The Snow.

The white flakes fall and the excitement begins. They start buzzing as soon as they wake up, so excited to go outside. Some kids just prefer to be outside, mine are a perfect example. Irregardless of temperature or weather, they'd rather be outside. Sometimes I wonder how they are my kids! I would rather be inside with a book and a cup of tea, but instead we worked on building our own ice arena in the backyard yesterday. I finally bribed them into the house on the promise we'd make cookies, while the little ones napped the bigger boys were out again. This time they were trying to build a snow pile big enough to climb over or fence in the back yard. I herded them in once again to warm up when I notice Liam's lips turning blue. They somewhat reluctantly came into the house and tried to amuse themselves like other kids, video games and movies... I found them staring out the window at the snow falling at least a dozen times as it got darker. Finally as bedtime approached we watched the Grinch and then Home Alone with popcorn. I asked them to go put on their PJ's and Liam said to me with complete shock that he wasn't going to bed, he was going outside to play! Today I am at work, I left all of them in the driveway after helping shovel out my car and the excited voices of them telling Jonathan their plans for the biggest snowman EVER! I am happily typing away with a warm cup of tea...

The Obsession.

I have become an obsessed over achiever. I never seem to be able to find the balance between being good at something and becoming obsessed with it. I have an addictive personality, not in regards to smoking, drinking, getting high, but in the socially acceptable world of organized, clean and now...Food. I am determined that not only will I change my kid's diet but they will not miss out on anything. This has me pouring over textbooks and food journals, looking online at every available site looking for recipe after recipe that the kids will love and look forward to eating. My success has been limited. They love all the fresh fruits, vegetables, soy milk and organic chocolate soy milk, they also love all the soy ice cream and the natural peanut butter and fruit leathers. They love eating the warm eggs with organic sausage and gluten-free pancake mix with all natural maple syrup or an even yummier natural sugar-free raspberry syrup. They have had no issues switching to rice chips with sea salt and animal cracker cookies with honey and rice flower. The issues have all revolved around one thing. Gluten. They want cookies, cake, they want bread, they want toast. Issue. Gluten-free products are usually substituted with rice flour, rice flour has a very fine texture which falls apart easily. So instead of sending a cookie to school you end up with a bag of crumbs. There is also the issue of fats. Kids get a lot of important fats from dairy, mine are now going without that so I have had to substitute it with protein fats like what is in nuts. We are not so into the nuts, I then thought of avocado! Made some guacamole dip to go with corn tortillas chips flavored with sea salt and thumbs down. The best comment was "It isn't the worst thing I have ever eaten." So on I search for a fulfilling cookie recipe and a fat source that does not come from an animal. This diet is not for people who don't like to plan I tell ya'! It is very tough to make sure that every meal that goes in their mouth is appropriate. I am pushing on, if there are any suggestions out there let me know!

The Day to Day.

I am amazed daily at the changes in my life. There is such satisfaction in finding answers and solutions, putting them into play and seeing the results flourish in front of you. Diet is the key to the mystery of autism. Plain and simple and I will tell it to anyone who will listen. Liam is a completely normal kid. I never thought I would be able to say that without adding an "except for". Yet here I am today typing it with pride. Normal. Liam has always been exceptionally smart. He is a genius, but along with the genius came a lot of eccentric behaviors. Removing the toxins floating through his body has changed him dramatically. This is only phase 1. The next phase is to introduce supplements into his diet. I am excited to see the change. Here is what we have done to date. I removed all dairy products from our home. This includes ice cream, sour cream, butter, and margarine. I removed all processed foods this includes lunch meats, hot dogs, anything that comes in an individually wrapped package, and slim-fast (that was me!) I removed all gluten products this includes bread, buns, pancakes, cereals, and pasta. I removed all foods with ANY forms of processed sugar like fruit snacks, granola bars, fruit juices from concentrate. Finally the tough one for my kids I removed all baking products. No cookies, cake, pie, brownies. All gone. They lived on lean proteins, rice, vegetables and fruits for 2 weeks. This is the cleansing stage. After the 2 weeks I introduced eggs, then we introduced soy including soy milk and soy cheese, then we introduced healthy baking including rice flour and honey and demura sugar, which is like a brown sugar that isn't processed. Huge success! They are eating better, feeling better, their tummies aren't bloated. They are learning, focus has improved and so has their energy! Liam, due to being autistic, was the most symptomatic. He struggled with the other kids in his class, rarely smiled and seemed to always have a black cloud following him around. He is beaming! He sings to me, crawls into my lap to cuddle, reads books to me. When asked to do something he is quick to jump to it. I am no longer reminding him several times to complete something he seems to be able to grasp it immediately. The best part is he is playing with the other kids. Never much of a joiner, I hear him now instructing Avery on how to be a better elephant or asking Jake to chase him. He is craving their attention. After dinner last night he walked into the family room and asked who wanted to play dinosaurs, the kid's mouths dropped as Liam NEVER shares his dinosaurs! They played on the floor for hours. The success is easy to talk about, implementing the changes is far more difficult. I used the band-aid approach. I explained to them that their life is different now and that the food choices would be changing. Tore away the old food clean. Some parents prefer small baby steps but in my case I only wanted to battle with Liam once. I knew if I won that it would be a permanent win. Rather than the 2 bowls of cereal that they used top eat in the morning I now scramble 8 eggs and bake 10 organic turkey sausages. They have a glass of organic sugar-free apple juice with some tasteless supplements , mixed in. I invested in 2 thermos' for the boys and they take chicken and rice or shepherd's pie or chili to school with them. It stays nice and warm in the thermos and they love it! I also include celery with organic peanut butter, carrot sticks, apples, bananas, Mandarin oranges, rice chips, banana chips, dried fruits, home made granola bars, sugar-free organic fruit snacks, anything that I can get my hands on that is different, healthy and delicious! Dinner includes a bowl of salad with loads of veggies in it including spinach,avocado, almonds, walnuts, soy cheese, and home made salad dressing. They gobble this up and love it when I try different things in their salad, although the radishes last night were not a huge hit! After salad they we eat lean meats with steamed veggies, rice or potato. The most difficult part has been trying to replace gravies and sauces to make their food interesting without having any of the creams, sugars and additives. Spices and lemon-pepper are good, but they wear pretty thin after awhile. I have introduced lamb into their diet, it is very high in calcium and is leaner than hamburger. I am hoping to find a fish that they will like to eat, nothing has worked so far! I am also feeling amazing, never one to not practice what I preach I am following the same diet. I have found my energy levels dramatically higher, it is easier to get up in the morning and I am more focused. The junk in our food is killing us. We no longer seem to care that the food we eat has NO nutritional value. We wonder why we are tired all the time and seem to lack focus. How can we eat 200-300 calories and not receive any nutrition in return? Food is our fuel, it is social, enjoyable, and can be delicious but it fuels our bodies first and foremost. The changes in my family are amazing and I hope others will try this way of life.