The following is the health coach vetted nutrition practice that I try my best to follow every week:
It’s a fact that the oceans have been overfished. Farmed salmon is not OK to eat though. What do I think? I’m going to have baked salmon once a week. There’s a deli counter at a food market that sells this fish.
It’s quick and easy: heat for 20 minutes with Brussel sprouts (also from deli counter) in a baking dish at 350 degrees.
I can also get from the deli counter roasted vegetables which don’t need to be cooked. The deli vegetables are not organic and I’m OK with this. Otherwise I buy online frozen bags of organic broccoli, spinach leaves, cauliflower, and green beans.
As well once a week or every other week I order grilled shrimp from the online grocery delivery service. I also order dry sea scallops with the weekly delivery.
For lunch I order a mixed greens salad with no dressing. Add organic cashews and chickpeas and Cento pitted olives. Toss Boticelli finishing olive oil and balsamic vinegar to dress the salad.
This is the standard fare. I have the salad for lunch 3 times a week. I read a while ago that bringing your lunch from home to your job 3x/per week is OK and a viable option. It can be impossible to expect ourselves to bring lunches from home 5 days a week.
The goal as I see it is to have the grace to accept that you and I cannot do the right things 100 percent of the time every day of every week of our lives.
Coming up I’m going to review a food product I found. The origin story of the company might be a come-on. Yet I’ll talk about this food because it shows that there are alternatives to common products laden with chemical additives or questionable kinds of fat.
This is the first post re: the Integrative Health Coach eating plan that I’m going to use as a weekly practice starting this fall.
She recommends consuming 100 grams protein per day or at least at or near 90 grams protein for the ideal RDA. The calculation using your weight only accounts for the average grams of protein that are thought to be acceptable.
On Amazon–yes on Amazon–I found the Truvani protein powder shown. It’s the only protein powder source without a chemical additive called natural flavor. In California–yes in Cali–I think it’s Prop65 that lists Truvani as having a cancer-causing agent.
I’m taking my chances as this product has been on the market for at least a decade. The Mooala almond milk you can order on Fresh Direct online grocery delivery service in New York City.
About a decade ago I bought soy milk and the soy milk tasted awful to me. So I was hopeful when the Health Coach vetted that I could use almond milk. Again, the Mooala almond milk was the only almond milk I found that didn’t have a questionable ingredient.
Inside the Truvani package is a scoop you use to pour the protein powder in the almond milk. I used a 12 ounce ceramic mug that I bought in Starbucks long ago. It might be Venti sized according to the Starbucks system. I have no idea. I used the 12 ounce mug and tossed one scoop of Truvani in the almond milk. Filled the mug with the milk to an inch below the rim.
One scoop of Truvani has 20 grams of protein. It has 2 grams of fiber too if that counts for anything towards your RDA of fiber while you’re at it.
After the awful taste of the soy milk I was reluctant to try the almond milk. To my surprise the protein drink is drinkable because it tastes better than I thought it would.
As the drink is actually drinkable to me I’ll be getting 20 extra grams of protein with breakfast. My said breakfast 3 large organic eggs scrambled with organic shitake mushrooms.
So there I’ll have it–at least 30 grams of protein in my first meal of the day. Like real experts to trust have repeated for years a person should have 20 to 30 grams of protein with each meal starting with breakfast. Not waiting until dinner to load up on protein.
Va bene! A protein drink that is really kind of delicious! With no chemical additives in the form of natural flavor.
The only drawback is that the scoop is big so I envision going through a package of Truvani in one week or so. And the Truvani if I recall costs at least $30/per package.
For those of us who can’t afford Truvani there are other options like having with the eggs a container of Fage plain Greek yogurt. Mix blueberries into the yogurt like I do if you want. Use only a drizzle of honey. As per my Health Coach honey is not really okay to have except in tiny amounts.
Fage plain Greek yogurt doesn’t contain chemical additives in the form of natural flavor. Should you be okay with it you can opt for the Fage full-fat plain yogurt not the 0 fat. I happen to be sensitive to food that contains fat in it.
So having the eggs plus a container of the Fage plain yogurt could bump your grams of protein up to near 30 grams for breakfast.
Forget buying a boxed cereal labeled as a better protein source. A food with only 8 grams of protein per serving for breakfast won’t cut it for optimizing your energy and health throughout the day. Should you really want to go the boxed cereal breakfast route it’s imperative to find a container of yogurt or other protein source that will bump up the grams of protein for the meal.
Also forget the commercial that claims having a round waffle product with added protein is an acceptable food for getting protein. I don’t think so. Not all sources of protein are the best sources.
Though who’s kidding who. I have pasta all the time being Italian. And it’s not really an ideal food even when it’s whole wheat pasta according to my Health Coach.
That’s OK. I plan to stick with my 80 percent rule: having healthy food at least 80 percent of the time.
My life is getting shorter. With life being short I’ll have the pasta. You can have the cheesecake. Enjoying life–and the food you eat–guilt-free is the way to go.
I was known as the Salad Girl at my job because I consistently had salads for lunch in the staff kitchen.
Suddenly after 23 years of having salads for lunch I was done with having salads at noon time. The buying of the lettuce and other food, schlepping it to work, and preparing the salad nearly every day took its toll.
I remembered what my trainer at the gym told me a year ago after I lamented to him that I wondered what particular kinds of food I should eat to be healthy.
He responded to my granular ethic thus: “Eat food. You just have to eat food. Whatever kind of food it is just eat.”
That said it got easier when I changed up my weekly routine this winter. Buying organic lettuce and organic salad toppings in my weekly grocery order. Prepping salads for DINNER three or four days a week. Having the salad with a side of steamed shrimp one night or a can of Cento tuna in olive oil with the salad on another night. With slices of avocado.
The curious improvement was that when I started having salads for dinner I felt good in the evening. The food you eat can improve your mood. Feeling good was the motivation I had for continuing this new dinnertime habit.
In keeping with what my trainer told me I found other food to have for lunch at my job. Though I’m not a vegetarian and I have chicken I eat chicken only once or twice a week. Buying organic chicken to have as a meal for one dinner with an organic vegetable from a frozen bag.
My old friend the deli counter is where I buy a baked salmon filet to heat up on one other night. With regular Brussel sprouts or a beet salad from the friendly deli counter offerings.
Like I said it’s often when we decide “Enough is enough!” that we’re motivated to change our habits or our routine.
Turning 60 in the spring I’m going to create a 20-year plan in which to achieve my goals and resolutions. A person like me isn’t supposed to live to 80. We die 20 years earlier than the regular population according to naysayers who parrot this claim.
This simply isn’t true when you take care of your health the best you can with what you were given. Any of us with a disadvantage–popping pills we need to take to be well; having a genetic medical issue; whatever it is–we can choose to do what’s in our control to improve.
The things we can’t control we should accept. Focus instead on what’s in our power to change. Know that there’s no shame regardless of our fitness level or lack of fitness.
Perfection is a myth because it implies there can be no growth. What I’ve learned and have come to accept is that I can have other food and maintain my health.
In coming blog entries I’ll talk about the epiphanies that hit me in recent weeks re: achieving and sustaining wellness.
This recipe is from the Joanna Gaines cookbook Magnolia Table: A Collection of Recipes for Gathering Volume 3. Since the recipe is too long and detailed and owing to copyright I won’t reprint it here.
Of course my version looks nowhere near the prettified bacon butternut squash photo in the cookbook.
Plus I didn’t use bacon so instead of sauteing the butternut squash and shallots in bacon dripping I splashed a little organic EVOO in the skillet. Too I would say you definitely need to add a splash of water to the skillet halfway through so that the pan doesn’t get dry and burnt.
This is a tasty dinner I had that was listed in the Side Dishes section of the cookbook. I would definitely use this recipe again as the food is so delicious.
It calls for 4 cups of butternut squash and I was one person having this meal. For a side dish like it was intended it might serve 4 people.
In fact I might buy this Volume 3 of Magnolia Table as I want to try other recipes in the cookbook.
I buy the Magnolia Journal magazine which also has recipes and interesting articles to read.
Now that butternut squash is in season it’s the perfect lunch or dinner.
Be aware that you need counter space or else use your sink basin to prepare the ingredients.
I accidently bought a brick of parmesan cheese that I had to grate. It was OK to buy the parmesan cheese pre-grated however I didn’t realize this. Save yourself the trouble and buy a container of grated parmesan.
In here I’m going to write about my take on the Fridge Love author’s stance.
The fact is it appears people who *need to* lose weight have been successful in doing this using the Nutritarian Diet. On this strict diet you limit your salt intake to 1,000 mg per day. You cut out using any oil–even don’t use olive oil.
Limiting sodium to 1,000 mg per day sounds OK. Though I take with a grain of salt the author’s advice about “meal-prepping” for hours on a Sunday everything you’re going to eat in the coming week.
Doesn’t chilling out sound better than overworking yourself over the stove in your limited free weekend time. I’d like to talk about “workarounds” for those of us with a low energy level or who are otherwise unable to make our own soup from scratch every week.
The canned soup I buy has salt and sometimes cane sugar. I use the Amy’s Organic varieties that are free of safflower or sunflower oil: split-pea, low-in-sodium lentil, tomato bisque, quinoa red lentil and kale, French country vegetable, and porcini mushroom.
The other Amy’s soups list safflower or sunflower oil as an ingredient. Those are unhealthy fats. Dr. Frank Lipman, MD in his book How to be Healthy advises readers to steer clear of these oils as well as to not use corn, canola oil, cottonseed, and vegetable oil too.
Sadly, the Amy’s Organic Soups used to cost $3.29. They are now $4.99 each. Still a “time savings”: when you don’t have the energy to make your own soup.
As a one-person household I spend 30 minutes each evening cooking dinner for 5 days a week. Some of us have the energy and love cooking elaborate recipes with 8 or more ingredients. I dare submit that this is not real-life for most of us.
The Fridge Love author to her credit cites mushrooms as a super food. For years now I’ve scrambled organic shitake mushrooms with organic eggs for breakfast. She is against using eggs.
Eight ounces of tofu has 18 grams of protein–more than two eggs. I’ll give you here the one Fridge Love recipe soon that I’ll be using: Tofu Eggs. It requires only three or so ingredients.
Sadly too, it’s hard to qualify for SNAP benefits or food stamps when your income is too high. I recommend using a food pantry. Even though a person might be too proud to want to do this it’s worth considering.
Lastly: I’ll end here with a sage idea: “Take what works and leave the rest” when another person–even a so-called expert–gives you advice.
I accept that I can’t adhere to the nutritarian diet. (I’m Italian–I’m going to have a pastry once or twice a month!)
What I have done is reorganize my fridge and freezer according to Kristen Hong’s guidelines as to where to store food items inside. I’m also buying the Anchor Hocking glass True Seal containers to store food in.
My New Year’s resolution is to focus on health. Coming up a few new recipes that are easy to make.
Full and Robust Life Hacks 