Trying Paleo

This would be a longer post but well, spring is pretending to have arrived today, so I'm going to get to work outside.

I am going to TRY the Paleo lifestyle this week, as hubby will not be around to complicate things by being resistant to the system. I'm going to blog what I eat.

Yesterday was semi-paleo, as I knew I was going to be pretty motivated after going to a seminar by www.uncommonwellness.com.  I don't totally remember what I ate, but lots of eggs, walnuts, raisins, carrots, and imitation crab (I know, tons of gluten and crap in it) figured into the equation. Plus Jelly Beans. Come on, they are right. there. in. the.kitchen.  I didn't have coffee but am pretty sure I  had herbal tea.  Plus Jelly Beans.

Today so far, I've had Bacon, Eggs (fried in PAM, canola oil...Paleo? I have no idea!) and Mangoes.  I was so lucky to swing by Wal-Mart after the seminar yesterday and find PERFECTLY ripe Mangoes for 33 cents (not sure if per pound or each, whatever....it's cheap).  I should have bought a TON, but only filled up one produce bag.  Good "exotic" produce is so hard to find here in the midwest. It was like a sign from God saying I CAN DO IT (the Paleo thing).  Oh yeah, and Jelly Beans (the bag isn't empty yet!)

Pictures of food coming up soon. Time to figure out lunch (spinach cooked in bacon grease? and....roast beef with veggies?), and get to work on finishing the sandbox project. 

Ideally I'll give CrossFit a try this week too, but I'm sore just from "trying" the workout moves yesterday. I can't imagine what a whole workout is going to do to me. How am I supposed to prepare food if I can't move my arms????


*** A Few Hours Later***

Lunch was leftover Roast Beef and roasted carrots. I left the roasted potatoes in the leftover bucket.

Then I dropped Sharkboy at Preschool, shopped for more materials for the Sandbox project, worked in the yard, rearranging the garden, and suddenly it was time to pick up from Preschool. When we got home, my awesome neighbor came over to help finish building the sandbox. Then, after being more productive than I have been in ages, I tossed the kids a precut bucket of veggies, fruits, and dips, and we went to the HS Track for my first CrossFit workout.

I started with the warmup:
400m run
15 pushups (actually 8)
15 situps
15 Air Squats (more like, 9?)
15 Back Extensions (also known as Swimmers or Supermans)


The Workout
was supposed to be 3 rounds of, but I did 1 round of
Run 100m
50 pushups (more like 25)
Run 100m
50 Situps... Since I don't have the Abmat (yet) I had the kids hold my feet.
Run 100m
50 Air Squats
Run 100 m
50 Back Extensions

I came home and mowed the yard then the poor starving children dragged me inside. After quick but badly needed baths, I made them tuna (with Miracle Whip and sweet relish) sandwiches, which they DEVOURED. Not paleo and not normal dinner, but yummy and most people would consider it healthy. Sharkboy ate 1.5 sandwiches. Lava Girl ate about 3/4. Plus milk. I found more mango while cleaning kitchen (it's not really clean yet, but was trying to make a hole) and we all shared the mango. Mmmmm.
For my dinner, I ate some of the sweet and yummy tuna mixed into spinach wilted with Olive Oil and Lime juice, then tried the tuna salad on some boiled (need to find my steamer) cabbage, and also devoured a sweet potato that I had thrown into the microwave before heading to the track...but then forgot about...

After bedtime, I ate some more Jelly beans.

The first 30 days of Paleo are supposed to  be REALLY LOW SUGAR, but um, I'm a total sugar addict and refuse to go cold turkey. Anyway, I'm just giving it a 7-day trial, right? I even had coffee today, but only half my usual amount, and still used sugar and Half and Half. I've been living on Caffeine, Sugar, and healthy dinners for way too long.

The baby (18 months) was asleep before I could even get a pajama shirt on him after the bath, so I am thinking he likes all the activity, productivity, and lack of caffeine and sugar in his milk. 

Either I'm coming down off those last Jelly Beans or it's actually time for bed. Either way, I've been up for 17 hours. It's time for bed. Good night. Lets see how Paleo goes tomorrow without any bacon in the freezer, a dirty kitchen (hello, spent the whole day outside) and Tuesday is always my busiest day of the week.

I could have sworn I had fish oil pills in the closet from a previous vitamin taking kick, but all I could find was Vitamin E and A and multi vites, so took some of those. Fish Oil will go on the list of junk to buy.

Only the last few generations have messed up public breastfeeding.

Even when everyone dressed modestly, a little exposure for the sake of nursing a baby was totally ok. Why isn't a little exposure ok now that practically no one dresses modestly?

Thanks to Historic Breastfeeding Photos on Facebook for this pic.

The Good Letdown: Protect Yourself From Facebook Deletion

This is a great list of things to do to keep pervs from having a problem with your pictures

The Good Letdown: Protect Yourself From Facebook Deletion: "There has been a lot of deleting going around lately.... so I wanted to brainstorm some ideas to protect myself and others. Please feel free..."

I make Milk, What's your Super Power?

It's old news that Facebook is against breastfeeding. They shut down group after group of breastfeeding fans. They delete people's private breastfeeding photos. Meanwhile, dirty pictures proliferate on the site. It always annoys me, but most recently they shut down The Leaky Boob, and that is a REALLY good site.

I would LOVE to boycott Facebook, but with friends and family all over the world, that just isn't going to happen.

I had posted a plan here to flood Facebook with real obscenity reports, but The Leaky Boob and other Facebook BF Advocates think that is not the right approach, so since it's not my own battle, and I was only trying to help them win their battles, fine. Don't go reporting stuff like nasty porn because I told you to. This was never about telling you to report every cleavage shot out there, just the really truly nasty stuff that would be sold in magazines that have to be wrapped in black plastic. Evidently, The Leaders don't think even that stuff should get reported. Okie dokie.

The two people who did report high amounts of obscenity reports will be getting aliens from me in the mail as soon as I have time to make more.

For some humor, here are some dirty pictures from my personal collection:

Phallic Rock on Molokai

Yes, These Mynah Birds are doing the deed. I thought they were fighting.

Cause and Effect People! I'm sad--and Mad!!

*Before I start ranting: If you are here because Google or something said to check out this post about low supply, please go to another reputable website for low supply answers. Here's one.*

Dear Pregnant People,

How long have you spent researching and shopping for cribs? bouncy seats? car seats? strollers?

What about Breastfeeding? Have you done any research on that? Read any books? Looked at any websites that AREN'T sponsored by formula companies?

If you plan to breastfeed, you need to PLAN to breastfeed. You should spend at least as much time learning about breastfeeding as you do on your nursery decorations!

Breastfeeding IS natural, but it doesn't come naturally to most American women these days without a little forethought. Our culture has pushed it into the back room (and often bathroom) for so long, that our mental image of how to feed a baby is skewed.

If you don't have friends who have breastfed successfully (i.e. at least for a year, and maybe one friend who has gone past a year), you need to find some new friends. As the old Girl Scout song goes, "Make new friends and keep the old."   Your old friends are sure to keep giving you great advice on whatever they always have, but would you ask someone with bad hair (me) for advice on hair care? Would you ask someone who doesn't wear makeup (me)about the best way to apply mascara? So then, why would you ask formula-feeding friends for advice on breastfeeding issues? For that matter, would you ask a friend who HASN'T had a boob job (me) to recommend a good plastic surgeon FOR   boob job?

I'm SO FRUSTRATED by moms I meet -more than weekly- who have stories of "I didn't have enough milk." or "I dried up after a few weeks" who think that their bodies failed them.  In reality, when you ask a few questions, it turns out that they had plenty of milk and listened to bad advice from people who had no business giving advice. This resulted in them telling their body to stop making milk. So, yep, they didn't have enough milk BECAUSE they told their bodies to quit making milk.  Every time you tell someone that you didn't have enough milk you are perpetuating the myth that lots of people have supply problems. In reality, biologically based supply problems are VERY RARE.  If you go to Wal-mart to buy something that is usually in stock, but they don't have it, someone messed up the supply system.  Their system is computerized, much like your body. If left alone it will work great but if you put bad info in, you'll get bad results.

*I do know a couple people with ACTUAL supply problems. Yes. I know they exist*

When my own mom got bad advice in 1979, it wasn't her fault, or anyone else's that her milk dried up and I wound up on real grocery store cow milk. There just wasn't access to information like there is today.  Too many people today act like it's still 1979 and their only sources of info are whatever random people they happen to know, regardless of those people's levels of expertise on the subject. We live in the information age.  There are very few subjects you can't get good info on by either Googling or reading a book. Even my small town's teeny weeny library has a fairly recent copy of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding along with a few other books on the matter. If your library doesn't have the book you want, and your town doesn't have a Barnes and Noble, you've got Amazon.com at your fingertips. If you read an entire book on breastfeeding, you're almost guaranteed to know more about breastfeeding than your pediatrician, unless you have a darn good physician.

*Disclaimer: Don't get pissed at ME if you got bad advice and had your breastfeeding experience ruined by a breastfeeding booby trap. Maybe you really are in the less than 5% of women have TRUE BREASTFEEDING PROBLEMS. Before you decide that I'm a lucky judgmental devil who has never been in the situation of NEEDING formula, check this.  If you did research and contacted well-trained people for help and still had trouble, please know that this post is not aimed at you. In fact, you probably know exactly who I am talking to.*