Good evening!
Hope you are having a hoppy day ;)
The Easter Bunny found us last night and we came out to this…
Score!
My breakfast was a huge fruit bowl, cereal, and an English muffin.
Split with Eric…
and some handfuls of cereal (not photographed).
Eric has made a couple healthy switches to his diet recently. He now eats Nature’s Path Raisin Bran instead of Kellogg’s Raisin Bran. He also drinks skim milk and occasionally almond milk instead of 2% (which he swore he would never drink that ‘water’!). He is discovering that he actually likes the taste of these foreign health foods. He can surprise me with flowers or clean up the kitchen for me, but nothing pleases me more than seeing him make healthy changes to his diet on his own free will! He used to suffer from really bad migraines and he hasn’t had any for over a year. Now who is to really know what caused them, but I would like to think that some of the healthier food choices had something to do with it.
My mother in law has made a lot of healthy changes to her diet (and dropped several pant sizes)and my sister in law has recently lost 30 pounds. I love witnessing positive changes in other’s lives. Kudos to all of you who are working hard to make changes to your own diet and health…it is hard work, but it is also what I consider FUN work because the rewards are immense.
As you can see, the Nature’s Path (below left) doesn’t have 1) glucose-fructose (aka glucose-fructose is what Canada calls HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP!) or 2) hydrogenated vegetable oil like Kellogg’s Raisin Bran (below right). Eric says that Nature’s Path tastes better anyways!
However today he had a big Irish Easter breakfast! ;)
Then it was time to go outside…and play in the warm sun!
I’m like a plant after a long winter… :mrgreen:
My niece had an Easter egg hunt!
She did well! I’m sure the parents had a lively drive home. ;)
My healthy hottie…
BENNY! Golden’s are the happiest dogs, aren’t they? Eric and I have a special voice that we use just for this breed. It goes like this…’Ahhhhhh DUHHHHHHHHHHHHH.’ lol.
Then we flew a Tinkerbell kite…what more could you ask for? ;)
Is he grabbing her butt?!
A late lunch was enjoyed…an Ezekiel wrap (officially obsessed!!), curry stir fry, olive oil, lentils. I must apologize dear Ezekiel wraps for I judged you prematurely. They are awesome. I actually now love how chewy they are!
With tomato paste of course.
And dinner was leftover curried stir-fry with an Amy’s veggie burger crumbled in.
With a bunny spoon OSGMOM got me while in Florida…
Steam, steam, steam.
As much as we enjoyed the restaurants and cafes we went to while on vacation, I am really happy to be back cooking my meals in my kitchen! Not only does it save a TON of money, but it is really satisfying to create healthy meals that are quick and easy.
I have also been munching on these dark chocolate rounds all day too…I think I had about 5434 of them today. ;) Hey, it’s Easter!
They are green tea dark chocolates from Teavana…I may or may not have bought 3 tins of them!
Today’s question- Do you avoid High fructose Corn Syrup (or its’ other names such as glucose-fructose here in Canada)? Have you given up any products or brands because they contained HFCS?
I’m off to unpack (again!), finish laundry, and wish my family a Happy Easter.
NIGHT!
I recently switched up my diet a few months back by trying to incorporate more organic foods/ones that contain fewer chemicals in my daily eats, and I ended up dropping a ton of my staples because I found they contained HFCS: Special K Protein Plus, Pepperidge Farm Bread and Yoplait yogurt, among others. Fortunately, I like the non-HFCS foods I replaced them with (like whole wheat potato bread) even better!
I think it’s great that your healthy lifestyle is rubbing off on others. It seems that leading by example, instead of telling someone what to do, is the best way to get someone to incorporate healthy changes into their lifestyle.
Hope you had a great holiday!
I totally agree with that…whenever I asked Eric in the past to try certain things he resisted, but once I stopped and just did my own thing, he did it on his own.
I don’t think I’ve ever really paid attention to glucose-fructose content before. Oops! :S
Luckily I eat very few processed foods, so hopefully I haven’t been consuming too much!
Also congrats to Eric for making some healthy changes! :)
Honestly, I don’t really look for HFCS on labels, but I focus on having whole foods most of the time, so with my “treats” I don’t pay too much attention to it, but I probably should!
My mom is very overweight and I worry about her. Hopefully some of my healthy habits will rub off on her. It’s a fine line between encouraging a healthy change and nagging. So happy to see that your fam is getting healthier!
Nothing is better than Easter chocolate, yum!
I actually do avoid HFCS because I find it bothers my stomach, and there is so much press around about how bad it is for you, I figure why risk it?
Kuddos to your husband and his family for making some healthy changes. I really love to watch people make positive changes, but it’s so hard to get them to do it (obviously it has to be their own decision).
Wow! I really did not know that glucose-fructose was a different name for HFCS! I’m always hearing about how bad that stuff is for you!
Thanks for this post – it was an eye-opener!
i try to eat more whole foods, that way I know i am eating natural ingredients. Plus more organic, less processed and packaged. Its the way to go!
That is great! As amazing as it it to see changes in the blog world, the ones close to your heart are even more special!
Oh my goodness, that bunny spoon is SO cute!! I love witnessing healthy changes in those around me. My parents are eating so many meat-free meals as a result of my going vegetarian, and it makes me so happy!
I definitely avoid products that contain HFCS. With so much bad press surrounding it and the vast array of products available these days, I don’t feel like I’m missing out by choosing a brand that doesn’t contain HFCS. Just the other day in fact, I was going to steal a dab of my roommate’s bbq sauce but when I saw that the FIRST ingredient listed was HFCS, I said no thank you!
I, too, get excited when people make positive changes for their health! I was extremely excited when a co-worker told me recently that had been reading my blog, and had begun making healthier choices which led to loosing 9 pounds! I had no idea the impact of this magnitude would ensue from this experience :)
I do avoid HFCS, but it seems to be in almost EVERYTHING!!! I recently discovered, like Blair above, that the bbq sauce I was using had HFCS listed as the FIRST ingredient! Ketchup is also a friend I gave up.
I know the makers of HFCS are campaigning for people to trust that HFCS are “really not that bad,” but so many of our foods are already processed and loaded with sugar. Why add more??? I know that the sweeter a food is, the more our brains want. Food is not something I personally want to crave simply because it is loaded with sugar. I would much rather crave food because I am hungry and my body needs (deserves) nutritious fuel.
I don’t actively scout out high fructose corn syrup (or glucose-fructose…thanks for that info. Didn’t even know they were the same thing! Sneaky Canadians) because I’m pretty sure most of the food I eat just doesn’t have it. I focus on whole foods with minimal additives, so hopefully I don’t take in too much HFCS. The information about it is controversial, but better safe than sorry!
I’m happy you had a fun Easter with the fam, and its great that your healthy habits are rubbing off on everyone.
I try to not buy too many packaged products and when I do, I read the labels because there is way too much stuff added in our products these days.
When my husband and I met, he ate chocolate chip cookies for breakfast! Let’s say things have changed immensely!
I try not to eat any processed foods, but I recently found out that some of the varieties of bread at Subway have high fructose corn syrup in them!! Definitely changed my opinion of Subway – I find myself second guessing any decisions to go there!
I love that they call it glucose-fructose over there. What a silly sounding word!
I try to stick to whole foods entirely, and eat the majority (90%) of my meals at home. There’s just too many good reasons!
Thanks for a great post.
i really try to never eat things that have HFCS in it, but there are times where i know that if i don’t eat something then i’ll freak out and binge. that’s about the only time i’ll knowingly eat anything with it.
p.s. i LOVE the picture of you with the sparkles on your sunglasses. too cute!
Hi Angela – Do you happen to have the recipe on hand for the curry stirfry. It looks yummy!
I do try to avoid HFCS and hydrogenated oils when possible. I always read labels and see what ingredients companies are using and choose the healthiest (within our budget).