Last day of July!

Took my crazy, super energetic kids for a walk this evening. I don't think it wore them out, but they ran most of way & I had to keep up!! 

This is my kinda weather to walk in :)

I started this challenge in colder weather & I like it :)

I've added a couple miles for all the walking & lugging tree limbs around the yard....

Thankfully all we have left is the trees to cut up & the fire wood will be gone by this weekend :)

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Color Splash 2013

I walked my 2nd 5K yesterday! It was a FUN one! 

I had a couple great friends who walked with me too :)

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Cody Update :)

Cody had his EEG & EKG done finally. He thought both tests were "cool." I'm glad he didn't freak out because it would've made it harder on me. I probably would have cried WITH him lol

But it's over! 

He sees the dr in August to get the results :)

 Enjoy the pics...they were his idea to share :) 

We did walk the yesterday. It wasn't a pretty day, but it wasn't HOT or raining so that made it perfect :) 

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Chocolate plz ;)

Well obviously Day 1 was it for posting all meals & snacks for the day. Yeah, I'm not perfect! Plus it honestly stressed me out. Who knew that keeping everyone updated on what my kids ate would be stressful?! 

It's just not me to do that. 

But I will share my kids FAVORITE meal, that they actually eat daily...drum roll...

CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER & JELLY SANDWICHES! 

Yep :) 

Ted & I even eat it! It has All Natural ingredients 

Go to www.ilovepeanutbutter.com & they have a white chocolate PB I want to try!! 

This momma LOVES all kinds if chocolate!! (HINT: My bday is coming up! LOL) 

REMINDER: I'm walking the Color Splash 5K at KDMC this Saturday morning. If you want to walk with me, LMK! 

Register at www.tristateracer.com

I've got 3 other friends walking w/me so far :)

Day 2-4

Last 3 days have been a BLURR. I can tell you we had Mexican Tuesday to celebrate my parents anniversary & Wednesday night we had pizza, but that's it lol

So I'll start back up w/today...Day 4

Breakfast - toast w/honey & glass of milk

Lunch - light lunch of cheese and crackers (it was just with me and Emma, Cody had lunch at Chinese camp)

Dinner - leftover steak and more cheese and crackers...lol 

Both kiddos had yogurt for a snack.
This whole challenge has been hard to be honest. I'm beginning to doubt myself. I don't see a change in Cody at all. Maybe he's just acting like a typical boy and I'm overreacting? My biggest fear is when he starts school. School is where his lack of attention shows A LOT. At least it did in Kindergarten. SIGH.....

I'm starting to get anxious for his tests he's having done next week. I know they aren't bad & will give us important info but still.... 

I worry too much.

Day 1

I really started this on Saturday but Ted decided he wanted IHOP after church Sunday morning &...yeah.

So Day 1 w/no artificial food dyes. 

Breakfast - whole wheat toast w/chocolate peanut butter. Cody decided to add raspberries on his toast :)

And of course a glass of milk, vitamins & 1/2 tsp of fish oil.

Lunch - turkey sandwich w/strawberry lemonade. Yogurt for dessert 

Dinner - beef tenderized w/white bean hummus spread on top (looks kinda gross but tastes YUMMY!), corn & potato salad 

For dessert we got creative w/our banana :)

YUMMM!!! 

Snack - We made Strawberry Lemonade popsicles today :)

I'm hoping I can keep all this up this week! I almost learned too late that the kids normal easy-quick breakfast has Red 40 in it..no nutrigrain bars this week. 

Already this new challenge has opened my eyes to WHAT I am feeding my kids. And myself. 

So yeah, I'm going to be "that mom" that I always didn't want to be. lol

Carrageenan.....

Has anyone ever heard of "Carrageenan?" It's used in a lot of milk products.


And you are wondering why I care and I'm sharing, right? Well, my mom brought it to my attention the other day on the back my kids FAVORITE milk boxes. Yes, the Horizon milk that you can now get a Sam's and it has 6, yes SIX, Box Tops on them!!! lol

 

 

And I also found it in Nestle products (milk mixes, Carnation breakfast.....) and in Yoplait & Dannon yogurts. (one or both also has the dyes in them)


Anyway, I didn't think much of it but when I was shopping for food with no dyes in them, I noticed a lot of juice and yogurt I normally buy for my kids has it in them. I came home and did some more research. I found this blog post written by a guy named Jonanthan Bechtel..... http://blog.healthkismet.com/carrageenan-cancer-health-inflammation


If you don't want to read it, that's ok. It pretty much says that Carrageenan is bad for you...
"Because carrageenan has a long and notable history of significant correlations to different types of cancer and acute-inflammatory responses which are not good for you, to say the least."  If you want more info, read the blog. He did his own research and proves it.

That terrifies me about....all of it. And I just bought the 15 pk of the Horizon Milk with the 6 Box Tops on it at Sam's! :/

So what's an alternative? We are drinking Silk Pure Almond. It even comes in DARK CHOCOLATE.....YUM! (Thanks Mom ;)

So yeah, both of these milks are kinda expensive and it's not our choice of drink everyday with every time we are thirsty. We do drink a lot of water around here. My kids love to drink water out of refillable water bottles. They love it because I will allow those to go in their rooms lol 

SO just in case you are thinking, "Really, there's stuff in all our food that's bad for you." Yes, I know this. I'm sure the Pizza Hut pizza we had the other night has all kinds of bad things for us, but we can indulge, right? I know I can't keep my kids from all bad things, but if I can keep my kids eating & drinking mostly healthy now, I will feel better about trying to be that good mom.
 

New Challenge

As if just walking and trying to eat healthier for myself isn't hard enough for me to do, I'm now faced with another challenge. This one involves my kids.

For those that don't know, I took Cody to a doctor this week to start the process of testing him for ADHD. He was super nice and asked lots of questions, Cody even answered some. He was nervous though. I had Emma crawling all over my lap which helped me hide my nervousness. SO when they dr mentioned MEDICATION, that's when I became super nervous. I'm not totally for meds (unless absolutely necessary) and he gave me that classic dr answer "these meds have over 20 years of being FDA approved as apposed to the only a few years of trying natural way to treat ADHD." My mom has done her research with books and online and has helped me find natural ways to treat ADHD. Honestly, it's all been overwhelming. SO much info to learn and read and to add to our lifestyle......

I'm not gonna lie, I was an emotional mess leaving there. Some may ask WHY?! Ummm, this is my BABY.  The dr mentioned tests....an EEG and an EKG.  I know now (after freaking out and calling the office 2 hours later to ask more questions) that the tests are nothing to worry about. The EEG can actually help find brain waves that show ADHD.

Again, not gonna lie, I'm STILL super emotional about this. We all want our kids healthy and have no problems, but that's in a perfect world. HA, I'm definitely not living in one of those. So I'm putting my trust in God and hoping I can get this all figured out.

SO my new challenge.....

Because I don't want to do meds, I'm trying some natural ways to help Cody. I'm starting SIMPLE. (at least I thought simple...lol)

My mom found some orange flavor fish oil. Yes.....orange flavor. My kids actually like it SO THAT is a blessing!! They take that every morning with their multivitamins and their probiotic, which we've already been taking those for the past year or so.

Another change is NO ARTIFICIAL DYES.  Like Red 10, Blue 1, Yellow 5.....and so on. I went to Walmart today to find some snacks for the kids to eat and OH MY....
I don't normally read labels. I look at Calories but that's the extent of it. A lot of their fav snacks....no more. It's amazing how many juices and cereal, and yogurt have those food colorings in them. And I thought it would be simple.....WRONG. It was hard saying NO to GOGURTS! Those are Cody's favorites :(

So now I'm going to be "THAT MOM" that is particular about what her kids eat. I'm not going to let my kids have food at birthday/school parties, the in laws, or anywhere else that I know has those dyes in them. I'm going to be picky. My kids will probably cry and be upset, but I want them HEALTHY!

HONESTLY....should I be so picky? Should I let it slide a couple times or should I put my foot down and say no? I hate the thought of making other people watch what they feed my kid, when I know it's stressful for myself. I know I deal with food allergies with my friend's kids and kids at school so this is no different, right? As long as I just bring my own food for them....so then I'll look like their food is not good enough.......

I'M TOTALLY WORRYING TOO MUCH ABOUT THIS, RIGHT?!
Just put me out of my misery and tell me already....I can take it.