Fruit/Veg Fast - Day 7

Juice - kale, carrot, cucumber, apple
Snap pea, mushroom, and spinach sautéed in coconut oil
Smoothie - flesh and juice from a young coconut, frozen banana, pineapple, and cherries
2 bananas
Dried Mangos
Vegetable Soup (onion, garlic, celery, cabbage, potato, sweet potato, corn, pureed tomatoes, organic vegetable stock, herbs and spices)
Popcorn
Strawberries

I'm over it. So ready to eat meat again!!

Fruit/Veg Fast - Day 6

Finished day 6, only 2 more days! Cannot wait to eat some kind of grain, any grain, I don't care what kind it is! Today I had...

Strawberries

Snap Peas, mushrooms, spinach and garlic sautéed in coconut oil

Dried Mangos

Fruit Salad - Strawberry, Kiwi, Orange, Banana,

Watermelon

Spaghetti Squash with homemade marinara sauce...again!

Popcorn - homemade using coconut oil and salt

The spaghetti squash with veggie marinara sauce is so satisfying, here is the recipe!

Vegetable Marinara Sauce

1 onion
1 bell pepper
6-8 cloves garlic
2 celery stalks
3 carrots
2 Tbs Italian Herbs
15-20 roma tomatos, cut in quarters
1 Cup organic vegetable stock

Put all ingredients except the tomato in a food processor and pulse until everything is chopped finely. Heat a little olive oil in a large pot and sauté until tender, about 5-8 minutes. While the other veggies are  cooking, blend tomatoes in the food processor until liquid and pour into the pot then mix in italian herbs. Bring everything to a boil on high heat then turn down to med/low so it continues to gently boil. I cooked it covered for about 2 hours and then uncovered for another hour. You could probably cook it even longer on low if you wanted, I think the longer the better you just have to watch and make sure it doesn't dry out. I cooked another batch in the crock pot today on high for 7 hours and it turned out good too. If you have a hand blender you could also blend the sauce even more once it has cooked so that the texture is more smooth, but we didn't mind it a little coarse. Serve over spaghetti squash with a big side of something green!

Fruit/Veg Fast - Day 5

Today was pretty average. Ethan was back to work after having 3 days off and me and the kids did the usual. Went to Costco and was disappointed to find that all their dried mango and coconut I had wanted to buy was full added sugar. But I was still able to load up on strawberries, oranges, kiwis, dried apples, frozen pineapple, spinach and sugar snap peas. The highlight of my day was Ethan's reaction to having spaghetti squash and a homemade marinara sauce for dinner...he LOVED it! He said he felt satisfied for the first time in 4 days and liked it so much he would eat this instead of pasta anytime. Hallelujah! This detox was worth doing just to find out he likes spaghetti squash!

Here's what else I had today...

Juice - beets, carrot, apple, spinach - my favorite so far! (left out the ginger this time:)

raisins

banana

avocado

Portobello Veggie Burger (mushroom, lettuce, tomato, caramelized onions & peppers)

Dried Apples

Strawberries

orange

kiwis

Spaghetti squash with homemade marinara sauce 

So excited we are past the half way mark already!

Fruit/Veg Fast - Day 4

Memorial Day barbecue is not the greatest time to be smack in the middle of a fruit/veg fast. And to top it off I had offered to make a cake for my sister Lucy's birthday, it was a coconut cake I have been dying to make ever since I saw it on Pinterest. I've been going back and forth over the last few days trying to decide if I should just eat a piece of cake and be happy that it was my only cheat the whole 8 days, or if I should stay strong and restrain myself. I am proud to say I did not eat any cake! I did however save myself a piece in the freezer and will eat it after the detox is over, but boy was it hard watching everyone else enjoy the beautiful cake I had worked so hard on!

Here's what I had today instead of burgers, hotdogs, pasta salad, coleslaw and CAKE...

Smoothie (young coconut water and flesh, frozen banana, pineapple)

2 corn on the cob

baked potato fries

watermelon

3 bananas

red thai vegetable curry (potato, zucchini, carrot, onion, red bell pepper, thai spices, coconut milk)

grape tomatoes

avocado

No juice today, my morning was too busy getting ready for the barbecue, but I did miss getting in all those nutrients first thing in the morning. I am excited to juice tomorrow because I scored a ton of fresh beets from my sister Lucy's garden!

Fruit/Veg Fast - Day 3

Todays' food...

• Morning Juice - Kale, beet, cucumber, apple, ginger - worst juice yet, I think I added way to much ginger, it was a tad spicy and kinda burned going down?!
• Celery, carrots, and red bell pepper dipped in homemade guacamole (avocado, green onion, tomato, lime, cilantro)
• watermelon
• bananas
• baked potato wedges
• 6oz container raspberries
• dried mangos (soooo good!)
• Portobello Mushroom Burger

Gotta say day 3 has been the hardest yet. This whole fruit and veg thing is getting old, but is definitely still doable, just gotta start getting creative now! As I was wandering the grocery store loading up the usual carrots, apples, cucumber, etc, these giant mushrooms caught my eye. I've never eaten them before but I've heard of cooking with portobellos this way and word on the street is they are "meaty". Best. decision. EVER. Fried one up just like you would a burger, piled high with caramelized onions and peppers, with tomato and a lettuce bun. My hunger feels satisfied for the first time in 3 days!

Portobello Mushroom Burger

1/2 Red onion, sliced

1/2 Red Bell Pepper, sliced

1 Portobello Mushroom

Steak Seasoning (one made of natural herbs/spices)

1 roma tomato

2-4 lettuce leaves

Start by frying the onions and bell peppers on med/high heat with a little olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. This will probably take about 10 minutes (depending on how cooked you like them) stirring occasionally. While the onion/peppers are caramelizing, heat another skillet with olive oil to med/high heat and place the mushroom top side down on the pan. Sprinkle with seasoning and cover with a lid. Turn after about 3 minutes and cook on the other side for 3 minutes. Layer burger with lettuce, tomato, mushroom, onion and peppers and top with more lettuce. 

I will definitely be having this every night for the next 5 days!

Fruit/Veg Fast - Day 2

Today I've eaten...

Green juice (kale, cucumber, carrot, apple)

watermelon

raisins

pineapple

strawberries
6oz container of raspberries

3 bananas

2 ears of corn

about 3 potatoes and 1 yam (baked into wedges)
Smoothie (frozen banana, pineapple, cherries, and juice from a young coconut)

I feel stuffed, yet unsatisfied.

I was really tempted to take a bite of the kids pb&j sandwiches at lunch, and their popcorn while we watched a movie, and the eggs I made them for dinner smelled SO GOOD! But I resisted!

BRING ON DAY 3.

Fruit/Veg Fast - Day 1

After YEARS of avoiding water consumption at any cost and despising all vegetables besides peas, corn and potato, my husband is embarking on a lifestyle change... starting with an 8 day fruit and veg fast and I've decided to join him. Yes, that means we will only be eating fruit, vegetables, and vegetable juice for the next week! The goal of this detox is to reboot the system and give the body a jump start to a healthy diet. Out with the old and in with the new. I've always wanted to do some kind of detox just to see if I could be that strict for a whole week, so this is the perfect opportunity for me to scratch it off my list and support the hubs at the same time. Ironically this was all his idea! It's actually been fun so far, I loved waking up and juicing together, and yes I realize we are still in the honeymoon stage of this detox, and a few days from now I'm sure we will be pulling out our hair and biting our nails down just itching to get our hands on a sandwich.

My favorite part about this detox is that it is unlimited fruit and veg! After counting calories and logging in every single food to My Fitness Pal over the last 7 months, this is a huge perk for me! I might still log everything in just to see what I've eaten and to keep a record of this experience, but it is so nice to not care about the calories. I ate 2 avocados today, have you ever heard of anything so absurd! That's about 500 calories and over 100g of good fat, and I'm totally allowed to for the next week. I mixed it with fresh cilantro, lime and garlic to dip my veggies in

Dinner was a hearty italian style vegetable soup made with zucchini, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, corn, cabbage, fresh pureed tomatoes, italian seasoning, and some organic vegetable stock. We did kinda long for some dipping bread, but it was still yummy:)

I've also had bananas, raisins, strawberries, watermelon, pineapple, baked potato wedges and am looking forward to some kind of frozen fruit smoothie later tonight. Weird to think I've only eaten fruit and vegetables all day?!

Banana Protein Muffins & Vegan Variation

What to do with all that pulp leftover from juicing? Throw it away? I think not! I have a whole list of ways I plan on using this stuff!

 Like throwing it into my protein muffins. Whenever I have old brown bananas, this is what we make. I USED to make delicious sugary banana bread, but as I strive to change the way I eat,  I have discovered that finding healthy alternatives is mandatory for success. And now I actually like these muffins better than the way I used to make banana bread. The texture is moist and dense and it has just the right amount of sweetness, all without using oil, white flour, or refined sugar. Even the kids (who have no idea how healthy it is) go BANANAS for this recipe and will eat 3 in a row without batting an eye.

Banana Protein Muffins

1Cup Rolled Oats, ground in a food processor or blender

1/3 Cup Almond Meal

1tsp Baking Soda (this is a must! otherwise the muffins turn out too heavy and dense)

1 egg

1 Scoop Vanilla Protein Powder 

3/4 Cup Rice milk (coconut or almond milk will work too)

1/2 Cup Stevia in the Raw

1-2 Bananas

leftover pulp from Juicing

Preheat oven to 350 F and spray or line a muffin pan. Put oats in a food processor or blender and give them a whirl till they resemble a coarse powder (it doesn't have to be very fine). Then throw in the rest of the ingredients and process until everything is combined. The batter should not be too thick or thin, maybe slightly thicker than you would make pancake batter. You can always add more milk if it needs to thin out. Using 1/4 measuring cup, fill each muffin tin with batter. I usually get about 9-10 muffins from this recipe, it really depends on how many bananas you decide to use and how much of the leftover pulp was added. You could even use 2 scoops of protein powder if you want to up the protein content. Sometimes I use more oats or add flax seed or throw in applesauce if my banana seems kinda small. I love this recipe because you can pretty much tweak it however you want, which brings me to the vegan variation...

I made this recipe by ACCIDENT! I was making muffins one day and decided to throw some spinach into the recipe. I blended everything together, put them into the muffin tins (noticed that for some reason it only made 8 this time haha), and threw it into the oven. A few minutes later I realized I completely forgot to add the egg and protein powder! They still turned out really yummy and the kids still gobbled them up like there was no tomorrow:)

Vegan Banana Muffins

1Cup Rolled Oats, ground in a food processor or blender

1/3 Cup Almond Meal

1tsp Baking Soda (this is a must! otherwise the muffins turn out too heavy and dense) 

3/4 Cup Rice milk (coconut or almond milk will work too)

1/2 Cup Stevia in the Raw

1-2 Bananas

Big handful of spinach and/or leftover pulp from Juicing

Make the same as the other recipe except I processed the spinach with the oats before adding the other ingredients (to make sure it was chopped up nice and good). 

New Toy

A juicer! I plan on trying to make this a daily habit (hopefully for the whole family!) Better than taking a daily multi-vitamin in my opinion. 

Special thanks to my bro-in-law Josh for steering me towards this one, I love it so far! I am excited to try all the different functions this juicer has to offer, like pasta making and grinding my own flour. To make sure I use it, I decided to transform my messy cluttered counter...

...into a juicing station! I just know if it is stored away in some cupboard and I have to pull it out every time I want to use it, I will be less likely to make the effort. This way I am always reminded its there and it is convenient to use. 

 Already made our first batch of juice with some helpers! Thurston said he liked it at first, then after a few gulps decided to change his mind haha. Even I will admit some juices are more of an acquired taste, but I was so happy they at least tried it! (and they absolutely loved help making it:)

Even babykins had a taste of it (diluted with water). Yes we tricked him, and he didn't like it, maybe more fruit next time for the kiddies. (and now that I see this picture I wonder what was I thinking let him drink that on my white carpet!)

 We did 1 apple, 2 carrots, and a huge handful of spinach

Looking forward to trying out lots of new recipes, I'm gonna need them when I embark on my fruit and veg detox! More on that later.....

What's for Lunch?

One of my favorite meals lately that I eat almost everyday (to the dismay of my husband who hates the egg smell haha). I love this recipe because it ticks all the boxes... easy to make, filling, low calorie, nutritious and delicious!

Open-face Egg Salad Sandwich

3 hard boiled eggs (1 whole egg and the other 2 egg whites only)

1/2 Tbs Miracle Whip made with Olive Oil

1/2 Tbs Sweet Relish

Dash Black Pepper

1 slice Sesame Ezekiel Bread (or any variety)

Sugar Snap Peas (or any raw vegetable)

Mash together egg salad ingredients and serve on top of toasted Ezekiel Bread with a big side of raw veggies. Enjoy!

Egg Salad Sandwich Stats...

Calories: 208

Fat: 7g

Protein: 17g

Motivation Monday

Most people dread Mondays but I love them! Mondays always seem like my most productive day of the week. I feel rejuvenated from the weekend and optimistic that I have the chance to start over and make it a great week. I say this coming off of a fantastic Mother's day weekend where I completely over indulged and used the celebration of being a mother to justify eating way to much of whatever I wanted. And if I really want to be honest with myself I can admit that between Saturday and Sunday I ate almost 3000 calories over what I normally would. So I am EXCITED it is Monday and I have another chance to get back on track. In the past I would let a single day off track sabotage every day that followed because I would let myself think "I'll do better tomorrow". What would end up happening is I would think the exact same thing the next day...and the next day....and the  next day.....and months later I would still not be reaching my goal. No More! I accept the days I lose track of my goal and then get over it because one bad will not stop me from reaching my goals!

Happy Monday!!

Eat Healthy, its as easy as 1-2-3.......10!

I recently lost 60 pounds. When I say recently I mean in the last 7 months, which is also how old my baby is:) I have never really had a problem getting back down to my pre-pregnancy weight, but I have also never really considered myself "healthy". After the first baby was certainly the easiest, the weight just seemed to melt off with hardly any effort at all! Second baby I gained more than the first and it really felt like a lot of effort, probably because I also had a 14 month old to take care of, but I still got the weight off. When I became pregnant with my third baby I really thought, "ok I have done this before, I really do not need to gain 60lbs this time, I can try to eat healthy and stay active during my pregnancy." But boy do those first 3 months of sickness really sabotage me where I only eat what sounds good (which is usually junk food), then I get into all these bad habits, and by the time I don't feel nauseous anymore, I give up and decide if I am going to gain weight anyway I may as well have fun doing it! So after having my third baby, I had again gained 60 lbs, and it was time to get down to the nitty gritty. This is when I really started to research food. Does what you eat really make a difference? Is it true what all the health experts and fitness gurus say about metabolism and protein and carbs etc? The more I researched the more I found there actually is a pattern in what all those fitness "junkies" and health "freaks" say about how to stay fit and healthy. I have not only lost the baby weight again, but I am in the best shape I've have been in probably since I was first married 7 years ago and I feel amazing! So here is what I have learned so far about nutrition that I think has really helped me lose the weight and start build good habits again...

1. Food is fuel. As much as I want it to be a party, its not. 

2. To maintain the healthy weight that I would really like to be at, I cannot consume the amount of calories my brain tells me I want to have.

3. Counting calories using a food journal (myfitnesspal) works for me. This has been a real eye opener to just see the amount of calories in food and how it all adds up. So even if I am 1000 calories over my goal and feel like a total failure that day, I log it in. The purpose of this is to one day not need to do it at all, because I will have established such good habits and know without even thinking about it what I should eat (and I am willing to accept that this will probably take a while haha)

4. I can lose weight as long as I am eating healthy MOST of the time. I try to stick with small indulgences or healthy treats, however I still have days where I go 1000+ calories over my goal. Its just that those days are less than the really good days and I have seen that I can still lose weight even with a really bad day every now and then.

5. Eating junk gives me a hangover. This never used to happen to me, probably because my body was used to those foods. I've been consistent with my nutrition for the last several months, however I still have days that I really just want to EAT and over-indulge on treat foods, and when this happens, I go to bed with a massive headache, and wake up with one. 

6. The quality of the calorie is important. Not only do I feel physically better eating healthy foods, but I get to eat a heck of a lot more!

7. Finding healthy "treats" is a must! I am constantly looking for these type of recipes. 

8. Sugar is the devil. Not carbs or calories and certainly not fat, but SUGAR!

9. Meal planning is essential. Otherwise my mind wanders too easily and once I think about something naughty to eat, its hard to get it out of my head until I eat it.

10. And probably the biggest thing I have learned is that eating healthy takes effort. NONE of this comes easy for me and every single day I have to consciously think about my goal and how I am going to stick with it and why it will give me the results I want.

I plan on elaborating a little more on each of these at some point as some might be wondering how I decide how many calories to eat or what makes a treat healthy? I also plan on this list evolving and GROWING and I continue to learn more about nutrition and what works for me. And hopefully if I ever fall out of being healthy I can look back on this and remember what works for me! Anyone else have tried and true health tips to share?

Recipe Kickoff

Welcome to my new blog! Let's kick this off with my current favorite recipe that I've been dying to share because I am obsessed with it! This salad is so filling, nutritious, and really low in calories. Plus the look, smell, texture, and (and most of all) taste, satisfies every one of my senses! I also love this recipe because it requires very few ingredients, all of which I usually have in my fridge/pantry.

 Start out by mixing the miracle whip with the chicken

 Then add your chopped celery and green onion

 Next comes the chopped apple and then I also splash the lime juice straight onto the apple. This helps keep the apple from turning brown too quickly and adds a nice fresh flavor too. 

Then mix it all together! I usually portion the salad into containers so I can just grab and eat.

However this salad deserves some glamour shots too!

 Chicken Celery Apply Salad

1 can (12.5oz) Chicken, drained

1Tbs miracle whip with olive oil (or any type of mayo you like)

3 green onions, chopped

5-6 Celery Stalks, chopped (about 3 cups)

1 Apple (any type), chopped

Dash Black Pepper

3 Tbs Sliced Almonds (one Tbs for each serving. I don't add the almonds until right before I am going to eat it, otherwise they can turn a little soggy sitting in the salad in the fridge) 

Mix and Enjoy!

Makes about three servings of 1 1/2 cups. (You could totally do 2 servings, I just find I can't finish the serving when it is divided up into two, filling I tell ya!) 

Calories: 165

Fat: 5g

Protein: 17g

*For a yummy variation I also sometimes add bacon, avocado, and/or cilantro!