Dinner Time.

Yay dinner time as a one-person family unit. Cooking for 1 is always something of a challenge. (okay really I feel like cooking for less than 4 has got to be complicated). Cooking after a day at work, for 1 = not as great of an option either! As I contemplated what to do for food tonight, thankfully I remembered that I pinned this recipe yesterday: Mother post. Decided tonight was as good of a night as any to try it out! Enjoyed it, easy to make and more importantly - easy to make in the quantity of 1. Happy eating :)

Stuffed Portobello

The ingredients:

• 1 portobello mushroom, stem cut
• 1 large egg
• 1 TBSP olive oil
• fresh basil (or herb you like)
• salt and pepper to taste (I used garlic salt)

Ingredients. Short list, yay!!

The how-to:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Drizzle olive oil on portobello and add garlic salt to season
3. Place the mushroom on a small baking dish or a baking sheet (whatever you have clean really!)
4. Sprinkle the basil on top
5. Crack open the egg and carefully put one inside the mushroom
6. Bake for 10-15 minutes

Step-by-step

 Finished product!

Fruit on the Fourth.

There are many things about this country and our freedom we all can [and should] be thankful for! This Wednesday, I was super thankful for having time to make some yummy food! I am learning rapidly how not fun cooking for just 1 person [me] is, and that typically it is kind of a challenge to cook recipes in small portions. The result is needing to be super committed to eating what ya cook! [Example I made spaghetti with Adam for a date night when he was here, it took me 2 weeks to eat the leftovers]. 

My solution as of Wednesday this week [the 4th of July] was to make something I would LOVE eating for the next week haha - I found a great sounding recipe from Martha Stewart called Ruby Fruit Salad [ << click for her recipe] - and decided to give it a try with a few of my own fruit choices as well. This fruit salad I have now enjoyed on its own and with my oatmeal in the mornings for breakfast! I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July! 

Ruby Fruit Salad - My take!

Ingredients 

• 3 tablespoons light-brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons lime juice (or 1 lime - Martha used a fresh lime of course!)
• 2 purple or red plums (about 12 ounces), halved, pitted, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 peaches halved, pitted, and cut into small pieces
• 1 nectarine halved, pitted, and cut into small pieces
• 2 cups seedless green grapes
• 1 qt blackberries
• 1 pint blueberries
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint, plus sprigs for garnish (optional)

Directions

1. Rinse all your yummy fruit! [testers are totally allowed!]

1. 
   
2. In a small bowl, stir together sugar and lime juice. Let stand 10 minutes for sugar to dissolve.

3. Cut up your fruit - this part is by far the most time consuming so either enlist some help or pick out some great music for this step! Cut the grapes in half, [blueberries and blackberries are fine whole], and then cut up the plums, peaches, and nectarine into small bite sized pieces [and any other fruit you add, cut up as appropriate]

4.    Add all fruit into a medium to large size bowl as you finish cutting it. 

5. Give the brown sugar/lime mixture from Step #2 a good stir and then pour over your fruit; Mix everything together.

6. Chill fruit salad in the refrigerator [best if given a day to chill].

7. ENJOY!

Consistency.

Whew. So with all sorts of exciting NEW parts of life going on this last week-ish (auto correct wanted me to put 'weakfish' here - what!?!) my schedule has been way out of whack! Working out and eating have been all over the place. This is mainly because I'm so excited about internship & being engaged that I forget to do normal things like eat and run. As a result, my quality of sleep this past week was not so hot. 


All of that being said, my goals this week (which I'm sharing with all of you so I have a little help on the accountability end of things) are:

1. Eat breakfast everyday 

2. Make time to run Monday-Friday

3. Stop doing any homework/wedding related at least 1 hour before bedtime so my brain has time to wind down

So far today is off to a good start! Ran, had breakfast, and have already written a paper - so there is hope yet! Its always amazing to me how much consistency in basic things like eating & physical activity is so key to an overall healthy lifestyle. 

As I work on my goals, my encouragement for all of you is to do the same! Where do you need more consistency in your week? What can you do in the next 5 minutes to work on accomplishing that? Blessings on your Monday & week everyone!

Love, Kyla

Some inspiration!

Too easy!

Good morning!
Today I have not been so lucky as far as more homework assignments getting cancelled, however promising myself I can blog for a little after completing the homework I do have is working out nicely :)


To back track a little bit, when I first started over-hauling my eating/living habits a year ago, I read a book by Dr. Joel Fuhrman called Eat to Live. I LOVED this book! He took a lot of time to explain the science behind how all food (healthy or otherwise) effects our bodies. Now, he recommends a diet that is high in nutrients and that is plant-based - however I realize that for many of you, reading Dr. Fuhrman's book & switching to a plant-based diet is probably not something that you will be doing anytime soon. BUT - there are 2 easy tips for making life a little healthier that you CAN start doing today even that I wanted to share. 

#1

The first one is the idea of eating by the 90/10 rule. On the Eat to Live plan 90% = focus on plant-based foods, 10% = meat products, but this concept applies to how you eat now too. The basics idea here are: 

1. Eat as well as you can, and focus on eating foods with the highest amounts of nutrient to bad stuff (carbs, sugars...etc) 90% percent of the time. 
2. The other 10% of the time is where things like Birthdays/PMS Week (ladies you know what I mean)/special occasions/laid back saturdays...etc come into play. 

Keeping this rule in mind, I have found to be really helpful, especially being away at college. Eating healthy food at college is somewhat of a feat, and takes a lot of planning ahead. By keeping a running approximate balance of where I am at on the 90/10 ratio it makes healthy eating a little simpler.


This is an article that explains more about Dr. Furhman's 90/10 <<<

#2

The second tip you can start T.O.D.A.Y, (seriously!) is drinking water consistently! Up until a few months ago, I had always kind of known/heard/read that it is important to drink water. But I did not realize that NOT drinking water contributes to things such as bloating occurring. This water article explains this idea and other effects of not drinking water more throughly, but again to share the basics:

1. Our bodies are made up of a lot of cells. 
2. Cells like having water. 
3. If we don't drink enough water, our cells get a little nervous that we aren't going to replenish our water supply soon so they hold on to whatever water they have (causing bloating).
4. If we drink water CONSISTENTLY (not necessarily in mass quantities, just consistently), our cells don't have to swell and hold onto water for dear life.
5. End result = no more bloating, happier body! 

Again, not bloating is only one of the reasons to drink water consistently. This article talks about some more water stuff :)

Hope this helps & that you all have a wonderful day!

-Kyla

Tea for Tuesday.

Life events so far this week: 

> Easter, which was a wonderful break spent with my family 

> I enjoyed a really good run today (even though it was so much colder than I thought 46 degrees would feel like)

> A paper for one of my classes today cancelled

> A quiz for last night's class cancelled

>AND I had an entire class cancelled for today (different from the classes the paper or the quiz were due in!)

Tea Time

So all in all, I am blessed to start this week leading up to finding out where my internship will be (this Sunday, woah.) on a pretty good foot! Which means I even get to blog today, extra bonus! With the end of my last college semester only a little more than a month away, I have been working on cleaning out some of my stuff in preparation for packing/moving out (and in an attempt to not have so much to pack come May, because I REALLY dread that task!).

Today, this ongoing venture involved discovering that I have TONS of tea I need to work on drinking. There are a few reasons for this:

1. I get really excited about new tea flavors and forget I have other tea I should drink up first before buying more

2. My section of kitchen cabinets is not overly organized and sometimes I genuinely lose boxes of tea amongst my other dry goods, which does not my out of sight, out of mind mentality!

Now I realize that tea is not for everyone - I get that. However, tea is a fairly awesome drink that does come with added benefits to your health both long-term (possible cancer prevention) and short-term (possible healthier looking skin). Also, drinking hot tea can add some relaxation to any day (at least it does for me). Lots of people  have written on the benefits of tea & the tea vs. coffee debate, so today I offer you my 3 favorite sets of information about this lovely beverage:

1. Fun tea vs. coffee info graphic!
2. The Truth about the Health Benefits of Tea
3. My favorites: (all 0 calories, 0 sugar)

Lipton Caffeine Free Herbal Peppermint Tea, Bigelow Chamomile Mint Herbal Tea Caffeine Free,  Twinings of London French Vanilla Chai, Bigelow Plantation Mint Tea, Salada Decaffeinated Green Tea Citrus Flavored, Salada Red Antioxidants Tea Strawberry-Orange Flavored

Blueberry Breakfast Bake.

Since moving from the college dorm life to college apartment life, over the last two years I have really enjoyed learning what kinds of foods I like to make and enjoy! Definitely have decided I am more inclined towards cooking. I tend not to have enough patience for baking - which has resulted in many a odd shaped cake because I tried to frost before the cake (< yes, that happened) was cooled all of the way. Oh well!


This past week I tried a new recipe I came across on this healthy living blog. I made a few changes to the recipe to accommodate the food I already had on hand and thought now I would share it with all of you! This breakfast bake is tasty and filling, and smelled awesome while it was baking!

So here are the ingredients I used for my Blueberry Breakfast Bake:

Ingredients

• 3 cups Old Fashioned Rolled Oats
• 2 cups steel cut oats
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 large ripe Banana, mashed
• 3 cups Blue Diamond Almond milk vanilla unsweetened
• 3 cups Water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla sweetener
• 1 cup liquid Egg Whites 
• 2 cups frozen blueberries
• Cooking Spray

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit with the rack in the middle. 
2. Spray a large, oven-safe 4 quart casserole dish with cooking spray. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. In another bowl mix together mashed bananas, almond milk, water, egg whites and vanilla. 

3. Combine all in the baking dish, adding blueberries last. 

4. Bake about 45-60 minutes, until the liquid has been absorbed. 

I was not sure how much the oats would rise as they baked, so I placed my dish on a cookie sheet with edges just in case :) It took around 55 minutes for the liquid to be absorbed, but then finally it was time to enjoy the finished project!

5. Let the breakfast bake cool for about 10 minutes before serving. Top with additional fruit and/or yogurt, I added some more blueberries and bananas to mine - delicious!

You can use any other fruit instead of blueberries for the main part of the dish and/or for toppings! Here are a few ideas:

• Strawberries
• More bananas
• Raspberries
• Dried Fruit + Raisins
• chopped, toasted Nuts
• Greek Yogurt
• Whipped Cream
• ground Cinnamon

Enjoy!

I love weekends!

I must say that I LOVE weekends, and more than that, I love weekends more when Sunday night shows up and I feel both rested and prepared for my week ahead (This was last night for me, woohoo!!). While lots of life events are already behind me this semester, there are many more right around the corner - (Easter, finding out where my internship for the next year will be, a retreat, orientation for my internship, Big Day of Serving in Chicago...the whole school/classes/homework piece) - you guys get the idea! This weekend in particular was my last weekend of calm before the storm, so I tried my best to focus on relaxing - lucky me a few good movies were on tv to help!


Since my last post caught you all up (somewhat) on big life stuff that has been happening for me, now I can share some tools I have found and enjoy using to grow in my healthier lifestyle. Spiritual, emotional/mental, and physical health are all super important parts of any person's life so I divided my favorites up into those categories!

Spiritual

My favorite devotional tool is you version which is a great Bible resource! Best part about it that I LOVE are all of the reading plans and devo ideas they already have set-up for you to choose & they will even email them to you every day. I just started a new series on wisdom today.

Physical

To help keep up with what foods I am eating each day and making sure that I am consuming a healthy balance of calories/fats/carbs/proteins...etc, I find myfitnesspal to be very helpful, mostly because you can download it as an app for blackberry or iphone/ipod (in addition to using it online). Super user friendly, they have most foods you would ever eat already in their database AND a super fun barcode scanner built into their app to add foods that they don't have! EASY.

Workout/fitness wise, for the last couple of months myself (along with my awesome & encouraging boyfriend Adam, and our friend Kevin) have been doing the beach body Insanity workout series. We are currently on Day 40 out of 60. Every day these workouts find a new way to kick my butt, however its all cardio paced so the variety keeps me focused/motivated.


Now that the weather is nice (shocking for spring in Chicago!), I have also been able to start fitting running back in, and since there is a website/app for everything, I currently enjoy using dailymile to keep track of my runs! Best feature: in addition to keeping track of how far I ran/pace, it also lets me add details like how the weather was, how I felt, how much effort I put into the run...and some other fun ones!

Emotional/Mental

I find (and this is not really profound, just true), but I find that when I am in God's Word, eating well and working out consistently those together have the biggest influence on the stability of my emotional state! (Talk to me on a day when all 3 are out of whack, and its a BAD day!) So besides those 3, some other basics of this for me involve: calling my mom almost everyday, finding time to read, cooking and trying new recipes, and my girly and guilty pleasure - Pinterest. Ladies, you understand this! :) While I don't have any fun apps or websites (besides my pinterest) to share for this category of emotional health, and my mom probably wouldn't appreciate me handing her cell phone number out to the world, I WILL share a picture of my most recent recipe adventure (and link to the blog I found it from!)

Most recent! This was dinner Saturday night! (WORTH IT to make the pizza dough from the recipe if you have the time!) Here is the recipe link: YUMMY.

Any other fun tools you all use whether for growing spiritually, physically, or emotionally - please share!!! 

Blessings on everyone's Mondays (and week ahead!!!) Love, Kyla.

So, what about the food?

My trip with my family to Argentina was now over 2 months ago - and its amazing how my food eating habits have changed throughout this time.

Now, I will begin this by stating that I am by no means perfect and that switching to healthier eating habits has and will continue to be a challenge - because lets face it: who doesn't love a little sugar?

Over the pat couple of months I would say I have faced two main struggles with making this eating change. The biggest part of this food eating makeover to deal with and adapt to has been eating with/around other people. If I just came in contact with myself (or other similarly nutrition conscious eaters) then I would probably be writing a post about how easy eating plant based and nutrition dense food is! Obviously though, I love people and God designed us to thrive in relationships WITH each other - so boxing myself into a perfect food eating bubble just isn't realistic.

My second food struggle has been not having my own kitchen - but visiting my family, Adam's family, and doing disaster relief all means eating food others have lovingly prepared. All of my friends and family have been very gracious and conscious of accommodating my eating needs - but its always hard to be around the possibility of eating non-healthy. It takes a lot of self-control to turn down delicious desserts and other meals - in contrast to having my own kitchen where I can control what is and isn't available for me snack on.

I have found it really encouraging to take time to read blogs of others who are making healthy eating choices as well as continuing to take and research healthy eating/living.

So bottom line: I'm still really positive about eating, and now I am working on how this will translate into my summer!

The next thing is how have I felt??

The more I eat lots of fruits, veggies, and nutrient dense foods the better I have felt - physically and emotionally. Days I don't eat well I can tell a difference in my mood - which is really encouraging to me that I am taking steps away from being so addicted to sugars and processed foods. :)

More importantly though - what about coffee??

I still LOVE the smell of coffee and know without a doubt that I would still love the taste if I was drinking it. That being said, I think I am through the worst of the battle at least with craving coffee all the time. I have come a long way in the area of being able to cope with mornings sans serveral cups of coffee and am working on being an avid tea drinker :) My favorites? Spiced chai or Mint tea! (Green tea would be a close 3rd)

I have appreciated all of the love, support, book/movie suggestions from many of you. Please continue to share - and I love sharing my food passion too :) and will continue to post updates on how I'll be making healthy eating work throughout my job this summer!

Unexpected.

True life: this morning I declined being offered coffee.

This was potentially one of the harder tasks to take on in these past couple of days. On top of declining the coffee I then had the experience of sitting in a meeting while everyone else (okay there were only 2 other people...but still) everyone else was enjoying their warm and soothing smelling cup of joe. I admit, I was possibly slightly overwhelmed by how great the coffee smelled. It smelled wonderful enough to make me forget about how much I loved breakfast this morning (a fresh fruit salad!) and also wonderful enough to make me consider dropping everything and sprinting to the closest Starbucks for some comfort drinking.

I was asked if I had given up coffee for Lent. My response was "No, I've given it up for life". What??? Yes. You can pick your jaw up off of the ground now if you like. Coffee isn't great for you, but man it smells awesome!

This is tough. But being healthy and conscious of what I am putting into my body, is still a great great thing. Unless the coffee is being held right under my nose (like this morning) - I really am still excited about my new changes in eating.

For this morning though, I just will keep reminding myself about how healthy my bones and heart will be from lack of downing cups of coffee every day. Because what I really want right this moment is a huge steaming mug of java.

It was an unexpected question this morning: Do you want some coffee?

And the person asking had no idea how loaded that question then became for me...But that is life I suppose. Full of unexpected moments that are defining of who we are and what we value.

The unexpected matters.

18 days down. A lifetime to go.

It is hard to believe that 18 days ago I was returning from Argentina with a new found plan for becoming healthier by simply reducing the amount of processed sugar in my diet. Now, after 18 days of eating, researching, reading, and discussing the benefits of eating only natural foods, I  plan on never going back to my old eating habits. One easy reason being, the less processed/sugar/animal product type foods you eat, the less you think they taste great anyways!

After reading the book Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Furhman I was floored at how simple (in theory) it is to make a drastic health change for the better simply by having a primarily plant based diet. If you're not interested in reading it, I'll summarize: the higher amount of nutrient rich foods you eat = a healthier and more disease resistant you. That is it, in a nutshell, and honestly I think its crazy to not actively strive for being a healthy and informed consumer. Most people (hopefully) wouldn't buy a car or house without some amount of research, so why not take some time to think and study what it is you are eating and is directly effecting your body and mental health? There are literally TONS of resources and support available to encourage a healthy eating lifestyle...

I think in many ways I have overwhelemed most of my friends with my new natural eating vendetta. After becoming aware of how food can effect your life in such a huge positive way - it drives me almost to the point of crazy that most of my college peers could honestly care less. I totally understand that only eating all natural and whole foods as a college student is really really hard, but that is not to say it is impossible. Personally, I get really passionate about a lot of things, and while that part of my personality is as much a curse as it is a blessing sometimes, I really pray that others will see my passion for healthy eating and that it may spark a least a curiosity as to why I would pass up eating college favorites such as  Buffalo Wild Wings, pizza, or food from our student grill. God has designed an earth full of food that is perfect for our bodies - without needing all of the extra salt, sugar, gluten, and oils (among many other things) we tend to add. America is becoming more and more well-known for the high rates of obesity our citizens have. Food is getting a bad rap, and honestly its not the food that is the issue, it is us. If we are the ones that are buying  the processed and unhealthy food - that sends an easy message to the companies that their product is in demand. However, back to my earlier statement about the positivity of food, for as much as unhealthy food is addicting and contributing to high obesity rates, food does not have to be the bad guy - and this is probably the first time in my life I have put that concept together.

So now, what is next?

Next, is spending a focused six weeks on increasing the amount of nutritious foods in my diet and cutting out the not so great options. My first big challenge is work on my coffee addiction. Yup, if you just thought "yikes" - that was a very accurate reaction. I am 3 days now sans coffee, and this morning was a rough one to say the least. While I have noticed that having sugar limited in what I eat really has seemed to be helping me feel less moody, this whole coffee deficiency thing might be the ax to the absence of my mood swings lately...Why no coffee? Well, one cup of coffee a day really wouldn't be a big deal - but I am used to drinking at least 3 or 4 cups every morning which is a great way to be dehydrated and puts me at much higher risk for heart problems. So coffee got kicked to the curb this week and I am definitely mourning it's absence..if anyone has a great morning worthy drink to easy my coffee separation blues - please share!


Overall eating this week: Fruit & granola with flax seed for breakfasts, salads for lunch everyday, and lots of veggies for dinner. Snacks: almonds or kidney beans (which are a new favorite food item!)

Overall mood: No coffee. And it I spent the afternoon doing taxes. But all things considered: B+ for my mood grade.

1 week in.

After such an excited start to my sugar detox I must admit that these last seven days have been all over the place and has been significantly harder to avoid sugar than I would have hoped. Future advice: starting any kind of change in a food diet should involve taking stock of your pantry before starting. Having been on spring break in Alabama and down in Argentina - in other words - not at my apartment in Chicago for most of the month of March, I was in dire need of a trip to the grocery store. While I began this detox with such excitement and resolve to be sugar free, I failed to anticipate that I had no food in the house, let alone detox friendly food, which was an incredibly discouraging way to start. Tuesday night ended with me eating several Gobstoppers I had sitting on my desk, great right?

Wednesday morning, I woke up determined to not let my Gobstopper guilt carry over into the new day. I managed to find some eggs in the fridge that I quickly made up for breakfast, took my coffee and water bottle and was out of the door. By the time lunch rolled around, I was unnecessarily hungry, which is not good. Our bodies need food regularly, this is supposed to be a detox, not a fast. Wednesday was the day I discovered hard boiled eggs and raw almonds. This was a feast. Dinner was heavy on the veggies, which was again - better than nothing.

Thursday and Friday were similar as far as having minimal variety in my diet and struggling to stay away from sugar. Sugar is in EVERYTHING!

The weekend was my biggest failure of this past week as far as sugar avoidance goes. I was an adult leader for a youth event with kids from my fieldwork church. The event was great and it filled my heart with such joy to see how my kids were processing their faith throughout the weekend and growing together as a group. From a sugar standpoint though - the weekend was a train wreck. In case you haven't  spent time staying up until midnight with any junior high kids recently - they LOVE sugar.
Breakfast options: Fruity Pebbles, Lucky Charms, Poptarts
Lunch Options: PB & J, cookies
Dinner: Pizza, more cookies 
Snacks: Peeps, cookies, cookies, donuts, candy (specifically M & Ms), and did I mention cookies?

I think that every student (we had 18) each came with at least a dozen chocolate chip cookies. Thank you supermoms!

Thankfully there was some fruit and believe it or not usually that was the one item that was not heavily consumed by the group. Had I thought ahead better (and had food in my apartment) I should have packed my own food items to eat. Since I did not, I had pizza and PB & J with the best of them. Also, if it is possible, I may have received secondhand sugar from merely being around all my junior high kids who might as well just bring bags of straight sugar and eat it with spoons next time. At least it would save their moms the time they spent cooking the sugar into the cookies.

Finally Sunday arrived, which meant grocery store day! I haven't been that excited to go to the store in a long time! List in hand, Adam and I spent the better part of Sunday afternoon at the store. I feel like I spent a lot of the trip in shock at how much sugar is in almost anything on the shelves. As I was reading through countless nutrition labels, I was so shocked at how if a product wasn't high in sugar - it was probably loaded with sodium, or calories, or fat, yikes. We wonder why our country is so unhealthy - how many people have read a nutrition label lately? If I was not already convinced that lowering sugar intake was important, this grocery store trip highly encouraged me. The negative aside, I was able to find some great food options to purchase. This included hummus and black olive pita chips for snacks and chicken and egg whites to make cooking meals healthier and sugar detox friendly. Also, I enjoyed picking out a bunch of fresh fruits and veggies, yes to recap - this was exciting to me!

Two hours later, a whole bunch of groceries, and a patient boyfriend still being patient - the grocery store adventure was completed!

I was so encouraged to think about the week ahead knowing that I had lots of healthy and low sugar/sugar free food to eat! I must be getting old to be this excited about healthy eating right? Yesterday for breakfast I started my day with half of a grapefruit and scrambled egg whites. It tasted great and felt even better knowing that what I had just eaten was for the benefit of my body.

Here is to a better, healthier week.

Overall mood update: I have felt more peaceful day-to-day and thought less along the lines of "the day is doomed to pull me under"

P.S. Lacey, thank you for the Eat to Live book recommendation - I ordered it and am waiting anxiously for its arrival. :)