Tuesday January 8, 2013 - A little Upside Down

I'm finding it very hard to post to my blog. My evenings find my arms very full with a sweet nursing baby and my brain very tired from a busy day.  My lack of reporting in, though, is not reflective of my efforts this time. I have been doing VERY well with most of my goals this past week.

Now that the special coffee creamer we got for the holidays is gone, I've been totally sugar free for the past week. The only exception would be the sugars in our bbq sauce and salad dressings. Those are *real* sugars, though, and I'm still deciding about cutting them out. I am allowing myself to eat the foods prepared with molasses or honey that we make at home. I've cut the sugar so much in those recipes that I'm comfortable with the level of sweetener in them. Just enough to make it palatable. ;)

I was so surprised to see our 13, 10, and 8 year old all make a pact together to kick the sugar from their diet too. They've started paying more attention to what they are eating, purposing to avoid adding sugar to their cereal and they even all chose to use applesauce on their french toast yesterday in place of syrup. Pretty cool. :) I encouraged them by giving fresh golden pears in their stockings instead of chocolate coins like I normally would. I think they all enjoyed a cookie at church on Sunday, though. ;) I haven't been correcting or saying anything. I want to allow them the freedom to make these choices and see their effects. I remind from time to time just to see how they will wrestle with their choices. But, I certainly don't see anything wrong with them allowing themselves a treat from time to time. Especially when they've been so good with their choices overall.

I've also been yeast-free for the past week. Well, except for the small amounts in the crackers and tortillas we purchase. I've stopped buying those crackers ;) and I'm deciding about the tortillas. The brand I buy that has yeast has the fewest ingredients and they are actually foods I recognize. The brand with no yeast also has a long list of additives and products that don't equate natural or *real* in my mind.  I guess, so far, I've decided that a little yeast is better than the foreign stuff.  In turn, I've chosen to eat those tortillas infrequently to avoid exposure.

With all of those changes, I don't feel deprived much at all. I admit, I did wander the kitchen yesterday afternoon with a major craving for bread. It took a lot of willpower not to eat it until I finally landed on some cooked turkey to satisfy my appetite. The bread is really a battle for me. But, so far, I'm winning. :)  I know I said I wanted to set my goal for just a month with this, but I really think that my addiction is so strong, I'd really better not go back to it. We'll see, and I don't want to become unbalanced, but I do want to break this hold that a silly food would have on me.

We joined the Y last night. I don't exactly know how that will look afa real exercise for me. But, I am excited we'll have some new things to try to just get us moving and active as a family. That meets a great hope/goal/desire of mine to just be active and enjoying life together as a family. We'll try the family fun night tonight and see how we like it.

Breakfast has already begun, so I need to join the team. I'm so tired after being up 3 times with Baby last night. We had the most amazing first day back to school yesterday. I need to push and let this caffeine do it's work so today can progress too.