2013: Clean Eating

After the beach, hubby and I agree we've just kind of given up. We've been eating and drinking whatever we please, not focusing on the goals we had for ourselves and letting ourselves get to a bad place. 

It all ends tomorrow! 

After doing a lot of research and having a few friends who have moved to a clean eating lifestyle, we've decided to give it a try.  I can't buy into just throwing away everything in my current pantry, so we will be working through that (mostly pasta, white flour, etc) by mixing it into the "new" stuff. 

I spent the better part of 2 days pouring over Clean Eating Magazine, He and She Eat Clean, The Gracious Pantry and random Pinterest sites. I found meal plans, different "rules" at every site and all kinds of different recipes. 

Saturday my family and I set out to shop for our new clean lifestyle. We started at Trader Joe's. 

I picked up: 

whole wheat pizza dough (for the ham & cheese turnovers)

whole wheat pasta (fusilli and penne) 

chicken sausages 

California Protein bread

whole wheat mini pitas

quinoa

Israeli cous cous

fennel bulbs

raw cashews

raw sunflower seeds

frozen mixed berries x 3

frozen tuna steaks

brown jasmine rice

Ak Mak crackers

17 bean soup mix 

By the end of my TJ's trip, I was COMPLETELY overwhelmed. Reading labels, trying to remember all the "rules" I read.... 

Then we headed straight to Whole Foods. There I picked up: 

Kefir (although I found it MUCH cheaper and the same brand at Aldi today!)

Sprouted grain hamburger buns

English muffins

Unsweetened coconut flakes

Wasa Rye Crisps

After those two stores, I was WIPED OUT! I was frazzled and overwhelmed at the thought of what I was supposed to be doing.  

I came home, regrouped and updated my grocery list. Today, with fresh eyes, I headed to Aldi to find the remainder of my list. 

We picked up: 

blackberries

strawberries

zucchini

frozen corn

turkey breasts (we will be smoking these tomorrow and using it instead of lunchmeat from now on)

celery

clementines

Kefir

cottage cheese

feta

parmesan cheese

ground chicken breasts

sirloin steaks

grapes

grapefruit

red onions

stoplight peppers

(highlighted foods I would love to ease out of our diets in the next few months!)

SO after spending a small fortune on groceries, I sat down to meal plan the next two weeks.  The biggest challenge for me is going to be, hands down, eating 5-6 times a day. I am the queen of waking up, having some coffee, heading to the gym for my 2hrs of workout, having lunch, snacking through the day and then everything goes downhill from there! 

I spent close to 2 hours today looking at meal plans and plotting out every bite I will take for the next two weeks.  I'm sure I will make some tweaks here and there, but this is my blueprint! 

This will definitely be an adventure for us. I am not FORCING this on my kids, although to a degree they will follow it because I cook. :-)  My hubby, though, is on board. Both of us are sick of feeling "gross" and ready to be the healthiest parents we can be!

I will be quitting processed sugar, but allowing fruit and allowing natural sugars as well (honey, molasses) in moderation. I am trying to get to a place where we are eating 5 or less ingredients, but that will come. 

I met with the circuit class teacher that I LOVE a few weeks ago and worked out with her. I wanted her to evaluate what I do and what I can improve. Her suggestions to me were to do cardio for 30-60 minutes at least 5 days/week and to do 5 min of ab work every other day. I haven't started to implement that (we are SO out of routine with my husband home on vacation and my daughter not in school!) but it's my plan starting Thursday!

So here's my (anticipated) plan: 

Mon: Arm/back lifting routine, cardio plus class (30m), circuit class (45m)

Tues: Ab routine, Yoga (1hr,15m)

Wed: Leg lifting routine, cardio plus class (30m), circuit class (45m)

Thurs; Spin class (55m)

Fri: Off

Sat: Long run

Sun: Off

I registered for my third half marathon this week.  I will be running the Go! St. Louis half marathon the first weekend in April. Excited to be training again!! I am going to do it right this time - getting in my long runs come hell or high water!!  I am hoping that my clean eating will aid in my running and I will get faster. My goal time is between 2hr and 2hr15min. 

I will post soon with my updated stats. I can tell you I'm up - WAY up - in my weight. :( All the working out in the world couldn't counteract the food and booze I've ingested in the last three months. I've fully earned my new measurements, but don't worry about me - it's coming off and it'll come off FAST, I will see to it!

Got Oatmeal?

Good. Now go make BOTH of these recipes.

Right now.

Two people from different parts of the country shared recipes with me last week and even though the recipes were very similar, I decided I needed to make them both. At the same time.  And boy, am I sorry I did, because I CANNOT STOP EATING THEM! 

The first recipe, from Weelicious, is for a delicious granola bar. I tweaked JUST a little - here's the original recipe from Weelicious, then my amendments are in red. 

Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

Ingredients

• 4 cups old fashioned oats
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut I can't find unsweetened, so I did use the sweet kind
• 1/3 cup brown sugar Omitted but sprinkled about 1Tbsp on top
• 1 cup chocolate chips* Didn't have any, but I chopped up a Hershey's bar to mix in.
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 cup canola oil I used coconut oil instead
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Almond extract, because I adore nothing more in the world than the smell of almond extract.
• 1/2 cup honey

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 325 F.
2. Combine the first 6 ingredients in a bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients.
4. Pour the wet ingredients over the oat mixture and stir to combine.
5. Place granola mixture on a parchment lined baking sheet and shape into a rectangle, about 13 x 9 x 1 inch thick.
6. Bake for 40 minutes.
7. Allow to cool for 10 minutes then cut into 3 x 1 inch bars.**
8. Serve.
* You can substitute raisins or other dried fruit for the chocolate chips.
** Individually wrapped, the bars will remain fresh for several weeks.

I thought I messed up somehow (maybe leaving out the brown sugar) because I was too impatient and started trying to eat them AS SOON AS THEY CAME OUT OF THE OVEN!  However, I had to leave and get the kiddo from school and when I came back - solid! Yay!

The kids have LOVED these and I'm not going to lie, I haven't stopped eating them either! I think the crumbles (from before I let them set up) will be FANTASTIC mixed into Greek oatmeal or even with some warm milk over top! (maybe with the honey Greek frozen yogurt I have outside in the freezer?!)



The second recipe was a suggestion of a friend, and she said to make sure you have people to share them with, because they are slightly additctive.

That was a HUGE understatement! These things are PHENOMENAL!  They are a no bake peanut butter chocolate cookie.  The recipe can be found at The Gracious Pantry under the title "Mini Chef’s No-Bake Cookies." 

Clean Eating No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 tsp. vanilla - Again, I used almond
• 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter I used Smucker's Natural (peanuts + salt!)
• 1/4 cup psyllium husks (you can substitute with wheat germ or oat bran too.) I used Flaxseed
• 2 tbsp. chia seeds
• 1 cup quick-cooking oats
• 1 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions
1. Combine all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl, using a wooden spoon.
2. Spoon 20-24 small balls of dough onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet and place the cookie sheet in the freezer for at least 45 minutes.
3. Remove sheet from freezer and transfer the cookies from the parchment to a Tupperware dish with a good fitting lid. The best way to remove them from the parchment is to get a good grip and twist slightly.

Store in the freezer (if you have any left over to store – don’t say I didn’t warn you!).

These are awesome for energy! I have LOVED popping one in my mouth before I head to the gym (or any other time) because I feel like they are an energy POWERHOUSE! Peanut butter, chia, flax.... seriously delicious too. Mine haven't left the freezer, I like the frozen texture of the honey.

So if you need snack foods - these should be your go-to's. Obviously it's not a great idea for someone in the early IQS stages, but honey is on my "natural ok" list for where I am in my journey - I haven't felt any adverse reactions, cravings, pain, etc., since eating these.

So check them out, try them out, let me know what you think. I think the granola bars would be DELICIOUS with some kind of dried fruit - raisins or cherries.  And there is NOTHING to improve upon for the cookies :-)

Delicious Recipe for you!

We had a few bananas that were WAY past their prime lying around and E has been begging me to make banana bread.  I've done so well this week saying no to sugar, I just couldn't bring myself to end the week by ruining the efforts.  I jumped on the internet and found the Spoonful of Sugar Free blog where there was a whole wheat banana bread muffin recipe.

Unlike some sugar free recipes, this recipe was COMPLETELY sugar free. There was no agave, no stevia. It was refreshing! The only sugar was from the bananas.  I was able to make 8 standard sized muffins out of the batter. I did also replace the milk substitute with skim milk, because that's what I had on hand.

I would have taken pictures for you, but honestly, the muffins WEREN'T ON THE PLATE LONG ENOUGH! My son, 18 mos, had two. My hubby had two. My daughter (4 this week, eek!) had THREE of them! I would say this is a resounding SUCCESS for a recipe!!  No one even mentioned that it didn't have sugar.   In fact, it even has flax added to it for an extra health kick. 

 I'm purposefully letting bananas get too ripe now, so that I have a reason to make these again. But maybe I'll triple the recipe next time. :-)

Here is the recipe, from Spoonful of Sugar Free:

Whole Wheat Banana Muffins:
These muffins are whole grain, vegan, and of course sugar-free!

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 Tablespoons ground flax
• rounded 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk substitute (i used almond milk, but soy, rice, hemp, or cow’s would be fine, too)
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil (or coconut, vegetable, grapeseed..)
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• round 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts (optional. can substitute almonds or dried fruit, too)

Preheat oven to 350*. Mix together all of the ingredients, but add the baking soda last. Line muffin pans with liners (i used adorable mini muffins!). Then, fill each muffin with batter to the rim. For mini muffins, bake for 20 minutes (makes 20 muffins). For regular muffins, bake for 25 minutes (makes 10 muffins). To make banana bread, double the recipe and bake for 30 minutes.

This is a definite KEEP in our house and I look forward to trying more recipes from the blog!

Begin Again.

So my experiment last week, with not tracking, not avoiding sugar and barely working out - success AND failure!

For one, I didn't really gain any weight so to speak.  I weighed in at 154 this am, which is right around where I've been for a few months.

However, I am bloated and gooey feeling in my belly.

My joints hurt.

My emotions are ALL OVER THE PLACE.

And I just feel all over yukky.


So this am, I am starting to detox again. Obviously, I don't need it anymore for weight loss - as I didn't track a thing last week (and ate like I wasn't tracking anything!) and didn't go too high.   But this time around, I'm going to allow myself the yummy summer fruit - IN MODERATION. I know that bananas are my gateway drug to sugar (hello bananas + nutella + peanut butter.... *drool*) so I will avoid those. But the fresh cherries, pears and plums in my fridge will get in my belly! :-)

Here's my stats update as of earlier this month (I don't think I ever posted this):

And for comparison, here's a photo from today (ignore the sweat, I tried the Zumba Wii game I borrowed from the library!) -- hoping the bloat goes down!










The plan:

Juice for breakfast (lots of greens!) and coffee with half and half.  Adding chia seeds to my juice helps keep me nice and full and keeps those nasty cravings away.

Lunch will be full-fat cheese, some low fat lunch meat (ham) and cucumbers probably. I will add crackers here and there as I see fit.  I am also looking for a great oatmeal recipe - steel cut oatmeal at lunch sounds delicious to me!

Dinners I will continue as usual.  Tonight, for example, we're having steak, baked sweet potatoes and a nice romaine salad.  I have always tried to keep my plate 1/2 veggie, 1/4 protein and 1/4 carb. That won't change.

After dinner: I will be avoiding what has become my summer routine - Corona with lime! Cutting back on my alcohol intake should also help the bloat.


I'm hoping to get to the gym more this week, but I have 1.5 sick kiddos (one is definitely sick, one seems to be on his way there) so I may have to improvise - some 30 day shred at home, maybe a run after the kids go to bed. I never run in my neighborhood, but I AM DYING to go for a run! I miss it! It's been several weeks since I've gone and I just need the decompression time.



So that's it for me.  Hoping I can shed the last few lbs and get to a good, toned place for our beach vacation!

Crickets...

Sorry for the radio silence lately.  I'm in a weird limbo - |thisclose| to my goal, but really not full flung into no sugar (summer without ice cream? seriously?)  So I keep jumping between 149 and 152. I still haven't "officially" hit my goal weight.

I'm definitely not back to where I was with sugar - I don't have it every day. I have been eating more fruit (it's summer!) and letting myself have a "treat" now and again.  I definitely am more aware of my kids' sugar intake as well.  In addition I'm SUPER skeptical when people say something is "sugar free," knowing that most of the time there is fake sugar, agave, or cane juice. I know NOW that these are all sugar by another name. Knowledge is power, people!

So anyhow, as summer progresses, I hope to get back into the swing of things. I've started a new class at the gym (two actually!)  Cardio drills & power sculpt. They almost KILLED me on Friday. And if you know me, that means I'll be back this Friday more intent on kicking royal butt.  :-)

Juicing

Taking another step towards healthy!

My mom was in town this weekend and has been doing a lot of juicing. I am NOT a fan of "thick" drinks. My husband makes a fruit smoothie every.single.morning for himself and the kiddos, but the thickenss of it just makes me gag. So when my mom said "Let's go get a juicer and you can see if you like it!"  I was NOT on board.

We did that Saturday. After we picked up the juicer, we went to Whole Foods and loaded up on greens, veggies and a few pieces of fruit. When we got home, we set up the juicer and got to work.

This was our "recipe" the first day:

Kale
Carrots
Cucumbers
2 Apples
3 Ribs of Celery
1 Lemon
About 1" of fresh ginger

It smelled like freshly mowed grass - and it tasted WORSE!!

So the second day, after a little research, I tried something different.  I got rid of the celery, which I read can make the juice bitter. I swapped the lemon for an orange.  I split my greens between watercress and kale and only used 1 apple.  That was INCREDIBLE!

Then this morning, I skipped the apple and orange - and added PINEAPPLE - omg soo good!!

Today my "recipe" was:

1/4 of a fresh pineapple
Cucumber
Carrots
Spinach
Watercress

It was sooooo goood!

Am I doing a "juice cleanse"? Nope. I'm not even doing it more than once a day. At this point, it's just a morning thing for me. I want it to get the extra nutrition from veggies that I don't normally eat or enjoy.

I plan to get a few different things from the grocery store in the next few weeks, including parsnips and beets. I will, for now, continue to add one to two pieces of fruit to my juice until I can tolerate the greens on their own. I don't think I'm getting TOO much sugar out of it if I'm just having a small glass of juice and in the long run, I'm getting a lot of nutritional value that I wouldn't have otherwise.

 If you juice, what is your favorite combination? 

And in case you're wondering, I did not hit my magical GOAL number for weigh in this week. :( I gained 1lb because I took the weekend off from counting points and working out. My mom was in town and that is my cue to go out to eat, enjoy and indulge :-) I deserve those weekends once in awhile. Goal is waiting for me, hopefully next week!

I managed to make it to yoga this morning. I've talked Jen into taking a spin class with me tomorrow night. My hubby is going back too. Then I will have Pilates on Thursday and another spin class on Friday morning. I'm hoping that Mother's Day finds us with good weather so that we can go out for a family bike ride (with the little guy in the trailer and my big girl on her trail-behind bike attached to mine!)

On the road again...

Just like Jen, I'm back to quitting sugar completely again.  I found that I'm uncomfortable, bloated, crabby & emotional - all things that I wasn't when there was no sugar in my system!

It's been a hard week. I've wanted to quit multiple times already, but I haven't done it!  I am even going back and reading the blog for inspiration and to remember WHAT THE HECK I was eating last time I did this :-)

I am keeping a bit of fruit in for the first week or two. I made the baked steel cut oats for breakfast this week, since I've been having a hard time figuring out what to eat for breakfast now, and used blueberries and apples in the casserole.  But I'm trying to keep it only to breakfast time and not snacks throughout the day (or else I'd be eating 3-4 pieces of fruit just trying to get through!)  I am also excited to have found ketchup with NO SUGAR ADDED!! Very exciting for a ketchup addict! It was a big win with my preschooler and I'll learn to love it too.

I'm also heavily relying on Jillian Michael's detox water. 60 oz of water guaranteed to be in my system (I've really been slacking on the hydration!) and here's hoping the dandelion tea works it's magic too!

I'm excited to know a few people who are quitting sugar starting on Monday. It will be great motivation for me to know that they are following this path for the first time and to remember what it was for me to do it last October.

I ran five miles in 54 minutes yesterday.  Again, I'm not fast, but I am definitely improving and getting somewhat faster. I attribute my increase in strength to my yoga and Pilates classes. I feel SO MUCH stronger and in control than I used to. I highly recommend finding out if you have access to either or both of these classes! A great investment of time.

Coasting.

I haven't posted in awhile. I'm having a rough time...  not keeping sugar free, suffering post-race depression (if that exists!) and not losing weight. I'm not GAINING, but I'm back where I was in July - fluctuating between the same few pounds (154-157). I haven't been gorging on sugar, but I also haven't been watching that hidden stuff in sauces or dressings. Also I've been eating fruit again (including bananas, but I'm not back to 4+ in a day :-)).

So I'm not here to blow your mind, I'm not going to be inspiring anyone today, for sure.  Just wanted to give a little status update so you don't think I've fallen off the face of the earth.

Ten Miles!

Still training, still living mostly sugar free!  I'm finding that while I have cravings every single day, I rarely if ever give in to them!

Here's my calendar for training from the last few weeks:

If you can read that, you can see I did it! I went TEN MILES on Sunday!  So excited that I accomplished that distance!

Also, I've found a breakfast option that is sugar free (although I do use the fruit, so it's not fructose free).   This oatmeal is ahhhh-ma-zing!  I followed the recipe exactly, although I did add a pint of blueberries and I think it's perfect! I don't know that I will ever make any other kind of oatmeal again. Even the kiddos liked it.  It would also make a great dessert, warm over ice cream (you know, if you're not sugar free :-))


I'm am still so amazed that my body has adjusted so dramatically. Things that I wouldn't have thought was sweet 4 months ago are alarmingly sweet.  Bananas! I had my first banana the other day and I might as well have been eating a candy bar! I don't remember them as being that sweet before (you know, when I was eating four of them a day).

So if you're with me on the quitting sugar journey, what things have surprised you as sweet now, but not before??

Slipped.

I'm enjoying an apple. 

I have loosened my restrictions on sugar, but realized I was allowing all the WRONG kinds - a chocolate covered pretzel here, a square of chocolate there...  but still not allowing fruit at all. So this afternoon, when the cravings struck (I think allowing the "wrong" sugar has amplified the afternoon cravings) I reached for an apple. Oh my goodness, it tastes AMAZING! I've never been a huge fan of apples. Give me a few the week after we go apple picking the fall, but I don't eat them beyond that.  However today it is a whole new thing for me. This apple (Jazz apple) tastes so sweet! It's totally hitting the spot for me this afternoon!  So I'm going to be disposing of the leftover Christmas cookies, candy and drinks so that I am not tempted anymore.

I did gain another pound this week. I'm not sure if it's the little amount of sugar I have allowed or if it is because I haven't tracked my WW points at all. Either way, it all ends today. My hubby goes back to work tomorrow so it's back to the routine!  I also am close enough to finished nursing that I took those extra points off of my Weight Watchers totals. So I've gone from 44 points daily to *gulp* 27!

 

I started my training plan on Saturday with a nice 8 mile run. I won't lie, I'm a HURTING PUPPY today, but it felt AWESOME! Around mile 7.5, I realized that I was *just hitting* the 1 hour, 30 min mark - the amount of time it took me to run 6.2 in October!  Very excited to see that, even though I'm a Sssssllllooowww runner, I'm improving. 

From my lake run on Saturday

My "Cheat" for Thanksgiving!

I'm allowing one "sweet" on Thanksgiving - some homemade cranberry sauce! 

I used Skinny Taste's recipe obviously taking out the agave/sugar.  I used 2-16oz bags of cranberries and four pears. I added about 2.5 cups of water as well. I did add some cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg to the mix as it cooked. I wanted to add cloves, but I couldn't track down cheesecloth to float them in!

I think tomorrow morning I will add a bit of orange zest, just to mix it up.  

 So excited to taste it tomorrow!!

 

Happy Thanksgiving!