Sprouted and Spelted

The sprout growing project is coming along well. My alfala sprouts are growing out of the jar (day #4! those things don't mess around!) and look ready to eat. Yummy! Now that I know how to do it, I'll foray into broccoli sprouts which I've already purchased and, after that, watch out seeds -- I'm a sprouting fool! A little FYI: Plants in the sprout stage have 300 (!) times more nutritional value than at any other time in their life cycle. Talk about a powerhouse food. I like to eat my sprouts "straight up" or in salads. I remember begging my mom to buy me alfalfa sprouts in the grocery store when I was a kid. A weird kid, obviously.

In spelt bread news... I finally made a loaf today with a bread machine recipe I found. The bread machine actually just went off, so the spelt bread verdict is TBA. I can tell you it smells darn good, but I think it got a little overbaked... totally my fault since I halved the recipe because I didn't have enough spelt flour to make the bigger loaf. We'll see. Maybe I could have a tomato, sprout, spelt bread sandwich. Mmmm -- sounds like a plan to me!

I took a little trip to Raisin Rack this morning. Raisin Rack is an amazing health food store that I have about a mile from my house. I was on a mission for brown rice protein powder, but - of course - came out with much more than that.

In other news, a core class on Saturday pretty much whipped me. I was begging for mercy by the end of that session and I am still mega sore today! Love it!

Let's Start At The Very Beginning...

I became particularly interested in fitness and nutrition after having my first son in 2004. I was quickly wooed by the "when you're pregnant, you eat what you want" philosophy and didn't really think past the pregnancy part. I ate enough food for two or three hungry, grown men and really enjoyed it. Ha. Fast forward to February. I delivered a 6 pound, 11 ounce baby and came home weighing about five pounds less than when I went in. Really? How does that even compute? At any rate, I had about 50 pounds to lose. People told me that it would melt off because I was breastfeeding. Um... yeah. Not so much. When baby turned one and I started nursing him less, I knew the time had come to get serious about my body. I refused to be a woman who became a mom and let myself go. I started controlling my portions, making healthier food choices, and exercising at Curves for Women three times a week. In turn, I began to see how the body responds when you give it what it needs. I steadily lost about 10 pounds per month and, by June 2005, was back to my pre-pregnancy weight and size, but with more muscle tone than I started with.

Since then, my journey has just evolved. At first my objective was just to lose weight and look good in my clothes. Now my goal is health. I have learned that when you nourish and respect your body the way it was intended to be, not only will you settle in at the weight you are intended to be, but you feel awesome!

In other news, on this week's agenda:

- Try out a bread machine recipe for spelt bread

- Figure out something I can do with the almond pulp I saved after making almond milk (it just seemed wrong to throw all that protein-y goodness down the drain, so it's sitting in refrigerator limbo at the moment)

- Start growing sprouts - I have broccoli and alfalfa seeds just waiting for me to get my hands on them... I don't know why I haven't forayed into this before!

- Hit up Whole Foods for some brown rice protein powder... I'm trying to gravitate away from so much soy and I've been mainly dairy-free for several weeks now, so whey protein is out too

- Get back on my regular gym schedule - I have a kid who just started first grade and I've been feeling under the weather, so things are all kinds of screwed up in that department

Peace out for now!