Moving from the Shred to Trim Healthy Mama

Well the 10 day shred is over and another 10 days have passed. I have to say I was suprised but the results. At first, I didn't think I noticed much of a difference. I was actually sleeping worse than I had been, even with a 5 month old baby. But what I noticed in the days to come was that I was craving less. Craving less sugar, craving less portions, and craving less at night. This has actually been a huge help! We were struggling with getting a full dinner prepared while trying to get the babe fed, bathed, and down for sleep, oh and not mention that I had language two nights a week, and we had to get our exercise in there somewhere. Now we focus on lunch as our main meal and it frees us up to have a smaller dinner. So what's for dinner? Well, I'm glad you asked. :)

I was recently introduced to Trim Healthy Mama. Any THM's out there, would love to hear from you! So basically THM is a little bit confusing, but makes sense. There is a pretty big learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, it's fine. The basic idea is to loose weight don't mix your fats and carbs, and there are some limits as to what carbs we are talking about. If you want to know more google it or as I suggest, get the book! That said, we now are trying to implement the THM approach, as it's a sustainable way to eat not just to loose weight, but after as well. 

The tricky part is making this work in Africa. It takes more effort and you are more likely to make some mistakes. But it's all in stride, and as the ladies of THM will tell you, adapt it to you, make it work, give grace. So here we are trying it out. I had fads, but the science behind it makes sense, so alas I give in. 

Our first recipe is a new go-to favorite and will commonly be seen on our plates for a quick dinner. We actually first got the idea from our favorite café in town, who knew we were doing it right all along!

Laughing Cheese Omelette & Pork Sausage

Ingredients

1-2 cubes of laughing cow cheese (la vache qui rit in our stores)
3 whole eggs
1 Tbl. of butter (I usually just guesstimate on this)
1/4 Bell Pepper, chopped
1/4 onion, chopped

Directions

First, sauté the onions in butter, again I just usually slice of a bit and go with it. This is a fat meal (or S as THM calls it) and so you don't have to limit your butter for cooking. Afterwards, I put them aside on a plate and add more butter to the pan. Then I whisk the 3 eggs in a bowl and add the onions and bell pepper. Before the butter starts to sizzle too much I add the mixture into the bowl, but remove it from the heat when I do. Usually I just hold it for a few seconds in the air and then set it back down. Once the egg starts to harden on the bottom side, I add the cheese to one side of the omelette. Then I fold it over and flip. Let it finish cooking then, voila, it's finished. You can also add some more laughing cow cheese on top at the end. 

To get the protein part in, we have a sausage patty with it as well. The grocery store recently started carrying ground pork, so we add spices to it and cook it in patties. Then we want one we just pop it in the microwave. (If I was in the states, I'd probably alternate with bacon) mmmm!

If I'm still hungry I'll finish off the meal with a shake: frozen strawberries, coconut milk (because we are still in "S" mode), ice, vanilla, and if I didn't already have a juice + shake earlier that day I'll also add a scoop of the vanilla juice + mix. 

So please share with me your favorite THM meals! We don't have all the baking mixes and access to vegetables here, so I have a feeling we are going to struggle with variety! 

Tying My Happy & Yummy Shrimp Dish

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I'm a little behind on my blog posts for this month, but that's due to a small work crisis of loosing all my files that were on the cloud. Anyways, here I sit in the dark, on my bed, babe asleep for his morning nap, ready to pour out some struggles in hopes that one person might feel the same, and together we can grow. 

Food has always been a struggle, because let's face it, it's so darn good. And I do not want to a waste a meal on something that tastes bad, but that desire to only eat things that my tastebuds like has led to a life of empty calories. It wasn't until after college that I actually started cooking with raw meat, vegetables, and spices. I didn't really have much experience in the kitchen outside of meals that could be warmed up in the microwave or oven or couldn't be bought in the freezer section. I also didn't know that they were unhealthy. I mean the label read Healthy Choice! 

So now almost 10 years later, although my knowledge of heathy food has changed, my heart hasn't. And even though our family may eat zucchini pasta with homemade tomato sauce or stuffed sweet potatoes (though not in Africa because we can't buy sweet potatoes here), I still look to food when I should be looking to God. 

I don't think I realized that I even did this until I started read this paragraph in Made To Crave by Lysa TerKeurst,

"Tying my happy to the wrong things is partially what caused my weight gain in the first place. There were too many experiences I enjoyed primarily because of the food that was attached to them. The movies were tied to popcorn. A birthday party was tied to cake. A ballgame was tied to a hotdog. School parties were tied to cookies. A morning meeting was tied to gourmet coffee. Getting gas was tied to snack crackers and a soda. Watching TV was tied to chips. A summer outing was tied to ice cream. A winter outing was tied to hot chocolate." 

Even as I type the words above two things happen inside me—I want to go to one of the actives above so I can have the aforementioned food, and two, my heart hurts and my eyes well thinking about how true the statement above is for me. *sigh* Because here's the deal—"My body size is not tied to my happy. If my happy was missing when I was larger, it will still be missing when I am smaller." Thanks Lysa for tearing me apart. She goes on to say, "Tying my happy to food, skinny jeans, or anything else sets me up for failure."

So what now? Now, I am on a journey to rip apart the sin in my life tied to food. As Lysa puts it, "I want to be in the process of becoming more and more like Jesus . . . it reestablishes that God, not food, is in control of me." 

So when I crave more sweets, bread, or experiences solely for the purpose of food, I can stop, and use that as a way to check my heart and pray to God. And in the few short weeks of trying this, let's just say it's been hard, and oh so convicting. My sin nature has won a few battles, but not all of them, and my heart is growing in pursuit of the Lord. 

So that's my challenge for anyone else who may be struggling with their ties to food. It may not be a weight issues or even a health issue, but instead simply an issue that pulls your devotion away from the Lord. Lysa has some great checkpoints on how to evaluate whether or not we are succeeding in our goal, and next post I'll talk about those in my own walk with this issue. But for now, I leave you with one of our go to recipes that we use in both the U.S. and Africa (when we can find affordable shrimp):

Black Bean, Corn, & Shrimp Salad

Ingredients

1 tablespoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 1/2 pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, divided

1 1/2 cups whole-kernel corn (we use canned, but if you are in the states, try to get one with the least amount of ingredients)

3/4 cup bottled salsa (you can also make your own, but we can buy salsa here in Africa, so we usually use canned for sake of time)

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained (we can't always find black beans, so we substitute red beans)

1 small can of pineapple (you can also just buy pineapple salsa or even mango salsa if you are in the states, for Africa, we add our own pineapple from the can, because whole pineapples are way to expensive!)

Preparation

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.

Combine first 3 ingredients in a large bowl. Add shrimp; toss to coat.

Coat pan with cooking spray. Add shrimp; sauté 3 minutes or until done. Add 1 tablespoon lime juice. Remove shrimp from pan. Add corn to pan; sauté 1 minute. Stir in salsa, cilantro, and beans; cook 30 seconds or until thoroughly heated. Stir in 1 tablespoon lime juice. Serve shrimp over bean mixture.

(adapted from My Recipes)

2017: The Year of Health & No Bake Oatmeal Ball Recipe

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2016 was NOT the year of health and food, in fact, it was the year of baby. I spent January through September pregnant and the other three months taking care of a newborn. In other words, I had cravings, nausea, loss of appetite, out of control appetite, and to top it off an intense 8 weeks of trying to take care of a newborn and recover from a c-section, blah. That said, 2017 IS the year of health, BUT I live in Africa, so the recipes I used in 2015 are not really possible here. So what does that mean? Well, follow along as I venture through cooking from scratch without a whole foods around the corner. 

So for my first recipe I have my go-to sweet snack. I'm trying desperately to cut back on sugars, but I'm still craving a little something, so these are perfect for hitting that sweet tooth and loading up on fiber. Plus, they are super easy to make!

No Bake Oatmeal Balls

- 2 cups of oatmeal (our oatmeal is really small, so you may only need 1 cup if you are using oatmeal in the states)
- 1 cup of smooth peanut butter
- 1 tsp. of vanilla
- 100% cocoa, I just add to taste, but I'd start with 1/2 cup, I've also skipped the cocoa and just added chunks of a dark chocolate candy bar as well.
- 1/2 - 1 cup of coconut, again depends on your coconut. Some of them are super fine and others not, so I add to taste. Also, I can't get unsweetened coconut here, but if you have access to it, I'd recommend using that instead of the sugary stuff.
- 1/3 cup of honey, again taste it and see if you want more. 

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Mix all ingredients in a bowl then form balls and place in fridge. If the ingredients won't stick together, try sticking them in the fridge for 30 minutes before forming the balls.

I'm still trying to find some other go-to sweet fixes, for instance, I make protein shakes. I cheated and brought a mix from the states and I just add non-dairy milk and frozen fruit. As part of this new year I really want to be held accountable for my health. As part of my 2017 goal planning my word was intentional and that fell into four categories: spirituality, community, and health, creativity. You can read more about it here. So join me as I attempt to eat health and exercise in Africa. I know it's going to be different and provide new challenges, but I want to look back in January 2018 and be able to say, "I did it." I'm tired of starting each new year over with same goal. Also, if you are like me and wanting to focus on your health but have a love-hate relationship with food, I encourage you to read "Made To Crave." I'm only a few chapters in but it's kicking my butt. 

And for exercises I'm currently walking/jogging 5-6 times a week. We reserve Saturdays so we can skype with our families, but the other days we load up the baby in the stroller around 5:00pm and head out into the neighborhood for at least 30 minutes of walking and running. Three days a week we have been doing an app called running for weight loss. It gives you an interval workout for 36 minutes. However, once the hot season sets in around March, I'll have to switch up my workouts. My current plan is to start Focus T-25 (something I've had for a few years and tried before) that way I can put the a/c on in the living room and get a workout in, I just hope my downstairs neighbors don't mind. 

So there we go, my plan to get healthy in 2017. I'd love to hear from those of you who have the same goal, what are some of the things you plan to implement to make it happen.