Saturday, January 15, 2011

My diet...

For the past 3 1/2 years I've been living completely sugar free. Yep, I gave it all up. I know it sounds impossible, but it's true.

Before my diet, I was always sick. I was having a lot of stomach trouble, anxiety issues, heart palpitations, and severe exhaustion. Just getting up in the morning seemed to be all I could do.

I went to many Dr's and specialists and no one could figure out what was going on.

Finally, I found a Dr who listened to me and prayed for me. He asked me about my diet and all I could really say was I knew that I couldn't have milk products because they upset my stomach and at the time I couldn't have fruit. He asked me to go on a special diet for people with a yeast over-growth. It would entail me going completely free of these items...

sugar of any kind
corn
yeast
peanuts
milk
fruit
soy
chocolate
and a bunch of other things that I can't remember... :)

The week before I finally decided to try this diet, I was the sickest I have ever been. It scared me and I decided that I'd try it for a month, no matter what and then I'd see how I felt. The first three weeks were terrible and I almost gave up just about every hour I was awake but I knew that if this was the problem that it would take a month to start seeing anything positive come out of my efforts. I kept on, trying to figure out what in the world I *could* eat and trying really hard not to eat the other stuff that I had practically lived off of the past dozen years or so.

By the end of the first month, I felt better. Not all better, but I could definitely feel a difference. I kept on and on and well, on and now I'm better than I have been in 20 years. I still eat this way and I've decided to eat this way from now on. I'm healthy, feel great, and more energy than I've had in years. Here's my modified diet that I eat now...

barley-free soft wheat flour (for tortillas, biscuits, pancakes, and muffins)
honey for sweetner, but in very limited quantities
fruit- one piece a day

So, I eat pancakes or shredded wheat for breakfast each day. I add raisins on my cereal and raw almond butter on my pancakes, sometimes unsweetened jam. I use unsweetened rice milk on my cereal.

For lunch, I eat leftovers of dinner or a salad. I've found an organic Italian dressing from WinnDixie that is completely sugar free, but it does have vinegar in it. I do make my own dressings with lemon juice but it's nice to have an easy alternative.

For dinner, I make all kinds of things! Last night we had spaghetti with meatballs. I used oatmeal instead of cracker crumbs and canned tomatoes instead of spaghetti sauce. Then I add spices, veggies, and salt and it's done. Everyone else can add some cheese to theirs. The night before I made fried chicken, brown rice and steamed veggies. I used soft wheat flour that has no malted barley in it and egg to fry with my own spices.

The hardest thing about cooking this way is that you can't make casseroles but you can make some one-pot meals. I make pepper steak, beef stroganoff, even pizza. I make all my own broths and freeze them for meals and I shred all the chicken or turkey for later meals, like lomien or cook beef briskets in my crockpot over night and then make egg fried rice with beef and broth instead of soy sauce. I use only rice milk in my cooking, only non-dairy-no soy for my margarine, no mixes or sauces that aren't homemade. It works for me.

The biggest thing is that I am healthy enough to run around with my kids and we're having fun. It's only by God's grace and mercy that I am healthy and that I found something that works for me. I hope this helps!

Blessings,



Friday, January 14, 2011

It's the busiest I've been in a long while...

That about sums it up. lol

It started with Jon. It's alllll his fault. He told us right after his semester ended that he wanted something to do this next semester. Well, he's been doing scouts and he's enrolled in 3 college classes but he had a lot of free time and he wanted "something". So we went to the local martial arts place down the street and checked it out. It's a really nice place and he can even walk it's so close. We looked at the price sheet and noted that it was cheaper to have two in the class than it was to have one in. I thought, maybe someone else would like to go also...enter Genevieve.lol She not only would love to go, she was terribly excited. We reasoned that it's easier to learn and to keep it up when you have a buddy so we decided to sign her up also. Then Isaac hears about it and he says, "I want to be a ninja too!" and really, can you say no to that sweet face? So, we now have three students for their new teacher.lol

You're now thinking, that's the end of this story, right? That's no big deal, one class three times a week but they are all in it. Well, my dh and I were talking and thought it may be a good idea for Genevieve to begin violin lessons. She's always wanted to play but the timing was off. So I go to sign her up and Sophia sees the pink ballet outfits and says she wants to take that class. Well, I can't say no to that considering she's not in anything.lol We left with ballet and tap classes for Sophia and Fiddle classes for Genevieve. Then Genevieve starts with the, I'd rather dance than play the fiddle. Well, I don't know how but she talks us into dance classes too!

So, we went from Genevieve in gymnastics and Jon in scouts to Jon in scouts and martial arts, Genevieve dropping gym for martial arts, dance, and violin, Isaac in martial arts, and Sophia in ballet and tap.

And all because Jon was bored.