New Blog

I'm started Sierra on a gluten free diet today.

Needed a place to journal about it. So here is my new blog, I'll still write here sometimes! ;)

I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS

Today on Facebook a friend commented that she had a friend whose child had a speech delay. They put her on a gluten free diet and she is doing much better.

I thought, "Hmmm that is interesting." and did what any mom does these days- I googled it. THERE IS A CONNECTION!!! PARENTS SAY THAT THEY TALK MORE, SLEEP BETTER AND HAVE LESS ROUND TUMMIES WHEN ON A GLUTEN FREE DIET.

I AM ACTUALLY ANGRY RIGHT NOW! WHY HAVEN'T I HEARD THIS?!!!???

I'm researching like a fiend- but here is the article that caused this outrage in me (and a glimmer of hope) and I have read many a forum comment from parents who have seen a total change in their kids when they change their diets.

This is the crux of the issue,
"the new study, led by Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland scientist and pediatric emergency medicine physician, Claudia Morris, MD, and Marilyn C. Agin, MD, a neurodevelopmental pediatrician at Saint Vincent Medical Center in New York, however, suggests that the symptoms of verbal apraxia are, at least for a sub-group of children, part of a larger, multifactorial, neurologic syndrome involving food allergies/gluten-sensitivity and nutritional malabsorption.

"While it is critical to treat verbal apraxia symptoms that often include severe delays in expressive speech production with speech therapy, we need to start asking why these kids are having these problems in the first place so that we can identify mechanisms we can actually target to treat the cause of the symptoms," says Dr. Morris."

So basically their guts are annoyed and they cannot absorb nutrients (mainly fats!) and this causes the brain to starve and the result in some is a speech delay!

You know what I'll be doing next- cooking with no gluten! It is interesting I've been reading here at Comfy Belly and planning a gluten free/sugar free diet for myself. I spent last week bookmarking meals. Now I'll be using them.

Did you know?

Since October, I've lost 50 pounds. Today there was a party on the scale. I am below my driver's license weight!!! I remember choosing that weight when Weston was a baby. As I stood in the DMV, I thought, "That would be wonderful to weigh that again someday!" So I wrote it down- so much for use as an identification card! It also says that I'm blond... :) strange.

I am still losing, but for the first time in a long time, it's like I'm free. For so long, I was trapped in my body. In October, I was praying and begging for help and at the bottom of the barrel.

Then friends told me about a diet- a very extreme & weird diet. It was working for them. These women had always struggled with their weight. I was unsure seemed kind of strange as this is not your typical, "diet and exercise" change of pace.

However, these dear friends mailed me all the supplies for the diet and I felt there was nothing left to do but try it.

So I did it. Some joke it is my starvation diet, so be it. It works for me. Sometimes it's a bummer to not eat, but it's much nicer than the unhealthy future this mid-30's girl had coming.

I have some to lose still but a "normal" weight on that blasted, hated BMI chart is not far from here (12 pounds away!) Can you believe that though? I will have lost 62 pounds to get to this "normal" weight.

I'm proud of myself! I can't believe it. I am mostly thankful and grateful.

My weight will continue to be a battle for my life, of that I'm certain, but at least I'm starting the horrible battle from this number on the scale and this pant size! :)

This round of the diet ends in 13 days (but who's counting?!-ME)

What will I do next? I will do the maintenance phase of the diet diligently to stabilize my weight and possibly run a half marathon, May 1st, as a kick of to the new healthy me! I am thinking through it not quite committed to the idea yet.

It seems good to fight and kill old Becca by beating her against the pavement for several hundred miles of training. It will be easier to to beat myself up, um, I mean, run, now that I have the equivalent of a bag bag of cement off my back! :)

I attached a picture of myself it was 10 pounds ago Becca, but an improvement.

Valentine's Disney Day

Next time you see us in real life, you'll have to ask to see this because the HD video cam we have made a beautiful picture but we can't post it here at a high quality. :(

Book

This book is a life changer. It is easy to read. It is art. It is deep. It is beautiful. What a writer!



There is a book club here too to watch videos from Ann, the author (she also writes this blog), about each chapter. I haven't watched it yet- looking forward to it when I leave Starbucks to pick up my monkeys from school.

Pasadena Kidspace Museum

This is a rad mosiac hallway into the museum.

The kids being silly. Weston got wet so he was wearing my coat.

This was a display that showed the way a tree's roots look underground.

Our mountain goat!

This climber winded up and up for about 5 stories. It was made out of clear blue plastic and huge poles. It was also a little tilty. Yes, a little freaky!

Last week we went to the kids museum with our friend Autumn. Autumn was my roommate the year Peter and I started dating and Peter's friend. It was fun to see our kids play together.
The museum was fun and very hands on. The kids climbed, dug, painted, and had a great time.

winter garden

We planted it. Just a 10x10 square. I said, "Weston, let's go to the store and get some stakes." He said no, that will cost money. We have lots of sticks Mom." He staked off the sides with sticks he found and found the yarn to make a "fence. We planted and marked each spot with a stick and some masking tape.

Maybe we'll have fresh brussel sprouts soon?