Day 3

Chronological Food log:
11/2 cup Kashi Vanilla Island shredded wheat cereal with
      1 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 cucumber slice
1/2 cup Kashi Vanilla Island shredded wheat cereal (dry)
2 cups leftover ginger bbq pot roast from yesterday
3 Tbsp granola with unsweetened almond milk
1/2 cheese quesadilla on a corn tortilla (scraps from kids)
1/4 dried banana chips
2/3 avocado
1 carrot
1 peanut butter and jelly sandwich
3 mini peppers
1/4 cup greek vanilla yogurt
3 cups pasta with leftover pizza sauce from yesterday w/olives
1 mini pepper

I am physically tired. I moved furniture out of rooms, ripped up carpet and put the furniture back into the rooms for 3 rooms today. My toe looks gross, but it doesn't hurt unless I touch the pinky toe, so I just walk on my inner heel. My vision has been more focused. I wasn't dizzy today. My toes still tingle and my hands did last night. I was again able to stay focused on single tasks today. I resisted the urge to eat junk food, even when I had the option to eat when missing dinner. I did not eat those Cheez Its, powdered donuts, not Little Keebler Fudge cookie things. I just went without food until I got back home. I sure was hungry. And now, 2 hours later I'm hungry again, and literally right before bed I'll eat 1 more mini pepper and hit the hay.

Day 2

Chronological Food log:
11/2 avocado
1 flour tortilla (scraps from the kids)
3 Tbsp chia seeds in 6 Tbsp water
2 cups spaghetti squash with
       2 cups homemade pizza sauce
       1/4 cup raw mushrooms
       1/4 kalamata olives
       fresh basil
1/4 apple
7 strawberries
1 french hamburger bun with generous peanut butter and jelly (all no sugar added)
2 servings of ginger bbq pot roast from the Make Ahead Paleo cookbook.
1 french hamburger bun with generous peanut butter and jelly (still no sugar added)


Though I had been sleepy and ready for bed the night before, little Daniel was up almost all of the night being a butt, so sleep evaded not only myself, but my husband too. I ended up sleeping in the little guy's crib with him for the last few hours of the night, which wasn't comfy. But hey! Do what you've got to do to get some shut eye, right? I had a lot more energy yesterday, or maybe it was the deadline rush from having to get things ready before the new carpet gets in the following day. Either way, I was able to stay pretty focused on a single task through completion. I did get dizzy, but nothing too bad. I wasn't as super hungry as I was the day before, but I did devour the pot roast dinner. I broke my toes in the afternoon, and found out my blood pressure was 106/69 when I went to Urgent care. Maybe that's why I was a little dizzy.

Hypoglycemia: how can I have low blood sugar when all I eat is sugar?!

This past year has been a year of seemingly endless chaos. Spinning out of control. Roller coaster of emotion. Drowning in a sea of constant bombardment (of a wide array of things). So, with all that negative "stuff", I slowly swam over to the "dark side" and turned my back on being healthy.

I ate small amounts of junk here and there. Then I ate some more frequently, then I ate some junk a lot more. And then I looked up and it was junk food every single day (for a grossly large proportion of the food I was eating on any given day). I started to have the emotional waves that comes along with not caring for your body. I would be so happy one minute, and the next second (literally) I would be blowing out steam and anger and all these other things that cause your family to fear you and definitely mar the name of Christ. My mind became a big fog. I would get side tracked by the drop of a dime. I would forget what I was saying mid-thought. Focusing on a given task was unheard of: I had to jump from thing to thing to thing and back again. My scalp got super dry and flaky on the top and oily in the back. My skin started to get dry. Random patches of rough itchy skin started popping up. My toes and fingers would start to tingle and feel weird. I got dizzy a lot. My vision, though passing with 20/10, became hard to focus. I mean, I could see everything, but getting my brain to tell me what it was I was looking at took awhile. I had restless nights most every night. My energy would come in sputtering spurts. I would have no energy, nor motivation, to do anything for days on end, then I would have the urge to purge things and get a task accomplished, and then I'd limp around worn out again.

Last night I finally had enough. I quit junk food cold turkey. I self diagnosed myself with hypoglycemia. Minus the blood sugar test (because I don't have the tools to test it...and I don't want to spend the money on acquiring those tools to test it) I have all the other signs and symptoms of hypoglycemia. I knew it was coming. I would joke around with people when they'd give me their leftover sweets (because we all knew I would eat everything they shared with me) that I was going to wind up hypoglycemic. Well, it's time to pay the piper Amanda!

So after ignoring this blog for almost a year, I'm going to use it to be my wellness journal. I am going to try to keep a log of what I eat daily, how I'm physically, mentally and emotionally feeling, as well as share my healthy concoctions (or those I have made from other people's ingenious ideas).

Day 1

Chronological Food log:
1 oz almonds
1 carrot
1/2 oz cranberry almond medley
1 slice fresh pineapple ring
1/2 avocado
2 Tbsp peanut butter (just peanuts and salt, not sugar or oil)
1/2 avocado
2 Tbsp peanut butter
1 1/2 Tbsp chia seeds soaked in 3 Tbsp water
1 oz almonds
6 pieces of the Kashi Berry shredded wheat cereal
1 Tbsp peanut butter
1/4 apple
2 Tbsp peanut butter
1/4 slice of pbj sandwich (scraps from the kids' sandwiches)
1 cup leftover mexican rice (white rice and salsa) mixed with 1Tbsp sun dried tomato pesto
2 Tbsp greek yogurt- vanilla
2 servings homemade sloppy joes from the Make Ahead Paleo cookbook
2 french hamburger buns for the sloppy joes.

This morning I felt hungry, but nothing seemed to satisfy my cravings. I would eat my healthy food and then feel a little nauseated afterwards. Nauseated isn't the right word. I didn't want to puke or anything, but my belly was like, "this isn't what I want!" When dinner rolled around my belly accepted what it was fed without a complaint. I didn't have much energy this morning/afternoon, but I got some around 4pm and still feel pretty good. I'm getting tired, but not the exhausted tired that I normally feel at night...the "I'm so tired but can't sleep" feeling. I really feel as if my body is getting ready to sleep! Yea! My toes have still tingled pretty much all day, but not so much my fingers. I haven't gotten dizzy, but it's still hard to focus my vision. When we ran errands and made a library stop (which took longer than expected) I did start to get irritated, but I also didn't have any snacks with us to munch on. So the lesson learned today is: always have healthy snacks readily available, i.e. in a lunch box to take along on outings/errands!

Kefir Water Smoothie

If you are into healthy food, then you should seriously consider making some of your own kefir water. If you're not into healthy food, you really should get into the habit of eating some of that healthy stuff.

I'm not a big fan of the taste of kefir water. Just like I'm not a big fan of the taste of kombucha or coconut water or most herbal teas. As much as I'm not keen on the taste, I am keen on the health benefits that these various drinks provide. So for that reason I brew our own kefir water. I took a long hiatus from it this winter, and we were sick most of the winter. Recently I began brewing new batches. We drink a kefir water smoothie every day now, and, oh, we're on the upswing of health now. Coincidence? I think not.

 To Make the kefir water you first need to acquire some water kefir grains. Ask someone you know who has some to give you some of theirs (because these things multiple each time you make a new batch of water) or you can buy them here. I bought mine here.

With acquired grains:

1. dissolve 4 Tablespoons of sugar into 4 cups of water.
2. Add 4 Tablespoons of kefir grains.
3. Cover with a cloth and let sit on your counter for 2-3 days to ferment.
4. Next strain the liquid into a new jar (saving the grains to make a new batch)

To make the smoothie:

1. place 1 frozen banana (cut up), 1 handful of frozen blueberries, yogurt (if desired) and as much kefir water as needed to mix to desired consistency. *I usually use about 1 cup of the kefir water with frozen items, a little less with fresh fruit*.
2. Blend all the items until smooth.
3. Pour into cups and ENJOY!

Veggie Pasta

The other day I made a light veggie pasta dish. It was delicious and filling and healthy and delicious. It was a compilation of random things I had in the house, but you never would have guessed that it was thrown together as a last minute meal.

Veggie Pasta
1 box brown rice pasta (or whatever pasta you use)
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 zucchini, quartered and sliced
1 pint cherry tomatoes quartered (or halved if you prefer)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 Tablespoons organic canola oil (or olive oil if you have that)
salt

1. Cook the pasta according to the directions on the pasta box.
2. When the pasta is almost done, heat the oil (over medium-high heat) in a pan and saute the zucchini until tender (2-4 minutes depending on how soft you prefer the vegetable). ***IF YOU PREFER YOUR PEPPERS COOKED AND NOT RAW, SAUTE THEM WITH THE ZUCCHINI***
3. Drain the pasta.
4. Toss the cherry tomatoes in with the zucchini, stir to coat with oil.
5. Place the pasta, peppers and cilantro in a deep bowl.
6. Add the zucchini and tomatoes (be sure to get as much oil from the pan into the bowl as possible). Add more oil if needed to evenly coat the food.
7. Sprinkle with salt, stir it all together.
8. Serve and enjoy!

Homemade Dinner Rolls

Since I am moving to eating less processed foods (read not bought in a box with a long ingredients list) I have begun to make a lot of my own things. Today I made dinner rolls from scratch. I must say that they were so soft and warm and delicious! They would have been awesome with a sugar glaze on top, or some cinnamon butter to spread on them...next time:)

Fresh from the oven

I didn't realize that the recipe made 36 rolls, but we went through half of them just at dinner. I guess you can half the recipe, or make them and then freeze half.

Homemade Dinner Rolls
3 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1/8 tsp sugar
1/2 cup water (105-115 F)
2 large eggs
1 cup lukewarm milk (90 F)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup melted unsalted butter
1 tsp salt
5 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1. Place the water in a small bowl and sprinkle the yeast and 1/8 tsp sugar over the water. Allow to sit until foamy (10 minutes or so).
2. In a large mixing bowl lightly beat the eggs. Add in the milk, 1/4 cup sugar, butter, salt and 1 cup flour. Beat until creamy.
3. Add in the yeast mixture and another 1 cup of flour. Continue to beat.
4. Add in flour 1/2 cup at a time until it forms a ball.
5. Take the dough and knead it on a floured surface, sprinkling with more flour as needed, until it is soft and doesn't stick to your hands.
6. Place in an oiled bowl, cover and let rise until doubled in bulk (about 1 1/2 hours).
7. Divide the dough in half and roll each half into an 18 inch rope.
8. Cut each into 18 1-inch pieces, roll each piece into a ball and place in an oiled baking dish barely toughing.
9. Cover and let rise again for 45 minutes.
10. Preheat the oven to 375 F.
11. Bake the rolls for 18-23 minutes, until golden on top.

Homemade Cheez-It Crackers

Has it really been over a month since I last posted on here? March has been chaos. Not necessarily all bad chaos, but a whirlwind of go go go nonetheless.

During this crazy month, the girls and I made homemade cheezits. I only had whole wheat flour, so they were a little different in taste.

First you shred some cheese:

 Measure out 1 cup (8 ounces):

Measure 1 cup of flour:

 Cut up 4 tablespoons of butter into small pieces:

 Measure out 3/4 teaspoon of salt:

 Measure out 1/2 teaspoon of ground mustard:

 Place all of the above ingredients into a food processor and process until combined and crumbly looking, slowly add in 2-3 tablespoons of water to form a dough. *If after 2 Tbsp it's still dry add in 1 Tbsp more of water*

 Shape into a ball and cover with plastic for 20 minutes:

 Roll out into a thin dough:

 Cut into desired shapes:

 Bake at 350 F for 15-20 minutes (depending on thickness) and enjoy:

Homemade Cheez-It Crackers
1 cup cheese
1 cup flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground mustard
4 Tbsp butter, cut into small pieces
2-3 Tbsp water

1. In a food processor, combine all the ingredients EXCEPT the water. Pulse until it combines and looks like crumbs.
2. Slowly add in 2 tablespoons of water. If the dough is still dry, add in 1 more tablespoon of water.
3. Remove the dough and shape into a ball.
4. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 20 minutes.
5. Preheat the over to 350 degrees F.
6. Roll out the dough to the desired thickness (the thinner the flakier/the thicker the more cookie-like it is) and cut into the desired shape.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on the thickness, until crispy. (The thinner the dough, the less time required to bake).
8. Cool, store in an airtight container and enjoy!