Kathy Week 77: I Feel So Squeaky CLEAN!

Well, I did it. I took the plunge and started the "Clean" cleanse diet last Wednesday.

I plan to stay with the cleanse for a full two weeks. The author recommends three weeks, but we'll be traveling by then, and I don't think I can manage the blender meals while we're on the road.

So far I have been eating CLEAN for 6 days.

I was skeptical going in, but I wanted to give it a try. I wasn't having much success with other methods of getting my weight down those last 10 pounds. Plus, I noticed that I was pretty much constantly puffy, with swollen knuckles, etc. Maybe there are some foods that my body isn't tolerating so well? Maybe it's true that our modern lifestyle is filled with toxins and my body was on overload?

I talked it over with Mark, and he said he wanted to try it, too. Yay! That makes it so much easier than trying to prepare food for two different eating styles. Mark is a CHAMP. Plus, his stomach had been bothering him for a while, and he wondered if cutting out some foods would help him feel better.

So far, the thing that has amazed us both the most is that the foods for the cleanse are so amazingly delicious. And filling. We hardly ever feel those hunger twinges.

Bonuses so far: I am sleeping 8+ hours a night with no difficulty. If I wake to go potty I can fall right back to sleep. My rings fit over my knuckles early in the day (used to be I'd wear them on the wrong finger until the afternoon, when the swelling had finally gone down enough to get them on the right finger).

And I am losing weight!

Hoo boy. It's almost a little scary, except I feel so good. I don't have food cravings and I am almost never hungry. Wait, I take that back. Tonight I was longing for a piece of garlic bread to go with the lamb chop I was enjoying. But seriously, I cannot believe how the pounds are dropping off.

How much weight have I lost?

On Wednesday morning I weighed 142 pounds.
This morning I weighed 136 pounds.

6 pounds lost!!!

I know, of course, that the first two or three pounds were extra fluid my body had been retaining.  But  I am back to a weight I can live with while the rest of the pounds come off gradually.

Seriously, Skinnies, I am very pleasantly surprised so far with how well this is working for me. I have read lots of articles about unhealthy cleanses. I knew the red flags: all you lose is water weight, they strip your body of nutrients, you are constantly hungry, etc, etc. But when I read the book, I was impressed that this cleanse isn't so extreme. The food portions are reasonable, and the food variety is very healthy.

Now, do not go to the Clean website and buy all those products. WAAAAY too much money.
If you are interested in trying this yourself, just buy the book. Clean by Alejandro Junger. You can pick up a used copy for $8.00 on Amazon.com.

In a nutshell, here's how it works.
Eat a "liquid meal" (a smoothie) for breakfast.
Eat a full meal for lunch.
Eat another liquid meal (a cold "soup" made in the blender) for dinner.
Allow at least 12 hours between dinner and the next morning's breakfast.

The book comes with 7 recipes (each) for smoothies and soups, and 21 recipes for full meals.
The recipes are AMAZING. There has only been one so far where we didn't say, "Oh my gosh, this is SO delicious! Can you believe how good this tastes??"

Or you can create your own food choices, using the the Clean "Yes" and "No" lists for food choices:

The "NO" List:

Citrus, grapes, bananas, dairy, eggs, gluten grains (wheat, oats), beef, pork, soy products, peanuts, corn, tomatoes, potatoes, butter, margarine, mayonaise, alcohol and coffe (I don't use those anyway), soda, refined sugars, honey, maple syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, chocolate.

The "YES" List:

All fruits except the ones listed above, all vegetables (preferably fresh), dairy substitutes (rice milk, almond milk, coconut milk--unsweetened--YUM!!), brown rice, quinoa, other non-gluten grains, fish, chicken, turkey, lean lamb, split peas, lentils, legumes, sesame/pumpkin/sunflower seeds, pecans, almonds, walnuts, nut and seed butters, olive oil and other healthy oils, water, herb tea, agave nectar (small amounts), stevia sweetener

Ready for a recipe? Here is one of our favorite breakfast smoothies:

Berry Smoothie with Coconut Milk and Cinnamon

(Makes 2 servings)

2 cups mixed blueberries and raspberries (I used frozen)

1 1/2 cup coconut milk (I buy it in the health food section at the grocery store)

1/4 avocado

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 to 2 teaspoons agave nectar

1/2 cup ice

Check back next week and I'll tell you if the CLEAN cleanse is still working for me!

Kathy Week 73: Back on Track

I had a much-needed wakeup call this week.

I've been slacking off about food choices. An extra milkshake here. A light-night dish of ice cream there. They add up, and I was pretending not to notice.

Tuesday morning: 140 lb.  Oh, no!!
As long as I'm still in the 130s, I can pretend I'm not really gaining. I can't ignore it once I hit the 1-4-0.

Tuesday night: Relief Society, and a presentation on health and wellness.
Just what the doctor ordered!

The presenter was my dear friend, Liberty Fort. More about what she had to say in a minute. What really caught my attention was what she had to show. (Wish I'd snapped a photo with my phone...)

She had two small tables in the front of the room. Each table had food on it. Equal calories on both tables. But. There was LOTS of food on the table on the left. You guessed it--all healthy food. Enough to fill you up all day, and it looked delicious.

The table on the right...not so much. It was mostly processed foods, and the calories added up quickly. If that was what I ate all day, I'd have a rumbly tummy. She made the point.

And speaking of foods that fill you up, before I go any further, I want to share a new recipe I found today:

Crustless Swiss Chard Quiche

I made it this evening for dinner. It's a keeper!
Only 177 calories per serving, and get this: a "serving" is 1/4 of that pie!
Be still my heart. So yummy. So filling and satisfying.
I am excited to have leftovers to enjoy!

You can find the recipe and nutrition info here.

And speaking of tracking calories and nutrition info, I'm happy to report that I'm back on the wagon with myfitnesspal.com. Why do I ever stop using this friendly little website? So easy to track food and exercise. And free...

But now, back to...

Liberty's Wisdom

Liberty is a Physician's Assistant, so she has lots of know-how from her training and her work with patients. She shared five keys to living a long and healthy life. (I knew all of these, of course...but it was motivating to hear them again from a friend, especially on a day when I knew I had to make some changes.

The Five Most Important Keys to Health:
1. Don't smoke
2. No more than 1 alcohol drink per day
3. Eat at least 5 fruits/veggies every day
4. Exercise at least 45 minutes, 5 or days/week
5. Maintain an ideal body weight (BMI 19-25)

How am I doing?
#1-2--I've nailed those. No prob.
(So encouraging to know that I am already living the 2 most important rules!)
#3? Most days. If I'm not into junk food.
#4? Ouch. How do I come up with 45 minutes/day?
That's a tough one. But some is better than none, right?
#5...I'm working on it, ok?

One last thought...
Along with the food visuals on the two tables, the most motivating thing Liberty said was this:


My body is an instrument of service. And Christ paid the price for me to be here and serve.

Wowza. That puts healthy eating and living into a whole new ballgame, no? Like if I don't take care of my body, I'm disrespecting Jesus. It's not just about wanting to look good or live a long life. It's a way I can show my love, gratitude, and faith in the Savior. I guess that thought really hit home with me because it's something I've been trying to articulate for a long time, but I hadn't put it in a way that was quite so powerful before.

I have a killer week ahead of me, so I'm headed to the store in just a minute to stock up on fresh veggies that I can cut up and have all ready to go in the fridge. I'll buy a few frozen dinners from the health-food section (a little more moola, but they will help me stay on track during a week that I'm in the high school play). AND I'll continue to make healthy eating choices with myfitnesspal.com.

Have a great week, Skinnies!

Kathy Week 65: Welcome Spring!

We had a wonderful Spring Break vacation trip to visit family, but it was hard to "behave" completely on my eating. This morning the scale said "136." I'm sure having a tough time getting my weight to 130-ish, where I would like it to be!

I hope the spring weather will help. We got out for a short hike today along the Salmon River Trail, one of my favorites.

The trail goes right along the river for most of the way - lots of views of the fresh, sparkling water. Oh, the air smells so good!

Everywhere along the trail there are little streams and waterfalls that come rushing down the mountain toward the river. So pretty!

We hiked a mile or so along the river, then turned around to head back to the car. It was starting to rain, and getting a little late. But we'll be back out for more hikes again soon!

Recipe Alert!

Back at home after the hike, I tried out two new recipes this evening.

My, oh my, they are so very yummy. Luckily I snapped a couple of photos before we gobbled them up, so I can show you this deliciousness, and I will give you the links to the recipes, too.

Avocado and Papaya Salad

I found the recipe here.

I made these changes:
1. Added a few blueberries. They look beautiful and are full of anti-oxidants. So healthy, so yummy.
2. Used Annie's Lite Raspberry Vinaigrette salad dressing instead of making the dressing in the recipe. The recipe was headed that direction anyway. Have you tried this dressing from Annie's? It's SO GOOD and only 40 calories for 2 Tablespoons.
3. I wish I'd torn up the lettuce leaves before putting the fruit on top. It was kind of a pain to cut them up for eating.

Roasted Asparagus with Olive Vinaigrette

The recipe is from the Real Simple magazine, here.
We've had it two nights in a row now, and I am going to have to buy some more asparagus. Mark and I both in love with this recipe.

The only things I did differently were:
1. I cut the recipe in half, since there are only 2 of us.
2. I used fresh cilantro instead of parsley. Yum yum yum.

Seriously, we agreed that both of these recipes taste better than what you get in a fancy restaurant, but they are so simple and healthy.

Oh, and by the way...papaya. I bought this fruit for the first time a couple of weeks ago. We had it fresh when we were in Guatemala, but for some reason I never tried it here in the U.S. What was I waiting for???

If you haven't tried it yet, here are my papaya recommendations:
1. For your first adventure with papaya, buy the smaller kind of papaya, which comes from Hawaii. It looks a little larger than a pear. The bigger kind is the same shape as a small football, and it's a lot of fruit to consume. The smaller ones aren't so overwhelming. They cost more per pound, but go ahead and just buy one to see how it works out for you.
2. When you buy it, you shouldn't detect a fruity smell. Once the papaya has that fruity smell, it's overripe, and it won't taste as good.
3. I looked online at this website to learn how to cut it up. I hadn't known they have so many seeds! The seeds are edible...a little spicier than we like at our house, but they might be just the thing for you. Or you could plant some and get a cool plant like this one.

Well, Skinnies, that's all I have for this week! I hope the spring is lovely wherever you are, and that you are getting out and getting some healthy exercise. I get to start my yoga class with my husband again on Monday night--hooray!!--and I'll be getting out for some runs, too. See you next week!

One last pic from our Salmon River hike today.

Yes, that is SNOW in the foreground.
Hurry up, Spring!!

Breastfeeding

So first let me give my disclaimer- if you choose not to or can not breastfeed, this post isn't intended to make you feel bad. I recognize that there are a lot of reasons that someone would use formula and I am grateful that in this day and age we have that option. Also, if breastfeeding isn't a topic that applies to you, keep reading! I promise that you can benefit too! That being said, I really wanted to breastfeed my little guy and thankfully everything worked out so we were able to...but I am definitely learning a bunch of things!

First off, every single thing I eat goes to my milk and thus my baby. This more than anything else has helped me to change some of my eating habits...only the best for my boy! :) Now I know that there are plenty of people these days that breastfeed and don't really change their diet, but I wanted to make the best/most nutritious/easiest to digest milk that I could and that required some definite changes.

I am not eating any foods that would be super acidic or gassy, spicy or garlicy, etc. To say the least it is a fairly bland diet. Oh and one more thing- no chocolate! It is said that chocolate is hard to digest in babies (like in dogs) and can give diarrhea....and since I would rather be safe than sorry, chocolate is out along with tomatoes, onions, beans, anything in the cabbage family, etc.

So what is the point? How is this relevant to you? Well I have been finding that meals are a struggle for me- just what exactly do I eat? I am hungrier than ever and it seems like everything has at least one no-no on the ingredient list. So I am here to share some recipes that I find that would be good for breastfeeding mothers...and everyone else!

The first recipe is for "fluff"...maybe it has a real name, but my grandma always called it "fluff".

Fluff

1 container whipped topping

1 container cottage cheese

1 small box jello

fruit

Put all ingredients in a big bowl and mix! Serve chilled. So easy that I can do it with my baby in my arms! :)

Now my favorite is orange jello with mandarin oranges in it, not only because it is delicious but because it is a year-round go-to with no fresh fruit needed. Other favorites include raspberry/strawberry/cherry jello with strawberries/raspberries/blackberries.

This recipe helps me eat cottage cheese which I definitely am not a fan of plain. But it is a great snack as it is high in protein and calcium. Plus if you get the fat free cottage cheese and cool whip and sugar free jello, it is about as healthy as a sweet treat can get!

I will be back next week sharing more recipes and ideas!

*Side note: Altering your diet while breastfeeding is seen as old fashioned...however I am just here to say that I can count the times on one hand that my baby has spit up, diaper changes are quick and painless, and he is hardly fussy at all. I would much rather have an easy baby than deal with spit up or a gassy baby!*

Blueberry Raspberry Whole Wheat Oatmeal Muffins

Like I said in my last post, I got the urge to make muffins this morning.  And, despite (or because of?) a minor miscalculation on my part, they turned out REALLY good.  And not just like "they're pretty good for being healthy muffins," but like, "I'd want to eat ten of these even if I didn't know they were only made with wheat flour."  Want to make some too?  Here we go...

Blueberry Raspberry Whole Wheat Oatmeal Muffins
(recipe adapted from the basic muffin recipe in Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, pg. 115)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup rolled oats*
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 beaten egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup cooking oil
• 3/4 cup frozen (or fresh) raspberries and blueberries

*I used quick oats since that's what we had, but I imagine old fashioned oatmeal would work fine too.

Combine whole wheat flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl.  Once ingredients are combined, make a well in the center.

In another bowl (I do it in my 2 cup measuring cup so I can measure my ingredients and then I don't have to get another bowl dirty) combine milk, oil, and egg.  Pour all at once into the flour mixture.  Mix until combined.

Mix in blueberries and raspberries (no need to thaw, if frozen).

Spoon muffin batter into 12  lined or greased muffin cups.

Bake for 18 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean.  Cool on wire rack.

Mmmmm.  Try not to eat too many.  ;)


I'll admit that I kind of messed up.  I meant to do half white flour and half wheat flour, but I miscalculated (story of my life) and realized that I had added the entire amount of flour after I finished adding the wheat flour, so I figured I'd just see how things turned out.  And they turned out great!  Really--so, so yummy.

Olivia and I already shared 4.  (eek!)  :)

Enjoy!

Zucchini Boats!

Here's a "Frugal Food Friday" Fill-in for Polly, who is still waiting for internet access after her move.

Check out a yummy and healthy zucchini recipe for Zucchini Boats on my blog. I really hope you'll click over to the recipe, and be sure to read all the way down to the funny quotes from my family at the bottom.

Happy zucchini hunting!!