Nourishing Traditions: The book that overwhelmed me and then improved my quality of life

Over two years ago I read a book called Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon.

First I read the introduction that breaks down fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. It confirmed many things I had suspected (hydrogenated oils are giving us heart disease), and opened a can of worms about many things I had never even known (cod liver oil is good for you?!).

At that point I was overwhelmed with information and started making small, gradual changes. I tried to soak oatmeal overnight for breakfast the next morning, I tried to get everyone to take high quality cod liver oil (see #4 below), and I made more food at home instead of eating out.

I was still overwhelmed, and felt like I was always falling behind. I gave myself little pep talks: "it's okay, you need to practice, it will take time, just do what you can". I also found a few resources, made the organic produce shift and stopped using Teflon pans.

Here I am two years later, having gotten baby E to his first birthday and finishing my year-long breastpumping stint. I have more resources, I have more time, and I have more practical knowledge due to my two year mulling period. I will blog a series of posts about Real Food that will go more in depth.

My advice is this:

1. read Nourishing Traditions, but with a grain of salt. First of all, it has been a few years since it's publication. Secondly, there are many people who disagree with it, so make up your own mind and do not follow it blindly. I have read it and find it extremely useful.
   
2. follow the Real Food Media blog network for recipe ideas that have incorporated nourishing practices for you to follow.
   
3. Find local sources for organic produce, grass-fed beef, pastured eggs and chicken. If you buy in bulk you will save money. Use the Arizona Local Food website to find stores and farmer's markets. Or if you don't live in AZ use a site like Green People.
4. Buy cod liver oil instead of vitamins and get your family to take them. (Kids will need a spoonful of plain/flavored oil/gel. But grown-ups can take capsules, hooray! We buy from Green Pasture's and get the fermented cod liver oil/butter oil combination caps and gel.)
5. Use raw honey in place of sugar in your regular recipes.
6. Use the 80/20 rule: If you are eating well 80% of the time, don't worry too much about the other 20%.
7. Try not to stress out!
8. (Read my blog :))
   

Things M Says (Part 17)

M: Moooo-ooooommmm! E's eating a crud!!
me (in the other room, covered with raw chicken): Argh! Okay, take it out of his mouth please!
M (uncertain): Um, I can't.
me: Yes you can, just put your finger in his mouth and pull it out.
M: Okay.....AH!! E bit me!!
me (laughing, 'cause I'm sensitive like that): Sorry buddy! I'll come get it....

Things M Says (Part 16)

At bedtime, talking about his six-foot-long plush snake from IKEA, creatively named by me:

M: Oh, do you see Mr. Snake all curled up on the floor? He is getting ready for bed.
me: Yeah, he's so sleepy, he's asleep.
M: No, he is just going like this (blinks slowly), he is just blinking, he is almost asleep.
me: Oh, he's almost asleep.
M: Yeah. Hey mommy?
me: Whaty?
M: Sometimes I tell Mr. Snake jokes and he laughs like this: sss-sss-sss-sss-ss.

LOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!

Merry Christmas

A Peppermint Chubber.

A little M enjoying a snow disk at Mother Nature's Farm. Fun!

Cookie Baking Extravaganza 2009

I am documenting all the cookies I am making for the holiday season over at the recipe blog. Check it out :)

Things M Says (Part 15)

"Mom, you have to be 20 to be a ninja. I'm 20."

Things M Says (Part 14)

While visiting my sisters and brother in CA, and being chased by my brother's large puppy Angus:

"Somebody help me!!"

E's Third Surgery

E had surgery for a fistula repair this past Wednesday morning. For the first time it was in the outpatient center, so we were heading home in the late morning, instead of settling into a shared hospital room for the day and night. I vastly prefer going home after surgery.

E basically slept all day, took his plain Tylenol and antibiotics, and cried when I fed him. But he is a good sport and has improved every day since. With a lot of insistence from me has has managed to eat normally. And without any insistence needed, he has sleep normally, and then some.

Now I am just trying to keep probiotics in his system while he finishes those irritating antibiotics. He will be done with those Monday night, so I am looking forward to that. Then next week we go in to see Dr. Joganic on Thursday for a follow up. I am hoping for no pulled stitches and a perfectly healing mouth. That would be the best Christmas gift ever. E has already been making new sounds while babbling, and even occasionally making suction on his sippy cup. *sniff*

The next surgery will not be until his nose reconstruction when he is approximately 18 months old next July. That one will be a doozy, but at least it is not for a few months.

E's first year has quite a tally going: three surgeries, 8+ months physical therapy, 7+ months of chiropractics, and an orthotic helmet. After he turns one (in a month!!!) I am hoping for a nice boring year with just one surgery and that is all.

Magnesium

TMI-Alert!!!

E is not the best pooper in the world. It has stressed me out lately. Everyone should go at least once a day. After all, it is toxic stuff and needs to get out of your body. I have tried giving E more liquids, prune juice, fibrous foods. I have tried taking grains out of his diet, and yolks, and chicken. Basically E was, and still is, just having fruits and veggies, breast milk, and water. He would still only go once every other day at best, but it was little and dry-looking.

So we started E on 1/16 teaspoon of magnesium, daily. We have had to gradually increase up to 1/4 teaspoon per day, since E seems to be a little magnesium magnet. In fact, that is how E's chiropractor (Dr. Ross, who is simply wonderful) described people like E: they are magnesium magnets. There is a theory that because soil is less mineral-rich in general, that certain bodies need supplementation to function. I am hoping 1/4 tsp. is the magic number for little E. So far so good.

If anyone out there has a similar problem with their kids (or themselves!), before you turn to Miralax or some other laxative or fiber supplement, give magnesium a try. Specifically, try the brand E is using which is very easily absorbed after being fizzed in hot water, yummy tasting (flavored with stevia and citrus), is also a calcium supplement, and is about $20 for a big tub which will last at least a year: Peter Gillham's Natural Vitality Natural Calm.

(I am going to start taking it as well, since I have high stress levels, and I do not drink milk anymore. I will be buying a tub from the chiropractor soon, so if anyone in AZ wants a tub just let me know and I will be there in a week or so purchasing. Anyone else, just go to the website above and find a vendor in your area.)

Recipe Bloggin'

I have be asked to join in on another blog. Fun! The name, in apricot-color:

Chevre and Apricots: a recipe blog

Enjoy! I have posted my first contribution this morning. More to come!

I have lost my momentum

I cannot think of anything to write. I have blogger's block, or something. When in doubt, make a list.

Things I Am Thinking About Lately:

• BYU is shutting down the Women's Research Institute. I originally heard about it from a grrrr-ing friend M on my Facebook page who linked to this. Now fMh is covering it here. And the Salt Lake Trib here.
  
• At the urging of my lovely friend mraynes over at The Exponent I wrote messages to President Samuelson and John Tanner regarding the above closing of the WRI.
  
• I get to go to California and chill with my peeps in less than 17 days. Good times, noodle salad.
  
• Halloween is really fun with a 4-year-old.
• E is getting so old: helmet off, first haircut, scooting around, drinking from sippy cups, having an opinion.
• M is getting taken out of preschool: it isn't a good fit for him this year. Field trips have no transportation, he does not seem to be learning much, the campus is farther away, he seems ambivalent about whether or not he likes his teacher, and I keep thinking about how nice it would be to just have preschool at home.
  
• Preschool at home: reading stories, learning states from our large map, learning songs from Laurie Berkner and others, doing construction paper crafts, learning the calendar, practicing writing letters and names, learning to read, and of course visiting three places on a regular basis: The Phoenix Children's Museum, The Arizona Science Center, and the Phoenix Zoo. Add some parks and some library visits and I think we will be good to go until Kindergarten officially starts next fall. Plus I can supplement materials from the Lakeshore store down the street, and for a lot less than what we were paying for preschool, methinks.
  
• I got a new tiny computer that I love. Especially in conjunction with the snazzy new wireless DSL setup we got.
  

Well, it looks like I had some things to say after all.

E's Orthotic Helmet

It comes off this Wednesday! Hooray for being done, even though he is cute either way. Pictures to come.

E's Fistula Repair Surgery

E will be having surgery to fix his palatal fistula (opening) on Wednesday December 2nd at 7:30 in the morning. It is a same day surgery, and the nurse thinks we might even get out of there in the morning. E will be wearing arm restraints again, and drinking with the special SoftFeeder nipple. Or if I can get him used to it, I may start him on sippy cups completely now so he will be ready for surgery in a few weeks.

I am trying to modify this sippy lid to see if he will take it. Since he still cannot make suction with his mouth, he needs a very fast flow sippy such as one without a valve, or one that has huge holes in the spout, or both. Wish us luck!

Probiotics

I know I keep on and on about probiotics and how they fight colds and flu-like illness, not to mention keep you regular and healthy in general. Probiotics provide good bacteria for your body to use to fight off infection and to keep you healthy. Here is a link from The American Academy of Pediatrics Journal that shows the scientific evidence to lend credibility to my stance. I use two brands of probiotics that I alternate back and forth as I finish a bottle: this one and this one.

(I poke a hole in the gelcap and squeeze out some powder onto E's morning cereal and into M's morning juice. There is a little over half the powder left in the capsule that I then take. No word on whether R will ever agree to take these, party-pooper :)).

Tyler Perry

I just read on Salon and on Shakesville about Tyler Perry's experiences with sexual abuse. Tyler Perry apparently told his story of abuse on his website [trigger warning]. It is heartbreaking and triggering but deserves to be read and faced. I hope that more and more people will tell their stories and bring light to all kinds of abuse that happen around us every day. I pray that Mr. Perry will find peace in sharing his story, and maybe even a little healing.

I have also read how CNN covered the story and referred to his abuse at the hands of a female neighbor "seduction". A 10-year-old cannot be "seduced". And for that matter a 10-year-old cannot "have sex". They can be forced. They can be raped. Period. Downplaying rape and abuse is wrong. Call it what it is. In fact, if you are so inclined, call or email CNN and tell them you are disappointed in their coverage.

I was sexually abused. I wasn't seduced. I was a victim. I wasn't asking for it in some way.

Good News and "Fragrance"

EWG has good news for once. The EPA is actually addressing the dangerous nature of 6 chemicals previously deemed "safe" and that are currently in our lotions, soaps, shampoos, and the like. Here's to hoping the EPA actually follows through with this and the chemicals get banned. We can always hope.

In fact, some damning information about the EPA can be found here, where they knew the effects of many chemicals found in "fragrance" in 1991. Start to pay attention to how many items in your house have the word "fragrance" on them. Shaking. my. head.

Dance Class for Kiddos

Children's Creative Dance at the Mesa Arts Center starts October 27 and goes through December 8. Tuesdays from 4-4:50, for 4-6-year-olds, $32. My fabulous friend is teaching and it will be a wonderful creative experience for any child. To register call 480.644.6520. Do it!!!

Things M Says (Part 13)

While we were at gymnastics on Tuesday:

Max (M's teacher): Go over there, M. Go over to the really big bars.
M: (wandering around)
Max: No, over there to that big mamma jamma.
M (totally serious and inquisitive): THIS mamma jamma right here?

Cell Phone Radiation

I just found a list of cell phones and their radiation outputs. Enjoy.

Things M Says (Part 12)

On the way into preschool today, because there was a "Wet Paint" sign on the fence last week: "Mom, maybe there will be a 'Dry Paint' sign today."

On the way home from preschool, combining "Holy Cow" with "Oh my goodness": "Oh, my cow!"

Just now while watching Wall-e: "Mom, I wanna go to ouder space. I wanna go to ouder space and float around."