Monday, September 24, 2012

Day 356

Exercise: About to go do weights at the gym or jog at Memorial Park.

Vince was making us salads when
I got home from work.  : )

Dinner

What I call hurricane food! You know...when the electricity
goes out and you are stuck for days doing nothing in
the dark. What do you eat? Packaged peanut butter
and crackers of course! I pass these out during work meetings
and couldn't resist myself today. Hungry. 

Plum and cottage cheese (part of lunch)
Breakfast: 1 free range organic brown boiled egg, frozen blueberries, steel cut oatmeal, green tea
Snack: organic pear, water, 1 carrot
Lunch: leftovers: gluten free pasta with seaweed, organic broccoli, (the bad GMO squash), mushrooms, lowfat cottage cheese, organic plum
Snack: orange packaged crackers!! Ahhhhh total GMO food!
Dinner: Salad and corn tortilla with egg white and turkey bacon


Sunday, September 23, 2012

Day 355 Trader Joe's: No More GMOs!

Exercise: none today

My last blog entry mentions genetically modified foods and how they can negatively affect you and your family in horrible ways without you even knowing it. After learning about GMOs, Vince and I have decided to do our best to go 100% organic. It can cost an arm and a leg so we are also going to look into growing our own foods for consumption. Keep in mind that SEEDS too are GMOs so you need to purchase seeds that are not genetically modified.

Trader Joe's Store opened up just a couple days ago so we tried it out today. They have a lot of organic food. We found we get better deals purchasing organic food at Costco for the price, but did come away with some items. It is a neat place to visit. A must see.

My first visit to Trader Joe's.
Usually buy the coconut milk
in bulk at Costco. Not my fav, but
found organic, vanilla coconut
milk at Trader Joe's. No GMOs!


All the aisles were packed! Insane.
Difficult to shop and a bit frustrating.
Come with patience.


Didn't buy this, but notice it states
the chicken is free from hormones.
This is the kind of stuff you need to
look for.


Dark leafy greens. Wish they had this
at Costco. Too expensive at Trader Joe's.


Breakfast: left over sqaush (the GMO
bad kind!!), eggs and mushrooms,
frozen blueberries, green tea


Dark leafy greens, avacado, red and
yellow bell peppers, 1/2 carrot, purple
cabbage, cumumber, wild caught
fish, olive oil and spices.

Have no idea if Pollock is good for
you, but the price was good for it
being Wild C


Organic Pears.

Organic strawberries. Yum!

Won't be buying RiceMilk any longer. Laying off on the rice
since the news.

Dinner: gluten free organic pasta with seaweed, organic broccoli,
squash, mushrooms. water, orange

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Day 354 Genetically Modified Food!! I'm Horrified!

Exercise: None. Wanted to get out and do something today, but had a morning work-related function, ate out with Vince and then slept almost 4 hours! Where did the day go??



Looks healthy, but WAIT!! Is it slowly killing us? Read below to find out more!
Answer at the bottom!
I watched a video tonight and learned all about genetically modified foods. I was astounded at the potential of these genetically modified foods (GMOs) being a cause of allergies, disease, birth defects, intestinal issues, cancers. It sparked a huge interest in me to research this. This is straight from one website I found and it may capture your interest:
Q: Are we eating GM food?
A: GM soya is in about 60 percent of all processed food as vegetable oil, soya flour, lecithin and soya protein. GM maize is in about 50 percent of processed foods as corn, corn starch, cornflour and corn syrup. GM tomato puree is sold in some supermarkets and GM enzymes are used throughout the food processing industry. Government regulations on labelling exclude 95-98 percent of the products containing GM ingredients because they ignore derivatives. (from: http://www.saynotogmos.org/) I have not had a chance to look at the entire website, but a lot of it has caught my attention.
I'll try to post the video I viewed tomorrow if I am able to. It is over an hour and quite intense.
Pesticides, including Roundup Weed Killer is a major issue as well. Details later...getting late.

These are the 9 crops you want to avoid or buy only organic. According to the video, they are all genetically engineered and can cause havoc to the intestinal system in some people and much more. Stay away from soy too!! I had no idea and implemented it in my diet so often this past year!! Horrified.

1. Soy (keep in mind this is in baby formula and some vitamins too!  2. Corn!  3. Cottenseed (for oil)  4. Canola (for oil)  5. Sugar Beets  (for sugar)   6. Papaya (Hawaiian)  7. Zucchini!  8. Yellow Crookneck squash  ( I had this for breakfast and dinner today!!)
9. Alfalfa  (for hay).

Keep in mind....cows, pigs, and chickens all eat this bad corn. Then we eat them. This is huge and will require a lot of research. I work in a school and have done so since 1994. I've seen a huge increase in students with allergies to foods, learning issues, autism, and more. Ever wonder if there is a connection to food. How about genetically altered foods?

End goal to keep in mind is to go organic. I made what I thought was an excellent dinner tonight, but now I have to rethink it. I threw the corn away that we had in our pantry. Organic will be more expensive for sure. Need to figure out where we can cut costs to afford going ALL organic. Go organic! Skip eating poison.

 
I'm smiling BEFORE I knew about GMO!
Vince and I decided to eat out for lunch today.
Went to Mi Luna, which was one of my favorite
places when we used to eat out more often.
Ordered my favorite chicken croquettes with
safron rice. Fried...totally a heart attack item!


Tried something different. Clams. Okay I suppose.

Mi Luna is a Tappas Bar, meaning you get small appatizers
as your meals and share. You just order a bunch from the menu at one time. Pretty fun. Here is a goat cheese basil small pizza to share.

 I Finally tried the new recipe that I listed in the blog earlier in the week. Calabaza Con Pollo (Squash with Chicken). It was delicious, but there was a major problem!!
yellow onion, yellow squash,
calabaza squash, tomato
 

Saute all and then add spices:
3 tbs cumin, 3 tbs, garlic salt,
2 tsb black pepper.
Add in 8 onces of tomato
sauce. We were out so I used
canned chopped tomatoes.

Add in 2 cups organic chicken
broth and cubed chicken. Then
simmer all for 20 minutes.


Threw this out instead of adding it to our soup!!




Can this slowly kill us? Maybe. It was made with GMO  squash and possibly chicken! We will have to purchase ALL organic from now on. Say no to GMO foods! We need to get involved so
the government will label our foods GMOs!

Day 353 Burger Shack (Yes, Really...)

(Friday)
Exercise: Ran 1 mile and walked 2 miles at Memorial Park. Loving the drier weather!!  I find my legs are a bit sore after just running a mile at the park, yet I can run 3 miles on the tredmill at the gym with ease. Excited to get back into "outdoor" running shape. Guess I'll be running the 5K at the Firefly Run on November 3rd and not the 10K.


Breakfast: mult-grain bread with
cottage cheese, turkey bacon,
organic strawberries, green tea


Lunch: At a meeting off campus. Had a burger feast
and some fried sweet potato fries with some friends.
Can't say anything good about this meal.
I was amazed at how good the burger was!! Not amazed at the
bloating I felt afterward. Don't do this often, but I made the choice
to do so today.



Snacks: none. Forgot to pack them for my meeting! Probably why I made the horrible lunch choice.
Snack: after lunch I made it worse by getting a Starbucks Hot Chocolate.
Dinner: Healthy Salad with tuna, tomatoes, avacados and water.

Day 352

(Thursday)
Exercise: weights at home

Breakfast: 1 boiled egg, 1/4 cup oatmeal, green tea
                 Snack: apple, 1 carrot, water
                 Lunch: peanut butter sandwich, cottage cheese, water
                 Snack: spicy dried peas
                 Dinner: yams, chicken with spices, bok choy and broccoli

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Day 351: Librarian Makes Us Healthy Meal

Exercise: Went to Memorial Park this evening! Yay! Jogged 1.5 miles and walked 1.5 miles.

Little humidity and lower temperatures made for an exceptional feeling at the park this evening! Sun was setting as I finished and I had a spring in my step. How I have missed the park! It was more crowded than I ever. Took me 20 minutes to find a parking spot. Drove around the 3 mile perimeter for a while. Everyone wanted to enjoy the great outdoors today.

My friend Karen, the librarian, made a HEALTHY lunch for our entire school staff today. We promote healthy eating at our school for teachers and students and she is a huge promoter of this. We had our first Health and Wellness Night for parents and community last year and are planning another.

Lunch: Salad toppings. Sprouts, cucumbers, broccoli, zucchini and
squash, mushrooms, cheese, tomatoes


Lunch: lettuce for salad


bean/corn/onion dip or on the side

Dinner
Karen had so much left over food that she shared it. I was able to take some salad home and make it for Vince and I for dinner. Thanks Karen!

Breakfast: 1 boiled egg, 1/4 cup oatmeal, green tea, frozen blueberries.
Snack: apples, carrots, water, bread stick, chocolate cookie
Lunch: see photo, water
Dinner: salad, water
Snack: peanut butter sandwich, cottage cheese, water

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Day 350 I'm Back People!! : )

Exercise: Arm weights and abs. Jump rope and leg lifts. (easing back into things)

I'm back people!! Feel 95% better today! After 11 days of feeling "not myself" it is nice to be back on track. Vince thought I had the West Nile Virus, but I think it may have been allergies and the rain finally washed all that "super" pollen away. Did you hear they are calling it Super Pollen? No headache today and don't feel like I have to lie down.

We had parent night at work this evening so I didn't get to jog at the park as I had hoped, but did get some weights in. I can't wait to go to the park tomorrow.  I'm already daydreaming about tomorrow's run!!! The weather is in the high 80s after work so I may go then. Sure beats high 90s. I wish I had enough will power to run at 5:30am. It would be nice and cool then, although dark and spooky. I know lots of people do it. Doesn't seem to safe to me.

Breakfast: boiled egg, 1/4 oatmeal, green tea
Snack: spicy dried peas, plum, water
Lunch: 1/2 salmon, red potatoes, green beans, water, 1/2 of a friends white bread
Snack: watermelon
Dinner: large salad with mixed leafy greens, bok choy, tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, carrot, feta cheese, purple cabbage, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, side of zucchini, water