Being Social While Dieting is not Easy!

Since I decided to blog about this crazy food journey we are on, I feel like I need to be honest when things were eaten that are not on "the list."

It all started with a certain person believing that the pizza was Paleo. So it was eaten. (That pizza did smell REALLY good! I wanted that pizza!) That same person also couldn't watch a movie without eating popcorn. I am not naming names but it wasn't me.

I wish that I could say that I was perfect but I was not. I had a piece of chocolate. The chocolate did not have sugar in it but it had peanuts. I found out after the first one that it had peanuts but I still chose to eat the second one. That little bit of sweetness did show me how addicting sweet stuff is and how it messes with my mind. It truly is an addiction. I thought about that little piece of chocolate for a long time and had to keep fighting to not grab another one.

I also had communion at church this morning.  Gluten. Yes, my church does offer gluten free communion but that would have required me to walk to the back of church and get it. I didn't feel it was necessary.

Of course, I think there are other minor things too. Like the small amount of sugar in my bacon. The pickles that I opened today had a couple ingredients that I'm pretty sure are not allowed. I'm having to just tell myself that I'm doing all I can and those couple little things are not failures. We are still eating way better than we did before!

I have always thought of myself as a planner. I was pretty sure that I didn't have a spontaneous bone in my body. Turns there is one area of my life where I am spontaneous. With food. I wake up in the morning and I decide what I want for breakfast. It's lunchtime? Hmmmmm......What should I have?

I did start meal planning for supper a couple months ago but really just for the week nights. The weekends were decided on the weekend.

Now I am having to plan every single meal. I have to admit.....It's exhausting! I keep telling myself that this is like when we started budgeting 5 years ago. It was a lot of work in the beginning but after a while it just becomes a way of life. I am looking forward to that but I'm sure it will be a while.

Plus I am getting really sick of eggs, carrot sticks, cucumbers. I'm trying to find creative things for breakfast and lunch. But we did have a great beef roast for our Sunday lunch. We had to skip the mashed potatoes and gravy. Brad wasn't too happy about the no gravy thing, so I will have to find a thickening agent that is not cornstarch or flour. We also had some really good fruit smoothies tonight. So it's not all bad!

On the plus side, I am already noticing a difference in my skin. Generally I look at myself in the middle of winter and it looks pasty white and dull. My skin has life to it, seems a lot smoother and better hydrated.

We've made it through the first week. Here's hoping week 2 is easier! And thanks to all of you that have commented and encouraged us in this. I appreciate it and it keeps me going!

I Never Meant For It To Come To This

We have completed Day 3. I have to give kudos to my husband. He woke up late this morning so did not get his breakfast, he then left his lunch at home, he had no money, his phone is broken so I couldn't text him to see if I could come bring him his lunch, and then he went straight to someone's house to paint their basement. It had all the makings of eating something not on "the list." Thankfully someone at work owed him lunch and he was able to buy a chicken breast. Good job Brad!

Both of us have been feeling fine. By fine I mean, no different than before. I've heard that we would feel really bad for a couple weeks. I've had moments where I'm not feeling "the best." Tired, some abdominal pain but nothing bad. Brad said he feels just like he did every other day. Maybe the worst is coming yet.

The worst part for me is mid-afternoon. I start craving food. Tuesday I went into work and there were cinnamon rolls, candy, and the last piece of chocolate peanut butter bacon pie. I had brought the last piece to work last week for everyone to try but they had forgotten to eat it. I had the pleasure of watching them all eat it and tell me how amazing it was. It pains me to even type this. I want a bite! After I left work I had a couple errands to run. The worst part of living where we do is that there are restaurants at every turn.

Here is what was going on in my head:

"Five Guys....I want a burger and fries!"
"Dickeys......mmmmm, BBQ!"
"I just want a cookie!"
"I just want to eat real food. Oh wait, I am eating real food. I want fake food!"

I haven't been eating much fruit but today I gave in and needed something sweet. I made a strawberry mango smoothie. After not having sweets for a couple days, even that tasted REALLY sweet.

So, how did all this craziness begin?

I won't bore you with all the details but for about a year I've wanted our family to be healthier but frankly food bores me. Well, unless it's tasty and going in my mouth. What I mean by it bores me is that I don't really understand all the science of it. What is healthy and what isn't. To me Sun Chips were healthy because hey, they are better than Cheetos right? Yogurt is healthy because it's dairy, even though it's loaded with sugar. Really, I just didn't know where to begin. Packaged food is easy. If I buy what everyone likes, I don't have to hear a bunch of complaining. And honestly, I just didn't know where to start.

Did you know if you add spices to your meat it tastes good? Yep, no canned items needed. It's amazing the things you learn!

Over the past year I have seen friends start a healthy lifestyle and it intrigued me.

The beginning of January a Facebook friend posted a video and it showed up on my feed. I was set to have Brad and I start counting calories again. But in this video it talked more about "what" you eat, now "how much" you eat. Really? It's not about how many calories you are eating but are you putting healthy food into your body? Who knew?

I talked to Brad about it, asked him to watch the video. Of course, his response was, "Give me the Cliff notes." So I did. He didn't argue about eating healthier, so I started to pursue it.

A friend of mine had started eating Paleo in the fall and so I asked her about it and just asked for resources for recipes. She told me to read a book called "It Starts With Food" by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig. Hey, it must be a good book, Melissa wrote it. I had told my friend that I really just wanted to cut a lot of the sugar that we eat out of our diet. But I didn't want to get all crazy cutting dairy out and wheat. I never meant for it to go this far.

I headed to the local library and checked out the book and the rest is history.

The first part of the book is very sciency. I'll be honest, I hate science. Part of the reason I dropped out of college was because I was going to have to take Biology the next year. I was pretty sure I wouldn't pass. I just don't get it. So, I admit, I skipped over some of it because it was far too mind boggling for me.

But what I did read made sense. Plus, I figured, if changing our eating habits had no effect on how we feel, then I guess we ate healthier for a month. What did we have to lose? While I was reading the book, I started looking at labels. I was startled to find that about 90% of the food in our house has sugar in it.

I will not go through everything the book says because there is no way I could sum it up. Through my blogs I think you will end up understanding what we are doing. But if you are interested in learning more, I would suggest reading the book or you can go to their website Whole9.

Day 1

I survived.


Actually, it wasn't so bad.


I was warned that I would probably have a couple weeks of not feeling so good before it gets better and I definitely had my moments. A couple hours after lunch and then again about an hour after supper, I felt tired and just yuck. It lasted about an hour and then I was all good. Brad said it went good. I think the hardest part for him will be the not snacking when he gets home from work. But with that said, he has much more will power than I do.


This is definitely a lot of work. Thankfully I like to hang out in the kitchen because I am spending a lot of time in it. Brad thinks I'll give up simply because of all the prep. I'm trying to have veggies already cut in the fridge to save on prep at meal time but the hardest part is breakfast. In order for us to have a healthy breakfast, I have to make it the night before so that we can just pop it in the microwave. Especially for Brad since he gets up at 4:30 already. I entertained the idea of getting up with him in the morning.....that idea quickly left my head!


Then there is the entertainment value in watching my kids eat spinach and avocado at supper time. They did pretty good. There has been worse things! I'm thinking Brad isn't a fan of the spinach either since he left half of his on his plate and he told me the frittata this morning had too much spinach in it He is really being a good sport about all of this.


Also, a word to those who attempt to make homemade mayo.......Read the instructions. Dumping all the ingredients in a bowl together and then reading the instructions will result in a bad batch of mayo.


Since I mentioned "kids" earlier, it begs the question......are the kids participating in all this fun?


The answer is "kind of". I am letting them finish off all the sugary junk in the house and then they are also going to have to get used to healthier snacks. I am not making them go Gluten free or dairy free but we will be lowering a lot of their sugar intake. Ever since they were little I was set on making one supper and they had to eat what we eat. That will be no different. They will eat what we eat, hence the spinach and avocados at supper.


We will all be trying new foods and we will have FUN doing it. Haha!

I'm Back

It's been a while.

One year, one month, and 21 days. Or something like that. Don't hold me to the math.

And yes, I realize I need a blog makeover. My kids are much older now. I will take care of that....eventually.

So, for the two people who have said something to me in the last year about my absence, I will get to the point of why I'm back.

I've gone back and forth about whether or not to share on here what I'm about to share but....here I am.

We are changing our diet. Changing what we eat. Trying to get healthier.

If you have heard of Paleo or Whole30 then you know what we are doing. No more dairy, wheat, sugar, processed foods. As my brother-in-law asked me, "What can you eat?" He realized the list would be shorter. For the most part we will be eating meat, vegetables, some fruit, and nuts. Whole foods.

Tomorrow is the day. I'm scared and excited all at once.

I'm having to give up all the sweets that I love so much but at least I still get bacon and I don't have to give up my morning coffee.

As the days go on I will be sharing with you a number of things. How it's going, why we are doing this, what exactly we are doing, answer some questions that people have asked me as we plan to do this, our hopes of what changes we will see, and maybe even what exactly we are eating.

If you have any questions, I'd love to hear them and I'll try to address them as I post.

Game Night, Date Night, or Just A Way of Life

Rushing, Rushing, Rushing.

We are always in a hurry. Ever since I was involved in a Random Acts of Kindness Scavenger Hunt a couple weeks ago, I've been more aware of this. Just watch the people around you as you run your errands. Everyone is in such a hurry that they barely have time to look at someone and smile.

My girlfriend came up with this idea for our small group to do. She came up with most of the ideas herself but said she did find a few on Pinterest.

We had an hour and 15 minutes to complete as many Acts of Kindness as we could. Of course we had to have photo documentation, which probably was the worst part. It kind of takes away from the kindness when you do something nice for someone and someone is snapping pictures while you do it.

That's why I thought this would also be a great idea for a date night with your husband or maybe even one of your kids or a whole family outing! Or just think how great it would be if in your daily life you were slowing down, aware of the people around you and being kind! Ever since doing this with our friends, I have definitely been more aware and have been trying not to be in such a rush everywhere I go.

Here is the list my friend made up but really the list could be endless. I did change a few things just because she had a lot of specific places to go.

1. Help someone bag their groceries at Aldi.
2. Hand out flowers to random people at the store.
3. Place Christmas cards and invites to our church's Christmas Eve service on cars in a parking lot.
4. Go through drive thru and pay for the person behind you.
5. Buy coffee for a Salvation Army bell ringer.
6. Leave quarters for someone at the Laundromat.
7. Leave coloring books and crayons in a waiting room.
8. Tape quarters to a vending machine.
9. Buy a gift card at a store and give it to the person behind you.
10. Buy a bottle of water and gum for a clerk at the grocery store.
11. Hand out balloons to kids shopping with their parents at the grocery store.
12. Push carts back inside at a store.
13. Give coupon to a table at a restaurant.
14. Drop coins at a playground for kids to find.
15. Send a text to someone you think needs a lift. Tell them that you will be praying for the throughout the week and include scripture.

Like I said, the possibilities are endless. Just stop and look around you when you are out and I'm sure you will find many things to add to this list to bless those around you.

Here are some more that I thought of:

Give someone your cart at Aldi and DON'T take their quarter. (I actually love doing this!)
Take some one's cart from them after they load their car and bring the cart back for them.
Pick up garbage that you see lying around.
Help an elderly person.
Smile at people and say "Hi!"
Let others go first.
Hold the door for someone.

Another way our family has been blessed this month is through an assignment Alex, Amanda, and Joshua were given at school. Their teacher gave each student in their class $5 to bless someone. We had a lot of fun thinking of ideas and bringing gifts to others.

Joshua brought Football cards to a little boy that has been going through intensive treatments for cancer. We have been praying for this boy for months now and they were so excited to go and meet him.

Alex wanted to bring flowers to a woman that we have also been praying for that has cancer. We were able to bring her the flowers and sit down and have a cup of tea with her.

Amanda really wanted to buy gifts for kids at the hospital but was disappointed that she wouldn't be able to give the gifts to the kids herself. She then decided to buy a Poinsettia plant for our neighbor and we brought them some cookies too. They are new neighbors of ours and he has been in and out of the hospital this fall.

It's been a huge blessing to our family to take time out of our busy schedules to think about others, take the time to go and sit with them for a little while. I definitely want to add this to the things we do every year at Christmas time and even throughout the year.

As you go through the busyness of this season, remember to take time out for others around you and show them the Love of Christ.

"For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another."

1 John 3:11

I Think It's Finally Safe To Say......

The Flu Bug is gone.

I hope.

It was Saturday evening, November 3, that it entered our home. I remember every little detail.

Just kidding. That was a long time ago. I remember it was a Saturday night and I remember it was Joshua. Other than that, it's all a blur.

We finally got him back to school the following Wednesday.

Then BAM! Thursday night at 10:15, it was Alex.

It's weird to say but even a child's personality shines through in their ability to vomit. In an effort to not be so graphic, I will just say one word, "Everywhere." You name it, it was on it.

OK, never mind. I'll be graphic. Walls, sheets, comforter, pillow pet, another kid, the bathroom, down the stairs, in her hair. You get the idea.

At this point I forgot how long it took for one kid to get better and the next one to get sick. I want to say it was the following Tuesday night that Isaac came down with it.

Amanda insisted she had a force field around her and I was being a germ-a-phobe (how do you spell that?) I cleaned it all up and washed a million sheets but tried to stay far away from all my children. Everyone was under strict instructions to not touch anyone else's cup or food regardless of who had it already.

We thought we were going to be in the clear for Thanksgiving but there was one person that I don't think was as much of a germ-a-phobe as I was.

Yep, Tuesday night before Thanksgiving Brad got it. And he got it the worst! He had a vacation day all planned but spent it in bed. Once again, I stayed far away! He spent his Thanksgiving Day laying on the couch recovering after a day and a half of pure torture!

Well, now it's been a week and a half and neither Amanda or I have come down with it. We both had small touches of not feeling good but we never came down with the full fledged flu.

Now that you've had that fun fascinating details of our sicknesses, here is what else has been happening.

A little boy lost his first 2 teeth. It's hard to tell because his new ones had already come in behind but he lost both of his bottom teeth. Unfortunately the tooth fairy forgot to come when he lost the first one but the second one, she was all over that and made it on the first night but almost got caught!

When I look at his teeth, I think one word......BRACES! Can't wait for that!

They've been a little suspicious if the tooth fairy is real or not ever since a friend told them it's their mom. They've asked me several times and I make sure that I don't lie to them. I simply ask them what they think and they decide she is real. After all she gives them money.

Then there is this little boy. He keeps losing teeth but they never seem to want to come in. He lost both of his front teeth last January and the 2nd one finally popped through about a week ago. He currently has another one loose.

Can you tell he wasn't too happy about having his picture taken? This was the best I could get.

This is Cracking Me Up

I watched my 3 year old nephew this morning and we took a little trip to the park so I could take his 3 year pictures.

 

I love this picture!

 

It looks like I hung him on the wall and snapped his picture but I guess I just got him at the perfect time when he was jumping up and down.