This month’s post of my five obsessions has me going green. Really green…
When I was diagnosed with Endometriosis 4 years ago, I decided to not go the surgery/medicine route and treat it naturally. I studied and changed eating habits until I got really busy and allowed stress and schedules to land me back into my poor eating/ sleeping habits once again. After the last 3-4 months of intense pain, I decided that I’d better get back to taking care of myself and my health.
One of the major changes is DIET. Not only did I continue to carry 15 extra pounds of “baby weight,” (my baby is FIVE), I ate horribly and it made me feel horrible. So, we’ve been eating foods with unpronounceable names and limiting our caloric intake. I’ve discovered a number of yummy products that is helping this transition be a bit smoother. It’s been really expensive (tripled our grocery bill), but I feel really good, almost pain free –so it’s definitely worth it.
Here are some of my obsessions this month –”tree hugger style!”
1. Lose It App: It’s basically a food/exercise diary. It tracks what you eat and the exercises you do and tells you how many calories you can have in a day to reach your goal weight.
2. So Delicious Coconut Milk Yogurt – I’ve never really liked dairy and was scared of all the hormones and pasteurization that the naysayers had been warning about for years. I found this yummy yogurt at Henry’s and Whole Foods. It’s pricey but the strawberry is delicious and I don’t have to worry about cow’s –what was feed to them, what was done to them and all that. (Watch Food, Inc. to understand that reference).
3. Green Smoothies/Juicing- I pulled out and dusted off my Breville Juice Fountain and started making carrot apple juice again and I also started reading, “The Green Smoothies Diet” book by Robyn Openshaw. My first green smoothie was a major FAIL. I don’t have the $$ for an expensive juicer –you know, the kind that makes soup and ice cream as well as smoothies and blends, so I tried to make it in my regular blender. It exploded pretty much over my entire kitchen–beet juice is not easy to clean up by the way. And it turns out I blended half my wooden spoon in it too…yum, extra fiber. My husband’s reaction, “It tastes like dirt.” Guess I better follow the recipe next time…
4. The Kind Life Blog by Alicia Silverstone – Every year, my husband and I volunteer at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books as author escorts. This year, Alicia Silverstone was there to promote her new vegan cookbook, The Kind Diet. She spoke about her switch to Vegan-ism–and though I’m not going to fully go that route, I love her blog which shares not only yummy recipes but also safe beauty products and cruelty free products.
5. Bach Rescue Pastilles Black Currant - I’m a tiny, itsy bit of a control freak and with that comes me stressing myself out over dumb things. It comes these little gummy candy like drops. I take one (or 5 at last week’s shootout) and I am calm and cool and collected. I call them my “Chill Pills.” Clever, I know.
We try to eat as much organic food as we can, all of our chicken is free range and hormone free and we only eat grass fed cows now. We are a part of an organic produce co-op where I get a box of organic fruits, veggies and eggs each week. Costco has a good amount of organic items and we trek every once in a while to the nearest Whole Foods market. (They have a GREAT recipes app for the iPhone as well)!
Another thing I am working on is eliminating chemicals from our lives as much as possible. This includes cleaning products, makeup and skin care products…one at a time. Next obsessions post will probably be about beauty products since I am reading the book, “The Green Beauty Guide.” Soon, I’ll be making my own lip balm and washing my hair with egg whites or something (or maybe not).
I think about to become a card carrying member of the tree hugging, granola society–but don’t worry, I still plan on shaving my legs and flushing every time I use the restroom.
Happy Earth Day (a few YEARS late for me)!
