Full and Still not Satisfied

Today was one of those where I never felt satisfied with what I ate.  I felt full.  Why wasn’t I sated? It is a weird combo to have, not hungry but not satisfied.  It makes me want to keep eating until I do feel satisfied and who knows when or what will sate. One hears eat until almost full and then stop and it sounds so simple, so easy.  But sometimes it isn’t.  Today’s dissatisfaction started with a salad that originally sounded good, but had been shoved in back of the fridge and some of it had froze.  The pork and bread stick were fine, but what was the bulk of my lunch was meh.

No longer forbidden.

Dissatisfaction and being full rarely happens for me anymore. I make a point of listening to what my body is telling me to eat.  Doing this has helped me create a healthy relationship with food.  There were times when I had the dos and don’ts list of foods that I should or shouldn’t eat. This would end in full on binges or I’d end up full and not satisfied which lead to overeating.  In the long run if I should have just ate the grilled cheese sandwich or the cake, I would have ate less.

Eat food that you love and eat it because you love it not because you should or it is healthy.  You do not build a manner of eating that you can live with if that is your mindset. Find your healthy, try new things, retry old things and most of all enjoy what you eat.

Basic Marinara Sauce Recipe

 

Almost ready.

This basic sauce is a staple in my home.  I make huge batches of it and it is easy to scale up or down.  I like to portion out into quarts and freeze it.  This recipe will make about 5 to 6 quarts of sauce. This is a great base sauce you can add in whatever you want when you reheat it.  Some of our favorites are mushrooms, spinach, ground meat, or just plain.  I use it for chicken florentine or parmesan, baked pasta dishes, and meatballs. Pour it over stuffed zucchini or eggplant and anything else you can think of.. Tons of uses for it and a family favorite, no one gets bored with it.

The veg before adding the tomatoes.

It is a fluid recipe if you don’t have fresh parsley leave it out.  No fresh basil use dried or use both.  Sometimes I toss in a sprig of rosemary.  I use whatever wine is open I like what it adds to the end product, no wine no big deal. I give a range for garlic as some love it to the extreme and some people do not.  This is a recipe I tend to under salt and adjust when I reheat. Don’t worry about having perfect chopping it is getting blitzed up in the blender. Blending it creates a nice emulsion.

The blending makes a lovely emulsion.  You can leave it chunky if you want to,.

 Basic Marinara

olive oil, to coat the bottom

1 to 2 onions chopped

2 to 8 cloves chopped garlic

2 cups chopped celery

4 cups chopped carrots

1/2  wine

basil fresh or dried to taste

fresh parsley chopped

2 bay leaves

12 cups tomatoes or or roughly 6 pounds (I buy the big cans of crushed tomatoes)

salt and pepper to taste

Chop it all up and sautee in big pot.  I add as I go. Let is simmer for one hour to three hours on low or as low as you can go and still have a simmer.  You want the veg to be soft enough to blitz in the blender.  Once sauce is cool blend and in gallon bags, freeze. Making this one day and blending the next makes it easier for me. If you have any questions leave a comment and I will answer them.  

Ready to freeze.

What do you do to relax?

What do you do to relax? Is the question I innocently asked a client and her answer blew me away. She told me she uses social media to relax.  It came down to the fact that while she likes connecting with people, but social media was not helping her relax and de-stress.  Social media is not a relaxation technique and all too often it is a source of stress.  

Yoga mat #3

 First I think we need to define what relaxing means to you.  For me it can vary anything from reading a book, gardening, baking, nutrition, and yoga.  Sometimes just sitting down and reading chapter can shift me into a better place or taking the time to make some really good bread can be very meditative.  All the activities make me feel better, calmer, and help me clear my mind.

I love to garden and find it enjoyable to get outside and dig in the dirt and grow some of my own food.  It is soothing and I can think or not think depending on what I am doing that day.  For me it is an active form of meditation.

Eating food that is nutritious helps make one more resilient. Do you feel terrific on a diet of junk food and overly processed foods?  I know I don’t.  I also notice that I do not deal with problems as well and my workouts start to suffer when skipping food with real nutrients. Put the  focus on what you eat and it will help improve your mood.

Yoga, yoga, yoga, how I love you.  One one thing I have learned from years of yoga is to recognize how I am breathing.  Short and shallow breaths are a signal to your body to flee and panic and once you know you are breathing that way you can change it to long deep breathing.  Long deep breathing will take you out of panic mode and bring to a place where you can deal with the issue at hand in a healthy manner.  It can also help you get to sleep at night. Long deep breathing is easy to do and is always available.

The gist of it is hitting the refresh button on the computer to get new updates is not a form of relaxing.  Find something that is, it can be simple and short as taking a few deep inhales and long exhales.  What do you do to relax?

The Superb Saturday Five

Usually they are everywhere but they got camera shy.  That shadow behind the feeder is a hummingbird.

Celebrating the things I found to be superb or interesting in my week.

My Superb Saturday five are..........

1. Spring rainstorms they smell so good!

2. Lettuce popped up this week. Now it just needs to grow faster so I can eat it.

3. Back squatting 99 pounds for five reps. So insanely psyched about this. Last time I was lifting heavy a 100 pounds was my 1 rep max. *happy dances*

4. Hummingbirds showing up.  Its like Star Wars with them whizzing about out there.

5. Learning. Project Eve is a website for women entrepreneurs. Today I was reading  

Hey Girl, Here's Your Digital to do list Which is giving me the boot in the bum to wade into Google+ and Linkedin. It is nice  to know why you should do yet another online thing-a-ma-jamie.

“4. Claim your Google+ business page.

Speaking of Google, you’ll also want to create a Google+ business page. At first I found Google+ to be a bit of an enigma. In fact, I asked Caimon Jones aka “Genius Startups” to write the article Why You Need To Like Google+ (Even If You Hate It) because I really didn’t get it . You’ll get exposure on this more technically minded social network, but more importantly your customers will see a well-organized summary of your company (one you control) at the top of search results.”

I fall into the really don’t get it category.  I am going to give Google+ and Linkedin a try

Celebrate your superbness, what was superb in your week?

Let's Talk About Food

Youtube uploaded today. Wahoo! It didn't want to last Friday.  Ever feel confused about what to eat, you are not alone.

Chia Seed Pudding recipe

 

Chia seed pudding

Chia seed pudding is one of my favorite summer breakfasts.  You put it in a jar, shake, and put it in the fridge.  Tada! it is done and will be ready for you in the morning.  I find myself singing the commercial jingle every time I make it and yes it is the same thing.

Breakfast

 Salvia hispanica or chia seeds is a member of the mint family and was was cultivated by the Aztecs. They have a good dose of omega-3s, calcium, and fiber.  It also has a tapioca pudding like texture.  Here is the chia seed recipe I use.  

Chia Seed Pudding

1 cup soy milk, almond milk, or milk

1/3 cup chia seeds

1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

cinnamon

Put it all a jar and shake it up well. Put in refrigerator.  It is ready in about ten minutes but I like to make it the night before for an easy breakfast the next morning.  I find the chia seeds tend to settle on the bottom after your first shaking so I like to shake it about 5 minutes after.

Exercise and Keeping an Open Mind.

Much of exercising is finding what you like to do and continuing to be open to new ideas and workouts.  I spent my first two years doing workouts out of magazines and continually being disappointed in the results.  I started running and doing HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) which looking back on it were way beyond my fitness level.  

Post NROLW.  I lost a ton of fat on the ribcage and had to buy new bras.

Running and yoga were my two things for years.  It seemed like no matter what I did with diet and doing more cardio, nothing was changing. It was disheartening.  At this point I knew what I enjoyed and what I did not enjoy and  that was strength training

What I discovered is I don’t hate strength training, its isolation moves I’m not a fan of (bicep curls for example.) A huge part of starting to enjoy lifting weights was finding a good solid program that did something.  I tried New Rules of Lifting for Women (NROLW) and saw some huge changes in my body without changing my diet.

I still run and yoga. I enjoy those activities and they are not being dropped.  But I do tend to change it up seasonally.  Winter tends to be weights and yoga focused.  Summer is running and yoga with two days of lifting. The most important thing about these three activities is I enjoy them.  If you hate what you are doing you will not stick with it.  So find you fun activities and do them with relish.