It's been one of those days...

The day in the life of a 14 year old, (no wonder I’m broke).

It’s been a few months since I realised how run down Jacob was and sought to figure out why.  Visits to a naturopath, blood analysis and a fair bit of talking later and we embarked on getting Jacob on track for better nutrition. And ya know, I love my health & fitness, my kids have great nutrition anyway.  To the point where I feel sorry for the way they envy others.  It’s a fine line I tred, but a personal choice I make. 

Anyway.  This is what happened.

This day we were told he was eating great nutritionally but none of that nutrition was getting through to his blood system.

The day we figured out a fairly sugar free breakfast, and actually it was quite yummy.

The day I made my own sugar free chocolate.

The day the shared lunch just about broke him.

The day the fish oil just about broke him.

And so it went on. 

Just yesterday I was asked how Jacob was doing and what kind of food he enjoys on a daily basis. He is doing really well.  His focus is awesome, he is more relaxed and he is thriving, growing taller and leaner.  It’s amazing what cutting out simple things, and introducing others can do.

Breakfast:

Jacob loves his breakfasts, it’s usually overnight oats (throw 1/4 cup rolled oats, 1TSP chia seeds, some coconut, bit of LSA, cinnamon, … whatever he fancies really) in a container with milk or almond milk and leave it overnight.

Yesterday though, he forgot and made easy porridge.

Note: No sugar on the porridge.  A very natural yoghurt (no numbers!) with real honey added, AND it’s a probiotic yoghurt which is really important.  Peaches in clear fruit juice.  (Be aware that the ‘no added sugar’ peaches have sweeteners added – no thanks!).  He has different versions of this basic breakfast everyday. Sometimes he adds nuts, takes the peaches away and have frozen berries or whatever.

Vitamins:

Yea, I know.  Some people hate the use of vitamins but I’ve played around with these until I’ve found some I can a) afford and b) think that he really needs.   Jacob’s blood analysis showed the need for all of these and we change them depending on how his blood analysis’ improves each time.

Floradix – natural iron. 
Omega 3 for improving red cell structure.  Helps get that nutrition where it should be.  (admitting that there are some blackmores ones mixed in with the Metagenics ones because I couldn’t afford the metagenics for too long).  Multiflora – Probiotic.  I read this GREAT article yesterday that explained why this is important.
Lastly, a zinc tonic.

Lunchbox

This is tough.  Take a look at your kids’ lunchbox sometime.  Take a look at the ingredients and count the ‘numbers’ on the ingredients lists.  I know I’m at risk of sounding like a preaching-food-hippy here but it’s not until you ban those numbers (only natural here where we can) and you SEE the difference in your kids that you understand. 

I was disgusted when I realised one popular muesli bar in my house had 11 ‘numbers’.  All artificial colours, sweeteners, flavours, a lot of them banned in other countries.  Actually I don’t care if I sound like a food-hippy.  My kids behave better without that crap.  I'm taking that as a win.

Home-made muesli bar.  This one is Tahini & banana but I make apple, almond, sometimes chocolate, orange & coconut.  Easy to make and the kids love them.  Not cheap. Just awesome.

Fruit.

Sandwich.  Jacob still has a couple of slices of bread a day.  We try and pick one that eliminates all those numbers I hate so much.  Usually has carrot, spinach, some sort of non-processed meat, etc..etc… He LOVES these sandwiches.

Snack – homemade scroggin.  He loooooves this.  Nuts & Quest bar chunks.  I buy the yummiest, most natural protein bars and chop about 1/3 one up into small chunks.  This flavour is Raspberry & white chocolate.  No sweeteners, no artificial crap, loads of protein & a sweet kick for him.

Afternoon snack.

Jacob has a mass of different snacks he chooses from.  Yesterday it was carrot, Vita-wheat crackers (no numbers!) and the most natural hummus I could find.  See if I was a real food hippy I’d be making my own.  I haven’t quite got my brownie badge in food hippiness yet or I would be.  Nope, this is Lisa’s.  Only Ok numbers there.

Ok now I’m getting hungry.

Dinner.

Holy natural-good-for-you-sauces, batman,  yesterday we discovered (thanks to the MotivateMeNZ forum) the BEST recipe for dip/sauce/dressing. 

1/2 avocado, 3 dollops greek yoghurt, 1 clove garlic.  All whizzed up.

Boom. (forum stated you MUST have the garlic, Jacob agreed).

And then this was the rest of his dinner.  Yep, big meal but check out the nutrition.

Home-made venison sausages.  Home-made as in, Jacob shot the deer and got someone to make the sausages. Clearly you don’t have to go to all that effort, just watch the crap that goes into normal sausages or choose something better.

Salad – spinach, grated carrot, 1/2 egg, slice of beetroot, lots of yoghurt dip, and last night Paul grated a little bit of cheese on top.  Just before I slapped him and went “Dude!  I’m taking a pic of our healthy dinner tonight, don’t do that!!”.

Carbs – a few slices of kumara, oven baked at the weekend and heated up.  Also a ‘mountain bread’ made of corn that I chucked in the oven til it went crisp and broke up on his plate.

Finally.  After Dinner.   Seriously, this kid eats a lot when I analyse it like this.  Finally, a snack after dinner.  Because he was still hungry?

A ‘Annies’ fruit wiggle.  OK calm down, this stuff is natural.  Not a number, not an additive in sight.  I met Annie at the food show and fell in love with this product.  Each packet is the equivalent to one piece of fruit.  It’s literally the same as taking the fruit and taking all the water out.  Nothing added.

The bonus is that it is sweet.  And it’s cheap.  And there are two little strips in each pack.  Abby gets one flavour, Jacob gets the other flavour and they swap one of the strips.  Then they spend the next hour seeing who can take the longest to eat it.  Again.  Nothing added.  it’s just a bit of fruit.

And that, right there, is how we roll. 

Doesn’t mean we don’t break out and enjoy the treats we used to enjoy every now and again, it just means we enjoy other treats now.  And Jacob is feeling better.  Our house is calmer.  And that, as I said before, is a win.

LAters.

My House Rules and Helmar 450 on my slippers…

If this blog were into the gym, it’d be having a rest day.  Things are pretty quiet around here lately which is a fine reflection on the fact that I have an event coming up, a fitness obsession to feed and far too much interest in “My House Rules”. 

Which is much like My Kitchen Rules except it has less of the food and more of the “Are you sure we couldn’t do that in our house, Paul?” factor.  Hubby hates it.  Probably for the last reason I just listed.

BUT I’m still here, today has been a fine mix of ordering products, coordinating needs from the 4 teachers teaching at ArtVenture, communicating with the USA, contemplating the eruption on White Island whilst quietly wondering if the Helmar 450 glue will hold my slippers together long enough to see the winter through.

I know. Lots on. 

I’ve also actually got lots of other stuff going on around me which is far bigger in the scheme of things but I’m distracting myself with the trivial stuff.

BUT good news for those that miss the scrapbooking side of this blog.  I still know where to get free stuff.  Like this: Color Me Scrappy!  FREE Color Webinar thingie.  26th August.  It’s actually about the 27th August at 6am here in NZ.  It’s free though, you get access to the replay and apparently it’ll answer all those tricky colour questions.

Nothing like free stuff, right?   Click the link,to find out more.  Costs nothing.  Why not.

And I’ll be back when I’ve pushed all other stuff aside and taken some time to create.  It’ll probably go hand in hand with copious amounts of Rum & loud music.  Perfection.  Laters.

Two amazing things. I scrapped. And I wore a dress. Whadd’ya know.

Finnabair has a lot to answer for.  It’s her gorgeous vintage products, along with influences from the fabulous Frank Garcia, that has me addicted to this kind of colour scheme.  Things have come full circle really.  I used to love using beiges & browns.  I eventually moved on to more colourful pages, thanks to a magazine editor’s boot up my butt, but now I feel the need to settle back on the grunge couch.  You’ll have trouble moving me from here.

This layout was created with some cool toys, the first being my Silhouette Cameo, (purchased from ScrapBoxNZ, I’m always asked that question), which I used with some cool cut-out arrows & title files from Studio Calico, sounding all a little flash and like I know what I’m doing here, huh?, AND I also used a Prima Sizzix Die called Arbor.  I know.  I got a bit carried away, probably because I hadn’t created anything for ages and wanted to use everything I possibly owned to justify owning it.  As you do.

 

 

And of course there was no creating without a little bit of a push.  I used the Prima Sketch featured in this Prima Blog post to create my layout.  It’s also featured in the August Issue of “My Prima Place” , an online magazine that is chocka full of inspiration, totally worth a visit while avoiding doing other jobs.  Like making the dinner.  Or folding the washing. 

Supplies:  All supplies are Prima as follows:  Engraver Arcade Paper, Vintage Vanity A4 Journaling Pad, Finnabair 6x6 Elementals Doilie Mask, AnneMarie Chipboard Pieces, Bel Canto Flowers, Serenity Flowers, Avon Rose North Country mini roses, Say it in Studs Flourishes, Prima Sizzix Die: Arbor.

There’s two pretty special things about this layout, really.  Firstly, it’s a layout.  Not many of them happen around here lately.  Secondly, it’s a dress.  Not many of them happen around here either.

Alrighty – if you are keen to do your own version of the sketch, it’s on the Prima blog as linked above OR you could join us at our AE Retreats facebook group.  It’s a cool little group of scrappers on facebook, you don’t have to be coming along to one of our retreats to join the group and we have some pretty cool little challenges and discussions if I do say so.  The August Prima Sketch challenge has just been put up there.  Check us out, here. 

(It’s a closed group but I’ll approve ya quicker than a quick thing that is really really quick).  Have an awesome Tuesday.

Laters.