Clean Food

So just in case you're wondering what all we're actually eating......Here are some photos of two meals per day as I didn't think you'd need that many pictures of smoothies, water bottles, fruit, or tea cups. :)

Clean Cleanse Food: Day 1

Breakfast: Blueberry, spinach/romaine lettuce, almond milk smoothie

 Dinner: Quinoa with stirfry of broccoli, beets, carrots, and cauliflower (salt & pepper, olive oil, & a lil lime juice for cooking)

DAY 2:

 Lunch: leftover quinoa tossed w/ black beans and chopped up cucumber, radish, carrots, and garlic (salt & pepper & sesame oil to taste)

Dinner: Cucumber, spinach, & pineapple smoothie w/ coconut milk

DAY 3

 Lunch: Brown rice w/ zucchini & onion saute over top (cooked in sesame oil & balsamic vinegar w/ salt & pepper) and acorn squash puree (agave, olive oil, & sea salt)

Dinner: Mango, pineapple, papaya w/ coconut milk smoothie

So far we've been doing mainly separate meals but the hub has concocted lamb skewers w/ millet & onions, lamb steak w/ sauteed greens, and tilapia w/ watercress, red onion, & mango salad for his lunches. Not bad for being on a "diet" !!!

21 Days of Clean

 On Monday afternoon I came home from work just feeling wiped out. My body hasn't been wanting coffee as much in the last few weeks, my pants were starting to feel a little tighter, and hub and I were talking about how much food and good brew we'd been able to indulge in during the month and a half we've been back in Oregon. In the midst of our conversation hub interjected stating that we should do the cleanse he's been wanting to do for the last several months (it was mentioned in a couple articles in his Outside Magazine.) While hub was in the Army, we couldn't exactly do a cleanse....but there was no real reason why we couldn't do one now...and what better time than the present...we decided to start the very next day....

So we hunted down the book, hub read the parts we needed to know and I spent the rest of the night reading the book in depth. Much of Junger's thoughts on the toxins that are present in our world and the reasons behind doing a cleanse (to purge oneself of toxins and realign/pause your digestive tract) I readily agreed with.

Junger's Clean would actually allow us to eat a decent amount of calories, but would include a major change in the way we've been eating:

No dairy, no beef, no peanut products.

No soy, no corn, no wheat products.

No oranges, grapefruits, grapes, tomatoes, peppers, bananas, or potatoes.

No coffee, no alcohol, no real sources of caffeine.

No to most sweeteners.

But instead we have expanded our exposure to many of the products we can have: quinoa, brown rice, coconut milk, almond butter and milk, millet, dried legumes, fish, sesame oil, agave, balsamic vinegar, and a whole host of vegetables and fruits.

The basic schedule of the cleanse allows us a smoothie in the morning, a solid lunch, and a smoothie or raw soup in the evening for dinner. It also allows for a small snack between meals (almonds or a piece of fruit, etc). We are to drink enough water to make us urinate every hour and we're allowed herbal teas, including yerba mate (even though it has caffeine.....). The cleanse itself is 21 days and people who have gone through it (including One Green Generation) report that it's been wonderful---provides more energy, increases health and decreases health issues, and assists the body in enhanced functioning.

Like most things, you can purchase supplements and shakes to help improve the experience, but we're not doing that...just good ol' fashioned food and continuing with our exercise of running.

Luckily we're allowed many spices as well: most green spices, healthier oils, vinegars, sea salt & pepper, and lemon/lime for seasoning.

  

We've been stocking up on organic fruits and vegetables mainly thanks to Fred Meyer and Whole Foods, but today we had our Organics to You delivery also!

We've also been hitting up new recipes and taking ideas from recipes and rolling with them. It definitely takes more time for preparation but so far the food has been pretty good! Plus it's just nice to try new things.

So how's it going you might be wondering? Well, we opted not to do the elimination diet prior to starting the cleanse (which is recommended to ease your body into it), so as we're three days in we're a lil more tired than usual and we tend to fluctuate somewhere between lots of energy and wanting to take a nap. But overall we both feel like it's doing good things and we're hopeful to have some great things to report by the end of the 21 days.

At the very least, it's great to be doing something new together and our recipe selection is being given a whole new take on life. Speaking of, if you've never tried millet---give it a try! It's sort of a mix between couscous and brown rice, but its definitely a food that will be sticking with us past the 21 days!

Here's to health!

Home Decor Favorites

Birds, I love birds....and I love West Elm...this bird came from West Elm...and is made entirely out of recycled paper....it sits on a shelf in our living room.

Mirrors and windows that stream in light---both of which are in abundance in this home.

Homemade items--hub's finished entry way shelf project (shortened and stained).

International flare--we both love to travel and want to do more of it. This mask was purchased in San Antonio from the Mexican Market area. There are several other items around the house from our travels.

Framed photos & art...and also all things the beach. This was taken by my eldest brother and the frame is reclaimed wood. We have several other photos taken by family and a fabulous Thailand print of a painting created by the father of a friend.

Over-sized comfortable furniture...to fit hub's 6'4" frame and double as extra twin beds if necessary. (Old photo but it works!)

Comfy furnishings via pillows, blankets, drapes, and area rugs.

Second-hand goods: the desk, the futon, the spare bed, the carved coffee table, our Ikea chair, the entertainment center, the washer/dryer, and many other goods---second hand is second good! :)

Some Favorite Kitchen Things:

Anyone that knows hub and I knows that hub is the primary chef in this house and I am kitchen side-kick, but I still have a few favorite things that reside in our kitchen that DO get use when I spend more time in there:

Hub's multicolored stacking mixing bowls: a color and size for everything you can imagine. Great for mixing, preparing, and for serving... (There's a red one not pictured.)

Freebies and spice! We got this from a hometown friend of his who no longer used/needed it. It rotates and almost none of the spices had been used. We love flavor, especially garlic salt. LOVE THIS!

BREW---this one especially. We love good wine and beer. Period.

I've already shared our love of spice but this one deserves its own picture. Tony's is our cajun go-to spice that energizes our breakfast burritos and just about ruined my love affair with the breakfast burrito when I thought we could not purchase it here---thanks to Winco, we found it!

My camp pot which now is our compost pot: coffee grounds, veg & fruit scraps get to hang out in here under the sink until we transport them out to the big compost bin in back. (PS Have I mentioned the dog's love affair with the compost bin and the fact that we have to block the door with heavy bricks?! The compost bin to them is like an outdoor accessible garbage can---full of wonderful scraps for them to eat!)

My insulated Klean Kanteen (here shown with cafe lid). One of many that accompanies me to work and on hikes. This one lives beside the kitchen sink 75% of the time where its easily accessible for water or coffee additions.

NOT PICTURED: My stainless-steel, copper-bottomed pots, the wire-strainer used as our fruit basket, the fridge covered in coupons and inspiration, and the stove-top espresso brewer you've already seen! ;)

Favorite Beauty Items

Burts Bees Products (at least the ones with lower product hazard scores), but especially their plain chapstick, shampoo, and this one:

 Alima (Portland-based mineral) Make-Up for their shadows, foundation, blush, and this item I usually can't go without (bronzer):

White fluffy cotton towels:

Preserve recyclable (and made from recycled plastic) toothbrushes:

My oh-so-not-natural-but-completely-standby-for-years body and face (unscented and w/ "fair" scores) lotions:

And the final make-up standbys: Honeybee Gardens products for eyeliners, mascara, and nail polish:

Saturday Favorites:

FIVE FAVORITE THINGS ON THIS SATURDAY:

Hub's double-layer fleece-knotted blanket made for him by a hometown friend, which gives the perfect warmth no matter the season.

Stove-top brewed espresso Italian style....add a lil creamer and it's heaven in a cup.

75 cent clearance plants blooming in the window.

 

Earthy magazines a-waitin' reading.

Content critters, happy in their home....

What's making you happy on this Saturday?!

A Day of Rest

After running around on Tuesday getting the home finalized for an evening BBQ with family and a long work Wednesday ending with a scratchy throat and achy body, I declared Thursday to be A DAY OF REST. And what a great day of rest it was.

I slept in til 10.

I brewed coffee on the stove and made french toast.

I watched a Netflix movie until 1pm and then gathered my waiting stack of magazines and a few books I've been meaning to finish, and headed for our front courtyard corner:

Here I sat enjoying the sun, avoiding the eventual mist and hail, and sipping on my homebrew sun/sweet tea.

I appreciated the beautiful arrangement brought to us courtesy of an aunt and uncle and thought about how great that giant empty pickle jar has been for making tea....

Eventually as the rain started coming sideways, I moved to the couch where I finished The Hospital by the River and enjoyed the scene outside our front window.

I read blogs, researched fistulas and international NGOS, watched the scenes outside our windows, and sent messages to several of my military wives.

In the evening I went for a 4 mile run, maybe not the most restful, but a great way to blow off some steam, took a shower, checked on the hub watching the Blazers play, and stayed up finishing a spiritually endeavored book: God in the Alley-Being and Seeing Jesus in a Broken World.

In the midst of much, sometimes a few moments to take it easy are just what the body and soul most need. A day of rest, a day to heal.

Sending best wishes for relaxation to you and yours!

The Hospital By the River

(For some reason, I can't get the picture to rotate correctly)

Two months in the making and I finally sat down to finish this amazing story this afternoon. This is the story that made me think about going back to school, this is the story that melted my heart, this is the story that left me thinking again beyond our nation's borders, this is a story that I hope you too will take the time to enjoy and be moved by.

Taken from the back of the book (British spellings in context and possibly written by John Little):
"Gynaecologists Catherine and Reg Hamlin left Australia in 1959 on a short contract to establish a midwifery school in Ethiopia. Over 40 years later, Catherine is still there, running one of the most outstanding medical programmes in the world. Thousands of women have been able to resume a normal existence after living as outcasts.

The Hamlins, both active Christians, dedicated their lives to women suffering catastrophic effects of obstructed labour. The awful injuries that such labour produces are called fistulae, and until the Hamlins began their work in Ethiopia, fistula sufferers were neglected and forgotten--a vast group of women facing a lifetime of incapacity and degradation.

Catherine and Reg, with their team of dedicated surgeons, have successfully operated on over 25,000 women, and the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, the hospital they opened in 1974, has become a major teaching institution for gynaecologists from all over Ethiopia and the developing world. Since Reg's death, Catherine and her team have continued the work...."

Catherine and Reg were two incredibly self-less individuals who devoted their lives to women living in Ethiopia. These women frequently were married off and producing babies by 15 years of age, before their bodies were entirely developed for childbirth. These women who frequently live in rural areas without access to medical facilities nor professionals, who birth alone or with a few family members in dirt-floored huts, and who frequently face days of difficult labor. The women who do develop vaginal area fistulas (leading to incontinence) are frequently abandoned by husbands and family, moved into huts on the edges of town, and left to suffer and survive in isolation.

The book is an incredibly easy read, and while it includes Christian views which may dissuade a few of you, the reality that these women experience is one that I feel all of us should be exposed to and do what we can to help, while the story of Reg & Catherine's amazing outreach and repair work will warm your heart. You may also find additional information (and donate to the cause) via the Fistula Foundation.

Slow Sun Day

A day that started off slow.

Coffee & pancakes a brewin'.

Blogs, emails, and a Dad phone call. 

Leek & potato soup in the crock.

An afternoon passed in the woods,

five miles hiking & trail running.

Picking up the home.

Dinner with my brother & sis-in-law.

Unloading the washer, finishing soup.

Stacking wood & watching the fire....burn.

A day that ended on slow....

Pollan's Words of Food Wisdom

As much as I have mixed feelings about my undergrad institution, I have to admit that the education and many of the exposures it granted me were pretty phenomenal. As a college student, I was lucky to be offered free tickets to hear both Jane Goodall and Maya Angelou speak, and this evening my alma mater hosted the prestigious and well-loved foodie Michael Pollan (although my free ticket tonight was provided by my current employment/institution). Pollan always gives us food for thought (pun intended!) and tonight was no exception. Having read several of his works, tonight was a wonderful reminder of the food tenements that I should be keeping.

Here are some of the notes that I took from his presentation/speech this evening (some paraphrasing included):

Last month Oregon had 240,000 people receive food boxes with 22% of those recipients being children. (Actually presented by our representative Earl Blumenauer.)

"You can't have a healthy population without a healthy diet, and you can't have a healthy diet without healthy agriculture."

Pollan had purchased two bags of groceries from our local grocery stores prior to the talk. The groceries included many food items which he terms "edible food-like substances."
--There are 17,000 new products added to the supermarket every year, which one example was a fruit pizza with cheese.
--Most common cereals (such as chocolate cheerios) are 40-44% sugar.
--20% of eating in the US is done in our cars
--Generally low-fat foods actually have more sugar and calories (here he had the example of low-fat Tillamook yogurt having 33g sugar and regular Dannon yogurt having less calories and 25g sugar)
--Putting health claims on soda is an example of "nutritionism" hitting a new low (ginger ale w/ ginseng and green tea extracts)
--$69 billion dollars last year was spent on food packaging (which was more than the amount actually paid to farmers)

He discussed the new concept of nutritionism which includes America's fascination and obsession with nutrients rather than of food itself. Nutrients rule the food market and we frequently see nutrient claims on all sorts of packaging, even in foods where they have no business making the migration (ex bread with calcium, fiber in milk). We don't see food, instead we obsess on nutrients, leading to an unhealthy obsession with "healthy eating." Since we don't receive real guidance and there isn't much regulation on food/nutrition, we instead try to figure it out ourselves. Since nutrients are invisible however (and when we look at an apple we don't see the apple but rather the nutrient components we worry about...), then we feel we need "experts" to explain the hidden reality of all the good vs evil nutrients that exist. We view eating's purpose to be protection of our health...rather than enjoyment, community, culture, etc.

The regulation/guidance has been skewed by industry. In the 70s regulators tried to come out and say "eat less red meat," a very simple to understand statement. However meat industry was upset and was allowed to enter the conversation, skewing the message to state "choose meats with less saturated fats," which is a less easy to understand statement. From that point on, industry was a part of the "nutritional guidance" conversation, and it set the precedent that the government can't tell the public to actually eat less of any FOOD but it can tell it to eat less of any NUTRIENT. It also set the stage for us to get fat on low-fat, ie we ate more because it was low-fat, and it allowed us to feel that when one nutrient is demonized it allows a free pass for another nutrient.

Industry thus loves nutritionism, which is evidenced by the fact that corn and soy can be found in a large percentage of our processed foods. Corn is used in various sweetners, soy is used in fats and fillers. Two-thirds of our calories tend to come from four plants with 30% of our calories estimated to be from corn and/or soy.

The Western diet is based on a radical change in human eating and has lead to the development of our common Western diseases. Approximately 1 trillion dollars of our health care spending is estimated to be going toward prevention and treatment of chronic disease due to our dietary choices. 80% of heart disease, 30% of cancers, and the majority of Type 2 diabetes is estimated to be from dietary choices. Whereas our current low-fat, nutrient-focused diet has lead to enormous negative disease outcomes, the traditional human diets did not. The irony of this fact is that traditional diets are/were incredibly diverse (ex Inuit diets were limited and based on high fats, Mexican diet was based in beans and corn among many other items), but our nutrient-focused culture would view their diets as lacking via balanced nutrition. This demonstrates that there is NOT one way to eat for all even as we try to develop one diet.

Chronic disease is in fact becoming a lifestyle factor for us (ex Diabetes Today magazine in check-out aisle), especially when 1 in 3 kids is likely to be diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in their lifetime. We really have two choices:
1) Surrender to the Western diet and hope for evolution to eventually adapt humans.
2) We can change backward in both eating AND lifestyle toward the choices of our ancestors.
The difficulty is that as Americans we prefer whatever is cheap and easy. Currently we spend less on food today compared to other developed nations and compared to our own history (currently 9.5% of our income).

Really we need to remind ourselves that we CAN "feed ourselves without nutritionism." We had a food "culture" long before we ever had a food "science." Culture is routinely passed down through the generations (ex via grandma and mom) but science in this case undermined mom/culture. We need to relearn. So what do we do?!

---Eat Food. Not too Much. Mostly Plants.
--Make sure you recognize the ingredients in what you're eating. Give it the grandma (or great-great grandma test), would she recognize it?!
--Shop the perimeter in the grocery store.
--Don't eat foods that make health claims or that advertise on TV.
--Eat meals with people. (Healthier families are those that cook and eat together.)
--Remember the meal as a sacred institution.
--Eat til you are 80% full. (Language difference: we ask if we're full, other countries/languages ask if one is satisfied or no longer hungry.)
--Put your money where your mouth is. (By buying local, basic foods we promote agriculture change, funding, and regulation. Diverse diet leads to diversified growing (rather than monocultures), which decreases pesticide, water, and fossil fuel usage. For every calorie based on the industrial food model (monoculture), 10 calories are spent on oil/fossil fuel for energy. Industrial food=fossil fuel. Local food increases the experience of community.)

What's best for our health is also what's best of agriculture.


Definitely some food for thought....if you have never read any of Pollan's works, I encourage you to do so--always insightful.

Steady Happiness

Happiness....one of many of my lecture topics during this last week. Happiness: a state of being we are so frequently pursuing and relishing in our daily lives. Happiness: an emotion, a meaning, a connection, and achievement. And finally....after a two year rocky start where happiness was experienced yet hard to maintain, we're finally landing in a period of steady joy....and it's a pretty great place to be. I'm not sure if it's the change in housing, social support, recreation, family, resources, jobs, freedom, or a mix of those and many others....but whatever the cause, I'm definitely glad that it's arrived. We're experiencing joy in the big and lil moments of life lately:

--A spontaneous trip to the family beach house finally exposing the dogs to the ocean. Roaring fires in the wood stove, replacement shopping at the outlets (hub has lost quite a bit of weight off his 6'4" frame leading to a need for better fitting clothes), a drizzly run along the beach, and breakfast at the quaint lil bakery in town.

--Arriving last evening at Granny's for a dinner with Dad and my brother and his wife. We arrived in time to help Granny prepare the meal and hub refilled some of her kitchen supplies. We had a great time chatting with and enjoying some of the fam, while the dogs snoozed peacefully in the truck.

--On Thursday my old high school buddy and his wife welcomed their second child into this world; a beautiful baby girl. While I didn't get to see them just yet, I did have a chance to run a blooming plant up to their hospital room while delivery was happening. Something that they can hopefully plant in their yard to enjoy while they watch their little one grow.

--The cats have started bringing us presents which luckily they have left outside the cat door on the garage stoop. Thursday morning we had a 3-4 inch mouse and this morning we woke to find a decent sized squirrel! Who knew cats could catch squirrels?!

--Hub received a phone call yesterday letting us know that he did get accepted into his other choice college. Now he has the opportunity to weigh his options.

--The tulips (my favorite!) are blooming!! And we've been able to spend some more time in the yard. The big compost bin is set up and we've started dumping scraps into it. More bushes have been removed, other bushes have been trimmed, the grass was reseeded in parts, more mulch has been shuffled around, and I bought some starts!

 (Blue bells and tulips!)

(Bushes ripped out on either side of gate. Climbing roses will be moved to those locations. Bed to left will be regrassed.)

--Lectures this last week went well and I'm adhering to a better work schedule, which makes work much easier to contain to a few days and parking much easier to find on campus. (Unfortunately public transport is not a good option for this term at least.) First pay check arrived and I'm feeling fortunate to know I have a course lined up for this summer.

--Hub found a great TV console off craigslist that completes the family room look. Wires are put away.

--We spent an evening at the Blazer game and I have never seen hub look so much like a kid on Christmas! It was the last home game of the season and while I always have mixed thoughts about professional sports, the joy from hub was contagious and it was so great to see him so happy and enjoying himself---definitely made the evening a memorable and fun one! And now the Blazers are off to the play-offs.

--And now I'm off to honor a great mentor of mine: my undergrad college advisor who is retiring. Mr Gallegos inspired me beyond words, pushed me toward an achievable future, and never failed to supply me with letters of recommendation for all my many scholarship and grad school applications. He was almost always a joy to be around, was amazingly passionate about social justice, and created and upheld the social work department's objectives at all times. After his retirement party, I'm headed to dinner with my gal (also a grad from the program and my dear friend who is getting married this fall) to finally catch up some more and then off to listen to a Michael Pollan event hosted at my undergrad institution.

These are some of the perks of late, but there are many more wonderful moments as well. We both recognize that this period of time of less work, more play will probably be full of moments that we look back on with fondness as at some point more work and less play is likely to occur. But for now we'll relish these moments and continue to look forward to more happiness in the future.