The Flab Off - Confessions of Week One

With the best of intentions, we started the Flab-Off one week ago, and while neither of us exercised 20 minutes a day and we only got 7 hours of sleep about half the nights. We DID stick to our diet and drink our Sassy water each day!!!

Ev's been having headaches from caffeine and carb withdrawal, but we're loving our meals and snacks, and I can tell a difference in my skin and energy level just from the increased water intake. 

So this week, my goal is to workout every other day...on top of the diet and water and sleep. We're trying to change habits here so there's still a lot that needs to be done. 

At our weekly weigh-in tonight, we found that in the last week Elliot has gained .5 pounds, I have gained 1 pound, but Evan has lost 11.5 pounds! How awesome is that?! I'm so proud! The Biggest Loser is now following him on Twitter....hilarious!

On another note, the Colts lost the superbowl! :( Sad. It's supposed to snow a ton more tomorrow. And I'm made some new soap this weekend and ordered kefir starter too! :) Crazy stuff happening at the Gilmores. :)

Parabens & Phlalates

Don't those two words just make you cringe?
If they don't then you haven't been asking enough questions. I was going to do a post awhile back on each of these things, but the folks at Soapchix have done a more fantastic job than I could have, so I'm going to point you their way. Check out their post on the dangers of and differences between parabens & phthalates.
Basically, you need to be aware of these things for yourself, but also if you have children...or are going to have them in the future. Soapchix say that children absorb up to three times as much stuff through their skin as adults do. So even if you're not concerned about the estrogen and carcinogenic nature of parabens for yourself. Or you don't really care what phthalates do to you because you've been using products with them your entire life. Still be informed about what's going in to your little one's body.
In a nutshell, they're both in just about any store bought bath & body or cosmetic product. Parabens are used as a preservative, while phthalates are typically used as a binding agent. And while you might not find phthalates listed in the ingredients of some products, if it says "fragrance" the phthalates are there.
For some products and providers that I've found helpful, you can check out my posts on RMS and Simple Soapworks. Two other companies that I do use, but haven't done posts on are Aromaleigh and Chagrin Valley. Check them out! (I think I should totally be paid for advertising these puppies!)

COOL New Whole, Organic Foods website!

Y'all need to check out "Gnowfglins". A webite/blog about using God's natural, organic, whole foods that are grown locally and in season. Lots of tips on whole grains, soaking, sprouting, kefir and all that good stuff.

February Flab Off - Day Three

So...we're on day three of the flab-off and so far, so good. We've not been exercising like we wanted to, but I think the water and diet and trying to get more sleep is disrupting our lives enough. Maybe we'll try to be more intentional about the exercise next week. We've been enjoying the food a lot...for the most part. The almond butter-raisin oatmeal this morning could have used a bit of honey, but other than that, it's been pretty good stuff. Here are our favorite lunches so far!
Enjoy!

Strawberry-Chicken Salad Pita
Toss 3 oz of canned chicken with 1 Tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp olive oil mayo, 1 Tbsp chopped pecans or almonds, and 3-4 sliced strawberries. Fill a whole wheat pita with the chicken salad mixture. Have with about 1/2 cup pineapple tidbits and 1 light string cheese.

Chicken Mango Muffin
Toast one whole wheat english muffin. Spread with one wedge of herbed Laughing Cow Cheese. (You can buy it herbed, but I just added some rosemary, garlic and paprika. Sage, marjoram & thyme would probably be good too.) Mix 1 Tbsp chopped pecans with 3 oz canned chicken, put that and a couple slices of mango on your sandwich. Serve with the rest of the mango, some strawberries, and some non-fat yogurt.

Flab Off - Day One Menu - Sassy Water and Flab-Off Granola Recipes

So today is the first day of the Flab-Off. I'm still trying to figure out how to attach files to my posts, so I can give you my meal plan, recipes, and charts, even though I'm sure most of you are not as anal as I am about that stuff. Prevention magazine started something called the Flat Belly Diet, which now has a book out about it. One thing that they do as part of their 4 day jumpstart is drink 2 liters of Sassy water a day. This water is supposed to calm GI tract irritation, decrease bloating, get rid of constipation, and decrease water retention. I guess a flabby belly is both because of fat and retained fluid, and most of the time, you retain fluid because you're dehydrated. You can read more about it here.
On our menu today - Sassy Water (of course)...Flab-Off Granola, Low-fat Yogurt, & Raspberries for breakfast. Sunflower seeds and light string cheese for a snack. Chicken, Strawberry and Pecan Salad Pita Pockets and Pineapple for lunch.
Here are the recipes for the water and granola.

Sassy Water Recipe


1 Lemon
1 Medium Cucumber
1 Tbsp. Grated Ginger
12 Spearmint Leaves
2 Liters of Water


Slice lemon and cucumber, grate ginger root, and combine with spearmint leaves in a pitcher. Fill pitcher with water and place in fridge overnight. Drink all of the water the next day and repeat.

Flab-Off Granola


3 cups Oats
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup slivered or chopped almonds
1/3 cup ground flaxseed
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 pkg. unsweetened shredded coconut
_________________________________
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. warm water
1/4 cup coconut oil - melted (you can substitute canola oil)
1/3 cup agave nectar
1/3 cup honey


Preheat oven to 300. Combine oats, nuts, seeds, and coconut in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together cinnamon, vanilla, water, oil, agave nectar and honey. Pour sticky mixture over dry ingredients and stir together until coated well. Spread granola evenly over a lightly greased cookie sheet. Cook for 40 minutes, taking the granola out every 10 minutes to stir it. Dump cooked granola onto wax paper covered surface to cool and dry. Store in an airtight container for two weeks or freeze for up to two months.

ENJOY!

The February Flab Off!

The February Flab-Off! That’s right! Get that flab off in February. With the end of January quickly approaching, many people are starting to resolve that their New Year’s resolutions really aren’t that important to them. I say, let’s make a new month’s resolution. In the Gilmore home, this new month’s resolution has been given the term (by me, of course). The February Flab-Off!

So, here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to plan our low-carb, healthy diet meal plan for each week. On top of that, Ev and I are each going to keep a diet journal, so we can see what we’re consuming, on a daily and weekly basis. This way we can more accurately see what bad habits we’ve accumulated and where we need to cut back.  AND…we’ll have an exercise chart! Each of us will get a gold star for every day that we do some aerobic exercise for twenty minutes or more. And we’ll have weekly weigh-ins and measurements to track our progress. Lastly, we’ll each be committing to get at least 7 hours of sleep a night. In March, we’ll look at our progress and see what we need to adjust, where we failed, where we succeeded, but you can bet there will be some of that debilitating flab coming off in February.

I’ll try to post my meal plans and other resources we use here, so you can have the opportunity to use some of it too.

CoHousing - The Logical Next Step?

For a girl that makes her own soap, is a dedicated member of her CSA, is stoked about her garden this year and desires a stronger connection with her community, this cohousing thing sounds pretty good.
If you haven't heard of it, you can read more about it here. But it's basically a collaborative housing where residents design and operate their community. Most of the cohousing communities are environmentally conscience, having community gardens and the like. And it seems that most of them are run by people with similar values and lifestyle preferences on issues like religion and education. The picture above is from a cohousing community in Nevada. There are currently NONE in Indiana. But there's nice one in Michigan called Newberry Place. The other thing is, all of the residences, finances, etc. are separate, so it doesn't feel like you're living in a commune or anything, but you all contribute to the operation of the community based on your skill set.
When I first heard about it I thought, "That sounds so cool! But it would probably never work." Guess what though? It is. Similar to CSAs, this sort of endeavor to intentionally restructure our lives is catching on throughout the US.
So....who wants to start the first one in Indiana with me?!