Meatloaf on a Wintry Night

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Melanie

I can still use that post title for another couple of days. Although the last day of winter is technically tomorrow, it’s going to take a while before the snow goes away around here and it actually looks like spring. Oh well! It will get here when it gets here, but I am just a little antsy for that warmer weather and more outdoor running!

I took advantage of the coziness of the cold evening and baked up a comfort meal for Dana and I….

Mini Turkey Meatloaves!

I used a recipe I created back in July for Mini Turkey Meatloaves using ground turkey. The only change I made was I used fresh minced garlic instead of garlic powder.

*Note: These are SCD legal if you use SCD legal ketchup!

I served the meatloaves along side some simple roasted broccoli.

I love how meatloaf makes the house smell.

‘

And I love how they taste. It was the perfect meal for a cold winter night.

I hope you all have a fabulous day! Happy last day of winter!! WHOOOPPPP whooop!

Question: What is your favorite comfort food on a cold evening?

A Quick Health Update

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Melanie

Hello there! How is everyone’s week going? Mine is going FAST which is a great thing because vacation is just right around the corner.

I don’t have too much to share with you in terms of food photos from the past couple of days. I have been trying to stick to the basics and keep my digestive tract an easy ride for a little while.

Here’s a quick run down of my eats over the past couple of days….it won’t take long!

Leftover french onion soup:

Cooked apple with cinnamon:

Scrambled eggs with avocado and SCD ketchup:

Turkey burger with avocado (I LOVE avocados!), and roasted zucchini:

Not pictured are some random lunches, bananas, and spoonfuls of peanut butter. See, not much to share on the food front.

But, I do want to give you an update on my health. Knock on wood, but I have been feeling SO darn good. First of all, my chiropractor is really happy with my progress and I am sleeping so much better due to less back pain. Sleep is a glorious thing and I’m not one to do well without it. It is so important for our overall health! Nutrition, sleep, and activity are all very connected!

Second, I am continuing to limit my white sugar and processed food intake. I am following the SCD (short-term) and my colitis is making some headway.

I am taking my vitamins religiously:

Multivitamin and cod liver oil in the morning
Digestive enzymes with meals
Calcium + Vitamin D and probiotics in the evening

So overall, I am feeling good. There’s just a few other components of my health I need to get worked out, but if I’ve learned anything through all of this it’s that healing takes time. I have also learned to be very patient with my body. I have learned to listen to my body and to make changes in my life to reduce stress.

I am reminded with all of this that I have to take care of myself because I am the only person who truly can. This is the only body I have.

Take charge of your health and be an advocate for yourself.

If something doesn’t feel right, get a second opinion. I have chosen to follow a more holistic approach to my health and wellness and have deviated slightly from original recommendations because I didn’t feel they were right for me.

I am working closely with my chiropractor to figure out the best way to help my body heal. Also, I have done a lot of research on my own and learned from my personal experiences what works for me and what doesn’t.

Each and every person is different therefore there is no cookie cutter treatment or answer to reach optimal health. It is all about trial and error and listening to our bodies. I can’t say that enough.

What have YOU done for your health lately?

The Next Phase

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Melanie

Yesterday was the third day of the SCD intro diet. Since my symptoms were so minimal to begin with, I decided to start incorporating some foods back into my diet after two full days on intro diet. I am choosing foods that I knew my body would normally handle well. Yesterday I reintroduced the banana.

After eating only eggs, meat, cooked carrots, and grape juice gelatin, I was ready for more variety. Eating a banana was such a treat! It was like eating candy.

My body reacted very well as I suspected it would. I will continue to slowly reintroduce easy to digest foods.

I apologize for the food photos, but here they are…

Breakfast looks like carrot puree but it was really a totally botched carrot and egg pancake. I also drank a glass of diluted grape juice.

For lunch I heated up some chicken breast, a turkey meatball, and cooked carrots. I couldn’t stomach the chicken some reason so that went back into the fridge.

I grabbed an egg…

And finished off lunch with grape juice gelatin.

For dinner I ate another bowl of the carrot and bone broth soup and another banana.

I also had a very small diluted glass of grape juice. I think I drank too much juice yesterday, but my body was completely craving it.

I’ve been taking it easy on the workouts the past few days because I know my food and calorie intake isn’t where it should be. I am truly doing the best I can with the SCD intro and trying to eat as much of the allowable foods as I can stomach. I am very happy that I can reintroduce some other foods again because it is not healthy for me to continue on with this minimal amounts of food. I know that I can’t eat “as much as tolerated” of the allowable foods in the intro diet, but when you already have a slight distaste for meat, it is really challenging to force it down.

I continue to do my plank-a-day though as part of my February Fitness Challenge. Today is the last day of week three which means I need to get one more strength training activity in today. I’m hoping I feel up to it this afternoon!

Thanks for sticking by my side through this diet. I am very anxious to eat more of my “normal” foods again and to be 100% healthy!

Happy Thursday!

Flashback: Our Proposal Story

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Melanie

How about some lovey dove reminiscent memories to help us get through this freezing cold Wednesday? Sounds good to me!

On Sunday night, Dana and I met up with Betsy and Matt at Stella’s Fish Cafe for dinner. I mentioned in a previous post that we were coincidentally seated in the same booth that we sat in the night Dana proposed to me. I realized I had never shared the story of our engagement proposal, so…..it’s share time!

Flashback to January 29th 2010.

Dana and I had plans to celebrate our one year anniversary. Dana had made reservations at Stella’s. I remember getting all dolled up in my blue sweater dress, saying bye to mom and dad, and driving over to Dana’s house.

As I waited for him to finish getting ready, I browsed the cupboards for a snack and found some Sweettart Valentine conversation hearts. I snacked on a couple of those while I waited, and then off to dinner we went.

We were seated in a booth upstairs and I was giddy the whole time. I was so happy and felt so lucky to be celebrating an anniversary with this man. We ordered our food and a bottle of wine and thoroughly enjoyed eachother’s company as we always do. Dana was cool as a kitten. I had not the slightest idea he had anything up his sleeve.

After dinner we made our way to the parking lot. Once we were in the car, and waiting for it to warm up, Dana handed me an envelope of photos that he had printed off from Walgreens. I had given him a photo album a year prior to this as a gift with the intention of filling it up with photos of all of the fun things we do together. He told me that he had printed some photos for the album.

I immediately start flipping through about 20 photos, commenting on each memory along the way. As I got to the last photo, I had to do a double take. At first it looked like an advertisement or a coupon from Walgreens, but as I looked at it again I noticed some very special words spelled out for me…

I was in total and utter shock. I looked over at Dana and there he was with tears filled in his eyes (although he may deny this), and he had a gorgeous engagement ring in his hands. He asked me to marry him and I’m pretty sure he said some other things but my head was in a cloud of love dust (I am such a corny lovey person—I won’t apologize for it) so I don’t remember.

I muttered yes and as I tears began pouring out of my eyes, still in total shock mode. Yes I absolutely want to spend my life with this man. YES YES YES! But omg, I’m engaged!

We called our parents on the way home to tell them the incredible news. This is when I found out that my dad already knew because Dana had gone over there earlier that day and asked for his permission to marry me. My dad knew but he hadn’t told my mom because my mom and I have this weird connection with eachother and I immediately would have known something was going on if she were to have known.

Our parents were beyond ecstatic. After our parents knew I started calling my brothers and some of my friends (the ones I knew I wouldn’t be able to tell in person). Then it was time to celebrate.

Once we got back to Dana’s place, we celebrated with his roommates and a nice bottle of wine. I told Dana I had snacked on a couple of the Sweettarts while he was finishing getting ready in his room and we both had a good chuckle. Little did I know!

We didn’t snap any photos at Stella’s or in the parking lot, so of course I had to make up for it when we got back home.

It was an unforgettable night and the beginning of forever with the most amazing man.

Fast-forward: Engagement Photos

For our engagement photos, we chose to relive the memories of the day by having our photos taken at Stella’s. I remember being so incredibly nervous before the photo shoot. I really don’t like being the center of attention. Eventually, I warmed up and had a blast! Our photographers from Erin and I photo really helped ease any nervousness.

Here’s our booth (the same one from the other night too!).

The night before our engagement photos, I want to say it snowed about 9 inches. The snow was so fresh and perfect for photos. It was extremely cold on the day of our photo shoot as well, so we did the outside photos as quickly as possible.

Our outside photos were taken at Lake of the Isles.

We had to make sure Mooser got in the photo action!

He was made for the camera.

I can’t believe our engagement was three years ago already. Time flies. Soak up every moment of life because it does go by so fast!

I hope you enjoyed this flashback as much as I did! Oh, and in case you are wondering what my food intake looked like yesterday, take a look at Tuesday’s post and it was pretty much an exact replica except for I also added lean ground turkey into the mix. I am going to be introducing banana today. How exciting!

Have a happy Wednesday!

SCD Intro Diet Day One

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Melanie

Hello there friends!

Morning Run

Yesterday morning I actually ran on the treadmill for three solid miles. I haven’t done that in quite some time but figure since I have a 7k coming up in just about a month, that I should probably get on that. Besides from being bored, the run went pretty well.

SCD Intro Diet

There’s no sugar-coating it, the SCD intro diet is not easy, especially for someone who doesn’t enjoy meat.

If you are new to Beautifully Nutty, please check out this post to find out why I am currently on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. This post does not depict a typical day of food intake for me, it is only temporary.

Day one is complete. I felt hungry and lethargic pretty much all day. The good news is, I only have one more day of the intro diet and then I can move on to the next stage of introducing more foods. I really miss my other veggies and fruits.

Here is what my SCD Intro day one looked like…

Breakfast: Two hard-boiled eggs and grape juice gelatin

A haircut appointment which was a really nice distraction from my hungry tummy. I really enjoyed the hair wash and the blow dry. It relaxed me completely.

Before….

After…

She chopped about two inches off of the bottom, reestablished my side swoop “bangs” and added some light layers. Nothing too drastic but it felt so good to get it cleaned up!

Snack: steamed carrots

Lunch: plain chicken breast with a light drizzle of honey

And grape juice gelatin.

Snack: Carrot pancake made with steamed carrots and one egg. I pureed them together in a mini food processor and then cooked the pancake on the stove top. It was a very easy and this snack helped tide me over for a while.

I snacked on my pancake while listening to a podcast about tips on surviving the intro diet. My biggest takeaway was to remember WHY I’m doing it and that is to finally be 100% healed.

For dinner we went over to mom and dad’s. I packed myself a bowl of bone broth with cooked carrots and chicken.

The soup actually wasn’t too bad, but I would prefer it without the chicken in there. The hardest part of this intro diet is the fact that I don’t like plain meat. I can enjoy chicken in a taco with salsa, or a burger with ketchup, but plain old meat, no, not my thing AT ALL, and you know that if you have been reading my blog for a while.

Also, I can’t find Farmer’s Cheese anywhere, which is the one cheese that is allowed during the intro. Dana and I looked at about six different stores yesterday with no luck.

As hard as they may be for me right now, I MUST remember that this is only temporary and I know in my heart this is what it will take to finally be done with this U.C. I truly feel soooo good in general, but it’s just a matter of healing a couple of “wounds” still.

Also, I want to remember that I am lucky enough to have ANY food to eat. There are so many starving people in our world that don’t have enough food, so limiting myself to these specific foods for a couple of days should be nothing I should complain about.

My usual meals will be back on the blog before you know it, so bear with me as I go through this SCD intro phase.

If you want to learn more about the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, check out my post from this summer: Specific Carbohydrate Diet.

I hope you all have a great Tuesday. I’m trying very hard to stay positive today! I’ll stay positive if you will!

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
« Apr
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31

Beautifully Nutty

A Beautifully Healthy Life in a Beautifully Nutty World

Tag Archives: SCD

Meatloaf on a Wintry Night

A Quick Health Update

The Next Phase

Flashback: Our Proposal Story

SCD Intro Diet Day One