Girl Scout Cookies are forcing me to join the Gym

Diet and exercise. That was the plan. It has taken six weeks but I feel like I’ve made significant changes to the way I fuel my body. I eat many many more veggies these days. And I find myself craving fruit instead of cheese and crackers. Yes, I continue to slip (on a daily basis) and as we all know, it’s the unfortunate time of year when, across the country, Girl Scouts (including my daughter) are selling their sinful, delicious cookies. The Thin Mints and Peanut Butter Patties are my downfall… But in fact, I have become better at making smart food choices and I tend to eat less when I’m out socially as well. So I’m on my way.

Not much of a change in the weight department – so that’s where step 2 comes in…

Rodney and I finally made some financial adjustments and rejoined the gym. Perfect timing, as they are waiving the enrollment fee for former members – a ploy designed to draw us back in. And it worked in our case. Today at 4 is the return of Carrie to the gym – it’s actually on my calendar. Rodney’s too, as he’ll need to watch the kiddos. I’m soooo ready to get going, ready to walk the hallowed halls of the Y with all of the other fitness-minded people. Ready to walk on the squishy, gridded blue mats in the locker room. Ready to fight for the treadmills. Ready to go without a bunch of kids to drop off at the childcare center! Ready to feel the sore muscles tomorrow. Yep, ready to go!

winter blues

aughhhhh I’ve got ‘em.

what do you do to combat them? I happen to eat. Which doesn’t really help me here.

What do you do?!?

The Hole in my Belt

I KNOW I’m not alone here. How many of you have looked at a recent picture of you and found yourself asking, “Who IS that?” or, “That’s not how I think I look…” I’ve been doing that for four years now. My thing is, I used to be an athlete. I mean, a marathon-running, addicted-to-the-gym-at-5 AM athlete. I mean, running used to define me. I was a runner. And people say that once a runner, always a runner. So the image I have of myself (the one that exists in my head) is of a very fit, healthy, athletic runner. For some people, that in-their-head image is of a sexy 20-year-old bikini body. I was never really a fan of bikinis, so that doesn’t hold as much appeal as an athletic, fit runner-type body. The problem is, I’m 40 pounds over that mental image of myself and I’m having a lot of trouble reconciling the two. It’s hard to admit that I’ve let myself go.

Now, if you know me and you’ve seen me lately, please don’t feel like you need to fill my head with “oh Carrie, you look fine – don’t worry about it.” and “You have four little kids, how do you expect to have time to effectively work out?” or really, any other platitude that makes it seem like it’s okay to live in this body for a while longer. I’m REALLY sick of this body. This is not the body that God designed for me. I have been giving excuses LONG enough. Here they are, want to hear them? “My knees hurt” “I don’t have time” “It doesn’t matter how I look, it’s how I act that matters” “my kids/husband/friends/family don’t care if I’m overweight – they love me anyway” “I’ll do it tomorrow, I’m too tired today” “my kids take up all my energy and I just have nothing left for myself” “this is just a phase, I’ll be able to focus on myself more when the kids are older” and my favorite, “I’m too fat to run.”

AUGHHHH! There are so many more. But here’s the deal – I have packed too many extra pounds on AND I have high cholesterol. My arteries could be so clogged that I’m about to have a heart attack or stroke. If I don’t get a handle on my diet and start exercising again, all of those excuses that I’ve been making to put it off WON’T MATTER. I’ll be dead and my kids will be without a mom. Rodney without a wife. Yes, I’m being very dramatic and NO, I don’t consistently have morbid thoughts of dying or anything. BUT it’s a wake-up call. A big one. A friend of mine had a massive stroke last summer – almost killed her. Unbelievably unexpected, too. I DON’T want that to be me. I thought that would be my wake-up call. But it wasn’t.

In truth, it helped me enter a new phase – the one where I was defiant about what I was eating. You’ve been there – when you eat it because you can. You eat it because you never know when your last meal may be, so you better enjoy it. You have an extra glass of wine because it’s there and you WANT it. You eat an extra two or three or 10 cookies because hey, you’re overweight anyway, so what will it matter? Well that phase added 15 pounds to me. So no, my friend’s life-threatening stroke wasn’t the thing that grabbed my attention and told me I needed a change. You know what was?

Christmas 2010. I was getting dressed and needed a belt. So, I took my really nice leather belt out of my bag and put it on. But it didn’t fit. Not even on the last hole. Not willing to admit that I needed a new belt, I got out a hammer and a nail and I made another hole. That hurt. That was defeat for me. It was during the striking of the nail that my eyes were opened. And I started making some changes.

I’ll never forget how happy I was to tell Rodney about that hole – thrilled to report that I didn’t need it any more. I’m down 9 pounds!!! That’s a belt loop hole, folks! Yippeeeee!!! I’m hoping for another hole soon – maybe another 9 pounds from now… In the meantime, that nail hole is there to remind me of where I don’t want to go again – ever.

 

Mangoes and Movies: a comparison

So I bought my very first mango the other day. Hey, it’s on my list, so I needed to do it sooner or later. I’ve had frozen mango before – they are great in banana yogurt smoothies. But fresh mango – it was daunting, I tell you. Oh the pressure… Luckily I ran into a friend who guided me, “soft to the touch.” Yeah, that didn’t work so well for me – maybe it wasn’t soft enough – needed to be mushy? Maybe I just wasn’t prepared for the smell – I couldn’t get it past my nose!! Yuck! The taste is nothing like the smell. In this case, the taste wasn’t great either, but it was certainly better than the odor. So get this, I ended up freezing the mango to be used at a later date… in a smoothie. Ha.

Allow me to go off topic here and talk about my movie marathon weekend. First up: The Constant Gardener. Talk about something not fitting the description – it was NOTHING like what I thought it would be. Kinda like that mango. It was a good movie, well done, but awfully depressing. The plight in Africa is hardly new news, but to see how it is portrayed in that movie, and how the people are seen as dispensable, as experimental subjects, really grabbed me. Next up: The Kite Runner. This movie made me realize how glad I am to be here in America. And how we take EVERYTHING for granted – everything. Not only our freedoms – speech, religion, etc. – but also the overabundance of choices in everything from electronics to food to how we wear our hair (including facial hair, boys). A huge majority of Americans have no idea how great we have it.

I was in tears after watching these two movies – all I could think about was that stupid mango!! It made me feel like an overindulged, unappreciative, food snob. I mean, kids and parents who survive on rice every day in other countries – they would be so happy to have a not-quite-ripe mango and here I was, snubbing my nose at it because it wasn’t perfect.

I am disgusted with the amount of food we are presented with every day. And how most of it is junk. Preservatives, unhealthy fats, fake sugars and things that our bodies aren’t even supposed to consume. It’s not really food, folks. My favorite restaurant, Zoe’s Kitchen, has a motto, “If it wasn’t food 100 years ago, it isn’t food today.” How true is that? Here’s another one I’ve heard a lot over the years. “Eat only the foods that your grandma would recognize.” My Grandma – she’s 99 years old, so I’m sure she didn’t grow up on High Fructose Corn Syrup and the like. Believe it or not, she still maintains a small garden off of her kitchen. In fact, she’s the one (along with my grandpa and parents) who taught me all that I know about gardening. Now, that’s REAL food! I’m on year #3 of my vegetable garden and I can’t wait to get it up and running this year. I’m so glad I’ve been able to show my kids what real food is – things that grow in and from the earth. But I digress… I’ll have plenty of posts on my garden as soon as I can start prepping it this spring.

Eat real food – local farm produce, grass fed beef, free range chickens, organic fruits and veggies (that are not ripened by gases that are sprayed en route to the store), etc. Enjoy and appreciate that I can make good food choices. Those are my goals. I hope they are yours – and your kids’ too.

“This will be so good for my compost!”

One of my oldest, dearest friends called me the other night. She’ll turn 40 next year too. I know that she’ll be one of the people who most helps me reach my goal. Why? She gets it. The idea of turning 40 isn’t all that daunting. It’s the fact that we’ll be 40 next year and we still talk with frustration about our weight, body image, etc. Why haven’t we been able to successfully navigate the whole ‘nutritious eating’ thing?
Our issues are quite similar. IBS, borderline high cholesterol, among others. Not earth-shattering, no, but they are issues that make us feel rotten at times and prevent our bodies from performing at their best. We discussed the changes we were striving for-more fruits and veggies, trying to focus only on the foods that are typically found around the perimeter of the grocery store-a lot of foods that we both grow in our respective gardens! The whole idea is to nourish our bodies only with foods that are GOOD for us. We are finally inspired to change some bad habits (grabbing an apple instead of a processed granola bar) and make positive changes in our health.
After a slight lull in the conversation, she laughed and exclaimed, “This will be so good for my compost!” So Lisa, here’s a toast to some heathy, rich compost this year!!

M&Ms = conquered!!!

Happy to report that I have successfully walked past the kids’ bag of M&M’s all week without grabbing a handful! Gives me hope.

One-Bowl French Bread

Callan, mixing the flour, salt and yeast with the water

Ingredients

3 1/2 C flour (I am now using white whole wheat)

4 tsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 1/4 tsp yeast (one package)

2 T butter, softened

1 1/4 C hot-hot-hot tap water

1 egg white whisked with 1 T cold water

Directions

1. Mix together 1 C flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a high-top bowl (or else it will splatter all over your entire kitchen)
2. Mix on medium speed to add in the softened butter
3. Gradually pour the hot water while mixing on med. speed for two minutes
4. Add 1 C flour and mix on high speed for 2 minutes more.
5. Hand mix to add enough extra flour to make a soft dough (about 1 1/2 cups more)
6. Cover and let rise for 45 minutes
7. Punch down. Shape into a loose ball and place on a greased baking sheet. Use a knife or fingers to make a design on top, if desired.
8. Let rise another 45 minutes
9. Bake at 400 degrees F for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and brush with egg mixture
10. Bake for 15 minutes more, or until done.

Brussels Sprouts and Hashimoto’s Syndrome

I have Hashimoto’s Disease. Doesn’t that sound like fun?  For those of you who are scratching your heads, this means that I have an under-active thyroid. Ten percent of women in the U.S. have either borderline or acute hypothyroidism. Diagnosed at the age of 13, it’s something I’ve always had and I’ll be dealing with it the rest of my life. But it’s under control – I take a tiny little pill every day to correct the imbalance. I don’t really think about it and how it might be affecting my body, mind, etc. But I’m starting to read up on it lately. My husband even bought me a comprehensive thyroid book to help me figure out if there are steps I can take to minimize the effects of Hashimoto’s. I’ll share what I’m uncovering as I go…

So here’s my first tip: Limit your intake of Brussels Sprouts. Actually, anything that is in the cabbage family – kale, turnips, chinese leaves. Apparently, they contain something called ‘thioglucosides’ which, if taken in excess, can disrupt the normal function of the thyroid.

Now, the only reason this bums me out is that my sister recently declared that she has a really yummy recipe for Brussels sprouts. I was intrigued because I wanted to introduce more veggies into my diet and wanted to give the sprouts a try. Now, not so much.

(Heavenly) Cannellini Soup with Turkey Sausage

Heavenly soup…

Oh my, I have  never enjoyed soup so much in my life. If you’ve always wanted to try to make soup but were you afraid it wouldn’t turn out right, please try this soup. You can’t go wrong!

 

 

 

 

Cannellini Soup with Turkey Sausage

Ingredients

12 oz. dried cannellini beans, soaked overnight in cold water (or at least 8 hours)

12 Cups vegetable stock (low sodium if desired)

8 oz. dried soup pasta (I used alphabet pasta to draw my kids in…)

8 tbsp Olive Oil

4 garlic cloves, pressed or diced

6 tbsp chopped fresh parsely

6-8 small Turkey Sausage Links, precooked (I used a package of MorningStar Farms links)

Salt and Pepper to taste

yummy fresh bread

How to make it:

• Drain the soaked beans, place them in a large pot. Add stock, bring to a boil. Reduce heat, loosely cover the pot, and simmer for 2 hours.
• Transfer half of the beans and a third of the stock to a blender/food processor and blend until smooth. Stir back into the pot and return to a boil.
• Add uncooked pasta to soup and return to a boil. Cook uncovered for time recommended on pasta box.
• In a separate pan, heat Olive Oil over low heat. Add garlic and cooked sausage and cook for 5 minutes. Stir garlic and sausage into the soup and top with parsley. Serve with fresh bread. Enjoy!!
• Serves 8

Almond Butter

I love Almond Butter! Love it.

My husband has encouraged me to share this story with you. As I am learning to make healthier food choices, I am discovering all kinds of new pleasures. Instead of grabbing a few handfuls of Wheat Thins and a hunk of sharp cheddar cheese (yum!!!), I am training myself to reach for a piece of fruit or a veggie. Or, as I did the other day, Almond Butter.

I wasn’t in the mood for a piece of toast, or a banana, my two usual vehicles for my old love-of-my-life peanut butter. Nope, I wanted pure, unadulterated Almond Butter. I twisted off the top, sniffed it like it was a fine wine, and plunged the butter knife all the way to the bottom of the jar. I drew it out slowly, watching it melt off the knife and back into the jar. Then I licked what was left, clinging to the knife. It was pure heaven, let me tell you.

Now, just so you can understand my excitement over this little exercise, I need to tell you what I used to do – I already mentioned the toast or banana that would have been my old vehicle for PB. I also took great pleasure in digging out a heaping tablespoonful of Skippy, dipping it into a little cup full of semi-sweet chocolate chips. I thought I was being sooooo healthy, choosing PB without trans-fats, and choosing semi-sweet chocolate over milk chocolate. I do admit, it’s not an awful choice. HOWEVER, it was the quantity of the stuff that I was shoving in my mouth (and hips) that was the problem.

Rodney and I have subjected ourselves to the South Beach Diet in the past. Yes it was effective for the short term, but MAN, were we two cranky people for the duration!!! Anyway, one of the recipes for “dessert” included topping it off with 5 – yes FIVE – MINI semi-sweet chocolate chips. Is that really worth it? While I laugh heartily at the thought of 5 MINI chocolate chips, I see the point. It’s all about watching your portions. Enjoy the semi-sweet chocolate. But make it a healthy serving size. Make smart food choices.

My body is already craving good foods, a week into this little 40by40yrs experience. On my way…