Have you a drop to drink?

One the goals of my healthy living program is to drink at least one glass of water every morning before eating or drinking anything else. Your body has been working all night repairing, growing, building, and removing toxins. Replenish it by giving it what it needs most, water. The human body is about 2/3 water, from about 20% in the bones, to up to 95% in the brain. No wonder you get a headache if you don’t drink enough!

Water is involved in vital functions such as transporting nutrients and oxygen, metabolism, regulating body temperature, and detoxification. It also moisturizes the air in the lungs and protects the organs and joints.

Not drinking enough water can lead to tiredness, hunger, headaches and migraines, constipation, dry skin, muscle cramps, and eventually blood pressure and kidney problems, then death.

How much water should you drink? You have probably heard the 6-8 glasses suggestion. How big are the glasses though? Does a 100 pound girl need the same amount as a 250 pound quarterback? A general rule of thumb is to divide your weight (in pounds) in half and drink that many ounces of water. So if you are 120 pounds you should drink 60 ounces of water, or six 10-ounce glasses. If you are 200 pounds you need 100 ounces, or ten 10-ounce glasses. If you are very active, or in a hot environment, you will need more.

Here are some tips for getting enough water:

Start the day with a glass of water. Rinse out your insides and energize yourself while getting a head start on your water intake for the day.

Get a water bottle you like and fill it up each morning. Carry it around with you throughout the day and take sips whenever you think of it. Refill as needed. Stainless steel and glass are the best materials for a water bottle because there is no risk of them leaching chemicals into the water. If you get an aluminum one, check that it doesn’t have a lining that may contain BPA or other chemicals. If you get a plastic one, make sure it doesn’t have BPA or phalates. The label may say if it is BPA free. If it doesn’t, check the recycling number on the bottom. Numbers 1,2, and 5 are generally safe. Avoid 3 and 6 at all costs, and only get number 7 if it explicitly says it is BPA free.

If you think you are hungry, drink some water first. Often the feeling of hunger is actually a sign that your body needs water.

Add a squeeze of lemon or lime.

Take a cue from the fancy gyms and spas and flavor your water with slices of strawberries, melon, mint, and other herbs and fruits.

Sparkling water is fun! You can buy a carbonator and make your own at home. If you want flavor, or need to wean yourself off soda, add some unsweetened juice, or mash up some berries and mix them in.

Unsweetened fruit juice and herbal tea count toward your daily water intake. Watch the amount of juice you drink if you are watching calories though. You can always dilute juice with water.

Juicy fruits and vegetables can help you reach your water goals while also giving you valuable nutrients. Great multi-tasking!

So drink up everyone!

PS. Thank you to Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Hope you don’t mind the reference.

Let’s talk dirty.

As we embark on our journey to health, there will inevitably be some talk of “eating clean.” What does that mean?

“Eating clean” is often used as a catch-all term to describe unprocessed, whole foods. The way we all know we should be eating but have such a hard time doing. Yet I would also like to suggest it can also mean that your food literally is clean, i.e. free of pesticides.

You may have heard of “organic” food. It’s this thing health food stores invented to sell you products at five times the cost of ones you can buy at your local grocer, mini-mart, what have you. Nothing you should waste your money on.

Or is it?

Pesticides and herbicides are chemicals, natural or man-made, that kill living creatures. You are a living creature. Your kids are living creatures.  The people who work in the fields where your food is grown are living creatures.  Not to mention the damage it does to the environment.

Yes, you wash your fruits and vegetables before you eat them. Not all of the pesticide residues are washed off though. Soft produce can absorb the pesticides and some of them are actually distributed  throughout the plant.  As you work to clean up your diet, I’d hate to see you sabotage yourself by eating produce coated in toxins.

Organic food can get expensive though, and depending on where you live, can be hard to find.  I am lucky enough to live where I can subscribe to a year round CSA and shop farmer’s markets in January, but I know many of you don’t. So what should you do?

The Environmental Working Group has tested common produce for pesticide residue and published a list of “the dirty dozen” and “the clean 15.” In general, you should avoid conventionally grown produce in the dirty dozen and opt instead for the organic version whenever possible. To save you some money and making shopping a bit easier, the clean 15 are relatively safe to buy in the conventional form if you don’t have access to, or can’t afford, the organic ones.

Here is a link to the list: http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary

You can print it out and stick it in your wallet, there is an iPhone ap as well.

Dirty Dozen – buy organic whenever possible:

1. Apples

2. Celery

3. Strawberries

4. Peaches

5. Spinach

6. imported Nectarines

7. imported Grapes

8. Sweet bell peppers

9. Potatoes

10. domestic Blueberries

11. Lettuce

12. Kale/Collard Greens

Please note that although only imported nectarines and grapes made it in the 12, the domestic versions are not that much better. I would go organic with all grapes and stone fruit.

The Clean 15:

1. Onions

2. Sweet Corn

3. Pineapples

4. Avocado

5. Asparagus

6. Sweet Peas

7. Mangos

8. Eggplant

9. domestic Cantaloupe

10. Kiwi

11. Cabbage

12. Watermelon

13. Sweet Potatoes

14. Grapefruit

15. Mushrooms

If you want to do a bit more investigation, or want to scare yourself into buying organic as much as humanly possible, check out www.whatsonmyfood.org where you can look at individual foods and see what pesticides may be lurking on them and how dangerous they are. They have an iPhone ap as well.

Some suggestions for finding affordable organics:

Shop in season. Right now organic kale is going to be a lot easier to find and cheaper than organic strawberries.

When you are at the farmer’s market ask how the produce was grown. Don’t be afraid of produce that is organically grown, but not certified organic. It costs a lot money to get organic certification, but more and more small farmers are using organic practices.

I’ve noticed that ethnic markets sometimes have great deals on organic produce. When I find them, I’ll stock up.

If you are lucky enough to have a Trader Joe’s near you they have good prices on organics. Their everyday price on frozen fruit for example, is better than all but the best sales at regular grocery stores.

If you have something that you eat a lot of, splurge on the organic version. Go ahead and get the conventional if it’s something you hardly ever eat.

Try growing some of your own organic food. Start with a few herbs on a window sill and go from there. Lettuce and spinach can be grown rather quickly and don’t need much space. And how fun would it be to grow some tomatoes or strawberries?

Image via Wikipedia

I made lentil soup today, having adopted the Mediterranean tradition of eating lentils on New Years Day to bring prosperity and luck.  I ate three bowls, so it should be a good year.  I also launched the healthy living program I am creating with my sister-in-law.  I am very excited about it.  I’ve never done anything as ambitious as this, so I am also very nervous as well.  It’s a good thing I am partnering with Annabelle, or I may be tempted to bail.  I feel this is where I have been headed for a few years now, if not longer, so I am glad to see it coming together.

Everyone is talking resolutions, so I guess I’ll join in.  I don’t do resolutions though, don’t like the word and all it connotes, so I am setting goals instead.  I’ll share them with you, since I’m sure you are anxiously waiting to hear them.

Group goals for my healthy living program:

Set an intention for the day each morning when you wake.

Start each day with a glass of water.  Drink at least one full glass before you eat or drink anything else. You can add a squeeze of lemon if you like.

Have a healthy breakfast. Some choices are a smoothie, fresh juice, fruit salad, whole grain cereal, a homemade breakfast bar or muffin or an egg.

Three sun salutations or gentle stretching morning and night, or any other time you need a break.

Spend at least ten minutes exercising morning and evening.

Write a daily journal entry.

Personal goals:

Have a smoothie everyday, preferably with some greens in it.

Meditate every day, even if only for a few minutes.

Continue to work on being a better wife and mother.

De-clutter my house and keep it that way.  (Did I just say that? Please, someone help me!)

Grow the healthy living program into something meaningful.

Become a Certified Nutritional Consultant.

That’s right, I am going to start school to become a Nutritional Consultant.  Nutrition is something I have always been interested in and researched on my own.  I considered majoring in it in college, but ended up choosing another school that didn’t offer it.  I’ve been debating going back to school to study nutrition for the past few years and am finally taking the plunge.  Got the husband on board and everything.

2012 – Here we go!

Related articles

• Healthy Living with Annabelle and Teresa (teresastips.wordpress.com)
• New Year’s Recipes to Bring Good Fortune (well.blogs.nytimes.com)

You can read more about it and sign up at Annabelle’s blog Fluency’s Folly.  You can also contact me directly and I’ll be happy to add you to the email list.

Big things are coming in 2012!  I’ll tell you more soon.  Right now I have to go empty out both of my bathrooms because my husband needs to remove both toilets and cut a hole in the wall.  Yikes!  Wish us luck!

Related articles

• Junk free through the Hollydays (teresastips.wordpress.com)

Soak 1 cup raw, whole almonds for 8-12 hours in the refrigerator. They can soak longer, but make sure you change the water at least every 12 hours.

Peel the skins off them. This can take some time. I suggest doing this while watching tv or something.

Place the peeled almonds in the blender and add four cups of water. This should fill the blender almost to the top.

Blend till smooth. If your blender isn’t very powerful you may need to strain the milk, but soaking definitely helps it blend up nicely.

You can do the same thing with cashews, but you don’t need to peel them.

For anyone who needs some smoothie inspiration, here is a little flowchart you can print out and save.  You may want to laminate it in case you forget to put the lid on your blender.

http://www.eatingrules.com/2010/08/the-smoothie-flowchart/

p.s.  Never forget to put the lid on your blender.  No good will come of it.

We are running it as an email group right now.  It’s in its infancy, so things are a bit primitive right now.  Just ask to join the group and you will be included in the emails.  Reply to all to respond, or just email one or two people if you have something more private to say.  This is a nice way to get support for healthy choices during the holiday season for free.  I’m sure there will be some humor included as well and some ideas for yummy things to eat.

To join, either respond in the comments here, or over in Annabelle’s blog, Fluency’s Folly.

Just wanted to let you all know that Amazing Grass is on sale on their website. Everything is 30% off through December 2.  Use code HOLIDAY2011 to get the discount.  Order multiple containers of the same product and save even more.

I have been using Amazing Grass powder in my smoothies for about 4 years now, maybe closer to 5.  My husband actually introduced me to their powders as an option to include in my son’s smoothies.  He has a very sensitive tummy, and like lots of kids, sensitive taste buds as well.  The Green SuperFood was a welcome addition to his blender drinks as we called them.  Soon afterwards, they came out with the Kidz Berry SuperFood and he has been drinking it in his water ever since.  It is a great way to get extra vegetables in his diet. I now have my sister hooked on this for her two boys as well.

I like the Berry Green SuperFood and the Chocolate Green SuperFood in my smoothies and shakes.  I’ve also mixed it into banana ice cream, raw snack balls, oatmeal, and more.

Amazing Grass also has meal replacement shakes and bars for healthy  snacks on the go. I haven’t tried the meal replacement shakes or some of the new flavors of SuperFood yet, but I just ordered some sample packs to give them a try.  I’m sure they will be good.

I got my CSA basket from South Coast Farms today. Just in time for Thanksgiving.

This is the way to feast.

Included in this week’s basket:
Dill, Romanesco Cauliflower, Chard, Kale, Tomatoes, Fennel, Potatoes, Cilantro, Eggplant, Parsley, Valencia Oranges, Celery, Yams, Beets, Yellow Onion, Bartlet Pears, Pink Lady Apples, Green Cauliflower, Red Leaf Lettuce, Garlic, Grapes, and Grapefruit.

I traded in the beets, fennel and green cauliflower for extra pears, oranges and parsley.

Here is a picture of the green cauliflower that I didn’t keep. It looked good; I just don’t think I’ll use that much cauliflower in the next week or two.

Here is the romanesco cauliflower that I did keep.

Who wants to come over and help me eat?

Growing up, we always had the canned cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving.  Seems like most of us did, and still do.  Monday I was picking Beck up from “Turkey Camp” at MyGym and they were talking to the kids about what they would eat on Thanksgiving.  One kid yelled “red Jello!” to which the teacher chuckled and said, “yes, cranberry sauce.”

Image via Wikipedia

However, that stuff isn’t really that good for you.  Have you taken a look at the ingredients list? Most of the time it’s made from high fructose corn syrup.  Plus, the cans are lined with a substance that contains BPA, and since cranberry sauce is quite acidic, rest assured that the BPA is migrating into the sauce, and from there into you and the kids.

Alternatives?  You can easily make your own.  I have been for years.  The basic recipe is on the back of every bag of fresh cranberries out there.  Find them in the produce section of just about any market this time of year.  (You do know where the produce section is, right?)  In case your bag somehow is missing the recipe, here it is.

1 bag of Cranberries

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of water

Dissolve the sugar into the water in a medium sauce pan over medium heat and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add cranberries and continue to simmer till berries start to burst, about 10 minutes.  That is Beck’s favorite part.  Remove from heat and cool.  It will thicken as it cools.  Refrigerate to thicken further.

Image by MGF/Lady Disdain via Flickr

Don’t limit yourself to water when making the sauce.  You can substitute orange or apple juice, add a bit of bourbon or brandy, maybe try some red wine.  Get creative!

This will last in your refrigerator for days, if not weeks.  Though why would you want it to just sit in the fridge, all cold and lonely?  Add it to stuff!  Use it in the “traditional” ways, like with Thanksgiving dinner, spread it on sandwiches, use it like jelly, warm it and drizzle it over ice cream, drop a spoonful in sparkling water for a fun drink for the kiddos.

Still want canned cranberry sauce?  Have guests who refuse to eat anything else?  The kids really want the “red Jello?”

Check out this ingenious solution from Food in Jars.  She used empty BPA free cans as molds for homemade cranberry sauce.  Looks just like the “real” thing.  Except it actually is real food.

Happy Thanksgiving day everyone!