Healthy Eating For Moms

One of the problems many mothers have after they have started a family is keeping their weight down where they'd like it to be. Part of your changing physical build is due to having children, something that can't be taken back once they're born. But you can exercise and tone your muscles, to make the most of the figure that you have. And part of that, is learning to eat healthy in the face of your various time commitments.

Lots of women feel guilty if they throw out leftovers, which can be an attitude inherited from their own budget-conscious mother. But you're not saving anything except space in the compost pail, if you're eating that last scoop of potatoes, or the vegetables off a toddler's plate, simply so they don't go to waste.

Don't sabotage your own diet, by cooking in too large a quantity for what your family will consume in a meal. If by chance you're actually a bit short and someone is still hungry, make sure you keep extras on hand that will fill the gap, like veggies and dip or a bowl of fresh fruit, or some sprouted grain toast.

Try to balance your preferences, with what is cooked for the family meals. That means if you eat as individuals for breakfast and lunch, make sure you get a good variety of fruits, vegetables and grains. Try eating leftovers from last nights dinner for breakfast or bake up some nutrition bars to keep on hand, have a tossed salad in a fajita wrap for lunch. Remember to balance your intake of one food group with the others, and select good sources of protein.

Back to the Basics

I am reposting my first ever post on this site because I want to reiterate to you how important health and nutrition is in this day and age in this world that we live in. Please read, and you will know why I have to spread this news and offer hope to this world.

I have much to learn about health in general, but my basic philosophy is to treat illness as a natural process. I am thankful we have medicines available to us in this day and age to help prevent many more illnesses from becoming serious. My only concern is that we (as Americans) rely to heavily on pharmaceuticals, and the body has become poisioned by so many drugs.

What I like to do for people is offer an alternative to what is ailing them. If it is acute, I have many home remedies for acute illnesses. If the condition is chronic, I try to find out the underlying cause of the condition, and through working on prevention, the cause is usually remedied.

We as a people, not just in the US, are nutritionally depleted. There are nutrients that our body needs that we just cannot find in the foods we eat any longer. Even the JAMA (Journal of American Medicine) states that we have to supplement our diets with essential vitamins, minerals and nutrients.

It's something to take a look at if you never have.

Announcing a New Recipe Site!

MINE!

I created a sister site to this one, featuring recipes of my own or from some of my clients. (To see it, click on the title of this entry).

People are always asking me what they can eat, that's healthy and tastes good. So I decided to put it all in one place on my recipe blog.

At this time, I'm posting a new recipe everyday until I get a good base of recipes, then I will work on making daily meal plans.

I hope you enjoy the recipes, please post comments if you try any of them and give me your opinion!

About the recipes though, I use all organic ingredients when possible. You will notice too that I always speicify raw cheese and nitrate/nitrite free meats.

I want you to use these types of ingredients too because they will cause less poison in your body. I recommend raw cheese, because believe it or not, non-pastuerized milk products are healthier for your body, because there are natural enzymes in there that help your body to digest it when it is raw. When the milk is pastuerized, these natural enzymes are missing and in turn the body will tend to reject the milk. Thus causing lactose intolerance, flatulence, weight gain, asthma and eczema.

I got these definition from Wikipedia.com

Sodium nitrate is a type of salt (NaNO₃) which has long been used as an ingredient in explosives and in solid rocket propellants, as well as in glass and pottery enamel, and as a food preservative (such as in hot dogs), and has been mined extensively for those purposes. It is also variously known as caliche, Chile saltpeter, saltpeter, and soda niter.

Sodium nitrite, with chemical formula NaNO₂, is used as a color fixative and preservative in meats and fish.

When pure, it's a white to slight yellowish crystalline powder. It's very soluble in water and hygroscopic. It's also slowly oxidized by oxygen in the air to sodium nitrate, NaNO₃.

It is also used in manufacturing diazo dyes, nitroso compounds, and other organic compounds; in dyeing and printing textile fabrics and bleaching fibers; in photography; as a laboratory reagent and a corrosion inhibitor; in metal coatings for phosphatizing and detinning; and in the manufacture of rubber chemicals. Sodium nitrite also has been used in human and veterinary medicine as a vasodilator, a bronchodilator, an intestinal relaxant or a laxative, and an antidote for cyanide poisoning.

As a food additive, it serves a dual purpose in the food industry since it both alters the color of preserved fish and meats and also prevents growth of Clostridium botulinum, the bacteria which causes botulism. In the European Union it may be used only as a mixture with salt containing at most 0.6 % sodium nitrite. It has the E number E250. Potassium nitrite (E249) is used in the same way.

While this chemical will prevent the growth of bacteria, it is also toxic for mammals. (LD₅₀ in rats is 180 mg/kg.)

Various dangers of using this chemical as a food additive have been suggested and researched by scientists, although no conclusive evidence has been put forth. A principal concern is the formation of carcinogenic N-nitrosamines by reaction with sodium nitrite; other ingredients are often added to prevent nitrosamine-generating reactions.

As you can see there are many reasons to avoid foods with added ingredients. Be careful what you eat and what you feed your family.

Be Healthy For Life, and teach your kids to live this way also.

Fun Kid Snack Ideas

Fun Kid Snack Ideas

It's no secret kids love to snack. In fact left to their own devices a lot of kids would rather snack all day than sit down to full meals, but with so many snack times how do you keep snacks exciting and fun? Here are a few healthy and fun ideas:

Fruit on a Stick – Cut up a bunch of different fruits such as apples, bananas, kiwis, mango and add a few grapes. Thread them onto a skewer for a delicious summer time treat.

Quick Banana Ice - Take a few bananas and mash them in a bowl. Cover and place in the freezer for about 30 minutes. Remove from freezer, fluff up with fork for a healthy, ice cream like treat.


Pitta Pizza – Spread a little tomato sauce on whole wheat pitta bread and cut into small triangular pieces. Top with a little grated raw cheese and place in a moderately heated oven or toaster oven for about 5 to 10 minutes until the cheese melts and starts to bubble.


Frozen Mandarin Wedges – Peel a few mandarin slices and cover in plastic wrap. Place in the freezer for about an hour for a thirst quenching treat.

Banana Wheels – Place a cup or so of cheerios in a plastic bag and using the back of your hand or a rolling pin flatten until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Slice a banana into rounds and place a few at a time in the plastic bag. Shake lightly to cover the banana pieces (banana wheels) with the cheerios mixture.

Ants on boats – Cut a few apple wedges and spread thinly with peanut butter or other nut butter. Add a few raisins over the peanut butter and enjoy. You can also use pears or celery instead of apples.

Pick and Mix – Kids seem to really enjoy finger foods rather than eating too much of one thing. A great snack is to place a selection of finger foods on a serving plate or in a muffin tin and let the kids choose. You can serve a combination of foods like carrot sticks, cucumber rounds, cherry tomatoes, pretzels or pretzel sticks, small savory crackers or rice crackers, little cubes or slices of raw cheese, small slices of nitrate free ham or turkey, grapes and other pieces of cut up fruit, mini muffins, and dried fruit such as raisins or apricots.