The Horn Family: June 2011

It has been a whirlwind these last number of weeks! There has been so much to celebrate! Between a birthday party, a baby shower and lots of military accomplishments! It is expected that after a deployment soldiers will get their new assignments, and, after the initial 90 holding period has elapsed, a mass exodus occurs. Nick will relinquish his command on June 14th (two weeks later than expected, but at this point, what's 14 days?) Therefore, we have had tons of engagements to attend to. It seems that everyone in the chain of command has their own personal "farewell" dinner, in addition to company, battalion and brigade awards and recognition functions, not to forget our very involved "hand-off" with the next command team. We wrapped up our last FRG meeting last week and are in the middle of a week with back-to-back gatherings, with the battalion's Hail and Farewell, Family Day, our Lancer Hail and Farewell, and a two command team BBQs. I'm a little partied out and we've barely just begun...

Last Saturday was Kris and my 29th birthday and it just so happened to be the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday. The combination of the two occasions made it an obvious choice that we would be Indy-bound as soon as the long weekend arrived. As my birthday gift, Nick got up with Emmy so that I could sleep in, which is something I can't remember the last time I was able to do. They also served me a heaping bowl of my "approved" flax seed cereal for breakfast (more to come on the diet situation...) After breakfast, we loaded up the troops and walked to the awesome Farmer's Market in downtown Carmel. It was pretty clear to me as I smelled the delicious aroma of brat breakfast sandwiches about a half mile out that my birthday present to myself would be a cheat day from my diet. So, I helped myself to one of those incredible creations involving a brat and scrambled eggs on a bun. It was the first time I've had any of those ingredients in just about 6 weeks. Best birthday gift EVER!

We spent the rest of the afternoon playing with our giddy little ones before tucking them into bed and handing the reigns over to the babysitter. We had an incredible meal at a wonderful restaurant in town and spent a few glorious, uninterrupted, hours chatting it up. As usual, the four of us made up the loud table in the restaurant, as we suffer from no shortage of great conversation and hearty belly laughs.

The following day, the boys headed off to the Indy 500 while Kris and I navigated the high speed excitement at home. Fun was certainly had by all. :)

As for the diet update, I had an appointment with my wonderful doctor 4 weeks into the diet. He shared with me my lab results, two of them being Immunoglobulins E and G. IgE is an indicator for allergies and IgG is an indicator for "gut" issues and is broken down into specific irritants (eggs, wheat, baker's yeast, dairy, peanuts, etc.) Basically, all of those levels were very much outside of the window of normal. With that said, my doctor extended my diet for another 2 to 3 weeks to completely rid my system of the toxins that had been irritating it so completely. To say that I was disappointed would be a major understatement, but I readily admit that something drastic needed to change, and my self discipline would be absolutely worth it once I pinpointed my triggers.

I decided to stay focused for another 2 weeks. Preparing a separate "acceptable" meal for me in spite of the many meal-time functions that we have been attending had become increasingly stressful. So, yesterday was day one of food re-integration. Eggs are the first on the list, mostly because I am beyond tired of flax cereal for breakfast. :-P Two days per new food and I am journaling how they make me feel.

As difficult as the program has been, I have noticed a HUGE difference in my overall well being. Aside from not having a stomach ache or experiencing bloating in over a month (the first two weeks were VERY uncomfortable ones), I have a great deal more energy and my anxiety level is next to none which has been very obvious to me given the chaotic schedule that we've been keeping. I am absolutely SOLD on functional medicine, but that is another post entirely...