period. No other source of food I can ever give him will be made just for him.

Breastfeeding is such the norm for us in our family now that I'm surprised when others are shocked to learn my son nursed as long as he did. I had a salon appointment today to get my hair cut and colored (yay, I feel like a woman again) with a new stylist and was telling her that my hair was thinner than normal since I'd recently been nursing and had the gobs of hair fall out (which by the way, no one prepared me for!). She asked how old my baby was and when I told her he would be two in June, I thought she was going to fall over. To me, it's now become normal to know many women who nurse even beyond two years, so I think I'm on the earlier side of the weaning! She told me that she nursed her children for six weeks and then switched to formula. So I guess to her, making it to my original goal of six months would have been shocking too!

I know that the weaning means I am raising a confident son who is beginning to make choices already in life. He is assured that his father and I are there for him and love him so much that we can barely pay attention to the world around us because our focus is him! I am so thankful to have been given the opportunity to experience this special relationship with my son for as long as I was able.

We have now moved forward to other special bonding times. One of my favorite times with him now is before bedtime, after we've read our many books, when we rock together. He lies in my lap with his head and back on my chest and stomach and wraps both arms up over his head and around my neck to stroke my hair. That has been his thing since he's had control over his hands! He always played with my hair while nursing. I'm so happy that it's continued on and it helps me know that he is content.

I know this isn't a very exciting blog post to many, but it's such a blessing I've been able to experience and although I am very sad that it has reached the end, I know it just means we are on the edge of experiencing ever more wonderful things with our son. I cannot wait to see what he has in store for us!

Frugal?

2010-04-14T22:21:00.001-04:00

frugal?

resourceful?

cheap?

I say we're smart!

I'm not sure when it started, but we have become quite frugal. I think it may have begun around the time I was newly pregnant with my son. A friend of ours was selling all of her baby things and we went to take a look. We got a pack and play, stroller system with car seat and base (disclaimer - be extra cautious when buying used car seats, only buy from people you know so you'll know if the car seat has been in an accident and always check for past recalls), swing, travel swing, johnny jump up, bathtub, papasan vibrating chair, a front carrier, and about 15 pieces of maternity clothing which included a really nice wool coat. Total price - $200. It was all in excellent condition! We definitely got a great deal. The travel system alone is nearly that! Thankfully I didn't feel the need to have all brand new things. Most of the stuff is so temporary that I hated to pay retail for it!

We are huge fans of Dave Ramsey . We've been on his plan since last April and love it. That's another blog though! He talks of bartering and asking for discounts, but the key is being able to walk away. In our society of instant gratification or nothing, that was a hurdle that was difficult to get over. However we've realized that there are very few things that we MUST have. Once we got that into our mindset, it's become much easier to save money and get better deals on things we want because we've learned patience.

Here are some other ways we've saved money by being frugal....and patient!

Moving boxes - free at retail store (actually it was behind the store and they were already flattened so it was so easy to get a ton of them in our car! I refuse to pay money for boxes that are just going to get beat up and taped and re-taped, so we go to the liquor store for the smaller boxes - they are the perfect size for packing small things that may be heavy! But we found some larger boxes that we needed behind a sports shoe store)

Newspaper for packing - recycle bin - don't worry, we will recycle back when we are finished!

Jeans (2 pair) - at Goodwill - $10 total (Retail price for one was $150!!! The other was $20 retail)

Sewing machine - $25 (not sure how much it was retail, but I'm guessing around $150) This is another way for me to be frugal. However, I have NO idea even how to sew a button on, so this will be an interesting challenge. But one I'm certain I can do. Especially for me....I mean, how hard can it be to sew a simple dress or skirt? We'll see :)

Belt - for $0.99 (for my husband -since he's slimmed down from his CrossFit workouts! Normally he'd pay at least $20 for a belt)

Basketball goal for our son - faded, but free (We had just looked at these at Wal-Mart the week before and then a friend told us she had one she was giving away! This retails at WalMart for $45!

Dining table - $85.00, solid wood. I'm very excited about this one! I found this on Craigslist and it was gorgeous. Very simple, but exactly what I wanted. AND it's solid wood. I wouldn't even know how much something like this would cost retail...maybe $150 or $200?. I need chairs to go with it, but I'm not in a hurry because I have some I can use for now. I also know I can get wood chairs at IKEA for $20 each, so if I can't find any, then I'll get those!

Pull behind cart for bike - FREE!!! I saw several of these on Amazon for $85! A man who works with my husband was going to throw it away! We'll take it, thank you very much! Now our son will enjoy going for bike rides with my husband. I, on the other hand, rode my bike right into a bush the last time I went a couple years ago, so I'll stay home!

Coffee grinder - $3 My husband was SO excited to find this at Goodwill. He's been wanting one for almost a year now. I have no idea how much one costs. But I'm sure it's more than $3!

Boots - $3 We've wanted these particular boots for our son for a year now. However, they aren't boots he'll wear often, so we hated to pay even $15 for them at Wal-mart, so we were happy to find them at Goodwill!

Pedestal sink - $20 Brand new off of Craigslist!

Filing cabinet - FREE. Our neighbors behind us in the alley were moving and they were putting things in the alley they didn't want. A little paint and it looked brand new!

Cloth diapers - we cloth diaper our son and we bought about 15 Fuzzi Bunz pocket diapers with inserts for $20! It was from someone we knew and they had potty trained their youngest and was just trying to unload the diapers! Retail is $17.95! Plus I can re-sell these if I choose and probably make the little money back that I spent on them!

There are other ways we are frugal - like the different ways we save on electricity, etc. That can be another post though as this is getting rather lengthy. Basically we are all about deals. We try not to pay retail for most things because there's usually a way to get them discounted or even FREE!

Menu planning

2010-04-08T13:38:00.000-04:00

So I took a little time off from writing anything, huh? That's what moving will do to you!

We are all moved back in our house in Savannah and have settled in for the most part. We are waiting on delivery of our IKEA wardrobe system today and once that is put together and our bedroom is unpacked, I'll definitely feel better! The yard will take some work. There are tons of weeds and we've been pulling and raking them out for the past week!

We did start a few vegetables. My husband built me a raised bed along a portion of chain link fencing we have for our peas. We used bricks we already had and the trellis (chain link fence) was already there, so FREE! I also planted a cucumber plant that's supposedly good in small gardens and one red bell pepper plant. I have some other things planted but I think they will probably die in the heat because they are cooler weathered vegetables! Arugula, swiss chard, red cabbage.

We planted 4 tomato plants in self watering containers that my husband made. I'll post pictures on that later. Everything except for the soil and the tomato plants were FREE!

Now, on to making my life feel organized after the move - menu planning is the key! I absolutely despise not having a menu planned out. It makes things so difficult. It's such a pain to sit down and actually plan out the menu, but not really when you think about getting up in the morning, looking at your menu and know exactly what you are eating that day. Such a time saver and saves the hassle of deciding 30 minutes before meal time what you are having!

I'm not good at it yet. I want to be able to build my menu off of what is on sale at the grocery store and what is in season as far as vegetables and fruit. I'll get there! It helps save money too. When going to the grocery store, you have a definite list. You know exactly what to buy. Vegetables won't go bad before you decide to use them. Meat won't sit in your freezer for 6 months before you finally get around to cooking it. You won't have 20 boxes of pasta in your freezer because every time you go grocery shopping without a plan, you buy the pasta that's on sale, just to have on hand for a quick meal! :)

Here is my menu plan for next week. We used to only plan dinners but now that our son is here it's much easier to add lunches too!

Monday 4/12
Lunch - Tuna apple salad
Dinner - Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green veggie or two

Tuesday 4/13
L - Meatloaf sandwich (add lettuce and tomato for veggie servings)
D - Leftovers from dinner last night (yes, meatloaf 3 times in a row, but I don't mind!)
We'll probably slice up a fresh tomato to add to our veggies.

Wednesday 4/14
L - BLAT wrap - one of my FAVORITES! Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado and Tomato wrap! You take a wheat tortilla, chop up crispy bacon, add lettuce, tomato and avocado. The secret is a tiny amount of ranch dressing. SO good! We don't eat ranch dressing except for on this wrap! I'm sure there is a substitute out there I can whip up if I took the time to look!)
D - Roasted chicken, roasted carrots, potatoes and a side of green beans

Thursday 4/15
L - Artichoke chicken salad
D - Quesadillas - using leftover chicken from dinner the night before, artichokes leftover from lunch, black beans, roasted red peppers and mushrooms if you have them. Monterey Jack cheese and YUM!

Friday 4/16
L - Leftover quesadillas
D - Spaghetti with a side of green peas and salad

Saturday 4/17
L - Grape chicken salad (using leftover chicken if any left)
D - Oyster Roast at a friends house - whoohooo@

Sunday 4/18
L - Spaghetti leftovers, whip up a veggie side with whatever we have left (always keep frozen peas and beans on hand)
D - Baked Ziti, salad, something else green

Oh beautiful seedlings!

2010-03-20T18:49:00.003-04:00

Can you believe I already have multiple seedlings sprouting up? I'm sure most of you are laughing at me, but I really had no idea that 3 days after I planted that a few sprouts would have popped through! So exciting :)

It's been almost a week since I planted the seedlings and this is what I have!

About 1/3 of the seeds sprouting. I can't wait to put them in the ground or pots! I did buy a basil plant the other day because I needed some basil for a recipe and I could not bring myself to pay $3.50 for a few leaves when I could buy an entire plant for the same price. I cannot wait until my other herbs mature!

I've been reading as much as I can on small space gardening and we got our plot downtown to put more veggies. It's nice because the water is on a timer so we don't have to go every single day. There is a shared herb garden (which will be awesome until mine get mature), a shared salad garden and a children's pizza garden! I have absolutely no idea what we'll plant there, but it's in full sun, which is nice since the majority of our backyard is shaded by our huge pecan tree. We have such a limited space where the sun shines for about 6 hours/day, so we're going to try to be creative!

I'll share our successes and failures. I'm hoping for more successes!

First seeds planted!

2010-03-14T18:31:00.010-04:00

I told you I was excited! I've already planted a lot of my seeds.

I also got a few more varieties to plant now because about half from the Dinner Garden are fall veggies for this area. And because I wasn't prepared this year to plant vegetables, I actually had to go buy something to start my seeds in. But, I didn't get the ridiculously over-priced greenhouses for seed starting. I found some little pots that you can plant right with your seedlings and I got 50 for just under $2. Which is still too much, in my opinion. Next year I'll be prepared and will be saving my egg cartons!

Now, I have no idea if this will work. I know I'm extremely late for starting seeds indoors, but considering we will be moving in 2-3 weeks and it will be at least a week or two before we are somewhat settled with the unpacking, I figured by starting them indoors, it'll give us a good month or so head start than if we were just to sow the seeds directly in the ground. I guess we'll see soon enough, right? :)

My son got in on the action. Yes, we are inside. It was very chilly outside but I couldn't wait!

Here is a list of the seeds I started indoors.

Cauliflower
Red Cabbage
Wando Peas
Fenugreek
Onions (not sure what kind, but no matter because I love all onions!)
Swiss Chard
Arugula (afraid it may be too hot for it to grow by the time I get it in the ground, but I'll keep my fingers crossed!)
Daikon Radishes
Eggplant
Tomatoes
Peas (not sure what kind, I'm assuming regular garden peas)
Rosemary

I'm super excited. I cannot WAIT to see the fresh sprouts of green pop through the soil. I can't wait to prepare our garden area in Savannah to transplant them. I'm excited to see our son pick his own fresh veggies to eat. I have a feeling we'll be giving a lot away as well because I'm optimistic and think I've already planted too much. :)

I know that this year is an experimental year for us, but I'm ok with that. We have to start somewhere, right? I'm kicking myself for not paying more attention when I was younger and we always had a huge garden. I wish now I would have had a greater appreciation at the time for it. But I guess I just took it for granted because I always had a huge garden growing up and just thought that's the way it was for everyone. It's not been until the past few years when my husband and I have become more aware of our nutrition (or lack of) and have been wanting to start our own garden. Well, now is the time. Why keep wishing for it? Just do it, right?

Free vegetable seeds

2010-03-13T14:58:00.005-05:00

I'm going to plant a garden.

I'm very excited.

I'm especially excited now that I received these seeds in the mail today....for FREE!

I received them after writing to the Dinner Garden people about 2 weeks ago. I'd honestly forgotten all about it until I received my wonderful package today! The Dinner Garden is a fantastic organization that has an awesome mission:

The Dinner Garden provides seeds, gardening supplies, and gardening advice free of charge to all people in the United States of America. We assist those in need in establishing food security for their families. Our goal is for people to plant home, neighborhood, and container gardens so they can use the vegetables they grow for food and income.

They only began this program in 2009 and have already provided seeds for more than 40,000 families and 100 community gardens! How awesome is that?

This is what I received:

Fordhook Giant Swiss Chard
Arugula
Blue Curled Scotch Kale
Fenugreek
Mustard Greens
Onions
Snowball Cauliflower
Harris Early Model Parsnips
Wando Peas
Organic Bloomdale Spinach
Red Cabbage
Daikon Radish

How exciting are those names? I love them. I love the little packages and the little labels. I love that I got the variety that I did. I would have never been so courageous in a store to pick these out! I'm especially excited about the arugula. Giada always uses arugula and when I try to make her recipes I can never find good, fresh arugula. The fenugreek is a complete surprise. I know when I was concerned with my supply when I was exclusively nursing my son, fenugreek was an herb that came up again and again as a supplement to encourage breastmilk production. Not sure what I'll do with it now, but I'm going to grow it anyway!

So, where am I growing all of this? Those of you who have been to our house in Savannah know that we have a tiny yard. Our entire lot is only .13 of an acre. Yep, not even a quarter acre!

Well, I plan on trying a variety of things.

Things such as vertical gardening. This link has several gardens we'll try. The first picture is so beautiful that I must try it at least! What a great way to fill blank fence space! The gutter system is also a must for me. I'll probably do this to grow herbs.

We'll also do container gardening. I found this blog and tutorial on making your own self-watering container. I know we can get the 5-gallon buckets for free, so the cost should be pretty similar to the ones the guy builds in the video.

Another thing I'm super excited about is the possibility of having a plot in a community garden in downtown Savannah! I've heard about community gardens in other cities and decided to search for one in Savannah and found one! We've applied for a plot and hope to be lucky enough to be granted one!

Hopefully between my container gardening in our yard and our small plot (hopefully!) in the community garden, we'll be able to provide fresh, organic produce for our family to eat all summer and fall! We will also donate some of our excess to the local food bank as thanks to the Dinner Garden for supplying us with our starter set of seeds!

Absent

2010-03-10T15:19:00.002-05:00

I'm sorry I've been absent. The travel we did in February seemed to put us behind and I feel like we're not close to being caught up! Trying to coordinate our move is a bit challenging since we've got to get into our house to do a little painting and other things before moving all of our furniture in.

So, I'll probably be mostly gone over the next couple weeks or so, but once we're settled back in Savannah, I'll get back into it!

Oh, and I've lost 10 pounds in the past 6 weeks! :) It's all from just cleaning up my eating a little. I wasn't super strict with my diet, so I can imagine what weight I'll shed once I get into CrossFit and eat even better once moving home!

No TV

2010-02-24T07:54:00.003-05:00

We will not be taking our TV back home with us in April.

We're trading it for a closet! It works out for all involved actually. It's one of those flat-screen tv's that I know nothing about. I just happened to win it in a raffle a couple years ago. I'd never won anything until that point and then I win a $1600 gift card to Best Buy for a big flat screen TV!!!

So when we moved to my mom's, of course the TV came with us and fits perfectly in their entertainment center in the living room. When we told them that we were moving out, they joked that we had to leave the TV. Haha, yeah right!

Well....then I saw a friend's closet system from IKEA. She lives in a small, older home like we are moving back to. I knew I wanted one, but didn't have $1000 in the budget to purchase one anytime soon. After I made my first trip to IKEA at the beginning of February, I realized that I indeed really, really wanted a closet system.

So, after some conversation, we negotiated a trade with my mom and step-dad! We are leaving our TV, video camera, and my Pottery Barn dishes. They are in turn giving us cash to purchase the closet system!

And the BEST part is that we got part of the closet system for a STEAL! We were back in Atlanta last weekend and I spent hours at IKEA getting ideas for when we move back home to maximize space in our small home. Well, in the closet area, I saw these huge sliding doors for the closet systems on super duper clearance. Seriously, they are the largest doors they have and are usually $800....we bought them for $249!!!! We totally didn't expect to buy part of our closet this trip, but at a savings of $550, we couldn't pass it up. It's also not my favorite color, but again, $550 savings would have probably convinced me to take anything that was on sale!

So, we'll have no TV when we move back home. Not a problem since I'd honestly already begun a blog about no TV for 30 days once we moved back home! I am so busy with my son during the day and my husband and I have a ton of projects we want to do when we move back. We have more than enough projects to keep us busy! We want to enjoy more time outdoors and more reading. We've both not been reading as much as we'd like.

Now, this doesn't mean that we disagree with TV's in the home. It's just something we're going to try for a while. Plus, I really, really, really want more storage space in our home! Seriously, if you saw the limited space we have, you'd understand too!

We're going to really work on non-TV entertainment in our home. We want to continue developing our relationships in our family and spend more time with our friends that we've missed since moving away from Savannah.

I'll miss HGTV and Food Network. I'll also miss my re-runs of the Golden Girls, Will & Grace and Sex and the City! But, I'll enjoy my new time to spend helping my family grow!

Week 3 check - in Food Challenge

2010-02-22T23:16:00.003-05:00

I suck. I have eaten HORRIBLY for the past two weeks. The first week was awesome. I felt so great and loved that I was making the proper choices. This week I did even worse than last week. And I feel awful....and bloated....ugh.

I did find a jar to start my starter. I tried to look up the starters you can buy, but there were too many choices and I couldn't follow. So, I am attempting to make my own starter. I will wait until after this weekend because we'll be gone over the weekend back up to the Atlanta area - Stone Mountain for my husband's sectionals competition, one of the preliminaries for the World CrossFit Games. I don't want to have to worry about my starter on the trip up!

I was in Atlanta this past weekend and was able to visit Whole Foods. I love that place. I expected it to be pricey, but it wasn't at all. I wish we had that type of selection available to us here.

This challenge is a great challenge, but I'm afraid we'll have to put it into full effect in April, when we move back to our house and have complete control of what is in the house.

Online organization

2010-02-17T20:30:00.005-05:00

Don't you just love the internet? I am addicted to it. Seriously. I love reading blogs and just information in general. I love that I can google anything!

After my recent post about needing to get organized, I went on a search for some kind of organization template online. What I found was so much better! It is an online schedule for your chores (or anything for that matter). It EMAILS you a reminder each day for the chores you are supposed to do!!! How cool is that? Okay, now my nerd side is really coming out. I really do think this will work for me. I check my email a lot, so to have the reminder come in my inbox is awesome. You can also choose to have the weekly schedule emailed to you at the beginning of the week if you'd like!

Basically you add the people in that will be doing any chores. Then, you add in the chores and you can categorize them (difficult, easy, etc.). You can assign certain chores to certain people or you can make the program choose randomly. You can also choose whether each person gets the same amount of chores or less. You can color code it! You can also decide how often each chore needs to be done. For example, you can even put a chore on there that you only do annually! You can also assign a dollar amount to each chore - I'm guessing that's if you have children that are paid an allowance based on chores.

It's awesome. It's free. It's what I need...I think. I'll give it a good go at least!

Chore Buster - http://www.chorebuster.net/

Real Food Challenge Check-in

2010-02-15T22:20:00.003-05:00

End of week two in the Real Food Challenge.

I failed miserably this week. It's a bad feeling because I was so good the first week and felt so good about the food choices I was making. The only thing I excelled at was choosing real milk (raw milk) and that's only because we've been drinking raw milk for 3 months now! I did decide to make my own butter from my newest delivery of raw milk though! So that's exciting!

I'm determined to make week 3 a better week for me and stick to the challenge as well as I did on week one.

Time to get organized...

2010-02-13T20:54:00.002-05:00

Ok. I admit. I need a schedule. Or a plan. Or a to-do list. Or all of the above.

I've never been a list maker. I always think I can remember everything. I intend do. And I usually do remember everything, usually too late. Frustration comes with remembering late.

Most importantly, we need a schedule to know when to clean our house. Sounds crazy, right? Who can't remember that their bathrooms need cleaning or floors need mopping? I remember, I just put it off. Especially since I stay home, I always think I have tomorrow. It never gets done when it should. It drives me nuts when my tub gets that disgusting ring of ick in it. But when it drives me nuts, I'm usually being pulled in five different directions at that time, so it gets put off yet again.

I've been against a household schedule because I feel like a child that needs to be reminded and it makes me feel like a failure as a homemaker. Shouldn't moms who stay home know just to do these things weekly or bi-weekly? I didn't take into consideration a toddler that knows exactly when my hands are in the raw chicken preparing it for dinner and he decides to open the cabinets and rearrange, by way of removing everything from the cabinet. It's the unexpected messes every single day that I do not prepare for. And it's constantly putting it behind.

Now, I'm not complaining about my cute little mess-maker. I LOVE being home with him, but I feel if I better prepared myself, it would make me not so out of sync when the messes happen.

We've been working on menu-planning for a while and have done fairly ok with it. We just need to do it more. It's so awesome looking at the menu every morning and knowing what we're having without having to think about it at 6 p.m. when we're all starving and only have 2/3 of what we need to make a complete meal. So we're forced to either go the grocery store, hungry, and make poor choices and then eat a very late dinner. Or, we go out to eat...again make poor choices and blew $30 on one meal, when we could have stretched that at the grocery store and gotten several meals from the same money.

I think if we've been somewhat successful with the menu planning then we should be somewhat successful with the household scheduling. We'll see. I'll discuss it with my husband and see what we can come up with.

In other news, my real food challenge is taking a hit this week. Can you guess why? LACK OF PLANNING. I'm so annoyed with myself because I have eaten so poorly today. I feel disgusting and bloated. I think that's what's prompted my intense need to organize right away. With the amount of time my husband and I are both around the house, there is absolutely no reason for us to continue putting off our normal household chores any longer.

50 day Burpee Challenge

2010-02-11T12:33:00.009-05:00

Happy Birthday to me!!!!

And what better present than another challenge? CrossFit has a burpee challenge that circulates around and it's a 100 Day Burpee Challenge. Well, I'm not that optimistic. I would like to be, but I'm just going to be honest and say not quite yet! Once I hit day 50, I'll then reassess and hopefully continue.

I know, I know, I haven't posted a video yet on what burpees are like I said I would a month ago! So here is my wonderful husband demonstrating them. Burpee Example

Now that you know what a burpee is, I'll explain the challenge.

Day One - one burpee

Day Two - two burpees

Day Three - three burpees

and so on.

Don't miss a day. If you miss a day, you have to make it up. For example, if you miss day 20, then on day 21 you must do 20 burpees to catch up the day you missed and then you have to do your current day - 21 burpees. So don't miss one!

The good news - you don't have to do them all in a row. So for example - on day 20 - if you want, do 5 at a time throughout the day. You just have to complete them all in that day.

So, who's with me?

Challenge check-in

2010-02-08T19:30:00.002-05:00

Today is our official check-in for the Real Food Challenge!

I've done ok. Definitely can improve. As I posted, my husband and I are living with my mom and step-dad and can't really clear out our pantry like we'd like. So that's a big challenge in itself! I've done really well with it though considering.

One thing I haven't given up is my agave sweetener. I have gotten some suggestions though to replace and as soon as I can get to the health food store (an hour away) I will replace it. Also, we are moving home in 2 months and can definitely have our pantry cleaned out!

As far as beginning my starter for the sourdough bread....I cannot even find the mason jars!!!! Again, I've gotten some leads on where to find those, so I'll be starting that this week.

Confession - over the weekend my husband, son and I went to the Atlanta area for a CrossFit competition for my husband. It was challenging to eat well, but the thing that saved us was that we stayed in a house with a kitchen. That was huge. We went shopping Friday evening and ate well all weekend. The confession part is the huge cinnamon roll that I snatched from IKEA and some peanut M&M's. And...now I'm paying for it. My guts are not happy....at all.

I'm so happy this challenge is going and I can't wait to finish it and improve over the next 3 weeks!

I'm still in the challenge!

2010-02-04T22:38:00.002-05:00

The food challenge is going well. Of course I could be doing better....by giving up my agave. I've been told there is a natural sweetener at a natural food store in Savannah, so I'm going to check it out. Other than that, I've done pretty well. I've surprised myself actually because I thought for sure I'd be grabbing the boxes of cereal in the mornings, but I've not even been tempted! I did have a hot chocolate the other night and honestly had already drank half of it before I realized what I was doing! To my defense, it was dark, cold and misting rain and we were on a haunted hearse tour in downtown Savannah! All I heard the driver say was "hot" when he pulled up to a restaurant and asked if we needed anything to drink. :)

Oh, and I did forget about my vanilla latte *hanging head in shame* two days ago. I guess I'll have to either give up my coffee all together or start carrying my sweetener around with me. Or, I guess there is the option of drinking it without sweetener!

I'm not really sure though about going out to eat and choices to make. We went to lunch the other day and I got an awesome salad but was stumped about the dressing. I ended up with oil and vinegar, but I'm not sure if that passes my real food challenge or not!

So far in the challenge we've been asked to clear our pantry of processed stuff, go buy wholesome, one-ingredient choices to restock our pantry (we got extra credit because we already drink raw milk!), improve our grains choices (which I've yet to really read on) and today's was begin your starter for sourdough. I'm very excited about today's challenge, yet when I went to Wal-Mart (ugh) to buy my mason jars, cheesecloth, twine, and whole grain flour, I walked out with not one item on my list. They didn't even have mason jars! Seriously? We're in the south...don't people still can things?

We're headed out of town for my husband's CrossFit competition this weekend. It's in a smaller town north of Atlanta. Check out this site for more information. http://garagegames2010.crossfitgarage.com/

It seems like it's going to be a great time! And hopefully I'll be able to sneak in a trip to Ikea, some children's consignment sales and maybe even Whole Foods! We're staying in a lake house so it'll be much easier to eat clean since we can prepare our own meals!

Hopefully this weekend will be a nice little test for me and I am really crossing my fingers I can make it through without a fast food meal!

Oh, it's definitely going to be a challenge....

2010-02-01T08:09:00.012-05:00

So I as I said, I'm taking part of the 28 day real food challenge - from The Nourished Kitchen.

Well, I received my first challenge today. It's much more than a challenge....it's an impossible challenge.

It's not that I don't want to meet this challenge head on, believe me, I do. This is going to be more challenging for us than most of the participants in the challenge. Why, you ask? Why is my family different? My husband, son and I live with my mom and step-dad. So, we have roommates. Those in the challenge who are living with roommates can probably empathize with us!

So, I'm sure you're holding your breath waiting to find out what the challenge is. Here is the gist of it:

Your first assignment is to take an inventory of your pantry, fridge and cupboards. Remove all processed foods and foods containing those ingredients from your kitchen. That means you'll toss all refined oils, white flour, sugar and low- and skimmed-milk products. Ditch the boxed cereals, margarines, shortenings, frozen pizzas, sodas, lemonades and juice drinks, packaged crackers and cookies, processed cheeses, dried pastas, iodized and refined salts. Toss them and don't look back. No, it doesn't matter if the foods are organic or not: toss them anyway. You may well have paid good money for the food at one time, but remember real health comes from real food and real food never comes from a box.

I actually think this is the perfect first step! And if we were back home, it would be actually a lot of fun to do! I'm not really sure how we're going to do this. I guess if we get through this month with all of the "convenience" packaged foods (mainly cereals) around, then we're much stronger than we think! There is just no way my mother will allow me to toss all of the things from the pantry. It is her house after all and I do not have control over the entire kitchen!

Also, here is what I ate today:

Breakfast - a banana, one egg (fried), cup of milk, coffee (sweetened with agave - which I read I have to give up). Now, I just realized as typing this, that I used Pam spray to fry my egg in. I'll start using real butter from now on!

Snack - orange

Lunch - leftovers from last night - turkey breast, corn, collard greens, mashed white potatoes (yes, I know, white...my mom made them!)

Dinner - Chili and grilled cheese (my mom made the chili, so I'm certain she used salt)

Snack - banana

I think I did fairly well. I do want a nice glass of sweet tea though and I'm really, really craving it. I guess I'll drink a big glass of water, blah.

Shepherd's Pie with no potatoes?

2010-01-31T13:48:00.005-05:00

Yes, I know, it's almost a sin to have no potatoes on Shepherd's Pie, but we're trying super hard to avoid white potatoes, rice, sugar...you know the horrible white stuff that's not great for us.

So, I found a recipe that substitutes the mashed potatoes for mashed cauliflower. Sounds weird, right? Well, I've had mashed cauliflower before and it wasn't horrible, so I figured I'd give it a go. I adapted the recipe I found, but wanted to provide a link to it, so you could see the original. http://www.marksdailyapple.com/shepherds-pie/

Here's how I changed it.

1 head cauliflower

1 minced garlic clove

salt & pepper

olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 cup fresh, chopped carrots blanched

1 cup fresh green beans (trimmed) blanched

1 cup frozen peas

1 pound ground venison (any lean meat is fine, just make sure it's organic at the very least)

1 tablespoon of white, yes white, flour (I just haven't had a chance to get any almond flour yet!)

3/4 cup beef broth (make your own if possible)

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried rosemary

2 tablespoons butter (real butter...none of the fake stuff!)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

Break/chop cauliflower and steam until tender (I think I steamed for about 10 or so minutes)

Put in food processor with garlic until smooth. Salt/pepper to taste (I omitted the 2 tablespoons butter from the original recipe because it calls for 2 tablespoons at the end, but I'll definitely add it to this step next time)

Heat oil in skillet over medium to medium low heat

Add onion and saute until soft

Add venison and brow

Add peas, carrots and green beans and cook for five minutes

Stir in flour

Add broth, herbs, salt and pepper to taste and simmer for about 5 minutes (stir occasionally)

Put mixture into baking dish and spread cauliflower on top.

Put the 2 tablespoons of butter on top (cut it into small cubes)

Bake 30-35 minutes

This was surprisingly good! I wish I would have add 1/2 more onion, another head of cauliflower for the mash on top (with another clove or two of garlic), butter for the mashed cauliflower, but all in all definitely very good!

I chose to use fresh veggies instead of frozen because I like my veggies to be firm and was afaid the frozen would be too mushy, but frozen is definitely a great way to go to make this a easy meal to prepare!

It was great leftover too! I have to admit, the mashed cauliflower looks kind of weird leftover, but tastes just the same as the night before.

Join me for the February Real Food Challenge!

2010-01-31T09:37:00.003-05:00

Details found here - http://nourishedkitchen.com/28-day-real-food-challenge/

This comes at a PERFECT time for me! My husband is already doing really well with his eating. I should be so lucky to have a partner who wants to be as healthy as I want to be. Now, if I could only stop eating the crap! I'm doing much, much better and taking baby steps all the time.

This challenge will be great and very challenging since we're going out of town for two weekends in February! No better time than the present to start learning how to eat while out of town, right?

So, join me. Please. I beg you. I need people to help me through this :)

No juice? Ever?

2010-01-13T22:26:00.006-05:00

Not ever, but for now. Our 19 month old has never had juice. It's not that we think juice is harmful and I'm sure soon he'll have some. However, at this point it's very important to us to make him understand that water is the number one beverage in our house. I grew up drinking very little water. We were big fans of sweet tea in our house! I always drank milk as well, but water wasn't really in the picture so much. I struggle so much with not drinking enough as an adult and I don't want my son to have to worry with it as well.

We don't feel that juice is necessary in our child's diet. Sure, it's considered a fruit serving (to some), but considering our son already eats too much fruit in a day, we figure why give him juice that doesn't contain the whole fruit that's meant to be eaten. We believe it's important to eat all parts of the fruit that are able to be eaten.

Another reason we've chosen to delay introducing juice - we listened to the advice of MANY friends of ours. We are told constantly that their kids do not like to drink water and will only drink it if it's flavored. I'm not against flavoring your water with some natural fruit juices, however I'm brought back to my struggles now as an adult and my lack of drinking water as much as I should. I do not like the taste of water...I don't even like the taste of flavored water. I don't want my son to be in the same boat later in life knowing that water is the most important beverage for you and not liking to drink it at all.

My niece, who is a couple months older than my son, stayed with us for a couple months recently. She was not a water drinker at all. In fact, she made awful faces when she realized her cup contained only water and threw her cup on the floor. It took about a week, but with us consistently offering only milk in the mornings with her breakfast and water every other offering, she slowly took to it. In fact, she began gulping it down faster than our son at most meals! One thing we found to work very well with her was to offer her 8 ounces of water in the morning right when she woke up, before breakfast, and guess what? She drank it down so quickly that we hadn't even had breakfast prepared!

We also take the advice of our pediatrician, which I've also heard years ago before ever even considering having children, which is to offer what you prepare (food or drink), if they do not want it, cover the plate (or put cup in refrigerator), and when your child asks for food or drink later, offer what you offered earlier that they did not accept. Our doctor said there will be days you wonder how the child even survived the week because he/she ate so little, but there will be weeks you wonder where he/she put all the food they consumed. We haven't had to implement that rule yet since our son is a pretty good eater/drinker. However, I know we could be dealing with it soon!

So, for now, it's only water, raw cow's milk (or organic if our monthly supply of raw milk runs out) and breast milk. Eventually he'll definitely get some juice occasionally. But it won't be an everyday beverage in our house. I see it as being more of an apple or orange juice on weekends when we have wonderfully big breakfasts!

You're still breastfeeding?

2010-01-04T23:20:00.006-05:00

"When they are old enough to ask for it, it's time to wean."

Well, with all due respect, babies ask for it the minute they are born. They may not use the same words we do, but they most certainly ask for it. I totally understand that many people are weirded out by extended breastfeeding...wait, that's wrong. Actually I've found that many people are weirded out by women breastfeeding, period. Now, I don't blame these people...I blame our society.

I have to admit, I was one of them. I remember once when working my part-time job for a photography studio years ago...once during a session with a little girl who was almost 2, we had to stop so the mom and little girl could have a nursing session. I was totally weirded out! I mean, I knew women breastfed. That much I got. But I thought you only breastfed the babies until they could sit up or eat solid foods. I had NO clue.

But you know, the first time I'd ever really seen a woman breastfeed their child was when I was 24 years old. 24. Isn't that ridiculous? It was my sister feeding her daughter. I have a feeling if it weren't my sister, I probably wouldn't have seen it happen for another few years.

Somehow I knew I'd always breastfeed. I'm not sure why. My mom didn't breastfeed my sister and I. It was never discussed, not because we thought it was bad, just because it wasn't the norm any longer in our society. When I got pregnant, there was never any discussion between my husband and I whether we would breastfeed or not. It was just how it was going to be.

The question was "for how long." I initially said I would get to six months. After all, that's when they begin on solids, right? Then I researched some more. Once I read that babies are to get breast milk or formula for the first year of life, that settled it. Why in the world would I give my baby formula if I was already breastfeeding and doing very well with producing enough milk for my child. If a baby needs one or the other for the entire first year, I would not substitute the best thing I can give my baby for something commercially made.

Then once a year came, we were not ready to stop nursing...not even close! Our son was never sick the entire first year (except for one bout with a snotty nose that was caused by spring pollen). The first time he got sick, it was with RSV (very strange since it's common in daycares and he stays home). He was 17 months old. Now, RSV can be very dangerous to infants and usually involves breathing treatments and sometimes hospital visits and stays. We went to our pediatrician and he gave us instructions on what to do. Within hours he was better. Now, he still had to get over the virus, but given the fact that he was older than the average age a baby gets RSV and he was still nursing, he had that much more to fight the virus with. We were so thankful that he was still nursing to help keep him healthy enough to fight the nasty virus. Also, our pediatrician is fantastic and we are thankful he did not load our son up on unnecessary antibiotics. (Our son has never had antibiotics.) We were told to use an OTC decongestant for 3 days and use a saline drop as needed. Seriously as soon as we started using that and started clearing his nose, he was better.

Now, the health thing could just been good genes (which I'd like to take credit for!) but we like to think the breast milk has a little something to do with it! Why would we cut off the most nutritious food just because we reached a certain time? Clearly our son still needs the milk because he's still nursing and I'm still producing.

I wish I could explain better why I've totally changed my view on breastfeeding in general, but I really don't have an explanation. I look at my son when he's nursing and it's what we were meant to do. God knew exactly what he was doing. I was given the ability to completely nourish another human being for 6 months (could have been longer, it's just when we introduced solids). No supplements were given at all and he thrived. I think that is one of God's most wonderful gifts. The fact that my body can continue to produce milk in response to my son's nursing is all the proof I need to know that my body was meant to do this and I will continue doing this until my son decides it's time to wean.

I believe that the time is near. My supply is very low and my son only nurses now in the mornings after he wakes and before he goes to sleep at night. Only for a few minutes and he doesn't fall sleeping nursing. The other night, my mother watched him while we were out and she put him down for the night and he didn't wake up until his normal wake time, which further strengthens my theory that the time is near. It's definitely bittersweet. On one hand, it will be nice not to have to wear a nursing tank every night to bed, but on the other, it'll be sad to know my baby is growing up that quickly!

Natural Dishwasher Detergent

2010-01-04T10:00:00.000-05:00

I am on the quest for a more natural alternative for my dishwasher detergent. We use half the recommended amount of the commercial stuff and it leaves a powdery film on our dishes. Surely that can't be good, right? Especially when the bottle/box has a label warning about not ingesting. So after some research this is what I've come up with to try:

I'm going to mix equal parts of borax and baking soda and use it as my soap. I'm going to start with using 2 tablespoons and see how it works. I've also read that using vinegar in the rinse will help to avoid any residue. So first things first...go buy borax!

I know that the phosphates used by the majority of commercial dishwasher soap manufacturers use will be phased out by June 2010 (some already are - WalMart's brand has no phosphates), but what else will they use in place of it? I don't really want to wait to find out and be the guinea pigs for their "improved" product.

We also want to start making our own laundry detergent, but I feel that it's more important to get this taken care of because the dishwasher soap washes the dishes that our food is on that we put into our body.

I will make it, test it out and report back to you!

Now, a little blog business. I've decided to add my workouts of the day (WOD's - I personally do not like this acronym, but have started saying it just because my husband does so often!) Anyway, I plan to write my workouts down here as often as I can because although CrossFit is for everyone, it's quite intimidating to the average person to read the WOD's and get the feeling that you are just not CrossFit material! All workouts with CrossFit can be scaled for anyone, so I'll be giving you my very beginner WOD's for you to try if you so choose! And, the best part is, you can do the majority of them in your own home!

So, my workout yesterday was

- Squat 50 times (make sure you do a proper squat, heels must stay down and keep the majority of your weight on your heels. Do not round your back.) I did this one for time so I can use it to compare later. My time was 4:00 minutes.

- Front plank (get on the floor, only elbows/forearms and toes touching) Keep your body as parallel to the floor as possible. I did this 5 times for 10 seconds each time.

- Single leg lifts - lie on the floor. Lift one leg at a time. Keep your arms by your side and on the ground. If you are in better shape than me, lift both legs at once. Do 5 rounds of 5 lifts on each leg.

The best part about most of these workouts (other than being able to do them at home) is how quickly I can do them. I can put my son down for his nap and do my workout and still have plenty of time leftover to do wonderful things like put dishes away or wash clothes *said in a sarcastic tone* :)

No recipe today, sorry! Although I have several in my possession to try and report back!

25 Burpees

2010-01-03T23:30:00.001-05:00

Try them...I dare you.

I bet you've never heard of a burpee, unless you are familiar with CrossFit! 25 burpees for time was my workout for today. It took me 5 minutes, 33 seconds to complete them. Those that know what a burpee is must not laugh at my time! My husband does 100 burpees in 6 minutes, 30 seconds. It took me almost the same amount of time to do a quarter of what he can complete!

As much as they sucked, my total workout time today was 5 minutes, 33 seconds. That's it. Nothing else. That in itself is motivating enough to stick with CrossFit. Now, some of the other workouts take longer, but still, it's worth it. If we lived closer to the CrossFit gym, I'd definitely go to the classes. My husband has built a CrossFit gym in the garage here, so we have pretty much everything that we need. There are a few key things missing like kettle-bells, but he uses dumbbells in place of them.

For those who don't know what a burpee is you can search "burpee" and "crossfit" on youtube. There are several different versions. I'll video my husband demonstrating them and post it in a few days. It'll be the proper one according to the CrossFit competitions.

So, try it out. 100 burpees for time is a workout, but if you can't do 100, just shoot for 25. I bet you'll beat my pitiful time! I plan on doing the workout again in one month and seeing if I improved. I'll post an update when I do.

Recipe share:

Paleo/Zone chili
again, borrowed from http://cfscceat.blogspot.com/

Ingredients:

2 lbs. lean ground meat - we used venison

2 T Italian seasoning

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp ground pepper

1 medium yellow onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 green, red, orange, or yellow bell pepper

1/2 C red wine

15 oz. can dice tomatoes, no salt (we added another can)

8 oz. can tomato sauce, no salt

4 oz. can diced green chillies (we did not add this)

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/8 tsp red pepper flakes

Water

Green onions

Italian parsley

Brown ground meat (we added a little salt and pepper to the cooking meat), drain, set aside. When finished, deglaze pan with some of the red wine. Saute the diced onion and garlic. Add tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, diced chilies and chopped peppers. Add back the meat, and all other ingredients, and spices. Bring to a boil and then simmer until ready to serve. We simmered for about 3 hours. Add a little extra water if needed to get to desired consistency. Spoon into a bowl and top with some diced green onions and chopped flat-leaf italian parsley.

*** NOTE - we added 3 cans of beans (you can use any - black, white beans, kidney beans, chili beans (rinsed). We also added some leftover shredded carrots, black beans, chopped red onion...didn't want any of it to go to waste!

I don't have the proper zone blocks listed because frankly it overwhelms me, so if you go to the website we borrowed it from, it's broken down there.
We also improvised. Chili and soup in general is a great way to rid your fridge of any leftover vegetable that you may have stored. We always seem to have half of an onion or shredded carrots or some leftover celery that's just not being eaten. We've decided that we'll probably make soup every 7-10 days and even if we don't eat it that night, we'll freeze it to have on hand.

Portion Control...a learned habit

2010-01-02T17:00:00.000-05:00

I struggle greatly with portion control. Seriously, the other night I ate two, count them, TWO dark chocolate candy bars. At least they were dark chocolate, right? Oh, and it was New Year's Eve...celebrating right? I deserve it, right? Ugh, although they taste SO good, it's so not worth it immediately after. Wes has a saying that I despise, but love at the same time. "Nothing tastes as good as being skinny feels." Well, I'm not so sure I necessarily want to be skinny, but the saying still stings when I hear it or say it. Because it's true...although I think I want to change it to "Nothing tastes as good as being healthy feels." When I was in shape, eating foods that weren't good for me wasn't satisfying...no matter how good they tasted. Because I was in the zone...I knew that immediately after I would totally regret it.

So, how do I get back to that point? I don't know really. As I mentioned before, I have several tubs of clothes packed away that I cannot fit into and I paid good money for those clothes! As my friend Anne said after having her son, "It's not an issue of vanity, but an issue of economics!" SO true. Since we're adapting our life to a less wasteful, more resourceful way, this is helping to motivate me to get into better shape so I don't have to buy another entire wardrobe at the size I am now. Which, by the way, is no fun. I hate even shopping for a shirt or pair of pants. And the bathing suit top I just had to buy the other day for our upcoming cruise...nauseating. Not just because I'm at the weight I am or the shape I'm in, but because I actually had to spend money on an article of clothing that is 3 sizes bigger than what I used to be. It was on clearance, but still $9.00 is too much money to pay for a swimsuit top when I have about 10-12 in a box packed away.

I've read somewhere that it takes anywhere from 11 days to a month to develop a habit. So that's my goal for the first two weeks of the year. To limit the portions I allow myself when eating meals or snacks. I know I can do it, I've done it before. I actually counted calories once. I tracked it with an online calorie counter so it made it look nice and pretty. I was aiming for 2000 calories a day because of still breastfeeding. It was so hard to do that first week, but guess what? I lost three pounds! THREE...in one week...eating 2000 calories! I was not only eating less calories obviously, but choosing better foods. Who says you have to only eat 1200 calories to lose weight? We need to focus more on WHAT those calories are.

Our society has continuously encouraged larger and larger portion sizes. We all know how fast food restaurants serve. But what about the nicer restaurants? Ever been to a steakhouse? Fine dining or Texas Roadhouse, it doesn't really matter because they often have 12-16 ounce steaks on their menu. What does the average person need with a steak that big? How does their body handle it? And that's probably not the only thing that person eats at that meal, I'm willing to bet. I'm sure there is a baked potato on the side, broccoli if we're lucky and I'm sure there's always the fried onion appetizer before.

My family has done pretty well in sharing meals when we go out. The other day, my husband, son, niece and I all shared one entree and one sushi roll and it was more than enough. We're also going to attempt to adopt the practice of as soon as our food is brought to the table, immediately box up everything over what we should eat in one sitting. Then we've also stretched our dollar that way because we then have at least one, possibly two, meals for the next day's lunch!

So, portion control is going to be my first focus as far as eating healthy goes. Yes, I'm still going to be choosing healthy, natural recipes and increasing our veggie servings, but I think portion control is a key factor is healthier eating. Basically we're going to use our hand as our guide.

Open hand with fingers spread - veggies
Palm of hand - protein
Quarter of palm - good fats

Note - we do not have grains/starches. The Paleo/Zone diet Wes likes to follow doesn't really focus on it. Although on the Zone diet, it does allow for grains, but the Paleo doesn't. Wes really likes the huge focus on the veggies. But, for breakfast we will do oatmeal. Never instant, always old-fashioned or steel-cut oats. We're still deciding on what we think is right for our diet. We are not telling anyone to eliminate anything from their diet, only to do your research and read as much as you can and decide for yourself!

Recipe share:
borrowed from http://cfscceat.blogspot.com/

Paleo Mediterranean Chicken

Ingredients:
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (trimmed, cut in half and pounded)
almond meal - we used wheat bran (just don't use white flour!)
14 oz can quartered artichokes - drained if in oil
dried parsley
14 oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes
2.25 can sliced black olives
1 yellow onion
8 ounces of mushrooms
1 cup chicken broth (make your own one day!)
2 tsp olive oil
2-3 T fresh Italian parsley

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix about 1/2 C almond meal with 2 T dried parsley.
After pounding chicken breasts, sprinkle both sides of chicken breasts with almond meal mixture
Heat olive oil in a skillet
Brown chicken breasts on both sides - about 3 minutes per side
Add to baking dish when finished
After all chicken breasts are browned, add chicken broth to skillet and deglaze pan
Add all other ingredients to pan and bring to a quick low boil, then pour over chicken
Sprinkle top with fresh Italian parsley and bake for about 30 minutes.

I'd give this 2-3 stars out of 5. I probably won't be making this again. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't my favorite either. The chicken will be fine leftover chopped in a salad or wrap though. I'd rather have the Mustard Agave Chicken again!

"Before" pictures...a scary beginning

2010-01-01T12:07:00.004-05:00

Happy New Year!

I have a feeling that 2010 is going to be a great year for my family! We have so many possibilities in front of us and that's exciting! We haven't officially set goals. I'm not sure if we really will. We have a lot of fun things planned - a 7-day cruise this month (first time we'll be away from our son - yikes!), several CrossFit competitions for Wes, a CrossFit certification class for Wes so he can become a coach, a move back to our home in Savannah, a possible vacation to Michigan in the late summer with my in-laws (when it's 100+ degrees here), continuing to watch Smith learn and grow and become even more wonderful, watch our friend's children do the same and just continuing to find good, wholesome, natural ways to improve our quality of life.

So, how should I start the new year off so I can gauge my progress with my health and fitness level? "Before" pictures, of course. Doesn't that sound awful? I'm putting it off, but will definitely be doing it today and NO, I will NOT be posting these. :) Perhaps in 6 months when I'm lean and confident I'll then share them, but I'm thinking probably no! Pictures tell no lies and are often motivation for many to want to lose a couple or 20 pounds. I plan to take my photos weekly and in the same clothes so I can really tell the difference. It's funny...I took weekly photos of myself when I was pregnant so I could see my belly grow. That was so much more fun that this!

I also have my "skinny" jeans. I'm still deciding if I should use these as my goal. I could care less about size, I just want to feel good in my clothes and those jeans represent a time in my life where I was very active and felt great with a lot of energy. I did put them on the other day and the button and button hold did not even come close to meeting! I think I'll also take a picture of me in those weekly.

As far as my actual weight - I'm not sure if I should go by my scale weight. I'll keep up with it because it'll be nice to see the number go down, but as far as the goal goes - I think it's just to get back into my 3 HUGE rubbermaid containers full of a past wardrobe of mine!

I'm going to weigh myself weekly only....or I'll try....perhaps I'll have Wes hide the scale and only bring it out on Sunday's. Ugh, I'm getting a sick feeling to my stomach. Why in the world did I choose to share this on this public blog? Now I really have to uphold my goals. Blah.

Off to weigh and take a picture and do my 3rd CrossFit workout - my legs are still rubber from my first workout a week ago - squats. Only squats. Without weights. Perhaps I'll get to the point I can actually use weights by summer...or at least the end of the year.

It shouldn't be this difficult...

2009-12-30T14:14:00.013-05:00

to obtain good, clean, whole, raw milk.

I just got an email that our monthly (yes, monthly is all we can get) delivery of raw milk is not happening next week because we don't have enough orders. I'm not frustrated with the delivery driver because he's got to make a living too, but I am angry with the law that makes it illegal for dairy farmers to sell raw milk or for anyone to distribute raw milk in Georgia.

I just do not understand why in the world I, as an educated consumer, cannot purchase the kind of milk that I want. Does that mean I think that I should be able to go to any dairy and purchase raw milk...no. I want a certified raw milk farm. Most have higher standards than commercial dairies because pasteurized milk is heated to such high temperatures that the milk doesn't have to be handled as carefully as certified raw milk does. So I absolutely do not want to drive up to some commercial dairy and pick up a jug or two of their raw milk.

As long as the raw milk farms adhere to the standards placed upon them, why does it matter to anyone where I buy my milk. I seriously have to drive across the bridge to the next state over to pick up my milk. The driver can't even cross the border into Georgia or guess what? He could be arrested. And, that's not all. If I were to pick up a friend's milk on pick-up day and take it to them, I could get arrested for distribution. Really?

Here's a link to an interesting story about our tax dollars at work helping to keep raw milk "contraband" out of our homes. I'm just sick that we devote this many resources to preventing people who are just trying to be as healthy as they can for themselves, their family and their environment and world. http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/101709/new_505698081.shtml

I'd like to talk about why my husband and I decided to begin drinking raw milk. That's a much longer post for another day.
Here's a picture of when we visited the farm where my sister in law gets her raw milk. She's part of a cow share (wish we could find that around here).

Recipe bonus:
I've decided to add my recipes that we try out onto my blog as I can. I was going to try to have the recipes relate to my topics, but eh, I can do whatever I want because it's my blog, right? :)

This is a recipe I borrowed from a blog I'm following: http://cfscceat.blogspot.com/
We are following it because Wes wants to develop a Paleo/Zone diet (more on this later because honestly, I don't even know how to explain it myself yet) and this website has great recipes and pictures, which I love. I guess I'll have to get on the ball and take a few pictures to put with my meals, huh?

I was apprehensive about trying this out. Agave? A sweetener...on chicken? But then again, honey is often paired with chicken, so why not try? I'd say it landed somewhere between 4-5 stars, with 5 being the highest. What's great is that with the leftover chicken, my niece and I chopped it up the next day for lunch. I had a salad and she had a wrap. So tender and juicy leftover!

Mustard Agave Chicken with Veggies
Ingredients:
4 skinless, boneless, chicken breasts (pounded and cut in half)
2 T olive oil
Garlic powder, black pepper, and sea salt
1/4 C chicken broth - best if you make your own
3 T agave nectar - we buy organic and keep it on hand to sweeten our coffee
1/4 C dijon mustard
2-4 cups broccoli crowns
1 small yellow onion - we cut into quarters

Sprinkle garlic powder, pepper and sea salt over chicken breasts and brown in olive oil, about 3 minutes on each side, then place in baking dish.
Deglaze pan with chicken broth.
Whisk together mustard and agave, and add pan juices!
Mix well and pour over chicken breasts.
Top chicken with broccoli and onions, cover with foil and bake for about 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

We had a salad on the side with homemade mustard lemon vinaigrette. YUM

Introduction to why

2009-12-29T11:28:00.001-05:00

This is not your "must read" blog. It's simply a place for me to hold myself accountable and share different recipes, articles, etc. to friends and family who may be interested....or anyone else who may be addicted to blogs like I am!

Why I'm doing this blog:

- I need to get healthy.

I say this only because I don't want to say "I want to lose weight." Which is a goal of mine, but not the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is to be healthy, which in return, will allow me to lose this extra weight.

- I'm tired of eating junk.

My husband and I have begun reading labels....really reading labels. It's not easy when we've never done it before. But it's getting easier as each time we realize that we've been putting straight JUNK into our bodies with certain foods and realizing we're doing more harm than anything to ourselves.

- I'm tired of wasting money

Our society has this view that eating healthy is expensive. Well...we've been on a strict budget since April 2009 and actually love it (in our own nerd way). We've started comparison shopping and realizing what we pay per ounce, etc. Once we started realizing that the fresh, whole foods eaten in the correct servings and paired with other foods that help give you the energy, fiber, fat, etc., that you need, we see that we were paying waaay too much for food before because we'd need to eat more of the junk to keep our energy up.

- I want to set a good example to our son

Yes, I'm that mom. Our 18 month old son never had refined sugar until he was 1 year old. He has never had juice of any kind (other than that which comes from his fruit that he eats). He drinks water, raw whole milk and breast milk only. Yes, still breastfeeding him! We made his baby food...all of it. I think he may have had 2 jars of commercial baby food total. And that was because we were in a pinch. I want to instill in him good eating habits and allow him to get a taste for fresh, raw veggies and different textures, tastes, etc., before he becomes too opinionated! I'd rather him do this now rather than wait until he's in his 30's and realizing that maybe his diet isn't the best!

Now...we're not perfect. We give him the occasional "bad" or processed food. However, if we do that, I try very hard to be the one to make the cookies, bread, pie, etc. That way, I know everything that's going in. He does eat processed food - some cereals, graham crackers, fruit leather, etc. And occasionally he gets commercial milk (when our r aw milk runs out for the month)

- I want to be in better physical shape

You would think after running around after a child for almost a year that I would be in great shape. Especially since my son does not sit down...ever. Okay, maybe he sits for his meals, but that's only because he's strapped in his chair! Seriously, I have kept this weight on since having him. I actually lost down to my pre-pregnancy size almost immediately...within 2 weeks I'd say. BUT no one told me that things would be this different! I look back at pictures of myself when I was 3 months pregnant and look thinner than I do now!

Sure, it's vanity, but I also feel better and have more energy when I'm in shape. I was in better shape when I was pregnant and miserable.

My husband is a freak. He is lean, muscled, and does ridiculous workouts everyday - some of which include 150 pull-ups...really? He's into Crossfit, which I must say is definitely a great way to workout. It includes competition, which is a motivator for me and definitely for him. In fact, he's already competed in one competition and has signed up for two more. Such fun to watch. So now I'm embarrassed because he is in such great shape and I am most definitely not. I just did my first Crossfit workout yesterday in hopes of starting this healthier lifestyle...more on that later.

- Back to basics

We're learning more and more in our reading and just opening our eyes that much of our society does things the hard way, which wastes time and money and resources and our environment. We are slowly realizing that some of the ways we looked at things in the past don't really make sense. Most of it comes from our society in the past 30-40 years and how fast-paced we've let life become and expect it to be now. Much more on these many topics later.

Well....this is much longer than I intended this intro to be. So I'll stop for now....besides it's almost lunch time for my little guy and two nieces. Not sure what we're having yet. Perhaps some leftover Mustard-Agave chicken with broccoli and onions....

Oh, I'm Dusti. 30+ years old. Husband, Wes, of 3 years. Son is 18 months old and the cutest thing ever. My paying job is a realtor - although I typically just wait for referrals now. My primary focus is on our son. My husband is a firefighter and has the best shifts possible! He works 24 hours on and 48 off. He gets so much time at home and we love it!

Okay, now I'm really done.