Don't go on a diet. Correct your diet.

I have never been on a diet. My Mom tried to get me to do some sort of fat and toxin flush thing with her once that was supposed to make my belly flatter, but I refused. No way am I downing nothing but some lemon-cayenne pepper-who knows what else drink for a couple days.
I've observed other people and their dieting ups and downs though, and I have to admit it's amusing, in a rather pathetic way.
The thing about diets and dieting is that typically people are looking for a quick fix, so they down nasty concoctions or don't eat enough, and then at the end they say, "whew" and get back to their old habits, only usually they're so relieved to be done with the diet that they double their comfort food intake. Often times they end up MORE overweight than before.
The saddest thing is when people who are a perfectly healthy weight decide they need to diet. They get on the yo yo diet Ferris wheel and end up fat and sad because for some reason they didn't love themselves the way they were.
I believe in adopting these simple rules to eat healthier all the time, and then I don't have to worry about dieting, and I am a healthy, happy weight.

#1 Be happy with who you are. When you don't like yourself, you wander around in this nasty miasma of unlove that affects everything you do. You don't take care of yourself, you surround yourself with people who confirm your self-hate, you eat bad foods, and you just keep spiraling downwards. Change the spiral. Make it a rule that until you learn to like yourself you are only allowed to say nice things about yourself. Get rid of the people in your life who constantly criticize you. (If you can). Pick a couple things that make you feel like you're really taking care of yourself, like a bubble bath or a hike in the woods, and do them at LEAST twice a week. When you love yourself and are sure that you are awesome, then you can start carefully allowing in criticism, but remember that for every negative word, (and all criticism is negative. A little is necessary but only a very little. Don't ever buy that constructive criticism garbage), you need at LEAST ten positive ones. More is better.

#2 Avoid processed foods for the most part. Even "health foods." Granola bars contain tons of sugar, margarine is loaded with trans fat, flavored yogurts contain all kinds of junk. Don't buy things if they have all kinds of weird chemically sounding ingredients. Even if the label says it's supposed to be good for you.

#3 Pick whole foods most of the time. Whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, milk, plain yogurt, unprocessed cheese, plain old meat without all the preservative junk, herbs, olive oil, butter, stuff like that. The less that's been done to it before you get it the better.

#4 Learn how to cook those whole foods so that they taste good! Food is supposed to taste good. If it tastes bad, you don't enjoy it, and then you go looking for something you WILL enjoy. Like a pint of ice cream. If you hate vegetables, don't keep avoiding them. Experiment with trying new vegetables, or cooking vegetables in different ways. Take a cooking class if you have to. It's worth it. Your body will thank you.

#5 Don't cut the things you like out entirely. Just cut back a little bit, and find alternatives that make you happy. Do you love butter? Use butter most of the time! If you love Italian and eat lots of buttery, cheesy garlic bread, try replacing it with this occasionally: toast a slice of sourdough or some other sturdy bread, cut a garlic clove in half and rub the cut side against the hot toast, and then drizzle with olive oil. It's good. I promise. Do you love pumpkin pie? Make yourself a pumpkin pie from scratch, instead of buying a pie, and then take half to the neighbors! Can't live without soda? Try mixing your soda half and half with 100% fruit juice. And every now and then go ahead and eat a whole tub of ice cream for lunch with your husband. And don't feel bad about it. Enjoy every second. Because when you don't deprive yourself totally of the things you love, they lose that forbidden fruit attractiveness that they gain on typical diets.

#6 Remember that God gave us all kinds of veggies and grains for a reason. He also gave us ice cream for a reason. Food is SUPPOSED to be a nice experience. But we're also supposed to eat right and take care of our bodies. They don't have to be mutually exclusive ideas. We just need to learn how to cook what we've been given, and balance our ice cream intake with our veggies and whole grains intake.

#7 READ LABELS!!! Just because it SAYS whole grain doesn't mean it's not mostly nutrient devoid white flour. Just because it SAYS trans fat free doesn't mean it IS. See, if the trans fat per a serving is under a certain amount, they are allowed to say trans fat free. So they get sneaky and pick a small enough serving that they can say it's trans fat free, even if hardly anyone eats a serving that small. So keep an eye out for those hydrogenated oils and fats. IF it contains that, it has trans fat. Not to say a little dose every now and again is terrible for you. Just be aware of when you're putting it in your body.

#8 Eat at home most of the time. We eat restaurant food on average once every two weeks. Eating out, especially fast food, is a recipe for unhealthiness. If you must eat out often, try to pick healthier restaurants like Taco Time or Wendy's, and then try to pick healthier choices, ones with more veggies and less meat and mayo and deep fat frying. If you eat out rarely, when you do go for what you really want, even if it does have five layers of bacon.

How do you eat healthy? What are some of your favorite healthy recipes?

Some things to do with whole wheat flour.

I have a flour mill. I LOVE it. So does my husband. He loves it because of the things I do with it. Like make all our bread from scratch. And homemade whole wheat tortillas. (Never had one? AMAZING good!). Things just taste better with fresh, living flour, not the dead, rancid whole wheat flour that's been on a shelf for half a year. Also, with my wehat flour I can grind pastry fine wheat flour, SOO much different than the stuff at the store. Anyways. Best 180 dollars I ever spent.

Some things about wheat flour:

It soaks up more liquid than all-purpose flour. So I like to mix things up a little on the wet side, then let them sit for a couple minutes and see if they need more flour or not. 99% of the time, not.

It's just a little bit harder to get the gluten going. Which makes for more tender pastries, but if you don't develop the gluten enough bread will be dense and crumbly.

It tastes really really good!


Recipe #1: Tortillas!

2 c whole wheat flour
salt,
a big spoonful of shortening
warm water

Mix the flour with a little salt. I find that everyone has different preferences about how salty they like their bread, so I'll let you decide how much to use. I use about a half a teaspoon.
Cut in a spoonful of shortning. I use a little more shortening when I want a super flexible tortilla, and less when I want a thicker, more rigid tortilla. No more than a quarter cup though, or you will have a very tough piece of pie crust not a tortilla!
Stir in warm water to make a soft but kneadable dough. Knead a little bit. Break into walnut size lumps. Pinch each lump into a ball. Roll out quite thin.
Put a large pan on medium heat. (I prefer cast iron, but not everyone has it). Place a tortilla on the pan. When you can feel the heat of the pan through the tortilla, turn it over, let it sit briefly, and then take it off the pan and start the next one. If your tortillas are not flexible, you are cooking them too long!


Recipe #2: Drop-biscuits

2 c whole wheat flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 c shortening
1/8 c molasses
Milk or water

Mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in shortening. Add molassess, and milk to make a soft dough. Spoon onto cookie sheet, bake at 350 approximately fifteen minutes. You can bake these biscuits longer or shorter, depending on how crunchy you like the crust. Serve with butter and jam, honey, or syrup, or serve alongside soup, or with stew or chili spooned over them, or split in half to make a sandwich or however else you want!


Recipe #3: Dumplings

Same as drop-biscuits, except drop spoonfuls into boiling hot soup, cover tightly, and cook for about ten minutes (I think? I always just sample a dumpling to see if they're done). You can add herbs with the flour to make herbed dumplings. (sooo good!!)


Recipe #4: Pancakes

2 c whole wheat flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/8 c molassess
Milk or water

Optional, cut up fruit, raisins, nuts, spices, dried fruit, grated cheese, chocolate chips, leftover taco meat, leftover rice, or whatever else you want.

Mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Add molassess, and enough milk or water to make a batter. Heat a frying pan on med heat, grease with oil, butter, or leftover bacon grease. Fry pancakes as usual. Adjust heat and batter thickness as necessary. Serve with butter and syrup, honey, or jam, or fresh fruit and whipped cream. (or if you mixed in leftover taco meat, try with grated cheese and salsa. MMmm!!!)


Eventually I will add my bread recipe here, but I would like to add photos and some video clips so you can see how it works. It's really good bread!!

Do you have good whole wheat recipes? Please share!!! Have you tried one of these recipes? How did it work for you? What changes did you make?

The awful truth

There's something about having a newborn that most people won't share with you. It's a deep dark, shameful secret most of us are carrying around. But I'm going to share mine because I think it's something we need to admit, so that we can move on. We need to get the word out so that we don't have all these new moms wandering around feeling like horrible people. Wanna know what it is?
You might hate your baby at some point. You may think your child is evil. In the middle of a midnight scream fest you may have a brief death-dealing fantasy. To some degree this is normal. It doesn't make you a bad person.
One night while Levi was screaming for no reason I could determine, I thought, "I could just put him in a paper bag and leave him in a dumpster or on somebody's doorstep. Then I wouldn't have to deal with this." ANd then I thought, "That's too much work. I'd have to put warm clothes on, and get him dressed, and he might not get found in time, and freeze to death, and Loren would hate me, and really I love him too much to do that."
My Mom tells me of the time I needed to be walked for twenty four hours straight and as she stared into my dark, evil little eyes, she had this fantasy where she threw me hard against the wall and watched me slide down into a little heap. Obviously she didn't.
The point is, that yes, being a mom to a newborn is HARD work. And when this little person is wailing and you can't figure out what the matter is, you might have a brief moment of wanting to not do it anymore. The crisis moment. The moment where you ultimately say "Yes. I could kill this child. I could get rid of it. I don't HAVE to do this. But I CHOOSE to." It is one of the defining moments of motherhood. The moment where you recognise that while the child had to come out of you one way or the other, being a mother is ultimately your choice.
Have you had a moment like this? What happened? How do you feel about it now when you look back on it?
*Disclaimer. If you have recurring thoughts of killing your child and/or yourself, you may have post-partum depression and you should get help.