My beauty experiment: Week 1 review

Week 1 was tough, I'll admit it.

To be honest, I was in a bad, bad way when I started this.  I was eating out several times a week, eating absolute junk at almost every meal, and had a wicked sugar and refined carbs addiction.  I had gained 30 pounds in a year and was at my highest weight in years.  And my weight was climbing every week.

I felt helpless.  Completely helpless and out-of-control.  And scared about what would happen if I continued down that path.   

I would love to say that this first week has changed all of that.  It would be nice to say I stopped eating refined carbs and took some supplements and all of my troubles disappeared overnight.

The victories:

• My sugar and carb cravings are nearly.gone.  
• My nails grew out long and strong practically overnight! (I'm crediting the fish oil) 
• I'm eating better on this diet than I've ever eaten in my life.  Seriously.  Absolute decadence!
• The bloating is dramatically reduced and I lost * pounds!  
• I feel great!

The challenges:

• I still feel insecure.  I desperately want to stick with this.  I'm so scared that I'm going to lose this!  I had a couple of weak moments that, if not for Dustin making me healthy food, I would have caved.  I know that path... I've been down it several times and I don't want to go back.
• I'm spending a lot of time planning and preparing food.  While this is enjoyable, I'm worried that I will get burned out.  What happens when I don't have the energy, inclination or time to plan and prepare for my meals?  Eating low-glycemic and gluten-free isn't familiar, and it takes time.
• This is more expensive than I'm used to.  I'm spending more money on food and supplements than I have in the past.  I just keep reminding myself that Americans spend the smallest percentage of our incomes on food out of any nation in the world.  I can shell out a couple of extra bucks for fresh, healthy food.  Good food costs money.  Bad food is, well, cheap.  You get what you pay for.

The plan:
I am trying to stick with this long enough to develop a new arsenal of go-to recipes and foods.  I learned to cook and eat based on my high-glycemic, wheat-focused diet.  Now I need to relearn how to eat.  I like what I see so far, but it is a challenge to start fresh.  Once I get "comfortable" cooking and eating with this type of lifestyle, then it will get easier. 

What should I call my beauty experiment?

I'm doing an experiment.  But I'm not sure what to title it...  Can you help me?  Let me tell you a bit about it.

Hypothesis
I will lose weight and improve my health, sleep, skin, and general beauty by doing the following:

1. Eliminate high glycemic foods (including sugar), artificial sweeteners, gluten, and bad fats from my diet.
2. Take supplements to support health, including fish oil,  multi-vitamin, evening primrose oil (for skin), and probiotic.  Green tea.
3. Switch my beauty and cleaning products to 100% natural and preferably organic.

How long will I do this?  Not sure yet.  As long as it takes?  As long as I can?  Who knows!

Background
I am a typical American, eating a typical American diet.  High glycemic, sugary products, eating out frequently, gluten (i.e. wheat), and not nearly enough fruits and vegetables.  I have intense sugar and carb cravings.

I would say I have metabolic syndrome (weight issues, inflammation, blood sugar issues).  I gain weight easily and find it impossible to lose it.  I also have a sluggish thyroid and skin issues.  My energy is frustratingly variable and I have trouble sleeping.

My inspiration

I was inspired to do this experiment by a book I've read (and reread), called "The Truth about Beauty" by Kat James.

So what should I call this experiment?  I have to call it something, but I can't think of anything creative!

          

Healthy Mexican Sweet Potato Skins

Welcome to August...Time for a recipe!


As M.C. Hammer says "break it down":
1 cup serving of sweet potatoes contains:


* 65% daily amount of Vitamin C
*high in calcium, foliate, potassium and beta-carotene (which converts to Vit. A)
*AND sweet potatoes gives you as much as 700% of US RDA of your Vit. A!

... well I could list the benefits of all the other ingredients but you guys know how to google:)

Point being, this is a delicious dish and vegans can sub the dairy with vegan substitutes!

http://pinchofyum.com/healthy-mexican-sweet-potato-skins


oh yeah, and You can touch this! :)


and here's a little joke for ya!
Q: Why did the sweet potato cross the road? 
A: He saw a fork up ahead. 
So get your forks out and dig in!  Have a "smashing" day!  
Hugs from Debbie!

Bloom where you are planted!

We at The Kitchen Stink are talking about health and making wise choices in our food.  However, we are also nourished or depleted by things around us....usually....

A precious friend of mine, Janine, brought me a bag of surprise lilies.  As we all know the heat has been crazy high, so I did not get them into the ground right away.  Imagine my surprise to find this treat when I went into my kitchen!  This little bulb certainly took the saying "Bloom where you are planted" to the max.  No soil, no watering, in a plastic bag (not it's comfort zone for sure) and very little sunlight resulted in a beautiful surprise from this surprise lily!  No matter what your circumstances today, remember you are one of a kind made by God, amazingly special and have a special bloom that comes only from you! Someone needs to be nourished by you today! So please, bloom where you are planted and know that you are appreciated!  We appreciate you here at The Kitchen Stink! Thanks for spending some time with us!  ...and please tell us what you would like to see here...

Happy July 4th! Freedom rings and fruit reigns!

Ok....so we all know that we overeat on holidays.  It doesn't just have to be Thanksgiving and Christmas either. Actually July 4th is one of the times we consume the most calories because of the types of food we eat.  Let's not forget about dessert!  Going along with Casey's post, try making fruit the star of the dessert table!  If you make it visually appealing, people (and I mean me:) are less likely to head to the red, white and blue cake/pie and it doubles as a centerpiece saving not only calories, but money!  Try your hand at this ez watermelon cake only stick a firecracker in the top instead of a #1 candle! If that is too hard try the skewers (and you even get a little chocolate with them!).  Whatever you do..TRY!  WE CAN DO THIS! Make the 4th a celebration of freedom and our health too!  Happy 4th!
cake link: http://seemyfootprints.blogspot.com/2010/02/1st-birthday-quinns-all-fruit-cake.html
kabobs link: http://sixinthesuburbsblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/caterpillar-grape-kabobs.html
Hugs,
Debbie
P.S. Banging your head on a wall burns 150 calories an hour...NOW doesn't it sound like a great idea to stick with yummy fruit?! :)
http://maxellah.tripod.com/useless.htm

Eat less and exercise more = GARBAGE

Eat less and exercise more is the key to losing weight and maintaining optimal health, right? WRONG   WRONG   WRONG

I just watched a video presentation by Robert Lustig, Pediatric doctor at UC-San Francisco. In his presentation "Sugar: The Bitter Truth," he argues the following statements:

The obesity epidemic throughout the world is not caused by a bunch of slothful, weak-willed individuals that choose to gorge themselves on food. The obesity epidemic is caused by....... drum roll please......... Fructose.

As in sugar... as in high fructose corn syrup... as in the crap that is nearly every processed food that we eat and drink, from orange juice to ketchup to whole grain bread to baby formula.

Throughout his presentation, he proves that:

• Fructose is an addictive toxin that suppresses the body's chemical "stop eating" signals and causes the body to turn 30% of the calories it provides into fat.


• The correlation between the introduction of high fructose corn syrup and sky-rocketing obesity rates is irrefutable.


• Fructose has short and long term effects that are similar to alcohol and should be classified and controlled by the federal government (just like alcohol is), except this is unlikely to happen due to economic pressures.

As some of you know, I was recently instructed by my doctor that I need to follow a low-glycemic index diet. I will be documenting my experience in upcoming blogs, including the experience of eliminating sugar from my diet. More to come.

In the meantime, watch the video below and be blown away:

7-part Video series (click link to see all videos in the series):

http://www.uctv.tv/skinny-on-obesity/



Original presentation:

or watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z5X0i92OZQ&feature=related

It is the length of a movie, so give yourself plenty of time to watch.

Interesting and thought-provoking quote: "Where ever there is fructose in nature, there is also fiber. Except honey, and that is guarded by bees."

Thank you

How does one cope with the knowledge that terrible, horrible things happen?

And I don't even mean all of those atrocities that you read about but rarely, if ever, see. I mean the ones that are close to home. Someone you love gets sick... A beloved pet gets older... Your own certain death looms like a mountain forever on the horizon (so large and ominous that you can never tell how far it is away). Add to that the million other fears and anxieties...

Pardon the darkness of this post so far. I promise it will get better.

This evening, while trying to go to bed, I was overcome by terror. Images of those I love and the moments of pain that I've seen or imagined them going through flashed through my mind. Rapid fire fears of my own future mixed within these thoughts. Unable to escape or turn my mind away from these fears, I felt like I was undergoing the Ludovico Technique. Was God trying to condition me against thoughts of doom and gloom by holding my mind fixated on those very things?

If Dustin or anyone were to have looked at me, they would have seen a peaceful, resting woman with eyes closed and head nestled into a pillow. Would they have been shocked to peel away that facade and uncover the raging sea of fear and worries spiraled out of control within me!

Yes, this seems melodramatic. But have you ever felt so swept away by fear of the unknown that even the value of life is overshadowed by its horrors? That you begin to question, "What on God's green earth is the point to all of THIS!"? If you have not had this feeling, and you are thinking "Wow, Casey is totally losing it," then... wow, are we on the same planet?

Now, don't worry. Nothing happened to elicit this episode of fear except a recent, but short-lived bout of stomach bug that got me thinking about sickness in general. Which led me down a dark path of thought (see above). But stop fretting: really, I'm fine.

But back to that moment, when I was lying in bed entrapped by the very scary realization that I, and everyone I love, are MORTAL. And that life is often terrifying and exceedingly uncomfortable. And there is little anyone can do to prevent or predict the bad parts. Really, no warning at all? Even my cell phone has a low battery warning message. Couldn't have God thought of something like that?

Instead, we are reduced to thinking and worrying and obsessing at the exact time we should be trying to go to sleep. So I ask again, How does one cope? How can I go one more minute without screaming at the top of my lungs from the fear of it all?

At the moment I thought I might scream, thus disturbing what appeared to be Dustin's peaceful sleep, I choose to pray.

Here is a partial transcript of that prayer: "Dear God, please help me be stronger when facing scary things. But wait... How will you do that? Will your method of making me stronger involve making me go through scary stuff? Wait, I'm not sure I like that... can I think about my request a bit more?" (How does God put up with me?)

Regardless of my totally pathetic, inadequate prayer, it was answered. Immediately. The thought came into my mind to think about the good memories I have. Dustin filled my mind, our wedding, all the silly stuff he does and all of the fun we have. I thought about all of my family and what I love about each and every one of them. I thought about Raz and how good it feels to cuddle with him. Memories started flooding my mind, filling it even more quickly than the fears previously had. I was skipping from memory to memory like a kid in a candy store. A catalog of beautiful events and wonderful people. And then came the tears. Happy, happy tears. Every happy thing I remembered brought on a fresh wave of crying.

And suddenly, when just moments ago when I was on the verge of screaming, it was all ok. Everything was ok.

I still couldn't sleep (hence this post), but I had an answer to my question. How do I cope with fears of the future? Just remember the past. Luckily, thanks to wonderful parents and loving friends and family, I have a beautiful past to remember. Thus the title of my post: Thank you.