Archive for the ‘Healthy Eating’ Category

Good habit alert!

According to scientists anti-oxidant filled green tea offers us the following health benefits:

1) Helps lower blood pressure
2) Helps lower blood sugar (very important if you have a problem controlling your sugare — aka pre-diabetics)
3) Helps fight cancer
4) Helps our immune system fight off diseases and infections due to being chock-full of flavenoids and polyphenols. (say that three times fast! )

High-grade green teas can even help lower cholesterol!

So swap out your morning cup of coffee for a steaming cup of green tea once in awhile and reap the benefits!

Thank you for reading my good-health share of the day!

On a bad week, I would push for fast food dinners (and sometimes lunches as well) about 5 out of 7 days of the week.  I knew those meals weren’t good for my family  but we ate them anyway and I pushed for them anyway.  Of course I could say that I chose wisely about what I put in my mouth on those weeks, but the truth is, I didn’t.  Not even a little.  On the nights I went for broke (uh 2 Big Macs, please?) I promised myself that it would be the. last. time. ever.  It wasn’t the last time though.  Because I hadn’t changed patterns and behaviors.  Just saying it doesn’t make it so.

On a good week, I would push for fast food dinners (and lunches) about 2-3 out of 7 days.  So that still means that almost half of those weeks were filled with weight climbing, heart-attack and stroke inducing foods.  I would see my kids eat it and my heart would break.  But I felt like I just couldn’t stop.

This next thing I mention… I would like to hammer home.  Because everytime I think of this… my determination for good health for not only myself but for my family as well, grows.

With all of the fast food that we were consuming…. there came a point where I felt like I was killing my kids.  I felt like I was handing them an invisible cloth with all of my failures and weight-humiliation on it and forced them to wear it.  They’re kids.  They eat what we eat.  They mirror the patterns that we set.  The risks for obesity for them is that much greater because I am obese and because my family has obesity issues.  If they see me eating crap food and couch-potato-ing it up… they are going to think that it is acceptable.

Of course, the reality is that they may not find it acceptable and may try desperately not to live that life.  But still.  Why put them through that if I don’t have to?  Why make them try to undo the mistakes that I handed to them on a platter?  Their psychs are so delicate right now.  And parents, we are the best teachers our children have.

On this whole journey, that is the one thing I keep reminding myself.  I’m not just doing it for me and for my future…. i’m doing it for them and for their futures too.

We are learning to eat differently as a family.  It hasn’t been easy.  My oldest is really kind of resisting the food changes.  I let him pick out a couple of meals a week.  I actually found a great book by Jessica Seinfeld called; Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food.    So, instead of McDonalds Chicken Nuggets, I actually make the book’s recipe for chicken nuggets.  This involves chicken breast strips, pureed broccoli and a sesame seed/cornflake coating on the outside.   I dip the chicken breast in the broccoli puree and then roll it in the cornflake crumb mixture and bake them.  They love them!  Most importantly, my son feels empowered because he gets to pick a favorite meal and I don’t have to freak out about the meal being unhealthy.

When I cook at home, I feel empowered and in control of my own health and of my families health.

Tonight is the first official date night I have had with my husband since beginning this journey.  Tonight will be for part business and part pleasure.  The business part:  we’ll be meeting with our Realtor to see the house again and talk house stuff.  We’re going to decide just how long we want to wait out this short sale before deciding to move on.  All of this will take place over drinks.

I am taking the time to prepare for date night.  That includes trying out the new acne products I purchased a few days ago. I really want to be fresh-faced for my date.

So, i’m taking some care to have a strategy in place for myself in regards to both food and drink tonight.  I want to make sure that I will make the right choices.  If I tried this on the fly, I don’t know that I would be as successful with it.  So I am trying to plan as much as possible.

How do you handle “date night” with your significant other?  Do you set boundaries for yourself ahead of time?  Do you wing it?  Do you choose date nights as the only night you splurge?