Tag Archives: nutrition

Tweaking The Routine

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I Snapchat my meals that I really enjoy and send to my friends and family. This is from this morning’s breakfast.

So, the habit stacking got derailed from travel 2 weekends in a row. Nephew’s basketball tournament and then a 50+ women’s tournament the weekend after. Did my best to eat good both weekends, but didn’t have the energy to meal prep or to prepare workday meals and snacks the night before. I’m so glad I went to both tournaments though. Love spending time with my sister and my nephew, got to see friends and family at the tournaments, and the 50+ women’s tournament was such an amazing experience that it deserves its own blog post. I am being more mindful of my social and emotional health, and the tournaments did give my heart a boost.

I’ve been tracking my foods but to be honest, I haven’t tracked everyday and on the days I do track, I don’t add everything I eat. Hence, the scale hasn’t moved and I’ve been feeling tired again. Also, when I do track my protein and I have my meals and snacks prepped, I realized that I am overeating….I’m finishing everything even if I’m full to make sure I get my protein in.

I feel like I haven’t quite hit on the right formula for my meals and snacks yet in order to see the results I want. So here are some of the tweaks I am going to try.

1- Slow down my eating, be mindful of how I’m feeling, and stop eating before I feel full or stuffed. I think that’s going to be really helpful right there, even if it cuts down on my protein intake in the short term.

2- Make sure I’m eating non-starchy veggies with my breakfast, lunch, and my snacks. Still save my carbs for dinner like sweet potatoes, quinoa, chickpea pasta, etc. Carbs at night help me sleep better.

3- Cut back on my dairy intake slightly and see if that makes a different. I love my cottage cheese and my yogurt, but I wonder if I have a little dairy sensitivity going on that is helping my body to hold on to some inflammation.

4- Find different food/meals/snacks that get my protein in without feeling stuffed. This will take some experimenting, some learning as I go, but I’m willing to put in this work because my health goals are everything to me right now.

This morning I wanted to put one of the tweaks into practice. I was hungry upon waking and but didn’t want eggs for some reason. So in my fridge I had a loaf of Dakota bread from Great Harvest Bread Co., some perfectly ripe avocados, leftover rotisserie chicken and some spinach. I toasted the bread, heated up the spinach and chicken in a pan with a little olive oil, mashed 1/4 of an avocado onto the toast, sprinkled some hemp seeds on the avocado, then topped it with the 3 oz of chicken and spinach, then sprinkled some Everything But The Bagel seasoning. This was soooooo good!! And I felt good after eating it. It was just the right amount of food where I didn’t feel full or stuffed, but satisfied. And it logged in at 35g of protein, 19 g of net carbs, and fulfilled about 25% – 35% of my magnesium, fiber, and Omega-3 goals!

I have to add that I’m surrounded by inspiring people. My sister is making astounding progress with her health, my oldest daughter Samantha has lost 30 lbs while being a busy mom and women’s health nurse, my middle daughter has lost 15 lbs on Noom and is doing PT to get her foot injury issues resolved, and my youngest is running track and very mindful of her nutrition. My husband is working on lowering his blood pressure and all his labs are good. Our family friend/brother lost 20 lbs during a weight loss challenge and he was laid up with a traumatic leg injury the whole time. He lost enough weight where his blood pressure came down quite a bit and his doctors have to adjust his medication.

I’ll keep the blog updated as I’m relearning this 55 year old bod. Sometimes I feel like I do not recognize or know this body anymore at all. That’s the frustrating part. But I value myself and my health enough to relearn myself.

Meal Prep

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I wanted to focus on some meal prep this weekend to see if I can have more time in the morning to enjoy my tea and relax before my day gets started. I also want to add more green and colorful veggies into my daily meals and snacks. 

I was going to go grocery shopping first and then meal prep. But I realized I bought supplies to prepare a few meals last weekend, so I started that prep before I went shopping. It cleaned out my fridge nicely and made room for the fresh stuff coming in later. 

I went to play basketball with my 50+ crew, assisted in our tournament prep by some youngsters who could hoop! Then went shopping and came home to do more prep. 

I had a wicked allergy attack that must have started before my b-ball, and I could not calm it down all evening. My head and sinuses ached from the moment I woke up this morning, and I felt groggy all day from the meds I took last night, so I’m glad I didn’t have to cook or prepare anything this morning as I was moving extra slow. 

These were my workday meals and snacks. 

Breakfast: Broccoli, bacon and cheese quiche with an almond flour crust. Using 5 eggs plus 5 egg whites for a protein boost. 2 cups of Tulsi green tea. 

Snack: 1/2 C Greek yogurt with 1/4 C each of strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, topped with hemp hearts and walnuts. A cup of peppermint tea. 

Lunch: Salmon and asparagus. 

Snack: Venison Chomps stick with red pepper and cucumber. 

**I got 30 min of walking in after work at my school. Walked on the grass around the football field. I had to make myself go telling myself I would feel better, which I did.  

Dinner (not pictured): Leftover Cashew Chicken from last night’s dinner. I used sprouted pepitas in place of cashews and it was a good substitute. 

Snack (not pictured): Baked sweet potato with 1 tsp Irish butter and about 1/2 tsp Allulose sweetener. Cup of chamomile tea. 

I wanted to see how these work today and then tweak if necessary. 

I’m back to keeping a food journal, but I’m really only tracking 5 things: Protein, Vitamin D, Magnesium, Omega 3, and fiber. I have goals for each one, and trying to meet my goals with real food. It’s challenging to get some of these just from food. I have some good supplements that I take no matter what, but still trying to find and eat foods that are rich in those nutrients. 

Which these foods today, plus I had to take a fiber supplement since I was just a tad short of 28g, I hit alllll of my goals, including 130g of protein. Wooooo!! 

I have the foods to repeat this tomorrow.

Cortisol, Inflammation, and My Health

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I’ve got a different perspective on my current health and I’m trying something different. I’ll be posting AAAALLLLL the foods I’m eating for the next 6 weeks on my Facebook page for 2 reasons: 1) I want a record of what I’m doing, 2) I want to keep myself accountable and motivated. I am thinking about doing a weekly collective thingy to post here as well.

A little backstory: I will be 55 in 2 months and I will finally enter the Golden Age category (55+ years) at powwows. I wanted to hit my new age category running, so to speak. I want to be in good shape and I want to be shawl dancing. I’ve been walking, started running some intervals (restarted my CouchTo5K program), and hit the weights a few times. I even got a $10 monthly membership to Planet Fitness so I’ll always have a place to walk or lift. I walked/ran my first 5K on Thanksgiving Day, got all motivated to get back into 5K races, and then tested positive for Covid for the 2nd time (1st go-round was January 2022) two days after that run. The second round with Covid was much harder than the 1st. I took Paxlovid to lower my chances of long-Covid and I hope that works. I gained 10lbs in the weeks following my Covid bout with not much of a change in my eating habits. The weight gain went all to my belly and my neck. I feel anxious when I wake up. My blood glucose is still elevated. My energy crashes mid afternoon. And when my energy crashes all I want to do is eat. My muscles and joints are sore most of the time and I have headaches and have to take Advil every night just to be able to sleep. And the daily life of being a middle-school therapist and a mom to 3 adolescent girls (we added one this summer, retained guardianship of my youngest’s best friend), is mentally and emotionally stressful. I didn’t think adding one more kid would make that big of a difference in how busy we are. But we learned quickly that it makes a significant difference. I joined Noom to get some structure back into my everyday life and started a wellness journal. However, nothing really helped. The scale moved 3 lbs in a month with some diligent effort on my part.

I’m so thankful for the knowledge and insight I received over the weekend from my sister’s personal trainer Lisa Allen. I’m also glad I had the courage to be transparent with her and tell her everything that has been going on with my health since my Covid bout, the weight gain, and how I feel from day to day. With her experience and education, she believes that my cortisol levels are high from being sick, from stress (it’s been a very rough time the last 2 years). And that those two factors are contributing to my body holding onto inflammation. She thinks my weight gain looks more like inflammation than body fat, especially where I’m holding on to the weight. She explained how cortisol works, what contributes to high levels and inflammation, and she recommended a very doable plan to help myself feel better, to bring down the inflammation that my body is holding onto. She really believes that I’ll notice a difference in how I feel within 6 weeks.

I started Sunday with this regimen but didn’t think to start documenting until today. I’m committing to 6 weeks of changes in my day-to-day living in hopes that I’ll feel better and my systems will start to heal. The changes involve refraining from doing things that my body will read as “stress”. That means I’m not doing keto, and no intermittent fasting. My body can produce more cortisol if I’m in ketosis or fasting because it signals stress in response to hunger. No intense workouts (just walking, light weight training), and jealousy guarding my sleep schedule. No all-night or even late-night binge sewing or beading for the next 6 weeks. I will be drinking all the water, and taking magnesium glycinate, Vitamin D, Omega-3 and Vitamin B complex supplements. My goal is to work up to eating 130g of protein each day from real food. Eating at regular intervals, all of this so my body doesn’t feel stress from workouts, hunger, or sleep deprivation. And saving my carbs for later in the day (I heard that referred to as “back-loading my carbs”). I’m going to watch my intake of processed carbs and bread, and keep my sugar intake low. I’m thinking this 6 weeks would be a good time to try regular/consistent yoga.

And this….yes, I’m actually saying this….I’m cutting down on my beloved COFFEE!!!!!

For years I’ve woken up and dove into my bucket of coffee. On an empty stomach, and then didn’t eat until anywhere between 10am-Noon. I didn’t realize that coffee first thing in the morning on an empty stomach was driving up my cortisol levels, which are already naturally high first thing in the morning. I did the coffee on an empty stomach and waited to eat because I thought that extended my overnight fast was good for my blood glucose. However, that habit is actually working against my health goals. I have a continuous glucose monitor and I noticed that my blood sugar is all over the place while I’m sleeping. That’s the cortisol and inflammation.

So, here we go with the first of the food pictures.

My breakfast today: 2 whole eggs, 2 egg whites, 1 cup of spinach, 1/2 cup mushrooms, and about 1.5-2 oz of leftover baked salmon, with a cup of green tea. I’m cutting down my coffee gradually to avoid caffeine withdrawals, so I had 1 cup of coffee after I ate. It’s a big change from the 2 huge mugs of coffee I would have every morning, plus another from my office Keurig once I got to work. I actually felt good yesterday and today with just green tea and a little coffee. Maybe I just need a hot drink in the morning and it doesn’t necessarily have to be caffeinated. Until then, I will be saving my coffee to drink after my breakfast.

This was really filling, so I ate half and I was full, packed up the rest for a mid-morning snack. My lunch is a 5 ounce piece of leftover baked salmon, and some leftover roasted asparagus. My afternoon snack is blueberries, walnuts and yogurt. My plan for dinner is Rao marinara sauce with grass-fed beef, with chickpea pasta, and a salad with my homemade vinaigrette.

I’m looking forward to this, and really looking forward to feeling better.

My Fun Friday Lunch

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Understanding and addressing my emotional eating has been such a great way to take care of myself. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. And as a result, cooking and eating low-carb, high-fat meals has just been feeling very natural lately. I don’t want to say I’m all in with keto just yet because 1) I don’t want to put pressure on myself, 2) it’s going so good I don’t want to jinx it! lol. But I can feel my energy getting more consistent throughout the day, and my brain fog is starting to lift once again. Not struggling with cravings due to emotional eating has made a huge difference.

So here is a fun lunch I packed today on a whim, using whatever was in my refrigerator. I’ve been doing good getting my green veggies in this week so I wanted something different for my Friday lunch.

Inspired by the charcuterie board trend. Summer sausage, sliced Colby Jack cheese, celery, a boiled egg, almonds, blackberries and blueberries.

I seriously cannot wait for lunchtime. Lol.

Happy Friday!

Sharing a Comfort Food Recipe

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I’m feeling a little under the weather today. Tough week with a draining travel schedule, plus the winter weather this weekend in APRIL, has me feeling like I either have a cold or some serious allergy stuff going on. Trying this recipe today because I’m feeling like I want some comfort food. Planning on spending the rest of the day resting and watching some movies, and napping. 😊 I am listening to my body and it’s saying “Rest woman!!” Stuff will get done when I’m feeling better.

Vegan Chai Breakfast Quinoa

I had planned to write a new blog post today but this will have to suffice. I found this website and recipe on Pinterest. The ingredients list made me want to try it. Plus I’m a sucker for any type of quinoa porridge.

It’s Friday….

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I’ve discovered that I’m not a good “meal prepper”. Lol. I tend to pack my lunch geared toward whatever mood I’m in, and what I have in my house. I also tend to repeat stuff if I really enjoy it. Thus, 2 days in a row of 2% plain Greek yogurt. Switched it up slightly, added pecans instead of almonds and walnuts, and threw some raspberries and blackberries in because I felt like I wanted some more pretty colors. Lol. I’m not feeling the celery today though…I felt like treating myself a little. So I added some natural almond butter topped with some Enjoy Life mini semi-sweet chocolate chips and unsweetened shredded coconut. I have some Glutino gluten free pretzel twists. Not because I’m trying to eliminate gluten, I just happened to have some at a work meeting and I really liked the texture. Lol. Seriously! And my kombucha.

I want to add that I don’t usually make it a point to buy gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free stuff. I discovered the Enjoy Life chocolate chips because my daughter had a friend who was gluten and dairy free, and I wanted to fix snacks that she could eat when she came over. They were on-sale last week at the grocery store so I grabbed them. I have a budget that I do my best to stick to. If I buy a fancy organic whatever, it’s either because I find it on sale, or I buy it on Wednesday’s when HyVee has 10% off prices in the Health Market, or I decide I can afford the splurge. 😊

I think I may have enough lunch pictures to do the blog post on lunch ideas that I’ve been plotting.

#healthylunch

#healthyhabits

#healthymom

#packedlunch

Bone Broth – 1st Batch

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Ta-daaaaaa! My 1st batch of bone broth is complete. And frankly….I’m not quite sure what to think. Lol.

It’s very dark. It looks like coffee. And feels rather thick when I drink it. It has somewhat of an earthy taste to it. It’s very rich.

I used beef marrow bones and let it simmer for 70 hours. I did NOT roast the bones first, which is something I will attempt with the next batch. It did not gel when it cooled, but from what I understand it’s because I didn’t use any bones with cartilage or connective tissue. Something else I will try with my next batch. I strained with some cheesecloth so it’s not cloudy at all, but it’s so thick you can’t see through it in the jar anyway.

I was surprised how much it cooked down. I started out with a little over 6 quarts of water to 3 lbs of beef marrow bones and I think I ended up with a little over 2 quarts of broth. I didn’t know if I should dilute it, or what. So I’m drankin it straight up. Lol.

If anyone has any words of wisdom with this bone broth making process, I would love to hear it.

So now I sit here and sip….and wait for all the healing properties to kick in. Any minute now….any minute now. 😁😊

Gut Health and Healing From A Cellular Level

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Some of the lifestyle changes I’m in the process making are about my health, and not necessarily about losing weight. I want my body to heal and to become strong from the inside out. I want to heal at a cellular level, if that helps explain my mindset. My desire to make positive change feels that deep. I’m making changes for healing my body, my mind and my spirit.

I’m not about making huge sweeping changes and being obsessive about cutting out types of foods. Except for artificial sweetener. That’s gone for good. I am absolutely loving being without artificial sweeteners. It’s 3 weeks now since I gave it up. I continue to not have sugar cravings. When I do eat something sweet, it’s a deliberate decision. Not one based on stress or other emotions. I am finding though that I am indulging in sweets very little. It’s really nice not to feel like I’m fighting cravings all the time. That was getting so frustrating. It was like a weight hanging around my neck that I couldn’t shake. That weight is gone and so is any guilt about indulging occasionally. The cravings being gone gives me some space in my head to think about whether I really want something, and also has helped my creativity in coming up with sweet treats made from real food when I want to indulge.

I’ve also been asking questions via FB messenger of a former coworker, a dietician, about artificial sweeteners. She told me how some artificial sweeteners can change the Ph in your gut, and may kill gut bacteria. Losing gut bacteria may lead to some gut permeability and then inflammation. In my case, inflammation leads to increased hip pain, but I also learned that it’s a big risk factor for heart disease and chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes, and possibly lupus and RA.

So then I had to look up “gut permeability” and found out it’s called “leaky gut syndrome”. I’d heard of it before but had no clue what it was. What I read wasn’t fun. But it made sense to me. That’s a whole ‘nother blog post because it’s very science-y. But it made me realize how quitting artificial sweeteners is the beginning of the healing process for my gut.

I remain surprised and grateful for the huge difference I’ve felt in my hip pain since giving up artificial sweetener. And if it’s related to healing my gut, then I want more of that. I’ve began drinking kombucha since last fall, and this weekend I’m going to give bone broth a whirl. Plain Greek yogurt is always in my fridge, as well as fruits, veggies, and healthy fats like avocados and nuts.

Friends and family, you have no idea how thankful I feel to finally start feeling better. I have a spring in my step for the first time in a long time. My mood has improved. And I appreciate the taste of food so much more than before. The changes feel good. And there are more changes we’ve been making that I will write about soon. Drop a comment below if you have had similar experiences. I would love to hear your stories.

Homemade Chai Tea Latte

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I’m still hanging tough with the no artificial sweetener, and I am still free of the strong sugar cravings I once had (M&M cookies from HyVee and Snickers candy bars were my go-to faves). I used to get a strong sugar craving mid-afternoon and I usually satisfied that craving with some kind of sugar-laden coffee from any number of the coffee shops here in my town. I have not had a sugar craving, but the weather got cold here 2 days ago and I wanted a hot, creamy, comforting drink. I didn’t want hot green or mint tea, and I didn’t want black coffee. I wanted something that reminded me of cuddling up on the couch with a fluffy blanket or my star quilt, and one of my big puppies. I didn’t necessarily want sugar, but rather some comforting beverage in a pretty mug.

Soooooo….I love Pinterest for times like this. I got to searching and browsing, and I came across this recipe from a young blogger’s site called “The Foodie Teen”. I’m not only amazed at her recipes, but her photography is just beautiful. And she started her blog when she was 14 I believe….I’m still reading her site and I highly recommend it for the photography alone. Lol.

http://thefoodieteen.com/almond-milk-chai-latte/

Here is how I prepared her recipe for an Almond Milk Latte. I always have Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk on-hand. I haven’t used regular dairy milk for a long time, although I don’t claim to be dairy free. I still eat cheese and Greek yogurt. I always read the labels of any milk substitute I buy and make sure it doesn’t include carrageenan, a thickener made from red seaweed extract, as I learned it promotes inflammation. If you want a thicker, creamier milk-substitute, I would use unsweetened cashew milk. I used that for awhile until I remembered my nephew has a tree nut allergy (hazelnuts, walnuts & cashews) so I keep it out of my house now.

I tried out the Zen Chai Tea bags, the caffeinated version. They are very flavorful! This turned out so sweet, and creamy, with just the right amount of sweetness….it hit the spot.

Almond Milk Chai Tea Latte* (from The Foodie Teen)

*I modified the amounts in some of the ingredients.

2 cups unsweetened almond milk

2 chai tea bags

1 Tbs organic maple syrup

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Pinch of ground cloves and nutmeg

Heat the milk in a small saucepan until it’s just starting to simmer and steam. Remove from heat and add the 2 chai tea bags. Steep for 5 minutes. Remove the tea bags (I use a tool to squeeze the tea bags to get all the spicy goodness out of them) and add the rest of the ingredients. I used a wire whisk to blend them in. Reheat the pan if necessary over low heat.

Use the maple syrup cautiously….I tend to think the sweetener is overdone in foods or beverages I buy. That’s what I like about making things at home when I can. It’s less convenient, but I can control and decide how much sweetener and spices according to my taste. I used 1 Tbs and added another small splash to my Latte.

I put my tea in a blender to make it froth up. What I really want is a small gadget that mitozan (my niece) HolyElk found to make milk foamy like in a coffee shop. I think I need to reconsider getting an immersion blender…..

This made my house smell soooo good. I haven’t had a craving for a warm, comforting drink since I made this. It’s good to know my cravings are still under control and that I have this wonderful beverage to satisfy it, if necessary. Enjoy!

Giving Up Artificial Sweeteners

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I’m not a photographer, but I wanted to add a visual to my post. Lol.

So….this academic year has a been tough on the immune system. It’s my 1st year working full-time in a middle school and I’ve been a magnet for viruses. My colleagues told me to give myself a year or so to build my immunity up and I won’t get sick as often. One of my friends led me to doing a little research on “gut health” where I learned that 70-80% of our immune tissue is located in our digestive system. Kombucha suddenly became my BFF.

My husband got really sick at the beginning of February. He was sick with an upper respiratory virus for 3 weeks. It was a scary time for him, as this was the sickest he has ever been in his lifetime. He has been a decades-long diet pop drinker, and has always used “the pink packets” of artificial sweetener in iced tea. While he was sick he really looked at all aspects of his health and decided to make some significant changes. The first on the list: over a week ago decided to give up all artificial sweeteners. No diet soda, no yellow, pink or blue packets in his tea or on his fruit. He started drinking water regularly and brews his own iced tea at home. He adds lemon juice and a little bit of real sugar for sweetener, no more than 1.5 tsp of “sugar in the raw” in a 32 oz container.

This was a significant change for my husband. It would be for anyone who has an ingrained health habit. I have that habit as well. I was a huge proponent of diet soda as a healthy replacement for sugar-sweetened beverages. I still believe that it’s a good transitional product for people trying to quit a fully-leaded soda habit. But I did some research on what artificial sweetener does to a body and it made me reconsider my own use of the little packets.

Here is a link to a good article that hits the major highlights of what benefits your body will experience from quitting artificial sweeteners. Please read, it’s rather eye-opening.

https://www.prevention.com/food/quitting-artificial-sweeteners

I quit artificial sweeteners a week ago, a few days after my husband. Here are a few things I’ve noticed:

  1. My taste buds woke up – I can taste the natural sweetness in foods, and all food seems to have more flavor
  2. I don’t have energy swings – I don’t have a mid-afternoon sweet coffee craving, and the snacks I keep in my office for my students no longer tempt me.
  3. I am perfectly satisfied drinking sparkling water with a hint of fruit flavor – I love the carbonation and it helps give my mood a lift for some reason.
  4. My skin looks better. I have more color in my face than I did a few weeks ago
  5. The darndest thing ever – my bad hip doesn’t hurt anywhere near as much as it did a couple weeks ago. I also have more range of motion in my weight training workouts.
  6. I’m not as hungry as I was before. I don’t feel the need to snack or doing my stress eating habit of making homemade popcorn at sitting on the couch after work.
  7. My husband reports that he is sleeping better than he has in years.

This is just after one week. I’m looking forward to seeing what other positive things I notice about my body and my health. I’m very grateful to my husband for leading the way with this change.