Well, I finally (!) had my wisdom teeth pulled today, at the ripe old age of 30. While the oral surgeon kept telling me during the consultation that I should have had these out way earlier, I’m rather glad I waited until I was a full-fledged grown-up (admittedly, it would be a touch easier sans toddler).

My wisdom teeth weren’t impacted or anything, so it was a pretty basic tooth-pulling extravaganza. I think the real advantage of having waited is that I was totally able to handle having them out without going under general anesthesia, which is awesome, because “going under” kind of freaks me out. From start to finish, it took about 40 minutes, most of which was spent giving me shots to numb me up. Apparently they have to put adrenaline in the shots, which was kind of trippy. I started shaking a lot and felt weird, and my heart was racing. I thought I was freaking out, even though I wasn’t freaking out at all. Oh, and they let me pick out what music I wanted to listen to. Coldplay, of course. Perfect background music for such an event!

Trevor and Sadie brought me to my aunt and uncle’s house, where I am currently convalescing. My old bedroom is now the playroom for the grandkids, so I’m not having a full-on nostalgic moment, but it does feel nice to “come home” for a couple of nights. I can’t talk properly, of course, but I’m otherwise fully functional. Well, I’m also quite limited in what I can eat. Trevor’s going to keep Sadie at home, because I can’t nurse her while I’m on the hard stuff. I hope she takes it easy on him! The peanut butter malt he was sharing with her when they left me will probably help take the edge off.

I can feel the narcotics taking their hold, so I’d better sign off now. Here’s a picture of me all laid up. Don’t I look like Jacob Marley? Sadly, this isn’t the worst picture taken of me ever in my life…

I was worried Sadie would freak out seeing me like this when I came into the waiting room. Bah! She pointed at the ice pack and said, “I want one. This yours?”

Principles of Healthy Diets.

This is really fascinating stuff. I’ve been thinking more and more lately about my diet (and Trevor’s and Sadie’s), and while I think we are generally doing really well, I think there’s still room for improvement. I’ve become increasingly bothered by my cravings for sugary foods (I’m not even sure if “cravings” is a strong enough word), and I wonder if some of it might have to do with my overall nutrition. Another thing that has recently occurred to me is that, while I felt like I fed myself decently during my pregnancy with Sadie, I’d like to be in an even better place nutritionally whenever I become pregnant again.

So, I think I’m going to make this a challenge for myself. As the primary meal-preparer in the house, this will obviously affect our entire family. Maybe I’ll tackle one of the guidelines a week (of those we don’t already follow). I think the biggest challenges will be that I really do rely on the online meal planner I use (though I think the recipes are mostly adaptable to this kind of eating, I may just have to get creative), this will likely cost more money than we’re already spending on groceries, and I know I’ll have to cut out a lot of the “convenience” snacks we’ve been using for Sadie (while the graham cracker sticks and bunny crackers are natural/organic/etc., they’re still way processed and contain white flour and sugar) and replace them with snacks I’ll have to make myself.

I’m a Monday-starter for projects, so I think I’ll get going next week. The first guideline (“Eat whole, unprocessed foods.” ) is a bit too general. So I’ll start with number two, “Eat beef, lamb, game, organ meats, poultry and eggs from pasture-fed animals.” Obviously we eat the eggs our chickens lay, so that’s a gimme. But we don’t eat game pasture-fed meat every week. In fact, sometimes we’ll go quite a while without cooking meat at all. But we might eat meat while dining out–and we can pretty much guarantee that’s not healthy meat.

So the change for week #1 is to prepare and eat our chickens’ eggs at least three times a week (we go in and out of this pattern anyway), to prepare and eat at least two meals with game or pasture-fed animal meats, to entirely quit eating meat from unknown sources (of course, I’m not going to MAKE Trevor do this one, but hopefully he’ll consider it), and to quit feeding Sadie the lunchmeat I’ve been feeding her (it is free of additives and preservatives, but it’s a far cry from what I should be feeding her).

Potential roadblocks for this first challenge–getting sick of eggs; the cost of adding pastured meats to our grocery list (this is usually more of a treat); the temptation provided by things like Purple Cow’s chicken salad sandwich or my Aunt Margie’s pot roast; my inability to prepare our dinner while caring for Sadie–I almost always have to fix her a quick dinner (mostly steamed veggies, cheese, fruit, etc.) and then do the more labor-intensive cooking after she’s asleep; and the common problem of not having any meat left over from our previous night’s meal to give to Sadie, which led me to the lunch meat in the first place.

Otherwise, this should be plenty of fun. We enjoy eating meat. We like good meat.

Alright. So, I took down the Fat Goat Challenge page. It was kind of stupid. But I haven’t forgotten about that dreadful picture of Sadie and me, and I haven’t quite stopped my quest at becoming a less-fat goat. Here’s a little update:

• Calorie counting was a total joke. I lasted all of four days. Fortunately, they quit serving those giant cookies at the cafe at work. Unfortunately, my appetite for ice cream (both homemade and Ben & Jerry’s) has continued. I still maintain, though, that my diet is pretty healthy. So I’m putting that stress off for another day.
• The One Hundred Push Ups Challenge is going pretty well. I wasn’t able to do enough after Week 5 to move on to the final week, and I kind of slacked off last week. So I think my plan is to start tomorrow night with Week 5, Day 1, Column 2; do Column 3 next week; and then do an exhaustion test to see if I’m ready for Week 6 after that. I’m not terribly worried about getting to Week 6 in a hurry. Doing 45 push ups in a row is pretty effing hard, and if that’s the best I can ever do… I’ll take it, thank you.
• If you follow me on twitter, you’ll know I’ve been using a C25K (Couch to 5K) app on my iPhone and have been running. I’ve got a friend who lives a few blocks away who is awesome enough to meet me at 5:45 three mornings a week to run/walk. She’s already done a running program, but it’s been a while, so this is good for both of us. I  never, EVER, thought I’d get into running (Well, I could run a seven-minute mile my senior year of high school when the dance squad–shut it–ran in the mornings. But I weighed all of 95 pounds or something stupid like that.), but I really kind of like this process. The few times I have tried to “take it up,” I’ve failed right out of the gate. I would just set out from the house and start running. No plan, no motivation. That might work for some folks. Not this gal. But this app is awesome. Somebody else has already figured it out for me, and they tell me when to run and when to walk. If there’s one thing I like, it’s to be bossed around. Wait.A.Minute… I didn’t mean that. Shut it, you.

So, what’s all this effort gotten me? Much nicer biceps, that’s for sure. Other than that, not much. I’ve stayed the same weight, which isn’t a huge deal to me (I don’t even have a scale, so the only way I know is by weighing myself secretly when I’m at friends’ houses). Sadly, I think I discovered some fresh, new stretch marks. Gag my face off. But, whatever. I’m enjoying being this active, and that’s mostly what’s important. Would it nice to get my before-I-met-Trevor-and-started-eating-like-a-hungry-boy body back? Um, yes. Would any reasonable amount of exercise do that for me? Um, no. I’d have to sell my firstborn to hire Gwyneth Paltrow’s personal trainer. Don’t worry, Sadie…

Photo by Katie Short