This Nourished Home

Breakfast at Our House (photo courtesy of Nourished Kitchen)

For the past 28 days our little family has been taking part in a 28 day Real Food Challenge. That kinda sounds like we suddenly and drastically changed our diet for 28 days and now we're going to revert back. In actuality, we have been eating like this for years....well, at least Ayla and I have. This was an opportunity for me to expand in my knowledge of nutrition, expand my recipe repertoire and learn to be more organised in my food preparation....sometimes days in advance, and also an opportunity for Steven to play along with us. I can honestly say that we do not have 1 pre-packaged item of food in our pantry that contains more than 1 ingredient. We have bottles of herbs and spices, olive oil and balsamic vinegar....but that's it. The rest of it is gluten free grains, home-milled flours, dried legumes, potatoes, onions, garlic, celtic sea salt, and some dried fruits. It is really very liberating to know that I am no longer a slave to the food giants and that my family is happy, healthy and eating real food that nourishes our bodies and our minds.

I have been feeling just a little shy of bloody fantastic of late. Despite my healthy diet of the last 8 or so years, I often felt tired (no, exhausted), down in the dumps, unable to cope with much of anything, lethargic....I'm not going to go on because it's even boring me. I'm not saying that I am bouncing out of bed in the mornings.....actually, now that I think of it....I am! I am up between 6 and 6.30 each morning, no alarm, Ayla still asleep and ready to face the day. Wow! That was something that I hadn't thought of until just now. I haven't had a truly down, negative and 'oh poor me' day in weeks. I am putting this all down to the real food challenge and learning (once again), exactly how important it is that our grains, nuts, seeds and legumes are all soaked and/or sprouted before being eaten. That all of the delicious and health giving fats like butter, olive oil, cream, egg yolks, bone marrow, fish eggs, and whole fresh raw milk are absolutely ESSENTIAL to our health and well being....despite what the diet dictocrats try to 'teach' us. I haven't taken a supplement of any kind in 4 weeks. I usually live on Adrenoplex to prevent me from crashing in a big blubbering heap. I breezed through my last menstrual cycle! I feel really great!

Steven says he's a little hungry but I think that is because he's not quite grasping that his meals and snacks need more preparation....there is no quick packaged snack that he can eat right NOW. Waiting until you feel hungry is going to leave you....well, hungry. Once you have reached that point, you're just looking for a quick fix of something resembling food. Eating real food does require planning and cooking ahead.

Ayla seems to be doing well on it. Most of the new recipes we have tried, she likes/loves. Some she's not so fussed on. They're usually the foods that contain fruit! I give up...the kid doesn't eat fruit....alright, I get it! The last week has been a super challenge with Ayla. At first we thought she may have been getting sick. Refusing to eat dinner (unheard of), crying in the bathtub (I know you don't believe me), crying all through book reading and not letting me leave her to go to sleep by herself (yes, I'm sure she hasn't been swapped with an alien). As I said, we thought she might be getting sick. But she's not. No signs of illness at all. Sunday night (day 6) I started to realise that it was actually behavioural and she was trying to tell me something.....I still don't know what! Does that make me a bad mother??? Anyway, on Monday she had a 4 1/2 hour nap.....I think she is just plain exhausted. She has a massive day on Tuesdays at the special ed unit. They work them really hard all day and then at the end they do hydrotherapy. She leaves at 8am and doesn't get home until 3.30 - 4.00pm, eats and goes to bed for the night. Then on Thursday and Friday she has Kindy all day and sometimes without a sleep. Add to this all of the ABR that we have been so desperately trying to keep up with.....The kid's tired! I stopped all ABR on Monday and Tuesday and we have mildly better afternoons and evenings. We have only done 1 session this morning and I will do 1 more this afternoon and see how we go.

Anyway...this has turned into quite a lengthy 'novel' and if I keep going I will have nothing to share with you later :)