Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Weekend plans and a nutrition rant


True to form, my huge to-do list for last weekend was far from completed. ::siiighh: Oh well.

Not much has been going on this week in good ol’ Alabama. We had a pretty low-key weekend at home and did a little housework (mostly cleaning!), and visiting with friends. On Sunday night we had a few friends over for the football games; including a couple that we hadn’t seen in about 4-5 years, since Frank and I started dating! It was nice to catch up :)

I’m leaving Thursday afternoon to go to the Bahamas (Abacos Islands) with some of my co-workers for the weekend (woooohooo!). Frank is going to stay in Montgomery and is doing an adventure race with a friend, the Coosa River Challenge. It’s several miles of trail running, mountain biking, kayaking, rappelling, etc.  Sounds like a blast, but a lot of hard work; he’s been “training” for it for a few months now, so he’s really looking forward to it. I’m kind of sad that I’ll miss it, but I’ll be cheering him on in spirit.

I’ve been reading & researching a lot lately about nutrition and it’s really started to interest me. It may or may not be getting a little carried away! Ha. Nah- but I am starting to be a lot more aware of what I’m eating and cooking. About 2 months ago I almost completely eliminated gluten, grains and processed foods from my diet (of course I eat it every now and then, who can say no to the occasional cookie!?).  But it’s a very, very small amount compared to what I was eating several months ago. I also took out sweeteners, real and fake (besides honey), and all bad oils/fats (some info on good fats and oils). I’ve cut back on dairy a little, but I still eat some. Seems a little extreme, but… I feel the best that I have in a long time. It’s hard to make the changes in the beginning, but after the first month it has been so much easier. After reading what bad oils, sugar, soy, processed grains can do to you…I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to go back to how I was eating before. I've also had problems with eczema off and on since I was a little kid, and now I'm beginning to think that it was somewhat diet related, but only time will tell.

Just look at how fast the rates of illnesses and obesity have risen, even since 1985! That link is from the CDC, which could or could not be completely correct, but it's probably pretty accurate. Obviously there are a lot of people not eating the way we should (coupled with a few other bad habits…). I guess I’ve just really started thinking about my role as a wife and possibly a future mom someday..and I want to know to feed my family and do it in the healthiest way possible. There are a few books I have on my list to read soon, and the next one is called Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges PoliticallyCorrect Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats. Anywho- that’s enough about that, but if you want to do a little research of your own, these are some really good websites to start with:

She has a lot of info on healthy eating/lifestyle, especially for young children (she has 4), babies, and moms.
Recipes and information about "real" food
Information, recipes, etc. about the Paleo diet 
Holistic Nutritionist
Healthy Recipes 
Author of a book called the Paleo Solution, has good info on diet, excercise and general health and wellness

This site deals more with health and natural medicine, but has a lot of good info on nutrition as well: Chris Kresser

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