Keep On Keepin' On

My husband told me this morning that I look thinner. I weighed myself this afternoon and there's no weight change, but I haven't done any measurements in a while so I don't know if my body has actually changed. It was nice to hear, especially since I AM making efforts to build health. Whether it's an illusion or reality, it was a nice reinforcement.

I'm only a couple days into my plan to put my health first instead of second, and already I feel better. Not great, mind you, but I have noticed a subtle difference, mostly in the afternoons / early evenings. I'm a little more energetic, a little more productive, and my stomach hasn't been hurting quite as much. Unfortunately the fatigue is still there in the mornings and it comes back in the evenings, and the stomach issues are still around, just not as prevalent during the day. This also gives me hope.

I'm not doing anything mind-blowing. I'm just focusing on the real basics. Automate the foods I am eating - limit to a basic plan for each meal at a set calorie amount, and avoid all other foods almost all the time. Eat meals on time. Exercise. Take my meds and supplements, and take them on time. Track my blood sugar and all health issues. Keep up with all doctor visits and tests and stay on top of my health care providers until we get me back to normal. And GO TO SLEEP ON TIME and get ENOUGH sleep (something I have ALWAYS struggled with).

I'll talk a bit more in future posts about automating my meal plans and exercise, which has been a challenge because of my health issues and fatigue. It's kind of a Catch-22; I know exercising generally helps you have more energy, but I've been too tired to exercise! I'm working on it.

Supplements

Hey, so yeah. Do NOT Google Image search the word 'cleanse'.
There's some really gross stuff inside people's colons. MY GOD.

One of my Facebook friends (a distant cousin that I'm not close to at all) has been posting recently about doing a cleanse and how great she feels; she's posted several links to the company she's using - Advocare. I'd never heard of them before, so I went to check it out. I'm admittedly very wary of the word "cleanse" - to me, it brings to mind  starvation, lots of pooping, crazy sugar and carb withdrawals, feeling even sicker than I do on a regular basis already, scary frothy green smoothies, etc. One big frightening mess, in other words. I'm not even sure I buy the concept of "our bodies are full of toxins and we need to get them out in order to HEAAAL!"

Still, the idea of cleaning out toxins, if it IS true, intrigues me. The idea of filling my body with healthy, beneficial fuel and cleaning out the junk appeals to me. So every time I hear of someone going on any kind of cleanse, I check it out to see what the deal is. Usually it's the crazy scary mess kind of cleanse. This Advocare thing doesn't sound like that though. It sounds like it's mostly a variety of supplements, taken in conjunction to maximize their benefit, along with a healthy eating and exercise plan. Basically Advocare seems to be a high-end (so they claim, anyway) nutritional supplement company, and of course they want to sell you their products and packages and whatnot. They sell through individual distributors; I don't know if my distant relative is a distributor or just an end user and frankly, I'm not keen on asking because I don't want a sales pitch. I'm open to supplements. I've even taken a variety of them in the past. I'm even open to Advocare... their products sound pretty decent from the little research I did. What I need in my supplements though is good quality at a fair price, and I haven't done any pricing research yet.

What I'd like to figure out now is what sorts of supplements I'd like to take and then price them out and get the best deals. Walgreens and CVS almost always have supplements on sale, Buy One Get One Free. I still don't know if those are the best values because I don't buy them often... quite frankly, supplements are expensive, and when you start taking multiple pills several times a day it can get REALLY pricey. We're quite poor these days so we don't have a lot of options.

After doing a bit more research, and building on what I used to do and what I already know, these are supplements I'm interested in adding to my regimen:

probiotics - I hear lots and lots of good things about them. I do eat yogurt but not every day. I'm going to try to eat more yogurt as well. I have a lot of GI problems of late though, and I'd like to do anything that might help with those.

fiber - I'm supposed to be taking Benefiber daily because of my GI problems. I haven't been lately because we ran out and, well, money. But I'm really miserable most days and again, I need to do whatever I can to help myself feel better.

multivitamin - I think we should all take one daily.

milk thistle - supposed to be great for liver problems. I have a fatty liver and would like to help my liver repair itself.

omega 3 fatty acids - I just keep hearing more and more good things about them and how we should all be getting greater amounts of them, and we don't eat a lot of fish, so I'd like to supplement.

amino acids - I'm not sure about this. I read a little about how they are good for building muscle, which in turn will help your metabolism increase, but I need to do more research.

echinacea and garlic - I don't know if they come together, or if there's some kind of combo immune boosting supplement, but I'd like to do some more research and possibly take something with these during the winter. I tend to get sick a lot, and I hate it.

vitamin B - specifically B6 and B12, as I hear they're good for energy boosts. I've been suffering extreme fatigue for months now. I NEED more energy. I can't live like this, it's awful. I just don't know if this is a vitamin you can overdose on, so I need to check... I don't want to take too much if I'm going to take this and a multivitamin.

So that's my wish list. Now I just need to figure out the most cost-effective way to get these items in my house. It's hard to be healthy when you're poor. :/

What supplements, if any, do you take?

The Cost Of Food

Over the past few weeks we've hit a serious financial snag in terms of our grocery budget each month. For a little while it looked like we were only going to be able to manage $100 a month for a family of four. Right now, for the short term at least, we're looking at being able to manage $250 a month. (Typically it's about $425 a month.)

It's a serious cut, and it's painful. Furthermore, even though I coupon fairly aggressively, I'm not sure how to manage feeding all of us on that budget without resorting to more processed foods, and lots of pasta-rice-bean type meals. Which is a bit disheartening because I'm diabetic and have been trying to cut back on my carbs, not load up on them. And fresh produce? Fuhgeddaboudit! Not on that budget!

Still, $250 is MUCH better than the $100 I was initially looking at, so I'm not nearly as stressed about it as I was. I am still troubled at the cost of healthy foods though. I'm hoping that with practice I'll pick up more tips and tricks for healthy eating on a severely limited budget. 

In the meantime, I'm spending a lot of time thinking about the cost of food and what we, as average families, tend to spend on food and on what TYPES of food and all of that fun stuff. So, here's an informal little poll just out of curiosity:

1) How much does your family spend on groceries each month?

2) How many people are in your family?

3) How much does your family spend eating out (fast food and restaurants) each month?

4) What type of groceries do you predominantly purchase? (processed / quick foods, fresh produce and meats, a combination, etc)

5) What would your IDEAL grocery budget be for your family each month?

6) What is your family's annual income range? a) up to $25,000; b) $25,000 - $75,000; c) above $75,000

What are your thoughts on the cost of food in relation to your family? Would you be interested in reading more articles that explore the cost of different foods we eat, and looking at ways to lower those costs and/or improve the health quotient of those foods?

Comparing Weight Loss to Financial Peace University

My husband and I recently began attending Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. (We've gone to two sessions thus far - I will be talking about this aspect of our lives more on my main blog.) One of my goals when we signed up was to take this knowledge and his methods and apply them in some fashion to not just our financial lives, but also to my quest to be healthier (and possibly even my quest for organization). As we go through each lesson, I have been spending some time thinking about how I would apply them to my weight loss / health plans.

Lesson one focuses on Super Saving. The upshot of the lesson is that you should strive, quickly, to save up $1,000 in an emergency fund (his Baby Step One) because saving money is important, because it's something that most people can do fairly quickly, because it provides peace of mind (in case of 'unexpected' events, you don't have to turn to your credit cards, which you are to stop using because they're bad for you!), and because it is a quick accomplishment that will make you feel good about this path and help jumpstart the process for you.

So, with that in mind... what would be the 'Super Saving / Baby Step One' equivalent for weight loss / living a healthier lifestyle?

Things I have considered...

1) taking a walk every day (jumpstarting exercise)
2) kitchen clean out - getting rid of all the crap foods in your house
3) identifying some quick, healthy meals to replace junk food and eating out in your life
4) BASIC kitchen refill, using step 3 as a guide

Any other ideas? Thoughts on the items I was considering?

Meal Plan This Week

I am smack-dab in the middle of this week already. It just sneaks up so quickly! We scraped together some money and hit the grocery store this week, so we have food in the house. As I believe I mentioned before, I'm trying to simplify eating each day with a lot of consistency... which means I'm trying to stick to the same basic breakfasts, lunches, and snacks each week. I'll work more on calories and quality of each meal as time goes on... for now, I'm mainly working on making the consistency part a habit.

BREAKFASTS

cereal (this week we have Honey Nut Cheerios, Kix, and Total Raisin Bran in the house)

oatmeal

LUNCHES

PB&J or leftovers

soup

SNACKS

fruit (this week we have apples and pears)

veggies (this week we have carrots and celery)

whatever healthy items are on sale that week (this week we have Nature Valley Granola Thins, Emerald Breakfast-On-The-Go packs, and fruit cups)

Wednesday 01/18/12

turkey soup (Alton Brown's Bird To The Last Drop recipe)

Thursday 01/19/12

garlic-balsamic pork tenderloin (this Kitchen Confidante recipe, which I found on Pinterest. It looks SOOOO GOOOOOD. Also, thanks go out to my mom for donating an extra pork tenderloin to us, or else we would not be having this wonderful meal!)

Friday 01/20/12

chicken adobo

Saturday 01/21/12

Cub Scouts Swim Party - it's a potluck / buffet thing, so we'll be eating there. (We're bringing bottled water.)

Sunday 01/22/12

roast chicken (they were buy one get one free at Jewel this week, so I have an extra one for next week in my freezer. I also get to make chicken stock out of their tasty carcasses, which will save me money too, as I cook with stock a lot!)

Monday 01/23/12

chicken sandwiches (hooray for leftovers, lol)

What Is The Single Best Thing We Can Do For Our Health?

One of my friends posted this video on Facebook earlier today, and I found it entertaining, informative, AND motivating. Great combination! I encourage everyone to take a few minutes and watch it, and then comment and answer the doc's question at the end of the video...



CAN you limit your sitting and sleeping to 23 1/2 hours a day? Commit to yourself!

Quick Fix Fish

I posted tonight's dinner recipe on SparkRecipes; you can find it here if you are interested. It's still baking so I haven't tried it yet. The original recipe came out of the book What To Eat When You're Expecting; I modified it based on the ingredients we had on hand.

After dinner, using a 5-star scale where
1 = hated it
2 = didn't like it
3 = it was OK
4 = liked it
5 = loved it

We rated it as follows:
Husband - 3
Me - 3
7 year old son - 4
5 year old daughter - 2

Bear in mind that none of us are crazy about mustard. I wanted to try out the French's Dijon Mustard with Chardonnay that I got for free at a cooking show once, to see if it was milder and/or if we would like it better. Obviously we didn't mind it but mustard is still not our favorite thing.

Quick Tilapia

Submitted by: ILWITCHGRRL

Minutes to Prepare: 5

Minutes to Cook: 15

Number of Servings: 4

Tips

Cooking time will vary depending on whether you use fresh or frozen fillets as well as how thick the fillets are.

Ingredients

4-8 Tilapia fillets, equaling 12 total ounces 2 TBSP Mayonnaise 1/4 cup Dijon or Grainy Mustard 1.5 tsp dried marjoram 1 cup white wine (2 TBSP set aside) salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Mix the mayo, mustard, 2 T of wine, and half the marjoram together in a small bowl.
Arrange the fish fillets in a single layer in a nonstick baking dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Spread the mustard mixture over the fillets and sprinkle on the remaining marjoram. Pour the remainder of the wine around the fish.
Bake until the fish is lightly browned and flakes with a fork, 15-25 minutes.

Serving Size: Makes 4 3-ounce servings.

Number of Servings: 4

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 4
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 218.2

• Total Fat: 7.7 g
• Cholesterol: 51.8 mg
• Sodium: 613.4 mg
• Total Carbs: 0.7 g
• Dietary Fiber: 0.1 g
• Protein: 20.5 g