10 days of real food

I am eating chocolate chips as I write this. The first chocolate chips I have had in more than 10 days. That's a big deal for me, considering I used to have chocolate chips as an everyday snack. (That's probably part of the reason why the pregnancy weight is coming off more slowly this time around... but that's another blog post for another day...)

This is a really long post, but I hope you find it valuable.

About a month ago, Tony and I decided we wanted to try the "10 Days of Real Food" challenge, as posted on the blog 100daysofrealfood.com. (One family did this diet for 100 days.) The rules are inspired by one of my favorite books, In Defense of Food, and are as such:
-No foods that contain sugar or artificial sweeteners, except for those naturally occurring in foods like fruit, honey and maple syrup. (Honey and maple syrup should be used sparingly, though.)
-No white flour or foods that contain white flour.
-Nothing out of a package, can or box that contains more than 5 ingredients.
-No fried or "fast" foods.
-Grain products must be 100 percent whole grain.
-Only meat that is locally produced. Fish and seafood (wild-caught is best) is also allowed but doesn't have to be local. (The best we could do was the meat from the meat counter at Whole Foods, which includes where the meat came from in its signage. All of our meat came from the midwest.)
-Fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds are free game. So are dairy products that contain 5 or fewer ingredients.
-Allowed beverages were milk, 100 percent fruit juice, water, tea and coffee.

We decided we would start after the new year and ended up taking the challenge from Jan. 9-18. I did a lot of research and planning ahead so I could be sure we would have plenty of "allowed" foods on hand. I planned a 7-day menu for the first week of the challenge, which was extremely helpful. What did we eat? Here is a general idea:

-Breakfast: Homemade granola, oatmeal, eggs, toast (from homemade bread or bread purchased from Great Harvest Bread Co., which makes some varieties with 5 ingredients or fewer and only honey as a sweetener), whole wheat banana pancakes, muffins (made with orange juice and honey)
-Lunch: PB&J; homemade mac and cheese; salads; wraps made with homemade, 100-percent whole wheat tortillas; leftovers from dinner
-Snacks: Unsweetened dried fruit, nuts, whole fruit and raw veggies, Triscuit crackers (only 3 ingredients and whole-grain!), cheese, Larabars that have 5 ingredients or less (my favorite flavors were lemon and cherry pie), smoothies
-Dinner: Soups, chicken fried rice, fajitas, roast chicken, etc.

The first day we started the challenge, I moved the "forbidden foods" to their own cupboard so they wouldn't be such a temptation. Tony and I were craving sugar like crazy during the first few days. It was then we realized we are sugar/white flour addicts. Also, we noticed our GI systems were taking a beating because of the dramatic increase in fiber in our diets (sorry if that's TMI - just keepin' it real!) After those first few days, though, we noticed we didn't feel as sluggish as we did before we started the challenge.

We had already agreed that we would just do our best if we had dinner at another person's house or if we went out to eat. But I had a big cheater moment on Saturday when I took my mom out for lunch and had a turkey melt (on white!) and french fries. Definitely didn't do my best, and I regret it.

All in all, it was a great experience. I even lost a few pounds! I would definitely recommend it to anyone thinking about changing their diet to include more whole foods, less sugar and fewer highly-processed products. Here is what I learned:
-You have to read the ingredients on the foods you buy! Who knew that shredded cheese has more than 5 ingredients? Who knew that some pastas that say "whole grain" are not 100-percent whole grain? Why are there so many ingredients in store-bought bread and tortillas? And why does regular sour cream contain a whole boatload of ingredients, while organic sour cream contains only two or three?
-Keeping highly processed foods out of our regular diet takes a lot of work. This was a very cooking-intensive challenge. Convenience foods are usually very processed. Planning ahead made the challenge easier, but still, there was a lot of cooking involved. Some days it really wore me out. I can see that it would take a lot of work and dedication to make this diet work for a large family.
-We (Tony & I) don't typically drink enough water. And drinking water is important, because sometimes we think we are hungry when our body is really telling us we are thirsty. It's also important to drink lots of water when you are eating a diet very high in fiber. I learned this the hard way!
-We love baking our own bread and eating Great Harvest bread. It was worth the investment.
-Switching to 100-percent whole grain foods wasn't that bad. Macaroni and cheese made with whole-wheat flour and whole-wheat noodles is not the same as the blue box version, but its still very yummy.
-Toddlers (and other children, I'm sure) do have the capacity to follow this diet without too much trouble. I felt bad because Ruth's snack options were fairly limited, as she didn't like a lot of the choices. But she survived and enjoyed many of the things that we ate.
-There are lots of minimally processed, whole-food options. I found lots of great, healthy, new recipes and products. We really love the dried, unsweetened fruit you can find at Trader Joe's (mango and pineapple!), Larabars, homemade granola, and homemade tomato soup.
-Eating less processed food can be more expensive. But the idea is that if you eat well and spend more money on nutrient-dense food, you will spend less money on healthcare expenses in the future.

We believe moderation is okay in all foods. If we eat at someone's house, we aren't going to ask if their noodles are 100-percent whole wheat. When Valentine's Day comes around, we aren't going to ban candy from the house. (I actually have plans to make heart-shaped rice krispies treats.) However, after this experiment, we also hope to make some permanent changes in our family's diet:
-We want to keep our sugar consumption to a minimum. We aren't going to buy ice cream or sweetened cereals on a regular basis. We won't make cookies, brownies, etc., except for on special occasions. Whenever possible, we will bake items using natural sweeteners like juice, applesauce, honey and maple syrup. We also want to avoid pop and other sweetened beverages. This will be good for all of us, especially since diabetes runs in both of our families.
-Whenever possible, we want to make our grain products 100-percent whole grains. We are going to continue using Great Harvest Bread and homemade bread and stop buying bread from the store.
-We want to keep increasing our intake of veggies and fruits (but mostly veggies).
-We want more of our food to be locally-produced. We are seriously considering joining the Nebraska Food Cooperative, which allows members to purchase locally grown/raised produce, meat, poultry, eggs and a variety of other items. We also plan on shopping at the Omaha Farmer's Market when it starts again.
-We'll buy organic whenever we can afford it - especially organic dairy (the Hy-Vee brand organic milk is produced in Iowa, so it's local, too), meat and eggs.
-We don't want to buy packages foods with long lists of weird ingredients. I don't mind so much if it contains more than 5 ingredients, as long as it's not too many more than 5 and I can pronounce all of them.

If you want to try this diet or get more information, check out 100daysofrealfood.com. The site author provides lots of meal ideas, recipes and tips.

By the way, after the 10 days, the chocolate chips aren't even that great! I never thought I would be able to say that!

Christmas and home improvement adventures

I know this post is very late. But better late than never!

We had a wonderful Christmas here. Opening Christmas presents became a week-long thing, though, with opening presents from grandparents on Sunday and Monday, presents from aunts and uncles on Friday and Santa's arrival on Saturday. We were blessed with some great gifts -- I got a stand mixer, some earrings and lots of other neat things. Santa brought Tony and I fly fishing poles and reels. Ruthie got some Lego blocks, a Princess kitchen, books, and lots of other toys and clothes. Eva got a tummy time mat, books and clothes.



Ruth and Jack also spent some time decorating graham cracker houses before Christmas. They did a great job.
And here is just a cute picture of them playing together. Jack is such a good sport. :)


Christmas is such a wonderful, magical time, especially for children, and now I can't wait for it to come around again this year!

And now for our home improvement adventures...
We decided to take down the wood paneling in the dining room. We did it on a whim one night as a "date" of sorts. It ended up being a fairly stressful date. Taking down the paneling was easy enough. It's repairing the walls underneath that will be stressful.



The previous owners did a really messy job when they cut the bar area into the kitchen. Since our walls are all lath and plaster, we will have to tear down and patch up what we can with drywall. But since there is probably lead paint in the walls of our 101-year-old house, we need to do it on a day when the girls and I can leave the house and Tony can spend the day doing demo, drywall, and cleanup work.

We also found another surprise under the paneling....

Mr. Moldy-mold made an appearance under the windowsill.
The mold was under the oldest window in our house (it is seriously extremely old and falling apart), so chances are good that it formed because the window is leaking. I cleaned up the mold with some household cleaners and we have plans to replace all three windows along the window seat. We are also planning on tearing out the window seat and completely replacing it along with the small section of wall that was moldy. There is no insulation under the window seat, and that area of the house is very drafty.

However, it's cold out, in case you haven't noticed. So the dining room project is on hold until it warms up a bit and we can get the windows replaced. *sigh* If you come over, please forgive my ugly dining room.

Here is a before:


And after:


We left the paneling up on the top part of the wall temporarily, because there are chunks of wall missing underneath up there, too. We will take the paneling down when Tony's ready to do the demolition and drywall.

In the meantime, we are going to tear down some wallpaper and paint the living room. Tony even went out and bought some paint and supplies. I'm incredibly indecisive about paint colors. It drives Tony a little nuts. I can't decide what color to paint the walls, and I also can't decide if I should leave the wood trim unpainted or paint it white. Right now I'm leaning toward painting the walls a basic taupe-brown color and painting the trim white. So if you have any feedback on what color you think I should paint my living room and whether or not I should paint the trim, let me know. :D If you want to see a pic of our living room for reference, click on this post.

Also, our little baby Eva is getting big! She is 3 months old now! My, how the time flies.


I think that's all for today. Tomorrow I'll post about our 10 days of real food challenge, which ends today!

This and that

Wow, it has been too long since I last blogged.

Long story short, things are going well! We are all into a new routine now, and Ruth seems to be over "new baby syndrome" and enjoys being a big sister. Here are some things that have happened over the last couple of months:

-Our family joined us for Eva's blessing on Nov. 7. Thanks to everyone who was able to join us, and also thanks to those who could only join us in spirit! :)


-We got a piano! Thanks to the Zendejas family for gifting us their old upright. Ruth and her friend Jack enjoy playing on it, and Ruth is now an aspiring singer/songwriter because of it. She likes to play on the piano while flipping through the pages of the Children's Songbook and making up songs to go with the pictures. :)


-Ruth threw away her binkies. Yes, she literally walked to the trash can and threw them away. I suggested it, and she just did it. It was an unplanned thing, but she is doing really well, and I'm proud of her!

-Eva has changed from a newborn to a baby seemingly overnight! She is big - about 12 lbs already - and is wearing 3-6 month clothes. She is so smiley and chatty. Waking up to her smiling face every morning is a wonderful thing.


-On a somber note, Tony's Grandpa died. Tony traveled to Utah about a week and a half ago to attend the funeral. His Grandpa performed our sealing, and he was a wonderful man. He will be missed.

-Christmas! Wow, Christmas is so much more fun with kids who can appreciate it! Ruth loves looking at all the lights, learning about the nativity and Santa, and anticipating Christmas presents. I'm working hard to make it special for her. :)


Also, since Ruth has gotten so much better at talking during the last few months, here are some Ruth-isms:

-"I don't like it no more."
-"No! Nuffin!" (spoken when she doesn't want to do something)
-"I like it!"/"I want to!" (spoken excitedly whenever we mention something she likes to do)
-"Peeeeeeeease"
-"Perfect _______" (perfect pumpkin, perfect orange, perfect Christmas tree, etc. -- anything she sees that she likes)
-"I wub you!"

I will try to post more frequently!

Welcome, Baby Eva

Tony and I are happy to announce that our lovely little Eva Faith made her appearance at 12:30 a.m. on Monday, October 11. She was just 31 minutes shy of being a 10-10-10 baby, but the hospital had 10 babies on 10-10-10, so we were fine with not messing up those numbers. :) While part of me wished she had come earlier in the week, I know she came just when I was ready.

With out getting into too many details that would be TMI, let's just say the labor was intense. I was actually having strong contractions all throughout last week. I went to the hospital thinking "this is it!" on Tuesday night (10/5) and had 10 hours of contractions, dilated to 4 cm, and then my labor stopped. By that point, I had only slept a few hours in 24 hours and I really didn't want to stick around the hospital to get induced. So we went home and I continued to have contractions on and off throughout the week. On the way home from church on Sunday, around 4:30, I started having very strong contractions that, once again, stopped at about 7:30. I decided to go get some rest since I had been up with contractions Saturday night. I woke up at 9:15 p.m., puttered around the house, and then the contractions came on really strong, but they weren't any closer together than about 6 minutes. Finally, when I could no longer walk or talk through them, we called the midwife and told her we thought it was time to go to the hospital. She agreed. The ride to the hospital was a little crazy, as the contractions started coming very close together. We arrived at the hospital at 11:30 and I was dilated to 6 cm. About 30 minutes later I had dilated to 9 cm. The midwife broke my water, and we had a baby 30 minutes later! It was intense, but I did it!

Eva is great. She looks so much like Ruth to me, but she has a darker complexion and hair. For comparison sake, the top photo is of Eva and the bottom is of Ruth:
She's eating well and starting to get into a better sleep schedule. After just a few days of her being home, I'm convinced that newborns are easier to care for than 2-year-olds. Ruth really enjoys having a new sister. She loves greeting her in the morning and tries to share her toys, snacks, books and whatnot with her. It's actually very sweet. But Ruth is having a difficult time sorting out her feelings and has been having an overabundance of temper tantrums. Obviously, she has been out of her routine for well over a week now, and I think she's just wishing life would start to feel normal again. Hopefully it will pass within the next couple of weeks. I'm sure it's hard to share your mom and dad when you've had them all to yourself for more than 2 years.


I've been doing well -- just trying to keep up on my sleep. I have been starting to feel a little stir crazy, but I know I need to take it easy. I feel really good all day and then start to feel blue in the evening after dinner. The feelings tend to fade after a couple of hours. I have to say, it's the worst part of having a baby for me. With Ruth, those feelings went away after a couple of weeks. Here's hoping the baby blues fade faster this time around.

I am so grateful to be a mom to such wonderful little girls! Tony and I are very blessed. Thank you to everyone for your thoughts, kind acts, and well-wishes. :)

Happy fall!

For me, Labor Day marks the crossover from summer to fall. At first I was sad about it, but now I'm enjoying the cooler temperatures and the smell of the fall leaves. I feel like there was a lot I wanted to get done this summer around the house and the yard, and much of it didn't get done. But that's okay -- the winter months are still good times to work on the inside, so hopefully we can get some more rooms painted and redone as the weather gets cooler.

I have been doing some serious nesting. The upstairs is pretty much all put together right now. The rooms are bigger than I anticipated and are looking a little sparse, but that's okay. I don't like having lots of stuff just to fill space. We peeled the wallpaper off in the dining room on a whim, and now the wallpaper-less walls are starting to bother me. I'd like to get the room painted, but we need to take down the wood paneling first, and that will probably be a bigger project than we anticipate. So for now, we just have an ugly dining room! It will get done eventually. I think the bathroom will end up being our next major project. Because it's our only bathroom, the remodel will have to be carefully coordinated. We've already gathered most of the supplies we need to redo the room -- flooring, faucet, new vanity, etc. We've picked out a new tub surround and paint. We just need to block out a weekend and get it done! I don't know if it will happen before the baby comes, and that's alright, too.

I'm now in my 36th week of pregnancy. It's a little crazy. Pregnancy definitely goes by faster when you already have one child and you have a lot going on. It's starting to sink in more and more that we will have another person in our family. We have a few different names in mind, and Tony and I are looking forward to seeing what she looks like and what kind of person she becomes. I'm hoping that Ruth will adjust to it well and that she and her younger sister will grow up to be good friends. Tony and I went on a tour of the new Methodist Women's Hospital a couple of weeks ago, and it will be a great place to have the baby. They have great big whirlpool tubs in the L&D rooms, and the postpartum rooms are like mini-hotel rooms. The details of actually having the baby may get complicated depending on when she decides to come because we will have to find someone who can watch Ruth at the last minute. I am going to line up a few different people who can watch Ruth and cross my fingers that one will be available when I need them. My hope is the baby will come around her due date or later because that's when my mom has taken some time off work. But it'll work out no matter what, I'm sure.

Tony's new job is going well and he is really enjoying the management side of the business. He's been doing a great job in his classes, too, and he and Ruth have been doing a lot of fishing together in his free time. Tony recently went out and bought her a little pink Barbie pole, and she can reel in the fish all by herself now. I love watching her as she discovers new things while fishing; she gets so enthusiastic about the frogs, worms, squirrels, water bugs, ducks -- little things I often take for granted.

I have some more organizing and cleaning to do over the next few weeks, and I know the time will fly by and we will be a family of four before we know it!

Happy fall! :)

More blogs to love

Hi! I love blogs and since I have discovered some wonderful blog goodness over the last few months, I thought I'd share my favorites with you:

The Pioneer Woman
I just love this website. It's written by a woman named Ree who lives on a ranch in Oklahoma, and the site is filled with beautiful photography and delicious recipes. Ree hosts lots of great giveaways, although her readership is so huge that the chances of winning are pretty low. Today she is giving away a KitchenAid mixer. She also has her own cook book. Check it out!

Young House Love
This blog is written by a couple who are decorating their house. They share stories about their hunts to find the perfect items to make their house a home. They also give great DIY tips. I love their style.

Ucreate
This is a great blog that gathers craft projects from other blogs. They also have giveaways. Cute stuff here. Today, the site features a tutorial on how to make this lovely pillow.

Tip Junkie
I'm not sure if I've recommended Tip Junkie before, but I love this site. It's kind of like Ucreate in that it acts as a gatherer of wonderful craft, meal, activity ideas from other sites. They're basically a "tip clearinghouse" for moms. They also have great party ideas, tips on how to get organized, and lots of other stuff. The other day they had a how-to on flower oragami.

Of course, I don't get to actually do most of the things featured on these blogs, but I love to look! :)

If you have a favorite blog you think I should check out, let me know! I love blogs!

Family Reunion and Happy News

We had a great time at the family reunion about 10 days ago! Ruth did such a great job riding in the car with only one or two accidents during the entire trip. We kept her in a pull-up for those long stretches of Wyoming road where there is no place to stop and go potty. The pull-up was pretty much always dry, though. She kept herself occupied and generally didn't complain during the car ride. We arrived in beautiful Beaver Mountain on Thursday evening.
I had forgotten how much I love that place. The air was so clean and crisp, and the mountains are gorgeous. I would love to live there again. Tony and I dreamed about retiring there someday and owning our own cabin near Bear Lake. We stayed in the ski lodge, and there was a total of about 100 family members there. It was great to meet Tony's cousins, aunts and uncles and see his brother, dad and Diane. Here is Tony and his dad in our family reunion shirts:
They assigned each sibling's family a color. Ours was turquoise. Here is Ruth sporting her turquoise:
Ruth also got to meet her Great Aunt Ruth:
Tony and his cousin, Brett:
And another cousin, Olivia:
Aunt Pam and Aunt Mary Beth:


Oh, brotherly love:
Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of our family all together on my camera. Ruth had fun running around with all the little kids, blowing bubbles, etc.
I enjoyed a break from the humidity! There was great food, a talent show, games, and all kinds of other fun stuff. Here is the Gardner family band, with Tony's dad at the drums:

Tony got to go fishing with his brother a few times, which he really enjoyed. We spent Saturday in Logan with Tony's dad, Diane and Mike, and got to enjoy some Jamba Juice, Gossner's cheese and shopping at Deseret Book. Then we had a super yummy dinner at Maddox and stopped in to say hello to Grandma and Grandpa Wayman. On Sunday we drove 11 hours to North Platte and got to stay and play with our great friends, the Olbrichts. Monday we drove the last 5 hours to Omaha. I have to say, those hours seemed to be the longest of our trip. We were all completely exhausted and ready to be back home.
Don't ask me why she has a pillow on her head. Our cat, Justin, was very happy to see us after we had been gone for so long.

This week Tony and I completely finished painting the upstairs. Now I just need to sweep and mop up there, and then we can take up our furniture and get organized. This week I'm starting to watch Jack 4 days a week, which will be a big change but should be fun. Probably our most exciting announcement for this week is that TONY GOT PROMOTED!!! Woohoo!!! He has been wanting this for a long time and I am so glad it has finally happened. He is going to be the sales manager over two of the mall kiosks here. He gets a pay raise and every Sunday off as well as every other Saturday. He will also have to work longer hours during the week, but he is looking forward to the opportunity to be a leader. It'll be a new opportunity for him to stretch and grow and use his talents. His start date is Sept. 1. School also starts back up for him in a week and he's taking 13 credits, so we will have to see how all of that goes. He is so close to being done with school, we can almost taste it!

New baby comes in 7 weeks! Time is flying by! The pregnancy is going well aside from the fact that my blood pressure has been very low. I need to do better about keeping hydrated and that should correct the problem.
Here is a silly parting photo of Ruth pretending to be a ghost this morning:

And here is another cute one of Ruth hanging out with her dad:

Happy Sunday!