Hip Hip Hooray for Fiber!

I am curiously intrigued with nutrition.I've become even more interested in nutrition since I began to teach a lifestyle class at the local Community College called "Weight Management".  What I don't tell these folks is how many calories to eat or how many hours a day to exercise.  What I do suggest to my students is implementing a course of "healthy habits" including a strong dose of nutritional information.

Our healthy habit this week is to look at fiber intake.  We talked last week about soluble vs. insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber can dissolve in water and insoluble fiber can not.  Think apple - the inside is soluble, the skin is insoluble. The only food that has fiber is plant food.  That shocks a lot of people out there. Most people think that the stringy stuff they find in their meat is fiber.  But no, only plant food has fiber.  And we need fiber!  The average American only eats about 12 - 15 grams of fiber a day.  Doesn't take a genius to link this to why Americans may be so unhealthy.  Or at least it's one reason, right?  We need fiber to do all sorts of things in our lovely digestive system.  Like pooping.  Ok, enough, you get the picture, right?

I tracked some of my fiber intake this week so that I could use my diet as an example when talking to my students this week.  That's why I've decided to share my day of eating today.  I am fascinated with what I eat, what you eat, what all of us are deciding to put into our bodies.

This morning I was up early in order to make a 6:30AM crossfit class.  I began the day with a big glass of water followed by an Americano.  No fiber there, but oh my God does it make me happy!  In the car on the way to class I ate an apple and a small handful of almonds.  I need some energy and fuel to propel me through these grinding work outs, but if I eat too much I am in trouble.

After class and throughout the next 3 hours of my day I drank a huge smoothie comprised of the following items:

Water
Aloe Vera juice
raw vegan protein powder
almonds
walnuts
cashews
carrot
beet
celery
beet greens
spinach
kale and chard
parsley
chia seed
flax seed
hemp seed
banana
orange
strawberry
grapes
blueberries
green peas
Vitamineral green

I know, that's a bunch of stuff.  It's delicious and my tastebuds have grown to love the sweet earthy taste of our morning smoothie.  We make a huge vitamix blender full and usually we drink the entire thing.  If there is any left over, we carry that over to the next day's smoothie.

Our blender full of smoothie has about 90 - 100 grams of fiber.  That's 40 - 50 grams of fiber each.  WOW!

I didn't eat lunch until mid afternoon and I decided that a Big Ass Salad was on the menu.  I cut up two heads of Romaine lettuce, grated half a purple cabbage, and shredded 4 large carrots.  That is the base of my salad and there was plenty left over to use in the next couple days.

Today I tried to use my mandolin slicer.  That was a huge mistake and I now know why it lives, pretty undisturbed, in a cupboard hidden well behind the things I regularly  use like the rice cooker and crock pot!

 

I hate the mandolin slicer and today I retired it to the Good Will bag in the garage!  I'm terrified that I am going to slice my fingers off and really, the damn thing just doesn't work for me.  I watch those folks on "Chopped" and they seem to handle it just fine.  Not me.

 

 



I changed over to my 25 year old Cuisinart and I had small chopped purple cabbage galore!  I also have all my fingers!

Here's my Big Ass lunch salad.  It's comprised of romaine lettuce, chopped cabbage, shredded carrots, sunflower sprouts, chopped cucumber, chopped yellow bell pepper, avocado, chopped apple (from our trees!), sunflower seeds, and hemp seeds. I dressed it with some flax seed oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic and onion powder, organic flavored salt, black pepper, and nutritional yeast.  Oh boy, was it good and did it ever fill me up!

 

 I prepped enough that I have this huge bowl of "base" salad for the next few days.  My daughter had a big bowl for dinner tonight.

 

For dinner tonight we had "Beans, Greens, and Grain".  This is a common meal for us.  Really simple "go to" meal comprised of pinto beans which I soaked all day, and then cooked in the slow cooker overnight with a chili and some adobo sauce, a teaspoon or so of cumin, and 1/2 an onion.  I cooked up a bunch of quinoa in the rice cooker and then the husband did up a stir fry of chard and kale from our garden sauteed in red and yellow pepper and shallot.  Super simple, super nutritious and yum yum good.

 

 

I'm sorry to say that I did not take a photo of the frozen blueberries I had for dessert while watching the Presidential debate.  I love frozen desserts and these little delectable delights that I bought at the Farmer's Market earlier this summer and froze for later consumption are the bomb when I'm craving something cold and sweet!

 

It was a delicious day full of amazing nutritious food and I believe I ingested close to 100 grams fo fiber!  Yay me!  Yay healthy body!