Remember how I used to be super healthy about my eating? Remember all those posts about running and healthy recipes? Yeah. I can remember those days too, but somehow over the last 18 months or so, I threw practically all of my healthy lifestyle out the window. I've thought about why this happened, but it It doesn't matter when or why I got off track. It only matters that I get back to that place of optimal health. Well, my friends, the times, they are a changin'.
I have been doing my own personal version of a purification program since January 2nd, and I feel great! I probably shouldn't call it "purification," because I'm not taking the supplements that help to cleanse your body. I opted out of the official program this year, because, sadly, I'm just too strapped from Christmas right now to afford it. I believe that taking the supplements in conjunction with a diet change is the best way to go about a cleanse, and I highly recommend seeing Dr. Luke at Health First Chiropractic, if you are interested. You don't need to be a chiropractic patient to do the purification program. You can find his information by clicking here, and the specifics of the program he uses by clicking here. I hope to stash away a few bucks to do the program in its entirety sometime before summer, but even without the supplements, I stand by the guidelines for healthful eating. It's not complicated, and there are no gimmicks. It's all about clean eating, eliminating the unnatural products that so many of us stuff ourselves with, and instead filling up on nutrition-packed, real food. Although I hope to lose more than just a handful of pounds, this is not a diet. It's a lifestyle. It's about so much more than the number on the scale. It's about feeling my best, appreciating not just my body, but also the foods that God has provided, perfect in form from their origin. Most importantly, it's about taking care of myself so that I can live the healthiest life possible. I have some other changes to make too, but for now, I'm focusing on eating, and I'm feeling better already!
It's not difficult to eat clean foods. It just takes a little planning and preparation. There are no magic concoctions or pills. It also doesn't mean that I am not eating. I've had so many people say, "I'd be so hungry. I could never do that." Not true. I eat plenty, and I'll share some recipes to prove it! I just eat differently. The idea is to get back to eating real food, the way we were intended to eat, before fast food and mass production came into play. I eat lots of veggies, a good amount of fruit, and lean, unprocessed protein. No dairy (or very limited dairy at most), no processed foods, no foods with high sugar content, and no refined carbohydrates. It's not hard to find foods that are allowable. What's hard is fighting the urges to sneak the "forbidden" foods. This time around, I decided that I was going to be strict with myself, but that I wasn't going to freak out if I cheated.
I know you're wondering if I have cheated.
Yes. I have...but not monumentally. I still drink my morning pot (or close to it) of coffee. I can't eradicate all of my vices, and the caffeine habit is probably the least offensive one of the group! I have also had a few pretzel rods, and a few pieces of Dove Dark chocolate. One night last week, I failed to plan dinner. I was extremely premenstrual and I didn't get home until close to 6, which is way too late to start cooking something, in my opinion. We ordered cheese steak sandwiches and pepperoni pizza from a local pizza shop. It was damn good, and I even drank half of a beer that night too! That's OK, though. I ate well up until dinner that day, and I didn't let it derail me completely. It was just one meal, and the next morning I picked up right where I left off. I know that a lot of my previous issues come from my tendency to have an "all or nothing" mentality. Instead of giving myself some slack to make a few mistakes here and there, I beat myself up over the smallest mistakes, and then I give up. I know, looking back on when I was on my super-health kick, that I didn't eat 100% right, 100% of the time. It's about finding the right balance. It's OK to have a glass of wine once in a while. It's OK to have a piece of pizza for dinner or a couple chunks of chocolate too, as long as those are the exception, not the rule. And it's OK to slip up, as long as I keep heading in the right direction. I'm tired of starting over. I'm biting the bullet, getting back on the horse, driving the bleeping wagon - whatever you want to call it. I'm not giving up again. It's just like cleaning and organization - it's so much easier to keep up with a clean house when you do it as a regular part of your routine, instead of letting things go.
Again, there are no tricks or shortcuts, just plain on discipline. I started listening to the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace course (Thanks, Julie for lending me your CDs!). One of the things he talks about on the first CD is how no one really likes discipline, but that we all reap the benefits of it, if we are diligent. He references the bible when he says, "I don't like discipline...but I do like, in my life, what discipline produces...No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who have been trained by it." Discipline gives us the ability to look beyond instant gratification and see how the advantages of self-control now significantly outweigh and outlive short-term indulgence. I love sweets. They are my ultimate downfall. An occasional sweet treat is OK, but daily sweet treats make me feel sluggish and unhealthy. Their reward is short-lived. Having the discipline to turn down the sweets can be hard. Let's face it. It can feel downright impossible at times, but the rewards of making good food choices are long lasting. I feel better when I eat right, when I drink less alcohol, and when I exercise regularly. That's the foundation, the one that I need to keep in mind at 5 a.m. when I don't really want to get out of my warm bed to exercise, at the family gathering when I really want to eat 6 cookies instead of one, at home when I tell myself I'm tired of chopping veggies ---- I. Will. Feel. Better.
Ahhh....you can breathe a sigh of relief now. I'm done with my justification-for-clean-eating rant. Whew!
I'm sure you want to know about the weight loss, because that's the first thing people ask about. I lost 6 pounds in the first 3 days! Now, before you get all excited, let me explain this weight loss - it was water retention. That sounds like a bummer, but it's not. It's weight that I needed to lose, but it wasn't like 6 pounds of fat just melted off of me. Lots of foods, especially highly processed foods, carbohydrates and dairy products cause inflammation in the body. You retain water because of the inflammation. By simply eating foods that do not cause such awful inflammation, I lost all the water that I had been retaining. My clothes didn't fit any differently, but I felt so much less bloated and puffy. I could see the difference right away in my face. My eyes weren't puffy when I woke up, and I could see my cheekbones again! My ass, on the other hand, remains beefy! Oh well. It takes longer to lose the fat, and I've got plenty of time - I have the rest of my life!
The weight loss since then has been much less drastic, but steady nonetheless. I would like to lose an additional 19 pounds from my initial 6, but I also know that realistically, if I eat the way I should be eating, that I will probably plateau after 10 more. I'm OK with that. Along with eating healthy, I have also added to my daily prayers a brief request to God to help me respect and appreciate the body I have, even if it is not the same body I had at 20. It's the only body I will be given, and I am working on appreciating everything in my life more, including my physical being at whatever stage of life I am in.
Along with debloating, I have noticed a marked increase in energy. When you stop eating those kinds of highly processed, highly refined foods, you go through a withdrawal period. It's not just about changing your habits. It's also a legitimate physical period of withdrawal that you experience. That said, the pain of getting over the first few days sans carbs is worth it. Within a week I noticed a huge improvement in my energy level. No, I'm not really sleeping any better. I hoped that I would. (Ha! I should know better!) But I no longer feel like I am trudging through mud when I am unable to take that half hour snooze after work. In fact, while I have taken a few naps, I have also opted out of a few too, because I didn't feel like I needed it! I knew that I felt better when I was eating better. What I didn't realize was just how bad I was actually feeling when I was partying my way through cake, cookies and chips and dips galore. Again, the big aha moment: I. Feel. Better!
I have also started back into some light weight training. I'm not doing anything terribly remarkable just yet. Slow and steady, Koelle. Slow and steady. I'm sticking to 20 minutes of free weights for the time being. Once I feel like I've gotten the weights ingrained into my daily routine, I will add more. Yes, slowly and steadily, I am climbing back into a healthy lifestyle. I feel encouraged so far, in case you didn't notice! I hope that your resolutions, whatever they are, are going as well as mine! If eating right was one of them, maybe you want to try some of these recipes. The hummus is delicious, and the coconut curry is going to be a sure staple in our home!
Bean Free Hummus:
1 3/4 cup zucchini, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup raw macadamia nuts
2 T tahini (sesame paste)
2 T EVOO
2 1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
dash of cayenne pepper
Throw it all in the food processor and viola! Mmm! A little warning, though - I used a big clove of garlic, and it was super garlicky! I like garlic, so I thought it was good, but if you're not a big garlic fan, I would cut the garlic in half, or use a very small clove. Either way, I recommend making your spouse eat some too, just for good measure!
Sunflower Sesame Crackers:
1 cup unsalted sunflower seeds
1 cup sesame seeds
1/3 cup water
salt to taste
Pulverize the sunflower seeds in a food processor until they are ground fine like a thick flour.
Add the sesame seeds and pulse them into the ground sunflower seeds.
Throw in some salt. I like salt, so I probably used half a tsp, maybe more. You can throw in other spices too, if you want to up the flavor, but I thought they were good like this.
Drizzle water into the mixture and mix until damp and doughy.
Roll the dough out as thinly as possible between two sheets of parchment paper. Remove the top piece of parchment and place the rolled dough (still on the bottom piece of paper) onto a cookie sheet. Use a pizza cutter to score the dough. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. These go wonderfully with the hummus and they're super easy to make!
Coconut Cashew Chicken:
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, pounded thin (I didn't bother pounding mine. I just marinated them for 24 hours instead of only 2, and they were still really good. I also didn't broil them, I baked them at 400 for 30 minutes - 15 minutes on each side.)
1 cup coconut curry (recipe below)
1/4 cup chopped cashews
Combine chicken and curry and marinate in the fridge for at least two hours. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before cooking.
Preheat oven to broil. Place the chicken on a wire rack and cook for twenty minutes, turning at halfway point.
Remove from oven and scatter with cashews. (Honestly, I could take or leave the cashews. They were fine, but I think it would have been just fine without them.)
This was SO good. I wish I had set aside some of the marinade to heat and pour over the chicken when it was done. Next time, I will definitely reserve some for garnish.
Coconut Curry
2 T EVOO
1 medium onion, chopped
1 small tomato, chopped
4 crushed garlic cloves
1 1 inch piece of ginger root (I used 1 tsp ground ginger)
1 tsp garam masala
8 ounces coconut milk
Heat oil in a skillet over a medium flame
Add onion and tomato and cook for 5 minutes
Stir in ginger and garlic and cook for one more minute
Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally
Add garam masala and simmer for 5 minutes
Remove from heat and let cool for 10 minutes
Pour into a blender and puree until smooth.
Return to skillet and add coconut milk. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.
Tamales
1 T EVOO
1 small yellow onion, diced
1 cup diced mushrooms
1 cup zucchini, diced
1 pound lean ground beef
1 T ground flax seed meal
1 tsp chili powder
2 scallions, chopped
1/2 tsp ground pepper
8 banana leaves (I couldn't find banana leaves, so I used corn husks), soaked in water for one hour.
Heat oil in a skillet. Add onion and saute for 5 minutes.
Add mushrooms and zucchini and saute for another 5 minutes
Add beef and stir until thoroughly browned. Remove from heat.
Stir in flax seed meal, chili powder and scallions.
Arrange in equal portions in husks. Fold the husks around the beef mixture and tie closed.
Fill a 4 quart pot with 1 inch of water. Insert steamer basket and bring to a boil. Place tamales in the basket and cover. Reduce heat to low and simmer for one hour, checking water level.
I'm not so sure about the wrapping and steaming part of this recipe. It felt like a lot of extra work for nothing to me. If tamales are your thing, then go for it. For me, the meat mixture was good, and I will definitely make it again. Next time, though, I'm going to stick it in a casserole dish and bake it for a little bit instead of making actual tamales.
That's all for now! Stay tuned for more updates and recipes!
Happy cooking, and healthy eating to all!
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