Healthier eating choices for the whole family

South Beach Progress

I've been on Phase One of the South Beach Diet for 8 days now, and it's going well. We bought a new digital scale to replace the analog one we've had since we got married (and doesn't seem very reliable), so I'm not exactly sure how many pounds I've lost...but they are melting away. I also feel much healthier.

I'm sure cutting out alcohol, sugar, and wheat is partially contributing to this feeling, although I am definitely counting the days until I can add grains and fruit back into my diet. Phase One (purposely strict to limit one's cravings) officially ends on Saturday, but I will end it one day early, since Friday night my sister and I will be helping my mom celebrate her birthday at Edgefield, and I want to be able to enjoy a glass of wine.

I did go out to lunch with friends twice this week, and I did fine. The first time was sushi, and I had miso soup, edamame, tofu, and sashimi. The second time I had a yummy roasted vegetable salad with grilled chicken on it--the dressing was honey mustard, which I realized later technically breaks the Phase One rule (no honey or sugar), but oh well. I have not missed bread, but I have missed rice and oatmeal.

I stocked up on tons of veggies, organic olive oil, jarred red peppers, and whole grains (organic brown rice, wild rice, and quinoa), in addition to Wii Fit Plus, at Costco this week. Last night I made Indian chicken (with coconut milk and cauliflower), spiced lentils, and garlic-sesame green beans. We had the leftovers tonight, and they were delicious.

Kids Get Healthy!

This week has focused heavily on food, because 3-year-old Nick has been horribly constipated, to the point of groaning and pain. He has a horrible diet--drinks tons of milk (regular and chocolate) and eats a lot of starch (toast, macaroni and cheese, rice, etc.) as well as string cheese and eggs. Very few veggies, and the only fruit he seems interested in at the moment are bananas (also not good for constipation). He's in that skeptical 3-year-old eating phase. Things he used to enjoy he turns his nose up at now. Fortunately, the constipation seems to have passed because we've cut way back on his milk intake, and we're feeding him popcorn (high in fiber) and other healthy foods.

We've decided that our entire family needs to eat healthier. As it is, we realize we our way healthier than most American families, but we still have lots of room for improvement. We typically eschew high-fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oils, and most processed foods, but like any parents, we have our weak moments when we have given into our kids, or into convenience.

Mike and I have found ourselves being short-order cooks for the kids at times, even though we swore we would never do that! It's not all the time, but any time we make something we think the kids won't like as much we'll make macaroni and cheese, corn dogs, or spinach ravioli for them.

We've both been reading a lot about healthier eating (I'm reading In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan right now), and Mike read about a great idea to encourage healthy eating in kids: the "no thank you plate." Now the kids can put food on the plate that they do not want to eat. We've had some grumbling about the healthier choices we're putting in front of them (especially our efforts to limit snacks right before or after dinner), but overall I believe it's going well. They will get used to it!

Part of my kitchen revisit will include getting rid of anything that doesn't fit into these healthy eating guidelines, including a big barrel of Red Vines, which I allowed Kieran to buy with his allowance during a weak moment at Costco! They are stale anyway. Who can eat a big barrel of Red Vines before they go stale, anyway? Personally, I hate the things. Hope Kieran won't notice their absence.

Okay, Make that Two Years?

I failed to "organize my life" in 1 year, even though I did make tons of progress toward that goal. I plan to get back on track with following the book. I'm going to start all over again this year, revisiting the rooms I decluttered, organized, and cleaned last year--because they can use it again!

In the meantime, I will reclean the study after all the Christmas wrapping and cards are put away for good (it's Christmas at our house until after Epiphany) and take photos to show off our progress. Stay tuned!

I will also work on the family room in between revisiting the other rooms. It's the last big major room to tackle, and it's not helped by the fact that the shelf on which several photo albums were perched fell down today when 6-year-old Kieran reached up to get a spool of thread. Poor thing met me at the door in tears--he felt terrible! But one of my upcoming tasks is to go through old photos, weed some out, and organize the rest.

I have also expanded my life organizing to include organizing my health. After over-indulging during the holidays like so many other people, I decided to try the South Beach Diet. In recent months I've been noticing a spare tire around my middle, and I'm determined to get rid of it (or at least reduce its size!).

Although I've had some success at tracking calories in the past, I felt that this recent weight gain calls for more drastic measures! I'm also reading a bunch of books on healthy eating for inspiration. (That's the way I get inspired...I read.)

So far, Phase One of the South Beach (the hardest phase) has gone fine and has not been as hard as I expected. I started on Saturday. The hardest part has been giving up my beloved granola or oatmeal for breakfast. (During Phase One, you can't eat grains, fruit, sugar, or alcohol, among other things.) The first night I made a delicious dinner of chicken, garlic, fresh basil, red pepper, zucchini, mushrooms, and pesto. I used two pounds of chicken, so I had lots left over to take for lunch this week. I also went grocery shopping to stock up on vegetable juice, vegetables, unsalted mixed nuts, and soups. (I love the fact that I am actually encouraged to eat nuts every day--yum! that helps stave off hunger...)

Last night I cooked some chicken/turkey meatballs in a lime-ginger-tamari sauce (okay, so I cheated on the fruit a bit by using lime), served over a bed of spinach. Tonight my dear sweet husband made steelhead with tomatoes, garlic, onions, and capers (using a South Beach recipe he found online--isn't he a sweetheart??).

I've been eating plain yogurt, turkey bacon, and veggie juice for breakfast, and the yogurt is actually growing on me (forgive the pun). This morning I mixed some cinnamon, nuts, and stevia in the yogurt to sweeten it a bit.

The real test will be on Wednesday, when I'm meeting friends for sushi at the rotating sushi bar. I figure I can eat sashimi, edamame, and miso soup, right?

Beyond organizing my health and my house, my job is changing this year again, so I will add my job to things to organize. And so it continues...in a never-ending cycle.

So far, so good! 2010 will be a good year--I can feel it.

Been Too Busy Cleaning to Blog Much...

But (countdown please...) TA-DA!!! The study is actually done.

Seven months later.

Blog followers will remember that I started on the study back in April, as I was trying to follow Regina Leeds' One Year to an Organized Life. I did pretty well for the first three months, but then I got stalled by the massive, humongous mess that was our study...the black hole of the house.

My mother-in-law arrived last week for her annual visit, and Mike and I were both bound and determined to finally get that damn room clean!!! And not only did we get the study cleaned out and organized--with wide open spaces and empty floors!!!--but I also tackled the utility room and what we call "Chai's room" (a storage room off the utility room). I would like to spend a bit more time organizing the cabinets in the utility room, but it's vastly improved. In addition to that, we cleaned the rest of the house from top to bottom in preparation for her visit.

Chai's room (so called because our cat used to sleep, poop, and eat in there) was full of old toys, cassette tapes, art supplies, seasonal decorations, tools, batteries, chairs, wrapping paper, baskets, etc. Now it's neat and clean and organized (and you can see the floor in there too!). I've been told I'm not to purchase any more baskets!

With all the organizing we are doing, we have a plethora of those clear plastic boxes, because we've emptied out so much stuff that was in them. We have so many of them that we've taken a lot of them out to the garage.

Next on the room organizing list, after my mother-in-law leaves and our 13-year-old can move back to his bedroom, is the family room.

I will post some before-and-after photos of the study when I have enough courage. I even have a cleaned desk to work at now!!

Oh, the Guilt!!

In the past week I've been working on cleaning out our storage room in the basement. Even though our cat, Chai, died about 5 years ago, we still call it "Chai's room," because she slept there.

It is one of our home graveyards--with boxes of Asian masks, vases, and statues (some that we haven't unpacked in the 10 years we have lived here!); seasonal items; empty cardboard boxes for things we've bought (in case they need to go back to the store); batteries and tools; boots; old baby things; art supplies; and other various items.

In the past few evenings, I've consigned to recycling, trash, or giveaways the following things:

• Cardboard, paper, and other junk
• Stacks of children's drawings, homework, and schoolwork
• Old cassette and VCR tapes
• Christmas cards and decorations we've never used
• Styrofoam pieces and pellets
• Toys, toys, and more bits of toys
• Old pens, crayons, and paints
• A brand-new "cookbook holder" and a juicer my dad gave us that I couldn't figure out how to put together

I've posted dozens of old children's books on Paperbackswap, had Mike take some good-condition floor puzzle pieces and a few other toys to donate to Nick's preschool, and put some things away to take to the resale shop.

As I've been cleaning out the storage area, I've found dozens of baskets and cleared out bunches of plastic boxes--we have more than we will ever need, given all the decluttering I've been doing.

The guilt is mostly because of the hundreds of little pieces of toys...my children just do not do very well with toys that have many pieces. They get lost and spread all over the house and become useless. Because they are so spread out, it's not even worth the effort to try to reassemble the toy to be able to give it away. So I have been filling bag after bag, not only to donate, but for the dump.

I know it must be done. Our house actually has a lot of storage areas--if only we were better organized, we would have plenty of space for our stuff--and it will be great to have this storage room organized. But I'm feeling massively guilty about the quantity of things I have to throw away. We are good environmentalists--I do not like to have things end up in the landfill!

I asked Mike if he is feeling guilty, too, and he said no. He's just feeling relief. Granted, his major role has been carting the bags off to charity and the dump--he's not really seeing what's going into the bags.

This year I am going to try to give the children experiences for Christmas instead of toys. And do everything I can to encourage other people to give them experiences or if they must buy toys or other items, avoid the small pieces! :) We do not tend to be very acquisitive--and I realize that the things I'm throwing away and donating are from years and years of buildup--but I want to do what I can to minimize more clutter and unused items coming into our house.

Do not be impatient...

Do not be impatient with your seemingly slow progress. Do not try to run faster than you presently can. If you are studying, reflecting and trying, you are making progress whether you are aware of it or not. A traveler walking the road in the darkness of night is still going forward. Someday, some way, everything will break open, like the natural unfolding of a rosebud.

--Vernon Howard, 1918-1992

I just saw this quote and thought about how it was applicable to my life. The first thing that came to mind was my organization, decluttering, cleaning, and renovation efforts.

I had set myself a goal in early September to clear half of the study floor, and I'm making slow and steady progress toward that goal. Mike still has his own little area for his writing stuff, and he is also slowly and steadily making his way through his piles.

More work on the study this weekend resulted in my announcing to Mike: "We have so much crap!" But I am seeing progress. Just have to remind myself that slow progress is better than no progress! In so many areas of my life...including mandolin playing and knitting!

Bye Bye, Cross-Stitch Quilt I Never Finished...

Poor, neglected blog. I haven't shown you any love for the past 2 months.

Here are a few things from my organized life lately:

A couple of weeks ago I ordered a beautiful leather bench/coffee table from Costco, and I reorganized (and purged) Nicholas' toys in the living room. Most of them are now contained in the bench (when they are properly stowed), except the train table and big fire trucks and fire station. The corner of the living room looks vastly improved.

I've also continued to work on the study. On my other blog, I set myself some homework at the beginning of the school year:

Clean the study so that I can see and walk around on at least half the floor space (and not trip over anything!) (this is only the first task of the great study-cleaning project, which is the first essential step to getting back into my organized life year)

The other night I accomplished a lot in the study...but the work continues. I was able to sweep out the last remaining cupboard space and put more stuff away off the floor (primarily boxes of frames and artwork, which need to be dealt with later, and more endless art supplies).

I also organized all of our greeting cards, stationery, and thank you cards. When I was young, I collected stationery and was up to 110 different varieties at one time. Although I no longer have that much, I still have a weakness for pretty paper and cards. I also organized our thank you and blank card stash, since my husband is a thank you card NUT! (Sorry, honey--I say that in the most affectionate way.) I've been trying to get him to stop buying thank you cards because we have so many blank cards. Now I've put all suitable thank you cards in ONE box, so they should be easy for him to find.

Most difficult of all, I packed away a cross-stitch baby quilt that I had 1/3 finished. I believe I was working on the quilt before I got pregnant with Chris, or maybe when I was pregnant with him--I can't really remember. The idea was that it would be for my baby someday. Ha! Three babies later, and no quilt. I haven't done cross-stitch for years, and now I've taken up knitting (sort of). It was time to cut the cord.

It was still stretched out over the big wooden embroidery hoop. I finally decided that I need to give both--unfinished quilt, pattern, and supplies--and hoop to Goodwill. I'm hoping that someone will think it's a find. (I wonder if my mother-in-law wants it--Olga? It's a Daisy Kingdom pattern...)

I had a hard time designating it to the Goodwill bag (dark and opaque so my children cannot see what's in it), but it had to be done.

Bounty in the Garden!

I'm posting this in my organizing blog because it's the first year in eons that we have really been organized about our vegetable garden. Years ago, we actually dug out a patch of grass to put in a garden, but ever since that peak year, it's never been quite what we intended.

This year Mike built raised beds and purchased high-quality soil and compost, and it has made a tremendous difference in our harvest. We also planted a wide variety of organic vegetable starts and seeds. In addition, Kieran has been engaged and helped to put in a number of the plants and scatter seeds. It's been fun to see how well our plants have done this year. Take a look:


We planted TONS of tomatoes, since that's my favorite garden-fresh vegetable. So far, only the cherry tomatoes are riping...but I see a lot of tomatoes in our future!

The corn "hatching," as Kieran put it...

Lovely lettuce! We won't have to buy lettuce for quite some time at the rate it's growing...

Mint and rosemary contained in a pot between the two raised beds

An eggplant with blossoms

Mike and I laugh about the fact that we've NEVER been able to grow zucchini! Well, this year we did it, at last!

And some nice yellow squash coming in as well...

Tabbouleh, anyone?

A little cucumber coming in...

A baby green pepper:

We've never tried to grow corn before, so we'll see how it turns out...it sure looks pretty though!

Tomatilloes:

Kieran's scarecrow keeping away the crows?

While I was finishing up the boys' room today, Mike was outside in the glaring heat fixing the back gate. The gate had been falling apart because of rotting wood, and a winter storm really whipped the bejeesus out of it. There was basically nothing left of it. Mike took the scraps and used some new hardware and wood to reinforce the gate. My handy husband! (He was not taught how to do this kind of thing when growing up, so these are wonderful accomplishments for him!)