Real Food - A Journey

Miss Roo's journey of food has been quite different from her sister's. Roo's place as a second child brought to the table (hee hee) a greater knowledge base, more patience, and a Mama with more resolve.

Breastfeeding is too often depicted as something romantic and simple. For me that was far from the truth. With Miss Moo I had supply issues and wasn't given any real support during my hospital stay.  I delivered on a Thursday afternoon and never saw a lactation consultant. She was born during the H1N1 panic and every type of drop-in care and support group was cancelled during her first 6 months of life. Visits to lactation consultants were costly after the first free visit and insurance wouldn't pay. She lost weight. We both cried. Our pediatrician sternly pointed at formula. Drew and I, being first time parents, conceded. And I cried some more. Moo began formula with what little breast milk I could provide and gained weight. By the next peds visit I was told she was TOO heavy. I felt embarrassed as I stood in the office. As I walked to the car I felt angry.

I began slipping into a terrible PPD because I couldn't feed my child and was filling her full of food that was now, seemingly, making her heavy. I decided enough was enough. I stopped feeding her formula and we took a nursing vacation. I nursed her every 2-3 hours from 2 months until 6 months when she began taking solids more easily and drank water willingly. I admitted I needed help with my depression and saw my Midwifes. And I began educating myself.

Moo's First meal - rice cereal with banana.

With Miss Roo we did things entirely differently. I was educated before becoming pregnant with her but after we knew she was cooking I read everything I could on herbs, supplements, foods, and depression. A friend from college mentioned placenta encapsulation. I had run across it in some research while I was nursing Moo but decided to do additional research now that I would actually have a placenta to use. I talked with my Midwife and we decided to use that as an additional  preventative measure. When Roo arrive my house was well stocked with Fenugreek, Blessed Thistle, Gaia Herbs Lactate Support, Mother's Milk tea, and placenta pills. When I prepare, I PREPARE.

Whether it was my planning, my supplements, my placenta, or my willpower doesn't truly matter. What matters is that it worked. Roo was a healthy breast milk baby. She made it a few weeks into her sixth month before she sampled food. This time we ignored what all the pediatricians and baby experts tell us to feed our children. We were (and still are) in the process of cleaning up our diet. We were replacing low fat, manipulated unhealthy food with real, organic, good fat, whole fat foods. We began this process shortly before we married but seem to layer our deck with life events one on top of another. So this evolution has been slow but consistent.

Where Moo had rice cereal, Roo had avacado and banana. Where Moo had jarred organic food, Roo had the food that we were eating. She sampled fruit, veggies, dairy and meat.

 Roo's first meal - whole milk yogurt with banana.

And she LOVED it.

This kid can EAT. Moo has always been a fabulous eater, but Roo puts her to shame. She is a carnivore. She loves pork and beef especially. She would eat bananas until they came out her ears, as Nana would say. She eats the rainbow daily and with fervor.  At most meals she cleans her plate and her sister's and then moves on to mine.  She has never turned down a food that we have preparedfor her. 

The girls enjoying a carpet picnic for "brunch":

Local, free range eggs, GFCF bacon, GF pancakes

with real maple syrup, organic OJ, and some local fruit

(missing from the picture because it is always consumed first.)

I know that I am not a doctor, nutritionist, or scientist, but I CAN tell you that eating real food works for developing a great love of real food in children and a healthy weight in both children and adults. I was trying desperately to lose my baby weight from both girls. Nothing was working. I was staying heavy even breastfeeding and counting calories. After a few months, I decided I was only going to eat good fats from meat, dairy, nuts and fruit as well as remove gluten and eat more veggies. I was not going to count calories or read the fat grams in the food I was eating. The results have been amazing.

 December 2011

 Janauary 2012

 February 2012

 March 2012

 April 2012

I'm not runway ready, but I'm better. I've lost weight, inches, sizes, and pain in my back and legs. 

Real food. That's where it's at.

Interested? Here's some books and films I love:

BOOKS:

 Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon  - http://www.newtrendspublishing.com/SallyFallon/

Wheat Belly by William Davis, M.D. - http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/buy-the-book/

Real Food and Real Food for Mother and Baby by Nina Planck - http://www.ninaplanck.com/books.html


The Coconut Oil Miracle by Bruce Fife, C.N., N.D. - http://www.amazon.com/Coconut-Miracle-Previously-published-Healing/dp/1583332049

FILMS:

Ingredients  - http://www.ingredientsfilm.com/
Fresh - http://www.freshthemovie.com/
Food, Inc. - http://www.takepart.com/foodinc
Food Matters - http://www.foodmatters.tv/#
Fork Over Knives - http://www.forksoverknives.com/
Fat Head - http://www.fathead-movie.com/

Thin Places

The girls and I headed to the park this morning for another dose of Joy. Roo was strapped to me in her carrier and Moo giggled as I pushed her back and forth in the swing. I sipped coffee. It was lovely.

Minutes passed.  More moms and nannies arrived. Children of all ages began playing in various areas of the park. A little fellow and his mommy arrived to swing alongside us. He was wearing a Thomas shirt. Clearly, these were cool people.

The usual "mommy" talk began. We discussed the ages of our children, if two was harder than one, what it was like on Daddies, etc. She shared with me that she wanted another child but recounted how terrible her PPD had been with him. She had stopped nursing. She had been on medication. She was TERRIFIED of that all over again. I could relate. My PPD with Moo was one of the worst experiences of my life. So, I shared with her my experience of placenta encapsulation.

There is a whole other post waiting there, and it will come, but for now what I want to share is the relief that I saw on this mother's face. I could see excitement return to her and a huge weight come off her shoulders. "There is HOPE for me!" she said during our conversation. I gave her my contact information and that of my placenta gal. "Oh, I'm so glad we came to the park today!!"  She graciously thanked me and I told her she was more than welcome - and I meant it. We played for a bit more and we were on our way. As I loaded the girls in the van, she and her little fellow waved and grinned from across the park.

One of the weeks this past year at Women's Group, our leader talked about Thin Places- times when the veil between Heaven and Earth is so thin that you can see God working. There in a parking lot littered with minivans was a Thin Place.