New Year’s Resolution Foods

Mr. Wonderful and I are almost done with week two of our cleanse/fast. We are eating all plant-based foods and whole grains. The breads can’t contain yeast and  we can’t have dairy or meat (basically vegan).

At this point, I have had to stop and reflect and say that we are meant to be whole persons.

By that I mean, we are focusing on improving our whole person during this time – our body, spirit and mind.   It’s amazing what happens when you do a fast – you become aware of remembering to focus on all three of these areas and make them healthier. I can honestly say that my prayer time, God time and body and spirit have improved during these two weeks. After the initial coffee headache went away, my energy level and overall alertness has improved, my spirit has soared, my mind has been focusing on things I have let go for a while and I am just really feeling very satisfied in all ways.

We’ve had to restructure our meal plans to meet the almost vegan diet so I did what any foodie would do in search of good recipes – went to Pinterest!

Some delicious recipe we’ve made this week are as follows:

These Vegan Grain-Stuffed Mushrooms from Cara’s Cravings (A guest post from Tasty Yummies)

This One Hour Vegan Shepherd’s Pie from Minimalist Baker.

This was delicious and the protein used here was black lentils, which I’ve been falling in love with these past two weeks.

These Black Bean Avocado Enchiladas from The Garden Grazer.   You had me at avocados.

These PB & J Healthy Oatmeal Cookies from Skinnytaste.  Oh, how wonderful these are in the morning for breakfast or for a post-workout protein pick-me-up! and pssttt…and added plus is they use 4 ingredients only!

This Tangled Thai Rainbow Salad from yours truly has been delicious. Those are zucchini noodles.  When cooking this on my show this week, Emily Sutton told me these are called “zoodles”. Who knew?

We also made another or our personal favorites – this salad from moi –  Kale Black Bean Quinoa Salad.

Last night we made this soup and we both raved about it. Cabbage Soup from A Cookbook Obsession.

We left out the kielbasa but as soon as we can add meat back in, we will add turkey kielbasa and it will become a staple at our house in the winter. The curry powder just makes the broth amazing.

And for snacking, my new creation to keep Mr. Wonderful sane in crunch land. Roasted Buffalo Chickpeas.

I am looking forward to the next week and experimenting with more recipes.

I am also looking forward to more energy, mind clarity and spiritual growth.

In addition to our food regime change, I have also started back to thy gym three days a week. Here is a treadmill workout my workout partner and BFF Joy and I are doing.

Start the treadmill at 3.0 or above. Walk two minutes, then each two minutes raise the incline up one level. Continue to do so every two minutes until you get to level 5, then lower the incline every two minutes until you are back to 0. Cool down for 2 minutes. Each day we’ve been trying to add more one incline level so this week we went up to 7 and will continue going next week!

Also, try doing 3 sets of 15 crunches.  The first set will be straight forward, the second set will be pretending to touch your right elbow to your left knee and your third set will be pretending to touch your left elbow to your right knee.

You do the hokey-pokey and you turn yourself around…\

Just kidding…every week try to add one or two more to each set of 15. The treadmill will serve to burn off calories by reducing your body fat and the crunches will begin to tone your tummy muscles.

Here’s another idea. If you have a desk job. Make sure you drink plenty of water each day. The result is you will visit the bathroom more frequently. Each time you visit the bathroom do a couple of sets of 10 of wall push-ups or squats in front of the bathroom mirror.  Listen carefully for footsteps so as not to feel like an idiot if someone walks in.

I hope I’ve given you a few ideas of health this winter while rebooting into a healthy lifestyle.

Here is another site that has some amazing healthy recipes for you to check out – ALOHA– a place to say hello to good health and happiness. I hope you’ll check them out as well!

Signed,

One Whole Happy Blogger

P.S.  Are you eating clean, fasting or doing anything to improve your whole person during this time of year?  Share it with me in the comments below!