A Healthy Life

Perhaps it goes hand in hand with being a dietitian (or almost one :), but trying to live healthy is something I think about a lot. I like to think that I am on the right track. I run every day except Sunday and absolutely love how it makes me feel, I try to get my 5 fruits and veggies in every day, and I try to cook healthy meals every day for Eric and I. But there is so much more I want to do!

Some things I have been thinking about:

• Cooking only with whole grains/ high fiber
• This has been a process.  Eric loves his white rice and noodles, but as I have learned more how to cook brown rice so it tastes good (see this recipe), he is slowly coming around.  The other hard part is that the whole grains tend to be a little more expensive.  I have been trying to make them fit into our very tight budget and it is working better
• I have been trying some other grains and legumes.  Some that have recently found their way into our diet are lentils, quinoa, split peas, flax seed, wheat germ.  I just bought some barley today and still have yet to try cooking with couscous. 
• What I want to do: I need to make these a regular part of our diet, something that I automatically think of when planning meals. I still have to search for recipes and tips on how to use some of these things since I definitely did not grow up eating these and don't know really how to use them. But I want to learn and am trying!
• Adding more color- and expanding the variety of fruits and veggies
• I love fruits and veggies, its definitely not a struggle in that respect. However, we sure seem to buy the same ones all the time. A lot of this has to do with budget again, I scour the ads every Monday and find out which will be on sale this week and that is what I get. But there are so many great ones out there! 
• What I want to do: Try a new veggie every week or at least a couple every month. Today I bought a turnip.  Doesn't sound exciting, I know, but I have actually never eaten a turnip. On my list to try: jicama (I have had this, just have never bought it), chayote squash, rutabaga, chard. 
• Grow our own herbs.  
• My visiting teaching companion and one of the girls we visit both do this. Wouldn't that be great to always have fresh herbs on hand and not have to spend a ton at the store on them! I definitely don't cook with fresh herbs much and would like that to change!
• Baking healthy
• I love to bake. Eric can tell you that for me, if I feel stressed or upset I will either want to go on a run or make cookies.  I find baking so relaxing.  I could spend all day in the kitchen and be happy. (I had the day off today and that is just what I did, I made whole wheat flax bread, chocolate flax muffins, bran muffins, and chicken alfredo for dinner- where the sauce was from skim milk and pureed cauliflower- it really works, and over whole wheat pasta, of course). 
• Fresh, fresh, fresh!
• It's interesting to look in some cookbooks or on some recipe sites and the whole recipes is made from stuff you buy in cans.  Condensed soups, veggies, etc. I know that is easy, but it is not nearly as tasty (or healthy) as going fresh. I love opening my fridge and seeing it full of veggies and fruits. It takes more care and planning to make sure nothing goes unused and bad in the fridge but it is so worth it. Les sodium, less sugar, less fat, and more vitamin. Seems all positive to me. 
• Homemade
• I already cook every day, from scratch as much as I can.  But I want to go even further. Things I want to try: homemade yogurt, sour cream, applesauce, graham crackers.  I have started making our own granola and granola bars, and when I have time, bread.  But I know a lot of these other things will have to wait until I have more time. 

I love thinking about all these things and trying to figure out how we can do it (especially with us both so busy) One of favorite past times (besides looking at recipes, going grocery shopping, and cooking) is analyzing my diet.  At mypyramid tracker you can enter in everything you eat in a day and it calculates how much calories, fiber, vitamins, etc you got in that day.  You can keep track over time and see how your trend is.  It figures out your calorie needs and sees how well your diet measures up. You can also put in your physical activity and that gets figured in to everything. Fun, fun, fun!! I find it so much fun to see if I met all the recommendations. 

Well that is probably enough rambling for today.  Eric wants to read a Dr Suess book now. (it is Dr Suess's 107th birthday today, if you haven't heard). So, speaking of food, its time for some green eggs and ham!