We've turned our lives upside down...

Almost six years ago, Superman and I left Southern California in an effort to transform our lives.  Looking back over the past five and a half years, I'd say we've done just that. 

With this journey has come quite a few surprises, though.  Five years ago, I committed to learn to cook from scratch.  I through (oops!) threw myself into it.  I got good enough that I could purge the vast majority of processed foods from our diet.  I actually became quite good at home-made bread, all kinds of baked goods, and could hold my own planning dinners around the vegetables from our own garden.  Sounds good, right? 

Well, it wasn't.  Despite purging the processed foods, using whole grains, and serving my family home-made meals rich in vegetables, we were struggling to maintain healthy weights.  Our energy was erratic.  Our sleep wasn't restorative.  Frankly, we weren't thriving the way I, as the mother, wanted us to.   But I was out of options...I didn't know where to turn next.  So, I did what ever self-respecting blogger does...I searched the blogosphere for help.


I started reading more and more about food...First, I found Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon introduced me to a new way of looking at food and health, but I wasn't a devotee...it didn't quite feel right.  Don't get me wrong, I learned a lot that I still apply, but it just didn't fit.  I was using "good fats" and I was trying to make sure we had clean food whenever I could.  Nothing really changed.  We were still bordering on chubby.  We joined Gold's Gym and kept at it.  Nothing really changed.  I didn't want to raise chubby children...I felt like I was failing.

I kept reading.  Eventually, I came across Mark's Daily Apple...a blog by Mark Sisson, the author of the Primal Blueprint.   I was so confused.  Primal living?   What was primal living?  Could this really be the answer I was looking for?  I kept reading and found myself even more perplexed.  The Paleo Solution:  The Original Human Diet?  Going paleo?  What had I stumbled upon?  I kept reading...

That was in February and since then, we've turned our lives upside down.  We've given up all grains...all of them.  Even the kids have jumped on board.  So, all those recipes I spent these past five years learning?  I can't use them.  Whole grain vs. all-purpose? Irrelevant.  Corn, Quinoa, Rye, Barley, Oats?  None.   Fusilli or spaghetti?  No, thanks.  Dairy is pretty much gone, but we still have cheese.

So, what do we eat?  Meat, Eggs, Fat (Coconut Oil, Ghee, Avocados), Vegetables and Fruit.  In February, we bought a Blendtec blender...we have a lot of smoothies...  We eat a lot of stuff that we've been told would make us fat and yet, we're not pushing chubby anymore.  In fact, I'm thinner than I've been in forever.  Buttercup is no longer complaining about her 12-year old body, and Valiant is quite trim.  My skin has cleared up.  My hair looks better.  Oh, and I'm sleeping really well.  (Hey, a good night's sleep is priceless!)

My results seemed almost miraculous...too easy to be true.  No counting calories, no crazy workouts (in fact, we barely went to the gym until three weeks ago, but that is another post), no weird food combinations.  We just gave up all grains and upped our protein intake and the weight came off.

I was so jazzed, I told my friends.  Two of them decided that they'd give it a try.  I like to think my results were visible, but I know my enthusiasm and energy was persuasive.   One friend has lost seven pounds in roughly a month (with no exercise) and another friend has lost four pounds in her first week.

All of this sounded so crazy to me, I didn't even know how to blog about it.  It seemed too much like a trick, like magic.  it is not...it is just a new/old way of looking at the way we fuel our bodies.   It might not be right for you, but I'm convinced that for my family, this is the answer we've been looking for.  The war I've been waging with my body is over, and it won.  I'm giving it the fuel it wants and it is rewarding me by giving me the shape I want...at 47!  35 years of body war over in three months.

Now we'll be sharing new kinds of recipes...sharing the successes and failures...especially sharing what works with kids, too.  We're looking at food in a whole new way...definitely turning our lives upside down.  I hope you'll come along for the ride.

You Are What You Eat? Uh-oh!

When Valiant had his wisdom teeth extracted, we were pretty much housebound for the first few days. We used that time to catch up on some of the documentaries we'd been wanting to watch. Two I thought I'd share with you were Food, Inc. and SuperSize Me. They were both quite good and both available via streaming from Netflix. (You can also get them sent to you via DVD.)
Food, Inc. is basically a movie synopsis of The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan and Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. It was a fabulous overview of where our food comes from, how the animals that provide our food are cared for, and what is going into our "processed" foods. At ages 10 and 13, both of my children found the movie quite compelling and thought provoking. Since I've been working towards improving our diets and sourcing our food locally, this movie helped the kids understand my decisions. I highly recommend watching this movie if you have any curiosity about the food industry.

SuperSize Me is pretty well known, but I'd resisted watching it because I'd heard that it specially picked McDonald's to the exclusion of other fast food restaurants and I didn't like that concept. Morgan Spurlock did feature McDonald's in his month-long experiment, but only because it is the most ubiquitous of the fast food chains, not because it is unique in the industry. This movie takes a hard look at just how much processed food has become part of our daily lives and just how much of it our children are eating. Rather than condemning one particular fast food chain, Mr. Spurlock really wants us to take a long, hard look at how much processed food has entered our diets and what it is doing to our overall health. You can watch SuperSize Me for free at hulu.com.

After watching both these movies, I can honestly say that if you'd like a better understanding of the nation's food industry, you won't regret watching them.

Happy New Year!

I would love to show you pictures from our New Year's Eve, but to protect the reputations of the participants (all under 18!), we've decided to forgo them for this post.

We don't go out New Year's Eve...I just know I would never forgive myself if something happened on what-seems-to-be-the-most-drunk-drivers-on-the-road day of the year, so we stay in. To make it festive, we let each of the family members pick something they want to eat and we buy enough to share with everyone. Some years, we end up with a truly awesome buffet and some years, like this one, we end up with a very strange combination of foods and drinks that only a child would love. After that, there are few rules...want to watch television? play video games? watch movies? play board games? stay up all night? okay. Have at it.

The menu this New Year's Eve? Well, Superman, Charming, and I went out to dinner to a local Mexican restaurant, while Buttercup and Valiant discovered the joys of Webkinz (grrr....). Once we were home, the menu came together like this: Valiant picked Spicy Hot Wings (the large bag from Costco), Buttercup picked Kirkland Cranberry Juice Cocktail ("It has no high fructose cornsyrup, Mom!"), Charming forgot to pick, Superman made cinnamon rolls again, and I picked tortilla chips with Spinach, Artichoke, Parmesan dip (again, from Costco). This year I even okayed a sleepover involving siblings who are friends of Buttercup and Valiant and watched their littlest brother until 1:00 a.m., so Mom and Dad could attend a church function. They added pretzels and Barq's root beer to the mix. Doesn't that sound terrible? Anyway, I was so full from going out to eat that I never had anything. The hot wings, the cranberry juice, and the cinnamon rolls seemed to go on forever, and the pretzels and the root beer came out late into the evening.

Basically, it is a night of complete and total chaos and the kids love it. The girls managed to stay awake longer than their older brothers, so crowing rights for the year have been established, but even the girls caved at about 6:00 a.m. As for Superman and me? We hit the sack after our littlest friend headed home with Mom and Dad. After all, those kids were going to want someone to cook breakfast!

Hope your night and morning were just as fun! Wishing all of you the very best in 2009!