The results of our first "month" of the new diet

The reason I have the word month in quotes is because when I took our first measurements and logged our list of health complaints I did so in mid Jan. We only changed everything totally over on the first of Feb. I have to say that I am VERY pleased with the results so far! We have tried many a different diet. And please note that my use of the word diet is not in the idea of "let's try this and loose weight and get back to our regular way of eating". I use the word diet in the sense of having a permanent change in our eating habits. My husband can attest to the fact that we have tried many things :-) I will say up front that going all raw will give you absolutely incredible results, the problem is that I couldn't get the kids to eat most of it, not to mention it wasn't my hubbies or my favorites either. So for those of you who have been reading here you know we have embarked on a mostly vegetarian diet. The children are eating it (most of it anyways) and are getting used to the tastes and differences. The health results have been wonderful. [Here's a funny: I made our regular brocolli/potatoe soup last week. The kids were all raving about it! They wanted to know what I changed in the recipe because it was the best they ever tasted. I kept telling them that I didn't change anything. Then I realized that although I didn't change anything about the recipe there were the 'extras' that we were leaving out. We would normally top our soup with sour cream, cheddar cheese and bacon bits. But all those extras are out of the picture now. What they were tasting was the actual soup!! Too funny!]



Our list of improvements are:

No tummy pains for the two youngest girls.

Moira's allergies/snoring are gone.

My stomach pain is gone.

The four oldest people in the house lost weight. Jeremiah:6 lbs , Me: 5 lbs, Isabella: 8 lbs, Moira: 6 lbs. With the oldest two girls they have quite a bit to lose. Just to cover my bases, the girls are not going hungry, they still eat frequently, but what they eat has changed. Instead of snacking on muffins, eggs, or leftovers they are eating fruit or veggies and dip. I do set limits on certain foods, mostly any kind of special snacks we have. Otherwise they eat till they are no longer hungry.

The younger two girls stayed the same with weight, which is what I was looking for. They need to keep gaining, but at that slow and steady pace.

Jedidiah is still gaining, I weighed him yesterday and he was 22 lbs, 8 oz.

And Jonah man is still gaining like a pro! He was 19lbs 12 oz!!! Whoa!

I think there were a few other changes, but I wrote about them in a previous post.



I am so thankful that we are finally seeing results. I have been concerned now for the past couple of years, even before things got more noticeable to others. Good things come to those who 'weight' :-) I am hoping that with the new animals and with some chickens to come that the girls will get plenty of exercise. Right now they are out back in the new goat 'pasture' chasing and getting chased by goats. My girls are goo-goo over chickens and I am sure there will be plenty of chicken chasing as well! Add to that some gardening chores and we should be good to go!

I have a bunch of pictures of our big snow, our new goat pasture, and the kids playing, plus life through the eyes of a four year old (she took a lot of pictures the other day and I thought I would post them as well). BUT you will all have to wait :-) We have a busy day here. Yesterday we went to the doctors to check Jed's blood sugar level as GI called saying it was low when they drew blood at our last visit (almost a month ago!). They pricked his finger and when they went to get the reading....the batteries were dead on the glucometer! So we have to go back again today. Plus Jed has speech therapy. On top of that I am really trying hard to work on their homeschooling AND learning about goats. I have been re-reading the Bluedorn's book, "Teaching the Trivium". It's only 600 pages long! Granted I won't have to read all of it, but I still have a lot to go. Plus I have been looking into starting up in earnest "Spell to Write and Read"(STWR). I already have it, and have used it, but I kind of dropped it. But I think that the girls need that intensive phonics for their future success with spelling. The down side was that there didn't seem to be a lot of practice for their spelling, but we got them some spelling workbooks that have really helped. But I think they need the STWR. Especially after the reading I have been doing in the Trivium book. Plus I am trying to map our their other course of studies as well. Jeremiah has history handled. I have their phonics/reading/spelling handled. I have a bunch of science books to dive into with them as well. But for now I think we will take the real living approach. I will have them keep a notebook on all the gardening/animals that we are learning about. Maybe throw in a science book here or there on a rainy day. I need to tackle literature. I need to add in copy work, dictation, and narration. That is something I have always wanted to do, and have done so here or there, but never can seem to keep up with! But my goal here is to get more organized. Re-reading the Trivium book has really sparked a fire in me, especially in light of current events in our nation. Our land first and foremost needs a revival....one of which we need to be calling out the the Lord for. The Lord uses means, and on that end of things I find myself seeing where I have failed to be diligent in our schooling, among other things! I would love to write more about this but time is getting away from me. I will make it the topic of another post.