Day 7: Add some Flax

Day 7: Add some Flax

Today’s to do is add 2 tablespoons of ground flax seeds to my diet. Today will actually a full week of me on the program, and a full week of me already eating flax seeds daily. I got some about a month ago, after hearing the great benefits to it, I wanted to add it to my bread. So me and the little one has been slamming those seeds like crazy. Over the weekend, talking to my mother in law, she mentioned to me that I should ground them in my coffee grinder because you get more nutritional value to them. I was weary about this but when I read today’s chapter she said that you do get more of the benefits in flax if you grind them. Would’ve been good to know a month ago! Here are some of the reasons why flax should be a daily part of the diet

• 2 tbls of flax is 30% of your daily fiber! Holy cow…..
• Because it fills you up, it causes you to eat less, and stay fuller longer
• High source of B vitamins, omega 3′s & 6′s, great for those of us who don’t eat fish all the time and don’t want to take an additional supplement
• lowers cholesterol & blood pressure levels
• Flushes out excess estrogen levels
• Full of antioxidants and studies have shown it helps reduce inflammation

Even better, flax is not expensive. I got a lb of it from Giant Eagle for just under $4. Considering your only eating 2 tablespoons a day not too bad. As far as storing & grinding:

• Kathy suggests grinding 3 days worth at a time, sealing in your fridge. It reminds you to eat all of it.
• You can store fresh ground flax for 3 weeks in the fridge, although for optimal nutrition fresh ground is best
• The seeds can be stored in just a cool dry place
• Flax seed oil is good for up to 6-8 weeks in the fridge, although fresh ground seeds provide more nutritional benefits

I wanted to touch base real quickly on flax seeds & babies. We feed little one flax in oatmeal if she has any, and she loves it.  In our house we don’t do baby puree’s, she just eats off of the table. So I wanted to see what I could find on babies eating ground flax seed (homemade-baby-food-recipes.com is a great reliable website especially for those of you who make your own baby food)

• Flax is great for relieving constipation, so when you start your baby on this, start at just 1 teaspoon grounded, and you can work your way up to 2-3 teaspoons
• As always, provide plenty of breast milk or formula to your infant, flax can build up and cause an obstruction in the bowels if your infant is dehydrated. I would especially watch this one with those picky toddlers
• Try waiting until your infant has had a wide variety of foods before introducing flax, it isn’t recommended to give immediately at the introduction of solids. I’m guessing this is just too much for their GI
• Omega 3′s & 6′s are essential to infant brain development, this is usually found in breastmilk or formula, but it is a great supplement to start your infant on

Ways to eat flax seeds (for adults, children, and babies)

• Whole flax seeds can be eating in salads/breads, as long as they are well chewed you are still receiving benefits
• Add to your yogurt, oatmeal, soups, baby purees, it gives off a nutty flavor but you can hardly tell it’s even there
• Have a smoothie with ground flax or flax oil
• Sprinkle ground flax onto roasted/steamed vegetables
• Can be used as a binding agent in replaced of eggs: 1 tbs ground flax with 3 tbs water
• My favorite- an apple with peanut butter and ground flax

For now on we will be sticking to ground flax I think, I wondered if that was why I felt bloated the past week, it’s been 3 days I’ve been grinding and I really can’t tell a difference at all

Dairy Free, Egg Free English Muffins, My Way.

A good friend of mine got me hooked on making homemade english muffins a few months back. Seriously, a little bit of heaven melting in your mouth. She inspired me to come up with a tad healthier version, and I decided to take it to a complete dairy free, egg free recipe for today’s challenge (plus I have no eggs hehe) Hope you enjoy!

English Muffins

• 1 cup almond milk
• 3 TBL coconut oil
• 1 TBL flax oil
• 1/2 t kosher salt
• 2 t agave nectar
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 TBL vital wheat gluten
• 1.5 t dry active yeast
• cornmeal

Put ingredients in bread machine, as listed 

Start dough cycle

Sprinkle corn meal over work area

Knead dough out into a rectangle, I make thinner ones (1/4-1/2″)

Turn dough slightly so covered with meal

Cut into rounds

I use a tin can that holds spices, you can use an empty tuna can though or even a coffee mug

Preheat oven to 350

Cut out all rounds, place on baking sheet and cover

Once oven is done preheating, turn off, place trays into oven and let rise 30-45 minutes This is what they should look like before rising:

As you can see, I got 2 dozen muffins, with barely any dough left!

This is what they should look like risen (about 30-45 minutes). Allow your dough to double:

Once your dough has risen, turn on griddle to 350 or heat pan to medium-high heat

Cook on each side, 6-8 minutes

Yum. And Enjoy. In our house we have to try not to eat 4 or 5 at a time.. Although you can freeze these, we never have to because we eat them up! We love to make egg sandwiches out of them tool

Yes, it even has the nooks & cranny’s that Thomas muffins talks about…

The baby enjoyed hers with strawberry jam.

Day 6: Trade Milk & Butter for Plant Based Versions

Day 6:

I’m not sure what it is about today, but I don’t feel well. Honestly I’ve felt like bloaty-crap for the past 2 days. My weight isn’t up, but I feel icky and bloated. Maybe it’s my body adjusting to all the fiber I’ve been eating. I started today off with the usual steel cut oats/apple/almonds/flax. And I’m at 8 cups of water now (about 1 o clock.) Tonight we will be eating out, so I’m not sure what I will be eating, and if I feel like making a commitment on not eating animal products, simply because it hasn’t been a part of my daily challenge- yet- I haven’t full given up much. But as of today I will be giving up Milk & Butter for plant based versions.

Here’s the deal with milk, it’s rich and fatty, and it’s meant for baby cows. It is intended to put on 1,000 lbs on a baby cow, just within a year! We aren’t baby cows, so we don’t need cow’s milk. Hardly past the age of 3-4 children intuitively will stop nursing from their mothers, this is an accomplishment that in many cultures is seen as a celebration. Often times toddlers will nurse to these older ages, because the innate need to suck is still built in their reflex, and because their bodies still need this milk. Why our culture finds breastfeed a young child disgusting, versus feeding them milk from a cow is BEYOND me… It’s very much just our Western thinking society.

Plain cows milk, is not good for you. Cows are often times given medicine, to keep them “healthy” or to treat infections on their utters from the machines that are used to milk them. These are primarily antibiotics, but there is another nasty swarm of chemicals that are involved that can really harm you. When you drink your milk, eat your beef, eat your steaks, you are eating the antibiotics as well. As I’ve said, there is a whole swarm of studies devoted to antibiotic resistance being linked to receiving antibiotics via animal products.

Organic cows milk is no better, because still, it is from A COW! It has Casein in it, which is incredibly addictive component.  This is actually a naturally occurring compound in milk, that makes it addictive to young calf’s. This causes them to stay near their mother, nurse frequently. It is natures protective instinct, in their milk. We too, can be addicted to this casein.. which why many of us truly feel addicted to dairy.

• Cornell University actually found a link (the China study) of casein promoting cancer
• Skim milk: once the fat is skimmed off of the milk, all that is left is milk sugar. This can be hard on our system, and cause us to gain weight (2011 Harvard Study)
• 80% African Americans, 90% Asian Americans, 60% Hispanic Americans have some form of dairy intolerance. This includes severe symptoms (major GI upset, throwing up, rash, bloody stools & diarrhea)  to just minor ones (minor bloating/gas, cramping) Often times people are so used to these reactions when they eat food they assume this is normal “after dinner” feel

We switched to coconut milk once I had the baby.. She had very colicky symptoms as a young infant, lots of GI upset, and spit up like a reflux baby. I quickly eliminated dairy from my diet, but immediately substituted soy.  The symptoms did not change, so I quickly went back to my dairy eating ways. A few months later (around 4 months old) we had tried 2 different reflux medicines, and of course all the natural treatments. Nothing was helping. I finally decided to try eliminating all the common allergens, and AH HAH, it was soy & dairy that was hurting my baby’s belly. I quickly confirmed my theory when I my soup with butter a few weeks later and she immediately became ill. Dairy intolerance is real. And it’s no fun.  Now that she is older, sits up on her own, and is eating some solids, I can handle a bit of ice cream here or there or cheese. Usually  just milk is the worse offender.

Also, organic milk is expensive here. $4.60 for half a gallon. So we switched to non-dairy alternatives simply because of the hormones in regular milk. So this challenge today wasn’t too crazy, but I did buy some almond milk and tried that instead. It was very good! I still think I like the coconut milk better, bu it’s nice to have change.

As far as butter goes, we only use coconut oil, olive oil, or grapeseed oil. One thing I do know (and Kathy talks about it in the book) is if you REALLY want butter, try Earth’s Balance Natural Spread. It’s delicious! Even my husband and dad said they couldn’t notice a difference- which is huge! The one thing you do have to be weary of as Kathy notes, is that it is the same amount of calories as regular butter, so don’t go crazy with it.

For today’s challenge, I decided to make a dairy, egg free english muffin recipe. I can’t wait to post the recipe and pictures later

Balsamic Tomato w/ Cous Cous (And Boca)

Balsamic Tomato with Cous Cous (And Boca)

We tried a new recipe this week. It was a hit with the baby, and I, the Mister just was not digging it. It was delicious, but not delicious enough for him to finish it. Mainly he didn’t like the boca burger. The cous cous is amazing! I’ve never had that before, and it’s like a warm, chewy rice, but it almost has a nutty flavor. I was really more concerned about the tomatoes… I hardly ever dig fresh tomatoes, but we got heirloom, and it was pretty good! 

The recipe:

• 2 cups water
• 1 t dried basil
• 1 t garlic
• 1.5 c uncooked cous cous
• 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup ground pepper
• 4 large tomatoes, or 2 small

In a medium pan, bring water to boil

After boiling, add cous cous, cover and set aside

In a small bowl, combine oil, vinegar, garlic, pepper, and basil 

Add tomatoes, stir

Combine tomato mixture with cous cous, stir well. Add handful of mozzarella cheese

 

This dish was very simple ( I think it took 20 minutes to cook from start to finish) and it very economical. 

Baby LOVED it. We paired hers with a tomatilla, and she munched on that and the cous cous.

Day 5: Go a Little Nuts

Day 5

Day 5 went pretty well. The challenge today was to follow the past 4 days of challenges, plus have a handful of raw nuts. For breakfast I had steel cut oats & had a handful of raw almonds on top. It was delicious. 

Kathy spent a great deal today talking about a few studies on nuts. She thinks that plenty of people find that nuts & nut butters are fattening, so she spends some time de-bunking that theory.

• In a few different studies a group was instructed to eat 1/2 cup of nuts a day, in addition to their daily calories, at the end of the 6 year study, the people who ate nuts had no weight gain, despite their increase in calories
• She accredits this to nuts being more satisfying, causing you to eat less of what you normally would, such as reaching for an afternoon snack, or simply replacing chips for nuts
• Nuts increase your metabolism because it takes so much work for your body to digest, on average (in a study she recites) about 20 grams of fat a day were burnt just by those people who ate walnuts
• Of all the nuts you consume 70% are consumed through dietary compensation mechanisms, 20% may be lost because of increased fat burn, leaving barely any actual calories being packed on from nuts.

In our house, we don’t buy junk food, we buy peanut butter & nutella. That’s honestly my “poison”… Which I guess isn’t too bad now knowing these facts, but I still have help but feel like you shouldn’t slam the peanut butter like a fat kid on a friday night. Especially if your not buying organic, peanut butter has trans fat, a loads of saturated fat, and sugar. We like to buy Skippy Natural, it’s not organic, but I love the flavor. 

Today went well as far as eating went.. 

B: Steel cut oats w/ almonds & coffee w/ almond milk & agave

S: Apple

L: Rice & Vegetables

S: Carrots & Popcorn

D: Balsamic Tomato Cous Cous with Boca Burger

S: 2 TBS Nutella, handful of nuts

D: Baked Apple

I definitely feel a shift in my food habits today, I felt more full today, and I was able to avoid eating 4 tablespoons of nutella and a big bag of chips & salsa. Also- for my nursing mama’s I have noticed a supply change too since I started eating the oatmeal daily. 

Vegan Week: Meal Planning

As the Mister is watching the draft, I decided to pump out my meal plan for next week, our first full week VEGAN (GASP!) I have read SO many delicious recipes recently I have been so anxious to get started on this. I have to say, this is the most diverse menu ever, and it seems like there are plenty of filling foods. And it doesn’t seem like it will wreck my budget (yay for a new month) So here it goes:

	Breakfast	Snack	Lunch	Snack/2nd Lunch	Dinner	Dessert
Monday	Brown rice, almond milk, raw almonds, flax	carrots & hummus	Caprese cous cous salad w/ tomatoes	Rice cake w/ peanut buter	Split pea, kale & potatoe soup
Tuesday	quiona w/ banana	coconut yogurt w/ flax seed	Left over soup	Apple w/ Almond butter	Portobello Steaks w/ Sweet potatos	Baked Apples w/ agave & candied nuts
Wednesday	steel cut oats w/ almonds & flax	rice cake w/ peanut butter	Italian Pasta Salad w/ veggies	Blueberries & Almond milk	Quinoa, brown rice & veggies
Thursday	toast w/ peanut butter	Mango Salsa & Cinnamon pita chips	Brown rice, salsa, black beans & veggies	coconut yogurt w/ flax seed	Left overs
Friday	steel cut oats w/ almonds & flax	Blueberries & Almond milk	Salad	carrots & hummus	Bean burgers, steak fries, and roasted brussel sprouts
Saturday	pumpkin pancakes w/ agave & raw almonds	carrots & hummus	Pitas w/ rice & black beans & salsa	Mango salsa & rice cake	Butternut squash risotto w/ flax	Homemade coconut milk ice cream with mixed berries
Sunday	toast w/ peanut butter	Blueberries & Almond milk	Pasta w/ olive oil & garlic, broccoli	Apple w/ peanut butter & flax	Baba ganoush w/ pita & veggies

Day 4: Cleaning out your Cupboards, and just for today say no to your poison

Day 4

Well today I had to make sure I still drank 16 cups of water, ate a good breakfast, and have an apple. I gotta be honest, I’m dragging today. I’m tired, I overslept, I can’t seem to get one step ahead of my little girl to keep things moving, and it’s a rainy mess out. I really wanted to skip breakfast because I felt like bloated cramp this morning, but after being up about an hour I felt like I really needed to eat. So I finally let Iittle girl eat some oats & banana’s with me. She loves oatmeal:

She loved to eat the flax seed too:

It was pretty cute. And here is the recipe:

Steel cut oats cooked with water

1 banana sliced 

2 tbs flax seed

Heavenly. I really enjoy these oats much more on the 2nd and 3rd day. Tomorrow I will try my rice cooker recipe on them.

Onto Day’ 4′s duties: Cleaning out my cupboards. Today I am supposed to trash anything not good for me in my pantry. Cleaning my pantry was on my spring cleaning to do list anyways so I’m glad I got it done. I wiped everything down, organized, and took out the j-u-n-k.

Here is what I took out:

This is what I will be donating to our Church. I can’t justify throwing out food. Most of these items were great coupon deals that I picked up- like I have had those muffin mixes and hungry jack mixes for WAY too long, so it’s good to have them out. The puffs I just went overboard with coupons at the store and to be honest I don’t want them to be a daily part of her food menu. They have preservatives and junk in them, and if she is going to be filling her belly I’d prefer she do it with regular food. Besides, I don’t trust ANYTHING with the label Gerber on it, without associating it with baby junk food. I’m getting rid of my so called “fiber” cereal with is loaded with sugar for my new steel cut oats, and getting rid of that other sugary crap I used to call oatmeal. Sorry, but it’s true! Here is my pantry now

As far as “saying no to my poison just for today” here is what I have ate:

B: oats w/ banana & flax seed

L: Penne pasta w/ 1 cup raw vege’s

S: 2 homemade brownies 

And that’s all I’ve ate today. I did skip out on my normal creamer & sugar in my coffee, and I still need to eat my apple and make dinner, which I still am not sure what I’m cooking yet ) I totally failed on the brownies…. I wanted to throw them away this morning but thought I would hold off until the afternoon, then my afternoon crash came like a wave and took me over. Oh well, tomorrow! So far, I am down 2 lbs since Monday, on starting the program. Every day that i read, I get more excited about going vegan and doing a complete over haul on my family’s diet. Hope you all are enjoying this beautiful, dreary day

Day 3: Eat an Apple & Crowding out

Day 3: Eat an Apple

Day 3′s assignment was to eat an apple, something I already do every day, so once again this wasn’t really a challenge day for me. Kathy talks about the amazing cancer fighting benefits in apples, and that Apples can actually suppress all 3 levels of formation in cancer. She also talked about the big F word: fiber. So far in every chapter, there is large emphasis on fiber, and the types of fiber.  For every 1,000 calories you consume, you should have 14 grams of fiber. Most people need about 28 grams of fiber. Eating an apple a day is part of the lean plan because 1 apple has 4.4 grams of fiber.

Here was a sample of 25 grams of fiber that she included:

1/4 c steel cut oats (4 grams)

1/2 c cooked beans (10 grams!)

1 Apple w/ skin (3-5 grams)

1/2 c vegetables (4 grams or more depending on type)

Fiber is excellent for your colon health, and essential to weight loss. Basically it keeps things moving, especially things that our body has a hard time breaking down like animal flesh.

Crowding Out

Crowding out is an act that Kathy frequently talks about from her book, starting in the introduction. Essentially it’s the idea that you can eat your normal foods, and just add in healthy ones too. Eat your healthy foods first, and if you still feel full, eat your cake/pork/chips/etc…  This concept tricks your body of deprivation. So you aren’t obsessivly thinking about what you can’t eat, you eventually crowd out all of the foods that are part of a healthy diet, with time.

The reason why crowding out works- sugar and fat is addicting  this is not new to many of us. But the problem is we reach thresholds, we constantly need to reach a new high of sugar or fat content, basically because our body has a lovely drug called dopamine that eases you when you eat these foods.  When you take a big bite of cake, dopamine floods your system, and you feel at peace, just like any addiction, you need to reach that high again. This is why our cravings can be so intense for certain foods, it is literally driven by our brain. The more fats & sweets you have, the more “health food” doesn’t meet the dopamine levels that your body wants it too, so you feel unsatisfied. This why crowding out is a small step, towards large success. Plus how many of us have tried Adkins, South Beach, etc. and feel like you are starving on it? All you can think about is just getting a tiny sliver of carbohydrate into your mouth, just a bite.

Crowding out allows you to avoid the withdraw, avoid the headaches, and irritability. Win win

Food & Weight

I try not to make a habit of weighing myself. I feel like even the calmest person can suddenly become obsessive about a number on the scale, especially when it starts to drop. Then once the number goes up most of us avoid it like the black plague. Personally, I have met my own weight goals after having the baby. Of course, I would love to lose 10 extra pounds, what women  doesn’t want to just lost 10 extra lbs?

Well for the past month, Mister & I have been dropping weight like hot cakes, both of us hitting all time lows we haven’t seen since our dating years..  My bmi was about 21.8, which is pretty healthy, and his was 24.1, which is great. We are both slim people, so I feel like it’s more about how you feel in your skin than the number.

The past 2 weeks, the food monster has came into our home.. You all know who that is… The monster that drops off bacon, and lbs of cheese, and junk, and brownies, and sweets, and forces you to get fast food, the food monster that controls your thoughts and all you can think about is hunger and food. I mean I have been slamming food lately.. Normally I always stay consistently healthy within a good range, but it just has felt like my hunger has had no end. Part of this might be do to nursing, and baby is cutting teeth so she really has been nursing a lot, but I’m not sure what else it could be besides that & stress.

I haven’t weighed myself, in oh about a week, at least, can’t really remember.  Well I did yesterday, hoping to keep track of my weight on this 30 day journey. Wow. Up a whole 3 lbs since the last time I weighed myself. No biggie, figured it’s just water retention from those damn burgers we ate the night before. Well I weighed myself again today and I was down 1.4, which does let me know that it’s water weight, but it also let’s me know that I am off track, I need to re-align my eating habits, and bump up my work outs. Weight comes on too easily and off too difficult. It’s a pain- you all know that.

I was feeling pretty down about it this morning, but I decided to go ahead a blog about it, leave it at what it is, and move on from my day. It’s just a few lbs, and I’m sure it will be gone in a week or two of discipline. It’s too easy to let this stuff control you.

As a women it’s easy to succumb to pressure of numbers, to want to look a certain way, be a certain size, but all that really matters is truly your health, and if you are healthy, you won’t have extra weight. If you are pushing yourself, exercising, even if it’s walking, and make healthy  habits for yourself, the weight stays off. It’s that simple. We try to make it more difficult and it’s not. So here’s to being healthy!

And remember, we are all impressionable.

Rice Cooker Oatmeal Recipe

Rice Cooker Oatmeal

4 cups cold water

2 cups oats

1/3 c brown sugar

2 TB butter

1 t vanilla extract

1.  Combine water and oats in rice cooker. Stir once and turn cooker on. Let cook until rice cooker switches over to “warm”, about 20 minutes
2. Stir in brown sugar, butter, and vanilla. Serve immediately

Courtesy of Family Feasts for $75 a Week