Things have settled down considerably for me since Thursday, thankfully, or we may have thrown in the towel! There is not too much to report, except if I am going to continue to adopt these lifestyle changes, I am going to need to learn how to cook! I made homemade pizza (whole wheat crust, organic pizza sauce, and farm-raised hamburger) on Friday night, thinking it would be a ‘treat’ of sorts for us since everyone has been so good and done so well.
It tasted like cardboard.
The sauce was terrible…flavorless, and it soaked into the crust during baking, so it was almost as if there was no sauce at all. And the crust? About as yummy as you can imagine whole wheat crust to be.
Our challenge officially ends on Friday. After Friday? I’m not sure what we are going to do. My plan is to talk with the kids and with Ed and decide which of these changes that we have made are things we can and should continue. And which of these changes are things we just cannot do.
I am open to cooking with white flour. As mentioned in a previous post, I typically buy unbromated, unbleached, organic white flour, so as far as white flours go, it is probably the best. I would like to resume my weekly chocolate chip cookie tradition, and outside of one or two questionable ingredients in chocolate chips and the white flour, I think this is a great snack for the kids that does not come from a box or a bag.
I also plan to mix white and whole wheat flours to make things like breads and pancakes. Some whole wheat is better than none, I presume, but there are some people in my family who are REALLY struggling with the whole-wheat-everything rule.
I plan to push continued whole-wheat sandwich bread for the kids and myself. I also plan to push fresh fruit as a snack before getting any other type of snack (as in a cookie).
I plan to continue to meal plan and to provide meals that are cooked from scratch with good ingredients, and to make sure there are enough left over for Ed and I to eat a good lunch at work.
I also plan to push NO cold, sugary cereal (unless it is something healthy, like plain cheerios), and no food dye whenever possible. I don’t plan to be militant, as in no birthday cake at a party, etc. But I do not plan to purchase foods or beverages with artificial coloring in them.
All of these plans will go over just fine with the family, but I need to recognize that it will take greater commitment on my part (as well as more work). I think once I find a pattern and a routine, this will become much easier. The most important thing is a meal plan with all ingredients available in the house. This has made things much easier.
We did deviate from “the plan” a few times…Ed bribed the boys to clean the house with a bowl of ice cream as a reward, unbeknownst to me! So, last night, we were all hungry, craving something sweet, so I allowed everyone a small bowl of ice cream with frozen strawberries (from my garden). The ice cream does not meet the criteria of the food plan, but the strawberries did. I thought it was close enough, and a reward to everyone for a job well done this week.
I am still noticing the improvements with the kids’ overall moods and behavior. This alone is a reason to keep going, in my opinion. I am feeling quite sure that Lilly has some type of food allergy, because her skin rash is virtually gone after a week of this. I am suspecting high-fructose corn syrup, so I plan to stay away from that indefinitely.
I can report that I lost 3 lbs over the past week. Other than modifying what I was putting in my mouth, I was not dieting, tracking/journaling my intake, nor was I depriving myself. If I was hungry, I ate. I also have been feeling some dull joint pain in my hips and hands for the past few months, I don’t know what that is from (I am hoping it is not arthritis, but at almost-40, it certainly could be). That joint pain has significantly decreased, although it could be because the weather has warmed up, too…the cold seems to make it worse.
We are officially “off” the challenge after Friday, so I imagine Saturday, the kids are going to go nuts on food. That will be an interesting test to see how they feel after that!
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