food for thought

strolling through central park

Just last week I returned from a 12 day trip to the East Coast. I had a blast and devoured delicious food and amazing American history. I am now feeling all that fairly processed food I consumed while on the trip. Yikes. My body is not happy.

getting on the metro in DC

Part of the trip was a sponsored teacher education thing where I had very little control over what we were served (but I did help myself to the biscuits and gravy at the breakfast buffet, twice! I was in Virginia! How could I resist?) and the other part was just for fun. I leave on Friday for a 10 day trip up north. We are staying in a little condo with a kitchen and I plan to be a lot more on top of my food choices while we are away. I'm even bringing my immersion blender so I can make a quick green smoothie every morning to go with my eggs. 

green smoothie and yogurt parfait from yola in DC, one of my favorite places we ate on the trip. seriously. delicious.

How do you cope with making good food choices while away from home? How do you spot the real food and stay away from the processed food that calls our names? (I feel I deserve an award for staying away from the fried dough on the street carts of Boston, every time we passed by I wanted to try a bit so badly.. but I refrained. And had a crab roll instead. Cest la vie!) 

"a cure for the refractory"- behave or you will be tarred and feathered!

We didn't have much wifi on the trip, so I'm catching up on some internet browsing and feeling share-y! (totally a word) 


food for thought 


this bathroom visit enhancer is a bit interesting

I listened to as many of the Real Food Summit presenters as I could in the limited time I had, and I loved it. I plan on reading some of the presenters books and checking out their blogs/sites often! The list of presenters is at the end of the website linked above.

the summit made me rethink my dedication to unprocessed, real foods and how I've been slipping a lot lately. It's so easy to fall into familiar patterns of eating, especially ones that rely on convenience foods, it's way harder to take control and make the good food choices. I'm going to think about how to rededicate myself and what that looks like for me, since everyone's journey is so unique. I found this photo to sum up my feelings on it perfectly:

I just picked up this book, Wheat Belly, and we will see where that leads. I know my body doesn't respond well to wheat and sugar (does anyone? I get grouchy, bloated and hungry for more and I kinda think that's not unusual for us humans. Why do we keep eating it then? That's the question), I might just have to cut those bad boys out of my life. Seems drastic, but I think my health is worth it, don't you?

On a lighter note, I've been sitting by my computer, trying a bunch of pinterest hair tutorials and failing miserably. It's quite comical.

Speaking of comical:

organic witches!

Hope your summer is going well!

Enjoy!
-m

Juice

Love the glass? I got it from this etsy seller!

I have a confession to make. Well, two:

1) I watched this food documentary and loved it, it was amazing and it led me to watching a few more. I started with hungry for change. This was an amazing thing to watch, I wish I could find it online for you to see easier than having to purchase it, but it was worth it. I loved the emphasis on finding balancing and accepting yourself but being aware of the food we eat and what we are told about nutrition. I highly reccomend it.
After watching it, I had to watch Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead as well, and thought that while it wasn't as good as the previous movie, it was well done and I did do the most rational thing after watching it- I spent days researching juicers and went out and bought one.

So there is confession number 2

2) I bought a juicer and have used it almost everyday and I love to itty bitty pieces. When I nearly broke the darn thing and couldn't use it for a week, I almost lost my mind. I love this thing. I went with the omega 8004 because it can do so much and as mentioned before, I spent days researching things and this one seemed to be a favorite. It is already one of my most favorite things. I brought it with me on vacation! (and then nearly broke the thing, yadda yadda).

There are many people out there now touting the juice thing. They have been for years! and I have been listening! Well, sort of. Want to hear a funny story? Too bad, I'm gonna tell it. It's quick!

I tried a juice 'cleanse' a year ago. It was so easy, I felt great, I didn't know what the hype was about. I drank as much juice as I wanted for 3 days, and I never felt bad. It was at about day three, after 3 cartons of orange juice and 3 jugs of apple juice and one v8 that I realized, as I reread an article on the wonders of juicing, that they meant homemade mostly vegetable juice. Oops! I didn't own a juicer, so I just jumped off that wagon.

Now, back to today. I drink a mean green juice nearly every stinkin' day and I love it. I make a big batch of it every morning and have it with some scrambled eggs for breakfast. Then I take the leftovers with me to have with my lunch. It grosses everyone in the staff room out and I love that. :)

Also, all the leftover pulp is a great addition to my compost bin. Lovely!
  
I do have to chop up the produce to juice it in my particular juicer, but it takes no time at all. I love the flexibility of the juice recipe- just use what you have! Or follow one of the hundreds of recipes online

Want to read more about juicing? Here are some places to start:

hungry for change
runner's world
goop 

Green Juice
makes one big ol' cup and little cup leftover (or three small cups or enough to share if you want) 

ingredients

1 cucumuber
1 small apple
1/4 lemon, peeled
1 cup kale
5 stalks of celery 

Put it all in the juicer! That's it. :)

Enjoy!
-m