SODA

This above anything else is what I struggle with the most. I always have from the time I was in high school. I probably had the most trouble with soda while I was in college. I was never a coffee drinker, so my caffeine intake of choice during college was soda, particularly Coke and Cherry Coke. At one point I was up to a 2 liter bottle a day. And since I can’t stand the taste of diet soda, and believe me I tried, I was unknowingly (at that time anyway) consuming thousands of calories a day, just in soda. All that soda had other side affects as well. I was getting horrendous headaches almost everyday. Of course at that time, I was not connecting the soda drinking with the headaches, and the weight gain. I probably hit my peak, my last semester of school when I was student teaching. Anybody who has student taught, knows that it is exhausting. So to stay awake in the afternoons so that I could get my work done, I was drinking large amounts of soda. Once I got out of college and was working I was able to slow down a little. I was teaching in a preschool class, which is not as demanding of your time in the evenings, so I didn’t feel the need to drink quite so much caffeine.  It was at that point that the headaches went away and I put two and two together. I didn’t start losing weight, but that is for completely different reasons.

It was at this point that I realized that I needed to cut back on my soda drinking. I was living at home again, so it was easier to control how much I drank, mostly because my parents only bought diet soda, and like I said before, I can’t stand diet soda. Since then I have drastically cut back on how much I drink. Even to the point of going for weeks at a time without drinking any. Once I knew that the soda was contributing to my weight gain, I was even more determined to cut it out of my diet. And every time the soda wins. It is almost like a drug at this point. I can go for a few weeks, even up to a month without it, and then I have a hard day and that is what I crave at the end of the day.

At one point I really did think it was the caffeine that I was craving. So I tried drinking tea instead. I have been told that tea has more caffeine than soda anyway. Guess what, it didn’t work, I still craved the soda. I think it is the combination of the sugar and the caffeine. It is something that I still struggle with every day. Some days and weeks are better than others, and I continue to work on it everyday. I am much better now at choosing water or something else that isn’t soda when we are out to eat. I don’t buy any soda, so it isn’t in the house, which often is half the battle.

I will continue to work on it, because I do believe that one day, this will be one habit that I no longer have to worry about breaking.

You are probably now asking, why was last week a rough week? It is the same answer it usually is, school. I am so glad that we have chosen to home school starting next year. In the meantime though we have to get through this year. If you didn’t already know, Alex is a very active little boy. He does have some trouble sitting still and sharing with other kids, nothing that really has me concerned though. School is a different matter. He is in the oldest class in his preschool this year, the 4 year old class. Well I thought that he was doing okay. At least that is what the teachers told me after his first week. Well last week, his second week, I found out that he wasn’t really doing all that well. He wasn’t sitting when he was supposed to and was having a lot of trouble getting along with the other kids. This of course has me stressed out because I know what a sweet, happy, well behaved little boy he can be, and is when he is not in school. All his problems center around school. I know he is not perfect and yes he does have problems at home, but nothing more than any other 4 year old with a younger, sometimes annoying little sister. I was at a loss as what to do with him, since nothing my husband and I were saying to him seemed to be registering.We talked about his behavior all weekend, we took away his dinner out on Friday because of his behavior, nothing seemed to work. Monday he went to school and had an even worse day, and I was completely strung out and frustrated. I hate to sound like the parent who is saying that their child can do no wrong, and is perfect all the time. However, that being said, I do think the school needs to take some ownership here. I believe that a big part of the problem is that he is bored at school. He is way above about half of the class, if not more. Last year when they tested him at the end of the year, he was in the top five in a group of 24. That is both classes in the school that are his age. At home we are working on reading and counting to 70, while at school they are still just introducing the letter and numbers to 10. This is stuff he has been doing for years.

I spent all day yesterday and all last night praying about the situation. I am fully prepared to take him out of school and start homeschooling right away. He is more than capable of handling the kindergarten material. This morning I decided that rather than do my usual prayer about school in the car after I drop them off, I would pray with the kids after we parked the car and before we went in to school. Well guess what, both kids had a much better day today. (Lizzie, who is very strong willed, has been raging an all out war on the teachers, in an attempt to show them who is the boss. In her opinion it should be her) Alex was crying when I picked him up, but that was because he had to use the bathroom and somebody was already in there. I am going to continue praying everyday, I really want both the kids to have a great year. Plus the selfish side of me is enjoying going grocery shopping without the kids, and I love having 2 1/2 hours on Friday to do whatever it is I want to do, no kids attached.

Thanks for listening to me vent.

On a side note, please pray for a little girl from our church. I can’t go into details, but she needs all the prayer she can get.

God Bless

Heather.

Last Week Weight: 260

This Week Weight: 259

Lost This Week: 1 lb.

Total Lost: 13 lb.

I would love to have lost more than a pound, but considering that Women of Faith was this weekend, and I tend to snack a lot during the conference, and considering that I was sick most of the day Saturday and Sunday. I think I did okay. We don’t have anything planned for this weekend, so I am hoping that I can continue all the good work that I accomplish during the week,and have more than a 1 pound loss next week.

Heather

Since I had already changed the way I cook for the family and as an extension how I eat most of the time, I figured it was time to start focusing on getting more active. I really wanted to get back in the pool. I have always loved swimming, ironic since I can’t stand the way I look in a bathing suit. I never knew quite why but I just love to swim, and when I am in shape I can swim for hours on end. When I decided that I wanted to get back in shape that was my first thought, swimming. Well getting in the pool and swimming lap after lap is not nearly as easy at 30 as it was at 15. My first major obstacle was the fact that I didn’t have a pool in which to swim. I started looking at gyms that had indoor pools. I finally found one that wasn’t too expensive and had child care. Another obstacle I didn’t have at 15, the need to find somebody to watch my kids while I swam. Well the kids were there for 2 days when they both got sick. In fact Lizzie got so sick that she ended up with a sinus infection and a uti. So I gave up on the idea of swimming, it just wasn’t working out. I needed to find something else to do.

After Lizzie was better we were doing our weekly shopping at Target when I saw the new WII game, EA Active. Now I have had the WII Fit for about a year and a half now. It is a great idea and I love that it has a built in scale so that I can keep track of my weight right on the WII. I was not a fan of the actual workout program. I never really worked up much of a sweat. None of the exercises ran long enough to really get going, and the one that did let you go for longer than 7 or 8 minutes was a bit of a pain to get to and get set up. I was a little leery about the EA Active at first. I was worried that it would end up being just another WII Fit. At this point however I felt I was out out of options so I went for it. I am actually pretty happy with the program. It gives me a good workout and I can chose from a lot of pre programed workouts anywhere from 15 min. to 45 min.

However I am still not losing weight. Why you ask, because I have been lazy and have had excuse after excuse not to get up in the mornings and work out. I have excuse after excuse for why I don’t eat well, why I still take the kids to Chick-Fil-A more that I should. It is no wonder I am not losing weight, I am not working at it hard enough. I am not trying to become the next big supermodel, and I certainly don’t want to be a size 2. I just want to be happy with me and healthy, and the only way that is going to happen is to get off my but and to stop making excuses.

In an effort to be more open I decided to post how I am doing. I figure if there are people out there who know that I am working on this, then they can help hold me accountable. Even if it is just so that I am aware that people are expecting to see a change in me. When I am the only one who knows why I am getting up at 5 in the morning, then it is much more tempting to stay in bed. If I know that possibly somebody is going to want to know how my walk went that morning than I am much more likely to get out of bed and go walking. Once I am up, half the battle is won. The other area I need to work on is what I eat. When I cook at home I do pretty good. I have had to change the way I cook and shop for the kids and that has carried through to me to a certain extent. The problem come in when we are out of the house. When I take the kids out for lunch I am much more likely to get something that I shouldn’t. I am setting weekly short term goals and a few long term goals to keep me going. I am going to post new weekly goals every Monday and update everybody on my previous weeks progress.

Goals for the week of August 3rd:

1. Work out 5 out of 7 day (walk and EA Active)

2. Only eat out for Friday night dinner, no lunch out. Pack lunch if we are going to be out of the house at lunch     time.

3. Lose at least one pound.

4. Drink at least 4-5 glasses of water a day instead of juice of lemonade.

Long Term Goals

1. Be able to run instead of walk every day by next summer

2. Lose 100 lbs. by next June.

3. Lose 150 lbs. by November 2010

Hopefully by being doing all of this I will begin to see some actual pounds drop. It is looking like we may be going to Hershey Park again with my parents next summer and Disney the following November. I would love to be able to go on vacation and be happy with how I look and feel comfortable instead of big and yucky the whole time.

God Bless

Heather

Week 7 Breakfast:

Meal 1: PB&J Crunchy French toast
Meal 2: Egg & Cheese Waffle Sandwich
Meal 3: Banana Waffles
Meal 4: Pancakes
Meal 5: Blueberry Muffins
Meal 6: Cereal with Fresh Fruit

Week 7 Dinner:

Day 1: Grilled Chicken Breasts, Rice, Green Beans
Day 2: French Dip Sandwiches, Chips, Salad
Day 3: Hamburger Steaks over Noodles, Mixed Vegetables
Day 4: Nachos, Refried Beans, Mexican Corn.
Day 5: Creamed Chicken over Biscuits

I am looking forward to the dinners this week, they are good summer dinners, and as usual I plan on using the outdoor grill a lot. I am also going to try to put the crock-pot outside this week as well. I never really thought the crock-pot put out a lot of heat into the kitchen, until we moved and I started cooking in a kitchen that had no ventilation. The only window in the kitchen doesn’t have a screen in it, so I try not to open that one too much. As a result in the summer, I modify most, if not all my recipes to be cooked outside in the summer, it really helps to keep the whole house cooler, since we have such an open floor plan.

I am almost done my 12 week menu plan for breakfast. I have two more weeks to plan. when that is finished I am thinking about making up a menu plan for lunches as well. I get into such a rut with lunch. We end up eating the same things over and over again. The only reason I haven’t made a meal plan for lunch yet is because of school. When Alex starts kindergarten we have decided to home-school. I would like to make lunches that incorporate the lessons that we are working on that day, and a rotating menu plan doesn’t really work for that. I haven’t decided yet, I may make a rotating plan, that only has 3 or 4 days planned and make the other days meals that coordinate with our lessons. I think the big test is going to be this summer. I am planning on doing some light schooling all summer. I will know more about how the schedule is going to look at the end of the summer.

Have a great week, and as usual if you want a recipe for anything just ask, and I will get it to you.

God Bless

Heather

After I posted my menu plan on Monday it occurred to me that because I used the links this week instead of adding my recipes I didn’t show my substitutions for our diet. I will probably be using the links more often, especially for breakfast so I thought I would write up a post about how I make our diet dairy and soy free.

When I first started cooking this way I looked high and low for easy  recipes that my kids could and would eat. I had a very hard time. Typically when you cook without dairy you use soy as a substitute, mostly in the form of margarine, oils, etc…  When you are cooking without soy you use dairy as a substitute. So where did that leave me. My biggest difficulty was fats. I needed to use something but I found it difficult to substitute a liquid fat for a solid fat. I just didn’t like the way it was turning out. Then I found out a few things.

1. You can use bananas or applesauce measure for measure in place of a solid fat like butter or margarine.
2. Clarified Butter  or Ghee has no Casein (milk solids, what my kids can’t have) and can be used measure for measure in place of butter or margarine.
3. Rice milk can replace milk measure for measure
4. Many items packaged as “Heart Healthy” use canola or olive oil instead of vegetable oil.

These 4 things completely changed the way I cooked. Now for things like muffins and cakes and batter breads, I use a traditional recipe and just substitute unsweetened applesauce in place of the butter or margarine. When I make icing I use the clarified butter. It has made it so much easier to find recipes that the kids will eat without having to go out and buy hard to find and expensive ingredients.

For the few prepackaged items that I buy, things like spaghetti sauce, pancake mix, etc.., when it is packaged as “Heart Healthy” they typically use canola oil instead of vegetable. Vegetable oil almost always contains soybean oil.

There are still a few things that substitutions don’t work for. I have found that bread is one of those things that I needed to find a dairy and soy free recipe for. No matter how many recipes I tried, both with and without the bread machine using substitutions just didn’t work. The recipe that I finally settled on works great and doesn’t use a solid fat, so I can easily substitute canola oil for the vegetable oil that the recipe calls for.

There are also times that I can add something later after dishing up my kids plates. This usually is the case with cheese. When I make eggs for the whole family my husband and I like to have some cheddar cheese on our eggs, but I can’t put it on the kids eggs. In that case I make the eggs first and then after I dish up the kids food I sprinkle on the cheese and let it melt for my husband and I.

That is how I keep our diet dairy and soy free. Any time I post a link that uses dairy or soy in the recipe, now you know how I am able to use that recipe.

Hope everyone has a good week.

Week 4:  Breakfast Meal Plan
Meal 1:  Old-Fashioned Potato Pancakes
Meal 2: Apple Bars
Meal 3: Cinnamon & Honey Apple
Meal 4: Sautéed Cinnamon Apple Crisp
Meal 5: Cinnamon-Raisin Bread
Meal 6: Cereal with Fresh Fruit

Week 4:  Dinner Meal Plan
Day 1: Tacos, Refried Beans, Mexican Corn
Day 2: Hot Dogs, French Fries
Day 3:  Chicken Teriyaki over Rice, Grilled Pineapple Slices
Day 4:  Pancakes, Fresh Fruit
Day 5:  Pizza, Salad

Thanks to my wonderful husband I was able to get my chart up this week. Mondays are always leftover days since I go to the grocery store on Tuesdays. My week, at least for menu planning purposes starts on Tuesday.

As usual if you want any of the recipes, just ask.

Week 3: Breakfast Meal Plan
Meal 1:  Banana Crumb Muffins
Meal 2:  Alphabet Pancakes
Meal 3: Waffles
Meal 4:  Biscuit Breakfast Sandwiches
Meal 5:  Hash Brown Sandwich
Meal 6: Cereal with Fresh Fruit

Week3: Dinner Meal Plan
Day 1: Blt’s, Curly Fries, Apple Slices
Day 2: Sliced Ham, Sweet Potatoes, Corn
Day 3: Hot Ham and Cheese Sandwiches, Chips
Day 4: Grilled Pork Tenderloin, Long Grain and Wild Rice,  Grilled Veggies
Day 5: Chili, Cornbread

Have a great week.

Wow, it is another week. And it is almost April. March flew by for our family. We are enjoying the warmer weather and are out and about more. This week is week 2 in our 12 week plan. A lot of the recipes that I have this week are from various places on the Internet. I am enjoying finding new things for breakfast. For the most part the kids are enjoying the new breakfasts as well. Although I haven’t been able to convince them that oatmeal is good yet. I figure it is a work in progress. I also use the same rules at breakfast that we have at dinner. I cook one meal and if you don’t want to eat it, that is fine, but I am not making anything else until the next meal. One of these days, we will be out of the picky toddler and preschooler age, and they will eventually be good eaters.

I have also switced to an all organic diet. We did this to help with some of Alex’s hyperactivity and innatention behaviors, and I have to say, he has made a complete turn around. He is a different child. We are still dairy and soy free, as well as no raw bananas.

As usual if I didn’t add a recipe that you would like, just leave me a comment and I will get it to you.

Week 2: Breakfast Meal Plan

Meal 1: Amish Baked Oatmeal

1/3-cup butter
2 large eggs
3/4-cup brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1-teaspoon nutmeg or cinnamon
1/4-teaspoon salt
1-cup rice milk
2 tablespoons rice milk
3 cups oatmeal (regular or quick)

Melt butter. Grease 1 1/2 quart baking dish and drop in eggs and beat well.
Add brown sugar, baking powder, vanilla, nutmeg or cinnamon, and salt. Mix well, no lumps. Whisk in ghee and both measures of rice milk, and then add oats. Stir well, and refrigerate overnight. Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 35-45 min, or until set in the middle. Serve hot with warm rice milk poured over.

Meal 2: Breakfast in a Mug

1-tablespoon ghee
1-tablespoon rice milk or water
1-2 eggs
1 dash pepper
1 dash salt
1 slice bacon, cooked (optional)
Shredded cheese (optional)

Place ghee in 12 oz. microwave safe mug or small bowl. Microwave on High 30-45 seconds, or until melted. Add egg (s), rice milk, salt and pepper. Stir or whip with a fork.
Microwave one egg on High 35 to 45 seconds; two eggs 1 1/4 to 1 3/4 minutes, or until eggs begin to set, stirring with fork to break apart after half of the time. Remove eggs when they are still soft and moist. (You may have to play with the time depending on your microwave) Let stand about 2 minutes. While eggs are standing crumble bacon and add to eggs. Eggs will firm up while standing. If desired sprinkle with shredded cheese during standing time.

Meal 3: Apple French Toast Casserole

Apple French Toast Casserole
4 tablespoons butter
3 large apples, peeled and sliced thinly (I use Cortland or Empire)
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons water
1-teaspoon cinnamon
8 slices Italian bread, 1 inch thick
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups rice milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Melt the ghee in a large skillet and add apples. Cook and stir for 5 minutes. Add brown sugar, water, and cinnamon and continue to cook and stir for 10 minutes until apples are tender. Spoon mixture into 13×9 baking dish. Cover apples with bread slices, making sure to cover the entire surface. Trim the bread to fit if you must. Beat eggs until foamy, then beat in rice milk and vanilla. Pour egg mixture over the bread slices. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, remove the dish from the refrigerator and let it stand while oven is preheated to 375 F. Bake uncovered for 35 minutes, or until bread is golden and firm. Let sit 10 minutes before serving. To serve on a platter, run a knife around the edges of the casserole, place platter on top of casserole, and carefully flip. To serve individually, use a spatula to remove serving, place serving plate on top of serving and carefully flip so apple side is up.

Meal 4: Everything Breakfast Bar

4 cups oatmeal
1-tablespoon baking powder
1-teaspoon salt
1-tablespoon cinnamon
2 eggs, beaten
1-cup pumpkin
1-cup rice milk
1-tablespoon maple syrup
1 cup Splenda sugar substitute
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1-tablespoon vanilla
1-cup raisins

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In large bowl combine oatmeal, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Mix in remaining ingredients. Spread in greased 9×13 pan. Bake for 40 minute.

Meal 5: Smoothies
Meal 6: Cereal with Fresh Fruit

Week 2:  Dinner Meal Plan

Day 1: Corn Chowder, Poppy seed Muffins

Corn Chowder
1 10oz package frozen sweet corn
1 potato, peeled and cubed
½ cup diced onion
½ cup water
2 tsp. chicken bouillon granules
Dash salt and pepper
1 ¾ cup rice milk
1 Tbsp. Margarine
2 Tbsp. flour

In a saucepan, combine the corn, potato, onion, water, bouillon and salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat for 15 minutes, until the potato is tender. Stir in 1 ½ cups milk with margarine. Mix the remaining ¼ cup milk with the flour and add to the chowder. Cook and stir until thickened.

Variation: Toss in some diced, cooked chicken or ham during the last few minutes of cooking.

(Serves 4)

Poppy seed Muffins
2 cups flour
¾ cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. poppy seed
2 Eggs
1-cup rice milk with 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
½ cup margarine softened
1 or 2 Tbsp. lemon juice

Combine all ingredients. Spoon the batter into a greased 12-muffin tin. Bake at 400 for 15 to 20 minutes.

(Serves 6-8)

Day 2: BBQ Chicken, Baked Rice Pilaf, Green Beans

BBQ Chicken
1 lb. Chicken Breasts
1 or 2 cups BBQ Sauce

Marinate Chicken in BBQ Sauce for at least 1 hour. Grill chicken until done, basting with additional BBQ Sauce as needed.

Green Beans
1 bag fresh or frozen green beans

Steam Green beans for about 5-10 minutes or until they are tender.

Baked Rice Pilaf
1 ¾ cup water
2 carrots, peeled and shredded
¾ cup white rice
3 Tbsp. parsley
2 Tbsp. margarine
2 Tbsp. chopped onion
1 Celery Stalk, diced
1 Tbsp. chicken bouillon granules

Melt the butter in a saucepan, and briefly sauté the diced onion and celery in it. Then combine sautéed mixture with all other ingredients in a 2-quart baking dish. Cover and bake at 375 for 45 minutes, stirring halfway through cooking time.

(Serves 6)

Day 3: Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, Garden Salad, French bread
Day 4: Chicken Quesadillas, Spanish rice
Day 5: Hamburgers, Baked Beans, Chips

Have a great week.

As most things in this house, the change started with the kids. When Alex turned 1, we started him on whole milk, that is when we noticed that he was still spitting up, a lot. It just didn’t seem right. So I talked with his doctor and put him on soy milk instead of cow milk. It worked wonders. That was the start of our slow gradual change to being a green family. At that time, I still bought and cooked with a lot of pre-packaged food. I was so overwhelmed at the idea of cooking without dairy that I didn’t quite know how to start. On top of everything else we were moving from a town house into a single family home, and I was pregnant. It wasn’t the time to start experimenting with how I managed the house. At least I didn’t think so. I just wasn’t ready.

Then came Lizzie. Lizzie has changed our lives in ways I couldn’t ever begin to imagine. We discovered very quickly that Lizzie was dairy and soy intolerant. Not just dairy like Alex. Not only couldn’t she have dairy or soy, but she became violently sick whenever she had either, especially soy. At about the same time we started noticing some behavior problems in Alex, mostly hyperactivity and attention problems. Nothing big, but it was creating problems at home and at his playgroup. Since I was now cooking dairy and soy free for Lizzie I decided to try it with Alex as well. It worked, but we were still having problems, and I was still overwhelmed. I had no idea how to cook all naturally from scrap.

This is when I began to feel that God was telling me that I needed to make changes in how I managed our house. I started to feel like, we were wasting too much. I felt like God was telling me that there was a better way of doing things, that I didn’t have to be so overwhelmed all the time. All I needed to do was make a few small changes and I would be a much calmer wife and mother.

Our first big change was the diapers. At the time Lizzie was a year old and Alex was three. We were in the process of potty training Alex, but we were not getting very far. That left us with two children in diapers of some sort. That is a lot of diapers, and a lot of money. That in itself did not cause the change, it was Lizzie’s constant diaper rash that brought about the change. When Lizzie was 6 weeks old she contracted a yeast diaper rash, it was our constant companion for the next year. That rash caused many sleepless nights, and tiring days. By the time Lizzie was a year old, I was at the end of my rope. We had tried every medicine and home remedy out there, and nothing worked. That is when I gave in. I decided to try the cloth diapers, and guess what, within 2 days of using the diapers, the rash was gone. Other than the occasional guest appearance when Lizzie is sick, we haven’t seen it since. Along with a happier Lizzie, there were several other side benefits to the new diapers. The cost was a big one, They were expensive at the beginning, because we use pocket diapers, however after 6 months we had made back all our initial costs through savings.  We were now also producing far less garbage.

That was our first big step. After that all the other changes we made were tiny baby steps. I had been doing some research on ADHD and eventually decide to put both the kids on an all organic diet. I started this for Alex, to try to help with his behavior, but it has been beneficial for both the kids. It has been a little harder on my wallet, but I am confident that it will even out in the end. Alex has shown a dramatic improvement in his behavior in all areas of his life. It took some time, and a large learning curve for me. I had to pretty much relearn how to cook, but it has been well worth it.

Now that we have made those two biggest steps, I am slowly making other smaller changes. I have switched to microfiber sponges  and rags in the kitchen instead of disposable sponges and paper towels. I have switched to all natural cleaners as well. I am thinking about switching to cloth napkins when we use up the napkins that we currently have.  In a more personal area, I have even switched to cloth sanitary pads. We have gone down from two large trash cans a week, to less than one. I am also thinking about starting a vegetable garden this spring, and possibly even a compost pile, to help cut down on our trash even more.

All in all, I think all our changes have been for the better. I know the kids are happier and healthier, and so am I. I am not nearly as overwhelmed about cooking for my family, in fact I even enjoy it. I love sitting down at the beginning of the week and planning our menu. I am a much happier, calmer mom, which means happier and calmer children and husband.

I am happy that we have “gone green.” I know we are not nearly as green as we probably should be, we still have two cars, and I drive wherever I need to go. I still use shampoo, and toilet paper, but I am happy with the way things are going. I will continue to make small changes in our lifestyle when I feel that God is telling me too.