It's been a rough few weeks. After the horrible part wheat detox was nearly over and I was no longer acting like an addict searching for my next hit, I started coughing. I did some googling and came to the conclusion that coughing could be a detox response, so I thought this was normal. Then, my breathing started to get really labored and shallow. On Saturday, I couldn't get enough oxygen in, so I went to urgent care.
End result, I had pneumonia and was having an asthma attack (which I had never had before.)
Now I'm on antibiotics, and therefore probiotics so I get back some of the good bacteria in my system; an inhaler; sudafed and mucinex.
Cough cough. Wheeze wheeze.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
I'm a Berkeley Mommy Because:
- When the straps of my Lululemon bag rip after shopping at Whole Foods, I re-sew the straps back on.
- We planned a homebirth.
- I take casual carpool into work and I don't think it's creepy.
- I've been TV-free for over 20 years - long before you could access any TV show online.
- My daughter goes to a Berkeley preschool where the kids are called "friends."
- At this preschool, one day, the kids got naked (but kept their underwear on, my daughter assures me), so that they could feel clay on their bodies.
- We are members of a babysitting Co-op.
- The prized possessions in our house are the ones that are handmade.
- We belong to a car sharing service. I sometimes feel bad that we own a car at all, but I am able to rationalize it because our daughter needs a car seat which would be too difficult to always get in and out of the car share car; and because the car that we own is a hybrid.
- The stated dress code at our wedding was "Berkeley Formal."
- We named our daughter Star. Her Hebrew name means Queen of the Stars.
- When my daughter said that her vagina looked weird, I took off my pants and underwear and showed her what mine looked like so she could see that ours looked similar.
Monday, June 10, 2013
Wheat Detox
I've been between 10 and 40 pounds overweight for probably 10 years. Before that, I like to think that I was curvy in a sexy way. Nice full boobs, a small waist and nice sized hips. Proportional and sturdy. Healthy and curvy. Snuggle-able.
I'm not sure when the moment was, but there was a point when I went from sexy curvy to fat curvy and I don't like it.
Some people, when talking about their struggles with their weight, say that they "tried everything." Grapefruit diets. Fat farms. Boot camps. I honestly didn't.
For the past 25 years, I've been doing basically the same thing. It just used to work better for me. I'm a vegetarian, and I work out. For me, being a vegetarian means that I don't eat meat, chicken or fish. I do eat eggs and cheese. I became a vegetarian for purely ethical reasons - nothing to do with health. I do believe that there are health benefits to being a vegetarian. I don't ingest all the toxins that we give to animals. However, in our society, I think the negative part about being a vegetarian is that you are relegated to social situations filled with carbs and no protein.
Regarding my exercise, there have been times in the past 25 years when I worked out a bit more than others, but I've generally been an active person and I enjoy working out. My recent workout routine has been to power walk 2-3 times per week and do Dailey Method 2-3 times per week. I like this routine a lot. The walking clears my head and makes me sweat on the hills, and Dailey Method makes me feel strong. In the Dailey Method, I'm surrounded by beautiful women who have wonderful long limbs, strong, but feminine, muscles, and a nicely curved butt. Even though I like this routine emotionally, it's not working on my body. I'm still the fat girl in my Dailey Method classes.
I am ready to admit that this pattern that I've done for 25 years is no longer working. I want to be healthy for myself. I want to be healthy for my daughter. I want to feel comfortable when my husband takes a picture of my daughter and I together. I'm sure I will always be "flawed" in various ways, but I'd like to get to a healthy weight.
To be of "normal weight" according to BMI calculators, I need to be 140 pounds (and that's only if I enhance my height a bit). Honestly, this feels quite unmanageable, so I'm going to ignore this number and just aim to lose weight. I'm not sure I have a realistic goal weight at this point.
Somehow, I found out about Wheat Belly and requested both the original book and the cookbook from my local public library. The cookbook became available first, so I read it. I went wheat free on Wednesday, June 5th, 2013.
Detoxing from wheat is no joke; it sucks. Here's what my journey has looked like so far.
Day 1 - I cried at a work meeting. This is not my norm.
Day 2 - I felt like I had a horrible flu. I was freezing in bed at 6:30pm with the heater on. My daughter brought me one of her stuffed animals to snuggle so I could feel better. I peed about every hour throughout the night.
Day 3 - Flu like symptoms persisted. Foggy head. Huge headaches. Chills when it was warm. Stinky sweat. Peeing a lot. Horrible night of sleep.
Day 4 - Still had headaches and a bit woozy. Sometimes it feels like I just swallowed something huge without chewing (when I hadn't) and it was fighting its way down my digestive track. I have a dry cough. But things were finally beginning to feel better - I was beginning to feel human.
Day 5 - We went to Ikea which always makes me feel a bit sick and overwhelmed. I felt woozy, but way less. I ate meals and snacks, but my appetite has decreased substantially. I no longer have chills or sweats. I seem to have more energy.
Day 6 - My main negative symptoms right now are a dry cough and sometimes the weird lump in my throat/chest thing.
My husband and I talked, on day 5, about this new eating plan. He's supportive of it. We agreed that I would try it for 30 days and then evaluate how it's going. He asked how I will evaluate success. I said that this will be successful for me if: (1) All these negative flu like withdrawal symptoms are gone. And, (2) I'm losing weight.
I'm not sure when the moment was, but there was a point when I went from sexy curvy to fat curvy and I don't like it.
Some people, when talking about their struggles with their weight, say that they "tried everything." Grapefruit diets. Fat farms. Boot camps. I honestly didn't.
For the past 25 years, I've been doing basically the same thing. It just used to work better for me. I'm a vegetarian, and I work out. For me, being a vegetarian means that I don't eat meat, chicken or fish. I do eat eggs and cheese. I became a vegetarian for purely ethical reasons - nothing to do with health. I do believe that there are health benefits to being a vegetarian. I don't ingest all the toxins that we give to animals. However, in our society, I think the negative part about being a vegetarian is that you are relegated to social situations filled with carbs and no protein.
Regarding my exercise, there have been times in the past 25 years when I worked out a bit more than others, but I've generally been an active person and I enjoy working out. My recent workout routine has been to power walk 2-3 times per week and do Dailey Method 2-3 times per week. I like this routine a lot. The walking clears my head and makes me sweat on the hills, and Dailey Method makes me feel strong. In the Dailey Method, I'm surrounded by beautiful women who have wonderful long limbs, strong, but feminine, muscles, and a nicely curved butt. Even though I like this routine emotionally, it's not working on my body. I'm still the fat girl in my Dailey Method classes.
I am ready to admit that this pattern that I've done for 25 years is no longer working. I want to be healthy for myself. I want to be healthy for my daughter. I want to feel comfortable when my husband takes a picture of my daughter and I together. I'm sure I will always be "flawed" in various ways, but I'd like to get to a healthy weight.
To be of "normal weight" according to BMI calculators, I need to be 140 pounds (and that's only if I enhance my height a bit). Honestly, this feels quite unmanageable, so I'm going to ignore this number and just aim to lose weight. I'm not sure I have a realistic goal weight at this point.
Somehow, I found out about Wheat Belly and requested both the original book and the cookbook from my local public library. The cookbook became available first, so I read it. I went wheat free on Wednesday, June 5th, 2013.
Detoxing from wheat is no joke; it sucks. Here's what my journey has looked like so far.
Day 1 - I cried at a work meeting. This is not my norm.
Day 2 - I felt like I had a horrible flu. I was freezing in bed at 6:30pm with the heater on. My daughter brought me one of her stuffed animals to snuggle so I could feel better. I peed about every hour throughout the night.
Day 3 - Flu like symptoms persisted. Foggy head. Huge headaches. Chills when it was warm. Stinky sweat. Peeing a lot. Horrible night of sleep.
Day 4 - Still had headaches and a bit woozy. Sometimes it feels like I just swallowed something huge without chewing (when I hadn't) and it was fighting its way down my digestive track. I have a dry cough. But things were finally beginning to feel better - I was beginning to feel human.
Day 5 - We went to Ikea which always makes me feel a bit sick and overwhelmed. I felt woozy, but way less. I ate meals and snacks, but my appetite has decreased substantially. I no longer have chills or sweats. I seem to have more energy.
Day 6 - My main negative symptoms right now are a dry cough and sometimes the weird lump in my throat/chest thing.
My husband and I talked, on day 5, about this new eating plan. He's supportive of it. We agreed that I would try it for 30 days and then evaluate how it's going. He asked how I will evaluate success. I said that this will be successful for me if: (1) All these negative flu like withdrawal symptoms are gone. And, (2) I'm losing weight.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Gearing Up For Camp Mommy
My husband and I both work full time. Our daughter is a 3 year old in preschool. Preschools take more days off than either of us do.
This regularly impacts our lives. Parent/teacher conference day is a day off for the kids from school, so that the teachers can meet with the parents. (And by the way, I think it's totally adorable to have parent teacher conferences for our 3 year old girl. I am somewhat obsessed with hearing other people talk about my daughter.) On that particular day, the school that I work at was having our graduation ceremony, so I was busy in the morning while my husband was with our daughter. Then, we hired a nanny for the afternoon so my husband could have a bit of a break, and then he and I met at the conference.
Friday before Memorial Day? Preschool day off. I'm not sure why. Star spent the day with my parents.
We're approaching the biggest working parenting challenge of the year - summer break. Star's preschool goes through the end of July. In August, they have four weeks of optional camp each with a different theme. But, I've decided to try out different things for August to get some variety.
So, I basically have 5 weeks to fill starting in the end of July through Labor Day. I'll be taking a few weeks off from my job (unpaid) so I can run my version of Camp Mommy, be a chauffeur to various camps, and get a break for myself.
Here's how we put things together.
Week 1 - Jewish camp in the morning. Camp Mommy in the afternoon. And, a friend from my childhood will hopefully be visiting with her son.
Week 2 - Camp Mommy with hopefully a trip to Los Angeles for all 3 of us starting on Wednesday-ish.
Week 3 - Monkey Business Camp in Tilden Park. This sounds super fun. I'm envious.
Week 4 - I go back to work. Star will do the water themed week at her preschool.
Week 5 - Star will spend the first few days with my parents, and then all three of us will go to Camp Tawonga Family Camp. We went last year and enjoyed it!
It seems like things will only get more complicated once she enters kindergarten and has 2 or 3 months off during the summer in addition to the random days throughout the year. I'll cross that bridge when the time comes, but for now, I'm learning about the camp options and keeping track of them on a Pinterest board!
This regularly impacts our lives. Parent/teacher conference day is a day off for the kids from school, so that the teachers can meet with the parents. (And by the way, I think it's totally adorable to have parent teacher conferences for our 3 year old girl. I am somewhat obsessed with hearing other people talk about my daughter.) On that particular day, the school that I work at was having our graduation ceremony, so I was busy in the morning while my husband was with our daughter. Then, we hired a nanny for the afternoon so my husband could have a bit of a break, and then he and I met at the conference.
Friday before Memorial Day? Preschool day off. I'm not sure why. Star spent the day with my parents.
We're approaching the biggest working parenting challenge of the year - summer break. Star's preschool goes through the end of July. In August, they have four weeks of optional camp each with a different theme. But, I've decided to try out different things for August to get some variety.
So, I basically have 5 weeks to fill starting in the end of July through Labor Day. I'll be taking a few weeks off from my job (unpaid) so I can run my version of Camp Mommy, be a chauffeur to various camps, and get a break for myself.
Here's how we put things together.
Week 1 - Jewish camp in the morning. Camp Mommy in the afternoon. And, a friend from my childhood will hopefully be visiting with her son.
Week 2 - Camp Mommy with hopefully a trip to Los Angeles for all 3 of us starting on Wednesday-ish.
Week 3 - Monkey Business Camp in Tilden Park. This sounds super fun. I'm envious.
Week 4 - I go back to work. Star will do the water themed week at her preschool.
Week 5 - Star will spend the first few days with my parents, and then all three of us will go to Camp Tawonga Family Camp. We went last year and enjoyed it!
It seems like things will only get more complicated once she enters kindergarten and has 2 or 3 months off during the summer in addition to the random days throughout the year. I'll cross that bridge when the time comes, but for now, I'm learning about the camp options and keeping track of them on a Pinterest board!
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