Yesterday I let my "love" be reading. I hadn't read all day, and while I did plenty of staring at the computer, and should have been writing, then well, I just couldn't bring myself to write. But I made sure to dive into the novel on which I am planning to write.
I am happy to report that I've only got hopefully three more days (or 2.5) on this damn elimination diet and then I can get back to true Paleo eating full of variety and love and perhaps do some cooking myself. Baby has another ear infection, but the meds seem to be working already, so hopefully by the time I'm ready to add cooking to my 15 minute lovefest every day, I'll be good to go.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Back Again? Giving it another go...
I keep saying I'm going to revive this blog. And every time I say so, I earnestly mean it.
The fam and I have been doing the Whole Life Challenge since September 7th. The lifestyle challenge this week (and perhaps it's for the remainder of the challenge) is do spend 15 minutes a day doing something you love. I love writing. Over at my other blog I spend a lot of time working through the baby's health issues and trying to balance work, and here I'd like to get back to talking about the other parts of my life that I enjoy--Paleo cooking, CrossFit, and health.
TBH, I haven't done hardly any paleo cooking since Swee'Pea Disceaux got here. The parents are staying with us because there is a scarcity of childcare here, so Mom's been doing all the cooking. And I've only been back at CF for about 6 weeks (c-section recovery took way longer than I had hoped). And with the new lifestyle challenge for the WLC, and after reading the intro to Melissa Joulwan's new Well Fed 2 in which she talks about being her best self (plus with some other stuff I've been working through on the academic blog), this is one of the things I want to get back to. There are some complicating factors though. Even though I'm doing the WLC, I'm on a restricted version of this because of the Swee'Pea's issues. Baby girl may have food allergies (we get the blood test results on Monday), so I've been on the Dr. Sears Elimination Diet for three weeks (which is an issue in itself being on it that long)trying to eliminate allergens in my system in the hopes that I can begin nursing again. I must remain on this until the 24th.
Until the 24th, I'd like to use this space to write and think about my health goals, what will make me happy, and how to integrate that in with my academic life, how to get to balance and how to get to more happy.
After the 24th, once I get the clearance from the pediatrician, we'll say Sunday the 27th, I want to participate more in the cooking. I miss it. I didn't do nearly enough of it when I was pregnant, but cooking, especially loving, wonderful, beautiful Paleo meals grounds me. It's a good stress reliever for me. It makes me feel like I contribute something greater to my family. So, I would like to start sharing the cooking responsibility with the Moms once I can start adding variety to my diet again.
The good thing about Paleo life is that if Miss Swee'Pea is plagued with food allergies, then this is a good way of eating on which for her to grow up. Furthermore, it's important for me, especially since I have a daughter, to have my child see a healthy lifestyle and healthy relationship with food and fitness modeled. I don't want her to grow up seeing a mother constantly dieting and denigrating herself at every turn (like I saw growing up).
So we shall see how I can develop this space in the next week. I'm looking forward to diving into Well Fed 2 and reporting back on it.
The fam and I have been doing the Whole Life Challenge since September 7th. The lifestyle challenge this week (and perhaps it's for the remainder of the challenge) is do spend 15 minutes a day doing something you love. I love writing. Over at my other blog I spend a lot of time working through the baby's health issues and trying to balance work, and here I'd like to get back to talking about the other parts of my life that I enjoy--Paleo cooking, CrossFit, and health.
TBH, I haven't done hardly any paleo cooking since Swee'Pea Disceaux got here. The parents are staying with us because there is a scarcity of childcare here, so Mom's been doing all the cooking. And I've only been back at CF for about 6 weeks (c-section recovery took way longer than I had hoped). And with the new lifestyle challenge for the WLC, and after reading the intro to Melissa Joulwan's new Well Fed 2 in which she talks about being her best self (plus with some other stuff I've been working through on the academic blog), this is one of the things I want to get back to. There are some complicating factors though. Even though I'm doing the WLC, I'm on a restricted version of this because of the Swee'Pea's issues. Baby girl may have food allergies (we get the blood test results on Monday), so I've been on the Dr. Sears Elimination Diet for three weeks (which is an issue in itself being on it that long)trying to eliminate allergens in my system in the hopes that I can begin nursing again. I must remain on this until the 24th.
Until the 24th, I'd like to use this space to write and think about my health goals, what will make me happy, and how to integrate that in with my academic life, how to get to balance and how to get to more happy.
After the 24th, once I get the clearance from the pediatrician, we'll say Sunday the 27th, I want to participate more in the cooking. I miss it. I didn't do nearly enough of it when I was pregnant, but cooking, especially loving, wonderful, beautiful Paleo meals grounds me. It's a good stress reliever for me. It makes me feel like I contribute something greater to my family. So, I would like to start sharing the cooking responsibility with the Moms once I can start adding variety to my diet again.
The good thing about Paleo life is that if Miss Swee'Pea is plagued with food allergies, then this is a good way of eating on which for her to grow up. Furthermore, it's important for me, especially since I have a daughter, to have my child see a healthy lifestyle and healthy relationship with food and fitness modeled. I don't want her to grow up seeing a mother constantly dieting and denigrating herself at every turn (like I saw growing up).
So we shall see how I can develop this space in the next week. I'm looking forward to diving into Well Fed 2 and reporting back on it.
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
And Baby Makes Three!
Maybe there is a person or two still out there reading this little blog that hasn't been updated since January, and which I've missed dearly, but it's time to revive it. The scope of the blog will change as Wee Bit o' Swee'Pea Disceaux has arrived, and I'd like to look at not only "cavegirl living" but "cave family living." While this will sound like a statement of some kind of faith, but we plan to raise our child (and any subsequent children) Paleo. I want to have the healthiest baby possible.
In the two months before Swee'Pea was born, I tried several Whole30s. I wanted to do them in between baby showers because I was told that the kid was going to be big (which I attributed to the mass amounts of Taco Bell I had been consuming throughout the pregnancy, along with recent additions of Donut Saturday and PoBoy Friday), so given the fetal measurements and my very large body, doctors and civilians alike thought we had a beast child in there. There was the fear then of a c-section for a too large baby. The other motivation for the Whole30s was vanity in part. I couldn't afford to get any bigger. I was not, let me repeat, NOT trying to lose weight. I knew the Whole30 would allow my body to do what it needed to do. But having gained almost 60 pounds as it was, I wanted to try to regulate some things, and my god, the cellulite was terrible! So I guess really by vanity I mean health. I really was/am just dismayed by the cellulite.
I made the first round. A Whole6. Then after that first baby shower, it was downhill from there. I got really really tired. And lazy. And it wasn't until my parents came in for the second baby shower that I started eating right again because Mom did all the cooking and cleaning for us. And we all managed to do decently the couple of weeks before Swee'Pea got here. We still had our donuts for breakfast and ate out occasionally and had desserts, but for the most part, at least our dinners were Paleo. After Swee'Pea came, there was no Paleo in the hospital, so I ate whatever they gave me. When we got home, we did great that first week. Then donut Saturday rolled around again. Then there were desserts again. And lots of visitors. But those first 10 days home from the hospital, the clean eating, I believe helped me shed about 23 pounds (along with just the massive amounts of fluid loss), but once the non Paleo eating got into full force, all weightloss stopped. I did end up having to have a c-section, but not because of a big baby. I had a stuck baby whose heart rate had started to increase during the labor and because she was stuck. So part of the desire to jump into a Whole30 2 weeks post-partum was to help with the c-section recovery. But I think the stress of the strictness of the Whole30 was too much too soon this time around.
I decided that I was going to try a Whole30 for this month. Sadly, I cheated from the beginning because my sugar issues had gotten so bad, and my dependence on desserts had gotten so bad that I had lots of Paleo cobbler and honey to get me through. Not Whole30 at all. And then it just started to get really really stressful. And then someone brought me lunch and rather than not eat the ranch dressing and just use oil and vinegar, I did use it as a reason to break the Whole30ish, which had now become "just try and eat as strict as Paleo as possible." There were chips and salsa that had been teasing me. Chips in the pantry. Ice cream in the freezer. Plus I was so stressed and exhausted and I was putting all this pressure on myself that I just crashed on day 11 and let that ranch dressing be my excuse to cave to all my cravings. And then I just cried.
Here's what I learned from that though. Even though I gave in, those chips, albeit stale (which usually doesn't bother me) and salsa did NOT taste good to me at all. The ice cream did NOT taste good to me at all. The dark chocolate chips really did not taste good to me at all either. And so then I thought I start over, but not put the pressure on myself for the Whole30 (we ALL, Boudreaux and the parents have one planned for September anyway) but rather focus on clean Paleo. Then my sister came in. I had frozen yogurt. Didn't actually really enjoy it. It wasn't as good as I remember. And we had frozen custard. Not as good as I remember it being like three weeks ago. The two little cupcakes I had at a birthday party did not taste wonderful to me. I enjoyed none of my treats. And here's the lesson of sorts--I saw this as a good sign. Not enjoying this stuff makes it much more likely that I'm not going to crave it. It was not good. Plus, I think dairy makes Swee'Pea fussy. I was worried that it might be the curry (because jalapenos make her really fussy), but I'm pretty sure it's dairy and sugar. And honestly, as terrible a day as yesterday was, at no time did I actually want anything sweet or ice cream or anything like that.
However, I am trying to put some pressure on myself simply for the sake of doing what's best for my family. Because as good as some things may taste, they don't taste good enough to make dealing with a fussy baby easy or fun.
So my hope then for this blog is that it becomes about Paleo family living. I hope to raise a strong and healthy daughter. While I will postpone the Whole30 until September when we all do it, I will stay as strict as Paleo as possible. No dairy at all (fussy baby), and no gluten at all (fussy, depressed, uncomfortable momma). But I will not turn down dark chocolate or fresh corn chips and salsa. And if I need the occasional bowl of white rice to fill me up (breastfeeding is exhausting!), then no food guilt.
I hope this blog becomes a space to talk about this.
In the two months before Swee'Pea was born, I tried several Whole30s. I wanted to do them in between baby showers because I was told that the kid was going to be big (which I attributed to the mass amounts of Taco Bell I had been consuming throughout the pregnancy, along with recent additions of Donut Saturday and PoBoy Friday), so given the fetal measurements and my very large body, doctors and civilians alike thought we had a beast child in there. There was the fear then of a c-section for a too large baby. The other motivation for the Whole30s was vanity in part. I couldn't afford to get any bigger. I was not, let me repeat, NOT trying to lose weight. I knew the Whole30 would allow my body to do what it needed to do. But having gained almost 60 pounds as it was, I wanted to try to regulate some things, and my god, the cellulite was terrible! So I guess really by vanity I mean health. I really was/am just dismayed by the cellulite.
I made the first round. A Whole6. Then after that first baby shower, it was downhill from there. I got really really tired. And lazy. And it wasn't until my parents came in for the second baby shower that I started eating right again because Mom did all the cooking and cleaning for us. And we all managed to do decently the couple of weeks before Swee'Pea got here. We still had our donuts for breakfast and ate out occasionally and had desserts, but for the most part, at least our dinners were Paleo. After Swee'Pea came, there was no Paleo in the hospital, so I ate whatever they gave me. When we got home, we did great that first week. Then donut Saturday rolled around again. Then there were desserts again. And lots of visitors. But those first 10 days home from the hospital, the clean eating, I believe helped me shed about 23 pounds (along with just the massive amounts of fluid loss), but once the non Paleo eating got into full force, all weightloss stopped. I did end up having to have a c-section, but not because of a big baby. I had a stuck baby whose heart rate had started to increase during the labor and because she was stuck. So part of the desire to jump into a Whole30 2 weeks post-partum was to help with the c-section recovery. But I think the stress of the strictness of the Whole30 was too much too soon this time around.
I decided that I was going to try a Whole30 for this month. Sadly, I cheated from the beginning because my sugar issues had gotten so bad, and my dependence on desserts had gotten so bad that I had lots of Paleo cobbler and honey to get me through. Not Whole30 at all. And then it just started to get really really stressful. And then someone brought me lunch and rather than not eat the ranch dressing and just use oil and vinegar, I did use it as a reason to break the Whole30ish, which had now become "just try and eat as strict as Paleo as possible." There were chips and salsa that had been teasing me. Chips in the pantry. Ice cream in the freezer. Plus I was so stressed and exhausted and I was putting all this pressure on myself that I just crashed on day 11 and let that ranch dressing be my excuse to cave to all my cravings. And then I just cried.
Here's what I learned from that though. Even though I gave in, those chips, albeit stale (which usually doesn't bother me) and salsa did NOT taste good to me at all. The ice cream did NOT taste good to me at all. The dark chocolate chips really did not taste good to me at all either. And so then I thought I start over, but not put the pressure on myself for the Whole30 (we ALL, Boudreaux and the parents have one planned for September anyway) but rather focus on clean Paleo. Then my sister came in. I had frozen yogurt. Didn't actually really enjoy it. It wasn't as good as I remember. And we had frozen custard. Not as good as I remember it being like three weeks ago. The two little cupcakes I had at a birthday party did not taste wonderful to me. I enjoyed none of my treats. And here's the lesson of sorts--I saw this as a good sign. Not enjoying this stuff makes it much more likely that I'm not going to crave it. It was not good. Plus, I think dairy makes Swee'Pea fussy. I was worried that it might be the curry (because jalapenos make her really fussy), but I'm pretty sure it's dairy and sugar. And honestly, as terrible a day as yesterday was, at no time did I actually want anything sweet or ice cream or anything like that.
However, I am trying to put some pressure on myself simply for the sake of doing what's best for my family. Because as good as some things may taste, they don't taste good enough to make dealing with a fussy baby easy or fun.
So my hope then for this blog is that it becomes about Paleo family living. I hope to raise a strong and healthy daughter. While I will postpone the Whole30 until September when we all do it, I will stay as strict as Paleo as possible. No dairy at all (fussy baby), and no gluten at all (fussy, depressed, uncomfortable momma). But I will not turn down dark chocolate or fresh corn chips and salsa. And if I need the occasional bowl of white rice to fill me up (breastfeeding is exhausting!), then no food guilt.
I hope this blog becomes a space to talk about this.
Friday, January 4, 2013
Slowly getting there.
It's been slow going getting back on track here. Now that I'm working past the exhaustion and the morning sickness, I have been plagued with some kind of disgusting head cold which I am fearful of turning into a sinus infection.
This week we've made steak and we smoke a brisket. I managed to make a really very lovely meal Wednesday night, and had all the intention in the world of doing the food prep and some cooking yesterday, but this damn cold has me sidelined. We succumbed to pizza. But we're slowly weening ourselves off the grains. I'd say we're back to a 70/30 Paleo diet this week. I'm shooting for at least 80/20 next week, and then 90/10, and then 95/5. So I'm hoping by the end of January we will have successfully made our way back. Why am I taking so long? Why not jump into another Whole30? Well, I don't have the energy for the food prep. I need to have a night a week that we can order out or go out to eat. I'd like to do another Whole30; I need it after the holidays, but right now, I think a good 85/15-95/5 is a good goal. Especially since I still have some lingering morning sickness and cravings and aversions.
So there we are. Slowly making our way back to where we want to be.
This week we've made steak and we smoke a brisket. I managed to make a really very lovely meal Wednesday night, and had all the intention in the world of doing the food prep and some cooking yesterday, but this damn cold has me sidelined. We succumbed to pizza. But we're slowly weening ourselves off the grains. I'd say we're back to a 70/30 Paleo diet this week. I'm shooting for at least 80/20 next week, and then 90/10, and then 95/5. So I'm hoping by the end of January we will have successfully made our way back. Why am I taking so long? Why not jump into another Whole30? Well, I don't have the energy for the food prep. I need to have a night a week that we can order out or go out to eat. I'd like to do another Whole30; I need it after the holidays, but right now, I think a good 85/15-95/5 is a good goal. Especially since I still have some lingering morning sickness and cravings and aversions.
So there we are. Slowly making our way back to where we want to be.
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