Cleaning it Up

I think it's time to shake up the blog a bit. My posts have been pretty heavy lately. Life isn't so serious. I make time for fun and yummies, too. In fact laughter and clean healthy whole foods are great for healing processes. But you already knew that, right? 

Last Sunday I took inventory of my freezer and pantry then sat down with my Clean Eating, Oxygen and Eating Well magazines and came up with a plan. I need quick dishes that are rich in protein and veggies because life is wonderfully full but I still want to eat healthy. I like lots of nutritional bang from the time I put into the kitchen.

I made the following 3 recipes in about 2 hours. Seriously, just 2 little hours. You have 2 hours to devote to eating healthier, don't you? 

Burger Mix (from Oxygen's Collector's Issue Summer 2005) (I quad'ed the org recipe for the week)

 16oz extra lean ground beef (I use grass fed)

2 cups brown rice (already had it cooked and frozen so it was super easy)

1 c chopped onion

15 oz can of no salt added diced tomatoes

I added a little big of Greek seasoning and ketchip too. Yum! 

My mom wanted me to try replicate a Garbanzo bean Salad she had at catered event last week.

2 cans organic Garbanzo beans

1/4 c unsweetened dried cherries

1 big can of artichoke hearts

1/2 red onion, diced

1/2 bunch of parsley, chopped

1 clove of garlic 

4 oz goat cheese

1/3 c chopped walnuts

Then I whisked together organic oilive oil and organic apple cider vinegar to hold it together. Mom said I nailed it! Woot!! 

The last thing I 'cooked' today came from Eating Well's June 2010 issue:

Broccoli, Ham and Pasta Salad

6 ounces of dry whole wheat noodles

4 cups broccoli (I steamed a bag of frozen, because raw brocc doesn't work well at my house)

6 ounces nitrate free ham and turkey lunch meat (instead of diced ham)

large red pepper, diced

1/3 c red onion, finely diced

1/3 c raisins

Creamy Herb Dressing

1/2 c low fat mayo

1/3 c nonfat plain yogurt (I used Greek, and therefore could have easily halved or eliminated the mayo)

1/4 c lowfat sour cream

3 T rice vinegar (could sub white wine vin)

1 T Dijon mustard

1 T honey

1/2 T dried chives (or fresh)

1.5 tsp tarragon or dillweed

1/2 tsp onion and/or celery salt (I just used onion powder)

white pepper to taste

Mix it all up! 

I've got a little of the Burger Mix and Garbanzo Bean salad left to get me through the weekend. Which reminds me, I'll need to make a plan for next week soon. 

What's your clean eating plan for next week?

I finished Cathe Friedrich's STS (Shock Training System) yesterday. I'm so proud of myself! I made fantastic strength gains on a few different levels, but that's the next post. 

Don't miss it! 

Clean Cool Eats

The road of clean eating has smoothed out. My mind and body feel so much better after a few days of veggie-rich meals! I sat down the other night with 4 issues of Clean Eating magazine and made meal plans for the following 10 days or so. I totally love meal planning time! I'll be eating mostly cold foods because my sister will be recovering from surgery here and based on my many past surgery experiences I'm empathetic to food smell sensitivity. The goal at my house is to not cook anything next week. It will work out well for me because it's going to be warming up outside this week- finally! I'm so thankful the rain has stopped, but the flooding is crazy around the mid-south. The Mississippi River has reached Beale Street, that's just insane! But I digress...

I took my grocery list to Costco last night and bought the store. If you live around Memphis don't even bother going to the North store. They have some awesome healthy and even organic food! I got a huge multi-pack of organic chicken, 3 pounds of grass fed beef, ginormous box of organic salad greens, whole grain flatbread wraps, a mega-box of Ancient Grains Granola with Almonds, beautiful big bag of wild blueberries, 3 half-gallons of 1% organic milk, the score of the store had to be 12 individual cartons of cottage cheese and fruit for only $3 (seriously!!) and I managed to pass up the extra large bags of chips. I'm not really a fan of cottage cheese since it's dairy and fairly high in sodium, but I got it because it's a small portion, was a phenomenal price and will be a decent source of protein during this week of cold foods. I should have snapped a picture of this beautiful healthy food, but I didn't even think about it. I need a blogger's boot camp, I think.

I do wish Costco had MORE organic produce, but that gives me a good reason to go to the grocery store with my sister tomorrow. We have a very special errand to run for this special Mother's Day weekend, but shhhhh don't tell anyone.

What's on the menu? Tuna and Green Olive Crostini, Curried Chicken (or tuna- to be decided later) salad with apples, Cobb Salad with White Fish, maybe a half recipe of Kale and Bean salad, and Veggie Soup with veggie pasta per my sister's request.

What's on YOUR clean menu for next week?

I'll also have my usual oatmeal (I'll soak it overnight in the fridge to avoid any cooking) with blueberries and flax seeds, Ancient Grains Granola with blueberries, and organic Greek yogurt with, yes, blueberries for breakfasts and snacks. Blueberries are such a great anti-cancer fruit! Eat more blueberries, people!!

I'm all set for a clean week of cool eats and care giving. It feels nifty! But first, we'll celebrate Mother's Day weekend. I haven't been home for Mother's Day in 3 years. I'm so thankful to get to share the weekend with my Mom. How are you celebrating Mother's Day this year?

Surviving Rough Roads

Hey there, remember me? My blog has been pretty quiet lately. I've been writing and re-writing this post in my head for the past several days, but I kept chickening out. Since Easter Sunday I have allowed myself too many un-clean eats. I had planned on eating for fun and celebration ON Easter. The problem was that I didn't make a clean plan for Monday, or Tuesday or, well you get the idea.

One of my goals for this blog is to be honest about my life as a Survivor. There are times when I don't want live from a Survivor's perspective, though. Sometimes I just want to enjoy the moment. I want to get down on the floor with my toddler nieces and nephews and let them playfully and joyfully crawl on me and not worry about hurting my knees or anything else. I want to eat fast food and drink beer with my sister and just talk about random stuff without having to wonder if what I just ate and drank would be the start to a third recurrence.

This way of living- short or long term- isn't good for weight loss, of course. How will these food choices affect my weight loss?, has been the loudest question in my mind for years. Yes, I should think of this question before I eat. Yes, I should do this more often. It's something that I, an emotional eater, have been working on and improving for years.

However, the more potent and relevant question to myself should be- How will this food choice affect my risk of a third cancer recurrence? Asking myself this question before I eat something is critically important. Taking the focus off weight loss is also critically important, because losing weight is just one part of the preventing a third go-round. Yes, losing weight is important but it's not my ultimate goal. Losing weight is the wonderful side effect of clean plant based eating for me. If I thought, ate and planned from this greater perspective it would eliminate that pesky weight loss question mark. Crazy cool, huh?

Surviving cancer twice has been the catalyst to eating cleaner, yes, but also to exercising smarter, enjoying my family and friends in a deeper way, sharing this journey of Survivorship with honesty so that other Survivors and Prevent-ers may find inspiration, and finding peace with my food and body issues.

But how do I reconcile those days of unclean food choices once they are over? As I Survivor I wonder if that half a cheeseburger and cheese curds I shared with my mom and sister while on a mini-vacation last weekend will be the meal that starts that third recurrence on a cellular level. Living in fear isn't the answer, I realize, but for me an ounce of fear for another recurrence can sometimes act as a good motivator and reminder. It's difficult to find the balance between healthy fear, planning and everyday living for me as a Survivor.

Yesterday's gone and I can't go back. So, I'm moving forward with a refreshed attitude and approach, cravings satisfied, a few new fitness friends, and a clean eating plan. This Survivor's journey travels some rough roads at times, but I keep moving forward!

I won, I won!!

I won my first blog giveaway this morning!! Yippie! Thank you SOOOO much, Steff Says! I discovered Steff's inspirational, humorous, and sexy cool blog last week on Twitter. I highly recommend it!. Her blog has some yummy gluten and wheat free recipes with some fun 5 ingredient challenges to her partner. She's all about inspiration, and who's not into that? Steff, you've got a friend in me. You rock, in my book.

This is what I won! I'm super excited about ALL of these books. I've been wanting to read Omnivore's Dilemma for a couple years now. Looks like the time is now. I'm not a runner, but perhaps Chi Running will inspire me to give a whirl. I'm concerned about the impact on my post-chemo achy and sensitive knees.

My best friend's name in middle school and first 2 years in high school was Steph so winning from a Steff felt extra special. I know that's corny, and I don't care. 

True confession, I haven't had time to read anything other than Clean Eating magazine's recipes in months. I miss reading and it's escape and relaxation it brings me. My mom brought me home a couple of books from her book exchange at work two days ago. All of them sound interesting to me, but I gave them the one shoulder shrug because I didn't think I had the time to read. Then I won this giveaway and I finally got the message. I should MAKE time for reading. Hmmmmm.

So, I'm going to put together a fresh schedule/routine for myself this weekend. I have soooo many things that I want  to include in my daily, or at least weekly, life. It's not going to happen by luck or magic. It's going to take a plan of action and practice to establish a this new groove. Here's the beginning of my action plan, in no particular order:

I want more....

Yoga

reading

Self- Reiki

blog writing and development

healthy cooking

chat time with my sisters 

building my professional life

I'm content with the time I'm spending on...

enjoying my nieces and nephews (aka the Peeps)

Cathe workouts

TV (I only watch about 2 hours in the evening with Mom- IF that much)

To gain the time for these things I'm willing to reduce the time I spend on...

Facebook (bummer, I know)

Twitter (sooo fun and addicting- also useful and educational)

sleeping

 (I will be sure to get at least 8 hours, but I think I've been babying my post-cancer treatment body a bit too much. If I discover that I really need 10-12 hours each night I'll make the time.)

How do you manage your time? How often do you re-evaluate? Anyone willing to share a sketch of their routine? Post a comment and share your advice, I'll appreciate it very much!

Power in Numbers

My cancer clinic, The West Clinic, has fantastic support services. Many of those services are funded and made available through Wings Cancer Foundation. I am forever grateful to West Clinic and Wings. Today I'm especially thankful because I got to have a complimentary BodyGem test. (Read about my first visit with this wonderful lady here.) This test measures your RMR, resting metabolic rate, which is how many calories your body needs to breathe, digest, and keep your heart beating while in a resting fasting state. That's right, fasting state. I've wanted to get my RMR tested for years, but never had the opportunity (or funds) until now. Thank you West Clinic!

There are a couple different math formulas that give an estimate of your RMR. Here is one that does the math for you. And here is a different one. I got 2 very different numbers from these sites, by the way. This link gives a good explanation of RMR and BMR along with the 2 most used formulas for the math whizzes out there. I learned today that calculating your RMR using any of these formulas is just an estimate though, because the math just can't account for your lean muscle and body fat. This is why the BodyGem test is so helpful! 

Since this test requires fasting I made the appointment for mid-morning. I arrived early because, sadly, Monday mornings at West Clinic are very busy which makes it hard to find a parking place. I'm thankful I'm healthy enough to be able to park in a spot farthest away from the building and walk. I had to wait for awhile because they had to update my insurance information. Meanwhile, I did my best to keep a restful relaxed disposition since that's an important aspect of the test. 

I used my self-guided imagery and breathing techniques to get me into a nice restful state for about 10 minutes before the test started. I use my best memories to create a peaceful trip to and from the beach for my guided imagery. The test itself was pretty simple- my nose was comfortably pinched and I wrapped my mouth around the breathing tube and all I had to do was relax and breathe. It lasted about 8 minutes. It felt much shorter to me, which was cool. 

My test results are very intriguing to me. My RMR, according to BodyGem, is 1440 calories. The good  news is that there are no good or bad RMRs. The number just is what it is. It's information, and info = power. Right?! Today I learned that the more muscle you have the higher your RMR. The reverse is true, too; RMR decreases as you lose muscle. Over the past year I have lost muscle due to cancer treatments (including the steroids I needed during chemo) and not being physically able to work out consistently. Now that a lot of my physical healing is behind me, I've been able to get back to consistently working out. You all know by now that I love my Cathe DVDs! I've been focusing on strength training for the past couple weeks just based on my intuition. Now I know my intuition was spot on! The stronger my muscles get, the stronger my metabolism will become and my risk of another recurrence will decrease. 

I'm, also, going to use this new information to tweak my daily calorie intake. I now know that I need to eat at least 1440 calories a day. I'm between lightly and moderately active, depending on the day, so I use these formulas: 1440 X 1.375 =  1980 and 1440 X 1.55= 2232 So, in order to maintain my weight I should eat between 1980 and 2232 calories a day. Since I want to LOSE weight, I have to lower that range. A pound equals 3000 calories. I want to lose about 1 pound per week. So I need to reduce my calorie range by 3000 for the week. 3000/7 = 429  So, my target calorie range is now 1550- 1800. There's power in numbers!!

Actually, that calorie range is pretty close to what I've been following the past few weeks. I'm glad I'm on the right track! So far I've lost 7 pounds. Yay!! I'm quite thankful to have this powerful information to help me lose weight which will reduce my risk for another cancer recurrence. That's what I'm all about these post-treatment days- giving the chance for another cancer a good beat down!

What are you doing to prevent cancer or a cancer recurrence? Have you had a BodyGem test? Tell me about your experience!

Yes, Grapefruit!!

My fresh approach to weight loss by way of healthy eating and exercise without over-focusing is really working for me. I'm still keeping a food journal, I'm still exercising regularly, I'm still eating my fruits & veggies. What's changed is my perspective and attitude. My long term goal of preventing a third occurrence of cancer is fueling my shorter term goal of losing weight. Eating healthfully, mindfully and focusing on anti-cancer foods  along with exercise will eventually get me to my goal weight. Somehow it's clicked in my mind and I'm able to make it my lifestyle with more ease and a lot less stress. That's helping with my emotional eating issues, too. It's all connected- inside and out.

I got excited about grapefruit recently which is weird because I used to hate grapefruit. That was looooong before cancer entered my life and loooong before I made a commitment to improve my health. I fell in love with eating grapefruit three years ago when I lived in Naples, Florida. I found the yummiest grapefruit (and other fruits and veggies of all kinds!) at the Farmer's Market on Marco Island. I would buy a 5 pound bag fresh from the orchard, bring it home and section it all up so I could easily and quickly add it as part of my breakfast.

One of the medicines my oncologist prescribed to help manage one of my chemo side effects (my oh-so-fun foot numbness) isn't supposed to be taken with grapefruit. I was bummed, because I thought that meant I couldn't eat grapefruit at all. However, when I re-read the all that tiny print that comes with every script I was delighted to find out that I can eat grapefruit in the mornings!! Yes!! I can eat grapefruit again!! I just can't eat grapefruit around the time I take this medicine, and since I take it right before bed it's all good. Yippie!!! Grapefruit just belongs to breakfast in the winter for me. My world makes sense again.

So, I got some grapefruit. I had it for breakfast this morning along with 2 scrambled eggs, 1 piece of whole wheat toast topped with Earth Balance 'butter' and half a cup of Organic Serena blend Starbuck's coffee. I don't drink coffee often because, honestly, I don't usually like it. But I love this organic coffee!! It's smooth and rich and just yummy- plus it's organic. I love it when there's organic food in the house!

Who ever thought I'd be excited about grapefruit?!? What healthy food to you love now, but once hated? What new fruit or veggie have you tried lately?

Experimental Food Blog

I made the broccoli soup yesterday and decided to pick up the camera to try out food blogging. Here goes!!

Broccoli Soup from Holly Clegg's Trim & Terrific (original) cookbook:

The Goods:
4 cups fresh broccoli florets
1/4 cup water
1 onion, chopped
2/3 cup all purpose flour (not shown)
1.5 cups skim milk
28 ounces fat free vegetable broth or chicken broth
1 cup shredded reduced-fat Monterey Jack cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1/8 tsp dried thyme

Cook broccoli in a microwave dish in the water, cover for 8- 10 minutes or until tender (mine were tender in 6 minutes). Drain and set aside.

In a large pot coated with cooking spray, saute the onion over medium heat until softened, about 3- 5 minutes.


Broccoli and onions are great cancer fighting foods!!

In a small bowl (or measuring cup) mix together the flour and milk.

Stir the flour and milk mixture into the onion. Gradually add the vegetable broth (impossible to photograph since I was home by myself) and the broccoli.

Stir to combine. Cook over medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil, stirring constantly *this is important!*, for about 5 minutes, or until thickened.

Transfer the soup to a food processor or blender, puree the soup, and return to the pot over low heat.

Three cheers for food processors!!!

Be careful!! Hold on to that blade! Don't let THIS happen to you! Okay, so it wasn't really that traumatic. I didn't hurt myself at all, but it was a pain to have to fish out the blade from the hot soup. Try to avoid it.

Add the cheese, salt, pepper (another cancer fighting food!), and thyme, cooking until heated through and the cheese is melted. Serve immediately. Or you can do what I did, leave it on low heat and stir it every few minutes until everyone is ready to eat.

Somehow I didn't get a picture of the final product. Bad food blogger, bad bad!! So here's a picture of the leftovers. It's a very yummy soup! Give it a try!

The nutritional info: Serves 6- 8.
Calories 121, Protein 9g, Carbs 15g, Fat 3g, Calories from fat 24%, Saturated fat 2g, Dietary Fiber 2g, Cholestrol 9mg, Sodium 576mg
Diabetic Exchanges (I love that Holly Clegg includes this!): 0.5 lean meat, 0.5 starch, 1.5 vegetable

Since I was in the kitchen anyway I decided to roast the squash for future use. The butternut squash is for the Butternut Squash Enchiladas that we'll eat for family dinner on Sunday (along with a Taco Pie for those members of the family who require meat). The acorn squash is for something else, but I'm not going to tell you what just yet. Hehehe!!

Oh winter squash you roast up sooo beautifully!!!