Ah, avacados !

I was searching yesterday to find some new recipes that were high in fiber, high in healthy fats and made with real ingredients- things that your grandparents would have known about, available in a normal supermarket and affordable ( all of the above are important to me for a sustainable lifestyle change). I started searching with beans as the main search critera, and found some really interesting ideas. One of them happened to include ingredients I already had on hand

Avocado Hummus

2 cups approximately

1 (14 ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 avocado, pit removed, peeled and sliced
5 tablespoons sesame tahini
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 lemon, juice of (or more to taste)
4-5 garlic cloves (pressed or minced)
1 teaspoon seasoning salt (I used Sea Salt Seasoning)
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper or ground mixed peppercorns
3/4 cup water (can use less to get the 'right' consistency)

Peel and cut avocado, removing the pit.
Combine all ingredients in food processor or blender and blend until smooth.
Serve with warm pita wedges, pita chips, or vegetable crudites.

Result is a really tasty hummus that will work well as a sandwich filling, dip, pizza addition and so much more. Avocados are a great healthy addition to a diet. Did you know that one cup has 240 calories and 10 grams of fiber ? It contains about 30 grams of fat BUT 20 of those grams are monosaturated, heart healthy fats. Our bodies NEED these kinds of fats for proper health. Avocados can help lower blood pressure, cholesterol and even help rid us of bad breath. They can also help improve eyesight and relive morning sickness. In some places in the world they are amongst the first solid foods given to babies because of their high fat, B, C and E vitamins. Yay for those alligator pears !!!!

I also came across a recipe for chocolate chip cookies using oatmeal, white bean puree and dark chocolate chunks. Sounds yummy, but I am a little hesitant to try these yet. The black bean brownies have become a highly requested and desired snack item. I fear what chocolate chip cookies might do !

Fun at the Goodwill

I love it when life gets in a turmoil. Well, not turmoil , but at least interesting.

Due to an influence of some very strange dreams, TV commercials and the knowledge that I am not getting any younger , I began to seriously question the whole moving process right at this moment, and decided it would be best to postpone for a little while longer and shoot for a house. Home ownership is something we have never done, one of the most greatly contested factors of our relationship, but .... ! However , things still need to get seriously paired down here, so it was off to Goodwill with a load of boxes that will find new homes with some lucky person. And of course if you drop off, it's always fun to go inside and look around .

Once in there I found an air pop popcorn maker - something I have been looking for . When I did my last weight loss attempt I would have a big bowl of air popped popcorn every night for a snack.It helped to keep me VERY regular, which was one big factor in the weight loss and improvement of overall health. We literally wore the unit out and the the stores in our area stopped carrying them. I need to pick up some popcorn this weekend and then fire this baby up !
I am not certain why popcorn was so helpful to me them. It's perhaps the fiber content, but the fiber content of popcorn is perhaps one of the most controversial things in the food world ! Some sources list it as 1 gram per cup( slightly better than lettuce) , but others will say it is a lot greater.

Fiber content can be really surprising in foods. Did you know that in some, such as broccoli and apricots, to cooking process actually increases the fiber ? It's true. It has something to do with the chemical reaction ( caused by heat) that makes the fiber more "bio-available". I think the same may be true with popcorn. All I know is that if I eat it air popped, it is my friend. Black beans to a certain extent, but n0ot quite the same as good ole popcorn.

I also ventured back to the section where they sell the larger items and I found two pieces of inteeresting fitness equipment. One was an old Nordic track fitness walker , which looked like it was in need of some work on the pulley wheels. I have to admit , you do not often see Nordic Track equipment in the thrift stores. I think it might be a testament to how well it works, or how much the owners love them. I passed on it because it looked a little intimidating. Second was a thigh something that reminded me of something I find in my gynocologists office,but with the stirrups sideways. I stared at it and could not figure out what exactly when where and why, so I passed. To be honest, I cannot fathom how one operates one of those "squirreliptical" things either. From what I see it looks like you get on and sort of walk , but how in the heck do you stop them, and what if your stride length is different from the 10 billion other souls on the planet ? In either case, I decided to pass on these two items. I am sticking with my Wii for now. That operates at a level I can understand because it offers me helpful instructions whenever I mess up .

Fiber and fat

It has been a week of pre moving preparations so far. On Sunday we found what we belive will be our future home, so packing is becoming a reality and that means determining what is worth moving and what we have outgrown. It is amazing what kind of stuff can accumulate in a home in a short time that gets forgotten . It's best to part with it before packing, so it makes for a good round of deep cleaning, which means a lot of lifting and stretching and bending-oh my ! Add this to my daily 30 minutes of rowing , hula hoop attempts and pilates and it makes me feel like I may actually survive moving boxes and furniture when the actual move happens.

Diet wise I am following my instincts, or rather something that has been going through my head. It's a totally radical thought , but what if the proper course for MY body is one of focusing on fiber and healthy fats ? By healthy fat I mean ones that nature has created and not a complicated laboratory process - olive oil, coconut oil, flax oil, the fats in eggs , avacados , nuts and even meat. Include in that mix butter instead of margarine. The cholesterol people , who by the way really do not understand what cholesterol actually does in the body, will gasp in horror. Butter ??? Coconut oil ??? You bet. Did you know that a low cholesterol reading can be a sign of cancer ? Did you know that cholesterol is necessary to help various nutrients move within our bodies ? In short, did you know cholesterol actually has good and useful functions in our bodies ? And fiber- people know it is good for some reason, but do you know why ? It keeps your digestive tract regular for one thing, but what does that mean exactly ? Would you be surprised to learn that about 70 percent of the functions of your immune system happen in your digestive tract ? Would you be surprised to learn that a high fiber diet can help to prevent breast and ovarian cancers ? ( it happens by providing a proper environment for excessive estrogen to be pulled from the body and flushed away). Did you know that it can also help with arthritic conditions by aiding in the removal of inflamitory substances in the body ? It's true. This and so much more. Did you also know that a low fat diet will make you dangerously deficient in omega fatty acids, which are necessary for proper nerve function, anti inflamitory functions and even the health of your veins and arteries ? Would it surprise you to learn that low fat diets are one of the biggest factors behind Vitamin D deficiency , which can lead to osteoporosis, skin cancers, colds and a lot more ? It's all true. So to me , the answer seems to lie in a diet rich in fiber, healthy fats and simple ingredients.

Following that idea, here is what a typical day eating is looking like

Breakfast- 2 high fiber muffins( oat bran , blueberry whole wheat or bran), 2 hardboiled eggs or 1/2 cup of cottage cheese or yogert, coffee

Lunch - High fiber wrap with hummus, cheese and olives( a pizza ) , raw veggies

Dinner- meat of some form, side veggie, whole wheat pasta or barley or brown rice and salad( right now baby spinach with walnuts and a lite poppy seed dressing is the salad of choice)

Snacks- apple , nonfat yogert or black bean brownies

We will see what it does for weight loss. Meanwhile I am noticing a lot less joint pain and finding that my digestive system seems to be applauding this way of eating. We shall see.

Baby spinach with sliced mushrooms, walnuts and lite poppy seed dressing...Mmmm Mmm good !

How to avoid eating at a party

Yesterday was the last hurrah of Christmas for us; getting together with my in- laws. My hubby is the oldest of 6 , and many of the sibs have now young adult children, second marriages, work schedules and a whole lot of juggling to do in order to get together. Things have been complicated recently by my MIL moving to a nursing home due to Parkinson's Disease and Alzheimers. For her comfort, the gathering was held at the nursing home- a first in what I am assuming will be a long line of similar gatherings.

One thing that I have not shared on this blog is that I am an Empathic, and places like nursing homes, hospitals, battle scenes, crime scenes and places of high emotion are VERY problematic for me. Same is true with intense religious services ( some of those have been so intense I have had to leave the building). It is something I have dealt with all my life, and I usually avoid such places at all costs or adopt different coping skills when I must enter them. It is never very comfortable for me. However, entering into them brings about a complete bonus for weight loss. For me, I have learned that eating or drinking anything while in those places or situations only makes things a lot worse. I cannot explain the how and why, but then again I don't think it is nessisary for this blog. Leave it to say for some things it can be a bonus.

I knew it was going to be a squiggy time for me, but I also knew that I really wanted to see my inlaws. I have been very concerned about my father in law since mom went in the home, and some things cannot be understood with words. You just have to be there. So I bucked it up, did what I had to , and went. Lots of very good food was present , but I could not eat any of it due to my "gift". I worried that I might have to make up some excuse why i would not eat, but no one seemed to care. ( Not all food situations will require one to eat or hurt someone's feelings).

It was as bad as I suspected it would be, but with a whole other dimension added. When I walked into the room where our gathering was held I was hit by a "wall" of something that was as warm as the sun, as thick as concrete, but something allowed me and my little family to enter within. Once within, you were confronted by a bright glowing energy that both radiated and protected. I saw at once the source- my father in law. There, visible to me in that room was the depth and breath of his love for not only my mother in law, but all that had been formed from their life together. Their children, grandchildren, in-laws, experiences, joys, sorrows and more. It is something I had felt when I was younger with my own father, but I had never "seen" it manifest in this way before in my life. And in seeing it, I instantly recognized that it has an echo in everything created in love- even if just for a moment.Love made manifest on a vibrational level, and I suspect this is what is behind "The Light" that souls cross into after death.

Needless to say when you see that, there is no way your stomach can process food or even understand what food is anymore. The gathering was nice and I kept watching this force manifested until it got to the point where I felt that if I stared at it for one more second I would be absorbed and never be able to return. Then an announcement was made by my father in law as to the course of future financial matters, and it became a very mundane room at last. A good time was had by all, but my stomach was still too unsettled to eat. My MIL loved her lap quilt, a wedding date for this summer was announced by one of the nephews and then i was time to go.

When we got home I could not talk about this. Some things just seem to take a lot longer to put into words than others. It is the next morning and I am still blown away by what I saw.

I think my session of rowing will help to put things in mental order.

Happy, happy, joy ,joy

What a nice way to start the day ! Thank you to Kristina for the following

And here are the are instructions that come along with this award:

1. Copy the image and display it on your blog.

2. List 10 things that make you happy.

3. Try to do at least one of them today.

4. Pass on the award to 10 bloggers who brighten your day.

Hmm...now to narrow it down to 10. So in no particular order....

1.Reading The Onion. Complete and total parody of current events, snippets of life and trends. It always makes me laugh, and often so hard I can't stop for a long time. Always does it.

2. Music. What kind and who really depends on the mood I am in. Sometimes it involves listening, other times I have to create it on my guitar. Music always makes me happy, and I find if I go a couple of days without hearing any music I get really, really bitchy.

3. My husband. He's got a way about him...there is something about his energy that, for a lack of a better word balances mine, and makes me happy.

4. My son. I don't think I ever wanted or loved another person even before they existed as I do him. In those 10 years that we battled infertility I knew him, loved him and knew he would one day come into being- all I had to do was fight to bring him into existence. Now, no matter what is happening in my life , the fact that he was born is proof that miracles do exist and I have been part of this one. The older I get and the more I deal with PCOS, the more I realize what a true miracle he really is, and that makes me smile.

5. Mud and rain. I look forward to times when I can walk in the rain without an umbrella, coat or shoes if at all possible. It feels like The highest power in the universe is cleaning everything away. I am not Christian, but two contemporary christian songs Healing Rain and Flood seem to remind me of just how this feels for some reason. The last one has the bonus of being about rain and mud set to music !

6. Strong Wind. Just sitting in a very stiff wind makes me very happy. It is energy, it is movement, it is refreshing and it is cooling. The last place we lived was on the econd floor of an old Victorian with great cross ventilation. On windy nights I would love to open the windows and just let the wind blast over me , and it would make me giddy with happiness. Added benefit if it was the time of year when the mints were up, the roses were blooming and the last of the lilacs were fading.

7. Learning something new. Be it a word, a fact, a new blog, I love learning something new. I then take it and weigh it against things I have learned in a similar vein and finding my own truth.

8. Healing. Not because I am a healer and this is what I am supposed to do but because it brings balance to a small part of the world. If all of the unbalanced and broken bits of the world were brought into a place of balance and therefor healing, we could accomplish miracles.

9. Handicrafts. Take one thing, manipulate it in some way and you get something totally different, interesting looking and useful. It's kind of like Christmas morning and magic watching it unfold.

10. Little kids making honest mistakes. It always makes me smile because it shows how innocent we all start out in life.

And now my 10 picks

Marissa at Loser for life
Enz at Downward Trends
JC at This and That with JC
Hollie at Hollies Weight Loss Blog
John at John is Fit
Webmom at My life on a Diet
MissFatAss ( her choice, not mine) at Did I Just Eat That Outloud ?
Jen at Jensylvania
Spunkysuzi at Spunkisuzi working towards a healthier me
Kathy at Kath Eats Real Food

Just dropping in to say..

Busy day here, so just a quickie. Down one pound for the week.