So we went Paleo for a month...

As many of you know, Eric and I attempted Paleo for a month. I will say in these past few weeks, I learned a lot. This is just my take on Paleo, by no means am I an expert.

I did not go Paleo to lose weight. I love cheese, beer, wine, and bread. Oh gosh how I love bread. I don't like diets, I don't believe there is a magic solution to losing weight. I believe in eating healthy and in moderation and maintaining some sort of fitness level.

That being said, what inspired me to go Paleo had nothing to do losing weight. Ever since Kendall was born, I started thinking about food differently. I don't want to create a culture in my house where mom is always on a diet. I want Kendall and all my future children to have a positive body image and I realize that it starts with me. I want my family to have a positive relationship with food. Food is not our enemy, it's not a coping device (though after a stressful day at work, I crave brownie batter), and I believe food should be enjoyed! I don't want to have a fridge and pantry full of low fat/reduced fat "healthy" foods. I want it to be full of whole non-processed foods!

Over a year ago, I gave up soda. It was tough for a few weeks, but now I don't even think about it. I never really drank regular soda, I was a diet coke addict! The dentist pretty much told me it was the soda that was ruining my teeth. So I quit it and started only drinking water, milk, coffee, and tea. (ok, beer & wine too) Anyway, my teeth started improving, I have no sensitive spots, and have had three cavity free cleanings! After this I started to think. If I could cut diet coke out of my life, what other crap could I cut out?

Soon after that, I started thinking about Paleo. My pizza loving, beer drinking husband was not fully on board to the idea right away. I mean, could you blame him? Slowly, I warmed him up to the idea. We did paleo dinners, he gave up soda, and we started eating a lot healthier by cutting out a lot of the processed crap we had been eating.

It wasn't until after we vacationed in California when he was ready to take the plunge. We pretty much ate like crap the entire vacation. I felt gross and lazy and was not happy with myself at all. when we got back to Iowa we dove right into Paleo. The plan was to do it for a month, then slowly add in dairy and some grains.

After we got over the low-carb flu, Paleo was actually really easy! Eric got a headache and some brain fog and I had some sore muscles during the first week. But, we pushed through and stuck with it. During that month some amazing things happened. My energy level was up, and I was more regular than I had ever been before. No cramps, no feeling bloated, and backed up! (TMI, sorry!) Furthermore, I've added SO many veggies into my life. I swear it's almost like we're meat eating vegetarians! I continued to drink wine, because I'm pretty sure the cavemen fermented, and if not, then I'm sorry cavemen! We also were able to get creative with the food. Craving pancakes? We found a recipe. My sweet toothed husband was all over the paleo cookies, waffles, and pancakes and they actually taste amazing. Bananas need to be given more credit. I also fell in love with sun butter and pretty much all of Justin's nut butters. SO AMAZING. Also- enjoy life chocolate chips are the most amazing things on earth. It's allergy free chocolate and only has like 3 or 4 ingredients and it tastes so much better than Nestle chocolate chips that has like 30 ingredients.

So anyway, now that the month is over, we are drinking beer again. Last night I had whole wheat pasta but I felt guilty. I don't really have a game plan for adding foods back in. I know I don't want to overdo it and I also know I will avoid bleached flour and refined sugar to the best of my ability. Will I turn down a meal served to me? Yeah right, I still love food. But I LOVE dairy. I need cheese and ice cream in my life so I will be consuming that.

So that is my take on Paleo thus far. I am happy with it and still feel great and know how my body feels. I am also happy that my daughter will grow up eating real food. She won't see me eating Activia or low fat diet anything. Instead she will grow up in a house where food is not the enemy. She will learn to eat in moderation and enjoy amazing food with her family. Will we have In and Out and pizza? Yes, I'm sure of it. But I won't make a fuss about having to spend 3 hours at the gym burning it off..... because we will eat healthy portions! Most importantly, my digestive tract will stop punishing me for good! Well, hopefully. I'll find out more soon and see if it's dairy or gluten that was causing my problems.... or maybe it is soy. There is soy in everything!

So I hope that helps answer any questions or concerns people had over us doing this paleo thing. Trust me, we're not living off of bacon and red meat so our hearts are safe

A Blog Series?

A few days ago I was talking to Eric about how I had nothing to write about. Last night the genius spoke. He suggested I do a blog series on things I like in Cedar Falls/Waterloo. So I decided to give it a try. Over the next few weeks I will blog about things I enjoy here in town. Believe it or not, there are actually a lot of things I can talk about! 
So here is a list of what I will be blogging about starting tomorrow:
- Local Eateries 
- The Trails
- Farmer's Market
- Downtown Waterloo
- Downtown Cedar Falls
- The Lampost
- Local Events
So there you have it! Stay tuned!


Anyway, on another note, I've been obsessing lately over potential room decorations/decor. I want to change my bedroom to mustard yellow and grey... like right now. I know we really don't have time to paint and the money to change all our furniture but by the time we'll be in a position to do so, I wonder if those colors would even be in style. So I guess that is what Pinterest is for? I logged on for the first time in months and there are SO many neat things and ideas using those colors. So hopefully that will help with this little obsession for the time being. We shall see. 

Conflict of Heart

     Okay, so I've attempted to reflect via blog about my time here in Iowa over the past 2 years. Truth be told, I don't exactly know how to write about it. Every time I've tried, I've been afraid I might offend someone or my tone sounds too miserable to function. This isn't the case at all, it's not that I dislike Iowa, I'm just still adjusting to the culture change. So many people write about being "small town" and moving to the big city, but what about the opposite? Sure, Stephen Bloom wrote a little article about his time here in Iowa that was published in the Atlantic, and people flipped. When I read it, I thought it was quite funny and I understood (sort of) where he was coming from. I think Iowans forgot that he is not a Christian, he's Jewish (I'm pretty sure Iowa is just as Christian as it is white, which is around 90%) and he's not from the big city of Chicago or Minneapolis, he's from San Francisco, California and it's quite different out on the left side of the country. 
     So my conflict is how do I communicate adjusting to the culture of the Midwest without offending the people who live here and without it sounding like I moved to po-dunk nowhere to my East and West Coast friends? Do I have to put a big disclaimer on the top of my post warning people that this is the most rural area I've ever lived in so forgive me? I don't know. So maybe my reflection blog will never be written because I'm afraid of the backlash and offending people. Or maybe the Iowa has rubbed off a little on me... I'm afraid of offending people on a blog? Wow. 
     So here is a quick non-offensive reflection about Iowa. To those people who live in the bigger cities on the West Coast, Fresno is seen as a country hickville, a trashy town or something along those lines. Well Fresno has around a half million people. Here in Iowa, Des Moines is the big city coming in at a massive population of 203,433 and a metro population of 569,633 (thank you Wikipedia). Now that is the biggest city in the state. CRAZY! I've lived in Fresno and New Jersey so please forgive me Iowans when I say that Waterloo/Cedar Falls is a small area. In a lot of ways where I live is kind of like Fresno. Waterloo is about 4-5 hours from any major metropolitan area and Fresno likewise is about 3-4 hours from any major metro area. Waterloo has a reputation of being dangerous and ghetto. South of Shaw, Fresno has the same reputation. Here is what I can't get over. Iowans talk a lot about diversity. I get it, I guess, but then again I don't. When the state as a whole is still over 90% white, it's hard for me to believe this diversity card people are trying to play. Apparently Waterloo has a lot more diversity but when I look, I see a whole lot of vanilla compared to where I am from. There is no beach. This makes me sad. I really, really miss the ocean. No matter how much I adjust to life in Iowa, it will never have a beach. I mean, it's not like I went to the beach every weekend when I wasn't landlocked, but it was nice to know it was there and I could go If that was what my heart desired. It's also really cold here in the Winter. I thought New Jersey was cold, but this place takes the cake. On top of the cold, it's hot too. Not Fresno hot. I miss the dry heat. In Iowa 95 degrees plus humidity is unbearable, I can't breathe in it.  I remember NJ being humid, but not this bad. This is more like Washington DC heat with grossly cold winters. I really only want one extreme, not 2. Don't get me wrong though, I like the fact that we have 4 seasons and I like the idea of snow. I also enjoy going back to Fresno in the winter and seeing people bundled up in scarves, hats, and pea coats when the high is like 50 degrees. On top of that, I enjoy the looks people give me when I'm out in that same weather in just jeans and a long sleeve shirt. 
     Okay, I think that is enough for now.  Maybe someday I'll have the guts to produce a better blog about my time here, until then I will leave you with that. 

I am "one of those parents"

We've all heard it or muttered it, "oh, she's one of those moms." I've even done it myself. Lately, I've been making the comment internally about myself. Here's the list of everything Eric and I do. You be the judge. Am I on of those parents?

1. I breast fed. For as long as I possibly could. My curious, active little daughter pretty much self weaned herself and even baffled the pediatrician by her lack of focus. This broke my heart. I wanted to breast feed longer, so I pumped and pumped some more until I couldn't emotionally handle it any more.

2. Co-Sleeping. Trust me, with every ounce inside of me, I long for the nights when Kendall goes down in her crib and wakes up in her crib. Nothing makes me happier. I love my bed. However, at 3am when she's screaming, I am in no state of mind to sooth and rock her back to sleep. So, I do what many of those desperate mothers do, and I go into our guest room and crash there with her. I don't take her into our bd because Eric takes up too much room.

3. Rear-facing car seat. The law says that children must be rear facing until they are a year old and over 20 pounds. Well, Kendall is a year old and over 20 pounds and facing backwards. Why? Well the suggestion is to keep them rear facing until they are 2. Just a suggestion, not law. So we are following the suggestion. Besides, she doesn't know any better and doesn't share the back seat with anyone forward facing so I don't feel all that bad.

4. Cloth Diapers. I love it. I started reluctantly but it was the best choice we could have made. Poopy diaper are no more disgusting in cloth than disposable. Yes, there is extra laundry involved and Kendall has a "diaper butt," but I love it. Besides the diapers today are light years better than what our parents' options were.

5. No TV. Studies show that children should not watch TV until they are at least 2. Even then, there are only certain programs for them. TV programs designed for toddlers, amazing. The over stimulation is not good for their little developing minds at such a young age so people suggest you refrain. This actually isn't bad at all. Since we don't have cable anyway, our TV has moved down into the basement and is hardly ever on. Our living room/family rom or whatever you want to call it, is exactly that. We are a family in there and we live in there. We don't live for Mickey Mouse clubhouse to come on and entertain Kendall or live for whatever else crap comes on TV. We play games with her, engage. and have dance parties. Don't get me wrong, I still love me some TV time. And the minute Kendall has gone to bed, Eric and I are downstairs in the basement checking out Netflix.

So there you have it. I have become one of those breastfeeding, co-sleeping, rear facing, cloth diapering, no TV watching mothers. Is it that bad? I don't think so!

A new kind of outlook...

Some things are just too toxic. I feel like there is so much negativity surrounding me these days, from the cryptic Facebook posts that show up on my newsfeed, the inability of people in my life being able to get along... Or even talk to each other, to the stress of feeling like I NEVER see my husband. I know he feels the negativity too, it's consumed us both.
I mean really, this should be the happiest times of our lives, we're young, we have a beautiful healthy 14 month old, and each other. Yet, all I can think about is how we're stuck in Iowa all summer. Like the city of Cedar Falls is holding us captive or something.
Since nothing is really in my control , I can let the negativity consume me or take the hand that was dealt to me and do my best. That being said, I am choosing to make the most of it. This summer, Eric and I are going to become "doers." I think we're both sick of talking about what we want to do, so why not just do it?

So, here is what I'm going to do this summer in Iowa:
1. Shop local.
As much as I can. By shopping farmer's markets and the river loop public market in Waterloo, we can feed ourselves and support local farmers and work on breaking free from the processed world.
2. Stay off my damn smart phone.
I truly believe these little devices are ruining humanity. I'm sick of seeing people out together, on their phones. This summer I will be checking my email on the computer. Also, I'll only be facebooking from the computer. Do I need to Facebook from my phone? No. I was perfectly fine without it for so many years. Plus, people use it to be negative and I don't need it!
3. No more Starbucks.
It's expensive, I don't need it, and we have better coffee locally. Besides, whenever I do go, I have a bad experience. Not all Starbucks are created equal.
4. Get out of town when it's possible.
Even though we are on lockdown, Eric has a ton of vacation days to use and 2 days a week off. Even though I'm in a June 4 week class, and we can't really leave at all in July, there's still August and plenty of day trip things we can do.
5. Be outside.
As long as the weather is nice, I plan on hanging out in the backyard as much as possible. Some people play on their phones during their free time, I will be outside with Kendall... Weather permitting of course.
6. Ride my bike.
Honestly, hitting the trails with Eric and Kendall in tow is so fun. We get turned around, make wrong turns, and get to enjoy the beauty of the Cedar Valley from the seats of our bikes for a few hours. I'd like to be able to do a family ride several days a week.
7. Go on a morning walk.
Lately Kendall thinks 5:45/6 is a suitable wake up time. Well, it's summer. So when she does, I'm going to feed her some breakfast, strap her in the stroller a d go for a nice morning walk. I mean, the sun is up anyway, might as well be outside!
8. Get my hands dirty.
I don't really know how to garden, but it'd be nice to learn and maybe add some color to our front yard.
9. Blog more.
I know I have like 4 readers, but I can post updates, pictures, my thoughts, whatever on here and a blog a week isn't really too time consuming.
10. Be positive.
There's no point in complaining all the time. It only makes things seem worse. I also need to hold Eric to this too. We used to spend our walks dreaming about the future, making decisions, and just shooting the breeze. These days it's become a daily venting session about jobs, school, you name it. We need to break free from it and just be positive.
So there you have it. 10 things that I'm going to do this summer. Suggestions and words of support and encouragement are appreciated! Also- come visit us! Haha.

Cloth Diapering... Revisited

I'm still no expert on the subject but now that I've been a cloth diapering mama for several months I have some new insights:
1. I don't like the new Fuzzi Bunz Elite diapers. Okay, it's not that I don't like them, I just like the old one size better. I've had leaking issues with the elites and I'm just not convinced the the minky fabric insert is as absorbent as the microfiber. So from now on if we need to make a diaper purchase, it's BumGenius 4.0 for us!
2. I still don't mind the extra laundry. I do feel that Eric and my laundry takes a backseat to Kendall's clothes and diapers but we've never run out of clean underwear so I guess we're doing fine.
3. In a cloth diaper Kendall could probably get by in 18 month size pants. In a disposable one, the 12 month size pants are pretty loose. Yep. Cloth dipes are that bulky! I love it and love the diaper butt comments from friends. I like to think of it as extra padding when she falls on her bottom.
4. I don't think I can ever bring myself to use cloth wipes. Cloth diapering is good enough, right?
5. Diaper rash cream? No, not us. Since switching to cloth, Kendall's bottom is hardly ever even red. Which is good because the cream messes up the cloth anyway.
I really don't know why I was so anti- cloth in the beginning. It's not bad! I will definitely continue doing it!

Baby gates and baby aches!

In case you didn't know, Kendall has become quite the little mover! As each day goes by, she gets better and better at walking. This is super exciting but I was not prepared to have an early walker. I mean can't I just have a normal baby?
Since Kendall has been a "girl on the go" she has run into pretty much everything in our house. I feel bad but then I see other babies sporting goose eggs and black eyes and have to chuckle to myself... I guess it's just normal! The resilience of babies amazes me.
In other news, Cody is not a fan of baby gates. I'm surprised he hasn't tries to hop over yet! When he's enclosed in a room or locked out of a room, he gets pretty upset and whiny I'm hoping he'll get it together soon because I have a feeling the baby gates will be around for a long time!
Pictures!!!! Yay for 9 months!