Scurvy-Rash-Torture-Hell

“I think I have scurvy,”  I tell Peter.

He looks at me sideways, not quite sure what to say.  Then asks me if I’m a pirate.

“Very funny!  You don’t understand. I have this rash that will not go away on my legs and near my collar bone.  And I think it’s because I have a vitamin C deficiency.  Probably because I haven’t been eating enough fruits and vegetables.”

“Uh, oh.”

“I blame all that cheap a** frozen pizza you’ve been making.”

Convinced of my condition, I lay in bed fretting about my deficiency while I scratch at the rash on my shin with my toes.  Disgusting, right?  You have no idea. The one on my chest was even worse.   Zoe has a habit of laying her hand at the base of my neck and moving her little play-dough fingers back and forth ever so slowly when she nurses.  And, oh my heaven, when she would do that, it was scurvy-rash-torture-hell.

Later that day, in order to confirm my suspicions I googled scurvy.  Sure enough, I found out I did not have scurvy.  What a relief too, because that is some nasty shiz.  I mean, a major symptom of scurvy is bleeding into the body’s muscles and joints. Gross.  So glad I wasn’t ever a pirate, because along with all that killing, looting and disgusting food, you get bleeding joints (plus loose teeth, flaky itchy skin and dry hair).  I guess it helped make them intimidating – not in the Johnny Depp sexy pirate kind of way. (Love you JD)

Anyway, where was I?  Yes, so my scurvy hypothesis was out the window, but I still had a rash.  So, I decided that I needed to trust my instincts and boost up my veggie intake.  You see, at one point in my life I was so, so good about eating healthy and fresh foods. My disciplined life was amazing and powerful and so much better than yours (haha, just kidding, kinda).  And then, well, most of that went to pot when I got pregnant, moved back to the states and faced the reality that all veggies taste like cardboard here, and also battled the Monday blues just about everyday of the Week.  So, pass that pepperoni pizza, please.

Peter does most of the cooking in this relationship, (I know, I know!) and well, I do all the cleaning.  Usually, it’s a fair trade off, and keeps me pretty happy.  Peter was a vegan for four years and he’s normally very good about his diet, as well.  However, this year with him being in school full time and working (basically being busy all the time), for some reason, around August we stopped eating the grilled salmon and steamed broccoli and started living off of, no joke, Tombstone frozen pizza.  Comfort food, baby.  Out of shame, I will not tell you how much pizza we ate a week around here, but suffice it to say there was a point a while back when I could not remember my last fresh fruit or vegetable intake. Hence, my concern over my supposed vitamin C deficiency.

So, in comes the New Year, and with that a chance to make amends.  I’m not usually a fan of resolutions.  I tend to think that we should be more loving of ourselves and accept who we are and not constantly try to stay on a regime, but rather, slowly adopt more happy and healthy habits, like longer showers and sleeping in on Sundays and getting outdoors.  You get the idea.  But this year is different.  I need to nip this in the bud before Zoe starts to think that pizza everyday is okay.

So I did.  For the last 7 days I’ve made every meal.  Only two have had meat and one of those was fish.  The rest have  been absolutely fresh and healthy.  We’ve sat down at the table too and pulled Zoe up in the high chair right between us.  We’ve shut the laptops and turned off the phone, we’ve set the table and picked out some tunes on the ipod and enjoyed having dinner together as a family.  We’ve had better conversations this week, more eye contact and hearty smiles which has led to all sorts of better things.  I can’t tell you how nice this has been.  To not only have a healthy meal but to have quality time everyday together.  Here’s hoping we can keep this up once the semester starts in.

You see,  I hope to be the kind of family that has most meals together, so I better start now.  So far, I’ve said no to drugs even when Peter has made frozen pizza for lunch, (because we need to get rid of the stock pile in the fridge he tells me) except for that one slice, but that’s okay too.

Here’s the kicker people, the rash went away.  GONE.  Poof. Ctrl-Z. Victory, one vegetable at a time.

Tags: Healthy Living, New Years Resolution, Scurvy