Allergic to TV?

23 May

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Okay Internet, I need help. After consulting my favorite doctor (Google), I have turned up zero results. I sort of feel like Hermione when the library failed to reveal what a horcrux was.

Here’s my predicament: My baby is allergic to TV.

I don’t know if she is actually allergic to the TV, but within 20 minutes, she exhibits hay fever-like symptoms: runny nose + red, puffy, watery eyes. This happens at home (where we only have a mini-DVD player), at Grandma’s, at Auntie T’s, and anywhere that has a boob tube.

Have you heard of this? Any ideas? Do your family members have crazy, unexplainable symptoms?

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Friday Link Love: Five Movements

11 May

There is so much great content out there. Here’s a sampling of what I’m reading when I’m not writing.

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The Whole9 Five Movements Series. Dallas and Melissa asked 12 fitness folks which five movements they would do for the rest of their lives if they had to keep it to the bare minimum.

Gotye cover by Walk off the Earth. This song is ridiculously popular to cover and this is by far my favorite. Five people on one guitar? It has 4,571,955 views and I’m fairly certain 300,000 are from our house alone (3yo asks regularly: Mama, I want to listen to the didn’t have to cut me off song)

Rant 64: The House That Stumptuous Built by Krista Scott-Dixon. Language is saltier than I prefer, but the message is powerful. Get some exercise (no matter who/what you are) and quit worrying about other people.

How My Son is Raising Me by yours truly on Modern Alternative Mama. My thoughts on how I wanted to raise a perfect child. And how I have a lot more growing up to do than he does. PS Happy Mother’s Day!

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What Doing 570 Push-ups Has Taught Me So Far

8 May

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I don’t talk much about exercise on this blog because, shhhhh {furtive glance}, I don’t really like it.

BUT…I do like being insulin-sensitive and not insulin-resistant. So exercise, I must.

To commemorate my 30th birthday, I decided to do 900 push-ups. For 30 days before I turn 30, I am doing 30 push-ups each day. I’m at 570 and the lessons are abundant.

  1. Practice does indeed work. I could do 2 push-ups before I started and my form was horrific. After building more strength, I can now do 5 with very pretty form (and I suspect at least 20 if I was still doing them the way I started). I’m hoping to hit 10 by my birthday.
  2. I don’t have to be sore to get stronger. I’m essentially doing a Grease the Groove program and my favorite thing is getting stronger without getting sore. Some people love that hurts-so-good feeling after a workout, but my pain threshold is about -8.
  3. I like skill work. Getting strict push-ups under my belt makes me want to perfect my double-unders too. They are both coming along nicely. Met-cons, on the other hand, hold less appeal than ever.
  4. Sleep matters. I can hardly get enough depth on one push-up when I don’t get at least 8 hours of sleep. My body moves inefficiently and even the simplest movements are an impossible feat.
  5. I need to reassess my goals. I always thought my ultimate goal was to be fit. In reality, I want to want it (probably because I think it’s the right thing to want), but there’s something else motivating me. I just don’t know what. I suspect it has something to do with natural movement opportunities and nothing to do with gym time.

I am enjoying this little experiment and may continue it with other skills once my push-ups are over. On the radar: pull-up, OH squat, deadlift, clean, and Turkish getup.

What is your workout routine? Any tips for a fledgling exerciser like myself?

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Weird Science: Symptoms that Appear When I’m off Paleo

24 Apr
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I love being pregnant. While all my friends are paying homage to the porcelain god and hardly walking due to swollen ankles, I feel like a million bucks. I wore heels to work the day before my son was born and was doing squats when my water broke with my daughter (10 days overdue). After feeling like death with PCOS, pregnancy surprisingly balanced out my hormones.

A woman due a month after me mentioned how unfair it was that I had boundless energy while she could hardly pull herself out of bed. It wasn’t until that moment that I realized just how bad I felt everyday; that I always felt pregnant. While she was having 9 months of misery, I was getting a 9-month respite. My miserable existence was so normal that I had no clue I was missing out on a more fulfilling life.

When I started living a Paleo lifestyle, I had a similar awakening. Symptoms I never even recognized as symptoms disappeared. I’ve been on this Paleo journey for 22 months and am still often surprised at all the “normal” problems that crop up when I go off-track.

A few of the weird things that I’m noticing, from head to toe:

  • Split ends and broken hair. especially prevalent at the top of my forehead where my bangs begin.
  • Oily hair.
  • Dizzy when I stand up too fast.
  • Floaters. I start to see neon green and neon yellow circles and crescents.
  • Eye crusties.
  • Itchy nose. Those stinkin’ seasonal allergies return.
  • Chapped and white lips. This was not actually eradicated by Paleo, and required good quality fish oil to make my lips silky smooth. If I stop doing either, they are chapped again.
  • Yellow teeth. Not highlighter yellow, but definitely dingier.
  • Film on my teeth. Brushing, flossing, and mouth wash don’t get rid of it.
  • Zits. Ugh. Look at my face and you will see my diet.
  • Sweat less. This may a good thing for others, but not for me. I’ve got an iodine deficiency and already don’t sweat enough (and therefore don’t detox as efficiently).
  • Back pain. Almost two years ago, I hurt one small area on the right side of my back doing a split jerk. After a few days eating poorly, that pain starts to return.
  • Breaking nails.
  • Hangnails.
  • Cracking knees.
  • Bruise easily. Particularly on my calves
  • Feet smell. And not just because I wear Vibrams, which surely doesn’t help the matter
  • Cold all the time.
  • Inability to do a push-up. I can’t do very many legitimate push-ups, but I can usually do 2-3 in a row if I haven’t been practicing. Unless I’m eating rice krispie treats, and then I can’t even manage to do one.

Besides the PCOS, you might think this would be a pretty convincing list to never stray from the good food path. Someday I will stop making these discoveries…But until then, it’s a really powerful lesson to me that what we eat affects our bodies in ways we never even considered.

What are some of the weird symptoms (that you never even knew were symptoms) you get when you eat sub-optimally?

A Week’s Worth of Produce for the Paleo Family

16 Apr

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I’m back. Finally. I’m in the throes of final exams, final projects, and a new (full-time) job where I have a leadership position. Hopefully I can get back on this here old blog for a few posts. And if you have emailed me in the past couple of weeks, I’m starting on those tomorrow.

In the meantime, we are still eating Paleo and I thought I’d give you a little peak into my kitchen.

We eat a lot of produce in our home. I’m not very good at knowing how much money we spend or how many hours we cook, but I took a moment to write down every fresh vegetable and fruit we ate for a week. Here are the results of one nursing mom, one CrossFitting husband, one hungry 3yo and one 1yo who doesn’t eat very much produce at all in order to protect her gut:

  • 8 lbs carrots
  • 1/2 bag snap peas
  • 2 red peppers
  • 4 oz fresh basil
  • 2 heads cabbage
  • 1 bunch asparagus
  • 2 heads cauliflower
  • 2 cucumbers
  • 1 head red leaf lettuce
  • 5 bunches broccoli
  • 6 zucchini
  • 8 avocados
  • 1 butternut squash

There you have it. This list doesn’t include any fruit because we aren’t eating much of it lately. My baby can’t have it, so we try not to make her too jealous. It also doesn’t count pickles, coconut products (flakes, butter, milk, etc.), olives, raisins, or canned green beans, but gives a pretty accurate count of how much produce we typically eat.

How does this compare to you? Are you eating way more, way less, or does this look about right?

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Friday Link Love: Don’t Make My Mistakes

6 Apr

There is so much great content out there. Here’s a sampling of what I’m reading when I’m not writing.

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I have been out of town, but thought I’d pop in to share a few fabulous links. I’ll be back Tuesday. See you then!’

Don’t Make My Mistakes: The 10 Things I’ve Learned from Doing CrossFit featured on CrossFit NYC: Powerful tips for beginners and experienced alike.

School Lunch Ideas at Everyday Paleo: And if you don’t have school-age kids, this could easily be Work Lunch Ideas.

Four Natural Ways to Treat Restless Leg Syndrome by Dr. Tim Gerstmar at Aspire Natural Health: When I was pregnant and pre-Paleo, I could have sworn Club crackers and hamburger buns gave me restless legs. I’ve often wondered if it was the wheat…

DIY Cash-System Wallet Tutorial by Debra (contributing writer at Modern Alternative Mama): I love staying out of debt and Dave Ramsey recommends using cash with an envelope system. I don’t like the envelopes because my two Littles are always tugging on me in the grocery store. If I could figure out how to thread a bobbin, I think I would be sewing this asap.

Raising Healthy Kids: Play and Exercise

27 Mar

Remember that one post where I bemoaned all the recent rejections in my life? And it was a good thing because I learned that I am no less of a person when my proposal submission is denied or I am not chosen for a job interview.

One of my rejections was that I wasn’t chosen as a contributing writer for Modern Alternative Mama :(

But the next day, I got great news: I WAS selected!

Read my first post today about exercising with kids through play, which is a follow-up of last Tuesday’s MovNat lessons.

Spoiler: You may see some video of my kids exercising in a MovNat-ty kinda way.

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