What is it about Hawaii?

Crystal asked me and Nico a really big question, "Aside from the obvious beauty, what is it about Hawaii that makes you want to live here?"

This took some thought. Sometimes I have to process things for a while before I can eloquently write it out - because I'm much better at writing than speaking. :)

Obviously Hawaii is beautiful and I feel like many elements of it's beauty are engrained on my soul. Not just something I want, but something I NEED on a daily basis like I need oxygen. I need salty air. I need sugarcane. I need mountains. I need to know exactly where the ocean is even if I don't get in that day.

Beyond that, it's a way of life. I think living here you are required to live in the moment. You are on an island. While people are bustling away during the grind of mainland life, we just sit back and let it ride. Everything will be ok.

I found that in Austin, the grind really got to me. Everyone competing for who has what first, new cars, new boats, new vacations, summer camps... the list goes on and on. It's always planning ahead. Working hard and then playing hard.

But I feel like on an island every day is playing hard. It doesn't matter if you have a new car or a piece of sh*t car. We're all in the same boat. Almost all of us are paycheck to paycheck. And when the day sucks you just go to the beach, soak in the sun, catch a sunset, and hope that tomorrow will be better.

Most of us aren't as educated as our mainland counterparts. We usually have kids much earlier as well. It's normal - it's Hawaii. It's a way of life. "Lucky we live Hawaii" not just lucky to live IN Hawaii.

The simplicity of this life is just what I didn't know I always wanted. I am so glad that I did get to experience mainland life to know just what I wanted and return home with a new found appreciation and love for Maui. The good outweighs the bad ten-fold.

Paleo and Nakey Baby

I hate counting calories. I've done it since Cruz was born. It's how I lost 65 pounds (with very few exercise). When I did p90x I gained about 8 pounds (of muscle). Then when Peter came to Maui over the summer we ate at all our old haunts and we went back to Austin and I was too busy and too stressed to count calories. I put on a little more weight. And then I found myself in a rut because good quality food has more calories than crappy food. So I was stuffing my face with cereal and I felt like CRAP and I wasn't losing any weight anymore.

In desperation, I tried two diets. The first was Tracy Anderson's diet (her exercises are actually really great) and it's got a lot of pureed foods and the calories are LOW. She says it's normal to feel like you have the flu for up to a week as your body "adjusts". Ok that was a huge warning sign for me and after the first day I felt even more like crap and abandoned it. That just couldn't be healthy. Then I tried the Dukan diet, which stresses high protein with NO fat and a tablespoon of Oat bran per day. Once you go through A WHOLE WEEK of just protein (no veggies or fruit or carbs) you can introduce Veggies only. And again no fat. After the first day I felt like I was going to vomit. And my breath stank. RED FLAG! Warning! Warning! STOP!

I felt like a failure. This has been such a HUGE journey for me. I honestly feel like a completely different person than the hormonally imbalanced person I was in my 20's. While I am happy at my current weight, I am still considered "obese" according to my BMI. I would really, really like to be in the normal category here.

There just HAD TO BE a way for me to be healthy and still feel satisfied.

I was driving home a few weeks ago and saw a Cross Fit sign in Haliimaile. I didn't know what that was so I came home and looked it up on the internet. It's kinda p90x style exercise - pretty hard core. I don't know if my knees or my arm could handle that (I have a bad rotator cuff) - BUT - on their website they were talking about their food philosophy and it was called Paleo. What is that??? I did some online research. Everything about this made sense to me.

Three weeks ago I dropped all sugar, grains, beans & legumes, and unhealthy fats. I feel AMAZING. I have tons of energy and have been loving cooking things for myself. I also cook this for Peter but he's not ready to go paleo yet. The kids are also not on board with this. But once the bread in the house runs out and they get hungry enough they'll have to eat what I make them *evil laugh*.  So with zero exercise and no calorie counting and eating until I'm full and content, I've lost 5 pounds. This week I'm incorporating dancing back into my repertoire along with a tabata workout twice a week and a sprint once a week.

This is something I am now very passionate about. I feel so incredibly balanced and healthy and like I have the energy to chase my three Littles. Do I still cheat? Yes I do. Occasionally. I do have my coffee mate in my coffee every day. That's about the only daily cheat I have. I did have a friend's homemade cinnamon roll yesterday and there was dinner at Mama's the other night. So I guess you could say I'm about 95% paleo. Super proud of myself. Lower BMI here I come! Want to see other people's success? This site has a thread where a bunch of people posted their before & afters. I found it to be really inspiring.

This is an example of breakfast (though this would be perfect any time of day).

Cabbage, Spinach, Cilantro, Sunflower Sprouts, Portuguese Sausage, Garlic, and Shrimp sauteed in butter with two fried eggs on top

Want to learn more about eating this way? This is a good place to start.

And I promised a nakey baby. Both boys love being naked. Not so much a problem with Kai since he's potty trained, but Cruz isn't quite there yet. He asks to go occasionally but he's not really ready yet. But he's now figured out that if he hides under the table, I can't get to him very fast. So he'll go under there naked and play with toys. It's really, really funny.

And though this house has been crazy, crazy and there have been what feels like a million photo shoots this week, I wanted to get some pictures hung in the living room. My vision is for this big wall to be FULL of important images and sayings. It's getting there!

A little slow...

Vintage pink roses in a Coca Cola cup. I picked these out of the yard - I love them.

Just got back from a really awesome night... Crystal is here. I don't know if I've ever mentioned her on the blog. But she's a HUGE part of my childhood. Such a giant influence on who I am. I haven't seen her in YEARS. She lived with us for a while throughout my life, but the most recent is in Kuau Cove when we lived next door to Mama's Fish House.

She took us out to dinner there tonight. It was amazing reminiscing and reconnecting. Such an incredible evening! 

Me and Pickle Boy. He looked all dapper dressed up.

Crystal and Nico

Me and Crystal

The waiter's picture wasn't in focus so we took this one ourselves. :)

Kai got to bring home is Chinese Lantern from preschool. It's hanging in the playroom. He was so proud of it. It's adorable!

The view out the window from Kai's school. Every morning they choose someone to have a job, and the "weather person" goes to the window and tells the kids what the weather is like outside.

Haven't posted nearly enough. These kiddos keep me so busy - and it's been a crazy photography week (which keeps me away from posting a bit).

It's been a really, really wonderful week though. Got some great phone snaps of things going on over here.

My love note from Ryenne *swoon*

Our Kula Onion that we need to plant

Ry modeling her outfit that my dear friend Susan sent. Thank you Susan for sending that awesome box of clothes for the monkeys and a gift card for a date night! I can't wait to use it! - now I'm wishing I had moved the darn vacuum out of this picture!

Me and happy boy Cruzito. He's such a smily little dude!

Kai on his way to preschool on Tuesday. He likes to wear his shoes on the wrong feet and his pants on backwards. He is talking very "matter of fact" lately. He says, "It's cool Mom!" and he says "1 + 2 = 1." and when I correct him, he looks at me like I'm crazy. 

Why do I cry?

Today we were cruising through Upcountry with sugarcane on both sides of the road. We were jamming to good music when I heard Ryenne's little voice from the back seat, "Mommy? Mommy? You know when it was my 5th birthday? Why did you cry?"

I can't believe she even remembered that.

Truth is, I cry on every birthday. She asked me to explain to her.

I told her that I cry on her birthday (and the boys') because I am happy and I am sad all at one time. "I cry because I'm sad that you're getting further and further away from being a tiny baby. Because even though you'll always be my baby, it's getting harder and harder to pick you up. I cry because I'm happy at what a beautiful girl you're turning into - how smart and sweet and caring. And it's my job as your mommy to make sure you grow up into a thoughtful, caring, loving person. And with each birthday, you get closer to being a grown up. It's a sad and happy thing all at the same time for mommy. Do you understand?"

"No, now turn up the music." she says. And there I was crying in the front seat.

Lovely & Crazy

There is construction going on on the Pali - the ocean road from Central Maui to West Maui. I had a photo shoot at Baby Beach, but we got stuck in the traffic. There was no way I was going to make it to Napili to drop off the kids and make it back to Lahaina in time.

I called my clients very embarrassed to ask to bring the kids along. They were a young family and said it would be just fine. I told the kids that I needed them to behave and not to go too deep into the water. I was nervous about Cruz because he just runs in without any thoughts at all.

When we got to the beach, Kai stripped naked faster than I could tell him not to and was a little brown blur darting about in his birthday suit. Cruz got frustrated trying to get naked and instead just jumped in the water with his shoes on. And Ryenne was swimming away before I even took off my slippers.

The photo shoot was a little chaotic but lots of fun. I kept an eye on the kiddos while maintaining some kind of professionalism (I hope).

The sunset was UNREAL. It was absolutely gorgeous. It just went on and on. I had to snap some of the kiddos even though I was there to photograph my clients.

Cruz running around in purple water

The three... Ry is off in the distance, Kai is nekkid, and Cruz is closest.

The incredible sunset. Believe it or not, this wasn't edited for color.

Shave Ice!

We took the kids on an Ululani's date over the weekend. It was such a fun treat. Ululani's has a punch card if you buy 10 shave ice you get one free. And our card was full so Peter got the giant one for free! Pretty awesome!

Cruz got his own and ate almost all of it!

Daddy's giant shave ice!

Ry and her rainbow straw

Kai is all about eating!

Better

Kai Boy is better today. Drinking and eating food again. And giving lots of "Nuggles". Thanks Peter for catching this shot of me and my Big Boy!

How could I forget?

Some of the biggest news of the weekend...

Cruz asked to go Poopy in the potty and then DID! :)

Interesting Weekend

This weekend was full of ups and downs. We were all excited to head to the West Side to meet Jadelyn, Pat and Lisa's new daughter. Ryenne, Kai, and Cruz were so excited to meet their cousin. Kai has already declared that he will always protect her. Pretty adorable.

Friday night Kai got pretty sick. Up all night throwing up and liquid poops. I think he might have gotten sick from a box of raisins but I'm not sure. I was exhausted. Poor Kai Boy!

Saturday he did much better. I did a newborn shoot for Jadelyn and had an afternoon photo shoot. Then at night Kai woke up sick again and I was up all night with him again. It is so hard to see him sick. He is the tiniest little boy. I tried to keep him hydrated with coconut water, coconut milk, water, and anything else I could get into him. It all mostly came out. :( He looks like a little skeleton right now. Like one of those ads for a third world country with the starving children. I had to have him in a diaper today - which he hated - because he couldn't control his bowels. It was hard to see him like that - because the diaper is loose on him and tight on Cruz. Fingers crossed that he'll do better tonight. I'm at a loss for what else I can do - shoot me an email if you have any ideas dagupionohana@gmail.com

Speaking of health... I have been in a rut lately. A sugar and carb induced rut. A horrible cycle of yucky. I admitted to myself that I'm an addict. I have an addiction to carbs and sugar and I have to have it and then feel like crap after I do. I did so well all year until I got back to Austin and then I was stressed and ate all the wrong things. It's been a hard cycle to break.

So a few days ago I read about a Paleo method of eating (think paleolithic) eating as our ancestors did long before we started eating grains of any kind. It inrigued me. High in meats, veggies, fats, seeds, some nuts, and some fruit. And some yogurt is ok too. I decided to give it a go. Started last night with an amazing spag sauce over shredded zucchini "noodles". All day today I stayed away from carbs - which is hard at my in-laws house - and I have to say I feel AMAZING. So full of energy and not carbed out. Looking forward to more tomorrow. Especially now that we've found a really awesome farm with amazing veggies and papayas. So I guess I'll write about it a bit and check in with how it's going. I'm sure I'll have moments when I just have to give in to that dang pancake or artisan bread - as a treat - but for now I'm just telling myself that I'm allergic. And according to the spare tire around my belly, I AM allergic.

I was going to stick around at my in-laws to watch the Grammy's. Especially after the passing of Whitney Houston yesterday - another famous person gone too soon. I really wanted to see that tribute and my Bruno Mars (didn't know I had a giant crush, didja?). But the kids were restless and nobody was home so I took them back to Makawao and we danced and ate dinner together. It was nice. Peter is going to try to find me a recording of the Grammy's so we can watch together tomorrow. If Kai is feeling better we're taking the kids out to dinner tomorrow night to celebrate Valentines Day as a family.

Overall it was a crazy, interesting weekend. I hope this week everyone is back to their healthful selves.

Cruzer Boy

Cruz needed a post all to himself. He is growing SO FAST. Faster than I can even believe. I am in denial that he's turning 2 next month!

He loves playing peekaboo. He loves hiding in blankets. He is so giggly. He loves to flirt. He is such a handsome little dude.

And unlike Kai, he is totally a Daddy's Boy.

Peter and Cruz have an incredibly close connection. I think because Cruz is the first of our babies that Peter really gave his 100% attention to. And it's a beautiful thing for me to watch these two together.

A little nose smush before Peter headed to work.

Chin kissing

Smell my feet, Daddy!!

Hugs before Daddy left for work

Today we're going to decorate Valentines Boxes while Peter is at work. Should be a fun, messy project!