Sunday, Cook Day

In an effort to have my children (and myself) eat healthy I've devoted today to cooking.  While the kids are playing outside, or occasionally meandering into the kitchen to help, I've got the backdoor open, the music playing and Pinterest recipes open.  One of our practice members brought an amazing zucchini from his garden.  Today is zucchini and cucumber day as I try to be creative with the abundance of both of these yummy summer foods.

This is about 5.5 cups

First on my list is zucchini bread with yummy blueberries locally picked.  I always try to reduce the sugar in my baking recipes by 1/4 and this one turned out perfect.  It's not too sweet and both the boys loved it.  

This is my Pinterest board with the recipe link.

Second I made 2 cucumber salads for the week.  One with feta, black beans, corn, red wine vinegar, lime and cilantro.  The picture to the left.

The other with feta, Italian dressing, tomatoes and spices. I loosely followed the recipes via Pinterest board to the right 

Finally Jon and I banded forces for our first ever refrigerator pickles.  We ended up with 3 jars in fridge, but we have to wait 48 hours before we can taste test.  

It was a very productive day with my remaining to-do's being chopping and prepping everything for dinners this week and a fiesta bake dinner with leftovers during the week.  

However, right now, it's 3 o'clock and everyone is in dire need of quiet time.  So I am signing off in hopes of my children getting along better after their naps.

Consistency is key

I have been under consistent chiropractic care for approximately 10 years now.  Why do I believe it’s so important? Why am I so committed to chiropractic? Easy, because it literally changed my life…

My story, in it’s entirety I will share when we meet for a gathering some night.  For now I will tell you the statement that started my life down this road to natural health and healing…

WORK WITH THE BODY, NOT AGAINST IT

Those 7 words became the philosophy I adhered to.  Through that assertion medication and surgery became a last resort, not a first option.   That is how I discovered chiropractic. 

At first I thought chiropractic was used only for back and neck pain – as a “patch up” system.  It’s not, as I soon discovered for myself, principled chiropractic offers lifetime health benefits and keeps the body functioning as best as it can. 

This frigid, cold winter has been hard on all of us.  Do you know that the most frequent statement we heard from practice members that are consistent and committed to their care and their family’s care?

WE HAVEN’T BEEN SICK THIS WINTER LIKE WE USUALLY ARE

Yep, I know…the body functions better with regular care, including the immune system.

Interested in trying it for you?  You can give a call anytime at 517-851-3850

Positively Chiropractic

I'm BAACCCKKKK!

Please excuse my absence.  I'm in the midst of the final push to get my new house in live-able condition, which means many nights of putting the kiddos to bed then doing extra projects.  That had been the time I was blogging.

But, I have not forgotten nor steered away from the Sugar Sweet Challenge!  My hardest day was yesterday, the Starbucks scone day.  17 grams of sugar in that carbohydrate square, which meant for the rest of the day I had to be super up-tight about my food intake.  You want the truth?  After all the healthy eating I've been doing that Starbucks scone wasn't even that good.  I NEVER thought I would say that, EVER.  I love pretty much all westernized flavors of scones with a good coffee.

My body responds so much quicker when I have a crappy food day.  Then I feel stuck between wanting to eat loads of empty carbs and sugar because it's on my mind and I'm feeling yucky, but what I consumed is WHY I feel yucky in the first place.

Okay, so it's still a struggle when I'm really hungry and on the go.  Let's talk about some healthy treat options.  I've learned to pack snacks for myself and the kids whenever we run errands.  Hungry kids are cranky kids and who wants to be in the store with grumpy kiddos?  Not fun...

Here are some snacks I make sure to pack:
       1. Apples
       2. Almonds (for fat and protein)
       3. Little cheese wheels from Laughing Cow.  (these are packaged in wax which the kids love to open)
       4. Little mandarine oranges.  (if I have enough time I pre-peel these)
       5. Homemade Larabars

YES - HOMEMADE LARABARS

They were so easy to make as long as you have a food processor.  I don't so I tried the blender.  No, big mistake.  I ended up having to cup the dates up by hand.

Recipe:

1 cup nuts ( I used 3/4 cashews and 1/4 almonds) processed in the food processor
2 cups pitted dates processed after the nuts because it will leave the blade sticky
2 heaping tbsp of peanut butter

Mix together in a big bowl and place on plastic wrap.  Roll into a rectangle (I used a large knife to crisp up the sides), wrap and refrigerate for 15 minutes.  Remove and cut into single serving rectangles.  I individually wrapped these then placed them in a ziploc bag.  I think they'll be good for a week, but ours lasted only 3 days and the kids LOVE them.

Turning the Corner :)

Yesterday morning I was scrambling some eggs at the stove while whistling a little tune and I suddenly realized...

I FEEL GREAT!!!!

Like, totally - completely - amazing - kind of great.  And I knew, I had finally turned the corner of my sugar detox. 

Thank goodness because the weekend was bad.  So bad that you know those little donuts in the white bags?  They come in 2 flavors, chocolate or powdered sugar.  I saw those while in the grocery store over the weekend and had the overwhelming urge to rip open the bag, sit down right in the aisle and polish off the whole thing.  Gross.... Talk about a processed food that is terrible for you...

So it took 5 days for my body to finally reset itself.  The best part was that I didn't have to completely deny myself sugar or even sweet foods.  If fresh fruit didn't satisfy my craving and I drank a glass of water I would simply have a square of 70% dark chocolate (3g of sugar) or half of a Larabar where the sugar comes from unprocessed/uncooked dates.

Now I can look at cookies, candies, sweets, etc and NOT have the overwhelming urge to inhale them instantly.  It's more like "Hmmm, okay..." and I continue on my way.  

I was also able to tighten my belt another notch.  I haven't lost any weight, nor am I trying.  That is simply how much sugar bloats my tummy.  Usually I'm binging on sugar every 2-3 days so my body never has a chance to truly "de-bloat".  

So for those of you actually reading this (which I hope you are enjoying).  Keep it up!  Your feedback is part of my motivation to stick this out until the end of the month!  

P.S. There are some Sugar Sweet Challengers who are looking for healthy granola bar recipes.  If you come across any please post to our facebook page.  Thank you!

Happy Sugar Free Sunday FUNday!

You all have shown up as rock stars for this challenge!  People have been sending me awesome links to blogs, videos and articles that support us and enforce that this challenge IS needed in our world.  Special thanks to Heather A. for supplying the title to today's post.

One thing I want to say to everyone is try to eat more veggies!  If you are paying attention to your food journaling you can eat mad amounts of healthy vegetables and have no sugar added.  My current struggle is not replacing sugar with tons of carbohydrates.  Instead I'm trying to reach for the veggies instead :)

Below is a video our yobata teacher, Susan Lockhart, sent us.  It's 5 minutes and it is really important to watch it...

P.S. I added a new link on the blog homepage to 100 Days of Real Food.

Being a mindful eater...

I'm posting an interesting video I saw on TEDtv today.  This woman is a neuroscientist (meaning she studies the brain) and presents compelling reasons why diets don't work.  Take 13 minutes to watch and listen...

I've heard bits and pieces of this information before, but I love how Sandra shares the "why" behind some of it.

For me, the best part of her talk paralleled part of conversation the night of the kick-off dinner - listen to your body and notice the difference when you feed it well.

As we start toward our first week of completion some of you, like me, may be craving those sugary foods as your body starts to detox.  Think of it as trying to find a different "set point" for your sugar requirement.  The next day or two you may find yourself feeling a little foggy in the head.  KEEP GOING!  Once we are at our first week mark you'll really start to feel cleaner and healthier from the inside-out.  As you start to incorporate more whole foods into your daily eating plans your body will find ways to let you know.  More energy, less congestion, clearer thinking, less bloating, etc.

Day 2 - What a long one...

It's interesting what I notice about my eating habits as this Challenge progresses.  For instance, eating completely healthy and well for one or two days?  No sweat!  Totally easy!  As I neared the end of my second day in this challenge I was still well under my allotted 24 grams, but after lunch I wanted to bury my face in a big piece of chocolate cake.  

That feeling didn't let up for about 6 hours.  After my healthy dinner my sister and I were discussing ways to deal with this craving.  Both of us tend to be emotional/stress eaters and we had just finished an outing with the boys that was very taxing, to say the least.  

I finally bought a dark chocolate bar that is 70% dark chocolate.  Theo's brand with salt and almonds in it.  One piece had 3 grams of sugar in it and it was well worth it - craving handled.  That brought my total sugar count to 12 grams for the day.

I'm hoping that in a few days as my body adjusts to less and less sugar that these cravings will also subside.  

In the meantime, I'll try to link to some other blogs and websites that I find interesting and informative.  Here is one for today, the author's name is Andrew Wilder and I like what I've been reading so far.  His latest post involves eating in moderation and balance in the modern world.  To check it out click the link below...

www.eatingrules.com

The Kick-off of the Sugar Sweet Challenge 2014!

It's that time of the year again! Time to reign in our eating habits from the 2013 holiday season and start anew, looking towards better health and wellness in 2014.

We had our kick-off dinner for the Sugar Sweet Challenge 2014 last night.  I have to say, it went amazing for our first year.  As always you catch things that will be better next year (like bigger bowls for that delicious soup!), but overall we had a full house and a great time.  If you were not able to make it let's recap....

Event:  Sugar Sweet Challenge 2014
Time:   Now until January 31st
Rules:  -Log your daily food intake using a smart phone app (we use MyFitnessPal) or good old fashioned paper and pencil
           -Keep track of your sugar intake from added sugars daily.
           -Men try to stay below 36 grams / day and women try to stay below 24 grams / day.
           -Raw, fresh fruit and milk does not count towards your total sugar grams

The whole idea is to start paying more attention to what you are eating throughout the day while decreasing your sugar, "light", and processed foods intake and increasing your whole foods intake.

As of right now, I am getting ready for a grocery store run to replenish my supply of fresh produce, all natural/no added sugar peanut butter, plain yogurt and other goodies that will help me to succeed at this challenge. 

My nemisis for the day is the freshly baked oatmeal bread with the crunchy coconut topping sitting on my parent's kitchen counter.  Temptation is all around us! However, I know my body needs a break from sugar and that it will benifit me to not give into immediate gratification. 

What did we talk about last night? Drink water first - okay, will do. Also, listen to my 4 year old who told me apples are desserts because they have sugar.  I like that :)