Monthly Goals - August 2011

August sure came quickly!  Summer always goes by way too quickly in MI.  Maybe we'll get lucky and have a warm fall to follow the hot summer.  Still taking my baby steps along this GAPS journey.  Getting closer to taking the plunge and doing intro.  But not this month.  This month is travel/vacation/outing month.  I'll be doing my best just to stick to full GAPS.  Many of the usual food goals.  A few new ones.  Some new personal health goals and stuff to work on with the kids.  Here's what I've got planned for this month.

FOOD

1. Eat full GAPS-legal food (minus the stuff mentioned below). I want to start including broth more often.

2. Make bedtime snacks less sweet - more veggies, broth, etc.

3. Eat plenty of healthy fat daily (coconut oil, lard, EVOO).  I think butter is off the list for now (so sad).  I'll have to keep up with my avocado, hummus, pesto and smoothies to get lots of fat.

4. Avoid foods that I'm sensitive to or that Abram is sensitive to - coconut flour, dairy, tomatoes, peppers, onions, carrots, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, dried beans.

5. Continue Sunday night fun/finger food night, and do breakfast one night a week.

6. Dairy free - This is a new one this month.  I've pretty much been eating this way the last couple weeks, with little tastes of things here and there.  But I want to try to be really good about this.  Dairy seems to upset Abram's tummy.  And I know it bothers mine.  Hopefully at some point I can try re-introducing it.  But for now I think I'll have to skip the dairy.

7. Fermented veggies - Continue eating sauerkraut and fermented veggies regularly.

8. Food preservation - beans, peaches, zucchini, peppers

9. Eat in season - enjoy things fresh while we can (even if they show up on the menu almost every night of the week :P). Let's see if I can be creative with some of our produce this month :)

10. Travel - We're taking a couple short trips this month.  So that means lots of food planning and prep - cold soups and smoothies for me.

11. Beef/meat - I want to experiment this month.  I've noticed for quite some time now that I don't feel good/am extra bloated and gassy when I eat a lot of beef.  Not sure why since read meat and animal fat are so good for you.  But there are a few factors I need to look into.  When we have beef I tend to eat more than if we have another kind of meat. I love beef.  And I crave lots of read meat lately...so I eat a lot of it when I make it (for snacks, etc.)  So is it just eating too much meat that is the problem (of any kind) or is it specifically beef?  Also, for the past year about the only beef we've been eating was from Justin's Uncle...which is fed corn and soy...2 things I can't eat myself without major tummy upset.  So is it any beef that bothers me or will eating grass fed beef this year make a difference?  I'll have to figure it out.  It was always so frustrating to me when I would make a big roast and then make beef broth with it.  I would eat beef and veggie soup for several days in a row and then feel worse than usual (which is why I've only been doing chicken broth lately).  So I want to figure this out.  Yesterday we had one of our last (if not last) pieces of beef from last year.  And by the evening and this morning my tummy was in knots again.  So we'll see.

HEALTH

1. Exercise - I can tell I feel better when I exercise, specifically things like jogging.  It really helps my digestion.  And having strong abs/a strong core helps as well.  So I'm trying to really work on my core this month and continue jogging most mornings.  I have heard good things about rebounding.  But I don't really know anything about it.  I'll have to look into it.  I also want to look into other types of exercise, like strength training and yoga/pilates.  I pretty much do all aerobic exercise.  I would like to add other elements.  Currently my strength training includes wearing and carrying a baby :P  I want to be more toned and more flexible.
2. Healthy lifestyle series - baby wearing, cloth diapering.
3. Continue to push myself out of my comfort zone/defeat OCD - handle travel differently.
4. Coconut oil - I want to start using coconut oil as my facial moisturizer and see if it helps improve the look of my skin.
5. Vitamins - For now I am going to continue taking a multi-vitamin.

FAMILY/PERSONAL

1. Activities and Outings - some stuff we hope to do this month.  And a few not so fun things :P

a. Double JJ
b. beach
c. splashpad
d. WI
e. MI's Adventure
f. Children's Museum
g. John Ball Zoo
h. Dentist - fillings (me)
i. Abram - vaccine

2. Rebecca

a. Keep working on potty training. Hopefully at some point soon we can work on doing away with diapers while she sleeps. But no signs of that so far. And lately she's been having quite a few accidents again. Not sure if it's an attention thing or what. So we need to focus on the basics for now and be laid back about it.
b. Keep working on letters, numbers, spelling/sounds, counting, math, writing, etc.
c. Daily task chart - continue this and be good about associating the task with the chart immediately.
d. Chore chart/banks - develop this (implement whenever it's ready...maybe next month).
e. Create a plan for learning/teaching.  Over the next year I would like to have some more structured teaching for Rebecca.  I am not sending her to preschool yet (very unnecessary at the age of 3 in my opinion...but that's just me).  But I would like her to continue to learn.  And since I've toyed with the idea of homeschooling anyway (though it likely won't happen) I figured this would be a good experimental year.  I don't think I'll buy any actual curriculum.  But I want to have something more structured.  So I need to develop my own way of teaching her.  Maybe focus on a different skill each day (letters, numbers, reading, math, science, etc.)  I'm not sure yet.  But I want to use this month to figure it out so we will be ready to get started in September.

3. Abram

a. Work on development/milestones.
b. Staying dry - Abram seems to be very talented at peeing out of his diapers...at night and during the day.  So we're still trying to figure out how to get the diapers fitted just right.  And I'm looking into other inserts/diapers for night time.
c. Infant probiotic - I need to get into a routine with this and do it daily.  Then see if I notice any differences in the next few weeks.
d. Cradle cap - research if there is a natural way to help get rid of cradle cap.  We used a special shampoo with Rebecca.  But I just looked at the ingredients...parabens :(  Wish I hadn't used that on her now.  I for sure won't be using it on Abram.
e. More diapers - I'm debating about buying more cloth diapers.  I do a load of diapers almost daily to keep up with my heavy wetter.  Not sure if it'll slow down as he gets older or not.  But right now it's not much fun having to wash them that often.  So I might buy more.  I'm still trying to figure out which ones we like best, though.  Or if we want to try a 3rd kind.  At the moment I'm leaning towards buying more Bum Genius.  He seems to leak less with them.  And I think they fit better on a chubby baby.