food and health goals

Food is a big passion of mine.  You might have noticed that about me…Since 2006 I have been striving to have a healthier diet.  It isn’t easy.  I have plenty of slips.  I love rich food.  I love carbs.  When Matt and I first got married we went out to eat just about every night…for a year.  I guess living in the city and getting home late after a long day makes you want more convenience.  I ended that year not so healthy and have been working ever since to improve my health.  This year I hope to continue in a positive direction.

Eat a plant based/whole foods diet


We try to do this anyways, but I also try to make everything from scratch, which means few, if any, convenience foods in the house.  The one thing we do have is pasta though, and that gets used way more often than it should.  This year I would like to eat a mainly plant based diet.  Throwing in some eggs hopefully from our own chickens.  I’m saying plant based whole foods because we often will go to refried beans and nachos for dinner, beans and rice, chili, bean burritos.  Are you seeing a trend here?  It isn’t that we don’t eat vegetables, we do, a lot of vegetables, but our main meals tend to be bean/rice/pasta based, and I would rather it be veggie based with a little bit of those other foods as fillers.

Plan more freezer meals


Because we don’t have a lot of convenience foods in the house, I need to try and make my own.  Having ready made beans in the freezer, making a large batch of veggie stock for soup, having my own pizza dough ready for our Friday night pizza parties, that would help.  Hopefully we can get a new freezer for the basement to hold more food.  Then I can make large batches of food, and freeze some for later.  It would also help when I have my hobby night and Matt is at a loss as to what to make for dinner.  🙂

Workout at least 3 times/week


Ah, the traditional “work out” goal.  I am actually doing well with this so far.  It is kind of complicated to work out with the kids around, but I have found that if I put up a gate and put a movie on for them, I can get at least 30 minutes in before everyone starts freaking out 🙂  I would actually prefer to work out every day, at the same time.  I figure routine will help me keep to it.  But, I am going to say 3 times per week just to stay on the safe side!

Learn more about fermented foods (and eat more of them)


I love kimchi, but that is about the only fermented food that I eat, and Matt doesn’t like it.  I have read that there are so many benefits to fermented foods, but I don’t know what they are.  I would like to learn more about fermented foods, and then also start making some of my own.  I figure the winter time is a great time to do this because it isn’t hot, and it is when it will probably help our immune systems the most.

Get outside more often


In the summer I try to get out everyday, but in the winter I tend to stay indoors.  I am not big on the cold, which is funny since I live in Maine, and am participating in the freeze yer buns challenge.  I think it might be the time commitment of getting both kids ready to go outside, and then only stay outside for 5 minutes because everyone is cold, or  has fallen down so many times due to not being able to move in all the layers 🙂  I would like to try and get outside everyday though, even if it is for only 5 minutes.  I think the extra vitamin D would be helpful.

Do you have some health related goals this year?  Are you already living your healthy life?  Any tips you want to share?