Archive for April, 2015

We are nearly done with our Whole30 challenge!  Wahoo!!! Gosh a lot has changed in our lives in the last few weeks.  I have learned so much and am so thankful that our family took on this challenge! In 23 days we have changed a lot of eating habits and learned that I can live without sugar (but I do miss it).  I have somehow managed to survive without eating a slice of artisan bread. and besides brownies, I LOVE a good slice of crusty sourdough bread slathered with some real butter.  Now, that’s a treat to me!

And, I have managed to go without for 24 days – as well as my beloved cup of cream and sugar + coffee.  Yes you read that right, cream and sugar plus some coffee!  I truly love cream and sugar a little bit more than the actual coffee!  I really miss that cup of warm coffee first thing in the morning while I do my Bible Study, but I don’t miss the caffeine and sugar crash a few hours later.  I also read somewhere that caffeine is an appetite suppressant.  I had no idea!  No wonder that first cup of coffee each morning kept me from feeling very hungry, I would usually eat breakfast, but not for an hour or so later once the sugar rush was starting to wear off and I needed more than caffeine to keep me going.  I realize now that the very first things I put in my body  each morning were a horrible way to get my system going each day.  It’s like I was starting off on the wrong foot every single day.

I sure miss coffee, but at the moment I’m loving having my all natural/sugar free energy drink, Axio, to get me going and it gives me that boost that my coffee did without the sugar/caffeine crash!  I’m still trying to decide what I’m going to do about coffee after our challenge is over, but I had a good friend tell me I should just save it for a special treat every now and then.  I like that idea!  Or I should just learn how to love black coffee as much as I love cream and sugar!  If you are trying to kick the coffee habit, then give AXIO a try – it’s guilt-free energy for sure!  The cool thing about AXIO is that all you need is water, and they come in these cool packets that you can take on the go with you!  Gosh, as I write this, I think I must be a little hungry, I sound like I’m starving!  It’s funny when I read this because, 23 days is not very long at all in the grand scheme of life, but it feels like an eternity when you are in the middle of it!

Still the hardest part is amount of cooking that I’m doing.  I’m cooking or prepping food all the time!  In fact, I was talking on the phone with my mom just this morning and she asked what I was doing and I told her that I was cooking. She laughed and said that was all I seemed to do these days!  Which is very true, I feel like I’m constantly cooking, but I am getting the hang of anticipating what we will need or when we will run out of something.  I like to have things done ahead of time (one of my silly nuances), so I tend to plan ahead and I’m getting a lot better at planning meals and snacks ahead of time and making whatever I can to have on hand before we need it.  The key to a successful Whole30 Challenge is planning, for sure, and not allowing yourself to stress out if you mess something up!  Planning ahead is huge – making breakfast the night before or making part of your dinner at lunchtime so you don’t have so much to do later on.

Cooking from scratch just takes longer – the prepping and the actual cook times – so planning ahead as much as possible is key!  I like that I’m getting the hang of it, because it all becomes so much faster and more fluid and a lot less stressful.  A perfect example is that I had a little bit of extra time this morning, and because the weather is so gorgeous right now, I knew that we were going to try to go to the park after school today.  Usually I have a good hour or two of cooking to do each evening for dinner – so playing at the park has not been an option for the last few weeks.  This morning I whipped out my amazing crockpot and got dinner going.  I cooked up some scrambled eggs for tomorrow’s breakfast, and then hard-boiled a dozen eggs for quick snacks.  My crockpot has been a lifesaver!  I’ll use it to cook up some extra chicken for our lunches during the week, etc.  I also love a few other kitchen appliances – I would not have survived this Whole30 challenge without my crockpot, mandolin, and food processor.  These 3 things have cut down on my prep time so much!

Well, better get to work!  So much to do now that I have all this extra energy and no food/sugar crashes. Hugs to you all!

By the way, what is your favorite kitchen gadget?

We are officially on day 7 of our Whole30 challenge.  Seven.  It really feels like it’s been 6 months, not only 7 measley days.  Am I tired of it?  Yes.  But not for reasons you might think.  I actually don’t have a lot of complaints about the food – the food is good – it’s not super filling, but it’s good.  My frustration is more from my kids and the constant complaining.  My older two kids are doing just fine – they are just eating a lot more than they used to – seems like every time I turn around they want another snack, but one of the problems with the snacks is that they are getting tired of only eating fruit and veggies for every snack and every meal.  I don’t blame them, I’m a little bit tired of it too – I was thinking that a huge chocolate brownie and some ice cream sounded so yummy.

Yesterday was a big test for my kids – we had a birthday party to attend that included a bunch of games,
fun, pizza, cake and ice cream.  Thankfully we were at a place that had a lot distraction and we were able to keep the kids occupied while pizza was served, but the smells were mouth-watering.  It was very hard to focus for all of us.  As lunch time started to creep closer, all of us were getting so hungry and we all were ready to give in for a big slice of pizza!  Thankfully we made a quick exit and headed home before they cut the cake, but not before all 3 kids had a meltdown.  The whole car ride home they were ANGRY, I think they mostly were super hungry – I was too.  My youngest whined so much on the car ride home that he eventually feel asleep.  We did make it home for our lunch of left-overs and ton of veggies which was not nearly as exciting as pizza, but we survived.

I’d say overall my kids have done really well on this so far.  Both of my older kids have the process down and have passed up many special treats and snacks from school and church that they normally would have had.  They have no problem telling anyone that our family is not having sugar (cuz that seems to be the only thing they remember) for 30 days.  Which I’m super proud of them for!  My husband has done great as well – he missed out on two special meals at work where the boss man was treating everyone to a special breakfast and lunch that didn’t really have anything he could eat.  I’ve not been faced with a social food challenge yet.  My youngest son has no idea what is completely going on to be able to stand up for himself and make food decisions wisely.

Something I have noticed is just how much of an importance we put on fast, convenient, quick, yummy food – there is junk food everywhere – it’s offered at every social gathering we attend.  It’s no wonder we all have such a hard time slaying the sugar dragon.  I mean my kids go to public school and they are offered candy treats a lot in class when they do something good, and every time a child has a birthday, there is usually some sort of special treat like cupcakes, suckers, or cookies that they pass out.  When we go to church my kids are offered a “snack” which is usually fruit snacks, and when my youngest goes to Community Bible Study and Awana he is given a snack in his class that applies to what they are learning (could be little snack crackers or even cupcakes).  Every time we go to the bank they love getting lollipops, and when we go grocery shopping they love to get a free cookie.  It’s crazy how sugar is everywhere – I mean, why can’t they hand out free strawberries at the grocery store instead of free cookies?  Really, it’s no wonder my kids love sugar!  But I’m just as much at fault in the reason my kids love sugar!  My goodness, I’m their mom – I can control a lot of what they eat and I don’t have to give them a cookie every time we go to the grocery store, now do I?

The past 7 days have been hard, challenging, and rewarding all at the same time!  The week was rough just trying to get used to prepping and preparing the food, finding enough time to cook every meal at home (we used to eat out a couple nights a week out of convenience), and deal with all the unexpected health issues with my oldest son.  Can you believe that my family of 5 ate 4lbs of bananas this week?  4lbs!  My fridge was totally full of fruits and veggies that I didn’t think we could fit it all! All the shelves and drawers that used to be full of yogurts and cheese and breads and milk are now replaced with 5 different types of lettuce!

We also had a lot of extra kids running around our house after school and even had a sleep over with good friends on Friday night.  I was pleasantly surprised how well our sleepover went even though it didn’t include any “fun” sleepover food like we usually do.  We like to have pizza, soda, and a special dessert, then during the movie we like to have popcorn and chocolate milk.  We didn’t do any of that!  We stuck to our Whole30 eating plan and our little friends didn’t seem to notice one bit. Phew!  I just wanted the kids to all have a great time and they all did – minus any “fun” food!  In fact, they all were a lot calmer than usual and I secretly wonder if that is because none of them had sugar in their bodies?

I’m praying for lots of extra strength and patience from the Lord this week…boy do I need it, and maybe some ear plugs to drown out the constant whining…will you pray with me this week?  Have you ever done a Whole30 challenge?  How did your first week go?

Well, we started the Whole30 challenge 2 days ago, and it’s been the longest, hardest, and most shocking 2 days ever!  I’m sure you are wondering why and there are several reasons.  First of all, for completely unrelated reasons my oldest son was totally unexpectedly rushed to the hospital for his existing heart condition.  He is 8 and was born with SVT – basically he can have episodes when his heart beats VERY fast.  We have known about this since birth and he used to be on a daily medication – as he got older he no longer needed the meds, but still has episodes from time to time.  We have a couple techniques we can try when his heart starts racing to make it slow down, but for reasons only God knows, today we were unable to get him out of his episode.  After trying for an hour to make it slow, we realized it was just a bad attack and off we raced to the hospital.  Thankfully we know his SVT is not like an actual heart attack, but if his heart continues to race for an extended amount of time, it can cause a lot of stress to not only his heart, but his whole body.  We found ourselves at the hospital for most of the day while he was hooked up to numerous heart monitors and EKGs.  It was a long day of ups and downs, but we were released early afternoon with his heart slowed back to a normal rhythm.  Thankfully my mom came to the rescue today and brought us Whole30 approved food to eat at the hospital all day!  Totally silly, but I’m glad we don’t have to re-start.  I praise the Lord that He was with us all day as I held Coen’s hand at the hospital.  He is home now and resting and even got an excuse note from his doc to miss school tomorrow!  I know that this excitement has nothing to do with the Whole30 challenge, but it’s part of my story so far.

Here are the other reasons why the Whole30 challenge is really a challenge.  Yes, the Whole30 is hard.  It’s a ton of work prepping, planning, and preparing food.  I’ve done similar things to this before, so I know how hard completely fresh and wholesome food is to prepare.  The hard part is preparing those foods 3 times a day when I already feel like our lives are so busy!  I did a lot of research before taking on this challenge – in fact I gave myself 4 full weeks to read the It Starts With Food book, pin and plan recipes, read up on what others have done with this challenge, and mentally prepare.  I knew it was going to be a lot of work so I tried to give myself some time to get it all together.  I feel like I did a pretty good job – but I’m not following my meal plan very well – I tend to jump around on my intended meal plan – it’s sort of ridiculous for me to even plan food for certain nights because I never stick to my plan.  I’m never in the mood for the food I planned for – so I usually just plan to get all the ingredients I need for a handful of recipes and then I just pick one of those each night.  That has definitely happened this week so far and I’m only 2 days into it.

Another reason the Whole30 is truly a “challenge” is breakfast.  The typical breakfast meal should be the most important meal of the day and I’ll tell ya, I don’t have time or even want to get up really early every day to make a big hot breakfast.  My kids are not huge egg lovers and on this challenge besides eating leftover dinner for breakfast, your typical breakfast option is eggs.  Needless to say my kids are soooo not happy about this challenge!  My youngest son, who is 3, is having the hardest time.  He loves cereal for breakfast, chicken nuggets for lunch and then doesn’t fight me too much on dinner.  As a mom, I realize I’ve been doing the biggest disservice to my family with the type of foods we have been eating over the years and I have only myself to blame when my 3 year old doesn’t want to eat the big plate of veggies and grilled chicken.  So I’m truly fighting my own uphill battle.

For example, on Day 1, we had scrambled eggs and some diced potatoes and a bunch of veggies for breakfast.  It took so long to make in the morning that I was way behind getting kids to school and getting me actually dressed on time.  Plus, all 3 kids hated it, my youngest hated it so much that he refused to even look at me when I took his picture.  That’s always fun – first meal of the 30 day challenge and my kids are already wanting to check out.  Great.  Lunch was better and they all 3 loved dinner!  So that was good.  Today breakfast was another huge war.  My youngest was so angry that he couldn’t have Cherrios that he refused to eat anything at all actually.  I saved his eggs, ham and veggies for lunch and he still dug in his heels for his grandma and refused to eat. By 3pm he gave up and ate his breakfast so he could have a snack.  He ate ALL his dinner!  But I know it’s going to be an uphill battle.

So far I’m feeling just fine.  I don’t mind the food, and I’m not at all feeling starved.  In fact, I’m very full after each meal.  I’m not sure with how busy the last 2 days have been if I’ve really had time to even notice how I’m really feeling.  I miss my coffee most of all.  Yes, I could still have coffee, but it would have to be black – and I just can’t do black coffee.  I know what I like about coffee is the cream and sugar.  So, I’m 2 days with no coffee and it’s truly what I miss most of all.  My husband told me when he got home from work tonight that he just wanted a Snickers bar really bad, but is feeling ok so far.    I do like how this is forcing my kids to try some new foods and they are trying.  We will find new things we like to eat and thankfully I really do love trying new recipes!

That’s my Health Quest update for now!  Better get some sleep, who knows what the Lord has planned for me tomorrow!