So, I've been reading this nutrition book lately. It has some different ideas in it. Some might classify it as an "alternative health" book. It is called "Fit for Life". Apparently it was a huge seller in the 1980s. I just thought I would throw out some ideas that it talks about and see what everyone thinks. I would be particularly interested in any medical backup or disproving of these ideas. I have really liked some of the ideas, and I feel like all in all it is very similar to the Word of Wisdom, which is the best measure for a way of eating. Also, it just makes me believe that I can be healthier, which is encouraging. I can do it!! type attitude. (Is that PMA Todd?)
One of the main premises of the book is that there are not four food groups. There are only two. High water content food, which are fruits and veggies, and concentrated foods which are everything else, grains, dairy, protein, etc. They believe that because our bodies are 70% water that we need to eat a diet that is 70% high water content food. In other words eat lots of fruits and veggies. Hey that sounds like a good idea.
Of course it is not quite this simple. They also say there is a specific way to combine food so that it will digest better and free up more energy in your body for you to use, instead of your digestive system to use. This will also free your body from the buildup of toxins from eating food improperly. For example you are only supposed to eat one concentrated food at a time, only to be combined with vegetables. So that means only bread, or only meat, or only cheese. You couldn't have the full sandwich. Since they are different types of concentrated food it is very difficult on your body. The proteins require an acid type digestive juice to be digested and the starch require an alkaline type juice to be digested (or is it the other way around), so when you eat these things together it neutralizes the stomach juices, and then your body just keeps pumping out more and more juices and nothing is getting fully digested, and the food usually ends up leaving the stomach putrified or fermented because it has had to sit in the stomach so long. But wait ... there's more!
Apparently we have all been eating fruit the wrong way. They say fruit is the very most beneficial food to eat for your body. But, it must be consumed properly. You should only eat fruit on an empty stomach. If you don't, it ferments in your stomach while it's waiting to digest with the other food, becoming very acidic and toxic. If you eat it on an empty stomach, it gets through the stomach in about a half hour - shorter than any other food! Then it brings all it's life giving water through the intestines (isn't this entertaining?).
Well, there's much more to this program, but I'm afraid I've bored you already. I just want to know what you people think. I think there's a lot of good in this program, but it would definitely take some getting used to and you'd have to give up some of your favorite foods. Some folks think the Diamonds (the authors of this book) are quacks, but those who've tried the program (as testified to on Amazon.com!) have felt their health significantly improve and have lost weight as well. One other little tidbit if you want to look into it some more; this way of living is part of a movement called Natural Hygiene. So, let me know what you think, or if you know of something that has worked for you!
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Handcarts and Dancers
I'm sure you everyone is probably tired of hearing us talk about Nauvoo. It seems we've spent more than our share of time there this summer, but we have one last summer Nauvoo event to tell you about. One of my responsibilities at church is to oversee the youth programs and our youth council has been working for months to organize a big “Youth Nauvoo Day”. It was yesterday and turned out to be a great success - we had nearly 40 youth and leaders participating.
In the morning we split into two groups - one went to the temple, the other to the Carthage Jail. I ended up with the temple group and had a great experience. It was the first visit to the temple for a couple of the youth and all had a good time. From all reports, the Carthage group had a great experience as well.
In the afternoon, we headed out on the Nauvoo handcart trek. The trek followed a three mile course through the hills north of Nauvoo. They had told us going in to expect to spend 3 hours to do the full course. I had thought, “three hours? It’s only 3 miles – how could it possibly take three hours?” I never expected it to be as challenging as it turned out to be. About a third of the way through (only a mile in) we started questioning whether we wanted to do the whole trip or if we should take the shortcut back. We had spent almost an hour going up and muddy hills, crossing creek beds, and climbing steep ravine walls. It definitely wasn’t easy going.
We eventually finished the full three miles and made it back to the outfitting shed, but we were all exhausted. I had a chance to speak to the group after it was all over. I told them that we had just finished a three mile trek. I said, “now go and do that 4 more times today and every day from now on for the next several months. In all, you will do our little three mile walk 400 more times and then you will almost be to the Salt Lake Valley. Don’t forget to add several hundred pounds of cargo to your handcarts (ours were empty) and most of your carts won’t have steel axles or sturdy frames (like ours did). Tack on freezing temperatures, 2 feet of snow, blizzards, malnutrition, lack of modern clothing or shoes, and death of nearly a quarter of your company.” These were the conditions that some of the handcart companies traveled under in their journey west. After the experience yesterday – the suffering they experienced is something that I cannot even begin to imagine. I think all of us gained a much greater appreciation for the sacrifices of those early saints through this experience.
After we recovered from the handcart trek, we gathered for dinner and games. In the evening, we headed up to the temple and had a short fireside on the hill across from the temple. Then we went to see the BYU International Folk Dance and Music Ensemble. The performance was incredible and very entertaining. Some of our young men were quite stricken by some of the female performers. They hung around after the show to talk to the prettiest one and ended up each winning a hug from her. Talking to them later that turned out to be the highlight of the whole day for them. It was rather amusing.
Following the folk dance show, we went to one other show and finally headed home. Everyone was exhausted, but all had a great time. Working with the youth has been by far the most rewarding and enjoyable part of my calling.
In the morning we split into two groups - one went to the temple, the other to the Carthage Jail. I ended up with the temple group and had a great experience. It was the first visit to the temple for a couple of the youth and all had a good time. From all reports, the Carthage group had a great experience as well.
In the afternoon, we headed out on the Nauvoo handcart trek. The trek followed a three mile course through the hills north of Nauvoo. They had told us going in to expect to spend 3 hours to do the full course. I had thought, “three hours? It’s only 3 miles – how could it possibly take three hours?” I never expected it to be as challenging as it turned out to be. About a third of the way through (only a mile in) we started questioning whether we wanted to do the whole trip or if we should take the shortcut back. We had spent almost an hour going up and muddy hills, crossing creek beds, and climbing steep ravine walls. It definitely wasn’t easy going.
We eventually finished the full three miles and made it back to the outfitting shed, but we were all exhausted. I had a chance to speak to the group after it was all over. I told them that we had just finished a three mile trek. I said, “now go and do that 4 more times today and every day from now on for the next several months. In all, you will do our little three mile walk 400 more times and then you will almost be to the Salt Lake Valley. Don’t forget to add several hundred pounds of cargo to your handcarts (ours were empty) and most of your carts won’t have steel axles or sturdy frames (like ours did). Tack on freezing temperatures, 2 feet of snow, blizzards, malnutrition, lack of modern clothing or shoes, and death of nearly a quarter of your company.” These were the conditions that some of the handcart companies traveled under in their journey west. After the experience yesterday – the suffering they experienced is something that I cannot even begin to imagine. I think all of us gained a much greater appreciation for the sacrifices of those early saints through this experience.
After we recovered from the handcart trek, we gathered for dinner and games. In the evening, we headed up to the temple and had a short fireside on the hill across from the temple. Then we went to see the BYU International Folk Dance and Music Ensemble. The performance was incredible and very entertaining. Some of our young men were quite stricken by some of the female performers. They hung around after the show to talk to the prettiest one and ended up each winning a hug from her. Talking to them later that turned out to be the highlight of the whole day for them. It was rather amusing.
Following the folk dance show, we went to one other show and finally headed home. Everyone was exhausted, but all had a great time. Working with the youth has been by far the most rewarding and enjoyable part of my calling.
A couple 'a crazy weeks
Well, I haven't blogged in a while. Greg informed me that it was my turn, so here I am. It has been a crazy couple of weeks for us. If you can't tell from my lack of blogging, I am struggling to keep my head above water right now. It seems to take about all of my energy just to take care of the kids each day, then when you add on extra things, whoa.
Some of these extra things have included, among others, Greg's mom's visit to our home, Greg working very late every night this week and then being gone all day yesterday, and Adam starting school.
We had a great visit with Greg's mom last weekend. The kids were in heaven as their grandma played with them almost every moment that they were awake. She even squished herself into the back of our van between Lizzy's carseat and Adam and rode to Nauvoo and back, entertaining the kids all the way (or was it they who were entertaining her?). Adam didn't even fall asleep on the way home, despite the late hour, because he was enjoying talking his grandma's ear off way too much. The kids were very sad to see her go, and so were Greg and I. We hope to see her again sooner than later.
Greg is at the end of a big project and has been putting in tons of extra hours to clean up the mess of others and try to get things in order before some collaborating has to be done this coming week. I don't think he came home before 9:30 any night this week, except Friday (and that was only because I had something previously planned at our house and needed help with the kids). Then he was gone before 7 am Saturday and didn't get home until midnight for this huge youth Nauvoo day for our ward. Needless to say we are both exhausted. He assures me that his hours will not be so late this week. I know my brother has been spending tons of time at the hospital. My heart goes out to him and his wonderful wife. It is really hard not seeing your spouse much, and then when you do see them your both so tired you can hardly speak without slurring your words (which is what I am doing right now, if typing could talk). I am glad we don't have weeks like this very often. Usually Greg keeps great hours and I will look forward to those hours (and no others) this week.
The other thing that has sort of flipped things around this week, is that Adam has started back to school. I think it was harder to see him off this year than last. The summer went so much better than I thought it would, having him home all day. We really enjoyed having him around and have missed him already. He was also way nervous about starting at a new school. I felt like such a terrible mom having to put him through this. But things have gone really well. He seems to feel comfortable with the school and the routine of it all. He loves schedules and routines. It has been hard for me to get back into dropping him off and picking him up routine everyday, though. It seems I am always having to wake the baby so we can go to the school. It is also discouraging that his teacher is on maternity leave until the middle/end of September, so he has a sub until then. Then of course there is the whole ordeal of making sure the school is meeting his needs which seemed like such a challenge for me last year. I am not looking forward to that. There are more programs and teachers available to Adam at this school, because it is much bigger than our last one, but it is a matter of getting him in those programs. Already the "work" he has brought home is sooo easy for him. Sometimes, we think, now why is it we are sending him to school, he reads so much more and is so much more involved in things he is interested in at home. I guess if I had to pick a challenge for a kid though, this would be a good one to pick. He loves learning (so far) and is interested in such a variety of things. Just having to be on "school time" again changes the flow of things around here.
Anyway, enough. If you have even finished reading this posting you must have a little more time on your hands than I do! I probably wouldn't have even written this much but once you get me going it's hard to stop me. Cleanse and purge and all that.
Some of these extra things have included, among others, Greg's mom's visit to our home, Greg working very late every night this week and then being gone all day yesterday, and Adam starting school.
We had a great visit with Greg's mom last weekend. The kids were in heaven as their grandma played with them almost every moment that they were awake. She even squished herself into the back of our van between Lizzy's carseat and Adam and rode to Nauvoo and back, entertaining the kids all the way (or was it they who were entertaining her?). Adam didn't even fall asleep on the way home, despite the late hour, because he was enjoying talking his grandma's ear off way too much. The kids were very sad to see her go, and so were Greg and I. We hope to see her again sooner than later.
Greg is at the end of a big project and has been putting in tons of extra hours to clean up the mess of others and try to get things in order before some collaborating has to be done this coming week. I don't think he came home before 9:30 any night this week, except Friday (and that was only because I had something previously planned at our house and needed help with the kids). Then he was gone before 7 am Saturday and didn't get home until midnight for this huge youth Nauvoo day for our ward. Needless to say we are both exhausted. He assures me that his hours will not be so late this week. I know my brother has been spending tons of time at the hospital. My heart goes out to him and his wonderful wife. It is really hard not seeing your spouse much, and then when you do see them your both so tired you can hardly speak without slurring your words (which is what I am doing right now, if typing could talk). I am glad we don't have weeks like this very often. Usually Greg keeps great hours and I will look forward to those hours (and no others) this week.
The other thing that has sort of flipped things around this week, is that Adam has started back to school. I think it was harder to see him off this year than last. The summer went so much better than I thought it would, having him home all day. We really enjoyed having him around and have missed him already. He was also way nervous about starting at a new school. I felt like such a terrible mom having to put him through this. But things have gone really well. He seems to feel comfortable with the school and the routine of it all. He loves schedules and routines. It has been hard for me to get back into dropping him off and picking him up routine everyday, though. It seems I am always having to wake the baby so we can go to the school. It is also discouraging that his teacher is on maternity leave until the middle/end of September, so he has a sub until then. Then of course there is the whole ordeal of making sure the school is meeting his needs which seemed like such a challenge for me last year. I am not looking forward to that. There are more programs and teachers available to Adam at this school, because it is much bigger than our last one, but it is a matter of getting him in those programs. Already the "work" he has brought home is sooo easy for him. Sometimes, we think, now why is it we are sending him to school, he reads so much more and is so much more involved in things he is interested in at home. I guess if I had to pick a challenge for a kid though, this would be a good one to pick. He loves learning (so far) and is interested in such a variety of things. Just having to be on "school time" again changes the flow of things around here.
Anyway, enough. If you have even finished reading this posting you must have a little more time on your hands than I do! I probably wouldn't have even written this much but once you get me going it's hard to stop me. Cleanse and purge and all that.
Monday, August 15, 2005
Grandma's Belly Ache
Yesterday morning, Anna decided that Grandma deserved a belated birthday cake, so she set out constructing one. Pretty soon Adam and Lizzy had joined in the fun and constructed an 8 foot tall "cake". Poor Grandma had to eat it all! She had quite the bellyache by the end. (Click the picture to get a better look at it!)
Friday, August 12, 2005
Grandma Cherrie (Greg's mom) has come to visit this weekend. We decided to go out on a riverboat cruise this afternoon. The kids had earned free kids passes for finishing their summer reading programs, so we all headed out to enjoy some time on the river. Here's the crew crossing the gang plank to get on board.
Sunday, August 07, 2005
About Adam
Tammy has been writing occasionally about each of the kids, so I've decided to take a turn and write about Adam.
This week Adam passed level 1 swimming lessons. It was his third try at level 1 (can you tell we don't swim a whole lot?) but this time passed with flying colors. One of the requirements was to hold your breath underwater for at least 5 seconds. His big goal for the session was to set a new "record" of breath holding. He ended up holding it for 40 seconds - far outdistancing his previous record and the others in his class (I think the next longest was 22 seconds). If you can't tell he likes to push himself a lot.
Another big challenge he's taken on is to read the whole Book of Mormon by the end of the year. President Hinckley issued a challenge to all church members to read the whole Book of Mormon before the end of the year (about 1.5 chapters per day). That's no small task for a grown-up, let alone a six year old, but it's something he didn't even think twice about when I mentioned it to him. It's also been very good for me though - he's come in every morning this week at 6 am to drag me down to read. We each read a couple of chapters silently and then spend a few minutes talking about it. I'm always amazed at the level of comprehension that he has of this difficult scriptural language. When he was little, Tammy used to spend a lot of time with him teaching him scripture stories. I expect that helps him to better put in context what he is reading.
Adam loves to read and he's very good at it. He's spent much of his time reading this summer - he's read more than 50 chapter books since school let out in June. The library is running out of youth chapter books for him to read. He's also taken to math quite a bit this summer and astonishes me from time to time with his mental calculating. The other day we were talking about the Bix race and I told him that I was running the 7 miles at about a 10 minute per mile pace. Without a blink of an eye or a second thought, he says, "Oh, so you finished in an hour and ten minutes."
Adam is also beginning to develop a love of sports. I guess with his competitive spirit it is only natural that he would learn to love sports. He especially likes basketball (a trait he inherited from his father I think). Since we've moved to the new house, he and I have gone to the park across the street most Saturday mornings to play ball for a little while. He's not quite strong enough to get the ball up to a 10 foot hoop, but that doesn't discourage him from trying. This past Saturday, he did actually make 4 shots - three of them heaving the ball backwards over his head. The other was a frontwards shot and he was very excited when it went in. We usually play "horse" - he just has to hit the rim, I have to actually make the shot. He won every game on Saturday. Another sports related comment - a few months ago, Tammy and Adam had gone out shopping and I had stayed home with the other kids. After putting them to bed, I turned on game 7 of the NBA championship series. When Adam arrived home I told him what I was watching and mentioned that whoever won that game that night would be the world champions. His mouth literally dropped open, his face flushed, he put his hand on his heart and exclaimed, "Oh my goodness!" He was truly impressed. Tammy and I both cracked up at his expression and of course we let him stay up and watch the end of the game.
All-in-all, Adam is a pretty remarkable kid. He works hard to do well at most things he tries, especially when it involves a competition of some sort. Although he's competitive, he's usually a pretty good loser when he doesn't come out on top. He's also very considerate of his younger siblings. He encourages each of them in whatever they're doing. Lately, he's enjoyed dragging little Ben around to whereever he needs to go. He does have some "normal kid" features that can be frustrating - he doesn't like to do chores, doesn't always care much for what mom and dad have to say, will provoke his sister's to get them screaming, and so forth - but overall we're very happy to have Adam!
This week Adam passed level 1 swimming lessons. It was his third try at level 1 (can you tell we don't swim a whole lot?) but this time passed with flying colors. One of the requirements was to hold your breath underwater for at least 5 seconds. His big goal for the session was to set a new "record" of breath holding. He ended up holding it for 40 seconds - far outdistancing his previous record and the others in his class (I think the next longest was 22 seconds). If you can't tell he likes to push himself a lot.
Another big challenge he's taken on is to read the whole Book of Mormon by the end of the year. President Hinckley issued a challenge to all church members to read the whole Book of Mormon before the end of the year (about 1.5 chapters per day). That's no small task for a grown-up, let alone a six year old, but it's something he didn't even think twice about when I mentioned it to him. It's also been very good for me though - he's come in every morning this week at 6 am to drag me down to read. We each read a couple of chapters silently and then spend a few minutes talking about it. I'm always amazed at the level of comprehension that he has of this difficult scriptural language. When he was little, Tammy used to spend a lot of time with him teaching him scripture stories. I expect that helps him to better put in context what he is reading.
Adam loves to read and he's very good at it. He's spent much of his time reading this summer - he's read more than 50 chapter books since school let out in June. The library is running out of youth chapter books for him to read. He's also taken to math quite a bit this summer and astonishes me from time to time with his mental calculating. The other day we were talking about the Bix race and I told him that I was running the 7 miles at about a 10 minute per mile pace. Without a blink of an eye or a second thought, he says, "Oh, so you finished in an hour and ten minutes."
Adam is also beginning to develop a love of sports. I guess with his competitive spirit it is only natural that he would learn to love sports. He especially likes basketball (a trait he inherited from his father I think). Since we've moved to the new house, he and I have gone to the park across the street most Saturday mornings to play ball for a little while. He's not quite strong enough to get the ball up to a 10 foot hoop, but that doesn't discourage him from trying. This past Saturday, he did actually make 4 shots - three of them heaving the ball backwards over his head. The other was a frontwards shot and he was very excited when it went in. We usually play "horse" - he just has to hit the rim, I have to actually make the shot. He won every game on Saturday. Another sports related comment - a few months ago, Tammy and Adam had gone out shopping and I had stayed home with the other kids. After putting them to bed, I turned on game 7 of the NBA championship series. When Adam arrived home I told him what I was watching and mentioned that whoever won that game that night would be the world champions. His mouth literally dropped open, his face flushed, he put his hand on his heart and exclaimed, "Oh my goodness!" He was truly impressed. Tammy and I both cracked up at his expression and of course we let him stay up and watch the end of the game.
All-in-all, Adam is a pretty remarkable kid. He works hard to do well at most things he tries, especially when it involves a competition of some sort. Although he's competitive, he's usually a pretty good loser when he doesn't come out on top. He's also very considerate of his younger siblings. He encourages each of them in whatever they're doing. Lately, he's enjoyed dragging little Ben around to whereever he needs to go. He does have some "normal kid" features that can be frustrating - he doesn't like to do chores, doesn't always care much for what mom and dad have to say, will provoke his sister's to get them screaming, and so forth - but overall we're very happy to have Adam!
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