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| All-Star Pediatrics of Hunter's Creek |
Hi fans,
So the girls had their annual check-up with the doctor at
All-Star Pediatrics yesterday - no shots, nothing too crazy. Both girls, as it turns out, are exceptionally healthy - no problems to speak of. Abby, in addition, is right in the middle of height and weight for her age group, which we more or less figured anyway.
Alayna, however, is extremely
underweight. Alarmingly so.
The doctor wasn't too thrilled with the fact that, at 3 feet 5 inches, Alayna weighs only
29.2 lbs. Most girls that age weigh over
40. She's at the lower-end of the height curve as well, which the doc explained is probably due to the fact that she isn't getting enough calories on a daily basis. This news freaked us out considerably; we had always known Alayna was a picky eater, but we didn't realize she had fallen under the growth curve
that much.
The pediatrician said we were to put her on a
1,200 calories-per-day diet - which is steep for a little kid her age (
to put that in perspective, when I decided to drop some a few pounds two years ago, I put myself on a diet of 1400 calories a day. . . and I weight more than one hundred and twenty pounds more
than her.) We had to get creative with sneaking her high-calorie, high-fiber ingredients into her existing meals. Realizing we had to make some dietary changes in Casa de Hough, Kris and I drew up a battle plan (a.k.a. '
grocery list') and sprang into action.
This was actually pretty good timing to do so. Lately I've been talking with my brother, Jeff, and mom a lot regarding nutrition and food's direct relationship to our overall health. Books like
SuperFoods and
The China Study, as well as documentaries like
Food Matters and
Forks Over Knives, all stress the importance of paying attention to the ingredients in foods, as well as cutting out harmful chemicals from one's daily intake. So, coupling this new information with the need to increase Alayna's healthy-calorie count, we decided to completely overhaul our diet and shopping habits.
For example, we started buying our produce from a
Farmer's Market every Saturday morning instead of from the grocery store. Fresher and locally grown in better, obviously, since it isn't pumped full of chemicals to keep it preserved while it travels across the country for your consumption. We're also buying as much organic food as possible (which does cost more, but evens out in the long run), and have cut enriched flour and aspartame from much of our diet (the aspartame, found in most things sugar-free, was hard for me, since I usually consume 'diet' and 'sugar free' foods). A lot of our dairy has been replaced with soy, and a lot of our meat with beans, tofu, and nuts.
It's definitely a lot more work, but it ends up costing about the same in the end, and is a
lot healthier for you.
In a stroke of good fortune, it turns out having a few beers is totally fine for you. Not binge-drinking or anything ridiculous like that (
sorry, College Brian and Peace Corps Brian), obviously, but these days I drink snobby, hipster beer that tastes better
and makes me look significantly awesomer while doing so.
Turns out
Hunter S. Thompson was onto something when he said "
Good men drink good beer."
See ya 'round, suckers.
- Brian
P.S. Here's some pictures from our latest venture out to the Farmer's Market of Hunter's Creek.
Enjoy.
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| The Farmer's Market in Hunter's Creek's Village Park |
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| Hotties in the Farmer's Market |
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| A little blurry, as I was trying to take pictures with my smartphone on the sly. . . |
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| Next door to the Farmer's Market is the Village Park. . . park. Playground, fountain, clock tower, what-have-you. Also a small stage (observe our kids, mid-dramatic, princess-y dance, at center) |
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| Abby strikes a pose on the fountain |
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