Tag: choose health

Are You Ready?

Any change in eating habits can be easily derailed by a stressful day, bad news, hunger pangs or brownies that keep calling you from the cabinet.  It is time to do some preparation in order to get ready for our Whole30 that begins on January 1st.  Are you ready to get healthy? In my last post, I asked you to join me in choosing health!  My first recommendation is to remove all food from your refrigerator and kitchen cabinets that you will be eliminating on the Whole30 eating plan.

You would think this would be easy but you will need to read the ingredient label on every box, can and bag of food in the house! Watch out for sugar in your spaghetti sauce, soy in your canned tuna fish and sulfites in your vinegar. In this post I wrote about unexpected places you might find sugar lurking in your kitchen.

Box up the brownie mix, flour, sugar, cereal, oatmeal along with the 10 boxes of pasta that were on sale 5 for $5 bucks. No sugar and grains for the month of January! Give away the mayonnaise made with canola oil, the crackers with soybean oil, half and half as well as the blocks of cheddar.  We won’t be eating vegetable oils or dairy.

I thought eliminating pasta would be tough… No big deal!

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Join Me in Choosing Health

Thanksgiving is in the rear view mirror and Christmas is just around the corner. We all know what that means! Lots of parties with crazy delicious food, fun drinks and yummy desserts. For many of us it also means Tums, Pepto Bismal and a hangover or 2. Shortly after the holiday last year, we decided to do a Whole30 Experiment  and radically changed our eating habits. We expected it to last 30 days but we liked it so much we pretty much kept eating according to the program guidelines.

Christmas is coming

The Whole30 has you eliminate sugar, alcohol, dairy, legumes and grains and replace them with vegetables, high quality meat and healthy fat. We did a strict Whole30 for about 42 days and we ended it when we went on vacation last winter. On vacation we ate and drank anything we wanted and when we returned home we sort of resumed our new way of eating.

Red = the food I resumed eating after completing my Whole30

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Be Like Mother Fran

Many of the people I work with in the nursing home don’t seem to have much going on in their old age. They sit and stare into space or at the television screen until it is time for bed or their next meal. Whatever leisure activities they enjoyed in the past either cannot be completed in the nursing home setting or they have lost the interest or ability to participate.

I have worked with some elderly patients in their home as well and some of them are in the same position. They wait for the phone to ring, for their favorite game show or for a visitor to stop by.  I want more in my old age! I want to be more like Mother Fran and other seniors who still know how to live life with a purpose.

I want to do more in my old age

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Aren’t Friends Great?

My honey is not a complainer. When the going gets tough she doesn’t whine or moan; she just keeps plodding along until the task is done. She has missed 3 weeks of playing tennis due to a shoulder injury and now is sick with a cold. She still isn’t really complaining but I know she is hurting and feels crappy.

Last week I wanted to plant the seed that maybe she should go see her doctor about the shoulder. We chatted for a few minutes and then moved on. Before I left the room, I asked if she was ok and she just looked at me like I was a bit crazy. “No, I’m not ok, I am hurting.”

Planting the seed…

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I am Still Sane!

I just wrapped up my tough month of work that I wrote about early last month. In that blog post I detailed some of the things I planned to do to stay sane. I am happy to report I finished the month without pulling out my hair, losing my cool or having any type of breakdown. But I didn’t do it alone! I had lots of help to stay sane while working a lot of hours in an environment that doesn’t nourish my soul.

I didn’t do anything crazy

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Common Sense is Not Common

By definition, shouldn’t common sense be common? From my experience it is really not all that common and those that have it are blessed. When you use common sense you are able to identify problems in advance, solve simple issues that arise, go with the flow and deal with interruptions.

According to the dictionary, common sense is “sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts”.

Some situations I have come across that make me go HUH?

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I Like To Wing It!

Do you like to cook?

I love to cook. I usually have a main ingredient in mind and then start perusing the fridge and the cabinets to see what else is on hand that I can toss in the pot. I think about what protein I want, what fresh vegetables I have and the spices that will bring it all alive.

Preparing dinner is my down time at the end of the work day. I usually drink a glass of wine or an ice cold IPA while cooking and sing along to my favorite tunes. I start a meal while still thinking about what else to add to it and the final product is often nothing like what I had in mind when I started.  I will stop what I am doing to run out to the garden to pick some fresh basil, parsley and tomatoes  or at the last minute prepare some type of sauce or salsa to top it all off.

I love homegrown tomatoes!

You see, I am not a perfectionist when I cook in the kitchen. I am more of a creator or a sculptor.

Laughing out Loud!!! Ok, Ok. That is a stretch. No one has ever accused me of being an Artist in any way, shape or form.

Maybe paint and sip!

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Don’t Follow the Herd

I have been in vacation and family mode for the last few weeks and have not managed to carve out time to work on my blog or to study for my health coach exam. I have managed to spend actual time in my little yellow (sit on top) kayak, the canoe and relaxing in the lake. My honey and I spent a week vacationing in the Adirondacks with a group of friends and Child #1. That week was full of laughter, games and lake time.

The Adirondacks are gorgeous!

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Another Milestone Passed

There are some rather big milestones built into our life that we pass through as we grow and mature into adulthood and beyond. Think “Terrible Two’s”, “Sweet 16”, gaining the right to vote at 18, the right to drink at 21,  and the ability to collect Social Security at 65.

This week, I got to experience another one of these milestones that it is often neglected. The right to have a colonoscopy at the age of 50. Personally, I waited until age 51, this was not a right of passage that I was looking forward to or one that got me excited.

Time for a tantrum

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Whole30 Mission Complete (Part 3)

If you missed the first 2 parts of My Whole30 Experiment check them out here and here.

Day 17-30  Last 2 weeks of the Whole30.

My honey and I have had several conversations about what we will do when our 30 days are over. Overall, we both feel good eating this way and don’t feel the need to permanently reintroduce any of the food groups that we eliminated (soy, legumes, sugar, vegetable oils, dairy, and grains).

That being said, I am confident I will eat the occasional slice of pizza, brownie and grilled cheese sandwich.   I will need to reintroduce these favorite foods in a manner that will allow me to tell if they have a noticeable impact on my energy, my digestion or my sleep. Number 9 says when he reintroduced corn he realized it caused itchiness and some increased irritability.

Still looks yummy!

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