Hummus!

I love hummus. It's healthy, has protein, it's light. It's great with fresh veggies, crackers, some fruits, etc. My son refuses to eat anyone else's because he says mine is the best. Here's my recipe:
1 11oz can of garbanzo beans
1 tbsp of curry paste
3 tbsp olive oil (add more to make creamy consistency)
spices to taste: garlic, pepper, salt, onion powder

I mix all the ingredients in a blender at puree speed until light and smooth. It makes a great snack or addition to a meal. It's great for a little protein boost if you're feeling sluggish.
I'm in classes at the moment so I haven't been posting like I should but I promise to at least pop in once a week to tell you how things are going. Ciao!

Oh my WOW!

I have had unexplained weight gain and very broken out skin. I've never looked this awful ever. I decided to do a double check on my skin care products and behold.. SNEAKY GLUTEN.. in my face wash and body wash. I'm suspecting it slipped past me because it was written as Triticum aestivum grrr!
I will be much more careful now. this makes me so mad..

We have success!

So my son is know totally excited to be VEGAN! before he was eating mostly organic and vegetarian but not gluten free or vegan. We had read the book "why we don't eat animals." My son is quite the sensitive one and he decided he didn't want to eat animals or things that came from them. So yesterday we went to the store and bought some groceries he picked out a few favourite recipes from my vegan book that he wanted to try. we are so excited to both be vegan for our health and for our eco-system. Now if only I can get him to give up gluten and convince my mom to jump on the band wagon. My mom is a definite meat eater which is fine but I think less is more. So we've found a local buffalo farm. they're humane and small. they do not over produce and ship all over. It's a great farm. they also have free range fresh chicken eggs that my mom loves. I feel like as long as you're eating meat and you know where you're getting your meat from, you're fine. I think blindly buying at the grocery store isn't as good but I guess that's just our culture to ignore what is bad. I really think you'll all enjoy these books I have that have great kid-friendly vegan recipes:
Vegan Lunch Box by Jennifer McCann
Vegan Lunch Box Around the World by Jennifer McCann
the Get Healthy Go Vegan cookbook by Neal Barnard, MD & Robyn Webb
Student's Go Vegan Cookbook by Carole Raymond
Eat this not that Supermarket guide by David Zinczenko (the guide to organics and produce is great)

Detox

My detox has been going well but I've cheated so I'm starting from square one.. This time I'm not doing a strict liquid diet. I've decided that just won't work for me. I'm now going to detox on a 30 day veggie diet and lots of water with benefiber. It's still not the healthiest but I need to have my digestive system start over. I've been in a lot of pain just from cheating so I'll really have to stick to this.

So far..

So far, so good. I'm doing the detox as I wanted and I already feel better. I really needed to get these toxins out of my body. I recently read an article on yahoo.com  that was really great.

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/the-weight-loss-tips-youre-not-trying-2508319/#photoViewer=1

These tips I agree with completely!

It's been awhile..

I was advised by my doctor to try eating gluten again along with meat and dairy. This was not good advise and feel stupid for taking it. It has been a total shock to my system and I feel like crap. I don't care if the doctor thinks I'm missing nutrients from not eating certain foods. I take vitamins and supplements. Before I was losing weight and felt really good about my diet. I have gained weight and I'm horribly sluggish. Tomorrow is a new day and I'm starting over with a much stricter diet and I'm adding a strict workout plan as well. I am making my diet and exercise very simplified so I don't have to think about it.
I'm first going to go on a liquid detox for a week. I have a juicer and I know how to make great protein shakes so I shouldn't have an issue flushing out all the gluten and animal products from my system.

Diet:
Breakfast-
8oz rice cereal, 4oz raisins, green tea (skin hair & nails vitamin, ginko biloba, B12, Calcium+D)
Morning Snack-
V8 juice+benefiber (Glucosamine Chondroitin MSM)
Lunch-
soy protien shake w/ fresh fruit juice (skin hair & nails vitamin)
Afternoon Snack-
Raw Veggies (Glucosamine Chondroitin MSM)
Dinner-
Curried Tofu, rice or quinoa, green salad (skin hair & nails vitamin)
Before bed-
Smooth move tea + melatonin

As for exercise:
Mornings 7 days a week> 30 min - 1 hr Jog
Nights 7 days a week> 30min-2hr Workout Video

This should be simple and easy to stick to :) Wish me Luck on my detox! I'll post more to keep you updated.

Strawberry picking and wine..

Today I had  great day with my mom and son at French Prairie Gardens. We bought out tickets from groupons and received 2 tickets, 2 beer mugs and 8 tasting tickets. We picked about 200 strawberries for $4. I had a fed a llama some corn and he chuckled like "peg" (the old lady @ target that justin timberlake plays on snl) I about died laughing. We packed our own gluten free vegan lunches. My son rode their piggy train while I tasted some red and white wine. I really liked hip chicks do wine  Pinot Gris!