Dear Diary

A powerful tool to help us gain insight about our bodies is a food diary. They can be simple and cheap, in fact just a piece of paper and a pen or pencil will do. I suggest recording the time you eat, the food item and how much, your hunger level based on a scale of 0-5 and your mood. Also, note how you feel 1-2 hours after ate.

Tracking what you eat along with how you feel physically and emotionally can help you identify food intolerances, as well as foods that are good for your body. Some clues you might discover for imbalances are headaches, stomach pain, muscle cramps, fatigue, insomnia, muscle weakness and/or poor concentration. However, you might also discover some foods increase your energy, provide focus and/or increase your focus and attention span.

Another great thing a diary can teach you is the reason you are eating and if it is related to an emotion rather than hunger. If you are imbalanced you might eat out of boredom, depression or feeling scared (just to name a few). Maybe what we need instead of food in those moments is a hug or some relaxation. Again, we need to listen to the messages our bodies are sending us so we can nurture it. Try keeping a food diary for this week and report back what you learn.

Last week we started a healthy challenge of trying one new recipe each week. In honor of that challenge, here is the new recipe I tried:

Namaste Pizza with turkey pepperoni, spicy chicken sausage, garlic, crushed red pepper, green onions and jalapenos. 

 I made the pizza crust according to the directions on the package.

After the crust was baked, we added gluten free pizza sauce with fresh basil, tomatoes, green onions, garlic, jalapenos and crushed red peppers... 

 Also, we added spicy chicken sausage (made fresh by Sprouts), turkey pepperoni and mozzarella on half of it. Baked it again for about 10 minutes. Our place smelled amazing!

What new recipe did you try last week?