Author Archives: Caroline

Monday Morning

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Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!!!! Since most of us use our weekends to go out to eat with our families, attend birthday parties or social events, and relax….we don’t really want to cook or worry about food. This is why most people admit to “cheating” on the weekends. If this is you, don’t feel guilty about it. ITS OKAY!!!!!! I for one had pizza and fried mozzarella this weekend on Saturday!

But the beauty of this lifestyle is that there is no race to the finish. You are NOT on a countdown to lose any amount of weight in any amount of time.
So now its Monday again and routine sets in. You have been given an opportunity to start over again and incorporate good decisions in your diet.

So maybe start the morning this morning with a

  • Pear, lemon, cucumber, celery, and water smoothie. Lemon and celery detox your body and cucumber is excellent for your skin.

Commit to making good decisions this week and make it your goal to have more vegetables this week than you did last week. Maybe next weekend, you’ll still have pizza but you’ll want 2 slices instead of 3. Or maybe you’ll have a burger but pass on the fries. The more you start to enjoy eating well, the less you’ll enjoy eating the bad stuff.

And you’ll know your lifestyle has changed when you only cheat when its absolutely worth it…instead of cheating just because its the weekend!

HAPPY MONDAY.

Carb alternatives

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We do not follow Atkins, however, we do believe that you need to eliminate the rices, breads, pastas, crackers of  your daily diet. The problem is not that “Carbohydrates” are bad for you. Carbs provide energy and energy is necessary for life. The problem is that we are living in a society where wheat (gluten) has been altered to the point that it is dangerous for you. The rise of Celiac’s disease and irritable bowel syndrome are highly attributed to these products.  It used to be that the white carbs were the bad ones because they were processed and that continues to be true…however, we are fooled into thinking that whole wheat is  a “healthy” alternative, when the research is now proving otherwise. Unfortunately, even when you shop at the store and read titles like “Multi-Grain” bread or chips, if you follow our principle of READING THE INGREDIENTS, you will find that these products are made primarily of whole wheat. You need to stick to WHOLE GRAINS and it has to be 100% whole grains.

Now, we are Cuban. We eat double and sometimes triple carbs in most meals (white rice, black beans, and yucca is a common example).  It is tough for us to make a meal without “carbs”until this day. What do we do?  We have learned to replace the carbs that we are used to (rice, pasta, potatoes) with vegetables that are satisfying, delicious, and starchy.

Here’s a a general idea…

You want a baked potato= make a sweet potato (no butter or sugar needed) it is sweet and healthy on its own.

You want mashed potatoes= make a cauliflower mashed potato. You won’t know the difference.

http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/lowcarbsidedishes/r/cauliflowermash.htm

You craving pasta? Instead of pasta, roast a spaghetti squash, make a simple tomato sauce with ground turkey, and pour it atop the squash. Is it identical? No. But you won’t miss the pasta after a while.

http://tastykitchen.com/blog/2010/02/how-to-bake-spaghetti-squash/  (This is just one website to teach you how to make the spaghetti squash but you can google it and find other informational websites)

Often times rice is the cornerstone of all meals. Rice is easily replicated by whole grains. Don’t fall into the “brown rice” scam. Most brown rice is just white rice with molasses and not a whole lot more nutritious.  Get whole grains like Quinoa, cracked bulgar, and millet.

You can also put raw cauliflower in a food processor and it will turn into “rice-like” portions that you can saute and serve in place of rice. You can actually make a pizza crust out of it.

http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/lowcarbsidedishes/r/caulirice.htm

http://www.recipegirl.com/2012/01/16/cauliflower-crust-hawaiian-pizza

PLEASE NOTE: Don’t dream about making this pizza recipe without PARCHMENT PAPER. The crust is too sticky and won’t succeed without parchment paper.

For a great article on the evolution of wheat, please read this article:

http://boingboing.net/2011/10/26/triticum-fever-by-dr-william-davis-author-of-wheat-belly.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+boingboing/iBag+(Boing+Boing)

Salads for Lunch

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Anyone that knows me knows that i’m not a cook. I depend entirely on my husband to make dinner and I’m not good in the kitchen. For years this has limited me to the point that its easier to eat cereal from a box or go out to lunch than make my own food.

But I’ve discovered that we don’t have to know how to cook to succeed in Piling on the Greens. In fact, eating Raw vegetables is the BEST way to consume your veggies because you are not eliminating any vitamins and nutrients with heat.

So here’s what I do with my salads.

I’ve established a few staple ingredients that I put in my salad every time.

  • Organic Girl 50/50 greens mix or the super greens mix or the spinach. (I like them all)
  • Sliced almonds
  • Corn
  • Craisins

DISCLAIMER:  Craisins have added SUGAR!!!! I literally sprinkle 5-9 craisins in my salad because I absolutely love the taste that it gives the salad. They are not necessary and if you can find a healthier alternative that tastes good, please comment on this blog. Occasionally I skip them now, but when I started making my salads they were a must.

Besides these basics every day is a new day for my salad. I include ingredients such as:

  • mini red, orange and yellow peppers
  • sliced carrots
  • tomatoes
  • raw broccoli
  • raw red onions
  • mushrooms (raw or cooked if we have leftovers from dinner)
  • avocados
  • cubed roasted butternut squash (when we make it for dinner I make a separate batch to include in my salads)
  • raw pecans (not glazed!!!!!! like those salad toppers ones sold at the store. Buy plain raw pecans)
  • walnuts
  • sliced apple
  • sliced pear
  • sliced pineapple
  • mandarin oranges
  • raw cabbage
  • red beets
  • sunflower seeds
  • grilled chicken
  • salmon
  • steak
NOTE: I do not put animal protein in my salad everyday. We have greatly reduced the amount of animal protein we consume because our society tends to over-consume animal protein. We never eat it twice a day – either lunch or dinner. And we try to go 2-3 days a week without any animal protein. But if we know we’re going to have a light soup for dinner then I’ll plan a heavier salad that includes chicken or steak or salmon. And the steak or salmon is only used when it is left over from dinner, then I put it in lunch the next day or a couple of days later.

For dressing I use simply:

  • Olive oil and Vinegar
  • Lemon (which is actually quite delicious and eliminates the need for dressing)

You can pick and choose any of these ingredients and make a delicious salad. Obviously I don’t use all these ingredients all at once and sometimes it really depends what I have left in the fridge, especially towards the end of the week or what we made the night before. But you start getting combinations you like more than others. For example, I love combining the butternut squash with grilled chicken and lemon instead of olive oil and vinegar. And my husband’s favorite salads are the ones with avocados, or the ones with pineapple and sunflower seeds.

Between your smoothie for breakfast and your salad for lunch you are consuming more vegetables and fruits than you probably consumed in a week before. This eliminates the need for fiber supplements and solves constipation issues. It helps lower cholesterol, lower your sugar levels, and clean out your liver. In my husband’s case, it actually took away his acid reflux completely!

NOTE:  The avocados and nuts provide the GOOD FATS that we ALL need in our diets…even those trying to lose weight.

  •  Once again, this is a perfect meal solution for those who are in a rush in the morning because it can be prepared the night before.
  • Taking your lunch to work is a lot cheaper than eating out every day, so it offsets the additional cost of buying some items Organic. (And it is way better than ordering a salad from a restaurant which is much more expensive and you really don’t know the quality of what you’re eating)
  • If you have a good work group and a kitchen at work, you can all pitch in and buy ingredients and make group salads for each other instead of ordering pizza or chicken kitchen. You can make some extra chicken the night before and bring it for the group the next day, and your co-worker can bring the roasted butternut squash another day.
  • BJ’s and Costco are adding a lot of organic bulk items that are great for salads such as the greens, carrots, broccoli, tomatoes, apples, pears, etc. I also buy my plain nuts there. Its a good way to buy cheaper and in large quantities for the whole family.

FOR THE KIDS: Kids need to start eating salads from as little as possible. My 1 1/2 year old and 3 year old eat salads all the time. I chop up the greens into tiny tiny pieces and make sure to always put a fruit in there to entice them to eat it. In my experience, what helped my 3 year old the most was to watch me eat it. Kids want to copy their parents, so whenever I ate my salad my son would sit next to me and ask me if he could try it. He was picking off of my plate which didn’t make him feel like he was being force fed. The result was that now I serve him his own plate because i’m sick of him eating all my food!  PARENTS WE LEAD BY EXAMPLE!!!! LET’S GIVE OUR CHILDREN GOOD EATING HABITS!

If I can make these smoothies and salads, anyone can. We can not hide behind the excuse that we are not good in the kitchen to avoid eating healthy!!!!!

Cows should eat grass -by Orlando

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About 7 months ago, my wife bought “grass-fed cow’s milk.” I complained to a co-worker that my wife was spending even more of my money on wacky shit like “grass-fed cow’s milk!!!!!” My co-worker’s response is part of the reason that I’ve lost 48 pounds in the last 6 months. She said to me “you know that cows are SUPPOSED to eat grass right?” What an awakening! Why does our society allow companies to sell milk from cows that DON’T eat grass, and make THAT the norm? Why is “grass-fed” the exception when it is what nature intended?
This is when I realized that I am the cow and that society is feeding me what I’m not meant to eat: Processed crap, ingredients I can’t pronounce, high fructose corn syrup, fried garbage!!!! Humans, like cows should eat grass!!! I don’t mean that literally of course, I mean that we should eat what humans were meant to eat. We should eat mainly fruits, veggies, and nuts. That is what grows from the earth and has no ingredients made by man. I like food that doesn’t have ingredients. Broccoli: ingredients: broccoli. Simple.
My wife and I are not by any means vegans or vegetarians. We eat meat regularly…almost every day. But what I mean is PILE ON THE GREENS!!!! Make vegetables the main course! Shift The paradigm!
Don’t view chicken as your entree: make a huge and ridiculously delicious veggie recipe, and make the chicken or steak as the smaller side dish.
I have fallen in love with vegetables, and realized that they should be mainly what fills you. The steak or fish or chicken should be the “side dish.” By all means make them delicious, but make the veggies, previously considered “side dishes,” the main course! Eat all you want!!! Stuff yourself with them. Pile on the greens!!!
Get your mind away from what you have been raised to believe. What are “side dishes?” and what are entrees?
I will teach you easy ways to make awesome veggie-centric dishes. Soups, for example, are great ways to pack in tons of veggies with few carbs and little or no animal protein. Shift your paradigm! You don’t need meat or potatoes/rice in every dish. I’ll walk you through it. Stay tuned…

Smoothies in the Morning

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For most of us, we wake up and have for breakfast any of the following

  1. cup of coffee
  2. bagel with cream cheese
  3. special K cereal with milk
  4. tostadas
  5. eggs
  6. glass of orange juice
  7. breakfast granola bar or protein bar
  8. protein shake
  9. NOTHING AT ALL, JUST RUN OUT OF THE HOUSE

The problem with these items is that usually they are quick to go items that are loaded with either sugar, or aspartame, or tons of processed ingredients we can’t pronounce. Even if the item is a “diet” item such as a protein shake, I have been finding that a lot of those shakes are LOADED with sugar and sometimes even have corn syrup. (HOW DARE THEY!)

I decided to change that system in my home.  I still have my cup of coffee EVERY morning because I love it and I have researched that coffee is actually GOOD for you!

But after my delicious cup of coffee, I make SMOOTHIES for my husband, my kids, and myself.

We kick start our morning with Fruits and Veggies full of fiber and good stuff to get our bodies going.

Here’s how I started:

  1. I went to publix to the produce aisle and asked an employee where I could find KALE. I had never even heard of it before. It is the Green garnish that you see as decoration when you go to parties and eat buffets.
  2. I bought bananas
  3. I also bought from the frozen isle “frozen organic berry mix”
and I made my 1st Smoothie
1 cup of KALE
1/2 banana
1 cup of berry mix
water to blend 
  • I use a magic bullet to make my smoothies which is a nice option because it is easier to clean. However, we are drinking so much of it that I find myself making multiple batches and I think i’m going back to a regular blender.
  • the measurements vary on how much you’re making and of course to taste.
  • I try to buy the berries and the greens organic but that’s your choice. I buy regular bananas.

Once I tasted that smoothie and realized that it actually tasted GOOD. I started exploring all sorts of smoothies and different greens.

I also like:

1 cup of Collard Greens
1 apple (even with the core and seeds)
1/2 mango
1/2 banana
1/2 inch piece of ginger
1 cup of romaine lettuce
water to blend 
OR:
2 medium sized oranges
1 stalk of celery  
1 carrot
water
a 1/2 inch piece of ginger 
What really shocks me about these smoothies is how much my kids LOVE them. Some of my smoothies actually come out green. I would think that my 3 year old would reject it because its green. But I have a rule in my house… YOU DON’T HAVE TO EAT IT, BUT YOU HAVE TO TASTE IT.
Both my kids tasted my smoothies, and now can’t get enough. They always ask for more when they finish their cup and I always end up giving some of mine (Hence why the bullet isn’t working for me anymore!)
FOR THOSE OF YOU HAVE AN IPAD OR IPHONE. I found an awesome app with tons of smoothie recipes.
Just look in your app store for RAW FAMILY, GREEN SMOOTHIES.  A great thing about that app is that you can look for ingredients, and they tell you the health benefits of that ingredient and then you can search for recipes with that ingredient.
My challenge for you this weekend is to go to the grocery store and buy KALE, FROZEN BERRIES, and BANANAS and make a smoothie for breakfast. 
IF YOU’RE USUALLY IN A RUSH IN THE MORNINGS:
  • Place all the ingredients in the blender the night before and put in the refrigerator. This causes the frozen fruit to melt a bit but stay icy.
  • This eliminates the prep time in the morning and all you have to do when you wake up is blend and serve.
  • It’s also a great tip for blending because the frozen fruits are harder on the blender when they are rock solid.
Instead of starting your day with processed foods, sugar, corn syrup, aspartame and tons of carbs….try starting off your day with fiber, vitamins, minerals and enzymes that clean out your liver and eliminates toxins.
DID YOU KNOW… 
  • For your digestion, the best time of the day to consume fruits is in the morning.

Detoxing Your Body

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When your body is addicted to a substance, a DETOX is usually necessary in order to get your mind to cooperate with what your heart wants you to do. This applies whether you’re a drug addict, an alcoholic, or plain and simple…a sugar addict. It is very difficult for someone to consider themselves a sugar addict. Food is a part of our lives… an acceptable and enjoyable part of our lives. Part of our societal culture is to gather together to eat. The highest traffic area in your home is the kitchen. Parties include food. Business meetings include food. Fundraisers include food. Food is everywhere. Unfortunately for us and even more unfortunate for our children…the food we provide at all these social functions is usually food that is not good for us. Cupcakes, desserts, bagels, bread, crackers, chips, cookies, soda…the list goes on and on. Usually in the corner of the buffet you’ll find a barely touched vegetable tray or some fruit. Since from a very young age we associate these foods as “treats and goodies,” it becomes increasingly difficult for us to want to eat the “whole foods.” We are taught to be addicted to sugar. Therefore, it is the norm and since it is “accepted” in our society, we don’t diagnose ourselves with the label of “addiction.” But the truth is that most of us are addicted to sugar.

One of the biggest reasons we are oblivious to this addiction, is that most of us don’t even realize that what we are consuming is in fact sugar. Since I began my quest to eating healthy, I get asked all the time what my trick is to having lost weight. I have told many people quite simply, I gave up sugar. The most common response to that comment is…”Oh, well I don’t really eat a lot of sugar in my diet anyway”  If the conversation evolves and we discuss more in depth what the person’s daily diet is like…almost always, the only sugar they are avoiding is the obvious one. The chocolate chip cookie, or the dessert. But what they don’t know, is that sugar is in everything these days. People are not trying to overload on sugar….they just don’t KNOW what they’re eating. That is why one of the biggest principles we live by is to Read the Ingredients. Carbohydrates turn into sugar in our bodies, and even though we need carbohydrates in order to have energy, it is important that what we are eating are 100% whole grains and not intaking the wrong kinds of carbs.

From the moment our day begins we put sugar in our coffee, have a bagel or cereal for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch (yummy bread), some chips and  maybe a soda, a cookie for snack?? (well only today because it’s Johnny’s birthday but tomorrow we’ll be good!), rice or pasta for dinner with ragu sauce (oh oh, did we check the sugar content on the ragu bottle?)…of course these are just examples and some days are better than others but overall,

Our society is addicted to sugar and carbohydrates. This makes it very difficult for most people to lose weight and feel great.

That’s where the detox comes in. Detox can take many forms depending on your personal needs. Maybe you want to test yourself out and see if you are a victim of sugar, so one option is to cut out sugar completely from your diet for a while. I did that for 3 weeks and discovered that I was TOTALLY a sugar addict. For those 3 weeks I had headaches, I felt nauseus, I even felt anxiety, but slowly those symptoms started going away and I was able to overcome that addiction.

Others need a little more structure and would like to actually follow a “detox meal plan.”My girlfriend did a 21 day detox which she loved. Here’s the link: http://www.wholeliving.com/152870/2012-whole-living-action-plan

I actually took many recipes from that article and highly recommend them.

Maybe 21 days seems too long for you and you just want to experiment with small changes instead of drastic ones. This wonderful article gives you small steps you can take in the detoxification of your body.

http://www.hungryforchange.tv/detox

Maybe you eat healthy all week but splurge on the weekends and need a detox day.

Whatever your goals are, there is always room for some detoxing. And the nice thing about it is that it gives you a kickstart in this process. I find that when I detox, even for just a day, I make better choices in what I eat, and I crave bad foods less.

I encourage you to try either of these two websites to incorporate detoxing in your life. And please, let me know what your experience was like.

Before & After

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Image

Orlando has changed tremendously in the last 6 months. The transformation has not only been physical but emotional also. Becoming healthy, losing weight, having more energy and looking better is powerful for the whole family dynamic. We are a better family as a result of this change. Keep checking in to our blog to find recipes, articles, and more to discover how you to can start leading a healthier lifestyle.

The Principles We Live By…

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We have found that instead of dieting, it is much more sustainable to apply principles to the way you eat. If you adopt certain principles, and choose to live by them, it is much easier to apply them in any situation you’re in. Furthermore, sometimes you may choose to deviate from some principles, if for example, you’re eating out at a restaurant. But what we have found is that once you really start applying principles, you may deviate from one, but still follow the others.  These principles will help you make better choices, even if they are simple choices…and those simple choices will affect your life in big ways.

So here are some of the principles we live by.

1. PILE ON THE GREENS … this has been the most impacting principle of all the ones we’ve learned. Add vegetables any time you can. If you’re going to eat an omelette, add mushrooms, green peppers, spinach, onions, red peppers, etc. If you serve yourself a plate, make the largest portion the veggies. Eat a salad every day. You have the opportunity to add veggies to your breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks- sometimes you don’t even taste them but the benefits are astounding.

2. TRY NEW FOODS… most of the time, people are afraid to try certain foods because they are afraid they won’t taste good, or they look weird, etc. The path to becoming healthy is a path of learning new things. The only way you can break away from your old habits is if you adapt your palette to new flavors. They say that kids need to try a new flavor 10 times before they can really start liking or disliking it. Adults are the same way. You may think you don’l like broccoli because you remember the mushy, bland broccoli your mom made when you were little. Well, there are a ton of ways to make broccoli. Try it roasted, or steamed, try it mixed in with other veggies you like … you’d be shocked to discover that maybe you didn’t dislike broccoli, you just disliked the way it was served to you.

3. READ THE INGREDIENTS… People nowadays have become much more label aware. So they get a box of cereal or chips, or anything else and they say “oh this only has 2 grams of sugar, or it has 0 grams of fat” those numbers comfort you and you eat the product guilt-free. Well there is a lot more to that product then what you’ve just read. For example, maybe the only reason it has 2 grams of sugar, is because it is sweetened with aspartame. Or it has no fat, but it has high fructose corn syrup.  What you really want to look at is the part under the Nutrtition Facts …The INGREDIENTS. That fine print will shock you what the product contains…which leads me to my next principle.

4. EAT WHOLE FOODS… In an awesome documentary, Hungry for Change, Kris Carr said, “if it takes a laboratory to create it, it takes a laboratory to digest it.” We try to eat foods with as little ingredients as possible. That leads us to eliminate a lot of boxed foods, and eat lots of fruits and vegetables. An apple has 1 ingredient “apple.” We look for foods that don’t include contents we can’t pronounce. Every whole food…bananas, pears, spinach, asparagus, melon,berries, nuts, cheese, fish, chicken, sweet potato, olive oil…etc, has a little bit of everything. These whole foods have sugar, fiber, protein, fat, etc, but because they are “Whole” they are digested in your system the way they are supposed to. Of course depending on your dietary goals and/or needs,  you may choose to consume higher quantities of one whole food as opposed to another. But they are different from processed, boxed foods or “diet” foods that  are not digested properly in your system. They go straight to your liver and prevent your body from functioning properly. Eventually, these diet foods can actually make you gain weight instead of lose weight.

The Importance of a good Doctor

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Funny how life happens in spurts…. its almost as if the universe collaborates all at once to show you a lesson or lead you in a certain direction, or deviate you from another. At least in my life, when I’m heading for change, all the circumstances around me seem to present themselves in a way to sway my decision one way or the other.

Right around the time that I made the decision to stop eating sugar, my thumb nail started to deteriorate. It looked like I had fungus, or my nail was falling off. It was gross and scary. Coincidentally, my father had been on a radio program with a young doctor from the University of Miami who was presenting a different medical philosophy. My dad called me and said, “I really like this guy. He’s fresh, he seems very intelligent and he’s got great energy. You should go see him”

At the time, Orlando went in for a general checkup (after canceling the appointment 3 times because he didn’t want to go!) and came out raving about this guy. He said he was like a Motivational Doctor. This doctor didn’t judge Orlando for his lifestyle or yell at him for being overweight. Instead he told him things like… “just pile on the greens.” That may sound silly but this doctor also believes in the power of food. His attitude and demeanor left an impact on my husband and PLANTED A SEED. Sometimes that is all that is necessary to start the process of change. Just plant the seed. Orlando did not change right away, actually it took him another 6 months. But from that day forward, at least he did start piling on more greens to his meals and that eventually led to a life where we consume more vegetables than anything else. That little comment would later on become one of the cornerstones of our lifestyle.

Once Orlando came home with such a positive outlook on this doctor, I immediately made my appointment to get my disgusting nail checked out. My mother had had a similar nail problem and had gone to a dermatologist who injected steroids into her nail… A very painful procedure, with zero results.

In my case, my doctor took a look at my nail and told me that clearly I did not have enough “GOOD FATS” in my diet. He suggested things like making milk out of sesame seeds and raw almonds. Coconut oil, avocado, olive oil, etc. He told me he would do bloodwork to confirm but that I needed to incorporate these essential oils in my diet. Needless to say that my blood tests corroborated that I was extremely deficient in good fat. My cholesterol was too low, my liver enzymes were slightly elevated… I had all the signs of Hyper thyroidism…but it was as simple as changing my diet. Within 3 months of that visit, my nail was growing back normally and all my blood levels had normalized. The change was remarkable.

It has changed my perspective on food and healing when my doctor recommends ginger for headaches or nausea or almost any other ailment, raw almonds for heartburn, spicy soup for sinusitis, or good fats for a sick nail.

My doctor believes that food IS medicine. What a concept!!!! To think that we do not have to live our lives depending on pills or antibiotics… That our remedies can come from the produce aisle at Publix instead of Walgreens!
Of course, when the time calls for it, my doctor will be the first to prescribe an antibiotic. And there are definitely times when medicine is necessary. But wouldn’t it be wonderful if medicine could be our last resort instead of our first? And we could teach our kids a life of prevention instead of treatment?

That is our goal….what is yours????

For a look at one of my doctor’s interviews, click on the link below. His name is Dr. Virgilio Sanchez.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyQyVWYHYn0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

WHY THIS JOURNEY BEGAN

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DIET OR LIFESTYLE? WHY ARE WE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR THE “SECRET” TO LOSING WEIGHT?

MY HUSBAND, ORLANDO, HAS LOST 45LBS IN 6 MONTHS. PROBABLY ON A DAILY BASIS HE GETS ASKED THE QUESTION “HOW DID YOU DO IT?” OR “WHAT’S THE SECRET?”

THE TRUTH IS THAT THE WAY HE EATS SHOULD NOT BE A SECRET. IT SHOULDN’T BE COMPLICATED. IT SHOULDN’T REQUIRE DIET PILLS OR MAGIC POTIONS. IT SHOULDN’T COST HUNDREDS OR THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS IN A “DIET SYSTEM”

SO I DECIDED TO SHARE WITH YOU HOW MY HUSBAND’S MIRACULOUS WEIGHTLOSS STARTED.

ON JULY 19TH, 2011 MY LIFE CHANGED FOREVER. A FEW WEEKS BEFORE, A PERSON VERY NEAR AND DEAR TO MY HEART HAD BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER. LOOKING AT MY GENETIC BACKGROUND, I WAS CONFRONTED WITH THE REALITY THAT CANCER RUNS IN MY FAMILY, ON BOTH MATERNAL AND PATERNAL SIDES. THIS REALIZATION MADE ME FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE AND POWERLESS.

ON JULY 19TH, I MET A DOCTOR FROM THE “ANTI-AGING WORLD” WHO WAS AT ONE OF THE CONFERENCES MY FATHER ATTENDS AS PART OF HIS PROFESSION. I HAD THE FORTUNE TO SIT AND SPEAK WITH HIM ABOUT CANCER AND FOOD AND THE BELIEF THAT THE TWO ARE LINKED. I CONFESSED THAT I DIDN’T EAT VERY HEALTHY…BUT THEN AGAIN, I DIDN’T HAVE TO BECAUSE I WAS GENETICALLY THIN. I COULD EAT 15 CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES IN ONE SITTING AND STAY THE SAME WEIGHT! HE TOLD ME SOMETHING THAT STRUCK A NERVE…HE SAID, YOU MIGHT BE THIN NOW, CAROLINE, BUT WHEN YOU TURN 40 YOUR METABOLISM WILL CHANGE. YOU WILL DEVELOP A BELLY AND YOUR BODY WILL NOT BE ABLE TO KEEP UP WITH YOUR EATING HABITS.

THAT DAY I MADE A DECISION. I DON’T KNOW FOR CERTAIN THAT CANCER AND FOOD ARE LINKED BUT THE CONCEPT MAKES SENSE IN MY HEAD. IN A WORLD WHERE EVERYTHING IS PROCESSED, OBESITY IS ON THE RISE, INACTIVITY AND STRESS ARE COMMON EVEN FOR OUR CHILDREN…AND EVERYONE IS GETTING SICK, KIDS AND BABIES INCLUDED…I CAN’T HELP BUT THINK THAT OUR LIFESTYLES ARE KILLING US.

SO ON THAT DAY, I CAME HOME AND TOLD MY HUSBAND THAT I WAS ELIMINATING SUGAR FROM MY DIET. SUGAR, BECAUSE THE DOCTOR TOLD ME THAT IT WAS OUR BIGGEST ENEMY. MY HUSBAND SAID OK AND KIND OF BRUSHED ME OFF, BUT I WAS COMMITTED TO MAKING A CHANGE. THERE BEGAN THE JOURNEY I’M CURRENTLY ON OF EATING DIFFERENTLY, EDUCATING MYSELF ABOUT FOOD AND HOW IT AFFECTS OUR LIVES, AND LOOKING FOR SYSTEMS THAT WORK FOR MY FAMILY.

IT WASN’T UNTIL JANUARY, 2012 THAT MY HUSBAND FINALLY DECIDED TO START APPLYING MY PRINCIPLES TO HIS OWN LIFE. TODAY HE IS A DIFFERENT MAN…WE ARE A DIFFERENT FAMILY…AND WE LOVE IT!

WHAT ARE YOUR MOTIVES?

IT WAS ONLY WHEN I MADE THE CONNECTION THAT THE WAY I EAT CAN HAVE A DIRECT IMPACT ON MY MOOD, MY WEIGHT, AND MY FUTURE HEALTH THAT I WAS ABLE TO ADOPT A CHANGE OF LIFESTYLE THAT IS SUSTAINABLE. MY HUSBAND DID ALL SORTS OF DIETS FOR THE LAST 6 YEARS OF OUR RELATIONSHIP AND WOULD NEVER LOSE ENOUGH WEIGHT, WOULD GET FRUSTRATED OR BORED AND GO BACK TO HIS OLD WAYS, WOULD REGAIN THE WEIGHT…AND THEN START ALL OVER. IT WAS  A VICIOUS CYCLE. HE FINALLY STARTED APPROACHING FOOD WITH A DIFFERENT PARADIGM. WHEN HE STOPPED TRYING TO LOSE THE WEIGHT IN 3 MONTHS AND STARTED TRYING TO NOURISH HIS BODY WITH THE PROPER VITAMINS, MINERALS, AND ENZYMES THAT GOOD FOOD OFFERS …THE POUNDS BEGAN TO SHED NATURALLY. THE TRANSFORMATION IS INCREDIBLE!

THIS BLOG IS NOT INTENDED FOR SHEDDING 10LBS BEFORE SUMMER, OR DOING A CRASH DIET FOR 3 MONTHS…THIS BLOG IS INTENDED TO SHARE THINGS I HAVE LEARNED ALONG THE WAY TO CHANGE THE WAY MY FAMILY EATS…AND HOPEFULLY CAN HELP YOU CHANGE THE WAY YOU AND YOUR FAMILY EAT. LITTLE CHANGES MAKE BIG DIFFERENCES SO DON’T BE AFRAID TO START SLOWLY. THIS IS A “LIFE” CHANGE…NOT A DIET. WE ARE STILL LEARNING AND CHANGING. HOPE YOU WILL JOIN US FOR THE RIDE.