Monday, September 27, 2010

The plan: I'm going to try to stay with Feingold as much as possible since it's helping Mike so much (like REALLY helping him) and Matthew & I minimally--but helping none-the-less.


Pre-breakfast: banana.

Reality: this happened... along with 1-1/2 hours of TV while the not-feeling-well set slept in. :(

Breakfast: since Mike's molasses pancakes were a colossal bomb, I suspect they will be dog food and we'll need to eat something else. :) I made sure to get us eggs, so I'm guessing we'll eat eggs. I'm going to fry up some organic zucchini and an onion tonight for the base of a frittata tomorrow morning. I'm going to try to dice the organic potatoes we have laying around, too (for home fries--if not tomorrow, then the next day). I'm going to set the coffee maker to make some decaf to both mentally and physically wean myself off.

Reality: Ummm... no way. The best I can say is that we had eggs and I did half-caf coffee with pumpkin spice added to the grounds. Progress. As I type, I've just finished going through identifying the three types of squash we have with Matthew and the potatoes are in the sink and have been rinsed, but not scrubbed. The kitchen counter and stovetop were cleaned, though! :D

I'll have to remember the following supplements: (I'm going to highlight in green the stuff that actually happened)

Me: MetaGlycemx (my insulin-regulating stuff), fish oil, Vitamin D (2200 IUs), Vitamin C, B-Complex (for my PMS/PMDD) and enzymes (which help tremendously with sleep and energy, btw). In addition, because I feel bronchitis coming on, I need to take some Sambucus.

Matthew: fish oil, Vitamin D (1500 IUs via 3 500 IU chewables), an "immune booster" (it has A, C & E plus some zinc in it) chewable, probiotic, and preventative dose of Sambucus (admittedly, all of this was done at 12:21pm when I was updating this post :( )

Baby: fish oil, Sambucus and probiotic. I have yet to figure out how to get the probiotic in her, but I think I'll put the powder in the Sambucus and do it all at once. Ummm... yeah--no. The powdered probiotic dosing was 1 tsp and with 1 tsp of Sambucol it made paste. So she's sans probiotic at the moment. If she can chew the Vitamin D that Matthew takes, I'll give her one (500 IUs) of that, too. She not only took the Vitamin D, but also the "immune booster" chewable. Score. Why can't they make fish oil chewables?

Mike: pfffft... I don't know. Fish oil? At a minimum.

Snacks: coconut milk yogurt, possibly some S'morables GF & corn-free graham crackers

Lunch: Rolls of deli ham (Hormel Naturals are safe) with baby carrots and salad (which in our house is really just lettuce, EVOO, white vinegar and salt). I'll need to take another dose of Sambucus and enzymes (which are better before you eat, but I find they provide benefits whether I do it before or after--probably not the same, but noticeable none-the-less... and who the heck remembers to take something 30 minutes before they eat? Seriously? Not me... I'm lucky I remember that I have TO eat! Oh, and umm... feed the kids! :D )

Snacks: celery sticks with peanut butter. I have to go get peanut butter, though.

Dinner: meatloaf, broccoli and rice pilaf.

After dinner, I'll need to take another dose of MetaGlycemx, fish oil, Vitamin B (50mg because it's the first half of my cycle--this is for PMS/PMDD) and Sambucus. Nobody else needs to really take anything, but Mike should take fish oil.

Dessert is not a requirement. :)

All I can say is: the rest of the day went really well. I honestly can't remember what all we ate, I just remember thinking "This worked out way better than I planned". :)

The perfect storm...

Okay, so here's the thing... well, a few things:

1) For the last 7-ish years I have had a WICKED aversion to cooking. It's been so bad that I truly considered seeking help for it. No clue why, but I hate, hate, HATE preparing food in any way, shape or form. I am eternally grateful that I have a husband that not only picks up the slack, but A) doesn't complain about it; and B) works from home--so he often takes care of lunch, too.

2) We are ALL woefully out of compliance with any semblance of nutrition as we should know it. Food, supplements, budget--NOTHING is the way it should be.

3) We are all also woefully unhealthy. I'm overweight (I checked a day or two ago and I'm 189lbs. For my height, I should be no more than 140lbs.) as is Mike; Matthew has some kind of yeast issue (evident from the little red marks all over his bottom) in addition to ADHD, and the baby doesn't sleep and is still waking for a bottle at night at 22mo.

To be fair, this is just the dietary portion of our lives that I'm sharing with you on this blog. But in reality, this is just one facet of a family that is just completely out of sorts on many levels. We're renting a house and therefore not investing the money to fix it up the way it would make it organized and "peaceful" to live in--causing more mental discord. We're focusing on buying a house. We're not really in the best mental state to begin with having spent the last nearly 2 years going through three deaths (my grandmother who was pretty much my mom, my aunt that was the only person in my entire family I was strongly connected to, and a baby girl in the second trimester), an out of state court case for a former foster child (and living with the limbo of how many children we'd have), and a cross-country relocation (which put us in limbo about where we would live, whether we could sell the house, the timing of leaving the state if we needed to stay for the former foster child's case, etc.). Plus the traveling for the case and the relocation... with and without children. All of which forced me to hurry up and finish my Master's degree. Oh yeah, so add that to it.

It's been hell to say the least. Can you say "emotionally and physically unavailable parents"? Can you say "lots of tension and fighting"?

Needless to say, it was hard for us to maintain any semblance of health: nutritional, emotional, mental, or environmental.

We have a lot of work to do. Because we're in a rental and can't work on environment, I'm opting to start with nutrition. I'm going to tackle this blog a whole new way. I'm going to post my plan for the next day and then post the "actual" afterward and see how it goes. I'm tackling it like the project manager in me that simply won't die: research, plan, execute, evaluate, close-out (which often means handing something over to Operations to maintain).

Join me!!!

Relocation stinks in terms of food

Oy... so, we've been here since late July and I still don't know where to find a good co-op for produce. I'm not thrilled with the 1/8 of a grassfed cow we got (WAY too much ground beef) and the CSA we joined is absolutely NOT giving us enough food to carry us for a week. Although, I think that was the same back in NJ.

The thing is: here, I don't even know who to ask or where to turn with any of this. So I'm just bummed. :(

And I've been so upset trying to get into a routine and find my footing here that I haven't even been shopping well--so we're spending a LOT of money (on top of eating out more than usual).

The good news is that I am back to taking my insulin-regulating meds and I've found a chiropractor by multiple referrals who is spitting distance from where we're living. I'm going back. I just can't get over what a difference it made. I knew it was good stuff but never thought it was THAT good. My face cleared up, my back didn't hurt, and my hormones and insulin were in check. Man!!!

Okay... so that's where I'm at...

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Matthew had a banana before breakfast again.

We went out to breakfast. We go to a place called Eggsperience Pancakes & Cafe. They keep a pitcher of iced water with a slice of lemon on every table. Score!!! Matthew and Mike had pineapple juice (they have some that is both corn-syrup free and Feingold safe :) ). Matthew had eggs with bacon. I honestly didn't check to make sure the eggs had no milk in them and whether the grill they were cooked on is dry or oiled with some non-allowable oil. I've been absolutely horrible lately with all of that, and I'm paying the price. So he had that plus a chunk of watermelon, a chunk of canteloupe, a chunk of honeydew and a piece of pineapple from the baby's side order fruit bowl (that also had strawberries, blueberries, a couple of red grapes and bananas--so really, she's the only one that could eat this for a while). I had veggie crepes: crepes with spinach, mushrooms and eggs. It's topped with hollandaise sauce, which is heavy on dairy product; but there's a sweet taste to their crepes so you don't really miss it. Honestly, I could squirt it with some lemon (I know, I know--sounds horrific, but the hollandaise has an underlying lemony taste anyway) and it would be awesome. Mike had (thinking)--OH! The corned beef and hash omelette. And I had coffee. I'm trying, I'm trying...

snack: coconut milk yogurt

lunch: grassfed beef hotdogs with organic baby carrots. Weird, but Matthew wanted to go eat his with the girls across the street picnic-style and this is what was portable

snack: we skipped. Matthew went to a birthday party. Family is usually gluten & casein-free; and Matthew noted that the cupcakes were corn-syrup free (which means he either asked, or they knew of our aversion and told him so he'd know it was okay)

dinner: we had some grassfed Porterhouse steaks. Grassfed beef is totally not as tender as crap-fed beef, but it was okay. God knows it was healthier. We also had some organic broccoli.

No dessert.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Breakfast: just eggs with nothing special; plus some water (and coffee for mom... BAD! BAD! BAD!)

Snack: garlic and onion flavored rice crackers plus some So Delicious coconut milk-based yogurt

Lunch: ham sandwich with Breadsmith bread (not GF), lettuce and Spectrum canola mayonnaise

Snack: celery with peanut butter; pear wedges

dinner: Mike made a pot roast with the grassfed beef, organic zucchini and onions. We're still woefully bad at the meat-to-everything-else ratio on the plate. He also didn't know to put some vinegar in the pot to tenderize the meat, but it was okay. :)

Friday, September 17, 2010

Breakfast: EnviroKids Organic Koala Crisp cereal with So Delicious vanilla flavored coconut milk. :)

Snack: mango chunks and a banana

Lunch: Hormel Natural Deli Ham and steamed, fresh, organic string beans

Snack: rice crackers and baby carrots

Dinner: sushi (we found some that didn't have food coloring in it)

Dessert: So Delicious ice cream bars and sandwiches

Okay... we're back

We finally relocated to IL. It's been ROUGH. We are not taking any of our supplements regularly and eating has been absolute hell. And the kids are NOT sleeping well. It got so bad that I made a special trip to the store and bought fish oil to start them THAT DAY. Today will be day 4 and no kidding, last night Matthew slept through the whole night for the first time in a few months. The baby is taking the adult dosing and the last two nights she went to bed record early. Last night, I took someone's advice to make her use the potty just before laying down to empty her bladder (she's not fully potty trained yet, but if I sit her there, she will try) and sure enough she was out cold in less than 10 minutes. I honestly don't know if this is illness starting or teething or what. I remember having the same questions when Matthew started sleeping so well after the fish oil. Both are on Nordic Naturals liquid Complete Omega 3-6-9 (the lemon flavored--not the strawberry flavored kids version). Both take 1 tsp/day although the baby is probably only getting about 3/4 of that.

So far, we have been here for about 7 weeks and were able to get in 4 solid, rigid weeks of Feingold. True to form, like every other diet, you get used to it. Lots of melon and pears and kiwi and bananas. Coconut milk yogurt (holy fortune), baby carrots, celery with peanut butter and deli meat lunches.

Now, we're off Feingold somewhat. Matthew's only reaction to Feingold was (I THINK) a reduction in bedwetting. I had such HIGH, HIGH, HIGH hopes for Feingold with him. Seriously. Mike and I, on the other hand, DID respond to it. Mike felt a world better, less agitated and more focused. Within days of being off the diet, he was a complete mess and looking for a medication change before I pointed out to him his change in eating. That kind of hit him like a ton of bricks. And my constant, excessive urination disappeared. Sure enough, a few days back into eating salicylates, it's back.

So we're likely to eat SOME salicylate foods and just limit them severely. Leave ketchup/tomatoes and pickles/cukes off of salads and stuff. Maybe no so much PB&J (since pretty much all jellies are off-limits).

We're also trying to implement fruit and veggies with EVERY meal--not just dinner.

And I think we are going to go completely gluten free after the December holidays to see if it affects Matthew's ADHD. In the meantime, we're going to try some other holistic remedies that have been recommended, but I have not finished researching. The attention problems are seriously grating on everyone. He is homeschooled and all the "activities" started up in the last week. He has a Hip Hop dance class, two 45-minute swim classes, a 45-minute gym class, a 1-hour American History class and a 1-1/2 hour T-ball instructional league on Saturday mornings. So, mostly physical activity spaced through the week. The baby has a dance class that we missed, a "gymnastics" class and a swim class. It's really more about having time with her alone.

Mike is away this week, so it's been ROUGH!!!! But I've made a serious effort to cook. We've had:

Breakfasts: gluten-free pancakes that were made ahead and frozen with fresh berries and real maple syrup; and eggs that were made ahead and frozen with fresh-made GF, uncured (so no nitrates/nitrites) bacon. And, instead of just having water all the time, we've had non-organic, but no corn syrup lemonade. You can actually find it at Walmart or Whole Foods.

Lunches: have been hard. We found this awesome bread by Breadsmith that has, literally, like 4-5 ingredients in it maximum. So it's not gluten-free, but it doesn't have any of the other crap in it. So we've done a lot of homemade chicken salad, tuna salad, deli meats and now with the end of Feingold, Matthew requested PB&J with mommy's homemade organic Concord grape jelly. We often put some green beans on the side. Mike was trying to be gluten-free and made some deli meat rolls where he sliced the rolls and used the pieces to make a face with green beans making a moustache and hair. It went over pretty big.

Dinners: have been easy, but then, they always have. I'm trying to get us away from the quick and easy "meat and one veggie" plate. I don't usually cook, so this is my gripe to Mike--who doesn't really change it. I keep reminding him that meat should only be 1/3 of what's on the plate at most. And really, this would save an awful lot of money with meat being so expensive and all--ya know? So while he was gone, I made good use of the Near East Wild Mushrooms & Herbs Rice Pilaf Mix
we had in the pantry. :) It claims to have soy ingredients in it, but I took a chance because it was quick and easy and frankly, it had to get used. But we DO have the Near East Original Rice Pilaf Mix and will be using that up. You can cook it in broth for extra flavor. I bought THAT because Matthew saw some Rainbow Trout (the whole fish) at Whole Foods and decided we should have that for dinner one night. The guy behind the counter told me to slice some pears and line the inside of the fish, put some rice pilaf in, find a way to fasten it closed and grill it up. It was delicious. The trout had been fileted, but still had a backbone--so I highly DO NOT recommend this for smaller kids. It was awesome, but we won't be doing it again.

Desserts have been expensive. Allergenic s'mores, ice cream sandwiches and ice cream have just been ridiculous. We even found ice cream cones that were gluten-free.

It's also been hard because we've been on the road a lot looking for rental property in an area about 1-1/2 hours away one-way. It's made food difficult. We just need to plan and prepare better, really. We are NOT good about that and are often rushing around last-minute. >:(

Onward and upward!