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!

On the move…. again

April 1, 2013 / ktbuchs87

I mentioned last week that Adam and I were gearing up for a move in a few weekends. Well that weekend is quickly approaching and we have been in full moving mode. We actually started the whole process this past Saturday, and next weekend we will finish everything up and be in our new home! It’s all very exciting and stressful.

My new kitchen!

Today’s post is going to be short and sweet. I just wanted to touch base with all of you and let you know what’s going on over here in my little world! I won’t be posting next weekend but I will come back the week after and let you know how I dealt with the stress of moving and how it affected my digestion. We all have to deal with different stress in our lives and if how I handle my stress can help give you some advice then I count that as a good thing!

Running always helps reduce my stress!

I hope you all had a restful weekend and a very Happy Easter! See you soon!

Happy Easter from my family to yours!

My Digestive Journey: Stress

March 25, 2013March 25, 2013 / ktbuchs87

If you were to ask anyone who knows me really well, they would tell you that I don’t handle stress very well. I tend to turn into a wreck, no longer a human, but one giant ball of stress. It’s not pretty and it is definitely not fun. All this stress has wrecked havoc on my gut in the past..

I come from a long line of worriers, and I tend to internalize that worry and stress. Whenever I start to worry about something, my gut goes haywire on me. While I was in college, I used to have to perform solo pieces on my French Horn in front of a panel of teachers. I do NOT enjoy playing by myself in front of an audience, as it pretty much terrifies me. But every semester I would have to begrudgingly stand in front of 5 professional musicians and try not to throw up while playing my instrument. Obviously this situation caused me great amounts of stress, and the weeks leading up to my performance I would think of nothing other than having to play my solo. This stress would in turn mess with all things digestive. I wouldn’t be able to eat, yet somehow would have to run to the bathroom all the time dealing with diarrhea. It would get so bad that literally I would have to go to the bathroom 2 minutes before my performance or risk having an even more embarrassing accident than playing a few wrong notes. The surprising thing though? The minute I was done with my piece and walked out of the room I would feel infinitely better. I could eat, I wasn’t racing to the nearest toilet, and my stomach wasn’t constantly swirling like a tornado.

Stress manifests itself in different ways for different people. Not everyone may experience my intestinal fireworks whenever they encounter a difficult or worrisome situation, but there is a significant link between stress and your digestive system. There are actually a ton of nerve endings in your digestive system, and when your brain experiences a stressful situation it will release hormones that directly affect your digestion. It even starts as soon as you eat, with stress decreasing your saliva production and causing food to not be properly digested right from the moment you chew. Stress doesn’t mess around. Many of the ways you can see stress affect the digestive system is through indigestion, ulcers, and even heartburn. Not really all that fun.

So are our digestive systems at the mercy of stress and our brain? You don’t have to let it. There are things that you can do to eliminate or reduce your stress and that can help alleviate stressful situations. For all you professional worriers like me, these habits can take some time to incorporate. I still have a hard time dealing with stress (just ask my wonderfully patient husband) but I keep trying to practice and get better!

Talk it out. One of the worst things that you can do is internalize your stress and bottle it all up inside. That will just eat you up and spit you out. Having someone you can talk to about your stress and worry will help you get all that bad energy out into the open and off your chest. Also, now you have someone who can help you work through that stress and ease your worries. Even if you don’t have someone you can talk to, writing in a journal works as well. I always felt like I would be a burden to my friends and family if I bothered them with my troubles, but I have found that they are always willing to listen and help. Those that love you don’t want to see you suffer, so talk!

Find an activity that will get you away from your stress. Even if it is for a few minutes, do something that will take your mind away from your stress. When I would be practicing for my performance, sometimes I would just have to stop for a few minutes and walk around the music building or read the school newspaper just to give myself a break. If you are constantly dwelling in your stressful situation, you will eventually break. Take a walk, drink some tea, do yoga, play a video game, ANYTHING just to give your body and brain some relief.

Eat healthy foods. This is the toughest advice for me to follow, but probably some of the best. When stressed, I tend to barely eat. This is not good at all. Your body needs fuel to function and it really needs fuel whenever you are stressed so that it can deal with that stress. It may seem like common sense, but along with eating regularly, eat HEALTHY. You do not need to be eating 20 oreos, even though that may comfort you. Junk food will produce junk results and you don’t need that when you’re stressed. How many times have you been worried about something, and in order to try and feel better, you eat your favorite comfort food? How many times has that food made you feel better for the 10 minutes you are eating and then you feel awful after you are done? You don’t need the added stress of bad food, as junk food will allow your digestive system to function properly. At a time when you need your gut working as best as possible, don’t feed it garbage. Stick to foods like oranges and broccoli and other foods that have vitamins and minerals that will boost your body and alleviate your stress. Your gut will thank you!

Take a deep breath. Breathe deep and realize that this stress will not last forever. You can and will get through it and you will be stronger for having done so. Try not to dwell on the immediate stress but think to the future and the outcome. Think about how great you will feel once you have worked past this problem and come out on the other side!

Like I said before, I still struggle with dealing with stress properly. In fact, yesterday Adam and I started to pack for our upcoming move (long story short: we did not plan on moving, we were told that our lease was not going to be renewed and thus had to find a new place to live. Woooo….). I started to feel overwhelmed by everything that had to be done in a few short weeks and I started to shut down. Luckily, I (with a lot of help from Adam) was able to vocalize that stress and work through it. While I am still a little stressed about the whole situation (I seriously hate moving), I am not experiencing any of my usual symptoms. That alone is reason to be happy, because seriously who wants to have to pack and have the trots? Not me! When you start to feel stressed, take a step back, breathe deep, and know that you are tougher than any problem out there and can handle this!

Mindful eating: How to get started

December 31, 2012 / ktbuchs87

I hope that everyone had a FABULOUS Christmas! I know that I was doubly blessed this year and got to celebrate twice! Once on Christmas with my family and then Adam and I celebrated our very first Christmas as husband and wife yesterday. It was a great day filled with cheer, board games, presents, delicious food, and Christmas shows. I could not have asked for a better day. Now on to today’s topic!

One of the many cookbooks I got, but I was REALLY excited for this one! Love root veggies!

Cooking my first Christmas feast. Yup I smile like that most of the time

I talked last week about mindful eating and what that means. Simply put, it is experiencing your food with ALL your senses and taking the time to fully savor your meal. So often we are distracted while eating a meal and this leads to you inhaling your food and not really remembering what you ate. This then leads to more (read: over) eating because you do not feel like you got a full meal. Clearly this is a problem and can lead to weight gain and numerous health problems. My humble opinion is that we all need to practice a little mindful eating.

But how exactly do you eat mindfully? It is actually very simple, although I will warn you that it does take practice and patience. When you are used to eating one way for so long it becomes a habit and habits can be tough to break/change. Here are some of the steps that I personally have taken to eat mindfully and they have really helped.

Eliminate all distractions while eating. Turn off your TV, log off your laptop, put away your cellphone/tablet/whatever electronic device you have in your clutches. When you are eating you should be totally focused on the plate in front of you. Distractions while eating cause you to over eat and not pay attention (hence the name distractions… like I said most of this advice is pretty simple). The one thing that I do have while I am eating a meal is music. I like to have the radio on in the background and it is usually tuned to the classical radio station (unless it is Christmas time and then you best believe Bing Crosby is singing to me about a White Christmas). I understand that music could be a distraction for some, but might enhance the eating experience for others.

When possible, sit at a table for your meal. Another simple but effective tool of mindful eating is having a designated area to sit and eat all of your meals. This allows your body to know that it is about to receive food and it can adjust accordingly. I know that a lot of you are eating on the go because you have super busy lives and I understand that sitting down at the kitchen table for every meal might not be possible. But try to make at least one meal a sit down meal. Once you start this habit, you will really notice how just sitting at a table helps to put your focus on the delicious meal you are about to eat.

Try to be involved in the process of putting a meal together. I totally get that not everyone loves to cook or be in the kitchen making a meal. Some people find it a chore or too hard or have the tendency to burn water whenever they are trying to make food. However, you do not have to make the whole meal by yourself to be involved in the process. Help cut veggies, make the sauce, pick a wine to go with dinner, set the table or even just spend time in the kitchen observing the meal being put together. Getting involved in the whole process really allows you, the eater of food, to be more connected to the food and get more out of the act of eating. When you are more aware of your meal, you are better able to appreciate eating that food. Which leads into the next step…

Use all your senses when eating. Don’t just limit your eating to your sense of taste. Yes that is one of the most important senses, but you really miss out on a lot if you are just shoveling food in your mouth barely tasting anything. Smell all the wonderful aromas of your meal before you take a bite, or look at the bright colors of the veggies on your plate. Really listen to the sizzle of that hot steak as it comes your way to the table. Touching your food might be frowned upon in some situations, but notice the texture of that pasta as you eat or feel how creamy your mashed potatoes are. All of these actions make eating so much more than the simple act of putting a fork to your lips. It will also allow you to feel more satisfied with less food. And finally…

SLOW DOWN. It is surprising how fast some folks eat a meal. I kid you not, I have seen a family sit down to dinner and finish in 7 minutes flat. A meal should not be along the lines of a hotdog eating competition. It takes your body at least 20 minutes to register that it has eaten something, so try to make your meal last at least that long. If possible try to stretch it out even longer. Take the time to savor your food and take note that you are eating. Also with this last tip, try to eat just one helping and not go back for seconds. The longer you take to eat, the more you feel satisfied with just that one helping of food.

These are just some guidelines for mindful eating and there are a lot more. There are actually whole classes and seminars dedicated to teaching the “art” of mindful eating. But you don’t need a class to start incorporating these steps into your daily eating. Try one or two and don’t get discouraged. You may feel silly taking at least 20 minutes to eat or that it is ridiculous to smell your food, but these things WILL help you to eat mindfully and in the long run eat better and find more satisfaction with less food.

I will be taking a short break after this post because Adam and I are leaving for our honeymoon on Sunday! I am super excited to head to Jamaica with him and can’t wait to tell you all about it! So enjoy your New Year and I pray that it is a wonderful year for all of you!

How far is too far?

October 24, 2012 / ktbuchs87

A few weeks ago I wrote about a disorder called orthorexia. Simply put this disorder is an obsession with avoiding foods that one perceives as unhealthy. It is not a diagnosed disorder, but it is becoming more prevalent. I wanted to come back to this topic after having a few interesting discussions about it.

After I wrote the post, I talked with my dad and Adam about the disorder. In the talk with my dad he asked a legitimate question: how is the way that you eat not considered orthorexia? For those of you just joining, I eat based on the eat-clean principles. I do not eat anything processed (no white flour, rice, sugar or brown sugar), I do not eat anything with preservatives or chemicals or artificial ingredients. I also limit my dairy intake but that is more because of a developed intolerance. Basically I eat whole foods like fruits and vegetables, lean meats like chicken and fish, and whole grains such as brown rice or quinoa. At first when my dad asked that question I was offended. Of course I don’t have an eating disorder. I choose to eat healthy and not put harmful things in my body. I talked about it later that day with Adam and he told me that sounds exactly like something someone with orthorexia might say. Now, he wasn’t accusing me of having orthorexia, but he did make me see my dad had a point in asking.

Yes, my eating choices are probably considered über healthy and possibly even extreme to some people. The fact that I don’t eat potato chips or cereal or candy might blow some people’s minds because unfortunately those foods have become part of our everyday diets. But how do I know that my food choices haven’t crossed over into the unhealthy obsession area of a possible disorder? How do I defend my lifestyle without sounding like I’m defending a problem? I’m sure that I am not the only one who has struggled with these issues, especially when it comes to eating healthy in an ever increasing unhealthy world.

The conclusion I have come to for now is this: I might be slightly orthorexic. Now you’re thinking, great! The person who is giving me health and diet advice has just admitted to maybe having some eating disorder that SHE herself warned me about! Calm yourself for a minute and listen up. Yes, I avoid foods that I perceive are bad for me but I am not obsessed with it. I don’t sit at home and avoid social situations just because I might come into contact with unhealthy food. I do not constantly worry about eating food that I have not made myself because it could be unhealthy. And I have not limited my food intake that I am to the point of malnutrition. I have made a choice to eat the best things for my body, and I am fully aware that if not monitored, it could become a problem like I just described. I can’t tell you when the way you eat has gone from a healthy choice to an unhealthy problem. You will have to set that line for yourself, or enlist a trusted friend or family member to keep you in check. I believe that is one of the keys to knowing how far is too far: knowledge of a potential problem and having the accountability to deal with the problem should it arise. Health, like many things in life is a delicate balance between just right and too much. Your job is to arm yourself with knowledge and keep your balance on that fine line. It’s tough but oh so worth it!