#operationeatclean

[zorakatsdawta]

My next door neighbor just came by bearing gifts from her yard! My eyes lit up. I need to rearrange my life, so that I have time to indulge in the simple pleasures such as growing and eating food from my own land. I am about to eat one of these tomatoes like an apple in honor of my Grandpa Ross who also grew his own food. #OperationEatClean #healthiswealth #OperationJoloffRiceComingSoon #SimplePleasures #FoodIsLove

[jbmcgee]

My calendar has turned into a hectic schedule of weekly, sometimes more than one per week, doctor appointments for the kids and myself.  It’s not been an easy year and a half, and every time I get optimistic things are turning around, something else happens.  

Jonah’s been battling a tube infection.  It eventually ended up being an abscess that required surgical drainage, Vancomycin, and Merrem.  It’s not been a fun week for him...or us. 

When we made the decision to change our lifestyle, we knew it wasn’t going to be easy on normal days, let alone during a medical crisis.  Most of the day Friday, Jonah couldn’t eat.  Meal times are dependent on when doctors round, which is never coordinated with when the cafeteria is open.  

And the cafeteria has been the location of some of my worst food choices in the past.  It’s the perfect place to eat your emotions - surrounded by constant reminders you’re in a place you wished you weren’t and a plethora of sweet treats.

We’ve gotten to where we always go to the hospital prepared for an admission.  Since we had been in the ER Wednesday and sent home, failed IV Clindamycin and IV Rocephin, and started worsening right after starting the Levaquin, I couldn’t see a medical plan that didn’t include admission for Jonah on Friday morning.

This time, I packed a bag for our electronics, clothes, medical supplies, and a new one - our food!

It included sandwiches for lunch, lots of apples, bananas, grapes, strawberries, a few clean, organic fig newton bars, and a bag of clean chips (potatoes, olive oil, and sea salt - organic and absolutely delicious to boot - thanks Sam’s Club).  

That got us through most of Friday, but Noah and I didn’t pack a dinner.  Chad ran home to get the most important thing for Jonah that I forgot - his CPAP.  And while he was there, he had a leftover plate for dinner.  That meant he stayed clean, and instead of me staying the night, he took over so I could come home with Noah, eat clean plus get rest.  Noah asked for Chick Fil A, and since it was almost 10pm, I obliged so he could come home and go straight to bed instead of having to wait on me to cook his dinner. He made a great choice, though.  He had 4 nuggets and a yogurt parfait.  

I had left over collards, a scoop of homemade mashed potatoes, and left over mini meatloaf.  It was delicious.  

The next morning, Noah and I packed a new cooler of snacks for the day, but because of the early surgery (we had to leave at 6am), we didn’t have time to prepare meals for Saturday.

One day of eating in the cafeteria made us realize this wasn’t something we wanted to do long term.  While we made great food choices, staying as clean as possible, we started discussing how we could improve for what we hoped would be a more relaxed Sunday.  

Chad went home with Noah because they were starting the Vancomycin during the night, and Chad doesn’t like being there when new things are started.  He worries he doesn’t know enough to properly advocate.  And Jonah had wanted me most of the day anyway, so the last thing we wanted was for him to be crying for me in the middle of the night while he was potentially really sick.

We made the decision for Chad to take one of the pork tenderloins we’d purchased at Sam’s and put it in the crock pot with some barbecue sauce overnight.  Pulled pork sandwiches would be the perfect meal for lunch and dinner in the hospital.  Quick, filling, clean, and easy.  He stopped by the store on the way to pick up whole wheat buns, made a clean barbecue sauce from scratch, and packed the cooler with drinks, yogurt, and more fruit.

The pulled pork was amazing.  We had most of the medical team’s mouths watering with the smell of the tangy apple cider vinegar. 

Lucky for us, we didn’t have to have it for dinner because right as we were eating our lunch, the doctors told us they wanted to send us home!  Jonah had bad reactions to both IV meds, his port wasn’t working properly, and his infection has shown great improvement since being drained.  

We didn’t get a chance to meal plan or grocery shop because we were so exhausted (I’d been up most of the night with Jonah due to said bad reactions), and we had left over pulled pork, green beans, and left over mashed potatoes.  I was asleep by 6:30pm, and slept through the night until about 8am this morning.  

So, goal today is to try to grab the few things needed to scrape by this week in hopes next weekend will allow us the time we need to be able to restock on meats and most of the produce.  Oh, and to reprogram Jonah’s mind.  He totally ate his emotions on Saturday.  He took full advantage of the situation, and I can’t blame him.  He was on contact precautions, so he couldn’t even leave his room.  There is no child life on the weekend, so toys were scarce.  And electronics were out because he had an IV in his right hand.  The only thing he had to look forward to was food, and while I cringed with each box of sugary apple juice and the ice cream he ordered with every meal (he has always been fixated on the hospital ice cream and apple juice), I knew it was temporary.  We don’t have those things at home anymore.  Sunday, he did agree to only one sweet choice for the day, and we left before he ordered it.  See, progress, not perfection.

If you didn’t already know, we started a page called Operation: Eat Clean, and we’re working on a website (and by working, I mean more thinking because this past week left no time for much of anything other than running).  We also have a sign up tab on the page for you to join our mailing list.  

Once those things are all established, I will start posting to the website and not here.

Anyway, for me, this weekend was proof that I didn’t have to be perfect with the clean eating lifestyle change.  It’s just about progress.  The progress was the extra bag of food that actually made it with my first trip over Jonah’s CPAP (oops - I felt bad about that in a way, but in a way it showed a shift in my priorities - and Chad saved the day, which actually worked out better for our clean eating, right). The progress was not eating my emotions, but fueling my body.  The progress was accepting things don’t always have to be perfect.  Onward to week four!