June 2015...A Change of Plans

May was a really busy month for us. Anthony's youngest sister, Tanya, graduated from high school. We are so proud of her. She has come a long way both literally and figuratively. Just in the few years I have known her, I have seen her grow from a cute girl with a deep Ukrainian voice to a beautiful young lady who love the Lord deeply. Yet, she is still as silly as ever. Hehehe. :)

We have officially been an aunt & uncle for a year now. Elijah is one year old. Crazy. He had a great party with family and Kapp's Kitchen decorated sugar cookies for his party (unfortunately I forgot to take pics of them). Along with the other goodies, we were stuffed and all on sugar highs for days. :)

Anthony and I have taken on more and more in our church, The Church at Pecan Creek. Too much, actually, but there are some people taking over what we can't keep up with to keep us in a more technical role. Anthony is now essentially the IT guy for our new church. He is learning how to run the sound board; post-editing the sermons, music, and discipleship lessons; and uploading everything to the website and iTunes. Having said that, please check out The Church at Pecan Creek on iTunes. I'm in charge of lyrics and the projector. Making sure the lyrics are uploaded into my iPad correctly can take about two hours before going to the church but the projector only takes a couple of mins to set up at the church. So, I try to help the rest of the team but I really don't know what I'm doing right now, so I need to get in there and figure it out.

Brandie is on her way back to the US from Mongolia and I can't wait to see her. I have a newer friend who just had a baby the other day so I can't wait to introduce the two of them, I think they will get along just great. 


So, I have been making monthly menus for over a year now. We stuck to them fairly well, not great, but it helped guide me at the grocery store. I hope to return to it soon. But, for now, there is a change in the plans for food in our house.

Anthony and I are starting a new eating plan. This plan is called Trim Healthy Mama. It is a low glycemic index eating plan but also includes eating certain foods in separation from each other. They divide meals into three categories: "E" meals are for energizing, "S" meals are satiating or satisfying, and "FP" are fuel pull meals. E meals are lower in fat but allow for healthy carbs. S meals are higher in fat but very low in carbs. FP meals are low in both fats and carbs; they cause the body to pull from fat stores at a higher rate and burn fat more quickly than the other meals. It is a more whole foods type diet as well.

With this plan, you need to eat every three hours to keep your metabolism up. So you don't really get "hungry." There is no keeping up with a daily counting of calories or points or anything else. You do need to take a look at your meals occasionally to make sure you are eating the right type of meal. My nutritionist told me she is no fan of counting any nutrition. She said she prefers to help people just make wiser choices rather than beating yourself up for going over some number that that is very subjective.

This plan helps to break our addiction to sugar. In most developed countries but especially so with America, we eat WAY too much sugar. If we eat processed foods, low fat/calorie, or in restaurants, those foods are packed with extra sugar in order to make the food palatable. This plan allows for certain types of natural sugar alternatives including stevia and xylitol. This is certainly going to be a challenge for us. I'm personally not a big dessert eater but lots of foods I like including breads, pastas, potatoes, sauces, etc... all contain lots of sugar. I have heard from others on this plan that the first couple of weeks are really tough but afterwards it gets much better and you usually really regret it when you "cheat" because you feel awful.

Anthony & I both have family histories of diabetes so we need to be better about how we eat and at least get in the habit of eating low glycemic before we have to. We both need to lose weight so hopefully it will help with that as well. :)

So, for now, I have to plan all our meals so I will just be doing a week at a time for now. As for snacks, I'm going to post a list of snack options in our pantry so we know what we can grab when we just need a little something. One bread that is allowed is sour dough. So, I need to learn to make that as well. 

So, below is my menu for next week. If you want to look at it closer, the pic is linked to the pdf of the menu on my Google Drive.