Working with six strong individuals towards one beautiful common family goal.
Saturday March 15 2024
Lately I have been feeling kinda strange. I have been getting spells of dizziness/ disorientation that last just long enough for me to misstep when I am walking/ standing or stutter when I am talking. My brain is foggy. Yesterday I was met with whole body ‘pins and needles’ (parasthesia) that lasted a few short minutes but seemed like a lot longer. Touching my arm brought on incredible pain… and then it was over. My stomach is nauseaus or feeling like ‘coffee belly’ (like when you drink coffee/ caffeine on an empty belly and keep drinking it on an empty belly…. not quite an ache, not quite a queasy just super uncomfortable) which has me reaching for the carbs to ‘soak it all up’ (I am sure there is a science in this logic somewhere). When it isn’t nauseaus it is overly full and my thoughts are in a nasty overdrive that is keeping me feeling quite small and uncapable. Yesterday, we had plans to go get fishing stuff at Unkel Joe’s Woodshed in Lock Haven (about 45 minutes away). Because of the way I felt when I woke up, I nearly bailed because I questioned if I was safe enough to drive. Fortunately, I didn’t experience any episodes while driving Mitch to school (30 minutes) and back home again to pick up the kids (30 additional minutes alone to reassess) so we proceeded with our plans and it was fine… but there was that stutter that made me question myself and my health and that is just so uncomfortable. In retrospect, I wonder if me focusing on driving helped keep the feelings of disorientation away, which therefore my help not feel nausea (think motion sickness as a result of mixed up brain signals)? I mentioned it to Tom and he thinks it has everything to do with our last round of Covid. It hit us pretty hard… and while I certainly don’t disagree, I continue to hope that it is not anything more than that. So I keep true with praying and waiting, understanding that if it is anything more worrying will only steal my joy.
I have no question that listening to the book “Brain Energy” by Christopher Palmer is in God’s perfect timing and I am choosing to listen to it, in full, then apply it. It is not a Christian based book, but there is God sized wisdom sprinkled throughout it’s entirety. It is not an easy read as it has a lot of science in it because it is a book that may just revolutionize how we think about mental health. I am about 1/2 way through it, and in talking about mitochondria, organelles, nucleus activity in respect to metabolism it is bringing back much of my Masters work at Penn State in Nutrition. I remember just enough to picture the parts of the cells he is referring to – but not enough to predict what direction his research will take us. None-the-less the premise that mental health is nebulous enough to understand that there needs to be a better way to catagorize it or understand it, and he is building up an argument that nutrition is a giant part of this equation. While it is nothing new to realize that we are what we eat – and therefore we think like what we eat like – it is exciting to have it broken down in a way that is understandable and able to apply to real life. More on this as I understand it… and I will try and share these bite size pieces of info (pun intended) with you as my mind absorbs them alongside my Audible book.
Fia came to me in frustration regarding how her eating and exercise routine is going. So we are adjusting these goals appropriately. Since she has asked to be on the podcast regarding this topic, I feel like it is fair for me to share this info with you – while respecting her story to be her story. She has been looking to tone up and also feel better about herself. While I drive a hard line that food should serve as energy, I also realize that eating the wrong foods for your individual body will make you feel yucky. So, as I try and take the emotion out of eating (counter culture) all the while celebrating our ability to taste and enjoy – it’s a delicate balance when talking with a young, impressionable (yet very smart and sometimes sassy) teenager regarding her relationship with food. Part of me worries I dont say enough and the other part worries I say too much; none of me is telling me that I am doing it just right – so there is that.
For Fia *almost 14 years old * we decided that focusing on quality over quantity (those foods closest to God’s creation are rarely the issue so you can fill up on those and include just a few treats to offset the gremlin inside that will shout it’s desperate cry of neglect if you try and take all the treats away… case and point has anyone ever written a post or talked on a podcast about being addicted to broccoli? So we are laser focused on eating the foods that make us feel good. I also told her that it is important that she writes down how she feels after she eats – especially if she is feeling less than awesome. This will allow us to target any intolerances that she is expriencing – and lately we are tracking lactose as the culprit for her jawline acne and upset belly. It is important to note that not all intolerances lead to diarrhea, some actually lead to constipation – so any extreme along with gas is a good indication that your body needs a break from this food and you may even need to eventually break up with it if the inflammation clears and it’s still disruptive to your digestion. Fia also mentioned that she is finding herself snacking between meals more and as she preps her breakfast and lunch. So, we talked meal planning & maybe even prep to lessen the time she is in the kitchen and also, mindfulness in what she eats. If she wants that nibble, so be it, but mostly it is about being impatient and/ or just not thinking. Also, we went over eating in response to feelings and emotions as actually being a sign that she needs to journal/ pray/ devote more time to the Bible. These emotional moments albeit happiness or sadness or anything in between, are an opportunity to get closer to God. Using it as anything but may be an indication that you are putting that thing (food, drink, exercise, etc.) over your trust in God. The day I realized that I couldn’t keep secrets from God (umm Hello?! He knows everything!) is the day I realized just how much gets between Him and I on a daily basis – especially when I am distracted.
While we were headed out for errands, she got on her note app and we talked about a master store list that would help with all our goals.
- Tom, Fia & I would like to drop some pounds.
- Eat less calories
- Move more
- Decrease inflammation potentially caused by:
- eating foods that our bodies don’t like (intolerances)
- not getting enough sleep
- too much stress
- too little relaxation
- eating too much processed foods and not enough natural options
- making life just too complicated
- Mitch has goals of gains. He has dropped almost 50 pounds since this time last year and now wants to focus on muscle building. We sat down to go over his macros in regards to his goals and this is what we came up with:
- 3700 calories/ day coming from high quality foods.
- 218g protein/ day digested in 40g spurts (max body can process through in any given meal) – so yes he is eating 6-8 times/ daywe
- updated lifting routine focusing on muscle groups vs individual muscles and lifting to fatigue (pyramid sets/ drop sets)
- rest days for recovery
- the art of adding in cardio without causing weight loss (something we will tweak every other weak as his body tells more of the story in weight loss, weight gain, definition)
- lastely flexibility to help with comfort and guard against injury
- Little guys (Eli, soon to be 9 & Noah, soon to be 10):
- growth and energy
- healthy understanding of what food is and what food is not
- Nutritional knowledge that is age appropriate
- navigating around two very reclusive, yet potentially disruptive, minds:
- Noah has a tendency to hoard food that he likes and sneak the foods that we limit. This is likely from his earlier months when we hadn’t met him yet and he was forced to consistently be a +1 with other families or do without. He lived this life for the first 22 months of his life.
- Elijah has Autism. This overflows to his eating habits in a way that has evolved over the past 7 years from all beige foods (think bananas, crackers, (insides of) apples/ apple sauce) to now at least trying 2 no thank you bites/ meal but still gravitating toward the sugary snacks. The taste is important, but the texture is also increasingly important. We recently found out that he needs some dental work (due to his high pain tolerance we had no idea until an xray revealed cavities) so after that is fixed, we will continue trying new ways to introduce new foods. For now, I plan on keeping the textures (softer, easier top chew) the same and just playing with the flavor profiles.
- over the years, we have elliminated artificial food coloring and an excess in processed sugar.
- So here are our nutritional goals within the larger nutritional structure of the Covaleski Family:
- NO tree nuts, gluten, corn, carrots, cow milk, artificial food coloring, processed sugar, beans (all allergies/ intolerances)
- High quality foods with the focus on protein:
- Farm fresh, free range eggs
- Free range chicken
- Grass Fed cows (1-2 x’s / week)
- Fresh/ Ocean caught (not farm raised) fish & seafood
- Seasonal produce
In sum:
- Elliminate:
- low quality breads, pastas, wraps, etc.
- fresh produce that has traveled too far with too many chemicals
- lunch meats and pre-sliced cheeses
- Limit:
- cow milk cheese blocks (available for Mitch & the little guys)
- sweet treats after 8p
- Elevate:
- Seasonal fresh veggies & fruits (buy local when able)
- Buy frozen when there is no other option
- If not available frozen, figure something else out
- High quality/ local meats
- continue to assess raising meat birds & cattle here on our farm
- Savory egg dishes for all meals
- Hydration
- Fiber (research amount necessary for healthy digestion & supplement when necessary)
- Seasonal fresh veggies & fruits (buy local when able)
Reassess weekly.
Today I will shampoo the carpets (yes it is still on my list *sigh*), finish putting all the pictures into albums (Eli LOVES looking at older pics), plan our meals and when we will batch/ prep in regards to our new(er) goals, and possibly dig a 2 foot trench to continue our water mitigation under the deck/ beside the chicken coop. The trench isn’t top priority as there is no rain predicted in the next 7-10 days.
I would also like to outline my next podcast surrounding the goals of creating and meetings friends in a socially depleted, ever busy world. And how this impacts our everyday lives. I will talk about my story and give some examples on how to try and connect if you are in need of finding some friends so you can live life and love others (along with yourself) well. Lastly, there will be a call to action to journal some thoughts about where you are now and how you may have got there. Then we will compare your truths to the Truth and help in our ever-transforming minds in resisting conformity – because aint noboady got time for that!
In my next post, I will link our weekly menu along with the process I take in coming up with naming those meals/ foods.
Thanks for reading and love well.
Jenn