Chia Seeds

"I'd rather be a big woman than to be forced to eat any of the crap you eat," a teacher once remarked to me at lunch while I was eating a sack of sugar snap peas.  It was a large bag I'd grown and picked that morning before school, and I'd eaten every single one of them for lunch, while she ate an entirely white plate.

Every item on her large white cafeteria dish was white.  Some white meat, white rice, white gravy and white biscuits, no fruits, no vegetables, and one of those whitish cans of diet coke, plus a slab of white cake with white icing, I think it was called zero coke.

I'd not remarked on her food.  I don't care what other people eat, I'm clearly more concerned with what I'm stuffing my own face with that day.

We often do get food donations here and I let my kids eat sweet treats or sugary cereals, or cookies, or other crap, I'm not the Food Police.

I do have better vittles on hand though, and, as such, it's not unusual to see my more bonded kids, or kids who've lived here most of their lives, to eat bell peppers like apples, or sliced tomatoes like candy.  It's just that good.  They pig out on strawberries, blueberries and fresh figs.

Those high fiber sugar snap snow peas filled me up and I'd also downed about a liter of water, my guess is the low fiber white foods didn't do the trick.  Nah, I'm not even guessing, I knew that teacher later would have a snack of miniature candy bars to 'up her sugar level.'

When one eats real foods, one doesn't crash later.

I've always thought I knew pretty much about nutrition based on the countless books I've read, but in Sarah's intensive yoga teaching training sessions, she's learning a great deal more, teaching me to incorporate chia seeds into my diet.

Chia seeds are said to have: 

2 times the protein of any other seed or grain,

5 times the calcium of milk, plus boron which is a trace mineral that
helps transfer calcium into your bones,

2 times the amount of potassium as bananas,

3 times the reported antioxidant strength of blueberries

3 times more iron than spinach

copious amounts of omega 3 and omega 6, which are essential fatty acids... 

Sarah's gone vegan for the duration of her sessions, has eliminated sugar, wheat and dairy products and has gone from slim to thin.  She's gonna learn some yoga poses for me - geared to hyper active, full throttle, lower back pain, high-energy, ants-in-my-pants yoyos like me.

"That was more of a gentle yoga," she explained in regards to the one excrutiatingly boring class I'd attended with her last year.  I know I need to give it yet another chance, because arm flapping, nerves are shot, fools like me need to calm down enough to breathe right.

I've severely reduced my own sugar, wheat and dairy intake, an easy thing to do in summer when all one's body craves anyway are fruits and vegeatbles.

My mom took a spill last week, fell down hard on her knees, bruising her face enough to give her a shiner.  It scared both Jack and I tremendously, CW rushed to help her up, we iced her knees, and marveled at how tough she is, a fall like that might've broken the hip of most 82 year olds.

She's long been a proponent of nutritional supplements, a diet heavy with fruits and vegetables, she's never smoked, never drank alcohol or sodas, and Jack literally fought back tears, so afraid when she'd tumbled.  He couldn't bear it if something happened to her, he's barely recovering from losing his best friend, Grandpa.

She did bruise both knees but she's been out playing Bridge, running errands, and, get this, visiting elderly shut-ins at a nursing home, taking my fresh, heirloom organic jalapenos to one old lady who'd told my mother how much she missed spicy peppers.

I don't have many opportunities to give back to society, what with all my children, so to have this opportunity to do something small meant a lot to me.  Sometimes food just isn't worth eating without jalapneos.

This page is all about even using chia seeds for weight loss, which is usually all the bait anyone needs, but this page is really about incorporating a healthy lifestyle using chia seeds.

I just now tried on the outfit I'd bought for two bucks to wear to Daniel's wedding and it's snug, meaning one more pound and it just won't do as I dress for comfort, and I'm not about to have to go hunt something else when I could be weeding instead.

The Braves won in the 11th inning, after I'd gotten aggravated when they were down 3-1, so I'd shut off the TV and missed it.  I should've known better.

Now we're back into soccer practices, I've signed up for a shift down at the high school this evening during a fund raising event and Lily's going out the door to Atlanta to the Piedmont Art Festival with Gina, an event I'd once attended way more'n 30 or so years ago.

I'm gonna put up peppers, my plants are over producing and I'm bragging, not complaining.