What I'm reading by Trina

The books I order from Amazon arrived today. Yay!

This is the cleanse I'm doing.

One of my friends has had success losing weight following this plan

so I've decided to read it.

I browsed the book and like some of the idea, but I don't think I would enjoy what I ate if I had to give up meat and salt for 6 weeks.

My philosophy concerning healthy habits and weight loss has always been that I must like the foods that I eat. So because I'm trying to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into my diet I came up with a rule; I will try a new fruit or vegetable about 3 times. I change how I prepared it if I don't like it the first time - cooked, raw and maybe added into a smoothie. If I don't like it after the third time I remove it from my list. Although sometimes after a number of months or a few years I will try that food again. For example I applied the three try rule to Brussels sprouts two different times over the last few years. My finally try was this year and I've come to the conclusion that I don't like Brussels sprouts no matter how they are prepared. The same is probably true for mangos. I didn't like them as a child and I tried one last month and I still don't like them, so this week I plan to make a smoothie with mango and that will be my final try. I've also tried avocado a few times and I didn't like it, but this week I added some to a homemade salad dressing to thicken it and make it creamy. It was great.

 

My Motto:

"Have fun now while you're on your way

to accomplishing your goals!"

I can't have fun if I don't enjoy the foods I eat.

Produce finds from Beach Blvd Flea Market

Most of the flea markets where I live have various venders that sell produce. Here's what I found on a recent visit.

Not sure of the name for these, but I'll call them mini plums.

Jicama, cucumbers, eggplant, bell peppers, shallots, onions, etc.

I had some much Italian parsley that I made a herb paste to put in the freezer.

Here's how I did it.

 -  I rinsed the parsley really well

 - Removed the larger stems 

- Then I used the salad spinner to dry the parsley

.- Place the parsley in my food processor and added oil through the chute

I placed the finished product in a sandwich bag and then in a quart size freezer bag.

I used 2.5 cups of parsley (packed cups) and about 1/4 cup of oil.

 

The Conscious Cleanse - "What I'm eating." by Trina

Tonight will end day five of "The Conscious Cleanse" and below is a list of the foods I've been eating over the past five days.
Fruits:  blueberries, watermelon, peaches, bananas, mini plums, pineapple, unsweetened dried coconut and lemon juice
Vegetables:  Romaine lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, mushrooms, onions, celery, kale, green beans, jicama and cabbage
Fresh herbs:  Ginger, cilantro, Italian parsley, and garlic
Protein:  Black beans, organic chicken breast and wild caught fish

So far the cleanse is going well, but it would be better if I were a little more organized.
One thing I'm really pleased about is how my cravings for certain foods have almost completely disappeared. Sometimes I think about a specific food, but my desire to have it is minimal. For example my daughter makes a very good semi-homemade chicken potpie and I usually just have to eat some. In fact she made it for dinner tonight, but I had brown rice cooked in mushroom and onion broth with kale instead. I've also been able to cut back on the amount of meat I eat which is a big deal for me because I am definitely a meat lover.

Kale, purple cabbage, broccoli and organic chicken breast

Romaine Salad with jicama and lemon, ginger, cilantro dressing. Looks a little messy as I had already began eating then remembered that I wanted to take a picture.

Romaine, carrots, pineapple and blueberries with a pineapple dressing. To make the dressing I put 1/2 cup of pineapple with juice, a small chunk of avocado, sea salt, black pepper and a little water in a blender.

Chicken Vegetable Soup - Organic chicken breast, onions, green beans, carrots and parsley. I marinated the chicken breast overnight with minced ginger, garlic and 1 tsp EVOO. I also added a little sea salt and black pepper.

New find:  I've been wanting to try coconut milk. I found this at Winn Dixie. It was $2.99 and has only 1g of sugar compare to 5g in Silk Original Coconut milk. Once I try it I'll post what I think.

Dinner tonight - Brown rice cooked in mushroom and onion broth with some kale on the side. I made the mushroom and onion broth to eat as a soup, but decided it would really be good as a base for brown rice. It was really good!

What I'm Doing by Trina

June 1, 2013, I attended my last Weight Watcher meeting. 

Why? I was no longer excited about attending my weekly meeting and my weight continued to fluctuate. I would be up a pound or two when everything in my tracker suggested that there should have been a loss. Then there were the weeks when I ate cookies and other junk and the scale would show a loss. Also I was having difficulty resisting certain foods like dairy. Although I was eating what is consider to be the healthy versions - plain greek yogurt and lowfat milk, I found it very difficult to not have them everyday and multiple times a day.

I started reading books on perimenopause and discovered that I needed to work on being more in tune with my body instead of being consumed by the number of points in my food. So I decided that since this journey is all about developing healthy habits then I should really focus on what that means for me. In order to do that I need to find out which foods are truly healthy for me. 

I found a book call "The Conscious Cleanse . . " by Jo Schaalman and Julie Pelaez at the library and it seems like a good place to start since my children and I all have at least one known food allergy. 

The book takes you through a gentle 14 day cleanse where you avoid foods that are known allergens for many people. You avoid the following: alcohol, dairy, caffeine, chocolate, corn, eggs, grapefruit, nightshades (potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers), oranges, peanuts, shellfish, soy, squash and sweet potatoes, strawberries, sugar, wheat and gluten products and yeast for 14 days then you add them back one at a time noting any problems you notice. 

What you can have includes: other vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds; oil, vinegars, herbs, spices, legumes; grains and seeds like amaranth, brown rice, buckwheat, millet, quinoa, wild and black rice; Animal protein - cold water fish, organic free range chicken, turkey and duck; see the book for a more detail list.

I like this book and how it encourages you to pay attention to your body because even some of the permitted  foods could pose a problem for some people. Also journal writing is a big part of the program.

The areas where I think the book could improve include: more recipes ideas especially for breakfast just in case you're not a big fan of green smoothies and more details concerning the foods you avoid. For example, wheat and gluten products are on the avoid list, but when you research this you find that all grains contains some form of gluten.

All in all I think it's a very good book, and if you can afford to do the cleanse along with the authors you would more than likely receive answer to any questions you have. The cost to participate is about $200. Here's a link to their website:   http://consciouscleanse.com/

I'm doing the cleanse on my own and I started yesterday, July 5. Yesterday was not too bad except I didn't do a good job of planning my meals, but here's what I ate:
-  Before breakfast: The required 1 quart of warm lemon water. I added 1 tbsp. of ground flaxseed to the last glass.
- fruit and nuts for breakfast
- for lunch: a large salad with homemade lemon, ginger and cilantro dressing
- black beans prepared with a little extra virgin olive oil, red onions, garlic and cilantro over
brown rice for dinner
- snacks: peaches, and some watermelon 
- and more water
A link about gluten:   http://urbanposer.blogspot.com/2012/01/what-theres-no-such-thing-as-gluten_02.html

I also started The Vice-Busting Diet with my eldest daughter because doing things with a buddy somehow makes it seem easier. This book encourages getting rid of diet vices and replacing them with good habits, one at a time. More on this book next time.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I did manage lose and keep off a total of 27 pounds with Weight Watchers.