Project Real Food: Coffee Break

It's been a month since the first coffee break, so shall we sit down, grab a cup and have a look-see at how Project Real Food is impacting us?

I started Project Real Food about two months ago.  So far, I've dug into coffee, processed foods, wheat and sugar.  I've been limiting wheat for six weeks and  mostly completely off of it for four.  I have had the occasional splurge, like on my birthday when my hubby brought me coffee and donuts and we all went out for pizza later that day, as well as a few other random occasions.  We've had almost no processed foods in our house at all for about two months and I'm only four days off sugar and coffee (and only off coffee because I've given up sugar and I can't drink black coffee).

Like I did before, the easiest thing is just to review my objectives to see how this is all impacting our family:

1.  Increased energy levels?   YES!  Although ironically I took a nap today for the first time in a looooong time.  I blame it on the sleepytime tea I drank this afternoon.  I figured it wouldn't really work but I think I was wrong.  I don't notice my energy levels improved in that I don't feel tired as often.  I notice them more in that I feel like a nesting pregnant woman, if that makes sense.  I think being tired is inevitable because I have three kids who wake up during the night.  The best part is that I have all this desire to go out and do things!  A month ago you could barely peel me off the couch and now I find myself wanting to exercise, wanting to go out on walks with the family, wanting to clean and organize and just plain old wanting to leave the house every single day.  This has actually been a really drastic and dramatic improvement.

2.  Weight struggles?  This is still a really sore issue for me.  Like I've said a few times, my body has not let go of the baby weight this time.  I struggled a bit after Ben was born but pretty easily lost most of my weight after Adalyn was born without doing too terribly much.  This time around I have not been able to lose it.  I'm still up about 10 pounds from pre-pregnancy weight which I realize isn't the worst thing ever, but I still was up 5 pounds from pre-Adalyn weight when I got pregnant the last time, so I have about 15 pounds to lose to feel good again.  The last time I felt good was back in April of 2010, after the famous diet my mom put me on.  :)  Since kicking the wheat I've lost 7 pounds, but that has completely plateaued already and I'm no longer losing any.  It's extremely frustrating, but I'm trying to be patient and recognize that there are worse things in life than being three sizes bigger than all the clothes in my closet.  I really, truly believe that I can end my weight struggles once and for all when I find the right lifestyle for me.  I don't want to go on another diet only to lose and gain even more yet again.  I just want to change my lifestyle, as cliche as that sounds, and eat the foods that work for my body.

3.  Relief from pain/dizziness/allergies/asthma?  Yes, yes, yes!  I don't know if wheat has always bothered me but my body became used to it or what, but since giving up wheat and then reintroducing it on a few occasions, I have pretty bad asthma attacks each time.  When I've been off wheat for at least two full days, nada.  It's amazing!  I'm seriously blown away by it.  My allergies also seem to be better, but it's not as drastic an improvement as the asthma is.  I'm still struggling with dizziness and minor pain (I have a bum knee and some joint pain when I get up after sitting for awhile that leaves me limping around like someone my age should not be doing yet).

4. Relief from eczema?  Like I said last month, I don't have eczema in the summer so I don't know if this is improved or not yet.  Adalyn's skin is getting pretty bad all of a sudden with the changing weather.  I'm considering removing gluten & dairy from her diet to see if it improves.  Just this week her cheeks have gotten super red any time she goes outside and it looks like it may be the beginning of what we experienced with Ben.  Praying it's not!

5.  Skin cleared up?  On a somewhat related note that I can't remember if I've mentioned before, I have had pretty bad acne as an adult.  Strangely enough I had completely clear skin as a teenager when so many of my friends struggled with acne and thought I'd escaped that curse.  Until about 23.  All of a sudden I started getting acne and nothing has ever worked.  The only time I don't have it is when I'm pregnant.  It's bizzarre, but most of my pregnancy I have completely clear skin with nary a blemish and then BAM, once I have that baby I am all acne'd up again.  So far, again, knock on wood, I've had completely clear skin since Landon was born.

6.  Decreased illness?  Well, crossing my fingers but all the kids were sick this week and I did not get it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  That's worthy of all those exclamation points, trust me.  My immune system has been so beaten up and I've been so sick so often over the past few years that to not catch what all the kids have even one time is nothing short of miraculous.  Believe me when I say that in the last few years, I have caught almost 100% of anything that anyone in this house had.  Time will tell if things actually are better for me this winter.

7.  Improvements in the kids?  Well, no.  Ugh.  I'm bummed because last month this was the only improvement I'd seen so far, but now everything has gotten worse.  Their sleep has become downright terrible.  Last night we had been up five times already by 11:00 (with a different kiddo each time) and this is a fairly regular occurrence in our house.  Like I said, Adalyn's skin is getting really bad, Landon's isn't great and he is really struggling with gas issues.  The past two days have been pretty awful.  Ben is back to complaining about his stomach here and there and his behavior has also been getting worse again.  I haven't been implementing all the changes to my children's diet that I have to my own, but this has me considering kicking the wheat from their diet, too.  When Ben was gluten-free last month, things were better for sure.  The only reason we stopped the GF thing was because when we reintroduced gluten, everything stayed the same.  It wasn't until the past two weeks that things started getting bad again with the stomach complaints and the behavior.  So I'm a little stumped.  Was it a delayed reaction to gluten or something entirely different?  A mystery, for sure.

All-in-all I'm extremely happy.  My asthma is gone, my face is clear, I want to DO ALL THE THINGS(!) and I'm just feeling overall healthier.  There are still some discouraging aspects like my stupid weight and the kid's difficulties, but I'm going to keep pressing on.  So far this has all been worth it and then some!