A Non- Biased, Study Based Look at Paleo Eating

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic_diet This was something I stumbled on today and it gave a very balanced look at the paleo diet giving both good and bad, backed by studies of cultures, studies of animals, comparison to other highly looked upon diets such as vegetarian and Mediterranean. It was a great, LONG, well-worth it read. I came away feeling sure that Paleo can be a good sustainable way of eating for me.

Raising a Cavebaby!!

I have been spending the last month working strictly on my diet to get TIGHT control of my sugars this pregnancy. Why didn't I start sooner than a month ago....well that is when morning sickness ended and that is when I finally had the strength to get serious, research and work hard on getting good control. My husband has been doing Crossfit again for a few months now to get his body back into good shape and he mentioned the paleo eating that crossfit promotes. Apparently he had been reading a lot about the nutrition Crossfit promotes via their blog app. He said that it was very healthy and clean eating. I decided to do some hardcore searching and reading. I learned a lot. I added the app to my phone and started getting the updates each day which are encouraging to me. I read a lot about paleo pregnancies and how safe or healthy it was as sometimes you will end up in ketosis on a paleo diet. Everything I researched had plenty of studies to back that it seemed to be not only safe, but beneficial as it keeps insulin levels low which is much safer and healthier for the baby. There are some amazing things here at The Primal Parent, here at One Fit Mom, here at Growing Up Paleo and lastly IVillage Paleo.

I had been eating fairly clean anyways, but more vegetarian with lots of fruits, veggies, fresh grains, legumes and beans. This was working out okay for me until I became pregnant. The game changed almost immediately. My sugars started climbing at a scary rate to the point I almost needed to get on meds. Waking up with 151 as your morning fasting number is NOT good. I thought I was doing all the right things, but when you truly have a blood sugar problem, grains are not your friend. No matter how stone ground that wheat was or how healthy they claim the beans and barely are, my blood sugars said otherwise. They were not healthy for ME. I knew I had to do something drastic and fast. As much as I don't love meat much, I switched full fledged almost immediately to paleo eating and my sugar started coming down fast. If I had been on meds, I woulda been sick. Thankfully I wasn't yet. My fasting sugars are now in the 80s!!!!! Woooo. Midday, post parandials, etc are typically around 90-100. This is such a difference from 200 post parandial. My body loves this food.

Now if you have read my blog any length, you know my immune system is complete and utter crumbly crap, right??? WRONG, I fixed my immune system. I have always joked that I was a sticky fly trap for viruses. I caught everything all winter long, running fevers several times a month between November and April. Not the case this year. Guess how many viruses I have had since November......1 teeny cold! My kids have ran fevers, had sore throats, friends have been puking and I have been enjoying perfect, robust health. I also have been healthy enough to return to working out. I am currently getting into decent enough shape to start modified Crossfit WOD's. Normally, working out is the icing on the cake that kills my immune system the rest of the way off after the sugar and grains attack it first. The proof is in the pudding baby!

So what do I eat? Healthy, clean, primal.....no really, what do I eat? Good food! lobster, shrimp, fish, chicken, turkey, lean ground beef, vegetables galore, fruits in moderation(depending on the type), almonds/almond flour, cashews, walnuts, coconut milk/oil/shreds/flour, lots of amazing recipes to be had with these ingrediants. All you are cutting is beans, legumes, and grains. We aren't adapted for grains for the most part, especially if you are insulin resistant to any degree.  Some of my favorite new recipes come from Primal Palate, Here, and Paleo Mama. Yes I still get some sweets and baked goods and guess what, my blood sugar barely moves a notch from these amazingly better than regular choclate chip cookies. My kids prefer them to the old regular I used to make with stone ground wheat. Another one we love is this banana bread and this carrot cake. As you can see, being primal, some sweets can still be on the menu. Another thing to note is you can still have pasta, spaghetti squash pasta that is. You can also have rice, cauliflower rice hehe, and mashed potatoes, I mean mashed caulflower that tastes just like potatoes! The beautiful part is, they WILL not spike your blood sugar much at all even with a proven insulin issue.

Since eating this way, Nate has lost 10 lbs and counting and I have accidently lost 3 lbs(125 to 122) while pregnant between my last 2 Dr.'s appts. My Dr was extremely supportive of this eating considering my blood sugar issues and told me just to try to eat more so I gain by next time. I eat tons, but this is my body's way of getting to the ideal cavewoman's size I believe!

15 Weeks With Brylee

And........we have some definate bumpage baby!!

Pregnancy Pick Me Up

So, I may only be hitting my second trimester, but I was feeling frumpy. My mom came over and fixed that for me. I feel "oh so pretty," now! A fresh, springy new haircute was definately in order:) Oh and don't mind the bunny ears, that's just proof my kids love me! haha



Deck The Halls with Crazy Kids and Christmas Trees!

 My honey

 Our tree is hiding behind us all

 Jax in front of our tree

 Playing on the big teeter totters

 All the kids with their cousin Joie

 Jaxxon's first candy cane!

 Kenna got to top the tree this year

 Tada! All 7 kiddos:) Next year lil Brylee should be about 7 months old in the christmas tree pics!

 Nate and I

 Ornament time

Jax helpin' mama decorate

We are going to celebrate Advent this year with the Advent Storybook, by Antonie Schneider and using a newly bought Advent Calendar:) There are 24 stories in the book to go along with the advent calendar so each night of December we will read one story at bedtime! We will also be lighting one candle on our Advent wreath each Sunday evening after dinner and reading from Celebrating the Christian Year about the reasoning for the lighting of each candle. With shopping out of the way, we can truly appreciate the season for what it is.

Thanksgiving:0)

 The kids made this edible turkey arrangement:0) I LOVE it, it turned out so cute and everyone helped, down to the 2 yo. It was ta-ta-ta-tasty tasty too :0)

 Pretty eggs

 The tables with everyone eating

 Snow princess sandy!

Thanksgiving turned out so nice. It was wonderful to have Kayla as my kitchen helper this year. She was so eager to get in there and help and it lightened the load quite a bit:) The food turned out amazing and the company was wonderful too. Today is on to deckin the halls for Christmas! Yay, off to get busy working!

Fall Table Cloth for Thanksgiving

 I made some extra table cloths for thanksgiving because we needed more.

I really love the colors, they feel so fall festive, but this should work year round as well.

Introducing Bryleann Renahe

Her nub!(hand arrow is pointing to it) Completely flat. Her potty shot, revealed a hamburger as well. I feel VERY confident in the correctness of the u/s especially since I felt deep down she was a girl right from the start. I told many people this and my mother's instinct was correct.

SHE is super healthy, the NTS showed a negligible risk of anything like Down's Syndrome or any Trisomies. She had her little leggies crossed and we had to wiggle her ladylikeness to get to see the goods! She looks beautiful. She is measuring a half week ahead! I feel so blessed. How lucky am I, 4 and 4, an even score?!!!!

Our Family Holiday Photos 2011

These were all taken 11/11/11 by my bestie. I think she did a great job. I am super happy with them all. Happy Holidays from our family to yours! Xoxoxo

3 Month Bump with Sweetpea 8

 for comparison sake.....2 months

and now, through puking and all, I have still managed to gain some real bumpage in the past month!

My Dad is Making an Effort

 My Dad, sister, brother and I met up today at the park for an afternoon of laughter, feeding ducks and catching up. The cousins got to enjoy each other and my Dad got to work on remembering ALL those names as he put it! Hehe, I am so glad he wanted to do this and that he wants to see us and spend time with us:) It means so much after all these years. Next week, its Thanksgiving with him at my brother's house and I am so happy for that. It will be our first one together in 7 years! God is good!

Working on Those Handmade Christmas Gifts

A double crochet scarf

    

All rolled up with a single row crochet bow!

 Rag quilt table runner

I think this turned out super cute. I have enough leftover to do one more similar to this, I plan to get to that tomorrow, but I'm also working on handmade table cloths for Thanksgiving which I will post as soon as I finish. So much to do! Ready to get something else on the crochet hook too:)

Yesterday's Prenatal Apt

I was expecting the most boring, routine visit yesterday along with an apt for my Nuchal Translucency scan within the next week or two. Instead, I got a mad Dr who couldn't understand why I didn't call him 2 weeks ago, the day I passed out home alone with my 3 smallest kiddos. I told him, I had no one to drive me down, no one to watch the babies and I figured I was just dehydrated severely from puking so much. I didn't want all the drama merely for an IV. He was not buying into it and was freaked out that it was possibly an arrthmia from my heart. So not 10 minutes after I arrive, I am being sent up to cardiology for another 24 hour holter monitor. Of course I have nearly 1000 PVC's everyday, but I have grown somewhat used to them and thus far I believe that is all this holter has captured.

 I also found out that the nurse dropped the ball and never submitted paperwork to insurance for my nuchal trans scan and they are now waiting for emergency approval because low and behold I WAS further along as I thought I was. I thought my due date was May 31st based on when I thought I ovulated and my Dr somehow confused someone else's due date last time and marked that I was due sometime in June, thus the mix up in the nuchal trans scan as well. So come to find out the u/s put my due date at May 30th so that is my actual due date that he is keeping(looks like I was dead right on when I ovulated!) That makes me 12 weeks tomorrow YAY! I go back Monday for a follow up with cardiology after they look at this holter. We also now wait for insurance to approve the nuchal trans scan, but thankfully by the time I get in there for it, I should be plenty far along to be able to leave there with confidence as to the sex of the baby. They usually tell me around 12 weeks and have never been wrong so 13-14 weeks I am pretty sure will be VERY accurate. Update: My insurance already approved it and my apt is Tuesday, November 22 at 9:15am so we shall know the sex of the baby in 1 week. I will be 12 w6d so being that close to 13 weeks, I feel I can be pretty confident in what they tell me.

The only good news I got from the apt was listening to baby's heartbeat, which is always precious.......and I passed my 3 hour glucose tolerance test with flying colors. My 3 hour glucose numbers were fasting 88, 1 hour 97, 2 hours 93, 3 hours 81. What gives? My 1 hour had 50 mg less of the sugar and I was 155 afterwards. In any case the numbers on my 3 hour were excellent and I couldn't be happier about that. Overall, I have to be thankful for a Dr. who truly cares about me. I really love him and that is why he will soon be delivering his 3rd baby from our family. I have stuck with him since I was lucky enough to find him and I just know I couldn't have another baby without him!

Jaxxon Took His First Steps Today

At 13 months and 3 days, my little preemie boy has finally taken his first steps! He took 2 steps without holding onto anything today on the patio of my Father in laws house. He was so proud of himself. I am one happy Mama today. Its the little things that make me so happy! :) Hope everyone enjoys this beautiful Sunday!

Working Ahead of Time

We decided to work ahead of schedule this year. We are almost completely done with Christmas shopping. We have 4 birthdays in January, which almost always become very neglected as we are usually swimming in holiday debt by then. This year we wanted it to be different. We realized if we shopped now, we would be actually have money saved by January to be able to celebrate those birthdays a little different than normal. We also realized that by shopping ahead, we get to enjoy no hustle or bustle during December. We will truly get to enjoy the season.

We will likely have a little extra during a time of year when we are normally pinching every penny to get the kids a few things they really want. In light of that, we will have more resources to help with food drives, toy drives, etc. We wanted to start our 1st Sunday of Advent with a nice family meal and the World Vision catalog to go through as a family. We want to prepare our kid's hearts for giving, not recieving, this season. We are looking into working a morning in a soup kitchen and a few other charitable things we usually do not have time or resources for in such a busy, expensive time of year. Its a very exciting feeling to already have gifts for Grandma's, Grandpa's, Aunts and Uncles, friends and teachers along with everything we wanted for the kids. We wanted a smallish Christmas. We had one last year and enjoyed it so much more than the hugely lavish ones. I feel my kids enjoy 1 toy they REALLY want and a few other items I wanted for them instead of an entire list of every little thing their hearts desired. The more there is, the less value each item seems to hold. Don't get me wrong, they are going to have a GREAT Christmas, very lucky kids.......just not overdone!

 We are really planning a different celebration this year for the month of December that includes more thinking about others and helping and I do NOT write this here to brag or feel good about myself. I write this here to give ideas, encourage, inspire. Mostly though, these are the things I want to pass on to my children about the holiday season. Its fun to watch the kids grow from their own selfish desire towards empathy for those who have so much less and how we can help and that is the type of people I want to raise! They are really on the look out for ways to help in the community, bringing ideas to me daily and it melts me to see my kids growing into selfless, giving people.