Chicken is trying to torture me.

I had something really weird and strange happen to me last night. We were feeling lazy and had an Olive Garden gift card so we went out to dinner. After gazing at the menu and gaping at the prices (I remember why we hardly ever eat there) I was horrified by how UNHEALTHY pretty much everything was on the menu. Over the years you always see articles talking about the worst restaurants to go to with the unhealthiest meals and it seems Olive Garden is always on there. Now, looking at food in a totally new light, I looked around and saw how horrible all this food really was. Nonetheless, I was fine with it and decided that at least I knew that I was going to fill my stomach with this "grossness." At least the grossness tastes good. I ordered the Stuffed Chicken Marsala.

Here is their menu's description: Oven-roasted chicken breast stuffed with Italian cheeses and sun-dried tomatoes, topped with mushrooms and a creamy marsala sauce. Served with garlic parmesan mashed potatoes. (taken from olivegarden.com).  

My fat loaded meal looked pretty tasty, I have to say. Tried my potatoes...yum. Tried my chicken...yum. Took a second bite of my chicken and about halfway done chewing I stop and stare at my plate. All of a sudden I start to feel sick to my stomach as a thought comes into my brain. I felt like I was in a movie because I swallowed my bite and made that loud "gulp" sound. The documentaries I watched and the research about chicken I've done all crept up in my head. All I could think about was, "Where does Olive Garden get their chicken from?" I seriously cannot believe that it made me feel so disgusted. I couldn't eat any more of my chicken. Ty ate it today for leftovers. Luckily by the time we got our meals I was already pretty full from our fried appetizer, carbs exploding breadsticks and the less-than-healthy salad.

I really don't want to turn into a vegetarian, but it seems I just eat less and less meat. Even at home I literally have like a 1/3 of a chicken breast or very small amount of turkey. It doesn't taste good to me anymore. I just get grossed out. I have to say too that I wasn't getting the feeling of the whole "comfort food" thing  at the restaurant either. I honestly felt kinda guilty the whole time we were there and in the back of my head I just wanted a really yummy salad.

On the bright side, I'm glad these changes are happening and at least I know at this point these probably are going to be permanent changes for my diet.

Today though I made carrot/cucumber/kale/parsley/apple juice and it was really yummy. Now that's something I can drink everyday.

Peace, Love & Juice

It's finally juicing time!!!

I wanted to write this blog like two weeks ago, but never sat down and did it. But at least I am doing it now!  I really want to spend some time and talk about juicing and how amazing it is. I'm going to talk about a lot of different things, so let me know if you have any questions.

Before we get started though I want to share a website with you:  Kris Carr

This website is filled with recipes, tips and info on how to live a healthier lifestyle overall! In my opinion, she's pretty funny and entertaining too.

Ok--back to juicing. Before we get started I just want to throw out that all the info in here is my opinion based on my own research. Please do your own and find things that work for you! If you really want to get into juicing first I recommend that you spend a lot of time looking up different styles, types and brands. There are TONS of different types of juicers and some are great, good and bad. Some cost more, but there are some good ones at lower prices out there too. I found a channel on YouTube, rawfoods, that gives great info on juicers, recipes and the like!  I now watch his videos regularly, I think they are great. After our own research we decided to get an Omega Mega Mouth Juicer BMJ330. We practically got it for free because of coupons and gift cards I still hadn't used from the wedding (I was saving them for something we really wanted and then I finally found something!)

This juicer has a large 3" feed shoot and is fast. This juicer doesn't get as good a juice yield as some other styles, but for now it works and we have found if you push produce through really slow you do get a lot more juice out of it. Eventually we want to get an Omega NC800 Juicer, but we will have to wait for that puppy! 

See it's a totally different style...also more expensive. But this kind will give you much more juice and will do other things besides juicing also. So once you have found a type and style you like then you really need to figure out what you want to juice, how often, where's the best place to store it, etc. We use ours almost every day so we keep the base on our counter-top and the rest gets cleaned and sits in a drying rack. I throw it in the dishwasher about once a week to get a better clean on it besides just us cleaning it.

As far as the juicing goes, there are things that are great to juice, some are okay and some I wouldn't recommend at all. The big thing to remember is that with any juice you need a base which needs to include firmer water-rich veggies like carrots and cucumbers. You also want to try to use about 75% base juice and then throw in your extras like kale, cilantro or broccoli. I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND THROWING SOME LEAFY GREENS INTO ANY JUICE YOU MAKE!!!  Kale is the most nutrient rich per calorie veggie that's out there (I've found that at a few sources, so I imagine this is true).  The firmer fruits and veggies will give you the most juice. Softer fruits like pears and grapes will work, but your pulp will not be as dry.  Things I DO NOT suggest juicing are berries and other soft fruits like peaches, mangos, etc. You will get very little juice. Instead you blend those and drink them in a smoothie. And bananas will not juice! I know it seems like a no brainer, but I've seen some things.... I've only created one juice so far that I thought was gross, it's honestly kinda hard to mess this up! As long as you are throwing in some apples, carrots, lemon, or something to kind of "cover up" the taste it'll be good. I promise!

                                            Base Juice 75%                    Extras 25%
                                                Celery                                Collards
                                                Cucumbers                         Kale
                                                Carrots                              Cilantro (great for detox)
                                                Apples                               Parsley (great for detox)
                                                Zuccinni                             Lemon
                                                               the list goes on.......

Here is an example of a juice I've made a few times:

• 2 apples (these are golden delicious, but I use red delicious a lot too)
• 4 celery stalks
• 3-4 kale leaves
• 1 cucumber (in this pic it's not peeled, but I would recommend you peel unless you have organic ones)
• 1/2 lemon
• small piece of ginger root (go easy on this it can really overpower!)

I wanted to include this so you could see what kale looked like.
I never knew what it was till recently!

There is always going to be a little pulp in the juice and there is always foam on top. This is the case no matter what juicer you buy; it's just the nature of juicing. If it really bothers you you can spend the extra time to strain your juice, but it doesn't bother me at all. This particular recipe made about 3 1/2 c of juice.

You can also throw some other things in there like green superfood powders or aloe juice (after you're done). You can't taste either one and they add so many awesome nutrients that you need!  Juicing is so amazing because you can get so many things your body needs and craves in such a short amount of time. Would you sit there and eat all that produce in that picture? I wouldn't. So instead I can juice it all and within 15 min. or so my body is already absorbing all that deliciousness! Yes, maybe I'm not getting any fiber, but with my huge salads I have for dinner and my smoothies, I think I am okay. :-)

That's about it. My husband and I are both starting to get to the point that we crave juice every day. I'm not lying when I tell you that the juices TASTE AMAZING!!  Some maybe don't look very pretty, but it's good. Have fun, experiment with different veggies and find some that work for you. I promise you won't be disappointed!

Peace, Love & Juice

To meat or not to meat?

I am in no way going to ever become a vegetarian, however, I have never really been a big meat person (especially red meat). Typically though we do eat a lot of hamburger. Since I've been on my food kick I've been watching lots of documentaries, reading articles, etc. Just trying to get myself informed. There are two documentaries I'd like to share with you.





I do recommend both of these to watch, as they are about very different things. My favorite documentary is still Hungry For Change though.  Hungry For Change and FoodMatters are both very informative and not so biased. They are more about giving you the information you need so you can start to eat better, feel better, and become educated. Food Inc, while still informative, was (in my opinion) highly biased and didn't always give you a true interpretation. But, I still learned things and more importantly it started to make me think and ask questions. Where does our food come from? What is in my food? How many nutrients am I really getting?  It opened my eyes and made me think about things that I've never really thought about before.


After watching Food Inc., it is pretty safe to say that I will never think about hamburger the same way again. Not that I will never eat it again, but now I feel at least a little more informed. We were going to make the switch from ground meat to ground turkey anyway, but now I feel solidified in my decision. After watching the film I also did some research to see if I could back up the information they provided. One thing was that they said if we fed cattle grass instead of corn then they would produce less E. Coli. I found a few articles/studies that contradicted this and said cattle will have E.Coli in their tract no matter what they eat. They also hit on a company called Monsanto and upon further research I also found out that they left out a lot of information in their stories. Anyway, my point is to not believe everything you see and to do your homework first.

I also found this interesting news story about "meat glue"

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/iteam&id=8638238


My food changes are still going well, I had a healthy choice fudge bar thing last night and I didn't feel guilty about it. It's ok to eat some non-healthy things every once in a while and even still I have lost 4.4 lbs in the past week so go me!! So exciting that you start to see results in the beginning. Makes me feel good in knowing that I am making a change and my body is noticing the changes too. I am pretty good about juicing every day and eating lots of raw veggies. We have a salad as our main dish every night for dinner and then have a small portion of meat as our side. As a society we have it backwards on our portions and what we eat. Salads are a good, easy way to get so many raw veggies in since you can put whatever you want in them and you are still getting leafy greens, which is very important. The salad dressing is good to help mask the taste of some you maybe don't like as much too!  But don't drown your salad....lots of dressings out there have a ton of sugar in them.

I know quite a few of you out there are reading my posts, so I was thinking of doing a post that had lots of tips/tricks/ideas?  What do you think? Am I actually informing anyone or am I just ranting for myself, haha? Let me know! :-)

No juicing today...just an update.

So I was going to do a juicing blog today, but for some reason I am very tired with a pretty bad headache so I'm going to do my blog in a couple of days. It's gonna take some effort and I'm just not in the mood today, so sorry. :(  But I did want to do an update at least. Today is technically day 3 of my two week super health splurge. Basically the plan is to have a smoothie every day for breakfast, juice sometime during the day (or maybe even multiple glasses) snacks (nuts, yogurt, veggies, fruits, etc.) and dinner either has chicken or turkey paired with lots of veggies. Salads are good and a good way to get lots of different types of veggies in, or just whatever. But only veggies as a side. Very little sugar and carbs these next two weeks. The biggest difference after these two weeks is that I'll allow some rice maybe two nights a week and every so often I will allow myself to eat something fatty or a really yummy dessert.

But so far, so good. I can tell my stomach is shrinking and I'm not craving things too badly. I am still having sugar during the day in my coconut milk, yogurt, salad dressing, and a few other minor things and I thinking knowing that is helping me not want to eat ice cream or chocolate or something. I feel like I have a much more mental grip now and it's really helping me. My sodium intake has been very minimal too, although I've never had a big problem with that in the past.

Overall though, I'm very happy that I'm finally doing this. And I'm REALLY happy that I WANT to do this now and that it's easier to do. It does help that I'm home a lot right now, so I'm using that to my advantage! Ugh, well I'm not feeling so hot so I'm gonna go lay down. But yay, healthy food!!

Katie

Diet? Reboot? What?

So to start off our changes we are going to do a reboot. I don't want to call it a diet because those are temporary and I don't want a temporary change. I want a change that will stick with me forever. Our reboot was inspired by two different documentaries. Both of them are very different and give lots of info.

Hungry For Change http://www.hungryforchange.tv/  This one is much more informative and gives lots of simple advice that is easy to start.  Available on Netflix or $3.99 on Amazon.

Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/  A much more inspiration film, this follows the story of a man fasting for 60 days. Available on Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu.

There are lots of other documentaries out there, but so far these are the only two I have watched. They have really helped Ty and myself get some motivation and figure out what is going to work best for us. We have already been juicing for about a week (will have another post all about juicing in a few days) and it's turning out to be a pretty good experience. Our reboot is going to consist of lots of juice, smoothies, and veggie rich dinners. The goal is to cut pretty much all carbs and sugar. We want to try this reboot for two weeks and see how it goes. I know I'll never cut fats, sugars and junk food out completely, and that's not my goal. I want to change my diet to be filled with large amounts of raw foods and smaller amounts of crap.

Right now my house is FILLED with tons of fresh veggies and fruits and the good news is I've actually been eating them consistently and Brendan seems to be a fan of most of it too (that in itself is an awesome thing!!).  When I'm hungry and want to snack I've been more likely to grab something healthy, and although some of it is by force, part of me is actually wanting to eat it instead of chips or cookies. I'm hoping that this reboot will start to change my taste buds and my cravings and eating greens and veggies will be something that I WANT to do instead of something I HAVE to do.

Tonight I'll be eating one more piece of my anniversary cake and then it's going in the garbage. Over time I plan on throwing things away and replacing them with better, healthier options (like margarine...I am NEVER buying that stuff again. Butter tastes better anyway. :) ).

See ya later, cake! I don't feel quite so guilty throwing this away since it was free, haha.

  Katie

How many times have I tried this now?

Over the past 2 years I have tried over and over to make changes, go on diets, lose weight, whatever. All of which, have obviously failed. I'd lose a few pounds, feel a little better and then something would happen in life (as usual) and I would lose my motivation and happiness and sink back to where I was before. Well, I'm here to say I'm tired of it. Up until January I had kept my weight at least steady averaging around 168-170 lbs. A far cry from where I want to be, but at least I wasn't gaining. Well in January 2013 I became very depressed, lazy and anti-social. I started gaining weight and wasn't even realizing it till one day I stepped on the scale and saw that now I weighed 185. I stood there, quite literally, for about 2 minutes staring at that number in awe. How did this happen? What had I done? I had at least stayed at my weight for over a year and now I just gain 15 pounds? It crushed me, and it's hard to admit this all out loud, but that was my final wake up call. I had to make lifestyle changes. I need to educate myself and become active and not go on a dreaded diet, but make healthier choices overall. Change my lifestyle. My weight isn't the only thing pushing me towards this either. I am tired, All. The. Time. My back is in pain at least once sometime during the day, and although I do have scoliosis, my lack of movement doesn't help my lower back muscles any. I know I need more nutrients, less sugar, more activity, and make better eating decisions.

I've done a lot of homework and I've found ways that will actually help me transform myself. Things that are easy and I can start right away. I've watched documentaries and YouTube videos, as well as read countless things online. I want to share all my information with you and share this journey with you. I feel I am becoming more and more aware of what's going on and informed which is quite literally changing the way I think about food. I finally feel like I am going to be making permanent changes and that is finally giving me to guts to sit here and blog about it. I think blogging is a good way to sit back and reflect on how the journey is going, what works and what needs to change. Maybe all of you can give me motivation. Maybe I can even give some of your motivation. Luckily, Ty is on board with everything I'm wanting to do and we are doing this together. Changing our lives together.

Honestly, this is going to be a challenge for me. I'm going to try very hard to take many pictures, share lots of info and blog as regularly as possible. I'm kinda nervous if I'm going to succeed or not....I'm really hoping that I do. Good news is, right now I'm not working and I'm home a lot so this should be easier to do. I still have some job type things I'll be doing, but nothing that will keep me really busy. I'm trying to use this time off as an advantage so that I can't use the "I'm too busy" excuse anymore. If I can make changes now over the summer, then in August when I start working again it will be a lot easier to transition these changes when I'm a lot busier. Well, wish me good luck!!!!






Katie