(no subject)

[altarflame]

First of all - I just got on Facebook and saw this article -

CDC Advises Breastfeeding during H1N1 Pandemic
Formula is Added Risk in Swine Flu Epidemic.

And I wanted to say, that Grant's job had a verified outbreak of Swine Flu a couple of months back, immediately following which we all got sick with what I am 90% sure was H1N1. The hardest hit were Jake and Elise, as the youngest kids - but they are also the two nurslings. And they did their standard "I'm sick and want to nurse around the clock" thing. And after a couple of days of high fever, and a relapse, and calls to the pediatrician, what kept the ped and us from feeling like we had to run to the hospital, was the nursing. The continuous flow of fluids to prevent dehydration when most kids won't drink anything, as well as the constant flow of antibodies pumped into them.

I'm not usually preachy about this, but, damn. If you or someone you know NEEDS one more reason to breastfeed, here it is.

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Hierarchy of Household Chores According to altarflame

Things I Hate the Idea of Doing But Then Enjoy In Practice
-watering the plants
-putting all library books back where they belong
-my bedroom
-clearing massively piled surfaces

Things That I Don't Enjoy But Are Really Worth It For the Results
-cleaning the toilets
-sweeping
-helping and enforcing cleaning of the kids room
-cleaning the deck up
-math lessons with A and A
-workbook work of any type with Isaac

Things I Just For Whatever Reason Really Love the Process Of
-vaccuming
-using boiling water on the counters
-ironing
-making beds
-folding towels
-cleaning out the fridge
-studying books with them, reading to them, conversations where we topic-jump as they ask more and more leading questions

Things That Aren't That Bad
-loading the dishwasher
-dusting
-clearing clutter off the floor
-overseeing Abeka assignments and handwriting things

Chores That Can Die in A Fire
-general non-towel laundry
-keeping up with filth on walls (WHAT IS UP WITH KIDS AND WALLS?)
-mopping
-taking out trash
-anything involving toilet paper
-and/or toothpaste
-getting Aaron to do anything that is multi-step

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So. Today I have slept in too late while my kids ate a bag of frozen berries for breakfast and amused themselves with board games...note I did not say "played" board games. Then I read a lot more of The Silent Mountain; prayed often; thought about how reading about being holy can in fact be being lazy; wrote a blog entry for the winery for Grant; nursed people; weighed myself and got really happy; heated up two different homemade soups for the kids' and I's lunch; dressed smallest nakedest kids; distributed popsicles, ginger snaps, and orange slices; enforced some chores; did some reading aloud; installed some pigtails; gathered up some laundry from some rooms; successfully got facebook to work after a million failed attempts; and here I am.

I suppose I also had the forethought to get my laptop, cell phone and iPod charging, because very soon I will be getting everyone ready so I can take Ananda and Aaron to their big 3 hour block of dance classes. First I have to study AWANA verses with the little boys. Then when we are up by Dance Empire, Grant is going to meet me from work, we'll trade vehicles, and I'll take the Prius and go write things for Midwifery Today at a Starbucks while he plays taxi driver and makes dinner happen.

I must have spent half an hour studying MT's style sheet, yesterday afternoon. It goes on FOR-EV-ER. And about 30 seconds recording some ideas. I also got most of my office kilz'd, though, so there is that, even if I do have some splatter on my wrists.

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I've been tediously planning out a budget for us over the past week, that includes $100 apiece for Grant and I's birthdays next month. For mine I am thinking tickets to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra in December, and the 2010 Writers Market. Which is FIFTY BUCKS by itself. I may just look at how much the online membership is and what the differences are. And there are (crappy) tickets as low as $25 each, so...I'm still thinking about it.

---

Every now and then - like when I'm carving up a freshly roasted chicken with crispy skin and running juices that smells like heaven - this eating plan I'm on is really hard. I mean, like, I can get shaky or almost cry about how hard it is at certain moments. Having the van reek of Pollo Tropical and going to wash my hands to get the plantains off of them rather than licking them clean, that kind of crap. Sometimes it just weighs really heavy on me throughout a period of a few hours. But...

I feel like I can do it. I really, really do. I feel like I connected when I prayed, about dying and upcoming surgery and my ridiculous food issues and also like I was led to this particular program. Through people and other factors. I even feel sometimes like I'm reaping spiritual benefits through the self sacrifice, in addition to probably reversing the diabetes I was almost surely starting to develop and putting less pressure by the day on my entrapped intestines and blah blah blah. It's really peaceful, but in a heavy way, if that makes any sense at all.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about what changes I would make for the maintenance/life plan, and how to gradually adapt the family's eating to be a little more lined up with it, and what would qualify as enough of an occasion to "break rules" and all of that.

Updated notepad file I go to every morning:
So far on Eat to Live (having last weighed 233 lbs several days before, and noting that mad5 is the 1st day of my period, when I would normally be temporarily up a few pounds)

Morning after day 1 - 229.6
MAD2 - 228.6
MAD3 - 227.4
Mad4 - 227
mad5 - 226.2
mad6 - 225.8
mad7 - 224.2
mad8 - 224.8
mad9 - 224.2
mad9 - 222.6

Comments

[noelove.livejournal.com]

I love folding towels too. What is up with that?!

You're totally inspiring me with the weight loss. You go girl. Also I posted that swine flu breastfeeding link all over the place!

[-evalution.livejournal.com]

i love vacuuming. LOVE LOVE LOVE IT. i love getting out the hose and attachments and going along the floorboards and corners....and making the bed. i have my bed making rituals and i pretend i am teaching a course in bed making every time i make mine. i love lining up spots on the sheets and comforter with edges, folding it all over and fluffing pillows...laundry is my most hated chore. followed closely by putting away clean dishes from the dishwasher/washing dishes by hand.

[tangelina.livejournal.com]

Wow -- superwoman! I love mopping the floors, but I can't even begin to clean a cluttered up desk or coffee table.

[brighidh.livejournal.com]

I just zipped through carpet shampooing but I can't make myself go down and throw the laundry over....

I'm so inspired by your eat-to-live info.

I also went usptairs today to find the kids had opened, heated and eaten about half a can of corn when they got "munchy". I feel you on the frozen berries front. I console myself with being glad it wasn't a bag/box/container of something hugely bad for them. You know...like...straight corn syrup or something.

[ecosopher.livejournal.com]

I love folding towels. It's the one thing I can do a few of and feel like I've accomplished something, because then the washing pile is significantly smaller. I actually enjoy washing clothes a lot - even the hanging out. If only they folded themselves and put themselves away when they were dry...

The Eat-To-Live thing makes a lot of sense. It's kind of crazy that we all don't do this anyway - how bizarre that we are at a point where a huge chunk (no pun intended) of the world's population is overweight because we just eat more than we need to? Really, you wonder what is wrong with us - guess there's something to be said for having too much choice.

[eternamariposa.livejournal.com]

First, as chores go. Fuck the garbage. Isn't there supposed to be a man around all the time to tend to that sort of thing? It stalls all of my other cleaning when it is full, makes me walk through frog/bug/who knows what, wet night grass to take it out, and the smells are pretty offensive to pregnant sensibilities. All and all unacceptable.

I think you rock pretty hardcore for sticking to the diet so well and really putting yourself out there so honestly and vulnerably with the food issues. Around these parts it is all about small victories these days. When I wake up in the morning it will be my seventh consecutive dairy free day. It makes me feel like I practically cured cancer or something-in a very shameful, self deprecating way cause it is really that hard, and therefore that much of an accomplishment, for my pregnant ass not to eat that cheese.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

This is why Aaron becomes "the man of the house" when Grant steps out the door :p

Thank you, about the diet...I'm at 13 pounds lost today. 13 pounds in 11 days, what?!

I was having some pretty major chills last night and generally feeling like crap. Which is supposed to be kind of standard for burning a lot of fat because you are releasing all these toxins into your system. Also I've heard that just fast weight loss can cause chills in some people because your body is losing insulation...anyway the point is that I get really freaked when I have chills. It just puts me so on edge, emotionally, because I felt like that for basically a solid month and then found out I was septic and dying the whole time? And now I have to grit my teeth and pray a lot to deal with that feeling, it causes this visceral reaction...

Anyway I was actually wearing socks, so you know it was extreme.

[eternamariposa.livejournal.com]

You need to research opening up your detox pathways especially because you are still nursing and Jake and Elise will be eating up those tasty toxins. It is fairly straight foward stuff too. Epsom salt baths are actually supposed to be very effective for this alone with the good nutrients which you are surely getting from all the fresh foods you are eating. I think bone broths were on the list too. The idea is just to make sure that you are removing the toxins from your blood and organs safely rather than just dumping them in your body.

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

Hmm. "opening up your detox pathways" sounds a little bit like hooey to me. But I'll read up a bit.

In the meantime, my breath is TERRIBLE :/

[eternamariposa.livejournal.com]

Are you accusing me of suggesting "hooey" to you? Honestly woman. No really, if you read about it, espcecially insecently like I do, it makes sense. If you have a lot of built up toxins your body probably isn't very efficient so making sure your digestive tract is working makes a lot of sense and trying to encourage the exit of the toxins via other modes of transport than yo titi milk makes sense too. So neah.

Anecdata

[mercyorbemoaned.livejournal.com]

I am pretty sure I had an issue with toxins overwhelming my liver when I lost a crazy amount of weight after my first baby.

[aranel.livejournal.com]

I dunno about "pathways," but if you aren't consuming fat and your body is pulling fat from its store instead to go into your breastmilk, apparently that can cause contaminant levels in breastmilk to rise: see Kellymom link. (http://kellymom.com/nutrition/mom/mom-weightloss.html#toofast)

[aranel.livejournal.com]

They only seemed to find this result in women who restricted calorie intake severely, lost weight very fast, AND had higher than normal exposure to environmental contaminants, so it may not be that worrisome.