Not Just Debt Intolerant

Happy First Day Back to School!  Oh, my kids are just so excited, I'm sure!  It will be a harder day for all of us, but not just because we have to get up earlier and not sleep in so much, we have also taken on a new challenge for the new year.  First, some background...

It is quite typical for most people to want to shed a few pounds after Christmas and that is definitely on Renaissance Man's list of things to do.  I always want to shed a couple, too.  Again, typically, that comes from exercising more and eating less as well as eating better.  That's the tricky part!  Both him and I have been at the same weight for a long time - we just can't seem to get past the numbers we're at.  Our metabolisms need a kick start, that's for sure.

At the same time, our second daughter who is 10, has been struggling for well over a year now with something we could not identify.  Her symptoms were basically sluggishness, headaches, stomach aches, random aches, just a general malaise - she never felt like doing anything.  She always felt bad.  The doctors were stumped and wondered if it was actually something psychological.  It wasn't.

My own research and "gut" feeling, pardon the pun, was that she had some food sensitivity that was affecting her.  The natural one to start with was gluten.  That really stunk as we love our bread and quite frankly, our white flour.  Have I mentioned how our oldest loves to bake????

In addition to my daughter feeling badly, my husband was also struggling.  He always seemed congested and never seemed to get better.  His arthritic toe was really bad and he was beginning to feel it creeping up into his knees, elbows and wrists, even.  He was starting to wonder if it was going to get worse before it got better.

Again, from what I'd been reading, gluten is a definitely inflammatory agent in the body, so I began to make this subtle suggestion that perhaps we should all go off gluten for awhile to see if it is affecting anybody else.  Then I made an even more radical suggestion.....

What about a small detox for the new year?  It made so much sense - we are trying to be debt-free, but are we not struggling with debt in other areas of our lives?  Past eating sins catching up with us?  Past habits, such as addictions to white sugar, white flour.......were they not affecting our health?  If we were going to make such radical decisions financially, why not try to make some physical changes, too?  The comparisons are almost too obvious that you can't help but see them - if we had kept going down the debt path we were on, the hole would have only gotten deeper and the danger would have been devastating.  Isn't it that way with our health?  We have been given this one body and many choices of fuel.  The choices we were making were simply what felt good, not necessarily what was best for us.  I wondered if we were on a similar path that was leading us to a scary end health-wise.

I am so grateful our daughter was so sick as it was a wake-up call we all needed.  So guess what we did - yup, another family meeting....the kids must dread these now as we always make some radical change after one of these meetings are held!

So this is what I said this time.  First I reminded them about our daughter and how sick she felt.  They knew this.  Then I described their Dad and how he also wasn't feeling well.  They also knew this.  Then I started to go through each of them and started talking about certain symptoms I was seeing in each of them or certain eating tendencies or the cravings they couldn't get by without satisfying, etc., etc.....oh, this they hadn't seen.  They never saw themselves as having any issues.  So, I went on.  I suggested, in the name of their sister's and their Dad's health, as well as their own, that we try something for at least 10 days, possibly longer.  Oh my goodness - this is going to be worse than giving up Christmas presents, are you ready?

Here it goes - I suggested we go off all gluten, all dairy, all sugar, all caffeine, all food, no just kidding - basically, everything that is bad!  It was hilarious to see their jaws on the floor!  WHAT!!??  They always joke that they are moving in with their favourite family in the church that always serves dessert - they were definitely talking about moving in with this family that day, I'll tell ya.

But then, just like with the Christmas presents, they came around really fast - I quickly explained the spiritual side to it as well.  We were all addicted to this bad food and we needed to change something as our health depended on it just like with the financial decisions we were making - the future generations depended on it as well.  I really was concerned for my oldest in particular as sugar rules her life.  I'm serious.  She maps out her day sometimes based on what snack she'll make later.  She absolutely LOVES sugar.  Today her metabolism can handle it, but when will it slow down?  She will be a very unhealthy mom at the rate she's going at and guess what?  Her kids, my grandchildren will be, too.  That's when it really hits home.  I'm training her to make my grandchildren sick. 

So, today, yuck, I had an awful cup of half-caff coffee, with, blah, no cream or sugar - terrible.  Tomorrow, I'll probably be down to either strictly decaf coffee or perhaps just water, imagine.  I'm a little worried about the headaches to come, but I'll do it in the name of kick-starting my metabolism again.  It has been in a rut for several years and I think this is just what it needs.

I am very concerned about the aches and pains my husband has been experiencing, so I'm really hoping this makes a difference.

I made a list of very funny foods, full of fruits and vegetables, nuts, even tofu.  There is literally no sugar left in the house as I can't trust myself or that one daughter to not cave.  The bread is all gone and there is only oats left and brown rice.

The kids are at the table immediately for every meal as they are hungry as soon as they're called!  Even my little ones are eating better as they quickly fell into the "give me a cookie trap" just like the older ones.

My one concern was how do I do this on a budget as everything fresh is so expensive?  Well, interestingly enough, as I prayed about it, I asked God to help me and to just show me ways to do this on the cheap.  When I went to the store, the first place I went to was the marked down vegetable and fruit section and it was FULL of discounted fruit and veggies.  I filled up my cart on very inexpensive food.  I also went and bought quite a bit of frozen fruit and vegetables as well.  Rice is pretty cheap and so are beans, so I got tons of that, too.  Because I had eliminated all the dairy, the bill came out to be about the same as before because dairy is so expensive.  Yeah!  I also don't buy meat anymore as we have a whole freezer full of it, so I'm grateful for that.  Sugary things are also expensive and bread had also been eliminated, so that also freed up money towards more expensive things like nuts.

The kids like to help themselves throughout the day - no more.  I'm trying to lovingly dictate exactly what they can have for a snack now, because if I don't, than it'll all disappear!  Every morsel of food is accounted for!  They don't need to lose weight and I don't want them to starve, so I'm trying to fill them up with good things, but not stuff them. I think it'll be an interesting period where they will have to learn, as will us older folk, just what being full really feels like.  I don't think any of us really know.  We're just used to eating all day!

An interesting thing to note, my one daughter who really needed to go off gluten was a different person - IMMEDIATELY!  What a relief that was to me. She already walks around with no symptoms, so that was definitely a problem for her.  I had been confused by this because we'd gone off gluten before and then she'd gotten appendicitis.  It wasn't necessarily related, but the doctors had told me to put her back on gluten after the surgery to see if she still had symptoms.  Well, surprise, surprise, she was fine.  It turns out, in my opinion anyway, that her gut had healed, so when we first introduced gluten again, she was fine.....for awhile, but it didn't take long for her to start feeling badly again.  At first, it would take a day or two to see a symptom after she'd eaten it, but then it was an hour or two and then recently, it was within minutes of eating.  So it was clear, her gut was injured again. 

So now we are on another journey - one of health, not just financial.  So like the title says, we are not just debt-intolerant!  We are trying to be unhealthy eating-intolerant, too!  So now I'll be giving updates on this, too - follow along!  My poor kids must wonder what will be next.....:)