Tori:?? Mom I don’t think my pillow pet is doin’ too good.

Me:?? How come?

Tori:?? Look at her eyes.

I agree with my daughter.?? I think the ole girl looks to be on her last legs.

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Tori has gotten very chatty on the phone lately and begins most every sentence with “Even” or “And even”.?? Jim and I love to hear her chatter.

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Ty:?? Mom you are the greatest person in the world.?? Like the way you make my breakfast and my food and my stuff…and then kissed me on the nose.”

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Cracks me up to see Tori carrying Troy through the house with his feet nearly dragging the floor peering at me helplessly.?? The other day I observed this while she was cooing to him “It’s okay baby.?? I am right here.”?? Don’t think he was particularly soothed.

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Jim was giving me a foot massage the other night and I was moaning and groaning (my feet are really hurting right now).?? Tori cannot rest comfortably when she thinks I am in pain (and fights agitation with her Dad for putting me through it).?? Naturally, I explain it to her but she doesn’t care.?? He is causing me pain.?? That is it.?? Anyhow, the other night she pushed the ottoman up by my head so she could sit right next to my face and watch me.?? She says “I think I know what is going to help you.?? A big glass of cold water.”?? Next thing I know, the little nurse is putting a straw in my mouth and telling me to drink.?? Every time I made a peep, she had that straw in my mouth.?? As adorable as it was, I did my best to cowgirl up because it obviously causes her stress if she thinks I am hurt (and worrying my daughter does not sit well with me).?? Such a tender little heart my girl has.?? I told her she was going to make a wonderful mommy someday.?? She said “I know”.

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Troy loves to climb inside (and on top of) everything.?? The other day when I was getting ready in the bathroom, he climbed into my lower bathroom drawer.

Me:?? Hey!?? What are you doing??? Don’t get in there.?? (As he was on his way)

Tori:?? Aaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnndddd…..he did.?? You goose.

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Tori is FINALLY playing with the (rather expensive) doll I bought her for Christmas when she was a baby.?? I expected her to play with dolls before the age of 4 but she really didn’t.?? Now she loves “Katy Perry” though.

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And my favorite this week…..

Tori:?? I know a girl named Sissy.

I launch into this explanation about what Sissy means and how that probably isn’t her name and how my brothers call me Sissy thus “Aunt Sissy” to their children.

Tori:?? Well a girl in my gymnastics class IS named Sissy.

Me:?? Ah ha!?? That little girl has a twin brother in class and I bet he is just calling her that because that is his sister!

Tori:?? Well God named her that and He said it’s good!

Well what on earth could I say to that??? She is already learning to play the “God card”.?? Great.???? Her Uncle Daniel does that to me all the time (LOL).?? Where does she come up with this stuff?

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Low Glycemic Index Diet Update

In case you’re curious…

We are on day 10 now and going strong.?? Well, I was going strong until I ate 4 pieces of Russell?? Stover sugar free candy yesterday and that made me sicker than a dog!?? Why make diet candy that can be used as a laxative??? Really??? I thought I would be okay with it because the package says they use Splenda but there must be maltitol as well and I didn’t check the ingredients I guess.?????? I should have known better.?? Both Brooke and I have made ourselves terribly sick over indulging on “diet” candy.?????? So unfair.?? (And for the record, 4 small pieces doesn’t seem like a binge to me but my body disagreed).

Minus that unfortunate incident, I have been doing really well with it.?????? I had an epiphany about it this week that has helped to get me through the changes pretty seamlessly.???? One of the biggest roadblocks for me to “healthy” eating is that I was raised in a culture that associates food to good living.?? It’s used in a celebratory kind of way.?? (Actually – we are mood group eaters and there really isn’t a reason under the sun that good food won’t soothe).???? Additionally, both my grandmothers were from the South (basically).?? Grammy hailed from Oklahoma and Grandma from Virginia.???? Show me the butter!?? And the flour, the cream of everything, the cheese, the sugar…and yes the deep fried okra, collard greens, corn bread, and beans in vinegar too.

I am a proud member of the “Cook from the South” club.?? Can’t deny it.?? Don’t even want to.?? I believe in it.?? As Paula Dean would say “Put some SOUTH in my MOUTH”.?? (Rock on Ms. Paula!)

My fear is that by cutting wheat and sugar, that I will diminish the quality of my life.?? This may seem stupid to some, but I mean this very sincerely.?? Ask my Grandmother, my Mother, and both Aunts and I am sure they will echo what I just said.???? We live to eat.?? We dream about recipes.?? We think about dishes.?? We delight in cooking (sans Aunt Beck on that one).???? Cooking meals for our family is a gift we offer.?? A gift we LOVE to offer.?? Food is a strong chord that binds.?? When I was growing up, our family of seven spent a good hour plus on dinner at the table every night.?? We often had guests that would (conveniently) show up at mealtime.?? It wasn’t just a meal.?? It was a gathering.???? Relationships formed, hearts shared, wounds healed, much laughter, joy shared, life lived…all this at the family table.???? So do I have a warm and fuzzy association to meal time??? Oh yes.?? It’s more than food.?? It always has been. Most of the most memorable conversations I have ever had happened at a family meal.

I had to be feeling pretty bad to consider such a big change.

I was trying to change my thinking to “Eat to Live”.?? Guess what though??? I can’t and I don’t have to.

“CRISIS JUMP STARTS A DEAD IMAGINATION.”

Would you believe I am enjoying the heck out of my food??? I mean REALLY enjoying it!?? I am enjoying it more than I have in months and it has shocked me.?? I have analyzed this odd phenomena and I have a few?? theories.

1.?? I had been stuck in the rut of familiar meals.
2.?? Southerners eat a lot of comfort meals.
3.?? Comfort meals seem to go hand in hand with eating in front of the TV.?? Don’t ask me why.?????? This is a strange one to me.?? It isn’t about the prep time or the energy I put into it.?? If I cook a high carb meal, I am much more likely to eat it while watching TV.
4.?? Comfort meals don’t satisfy the body for long.
5.?? Comfort meals tend to be eaten in large and double portions.
6.?? Comfort meals have a lot of ingredients that are added more for texture and substance than for taste.?? As a result, the bulk of what was eaten was minimally flavorful.

I needed a good plan to start this endeavor so I sat down and came up with a list of 88 meals that I could adapt to gluten/sugar free.?? Some were familiar recipes that I thought were easily adaptable (without substituting ANY gluten products with high glycemix index products by the way).???? Some were new recipes that I want to try.???? Feeling inspired makes a big difference.

I also bought fresh spices and more herbs and I endeavor to make sure my meal is flavorful.

I will admit, breakfast is hard for me.?? Eggs or a smoothie every day isn’t my all time favorite and some mornings I want neither but I can get through that.?? Eventually I will find my favorite smoothie and stick with that.?? I don’t like a lot of sweetness in the morning and the fruits really sweeten it up more than I would prefer.?? I want to try just cocoa powder, greek yogurt, coconut milk, and splenda and get that combination right.?? Simple is better for me for breakfast.

Dinners though??? Now that meal I have enjoyed most every night.?? Ironically, by cutting out the wheat, I feel like I am TASTING my meal more and everything just honest to goodness tastes better to me.?? Wild isn’t it??? Sure didn’t see that coming but oh am I grateful.???? That being said, I am not nearly so stressed about keeping this up.?? I have not been tempted by carbs either.?? The only thing I am battling is my Coke Zero addiction.?? I want that really bad.?? I could try Zevia (which uses Stevia and not the other more harmful chemical and sugar substitutes) but I don’t want to exchange one addiction for another so I am trying to just fight the battle out.?? My headaches went away by day five and I do wonder if that was associated to giving up the Coke Zero.

I haven’t seen improvement in my feet or back yet but I am still hoping to see that.?? So far my ulcer/reflux has been good though (and that includes eating avocados which I normally can’t tolerate and I LOVE them).???? I am not retaining as much water and my eyes seem to be doing better than they were.?? My knee is also getting MUCH better.???? I have been waking up with more energy and sleeping pretty deeply.?? At night, I am falling asleep sitting up by 10:30 and I consider that a good thing.?? I would far rather have an easy time falling asleep and then wake up ready to go.?? I have not battled fatigue during the day.?? I don’t think I have taken a nap at all in 10 days.?? Not that I usually do, but for the last several months I was fighting the need for one most every day and some days succumbing to a one hour nap when the baby slept.?? Jim has been feeling really good to with no headaches (and IT HAS BEEN RAINING!).

Thought I would share just a couple of meals I enjoyed this week…

I love Chipoltle’s barbacoa so I made barbacoa and then mixed it with refried beans, a little cheese, a small bit of sour cream, and cilantro.?? Loved that!?? Next time I will use Greek plain yogurt instead of sour cream because it tastes SO similar and has more protein.?? I also discovered a love for Mexicali Rose Dehydrated Refried Beans.???? They were so much better than canned refried beans and very easy to make.?? The kids absolutely loved them too.?? I made them bean and cheese cups, as a side, and that went over really well.???? The recipe I have for barbacoa called for cloves and I found that an amazing addition but Jim HATED the clove addition so I’ll have to nix the cloves next time.?? I was bummed.

Another day I made fajitas in a bowl.?? I bought organic chicken breasts and cut them into fajita strips.?? Browned them and added several colors of peppers and little pearl onions.???? I made my mom’s fresh salsa (which is so good) and added that with cheese, sour cream, avocados, and lime.?? Ate it straight out of the bowl instead of in a tortilla.???? Very very good.

This weekend I made BLTs.???? Butterflied some chicken, seasoned and browned it.?? Laid it on a bed of lettuce and layered bacon, slice of sharp cheddar, avocado, and dash of home made ranch dressing.?? Wrapped it in the lettuce and ate.?? Loved it.?? So flavorful.?? I preferred it this way using the chicken as bread.

I am also adding fruits and vegetables to most every meal as well.?? I set cut strawberries out or peaches, pears, apples, grapes, etc.?? The kids gobble them up.?? I bought a ton of fruit this week and we are going right through it.

I made a gluten/sugar free apple pie this week using almond flour (which is low glycemic) and Jim and I both really enjoyed that.?? Tonight I am going to make hamburgers on that cloud bread I told you about.

So yes, this is a pretty high fat diet but it’s all (fairly) natural fats.?? We aren’t eating stuff with a long list of preservatives and chemicals and the body handles the natural fats differently sans the carbs.?? The fat converts to energy (partly why I am incorporating coconut milk and avocados – also because I really love both luckily).???? If my body starts resenting it, I’ll let you know.?? From my past experience though, that is unlikely.?? I can eat these foods with out stomach issues IF they are not combined with carbs.?? For some reason, the combination makes them intolerable.?? And by the way, I am trying to buy all the pork products nitrate free and uncured.

I have resisted the temptation to weigh and I am grateful.?? As I thought this through, there are several reasons for me to avoid the scale.?? First, it can change expectations and the performer in me is way too easily frustrated by that element.?? Second, it keeps me focused on my main goal (which isn’t the weight).?? Third, when I do eventually weigh, I won’t know how much I lost because I won’t know what my starting weight was.?? That is oddly comforting.?? Also removes some of the temptation to weigh because no comparison can be made.???? When I put something on and feel changes, that will be big reward all by itself and much more motivating than my constant arguments with the bathroom scale.

(Rabbit Trail:?? My numbering habit is compulsive.?? I can’t speak (or write) without numbering things.?? Fault my father for teaching me to outline at a young and impressionable age.?? The funny thing is, I have passed on this trait to my daughter.?? She loves to number her thoughts, make lists, “write” in her notebooks, and just this morning asked me for her own file in my file drawer (which I will of course make because I also discovered she has been adding her art work to my files at random.)

Gotta go start that Cloud Bread now.?? Dinner’s a’comin.

P.S.?? Just had an idea…can I pull off an Earl Grey Smoothie??? I love Earl Grey in the morning. Not giving tea and coffee up.?? Add strong Earl Grey with milk or coconut milk maybe a tad bit of plain yogurt for thickening, and stevia??? Or the vanilla stevia that should be in the mail today??? Maybe the orange stevia??? Hmmmmmm……?? OR could I freeze Earl Grey in an ice cube tray and add that to freeze it up??? Now I gotta know.

If you have got ideas…send them on.?? I would love to hear them.?? My mom calls me with ideas for my diet all the time and she is quite the powerful resource.?? Last week she suggested Egg Plant layered Chicken Enchiladas and I gotta experiment with that.?? Going to try Enchiladas in a zucchini boat later this week.