Real Food Week 2 - Beverages

This week's real food challenge focused on beverages: "Beverages will be limited to coffee, tea, water, and milk (only naturally sweetened with a little honey or 100% pure maple syrup). One cup of juice will be allowed throughout the week, and wine (preferably red) will be allowed in moderation (an average of one drink per day)."

Water - Wow! I have a lot of work to do. I don't drink enough water daily. I know water has so much value and that proper hydration provides so many benefits to the body. Just look on the internet about the value of drinking sufficient water daily. So why don't I get enough water daily? NO EXCUSE! So, I will continue to work on drinking at least 8 cups of plain old water daily over these 100 days. Hopefully, by the end, I will have established a good habit. Instead of eating at night when I feel hungry, I choose to drink water. Sometimes, the body really isn't hungry but simply dehydrated.

Coffee - I need to cut back on my coffee intake. I drink at least 12 ounces daily, sometimes more. Again, I am choosing to drink more water rather coffee. Last week, Starbucks started offering the Flat White.

I fell in love with Flat Whites while visiting my daughter in New Zealand a number of years ago. I have seen it in a few speciality coffee shops here in the USA since, so I was intrigued to see how Starbucks would do Last week, I drank my first American Flat White, compliments of Starbucks. The milk's texture is less velvety than I recall in a true Kiwi Flat White. While pricy, it was tasty and held the texture while drinking it. This first was pretty good. And no, a Flat White is not the same thing as a small latte or caffe latte. Wonder if we will start seeing Long Blacks soon here in the USA. The thing about it: I don't know if there's a correlation but later in the day, I had a little bout of vertigo. The next day I realized my heart was experiencing PVCs, something I hadn't experienced in a number of years. Maybe the Flat White and its two shots of espresso had something to do with my PVCs, maybe they didn't. I didn't drink or eat anything caffeinated that next day and the following day, I had no PVCs when I listened to my heart through my stethoscope. Either way, I'm definitely cutting back on my caffeine, past this second week. 

Soda Pop - YAY! I dropped this back in 2006. The only time I drink pop is root beer when it's mixed with ice cream, which happens about once a year. So glad that I'm not fighting this one.

Wine - I don't drink wine or alcohol, except maybe 10 times/year. So, YAY! Alcohol is not a problem in my real food challenge.

Milk - My family switched to organic milk about a year ago. My husband and I go through a half gallon about every 2 weeks or so. I like milk with my cereal and my coffee. So this is another YAY! Not a problem.

Juice - I tend to eat my juice by eating fruit. Another YAY! No problem.

Bottom line: Less coffee, more water!

Real Food Week 1 - Fruits and Veggies

I'm glad this 14 week challenge has started on a positive note, to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables, at least two per meal.   I thought it would be a piece of cake (haha) to accomplish this week's goal.  I love fruit and have no trouble meeting my daily requirement of fruit.

However, one take-away from this week's challenge was the realization that I don't really eat a wide variety of quality vegetables on a daily basis.   Yes, I eat a lot of organic spring mix, organic romaine lettuce.  In fact, my family and friends say I make a great salad, all with fresh ingredients.  I like my salads.  But.....there is a vast world of vegetables that I never seem to get around to eating.  Even staples, like broccoli and green beans, aren't making it to my plate enough.

When I signed up for the challenge through the FaceBook site, I discovered a group of local women who were looking for support in cutting out processed food.  One woman told me of an online source for local organic fruit and vegetables.  With a 50% off coupon, I gave the company a try.  In the middle of a raging snowstorm, a beautful box of fruits and veggies arrived at my door.  There were two grapefruit in the box.  Oh my goodness!!! Such sweetness I haven't tasted in grapefruit in a long time.  The organic bananas were fabulous.  The green peppers and romaine lettuce were fresh.  Swiss chard.....tasty!  I'm still eating through the box.

 My husband, bless him, brought home some fabulous green beans at the beginning of week one.  He decided to join Weight Watchers online and is doing his part of helping us eat real food.  He prepared a delicious meal of broiled salmon, roasted potatoes, peppers, onions and asparagus.

So bottom line,  I need to continue working on eating my veggies that aren't salad fixings.

100 days of real food

I am choosing to take the 100 day challenge (14 weeks) of cutting out processed foods this year. I've been following Lisa's blog at 100 days of real food for a couple years. This is my first challenge through her blog. Each week there is one challenge to try to follow.  I'm diving in.