Dietary considerations...

So, I'm on a kick again. We've been low-carbing it for awhile now, since around March 1, aside from a few interruptions. It has gone well. I am thinking, though, that a slight shift in thought may be helpful. It would basically entail the same thing that I am already doing, but somehow, I am leaning in this direction. Ultimately, I think our diets need to be largely grain-free (at the very least, gluten free) and sugar-free. The paleo-diet is making a lot of sense to me right now. I am feeling so much better without grain and sugar in my diet right now. My skin is clearer. My moods do not swing to the extent they have when I am eating sugar and grain (carbs) all day. And, when I am eating those things, I am eating all day. I can't seem to eat enough. When I am eating low-carb, those serving size pictures (you know, the ones that show a serving of something circa 1950 and a serving today?) make sense to me. And, guess what? Those folks were eating real food. If you take a look at the science, you will find that consumption of fructose and wheat (white or not) cause, not only a rise in triglicerides, but turn off your body's production of the chemical that tells your brain it's full.

So, my feeling is, we need to cut out as much of the grain and sugar in our diets as possible. It is pretty much inevitable that we will have some. Molly and Liam are currently eating lunch at school, and they have sugar and grain-filled treats served to them on a ridiculously regular basis. What are our alternatives? We've done gluten-free before, and I am afraid that the way we did it quite possibly contributed to its lack of success. The key purpose was to rid Killian of yeast issues. These issues were not visible without testing, for the most part. And, we were eating lots of starchy grains--rice flour, tapioca starch, potato starch, etc.--and lots and lots of sugar. So, no more sugar. There will be treats. My goal is to focus on fruit-sweetened (not fruit juice, but full fruit), occasional small amounts of honey, maple syrup, and stevia. And, we will avoid grains as much as possible, hopefully with some substitutes using almond and coconut flour and occasional small amounts of gluten-free flours. We may include small amounts (not daily) of soaked gluten-free grains and consider sprouted wheat flours on rare occasion.

Currently, we are relying a bit on some Splenda and Nutrasweet, which absolutely are not OK on any sort of regular basis. I am also finding that when I consume these, even in small quantity my weight loss stalls, and I start craving more sweets.

I posted a paleo link here before, but here are a couple of others that I think are really good:

http://www.modernpaleo.com/principles.html

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-101/

Tooth Fairy

The Tooth Fairy visited Molly last night for the first time. She's very excited to share her news with her classmates tomorrow!

Busy Remaking Suburbia!

Check it!

Kitchen

I was surprised to find that I have a fondness for the way this blue glass looks against the green.

Here's my new kitchen. I should add a few "before" pictures, and will, eventually, but, for now, here's the "new" one.

Killian

Killian earned a gold medal at the 6th grade music festival contest on Saturday, and we got an email from his math teacher today who wants him to take pre-algebra next year instead of 7th grade math. :)

Burnin' Down the House

I nearly burnt my house down on Thursday am. No actual fire, but serious smoke from eggs on the boil for over an hour. Kids had a two hour delay, I put eggs on right before they got on the bus, then scooped up my 3 year old and packed recyclables into the van and took them to the dump, went to the grocery. Piddled around because I only needed a few items, and then picked up a carton of eggs and remembered the eggs on the stove. I immediately called my neighbor, who ran over, went in my back door, and couldn't see the kitchen ten feet away. She totally expected flames, but there weren't any (thankfully).

So, we've got nearly every scrap of fabric out of the house at a cleaner, and a team of people cleaning every inch of our house and every item in it. It is insane. We stopped by today(Saturday), and it still smells. We're likely to be here through Monday morning, and things won't be entirely done even then, not to mention every item in the house rearranged. I saw a few cabinets and shelves while we were there today, and we will definitely have plenty to do to bring things back to normal. Not to mention, all of our laundry in boxes with minimally helpful labels on them. The cleaner delivered about nine boxes to our room all marked "misc. laundry," and, miscellaneous it is...One box with a sheet, some underwear, some socks (not necessarily in pairs). Hopefully, the later stuff that wasn't "ASAPed" will be more organized...

Anyway, we are grateful to still have a house, that people are assuring us that whatever has to be done to get rid of the smell will be done, and that we have so much damned stuff to deal with, LOL. This will be the spring clean of a lifetime!!! So maybe I've asked too many times for motivation to get things organized! It's all got to be reorganized when we get back, everything will have been wiped out and washed down, upholstery and carpets cleaned, everything, top to bottom. They will likely even have to take our refrigerator apart and clean out the motor. INSANE!

Paleo Diet

Posting this here as much for my own reference as anything. May be of interest to other low-carbers.