Update from the Moody Laptop

As usual I have been seriously slacking in the blogging department.  This is not helped by the fact that my laptop seems to be dying a slow and painful death.  This always happens to us, because we usually cannot afford to buy anything better than the cheapest laptop available at the time, and therefore it usually has a short life span.  This one is only three years old (and the battery itself died ages ago, it only works when plugged in).  I have a feeling it will not last much longer.  It is very temperamental and I never know when it is going to work.  Because of this, I figured that I had better write something since I don't know when the next chance I'll be able to post is.  I do have my tablet but it's not exactly great for typing long posts, so you won't catch me writing from there.  Luckily we do have another computer.  It's set up in the basement, aka the cellar, aka the dungeon, so you won't find me going down there where the house centipedes live to use it.  But we are brainstorming a way to somehow fit a mini 'office' into our living room and bring it up, so as soon as we figure out how to cram a small desk and chair into our already crowded upstairs, we'll move it.

 

It is February, and as with every other February in the history of my life I am starting to get tired of winter and feel ready for spring.  I don't mind winter, I really don't.  But it gets old around February.  Not helped by the fact that we just got buried in snow this past week.  Snow that will not likely be gone until May.  Woo hoo.  But on the upside the kids love it, and it's been great for playing in and skiing.  Yesterday I participated in the Romp to Stomp out breast cancer snowshoe walk for the second year in a row and it was amazing because of all the fresh snow.  So I guess I shouldn't complain.

 

We had the most perfect day for the Romp to Stomp and it was fantastic.  It was sunny and warm (well, warm for February).  We did the 5k walk at the Scenic Caves.  I loved it, but it seemed a lot harder than I remember from last year.  And last year I was 4 months pregnant.  I swear I'm in much better shape this year so I'm not sure why I found it so hard, but it was a good workout.  I think I should take up snowshoeing every winter, as it is a lot of fun and great exercise.  I think the kids would enjoy it, especially Tristan.  I'm thinking of trying to take him snowshoeing soon, maybe at the farm.

 

The Romp was the only exercise I got in last week (except for a bit of hooping at home here and there) because I had somehow managed to injure my shoulder.  I have no idea how it happened.  I woke up Monday morning and my shoulder hurt a lot.  I muscled through the day thinking it wasn't anything major, but around 2am Tuesday morning when I woke up to feed Lily I was in so much pain I had to go get Tylenol before going back to sleep.  When I got up that morning it had worn off and I was in much more pain, so I took some Ibuprofen.  I have been trying so hard to avoid painkillers all week but it's been so hard.  Just when I think it's getting better, it gets worse again, usually towards the end of the day.  The problem in my shoulder spread to my neck and has been affecting my arm as well.  I know it is related and aggravated by carrying Lily around on my left side.  My hip has been hurting as well.  My whole left side is a mess.  Now my shoulder seems better, but my neck has been in a lot of pain and very stiff.  If it's not one thing it's another.

 

I also got a cold last week.  It's been mild, but combined with my shoulder/neck issues it's been a rough week.  Plus Lily hasn't been sleeping well so I'm tired.  Plus Tyler has been working extra long hours trying to get work done before the rented equipment has to go back, so he has not been around.  Plus he is also sick, and his gut problems are flaring up, and he is tired and cranky, and spends all day huffing and puffing.  He still works hard and helps out, but I am annoyed.  Annoyed because just for once, I would like to get sick and/or injured on my own, and not have to 'share' the misery with someone else.  Seems like whenever I'm ill (which is rare), Tyler has it worse and then it's all boo hoo for him and no sympathy for me.  Bah!  I'm just being a complainer though.

 

Ranting aside, I do spend most of my days feeling incredibly thankful for the family I do have.  Tyler, sickness aside, has been the world's best husband this winter.  He has been around a lot and helping with the kids a lot, especially getting up in the mornings with him on really rough nights so I can sleep in (but only just a tiny bit, heaven forbid they let me stay in bed past 7:30am).  My kids are amazing and I am so grateful to have them here.  The older the get, the more things I hear happening to other people, the more thankful I am for my children.  Thankful that I got pregnant easily with them, that they arrived safely, that they are healthy, and that I have them to share every day with.

 

We have been doing a whole diet overhaul for the family this year.  Once again Tyler had had enough of his gut issues, and Finn had been suffering from awful eczema.  Determined to get to the bottom of all of this once and for all, we have been meeting with a naturopathic doctor.  She has agreed with Tyler's existing candida diagnosis, and as well has suggested a diet free of any foods he might be sensitive too (with his leaky gut, that means he is likely sensitive to almost everything under the sun).  She has put him on a strict paleo/candida hybrid type of diet for several months to get back on track.  For Finn she has agreed with my suspicions that his eczema is caused by a dairy intolerance and has recommended a dairy and gluten free diet for him.  So with Tyler and Finn's diets taken into consideration, we have been working hard as a family to eat healthier as a whole.  The paleo diet is made up mostly of meat, followed by vegetables, then fruits, then nuts.  So no dairy and no grains.  The candida diet is free of all starches, yeasts, and sugars which means that in addition to the restrictions of the paleo diet, Tyler can't have anything sugary as well (which includes most fruits). 

 

This all sounds very overwhelming, but we have embraced it and are actually finding it quite easy, and enjoyable, to eat this way.  Any other person in the world would be moping over the fact that their diet is so restricted, but Tyler has seen it as a new challenge.  He is always trying to come up with new and tasty paleo meals, and everything he has made so far has been amazing.  Giving up things like pasta has not been as hard as I thought.  If we want a pasta dish, we use zucchini sliced up like spaghetti, or spaghetti squash.  If we want something with 'rice', we use grated cauliflower.  We have done cauliflower mash instead of mashed potato.  We've had waffles and pancakes made with almond and coconut flours.  Everything has been fantastic.  We all feel healthier.  Finn's legs are slowly getting better.  Tyler feels better than ever.  And the best part is, the kids are eating better than ever.  By removing almost all carbs from their diets and most dairy as well, they are not filling up on that stuff and so they are eating all of their protein and vegetables at mealtimes.  It's brilliant. 

 

Tyler is also waiting on blood tests to see if there are any indications that he has celiac disease.  I really hope not, but there is a chance and so we need to know.

 

So it has been a rather exciting year so far, and we're only a month and a bit into it.  We're doing great and we're looking forward to so much in 2013. 

Crunchier by the Day

The word 'crunchy' gets tossed around a lot these days.  Especially in this little town we live in, people seem to gravitate towards healthier lifestyles, more natural diets, and living green.  It's nice to see the effort the whole community puts into these endeavours.  In the big city sure there are crunchy people, but there are just as many non-crunchy people so it's easy to blend in with the pack and get away with not trying so hard.  It doesn't make you feel so bad to not live healthier and greener when so many people around you aren't doing it either.  Here on the other hand, there's almost like a bit of 'pressure' to live a crunchy lifestyle.  It's not a bad thing in many ways, though I'm not a big fan of being pressured into anything.  Still, seeing the people around us make positive changes has helped us get on the bandwagon as well, and make more positive changes in our own lives.

 

When I look back to how I have lived my life over these past 31 years, I can see a definite upwards slope in the right direction.  It has been gradual though, the change has not happened overnight.  I think back to how much fast food we used to eat, and how much we used to eat at restaurants.  Then I think back to how much processed food we used to buy, and I would tell myself that we were 'eating healthy' because we were eating at home and not out at a restaurant, but the truth is all that boxed and packaged stuff was just as bad. 

 

It's hard to pinpoint such changes when they happen gradually, and only looking back can I really see how far we've come.  I know the first thing many people think of when they're faced with making  huge lifestyle and diet changes for the better, is that it is too overwhelming.  And so they do nothing at all.  I have felt that way too, I have felt that it is easier to stay on the path I'm already on than to tackle all these changes.

 

The thing is, you don't have to change everything at once.  Start small with just one thing, whether it is changing your household cleaners from chemical to natural ones, or cutting out one item of junk from your diet.  Then when that becomes second nature, make another change.  You'd be astonished to realize how much change can happen in a short period of time if you just take it one step at a time.

 

For quite awhile now I have been wary of calling ourselves 'crunchy'.  There are so many variations and levels of crunchiness out there, and it seems that the extreme people who run the pack set very high standards.  While we had done so many things to improve our life and try and leave the world a little greener, it always seemed like we still could not match those who went all out.  It can be a little discouraging to be trying as hard as *you* can and yet someone else is still doing so much more.  I have learned to use those people as a motivation to keep striving to be a better, healthier, greener family but not be setback because I'm not doing all the same things as them.  I am also happy and comfortable with all the positive changes we have made as a family, and I know there are still lots more to be made but like I said we are making them one step at a time.  Rome wasn't built in a day, as they say.

 

So I am going to do it, I'm going to officially say we are a 'crunchy' family.  And I'm proud of it.  We may not be able to tick off every single checkbox yet, but we can tick off more than most.  I'd put us on a 7 out of 10 on the crunchy scale.  Hey, that's not half bad!

 

I don't really believe in living in extremes, so we may never be there 100%, but I'm ok with that.  Extreme diets, extreme opinions, that kind of stuff isn't for me.  I just want to do what's right for my family.  And we'll continue to do more.  Like I said, when I look back at how our lives used to be, even just a few years ago, I can't believe how far we've come. 

 

We use cloth diapers, which I wish I had done from the start because I now cringe at the thought of all those disposibles lying in a landfill.  I try to hang all my laundry year round to reduce the amount I have to use the dryer.  I am very conscious of energy and water use.  We're working on buying more locally, and buying healthier food.  The amount of food that we buy organic has increased a lot over the years.  Most recently we have cut out about 95% of packaged and processed foods we were buying.  We have been doing well with avoiding junk food in general but were still buying a lot of packaged snacks like cereal bars, granola, crackers, and chips (sticking to natural and organic brands, but the bottom line is organic junk food is still junk food).  Now we are making much of this stuff our own.  The only thing I am still really buying in a box is cereal, just to have something on hand.  But I am ok with that. 

 

Next step is I want to look into the Collingwood Food Co-op that has been in the works here for a few months.  I've kept an eye on it with interest and I think it's something we will join in the not too distant future so that we can continue to buy locally.

 

And of course we have been growing a lot of our own food, and continue to do so with winter crops in our hoop house.

 

Let's not forget my ongoing mission to lead a more active lifestyle through daily fitness.  I want to be a role model for my kids so that they see how important exercise is to overall health.  I want them to grow up enjoying being active, and not being couch potatoes. 

 

Another aspect that has really brought us around to this whole crunchy lifestyle, is taking a very holistic approach when it comes to our overall health.  Over the past few years we have started using more natural health practitioners like chiropractors, osteopaths, and naturopathic doctors to help us with our goals of becoming healthier individuals.  We have learned so much about what it means to be healthy from the inside out, and now I am such a firm believer in taking care of your body and treating it with respect.  Too often we see the situation of people going to their doctors with problems and the doctors are treating the symptoms and not the causes, and therefore people's health issues are never really resolved.  This is what happened to Tyler with his digestive issues, for years doctors dismissed him and treated the symptoms, when the solution really came from within:  a better diet and taking better care of himself altogether.  And too often still I see people who suffer from multiple issues that they treat as separate problems, when really it is one big problem, for example a food allergy or intolerance.  But they refuse to believe that the problem could be the very food they are eating, and still seek medical advice and then are given medication after medication to treat the problems.  It actually makes me quite sad.

 

We love our chiropractor.  We really believe it is part of helping our bodies be healthy.  A healthy body doesn't need medicine to heal itself, it is perfectly capable as long as we take care of it and let it do it's job.

 

I'm so happy to say that since we have started living this way we have had far less sickness in our house, and when a bug does pass through it passes quickly and without much issue.  My kids get the sniffles and that's about it.  None of them have every had a vomiting or gastro bug.  I know kids that are sick all the time, and even Tristan's teachers have commented on how he is rarely sick compared to other children.  Some people may say we are lucky, I say luck has nothing to do with it.

 

When it comes to products in the home, whether they are cleaning products or health and beauty ones, I used to feel so overwhelmed at the thought of changing over to more natural brands, especially because of the cost.  But again, we started changing one thing at a time and now we pretty much exclusively use natural products in our home.  When it comes to cleaning, I am far more afraid of chemicals in cleaning products than I am of germs.  When it comes to beauty, I believe less is more.  I used to buy and wear so much makeup, and buy so many skin care products.  Now I have hardly any.  I have stopped using nail polish because I can't see how having that toxic stuff around is any good.  I use very few skincare products compared to the past, and rarely wear makeup anymore.  And I'm ok with all of this, I'm comfortable in my own skin.  Even for my children, I put very little on their skin.

 

I think I could sit and think of lots of little changes we have made that I am proud of but I'm just about out of time for now.

 

Obviously I've had a lot to say on this topic, and I say it not with the intention of trying to change other people's minds (I actually don't care for people who go on and on about their healthier choices with the obvious intent of guilting others into doing the same), but because I am proud of what we have done for ourselves.  And I look forward to more 'crunchy' choices that we will make in the future.