This week’s mini-challenge is to dial in your nutrition and get a solid foundation in place so you’ll be ready to tackle the other challenges over the next six weeks!

Getting your nutrition optimized is one of the most important steps you can take for your family’s health, but it is often the most difficult to get started. In fact, if you don’t optimize your nutrition, none of the other steps you can take for your health (supplements, exercise, improved sleep, etc) will be as effective as they could be either.

In my work with one-on-one clients, I’ve found that if they can make positive changes in their diet for at least a month, most of the new way of eating will become habit and their success rate increases dramatically.

Make a plan…

Switching to a real food way of eating does take planning and some extra kitchen work. No more frozen dinners, fast food or boiling pasta for a quick meal.

Serving high quality meals everyday doesn’t have to be more expensive or more difficult if you have a plan to make the transition easier!

For this reason, I provide custom, seasonal meal plans to my personal nutrition clients and a select group of my email subscribers. I have never offered them publicly on the blog… until now!

Wellness Mama Meals!

Clients repeatedly tell me that meal plans are the most valuable part of my services and that they make a tremendous difference in their ability to make lasting changes. All of my one-on-one spots are currently full and I’m unable to take on any new clients, so I decided to make this part of my services available to all of my readers and at a reduced cost!

The focus of the Wellness Challenge this week is optimizing diet, so I’ll be offering my meal plans until next Wednesday (2/29)! For this week ONLY, you’ll get lifetime access to the meal plans, plus two free Digital Cookbooks: “Decadent Desserts” and “Salad Dressings and Sauces!

Click Here to Get lifetime access to Wellness Mama Meal Plans, plus FREE Digital Cookbooks: “Decadent Desserts” and “Salad Dressings and Sauces!”

Healthy, affordable meals planned for you! Improve your family’s health with delicious, nutrient packed meals!

Do you struggle to provide healthy meals for your family?

Have trouble sorting through what is healthy and what isn’t?

Can’t get your family to eat healthier meals?

Struggle to afford nutrient dense real foods on a budget?

My Meal Plans are designed to:

• Take the hassle out of planning and preparing highly nutritious meals for yourself and your family.
• Help you reach your optimal weight without starving!
• Help your kids receive all the nutrients they need to grow, and never have to worry about their weight.
• Simplify your life by only needing to grocery shop once a week!
• Reduce your grocery budget by making sure you only buy the foods you are going to eat.
• Help you stick to an eating plan by making sure that you only have nutritious options easily available to you at each meal!
• Increase your chances of sticking to a healthy way of eating for the long term without the frustration of trying to keep up with what the latest fad of “healthy foods” are.

Your meal plans each week will include:

• Seven days of healthy, easy dinner recipes with cooking instructions
• Suggestions for healthy breakfasts and lunches that fit your family’s tastes
• Snack and dessert ideas (yep, even dessert!)
• A detailed shopping list that easily takes into account the size of your family so that you have the amount of food you need without wasting!
• Suggestions of when to cook extra of certain foods so that you can re-purpose leftovers into lunches and other meals and reduce your prep time
• Full instructions for making the implementation of a healthy diet an easy adjustment for your family
• Easy reference lists of foods to avoid, which ones to eat in moderation and which you can eat as much of you want!
• Downloadable PDF versions of your meal plan and shopping list, as well as the ability to login and access them at any time.
• Free access to future membership upgrades, e-books, and bonus materials before anyone else can get them!
• Access to me via the included forum for questions about nutrition, recipes, or health.
• A wonderful community of like-minded people who are on the same health journey.

What People Are Saying:

“The menu plan itself, it is a HUGE timesaver and a no-brainer for me.  I work full time and have two kids that are going in opposite directions. The menu plans give me a springboard for my entire week, I can layout the menus for the days that I want and work our breakfast and lunch right around it. ” -Carrie

“I would say that it will save me around $15/week…not buying random veggies in hopes i remember what I’m going to make them with.  Even if we only drop one meal out every two weeks, the service will have paid for itself.”  -Shannon

“I have no clue about the seasons of foods either so having someone else help me follow a seasonal menu is great!  I figure we’re saving about $25 a week.” – The “M” Family

“having the meals actually planned is great!  I was burning out from what I was doing, and it’s nice not having to think about that part of it.  I also am so thankful that I am eating healthily – just being told what to eat helps take all the guess work out of it… the recipes are excellent, the plan is great, and I’ve already lost 5 lbs in a week!!!”  -Leigh

“Not sure how much yet, but the savings will be significant. I am an impulse shopper and going to the store every day to pick up food for dinner always leads to buying more items that we don’t need. With the meal plans, I’m in and out once a week and only get the items on the list.” -Kathryn

“I would definitely recommend them.  I would tell them they are great and very well organized and detailed.  The shopping lists are wonderful!!!  The kids are eating it too! Thank you so much, Katie for all your hard work and helping all of us live a healthier lifestyle. I love your website and all the great information.” -LeeAnn

Get lifetime access to the meal plans before membership closes!

With Wellness Mama Meals, you’ll get access to my insider meals portal and the insider forum! You’ll have immediate access to this weeks meal plans, plus all the meal plans from the past month. You’ll also be able to immediately download the two digital cookbooks and post questions in the forum.

Come see me in the insider portal now!

Warmly,

-WM

Looking for health answers but don’t know where to start?

Just need some encouragement in your health journey?
Welcome to the Wellness Challenge! I’m so excited for the great information and prizes I get to share in the next 7 weeks!

Yep, you read that right, 7 weeks! Can you do it?

To help make the transition easier and to make sure we address all aspects of health, I’ve broken the challenge into Seven Mini Challenges. Each week, there will be a new challenge with specific goals, support and prizes!

To help keep motivated (you and me both!) there is now a Wellness Mama forum where you can keep a health journal to track your progress and get encouragement. I’ll be moderating many of the topics, and will answer questions and offer help as much as possible. The community there is amazing, and during the last challenge, it was so inspiring to see everyone’s progress.

Start A Wellness Journal!

Maybe your goal is to lose weight, maybe to sleep better or make improvements in your families diet. Whatever the goal, keeping a journal will help you both with accountability and support! Consider starting a Wellness Journal over in the forum. I’ll be trying to start one too and keep up with it, and would love for you to do the same.

If you want to lose weight, post your measurements and *gasp* a picture if you want, if you are trying to clear up your skin, take a picture to document your progress. If you’re trying to improve your family’s health, show us their beautiful faces!

This is my favorite part of the Challenge personally, since I feel like I really get to “meet” you all.

I’m still finalizing the grand prize, but I can say that (1) it will include a lifetime membership to my Meal Planning Service and (2) You’ll have the best chance of winning if you make your presence known in the forum!

And the Week One Mini Challenge Is…

Getting a solid nutritional foundation in place! Anyone surprised? Many of you may already be solid in this area, but I know that this is a huge struggle for many people! 

If you’re diet is already iron-clad, please offer some advice and encouragement for those who are struggling to make the change. This challenge will actually go a little longer than a week so that everyone has time to make the changes, and so we can get on a Monday-Friday schedule… (Yes, I’m a little CDO- that’s like OCD but in alphabetical order, like it should be )

I’ll be posting more specifics as the week goes on, but here are the basics:

Nutrition Basics

Nutrition can have a tremendous impact on overall health and will be a large part of the focus of the challenge. If you’ve been a Wellness Mama reader for a while, you know that I’m not a fan of grains, sugars and starches and recommend removing them from your diet. Of course, only if you are making sure to get adequate nutrition from proteins, fats and vegetables.

Some foods, like beans, are of questionable nature, so for the duration of the challenge, I’d suggest removing them too! Others, like vegetable oils, margarine, and other frankenfats are toxic and should be avoided completely, challenge or not!

Mini Challenge #1

Cut out the grains, sugars, potatoes, beans and all processed foods from your diet and focus on getting maximum nutrition from meats, vegetables, healthy fats (coconut, olives, coconut oil, olive oil, tallow, lard, butter, unprocessed cream, etc) and fruits. 

Everyone is entering the challenge for different reasons, but if one of your goals is to lose weight or improve your physique, consider drastically reducing your carbohydrate intake. This is especially important for those trying to lose a lot of weight or anyone suffering from insulin resistance or diabetes. If weight loss is a goal, aim for around 50 grams of carbs a day, and definitely keep it under 100 grams.

If weight loss is a serious goal, this will mean that that morning bowl of oatmeal or potato salad at lunch is out. To keep it simple, just get your carbs from vegetables (minus potatoes) and you’ll be fine! One exception, if you struggle from low-thyroid, don’t drop your carbs too low for too long, as this can stress the thyroid, just make sure to get your carbs from healthy foods like sweet potatoes, winter squash, fruit, and grain-free baked goods!

[Note: Some people experience a "carb flu" as their body adjusts to not having a constantly available stream of glucose. This is temporary, but can be uncomfortable for the first couple of weeks. Check out these two posts by Dr. Michael Eades to help make the transition easier

Tips for Starting Low Carb Part I and Tips for Starting Low Carb Part II ]

So… are you up for a challenge? Drop in and introduce yourself in the comments below or in the forum and let us know what your specific goals are. If there is something specific you would like to see addressed, let me know!

I’ve been working on re-designing the site to make it easier to use and I am very pleased with the result.

I’d like to especially thank Spears Marketing for their help with the new design and Colin Tierney Design for the new Logotype!

New Functionality

The main reason I’m so excited about my new site (besides the amazing design) is all the new functionality.

Mobile Friendly: WellnessMama.com is now completely mobile friendly, so if you happen to be reading from your smart phone, you’ll have the exact same design and usability as you would on a computer!

Recipe Updates: When I said I was re-doing the site, one of the most requested updates was an easier way to access the recipes. My Web Design team figured out a great way to do this, and I couldn’t be happier with the result! Now, you can click on the “Recipes” tab in the header or sidebar and be taken to this page:

You can click on the type of food you are looking for and it will take you to an organized visual list so you can easily find your recipe and click on it to get the full version:

Resources: I also updated the Resources Page to make it easier to find real food and health related resources by category. I’ll be updating it often as I find sources for real food, fitness equipment and more!

Start Here: What used to be the “Wellness 101″ page is now found under the “Start Here” tab and has been organized to make it easier for you to find articles by category. This is also the place you can send relatives and friends who don’t understand why you’d ever eat grain free/purposely eat lots of fat/drink jello/make your own laundry soap or just think you’re crazy for the other random (healthy) things that you do!

New Monthly Gifts!

The other new addition that I am really excited about is my monthly free gift to you!

Each month, I’ll be picking an item from Amazon that I use and love and picking a random email subscriber to mail it to (US Residents only… sadly). If you’re subscribed, you’re automatically entered! This is just my way of saying “Thanks” to all of you who make the community here wonderful!

This month, I’m giving away one of my favorite kitchen tools, a Cuisinart Stainless Steel Immersion Blender. I use this daily for making sauces, soups, grinding nuts and coffee, chopping vegetables and more. It is steel, so you can use it to blend a boiling pot of Loaded Sweet Potato Soup, or use it to mix the batter for some Banana Bread.

You don’t have to do anything to enter except be subscribed to my weekly, non-spammy, newsletter! (Though if you’re ever going to shop on Amazon anyway, I’d appreciate if you’d use my link)

My App

“I have an app for that!”

I always wanted to say that! Now it is even easier to download the Wellness Mama App by clicking on the link in the sidebar and then scanning the code with your smart phone. It’s available for iPhone, Android and as a Web App for other platforms. The app will be getting a facelift soon too!

Wellness Challenge

I also decided that it’s about time for another Wellness Challenge, so I’m working on finding some great giveaways and sponsors and finalizing the details. Keep an eye out for more details on this coming really soon…

I’ll be opening my meal planning service briefly during the challenge, so keep an eye out for that too!

Please tell me what you think of my new look! Love it? Don’t? Suggestions?

Warmly,

WM

I used to love fried cheese sticks in high school and college and would even just order these as my meal in restaurants. Now that we don’t eat grains or vegetable oils, I decided that we needed to find a healthy version that we could make at home (and much cheaper too!).

After some trial and error (and lots of burnt cheese), I’m happy with this recipe…

Ingredients:

• About half a pound of Mozzarella Cheese, cut into sticks
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup (or more) of almond flour
• 1 teaspoon of Italian Seasoning
• 1/2 tsp Himalayan Salt
• 1-2 cups of tallow, lard or coconut oil for frying (I prefer tallow)

How To Make:

1. The day before you are planning to make, or at least 3-4 hours before, put cheese sticks in the freezer on a plate.
2. Once cheese is completely frozen, crack eggs into a medium bowl and beat with about a teaspoon of water until creamy.
3. Combine the almond flour, italian seasoning and salt on a medium plate.
4. Put the tallow, lard or oil in a small pan so that it is about an inch deep and bring to medium high heat…. it needs to be hot before the cheese goes in.
5. Remove the cheese from the fridge and dip the cheese in the egg mixture, then in the almond flour mixture, then back in the egg mixture and repeat if necessary until well coated. They need to be coated completely so they seal and the cheese can’t escape.
6. Drop 3 or 4 at a time into the heated oil for a couple of minutes until they are starting to brown and carefully remove. I removed them with a flat pasta scoop (finally, a good use for it) but a slotted spoon will work too… you just don’t want to squeeze them with tongs or poke with a fork, as the cheese will escape and make a big mess.
7. Repeat these steps with the remaining cheese until all is cooked. Oil can be re-used.
8. Serve with homemade pasta/marinara sauce or enjoy plain!

What was your favorite “bad” food post-real food eating? Do you like cheese sticks? Share below!

My husband doesn’t celebrate Valentines Day (or any other “Hallmark” holidays) so I don’t expect anything, but the most recent figure I’ve seen showed that the average consumer will spend over $126 on his/her Valentine’s date.

That is a lot of unhealthy food and flowers that will die in a couple of days!

If you are going to spend $126 on Valentine’s Day (Does anyone actually do that?) I have some gift ideas for the health-nut in your life that will bring lasting health and happiness, not just a temporary sugar rush .

Bacon Roses:

If you are set on flowers (and who doesn’t love flowers!) consider these homemade bacon roses. They are surprisingly pretty, for being made of bacon, and you could get really adventurous and dip them in dark chocolate!

If meat flowers aren’t your thing, consider these non-food options…

Seed Kits or Gardening Tools:

Rather than flowers that will die quickly, why not give a complete garden-in-a-can seed kit or gardening tools. Your loved one can grow fresh, organic, non-GMO vegetables… Romantic, right?

You could even make a “bouquet” by sticking some paper or styrofoam in the bottom of a clay pot, taping the seed packets to bamboo skewers and sticking them in as the “flowers” and throwing in some small garden tools for filler!

A Pull-Up Bar:

Because nothing says love like doing pull-ups together… hmmm… maybe just in our family? Either way, pull-ups are a great arm and core strengthening exercise and the newer door mounting pull-up bars let you do pull-ups five different ways, along with dips, elevated push-ups and sit-ups.

Coconut Oil:

If your loved one has seen all the info about the health benefits of coconut oil, he or she will be excited to get a big jar of it! (Maybe put a bow on it though).

If you’re really adventurous, use some of the coconut oil to make some organic (edible) mint-chocolate massage butter and give a massage to go along with it.

Barefoot Shoes:

Barefoot shoes like Vibram Five Fingers have gained popularity lately, as they are supposed to help improve your running form, help with posture and sore joints, and just be really comfortable. Yes, these are those shoes with toes!

I have a pair of the Women’s KSOs and I LOVE them. They can be tough to run on really hard surfaces with if you heel-strike when you run, but they are very comfortable and I wear them all the time.

In an attempt at style, Vibram has recently released some hot pink versions of their shoes, as well as some that look more like women’s flats.

Bonus: You get all kinds of weird looks and questions when you go out in public in them! I’ve gotten things like “Why are you wearing socks in public,” “What the…?” and “What’s wrong with your toes?”

A Sauna:

I just got the chance to try a portable infrared sauna and I love it! The portable units can collapse and store under a bed or behind a door, and they heat up much faster than traditional saunas. The infrared versions supposedly heat the body more and are great for detoxification. In a literal sense, nothing will make your love “hot” for you as much as a sauna will!

A Kettlebell:

These cannon balls with handles are a complete gym-in-a-box. They are cheaper than a monthly gym membership and you can get them ranging in size from 5 pounds to over 100 pounds (don’t start with that one!). Kettlebells make up the majority of my workouts and a great for strength and cardiovascular health!

Rumble Roller:

I haven’t tried the Rumble Roller, but I’ve heard great things about it! Basically, you roll you back or other muscles on it and it (painfully) releases tension. It’s cheaper than a massage, so I definitely hope to try it sometime.

Immersion Blender:

My Immersion Blender is by far one of my most used kitchen tools. It chops, blends, mixes and makes a mean hollandaise sauce. Since it’s stainless, it can even be used in a pot of boiling tomato soup without worries about it leeching plastic into your food! If your love is a healthy-foodie who doesn’t have an immersion blender, this might be a perfect Valentine’s gift…

Some Fermented Foods or Kits:

The gift that keeps on giving…. let your love make their own Kombucha or Water Kefir Soda (You can order the cultures here). You could also get your love a fermentation crock so that he or she could make sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, etc and reap the health benefits of naturally fermented foods all year round.

Other fun local gift ideas:

• A CSA share
• Some pastured meat from a local farm
• baby chickens (the gift that really keeps on giving…)
• A picnic (if it isn’t too cold)
• Tickets to a local theatre or performing arts center
• Cooking classes, personal training or massage gift certificates

What did I forget? What would you love to get for Valentine’s Day (or any other time?) Please share below!

With the literal sea of choices out there, there are certainly a lot of options!

I’ve known people who will read information about a particular supplement and start taking it… and they do this a few times a month. Pretty soon, they are taking an arsenal of pills without considering if there is truly a need for them all or if they will have interactions.

Certainly, there is no blanket answer to this question, as each person will have different nutrient needs and deficiencies, but with the declining soil and food quality and the ever-increasing presence of toxins in our environment, there are times when it truly isn’t possible to get everything you need from food (though in a perfect world, this would be possible.)

If you have any noticeable health symptoms it can be a good clue that there is a nutrient deficiency (or rarely, a toxicity) in the body. This should be addressed by diet first, as even the best supplements won’t be enough to override a poor diet.

If you’ve cut out the toxic foods like grains, you’re getting enough healthy fats,getting good sleep, minimizing stress, eating enough salt, and getting some exercise but are still struggling with some health problems, supplements may be worth considering.

What Supplements?

This will vary widely from person to person, but with the deficiencies in our soil and food supply there are some usual common denominators. At our house, we take relatively few supplements in addition to a nutrient dense diet. These are the supplements we take:

Magnesium

I’ve written about magnesium supplementation before, as I believe it is one of the silent and widespread deficiencies these days. While it was once an abundant mineral in the soil and in well-water, conventional farming practices strip it from the soil and fluoride and other compounds in water bind with it and make it indigestible in our bodies.

These additional dietary factors can also deplete magnesium:

• Consumption of caffeine
• Consumption of sugar (It takes 287 molecules of magnesium to metabolize a single glucose molecule! source)
• Consumption of processed food
• Consumption of alcohol
• Consumption of produce from depleted soil
• Consumption of foods high in phytic acid

Additionally, drugs like birth control pills, hypertension medicine, diuretics, insulin, and certain antibiotics (among others) deplete magnesium levels. Sweating often from exercise or other causes can also deplete magnesium.

Magnesium is used in the body in hundreds of reactions and in everything from proper hormone function, to cell regeneration and healthy bone formation. Having adequate levels of magnesium in the blood has even been correlated to a lower risk of heart disease (of course, correlation doesn’t prove cause, but since magnesium is an important nutrient anyway, it isn’t harmful to supplement).

In order to get enough magnesium, we supplement in several ways. From a previous post:

Leafy green vegetables, sea vegetables, kelp and especially nettle (in herb form available here) are good dietary sources of magnesium, though if you have a deficiency, it will be difficult to raise your levels enough through diet alone.

The best ways to supplement with magnesium are:

• In powder form with a product like Natural Calm so that you can vary your dose and work up slowly.
• Inionic liquid form so that it can be added to food and drinks and dose can be worked up slowly.
• In transdermal form by using Magnesium oil applied to skin. This is often the most effective option for those with damaged digestive tract or severe deficiency.
• Using magnesium crystals or even epsom salts in a warm bath will help relax the body and you will absorb some magnesium through your skin. While this alone isn’t usually enough to bring magnesium levels up, it is a good addition to magnesium supplementation.

I’d actually advice at least two of the above forms, including transdermal supplementation, especially if you show multiple symptoms. The easiest way to gauge your dose is to start at half of the recommended dose and work up (even above it) until you experience loose stools and then back off slightly. From this dose, you should be able to gradually increase your dose until your symptoms disappear.

Probiotics

Another element that is often missing or insufficient in our diets is probiotics. I’m constantly seeing more research on the many ways that gut bacteria influences our health. In the past, people often preserved food by fermenting it, which also was a good source of probiotics for them. Now, most foods are dead, and we rarely ferment them in the traditional ways, so we don’t consume probiotic rich foods without a specific effort to do so.

We also make an effort to wash our hands and our food (a good thing with the chemicals on them these days) which also wash off the beneficial soil-borne micro-organisms that provide friendly-bacteria to the gut.

Since gut bacteria is so important, probiotics are one supplement I always make sure to take. You can get some probiotics in fermented food and drinks such as:

• Kombucha Soda
• Water Kefir
• Sauerkraut
• Lacto-fermenting almost any vegetable using whey (how to make whey)

We take Bio-Kult Probiotics (developed by the founder of the GAPS diet… it doesn’t have to be refrigerated) and I’ve seen digestive improvements from this brand (I’ve often see no result from other probiotics). We all take these as a daily maintenance, but at the first sign of digestive troubles or illness, we double or tripple the dose until we are better. I also took these to heal after I got food poisoning, and was back to normal in a couple of days.

I sneak them into the kids smoothies and drinks, and my older ones will even swallow or chew the capsule (they are small).

Fermented Cod Liver Oil/High Vitamin Butter Oil

These are recommended by the Weston A. Price Foundation and are a great source of healthy fats for the body. They are also an integral part of the tooth remineralization process as detailed by Dr. Price and by Rami Nagel in Cure Tooth Decay. These two help reduce inflammation in the body and lead to healthy cell, hormone and brain development. They are especially important during pregnancy and for children while their brains are developing.

Cod Liver Oil/High Vitamin Butter Oil are a great source of the fat-soluble vitamins A,D, E and K and as such are supportive of hundreds or processes in the body. The supplements are rather pricey, but we’ve seen a big difference from adding this to our regimen (including reversing cavities!)

We take Fermented Cod Liver Oil in Capsules or Fermented Cod Liver Oil/High Vitamin Butter Oil blend in Gel Form.

Yes, the taste is terrible and yes, my kids do have to take it anyway. You can sneak the chocolate flavored gel into smoothies though

Gelatin

Gelatin, while usually added to chemicals and sweeteners to make Jello, is actually a good source of protein by itself. I’ve been taking Gelatin for almost a year as it is good to support healthy skin during pregnancy, and is also good for joints, skin, hair and nails (trying to strengthen some old soccer injuries in my knees).

While the joint benefits took several months to be noticeable, the stronger nails and smoother skin were visible within a few weeks. At 6 grams of protein per tablespoon, Gelatin is also an easy way to get some added protein into our diets. We use Great Lakes Kosher as I was able to verify with the company that it is sourced from grass-fed, humanely raised cows, and as such is higher in nutrients.

We either drink it dissolved in warm water, in veggie smoothies, or make our own healthy jello for the kids.

Others

There are other supplements we take seasonally or as needed. In general they are:

• Vitamin C as it works with Gelatin to help grow and regenerate collagen (way more effective than external creams!) and in case of illness. If we get sick, we take enough to reach bowel tolerance and then maintain at a slightly smaller dose.
• Vitamin D- there is some vitamin D in Fermented Cod Liver Oil, but I take additional during the winter because I am monitoring my serum blood levels. I don’t recommend just taking Vitamin D without knowing if you need extra, and it is preferable to get from the sun if at all possible. In the summer, I make sure to get at least a half hour of direct sun each day, and make sure to take Fermented Cod Liver Oil and Coconut Oil, which keep me from burning (and I used to burn very easily!)
• Coconut Oil- We use it to cook most foods, but we also add it to smoothies or melt it in tea. I take about 1/4 cup extra per day for the medium chain fatty acids. Doses at this level have been shown to nourish the thyroid and reduce/reverse Alzheimers and other mental diseases.
• Chlorophyll- Helps deodorize the body and boost the immune system. We take a teaspoon a day in water but I give the kids double or tripple that if they get sick, as they don’t mind the minty taste, and it boosts the immune system and helps them recover more quickly.

For the most part, these are the supplements that we all take (including the kids but in smaller doses and including me when I am pregnant).

What supplements do you take? Did I miss any important ones? Let me know below!

This is a recipe that I’ve been making about once a week at our house. For my husband and me, it is a delicious way to bake fish, and for the kids, it is similar enough to “fried” fish that they can dip it in homemade ketchup.

It is my copy cat of a delicious pecan crusted flounder that was served at a favorite restaurant that closed. (That same restaurant was the inspiration for my crock pot barbecue ribs).

You Need per person/serving:

• 1 piece of fish of choice (flounder, whiting or cod recommended)
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 1 egg per every 2 servings
• salt, pepper, and garlic, to taste
• 1/4 cup walnuts, pecans or a mixture, ground into a meal in a food processor or blender
• lettuce or spinach
• pumpkin seeds
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• extra pecans for salad (optional)
• feta cheese to top salad (optional)
• balsamic vinegar or homemade dressing of choice (optional)

 What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and make sure fish is defrosted if using frozen.
2. While heating, whisk eggs until smooth in a bowl and put walnut/pecan meal mixture on a large plate.
3. Dredge each piece of fish in egg mixture and then dip in the walnut/pecan meal mix. Nut mixture will not stick as well as flour and this is ok. You should have some leftover nut meal after lightly coating the fish.
4. Carefully place each piece in a large baking dish.
5. After all fish is in dish, put any remaining nut meal mixture on top of fish and pat down.
6. Put fish into oven and bake 15-20 minutes until cooked through and starting to flake.
7. While cooking, prepare salad by washing spinach and lettuce and topping with desired toppings: pumpkin seeds, nuts, feta cheese, olive oil, and homemade dressing of choice.
8. Serve and Enjoy

 What is your favorite way to prepare fish? Ever made a copycat version of a favorite recipe that turned out good? Pleas share! 

It actually came while I wasn’t home and when I got back, I had to wrangle it from my kids to read it and review it.

Just like Sarah’s other book, Everyday Paleo, her children’s book is engaging and conversational. My kids really enjoyed it and were able to understand the message, even at their ages.

As my five year old summarized ”Basically (his favorite word) it means that if you eat healthy foods like meat and vegetables that you will be able to play sports better and think better.”

If you’ve been looking for a way to introduce healthy foods to your kids, this book is a great solution. The book follows the Paleo Pals as they help Jimmy learn about real foods and how to make healthy food choices.

Paleo Pals takes kids through a food plant where foods are produced with chemicals and ingredients they can’t read to a farm where they see natural food being produced. They then travel to a farmer’s market where Jimmy gets to pick out healthy vegetables and fruits to eat.

Then, the Paleo Pals take Jimmy to a school yard where he sees how the kids who chose to eat healthier have more energy and can play better. It discusses how food is fuel for the body and why whole foods are a good choice.

The book helps kids understand that healthy foods support their bodies and let them be strong like their favorite super heroes. We already eat the way Sarah recommends in the book, but my kids have asked a few times this week if a certain food would help them be a super hero or not.

I like that this book focuses on the positive side of eating healthy and gives kids practical ways to choose healthy foods. It doesn’t portray foods as “bad” but explains how foods with chemicals aren’t optimal.

At the end of the book, Sarah has some great kid-friendly recipes with kid-friendly instructions so that your kids can get excited and involved in planning and eating healthy foods.

Overall, my kids loved Paleo Pals and I would definitely recommend it! It’s available for pre-order now for 35% off the regular price!

[Note: My printable organization/planning checklists are at the bottom of the post..]

I was hesitant to use the word “organization” in the title because this is one of my weakest areas. I get emails from readers asking how I make time for family, homeschooling, cloth diapering, projects and blogging, so I wanted to share the tips and tricks I’ve found.

I am by no means an organizing/cleaning guru… and my husband would be the first to attest that I have room for improvement in this area. Currently, there are toys on my floor and dishes in my sink, but my kids are playing happily and dinner is in the oven.

During an average week, I do 5-8 loads of laundry, cook three meals from scratch each day, attempt to keep the house clean, homeschool the kids, nurse the baby 8-10 times a day and try to keep up with this blog. (and try to go to bed before 10pm.. yeah right)

Besides the obvious fact that I’m probably crazy, I’ve found that I have to focus on organization and routine to be able to keep up with it all and that I also have to accept less than perfection (*ahem* my house right now) in different areas while focusing on the more important ones.

What Started It All…

When I only had one child, I was able to keep our 1 bedroom apartment clean and cook a hot dinner before my husband got home and even managed to brush my hair and do make-up most days.

Once one child turned into two, then three, then four, it seemed like there was such a volume of work to do that I couldn’t make time to do it all.

I felt like I was constantly mentally overwhelmed with the idea of everything that needed to be done.

A friend suggested that I read a book that had helped her, A Mother’s Rule of Life, and it literally changed how I ran the household and reduced my stress load almost instantly. (Note: It is written from a Catholic perspective but is universally helpful to all moms!)

The basic idea was just that you have a routine and plan for when every job needed to get done and how it would be done. This relieved the mental energy of worrying about when you would vacuum the floor or change the air filter.

Also, rather than scheduling everyone in the family to always be doing the same activities (which I was doing) it had scheduled activities for each child (school, play, chores, etc) so the children could get used to doing these things and knowing when they needed to do things. It eliminated the “I’m bored” because they knew when I would play with them, when school would happen, when they were responsible for picking up and cleaning, etc.

What I do…

I created a rough daily outline of our day, so at any given time, I know what we should be focused on. Since my responsibilities change so much day to day, I outlined the activities I had to get done each day and scheduled time for the things that would come up each day (online orders, vet visits, playdates, etc).

I also assigned major “chores” to each day of the week so that laundry was two days a week, cleaning bathrooms was one day a week, full mopping of the house was one day a week, etc. This let me not stress about the clothes in the laundry basket or the spot on the floor because I knew it would be cleaned soon.

I have scheduled times for meal planning, catching up on emails, reading to the kids and even relaxing (yes, I schedule time to relax…)

I also created checklists of all the things necessary to thoroughly clean each room and put them on paper (sweeping, dusting, picking things up, folding, etc) . This way, when I tell one of the kids to clean a room, they can reference all the things they need to do and not just pick up the floor and call it done. (I drew pictures for each item for the little kids).

We do school in the mornings after breakfast and I work and do blog related stuff during their nap/quiet time. After dinner as a family, we clean up, bathe the kids, read books, say prayers and the kids are in bed by 8.

After the kids are in bed, I finish up work stuff and spend time with my husband.

For everything that is on the schedule, we aren’t at the age of sports and extracurriculars yet, which helps open up the schedule, and while we have a TV, we can’t even get cable in our area, so we don’t watch it.

I’m a long way from perfect at managing it all, but I’ve found that the system at least helps me keep up with it without being stressed all the time.

My “Football”

To keep all the schedule, planning, meal plans, etc organized, I have a 2-inch binder that is my “football.” Just like the President supposedly has a case with all the top security information (the football) with him at all times, this binder has all of my important information and is basically my home management encyclopedia.

In it, I have:

• My daily outline of the rough times that I’ve scheduled for everything to happen that day. This is in a plastic sheet as it is pretty static.
• My daily “Most important tasks” of my top three things that must get done that day, what I’m cooking for dinner, what my workout is, how much water I’ve drank etc. This changes daily.
• Weekly Routine: The jobs that I do each day and when they are doing during the day. Laundry, mopping, deep cleaning rooms, cleaning windows, etc.
• Monthly Jobs: This lists has jobs that happen each month repeatedly, along with jobs that only happen during a certain month (changing of the kids wardrobes, planning the garden, outdoor work, etc)
• Meal Plan: Changes weekly but is planned ahead of time so I can shop for the week all at once and pre-prepare some items.
• Room Cleaning Checklists for each room in the house
• Daily Chores Sheet for each person in the house so that when it says “Morning Chores” on my daily outline, everyone knows what he/she should  be doing.

I highly recommend the book as she walks you through the planning and organization much better than I have. If i would be helpful to you, I’ve attached my printables that I use for organization. Included are: Daily Outline Sheet, Daily Chores Sheet, Weekly Routine Sheet, Monthly Routine Sheet, Meal Plan Sheet, and Room Cleaning Sheet, along with my daily “To-Do list” Sheet.

Click Here to Download the Organization/Planning Printables

If these are helpful to you, please share via facebook, twitter or pinterest so that others can use them too!

How do you do it all? What are your best planning and organization tips and tricks? Please share, I need all the help I can get!

Maybe you’ve been asked why grains are bad when people from other countries (usually Asia and Italy are mentioned here) are able to eat them regularly and still stay thin. [Side note: I'll be addressing both of these misconceptions soon, but the short answer is that besides the big difference is genetics, there are some other huge dietary difference that make up for this, and Italy is seeing rapidly rising rates of obesity and heart disease.]

Even in the health community, there is a split between WAPF (Weston A. Price Foundation) followers and the Paleo/Primal/Low Carb group on the health and necessity of grains and if they should be eaten at all.

You might have read my stance on how grains are killing you slowly, but as there are claims that these traditional preparation methods reduce the dangerous properties of grains, it is worth another look.

What are Soaked, Sprouted or Fermented Grains?

All grains have various properties that protect them in the plant world and allow them to survive to produce seed. In animals, these protective features are often claws, teeth, sharp spines, venomous fangs, etc, or the ability to run away and escape enemies, but plants protective features tend to be a lot more subtle.

Since plants aren’t able to fight or evade, their protective mechanisms are less noticeable. Plants like poison ivy or poison oak have obvious protective mechanisms like the itch-inducing oils on their leaves.

The protective mechanisms of those amber waves of grains are harder to identify externally. These crops are often eaten by animals, so their protection lies in the ability of their seeds (the “grain” itself) to pass through the animal and emerge on the other side as a pre-fertilized seed, ready to grow.

Plants accomplish this through the presence of gluten, other lectins, enzyme inhibitors and phytic acid which allow the grains to pass through the digestive system without harm to the plant. (note: Phytic acid is especially damaging to bone and tooth health and has been linked to tooth decay) These indigestible compounds are great for ensuring the plants continued fertility, but they can be very harmful to humans.

From a previous article:

Gluten is a sticky, water soluble protein that is found in your favorite grains (wheat, rye, barley, etc). Grains like corn, rice and oats have similar proteins that cause problems over time. Gluten and similar grain-based proteins work to break down the microvilli in your small intestine, eventually letting particles of your food leech into your blood stream (a lovely term called “leaky gut syndrome”) causing allergies, digestive disturbances or autoimmune problems.

and

Lectins, are mild toxins the inhibit the repair of the GI track. Lectins are not broken down in the digestive process and bind to receptors in the intestine, allowing them and other food particles to leech into your bloodstream. Nothing like pre-digested food circulating the blood stream! The body views these lectins and the food they bring with them as dangerous invaders and initiates an immune response to get rid of them. This immune response to particles of common foods explains the allergy creating potential of grains.

Soaking, Sprouting and Fermenting

Traditional cultures where grains were consumed regularly or in large amounts found ways to reduce the harmful components of grains through methods like soaking, sprouting and fermenting.

These methods are designed to do what our body can’t and break down the anti-nutrients (gluten, lectin, phytic acid, etc) in grains so that they are more digestible to humans. Evidence shows that these methods do indeed make the nutrients in grains much more bioavailable and reduce the anti-nutrient properties.

These methods rely on using an acidic medium in liquid to soak the grains, a constructive environment to soak them and let them sprout, or a process like sourdough fermentation to alter the chemical make-up of the grain.

Certainly, most grains consumed these days are not prepared in any of these ways, but from a health perspective, are sprouted, soaked or fermented grains healthy?

Are Soaked, Sprouted and Fermented Grains Healthy?

From a nutrient perspective, grains prepared in these ways do have much higher nutrient levels and lower anti-nutrient levels than grains that are just ground into flour and baked, but should they be eaten?

The question remains, do these methods reduce the harmful properties enough to make these grains safe to consume. Mark Sisson sums it up well in his article about traditionally prepared grains:

Soaking and Sprouting:

Effect on phytate: If the grain contains phytase, some of the mineral-binding phytic acid will be deactivated, but not much. And if the grain has been heat-treated, which destroys phytase, or it contains very little phytase to begin with, the phytic acid will remain completely intact. Overall, neither soaking nor sprouting deactivates a significant amount of phytate.

Effect on enzyme inhibitors: Well, since the seed has been placed in a wet medium and allowed to sprout, the enzyme inhibitors are obviously mostly deactivated. Digestion is much improved (cooking will improve it further).

Effect on lectins: The evidence is mixed, and it seems to depend on the grain. Sprouted wheat, for example, is extremely high in WGA, the infamous wheat lectin. As the wheat grain germinates, the WGA is retained in the sprout and is dispersed throughout the finished plant. In other grains, sprouting seems more beneficial, but there’s always some residual lectins that may need further processing to deactivate.

Effect on gluten: Sprouting reduces gluten to some extent, but not by very much. Don’t count on it. A little bit goes a long way.

Adding fermentation to the mix reduces the harmful properties even more, but does not completely render them harmless.

The presence of these anti-nutrients in all grains also explains why people who avoid wheat for health reasons but still consume “gluten-free” foods may still have health problems. Wheat is definitely at the more dangerous end of the grain spectrum, but the others aren’t harmless by a long shot, and many of them are higher in simple starches than wheat.

So, Should We Eat Them?

Certainly, these methods of preparation do improve the nutrient profile of what is otherwise a harmful food to consume, but this still doesn’t mean that sprouted, soaked or fermented grains are healthy or that we need to consume them.

If you are going to consume any grains, it would definitely be better to prepare them in one of these ways (or all three!) to make them less harmful to your body, but I stand by my assertion that there is no need for grain consumption at all.

There are no nutrients in grains, even traditionally prepared ones, that are not found in other foods, and many other foods are higher sources of nutrients than traditionally prepared grains.

It should be noted that all plant substances have properties that can make them harmful to humans in some way, but that it is much easier to reduce these harmful properties in other plants (cooking cruciferous vegetables like Broccoli and cauliflower, peeling and cooking sweet potatoes, etc). This is also why I recommend limiting beans, nuts, etc or soaking and dehydrating the nuts to remove the anti-nutrient properties. (More on this soon)

So, in short, I don’t recommend grain consumption at all, even if they are properly prepared, as they aren’t an exceptional nutrient source and they do have harmful properties. If you suffer from an autoimmune condition or leaky gut, even these types of grains should be carefully avoided as they can make the condition worse.

For the small percentage of the population that doesn’t have any food related problems and that have excellent gut health, some of these grains might be ok occasionally in moderation, but other than taste, there is no reason to eat them.

There is also a definite difference between grains high in anti-nutrients like wheat, barley, etc and ones like white rice (not brown rice) which are naturally free of the more potent anti-nutrients like gluten) and which seem to be somewhat less harmful.

The other point worth mentioning is that even sprouted, soaked and fermented grains cause a spike in insulin and can inhibit weight loss and lead to other health problems if eaten in large amounts.

Summary

• Yes, these methods do reduce the harmful properties but do not eliminate them. As grains still aren’t a stellar source of nutrition, even with all these elaborate preparation methods, and they can be/are harmful to many people.
• For the little bit of nutrition they might provide, the benefit is still overshadowed by the harmful properties that still exist in small amounts (gluten, lectin, phytic acid, etc) and they take an extreme amount of preparation time and energy for this small amount of nutrition.
• If you have a strong, healthy gut, eat an otherwise nutrient rich diet and go to these great lengths to properly prepare grains, you might be able to tolerate them occasionally, but why go through all the trouble when we live in a time where there is access to healthier foods (vegetables, meat, good fats, etc).
• In an age where we are bombarded by toxins in our air, water and food supply, removing grains (even traditionally prepared ones) is an easy step we can take to improve our health and to make room for other, more nutritious foods in our diets.
• If a substance (in this case, grains) might be harmful for you to consume, and there are no negative effects of removing it, logically, it would be wise to avoid it.

What do you think? Do you consume sprouted, soaked or fermented grains? Totally disagree with me? Let me know below!