Goldfish Crackers.  My arch nemesis.  I love these things and they are so small that one little cracker isn't going to hurt me right?  That's probably correct.  The problem is that I never just have one.  I blame a lot of my weight gain on the darn fish and their friends Cheezits.  If I see them laying around, I'll have a handful without thinking about it.  But if I pass by them several times a day I have several handfuls and that starts to add up very quickly.  While I've been doing this paleo challenge for the month, I haven't had any but it hasn't been easy.  You might say, "well quit buying them, dummy" or "put them out of your sight" but that's easier said than done. 


When I mention the Paleo challenge that Katie, Megan and I have been doing, you never hear any mention of my son Adam.  That's because he's not doing it because he won't touch anything Paleo.  For those that don't know my family, Adam is 7 years old and he is non verbal autistic.  He is always so happy.  I do love him dearly but he is definitely a handful.  One of our neighbors with an autistic child said that although he'd never give up the experiences that he's had, he wouldn't sign up to do it again.  I think that summarizes us pretty good.  One thing about Adam is that he has a very keen sense of taste and he doesn't like most foods.  For every meal he eats Cheerios, Goldfish crackers, Wheat Thins and Cheez Its. 


Occasionally he'll throw in some Nilla Wafers or Cheetos to mix it up a little bit but this really is about 95% of what he eats for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  A lot of people will give us advice about all of these great foods and vitamins that are supposed to help with Autism and that we should try them.  Believe me, we'd love to try them but he'll just smell them and then throw them on the floor.  Imagine the looks we get at restaurants when the rest of our family is eating real meals and bring baggies of these things for him.  We try putting different food in front of him but he'll just sniff them and throw them over his shoulder.  We even tried buying him generic Cheerios once and those all ended up on the floor also.  I'd love to know what goes on in that little mind because you can tell that there is a reason behind everything he does.  It just doesn't make sense to the rest of us.  For instance we used to buy colored goldfish and he'd eat all of them except for the yellows.  But then one day we saw that they were giving him a box of yellow goldfish and he ate them just fine.  So, we started buying just the yellow boxes and he's been fine with them.  We are a little concerned that he's not getting enough vegetables and proteins but we have tried many things and he won't touch it.  Which is weird because he'll lick a wall, sidewalk, other person, without even thinking about it.  The Doctor says although it's not a major concern, he's still continuing to grow and so we should be happy. I love the advice and suggestions but I need some advice on how to actually get him to try these other foods.

So although, I might complain about how bland the paleo diet has been, Adam helps me realize how great of a variety we really get.   The best thing about Adam is how happy he always is.  Although, he can be frustrating, it's hard to stay mad at him because even after he does things that he shouldn't (like pulling blinds off the wall or tearing his mom's shoulder) he is just so darn happy and joyful.  I'm just grateful that he has an awesome big sister and mommy that watch over him and make sure that he's safe and happy.  So it has been very tough, during this diet, to not grab a couple goldfish crackers or wheat thins occasionally, it's worth having them around to tempt me every day if it keeps Adam fed.

(To my last blog follower, sorry for the personal post, I'll get back to posting about how bad the daily WOD suck again.  Ok?)