03.17.08
Posted in Books, Food, Health at 1:45 pm by Christina
Jeff and I began our second juice fast of our new cycle, the last one being in late January. I have confirmed that via the fasting efforts I will achieve my immediate goal of getting within the weight requirements for private health insurance, so that is reassuring. Now I am working on concurrent efforts to the fasting: exercise issues, and emotional eating issues.
I am finding that my choice to do high-density willpower bursts (the fasts) is a more sustainable approach for me than trying to maintain a constantly high level of vigilance across all three fields of play: nutrition, exercise, and personal growth/healing. My overall nutrition is good for maintenance, and will be great once I’ve gained better success with regular exercise. (That’s even given bouts of emotional eating.) Tackling the caloric restriction necessary for actually losing weight through concentrated fasting is working well, given all the factors involved.
I have made some discoveries in my readings on the growth and healing front. Two important books I’ve read recently are The Solution by Laurel Mellin (R.D.) and The Simple Living Guide by Janet Luhrs. The Solution discusses six areas that lead to an inappropriate relationship with food: weak nurturing, ineffective limits, body shame, poor vitality, unbalanced eating, and stalled living. The Simple Living Guide is about voluntary simplicity, the concept of paring down excess in your life in order to live it more fully. In particular, things I learned about myself from time with these books:
If my life seems so busy that I’m having trouble making time for things that are important, then my life is too busy and I need to reprioritize.
I have difficulty accepting “necessary pain” in life, very much preferring an easy road.
My expectations are often so high that I can’t even get started because I know failure is inevitable.
These observations give me areas to focus my energies when not on an active fast.
Permalink
05.04.07
Posted in Health, Kids, Parenting, Pumping at 5:28 pm by Christina
I took Jamie in for a check-up a couple of weeks ago. This is not something I would normally do given that we do not vaccinate the kids; there’s not as much reason for it when they are healthy. However, I did want to meet with Dr. Lloyd to discuss my observation of some breathing obstruction (not apnea, which is breathing stoppage); Jamie frequently seems to be breathing through saliva, and when he had a mild cold this winter he couldn’t nurse at the bottle and breathe simultaneously. Knowing that there was/is some kind of congenital malformation of his oral physiology that prevented him from breastfeeding successfully (and at this point he is still incapable of saying /g/ or /k/), I wanted to discuss possibilities with the pediatrician.
Jamie is recovering quite well from his “failure to thrive” diagnosis deriving from his inability to extract milk from the breast despite our best efforts. At 18 months, he now weighs 27lb 6oz (64%ile), is 33.5in (72%ile) and his head circumference is 49.25 (cm I think) (83%ile). At his diagnosis at 4m, he was below the 5%ile in weight and height and about 35%ile in head circumference. (He was well in the 90%iles at birth.)
We are not seeing any evidence at all of developmental delays deriving from his diagnosis; indeed, Dr. Lloyd told us at the time that babies are very resilient, and that since we had only just started to notice temperamental changes (which contributed in part I guess to our choice to make an appointment at that time) we shouldn’t worry about any permanent impact – damage – from the problem. Jamie is ahead of the game developmentally just about across the board; he has been doing all the gross and fine motor skills of this age for 3-4 months now, his vocabulary is very large, etc.
The big dilemma now is what to do about the bottles and the milk. “Absolutely no more bottle!” is bolded on the information sheet, and Dr. Lloyd was frank with us about the concerns of overconsumption of milk (anemia). Jamie’s situation is mitigated somewhat by the fact that he drinks goat’s milk and not cow’s (which irritates the intestines and causes microscopic bleeding that contributes to the anemia issue). Dr. Lloyd did not see any current evidence of anemia. Jamie had his first appointment at the dentist the next day, and Dr. Rabbach told us his teeth are strong and clean; he didn’t mention anything about bottles, though it’s possible he remembers us as a breastfeeding family as this came up regarding Emma. Paperwork at the dentist’s office said that thumb sucking and pacifier use were not concerns until 4.
Although it was clear that we needed to supplement with goat’s milk formula and with bottles, we have worked hard to maintain as much of a breastfeeding relationship as we can, both when I was pumping and now that we have stopped. Except for the rare times when we are in the car at naptime or bedtime, Jamie is held and rocked, mostly by me, when he is having a bottle. He has gotten milk “on demand” just as I would do if nursing him; we continue to cosleep, and I wake up for night feedings in bed just as I did with the girls. I had started down the path to night-weaning a couple of months ago, again as I did with the girls, taking the opportunity to soothe him back to sleep with alternate methods the first time he wakes and stretching his sleep blocks in this way. We have not used the bottles for soothing as we used the breast with the girls, primarily because there is no regulating the milk supply of a bottle – it always provides food with no delay for “let down”. (I’m talking about when there is a lengthy upset caused by injury, etc.)
I do have an instinct about how to proceed; I want to let him have the suckling for as long as possible, preferably until it is clear that he is ready for weaning. (The girls both nursed until past their 4th birthdays.) There would have to be serious dental concerns for me to want to stop sooner; orthodontia is standard practice for middle class kids nowadays anyway, and he doesn’t fall asleep with milk pooling from the bottle, because I’m on the other end of the bottle and I put it away and make sure he swallows when we’re done.
Emma needs to see the dentist again to have a couple of sealants reapplied. I plan to discuss my concerns frankly with Dr. Rabbach at that time, especially regarding the pacifier and thumb issue. It’s possible a switch to a different nipple will reduce orthodontic concerns (we use the Avent nipple now), but if Jamie doesn’t take to that I don’t think I’ll force it.
My guilt over the entire “failure to thrive” situation is much dissipated after more than a year, but I still ask myself the “what if” questions when the issue gets more in my face, as with this bottle situation. And although we are basically happy and healthy and able to parent from the same set of values, it can still make me very sad that we were denied the peaceful breastfeeding relationship every baby (and mother) deserves.
Permalink
04.07.07
Posted in Food, Health, Household, Kids, Life in general at 8:19 am by Christina
8am on a Saturday morning, April 7th, my birthday. I’m 37 today. Somewhere in the last few years I started actually feeling my age, instead of feeling “post-college”, somewhere in the 25-28 range. I’m talking psychologically, here. I remember the first big hit came four years ago on a ski trip with my parents, when my mother was having terrible chest pains, couldn’t breathe very well and so on; my dad was out on a horseback ride at the resort and so I was the next adult in line to be in charge, and I ended up calling 911. (Turned out to be nothing cardiac – a serious muscle sprain in an unusual place – but it was very scary!) That kicked the aging up a notch with the awareness that my parents are getting older themselves and that I will (hopefully along with my brother!) one day be responsible for them as I am for my kids. Since then, the gap between 25-28 and my actual age has been closing rapidly, and I can report that today, at 37, I’m pretty sure I’ve caught up.
As for the birthday itself, I’m not a big one on celebrations, though I ususally do participate in something low key (like dinner and dessert) with those of my family who want to honor me. Today that won’t be happening, because I decided on Tuesday that I had the momentum to do another juice fast and that started on Thursday. We decided to have our usual dinner celebration closer to May 1st, which is halfway between Jeff’s birthday and my own. (Jeff’s parents will be out of town at Jeff’s birthday.)
Furthermore, I seem to be surrounded by sick people. Katie had a fever last Monday and Tuesday with Wednesday as a recovery day. Yesterday Emma had a number of vomiting episodes and didn’t get to do Camp PooMee (grandparent day). Last night I was tubbing with Jamie and noticed him fading at what seemed to be an early-ish hour given his nap, but I got him out and ready for bed; and when I was rocking him to sleep he felt warm and did throughout the night. And Jeff came to bed at 11 feeling feverish as well (although I was already asleep then because of the fast).
I’m hopeful I won’t need to break fast today; I was – AM – planning to go through Tuesday for a 6-day fast. But if life becomes any more taxing, I don’t think it will be smart to continue. I can always start up again this coming Thursday. (Wednesdays being long days out, I don’t like to be fasting that day!)
People are finally starting to stir upstairs, so off I go!
Permalink
03.15.07
Posted in Food, Health, Household, Kids at 1:40 pm by Christina
NOT EASY!!! There’s food – you know, great-smelling, chewable food – EVERYWHERE. The girls both take care of themselves at breakfast and at lunch, with the occasional exception of Emma needing help reaching something or having supervision for sharp knife use. And even dinner they are able to cook with guidance; they made pesto Tuesday night, for example, and had the leftovers last night. But PESTO – one of our favorite foods, and certainly a powerful-smelling one… Jamie has taken this opportunity to string together several straight days of good eating as well, putting away half a piece of fruit and a few tablespoons of nuts at a sitting, along with things like pretzels, rice cakes, etc. So we’re not catching any breaks, or at least I’m not since I am generally the kitchen supervisor and the one who handles most of the dishes. At least on the two pesto nights I was gone to rehearsals; I’m not sure how Jeff survived!
Permalink
03.13.07
Posted in Health at 2:01 pm by Christina
I went back through the blog, and it looks like I didn’t do a write-up about our juice fast in January. We did it while the girls were in Spokane for the figure skating championships; that seemed like a good time to do our first one, because we wouldn’t have to be worrying about food sights and smells around the house. In addition to a transition day on the front and back end (with no animal foods or high-protein plant foods), Jeff had a three-day fast and I had a five-day fast.
We undertook fasting for our health. Proponents of fasting argue that the energy expenditure of digestion is so high that it limits the available energy for other tasks, especially rejuvenative ones. Further, I would point out that from an evolutionary perspective, many humans likely experienced at least a yearly fast or near-fast due to seasonal cycles, as well as less regular times when famine scarcities were in effect; so I believe it logical that our bodies are in a sense hardwired to deal with those times in a functional way. Finally fasting or “caloric restriction” is scientifically demonstrated to have a positive impact on longevity, and the responses of the various body systems to intake changes are also documented.
Our assessment of the personal health benefits was twofold. First, we wanted to create available energy for rejuvenative processes and to enhance our bodies’ ability to process out waste. Second, we both felt our weight had spiralled so far out of control in the past, very difficult year that a more drastic path was necessary to minimize long-term damage. Neither of us wanted to do something outside normal bodily functioning – things like herbal or pharmaceutical forced weight loss. Fasting met our criteria for staying within natural processes, for having a lot or supportive research, and for stimulating the results we desired. Juice fasting in particular maintains a supply of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that are important to the metabolic processes of detoxification and weight loss that we wanted to achieve. (Long-term water fasting isn’t really fasting at all, but rather starvation.)
The January fast was pretty successful. I went the targeted five days. I drank lots of water throughout the day, had a fresh citrus juice every morning, and various apple-carrot concoctions twice each day (”lunch” and “dinner”), adding in a variety of other vegetables so I’d be getting a variety of nutrients. I also took an herbal tea at bedtime each night, one designed to keep the bowels moving; this is an important complement to the fasting, since the lack of bulk during the fast would otherwise signal the bowels to lay back. Inhibited elimination would restrict the body’s ability to detoxify.
Jeff was into the third day when he started having serious cravings for a burrito, and he decided to stop at three days in order not to be depriving himself of what he wanted. During a walk soon after, we talked about this and whether his cravings were psychological or actually physical hunger; they were psychological. We talked about whether it is deprivation or self-denial when you have made a decision that you want to be doing the fast. I gave an example of whether it would be thus if one had a burrito-craving while in the middle of a backpacking trip; would you up and leave the back-country because of it?
We are starting on a second fast, a minimum of six days plus the transition days this time. I think it was good to experience the first fast in a low-food environment; I’m prepared to be working with food this time for the girls, since fasting is not appropriate for growing bodies. Our experience of the first fast was one of minimal hunger and good energy levels; the challenges were all mental – wanting to actually chew something, thinking about our favorite foods, etc.
We are of course complementing the fasting with other changes meant to improve our health. We both went 6-7 weeks without processed sugar; I think we had maple syrup a few times. That meant we eliminated all the regular soda drinking we were doing. I have been making an effort to have more raw vegetables at snacktimes and less complex carbohydrates (grain-based snacks).
The biggest challenge we face is to get more exercise; we are extremely sedentary, and while we make excellent plans, the execution still leaves much to be desired. Activity is a problem for all of us, and I think the biggest area where we’re failing our kids. We none of us have the willpower to get out and do some obligatory athletic endeavor regularly, and we haven’t yet found an interest that would lead to activity as a side benefit. We are going to try having four regular activities a week, with each of us (less Jamie) picking one of them. We’ll set it up on a one- or two-month cycle so the choice doesn’t have to be made constantly of “what to do”.
If we can get the exercise component in place we’ll definitely be set. Jeff and I have both lost more than ten pounds since January 21, when we began the first fast. That feels like success to us, and it will be great to have things moving more quickly when supported by an increase in physical activity.
Permalink