What happened to Wonder Woman?

It has been over a year and a half since I have been sick.  I mean no sickness what so ever!  When I changed my eating habits by removing all grain and all sugar from my diet, my body felt like I had attained a super power.  Changing my eating made my extremely high blood pressure normalize, my migraines virtually disappear, my fibromyalgia vanish and my IBS completely resolved itself.  In addition to all the wonderful health benefits, I happened to lose a significant amount of weight in the process. 

 I started to take good health and feeling amazing for granted.  Did I stop appreciating how great I felt?  Was I bragging to much about how I turned my health around?  Maybe. Unfortunately,  I was just hit over the head with a 2x4.  Wonder woman can still get sick.    About two weeks ago I was struck down with feeling very fatigued and mentally fuzzy.  I got on the scale and gained five pounds practically overnight.  WHAT?  My digestive track was starting to do things it had done in the past.  I couldn't figure this out..  I hadn't changed ANYTHING!  I started to play around with my food intake a bit in hopes to resolve the issue.  I added a little more oil here, a little fermented food there and started  taking probiotics.  Nothing helped, my condition continued to worsen.  I noticed my ankles looked extremely swollen while doing yoga one evening.  You tend to look at your ankles quite a bit while in the Downward Dog position.  I decided to go the doctor, apparently my superpower in this area had been weakened. 

By the time I reached the doctor's office, I was in severe pain in my abdomen and back.  Instant diagnosis of diverticulitis!  My old nemesis had come back to wreak havoc on my body.  I have since been flat on my back in bed in pain and on MEGA doses of very strong, not so pleasant antibiotics.  I am three days into treatment and still not feeling much better. I am not allowed to eat anything, except clear liquids.  I am severely missing my avocados and farm eggs.     As I have much time on my hands, I have been thinking quite a bit.   The memories of being this mentally fuzzy, lethargic, and in pain in the past,  has rocked me to the core.  This is how I use to spend most of my days.  I may not have been flat on my back in pain all the time, but I NEVER felt good.  I was always feeling groggy, tired, bloated, achy in some part of my body.  The last time I had diverticulitis, it was about 5 weeks before I went to the doctor because being uncomfortable and bloated was my norm.  In the past, I was just used to feeling yucky, so I would ignore symptoms until things got dangerous.

I have come to a couple of conclusions while laying here writhing in pain.

1. I never want to go back to feeling this crappy again.
2. Even though I thought I had a super power and the fountain of youth, no one is completely invincible. 
3. If I wasn't so  aware of my body, its changes, what goes in and what comes out :) ,  I may have missed the fact that something was terribly wrong with me until I ended up in hospital or worse.
4. I am extremely grateful for my health.
5. People live like this ALL the time and don't know there is another way.


I am so thankful for the positive changes in my health over the last year and half.  I think we forget how bad off we were until we are forced back into that miserable state.   I am so thankful for Dr. Atkins being the pioneer of the Low Carb (no grain/no sugar movement), Jimmy Moore for inspiring me to trying to change through his own story, and for all the Paleo/Primal folks who are shouting from the roof tops to stop eating processed food and grain.   I probably drive people crazy with my harping on about how bad grain is sugar is for our bodies.  I know I make people cringe when they see me eating high fat foods.  However, I cringe when I see the people that I love eating the typical American diet of processed, chemical laden, sugar filled and  low fat foods.    I felt physically ill the other day when reading face book comments about how margarine is so good for you and butter is so bad. NO, NO, NO!!!!  Margarine is CHEMICALS!  Butter is REAL.  Our society has tricked us into believing that these low fat, processed foods are good for us.

I have just been rudely reminded about how bad it feels to feel sick all the time. I never want to go back there again.  I know now that I am not invincible.  I will still get sick on occasion.  However, it is on OCCASION, not the NORM.   Aren't you sick of feeling sick?  Aren't you tired of feeling tired?  Aren't you tired of being on medications for blood pressure, cholesterol, depression, fibromyalgia and migraines?   Aren't you curious about the onslaught of chronic diseases and cancers that our plaguing our nation? Do you think about all the chemicals and genetically modified products that we are feeding our children?  If I took all the chemicals that are in just one product that we feed our kids and put it on a spoon without the fancy "food" disguise, would you let me feed it to your child? 

  I am pleading with you to stop filling your body with these things.  I am pleading with you to just try to eat REAL UNPROCESSED NUTRITION. There are so many free resources on the web now to help you make an easy transition. Its not as hard as you are thinking it will be.  I challenge you to try it for 30 days.  I challenge you to try just  one month of no sugar, no grain, no processed chemical laden food. You will be amazed at what is waiting for you behind the curtain of chemicals, sugar and grain.  Push the curtain aside and take a glimpse at what "healthy" feels like.  You can feel better, you can take control. It will be so worth it. I promise.

IT IS YOUR CHOICE.......

 

OR

Okay....off my soap box...back to bed for me.  Wonder Woman will be back soon.

- Lumpy Out

Day 6 Primal Family Conversion

Yippee! My husband is SOLD OUT on eating a grain free/sugar free life!  I am so thrilled! He said today was the best he has felt in a very long time! I feel like I have a partner now in this particular journey. My girls are not as thrilled about the prospect of a long term sugar/grain free lifestyle.  My youngest child (almost 5) is doing  pretty well with all the changes, but follows her sister's lead in excitement.  My oldest child (11) seems to have a deeply addicted hold on sugar and grain.  She refused to try the No Pasta Lasagna and mostly consumed salad during dinner the last two nights.  I am not sure where to go with her.  I obviously don't want to be so super obsessive that it pushes her way completely from this lifestyle change. I do feel motivated to continue this journey with them, even if it is not 100% devotion to it.  We explained to both girls today that living this primal lifestyle will be difficult.  We conceded to the fact that they will be allowed to eat one sugary treat each day and during special occasions.  I will slowly try to ween them off that without their direct knowledge.  Today was the last day of the "official" fast.  Not sure what tomorrow will bring!

Day 6
Breakfast: Banana/Egg Crepes (4 eggs, 1 ripe banana mushed well, Cinnamon, vanilla), blueberries, bacon
Snack: apples with nut butter
Lunch: Roast Beef and Swiss Rolls, cukes and carrots with garlic hummus
Snack: oranges and trail mix
Dinner: Left over No Pasta Lasagna, tossed salad
Snack: full fat yogurt (sugar free)

Day 5 Primal Family Conversion

Sickness still lingers in my house.  Sickness is preventing a full commitment by my children to this "conversion" process.  It has been a little disheartening to say the least.  However, my husband seems to be on board for long term lifestyle change at this point.  He did ask me an interesting question today though. "Why? Why should I change and make this a long term lifestyle change? What benefits should I expect from giving up sugar and grains?"  I started to quickly respond with listing all the benefits, however I soon realized that the benefits were MY reasons why I do what I do.  The benefits I have experienced doing a Low Carb version of Primal/Paleo have been endless.  First and foremost, I am a cancer survivor, so keeping my body's environment free of  sugar is beneficial to prevent a recurrence of my cancer.  My health benefits have been significant, including: significant reduction in my blood pressure, decreased migraines, diminished symptoms of IBS, diverticulitis, significant weight loss and fibromyalgia.

 However, my reasons can not be HIS reasons.  He is a very healthy and active 50 year old, who has never had high blood pressure, weight problems. or  any significant health issues.  He has always been very active and in very good shape even while eating tons of carbs and sugar.  So why should he give these things up and will it change his health for the better?  I was actually hesitant to answer, because honestly I did not know the answer.   I scoured the Internet for some answers.  The biggest reason for him to maintain this lifestyle is PREVENTION.  Eating a lower carb, higher good fat and good protein diet can help prevent the development of high blood pressure and cancers.  There is also evidence that he won't be as "foggy brained", distracted, have less of the aches that come with ageing and less tired from sugar crashes.   He seems satisfied with these answers for now and is willing to give it a solid effort for the long haul! Yeah!  I am so happy that he is finally on board with my lifestyle changes.

Day 5 Meals:

Breakfast: Raspberry, Banana Protein smoothie with coconut milk and whole milk
Snack: Homemade trail mix (every type of seed and nut I could throw in)
Lunch: Burger with no bun, salad and orange
Snack: Orange
Dinner: No Pasta Lasagna (cabbage leaves and zucchini slices replaced the lasagna noodles, and the rest of Lasagna made in typical way) and spinach/tomatoe salad
Snack: Sweet potato fries, cukes with ranch dressing

Day 4 Primal Family Conversion

Day 4:

Well today was a little disappointing.  My youngest daughter is feeling fine, but my oldest is still down for the count with a high fever.  We took a trip to the doctor's office early this morning.  I thought our doctor was going to have a stroke when my daughter told her she was fasting.  I had to quickly explain that it wasn't a full fast, just sugar and grains, before she reamed me out!   After examining her and determining that it was just a virus, Gatorade and cereal were her prescription!  Upon hearing the prescription, my daughter promptly hugged the doctor!  So one member of our family is officially off the sugar and grain fast for the time being.  I understand the reasoning on one hand, but on the other hand feel as though putting poison crap in her body isn't going to make her virus go away! I did relent, however.  If anything was accomplished in this half week of no sugar and no processed grains, it was to realize that at least one member of my family is truly addicted to the stuff!  

Breakfast: "chocolate" nut butter and banana milk shake, peaches
Snack: No sugar all natural fruit leather
Lunch: Baked Potato, Bacon, Cheese (*we are consuming dairy in experiment), whole milk
Snack: Fruit Salad and Carrots
Dinner: Home made Chili and full fat cheddar cheese (*we are consuming dairy in experiment), tossed salad and orange juice
Snack: Peaches

As I am typing out our meals, I am realizing that it appears that there are large quantities of fruit each day.  As a disclaimer, I would like to add that I am not personally consuming this much fruit or white potatoes.  As my goal is continued weight loss and decreased sugar in general, I limit my fruit intake.  So if you are partaking in these menus for yourself for weight loss, these may not be the best examples.   These menus are specifically for my children and husband, none of whom need to lose any weight.  My main goal for this week is to decrease their dependence of processed  sugar and grains.

*Oldest daughter also consumed Large bottle of Gatorade, 2 bowls of Krave cereal and whole milk (not part of the sugar and grain fast)

Day 3 Family Primal Conversion

Today was a little easier on me then the two previous days.  Both of my children have some kind of virus and have been laid out on the couch for most of the day.  They haven't had much of an appetite, so my need to cook a lot of food was slightly diminished.   The sickness also allowed me to clean my house because home school was cancelled due to illness :).  My oldest daughter is still having some melt downs over missing her favorite sugary cereal.  I am attributing this to her illness as well! My husband actually caved and gave her a small bowl of it at bedtime.  UGH!  His argument made some sense to me however.  He feels that because she is so sick and has been craving the same thing each of these three days, her body may need something in it to push her out of the illness.  For me, being off sugar and grains for over a year and 4 months, I would not have caved so easily.  However, maybe he is on to something in this particular case.  Anyway, as of tomorrow, she is back off the sugar and the grains.   We are almost half way through the week, and I am feeling reinvigorated to feed my family REAL food.

Day 3 :

Breakfast:  "Chocolate" Nut Butter/Banana Milkshake*
Snack:  Full fat yogurt
Lunch: Left over beef stir fry, olive oil fried zucchini
Snack:  Grapes
Dinner: Roast  Chicken, Carrots, Homemade French Fries (I did not eat these due to carbs)
Snack:   Mixed Berry Yo'Nanna

Day Two Family Primal Conversion

Ugh! Yup, I said it! Here let me say it again....UGH!  I think day two has been harder on me then anyone else in the family!  Two thoughts keep going through my head over and over.  The first thought is "I really wish I didn't know how much better for them REAL food is"!  The second thought is "Was I INSANE to do a sugar and grain fast at the same time as a media and technology fast?"  Holy Smokes, WHAT was I thinking?  Okay, since most of you won't ever be as insane as I am do both things at the same time, I won't go on and on about the media fast. 

I feel like I have been on my feet for hours cooking and my kitchen is a royal mess!  Gone are the days of popping frozen chicken nuggets in the microwave or pouring a quick bowl of cereal and milk.  I am not a kitchen girl. I do not love to cook or for that matter, I don't even really enjoy cooking.  So switching my entire family to "REAL" food is a much more daunting task then I realized.   During the next week, I am going to have to figure out a way to streamline this process or I might end up in a ward at our local hospital. 

DAY 2:

Breakfast: Cantaloupe, Strawberries and a "Chocolate" Nut Butter/Banana Milkshake*
Snack: Fruit Salad
Lunch: Homemade Chicken Tenders* (with Almond Meal), cukes, carrots and strawberries, homemade Kefir drink
Dinner:  Beef stir fry and Cauliflower Rice
Snack: Strawberries and grapes

*Recipes to follow soon

Day One Family Primal Conversion

Today was the day!  My husband and children have agreed to give up sugar and grain for at least one week!  I have one week to convince them that the food still tastes good and fills them up!  I will be updating daily on our progress!

Day 1:

 Today was a little tougher then it should have been because of my lack of preparation ahead of time. I didn't make it to the grocery store until late this afternoon. My kids were complaining of hunger for most of the day without sugar and about how unfair it was that we couldn't go to a fast food restaurant while we our out. My oldest child was having a complete melt down at the end of the evening, over the temptation she was facing over a box of her favorite sugary cereal. I was able to divert disaster by making a Yo'nana desert for her without sugar. Tomorrow, I will spend a few hours baking and creating snacks that will fill the void of not having "sugar and processed" snacks.
Our meals today consisted of:
Breakfast: Apple Pancakes made with coconut & almond flour, homemade applesauce and nitrate free bacon.
Snack: pineapple chunks and blueberries
Lunch: cheese chunks (*note our family does use high fat dairy), strawberries, homemade trail mix
Snack: Healthy sweet potato fries, cukes and carrots with ranch
Dinner: Awesome Roast in slow cooker with onions, mushrooms, carrots, sweet potatoes and broccoli
Snack: Yo nanna Blueberry/Banana desert with fresh blueberries on top and 2 nut butter balls each.

A Primal family?

A primal family for one week! I am really excited!  My husband and two children have committed to give up sugar and white stuff (flour, white rice etc, pasta and cereal) for a week!  I have been eating this way for a year and 4 months!  I occassionally sneak in a "primal" meal here and there for the whole family.  However, it has been mostly Mom's meals and the rest of the family's meals.   I often cook completely separate meals for myself, while they all eat pasta, ice cream and the like.

So I am sure you are wondering "How did this happen?"  Our family often participates in a week of "corporate" prayer, fasting and setting time apart to be with God.  We do this with our church family every time there is a month with 5 weeks or 5 Sunday's.  My husband and I will typically fast from food completely or do a "Daniel Fast" together.  As a family, we do a media/technology fast together. A media fast entails: no television,  no video games, and no social media   We have never asked the kids to fast from food, because it is not healthy for them at a young age.  So as we are entering into the fifth week of April, everyone agreed on the media and technology fast.  I posed the question to them all about all of them going "primal" for a week.  I honestly expected a lot of strife from them at the suggestion!  My girls love their sugary cereals and sweet treats.  My husband's main food staple are  bagels and pasta.  I was completely shocked when all three of them quickly responded with YES!   We have been talking about it for a few weeks and tomorrow is the big day! 

I haven't gone grocery shopping yet to fill their bellies up for a whole week.  However, I was able to come up with some meals for tomorrow until I can get to the grocery store.  I packed up hubby's lunch bag up with: grain free apple pancakes (almond/coconut flour), paleo trail mix bag,  grapes, apples, carrots/cukes, yogurt and swisss cheese (they are not giving up dairy).  He is a little nervous about not having a bagel for his drive in to the office.  My girls will have several choices of fruit, yogurt, grain free pancakes or a yo nanna "ice cream" for breakfast, until I can get to the store.

My plan for the week is to make some really awesome dinners, that hubby can pack up and bring to lunch the next day.  We are going to have a grass fed pot roast with all the trimmings except white potatoes, beef stir fry with califlower rice, chili, cabbage rolls with burger/sauce and stuff (I think they are pronounced glump-kees),chicken and spaggetti made out of spaggetti squash, roasted chicken with all the trimmings, chicken parm (without breading) and a grain free pizza (crust made with almond and coconut flour).   Our other foods will include things like: zucchini chips, tons of veggies cooked in variety of ways or raw, tons of fruits, nitrate free bacon, farm eggs, grain free crepes, meat and cheese rolls, yogurt without added sugar, homemade applesauce with no sugar, homemade glucamole, paleo trail mix, paleo granola, paleo energy bars and much more.

I am really happy that they are all willing to try to make it an entire week without thier beloved sugar and white stuff.  I am sure we will all be tested in our patience and ability to abstain from tempation!  I am obviously hoping that I can convince them to stay relatively grain and sugar free even after we are done with the actual fast. Oh, how I wonder how my kids will survive!

We will also be fasting from all media and most of technology.  I will be abstaining from most technology.  However,  I will be randomly posting on the Hiit and Run face book page just to keep you all informed of our family progress!


Do you think your family could do this for a week?  I am not sure mine can!  However, we are going to give it our best shot! Do you want to join us?

So wish me luck! I will periodically check in this week to see how everyone is doing!

Until next time -
Lumy out!

Can you do Hiit at a playground?

Yup! You absolutely can! These are tires at a local playground that I take my children to on a regular basis. Typically you would have found me sitting on a bench at the edge of the playground watching my children play. However, this time, these tires looked very tempting! Hmmmm, what could I do here? Well lets see.... I ran the length of them back and forth 5 times, lunged with each leg across each tire the entire length 5 times, did squats on one side of tire then jumped across to the other side the length of all of them (only 2 times for that LOL), side lunged on each tire across all the tires 2 times, and did about twenty squat jumps from ground up to top of a tire. The workout was crazy good! However, the absolute best part of it? The look on my kids faces while they watched in amazement at Mom doing this workout!

Do something amazing today!

Lumpy Out-

An Introduction

A little site orientation to get you started!

Hiit (High Intensity Interval Training): \

is an enhanced form of interval training, an exercise strategy alternating periods of short intense anaerobic exercise with less-intense recovery periods. HIIT is a form of cardiovascular exercise. Usual HIIT sessions may vary from 4–20 minutes. These short, intense workouts provide improved athletic capacity and condition, improved glucose metabolism, and improved fat burning.^*wikipedia

RUN: (Real, Unprocessed, Nutrition) :

*If you came to blog for running information, sorry you came to the wrong place! I do not run, not yet anyway! Anyhow....Real Unprocessed Nutrition....hmmmmmm...that one may take longer then this space allows. I am leaving this part as "under construction" for the time being!

Don't worry, I will come back to it.

My blog name is "Lumpy", I am a 45 year old mother of two children under 10. I struggled with my weight most of my life, hitting my peak weight somewhere over 220 after the birth of my two children and a battle with cancer. I say "somewhere over" because I was so disgusted with myself after seeing 220 on the scale that I stopped weighing myself. In the past, I had successful weight loss with the Weight Watchers program and with monitoring calories in/calories burned technique. However, those techniques no longer worked for me after I turned 40. I am not really sure what changed in my body, but something changed. I tried logging every morsel that went into my mouth and exercised 5 times a week for a minimum of 30 minutes for well over a year. I had absolutely no results. I even went to an endrocrinologist to have my thyroid and hormone levels tested. Everything came back completely normal. Her advice was to cut my calories from 1200 down to 1000 a day and exercise 90 minutes a day, 6 days a week. My answer to that was a loud and clear "NOT"!

During most of the year of 2011, I was lost and fell into a deep depression. My health was suffering greatly with no real explanation. I had just survived a battle with cancer, surgery and radiation. My blood pressure was extremely high on a daily basis, enough so that I was put on blood pressure medication. I suffered from almost daily migraines and neck pain, which I also required medication. My body continued to plummet as I suffered from IBS, diverticulitis and an extremely large ulcer that required 3 colonoscopies and 2 endoscopy's all within a year. On three occasions I found myself in the local emergency room with my blood pressure so high that I was dizzy and in fear of having a stroke. I felt completely miserable and nothing I tried to seem to help me.


As January 2012 approached I decided I would do a week long prayer and fast with our church, during the first week of the new year. I chose to do a Daniel Fast. This is a spiritual fast, that typically lasts up to 3 weeks. During the fast, no animal products or sugar are allowed. Some unleavened and unprocessed grains were allowed, however I opted not to eat those as well. I ate mostly veggies, nuts and fruit for the first week. By the end of the first week, my blood pressure was completely normal. I decided to extend one week to two weeks! By the end of two weeks, I lost 5 pounds and my blood pressure continued to be perfect. I was on to something, FINALLY! I started to investigate a Low Carb lifestyle (check out Jimmy Moore Living La'Viva Lo Carb), and slowly added in healthy fats like olive oil, avocados, high fat dairy products and lean meats. I was starting to make progress finally, but really still had the "diet" mindset. On my daughters 10th birthday, I decided to splurge and have a piece of cake with frosting. Within 15 minutes, I was in bed with a massive migraine and my blood pressure had spiked up to my old numbers. Although I suffered that day, I was given a great insight into my health. I was having almost an allergic reaction to sugar and processed grains! Over the course of the next year, every time I "cheated", the same thing would happen to me. I realized I was no longer on a "diet", I was changing my lifestyle and my relationship with food for my health, not just my weight
 
Over the course of 2012, I lost 42 pounds, without any exercise! I felt fantastic. As I looked back over the year, I realized that my health was actually NORMAL! I no longer suffered from IBS, diverticulitis, migraines, fibromyolagia or high pressure! I was no longer fatigued, my skin and hair looked much better and I had more energy then before I had my first child. Even with all the great benefits of this new lifestyle, I was getting bored with eating the same old "stuff" everyday. Meat, eggs, cheese and veggies can get old fast and there are only so many ways to cook these things. I scoured the Internet for recipes and came across the Paleo/Primal way of eating. I discovered that I could bake and eat "grain like" food but with nut flours! The more I found, the more excited I became! I am not a strict Paleo follower, as I have kept high fat dairy and legumes (beans and peanuts) in my weekly diet. I also found that I can not use the typical sweeteners recommended in most Paleo recipes because the "natural sugar" of honey or maple syrup still reek havoc on my blood pressure. So many of the recipes that you will find on this page will use high fat dairy or stevia. Please listen to your own body when following these guidelines. You may not be able to tolerate high fat dairy products. You may be just fine using honey or maple syrup. I use a TEMPLATE of Paleo/Primal and have tweaked it until it was perfect for ME! You may be completely different. You may be criticized for using dairy if you say you are following a Paleo plan. However , the key is to find out what works for YOU.

In late February 2013, I discovered the awesome power of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)! I LOVED IT! I can get my workouts done in under 20 minutes daily and I see my body changing for the better every day! I workout with very minimal equipment in my own house and have had excellent results.I have lost and additional 5 pounds and 9 inches from my body since starting the HIIT program!

Many people have marveled at all the changes in me in the last year. I get asked daily to share what I have done to get so healthy. Although I LOVE telling people about it, it is much easier to write it out in this format! I hope you find the information here helpful for your own journey. Remember to check with your physician if you have medical conditions before you start this or any other program. Remember to tweak and test your own tolerances to foods to decide what works best for you!

I hope this helped in some way! Here's to a new lifestyle and new changes in your health! Here are some before and almost after pics of me! I still have about 10 lbs to go before I am at my "goal" weight.

 

 

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