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 Swiss 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 cauliflower rice, chili, cabbage rolls with burger/sauce and stuff (I think they are pronounced glump-kees),chicken and spaghetti made out of spaghetti 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 guacamole, 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 their beloved sugar and white stuff. I am sure we will all be tested in our patience and ability to abstain from temptation! 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?
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.
Day 2
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.
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 3:
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.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 with Olive Oil (I did not eat these due to carbs)
Snack: Mixed Berry Yo'Nanna
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), 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.
Day 5
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 6
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, salad
Snack: full fat yogurt (sugar free)
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