Intuitive Eating

How does it sound to never have to diet again? How about eating whatever you want? How would you like to feel peace about what you eat and not worry about calculating every little gram of anything again? How would you like to respect your body, love it for what it is? How would feel about not comparing every inch of yourself to others?

Do you find that when you even think about cutting sugar, carbs or fats out of your diet, all you can think about is eating them, even more than normal? Do you find that when you have a chance to eat the foods you cut out of your diet, you tend to binge on them when given the opportunity? Do you keep any of these foods out of your pantry so you aren't tempted by them? Have you ever begun a diet by have a "Last Supper" meal (eating all the foods you will be deprived from?)

This book discusses our different eating personalities...some of us are a couple of these...maybe they ring true to you, like they did for me.

Careful Eater - This kind of eater spends quite a bit of time planning meals or snacks, worrying about what to eat and carefully calculating it's health content. This kind of eater is interested in health and carefully eating for the sake of the body image. This kind of eater can eat well every week or month to find themselves binging on the weekends or holidays. This kind of person may not "diet" but they do over analyze every food situation.

Professional Eater - This kind of eater is always dieting. They move from one diet to the next, hoping each new diet will be the "one" diet that will work for them. It may work for the short term but not the long term. Sometimes dieting takes place in the form of fasting, or "cutting back". Professional dieters know all about portions, calories, and all other dieting tricks. These kind of dieters will usually have a "last supper" meal lasting one meal or a week or more before the next diet.

Unconscious Eater - This kind of eater usually eats while doing other things, like watching t.v., in front of the computer, reading or working. The author describes 4 different kinds of unconscious eaters:

• The Chaotic Unconscious Eater - This kind of eater is usually on the go all the time and grabs whatever is available from vending machines, drive thru, etc.
• The Refuse-Not Unconscious Eater - This kind of eater will eat whatever is lying around. These kind of eaters are not aware of what they are eating. They have a "clean your plate" mentality.
  
• Waste-Not Eater - values the food dollar, and will not let anything go to waste.
• Emotional Eater - obviously uses food to cope.

These behaviors almost always result in chronic over eating.

The Authors give us 10 Principles to follow:

1. Reject the Diet Mentality - The truth about deprivation, how it affects you psychologically. Willpower alone will never win. Do not deprive yourself of anything and in time you will find yourself turning away food.
   
2. Honor Your Hunger - Keep your body fed with adequate energy and carbs or you will trigger a primal drive to overeat. If you find yourself overly hungry, overeating will almost always ensue. Listen to your fullness. Do not eat yourself sick, experience this for yourself and you will find yourself turning away food.
   
3. Make Peace With Food - Give yourself unconditional permission to eat. If you tell yourself you can't or shouldn't have it, it will lead to feelings of deprivation. (She has many studies of healthy people who haven't restricted food and how putting them on a diet causing them great stress and unhealthy views of food resulting in many months or years to recover).
   
4. Challenge The Food Police - "Scream a loud "no" to thoughts in your head that declare you're "good" for eating under 1,000 calories or "bad" because you ate a piece of chocolate cake." The food police give you many rules for eating and if you break those rules what that can do to your eating.
   
5. Feel Your Fullness - Listen to your body signals that tell you you are not hungry anymore. Pause in the middle of eating to ask yourself how your food tastes, and what your current fullness level is.
   
6. Discover The Satisfaction Factor - Ask yourself what you really want to eat and eat it. Enjoy it. Take time to eat. Satisfied now - eat less later. Sometimes we eat many things before we eat the thing we really want to eat causing us to eat many more calories than we would have. Pay attention to the color, taste, texture of food.
   
7. Cope with Your Emotions Without Using Food - Do we eat for comfort, distraction, sedation, punishment, excitement, sooth, love, anger, stress, frustration, bribery, reward, etc? Write down your feelings (studies show this is very effective). Meet your needs without food. Rest, express feelings, seek nurture in things you enjoy like: friends, pets, yoga, bubble bath, spa, keep fresh flowers in your house, garden, meditate, soothing music, rest, (whatever of these things sound good to you). Deal with your feelings by writing them down, talking to others, cry, breathe deeply. Allow yourself to feel what you are feeling and those feelings, in time, will diminish. She suggests getting help through therapy, if needed.
   
8. Respect Your Body - (this is my favorite chapter) Accept your genetic blueprint. Feel better about who you are. Be careful what you think about yourself and begin to replace it with the things you love about yourself. Do not compare yourself. (This is easier said than done, but I love her suggestions). If you respect and love yourself, you will naturally take better care of yourself. Throw away the scale and put away the tight jeans and wear beautiful clothes that fit you well, regardless of the size. Even a skinny person will feel fat in tight, ill-fitting clothes.
   
9. Exercise - Feel The Difference - Focus on how it feels. Exercise because you love yourself and because you want to. Find activities you enjoy doing. Don't get caught in the exercise mind games (ie - if I don't sweat then it doesn't count). Make exercise fun. She addresses beyond physical fitness, addressing those who exercise to much and how we can do that in the name of dieting. (maybe we allow ourselves to eat whatever we want and exercise it off - this is a diet mentality.)
   
10. Honor Your Health - Gentle Nutrition - Make food choices that honor your health AND taste buds and make you feel well. You do not have to eat PERFECT to be healthy. PROGRESSION, NO PERFECTION.

I put on my blog all of dieting woes. Last year I lost about 50 lbs. It was a great year, and I was successful but only in losing the weight, not in keeping it off. I have gained about 20 lbs back. I'm not happy about admitting that. I have spent so much time worrying about food and this book spoke many truths to me. I have battled food my whole life, even exercise. Since reading this book I have kept my house stocked with all the foods I haven't eaten...things like bread, potatoes, fruit, candy, etc. I have enjoyed eating it! I have not binged, which is interesting to me. I have candy in my house and it's not all gone yet (even if it was, thats ok)!!! I am on a journey to stop thinking about food and exercise all the time. I have turned down food, left food on my plate and have enjoyed not worrying about what kinds of exercise or how long I've exercised...I just go by how I feel! I find myself turning down junk food (the book calls them "play" foods) or eaten only a little because I find myself feeling sick or I find that I want something else more. In this book, we are encouraged that if we fight the fear (very scary to let our guard down and eat the foods we deny ourselves), we will find peace with food, no more binge eating and in time we will reach our natural weight. Doesn't that sound nice?! Already I feel so much happier about what I'm eating. I feel at peace already! I am not going to stress about how much weight I gain in the process (I have no scale anyway, lol). One very interesting thing to me is to watch children. We are born intuitive eaters. If they are not hungry, they won't eat. I highly recommend this book and any thoughts you have to share about it :)

Veggie Lasagna

I am the kind of cook that just dumps a bunch of whatever I feel like into the pot and sometimes end up with a great meal...so in an effort to try and write down what I'm doing, I am going to start posting recipes, picture or not. Some of these I will try to post pics and others, I just plain forget. Besides I am no photographer. There are other amazing blogs with lots of organization and wonderful pictures, but I am not good at that, so I just post the recipes mostly and really crappy pictures, ha! So, I apologize. I know that I love to look at pics when cooking. It gives me an idea of what the creator's dish looks like, so I can appreciate that cooking without the picture leaves you flying blind sometimes. I will post what I can. Please contact me for any questions!

This creation I made for family that was coming in town a few weeks ago. I made two lasagnas. We had 4 adults and 11 kids! So, I was worried that one lasagna wouldn't cut it. Needless to say I had almost an entire lasagna left over. Fine by me! It was delicious! One of the lasagna's was very soupy and the other was perfect. The key, LESS SAUCE...and no cottage cheese (only ricotta). I tasted an amazing lasagna once that had cream cheese in it. I have yet to try that on my own. So if you do, let me know how that goes. Sometimes I worry that the noodles are not fully covered by sauce and so I put more on, this isn't necessary. Also, many people cook their noodles before baking them, but I never have. I find that cooking it for at least an hour does the trick and my noodles are never mushy. They are perfect. So this is what I prefer. Again...be careful not to add too much sauce! Also, after my lasagna has baked for an hour, I take it out and let it sit for 15 minutes or so, uncovered. It gives it a chance to set. Also, experiment around with veggies you like. I've never been a fan of eggplant, so I don't use it, but my SIL said she uses it often. So, go crazy! Have fun and enjoy cooking! It's such a fun creative process for me! Hope you enjoy my recipes!

Veggie Lasagna

4 cups spaghetti sauce (see below for my homemade sauce or sometimes when I'm in a hurry I use Walmarts Great Value brand Traditional Sauce)
1-2 zucchini sliced
2-3 cups fresh spinach
1/2 box whole wheat lasagna noodles
2 cups ricotta cheese
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 egg
1/4 cup parsley flakes
1 cup mozzarella cheese

Prepare spaghetti sauce. Set aside. In a large bowl beat eggs, mix in ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese and parsley flakes.

In a 9x13 pan spread a small amount of sauce across the bottom. Layer the noodles, 1/2 the cheese mixture, 1/2 the zucchini, 1/2 the spinach, sprinkle mozzarella cheese, and top with 1/2 the sauce. Repeat layers again, Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top and bake for 1 hour @ 350.
Enjoy!

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

1 28 oz can diced tomatoes (blended in a blender) or 2-3 cups fresh tomatoes
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
1 15 oz can tomato paste
1 tablespoon dried basil or 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon oregano or 1/4 cup chopped fresh oregano
1 onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon garlic or 2 garlic cloves minced
2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar (optional

In a saucepan, saute onion and fresh garlic in olive oil. Add all other ingredients and simmer for about 10-15 minutes or until the sauce is very thick. Add more tomato paste for desired thickness. ( I will sometimes whisk into the sauce 1/4 cup white bean flour to thicken for added protein).

White Bean Enchilada's

We've been eating a lot of beans around my house, just to warn ya, lol. I made these the other night and the kids LOVED them! I'm also posting this just for you Sister-in-Law Stephanie at her request. I hope you try them! :)

White Bean Enchilada's

3-4 cups white beans
1 onion chopped
1 can diced green chiles
2 cups Mexican cheese blend or whatever you have on hand :)
1 tablespoon Mrs. Dash Fiesta Lime
24 corn tortillas (use my recipe Soft Corn Tortillas)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup sour cream
1 cup plain yogurt
1 can cream of celery soup (optional)

Saute onions in a little water and nonstick spray until soft. Combine sauteed onion and white beans in a large bowl. Add Mrs Dash Fiesta Lime seasoning, and 1/2 cup sour cream. In another bowl combine the sour cream, plain yogurt, cream of celery soup and green chiles. Set aside. In each tortilla, add a spoon full of the white bean mixture, top with a small pinch of cheese and fold. In a large non-stick pan, place tortilla in fold side down. When finished with all tortilla's, pour the sour cream/yogurt mixture over the top of the enchilada's and top with remaining cheese. Cover and Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes. Top with salsa and serve! Enjoy!

Variation: Use pinto beans instead of white beans (try mashing some of the pinto beans), for the sauce, use red Enchilada Sauce instead of the sour cream/yogurt/cream of celery soup.

Variation: To the recipe above try adding 1 cup salsa to either the bean mixture and/or the sauce. It makes it more spicy and gives great flavor!

Soft Corn Tortillas

I discovered this years ago, not sure if I read it somewhere or just figured it out, but it you want soft pliable yummy corn tortillas without the fat...I'm your gal.

Soft Corn Tortillas (used for anything, but great for enchiladas)

Corn Tortillas
Cooking Spray
Water

Heat a hot pan or griddle to medium-medium high, spray with cooking spray. Run a little water over your corn tortilla and put on the griddle or pan and cook for a minute or so. Flip it and cook the other side. If you want the corn tortilla more crispy, then leave in the pan on each side until desired crispy-ness (not a word, I know). Spray the pan each time you put new tortillas on it.

If you want any seasonings on these you can sprinkle Mrs. Dash Chili and Lime or salt, or chili powder or anything you want while cooking these :) Enjoy!

My New Dumbbells

These new Bowflex dumbbells are my Birthday, Mother's Day, everything present. I am so in love with them! I also pulled out a pull-up bar I have and I also purchased P90X for a great deal, so I am in workout heaven! I know, I'm silly. These weights are so easy to use! I bought the 5-52's. So, I can use as little as 5 pounds or as much as 52 pounds! You adjust the little dial on the side to the weight you want to use and pick them up and start using them! I was getting tired of being pinned to just using the gym for my weight lifting and I'm so excited to have these on a rack in my room and I can do most of what I need to at home.

Just ask to see my biceps...he he!

Red Pepper Fried Quinoa With Parmesan Green Beans

I am in love with Quinoa, if ya can't tell :) Here's my lunch! So YUMMY! BTW-Quinoa is a complete protein.

Red Pepper Fried Quinoa With Parmesan Green Beans

3-4 small red peppers or 1 One large, diced
1/4 cup chopped onion
1-2 teaspoons olive oil
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup cooked Quinoa
1-2 teaspoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper

Saute peppers and onion for about one minute in olive oil or cooking spray, add Quinoa, garlic powder, salt and pepper and cook for additional minute or two on medium-high heat. Whisk the eggs with a fork into the hot peppers/onion/Quinoa mixture. Continue to whisk with a fork until eggs are incorporated and cooked through. Add soy sauce, and mix in. Set aside.

Parmesan Green Beans

1-2 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup fresh or frozen green beans
salt
pepper
1 garlic clove minced or 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
parmesan cheese

Heat oil in iron skillet on medium heat. Add green beans, garlic and a splash of water, cover and cook for 1 minute. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook an additional minute or two or until all water is cooked out. Keep covered to steam. Remove cover, and add parmesan cheese. Cook uncovered for another additional minute or two, until cheese is browned. Pour on top of Quinoa. Enjoy!!!

Blueberry Quinoa

I made this delicious-ness for breakfast this morning. My brother, Shawn gave me the idea. It was so good!!! Quinoa is a complete protein. I didn't know that. It's super healthy for you and with the wholesome antioxident goodness of the blueberries, you just can't go wrong!Blueberry Quinoa

3/4 cup cooked quinoa
1/2 cup bluberries
2 teaspoons-1 tablespoon powdered Stevia
Almond Milk

Make sure the quinoa is hot, add the blueberries (frozen works great), add stevia and Almond milk. Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Pancakes with Applesauce Syrup

These pancakes are a weekly tradition in my house...we love them! Hope you do too!

Whole Wheat Pancakes

1 cup whole wheat flour
2-3 teaspoons baking powder (Rumford)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 Tablespoon oil
1 cup milk or water

Mix dry ingredients, add wet and mix. Do not over mix! Yield: 4 pancakes. I usually 5 times this recipe for family!

Applesauce Syrup

2 cups applesauce (100% applesauce, no sugar added)
1/2 cup apple juice concentrate
1 banana mashed (optional)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice

Mix well and heat through.

I love this with Greek Yogurt on top! So yummy! Enjoy!

Coconut Ice Cream

I made this delicious recipe for Valentines Day...and although I'm sure it's fattening, you can rest your weary mind about it's sugar content :) Enjoy!

Coconut Ice Cream

2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 package neufchatel cheese softened
1 14 oz can coconut milk
1 dropperful (10-14 drops) liquid Stevia (more if you want it sweeter)
1/2 cup finely shredded unsweetened coconut

Whip Cream until stiff peaks form, add cream cheese, coconut milk, Stevia, and coconut. Mix well. Transfer to air tight container and freeze! Serves 4-6.

Below is the kind of Coconut Milk I use. It's so thick and yummy!

Maltodextrin

What is Maltodextrin?

Basically maltodextrin is an artificial sweetener made from corn, rice, or potatoes. It is essentially carbohydrates or starches broken down (processed) into a white powder used as a filler in many of our foods.

In reading Suicide By Sugar, I discovered what this substance is and what it is used for. It is so interesting to me how companies are using all sorts of different words to basically mask the fact that we are putting artificial substances and sugar into our bodies! Maltodextrin is a filler! I took out my beloved package of Stevia in the Raw and guess what the #1 ingredient was? Yep. Maltodextrin...then Stevia. Ugh.

I did find that some liquid stevia's DO NOT contain maltodextrin. I will be using that instead.

An article about Maltodextrin...click HERE.

Can sugar or artificial sweeteners be completely avoided? It will be difficult. I am 10 days without sugar or artificial sweeteners and although I haven't lost any weight, I feel so good! I'm not even chewing gum, people! After 10 days of this, I don't miss it. I made sugar cookies last night, and I didn't even taste them! That is momentous for me. If any of you have experienced my sugar cookies, you would understand how huge this is. Valentines Day is MY holiday. I love this holiday!

I am on a mission to avoid all sugar/artificial sweeteners. I hope to post some recipes soon :)

Suicide by Sugar

*I finished this book last night, what a fast read! It addressed the issue of Stevia. It recommended it as a safe sweetener. It talked about a specific diet you would go on for 7 days depending on your level of addiction. I think this is wise. I've done things similar to this before and not only lost up to 10 lbs within a week but also expelled my cravings considerably! It is not something to be maintained for more than a week. However, it is a good "cleanse", I believe to go on especially when you find yourself eating more sugar and craving it more. I really liked how Nancy Appleton explained the difference between GI and GL (Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load). She talked about how our bodies process glucose and fructose (natural sugars contained in fruit). It was all very interesting. I love that she recommended moderation in all things. However, sugar just shouldn't be allowed in our diets AT ALL! I agree with her...what a hard thing to do, I'm not gonna lie! I really look forward to my Oatmeal Raisin Cookies once a month.

I'm reading this book right now. Wow...I know that I've known how bad sugar can be, but this is opening my eyes even wider. I'll say this right now. I'm a sugar addict. I am. You know, in my weight loss journey, I relied a little on aspartame and artificial sweeteners. They are just as bad, if not worse. Yes, I knew this too, but I thought that I would use them just until I lost the weight. I decided a few weeks ago to stop all artificial sweeteners and let me just tell you, my appetite has been insane! Sugar in any form completely messes with your appetite! When I eat sugar, it increases it. When I am going off sugar, my cravings for sugar and food in general is through the roof, and if I can avoid sugar for a good two weeks, then it improves greatly. Well, since my diet sort of declined through Christmas, it's been hard to stay away from the sweet stuff entirely. Oh...I'll have a few good days but then the weekend hits. Which brings me to a very good question a friend asked of me. "I do well with my eating and will have a cheat on the weekend, but then I end up cheating every day, all weekend..." I agree. I have had a hard time with this lately. I think the thing that worked for me before is the fact that my cheat was one meal once a month. I know that seems crazy, but that one cheat meal made me so sick! Some of those cheats, I didn't even look forward to, because I knew how sick it would make me. This goes back to the sugar addiction that Nancy Appleton talks about in her book "Suicide by Sugar". This is such a good book and I believe every word of it. The addict in me says I can still enjoy a it a little, but the common sense says to me, why would you poison yourself, even if it's only a little?

Here are a list of all sugars or foods that are considered sugar:

• Agave syrup or nectar
• Barley Malt
• Beet sugar
• Brown sugar
• Cane sugar
• Cane syrup
• Confections sugar
• Crystalline fructose
• Date sugar
• Evaporated sugar-cane
• Fructose
• Fruit juice concentrate
• Galactose
• Glucose
• Granulated sugar
• High fructose corn syrup
• Honey
• Invert sugar
• Lactose
• Liquid cane sugar or syrup
• Maltose
• Maple syrup
• Molasses
• Powdered sugar
• Raw sugar
• Rice syrup
• Sugarcane syrup
• Table sugar
• Turbinado sugar
• Unrefined sugar
• white sugar

Let me just say that a few of these really popped out at me; honey...yes I know this is a form of sugar but that it still does to your body what sugar does, was an eye opener. Molasses, is high in potassium but again, it is still considered sugar and should be monitored. Fruit juice concentrate - this was a huge surprise because even if the only ingredient is Orange juice fruit concentrate and no other added sugars, it is still in a concentrated form and your body will treat it so. Raw sugar and Turbinado sugar, unrefined sugar...all of which I thought was "healthier" sugar. LOL! Healthier sugar...like that is any better for me?!

This is a really good book, I checked mine out at my local library. I would really like to know what you think about this book. Do you think you could give up sugar for good? Or...do you think you could give it up with a few exceptions throughout the year, or how about just having it once a month? Do you have artificial sweeteners like aspartame, Splenda and others? Could you give those up as well? (Nancy Appleton explains in her book that rats were tested given saccharin and cocaine and the rats would choose saccharin over cocaine, every time!)

I'm still reading....I want to know about Stevia. I've heard that it regulates blood sugar, that it isn't considered a "sugar". I'd like to know more about it. I would die without my Stevia! Let me know your thoughts!

Emotional Eating

I'm not gonna lie...eating right will always be a struggle for me. These last couple of weeks, I've been in a weird depression funk. The only thing that makes me feel better is chocolate. It's just down right awful. Dang that comfort food! I'm trying to figure out what I can do to remedy this...any suggestions?

In the meantime, I'm getting out all the winter crafts (and I don't consider myself crafty, but it keeps my hands busy), checking out new books from the library, Zumba (fun!), researching other ways to fix my sweet tooth with things like Chocolate Almond Milk with a drop or two of mint extract, bugging my neighbor for some good herbal tea blends, etc.

I'm so ready for summer.

Recovering From Christmas

Everyone knows that denying yourself the sweet flavors of Christmas is pretty hard to resist. For me, we spent two weeks in Portland, Oregon with my in-laws. I knew for those two weeks it would be very hard to stick with eating well...I mean who can resist my MIL's homemade fudge?! I can't! She baked to her hearts content; Clam Chowder, Dips of all kinds, Scones, Ribs...the list goes on. I know she was probably happy to have us out of her hair, as she is not used to cooking for a family of 7! I am grateful to her, because it created some wonderful memories for my children, memories from Christmases past when Dan and I were first married. It's difficult to see them over the holidays when they are a few states away :( All I have to say is I came home 10 lbs heavier in just 14 days! Crazy! I knew it would come off quickly when I got back to eating right...

I'm constantly amazed at my body these days. Eating clean has been difficult, but doable. Since July, I have tried hard to eat less, eat clean and exercise. At first, I had to write everything down, have menu's and be pretty committed to my health and not much else. If you know what it's like to lose 40lbs +, it isn't something that you can just change over night, it required changing the way you think! That's not easy! I am happy to say that after coming home from our Christmas vacation and eating clean again, it took a few days of some pretty bad cravings to get back into my routine. I feel so good! The 10 lbs I gained came right off...within two weeks. Nice! I am aiming for a size 8. I know I'll get there. I'm not too concerned about getting it off right this second, I'm more concerned about keeping good habits and feeling good about myself in every aspect. I have to say that feeling good about yourself certainly isn't about a size or a particular weight. It's all about knowing yourself, and your capabilities.