It seems like everyone and their brother is coming out with one of those boxes-of-the-month subscriptions, doesn’t it? Everything from cosmetics to food to dog treats! When I was approached by the folks at Bestowed, I was immediately intrigued because I’d never personally received a box-of-the-month and Bestowed marketed themselves as being a way to “discover healthy foods you love.” Bestowed was founded by Heather Bauer, a registered dietitian and author of two weight loss books, so I knew the company was run by someone with experience and credentials.

I’ve been big on the healthy living bandwagon for awhile now, so I agreed to receive and review a box of goodies.When the box arrived, I was impressed by how much stuff came with it! There were a total of 9 items, which included:

- Two packets of Arrowhead Mills plain oatmeal

- Two packets of Eboost energy drink packets

- Hemp Hearts

- KIND granola

- Fruit & Veggie Twist in Strawberry and Kiwi

- Nature’s Bakery fig bar

- Green & Black dark chocolate

- Simply Snackin dried chicken breast strip

- $25 gift card to iTrain, to download workouts for your mobile device

I tried everything but the Eboost (the packets vanished into nowhere), the Hemp Hearts and the iTrain downloads (just never got around to it). Everything else was delicious. Although the dark chocolate was the only Paleo item, I loved everything.

I had the oatmeal with some sunflower butter, and the KIND granola has been great with milk or by the handful. The fig bar was delicious and the Simply Snackin’ was surprisingly good, although I was sort of nervous about it. Dried meat isn’t really my thing, but I could see this as a great source of on-the-go protein. The squeezable Fruit & Veggie Twist was tasty, but a little strange to drink from. It was more of an issue with packaging than the actual product.

And of course, who doesn’t love dark chocolate?

The box isn’t cheap: it rolls in at $19 a month. But I loved that I felt like I was getting quite a bit for money and I really enjoyed everything. It wasn’t a tiny box full of junk. The list of products on their website also shows they have quality items that you’ll actually enjoy discovering, and there are definitely some familiar faces mixed in too (like KIND).

Bestowed has been kind enough to offer one of my US-based readers a sample box of Bestowed as well, but all my readers can enjoy this $5 off coupon to their first box using the code 5OFFBSTOWED01! Woohoo!

Ya’ll have until Thursday night at midnight to enter to win. The winner will be announced on this week’s Friday Finds.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy eating!

Spaghetti? You ask. But I thought this was a Paleo recipe!

It is, my friend. Oh it is. It also happens to be the best spaghetti bolognese ever, minus the grains, of course. The Spaghetti Bolognese from the cookbook Practical Paleo has become a mainstay in our culinary repetoire, and I’m very excited to share it with you today. For anyone who is looking for some Italian deliciousness without sacrificing blood sugars or waistlines, this is for you.

The two best features of this recipe are the spaghetti squash, which takes place of the traditional pasta, and the bacon. The bacon adds a little “somethin’ somethin’” to the Paleo bolognese, which includes ground turkey and beef, carrots, onions, celery, and garlic along with tomato paste and coconut milk.

Spaghetti squash is incredibly easy to make. Although we started off microwaving it, we found that the squash is much softer and more pasta-like if you slice it in half and then roast it for about 40 minutes while you cook up the bolognese sauce. The sauce is also very easy. All you need to do is sauté the chopped veggies, toss in the meat until browned, pour in the milk and spoon in the sauce and then let it sit for about twenty minutes.

What’s your favorite healthy substitution?

This is always how it goes. I start off strong with exercise. I get into my groove with something that I think I like. A week goes by. Then another. Maybe a month. Possibly two. But then something happens. Something always happens that stops me in my tracks and completely derails my efforts.

This time it’s finals week, which means I haven’t put in an appearance at the gym or laced up my sneakers in at least a week. I don’t know why I always let a busy schedule get in the way of exercising. I’ve found plenty of time to (attempt to) conquer Candy Crush on Facebook. But run? Weight train? No way, no how.

My husband keeps asking me when I’m going to go back to the gym. I keep saying soon. Or next week. Or whatever. And it’s funny because I do miss running and I feel badly that I’ve completely slacked on the Best Body Bootcamp, something I’ve spent so much time hyping up. I don’t really know why I get so easily side tracked with exercise when I know that it is one of the biggest priorities I have for myself right now.

I know I’m not the only one who goes through this. And I suppose sometimes a break is good because you don’t want to get stressed out and burnt out on anything. I just wish that I was at the point where running was the thing that I wanted to do when I’m stressed out and frustrated about school and money, but it isn’t. Reruns of House Hunters and crushing candy are the things that bring me comfort and I sort of feel pathetic about that.

I suppose I should pat myself on the back for not retreating to candy or ice cream (I guess something from Paleo has stuck). Although last night after dinner I asked Erik if we had any dessert in the house and he was (obviously) all “No…” and so I started whining. And then he asked me if I was trying to eat my feelings.

Maaaaybe.

Did you know my husband signed up for a marathon? I don’t think I’ve written about it, and I don’t even think he’s announced it on Facebook. Well, he is. In October in Upstate New York. There’s a half-marathon attached to it that we talked about having me run. I thought it would be cool to run a half-marathon. The course looks really pretty and flat. Of course, given my track record of not going more than 3 miles without having a low blood sugar, I’m not entirely sure how feasible that is just yet. But I suppose it’s good to have something to work towards.

Running a half marathon, huh? I suppose that means I should start running again.

You can always tell that I’m really crazy busy when I not only blog day-of, but I also don’t have time to prep any blogs. I’ve had a few different ideas floating around my head, so I’ll just start with the first and work my way down the list!

For the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking more and more about weighing myself. It’s something that I typically do every week on Monday morning, after I wake up and go to the bathroom. But for awhile I’ve noticed that my weight hasn’t really made much progress in the downward direction as I’d hoped. However, my clothes are getting much looser and I can physically feel the changes in my body. My muscles are getting more defined and I can feel that my core is getting stronger.

So what’s this about a silly number?

For most of my life, numbers have pretty much ruled my health. Blood sugars. A1C. Weight. Blood pressure. BMI. Milligrams and milliliters and units. It’s a very numbers based life. But I’m starting to get a sense that one of the numbers — my weight — is something that I’m not terribly interested in keeping track of.

I’m frustrated that my weight can be so variable from day to day and even week to week, depending on what happened in the days prior to my weigh-in. If I’m PMSing, I automatically shoot up two or three pounds. If I ate something particularly salty, I retain a lot of water. I know that my body doesn’t change so rapidly, but it’s frustrating when I look at a number and it doesn’t show the kind of progress that I can see and feel.

The more I think about weight loss, the more I realize that the number on the scale has very little to do with how I actually feel on a daily basis. Here’s what I do know: I feel healthy when I can use a heavier weight during Best Body Bootcamp. I feel healthy when the new jeans I bought a couple months ago are already beginning to be too big. I feel healthy when I eat fruits and vegetables every day. I feel healthy when I run just a little bit faster than the day before.

Last fall, I wrote about things that I wanted to gain instead of lose, and I realized that I’m still focused on what I want to lose. I’m still focused on things I can’t control and I’m letting that impact how I feel about the progress I’m making. And I am making progress, so why am I still hung up on this cultural symbol of good health? Why am I letting a tool dictate whether or not I’m meeting my goals?

A scale is just one option for measuring healthy, and frankly, I think I’m on board with everyone who says that it’s a waste of time. When it comes to my diabetes, I do need numbers to tell me how I’m doing, because it’s not something that you can visibly see. But I don’t need a scale to tell me if I’m losing weight, if I’m getting stronger, if I’m getting stronger. The only thing I need is me.

Every month, the Diabetes Social Media Advocacy team posts a prompt for the Blog Carnival. This month, the prompt is about exercise!

Does the sunshine and warmth of Spring urge you to change up your exercise routine? If you don’t have an exercise routine, does it inspire you to start exercising? And if it’s not Spring in your corner of the world, what season are you heading into and how does it impact your fitness routine?

While I’ve been exercising pretty consistently since last fall, the warmer weather and later nights have definitely made an impact in my running schedule. It is so miserable running on a treadmill that I usually hold out for the one or two days during the winter when it might pop into the 40s. But many times, I do have to rely on strength training and the treadmill to get my fitness routine into my schedule. Otherwise it’s just too easy to let the cold and snow keep you inside!

Although I love warmer, sunnier weather, I’ve personally noticed that I run poorest during midday. There’s something about the sun beating down (even when it’s not very warm) that seems to zap me of energy. I prefer running in the early morning or in the evening, when the sunlight isn’t as intense. I can weight train at any time of day because I do it indoors at my gym. I’m not sure if anyone else is as sensitive to the light as I am, but it’s something that I’ve noticed really slows down my pace.

I can’t say that Spring totally changes up my workout, because I have tried to stay consistent with running throughout the winter and now throughout the summer, but I do think that I’m more consistent in how often I do it. I also feel like there are more options during the summer to do a variety of exercises. Cycling, for example, is something I would only consider doing during the warmer months, because the wind from cycling and the cold weather does not sound like a pleasant experience! Erik and I also enjoy hiking, which is something I’m more likely to do in the summer when the trees and plants are in bloom and everything is pretty and green. Not that you can’t hike in the winter, but I find it more enjoyable in the winter.

I suppose the warmer months also make me a little more self-conscious! With summer dresses and tank tops, there’s a lot more skin showing so I’m more inclined to try to stay fit and eat healthier. Of course, it probably makes more sense to be active and lose weight earlier in the year (which is something I’ve been trying to do), but sometimes you don’t really feel motivated until those flabby arms and spare tire are really obvious!

This post is my April entry in the DSMA Blog Carnival.  If you’d like to participate too, you can get all of the information at http://diabetessocmed.com/2013/april-dsma-blog-carnival-3/

This past Sunday, I ran my second 5K! Woohoo! I’m not entirely sure if I beat my previous 5K time or not because our bibs were tagged with a chip timer. I used my Runkeeper, turning it off and on and soon as I crossed the start and finish line, and according to Runkeeper, our route was actually 3.2 miles, not 3.1 miles, so it’s slightly longer (but not by much). However, my pace time was 30 seconds faster than my pace for the Spring Fling run, so I’m taking that as my cue that I did better. Yay!

Sadly, I totally forgot to take pictures. Whoops. So you’ll have to make do with Ryan Gosling. The route of this race was a bit different than my first 5K. My first one was completely flat since it was around a small island in the East River. This one had one big hill (downhill going, uphill coming back) and then a slight incline for a mile and a slight decline for a mile (again, since it was a loop). Unlike the first 5K, which I ran continuously, I actually walked a little bit for this 5K. I was surprised that I was still able to beat my previous time, but I guess that just means Jeff Galloway is right — walking breaks can be good! I felt much better throughout my running segments.

My blood sugars were also a different story this time around. I had a low blood sugar in the middle of the night and woke up at 119 mg/dl. I was a little antsy, so I ended up overdoing it before the run. I took a tiny 1.5 unit dose before running because the Dexcom showed me that I was rising rapidly. No bueno. It alarmed once while I was running, telling me that I was 251 mg/dl, but I didn’t actually have any insulin on me so I knew I couldn’t do anything about it. When I finished, the CGM actually told me that was skyrocketing, but I rang in at 209 mg/dl on my meter, so I was a little confused and frustrated by that. The sensor was only one day old, though, so I’m blaming it on it just not being properly calibrated long enough. But it’s certainly frustrating to count on something while you’re exercising and not have it be accurate.

This was my last race that I had planned. I’ve created a Race Results page so you can check out my results and any upcoming planned runs. I’m going to take the next few weeks to focus on strength training and building up my mileage. At the end of Best Body Bootcamp I’m going to do another 5K to compare my times and fitness level, and I’m excited to see how I do! After that, I want to sign up for a 10K, but I’m not sure when that’ll be. I’m still doing my homework.

Speaking of Best Body Bootcamp, I’ve decided to make a slight modification to my training plan. After a couple weeks of running 3 days a week, I noticed that my shins were starting to act up quite a bit, and I think the combination of strength training and running is a bit much. So I’ve decided to pare it down to this schedule: Monday + Wednesdays + Fridays = Best Body Bootcamp strength training, Tuesdays = Short run + Core work, Thursdays = Yoga, and Saturdays = Long Run. So the main difference is that I’m incorporating Core Work and Yoga into my training to hopefully stretch and strengthen my muscles.

Of course, my Long Run is barely longer than my Short Run but for a newbie like me, every quarter mile means a lot!

After finishing my first Best Body Bootcamp, I knew that I want to do it again. Although I didn’t lose tons of weight, I felt great and I lost inches. I’ve kept up my fitness over the past month by running and creating my own weight lifting routines at the gym, but there’s something so nice about having someone else tell you exactly what to do!

Round 5 started on Monday and I got ready to go by doing my initial Fitness Test, measuring myself and weighing myself. I don’t like to disclose too many numbers, because I don’t like to play the comparison game. But later on in the bootcamp I’ll share my updates on how I’m doing. The fitness test wasn’t something I was overly concerned about during my first bootcamp, but I’m disappointed that I didn’t take it more seriously so I’m going to try harder for this bootcamp.

Tina Reale, the fitness blogger who started Best Body Bootcamp, has a scheduled laid out for all participants. They involve three strength training routines coupled with short cardio routines, and two cardio interval days. Because I’m working specifically on my running, I’ve modified her schedule so that I can also get faster and go farther. This is what my own personal training plan looks like for the next 8 weeks.

Cross-training will be a mix of cycling, elliptical, yoga or other cardio classes at my gym. I’m leaving it open-ended as to what I’ll actually do because I don’t know what time of day I will be working out. Between class and work, each day could be different. I won’t really know until that week what I’ll be available to do at the gym. It might be cycling on my own or it might be a spin class. I’m really excited to have a solid plan for each day for the next 8 weeks. I feel like with my crazy school and work schedule going on that if I don’t have something really firm on the calendar, I’ll totally be wishy-washy.

Do you follow a training plan? How do you decide what workouts to do?

This past Saturday, Erik and I ran our very first 5K race! Earlier this spring, I scoured the Internet to find the perfect race and decided on the NYC Runs Spring Fling 5K on Roosevelt Island, which is an island located in the East River. It’s smack dab between Manhattan and Queens, so you have views of both from the island. It’s very cool! I have been running fairly regularly for the past few months, but more so since in the beginning of the year. My fastest 3 mile run so far was 40:18 so I really wanted to run my first official 5K in under 40 minutes!

The night before the race was, as you can imagine, not very restful. But it wasn’t actually from excitement. On Friday, we attended our first Christian seder, and our hosts had some delicious matzo ball soup and raspberry cheesecake for dessert. My blood sugar skyrocketed to 344 mg/dl which woke me up at 5 a.m. (because I had to pee). Yikes. I bolused and headed back to bed, but I had a hard time falling back asleep, which is typical for when I’m feeling yucky from a high blood sugar.

The alarm finally went off at 7 a.m. and my blood sugar was 299 mg/dl. Not what I was hoping for after two hours. Erik and I had scrambled eggs and a Larabar for breakfast, along with a big glass of water. I bolused normally for my meal, but I didn’t take any insulin for the protein as I normally would. I also corrected for the 299 mg/dl as usual. I have found that for the most part, I manage my diabetes while exercising by consuming extra carbs, and not by manipulating insulin. I planned to monitor and drink juice or eat a snack later if I needed to.

We finally arrived on Roosevelt Island at around 8:45 a.m., with the race set to start at 9 a.m. Just before checking my bag, I tested again and I was down to 210 mg/dl. That was a good number to start with and I didn’t have that much insulin left on board. In my spibelt I had a Gu if I needed it while running, but I suspected I would be fine.

Erik and I do not run at the same pace. He is much faster than me. So my first race was basically alone. I didn’t listen to music or my usual podcasts, so it was a bit of a challenge, but like most people say, you do get swept up in the noise and scenes around you. I enjoyed people-watching the other runners and of course I had a glorious view of Manhattan for the majority of the run.

Through sheer force of will, I managed to run the entire length of the 5K, except for a very short water break about halfway through. It was definitely a challenge for my muscles, but I felt good. I didn’t feel at any point that my blood sugar was tanking. Although I’m more or less hypo-unaware while exercising, I have developed my own “sense” for my blood sugar to make up for the lack of traditional symptoms. Normally it’s an intense fatigue that comes on very suddenly, and I didn’t have any of that.

Not having any sense of time or distance meant the run felt a little on the long side. I had no idea how far I’d gone or how much longer I had. Eventually I could see Erik waving in the distance. My final time, which we didn’t receive until a couple hours later, was 39:52. Woohoo! I did it!

We retrieved our bags and I check my blood sugar. I rang in at 158 mg/dl! Totally thrilled about that. I took my normal Lantus dose as well. After that, Erik and I went off to get lunch and basked in the glory of finishing our first 5K. My blood sugars stayed normal the rest of the day.

I already have a second 5K lined up as well! I’ll be running The Stride 5K in a couple of weeks, which benefits a local diabetes center. My Junior League chapter are sponsors, so it’s a win-win. I’m excited to see if I improve!

And as if all this wasn’t good enough, I have even more awesome news! Yesterday I had an endocrinologist (diabetes doctor) appointment and I found out that my A1C (the measure of my average BG) dropped a full percent! Just to put this into context for you, A1Cs are measured by the tenth of a percent. So dropping a full percent is quite significant. I’m not sure I’ve ever dropped more than half a percent between appointments, so I could hardly believe it dropped as much as it did. Although I’m not in the 6s yet (my diabetes goal for the year), I am very close right now. I recently ordered a Dexcom continuous glucose monitor to keep even better tabs on my blood sugars throughout the day, so I have no doubt that I will be in the 6s by my next appointment later this summer.

Over the last week or so, I’ve seen comment pop up here and there about how folks would never want to be on any kind of diet — particularly the Paleo diet — because they don’t want to have never eat something ever again. I can’t speak for all diets or all people, but I have a feeling that most people who are on Paleo don’t go around thinking they will never again eat bread or a cupcake. The idea is that eating this way most of the time, whether 50% or 80% or 99.9% is better than not eating this way at all.

That’s my personal philosophy about it, at least. When you struggle with food, sometimes it’s easier to cut certain foods out almost all the time because moderation can be really difficult to sustain. When faced with your favorite food, sometimes it isn’t enough to say moderation. Have you ever tried to moderate potato chips? It’s practically impossible! So I think when people say they eat Paleo and that means they don’t eat grains or dairy or legumes, it really means that they have a really hard time incorporating those foods into their diet and that the food makes them feel uncomfortable and gross, and so they make it part of their priorities to avoid it.

As far as I’m concerned, if you don’t have an actual medical reason or moral reason to avoid certain food (like gluten or dairy intolerance or veganism) then you can incorporate your favorite treats every so often. But I think it’s silly for anyone to look at a diet, whether it’s Paleo or South Beach or whatever, and say that they would never eat something ever again. I think that you have to figure out the level at which you are comfortable with your eating habits and if it works for you, then that’s great. But if it’s not working, then for God’s sake, do something different!

However, I have an issue with how we talk about these “treats” and occasional eating habits. It’s the phrase “cheat day” or “cheat meal.” I have such disdain for the phrase that it literally makes me nauseated. Cheating is such a horrible word. There is not a single positive connotation related to it. Cheating is bad, secretive, shameful, immoral… do you want me to continue? I don’t understand why something that is perfectly normal and reasonable would be given such a terrible name. Having the occasional cookie or cake or even bread, if that’s your thing, should not be perceived as shameful or guilt-ridden if it’s something that you have planned out and you’re aware of how it impacts your health. If you’re OK with it and it fits with your lifestyle, then it’s not cheating.

I also have another word choice issue. I feel like word “diet” has really been co-opted by the weight loss industry and has been totally distorted. A diet really means “the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group.” When you make it a verb, then it turns into more of a losing weight concept. But everyone has their own diet. You have to decide what your own diet is, and it doesn’t have to be for weight loss. But it should be for health and wellness. The food that we eat has such a huge impact on how we act and feel. It’s important to be aware of that.

I think we all need to develop our own personal diets. It doesn’t have to have a name. It can be exactly like something you read in a book, or maybe you just use something you read as the foundation, or maybe you take general principals or maybe you just make something up because it works for you and makes you feel good. The more I’m active in the health and wellness sphere, both with diabetes and weight loss, the more I see that although there are very basic, foundational concepts that apply to everyone (i.e. sugar is unhealthy), there are also huge variances in individuals. We are, to some degree, special snowflakes.

So, moral of the story: never say never (unless you have to), it’s not cheating, and you are a special snowflake.

It’s been over a month since I finished the Whole30 challenge and I seem to have completely failed at keeping any sort of account of what Erik and I are doing now. I keep tweeting about all these Paleo foods that we’re eating, with the promise of blogging about them, but then I never “get around to it.” Well that all ends here! Moving forward I promise to be more proactive in blogging some of our favorite Paleo eats, to both help those who are in the midst of the Whole30 (my #1 search result) and to inspire anyone looking for ways to eat healthy, natural foods from God’s green earth.

Before I start, I also wanted to formally share my new(ish) editorial schedule. A lot of what I’m planning is stuff that I’m already doing, and that you’ve probably noticed (or, you know, not…) but it’s going to be a little more firm as I continue to grow my content at With Faith & Grace. I’ve never really been the kind of blogger to have regular features, but here we go!

Monday – Monthly Reflections & Intentions will be the first Monday of the month and Currently will be the Monday closest to the 15th. In between, I will rotate between Paleo cooking, Music Monday or other random topics.

Tuesday – People I Find Fascinating will remain on Tuesdays, as well as Tuesday Wisdom. Additional Tuesdays will be devoted to guest posts (more on this later!), memes (when relevant), and other random topics.

Wednesday - Diabetes, healthy living and running posts will be on Wednesdays.

Thursday - I will be starting a new creative writing series inspired by a Valentine’s Day gift from my husband. Look for the first post this coming Thursday!

Friday - Friday Finds will continue as usual. I’m discontinuing “Tell Me Something Happy” because it isn’t getting the kind of reaction that I expected. I may bring it back occasionally, but I have no immediate plans.

Of course, the schedule is subject to change if something really big pops up that demands attention. But hopefully this will help guide the content a little bit. I also know that a lot of bloggers struggle to think of content or work out ways to keep a blog going day after day, so I also wanted to post this to show a little bit of what’s going on behind the scenes.

Now that that’s settled, let’s eat!

—

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been on a Paleo bread making kick using almond flour and a variety of mix-ins, like bananas, blueberries and apples. Then last week, we branched out to muffins with a banana walnut muffin. We used this recipe from Elana’s Pantry as the base, and then added a quarter cup of walnuts and substituted the vegan shortening with coconut oil.

Last night, we decided to make banana blueberry muffins. Instead of walnuts, we used about a cup of blueberries to make six yummy muffins!

These are pretty hefty, satisfying muffins so it’s not likely that you’ll need more than a muffin for breakfast. Just spread a little ghee or Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut butter on it!

Nutrition Facts

6 Servings

Calories: 413

Carbohydrates: 28

Fat: 31

Protein: 12

If you want a comparison, a Costco blueberry muffin has 610 calories, 71 carbohydrates, 32 grams of fat, and only 5 grams of protein.