Just Eat Real Food

Just eat real food, it sound obvious to me. Yet others have no idea that they are NOT eating real food.

I came upon "jerf" on instagram. I didn't know what it meant, so I searched to find out. Thanks Google. Here's the shocker, it's about eating real food, not that processed stuff from a box or can.

No matter what the health claims are on that box of whole grain, low fat whatever, it's still bad for you. That's right I said it, it's bad. Why Sam, how can this box of low calorie pretzels be bad for me? There's only 100 calories in a serving.

Ugh, if I have to hear a calorie count one more time I'm going to strangle someone. Here's another revelation: counting calories doesn't work! Read up on the term "empty calories" and that should get you headed on a better direction. Empty calories are devoid of nutrients your body needs to thrive.

Avocados and coconuts are high in fat, so they must be avoided. Wrong! The only reason for avoiding these super foods should be an allergy or sensitivity to them. Otherwise these two foods should be on your weekly shopping list. Fat can actually be good for you, when consumed properly and as part of an already healthy diet. This is a prime example of why I don't listen to what so called health gurus have to say.

Your body needs fat, protein, and carbohydrates to survive. Getting those macronutrients from real, unprocessed food is key. It might even help you lose weight and feel better. And when I say "might" I mean "definitely" unless you are a complete food newb.

I challenge you to eat nothing but real food for a week: no processed foods, no foods with ingredients you can't pronounce, no foods with more than 5 ingredients. This family did it for 100 days, and it changed their lives. Give it a try, your body will thank you.

Real food may not always be pretty, but it will be better for you than the alternatives.

My real food this morning was coffee with coconut milk, cinnamon and vanilla extract, and an egg with spinach, salt and pepper cooked in a mug in the microwave because I was lazy today, it IS Sunday after all.

 Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I may receive a commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

A day in the life

Just another day, post sugar detox, with rain. Rain makes my muscles ache due to my fibromyalgia and sometimes triggers migraines. Today was one of those days, probably because the weather has changed dramatically. It's much colder than usual.

Growing up I used love winter, now I dread it. I wish we could just skip winter and go right to spring from fall. I hate when it's hot so I'll never move to Florida.

I've been oil pulling this week because I'd like to see how it helps cavities. Oil pulling is basically swishing oil around in your mouth for 30 minutes first thing in the morning. I'll let you know how it goes. It's hard to get used to at first, but like a smart woman once told me: willpower is a muscle, you can train it to be strong. That's what I'm going do.

Another friend of mine summed me up quite nicely at work one day. He said if I wasn't so nice and not crazy that he could see me chaining myself to a tree in the rain forest, and that I'm very anti-establishment. I thought for a moment, glad that he thought I wasn't crazy, and responded with "yes actually, that is spot on." So I'm going to embrace my inner hippie and blossom into the person that I was meant to be.

I know that we were meant for more than mediocrity. I know that this planet can provide for us if we simply let it. I know we can heal ourselves without dangerous chemicals. I know we can heal ourselves through food. I'm proof and I'm here to spread the word, since no one told me or even believed me when I first suggested it. Food can either heal you, or harm you. It's your choice. Choose wisely. I'm here to help.

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I may receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

21 DSD - Day 15

It's hard to keep up on a blog when you house is a mess and you need to cook all meals for you and your fiance for 3 weeks. Just checking in to say that I am doing well, feeling well. So well, and adjusted to sugarless-ness, in fact that I am seriously considering doing the Paleo Autoimmune protocol for myself. I will be severely limiting foods that could cause a reaction of some kind, like digestive issues and migraines.

I am really committed to eliminating all foods that could be giving me a reaction. I'm also hoping that if I eliminate them long enough that I could incorporate some things back in at a later time. Only time will tell, and I am really getting tired of having migraines all the time. I am so desperate at this point in time that I will cut out anything and everything. I'll live off of chicken and celery for a week just to see how I feel.

I'm not kidding, I am incredibly sick of being anti-social and incapacitated due to migraines. Food just isn't worth it to me anymore. I used to be a Pastry Chef, and now I sit in an office all day to cook all night. I'm just eating to live, it shouldn't be this hard to simply live.

I'm gonna finish up this 21 DSD strong, and then I'm gonna cut out some more crap from my diet. YIPPIE!

21DSD - Day 11-13

Have I mentioned that I get migraines? It makes it hard to do anything, like clean up after I make dinner let alone a blog post. I still can never understand how people have the time to literally blog everyday. They must have cooler phones than me, or cooler jobs.
Fourth of July was kinda hard, more so on fiancé than me but I did cheat and had tequila and vodka in St. Croix orange sparkling water. You'll get over it. I sure did. We went shopping at the Market District Mecca and it was crazy, and there was delicious fruit everywhere! And at my parents' house there was fruit salad and grain free strawberry pretzel salad. Fiancé sat and stared at it. He may have smelled it too. Lol. He said no more detoxes during holidays. He'll get over it too.
I don't feel like trying to remember what I ate.

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21 DSD - Day 10

  In the double digits baby! Woop woop! I'm feeling good. Woke up for the second day in a row without a migraine! YIPPIE! That ORAC and magnesium at night must really be working! I know Isotonix is not 21 DSD compliant, but I've been taking these for years and they work for me, and now they are working better. It's great!

  I also had some caffeine, after only cutting back dramatically. And I am feeling good.

  I am hoping to sleep well, since my fiance just texted me that there was a tree snake on the deck! Yucky! If that is in my house all hell is gonna break loose.

What I ate today:
Breakfast: 2 green egg muffins
Lunch: leftover moo shu turkey with zuke noodles and ranch coleslaw-red hot and vinegar made it much better (I know there are nightshades obviously, I could not help myself, I have an addiction to hot sauce)
Dinner: chicken and not sure what else since we are going to the drive in, fiance bought some 21DSD friendly snacks

21 DSD - Day 9

Well I'm a day or so into my second week and I am feeling good. No migraine today, thank God! Woke up without one, maybe it was the ORAC  i added before bed. When I'm not having a migraine I am feeling really good. No joint pain, and a good mood. Fats are really taking the place of sugar for right now. And I am still losing weight. People think if you eat fat you get fat and that's not always true, rarely actually.
Just did some stretches and about to go to bed. I am riding the positive waves through the rest of this detox.

I ate
My usual breakfast
Lunch: salmon salad with romaine cups
Dinner: moo shu leftovers with zuke noodles and ranch coleslaw (which is gross)
Snacks: apple, meltaway, pumpkin granola in whole milk  

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21 DSD - Day 8

I just cannot shake these migraines. No matter what I do I get them. Maybe if I ate nothing but veggies that would help? I don't feel like it would since I get crazy migraines when I cut out protein. Beans? Forget it, my fiancé would call off the wedding if that was my primary protein source. Oh well. I am feeling well other than the migraine. Less fatigue and less overall body pain than usual.

What I ate
Breakfast: 2 green egg muffins, 1 green apple
Lunch: salmon salad with lettuce cups and zucchini noodles with spinach and coconut oil and Italian spices
Dinner: paleo moo shu turkey with lettuce cups and coconut flour wraps
Snacks: 2 lemon meltaways and almond butter

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21 DSD - Day 7

Yippie! Seven days down! Feeling good right now. Made the lemon meltaways from the 21 DSD book and the salmon salad as well. Also made almond butter, pumpkin pie granola and pumpkin pancakes. The fiance wanted the pumpkin pancakes, also from the 21 DSD book, so I figured why not. I didn't think I was missing sugar until I tasted all the pumpkin stuff I made. I wanted to add honey and maple syrup to everything I made today! Which reminds me that I didn't eat my apple today. Maybe that is why I was craving sugar more than usual.

The pumpkin granola I made was inspired by PaleOMG's recipe here. I didn't have any pumpkin seeds, or pecans, so I used walnuts and almonds. I added some poppy seeds because I thought that would be fun. I tried to add sunflower seed kernels, I sorta succeeded. Have you ever tried to shell about 100 of those things? Forget it. I tried some eHow thing and it was a mess, and a pain in the you-know-what. I hate wasting stuff and had the almost empty bag staring me in the face. Back to the recipe, I omitted the dates and maple syrup to be 21 DSD compliant. That's it. I so badly wish I could have added maple syrup, it would be so delish! But that will have to wait 2 more weeks.

Did you know cats love coconut oil? I've been working with it all day and decided to put some on as lotion when I was finished. As I'm typing this I've been licked by both the cats. I don't like that scratchy tongue feeling, and besides they're licking of all my moisturizer. Can cats even have coconut oil? Let's hope.

I'm feeling really good, even after making a bunch of stuff for the past 5 hours. Even just finished some yoga. Whoop whoop. Sleep is just ok, I've complained about that before and don't feel like doing it again.

What did I eat today? I don't remember actually, haha, let me see...

Breakfast: Jicama and guac
Lunch: Tilapia and salad
Dinner: pumpkin pancakes with almond butter
Snacked on some granola and coconut butter as I made recipes
Sounds like I didn't eat much, but if felt like I did. I'm pretty full!

I'm still pretty pumped and hope fiance still is, our schedules are like direct opposites and we fought today instead of talking about all the stuff I think about when he's not around. Story of my life. I'm bummed because it appears that we will not be having a vacation of any kind. I wanted to go camping for crying out loud, clearly I need to get away!!

21 DSD - Days 5 and 6

It's been a rough week, not gonna lie. My emotions are a little out of control and I'm having neck pain and headaches, not the best time to blog, but here goes nothing.

I was feeling fine, great actually all day Friday, even though it was a sugar and carb fest at work and I cried when someone asked what my plans were for the weekend, until 10pm then my head started to hurt. Not sure why, when it's hot (and numerous other weather related factors too exhausting to list here occur) my head hurts. Needless to say I'm not a fan of hot weather. Never have been. It also makes for sleeping difficult, even with whole house AC. Where ever the thermostat is must be the coldest place in the house because the bedroom gets really warm at night, then cold, then warm again in the morning. So with doing this 21 Day Sugar Detox it's been rather hard to gauge how my sleeping has been affected at this point. My head hurt last night so it was hard to fall asleep. Oh yeah, have I mentioned that my fiance's job sucks so he comes home sometimes between 1am and 5am, and when he comes to bed it wakes me up. He doesn't turn on a light or make a lot of noise, I guess I'm just expecting him and wake when I know for sure he is actually there. I'm not sure I'll ever know what a good night's sleep actually is, but it can't hurt to try this detox and hope for the best.

I've been reading Rich Dad's Cashflow Quadrant by Robert T. Kiyosaki and rich dad says "You can always quit. So why quit now?" I love this line! You've come so far, why quit now? I've got almost a week under my belt. While the only real craving I have is for ice cream, I'm doing ok craving wise. I guess it's just around the holidays or events really that it gets hard. Which seems to be all the freaking time by the way. People just make up occasions so they can eat bad without feeling so bad. It's hard, I know. It's also hard being scrutinized for actually trying NOT to be that way, to be healthy and migraine free. I also like rich dad's line because he says you can always quit, so you might as well keep going and when it feels like you should give up, maybe you can quit then, but you won't because you've come too far! It's not screaming at you to never give up, it says you can always quit, which I feel like takes some of the burden/pressure off. But at the same time it's telling you NOT to quit. It makes you ask yourself why you would quit, like really deep down why. If you have never read this book, I highly recommend it. It's a book about financial freedom and it really makes you think. I know you must be wondering why I'm mentioning this boring financial book. First, it's not boring, really. I thought that it would be too, or really confusing, and it's not. It's for regular people like you and me who know nothing about financial freedom. Second, I mention this book because Robert frequently talks about changing your mindset. You mindset has to change to achieve anything, to change anything. This applies to eating and your health as well. If you don't change how you think about food, you will never change how you eat it.

If you've never done the 21 Day Sugar Detox I highly recommend it. I've done much more strict detoxes, with TLS where I've lost over 50 pounds, and I think that helped me realize that I rely heavily on not only carbs, but sugar as well. The TLS detox helped me to eat foods plain, and really savor the way natural food tastes, without any added sugars (including lactose from dairy i.e. ranch dressing and HFCS from barbecue sauce). That might be an advantage for me in this sugar detox, but I never realized just how many things have sugar in them. Sheetz grilled chicken that you would get on a sub or salad has maltodextrin, which is a hidden corn sugar. It's still amazing to me that sugar, or some other sneaky sugars like maltodextrin is added to ALL processed food. Time to build a farm in my backyard, toodles.

What I ate today:
Breakfast: Jicama and guacamole
Lunch and dinner: Grilled Tilapia and spaghetti squash with butter and Italian seasoning 

21 DSD - Days 3 and 4

You can tell that I'm fatigued and brain-fogged up since I skipped a day"s worth of blog posts. The headaches have subsided gradually over yesterday and today. Since I've just eaten dinner I feel good. Before that, was a different story. Aunt Flo is in town this week and it is rough. That puts me in a bad mood already, then cutting out sugar and carbs definitely makes it hard to be in a good mood. Add to that mix a cranky fiance who is on day 3 of the 21 DSD himself and it makes dinner prep a stressful, not fun time. My emotions are hard to control right now, but I feel like I typically have that problem anyway. I'm hoping this detox can help, but we'll see. I'm still hopeful that I will be 100% better at the end of this detox. I'd love just to feel better all the time.

My meals today consisted of
Breakfast: 2 green egg muffins
Lunch: salad, beef stroganoff with zucchini noodles
Snack: almonds
Dinner: leftover beef stroganoff, jicama and guacamole
Dessert: leftover sweet potato ice cream

21 DSD - Day 2

Feeling marginally better today. Headache/migraine is still there, but much less intense. Feeling a bit weak, but this is normal according to the book. It makes sense, I've made some drastic changes to my intake of carbohydrates and sugars in my diet.

Let me be clear on this, I'm not doing this to lose weight. I'm not gonna count calories and jump on the scale everyday, this is about how I feel, and my overall health. I want to be healthy and live a long time, and not get diabetes and die of heart disease at 70 like my beloved Grandma. I'm not going to wait until it's too late to do something about my diet and health. I'm gonna start now. Sure, I'm the outcast that's "super healthy" all the time, haha not really. But being healthy sure as heck does make me feel like I'm an outcast. Heck even just making meals that don't come out of a box or packet makes me feel like an outcast. And that is a darn shame.

My meals today consisted of
Breakfast: 2 egg muffins
Snack: green apple with almonds
Lunch: Zucchini noodles, mushrooms, spinach, Italian seasoning and a little bone broth with turkey meatballs
Snack: bone broth (I like my snacks thank you)
Dinner: Chicken Salad with Mustard Dressing

I am still excited to be doing this detox since I already am feeling a little better, and I can't wait to see how good I feel at day 21!

21 DSD - Day 1

Day one, oh day one. I'm going to keep this blog real, and not gonna lie I feel awful today. It had to be because of my binge on Friday. Well.... maybe it was a week long binge. I've been eating grains again because I was so excited Aldi had gluten free items! Most of which are made with gluten free grains, obviously. And don't get me wrong, I am still excited that Aldi has GF items, it's great. Even the cashier was excited because a customer with a little boy proclaimed that they all can eat normal food again. People deserve to eat food that doesn't cause an allergic reaction, and deserve it to be reasonably priced. Kudos to you Aldi. ....but I still can't eat it. I've adopted a Paleo-ish lifestyle, mostly out of necessity due to be allergic to pretty much all processed food. A week of slip ups with grains has put me months behind in terms of getting my health back on track.

The only point of my day when I was in a good mood was when I ate my squash noodles with coconut oil and Italian spices and chicken thighs. Maybe that was because it was so delicious and filling? Or maybe it was just the nutrients I needed? Or even maybe it was a comfort food to me because the noodles were perfect. I just bought one of those As Seen On TV things that makes noodles, and I love the noodles it makes! When it actually works though. I don't think it was worth the $15.00 I couldn't noodle my jicama and was pretty jacked. I want to make noodles out of everything, especially after seeing this awesome blog: Inspiralized.

So all in all, I feel like crap today, my head hurts and my body aches. I was attempting to stop my supplements, but I'm pretty sure that made my headache worse, and body aches worse as well. So as much as I wanna make this strict, I don't think I can eliminate my Isotonix. They've helped me so much with migraines and pain that I can't cut them out, even if they do have stevia. I'll have to cut back maybe, but not eliminate. I'm hopeful that this will change my life, or at least change how I feel a little bit for the better. I know it's the way to go so I'm sticking with it!

Update: So I got home and made dinner with my raging migraine, and as soon as I was done eating, I passed right out on the couch. I rarely ever do that! I neglected to mention that I have also cut out caffeine, which I was having 1-2 cups a day of coffee, so I'm sure that is knocking me out. Apparently I was also PMSing, what a time to start a sugar detox! Haha!

21 DSD - Day 0

  I'm sick and tired of being tired. Sick of being a slave to food. Tired of being sleepy all the time and having no energy. I've seen several blog posts of people that have done the 21 Day Sugar Detox. They've said how much they feel better, sleep better, aren't in pain, and have no weird cravings for bad food all the time. I WANT THAT! So I bought the book online because I couldn't wait!
  Work is not so fun anymore, and I haven't seen my fiance in days, so on Friday night when he was at work and I was home alone I decided to have some awful, delicious food and drink. I had a gluten free pizza with nitrate free pepperoni, Pepsi Throwback, and some creamed spinach because I just couldn't stop eating. I woke up the next day feeling the worst sugar crash of my life. And I got a yeast infection, I know TMI but this is crucial, for the second time in a month. Last time I got one was the same situation last month: ate potatoes and cheese and drank tons of alcohol because it was free. So it was this past Saturday and I was feeling like crap, and down in the dumps to be sure. I can't believe I got another infection! I was in pain and I just cried. And I prayed, and this little voice inside my head asked "Why are you doing this to yourself" Because I miss food, food that makes me feel better and I love rum. "Why do you need these things? You shouldn't need these things to be happy." And there it was: my epiphany. I eat bad food and drink to escape, to be happy... basically for stupid reasons that I need to get under control. I tend to feel sorry for myself since I can't eat what normal people eat. I can never have Chinese food again or store bought mayo, because I can't tolerate soy. I can never order from a pizza place because I have a wheat/gluten allergy. The list goes on. But I am making myself sick by eating so bad, literally sick.
 Enter the 21 DSD! Thank goodness for Diane because she makes me feel like I'm not alone out there in the world and there are other people out there like me with a myriad food intolerances that need to get on track. I'm starting my 21 DSD on Monday and today was my prep day. Obviously I was prepping like crazy becuase it's late as heck right now. I need to rest! But I am so excited to make a change in my health and relationship with food and wanted to share it with you! I want to share my 21 DSD with you, ups and downs, gains and fails. Speaking of fails, here's my first for you. This is a recipe I made up, got the idea from Paleo Plan. It's egg muffins, basically eggs, mushrooms, spinach, and spices baked like muffins. I am not a morning person so I need a breakfast that I can just heat up. These muffins are good, but they look like crap, so everyone in the office will again ask: "Sam, what are you eating? What is that?"

I was too lazy to fix the fact that this is sideways, which really annoys me, but it adds to the ambiance of the failness

Note to self: When making egg muffins and mixing in the blender, perhaps we don't need to add the spinach with everything all at once. Perhaps just a short pulse in the end, or mix it by hand. You live and you learn... and then you take pictures of scary to share amongst the world. They taste delish and that is all that matters to me.

Welcome to my blog

  Hey there! My name is Sam and I am creating this blog to help people to live well. Food is a major part of living well, but it's not the only thing. That's what I'm here to do. Food isn't everything and I invite you along this discovery journey to see that we don't live to eat, we eat to live. That's gotten lost in the shuffle of my life. I graduated from PA Culinary with a Pastry Arts degree in 2003, and over the course of the past 11 years I've dealt with migraines. Come to find out, food is a major trigger. I've also been diagnosed by my chiropractor as having fibromyalgia and scar tissue. Bluntly, I am a mess. So I'm starting this blog to try and straighten myself out. I've done well cutting out  foods and feeling better, but every once in a while I want a meat lover's pizza with cheesy breadsticks....that I didn't have to make myself! I've come to realize that this is all due to a relationship with food that I seem to have, and it's not ok. I'm setting out to make it ok.