Eating Clean

I've heard the term "eating clean" before and it seems pretty self-explanatory what it is, but until I bought the book I hadn't been so inspired to try it. I guess I thought I pretty much already tried to do it. And in a sense, I do. But there's something about reading the premise and making a commitment to really try it that makes a difference.

In a nutshell, eating clean is eating whole, natural foods such as fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and complex carbohydrates. It also means staying away from the junk that includes man-made sugar, bad fats (hydrogenated, trans-fat), preservatives, white bread, and any other ingredients that are unnecessary. An easy way to remember if a food is clean is: “if man made it, don’t eat it.”

A person that eats clean generally practices the following:

* Eliminates refined sugar
* Cooks healthy meals
* Packs healthy meals
* Makes healthy choices when dining out
* Drinks a lot of water
* Eats 5-6 small meals per day
* Eliminates alcoholic beverages (or significantly limits it)
* Always eats breakfast

One section of the book is devoted to "cooler" menus, which is all about taking your food with you, which makes sense for this style of eating. I do that when I go to work, but weekends I get in trouble. I leave the house not even thinking about being hungry and then I get busy with errands and have to grab a quick bite someplace. Eating six small meals is not about snacking, it's about PLANNING the six small meals. That's where your cooler comes in. Leaving the house with a day's worth of food. Think of it as life becomes a picnic!

I've discovered there are magazines about eating clean, clubs, blogs, and the list goes on. It's a real movement that may not be new, but my increased awareness makes it very visible to me right now. I'm on board with it.

I've also read so much lately about green tea being a fat buster, metabolism booster, and all sorts of other good things. And in my search, I've found that all tea is not created equal. The one that I've found was easy to brew and doesn't get bitter is Uncle Lee's Green Tea. I just happened on to it, but have since found out that Uncle Lee was the first tea manufacturer to introduce green tea into the North American market. The one I am using now is green tea leaves with jasmine.

My goals this week: no diet sodas and no alcohol.

I sat next to an 84 year old woman yesterday on the flight from Jacksonville to Dallas. She'd been in Tallahassee for a couple of weeks visiting her granddaughter. She shared with me a small picture album her granddaughter had put together memorializing her visit and in the back of it, she had included small sheets of paper with a day by day accounting of their activities. What a thoughtful idea. I can't tell you how many times I've returned from a trip and tried to retrace the days. It's so easy for the days to blend together when you think you'll never forget where you went, the funny thing that someone said, small insignificant details that can bring memories swirling back in your head. A simple idea to remember if you have a mom or older relative visiting.

Art Quilt

Just finished step one of a new project -- art quilting. I've painted some fabric using a glue gel resist. Next step will be to machine stitch on both side of the white lines and then embellish with beads, embroidery, whatever works. I'd like to figure out a way to incorporate some lettering on it -- I've considered transfer or printing on the fabric first. For this first experiment, I may use markers. Just an experiment at this point.

Day 2

I'm starting a food journal. Everything I read about wanting to alter your diet & lose weight says if you keep a food journal it is almost like magic. I started yesterday. It was easy yesterday mainly because I did everything right -- no cheating, no wine, no forbidden snacks. My goal is to try it for 6 weeks and see if I can lose these pesky extra pounds.

Me Super-Woman!

While I was in Costa Rica in February, I let myself get talked into ziplining. If you don't know what ziplining is, it consists of a pulley suspended on a cable mounted on an incline. They are designed so you are propelled by gravity to traverse from the top to the bottom of the cable. They were probably originally created as transpsortation in the jungle but now are primarily entertainment for touristas.

Anyway, here's a short video of the "superman flight" of yours truly. So much fun! There were seven cables in all, but this was the only "superman" cable. The others have you in a sitting position with your hands lightly on the cable to slow down if necessary. With the superman position, you either keep your arms in front of you (faster) or straight out to the side. And to think I almost didn't try it!

Facebook

I just can't get into Facebook. I want to--it seems like the hip thing to do right now--but every time I look at that command "Write something" and "What are you doing right now?" it makes me think how uninteresting the thing that I'm doing "right now" really is. Does anyone care that I just made blueberry muffins? or made a card for a friend dying of cancer? does it matter to anyone that I have new athletic shoes that are white lightening and mandarin orange? and that I have a mighty powerful new arch support hiding inside them?

Maybe it's that I think my life, as it is, isn't enough. Maybe I should lighten up and accept that I'm ordinary. That it's okay to be ordinary. And maybe I should celebrate those new white lightening and mandarin orange shoes.

Just Around the Corner?

I was out of town for five days and the night I got home, even though it was midnight, I could tell how much had changed in the yard while I had been away. My yard is starting to come to life! It's so energizing to look out the window and see bursts of color in bare beds and dark corners. Here's a peek at what is making me smile these days.

Of course, tonight the forecast is 30 degrees -- I hope it's not bye-bye blooms.