March 12, 2011

AWANA Games and (Gasp!) Cheating on Our Diet

So today was the AWANA games at Cedarville University, and we are all pretty wiped out.  In fact, Ted is asleep on the couch...he hasn't been feeling well the past couple of days.  He thought maybe it was side effects from all the vaccinations he had to get on Thursday, but this morning he was convinced that he's just getting sick.  Boo.  He was quite a trooper, though, going to the games in a LOUD gymnasium with anywhere from 12-16 churches participating at a time!  We had to be there at 9 a.m. for the T&T game time, which actually didn't start until 10:00.  Then, that ran late, so Sparks-A-Rama didn't start until 1 p.m.!  I did bring snacks, but it was a loooong time before we got lunch!  And poor little Lucan was a trooper, too, and made it through pretty well.

Charis and Tobin's team got 3rd place, which was a good thing, since the T&T team from our church has placed last the past couple of years!  So they were happy with 3rd!  And Charis was especially happy that she won the beanbag throw or whatever it's called...she filled in for lack of a 5th or 6th grade boy, and she beat all the other boys out there!  And Tobin and his partner Josh p-u-l-l-e-d their way to a tug-o-war victory after the parents nearly shouted themselves hoarse!  (I heard comments like "Use the force!" and "BOTH HANDS!" and "Keep your butt down!"  I've heard scary stories of competitive baseball or soccer dads, but never AWANA games dads...OK, I confess, I was yelling right along with them, LOL.)

Arden got to help out with the boys' balloon relay.  (There were only 4 T&T boys.)  I think he enjoyed that.  Then it was time for the Sparks-A-Rama.  If you have never seen the Sparky Crawl, you just don't know what you're missing!  I was kind of in and out with these games, since Lucan was reaching the end of his limit and decided he would rather be UNDER the bleachers than sitting ON them, but I think I did see all the events that Arden was a part of.  And our team earned 2nd place!

Ted and I had talked about going "off" our diet a little bit for a treat today, and we decided we would do it.  For one thing, we knew it would be a very, VERY long morning, and we did not want to have to haul a cooler around with us.  And concession food obviously was not going to work for us.  So, after all was said and done with the games, we went to Young's!  Now, don't judge us, LOL.  We DID have sugar-free ice cream!  However, potatoes (i.e. fries) and hamburger buns would not be allowed on the GAPS diet.  I did ditch my top bun and used the lettuce instead, and truthfully, Ted and I just don't even really LIKE white buns at all.  The kids didn't hesitate, though!  Charis chose coleslaw instead of fries, but honestly, I'm not sure that was any healthier of a choice, LOL.  The splenda-sweetened ice cream was actually pretty good.  We weren't even going to have that at first but decided that we would go ahead when we realized it was actually sugar free.

I have to confess...it was so nice to feel "normal!"  I'll have to save some of my thoughts about this for another post, but there has just been a lot of stress in our family because of all we are undergoing, and we were in desperate need of some family fun!  I really, REALLY enjoyed getting to sit and enjoy a meal with my family that I did not have to prepare from scratch OR clean up after.  The sunnier weather was a bonus, too, even though it's terribly windy out and rather chilly.

So...first time "off" our diet...we'll see if anyone has any adverse reactions in the next few days!  It has officially been 7 weeks that we've been doing this, and everyone has been sooooo good.  I went out with some mom friends on Monday evening, and I had a salad and resisted the cookies from the bakery that everyone else was getting.  (I didn't bring my own salad dressing, though...probably should have done that, but oh, well!)  And Ted has resisted MULTIPLE temptations at work.  He said he didn't realize how much junk people brought in before he made the decision to not have any!

We're still not exactly sure how long we'll be doing this diet...Ted may have more health issues when he returns from Afghanistan since he has to take antibiotics the whole time he is there--yikes.  He said it isn't even an option; he has to do it.  So we want to be sure to get him on a good probiotic, and I'll be mailing him homemade sauerkraut so he can keep getting good bacteria into his system!  He's one of the main reasons we started the diet...the other two being Tobin and Arden.

So, for us here at home, I think we'll at least keep doing this through summer and into fall and then see how the boys are doing.  They are both still taking their allergy medicine; I'm not sure how much longer we need to be on the diet before we should try to wean them off that in order to evaluate how they are doing.  That's something I need to research more.  But neither one has had to use the inhaler in the past 5-6 weeks, and one or the other of them was needing it almost every day prior to that during the months of December and January.  (Which is odd, because typically their allergy/asthma flare-ups are spring and fall.)

So I guess it remains to be seen how long God wants us following this regimen.  In the meantime, we are definitely making good lifestyle changes, and I know we'll never go "back" totally to the way we used to eat/live.

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