Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Wellness Wednesday #5

Hello Everyone! With the holiday festivities approaching, I am wondering how everyone deals with healthy eating? Would you share? I find that I always have good intentions, but just can't resist home made sugar cookies and fudge, not to mention things like pecan pie!

Theoretically eating these things are like pouring a glass of water in your car's gas tank. Trust me...I had water get into my VW's gas tank and it ruined the fuel injectors and wreaked havoc. It never ran the same! I have noticed since eating healthier that if I have some chocolate candies from the store, like candy bars or more recently some Caramel Cups that my hubby got at Safeway, I can only taste the chemical taste and I begin producing more mucous in my throat. I never noticed that before. Then I read in a Smoothie recipe book that Vitamin C and glucose (sugar) vie for the same receptors on cells. So if you are eating a lot of sugar, you might not be getting enough Vitamin C into your immune system. Sometimes when I have colds, I crave sugar. My friend Deborah said that she also read that viruses have the ability to make your body do what they need to survive, so that would make sense. Craving sugar would decrease your immunity and your cold virus will thrive! I'm not a doctor, but this does make a lot of sense so I am going to be watching this. Because of my asthma, I have to be careful in the winter with winter viruses anyway.

Okay, so if that didn't put a damper on your Thanksgiving feasting plans, maybe this will! LOL I read in Barbara Kingsolver's book that the broad breasted turkeys which are grown for Thanksgiving meals are bred to be so broad breasted that they cannot mate! Turkey growers have to extract the necessary ingredient from the Toms and artificially inseminate the hens! Left to themselves, they could not reproduce and would go extinct! I laughed and laughed when I read that. I don't know if I laughed because it was funny or because it was pathetic or because the thought of those poor ridiculous birds trying to pick their "broad breasts" up off the ground to walk painted a funny picture in my mind. All I could think was that it would make a good episode for TLC's Dirty Jobs! Okay, what can I say, I'm married to a junior high teacher! LOL




Well, what am I going to do for Thanksgiving? I'm not changing everything overnight. We did get a natural turkey and I roasted it with butter, parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. It's very nummy. I made it November 8th and froze it and 6 quarts of turkey rice soup that I made with the carcass, because I didn't want to deal with it on Thanksgiving day. It's just our family anyway. Everything else will be made fresh today and tomorrow and it will be a combination of old and new ways of cooking. I'm not ready to change everything all at once and as many of you have shared, it's a good idea to take things in steps, not all at once. I bet most of you are busy preparing for tomorrow and are not reading blogs today, including mine! :o) I hope that God will bless you and your families during your celebrations and that He will protect you as you travel!

For those who are interested, I have put up my first two posts on my book review of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle on my other blog, My Journey To Wholeness. I have also added a lot of links. I haven't had a chance to peruse all the sites yet, so if you find something inappropriate please let me know. And if you have others to add, I'm all ears! (or eyes!)

As for my weigh in, I am up a pound, but I am not concerned as it is that time for me and that is usual. Now next week, I might be concerned after the pecan pie! :o)

5 comments:

Donna B said...

Hi Theresa....as long as you can still wear your rings next week! That is so exciting. I was up last week, with "that time", but back again to where I was this week. And clothes are fitting a bit looser. I am planning on enjoying things tomorrow, but savoring every bite. No hurrying! :-)

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Lynette said...

Hi Theresa-
I up & reading blogs. Made my 2 pies this afternoon. Been resting, fighting off a cold.
I did not feel like doing the turkey thing, we are having lasagne, orange scented beans & bread.
For J, sweet potatoe casserole. I have a turkey in the freezer for later in the month. I am going to try a herb butter mixture under the skin & stuff the bird with onions, garlic & lemon (from Barefoot Contessa on food network).

Happy Eats!

Deborah said...

It is hard to resist when you work so hard making sweets. I baked pies today and we are going to experiment tomorrow with making custard and then putting it in an ice cream freezer. I will probably have a tiny taste of it to assess the success or failure of the experiment, but my goal is not to indulge.

To avoid indulgence with the sweets that make me sick, I usually try to fix something that I LOVE that is not a sweet. Always before that was homemade bread. Now that is on my bad list too so I will find something else that will give me the feeling of having a heavenly meal without sugar or too many carbs.

Irene brought me some turnips from her MIL's garden today. They are close to rutabegas, which I adore. I think I will focus on those fresh turnips tomorrow. I'll boil them in chicken broth and then mash them with lots of fresh butter. And perhaps I will snip some fresh rosemary to season them. Then I will enjoy them with LOTS of gravy. To me that sounds so delicious. If I focus on that as my treat, I won't feel left out if I skip the desert. Oh and I love coffee. When everyone else is eating sweets, I'll make an extra nice cup of coffee. Perhaps I'll whip up some cream for the top and sprinkle it with some nutmeg. Hhmm. . .

Cathy said...

Hello Theresa

Lynette suggested I drop in and look at your Wednesday Wellness posts.

Having a testing time with myself at the moment so I look forward to spending some time reading what you have to say.

Hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving Day

Cathy

Lynette said...

Am tickled you met my blog friend Cathy. It's fun to meet other folks across this great big world through blogging.

Have a fun day with the family!