Living A Healthy Lifestyle

Living A Healthy Lifestyle

For those of you who have just read my Diet Coke article, (IF not, read it) Check out this blog. This lady has great ideas. Read her blog on Nov. 12th and read about this lady. Very interesting and scarry.

If you want to claim Diet Coke ignorance, DO NOT READ THIS!

So this is the big one. If you are just not ready to hear it, stop reading. If you are not a pop drinker, good for you. You may be dismissed. However, if you are one of the millions ruining their bodies by the addiction to soda, more specifically diet drinks, read for your healths sake and follow directions! I have always said, and with conviction that I would sooner drink a beer than a diet coke. Most of you know you shouldn't be drinking soda but now you will know why. I will use scare tactics if I must. I cringe when I see someone with a diet drink. All soda is bad for the body, but diet is toxic. First let me explain regular soda - We all know that it is packed full of sugar. Each can has at least 7 -8 teaspoons of sugar. More importantly, constant drinking of soda will erode the lining in your stomach which is one of the most important ingredients for good health. Without the lining, you cannot absorb nutrients and cannot keep the bacteria out. The caffeine actually binds calcium and magnesium to the urine when it passes instead of absorbing them into the body where needed. And, of course, soda drinkers have the notorious "pop bellie" which extensive exercise still doesn't seem to dissolve the problem area. I am one to indulge on a good Dr. Pepper now and then, very sparingly, especially when I have a killer headache, but this is a special indulgent and won't kill anyone. The constant drinkers need to stop immediately. If you are a diet drinker, you must read this article. If you have not heard about the dangers of aspartame or refuse to believe it is a problem, start reading and start googling. You are killing yourself. Read the article, spread the news and change your habits today, if needs be. We need to take care of our families and that means taking care of ourselves so we can be our best. I am convinced that if the Word of Wisdom was written today, it would list soda and aspartame next to strong drinks .

Read this article here

Now is the time to change your lives, I am not afraid of dying, I am afraid of living in a decayed body, subject to the mercy of others. I want to live everyday, to climb mountains, surf oceans and look great in a pair of jeans!

BBQ Chicken Chop Salad

I love salads and my kids seem to accept them quite well lately so I have been trying out some new recipes. This one is from a new cookbook I bought from my fellow blogger Molly. It is so easy and so yummy. Try it out this weekend to get your greens in.

BBQ CHICKEN CHOP SALAD

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts or about 6-8 chicken tenders

1 cup barbecue sauce

Marinate chicken in sauce, then bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Chop into pieces and refrigerate.

1/2 head iceberg lettuce, chopped

1/2 head romaine lettuce, chopped

3 to 4 Roma tomatoes, chopped

1 jicama, peeled and diced ( I omitted this)

1/2 Cup cilantro, chopped

1 15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 Cup frozen sweet corn, thawed

1/2 pound monterey jack cheese, grated

Combine chicken in large bowl with salad ingredients and toss. Serve with Ranch dressing and additional BBQ sauce and crispy corn chips.

I served this with cute little corn muffins. It was a perfect meal, especially as it starts to warm up!

Have a great weekend and I will be back next week with some great topics! Don't miss it!

Baskets

Hello! I'm Molly who Shari once introduced many months back as the one who would be posting organizational tidbits for you! I have to apologize for the delay, but now I'm ready to roll and have lots of new ideas for you! I have to say, that none of these things are rocket science, and most of them I feel pretty silly even posting, but I figure that we all learn so much from each other, so here we go! First, I'll have to give you a little backround about me, I LOVE to organize things. It doesn't necessarily mean that I "am" organized, I just love to organize things and make sure that things have there place. I have a hard time functioning in a place that is un-organized and really just a mess. I remember growing up my mom had this never ending stack of junk on the counter that just keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Mail, bills, cards, wedding announcements, you name it, it all landed in this pile. She would constantly complain about this pile and how badly she wanted to get rid of it. But, to this day- it's still there! And now every time I visit home I tease her about the pile and that she has to get rid of it!

So, fellow bloggers- whatever your "pile" may be- I want to help you get rid of it! Let's get organized together. Today, I chose to write about baskets. You're probably laughing, but I have baskets all over my house! First, I use them to organize my cards- greeting cards that is. I have a small stationary obsession so for a while I had cards all over my house. I finally got a long basket ( I buy most of my baskets at Cost Plus World Market), and made note cards and labeled them with my *p-touch. Birthday cards, wedding, everyday, Easter, etc. I have them all 3 baskets up in my closet so I just have to pull them down whenever I want a card. They're all right there and I just have my pick out what I want. Baskets also work great is closets to hide "stuff". At the end of my hallway is a closet and in the baskets I have rags, travel toiletries, candles, etc. Each one has something different, but when you open it up it looks so much nicer that all of my stuff just thrown in there. You can see I also have my kids board books in baskets, and baskets on my living room bookshelf to hide more "stuff". You can get these type of baskets at target, Michael's, Joann's, cost plus, wal-mart, etc.

Go through your house and identify spots where you can use baskets to help organize things. Closets, cards, foods, snacks, craft supplies, ribbon, you name it- it can all be neatly organized with a basket!

* If you don't know what a p-touch is- I'm so happy to be the one to tell you! All office store sells these amazing little label machines. You can label anything and everything. And example is in the photo ( a little blurry) of how I labeled the notecards. These labelers come in very handy and range in price from $20- over $100. I've found that some are very tricked out with various fonts and sizes, but you really only need the basic one for everyday labeling. Good Luck!

Beyond Thanksgiving

Like I have mentioned before, there are so many foods out there packed with nutrition that just aren't even talked about or used. Today's little lesson in food is the seldom-used sweet potato. I am not quite sure why, but this little nutritional powerhouse is usually only featured during Thanksgiving. I , myself, am new to the sweet potato world as I was ruined as a child, only believing that these were used in that hideous casserole with brown sugar and little marshmallows baked on top, usually having the consistency of baby food. Well, my dear friends, this isn't just for Thanksgiving anymore! Check out these stats: In one half cup of sweet potatoes, roughly 4 oz, you are supplied with 2 g protein, 3.4 g fiber, 24.6 mg of C, 28 mg Calcium, 22.6 mcg folic acid, 20 mg magnesium, 348 mg potassium and tons of Vitamin A! Why are we not using these! For me, knowing how to use them was the key! They are simply delicious and I cannot get enough of them. You can cook them just like a potato and even eat them raw. There are usually two types out there in the stores, the oranger one and the yellow one. Contrary to U.S. beliefs, one is not a yam, they are both sweet potatoes. The U.S. doesn't have yams. I like the orange one for eating raw and the yellow ones to cook with. You can shred them in salads for a little color and sweet crunch. I made some roasted sweet potatoes last night in a delicious little seasoning. Try these out. Your kids will never know they are anything but regular potatoes. This marinade is delicious on plain potatoes also and you can use these potatoes in breakfast burritos and even enchiladas with black beans! It is so easy to make:

Roasted Southwest Sweet Potatoes

2 Large Yellow Sweet Potatoes

2 T. Ketchup

2 tsp. Salt

2 tsp. Chili Powder

2 tsp. Cumin

Mix sauce together, peel and cut Sweet potatoes in 1/2 inch cubes. Toss sweet potato in sauce. Spread some oil on bottom of cookie sheet, just enough to cover and spread out potatoes. Bake at 4oo for about 20 min or until tender, turning once at half time. Then, put oven on broil at 500 and cook potatoes until a bit crispy. This won't take too long. Enjoy! Don't let them get mushy! These have so much flavor and are a huge crowd pleaser.

Artzy Blogger - Creating Unique Header Graphics

Artzy Blogger - Creating Unique Header Graphics

This website is my sister-in-laws, Wendi who made my header. She is so creative and for a great price will make a header for you, any style. Check out her web page above.

Bread Class

My bread class will be on March 6th, Thursday at 7pm for those who wanted to attend. If you want to know the location, please email me for details. goodman-7@cox.net.

The Tell-Tale Runny Nose

Do you have a child that has a constant runny nose , ear infections, eczema or coughs? Most of the time, if not all of the time, this is an indications of allergies. Ask yourselves these questions: Did the symptoms start shortly after the introduction of solid foods or formula? Does your child crave a certain food? Does your child have irregular stools, colic or gas? Does your child have a hard time sleeping at night? These are just a few of the signs of allergies that may be wreaking havoc on your little ones bodies, and bigger ones too. Allergies don't just affect the nose and eyes, they affect the brain and how we act. They affect our temperament and our attention span. To find out what foods are triggering the problems, you must start an elimination diet. This isn't so easy but can be done and the benefits are tremendous. If allergies are left untreated, new allergies can form. I found this out the hard way with my little guy. By the time we had him tested, he was allergic to so many small things that feeding him seemed impossible. After removing the offending items for 6 weeks, we were allowed to slowly introduce foods back, one by one to test for a reaction. With allergies, the body becomes inflamed and starts to create new allergies. If you remove the problems, the body heals and the food may not be an allergen any more. There are certain foods that are high allergen triggers. What you need to do is start with this list. Completely remove these items from their diet for at least a week . This means not even a trace so you need to check labels and brown bag it to school. This is definitely harder with the older ones. At least start with the first two allergens and see if that helps. If at all possible , eliminate the whole list. If you can, do so for six weeks, especially on a younger child. Add one item back at a time. Feed that food to them all day, see if the nose starts to get runny and if they are irritable. If not, chances are that this is not the problem. Start a new food the next day. Make sure to keep the foods on separate days so you can chart what is causing the problem. There are definitely environmental allergies also and those can be tested by allergist pretty easily but food is more apt to cause the constant runny noses. Here is the top offending list:

Dairy product, everything from butter, yogurt, formula, etc
Wheat, even in gravies, crackers, soy product, read the labels!
Eggs
Chocolate
Citrus
Corn
Soy, 25% of children with milk allergies develop soy allergies
Peanuts
Shellfish
Sugar
Yeast

This elimination process can be done, it is so worth it but must be done very strictly. You can save them from so many future problems if you nip the problem in the bud now.

" I don't cook"

I have never quite understood what people mean when they say, "I don't cook." First of all, I want to say, "Is that an option?" But what are they, or you, saying? Does it mean that you never cooked because your mom never taught you and that it somehow doesn't apply to you? Does it mean that you tried a few times and failed? Does it mean that you would rather just eat out and not do dishes? I am not sure but however you paint it, it's just a stupid excuse for something you really should be doing. Now, I don't mean you have to cook every night and it doesn't have to be a gourmet meal, but you need to cook. Period. First of all, it is a form of love and service for your family. Second, it is making sure that your family gets nutrition. Third, you are teaching your daughter what she should be doing when she gets married.

If you are just intimidated by the whole process, you just need to start. You will mess up and try things that just don't work out right but you need to just start. And for those of you who do cook but make the same 10 recipes, you need to learn a few new tricks too. No one should feel over burdened, dinner is a hard time of day when the kids are all asking for your help and you are just tired. Start small. For me, I have lots of recipes that I have made over the years, but I am getting tired of many of the old stand byes. This year I am going to make one new recipe a week. By the end of the year, I will have tried 52 new recipes. That is a lot. I am sure I will only keep half of them around but at least we will have a little adventure. If you even just try one new one per month, you have 12. I make out a two week schedule and plot out my meals, I take 2 days off max per week. This way, I make sure I have the ingredients ahead of time and I am not surprised each day at 6 that dinner has to be made. It was planned ahead of time.

For some great recipe ideas, I found a great little magazine at my son's Dr.'s office the other day. It is the size of a Reader's Digest and is full of healthy and yummy recipes. It is called Everyday Food. It is from PBS network. I am ordering it. They had 12 different copies in the office and while I waited for him, I copied several recipes. It is so easy to get stuck in the same old routines. I shy away from recipes that have different ingredients but have vowed to change this year. I just stocked my pantry with Chinese spices and sauces and my recipe repertoire has just been expanded greatly. What a little Hoisin sauce will do is amazing! Try it out. Be adventurous! Your kids are developing their taste buds at this stage in life, they will not like a lot of variety at first, but if you keep feeding them the same old stuff, they will never learn to appreciate the fine food in life!

Blueberrylicious!

Did you know that blueberries are one of the highest yielding antioxidant fruits? Antioxidants help rid the body of free radicals which age us and pollute our bodies. The berry family also helps you have beautiful glowing skin. So, throw in those berries wherever you can! Here is one of my favorite muffin recipes , many of you already have this but many of you might not yet. I love to make this in mini muffin style, much cuter that way. They are great to freeze.

Banana Blueberry Muffins


2 extra ripe bananas
2 eggs
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup blueberries,frozen or fresh
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

Mash bananas well in bowl until puree'd, add eggs, sugar, butter and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Fold in the blueberries. Bake at 350 for about 12-15 min. for mini muffins, 20-25 mn for bigger muffins or until center springs back when touched.