Nutritionist update

Things are progressing along nicely.  Last week my homework was to lift 4 pounds of butter at the grocery store, because that is how much fat I lost.  So, I went to the store and lifted a pound up to my bicep and put 2 on my stomach and pretended that is where they came from.  After awhile they do get heavy, so no wonder I do feel tired so often- a lot of work carrying around all this extra weight.  I've always known that, but I guess never wanted to really admit that was the reason.

In the last year and a half or so that means I am down 20 pounds, so a nice number to reach and I am heading in a positive direction.  Today I bought 2 new books to help me out, Clean Eating for Families and Kids and Deliciously Deceptive.  We will see if they help me or confuse me?  Right now I am in the middle of watching a documentary called Food Inc. and it is... I guess what you would expect.  Most of us have ideas of how our food is prepared, but you don't necessarily like to see it in action.  They really show you the steps and I have to say I was pretty sad when all the little baby chicks were being swept down a metal slide and shoved around like potatoes :(  It talks a lot about salmonella and E. Coli, things I have heard of enough times, but don't really know that much about, so it is interesting to learn more.  This week we talked more about perservatives in the deli meats, she really doesn't like that we eat deli meat (I just find them so convenient) So, for now we are going to try and go mostly without, tomorrow we are making a roast and will have leftovers for sandwiches or salads all week.  

We have tried a few nice recipes, here are a few:

Grain Free Crumble

6 cups choppe fruit of your choice (we used apple)
1/2 cup honey

Preheat oven to 350 and mix together in glass baking dish

2/3 cups nut or seed flour (we used almond flour, but she also listed coconut flour, pumpkin seed flour, or sunflower seed flour - whatever you could find I guess - I got mine at Bulk Barn)
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1/3 cup pecans
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup honey
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp all spice
1/4 coconut oil (this is my absolute new favorite item, even spread it on toast  - it is semi-soft like shortening, but tastes yummy, can be used in baking, cooking, etc. - I got mine at Bulk Barn, but any natural food pantry type store would have it)

Mix topping until slightly crumbly and spread over fruit
Bake for 40 minutes - very good, Devin ate 3 helpings!

Mexixan Bean Casserole

1 tsp olive oil
1/2 cup water
1 onion chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
1 1/2 cups mushrooms
1 red pepper chopped
3/4 cup brown rice
1 can kidney beans
1 can tomatoes
1 tbsp chilli powder
2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
grated low fat mozza cheese (my nutritionist would say organic, but I haven't got that far yet)

In skillet heat oil and water.  Add onion, garlic, mushroom and peppers, simmer until tender about 10 minutes.
Add rice, beans, canned tomatoes, spices and cover and simmer for 25 mintues or until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed. 
Transfer to baking dish and sprinkle with cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees until cheese is melted. 

We ate this with homemade guacamole (avocado, lime juice, garlic and a bit of salt and cilantro if you like it) and I'd like to say organic whole grain tortilla's, but it was multigrain tostitoes, oops!  Plus a big side serving of sugar snap peas to add the extra veggies in there and help fill us up!

Another blog - yep!

Our Quirky Class, is you guessed it my class blog!  There are 31 grade 6 students learning to blog along side me and we've just got it up and running.  Part of the whole process is to meet new people from far away and become closer with the people we are surrounded by daily.  Jasmine already made a post and quite a few kids replied to her question of, "what is grade 6 like?"  Tyson and Allie may like to check it out and we would love to have them comment on there.  Hope to see some of you on there!

A month has gone by

So, today was my one month visit to see the nutritionist.  I go once a week to visit her and get advice.  Tomorrow I am going to the natural food pantry where she happens to work once a week to learn more about all they have to offer and what is good or not so good.  I've been trying a few new products and 2 that I would recommend are coconut oil, which she says she uses as a replacement for butter, even to spread on toast or in baking.  I've tried both and am very pleased with the texture and flavor.  Apparently it is a good fat, like avocado and has many health benefits, still obviously used in moderation, but a nice option to have.  Coconut oil is semi-hard, like a margarine consistency, but white with more flavor.  I bought it at Bulk Barn, not sure where else to find it yet.  The other item is hemp seeds or hemp hearts.  I have tried a few new things like chia seeds and of course ground flax, but I like the hemp best.  It has a nice texture and flavor and doesn't get soggy in your cereal or yogurt like the others. 

Today we discussed the dirty dozen in produce, they are the 12 most likely fruits and veggies to have strong amounts of pesticide on them and so they are recommended to buy in organic.  I have never bought organic and still have to do research on this, but thought it was nice to have a target list to maybe start with.  Anything with a peel does not absorb as many pesticides, so not as necessary to buy organic oranges for example - made sense!

We also talked about deli meats and to stay away from nitrites, I need to look this up, too, but she said Farmboy has some options for natural meat, but of course you pay for it and it doesn't last as long because it has no perservatives in it. What I've read so far though, there is a reason for the nitrites and that is to keep the meat from spoiling and things like botulism, so I'm still thinking this one through.

I signed up for another month, so more posts to come!

And I am down 5 pounds - so yeah!

Jay's 1st post!

Jay wrote the below to me in an email from California, he hadn't intended me to share it with everyone, but it made me laugh out loud. I figured I might as well make someone else's day by making them laugh, too. Here it is:

So I'm not a blogger, but I thought, here's the kind of thing people put on their blogs. Plus, I cant' just let it all out to you in person, so hopefully this just gives you something to read.


I'm having an issue with this office and its bathrooms. And coffee room. As you know, I drink a lot of water. I don't have a water bottle here- what I have is a paper coffee cup that holds about 1.5 cups of water if I fill it to the brim. Besides the smaller size, the coffee station where I can fill up the cup feels like it's half a football field away. If it wouldn't look so strange, I could probably get my daily quotient of jogging in running back and forth to fill up my cup. But that's not the only thing.

See the bathrooms are slightly farther away than the coffee station. And with all the water I drink, I make frequent use of them. In some ways it may seem to be convenient- I could go to bathroom and hit the coffee station at the same time, right? Well, I really have no intention of taking my open top cup into the can with me, either before or after I fill it with water. Especially since, ideally, my washroom experience should be a 2 handed affair. The alternative is to leave my cup lying somewhere close by, but do I really trust my water to be lying around in the open for just anyone to grab? I don't know these people. And I could grab a new water cup every time I fill up, but let's try to be at least a little bit environmentally friendly.

Now the bathrooms have their own charm, and by charm I mean that at some point the seven dwarves must have worked for AMCC. There are 2 urinals in the bathroom and one of them is at knee level. Perhaps there was an equal rights movement for pygmy immigrants in California. I'm thinking management is doing everything they can to encourage their workers to move in to their cubicles full time with their families.

Peeing downhill isn't an inconvenience, but let's face it, accuracy suffers with distance. Not to mention that compared to a toilet, the urinal doesn't quite contain splash back in the same way since it's not as deep. Half the time I hit the bathroom, I'm relegated to hobbit status as the full size urinal is in use. What's immediate apparent is the floor puddle from previous users who are under the same inconvenience as I am. Which doesn't help as you try to stand as much out of the way as possible to keep from needing rubber boots to go to the bathroom. Take my word for it, awkward foot positioning does not aid your targeting in any way shape or form. By the end of the day, the puddle is striving to achieve pond status and I'm doing my best Jackie Chan impression by hanging from the walls when I go to the washroom.

The end result is that about every hour, I spend 5 minutes getting my exercise by going down to get a drink, return to my desk, go to the bathroom, and then returning back as fast as I can before anyone can figure out where the wet tracks out of the bathroom are coming from or notice the water marks streaked half way up my jeans.

Don't even get me started on the actual toilets ...