Avoiding My Afternoon Slump

With 4 young children, I can't afford to be exhausted and unable to concentrate.  However, I consistently deal with the afternoon slump.  My mind turns to a haze of jumbled thoughts and I can't seem to focus on any one in particular; and I feel like I could sleep for hours at a rip.

My best guess, according to the reading I've done for myself is that I have a blood sugar dip and possible adrenal issues, so I've begun a list of ways to combat the afternoon slump.

Exercise, especially in the morning.  It boosts blood flow and gets your system in gear for the rest of the day.  Also, exercising when you feel that slump starting can help push you past that slump.

Morning vitamins and protein help fuel the body for the day.  The healthier the fuel, the better your body functions.

Iron!  I'm almost always borderline anemic.  I have to remember to eat iron-rich foods, or drink nettle tea to keep me from being tired.

Small meals!  Eating a heavy, hard-to-digest lunch can slow the rest of your body down as it works to digest that rock in your stomach.  Eat small meals and supplement with:

Protein-rich snacks.  Forget the sugar-rush snacks of empty calories.  Grab a handful of almonds, or an apple with peanut butter or cheese instead.  It'll give your body something to use and fuel you up right.

And I reinterate, little to no sugar!  It makes your blood sugar rise, yes, but then it crashes even harder, plus it gives no nutrition for your body to use and fuel itself.

Stay hydrated.  A body fighting for water is going to wear you down...and probably bring on a headache, too.

Power nap.  If I need to, I take a quick power nap.  It does more for me an an hour or so snooze that I usually wake up just as groggy from.  Sometimes, just laying still for 5-10 minutes helps greatly, or even taking a moment to stretch my body and breathe deeply.

10 minutes of fresh air and daylight every day.  Being outside can help keep our internal clocks working properly.  Our bodies aren't designed to hide under artificial light day after day.

How do you avoid the afternoon slump?

Gluten-Free Almond Butter Coconut Cookies

Gluten-Free Almond Butter Coconut Cookies

1/4 cup organic unrefined sugar (I used Florida Crystals)
Approx. 1/2 cup organic brown sugar
1/2 cup organic almond butter
1 egg
1 stick butter, melted
1 cup organic buckwheat flour
1/3 tsp aluminum free baking powder
1/3 tsp baking soda
1/3 tsp salt
1/4 - 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
Enough coconut flour to make a good cookie dough...I think approx. 1/4 - 1/3 cup

Cream almond butter, butter and sugars together.  Blend in egg well.  Mix together with buckwheat flour, powder, soda and salt.  Stir in shredded coconut, then blend in coconut flour until you have a good cookie dough.  You should be able to form balls without the dough being too sticky or too dry.  Form into balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for approx. 5-10 minutes.

Keep in mind that I'm guessing a little on the measurements because I don't always measure.  I kind of just eyeball it a lot.  I'm also guessing on baking time because I go by smell (my oven doesn't have a timer, or even an oven light or door window!) and my oven is small, so it tends to bake things a little more quickly than average sized ovens.

I'll try to post a picture in the near future.

I'm fairly ignorant on what is truly, I mean TRULY gluten-free, so if any of the ingredients aren't truly gluten-free, then please let me know.  If you need it casein or dairy-free, you could try substituting the butter for coconut oil, but I haven't tried it, so I don't know how they'd turn out.

PS....this recipe is copyrighted by me.  Do not copy without permission.  Feel free to pin it or link to it on facebook, but please don't steal it and submit it as your own recipe.  Thanks!

Inexpensive and Easy Ways to Get Your Nutrients

Ya gotta love it these days.  You wheel your shopping cart into the checkout lane, unload your carefully selected items, the bagger plops a few bags into your cart and you hand the cashier your child's college fund.

Perhaps it is your grocery budget.  Perhaps it is time constraints.  Perhaps you just don't like spending a good portion of your day in the kitchen.  How can you get your nutrients inexpensively and easily?

Herbal teas!
Soups and stews!  (Preferably homemade with bone broth...the store bought stuff is garbage)
Fruits and veggies in season
Oatmeal
Eggs
Yogurt

You could do quite well for a season on these simple, nutrient dense foods.

10 Ways to Prepare for Cold and Flu Season

Depending on where you live, the children are starting to return to school.  With that great exodus of summer comes the cold and flu season.  While the weather is nice, there are ways to prepare for the cold and flu season to help prevent you from catching those nasty bugs, or at least weaken the germs and strengthen your immune system:

1.  Clean up your diet!  Stop eating junk foods, processed foods, and "diet" foods!  All they do is make your body work harder against the onslaught of chemicals and empty calories leaving less energy to work on your immune system!

2.  Exercise, especially in the fresh air!  Exercise is a great immune booster.  Fresh air is cleansing.

3.  Vitamin C!  Yes, it works!  Eat Vitamin C-rich foods.  If you choose to take a supplement, choose wisely and seek organic if you can.

4.  Another great supplement is Nature's Plus Animal Parade Children's Immune Booster.  I use this for my children and I and it works!

5. Ederberry Syrup!  The immune booster of the Native Americas works for everyone!

6. Echinacea is another immune boosting herb.

7. Turmeric Milk!  I came across this article on Turmeric Milk!  I'm definitely adding it to my immune boosting list!

8.  Bulk Herb Store has an herbal mix that helps boost your immune system.  You can find it HERE.

9.  Get your sleep!  With the earlier setting of the sun, take a cue and go to bed!

10.  Chicken soup.  Good ol' chicken soup made with homemade stock is a great immune booster and system supporter.

Upping My Workout With Kids

It's going quite well with the BeachBody Challenge.  I am seeing changes.  I am down to a 29" waist already, but I only dropped 1 lb.  Go figure!  LOL!  What I love most is that I am getting stronger and I want to do more and see more results.  Yoga Booty Ballet isn't cutting it as an only workout for the day, but it isn't like I have a ton of time to devote to a major workout session with 4 young children and an entire household to run and homeschool to prepare for.  So here's what I've been brainstorming to get my rear in gear:

1. Devote my planned workout time to the DVD workout of choice.

2. Do 1 minute intervals throughout the day...how many push-ups can I do in a minute?   How many burpees?  Hold plank.  Squat thrust.  Plyos.  Lunges.  Crunches.  Roll-ups.  Sit ups.  How long can I hang from the chin-up bar, etc.

3. Go for evening walks with the kiddos.  If it isn't storming or sweltering out, I can strap the baby to my body, and load the other three into the stroller and go for a walk with them.  It's a mile round trip from my house to the top of the hill and back again.  1 mile with nearly 100 lbs of kiddos is a good workout, especially since it is a slight grade uphill on the return with a fairly steep hill finish.  Plus, it relaxes and soothes kiddos who are getting fussy and tired from their day.

Any other ideas?

PPPU Part 7

I joined the BeachBody 60 day fitness challenge under my coach:  http://beachbodycoach.com/esuite/home/sdelsavio

It started this Monday and for the next 60 days, I record my workouts, my 5 servings of fruits and veggies, my water intake, my lack of junk food and alcohol, and my Shakeology intake.  I can't do Shakeology because I'm one of the rare few who have problems with it.  Go figure.  So far, I've been doing great!  Earning all my points every day.  I really REALLY want to.  I want to stay dedicated.

It helps that I started my workouts before the challenge began, so I already had strength and stamina built up.  I've really been listening to my body this time and understanding more of what I need to do to really build lean muscle, burn fat, and stand tall.  Today, I discovered that 6 lbs isn't enough for bicept curls.  I had 6 lbs of weights in my hand and I kept curling and curling, but felt no burn.  I also realized recently that my spine is bent and compressed and my hip flexors out of alignment from the pregnancy.  This causes my belly to look poochy and gives me those "back boob" folds just above my waistline.  Since I started working on my core strength and correcting my posture, my belly isn't as poochy and the "back boobs" have pretty much disappeared.  They usually return late in the day when I'm tired and forget my posture.  I need to straighten my spine more to help get rid of the pooch just under my bust line.  Weird place for pooch, but it's like my abs got all mushed up funny.  I don't know.  But it is a post partum trouble spot.  I never did get rid of it after my 3rd baby's pregnancy.

I wasn't going to order anything from BeachBody since it wasn't necessary, though recommended, but I saw Yoga Booty Ballet and the complimentary price, so I ordered it.  It hasn't arrived yet, but I'm eager to see what it involves.  I haven't pushed myself to the max yet, so it is probably high time that I did.

A mistake I made was joining MyFitnessPal and logging in my calories.  It is only so individualized and only allowed me just over 1300 calories a day.  Well, I'm breast feeding, so I'd make the calorie goal and then allow myself a healthy snack to help cover breast feeding.  Well, even with the extra snack it wasn't enough.  Sure, I'd drop the weight quickly, but I also nearly passed out!  I had to take a nap and when I woke up, still exhausted and not feeling right, I ate a slice of sprouted grain bread with peanut butter and decided that so long as I eat healthfully and not pig out, I'm not going to try to count calories.  I've always been able to handle 2000 calories a day well and lose weight.

Results are showing and that makes me excited.  I'm eager to get rid of this post partum weight and flabby skin, so sometimes it gets frustrating when I sit down and still have that muffin top, or the size 4 jeans still can't quite get over my backside, or my kids giggle while they jiggle my belly or thighs, but it isn't necessarily about how much farther I have to go.  It's about seeing how far I've come already!  I'm healthy, I'm stronger, and it is only going to improve from here.

What's In Raw Milk

It makes sense to me that raw milk would be wonderfully nutritious  given that it is supposed to sustain and grow a 100 lb newborn calf, but I never knew what was in raw milk.  So, a little research and I was pleasantly surprised!  Raw milk is worlds better than pasteurized milk, which has most of its delicate nurtrients removed during pasteurization.

Here's a list of what's in raw milk:

Water 87.3%

Milk Fats 3.9%

Non-fat Solids (Protein, Milk Sugar, Immune Factors, etc.) 8.8%

A. Casein Proteins (~80% of Total Milk Protein-TMP)
1. Alpha s1 [30.6%]
2. Alpha s2 [8.0%]
3. Beta [28.4%]
4. Kappa [10.1%]
B. Whey Proteins (~20% of TMP)
1. Alpha lactalbumin [3.7%]
2. Beta lactoglobulin [9.8%]
3. Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) [1.2%]
4. Immuoglobulins [2.1%]
5. Proteose peptone [2.4%]

Milk Sugar (Lactose) 4.6%

Minerals 0.65%
Calcium
Phosphorus
Magnesium
Potassium
Sodium
Zinc
Chlorine
Iron
Copper
Sulfates
Bicarbonates
Trace Elements

Mineral Content per quart (Typical range):

Sodium__330-850mg
Potassium__1040-1600mg
Chloride__850-1040mg
Calcium__1040-1225mg
Magnesium__85-130mg
Phosphorus__850-940mg
Iron__280-570ug
Zinc__1880-5660ug
Copper__95-570ug
Manganese__19-47ug
Iodine __~245ug
Fluoride__28-207ug
Selenium__4.7-63ug
Cobalt__0.47-1.23ug
Chromium__7.5-12.3ug
Molybdenum__17-113ug
Nickel__0-47ug
Silicon__700-6600ug
Vanadium__trace-290ug
Tin__38-470ug
Arsenic__19-57ug

Acids 0.18%
Citric
Formic
Acetic
Lactic
Oxalic

Fatty Acids:

Butyric Acid 4 (# of Carbon atoms)
Caproic Acid 6
Caprylic Acid 8
Capric Acid 10
Lauric Acid 12
Myristic Acid 14
Palmitic Acid 16
Stearic Acid 18
Oleic Acid 18:1 (one double bond)
CLA 18:2 (two double bonds)



Vitamins/Enzymes 0.12%
Vitamin Content per quart (Approximate):

A__375ug
C__19mg
D__38IU
E__940ug
K__47ug
B1__425ug
B2__1650ug
Niacin__850ug
B6__470ug
Pantothenic acid__3300ug
Biotin__33ug
Folic acid__52ug
B12__4.25ug



Amylase
Catalase
Lactase-(through bacterial synthesis)
Lactoperoxidase
Lipase
Phosphatase

It is said that many people who believe themselves to be lactose intolerant can actually consume raw milk without a problem because the digestive enzymes have not been compromised by pasteurization and thus makes the lactose digestible.

People do well on raw milk fasts, cleanses, and even using raw milk as a meal substitute.

My 3rd child drank a homemade infant formula out of raw milk after my milk supply dwindled and thrived on it!

There is also a healthy amount of cholesterol in raw milk which helps keep the brain healthy.

Reference:  http://www.raw-milk-facts.com/what_is_in_raw_milk.html