Nourishing Your Body

Well I’m at it again: researching my brain out for the health of myself and my family.

A few weeks ago I reported on my son’s cavities and what we were going to do to help support him. Since then, however, I’ve been reading and reading and I wanted to share a bit with you readers but I hadn’t gotten on here to formulate the post yet.

Then I also began feeling down about my baby weight. I’ve been running and not one person on our team of 5 has lost one pound. Luckily, I live with some one who was a fitness trainer for 4 years! So last night she sat with a gal from church and I and went over why running alone will not keep you healthy and what to do instead. She talked to us about pylometrics and how to have a workout that is not just going to make you thin, or ripped, but HEALTHY.

What I’m realizing over time is that the best diet and exercise is about supporting the body – about using the body you have and helping it be disease-free, injury-free, agile, powerful and energetic. Who doesn’t want that, right?

I wouldn’t say I have ever “struggled with my weight”, at least not on the outside. Because I am petite and have small bones, my weight usually looks normal on a scale. My body fat percentage, however, is another matter. My cholesterol? Also another matter. The leanest I’ve been and healthiest I have felt has been when I was supporting my body. In my first year married, I remember reading “The Good Fat” book and discovering the benefits of eating nutrient rich foods and good fats like unrefined coconut oil. I took vitamin supplements and mineral supplements of the highest grade I could find, like some special calcium supplement from the sea and fish oil, etc. I learned around the same time of my dietary intolerance to milk, which might have curtailed my further exploration of the road I was headed down towards optimum health.

Jump ahead, oh my, 6 years. Going pescatarian for a year was good for me. It taught me to use healthy ingredients and look more at what I was eating. It’s when I began again to rid my pantry of juices, boxed and canned things, all the processed gunk that plugs me up and doesn’t support my body. Instead we ate lots of legumes and whole grains (brown rice, quinoa, oats, etc) and then I began the adventure of sprouting beans and seeds and soaking grains and WHEW what a rush! lol

I managed to gain 15 pounds less with Verity than I did with Ethan, yet I was eating at least 2 eggs a day, butter, coconut oil, kefir smoothies, occasional meats (usually grass-fed, farm-raised) and so on. I began gaining towards the end and I believe its because I was unhappy internally, waiting around for the baby to come, and not taking my health into consideration. In short, I ate lots of cookies. LOL

Let me for a moment get back to Ethan’s dental issues, which has played in the background of my life these last few weeks.

I would have thought that trying to get Ethan away from anything with sugar would have been hard. Not that he ate candy and junk food, but I’m talking ANY refined sugar in ANYthing. Go out to the coffee shop and you will be hard pressed to find something with no sugars in the bread, peanut butter, etc. At home, he can have plain yogurt or fruit. No breads with added sugar, no cereals, nothing like that (not that we carry those things at the house anyway- except for Seth that is, lol. He has “special” dietary needs that I’m pretty sure includes Kix )

I was pretty inspired by Ethan’s willingness to give up sweets. He would tell some one offering him a cookie, “NO, I can’t have that, I have 3 cavities and THAT is sugar!” LOL

And because I was so aware of the sugar in these things, I began to make different choices too. Why would I sit around eating a sweet in front of him while he eats a piece of meat, or an egg, or a slice of bread with cream cheese? How unfair!

So I started weaning myself off my sweets too. Not even intentionally. I still love me some Coconut Bliss and Immaculate Baking Company, but I could go without it – especially to lose these last 15 pounds of baby weight. (Yep, that’s right – I have not lost ONE pound consistently since Verity was born four months ago.)

Okay, so combine the sugar-weaning with the losing-no-weight-running (that has also injured at least 2 of us so far with rolled ankles and skinned knees and so on! lol) and then my roommate showing me pylometrics and giving me tips about my individual body structure and which muscles I rely on too much (ahem- calves- ahem) and which ones I do NOTHING with (ahem-butt and belly-ahem) and ALL THIS AND MORE adds up to my getting a little more intentional about losing this weight and getting healthy!!!

SO, I leave you with this interview I read recently when doing our Azure Order this week. They interviewed Sally Fallon, author of Nourishing Traditions, and includes the basics of the traditional diets studied as well as a lot about tooth decay and flouride and so on. I learned a lot, and hopefully you will learn a lot too!

My plan? I’m going to be following the recommended eating for nursing women on the Weston Price website (including nothing refined and adding cod liver oil to my diet) and doing an exercise regime that supplements the running and yoga with high energy “play” movements in the backyard with Ethan a couple of times a day (the only way I can really find the time to do anything like pylometrics AND be a busy mom!)

On a related note, I can’t really do ANYTHING with my body right now because I have a pretty intense whip lash stiffness in my neck that has been there since I went to bed on Friday night. I feel pretty immobile and ridiculous that even typing on the computer hurts, so pray my neck loosens up SOON!