Try New Foods Challenge Final Update and November Challenge Announcement

Can you believe we are in the final months of this year? Today marks the final day of the 10th month of our Healthy Year Challenge. Overall, I’m a healthy person, but this year I’ve focused on every aspect of my health more than ever before. I’m so glad I decided to do this challenge and am proud to have stuck with it all year.

I’m excited for the next two months, too, and hope you’ll join me in staying focused on our health for the final two months of the year. These months tend to be hectic and stressful, so I think it’s extra important to remember our health. Keep in mind, without our health we have nothing, so don’t give in to excuses of not having time or putting other priorities ahead of your health. YOU are worth it.

Try New Foods Challenge Final Update

I made it through almost all of the foods on my Try New Foods list. I planned on updating every week this month, but it just didn’t seem like I had enough to say to warrant a whole post. So let me show you the new, healthy foods I tried this month!

Maca Root Powder

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I was interested in trying Maca Root Powder because I’d read about its many benefits. It’s a good source of B vitamins, and vitamins C, and E. It also has calcium, zinc, iron, magnesium, phosphorous and amino acids. It’s said to be great for balancing hormones, boosting libido, helping with menstrual issues and menopause, balancing your mood, and increasing energy. Awesome, right?

When I searched for ways to use it, I found it’s commonly added to smoothies, oatmeal, and even soups. I have added it to smoothies and oatmeal so far. It has a bit of a nutty taste, but it’s pretty mild.

This is definitely a new food (supplement?) to keep in the rotation.

Matcha Green Tea Powder

This is one that I’ve seen all over the Internet, but was reluctant to try it as it just seemed trendy and I hate to try something only because it’s the new It thing. After I read about how high it is in antioxidants, I could’t resist trying it. Matcha green tea powder has 60 times the antioxidants of spinach and 7 times the antioxidants of high quality dark chocolate!

Look at how green it is! I was actually nervous to try this as the color threw me off. I know that doesn’t make sense as I eat green food all the time. This just looked weird to me. The package had a recipe for a Matcha Green Tea Latte, so that’s what I’ve been making with this.

It’s really good! I’ve been enjoying these a few days a week. Antioxidants=good things.

Shokichi Squash

This is not one that I put on my original list, but it showed up in one of my Blue Apron meals. I do love how Blue Apron introduces me to unique produce.

I loved this squash and even more exciting was that the kids ate it! They are not usually big fans of squash but this roasted up nicely and they liked it. The only problem is I’ve never seen this kind of squash in the store. Whomp whomp. 

Amaranth

According to Dr. Weil, “amaranth is an especially high-quality source of plant protein including two essential amino acids, lysine and methionine, which are generally low in grains. Amaranth is packed with iron and calcium, and its fiber content is triple that of wheat. Amaranth is completely gluten-free and suitable for those with celiac disease; what’s more, it is an especially digestible grain, making it a traditional food for people recovering from illness or transitioning from a fast or cleanse.” I love trying new grains so I put one on the list I’d never tried. I kept forgetting to put it in the dinner plan, so I decided to make a breakfast out of it.

Please excuse the dark, early morning photo. I made this recipe for amaranth porridge. I topped it with bananas and cashew butter. It was…meh. I really didn’t like it at all. The texture and taste were not my favorite. I plan to try it in a more savory recipe before I give up on it completely. It’s good such a great nutritional profile I really want to like it.

Kimchi

Kimchi is a traditional fermented Korean side dish made with vegetables and a variety of spices. I found this jar at Whole Foods. I wanted to try this since fermented foods are so good for our gut health and I know I should eat more of them. (I do take probiotics) I wasn’t sure exactly what to do with it so I googled ways to eat/serve it.

I found the idea to add it to scrambled eggs so I did that for breakfast. I wish I could say I loved this. I can’t even sugar coat this. I didn’t like this at all. I could barely finish my eggs. Maybe it’s an acquired taste? Fermented foods I like: sauerkraut, pickles, miso, tempeh, and kombucha. I guess I can’t add kimchi to the list. I hate to waste this jar, though, so I might have to choke it down.

Two foods that were on my list but I didn’t try were fresh figs and sardines. I couldn’t find fresh figs at all. I guess I totally missed their season and they aren’t available fresh year round.

As for the sardines, I did buy two tins and they are in my pantry waiting to be eaten. Sardines are an excellent source of Omega 3 fatty acids, and, according to the package, “ounce for ounce…sardines provide more calcium and phosphorus than milk, more iron than spinach, more potassium than coconut water and bananas and as much protein as steak. Sardines contain Coenzyme Q10, a nutrient found in the body’s cells and believed to have antioxidant and immune boosting properties.” I’ll admit, I’m a little nervous to try them, but I will in the next few days!

November Healthy Year Challenge

As one months ends, another begins, and with that new month comes a new challenge. This month, we are focusing on our HOMES. November is the Healthy Home Challenge! I am excited to share with you many ways we can make our home as healthy as possible. We will focus on eliminating toxins, increasing air quality, and more. Stay tuned for more details and lots of ideas! I hope you’ll join me this month. #HealthyHomeChallenge

 

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Cold Busting Soup

I F**king Hate Cancer and it Fuels Me

I can’t have a healthy living blog and not write about cancer. So much of what I do here is fueled by my hatred, my absolute hatred, of this disease. Does it fuel you, too? Does it motivate you to keep the course in your healthy lifestyle?

Look around your family and your friends, the people you love and cherish the most. Now pick out half of the men and a third of the women. That’s how many will be faced with a cancer diagnosis in your lifetime. Nearly 40% of all people can expect to get cancer in their lifetime: 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women.

You want to think: Not me. Not my family. But you know. We all know. Nobody is immune. Cancer is a disease that doesn’t care about the color of your skin, where you live, or how old or young you are. It can, and probably will, happen to you or someone you love very much.

The War on Cancer

In 1971 President Nixon declared a War on Cancer. Since then, the government has spent billions of dollars every year on the war. Where have we gotten? Are we winning the war on this wretched disease?

In 2000, cancer was the leading cause of death in 2 states. Fast forward to 2014 and it was the leading cause of death in 22 states. Sure, part of the reason is because the number of deaths from heart disease, the historical leader, has gone down. But that’s not the whole story. If we’ve spent so much money on this war, why isn’t the cancer rate going down as dramatically?

There’s a big reason the number of deaths from heart disease are going down quickly. It’s because there has been a large focus on prevention rather than treatment. That hasn’t been the case in the war on cancer. The focus is primarily on treatments: treating cancer instead of preventing cancer. New treatments are important and can save lives, but what if we spent the same amount of money on focusing on prevention? Where would we be today?

When it comes to discovering improved treatments for cancer, we haven’t gotten very far in proportion to the time and money spent on searching for a cure. While there have been some bright spots in the developments of new treatments, what we are left with today is similar to what we had back in the 70’s. For many cancers, the treatment options are often as toxic to our bodies as the disease itself.  The majority of treatments can kill cancer cells, but they also kill healthy cells and harm the body. Where’s the CURE we’ve all been hoping and waiting for?

So no. I don’t think we’re winning the war on cancer. As Clifton Leaf said in his FORTUNE magazine article:

Hope and optimism, so essential to this fight, have masked some very real systemic problems that have made this complex, elusive, relentless foe even harder to defeat. The result is that while there have been substantial achievements since the crusade began with the National Cancer Act in 1971, we are far from winning the war. So far away, in fact, that it looks like losing…More Americans will die of cancer in the next 14 months than have perished in every war the nation has ever fought … combined. Even as research and treatment efforts have intensified over the past three decades and funding has soared dramatically, the annual death toll has risen 73%–over one and a half times as fast as the growth of the U.S. population. (emphasis added)

My Cancer Story

We all have a cancer story of some kind, even if we haven’t experienced a personal diagnosis.

One of my best friend’s sister battled breast cancer, as did another best friend’s mom. My brother’s best friend died from brain cancer. My nephew lost a close friend to brain cancer. A friend in my neighborhood’s daughter is fighting brain cancer now, and at just 5 years old has probably spent nearly as many nights in a hospital bed as her own bed at home. Every single one of my dad’s four brothers has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. My father-in-law wasn’t able to see my newborn daughter because he was fighting prostate cancer with radiation pellets inside his body. My grandmother is 89 years old and has breast cancer. She’s suffering, but can’t get treatment because that would be harder on her body than the cancer.

And of course, there is my mom. Stage IV lung cancer had a five year survival rate of around 5% when my mom was diagnosed, so the fact that she’s still here over 9 years later seems miraculous. She was lucky enough to have the tumors in her lung and brain removed via two grueling surgeries.  She also had whole brain radiation, however. And while it may have killed any remaining cancer cells, it also damaged her brain in such a way that she can no longer walk without assistance.  When I talk to her on the phone, I’m not surprised when she doesn’t remember something I told her just the day before. Her treatment helped her survive, yet I still feel like it took my mom.

The thing is, even though I’ve seen cancer hurt so many loved ones around me, I know I’m no different than most people. Everyone knows at least one person who suffered or is suffering from cancer. Cancer is everywhere and there is seemingly no escape.

How My Hatred Fuels My Healthy Lifestyle

So, you see, I f*&@ing hate cancer. The prevalent feeling I had when my mom was diagnosed was helpless. I felt like her life was in strangers’ hands and having no control over the outcome was beyond difficult to handle.

But that diagnosis also changed the trajectory of my life. It propelled me to a path of learning about how toxic foods and our toxic environment can damage our bodies and ultimately cause this disease to progress.

The war on cancer has been such a difficult one because cancer is a complex and ever-changing disease. Pinpointing the exact cause of every type of cancer will likely never happen. But I know that progress can happen. In 1960, only one- third of doctors believed cigarettes cause lung cancer. Today, it’s irrefutable. I’m confident more concrete connections will be made with time, but I’m not willing to wait until everyone agrees that certain toxins cause cancer.

I’m also not naive enough to think that eating organic foods and trying to detox my home from toxins is going to cancer-proof my family 100%. Unless we live in a bubble, we’ll be exposed to environmental toxins in our everyday lives. What I do arm myself with is the knowledge that I can do something.

Because I can, I will. 

If I can help my family live an anti-cancer lifestyle and lessen their chances of getting cancer, even if it’s a minute amount, it’s worth it to me. I have seen what this disease does. I’m not willing to sit back and not fight. You know what? Even if it means nothing, it beats helpless. But in my heart, I believe it means something and my actions can make a difference.

My hatred of cancer fuels me to help my family and it also fuels me to write this blog. I do this because I want to spread the word as far and wide as I can. We can’t all be doctors researching to find a cure, but we can make a difference in our homes and our communities.

What else can we do? Let cancer leave us feeling helpless? Let it steal the joy of our world? No. Let hatred of this disease motivate us to live the healthiest life we can.  It’s the best defense we can hope for right now.

I don’t ask for this often, but if you like this post, will you please share it? Help me spread the word that the foods we put in our bodies and the products we use do matter and can make a difference. We will never win the War on Cancer without more people thinking about prevention. Thanks, friends.

 

References and Further Reading:

Anti-Cancer: A New Way of Life (affiliate link)

The War on Cancer A Progress Report for Skeptics

Center for Disease Control and Prevention

The War on Cancer 40 Years Later

Changed in the Leading Causes of Death: Recent Patterns in Heart Disease and Cancer Mortality

How Cancer Will Affect Americans in 2016

Achievements in Public Health

Cancer is ‘Purely Man-Made’…

World War Cancer

The History of the Discovery of the Cigarette-Lung Cancer Link

 

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Fish Tacos Recipe from 100 Days of Real Food: Fast and Fabulous & Giveaway

Butternut Squash Apple Soup

Homemade Elderberry Syrup Recipe

Nut-free Granola Bar Recipe

Superfoods Vegan Chili in the Slow Cooker

Declutter Challenge Update & October Challenge Announcement

Wait…it’s October?! September slipped away before I posted my final update for the Declutter Challenge. Forgive me? You are such patient and forgiving readers. I thank you.

This will be a quick update followed by the announcement for October’s challenge. I won’t keep you too long.

Last week’s challenge was to pick a closet to declutter. Oh my. Did I pick a closet. I was dreading this task because there’s one closet in my house that had gotten out of control. It became the place I stashed everything I didn’t know where to put or that I didn’t want to deal with.

These tasks are laborious, but so worth the effort. If you’ve been putting off some decluttering tasks, I urge you to take the challenge and get them done. My mind feels so much more free since completing these challenges. I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking. 

Before

During

After

Ahhh! So much better. This Declutter Challenge was the challenge I didn’t want to do, but I am so glad I did. Sometimes the things we don’t want to do are the things we need to do the most. Am I right?

October Healthy Year Challenge

The October Challenge is the Try New Foods Challenge! I always talk about how important it is to get a big variety into our diets. This month’s challenge is about extending past our food comfort zones and eating new, different foods.

Every week I will choose 1-2 new foods that I will try (and hopefully the whole family will try, too!) What’s a new food for me and my family might not be for you, so if my new foods aren’t new to you, go ahead and choose your own. New foods is the goal, so look for a healthy food you’ve never tried.

The foods I’m going to try this week are: yucca root and plantains.  These are both totally new to me. I’ve seen plantain recipes everywhere, but have never tried them. I decided on yucca root when I was on my third lap around the produce section of the grocery store, looking for something I’d never tried. I love food adventures–this is going to be fun! I will update you next week on how the challenge goes this week. I hope you join this one and try some new foods!

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