Easter and other stuff

Here is whats been happening here:

Fiora is a 5th grader so she got to sing in Hope of America pageant this year.  Since she has a yellow shirt she was on the border of the flag.  Holly my sister took pictures for me since I don't like fighting crowds at the marriot center. Fiora went with her friend Kimee and said she had a fun experience.

getting ready for the big hunt

Kynsie and the colored eggs

Dad

Knightly and Jesse

Penny and Kynsie

Aeven

Penelope and Savanna

Trevan, Penny, Sylvan

We had a big Barrett family Easter egg hunt at our home this year, and Holly brought her fancy camera and took some beautiful pictures of the kids looking for eggs.  I like the one of Kynsie holding the colored boiled eggs and the one of Knightly and Jesse, but they are all great.  Everyone came, I made them some healthy sugar free dinner which ran out fast I didn't make enough, and we tried to fill plastic eggs with toys, notes, money, snacks, instead of candy this year. I thought it was marvelous!

Of course we had a little private egg hunt Sunday Morning for the kids, the girls got fingernail polish and Weston got money and chima legos. Twas fun! Sunday was very spiritually filled with the ward choir which I direct singing very well "My Shepherd Will Supply my Need," and an Orem Chorale concert that I sing in performing 9 Christian hymns of the Savior in the evening. My parents and several of Jared's family came to support and I very much felt loved by and love for all of them!

The Saturday before my 21 day Sugar Detox we took the kids one last time out to eat, we went to the wild zucchini which was very good. Jared took me to the temple prior to dinner so I could get spiritual strength to make it through the next 3 weeks. I started Monday and so far it has been a good experience for my health, but a little hard on the kids (I'm taking them with me and they aren't too keen on the new menu items). I spent the last week or so preparing; my fridge and pantry are transforming, the cupboards are bare but the fridge is stuffed!  Jared bought me a bread maker (mostly for the kids, to make whole wheat bread instead of store bought), a nice multi functioning food processor, a julienne slicer, and all the whole food ingredients I'll need which is no small price. My fridge is full of various nuts, vegetables, organic eggs and organic-no-sugar-added sauces, homemade snacks (i.e. beef jerky made with coconut aminos instead of soy or sugar), and the freezer is full of meat. I have to cook my breakfast lunch and dinner, and all my own sauces and dressings, so convenience is a thing of the past (I'm not even supposed to use a microwave!), so my fingers are cracked and sore, one is infected, and I feel like I run a restaurant I'm cleaning and cooking so much. I've been keeping a food diary and digestively speaking I've had the best 3 days of my life, thankfully I'd already stopped eating most sugar/simple carbs so most all the withdrawal symptoms are out of the way.  Once the detox is over I'll incorporate back into my diet things like homemade breads and fruit (the only fruits I can eat on the detox are lemon, limes, green apples, and green bananas) and dairy, but I can't dispute that I feel pretty great on the veggies, nuts, and proteins! Hopefully I can make it a lifestyle.

New bread maker, I made a gluten free bread with coconut flour and buckwheat and the kids grew to like it.

jalapeno, goat cheese, bacon crumbles, not on the detox list but a favorite snack when I was eliminating carbs

 

My new food processor, its a beauty! I can't believe how much nicer it is than my old one.

Milk for the kids, and we're still trying to get rid of some sugar filled sauces, but everything else is for detox week 1

No more processed foods are being bought, so the pantry is looking bare.Weston ate the last of the oatmeal yesterday

Music videos

The girls found this music video app on my iPad and spent a great deal of time during spring break making music videos. I think they did a pretty good job on the two I bothered saving and showing here, there are several other very silly ones. I even let them film one of me doing "We Can't Back Down", expressing my sentiments on the fight against refined sugar of course! :)

Spring Break

The first few days of spring break the kids did a lot of sitting around and drove me crazy with their lack of productivity. They made music videos on the ipad and watched their shows in abundance, and quarrelled and bickered with me and each other.  I went about my days as usual with work at home and the office, and Wednesday I tried to have some quality time with the kids shopping for clothes they need.
On our way home from clothes shopping Jared called and said his dad was at the office and how about Savanna go early down to Gunnison with him (we were planning on staying at Neil and Bonnies Thursday through Saturday and going to Bryce canyon). Savanna was up for it and since she is the hardest one for me to get along with, I drove her right over to Jared's office and gave her to Neil. Weston Fiora and I got a lot of house work done the next day before we left for our trip. Sav reported later that she went shopping with Grandma Bonnie, who bought her a swim suit, took her swimming the next morning, and played Phase 10 with her.  Thanks for entertaining Savanna!

We all arrived at Neil and Bonnie's on Thursday evening and they had dinner ready for us, they are always so nice to make sure we are fed, we saved over $200 on food and lodging by staying with them. The next morning we got up bright and early and headed for Bryce canyon and spent the day hiking and seeing the beautiful canyon. The kids didn't complain too much, but it was a little difficult for Fiora who hates exercise in all forms and guises, and for me who am detoxing from carbs and sugar, but still worth it. We were all worn out by 3:30 so we drove back to Gunnison and Grandpa showed off his new tractor. Saturday we spent the morning finding aluminum cans for recycling, goign to the park, and waiting around for the pool to open, the kids can't go to Gunnison without going to their local pool!  Jared and Weston did some pretty cool back flip dives off the diving board, the girls did some great dives too! Twas a fun getaway.

  

 

 

FYI

I decided to separate my narrative of overcoming health problems from my journal entry blog, and yes I created another blog for it!  The journal entry blog is private, very personal and sacred to me,  you need to request an invite if you want to read it. heatherbarrettschauersmylife.blogspot.com  

The narrative of healing from mental health issues and sugar addictions is now
schauersthesearemywords.blogspot.com and it is a public blog and will stay that way. I hope to make it something everyone in the world can read someday.

Return of the "no sugar" contract

Weston and Jared decided to do a pull-up workout one evening and begged me to take some pictures. I thought they were so funny that they wanted me to do that, but I sure do love my rock hard boys!

 Fiora tried to do a pull up, I can get up a little farther than her, but still can't pull up the whole way.

 Savanna did some chores around the house for a couple weeks to earn some money for a new back pack, she has put up with hand me downs for quite some time now, and that is just not hip enough for 7th grade.

Savanna made a goal last month to make a chocolate dessert once a day. I was dealing with a lot of chocolate messes in the kitchen, and a lot of witnessing my kids gorge themselves on sugary food.    Since I put a stop to it, the kids have substituted chocolate "muffins" for cereal and fruit, not sure much progress was made but there you go.

 Fiora decided to start a dog walking business. She created fliers and distributed them all around the neighborhood to dog owners. She hasn't gotten one call yet, but one person did ask her to feed their dog as a favor while they were out of town. 

I got to babysit Knightly again while Jesse and Kelsy went skiing!  6 hours, I loved it, I feel so honored that they trust me with their little boy.  He is such a doll, I missed him the next day.

 

 

Return of the No Sugar Contract

It is far and wide not a comprehensive sugar free diet, but the kids have agreed to abstain from dessert candy sugary breads and drinks for 1 month April 1 to April 30.  Instead of storing it this time they are required to chuck it. Including Easter candy. I am offering a high $$ incentive if they can do it, and Sav dreams of new jeans, Fiora a kindle, and Weston more legos, so they are motivated to earn the money by throwing the sugar.   Here is Savanna so responsibly having an after school snack of chips and home made salsa instead of pastries.  All the kids are having some dessert and candy cravings because of the contract

 

My last burger and fries on a lunch date with Jared

I, however, have decided to abstain from ALL sugar now and forever, yes I have. April 1st will go down in history for me as my deliverance day. Here is the story if you care to understand why (in the form of an email I sent to my brother Jesse):

OK Jesse, a couple years ago you told me you were 99% sure you were hypoglycemic, but the question that really bothered you is, what is causing the hypoglycemia?  I think, for me, I've found or am really close to an answer, and its so simple its kind of laughable: stop eating sugar. 

"What? I thought you already had stopped eating sugar" is what you might be thinking. Lets back up.  As you know, after I started having strange health problems in 2011 I went to my primary physician multiple times and to a cardiologist and all my efforts were dead ends. From their exams I looked in perfect health. I read "The pH Miracle" and "Hypoglycemia: a better approach" (which I recommended to you) and both books agreed on one point, smaller meals and almost complete abstinence from sugar would improve health of those with negative health symptoms such as mine. I tried to listen to my body and experimented on different diet restrictions, and only started to improve when I was eliminating most sugar and eating lots of vegetables and moderate amounts of protein. I thought I'd done it, I'm on the mend.
This year I started lifting weights, confident that now I could do things that normal people do to strengthen their bodies.  In January and Feb I started deteriorating again, bad depression, anxiety, fatigue, dizzy spells, I had thrown off my body's balance somehow by the extra exercise and it made me upset.  You introduced me to "The Bitter Truth" lecture and I started wondering again about sugar intake, but I had been eating hardly any sugar I thought, so maybe it was a fatty acid metabolic disorder.  I resolved to see an endocrinologist again and prayed sincerely and frequently about who to see.  The only person I was able to reach in my efforts was that Dr. Brinton who talked with me 20 minutes on the phone, and his counsel was he thought I did not have a FAOD, but I should continue moderating my diet and don't buy expensive food supplements and don't seek doctors who will take your money and try to find something wrong. I took this as an answer to prayer, although I didn't like the answer, because it was another dead end.  How could I possibly regulate it any more than I am?  I decided to turn to the Lord, and instead of calling more doctors as my neighbors suggested, I prayed and read the scriptures, and finally asked dad for a blessing last Sunday.  I wanted to show the Lord I had perfect faith to be healed since I had done "everything" in my power that I could think of to help myself.

I wasn't miraculously healed, I was just as tired and dizzy and anxious that day as ever.  And I felt really dumb for thinking I would be.  The very next day a lady in our ward called me out of the blue and said she admired me not giving treats in choir, and she has been very aware of how much damage we are all doing to our bodies with sugar intake, and could she bring me a book and send me some quotes (below). I said sure, and she brought me "Sugar Blues" by William Dufty, which I threw on my dresser and didn't look at for 3 days.  I thought, "Oh good, another anti sugar extremest I will have to read through all his overgeneralizing garbage to weed out the truth, I don't know if I'll even read it."  I felt exhausted at the thought of opening that book.

Monday I was feeling very down and I sent dad a email thanking him for the blessing, and that I think the Lord isn't healing me because there is something I can do to heal myself still but I don't know what that is.  Dad said "I feel that He can heal you from the Knowledge that he will send  you.  I believe He will soon."  Immediately I thought of the book Kari gave me, hmmm maybe that was the knowledge, the timing was too impeccable to ignore.  So I spent the whole morning reading Sugar Blues.  I skimmed a lot of the historical sections, but what I read the spirit whispered to me "It is true." Sugar is the cause of many modern day maladies, including mental health problems.  Sugar is causing the hypoglycemia. That day I realized I wasn't in balance and wasn't better because I was STILL EATING SUGAR!  I opened my fridge, jam, salsa, sauces, condiments, dressings, bread, rice, pasta, then the pantry, popcorn, chips, granola, ramen, cereal, its still here.  Yes I eat more wholesome foods and vegetables, yes I stay away from dessert and candy and soda, but its not enough, I'm still intaking on a daily basis high fructose in my teryaki stir fry, maladextrose in my mayonnaise, fructose in dressings, etc etc, not to mention how often I've cheated on bread since I stopped making my own wheat bread.  I slapped my head, sugar is my enemy.  Its depleting me and causing an imbalance my mind and body, and Sugar Blues helped me understand why; for me I had found my answer.

April 1 I stopped it. I went through four days of withdrawal symptoms, mainly feeling cravings and tremors and hunger after I'd just eaten, but not too bad since I already had eliminated hard sugar.  I threw away our brown and white sugar, and once the cereal, white bread, etc is consumed (by Jared and kids) and the sauces done, that's it, I refuse to buy another product that contains any form of processed sugar. I will not create imbalance in my children or myself, they will probably hate me for it, but if they will go with me on it I will have saved them from what I believe is Satan's biggest traps of our age: sugar is useful energy and there is no harm in consuming it. Degrees of harm vary person to person, I am particularly sensitive to it.

Since you have been my support and ally on this journey I wanted to let you know where I was headed.  We have been raised on white bread and ovaltine, ramen and cereal, cake and ice cream, so its going to be hard to see those for the poisons they are and let our bodies become whole again through intaking only whole foods. I won't blame you if you can't go there right now, I remember how tough it was when I was trying the alkaline diet, I got a lot of resistance from well meaning people.  The stinger was "Has a doctor told you you have to eat only alkaline foods?" No.  And I love the pointers, "The church tells us to store flour and sugar, and its not in the word of wisdom to abstain from sugar."  That's true. I don't know why the Lord hasn't warned the saints about the dangers of sugar, from where I'm standing right now it would be better to eat grass and meat in an emergency than deplete your system with sugar and flour, so it doesn't make sense and a lot of people will view me as extreme, just like I viewed the alkaline authors.  I don't know all the answers, but I know he gave me an answer.  At the very lest, please read Sugar Blues and tell me what you think about it. I will attach some quotes from it as well so you can kind of see what its about.

 

Discourses of Brigham Young

 By temperance and moderation lay the foundation for the development of the mind. p. 182

             God designs that we shall engage in this great work of restoration. Then let us not trifle with our mission, by indulging in the use of injurious substances. These lay the foundation of disease and death in the systems of men

             Do you know that it is your privilege so to live that your minds may all the time be perfectly within your control? Study to preserve your bodies in life and health, and you will be able to control your minds.  p. 190

  ‘If I do any injury to my child, I sin.’  p. 185

             Some healthy, strong-constituted persons can eat large quantities of food with apparent impunity; but, in doing so, the tax they place upon their systems will ultimately bring disease and death.  p. 182

 The Americans, as a nation, are killing themselves with their vices and high living... it will take generations to entirely eradicate the influences of deleterious substances. This must be done before we can attain our paradisiacal state, for the Lord will bring again Zion to its paradisiacal state. Vol. 8 p. 63-64

             Be careful of your bodies; be prudent in laying out your energies, for when you are old you will need the strength and power you are now wasting. Preserve your lives.

 

John Taylor

 We are here, as a people, . . . not to imitate the world, unless it be in that which is good . . . but that we may put ourselves in possession of every truth, of every virtue, of every principle of intelligence know n among men, together with those that God has revealed for our special guidance, and apply them to our everyday life, and thus educate ourselves and our children in everything that tends to exalt man . . . We should seek to know more about ourselves and our bodies, about what is most conducive to health and how to preserve health and how to avoid disease; and to know what to eat and what to drink, and what to abstain from taking into our systems.

 

Joseph F. Smith

           We pray to God to heal us when we are sick, and then we turn round from our prayers and partake of the very things that He has told us are not good for us! How inconsistent it is for men to ask God to bless the, when they themselves are taking a course to injure and to bring evil upon themselves No wonder we don’t get our prayers answered more than we do,

 

George Albert Smith

   . . . this temple of the body is sacred . . . the spirit in the tabernacle came from God . . . If men realized that, how much more careful they would be to protect this tabernacle and keep it wholesome and delightful.               The Teachings of George Albert Smith, p. 13

David O. McKay

    A . . . contributing factor to happiness I name as the confidence of self-mastery. No one wishes to be a slave to other human beings; no one willingly bows down to a dictator. But some are slaves to themselves, to their appetites, and passions. They are not free. They have deprived themselves of freedom and of individual liberty. Instead of being kings and masters of self, they are slaves.

             If in doubt as to any food or drink, whether it is good or harmful, let it alone until you have learned the truth in regard to it. If anything offered is habit forming, we will be safe in concluding that it contains some ingredients that are harmful to the body and should be avoided.   “The Word of Wisdom,” Improvement Era, Feb. 1956, p. 79