Healthy Christmas

My mom had previously mentioned having a healthy Christmas this year.  My mom's sister and my favorite aunt, Fina, died the Saturday after Thanksgiving of a massive heart attack.  I'm not sure how big of a part this played in my mom's request, but my mom is a Type II diabetic, has high blood pressure, and high cholesterol so it's best if she try to eat healthier.

On the menu for Christmas were the super delicious Spinach Artichoke Portabella Quiches for breakfast.  These are so yummy, you can eat them at any meal.   For lunch, I made cooked some meatballs that I got from Bon A Rose and some of their gluten free marinara sauce.  For dinner I made Pork Tenderloin and roasted asparagus.  Everything was quite yummy and a welcomed change from our past Christmases.

A sign of how eating well can change your health, my mom usually has a morning blood glucose reading in the 120s and an evening reading in the 150s and above.  Her reading on Christmas evening was 125 and her morning reading on the 26th was 105!!!!  There were plenty of leftovers for my mom to enjoy over the next few days.  I have to say she's really become very conscious of trying to eat healthy although she does tend to slack occasionally.  Hopefully, as I continue to eat healthy, she'll follow my lead.

Massage Saturday

Today was my monthly massage.  I look forward to these Saturdays because the massages really help the issue I have with my left thigh going numb.  I had surgery in 1999 on my low back.  I had herniated discs at L4, L5, and S1.  I had horrendous sciatica and I have suffered some long term nerve damage in the form of my outer left thigh going numb.  It wasn't much of an issue when I was sedentary, but once I started working out, it became an issue.  Luckily, since I've been working with Drea at the LifeSpa, it has gotten much better and only flairs up occasionally.  

The last month or so I've also had some issues with my neck.  I think it has to do with how I am sleeping and it can get quite painful.  It hurts to turn my head to the left sometimes.  So, we started the massage this morning working on my neck and upper back area.

My neck feels so much better and my leg doesn't have the numbing feeling anymore.  My next massage will be on January 11.  

After the massage, I made my way over to a gluten free bakery in Plymouth that I've been dying to check out.  Oh my God, it was AMAZING!!!  Gluten free as far as the eye could see (hey, that rhymes!).  If you are gluten free and in the Plymouth area, check out Rumi's Passion Gluten Free Bakery.  You will not be disappointed.  I bought a loaf of white bread for my mom, some pepperoni and cheese bread and a peanut butter brownie for myself.   I'm eating the brownie right now and it is slap-your-mama good.

Then I made my way to Lyon Township to pick up some gluten free Italian fare at Bon-a-Rose Foods.  Their website is currently down, so you might want to try back in a few days.  They have the most amazing apple sauce (GF), which is actually made of beets.  Their marinara sauce (GF) is also incredible.   They sell other great products as well as frozen meals.  I'm not sure of the GF status of the prepared foods, but I have had the lasagna and the meatballs.  I know that some of the pastas they sell are organic.  So good!!!  And it's great to support local businesses that make the effort to bring healthy foods to people watching their diet.  

I plan to take some of the products from both Bon-a-Rose and Rumi's to my mom's house and have a healthy Christmas Eve and Day.  

I got home and then caught up on some of my DVR'd shows.  I then went back to Lifetime to do Week 4 Day 2 of the Couch to 5k program.  I had planned on going to spinning this morning, but I just couldn't get out that early.  I decided to let over 30 hours go before I ran again since I did Day 1 yesterday.   I would say Day 2 went better than Day 1 although I was sweating even more this time.  The second five minute run was still a killer, but I got through it.  I will probably do Day 3 next Friday.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Gone Gluten Free

In October, I just wasn't losing weight as easily as I had been.  The scale at Lifetime Fitness said that I was inflamed.  Hmm, what was going on?  Sarah suggested that I should try cutting out gluten.  Okay.  I tried.  I failed.  I just love pita bread so much.

For some bizarre reason, I decided to go gluten free in November.  I cooked my first gluten free meal on November 2 during the Michigan State-Michigan game.  I made Coconut Chicken.  It was so simple.  It was so yummy.

I started searching the internet and Pinterest for gluten free recipes.  Wow, there are a TON of recipes out there.  I've cooked many meals.  Some I will make again, some I will not.  All are tasty and good, but I definitely have my favorites.

I have to say that going gluten free was so easy.  And the weight started coming off again.  I lost 7.5 pounds in November.  I really noticed a change in my body.  I really started liking this whole gluten free thing.  Even Sarah has gone gluten free!

I have to say some of my friends think that I'm crazy for going gluten free, but they just don't understand it.  I have to be honest and say that I feel great.  It's like everything has just clicked and I feel like I really have gotten my eating under control.

And while I've gone nerdy for gluten free, I'm not this crazy.......