Quinoa & Kim's Eating Clean 21 Day Challenge

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I have embarked on a cleansing diet that is very restrictive. But I'm very thankful as it has led me to a grain that I had never tried and I love love love it! Quinoa. Kim is a wealth of information for healthy eating tips and nutrition. I am always asking her questions and I'm so excited she is sharing her wisdom with everyone! This is her weekly e-mail and I decided to post it to share with all of you. : ) If you would like to receive these weekly tips from Kim, you can subscribe by e-mailing her HERE

The next several tips will focus on a few of my favourite nourishing foods as the "Eating Clean 21 day Challenge" begins this Tuesday. ( Conveniently after Easter!)If you'd like more information about starting the class please e-mail me and I can send you the food guidelines.First meeting of the series will start on April 12 @ 7pm and more practical tips to stay on track will be the focus. Quinoa pronounced (keen-wah)If you haven't tried it or you've forgotten about this "grain" , I hope you'll be inspired to stock it in your pantry and give it a try very soon. I love quinoa, it has a slightly nutty, yet mild flavour that tastes great in a seasoned pilafor in a salad. You could also add to soups, stews, casseroles. I haven't tried adding it to cookies yet. It's ready to eat in 15 minutes so is a great alternative to long grain rice. (Just season with a shot of Braggs!)If is actually not a grain since it belongs to the grass family.Botanically it's related to the Chenopodium family, which also includes beets, spinach, lamb's quarters and chard.When you buy the seeds of this plant, and the variety that is most common here is the pale yellowkind, they look like a cross between a sesame seed and millet. Each seed is covered with saponin which is a resin like substance with an extremely bitter taste, some say soapy, which is suppose to protect the grains from birdsand insects. Seeds that we buy have been washed but a residue could still be left, so best to rinse very well before cookingto make it more palatable.They are very interesting looking once they are cooked. "Tiny saturns" with a band partially separated from the seed.I heard Kerri mention how cute they were with their little tails. She had mixed up a salad with just a little lemon juice,olive oil, plenty of garlic and some chopped fresh herbs of parsley, basil and mint. Yummy and fresh tasting.Here is a great link for some recipe ideas; http://www.quinoa.net/181.htmlIt can also be "sprouted" if you are interested.It is a high energy food, gluten free and easy to digest.It has more calcium than milk and has a high quality amount of protein.(20%).A complete protein particularly high in lysine which is great for tissue repair.Good source of iron, potassium, manganese, magnesium , phosphorus and B vitamins. Also, if you know any nursing mothers : it is a powerful stimulant to the flow of milk.Quinoa means "mother" in Quechua Indian ( Andean language ;South America)It was the Mother grain of the Incas.Cook like rice at a 1:2 quinoa to water ratio, for about 15-20 minutes. Will it make it into your weekly line up?
Enjoy!
Kim
Nutritional info taken from Dianne Onstad's 'Whole Food Companion'

The Power of The Mind

I recently started running again. I used to run all the time, but for whatever reason I stopped. After I stopped I would come up with excuses to not go. My favorite was that I did not have enought time...and this was true...so it was an easy excuse to use.
So I had not gone for a run in over a year.
A few weeks ago I strapped on my running shoes and decided to go. It was my first attempt in a very long time and I expected to do a run/walk combination for a couple of kilometres, seeing as I was so out of shape.
I began the run along my old familiar route. It was gruelling. My body was screaming at me to stop and go for a nice walk instead. But I kept going. I played games with myself I would tell myself 'just get to the tree and then stop and walk..or just to the mailbox and then I'll walk there.'
Before I knew it I had been running for a kilometre. Once I hit the 1.5km mark something happenned. I had quiet. I had space. I started feeling good..really good. My body stopped complaining. My mind stopped trying to talk me out of it. I was free! I kept on going. I fully expected to stop at any time. I was waiting for my body to let me know when that time was...but it kept going. I ended up, to my surprise, running the whole 7km, out of shape, and in good time. How did this happen? Logically it should not have been possible given the shape I was in. But I did it. I did it because my mind knew I had run that route before. It had already conquered it. And wherever the mind goes, the body must follow. This is true in all aspects of our life. If we are not in strong alignment with our goals, we will never achieve them.
I have experienced this recently with the running and with a cleansing diet I am on that requires me to abstain from coffee, sugar, wheat, yeast, gluten, fruit...basically anything tasty. Thankfully it is short term. : ) I had to have my mind in alignment with my goals to make it work. I had tried to cut back on certain things for months to no avail. My point being, I had to get focused and make a decision and once I did, my body followed.
This is true in every situation in life. If you are not seeing the results you would like to see, you need to become strong in your mind, in your focus first. Sometimes we do not see the results in our life simply because what we 'think' we would like..deep down we do not want...therefore our mind cannot be strong with it. You do need to want it, to have that passion, your heart needs to be in alignment with it also.
My challenge to everyone this week is to revisit your goals and get strong with them. Be a warrior. Destroy doubt, destroy excuses, and lack and failure and victimization and get strong and serious with your dreams. These are Your Dreams!!!! If you do not make them happen, no one will do it for you. And always remember, where the mind goes, the body must follow. If your body is not co-operating, you need to tune up that central computer that is running the show (your mind).