Unique

May 20, 2013 / ktbuchs87

I am going to bet good money that you have been told at some point in your life that you are a unique and special individual, that there is no one else just like you. It’s a message that we hear a lot, we’re all individuals and we should embrace our own quirks and personalities. I think it’s a good message and I’m not writing today to bash sentiment, but rather extend it to other parts of our life, mainly eating (go figure).

It’s no secret that my big mantra for healthy eating/living is what works for me might not work for you. I have talked about it before, but more and more I think it is a message that we need to hear again. It seems that every day a new study comes out touting that a new diet is THE way to eat. More recently the Mediterranean diet has been in the news and folks are jumping on that eating bandwagon. I’ve fallen victim to diet hype many times, so I know how tempting it can be to start a new diet craze. We get drawn in by the people who have had amazing results (lost weight, have more energy, can do 1,00 push-ups in a minute etc.), the scientific studies proving that this diet is effective, and the doctors/nutritionist/celebrities representing the diet. Marketing people know how to parade their product/idea to get consumers to buy, that’s their job.

I’m not here to bash these diets either, although there are some fairly terrible ones out there that no one should touch with a ten-foot pole (cabbage soup diet anyone?). In fact I believe that these diets can be successful, but not for every single person. There is no possible way that one diet can meet the needs of the billions of people on this planet, and you know what? That is totally ok! For some reason, people tend to think that if everyone else is eating a certain way, they need to do that too. Take gluten-free diets. The number of people who have Celiac’s Disease (meaning they literally can NOT have any form of gluten) is about 1.8 million, with 1.4 million people out there undiagnosed. The number of people who are following a gluten-free diet? 1.6 million. Gluten-free has become a fad diet that people think will make them healthier, but there are a good number of people out there who have no need to follow a gluten free diet. It can actually cause them more harm than good, mainly because their body doesn’t NEED to avoid gluten.

What we really need to start pushing in terms of healthy eating and living is that it is a unique journey. Just like you yourself are a special individual, your body is a special individual as well. For me, I do well and thrive on a diet of whole fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, and no processed food, preservatives, chemicals, gluten or dairy. Through trial and error I have found a way of eating that give my body the nutrients it needs to perform well. I would never say that every single person needs to eat the way that I do though. Case in point: My parents came over for dinner last weekend and I made sloppy joes with lentils instead of meat. Now my father is a meat eater, always has been. I think that if possible he would just munch on cow all day every day. That is fine and that is what works for him. He was receptive to my vegan sloppy joes and even said they tasted great, but they did not agree with him later on. He has a digestive system that thrives on eating meat and feels his best eating that way.

What do you do though to find your happy diet? Try. Yes, this seems like really stupid advice, but it’s the best way to find what will work. My best suggestion would be to do some research on a few different diets that interest you. Say you feel drawn to eating less meat, look into vegan and/or vegetarian diets. Once you have educated yourself on the basic principles of whatever eating lifestyle, start implementing those into your diet. When you have been eating a certain way for awhile, assess your health. How do you feel? Do you notice improvements in your life like more energy, better skin, healthier bowel movements (of course I am going to mention poop!)? Or do you feel the same or worse than before? If you feel better continue eating that way, and if not start the process over again or make some adjustments. I want to stress though how important it is to stick with a certain diet for a good amount of time before switching. You won’t be able to really assess your health after only a week of eating a new way. It could take up to a few months to really start seeing the benefits. Give your body some time to adjust and then evaluate your situation. Yes, this can be a long process and may seem tedious, but your health is worth it in the end.

Now bear in mind, I am not giving you license to justify junk eating by saying this is the diet that allows you to thrive. I still believe that eating whole and real foods like fresh vegetables and grass-fed humanely raised meat are much better for everyone than processed or packaged food. My main point is that we need to stop worrying about what our friends and neighbors are eating and start focusing more on what makes us feel great. For some that might be a mostly Paleo diet, others might do well on a vegetarian or vegan diet, still others might thrive eating gluten-free. It’s all about finding your perfect balance and not being nervous to step outside of the diet of the moment. I understand it can be difficult for some of us to go against the grain, I still get a little anxious about listing all of the things I don’t eat. I worry that I will be a hassle to others or they might think I’m just trying to get attention or that I am not eating the right way. But the longer I have eaten this way and been more open about it, I’ve realized I value the amazing way I feel rather than what others think about my eating habits. Don’t be afraid to stand up for what makes you feel the healthiest, because in the end that is what matters the most!

In other news, my little sister graduated from Valparaiso yesterday! I am so proud of all she has accomplished and can’t wait to see what she will do next! Congratulations to all graduates out there!

Congrats Jo!

My Story

May 13, 2013 / ktbuchs87 / 1 Comment

I think it is about time that you all hear my story. I have shared a few insights into my health journey in some of my posts but I haven’t given you the full spiel. It was brought to my attention that readers might not relate to me because I seem to have it all together health-wise (trust me I’m still learning and growing on that front) and I want you to realize I have been in some of the same situations that you might find yourselves. My story probably starts a lot like yours….

I was a pretty normal kid (I use normal very loosely here, I am a bit quirky!). I didn’t have any major health problems and I was the same as most kids in my class. I had no issues with my appearance and I had no reason to have any issues. I was your average American kid.

Yes normal children sing for their Grandma in their bathing suit…

Then I entered fifth grade and puberty hit, which is totally normal, but I started puberty before all of my friends. That is when a lot of my issues started. I couldn’t understand why suddenly I was developing hips and boobs and my thighs were getting bigger and hair was sprouting places, yet my friends were still skinny and flat-chested and seemingly hair-less. I’m a naturally shy person and all these changes made me feel awkward and ugly and made me retreat even more from public situations. I didn’t want anyone seeing me or focusing any type of attention on me. This is also when I started to hate my body and when I started to go on diets to try and look like what I thought was normal. The diets would work for a little while, I would lose weight, feel good about myself, go off the diet and, you guessed it, gain the weight back.

Pretty sure this is fifth grade, I’m the one with the glasses flexing a non-existent muscle

Quite the attractive face, I think I was going for “I’m cool” ? Either way it didn’t work

High school wasn’t much different than junior high. I came from a small parochial school, so public school was a bit of a shock for me. I had never been around so many kids at once. My graduating 8th grade class was 21 kids and suddenly I was in a class of over 500. This made shy Katie nervous and panicky. Luckily, I got involved in the marching band and made amazing friends and had amazing experiences. I excelled in band and was a squad leader by my sophomore year and a section leader my junior and senior year. As cheesy and nerdy as it may sound, I really believe that marching band saved me during my high school years.

I believe this was my senior year? I wasn’t a big fan of pictures

But, high school was also a really hard time for my body, especially my self-image. Now that I was in high school I had more freedom over my food choices, and not knowing anything helpful about nutrition, I made HORRIBLE food choices. Our cafeteria was full of fat and calorie laden food, and I was drawn to those choices. I would eat bread bowls full of cream of broccoli soup, drink tons of soda (diet is fine right?), get candy as a snack from the vending machine, munch on bacon potato skin chips dipped in cream cheese (yes, it is as gross as it sounds). Of course I would also make sure I got “healthy” food like bottled smoothies (fruit is good for you, even when it is in liquid sugar form, right?), and baked potato chips.

Told you I was quirky

Needless to say I gained weight. While I might never have been considered obese, I was definitely overweight. The added weight did nothing to help my self-image, which I already struggled with, and I started to crash diet, in the most unhealthy way possible. I would skip meals and at one point even tried weight loss pills, anything to try and make myself skinny and pretty. Of course, none of these things worked and I was miserable. I hated my body and felt that I was so ugly that no one else could ever love me. It was a very difficult time for me. But things did look up my junior year when I got my first boyfriend. I was elated that someone of the opposite sex actually thought I was worthy enough to date Trust me, I know how sad and pathetic that sounds, but when you have such a low opinion of yourself, you look for anything to validate your worth, even a boy.

Freshman year of college

By the time that I got to college, I had had a few boyfriends. Sadly, having a boyfriend made me feel like I was worth something. I felt that if someone else other than my friends and family thought I was good enough, then I really was good enough. I entered college feeling both petrified and excited. Petrified because I was leaving home and my comfort zone and stepping into a world that I knew nothing about. Excited because I was finally going to become a little more independent and adult like. I decided one of my new major goals in college was to become healthier and finally lose weight for good and be happy with the way I looked. Great goals, but I still went about them in the wrong way. For the first year or so of college I was a vegetarian, partly because my boyfriend at the time was and partly because I thought it would help me lose weight. But you can still eat junk food while being a vegetarian (hello mac n’ cheese!) and having a prepaid meal plan where you can get all the food you want can be dangerous. But I was determined not to gain the freshmen 15, and in fact I actually lost weight. This was because I started to work out on a regular basis. I had free access to the Rec center at my college and made working out a part of my routine. While I had never been totally sedentary before and had worked out in spurts in junior high and high school, I had never had an established routine. Being able to go to the Rec center for free was great because it got me started on a great habit.

But I still ate some not-so-great foods and I still had self-esteem problems. I had hoped that once I lost weight I would magically be transformed into this happy, self assured person. At the time I didn’t realize that I needed to work on more than just my body, I needed to work on my mind and my relationship with myself. I never gave myself the chance to do that though because I was always relying on other people to make me feel better about myself, mainly my boyfriends.

And then something happened that really changed everything for me. The summer before my last year of college, I worked as a trainer with my dad. My dad is a kinesiotherapist (specialized area of medicine in which exercise and movement are used as the primary form of rehabilitation), and we would work with all different kinds of people, from athletes to the elderly, to make them stronger or faster or better in whatever they did. I got to create exercise programs for people and then work with them one on one to help them improve. That summer my dad also had another intern working with him, also my age and a friend I had known for awhile. It was a great summer, I got to step outside of my box and do something I didn’t think I was good at and I actually did fairly well. I also got to interact with my dad and become better friends with his other intern. It was that friendship that really turned things around for me. And the one thing that he did that pretty much changed everything for me? Encouraged me to sign up for a 5k race through our church. Yup, that was my big epiphany moment. At the time, I hated running. I thought it was pointless and stupid and I dreaded the thought of running. But my friend convinced me to give it a shot and we even trained a little together at work. I’ll admit, it wasn’t very fun and I was just doing this to make him happy. I figured I would get through this one race and never have to run again. Boy, was I wrong. The day of the race arrived, and I was a nervous wreck. There was no way I was going to be able to run 3.1 miles and I was about to make a huge fool of myself. But I didn’t, I ran really well. I never stopped or gave up and I didn’t die. I crossed that finish line and I felt amazing. Finishing that race made me realize I could do things that I never thought I could do. I was a stronger person than I thought possible.

Running became my therapy. Each time I laced up and went for my run, I proved to myself how strong and amazing my body was no matter what it looked like. I could do things that I was always too shy or scared to try. I started to love myself on my runs and started the long process of healing years of self-hatred. Yes, this all sounds spiritual and hippie-dippie, but running really changed my life and opened so many doors for me. Before running, I would never go up and talk to a person I barely knew. After running, I finally got the nerve to actually talk to a boy without him approaching me first. Good thing too or else I would have never met my husband. Before running, I would never have picked up nutrition books or health books or researched about eating right. After running, I completely overhauled the way I ate and learned as much as possible about being the healthiest me I could be. And you know what? I finally found that happy person I longed for ever since fifth grade. Yes, I lost weight along the way (about 45 lbs over a course of 7 years), but for the first time in a long time I didn’t care about the weight. I cared about how I felt on the inside. I cared about treating my body with exercise and good, wholesome food. I finally believed myself that I was worthy enough.

I’ve been in dark places in my past health-wise. Please believe me when I say I know how you feel. While I might not have the EXACT same story as you, I know what it’s like to go through rough times. Do I have my whole life together now and never struggle? Heck no. I still have my moments. I still struggle with self-image and self-esteem and have to work on it daily. I will probably have to work on it daily for the rest of my life, but I am in a MUCH better place than before. Life is so much more than how much you weigh or what you look like and sadly we (me included) get so wrapped up in trying to meet other people’s standards. But we can change that. Let’s work on setting our own standards and move towards a healthy life. Realize that getting to your happy place may look very different than how I reach my happy place. Not everyone is going to run a race and change their life. You do have to go out there and WORK at what will change your life for the better.

I hope that my story gave some of you inspiration. It is hard to share some of these personal moments with the whole world as well as make sure that I am sending a message of hope and encouragement as well. Remember, I’m here to help you find your way to a healthier life. Because I know how hard it can be along the way and how amazing it is once you see the light at the end of the tunnel! Have a fabulous week everyone!

Happy!

The Cost of Eating

May 6, 2013 / ktbuchs87 / 4 Comments

Yes, we all know that eating healthy is good for us and eating unhealthy is bad for us. This is not surprising news, mainly because it is drilled into our heads on a daily basis via news, twitter, blogs, newspapers, magazines… You get the idea. So what does it cost us to eat poorly?

Health- This is the obvious cost of eating an unhealthy diet. We all know this and it is constantly cited and analyzed. It is also a really important factor, simply for the fact that a bad diet can cause serious complications, and may ultimately lead to death. One of the most obvious health effects of eating an unhealthy diet is weight gain. In 2008, 1.4 billion adults in the world were overweight, and 500 million of those were classified as obese. There are a ton of obesity related diseases, The CDC lists coronary heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, cancers, such as endometrial, breast, and colon cancer, high total cholesterol or high levels of triglycerides, liver and gallbladder disease, sleep apnea and respiratory problems, degeneration of cartilage and underlying bone within a joint (osteoarthritis), reproductive health complications such as infertility, and mental health conditions, just to name a few. That is a really long list of unpleasant complications all related to obesity. The decision, YOUR decision, to eat unhealthy food leads to this nasty list. YOU have more control over these issues than you might think. In this study, researchers looked at two different measures of a quality diet and then assessed how they affected the risk of the chronic diseases mentioned above. Both measures of a quality diet, which included more consumption of fruits and vegetables and less reliance on processed food, led to reduced risk, with the Alternate Healthy Eating index predicting risk just a little bit better. Even small changes like eating more fruits and vegetables, like in this study, led to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. Food has a huge impact on so much of our daily lives, it is the fuel that runs EVERYTHING going on inside your body. I know this comparison has been made before, but it really is a great illustration. Think of your body as a car and the food you eat as the gas. In order to run properly, your car needs the proper fuel, or else it’s not going anywhere and will likely have major troubles along the way. The same goes for your body. It needs the right fuel to function optimally. Good food = good fuel.

Financial- There are a few factors to the financial aspect of eating a poor diet. The first relates directly to the health factor, healthcare costs. Let’s just look at the numbers. In a 2009 study the CDC found that obesity related costs were around $147 billion in 2006. By 2012, that number had risen to $190 billion, and exceeded the costs of health care costs for smoking which has in the past been the number one health cost. That is a HUGE jump in just six years, and unfortunately it doesn’t look any better for the future. Researchers are saying if we keep heading down the road that we are on, by 2030 health care costs will be somewhere in the $550 billion range. I won’t speak for anyone else, but to me $550 billion feels like an astronomical price to pay for good health. While I’m not saying this is the magic bullet to fix all problems health related, eating better foods can DRASTICALLY reduce this cost. Instead of shelling out your hard earned money on medications and surgeries and other health costs, channel that money to a healthy diet.

“But Katie, that’s the problem! My family can’t afford to eat healthy foods! It’s just too expensive!” Many people are under the impression that eating well is also synonymous with being expensive, and at a quick glance it does seem that way. Go to the grocery store and find a bag of chips at will probably cost anywhere from 2 to 5 dollars. If you compare that to a bag of organic chips, without added chemicals or preservatives, the price will probably go anywhere from 4 to 6 dollars. For some families, they just can’t afford to buy all the “fancy” organic healthy food, and our family is one of them. That doesn’t stop us from eating as well as we possibly can. Somewhere along the line, it has gotten drilled into our heads that in order to eat well and be healthy we have to buy the top shelf, organic, non-GMO, gluten-free, dairy free, soy free, nut free, expensive products. While I don’t think that any of those things are bad, they are NOT absolutely necessary for a healthy lifestyle. Adam and I have a limited food budget, but we still manage to eat a very healthy and nutritious diet on that budget. Every Friday I do one big grocery trip for the week. Here is this week’s haul:

All this food cost us $46.80, which is what we usually spend on our big shopping trip. I do also make a quick run on Wednesday’s to pick up a few things, but that is because at our local grocery store they give a 10% discount on Wednesday and that bill rarely goes over $20. So for under $70 a week, Adam and I eat a healthy and balanced diet and there are others out there who spend even less on good food. We have also made the decision to not eat out frequently and spend our money on whole foods that we can prepare for ourselves at home, which saves us money in the long run. Americans are spending more and more money on eating out, which isn’t helping their wallets or waistlines.

This article shows the trend of spending on food over the years, and it’s amazing to see how it has changed over the years. More and more is being spent on quick convenient foods and then subsequently on medical costs to combat the result of eating those convenient foods. You have the power to change that, all you have to do is make the conscious decision to spend your money on food that is healthy and not harmful to your body.

Emotional- This is one cost of a poor diet that might not be looked at as much, but it is a very important one. Your mental health is just as important as your physical health and often the two go hand in hand. There is an increased occurrence of self-image issues in obese individuals. These include eating disorders such as binge eating, body dissatisfaction, poor self-esteem, and overall dissatisfaction with quality of life. As mentioned earlier, mental disorders are also higher among overweight individuals. So not only is eating poorly attacking our bodies, it is attacking our minds and even our sense of self worth. In 2010, researchers conducted a study about the effect of public health advertisements on obese individuals. Many reported that instead of helping or motivating them to be healthier, they often felt attacked and stigmatized. So even things that the general public believes are helping spread the word about being healthier are in fact causing more stress and hurt. Believe me I know how it feels to be unhappy about your weight or your body image. I have struggled with self-image issues from a very early age and it is a tough thing to overcome completely. But one of the things that is helping me everyday is the fact that I can take control of that with the way that I eat. Again, I am in no way saying that food is the magic cure-all for every problem I have listed and not listed, but it is a very powerful aspect of our lives.

There are so many more costs that occur from the way we eat. If I were to talk about them all, we could be here for days and while I would love to believe that you would thoroughly enjoy reading my every word on the subject (I never said I wasn’t just a tad disillusioned), I don’t want to sit here and beat a dead horse. Like I said at the beginning, we all have heard that eating bad is not good for us, it isn’t rocket science. I hope that some of the information I have presented to you today has helped you see just how big of an impact the way you eat can affect your life. I know it may seem like a huge step to totally change your eating habits, but it is worth it. Not only to just feel better but to live better! I hope you have a fabulous Monday and talk to you guys soon! Remember to follow me on Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram to get more updates, facts and insights into eating better!

Prep yourself before you wreck yourself

April 22, 2013 / ktbuchs87 / 1 Comment

Eating healthy is too hard and too time consuming. It is so much easier to just grab some quick snack that is already made and get on with my day.

No, I haven’t gone crazy, and no it was not me who uttered those words. But I have heard every variation of this complaint when it comes to eating well. In fact I know that this is a big issue that keeps a lot of people from giving up their junk food lifestyle and eating healthy. People just don’t have time in their busy lives to sit there and prepare their own meals and snacks. While I am not diminishing all the hard working, busy people out there, I believe that everyone has enough time to prep their own food and snacks. I do it every week, and there are a ton of other bloggers out there who are just as busy as you that do it too. Check out Lindsay from The Lean Green Bean, who posts tons of pictures and recipes for her week of eating.

My point is that with a little planning and a little bit of time one or two days a week, you can make sure that you eat healthy the whole week. Sure, it does take a little effort, but I argue that the effort is well worth it in the end. Your good health counts on it! This week I am going to invite you into my kitchen and share some of the foods/tips I use to have a successful healthy week of eats for both Adam and I!

Plan it out. My number one tip for eating better is to take a few minutes and write out your menus for the week. I’m weird and I like to plan way ahead and have the whole week of dinners written out so I know exactly what I am making each night. You don’t have to write out a detailed menu for every single meal for the week, but creating a general plan will help eliminate the frantic 5:30 rush to find something to put on the table. This usually leads to throwing something unhealthy (think: frozen pizza) into the oven just to feed the hungry masses slobbering away at your kitchen door. When you have a rough plan of your meals it makes it that much simpler come eating time. I do my grocery shopping on Friday’s, so on Thursday I usually write out a weeks worth of dinner and then make my grocery list. I don’t do any fancy new recipes during the week and I stick to simple dishes. If I want to try something new I save that for my weekends when I have more time. Some examples of a typical weeknight meal are frozen fish (tilapia, salmon), steamed veggies and brown rice. Another favorite of Adam’s is a skillet scramble that usually consists of potatoes, eggs, beans, salsa, various spices, and anything else in the fridge that looks good. Keep it simple and easy and that will make your nights a breeze. No need to be a gourmet chef every night to eat well.

Pick a prep day. Like most people I work Monday-Friday and don’t have much extra time during the week. So I take one day over the weekend and I get as much food prep for the week done as I can. It usually takes me only about 2 hours at the most to get what I need to get done and for some of my prep I can do two things at once. A typical prep day will include making quinoa breakfast bars for Adam, hard cooking eggs for snacks during the week, making roasted chickpeas for lunches, cooking brown rice or quinoa for dinner sides, cooking dried beans, and cutting up vegetables for lunches and dinners. Simple steps like this make it so easy during the week to just grab the prepped food and be on your way. When I first started utilizing a prep day it took me a little longer to get everything done. But as I did it each week I got faster and more efficient at my routine and now it is just habit to get all the stuff done that I need to. Don’t give up if it seems like you are in the kitchen forever when you first start out, once you get your rhythm the steps will fly by and you will be done before you know it!

One magic word: LEFTOVERS. Seriously, learn to love and use leftover food. This habit alone will make your life 10 times easier. Plan to make a little extra food for your dinner and voila! You have just created lunch for the next day. Remember how I mentioned my best friend the slow cooker last week? On the weekends I make three big crockpot meals that provide us with leftovers for the entire week. I also make extra vegetables for dinners during the week and those also get used for lunches or as sides for another dinner. Leftovers have been a major help in our life and keep us eating healthy at every meal!

Now that I have given you my three biggest (and in my humble opinion most helpful) hints, I thought I would share my refridgerator/freezer/pantry with you to give you some visuals on how I stock/prep for the week!

First up we have my freezer:

I buy big bags of frozen fish (top left corner) from Aldi. This saves money and time because it is so easy to grab a piece of tilapia or salmon, season it, put it in a baking dish, cover and bake for 20 or so minutes. Remember, you don’t need to get all fancy for your week night meals. I also have frozen veggies, that I steam for quick sides. I also have individual bags of beans that have been cooked and frozen (top right corner). These are so simple to throw into any dish, from soups to scrambles to salads, and they are so easy to make in your crockpot. There are also some frozen pork chops that I make for dinner for Adam some nights (bottom left corner) and frozen homemade bread for Adam’s breakfast toast (bottom left corner).

Next up, my fridge:

Starting with the top we have a lot of eggs. We use eggs for breakfast, dinner, and snacks. We hard cook them, scramble them, turn them into omelettes or frittatas, poach them, pretty much any way you can eat/cook an egg we have done. Eggs are relatively cheap and they make healthy, quick meals! Moving on down to the next shelf we have parsnips and carrots that will be used for lunches and dinners and next to that we have those beautiful leftovers I mentioned earlier! On the bottom shelf and in the drawers we have more fruits and veggies (like broccoli, cabbage, beets, turnips, and pears) that will be used for lunches and sides for dinners. My go to method for veggies is to cut them up and then come dinner time throw them on a foil covered pan, drizzle some olive or coconut oil, season with whatever strikes my fancy, and roast them at 400 for 20-35 minutes. Simple, quick, and delicious. Also on the bottom shelf we have water (a must no matter what), almond milk for my breakfasts/baking purposes, veggie broth, oj, and hidden back there are some beers for Adam. A guy’s gotta have his brew! On the door, where you can’t really see, I have a variety of condiments such as mustard, homemade ketchup, hot sauce, salsa, jams, and other various things that can be thrown into recipes to make things taste delicious!

A quick glance at my spice cabinet:

I’m not going to name every single spice in my cabinet, because quite frankly I am a spice junky and have probably hundreds of spices! I have talked before about how important spices are to healthy eating because they are such a great way to season your food without adding unnecessary chemicals/calories to your meal. Start experimenting and find out what your favorite tastes are and once you figure that out you can even start making your own spice blends, like a taco or pizza seasoning!

And finally my cupboard/pantry:

In the top picture we have all my grains and flours. I use everything from brown rice to quinoa to lentils to steel cut oats. I also have almond flour (for gluten free baking), whole wheat flour and whole wheat pastry flour. I also have raw almonds for snacks, onions and potatoes for meals, ground flax seed for baking, and various dried beans to be cooked. In the bottom picture we have mostly canned goods and stockpiled stuff like soups, peanut butter (a MUST in this household), loose leaf teas and various other baking supplies. Usually when there is a good sale on say pumpkin or diced tomatoes (fire roasted and no salt added are my favorite), I will stock up. This makes it easy to have them on hand to throw into any meal.

Now this is by no means all the food we have in the house any given week. We also have various other fruits and vegetables that are kept in different areas. Hopefully the pictures helped give you an idea of how of how to stock your own kitchen and some of the tips I use gave you some ideas of how to prep your own healthy eating lifestyle. Eating better does not have to be stressful as long as you just take some time to plan it out and stick to simple techniques. The easy act of just cutting up some carrots for lunches or adding an extra chicken breast for dinner to make leftovers can make a world of difference in eating better! So give a few of these tips a try and see how easy and beneficial it really is! If you already do your own prep day and have some tips/advice of your own, feel free to share with everyone! The more we talk with each other and share our healthy ideas the easier it is to change the way we eat and live!

Have a fabulous week and I’ll see you next Monday with a post about some of the meals Adam and I eat throughout the week!

Moving, without all the stress

April 15, 2013 / ktbuchs87 / 1 Comment

It’s official, we have finally moved! I know I haven’t mentioned much on here about us having to move, mostly because we weren’t really looking to move. We found out in February from our landlord that she was not renewing our lease and that we had until May to find a new place. Needless to say we were a little shocked.

Living room, with gorgeous sunlight coming in off the balcony!

From that point it was a mad dash to try and find a new place in the area and within our price range. Because we were not expecting this, it was obviously a bit of a stressful situation. I’ve mentioned it before in the wedding post, I do not tend to handle stress very well. I pretty much turn into a huge mess and no one really wants to deal with me. Plus it messes with my health big time. My acne flares up, my digestion goes haywire, I become more susceptible to illnesses, and overall, I just feel awful.

Dining room!

Knowing this about myself, I was determined not to let that happen to me this time around. One of my health goals this year is to really work on how I manage stress, as well as how I react to stress. An unexpected move seemed like the perfect stressful situation to try and work through. I know that everyone goes through stressful times in their lives, so I thought that I would share with you some of the steps I took this time around to try and minimize/manage my stress. You can tailor these to your specific needs and hopefully they will help you out as much as they did for me!

Office/guest bedroom. Hi Adam!

Accept the stressful situation. Huh? Yes, I said accept. I am a person who loves to have control over every aspect of my life. Unfortunately, life does not care about that and will inevitably throw curve balls your way, causing you stress. It has taken me a very long time to learn and begin to accept the fact that there are just some times when I will not be able to control a problem. I had no control over the fact that my landlord was not going to renew my lease. Nor did I have control over the fact that I had less than three months to find a new home and move. Worrying or stressing over the situation was going to get me nowhere, so rather than let it bring me down I decided to just accept the fact that this was happening and move on from there. I am not saying you have to be happy about unplanned stress in your life, but there are times when all the worrying and fretting will amount to nothing. In fact, it will just add to your misery. So once that curve ball is thrown your way, take a deep breath, accept that this is happening and move forward. Which leads to my next point…

Make a plan. Once you accept that some stress is going to enter your life, create a plan to help and work through that stress. For me, creating a timeline showing how we would deal with the situation helps to lessen the stress. For this move, I made a timeline of when certain things needed to be completed. The time when we needed to find a new place, the time we needed to tell our landlord, the time when we needed to start packing, and the date we needed to move by. Having checkpoints for me to reference helped me feel more in control of the situation and it also helped to make sure we were getting things done in time. Having a basic outline of how you can tackle your dilemma will help you to feel more in control of your situation.

Our bedroom… don’t mind the laundry on the bed

Realize there will be hiccups. Even if you plan down to the very last detail, there will probably still be some unforeseen issues that will arise. Clearly there is no way to make sure everything goes 100% smoothly, 100% of the time. By knowing that beforehand, it can make it a little easier to deal with the little things that pop up. Don’t let those little things stress you more, handle them in the best way possible and keep moving towards your ultimate goal.

Laundry room/mucho storage! I love having a washer and dryer right in my home!

These tips are obviously of the broader type, meant to be utilized in most types of stressful situations. Here are some of the more specific things that I did to deal with this move and not freak out.

1. I asked for help. This is a huge thing for me because I generally have the attitude of I can do it all by myself. I have learned the hard way that I can NOT do it by myself, and I have a ton of people in my life who are more than willing to help me when I need. All I have to do is ask them. I asked both my parents and my in-laws for help with the move as well as my sister and to our surprise and delight, some of Adam’s friends offered to help us the day of our move. Everyone was ready and willing to help and never once made it feel like it was a huge inconvenience. I was overwhelmed with their gusto and both Adam and I were super appreciative.

2. I started packing early. Instead of trying to jam all the packing into just one day, I spread it out over a few weeks. This helped it to seem less overwhelming and made the process go fairly smoothly. Plus, with the way the timing worked out on our lease, we were able to move some things in stages, which REALLY made the actual moving day less stressful.

3. I became best friends with my slow cooker. I was already on fairly good terms with my slow cooker before this move, but I really gave it a work out that whole weekend. Because I knew that I would not have the time (or quite frankly the energy) to make healthy dinners, I planned to have three slow cooker meals for that weekend. It was so simple to just throw the ingredients in in the morning and have a delicious meal at the end of a long day. It was so important for me to eat, and eat healthy, so that I could function properly. I also made sure to save some leftovers from the week before so that we could also have quick lunches ready.

Kitchen, and yes that is the crock pot cooking our dinner!

All these things helped to greatly reduce my stress levels this past weekend. Did I still freak out and have to calm down? Of course. Like I said before, this was my first real test of better handling a stressful situation. There were times I felt like crying and giving up, but rather than bottle that up and let it destroy me, I talked with Adam or my friends and family. They were able (and happy) to listen and offer advice and encouragement and it really made a difference. I experienced none of my usual health problems, and in fact have felt even better than I did before the move! You can work through a stressful situation and come out better on the other side. Just take some time to compose yourself, create a plan of attack, and call on the ones who love you to lend a helping hand!

I hope that these tips can help you guys out whenever life gives you some lemons and that you are able to better maintain a healthy life while dealing with adversity. I think that I am going to start writing more about what Adam and I do to eat healthy throughout the week. I think it will be helpful for those of you out there who might not be sure what to do to even start eating better and taking care of your health. Again, if you have any suggestions just let me know! I would love to hear from you! I hope you all had a fabulous weekend and are ready to attack the week ahead with some energy!