Say No to Dirt and Twigs



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Truett Cathey, founder of Chick fil-A, once said, "Food is essential to life; therefore, make it good."

I couldn't agree more.

I think the reason I resisted going the healthy route for so long is because every time I looked up healthy recipes or checked out diet plans, they seemed disgusting to me. I didn't want to eat foods I couldn't pronounce. I didn't want to purchase blocks of tofu instead of real meat. I didn't want to give up cheese or try to count calories.

I resented the experts who tried to tell me what I could and couldn't eat. My absolute pet peeve, however, was those diets that lay out a menu for you. I'd have to be absolutely desperate to ever try one of those. I don't like half of the items on those menus. That would be torture!

Eating shouldn't be a chore. We shouldn't look at our plate and sigh. Our cupboards and refrigerator shouldn't be full of foods we hate. If that's the case, we're not going to make it. We'll eventually give up and go back to eating the foods that taste good to us, even if they're terrible for us.

God made our bodies to need food. We crave it, and it should taste delicious. Taking all the joy out of eating  just seems wrong to me.

This healthy eating thing has got to be sustainable. You can read all the information in the world about what foods are best for you, but if you hate eating them, you're not going to stick with it. Healthy eating isn't about deprivation. That's what a diet is, and this isn't a diet. This is a way of life; therefore, it has to be sustainable. You've got to figure out how to find acceptable foods you love, and maybe even fudge here or there in order to keep from falling off the wagon altogether.

I've had a couple of people tell me they absolutely hated something that I said was delicious. Of course that will happen, because we all prefer different things. What do you really love to eat? What do you crave? Is there a way you can make that work with a healthier eating plan? If it's just plain terrible for you, plan to eat it as a weekly "cheat," and then make sure that you thoroughly enjoy the other healthier foods you make for your family so you don't feel deprived.

My family enjoys homemade pizza every week. We make juicy burgers on the grill with sweet potato fries, we throw all of our favorite ingredients in a skillet and make stir fry, we enjoy taco/nacho night, and we even make our own ice cream, because those are the foods we love. We don't feel like we're missing out, because we're not! That's sustainable.

Take a minute and look at your menu for the past week, if you had one. Did your family enjoy the meals? If not, don't give up on healthier eating. Make a list of the foods you know your family loves, and try to find ways to make those foods healthier so you can continue enjoying them. Keep searching for new recipes and ways to adjust the foods you love to make healthier living a joy.

Sleep Away Stress

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"Things will look better in the morning." Ever been told that? Ever said it yourself? It's true, isn't it? Problems that seem monumental before you go to sleep seem to shrink overnight.

My husband seems to have innately understood this for a long time. I can remember several occasions earlier in our marriage where we'd have an intense discussion at night over decisions needing to be made, issues needing to be resolved, or something along those lines, and before it was all completely worked through to my satisfaction, he'd wrap up the discussion and announce it was time to get some sleep.

I totally didn't get this. In my mind, everything needed to be finished and sorted out before going to sleep. I'm the type that wants to lay awake at night trying to solve all the problems of the world (or at least my little corner of it) before I turn off my brain and fall asleep. I hate going to sleep without finishing the task at hand, solving that tight spot in the budget, or making that decision we're on the fence about.

It turns out, however, that staying up and wrestling through that issue may not be the way to go after all. My wise husband who has suggested multiple times to "sleep on it," knows what he's talking about. According to Whole Living magazine (May 2012, p. 59), a recent study from the University of California-Berkeley suggests that the REM stage of sleep actually helps put our problems and emotions into perspective. During sleep, Els van der Helm claims, our brains actually help sort out our problems, process our memories, and remove the sharp edges from our emotional experiences.

Staying up late, pacing, and insisting on solving that problem before you go sleep, like I tend to do, not only robs you of the sleep you need, it also doesn't help nearly as much as letting your brain do its job while you take care of your body. So, don't feel guilty about hitting the hay before you completely solve that issue! It really will look better in the morning.

Of course, there's a difference between going to bed fuming mad and agreeing to set aside an issue until the morning. "Don't let the sun go down on your anger" (Eph. 4:26), but also don't feel like you have to solve every issue before you fall asleep. Let your brain untangle the stressful issue while you get the rest you need.

But what if you have trouble turning off your brain? What if that issue refuses to settle down until morning? Sometimes it can be hard to mentally turn off your problem solving engines so you can get some rest. I've found that I have to purposefully not think about the day I've just finished or the day ahead of me right before I go to sleep. If I do, my mental gears start spinning and I have a really hard time turning them off. Instead, I think about things I really enjoy, like canoeing down a pristine river or walking leisurely through the woods. I guess you could say I find my "happy place" to keep my brain from cranking while I'm trying to wind down. I also keep a sheet of paper beside my bed, so that if something pops into my brain that I really want to remember, I write it down so I don't have to worry about getting it done or remembering it in the morning.

Check out some more tips on falling asleep successfully in the post Sleep Well for Weight Loss.

Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup

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I've mentioned before that I love my slow cooker. It's so convenient to just throw in the ingredients and let them simmer all day for a delicious supper. I even have an entire cook book containing slow cooker recipes.

Since we''ve tried to go unrefined, however, a lot of my favorite recipes have fallen by the wayside because so many of them contain cans of creamed soups. These soups are very convenient for the busy cook who wants to be able to dump everything in, and they do help make some fabulous tasting meals, but they are definitely not unrefined nor unprocessed.

Take a look at the list of ingredients in Campbell's Cream of Chicken soup, according to foodfacts.com:

Chicken Stock, Wheat Flour, Chicken Fat, Chicken Meat Cooked, Cream, Corn Starch, Canola Oil, Corn Oil, Cottonseed Oil, Margarine, Chicken Mechanically Separated, Salt, Soybean(s) Oil, Water, Beta Carotene, Calcium Caseinate, Flavor(s) Chicken, Chicken Powder, Dairy Blend Dried, Whey Dried, Food Starch Modified, Monosodium Glutamate, Flavoring Natural, Sodium Phosphate, Soy Protein Concentrate, Soy Protein Isolate, Spice(s) Extractive, Whey, Yeast Extract

This soup also contains a whopping 880 mg. of sodium in a 1/2 cup serving!

So, this is why I've been avoiding cooking with these soups. Fortunately, awhile back, I came across a recipe for cream of chicken soup on Pinterest, and I'd like to share it with you. Not only is this homemade version much healthier, it's also a lot cheaper, especially if you use your own chicken broth.

Now, when I say healthier, and the recipe includes butter, I'm not contradicting myself. Remember, unrefined does not mean low fat--it means we avoid damaged fat (trans fats). We use whole fat dairy products instead of the more processed low fat and non fat alternatives, and we use real food (butter) in place of manufactured food (margarine).

Cream of Chicken Soup

from A Frugal Simple Life

Ingredients:
3 Tbsp. butter
3 Tbsp. white whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp. salt
dash of pepper
1/4 tsp. poultry seasoning (check ingredients)
1 and 1/4 cup chicken broth

Directions:
Melt butter over medium heat in a saucepan. Add flour and seasonings, and mix with a wire whisk until well blended and bubbly. Slowly add broth and continue whisking until thickened. This recipe can be substituted for 1 can of cream of chicken soup.