Out of an attempt to use up some canned goods I had in my pantry, this delicious recipe was born. I found a can of crab meat I had bought some time ago when I was unpacking my pantry items to move them into the kitchen at my new apartment. I scooted it to the side, awaiting the day I was inspired to make something with it. Day after day, I’ve pushed this can of crab meat to the back. Then I found myself craving deviled eggs and crab meat at the same time. I grabbed my pot and followed these instructions to hard boil 6 easy-to-peel eggs (it really, really worked!!) and while those were simmering away, I chopped up two green onions… and pulled out the 6-oz. can of canned crab meat and put it in my Ninja blender along with 2 heaping tablespoons of mayo (recipe from Well Fed)… and added about 3/4 of the chopped green onions, some Himalayan sea salt and black pepper. I whizzed them up until well blended, then when the eggs were finished with their ice bath, I proceeded to very gently and patiently unpeel them… they turned out perfectly! I sliced each egg in half, dumped the yolks into the Ninja with the other ingredients, until the mixture was smooth. I scooped the deliciousness into a Ziploc baggy, snipped the corner, and pipetted the yolk mixture into the egg whites. Now I have a delicious snack to take with me to...
Change
Hello friends! I’m back after a much-needed break from blogging. The hiatus started abruptly (at the beginning of my Whole30 in October) and although I continued and completed my Whole30, I did not take the time to share my pictures with you. I so badly wanted to chronicle the entire thing, but you know how that goes. Let me lay down some background for you first. I am originally from Lexington, Kentucky. My husband and I lived there until spring of 2011, when we moved to Atlanta for three main reasons: I was frustrated at University of Kentucky with trying to complete my degree there; he is originally from the Atlanta area and has family here and I was going through a very tumultuous time with my immediate family in Lexington; and he received a generous job offer from a hospital in Atlanta. He would make more money which meant I would be able to work less, and I had been researching dietetics programs and wanted to complete my degree at Life University because of their emphasis on holistic care and vitalism, which complemented my passion for whole food nutrition. We moved here and I fell in love with my school, met some amazing people through my work, and have really grown to like Atlanta. I always knew that my heart was in Kentucky and one day I’d return. When my husband started applying for different jobs a few months ago, we discussed the possibility of him applying to a...
BeachBody Ultimate Reset: Review
During September, I completed the 21 Day BeachBody Ultimate Reset Cleanse. I chose to do this because I had been struggling at a plateau for a few months, losing and gaining the same 5-10 lbs over and over again. I know from my studies of nutrition that fat cells store toxins and therefore if you have a major excess of fat cells, it’s very difficult for your body to release excess fat without first releasing toxins from your liver and cells. That’s why I did this… Supplements There’s 5 supplements that come with the cleanse. BeachBody says to use distilled water while on the cleanse. From what I understand, the reason they advise distilled water and not tap water or spring water is because the point of the detox is to remove toxins from your body. I suppose this is one way of controlling exactly what’s going into your body during this time. They also advised using this formula to determine how much water to drink: take your body weight in pounds, divide by 2, and drink that many ounces of water each day. It actually worked out to be about what I drink each day (at least 100 oz.) so no big deal, but I can’t afford to buy that many gallons of distilled water. I did try to always use the distilled water when I took the supplements, though. I guess that made me feel less toxic! Mineralize You put a “pinch” of these mineral crystals in distilled water & drink it three times a...
Weekly Goals: 8/19/12-8/25/12
Forgive me for the short post tonight, but I’m a little brain dead after having to complete one of the most pointless projects of my undergraduate career: a 15-slide PowerPoint presentation about my instructor’s PowerPoint presentation. It obviously wasn’t the most difficult assignment I’ve ever had to do, but I find it soul-sucking to have to spend time rewording a presentation so that it’s not plagiarism, but yet, I’m supposed to convey the same message. The cherry on top is that it’s for a zero-credit-hour course that is mandatory. Back to tonight’s featured programming… This week’s goals are: Attend 3 group exercise classes at Adrenaline Group Exercise Journal all of my food every day, and post my daily chow for Monday through Thursday Work on improving my mile time by walking/jogging at least 3 days this week (I usually do intervals of walking/jogging based on certain landmarks in my neighborhood, trying to push myself to run a little further for each jogging interval). Get at least 7 hours of sleep a night. I have this crazy idea to try to alter The Food Lovers’ chocolate chip cookie recipe by modifying it into a breakfast muffin/bar. When I made these cookies a few weeks ago, I loved the texture – they were almost more cake-like than cookie-like. I’d eliminate the chocolate chips, add crumbled browned sausage, and either bake in muffins or bars in a pan. I’d have to play a little bit with the sweetness, but since the sweetener they...
Chow: Thursday, 8/16/12
Today was a long day on campus! I planned ahead and pan-fried 2 turkey burgers yesterday to bring with me, along with my salad dressing (I mix 1 tbsp olive oil with 1 tbsp red wine vinegar) so that I could throw them on a salad. I spent this morning in my Nutrition Education class. When that let out at 11, I set up shop in the library with all my notes and books to study for the biochemistry exam that was this afternoon. My stomach started growling right at 12pm, so I ran over to the cafeteria and put together a big salad from the salad bar and some sliced lemons from the iced tea stand. I hurried back over to the library and threw everything together so that I could keep studying (and intermittently checking Facebook). I ate half a fresh, locally grown Georgia peach, too. [561 calories] After I took my biochem exam, I headed to the cafeteria to wait for the other students to finish because our teacher is awesome and lets us check our answers after everyone finishes so that we don’t lose any sleep wondering what our grades were. I snacked on half a pumpkin muffin [116 cal] while having a good talk with another dietetics major who is also trying to lose weight about how much pressure we feel to be thin in order to be perceived as a credible dietitian/nutritionist. I reminded her that even though we are carrying around too much...
This Week’s Goals
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I like Sundays. I like them because it’s on Sunday that I take the time to prepare for the rest of the week, so that I set myself up for success. Before I started doing this, my meals were unorganized and I often settled for whatever was easiest (read: no consideration for healthiness) at the end of a long, busy day. So, in order to squash that bad habit, I realized I had to buckle down and not only plan for success, but prepare for it also. My friend Lauren of Lauren Bach- Together We Can is doing a notebook challenge. Every Sunday, we’ll write down our personal goals for the week in our notebooks. Different colors will emphasize different categories of goals. For my notebook, I’ve chosen to write my nutrition goals in blue, fitness goals in red, and other goals in green. Each week, as I complete a goal, I will mark it off in my notebook and I’ll post it on here as a permanent reminder to myself of the committments I’m making to myself. Lauren is running this challenge through the end of August, and once the month is over, there will be a prize for one selected winner. A prize for doing something that I should be doing anyways? OKAY! Here’s what my goals look like for the first week: Setting goals is important because you can use them to measure your accomplishments. It’s not enough to just write them down, though. That’s just the...
My whole30 starts soon!
Last week, I got hitched on a cruise ship. The wedding was fantastic! We spent our wedding night, unfortunately, dealing with sea sickness and contemplating who would throw themselves over the side of the ship first. Once we regained control of our bodily functions, we were finally able to enjoy cruising. Don’t get me wrong, that part is awesome – unlimited food whenever you want it, drinks a-flowing, no worries or cares. But it was pretty crappy having to get sick to be able to tolerate the rest of the cruise. Not to mention that upon returning, we experienced something we had never even heard of: land sickness. Needless to say, we have no plans to go on another cruise. Ever. We’ll stick to land resorts. I ate literally whatever I wanted last week. Most nights, I tasted (in most cases, demolished) every single thing on the menu at dinner, after already having eaten eight to twelve times at the all-day buffet, plus enough soft serve to last me for a year. I ate bread – LOTS of bread. Which I now regret, thanks to the fierce return of my neck pain and headaches, as well as the dramatic increase in appetite that high grain consumption causes. I plan on spending the next week and a half slowly phasing those things back out of my diet, because starting on April 1, big changes are going to happen to my body. That’s when I’ll be starting my first Whole30! For the...
Paleo Summit
I’m so excited that the Paleo Summit has officially begun! Whether you are paleo elite or paleo beginner, or even if you think we’re a crazy group of grain-hating carnivores, please do yourself a favor and make some time over this next week to take advantage of this FREE opportunity to educate yourself on the basics of the paleo lifestyle and way of eating. I’m listening to Diane Sanfillipo of Balanced Bites – this chick has my dream job, of helping people get back to the basics and eat food the way we’re meant to consume it, thus helping them thrive in a healthy lifestyle. I can’t wait to finish school and start working with people. I love Diane’s view on transitioning into the paleo lifestyle and how people miss the main points by getting caught up in all the minute details and technicalities of what is – or is not – paleo. The whole food approach to eating is actually very simple and requires very little “navigation” – but is also highly customizable based on personal preferences. If you watch any of the Paleo Summit series, leave a comment and let me know what you think. I’d love to get a discussion going...
The Raw Milk War
Have you heard? Raw milk is the new meth. And if you bring attention to the fact that you’re distributing it, you filthy raw-milk-slinging scoundrel, you’ll get your farm raided at gun point… As I write this, I’m drinking a delicious shake made with 1 cup of raw whole milk, 1 small banana, a few frozen peaches, 2 ounces frozen mango, and some frozen strawberries. I am grateful that I am able to acquire this very nutritious food, although it is illegal to purchase for human consumption. Yep, that’s right- I regularly consume this “dangerous” substance that is raw milk. Last time I checked, this is a free country, and I’m aware of the risks associated with raw, unprocessed milk. I choose to consume it because of the health benefits I receive from consuming this whole food product, which include: Several times for CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid) compared to pasteurized milk Vitamin K2 – most people associate this vitamin mainly with its blood clotting properties, but as Chris Kesser explains: “…vitamin K2′s role in the body extends far beyond blood clotting to include protecting us from heart disease, ensuring healthy skin, forming strong bones, promoting brain function, supporting growth and development and helping to prevent cancer – to name a few.” (He does a fantastic job citing his sources here. I love studies! You won’t see many nutrition studies here in the US that don’t benefit big agriculture.) This morning, I read this article from the Washington Times about Rainbow...
Easy Microwave Crème brûlée (no refined sugar!)…and confession time!
I have a confession to make: I fell off the wagon earlier this week. We met a friend at Taco Mac to watch the UK vs UGA game Tuesday night. I should have known better… T-Mac is known for their glorious chips and queso! They also have fantastic oven roasted wings now, at least the Prado location that B & I frequent. I thought I would be strong but I wasn’t. I had a really long day on Tuesday and hadn’t eaten much by the time we got there, so I was legitimately hungry. I totally ate those fried triangles of corn, dipped in way too much cheesy gooeyness. You know what though? I don’t regret the cheat. I felt pretty sluggish on Wednesday, and my fingers were swollen to boot, but other than that, I got back on track Wednesday morning and tried not to look back. You see, the Kara of yesteryear would have woken up on Wednesday and said, “Well, shit, I fucked it all up now. Might as well eat whatever the shit I want now.” For most of my life, it just seemed to me that if you weren’t eating well and exercising hard all of the time, then you might as well do it none of the time. This mentality is the mentality of a loser, of someone who believes they can never succeed. I’ve switched gears now, and when I mess up, I just admit it, figure out why it happened, and move...