Whole 30: Day 5 Whole 30 vs Real life

Today was a really hard day. I got up on time feeling good and got a good breakfast of sweet potato and sausage hash.

 When I was chopping sweet potatoes for breakfast I chopped an extra one to use for lunch and I'm glad I did. Work was crazy today. I love my job but taking care of other people and making decisions that affect their health is stressful. I didn't get off at lunch on time so I didn't have much time to cook lunch at home. Lunch was ready 5 minutes before I had to leave to go back to work so I just took it with me. The 2 year old is sick and whiny and clingy. I meant to put lunch in the crockpot before I left for work this morning but I ran out of time and didn't have time at lunch either. Hubby was going to try to fix dinner but he was home with cranky baby so it didn't get done. As I pulled into the grocery store parking lot I barely had the energy to get out of the van and go inside. Straight in front of me was the Chinese restaurant. Many, many days this would have been our option. Long stressful day at work, sick kid at home, everybody needs a break and a little TLC so let's just order Chinese and be done with it. This is real life. I'm not living in a fairy tale world where healthy eating is easy. So when you come see me in the office and tell me how stressed you are and how you don't have time to cook real food, I get it. But, I pulled myself out of the van and made a different choice today. It was after 7 by the time we ate dinner. Later than I like but we had steak and mashed potatoes with coconut milk that is whole 30 approved and salad.

If you attempt this challenge of 30 days of whole foods have a partner to do it with you. If Hubby was not on board I would not be surviving this. When I got home he cooked dinner while I held the cranky baby (I have to stop calling him a baby he's 2).

Also update on the coffee situation: I found coconut milk that is whole 30 approved at my local grocery today. I was reading labels on spices for the steak (do you know that a lot of the mixed spices have sugar in them? No wonder we have an obesity problem in this country!) and happened to see the condensed milk right next to the spices and there on a shelf mixed in with condensed milk and evaporated milk was coconut milk. I'll be using it in my coffee soon and will see if it make it easier to drink.

Whole 30: Day 4

Wednesday is one of our busiest days and usually the day we eat junk. The Wednesday lunch special at one of our local restaurants is steak with baked potato and all the fixins. My husband works full time as a youth pastor and Wednesday is his busiest day of the week. He usually goes to work at 8 AM and doesn't get home til after evening church around 8PM. Most weeks we eat at church which is usually kid friendly fare like hot dogs, chicken strips or tonights offering of grilled cheese sandwiches. None of that "routine" I described above is allowed on the whole 30. The steak would be if it's not cooked with vegetable oil and the potato without butter, sour cream or cheese so what's the point? I get off work at noon on Wednesday and pick up the kids at 3:30 then the race is on to get homework finished, chores done, baths given and back to church by 6 pm. Cooking usually doesn't happen. Throw in a 2 year old with a sudden fever and vomiting and well I was ready to throw in the towel. But I feel better. Overall I feel better. I don't wake up wishing I could find time in my day for a nap. I'm not jumping out of bed but the fatigue that I thought was just part of being a full time nurse practitioner and a full time mother of 3 is slowly lifting. So I did not give up. I had some canned chicken (I had to read ingredients on 3 different brands before I found something without additives), I boiled some eggs (We've gone through a carton of 18 eggs since Sunday), had my 9 year old help me make avocado spread to use instead of mayo and then mixed it all together. I threw in some diced apples for a little crunch and put it on Romaine leaves. I took this plate to Hubby at the church so he would have a healthy dinner. I ended up putting some cherry tomatoes on mine. Breaks up the green color a little.

 

Here's a look at our breakfast and lunch today

So you can see we are not starving. One thing I have been thinking about. I talk to a lot of people who complain about being tired. Just tired. No get up and go. What if it's related to what we are putting in our bodies? That's what the Whole 30 is about. Clearing out the system and then you can add things back in and make an educated decision about how food affects your body and whether you are willing to be tired and lethargic from eating stuff that is not that healthy after all. 

So I've got 26 more days of clean eating left in my challenge. Then we'll see what happens. If I can manage to make real food on a busy crazy day with a sick kid I bet you can too.

Whole 30: Day 3 AKA the day the 2 y/o said "more squash peese"

Feeling pretty good today. No headache since day 1. I had some tiredness around lunch but powered through. I've got to work on my time management. The kids are not doing the whole 30 and my boys throw up if I give them eggs so I have to make them a separate breakfast. I made prosciutto and eggs in muffin cups for breakfast. I mixed in some onion and spinach. My 9 year old tried it and like it except for the spinach. For lunch we browned some leftover chicken I made in the crockpot Sunday. I put some coconut butter in the skillet along with some lime and cilantro and browned it. Then Hubby made roasted asparagus and sweet potato. It was a good, filling lunch. The only problem is that by the time it was done I barely had 10 minutes to eat and head back to work. For dinner tonight we had cracklin chicken from nomnompaleo. I used onion powder, garlic powder and poultry seasoning along with sea salt and it was the best chicken I have had in a while. 4 out of 5 people at the table had seconds. We also had roasted butternut squash and broccoli. At one point I was putting a piece of squash in my mouth only to see my 2 y/o reaching out with his fork to try to take it away from me. He had 3 servings of squash and would say "mo squash peese" with his little toddler grin. And what mother ever can say no to a toddler who wants to eats squash?

I also had enough energy at the end of the day to run a mile in under 15 minutes. And considering I've been on the treadmill once in the last year I think that's great. I still haven't learned to drink coffee black. I almost got a whole cup down this morning.

Whole 30: Day 2

I have heard that day 2 and 3 are tough. Basically my body is going through withdrawals from sugar and processed junk. Don't think you're addicted? Try it. I dare you. I was a little concerned as I offered to keep 2 of my friends kiddos since school was still out today in addition to my 3...yep 5 kids ages 2-9. But today wasn't as hard as yesterday for me. No headaches today. We had sausage meatloaf with eggs and tomato for breakfast, chicken with roasted sweet potatoes and asparagus for lunch and turkey tacos using lettuce instead of tortillas or shells. I made my own taco seasoning as well. Think I will use ground beef instead of turkey next time. It was kind of dry. I'm really missing dairy today. Cheese, ice cream, sour cream...coffee creamer. Have I mentioned I'm addicted to coffee creamer? Hubby has had a headache almost all day. Hopefully he will feel better tomorrow. We are eating plenty. Probably had more on my plate for lunch than I do most days.

If you're wondering why I'm doing this, what are my goals... I want to feel healthy. Not tired, not worn out. I've blamed being a working mother of 3 for my being tired. Now I'm wondering if that was not the whole problem. I'd like to lose a few pounds and maybe not have any acne (mid to late 30's with acne is really just wrong).

Tomorrow I go back to work. Work with no coffee creamer. We'll see what happens.

Whole 30 Day 1

Why The Whole 30?

No added sugar, no processed food. Why would anyone want to live that way? No coffee creamer?! Then I started reading this book and Whole30.com As a family nurse practitioner I have for years told my patients to limit the amount of processed food in their diet. This takes that advice to a new level. I always knew processed food and high sugar content in your diet was bad for your health. It causes increased risk of diabetes and obesity. I did not realize it could cause many more problems than that. So I decided to do a hard reset of my diet. You know when your computer is not acting right and you just shut the whole thing down and start over? Except I wanted to do that with my body.

So I convinced my hubby to be my #whole30 partner and we set January 3rd as our start date. In preparation we bought lots of meat, veggies and fruit. But we also found lots of things we thought were "healthy" had added sugar. Like turkey bacon. Turkey bacon. It's supposed to be lower in fat and good for you but they add sugar! It's no wonder we have an obesity epidemic when producers add sugar to "healthy" food!

Day 1

I was prepared for the first few days to be rough. I discovered I don't really like coffee. I like coffee creamer. A LOT! We had eggs, potatoes and fruit for breakfast. Hunger was not really a problem but I had a headache by noon. We had chicken, potatoes and asparagus for lunch. The first day was a Sunday which is a stressful day anyway since my hubby works full time as a youth pastor it's one of his busiest days. We were watching a movie at church and knew popcorn and soda would be a temptation so I made avacado tuna salad in lettuce wraps and took a large bowl of fruit and water. And when you think about it what's going to fill you up longer and have less calories tuna or popcorn? So day one in the books. Went to bed with a headache and dreaming of coffee creamer. Otherwise we survived

I am a Preemie Mom

I am the mom of a Preemie...there I said it. It has taken me almost a year to admit this fact. My experience in the NICU was short compared to my friends who spent weeks and months sitting at the bedside of their super early micro preemies.  I think that's why I had a hard time admitting that my baby boy was indeed a preemie. At 6 pounds 13 ounces he did not look like much of preemie but he certainly acted like it. A decade ago I spent 4 years as a RN in a wonderful NICU in Ft Worth, TX. I never expected to sit on the other side of the isolette watching my own child struggle for each breath. A year later as the fog of new mommyhood has lifted I am looking back at what I learned those long 10 days in the NICU.

1. Denial. Our brains do amazing things to keep the peace. On December 16, 2013 at a little over 35 weeks gestation I started bleeding at home. My brain immediately knew what was happening. The fear in the eyes of my 6 year old as I began to panic brought me to the reality that I had to remain calm. As I called friends and family I simply told them my water broke. I never said the words "placenta abruption". It was too scary. When I first saw my sweet baby in the NICU the day after his birth and he was breathing 120 times a minute I wasn't scared. My brain could not process how much distress he was in. Think about that. Normal breathing for a newborn is under 60 times a minute. He was taking 2 breaths every second. There was always a nurse and a respiratory therapist at his bedside the first 3 days of his life. I remember thinking "oh this is nice. It's a small unit and it's slow so his nurse can be here every second." She was there because he was the sickest baby they had those first few days.

2. Control. I like to be in control. As they were wheeling me down the hall to have an emergency c section I was shouting commands to my husband as if I were still in control. The nurse anethesist grabbed my head looked straight into my eyes and said "STOP. We are doing this right now and you must focus." From that moment on nothing was in my control. But in the NICU they gave me choices. Do you want us to give him formula if we don't have enough mommy milk? Do you want a PICC line or regular IV? Do you want us to give him a bottle if you are not here to nurse? For a mom whose entire world was spinning out of control it gave me sense of balance to make decisions about his care. I don't know if they did that for every mom or just because I was a nurse and spoke the language but it made me feel involved.

3. Nurses. I have been a nurse for 14 years and I spent 4 of those years working in the NICU with sick preemie babies. From the nurses who remained calm in spite of the fact that they had a bleeding pregnant woman on the bed in front of them to the nurses in the NICU who silently handed me a box of tissues and patted me on the back at 3 AM I was blessed with caring compassionate care givers. I cannot remember their names or even all their faces but I remember the way they made me feel. Calm in the midst of the storm.

4. Prayer.  Roman 8:26 says that when we do not know what to pray for the Holy Spirit knows and intercedes on our behalf because He knows our hearts.  There were many moments on this ride that I did not know what to pray but God knew my heart.  The Bible also talks a lot about praying for other people. Due to the wide use of the internet I had people across the country and across the world praying for my little man. I would ask the nurses what my people needed to pray about today and by then end of our stay they would say "well you need to ask people to pray about..." before I could even ask. They were amazed by the answering of prayers and I believe it was a testimony to the power of the God I serve.

5. Time.  Lots of people talk about how they wish they had more time. More hours in the day. More days in the week.  Last year I was given more time. A placental abruption is life threatening to both mother and child. Yet God saw fit to spare us both.

6. Village. There is an old saying that it takes a village to raise a child. When my family was in crises we had family and friends coming to our aid instantly. Our "village" stepped up and loved on us. There were those who helped with chidcare of our other two children, there were those who cleaned the house, there were those who fed the dog (it was 3 days after the baby was born before I remembered that the dog needed to eat), and there were those who brought food the week we went home. They will never know how much they mean to me.

As December 16 approaches and I remember the fear and trauma of that day a year ago I will look into the smiling face of my 12 month old and say a prayer for all those mommies and daddies living the NICU life and I will thank God for my preemie and the lessons I learned on the other side of the isolette.

QUIET PLEASE!!!

One of the challenges issued from Melissa Taylor's online Bible study (OBS) this week was to sit in silence and listen for God.

Silence..huh..there's a novel idea. I don't know about your world but my world is full of noise. My 6 year old has been learning new songs at school and she loves to sing them. All. The. Time. I am pretty sure that sometimes she does not even know she is singing, or humming, or whistling. But unless she is asleep there is constantly noise coming from that child. Now don't get me wrong I love to hear her voice and I love that she is learning and that she is happy. But for the sake of sanity please just a few minutes of quiet. At work there is constant noise. Patient's with a plethera of conditions that they want me to fix. Nurses and other staff with questions. If you listen to the news there is no silence at all regarding the state of our nation or our world. So where do I find silence?

Before I got married I had "quiet times" with God anytime I wanted. Most of the time before bed and sometimes when I got up as well. I was 26 and well established with my quiet time routine...then I got married. Trying to find time alone as a newlywed was difficult. A few years later when we added our first child quiet alone time was even harder to find. I found as my days got busier and louder that I needed my alone time with God even more. I have never been a morning person. I worked night shift for years because I always said it was easier to see 5 AM at the end of my day than at the beginning. But I found that 5 AM is the only time I can get alone with God. So I set my alarm (okay, okay, I hit the snooze til 5:30) and I get up, make my coffee and settle down to hear from God.

In the past 6 months I have been convicted about telling people I would pray for them but not actually following through. So I started a prayer journal. I don't pray for each person every day but usually do get them at least once a week. I pray and ask God who else needs to be on the list. I spend time reading God's Word and asking Him to speak to me. Some days I spend more time than others listening and praying. But in a world that is spinning so rapidly (and that seems to be spinning out of control some days), that early morning time when the rest of the house is sleeping is the quiet start to my day. I depend on it. How you find quiet times in the midst of your craziness? If you don't spend time alone with God I challenge you to start.