Change of Diet

 My husband has been on a weight loss journey for about 6 years..  He's trying to lose the weight through lifestyle change, not something fast.. He did slip up in the middle of it and give up.  But he's trying again and doing awesome.  

He has stalled for the past 8 months, but hasn't gone over 440.  Which is awesome (he started at 520).  Now, he is ready to try hard again.  So here we go.  

He has decided to try the carnivore diet-it is what it sounds from everything I can gather.  Just meat, very little to no anything else.  

Quite frankly, I'm a little intimidated.  

We're trying to keep grocery costs down as much as we can, and now to add in more high cost items such as meat, I'm a little intimated.  However, from everything we've been reading and hearing about it, Once his body gets used to eating the meat, he won't need to eat as often. One to two times a day instead of 3 and feeling like he needs snacks in the middle.   

So, I'm going to take what I know about grocery sales and do my best.  We're told the first few weeks the "worst" because he's used to eating so often, so he'll go through more the first weeks while his body adjusts.  

This week so to start him off for lunches while he's at work, I've made chislic, boiled eggs, bacon and drumsticks with garlic and onion.  

We have no idea how much he's going to eat, so we'll see if I'll have to make more midweek or not.  

~Tabitha 

Starting Life At a "New Normal"

 It seems like everybody is using that phrase lately "new normal"....  

My brother picked up a phrase somewhere when we were growing up "normal is just a setting on a dryer".  Well, it's true.  Your normal is going to be vastly different from my normal.  My husband's normal is different from my normal-simply because his work and school is on the computer and out delivering mail, while my normal is very much attempting to keep up life around the house.   

We are still working on figuring out grocery shopping with the whole mask thing...  The kids can't really go in a grocery store with me, so we're doing what we can through grocery pickup, Schwans and local stores where I can shop more often, then getting big ticket items like baking and meat at Sam's or specialty stores in Sioux Falls so we can buy as much as we can in bulk... Aldi is very much a novelty right now.. I miss it so much, it's so hard to swallow the prices I have to pay at other stores when I know Aldi is cheaper-but I have to do what I can and priority is feeding us all.

We had the baby June 20th..  She came fast and early.  Little girl Dinah is already defying daddy lol.. He kept saying "you can't come on a Saturday, I have to work on Saturdays" (he's a rural mail carrier in the area, is normal days are Saturdays).  Well.. She came at 2:25 AM on a Saturday morning. Poor daddy was tired for work that day.   But she did wait until I had cinnamon rolls in the freezer! LOL  I didn't get many dinner freezer meals, but our church family is awesome and helped out with dinners.  We were able to get back TO church right before Dinah came, so that was a blessing also.  

Dinah is our first colicky baby, it's been a long 8 weeks, but I think we're finally getting the colic and tummy problems under control.  I'm still usually fixing something different for meals for me from everybody else, apparently dairy is a huge a trigger for colic.  Dinah usually lasts about half an hour sitting in the swing or the bouncy seat -or until somebody comes and starts messing with her. lol She doesn't like too much touching and isn't a fan of the baby carrier.  

We have been rearranging the house to try and give me a better pantry along with a shelf that just for school stuff... It's slow going, but we're getting there.  We're also gearing up to start school in a few weeks, just waiting on the rest of our books.  

Our biggest adjustment to this "new normal" is grocery shopping.   It's no longer a straight 4 weeks I can shop for anymore,  I can't take the kids in stores anymore as most of our area stores have a policy of one person per cart or/and masks... Have you tried to keep a mask on 4 kids for 45 minutes? Yeah...not happening...  Without the help of my big kids or my husband shopping for a month at a time isn't happening.  It's also pretty much impossible to soothe a newborn with a mask on.  So I go to Sam's every 8ish weeks,  get as much as my freezer or shelves can accommodate,and stop there.  A week or so later I go to the butcher and get 40 pounds of beef, 20 or so pounds of chicken, bacon out the wazoo-I think around 40 pounds.. and anything else we need.   I fill in with Walmart, Amazon pantry, Aldi and the local store as I'm able or need to.  Thankfully we have Dollar General in town so I can get MOST of my cleaning supplies there.  

My meal planning, baking and cooking has changed...  Before Dinah came I was making most everything from scratch, it was really fun learning new techniques and the food was amazing..  But let's face it, there's only so much time with a newborn... So I have to start slow again.  Cinnamon rolls are my first thing to get back into... Noodles will be the next, homemade spaghetti noodles are the best.  I had been frying our own tostadas and chips, but that's been difficult with the baby so I'll try baking them I saw instructions on Pinterest, I just have to find them again. 

This go round is really the first time since April I've been able to plan meals ahead of time..  Most of the summer was spent blindly shopping, then planning from what I bought. Because of the sporadic shopping I'm able to do, I'm planning for 7 weeks...  When I get low on flour, we'll go back to Sam's...  and fill in everywhere else as needed.  

Right now, it's super important I keep up with exactly what is in my pantry and freezers.. So making those detailed lists will come this week sometime.  

One thing at a time, one day at a time.  God will help us through.  

Ecclesiastes 3:1  To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heaven.  

~Tabitha