Vegetarian! Me!

I never thought I'd be a Vegetarian! But after dieting for 6 months (and losing 20#,) and trying different plans, this is what I ended up with:

MY DIET:

Coffee/MCT Oil/Grass-fed butter/cream 

AKA Bulletproof Coffee

Water with Lemon (never city water)

Hemp Seed

Chia Seed

Flax seed (ground fresh)

Blackberries (fresh/frozen)

Berries Other

Bananas (occasionally)

Cottage Cheese (from Braum's)

Flax Seed Oil (Barlean's)

Cheese Hard-Aged (from Europe)

Avocados 

Kefir 

Salad Greens 

Sprouts

Olives

EVOO

Pickles (Claussen)

Nuts

Nut Butter (no peanuts)

Veggie Soup

Dark Chocolate

I FEEL WONDERFUL! 

If I eat meat I feel sick. If I eat eggs I feel sick. If I eat bread I feel sick. So I don't eat it!

Listen to your body & EAT REAL FOOD!

Love, Jean

EAT MORE FAT!

Fat doesn’t make us fat?

Nada! We've been dooped, lied to, and deceived! In the last 50 years while we've been told to go on a low fat diet, EVERYONE Got FAT!

To put it bluntly, people started overloading on carbs, low fat of course, and got fat! Here's the deal - carbs raise insulin, insulin stores fat. We cannot eat high carbs and expect to lose weight. 

I think people invision fats filling our arteries, causing blockage and or heart disease. That's not what happens. Fats are converted into an energy source that lasts much longer than the sugar spike of carbs! But you cannot eat both and succeed.

Fats are essential for normal growth and development. Good fats also provide energy, protects our organs, maintain cell membranes, and helps the body absorb and process nutrients. Even better, it helps the body burn fat!

Here is a list of GOOD fats everyone should add to their diets, while lowering carbs:

Avocados 

Coconut oil

MCT oils (medium chain triglycerides)

Hemp seeds

Chia seeds

Nuts

Fish

Grass fed beef

Organic Poultry

Hard cheeses

Organic Dairy

Try it you'll like it! And lose weight!

Breakfast - what to eat?

What to eat for breakfast is quite contradictory (as is all nutritional advice.) So I have experimented by; 

1) eating no breakfast, just drinking coffee, 

2) eggs, bacon, toast with jam, juice, milk, coffee because someone suggested a BIG breakfast, 

3) cinnamon roll, scratch that one, doesn't count, 

4) oatmeal with butter, sugar, and toast with more butter,

5) donut, no no no...

If I don't eat a thing I am ravinous by 10:30 and want to eat everything in site. If I eat a BIG breakfast I'm miserably uncomfortable for several hours. I thoroughly enjoy eating sugary pastry but we all know what that does! (And I don't eat it any longer, I just dream about it.) Oatmeal, is ok but too much butter with carbs.

So, I continued my research (my favorite thing,) and discovered something with many nutritional benefits, delicious, filling, and I can stay with it. Here it is:

1/2 cup cottage cheese

2 TB Flax seed oil (blend these two)

Add: 1 TB Chia seeds, 1 TB Hemp seeds, 2 TB fresh flax seed meal, 1 TB sunflower seeds, 6 ground up almonds, stevia and mix. Add 1/2 berries sometimes. And some water if it's too thick for you, I do.

This is actually from an anti-cancer site called the Budwig Diet, which I have adjusted some.

Don't check the calories, you'll think it's too high. But the benefits of how it helps your body is amazing!

Love, Jean

Exercise...Love it or Hate it!

I don't know what happened! Every body everywhere says you must exercise for good health. For some reason that didn't get me off my derrière. I occasionally tried to do something, anything while trying to lose weight, but I was never consistent.

I used to hate exercise and I could come up with a convenient excuse to not exercise. Have you ever done that? It was a really good excuse, right? But something changed.

I have an important birthday coming up and I decided I wanted to run a 5K before my birthday. Didn't know if I could commit, but I started out slow with arm weights, then walking fast, then I started using the 5K app, and even swimming. I don't know what happened! Now I love it! I look forward to my workout and I'm excited about reaching my goal. Maybe it's the motivation that got me going.

Today is a new day. Try to find your motivation and get moving! You will feel better, get through the pain, and keep moving. I've never run a 5K, but this is my year. And next year I'll have a higher goal.

Love to exercise, you can do it!

Love, Jean

Week-ends YIKES!

Weekends can be just plain scary. We all know that weekends mean freedom! Freedom from schedules, freedom from diets, and freedom to do whatever we want.

So, lets have pizza on Friday nights, out to eat Saturday nights, movie and popcorn somewhere in there and of course a big Sunday dinner. Yikes! The weekends can kill every diet and every good healthy choice we just made during the last week. 

Remedy? Have a plan. We know the weekend is coming up and possible uncontrollable eating. But, it is possible to make it through the weekend successfully, without feeling deprived, if we have a plan. If you know there will be pizza then decide ahead of time how many pieces you will eat. Perhaps 2 slices instead of 4, or 1 slice instead of 3...

If we try to go without then we will experience more stress that will do more harm than eating the pizza. Self pity will just result in over eating. But as we continue make healthy choices, that pizza will no longer look appealing. 

This is just one example. Whatever your weekend trigger is, plan ahead and decide what portion you will have if any. You will be thrilled to make it through the weekend successfully!

Changing HABITS

You probably already know that it is extremely difficult changing bad habits, especially when it comes to eating the wrong foods. They say it takes 21 days to change a habit but I can hardly make it past 7 days. But do I give up? Nada. I try and try again.

One thing that really helps me is to read and research why it is important to choose good healthy foods apposed to all the junk. Like carrots help your eyes, berries help your immune system, etc. I believe that in order to change a bad habit we need to focus on the positive.

If I continually think I'm deprived, poor me I can't eat chocolate cake...I'm gonna run to find it. But if I will continually tell myself I am making healthy choices to stay healthy, then I am more apt to stick with it. Now I just don't do this one day but everyday! And I have to stay away from the bakeries, period. I can't even drive by one with success.

So, don't give up! Think healthy thoughts today and every day and watch your good habits fill your life!

Love,Jean

WATER WATER WATER

Water is our friend! Healthy bodies require lots of good pure water. Our bodies are processing nutrients constantly and that creates toxic waste. Theses toxins CANNOT get out without adequate water. If we don't drink enough water to flush out the toxins they will be reabsorbed and recycled through our bodies again. AND then we walk around toxic and get diseased! Think health and drink some water, all day long!

Tip: never drink tap water

Tip: drink 1/2 your body weight in ounces 

Tip: add some fresh lemon for flavor and it helps with detoxing

Tip: add lemon and stevia and you have lemonade 

Tip: the more you drink water the more you will crave water

Tip: 1# step in losing weight

Tip: don't say you can't until you try

Love,Jean