Serve It Up: A Book Giveaway!

Most parents of toddlers have a hard time getting their kids to eat enough of the right foods. Getting my boys to eat vegetables is actually finally getting a little easier, but it has been a battle. I've spent plenty of time hiding veggies in their food in the form of purees, using pasta made with veggies, and mixing fruit and veggies in juices and smoothies. The best book I found while teaching myself how to cook for picky fingers was The Sneaky Chef to the Rescue by Missy Chase Lapine. She's got a helpful website with her books and other tools. 

I thought I'd share three of the things I've used the most in my veggie-quest: I water down V8 Fusion or an off-brand of the same, for the boys to drink. When I serve the boys pasta, which they love more than life, of course, I try to use pasta made with veggies. I know Barilla makes it, I'm not sure anyone else does. And the Sneaky Chef to the Rescue is full of great ideas for purees to have on hand and recipes to use them in.

V8 Fusion with veggies and fruit

   

Pasta made with veggies

Purees and sneaky recipes

Recently, Laura De Simone, a local physical trainer and author of the book Serve It Up contacted me about the possibility of doing a book giveaway for my readers. So I took a look at her book. Serve It Up isn't like anything I've seen before. Its focus is on portion control. Maybe you know what nutritious foods and kid-friendly foods look like but you're not sure how much is enough and how much is too much for your kids. Her book breaks portions down by age but also by how active your kids are and then suggests exactly what is a healthy amount of each food for each meal. You can take a look at the description of her book and then just leave a comment below to be entered in the giveaway. If you have a Facebook profile, also go like Whispers & Shouts. I'll have one of the boys draw a winner on Friday.

* I should mention, I am in no way being reimbursed by anyone here, other than the free book to a reader. I'm simply sharing what has worked for me and helping a local author with some exposure.




On the Loss of My Wheat Tooth

It's been over two weeks since I stopped eating wheat. (Read about why I gave it up here.) Two weeks was my planned trial period and it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought. The hardest day was the first day. Ever since then, it hasn't been bad. A few nights ago it was a little difficult to ignore the fresh sourdough bread in front of my plate at the restaurant, but I did it. Planning for and preparing meals has taken a little longer because I had gotten in ruts of easy things like pasta and bread and crackers for the boys. I haven't taken the boys off wheat and Brian isn't off wheat, but I'm trying to have less and less around, and more and more vegetables and fruit.

I found a recipe for muffins with whole wheat flour and oat bran and I substituted rice flour for the wheat flour. They also had carrots, raisins, yogurt, and banana in them. The boys loved them, so that was a victory. (However, Cal still only eats muffin tops, not the whole muffin. So Seinfeldian/Jenna Maroney-ish) But I was amazed at how heavy I felt after eating just one muffin, after I had been off wheat for a week.

Yesterday I purposefully stepped off the wagon, because I had met my goal of two weeks and allowed myself two small treats. One was because my inner scavenger took over after the boys refused their flat raisin bagel halves. Then later at Valentine's dinner I had a bite of the cheesy bread while we waited for our food. I definitely felt heavier in the morning after the morning cheat, but didn't really after the single bite last evening. I found my cheats rather disappointing, actually. I guess I'm losing my wheat tooth.

The changes I've noticed have been:
    1) I feel....lighter, less full but in a good way-- which I'd say is a good reason to continue
    2) I don't feel hungry as much, I think just because my body is used to eating less now
    3) I have lost 7 pounds-- also a good reason to continue
    4) I find myself craving things like grapes and carrot sticks instead of bread or crackers

I'm also still running, which is a big 'ole streak for me. I even still like it! So overall I'm feeling healthier than I have for awhile, and inspired to keep it up. My wheat-free two weeks are over, but I'm going to keep going.

P.S. If you haven't already, enter the soap giveaway I'm doing this week. Read about it below.

P.P.S. Consider donating to the walk for epilepsy I'm doing next month, or walking with me.

Less bread, more rice cakes with peanut butter

Wheat and Stomp Rocket-ing

I've decided to not eat wheat for two weeks. I'm part of the way into the third day, and it’s actually not as hard as it seemed the first day. Why am I doing it? I'm not really sure exactly, and there's not one reason. I've been reading things like this and this and this and about wheat as a common allergen and something that slows down your metabolism. Cutting out wheat and carbs in general is what people with extreme cases of epilepsy do to try to manage their seizures through diet. When your body is basically starved, it runs on ketones, and for some reason no one has seizures while running on ketones. That diet, however, is to be done under close observation by doctors and is close to starving yourself, which presents its own set of complications.

As far as anecdotal evidence, my mom and grandfather have always had bad allergies, frequent sinus infections, and troublesome noses in general, all their lives. They both recently did a battery of allergy testing that showed they are both allergic to wheat—and pretty severely. Going off wheat greatly improved the quality of life for both of them. Some of my brothers and sisters in-laws have been cutting out carbs and have had some big success with weight loss and overall health improvements.The other day I was talking to someone who controls her migraines by cutting out wheat and some other main categories of food. So, with science and success stories, I decided to give it a go.

It’s not that I’ve felt bad and was looking for help…it’s just that I’ve been feeling…heavy inside from eating the bread that I eat, and of course since most processed foods have wheat in them, I’m also cutting out those, which will do nothing but good things for my health. The last two days I’ve felt great, and I’m very excited about it! Let’s face it, I can stand to lose a little weight as well, and hopefully changing my eating habits will help with that. The last two days I’ve also been able to run outside, which has been marvelous. It’s been around 70 degrees! The boys and I spent some quality time in the sunshine today, using their stomp rocket. I leave with the stomp rocket photo story. Happy Wednesday! 

Getting ready to launch

Cal's turn

Your turn, Mommy!

Mommy stomps with too much gusto.

Watch me, Mom!

Clark brought his pet dog to watch the launches.

Watch, little doggy!

Cal's turn to take pictures

Clark's turn...

PS. Anyone else want to give up wheat with me?! Anyone else living without wheat? Anyone have good no-wheat recipes?

A Foot of Change

Change is afoot. Or a leg. Or maybe just an enflamed left ankle. Right now as I prop my legs and ankles up under ice packs it seems like change blankets all of my lower extremities. Three weeks ago I started running again after not running much at all since before that horribly cold day in 2002 when I broke a bunch of bones in a car accident. The doctors thought I probably wouldn’t be able to run again on my left ankle—that the bones would probably have to be fused. I would be able to walk passably, but not run, they told me. That all made sense, considering I had at that point a freshly inserted titanium rod from my right knee to my ankle, several screws in my left ankle, and screws and plates in my wrist. (No, I don’t run with my wrist like a monkey, I threw that other hardware factoid in for effect) Well, the doctors were wrong. I didn’t need any bones in my ankle fused. I didn’t even need the bone graft they thought I would need in that ankle. They saved the bone grafting for my leg and wrist with bones from my hips. I strongly urge you to never need a bone graft. 

Back then, just being pushed on a walk wore me out.

But I hated running with a burning passion of a thousand suns, didn’t care for running, and because it’s been painful to run the past ten years I haven’t pushed it. I didn’t need any encouragement not to run. I’ll do workout DVDs while the boys nap and go to the little gym at our condo clubhouse—spend some time on the elliptical machine or with the weights.  I’ve belonged to other gyms over the past years and kept myself in passable shape until I got pregnant. It’s kind of been a blur since then. My workouts were reduced to carrying growing infants up three flights of stairs and squatting to wipe up various body fluids. I’ve tried to work out and I’ve kept from becoming a fat lard done a decent enough job, but nothing like what I should be doing. For some reason a few weeks ago Brian and I both decided to start running again. It’s just so easy. I mean, no machines, no gym, no gear, just you and the ground. And wherever you are you can find ground. So I’ve been running mostly outside on a route I really like, but a few times on a treadmill at our gym. I’m honestly shocked. I’m enjoying it. And the titanium inside me is not falling out or breaking like I always imagined it might. The first time on the treadmill was one of the first times I ran and I was SLOW. But tonight I picked up my speed and ran three miles, and only partially because I was watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and I wanted to keep watching it. I also felt good. So that’s one change: I’m running. And oddly, I like it.

Change number two: The boys are in bunk beds. That’s right. We bunked ‘em up. So far no one has fallen off with the exception of stuffed animals and books. It’s a little like crib on the top because they haven’t figured out how to climb down. The top-bunker is trapped. If only the bottom-bunker could be too. The problem is that Cal is on the top bunk and he loves to shout orders to Clark. So Clark runs around the room, picking up certain books, pulling the CD player over, shooting basketballs, playing with the night light turtle, putting weird things in his mouth, all things that Cal tells him to do and then laughs at. They haven’t come close to falling asleep on their bunk beds for nap time; we still have to separate them, one on our bed, one on the top bunk bed. It’s obnoxious. But at bedtime they fall asleep fine. There’s something about the darkness I guess. No toys crying at you to be played with.

The bunkers

Change number three: I traded the small lamp in the living room with the big lamp on our nightstand. Lighting has slightly improved.

Grand finale of changes: My next post will be my 100^th post on this blog, and to celebrate I am going to be introducing some big and super cool changes to the layout. I know that all you devoted Whispers and Shouts fans will be waiting with bated breath until I post next and the awesomeness spills forth. On my 100^th post I plan to make it a love fest to you— my dear readers— and at the same time unveil the new look that is being custom-made for me by an awesome artist.

Change is afoot! And now I can't feel my foot from all the ice packs.