In Which I Ramble On and On About My Latest Health Kick

Have you seen that commercial for multi-grain Eggo waffles? A geeky looking mom dressed in sweats power-walks into the kitchen, passing her two children who are preparing for school, and then calling out, "Kids! Time for breakfast." With an alarmed look on his face, the boy turns to his sister and says something to the effect of, "Mom is on another one of her health kicks. We need to get out of here before she tries to feed us breakfast!"

That's kind of the reaction I get from my family each time. And, yes, I am on another health kick, inspired by the lead Yahoo story I saw the other day about the family who took on the challenge of 100 Days of Real Food. I am completely aware of the fact that my "kicks" are a bit cyclical; however, I do learn something new everytime, and I do typically pick up at least one new good habit. For example, I now mill my own wheat and use that fresh, whole grain flour for bread, baked goods, and breakfast foods like waffles and pancakes. I also often substitute honey granules for refined sugar.

But I do have a long way to go. I would like to get to a point where I don't use refined sugar at all. My one big obstacle is that my source of honey granules, Bread Beckers, is now 16 hours away rather than 1, and the shipping costs are a bit hard to swallow. But I did go ahead and swallow it and placed an order for a new 5lb. container of honey granules and some flaxseed, which I grind and put in smoothies and baked goods. There are of course many, many other things I can work on like getting rid of all of the terrible foods that come in a box.

I just ordered Jordan Rubin's book What the Bible Says About Healthy Living, and as the author notes in the brief preview Amazon permitted me to read, we are indeed "fearfully and wonderfully made". Why shouldn't we focus on eating what God provided for us to eat? As much as I have tried, I have not yet located the rare to non-existent Oreo tree, so perhaps we should not be eating Oreos and the like.

So I'm going to try very hard to eliminate all of those processed foods. It's tough. I'm a veeery lazy cook, so those pre-packaged, processed foods are awfully tempting. Because going cold turkey and rashly removing all of the junk food from the pantry at one time is just setting me up for failure, I'm going to take this in stages. For the first week, I'm going to focus on snacks. When the kids ask for a snack, instead of telling them to dive into a box of Cheez-Its, I am going to provide some whole, natural options instead. Some will take some work - like making my own cheese crackers - but our health is worth it, right?

Of course, I chose the very worst weekend to decide to be healthy. I just went to the grocery store day before yesterday - along with every other resident of Connecticut - to stock up on non-perishables in the event that Irene steals our electricity. So I will start our Snack Reformation after Irene has departed and our power has been restored. At that point, we can take the yet unopened boxes of Cheez-Its and Oreos and donate them to the local food bank.

Until then, I will continue to exercise. Very surprisingly, I have been very committed to exercising daily. I work out every morning on the treadmill - working on building up my endurance so that eventually I can run a 5K. A huge goal for a non-runner like me, especially since, aside from high school sports, I have never before been consistent in any exercise program.

Thankfully, I'm not alone in exercising...we have had some great family times over the last month hiking some of the many trails that traverse the New England landscape and biking. Mark and I splurged and bought bikes so we could join the kids. In addition, we got a bike attachment that turns Mark's bike into a tandem bike thus allowing Audrey to keep up with our pace.

Is she cute or what?


Unfortunately for me, I had to cut my workout today short and will take tomorrow off as well. My ankle is killing me. For no reason. That happens a lot with fibromyalgia - pain for no reason. Which is why I'm on a new health kick. I refuse to take any of the medications that fight fibromyalgia with side effects like "thoughts of suicide". I am confident that if I learn to eat healthy and stick with it, I won't be so tired all the time, and I won't have a Pain du Jour.

So raise your healthy drink...here's to getting healthy.

Tying Up Loose Ends

Well, I won't even bother listing the answers to my mystery photo shoot from yesterday (I called it a "photo shoot"! Ha!) because they were apparently really, really easy. If any mystery remained at all, just check TeacherMommy's comment in yesterday's post. She got them all...well, except for naming the colorful spiral bound books as the Hooked on Phonics Master Reader program. But I didn't expect that much specificity.

On another note, yesterday was my 14th anniversary. I'm grateful to be married to my soulmate. He's my best friend too. His parents are pretty great too and offered to watch the kids for us yesterday. We enjoyed a movie (The Proposal - very cute movie) and dinner at my favorite Italian Restaurant. And you KNOW I indulged in some chocolate mousse cake and brought a piece home to enjoy today.

Which brings me to my next point...this getting healthy and walking the Appalachian Trail stuff. I think I mentioned I'm a little bit competitive. But I'm also honest. So I'll admit that my sister-in-law is kicking my butt in this race (which, incidentally, is down the Appalachian Trail rather than up; I just assumed I'd be starting in Georgia, but I guess I'd rather end in Georgia so I'll be home at the end, virtually speaking anyway). I did log over 9000 steps yesterday which made up for my narrowly missing my daily 7500 goal on Wednesday.

I'm off to a fairly good start today. You'd think that sleeping in 'til 9:30 wouldn't make for a particularly good start, but I doubled my treadmill time to account for my laziness. Plus it took that long to watch last night's results of So You Think You Can Dance. With all of the housework I have planned for today to get ready for tomorrow's 4th celebration, hopefully I'll be able to log quite a few steps. And here's hoping my 4-hour volleyball game Sunday pushes me along the trail as well.

Well, if you need me, I'll be vacuuming my way down the Appalachian Trail.

I'm on a three-month hike...

...up the Appalachian Trail. Are you impressed or what?

OK, coming clean. Obviously, I didn't just up and leave my husband and my 4 children for three months to climb mountains. Oh to have freedom like that. No, this is a virtual hike. Ain't technology grand? One of my friends rounded up a "team" of hikers together to do this thing in 3 months.

I've done a similar virtual hike before, but not with a "team" [of hikers]. The "team" adds just that ingredient I need to keep me going: competition. I will go to great lengths of achievement if there is competition involved. (And here's a little "Let's see whatcha got, Debbi" (my dear sister-in-law who's part of the "team").)

Problem is I haven't gotten a tremendous start. And, yes, I will attempt here to blame it on my pedometer. It's 8:28pm, and I have so far only logged 6482 steps. So here's my question. I walked at least a mile on the treadmill. I think there are 5280 feet in a mile, correct? I only advanced about 1500 steps after my trek on the treadmill. Am I stepping too large or what? Or is my reasoning just completely off? Anyone? (And, yes, don't worry...I will be sourcing my children OUT for upper level mathematics.)

Speaking of my children, they have taken great pleasure in making fun of me today...as I walked laps around the edge of the pool, as I walked in place during dinner. Anyway, I do what I have to, and I look forward to logging what steps I can conjure up later on tonight and comparing my walking day to that of my "team"mates. Hopefully, they all had a lazy day.

If you need me, I'm putting the kids to bed so I can enjoy the rest of my evening walk aimlessly around trying to rack up steps.

Annual Non-Resolutions

In the Blog World, I stalk follow DeeDee over at Fiddledeedee. She makes me laugh. Everyday. And I need lots of laughter to stay healthy. Speaking of healthy (did you like that segue?), today DeeDee is encouraging her readers to offer their insights about health and weight loss. Because I'm so wise in this area, I thought I would share what is going on in our family. I've always been one to set New Year's Resolutions. Because I'm a big fan of new beginnings. However, in so doing...altogether now: I'm just setting myself up for failure.

So this year I've merely mentioned in casual conversation that as a Goal for 2009, I want our family to get healthier. I haven't made any lists about how to achieve this goal. And I haven't done anything drastic like empty my pantry into the trash. I also haven't outlawed all sweets. I've done all of these things before, and about 4 days into it, I end up making a late-night, 50 mile round-trip run to my favorite Italian restaurant for a giant piece of their 7-layer chocolate mousse cake. It's never pretty (the situation, not the cake--which is positively, fabulously, divinely pretty).

Now while I haven't made any actual lists, I do have a few ideas in my head. I'm taking this getting healthy thing in baby steps. There are just a few changes we've made or will make in this house toward healthier living. One is that we are cutting back on refined sugar. As much as possible, I'm replacing the white stuff with alternatives like honey, raw sugar, or Sucanat. Secondly, we're trying to cook with as many of the 10 power foods from the Sonoma Diet as possible. Those 10 foods are broccoli, tomatoes, grapes, blueberries, strawberries, almonds, extra virgin olive oil, whole wheat, spinach, and bell peppers. All foods I like. That's why I like the Sonoma Diet. Some diets want you to start the day with a Mango-Celery-Tofu shake, and I'm just not about that at all.

The biggest change we're making in this family is that we are taking one more giant leap toward becoming Homeschoolers of Stereotype (I think the only step left is to add some long skirts to my closet) (no offense): I'm going to start milling my own wheat for bread and other baking. I know...if you are personally acquainted with me, you can probably pull a few choice words from your hat that I've had to say about this in the past. But I've had a change of heart, plus when we stayed with our friends in Missouri, she made fresh bread for us, and it was really good. And easy. At least she made it look easy. So...I now have 90 pounds of wheat berries in 2 big buckets in my pantry. And I have a mill and mixer on the way. I already have a Kitchen Aid, but this mixer is all-powerful; this baby will mix enough dough for 5-7 loaves at a time.

I suppose I should address the topic of exercise as well. Although I wish to forget that it is an important component to a healthier me. I actually have been pretty consistent with hopping on the treadmill for my 30 minutes. Not everyday, though, if my schedule doesn't allow.

So those are our baby steps. We may add some more things (or take things out, whatever the case may be) as new reform becomes habit. Most importantly, I'm not beating myself up when I miss a day of exercise or sneak in a piece of leftover Almond Roca. Not that I'm confessing here or anything. And just as a reminder of all that's good and sweet, my two favorite kitchen books, ironically, stand side-by-side on my counter (ignore the bottle of brandy propping up the books; let's just say it goes well with the power foods):

Non-Resolutions

I refuse to set myself up for failure, so I don't set new year's resolutions. After all, we ALL know those are just made to be broken, right? I do, however, like new beginnings and therefore love to see a new year roll in. The new year gives me sort of a starting point from which can spring my new beginnings. 2008 is to be my new beginning, my non-resolution, of getting healthy and back in shape. With all of the eating on the cruise and at various holiday tables, I'm pushing right on past my pre-baby weight again, so it's time. Plus, sometimes I feel like I'm 85--my neck hurts, my back hurts, I have tennis elbow (and not from playing tennis, mind you!) and can barely use my right arm. Just this morning I had a fight with a jar, a battle which my husband had to end up winning for me. For cryin' out loud--I'm still 2 months shy of mid-thirties!!

So for days I've been saying I'm going to start getting up early to work out. I used to work out in the evenings, but evenings have so little time in them, plus the energy of exercise keeps me from sleeping, and falling asleep is already a big enough struggle without contributing to the problem. I could tell my better half was skeptical about my waking up before the sun to go do something I don't particularly care to do. So it probably was my spiteful "I told you so" attitude that kicked my butt out of bed this morning. That and inspiration from a fellow blogger.

I dragged myself into our little "gym", a converted sitting room off of our room. In an attempt to keep from waking my better half, I shuffled along in the dark, feeling around for the TV remote...which I, of course, dropped. I turned on the treadmill which frantically beeped. After I got going, I dropped--and almost broke--his I-Pod. So much for being quiet. At least he was polite enough to pretend to stay asleep. And I had a really good workout...and feel great for it. So I'll be up for another workout tomorrow in the dark, and next week when my better half starts traveling again, I can make all the ruckus I want!

So it's a new beginning for me. My non-resolution not set in stone. Although I suppose I'm putting this all in writing to somehow be held accountable. You know as well as I, however, that I'd never tell if I failed, right?!