A Freelancing Foodie's Tips

DISCLAIMER: I'm not a medical authority, just a layperson interested in bolstering my health by holistic methods, someone who believes that good fats don't make you fat. Too much sugar (in its various forms) makes you fat. That it's not about calories. It's about good carbs, eating clean.

I almost entitled this post Foodie Friday. I'm not sure I have that much new to say on a weekly basis. I'll have to see how this works out. This year I'm working fewer hours (no more >230-hour months for me!) for better pay (after 2.5 years at the same rate, now more in line with industry standards for someone like me with 8.5 years' experience) and plan to have more blogging time. More "me" time too for my own writing. In other words, I get to do all that I love being: an author, a blogger, a copy editor. Of course I also love reading good books and watching great movies. More of that too please!

As a freelancer, my income is not a steady paycheck of a set repetitive amount coming like clockwork on the first and the fifteenth (or any two other random days of the month), as I am paid per project. So the fluctuating earnings make for lean and fat times monetarily. I would love to eat clean, only organic, but that ain't happening yet. So what to do in the interim?

First, if not a vegetarian, buy whole meats, like whole hams, whole beef or pork roasts, whole chickens, briskets, etc. Yes, the animals will probably still have been fed grain and GMO corn instead of grass and pumped up on chemical-based hormones, but at least you can avoid the added hormones and fillers. I look for meats at $0.89/lb. One exception is seafood, which I love but costs more per pound, yet you'd be amazed how some canned seafood is wild caught, which is the best kind.

Yesterday I bought a six-pound chicken that, with the veggies, wouldn't allow the lid on my slow cooker to seat properly. I used foil instead, until the potatoes, onions and carrots cooked down. Then I exchanged it for my lid. (Be sure to check the internal temp of your chicken and other meats.) This will be two meals for two as is, roast chicken and veggies. After that, it can be chicken spaghetti (to use up the dark meat, not my favorite), chicken and dressing, tortilla soup, quesadillas, even chicken salad sandwiches. I expect to get about ten to twelve individual servings from this bird.

And I buy most of my food at Aldi's, which is like a Sam's Club but without the annual fees. Love my Aldi's, which I find is even cheaper than my local Walmart (but I still shop there for various things). Also my Sprouts store is great and, if you watch the weekly sales, sometimes rivals Aldi's low prices.

Whether flush or in need, I still like to have a veggie-only meal at least once a week, usually a trio of cooked ones in the winter. And when summer returns, I love a good meatless taco salad, marinated cukes and onions, marinated three-bean salad, Caesar salads, wilted lettuce, even a meal of coleslaw, etc.

Second, certain foods show up on various "lists," whether you need more calcium in your diet or are fighting a family trait for Alzheimer's or want to prevent the three major diseases of cancer, heart attacks/strokes, diabetes. Some of these wondrous foods that come to mind are onions, garlic, avocados, coconut and olive oils, dark leafy greens (fresh or sauteed), berries, ginger, turmeric, honey, green tea, etc. Even on a restricted budget, I try to incorporate a handful of these each day.

One example would be skillet-frying onions in olive oil for breakfast instead of hash browns. Add some garlic at the end, then cook your scrambled eggs in the same skillet. Plate all these hot elements on top of fresh spinach to wilt it, with a side of sliced tomato and avocado, and a small serving of berries and ginger-flavored green tea with honey. Perfect. I've used everything but the turmeric listed above, and this is only breakfast. Not a bad start to a day. Granted, some days it's only eggs or buttered noodles around here and not just for one meal that day.

Third, sugar is fed to cancer cells in the lab to get them growing. Sugar has been proven to be addicting, even more so than cocaine (per Dr. Mark Hyman). So I'm trying to swap whole fruits for baked goodies. But, when I do have brownies, I make them at home, so at least I know what went into them (like no MSG, no HFCS, no GMO corn oil, etc.). Besides, 70% chocolate is good for us. Still do not go overboard on fruits as even they can affect diabetes (see Suzanne Somers's remarks regarding her hubby eating like ten pieces of fruit a day and having to cut way back).

Besides cutting down on eating sugar, watch out for drinking it. I love Dr. Pepper (I live in Texas after all), those flavored creams for my coffee, sweet tea (I'm from the Deep South), lemonade, etc. Thankfully I don't like the taste of alcohol, as it converts to sugar too from what I understand. But sugar is also hidden in most of our condiments.  I don't use ketchup, but check your label on your store-bought version. I'd suggest you make your own.

I even (unknowingly) bought salt with sugar in it. Come on! I have to check the ingredients list for SALT? When I complained to the store, they directed me to the manufacturer, which a representative said the sugar was "just corn" (GMO variety, I'd bet) and was a preservative. My salt, which is already a preservative, needs a sugar preservative? I wonder if these people ever stop to really listen to what they've been groomed to say. If I want sugar, I'll buy it and hope it is not tainted with whatever. I've been in a sugar cane field and have tasted that wonderful delight, standing on Louisiana soil in the sunlight, surrounded by stalks taller than me. What an experience. Would love to taste that pure sugar again.

I don't understand why we continue to have corn subsidies when there seems to be so much corn that it is mostly made into animal feed and HFCS, which is not healthy for man or beast from what I'm reading. I do indulge in my craving for "fresh" corn on the cob with butter and salt, but I limit that "treat" to about once a year. Until I can buy organic ears of corn, it's the best I can do to just avoid these problematic foods.

Fourth, eat food without an ingredients label (meat, veggies, fruits), found on the perimeter of your local grocery store. Old news but still valid good news. Also use a vinegar wash/soak to clean the outside of your produce/fruits. You can't wash/soak away what the plant absorbed through tainted soil, but you can at least reduce the toxins on the outside.

Fifth, watch those "white" carbs, anything made with white flours, white sugars, white potatoes, white rice, etc. I will confess that I resort to white bread, white rice, white potatoes, bagels, tortillas when I'm in my "starving artist" phases. You do what you gotta do.

Sixth, don't feel guilty about the detours you take. As mentioned above, I believe in the mind-body connection, where the holistic healing of one influences the other. So don't let worry taint your health too. Somewhere I read that the Bible links all the (thirty-nine?) diseases to various emotions. Interesting, right? I'll have to research that further and see if I can't share some studies on that with you here.

Seventh is think about substitutions. When I crave something salty, instead of chips (which I try not to buy), I eat mixed nuts or a sliced tomato (or avocado) with a sprinkle of sea salt or some black or green olives. If I want something sweet, I think about what fruit I have in the house and if it would satisfy my desire. Maybe I can get away with ginger tea sweetened with some honey and/or Stevia. Perhaps even a teaspoon of almond butter topped with honey will sate my taste buds.

So start your own substitutions list. I know when I fall off the wagon, invariably immediately thereafter I think of the better substitute I should have eaten. So I'm starting my own reminder list as well.

Eighth is to not eat three hours before bed. I find that hard to implement as I work all hours, all days (which is the nature of the freelancing career), so don't have a set bedtime. It's easier for me to do as Tim Ferriss states: eat two meals a day, although I'm not rigid on this.

Ninth, eat only when truly hungry. Drink some plain water first. Wait fifteen minutes. Try a teaspoon of organic apple cider vinegar (with the mother) in more water. This helps with indigestion and heartburn. If still hungry, eat something but make wise choices.

That's it for now. Here's to a healthier life in 2016.

"If your vocation isn’t a vacation, then quit, leap, change careers."

Denise Barker, Author, Blogger, Copy Editor
Books that Build Character(s)

amazon.com/author/denisebarker

http://denisebarkerauthor.blogspot.com/

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you pales in comparison to what lies inside of you. Ralph Waldo Emerson
When you give someone a book, you don’t give him just paper, ink, and glue.  You give him the possibility of a whole new life. Christopher Morley
The best inheritance you can leave your kids is an example of how to live a full and meaningful life. Dan Zadra

My 15 Healthy Food Tips for Broke People, Like Me

I read several health-related blogs/newsletters and totally understand that organic is the better way to go in the States, what with our comparatively lax standards here as compared to Europe, plus our depleted soils. But some of the people writing those blogs/newsletters, touting how going organic now should be viewed "in the long term" or for "just $5 a month ..." don't have a clue what it's like to be broke.

So, "long term" means leaving my $4.98 just sitting in my bank account, right? Not spending it? Got it.

Conversely, that "just $5 a month" in my world is not "just." It's my "only." Or, in the current matter of my $4.98 in my bank account, I find I'm two cents short. Such is my life. Usually it doesn't bother me, as I know another project will pop in my queue shortly. You've got to be able to roll with the punches when you work freelance.

But when I get to the point of $4.98 (or less) in my bank account while in a slow period and then read one-too-many emails pushing organic as the only healthy option, with the writers of those blogs/newsletters seemingly having no concept of people out there who do not have the money those blog writers obviously do ... Well, I hope I'm never like that when I'm monetarily rich. And from where I sit, there are many, many "rich" people when compared to me.

Yes, I understand how thinking long term is better than short term, whether speaking about relationships or finances. But when it comes to putting that theory into practice, I'd love to hear how to stretch an annual but varying shortfall overnight, not long term. Yes, I've gotten day jobs before and may have to again. Yes, I've worked three jobs simultaneously many times in my life and may have to again. Yes, I've cut my budget to what it takes to keep my house basically running (cheaper than the Dallas apartment I had over fifteen years ago!), plus that extravagant catchall expense of "food," which includes toilet tissue and dishwashing detergent and lightbulbs, as needed. I'm no slacker.

But I am a freelancer. I have unplanned slow periods, where I need a "day" job for a couple weeks or three months to tide me over, and then my 234 hours of work some months kick in (my hours are a reflection of the perfectionist I'm trying to be and have nothing to do with my income, as my main client pays me by the project, not by the time I invest in each project). Even my slow months in this profession are not always consistently slow from year to year. If you know any day-job employers seeking such off-again/on-again temporary employees, let me know.

Don't get me wrong. I love working for myself, even though I've never in my lifetime been so broke for so long (eight years and counting). Still I don't understand how few people truly understand "being broke." Surely most people have had a moment or two being broke, especially in this economy. If their memories fail them, can't they imagine what would happen if their four-figure (and beyond) paycheck was cut to three figures, sometimes two? And its payment was erratic to boot?

Sigh.

I'm no food expert, just a layperson with a lust for knowledge about many topics, including cooking and health. I'm just another gal in the trenches with you. So decide for yourself which of these items in my list below will work for you:

1. Don't stress about it. The last thing you need is another stressor on top of being money-challenged. Watch the documentary, Fat Head, where Tom Naughton loses weight and improves his health (per blood tests) while eating at fast-food chains (which are not touted as organic food havens, as far as I know). As of this writing, you can watch it for free on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fat+head+documentary. So there's hope for us to be somewhat healthy, even while not eating organic. And I'm not proposing eating mostly at drive-through establishments either, to be clear. In fact, with my budget, grabbing a meal to-go from the golden arches is considered "eating out" and is a rare "treat," in that I didn't have to prepare and cook it myself.

2. Eat whole foods. I believe that an intact apple contains a vital synergy of components, far exceeding whatever's in some mass-produced apple juice or jam/jelly on a shelf. 

3. Wash or soak your produce as needed. I happen to prefer a 50:50 mix of apple cider vinegar and water rather than to use white vinegar. In my mind, the white version is for household cleaning, not ingesting. 

4. Eat more beans, eggs, seafood. Did you know canned seafood (tuna, salmon) is most likely wild caught (or "organic," if you will). Who knew? 

5. If you eat cured bacon and cannot afford the uncured bacon price tag much less pure organic bacon, then eat citrus fruit with your bacon. I read somewhere the citrus will counteract the nitrates/nitrites. I keep a bag of cuties (clementines, etc.) in my fridge, whenever I can. They last a long time too, not going bad before the last one is eaten. NOTE: Add those washed citrus peels to your water and/or your tea for the day. It's amazing how they highly flavor your drink without squeezing, zesting.

6. Homemade is better than prepackaged, store-bought foods. If you are going to eat brownies, make them from scratch at home. That way you can avoid the high fructose corn syrup, the GMOs, the MSG, and whatever else lurks in our foods under the generic term natural flavorings.

7. Lessen the toxins you put in your body by sheer avoidance (like that aisle with all the cookies and candies down it, plus the soft drink lane). Eat fresh fruit for dessert instead and brew your own green tea at home. Even if sweetened, make it with Stevia or honey or a mix of both. 

8. Pick your poison. If you use cream or half-and-half in your coffee daily, but only eat beef three times a month, then I'd suggest you spend any of your dollars set aside for organic foods on purchasing those day-to-day routine items. 

9. Do the best you can with what you've got. Be happy. Be thankful. Pray over your food before eating it, as Dr. Christiane Northrup said in one PBS show from long ago. 

10. If a blog, newsletter does not qualify "if you can't afford to buy organic, don't," then maybe we should just unsubscribe from them. Remember that verse from the Bible about it's better to eat a dinner of herbs in peace than a fatted calf with strife? I just unsubscribed to two blogs/newsletters. Feel calmer already.

11. Stop microwaving. I did, some ten years or so ago. I'm afraid we'll learn that, in the long run, bad side effects are associated with this practice. I hope I'm wrong. 

12. Do some research on your own. Remember the source of your food can make a difference, both good and bad, so read up. Make notes. Plus determine what the first number(s) in bar codes mean as to the country of origin, in case you can't find it otherwise printed on your food packaging. Make a naughty and nice list for your grocery shopping trips. 

13. Be sure to check out ewg.org for their continually updated dirty dozen and clean foods list. 

14. Be more frugal, like our grandparents. Don't throw anything away without considering how it could still be useful. About to toss that hard-as-a-rock bread? The French make salads and soups with it. If it's too far gone for human consumption, toss it outside to feed the birds and the squirrels. You can still be a giver, even when broke. 

15. One more thing. "Rich" is not just about money. It is about quality of life. It is about happiness. Love. Making the world a better place. Fulfilling your purpose here. Keep that in mind too. So while I am rich in a lot of areas, I just happen to be broke as far as dollars go.

These items are a gross overview of course. For all our advanced learning in this the twenty-first century, I read somewhere how we still don't know 80% of the makeup of our unadulterated foods. So, keep on studying. Carry out your due diligence.

Hope this helps you on your road to better health.

"If your vocation isn’t a vacation, then quit, leap, change careers."

Denise Barker, Author, Blogger, Copy Editor
Books that Build Character(s)

amazon.com/author/denisebarker

http://denisebarkerauthor.blogspot.com/

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you pales in comparison to what lies inside of you. Ralph Waldo Emerson
When you give someone a book, you don’t give him just paper, ink, and glue.  You give him the possibility of a whole new life. Christopher Morley
The best inheritance you can leave your kids is an example of how to live a full and meaningful life. Dan Zadra

Eight Days into the Bulletproof Diet

First, my apologies for not posting anything sooner. This year has been a busy one, and, for a freelancer, that is great news.

Second, I'm loving the Bulletproof diet (BD herein). Today I'm beginning day eight, but already I'm sleeping better. I'm not hungry. I drink less coffee. I'm drinking more water. I eat one or two meals a day with Bulletproof coffee as my morning fix. I don't snack anymore (Gasp! How can that be?), except for maybe at nighttime, using Dave Asprey's tip about fructose and using the sugar-crash to fall sleep. Such a cool idea.

Plus those numbers on my scale are dropping (but my old scale is manual, not digital, and prone to wild jumps in both directions, so I'm hesitant to go by it alone. Still my jeans are looser.) I have high energy levels anyway, but I've noticed some days where I really feel even more energetic.

And I'm not following the plan.

What I'm doing in a nutshell is having my version of the Bulletproof coffee using my Starbucks supply with two tablespoons Kerrygold butter and one tablespoon of XCT coconut oil (from bulletproofexec.com) and trying to get another three tablespoons of good fats during the day. If I apply coconut oil to my body, I count that in too. After all, our bodies absorb what's on our skin.

The rest of the BD will just come in stages.

And I'm telling myself that this is okay. I'm doing better today than one week ago. I firmly believe food should be our medicine, and I'm trying to prevent diseases and illness and diabetes and cancer with my grocery purchases, even on a restricted budget.

So, yes, eating healthy, eating organic, is more expensive, but I'm eating less, so that helps offset my wiser food purchases. And, with my freelancing, I'm going the baby-steps route. I bit the bullet and bought organic nitrate-free bacon and organic pastured eggs ($12.00 at my local Sprouts store), thinking breakfast would be a cheaper meal to purchase organically. It was still a shock when I checked out prices.

Everything else I eat is not organic.

I'm still using store-bought soaps, shampoos, cleaning supplies. I hope to replace those with homemade essential oil versions soon. My household water is not filtered. I'm not buying bottled spring water, yet.

So my environment and what I put topically on my body still has chemicals in it.

Baby steps.

But I find I want more veggies now that I am free to add Kerrygold butter to them. So even though it's spring, I'm favoring hot side dishes over cooling salads. During a couple hectic back-to-back workdays that ended up totaling over twelve hours each, I got hungry and stopped for "lunch" some eight hours after my BD coffee breakfast. Yeah, I was amazed too.

I did cheat three days of the previous seven and ate some of my Red Hots stash, but now I have dark-chocolate-covered almonds to divert my attention. And, when I do eat either of these, I'm eating less of them.

I'm keeping a food journal to watch for the racing heart reaction within 1.5 hours of eating something that I'm sensitive too, to help me narrow down those foods and weed them out. That was just one of the great tips from Dave Asprey's book, Bulletproof Diet.

So that's the skinny. This may be the eating lifestyle I can actually pull off forever. Of course any diet that encourages me to have coffee for breakfast is good in my book. Plus any plan that can allow for such a diversion as mine presently is from the BD's "perfect" implementation is wonderful, great, surprising.

I'll update more about my BD experience later.

NOTE: The brands mentioned herein are my personal preferences and only added to show details. I'm not getting paid by any of the companies producing these brands.

"If your vocation isn’t a vacation, then quit, leap, change careers."

Denise Barker, Author, Blogger, Copy Editor
Books that Build Character(s)

amazon.com/author/denisebarker

http://denisebarkerauthor.blogspot.com/

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you pales in comparison to what lies inside of you. Ralph Waldo Emerson
When you give someone a book, you don’t give him just paper, ink, and glue.  You give him the possibility of a whole new life. Christopher Morley
The best inheritance you can leave your kids is an example of how to live a full and meaningful life. Dan Zadra

I'm Eating Cheese and Still Losing Weight

Yes, technically I've only eaten cheese for two days (after about thirty-five days without), but on this morning of the third day, my scale confirmed I'd lost a couple more pounds.

Great!

I can find so many ways to add cheese to my day. Just be sure to read the labels and stick to generally the zero-carb versions, adding in the one-carb types mindfully. And remember that fat satiates; therefore, your body will tell you when to stop eating cheese.

So here are examples of my cheese indulgences. Of course, my fave applewood cheese stands alone as a snack.  Add a pinch or two of any cheese (don't go heavy-handed here) into omelets. If the cheese is soft enough to spread, fill some celery stalks and get the added benefit of fiber. I mentioned yesterday my affinity for caprese salads. Top with fresh basil. Yum!

Today chicken parmesan is on my menu (but without the bread crumbs in the crust). I plan to plate it on a bed of arugula.

I'm also craving my ex-MIL's homemade pimento cheese, stuffed in celery. But I will need to make my own mayo. The prepared kinds have soybean oil (my body cannot tolerate soy) and the addition of HFCS. I may search for a mayo recipe later today.

Granted I'm only on day three adding cheese back into my diet but have noticed no side effects. Since I've never experienced constipation, I have no worries about that. I am watching for nasal congestion overnight and for any dreaded MSG reactions (which are harsh and happen within thirty minutes for me), as both were present before and I had linked them with dairy (most likely half-and-half and cream for my coffee).

When I have ingested cheese over a week or two with no bad results like mentioned above, I may add in organic half-and-half or cream again for my coffee to avoid those awful MSG reactions.

Note also that I am not purchasing organic cheeses, although my favorite applewood cheese comes from England and, in my mind, with the UK's higher food standards, makes it a better candidate over an American brand. Just my opinion here.

I hope my trials and experiments help someone else out there to better define their lifestyle eating habits.

Denise Barker, author + blogger + copy editor

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks

A Couple Tips for Better Eating

I'm of the slow-carb fandom, and thus substitutions are needed to update my food cravings to something healthier. Two came to mind today.

• Instead of potato salad, fix some deviled eggs from omega-3 or organic brands. I substitute EVOO for the mayo, using a tad more brown mustard  and bumping up the apple cider vinegar with an equal dose of pickle juice from the opened jar in the fridge. Add in garlic and onion, well minced, plus sea salt and ground pepper. Tweak to fit your taste buds. I find that the primary elements that are calling me (the mayo, mustard, pickle carried by the vehicle of the white potatoes) can be reconstituted in another form and still be satisfying.
• Instead of everything bagels or everything French bread, try sprinkling all those wonderful seeds and seasonings on your wild salmon. Just be sparing with your application. These are to be used as spices; we are not creating a blackened effect. I like to add sunflower seeds to my sesame seed mix.

Take good care of you and have a wonderful week, all!

Denise Barker, author + blogger + copy editor

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks

 

The Blood Sugar Solution Continued

If you are interested in my usual breakfast under TBSS guidelines, here's my simple and fast omelet. Two whisked omega-3 eggs in a nonstick pan coated with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Once they start to set, I add a tablespoon or two of Rotel tomatoes and a few cilantro leaves (no stems). Finish cooking, sprinkle with salt and cayenne pepper and you are done.

Spices may well be our most overlooked and underused good-health component. Try to focus on adding more to your cooking.

I add the Rotel juice to my regular veggie juice to spice it up a bit, too.

If you have some time, or don't like spicy foods, caramelize chopped onions in EVOO in your pan. Once they are as brown as you like them (I actually like them crispy), top with your whisked eggs. Add diced fresh tomatoes and a diced avocado. Yum!

In the book, Dr. Hyman gives us two choices for breakfast: eggs or a protein drink (from hemp). I'm of the school that we can eat dinner at breakfast and vice versa. So I'm game for having leftover salmon and asparagus. Or steak and eggs.

Although the author advises us to purchase organic meats and produce, I'm not able to jump fully into that pricey adventure. But when funds allow, I'm there.

Denise Barker, author + blogger + copy editor

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks

J. J. Virgin, CNS, CHFS re Food Sensitivities

This is so in line with my immediately previous post, about being healthy in body, mind and soul, that it was a natural segue.  NOTE:  I am a lay person.  No degrees.  Just intensely interested in fitness, health.

J. J. Virgin's bio states she is a member of Mensa, plus has taken many, many doctorate classes from multiple universities.  The CNS stands for Certified Nutrition Specialist and the CHFS as Certified Health Fitness Specialist.

I think her body type is the perfect specimen of health and beauty for women.

Check out her YouTube video re food sensitivities at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p4nR0ivmPc.  Go to her website at http://jjvirgin.com/ to preview her video about seven hurtful foods in our diet.  Sign up to get instant access to 7 Foods, 7 Days, 7 Pounds.

It is so very interesting.  To paraphrase J.J., anything you love, you crave, you are probably "sensitive" to.  J.J. used to test her clients to see what foods were sabotaging their health.  Then it became evident that the same seven kept showing up.  Here's the list:

1. Dairy
2. Eggs
3. Sugar and Artificial Sweeteners
4. Gluten
5. Peanuts
6. Soy
7. Corn

And, once you start checking "Ingredients" labels, you will find them in the most absurd places.  Did you know your sunflower kernels contain sugar, MSG, corn syrup solids, soy proteins plus other stuff?  Also "May contain:  milk, wheat."  Even my in-the-shell sunflower seeds "may contain peanuts, tree nuts, milk, soy and wheat."  And my "beef" hot dogs contain corn.

So once you get the above list of seven memorized, you'll be amazed at where they are hidden in our food.  [Here's my mnemonic device = DES (the dangerous pesticide supposedly no longer on the market) + GPS (which we already know) + C--the best I could do, and not needed for long to remember the seven.]

I'm beginning day three as we start off this Sunday and here's my overview of these initial days.

First, a little backstory.  I'm embracing the carb-conscious lifestyle and cutting out carbs all over.  Quite a shock to my digestive system, but wow!  I'm too embarrassed to tell you how many bad carbs I cut from my day.

Shortly thereafter, I went gluten-free, although I get bread cravings and sometimes give in to them.  Like having been totally gluten-free for about a month, followed by a week of eating a delicious artisan "everything" French bread.  But one hundred times better than eating gluten at every meal.

In an earlier post, I documented recently going cream-free with my coffee.  Not a pretty story.

Before both of those food restrictions, I cut out packaged sugars.  I decided if I wanted brownies, it was better to make them myself from scratch at home than to buy them ready made or in a box.  I cut out sodas.  But I was having diet versions as I craved them.  Still, I was doing one thousand times better than previous days.

Also, I'm of the mind that God made perfect foods, not man.  So I stick to the outer perimeter of the grocery store for eighty to ninety percent of my purchases anyway.  I used to go partially organic as my previous career earnings allowed.  Now that I'm freelancing, not so much.  But I'll get back there and beyond.  And soon.  I predict it.

So, up to the present now.  I haven't experienced headaches yet (like I did with my cream withdrawal reaction on the second/third days).  I was a bit sluggish both prior days as my body was probably in shock with all the additional fiber.  My body felt "overly full" because of it too and I'm assuming will recalibrate.  Thank God it was somewhat used to fruits and veggies and beans or this could have been very unpleasant.

That first night, my bladder woke me up four times--four!  I am happy to report that the second night did not repeat this.

As for J.J.'s list, I had already given up soy as there is conflicting info on it and female hormones.  Yet, there it was as I read "Ingredients" labels, still in my foods.  I prefer almonds to peanuts so that was a foregone decision for me (yet again is on the "Ingredients" labels of items I eat).  We've already discussed the gluten and sugar issues.

As for artificial sweeteners, they are cancer-forming, IMO.  There are natural sugars in moderation that don't produce cancer (my opinion here, folks):  Stevia, honey, Xylitol, Somersweet.  Maybe Agave--my jury's still out on that one.  My top two personal favorites are Stevia and honey.

Not sure if J.J. would find the use of Stevia and honey to be by the rules of her seven-foods-to-yank-out-of-our-eating lifestyle.  But, by a literal reading, they are not sugar and are not artificial, so I've got them in my daily repertoire.

Dairy.  My nemesis.  My love.  I'm addicted to all its forms--except milk.  Milk can never be cold enough for me to stomach it.  Unless it is chocolate milk, or strawberry milk or eggnog.  Ha!  So, if you read my earlier posts about my supposed cream allergy, you know I cut back on cheese to indulge in cream in my coffee.  Then cut out the cream for three whole days (misery!) to have it infrequently thereafter.

As a carb counter, we reach for that string cheese instead of chips or bread or doughnuts.  I had done a switch earlier from string cheese to beef hotdogs for snacking (cold, plain, straight out of the refrigerator) and saving those precious dairy servings for my coffee.  So when J.J. said cut the dairy, I realized the full import of that.  Includes butter, right?  My first real acknowledgment of that relationship.  And there goes the cream in my coffee. Again.

Yet this time was easier.  Probably because last time was so recent and much harder.

It was the eggs that got me, though.  As a carb-counter, my breakfast consisted routinely of bacon and eggs.  If I took out the eggs, what was I supposed to replace them with?  Can't use string cheese.  Can't use toast and sugary jam.  Can't have grits or biscuits or even think about Krispy Kreme.  After the initial frantic response, I found several good replacements.

For my new, improved breakfasts, I'm still eating bacon, but now it resembles more of a salad.  A BLT salad (bacon, tomato on a bed of lettuce) or a BLTA salad (a breadless BLT with an avocado).

Or another favorite is the wilted lettuce salad (pouring a warm dressing consisting of bacon fat, vinegar and a touch of Stevia over your greens) with crispy bacon atop.

Also oatmeal is allowed--yippee!  Oatmeal is not a wheat nor does it contain gluten (if my quick internet search is accurate).  So I can have that with Stevia and cinnamon and cloves.

Lunch/Dinner is another salad with tuna (no mayo, as it contains both milk and eggs).  Or sardines on a gluten-free cracker.  Or blackened chicken/fish.  Or a hamburger patty on a bed of lettuce. Side dishes are raw veggies: sliced cukes, wedges of red bell pepper, sliced tomatoes, mushrooms or cooked ones: bok choy, mushrooms, yellow squashes, zucchini, etc.

For snacks, I'm hitting fat-heavy natural foods to help satiate me:  black olives and avocados.  I love 'em both so it works for me.  Find yours.

Again, not sure fruit is allowed on the J.J. seven-foods-restriction diet, but since they are not "sugar" per se, I'm sticking to the berries (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries) as they are the lowest in glycemic count.

One other treat that may not be kosher per J.J. is two tablespoons of organic almond butter mixed with one tablespoon honey.  Yum!  BUT if you read the "Ingredients" list on the almond butter, there may be peanuts and soy, plus it has organic unrefined cane sugar (I'm stepping over the line here, I know.  Still, it is ORGANIC and UNREFINED sugar so I'm hoping that makes it a lesser evil).  And today, I'm gonna try to skip my treat.  Fingers crossed!

Thank goodness J.J. didn't say "no coffee" or I wouldn't be in as good a mood as I am now.  I'm back on track with three days of decaf followed by one day of the fully leaded version (my fave!).  I have gotten to where I am loving black coffee again (you have to start with a good bean, though).  And of course, if you read the "Ingredients" labels on your powdered "non-dairy" creamer or your liquid version, both of mine here at home contain milk, soy and corn syrup solids!  Who knew?

My new love--coconut creme "creamer"--contains sugar, milk and soy.  Great for making cold coffee drinks with my leftover coffee from the day before.  I use two tablespoons of the coconut creme (10 carbs) plus five tablespoons of the liquid "non-dairy" creamer (another 10 carbs) and two to three times the coffee to get the right color of lightness.  No sugar needed with the coconut creme.  But, for some reason, I'm okay with not having that for now.

J.J. says to keep this up for twenty-eight days to rid our bodies of these items that it may consider as "toxic" thus attacking with vengeance--resulting in myriad symptoms:  gas, bloating, joint pain, skin problems (even dandruff), mood disorders, weight gain, fatigue, cravings, big appetites.

She also says our cravings will be G-O-N-E.

Leaky gut.  Ever heard of it?  My most recent ND mentioned it, and so had one before.  I can't explain it, but if you are interested, Google it and read all about this subject.

J.J.'s avoid-seven-foods regimen fixes leaky gut.  Resets our body's resistance and tolerance.  I'm not privy to J.J.'s tactics post-twenty-eight days, but I've gleaned a little tidbit here and there.  We slowly reintroduce the "possibly offending" food (for our particular body) and see if any of the symptoms listed above recur. 

However, if our cravings are gone (like my new palate re sugar), it should be easy to incorporate our now refined tastes, so hopefully fewer things eek back in our eating habits--or with less repetition.

Like fresh corn on the cob.  How can that possibly be bad for us?  (In its pure unadulterated form.)  This is spring, after all, with a bountiful crop of luscious foods about to be harvested.  Armed with J.J.'s insight, I will just have it infrequently, but once every four days at the most (as any food allergists would tell you anyway).

BTW, J.J. says a true food allergy is bad--from a facial rash to throat-closing, life-threatening.  A food sensitivity, like we are discussing here, is just too much of a good thing (my parlance).  We need to have more variety in our foodstuffs.

My local Farmers Market opens in May.  Can't wait!  So what if I didn't inherit Daddy's green thumb (sob, sob).  I can take advantage of those nearby who do have the gift.  The Farmers Market is cheaper than organic and better than what is trucked from all over (not fresh) and pesticide riddled (chemicals are not healthy). 

I have not missed my daily dark chocolate fix.  Weird, right?  I've not really missed my doctored-up coffee (as long as I don't look at my three different creamers in my fridge).  I'm enjoying four strawberries for dessert.  Or almond butter with honey for a treat.  Or flavorings in my coffee:  cherry, raspberry, coconut, vanilla.  Without Stevia even.

Additionally, this morning's breakfast salad (the BLTA) was suddenly too big.  I couldn't eat it all.  I snacked on it hours later.  I'm still full as I add in this edit at 1:40 p.m.  Amazing!

So, my preliminary opinion on this particular test of my willpower?  Good to go.  And instead of opting out at the end of the first week, I may go the whole twenty-eight days.  Wow!  What a revelation.

Wish me luck.

P.S. Copy editor disclaimer: Per CMS(15) Rule 8.6, initials have periods (and spaces when used with the whole last name, or no periods at all when three initials, like JFK and LBJ). Which explains what I've done above.  However, J.J.'s preference is no periods, no spaces. FYI.

You Are Your Greatest Asset

You are your greatest asset.  I love that quote, courtesy of Logan Marshall's article for Write to Done:  Unmissable Articles on Writing entitled "Instant Flow:  How to Train Yourself to Think Creatively."  Here's the link:

http://writetodone.com/2012/04/10/instant-flow-how-to-train-yourself-to-think-creatively/

All the wonderful things I love about Logan's article include:

• Notice the word "train" in the title?  Yes, authors should train like an athlete.  Our mind, body and soul are connected.  We need to see to the health of all to be fully in creative mode.  Plus haven't you heard the definition of stress/worry as putting your mind and your heart at war?  Internal peace is when our mind, body and soul are in agreement.
• My new mantra is:  I am my greatest asset.  We should never lose sight of that fact.  Check the Bible:  we are fearfully and wonderfully made in the very image of God.  Check with any scientist:  we are the greatest machine ever created.  We are worth billions when you break us down to our individual parts; just the minerals in our body alone make us priceless.
• I would alter his first two steps, running and meditation, to fit my personal lifestyle and comfort level.  It would become fast walking and prayerful introspection.  Just my own take on his wise words.
• His point three:  Eat clean, healthy foods.  Amen.  Let our food be our medicine and medicine our food.  I believe foods as God made them trumps anything man-made every time.  I'd go fully organic if I could.  In the meantime, I eat from the perimeter of the grocery story, where foods don't have "Ingredients" lists with multiple entries and mostly chemical-sounding names.  A banana is a banana.  I buy beef roasts, whole chickens, eggs, bacon, strawberries, roma tomatoes, avocados, etc.  
• His point four:  Super hydrate.  The first symptom of dehydration is sometimes confused as hunger.  You are really down a quart when you have a dry mouth and are craving water.  If you've gone so far as to have a sick-to-your-stomach feeling, you are one step away from a ride in an emergency vehicle.  I once had an ND tell me to drink reverse osmosis water.  I choose for me, personally, to go with spring water--naturally from the earth as God intended, complete with minerals.  Remember the therapeutic value of soaking in a natural hot spring?  Because of all the body-healing minerals it contains?  I think drinking the cooled equivalent does a body good, IMO.  In the two to three years since I've been going this route, my normally freckled skin is much less so.  Nice!
• His point five:  Get enough sleep.  I so agree.  For decades I awoke by a dreaded alarm clock.  Hated it.  And for decades wasn't getting what my body wanted--eight full hours of sleep.

The only item I would add to his great plan is to go to bed each night thinking about the most efficient and productive and goal-rendering use of your time for tomorrow.  What two things do I really need to tend to?  Wait for the response.  If you have any snags still pending and thwarting you, ask God for the answer while you sleep.  It works for me.

I'm one of those authors who ponders my new novel in my head for a length of time.  It could be two days.  It could be over two months.  It could be remembering an idea I had in my twenties, wrote into a short story back then and have since lost, but the concept resurfaced.  Maybe I'm to write it now.

So my before-bed activity of planning and seeking is a no-brainer for me.

It is said that all our answers are within.  Any wisdom we may need resides inside us.

There's an old myth told about the gods wanting to hide treasure from God's favorites, his people.  After all, God favors us to his angels, to his animals, to everything else He created.  So the gods sought for a place to hide away this source from God's pet humans.

"In the sky?" one suggested.

"No they will go to the moon and beyond and will find it," another explained.  "How about in the sea?"

"No, their curiosity will have them delving deep into the waters," a third countered.

"What about burying it in the mountains?" a fourth proposed.

"The gold and silver will lure them there," a fifth argued.

There was a long pause as the little gods pondered this.

Finally one spoke up.  "What if we hide it within them--in their heart, their soul, their minds?"

One by one, the other false gods nodded.

"Done," they agreed unanimously.

Worth a bit of time to check it out, huh?

Good luck, athletes!

And don't forget:  YOU ARE YOUR GREATEST ASSET.