EATING FOR LESS MEANS BEANS TO ME

THE DAY IS YOUNG.  I must have been exhausted as I slept in and my husband allowed me to.  Even though I slept in, the day is young.  It's walking weather outside so I'll walk 2 miles.  I need to get a birthday card for my sister-in-law, which is a great reason to walk to the dollar store, shop and walk HOME to water my porch plants.

The fresh air and movement will do me good.  I have plans of going to the fitness center this week and get started on this health kick I've conjured up in my head for me and hubby.  Off we shall go.

ON THE HOME FRONT.  Our CONTAINER GARDEN is thriving.  The colored peppers are getting a nice size.  For small gardens, a container garden fits the bill.  I want to go get a couple of Lavender plants and 2 more decorative pots.  The Lavender that was planted in the ground is struggling so I will definitely want to get a couple more to add to the container garden.  

THERE'S HOPE FOR THE FOOD BUDGET.  Eating for less means adding beans to the diet.  Beans and rice are considered a complete protein.  What the beans don't have the rice does such as amino acids. 

🍛 plus 🫘 = yum.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/05/03/151932410/man-cannot-live-on-rice-and-beans-alone-but-many-do

When younger I did not understand what a complete protein was.  I had no understanding what amino acids were.

I've been rearranging the Kitchen PANTRY to fit all the BEANS I bought last week.  We have a super stash of canned beans and bagged beans now.  If nothing else we have a good supply of protein and fiber in our pantry. 🫘🪴

THE BENEFITS OF EATING BEANS has come to light for me as I am morphing into someone who is more interested in nutrition these days.  Truly, being a HOMEMAKER and economist has never rang louder than recently in my LIFE.  It's an ART FORM.  I found myself caught up in how to fix fast meals on a tight budget when my children were home which carried over into middle age and now our elderly lives.

In order to get everything done that needed done, I wore out.  Health issues have been an issue for quite some time.  It affected HOME LIFE.  If I am more concentrated on nutrition, then it's a win-win situation.  Because a meal is nutritious does not mean it is more costly.  Kind of the opposite as beans, legumes and lentils are full of nutrition and very economical.  It's the highly processed foods that are more expensive and costly for your health.

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/healthiest-beans-legumes

https://www.eatingwell.com/article/8061834/healthiest-beans-to-eat/

https://www.verywellhealth.com/beans-8399859

I was brainwashed by the society I knew and mainstream businesses that wanted to make a huge profit over people.  I didn't know it at the time, but my EYES ARE WIDE OPEN as an almost 70 year old lady.  

See the glitzy packaging and commercials promoting their outstanding product which is full of sugars and chemical additives to give their goods longer shelf life???  I was a sucker for it.  I fell hard.

We seldom ate beans.  The variety of beans blows me away.  I had no idea there were so many.  I now know that that there are fantastic bean recipes for all kinds of bean dishes.

Drawing nearer to GOD for counsel and on what to eat these days.  In the quiet of the night and during prayer time with HIM, I am asking questions and listening.  Reading the BIBLE will lead me to the foods HE promotes for long life and good health.

Along the way, I gave up soda pop, coffee, sugary drinks, highly processed foods, high fructose corn syrup, soy and am paying attention to chemicals, additives, GMO foods, pesticides, herbicides, mercury, etc.  

Eating more extra virgin olive oil, organic foods and grass fed beef, blueberries and veggies.  Less bread, pasta, rice and cookies.  Taking supplements like Apple Cider Vinegar, Ceylon Cinnamon, CoQ10, Vitamin A, B, C, D3 with K2, Zinc with Selenium, Berberine.  

Looking for more recipes for creating delicious meals made out of beans, legumes and lentils.  There out there.  Please share some with me.

It's been a week since I finished the Daniel Diet.  I have had time to eat some foods I hadn't been during the 21 days.  Now I will balance and blend a few more foods into my daily diet. 

I'm aiming for 8 o'clock Breakfasts, 1 o'clock Lunches, 4 o'clock Tea Time and 6 o'clock Suppers.  H2o throughout the day. 

Breakfast will be eggs, fruit, V8 and maybe toast with peanut butter or cottage cheese with blueberries, or oatmeal, nuts, and berries.

Lunches will be a huge salad or grilled veggies with small amount of meat, or soup.  If I have a salad for lunch then Supper will be soup or grilled veggies.

Snack is usually 🍿PoPcOrN drizzled with olive oil.

Needing to have two fish dishes a week.  Now we will work in some bean dishes where we have chili, bean soups, mashed up beans to fill tacos and burritos. 

MAKING SIMPLE A PRIORITY.

If I can make the switch to getting up earlier, exercising before Breakfast, getting chores done in a methodical fashion, take time to work on things like writing books, sewing, art, etc. then LIFE will be healthier for me.

✌THIS WEEK, I made a Financial goal.  That's GOOD.  On Monday after we received mail with a check in it for our tax refund, we went straight to the Bank to open a new checking account specifically for HOUSEHOLD expenses and nothing else.  We've been talking about doing this for several months and whaalaah we did it.

The style of checkbook ordered has three checks per page in a nice binder.  Carbon copies.  I did bookkeeping this way about 20 years ago when we lived on the farm.  LOVED IT and am returning to it.  ✍When I sit to do bills, I will write out the checks the day after payday and get them ready to be mailed right away.

✍This will free up time and energy making paying the bills somewhat LESS stressful.  I will be reminded if I paid such and such bill by glancing at the large checkbook.  It may sound silly, but there are times that I have to ask myself if I paid such and such bill already or did I forget in which my heart skips a beat because for an instant a surge of adrenaline floods through my veins.  Less stress for a stress monkey. 🐒

The rest of the week is open to get some important chores done.  I'm still working on the PANTRY.  Until Hubby gets the spice rack built I will be storing the herbs and spices on a couple of the new shelves installed earlier in the month.

One shelf put in has been covered with some ceramic items, another holds paper towels and toilet paper. I exchanged the shelf full of oversized mason jars that holds sugars, oatmeal, cereals with the paper towel one.  The canned meats have been placed on the lowest shelf.

Getting organized feeds my soul.  More room for beans.

All the best,

~d👵

ACHIEVING MINI GOALS

MADE MY FRIDAY GOAL.  Stocking my pantry with some cans of beans.  Sounds simple enough.  It had to be.  With low energy levels, I need SIMPLE.  It was my goal to purchase quite a variety of canned beans before the week-end arrived.  DID IT.  Mission accomplished.  Had to go to Manhattan though.

While at MENARDS, we hand picked the cans of beans and also shopped at ALDI for them.  We'll get 11% back on the MENARD BEANS making the price competitive.  ALDI had the best prices that I know of.

At any rate, I have a nicely stocked pantry.  GOAL completed.  This week I stocked up boxed soups, veggies, fruits, red popcorn, Scottish Oatmeal and NOW, canned beans.  In no time at all, the PANTRY will be restocked.  Makes sense to me. 

LONG DAY.  Hoping with having no nap I'll sleep well throughout the night. 

🫘🫘🫘🫘🫘🫘🫘🫘🫘🫘🫘🫘🫘🫘🫘🫘🫘🫘🫘🫘🫘🫘🫘 

SATURDAY.  I did sleep well.  Woke at 6 on the dot and decided to stay asleep a little longer.  Dosed back off.  When I did finally get up, I knew I had to get my mile walk in.  Headed out the door with temps being 77 degrees and climbing.  Went a different route this morning heating up my body temp which was uncomfortable.  1 mile under my belt.

Once I got HOME, it took me 30 minutes to cool off.  Ate scrambled eggs for Breakfast.  I'm back to counting calories and being picky with what enters my mouth.  I stayed on the DANIEL DIET 21 days and already have been off of it for 4 days.  This amount of time is allowing me to eat some different foods that were censored from me for 21 days. 

I ate a chocolate dessert on Tuesday.  Had bread at Olive Garden with spaghetti and meat balls.  Salad of course.  I did not eat all of my spaghetti, but still it's spaghetti.  During my 4 day break, I ate Long John Silvers fish with malt vinegar, 2 hush puppies and green beans AND Cheesecake Factory dessert.  The fish had crust so I know this had lots of fat and calories.  When on the Daniel Diet, you aren't suppose to eat fried foods, meat or bread.  So I am back on the wagon again.

1200 calories is a good number for me to aim for toward my daily caloric count.  With no snacks, that's 400 calories per meal.  Recording what I eat each day for a diary.  Helpful recall and encouragement to stick eating clean and healthy.

Here I must stay.

I can relax in what I am doing.  

ON FRIDAY, we toured the Fitness Center that we will be going to in the near future.  I will use their walking tracks, their sauna and shower.  

I didn't know they had a sauna so when I saw it, I smiled and thought GOOD DEAL!  It'll be kind of like going to a SPA for me.  Start out at 5 minutes at 160 degrees.  I can do this.  It's not a infrared sauna.

Later, I will meet with a PERSONAL TRAINER to get some guidance on weight lifting.  I'm aiming for a gentle program as I get use to the facility.  

If I go 2 times a week, I can get my shopping done on the same day.  Visit Hobby Lobby, Walmart, Target, the Library, Main Street Shops, Aggieville, etc.  

Developing a NEW HABIT will have to happen.

Already then.  Today, I have plans of lining the new pantry shelves.  There are 4 shelves.  2 are done.  Will start placing things on them later in the day.  One shelf is spoken for...spices.  Hubby did a super job getting the shelves up and painted.  My part in this enterprise is to line them and place the goods on them.  Tadaah.  Will be done today.

The Dining room table has become a catch all.  I will work at clearing it off.  Then the front bedroom will have to be dealt with.  This is a very slow project, but I finally have a workable plan.

Anything that I will be turning loose of will be boxed up and placed in the garage for a sale.  After the bedroom is up and running, THEN I will work in the garage which is presently a storage unit.  WHEN THIS is cleared out I will add things to it for an AUCTION.  Everything accounted for, clean and ready to go.  

The challenges of living here while downsizing overwhelms me at times.  I've got to oversee this as it is our responsibility.  Taking ownership is required.

 Oh beans.

THE WEEK TO COME.  Plans.  My HOBBY is my health and finding ways to get better.  Walking has to be a part of it.  Food intake another.  Decluttering and getting ORGANIZED.  Quiet time to think, reflect and pray as well.  Studying and enjoying LIFE.  Amen.  

No beans about it...I've got to be
PRO-ACTIVE.

~d