On Being a Trim Healthy Mama

Finally we all seem to be well again. Last week was spent preparing for my husband's 50th birthday. We had a great party for him Saturday night. Now my life can hopefully resume it's normal craziness instead of the crazy craziness.

 

I've been getting quite a few questions lately about the Trim Healthy Mama diet so I thought I would take a post to explain how it works. I was so done with diets before I bought the book. I was so afraid this would be another diet I would follow for a while and then hate. However, I soon found it has got to be the simplest, most delicious diet I have ever followed. I've stayed with it more or less for almost a year now which is a record for me.

 

It's based on two simple principles. First, have some form of protein with every snack or meal you eat. That can be as simple as a teaspoon of peanut butter spread on half of an apple. Or it can be as big as having steak and salad for supper. This was easy for me to grasp because I love meat. A diet that doesn't include meat just isn't going to work for me. I also loves eggs for breakfast so I didn't have to make a huge change in my breakfast - big bonus.

 

Secondly, our bodies run on two types of fuel - fats and carbohydrates. Never mix the two. This does not mean you can't have butter and pancakes. It does mean you have to change the ingredients in your pancakes. There are many recipes for pancakes made with almond flour and/or coconut flour. Almonds and coconuts are high in fat so obviously the flour made from them is as well. So you could have a breakfast of almond flour pancakes, eggs and bacon. Skip the maple syrup and top your pancakes with berries and whip cream or yogurt or cottage cheese. You won't feel deprived, trust me.

 

For supper you could have lean chicken breast cut into bite-size pieces and rolled in oat flour (you can make this in a coffee grinder with regular oatmeal) and garlic salt and baked in the oven. Add a salad with low-fat dressing and a sweet potato topped with laughing cow cheese and you'll be laughing. You've just had a delicious high carbohydrate meal.

 

At first it takes a little effort to think through your menu and figure out how to tweak it so that you are not mixing fats and carbohydrates but before long it will be second nature. Allow three meals between fuel types. So if your breakfast was high fat you can change to carbs for lunch if it's been three hours.

 

Sometimes I can't go between meals without snacking - the joys of being a nursing mom. Then I have a snack that's low in fat and carbohydrates so that it doesn't matter what I've just finished or what I'm going to have next. For me  that's usually a protein shake made with almond milk.

 

The book lists several "special" foods, but many are easy to obtain and some of the more "exotic" ones you can get along without if you don't want to get them. My shopping list has changed very little. I do highly recommend that you get the book. It includes the science behind why this diet works, scriptural reasons for using this diet, food lists and menu ideas, hundreds of recipes and extra information on balancing hormones and exercise.

 

I have lost twenty-five pounds on this diet and beyond that I have seen my headaches, depression, sugar/carb cravings all leave. I have more energy, and when I'm faithful to the diet my body feels "clean" for lack of a better word. Every night I have a piece of my fudge - guilt free - before I go to bed.

 

Lots of men are using this diet as well to lose weight.  For years my husband's weight had been steadily climbing. Just by eating this way part-time we have seen the upward climb stop. He's struggling to lose weight but I know that's because he doesn't follow the diet much. I'm just happy he's stopped putting on weight.

 

This diet in its variations is safe for pregnant and nursing moms as well. For most of my baby's life I've been eating this way, and he's gone from ten pounds at birth to nearly thirty pounds thirteen months later. I have never felt deprived on this diet. I wake up hungry, of course, after nursing all night long, but then I have a huge, plan-approved breakfast starting the day off right.

 

My teenage daughter has joined me off and on and enjoyed the diet as well. She's learned new ways of cooking/baking and new ways of thinking about food and food groups. Unfortunately, she loves the fudge as much as I do. It's hard to share.

 

Check out their Facebook page. There are also group pages on  Facebook where you can get support. The book in all of its various forms can be purchased here. I originally bought the PDF, but eventually  knew I needed the paper copy. There's just something about being able to read a book whether or not your computer is on - just saying.

 

If you have any further questions,  please ask and I'll do my best to answer.

Is My Baby Malnourished?

 

A little over a week ago I ended up in the E.R. of our local hospital because my baby had croup. We're not a family who goes to the doctor for every little sniffle, and I tend to second guess myself when we have to go to Emergency. Well, it looks like I made the right call this time because he didn't respond to the first medication. The second medication didn't work much better so we were admitted overnight while they treated his croup very aggressively. The poor thing got so used to the mask he had to wear that he just gave in and didn't fight it after awhile. We were released the next day with an appointment to see a pediatrician in the hospital two days later for follow-up.

 

Now to the heart of why I'm writing. At the appointment while taking my baby's history I told the doctor that he still nurses about 85% of his calories (that's conservative - it's probably 90% or more). I told her that he sits at the table with us for every meal, and we offer him what we're eating. Most of the time he takes a few bites. If we're really lucky and he really likes what we're having he may even eat a quarter cup's worth. So I explained all of this, and then she told me my milk isn't nutritious enough and I need to start weaning him. Let's just say I was speechless for a bit.

 

Okay - is she not even looking at this baby in my lap? I know he was still recovering from being quite ill, but his illness had nothing to do with malnourishment. We're talking a little guy who nearly tripled his birth weight of ten pounds in one year - all on my breastmilk. I was so upset. She told me to stop giving him one of his feeds and when he is hungry he'll eat.

 

How do you make a baby go hungry? I was very upset. I came home and called one of my local La Leche League leaders. I didn't agree with the doctor at all and needed confirmation. Doctors, especially if they don't know you, don't always know best. They did a great job at helping Jonah recover from the croup. However, on this issue she was so clearly wrong. The thing that bothers me the most is that if Jonah had been my first I probably would have believed I was starving my baby in spite of evidence to the contrary sitting in my lap.

 

My point - please see a doctor when you need one, but also, please, remember they don't know everything. A baby can be malnourished while milking, but only if his mother is malnourished. A mother's body will deprive her of nutrients in order to given them to the baby. I have seen this first hand. While on a mission's trip in the jungles of Venezuela it was clear which women were mothers -they had no teeth and the babies were chubby and sweet. Their diet was low in calcium so their bodies took the calcium from the mother's bodies to give to the babies. 

 

My baby is developing normally, and I know that one of these days he's going to start eating solids all the time and there will be no holding him back.

 

 

Staying Healthy and Warm

Most of my children have been taking turns being sick this week. Between that and a special project I'm working on for someone's birthday I haven't had much time for anything else this week. Therefore I don't have much to say about this week.

I can say I'm thankful for the excellent supplements we take. They are from a company called Youngevity. We've taken them for over eight years now, and I'm convinced that they are the reason we don't get sick more often. When we do get sick it doesn't seem to be as bad as though around us. We've also started buying our essential oils from them. The more I learn about using essential oils the more I want to use them. We're not opposed to doctors because there is a time and place for them, but the more often we can heal ourselves by natural measures the stronger our bodies will be.

Yesterday I had to walk to the mall and it was quite cold out. We had a good test run of the leg warmers I made for the baby and the shawl to wrap around us. I meant to get a picture when we were all bundled up but forgot. I'm sure we'll do it again this winter, and I'll get a picture up so you can see how toasty warm he looks. ☺

Next week we should get back into the full swing of things. My husband's vacation will be over. Everyone will hopefully be healthy. I have lots of things my children want me to do with them this winter like teaching my youngest daughter how to bake muffins, my middle daughter to sew clothes for her doll, play a really awesome World War II game with my older boys and a Lego game with my younger boys.

Tomorrow we have a birthday - actually two. My son will be six and my niece will be six. How cool is that? My sister and I had babies - totally unplanned - on the same day. We also each have a daughter who share a birthday in November although separated by six years - again unplanned of course. Then my other sister didn't want to be left out of the fun so her last baby was born on the same day (different year) as my toddler. Do you have anything like that in your family? My middle daughter missed her dad's 40th birthday by an hour and a half. ☺

How has your week been this first full week of the new year?

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A Hard Working Vitamin

Today we'll be looking at our last vitamin. After this we'll move on to minerals. Vitamin C is a very common vitamin. How much do you know about this hard working vitamin?

We all know how good it is for fighting infections. It also helps wounds to heal. It's a super antioxidant which protects us from disease and early aging. It also helps our body to better absorb other nutrients.

We cannot make this vitamin in our body or store it. We have to constantly replenish our body's supply of this vital nutrient. Taken in high doses vitamin C can cause our bodies to cleanse or do a small detox.

When we feel a flu coming on my husband and I like to start taking mega doses of vitamin C three or four times a day to flush our bodies out. My husband has also found that taking a large dose of vitamin C before sleep helps him to wake up refreshed.

Vitamin C can be found in many supplemental forms, but what are the top ten foods for adding it to our diet? According to healthaliciousness.com the top food is chili peppers. After this is guava, bell peppers, fresh herbs (particularly parsley and thyme), dark leafy greens, broccoli/cauliflower/brussel sprouts, kiwi, papayas, citrus fruits and strawberries. Except for the chili peppers ☺ I don't see any problem with getting vitamin C through my diet. It would be hard to pick a favourite from this list, but I would probably go with strawberries.

What would be your favourite food for increasing your vitamin C intake?

The information about vitamin C comes from the Encyclopedia of Natural Healing, Alive Publishing Group, 1997.

Comforting My Sick Baby

 My baby has been sick with a slight fever for a couple of days (which partially explains why I haven't posted yet this week). Of course it's always worse at night so I've had a couple of nights of very interrupted sleep. I've had a lot of time to reflect in a sleepy, foggy kind of way. The first night I was thinking how happy I was that he was nursing. My body once exposed to his sickness started making antibodies to it which were then passed back to him in the milk helping him fight whatever is bugging him.

It can be very stressful taking care of a sick baby - They want to be held more, nursed more, they cry more for no apparent reason. But when I sit down to nurse him my body releases oxytocin which is a relaxing hormone. So the act of caring for my baby also cares for me helping me to spend a little time letting go of stress.

my sweetie when he's feeling well

When my middle son was the same age he was quite sick with some stomach flu. He couldn't keep anything down including breast milk. However, the breast milk stayed down for about 15 minutes which was about 14 minutes longer than anything else. I knew that he was at least deriving a little benefit from it, and since breast milk is so highly digestible he was probably getting even more than I thought.

Finally (I had a lot of time for thinking because I was up so much), I thought about how my body has been able to feed this "little" guy and help him go from ten to nearly thirty pounds in his first year. He is definitely my biggest baby (wearing size 2T already!) and the least interested in eating solids. He plays with them and takes occasional nibbles but he much prefers to get his nourishment from nursing. I think his picture tells how well that is working for him.

I know I've posted before on the benefits of breastfeeding but my baby's sickness has made me reflect again on how thankful I am that I have chosen this way to feed my babies.

How do you comfort your baby/child during sickness?

I'm Back

Well, what can I say? I'm sorry that I've been away for so long. We've had everyone taking turns being sick with a summer flu and a lot of errands that left me too tired at night to think about writing a post. Anyway, I have been thinking about things I want to write about. My younger daughters and I are planning out some posts we can do (maybe 2-3 times per month) about hair care, styling and accessories.

 

Like I mentioned we've all had the flu in varying degrees. Being the mom, it took me longer to recover than it did the children. I have a tendency when sick to forget all about taking my supplements and staying hydrated, etc. which only prolongs the agony. Thankfully the baby never was sick, but I think that's due to him nursing and getting antibodies through the milk to whatever we had - another reason to love nursing your baby.

 

I lengthened a skirt for my daughter using the new technique I came up with. Actually both of my younger daughters are wearing it because they love the skirt so much now. It was pretty plain Jane before.

 

 

I currently have a new-to-me dish setting up in my fridge. It uses chia seeds to thicken so we'll see how that goes. I've been wanting to try some popsicle recipes, but we're finding it nearly impossible to find popsicle molds. I know I could find them online, but I don't like shopping online. I'm thinking about just using little paper cups and the stick part to the failed popsicle molds that we tried.

 

Just one more week and then we start school. I can't believe this summer is almost over. I still have a few things to do for getting ready for school, but I can feel it all coming together. I'm starting to look forward to getting into the routine. One thing that we're going to start next week is a new chore routine. I've thought long and hard over the past few weeks about how to shake up our chore system. Sometimes a too-well-known chore system is boring and the jobs don't get finished as well or as easily. I think I've come up with a solution so I'm going to set it all up tomorrow and we'll start it Monday morning. I'm excited - don't know if my children are - but I am. :)

 

So, it's good to be back. I hope you've had a good week full of joy and health. What is your favourite home remedy for getting through the flu?

Vitamin K

This vitamin is fairly straightforward. Basically we need it for blood clotting and to help support our bone structure. Our bodies can manufacture what we need through our intestinal bacteria. It is very rare to be deficient in Vitamin K. Vitamin K2 is produced by our bodies; while Vitamin K1 can be found in the chlorophyll of plants.

So just in case you are worried, here are the top ten foods for Vitamin K according to healthiliciousness.com. First, herbs - basil, sage, thyme - then, dark leafy greens, scallions, brussel sprouts and broccoli. There are spices - chili powder, curry, paprika and cayenne. You can also eat asparagus, cabbage, pickled cucumber and prunes. With foods like this if you do have to supplement it should be delicious.

The information about Vitamin K comes from the Encyclopedia of Natural Healing, Alive Publishing Group, 1997.

Vitamin E could be called the “Warrior Vitamin”! It protects our bodies in so many ways. It is an antioxidant that helps to protect us from toxins, pollution and premature aging. It also protects other nutrients from being damaged. Our immune system, nerves and muscles all need vitamin E to function properly. It helps to heal injured tissue and prevent scarring. It also has some anticoagulant properties to keep our blood from clotting. We store it in our liver, but if we have excess our body eliminates it through our urine. This is one powerful vitamin.

Since vitamin C and selenium are also antioxidants they are good to take with vitamin E to help fight toxins in our bodies. Vitamin E helps our bodies to absorb vitamin A, but iron absorption is hindered by vitamin E so take them at separate times.

So how can we get Vitamin A into our diet? According to http://www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/vitamin-E.php here are the top ten sources: sunflower seeds, paprika and chili powder, almonds, pine nuts, peanuts, dried herbs (basil and oregano), dried apricots, pickled green olives, cooked spinach and cooked taro root. No doubt you already eat many of these foods. Obviously adding vitamin E to your diet is simply and delicious. I do wonder though if anyone has ever cooked and/or eaten taro root. What is it like?

The information about Vitamin E comes from the Encyclopedia of Natural Healing, Alive Publishing Group, 1997.

Natural Body Products

This is going to be a short post. Maybe it’s just an excuse for me to see if anyone is really reading this blog. 

I wrote a post a while ago about using oil for a facial cleanser. I have been accumulating recipes for various body products – shampoo, conditioner, deodarant, hand lotion, lip balm/gloss, shaving lotion, skin salve, etc. I’m hoping to try a lot of these this summer and get back with you as to whether or not I like them. If I do like them I will definitely share how-to’s. Our skin is our body’s biggest organ. We sometimes forget that what we put ON our skin can affect us as much as what we put IN our body.

Here’s what I’m wondering – have I missed anything? Is there a body product that you’ve really been wanting a natural alternative for? If so, I’ll try to find one for you. Let me know in the comments.

Healthy, Frugal, AND Tasty!

You probably already know that beans are a frugal way to extend your grocery budget. Many people also know that they are healthy – they provide protein and fiber, are low on the glycemic index, improve disgestion to list just a few of their benefits. However, many people – especially children do not enjoy them.

We have been eating more beans lately for all of the above reasons. I was fairly skeptical at first but I am quickly becoming a believer in the tastiness and versatility of beans. I have found one way to make them more palatable to my children is if they are mashed. Recently I made white beans and mashed them up like potatoes, and they were a big hit. My children enjoy refried beans in tortillas. Of course, the cheese and sour cream probably doesn’t hurt either. 

Tonight we had one of our new favourites – Black Bean and Quinoa Burgers. Basically you use cooked black beans and then mix them with whatever you would normally mix with meat for making burgers. We also add quinoa – about a quarter to half a cup for every two cups of beans. You can use canned beans, but I prefer to cook ours.

Cooking beans used to scare me. I thought I had to soak them overnight which is a bit too much pre-planning for me. I have learned that I can measure out what I need cover them with at least one to two inches of water and boil them. After they simmer for a couple of minutes I turn them off for an hour. Then I drain the water, add more and cook them until soft. I used to do it in my slow cooker, but it recently broke so I’ve found that I can cook them almost as easily on the stove.

These burgers are so delicious. My children love them especially when I pair them with homemade baked fries. We don’t often use hamburger buns. I consider them extra carbs we don’t necessarily need, but we have eaten them buns. They are every bit as good as their meaty cousins.

A yummy, child-approved dinner

As I try new bean recipes I’ll let you know how they go down with our children. What is your favourite way of fixing beans?

A Hard Week

This has not been an exactly healthy week for our family. There has been some nasty stomach running the circuit of most of our children. It really hit two of our younger ones quite hard. It is so hard to see your children sad and sick and not be able to do much more than offer them comfort. We do have a “Sore Tummy Tea” that I made but it didn’t seem to help much. Thankfully everyone is better now and eating lots to make up for lost time. 

On another note, I recently started studying about why we should have more gelatin in our diets. I have started to add it to my smoothies. Maybe someday soon I’ll write a post on this subject.

We’ve had much warmer weather recently so I’ve started taking walks again. Let me assure you that taking a walk with a twenty-pound baby in the sling is quite the workout! When my husband isn’t available to walk with me the children enjoy taking turns. It’s some nice one-on-one time with whoever comes with me. And let me just say that none of our children are ever at a loss for words.  We have some great conversations along the way. I always come home feeling refreshed emotionally and physically. Walking is one form of exercise that I really love.

How was your week?

Vitamin D

So today we’re moving on to Vitamin D which is another fat-soluble vitamin like Vitamin A. This means they dissolve in fat. If your body has a problem absorbing fat-soluble vitamins there are forms that have been turned into water-soluble forms for easier assimilation in your body.

We all know that we get Vitamin D from the sun, and if you follow the latest health news you are also aware that more and more emphasis is being placed on the importance of Vitamin D. The precursor to vitamin D comes from the cholesterol in our skin. Sunlight converts it to Vitamin D, and then for our bodies to be able to fully use it  it has to be activated first by our liver then by our kidneys. Wow! Who knew? It’s amazing how our bodies have to work together like an orchestra so that we can be healthy.

So you know Vitamin D comes from the sun, but do you know why our bodies need it? Our bones need if for growth and renewal because Vitamin D aids in the absorption of calcium. It also helps in the absorption of Vitamin C and is required for our nervous system and for our blood to clot. Without enough Vitamin D we run the risk of rickets. Rickets cause the bones to weaken and in children to not form properly. Since adults have fully formed bones, rickets causes pain in the bones.

Other than getting enough sun there are foods we can eat that will increase our Vitamin D. Here are the top ten according to www.healthaliciousness.com. First up – cod liver oil. Thankfully, this comes in capsule form and we don’t have to plug our noses and take a gulp every morning. There there is fish, fortified cereal, oysters, caviar, fortified soy products (not sure if I recommend this one – we try to avoid soy as much as possible), salami/ham/sausages, fortified dairy products, eggs and finally mushrooms.

There is much fear today about getting too much sun. The problem is that with all the sunscreen we slather on our bodies we are cutting down the amount of Vitamin D we can get. I’ve noticed that my children who love to be outside all summer naturally protect themselves. They do the most of their playing in the early morning and late afternoon to early evening. If they are outside doing the height of the heat they tend to quietly sit in a shady spot reading or doing some other quiet activity. They have never had a sun burn, and we don’t use sunscreen. This is what works for us, and how we handle the sun after much research. Do the same. Study it out for yourself and decide what works for you. Sunscreens made with natural products are becoming more readily available which may be a good fit for you.

Whatever you do work this important vitamin into your life either through more sun exposure or food.

The information about Vitamin D comes from the Encyclopedia of Natural Healing, Alive Publishing Group, 1997.

Essential Oils

Friday again! They seem to come so quickly. We had another good week. We’re inching ever closer to being finished with school for this year which is always exciting. The weather if slowly starting to warm up and it has been nice to get outside and into the sunshine. I love walking when the weather is nice and walking with a baby snuggled in the wrap in front of me is even better.

Walking with my oldest and my youngest

This year I have a goal of learning how to use essential oils to aid my family in being healthy. Happily for me one of the blogs I follow is offering the opportunity to learn about essential oils one oil at a time for the next ten months. This is an online course on Facebook and it’s free – so good for our health and good for our wallet. 

I signed up for the course this week. It starts in May with the first oil being peppermint. I’m excited to start learning about these oils. A couple of years ago a friend tried to get me interested and I just felt too overwhelmed. I’ve come to the place though where I’m very interested and eager to learn. If you’re interested in signing up here is the link.

So how about you? What have you done this week for your health or your family’s health?

Another Good Week

This week I’ve been able to do several things to promote the health of our family. The one thing I least expected to be able to do I’m very happy about.

As I said a couple of weeks ago, my husband and I are starting a new eating plan described in the book “Trim Healthy Mama“.  The first week my husband was off work so it was easy to set him up for all is food. This week he was back to work and I needed to send lunches. I wasn’t sure how it would go, but I was surprised. It went well. I was able to send him to work every day with a nutritious lunch that was “on plan”.

If you are looking for a way to lose weight or feel healthier, I really urge you to check out this book - Trim Healthy Mama. In twelve short days it has made an incredible difference for my husband and I. I have lost nearly seven pounds, but beyond that my headaches have disappeared, my sugar and carb cravings gone, my mood swings just about history – I am a woman after all. 

There is a bit of a learning curve which scared me at first, but I find that every day it gets easier. There is a great support group on Facebook. You can get encouragement, meal ideas and questions answered. I haven’t followed the plan 100% – my husband took me out for lunch at the Mandarin yesterday, but it has been so good when we have followed the plan. And when I came home from the Mandarin? Well, the next time I was hungry I just went right back to it…no guilt.

What else have I done this week – got back to my online exercise programme (someday I’ll post about that), let my children help me more in the kitchen, found a recipe for homemade CHOCOLATE ice cream which I did tweak a little, took a walk one afternoon before our weather turned nasty, enjoyed my children from big to little. It’s been a good week.

So what did you do for your health this week?

Vitamin A

Wow! I’m learning a lot while studying the various vitamins. Today I want to talk about Vitamin A.

Did you know there are two forms of Vitamin A? There is Vitamin A itself and it’s precursor, beta-carotene. I didn’t know beta-carotene was a “precursor” to Vitamin A. I guess when I heard the word I thought it was synonymous with Vitamin A. They are two different things though. Vitamin A is only found in animal sources and beta-carotene comes from plants. The good news though if you are vegetarian is that most people have no trouble converting beta-carotene into Vitamin A. They do, however, need to make sure that they are getting Vitamins B12 and C, zinc, and protein to make this conversion happen.

So what does Vitamin A do for us? Vitamin A helps to renew our skin and mucous membranes. It also helps to repair the linings in our digestive and respiratory tracts. Our immune and respiratory systems need Vitamin A in order to function correctly. And, of course, we all know that Vitamin A is important to our vision, but did you also know that it is good for our bones, teeth and blood?

So how can we get Vitamin A into our diet? According to www.healthaliciousness.com here are the top ten sources: liver, paprika/red pepper/cayenne/chili powders, sweet potatoes, carrots, dark leafy greens, butternut squash, dried herbs, dark and colourful lettuces, dried apricot and cantaloupe. Other foods considered rich in Vitamin A are: papaya, mangoes, green peas, tomatoes, peaches, sweet red peppers, fortified skim milk, whole milk and fortified oatmeal. With a list like that it should be easy to work Vitamin A into your diet!

The information about Vitamin A comes from the Encyclopedia of Natural Healing, Alive Publishing Group, 1997.

Where Has The Time Gone?

I can’t believe it’s Friday again already! This week has seemed to just fly by. We’ve been busy doing school, trying out new recipes, playing outside.

This week I’ve also been doing a big study of the “Trim Healthy Mama“. I’ve been hearing about this book for quite a while. I finally took the plunge and bought the pdf version. This is a system for losing weight but more than that it’s a lifestyle that will help your body to be healthy not just thin. The two – thin and healthy – are not always synonomous.

Boiled down to two sentences the eating plan is this – Every meal and snack needs some form of protein. Never include lots of carbs and lots of fat in the same meal or snack. There are lots of recipes clearly written out to help you plan your meals.

Maybe someday I’ll do an in-depth review of this book. It’s 650 pages of down-to-earth information and recipes. The book was written by two sisters. The things I appreciate are that they are both busy homeschooling mamas to several children, and they both are on budgets. Those two things assure me that this plan is doable for me.

Next week my husband and I plan to start eating the way they describe hence all my studying this week. I’m already excited about some of the recipes I’ve seen. The best part – this plan includes chocolate! I don’t think a plan that omitted chocolate would work for me.

I’ll give you updates from time to time about how we’re doing. My husband and I both hope to lose 30 pounds, and beyond that to just improve our health in general.

Now it’s your turn. What have you done this week to improve your health?