My Very Favorite Pork Rub

Before I started reading and learning about food and where it comes from, my spice cabinet was pretty basic. Salt, pepper, garlic, oregano, basil maybe some paprika or rosemary. In the summertime, maybe some cilantro. I didn't branch out too much and I rarely used enough of a spice before it was brown and sad looking in its little jar.

Since then I have discovered things like that I love turmeric, cumin and coriander and that I would much rather have fresh herbs then dried. BUT those dried herbs do have an awesome place (other than being super handy when I can't find fresh ones or am feeling too lazy to mess with chopping them.) They can all come together to make a killer dry rub.

I have typically use this dry rub on pork but have used it on everything from pork tenderloin on the grill to a pork roast in the slow cooker. It is killer and totally my favorite.


Plus if I am following the 21 Day Fix I just cut the salt way back.

Here's what I did:


1 TBS coriander
1 TBS cumin
1 TBS ground fennel
1 TBS ground mustard
1 TBS garlic powder
1 TBS dried oregano
1 TBS onion powder
1 TBS salt (I use pink himalayan salt)
2 TBS paprika
1/2 TBS black pepper

Mix all spices together in a small bowl. Rub all over the meat.

This blend usually makes enough that I can halve it and store the rest in an airtight container for next time.

Dabbling in Paleo -- Grain Free Wedding Soup (21 Day Fix approved!)

There is something about winter...it being cold outside or maybe being stressed and crazy over all the Christmas to-do....but it makes me want to eat soup. It must be a deep rooted comfort thing because I want to make it all the time. Soup and a big old loaf of crusty bread for dinner sounds like perfection.

I have been doing a lot of reading lately and feel like I need to cut back on the eating of grains thing. This past summer I was having a lot of issues dropping weight no matter what meal plan and workout I was doing. I wondered if food allergies were to blame. I set out to do an elimination diet and shortly after that found out I was preggers. So following my doctor's advice, I am putting that off until the baby is here and my hormones settle down. Until then I am dabbling in different ways of eating. Following the 21 Day Fix meal plan (with the added calories I need for a healthy pregnancy) and just generally cutting back on grains as a whole. I am trying to stick to 2-3 servings a day. Many of my pregnancy cravings have revolved around white bread and bagels and that has thrown me down a slippery slope to wanting to eat more of those than fresh veggies.

Not to mention the fact that when I am not pregnant....I tend to crave (and really want) to eat more of a plant based diet. Meat just doesn't appeal to me. There is something going on with my hormones that is totally making me want to eat things like steak....at every meal. Since this is a healthy craving (as opposed to chocolate and donuts) I decided to go with it and am incorporating more animal based protein into my diet, at least for now. Post baby I am probably going to go back to my plant based tendencies but we will figure that out when we are there. Right now I am taking things one day at a time.

Last night I was able to finally use the homemade chicken stock I made back in September. It has been sitting in my freezer for months waiting for the perfect recipe to make use of it's golden goodness and this one was a winner. In fact it made such a difference in this recipe that I never want to go back to buying store bought stock again. Not only is the color totally different but the flavor of homemade stock is amazing. I used to think I hated soup but in reality I never really had good soup until I started eating homemade soup. No more cans of soup for this girl. Ever. And making my own stock was one of the easiest things I have ever done. I am not going to be that weird relative that asks to take home the turkey or chicken carcass from family dinners and stores them in my freezer until I have time to make stock. I never want to let the amazingness of them go to waste again. Who knew the secret to the best soup ever was in a typically discarded carcass of chicken bones?

Anyway....my aunt made a recipe similar to this when we were visiting in Texas and I also picked up a new (totally awesome) cookbook by Danielle Walker, Against All Grain: Meals Made Simple and am slightly obsessed with it. So this recipe is kind of a fusion between her soup and my aunt's. (Although my aunt added tortellini to hers and it was kind of awesome.) And if you have a recipe for grandma's or great grandma's mini meatballs for wedding soup....feel free to sub it and use that instead. Unlike most of my friends, I do not have Italian roots so I don't have attachments to things like sauce and meatballs. If you are trying to do the Paleo or gluten free thing there are so many substitutes for breadcrumbs you can try until you get it just right. Gluten free oats, almond meal, quinoa, minced veggies....as long as you get it to bind.

I opted out of adding any type of noodle and honestly this soup was so full of flavor and other goodies I didn't miss it. At all. (Which for my bread addicted self, that is kind of a big deal.) You can also use parmesan cheese instead of nutritional yeast. I don't do well on dairy so I try to only have it when it makes a HUGE difference in a recipe (or because I just really want to eat a hunk of cheese.)

So here is what I did:

Ingredients:

(for the meatballs)
1/2 medium sweet onion
1 large egg - scrambled
2 cloves of garlic - minced or grated
2 teaspoons of coconut flour
2 1/2 teaspoons of nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 lb of grass fed ground beef
1/2 lb of ground lamb

1 tablespoon coconut oil
2 cups peeled and diced carrots
1 cup diced celery
10 cups of chicken stock
3 cups of baby spinach


To make the meatballs:

1. Grate or mince the onion
2. Combine onion, egg, garlic, coconut flour, nutritional yeast, salt pepper, and ground meat.
3. Mix well and roll into bite size meatballs
4. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use

To make the Soup:

1. Heat the coconut oil in a large pot until melted. Saute carrots and celery until slightly cooked (maybe about 5 minutes)

2. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil

3. Turn the heat down to medium and add the meatballs. Cook until the meatballs are cooked through (about 10 minutes) and start to float to the top.

4. Turn the heat down to low. When ready to serve add the spinach and let cook about five minutes or until wilted.

5. Season to taste

I didn't add any additional salt to my soup but if you feel that it needs salt and pepper feel free to add. You can also play with the type of meat used in the meatballs too. Subbing in turkey or ground pork for the lamb. And I feel like this recipe could be made easily in the slow cooker. Adding the spinach just before serving. There is something that is awesome about coming home to a house that smells like dinner after a long day (and having very little to do before you can eat!)

21 Day Fix containers used: (per 2 cup serving)

1 red
1 green
1/2 teaspoon*

*There is very little oil used in this recipe once portioned out. Technically less than half a teaspoon....so if you are over on your teaspoons for the day, I wouldn't sweat it.

Here is what Autumn has to say about soup and the containers. I was pretty close. Since this soup has no grain in it but is loaded with spinach and other veggies I swapped out the yellow container for the green.

Happy Eating!

Elimination Diet Days 1 and 2 (or Green Smoothie 2, Sara 0)

According to the Whole Foods Nutrition method of doing this elimination diet I am partaking in, you are supposed to do a 2 day green smoothie cleanse or detox to kick it off.

And I really wanted to....the idea of packing all of my leafy greens into a smoothie that tastes like fruity frosty goodness sounds like an AWESOME plan to me. So I looked up some recipes. Went to the store and filled my fridge with green leafy things, my counter with lots of ginger and my fruit bowl with lots of, well, fruit.

I woke up super excited to make my first green smoothie. I mean this is going to be great. I can have these as snacks throughout this whole experience. I am going to be getting in all my greens. Puppies are dancing through rainbows and unicorns are farting glitter as I dance to the kitchen and fill up my blender so it looks pretty layered with all the fresh produce goodness. I blend and I blend and I blend and I blend.


So I try it and kind of gag. It was warm. Ewwwww....... So I add a boatload of ice to my shaker cup and add about half the smoothie from the blender. And I shake and I shake and I shake and I shake. And I sample it. And it tastes like colder lumpy spinach water. Kind of like half chewed spinach. Seriously it was gross. I. Just. Can't.

I made the executive decision to treat this 2 days like the Shakeology cleanse. Smoothies during the day. Salad for dinner at night. I needed something and after 2 smoothies I just couldn't handle another one. I had an apple for a snack and then ate a big salad for dinner.

I still wanted to workout but knew I had to take it easy. I couldn't go crazy and push myself and wake up with night sweats and the shakes again (the last time I did the cleanse I did double workouts and that totally happened. I learned my lesson.) So I busted out the Pilates Fix with Autumn. (That is by far my favorite Fix workout.)

The next day I hit up the store determined to make this smoothie thing work. I added more potent fruit Vitamix or fancy blender to make it really smooth. But I do love my Black & Decker. It is my food processor too and other than this lumpy spinach drink issue I have never had any problems with it. It works well for things like hummus and salmon burgers and sauces. So maybe it was me?)
(blueberries) to cover up the spinach taste and lots of cinnamon. Then at the last minute dumped in some chia seeds. I tasted it and it was better. I went overboard with the cinnamon and it was still not as smooth as I wanted (I probably need a

I then sat down an my laptop to drink my full of awesome tastes more like blueberries than spinach glass of goodness and proceeded to dump the entire thing on my laptop. Seriously like a tidal wave of blue goop all over the keyboard and screen. I went into save the computer mode and ignored the giant stain on my carpet (my laptop is worth more than the apartment carpeting for sure) and unplugged and flipped the entire thing upside down. I had a mild panic attack thinking back to my first laptop (which was also the first major grown up purchase I made on my own) and the coffee in the keyboard incident of 2002. So I took this as a sign that maybe I just needed to stop with the smoothie cleansing thing. I proceeded to make fish and veggies for dinner. (And my laptop survived! My hubby came home and asked me if I was going to eat my smoothie with a spoon. I am pretty sure the gelling quality of the chia totally saved me. Chia in everything. All the time. It is now my favorite seed.)

All in all my first two days were not a huge success. But on the upside I am already down 4 pounds which puts me halfway back to the plateau weight  I have been at the past year. For me I am pretty stoked and think it is a great start.

I am not totally sold on giving up the green smoothie thing either. In theory it seems like a great way to get in more veggies. So if you have any tips or tricks or awesome recipes, help a girl out!

Onward to phase one!



For more info on green smoothies check out the links below:

http://www.vegkitchen.com/tips/top-10-benefits-of-green-smoothies/

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2013/12/26/green-smoothie-recipe/

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-8715/is-your-green-smoothie-actually-healthy-and-balanced.html

The Elimination Diet - What it is and why I am giving it a shot

When I started talking about trying an elimination diet the biggest questions I got were "Why...you eat so healthy already?" and "But I thought you were feeling great from eating clean, what gives?"

Welcome to my frustration.....I am eating clean. I was feeling great. Last year at this time I was full of energy and really reaping the benefits of eating a diet that consisted of real, whole foods. And I continued to feel this way until about a two months or so ago. I wasn't able to get up in the mornings. (Which I blamed on getting used to sleeping in the apartment again, noises, neighbors, a different bed, etc.) And I was suffering from brain fog especially when I woke up (which I blamed on being tired.) Eventually that brain fog was lasting most of the day. I couldn't focus. I couldn't write. I didn't want to play with my kiddo. No more trips to the park....I didn't even want to drive because of my inability to focus. The house was always a mess. I didn't have the energy to fight with my kiddo (or come up with a game) to get her to clean up her toys. I was making myself workout everyday but I felt like a zombie when I was doing it.

My business was suffering. My family was suffering. I had to do something.

So I do what I always do and I researched and researched and researched. I read about hyperthyroidism. I read about adrenal fatigue. I read about all other sorts of scary things that could be wrong with me (gotta love google!) And I decided that since I am out of state and don't want to find a new doctor for a month and because my thyroid has been tested in the past, that for now, trying an elimination diet is the best thing I can do. (Although I will probably follow up with my regular doc when I get home.)

The only real difference in my diet that I have been letting myself enjoy some diary. (Seriously....gelato has been my downfall. That and good cheese.) I have long suspected that I have some food issues. I grew up allergic to everything. My friends used to joke with me that they would visit me in my bubble. Allergies and asthma triggered by animals, pollen, dust, you name it and I would probably react to it. So if I have issues with all of those things....why wouldn't I have any issues with food?

The biggest question I have is why all of a sudden was I starting to feel terrible again? I wasn't eating processed foods. I was eating clean, working out and drinking my Shakeology every day. Nothing changed except for the fact that I was letting more dairy back into my diet. The only explanation I can come up with is that I am just more in tune with my body and how it reacts to things. The cleaner I eat the more I notice how I feel after eating something I shouldn't. I know that I shouldn't feel tired all the time or bloated after I eat. I know how good eating right feels.  I may be more sensitive to certain things now that I am not eating garbage all the time. (And this could be completely out in left field. This is just my own opinion based on what I have observed about myself over the last year.)

What is an elimination diet? 

An elimination diet is something done to determine if some of the foods you are eating are irritating your body. Basically, you eliminate anything that could be a trigger food for a period of time. Typically for a few weeks. In theory, this allows your body to come back to balance so that you can recognize the symptoms when you start reintroducing foods.

After the first few weeks, foods are introduced one by one and any reactions are noted. Foods are typically by a few exposures on one day then taking two days to note any reactions. Then repeat until all the foods eliminated have been tested.

What am I doing exactly? 

I am going to commit to eliminating all the trigger foods for 28 days. I am doing this based on the Whole Foods Nutrition elimination diet. I ordered their cookbook, The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook, to help me plan my meals. I decided to do this instead of sign up for their elimination diet program.  Why? They have a ton of info on their blog which I can access fairly easily and I wanted all the recipe options over the food lists. This is going to be overwhelming enough without looking at a giant list of individual foods. I can handle the list of 10 no no foods, not a list of hundreds. In hindsight, I may regret trying to go it alone but I will cross that bridge when I come to it.

I am really happy with the cookbook though. (Each chapter starts with a great quote so they kind of had a piece of my heart right there.) It has tons of recipes, lots of options for gluten free, dairy free, and soy free meals (among others.) I do wish it had more pictures (I love a cookbook with tons of pics.) But it does have a ton of info on different styles of eating (think paleo vs vegan vs mediterranean and others) and explains what they are and who they might work for. There is also a huge section on health, nutrients, stocking your pantry and how to go from eating completely processed foods to eating whole real foods. It has a ton of info that makes me very happy with it (even though there really are not enough pictures.)

So here is what I am doing:

Days 1 and 2: 2 day green smoothie cleanse

Days 3-8 - Phase 1 (which is pretty  much a vegan diet without citrus and nightshade veggies)

Days 9-28 - Phase 2 (eliminates only the 10 main trigger foods)

Days 28 on: Add trigger foods back in one by one and note any reactions

This may change as I am going through the process. I am not married to the schedule above and need to make it work for me. I am not going to stop working out during this process so I may need to tweak what I am eating to make sure I can power through those. Ideally, this is what I want to stick to.

So what are the 10 trigger foods I am eliminating?

1. Dairy

2. Corn

3. Gluten

4. Citrus

5. Eggs

6. Nightshades (tomato, potato, eggplant, peppers)

7. Nuts

8. Soy

9. Meats & shellfish (except turkey, wild game, and fish)

10. Sweeteners (except limited pure stevia and maple syrup)

There is  A LOT of info out there on elimination diets and different ways to do it....which is why I am going to try and follow the schedule above but am not going to beat myself up if it doesn't work for me. I have a feeling this is going to be quite a challenge so I am not going to make it harder than it has to be. 

If you would like to join me or follow my journey for the next month find me on Facebook or sign up for a free account with me as your coach. I would be thrilled to help inspire and motivate you through this process. 

For more information check out the sources below:

http://global.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780195371109/pdf/00_Mullin_Appendix_3.pdf

http://www.nourishingmeals.com/p/elimination-diet.html

http://www.tenyearsyounger.com/topics/elimination-diet/

Summer in a Burger (Cilantro Lime Turkey Burgers with Asian Pear Slaw)

The sun is shining and the temps are slowly creeping closer to summer weather. Ummm...Yay! This is the type of weather that makes me want to head outside. I want to eat outside, drink on patios and grill things. The type of food I want to eat also changes like crazy. Suddenly I want food that tastes light and bright and citrusy. I want to drink caipirinhas and lay by a pool. If lime is part of the recipe, it is something I want to eat. Fish tacos, guac, salad dressing, burgers, adult beverages. If it is cilantro and lime flavored anything it is pretty much a guarantee it is going to make my menu.

I have been working out with weights again (hello Les Mills Pump) and this program is awesome. It is fun. The music is upbeat and motivating. It is leaving me crazy sore. (I totally understand why this is a craze in gyms. Doing it live would be kind of amazing.) But every time I add a lot of weight training to my routine, I find myself craving meat. And for someone who can typically go weeks without meat, this is not only something I find kind of strange but also a struggle. Since I don't cook a lot of meat (and chicken still makes me gag) I am usually up, searching the internet for yummy recipes that will satisfy my jonesing for meat and not leave me feeling like I have a brick in my stomach. (I just have food issues. Seriously. I am kind of a mess.)

This lovely little burger not only satisfied my meat craving but also gave me a bite of summer flavor that made me so happy. (Well as happy as I could be sans sunshine and pool. This just screams let's grill out by the pool and float our way to happiness after we eat. Is that anyone else's idea of bliss or just mine?)

Anyway....they turned out awesome. Lots of flavor in these little babies and I even had to cook them in a pan (as we are in an upstairs apartment with zero outdoor space for this job and sans grill). I love using fresh herbs so I used fresh cilantro in this recipe. I put a big handful of it in the mini chopper (I have no patience for dicing and slicing fresh herbs....as much as I love them this makes me crazy.) and added them to the ground turkey along with everything else. I mixed it all up with my hands (gross!) The juice made them a little wet but the stayed together great and it is so worth it for the yummy summer flavor.

Here is what I did:


Asian Pear Slaw

1 bag pre chopped coleslaw mix (or 1 small head of cabbage chopped)
1 asian pear cored and julienned

Dressing:

3/4 cup good quality olive oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons water
2 Tablespoons honey (I used raw honey)
1 teaspoon salt

Place all dressing ingredients in a blender and blend (or in a small bowl and whisk until honey is dissolved.)  Pour over coleslaw mix. You can serve immediately or chill to allow the flavors to mingle. I add the pear right before serving so it doesn't get soggy.

I am also thinking next time about adding some fresh ginger and maybe some slivered almonds for some crunch.


For the Burger:

1 lb ground turkey
bunch of fresh cilantro
juice of one lime
1/4 of a sweet onion- diced (but a red onion might be yummy too!)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
salt and pepper to taste

Place ground turkey in a large bowl.

Add all the other ingredients and mix well.

Shape into 4 burger patties.

Grill, broil or cook in a pan until no longer pink inside.

(I  used just enough coconut oil to coat the pan. Heat the oil on medium high and then add the burgers. Cook for 5-7 minutes on each side - or until cooked through.)

We ate them topped with avocado and asian pear slaw but you can easily add your favorite condiments and burger buns.

My three year old proclaimed it the best dinner ever so there was that. She cleaned her plate (which these days is a rarity.) Needless to say I will be making these often, at least until she decides she hates them....which could be any minute now.

Happy eating!



21 Day Fix container equivalents:

1 red
1 green
1/4 purple
1 teaspoon
1 blue (if using avocado)

Cauliflower Crust Pizza (with a twist)

I have seen cauliflower used for everything from pizza crust to steak to breadsticks to rice. I love cauliflower. I love the taste of it. I love it in soup. I love it on a veggie tray (which no one else seems to so that always works out in my favor.) I love it roasted. But this whole cauliflower is a miracle to replace carbs and bread and all sorts of other tasty things I know I shouldn't have really throws me for a loop.

I knew I wanted to try this miracle of pizza crusts and really it was out of sheer laziness I never did. I would write it on my meal plans regularly. Always ending up not doing it and making scrambled eggs instead and pureeing the cauliflower into soup before it rotted at the back of the fridge. I always start out the week with the best of intentions. Then life happens, an extra cheer practice or a chance to go to dinner with my girlfriends, and I find myself scrambling to use up my produce before it is too late.

This was the situation when I decided to try to make cauliflower pizza crust this week. Not only did I have cauliflower to use up but some broccoli and basil leaves that were starting to look kind of sad. So into the food processor it all went. My hubby eats a lot so I figured the more pureed veggies to turn into crust the better and putting fresh basil in it was kind of awesome. It had great flavor and I didn't have to add anything else.

And I have to say that I was pretty pleased with the results. In reality, it isn't going to cut it when I want something chewy and doughy and greasy. But standing on it's own....it is good. And it's green. Anything green makes me feel extra healthy. I will totally make this again....my way.

Here is what I did:

1 head of cauliflower
1 small head of broccoli
Basil leaves (handful or two)
1 egg (beaten)
1/3 cup cheese (I used fresh grated cheddar. It was what we had.)

Preheat the oven to 400

Add the cauliflower to a food processor. Pulse until it reaches a rice like texture.

Transfer to a clean dish towel. Wrap it up and squeeze the heck out of it. And then squeeze it some more. You will be amazed at how much water comes out of it. Transfer to a large bowl.

Repeat with the broccoli and add the basil leaves (or herbs of choice) too. Squeeze them and squeeze them again.  Add to the cauliflower in the bowl.

Mix well.

Add beaten egg and cheese. Mix well.

At this point I lay out another towel and press the mixture flat (like a crust) and then use paper towel on top to absorb even more water. (Because it keeps coming.)

The more moisture you get out of the mix now....the more like real crust it will be. So hopefully that motivates you to keep on squeezing.

Then transfer it to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake for 35-40  minutes or until it starts to brown.

Remove from the oven and add your toppings. (I used diced tomatoes, onions, and sauteed mushrooms and a little bit more cheese.)

Pop it back into the oven for about 10 minutes.

Enjoy!


21 Day Fix Container Conversion (per 2 pieces)

1 Green
1 Blue

*There is so little egg once it is all portioned out that I didn't even count it as a container.

**I have seen recipes where the cauliflower (after processing) is cooked for a few minutes. I didn't do this and I still enjoyed the results.

21 Day Fix Week One Meal Plan (and why I put P90X3 on hold for now)

Week 3 of P90X3 was a major challenge for me. I got sick so I didn't meal plan. And then we were getting ready to a conference so I didn't meal plan and just ended up eating what we had so we didn't come home to a fridge full of gross. And I diligently packed my X3 DVDs. And they sat on the dresser in the hotel room for an entire week.

While away, we indulged. A lot. But we were also crazy busy and walking everywhere (which really helps.) I came home pretty much on par with where I was when I left. Except when I came home I had something waiting for me. Yep....The 21 Day Fix.

Now this program is huge. It sold out in 3 days. I didn't want to be the person who couldn't answer my challengers' questions. I wanted to be able to give my honest opinion and struggle through figuring out a brand new program with them. (And I was geeked about the idea of color coded containers. My self diagnosed OCD kicked in and I started making color coded meal plans immediately.) So I am afraid that my poor P90X3 dvd's will continue to collect dust. At least for the next 21 days.

Here is my meal plan for week one of the 21 Day Fix. Now I struggled with this quite a bit. I try to eat a mostly plant based diet (with local eggs from happy chickens and occasionally some fish) but if you are not happy eating soy based vegan protein then this will be a challenge. The red container is now my nemesis. But since my husband was home for most of the week, I made his carnivorous appetite happy and made some things with local grass fed meats.

Now this week wasn't perfect. I was missing some red containers for sure. And I know I need to work on variety...but variety is hard when you are cooking for one and a half! So that is something I am going to work on in the upcoming weeks.

P90x3 Week Two Meal Plan and Week One Results

I both love and hate starting new workouts. I love the excitement of something new and mixing it up. I love the potential for killer results. I even love how sore I am after starting something new or different from what I was doing. But I also hate starting new workouts. I hate not knowing what each DVD means (especially when they are called things like The Warrior -- what does that even mean except it is a workout for warriors. Maybe I should borrow my daughter's makeshift sword?) I hate not knowing what equipment I will need when. I hate not knowing all the moves and spending the extra time watching what they are doing, sometimes waiting for the modification and then skipping back to try and get the most out of my time doing the workout.

So during week one of P90X3 I followed the classic schedule which is designed to have the traditional balance of
cardio and resistance with muscle confusion. I am crazy sore and feel great but I also feel a little bit lacking in the cardio department (mark that down because this girl hates cardio!) So for week two I am going to switch it up and follow the lean schedule. Now the lean schedule isn't better for weight loss. It is just designed to have a bit more cardio so your results are a more toned look. Both lean and classic can work equally well for weight loss but with lean you target functionality, mobility and cardiovascular fitness instead of muscle hypertrophy (growth of muscle cells.) So after looking into both options further, I am opting to switch to the lean schedule.


Even though I am switching to the lean schedule I am scheduling a doubles day and keeping The Challenge in the rotation. I LOVE it. It is so hard. Essentially for 30 minutes you alternate pull ups and push ups. Since I suck at push ups, I feel this is a personal mountain I need to climb. I want to be an awesome push up doer (and to be able to do them ALL on my toes. But looking at the fact that last year at this time I could barely do five on my knees, I have come a long way! Yay for non-scale victories!)

CVX was another awesome workout (it might be my favorite) that I am so happy to see included in the lean schedule. It cardio with weights. That had me dripping sweat and feeling like I was going to die (in the best way possible!)

And I lost three pounds this week. Whoo hoo!  Even with messing up my meal plan big time due to schedule changes, weather problems, unexpected meetups with friends we haven't seen in forever and all that stuff we like to call life happening. This is a double edged sword for me because I have trouble keeping my eyes from wandering over to the whole "well what would my results be like if I did what I was supposed to do?"

So my big week two goal? Follow my meal plan.

I am also going to be running a new challenge group starting on January 20th. If you would like to join me in a New Year New You challenge or would like more info please fill out the application here. 

P90x3 Week One and Meal Plan

Today is the day of truth....the day that real life comes back and the holidays are OVER. The tree is down. Ornaments and decor is packed away. (My house looks barren!) My family is back to being scattered all over the country and no longer crammed in my little one bathroom house (8 adults and one bathroom -- super scary!) And, for the most part, I am over my post New Year's Eve sickness I caught from my little one. And it's a monday. The first Monday of the New Year and it is time to get it together.

Over the holidays I slacked. (Total confession -- I took a week and a half off. No workouts at all!) I had a few too many dinners out (that were totally worth it -- catching up with friends I haven't seen in forever.) And I enjoyed every minute of it. Isn't that why I am doing all of this. All of the eating real food, working out, being the best me I can be -- so that when it comes down to it I can enjoy an awesome dinner out and a glass of wine (or 3) with friends and family? I think that all of these things that we view as "cheats" are vital to living and enjoying life. Our resolve to stick to our "diet" should not restrict our willingness to live and savor our lives. It should be the exact opposite! I am committing to eating this way and taking care of myself so I am around to enjoy my life and I have the energy to do it. 

But....all things in moderation. I am not willing to throw all my hard work out the window either. I have learned to pick my treats (so much better sounding than a cheat, right?) well. If it isn't something totally amazing, then it so isn't worth it. No more M & M's or Hershey kisses when I am want chocolate...I am going for the good stuff. The rest isn't worth it. I want it to be something I can completely enjoy. I am going to pick my moments and bask in the joy of living. I want to totally savor my life. 

So that is why, instead of focusing on what I could have done better over the past week and a half, I am focusing on what I gained. Mornings spent drinking coffee and talking to my family (as we all wait patiently for our turn in the shower.) Dinners out with friends talking and laughing. Really great things that can't be measured and calculated. 

And while I am not going to dwell, I am going to move forward full force. I am diving into a new program (P90X3) and am super excited about it. I am also going to really focus on meal planning this time....one of my vices. I am a terrible meal planner. But yesterday I put some time into really getting it said so that it will help me later this week. And I am going to share that meal plan because there is nothing like sharing things to keep my accountable (lesson learned!) 

I am also going to be running a new challenge group starting on January 20th. If you would like to join me in a New Year New You challenge or would like more info please fill out the application here. 

Happy New Year! 

Eggplant and Tomato Soup (more comfort food for fall....)

The theme with all of my recipe posts seems to be that I am trying to use up the veggies that come pouring in from my CSA. In this case it was eggplant --and one can only eat so much eggplant. I mean I love it fried and smothered in cheese and sauce but since my body no longer agrees with that dinner (my digestive system is all that was your gall bladders job girlfriend, if you try to make us do that we will make you pay!) I need to find another way to use eggplant. Much to my chagrin, I don't really like it minus the fried cheesy saucy goodness.

What I have found that I love about making soup is that it is hard to screw up and you can pretty much just dump stuff in a pot (aka cleaning out my fridge). It also freezes well, so I am not stuck with all the freezer burned veggies in January that  I lovingly tried to freeze correctly during the summer. Plus it is something I can throw in the crock pot, let reheat all day and come home to dinner. A dinner my toddler likes because it allows her to dunk things. Boom. It makes me feel awesome all around.

I originally saw this recipe on Smitten Kitchen. (Which is a pretty awesome blog for really cool and
different recipes, although reader be warned most of them, while super delicious are not health recipes. Seriously the pictures alone will make your mouth water. So pin the super awesome dessert or grilled cheese ones for one of your cheat meals for sure!)  You can link to the original recipe here -- but this is what I did (my version involves much less measuring and more dumping and of course no dairy. Since I have found that processing diary was also part of my gall bladder's job description.)

Ingredients --

2 medium sized eggplants

tomatoes (in this case I used 2 large tomatoes and a handful of grape tomatoes I had on hand)

1 sweet onion

Garlic (in this case I used 2 heads of garlic but I love garlic so you can adujust this based on your personal relationship with garlic)

Olive oil

Balsamic Vinegar

32 ounces of vegetable broth

Turmeric

Salt to taste


Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Chop eggplants onion and tomatoes in half  and place them on a large cookie sheet or two. (Or if using grape tomatoes just toss them on the cookie sheet.) Also add the garlic.

Drizzle veggies with olive oil (I used a Misto to spray my veggies with olive oil) and I splashed them with balsamic vinegar.

Place in the oven and let roast 40 minutes to an hour (they should be slightly browned and tender.) I did add my garlic 20-30 minutes in so it wouldn't burn. With that said, I have also forgotten to roast the garlic and just add it to the pot later. Either way it turns out fine.

Allow the roasted veggies to cool enough to touch. Skin the eggplant -- the skin should peel right off.

Toss everything in a large soup pot.

Add the veggie broth and any spices you want to use. (I think the beauty of this soup is that you can add whatever spices you love. I have been obsessed with turmeric lately so I just dumped some in.)

Bring the soup to a boil. Turn down and let simmer for 45 minutes to an hour.

Allow it to cool slightly and puree. (You can do this in batches in a food processor or use an immersion blender. Side note -- I love my immersion blender and use it daily.) This is where I usually taste test and add salt or any other spices I feel it needs.

Super easy and really yummy. It is one of those soups that is perfect for a fall or winter night with some really good bread. (I mean what is soup without good bread?)

I had a big bowl and packed the rest away in the freezer for later.

I have actually made this recipe twice and have varied the amount of tomatoes each time (based on what I had to use up. The only difference being it just tasted more like a yummy tomato soup the more tomatoes I put in -- makes sense. But you still get the benefits of the eggplant. (For more info on why eggplants rock check this out.)

Nutritionism - What Is It and Why Does It Matter (In Defense of Food review Part I)

On the cover of In Defense of Food there is a picture of a head of pretty lettuce (red leaf lettuce not
iceberg) and on the band that most grocery stores have around their heads of lettuce it reads not the plu number but "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants." Right away this book has my attention. (And maybe my heart.)

Before selecting this book, I was already very familiar with the author, Michael Pollan. I had recently read The Omnivore's Dilemma and really enjoyed his writing and the way in which he approached his research on food -- with four meals he sought out to represent conventional farming, organic farming, small sustainable family farming and foraging. It was written very well and left me waking my husband at one in the morning to just share one more thing I learned about corn (both fascinating and disgusting all at the same time...)

This book takes a different approach. And I am so into it that I am going to review each of it's three parts. (If that works out while I am reading. Flexibility and going with the flow -- they are on my personal goals list for this year.) So far so good. The first section is so full of information and fits in with what I have been thinking about for the last few months -- eating real food and not edible food like substances. And how focusing on "nutritionism" is what has lead us down this path in the first place.

So what is nutritionism?

According to Pollan, nutritionism is the focus on nutrients, not food. This term and idea first appeared in an essay called "Sorry Marge" written by Australian sociologist of science, Gyorgy Scrinis. The paper focusing on margarine and how it should be the "ultimate nutrionist product, able to shift its identity...depending on the prevailing winds of dietary opinion" (27). Or why in theory a bowl of fortified Lucky Charms, packed with all the vitamins we "need" should be healthier than an apple that only has some of the vitamins.  The ideology behind nutritionism is:

• "[W]hat matters most is not the food but the "nutrient"

• "[B]ecause nutrients are invisible and incomprehensible to everyone but scientists, we need expert help in deciding what to eat"

• "[T]he purpose of eating is to promote a narrow concept of physical health" (8).

This totally sounds like what we believe health to be (and what is promoted constantly!) Make sure you get x grams of protein a day and not go over x grams of cholesterol. Oh wait there is a difference between bad cholesterol not good cholesterol so make sure you eat enough good cholesterol to keep the bad down. And we should only consume x amount of calories and fat grams because fat is bad. Just kidding healthy fat isn't bad and it is actually essential to our diets and metabolism.

No wonder we are so confused about what to eat! It changes constantly. Pollan continues on to point out that this is why nutritionism is extremely flawed. He talks about how nutrients were discovered and which nutrients were deemed good and bad by scientists which then leads to vitamins and why they were deemed so important to our diets -- and how "it wasn't until late in the twentieth century that nutrients began to push food aside in the popular imagination of what to eat" (22).

Enter the dietary guidelines we are familiar with today. These didn't exist prior to the 70's. People didn't need to be told what to eat by scientists. Now we are being told what we should be eating and we are unhealthier than we have ever been.

Pollan quotes Joan Gussow, a Columbia University nutritionist who "argued agains the focus on nutrients rather than whole foods. 'The really important message in the epidemiology...was that some vegetables and citrus fruits seem to be protective agains cancer. But those sections of the [National Academy of Sciences report, Diet Nutrition and Cancer] were written as though it was the vitamin C in the citrus or the beta-carotene in the vegetables that was responsible for the effect...[H]ow do you know it's not one of the other things in the carrots or the broccoli? There are hundreds of carotenes'" (26).

That's a really crazy question -- especially when we have been taught from the time we were small to eat our oranges because of the vitamin C or to up our intake of vitamin C when we feel a cold coming on.

Pollan also talks about how focusing on the nutrients started (and when) and how it has really benefited the food industry. He explains other problems and pokes holes in the idea that nutrients should drive our diets as opposed to real food.

So has all of our focus on nutrients led us down the wrong path? Should we not worry so much about getting x grams of protein? I think no one knows for sure, but what we are being taught about food and nutrition isn't working. So I believe it is at least worth a conversation.

October #Unprocessed - Take the Pledge! (And the post with lots of links to other stuff)

I stumbled upon this today. Since I am kind of obsessed with Bob's Red Mill, I follow them through social media and this popped up on my news feed. A whole month without processed foods, taking a pledge and doing it for the entire month of October. And at the end, feeling better and (hopefully lighter.) This year sponsored by one of my favorite West Coast places to visit (and eat!), Bob's Red Mill so of course I was sucked in from the minute I clicked on the link.

I am generally pretty good with no processed foods but there are those few things that really get me. One being popcorn. And not air popped popcorn, but the yummy fluffy, white cheddar flavored kind...maybe after a month without I can cut the habit for good.

The whole idea of October #Unprocessed was started by a guy named Andrew in 2009 when he wanted to see what would happen if he went a whole month without processed foods. It was his quest to get healthy and feel better. He started a blog to help keep himself accountable and to influence others. Since then it has grown to having over 3,000 people take the pledge. Some pretty cool stuff. (And it doesn't hurt that he has read all the books I have including those by Michael Pollan.)

So what I have decided to do is to start a group. We will all pledge to take the October #Unprocessed challenge. We will post and share recipes. And encourage each other (plus I may need someone who is fairly close to come pry the cheese popcorn from my hands.)

Here are the rules --

Eat only foods that pass "The Kitchen Test" 

 I may have to "steal" this term. It is kind of awesome. There are so many definitions out there for clean eating and many of them are personal. This, however, is one of the best definitions I have seen yet. According to Andrew, "Unprocessed food is any food that could be made by a person with reasonable skill in a home kitchen with whole-food ingredients."  I told you it was a pretty awesome way to distinguish processed from unprocessed. 

Eat only whole grains

So this means eating only 100% whole wheat flour or grains. Un-enriched and unbleached because you couldn't do this in your kitchen. For more info on whole grains check out this post http://www.eatingrules.com/2013/09/unprocessed-faq-flour-grains/

No High Fructose Corn Syrup

I would extend this to cover refined sugar (more info on sugar here http://www.eatingrules.com/2013/09/unprocessed-faq-sugar/ ) and artificial sweeteners besides stevia extract (which you can do at home if you have a stevia plant-- so it totally passes the kitchen test. For info on this check out this post http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2013/04/25/stevia-food-babe-investigates/#more-7559 

No Trans Fats

Why no trans fats? Because it is pretty well decided that they are not good for us to consume and are often added to processed foods because they extend the shelf life. (Here is a brief explanation on trans fats http://www.eatingrules.com/2011/01/about-trans-fat/ )  Fats like grapeseed oil, flaxseed oil, and fats from plant based foods like avocados, nuts, seeds and coconuts are considered good fats.  There is a lot of contradictory advice that comes with talking about saturated fat. My best advice is to research dietary fat and come to your own conclusions. 

What about my Shakeology?

It is no secret that I love Shakeology. I love how I feel, the energy I have and I really miss it if I don't have it as part of my daily diet. The beauty is that the majority of ingredients are from whole food sources (for more info check this out https://faq.shakeology.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1813/kw/whole%20food/~/“whole-food-ingredients”%2f-bioavailability ). The ingredients aren't chemically extracted, the foods are dried and powdered and then combined to make shakeology. If I had the formula and fancy dehydrating machines could I make it in my kitchen (aka does it pass the kitchen test?) Umm....maybe? Provided I could even find all the ingredients. (I mean can one buy yacon root at Giant Eagle?) Provided there are no chemicals, I am still going to continue to use Shakeology. Again, I feel that this falls in the personal realm of what is considered processed and what allowances are going to be made. 

So those are the rules for October #Unprocessed. Do you think you can hang? I am going to start a support group on Facebook so if you are interested in joining me please send me a message or an email to scyobe@gmail.com and I will add you to the group. 

Please visit http://www.eatingrules.com/october-unprocessed-2013/ for more information and to sign the pledge!