Winter Health Check-how's your TF diet doing?

Our diet hasn't been great lately and it's definitely been showing. I blame being pregnant on it all but it's not a very good excuse.

Even when I make good things to eat, DD has been refusing so much that I'm sometimes wondering whether she's living on sunshine and water. I wish I coudl get her to eat more quality food and take CLO but she's been amazingly picky lately.

I take CLO and vit C sporadically. It's kind of a weird taste thing, sometimes CLO makes me feel horrible sometimes it tastes good. I take the NOW minerals nearly every night because I've been getting horrible leg cramps if I skip out. (Yay pregnancy!)

We aren't doing as badly as we could be though - DH hasn't gotten what used to be his annual sinus thing that drags for months and I've had just a few days with sniffles. DD had some sort of a cold thing and I think she's still getting over it because her moods have been bad and her eating worse. She seems to do much better on days I can get good food in her. But therein lies the trap. Toddler eating habits are weird.

Currently DD is suffering from a bad cold which she caught from her cousins. I'm just extremely tired and can't get a full night of sleep. But I blame DD for that since she won't give up nighttime nursing and moves all around the bed at night. She is almost 22 months and survives mostly on frozen organic strawberries, frozen organic blueberries, shredded cheese (hormone free, not organic though since I can't get it around here), and breast milk. Because of a horrible extended family situation and terrible stress, I used that as an excuse to eat terribly for the past six weeks. But I'm back on track now.

I've had plenty of colds since giving birth to DD, probably five or six to her ten colds. But everything is of shorter duration. Since going TF six years ago, I had one bad sinus infection three years ago. Otherwise, just the colds.

Last winter for my nighttime snack, I survived on raw egg/fat smoothies and this winter I have no desire for them. All I want is hot chocolate. I think I need to get off the dairy and go back to my fat shakes, though. It would give me more energy.

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I ran across a really tasty recipe for dairy-free hot cocoa, I do it 2 parts water, 1 part coconut milk, cocoa powder and sugar/sweetener of choice to taste, some cinnamon and I add some salt, but that's definitely optional. Really helps with those hot chocolate cravings.

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Sounds really yummy. I've made something similar in the past, without the cinnamon or salt. I bet both go far to hide the coconut flavor.

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This is generally our experince. Sleeping enough and staying off sugar seem to make the biggest difference for our family. We had a crazy Thanksgiving-time with staying out too late and too many goodies and both kids and dh have colds now (I can't eat goodies because I have so many food sensitivies--I really think that helps keep me healthy even though I hate it)

Jen

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: I've had one mild cold this year, and for the past few days I've felt like there was something *trying* to happn in my sinuses, but it's mostly gone today. That's it. DD has had one cold, which went away and came back, but it's not been bad at all.

Honestly, I think it's mostly the lack of sugar in my diet since the end of October and, more importantly, the CLO that I am taking every day for the first time since I was a child. Since the sun became unreliable in September DD and I have been having our "yummies" every morning and I think it really helps to keep us healthy.

diet has not been great, and neither has health. Just bought some chicken carcasses yesterday to get back on the daily broth bandwagon though
I've been mostly doing well keeping us off sugar, but there are so many holiday treats around already!

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I get this way too! I think it's really important to listen to your body, so my DS has it nearly every day (he can't get enough!) and I have it on most days, but there are definitely days when it sounds disgusting-other days when it sounds great. Our bodies are amazing and TF is really helping me tune in to what mine needs!

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We see a difference around here when there's more sugar around too. I would love to read more about how sugar can affect your immune system and why it does.

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I have tried and failed 4 times with stock. I have trouble keeping it going for 3 days. I probably need to do one that's 12 hours and work my way up from there. I feel really stupid for not keeping track of them better.

We got out of our routine and ate out a lot the past week and (surprise surprise) that cold that was trying to take hold finally did. DH has it too, but DS is staying strong! Tonight I was thinking about what we have or haven't been doing and the worst thing we've done is stop taking our CLO. I've been having my multi and C every day still, but I haven't been taking the CLO. So, tonight I looked up vitamin A in my veg. cookbook and lo and behold it supports immunity. Needless to say we're all back on it!
DH just came down with it tonight and right now he has a 99.5 fever. Mine was up to 100 last night, but he's getting a lot more sleep than I did (he's not naturally nurturing like I am ), and hopefully the CLO will help him fight it off.
Anyone else like to share?

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Don't feel stupid! I had to work to get into a good routine (then we moved to a new city in Feb and I still haven't found a place for bones for stock!). Can your oven get down to 195 or 200F? I had a hard time with stock til I realized I could start it on the stovetop to skim the scum, and then stick it in the oven and leave it for 2 days. I would do 2 pots at a time (checked beforehand to make sure they'd fit, and I put a brick under the bottom rack to reinforce it since that much water/bones was heavy) but it made the whole process so much easier!

My daughter's tummy has been hurting, I think it is because I slacked off so badly with stock and with our fermented veggies, so this week I am getting back on-track. Not winter-related, just a general step backward in her health. Sigh...

We are doing good here. I am feeling good here. Finally feeling back on track and *almost* 100%. I am even ready to start exercising again and hope that it goes well. I think it has a lot to do with my diet being mostly clean and the candida diet. I have a very addictive personality so really need to stay away from all sugar and all grains. We are starting to get back in the groove w/ the fermented veggies and kefir and broth as well. We had taken out most salicylates as part of Feingold but are slowly adding them back in- all seems to be going well except the newest one- grapes. I am feeling good emotionally as well. I am wondering now if it has to do with the addition of selenium (in the form of brazil nuts to my diet). As far as other supplements, clo is taken, but not everyday, vit c most days and Magnesium (natural calm) every night. I have other supplements as well, but when I started taking a bunch of them I felt unwell, so I stopped. I need to try again one by one and see how they effect me.

the kids are pretty well and as far as colds and everything go I don't remember them getting sick. Luke had half a cough for one day I think. I haven't been sick either in a good while. I know from experience that sugar is a huge factor for me, everytime I have a sugar binge in the winter I wind up sick- hopefully I won't do that to myself this winter.

I'm not doing so well, I have had a cold off and on since the election. Really. I've noticed that since I had dd, which is roughly the same amount of time I've been on a TF diet, I've been sick more than I have all my life .

Is it the nursing that's taken it toll on me? DD is 27 months old and still nursing like a newborn . *SHE* is doing well and although she has the sniffles now, it's nothing. I am BEAT.

The ironic thing is I used to never get sick, ever. ever. I was infamous for never getting sick, or if I did catch something, it was asymptomatic (no runny nose, coughs, etc. just felt a little slow) and it went away in a day or two. Dh is also fighting colds much better - he used to be jealous that I never got sick.

What I am doing wrong? It has to be the nursing right?

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Thanks for the recipe! We made some of your dairy-free hot cocoa last weekend when we took stroll to look at the holiday lights downtown. We sweetened the cocoa with maple syrup. It was delicious.

Well, hubby and I have been blessed with excellent immune systems so we rarely contract even the sniffles. Both of our offices could be overrun with coworkers coming down with the flu, stomach bugs and strep throat and we won't so much as get a runny nose. :

What we are looking for from TF is energy boosts, to build up our nutrient stores, brain function boosts and just for the food to compliment our values and overall fitness.

But I am interested in the next time i DO happen to get sick on how fast I will be able to recover.