Decreasing Inches: 5 Focus Points

This June my family moved 3+ states North East.  In addition, my youngest son who was our foster son for 21 months went home to be with his family in late May.  There has been so much change and I chose not to pay close attention to our diet during this time.  I did not add on an extra 20 pounds, but my pants are snug and uncomfortable.  In the Spring, I focused on loving my family intensely and this Summer I am focusing on decreasing inches.

We go through times that our life is more important than focusing closely on our diet.

My Goal: Decreasing Inches

Today is a new day.  I have time to focus on my diet and my health.  I have the goal to go from size 10/12 in pants to a size 8 in pants. While I was easily able to attain this in Italy with fresh, real foods, I’ve found it difficult in America with a supermarket full of processed foods and meats with additives.1  

Focus Points for Health

My Healthy Lifestyle Methods

When I really want to focus on decreasing inches, here are some of the methods I employ:

1. Decrease sugar and carbs. I begin to read the products I purchase to see if they include any added sugar. Surprisingly, even sandwich meat often includes dextrose (another name for sugar). In fact, there are many names for sugar that need to be identified in order to avoid sugar.

Note: You can find a list in the footnotes below.2

As for carbs, our body uses carbs for energy and for building vitamins and minerals that we are missing. We will […]

No Veggies for Me: Guide to Children and Vegetables

As a health coach for families and mothers, I hear one common problem that appears in most families and at most dinner tables.  Aversion to vegetables.

“No Mommy!!!  I won’t eat my ________!!!”  Fill-in-the-blank with your choice of vegetable.

It’s always the vegetables, rarely the mashed potatoes, the macaroni and cheese, or the cookie.  If it is colorful and vibrant in flavor naturally, an alarm goes of in their little brains with a warning, “WARNING:  This item is a vegetable!!!  Avoid at all costs!!!”  And so they do.  They kick up a fuss.  They start crying.  They refuse.  The broccoli ends up in the floor.  The carrots swished in unnatural ways.  Spinach . . . well that’s in your hair.  It’s a new look.

Is all this pain necessary?  Is there some better way to do vegetables?  Why do children identify vegetables as “bad?”

I have some answers for you.  Vegetables do not have to be alien invaders and strange food groups that your children are forced to consume.  In fact, if you consider the guiding principles below, you may find that veggies are welcome into the house as a friend.

Getting Children to Eat Vegetables

Why your children hate their vegetables

This is really the point isn’t it?  Your children have learned to hate their vegetables.  At the early age of 1-3, something has taught them that vegetables are less preferable.  Why?  I will provide four reasons that children learn to hate their vegetables.

Reason #1: Baby food

When we first introduce vegetables to our children, we often give them baby food that we have bought in a grocery store.  Some parents buy organic, some buy regular, but the problem is the same.  Have you […]

Baked Oatmeal Recipe with Black Currants and Walnuts

The BEST Baked Oatmeal Recipe

Today, I made something wonderful.  I made the BEST baked oatmeal recipe that I have ever eaten.  As if that wasn’t great in itself, this recipe has no gluten, no sugar, and no dairy.  I’m ecstatic!

First let me tell you where I found my starting recipe.  Martha Stewart shared a baked oatmeal recipe on her website that she originally found from the cookbook Super Natural Every Day by Hedi Swanson.  My new recipe isn’t really like the original anymore!  When we cook we take our medium and we paint a different picture.  Today, I’m going to tell you about the baked oatmeal recipe that came out of my coloring outside the lines!

The Best Baked Oatmeal Recipe Ever

First, gather these ingredients or feel free to do your own coloring outside of the lines.  Recipes are made to be reinvented and you should always feel free to add your own personal touch.

3 tablespoons of ghee, melted if needed (I make my own, but if I don’t I buy –> this) – Ghee has the milk proteins removed from the fat, so this is not considered dairy to most dieters. However, if you have a milk allergy, substitute with coconut oil/butter or olive oil.

2 cups of gluten-free rolled oats (I use –> these)

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped or just broken

1 teaspoon of baking powder (I use this brand without aluminum –> here)

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon sea salt (I buy –> this salt)

1 cup coconut milk (You want to find a coconut milk with the least amount of extras, I buy them […]

Holistic Healthy Resources for Auburn Residents

While I have spent this past year living in Auburn, Alabama, I have been keeping track of the local resources that are –> holistic, natural, crunchy, organic, and beneficial to my family’s overall health.  I want these to continue to be a help to those in the Auburn community whether you are a crunchy mom, Auburn University college student, grandmother, or any person trying to encourage their health.  Please leave comments below with any additional Auburn holistic healthy resources as you find them.  Keep it coming!

 

Holistic Healthy Resources in Auburn, Alabama

Grocery and Natural Food Stores

  • Earthfare on Opelika Road
  • Day Springs on Opelika Road
  • Market at Blooming Colors on College Street
  • Auburn University Farmer’s Market (summer months) on campus at Ag Park
  • Opelika Farmer’s Market (summer months) in downtown Opelika
  • Kroger (small organic produce section) – in Tigertown and on Dean Road
  • Publix (few organic foods on ends of rows) – off Ogletree Road

 

Farms

 

Restaurants

  • Acre – Supports local food
  • Hound – Supports local food
  • Pho Lee – No MSG
  • Chipotle – Supports local food and has no GMOs

 

Doulas

 

Pregnancy, Birth, and Lactation Educators

 

Chiropractors

More about Delicious Bone Broth – Troubleshooting

Past the Fundamentals of Bone Broth

In 2014, I wrote a post covering all the fundamentals of making –> bone broth.  Since that time, I’ve learned even more about bone broths, stocks, and meat broths.  If you are just getting into bone broths you may want to start at my basics of bone broth post.  However, if you are ready for some more bone broth knowledge, read on.

 

Bone Broth Troubleshooting - Boholistic Mom

Gelatinization

One of the goals of making a true bone broth is gaining the gelatin from the bones.  Gelatin, as mentioned in my other broth post, improves collagen status, thus supporting skin health and supports digestive health.1  The structure of the gelatin is what makes the bone broth “gel.”  When the broth has been adequately simmered and the nutrients have been pulled from the bones, beef broth and chicken broth should become somewhat solid when cooled.  Think jello.

If your broth does not “gel,” you may not be gaining the gelatin that you desire.  Heat and lack of nutrients are the two primary causes for bone broths not becoming solid in the refrigerator.  If you boil your bones rather than simmer them gently, you will break down the gelatin.  Let me be very clear.  When your food is overheated and processed, your body cannot absorb the broken down nutrients.  Our food contains the building blocks for our health.  Take care with the building blocks as you reheat your food and when you simmer your bone broth.

Gelatin can become broken down if heated too high for too long.

The other reason that your broth may not gel is due to lack of gelatin in your pot.  If you do not […]

Tantalizing Cauliflower and Sweet Potato Curry

Cauliflower and Sweet Potato Curry

 

Cauliflower and Sweet Potato Curry | BoholisticMom.com

I started making my regular curry, heating the oil, adding onions, adding garlic, and then I had cauliflower.  So I knew I was making a cauliflower curry, but I wasn’t planning to get creative.  Then I was heating up some leftover sweet potatoes at the same time.  Then I started thinking . . . I could add these sweet potatoes to my curry, but do sweet potatoes go with cauliflower?  I began to search recipes.  I found a few with cauliflower and potatoes, then I finally found one that matched my intentions almost completely.  This one.  I mean it’s amazing, I had my fire roasted tomatoes out, the sweet potato just ready to jump in the pan, AND I even had cilantro in the fridge.  I continued cooking adding all the ingredients together and since I saw another cauliflower and sweet potato curry that had toasted almonds, I added in almond butter.

Let me tell you.  This was TASTY!

I hope you like it as much as I did!!!!

Ingredients

1 tbsp ghee (or ghee and coconut oil)

1 tbsp curry powder (more if desired)

Add other curry spices as desired (ginger – 1/4 tsp, cumin – 1/2 tsp, coriander – 1/4 tsp, turmeric – 1/4 tsp)

1 onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, chopped (or one elephant garlic clove)

1 head cauliflower, cut into florets

½ cup canned diced tomatoes (I used fire roasted tomatoes)

½ cup chicken broth (bone broth is great!)

¼ cup full-fat coconut milk […]

Whole 30 Diary: Start

Whole 30 Diary

Day 1

Breakfast

Eggs fried in lard on my cast iron skillet

Lunch

Whole 30 Lunch | Boholistic Mom

Huevos Con Chorizo

+ a handful of pecans

Dinner

What did I eat again?

+ an orange

Day 2

Breakfast

Paleo Bacon (Doesn’t have the sugar that normal bacon has. Did you know that your bacon has sugar?)
Eggs fried in the lard from the paleo bacon in my cast iron skillet

Lunch

Roasted Root Vegetables

Dinner

Hamburgers from the grass-fed beef that we are getting in our basket from Blooming Colors!

(no bun, but with pickles and homemade mayo that I’m about to make, but I’m scared!!!!)

and

Something vegetably (I know that’s not a word. Today it is!)

 

Whole 30 Diary: Day 1 and 2

If you haven’t heard of the Whole 30 Diet, you should definitely look it up.  While some people are doing it as a “diet” as in do this and you’ll lose weight, I find the Whole 30 much more than that.  I think it is a GREAT first step toward a healthier lifestyle.  I couldn’t care less about how heavy you are, how skinny you are, how much medicine you are on, or how much pain you are in . . . because that’s just a starting point.  Who cares where you are now when the possibilities are endless on what can change?

Here are my reasons for doing the Whole 30:

  • I have a lot of back pain that is due to inflammation.  The Whole 30 […]

Why and When to Buy Organic Foods

I started my organic journey in 2008.  My husband and I had just moved to Gulfport, Mississippi and we realized that we needed to make some life changes.  I was struggling with IBS.  He is in the military and needed to keep fit to pass his fitness tests.  On top of it all, we wanted a family.

Nothing gets you started thinking about organic foods more than having a baby.

We did not know what the first step to health was at that point, most people don’t.  So we started eating more organic produce and shopping at farmer’s markets.  This was one of our first steps toward the lifestyle that we now maintain.  It was small, but each step matters because you’ll never arrive if you never start.

There are some things that eating organic foods will change in your life and there are some things that eating organic won’t change a bit.

Organic Benefits

  • Decreases pesticides in body
    (pesticides linked to ADHD)
  • Increases health of liver
  • Lessens brain fog
  • Increases antioxidants
  • Decreases exposure to GMO crops

Not Going to Happen

  • Losing weight magically
  • Fixing all health problems
  • The “Organic” label doesn’t make it healthy

Organic foods have health benefits that are cascading in effect.  These foods have less pesticides.  Having less pesticides means your liver will be healthier due to having less chemicals to process.  When your liver is healthy, your brain is much healthier.  When the liver is taxed, the brain gets foggy.  The liver keeps toxic substances from building up in the blood and reaching the brain.1  Your brain […]

Healthy Fats

Healthy Fats | Boholistic Moms

I don’t know how you were raised, but if you were raised during the 80’s and/or the 90’s you may have been raised on a low-fat diet. Fats were bad. All of them. Butter was replaced with margarine. Lard was not even mentioned, much less used. Cheeses were artery cloggers and vegetables were all eaten plain.

This was my life from 1983 until around 2001.

I mention in my other post how confused I was about the need to avoid fats and to lessen my calories. Then eventually people began to say to avoid carbs too.  How could I possibly avoid fats, avoid carbs, and lessen my calories to keep my weight balanced?  It became apparent to me that something was awry.  These “food experts” didn’t really have their act together.  In fact, did they even know what we should eat to be healthy?

I found the answer out in 2013.  The answer was so simple that I’m amazed that I’d spent so long trying to figure out the solution to my food dilemma.

Eat real food.

I go into this in more detail here, but in this post I want to speak exclusively about healthy fats.  Eating healthy fats, because truly not all fats are bad.

You need healthy fats to produce cholesterol which is the mother of all hormones.  You absolutely need cholesterol in order to produce hormones in your body.  All of the highest fat REAL foods contain cholesterol.  These two are the dynamic duo of proper hormone production.  Without healthy fats and cholesterol, you cannot function the way that you were made to function.  Your hormones help to regulate your brain, […]

Coconuts: A to Z

Coconuts: A-Z | Boholistic Mom

(This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a benefit from your order.  Thanks!)

Inside The Coconut

Coconuts are filled with beneficial commodities.  Coconut fat (often labeled as raw virgin organic coconut oil) is a medium-chain triglyceride, which means it is a special type saturated fat.  According to a study done in 1983, these same medium-chain triglycerides had rats loosing fat deposits in the lab.1  In 2004, a study in India found that Virgin Coconut Oil decreased the total cholesterol, triglycerides, phospholipids, LDL, and VLDL cholesterol levels and increased HDL cholesterol.2 Aka, coconut oil helped the body maintain the good cholesterol and decrease the bad cholesterol.  Also, unlike other oils frequently used in the USA, a study performed in India shows that coconut oil has no correlation with coronary heart diseases.  This fat is not a contributor to heart disease, so if you are watching out for your heart or your husband’s heart, this oil will help you remain heart healthy.

The coconut oil, meat, and milk will help you stay healthy and make amazing dishes.  Read on to find out how to pull a coconut apart on your own!

Coconut Collaboration

I was able to team up on this post with a friend of mine who moved to Guam.  Erena is much more experienced with coconuts than I will probably ever be!  So I asked her how she choses her coconuts, cracks her coconuts, and also how she uses her coconuts.  Here’s what she had to say!

How Do You Choose a Good Coconut?

A green coconut usually means the coconut hasn’t formed and is […]