Vegan Protein Bites

The recipe I'm about to share was inspired by a similar recipe that can viewed at http://chefambershea.com/2012/05/03/cake-batter-balls-raw-vegan-high-protein-glutengrainsoynutseedsugar-free/

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Pure Nourish (Vegan Protein Powder purchased HERE)
2 tbs coconut flour
1 tbs melted coconut oil
4-6 tbs canned whole coconut milk
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
(optional) blueberries

Mix all of the dry ingredients together first then mix in the coconut oil and vanilla extract. Use a spoon to stir in the coconut milk, start with 4 tbs add more if the mixture is too dry to hold together. Once the mixture is crumbly but comes together like play dough roll into 6 even balls. At this point you can  top with some blueberries or chopped nuts/seeds or you can leave them as is and put them in the refrigerator to set and chill.

These are a delicious treat or snack for before or after a workout or if you're craving a cookie. Remember, all things in moderation! Limit yourself to 2-3 per snack.

Progress Update: Being Real

I've spent nearly a lifetime making some good choices with food, but a large portion making inadequate choices with food. I wouldn't say they were terrible, or life ending but they brought me to a point of near obesity. What changed ? I couldn't look in the mirror and make positive comments about myself anymore. My children were requesting fast food, pizza and throwing fits when I did make dinner at home. Our quality of life was poor and it was all because of the choices we were making about food. I had an unhealthy relationship with food.

Those of you following our blog, you already know why I'm here and what our family and some of our friends are working on, a lifestyle change. Not a DIET, not a FAD, but a change in our relationship with food. One that doesn't mean we turn to food for comfort, for happiness, for boredom, but rather as fuel, as nutrition and as a teaching lesson to our children. 16 Weeks of eating clean, eliminating gluten, sugar, dairy and soy from our eating habits and incorporating a rainbow of healthy food options into our home.

Karl is down 45lbs, I am down 35 lbs, our kids are asking for snacks like hummus and bell peppers. Nadine has discovered she loves asparagus! I'm so proud of the progress we've made in just under 4 months. Our lifestyle change was really put to the test this summer as we have been traveling a lot. I am SUPER proud to inform you all that we did not stop for fast food once on either of our road trips. We drove 22 hours in a week the first week and then 39 hours in 5 days on our second trip. I packed a cooler full of salsa, veggies, baked black bean chips, unsweetened applesauce, unsweetened coconut milk, purenourish shakes, apples, oranges, white albacore tuna packed in water, Organic goat cheddar cheese and lots and lots of water. I will confess that I lived off from a combination of coffee and rejuveniix for energy since we only slept for 2 of 4 nights on our second road trip.

Here's where I have to confess, we are not perfect. Just because something is vegan, doesn't mean it's a healthy choice, and just because it's gluten free doesn't mean it is healthier than regular bread. We "rewarded" ourselves with vegan donuts, Karl bought me a vegan lemon cupcake, and we had dairy free pizza when we got home. Our first exposure to refined sugar, soy, and gluten in 15 weeks and we were miserable. By we I mean I was miserable and unfortunately my family paid the price. My chronic acid reflux (GERD) came back with vengeance and so did my irritable bowl syndrome (IBS) and my seasonal pollen allergies were out of control (I think because my immune system was compromised by eating foods that made me sick)! Sorry if that's too much information for you all but here's what I gathered from this experience. My body is at it's best on the Slenderiiz food program, when I follow it to the letter and avoid my food allergies, I have energy, my seasonal pollen allergies are minimal, and I have no symptoms at all from GERD or IBS. Karl was irritable and had a supreme sugar crash after the experience and agreed that "rewarding" our efforts is the sign of us not really taking the lifestyle change serious as a long-term choice and our bodies need us to treat it serious. At a certain point we will reach our goal weights, we CAN'T look in the mirror and ask "Am I thin enough?" or "Am I fit?" we have to change our view and look at what we are putting in our bodies and ask "Am I HEALTHY?" I want to play with my children without my joints hurting, without stomach aches, and I want to have the longest possible life to enjoy my family which means this is not a FAD not a DIET and FAILURE is not an option.

Sunday, We hit the reset button and are back to eating clean, making meal plans and getting active. We genuinely care for our friends, family and even all you international blog readers. Do yourself a favor, don't judge your health by what you see in the mirror, or what size of clothes you're wearing. Look at your food, your vitamins, your beverages and your activities and then honestly ask yourself "Am I HEALTHY?" "Am I teaching my children to be Healthy?" "Am I making choices that will help me be there for my family, friends and community as long as healthfully permitting?". If your answer is NO to any of those questions, you're in need of a lifestyle change, please feel free to use us a support system.

On a lighter note, I have tons of recipes to share with you all since I didn't get very many blog posts in while we were traveling! Stay tuned =)

9 Reasons Why I Say NO to Soy

Since I am allergic to cows (including leather, beef, dairy, all cow by products) nearly every meal I make is dairy free. My kids have some cheese and yogurt, but my Karl and I are dairy free. A long time ago I used to use soy in everything, I really thought it was my healthiest option. A year and a half into our marriage while on birth control we conceived our oldest child, which was such a blessing and also perplexing. We learned 2 things from my Gynecologist 1) My body doesn't naturally produce enough progestrogen to maintain a pregnancy without medical help 2) the plant estrogen in soy mimicked the hormone enough in my body to mess around with my hormone tests when they did my blood draw to confirm the pregnancy. 
My OB recommended I avoid eating soy for the remainder of the pregnancy, once I hit the 2nd trimester and had stopped consuming soy products (they're practically in everything that's pre-made!) my hormones leveled out, and blood draws came back normal.
That was 7 years ago, we've been avoiding soy consumption as much as possible ever since. I have referenced 4 articles that support what my OB talked to us about 7 years ago. Here's 9 reasons why someone should consider avoiding soy products.

1. Soy phytoestrogens disrupt endocrine function and have the potential to cause infertility and promote breast cancer in adult women. These phytoestrogens also cause hypothyroidism and possibly thyroid cancer.
2. In infants, consumption of soy formula has been linked to autoimmune thyroid disease.
3. Vitamin B12 in soy is not absorbed. Consumption of soy actually increases the body’s requirement for B12.
4. Soy foods increase the body’s requirement for vitamin D. Toxic synthetic vitamin D2 is added to soy milk.
5. Fragile proteins are damaged during the high temperature processing used to make soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein–often used in packaged foods and even the so-called “healthy” protein bars.
6. Processing of soy protein results in the formation of toxic lysinoalanine and highly carcinogenic nitrosamines.
7. Free glutamic acid or MSG, a potent neurotoxin, is formed during soy food processing and additional amounts are sometimes added to mask soy’s unpleasant taste.
8. High levels of aluminum, toxic to the nervous system and kidneys, have been found in some soy foods.
9. Soy foods such as soy cheese and ice cream, soy milk, and tofu are so processed that few pesticide residues remain; however, several very toxic pesticides are used to grow soybeans, and 90 percent of soybeans grown in the U.S. are GMO (genetically modified). In the only human feeding study ever published on genetically modified foods, seven volunteers ate Roundup-ready soybeans. These soybeans have herbicide-resistant genes inserted into them in order to survive being sprayed with otherwise deadly doses of Roundup herbicide. In three of the seven volunteers, the gene inserted into the soy transferred into the DNA of their intestinal bacteria, and continued to function long after they stopped eating the GM soy.

Karl and I use unsweetened coconut milk, coconut oil and coconut butter for all of our dairy replacement options. 

I hope some of you find this as enlightening as I did!

Sources:

http://www.juiceladycherie.com/Juice/nine-reasons-to-say-no-to-soy/

http://thedeliciousrevolution.com/cleanse/why-avoid-soy/

http://halfindiancook.com/the-search-for-soy-free-chocolate/

http://www.celestialpets.com/soy_article.shtml

If you are currently using a soy based protein powder and are looking for a Vegan, Soy Free, Organic, Non-gmo meal replacement read HERE and purchase HERE