A Wheatastic Weekend

I've been wheated and that is not a good thing. 

I had a wonderful weekend but oh, the inflammation I'm now dealing with.

I went a little wild and crazy this past weekend during my BFF's wedding weekend extravaganza. I had a wonderful time with my girls, catching up, acting crazy, celebrating the union of a great friend to her boo. However, my normal wheat free life style went out the window.

It started on Friday with happy hour. Flat bread mushroom pizza, cheesesteak eggrolls, fish tacos...

It continued with Saturday brunch. Breakfast sandwich on sour dough bread, a piece of my friend's french toast. 

By this time, I was wondering if I was going to feel bloated and yucky. Nope. I felt perfectly fine. Stomach was still relatively flat and my digestive system was still moving things along nicely.

That evening at the reception for all of the out of towners the wheat party continued. Mini deep fried crab cakes. More flat bread pizza. Bruschetta. 

By Sunday, the jaws of wheat had me contained. Can't stop, won't stop was running through my head and I ended up eating more wheat that day at all three meals. 

On Monday, I was still feeling good. No ill effects from wheat so I figured, I don't have an intolerance for wheat. It was all in my head!

On Monday and Tuesday, I continued to push the wheat envelope by eating wedding weekend leftover sandwiches on soft, white bread.

On Wednesday, I met a friend for brunch and instead of forgoing the toast with my scrambled eggs and bacon, I decided to try the biscuit. Yes, a biscuit. I haven't had a biscuit in years and boy was it good. 

By Thursday, I started feeling a bit puffy. Not bloated in the belly, but my body just seemed inflated. When I was working out, I noticed my muffin top which had been shrinking, seemed to poke through my workout shirt. I also felt like my neck was bigger. You know when you get sick and your lymph nodes are swollen? That's what my neck felt like. Just big. 

Today, Friday, I feel like I gained a few pounds. Again, it's not a bloated feeling in my belly, but an overall feeling of puffiness. My new size 8 jeans that were fitting so good last week, now feel tight. When I sat down at my desk earlier today, I actually unbuttoned AND unzipped them so they weren't so restricting. *sigh*

What the heck happened? I overdosed on wheat for 6 days and for me, the negative effects shows up as inflammation in my entire body. Apparently, my wheat free way of life was working pretty well, but it took an overdose on wheat to realize it. They say sometimes you don't know how good you have it until you feel bad. 

Yep, I feel pretty bad. 

Now, I'm determined to eat only inflammation fighting foods and hopefully my body will respond positively over the next few days. Somebody pass me the fish oil. 

Cheers.

Have you ever over indulged and ended up feeling not so great? Tell me about it in the comments section below. 

The Power of Bulk

Someone recently asked me, "Isn't it expensive to buy all those ingredients for your smoothies?" 

Personally, I don't mind spending a little more when it comes to my health and well being, but no, it's not that expensive to buy a bunch of ingredients for my smoothies. 

I buy in bulk. 

Yes, you can buy goji berries, nuts, flax seed in pretty packages, but in most Whole Foods, you can buy these items in bulk. When I first started buying these foods, I would store them in plastic zip lock bags to keep them neat in my kitchen cabinet.

Now, I have graduated to air tight containers made by OXO, which I LOVE. You can buy them in most stores, but I like to get them from Bed, Bath, and Beyond because you can use one coupon per container. If you didn't know, those coupons NEVER expire. I keep a stack of them in my car. 

These containers are BPA free and I use the big ones to store my flours, almond, coconut and garbanzo bean, in the refrigerator. The smaller ones I use in my cabinet to store grains like quinoa, oatmeal, and millet. I store all my nuts, chia seeds and goji berries and separate containers and I even have one for my stash of dark chocolate.  Here is a photo of my cabinet and my growing collection of OXO storage containers.

In case you're wondering...yes, I am still drinking my green smoothies! I don't have one every day, but I do drink one a few times a week. Because the seasons have changed here on the east coast, I don't always want a cold green beverage for breakfast. This morning was a perfect example of that. I made a warm bowl of quinoa porridge (just like oatmeal except I use quiona) first. Then, I made a green smoothie to sip throughout the morning. Gotta get my daily dose of wheat grass in!

2 c Earthbound Farms Zen Blend

1 tsp matcha green tea powder

5 or 6 organic frozen strawberries

1 serving Amazing Grass Organic Wheat Grass

1 tbsp chopped walnuts

sliver of ginger

1 tsp maca root powder

1/2 c Bolthouse Farms carrot juice

1/2 c water

#greensmoothielove

#quinoaporridge

REWIND: October 30 Day Challenge

Remember this?

Last week, I wrote about the my new 30 day challenge for October which was to eat half of what I normally eat. Pretty simple, but definitely a challenge. As I started out with this challenge on my mind, I found it really difficult. I would split my normal portion in half and put the other half away. If the first half was really yummy, I had a hard time not eating the second half. In most cases, I was depending on pure will power not to eat the other half and we all know willpower only lasts for so long.

My initial goal with this challenge was to really hone in my feelings of fullness. I thought by only eating half, I would be able to check in with myself and decide if I was still hungry or if I was satiated. The only thing I could focus on was eating the other half! The simple rule of only eating half put me right smack dab in the middle of a diet mentality. Diets tend to have rules that ultimately cause some type of deprivation. My life's mission is to break the diet mentality! Remember, I'm done with diets?? Following a challenge that causes food deprivation was going to backfire. Actually it DID backfire. For me, deprivation around food stresses me out. 

Time to rethink this challenge. 

The New Challenge
This month's new challenge is something that I have done before in the past and it worked well. I just had a hard time sticking to it. Sticking to it for the rest of the month will definitely be a challenge for me. And there isn't any deprivation involved!

Whenever I eat, put the food on a plate, sit down at the table and eat it mindfully.

What does that mean? No standing the kitchen chomping on a cold slice of cooked bacon straight out the fridge, no reading emails, checking Facebook or watching TV while eating. Just sit at my table and focus on the food in front of me. Why this is so hard, I have no idea, but when I did this faithfully for a few weeks, I was really able to tell when I had enough to eat. Sometimes, I did leave half the food on the plate. Other times, I ate the entire plate, but it's not the amount of food that I'm focusing on. The focus is on the food that is going into my body. 

Did you know that when you eat with distractions (i.e. reading a magazine or at your desk), your food doesn't digest properly? Well it doesn't. When you are distracted, you also miss the cue your body gives you that you are full and satisfied so you keep on eating until you're stuffed. 

I now have a new note at my table to remind me of some cues while eating my meals. 

Actually this is an old 3x5 card, I wrote it out when I was practicing this before. Somehow, I stopped referring to it before it actually became a habit. This is my renewed focus for the month. Go me go! 

If you're interested in learning more about eating for pleasure aka Vitamin P, I highly recommend reading The Slow Down Diet. I am going to read it again myself this month to remind me why it's so important to eat mindfully. 

#behealthy

Power through your workouts with coconut water

I've never been a big fan of coconut, but I've learned to enjoy the taste and what it does for my body. I recently started drinking coconut water during my workouts. Not only is it more interesting than regular water, it seems to give me a bit of a boost during my intense cross training workouts at Unite Fitness Studios. 

At one point, I poo pooed drinking straight coconut water because of the carbs. Now, since I am on a quest to break the diet mentality, I realize those carbs work FOR me rather than AGAINST me during my workouts. Honestly, there aren't even THAT many carbs in CO2! 

Now understand, coconut water and coconut milk are two different products of the coconut. Coconut WATER is the clear liquid in the center of a young (green) coconut. If you grab a coconut from the tree, crack it open, the water is what will come out. 

Coconut MILK is created when you blend the white fleshy meat of the coconut with water. Check out this recipe on how to make your own coconut milk. 

Now that you have a bit of background on coconut liquids, let's get back to the topic at hand. Why do I drink coconut water during my workouts? 

1. PREVENTS DEHYDRATION 

Coconut water is super hydrating. When you sweat as much as I do when working out, staying hydrated is extremely important. It's 95% water! Rehydration allows you to push yourself a bit further in your workouts.

2. PREVENTS MUSCLE CRAMPS

It also contains a ton (yes, that's a very scientific measurement) of electrolytes. Who needs Gatorade or Powerade with all that sugar and artificial coloring when you can drink pure, refreshing coconut water? It's also rich in natural salts like potassium and magnesium. Studies have shown that coconut water has five times more potassium that some popular sports drinks. 

3. IT TASTES GOOD!

Like I mentioned earlier, it's a bit more interesting than plain old water. I have a 16 oz. reusable water bottle I take to the gym with me. Before my workouts, I fill it up with 8 oz. of coconut water and 8 oz. of filtered water and I'm ready to rock and roll. 

Next time you have an intense, sweatabulous workout planned, drink some coconut water and see if you notice a difference. If so, leave me a comment and tell me about it!

Cheers!

October 30 Day Challenge

Day 3 of 30!
I've never been good at making goals and sticking to them, but since I successfully completed the 30 day green smoothie challenge in September, I might as well keep riding the wave of success. 

My October 30 day challenge is pretty simple. 

I'm three days in and have been doing pretty well so far. I took a road trip to NY and even when I was out to eat I consciously ate half (well maybe a bit more than half), but I DID NOT join the clean plate club. This was my salad at J.G. Domestic before I took the train up to NYC. 

I also took a comparison photo of my dinner on Monday night. Full plate vs. half plate. The meal was wonderful, but the photo was less than desirable so I decided not to post it. If you're interested, here are the two new recipes that I tried out. Man Pleasing Chicken (yep, that's the name of it) and Balsamic Mushrooms. I got fancy and added some kale and bacon bits in there. Fab-u-lous! 

So as you can see, I have one main goal which is above. My side goals are:

• Continue to drink a green smoothie each day
• Go to cross training 4 times a week
• Continue to pray and meditate each morning

#octobersuccess