Black Bean and Lentil Veggie Soup

Black bean and lentil veggie soup!!

1 can black beans
1 container of vegetable broth, about 4 cups(may add more to preferred consistency)
2 cups of lentils
Carrots and celery to your liking...or other veggies, zucchini...?
Can also add some chicken or turkey.

SO SIMPLE and healthy!! And buying organic veggie broth and beans is no more expensive, cost the same as regular! At least where I shop.

Btw, this a recipe that I just started throwing stuff in a pot one night. Lol

Detoxing!

So you've decided to eat clean? Try detoxing! Detoxing sounds crazy but it is a big thing! At least it was to me. Detoxing consists of ridding your body of all the chemicals from that processed food, pop, sugar, and just all around bad stuff that you have been eating. What I did was I juiced all veggies. Can you imagine having a glass of fresh juice, not no v8 crap. Fresh, nutrient filled juice. Just imagine for a second what your body does when you stop eating crappy processed food and you give it nothing but pure goodness...It is going to repair itself and all those nutrients going into all of your cells and pushing out all the bad stuff. With all those bad things coming out you might feel a little different. Those bad "things" have been stored in your cells and are now being pushed out so don't stop even though you might feel different, keep going! 

   My juice every morning! SO GOOD! Add an apple for sweetness :)

Detoxing foods...                     

• Kale
• Spinach
• Cilantro
• Parsley
• Brussel Sprouts
• Onion
• Chard
• Collard Greens
• Cabbage 
• Arugula
• Leafy green veggies!

Other detoxing food...

• Spirulina
• Aloe Vera
• Chia seeds
•  Garlic
• Coconut Oil
• Lime 
• Lemon

I'm not trying to get gross here but also imagine in your mind what the inside of your intestines look like. What did that one colon cleanser commercial say..."...stuck to the colon walls like spackle and paste." And that is exactly what it is like. It is like cement stuck in your intestines against the wall. And as your intestines are pushing "stuff" through to digest it can you imagine how it is hard to do that with pieces of cement here and there. And can you imagine how old all that "stuff" is? A really good thing to do to fix this is CHIA SEEDS! Chia seeds are the best. They suck that icky stuff right up and move it along. If you buy some try putting some in water and see what happens. It turns into a gel after awhile and you can drink this. I used to do it twice a day when I first started my clean eating but then I found other ways to incorporate chia seeds. I put them in oatmeal for my kids, in our shakes, soups, pizza, i mean EVERYTHING. 

Chia seeds are good because they are full of...

• essential fatty acids
• antioxidants
• calcium
• iron
• 41% of your daily fiber in ONE serving!
• anti-inflammatory
• natural extended energy

They are just all around great for you and I will post some chia seed recipes as well as the foods I put them in. You can really put them into anything!

So you get the point of detoxing. Just eat as many of the foods above to help your body get rid of all the bad stuff from the bad food that u have been eating. Remember, you might feel different as all the toxins will be getting pushed out of your cells to make room for the proper nutrition you are giving your body :) ENJOY!

April...Keeping it Simple :)

P.S. Make sure to share with your friends. Let's get people eating right and not making those companies rich that make chemical ridden food and try to addict us to it! lol

Differences in my own health

Before I changed my eating lifestyle I ate about everything processed. I was going out to eat at restaurants all the time and not ordering anything healthy, matter of fact far from healthy. I was feeding my family and myself boxed meals, 100 calorie packs, packaged treats(twinkies, cakes, teddy grahams), packaged meets, fake cheese, frozen dinners, and pop/chips. I barely ever cooked anything from scratch. It wasn't because I couldn't but because I was LAZY! Looking back on it now I just can't even fathom feeding my children those same foods. I have seen such a difference in my own life as well as in the health of my children.

One of the main differences that I have noticed in my own life is I am not so damn tired anymore! I used to sleep for 8-9 hours a night, get up with the kids, eat and then continue to lay on the couch all day and try to nap while my kids were doing what they wanted. I would get up and try to convince them to be quiet every once in awhile but all I really wanted to do was sleep. I can' believe the days I wasted just laying around...How many days we went without milk because I was too lazy to get up and go to the store. I just can't believe it. Nowadays, every morning I juice my veggies and that is how I get my jump start every day. If i don't juice then I feel like my whole day is out of whack, like I'm not feeling it lol. Anyways, without proper nutrition I would still be that fat lazy broad hollering at her kids to be quiet so she can sleep all day. I never want to nap anymore. It's just an amazing feeling to not want to lay around the house.

Another difference is my sleeping habits. I used to wake up in the middle of the night, thirsty, snacking, restless...Since I have made my lifestyle change I sleep through the night and I notice that i don't even sleep as much. Instead of sleeping till 8-9 in the morning I am up at 6-7. It truly is wonderful to feel fully rested everyday.

One big difference is the temperature in my house. What does that have to do with eating right? I am not so dang cold anymore!! I used to have my house at 70-75 degrees with a sweatshirt, sweatpants, an wool socks on because I was so dang cold! Poor circulation from not eating right might have been the case of that but I'm no Dr. I was always so cold, my fingers and toes were like ice cubes. Now my temperature is around 65 degrees in my house and if i turn it up to 70 on a super cold day it starts to get to hot in here. And this all changed about a week or two after I started juicing every morning and eating clean. 

My skin has shown a difference since I started eating clean. I used to have all these little bumps all over my legs and arms and it felt like sandpaper somedays. Now, they are still somewhat visible but they are smooth, there are barely any more bumps at all. I still have a few on my legs but my arms are completely smooth. My complexion on my face has done a complete 180! My face used to be whitish and tan, just kind of off and not very "flowy". I always felt like I had to wear make up to cover it up. Now I can't even remember the last time I wore foundation. The only thing I will put on is eyeshadow and mascara to match my outfit, it is such a natural look. It is almost like my face kind of "glows". Another one is blackheads. They have disappeared. I use an all natural olive oil soap that I used on my face and it has worked wonders. I never break out anymore and if I do it is when i have gone out to eat. I look so much healthier now just because of the difference in the skin on my face. It is just crazy!

This is just the start to go along with how much better my clothes fit (they are not so tight anymore!) my weight loss and much much more. So those are just the differences that I have noticed myself, not to mention all the people I know asking me if I've lost weight! lol

April...Keeping it Simple :)

Check out my facebook page group :)

Colorful Food

Just love this pic of the bright green colors of a meal I made one day...doesn't it just look delicious?! Those are brown rice noodles under there. :)

So ya wanna eat healthy?

So you have changed your mind about what you put into your body and you want to know more about what is better for you. First off you must know that anything that is sugar free, low calorie, or fat free is a hoax and none of it matters. Take a look at a nice leafy green salad (boring I know but just an example) and let's compare it to low calorie special K chips. Which is better? The salad of course, but why? The salad would consist of leafy greens, maybe some tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini....These are foods that are in our natural "wild" diet, as in what we ate before processed food came around. Take a look at the low calorie special k chips...what ingredient in those chips is natural for our bodies? Nothing really...It's not food, it is food-like products. Our bodies were not meant to digest chips, twinkies, or processed boxed meals, not to mention all the chemicals that are put into our food to make it look, taste, and smell better to make us want to buy more of it! All these unhealthy processed foods do nothing but make those companies money and make us unhealthy. I could go on and on for pages about all the reasons these foods are bad for us but for me just looking at the options of healthy and natural versus packaged and processed is an obvious difference. i will get more into explaining it all in later posts :)

To get healthy just making healthier choices...Take out pasta, add quinoa and barley...Make your meals mainly veggies...STOP drinking pop!...quit eating boxed meals

Every morning I juice a bunch of veggies and an apple. Can you imagine all the nutrients from one glass of absolutely delicious juice? And all of that going directly into my body and being digested immediately. It only takes 15 minutes for all those nutrients to get into my body cells. Ever since I have started juicing my skin has become clearer and glows more, I don't get random body aches or pains, I get a lot of my daily nutrients from ONE DRINK! There are just so many great things about juicing that I am going to make a bigger post about it later on. Getting late now.

• Cucumber
• Kale
• Carrots
• Radishes
• Celery
• Parsley
• Ginger Root
• Brussell Sprouts
• Apple

Snacks...Take a lot at what you snack on...one of those "1serving" bag of chips? donuts? granola bar? Get rid of all that processed food. It does absolutely no good for your body at all. Try snow peas with organic hummus (athenos hummus is sooo gross!) it is my absolute favorite snack! or green beans with hummus, greek yogurt with fruit, a small wrap with hummus, feta cheese and an array of peppers (red, green, yellow) amazing flavor!!! Basically just start rethinking what you are truly eating. Once I started to properly give myself the nutrition I needed I didn't have cravings at all like I used to. Do I still occasionally want an entire container of coffee flavored ice cream? You bet your ass I do! But I can control it and only take 5 bites instead of eating the whole thing and not caring. When your body is giving you signs that you are hungry, it is looking for nutrients not just food. If u are on a so-called diet and you feel hungry and have a hard time controlling your cravings it is because your body is nutritionally starved. That is why those 100-calorie packs never work because there is absolutely nothing in those packages that our body wants. Nothing but sugar if u ask me.

 Pita Pockets with hummus, feta, and peppers-TONS of flavor, SO GOOD!

But it is getting late and this is just to get your mind rolling. I will start getting into more of the different types of food and my next couple posts will be some easy healthy snacks and more about detoxing, restarting your body...

April...Keeping it Simple.

Homemade Pizza sauce

Homemade pizza sauce

3 tomatoes that are seeded (just squeeze them after cut in half and dig seeds out)
3 garlic cloves (or to taste)
1/4 cup onion (or to taste)
oregano, salt, pepper - to taste

Put all in food processor and let her go! Add water if you like your pizza sauce just a little less thick

Can also add some zucchini or carrots, great way to hide the veggies for kids!!!

Keeping it Simple - what this blog is about!

I have struggled with weight loss since I got pregnant with my first daughter. I now have two and my youngest is 2 years old. I've tried Herbalife, fad diets, pills, everything! It may work for some people but it never worked for me. Weight loss has been a nightmare and after each little spurt of dieting I would binge and then never quit and end up gaining more weight. What changed my life was watching the documentary "Hungry For Change". It opened my eyes to a lot of the reasons why my previous diets were not working and that reason is I was never getting enough nutrition and it was always about calorie counting and eating small portions of bad processed food. My body was nutritionally starved and that is where my horrid cravings and binging came from, and even the occasional episode of making myself throw up because I was so ashamed at myself for eating two bags of chips with two containers of dip, about 4000 calories? And that was right before bed and not to mention all the other food I ate that day!

After watching that documentary it really got me thinking as to what I am putting in my body and what was MEANT to go into my body. In the documentary they talk about what our bodies are able to digest and they sure didn't mention macaroni and cheese, I mean where is the nutritional value in mac and cheese? Our bodies were meant to digest plants, seeds, and other NATURAL foods, not highly processed foods. If you look at our diets as humans 30,000 years ago (we were the same then as we are now as far as brain development and what not) what did they eat? It sure as heck wasn't cheetos or twinkies. They lived off what the land had to offer and they were healthy! I'm not saying to go build a fort in the woods and fend for yourself but to just really take a look at what you are putting into your body. 

A big difference I have made is reading labels, it's the first thing you can start doing for yourself. Example is a pizza sauce in the "regular" section of the grocery store. I read the ingredients and there are things on there that I cannot pronounce. Those chemicals are added by companies to make their products look, taste, and smell better. The amount of processing that goes on really does take out a lot of the nutritional value, not to mention the chemicals, and your body was not meant to process them. Now take a label of organic pizza sauce (same cost, mind you) and I know every single ingredient on the label, there is absolutely nothing on the label that I cannot pronounce and have hefty knowledge as to what it is. As far as read labels goes, if I don't know what one of the ingredients is I will not eat it. 

Ok totally got off track as to what my page is going to be about and that is taking all this different information that I have found and putting it into one place. I was so overwhelmed when I started eating right with all the different websites and all the information that it almost frustrated me. I am still on my journey of weightloss and I am far from perfect but I do feel I can help people understand what to eat and I love sharing all the great healthy recipes that I have found as well as created!! I started having a bunch of friends asking me questions on facebook, started a page there, and my Dad suggested to start a blog, so here it is. If I ever someday have a large following, THANKS DAD!