Not-So-Caffeinated Autism Mom

About a week ago on Facebook I shared the following with you: “Confession: For the past 2 weeks I’ve been drinking decaf. The shock! The horror!” I was quite amused by your responses! From your comments, as well as comments from some of my own friends locally, I’ve gotten the tongue-in-cheek question, “Are you going to change your name to Decaffeinated Autism Mom?”

     
One word: NO! I am still your favorite hard-core coffee junkie that you have come to know over the past year. So, let me give you a little history on what’s been going on.

I have been working very hard, just like every other stay-at-home mom out there. Trying to keep the children alive and the house from falling apart can be a challenge for anyone. As you know, I also run a special needs support group and that takes time. And, in all of my additional spare time (LOL!), I recently took on the role of Executive Director at my own nonprofit organization. The nonprofit involves volunteers, a Board of Directors, meetings, work parties, hard work, energy, and LOTS of time. Trying to squeeze the duties of a full-time job into the few minutes and hours I can spare out of my day (or the wee hours of the morning) has been a challenge.

Health wise I’ve struggled with many things, like: allergies, migraines, reflux, etc. In helping my boys, I’ve learned a lot about how to approach health from a more natural perspective. I have been able to take myself off of all of the medications I had been on for a very long time. Things have been fairly good since that time, except for the fact that my weight never seems to budge. Genetics are certainly not helping in that department!

As I’ve taken on more and more responsibility and stress in the past year, I’ve been noticing the return and slow progression of some of my old symptoms. I knew that I didn’t want to go down the road of meds again, but I also wasn’t making a concerted effort to change things either. I’m lazy when it comes to myself. I admit that.

I go to great lengths to do what is best for my boys’ health and properly manage their specialized diet. After all of that effort for them, I don’t really want to make the same effort for myself. Yep. Lazy. And it caught up with me.

It was getting to the point where I wasn’t having any days where I felt good. I knew that I had to finally do something and make myself a priority. I knew if I didn’t, I could end up like my mom. She has very poor health and is now disabled. I don’t want to follow in her footsteps.

New Years came around. You may recall that I don't make resolutions. I create change. My change for 2012? Get better control of my health again.

It had been such a long time since I had been in to see my naturopath that my chart was in archives. Shame on me. No wonder I was having trouble! After sharing my laundry list of symptoms and concerns, guess what happened? My doctor placed me on a restricted diet.

NO flour. NO sugar. NO juice. NO alcohol. NO gluten.

Oh crap. It stung when she told me. I am a serious carb and sugar addict. Always have been. I can live without juice and alcohol (well, mostly…), but carbs and sugar? I am already quite the gluten-free expert, so I wasn’t worried about finding whole gluten-free grains to eat. But, seriously? No sugar and no flour? Kill me now.

I will admit that in the week leading up to getting lots of blood work done (and the deadline to start my new diet), I binged on sugar and flour. Pasta, I’m going to miss you! Nom nom nom. Cake, you are so delicious! Nom nom nom. Looking back, it was juvenile and disgusting. At one point, I ate dessert until it made me feel nauseatingly ill. I was ready to make the change. And I did. And I’ve been a good girl!

It’s been about a month since I started this new dietary lifestyle. Most of my symptoms are gone. Surprisingly, positive changes began happening within the first 24 hours of starting the new diet. It has certainly not been easy, but it’s been necessary. And, I feel so much better!

One new thing I’ve discovered is that I cannot tolerate caffeine as well as I used to. It had never affected me before. I used to be able to drink coffee at any point during the day, right up until bedtime, and have no ill effects. Now that my body has much less internal inflammation, I can immediately tell when I’ve had caffeine. I made the mistake of drinking 4 cups of coffee during breakfast one morning and I felt sick until late that afternoon. Since then, I switched to either half-decaf or decaf. I still get my coffee fix without feeling awful. Maybe this is a temporary thing while I work out the rest of my symptoms. Only time will tell.

I think I’ll go grab a cup of coffee now!

A really awesome GFCF giveaway!

If you were on Facebook over the weekend, you know that I promised some big news on Monday. Are you ready? I’m doing an awesome giveaway! Really, really awesome. Like $200 awesome! Do I have your attention? Good!

I was over at Earth Monkey Moms the other day (you remember my Extreme Makeover Home Edition friend) and they were doing a giveaway that was super cool. They were giving away 10 spots in an upcoming live online dietary coaching program on how to start the GFCF diet for your kids. As it turns out, the consultant that offered up the prizes was someone I wrote a guest post for back in September. You can read that post at the Apples to Oranges blog here.

Anyway, I left a comment on the EMM blog that day, mentioning that if they picked me as a winner that I would happily forfeit it to someone else. After all, I do talks and meetings all the time about the GFCF diet through my support group and nonprofit organization. I don’t really need this kind of class when so many others out there could really use the info so much more than me!

Guess what? I ended up being one of the winners. And guess what else? Lindsay at EMM told me to keep the prize! And guess what I’m doing with that prize? I’m giving it away to one of you, my dear readers!

Can I just reiterate how awesome this prize is? I'm doing a little happy dance for you right now! Do you like that visual? Anyway....sorry. I'm just a teeny bit excited. 

I can tell you from my own experience that when you first start dealing with dietary restrictions it can be very overwhelming and scary. So, how cool would it be to have someone hold your hand through the process?

The dietary coach and fellow mother warrior is Lori Brienesse-Frank, and she is the gal behind Apples to Oranges Consulting. She will take you through everything you need to know about the GFCF diet in the 8-week live webinar series, which will begin in January.  

Christmas is coming early for one lucky reader this week! Would you like to know how to win? The only mandatory requirement is to leave a comment below this post, but please use the widget I’ve included below. The rest of the items listed will give you bonus entries if you complete them. So, fill in the little blanks and check the little boxes and you are done, my friends.  

I can’t think of a better way to start the New Year, than with some professional guidance from a dietary coach like Lori. You only have a few days to enter, so get moving! Good luck!

Guest Post: Apples to Oranges

Lori at Apples to Oranges contacted me a little while ago about one of my posts, “A Sneaky Parent’s Guide to Getting Your Child to Take Their Vitamins.” She apparently liked my post enough to ask me for an interview. Lori is a Dietary Coach for children with special needs, so I was honored to participate in the interview and have my post featured on her site.

Please take a moment to click over to Apples to Oranges and read the interview. You’ll also get a nice refresher on my post about how to get vitamins into your kiddos.

TGIF, everyone!

The juice and yogurt fiasco

Last week I told you about how I took out my juicer from its dusty hibernation. Since I have been known to be a really big wimp when it comes to eating vegetables, it’s easier for me to introduce veggies into my diet when they are juiced along with some beautiful, seasonal fruit. This is something healthy that I like to do for the whole family.  

The beginning of the fiasco...

Recently Monkey had a big issue with the juice du jour I made, which included organic nectarines, organic carrots, and lots of organic kale. The color of the juice was more green than not and I could just tell that getting him to drink it would be difficult that day. I opted to make a quick deal as I served the juice, hoping that I could circumvent any problems before they began.

We love So Delicious coconut milk yogurt. It’s way too expensive, but it’s a wonderful treat every once in a while. I happened to have some in the fridge and I thought it would be an excellent proverbial “carrot on the end of the stick” to entice my boys to drink their juice. After I made the promise that whoever finished their juice first would get to choose their yogurt first, it clicked in my brain that I might have a problem. There was only one container left. How did I forget that before I opened my big mouth?

You see, Monkey did one of his famous little tricks the day before. You may remember that we had to lock up our food because of his antics. I had forgotten that he had grabbed one of the containers of yogurt and opened it without my permission. I walked into the kitchen and he was standing there with the open cup in his hand, and he quickly asked, “Can I have this?” Um, it’s a little late for asking my permission, dude. Ugh. He ended up eating the yogurt that afternoon, but much to his dismay, I made him share it with his brother since he neglected to ask my permission beforehand.

Prince Charming powering down his juice and loving it.

So, no sooner than the bribe incentive of yogurt to the “winner” had left my mouth, I remembered the incident from the previous day and I knew I had just royally messed myself up. There was only 1 container left of the yogurt, which meant no choice at all and 1 kid (the second place juice drinker) would be without. I knew that with my promise, it would be worse if I asked them to split the single container. I double-checked the situation in the fridge and verified that I was about to have a really big problem.

I calmly told the boys the situation, gently reminding Monkey that the reason there was only 1 container left was because he had opened the other one without my permission the day before. The news did not go over well when Monkey looked over at Prince Charming’s cup and realized that he had already sucked down almost all of his juice while Monkey had barely touched his. He figured out his fate as the “loser” of the challenge and he didn’t like it one bit.  

That’s when the tears started. Those tears turned into a raised voice spiked with angst about how it was unfair that he wouldn’t get yogurt when he was done with his juice. He was mad that Prince Charming would earn the yogurt and he would have none. I reminded him about the day before and that I truly wasn’t punishing him. That was just the way things happened and there was no way for me to give him his own container when there simply was none left.



Monkey is trying to drink his juice through the tears.

After about a half-hour of crying and attempts at negotiating with me, Monkey finally asked to talk with his dad on the phone. I knew this moment was coming, so I agreed to let him call only if I had a chance to talk first and explain the situation to Titan. Frankly, with Monkey’s sobbing state I knew it would take him a very long time to get out a string of coherent thoughts that would make any sort of sense to Titan, and I certainly didn’t want to take that kind of time when he was in the middle of a busy work day.

We called Titan at work and I took my turn first and then Monkey had his turn. When things escalate at our house and I’m having trouble reasoning with the children, Titan has a way of getting through to them when they are distraught. He is like the kid-whisperer. It can be quite remarkable.

Sometimes I want to sock him in the arm through the phone when he gets them to settle down so quickly. Really? I’ve been negotiating, talking, cajoling, bribing, threatening, hugging, rocking, and everything else I can think of and we get on the phone with you and they are fine in about a minute? Really? Can I switch jobs with you for a day? Perhaps a week? Please?

Before they hung up, I got a quick run-down from Titan on what transpired and then Monkey and I chatted about the call afterward. Monkey listened to what his dad said, quickly became calm and finished his juice. We went on with our lunch routine, which was now stretching much later into the afternoon than usual. As we wrapped up and began talking about having quiet time, Monkey asked to call Titan again. I told him that it wasn’t a good idea since he was still at work and we had just talked with him, so I offered him the chance to send an email instead.

He was really excited to type his own email! He’s getting pretty good at using the keyboard and this was his first ever email to anyone, so it was a big deal for him. Other than changing the names, here is the email exactly as he wrote it:

Dad,
I finally did it, I finished my nectarine juice in 41 minutes and 23 seconds and so on.
I also tried to be a big boy and be like a superhero third grader
I also played sonic slam with Prince Charming too and we had a fun time together. Did you know that corn on the cob and chicken is what's for dinner?
My favorite food is Corn on the cob rather than juice.

Monkey

I think he did a great job! Don’t you? Now I think I need to brush up on my kid-whispering skills for the next fiasco.

A Keurig-style machine for baby formula?

I think you can easily gather from my name that I LOVE coffee. I consider myself to be a coffee aficionado and connoisseur. Some of you might call me an addict. Whatever… I may or may not resemble that remark!

Have you heard of Keurig? It’s the latest thing in making your morning routine simpler. A lot of my friends love their Keurig machine and think it makes a great cup of coffee. Personally, I am not a huge fan of the Keurig machine. I admit it. Don’t boo me if you own one. To each their own! Right? I like being able to buy my organic beans, grind them, use filtered water and make the absolute perfect cup of coffee my way.

I was flabbergasted when I happened upon an article about a Keurig-style machine that Nestle created for the sole purpose of making baby formula. At first glance the concept seems sort of scandalous, while at the same time strangely interesting and novel. Nestle calls their machine “BabyNes,” and it’s being marketed as a “new lifestyle consumer machine.”

The machine costs almost $300 and the capsules of baby formula cost almost 4 times as much as their coffee equivalent. One feature is a built-in water filtration system to eliminate concerns over bad water being consumed by infants. The BabyNes is being trialed in Switzerland before Nestle determines if they will expand into other markets, including those in developing nations.

Critics of the BabyNes say, “The current trend is manipulating young mothers into believing infant feeding is a lifestyle event like drinking Nespresso.”

Nestle has had problems over the years when it comes to their baby formula products, including some quality control issues related to bacterial contamination. Some people believe that the machine would feed into “rampant commercialism that could come at the expense of infant health.”

I breastfed both of my boys and I can tell you with some confidence that I would probably never own a machine like this, had they been around when my boys were babies. That’s not to say that for some women it would be a wonderful thing, particularly those who are unable to breastfeed their babies. But, you would probably need to have a fairly large wallet to afford it!

Is this a product you would like to buy? I’d love to hear what you think about this machine! Please leave your comments below.  

Living without a microwave

In January I wrote a post about resolutions and how our family was instituting some permanent changes to the way we cook for 2011. As part of that, we made the decision to get rid of our microwave and replace it with a large convection toaster oven. I was a bit hesitant to take the plunge because I knew it would make things less convenient for us, but my husband and I agreed that it was a good decision for our family.

In case you aren’t aware, microwave ovens actually destroy the nutrients in your food and can have other harmful effects. Dr. Mercola wrote a great piece on the various hazards of using a microwave. Here are a few quotes I pulled from the article:

Microwaves heat food by causing water molecules in it to resonate at very high frequencies and eventually turn to steam which heats your food. While this can rapidly heat your food, what most people fail to realize is that it also causes a change in your food’s chemical structure.

According to Powerwatch, a non-profit independent organization with a central role in the microwave radiation debate:

“Even when the microwave oven is working correctly, the microwave levels within the kitchen are likely to be significantly higher than those from any nearby cellular phone base-stations. Remember also that microwaves will travel through walls if the microwave oven is against an inside wall.”

The handful of studies that have been done generally agree, for the most part, that microwaving food damages its nutritional value. Your microwave turns your beautiful, organic veggies, for which you’ve paid such a premium in money or labor, into “dead” food that can cause disease!

When I began my search, I was looking for a toaster oven with convection that was large enough to fit a 9 x 13 pan or my large skillet. I also wanted a model with lots of positive consumer reviews because I had never used a toaster oven before and I needed as much information as possible. We ended up buying an extra large Oster like the one pictured here.

At first it took a little while to get used to how much time things would take to make. It was no longer a simple matter of throwing something in to be reheated or cooked really fast. It took more effort and planning but the results were better than I expected. Now I don’t even think twice about the time.  

We’ve had the toaster oven for more than 4 months now and we’ve fully adjusted to our new way of life. I hardly ever use my regular oven now. It uses less energy than my standard oven and the convection feature helps cook things faster and more evenly.

To solidify our commitment to the microwave-free lifestyle, we gave away our old microwave! Some of my friends think I am absolutely, positively nuts. My friends who are much more fluent in natural health than I am wonder why it took me so long to get rid of my microwave.

Do you think you could live without your microwave?       

Product Review: You Bar - customized nutrition bars

Recently I purchased a Groupon for You Bar. I thought it was a neat idea to make your own customized nutrition bars. This is especially true when you’ve got kids with multiple food allergies that require more specialized ingredients. So, I gave them a try. I created a bar for my kids and I just got the box a couple of days ago. Here is what’s in the bars:

Ingredients:
Organic dates, sunflower seed butter, organic clover honey, organic rice protein, cherries, organic coconut, crunchy rice cereal, cocoa, chia seeds, hemp seeds, all-in-one vitamin infusion, cinnamon.

Nutrition Facts:
Calories                145
Fat Cal                  53
Total Fat               6g
Sat Fat                  2g
Cholest                 0mg
Sodium                 36mg
Total Carb            19g
Fiber                     4g
Sugars                  12g
Protein                 5g

I have not been compensated for this review, but You Bar, if you're willing to pay me, I'm willing to accept! Here are my impressions:

Pros

1.       It’s a really cool idea!

2.       There are lots of ingredients to choose from so you can truly make a custom creation to your liking. For instance, you can try cashew butter as a base, organic soy protein as a non-dairy form of protein, add in organic flaxseed and organic goji berries, pump it up with a fiber infusion, sweeten with organic agave nectar, and make it fun with organic cacao nibs and granola.

3.       Their ingredients have redeeming nutritional value.

4.       They’re not too sweet and they have a respectable amount of protein and fiber.

5.       They have no preservatives and are made fresh, just for you.

6.       You get to name your bar and have the name printed on the labels. I called my creation Fish Food. 

7.       As you create your bar, the nutrition information is visible with each step so you can see what effects different ingredients have on the nutrition of the bar.

8.       When you have ingredients you like, they taste good. Prince Charming loved them and Monkey thought they were just okay. Oh well, you can't win 'em all.

9.       You can easily re-order your custom creation or you can sign up for their recurring order program and have the bars automatically shipped to you at specific intervals.

10.   They guarantee their products with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. They will make you a brand new order for free if you are unhappy with your bars.

Cons

1.       They are not allergy-free. It says right on the package that the bars may contain traces of milk, eggs, soy, wheat, tree nuts and peanuts. This is a big problem for lots of people. Since my boys do not have super severe allergies, we decided to give it a try anyway.

2.       They are expensive. This is why I didn’t buy these prior to using the Groupon. They are convenient and nutritious but are expensive, especially when you add in shipping costs. For example, I pulled information from their Popular Bars section to give you an idea. A medium box of their Variety Pack bars (quantity 13) costs $32.37. When I added this item to the shopping cart and put in a shipping address, the cost was $8.22 via their cheapest mode of transport. That brings a total cost per bar to $3.12. That’s a bit steep for my budgetary comfort, especially when the bars are only 35 grams in size and may have trace allergens in them.

As you can see, there are lots more positives than there are negatives. However, for me to do repeat business with them the cons would need to change significantly. If they could develop an allergy-free manufacturing process and lower the price while they were at it, I’m sure I would buy them again. At this moment, I can’t justify another purchase. It was certainly a fun experiment and was worth the reduced price that I paid. What do you think about You Bar?   

Prince Charming couldn't wait!

Monkey trying the bars.