MY HEALTHY LIFESTYLE PLAN -By Trina

My Healthy Lifestyle Plan

A number of resources were used to create this plan including - “Eat to Live, “The Conscious Cleanse”, Healthy Habits Meetings with friends Patti and Renee and various other books.

The Basics

• Eat whole foods that exist in nature
  
• Eat raw and living foods as much as possible
  
• Eat when hungry
  
• Eat foods you like and be flexible
  
• Keep it simple, and constantly experiment.
  

                                                   from The Conscious Cleanse

UNLIMITED (eat as much as you want):

All raw vegetables (goal: 1 lb. daily)

Cooked green and non-green nutrient-rich vegetables (goal: 1 lb. daily)

(non-green nutrient-rich vegetables are eggplant, mushrooms, peppers, onions, tomatoes, carrots, cauliflower)

Beans, legumes, bean sprouts, or *tofu (minimum 1 cup daily in total of these)

*Fresh fruit (at least 4 daily).

Spices and Herbs (except salt which can be used in limited amounts – see details below)

*Consume Vegetables and Fruits in a 3:1 ratio
*Beans should be eaten daily; tofu should be eaten less frequently or not at all.

 

LIMITED

Cooked starchy vegetables OR whole grains - soaked  

(not more than one serving or 1 cup):

(examples of starchy vegetables include butternut or acorn squash, winter squash, corn, white potatoes, sweet potato, brown rice, cooked carrots, water chestnuts, parsnips, rutabagas, turnips,yams, and pumpkins. Whole grains barley, buckwheat (kasha), millet, oats, quinoa, brown rice, and wild rice;  whole grain breads*, whole grain cereals*)

Raw nuts and seeds - soaked (1 oz. max. a day)

Avocado (2 oz. max. a day)

Dried fruit (2 Tbsp. max. per day)

Raw honey (up to 1 Tbsp. 1-2 times a week)

Ground flaxseed (1 – 2 Tbsp. a day)

Animal protein (up to 5 oz. day)

Oils and organic butter (up to 1 Tbsp. a day)

*Sea salt and Bragg's Liquid Aminos

Nut milk (up to 8 oz. a day)
Condiments: a little mustard and lower calorie, unsweetened ketchup is ok
*Avoid breads and cereals as much as possible
*Work on decreasing sea salt and Bragg's until minimal amounts are used)


OFF-LIMITS:

• dairy products
• fruit juice (except lemon and lime juice and small amounts of other juices to make salad dressings)
• sugar and artificial sweeteners

Healthy Habits:

1. Drink at least eight 8 oz. glasses of water (64 ounces) a day. This includes 16 oz. Dr. Berg Cranberry Drink. (“The 7 Principles of Fat Burning”)
2. Eat at least 1 lb. raw vegetables daily.
3. Make eat a conscious act/schedule eating times, and eat only when hungry,
4. Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables - 14 different – during the course of a week  
   (I typically eat broccoli and/or green beans almost every evening and there are over 100 different kinds of vegetables and fruits so since vegetables and fruits will be a large portion of my diet I am pushing myself to try all that are available to me. I will try and eat vegetables and fruits from each of the following color groups on a weekly basis – red, purple/blue, orange/yellow, green, white/brown.)
   
5. Eat sitting at the table, not in front of the TV or in the car. God has given me enough time in a day to sit down and have at least 3 meals.
6. Have an eating cutoff time - 8:00 pm.
7. Make a commitment to exercise regularly! (At least 30 min. cardio or strength training days a week)
8. No TV unless I'm doing or have done my exercise.
9. Get enough sleep by going to bed by 10:20 pm nightly.
10. Eat breakfast every morning by 9:30 am

Feast Days – Day(s) when I will enjoyed food that may not be included as a part of my normal diet. (max. of 1 day a week except on special occasions then max of 2 days a week).
Guidelines:

1. Continue to drink designated amount of water and 1 Tbsp ground flaxseed
   
2. Continue to eat vegetables (goal - 1 lb. of raw vegetables)
   
3. Have at least 2 fresh fruits
   
4. Journal everything I eat.
   

Thanks Patti for opening your home for our Healthy Habits meeting and all your wisdom. I love your Feast Day idea.

Thanks Renee for the laughter and all the interesting stories you bring to our meetings. Thanks for introducing me to "Eat to Live".

A list of other books I've read can be found here

Have fun now while you're on your way

to accomplishing your goals!

Trina 

A New Adventure in the Quest to Get and Stay Healthy

Middle Eastern Dance

More commonly referred to in the non Arab-Western world as

Belly Dancing!!!

Trina and I signed up for an 8 - week class at our local community school. This is a class that teaches the basic moves of the dance. 

No pictures to share right now:-) but I can tell you that I love this class!

I'm learning to move muscles I never even knew I had!

A big part of this dance is learning to isolate different muscles in the back, chest, stomach and butt. It also focuses a great deal on posture. 

We just finished our third class last night and as I sit here this morning I can really feel it in my stomach muscles!

Check out this link to see our teacher and to learn more about this type of dance...

Sahara Silk Middle Eastern Dance Ensemble

Last year at this time if someone had told me I'd be tying on a shimmy shake skirt and doing Zumba and belly dancing I'd have said they were crazy!

Out of the box and out of my comfort zone! 

I love it!

Filling the Freezer - Green Drink Ready to Blend

I try and drink a green drink or smoothie made with kale and fruit everyday. Great way to get a couple servings of veggies and a fruit or two in my diet. I find that I often can't use up the kale before it goes bad or I have fresh kale but I'm out of bananas or pineapple. I decided to package up my green drink ingredients and freeze them. That way I'll always have what I need to get my greens in for the day. 

Note: The greens seemed to give off a gassy or strong smell when I opened the bag after it had been in the freezer a week or so. It tasted fine but I just want you to be aware of the possibility.

My recipe is pretty simple...

To make two 6-8 ounce drinks I fill each quart size freezer bag with the following:

3-4 cups kale, washed and chopped 

1/2 banana

1/2 apple (peeled if it isn't organic)

1/2 cup pineapple chunks (canned in juice or fresh)

1/2 cup pineapple juice or a combination of water and juice

(If you don't want to use juice just eliminate it from the bag. Add water to the blender when you're ready to make the drink.)

-you can substitute any fruit you like-

Prep

Wash, peel and core the apple (unless it's organic then I don't peel) 

Cut the apple and banana in to chunks.

Drain the pineapple juice in to a measuring cup.

Layer the apple, banana and pineapple chunks in the bottom of a freezer bag. 

Pour the juice over the fruit. (This will keep the fruit from turning brown.)

Stuff the kale in the bag and close it up. 

Each bag contains 1/2 apple, 1/2 banana, 1/2 cup pineapple
chunks, 1/2 cup juice and about 3 cups kale.  This make
two servings of 6-8 ounces each. I drink one with breakfast and
one for an afternoon snack. 

TIP
To remove the air insert a clean straw into the bag. Close the bag around the straw. Suck the air out of the bag. Quickly remove the straw and close the bag. Not quite the same as a Food Saver but does a pretty good job.

Place the bags in the freezer and use within one month.

To use put 1 cup of water in a blender and add the frozen ingredients. Blend to desired consistency.
You may need to add more water or juice to your liking.
If your blender can't handle the frozen fruit  and liquid you may need to defrost the bag first.

Defrost over night in the fridge or allow the bag to sit in a bowl of water for about and hour until defrosted enough to blend.

It feels good knowing that I won't be throwing out any more kale. 

Enjoy!

Patti

Joining other health seekers at:

Holiday Battle of the Bulge

Today's Healthy Habit Meeting Recap - Dealing With Stress

At our last Healthy Habit meeting we talked about stress. 

Stress

Stress can effect every area of our lives. Physical, emotional, mental, our relationships, etc. Stress is a known factor in obesity and many health issues.

Stress can save us in a life and death situation but it can also kill us in the everyday.

I found this article Stress Symptoms, Signs and Causes and the information was eye opening to me.

From the above article.
"The body doesn’t distinguish between physical and psychological threats. When you’re stressed over a busy schedule, an argument with a friend, a traffic jam, or a mountain of bills, your body reacts just as strongly as if you were facing a life-or-death situation. If you have a lot of responsibilities and worries, your emergency stress response may be “on” most of the time. The more your body’s stress system is activated, the harder it is to shut off."

We all agreed that we need to deal with the stress in our lives. But how?

Trina shared some info from a Jennie Craig book about stress. The book listed three suggestions for dealing with stress. 


1. Learn to recognize where your stress comes from. (This is probably harder to do than it sounds)

If you can pinpoint sources of stress that's the first step in dealing with it. You need to figure out if the situation causing the stress is something you can control or manage. 

For a lot of women life is so busy it's hard to take time for ourselves. Especially Christian women have this idea that we have to do everything for everyone and if we say NO it's a refection on our faith! We need to remember that even Jesus took time out of His busy schedule to be alone, to rest and to pray. We need to be more like Jesus!

My husband has a saying that I think is a good guideline when dealing with some of the people who demand our time.

 "Lack of planning on your part should not cause extra work on my part."

2. Realize that you are responsible for your reaction to the stressful situation.

How do you react to stressful situations?

Angry or agitated? The best thing to do is walk away. Put some distance between you and the person causing your stress. 

Do you withdraw or get blue? Walk! Get active!

Do you freeze up? Can't make a decision or get your thoughts straight? Walk! Do something!

I don't want to minimize the situation but walking or doing something active is a great way to relieve stress. 

3. Take action.

Pray - I think it was Elizabeth George who said she never commits to something until she prays about it first. 

Never say yes right away unless it's a real emergency. (Think blood and broken bones type of emergency)

If certain people are putting demands on you and you really feel bad saying NO then help that person to brainstorm ways they can solve their problem without you. Encourage them to get creative.

Come to the realization that you cannot rescue everyone from their poor decisions.

Clear your calendar of any unnecessary activities.

Put yourself on the calendar - remember you're time is just as important as anyone else.

Ask for advice - from your husband or good friend on how to handle situations.

That's just a little recap of our meeting. 

Next meeting we're going to talk more about prayer and how we can better incorporate it in our lives. 


How do you handle stress? 

Or do you?


Patti

Filling the Freezer - Soup For Fast and Easy Lunches

NOTE About freezing soup: I got a comment that expressed concern about the bags leaking. This is what I do and I've never had a problem:

I buy really good bags. I usually use ZipLock brand freezer bags but this time I used Hefty One Zip Click. They seem to be study so I don't think there will be a problem. 

Always cool whatever you're going to freeze before you place it in the bag. 

Leave 1 to 2 inches of head space in the bag. 

Remove as much air as possible. 

Freeze the bag flat.

When defrosting place the bag in a large bowl or a pot just in case it does leak.

I usually eat a salad for lunch but some days, especially when the weather begins to cool off, I get a hankering for soup. So today in anticipation of cooler weather I've been in the kitchen cooking up a few pots of soup. I divided the soup into serving size portions and put them in freezer bags. Now when I want something besides salad I can pull a bag from the freezer and I'll have lunch in no time!

I started with this

Ingredients to make 
Vegetable Soup
Sprouted Split Pea Soup
Roasted Tomato Soup

And now I have all of this!

Six bags of vegetable soup, 3 bags of roasted tomato
and 7 bags of Split Pea 

Tips for batch cooking and freezing:

• Start with a clean kitchen.
• Look for common ingredients in recipes. In this case all three soups used onions and celery sauteed in oil. I cooked enough at one time for all the recipes.  
• Make sure you have freezer bags on hand. Use good ones! 
• Prepare your freezer bags before you fill them. 
• Write the date, contents and any additional directions needed on the bag. Don't rely on your memory!
• Freeze bags flat so they can be stacked in the freezer. 
• Freezing the bag flat will also speed the defrost time.

To defrost soup:

To use the frozen soup remove a bag from the freezer and allow it to defrost overnight in the refrigerator. You can also put the frozen bag in a large bowl and fill it with cold tap water. Allow the bowl to sit out on the counter. The bag should defrost enough that you can empty the contents in a pot and heat on the stove. As a last resort if you're really in a hurry you can pop the bag in the microwave and use the defrost setting. 

Recipes

Vegetable Soup

Makes about 12 cups of soup.

(If you're doing Weight Watchers this is a zero point soup if you don't use the oil. The oil is minimal so I don't think it counts much)

1 onion chopped

1 celery rib chopped

1 - 2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1/2 head cabbage, shredded (or 2-3 cups leftover cooked cabbage with the juice)

2 zucchini, chopped in bite size pieces

2 yellow squash, chopped in bite size pieces

2 carrots, chopped in bite size pieces

16 ounce bag of frozen green beans or the equivalent of fresh

16 ounce container of vegetable broth

Saute the onion and celery in the oil for a few minutes until tender. Add the remaining ingredients and cook on medium until the veggies are tender. You may need to add additional broth or water to make it as soupy as you like. 

Roasted Tomato Soup

Makes about 6 cups of soup

Except for the oil this is a zero point dish. Even with the oil points should be minimal. If you choose to add milk or cream when reheating that will add points. 

Roasting the tomatoes brings out the sweetness and intensifies the flavor. It's worth the extra step and time. 

See the little bits of black? That's from roasting. It makes the
tomatoes sweet. You won't need any sugar to cut the tartness.

1 small onion, chopped

1 celery rib, chopped

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tablespoons olive oil (divided)

2 cans of whole tomatoes (I threw the cans away but I think they were about 28 ounces)

Vegetable broth to thin the soup with

Drain the tomatoes and reserve the juice. Put the tomatoes on a baking pan and drizzle with 1 Tablespoon olive oil and add the chopped garlic. Roast in a 475 degree oven for about 40 minutes. The tomatoes will burst open and the juice will get thick and blackened but not burned. 

While the tomatoes roast saute the onions and celery in 1 Tablespoon olive oil until they are tender. Add the reserved tomato juice and allow to simmer. 

Once the tomatoes have roasted dump them in the simmering juice. Scrap the bottom of the baking dish to get all the goodies into the soup pot. Add vegetable broth to thin the soup and allow to simmer for about 30 minutes. 

Run the tomato mixture through a food mill to remove the seeds. 

Prepare the freezer bags by writing the contents and date and the directions to add (if desired) 1/2 to 3/4 cup of milk when reheating. 

Divide the tomato soup into quart size freezer bags and freeze flat. 

Sprouted Split Pea Soup

Makes about 14 cups of soup

(1/2 cup cooked split peas is 2 points)

Can yo see the tiny white sprouts coming from the peas? That's what your
looking for.

It isn't necessary to soak split peas but it will allow them to sprout a little. This increases the nutrients in the peas and some say it makes them more digestible. 

2 pounds of dried green split peas (about 4 cups)

8 cups of liquid (I use water but you can use veggie broth or a combination of broth and water)

1 small onion, chopped

1 celery rib, chopped

1 Tablespoon olive oil 

2 carrots, grated

Prepare the peas by rinsing and sorting. Place the peas in a large bowl and cover with water. Allow to soak 10 to 12  hours or overnight. Drain and rinse the peas 2 or 3 times during the soaking period. (More if you allow them to soak longer than 12 hours but don't allow to soak for more than 24 hours or they could mold.)

In a large soup pot saute the onions and celery in oil until tender. 

After sprouting rinse the peas well and add to the soup pot along with the liquid. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and cook on low for 30 minutes. Add 1 Tablespoon of salt. Continue cooking until the peas are tender and the liquid is thick. (Total cooking time will depend on the dried peas. The older they are the longer it takes to cook.) Add the grated carrot during the last 5 minutes of cooking. 

Cool the soup and divide into freezer bags. 

So there you go. A little work in the kitchen will save me time and keep me away from the fast food restaurant at lunch time!

Happy Eating!

Patti

BTW I've lost 1.8 pounds since I started my 6 pounds down by Thanksgiving Challenge. I hope to be at 154 by Thanksgiving day:-)

I'm joining the party at


Holiday Battle of the Bulge Blog Hop

Weekend Walking - Patti

This is an update from the last two weekends...

Last weekend John and I took the Volksmarch through Riverside. It was a 10 k walk (6.2 miles) but we cut a couple of ks off so it was probably about 5 miles. I loved this walk because it took us through one of the oldest sections of town. I've always wanted to live in an old house and this walk took us by some really beautiful ones. We also walked along the river and we took some time out to sit on a bench and watch the big boats and the traffic going over the bridge.

This past Saturday we got out of the city and took a walk through nature and I think we found the only mountain in Florida to climb. It wasn't actually a mountain but for this flatlander it felt like one:-) This walk was at Fort Caroline National Memorial and the walk took us through the pine forest and the wetlands to a bluff overlooking the St. Johns River. It was about 6 miles of pretty rough terrain.

My walking log and AVA inserts. 

The good news is that we've completed our 4th Volksmarch. The bad news is that I've lost my pedometer. Not sure where but I think I had it on last night when we went to dinner. It was a really nice one. It actually counted the steps correctly. Not like some that you can jiggle in your hand and up the step count. This one required an actual foot to hit the ground...

Where will your feet take you today?

Patti

150 Miles in 15 Week Challenge

The Zumba class I've been doing 2 or 3 times a week since March has ended. At least until the instructor finds a new location. In the meantime Trina, Renee and I are going to take a Belly dance class:-) but it doesn't start until the end of October. 

I don't want to sit around and wait for class to start so I've been upping my walking everyday. We've been participating in a couple of walking clubs you can read about here.

Ran across this challenge. 

Walk (or run, jog) 150 miles in 15 weeks. 

I'll be walking...

I need a challenge or a little competition to keep me focused so I'm going to participate. 

Check it out and get walking!

Patti