It's Time To Take Back Your Life

Tag: diet (Page 1 of 2)

2024 Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 Lists

Let’s face it, groceries are expensive.  They are even more expensive when you purchase organic produce.  But, there is a hack that will give you the most bang for your buck.

The Environmental Working Group or EWG.org released its 2024 Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 List.  Should you use these as a guide when making your produce choices?  I say yes!  I use this list all the time, when making the decision to buy organic over conventional produce.

The Environmental Working Group or EWG, tests all produce every year for the amount of pesticides load in each fruit and vegetable found.  They release the results each year in the form of lists.  These lists are called The Dirty Dozen and Clean 15.  

If you have never heard of these lists, get ready to add a great tool to your arsenal toolkit for a healthier lifestyle.  The Dirty Dozen List is the most helpful list for picking clean fruits and vegetables that come with a lower pesticide load.

So, if you are considering starting a diet or changing your habits, these lists will go a long way in helping you save money.  The Dirty Dozen are the 12 top fruits and vegetables that contain the highest pesticide load.  These are pesticides like round-up and others, which we know cause cancer.  You will want to purchase these in their organic form.

The Dirty Dozen is as follows:

  1. Strawberries
  2. Spinach
  3. Kale, Collard, and Mustard Greens
  4. Grapes
  5. Peaches
  6. Pears
  7. Nectarines
  8. Apples
  9. Bell and Hot Peppers
  10. Cherries
  11. Blueberries
  12. Green Beans

The Clean 15

Now, the Clean 15 is the list that has the lowest amounts of pesticides and you can save money by purchasing conventional products instead of organic. This provides a great cost savings when you are at the store shopping.

These are:

32. Carrots

33. Sweet Potatoes

34. Mangoes

35. Mushrooms

36. Watermelon

37. Cabbage

38. Kiwi

39. Honeydew Melon

40. Asparagus

41. Sweet peas (frozen)

42. Papaya

43. Onions

44. Pineapple

45. Sweet Corn

46. Avocados

You can find the lists on EWG.org, and I urge each of you to use these when shopping.  Snap a picture and save it to your home screen on your phone.  That way, you will have it with you every time you shop.  

Alicia

Struggling with My Diet

It is April now, and I have been on my whole food plant-based diet for a about four months now. I did have some meals that I flexed out, but it has remained about 96% plant-based. My weight has recently plateaued with a 36 pound weight loss, and I am struggling to move the needle.

Don’t get me wrong, I am very excited that I have lost the weight I have, but I am struggling with my “personality tendancies”. I have a tendancy of “rise and repeat”, so I am not varying my diet as much as I should be.

I do not know a lot of recipes for plant-based dinners that are quick and easy. I have cookbooks and the recipes are only a search away, but I tend to run out of steam in the very early evening. Most of that is contributed to my pain in my feet, hip and back. What is that from? I think it is a result from years of inflammation that has resulted into several chronic diagnoses.

What have I been eating? Well, for Breakfast, I have oatmeal with blueberries, strawberries, flax and cinnamon. Lunch can be a salad or protein shake, with a EarthChip Organic Vegan Protein, banana, greens, applesauce and plant-based milk. Dinner is generally a pot of homemade soup or chili with with plenty of beans and veggies, or if I am in a pinch, I make a quick bean burger, loaded with Dijon Mustard and veggies. My snacks can be hummus and chips, or hotsauce and chips. I have stopped alcohol now about 7 months now, and to tell you the truth, I miss the habit of the wine and cheese while I was cooking dinner, but I don’t miss the increased blood pressure or the poor sleep that always followed.

I have ordered some Anthony’s Textured Vegetable Protein, which is gluten free, and non-gmo. I have also ordered some Butler Soy Curls. I hope both of these will give me some new options to increase my protein intake and give me some quick and easy meal ideas like tacos and burritos, with veggies, and hotsauce. I think the soy curls might be excellent for my own fajitas, with bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, squash, and hotsauce.

One pot dinners are really my goto now. I eat to fuel my body and not feed my face. I do not need a full three course meal. The one struggle I am really having a difficult time with is yogurt. I love yogurt each night as a sweet snack with granola or fruit. I try not to eat too much fruit at night though. I have noticed that it increases the pain of my inflammation the following day.

This week I have increased my walking to at least 30 minutes a day if it is not storming. This is spring and I am in Texas. I have gotten some cabbage, both green and purple, and I am going to nail down a recipe to substitute for my chicken salad. That is always a quick and easy sandwich if I am ever caught at night, either not feeling well or simply too tired to cook. Also, I need to prep salads and have them ready to go in containers so I can pull, dump and add dressing, and I have a healthy meal. Things like this will ensure, you do not hit the local drive-thru or order a pizza.

I do need to find some recipes for soy blocks. One that I can crumble into a stir-fry or scramble. Theses will add good options as well. I have not gotten into the soy meats yet. I drink a ton of soy milk, but not meat as of yet.

I have some vegan cookbooks, but I will say that the meals are more complex than I would like. I also have Plant-Based on a Budget Quick & Easy, by Toni Okamoto along with her other book, Plant-Based on a Budget. She has some good idea recipes, but in my opinion, she uses too much oil in all her recipes. So, I constantly have to substitute vegetable broth, apple sauce or other things . The jury is still out on the healthy benefits for someone that has to stay away from nuts and oils. She uses a great many of both in her recipes.

My advice to you, is to think about your favorite meals you loved and consumed prior to your diet restrictions. Now, try and nail down a recipe that tastes exactly like it. Get creative and think outside your box. I didn’t think this was possible until one day. I made a recipe of a cold slaw salad and when I closed my eyes, it tasted exactly like my southern potato salad recipe I used to make to accompany my sloppy joes and barbecue ribs. This is a win/win. Anytime I can incorporate cruciferous veggies into my diet, is a good thing being a cancer survivor.

As I told you before, change will not come overnight, and I am your living proof. You must grow your own recipe book with things you like. I tried keeping all the recipes in all the books and marking the pages, but I could never find the recipe I was looking for, when I needed it.

I hope this helps and gives you some encouragement to move forward in your journey to a healthier life. Only you can do this, it is not going to be done for you. But, I can tell you, the benefits far outweigh the effort!

Alicia

Disclaimer

The following above article may contain affiliate partner links.  I could earn a small commission, at no cost to you, for any qualifying purchases.  

This blog is for entertainment and informational purposes only.  The information contained within this blog is not intended to diagnose or cure any medical condition.  I am not a physician, licensed dietician or physical therapist.  

This blog is the result of my personal experiences and what I chose to do for a healthier lifestyle.  As always, before you begin a diet, exercise program or add supplements, please consult your healthcare professional.

Check Out My Podcast

Welcome and thank you stopping by. I have just recently started a podcast to correspond with this blog, so you can consume the information in the way that is best for you.

You can find my Podcast on the following services:

Apple Podcast, Spotify Podcast, Google Podcast and RSS Feed.

You can go to those services and search for:

I would love it if you would join me, and my journey to take my life by through my successes and struggles. I hope to see you on the Inside.

Alicia

Which diet is right for you?

In case you haven’t looked lately, there are so many diets out there, it makes your head spin. When trying to get healthy and start a diet, confusion abounds. It’s like being at an intersection where all the lights are flashing red, and eight other roads feed in. You don’t know which way to go, or who was there first. Total chaos can can paralyze the process of forward movement.

This is how the average person feels about trying to choose a diet these days. Which way do you go? After all, we have so many choices. Here are just a few of them:

  • Vegatarian
  • Vegan
  • Carnivore
  • Paleo
  • Whole 30
  • Whole Food Plant-Based
  • Flexatarian
  • Keto
  • The Mediterranean Diet
  • Intermittent Fasting (not so much a diet, but an additional culture to assist in weightless and your health journey).

In my opinion, the vegetarian diet is one of the most dangerous diets out there. I am not talking danger, in the sense that it is going to kill you. I am talking about being in that gray area, where you think it is ok to consume packaged foods because they have the word “vegan” on them. When in actuality, they are just the same processed forms of junk, you have been eating.

When you read the ingredients list, you will find things like sugar, salt, palm or canola oils and MSG. These are ingredients that you don’t want. So, you become a fat overweight junk food vegan. This is not any healthier than your current state. You are still stuck in the “grab and go” of convenience, instead of getting fresh fruits and veggies.

So, in my opinion, you should avoid this trap altogether. You can opt for a whole food plant-based diet, but that the convenience out of it. Opt for real potatoes, instead of the boxed ones.

You can keep a “Whole 30” concept of if it doesn’t come from the ground, the sea, a tree or a vine, it doesn’t go in your mouth. Packaged protein bars, and pre-packaged juices and smoothies shouldn’t be on your list. They sound so healthy but realize that it is nothing more than “creative marketing from all the giant food companies.” Highly caffeinated beverages, like the canned power drinks that are loaded with caffeine, and we all know which ones those are, should even make it into your cart!

Types of diets

I will touch on a few of these different diets, but won’t go into great detail here. Feel free to do your own research.

There is the Carnivore Diet, where all you consume is meat, cheese, milk, animal fats and eggs. No fruits, veggies or grains, and no carbs. So, you miss out on all those antioxidants and anti-inflammatory foods. This is healthy, Really?

How healthy do you really think a carnivore diet is, and that includes Keto. After all, we know that meat and diary does not provide all our essential vitamins and minerals, we need for healthy bodies. When our bodies don’t get those vital nutrients, disease ensues.

The Keto Diet, is a cousin to the Carnivore Diet, but it will allow up to 5-20% carbs to be added. This diet plan was created in the 1920’s, and used to treat drug-resistant epilepsy in children.

In this clinical setting, there was great progress with the children and the number of seizures they experienced while on this meal plan. So, it served a medical purpose in those days, and has become insanely popular in the last five years. You cannot go into the store and walk the aisles, without seeing some “keto approved” packaged food each step you take. Marketing at it’s finest!

I tried the Keto Diet for about 3 months and had a good deal of weight loss success. However, I was concerned with the affects it had on my cardiovascular system. When I got my bloodwork back, my cholesterol, and triglycerides were off the charts, so I stopped.

The Paleo Diet, falls into the Carnivore category as well. The argument is, “this is how our ancestors ate”; therefore, we should all eat this way. They were hunters/gatherers after all, and this is how our bodies were created.

They killed and dragged their dinner back to the cave. First, our bodies have evolved over time, adjusting to what we have put in it. Second, I did read an article some years back, that said the hunter/gatherers, also ate berries and some grasses, if animals were scarce. So, there is that.

The Mediterranean Diet, is a regional diet from the area of Greece, Italy, Turkey, Spain and other countries in that region. They are said to have the highest life expectancy of all populations.

They eat lower quantities of red meat, because it is an island-like terrain, and red meat is not as available, and is expensive. So, they tend to eat more fish, veggies, fruits, olive oil, butter, cheese and wine. You will not see a mother giving her child a glass of milk, past a certain age in his/her life. Actually, I don’t know if any population around the world, that continues drinking milk into their adult years, but the United States. This is courtesy of the millions of dollars that the diary industry has infused into our government agencies. Again, marketing at its finest.

One must take into account that in the Mediterranean region, they also walk or ride a bike everywhere. So, it gives way to that saying of, “calories in, minus calories out.” They have a high fat intake, and drink alcohol, but they are constantly burning calories each day. This comes (not because they go to a gym and work out) out of necessity to get where they are going. This is a big difference from that of the United States. We sit at computers, drive everywhere we go and play video games, watch tv or scroll through social media for hours. There is an opposing correlation, when we compare the two lifestyles.

Just a side note on fish. I often wonder how safe the fish population has become with all the nuclear wastes, ships, planes and chemicals, that are dumped in our oceans daily. It is estimated that 14M tons of plastic bottles end up in our oceans each year. Just image how many plastic bottles you would have to have for one ton of weight, Now, multiple that times 14 every single year. Mind-blowing. This is a good time to encourage you to please recycle if you use bottled drinking water.

Let’s talk about those hormonal disruptors when you consume fish or seafood. Environment affects humans and we develop things such as cancer, and autoimmune diseases when we are exposed to toxins. Creatures of the oceans are the same. When they live in highly toxic waters with poisons and endocrine disruptors, they develop disease as well, and then we consume them.

This is where we get so many cases of increased mercury poisoning. Someone will eat a large amount of fish, as their primary protein. Their bodies and tissues become toxic. Mercury is a dangerous metal when ingested. Just food for thought.

The Vegan Diet, is a whole food plant-based diet on steroids. It is extreme and generally centers around abuse of animals in the processing industries and their treatment.

Buyer beware, it is not just the diet, but about the culture that surrounds it. If you call yourself a vegan, it will involve all aspects of your life. So, you cannot call yourself a vegan, if you follow the diet plan, but then go sit down on your leather sofa, to watch a movie. How about hopping in your car that has leather seats? You are not a vegan. Maybe your favorite running shoes have a bit of leather? Then, you are not a vegan.

If you are calling yourself a vegan, then you are a whole food plant-based eater, that is taking a stand on the abuse and mistreatment of all the animals and how they are processed and killed for our consumption. You cannot use or have anything associated with an animal in any way. Piano keys made of ivory? Then, you cannot call yourself a vegan. Those Italian leather shoes, leather jacket or briefcase/backpack? Well, I think you get the point. So, just start by saying that you are following a WFPB diet. If you choose to take a stand for the mistreatment of animals, then you can move in that direction and call yourself a vegan.

In this blog, I will use vegan, vegetarian and plant-based. You will see me swap vegan and plant-based interchangeably. There are cultural differences, but for the purpose of this blog, they will be used to depict the style of eating and they will be one in the same.

The Flexitarian Diet, is really the best of both worlds, for someone that cannot fully give up meat and diary. If you want to make a real impact, then you can do this and follow the Mediterranean way of eating, but I would decrease the meat and fish, and increase the organic tofu, organic soy and beans.

You can choose to eat WFPB for say four days of the week, and on the weekends, or times you might have dinner out, or be traveling, you can opt to flex out, and eat a very clean lean meat.

This doesn’t mean that you get to order that 12 oz Ribeye, but maybe opt for a leaner cut, like a top sirloin, with steamed veggies or a baked potato on the side, and a salad with a balsamic dressing. Forgo the huge side of ranch or blue cheese dressing. Also, be careful with all the white bread, like breadsticks or rolls, that are made with highly processed bleached flour, alcohol and sodas.

When someone goes to a WFPB diet, he/she might find themselves in difficult situations, where you have to go out for work/party. Instead of trying to explain to everyone your dietetic needs, it is easier to have the option to flex out. The trick is, after the “flex event” is over, get back on your plant-based horse! Don’t let this can, be kicked down the road for weeks at a time.

With any diet, I would urge you to keep a food journal for the first month or two. It will assist you in learning foods that you might be sensitive too. If you don’t like writing and you are more of an app person, Cronometer and MyPlate are good apps to go to.

What is a healthy diet anyway?

If you look close enough at the published research, you just get an additional layer of confusion, added to your already scrambled brain. You have experts (doctors, and research scientist) that are in the top of their fields, publishing findings in major respected medical journals, that can prove or disprove, any conclusion/hypothesis they are seeking.

What you don’t know is that they are affiliated with and taking lots of money from the lobbyists from the meat, dairy, egg and grain industries. So, who can you trust? After all, it’s all about the money. The science, the marketing, the buying of research. It all gets muddy.

Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer, but I did find an investigative nutritional journalist, that seems to dig in and ferret out all the individuals not being so forthcoming about their affiliations with big Pharma and big industries. I have seen her on PCRM.org . It is eye-opening. I have lost her name in the hundreds of videos I have saved and I will try and update this, when I find it.

Keep it simple

My advice to you would be, sit down and list any medical issues you currently have or have a family history, before you make your choice on diet. Ask yourself, are you diabetic or pre-diabetic? Do you have high blood pressure and are on medication? Do you have a strong history of stroke or heart disease in the family? Is heart disease or cancer a concern? What did you last lab results say? Do you have high cholesterol, triglycerides or a diagnosed autoimmune disease like arthritis? Are you overweight? List all your concerns.

Then, list any known food allergies you might have. Maybe you need to avoid gluten. We are all different. So, whatever diet you choose, you will have to alter it a bit to fit your specific needs. No diet is a one-size fits all approach. However, you will have a macro view of where you need to start.

Next, list your goals and the trick is to make them attainable. Do not make a goal of losing 100 pounds in a year. Some might be able to do this, but you want to keep it healthy. Think about the things you want to do, like exercise, yoga, meditation and gardening. Whatever it might be. List those as well. Now, you have plan. People that embark on a journey without a plan, fail. You want to succeed, so have a plan!

Knowledge is power

If you are like me, you are not a doctor, registered dietician or research nutritional scientist. I have to read and get my information from the internet, books and publications. I would suggest that you need to learn some basics about nutrition before you start. If you are new to the world of nutrition, it can all be so confusing. In this confusion, you might start chasing your tail with supplements to cover what you suspect might be a deficiency. Don’t fill bad, we have all done it!

I would caution you against taking a lot of supplements. Unless you have been diagnosed in the past with deficiencies, the goal of this diet, is that you “eat the rainbow” of fruits and veggies and vary what you eat and nature will give you all you need.

If you choose to do a plant based diet, a small supplementation once or twice a week or so, might be adequate. Vitamin B12 is a concern, but not as big as you fear. According to Dr. Neal Barnard, M.D., and adult only needs 2.4 mcg a day. When we take supplements, most or 5000 mcgs and we take them like candy. This can eventually cause its own problems. I supplement with B-12 due to a deficiency, but since going plant-based, I need far less these days. Mind blowing.

Vitamin D is another vitamin I take due to a confirmed deficiency. You will need to have your physician run these specific tests before supplementing. Vitamin D is necessary for over 300+ cellular processes in the body, but our culture has become deficient. You get Vitamin D by the synthesis of sunlight on your skin. Vitamin D, although classified as a vitamin, acts like a hormone in our bodies, and taking too much can also be dangerous.

So, dig in and research. Learn about your newly chosen diet, and all the ins and outs. Start with baby steps and make small changes, or go all in. There is no “one way”. The goal is to increase the amount of good nutrients you give your body, and decrease the fat, sodium, and processed chemicals.

Learn about macronutrients which are called (protein, carbs and fats). Just think of this as a “high-level” view. Then, you have the micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals. Think of this, as you looking under a microscope and drilling down and individual “cells” of nutrition. I would subscribe to a few YouTube channels of your choosing that offer good advice.

Remember, you can lose weight on any diet, and just because there are over a million “influencers” out on the web, Facebook, Tik Tok, and YouTube, telling you they have the short-cut to weight loss, doesn’t mean you have to take the bait. This is a tortoise and the hare scenario, so be the tortoise. Slow and steady wins every time.

Remember, not all diets are healthy. The one that comes to mine is Atkins. You will find pros and cons for all diets out there, just be diligent. Get informed! Do your homework. This isn’t going to be handed to you. The trick is to determine which diet will provide you with the best outcome, and move your body to a healthier state, and you closer to your goals.

Good luck in your new journey, and may the force be with you!

Alicia

Disclaimer

The following article might contains affiliate partner links.  I could earn a small commission, at no cost to you, for any qualifying purchases.  

This blog is for entertainment and informational purposes only.  The information contained within this blog is not intended to diagnose or cure any medical condition.  I am not a physician, licensed dietician or physical therapist.  This blog is the result of my personal experiences and what I chose to do for a healthier lifestyle.  As always, before you begin a diet, exercise program or add supplements, please consult your healthcare professional.

I have already lost 14 pounds

Just two weeks on a plant-based diet

Two weeks into transitioning to a whole food plant-based diet, has yielded tremendous results for me already. I have already lost 14 pounds and that was with a few cheat days, and no exercise at all. I am almost on a 99% plant-based diet. I have a few hold outs, but I am working on letting those go.

One of those holdouts was cheese. I had the last cheese last night, so no more. Now, I have to concentrate on the splash of half and half, with my morning coffee. My goal is to transition to a morning green tea, higher in antioxidants and lower in caffeine. If I can accomplish that, I will not need the half and half. I will just have my green tea with a squeeze of lemon. It’s hard trying to tackle everything at once. Overwhelming one could say, I am very accustom at starting new diets. I usually go all in.

How have I lost the weight? Learning and prepping to change your diet from the Standard American Diet (SAD) to a WFPB diet is no easy task, I am not going to lie. With other diets, the foods were restricted but not taken away, so it was easy. With a WFPB diet, you have to find substitutes for those favorite go to items like oil, eggs, beef or chicken stock and so on. It takes hours of research and reading, to gain knowledge and get ideas for your new recipes. So, give yourself a bit of a break.

Caloric warning

I would urge caution here. All your replacements for diary are generally cashew-based and cashews are loaded with calories and fat. You can eat 1000 calories of cashews in a day quickly. Then, incorporating a great many seeds in addition blows your caloric intake for the day, and both contain oil.

Prevent and Reversing Heart Disease

You might be leaning toward a whole food plant based diet due to a cardiac or vascular disease diagnosis. If that is so, then your menu gets a bit more difficult for substitutes. In his book, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr., M.D., restricts this diet even further. Dr. Esselstyn says you must be on a WFPB diet with no oil, no nuts, no seeds and no avocado. Also, you must eat greens 6 times a day with a light steam and chew. So, smoothies don’t count. It is strict, but he has gotten results like you wouldn’t believe. His patients were heading into by-pass surgery, and had severe blockages. He put them on this strict diet, under a physician’s guidance and the disease reversed itself. So, you cannot really argue with his results.

Spoiler alert – shopping takes twice as long

Shopping is an ordeal now. You must pay attention to all leafy greens and fresh produce in the fridge, and make sure they don’t go bad. This was like being in a dark unfamiliar room and trying to find the light switch on the wall, a little luck and a lot of hunting. You have to learn to coordinate meals and times with expiration dates. You also have to read every label!!!!! I cannot stress this enough. Just because you find it in Whole Foods, doesn’t mean it’s healthy! They have the same amount of highly-processed foods that every other store does. They just charge more.

You’ll be surprised what you can find under the Kroger store brand, Simple Truth Organic. A word of caution, read the front. The Simple Truth sign, on both the conventional and organic, look the same. There will only be one small word, “organic”. So, make sure it says organic! Especially on your soy and nut milks.

I hit some snags

I did start to eat far more potatoes and pasta than I would normally eat. I haven’t worked in the rice yet. I am a bit hesitant due to the arsenic load in brown rice. I am also attempting to go oil-free and low sodium. Like everyone else, I was always under that assumption that extra complex carbs were stored as fat. In recent studies, they have found data that disproved that theory.

I was cranking along losing about 1.5 pounds every day or two. Then, I noticed some acne on my face, bloating and my schedule was off. This wasn’t due to the bean intake, because I love beans and my system was already used to them.

As far as the blemishes go, I do not generally have acne, so I was trying to find the culprit. I also noticed various spots on my chest and arms that itched. When I would eat whole grain pitas or breads. I would develop an instant stuffy nose, and a bit of a butter-fly rash that would come up immediately on my face, and would last a few hours. I knew it was something in my diet. I suspected it might be the increased gluten.

Although I am not gluten intolerant, I do now think I might have a gluten sensitivity. I have switched everything over to 100% whole grain, specifically wheat. I began eating far more bread bread products than I would normally eat, and my body was not used to it. So, I think this is probably the culprit, only time will tell. For now, I will be cutting back on the wheat products.

Also, the last three days, I have not incorporated any greens into my meals. That was when I noticed my weightloss came to a complete stop. So tonight, I will have potatoes, greens and veggies and see how I fair tomorrow.

Plate construction

My plate looks a lot different these days. I can honestly say that I am NOT hungry at all. There are times I have to make myself eat my morning oatmeal and fresh fruit. I have switched to Allulose instead of sugar with my coffee. I could be that. I think I read it had some appetite suppressing functions as well.

For the make up of my plates, I am trying to shoot for 45-50% veggies, 20-25% starch, 15-20% fruits, and 5-10% fats, depending on what I might be eating for the meal. Sometimes this is difficult due to the nuts and seeds. They add more fat and calories. I am trying to get protein, carbs and fats in each meal or snack, so it is a zone method.

With that said, there are some nights where you just want to consume something without thought and get into bed. I think getting used to time and building of this diet definitely comes with a learning curve. For now, it is plant-based yogurt with some cinnamon granola. Be careful with the granolas! Most are not healthy and loaded with calories.

Oil is my nemesis

I did try and remove all oil from my diet in the beginning, and literally went down a rabbit hole with the “make your own sour dough bread, pizza crusts and tortillas.” This requires a great deal of kitchen utensils I do not have currently, so this will have to come in stages. It can be costly and very time consuming. I am still working on this. More research is needed.

But for now, I am trying to get bread and tortillas that have the fewest ingredients, with the least oil. I am not typically a big bread eater but tortilla chips and dips are my weakness.

The most difficult conversion I have, is my homemade salad dressing. It was a simple olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper dressing that I adored. I could eat two salads a day on this. I could use it for a marinate, or dip for bread. It was so versatile.

I am still struggling to find something that replaces this taste. I have tried lemon juice, dijon mustard and many more, but it is just not the same. I refuse to buy bottled dressing. I haven’t bought bottled dressing for years since I discovered my dressing, but now, it is off limits. Not a happy place to be. I have stopped eating salads. I have to find something fast!

Your one requirement

Going to the store now, will take you more time than you ever thought possible. First, you have to read every label, until you get used to all the new products. Second, you tend to go to multiple stores to get all the things you need. There is CostCo, Kroger, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and Sprouts. I have found I get different things at each store. Crazy, I know. Then, you might have to resort to Amazon to get those hard to find items.

I hope you are gearing up for your New Year’s Resolution and whatever diet you choose, I wish you the best of luck! We are approaching New Year’s Eve. So, if you find yourself at home, now would be a great time for some lifestyle change research for the new year! Going on a WFPB diet takes a bit more time to adjust, in my opinion.

Alicia

Disclaimer

The following article contains affiliate partner links.  I could earn a small commission, at no cost to you, for any qualifying purchases.  

This blog is for entertainment and informational purposes only.  The information contained within this blog is not intended to diagnose or cure any medical condition.  I am not a physician, licensed dietician or physical therapist.  This blog is the result of my personal experiences and what I chose to do for a healthier lifestyle.  As always, before you begin a diet, exercise program or add supplements, please consult your healthcare professional.

Breast Cancer: A personal journey

Check out my podcast, Nutrition is the Key to Health at the link below. You can find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google and RSS Feed.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2340649/14766031-a-personal-journey.mp3?download=true

You might be wondering, why all this interest in diet? Well, I am on a journey. A journey to try and reclaim my health. I found that if I put it out to the world for all to see, it holds me more accountable. So, this is my journey.

In 2019, I was unexpectedly diagnosed with Stage III Metastatic Triple Negative Cancer. I didn’t even find it, my cat did. The diagnosis was a shock. No one in my family had ever had a history of breast cancer. Where did this come from? Why me?

The doctors told me this was an extremely aggressive cancer. I was thrust into the conventional therapy wormhole. I was given multiple chemotherapies, radiation, and surgeries, but fell short, and could not finish either therapy due to complications. This was before I knew about a plant-based diet, and the effects it can have in assisting cancer patients overcome their disease. It didn’t matter, I didn’t want to eat anyway, not even with all the steroids.

By the grace of God, I am still here to write this blog and I don’t know how. There were ten women I met when with my diagnosis of TNBC. Some had lower stages than I, and some were bouncing from trial to trial due to their Stage IV diagnosis. 

All the women have passed within about a year and a half except me. So, I am currently trying to educate myself on transitioning to a plant-based diet to see if I can overcome some of my health hurdles. I have found Dr. Kristie Funk MD on YouTube via Physician’s Committee for Response Medicine (or PCRM.org), and have gotten a lot of information from her and the channel. So, she, along with the others I have listed in my resource page on this blog, has helped me in my quest to further educate myself on diet and exercise.

I will say that chemo and radiation are the gifts that keep giving. For any of you who have gone through it, you will understand what I am saying without any explanation. All cancer therapies come with great costs, some more than others. When I say costs, I am speaking of financial costs and health costs. The drugs that save your life, can eventually kill you. They are not without risks.

When I was diagnosed, my cancer had already metastasized to my nodes. I had a tumor in my axillary region (under my arm), that was larger than most women’s tumor in their breasts. The primary tumor in my breast was large. Triple Negative is the second most aggressive breast cancer, taking a back seat only to Inflammatory Breast Cancer.

When I was in chemo, I would talk to the other people next to me and I would always ask what kind of cancer they had. They would return the question, and I would say Triple Negative Breast Cancer ( or TNBC), the next words out of their mouth were always the same, “I’m so sorry.” That wasn’t a warm feeling. I felt like I had a death sentence and everyone knew it but me.

All the other women I was there with that had Triple Negative, did not make it. They all passed within a year or two. So, I feel a bit guilty that I am still here. For some reason, God didn’t think it was my time, I still have work to do. 

Triple-negative is a disease that likes to return quickly and when it does, it is always at Stage IV and has metastasized to all organs, brain, and bones before they find it. I would call that, a point of no return.

The therapies after that are, in my opinion, for the forward movement of science and science only. At this point, they are throwing every drug and trial at you that your body can stand. I am not sure if there is a TNBC Stage IV survivor in this world. I am going to have to do a bit of research. I am sure there might be, but very few. 

For those that have more troubling diagnoses’, I am just wondering if conventional oncologists would use strict vegan diets along with conventional therapies if the survival outcomes would be greater? But then, will they ever do that due to cancer and their therapies, being “big cash cows” and financially huge for the doctors, facilities, and big pharma? That is food for thought. 

We all hear of those stories of curing cancer and beating it back in submission. First of all, you never “cure” cancer. Cancer is living in our bodies all the time. It is just activated into a disease state when our bodies can no longer fight and the cancer replicates or divides faster than our cells can. Then we lose all hope of keeping it under control. 

Second, I truly believe if I had refused the conventional therapies at my current disease state, and attempted a “diet only” approach, I would be dead within six months. When I came out of my fog after the diagnosis, I asked my oncologist, if I didn’t do anything, how much time would I have. He came back with “6 to 8 months, hard to say really.” 

I believe that there are certain times when we have to intervene with conventional therapies, and then follow with a diet to achieve a successful outcome. I also believe that each human being is different, and what might work for one, doesn’t work for all.

You and I have much different meanings of the word “success”, than the doctors. For instance, success to us, is a cure, and we get to live. Success to a doctor is an extension of the patient’s life of 3-6 months beyond what the patient would have without any treatment. 

There were a lot of things I wish I had known before going into my journey with breast cancer. I had a lot of sleepless nights on all the steroids and in pain, so I tried to put my time to good use. I wrote, and self-published Your Journey Through Breast Cancer, What You Don’t Know, Can Hurt You. In case you or your loved one have recently received a diagnosis, it will help you navigate the storm. 

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I have also created a matching corresponding lined blank writing Journal, to accompany the book. One of the things that got me through this difficult journey was journaling. It was a lifesaver. 

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Regardless of your lot in life, the nutrition you choose to put in your body, is the key to your health, whether you are battling diseases or not, “you are what you eat!”

Welcome to my journey. 

Alicia

Disclaimer

The following article contains affiliate partner links.  I could earn a small commission, at no cost to you, for any qualifying purchases.  

This blog is for entertainment and informational purposes only.  The information contained within this blog is not intended to diagnose or cure any medical condition.  I am not a physician, licensed dietician or physical therapist.  This blog is the result of my personal experiences and what I chose to do for a healthier lifestyle.  As always, before you begin a diet, exercise program or add supplements, please consult your healthcare professional.

A day in the life of you

What is your why? Let’s take a look. Grab a journal and let’s get started. I am going to ask you to take a serious inventory of what you eat on a daily/weekly basis. Write everything down. Don’t worry, this is only an initial exercise for the first week. You will not have to log your intake past this point unless you want to. The one thing is you will need to be is totally honest with yourself or this will not work. I want every stick of gum logged.

I am going to write a scenario and I want you to see if you recognize any of these hamster wheel behaviors.

The routine

You wake after a not so good night’s sleep. You’re already tired. You put on the coffee while you take a shower. You have a cup of coffee while getting ready for work. You head out the door and swing into either you neighborhood Starbucks or fast-food drive-thru. You grab a Frappuccino and a morning combo meal. As you are sitting in traffic you consume both.

When you get to the office you have another coffee/soda before you head to a meeting. Everything is gone off the rails at work, and now you and your team are in crisis mode. Your stress level just increased even more. You head to the vending machine for a RedBull/Soda. You are hungry, so you grab a candy bar or chips too.

At lunch, you drive thru another fast-food line and get another combo meal with a soda or head to a restaurant. You down that and get on with your day.

Around 3:00 pm, you feel like your tank is running on empty, so you grab another soda/coffee/RedBull, and some more goodies from the vending machine.

You’re heading home from work and traffic is terrible. While you are sitting in traffic, you think to yourself, “There has to be more to life than this.” Once you get home, you are so tired, you just want to order DoorDash or a Pizza and call it a night.

You get in bed on your cell phones or tablets. You can’t sleep well for thinking about life’s little problems, like living paycheck to paycheck (or hand to mouth). You are worried about how you are going to pay for those mounting student loans, medical debt or credit cards. Each of those are big green monsters living under your bed. You get up sometime during the night and grab whatever you can find and begin stress eating. Maybe it’s cookies and milk, chips or something else. By the time you stop, half the bag is gone.

You go back to bed and finally fall asleep around 2 or 3 am. When your alarm goes off, you wake so tired and unrested, you head for the coffee pot, get in the shower and rinse and repeat the day. This is your life. This is a hamster wheel that I cannot seem to get off. This is a freight train that is about to hit a wall going 80 mph. How do I stop the madness? Does any of this resonate with you?

The outcome

Now, let’s say you logged your food and beverage intake for the entire week. Looking back on what you logged, what nutrients do you think you actually ingested? Nutrients that fuel your body so it can repair itself, and provide you with the daily requirements to make sure everything is working properly? Most likely, not many. In fact, wouldn’t you say that you did more harm than good with the high-fat, highly processed, sugary and sodium bombs you consumed that were layer is caffeine? Ask yourself, how is your body supposed to recover from that, day after day, year after year. At some point, it just cannot.

You body screams for help and breaks down. This is when diseased starts to occur. Things like high blood-pressure, diabetes, depression, GI issues, sleep apnea, heart, vascular, cancer and autoimmune. They mount one after one and you cannot see to get off the disease freight train.

You have now added more medication, procedures and diagnosis’ to your life. This means more missed work time, and expensive dangerous medications the doctor tells you that you will take for the rest of your life.

Remember those CDC stats I mentioned? Almost 75% of Americans are obese or overweight. As well as 50% of Americans have been diagnosed with high blood pressure and are on medication. There are now twelve year old children are being diagnosed and put on medication for high blood pressure. What do you think their future holds? After all, we most likely began our journey in our thirty’s or forty’s and they are starting at pre-teen ages! If case you missed the stats, here is a link..

CDC Stats Link Home

Welcome to your WHY! Why, you should want to change these habits and create a better plan for what you give your body. Our body is like a temple, and this is how we treat it. We only get one, and it’s not too late to change your course. I don’t care how old you are. Change starts with you and only you. Let’s turn this train around!

Commit to the change and let’s get started.

Alicia

Which is the healthier diet?

Vegan vs Keto, or somewhere in the middle?

I don’t know about you, but this is the most confusing part of trying to decide which eating plan to follow in my new journey to a healthier lifestyle. I have been on both a vegan diet and a keto diet, and achieved significant weight loss on both. My concern comes with a high fat Keto diet and what effects it will have on my systemic health, especially my cardiovascular system. Then, there is the concern of some limiting factors on a vegan diet like like B12, protein, not to mention increased fructose intake.

If you look at the photo above, you realize the animals in that picture are notably some of the strongest (if not the strongest) animals on this earth, and they don’t eat meat. That’s right, they are fully powered by plants! Common sense would tell you they ALL can’t have it wrong. Right?

I looked up vegan plant-based athletes to see what I could find. What I found were some jaw dropping stories. Some of the world’s greatest record holders in every sport are vegan, and their stories are incredible. Below are just a few of those stories. You can find them in weightlifting, skiing, surfing, race car, cycling, swimming, NFL, NBA and NBA and just about every sport you can think of.

Just a few vegan athletes

Ruth Heidrich – Is one of the most impressive stories I’ve read. She was a marathon runner who was diagnosed with Stage IV Breast Cancer. She was given a death sentence. She refused all chemo, radiation, and hormone blockers and sought the guidance of Dr. John McDougall, MD.

McDougall is a functional medical doctor, who placed her on a strict vegan diet and exactly two years from the date of her diagnosis, she not only beat her cancer into submission, but she completed her first Kona Ironman Triathlon, becoming the first vegan and cancer survivor to do so.

At 86, she went on to complete five more Ironman competitions. She holds over 900 trophies, 8 gold medals in the U.S. Senior Olympics. She has competed in 67 marathons to include Boston, New York and Moscow, and all while powered by plants!

Fiona Oakes – British runner and vegan since the age of six. She has completed 50 marathons and holds four world records. She holds the world record in an event where she ran 7 marathons on all seven continents, and took the fastest aggregate time. All, powered by plants.

Carl Lewis – is a track and field superstar and has been vegan since 1990. He won eight world championships titles and nine Olympic gold medals. It is difficult to deny the power of plants when you look at his story.

Pat Reeves – British runner, turned power lifter. At age 32, she was diagnosed with a terminal genetic cancer (14 brain tumors). She adopted a vegan diet, and her cancer went into remission, there was no evidence of tumors remaining.

In 1982 she took up powerlifting and began to compete. In 2019, she was told she had three months to live, due to a car accident that left her with crushed lungs and pulmonary fibrosis. She has refused to submit to the disease, still power lifting at age 76 and still breaking her own records.

Scott Jurek – Named one of the greatest runners of all time. Scott eats a plant-based diet and has given it credit for some of his greatest wins. Although there are too many to list, he holds the world record for running the 2189 mile Appalachian Trial Run. Not a run for the faint at heart. Scott has won over twenty-four marathons to date.

A personal account

I spoke with a woman that was diagnosed with terminal metastatic cancer from a prominent medical facility in California. The doctors told her she had just months to live and to get her affairs in order. She moved back to Texas to be closer to family. She refused all treatments, went fully vegan (specifically 100% organic) and exercised 8 hours a day as a spin class instructor. She only drank Fiji water and changed to all natural products in her environment.

After six months, she went to an area oncologist to get additional scans. She wanted to see if her efforts were paying off. The doctors could not fine a trace of any tumors left in her body. The doctors looked on with disbelief and asked her what protocol she was using to cure her cancer. Her response, “I am vegan”. They all scratched their heads in disbelief. Plant power once again.

I don’t know about you, but I am seeing a common thread in these accounts.

Cancer + vegan + exercise + positive attitude = cancer remission (in some incidents)

Not all people find these kind of results. I lost my mother to cancer, so I understand not all stories have happy endings. There are an estimated 2 million new cancer diagnosis each year, and over 608,570 deaths that are attributed to cancer alone. For some, it’s a second chance. For others, it is a death sentence.

My personal journey

In 2019, I was diagnosed with Stage III Metastatic Triple Negative Cancer. This was an extremely aggressive cancer. I was thrust into the conventional therapies of multiple chemotherapies, and radiation, and surgery, but fell short and could not finish either therapy due to complications. This was before I knew about a plant-based diet and the effects in can have assisting cancer patients overcome their disease. It didn’t really matter, I didn’t want to eat anyway, not even with all the steroids.

By the grace of God, I am still here to write this blog, and I am currently trying to educate myself on transitioning to a plant-based diet. Chemo and radiation is the gift that keeps giving. For any of you that have gone through it, you will understand what I am saying without any explanation. All cancer therapies come with a great risks, some more that others.

When I was diagnosed, my cancer had already metastasized to my nodes. I had a tumor in my axillary region (under my arm) that was larger than most women’s tumor in their breast. The primary tumor in my breast was large. Triple Negative is the second most aggressive breast cancer, only taking a back seat to Inflammatory Breast Cancer.

When I was in chemo, I would talk to the other people next to me and I would always ask what kind of cancer they had. When they would ask me, and I would say Triple Negative, the next words out of their mouth were always, “I am sorry.” That wasn’t a warm feeling.

All the women I was there with that had Triple Negative did not make it. They all passed within the year. So, I feel a bit guilty that I am still here. For some reason, God didn’t think it was my time.

Triple negative is a disease that likes to return quickly and when it does, it is always at Stage IV and in all organs, brain and bones before they find it. I would call that, a point of no return.

The therapies after that are, in my opinion, for the forward movement of science and science only, I am not sure if there is a TNBC Stage IV survivor in this world. I am going to have to do a bit of research. I am sure there might be, but very few.

We hear these stories of curing cancer and beating it back in submission. First of all, you never “cure” cancer. Cancer is living in our bodies all the time. It is just activated into a disease state when our bodies can no longer fight, and keep it under control. Second, I truly believe if I had refused the conventional therapies before me, and attempted a “diet only” approach, I would be dead within six months. When I came out of my fog after the diagnosis, I asked my oncologist, if I didn’t do anything, how much time would I have. He came back with 6 to 8 months.

I believe that there are certain times which we have to intervene with conventional therapies, and then follow with a diet to achieve a successful outcome. I also believe that each human being is different and what might work for one, doesn’t work for all.

You and I have much different meanings of the word “success”, than the doctors. Success to us, is a cure and we get to live and go on with our lives. Success to a doctor, is an extension of life, 3-6 months beyond what the patient would have without the treatment.

There were a lot of things I wish I knew before going into my journey with breast cancer. I had a lot of sleepless night, so I tried to put them to good use. I wrote and self-published this book in case any of you might have recently been diagnosed or you have a loved one that got the news. It is on Amazon and I will put the link below, just click on the book.

Regardless of your lot in life, the nutrition you choose to put in your body, is the key to health.

Welcome to my journey.

Alicia

Meal planning for quick and easy meals

Meal planning for quick and easy meals is without a doubt one of the most time consuming parts of eating healthier. The only thing worse that this is, the actual meal prep itself. Let’s face it, planning, shopping and then prepping can take an entire day. Who has a whole day to dedicate to this? There is an easier way.

When you plan, you will want quick ideas. For this, you will need to re-think your way of cooking. For me, cooking was more of an art than a necessity. I would spend hours in the kitchen for one dinner, but that was when I cooked the good old southern way. Those days are now gone. I am focused on nutrition now.

What is your why?

You have to ask yourself “what is my why”? This gets you clear as to why, now what is your goal? You have to set an achievable goal. Ask yourself these questions:

  • What is my goal?
  • How can I get the most bang for my buck in the way of nutrients?
  • How can I cook or prepare quick easy and budget friendly meals?

My Goal

First of all, my goal was simple. I needed a diet plan that would support my nutritional goals of eating healthier and losing weight. Some things I needed to forgo were wine, cheese, ice cream and really most dairy altogether.

I was always heavy on the meat and startches, so I needed to add more fruits and vegetables in my mix, and cut the additional salt. Okay, I had my first base covered. I had a specific goal and kept it simple. I have my why and goal covered.

My nutritional needs

I knew that if I incorporated nutritionally dense foods, it would help my body repair itself and provide the nutrients it needed to stay healthy. So, I focused on getting the most bang for my buck. This would provide the much needed nutrition for energy and weight loss. If you need a list of those top nutritional foods, you can find them at the link below:

I also needed to save money on my grocery budget, so I followed the Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen rule of buying produce. This will save you money, while forgoing those cancer-causing pesticides. Click the link below for that list:

Quick and easy meals

I knew my cooking style had to change overnight. I needed to let go of my three and four course meals and focus on meal planning for quick and easy meals. This meant incorporating things like smoothies and oatmeal with fresh fruit, during breakfast and lunch, and cooking “one pot meals” or all-in-one meals for dinner. See my post below for one-pot meals:

Success comes down to having a plan and working the plan

I knew planning, shopping and prepping could not be done for me all in one day. I just simply ran out of stem and didn’t prep. I thought, “I will do it tomorrow” and tomorrow never came. Groceries go to waste like this, so a new plan of action had to be born!

I decided I would meal plan my quick meals during the week and would make a full shopping list for each of the two stores. I would also take inventory of my panty, refrigerator and freezer for the foods I needed.

I had my lists for both stores. You might ask, why two stores, why not just one? Well the reason is two-fold. First, our supply chain hasn’t recovered and my stores do not always have the things I need, so I am forced to make a second stop. Second, you always want to look at the ads for cost-savings and add those to your cards so you can take advantage of those extra digital coupon savings.

My Plan

This meant on Thursday, when the ads came out I would research and load everything I need to my digital coupons for money saving ideas. Friday night, I would clean my refrigerator out, and take inventory of anything I might need. I would make my lists for each store. If I had time, I would look to on-line healthy recipes or a book for inspiration. I may not follow the actual recipe but it will give me a guide. I tend to make my meals a bit healthier.

Then, when Saturday/Sunday rolls around, I grab my lists and keys and head out the door. Inventory was already taken from my refrigerator, pantry and freezer and lists are in hand. This keeps me from purchasing unneeded items and spending more money than planned. Let’s face it, groceries have gotten so expensive, we need all the help we can get in this area.

When I get home, I unload, wash and stock things away. Remember, the refrigerator is already clean and ready to go from the night before. I go directly into the prep of washing, cutting and containing, what I need for the days ahead. This would typically give me about 5 days of easy food ready to go for a quick toss. Realistically, I can prep and cook any dinner in 30-45 minutes and this included clean-up.

Now this will take some getting used to. It will take time to perfect your craft, but you can teach an old dog new tricks, so stick with it. You will find quick and easy ways to get healthy and nutritious foods in your body, without spending an entire day cooking.

Being successful at eating healthier is 80% of our getting healthy journey. If you can master this, then you can add walking (or the exercise of your choice), for the last 20%. All of this together is going to equal a healthier and hopefully lighter you.

Alicia

One-Pot Meals

One-pot meals are quick and easy, but it bucks everything we learned when growing up and cooking a meal. So, how do you get on the train for quick and easy?

First, get a new attitude. You have to be willing to say, “out with the old, and in with the new” and learn how to cook all over again. I promise, once you master this, you will say, “What took me so long?”

Second, you do not need any special equipment to start. I would have on-hand a few things that will make your job a whole lot easier.

Kitchen equipment that will make your job easier

You don’t need a lot to cook these simple one-pot meals. I will say that you will mainly use a few things over and over again. Who knows, you might be able to get rid of the rest of your pots, pans and kitchen gadgets and declutter for more space, once you get your sea legs under you.

The things I would suggest that you have a minimum are:

  • One large knife
  • One paring knife
  • A few assortment of spoons, ladles and a peeler.
  • A grater
  • A cutting board or sheet
  • One large stock pot with lid
  • One smaller stock pot (with straining lid)
  • One or two baking sheets of various sizes
  • One large skillet with lid, one smaller skillet with lid
  • A Ninja high speed blender (or model of your choice)
  • Various sizes in meal prep containers
  • Microwave

I use Blue Diamond non-stick pots and pans and have been very happy with these. There are a wide variety of non-stick pots and pans, just keep in mind that you never want to use anything but bamboo or plastic utensils in these. Also, when cleaning, never used a scrub pad.

If you get adventurous and have extra money, you might try adding:

  • Air fryer
  • Food Processor
  • InstaPot/Crock Pot
  • Outdoor grill

Building a meal is as easy as 1-2-3

Throwing together a one-pot meal is quick and simple. Don’t overthink it.

First, depending on what diet you have decided to help you on your journey, depends on what will go in it for the protein. For example, if you are following a Whole Food Plant Based Diet (Vegan/Vegetarian), then you will want to pick things like beans, lentils, tofu and tempe for your protein blocks.

If you are choosing a Mediterranean Diet or Keto, then you can have lean cuts of chicken, meat and fish. I would limit your red meats to two or three times a week. Red meat has been proven to be inflammatory. If you are cooking organ meats like liver, I would recommend one to two times per week max.

Number 1 –

  • Pick a Protein (meat, beans, lentils, tofu or tempe)
  • Use a bit of broth to add moisture to the skillet. No oil please.
  • Stir Fry your meat until it is done (if you are eating meat).
  • Place your harder veggies in after your meat is done for more cook-time like carrots, onion, garlic and celery.

Number 2 –

  • Add an assortment of fresh/frozen (thawed) vegetables and simmer until done.
  • Season to taste (get creative here). Add a bit more broth if needed.

Number 3 –

Add a starch/complex carb like pasta, rice or potatoes. (These will require pre-cooking in another pot).

If you are wanting some dessert, add some fresh fruit or a snippet of dark chocolate.

There you go, you have your meal in essentially one pot, and clean-up is super quick and easy. Enjoy!

Cooking tip- I always use canned beans to save time. I make sure to try and get them in a Non-BPA can, and always rinse before adding them to my soups/skillets. This removes a great deal of the sodium content and the gas that one might experience.

Put any remaining leftovers in the refrigerator. Just reheat on stove or pop in the microwave, and you have a meal. Not only are you saving money, you are controlling the quality of food, the nutrients going in your body, and the amount of sodium that is contained in your food. All three are major wins for you and your journey!

Alicia

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