COVID-19 Whole 30: Complete

Everyone's lifestyle has changed at least in some regard, if not in every regard since mid-march. Our grocery shopping and diets went through a few phases:
1) Panic shopping: buy canned and frozen goods; stock up on essentials and favorites in case they aren't available later.
2) Drink more. Long days ended with a drink or two. Several trips to the liquor store . . . also, they deliver!
3) Add take-out to the menu once a week to support local business and give me a night off.
4) Back to normal but more comfort food: Shelves are stocked again so buy what feeds the soul. Chocolate. Crackers. Snacks for the kids (that mom likes too), etc. Sandwiches for lunch everyday. So much bread.

And then the clothes started to get tight and my gut didn't feel too great. I was tired and had low energy. Change was needed. After 2.5 months of eating poorly and not getting the normal exercise I had been accustomed to, I decided to do another round of Whole30. Chris was in, too.

And for the most part, it was awesome. Day 3-4 were terrible and hard and I was angry at everything (this is actually very normal). We ate good foods, snacked a lot less. Slept better most of the time and wasn't quite so low-energy with the kids. And I lost a couple of pounds.

I wanted to stick to it as closely as I could, but I ended up slipping a few times completely unaware until I was prepping our meal and adding an ingredient that shouldn't have been used. I use a meal planning app called CookSmarts and it's so awesome and yummy; they have a few whole30 friendly recipes and a ton of paleo options; but I hadn't read the recipe completely before choosing to buy the ingredients and make it.. so got to step 4 and realized, oops... this needs honey. Or this needs coconut aminos (which none of my go-to stores currently carry). So non-whole30 substitutes were used;  or we went with grace and used the honey. I also made an error when I bought almond butter. I didn't realize the brand I bought had sugar in it! I used it for a couple of days before deciding that it just didn't taste right and read the label.. Oops!

I also found it challenging to shop while taking Covid-19 precautions and not be able to do my normal comparisons between products - either the store only had one option or had signs up that asked customers not to touch products unless they bought them.

So, what did we eat?
Breakfast: Turkey, sweet potato egg bake with onions and bell peppers
Lunch: Salad with meat (chicken or steak), roasted sweet potato, walnuts, avocado, homemade dressing and a side of fruit
Dinner: I tried quite a few dishes. Our favorites: Egg Roll in a Bowl and Pesto Zucchini Noodles
We snacked on bananas and almond butter daily as well as mixed nuts.

I said this last time I did Whole30 and I'm going to say it again. I'm going to try and keep it up as long as I can. We have some travel plans at the end of July so if I can hang on until then, I'd be really pleased.

What have been your shopping/dieting struggles during this pandemic?

Everyone's lifestyle has changed at least in some regard, if not in every regard since mid-march. Our grocery shopping and diets went through a few phases:
1) Panic shopping: buy canned and frozen goods; stock up on essentials and favorites in case they aren't available later.
2) Drink more. Long days ended with a drink or two. Several trips to the liquor store . . . also, they deliver!
3) Add take-out to the menu once a week to support local business and give me a night off.
4) Back to normal but more comfort food: Shelves are stocked again so buy what feeds the soul. Chocolate. Crackers. Snacks for the kids (that mom likes too), etc. Sandwiches for lunch everyday. So much bread.

And then the clothes started to get tight and my gut didn't feel too great. I was tired and had low energy. Change was needed. After 2.5 months of eating poorly and not getting the normal exercise I had been accustomed to, I decided to do another round of Whole30. Chris was in, too.

And for the most part, it was awesome. Day 3-4 were terrible and hard and I was angry at everything (this is actually very normal). We ate good foods, snacked a lot less. Slept better most of the time and wasn't quite so low-energy with the kids. And I lost a couple of pounds.

I wanted to stick to it as closely as I could, but I ended up slipping a few times completely unaware until I was prepping our meal and adding an ingredient that shouldn't have been used. I use a meal planning app called CookSmarts and it's so awesome and yummy; they have a few whole30 friendly recipes and a ton of paleo options; but I hadn't read the recipe completely before choosing to buy the ingredients and make it.. so got to step 4 and realized, oops... this needs honey. Or this needs coconut aminos (which none of my go-to stores currently carry). So non-whole30 substitutes were used;  or we went with grace and used the honey. I also made an error when I bought almond butter. I didn't realize the brand I bought had sugar in it! I used it for a couple of days before deciding that it just didn't taste right and read the label.. Oops!

I also found it challenging to shop while taking Covid-19 precautions and not be able to do my normal comparisons between products - either the store only had one option or had signs up that asked customers not to touch products unless they bought them.

So, what did we eat?
Breakfast: Turkey, sweet potato egg bake with onions and bell peppers
Lunch: Salad with meat (chicken or steak), roasted sweet potato, walnuts, avocado, homemade dressing and a side of fruit
Dinner: I tried quite a few dishes. Our favorites: Egg Roll in a Bowl and Pesto Zucchini Noodles
We snacked on bananas and almond butter daily as well as mixed nuts.

I said this last time I did Whole30 and I'm going to say it again. I'm going to try and keep it up as long as I can. We have some travel plans at the end of July so if I can hang on until then, I'd be really pleased.

What have been your shopping/dieting struggles during this pandemic?

Rearranged Furniture and a Quiet Corner

I'm not sure if any of you are going through a "fix all the things" in your homes as you shelter in place... but we certainly are! Shortly after I posted the tour of my condo we decided to make some changes to our living room; we knew all along that we needed a few other things to make it complete but hadn't known just what we wanted or how it would all fit. And rearranging furniture/decorating isn't one of my strengths so it took some time. But I think we're closer!

The first thing we did was swap the TV and loveseat and move the loveseat closer so it was easier to watch movies (previously it was just a little too far from the TV). Then after weeks of online shopping we picked out a new entertainment stand. Wa-la:

This TV stand was one of our first purchases (from the Salvation Army) when we first moved into our apartment 10 years ago. bye-bye!

 By moving the loveseat we created a little nook for the boys which I was hoping would become a "quiet corner" for reading or listening to audio books. Temporarily it looked like this:

I loved that they had a place to display their art, but it wasn't cozy enough for them to hang out back there. We were also struggling with the "no jumping on the new couches" rule when shelter in place got extended. So, I DIY-ed a few "jumping pads" that could double as cushions in this corner. (Bought a giant piece of foam, cut it in half, put crib sheets on them and called it done.)

The boys love having an approved place to jump, but it has made them much more daring in finding new heights to jump from. (Eek!) Brightside: I don't have to get mad about couch jumping nearly as much. And since the cushions/pads are movable, they can go anywhere -- quiet corner, bedroom or living room. 

The last step was adding a new bookshelf. One I have wanted ever since I had a little baby. But never felt very functional. But now, in this narrow space meant for reading, I think it fits perfectly!

We will see if they want to put up their art again and how that changes the look; but functionally I think it turned out pretty nice. (Current artwork are things I had from long ago, someday I will make a big art poster for the corner... or they can make one themselves).

The whole space looks so different and I am loving it. 

I'm not sure if any of you are going through a "fix all the things" in your homes as you shelter in place... but we certainly are! Shortly after I posted the tour of my condo we decided to make some changes to our living room; we knew all along that we needed a few other things to make it complete but hadn't known just what we wanted or how it would all fit. And rearranging furniture/decorating isn't one of my strengths so it took some time. But I think we're closer!

The first thing we did was swap the TV and loveseat and move the loveseat closer so it was easier to watch movies (previously it was just a little too far from the TV). Then after weeks of online shopping we picked out a new entertainment stand. Wa-la:

This TV stand was one of our first purchases (from the Salvation Army) when we first moved into our apartment 10 years ago. bye-bye!

 By moving the loveseat we created a little nook for the boys which I was hoping would become a "quiet corner" for reading or listening to audio books. Temporarily it looked like this:

I loved that they had a place to display their art, but it wasn't cozy enough for them to hang out back there. We were also struggling with the "no jumping on the new couches" rule when shelter in place got extended. So, I DIY-ed a few "jumping pads" that could double as cushions in this corner. (Bought a giant piece of foam, cut it in half, put crib sheets on them and called it done.)

The boys love having an approved place to jump, but it has made them much more daring in finding new heights to jump from. (Eek!) Brightside: I don't have to get mad about couch jumping nearly as much. And since the cushions/pads are movable, they can go anywhere -- quiet corner, bedroom or living room. 

The last step was adding a new bookshelf. One I have wanted ever since I had a little baby. But never felt very functional. But now, in this narrow space meant for reading, I think it fits perfectly!

We will see if they want to put up their art again and how that changes the look; but functionally I think it turned out pretty nice. (Current artwork are things I had from long ago, someday I will make a big art poster for the corner... or they can make one themselves).

The whole space looks so different and I am loving it. 

Pokemon School

My kids are in love with Pokemon cards. William was first introduced to them over a year ago in Transitional Kindergarten and soon began making his own on little scraps of paper. He had no idea what the numbers meant or how to play, but it didn't matter. He made up his own game with his own rules. With his birthday money, he bought his first actual pack of cards and received a second set for Christmas. But still it was just "his" game.

Fast forward to April 2020 and we find a plastic shoebox full of Pokemon cards on the sidewalk by our house. I bring it home for William as a fun surprise. But the condition on receiving this many new cards was that he had to learn the actual game. So we did. We all learned how to play.

And now, we play and play and play. William and I typically play 2-3 games a day; Stephen and I play once or a couple times a week; Chris gets in the action as much as he can on evenings and weekends. It's actually really fun and I'm really enjoying being able to engage with what my boys love in this moment of time.

But they also still love to draw and make their own Pokemon cards. They get to change the health points and the damage points; they make their favorites even stronger. They create evolves that we don't have. They get really into it. So much so, that we barely have time for anything else.

In Pokemon "school," Stephen has learned how to write his numbers 1-10, his favorite is 1,000,000,000 (+). He is learning which numbers are bigger than others (bigger numbers do more damage and defeat smaller numbers, etc); he is learning to write more letters as he makes up his own card rules. He is learning matching - each Pokemon is a certain type and requires that type of energy card - so he is finding those matches in his deck. He's working on strategy too, even at the age of 4 he knows that one of my Pokemon is really weak to another of his and he'll play that one to beat me.

William isn't into writing much; at least not since schooling at home started. BUT, he will write all the things on his homemade cards. His first edition of cards were very simple; name, health points, damage points and a picture; now they include ALL the details. Attach names, weakness types, resistance type, damage, and a more detailed picture of the Pokemon. William is very strategic in this game, he understands it a lot more and knows (remembers) a lot more details about his cards than I do. He knows how many times he needs to attach before my Pokemon is knocked out, he knows his multiplication a lot better as some damages do "x the number of heads" when you flip the coin 3 times, etc. Sometimes I am really impressed with all this game has taught him.

So, we haven't done a lot of actual school work at home. But as far I'm concerned, they do the following every single day:
 - Math
 - Art
 - Writing
 - Reading
 - Problem solving
 . . . and sportsmanship.

And they don't even know it!

My kids are in love with Pokemon cards. William was first introduced to them over a year ago in Transitional Kindergarten and soon began making his own on little scraps of paper. He had no idea what the numbers meant or how to play, but it didn't matter. He made up his own game with his own rules. With his birthday money, he bought his first actual pack of cards and received a second set for Christmas. But still it was just "his" game.

Fast forward to April 2020 and we find a plastic shoebox full of Pokemon cards on the sidewalk by our house. I bring it home for William as a fun surprise. But the condition on receiving this many new cards was that he had to learn the actual game. So we did. We all learned how to play.

And now, we play and play and play. William and I typically play 2-3 games a day; Stephen and I play once or a couple times a week; Chris gets in the action as much as he can on evenings and weekends. It's actually really fun and I'm really enjoying being able to engage with what my boys love in this moment of time.

But they also still love to draw and make their own Pokemon cards. They get to change the health points and the damage points; they make their favorites even stronger. They create evolves that we don't have. They get really into it. So much so, that we barely have time for anything else.

In Pokemon "school," Stephen has learned how to write his numbers 1-10, his favorite is 1,000,000,000 (+). He is learning which numbers are bigger than others (bigger numbers do more damage and defeat smaller numbers, etc); he is learning to write more letters as he makes up his own card rules. He is learning matching - each Pokemon is a certain type and requires that type of energy card - so he is finding those matches in his deck. He's working on strategy too, even at the age of 4 he knows that one of my Pokemon is really weak to another of his and he'll play that one to beat me.

William isn't into writing much; at least not since schooling at home started. BUT, he will write all the things on his homemade cards. His first edition of cards were very simple; name, health points, damage points and a picture; now they include ALL the details. Attach names, weakness types, resistance type, damage, and a more detailed picture of the Pokemon. William is very strategic in this game, he understands it a lot more and knows (remembers) a lot more details about his cards than I do. He knows how many times he needs to attach before my Pokemon is knocked out, he knows his multiplication a lot better as some damages do "x the number of heads" when you flip the coin 3 times, etc. Sometimes I am really impressed with all this game has taught him.

So, we haven't done a lot of actual school work at home. But as far I'm concerned, they do the following every single day:
 - Math
 - Art
 - Writing
 - Reading
 - Problem solving
 . . . and sportsmanship.

And they don't even know it!