Starting with the littlest man:
This one is my non-eater. I started the Whole30 saying that he was going to either eat, or starve. And he didn't really do either, well at least not the way I would have like. I was hoping that a new found love of vegetables would spring forth in this child. That did not happen. There were still lots of nights where he and I were left at the table (while big brother and dad were doing the dishes) both stubbornly refusing to budge about trying certain foods.
My rule about veggies ended up being that he (or anyone else) had to try a bite of everything I put on the plate, and then you had to eat ALL of one vegetable. He could always also add additional veggies if he wanted to. This often led to the one veggie that he actually ate being the carrots or spinach with Italian dressing that he added to his plate.
I also modified the Whole30 rules a bit on snacking throughout the month. I believe that kids need snacks. I read an article about how children in France go six hours between meals and are fine; my boys would think that I was torturing them. I basically gave them a snack when they asked for it, but didn't offer any snacks. Since all of our snacks were Whole30 approved they weren't quite as exciting as Annie's bunnies or something like that. If I didn't really think they were hungry, or if it was soon to when we had just eaten I would offer a boiled egg and fresh veggies. If they ate it, I knew they were actually pretty hungry, and if not, I knew they were just bored.
I had also hoped that this would 100% magically cure any and all hyperactivity and concentration issues. And while it did not do that, his focus has been dramatically improved. As we reintroduce food groups I feel like I will have a good base line for seeing what effects him in this area.
The littlest man has eczema. But his is nothing like his older brother's. It comes and goes and sometimes varies in how bad it is. As of right now he is eczema free, which is great, but I don't think this is the first time this has happened. BUT something else happened that I had not even thought of as a possible positive side effect of Whole30. He has had cradle's cap since he was a baby. Since his hair is long it doesn't really matter, but it has always been something he has dealt with. His pediatrician actually said that children who have it this long almost ALWAYS develop psoriasis of the scalp, sometimes as early as the teen years. Sorry for the gross factor coming up... About two weeks I was scrubbing his head and I noticed that he had lots of flakes that were falling off, but clean scalp underneath. For two weeks his head has been pristine. It is perfect.
He has tried so many new foods, found some new favorites, and seems the least opposed to remaining on a modified paleo diet. The only thing he has requested is Texas de Brazil for his birthday. What can I say, kid has expensive taste.
On to my Older Little Man:
Holy cow, this kid has rocked my world. He is usually a good eater, but he loves his junk food. Giving up junk hasn't been easy, but he seems to be dealing with a much healthier diet for the foreseeable future quite well.
The Whole30 has also been great to him! About a week ago I had a bunch of coconut oil on my hands and didn't just want to rinse it off. I told him to get over here so I could put it on his eczema. He started checking his usual spots, backs of the legs, arms, trunk, he checked EVERYWHERE and there was not one patch of it on his body. I don't think he has been completely eczema free since he was a babe. Good news, Whole30 worked. Bad news, it was something we were eating. I know he has sensitivities to corn and soy, so I am hoping that it is just that. And he is really hoping that it isn't dairy. :)
Also, it breaks my heart to say this but in the last year or so my sweet boy has become sensitive about his weight. While my littlest man has the most definable ribs ever, Ez is bigger than some of his friends. I was the fat kid growing up, I know what it's like to feel different. And while he was still within the normal range for children his age, he didn't look like he wanted to look. I have never suggested dieting to him, and I believe children don't need to be taught to diet but need to be taught to fill their plates and bodies with healthy wholesome food. But he did lose TEN POUNDS this month. He was thrilled, his face has thinned out and his favorite pair of orange shorts from last summer fit him. He is thrilled and has mentioned to me several times that he feels more like playing outside than watching television. That my fellow parents is a victory!
Now to the handsome husband:
He has never completed a month long anything when it comes to food. I can't believe how well he did. He is an emotional eater, and a late night snacker. Both of which were symptoms of a hormonal imbalance according to It Starts with Food. He has cut out his late night snacks and has been making a great effort to think before he eats. He has also went from eating only iceberg lettuce, corn, and peas as his vegetables (and two of the three aren't even vegetables) to eating every single vegetable I put on his plate. A few of them he appeared to muscle through but he has eaten all of them. We have been fighting about vegetables for ten years. He even said, I feel like I could go a mission trip now and just know that I could eat whatever, that I wouldn't starve. Music to my ears.
He has a few health related concerns that we wanted to see if the Whole30 might address. One of those is hives. He breaks out in hives pretty regularly. At this point, we think it is one of our dogs (we have one short hair dog and two yorkies who are hypoallergenic) but he went from breaking out every day to maybe once a week.
He also produces an ungodly amount of snot, this could be related to the allergy but since the snot was here before the dog, I am going to blame it on something else. Mostly likely something we cut out during Whole30 because he has had one tenth the amount he did before.
The other thing I noticed in him was his energy. It used to not be uncommon for him to have to take an energy pill to make it through the day. Not anymore! Also, and this one was great for me, he is waking up easier. He has always been a snoozer, and unless he has to get up for work is impossible to wake up. On his days off I would often pop my head in the room 15 times in an hour before he would finally roll groggily out of bed. It was more common for him to miss breakfast than it was for him to be at the table with us. Now, I can pop my head in one time and say breakfast is in five minutes, and amazingly, in five minutes he is at the table.This handsome man also lost a whopping EIGHTEEN pounds. His heart was set on fifteen pounds and he crushed it. He also has gone down two pant sizes. He did great, I am so proud of him.
And last but not least: Me
I know that I still have a LONG way to go in my journey to better health, and in my relationship with food, but I feel like I know what my body can do with the right fuel now.
The biggest and best change I have noticed is my energy, especially in the mornings. I would drag in the mornings, sometimes for a few hours. On weekends I would sleep as late as I could, and I would snooze as long as I could. I have been feeling awake and refreshed in the mornings. That is such a welcome change from foggy and hungover (even though I didn't drink I always felt so blah in the mornings). I have also felt like I could make it through the day without any issues. Often times before I would be exhausted by three or four in the afternoon, and not have any energy in the evenings. I feel like I have done so much more this month because I haven't wanted to just sit on the couch and veg out. At this point I can't imagine any food tasting good enough to going back to feeling like that on a daily basis. I am always impressed with people's stories when they try some new shake or something like that and have tons of energy, but honestly, I don't want to drink shakes or replace meals with bars or take 17 pills a day. The change I felt in just 30 with just changing my eating habits has been great.
Also, my asthma has been greatly improved this month. I have used my inhaler three, maybe four times this month, usually it was three or four times a week, unless it was really bad, then it was several times a day. I thought initially that maybe the allergens were down and the air quality was better this month but then I did a little research using myself as the guinea pig. I went to go visit my brother because he was home from college. He lives with my aunts, and in their home they have five dogs and two cats. Plus they live next to goats and horses. (They live out in the country). I am allergic to anything with a heartbeat except humans basically. I have gotten used to our dogs but other peoples dogs are bad and cats are REALLY bad. Usually before going over there I take an extra dose of my preventative asthma medication, TWO Zyrtec, and use my allergy reducing essential oils. And even then I usually have a hard time. Actually usually I get very sleepy over there because I just can breathe. This time I did not take ANYTHING! We were there for almost three hours. I did have allergies by the time we left, my nose was itching and my eyes were watering a bit, but I could breath, I wasn't exhausted, and I felt like I had been there five minutes, not three hours. And all of that was with no medications or essential oils. I think that in the future I will just use the essential oils and I shouldn't have any issues at all.
Now, it is no secret that I am trying to lose weight. I decided at the beginning of the summer that it was time to lose weight. I turned 30 this year, which was hard. Mainly because I didn't want to spend my 30s like I had spent my 20s. Fat, frustrated with my body, unhappy with the way I looked and feeling like I couldn't be the wife and mother I wanted to be because of the extra weight. So in the last 30 days not only have I been eating fabulous, satisfying, healthy food, I have also been losing weight. I lost 14.4 pounds on the Whole30. That makes my total weight loss for the year 54.6 pounds. I am thankful for that. I am thankful for the work the Lord is doing in my mind and body. I am thankful that I am beginning a healthy relationship with food, and hey, I will celebrate every pound I lose, especially 14 of them!(And I happen to be only 4.4 pounds away from a very BIG milestone!)
But that is not my most exciting accomplishment. I made some questionable choices in my younger days, but at one point in my life I have quit smoking cigarettes, quit drinking alcohol (when I drank way more than I should of), and quit a few other things I should have not been doing in the first place. But I have struggled for YEARS with quitting diet soda. I have been trying to quit, asking friends to pray for me as I try to quit again, I have struggled with feeling like I just couldn't make it without a diet soda. It sounds so trivial and stupid as I write this but it was really struggle for me. I am drinking sparkling water but I haven't had a diet soda in 32 days. And I never plan on having one again. I have decided that if I am ever in a situation where I decide to drink a soft drink, it will not be diet, and it will not be often. Breaking that addiction alone has made the Whole30 SO worth it in my book but seeing all the amazing things that happened in family means the world to me!
I would love to help you get started, share any Whole30 ideas I have, or talk to you about your Whole30 journey!
No comments :
Post a Comment