Project Real Food: Coffee Break

Time to sit down, grab a cup of coffee and get real.  I started Project Real Food three weeks ago today.  The first change admittedly ended up being almost no change at all, since I determined coffee is perfectly A-OK (for me).  I drink no more than 2 cups now, so I suppose that's a little change from before.  If I want more coffee after two cups (I usually do), then I drink teeccino (vanilla nut!).  I'm only buying Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee now (Caribou Coffee Mahogany), and I'm trying to shoot for buying as many Rainforest Alliance Certified products as possible now that I know what that means.  It's more money for our family, but benefits the earth and the growers and since we are in a financial position to be able to do so, I believe we should.  It's much more sustainable - a word I never thought I would care about until recently!

The next goal was processed foods and with very few exceptions, we no longer have anything processed in our house.  We do still depend on canned tomatoes because we didn't grow any of our own tomatoes this year and I haven't attempted to buy in bulk and can yet.  As far as processed foods go, I figure that one is pretty benign.  I like to avoid canned anything because of the BPA, but you do what you can for your own family.  These kinds of choices are so personal.  I have also given up wheat (more on that later), and I haven't attempted to make my own spelt bread or tortillas yet, so we're going processed on those until I can conquer some new recipes.  If you consider cheese a processed food, we will probably always consume some processed foods.  I'm no cheese maker!  And - shockingly - hot dogs!  Ew, right?  It's a big healthy food stumbling block for me (yes, I love hot dogs) and my kids love them too, and since getting them to eat meat is nearly impossible, I give in and buy the "healthy" hot dogs either from a local farm or Applegate's Great Organic Uncured Beef Hot Dogs.

I started making yogurt consistently, I've started making my own cream cheese and sour cream from our fresh farm milk and I skim the cream off each gallon to use for creamer in my coffee.  I make almond milk and almond flour from scratch, and I've started making all our sauces like pizza sauce, enchilada sauce, "cream of... soups," taco seasoning, italian dressing, etc., from scratch.  I quickly learned how incredibly fast and easy these little upgrades to health are, but better yet, they taste so much better.  It makes me wonder why we've all gotten away from making these things now that I know how quick it is.  My next goal is to get some good recipes for spelt bread, tortillas and pizza crust so I can get back to making those things from scratch, too.

The other goal I sort of quietly squeezed in that I never posted about was supplements.  I sat down and did some intensive research on the supplements that would benefit me, and I plopped down a painful amount of money on them.  I literally watched my mom cure herself of her multiple sclerosis attack before my eyes with mega doses of Shaklee vitamins, so despite the fact that there is no general consensus about how beneficial/absorbable vitamins are, I just can't deny what I watched happen to my mom.

Now it's time to get honest.  First, it's important to note that it's only been three weeks and I've only been taking some of my supplements for three weeks and some for one week, so I think only time will tell how this all impacts me, but I think a report is still in order for now.  :)

The best way for me to do this is to review all my objectives and see where I stand.

• Increased energy levels?   Nope.  Not at all.


• Weight struggles?  This one is really frustrating me.  My body has not wanted to let go of any weight since Landon was born.  This did NOT happen to me with the other two children.  I lost five pounds last week after giving up wheat (reading Wheat Belly right now), which I was so, so excited about!  But then I somehow gained three pounds yesterday.  So...take that as you will.  I have no idea what that even means.  How does one even gain three pounds in a day?!  Either the five pounds were a fluke or the three pounds were a fluke.  I don't know.  But I guess I can consider a loss of two pounds last week a success since I've lost almost nothing since Landon was a few days old.


• Relief from pain/dizziness/allergies/asthma?  I hadn't noticed, but I haven't been dizzy in a bit.  I'm not sure how long to be honest, but I can't remember the last time, so it was probably at least a week ago.  My allergies and asthma haven't gotten any better at all.


• Relief from eczema?  I usually don't have any during the summer, so I won't know if this is improving for me until winter, but the kids eczema hasn't gotten any better.  Poor Landon's eczema has gotten really bad in the last week.


• Decreased illness?  I didn't post about this in my original objectives post because I completely forgot, but I spent almost the entire winter sick last year.  That's not at all an exaggeration.  I was actually sick more of the winter than I was well.  I've never experienced anything like it!  The winter before was probably half/half.  Before that?  I was never sick.  I've heard more and more recently about how pregnancies can really wear your body down, and I know having little children in the house increases the germ factor exponentially.  It's not all that surprising that having three kids in a few years (especially when I only gave my body 7 months to recover between two of those pregnancies) has worn my body down, but I'm really hoping to see some improvement in this area more than any other because I'm a whiny sick person.  I'm already on my second cold though, so no improvement in this area yet.  I had my first one two weeks ago when we had a very momentary dip in temperatures, and then again a few days ago, coinciding with the second dip in temperatures.  Ridiculous if you ask me!  The temperatures drop for a few days and my body goes instantly into sick mode.  I'm honestly tempted to lock us in the house the entire winter, order all our groceries and never step foot out of the house.  I'm only half-kidding!


• Improvements in the kids?  This is the only area where I'm actually pleasantly surprised.  Everything else has been a let down so far.  But Ben's daily stomach complaints (to the point of tears) have completely stopped.  His behavior has drastically improved.  My hubby commented last night about how it was the first time he has had to punish him in quite awhile.  I hadn't noticed until he said something, but then I instantly realized he was right!  Ben has been so much better behaved in the last two weeks!  We'll see if this trend continues.  :)

All-in-all, we haven't seen much improvement.  I'm not completely surprised since it's only been three weeks, so I think the story will be more telling a month from now, but I'm definitely a little disappointed.  I'm going to keep pressing on, though!  Like I said before, I'm really loving the idea of biodiversity and I think there's no better way to figure out  your own perfect diet/lifestyle than trial and error.  Just because one person is perfectly suited to a vegetarian diet or a Paleo diet or a vegan diet or {insert other diet term} doesn't mean that everybody will be equally positively affected.