What My Health Battle Really Is



Lovely Friend,

  I cannot express the depth to which I have learned about myself through trying to change my health.  It really quite amazes me that so many parts of my life are so interconnected and woven together.  This may seem odd that your health could be so tied to other parts of your life, but for me, it truly is.  I have realized how much my health is tied to my spiritual, social, and emotional self. 

  My physical health is tied to my spiritual health more than I ever realized that it could be.  This past year I have been home with my daughter and have slowed down enough to hear the still small voice of the Lord.  My car is the place where He speaks to me the most and often brings verses to me in a way that I have not understood it before.  The initial verse that God brought to me was "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."  He reminded me that serving Him takes place in EVERY area of my life, including what I eat.  Another way that I have learned about my spiritual health through food is when I have chosen to sin with it.  Now, I want to say that I do not believe that eating fast food is sinning.  But in this particular situation, it became a sin for me.  One night, I really was very tired and didn't feel like cooking.  I entertained the idea of driving through for a burger, although I knew that we really were saving that money for other expenses and it was not the appropriate health choice for me.  I ordered my meal and way overate, to the point where I ate mine and my husband's meal.  This is hard for me to admit that this even happened because it is not the norm for me at all.  I questioned, "Why when I could be satisfied with one meal, would I eat two meals?"  Digging deeper and being aware of my surroundings made me tune in to what happened.  First, I ate so much because I opened the can of worms called "craving" and overate because I craved the food.  I ate so fast and devoured the food before I had time to rate my fullness.  Second, this caused me a small kink in my relationship with my husband that night.  I did not have food to feed him which created an uneasy situation between us.  Just realizing that a food situation could affect my marriage was eye opening to the depth that food can affect me.  Third, later that night I did not sleep well because I felt so awful! Through this I am reminded that Satan comes to "steal, kill, and destroy" and he is making every attempt to do this through my health! 

  Socially is another area that I have come to realize that food is a major factor!  Most of the entertainment that we experience in our culture revolves around food!  For me, going on a date, often involves, my hubby and I eating at a restaurant.  Hanging out with friends, involves food to some degree, and family time is centered around food as well.  For the most part, I have wrestled down our clean eating at the home, but when I step foot out of the protection of my doors, all hell breaks loose!  I am tempted on every angle from the readiness of the fast food that is available to the social gatherings where it is encountered!  Food is a part of life and developing a plan to encounter it socially is HUGE!  It means that I have to plan to eat ahead of time or offer to bring something that is on my "good for my body" list.  It means that I may have to change some of my social patterns to gather with friends and family in places other than restaurants.  It means that I need to choose not to make exceptions outside my home because I am outside my home, often as much as I am in.  It means that know that I have learned how to control what I do behind closed doors, I must learn to control what I do outside them.

  Emotionally, oh how I am affected here!  My health is so affected by my emotions because I tend to grab food when I am stressed.  Something that I can do with food is continue to operate in my stressful situation while indulging myself in food.  I have read suggestions such as "take a walk" or "do yoga" to help calm yourself down from a stressful situation, but the fact is, those are not ideal!  I am not denying that a fair share of exercise wouldn't help me to balance out my emotional health, but in a stressful moment, I typically cannot leave, abandon my responsibility, and take a walk. This is why I have gravitated towards food to satisfy my emotional needs.  I can be in the brunt of a stressful situation and have trained my brain to release endorphins when I eat food.  These endorphins make grabbing food during stress so easy and convenient!  So for my emotional battle, I have to again put my foot down and say that enough is enough!  I have to be willing to take the hard road and change habits that are not easily changed!  I have to find new endorphin releasing experiences that can coincide with the stressful situation.  Several that I will pursue are diffusing oils, drinking tea, and beginning my day with a dose of Jesus and a good workout. 

  There is surely a reason that I have named my weight loss, a journey.  It affects so many facets of my life and I knew that it certainly would not happen over night. I knew that it would take some deep soul searching for me to be able to put one foot in front of the other.  There are definitely lots of hard days, but, I know that it will be all worth it when I am able to celebrating reaching each milestone that I have set!

Giving it my all,
Jess

A Week's Worth of Clean Dinners

Ground Turkey and Sweet Potato Skillet
(Used with permission from Primavera Kitchen)



Lovely Friend,

  Since I have begun changing my eating lifestyle I have been in the kitchen more than you can imagine!  I absolutely love cooking non-processed food for my family but, boy, does it take some work and dedication.  I have to admit there have been a couple of days where I have thought, "Can I just order a pizza?", and the recurring idea that we are saving for Disney World keeps me from jumping track!  As for the cooking in this house, meal planning is a must and Pinterest is my best friend.
 
   To begin my meal planning I typically use my boards on Pinterest.  I have my pins divided into categories that I can easily navigate when trying to put the pieces of a meal together.  This is truly the best tool that I have for staying on track and beating the boredom that can come with eating the same meal regularly.
 You can follow me on Pinterest here.


  In general, I try to follow this dinner outline.  Mondays are meatless, which gives our digestive system and pocket book a break.  Really Monday is the only day that I have a specific category designated.  For the rest of the week I know I will have one beef meal, one eating out meal, and four poultry meals.  Since the outline is centered around a main dish, I always begin there when looking at my boards.  I navigate through to pick something that we haven't tried yet with others that I know are already our favorites.  I try not to spring too many new dishes on my family at one time.  Once I've got my main dish down, I then begin adding sides.

  Truthfully, sides have been one of the hardest pieces for me to plan.  I feel like we always eat the same sautéed veggies and it can get a little boring.  I will admit that venturing out into some different main courses that have a variety of veggies has helped, but I am still working on this one!  My husband is a Cajun boy and he loves his rice, so I try to use it whenever it is appropriate to the meal.  He would prefer his native white rice, but I always choose brown for the added health benefits.    Right now, I am just trying to put some variety into our sides; but, as I grow, I plan to make one side always a raw one with fruits or veggies.

   Once I get the sides and main course together, I get to writing my grocery list.  I grab my meal plan and check the pantry to see what we have in stock.  If it's not in stock, it goes on the list.  I always add a few clean snacks to my list which include cuties, bananas, green apples, almonds, cucumbers, and carrots.  In addition to the snacks, our beverages of unsweetened vanilla almond milk and 100% apple juice make it, then it's off to the store.  When I choose an item at the store, I try to choose the best options available.  In my opinion, any item that is organic or pesticide-free would be the best choice for my family and would make it into the cart.
 
  So, this is exactly how my life looked last weekend when I made our bi-weekly shopping trip.  We have been through several new meals this round and I have loved them all!  I will admit that I was trying to spend a little less at the grocery store this week and opted for a more meatless meals than usual.  However, I have found each that we have tried to be quite good!  Below are the meals that we have eaten and plan to eat for the rest of the week.  I will include links to the recipes because I want to give credit to the authors.  I will note that I tend to modify recipes based on what we have in the kitchen or what my family will enjoy.  I will include my modifications below each link. 

Sunday: Unstuffed Cabbage Skillet
*This meal was really awesome and truthfully I was worried I wouldn't like it.  However, the whole family loved it and it was easy to prepare!  I did sub beef stock for concentrated beef stock and water.  I had it on hand and it was easier.
Unstuffed Cabbage Skillet Recipe

Monday: Chickpea Tikka Masala
*I have made this dish more than once because I really love masala!  I served it over brown rice. For the side, we had steamed broccoli with a squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkle of sea salt.  I made no modifications to the recipe because it really was that delish!
Chickpea Tikka Masala Recipe

Tuesday: Ground Turkey Sweet Potato Skillet
 *I made this dish one night when I was very tired because it was one pan and looked easy.  I was right, it was totally easy and my family loved it!  My hubby even admitted that he didn't want to taste it, but kept raving about how good it was over dinner.  I served the skillet over brown rice with an apple spinach salad on the side.  I did modify this recipe by leaving off the cheese in our effort to be dairy free and I was out of yellow bell pepper so it wasn't added.  Next time I will add the bell pepper for added nutrition.
Ground Turkey Sweet Potato Skillet Recipe

Wednesday: Homemade Chicken Fingers
*On Wednesday we were expecting snow and some friends so I decided to make a less adventurous meal.  I absolutely love the homemade chicken fingers but will admit they are very time consuming!  They are truly a labor of love and the result is delish!  I serve them with homemade sweet potato fries and fresh green beans.
Homemade Chicken Fingers Recipe
Homemade Sweet Potato Fries Recipe

Thursday: Mexican Quinoa Skillet
*I really need another quick and easy skillet recipe after making all the chicken fingers the night before!  This one is fabulous, but I will admit that realized I was out of quinoa in the middle of cooking so I subbed brown rice.  I know it's a rookie mistake but it happened and it was still great! I will definitely use quinoa next time. My two favorite ingredients in this bowl were the avocado and fresh cilantro. Yum!  I served this bowl as a meal without a side dish, and further modified it by leaving out the corn.
Mexican Quinoa Skillet Recipe


Friday: Tomato and Spinach Frittata
* I happen to really love frittatas because you can make them with a carton of eggs and just about any veggie that you have on hand.  In addition to this, they are super easy to make (mommy score!) and clean up!  I served our frittata with some fresh sliced green apples for an awesome breakfast for dinner.
Tomato and Spinach Frittata Recipe

Saturday: My favorite tortilla soup at Mr. Panchos! 
This soup is clean, filling, and only $4.50 for a large bowl.  I absolutely love that I have found a winner and look forward to visiting on the weekends!

I hope that you enjoy the recipes and use them to spice up your weekly meal plan!

Giving it my all,
Jess

Tomato and Spinach Frittata

Ingredients
3 Roma Tomatoes
1 Cup of Fresh Spinach
A Dozen Eggs
2 Tbsp of Olive Oil

Directions
Heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grab a skillet, large bowl, cutting board, knife, whisk, and your ingredients.  Place the skillet on the stove and begin heating at a medium high heat then add the oil.  Using the cutting board slice the tomatoes into small pieces and place in the large bowl.  Roughly chop the spinach and add it to the bowl.  Crack the 12 eggs into the bowl and then whisk the ingredients together.  Make sure that your skillet is good and hot and then pour the egg mixture into it.  The purpose of this step is to make sure that the bottom and sides get a little crisp so that it will slide out of the pan easily.  I usually keep it on the stove about 5 minutes.  Transfer the pan to the oven and leave in about 30 minutes.  I periodically check it and when the top of the mixture no longer wiggles, I pull it out. Slice into 8 slices and serve.  I like to serve this with some fresh sliced fruit, a fruit salad, or a crisp veggie salad.

Homemade Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients
3 Large Sweet Potatoes- Peeled
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Sea Salt
1 Tbsp Chili Powder
1 Tsp Garlic Powder

Directions
Set the oven for 350.  Grab your ingredients, a baking pan (or two), a cutting board and a sharp knife.  I begin by slicing the sweet potatoes length wise about 5 times. I lay each of the slices out and then slice them length wise about 6 times.  I complete the sweet potato cutting and then assemble them on a baking pan.  I actually like to do them one batch at a time, but I am sure that it would be fine to use more than one baking pan and do two batches at a time.  I lay my sweet potatoes flat, in one layer on the pan.  I drizzle olive oil across the rows and then sprinkle the seasonings on the uncooked fries.  I pop them into the oven for about 25-30 minutes.  I check them at 25 to see how they look.  I tend to like them a little on the well done side, so just pull them out at your liking.  Keep preparing your batches until you have cooked all the fries.  Place them on a serving platter and they are the perfect compliment to homemade chicken fingers or burgers. I typically serve these with ketchup or unfiltered raw honey.

Homemade Chicken Fingers

Ingredients

• 1lb thin sliced organic chicken breasts
• 1 cup of gluten free flour
• 1/3 cup of flaxseed meal
• 2 tbsp chili powder
• 1tbsp sea salt
• 1/2 tbsp garlic powder
• 1tsp cinnamon
• 2 eggs
• 1/2-1 cup of coconut oil or olive oil (coconut has a higher smoke point and works best)

Directions
I like to lay out my pans and ingredients first so that I am not scrambling.  Some recipes are more forgiving than others, and this is on the less forgiving side.  Grab your skillet, two shallow bowls, a platter, a cutting board, a sharp knife, and two sets of tongs.  When I make these I add a little oil with each batch so that it will not get too clumpy from the frying.  I prepare all my stations before I begin cutting the chicken.  I set up an assembly line centered around the burner.  I put the skillet on the burner and place tongs beside it. To the left I put the platter where the finished chicken with go. To the right of the skillet I put two shallow bowls and the other tongs.  The bowl closest to the skillet has the flour mixture and the other bowl will contain the eggs.  I lay the cutting board and knife to the right of the shallow bowls and my assembly line is ready for ingredients.  I crack two eggs into the designated shallow bowl and make sure that I mix the yolk and the white.  I place all of the dry ingredients into the designated dish and use my fingers to mix them together.  A couple of tablespoons of oil go into the skillet.  I begin on my chicken.  I pull the chicken out of the package and rinse it. I pat it dry and place it on the cutting board.  I slice it in half horizontally and then 2-3 times vertically depending on the size of the chicken.  I slice about half of the chicken and then turn my skillet on medium.  I finish the chicken and get ready to assemble.  I grab a set of tongs and dip the chicken in the egg. Next, I move it over to the flour and flip it around in the pan, trying to coat as much as possible.  Before I put it in the pan, I get about 5-6 fingers ready with the egg and flour mixture.  I put all the chicken in the pan at the same time and begin assembling about 5-6 more pieces with the egg and flour mixture.  The uncooked chicken sits in the flour dish until I am done cooking the chicken in the skillet.  I brown the chicken in the skillet about 4 minutes each side.  This is just an approximate guess because I am multitasking and honestly don't set a timer.  I just check with my meat thermometer and when the chicken is at 165 degrees, I pull it out.  I do this process until I have cooked all my chicken.  I get approximately 24 chicken fingers out of the recipe.  I like to serve this with fresh green beans and homemade sweet potato fries. Enjoy!

My Five Favorite Snacks



Lovely Friend,

   The more that I plod through this clean eating journey, placing one step in front of the other, the more that I realize how uniformed that I have been.  Some days I want to practically scream at the old me, "Wake up!!  Can't you see how this food is treating your body?  Don't you think that the God that designed your body would have also designed the food for it?"  I honestly get so frustrated at her for causing so much damage for so long.  But, in the same token, I have to forgive her.  She was highly uninformed, doing what had always been done, and led by her emotions. 

   While the old girl had a great life, this new girl is having an amazing one!  I really never realized how much food controlled my decisions, my health, and MY MOOD!  A good attitude change can do wonders for your relationships and overall daily outlook.  Wow, who knew?!

  So in my daily battle to CHOOSE to eat clean, I have come up with some tricks to keep me on the straight and narrow to rebel against the American eating norm.  One of my favorite tricks are good snacks.  Personally, I am a snacker by trade, but really left them behind with good clean meals. I have found that I don't really need them, except for when I have gone too long between meals and I am ravishing and very hungry.  Getting into this zone is one that usually derails me, so having clean snacks on hand can prevent the derail and tide me over until the meal.  Here is a list of my favorite five!

My Five Favorite Easy Snacks:

1.  Green Apple Whole or Sliced with 1 Tbsp Almond Butter
2. A Cup of Strawberries and Blueberries Mixed
3. A Handful of Almonds
4. Cucumber Salad
5. Sliced Yellow and Red Bell Peppers

Enjoy your snacks!

Giving it my all,
Jess