Self-Care in the Midst of Chaos

Whew. . .imagine my surprise when I realized I hadn’t posted here since late January.  On the one hand, I wanted to shut down the site and consider it, and me, a failure.

Then I stopped and reflected.  It’s been one heck of a year so far.  A quick rundown:

  • My sister’s cancer got worse in January which led to us spending March (the whole month) away from home in Virginia where she got proton radiation treatments (and is now doing very well!).  I can’t recommend www.HamptonProton.org high enough for both the treatments and the caring of the staff.  You walk in a stranger and out family.
  • At the same time, our Mum wasn’t feeling well.  So I took a couple weekends while in Virginia to “run down” to South Carolina (they’re not as close as you’d think) and check in on Mum.  We took care of a few doctors’ appointments and scheduled others for early April.
  • Brought Sis home at the end of March and was in South Carolina from April 1st through June 9th with Mum.  Lots of tests and biopsies only to watch her lose more weight and feel weaker.  Finally, on my birthday in early May, we got word that she had Stage IV lung cancer that had progressed to where it was untreatable and she had a few months.  She passed on June 9th.
  • On June 10th, it was back to Virginia for 2 weeks.  Then home for 5 days during which I had a pneumonia, then back to South Carolina where I’ve been since late June.

In early May, I realized that I hadn’t seen my own doctor since January and needed my A1C checked for my diabetes.  I found a HealthFinders (wonderful places!) in a local mall and they would check it for $20 — no muss, no fuss and instant results.  I was at 7.2 despite eating extremely well.

At that point, I decided to focus on caregiving for Mum (this was just before we got her diagnosis) and improving my health while fitting my business in around those two priorities.

I”m writing this article on September 3rd.  Depending which chart/organization you listen to, I’m close to reversing my diabetes.  Some say anything under 6.5 is pre-diabetic and no longer considered diabetic.  Others say under 5.7 is normal and no longer diabetic.  My goal is to get under 5.7 and I’m going with “under 6.0” as no longer diabetic.  I’m currently a 6.5.

My next, and future, articles will share how I’ve done this despite the stress of caregiving, the passing of my Mum, being home/seeing my husband for only 9 days since February and running a business.  While I’m sorry not to have posted here daily, something had to give and I made the choice that this would be it.

I’ve thought about writing this post so often and just couldn’t do it.  Today I did and am happier for it.

Healthy Eating – Day 8

Breakfast: Every once in a while I’m just not really hungry for breakfast. But knowing I was heading into several calls where I couldn’t eat (no one likes to hear you chew on the phone or whip out the Nutribullet to make a smoothie), I grabbed a LaraBar (they now have ones with extra protein) – today I tried the Peanut Butter Cookie Protein Bar. Honestly, I’m not a fan. I adore(!) the regular bars, but the nuts in this one seemed just “too” hard. I have two more higher protein ones in the cabinet and we’ll see how those are. 🙂

Lunch: By lunch I was starved and craving comfort food. With the busy call day, I needed something quick – Trader Joe’s Asparagus Risotto to the rescue. Had one in my freezer and it was 7 minutes from freezer to bowl. It was exactly what I was craving! 🙂

Risotto with Asparagus

Dinner:  Still pretty full from lunch, dinner was simply a few Late July Organic tortilla chips, Cabot Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese and a perfectly-ripe organic pear with a cup of Stash Peppermint Tea.

Cheese, Apple & Tortilla

Healthy Eating – Day 7

Breakfast: Perfect day for a smoothie with organic spring mix, frozen wild blueberries, a pear, flax seeds, 4 walnut halves, vegan protein powder and unsweetened vanilla almond milk. There’s just something about the blueberries and pear that I love! YUM!

Smoothie Overhead View

Lunch: In between client calls, I found myself craving Thai food for lunch and so whipped up a quick salad and added some peanut sauce! Perfection, although a little spicier than intended (may have been the red onion, scallions and peanut sauce combo) so I found myself drinking a lot of peppermint tea during afternoon calls. 🙂

Salad with Peanut Sauce

Snack: I had a quick break between clients around 3pm and found myself both hungry and lagging a bit in energy so grabbed a banana and added almond butter. It hit the spot and gave me the burst of energy I needed to head into my late afternoon sessions.

Bananas & Peanut Butter

Dinner:

Still craving something “salad-like”, but with a little more substance, I had fajitas for dinner. A low carb tortilla with Wholly Guacamole (love their 100 calorie cups, I get from the produce section of my grocery store), organic spring mix, red onions, red peppers, tomatoes, brown rice and pinto beans. Exactly what my taste buds wanted!

Veggie, Bean & Rice Fajita

Healthy Eating – Day 6

Breakfast: Brrr…chilliest day yet so far this year and perfect to start with a Hot Water with Lemon. And followed soon after with a 20-oz mason jar filled with Hibiscus Tea and piece of gluten free toast with no sugar added SunButter, sliced bananas and a dash of cinnamon. Warm and comfy – just what was needed, along with warm slippers, on this chilly morning.

Toast with sunbutter and bananas

Lunch: Given how late I enjoyed breakfast combined with being heads down preparing a presentation for later this week, I wasn’t looking for lunch until around 3pm. Combine that with how chilly it still is (so much for warming up today!) and a piece of lasagna made its way to the oven. First up was a small salad (eaten while lasagna heated up and missed the pic on that one – sorry!) however and another big glass of Hibiscus Tea.

Lasagna

Dinner: While it was supposed to warm up some today, the chill never quite left — either outside or in me personally and I was craving more comfort food so went with a veggie soup (from Tabatchnik) and salad with oil-free, sugar-free balsamic dressing.

Tabatchnik Veggie Soup and Salad

 

Healthy Eating – Day 5

Breakfast: Woke up hungry this morning (it was probably the sauce simmering in the slow cooker overnight – the whole house smelled of it) and so jumped right into a bowl of Newman’s Own Vanilla Almond Cereal with Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk, defrosted organic blueberries, ground flax seeds and a dash of cinnamon. Just what the stomach ordered! Now off to make two pans of lasagna – one with homemade meatballs (using organic black angus beef) for the meatlovers in our family.

Newman’s Own Vanilla Almond Cereal

Lunch: Knowing we’re having an early dinner at my sister’s for her birthday, I went with a light lunch. . .a simple salad of spring mix, cherry tomatoes, red onion and cucumber with oil-free, sugar-free balsamic dressing and a big glass of water. Made a big batch of the salad for everyone else to enjoy before lasagna later this afternoon.

Salad

Dinner: Lasagna, lasagna, lasagna. Actually, I only had one smaller piece having spent so much time with it throughout the day and testing the sauce, testing the noodles, etc. We dug in before I had a chance to get a “nice” picture, so here’s after everyone had a serving. The one on the left has more cheese and veggies while the one on the right is more of a “meat lovers” lasagna.

The majority of lasagna leftovers went to my 21-year-old nephew and his roommate. 🙂

Lasagna

Dessert: We followed dinner up with a piece of cake: chocolate ice cream on the bottom with cookie dough ice cream and Oreo ice cream each making up half of the top of the cake. In the middle were Oreo cookies, Reese’s cup pieces and some fudge. I had a tiny piece and made sure there was only a little piece left for Sis to enjoy another time. The guys enjoyed it!

Birthday Cake

Evening: Once home, I was craving a little something so had a nice hot cup of Roasted Dandelion Root Tea. Perfect!

Roasted Dandelion Root Tea

Healthy Eating – Day 4

Breakfast: Putting together a birthday party for my sister tomorrow so wanted to get something quick and filling in me for breakfast. Today’s choice was a gluten free English Muffin with raw almond butter and organic strawberries (think peanut butter and jelly, only super healthy) with a cup of organic Roasted Dandelion Root tea. Heaven!

English Muffin with raw almond butter and organic strawberries

Lunch: Stopping home between errands, I heated up a duplicate of last evening’s roasted red pepper stuffed with roasted garlic and pecan brown rice and steamed broccoli. Quick, easy and filling. Then out to pick up my sister’s cake from her favorite place Peaceful Meadows – a local place that makes their own ice cream.

Stuffed Pepper

Dinner: Knowing there will be leftovers tomorrow, I wanted to clean out the fridge and so took the last of my roasted garlic and pecan brown rice and put a salad on top of it with a dash of oil-free, sugar-free balsamic dressing. Loved the “fresh” version of lunch. Then off to make semi-homemade sauce with zucchini and summer squash for the lasagna I’m making for my sister’s birthday tomorrow. The sauce will simmer overnight in the slow cooker.

Salad over roasted garlic and pecan rice

Healthy Eating – Day 3

Breakfast: Some days I just don’t feel like breakfast. Today was one of those days. When they happen, I generally have a pre-made organic, gluten-free Svelte protein smoothie and a glass of tea (today was organic hibiscus). Both were absolutely delicious and the smoothie had enough protein to keep me going through morning appointments.

Hibiscus Tea & Smoothie

Lunch: Craving a simple and quick lunch, I went with a piece of organic, gluten-free banana bread (picked up at the Plimouth Plantation Farmer’s Market yesterday while still warm!) with raw almond butter and another big glass of hibiscus tea.

Peanut Butter Banana Bread & Drink

Dinner:

After several meetings and a busy day in the office, I wanted a simple “all-in-one” meal and opted for red pepper stuffed with roasted garlic and pecan brown rice and steamed broccoli. It was exactly what I was craving and as healthy as it was delicious.

Stuffed Pepper

Healthy Eating – Day 2

Breakfast: Hot water with lemon and cayenne makes another appearance today. While I enjoy the taste of it, I can’t have it with breakfast – the flavors are too strong. I typically drink this and then have something to eat (or drink if a smoothie) about 30 minutes later.

Lemon Water

Being the first real chilly season this morning, I was looking for comfort food for breakfast and went with gluten-free, low fat, low sugar Banana Nut Clusters with organic Blueberries (we had picked ourselves this season and froze), Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk, a tablespoon of the Seed Mix and a dash of Cinnamon. It was just what my system was craving.

Granola & Blueberries

Lunch: Being used to smoothies in the morning, when I eat something heavier, I tend to have a later lunch and a lighter dinner. Today was no exception. Lunch was a repeat of last night’s dinner (love leftovers!): whole grain penne pasta with semi-homemade veggie sauce and a salad with oil free, sugar free balsamic vinaigrette. YUM!

Pasta & Salad

Dinner: Still pretty full from lunch, I decided to keep things simple with an arugula, cherry tomato (we still have so many!), red pepper and walnut salad lightly dressed with the same Skinny Girl Balsamic Vinaigrette. With it, a cup of hibiscus tea.

Salad

Healthy Eating – Day 1

Breakfast: Really enjoying fall weather so far. One thing I love about this time of year is having hot water with lemon (and a dash of cayenne pepper first thing in the morning). Other days it’s a cup of tea, but today I went with the lemon.

Hot water with lemon

Followed that up with a Blueberry-Kiwi Green Smoothie.

2015-10-14 Smoothie Gone

Lunch: We still have plenty of cherry tomatoes from the garden so I whipped up a quick salad with spring mix, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, red pepper and red onion and topped it off with a delicious sugar free, oil free balsamic vinaigrette. Then, I added a frozen Tabatchnik Veggie Soup (heated it on stovetop while making the salad) to round out lunch.

These are the best soups (delicious and very healthy) and I got them on sale for $1 each. Perfect to keep in the freezer for a quick meal.

Tabatchnik Veggie Soup and Salad

Dinner: Lunch’s salad was so good I decided to have another along with some whole grain penne pasta and a fabulous semi-homemade sauce.

For the sauce, I used a Classico Tomato Basil sauce and added the following to a slow cooker set to 6 hours: 1 pound tomatoes diced, 2-3 zucchini diced, 2 summer squash diced, 1 carrot diced. Once it cooled, I stored in freezable mason jars in the freezer and now take out as I need. This is a quick whip-it-up, set-and-forget recipe for when zucchini are in season or on sale.

You could easily skip the raw tomatoes, use canned diced (no salt added) or simply use another jar of your sauce of choice if you wish.

2015-10-14 Pasta & Salad

The Healthy Eating Journey

2015-10-14 Healthy Eating Puzzle PieceThere are so many “diet” books and lifestyle books out there that it’s tough to know what to eat for optimum health.

And if you have a health concern such as diabetes, cancer, colitis, obesity, etc., the challenge to know what will best serve your body increases significantly.

From Paleo to Atkins to Mediterranean to Vegan or Vegetarian, what’s a health-conscious person to eat. The information isn’t just overwhelming, it’s contradictory.

In my quest to become healthy (I’m currently diabetic – and well on my way to reversing) and regain the health of my sister (she had breast cancer in 2013, beat it with treatment and it has returned), I’ve read over 100 different books and studies on nutrition and “healthy” eating.**

I put together a plan based on:

  • Recurring themes that came up again and again and had scientific studies behind them
  • What felt right

At the end of those 30 days, I had dropped my average blood sugar by over 30 points and lost (without aggressive exercise) 19 pounds.

The Healthy Eating Plan?

The Healthy Eating Plan in a sentence:

Each as much plant-based, whole foods, low fat, fiber-rich and colorful; as you need to feel “not quite full” and drink roughly 50% your body weight per day.

The Japanese use the phrase “hara hachi bun me” meaning “Eat until you are 80% full”. It’s a great practice.

Drinking example: If you weigh 200 pounds, aim to drink approximately 100 ounces of water, herbal tea, non-dairy milks (unsweetened almond milk, rice milk, nut milk, etc.) or fruit infusions (water with whole fruit in it) daily.

Food Listing (these are the foods I find myself going to most – you’ll create your list over time)

Greens – Lots of them — I am for 5-6 cups/day which is easy when you make smoothies and add 2 cups there.

  • All lettuces, particularly romaine
  • Arugula (like a slightly peppery lettuce)
  • Bok Choy
  • Collard Greens
  • Dandelion Leaves
  • Kale
  • Mustard Greens
  • Spinach
  • Watercress

Veggies – think all the colors of the rainbow

  • Asparagus
  • Bell Peppers (red, yellow, orange, green)
  • Broccoli
  • Brussel Sprouts (the small ones roasted are delish!)
  • Cauliflower
  • Cabbage
  • Carrots
  • Celery (great in soups or with almond or sunbutter)
  • Corn
  • Cucumbers
  • Green Beans
  • Onions (red, yellow, Vidalia)
  • Potatoes
  • Pumpkin
  • Summer Squash
  • Sweet Potatoes
  • Tomatoes
  • Winter Squash
  • Zucchini

Legumes

  • Beans (check sugar amounts if using canned) – kidney, black, pinto, etc.
  • Lentils
  • Peas – sugar snap, green, split, snow peas, etc.

Fruits – think Low Glycemic, meaning they do not metabolize (turn to sugar) quickly in your body.

  • Apples
  • Avocado
  • Berries (blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries…all the berries)
  • Bananas
  • Cantalopes
  • Cherries
  • Cranberries
  • Figs
  • Grapefruit (no sugar)
  • Honeydew Melons
  • Kiwis
  • Lemons
  • Limes
  • Oranges
  • Peaches
  • Pears
  • Pineapples (unsweetened, canned)
  • Plums
  • Pomegranates
  • Watermelon (high glycemic)

Whole Grains – YES! You can eat carbs.*

  • Bread (whole grain, rye, pumpernickel)
  • Bulgur
  • Millet
  • Oats
  • Oatmeal (excludes “quick cooking” oatmeal or packets)
  • Pasta (whole grain, brown rice, corn, etc.)
  • Popcorn (air-popped, no butter)
  • Quinoa (great source of proteins)
  • Rice (all types except white)
  • Wheat

*Note: If your health requires you to be gluten-free (or you prefer it), please omit gluten containing grains.

Nuts/Seeds – These are high in fat so limit usage. I typically have no more than an ounce/day.

  • Chia Seeds
  • Flax Seeds
  • Hemp Seeds
  • Nuts (raw or toasted without oil)
  • Pumpkin Seeds
  • Sunflower Seeds

The Health Eating section of this site shares what I eat (often with recipes) on a daily basis.

**Note: I am not a doctor. This information is what I do on a daily basis to reclaim my health. Please check with your doctor or health care practitioner for specifics relating to your health. 🙂