Fighting for a Seat on the Wagon

If living a sustainable lifestyle were easy, everyone would do it, right? New challenges continue to pop up, but that's why I'm blogging this - so you can see 'em coming if you're going through this too! There was some illness and injury, a little Internet overwhelm, and a touch of blonde. Allow me to elaborate.

As you may have guessed from my previous post, my kids have been sick. We're still not sure what's up with my son; more tests are needed. My daughter has a staph infection for the fourth time this year, and we can't seem to kill it. We've traced it back to a spider bite I had a while back, but we need more tests to figure out if it's become resistant and if I'm still carrying it. Personally, I feel just fine, but I'm not 3. In any case, they're both feeling much better, thank you, although our healthy, hippy house is now home to more antibiotics than you can shake a stick at. The extra hours at various doctors and hospitals and pharmacies definitely cut into my thoughtful food preparation time, and I haven't been shopping in a while (just ask my husband).

I did manage a quick trip to Ever'man's, the local whole foods co-op. I picked up a number of grains and a gorgeous wild rice and lentil mix. It's so lovely, I'd like to just stare at it. But I can't, because it's in a plastic bag. In fact, they're all in plastic bags. Suddenly I'm thinking of that island of trash in the ocean, the giant man-made landfill that's poisoning the ocean. Glass! I need glass containers to put my grains and beans in, then I can reuse the plastic bags and save the whales. You would think that finding air-tight, glass storage containers would be easy, right? Nope. I spent about 2 hours online, both "Googling" and "Binging" them, but with little success. I just wanted some of those Mason-jar things with the rubber gasket and flip-top lid I remember from my childhood. Apparently now they're called "French Hermetic Terrines", are pretty expensive, and are chronically out of stock anyway. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do about my pantry. Maybe I'll just pig out and eat everything and then I won't have to worry about storing anything.

With all the stress and distraction of the kids and containers, I haven't been eating well. Ok, I've been eating worse than a frat boy. Although I always strive to give my family balanced meals, I personally had Goldfish crackers and wine for dinner one night. Another time I tried to make nachos out of stale taco shells and processed cheese. There. My confessions are out in the open. Needless to say, I wasn't feeling too well myself by the end of the week so yesterday, I fasted. I love a good fast (I elaborate here). To break my fast, I chose oatmeal. Proper, steel-cut oatmeal that you cook, in a pot, with a wooden spurtle. I'm only second generation American of Scottish descent, so I know oatmeal. Apparently Homeland Security thought the IRA was hiding in my Irish oats, though, because I almost killed myself trying to get into the freaking tin. (See the picture for an idea what it took to open it!) By the time I got it open, the water had boiled down, so the oatmeal boiled over and trashed my stove. Mind you, by this time, I hadn't eaten in about 36 hours, and this is not the best time to test my emergency response skills. Eventually, I got my oatmeal. I was delicious, and almost worth the trouble.

3 weeks into the Momnivore Challenge, and I've learned a lot. I've learned I'll starve if I worry about every little thing, like the fact that none of the grains or beans I bought were locally produced. I'll settle for the fact that they're all organically grown, minimally packaged (bought from bulk bins), and purchased locally - and that they're real food, of course. I've learned that it's easy to fall off the wagon, but it's not a big deal to hop back on again. And I've learned that I'm barely 2% smarter than a tin of oatmeal.

The Sad State of the State We're In

I mean the sorry state of the members of my household, not Florida, although on the whole, Florida ain't particularly healthy. Something happened in 2008, not long after moving here, and we've been struggling to regain our overall health ever since. At first we joked about getting "all our bad luck" out of the way in one year, but as '08 became '09, and now '09 has become '10, I'm getting worried. Both my husband's family and my own come from hearty stock - the kind of healthy, hard-working, athletic & outdoorsy people who never get sick. We have "thick blood" (actually, my father's blood is truly amazing, but that's another story...), we enjoy hard work, and we never have colds, let alone anything more serious. Injuries? Sure, we have bumps and bruises and a few scars here and there, but those are normal if you live an active life. But illnesses? Never, until these past few years.

Let me clarify that, a bit, for those who know me and are undoubtedly biting their tongues right now. See, autoimmune conditions run in my family, UC, RA, MS, and other annoying initials. Oh, and some diabetes on my husband's side. Ok, so they're not minor illnesses, but the thing is, we handled them just fine. Either MS or RA can put you in a wheelchair within months of first emerging, but my mum has had them both for decades and still works even now, in her 60s. Both she and I have enjoyed years of complete remission from our conditions drug-free, ignoring our genetic predispositions and getting on with our lives. My husband's family was prone to diabetes, but that was lifestyle-induced. When he saw his numbers creeping up, he ate better and exercised more and completely avoided the problem. What I'm trying to explain is that even in the cases where the medical problem is supposedly unavoidable, we've tackled it.

So here we are, on the Gulf Coast, with sick kids and pets. My husband and I are generally fine, still no colds, allergies, etc... although my autoimmune condition is more active than usual thanks to worrying about everyone else. The kids, however, have had one infection after another. Not one long, lingering illness, but a constant barrage of bad bugs. Tiny cuts turn into nasty infections, or sudden fevers strike with no other symptoms. Everyone gets sick now and then, but this is well beyond anything in my childhood experiences. Even our pets' health has been threatened lately. In fact, my husband just called from the vet now to tell me (to our great relief) that our Maine Coon has kitty acne, not an infected wound or tumor. We're thrilled it's so minor and harmless, but who the hell ever heard of kitty acne? Where are all these germs coming from?

Of course I clean and disinfect my house. Yes, we're clean, and our pets are well-groomed, too. Even if we weren't, we're living the exact same way as we have everywhere else. We move every few years, courtesy of the military, and what I'm wondering now is what's wrong with this place?

You hear about those places with toxic waste in the soil, or polluted air, or a contaminated water supply, but they're never "home". It always happens somewhere else, and we feel badly, wonder why the people don't move, maybe send some aid. Now, after the recent water report, after witnessing my own strong family struggling to enjoy good health even with our concerted effort to practice a healthy lifestyle, I can't help but wonder if we live in one of "those" places. And, as someone who has traveled and still feels truly blessed to be an American, it saddens me deeply. It angers me too! For God's sake, they can't figure out if something is wrong with my son's vital organs! And if I've learned anything over the past month of trying to live a healthier lifestyle, it's that the problems with the American food chain, which includes us, the environment, and everything in between, are omnipresent. I went to the organic farm, but he used some grocery store produce in his compost (pesticides), and public water for irrigation when their wasn't enough rain (worst water in the country). I bought a water filter, but what water did they use when they made that juice from concentrate, or worse, that Capri Sun that my son takes to school every day? We're at the bottom of the national run-off, the Gulf Coast, where all the chemicals from the rain, from the fields, from Canada and the U.S. end up. What might be in the dirt where my kids dig, the trees where they climb, the air they breathe?

I'm tired of limping along, making excuses for one illness or another. It's not just a fluke, it's a fact. We're all sick of being sick. No, I can't prove that the environment is making us sick, but we never had these problems in rural New England! And until someone can give me a better explanation and make my family feel better, I'm going with my gut instinct. We can't move until the military lets us, but I'm damn sure going to work that much harder to improve our living conditions here. I'm demanding natural products from clean sources, I'm supporting local farms and businesses who operate with environmental responsibility, and I'm openly blasting those that are ruining my family's quality of life. I hope you will, too. Vote with your choices and your voices and force things to change for the better.

The Perimeter of Publix

Ironically, after struggling with it for days, I never did make much of a weekly menu. At least, not nearly as well as Jen does! I have to admit her "I'm not making a menu" menu is more organized than my "This year I'm getting organized" menu. I did, however, manage to go grocery shopping last week. Somehow, miraculously, I bought enough real food to feed us for the past 8 days, and (gasp!) there's still food left! And, sit down for this, I was under budget. I hate to hit you when I'm sure you're already reeling on the floor, but the final kicker is that I did all this at Publix. Not Sam's Club, not Dollar General or WalMart, but Publix.

I think I've figured out the three main reasons for my success, although obviously the stars lined up and the Gods of Groceries were in my corner. Still, I was greatly aided by the fact that my family eats anything I put in front of them. Well, sort of. Our kids are little, so we try to balance new things with familiar ones, and we give them their favorites for lunch and snacks. They make smart, healthy choices, so why not? How did we raise such great eaters? That's a whole other story, but they are, and it makes my job easier. Dinner is also made easier by the fact that I can cook. In fact, I enjoy it. Sure, it's a pain in the butt if I'm rushed or the kids are whining or the dog is underfoot, wiggling his eyebrows at me (what? your dog doesn't wiggle his eyebrows?), but when push comes to shove I have solid, basic cooking skills and I can throw stuff together and make a meal. The first two factors allowed me to do the third: I shopped the perimeter of the grocery store. That's where all the real food is anyway, and ultimately, that's my goal here, right? To eat real, local, sustainable food and make the world a better place?

I bought seasonal vegetables in their whole forms for the most part. I'm not sure where the global supply of shallots comes from, but I can't cook without them, so they made it into my cart too. I also didn't pay attention to the organic section. That word is so used & abused right now, I only trust it when I meet the farmer. Still, I bought real food, with minimal if any processing, and very little packaging, all of which helps to minimize the carbon footprint of the food chain.
I bought dried beans, which are cheap and simple, and a few family staples, like bacon. When I find a locally raised, pasture fed & finished, naturally smoked, preservative free bacon source, I'll be sure to let you know. I finished the long (2 hour) shopping trip in the meat department, buying Publix "Greenwise" products or natural cuts. The selection was pretty limited, I have to say, but it's a start.

What I didn't buy were processed convenience foods. No Lunchables, no frozen dinners, no meal-in-a-box things. I didn't even buy baby carrots - I bought a big bag of whole carrots, and I've been cutting them in different ways for different uses as we need them. That was the whole mission of this shopping trip I think, to trade a little time and effort for better food. I think it's worked. In the past week, we've had at least 3 vegetarian dinners - rare for us, but there were no complaints. The food has tasted great, probably because of the minimal processing, and we've tried new recipes throughout the week. The kids have tried a ton of new foods, and just last night my husband was shocked to learn how much he loves beets, which he'd never had before. (Ever??) So he and our son learned to love them together.

The main drawback to all this has been the amount of time and effort it requires of me, personally. The shopping will take less time when I learn better what I'm looking for, since I read every label this past trip. But the food preparation is still time consuming. I would caution anyone considering making these changes to allow plenty of time for the first few weeks. The less stressed out you are, the better choices you'll make. I confess, there was one night (only one!) that I was pushed to frozen pizza. Sigh. But by my reckoning, that's 7 nights better than average. Considering the new year is less than two weeks old, I'm pretty happy with that.

Trimming Down Challenges

It's officially 2010 now, so my resolution to live a more local & sustainable lifestyle is truly underway. The past few weeks have been a warm-up session, a time to dabble in the L&S arts and gather information at my own pace. It's been a very forgiving learning time, too. For every new discovery or triumph, I've backtracked a step or two as well. And the new year has already thrown me a curve or two.

In addition to adjusting our eating, we're also cracking down on our budget. We're saving up for a home when these adventurous military years are finally over, so every penny counts (as it does in most homes these days). I mention this because buying local, organic, beautiful produce, products and everything else is far easier if money is no object. Trust me, it's an object for us. So I can't just waltz into the local health food store and buy out the place. I can't have an 8-foot commercial freezer delivered tomorrow with a side of grass-finished beef inside. I can't throw out everything in our home and start again (tempting though it may be sometimes). My guess is that most people can't do those things either. Besides, then we'd all just be on a roller coaster of recycling, composting and responsibly disposing of all our old stuff anyway. Since I won't be starting over, I'm trying to be responsible in what I bring into our home. Hopefully, with time and dedication, more stuff will be leaving our home than coming in soon.

When it comes to food, that means planning meals and making a hard and fast shopping list. I've used a number of menu planning forms in the past. Franklin Covey offers a form with their paper planners, and the Motivated Moms cleaning calendar has one in the appendix. The best one I've found, however, is here. The meal planner and shopping list are in the same document, so I always have what I need, and all the forms on the site are free. "What?! You still kill trees printing out hard copies??" you ask. Yup, I sure do. I'm from the Great State of Maine, and trees are a renewable resource. The paper mills provide good jobs (if lousy air), and I recycle religiously. So yes, I'm a pen & paper kind of woman. You can download whatever works for you to your smartphone if you prefer. Speaking of downloads, DIYPlanner.com is in the process of upgrading servers as I'm writing this, so please be patient if the site is slow to load - it will be worth it!

My budget isn't the only thing tight around here - so are our pants. Specifically around the waist. My husband had very good success with a low-fat, low-carb diet a few years ago and wants to do it again now. If he's hiding any extra weight, I don't know where, but he's determined to diet anyway. In my case, my weight hasn't changed but my, er, demographics have. I'm now a bit more heavily represented in some districts than others.
I'd like for us all to eat more healthfully, not only locally or organically, but more whole foods, perhaps a more flexitarian diet. I had seafood the other day and I'm pretty sure it was the first time my body had seen an omega-3. That's not good. I'm also leaning toward, dare I say it? Portion control. More on that touchy subject later. For now, suffice it to say my Dear Husband literally laughed in my face when I mentioned it.
His diet strategy includes whole grains and veggies, but also a ton of commercial products with no fat, no cholesterol, and other scientifically engineered health claims. This is where it gets tricky. Take, for example, Egg Beaters egg substitutes. He loves them. I showed him how to use just egg whites instead, but he likes the convenience of the product and hates wasting the egg yolks. I finally got a grumble of agreement to ditch the fake eggs by pointing out that his health is more valuable than the yolks, and EB are just egg whites and a bunch of chemicals.

So here I am, with an empty fridge and a blank shopping list, trying to feed a family of four locally, sustainably, healthfully, low-carb and low-fat, and on a budget. And I'm sure I'm not alone. Even if these aren't your challenges exactly, every household has to work around a few issues. With a little planning, a little extra effort, determination and a touch of creativity we can tackle almost anything.