4.9: Guinea Pigs & Desserts with Nutritional Value (at least some)

Mmmmm...I'm still savoring delicious homemade donuts at the family birthday party last night.  Can you say awe-sommmmmmeeee?!  So worth cheating for.

Saw this article.  I dare you to try any of these.  I think I'm going to, and I'll even bring you some.  And watch you eat it.  It says crazy delicious...you be the judge.  Satisfy your sweet tooth with something more robust in the health department.


This morning we had pumpkin pancakes, a new favorite love of mine.  They were tender and delicious and almost everyone ate them.  Even though my youngest politely said "could you make just plain pancakes next time?"  Yep.  Well, honey, in case you haven't noticed, my mantra is "life is too short to eat boring food."  The girls regularly refer to themselves as the guinea pigs, as in they are testers and tasters of all foods under the sun.

Which makes me, and them, happy.  They will never go to a place away from home and not be able to eat anything.  I find, however, that they are very interesting studies in healthy relationships with food.  They frequently turn down warm homemade cookies <gasp> because they are not in the mood.  They are sure I'll be making them again soon (they know me so well) and can have one when they feel like it...and I really mean just one.

My oldest skips breakfast <gasp, again> because she's not hungry.  To me this is like breaking one of the 10 Commandments.  "How can you possibly function without breakfast?!" I screech as I try to force a woman-sized teenager to eat two spoonfuls of oatmeal.  But contrary to all reason, she's just fine without.  It is beyond my comprehension.  She eats the lunch I pack for her each day (she likes predictability and things that aren't gross at room temperature).  When she gets home from school she eats her biggest meal snack of the day and it seems that the flood gates are open and the pit is bottomless, and she does her mama proud.  Then dinner comes along and I'm like, "I put all this work in to making a nice healthy dinner and I'll be skunked if you leave the table without eating every. last. bite."  Law.

I find her eating habits confusing and a tad frustrating.  But honestly, it's working for her.  She has energy.  She's growing, she eats healthy food, she's interested in cooking, she can turn down snacks and is comfortable with her body's communications to her about when she is truly hungry and when she's not.  I am very proud, albeit somewhat flabbergasted.

My second is a bit more like me.  She has an insatiable sweet tooth and, like me, enjoys eating for taste.  She can also turn food down when she's not hungry.  Unfortunately that usually means regular food.  We are learning together how to not eat a bag of chocolate Easter eggs with your friend at one sitting.  She's a multiple cookie, grazing, bread-centric eater like me.  My job is to provide healthier snacks that she'll eat, like chopped veggies and fruit, which she also loves.  She too listens to her hunger, it just happens to hit at weird, non-meal, and times when she's interested in delaying something.  Hmmm.  Sounds kiddish.

We've always joked that my youngest was born without a sweet-tooth (a blessed state of being) and she rarely imbibes in dessert, has the longest-lingering holiday candy, and is basically not food-centric.  She is also more like her oldest sister in obeying her hunger signals, but she's the most regular breakfast-eater and even likes oatmeal, thank the heavens.  She is an active calorie-burning machine and needs to stoke her furnace frequently.  She loves savory things, like her dad, and is the one who asks most for crab & steak.

Anyhoo, the point is that by observing these three beautiful, healthy, happy, lights-of-my-life, I can learn from their healthy internal code that, because of mental and physical baggage, I have overwritten in myself.  I can also help them nurture and develop healthy habits, like making healthy substitutions and knowing when to say when.  Combined with their active-play lifestyle, I am comfortable with their eating habits and know that they are, so far, using food as fuel, and occasionally pleasure.

And because they are children I will continually hear griping at dinner time about the amount of broccoli, tough steak, rice that looks like bugs, and squash that is too "creamy" (their least favorite texture).  I know that all these foods are nourishing them and broadening their horizons.  And as I dish up Forbidden Rice and mountains of green and orange veggies, it serves me right that their favorite food is crab.

Day 4.8: Thank My What...?!

How was your weekend?  It was so sunny and beautiful, I hope you got out in the sunshine.  We went cross-country skiing as a family.  It was great fun.  Our oldest tried skate skiing for the first time and WOW is she a natural!  It was amazing to watch how fluid she was.

Two things I love about cross-country skiing: it is a total body workout and every extremity is warm the entire time.   If you want to try this sport sometime, you can rent gear for super-cheap at Weber State's Outdoor Rec office.  Snowbasin grooms a track, and so does North Fork up by Eden.  Check out TUNA for more information.  There's even races, if you're crazy like that.

I can't wait to watch the Nordic events in Sochi in a couple weeks.  They are my favorite winter events.  They are such great athletes and every time I see them I am inspired to be stronger and healthier.

Skiing Saturday in the bright sunshine I felt a strong sense of gratitude.  (I could live with more gratitude every day and my life would be much fuller, but this is a topic for another day).  I felt grateful for my healthy body, for a beautiful place to live, for snow, for sun, for my awesome kids, and my supportive and challenging husband (not that he's challenging but that he challenges me) (okay, he's challenging sometimes...aren't we all).  During November in Primary we talked a lot about showing gratitude and went over and over different ways to show gratitude for different things.  

So I pose the question: 

How do you thank your body or show gratitude for it?

Over Saturday and Sunday I really thought about it.  The main things I thought about were how I fuel it, and how do I feel about it.  Stuffing my body full of sugar or junk is no way to thank my body for the years it has been so good to me, and is sure to hack years off my life span.  Having a negative body image is also a betrayal to my body, just like judging a person by their looks.  Hating how I look is overlooking the myriad of ways my body is truly awesome.

As women we spend an undue amount of time criticizing, hating, covering, hiding, attempting to change and being ashamed of our bodies.  This is not to say that we shouldn't try to continually improve.  But just as we are taught not to be hyper-critical of the people in our lives, we should treat our bodies with the same respect.

So thanks, body, for carrying me through 37 years of healthy life, for carrying and bearing and nourishing 3 children, for hugging and laughing and running and swimming and jumping, skiing and sleeping and holding babies, for kissing the people I love, and talking to people I care about.  I'm going to treat you nicer, because I still need ya for a lot of years and a lot of challenges yet to come, I'm sure.  

Teach your children, especially your daughters, how to show gratitude for their bodies.  Example is the best teacher.

Find a way to thank your body today.  And thank our Father in Heaven for such an awesome, beautiful, functional, perfect gift.

Day 4.5: Better Breakfast Ideas

Friday, Friday, Friday, Yeah!

I woke earlier than usual today, which means I actually woke up with my alarm that goes off at the same time every day.  I just didn't  hit snooze.  Fridays give me a little boost of energy from knowing we made it through another week.

That meant I actually had enough time to heat the oven up to make a delicious breakfast:  Monster Pancake or German Pancake.  You know, the one that puffs up in the oven?  It makes a great high-protein substitute for regular pancakes.  It takes 6 eggs, 1 cup milk, and 1 cup flour, so it has a great protein to processed carb ratio.  Here's the recipe:

6 eggs (beat in blender for 3 minutes)
Add:
1 cup milk (I use skim) side note: unsweetened coconut milk has more protein and less milk sugars than even skim milk.  who knew? use that if you're feeling daring...it's yummy...in stuff.
1 cup flour (you could sub wheat for white)
1 tbsp sugar (optional)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla
Blend until smooth.
Pour 3 tbsp melted butter into 13x9 baking dish and pour egg mixture over that.
Bake at 450 deg for 15 minutes.

It is really yummy.  Mine sometimes puffs and sometimes doesn't.  I think it's my old temperamental oven, which hopefully I will be saying sayonara to on Saturday.  Yippee!

Eating mindfully is about making substitutions for better quality calories.  Eggs and protein are an automatic win as a sub for highly processed white flour pancakes, even if said pancakes are puffy and to die for.

Another protein breakfast I have been seeing a lot of is Egg Cups.  These are basically an egg+veggie+meatofchoice+cheese scramble poured into a muffin tin and baked, instead of scrambled in the frying pan.  The sky's the limit on what to put in these babies, so use your imagination and all your left-over vegetables from dinner that your kids didn't eat.  They'll eat them in these breakfast eggy-muffins.  Even better, throw in some kale, chia seeds, flax seed, or olive oil and make them a super-food vehicle.

Choose one thing today and swap it for something better!

Day 4.3: The Benefits of Planning Ahead

I have done something completely out of character...I made a 10 day meal plan: breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner.  I shopped once, and hopefully I don't have to go to the grocery store for at least 5 days.  We'll see...

The benefits I see coming from this strange action on my part are: not scrambling to think of something to make at 4:30 pm and having no meat defrosted; branching out and adding variety to our menu; having vegetables on hand to eat as side dishes; having healthy and planned snacks when the kids get home; having a dessert planned for Sunday to look forward to and be ready for; save money (although I'm skeptical).

Planning ahead helps us live our lives to a fuller extent, being able to focus beyond the now and the immediate.  It helps us be proactive instead of reactionary.  Reacting is the enemy of many things, including healthy dieting.

It seems as though every time I try to meal plan I end up spending twice as much as random-shopping.  But random shopping gets so aggravating and I end up at the grocery store at least 3 times a week.  Which has to end.  Smith's is my Cheers...very sad.

I made this spreadsheet so that each ingredient gets used more than once so nothing goes to waste.  Before you start thinking how awesome I am, remember: I am the world's greatest imitator.  I found the idea on a blog.  I couldn't tell you what blog because I found it in a blog-fog.  You know, where you click and click and click through hundreds of blogs, lost in the organizational prowess and beauty and skill of strangers' lives?  Just google "meal planning spreadsheet", there are a million out there.  Anyway...I'm trying it.  I think this will go hand in hand with eating three square meal a day.  Don't ask me why it's taken me 17 married years to try this in earnest.

Yesterday I did great!  I ate my meals, I avoided easy-to-grab snacks like peanut butter and bread, crackers, or leftover cheesy eggs.  I had an apple when my sweet tooth hit, and I jumped at Get Air for an hour.  I was in heaven.  It was so nice to get a good workout doing something fun with my kids.  And it was hard.  My upper back is sore today; not legs, but back.  Obviously this is an area I need to work more often.

How was your day?  Did you stick to your plan?  Did you beat your weakness into submission?  Did you strengthen your body in some way?  Did you clear your mind and live happy?

I did, and boy does my house look like it.

Day 4.2: Weight Bearing Exercises

How was day 1?  I hope it was grand!  Today I had some delicious Zucchini Pancakes, from Smitten Kitchen, and they were delicious, with really minimal sugar per serving.  And I subbed 1/2 wheat flour.  Win-win.

Today I am going to share some easy ways to get strength training into your workout.  Remember, this 10 days your goal is to do strength training 3 times this 10 days.  

I found this "Seven Minute Workout" and I really liked the exercises and reps.  These are "Body Weight" exercises, meaning the resistance you use is your own weight.  More for some of us, to be sure :)  Push yourself and do it 3 times.  You know you can.

The seven-minute workout

The 12 station regime should see each exercise conducted 15 to 20 times, in 30 seconds, with only five to 10 seconds “rest” between each one. The whole circuit (which can be repeated two to three times) should take about seven minutes and Jordan says to do it no more than three or four times a week.

If you have dumbbells at home, and I don't mean people that really annoy you, try some of this group of exercises.  10-12 reps, 3 sets.  Try to choose a variety and work your whole body.

The last suggestion I have for body weight exercises is my personal favorite, the Nike Training Club app for iphone or ipad.  Seriously love this app.  Exercises range from beginner to advanced, 30 min to 45 min, and you can mix the workouts with cardio for extra fat burn, and the body-weight exercises work your entire body.  There's a voice coach and you can set your favorite jams to play while you rock your muscles.  I find that I like to add more arms after, like plain old bicep curls, but the app is full of push ups and rows, great for chest and back.

Take time to build your muscles.  You will burn more calories, feel sleeker and stronger, and be less injury prone.

Day 3.10: Today is Better than Yesterday

Last day of this 10.  Don't give up today, work out to start the weekend off right!  Eat those fruits and veggies and drink drink drink!  Some of my kids have been drinking more and it has helped their chappy lips and dry knuckles.  Yay!

What challenges were you successful in for this cycle?  I said I was going to moderate the challenges for the next 10 and I meant it.  Ramping up to full speed after the holidays was tougher than I thought.  Sheesh.

Measure and weigh yourself if you think there's any chance that you've changed.  Me, not so much.

And while there are no numerical changes that mark the successes I've had this 10 days, I know that I have improved:  we picked back up on our weekly group class, I worked out 4+ days/week for the past two weeks, I am drinking all 64 oz of water daily, and I am eating more fruits and veggies.  All very positive and healthy improvements.  I hope you have improved in some small way, too, because we can all find joy every day in doing something better than 10 days ago.

I know that I also said that I was going to do consecutive 10 day challenges, but I'm revising my statement.  Think of it as being fluid, going with my gut...not disorganized, sloppy, and unmotivated.  Be positive.  We're going to start again Monday.

Enjoy your final day.  Celebrate your wins.  Ready yourselves for Monday.  We begin anew.