Happy Birthday to ME! (and can I borrow your 3rd grader?)

This week marks the first week Ryan lost it! I mean, literally, I thought this food challenge was over AND all because of some split pea soup! Let me tell you the story. Ryan decided he wanted to make split pea soup so he bought all the necessary ingredients except ham. He could not find ham with 5 ingredients or less for the life of him. I tried to reassure him, "Oh, we just need to go to such and such store" and that worked for a while. But his quest for ham continued to fail and fail and fail. You see, ham is cured with all sorts of stuff. I then tried to offer Ryan alternative solutions, like what about bacon or sausage split pea soup? He would have none of it. The boiling point occurred Saturday morning. He threw the dehydrated peas on the counter and said, "I JUST WANT TO EAT SOME HAM!" (I am leaving out some choice expletives....for the sake of our more conservative readers, but repeat that statement and use your imagination). Well, I told Ryan he needed to calm down and eat breakfast. And he went on about how he is tired of eating homemade bread and oatmeal and how bad he is starving, etc. you know. I suggested he make himself some eggs and as he was eating his eggs and restoring his blood sugar he was able to calm down (he was acting like me! Ha!). I snapped a picture of him smiling for the first time all morning as he eats his eggs (see below). So, his eggs, which he would not give me a bite of, saved our food challenge. Thank goodness for the incredible edible egg!



Let's move on. Today, May 16th, was my breach the womb day! I was praying for sun, there was no sun. I was hoping for a picnic, there was no picnic. I was hoping for an amazingly perfect day, Ryan woke up sick. BUT, there were sun breaks, we did outside activities and Ryan turned unsick quickly in true Ryan fashion! It was a wonderful day with my loved ones. We woke up and had a good work out. I weighed myself for the first time in a while and had lost 5 more Ibs (15Ibs all together! Just from being conscious about what I eat!). We then went to a farmer's market with my mom and had a splendid time sampling what was under 5 ingredients and buying delicious food for my birthday dinner. We went shopping for some of my presents and then went walking around the beautiful Portland Rhode gardens (rhododendron gardens for those who aren't in the know). My mom cooked a birthday feast of grilled halibut with a variety of fancy farmer's market mushrooms, butter ball potatoes, asparagus, and an amazing salad of farmer's greens. We had great wine and cheese and ended with a strawberry filled birthday cake (a birthday tradition since my very first year of life). It was wonderful! I love my family soooo very much! I also got excellent presents (thank you, thank you!!!!).










Rule #7: Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce. Ryan is so thankful we are done with Rule #6 because it was his most hated rule. So anything will be better. We need to borrow a third-grader in case we run into foods we are not sure about. So far we have Adele (see cute picture below with Mr. Opiedog). She is a first-grader (almost second-grader) but is exceptionally intelligent. We have already quizzed her on a wide variety of ingredients and the only one she had trouble with was magnesium, so I think we are golden. Obviously, if we are not sure about the pronunciation of an ingredient we will know to avoid it. Otherwise, we will have to wait to quiz Adele, unless you want to loan us your third-grader for the week??? If so, we promise s/he will be well fed! Here goes rule #7!