Weekly Bounty plus stress relief!

Helllooo Wednesday!

How are you all doing? My week has been ...well... a little bumpy so far. I'll get to this later in the post but I wanted to start off on a gorgeous note. I got my new foster cat yesterday and she is a beauty! Her name is Jet (as in Jet black I'm assuming). But I think her name should be Cleo as in Cleopatra because she has the most beautiful lady face. She is a bit shy and her and Nemo aren't exactly best friends yet, but I'm sure once she gets to know her surroundings she will be a bit more confident. So, if you are in BC and are looking for a lovely companion, please contact Nelson SPCA and they will help you get this lovely lady!

Now onto the food! I buy a lot of veggies and fruits, a small amount of grains, and then the miscellaneous stuff that runs out (spices, flax, oils, oatmeal, etc) every week. This week my bounty was just so awesome I needed to share it with you. I do buy produce and veggies on clearance (if there are any) as they usually only have a small bruise on them or they are really ripe and ready to eat. This week I lucked out and got some near-perfect apples, pears, organic grapefruits, and bananas at half off. Chaa-ching! At the local grocery store I also got some oranges and two coconuts ($1.50 each). I bought some organic ginger, organic brown flax seeds, organic sunflower seeds, organic kale, organic romaine lettuce, organic zucchini, organic broccoli, organic cabbage, organic medjool dates, organic lemons, sprouted bread, and local honey. All of these items were from the Kootenay Co-op. Oh and one priceless cat:)



Seeing all these beautiful foods make me smile and I know that these are some of the best foods that I can put into my body! I should also mention that I love grocery shopping. I get giddy when Sunday rolls around and I get to find the best deals and re-stock my fridge and pantry with amazing foods. When I'm putting away my goodies my mind tends to wander and I'm thinking about all the recipes I could try or re-make. The zucchini make me think about Nikki's sundried tomato zucchini hummus. The broccoli makes me crave the broccoli and cheese recipe on Bitt's blog. Amazing smoothies with coconut water and the meat. Awesome pate like the Garden Pate on Gena's blog. And last but not least, some of the delicious banana soft serve. Lovely Evergreen just so happened to post a recipe for Cinnamon Roll Soft-serve today. Can't believe its bananas! That should be a new commercial. Maybe it can replace the butter commercials..and maybe Fabio could come back for it! A girl can dream, right? As you can see shopping day is an exciting time for me:) Do you love to shop or do you dread it? Do you go to the same stores every week or do you follow the deals? I tend to go to the same stores every week but I do check flyers online to see what other stores are offering.


I made up something quick the other day for a late lunch. I had some canned chickpeas that I wanted to use up so I stir-fried them with onions and the pulp that was left over when I did some juicing awhile back. I added some turmeric, cumin, oregano, basil, pepper, and some salt and just let it heat through. I topped it with some hot chili sauce. Very yummy! So quick and the pulp tasted surprisingly good!





Now about the not so fun part of my week. We own a home back at the coast and have been renting it out while we are in Nelson. Now, we have a tenant that we have come to classify as a straight up bully. We have had a lot of problems with them and nearly lost a friendship as our friends were renting the suite below them. They have become so unrealistic and their demands are plain crazy. They have even threatened getting a lawyer. Now, we have friends in the industry and they say he has no grounds and that we have done everything right. It was just shocking and overwhelming for us as we have tried everything to please them and we get nothing in return but more frustration. So, I had a very hard time today (all this happened last night) and I did a lot of venting but my mom and sister-in-law were able to calm me down (Thanks mom and T!!). I know renting is a hard thing..you don't know people and their references can even be skewed. This experience has taught us a lot of lessons about what to look for in a tenant so I guess its a blessing in a wolves disguise. Have you had to deal with difficult tenants? Let me know your tricks of the trade!

I had a green power smoothie for dinner as Ry was away building some models for his newest project at school so I didn't need to make din din.
It's amazing how this stuff can clear my mind!

1 Cup Fresh coconut water
1/2 Cup Coconut meat
1 Banana
2 Cups Kale
1-2 Tbls Cinnamon
1 Tbls Fresh ginger
1 serving Vega Sport or your favorite protein powder
1 inch piece Aloe Vera

Simply blend everything together. Add the aloe last.

If you don't have a high-powered blender, like me, then I find blending the greens with the liquid first and then adding the fruits doesn't leave your smoothie chunky:)


I ended up multi-tasking and made dinner for tomorrow night as it is a gym day. I am stocked with organic lentils so I decided to make the Lentil Loaf from Jennifer of Nourishing Nutrition. I'll let you know how it turned out tomorrow. I tweaked her recipe a little by adding some onions and carrots . I also didn't have walnuts so I used some of the trail mix I had on hand ( dried cranberries, raisins, and all!).



I also forgot to mention how I wash my veggies and fruits. I use Nature Clean All Natural Fruit and Veggie Wash. I've also heard of using baking soda or food grade hydrogen peroxide.I have yet to try these two out. What do you use?




Have a great rest of the week! I hope its a stress free one! (If there is such a thing lol!)

Why you are not losing weight

Hey everyone,

I thought I would talk about weight loss on the Monday after the Super Bowl. Fitting hey? According to ABC, the Super Bowl is the 2nd largest gorging fest, next only to Thanksgiving. Americans consumed 30-35 million pounds of snack food on Sunday. Who knows what that value would be if it included Canada or other football-loving nations. Phew, that's a lot of calories and fat, and we didn't even include the beer! I did not watch the game ( I don't have cable) but I did consume some pizza with a huge salad! Yum. It's possible that those people who gorged themselves are going to go to the gym for 10 hours this week to burn off those last nacho bites. While you are burning calories, you are not allowing your metabolism to work overtime after you leave the gym. Although exercise is crutial to allow you to lose weight, you can never out-train a bad diet, as Craig would say. Weight loss is not only about calories and high intensity workouts, your body has to have a favorable environment to allow fat to leave its comfy storage sites (hips, but, thighs etc). So, here are 5 reasons why your fat cells are not budging.

• Your body's pH may be too acidic (below 7) - When the body is in an acidic state it will take the excess acid and store it in fat cells. As the body recognizes the acid as being harmful to the body's physiology, it will keep it harnessed in these fat cells. Hence, making it more difficult to lose body fat. Try dumping the processed foods as these foods are highly acidic. Replace them with green smoothies containing alkaline forming vegetables and fruits. You can get pH test strips to see if you are acidic or alkaline (this is optimal!) at your local health food store or drug store.

• You are doing too much long, slow, boring cardio- How many hours do you spend at the gym? I'm there for about 4.5 hours a week. This includes my workout, steam room, sauna, pool time, and shower. My workouts are usually 45 minutes in length including High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). I used to be a cardio junkie but I've learned that this is not the most effective way to work my body. Craig wrote about a study on his blog that compared two groups. The first group did 40 minutes of slow cardio and the second group did 20 minutes interval training. Guess who lost more weight? Yep, the 20 minute interval group. A study completed at the University of Guelph in 2007 showed that interval training increased fat burning by 36%. That's huge! So, give up the slow cardio and do some intervals instead. Try going at an 8/10 pace for 30 seconds followed by 30 seconds rest (3/10). Complete this 8-10 times and you are going to do some awesome fat burning, even after you leave the gym! Of course, always be safe and ask your trainer or doctor if you want to give this a try.

• You are lying to yourself about how much you really eat- One chip? or was it one bag of chips? Huge difference there and of course this only puts you further away from your goal. One of the best ways to keep your eating in check is to start a food diary. In fact, keeping track as to what goes in your mouth can increase your weight loss by 50%. Being honest is always good and in this case it will do your weight loss efforts some good as well. I'm going to start this today! I am going to make an account at fitday and see what I really eat in a week. I eat pretty good but I'm sure there is room for improvement.

• You are producing too many stress hormones- Ahh, stress! Nobody likes it, but everybody has too much of it! These little hormones reduce the hormone DHEA which is responsible for increasing muscle mass. We need lean muscle mass as it burns off the excess fats cells and reduces insulin. High insulin can increase the secretion of cortisol. Cortisol is often associated with abdominal fat and for good reason. The cells found deep in the abdominal wall have 4 times the amount of cortisol receptors on their membranes. So, when we get stressed cortisol is secreted and the fat storage cycle is initiated. Stress hormones can also be triggered if you are deprived of sleep. So get some zzzz's tonight!


• 
  You do not have a support system in place - You need a cheering squad! Whether its a co-worker or someone online, you need someone to help you with your weight loss journey. If you are surrounded by friends who eat at McDonalds for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, your progress will most likely be pretty minimal. I'm lucky that my hubby is into going to the gym and eating healthy or my journey would definitely be more difficult. Check out sparkpeople or TTmembers for some awesome online support. I can be your support too!! Drop me a comment if you need some encouragement!

Hope you have a wonderful week! Try to get to the gym or go to the park and do some push-ups against the benches as your kids play around. Whatever it is, I hope you keep at it!