Making Salad the Star

Some really exciting stuff is happening in our family, all four of my kids are drinking there green smoothies daily, they are snacking on fruit and some veggies all day, and everyone of them ate salad last night at dinner even Zac!! When I say they all ate salad I mean one that was full of veggies it was the biggest thing on there plate by far and my older two asked for seconds. I can honestly say that it was one of the cheapest dinner's I have ever made for my family.

Salad being the star of our dinner will now be the new norm along with what we're already doing, we have kefir growing, green smoothies, granola, sprouts, no caffiene, milk or pork. And the next step I'd really like to take is making our own sour dough breads to get all the yeast out of our systems.

I can't believe how energy I have especially in the morning, so that's when I try to get the bulk of everything done. I get really tired around 4 pm on since Zac still doesn't sleep. For example last night I fell asleep around 10 Zac woke up at 12, then at 1, I couldn't fall asleep again until 3 because my knees, hips, and back were hurting so badly, then Nate's alarm went off at 4:15 which woke Zac up and he didn't fall back asleep until almost 6 and Gavin woke up for the day at 6:45. That's a fairly typical night for us. But with all that said I can't believe how alert and awake I feel thru the better part of the day, WITH NO CAFFIENE!! It just goes to show how much energy you can have when your feeding your body greens, live enzymes, and other wholesome foods.

Filming yesterday

I LOVE the filming!!! For many reasons one I always feel super excited to continue to try new things and feel better about what we're accomplishing, the film "crew" is hilarious and embraces my family for what it is CRAZY, and I actually get ready:)

My sister Sarah came over yesterday to help watch my kids while we filmed some interviews, and since she was around I had her do my makeup too. Which means she had to bring her 3 kids over too. So we had 6 kids here under the age of 5, fun times I know.

Anyways Kels filmed the outside of house today and the kids got into the car, which is so dangerous and they've been in trouble for it before, so they got me on camera disciplining my children AWESOME:) Also Sarah's 3 year old was dancing like crazy for them it was too cute.

Robyn came over and showed us how to make kefir and she even gave me a kefir grain, YAY!! We also told her what we've been doing and how we've been doing for the last few weeks. I love her enthusiasm!

After the film crew left it was time to take the kids to dance. Just a side note my kids dance an hour away so Tuesday we leave our house at 3 and don't get home til 7 pm. And Thursday we're gone from 3 to 8 pm, luckily Thursday we car pool with my sister so it's only twice a month I drive. So back to the point my kids all grabbed there green smoothies for the drive and Zac drank his whole 1/2 pint of it!!! Also I weighed him and he has gained a few ounces which is huge since he hasn't gained any weight in 6 months!

GAME ON! I know I haven't posted our weight loss for weeks, honestly it's because I wasn't keeping track after surgery. I started keeping track this week again I was 170.2 the last time I posted and am happy to say I'm down to 168.4. a loss of 1.8 lbs. I gained weight after surgery so last week I really weighed 173 making it a true loss of 4.6 lbs. Regardless I'm happy and feeling so much healthier.

I'll have to post Nate's weight tomorrow cause he keeps forgetting to weigh himself before he goes to work.

Granola recipe

I've had so many requests for the granola recipe so here it is.
As Robyn says: it's full of fiber and Omega-3 fatty acids, plus it will totally clean you out! I double this recipe and make it in a big broiler pan with a lid.
Mix Well:
8 C rolled oats (not instant oats, which are a processed food)
1 C raw wheat germ (found in bulk at the health food store, high in B vitamins)
1 C shredded coconut (found in bulk also- not the sugar kind)
1/2 C freshly ground flax seed (grind fresh, in your high-powered blender)
1 1/2 C nuts (walnuts, pecans, cashews, almonds, pumpkin seeds)
1/4 C sesame seeds
2 Tbsp. cinnamon

Heat on the stove until barely melted, stirring together:
1/2 C honey (raw)
1/2 C molasses or Grade B maple syrup
1/2 C water
1/2 C extra virgin coconut oil
optional: 1 Tbsp maple flavoring or vanilla

Pour liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until distributed evenly (this takes a few minutes). Bake at 250 degrees, stirring well every 20 minutes for 45-90 minutes or until dry. Keep in the pantry for up to 2 weeks in cooler weather, or in the fridge for up to six weeks.

We add dried fruit and sprouted raw sunflower seeds the day we eat them.

To sprout sunflower seeds, cover 1/2 p. of sunflower seed with filtered water overnight, then drain in the morning. They are now living food with vastly more enzymes and nutrients. Here the link to her youtube video where she makes it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1HUUEuv-QE&feature=channel_video_title

Giving myself a little more credit

So I've been kind of frustrated that we had such big set backs in the month of March. But I was reminded just how far we've come when I spent sometime at other people's houses over the weekend.

My family was offered crystal light, something that we drank on a daily basis at our house before the start of "GSM" (March 2nd). Aspartame was all over our house in what our kids were drinking and in huge quantities in what Nate and I were drinking. It's nasty stuff and it will never be consumed by our family again.

Also we have stopped consuming cows milk, and for the better part sugar and pork. Nate is really having a hard time with the whole pork thing he loves his Cafe Rio burrito with sweet pork. Which got me thinking you know what maybe we are doing a better job than I thought. In general we are making healthier choices, and doing our best to only take on what we know we will be able to commit to, and change permanently.

At the beginning I thought we will jump in and do it all, then I realized if we jumped in and changed it all at one time it would not be long standing. Also our poor insides couldn't have handled it. We are so excited to continue to look and feel better, and to live the life God intended for us. I really appreciate all your loving and encouraging comments it keeps us going.

It's been awhile

March has brought us so much: unexpected knee surgery, a little mini vacation (for my oldest's dance competition), followed by strep throat, Zac had mrsa and also began to eat!!! So sorry this all took me out of the game, but I'm back and hopefully it's for good. I would be lying if I said that being down with my knee for almost 3 weeks didn't effect out healthy eating. It totally did. I'm not sure how many green smoothies we actually drank during this time but I can promise you it wasn't enough. I've have a renewed commitment for eating healthy, of course not being bedridden has helped:) And I'm so excited to get back on track. I can say that we are and have been a caffeine free home since February!! Shameless post about my beautiful daughter PresLeigh, she took 1st place on her solo while we were down in St. George which also happened to be my 26th b-day! It was the best birthday present in the world all of her commitment, dedication, hours of practicing had paid off. I am so proud of her.

(If you look in the background you can see my mom is wearing a shirt with her 3 grandkids that were at the dance comp. My sister and I made shirts for ourselves too. I love that our kids still think we're cool)

Oh back to green smoothie stuff, oh ok:) We are drinking so much more water at our house and I think everyone in general feels lighter. We have purged our house of a lot of junk but I'm sure we still have more to throw out. Also we have used much of the money from good earth and sun warrior to buy food in bulk. I was excited about this because it means we will be able to eat this way without it killing out budget.

Zac has had an interesting month to say the least. We were told concretely that Zac was going to need an NG tube for his feedings. It was such a let down and heartbreak since I've continued to nurse him in the hopes of avoiding this. I got the run around from his GI Dr. and I was getting frustrated, but it just goes to show God always has a plan for us. Zac started eating!! It's the equivalent of what a 5-6 month old would eat but for us a success is a success. Meaning that as long as he shows progress and some weight gain he will not have the feeding tube!!!!

Zac also had an outbreak of his MRSA. It was the worst I've seen on any of our family, the sore was bigger than a silver dollar. I had been doing his Do Terra oils as religiously as I was able too. They didn't work the same way as they had in the past, I think I discovered the sore to late. I was afraid to just let it fester since he's a baby and MRSA can be life threatening. So against everything I've vowed to do and change in our family my hands were tied and I went to the doctor to get him antibiotics. His sore got 80% better in just a few doses. I'd like to team up with a doctor who heals naturally before we have another outbreak of this magnitude to prevent the us of the "A" word, if at all possible.

We haven't done any more taping since I last posted. But Robyn has kept up with us along the way and I we should be doing more filming this week.

I'm to my limit and then some

I've blogged a lot about what medical problems Zac has guess what it's more about him. Zac has never taken a bottle ever, he just wouldn't, even lately I've tried pumping and giving it to him with no success. At around 4-5 months we tried feeding him rice cereal and he had no interest in it. At his 6 month visit they said not to be concerned that this is normal. We continued to try different baby foods solids and he had no interest in any. He would randomly break out in hives and sometimes it was as much as daily. At his nine month visit we heard more of the same it's not uncommon just keep trying.

At his 1 year visit he had gained no weight since his 9 month which caused concern, it's called failure to thrive. At that point blood work was taken to run a RAST (a blood allergy test). It came back that he was allergic to milk, eggs, soy, wheat, and peanuts. We were then told to take him to a nutrionist. Who gave us some wonderful ideas and who referred us to an allergist.

We then saw Dr. Taylor (the allergist) who discovered that Zac had an allergy to milk, egg, and tree nuts. And that he only had an intolerance to soy, gluten, and peanuts. Dr. Taylor said although he does have allergies they wouldn't cause him to lose weight and definelty would not have to do with his lack of sleep so he referred us to Louis Mizzel (a gastroenterologist).

Dr. Mizzel scheduled us for an upper GI and a colonoscopy to see if he had eosinophilic esophagitis. When we got the results back we found out that yes he did indeed have it and a pretty bad case. Dr. Mizzel said it wasn't THE worst case he had seen but pretty close. So he was put on a round of steriods and previcid. The round of steriods didn't help his willingness to eat and in fact he was sleeping worse and screaming more which I didn't think was possible.

It's now a few weeks later and Zac is to the point where he won't even let something touch his lips before he starts bawling. Often times he struggles with swallowing his own spit. He was really sick last week and I couldn't get him to take tylenol. He had a fever for 4 days that I couldn't break because I couldn't get enough meds in him.

Zac went into his 15 month well check today and he hasn't gained weight in 6 months. So we are now being faced with the decision of using a feeding tube. The concern with a feeding tube is they aren't mean't to be long term and he will just pull it out, so we would have to keep reinsterting it. So there is talk about putting a tube straight into his stomach. We are also contacting the dysphagia clinic to see if they can help with his complete inability or willingness to swallow.

SUCCESS!!!!!!!

Does this post warrant that many exclamation points? In my opinion yes! Today Zac took 3 sips through a straw of green smoothie, I actually got teary eyed. Sounds silly I know but Zac will never eat anything, literally he is 15 months old and nurses full time, so for him to come back to the same thing 3 TIMES was a miracle. It felt like for the first time maybe we will get somewhere with Zac. I was so excited not only because he "ate" something but because it was a green smoothie full of nutrients and vitamins that his body is needing.

A little background on Zac if you don't already know he has eosinophilic esophagitis (a condition that causes his throat to be swollen and raw). He also has allergies to milk, eggs, tree nuts and intolerances to gluten and soy. Like I said he still nurses full-time which is a huge blessing, since they told us he would be on a feeding tube if he wasn't.

Just to give you an idea we went to one of Robyn's 12 step classes and they had little cups of kefir. Zac looked at it for a little while then I tried to give him some it only hit his lips, none got in his mouth, and he started crying and covering his face. That's why this is seriously such a huge, major, off the charts SUCCESS!!!!

And no post is complete without a picture so here is one of my friend Carrie. This little guy Nixon is 15 months also and has struggled with food allergies and not sleeping also. I'm excited about the journey this little family is about to take!