Brandon's successes, Mandy's pregnancy

Several things of note: My husband lost five more pounds. High five, fist bump y'all.  I am amazed by the changes that have occurred since we began the Whole30.

One of the difficult things about overhauling your diet and seeing amazing, ah-may-zing, changes is that when you see others suffering from the same things you once did, you want to swoop in with a packet of Paleo information, cook them meals for a week, and rid their pantries and fridges of all that nastiness they've been consuming.

But really, while we really do enjoy sharing our diet lifestyle and how it has changed us in many, many ways, we also recognize that people have to be willing to make the changes themselves.  When they are ready, they  will ask for help or advice.  For now, we are happy just to share our success stories with others and tell how we've been changed.

We've been on the other side as well. We've looked at people cross-eyed when they suggested we give up bread. (And we even tried it for a while, and boy that sucked.) But we also saw that we were headed in a direction we didn't want to go.

Brandon went to the doctor and was classified as "morbidly obese".  He was having to lean on medications for pain and was trying the natural methods of chiropractics and massage to relieve pain.  It seemed the solutions offered to a lot of his issues were in reality just bandaids.  Over and over people recommended that he get a CPAP machine because, don't we all want to sound like Darth Vader when we sleep?

His doctor had a lot of negative things to say. High cholesterol. Bad this. Change that.  Lose 10 pounds before I see you again.  Brandon walked away with his doctor-loathing-beam still firmly intact.

He felt like his body was falling apart, and had been for years. We had tried so many things, but hey, one last thing can't hurt, right?  We are so grateful that the Whole30/Paleo diet was that "one last thing".

My husband's posture is straighter. I can wrap my arms around his waist and clasp my hands together behind him.  He no longer snores like a freight train every night (or, you know, forgets to breathe when he's not snoring). He wakes up rested because he's getting REM sleep. He smiles more often. He's not consumed with pain all day.  His bicep, which he injured pretty badly at work months ago, is not giving him as much trouble and is feeling better and healing quicker than it did with chiropractics and intense massage. Some of his other allergies have disappeared (so he can now enjoy black pepper liberally sprinkled on every meat and vegetable).

His biggest issue is that he needs smaller pants, but he refuses to buy new jeans until he hits a certain size.  For now he's just cinching up his belt tighter and tighter.

But you know, while there is a lot of amazing things happening in our home and in our bodies, there is also a struggle as well.

Because I'm pregnant (9 weeks today). And I have these cravings that are so strong it's hard to ignore them.  Shipley's Donuts call my name over and over until I just can't ignore it anymore, and I scarf down a glazed donut only to regret it by lunch time as I lay on the couch with a headache feeling like I'm going to barf up the brick in my stomach at any moment.

And I will go on and say it. It really sucks sometimes to be Paleo. Because there are pretty much no convenience options for people who chose to eat as we do. At least none that don't break the bank or cause the budget to run screaming. NIL. NADA. ZIP. ZILCH.  Well, tuna salad and nitrate-free hotdogs, and both of those make this pregnant lady want to gag.  Ew.  (Although, I do buy this stuff, and I feed it to my children who love them and give me Good-Mom-Brownie-Points.)

Gone are the days of freezer nuggets and Dominos Pizza.   This is not to say that we don't have our cheats now and then, but, really, a cornbread mix and redbeans and rice were an easy staple in my previous pregnancies.  And now all of those items are off the menu.

That means I actually have to use my BRAIN, which is really hard to do when one is pregnant. (Well, it's not that it's not being used, it is actually on overload so thinking about having to actually make lunch is can be overwhelming.) I always forget how exhausting pregnancy can be in the first trimester.  Turns out forming a baby in my womb is hard work!

I mean, for the love of grapes, I could really go for a basic PB&J sandwich.  And those things haven't sounded appealing since I was, like, eight.

So this means I have to actually force my brain to work at creating a meal plan that is doable, even when I feel all icky and sleepy and weird. (Thankfully, I am not hugging the porcelain throne, but I come very close if I have an affair with wheat or get too much sugar in my system.)

This is where I openly proclaim my love for my Crock Pot and One-Dish-Wonders, and The-Husband-Who-Cooks-Better-Than-I-Do.

I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to have some really good slow cooker recipes in your arsenal, along with a few of your favorite casseroles and one-pot dinners.  Also, you will find that soups and chilis will work for summer meals too, and storage containers will be your best friend because you should definitely make extras to store away (in the fridge for lunch tomorrow, or in the freezer for next week).

And don't forget our suggestion to fire up the grill one day and toss on every kind of meat you can think of so you have "fast food" for meals throughout the week.

Really, by the time 4pm rolls around, the thought of making supper seems like a lot of work.  Am I right? You're not even pregnant and you're nodding in agreement, aren't you.

So do yourself a favor and use that slow cooker.  Toss in a roast in the morning after you pour your morning coffee, and pat yourself on the back for having dinner on.  Go you.

Mmm, Roast, potatoes, and carrots.

Two Months In: How are we doing now?

It's been about two months since we started the Whole30 challenge. You may be wondering how things are going now.

First of all, we are so grateful that God has freed us of so many food idols. We were soda guzzling, fast-food burger chowing, sugar inhaling folks and all of that has changed.  We haven't had a single soda in these last two months.  We actually don't mind drinking unsweetened iced tea (which, previously, we felt unsweetened tea tasted like pond water).  And while there was a huge struggle in the first few weeks to do without bread, rice, and queso, it's actually become no big deal.  At some point, the focus shifted off what we couldn't eat because those things no longer held us hostage.

Since completing the Whole30, we have allowed ourselves little treats, but those treats have left their own little treat behind- one that's not very enjoyable.  On a trip back to Brandon's hometown in Louisiana, we had a link of boudin (contains rice) which caused Brandon to gain 15 pounds in one day. (Once it passed through his system, the 15 pounds disappeared.)  No kidding.  And rice is actually the one grain that causes the least issues. Corn causes us all to break out in bumps and hives, some worse than others. (Although, I, Mandy, admit my favorite treat is to have some corn chips with guacamole. I just have to put up with itchy legs for a day or two.)

When you see that these foods really do cause pain, inflammation, bloating, stomach cramps or other less desirable digestive issues, rashes, brain-fog, and a variety of other ickiness, it's really not that difficult to steer clear of them.

Last week, we went to a Mexican restaurant where our youngest (Molly Jo, 14 months) had a few bites of a flour tortilla which caused her to feel very sick and.... puke all over her bed in the middle of the night.  The good news is that she felt much better and slept through the rest of the night!  I had a few bites of the fried flour tortilla bowl my salad came in, and I was nauseated for several hours following. Yuck.

Molly Jo has been far less fussy, probably because she's no longer consuming those organic Wheat-O's that seem like a good baby snack, and likely because my breast milk is no longer tainted with gluten, dairy, and other foods that didn't go over well in her system.

All of our children pretty much follow a Paleo diet. We do allow them little treats, like basic rice crackers with their tuna salad.  At first, we allowed them to have grain and dairy "treats" at our weekly potlucks, but their systems were screwed up the rest of the week, so we have definitely reigned that in.  It is tough for some children to adjust, and, of all our children, Keagan (5) has had the most difficult time adjusting.  It's mainly because he's old enough to pick his own food from the potluck buffet but not old enough to really think things through.  Our older two can process, "Well, this probably will make my stomach ache later, so I think I'll do without."  If they are tempted by it, they will ask us first, and we can help them make that decision.  (Sometimes we all want someone to make that decision for us, right? Sometimes it's nice for someone to say, "No, I think it would be best to choose something else.")  Keagan is doing much better, and no longer asks one-thousand-times for things he cannot have. Now it's more like a dozen times, which is far less grating on the nerves. Ha!

Mother's Day 2013

I confess, I (Mandy) held on to some items when we went on the Whole30 because I figured they would do in a pinch.  I mean, one day when I'm exhausted, those frozen corndogs will come in handy.  Do I really need to throw out this enchilada sauce that has all kinds of weirdness in it? I ended up loading up a good bit of thing, intending to donate them, but... the box of canned good are still sitting in my car because I just can't fathom giving such crap to anyone!  It's not real food!

So, obviously, we are doing quite well and enjoying this lifestyle of eating.  In fact, as we suspected, this diet paved the way for yet another pregnancy (this always seems to happen when I am grain-free, dairy-free, and legume-free)!  We are expecting our 6th child in January 2014!  Eating this way has also caused me to go through pregnancy relatively morning-sickness free (as I believe I wrote about before).  Having gone through three pregnancies with HORRIBLE all-day, keep-nothing-down "morning" sickness, I know what a blessing it is to not be hanging over a toilet throughout the day or always searching for the best place to throw up when we're out running errands.  (And, for the record, Whole30/Paleo has not negatively affected my breast milk supply at all. The key is keeping hydrated, which, yes, I do have a hard time doing now that I am both pregnant and nursing.)

I (Brandon) always feel inspired to keep going when I look in the mirror and see the progress I've made. It's like, "Hey! I'm pretty stinkin' skinny!"   (Mandy here: Seriously, he'll come out of the bathroom and say, "Who is that handsome man?")

Everything actually tastes more flavorful when it's not wrapped in bread. Hamburgers are far more delicious without bread. I don't miss the bun at all. I'm not really missing cokes at all, but sometimes I want a little something sweet to drink so I go for some orange juice.

People offer me stuff and I think, "I don't eat that stuff. It's bad for me," whereas before I would have felt like it would be a sacrifice to turn it down.  For example, turning down a coke and going for water in the beginning was a sacrifice. Now water is my first choice. No big deal. No internal wrestling or feeling deprived.

I like that our kids are learning better habits and making better food choices.  We're no longer telling them about good habits and then having a bunch of cheats which say we don't really mean what we say.

A week ago I went on a 36-hour fast to break my plateau. I have been on fasts before, but usually, within the first five hours I was crumbling. I was hostile, cranky mess... just ask my wife. (True story.)

This time, I was able to go 36 hours without feeling moody, extreme hunger, or obsessive cravings and the mental gymnastics involved with that.  I am no longer completely controlled by food.

Before, I was addicted to breads and such, so these things made my blood sugar rise and fall, rise and fall. Fasting was a horrible experience then because my body was experiencing such lows during that time, just aching for another high, another hit... like a drug!  Now I feel steady and clear-headed when I fast. (Although, in the last hours, I was feeling a little "high" in a totally different way, and I was starting to feel hungry.)

Pretty soon I'm going to have to buy a new belt.  I've had this one since junior high, so it's going to be tough parting with it! It's very well broken in by now!

Conception, Pregnancy, and Nursing

Have you ever looked at a picture of yourself and thought, "Wait... that's me?  When did I get that big?"

This was one of those pictures for us:

This photo was taken at a family reunion in the Spring of 2009. At the time, we had three children and had experienced at least one miscarriage. (Maybe two by this point.  We had four miscarriages that year.)

A miscarriage does crazy things to the body.  First of all, the whole body doesn't always recognize that you are no longer carrying a wee little child.  Hormones are going crazy, and the whole system seems off.  Even if you hadn't gained much pregnancy weight yet, the hormonal issues can cause a gal to gain something similar to the Freshman 15. And, on top of that, there's the emotional eating.  Before I knew it, I had packed on 25 extra pounds.

This picture caused me to analyze my diet. Several months later, I decided to take the leap and go Raw Vegan, a diet I was fairly familiar with and had "tried" before. I stuck to it for several months, following our third miscarriage, because I knew I needed to reset my body. I was pretty sure my diet was the cause of our infertility problems.  I did go on to have another miscarriage while I was a raw vegan, but that was not due to my diet, but rather due to a drug I was given in the hospital for some kidney problems I was having.

By December, we were pregnant with our fourth child, Evangeline.  I've mentioned before how vegan and vegetarian diets didn't work for us because we were never full and still had some issues, but the wonderful thing about being a raw vegan was that, similar to the Paleo diet, grains, legumes, dairy, sugar, and processed, chemical junk was totally absent from my diet.  For the first time in my child-bearing life, I had a very smooth pregnancy.  With the first three, especially the third, I had been so terribly sick the first 20 weeks I could hardly function or keep any food down.  It wasn't just "morning sickness", it was "life sickness".  It was enough to make me wonder if I could even handle another pregnancy (but, you know, those little boogers are just so stinkin' cute that I felt it was worth it).

My last two pregnancies (Evangeline and Molly Jo) have been so wonderfully smooth.  When I found out I was pregnant with Molly Jo, I was actually doing a juice fast and was about to transition into a raw food diet again. I had issues with anemia (as I have had with all my pregnancies), but I realize now something about the raw food diet was allowing me to skip over the miserableness of nausea and the worst bits of pregnancy (sickness).  I have found that other women are experiencing the same thing, not because they are raw vegans, but because they have at least removed grains, dairy, and sugar from their diet (many of them have removed legumes too).

This tells me that the Paleo diet, and even the Whole30 challenge, are safe for most pregnant women.  I am currently breastfeeding and have not experienced any negatives. My baby is actually healthier and feeling much better now, which is a huge blessing.