Help me get started. Mentor?

Sounds to me like you're on the right track! Stick around here and you'll get lots of inspiration, ideas, advice, recipes and knowledge.

The best thing I can recommend is to move towards whole (organic if at all possible) foods and away from processed foods/things with additives. Make things from scratch rather than buy them, so you can control the ingredients (and save money!) Cut down or eliminate all together the whites -- white flour, sugar, rice. The fewer refined foods, the better.

I'm sure others will have more specific suggestions for you, but it does seem as though you have a fair amount of awareness about nutrition already, and now it's just a matter of implementing the changes into your life. Best wishes!

~nick

Hey Mama,
You may want to check out some good books:
* Mother Foods www.mother-food.com
* Books by Rebecca Wood www.rwood.com
* For your DD there is a great book I just got called "organic baby& toddler"
has great food choices and talks alot about the importance of balance etc...I'm sure you could find a used copy on the Trading Post here, that's where I got mine

I agree, sounds like ya have a good start!
Feel free to pm me if you want/need more info, I'd be happy to help if I can

Ps -
Forgot to add about your mineral green question...Where are you?
I can give you a web listing of health food stores in your area...I'll also look because I know of a really good green mineral supplement that's in a powder form..It's great to add to smoothies etc..Very yummy! I'll get back to you w/the name

Have you checked out Nutiva's hemp protein powder? I love it, it has all the great minerals & vit's you could need, along w/tasting great! I added this to smoothies while I was preg....

More later

I would highly recommend the book "Nourishing Traditions". It's the bible of nutrition, IMO. It explains which foods are healthy and which are not, and also explains how to properly prepare foods so as to get all the nutrients for them. It also has a ton of recipes.

Nuts and seeds are great to eat, but need to be properly prepared so you get all the benefits of them--you need to get raw nuts, soak them in salt water overnight, and then dry them in the oven or a dehydrator.

As far as feeling hungry all the time, if you eat more fat you should feel less hungry. The good fats are coconut oil, olive oil, and butter, and animal fats (from organic or grass-fed animals).

Cod liver oil is great but you have to get the right brands. As far as I know the good brands are Garden of Life, Nordic Naturals, and Green Pasture's Blue Ice--the rest remove the vitamins during processing and add synthetic ones back in. Flax seeds and flax oil are not meant for eating, IMO...I had a link once explaining why but I don't know if I can find it again.

The best probiotics come from kefir or yogurt (preferably homemade and from raw milk).

Snack ideas: do you like deviled eggs? Good source of protein and fats...crispy nuts prepared like I described are really good, and I've also ground some almonds up and mixed them with raw honey and eaten them on celery.

Anyhow, hopefully this helps...feel free to PM me for more information if you want

The flavor of CLO doesn't matter but the dose might be different for you--I think the recommendation is 1 tsp. per day for adults.

Soaking the nuts neutralizes something (phytates maybe) in them...the book does explain it better than I can. You just take 2 cups of nuts, put them in a quart jar, add 1 tsp. sea salt (make sure the salt is unrefined--it should be clumpy), and cover it with water. Let it soak overnight and in the morning drain the water and either dehydate the nuts or put it in the oven at the warm setting with the door open. It takes a while to dry them, several hours. The book does say not to let cashews soak too long or they get slimy, I think it recommends a maximum of 6 hours of soaking for cashews.

A couple of things about olive oil--you have to get the stuff that is labeled "100% cold pressed extra virgin olive oil" or the manufacturers can add other oils to it. Also it is actually not good for baking or cooking with because it is not supposed to be heated past about 325 degrees or something bad happens, I can't remember what. I just found that out and had to switch to using virgin coconut oil instead. It does give things a different flavor but I'm adjusting to it okay.

You just use the fats in whatever you cook or bake...sauteed veggies, you can make your own salad dressing with olive oil, etc. Nuts are great for fats, too.

I basically just converted my favorite recipes...once you know what foods are okay and what aren't, it isn't too hard to substitute. Here's a good link to get you started http://cookingnt.blogspot.com/
It lists substitutes and has a bunch of recipes. You might also post on the NT April thread here for more ideas.

Here's a typical day for me:
breakfast--soaked cracked oats w/banana and an egg
lunch--wild caught salmon salad sandwich w/homemade mayo, bread is wheat sprouted, dried, and ground into flour
dinner--beef stir fry w/lots of veggies served on soaked brown rice, big salad
snacks--crispy nuts, homemade muffins, deviled eggs

Hopefully I'm not overwhelming you--I know it is an awful lot to think about at first!

Quote:
LOL

You're very helpful, I am so appreciative. It's ALL overwhelming but you're helping me get a start. I can't wait to get my book so I can find out what the devil soaked this and sprouted thats are...

Once I get started, I will post in the NT thread to update on any progress.
Thanks again!

hey there! i just wanted to recommend a great cookbook called cooking with whole foods by christina pirello. it is a simple, user friendly book filled with lots of info but not too much so as to overwhelm.
Good luck on your journey and just remember its a process so try not to get discouraged if you sometimes do not progress as quickly as you want to.