2013 Organic Dirty Dozen

Often times, the price of organic fruits and vegetables are more than the average consumers pockets can afford. When I first started my healthy lifestyle, I was spending $100 A WEEK on organic foods, and I was eating about 80-90% raw fruits and vegetables at that time.  After a million Whole Foods trips, I realized the lies we were being sold.

Majority of produce sold in markets are not organic. Yes, understood? But, majority of the items at Whole Foods (and markets like it) are NOT organic as well, and it took me a little while to realize that i did not need to spend my every dime eating and shopping there. There are healthy alternatives every where we look, and many foods are grown naturally in low pesticide areas, making them as safe to eat as ones labeled organic. One thing that really helped me stay on track, and save a bucket load of money, was the Organic Dirty Dozen list by The Environmental Working Group. It outlines which fruits and vegetables have the highest pesticide residues. Fruits and vegetables with high pesticide residues should always be purchased organic, especially if they are going to be eaten raw.

Although not every fruit and vegetable must be purchased organic, there are definitely some advantages to eating organically. Organic foods have been allowed to ripen before being picked; unlike conventional foods that are picked unripe so that they last during transport. Also, organic fruits and vegetables also taste much better than conventional ones because of this fact.

Below are the 2013 Organic Dirty /Clean Dozen Guides

12 Most Contaminated (Dirty)

• Peaches
• Apples
• Sweet Bell Peppers
• Celery
• Nectarines
• Strawberries
• Cherries
• Pears
• Grapes (Imported)
• Spinach
• Lettuce
• Potatoes

 

12 Least Contaminated (Clean)

• Onions
• Avocado
• Sweet Corn (Frozen)
• Pineapples
• Mango
• Asparagus
• Sweet Peas (Frozen)
• Kiwi Fruit
• Bananas
• Cabbage
• Broccoli
• Papaya

The Best Darn Green Juice Recipe !

There are three main reasons why you will want to consider incorporating vegetable juicing into your optimal health program:

1. Juicing helps you absorb all the nutrients from the vegetables. This is important because most of us have impaired digestion as a result of making less-than-optimal food choices over many years. This limits your body's ability to absorb all the nutrients from the vegetables. Juicing will help to "pre-digest" them for you, so you will receive most of the nutrition, rather than having it go down the toilet.
2. Juicing allows you to consume an optimal amount of vegetables in an efficient manner. If you are a carb type, you should eat one pound of raw vegetables per 50 pounds of body weight per day. Some people may find eating that many vegetables difficult, but it can be easily accomplished with a quick glass of vegetable juice.
3. You can add a wider variety of vegetables in your diet. Many people eat the same vegetable salads every day. This violates the principle of regular food rotation and increases your chance of developing an allergy to a certain food. But with juicing, you can juice a wide variety of vegetables that you may not normally enjoy eating whole. 

  Green Juice is  high in fiber, low-calorie and rich in vitamins. This is the perfect way to start your healthy morning!

Ingredients
Makes 2-3 servings

2 cups spinach
1/2 cucumber
1/4 head of celery
1/2 bunch parsley
1/2 bunch mint
3 carrots
2 green apples
1/4 pineapple
 1/2 lime

 Mercola, Joseph. "Juicing: Your Key to Radiant Health ." Mercola.com. (2013): 1-3. Web. 14 Mar. 2013. <http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/11/13/benefits-of-juicing.asp&xgt;. 

Gluten Free French Toast

Hello everyone! This morning was so beautiful here in HOTLANTA, that I decided to treat myself to a scrumptious && healthy breakfast. Below is my recipe for gluten-free french toast. It is low in calories and fat, but there is no sacrifice in flavor with this recipe! Enjoy!

Ingredients
•2 gluten free brown rice English muffins ( I used Food For Life brand. I picked up a 6 pack in my frozen food section at whole foods. They are approximately $4 for 6. Good eats!)

• 2 whole cage-free eggs

•1 teaspoon cinnamon

• 3/4 cup organic almond milk

•1 teaspoon extra virgin coconut oil (also can be purchased at your local Whole Foods)

•Half teaspoon, all natural butter spread.

•1/2 teaspoon flax seeds

Pre-eat oven to 375F degrees.

***This recipes serves 2 people.


Mix eggs, milk, and cinnamon in a bowl. Whisk until cinnamon is completely mixed in.

Make sure your English muffins are at room temperature. I purchase these frozen at my local Whole Foods and allow it to thaw in my fridge overnight

Set your oven to 375F degrees. Preheat for 5 minutes. Prepare a baking sheet with aluminum foil, and spread a thin layer of coconut oil and "butter" spread on to the baking sheet.

Slice the English muffins in half. Dip each half carefully into the prepared mixture. Lay each slice onto the baking sheet. Sprinkle with flax seeds for extra crunch!


Bake for 15 minutes at 375 degrees and enjoy!

As a healthy substitute for traditional pancake syrup. I used melted almond butter and honey! Delicious!

Lose The Last 15 pounds ...

 Getting into shape is surely no easy task. Many people struggle with it for years and I was no different. For the last three years, I found it nearly impossible to shed those last 15 pounds. I did the diets. I did the excessive workouts. I did the starvation and the rice cakes. I even tried pills, laxatives, and an assortment of different methods, but i just could not lose those last 15 pounds! They stuck to my midsection like an old tire and I was sick of it! 

 After a series of unsuccessful attempts, I ended 2012 off with a bummer. I never considered myself fat.I tried to eat the right things, and I really believed that I ate healthy, but junk food and candy always snuck its way back into my diet. I am a naturally active person and couldn't figure out why my gut was not moving, no matter how many crunches I did : (   I was also very unhappy in my personal life which  really didn't help matters. 

So what made me change?

Knowledge. I started to research about getting healthy and stumbled upon a few raw vegan websites. I tried the Paleo-diet for a little while. It wasn't for me. I also tried the Raw Vegan diet, another craze sweeping America.  It wasn't for me either lol. After tons and tons of research, and a gazillion grocery shopping trips,  i realized that my ideal diet consisted of the combination of both methods! 80% Raw, fresh fruits and veggies + 20% cooked foods = 100% HEALTHY ME.  Muhahahahha hahaha I  had found it!

I tread forward on my new journey, and have been extremely pleased with my over all well being and weight. I not only realized the mistakes I was making with my eating habits, but I isolated the things in my life that were making me unhappy as well. That meant moving out of my apartment in the middle of beautiful downtown HOTLANTA, ditching my old friends, and finding things to do that really made me smile. I really wanted to enjoy the world. You only get one life to live right?  So with that thought realized, i made a commitment to my body that i will treat it correctly; nourish it. This is the only body i will ever have and if i don't take care of it,no one else will do it for me.

 So to keep things short, below is a list of simple steps that i  took that helped me to reach my weightloss goal and be a overall healthier person:

• Drink LOTS of water. It is recommended starting with half your body weight in ounces and then increasing your intake from there. Example. If you weigh 180 pounds, you should drink 90+ ounces of water a day; with 90 ounces being your minimum goal.
• Cut the fat. Its not easy to just cut fat from our diets. Greasy, fried foods are just downright awful for us. It is important to switch from bad fats to heart healthy fats that can be found in avocados, fatty fish (salmon, tuna), nuts and in seeds. An easy way to start is by changing the oil you cook with. Extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil and grape seed oil are excellent healthy alternatives to traditional canola, soybean, and vegetable oils.
• Limit Gluten. They not only sound alike, but gluten acts just like glue in your body! Its the main cause of IBS and constipation and most Americans do not even know it. It blocks your body from flowing naturally and clogs your colon. Gluten binds your food, making it difficult for your body to absorb adequate amounts of vitamins and minerals. I could go on and on about why gluten is bad for you. The bottom line is that gluten is present in most of the foods that are just not good for us.Please research this matter, its effect is more far reaching than most people can see. Gluten is in nearly every wheat product that is not specifically marked "Gluten-free". Rice and oats are naturally gluten free, which make them excellent substitutes for wheat.
• Limit Dairy. What other animal besides humans drink another animals by-product? Hell, we don't even drink our own mothers milk past infancy. Dairy reacts in the body similarly to gluten. It also DEPLETES the body of calcium. We can barely absorb the calcium from it anyway. I use a natural plant-based supplement in my smoothies. It has more calcium than milk, more vitamin c than oranges, more potassium than a banana, more protein than an ounce of chicken!; and this is in one teaspoon. Please stay tuned for details on my supplements.
• Less Salt. Salt causes a lot of water retention. You ever see those little old ladies with ankles so swollen that they can barely walk? I know most of us have that aunt or uncle who always had to keep a foot or ankle up! That my friends, is the long term effect of sodium.

So here a few tips that helped me to reach my weight loss goal! These tips are not just things I used temporarily to shed a few pounds, these are things that I live by. Diets do not work. They will never work. A diet is a temporary fix that will show you results at first, but in the long run the weight will come right back if permanent healthy eating habits aren't formed. Make a permanent commitment to yourself and your body! Remember, we are givin only one life, and only one body.So treat it right!

With Much Love
-Melissa

WELCOME!

Hello everyone, welcome to my blog EAT YOUR VEGGIES ATLANTA. My name is Melissa! I started this blog to share my passion for healthy livin' ! My blog is devoted to helping people find health and happiness in life! Happiness, Love, and Positivity are the keys to a beautiful existence...

“Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.”
― Mahatma Gandhi