More Steps Forward... Less Steps Back...

It's all about choice. 
And once you make that choice, you have consequences. 

This has become the main point I preach on in my classroom (I teach Art part-time), in my home (mostly as it relates to the kids (I'm a near-new and very much still learning step-mom) but also making sure I'm setting that example - YIKES), and have to remind myself of constantly. 

Russ -my handsome and supportive and unconditionally THERE for me (never knowing what that means for him as I do tend to tackle a wide variety of projects) husband- noticed a positive difference in me within a few days of eating better, juicing, drinking tons of water.  Cool.  A step in the right direction (I have of course been noticing differences in my skin and lines and all that EW that comes with years, so that kind of comment is more than welcome!).

So my choice of eating better means I shop for groceries differently.  Another step in the right direction - although quite a bit of effort, and a little more time involved.  I buy organic when I can (check out the "dirty dozen" and "clean fifteen" on http://www.ewg.org/ sometime for info on the produce that should be bought organically if possible) which is usually more expensive.  That choice means I will not waste that food, that wasted food adds up to wasted dollars.  I will juice the most unlikely combinations of things just so they don't go to waste.  And if there happens to be a bit that rots, it gets composted and my soon-to-flourish vegetable garden will love me for it.  One hard-core raw foodie said he plucks off the mold, deals with the fermentation, sucks it up - it's was "live" food does...  He's hard-core, serious consequences...

I've learned that all these steps in the right direction are somehow keeping me on my path, holding me accountable whether I like it or not.  A few days into this I grabbed a Snickers and a diet Pepsi (I've mentioned this when talking about better diet, I apologize if you've heard this already) as my standard afternoon pick-me-up.  Within maybe 30 minutes I was busted, and had to deal.  I paid for that choice for about 3 hours.  Feeling a little dizzy, almost a little vision haze, almost a ringing in my ears - I can't really explain how I felt, but I would imagine that's how you feel when you're about to faint.  You know the crash after a sugar rush, that's your body telling you something.  My body was telling me I had some poison in my body (I CHOSE that little snack) and was dealing with the CONSEQUENCES until it got through my system.

Just a few days ago, running from one school building to another, I ran through the McDonald's drive-thru.  It was a warm day, and what's better on a warm day than ice cream.  A few minutes later, my pocket about $3 down and one M&M McFlurry gone, and I was off to my next class.  I got that dizzy thing again, realized I wasn't thinking the best or even speaking the best, correcting myself lots.  It seemed to last 3-4 hours.  Definitely a couple steps back.  Definitely not the best way to function for a class full of busy kindergarten artists!

McFlurry® with M&M'S® Candies (12 fl oz cup)

640  Calories  |  13g Protein  |  23g Fat (36%)  |  95g Carbs (32%)  |  190mg Sodium (8%)

 

Dr. Trumbower, the local OB/Gyn that taught me a lot about nutrition at a recent presentation broke it down pretty well.  In his talk, he mentioned that sugar feeds cancer.  Huh.  That's a pretty bold and a little scary statement.  Your body and brain know what to do with real nutrients -- protein feeds muscle, vitamins and minerals nourish your cells, water flushes out toxins and keeps things flowing, even fats and some sugars have their place in the diet.  But your brain doesn't know what to do with excess sugar.  It doesn't really know where to send it, and it can become an issue when something may already be imbalanced in your body.

My brain didn't know what to do with that sugar I had flooded my fairly cleaned-out system with - no, I'm not perfect but I'm better, I can feel it in lots of ways.  And a big boost of something that my body didn't need threw me off.  And I'm not saying I gave myself a disease from that Snickers or McFlurry.  But I've just realized lots of things - one being that my habit of desserts and excessive sugary treats were an addiction, to put it bluntly.  I almost prided myself that I never got sick off too many brownies or Girl Scout cookies, but kind of wished I did so I would know when too much was really too much.  And my self-inflicted rehab into better health has told me I'm doing some right things. Those old things I used to crave I now see as steps backwards and can result in less energy, heartburn, headaches, or years of indulging those old cravings could become pretty serious.  Dang.

Choices.  Consequences.  More steps forward.  Less steps back.  Guess I'm becoming a little hard-core myself.

What has worked, what has SO NOT...

For someone who does art and is working on a new healthy life... what's not to love about this beautiful bowlfull of goodness ready to juice!?  The natural pigments in some of this stuff blows my mind...  I'm such a newbie...

What's worked (and not) as far as juicing - now a morning (proudly DAILY, almost!) ritual:

• Apples go in almost everything - they cut the dirt taste or the bitterness of some of the dark leafies
• Carrots and celery have a very strong taste, so if you're concerned about the taste...
• Regarding the taste - I kind of crave it now, like this morning I didn't have my juice.  BUT if you have an aversion to chugging a glass of green goop with some froth on top and might smell (see below in the list), a straw is brilliant, gets you several servings of so-good-for-you veggies FAST, and you don't taste much!
• Regarding the smell - broccoli doesn't juice real great.  And it will smell up the fridge if you have juiced enough for 3 days.
• Ginger, fennel, and aloe gel are good cleansers (from my research and verified by the girl at Natural Grocers ringing me up the other day asking if I was juicing for a reason - I mean they know all of this already just by what you're buying, love that - I mentioned a detox/cleanse.  Her response was "Ohhhh, that explains the ginger")  By the way, you can freeze ginger (I wash it and cut it into 1" chunks), but it needs to be thawed prior to juicing, otherwise it becomes a bullet as it shoots straight at you bouncing right out of the juice shoot.

What's worked (and not) as far as planning a healthy diet:

• Buying organic is expensive, so I make every root and leaf count.  Because most of it is juiced, I buy what's on sale and just toss it all in, worrying (or not!) about the taste later.  And to not waste a bit, I'm composting all the left over pulp - planning for my home-grown veggies started in the window sill soon to be in the ground.
• I'm in Kansas City here and there and stock up on the organic offerings of Trader Joe's, prices are much better.  I have heard some interest in making a big buy with orders from individuals when I go, can't imagine the amount of bags and transportation that would require...  I heard about someone doing that with IKEA, taking orders from several people a few weeks before going to shop in person...  Hmm.  Another business venture?
• I don't mind that my fresh produce rots within a few days - it tells me it has not been coated with preservatives to make it last.  And it forces me to use it up - sauces, juices, salads, SOME produce and herbs freeze okay, still trying to learn what does and what does not freeze well.  As always, open to suggestions.
• I'm attempting to compile all my new knowledge of food into a concept (a book by the same name) "Once a Month Cooking" - my first go at it lasted about 4 and a half weeks, with leftovers for lunch on several days.  My 2nd go hasn't really gone yet, I did meals last weekend for about 5-7 days but need to PLAN a big shopping trip and assembly day.  PLAN is the key word here, also a rather new concept for me, and a flat-out foreign word for my family, bless them.
• Juicing makes a big mess, and it's a pain to clean out all the parts, but you have to to keep the juicer juicing, new juicers are really expensive.  So I have tried juicing enough to last 3 days or so and storing it in the fridge in a sealed big bottle.  Seems to work okay, but I seemed to have some un-necessary "cleansing" this week, so I may have ingested some expired concoction.  *Sorry to be so out there, but that is partly the name of this game I'm learning*

Don't Believe Everything You Read

Not to start off on a negative note, but I think my judging books by covers started at a young age.  When my peers discovered Guess and Pepe jeans, Hypercolor and Nautica (giving away the era and my age...), I found my hard-earned baby-sitting money went further on already broken-in garage sale Levi's.  My love for shoes and limited budget lead me to the clearance section at Crown Shoes and Leeds for some interesting kicks marked down.  My method of stretching my dollar has ocassionally back-fired and sometimes I would learn later why these things were on the clearance rack, the ill-fitting style or faulty finish that would rub off on everything...  I was raised in a creative family and learned to sew young, and appreciate art, patterns, textures.  When it was time for a trip to Wal-Mart, I'd end up in the fabrics, getting a yard of some cool fabric to go home and make a new shirt.  Then the thrill of having something like no one else lead me to be pretty big-time interested in fashion design, and I sewed prom dresses, everyday pieces, home decor pieces. 

Back to my original thought, the labels on clothes back in the day revealed nothing about the person in those clothes.  Many in that time of my life would wear a certain label hoping to project something they weren't.  As I've worked with a variety of tools, countless artistic mediums and tried lots of different hair and body products, sometimes recommended because of the name brand, I've learned that sometimes a name is just a name, and sometimes a name stands for something.  My experience running things at Keeping Good Company for a few years exposed me to some name brands that stood for something - the Justice furniture for example stood for hand-made, Missouri-made, real people running that company, and although it was a little pricey I felt great about representing that company and sharing their creations (Mary Moss Furniture by Bright City Lights is carrying Justice now).  And the Archipelago candles didn't quite have the personal touch from the company headquarters like Justice, and their shipping and billing was a little bit of a hassle, but the quality of that candle was unlike any other - those are at Kent's Floral Gallery now...

My attention to food labels is where this has taken me more recently.  I have learned a lot in a relatively short amount of time, but years of bits and pieces finally coming together and I'm taking charge, making choices, feeling GREAT.  Join me, share your tips, let's make lots of little changes that add up to big differences in our health, in our kids, in our whole wide world.