Do I Live to Eat?

I think I might, I love to eat, I know that for sure. I haven’t given an update of my progress with losing weight recently- basically because I haven’t. I “Fell Off” the Treadmill, figuratively, I didn’t actually fall, I just haven’t run or even walked this month. February really did me in, I was exhausted, but that is really no excuse because I think we all know in the back of our minds that when we exercise- we get more energy- eventually. Add to that the fact that my scale broke so I have No Idea if I have managed to maintain the 10 pounds I have lost this year and you have your complete update on my struggles to become healthy and lose what feels like a massive amount of weight. (I started last October with the intention to loose 40 or 50 pounds).

But I have good news- I have found a desire inside me that I didn’t even know existed- the desire to eat healthy food. All my life I thought that eating a healthy diet meant that I only consumed a certain amount of calories, that I ate a good variety of foods, such as proteins and carbohydrates and yummy, yummy dairy because I am a girl and need the calcium for my bones. I think I was wrong, really, really wrong and I am on the verge of making a change- a big, big change.

I discovered a few months ago that Sunflower Market has really great prices on produce, and so I started buying more fruits and vegetables, though at the beginning it was mostly fruit. I told a good friend and neighbor that I was trying to eat more healthy fruits, and enjoying it, and she told me about a book she had recently read that talked about changing our diets to be more vegetable based. At the time I didn’t really think it was right for me, but I stored the information in the back of my mind for future recall. Then a couple of weeks ago, that same friend blogged about Health and Appearance and I remembered that she had recommended a book to me and I suddenly really wanted to read it. And so I borrowed it. “Eat to Live” by Joel Fuhrman M.D.

It took me about a week and a half to read, but I wasn’t too far into it when I realized that I wanted and needed to make some drastic changes to my Diet. And by Diet I mean the way that I normally eat, ( I have been musing about the word diet this week too, because when I hear people talk about their Diet I assume they are Dieting trying to loose weight, why is that? So anyway) Dr Fuhrman believes that Americans are overfeed and undernourished, he doesn’t say that we need to cut way back on food, just that we need to cut way back on foods that do us no good and up the portion sizes of the foods that are good for us. So what is bad for us, Processed, Refined, Sugary and Fatty Foods? Did that surprise me? No, not really, although I will admit that I like those foods a lot. What falls into that category? White Rice, Pasta’s…I was surprised by this, I thought those were good for me. What else…Meat’s, Cheeses and other Animal Products… should be used rarely, if at all. What is good for us? Whole grains are good, as well as, as many Fruits and Vegetables as we can possibly cram into our stomachs.

He lays out his reasoning for this type of diet very well over the first 7 chapters of the book- Whole foods are best, refining foods removes nutrients from the food, enriched foods are basically foods that have 20+ nutrients removed through the refining process and then had 4 or so nutrients added back in, still not good for you. Animal products have been linked to cancer and many of them are fatty, and as such can be linked to any number of other diseases. The best diet is one rich in nutrients and with a high Nutrient to Calorie Ratio. Fruits and Vegetables are naturally high in nutrients and low in calories, thus they should make up the majority of the calories that we consume.

The kind of diet he advocates really made me think of the Word of Wisdom and that got me thinking about what the word Sparingly means, we should eat meat sparingly, interesting to think about....

I was so excited to make this change in our eating habits that I jumped the gun a little. At several points in the first few chapters Dr Fuhrman explained that he thinks we should eat HUGE amounts of Vegetables and the easiest way to do so is in a Salad, and that our Salads should be roughly the size of a head of Romaine Lettuce. So I went out and bought salad makings and discovered that a head of Romaine Lettuce is MORE THAN HUGE, so Ken and I shared a head of lettuce between us, with other yummy salad fixings like Red Bell Peppers, a little Cilantro, Black Beans, Tomatoes, Mushrooms, Corn etc. I even made a dressing with tofu- for myself; Ken won’t go near food that it stored near tofu, let alone tofu itself.

The Salads were so exceedingly huge that we had to eat them out of 12-cup Tupperware bowls/ metal mixing bowls. It was during this meal of gigantic salads that I asked Ken what he thought “Sparingly” meant. We came to agreement that we would reduce our meat consumption to 2 nights per week during the Spring, Summer and Fall and then 3 nights a week during Winter. My Salad was very filing. Ken didn’t hate his, but I think he was silently mourning food. I have eaten a huge Salad at least once a day for the past 6 days, and I will admit, I have not snacked as much, and I feel pretty good.

Now I felt kind of silly when I got to the chapters of the book where he explains the diet and gives example menus and a few recipes. There is so much more you can do with Vegetables than just Salads. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought about cooking vegetables, Silly, Silly, Silly. So don’t fear for Ken- he will be fed and he will be fed well. I plan to really start our new diet on Wednesday- Ha ha, that is April fools day- but it is no joke, we are eating better as of April 1st!
So if any of you out there have Vegetable (or Fruit or both) dishes that you love- Soups, Salads, Casseroles or Sandwiches, anything really if you would send me the recipe I would love to try it. The same goes for Spices and Herbs that you like to use, fresh or dry, let me know about them and how you use them to make your food yummy. PLEASE- because I love yummy food.

One nice side effect of this change in diet- according to Dr. Fuhrman, when your body is well fed with nutrient rich food, it will naturally find its ideal weight, I will let you know if that happens.

Tall and Skinny

23 pounds 2 oz- 54th Percentile- pretty average for a one year old I guess.
32 inches tall-96th Percentile- taller than the average one year old. So if you are average weight but twice as tall- that makes you tall and skinny (OK, so maybe not twice as tall, but taller than average....)

And, he has the OK to eat ANYTHING he wants to eat!!!!! See how happy that makes him. Little does he know, I am going to drastically change our families eating habits soon. Poor guy, good thing he really really really likes vegetables!

One of These Things....

....is not like the Others.

Did you see him? He is there, sitting in the Toy Bin between Elmo and the Teddy Bear. He is a doll isn't he. He sat there and played for more than a half an hour. And he got in there all on his own, it is one of his new tricks. I found him laying on top of the toy bin, playing with his activity table several times yesterday, it would have been easier to just stand on the other side of the table, but not as much fun. Climbing is his new passion. It started with climbing onto the couch then yesterday he added climbing onto the back of the couch to his repertoire. Today- he figured out how to turn on and off the lights.
This next one is my favorite of late. This kid is so much fun, he is discovering everything and keeping his parents on their toes.

Our Birthday Week

Kate's Big Day! Ken and I woke up super early on my birthday so that we could support our ward and participate in a 7 AM Sealing Session at the Temple. It was early but wonderful. Afterwards Ken took me to breakfast- I had waffles with lots of strawberries on top, Yum Yum Yum! Thanks to our wonderful neighbor for watching our baby so that we could start my birthday celebration so early. After we got home, I had a wonderful nap. Later that day we watched some movies and went on a walk. It was a simple birthday but a wonderful one.

Baby J's Day! We went to Wheeler farm with some of the babies Cousins. The Animals were stinky, but the company was great.
After the Farm, we picked up dad and headed to Wendy's where we had dinner with Grandma and Grandpa T and Cousin P and her family, (because Baby J and Cousin P share the same Birthday). Baby J really did enjoy his first taste of Chicken Nuggets, he enjoyed trying to dip them in sauce too, which is why the sauce is so far away from him. The weirdest part of dinner, the Baby didn't seem to like the Chocolate Frosty- I wondered if they had given me the wrong baby a year ago, then I remembered Ken doesn't like Chocolate....

We had slowly been collecting presents for the baby's birthday for months, in fact Ken had forgotten that we even had presents for him. Because we started early we were able to get some deals- like the Day after Thanksgiving find of $10 for 100 Mega Blocks- which we have already discovered are fun for the whole family. We also discovered that the week after Christmas is a great time to shop too, we got the Fisher Price Farm on Clearance at Target for $23. I saw the same farm on sale at Wal Mart last week for $30, I laughed inside and said "Take that Wal Mart! $23! Ha!" The baby loves his farm, as you can see.

Ken's Birthday- Because we had Stake Conference this week, Ken got to sleep in on his birthday too- until 7AM! He was then treated to a breakfast of Cinnamon Rolls, Eggs and Sausage. After which we rushed over to the Stake Center for choir practice. Ken was asked to lead the music in all the session of conference and it as all I could do not to scream "It's his Birthday" when he was standing there in front of our entire stake- and Elder Hales. Ken wanted Chicken and Rice for his birthday dinner and so I made sure that I was in charge of dinner at Mom's house so that I could make it for him. He is still waiting for his present from the Baby and Me, we are a little slow.

We blew out our candles, and then gave the baby a slice of the non chocolate cake, he put his hand in it and squished it around, and then he tried to attack the chocolate cake. Unfortunately the chocolate cake was actually covered with hard chocolate, so all the baby was able to do was pat it with his already messy cakey little hands, the cousins sure enjoyed watching, you can see Q there mimicking Baby J's repeated attacks of the chocolate cake.

We have Wonderful family- the Baby now has lots of new books, stacking toys, shirts and a chicken puppet (that he loves). Ken and I were given some wonderful presents too, but we don't want anyone to get jealous or covet or anything, so we will just keep that stuff to ourselves.

And last of all- Mother Nature is giving us a snow storm this morning, so far it is only sticking to cars and grass, but it is supposed to snow off and on all day long. Oh, Well, we had a couple of nice days of spring.....I hope my flowers don't die.

Big TV Debut

I totally forgot to tell everyone to watch "Good Things Utah" today, So I took a picture of my Television to prove that the Baby had his Big Television Debut today. I guess the picture also tells a secret....hehehe. Baby has a name, but then most of us already knew that.

Thank goodness for TIVO, I totally forgot to watch- Baby and I watched "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" and when that was over, and he was napping, I noticed that "Good Things Utah" had been recorded, "That is weird, what was on the show today that I wanted to see?" Then I remembered!

Happy, Happy Birthday Babies!

This Picture was taken one year ago Today! Wow, this year has gone by Fast.

This is a picture taken at 7AM this morning. I reset the camera and tried taking the picture again. Apparently the baby thought we were doing it again, because he didn't have his mouth wide open like his Mommy did in the previous picture. Oh well, maybe someone can photo shop the two smiling people together..... Happy Birthday Baby J! It is going to be a Weekend of Fun!

By the way, I had a Spectacular Birthday yesterday. Details about the Family Birthday's will come next week as we aren't having Cake until Ken's Birthday on Sunday. And I forgot to take pictures yesterday, but I really did have a wonderful day, thanks to all who helped make it good.

364 Days Old, and Silly, Silly, Silly.

So I did the weekly food shopping today. I went to Sunflower Market for the Fruits and Vegetables and then I went to Macey's for a couple other things. The baby had been extremely good and cute while we were at the stores and so after we finished at Macey's I gave him a treat, a Yummy String Cheese! About half way home, I heard him touching the paper bag from Macey's and I knew there was no problem, because we had only picked up 4 things there, he would never be able to get them out of the bag. When we got home, this is what I discovered............

We have been eating grapes together for a few months now, but I usually half or quarter them for him. He did pretty good on his own, I only found two half eaten grapes that he had dropped, and he had eaten almost an entire bunch.

Torture in America

Have you ever seen a baby with a cold? They have no shame, it doesn't bother them at all that huge ropes of snot are slowly making their way down the front of their face. They will even look up at you and smile, showing off their slimy little faces, and if you are a very unlucky individual, you will find that they enjoy wiping there faces on you! Our child is a sneaky little fellow, and Ken didn't realize he had been used as a nose wipe until much, much too late.

So, on to the Title, "Torture in America". Small children can not blow their noses, or so I have been told, and as they can not blow their noses, and yet still need to breath, the medical profession provides us with an amazing tool, I believe it is called a "Nose Bulb"(?) and I am pretty sure from the way my son reacts to the sight of me holding said nose bulb, that it could replace any and all forms of torture used around the world. I am pretty sure if my baby could talk, and had important information that he was unwilling to give up, just the sight of the nose bulb would be enough to make him spill the beans.Kleenex also is very very very offensive to one year old children- well maybe I should put that a little differently, Kleenex held by a parent is offensive to a one year old. After all, I think we all know, Kleenex found in the box by a one year old is an amazing toy, all the tissues must be freed from the box as quickly as possible.....or maybe that is their way of trying to get all the tissues dirty so that they are never used to sop up their snot......hmmm, these kids are smart.

Peace....and how I found some

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in short, I am a Mormon. I was baptized when I was 8 years old. My Parents were also baptized when they were 8, as were 3 out of 4 of my grandparents, the 4th was baptized when she was 19 or 20. I come from a Mormon family, there is no doubt about it.

I have a wonderful family, My Parents are amazing. They are supportive and loving, they have always done whatever it takes to make sure their children are taken care of, and even though their children are pretty much all in their 30’s (there is that one 27 year old) they still help us out way too much. (Hopefully they feel that we support them too, as we are all adults and should be giving back to the people who gave us so much, but that is another post). So, anyway, I had a wonderful family, a good foundation, a safe place to run too when I needed it.

I believe in God. Most people in the world believe in something larger and more powerful than themselves, I happen to call him God, or Heavenly Father. I also happen to believe that He believes in me, I love that. I hope that there are other people in the world who believe the same thing, that God knows who they are and cares about them, just as much as their earthly parents do. Have I always believed this or even hoped for this? No

I have been thinking a lot this week about my religion, and about how interesting we are to people who don’t know much about us, what we do, why we do it? There are 13 million + Mormons around the world, so it should be pretty easy to find someone to talk to about those questions, unfortunately it is also pretty easy to write a magazine article, produce a Movie or Television Show, Blog or anything else really. So not all the information out there about us if completely accurate or completely truthful. That is OK, it has always been this way, and I have a feeling it will always be this way. As I thought about it this week I realized that it is because of this type of situation that I was able to find Peace with and a deeper Faith in my religion and its teachings.

Here is my story- When I was in my mid teens I read an article in a national magazine that left an impression on me, and not a good impression. It was an article about a former member of my church and included excerpts from a tell all book she had written about her life as a Mormon. It was at least 16 years ago, but I still remember the basics, she dated and became engaged to a man that she didn’t love because she felt like she had too, she detailed her experiences in an LDS Temple as she got married, and then she spoke about her loveless and passionless marriage. It was the most information I had ever seen as to what happened inside the temples of my church, and I didn’t question at the time that her explanations may have been tainted by the pain she now felt in her life because of the choices she had previously made. I don’t remember if I ever talked to my parents about what I had read, but I do remember that from that moment on I questioned my faith.

For the next few years of my life I struggled, emotionally and spiritually. I looked everywhere for answers. I love to be loved and to give love and so it was a big fear of mine that I too would never find the kind of relationship that l needed, a marriage filled with love and passion. This fear was not helped by the fact that I couldn’t seem to attract boys. I had one boyfriend in High School, unfortunately it was during this time of struggle in my life, I know it wasn’t a very good relationship, and I feel kind of bad for that boy, I hope that he has found as much peace and joy as I have since we parted.

All in all, Religion and Faith is a personal thing, a judgement can not be made to its truthfulness or falsity based on a magazine article or a television show. There has to be study, and it can not be just a casual study, there must be a need to know, a hunger. There has to be prayer or meditation involved. And last of all, there has to be a willingness to move forward once you have found your answers. When I was 19 I started down this road. I wanted to know for myself if the things I had been taught and believed were true. It wasn’t an over night thing, I read, I asked questions, If I found information that I didn’t understand or if I questioned the validity of the information I asked parents, siblings, friends or other people I trusted. Then it came down to prayer, I prayed, and like never before I knew, so deeply that there was a God, that he loved me, that he was pleased with the path I was currently taking. There is more, but it is really special to me, and I cry a lot when I even think about it, I don’t know if I could put it in words, so I will just say, My life changed that night.

A couple of years later I was preparing to serve as a Missionary for my church and as such I would be going to the Temple for the first time. I still vividly remembered what I had read years before, and I was a little scared. There as no need to be scared, the feelings of joy and peace I had as I was in the temple that first time were astounding, the things that bothered me from her explanation were non existent in my experience. I learned once again that faith and religion and participation in religious traditions and ordinances are personal and sacred experiences. I won’t be telling what I experienced in the temple that day, or past or future day that I have worshiped there, not because it is secret, but because it truly is sacred to me, personally.

Happily, my life has turned out so differently than I unfortunately was lead to believe by that article I had read. Because I knew God loved me, individually, I didn’t have to fear too much that my life was not turning out the way everyone thinks a Mormon girls life turns out. I wasn’t married at 18, or 19 or 20, I wasn’t married at 25 either. In fact I was about 25 when I met the man who would become my best friend and then the love of my life. We were 28 when we married and we were around 31 when we had our first child. Life isn’t easy, I don’t get everything I want when I want it, I don’t think I would be very happy if I did, I love and appreciate the blessings in my life (right now I am thinking about Ken and Baby J) because I got to wait for them, yes at times I did think I was going to die waiting, but now, I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. The waiting gave me the time to seek peace and understanding. If I didn’t have that peace in my life, I don’t know how I would survive.

So, I guess the reason I told you this, is because eventually we all are confronted by information that bothers us, shakes our foundation, changes the way we look at the things, people, and knowledge around us. Don’t take anything as truth just because it is presented to you as such. Find out for yourself, study, seek, meditate and pray. That is how I found Peace, that is how I found truth and it will work for anyone.

Cutting off all the loose ends....

I guess I had always been uneasy about the baby needing surgery, and if it was self fulfilling prophecy, then baby, I am sorry that I worried so much. But I am glad to see a light at the end of the almost 2 month long tunnel that the surgery left us to struggle through. In the end- all is well.

Last week Baby J and I went to visit Dr. Cartwright, the Pediatric Urologist who performed the baby’s Surgery in January. I must admit I was a little worried as the site of the surgery was red and bumpy and, for the past few weeks, I had been noticing a long string attached to the area, (in fact, I accidentally pulled the string one day while I was changing a diaper, there was weeping and wailing afterwards) I don’t know about you, but I thought that Dissolving stitches disappeared, and so a long string was worrying to me. Add to that, the fact that skin had fallen off the surgical site, followed by the fun with bleeding we experienced…..I was a little concerned that the doctor would take one look at my baby, turn to me and ask “So, do you take care of your son at all?”

(Baby J, getting ready for his surgery follow up)

Guess what, he didn’t. The doctor came in the room, asked if we had had any further problems with bleeding and let me know that the Hematologists had informed him of the von Willebrand’s diagnosis, and then the diaper came off. He looked for a few seconds, announced that everything looked good, but there was a string that he could easily take care of, and then asked me if I had any questions. “Why is the skin red and bumpy?” “Oh, that is pretty normal after a circumcision. It may fade as time goes on.” “Why is there a string?” “Sometimes Dissolving Stitches don’t dissolve as fast as we would like. I will trim this down, it is nothing to worry about.”
I felt so much better after that 5 minute doctor visit, it was amazing. We may never need to go back to the Pediatric Urologist, well, Baby J may never need to go back. We have a 10% chance of future sons having Hypospadias. But now we know what to expect- and to test them for Von Willebrand’s prior to surgery.

Speaking of von Willebrand’s, today we are going to the Hematology/Oncology department of Primary Children’s Hospital. We will spend at least 3 hours there (I hope they have a TV, three hours could get boring). Why so long? They want to make sure the Medication which will be prescribed prior to future surgeries will actually work. The simple explanation of what the medication does is this- von Willebran’s factor is stored in the blood vessel itself, and the medication forces the blood vessel to push out as much as possible into the blood stream. So they will draw blood tests, to see his level before medication, give him the medication, and then wait 3 hours and draw blood tests again. Hopefully all will go well, if so, we will be out of the tunnel and into the light, just in time for spring.

(Baby J during piano practice this morning, piano practice comes right after- lets throw the toys around practice)


I love Spring!

Quicken Easy!

Do you ever wonder where your money goes? Each month I am sure that someone has accessed our accounts and is stealing our money- how else do you explain the fact that no matter how much money you have, you always seem to be able to spend it? But then each month as I go through our account and pay our bills, there are no odd charges, we made all the purchases, i.e. we spent all our money. I never thought I would be so sad to discover I hadn’t been robbed!

Another thing that has plagued me lately is the fact that it is getting harder to keep track of our purchases. Ken and I have a system that we like, but it just hasn’t been working for me lately. We use our Discover Card for everything possible, and then we pay it off every month. We get wonderful rewards this way- if my sisters have ever wondered why we are so willing to give gift cards at Christmas time- its because we get them through Discover Card Rewards! It is truly a win win situation. Each month, I go through the check register, compare it to the discover card bill, and when I get the two totals to match, I pay the bill. But lately, Ken and I have become a bit lax at writing things in the check register, and so this process has gotten harder and harder until I just gave up. The past two months I have not double checked to make sure every discover card charge was in the check register, I just paid the card. Bad Kate, Bad!

So, I read the Readers Digest, I really do, not just the jokes, I read about 80-90% of the articles. In January they had a little note about keeping track of finances and how Quicken had recently offered a free online service ( quickenonline.intuit.com ), I felt very proud when I was able to tell Ken about it when he said he thought we needed a new way of tracking our spending. That was as far as we got in January, saying out loud that we probably should figure out a better way to handle our finances. Then February came and went in a Tornado of Fun and we found ourselves in March, it was time to pay the Discover card, and I didn’t want to do the work. “Quickenonline” a little voice in my head said. “What?” I said. “Ken is gone to meetings, the baby is asleep, you could play Burger Shop, or you could check out Quickenonline and see if it would work for you”

So I did, and Wow! I love it. First of all, It is free. And within minutes I was able to set it up so that I could see both my Checking and my Discover card account detail in the same place! The program will automatically categorize each credit or debit into my accounts, I can change any categories that are not right and even create new categories and it will show me charts so that I can see where I am spending my money. It has a section that shows me upcoming bills, which is nice because I often forget those when I am thinking about how much money I have. (Not that I sit around thinking about all the money I have….which actually might be part of the problem, I should think about that more) Even better than that, it has a budget area, and as long as I categorize my purchases correctly it will show me how much money I have left in each area and even warn me if I am going to go over budget in an area. From what I have seen in the first couple of days- it is exactly what I have dreamed of having. I am going to log on right now and look at my “Pie Charts”!

Tag...I'm it, I think. I have never been to good at Tag

6th Folder, 6th Picture..........
Do you recognize anyone in this picture? These are the three wise men (they dubbed themselves the 3 wiseguys- thus the Einstein look a like) from the 2005 Highland 14th Ward Christmas Pageant. Ken is the one on the right. He was originally cast as an angel, after all he is very angelic, and at the last moment was asked to fill in as a wise man too- good thing we had a fancy chenille blanket he could throw over his shoulder. Ken is willing to serve, wherever, whenever and however, especially if he gets to have fun while serving.

So, I guess I get to tag people now. I choose Alicia, Melanie, Christy, Arit (who may have already done this), Abby and You, if you want, no one is going to have any bad luck if they don't. Show us the 6th picture found in the 6th folder of pictures on your computer.....no matter what it is.

Glimpses

Years ago I had a very special experience. Ken and I were dating, and as we still do, we were cuddling on the couch. I like to put my head on his chest and listen to his heart beat, I remember lifting my head and looking into his eyes. I was overwhelmed with a feeling of love for this amazing man. In just a small moment I felt like I had seen his past and his future, I felt that God was giving me a glimpse of how he saw Ken, I understood just how special he was and would be, forever. I cried. I loved that moment, that Glimpse.

At about 3:50 this morning, I stumbled out of bed to go comfort my son. He is still dealing with the last bits of the viruses that have plagued him for the past month. I was letting him whine, but when he started to cry I went to him. After a diaper change and a bottle, he put his little head on my shoulder and we cuddled on the couch for a few minutes. I thought that he had gone to sleep and so we headed to his room, as I was getting his blankets ready I noticed that he was not asleep, but was looking at me, silently, with a sweet little smile on his face. He didn’t really look like my tiny baby anymore, that sweet little face seemed older somehow.



















So I decided that we could cuddle just a little more before I put him down. I looked over at the mirror across from his crib, I saw myself holding my sweet baby. He is so much bigger than he was when we first brought him into that room, almost a year ago, but he is still so small. And then in my mind I saw a tall young man, he was in a suit, he was distinguished. In that glimpse I knew he was my baby, my grown up baby, I wouldn’t be able to hold him like I was at the moment, but there would be times that he would need his mother just as much as he did now, and he would still put his head on my shoulder and find comfort there. It made me so happy, I felt so much love for him. My baby, my son, someday he would be a man, but he will always be my baby.

He knew I was going to put him back in bed, but he didn’t fuss or fight. I wonder if he had the same glimpse that I did.