Project 333: Getting Started

I’ve been really enjoying a YouTube channel called “Light by Coco.”  Coco is a Dutch minimalist living in San Francisco, and her channel mainly deals with what she calls, “living light.”  Since we moved into our beautiful duplex last summer (which I love, love, love, LOVE!) I’ve been feeling like I’m just overwhelmed with stuff.  The home is smaller than our last rental place, so all the stuff we accumulated doesn’t really fit.  “Light by Coco” has been inspiring me to declutter and lighten the load, so to speak.

Coco mentions Project 333 in many of her videos.  I decided to see what’s up.  It is an online challenge where you only wear thirty-three items for 3 months.  Sentimental items like your wedding ring don’t count, and neither do undergarments.  Everything else, shoes, hats, bags, purses, and jewelry are fair game.  I decided that participating in Project 333 would be a great start to the decluttering of my new home.  

My first step, I think, is to do an initial decluttering.  I’m not really ready yet to throw a lot of stuff away.  We’re not spending ANY money right now, so it wouldn’t make sense for me to trash anything I might use.  In the last couple of days, I went through my closet and packed away all the things I’m not wearing regularly, whether it’s because I can’t nurse in it, it doesn’t fit me postpartum, or whatever.  I did pack a small box up to go to the Goodwill, but the rest went into large storage boxes to be “shopped” later as the seasons change, as things wear out, or as my situation evolves, i.e. Alice stops nursing.  

I also went through my jewelry box.  I had a ton of jewelry that I never wore.  I pared it down to this:

Next, I’ll be counting my clothing items and doing a second paring down to get to thirty-three items.  I’ll also be deciding how many item spots I’ll save for bags and shoes.  

It’s late February now, so the quarter is more than half over.  I plan to put a winter capsule together for the remainder of the quarter, then do a whole new capsule starting in April.

I’ll be writing a series about the project as I go, so don’t forget to subscribe!

How We Save Money

If this is your first time joining me, you should know that, though right now I bring my cute little baby to work with me, my contract is up at the end of June and I will be staying home with her thereafter.  My salary comprises about a third of our income, so when I stop working we’ll have to be very cognisant of how our money behaves!  In preparation for this, we are attending a Financial Peace University class at our church.  This is a 9-lesson class on all things money based on seven baby steps.  I won’t go into great detail here (seriously, find a class or pick up a copy of The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey) except to say that we are focusing on steps 1-3 right now:

1. $1000 in the bank as an emergency fund.
2. The debt snowball (paying off all debt except the house).
3. An emergency fund of 3-6 months of expenses in a money market account.

In an effort to put as much of this together before we lose my income, we are in super saving mode!  I thought I’d share some of the things we do to save money.  Here we go…

Cloth Diapers and Wipes

According to awesomebeginnings4children.com, it costs around $2400 to diaper one child from birth to potty training.  That’s some expensive poo!!  We chose to use cloth (or fluff for insiders) for Alice.  I purchased my whole stash, including prefolds, covers, pockets, inserts, wipes, wet bags, wipe warmer, and even a box of detergent for $175 at a Facebook garage sale.  You can really spend on fluff if you don’t look for deals, as some diapers run $30 per, but if you search you can usually find someone willing to sell you some quality hand-me-downs.  See my cloth diaper post for more information.  You might wonder if I make up the cost difference in laundry, but with my HE washer/dryer combo, I only spend about $.17 extra per MONTH!  Which brings me to…

My Beautiful, Wonderful Washer/Dryer

I have an LG washer/dryer combination machine.  It’s fabulous!  It was a little costly up front, about $1800, but it’s soooo worth it.  Our family needs about two loads of laundry done a day, so I could be spending a buttload on laundering our clothes.  The LG is an HE machine that uses AC technology to dry.  In other words, the dryer is actually a dehumidifier, which saves energy to run.  A word of warning: this machine does not get clothes completely dry.  I usually have to hang dry everything to finish, but it’s worth it to save on energy costs.  Plus, it’s easier on the clothes themselves, so they last longer, which saves us money in clothing replacement.

Our Paperless Kitchen

We do a 99% paperless kitchen.  Instead of paper towels, we use dishrags and kitchen towels.  We use cloth napkins at every meal, and I even pack them in lunch boxes to save on paper towel use at work.  I don’t buy disposable sponges.  Instead, I have a couple of cute, washable dish scrubbers.  We do buy paper towels to clean up cat puke messes and the like because I’m a wuss when it comes to nastiness.

Brita Water Filter and Contigo Water Bottles  

No plastic water bottles to cost us a ton, poison us with plastic, and fill up the landfills.  I love my Brita and use it to fill my bottle every day before I leave the house.  The Contigo water bottle is my favorite because it is stainless steel, has a pop-up straw to prevent spills while drinking in the car or on the treadmill, and never leaks in my diaper bag.

Cook/Bake/Make it Myself

I LOVE Costco.  You can find all kinds of neat pre-made, pre-packaged products for consumption there.  I fell into this trap bigtime.  I thought I was saving money by buying in bulk, but really I was spending way more than I needed to for the convenience of having someone else prepare things for me.  We recently pared down our grocery list to the absolute essentials: flour, sugar, eggs, milk, coffee, cheese, cottage cheese, baking powder and soda, corn or arrowroot starch, potatoes, oatmeal, pasta, salt, canned fruit, and frozen veggies.  I mix my own pancake batter, bake cookies from scratch, and even use my breadmaker to replace buying Orowheat.  My next goal is to be able to can my own fruit so that I can spend even less!

Freezer Meals

As a working momma who also attends at least one karate class per night, my evening time is at a premium.  I could really spend money on delivery, fast food, and pre-packaged dinners if I’m not careful.  According to thesimpledollar.com, an average meal out costs about $12.72 per person.  Let’s say Dan and I ate out as often as I cook, which is about five nights per week.  That’s $25.44 per meal, which totals $127.20 per week and $508.80 per month.  If we wanted to have drinks or desserts it would cost even more!  Here’s a better plan:

Once a month I prepare a month’s worth of freezer meals.  I started by downloading meal plans from Pinterest, but we rarely liked all the meals in the package.  Now I plan them myself so that I know we like every meal on the plan.  It takes a whole day of planning, shopping, prepping, and filling freezer bags, but it actually saves time!  Instead of spending an hour each night making supper five nights a week, I spend about 6-8 hours total for the month.  Then I can just grab a bag out of the freezer and throw it into the oven, crockpot, or skillet and have supper in a flash!  The ingredients usually cost around $200.  Combine that with our essentials-only grocery plan from above, and our monthly grocery budget is less than $300.  That also affords us homemade cookies and cakes, and the occasional bottle of wine.

Foam Roller and Homemedics Massager

My husband spends his days hauling furnaces in and out of attics, installing boilers into basements, and the like for his HVAC job.  I am a momma and an athlete.  We have our share of aches and pains!  We were shelling out about $100 per week for chiropractic plus the occasional massage, but we decided it was just too much.  Dan bought me a Homemedics percussion massager for my sore back during my pregnancy for about $45.  We also have a firm foam roller that I purchased from my chiropractor for about $30.  Each night we take turns massaging each other with the machine, then rolling and stretching with the foam roller.  It’s not quite the same as having a regular chiropractic tune up, but it’ll do until we have some wiggle room in the budget again.

No Cable

Simply put, we subscribe to Netflix and Amazon Prime.  No cable tv.

I know there’s more, but I can’t think of anything else specifically, and this post is getting long anyway.  Do you have any tips for me?  How do you save money for your family?

First Shots...Yikes!

I don’t know about you, but before I had Alice I had no idea what first vaccinations would be like.  Everyone said how awful it was, but no one gave any details.  Every baby is different, but I’ll record our experience here for anyone who wants a more detailed picture.

Alice and I arrived at the office to be greeted by an over-enthusiastic receptionist who wanted us to fill out a questionnaire about her development.  The questions asked about her motor skills, social skills, etc; I assume they are meant to paint a picture of how she’s developing overall.  We weren’t given nearly enough time to fill out the whole form (that may have been my fault, since I sprinted through the door only 10 minutes before the appointment) before we were ushered back to have her weighed and measured.  

The doctor checked her out and asked me about how she sleeps (On her tummy!  I know.  Maybe I’ll post about why later), how she eats (breastfed or breast milk by bottle), and whether or not I have concerns.  She was very nice!  Then crap got real.  

The nurse came in with the vaccinations and oral inoculation for rotavirus.  The latter was easy.  It was just a little tube of liquid.  Alice made cute, “This tastes terrible!” faces, but drank it willingly enough.  She was also slated to receive DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis), Hib (haemophilus influenzae type b), Hepatitis B, Polio, and PCV13 (pneumococcal disease).  This would all be delivered via three needles.  

The nurse was fantastic.  She had me hold Alice’s arms while she administered the shots.  She lined up the needles and whipped out those jabs, 1! 2! 3!  The whole thing took about eight seconds.  Alice didn’t even register what was happening until the second shot, but then she was pretty upset.  Poor thing screamed bloody murder and turned all purple!  Still, it wasn’t nearly as bad as people had warned.  I gave her a boob and she calmed right down.  She even took a nap in the car on the way home.

Once there, she seemed a little hesitant to smile or nap, but she had just been through her first vaccinations and I thought she was doing incredibly well, considering.  I chose not to give her Tylenol because she seemed fine.  Dan took over while I went to karate.  I always phone him on my way home, but when I did this time he sounded pretty frazzled.  

“How is she?” I asked.

Not being one to dramatize things, he answered, “She’s been freaking out pretty bad.  I have to go, I can’t stop shushing.”  I could hear her start to whine in the background.

Upon my arrival home, she was calm, but Dan insisted that she needed some major boobie soothing and he needed a major break.  As he handed her off, I found out what he meant.  She began screaming and turning purple all over again!  It was so pitiful and sad.  She was obviously very uncomfortable to say the least.  I was seriously regretting my choice against Tylenol, but the doctor had told me that Alice “might run a slight fever and be a little uncomfortable.”  She didn’t say that Alice would “freak the f*ck out!”  I administered a dose right away and cuddled and nursed her until she dozed off.  

She was in and out for the next couple of hours before she finally settled into a deeper sleep.  One more feeding and the crazy night was over.  She awoke happy and normal, but I gave her a little more Tylenol, just to make sure.  Thank God, she has been fine ever since.

Here are my recommendations for your baby’s first shots:

1. Don’t give Tylenol beforehand.  I was glad I didn’t because it can mess with the effectiveness of the vaccinations.
2. Apparently you can ask for two nurses so they can get shots in both legs at the same time and decrease the time it takes to administer the medicine.  I think this is a genius idea!  It took Alice a second to register the pain of the shot, so if we did it this way she may have been done before she knew what was going on.
3. Just give the Tylenol.  I’m not a doctor or anything, but I don’t think one dose is going to hurt, but doing without can be excruciating for all involved.
4. Don’t leave one parent alone.  All that screaming calls for lots of love and support for the whole family.

That’s it.  What was your experience?  Do you have any tips for me as I get ready to do the next round?  A more natural remedy than Tylenol perhaps?

I take my baby to work...

“Was it hard for you to go back to work?”

“Yes.  But not in the way you think.”

“What do you mean?”

“Alice comes to work with me.”

“Really?!  It’s so cool that you get to do that…”

This is usually how the conversation goes.  The school where I work as an admin is much more sensible about early maternity than most American workplaces.  I got six weeks paid maternity leave and could have taken another six unpaid.  Then, when it was time to return, Alice was able to come with me.  She can continue to work with me until she crawls.

Awesome?  You bet it is!  Lucky?  You bet I am!  Easy?  You bet IT’S NOT!  Trying to do everything a stay-at-home mom does and everything for my career all day, every day is complicated.  It takes quite a bit of planning, hurrying, and waking up at 4am to pull it off.  

Since my situation is rare, I thought it might be interesting to write out a day in my life as a working karate momma!

Morning

1. 4:05am: My alarm goes off.  I take a few minutes to go over all the reasons to sleep in a little longer.
2. 4:14am: My snooze alarm goes off.  I try in vain to stretch the stiffness that comes with co-sleeping out.
3. I drag my butt out of bed and rearrange the baby so that my husband has more room to sleep.
4. I take my vitamins, apply magnesium (post to come about how and why I supplement), brush my teeth and hair, apply moisturizer, and get dressed.
5. Everyone needs coffee!  I start some to brew, then prepare an easy breakfast of yogurt, cottage cheese, or toast with homemade jam (yummo!).  Let’s be honest, sometimes I don’t even want to do that.  That’s when the spoon goes into the peanut butter jar!
6. I start pumping for Wesley. 
7. 
8. Alice almost always fusses around now, and Dan doesn’t get up until 6am, so I put pumping on hold and take care of whatever need she has.  Usually a new diaper.  Once her needs are met, she normally goes back to sleep.
9. Finish pumping for Wesley.
10. Freeze milk, pour coffee.  
11. Empty dishwasher.
12. Fix to-go breakfast to eat at work (yes, I eat two breakfasts.  No judgy!).
13. Put diaper bag, purse, and lunch box in car.  Grab a freezer meal out to thaw.
14. Empty washing machine and hang clothes to dry.  Fold and put away clothes that dried last night.  Start a new load...probably diapers.  It’s usually diapers.
15. 6:30am: Wake Alice to change her, dress her, and dose her with vitamin D (dose myself while I’m at it!).  
16. 6:45am: Coats, “Bye Bye, Daddy,” and into the car!

At work

1. 7:10am: I arrive at work and put my stuff away.  Alice hangs out in a bassinet with wheels next to my desk.
2. Miss Jeanne, one of the pk teachers, comes to get Alice for cuddle time.  This gives me a few minutes to set myself up for the day!  She stays with Miss Jeanne until too many other children arrive or until she needs something.  Usually a diaper.  She returns around 7:30am.
3. I like the idea of baby wearing, but Alice has never loved being in the carrier.  Ergo, this is the time of morning when we fight over whether or not she’s going to be carried for awhile.  She’ll tolerate it without too much protest until she needs something.  Usually a diaper.
4. Feed Alice and change her (at this point I really haven’t gotten any work done).
5. 8:30am nap time!  Alice takes two 2-hour naps most days.  During the first one I try to get all voicemails checked and returned so I don’t have to talk over her baby noises.  Then I check and return email while eating second breakfast (I told you, no judgy!), and start on whatever miscellaneous tasks I have for the day.
6. I don’t keep her to a strict two hours, but she mostly wakes up right around 10:30am.  Usually for a diaper.
7. 11:10am: The Alice Fan Club shows up!  There are four 8th graders who are in love with Alice.  They come every day during their lunchtime to play with her.  I take this time to sort mail and go to the bathroom!  (You know how it is, Mommas.  If you don’t put it on the schedule, sometimes it doesn’t happen!)
8. 
9. After the Fan Club leaves, I feed Alice and put her back in the Mei Tai if she will let me so that I can walk around and do the filing.  If she’s not fighting to get out of the carrier, she is usually soothed by the rocking of the activity and gets ready for her second nap.  And she’ll need a diaper.
10. 12:30ish pm: Change Alice, put her down for a nap.
11. During her second nap, I finish my filing and miscellaneous tasks, then check voicemail again.
12. 2:30ish pm: Up and at ‘em!  Diaper (are you seeing a theme here?!) and toy time.  I talk to her and take her on walks around the common area to give her a change of scenery.  Sometimes Amanda the Librarian will take her and read to her.  She usually wants to eat at some point in here as well.
13. 3:15pm: The Fan Club returns at the end of the school day.  While they play with her, I pack up all her things and get ready to go home.
14. 3:30pm: Coats and out the door!

Evening

1. Upon arrival at home, I unpack the diaper bag and repack for when I take her to my parents’ house during my karate classes.
2. Freezer meals make supper easier.  Sometimes they are crockpot meals, other times they need to be baked, fried, or sautéed.  Whatever the case, this is when I get it started so that it’s ready when I return from karate.
3. When you do cloth diapering, laundry encompasses much of your time.  I do another load at this time.
4. Nap time is pumping time.
5. I drop Alice off at my parents’.  I usually do one or two 45-minute karate classes.  Grandma will usually feed her a bottle of pumped milk, cuddle and play with her, read to her, and generally love on her the way only grandmas can.  My daddy and grandma love her and get to play and cuddle her too! 
6. 
7. If Dan hasn’t picked her up on his way home from work, I get Alice and go home.
8. Supper time with Dan and pack lunch for tomorrow.
9. Alice’s bedtime!
10. Waking up to an uncluttered house makes my morning run smoother, so I put things away before I retire.
11. Take a shower.
12. Spend time with Dan: watch a show, read together, pray, whatever!
13. Bedtime!  4am comes awfully early.  Gotta get my sleep.

And there you have it.  I’m exhausted most of the time, but I really do know how blessed I am to get to have my baby at work with me.  It’s difficult, but not as difficult as it would be to leave her every day!  Thanks for reading!  Let me know if you would be interested in a “What’s in My Diaper Bag” post to act as a companion to this one.

The Unsolicited Advice Show, The Doula Edition

Host: We have a very special guest today on “Unsolicited Advice!”  We are happy to welcome Leslie, who had a baby three months ago.  Leslie’s here to talk about her doula.  Leslie, what on Earth is a doula?

Leslie: According to Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth, “...doulas are sympathetic and knowledgeable labor companions who typically provide some form of prenatal preparation and stay at your side once labor begins until your baby is born.” (location 4100).  Our doula, Kelly, met with us several times before I went into labor to discuss our goals for birth and make plans for how we would achieve them.  I worried that, because she had delivered all three of her children at home, she would judge our decision to have a hospital birth.  My worries couldn’t have been more unfounded.  She cared deeply about helping us reach our goal of having as few medical interventions as possible in a hospital setting, so she spent plenty of time teaching us pain management and relaxation techniques.  She also provided some prenatal tutelage in breastfeeding, as I wished my baby to be exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months.

Host: But surely with such clear goals in mind, you could have done just as well researching and carrying out a plan on your own.

Leslie: On the contrary.  Let me read you an excerpt from Vital Touch by Sharon Heller, page 19.

Her impact? Powerful!- a 50% reduction in c-sections; 25% reduction in length of labor; 40% reduction in use of oxytocin to increase contractions; 30 percent reduction in need for pain medication; 40 percent reduction in use of forceps; 60 percent reduction in requests for epidural and less pain during labor.

Host: Couldn’t your husband have provided ample support to achieve all these things?  

Leslie: Don’t get me wrong.  Dan supported me in everything I wanted for Alice’s birth, but he was no more experienced than I was!  The expectations for husbands during labor and delivery are really laughable, if you think about it.  We don’t even expect future doctors to be able to handle new situations so well at first.  Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth puts it this way in location 4117:

...medical students are expected to get pale and sweaty when first exposed to new medical situations, they note there are no consequences when they must leave.  On the other hand, no such allowances are made for first-time fathers.  When they must leave, the mother is left alone and often resents her partner’s absence.

Dan supported me, as I said, but when I told him I had decided to try to forgo an epidural, you should have seen his face!  The possibility of watching me go through all that pain didn’t thrill him at all.  When Kelly began to show him what he could do to help, he felt a lot better.  She further ameliorated the situation by assuring him that she would be there the whole time, so he wouldn’t have to remember everything on his own.  (She wasn’t kidding, by the way.  She never slept during my whole 35-hour labor!  She was by my side the whole way.)  

Host: So your husband just needed a little extra help.

Leslie:  His feelings were not uncommon.  Ina May wrote, “Fathers often have significant fears and anxieties surrounding birth-giving.  The calming influence the doula can have on expectant fathers is often as significant as her effect on the laboring woman.” (Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth, location 4107).  Dan blessed me by being perfectly calm and cool during the whole birth process, even holding a leg up while I was pushing!  But Kelly’s presence and expertise took the pressure off of him to be my only support.  She held my other leg up, by the way!

Host:  Wow!  It seems like Kelly really made a difference in your birth experience!  But is it really worth the expense of hiring a doula?

Leslie: Without question!  To again quote Vital Touch, page 19, “The doula’s power doesn’t stop with birth.  Mothers who had a doula feel better about their delivery, have far less postpartum blues, and show increased self-esteem six weeks postpartum.”  This was true for me.  Most women, when asked about the birth of their children, will tell you a horror story.  When someone asks me how Alice’s birth was, my unhesitating and truthful answer is always, “So wonderful!”  Kelly, Dan, and I laughed, we played, we worked hard, and we stuck it out together.  Even though I still think of the pain and shudder, and even though I was unsuccessful when it came to resisting pain relief (read my birth story here), I feel very positive about my labor and delivery.  This positivity has helped me see my body as a powerful instrument of life, instead of focusing on the stretch marks and extra weight that pregnancy left behind.  Truly, I’d say a doula, or more specifically, a terrific doula like Kelly, makes having a baby a cool, fascinating, and even fun experience instead of a scary and painful one.

Host: Any parting wisdom to impart on our audience?

Leslie:  Yes.  I would just like to wrap it all up by saying that a doula is really essential.  Don’t weigh the pros and cons, just do it!  You won’t find any cons anyway.  Your doula will become a part of your heart forever because of her love and care during this special moment in the life of your family.  Please message me if you would live near me and want to contact my doula.  You won’t find anyone better!

Trim Healthy Mama

When I tell people I’ve struggled with my weight since college, I often get a big eye roll.  Back then I struggled to maintain a body that was at least 15lbs lighter than was healthy, going so far as to binge and purge for several years in its pursuit.  I got over that only to gain about 20lbs in my twenties due to some unhealthy and borderline addictive habits.  Then I settled into a comfortable marriage (and a 2-glass-a-night Pinot habit) and gained 20 more.  Finally, I started a stressful new job and 9 more creeped up on me.  That put my 5’ almost 4” frame at a solid 169lbs for those of you who’ve been counting along!  I carried them well (hence the eye rolling), packing most of them into my breasts and hips, but I knew that they weren’t doing me any good, so I endeavored to lose them before I got pregnant.  Imagine my surprise when those two pink lines showed up just two weeks after we started trying!  I shed the 24lbs I gained during pregnancy within a couple of weeks, then another 10 or so dropped off because I never resumed my wine habit.  That’s where I find myself now.  I know I shouldn’t do a hardcore diet while breastfeeding, but my supply is more than adequate and I feel like I can stand to make a few healthier (skinnier) choices, which is why I’m starting Trim Healthy Mama.

Originally, I planned to do Weight Watchers, as I lost quite a bit of weight with them a few years ago.  However, after using Weston A. Price Foundation’s (WAPF) protocol to easily get pregnant, I am aware that Weight Watchers promotes a diet that would leave me deficient in some essential fats and nutrients.  Instead, I decided to try to adhere to WAPF recommendations for pregnant and nursing women (the following is copied and pasted straight from the WAPF website):

• Cod Liver Oil to supply 20,000 IU vitamin A and 2000 IU vitamin D per day, which is provided by 2 teaspoons high vitamin cod liver oil (Green Pasture brand).
• 1 quart (or 32 ounces) whole milk daily, preferably raw and from pasture-fed cows (learn more about raw milk on our website, A Campaign for Real Milk, www.realmilk.com)
• 4 tablespoons butter daily, preferably from pasture-fed cows
• 2 or more eggs daily, preferably from pastured chickens
• Additional egg yolks daily, added to smoothies, salad dressings, scrambled eggs, etc.
• 3-4 ounces fresh liver, once or twice per week (If you have been told to avoid liver for fear of getting “too much Vitamin A,” be sure to read Vitamin A Saga)
• Fresh seafood, 2-4 times per week, particularly wild salmon, shellfish and fish eggs
• Fresh beef or lamb daily, always consumed with the fat
• Oily fish or lard daily, for vitamin D
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil daily, used in cooking or smoothies, etc.
• Lacto-fermented condiments and beverages
• Bone broths used in soups, stews and sauces
• Soaked whole grains
• Fresh vegetables and fruits

AVOID:

• Trans fatty acids (e.g., hydrogenated oils)
• Junk foods
• Commercial fried foods
• Sugar
• White flour
• Soft drinks
• Caffeine
• Alcohol
• Cigarettes
• Drugs (even prescription drugs)

IMPORTANT WARNING: Cod liver oil contains substantial levels of omega-3 EPA, which can cause numerous health problems, such as hemorrhaging during the birth process, if not balanced by arachidonic acid (ARA), an omega-6 fatty acid found in liver, egg yolks and meat fats.  Please do not add cod liver oil to a diet that is deficient in these important animal foods. It is important to follow our diet for pregnant mothers in its entirety, not just selected parts of it, which is provided by 2 teaspoons high vitamin cod liver oil (Green Pasture brand).

As you can see, it is a tremendous amount of food!!  I wanted to find a way to temper the massive calorie count that comes with such a list, so I started watching YouTube videos on WAPF to see if I could come up with anything.  It was while doing this that I came across one mom’s testimonial on Trim Healthy Mama.  

At first glance, the Trim Healthy Mama plan seemed to give me the freedom to eat the foods I needed to adequately feed Alice, so I decided to look into it further.  I learned that the main idea was to combine food fuels in a way that would help my body burn its fat stores.  Satisfying, or S, meals use fats as their main fuel while eschewing carbohydrates.  Energizing, or E, meals are full of carbs and exclude fats.  The idea is to eat only one kind of fuel at a time.  This, along with all kinds of other complicated protocols that I haven’t learned yet, will give my body a chance to burn away excess fat, while I still eat all the nourishing foods on the WAPF diet.  

If I have any success, I plan to write more about it!  Maybe I’ll do a weekly post or post of my menu plans or food logs or whatever.  Would you read about it if I did?