I’m trying to simplify. And no, it’s not my closet or schedule that I’m trying to simplify, but my thoughts! I am being more active in learning more about how to become more healthy by learning about the things we eat. However, that is a BIG subject that nobody really agrees on and therefore takes way too much work. 🙂 Anyway, I need to make a list. Lists help me simplify. They help me focus. Honestly, they sometimes take me from a walking dead state to having occasional lucid thoughts!
Here we go:
– Hormones. I want to avoid added hormones or foods that significantly affect my hormones. This doesn’t have to mean I buy organic at this point. I think the hormone issue will affect meat and dairy mostly. We don’t eat a huge amount of soy, but I will avoid products with soy additives when I remember until I tackle that one.
– Sugar. Carbohydrates. And stuff. The general idea here is to help me maintain a more steady blood sugar. As if I were diabetic. Because I have a terrible sweet tooth and I don’t want to BECOME diabetic. Because when my blood sugar peaks and dips it messes with my days. REALLY. I have become more aware of this over the last several years and it really sucks when it dips. Tired, sometimes nauseous, the food cravings, etc. Because I don’t want to get fat. Because I’m already about 10 pounds heavier than when I felt my best (no, not including the pregnancy here… you’d have to add more pounds for that!).
– So how am I going to accomplish this? 1. Use whole grains for cooking. 2. Don’t buy or cook stuff with much sugar in it. 3. Use alternative sweeteners when we can. 4. Get used to things tasting less sweet… I think this will be a slow weaning process. One thing I’d like to try… probably with the strawberries I intend to pick tomorrow morning before my massage – is “fruit spread.” I don’t know anything about this! I just thought I’d try cooking down some different fruits with no sugar or maybe mashing and adding pectin but no sugar to make something that is almost JUST fruit. Have experience with this? Do share! BTW, can you dry strawberries?
– Produce. I think it would be good if we all ate more fruits and veggies. I am intending to do as much freezing, canning and drying as possible this summer to help out with the winter months. I wonder if our neighbor will share his apples? Anybody else know of free apples that I can dry by the bushel? I am planning on freezing TONS of whole blueberries. I am also going to can a bunch of peaches. I will can beans too, but wish there was an easier way to preserve beans. Planning on drying whatever else I can get my hands on too, like plums from our tree which dry well.
– General tummy health – adding cultured foods to our diet would be good for us. Me, really. I don’t like yogurt. I don’t like kefir. I can’t afford cultured milk or butter right now. Sooooo, I am going to attempt to make fruit smoothies on a regular basis. Starting when? I don’t know. Sometime.
– Exercise. I have not exercised much since the beginning of this pregnancy. That is changing starting today. My back hurts. I need to strengthen surrounding muscles! C’mon folks – let’s all exercise at least 3 days a week! My goal is 5 days a week.
– Water. I need to drink more than three glasses a day of liquid. But I have to pee so much already as a pregnant person! Agh! This week I’ll try to remember to drink four. Next week five. Holding steady at five is good I think. 🙂 (the cups are bigger than 8 oz.)
– Posture. Bad posture hurts me. Remember to sit/stand straight! Easier said than done.
– Laptop. I need to get off of this thing.
goodbye for now!
Hi Rachel. I fully support “healthy” eating (and whatever that means to you personally – it is interesting how everyone’s opinion varies)! I too have a major sweet tooth, but find that often times a piece of fruit will satisfy it. But sometimes not ;-), which is why I make a lot of cookies and have been experimenting with ways to make them “less unhealthy”. I just posted a cookie recipe on Hello Cozy that is pretty tasty, pretty healthy, and not too sweet. It uses yogurt, but you can’t taste it… I promise!! I also think you can dry strawberries… I know you can buy packs of dried strawberries at the store, so I assume you could do it at home. I too am interested in low-sugar homemade jam. Right now we buy the “reduced sugar” stuff at the store and we like it. If only we had some delicious fresh Oregon strawberries in our hands! And for exercise, even just 30 minutes of walking goes a long way! It helps to walk somewhat quickly… but I always figure that anything is better than nothing 🙂 Hmm well that’s my two-cents for the day! I would splurge my four-cents, but I’ve got to stay on budget 😉
🙂
wow. major reformation!
My mom found a new Ball Pectin that uses half as much sugar as berries and it tastes like berries. Just mushed up frozen strawberries would have to be defrosted in order to use, with some sugar and pectin it’d be spreadable…and using just pectin? Baaaad idea. Well, I don’t really know. I was always told to follow the directions exactly with pectin…and pectin is sour!!!! I’ll ask mommy dearest what the exact kind of pectin is that she found. I think it was cheaper too, plus less sugar…even cheaper!
With all the canning you do you’re crunchier than i am. And freezing. I covet your space.
Posture? POSTURE!? oh dear. I am almost bent in half at the moment. Horrid. I need stronger back and stomach muscles cause it hurts to have good posture. Something’s wrong there!
You can infuse your breads/pancakes/muffins/etc with cultures by soaking the dry ingredients in whey overnight. Smoothies sound gooooood tho. I’m going to be doing that this week a lot I think…It’s so stinkin hot!
Ok, love hearing about how much more wonderful you are than I am…keep it up!
Hollye – I’ll be trying those cookies out soon! And walking will be a great way to exercise this summer when it’s too hot for other things. I have a great exercise video just for during pregnancy that feels good when i actually do it (I did yesterday!) but it was so hot in there yesterday. Maybe i’ll have to do it in the morning. I’m excited about trying dried strawberries, because they won’t take up much room and should be easy to add to baking or for munchies… but Brian isn’t crazy about the idea – he loves jam too much! 😀 (But really, I have enough jam – i want to preserve more in other ways!) Today I am going picking and we will see how many this preggo body can pick before keeling over.
Emily, I think I used the same pectin as your mom! The jam still tastes delish but uses 1 1/2 cups sugar to 4 cups berries which is much less than the sure-jell. I was going to see if there were any no-sugar recipes on any of the boxes too… we’ll see! Less sugar means you have to have more berries per cup of jam, but at least you feel good about eating it!
Yes, you should covet our freezer space. We spent quite a bit of money on that freezer and don’t even have indoor room for it right now! But hey, carport works, right? I LOVE having a full-size freezer for our little family. It’s amazing how full I get it when I have jelly made and am stocked up on some meats and bread. (I buy bread when it’s on sale because it’s about to expire… when I can find it.)
Maybe you should see a physical therapist just once so they can tell you which are the proper muscles to use when correcting your posture. Sure helped me a ton. Now I just need to take advantage of that knowledge…
I have been wanting to learn about the soaking flour thing! Please share more! What’s a website you looked at to learn more about that?