Life According to Leah

Ah yes, it is sure to be an exciting afternoon for the Kiefer clan.  Today is the first pick up of our CSA!! 

I was only able to plant a small container garden this year in our rental.  It has romaine, rainbow chard, basil, tomatoes, peppers, scallions, cilantro, eggplant, and peppers.  That sounds like a lot, but that’s small potatoes compared to my usually garden booty. 

This year, to support local organic farms and enjoy the freshest possible produce, we signed up for a vegetable and fruit share. 

Last week the farm had a tour.  I took the kids and they loved it.  What a meaningful connection for the children to see exactly where their food is growing! I’ll keep you posted on the bounty…

From Kris Carr, who basically rocks. “I am capable, confident, intelligent, resilient and in charge. Health and happiness are my birthrights and I accept with gratitude.”

Sometimes you’ve just got to pull up your pants and get started.  Be kind to yourself.  Change is hard.  If it weren’t, everyone would be a size 2, non-smoker, marathoner, feeling her best.  Pick one thing to change today.  And do it.  As if your life were at stake.  Because it is.

“Love Myself May” is all about focusing on you.  Everyone else gets our attention, and so often we forget about ourselves.  This is especially true for moms.  Let’s take some time to set goals for what we want to accomplish this month for no one else but for ourselves. 

But first, I must reflect on April’s goals. 

1.  I got my closet in order and got rid of every last maternity item in sight.  I’m pretty sure nothing else will creep up, but you never know.

2.  Got recipes up on the blog!  I will continue to do so.  I have to work at it.

3.  I cleaned out my makeup drawer and got rid of the toxic chemicals that were lingering in it.  I swapped it out with some really great Rejuva Minerals, that I really love. 

4.  I was really hoping to grow my blog, and with your help, that is happening!  Life According to Leah even got readers from Israel, Australia, and Turkey!  Again I ask, if you like it, pass it on!

5.  Goal number five was to continue my health counselor studies, which I have been doing, as well.  I am so effing excited about becoming a health counselor, I can’t even stand it!!  I am developing my vision of what that is going to mean for my life.  We are works in progress, are we not?

6.  I wasn’t supposed to have a sixth goal, but I wanted to readCrazy, Sexy, Dietby Kris Carr.  I did not read it from cover to cover, but I did read a lot of it.  This is a great book for anyone who is new to learning about foods.  She does a great job of breaking challenging information down into understandable bites. 

Now May goals:

1.  Last month, my exercise was a little bit sketchy.  Some weeks I got in two days, and other weeks I got in none.  But last week I really stepped it up, and I remembered that I am at my best when I’m working out!  There are no two ways about it.  My most important goal for this month is to commit to working out 4-5 days a week.  Even though my days are full, they are not complete without a workout.  So there it is.  In print.  Non-negotiable.

2.  Read Superfoods by David Wolfe.    For those of you who don’t know, David Wolfe is the unbelievably energetic guru of all foods raw.  He studies longevity and is considered an expert in his field.  Although this book was published in 2009, the information is definitely not outdated. 

3.  Get more feedback from blog followers.  Again, this one has to do with you.  I want to know what questions you have, what you would like to see me post on, what things are really affecting you, and what’s on your mind.  So please, don’t hesitate to contact me, either through Facebook, email, or Tumblr. 

I think three is good for me this month.  I’m going with three.  What goals do you have?  Write them down.  Send them to me or tell them to someone else.  Post them on the mirror.  Write yourself a positive message to help keep yourself going, like, “You are a non-smoker!”  or “You are getting healthier!”.

I am astounded by how incredibly difficult it is to break out of old thinking patterns.  I work at eating a healthy plant-based diet, in which portions are not an issue.  That’s the beauty of plant-based…no calorie counting, no keeping track…in fact, when it comes to eating plants, you have to eat more to be satisfied.  Yet I still get this twinge of guilt that tells me I’ve overindulged.  The thoughts of self-punishment that tell me that I’ve managed to screw up again.  I have another terrible habit.  Every time I pass by the full-length mirror in my bedroom, I lift my shirt to check my belly.  How does it look in these pants, with this shirt, at this time of day, after eating a boat-load of chili, etc.  I’ve done it for years.  Before kids, through three pregnancies, and to this day.  It’s like a gauge for how I feel about myself.  Or like I want to check to see if my exercise worked that day.  And I hate it.  Because I know that is not the way that the body works.  Changing it takes time.  And I am much more valuable than the size of my belly (and my other parts, too!).

In the brain, repeated actions and thoughts, good or bad, are strong neural pathways.  Think of a trail in the woods.  The more you go down the same trail, the wider it gets, the easier it is to travel.  Those are your old thinking patterns.  When you take a detour off the old path onto one that has not yet been established (new thinking pattern), there are branches and brambles, logs and obstacles which you must navigate to pave this new path.  The first time is the most difficult, moving along a pathway that you have never taken before.  The more that you travel on this path, the easier it will get, and the stronger your new thinking pattern will become.  One of the absolute most incredible discoveries in brain science over the past fifteen years is that brains can (and do!) change.  And so saying, “I’m _____ years old.  I’m set in my ways” is bogus.  It just indicates an unwillingness to change, because when you want to, you will.  You can change your thoughts! 

I am declaring a motto for this month.  It’s “Love Myself May”.  This month, let’s make a pointed effort of replacing old thoughts that break us down and make us feel not good enough with thoughts of up-building.  Change “I didn’t work out long enough” to “I’m so glad that I squeezed 20 minutes in.”  Swap out “I ate too many cookies” to “I feel really good about the great big green salad I ate at lunch time.” 

When you hear your old thought pop into your head, immediately replace it with the new loving one.  Over time, your new loving thought pattern will become stronger than the old self-deprecating one, which will become over grown and unused. 

Let’s be thankful to our bodies for what they enable us to do each day.  My body has brought me three incredible children.  It allows me to manage a family of five, to cook for them, clean for them, and care for them.  What miracles does your body perform every day?

Today is the first day of “Love Myself May”.  Tomorrow is goal setting day, so start thinking about your goals for the month!

Today was a beautiful, sunshiny day that looked like it was going to be really warm from inside the house, but when I got out there, I never actually became warm.  So tonight’s dinner was a protein-packed, delicious 3 bean vegetarian chili, not typical end-of-April fare.  But finally, I’m all toasted up. 

Chili is packed with protein, and you’ll be stuffed at the end.  No guilt!

Leah’s 3-Bean Veg Chili (Serves 4 very hungry people)

3 BPA-free cans of beans, well-rinsed.  I always use dark red kidney and black, and vary the third one.  Pinto, cannellini, garbanzo…your choice.  (If using dry beans, soak overnight or for 8 hours, and increase total cook time to one hour, give or take.  You will have to taste test to make sure beans are softened after cooking.)

1 onion, 1/2 diced, the other half intact

1 clove of garlic, minced or pressed

1 Tbsp chili powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 can organic, whole-peeled tomatoes

pinch of sea salt

dash black pepper

pinch of cayenne

pinch of red pepper

Prepare your tomatoes by putting in blender.  Put in all ingredients in pot, heat on medium-low.  Bring to slow simmer.  Cover loosely and cook for 15 minutes more.  Remove from heat.  Let stand 10 mins.  Discard half onion.  Serve with brown rice, tortilla chips, and organic shredded cheddar, if desired.  Give the kids their own little bowls with cheese and chips for them to add themselves.  They love it! 

Your only worry now is hoping you have enough to take for lunch tomorrow.

It seems I took the week off from blogging this week.  I’ve been managing my stress levels.  Our living situation is getting pretty hairy.  Pretty much it sucks.  We have to move again, which we knew, but it is sooner than we planned.  So we are trying to buy a house again, and apparently banks don’t like to give mortgages to people who are out on maternity leave.  Go figure.

In the past, I would have turned to comfort foods to help me through stressful times.  Like chocolate.  Which I absolutely love, and I do eat plenty of (raw, or 72% dark, of course). This week, I accessed my vision of myself in the future instead.  And I worked out.  I managed to squeeze in 5 (F-I-V-E) days of workouts this week.  I’m feeling proud.  But more importantly, I am putting my stressors into perspective, accepting them, and moving on.  I can control how I feel today.  And I am.  I’m going to dwell on the fact that I weigh less than my pre-pregnancy weight, I didn’t do it by starving myself, and I feel the best I have ever felt in my life. 

So if you are missing me, you can go back to earlier blog posts, email me, or, since you know that I am MIA because I’m working out, you go do a workout, too.  Get off the computer.  Technology is a stressor to the body.  And bathing suit season is just around the corner.

Forget fresh flowers.  These beautiful greens make an awesome addition to your kitchen decor, and they’re edible!  From left to right, organic flat leaf parsley, organic lacinto kale, and organic cilantro.  The parsley and cilantro help your body remove heavy metals, such as mercury, aluminum, and lead, from the blood.  Eat or drink them.  A lot!

Earlier in the week I promised recipes from plant foods with higher protein levels.  We are up to lentils.  Never in a million years would I ever have thought that I would like lentils.  I happened to order a side dish of them at a restaurant once ( I was feeling adventurous) and fell in love!  This lentil recipe is so super delicious, that my kids are thrilled when I make it.  No exaggeration.  It has a sweet licorice flavor from the tarragon that is divine!

French Lentil Soup with Tarragon and Thyme

FromVeganomicon

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 large yellow onion, diced

1 large carrot, peeled, finely diced

5 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced

4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

2 tsp dried tarragon

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp paprika (Hungarian if you’ve got it.  I never do.)

6 cups water or vegetable broth (I use water)

2 cups French lentils (aka green lentils)

2 bay leaves

1 1/2 tsp salt

Several pinches freshly ground black pepper

PREHEAT olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat.  When you start to smell the olive oil, add the onion and carrots.  Saute for about 10 minutes, until the onions have browned a bit.  Add the garlic, tarragon, thyme, and paprika, and saute for 2 more minutes.  Add the tomatoes and a little splash of water if necessary, and stir to deglaze the pot.  Cover and cook for 5 minutes.

Add the water, lentils, bay leaves, salt, and pepper, then cover and bring to a boil.  Once the soup is boiling, lower the heat to a simmer and cook, covered, for about 45 mins, or until the lentils are tender.  If the soup looks too thin,  uncover and simmer for a couple more minutes.  If it looks too thick, add a little more water.  Serve with good crusty multi-grain bread.

Enjoy!

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With 11 grams of protein per cup, quinoa (KEEN-wah) is an incredible substitute for meat.  It is a complete protein, a rarity among plants, plus it is high in fiber, iron, calcium, manganese, magnesium, and copper.  It may play a key role in prevention and treatment of diabetes, insulin resistance, breast cancer, and atherosclerosis.  It feeds the good bacteria in your intestines, is easily digestible, and is gluten-free.  It is not a grain, as many think, but in fact a seed related to spinach, beets, and chard.  It was a staple crop of the Incans, grown high in the Andes, and was rediscovered by some nice folks in Colorado back in the 80s who started to grow it at home.  Cool, huh?

The first time I ever made quinoa, I followed the simple directions on the package and fed it to the fam.  (There were only three of us then.)  No recipe or creation.  Just quinoa.  Don’t make the same mistake.  Alone it tastes just like, well, the earth.  I’ve included some delicious recipes for you so that you will enjoy quinoa with your entire family, and rejoice not only in its delicious taste, but also all of the wonderful body benefits it brings.

Summer Quinoa Recipe-  Scroll down to the second video for a wonderfully light-yet-satisfying lunch or dinner.  You can use any type of veggies that you want for this recipe.  Don’t feel like you can’t do it because of the ones he chooses.

Allow me to introduce Rich Roll, the first person to complete 5 ironman-distance triathalons on five Hawaiian Islands in under a week.  And a top finisher at the Ultraman World Championships.  He’s super fit.  He’s 45.  And he’s vegan. 

Where does he get his protein, you are wondering.  Contrary to popular belief, plant proteins are more than enough to help you build tons of lean muscle mass.  And a whole food plant-based diet gives you more energy without putting unnecessary strain on your digestive system. 

The World Health Organization recommends that only 5% of our daily calories be from protein.  This is the same percentage of protein that is in human breast milk.  Consider this excerpt from The Beauty Detox Solution by Kimberly Snyder:

Nathan Pritikin, the founder of the Pritikin Longevity Center in Florida, whose work has proven the incredible healing powers of a plant-based diet, once stated, “Vegetarians always ask about getting enough protein.  But I don’t know any nutrition expert that can plan a diet of natural foods resulting in a protein deficiency, so long as you’re not deficient in calories.  You need only six percent of total calories in protein…and it’s practically impossible to get below nine percent in ordinary diets.”…The average plant food supplies at least 10 percent of its calories in the form of protein, and green vegetables average about 50 percent.”

If you are looking for plant foods with super high protein content, Rich Roll lists his top-7 in MindBodyGreen .  I have summarized below:

1.  Quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah): 11 g protein/cup

2.  Lentils:  17.9g protein/cup

3.  Tempeh: 24g protein/4 oz.

4.  Seitan: 24g protein/4 oz.

5.  Beans:  12-14g protein/cup 

6.  Spirulina: 6g protein/10 grams

7.  Hemp Seeds:  16g protein/3 Tbsp.

Over the next few days, I will share some of my favorite recipes for these high protein foods.

Bonus:  Google “history enthusiasm for protein” to learn more about why the government has set the daily protein requirements so high.

Do you remember the Maxell commercial from the 80s when the super sleek, scarfed man sits on the couch and the sound of his tapes makes his wine glass blow into his hand?  Allow me to refresh your memory.  Now picture me on the couch with my green smoothie making its way into my grasp.  That was me on Saturday, when I turned on my new Vitamix for the first time. 

Now I held out for quite sometime before committing to placing an order. I justified it countless times in my head, my old blender did have a small leak on the bottom, it could hardly handle the loads of delicious greens that I needed it to blend, etc., etc.  I was sick over the cost.  It’s obscene.  But I did it.  I placed the order.  Then I waited.  A week and a half.  Then finally came Friday.  A normal afternoon…my dog started barking at a truck that was a block and a half away, the screech of the brakes getting closer, he’s probably going next door, no, wait!, the big brown truck is stopping at my house, he has a box, and it says…”Vitamix”! 

I anxiously tore into the box, expecting the angels to join in psalms, but instead I thought, this is it??  I kept the Vitamix box in the garage just in case I want to send it back. 

But let me tell you, there is not a chance in hell that I will be returning this MOTHER of all blenders.  I mean it is really, truly incredible.   It is windy!  And it blends drinks, literally in less than 30 seconds.  I used to stand at my old blender for at least five minutes per drink, opening it when it got stuck (which was pretty much immediately, pressing out the air bubbles, closing it, only for it to get stuck again over and over again.  This time when I made my green drink and made my husband drink it, he actually enjoyed it!  And did I mention that it cleans itself?  I know, it’s ridiculous! 

On the down side, it scares the baby.  And I’ll admit, I’m a little scared of it, myself.  But my Vitamix and I are just getting to know each other.  And I have a feeling that we are going to have a long and happy life together.

It is super hard work to grow children to be healthy eaters and avoid the barrage of nutrient-free, sickness and disease causing, non-foods in existance today.  And it seems that Enemy #1 and Enemy #2 are Grandma and Great-Grandma, aka Gg.  Grandma is the type that literally wants to “see” the boys.  When I say see, I mean it in its first definition, to perceive with the eyes; look at.  Interactions with a three year old and four year old can get rather loud and wild, and often involve doing something terrible-going outside.  Therefore these two Enemies use the television to maintain calm.  And junk food. 

Now in fairness, my mother does try to find organic choices for them when they come over.  When she used to watch the boys I wrote her a list of acceptable foods.  But she has not internalized the rules.  Whole foods.  Plants.  Minimally processed.  Home cooked.  No high fructose corn syrup.  Read the ingredients.  Back to basics.  And she wants to think of ME as the enemy.  Like I am being difficult and trying to ruin her life.  When I am simply tring to raise healthy children.  What children eat in the first few years of life is the foundation for their health for the rest of their lives. 

Think I’m overreacting?  Just yesterday, an article was released in the online peer-reviewed journal, Epigenetics, which suggests that the rise in Autism rates from 2005-2010 in the U.S. could be linked to the increase of consumption of High Fructose Corn Syrup and the industrial food system of the Standard American Diet. ”Neurodevelopment can be adversely impacted when gene expression is altered by dietary transcription factors, such as zinc insufficiency or deficiency, or by exposure to toxic substances found in our environment, such as mercury or organophosphate pesticides.” 

I’m not one to jump on the bandwagon for every new study that comes out, as if it is the be all and end all.  But isn’t it common sense?  When we feed our kids foods that their bodies do not recognize as food, they do not develop properly.  Don’t get me wrong. I am not blaming mothers, here.  But healthy bodies can fight off toxins.  And the huge amount of environmental pollutants cannot be staved off in little bodies that are overfed and undernourished.  And the nourishment that comes from whole, plant based foods is what is necessary to keep kids healthy, from conception onward. 

As a kid there were no rules for eating.  It was okay for me to drink Diet Coke (more on Diet Coke in a later post) at 8 years old (maybe sooner).  I did not have to drink water or eat vegetables.  I was not encouraged to try anything that I didn’t want to try.  It was perfectly acceptable to eat entire bags of sour cream and onion potato chips, or pints of ice cream at a time.  So when my mother takes care of my kids, I worry.

Last night my boys slept over at my mother’s house.  Cringe.  I reminded her of the rules, of which she is still somehow surprised, God help me.  She made them macaroni and cheese for dinner, baked cupcakes, and watched gobs of tv with them.  I’m sure there is more, but for my own sanity, I didn’t ask. 

So what do you do when your family members, child care providers, friends, etc. do not share your views on food?  Here are some things that I have tried (and hopefully YOUR mother will get it):

1.  Keep a list of acceptable foods on your computer.  Print it out for new care-givers. 

2.  Have references on hand so that you can explain your viewpoint, as well as the whys of it all. 

3.  Bring your own food.  Bake fun, healthy treats for the kids with the kids. 

4.  Allow your kids to have the crappy treat AFTER they have real food.  This same basic principle applies to adults as well:  Alkalize the stomach with plant foods first for better nutritional impact.

5.  I hate to say it, but when a caregiver repeatedly breaks your rules, like by feeding your kid Girl Scout Cookies till they puke, it might be time to secretly break up.  By this I mean find a way to minimize your children’s time with them.  I chose to change the entire dynamic of my child care situation, paying a babysitter, when I realized that my children’s needs were not being met.  It was hard.  It caused problems.  But in the end, no one knows what is best for my own children better than me.  And it alleviated a huge amount of stress.

6.  There will be times that there is absolutely no way of getting around eating junk food.  Like holidays, for example.  Let it go.  Start fresh and amp up the nutrition the next day.