Baked Oatmeal

I found this recipe at Karen Ehman's blog probably about a year ago but had never tried it.  In her article, she said it was her daughter's favorite breakfast growing up and it made a wonderful Sunday breakfast to eat on the go.  The word "go" was what drew me to this recipe besides the fact that we really do eat a lot of oatmeal.  Oatmeal is one of those "good for you" foods.

Last weekend, Joseph and a friend came home from college.  I fixed this at the last minute on Saturday night to be ready for breakfast on Sunday morning.  The finished recipe reminded me somewhat of Quaker Oatmeal To Go.  You remember those square oatmeal bars that are softer and thicker than a cookie.  Quaker advertised them as a bowl of oatmeal you can eat on the go.  This is much better.  They can be eaten on their own, or with milk or yogurt poured over them.  I enjoy having them on hand during the week for a quick breakfast before leaving for work.  I have made this recipe two more times this week just because it is healthy, fast, not too sweet, and just plain delicious.

The night before, combine the following in a large glass bowl.  Cover and refrigerate.

3 cups old fashioned oats (not quick oats)

1/2 cup melted butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 1/2 cups regular buttermilk  (I have also used a Silk Milk product -- any of them would be fine.)

In the morning, let mixture stand at room temperature for five minutes.  Add:

2 beaten eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 to 1 cup optional add-ins:  chopped, peeled apples; raisins; nuts; chopped, peeled peaches; chopped bananas; chunky old-fashioned peanut butter...whatever your heart desires!

Spread in greased 9 by 9 pan.  Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees.  Cut into squares.  Eat as is or top with milk, cream, or yogurt.  Serves 8.

The picture above shows the baked oatmeal I made for breakfast this morning.  I added dark chocolate chips (remember dark chocolate is healthy in moderation), pecans, and a little bit of vanilla.  Another great add-in I made this week was blueberries and walnuts.  I have cut this recipe in half each time I have made it and it has come out just fine.  As you can see above, a half recipe bakes well in a small cast iron skillet.   You can also melt your butter for the top step in the skillet and then the skillet is already greased for your baking in the morning.  When I made the recipe last night, I only had half of the amount of brown sugar so I finished it with a little bit of honey...equally delicious!

I will leave you with a picture of our dachshund, Gibson.  He was on the back porch begging for a treat from my husband while I was taking pictures. Couldn't resist the picture opportunity!

Enjoy!

Judy :)

Linking with Simply...This. That & The Other's "Sweet Treat Saturday".






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10 Days Finished: Real Food Pledge

I lost 6 pounds!  I really wasn't expecting to lose that much weight in the past 10 days.  My husband kept asking me during these 10 days when I was going to weigh (he weighs himself EVERYDAY).  I told him not until the 10 days were up.  I thought I might loose 2-3 pounds, but nope...6 pounds came off.

Will I continue?  Mostly, yes.  I feel this is definitely a better way to eat.  The extra fiber has really helped me to not be hungry between meals -- less snacking!  Only using honey and maple syrup has absolutely reduced my sugar consumption because if I want something sweet, I have to cook it.  I will be using mayonnaise in salads, etc.  I just can't justify making my own mayonnaise with raw eggs.  I will probably not be so picky when I am eating away from home, though we did have a covered dish at church today and I tried to stick with vegetables and meat.  I did have a small piece of coconut cream pie and it tasted soooo good.  Don't know if that was because I hadn't had real sugar in several days or what. 

My husband's college roommate, who is a doctor, closed his Christmas card last year with the admonition to eat only the foods that look like they might have come from a farm.  I guess that is my new goal as far as diet.  The Real Food Pledge just helped me get started.  If you decide to try this, please let me know.  I'd love to follow your progress.

Judy :)

Note - Here are the websites I discovered over the past 10 days dealing with Real Food:

100 Days of Real Food

Nourished Kitchen

Day 9: 10 Days of Real Food Pledge

One more day to go!  This has been a GREAT experience!

This evening, I am including another recipe.  I was glancing through some blogs at lunch and came up with this pasta meal as a combination of several recipes.  This was made up as I went and is a keeper.  It takes about 30 minutes to cook.

Chicken Pesto Pasta

Pasta

Chicken Breasts

Olive Oil

Onion

Garlic

Grape or Cherry Tomatoes

Pesto

No amounts are given because I just made it up as I went.  You can make this for a large group or just for two, as I did.

Bake your chicken breasts in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes.  I drizzle my chicken with olive oil and season with lemon pepper.

Cook your pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water.  Remember you only have one chance to salt pasta and be sure to add enough.  I cooked brown rice pasta tonight for my husband's preference.  Whole wheat pasta  or regular pasta would be fine, too.

In a skillet, heat about 2-3 Tbsp of olive oil.  Add onion and garlic and saute until soft and turning translucent.  Add grape or cherry tomatoes that have been cut in half.  I used a large handful for just the two of us.  Cover and allow the tomato skins to begin to burst.  Now add some pasta water (I began with about 1/2 cup) and pesto.  Stir and cook until the sauce begins to thicken.  Feel free to add more pasta water as needed to adjust thickness.

Remove chicken from the oven and slice on the diagonal.  Add sliced chicken to the pasta sauce and coat.  When the pasta is al dente, add the pasta to the sauce and toss to coat the pasta.  Add pasta water if sauce seems too thick.  Serve with parmesan cheese.

We have a house guest this weekend.  Meet Coby!  He is a Shih Tzu puppy.  He belongs to a coworker and we have the privilege of spending the weekend with this ball of fuzz.  Our dachshund has adjusted to the house guest as well as can be expected.  At this very moment, my dachshund is in my lap and Coby is asleep at my feet.  How can a woman be any more loved than that?

Hope you enjoy the recipe and I'll post again on Saturday to close out this series with my thoughts on my diet, health, and real food.

Judy :)

Day 7 & 8: 10 Days of Real Food Pledge

I didn't really have anything to report yesterday because I ate food prepared earlier in this challenge.  Today, being Wednesday, made our supper a "fix whatever you want evening".  I fixed my usual oatmeal around 8:00 pm this evening, but was "hankering" for some biscuits, too.  I have always made homemade biscuits with self-rising flour, shortening, and buttermilk.  Tonight I found a recipe for whole wheat biscuits and they ended up being a pretty good substitute.  This recipe came from Nourished Kitchen.  She explains whole wheat flour dough made with buttermilk and allowed to soak from 2 hours to overnight make a more tender biscuit.  I made my dough out of 1 1/4 cups of whole wheat flour, 1/4 cup cold butter, and 1/2 cup buttermilk after I came home from work and let it soak until about 8:00 (3 hours).  Then I kneaded in 1/2 tsp soda and 1/2 tsp salt (you can definitely use less salt), cut my biscuits and baked at 450 degrees until lightly browned on top.  These biscuit were much better than other whole wheat biscuits I have tried before.  Definitely a recipe to continue playing with.  I also used some Simply Fruit Jam with my biscuits.

Eat healthy!

Judy :)

Day 6: 10 Days of Real Food Pledge

Today's real food was wonderful.  Look below for a couple of recipes!

I left a crock pot of dried black beans to be cooked while I was at work.  My husband was nice enough to turn them on for me a couple of hours before I got home.  This could have been a great night to have a vegetarian meal, but I have a teenage son who thinks all meals need meat so I decided to add a little bit of meat to the beans.  I shredded a chicken breast after I got home and added it to the beans with a little bit of seasoned salt.  I served the black beans with brown rice, yellow squash (fresh from the garden), corn bread, and guacamole.  The brown rice was quick cooking brown rice out of my pantry.  I need to do some research on quick cooking brown rice to see if it has the same nutritional value as regular brown rice.  The quick cooking brown rice is more tender.  I used 100% Stone Ground White Cornmeal in the corn bread without adding any additional flour.  I really can't tell a difference in the texture or taste compared to adding a little flour to stone ground cornmeal or using a corn meal mix.  The bread rises normally.  I had some avocados that needed to be used so I thought some guacamole would be nice with the beans...and it was!  Wal-Mart's Great Value brand of salsa is all natural -- no unknown ingredients or you can easily make your own.

Here are the recipes for the Corn Bread and Guacamole:

Corn Bread (Southern)

2 Cups 100% Stone Ground Cornmeal (I use Hodgson Mill)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 Cups buttermilk
2 eggs, unbeaten
1/3 cup oil

Pour oil into your cast iron skillet (medium to large size) and place in oven.  Turn oven to bake at 425 degrees.

Combine cornmeal, baking powder, soda, and salt.  Add buttermilk and eggs.  Stir to combine.  Once your oven is warm to 425 degrees remove your skillet and pour the hot oil in your batter.  Stir and pour batter into your iron skillet--enjoy the sizzle!  Place in oven and bake for 25 - 35 minutes until lightly brown on top.

This recipe is easily cut in half and then baked in a 6-8 inch cast iron skillet.  Perfect for two!


Guacamole

1 avocado
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 Tbsp lime juice
1 Tbsp salsa
1 Tbsp sour cream

Mash avocado with garlic.  Add lime juice, salsa, and sour cream.  Best if prepared at least an hour before serving.  The sour cream adds a nice creaminess to the guacamole.  Cover with saran wrap touching the surface of guacamole to store.

Judy :)

Day 5: 10 Days of Real Food Pledge

Today is our anniversary.  My husband and I have been married for 24 years!  He has been a wonderful, kind, caring, compassionate man and if I could choose again, I would definitely choose him.  All that aside...we always celebrate our anniversary by eating out at a restaurant.  We got to talking about where we wanted to eat and I told him we needed to eat somewhere with "Real Food".

We knew Italian and Mexican was out of the question because of the pasta and tortillas.  We talked about Cracker Barrel and Red Lobster.  I love Cracker Barrel -- especially their biscuits, but nope they are made with white flour.  I thought about eating their vegetables, but I am sure they are loaded with bacon grease or lard.  We discussed Red Lobster.  I love Red Lobster's cheddar biscuits (again white flour) but they do have baked seafood, steamed vegetables, and baked potatoes.  We decided to eat at Red Lobster.  As soon as the waiter came to the table and got our drink order (water), he said he would be right out with some biscuits.  My husband, the sweetheart that he is, said, "No, we don't want any biscuits tonight."  The waiter kind of raised his eyebrow and looked at me and after cringing inwardly I told him, "No, we'd better not..."  That was tough.  I think the toughest thing so far to turn down.  I had their oven broiled flounder with a baked potato (sour cream & butter on the side) and salad (with oil and vinegar).  I was pleasantly filled when we left -- not overly stuffed as I usually am when I leave a restaurant.  I remember reading somewhere that the Japanese eat to 80% full and then stop.  I would say I was 80% full.  And that was good!

I'll leave you tonight with a picture of Charlie & me taken 2009.

Judy :)

Day 4: 10 Days of Real Food Pledge

Vacation Bible School is not for someone taking a Real Food Pledge.  The menu was hotdogs (more ingredients than I want to read or pronounce), white buns (not whole wheat), cookies & brownies (sugar), potato chips (fried) and soft drinks (sugar).  I drank bottled water and waited until I got home to have a couple of pieces of cold pizza left over from last night.  Now, let me make this clear -- after this 10 days of Real Food, I do not plan to turn my nose up at food put before me when I am out in public.  I think it is always good manners to enjoy the food and fellowship when you are with others.  I do HOPE that after these initial 10 days I will be more conscientious of what I eat and purchase for my family.  I am enjoying the low sugar aspect of this plan.  When you can only eat honey or maple syrup, it really cuts out what sweets you eat.  You either have to make it from scratch or do without.  The same with some bread products.  We'll see how the rest of my 6 days go.

My husband chose his spelt pizza for supper tonight so I fixed myself breakfast...my favorite food!  I had grits with scrambled eggs on top and a little shredded white cheddar cheese.  Breakfast bowls are so good and so much more nutritious if you make them yourself.

I'll leave you tonight with a shot of our cat, CC, hiding under the okra plants in our garden.  Looking forward to the okra!

Judy :)

Day 3: 10 Days of Real Food Pledge

For breakfast I tried out that whole wheat banana bread I made last night.  It was a bit dry, but I toasted it with some butter (real butter) and it was pretty good.  I'll be working on that recipe.  I enjoyed my coffee sweetened with real maple syrup and half & half creamer this morning.  I am actually enjoying it a little less sweet than I have in the past.  Maybe no sugar is changing my taste buds.  Lunch was vegetables leftover from last night.  Supper was that wonderful pizza above.

I made one crust with spelt flour and one with whole wheat flour.  The spelt crust actually turned out the better of the two.  The spelt crust is shown in the picture above.  The spelt flour rose nicely and looked better once the pizza was done.  I had done some research on spelt and learned a tip.  When working with spelt, you don't want to work the bread too much.  Spelt has quite a bit of protein and will get tough if it is kneaded.  I only stirred the dough until it was together and then put it in the refrigerator to rise.  I took the dough out and made my crust without any kneading.  The whole wheat crust was much stiffer than what I thought it should be.  I have made whole wheat pizza crust before and it has turned out well.  Maybe I measured something wrong...I just don't know.  I'll try my recipe the next time.

The toppings I used tonight were pesto, artichoke hearts, yellow squash (uncooked), sweet onion, tomato, goat cheese, baked chicken thinly sliced (from last night), and white cheddar cheese.  It really turned out nice.  You can view the pizza recipe I used here.  We had enough of both pizzas left to cover several lunches or suppers in the next couple of days.

Tomorrow we have a one day vacation bible school at church.  It may be challenging to find something under the "real food" category for lunch.  I'll let you know!

Judy :)

Day 2: 10 Days of Real Food Pledge

I would really love some french vanilla coffee creamer about right now!  I believe I may be going through a sugar withdrawal, but that would probably be a good thing.  I have done well the past couple of days with my diet.  I have eaten a lot of vegetables and whole grains.  The whole wheat bread from Whole Foods has been wonderful.  The only problem is we don't have a Whole Foods Market close to us.  I purchased the bread at the market in Nashville.  I will be trying to make some whole wheat bread in my bread machine this weekend.  My brother makes his own bread and I plan on trying his recipe.

One of my learning experiences so far has been with the 5 ingredient rule.  Twice I have found products with 5 ingredients, no unknown ingredients, low in sodium (one of the things I watch for)...seems like something I could eat.  Once I begin eating and thinking how wonderful it is that I have found something with real ingredients, I realize it has sugar in it instead of honey or maple syrup or it is made with rice flour and is obviously white rice flour-not brown rice flour.  This happened with a Kashi granola bar which I had for a snack today and some rice crackers with my supper last night.  I ate them anyway and decided I would do better tomorrow :).

This experience has taught me that in order to know what is in your foods, you need to make them yourself.  I did make some whole wheat banana bread this evening for something a little sweet as a snack.  It is made with whole wheat flour and honey.  I also made some spelt and whole wheat pizza dough for supper tomorrow night.  It is in the refrigerator as I type and hopefully rising for a good pizza crust tomorrow night.  We had some friends give us some homemade pesto and I baked extra chicken tonight to go on top of the pizza.  Looking forward to that!  My husband has been cutting gluten out of his diet so I am experimenting with spelt for him.

"Tomorrow is another day!"

Judy :)

8 Weeks to Optimum Health - Week 3

The "Rules" for Week 3:

• Look into buying organic produce because of unhealthy residues of agrichemicals being found on grocery store produce.  Especially be careful of peaches, strawberries, apples, nectarines, pears, cherries, red raspberries, imported grapes, spinach, celery, white potatoes and bell peppers.  The least contaminated vegetables are asparagus, avocados, bananas, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet corn, kiwis, mangoes, onions, papayas, pineapples, and peas.  Wash everything and peel what you can.
• Be aware of electromagnetic fields.  Stop using electric blankets because of their close proximity to your body.  Make sure your clock radio is at least one foot away from your bed.  Buy a pair of sunglasses that block 99 percent of UV rays.
• Eat an extra serving of fruits and vegetables with at least one meal this week.  Eat fish twice this week.  Replace at least one serving of meat with a soy food of your choice.
• Add 400-800 IU of natural vitamin E and 200 micrograms of selenium to your supplements this week.  Take these with your lunch or largest meal of the day.
• Walk for 20 minutes this week.  Begin some simple stretching to improve flexibility.
• Try a new breathing exercise this week.  Lie on your back (may want to do this while falling asleep).  Close your eyes, let your arms rest alongside your body.  Focus attention on your breath without influencing it.  Imagine the universe is pushing breath into you as you inhale and withdrawing it from you as you exhale.  Let your breath reach every part of your body even to your fingers and toes.  Do this for 10 cycles.
• Make a list of friends who make you happy, alive, and optimistic.  Spend time with one of those this week.
• Begin reading an inspirational book.
• Abstain from news for one day this week, again.
• Optional - buy more flowers, find out how to grow food even if just in containers on your porch.

Have a good week!

Judy :)

Week 2 Finished - 8 Weeks to Optimum Health

Here is how week 2 panned out:

• Check your water.  Contact your water company for contaminates or have it sent off to be tested.  Do not drink chlorinated water.  Drink filtered water or bottled water only.  We get a report yearly about our water and it is okay.  I don't like the taste of chlorinated water so we have been filtering our drinking water for years.  Would love to have a home system, but they are expensive.
• Eat salmon once this week and broccoli twice this week.  Choose wholegrain breads or cereals.  Try something made with soy.  Try to substitute green tea for coffee.  I finally found the Wild Alaskan Salmon at Sam's this week.  It came marinated (I prefer plain because of sodium).  I scraped a good part of the marinate off  when I prepared it and it was wonderful...very moist.  Broccoli was eaten twice this week.  Once as just a side dish and once with tofu in a stir fry.  The tofu stir fry did not turn out well.  I used a recipe I had made in the past.  It called for a non-stick skillet and I found a non-stick skillet is absolutely necessary to prepare tofu in this way.  I don't have one anymore and will wait to try that again when I do.  Wholegrain breads were not a problem.  I had been to the Whole Foods Market the week before and had purchased several of their loaves.  They are so good!  I do normally have green tea every morning.  I am not a coffee drinker.
• Add mixed carotenes to your supplements of Vitamins C & D3.  Take 10,000 to 15,000 IU of beta-carotene with related compounds such as alpha-carotene, lutein and zeaxanthin.  The mixture must contain lycopene to give the full benefits.  Still waiting for a talk with my doctor on this one.
• Walk - 15 minutes.  Add some hills, if possible.  I walked 4 times this week instead of the recommended 5.  We are having 100 degree temps so I am still walking on the elliptical.  15 minutes is really tough for me...I know, I'm out of shape!  The elliptical is like walking in deep sand, so I feel it is a harder workout than just walking for 15 minutes.
• Visit a park.  Try a one day news fast - don't watch, listen, or read any news for a period of 24 hours.  Continue with the breath observation for 5 minutes each day.  For 1 minute, practice beginning your breath cycle with exhalation and ending with inhalation -- concentrate on this while you do the exercise.  I did not have time to visit a park this week though I did visit a friend's farm with my husband to load hay.  Don't know if that would count!  I am not a big news person...generally it makes me nervous.  I don't read the paper unless a particular story is pointed out to me and the only news I watch is the weather, so a news fast was easy.  I absolutely love the breath observations, but tend to forget to do them until bedtime and then I fall asleep!
• Pay attention to mental imagery.  What has strong emotional impact?  How can you adopt them for healing visualization?  Still thinking on this one!   

Rules for Week 3 will be up soon.  Getting a little tougher!

Judy :)

8 Weeks To Optimum Health - Week 2

Here are the "rules" for Week 2:

• Check your water.  Contact your water company for contaminates or have it sent off to be tested.  Do not drink chlorinated water.  Drink filtered water or bottled water only.
• Eat salmon once this week and broccoli twice this week.  Choose wholegrain breads or cereals.  Try something made with soy.  Try to substitute green tea for coffee.
• Add mixed carotenes to your supplements of Vitamins C & D3.  Take 10,000 to 15,000 IU of beta-carotene with related compounds such as alpha-carotene, lutein and zeaxanthin.  The mixture must contain lycopene to give the full benefits.
• Walk - 15 minutes.  Add some hills, if possible.
• Visit a park.  Try a one day news fast - don't watch, listen, or read any news for a period of 24 hours.  Continue with the breath observation for 5 minutes each day.  For 1 minute, practice beginning your breath cycle with exhalation and ending with inhalation -- concentrate on this while you do the exercise.
• Pay attention to mental imagery.  What has strong emotional impact?  How can you adopt them for healing visualization?

In order to be honest with you all, I have done week one several times, but never made it to week 2.  Now starts the new ground.  I plan to look for the Wild Alaskan salmon again this week, and make something with tofu.  I have a wonderful cookbook for a vegetarian restaurant in Athens, GA called The Grit.  They had wonderful food and used tofu in several of their dishes.  The rest I'll figure out as I go along.

Have a great and healthy week!

Judy :)

Week 1 Done! - 8 Weeks to Optimum Health

Here is a run down of week one and how I did:

• Throw out Partially Hydrogenated Oils & Transfatty Acids.  Use Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  I didn’t have any TFA’s except Crisco.  I only use Crisco for biscuits and only fix them about twice a month, so I decided that would be my splurge.  I love my buttermilk biscuits.   Mmmmm.   Throw out artificial sweeteners.  I made this decision years ago.  There are no artificial sweeteners in my house.  Did you know that there have been no claims to have lost weight by drinking diet drinks?  Throw out anything with artificial coloring.  I decided I would do this as I went and haven’t run across any yet.
• Eat broccoli twice this week.  Done!  Eat salmon once this week.  One of our grocery stores used to carry frozen Wild Alaska Salmon and I couldn’t find it!  I will keep looking.  I did buy Eggland’s Best Eggs which are high in Omega 3’s.  I use these in everything I bake or cook.  Eggs are my go to meal whenever I don’t feel like cooking.  I love them.  This will have to do until I can check other stores for their salmon supply. 
• Supplements:  Vitamin C, 200 mg and Vitamin D3, 1000 IU per day.  I’m still putting this off until I can give my doctor a list all at once.  I do take Vitamin C when I have a cold coming on and have been prescribed Vitamin D when it has been low, so I’m sure it is okay.  My doctor watches my levels on Vitamin D and Calcium.
• Exercise - Walk 10 minutes/day - 5 days this week.  I almost succeeded in this one.  I exercised 10 minutes on the Elliptical 3 days this week, and walked about ½ hour outside on our 13.5 acres.  The radiator cap popped off the tractor when my son was bush hogging the property this week.  We walked to the back of the property and back looking for it…a literal needle in a haystack.  EBay should be delivering a new one tomorrow!  I’ll do better this next week and get the total 5 days in.
• Mental/Spiritual - make a list of illnesses or injuries you recovered from in the past 2 years.  Made the mental list.  About a year ago, I was in the hospital for a virus that attacked my transplanted kidney.  My body is still healing and fighting this virus.  It is not totally out of my system yet, but the count is down from millions to about 1400.  Maybe these eight weeks will knock the rest of it out!  Practice breath observation for 5 minutes everyday.  This was wonderful when I remembered to do it!  I found it is difficult to only concentrate on breath for 5 minutes…my mind tended to drift, but toward the end of the week I was much better at it.  I found I have to set my alarm before I begin or I worry too much on the time.  The time actually flies and when the five minutes is up I felt like I had a mini-nap.  Such a relaxing time in the day!  AND buy some flowers.  Flowers were purchased and enjoyed.  It is so nice to see blooms in the house.

I will post sometime later today the next week’s to do list.

So far a pretty great success!

8 Weeks to Optimum Health - Beginning

This is a wonderful book if you are interested in health and nutrition and applying it to your life.  The book is written by Dr. Andrew Weil.  I first saw Dr. Weil in an interview on a television show.  He caught my attention in the way he looked at the whole body when diagnosing a condition.  This book went on the market several years ago.  We purchased it and I read it.  I put some of the thoughts of the book into our lifestyle, but did not try the whole program.  I guess now that I am reaching age 45, I am more interested in working and changing my lifestyle to keep my health.

Week One is starting for me today.  Here are the items I am supposed to concentrate on for the first week of this program:

• Throw out Partially Hydrogenated Oils & Transfatty Acids.  Use Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  (This is not much of a problem now since the USDA began regulating the use of these oils.  Dr. Weil was about 10 years ahead of them!)  Throw out artificial sweeteners.  (No problem.  I won't touch them.)  Throw out anything with artificial coloring.  (I'll have to read labels.)  Fat intake should = 30% of calories.  Example:  2000 calories/day = 600 from fat (70 grams).  Keep saturated fats as low as possible.
• Eat broccoli twice this week.  Broccoli is one of the healthiest vegetables.  You can peel the fibrous stems of broccoli and they taste pretty good too.  Eat salmon once this week.  Salmon is high is omega 3's.  Be careful of the source of your Salmon.  Wild Alaskan Salmon is recommended.
• Supplements:  Vitamin C, 200 mg and Vitamin D3, 1000 IU per day.  (I'll have to check with my Doctor on this.)
• Exercise - Walk 10 minutes/day - 5 days this week.
• Mental/Spiritual - make a list of illnesses or injuries you recovered from in the past 2 years.  This exercise helps you realize the healing capacity of your body.  Practice breath observation for 5 minutes everyday - sit comfortably with your back straight, lightly close your eyes, and simply inhale and exhale concentrating on your breath and the points at which one phase changes into the other.  AND buy some flowers.  Flowers show the beauty of nature and delight your senses.  (I think I like LOVE this one!)

Dr. Weil, of course, discusses each of these in detail in his book.

My purpose for beginning this program is to:

1. Lose a little weight.  In the past 6 - 7 months, I have gained a little and my clothing is getting tight.  I'd rather lose weight than buy new clothing.  Definitely!
2. Get on an exercise program.  That has definitely been lacking.  After tax season, I used my bonus to buy a nice elliptical trainer.  It's time to put that into use before my husband and son get on to me!
3. It will do my husband and me a world of good to get our diet back under control.

I'll let you know how my first week goes next week and let you know what the second week looks like.

Healthy living!

Judy :)