Tag Archives: diet

Food Aversions

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This third baby is taking a toll on my diet. I swear I can’t eat anything without getting nauseous. With my second baby I was sick for maybe a month and it went away. But this time around it’s stretching a lot longer.

Strangely enough, the only things that don’t make me sick are: Ice cream, a tortilla with peanut butter, avocado toast, milk, pizza, cheese and vanilla cheerios. You’d think milk products wouldn’t be easy on the stomach and would make me sick. But weirdly enough they don’t bother it!

One strange food aversion I’m having that I had with our second baby is with chicken. I can’t eat chicken cooked at someone’s house. It literally makes me start gagging. I can’t even cook it myself without feeling sick. But I can eat chicken from a restaurant! There’s something about the smell of it cooking in the house that makes me sick. Since I can’t smell the chicken being cooked in the restaurant, it doesn’t bother me.

The first three months I was really battling with food. But now I’ve found a few items I can eat regularly with no major issue. So every day, I eat pretty much the exact same thing. I actually don’t mind it much because I’m a creature of habit and love schedules. I’ve always had my meals planned out days in advance so I’m not doing too much different than my usual other than being limited on foods.

This is definitely proof that every pregnancy is different! I’m learning as I go with each one!

Diet pains

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Ever gone on a diet and felt achy during it? Sort of those body aches you get just before you actually get sick? Well, that’s not uncommon. So what causes it?……

When you eat unhealthy foods for a while, your body builds “immunity” to these junk foods. That’s why you don’t feel any major discomfort after having eaten them for weeks, months or years. Once you remove these foods from your diet, your body can actually go through withdrawals. Your body became addicted to these foods so it’s a shock to it when you remove them. Symptoms can include body aches, anxiety, exhaustion, irritability, jitteriness, and tiredness.

A lot of people who get these symptoms while dieting feel like their diet isn’t working due to the symptoms they experience. What they fail to remember is that dieting isn’t easy at first. You have to get your body into a routine. They often feel this discomfort, get discouraged and immediately want to feel comfort. They remember how junk food was a comfort feeling for some of them, so they go right back to eating it.

Don’t get me wrong, I eat my fair share of junk food. However, I eat it in moderation. I may eat a burger and fries for dinner one night. But all my meals before that are healthy. I don’t do an entire day of eating terrible. If I do eat terrible one entire day, my body goes into a shock and I actually get an achy, tired and uncomfortable feel. It’s one I can actually feel in my muscles and stomach.

There is what I call the “diet hump.” For me it’s always around week 3 or 4 of my diet. I start to feel achy and I get tired and discouraged. I think to myself how much I hate this feeling and I just want to lay on the sofa with a box of pizza and Chinese food. But once I push past those thoughts and a few days of the achy, tiredness passes, I feel better. Things get easier after that hump. My diet becomes more of a routine and easy to follow. I don’t crave unhealthy foods as much. My body actually feels stronger after.

Diet and weight loss is not easy. It honestly takes a lot more mental work than people realize. It’s not 100% physical when going on a diet. You have to keep yourself on track and not let what may be withdrawal symptoms, set you back if they come on. For me a lot of “self talk” is involved. I tell myself regularly “I can do this.” It’s a lot of mental pushing. But it’s worth it on the end. Especially to wake up feeling better every day. Having my stomach feel clear and not heavy and bloated. To not have my joints an muscles ache when I try to get up or sit down. With two kids under 3, I need all the strength and energy I can get from this body!

Doggy Diet

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My Sadie bear had to go on a diet per the doctors orders. She weighed in at 82lbs at her last visit. The vet recommended getting her down to the low 70’s.

She said no more packaged treats and to cut her dog food by 1/4. She said absolutely no table scraps. However, hard boiled eggs and baked chicken were great snacks for her (in moderation).

After starting her diet I realized I’m the one who made her fat! My poor dog! I never realized how many table scraps I actually fed her. If I made Ryder a sandwich and cut off the crust, Sadie got the crust. Leftovers from dinner that I didn’t want to keep, I’d toss to her. Random parts of my snack or lunches I would give her. It had become such a habit to drop her food, over half the time I didn’t even realize I was doing it. That is until I put her on a diet. I was cutting the crust off Ryders sandwich and went to hand the crust to Sadie and stopped myself. Feeding the dog was literally a habit I was having to break!

It’s been exactly a month and I took Sadie to the vet to get weighed. She weighed in at 72 lbs! That’s a 10lb weight loss in 30 days! You can see she feels better. She moves around a lot more. She actually goes bounding after the kids to play with them. Before she looked like she had to drag herself up off the floor if she needed to move.

A one mile walk used to about kill Sadie. She would come home and lay on the floor for a while panting. Now she can go almost 4 miles and needs maybe 10 minutes to recover before she’s ready to go and play with the boys again.

I think she still has a few more pounds to lose. The extra weight can be hard on her joints, especially with her being 12 years old. But she’s made great progress! I think 5 more pounds should be no problem for her. I’m proud of my old pup. She’s getting healthy so she can take care of her brothers for a few more years 💙

Summer slim down

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I started my “summer slim down.” This year I have a good friend helping hold me accountable. I’m a week in and I’ve done pretty good! I’m someone who does better with a goal. I’m less likely to cheat on a diet or get lazy with workouts if I set a goal to work towards. I think it’s the competitive side of me that kicks in. I don’t like to lose. Plus, having a friend give me that little push tends to help.

I’m not doing an extreme diet or anything. I’m simply cutting out a few items that I regularly grab while grazing or boredom eating. So less cheese, less milk (I drink a crazy amount), less sugar, less carbs and less alcohol. I still consume a good amount of carbs. I need them to fuel my body. But I’m aiming to add in more complex carbs and reduce my simple carb intake.

The word diet doesn’t mean you’re going on some strict meal plan. A diet by definition is “the kinds of foods that a person habitually eats.” So I’m making little adjustments to my regular eating habits.

My overall goal is less snacking. I’m someone who goes to the fridge to eat just because I’m bored. So I’ll grab a snack when I’m not even hungry. I’m attempting to cut out these extra unnecessary snacks/meals.

Cardio vs Weights

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Pretty proud of the progress in these pics. The one on the left is from 2014. I did two hours of cardio a day (one in the gym and one walking the dog), little to no weights and was super restrictive with my diet. I weighed my food, counted calories and avoided oils, salts, sugar, etc.

The picture on the right is current. I do all weights, very little cardio (used as a cool down) and eat what I want (within reason.) Plus add in taking care of an infant and chasing around a toddler as my extra exercise. My diet consists of lots of protein, veggies, fruit, carbs, etc. I don’t avoid anything. I have something sweet maybe twice a week. I don’t drink sodas or juice like drinks, but honestly I’ve never been a fan of them so that makes it a bit easier.

My degree is in Sports Sciences. I took nutrition and biomechanics classes for years. I knew better than to do two hours of cardio and diet restrict. But I still did it. When I was in my 20’s I was impatient. I wanted quick results. Now at 34, I’ve learned when it comes to health and fitness you have to be patient. I’m finally taking my own advice. The advice I gave to people for years but ignored myself. Better late than never! Lol

Steam Rooms

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I made a post a few weeks ago about my regular use of the steam room. I got some fantastic questions about it after! So I’m going to go into more detail of the benefits of a steam room in hopes of answering those questions!

During a steam, there is an increase in blood flow and circulation in the body. This is because the heat causes blood vessels in your skin to expand. The moist heat stimulates the skin causing the pours to open up. By opening the pores through perspiration, steam induces the expulsion of toxins. This also helps to eliminate black heads to give you clearer skin! My skin always has a light pink glow to it after and my skin tone looks more even.

The steam room helps to open up airways which improves your breathing and alleviates congestion. The wet heat from the steam room thins and opens the mucous membranes in the body, which helps to relieve pressure. Any time I have allergies or congestion I use the steam room and feel a significant difference after!

Benefits of a steam room:

-Increases metabolism

-Cleanses the skin

-Boosts your immune system

-Eliminates toxins from the body

-Relieves discomfort from allergies

-Relaxes muscles

-Relieves couching

-Enhances circulation and blood flow

-Hydrates dry skin

Not only does you skin look amazing after a steam but you’ll feel so much better! Give it a try if you have the chance!

Turkey and butternut squash chili

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Nothing goes better with cold weather than a nice hot bowl of chili! I typically do a traditional Texas chili but I changed it up a little last night. Here is the recipe for my turkey and butternut squash chili!

Ingredients:

🔹8 oz butternut squash cubed

🔹2 tbsp Chile rub

🔹1/4 oz cilantro

🔹15 oz crushed tomatoes

🔹12 oz ground turkey

🔹1 shallot

🔹1 oz cheddar-Jack cheese

🔹2 oz sour cream

🔹1 tomato

Recipe:

Halve and peel shallot. Dice halves. Core tomato and dice. Stem and mince cilantro.

Place a large nonstick pan over medium heat. Add 2 tsp olive oil, butternut squash and shallot to hot pan. Stir often until squash is browned and begins to soften. 7-10 minutes

Add turkey, half the Chile rub and a pinch of pepper. Stir often, breaking up meat with a spoon until no pink remains.

Add crushed tomatoes and 1 1/4 cup of water and a pinch of salt to pan. Bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer and cook until thickened. 10-12 minutes

Taste chili and stir in remaining chili rub if desired. Plate dish with cheese, sour cream and cilantro

Food battle

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“Are you going to be a picky eater tonight?” Or “why aren’t you eating that? The amount of times I’ve heard these……🤔

Why are we so critical of what other people eat or don’t eat? I’ve battled with a food allergy for almost 10 years now. I’ve gone to dinner at peoples houses and not been able to eat much of anything because they served something I’m allergic to. I’ve gotten better about letting people know ahead of time. But I used to be so shy about it that I wouldn’t eat. A people assumed I had an eating disorder because I wouldn’t eat. Little did they know, on my way home I was eating the protein bar I had stashed in my car and would wolf down everything in my fridge at home!

There have been other times where I had to pick around food in hopes of eating something without getting sick. I’ve been called a picky eater because of this. I don’t really think a food allergy qualifies someone as a picky eater. It’s not really their choice to have a food allergy. If I could get rid of it I would! It would definitely make life easier when eating out or at peoples houses!

Rather than assume someone has an eating disorder or brand them as a picky eater, why not give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they have a food allergy! Or maybe they just don’t like what you’re serving. 😂 I think we as a society need to work on being less critical. We also need to worry more about ourselves and less about what other people are doing (in some cases).

Fast Food

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Often times when we think of fast food, we think of unhealthy, greasy, fatty food items. Places like McDonald’s, Chick-fil-a, Sonic, etc come to mind for the average person. The true definition of “fast food” is food that can be prepared quickly and easily and is sold in restaurants and snack bars as a quick meal or to be taken out. Just because there isn’t a drive through doesn’t mean it can’t be fast food!

Did you know your grocery store can fall under the fast food category? Many grocery stores have salad bars or pre made meal options available to grab and go. My favorite “fast food” place is Whole Foods or Central Market! Their salad bars are AMAZING! They have so many healthy options to pick from!

Fast food doesn’t have to mean greasy, fatty foods. You can find healthy options almost anywhere you go now. Let’s change our thinking of the words fast food since it just means a quick meal option that’s easy to take on the go and isn’t actually a specific food.

What’s your favorite fast food place?

Relieving headaches naturally

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Headaches….they are so incredibly common and can be brought on by the littlest things! Stress, noise exposure, straining your eyes, consuming too much caffeine, consuming too much sugar, dehydration and lack of sleep, are just a few examples of things that cause headaches. You can take an OTC med to alleviate the pain, or there are a few natural things you can try…..

🔹 Ease pressure on your scalp. Let your hair down, or remove your hat or eyewear

🔹 Dim lights, set your phone down and turn off the computer

🔹Massage your temples

🔹 Eat foods rich in magnesium. Low levels of magnesium can cause headaches

🔹 Take vitamin B-12

🔹 Try a hot or cold compress

🔹 Drink lots of water

🔹 Lay down and shut your eyes

🔹 Try reflexology

🔹 Go on a walk or try yoga

I have a habit of pulling my hair up too tight and giving myself a headache. I know better but I still do it every time! A few of these work for me, if just letting my hair down doesn’t work.