Tag Archives: food

Veg’d out

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I love my fruits and veggies. I really do. Given the option, I’m more likely to order a big salad or a double side of vegetables when I’m at a restaurant than a potato or meat. I add crazy things to my culinary creations to up the veggie ante. Most days though, I’m a coffee hound with a side of a couple lazy fruits and a bowl of cereal.

Our family has been falling far behind on our 5-a-day. My bugz aren’t thrilled by anything other than an apple, banana, or fresh berries. They don’t particularly “like” vegetables…although they will eat them over meat. They are definitely (wheat-free/celiac) grainovores. They want cereal for breakfast, peanut butter and jam sandwiches for lunch, and noodles for dinner. And sadly, gluten free options aren’t always the cleanest food choices. It takes a lot of additives to make some foods taste good without the gluten!

And Leith? He just wants meat sticks from the 7-Eleven. And beer.

Sigh.

I can only sneak so much into my kids’ diets. Until I had a moment of genius: smoothies. My kids love smoothies! They beg for us to stop at Booster Juice whenever we are at the swimming pool. So last week, I introduced the idea of Smoothies For Breakfast, and they went NUTS! They have been having a veggie- and fruit-filled smoothie every day for 5 days now. They get about 2 servings of produce each, and then some. Each smoothie has pomegranate juice, almond milk, a whole carrot, 2 handfuls of spinach, parsley, a whole banana (or half an avocado), frozen berries, a few tablespoons of Greek yogurt, chia seeds, and hemp hearts.

BOOM!

Lots of real, organic, natural foods. No mixes or powders, no fake vitamins, no fibre substitutes, no sweeteners. Just real, whole foods. And they LOVE it! The rest of the day, I can sneak peas into their noodles or throw some baby carrots on the side of their sandwiches. I always take an apple and banana with me to my dance classes, and I get 4 servings of fruits/veggies in my smoothie because I’m not sharing it ;)

To make an awesome change even better, I finally signed up for the Organic Box! They recently expanded their service to Spruce Grove/Stony Plain, and they have a drop-off location. I’m currently spending about $45-50/week on produce, and only half of it is organic. For $55/week, it’s all organic. Not bad!! I’m really looking forward to having more variety, and being able to custom-tailor our orders each week.

How do you get your family eating more vegetables and fruits? What are your tips and tricks?

A bad, bad choice.

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I made a bad, bad choice last night.

You see, I have a nasty little addiction that I’ve managed to keep hidden under wraps for several years now. I keep it far from my thoughts, and I definitely keep it out of the house. The problem is, this has been a really rough week. It’s sucked in a lot of small, sucky ways.

So tonight, with my kids in tow (!!), I caved and bought a 330g box. I waited until my kids were in bed, because I am a responsible parent, and then I tore into it!!

Oh, dear.

I ate FOUR BOWLS full of sweet nonfood. I smothered every last marshmallow in vanilla coconut milk.

I am a bad, bad person. My mouth was raw and my body was shaking. I spent the rest of the night trying to avoid heaving up the rainbow that sloshed in my stomach.

There’s half a bag left. My celiac children can’t have any. It should have went in the garbage. It’s not wasting food if it’s not actually “food”, right??

Instead, I ate the last two bowls this morning…

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This hideous confession is part of the Summer Blog Challenge: a month of posting every day. Feel free to join in the fun!!

Treat the Stollery

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It’s Miracle Treat Day today! That means that thousands of people will flock to their local Dairy Queen for a Blizzard treat to support the Children’s Miracle Network. In our area, that means supporting the incomparable Stollery Children’s Hospital.

We’ve made use of the Stollery several times, especially since our twin celiac diagnoses. We also called the Stollery’s cousin, the Royal Alex NICU, home for the first two weeks of our bugz’ lives. This network is near and dear to many friends and families we know.

You would think we’d be first in line for a treat today, especially with a charitable excuse! I love my Blizzards, especially now that they have a mini size – something manageable, rather than gargantuan to treat myself with. But no, we won’t be at DQ today.

Instead, I did what I do every year:

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I sent a text to 45678. Then, a $10 donation to the Stollery hospital will come off my cell phone bill. Done. No junk food necessary.

You see, Treat Day is an awesome reminder for me to donate to the Stollery. It brings awareness to the cause, which I love. What I don’t love is that everyone uses it as an excuse to buy junk food “for a good cause”. Yes, some of your purchase goes to the hospital. But most of it goes to ice cream. And while I love ice cream, I don’t feel obligated to buy it to support the cause.

Instead, I take the $10 I would have spent on ice cream and spend the full amount on the Stollery. And maybe tomorrow, I’ll take my bugz for a treat if we think we deserve it. Or maybe we will go to the park to celebrate that they are healthy thanks to the miracle hospitals in our community.

Ice cream is awesome. The children’s hospital in your community is awesome. I just can’t stand using junk food to support healthy causes. It’s right up the alley of ParticipACTION partnering with Coca-Cola, and McDonald’s sponsoring the Olympics. At the end of the day, it drives profit into fast food corporations under the guise of feeling better about yourself.

There is a healthy choice out there too. Take the awareness, and don’t feel obligated. If you really want a Blizzard today, then you should totally get one and enjoy that you are also helping a good cause. But if you don’t want a Blizzard (or wouldn’t get one anyway), don’t make a special trip. Text “Stollery” to 45678 and get more bang for your buck.

Wavering

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It’s Day Two of the Whole 30. I hate every living minute of it.

I have never, ever, in my whole life wanted to quit something so quickly.

I hate it. Yes, the food is tasty. Whatever. It’s not satisfying at all. At. All.

My reasons for doing this were varied:

  • Of course weight loss is always a little bit nice. I haven’t been able to break 135lbs, but I also haven’t been trying.
  • I like the paleo food lifestyle. We can’t eat gluten-y grains, and we avoid most dairy anyway. This provided some structure, which was much-needed and much-wanted.
  • I love doing stupid challenges, like my sugar fast. I wanted to see if I could do it.
  • I wanted to feel better.

But guess what? The Whole 30 is a HUGE, SUDDEN CHANGE, even for someone who eats 90% gluten/dairy-free already. The physical act of cooking and eating the super-strict Whole 30 food isn’t what’s hard. It’s the mental commitment to it.

You see, I’m already pushing my brain beyond it’s happy place with my marathon training. I have to run 18 miles this Sunday, and I have some serious mental energy that needs to unblock before then. This year’s training is taking more mental commitment than anything I’ve ever done.

I also have a husband who has been gone since Saturday, and now won’t be home until August 2nd. He was supposed to be home today. Surprise!!

There’s also the timing on top of the mental stress. I am going away for the August long weekend with two celiac kids. I already need to plan for their food, and I don’t know if I want the added stress of bringing my own food too. Plus, it’s kind of imposing and rude to my hostess (even though she’s a beautiful, accommodating soul). The morning after we get back, I leave for 5 days in Las Vegas. I’ll be dancing from 9-5 every day, plus three training runs. I’ll have a tight schedule around meal times, and I’ll be at a hotel the whole time. The hotel is at the edge of town – no time for grocery store trips or anything like that.

That, my friends, is 8 solid days of food stress. On top of travel stress, on top of training stress.

I honestly don’t think I can do this right now. I actually feel anxious about eating. THAT is not healthy. I actually want to CRY. It’s pathetic. I don’t want to run out and get a Blizzard and a bottle of wine. I just don’t want to feel trapped and anxious!

I’m a healthy person! I’m not overweight, and I’m very active. I have no discernible health concerns. This isn’t a do-or-die nutrition situation. But I have to stop and wonder: am I having trouble because of all the other stress it’s causing, or because I really need to do this for my body. Is this just withdrawal/cleanse, and I need to push through it? Or is it just BS and I need to take the warning signs and walk away, try again later?

And it’s not like I’ve been starving. I’ve eaten LOTS – at least 2000kcal each day for the past two days. But I’m forcing it in, and I’m still not getting nearly enough carbohydrates to support my training.

Ugh.

I don’t like quitting, and I quit too often. But it’s not worth the struggle right now. Even if I woke up tomorrow and it was an easy day, it’s not worth it right now.

I can go gluten-free and dairy-free. I can’t do this Whole 30 right now. So while the title of this post is “Wavering“, what it really means is “Quitting“.

I need some breathing room right now. I can’t do food guilt. I need to just eat and train and dance and run that marathon in October!

So, Whole 30? I quit.

Whole 30 – Week One

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My meal plans are set out for the next seven days! Today and tomorrow are my farewell-to-grain days, as I am preparing for the Moose is Loose half marathon in the morning. Monday morning is the start of my Whole 30 Challenge!!

Breakfasts:

  • Egg muffins with spinach, sausage, onion, and pepper
  • Ground turkey with onion, kale, and apples
  • Shredded chicken with yam/carrot/onion hash
  • Sausages with sweet potato hash brown cakes
  • Omelette with spinach, onion, peppers
  • Apples with almond butter, hard boiled eggs, left-over asparagus
  • Shredded chicken with apples, onions and carrots

Lunches:

  • Spinach salad with tuna, avocado, peppers, and cucumber
  • Spinach salad with salmon, red onion, capers, and olives
  • Peppers stuffed with tuna, carrots, peppers, avocado, mayonaise
  • Shredded chicken, sweet potatoes, fruit
  • Omelette with sausage, kale, and asparagus
  • Left-over beef roast with kale, onion, green beans and sweet potato
  • Left-over beef stew with apples, carrots, sweet potatoes, and onion

Dinners:

  • Spaghetti squash with ground beef, diced tomatoes, spinach, onions, and peppers
  • Beef roast with kale, onion, carrots, sweet potatoes, and green beans
  • Beef stew with apples, carrots, sweet potatoes and onion
  • Turkey chili with tomatoes, onions, and kale
  • Cauliflower pizza dough with sausage, onion, tomatoes, and peppers
  • Sausages with onions, apples, kale, and cucumber salad
  • Crustless spinach quiche

I’ll be honest: looking at my meal plan, the estimated cost of groceries for this week terrified me! Nothing but fresh produce and meat! And this is my first week of living on cash only! What if it was more than the $200 I allotted us??

I had a handful of the ingredients already (5 peppers, green beans, cucumbers, riced cauliflower, diced tomatoes, almond butter, and capers) but I needed to buy everything else. When the cashier at Superstore finished ringing up my items, I was shocked!


Shocked!!!

Now, I still need 2 rotisserie chickens (those are my lazy-protien days ;) ) and a spaghetti squash, so my final total will be closer to $150. I’m sure I could do a little better on the produce if I went to H&W Produce, but I didn’t want to make 2 trips into the city today.

Not bad, hey? And this is for ALL FOUR of us!

Switching to gluten-free grain flours and products bumped my monthly food bill from $600/month to $850. It kills me to spend $4-8 on a loaf of bread. This will take a huge chunk off that total, AND it will also keep Leith from buying lunch every day. $8-10 a day, 5 days a week?? That’s another $200 a month saved right there!

I am so excited, and my mouth is watering just looking at the menu. I can’t wait to start…48 hours to go!

The No’s: any grains/rice/quinoa, seeds (including peas and corn), soy, dairy, legumes, sugar, caffeine (other than tea), and alcohol

I can’t wait to share the results with you :)

Detox decisions

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After much thought and discussion, I’ve narrowed down my action plan to detox my aching body. There are so many routes to go, and I need to be conscious of my lifestyle and goals. I won’t embark on a journey that I know is beyond my grasp. I need something that is manageable for me, now.

Exercise is easy: run 5k three times a week, go for a long run on the weekends, and fill the extra days with other fun like Zumba! And yes, it’s time to restart the 30-Day Shred…not because I like it, but because I am mad about getting sidetracked!!

Food is trickier. This is what will take…willpower. You see, I am supposed to be gluten-free. But I’ve been cheating. Little cheats here and there: granola, a beer… So starting now, I am sticking to my kds’ GF diet. The only catch is my special dinner this Friday, but I’ll do my best!

Side note: I’d love to cut out added sugar as well, but between the anniversary and my birthday…well, I know I’d be setting myself up for failure! So that one will just have to wait and be limited for now.

Caffeine and alcohol will be easier than food. I can cut out coffee with no problems (surprisingly), and I’m sick of our homemade wine ;) I’m back on a tea kick, and I’m letting myself have 3 alcoholic drinks a week.

After all…I do have twins!

And then, there’s the actual detox. With so many to choose from, and so many people with different experiences, it was overwhelming! I needed something healthy though: no fasting, no low-calorie food guide, no interfering with my endurance training!! I’ve narrowed it down to two. One has no food restrictions; the other has food restrictions in terms of what you may eat, but not how much. The good thing is that is it very GF/paleo. Most of the no’s are junk, processed, flours, dairy, and citrus.

My goal is 4 weeks. That will get me to my 31st birthday, and hopefully help me ring in my new year feeling much healthier! I’d love to leave these aching joints and swollen belly in the past where they belong!!

In the spirit of accountability, today I ran 5k and did The Shred but I ate a wheat hotdog bun and had a Corona. Baby steps ;)

Hey, May!

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May is going to be awesome. I know this because:

  • Leith got called out to Ft MacMurray for 3 weeks today. This would normally throw me into a fetal position, but with our financial diet in full gear, 21 days of 12-hr shifts sounds pretty good to us!! Hello, overtime!!
  • His office did fix the paperwork screw up, so we did get paid in full…which means all my bills will be paid today – yay!!
  • I get to pick up my bugz’ first dance pictures this week
  • I’m going to see my bestest Suzi this weekend for a training run in Cochrane, just 4 weeks before the Footstock half marathon!
  • I get to buy new underwear!! Woohoo!
  • May means almost summer, which means PLANTING MY GARDEN!!! The nursery in my living room is getting out of control…
  • The start of morning coffees out on our deck :)
  • Erin is going to have her baby this month!
  • The greenhouses are in full swing, which means I can go and get all my beautiful flowers for my yard soon!
  • It’s Celiac Awareness Month
  • I have a new treadmill to play with, and it’s oh-so-beautiful
  • I get to keep Shredding, which is giving me oh-so-beautiful arms ;)
  • There’s sunshine everywhere, and long daylight hours for playing outside
  • I’m thisclose to getting my devil IUD ripped out!
  • I can buy groceries at the farmers’ markets soon – outside! In the sun!
  • The first baby wearing walk of the year is on May 23
  • We will be celebrating our 5-year anniversary on May 25 – so far, so very good

Although we’re guaranteed to have a few ups and downs, I’d say we have a lot to look forward to this month!

What are you excited for in May?