I wanted to share a treat with you I found recently. It has become a favorite at my home. It is called Power Crunch Protein Energy Bar. Trust me when I say it is not like other protein bars. It is like a decadent desert.
This is not a sponsored post. I bought these bars on my own. The first bar I tried, I had purchased a box of them online. I was making a vitamin order and saw these on a huge sale in the fall and wanted to give them a try. They had several flavors, but the only flavor they had left in stock that day was “mocha”. So I ordered a small box of them to try. Wow! I was impressed. It reminded me of the Italian dessert called tiramisu.
Then I found a few of the flavors at our local grocery store. They didn’t have the “mocha” in stock, so I chose “original” chocolate, hoping it would be as good. Oh my! The “original” chocolate Power Crunch bar was even better than the “mocha” flavor. These have now become a regular item on my grocery list.
My favorite way to enjoy them is to take a few minutes of quiet “mommy” time, usually reading while enjoying the Power Crunch bar with a cup of coffee or hot tea. It is such a treat. They have a delicious chocolate wafer crunch and in between the crunchy layers are more layers filled with a soft creamy chocolate filling and the entire outside is covered in chocolate. It is like a gourmet desert!
I was eating one of these during my quiet mommy time today, and my son asked me to save him a bite. So I agreed and asked if he would do a taste test and tell my viewers what he thinks about them. He was more than willing.
From my son “These are delicious. It is sweet, crunchy, silky, and chocolaty. Can I have another one?”
Here are some the nutrition details:
Serving: 1 Bar (1.4 ounces)
Calories: 205
Protein: 13g
Fat: 13g
Carbs: 10g
Fiber: 1g
Iron 7%
Calcium 10%
These bars are low sugar with only 5g. The sweetness comes from a combination of sugar, stevia, fructose, and monk fruit. This combination provides just the right sweetness, but still keeps the sugar low. The rest of the ingredients are basically whey protein, cocoa, vitamin enriched wheat flour, barley flour, oil, salt, lecithin, and a couple other items. Here is a photo of the nutrition label on the box.
The texture and taste is hard to describe, it is clean tasting and enjoyable. It kind of reminds me somewhat of a cookie called a chocolate wafer and a candy bar we enjoyed in my childhood called a “whatchamacallit bar”. I haven’t had those treats for years. That is the closest thing I can think of to describe how wonderful these bars taste.
I know 1 bar is a serving, but trust me when I say, it is hard to stop with just one bar. They are so delicious, you will want to eat two!
This is a nutritious, fun and easy to prepare snack or desert for kids. It makes a fantastic breakfast too!
Kids can be picky eaters. Setting them up for success with good nutrition is key to maintaining good health. Including a variety of foods, like yogurt, fruits, veggies, and nuts in their daily routine lays a great foundation in good nutrition choices.
Adding nuts (for those who are not allergic) is a great way to boost nutrition. There are so many different kinds of nuts to choose from. The most popular nut used, peanut, isn’t even a nut but is actually the seed of a legume. But there is a huge variety of nuts and seeds that are seldom included in the standard American diet for kids that are great options.
A few of the nut and seed varieties to try out with your kids are:
Cashews
Almonds
Walnuts
Pecans
Macadamia
Coconut
Hazelnuts / Filberts
Hickory Nuts
Hemp Seeds
Sunflower Seeds
Pumpkin Seeds
Pine Nuts
A fun way to get nuts like walnuts in your kids diet is putting them into special treats like a sundae. If you grind the nuts, they hardly know the nut is there. Walnuts have a stronger taste and most kids don’t usually choose to eat them on their own. If I leave out a big bowl of nuts of different varieties, my kids would eat all the cashews! Next they might finish of the peanuts. Then the rest of the nuts would sit there until Dad and I ate them. So to get more variety of nuts into their diet, a sneaky banana nut sundae piled high with lots of yummy ingredients is a win win!
Walnuts are great for brain food. They also help to purge parasites from the body. They contain essential fatty acids that are needed by the body
Banana Nut Sundae
Set out your ingredients out on a table or counter and let the kids fix their own sundaes.
Yogurt
Banana
Nuts
Optional: Syrup, berries, chocolate chips, chocolate covered nuts, ground nuts, whole nuts in the shell that they must remove before using, nut butter, ice cream, angle food cake, cookies, pumpkin cake, etc.
We used vanilla yogurt, ground and halved walnuts, bananas, chocolate covered peanuts, and chocolate syrup. I also set out some grapes and nut butter covered pretzel crackers in case they wanted to experiment with some other ingredients.
Desert:
We have made similar treats for desert too. This is a fun and delicious way to eat nuts and eat healthy!
Similar ingredients with pecans and whip cream.
Substitute angel food cake for the yogurt.
Serve as a fancy desert for company.
We also made homemade nut butter with a mixed nuts. We ground some smooth and some chunky and mixed it together for a delicious spread for our pretzel crackers.
You can add mini chocolate chips and these will taste like Reese Peanut Butter Cup Pretzel Treats! Even Daddy likes these treats!
Homeschool parents are blessed to be able to design their kids education as they see best. They pull the educational resources from a variety of places such as books, videos, library resources, local community programs, coops, field trips, life skills, etc. Sometimes the parents create their own curriculum and sometimes they buy it pre-made, and sometimes they do a blend of both. Homeschooling is such a blessing to be able to customize your children’s education to fit each child’s individual interests and the priorities and goals of your family.
If you are looking for a pre-made online course that has everything your student needs to complete the subject of study, then you might want to try Homeschool Courses from Standard Deviants Accelerate. They offer a variety of affordable classes for 3rd Greade through Adult, including some college prep classes.
Arithmetic (grades 3+) Fundamental Math (grades 4+) Earth Science (grades 6+) Nutrition (grades 6+) Biology (grades 7+) Algebra (grades 7+) Chemistry (grades 9+) English Comp (grades 9+) U. S. History (grades 9+) AP Biology (grades 11+) AP Chemistry (grades 11+) AP History (11+) AP U. S. Gov. & Politics (grades 11+) AP Eng. Composition (grades 11+)
Each Course is $9.99 per month and can be used with up to 5 students per family. So you can have 5 of your kids all studying the same subject for only $9.99!!! That is a deal! If you want to study two subjects that month, such as: nutrition, and history at the same time, then 5 kids in the same house can learn 2 subjects and it would cost you $9.99 x 2 = $19.98 per month for the two classes! You can buy a lifetime membership for up to 10 students for all of the SDA classes available (currently 14 courses) for one low discounted price of $795 (forever access).
Hello!
HIGHSCHOOL CREDIT CLASSES!!
That is a deal!
Each course offers a full year of curriculum, but your student (s) may finish the class as quick or as slow as they desire. Each child has their own dash board that they log into and it keeps track of their individual progress.
The classes are alwaysopen 24/7 so it is flexible for your schedule, and you can work on it as much as you want to. It contains a variety of videos, note taking, interactive quizzes, writing, reviews, exams, and you can access the courses through your desktop computer, mobile laptop, and smart device like a tablet too. This greatly increases your options of where and when you can find flexible time to work on your school work. These classes can be used as your main course work or used as a supplemental program. Some kids may finish a course quicker in a semester, and some will need the whole school year, depending on the subject being studied and how quick your kids go through the program. For example, we found it takes longer to learn Chemistry or Algebra than it takes to finish the class in American History or Nutrition.
SDA has been producing digital education videos and resources for 20+ years, when two friends got the bright idea to record full length courses and make them funny. The idea took off and they have won numerous awards for their high quality educational video courses.
Though SDA has a variety of complete core subjects for middle and highschool students, these are not your usual boring classes. Instead, they are funny and filled with silly skits that help kids learn and retain the information.
Homeschool Courses through SDA are a great option for when you need a course instructor, pre-made lessons, quizzes that keeps track of all of the answers and grades and everything all in one. Basically all you do is turn it on and your child can work through it independently and you can keep track of what they are doing through the parent / teacher dashboard.
How We Used SDA Homeschool Courses In Our Home:
We have been using SDA for an entire year now. I feel confident in sharing my experience with you. We had a 1 year subscription last school year, and we have a 1 year subscription for this year too, and I am very grateful for the opportunity to review this homeschool program for a second time.
Three of my sons are using at least one or more of the classes offered. We decided to choose classes based on their skill level and interest level. Last year I just put them in the class even if they were not very interested because I want to expose them to something new and different that we hadn’t done before. But this year, it is all about what they are interested in. We are currently using Nutrtion, US History, Mathematics, Biology, Earth Science, and Algebra.
My kids and I each have our own seperate dashboards on the SDA website. Each day I have the kids log in and view the video assignment, take notes as they watch the video and save their notes on the computer program. You can watch this short video about how kids use their dashboard.
After the video and vocabulary learning, they complete any related written work and take the quiz. The notes they type are stored in their “locker” which is a filing system they can keep track of all of their notes for classes.
On my dashboard, I can view their progress, what areas need more practice or review to improve their understanding. You can check out this short video on how to set up a teacher account and get your kids set up with with their classes on your dashboard.
Two of my middle boys are on similar learning levels, and they have enjoyed learning with the Nutrition, US History, and Mathematics courses this past year and have carried them over into this year too. They have also recently started the Biology course too. The biology course is a little advanced for my 5th and 7th grade sons, but I want them to take advantage of exploring this opportunity and get familiar with the learning materials.
Here is a short video clip of one of the topics discussed in nutrition and you can see the humor that is in every video in this example.
Our oldest son is in 9th grade, and he is taking the SDA Homeschool Courses: Nutrition, US History, Biology and Algebra. I am thankful for a second opportunity to review SDA because this has been very beneficial to retake a class he started last year. He did great in all but one class last year. Algebra was tougher than he thought it would be.
He started the Algebra class last year, and had to stop after a couple of months because it was beyond his understanding. He wasn’t ready for it yet. So we stopped part way through and he took a pre-Algebra class that he did wonderful in. Now he is ready for Algebra and has restarted this class and was able to pick up where he left off. That is another great thing about this program is that it keeps track of your progress and you can go as fast or as slow as you need too.
Example of Homeschool Algebra:
Homeschool Alegebra curriculum has several benefits for the student and the teacher. Here are just a few:
220 minutes of video (with scrolling transcripts)
54 vocab words (with audio playback)
Note-taking
38 critical thinking questions
205 multiple choice questions
14 drag n’ drop graphic organizers
Re-teaching
Automatic grading
Progress reporting
Meets State and National Standards
RTI alerts
Differentiated Instruction
Editable rubrics
Student-to-teacher messaging
Every class includes the written transcript of the video lessons. This makes it very handy to go back through and read what has been said, take notes etc.
Over all my oldest says he likes the curriculum. He is self motivated to work on it each day. He strives to get good scores on his work and I am proud of his progress.
Homeschool U.S. History:
Another class I will share a little about is the Homeschool U.S. History course for grades 9 and up. Some of the great features of this curriculum include:
149 minutes of video (with scrolling transcripts)
144 vocab words (with audio playback)
160 multiple choice questions
Note-taking
29 critical thinking questions
14 drag n’ drop graphic organizers
Meets State and National Standards
Progress reporting, Editable rubrics, Re-teaching
Automatic grading, and Student-to-teacher messaging
My 13 year old is taking US History, Nutrition, and Biology. He began the US History curriculum last year while in 6th grade and after he struggled though for about three months or so, I came to the realization it was too early for him. I let him off the hook with it and allowed him to just work through the class as an observer and he worked on it 1 day a week after the initial review period was over. We typically work on review products 3 to 5 days a week for six weeks to write our honest reviews based on our experience. But once the review was done last year, the only SDA classes this son was enthused about was the arithmetic and mathematics classes and he did well and he recently finished one of them. However, I saw that his response to the US History class was different. When his interest level dropped last year, we decided to take do it once a week.
The problem was two fold. One problem he had was deciphering through some of the immaturity in the funny skits that wasn’t really needed to learn the materials. The second problem was my fault that I put him in a class he wasn’t yet ready for.
SDA Homeschool US History is for grades 9 and up, and he was only in 6th grade at the time. Though a slower pace worked for him, he felt discouraged about the quizzes and writing things out. He was able to get about half way through last year and I told him I was proud of him for trying and we would try again when he was a little older. When the review of SDA was offered again for this year, I knew for sure he wanted to retake this class and improve his score. He is currently taking the class 5 days a week, and completes one lesson a day that takes him about 20 minutes or so. NO prodding or pushing from me. This time he is ready and wants to do it.
He likes audio visual methods of learning and excels when school work is presented in a combined audio video format. He does not like to read a lot, or write a lot of verbiage, so he doesn’t use the SDA course transcripts (his older brother prefers reading everything including the transcripts). Where he got hung up last year was the writing part of the course. He didn’t want to write out notes and didn’t like the written parts of the quizzes and the essay answer on the exam last year. These are wonderful tools to gauge learning, but it is hard to gauge learning when someone is reluctant to do those areas. But things are much better this time around.
He has gone through a lot of maturing this past year, especially over the summer. He practiced two writing curriculums this past spring and all through summer. One writing curriculum was practicing in print and one in cursive, and to my surprise he loved them. I could not believe it. He could not believe it either. Suddenly it was easy instead of hard. Since then he has excelled in his writing skills and is no longer reluctant. This was just the boost he needed and an answer to my prayer to light a fire inside and desire to learn. He has greatly improved in reading and writing and motivation! He desires to get his school work done each day and is working on the SDA courses independently, self motivated, and is enjoying them. I am thankful for SDAccelerate’s fun video style learning program for him to use.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I really like the format of these classes, and how easy and flexible they are to use with homeschooling. They are great for getting your highschool credits for your transcript too.
However, as a Christian homeschool parent, there is a word of caution too. These courses are written from a secular world view and to meet public school core standards. We do not agree with everything the classes teach and when we come across specific issues, we stop and talk about them. For example, we disagree with teaching evolution, or that people are related to monkeys, for example. We believe the earth and all of creation was created by God and our faith plays a big role in our education. Also sometimes the silliness of the skits take a liberal cultural direction, and imposes a cultural viewpoint rather than an unbiased view. This can cross over boundaries in many areas of beliefs. The course work is not written from a Christian perspective and that is something to consider when making curriculum choices.
Pre-made courses can be a good choice in different seasons of life. As your kids get older, and more independent, or as your life gets busier, this kind of curriculum is very handy. It also comes in handy when you have a new baby in the house, if you are moving, or if you have little time for prepping a certain course. Now need to honestly say that I love being creative and making my own curriculum for my younger kids, or tweaking pre-made curriculums for the older kids to fit our family’s needs, but there are times in homeschool life, when having it all done for you is the best option. The best advice I can give is to weigh out all your priorities, beliefs, and what time you have available to devote to curriculum, and see if SDA Homeschool Courses could work out for you.
Standard Deviants Accelerate on Social Media
Be sure to follow Standard Deviants Accelerate on their social media links for all the latest news, courses, updates, and teaching ideas, and more:
Update! It’s week 14 and I have lost a total of 21 lbs so far! If I can do this anyone can!
I have always been a healthy eater, and live an active live, but I still gained weight over the years. I have always been interested in natural health and nutrition too. But it took me time to understand how my body responds to various foods and nutritional supplements.
Life has a way of getting in the way (moving, pregnancy, raising kids, coop, relationships, jobs, etc). Many times I had to put my desire to work on myself on the back burner to focus on daily life.
But I was shooting myself in the foot so to speak because when I had a health crisis, I found it really hard to get back on my feet. It took too long to recover and I knew something was missing, but I wasn’t sure what it was.
I began to make my health a real priority in January. I just told myself it has to be now. I can’t wait any longer.
I am really glad I did because in addition to the weight loss, my skin is healthier, I have more energy, my immune system is stronger, and I lost 4 inches around my waist. I have achieved a monumental goal already this year, and I feel healthier than I have in a long time.
I will keep going in my journey to better health. My body is healing. There is balance. This method uses plants that God created, and it is natural and nourishing. It works with my body the way it was designed by my creator.
I am going to continue on this journey to better health, and I want to take you with me. I want to help my family, friends and extended family achieve their goals and live a healthier, stronger, vibrant life.
I’ve been making healthy changes in my life. I’m 45 and I realize I haven’t always made the best food choices. There are things about my health I can improve. One of those is to consume more healthy fruits and vegetables.
It is recommended that we eat at least 9 to 12 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Those are minimum numbers for basic nutrients. You will want to eat a lot more to stay healthy and fight disease, and also if you do athletic activities.
4 Ways To Get In More Fruits And Vegetables.
Here are 4 ways to include more fresh fruits and vegetables in your diet:
1. Make fruit bowls, fruit or fruit and veggie kabobs, and smoothies at breakfast.
2. Include vegetables on your sandwich, in a salad, or as a fresh crunchy side dish for lunch.
3. Set out vegetable trays, or make your own “???” (salad, taco, loaded potatoes, veggies and dip, etc) for supper, and offer bowls and plates filled with a wide variety of fruits and vegetables to choose from. The more exposure your kids (and husband) has to seeing and sampling these, the more likely they will be to develop a desire to eat them.
4. Take Juice Plus+ Capsules or Juice Plus+ Chewables.
The Next Best Thing
I know I don’t eat enough servings of fruits and vegetables in a day. Over time this creates a gap in my nutrition and health. I am thankful for the option to eat additional whole food nutrients in a simple way, dried and encapsulated. It is the next best thing to fresh fruits and vegetables and supplies a full spectrum of nutrients, enzymes, probiotics, and the synergy of the live food my body needs.
I am bridging the gap with these 6 capsules. I am eating the nourishment of 30+ fruits, veggies, berries, and grains. All the nourishment is in tact, just like when I use my juicer and dehydrator to preserve my garden harvest. It is still whole food and all of the nutrients are there including vitamins, minerals, enzymes, prebiotics, probiotics, antioxidants, cartenoids, phytonutrients, chlorophyll, anthocyanosides, polyphenols, immune boosting and histamine lowering herbs, and so much more. I wish I had known about this years ago, but it’s never to late to make a positive change.
KIDS
And I don’t have to worry about my kid’s diet missing out on vital whole food nutrients. Juice Plus+ offers the same whole food nutrition in gummy chews that kids love.
My kids love these amazing chewy fruity gems of nutrition.
On average most kids in the USA get less than 5 servings a day of fruits and veggies. That is far less than the 9-13 servings that are recommended. Let’s face it, kids don’t always have big appetites for fruits and veggies. They prefer cookies, junkfood, hotdogs, and chicken nuggets. So what is a parent to do?
Keep trying. Keep introducing fruits and veggies at each meal and snack times. And then do the next best thing to be sure you have covered all the bases.
But with Juice Plus+ Chewables, parents can have the confidence that they are bridging the gap in their child’s nutrition too. And Juice Plus+ offers the chewables to children for free with the parents purchase of adult capsules or adult chewables.
Let me know if you would like more information about how Juice Plus+ can help you and your family with bridging the gap in your healthy lifestyle.
A salad is a great way to eat a healthy meal, if it is topped right. You can convert a plate of lettuce into something amazing with just a few ingredients.
Besides veggies and fruits, be sure to include proteins and healthy fats when making your salad too. There are vitamins and minerals in greens such as lettuce, kale, and spinach that require healthy fats to make them extractable and usable by the body.
A great thing about salad is that it can use up leftovers from a previous meal, and it can be made a day or two ahead and refrigerated and still taste fresh when you go to eat it. That makes it a wonderful convenience and budget friendly food too.
One thing I really like about summer is cooking meat outside over hot coals. It gives meat such a delicious smoky flavor. And in my opinion, no meat on the planet tastes better with a side salad, or on the main entre salad than smoked meat! And a little goes a long way too. So go ahead and have a nice dinner with your grilled meat, but save a few extra pieces for leftovers to use as toppings on salads to enjoy later during the week too. Here is a delicious salad I made with leftover smoked grilled chicken breast.
Summer Grilled Chicken Pecan Salad
Ingredients:
Grilled Chicken 2 oz cut up
Romaine Lettuce 1 cup shredded
Baby Spinach Leaves 1/2 cup shredded
Romano or Plum Tomato 1 cut into small pieces
Pecans broken into large pieces 1/4 cup or 1 oz
Lemon 1/2 cut into wedges to squeeze out juice as dressing over salad.
Directions:
Wash, chop, cut, and toss!!! Your salad is now ready to serve! It just can’t get any easier other than if you made it up a day ahead, and all you had to do was walk to the fridge and pull out a delicious prepared salad when you are hungry.
Nutrition:
Calories 214 g; Carbohydrates 15.7 g; Net Carbs 12.4 g; Fiber 3.3 g; Protein 10.4 g; Fat 13.2 g; Vitamin A 6025 IU; Vitamin C 34.7 mg; Vitamin K 134 mcg; Niacin 3.9 mg; Folate 113 mcg; and a good source of manganese, magnesium, selenium, iron, potassium, zinc, and so much more.
Optional: a drizzle of good quality olive oil and a sprinkle of Himalayan sea salt would provide even more great nutrients to top off this salad with.
This is a delicious meal anytime of day. Lunch, supper, or split it into two side servings to go along with another meal. I would even eat it for breakfast too.
Health is an ongoing CHALLENGE!
Can I Get An AMEN !?!
It is a daily goal to live at my best!
Living at my best involves my physical and my spiritual life in the many roles I have as wife, mom, teacher, friend, and more.
What are your goals? Do you desire to loose weight? Do you desire to serve nourishing foods to your family? Do you want to become fit? I know how challenging it can be to reach these goals.
Join me on a quest for living a healthy life.
Be sure to check out these healthy lifestyle challenges:
Are you tired of guessing if you are getting enough nutrients each day? Are you tired of trying to figure out how to loose weight? Are you tired of feeling like you are starving when you try to keep that New Years Resolution to go on a diet to loose weight? I can tell you with certainty that I am tired of listening to false dietary advice from folks who really don’t know what they are doing, and tired of failing at getting fit and trim. Instead of guessing, I want real answers. I want to know the science of how it works, why it works, and how to repeat it with success. Don’t try to sell me a pill, or some fancy weight loss program that costs hundreds of dollars! I want the real change and it should be free because it should be about understanding some facts rather than buying products that may or may not work.
Next week I will be joining up with the 90 Day “Healthy Choices” Low Carb Challenge. The upcoming challenge runs from July 16, 2014 through October 13th, 2014.
The goal of the challenge is to help you get healthy by making wise food choices, and eat around 20 NET Carbs a day. The majority of your nutrients should come from healthy fats, healthy proteins, and low carb / high fiber vegetables and low carb / high fiber fruits. The goal of a low carb meal plan is to maintain an over all low glycemic index, maintain ketosis, and help the body use fat as its main fuel instead of glucose.
All sugars in their various forms, and all starches, and even proteins are broken down into glucose in the body. You might be asking “What is glucose? What is glycemic, or low glycemic?” Glucose is the form of sugar the body uses for fuel, and it breaks down all other sources of sugar into this chemical structure for use. Glycemic ratio is a method of computing how fast foods are broken down into glucose. It measures the impact breaking down carbs such as sugars and starches has on the blood stream. The higher the glycemic load on the body, the higher the glucose in the bloodstream and the harder the liver and pancreas has to work to regulate blood sugar. High glycemic load results in high blood sugar and eventually leads to diseases like Insulin Resistance, Metabolic Syndrome, Diabetes II, etc, and also feeds various fungus and cancers. But a low carb lifestyle that maintains a low glycemic load on the body, and tends to support ultimate health and longevity.
I have always studied nutrition since my highschool days. In college I spent countless hours studying dietary information. I also allowed a dietary student to follow my food journals to help them and myself learn. After college I became a medical social worker and observed first hand the impact of food and medications on mood and behavior as well as weight loss or gain and overall quality of life in my clients. When I was in my late 20’s I learned about a better way of food preparation based on traditional diets of our ancestors instead of highly processed foods. I joined the Weston A Price Foundation as a student and lover of learning and kept up with all the latest research about the health impact of various foods and how foods should be prepared to maximize their nutritional value. Following the WAPF methods of food prep and eating traditional foods helped me overcome infertility and restored my reproductive health. I finally had my first child at age 30 and now have a total of six living children and two in heaven. During this time, I also opened a healthy foods store to sell natural traditional foods and supplements to my local community. We eventually closed the store when I was 38 years old, to take a job opportunity for my husband in another state. But I will never forget all the lives that were forever impacted for the better including my own. I give all the glory to God, and I am so thankful for the opportunity to learn about real nutrient dense food.
Fast forward and I am now 44 years old. With my last child born two years ago, I had an emergency C-section that seems to have caused some damage to my metabolism and immune system. My body did not recover as fast as I had expected it to from the trauma of emergency surgery and the effects of anesthesia. I also gained weight after the surgery and I could not seem to maintain my weight. So last year I began a new journey of learning about the endocrine system (mainly the thyroid and adrenal glands) and how to heal.
Over the past year I have learned a lot about using carbs and fats as fuel for the body and how to separate them in various meal plans so the body only has to uses one fuel source provided instead of having to use one and store one when they are both provided at the same time. Last spring I dug right in and learned about The Fast Metabolism Diet. This book provided an introduction to manipulating meals and causing healing of the thyroid with nutrition. FMD helped me loose 18lbs by eating 5 meals / snacks a day, starting within the first 30 minutes of waking. They also encouraged mild exercise every other day and have a helpful Facebook group for support. Then this past winter I dug in and read a huge book and learned about another method of food combining and fuel switching called Trim Healthy Mama. I finally tried it out in February and by April I had lost 14lbs following this method. I really liked THM because it allowed dairy (cream, cheese, butter, etc.) and because it is Christian based and it supports the whole person, not just menu planning, and there is tons of support through a forum and various online Facebook groups.
Both programs, FMD and THM control the kind of fuel being used by the body and give the body a rest between eating a different fuel source. The FMD switches fuel sources every two to three days. So it has two days of moderate carbs and protein, two days of no carbs (or very little) and lean protein, and three days of moderate carbs, protein sources that contain higher fat, and healthy plant-based fats. The THM switches fuel sources as often as every other meal. Both programs space meals and snacks three hours apart and with both you eat about 5 times a day. Both programs are seeing wonderful successes and I have learned a lot about how to meal plan and when to switch fuel sources.
I am wanting to take my nutritional goals a step further, as I am learning about auto immune reactions to foods, and I want to eliminate most legumes (eat only occasionally or not at all), and eliminate most grains (though I would still enjoy some soaked or sprouted gluten-free low carb grains), and bring the over all carb counts from plant foods down in the meals. This is very exciting as I learn more about the body and how various foods and nutrients impact the body differently.
I have been creating some recipes, and doing meal planning before starting the challenge. On my trial run, I tried to reach a goal of 20 or less net carbs (total carbs – fiber carbs = net carbs) on a few different days over the past few weeks to see if I could actually eat this way. It is one thing to read about it. It is a whole different thing to actually try to live it 24/7. Most of the time, by the end of the day, my overall total carbs were between 35 to 90, and my net carbs (carb count after subtracting fiber) were usually between 19 carbs and 30 carbs with a few days over 40. So I am feeling hopeful that with a few more tweaks, and learning how to actually keep up with keeping track of net carbs while still getting all the macro and micro nutrients, I will be able to do this. It boils down to a learning curve and following through with a plan.
On this challenge, I plan to make lots of low carb meals and snacks, many from my own original creations with dietary knowledge I have gained from learning different methods. I think my recipes will combine ideas from Trim Healthy Mama, Weston A Price Foundation, The Fast Metabolism Diet, Keto, Paleo, Glutenfree, and Sugarfree variations. I plan to track not only my carbs, but understand the various nutrients in the meals I eat and what nutrients are in excess and what nutrients are lacking and need increased for a more balanced nutritional approach.
I am personally at a point in my life where guessing about my health and nutrition is not a healthy option for me. Don’t just tell me this or that is healthy. I want to understand the macros and micros of what I am eating and know with confidence that I am doing the right thing for my body. I have been tracking the nutrients on each recipe I create and also on the menu for the whole day. The results have been eye-opening. I can see what days I need more protein, or more thiamine, or B12 for example. This mix of research and recipes should be a fun exploration, delicious I hope, and a very interesting learning journey as I track my changes over a 90 day period.
I hope you will check back for my progress updates.
If you would like to join the 90 Day Low Carb Challenge, check out the information over at Traveling Lowcarb and register with your email for updates and encouragement. It’s free!
