As you may know, my health hasn’t been well. I have Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Sensory Processing Disorder. I also suffer from chronic headaches and migraines and a myriad of other symptoms that can’t be explained by my currently diagnosed conditions. Understandably, at this point, they are leaning towards an auto-immune disorder. I finally see specialists in a few weeks, so I’m hoping to get some answers.
Regardless, this is an eye-opening experience for me. I am in pain pretty much all the time right now and many days I feel like I can barely function. Once upon a time I was better about eating healthy. I weighed less, worked out more, had more energy, and although I still had occasional flareups they were easier to bear.
You may think “yes, but then you had kids.” No, the healthiest I’ve been was right after my husband’s cancer came back, which is when our youngest was 4 months old. The shock of my husband becoming so ill at young age really woke me up. Between then and now I fell back into bad habits – convenience. I’ve been cooking less and eating more processed foods. Something needs to change, so I’m starting a healthy eating challenge, and I’d like you to join me!
Because I know going straight from a place of maybe not eating so healthy to eating extremely healthy is a lot to bite off (pun intended), this is going to be a step-by-step challenge. We’ll start by eliminating common additives, preservatives, etc. step-by-step until we are shopping the perimeter more and processed foods less. After we complete the challenge, I’m going to continue into gluten-free, which is something else our family has been working on. This will be a separate challenge following the initial healthy eating challenge, but I wanted to mention it up front!
I hope to kick off the challenge in a couple of weeks, but I need your help! I’d like to get some opinions from those of you that are interested in taking the challenge – or even if you’re not sure but would like to share your input! Sharing your input will not require any identifying information (like your name, etc.), but it will help me to be sure the challenge is reasonable for everyone! Please fill out the survey below! If you have trouble getting it to load, please visit the survey here. Thanks!
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June Challenges
Yes, that’s right – challengeS! As you know I always do a health and fitness based monthly challenge. For May it was my Pushup Challenge, which I’m rounding out today. Those that were taking the challenge with me – how did you do? I fell behind because of injury and then illness! Blech! I found a way to catch up without totally burning myself out, though, by just doing so many every couple of hours. My maximum limit was 12-15 at one time (unmodified) when I started the challenge, but now I can do 20-23 before I hit my limit! I’m so excited! 🙂
So, for June we’ll be doing a nutrition challenge! One of my friends happened to invite me to one of hers, and it’s perfect, so I’m hopping on board and hope you will join us, too! It’s the “Get Your Greens on Challenge.” I challenge you to eat AT LEAST one green thing every day in the month of June. That green thing must be a fruit or veggie. I’d really love to see us all strive for a green veggie every day. There are so many fresh and local green veggies available to us this time of year. Visit your local farm stand or farmer’s market. Why not come home with something you’ve never tried before?
Green vegetables particularly have SO many health benefits yet is one thing we don’t think to have daily! Green vegetables are:
- Loaded with vitamins and minerals. Dark leafy green vegetables are one of the best sources of nutrition, and they’re low in calories to boot. Greens such as spinach, kale, broccoli, and dark-green lettuce contain minerals including iron, calcium, potassium, and magnesium as well as vitamins K, C, E, and many of the B vitamins. Vitamin K alone can help regulate blood clotting and may help prevent and reduce inflammation, protecting us from inflammatory diseases including arthritis. A cup of most cooked greens such as chard or kale provides at least nine times the minimum recommended intake of vitamin K, and one or more servings of greens a day has been associated with a lower risk of diabetes.
- They keep our immune system functioning well!Green vegetables also contain many phyto-chemicals and beta-carotene. These nutrients help protect cells from damage, improve immune function and can help protect our eyes from age-related disease, and some studies suggest that lutein and zeaxanthin may reduce the risk of certain types of cancer such as breast and lung. Cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and broccoli are rich in substances that also help guard against colon and other cancers. And green veggies are loaded with folate, a B vitamin especially important for women of childbearing age (remember how they always tell us to take vitamins with extra folic acid?). The Centers for Disease Control and the FDA currently recommend that women take in 400 micrograms of folate daily, twice as much as was previously recommended.
- They’re a great for any nutrition regiment (I hate to use the word “diet,” but that might be what you call it). Greens are naturally low in carbohydrates and rich in fiber, making them slow to digest, so you’ll feel full longer. And the good news is that in order to get the most out of your green vegetables you should eat them with a little fat, such as olive or walnut oil, so you can sauté, stir-fry, and make tasty salad dressings for your greens and enjoy!
So what do you say? Will you be joining us for this challenge? If so, she even set up a support group on Facebook! Join here!
But wait, didn’t you say challengeS?
YES! For the month of June I’ll be starting The Love Dare (the book based on the movie Fireproof