Paleo Again - Planning for the Week

I am attempting a paleo-esque diet again simply because I am trying very hard to eat a little healthier. The main person who is influencing me to try this again is my friend from In The Pink and Green, Jane. Her and her hubby are eating Paleo and they love it. Jane is one of those people that just has such a healthy outlook on life. She doesn't eat healthy for weight loss (it's a nice by product but that's not her goal), she just wants to feel better. She and her husband love to eat and explore like my husband and I do, so they do that. But when they're at home, they're trying to lead a healthy and green life style. So I can use them for inspiration!

a pic I stole from her blog

The thing I like about Paleo is the emphasis on eating things whole. Getting away from the traditional processed foods that include bleached white flour and other chemicals. I can take that idea and run with it. Ultimately, I think that if we can eat it as close to it's natural form as possible, our bodies can digest it in a way that is healthful. I don't agree on certain things, like certain veggies are bad for you, because like I said, if God put it there for us to grow, we can probably eat it. Unless it's poisonous in which case it has it's purpose but not for us to eat :)

I know there are people who disagree with me, but I don't care :)

So, what's on the menu for this week??? 

Breakfast - Sweet potato, sausage and spinach hash - 

Recipe

my version :)

Lunch - 

Chicken salad with avocado instead of mayo

Recipe

from the recipe above - I did not take my own pic yet

I brought an apple with some Sunflower butter for a snack and also to pair with my chicken salad for lunch. I also brought a pear and I have some trail mix. 

Dinner - Mini Meatloafs

Recipe

From the recipe above 

With this, I am going to roast some okra. And maybe have a couple of small sweet potatoes? I don't know. We'll see!

I'll eat the breakfast hash and the chicken salad for a couple of days so the only thing that will be different is dinner which I will post about later. 

Have you ever tried Paleo? 

Do you typically alter a "diet" to fit your lifestyle? 

Ayurveda & learning to eat right

One thing that we covered briefly in yoga in Ayurveda. Based on the wiki definition I just gave you, Ayuveda

"...is a system of traditional medicine native to India and a form of alternative medicine..."

image source

I have so much to learn about it and basically have been reviewing it for about 2 days, but what's interesting about it is the information in regards to how we eat. Basically, what it says, is that each of us have a Dosha that has certain characteristics. Based on the characteristics of your dosha, certain things can put your dosha "out of balance", like certain foods and things like that. 

One thing that I thought was interesting that I found online is the concept of tastes and what each taste does. From the link above, it describes the tastes like this - 

Taste		Primary Actions		Common Sources
Sweet		Builds tissues, calms nerves		Fruit, grains, natural sugars, milk
Sour		Cleanses tissues, increases absorption of minerals		Sour fruits, yogurt, fermented foods
Salty		Improves taste to food, lubricates tissues, stimulates digestion		Natural salts, sea vegetables
Bitter		Detoxifies and lightens tissues		Dark leafy greens, herbs and spices
Pungent		Stimulates digestion and metabolism		Chili peppers, garlic, herbs and spices
Astringent		Absorbs water, tightens tissues, dries fats		Legumes, raw fruits and vegetables, herbs

I thought this was interesting because for me, i crave sweets A LOT. And I always feel bad about it. But my dosha type is one of excitement and sometimes worry/anxiousness so it makes sense that I crave sweets that calm nerves. Also, I have lots of issues with digestion and upset tummy - so that makes sense that I crave salty foods and I straight up love garlic. 

I guess what I take away from this is that, my body actually really does know what it wants. I just don't know how to interpret it. So instead of feeling guilty about always wanting something sweet, I can think to myself, oh hey, I'm obviously wanting something calming - maybe I can eat some dark chocolate or drink a calming tea instead of downing a snickers bar and feeling guilty about it. 

I ordered a book online, 

Amazon

I'm very excited about reading it!!! 

Namaste y'all :)

Pinterest Recipe

So I tried a new Pinterest recipe

fun little blog

I was a little nervous with the ingredients - 

Green Smoothie —

1 cup baby spinach

1 cup kale

1 pear

1 ½ cup of orange juice

1 frozen banana.

1. I forgot about the banana completely 

2. I wanted some kind of consistency and depth, so I actually added a tsp of greek yogurt and honey - had I remembered the banana, I don't think I would've needed that stuff

I was like, oh crap, is this going to be like nasty green crap going down my throat? But actually, it was pretty good! I think had I put the banana in, it would've been delish. It's 11:13 am now and I'm just getting hungry, so it lasted longer than I thought. 

This is the left over cup - 

mmmmmmmmmmmm

Namaste Y'all (this is going to be my new signature - I know I am silly) 

Tortilla Maria - Yummmmmmia....

Ok, that might have been a stretch but whatevs.

I accidentally found a new place in Greenville called Tortilla Maria. It is a locally owned, state funded, Mexican Restaurant with organic, fresh ingredients.

The owner is a half German, half Parisian man who moved to Greenville with his half Mexican, half American wife. He had a career as an engineer, but decided to start this business in South Carolina. He is working on a lot of things, and even has a deal with the hospital and school system to sell his tortillas. They are made right there in his store!!

I have been twice this week because after eating there once, I just HAD to go back. The food is so good. The corn tortillas were soft and you can get them with all kinds of things. On my first visit, I had the chicken tacos, the second, I went with the special, the pork rib tacos. 

They were sooooo good. Each time, the taco had home made soft corn tortillas, some type of organic meat (the ribs were cooked in an oven until the pork fell off the bone), fresh onions and cilantro. You had the choice of different types of salsa and then a sour cream type sauce. 

Each dish comes with a side of black beans and spanish rice. You can get a green ice tea which has no sugar added, mexican coke (not made with high fructose corn syrup), etc. 

I loved that the ingredients were fresh and healthy. What I will say is if you are not used to eating healthy, this might taste a bit bland (ask my husband) because they don't use salt, and things like that. 

What I did not get was the soup, but I tasted it and it was delicious. I think he used some type of cumin, potatoes, tomatoes, etc. 

I HIGHLY recommend tortilla maria because it's a healthy option and a local business!!!

Mindful Eating

I was reading an article the other day in my Yoga Journal magazine. It was about this very topic!! (imagine that). It had some awesome rules to live by when eating, but really, when doing anything. One of my goals this year has been to sssssssssllllllllllllloooooooooowwwwwww down so that I can enjoy what I'm doing. This kind of discusses how to do that.

I think I've talked about this before but I really struggle with 1) saying no and 2) purposefully staying busy so I don't have to deal with whatever is going on in my life. I remember a time when someone mentioned a retreat where people would go and there would be no television, no music, no nothing. You just sat in silence. The idea of that cause me MAJOR ANXIETY - i'm going to be honest, it still kind of does. Why is it that we don't want to be with ourselves? What are we trying to avoid? I think that's the key. Through a regular yoga practice which includes all of the above, I am becoming more comfortable with the idea of being alone and being okay.

p.s. when i say alone, I don't mean, alone at home watching tv or cleaning. I mean, sitting in silence, no distractions - no book, no music, no tv, no activities. 


One of the things the article said to do was to chew your food fully. The Ayurvedic way says to chew your food 32 times before swallowing. Benefits are better digestion, you become full quicker and you actually enjoy the taste of your food. The author said that when you chew your food 32 times (each bite), processed food is not as easy to eat because you realize, it just doesn't taste good.

my attempt at this - It's actually REALLY REALLY hard to chew my food that long. I want to swallow immediately. It's not the taste or anything, it's just simply how I've eaten my whole life and now trying to do something different is SO weird. Also, the things that taste the best when doing this - fruit and veggies. Meat tastes pretty good, but not quite as good as the others. Granola bars do NOT taste as good when doing this.

The article also said that in ayurvedic style of eating, you don't eat until you're full. You eat until you are satisfied. They are very specific saying that you're tummy is 1/3 full of food, 1/3 full of liquid and 1/3 empty. I think the goal is not overeat.

my attempt - if I chew everything up that much, I can tell when I'm full. BUT I will be hungry again in 30 minutes to an hour so I have to make sure I have plenty of food around me at work. At homes, it's no biggie, at work, I need to be prepared.


I can't remember if the article said this or if I just think it, but sitting at the table. This actually seems like an easy thing that we should already be doing but we typically eat in front of the TV. Our old dining room was full of crap and it really wasn't super comfortable to sit in. Now that we have a dining room, it's off the of the kitchen, we actually eat there and enjoy it. I can talk to my husband about his day, I can talk to the girls, when we have them, about their school, etc. It's something I never realized I would enjoy as much as I do. It also makes me pay attention to my food!! How many times have you just mindlessly ate while doing something else and then you're like, oh... whoops, I just ate a whole sleeve of Ritz. (actual example).

I even ate lunch by myself at the dinner table the other day and came up with some pretty good ideas, if I do say so myself. So I think there's something to this being present when doing things.

A good book to read if you struggle with eating issues that discusses mindful eating is "Women, Food and God" by Geneen Roth. It's amazing and really put me on this mindful eating journey. She has some simple food rules to follow when eating. Check out the current issue of Yoga Journal as well!!

Blueberry Pancakes and my First Pillow

I made blueberry pancakes after yoga this morning. I found the recipes on Allrecipes using whole wheat flour.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk, plus more if necessary
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon artificial sweetener
• 1/2 cup blueberries

Directions

1. Sift together flour and baking powder, set aside. Beat together the egg, milk, salt and artificial sweetener in a bowl. Stir in flour until just moistened, add blueberries, and stir to incorporate.
2. Preheat a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat, and spray with cooking spray. Pour approximately 1/4 cup of the batter into the pan for each pancake. Cook until bubbly, about 1 1/2 minutes. Turn, and continue cooking until golden brown.

I went to a couple of different sites, including FFF, but I don't have wild rice flour or oat flour or any of those things, so I just googled whole wheat pancake recipes. This is what I came up with. 

It was good, but it was a little floury. I'd prefer to use Whole Wheat Pastry Flour because it tends to be a little softer. 

____________________________________________________

Yesterday was a crafty day for me. I started off painting the cabinet for my kitchen. Here is the rug I'm basing all of my colors on 

I love the blues, greens and oranges. My kitchen is like a beige, so these are all in the same color family

This is the before

our paint

This is where we are now. I'm going to try to finish it today

I also went to my mother in law's house and we worked on pillows. We decided to monogram the pillows which seemed to take a long time. So we got 1 pillow done, but it is awesome. 

We're making another one like this, but it will have a W&J on it for Wendi & James. Then we have a small pillow to make and we'll be done with the living room pillows. Woot Woot!!

 

Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies - kind of

I've been dying to make something out of this cookbook I bought last year

I've mentioned it on here several times, but have never done it. One thing I've been waiting for is I've been trying to find mesquite flour. I found some yesterday and ordered it, but in the meantime, I wanted to go ahead and try to make these cookies using a couple of substitutions. 

I am a BIG believer in whole ingredients or ingredients that have not been chemically processed. This book has a lot of recipes on substitutions for standard items such as flour, sugar, etc. I've already been making my usual baked goods with whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour as well as cane sugar vs white sugar,  kosher salt instead of regular salt, etc. I just recently found out that sea salt is better than kosher salt because kosher salt is still processed chemically, so once I run out of that, I'll buy sea salt. Also, you'll see in the picture below that I still have regular baking soda and baking powder. I definitely will switch once these are out, but I'm not going to throw away a full package of something so... 

The recipe calls for  -

1 cup mesquite flour

2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

3/4 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups of raw cane sugar

3 eggs

1 cup unsalted butter

1 tablespoon vanilla

2 cups rolled oats

1 package of semi sweet chocolate chips

I didn't have mesquite flour so what I did instead 

2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour mixed with 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Heat your oven to 375 and grease your cookie sheet (I personally use my stoneware because I like the way it cooks better)

Mix all of your flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and set aside. 

cream butter until smooth - my butter did not come out smooth, it was clumpy and separate

add sugar until a frosting like consistency - still clumpy

add vanilla - this is when it started smoothing out

add 1 egg at a time, allowing each one to blend into the butter/sugar mixture - really smoothed out

add flour mixture

add oats

add chocolate chips

Each cookie should be 1 tablespoons so that it looks like this - 

So one thing I took a chance on was the amount of extra flour I added. It called for a cup of mesquite flour which typically is substituted 1/4 cup per cup of flour. I thought, ok, so I'll just use 1/4 cup of flour instead of the full extra cup. What ended up happening was the cookies melted out a little too flat. I noticed that as I was cooking the first batch, so I put the last cookie sheet in the fridge. That batch turned out a little better. Next time, I will go ahead and add 1 cup of flour. 

The cayenne pepper added a little heat which was kind of nice. Of course, I forgot to take a picture of the final product but they were crispy which I like. If you like a chewier cookie, adding more flour will help that. They had a good combination of chocolate, oats, a little heat and cookie dough. I actually really liked them and hopefully, my adjustments for next time will make them even better. I also ordered some mesquite flour so we'll see what they taste like when I do that. 

On My Soapbox

So as many of you know, I watch the Biggest Loser a lot and in the past, I have called them out on nutrition. I like the idea of the Biggest Loser in that I love building a supportive community around each other, working through issues that have caused one to gain that much weight, and teach people how to work out. I like that it helps build confidence because a lot of times, people don't realize that they can be athletes. Anyone, and I am saying anyone, can run a marathon. It just takes a little focus and training and Biggest Loser helps people realize that and gives them hope.

But then I see little snipits like was Tara Costa (a former BL contestant/winner) tweeted last night:

@Tara_CostaTara Costa

Never ate grapes when I was losing weight- way too much sugar! #BL12

13 hours ago via UberSocial for iPhoneFavorite Retweet Reply
um.................
no. No Tara, no. 
This is where I have a strong issue with the Biggest Loser. I know that it's a game show. I know they are trying to get viewers. I realize that they are dropping large numbers and it's all for the drama of it. But there is danger here, in my opinion. 
I get little updates from Daily Om and today's post was called Redefining Health. It was a perfect compliment to what I was already thinking. You can choose the link above to read the whole thing, but I wanted to put a little excerpt below - 
"Health is not a numerical concept and cannot be defined using statistics. Human beings, however, tend to want to quantify well-being into easily understandable figures. We feel compelled to ascribe numbers to every aspect of wellness, from the qualities of our food to our fitness levels to the physical space we occupy. As a consequence of social pressures, we turn our attention away from health and focus instead on the most contentious of these figures—weight—checking our scales to see how we measure up to our peers and role models. Yet each of us is equipped to gauge our relative healthfulness without any equipment whatsoever. When we have achieved a state of wellness, we feel buoyant and energetic. Some of us are naturally slim, while others will always be curvy. No matter what our weight, we can use the cues we receive from our physical and mental selves to judge how healthy we really are."
With tweets like this and when one of the contestants was talking about not using oil to cook the fish because of extra calories, I feel there is a danger in what we are communicating to the world about health. I am not a nutritionist. I have not studied the human body and nutrition at length. But what I do know is that as human beings, our goals should be focused on how healthy we can be, not how many calories we can cut in order to look like Jillian Michaels. I cannot speak for others, but THAT IS NOT MY GOAL. 
I honestly think that this is part of America's problem with weight. It's either all or nothing. You either are a glutton or you only eat food that is bland because it has the lowest amount of calories/fat/carbs/sugar. There seems to be no grey area. It's this all or nothing mindset that I feel, sets us up for failure. 
What I have learned in my weight loss journey - nothing is black and white. One tip they gave was that when you add heavy cream and sugar into one's coffee, it adds up to 10 lbs per year. There are so many variables that go into that equation that there is no way one person can say if you do this, this is going to happen. The information is misleading. 
Obsession with body image
We are obsessed with body image. It seems like our goal is to look a certain way - 

image source

image source

image source

and worry less about health. I hear more often than not when talking to my friends concerned with weight loss, oh that has a lot of calories and then they eat a lean cuisine. I would MUCH RATHER have authentic food with no chemicals that are high in calories, i.e. fruit, healthy fats, than a friggin' chemically altered, synthetic meal kept in the freezer section. What's killing me more, the natural sugar in grapes, Tara Reid, or the aspartame found in many low sugar products? 

Long term maintenance

Being healthy does not mean that you do something for 6 months and go back to the way you were before. So while I appreciate Tara was trying to win a game, if her plan is to win the 100k and go back to the way she was, then it was all for nothing. If her plan is to never eat a grape again because it has lots of "sugar", then she's fooling herself. And if her plan is to allow herself to finally eat grapes because she reached her goal weight, but she still is associating being healthy with maintaining a goal weight and counting calories for the rest of her life, then no thanks on that. 

I want to live a life where I can be flexible and where I am not ruled by food. I am not going to limit myself to one meal a week to go out to eat because I'm trying to be skinny. I'm not going to never eat a cookie again because I want to look like a super model. That does not mean I'm going to eat a bag of cookies every day either. Not doing one does not imply that I will do the other. There is balance in life. Sometimes, my balance is going to teeter towards not eating as healthy because I've got a lot going on. Sometimes, it won't be difficult to choose the right things at all. 

So... again, to remind myself why I am here, my goal in this journey is to be healthy. While I would love to be thin, if it means that I have to avoid certain fruits because they are high in natural sugar, or eat a piece of fish soaked in water because the oil is fattening, then no thanks. 

Two New Healthy Things for Me!!

Last Thursday, I went to a new series on the body called Brilliant Body with a health store downtown, Creative Health. I have missed a couple of series, one on the digestive system (which I need) and something else, I can't remember. This past Thursday, it was on the circulatory system. They recommend a lot of things that I'm just like, eh, I'm not sure that I need to take hundreds of dollars worth of vitamins every month to stay healthy. I just not that  hippy yet :). BUT there are two things mentioned that I've heard from multiple sources and have decided to buy into.

1. Fish Oil
2. Grape Seed Oil

As you've read before, I started my healthy living journey with Crossfit and what's one thing they preach, fish oil tablets. They are ADAMANT that you take Fish Oil.

Crossfit and Dr Sears work together to talk about what nutrition is best for you. Zone is something crossfitters stress as well as Paleo. If you can do paleo zone, then you are a God in the eyes of your fellow Crossfiter. This was the first time I heard about Fish Oil and it's health benefits.

Brilliant Body discussed the benefits of Fish Oil as well, the biggest factor for me is that it helps reduce inflammation in your body. Why is inflammation bad for you?

Wikipedia always gives such good, dumbed down information. The benefits of Fish Oil according to Wiki -

*It aids in reducing your risk of cancer
*It helps prevent various cardiovascular diseases
*It aids in depression
*It helps reduce the chance of parkinsons and alzheimers disease
*It reduces inflammation in the body

There is much more information about Fish Oil that I just don't feel like going into, but as a runner/athlete who is putting a lot of demand on my body, Fish Oil is a great supplement to aid in recovery. The other aspect of this is that 1) I want to make sure the farm that creates the fish oil I buy is sustainable and non toxic to the fish/environment and 2) that the quality of the Fish Oil I am taking is good. So, those Kirkland fish oil tablets from Costco.. no. Those are not appropriate. This is what I got today from Earth Fare -

Nutra Sea Plus D

The lady said she highly recommends it so we'll see. 

Next on the list - Grape Seed Oil

I have always cooked with Olive Oil, but again, have read some articles, in a book and heard from the ladies at Creative Health that Olive Oil is toxic when heated above room temperature. The alternative, Grape Seed Oil. So I bought some of this today as well!!

source

Now, I'm ready to have a healthy heart!