Ideals for 2013...

I got a negative scanner for Christmas...it's turning into a tool for my "Ideals for 2013".  Having resolutions doesn't work for everyone, I'm one of those people.  I'm forgetful, and random...and easily sidetracked.  Some would call that ADHD, thanks to the modern world there's finally a "department" that people like me can be sorted into.  Funny thing is, the modern world is a dog chasing it's own tail.  And while it busies itself with that, I've got better things to do...

As for resolutions, my "Ideals for 2013"...this is the best I can do...make a list and hope I'll remember to look at it again:
1. More art time, less computer time...
2. Learn a new art form...namely, encaustics...
3. Iron my husbands shirts, at least the collar...
4. Throw things away, as in...old negatives of flowers and street signs and cats...
5. Not gain weight...HA! See sidebar for "Primal Blueprint"...I'll be doing his "21-day total body transformation at some point this winter...
6. Be in New Mexico for my birthday this year...
7. Be prepared for holidays, birthdays, and craft fairs...as in, "Christmas in July"...
8. Wheat-free two O one three
9. Serious gardening this year complete with compost heap...hopefully the dog won't see it as her personal buffet...

I'm stopping at 9 instead of a nice, round 10 because it's also part of my "Ideals" to be ok with things (and people) not being perfect...and also to do less things well, as opposed to tinkering with ALL of the projects and ideas I have in a half-baked manner.

If you haven't already noticed, this post is going to be strictly black and white.  Most of my old negatives are b/w that I shot with a Pentax K-1000...no automatic focus, no "filter buttons", no frills.   They're also hand developed in a darkroom, talk about good old days.  The last time I went into Costco to have a negative printed, they told me they "don't do these anymore" and they would have to wait until the end of the day and re-build their machine just to print my one picture.

  One for the road...I was 16 here...I liked football??

Happy New Year...

A Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year to you!!

Well...as always, things hardly ever go as planned, as least that's how it is in my world.  Here's a little of how our Christmas went...I guess you could consider this my "Christmas letter"...albeit it's only about the past week!  I'm not sure I would be able to remember too much more than that...the days are just packed.

As for my hopes for busting through our yearly flu and coming out shining like the North Star on Christmas morning...hopes banished!  Thankfully no one had the "upper flu".  Miso picked it up from a family member, with fever and cough...then Tank got it, his first real illness...then husband, then yours truly.

By Christmas morning  Miso was still coughing and carrying on, Tank was running a fever and did so for...3...days.  Over 104 at times, he was burning up.  I was prone to very high fevers as a child, so I dreaded giving him "the bath"!  Alas, I sat by him all night just like my mom and grandmother did before me, and kept moving a damp cloth around to soak up the heat.  I believe he had roseola, which Gen also had at about this age...after the fever subsided, a very faint field of red pin-point dots spread across his back and chest.  And then came...the snot....

And us big kids?  The honey had a day of tired, a night of slight fever, and then a few days of headache and congestion.  Yours truly got a head cold simply from being up all night with my subjects!  Lack of sleep always does me in.  I'm completely cured as of today...thanks to kefir sodas.

Here it is January 2nd and the only residual is the Tank and his occasional cough followed by me chasing him around with toilet paper trying to capture the snot monster issuing from his nose before it ends up on something or someone!  Good times...

And decor?!  December 27th...I was putting blue lights on a crunchy, dead Christmas tree...a tree we found leaning against a fence after the tree lot had closed down for the season. We opted to hang our collection of favorite ornaments HIGH UP in a window instead of on the dead tree to keep them from being played with like a tetherball.  We have cherished ornaments from our first Christmas together in 2004, and ever year since...plus very old glass balls that I as a child saw on our Christmas trees.  The only baubles on our tree are newer, but still fun, fabric and wood ornaments...unbreakable!

Due to illnesses, we missed just about every family party...and the saddest part was, I missed Christmas Mass.  It's my "flipped switch" from Advent to Christmas, and it was never tripped.  It really took me a few days to feel like it was Christmas. 

And now here it is time for resolutions already! Or not.  Sure, I have some...some very specific, some grand, some grandiose!  I'll get into that later as, like everything else lately, it's still in the works and not quite ready.  But since one of my "Ideals for 2013" is to be prepared for holidays and such, I better go get busy!  Happy New Year.

It's not Christmas...yet...

Last week, a friend said to me, "I bet YOUR house is decked out for Christmas!"  On the contrary...I have 2 ornaments hanging in the doorway of my kitchen...a strange yellow satin ornament with dangling pearls that I found at the thrift store, you can tell someone lovingly crafted it, and a homemade Christmas card ball that I made out of the last 3-4 years' cards.  I hadn't made one since I was in the 3rd grade...it's imperfect, and that bothers me...but it's OK!

The fact is, we celebrate Advent and don't begin celebrating Christmas until it arrives.  But we party for weeks into January!  Before I converted to Catholicism, I had begun to despise Christmas.  It didn't mean anything to me but stress, overeating...and STUFF.   Now, I like stuff...my current Amazon wish list proves that, but the holiday still didn't mean anything to me and I'm a person who needs things to have deep roots.  I like to go back to the beginning and Christmas is rooted in the birth of Christ.  And that's a fact.

I'm subduing my excitement for decorations, baking, crafts...and while the rest of the world's enthusiasm dies on December 26th and they pitch their dead Scotch pine onto the curb (we already found a free tree so I won't need to snag it!) I'll just be decorating mine.  I'll be just starting to think about Christmas cards, and wrapping the porch with lights, and digging out the handmade stockings I actually finished last year...and baking shortbread cookies with sprouted wheat flour, Kerry Gold butter and unrefined sucanat!!! 

Our family already made the yearly pilgrimage to Crown Center during Rose Sunday...Halls had their ornament store in full swing, surprised they weren't already on sale like everyone else's Christmas stuff...they have to make room for Easter, ya know!   

Another *good* thing is...my kids are already processing the flu for the year, so that means they won't be sick during Christmas.  Hopefully my kefir and sauerkraut will keep the flu away from me completely, but Miso was sick for 24 hours and is completely well, and Tank's journey began early this morning and his fever is already coming down and he was extremely interested in his dinosaur book this afternoon, pointing and gurgling at them. We'll see them through and out of the woods...built up that immunity, baby...we're going to be at a lot of parties soon!

This post is about food...!

I've been talking to a lot of friends lately who are moving away from the Standard American Diet (SAD) and into a more ancestral way of eating.  I was asked this week, "I'd like to know exactly what you eat in a day?"  It made me want to write it down...I've kept food journals before, but I never keep at it for more than a week.  Once I figured out what kind of food to eat and how much, there really was no good reason for me to keep a food diary unless I was trying to figure out some sort of symptom.

Pork-Stuffed Jalapeno Peppers from Mark's Daily Apple.  I served these at Thanksgiving instead of green bean casserole!!!  3 ingredients...easy and delicious!

And I have no symptoms...I'm not overweight...I don't get headaches anymore...I feel pretty good despite the fact that I haven't had a full night's sleep in over a year!  (Thanks a lot, Sebastian...!) During Thanksgiving, I let down my guard a little bit and ate bread.  It was nice bread from the Fervere Bakery, but alas, still bread.  And I ate a lot...with very thick layers of butter!  A week or two after Thanksgiving, I'd gained 5 pounds back.  That took me up to a whopping 140.  ;)  I was also having stomach problems, and felt groggy and bloated.  I stopped eating the bread, went back to my clean eating habits (despite my coffee, chocolate and ice cream...) and voila, I'm back to 135.  And...I still eat marvelous amounts of butter. 

For St. Nicholas Day, Tim bought me the new Primal Blueprint sauce cookbook that Mark Sisson just put out.  I've only tried one salad dressing so far, amazing!  I never eat salad because bottled salad dressing is vile tasting and full of toxins.  I would eat plain lettuce before eating bottled salad dressing, or squeeze a lemon on it, and a splash of olive oil.  Along with the cookbook came the free audiobook of Primal Blueprint and I've already listened to it from start to finish.  I've been visiting Mark's Daily Apple for some time now, but haven't taken "the leap" and read any of his books.  I'm ready to READ the book now, as I need to see things written down for them to be digested.  Listening was great while I worked on art projects, secret...secret Christmas art projects that I can't show because they're for one or two people who I know look at this blog!  I love having secrets...

The other thing I'm excited about is the new Perfect Health Diet.  I haven't gotten my copy yet, but a friend said it's very digestible information, sound...much needed advice in this world so full of food-based illness.  I believe that a lot of what ails people these days is completely food related.  I've cured my obesity and headaches with food...no pills, and no exercise!  Ahem...that's NOT a good thing, bench pressing toddlers counts for something, but it's nothing like a brisk walk down Linwood Boulevard looking around you wondering if someone's going to steal your purse.  Now that's a workout!

So now I gear up for the next food extravaganza, Christmas!  We celebrate Advent so we have no tree, no lights, no egg nog...well, I did make a batch just to see if I could...and yes, it was egg nog.  And it was good!  No need to buy the carageenan nog, thank YOU!  We'll be hunting for a free tree a day or so before Christmas, as always...and we're going to decorate it the day before.  I'm really looking forward to Christmas this year with the kiddies...they make everything more fun!  What's especially fun for me since I love to bake...is coming up with healthy treats to satisfy and dare I say, "nourish" people?! 

 Fr. Meyers Florida, 1979.

Speaking of fun, I'm not sure what my grandma said to St. Nick here...but by the look of his incriminating finger, I bet it was something feisty!   

If *Art Time* was a black friday special.....

As an *artist* mom, I find one of the most frustrating things is getting those 30 minutes of quiet personal time, and then completely jacking something up!

Is it really that difficult to cut a piece of paper into 7X14 inch pieces?  How did I get every one of them within 1/4 to 2 inches OFF?!  I can't imagine what would happen if I were to attempt something complicated, like making a bead.  I would probably burn the house down or something stellar like that!

*SIGH*

I decided it would be a no-brainer to scan some vintage ephemera to start a digital catalog of cool collage materials.  I started with THIS...

An envelope of my grandfather's from Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, 1940. 

And now I hear cries of despair coming from the 2nd floor...back to my regularly scheduled programming! 

Nostalgia...the lake.

I spent a few hours last Sunday digging through a box of old photographs.  Those kind that were printed off of a plastic strip called a negative...THAT old kind!  Digital photography is handy and certainly instantly gratifying...but I feel sorry for people who have never had 24 chances to get all the pictures they want...and one chance at getting the developer the right temperature (or avoiding a light leak)...and then spent hours getting one image just right.  That kind of photography has limited appeal for the year 2012...it has nothing in common with the "Black Friday mentality"...can you tell I wave a certain flag?!  Anyway, I didn't come here to stand on my soap box...for very long, I'll get down now.  

I have a story to tell...it's about a lake.  But first...there was a muddy pond with an enormous pile of trash buried above it.  When our house in Quindaro burned down in the late 80's, we moved to the country...and this pond was on our 13 acres.  Approximately where the lady with the blue sweater is sitting...right about there, an entire refrigerator came out!  Dolls...soap bottles, oil barrels, car parts, TRASH...we spent months removing loads of rubbish from the land. 

We pumped out the lake, and started running across it with a seine to remove fish.  There was a small holding pit dug with a tractor just behind the lake where we stored the fish.  Our neighbor came over to help while his wife (in the blue sweater) sat and enjoyed the show.

I was always a mud monger...and I wasn't beyond smearing it on my face, thank you mom for NEVER posting those pics of me...ever...please?!  I love the deep prints in the silty mud, and the big "sploosh" where you can tell a foot went in, deeply...and splayed the mud out in a lovely burnt umber fan.  Lord knows what was in that bucket...it was like Christmas for dad and I every time some critter would emerge from the net!

And then...after months of bulldozing by a, *ahem*...professional...(meaning, NOT my dad on his tractor with the homemade plow!) we had a 2 acre lake that was about 5 times the size of the old mud pond.  This is the lake right after it was finished...it was still winter and no grass had grown, it wasn't even full of water yet.  Look at that dam!  On the right bank there are rock ledges...they're natural.  The excavator dug down to the actual bedrock.  When the lake was full, we could swim up to them and stand on them.  Nice little feature.  And the fish loved it...good to know where those were when having a fishing competition...we had one every year and kept track by drawing little fish by our names denoting how many we'd caught.

We eventually put in a sandbar by bringing Missouri River sand a ton at at time from the quarry.  I always loved getting a new load of sand and covering over the mud just a little more as I was getting toward my teens and did NOT want to stick my foot in it anymore!  You can see the metal slide...hot on the booty...inner tubes for floating or fishing out of...and the sail boat is tethered in the middle of the lake.  Somewhere on the bottom is the mast to that boat...a neighbor girl flopped herself gracefully into the boat and the mast fell in.  We tried lowering a rock on a string and listening for a *clink*...but it was about 20 feet deep right there, we never found it.

One year, it rained really hard and flooded the lake...you can see how short of a ride you'd get on the slide!  It just crested the emergency spill-way, and was mere feet from the top of the huge dam....the sight always stunned me...we spent a lot of time canoeing around the lake into areas that were previously just grass.  The weeping willow above was only a few feet tall...it's now a full-sized tree...at least it was the last time I saw it about 6 years ago.  A good chunk of my youth was spent at this lake...if I wasn't swimming in it, fishing out of it or canoeing across it...I was certainly push-mowing around it!  Or lowering a push-mower down the back of the dam with a very long rope...Ahhhhh, no gym can ever replace exercise like THAT!  

Miss you, lake...

Yes, that's a chimpanzee...

It really doesn't get much better than this...

Beware the moonseed...

After twisting a festive wreath for my Thanksgiving decorations...I started wondering what this vine was that I was using.  It had "grapes" hanging from it, the leaves looked grape-like...but we had noticed that the birds didn't bother them.  Big red flag right there.  I broke open one of the berries...no grape-like seeds, but they had a large, hard, crescent moon shaped seed.

Creepy looking thing.  After a few minutes of research online, I discovered that it's a "moonseed" plant, and bottom line...the entire plant is poisonous.  Miso, who loves grapes and is not afraid to eat things off the ground, became the impetus for putting on rubber gloves and removing ever single berry I could find! Now what do I do with my festive wreath?!  Maybe I should toss it in the trash...I know a certain blond boy who tastes everything he gets his hands on...guess I should just stop being so darned creative and just go to the craft store and BUY one?!!!

And here's a good example for people who scoff at those who take their shoes off in the house...Miso stepped on a berry...it's on the bottom of her shoe...shoes are Chub's favorite thing to chew on.  Looks like it's time to put the shoe basket HIGH up...

What DID I do...part three...the story and the end of this matter!

Now, I didn't make all of the changes on the last post at once.  Although I'm capable of "cold turkey", it was rather that I just didn't know what to do, or in the case of grains, that there was even a problem.  One piece of learning lead to the next, and after some time...I had an accumulated pile of knowledge in front of me, and a laundry list of things I'd already changed which added up to, essentially, the paleo way of eating.  Had I found the websites on paleo first, with the huge list of things to change...I might have stuck my head in the bag of bagels and never come out again!

Alas, I think it's my distrust for Western medicine and a small, yet BAD set of experiences with doctors and hospitals, that made this path a soft, moss covered one!  Watching my dad die a slow, painful death from cancer was the rocky path that made me realize I needed to change A LOT of things in my life. Not everyone has lost a parent that way, but those of us who have, I would guess, feel the strong desire to not go out that way or cause our loved ones to have to endure it with us.  Plus, I want to not only be around to guide and care for my own children, but I want to be the one leading them across the monkey bars, and going down the BIG slides...not the sick mom sitting on the bench watching.  

So here's essentially how I got from point A to point B...there's a lot of missing pieces to the story, but it's all I care to tell right now. At the end, I list all the sources, books, websites and blogs I've used along the way.

********************************

I've been slowly omitting chemicals from my diet for quite a while.  It started with high fructose corn syrup, then anything hydrogenated, then BHT, and anything that I could not pronounce or that I'd never seen separately at the store.  I learned about pesticides, and the "dirty dozen".  I gave up on regular grocery store produce (it always DID smell funny) and started to only buy organic, at Whole Foods.  It started to kill our food budget.

Once Trader Joe's opened up, we started going there but I noticed that a lot of their products contain sugar and corn starches.  We selectively shop there now, usually for wine!  Next, Natural Grocer's opened up on Metcalf and the farmer's market started up full-swing...and I haven't been back to Whole Foods yet.  They're too big for their britches, and have been the source of a lot of controversy with their "Chinese Organic Spinach".  I don't trust them. I love Natural Grocers, they only sell organic produce and they have really good groceries.  It's probably as good as you can get.  Otherwise, I shop for everything else at the farmer's market...with the days growing colder, I cringe at the thought of not having the market anymore.

After having Chubbersons in November of 2011, I weighed about 185 lbs.  My weight was coming off slowly but surely, but that wasn't my main concern yet.  Chubs had cradle cap, which I treated with homeopathy, but he also had a bad diaper rash.  I'm talkin'....bad.  I was using disposable diapers for the first few weeks just to keep the laundry load manageable, but I ditched them at this point and went back to cloth diapers.  The rash persisted.

I tried homeopathy but the fact that nothing happened told me that either I had the wrong remedy, or some issue was "competing" with the remedies that needed to be addressed first for them to work.  I've had great successes with homeopathy.  I've been treated for chronic issues that have all but disappeared, and I also have a large kit of remedies that I use on myself and my family from time to time.  

When I was a month from having Chubs, I fell off the back steps and sprained both ankles.  I couldn't even stand up.  My husband brought me a remedy called "Injury combo", and one called "Hypericum" which is for pain and twisted ankles.  30 minutes later I was walking around the house with minimal pain.  Homeopathy can work miracles if you know how to use it.

Since the "little sugar pills" didn't work, I realized then, it had to be diet-related. Since baby boy was 100% breast fed, that meant is was MY diet. 

I started looking into rashes and realized that I needed to go back off of sugar.  I'd always thought I ate "low sugar", but obviously it wasn't low enough.  I was also in "celebration mode" as bringing a new baby into the world and having them be OK...that's reason to party!  I loved cinnamon rolls, I loved muffins...but I also loved crackers, bagels, chips, naan bread...the list goes on.

The change was easy as Lent came early, February of this year.  I gave up bagels and lattes as my food sacrifices, and naturally avoided sugar by avoiding "dessert".  I wasn't sure how that would end up as I don't usually bother "giving up" anything that I will just run back and gorge myself on after Lent is over.  Could I never eat a bagel again?  Or a latte?!  Have mercy!

Not only did Chubberson's rash clear up with these changes, but I started dropping weight effortlessly.  That means, with little exercise.  My slogan is, "I don't run unless chased".  Frankly, my body composition and weight has always made running very unpleasant.  I also can't stand workout gyms, they stink.  Plus, the last thing I want to see is some guy, or gal for that matter, in spandex pants gazing at themselves in a mirror.  It was also too cold to get out to a park with 2 babies...so my exercise consisted of going up and down stairs for diaper changes!

By the end of Lent, I had lost about 20 lbs.  That may seem like an unhealthy amount of weight to lose so quickly (6 weeks), but I was still losing pregnancy weight, and I had also started to learn about grains, sugars and other "poisons" and had drastically changed my diet.  But I felt guilty.  During Lent, I ate copious amounts of butter...apples with roasted almond butter...coconut oil...cheese, and even bacon cheeseburgers.  How did I just not blow up like a balloon?!  Conventional wisdom would say I should have...none of those foods are low-fat, on the contrary.

What I learned was that fat burns clean in the body, it's the body's fuel of choice.  Sugars and carbs all have "by-products" and turn into fat, your body can only use so much sugar at a time, the rest is stored for later on our stomachs, legs, arms...everywhere!  By severely limiting my sugars and grains, I turned to healthy fats for my fuel source and my body responded appropriately.  After having 3 c-sections, I never thought I'd have a remotely flat stomach...so thank God for coconut oil!  

Onward.  My next goal was to lose 1 pound per week until my birthday, which was 10 weeks away.  The other layer to the goal was...I wanted to weigh less than my husband.  Weighing in on Friday mornings, I started May 4th at 163 lbs.  By May 25th...I weighed THE SAME as my husband, 157.  By July 6th, (which happened to fall perfectly on a Friday) I weighed in at 151 lbs.  I'd lost 12 pounds!  I was officially lighter than my hubby and felt AMAZING.  I had so much energy...I could play with the kids all day and get my housework done without feeling like I was dragging.  

I'd also introduced fermented foods into our diet...sauerkraut, beets, pickles, kefir.  It was a combination of learning what sugar does to our systems, and the amazing healing properties of these fermented foods that helped me get even more serious about food.  In July, I watched the Real Food Summit which was an online series of talks about nutrition.  They were so eye-opening for me.  I ended up getting the whole set for free by some really cool chance. 

As I was happy with my new weight, which was the lowest I'd weighed since High School, I wasn't trying to lose anymore, I just wanted to be super healthy.  But the more I learned, the more I lost...the wisdom I was gaining was the key to losing.  I now weigh 141 lbs. and I have a new goal.  I have a "major birthday" coming up next year, and I don't want to look my age!  I'm not sure what weight I'm going for as I care more about being healthy and in shape as opposed to simply having a number to reach for.  A number is an easy gauge for most of us, but I look at clothes and how they fit.

It's a lot more fun to shop at the *small* end of the clothes rack...and easier to find things on sale that aren't UGLY.  This is a weird one, even my shoes are looser.  I even lost fat on my feet!  My wedding ring flew off my hand at one point and it was lost for about a month or so!  Fingers shrunk too.  Found it at the bottom of a laundry basket that I'd been reaching down into...just slipped off.

Currently, I just started the "Primal Blueprint 21-day Challenge".
My goal is to add in 15 minutes of fun exercise over and above merely carrying my children up and down stairs.  The other day I took them to the playground and we ALL played together in the sun, FUN!  I've also taken my measurements to see if I change shape instead of just dropping weight.

That's my story, most of it anyway...!

First, I credit my faith.  I prayed for help with being healthy and to lose weight.  God always gives me what I ask for (within reason) and knows what I need most.  I could never do it for myself or anyone else, but when Lent rolled around, I knew I didn't want to let Our Lord down.  

Second, my husband always has my back and is my biggest fan!  He was learning about diet and nutrition before I was willing to be into it, he use to make the kefir and leave all those stinky jars and utensils in the sink!  ;) Kiss kiss.  Now I do it!

And then there's my friend Chris, who has plowed through the icy waters before me and tossed back books, articles and websites to learn from.  Not only did he give us our copy of Nourishing Traditions, but he also recommended The Perfect Health Diet to read. His passion for food and cooking has always been inspirational to me.

Here's a list of tools I used to lose weight, get rid of chronic headaches, rashes, aching joints, and a raging attitude problem! Just to name a few... :)

1. The Perfect Health Diet...First, this is my MAIN eating plan.
2. Nourishing Traditions.  This is the main cookbook I use. 
3. Eat Fat, Lose Fat - Know your fats!  Canola oil is bad for you, vegetable oil is poison.  Read this book to understand WHY.
4. Mark's Daily Apple - a paleo blog I read regularly. 
5. French Women Don't Get Fat - this was the book I read that started me thinking.  It's important to not become a person simply AVOIDING bad food, you need to savor life and savor each moment!  Savor the butter, eat GOOD ice cream in small amounts, not JUNK ice cream by the bowl!
6. Real Food Summit - I watched these and it supercharged my life! I own the whole package, it's all wonderful info and advice.
7. Dr. Cate - for those who find they can only believe health advice if it comes from a trained doctor, I present, Dr. Cate Shanahan!
8. The Healthy Home Economist - wonderful advice that is NOT candy coated.  She's passionate about health, from a mom's point of view.
9. Paleo Diet Lifestyle - Try the beef stroganoff!  We did.
10. The Unrefined Kitchen - paleo from a Christian perspective.
11. Nouveau Raw - while I don't eat a raw diet for the most part, this site has wonderful advice on soaking nuts, sprouting flours and making fermented vegetables.
12. PaleoTrack - Want to track and test out your "paleo-ness"?! Keeping a food diary is also a great way to learn which foods you can and cannot tolerate.

Now, here's some advice based on things that I see people, including myself, struggle with.

1. Educate yourself.  Read, read, read.  Trust people, not businesses. Don't believe TV personalities! There's big profit to be had in weight loss, make sure you don't just fall into someone's $$ net.  Not everyone selling a book has the correct info...BUT, some people with the correct info...happen to be selling a book.   
2. Do not be a slave to advertising.  Don't believe words printed on the side of a box saying that the contents are healthy. Better yet, don't even eat out of boxes!
3. Eat real food.  If it's in a box, bag, jar or can...question it.  
4. Real labels.  If you can't read it, don't eat it!  If you don't know what an ingredient looks like on it's own, or you cannot buy it at the same store...don't buy it!  Research ingredients...what IS sodium benzoate?  It's in most soy sauce and hundreds of other products...what IS it..do you know? Do you eat in anyway? Do you feed it to your children and KNOW what it does to them? 
5. Go gluten free.  Most people, even if not diagnosed with celiac, have an intolerance to grains.  This is one of the absolute best ways to lose weight.  Do not bother eating grains unless properly prepared. Your gut will thank you in the morning. Making sprouted flour and soaking the phytic acid out of your brown rice is for later. Just ditch the grains at first, and then add good ones (once you really understand what that is...I didn't at first) back in to see if you can tolerate them. 
6. You should be sweet, your food shouldn't.  Sure, experiment with the alternative sugars...but don't be tempted to get fixated on paleo desserts.  Honey is still a sugar, fruit is still a sugar.  Ever look at the sugar content on a bag of raisins?  1/4 cup = 29 grams.  That's a lot. Don't think that eating paleo desserts means you're home-free...it's just a step, keep stepping!
7. Better yet...GET A DIVORCE...from your love affair with sugar!  This is another golden key to losing weight.  Your body turns most sugar into fat.  When The Perfect Health Diet says eat chocolate in moderation, make sure you know what that looks like in your hand.  It's probably a tiny square of at least 71% dark chocolate, possibly once a day.  "Moderation", like "Modesty"...is one of those fluid things for people...don't play games with yourself...be in the know about what fructose does to you.
8. Do it for someone you love.  I could never lose weight for myself...I've never cared about clothes enough, I guess! I went from a size 16...to a size 8...it's a heck of a lot cheaper to shop for smaller sizes as they are not the norm!  My husband sure likes it...and it's easy and fun to do for him.  And my kids?  I can keep up with them now, and carry them up the stairs without needing an oxygen tank by the time I reach the top (drama...). Even better, do it because our body was given to us by God...take care of it.
9. Eat your vegetables...ROTTEN, baby!  Consume fermented foods every day.  Make sure they're actually fermented, and not just preserved junk.  A lot of the pickles at the store contain sugar and vinegar, and sometimes even sodium benzoate.
10. Don't JUST count calories, not all calories were created equally. And it will make you crazy.  If you need to count and make lists, count sugar grams, keep those really low (around 12 grams per day) and it will go hand in hand with healthy eating.
11. Don't JUST eat anything you want, even in moderation.  There's a lot of TRASH food in this world, avoid it like the cancer.  (Modern lingo for "Avoid it like the plague".)  While you're still having food cravings, anything you "want" will be a lot of things your body doesn't need, it's just addicted to them.  Your body is telling you that you're lacking a nutrient THROUGH that craving.
12. Eat when you're hungry, and don't eat when you aren't.  Think you're always hungry?  You might just be eating too many "empty calories".
13. It's good to be different.  It's ok to NOT eat the birthday cake.  It's ok to pass the roll basket right on by. Social pressures can be rough at first, but saying NO to junk food is a fleeting moment in time compared to an entire evening of sitting around with a stomach ache, or lounging on the couch with a dull headache.  
14. Remember the 80%/20% rule.  Your body composition is 80% due to diet.  No amount of running on a treadmill will fix what a bad diet has created. 
15. And Fertility? I know so many people struggling with this right now. Diet can possibly help tremendously!  Here's a good article.  

So, keep your food clean and nutrient dense, get a little exercise, a little sun and partake in a lot of laughter...and thank God that I'm done talking about all this stuff!  I'll be back next time with the many glories (including pictures) of...

Ice Cream

What DID I do...part two...the MEAT...

"Our story doesn't fit on a bumper sticker" is what my friend Chris said when we were talking about how difficult it is to "concisely" tell others what we've done to lose weight and regain health.  I've been trying to figure out how to make this second blog post short and sweet, but I'm finding it impossible.  I've learned so much about nutrition, food, the body, health...that I can't possible fit it into a story without it turning magnum opus.  Oh, and it did!

I've written down all the glorious details which will debut as part three, but for now...here's the MEAT of what I did, what worked for me and how I strive to eat every day. 

Ditch GRAINS, especially products with refined flours. Only eat properly prepared whole grains or white rice in moderation.

Ditch SUGAR, especially high fructose corn syrup and refined, white, brown or powdered sugar.  Even "organic" sugar.  No pesticides is nice, but it's still a refined sugar.

Ditch TOXINS...no preservatives, colorings, additives, and "enhancers".  If you can't read it, don't eat it.

Essentially...Ditch PROCESSED FOODS, even from Whole Foods.

Eat what GOD put here...the way GOD intended it to be raised or grown.

Eat in STRICT MODERATION the things of man's hand...unless what they "manufacture" is made with integrity and concern for your health, and not just a concern for their bloated bank accounts.

Eat healthy fats.  Butter from grass-fed cows and coconut oil are my favorites.  Never eat vegetable oils, especially canola and soybean and NEVER hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated.

Make all your meals.  Even your pickles...

Food that is "quick, easy and cheap" usually comes with an expensive price tag in the long run called medical bills and medications. Eating REAL FOOD IS quick, easy and cheap...we do it on less than $500 a month for 3 eaters, soon to be 4!

Lastly, pray to God for help, but don't ever leave that for last!

Part three...coming soon. The whole "before and after" story, more details about how we live with food...plus links to good books, websites and blogs.  

And then maybe part four, five...who knows?!