The Diet, in Review

I learned to start doing a lot of my own research, instead of constantly hounding my poor husband with menu and other food-related questions. Sure, he knew some of the answers, but sometimes that just caused stress in addition to whatever he was dealing with. Some days we’d sit together with our laptops or phones and cross-reference our findings!

I quickly got the hang of using the apps on my phone to look at products before I made my grocery list. (For me it’s the Instacart app, Publix, and Walmart that I use regularly.) This saved me a lot of time when I was in a store, as I hated to be the one stalling because I wasn’t sure what to buy. I would primarily check for potassium, sodium, and sugar content, and later I started checking ingredient lists for preservatives, “natural flavors” and other specifics.

There was a good period of time where it seemed that week to week, the things I needed to check for were different, depending on how the latest blood work came back, or how Jeff was feeling with his strength and side effects.

One of the changes we made was switching from traditional butter brands to KerryGold. It is grass-fed and only contains pasteurized cream and salt. I’m learning what is important! We also keep a glass bottle of extra virgin olive oil in the pantry. I never used to keep salt, but I now use fine ground Celtic sea salt to assist with flavor when cooking.

With my work schedule keeping me out of the house most the day, I’d plan on-the-go meals for myself, meals to leave ready to eat for him at home, and snacks for him to grab throughout the day. I quickly learned that if things weren’t readily available, his kidney-failure fatigue would prevent him from eating at all many times. So I found ways to store pre-cut veggies as snacks, or meals that were easy to warm up when needed.

I had been transitioning so that all of my serving dishes and food storage was true glassware, so I felt that it was safe for him (and me!). After I read about how phthalates and BPA get leached into your food from plastic (primarily through heating), I couldn’t stop thinking about it!

I grew up in a very “homemade in the kitchen” family, so going back to my roots to help my hubby’s health was kind of exciting for me! I collect recipes constantly and always want to try something new. But this really put me in the challenge.

I can’t believe how far we’ve come!