Tag Archive for Nature’s Path Oatmeal

Wednesday Update

It’s a beautiful day here in Sedona! The birds are singing merrily, the sun is shining and it’s supposed to be a perfect 70 degrees. I plan to spend significant time outside today watering some of the trees in my yard (Juniper, pine, etc) and then visiting a couple of sacred sites, specifically, the Amitabha Stupa and the Chapel of the Holy Cross.

I’ve been slowly easing back into a healthy eating plan and starting my days with oatmeal and fruit. Today was no exception… I woke up, had a glass of water with two squeezed lemons in it, then some coffee, a large banana and some flax plus oatmeal. I’d like to get into a good healthy routine before leaving for my next road trip, which will be next Tuesday! I’m supposed to drive up to Illinois for a spiritual event for the weekend of the 24th and 25th. It’s going to take a few days to get there but I’ll get to drive through part of Colorado, Iowa and Nebraska, which I haven’t done for years, so I’m looking forward to it.

I’m also planning to go for a walk a little later today.

Anyway, that’s it for now… perhaps later I’ll update with some pictures!

Vegan Food Keeps Me Cool & Calm

For some reason, when I eat at least 95% vegan on any given day, I can keep my air conditioning at a higher temp and tolerate heat MUCH better than when I eat meat and/or animal products. As a matter of fact, when I was eating foods like chicken, cottage cheese and yogurt (for a few days) last week, my face would become flushed for no apparent reason at random times during the day and evening. I’ve realized that my body really does not like animal products anymore. Two nights during that short ‘high-protein’ experiment I also had what felt like panic attacks when trying to get to sleep. Not good.

So anyway, moving on… yesterday I ate about 98% vegan. At one point I opened up one of the Arctic Zero ice-creams I’d bought the other day and had a spoonful, forgetting it was made from whey. Oops. I had a spoonful and nearly gagged, it turns out I do not like the Cookies N Cream flavor because it tastes like pure chemicals, so I ended up throwing it out.

Anyway, I intend to do the same today, stick to plant foods and such.

My metaphysics class last night was amazing as usual, and I didn’t get home until almost midnight. I had one of these after getting home:

Annie Chuns Sesame Seaweed Snacks

This morning I woke up with a hankering for flax oatmeal, so that is what I had, along with a yummy organic peach:

As you can tell, I love Nature’s Path cereals and oatmeal, most of them (if not all) are vegan, natural and delicious.

Anyway, it’s Friday… TGIF!!

By the way, a good friend and I started a brand new website/forum. Right now it’s mostly empty (because it’s brand new). So if you are even remotely interested in spiritual stuff, head over there and sign up and start chatting! http://wearevaluable.com/forum/forum.php.

100% Organic Breakfast

Oatmeal

I’m typing this post in a hurry because I want to get out and take a walk before the temperature rises up into the high 90′s like it is supposed to today!

So, this morning I am having Nature’s Path Organic Optimum Cinnamon Blueberry Flaxseed Oatmeal (1 packet, 160 cals) made with water and the teeniest dash of almond milk, 1/2 cup of Organic Valley Egg Whites (50 cals), and a small organic gala apple (50 cals).

Organic Valley Egg Whites

Egg Whites

oatmeal

Oatmeal and apple

By the way, eggs and egg whites still gross me out a bit… it seems like every time I buy a carton (half-dozen) of eggs or a small carton of egg whites, I end up throwing half of them away because I cannot make myself eat them. (You may be asking, why buy them in the first place? Well, every once in a while, I start thinking I need the extra protein!) Anyway, I am working on curtailing some of my wasteful habits. I’ve been known to throw out food (or letting it go bad) a little too often.

I will start making an attempt to post about lunch, dinner and snacks here more often. Yesterday, I didn’t eat very much or very healthy, as seen in the below intake post.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day! I’m doing a Whole Foods run later today, so I’ll update about it here.

Whole Foods Grocery Items – July 10, 2011

I’ve seen other food blogs do this so I figured I may as well jump right in! Yesterday (Sunday), I went to my local Whole Foods and picked up a few items. This was a smaller than usual grocery shopping trip since I mainly went to refill my BPA-free gallons of water and pick up some items for the potluck at the school last night.

Groceries:

  • 3 organic white nectarines
  • 4 organic golden peaches
  • 3 organic black plums
  • 2 organic fuji apples
  • Nature’s Path Organic Cinnamon Blueberry Flaxseed oatmeal
  • Amy’s Light & Lean Pasta & Veggies (made with organic pasta)

Non-grocery items:

  • Shika Tea Tree Oil Conditioner

I also picked up items not pictured above, namely 3 things from the Whole Foods deli to bring to the potluck, and 2 gallons of water.

A quick word on my current diet: I am not eating a vegan-based right now and don’t know when I will get there. While away at my spiritual retreat last month, I received guidance from a spiritual teacher about the most beneficial diet for me. Not surprisingly, it was the same info I’ve received time and time again during and after meditations. He suggested that I eat mainly vegetables, fruit, some grains (as lightly processed as possible) and some cold-water fish from time to time. He didn’t say anything about dairy, but I’ve been working to get dairy out of my diet permanently for some time now and haven’t quite managed it except for occasional stretches. Read this post for more information about what I learned at the retreat in regards to diet and my thyroid, and read this for some background on my thoughts towards veganism and spirituality.

So currently, I am incorporating some dairy products into my diet, mostly yogurt and low fat cottage cheese and foods with cheese in them. I am slowly working my way towards the diet outlined by intuition and trying not to feel guilty for consuming dairy in the meantime! I have also been intuitively guided to cut out caffeine, although I mostly only have one cup of coffee each morning.

I have asked my inner intuition & spirit guides the reason that I have to eat mostly vegan and also cut out caffeine, etc. The answer is because of the work that I do and the work I intend to do in the near future, my spiritual ‘vibrations’ must be very high, and animal foods bring them down. Not to mention we absorb the suffering of the animals that we eat. Here is a paragraph from SpiritualGal, my other website:

So after a week or two of liberal cheese-eating, two days ago I received the following message loud and clear: “You should not be eating dairy”. Before I could even ask ‘why?’ (as is common with these dialogues – they seem to anticipate your questions in advance and will start answering questions before you ask them), the reply came immediately: “Dairy is a non-food.” Before I could ask ‘why?’ again, the answer came, “because of the casein protein, hormones, antibiotics and way that the animals are treated.” My mind wandered over towards organic dairy at that point, but I was led to understand that even cows that produce organic dairy are occasionally fed antibiotics (as they get sick too), and that milk is chock full of casein protein, which is also used as glue to hold furniture together, among other things. Milk also has feel-good chemicals like morphine in it (originally intended for baby cows to encourage them to continue drinking their mother’s milk). Also, by the time milk goes through all of the rigorous pasteurization, it is basically devoid of vitamins and minerals. Lastly, it was revealed clearly to me that the over-population of cows in this country that are used for both dairy and meat is completely unethical, unnatural and cruel.

So yes, a couple of months later and I am still eating dairy and occasional meat. On the topic of fish, I notice every time I eat tuna, I’ll gain a little weight and my fat % goes up the next day or two. (I’ve been keeping track of my diet and weight lately because I’m working to reduce). I’ve determined that it comes from the mercury content, even though I eat the WildPlanet version which claims ‘low mercury’.

Anyway, I’ve rambled on long enough… so far today, I’ve eaten one organic black plum and have had a glass of green veggie juice (non-pasteurized) that Whole Foods sells, consisting of romaine, cucumber, broccoli, wheat grass, etc. I also just finished my usual cup of coffee and am preparing myself a Vita-Top veggie-cheese-egg sandwich:

I intend to keep this website updated a lot more in coming days!