Sshh!!! If you know me in person or on Facebook, please don't blab. But my news is so closely related to my efforts to eat local, healthy, food, that I thought it's going to make it into my blog someday soon anyway.
I'm pregnant! With twins!! It's still pretty early in the first trimester (week 7.5) and I haven't had much luck with pregnancies before.
Which makes eating right even more of a priority. Too bad I don't feel at all up to cooking, eating, or much of anything else really. It's intersting though, how much I've had to challenge myself about food.
I'm trying so hard not to eat gluten, although I remain unconvinced that it's as bad for me as my herbalist/acupuncturist (I think she's biased). I have a bum thyroid which was undiagnosed for a number of years and discovered only during fertility treatment. Hashimoto's is usually found in older people and I've likely had it for at least a few years. I am on medicine, but trying out some homeopathic options as well. The idea behind gluten free is that it reduces the strain on the thyroid, prevents inflamation in the body, and promotes a healthier gut. I've been pretty good, even going so far as to make gluten free Christmas cookies and avoid the glut of carbs over the holidays. But I have cheated a few times.
Which is my conundrum. When nothing sounds good, at all, except maybe a candy bar or KFC chicken, my values are feeling under assault right now. One little chicken leg doesn't matter, does it. It's only a little batter. It's not like it's every day... If ever there was a time to eat healthy, now is it, and yet I find myself wanting unhealthy things. I've started to think, if I had a baby in front of me, would I give this to this child.
The answer has been surprising. You'd think the answer would automatically be no, but I wonder how long I'd hold out if I was exausted and faced with a hungry kid. The other day while babysitting I threw on a DVD. For all that I say I want to be a super-healthy person (and TV free), with a super-healthy family, I'm not immune to temptation.
I suppose it's a wake-up call to get a bit more organized. If I *really* am commited to local, seasonal food, then I need to win the battle now. Last night I really (and I mean really) wanted a hamburger. I could almost smell the french fries too. What did I manage instead?
I sent my husband after beef (to his everlasting surprize, I'm pretty intolerant to beef usually) and I opened a can of home-preserved marinara sauce. Between meatballs (made with local egg, gluten free flour, spices, and sauted in olive oil) semi-local beef (all I can tell is that it's distributed out of Milton, MA...Milton, really?) and a package of Quinoa spagetti (not even remotely local) I managed to stay within my diet. I know I'm not getting enough green stuff though. I did end up downing an entire can of my mother's dilly beans and have been nibbling on edamame, but overall, I need to add more local veggies in my diet.
So will I manage to make it out to the farmer's market this weekend and get some salad greens and kale? Lets hope my self-control will last that long. And that idea that I would eat out of my pantry throughout the winter? That's pretty much not going to work now, so I've got to figure out a new plan pretty darn quick.
