Food and Personal Goals of the Month - May

It's May.  A time of new growth, a fresh start.  April showers bring May flowers, right?  I'm ready for the showers to be done.  In light of the recent events in my life I will be doing some major lifestyle changes and sort of starting fresh.  Beware.  This will be a LONG post.  If you get to the end you should be proud of yourself.  I'm still trying to digest it all and get it organized.  I have a laundry list of things scribbled down in my dayplanner.  I'm going to try to get them written out in some orderly fashion here.  Mostly for my own sake.  I have already started on a lot of this.  Once I knew our last IVF cycle didn't work I started right away making dietary changes.  I waited to post them for May's goals, but I am already doing most of it.  And some of it is reflected in recent recipes I've posted.

I'll start where I did last month...cost savings.  With all of our recent medical expenses we've had to really watch our spending...which is why I started this in the first place several months ago.  And now that we have to do another IVF cycle we have to be even better about saving.  So here's what's on the agenda.

1.  Continue recording spending and sales.
2.  Based on our spending over the last couple months set a food budget and try to stick to it.  This will be something new for me.  I've been tracking spending for a while.  But I never worry about how much I'm spending when I'm at the store.  I want to try to set an actual dollar limit for myself and try to adhere to it each week.  We'll see how it goes.
3. Continue to calculate homemade costs.
4. Continue to plan meals based on sales/what we have on hand.  And there will be another factor in my meal planning...Justin starts his summer class in May.  Which means 2 nights a week that he's gone/I don't "make" dinner.  You'd think this would give me a break...and it does, but it also makes planning the other meals more difficult.  I have to plan well so that there are enough leftovers for all of his lunches...without cooking 2 nights during the week.
5. Continue to make as much food as possible from scratch.
6. 2nd hand shopping.  Maybe I'll try going to a few garage sales this month if I see any.  And there is a big kids sale May 20-22 here.  I might go to that as well.
7.  Order bulk meat.  This is not really a goal for this month since Voogt beef won't be ready until June or July.  But I have already called about it and want to get it on the radar.  It saves so much money to buy meat in bulk.  I have not had to buy any beef for almost a year!  I love it.

Food goals...this will be a big one.  I have been doing a lot of research on natural fertility and healthy eating.  And as I research more I have found there are a lot of things I thought were healthy that really aren't and visa versa.  But one of the biggest things for me has been a total change in mindset about food.  I have always thought of food in terms of what I shouldn't eat, what's bad for me, trying to resist things, what I should cut out, what I can't have, what will make me fat/skinny, things like that.  It was especially bad when I was dealing with major digestive issues.  I tried an IBS diet and cut so  much out of my diet.  My life revolved around what I couldn't eat and what would make me sick.  I want to do the complete opposite now.  I want to think about food as good, not bad.  Food is nourishment.  Food gives energy.  Food heals.  Food sustains life.  I need food.  So I am going to focus on what is going to nourish my body.  I want to take care of myself.  I want to be as healthy as possible.  And to do so I have to put good stuff in my body.  So I'm going to write my food goals in this light...what I will be eating instead of what I won't be eating (for the most part...there will be one exception...sugar).  Here goes:

~Use full fat dairy products - whole milk, yogurt, etc.
~Eat flax seed every day for omega-3s
~Eat more fatty fish
~Use coconut oil, sesame oil, peanut oil, butter, EVOO or palm shortening (for cooking/baking)
~Use organic cane sugar (white/brown), organic maple syrup or raw honey (for sweeteners, plain or in baking).  Also try to cut back on sugar a bit and replace it with healthier food.
~Use only whole wheat flour
~Soak grains when possible
~Eat mostly organic or locally grown produce...eat in season to do so

These are the main goals.  Now a few notes about some of them.

Milk - I've been doing some research on milk.  There has been a lot of talk in recent years about full fat dairy being good for fertility and low-fat dairy being bad for fertility.  So I'm going to give it a try.  But more important than that I've been looking into how milk is processed.  I was buying organic whole milk for Rebecca (Meijer brand)...and figured I'd just use that too.  Then one day I noticed the container said ultra-pastuerized.  I looked it up and found that that's probably worse than the regular non-organic milk.  Any nutritional value is stripped away.  And they can get away with worse milk producing processes becuase the UP will kill any germs.  This is also a concern since the milk is heated so high and then put in plastic containers...leaching who knows what into the milk.  So here I was paying the big bucks for organic milk...that really wasn't very good.  After all of my research I would love to try raw milk.  We have a great dairy farm right by us.  But it's expensive and I don't think we can sign up for a share right now anyway.  So we can't go that route at the moment.  For now I'm going to use Mooville mik...cream line, whole milk, low heat pastuerized, non-homoginized.  I found that even the homogenization impacts the nutritional value of the milk.  So we'll get as close as we can to raw without actually going raw.  It is in plastic bottles instead of glass, but hopefully the milk isn't hot enough when it's poured to cause any problems.  I bought some this week.  Love it!!!  So does Rebecca.  I don't usually drink much milk, but I've had some almost every day this week.  If you had told me a few years ago that I'd be using whole non-homo milk I would have laughed in your face (I had to give in and go from skim to 1% for Justin after getting married :P).  But I think I may be using it from now on...for good.  It's so good for you.  It's easier to digest if it's non-homo.  And a little extra fat won't hurt me :)

Omega-3's are good for you.  And flaxseed is an easy way to get it.  I sprinkle it in and on tons of stuff.  I love the nutty taste.  You can hide it in baked goods.  And it's great sprinkled on peanut butter.  Fatty fish like salmon is also high in omega-3's.  I just need to find a good place to get some.

There are so many oils/fats out there.  It's tough to know what's good and what's bad.  I won't go into all the details about what I found as I researched.  But I'll stick to the list above as best I can.  The tough oil to avoid will be canola.  It's in everything!

I do want to cut back on sugar.  I have a major sweet tooth.  But I know sugar will only have a negative impact on fertility and on my diabetic genes.  So I'll do my best to not go overboard.  A note about one sweetener in particular...agave nectar.  I thought that it was supposed to be a healthy option.  After some research it seems that it's just about as bad as HFCS!  So no more of that.  Now what to do with the half full bottle in my cupboard?  Do some baking and give it away? :)  And sticking to the nourishing goal...refined sugars are stripped of any amount of mutritional value they may have started with.  At least cane sugar is not processed and bleached and stripped down to white nothingness.

We all know whole wheat is better than white flour.  And again, nourishment.  I don't want to eat something that has been processed and refined until it's void of nutrition.  So I'll stick to whole wheat.  And hopefully start grinding my own flour to make it even healthier.

I will continue to soak grains.  People used to do it all the time...it was common practice.  But many people don't have time anymore.  I'm going to go back to the old way of doing things.  It will be good for my body and be easier on my tummy.  In time I'd like to start soaking more things...like soaking/dehydrating oats, soaking/drying nuts, etc.  Possibly sprouting grains.  And get good at making sourdough bread products.

I will have to really change my mindset about eating in season.  We're all so used to being able to get whatever produce we want year round.  But to do so you have to buy stuff from other countries and non-organic.  I'm going to try to eat more in season and accept the fact that there will be certain times of the year that we just won't eat certain things.  It will be a lot easier in the summer when the farmer's market is open and so much local produce is available.  I will also be placing my first order from our local food co-op this week.  So that will help too.  One more thing to add to my meal planning challenge :)

Moving away from food but continuing with the theme of overall health I have decided to finally try taking a probiotic.  It will hopefully help with my digestive issues but also be good for my immune system.  I started it this past week.  So far so good.  I have researched a lot of other supplements that pertain to fertility.  At this point I am not going to pursue any of them.  I don't want to risk doing more harm than good.

My fertility Dr. does not give much advice on what to do aside from the actual fertility treatments.  But one thing he did talk to me about that he has researched quite a bit is pthalates...found in plastics.  Especially when they are heated.  A while back I had switched to all BPA free containers, etc.  But I was still using plastic.  The day he told me about this I went out and bought glass storage containers.  And I never heat food in anything plastic anymore...only glass.  I feel like I was poisoning us before.  Ick.

I have also researched health and beauty products.  I already use almost all natural and organic products.  But I did read up on soap...just basic hand/bar soap.  And found that the chemical used to make a lot of soaps anti-bacterial can be quite harmful.  So no more anti-bacterial soap in our house.  Just plain old soap please :)

Another big change for me that has been tough is cutting back on exercise.  I know most people have the opposite problem, but I love to exercise.  7 days a week.  Last August I cut way back on exercise...and I managed to gain 10 lbs.  I needed to!  In the last month and a half I have cut back again.  It's tough.  I like to challenge myself and push myself.  But I have to force myself not to.  My Dr. said his ideal is for an IVF patient to be 10 lbs. above the "ideal" (BMI of 20).  I'm right at the "ideal."  I don't think I could gain another 10 lbs.  But I will do my best to make sure I at least don't lose any weight!  As a funny side note, I used to obsess about fat...everything I ate was fat free.  Now I'm using full fat everything and exercising less...and I haven't gained an ounce :P  And I weigh about 15 lb.s less than I did back then.  Real food works :)

Another reason for doing all of this is to be a positive role model for Rebecca.  I want her to grow up knowing how to take care of herself and how to be healthy.  I want to give her the best start possible.  So I want to be an example and educate her.  I would like to do so by visiting some local farms...let her see the animals, etc.  Show her where food comes from.  I don't know if we will go yet this month, but maybe.  For sure we'd like to visit Justin's Uncle's farm.  He raises cattle...and it's where we get our beef.  There are a few other places we'd like to visit too.

Finally, I have some long term goals from these lifestyle changes.  One is to overcome my OCD.  I've been working on it since last May.  Hard to believe it's been a year already.  But my progress was slowed way down during all of the IVF stuff.  That had to be my focus.  So I'm trying to keep working on it now.  I know it will still be a long time before I can truly be over it.  But hopefully someday I will be.  I would also like to get my digestive system functioning...without drugs!  I have been taking a fiber supplement for almost 7 years now.  And I've been taking miralax (Rx from my colon surgeon) for over 3 years.  And I hate that I need them to function.  I hate that I'm knowingly putting chemicals and artificial things in my body.  But I need them right now.  It's especially tough during the IVF stuff since the hormones/drugs mess things up so badly.  But I really want to cut them out.  This may be a long process.  But I'm hopeful that by eating properly and healing my body that at some point my body will be able to function on its own.  And of course, the ultimate goal of getting pregnant!!

I think that's it.  Did you make it through?  Good for you :)  This month is all about nourishing my body, letting it heal and work the way it's supposed to.  I want to view food as good and a way to be healthy.  I want to put things in my body that have nutritional value.  There are bad foods.  And there are foods that aren't necessarily bad but also aren't nutritious.  Those will rarely be on my plate.  I know I won't be perfect.  This is tough.  But I will do my best.  And in the end I want a few things to come of this...a healthy family, a digestive system that functions normally without chemicals, overcoming my OCD, possibly restoring a degree of my body's fertility and having a successful IVF cycle and get pregnant.

Here's a recap of the main topics:

~Cost savings
~Nourishing food
~Probiotic
~No plastics
~No anti-bacterial soap/use nutural health and beauty products
~Cut back on exercise
~Visit local farms/teach Rebecca about health/nourishment
~Overcome OCD (long term)
~Stop using miralax and fiber supplement (long term)
~Successful IVF cycle/pregnancy (long term)