Bringing This Thing Home

Tomorrow we will come to the end of another challenge and wanted to use our Monday check in to highlight some of the positives and negatives that we  experienced along the way and hope you share yours in the comments.  Remember, we started this whole thing with a focus on improving your health and with an understanding that many good things would result from a direct focus on eating foods that would make you more healthy.  We hope you have had some level of success and at the very least learned a little from the experience.  More importantly, we want everyone to know that the strict challenge is just a reset, but the principles we outline of foods either making you more healthy or less healthy are a way of life. 

 Lets start with the positives:

• This has been, by far, our best challenge, as far as participation goes.  We had many new people jump in and help create a community with their comments and many more follow along, but just weren't up to leaving comments yet. 
• Several people have had trans-formative experiences, some mental, some physical, some both.  Many people responded well to a focus on improving their health rather than aesthetic goals.
• Many people have opened their eyes to a whole new way of nourishing their bodies for health and performance and are beginning to question the conventional wisdom that is prevalent today.
• Several past challenge members "got it" this time around and are reaping the rewards.

There were also some negatives:

• We had several who were unable to see the 30 days through
• We did not put up as many recipes and tricks as we would have liked to.
• We would still like to see even more in the way of comments to help drive the community aspect of the blog.  We started with great comment trend which we have found is directly correlated with committment to the program.  You can see where the trend line went from there below.

Graphical representation of the comments throughout the 30 days

We are going to finish this thing off by returning to our primary focus at the beginning of the challenge, the mental and emotional aspects of eating.

Those who made the whole 30 days congratulations!  You have made significant growth in your mental and emotional strength and should be very proud of yourselves.  Know that it is an ongoing battle though, and you need to keep your guard up even more as you loosen the reigns and find a way to work in some of the eliminated foods into your new routine.  Look below for what you need to do when reintroducing foods you have eliminated.

Those who broke during the 30 days, don't beat yourself up over it and consider yourself a failure.  It will only cause resentment and push you to find comfort in your old friends(Bagels, pizza, chocolate, ice cream).  You have taken the first critical steps to better health, remember that is what this is all about.  You are not doing this for anyone other than yourself and one slip up does not have to be a spiral out of control.  Any day without processed crap, sugar, etc. is a day towards better health.  Continue on your journey to better health and when those demons of instant gratification pop up and tell you you are a grown person and no one is going to tell you how to eat, ask yourself which is more important, your health or that sweet treat?

We have heard many things over the past 30 days from people doing the challenge and from people who ask us what we are doing when we politely decline a forbidden item.  People say, "This is so hard!" "You have so much discipline."  "It must be hard eating that way?"  Guess what?  It's not hard.  Fighting cancer is hard.  Spending a year fighting insurgents in Afghanistan is hard. Getting off of crack or heroine is hard.  Being homeless is hard.  Not eating a piece of pizza, a cookie, or drink a beer for 30 days is not hard.  Especially when the stakes are so high.  The real sad part is we have been conditioned to the point that eating nutrient dense, whole, natural, healthy foods is weird.  We are the ones who are on that weird diet and asked why we eat "that way."

Unfortunately, we see almost daily how quality of life can be affected by failing health.   We have loved ones who are missing out on significant life events because they don't have the physical ability to keep up and their physical failings are at least partly related to the foods they choose to eat.  It is sad and, in truth, somewhat disappointing when we have clients and challenge members reversing conditions by taking charge of their lives and eating clean and we can't help those closest to us.


For closing this thing out, what you do over the next few days is more important than what you have done for the past 30.  Rather than recreate the wheel we have cut and pasted our final post from our last challenge for your post challenge instructions.

This challenge has been called a cleanse and can be looked at that way.  We are trying to get out most of the foods that are known to cause gut irritation and see how your body reacts.  The goal being to then reintroduce these foods and see which ones work for you and which ones do not. This technique will not work if you reward yourself for your strength over the last 30 days by going out for pizza, beer, and ice cream.  I can tell you now how you will feel afterward and the worst part is you will have no idea which foods caused problems.  As we reach the end of this challenge, one option, the way we have settled into, is to keep those foods out for good.  You have proven that you can deal without them.  We do want you to find something that works for you, so if you feel you have to have some bread, grains, dairy, or beans be smart about it.  The trick is to start back slowly by reintroducing one thing at a time and see how your body responds.  Start with cheese in your eggs on the first day or a glass of milk with dinner and see how you feel.  If things go well, try some oatmeal for breakfast the next day or pasta for dinner.  Pay close attention to how your body is responding and make adjustments as needed.  If you have issues with food, the symptoms could range from sneezing and a stuffy nose to a full on bout of Montezuma's revenge, but rest assured your body will let you know.

We have reached a point where we do not eat grains, dairy, or legumes at all unless we make a conscious decision to go off our eating plan.  This is mostly in the form of a family pizza night or an occasional trip to the ice cream store.  We purposefully go out of the house, have our cheat and come back.  This way the tub of Bryers mint chocolate chip, or the left over Ledo's pizza is not calling to you from the fridge. Eat it, enjoy it, and move on.  Don't feel bad or guilty about it.  We have also decided that we are going to transition into a one cheat day a week format for the next couple of months and see how that goes.  We will eat clean during the week, including pizza night(we now love eggplant pizza) and blow it out on Saturday with any and everything we want.  We say this, but it will probably just mean a cheat dinner with some beer or wine. 

We hope this experience has raised your awareness of what you are putting into your body to fuel your everyday functions and ultimately your health.  We hope that you have been empowered by the idea that you can have control over the emotional pull of food and the temporary comfort it provides.  We want you to be very aware of the idea that if something is able to sit on a shelf for months and not spoil, it is probably not very good for you.  We want to make sure that you are aware that vegetables are carbohydrates and a good meal has a quality protein, a fat, and a carbohydrate.  Every Meal!

We eat this way because we feel that it has benefits far greater than just looking, feeling, and performing better.  Not to sound too new wave or crunchy, (we are headed down that path) we believe strongly that the human body is a wondrous machine that is perfect in it's most natural state.  It wants to be healthy, but we do our best to screw that machine up with what we expose it to through our environment, our lifestyle, and our diet.  Giving your body the food it was meant to eat, exercising a little, and getting enough sleep will go a long way to repairing the damage we have done to ourselves. 

As is always the case with these challenges, we feel as if we learn a ton more than anyone participating in the challenges and for that we thank you.  We are looking for a few challenge experience stories to post over the next few weeks.  If you would be willing to share your results with us and let us highlight you in a post let us know and we will work it out.  We had ideas of hosting a post challenge pot luck dinner but have managed to fill up every weekend in February with events, so it may have to be something we organize down the road.  We are planning on doing our 15 day pre-summer reset in may again and hope you will join us.  If you ever have any question you can ask them in the comment section of any post and we will get them, or you can e-mail us at info@newdawnfitness.com.  We would also love to hear from everyone as we wrap this thing up.  How did your experience go?  If you made it through, what helped you stay strong?  If you didn't, what made you break?  What changes did you notice?  What was particularly hard?  What are your plans going forward?
Thanks for joining us!
Dawn and Paul

Healthy F-Off Scale

As we head towards the end of our 30 days, we want to start thinking about what foods we have eliminated that we don't miss much and what foods must be involved in our lives in order for us to remain sane and functional.  Once again our friends at The Whole 9 have come through, with a fun way to think about this.  It's called The Healthy/F-off Scale.

We will have a detailed way for you to come off of your 30 days for Monday's post.  This is just something to get you thinking about how you think about food.

The scale is a graphical representation of your personal stance on food.  On one axis are the healthy foods, these are foods that you may or may not like, but you eat them anyway because the health benefits are too great to exclude them from your diet.  The other axis is the F-off axis.  These are foods that you know are not healthy for you, but your sanity and quality of life would be different if you were denied them for too long.  The middle marker on the scale represents foods that we know are not so healthy, but are tasty enough to splurge on occasionally.  We have included our own healthy/f-off scales.  You will find that over time your scale will change and hopefully it has changed during the past 30 day's.

Try to find some time today to put together your own Healthy/F-off scale.

Dawn's scale notice how much farther along the clean eating path she has progressed.

Paul's Scale

Final Friday Check In

 This is our last Friday check in and it has been a rough week for many.  I can't wait to hear how everyone handled  the various challenges faced this past week. At least the people in the DC region. Some dealt with real issues like cabin fever and knowing that school was closed the night before and still not being able to pop a bottle or two of wine and some had lesser issues such as 9 to 10 hour commutes home from work on Wednesday.  In all seriousness, I have dealt with the regions traffic for the better part of my adult life and have never seen anything like what went on Wednesday into Thursday and was just glad I was home.  I helped a lady in the neighborhood who was stuck just outside of our house this morning and asked her why she was trying to get out in such bad conditions(She was driving a rear wheel drive coupe) and she said she was just getting home from work.  She left Germantown just over 5 miles away at 5:30 the prior evening!

Let us know how you managed and how you are holding up.  We have seen several challenge participants this time and are amazed by how good they look.  We are looking forward to some impressive results as we make our way towards the end of this thing.  We will have some info on how to end the thirty days in our next few posts.  Stay strong this weekend, you have put in tremendous effort so far and we truly hope it's paying off.  Have a great weekend!

It's All About The Hormones!

We need a cleanse from all of the cheesy stuff with a technical post that will, if nothing else, help you drift off to sleep.  We have focused more on the mental and emotional aspects of clean eating this challenge, but want to dip back into what is happening in your body to make you feel so good when you eat clean. 

Endocrinology 101

Endocrinology is the study of the endocrine system, a complex group of glands in the body which produce hormones that control the day to day regulation of certain processes in your body.  The endocrine system is responsible for regulating your metabolism, your reproductive system, your growth and development, and your body's stress response.

Food has a a direct and powerful effect on the hormones in your body.  For this post we are going to focus on a hormone called insulin, but it's important to understand that nothing in the body happens in isolation and one hormones function has a synergistic effect on all others.

Insulin - Insulin is a storage hormone that helps your body store blood glucose when your blood sugar is high and return your blood sugar to it's proper balance.  High blood sugar is toxic to the body and must be lowered.  Insulin does this by first filling up the liver and muscle stores of glycogen(blood sugar), but the liver and muscles have very limited  storage capacity and excess blood sugar is then stored in the fat cells of the body for later use.  Insulin is triggered by consumption of carbohydrates.

Lets back up a little bit.  In a perfect world, people eat meals balanced with foods from each macro-nutrient protein, fat, and carbohydrate.  Everything you put in your mouth to eat or drink is broken down into usable parts and eventually makes it's way into your blood stream.  Carbohydrates have an immediate effect on your blood sugar levels.  A gentle rise in blood sugar is met with the secretion of insulin which lowers your blood sugar and the delicate balance required for health and longevity is maintained in an optimal blood sugar range of around 80 to 120 mg/dl. The earth continues to spin, everything is normal, and people live a long healthy life. 

Blood sugars after a meal

Now for the SAD part.  SAD stands for the Standard American Diet.

The famous Food Guide Pyramid

As a nation, we have progressed into a diet that is based on processed grains and very heavy in carbohydrates and sugars.  Foods that are broken down quickly such as highly processed carbohydrates(bread, pasta, cereals, cakes, sweets etc.) and dairy cause a rapid rise in blood sugar.  This rapid rise in blood sugar is met with a rapid secretion of insulin from the pancreas to lower your blood sugar levels.  This high dose of insulin does it's job almost too efficiently and soon your bold sugar is low, leaving you tired and hungry again.  This explains how you can eat a whole box of cereal and then be hungry again a short time later.  This constant yo yo keeps your blood sugar out of that optimal range and over time leads to a number of conditions termed metabolic derangement(obesity,insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, coronary artery disease, infertility, depression, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, etc.)  This process also keeps insulin present in the blood stream constantly sending your body a signal to store fat, making most efforts to lose the fat useless without first addressing the hormone issue.

Consider the direction the health of our our nation has gone in since the introduction of the food pyramid in 1988.

• Diabesity (obesity + diabetes) affects more than one billion people worldwide, including 100 million Americans and 50% of Americans over 65.
• More than half of Americans are overweight, and a full one-third are clinically obese.
• Recent reports suggest that  one-third of people born in 2010 will develop diabetes at some point in their lives.
• 9 out of 10 Americans will develop high blood pressure before they die.
• 4 out of 10 people who die each year in the U.S. die of heart disease, and rates of heart disease are projected to double in the next 50 years.
• Rates of infertility are expected to double in the next decade.
• According to the World Health Organization, depression is now the leading cause of disability, affecting more than 120 million people worldwide.

One of the many things we are trying to do with our approach to clean eating is to make sure that the carbohydrates we consume are full of fiber and are consumed with both protein and fat.  Fiber, protein and fat slow down the conversion of carbohydrates into blood sugars and thus the insulin response.  This helps to keep our hormone levels from shooting up and down and causing all types of negative issues within our bodies.  Bloated, puffy and sick is no way to go through life, but unfortunately this is how most of us are living.  The SADest part of it all is this is how we were told to live and in many cases we are still being told this.

Endless Possibilities

Stacy on the left

Paul's recent post on reaching your potential,  reminded me of a conversation I just had recently with my good friend Stacy.  We have been friends since High school and have encountered our own personal speed bumps along the way.  Stacy is a breast cancer survivor and juggles all the duties of a very busy stay at home mom to 3 beautiful children.  She made nutrition and exercise a priority and she is in the best shape of her life!  During our most recent phone conversation, we were discussing how amazing we feel and how comfortable we are in our own skin at this point in our life. It only took us how many years? We wish we had known back in high school and college what we know now.  How would our lives have been different?  How much of our potential did we squander away?  While it can be good to reflect on the past, we have to make sure we don't dwell on it.  What's done is done.  Everyone participating in this challenge is taking that first step to changing their lives.  Don't look back.  Don't worry about tomorrow or how your are going to handle clean eating when the challenge is over.  Focus on today and how you can make a difference in someone elses life whether it's family,  friends, or complete strangers.  Life is too short to not live it to its fullest.

I am excited to say that Stacy is becoming a zumba instructor at her local gym and is so excited about this new venture! She is an amazing role model as well as an inspiration to many and I wish her the best! What are you going to do today to make sure you are living life to its full potential?

Staying true to my cheesy style, I am leaving you with a song that is dear to my heart and reminds me of why Paul, Kylie, Will, and I are on this journey of health and fitness together:) The song is called Born Again by Third Day.

Monday Check In 1/24/11

The comments were light on Friday. I hope that means everyone has found their stride and you are cruising into this last week of the challenge confident that you have taken the initial steps to change your life. Let us know how the weekend went. Any challenges or even slip ups, any new recipes or tricks you have learned?

We spent that weekend at my Mom's house, which is technically "challenge friendly" but it is out in the woods, on the river and for some reason just being there produces a strong desire to eat and drink. That strong desire is not for meat, vegetables and water, but for ginger snaps, cheese and crackers, and wine. We held strong, had a great time and even snuck out for a breakfast without the kids(thanks Mom).

I came across a post I enjoyed on the Whole 9 site that dealt with the cost of eating clean and wanted to pass it along. It has a bunch of helpful shopping tips and a handy, seasonal produce guide that you can print out. 

I also wanted to send out a Happy Birthday to my brother Jason. He will probably not get this as he is preparing to come home from Afghanistan for two weeks leave from the Army. He his 39 today(cresting the hill, getting ready to roll on over). Happy Birthday Jason, can't wait to see you.

Stay strong throughout our last full week and stay tuned for several more posts throughout the week.

Friday Check In 1/20/11

We are 21 days into the challenge and heading into the home stretch.  As they say in the poker world, you are pot committed at this point, no turning back.  At this point in the challenge we hope things are really starting to settle in as habits.  We hope you are noticing different things such as more energy, better sleep, less bloating, less gut irritation in general, clearer skin, shiny hair, less irritability, fewer cravings, people asking what you are doing because you look good,  a strange but good feeling of happiness(don't know why, but many people feel it) and the list goes on.  Some may be feeling none of this.  This happens also and can make sticking with it all the more challenging.  If this is you, we hope you can lean on the fact that spending 30 days feeding your body nutrient dense foods is still time well spent.  It has been our experience, that people who do not see dramatic change usually have some minor tweak that holds them up.  Contact us and we can work individually with you.

We have an issue of our own and we hope discussing it will spur some ideas from the masses.  We went a little buck wild in the run up to and  the first couple weeks of this challenge.  Money is always tight, but we were setting up our budget to work in a vacation this summer and decided to itemize our spending from the middle of Dec. to the middle of Jan.  We are comfortable with food spending being a large part of our budget but in four weeks we spent $1,500 on groceries!  That does not include any grass fed beef.  We were trying to make sure we had plenty of variety to show and bought some things we normally don't, but that is certainly not sustainable.   We normally budget $800 for monthly groceries and are usually pretty good about sticking to it.  How about you?  Are you finding clean eating shrinking your wallet?  Do you have any tips or tricks that you have found to save a few dollars?  We will be heading out to the local Asian market on Monday in search of deals and will report back.

Have a great weekend and be sure to chime in and let us know how your week went.

Gina's Cuban Paleo Kitchen

Challenge Rock Stars, Gina and her daughter Ginnie

Gina spent all day Sunday preparing and recording a bunch of her favorite Cuban dishes in a challenge compliant way.  We have not tried them yet, but got all necessary ingredients today to take them for a test run this week.  I'm stretching my technical abilities in trying to work with google docs to get the pdf files to you. If all works well you should be able to just click on the dish below and get the recipe.

Baked Apple

Carrot Banana Muffins

Picadillo

Mariquita

Caldo Gallego

Tortilla de Platano

Ropa Vieja

Thank you so much Gina for all of the hard work.  We look forward to trying these recipes.

One word of caution to all, something popped into my head when I read Gina's comment about eating the muffins yesterday.   Beware of what I call the Snackwells effect.  Do you remember the Snackwell fat free cookies that came out several years ago?  They were sold as "healthy" cookies because they were fat free and since they were "healthy" it didn't matter if you ate the whole box.  Never mind that they were all sugar, they were in a green box and fat free, they have to be healthy.

Devil's Food was my favorite.

The mindset of "It's healthy I can eat as much as I want"  will severely stall any potential weight loss attempts especially when fruit is involved in the dish.  So treat the muffins, baked apple and the cookie recipe we put up earlier as the occasional treats that they are.  Keep going strong and we will check in on Friday.

Monday Check In

We have officially made the halfway point today.  Thanks for all who checked in on Friday.  The comment section was hopping.  A couple of themes came to light on Friday and there are a few administrative issues below.

• The first theme was that of post challenge motivation and we will begin to tackle that with a post tomorrow, our thoughts on that fall in line with what JD was saying in his comments.
• The second theme was not noticing any changes in weight loss.  We should have banned the scale again this challenge, but since we didn't we want to strongly encourage you to focus on how you feel, how your clothes fit, and the fact that you are doing something good for yourself, rather than a number on the scale.  That will come.  I have read dozens of comments from other 30 day challenges, where people are amazed that the weight starts to drop the day that they stopped caring about it.
• JD wanted to know about editing comments that have been submitted.  We can go back in and do it on our end, but don't want to.  Lets just all agree that comments are stream of thought and grammar, spelling, and punctuation will suffer.
• Some are having issues with leaving comments.  When you hit submit a little red thing shows up and your comment does not submit.  If you continue to hit submit, it will eventually show the word verification box and you can submit your comment.  Kim had a good idea, if your comment is a particularly long or deep one you can type it in word or similar program and copy and paste it in so that you do not lose it.  
• Don't forget to go back and read comments of others who post later.  There are some good ones later on in the comment section.  
• We have been throwing around the idea of hosting a post challenge pot luck, WITH WINE! and will have details for that soon.  Gina beat us to the punch and has offered her house up for a type of Let's Dish style, cooking class where you can compare techniques and learn some new ones.  Let us know in comments if that is something you would like to do.
• Happy Birthday Julie!  Keep going strong.

Let us know how the weekend went. We hope most of you are still on it today!

Second Friday Check In

Believe it or not we are almost to the halfway point.  We have heard a few reports of people having more energy and just feeling better in general.  Let us know what is going on with you.  How did the week go?  What challenges are you facing?  What questions do you have?  Some people have been very quiet this past week, Mom. (lotta wine flows down there on the rivah!......just sayin) Hopefully the crazy cravings are a thing of the past and you are starting to see that you really do not need or even want many of the things you are giving up.  There are sure to be a thing or two that you are counting the day's for though and we will address how to handle those as we get closer to the end of the 30 day's.  Have a great weekend and we will check back in on Monday.

Life & A Food Matrix

Sometimes life has other plans that can make an already difficult endeavor damn near impossible.   Gina, a fellow member of the challenge left this post on the blog yesterday and we wanted to highlight it for a couple of reasons.

It's Gina.

This is a confession / testimonial...

Today is Wednesday, January 12...very bad day....one of my co-workers died at 4:30 pm this afternoon - the president of our company, another co-worker and myself were at the hospital when he passed. It was sudden...he had diabetes, plus heart issues, etc. Very difficult - I'd known him for 17 years, and we sat next to each for over 10 years....he was like a dad to me...and my kids. He will be sorely missed.

This being said....I've been battling since yesterday against having something sweet...or a lovely latte. The devil was riding me hard. Unfortunately this evening I broke down and had my latte....yet I'm happy to say that I feel bloated and gross.....

I thought I really needed this - I realize now that it was totally an emotional hang-up. It's interesting seeing first hand how horrible all this processed junk is when you put into your body.

I'm sad that I got off track...yet I know it's made me stronger.

Well....that's all I have to say.

Thank you for listening.

First off Gina, we are so sorry for your loss, but also so glad you shared your experience with us.  We talked, at the outset of this challenge, about how what we consume is so closely connected to our emotions and there is just no avoiding that.  Changing how you think about food is what this challenge is all about.  Gina was able to see her slip up for what it was, internalize it, and move on(the bloating and grossness helped).  The trick is to not let this little slip up send you into a tailspin of reverting back to your old ways.  When this challenge is over we are all going to be in the same position of  trying to walk that line between what we know is healthy for us and what our emotions and life tell us we need.  

On another note:
Robb Wolf's nutrition seminar was what started us on our journey towards this way of being and we are happy for it.  He has since created a podcast, and written a book, which we highly recommend called The Paleolithic Solution.  We link to his website and others we find useful on the right of our blog.  He has several useful tools that may help you as you work through the transition.  Click here for his resource page and you will find a quick start guide, a food matrix, and a shopping list.  The food matrix is the one I found most useful.  Robb uses a simple food chart to come up with 81,000 different meal combination's.  If you have some time today give it a peak.

A Few Recipes

We have a few more recipes for your today, two from a fellow challenge member and the third is a cookie recipe that just might be the trick to satisfying that need for a treat. Sorry but no pictures this time.

Here is a recipe sent to us from our friend Jackie who has a knack for making yummy, nutritious food and making it sound so easy! Thanks Jackie!  We can't wait to try it!!!! 
Tomato, Ginger and Lemongrass Soup
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
approx. 1 tablespoon olive oil
approx. 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
approx. 1 tablespoon red curry paste (I use Thai Kitchen brand), depending how spicy you like it--I recommend adding incrementally
approx. 1 tablespoon of Gourmet Garden lemongrass (Found with the fresh herbs at the grocery store. If using fresh, I'd say mince about one stalk)
2 28-oz cans diced tomatoes
approx. 1/4 cup coconut milk; more depending how creamy/coconutty you want it
red pepper flakes (optional, to add more heat if desired) 
salt to taste
  
In a large saucepan, cook onion in heated olive oil on medium-high for about five minutes (until soft); add garlic and ginger and cook about 1 more minute.
Add tomatoes, red curry paste, salt and red pepper flakes; bring to brief boil. Turn heat to low, stir in lemongrass and simmer for a few minutes.
Use an immersion blender to puree mixture in pot, or transfer to blender to puree in batches and return to pot.
Keeping the heat on medium-low, stir in coconut milk until you have the desired consistency/coconut flavor. If using immersion blender, blend again briefly (if using a regular blender, you may want to stir in the coconut milk before pureeing the soup).
Simmer on low for a while (30 min. or so) or eat right away.
If the soup is too thick, you can always add vegetable or chicken stock (or even water). I like mine a little thick, so I usually don't add anything.

At one of our many wonderful dinners at the Marchand's house, Jackie brought a salad that got devoured within minutes. I have been craving it ever since and am going to make it this weekend.  The salad was a mixture of romaine lettuce, artichoke hearts, cucumbers, green onions, avocados, and dressing.
Dressing Recipe:
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (is that allowed??)
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and black pepper
onion powder(optional) 
We hope you enjoy!  Let us know what you think if you try it.


Nutty Cookies
One of my favorite websites is Everyday Paleo where Sarah Fragoso shares delicious paleo recipes.  I found a recipe for Nutty Cookies on her site when I was on the quest for a fun recipe that the kids and I would enjoy making together. These cookies are a great treat after a long work week, but should not be an everyday go to.  I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

2 bananas smashed(you can just use one if you prefer)
1/3 cup coconut flour
1/3 cup almond butter(the kind from Trader Joes with flax seed and salt is really good) or sugar free sun butter
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup raw walnuts(optional)
1 apple finely chopped(unsweetened applesauce is good too)
1/3 coconut milk
1tbsp cinnamon

I baked them on a greased(I used coconut oil) baking sheet for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees.  Keep an eye on them so they don't burn.

The Fiber Question

We have been doing this for a little while now and invariably forget some of the more basic information that we want to get out at the beginning of challenges.  That is why the comment section is so important.  Pam asked a great question and one that comes up in almost every conversation we have about not eating grains.

What about Fiber?
I do not know exactly where the idea took root that grains are the most abundant source of fiber, but it is so ingrained in our collective psyche that the words are synonymous with each other.  Whole grains = fiber.  It is true that whole grains have fiber in them, but when you dig down to a calorie by calorie comparison, grains are no match for vegetables.  Not only do they not compare in the fiber category, grains have comparatively little nutritive value beyond fiber to those tasty vegetables you have been gorging on for the past week.

Here are the facts.  Two pieces of whole wheat bread contain 5.5 grams of fiber.  Compare that to two cups of broccoli at 10.4 grams of fiber.  Crazy right?  But if you look further,  those two pieces of whole wheat toast have 256 calories compared to 108 for the broccoli.  Dig even deeper and you will find that the potassium in the bread to be 289mg compared to 916mg for the broccoli.  I could keep going, but I hope you get the point.  This same little exercise can be repeated with just about any vegetable. 

This does not take into account the vitamins and other phytochemicals found in abundance in vegetables, but lacking in grains.  Add all of this to the fact that many people have an intolerance (gluten or otherwise) to grains and the case for grains is a pretty bad one.  I realize the question was just about fiber, but it is hard to isolate any one thing and when you are weighing bang for your buck there is no comparison between grains and vegetables with regards to fiber or total nutritive value.

As to where the idea took root?  I have my views and they would be better left for another post. I will say that the standard American diet pushed on us by, the grain, dairy and meat lobby in the form of that famous "food pyramid", leave a lot to be desired.

Weekend Round up

How did it go?  I know for a fact that many of you faced some serious temptations over the weekend.  Whether it was crazy travel, parties, home style comfort foods, or just sitting in Saturday morning watching the snow, things are different on the weekends.  We are still struggling with Verizon and trying to get our Internet back up.  It was surprisingly peaceful not being "connected" for the weekend.  My next challenge might be a digital one?  We hope to have our Internet up today and have a bunch of posts for the week, but for today I just want to hear how the weekend went.  Come clean, we don't judge here, but the penalty is the same for all.  Your 30 day's will start today!  Let's hear it.

Friday Check In!

Alright people, sound off.  Lets hear how the week went.  We would like for you to share your struggles, your triumphs, any epiphany's you may have had.  Tell all, the chances are good you are not the only one experiencing this and knowing your not alone is not only reassuring it helps you keep moving forward.

A word of warning as we head into our first weekend.  Weekends are different and often much more difficult than the weekday.  Many of us have a set schedule during the week and things to keep us occupied and our minds off of the things we want but cannot have.  We have two birthday parties this weekend and birthday parties and clean eating do not mix very well.   Our trick has always been to eat and have the kids eat before we go to the parties.  We are able to politely decline the cake and ice cream and hope that the kids eat less.  Don't be afraid to lean on the program.  When you find yourself in a position of declining food or facing the peer pressure to go off of the plan.  Let the other people know, "I am trying something new, where I am eating only lean meats, fresh vegetables, fruits, and good fats for 30 days to see how my body reacts."  Most people will be interested and want to know more and it can spark a great conversation, where you are able to try and explain what you are doing and in so build your own understanding of what you are doing.  Try not to take the negative approach when someone offers you something off the plan.  "I don't eat that."  Puts people on the defensive and makes them feel bad about what they are eating.

Good Luck this weekend.  Let us know how your week went in the comments.  We are having problems with verizon and our internet is down at the moment so posts this weekend will be sporadic, but we will check back in on Monday.

Food Short Cuts and Meals

Over the past couple of years we have found a few tricks to make clean eating more convenient.  One problem for a lot of people is having a quality protein source around in a pinch.   One thing we use are the large packs of chicken breast from whatever store has them on sale for $1.99/lb that week.  We trim them into the proper portion sizes(the palm of our hand) and remove any access fat.  Throw them in a bag with olive oil, sea salt, pepper, and some garlic powder and grill them all at once.

OK so maybe my palm is not that big.

Keep them in the fridge for whenever you need them.  We have done the same with hamburgers, cooking a dozen at a time, using the leanest meat we can get, recently we have been using the organic ground beef from Costco.  No buns of course!

Our newest find, thanks to fellow challenge members JD and Nicole, has been Rotisserie chicken.  You can find them at any supermarket, but we have been getting ours at Costco.  They are cooked when you buy them and can be kept in the fridge for a few days and make great lunches. We trim the skin and fat and put it in a container for quick snacks and meals. 

Below are some of the challenge friendly meals we have enjoyed over the past couple of weeks.  We are happy to share how we prepare them if you would like to know.

I assure you this was a pre-challenge meal.  You would have to leave off the wine.

Peppers and onions made by JD and Nicole

Carrot salad again JD and Nicole

Italian Sausage

Collards and Peppers

Chicken Sausage with leeks and peppers, asparagus

All of JD and Nicole's things  with collards and peppers

Grilled salmon with kale & peppers, butternut squash, and guacamole

Hamburger with collards and peppers, avocado

Beef stew with shredded zucchini squash and avocado

A breakfast scramble with eggs, chicken, and spinach.

Don't remember what this was but it was good!

London broil grilled with avocado, grilled peppers and Brussels sprouts.

Paul's world famous chicken wings

Collards and peppers topped with chili that I thought was taco so I dumped salsa on top and guacamole

Spaghetti squash with grilled chicken, Victoria All Natural Tomato & Basil Sauce, Greens and peps and guac.

 Grilled Chicken and sun dried tomato, butter nut squash and grilled sliced peppers with a 1/2 avocado.

As we have said before we do not have written recipes for these meals but would be glad to explain how we made them if there is interest.  Below are the links to post of meals we have done in the past.  You will have to copy and paste them in your browser.

http://newdawnhealthfitness.blogspot.com/2010/12/eggplant-pizza.html - Leave out the Parmesan cheese for the challenge

http://newdawnhealthfitness.blogspot.com/2010/11/meals-in-pictures-3.html

http://newdawnhealthfitness.blogspot.com/2010/10/meals-in-pictures.html

http://newdawnhealthfitness.blogspot.com/2010/09/meals-in-pictures.html

http://newdawnhealthfitness.blogspot.com/2010/08/clean-eating-recipes-part-ii.html

http://newdawnhealthfitness.blogspot.com/2010/08/clean-eating-can-be-tasty.html

http://newdawnhealthfitness.blogspot.com/2010/08/qiuck-meal.html

A Quick and Easy Gourmet Meal

We have been getting a ton of requests for recipes and we are hesitant to put things up mainly because we do not usually use any recipes.  We literally throw things together and as we post more and more of our meals as these 30 days move on you will see a lot of repeating food in our meals.  I wanted to share a meal I made last night and point out a few things along the way.  First off, Dawn works on Monday's and Wednesday's so it's me and the kids to get dinner on the table.  I'll admit I do strategically time their show with meal prep, but I can still get it all done in 30 minutes most nights.  Last night was no exception and I was able to put together this.

I don't like to brag,  but damn..... that looks good!

I made shrimp with a red pepper and artichoke tapenade sauce, kale with peppers, peeled & roasted butternut squash, and guacamole.  Sounds more fancy than it actually is.

We have been struggling with cooking enough vegetables so that I have something left over for my lunch so I was sure to make extra and mix up a couple of different kind of vegetables.  We have been using coconut oil that we get from The Vitamin Shoppe to cook our vegetables and we love the taste.  It oxidizes at a higher temperature and is good for cooking.  For a post on how we do the peppers check here.  I use a whole bunch of kale from the store. Cleaned, dried and cut it looks like this going into the pan of heated oil.

It does not take long for it to cook down to this.  Make you are stirring frequently or it will burn.

For the Butternut Squash.  I took a carrot/potato peeler and gently peeled the skin.  I then cut off each end and continued to use the peeler to peel the whole thing down to the small nub you see below.

I dumped the peels on a greased, foiled covered baking sheet.  I used olive oil for the greasing, then used the same olive oil to brush the peels liberally.  Then I lightly salted them with sea salt and hit it with a little pepper.

I threw that in the oven at 400 for about 10 minutes, until they looked slightly crispy.

The shrimp was the easiest of all.  I used a bag of frozen, cooked shrimp.  Defrosted it in the sink and removed the tails. 

Here is the bag of shrimp I used, not sure where I got it from?

I put the shrimp in a pyrex dish and mixed in some of this Tapenade sauce we picked up at Trader Joe's. It has roasted red peppers and artichokes.  I popped it in the oven with the squash for 10 minutes, just to heat up the shrimp and bam, I was done. Give it a try some time.

I had never heard of Tapenade before and am still not sure what it is, but it is good!

We have a mega food post coming up soon, stay tuned.

Keep up the Comments!

I am very excited about the number of comments today!  I think it is so important to keep them coming!!!  Some people will drop out of the challenge after just 2 weeks because they can't deal with the withdrawal symptoms or don't want to take the time to make the healthy foods they need to eat.  Whatever the reason, we don't want this to happen.  Forming a support group is necessary during these types of challenges when people feel mentally and physically vulnerable.  There will be obstacles for each of us during this challenge, but nothing worth fighting for is easy!  We want this to be a place where you can find all that you need to get through, but understand that it is going to take work on your end.  We often hear, "just tell us what to eat and we will do it." This mind set takes the responsibility off of you and fails as a way of making permanent change.  We bet many of you have tried this using any number of the diets that are out there.  South Beach, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, etc. they seldom work for the long term.  It's habits and how you look at food that has to change for these practices to become sustainable.  You are on your way, keep it up! 

I will leave you with a couple of quotes to keep you motivated.

"Resolve to do it now and stay with it until its completion. You cannot make it if you are "half - hearted". Go all the way. Many people have all sorts of uncompleted projects and things and I venture to say that they might actually have forgotten about them. Do not be like that. You must remain resolute." - Fitzgerald Mujuru
 

“Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength.”- Karen Ravn

First Day, Tracking & Comments

How did your first day go?  Easy peasy lemon squeezy or is it rough already?  We forgot one important element of the challenge in our post yesterday, Before Pictures!  Tracking is an important motivator and we like to use two ways to track your progress, pictures and measurements.  Don't worry, the pictures will not show up on the blog.  Unless you are family and we take the pictures, or you are so happy with the transformation you want us to show the world.
For the pictures, it is best to get three shots, forward, sideways, and a back shot.  Wear as little clothing as you are comfortable with and make sure your clothes are snug.   Some people like to hang the pictures on the fridge, others hide them away for 30 days, the choice is yours, just take the pictures.

For the measurements, we are going to ask you to measure three places for a total of six measurements.
Upper arm right & left - widest part of your upper arm
Waist - use your belly button as a marking point
Hips - widest part of your behind
Thighs right and left - widest part of your thighs
For consistency sake lets all measure in inches.  Record a measurement for each location then add the numbers up for a total of inches.

Ignore the Pecs measurement, but get all the rest.

We have also had an e-mail question about sugar free gum, but this applies to all sugar substitutes natural or chemical.  We forgot to address this but they are a no go.  These artificial sweeteners still produce an insulin response in your body and in the absence of any actual sugar for the insulin to store this is not a good thing.  

Finally, we are having a hard time getting anyone to comment this time around and it is getting a bit frustrating.  There is no requirement to comment, but it helps us to guide our posts to your needs, it helps others who have the same questions or are experiencing the same things, and it makes the whole process more fun.  If you have yet to leave a comment, click on the comment box below and just let us know you are following along and how your first day went.  Hopefully we can get some momentum going with the comments.

Let's get it started!

Tomorrow is the big day.  We hope your fridge is stocked with bags of fresh vegetables, packs of lean meats, and several different types of good fats(avacodos, olives, nuts, and good oils). Get your last cheats in and be ready to go in the morning.  There are a few quick reminders we wanted to leave you with before the big day.

1. The first day is always a breeze, excitement and the fact you are dong something good for yourself, will carry you through the first day or two.  The latter part of that first week and into week two can be tough, as your body starts to figure out you are no longer providing those quick, easily accessible, carbs. in the form of sugar and processed grains.  It is not uncommon to experience fatigue, dry mouth, headaches, dizzy spells, and just be a nasty person to be around.  Sugar cravings can be so severe for some that they experience shaking, sweats, and a complete lack of focus.  Warn your friends and family, but stick with it.  Soon you will be sleeping better and have more energy throughout the day. If your body reacts this way to good nutritious foods it is a clear sign that you are doing the right thing.
2. The processed carbohydrates you are taking out of your diet for the next 30 days are extremely calorie dense.  Consider one small bagel has 310 calories compare to one cup of spinach at 8 calories.  That would be almost 40 cups of spinach to replace that bagel!  Luckily, the chances are good you were consuming too many calories before and will run better on fewer calories.  With that said the biggest mistake we see people make their first few weeks on the challenge is under eating.  There are no limits on the quantity of food you can consume for the next 30 days. As long as the food is from the shopping list we gave you and does not contain any grains, legumes, dairy, sugar, or alcohol, eat as much of it as you want.  We do want you to try and get a carb, fat, and a protein with each meal and if you need to snack, do so on fats, veggies, and protein.  Fruits should be used sparingly.  Limit yourself to 2 servings of fruit a day so you can truly kick your sweet tooth.
3. Don't worry about calcium and fiber deficiencies with the removal of whole grains and dairy from your diet.  This is a complicated issue and we will dedicate a post to it, but know that the dark leafy greens you are going to be consuming provide more than enough of both calcium and fiber to keep everything moving.
4. Make the experience worthwhile.  Pay close attention to what is going on with your body.  We bet you have tried more radical things in the past to lose weight than eat whole, naturally occurring foods.  Most of the time this is done with one gauge of success and that is a number on the scale.  If you don't get the number, you didn't succeed.  This is a very narrow view and does not take into account all the important improvements in other areas of your health.  Pay close attention to your sleep, your digestion, your energy levels, your aches and pains, your skin, how your clothes fit.  All of these are better indicators that your health is moving in the right direction.  Let your focus remain on doing something to improve your health and this next 30 days will be a breeze and we are confident you will be happy with the results on the scale as well. The journey is the reward.  Chinese Proverb
5. Just because your skinny doesn't mean your healthy.  During previous challenges, people were complaining about losing too much weight and that was not what they wanted.  If you are losing too much weight, then you are not eating enough.  If you are eating adequate protein, tons of veggies and fat, you will maintain a healthy body weight.  It takes awhile for your body to get used to consuming larger amounts of good food.  See this previous post Clean Eating for Skinny People if this is a concern of yours.

Good luck with your first day and let us know how it goes in the comments.  We will have an official check in on Fri, but we will have posts throughout the week. Have a great week!