So Far So Good

I have survived the first week of major diet changes.  My house is almost 100% Feingold approved (except for grandmas food stuff we are storing).  My kids keep asking me if this food is in our diet.  I have actually stocked up on some "safe junk food" for them so they will think the change is good.  It is an attempt to win them over to my team.  Slight manipulation if you must know the truth.  I bought things like Pringles and Potato chips, Special K cereal, gourmet chocolate chips, I made cookies.  This will probably slow down as we get used to the new diet but I might as well WOW them at first with all the cool safe stuff we can eat instead of restricting everything that they are used to and having them hate me for ruining their lives.  I can already hear it "mom I wish we never would have started this new diet! Why can't we have anything yummy anymore."  The truth is I am amazed at how many safe things we can have and how normal life can still be.  Many more home cooked meals is the biggest change.  

There are a few areas in which this might get tricky.  For example we are going to an after season soccer party on Thursday.  We will be roasting hot-dogs and marshmallows which is gross in and of itself (hot-dogs yuck!).  Do we not attend?  Do we bring our own food? Do we feed our kids before hand? Or none of the above and eat the hot-dogs provided?  I have opted to talk with the person in charge and bring our own. (Yes certain hot-dogs are on the acceptable foodlist-I couldn't believe it either)

If I am in charge of the party we will have no dilemmas.  But going places will and have posed a problem.  In fact this last weekend Sheldon took Isaac to a family reunion.  I had prepped Sheldon for the appropriate food Isaac could eat but instead they had KFC and Hamburgers.  This minor infraction did create a night of regrettable words spoken between us grownups of the house (forgiveness certainly is a necessary process in marriage).  My only complaint is Sheldon has not done the research and speaks from ignorance.  He wants to fight me on some things without any base to draw from; thinking I am just an overly paranoid little woman (Grrrrrr).  Perhaps some of my frustrations were taken out on him last night because I had just learned the discouraging truth about the need to make my own bread from now on.  

I have learned from the support group at Fiengold, which consists of other Feingold parents, that I am going to have to make my own bread.  There are too many hidden preservatives and ingredients in store bread that I can't trust it.  I of course can buy the expensive sprouted breads or some frozen bread which still needs time to rise and bake.  I'm sure at times this will be what I opt for.  I did attempt to make my own bread the other day and hated every minute of it.  I don't have the  right equipment and had to kneed the dough for 20 min. by hand.  Cursing as I went, I vowed never to repeat this bread making process again if I could help it.  Well I guess I will have to change my belief that making bread is hard and start training myself to believe "bread making is a joy.  I love making homemade bread.  I know what it feels like to love making bread."  I'm sure if I meditate on this I will be able to make this a truth for me:)  One mom said after 4 years of making bread she could do it in her sleep.  I hope so because I will be so exhausted from daily bread making I will probably be half asleep as I go.  The domestic arts have never been my strength (gulp).

Fiengold Diet has Begun

My packet of information from Feingold finally arrived on Monday.  Its a good thing too because on Sunday my household was melting down.  Isaac (9) was busy crying, fighting, feeling sorry for himself, talking back...you name it he did it.  It all started at church when I wouldn't let him lay down on me.  He's nine years old.  I mean really...Well it actually all started the day before with camping.  My kids tanked up on Tang, Rootbeer, and syrup for the pancakes.  All notorious for food dyes and chemicals.  Annie (8) was wiggly and restless.  When this occurs she likes to irritate her younger siblings.  Then they scream and cry and it is one endless round of noise and chaos.  I actually was quite amazed to see such a direct correlation to these food chemicals and my children's behavior.  It has renewed my commitment and I'm anxious to start.

These last few days have been intense studying, shopping, and meal planning.  I feel like a young collage student again cramming for exams.  The only difference this time is I want to learn the material.  I am not being force by some bureaucracy telling me I need to learn the information in order to be a well rounded potential employee.  No hoops to jump through, no grades to work for, no pressure to perform.  Learning what I want when I want.  I love the freedom!  I suppose this is slightly ironic due to the fact that I teach at the collage level.  And the class I teach is "required" for many majors.  Although I am certain my students love my class.  

Yesterday was the big shopping day.  With my new "food bible" and list in hand, I embarked on this slightly overwhelming task.  2 1/2 hours and $200 later, I walked in my door exhausted, proud, and somewhat discouraged.  Discouraged only because our local grocery store is lacking in many of the acceptable products.  I'm sure I could have spent another 2 hours looking at food labels but my ambition and energy was waning.  For someone who is not a big shopper (me!) in the first place, this was a great feat of endurance.  I keep telling myself, "Don't worry, it will get easier.  You're on the steepest part of the learning curve."  Pep talks are a sure way to keep myself motivated.  I read a plaque once that said, "I'm not a nag.  I'm a motivational speaker."  I loved it.

We officially started the diet today.  Nothing has changed yet in my children's behavior :) but my hopes have not been dashed yet.  The expected signs of improvement could take up to four weeks to see.  This seems like a safe window of time, don't you think?  I'll keep you posted with any sudden developments.

Still Waiting

So it has been a torturous week now waiting each day on baited breath for my packet of information from Feingold to arrive.  I must say they seem to be taking their own sweet time.  Patience has never been one of my natural virtues (do you think the diet can fix this character flaw too?)  I don't dare go shopping for fear I will freeze in the isle and suddenly lose my ambition and grab for anything that tastes good and looks pretty.   I certainly don't want to buy food that I will have to throw out because it is not on the list.  I truly haven't set foot in a grocery store for about two weeks now.  We are all starving and my husband is getting particularly cranky.  Thank goodness we have a nice garden with a few choices for food.

We went camping this weekend with some friends.  I asked Sheldon (my husband) to pick up a few things after work for snackage.  I told him to get a certain brand of chips that are on the "can have" list.  He didn't find the brand of chips listed but found some that seemed to fit the criteria.  He commented on how hard it was to find anything without food dyes, artificial flavors, or BHT preservatives.  I'm already feeling overwhelmed for the big shopping day with list in hand of appropriate foods.  It better come soon though or we will resort to eating Ramen noodles and Mac and Cheese. Heaven forbid.  After camping, we all came home feeling sick.  I'm not sure if it was the lack of sleep, the homemade rootbeer (with food dye and artificial flavors) the kids guzzled, the fried chicken, or the flue?  Maybe a combinations of all this and more.

Just as my resolve was at its wits end and I was feeling like pulling the plug on this whole healthy lifestyle of food, I was given this little scripture.  Explanation: each day my browsers homepage takes me to a great website called www.bibledice.com.  It is a randomly generated bible scripture that is given to you each time you click the bible.  It is uncanny how often it gives me a scripture I particularly need for that very moment.  The scripture  today was 1 Corinthians 6:19-20  It says:  "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and ye are not your own.  For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."  Now you can call it a crazy coincident or God speaking directly to me.  You be the judge.

I remembered this dream my husband had.  He is often a visionary man.  I don't remember the details because it wasn't my dream but it went something like this.  He was given a beautiful bottle of something to drink.  He commented that it was packaged very enticingly.  It looked fun and exciting and seemed tempting to partake of.  When he opened the bottle and started to drink, it was black motor oil.  He remembered thinking how strange this was that it was packaged so deceptively.  We had a deep discussion about its possible meaning at that time and made connections to entertainment, music, movies, and food.  But this dream has taken on a very literal meaning to me now with this new food information I am learning about.
We truly are stewards of our bodies whether I care to admit it or not.  I stand corrected by God and have regained my resolve to take care of my self and family the best I know how.
  

Anxiously Waiting

I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my Feingold diet information packet.  It has been a little over a week now since I placed the order and I am starting to lose some steam.   I even allowed my children to have an Oreo cookie yesterday at the swim park (offered to them by a friend of course.  I would never…) and since we have not officially started and who knows if Oreos are even on the “cannot have” list (Although I do have a sneaking suspicion they are) but how can I be sure, I don’t have the actual list yet.  So I allowed my children to partake and after all, “it is rude to say no thank you if someone offers you something, mom.” Isaac said.  I think I need to have the talk about “Say No to Drugs” with him so in the future he can’t use that as an excuse for smoking.  “How could I refuse mom, they offered the cigarette to me.”  I can see where I have been lacking in some of the areas that a mother should teach her child.  He is my first so I am still learning on him.  Poor kid. 

I have also been grappling with a moral dilemma.  I thought about calling Dr. Laura (is she still around?) As I have started cleaning out the pantry I wondered if I should offer my “poisonous” food to someone or not.  I have been brought up with the belief of “waste not want not”.  I am a person who likes to use all the leftovers and not keep extra in the house.  It feels cluttery.  If I bought something I want to get my moneys worth.  It’s kind of like the sunk cost fallacy.  When you invest time or money in something, even if it is a dud, you will continue to invest more time and money in hopes that someday it will work out. (like a lemon car or a dumb movie)  How many of us walk out of a stupid movie if we have paid full price for it?  Now that’s something to think about, isn’t itJ  So it is terribly difficult to imagine throwing most of the food in my pantry into the garbage.  Now some might argue that this is what I should do because after all it is poison to most of us.  But I haven’t come to that firm of a testimony yet; maybe someday I will.

I settled on giving the food to a dear friend of mine who is moving and could use some extra food.  I felt a little bad offering someone something like drugs but they are on food stamps and she isn’t quite ready to phase into this new lifestyle change so the guilt is not too intense as I justify this action of sharing with my neighbor.  I suppose I am still in the conventional moral reasoning stage of Kolbergs Moral reasoning theory.  How I actually made my decision was based on charity to a needy family that could use the food.  So maybe I am in the Higher law stage of moral reasoning?  Who knows?  Anyway she seemed grateful for the food offer.  I will take it over in a few days when she settles into her new house.    

This new diet to some might seem extreme and to others not extreme enough.  All I can say is; what’s right for one family might not be right for another family.  But I’m pretty sure it would be right for almost everyone in the world.  I’m just saying…J

An experiment

I am a mother of four very fun, noisy, typical children with a supportive husband that puts up with many of my crazy ideas.  Thanks Sheldon J.   I tend to have great intentions but not always so great follow through and consistency.  I am about to attempt a change in my families diet.  With picky eaters and a man in the house I thought it might be fun to blog about my experience and track how successful we are.  Besides, the program suggests keeping a daily log of your children’s behavior so you will notice the changes.  Not like no longer pounding your sister for looking at you is a big enough change that you might miss it.  So I need to log things.  To keep me awake.     

I am using the Feingold diet in hopes to help my children focus more at school and create more peace and harmony in the home.  This diet is based on the idea that food dyes, artificial flavors, preservatives and food chemicals create allergic reactions in sensitive children and therefore cause many of the learning difficulties, ADD, Autism, mood disorders that we are seeing in so many of our children today.  This diet eliminates all of the such to create a more peaceful focused child.  We’ve tried the whole scripture study and family prayer every night with not much success at the peace so maybe it is what my children are pumped up on that is causing the lack of sit still ability.  I sure hope so because at this point most of my prayers and meditations are about how to create a more peaceful atmosphere so my children can feel the Spirit and be guided to knowing their life's purposes.  (This is true. I’m not being facetious) 

Along with diet changes, we have been on a movement as a family, for a few years now, to get back to nature and back to basics.  We moved to a home with more land to grow more of our own food.  We have a neighborhood pond with fish that we catch and eat  and chickens for the farm fresh eggs.  Sounds charming I know (and most of the time it is) but truly something has been missing. 

My oldest son Isaac (9yrs) has many symptoms of Aspergers Syndrome.  He struggles with many things and is incredible at many things.  One night in a personal quiet moment after one of his meltdowns I was praying.  My prayer went something like this: “Heavenly Father, what can I do to help Isaac be happy?”  A very clear answer came “Change his diet”. This was about a year ago.  I have dabbled in a few diet changes but missed the part about many children being sensitive to food chemicals and dyes.  I have continued to search for answers and dabbled in many alternative methods for help with my children.  I have a good feeling about this one.J