The Best Way to Never Worry About Calories Again

08/03/2014 R.C. Liley 5 Comments

Basically, eat whole foods and don’t eat packaged food. Cutting out packaged food and making your own snacks and meals from fresh, wholesome ingredients is the key to better health. Convenient foods sealed in a pretty package or perfectly shaped box present a problem for many people; they’re convenient!

What happens when you pour a bowl of cereal, finish the puffs/flakes/crisps (I’ll save these processed things for a later post) and still have milk leftover? Instead of simply just drinking it or finding use for it in a recipe, many people will just pour more cereal in the bowl.

I’m guilty of doing this in the past, and sometimes still do, but I rarely buy boxed cereal for this reason. I make my own “cereal” with plain rolled oats and add various ingredients like pureed pumpkin, carrots, eggplant, yogurt, protein powder, peanut flour, chia seeds, mashed banana, nut butter, and more.

I’ll add stevia to make it sweeter if necessary, and always avoid adding non-nutritive sugar. Using a banana has the benefit of providing natural sweetness and comfort.

When you choose to eat whole foods that aren’t sitting on a shelf in a package, you naturally feel full and know when to stop most of the time. With plenty of fiber, water, and essential nutrients in whole veggies, you can eat plenty and still have a low calorie meal.

I want so bad to explain this to the uninformed, but so many think of this as “too hard” or “there’s just not enough time.” Nonsense! I say. If you say you really want to be healthier and change your lifestyle, then it CAN be done!

Give it a chance; if you’re going to buy something packaged, make it baby carrots or a veggie mix that’s pre-cut. These are great for snacking alone or dipping in no or low calorie dips like mustard or plain non-fat yogurt mixed with herbs and spices.

It’s funny how you could give an unhealthy person a few simple ways to be healthier, but they will quickly ignore the suggestions while buying into the advertising on a box of “all natural” or “high fiber” snacks.

It should be a red flag when you see a product trying to pass itself off as being healthy by just saying it is low cal or making some other claim on the front of the box. Then you read the ingredients and see 50+ items you can’t pronounce. Really? Is that healthy? NO!

Sorry for all of the jumping around, my head spins when I get caught up thinking of the vast information out there and how people listen to the wrong things. Usually it ties into what’s easier.

As a parent, I’m even more uptight about food and where it comes from. Avery is only eating solids at night with the rest of her calories still coming from breast milk, but she’s enjoying her fresh veggies. Why would I want to feed a cutie like this something manufactured in a plant and rolled off an assembly line?

When she’s older, I hope to have her in the kitchen helping me prepare the food that we eat and learning along the way. Nothing but the best for our growing girl, and I know she’ll be healthier as a result!

The takeaway?

Don’t follow some diet, especially ones that will benefit financially from you.

Don’t listen to claims on labels or even purchase packaged food.

Do choose whole food like fresh produce, lean cuts of meat (if applicable), and plain legumes.

Here are a few posts from my old food blog, Just Add Cayenne, for some great ideas to get started:

Healthy Food Swaps

15 Healthy Cooking and Eating Tips

Diet Fads and How to Avoid Them

Why Diets Don’t Work

Simple and Healthy Snack Ideas

Hope these help!

Are you stuck in a convenient food rut? Were you in the past? If so, how have you prevailed to overcome the “easy route” and choose fresh food instead?

Do you agree with my assessment? Whole foods = natural calorie regulation, no counting needed! The stripped down boxed stuff will leave you constantly craving more and more and may not ever keep you satisfied.

Going Reviews

Going Reviews: Down To Earth Toys – Eco-Friendly Toys for Kids of All Ages

08/02/2014 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

Having a baby certainly opens your eyes to so many things never considered before; at least not for me. Sure, I’ve looked into safe plastics for heating and storing food, but never thought twice about the hidden dangers in plastic toys. And now with Avery’s teething in high gear, she’ll try to chew on ANYTHING!

Even if the toys are touting a “BPA Free” label, chances are they come from China (seems like everything does) and even if they have since stopped using lead paint as was an issue before, I don’t have a lot of trust left. Plus, if Avery is going to chew on something, I’d rather it be something natural and free of chemicals.

Enter Down To Earth Toys; a family-owned and operated business making earth-friendly toys from the USA and Europe. You won’t find chemical-laden toys from this eco-conscious business who strive to be as “Green” as possible by recycling and re-using whenever possible.

Needless to say, I was excited to find Down To Earth Toys in my search for safe, economical and non-plastic toys for Avery. To add to the excitement, I was thrilled when Carrin from Down To Earth Toys agreed to send their wooden Cherry Clutch Rattle with a heart!

The rattle is as smooth as the finest silk and handmade craftsmanship is of the highest quality.

Immediately upon receipt, I took the rattle from its thoughtful packaging and handed it to Avery for the official first review.

Although it’s called a rattle, it doesn’t sound like what you’d hear in a typical plastic rattle with the raspy sound. Since this is wood, it’s more of a very soft clunky noise that won’t annoy you after a minute of shaking. Plus, who has time to shake when your baby fangs need soothing?

Avery took to her new wooden toy with glee as I took her plastic toys away. She didn’t seem too upset…

We now play with/chew on the rattle every day and I’m grateful to have something made in the USA from a well-deserving family owned business like Down To Earth Toys.

Since Avery’s first birthday is fast approaching (so it seems), I think we’ll be perusing other toys they sell soon. They also make great gifts!

Be sure to check out and “Like” Down To Earth Toys on Facebook to keep up to date on new toy arrivals and specials.

Thank you, Carrin, for allowing me the opportunity to review one of your many awesome children’s toys!

Food, Friday Food Facts, Parenting

Mixing Your Pet’s Name with Baby’s and Friday Foodie Fun Facts #4

08/01/2014 R.C. Liley 1 Comment

Happy Friday! Or at least I hope it is! As long as we’re optimistic, right? Kinda like this plop of poop…..or maybe it’s ice cream…

Sorry, this just makes me laugh; hope you laughed too!

I’m sure most of us parents have at least one pet in the house; usually a cat or dog. If not, I’m slightly envious since I am OCD about hair, and now that Avery’s crawling, I’m vacuuming several times a day. #stayathomeparentproblems

We have one each of a cat, Lou, and a dog, Abby, and they both shed a lot. Of course, Avery doesn’t help the situation as she tend to grab at anything and everything.

Our little angel has mastered the art of ninja crawling where she’ll make her way to the other side of the room immediately after we set her down. No clue how she gets there so fast, but it results in Going Mom and I having to tell her not to get into one thing or another.

We’ll attempt to yell out her name, but instead of “Avery”, it’s a combination of one of our pet’s names and “Avery”. Some of the common ones are “Ay-very” or “Abv-ery”. Or we’ll just flat out call our daughter Abby or our dog Avery. It’s typically a mix of Avery and Abby, but Lou sometimes finds his name in there too.

We’ve been doing this a lot, and something tells me it won’t end soon. How many other parents do this? It’s a common thing, right?

Just for fun, I found an online word mixer that will generate a unique name from up to 5 different words. If we’re going to mess up yelling our daughter’s name, might as well have fun with it!

Here’s what I got after entering Avery, Abby, and Lou:

That’s enough to have a new name for our pets each day of the month! Call me crazy, but I…..okay, I’m crazy.

Now for the foodie fun facts. I don’t enjoy most packaged desserts as they’re heavy on fat, sugar, and chemicals I wouldn’t consider food. Yeah, yeah, I know these things taste good, but when you know what’s in it and how it affects your body, I lose all desire to have it.

But, thanks to Nature, we have a plethora of naturally sweet options to choose from. One of those things being bananas! I love them with brown spots all over when their sugar content is highest, but have been trying to consume them more often when they are green.

However you enjoy them, bananas are a great option to satisfy your family’s sweet tooth while providing many key nutrients you won’t find in ice cream and cookies. I have a lot of facts to share on bananas, so I’m going to give more than 5 today, and there will be more next week too. Make them fun to eat and your kids will happily gobble them up!

You can use the inside of a banana peel to clean and polish leather shoes and silver —just rub with the inside of a peel and then buff with a cloth.
Thanks to its oil, rubbing the inside of a banana peel on a mosquito bite (or other bug bite) or on poison ivy will help keep it from itching and getting inflamed.
The highest average per capita consumption of bananas in the world is in Uganda, where residents eat an average of 500 pounds of bananas per person every year. In fact, the Ugandan word matooke means both “food” and “banana.”
India produces more bananas than any other country on the planet, accounting for about 28 percent of the worldwide crop. (China is number two, with ten percent.)
A man in India once ate 81 bananas in a half hour.
More songs have been written about bananas than about any other fruit.
Bananas are the only fruit that contains the amino acid tryptophan plus vitamin B6. They help your body produce serotonin—a natural substance that alleviates depression.
About half of all people who are allergic to latex are often also allergic to bananas.

If you have pets and mix their names with your baby’s, please let me know some of the funny ones in the comments below.

Do you like bananas? Any creative ways you enjoy them if so? You can never go wrong with nut butter and bananas, but I also enjoy mixing mashed banana with eggs and a little stevia and scrambling them for a sweet, protein-packed treat. Great for breakfast or desert!