thehealthypancakes

I’m bbaaaccckkkk

Guess what interwebs??!?

I’m soon to be unemployed!!!

(don’t worry – I am quitting my job, I wasn’t terminated).

Why? You probably are asking yourself…. Why? In the middle of a pandemic am I quitting my job.

Well, if you haven’t read or don’t know me, my husband and I are MOVING TO GERMANY – hopefully before the end of 2020.

It’s finally happening. I can finally focus on what makes Tracie Tic. And let me tell you, there are a lot of things going on in my head.

For the past four or five years I have juggled a full time job working as a dietitian in a dialysis center, a part time job working with private clients (writing meal plans, checking in, setting goals and giving seminars) on my weekends/scattered throughout the week, buying and selling used clothing online, attempting to start my Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) online and trying to keep up my blog. The latter two I did a horrible job of… I just couldn’t keep my motivation and I felt constantly burnt out (plus I had another surgery which put things on the back burner).

Work work work work work.

I worked on vacations. I worked after work. And then I worked some more.

However, I never worked in my sleep.

But now!

NOW I have some free time. NOW I get to focus on fun.

My plan?

I’m going to finish my YTT certification and play with that.

I’m going to learn German. I’ve already tried to start via Duolingo, however, I signed up for a German Language course for two semesters through a university in Munich. Yay school!

I’m going to continue buying, selling and wearing new clothes.

And maybe, when I am ready – dip my toes back into private nutrition consulting…. I mean I did start an LLC. But in the meantime… I’m going to blog. I am going to travel!!! I am going to move to a new country!!!!

I’ll learn a new language, new recipes, new lifestyle.

Until then…

Danke und bis spater!!!

Black Velvet Peanut Butter Pomegranate Smush Cookies

Baking is my love language.

I LOVE coming up with new recipes – and this one… this one is a home run. First time playing out this recipe was the charm and yesterday…. well yesterday I baked up about 5 dozen of these ooey, gooey, chocolaty and chewy baaaad boys.

Half the time I wore my fire red, thigh high, stiletto heels and had a glass of wine in my hand.

Only half, because that combo will tire out even the best of supermodels real quick.

In the end of it all… here is the recipe for you to make!!

BECAUSE YOU SHOULD MAKE THEM. And make them you should.

Continue reading “Black Velvet Peanut Butter Pomegranate Smush Cookies”

Sweet Potato Hash

So I haven’t been blogging like I should..

I’ve been burnt out. It’s the first Friday in a very long time that I am not having to write meal plans or do check ins… and to be honest, I am quite happy about it. I have been working a full time job, doing private counseling and also buying and selling clothes (for fun) for a long time (three years or more, who knows at this point).

I need more than a two week vacation break.

And I need a vacation where I’m not working with clients. I haven’t had one of those in three years either.

One thing I found myself not doing anymore is baking/cooking/reveling in the taste of delicious foods that I myself make then shove into my mouth. There is just something so satisfying knowing that “I” did this. I made this. And it’s sooo delicious. And it makes me happy… so why did I stop?

Anyway… straight to it.

Continue reading “Sweet Potato Hash”

Meal Prep like a pro

I personally am not a person who preps. I like to make quick meals at night and eat the leftovers for lunch or with dinner the next day.

But that doesn’t work for everyone. That doesn’t work for really really busy people. That doesn’t work for people who don’t enjoy cooking.

So instead of trying to give you tips on how to meal prep, I approached a friend of mine, a Mrs. Lauren Baxley (know to me as miss Lauren Falleur when we lived together in college) who is the MASTER of meal prepping. I have watching her posts on social media about meal prepping for a few years now. So here are meal prep tips from a master: Continue reading “Meal Prep like a pro”

Baby Steps – Step 5, FAT

Once shunned like it was evil, now being shoveled into our mouths at an astonishing rate.

Keto – Adkins – whatever, it’s all the same.

And then with the coconut oil – poor thing has it as bad as the egg.

It’s good, it’s bad, it’s good, it’s bad… for years. But this time no one is suppressing it from the public.

Fat IS part of a healthy diet – but as with all things, too much of a good thing, isn’t always a good thing… and pairing it with too much of other good things… well that’s where we start using big scary words like heart disease, diabetes, obesity. Continue reading “Baby Steps – Step 5, FAT”

Diet, Lifestyle and Anxiety

Anxiety – the mental beast many of us cannot tame.

Or we feel like we do – only for it to creep up on us later and attack us by surprise.

It may be hard to for us to admit, but anxiety is a mental health problem. And NO having some anxiety is not a bad thing – but when it becomes crippling or interferes with your life it becomes a “mental health issue”

The answer for all of us is different. Just as our minds respond to different stimuli our bodies respond differently as well. Where one person can completely overhear the ringing of a phone or the alarm clock going off another one can feel the anxiety of either one of these and are quick to make the sound stop.

So not all these points I am going to share with you today are going to be your answer.. heck.. the answer does not lie in the diet. It lies in your head. You will never get past it if you cannot control your thoughts and actions. But beyond that there are some things you can do to help lessen the severity of an anxiety attack or a period of depression.
Continue reading “Diet, Lifestyle and Anxiety”

Going Green

As a dietitian and friend to many – I have been getting a lot of questions or discussion on different “diets” people are trying.

But if you know me, I hate the word diet. It’s real meaning is what a person, animal or community habitually eats. But as a society, we have turned it into a restriction or short term eating habits – usually with the goal of weight loss.

So opening – I want to urge you all to change your lifestyle with eating habits that make it a habitual thing… I know this a dream for a dietitian. But since you all are going to do what you want anyway, I’d like to help.

So I’m going to try and help out and just give a little bit guidance. Starting with the VEGAN diet. Which I have once tried (while I was still in grad school and I hated it) and have helped guide a handful of people in the right direction. (I think)

So I’ll start with my favorite macro, PROTEIN!

The biggest arguement I get into with people, and other dietitians, is getting enough protein. I DO NOT CARE WHAT THE GOVERNMENT TELLS YOU IS ENOUGH. Because what they tell you is wrong.

I’m about to lose focus… I should make an entire post ranting about protein. And I probably will one day.

But for now – Vegan diets, if not planned, can be lacking in ESSENTIAL amino acids. So here is a little nutrition 101 for you:

The amino acids:

Please note that BCAA’s are ESSENTAIL. P.S. they’re amazing. (Isoleucine, Leucine and Valine). Alone Leucine can stimulate muscle growth. Pretty cool.

Anyway,

Essential means that our body must consume these, as we do not make them ourselves. Non-essential means our body can make them. Conditionally essential means that our body makes them, however, in times of great illness and STRESS – we don’t do the best job at making them.

I’m always stressed, so I always eat meat. Do I eat meat because I’m stressed or am I stressed because I eat meat?

With the exception of soy – plant proteins are incomplete, meaning that they do not contain all the essential amino acids to make a complete protein. To fix this you have to eat two incomplete proteins to make one whole.

Luckily – this can be done within a day and not at a single meal.

Here is a easy little guide on plant foods and the missing essentials:

And another…

So ensure that you are including foods from both sides (list A and B) all day long. And remember there are many more – so either do your research or ask questions.

One other thing before I move on to the micronutrients – vegan diets are heavy in carbs, but usually they are plentiful in FIBER. My other favorite. It does balance out. If you do it right you won’t get the diabetus. (AKA you french fry vegans)

Okay, so MICRONUTRIENTS.

In my post before I mentioned that having to supplement any diet is not healthy. And as healthy as being a vegan is – it isn’t completely. So here is the list of things I HIGHLY recommend taking in pill form.

Vitamin B12 – only found in animal products… or forified into grains. In short – B12 keeps the body’s nerve and blood cells healthy, and it helps manufacture DNA. Usually can get enough from a multivitamin.
Iron – Usually it’s women who talk to me about becoming vegan. And usually they are or are susceptible to becoming anemic. Without red meat – it’s hard to absorb iron from plants. Iron is essential in blood production and carrying oxygen to the cells of the body.
Calcium – As you all know – calcium builds strong bones and teeth, it also helps clot blood and helps transmit nerve signals. This isn’t usually that big of a deal as you can get calcium from plant sources – it a cup of almond milk actually have more calcium fortified into it than a cup of regular milk. But it is still something to plan into the diet.

Dark leafy greens like kale and collards.
Vegetables such as broccoli, Chinese cabbage and bok choy.
Seaweeds like kelp, nori, spirulina and chlorella.
Organic tempeh.
Tahini
Almonds – almond butter – almond milk

Vitamin D- SO important! Get the D people. The best source is the sun – and for most of the population, that’s not enough. If you get your blood levels tested the government {insert eye roll emoji} will tell you that anywhere between 20 – 50 ng/L is enough. Sorry, but it’s found that the protective level against stress fractures is 40 ng. And beyond that – you see improvements in sports performance at 60 ng. Not to mention all the other amazing things this vitamin does for your physical and emotional health. Get tested – take some supplements if you’re low. Even if you’re a meat eater, you are probably still deficient.
Omega – 3 fatty acids – Another deficiency also found in meat eaters. For vegans, the most efficient vehicles for getting omega-3 fatty acids are sea vegetables and microalgae, such as spirulina and wakame. For everyone else – eat fatty fish or take a supplement. Or add in some spirulina or wakame!

P.S. Wakame is a sea vegetable.

So I leave you with this take away. We have teeth for chewing plants and meat. And plants are SO good for our body. But I think God would have made them complete and whole for us if it were the ONLY thing we were suppose to eat. You can be vegan and come at me with why it’s superior. But you better be taking your freaking vitamins and matching your amino acids before we argue about it.

Eat on my friends.

Baby Steps, step 4 – PROTEIN

Quite possibly my favorite macronutrient.

The most overhyped and also underrated of the three. To start this, I’d like to get a few things out of the way.

NO, high protein intake will not kill your kidneys.. You’d have to eat copious, and I mean COPIOUS amounts for it to hurt them. Can you choke down a 72 ounce steak for every meal of every day?

Nevermind, don’t answer that.

Continue reading “Baby Steps, step 4 – PROTEIN”

Baby steps – mini challenge (step 3.95)

With just a few days left before step four is due (hours really before I usually release the blog) I decided to switch it up.

I know people struggle so much with loving carbs.. well we love them but we are so damn afraid of them. And giving a fiber goal and trying to lead everyone to track it, or to calculate their own goal isn’t actually what I want from this. But I just couldn’t figure out how to help, then I felt I lost everyone.

So all week I thought on it… or tried, through my post-bachelorette party and travel fog… it just hit me.

A mini challenge.

It’s perfect.

So far we have us sip sip sipping our water, baby steps numero uno.

Then are are focusing on our non-starchy veggies with baby step number two.

So yes – I want us focusing on soluble and non-soluble fiber, but I want to challenge it further, in a bit more challenging yet straight forward way.

Mini Challenge:

For the next seven days starting on Monday, the 29th of April (or whatever Monday follows after you’ve found this blog), I want you to include no less than…

three carbohydrate servings a day.

I want them to come from:

Starchy Vegetables
Fruit

That means for one week we are avoiding

3. Grains

4. Dairy (excluding Greek Yogurt, Cheese and Cottage cheese)

5. Sugar

I put them in ugly red just to burn them into your brain.

I want to go ahead and state that grains, dairy and sugar are part of a healthy diet. But for OUR PURPOSES I want you to learn to eat plants, and lots of them. Watch how over time your body starts changing because you simply choose a piece of fruit over a cookie, beans instead of rice (or half and half), a potato over fries.. which brings me to my next point.

I want you to choose at least one fruit and one vegetable – so it’s not all coming from fruit and no all coming from starchy veg, a bit of each.

It only counts if the skin is on and it is not fried or with any added sugars and doesn’t come from a box.

So a whole piece of fruit.

No french fries or mashed potatoes – eat the whole thing

Stuff like that.

Eat the food the way we found it in nature, sans the cooking method if you use one to make it edible (like cooking beans, corn or potatoes)

Please refer back to baby steps number three for more complete list of foods and serving sizes.

I recommend doing some planning this weekend and focusing this next week.

Also – some of you may already be following step three on your own but it’s still good practice to replace things like jam with whole berries or mashed potatoes with whole – or adding beans and corn into things like rice or replacing bread with them.

Thanks for reading! Eat your plants!

Don’t panic – Tales of a standby flyer

Could always be worse right? At least that’s what we tell ourselves when things go south… But I was too chipper this past weekend to let anything stand in my way.

It all started with the “storm of the century”.. insert eye-roll. If you ask me, we always think a bad storm is the worst we’ve ever seen.. and then the “if you like our weather just wait a few minutes, it’ll change” spiel I hear in EVERY TOWN of EVERY STATE I’ve ever been to.

Catchy, but the world is just a place of unknown and unpredictable.. Your corner of the world isn’t much different from most others corners (crazy weather wise…)… though I’ve been some places where the weather is a perfect sunny and 75 year round… it’s the people that are the reason I am not trying to move there.

Pick your poison I guess.

Okay – rant over.

Anyway – the day started off nicely. I got to the airport (on my way to a bachelorette weekend in Savannah, GA) and got a parking spot on a lower level. I get through the security check point within ten minutes and my gate is right there so I stroll on over.

The airport is slow – not many people at the gate, I find a seat, pull out my phone, check the app for standbys….

I panic.

I had been religiously checking my spot in line daily up to this moment.. I even checked my spot in line A FEW MINUTES before I drove off to the airport.

I went from 5th in line with 35 or so open seats to 50th or so and an overbooked flight by at least 20. If you’re counting – thats about 50 new people seemingly out of nowhere trying to make this flight. Of course I didn’t make it on. The storm of the century grounded or diverted over 60 airplanes the night before. So all those people dispersed onto other open flights.

Panic ensues more. I try to contact my flight attendant sister who I assumed was in Hawaii and sound asleep so I call my mom. No Answer.

My palms were sweaty, knees weak, arms were heavy…

Then Stefanie (flight attendant sister) texts me letting me know that she has landed at DFW and is about to sprint to her second gate to catch her flight to Hawaii… She jokingly invites me along as her flight has plenty of seats open.

But she calls me when she gets off the plane and talks me through it. It was such an easy process and it just put me in the best mood. I could just find a flight that was open and practically hop on.

So I catch a flight to Memphis. Have a seat assignment before I even get to the gate. Walk right on. No problem.

Land in Memphis… where there was a nice little group of us waiting to catch the next flight. Nice, friendly people and we all stood together just out of the way to watch the charades that ensued.

It started with an elderly lady and her son who just NEEDED to board that flight. Apparently she had called earlier to see if she could catch a flight a few hours before her actual flight. I’m not sure where the miscommunication came from but they gave her a standby ticket and she thought it was a guaranteed seat. After a half an hour of explanations and with her stating numerous times to “just give me someone else’s seat” and repeatedly being told that legally they cannot do that… and then her still insisting… she somehow got on that aircraft.

Whoofta.

A few flyers behind her in line was a young, wispy, straight haired, red-head being that comes marching up in these outrageous green platform shoes, torn hiking clothes and a quite large purple hiking backpack on… she scans her ticket and is told she cannot take that bag on and that it must be checked.

Arguments are really dumb when you’re sitting out watching them.

But she argues and argues and argues, saying “I always fly with this and never have to check it” and “Just let me on and I’ll show you”.

GOD FORBID she has to wait for her baggage like the rest of us peasants.

They offer to let her stick it in the size box, she won’t, they push her aside and a couple walks up… same story.. bag too big.

Suddenly the entire gate seams to be arguing (given the only people arguing was just the family, the two gate agents and the red haired alien screaming and making hand gestures while the others ignore her). Finally one agent says “fine, this is now a matter of you either check your bag or you don’t get on the flight”.

Family gives in. Runs down the runway. Alien still standing there but now shoving her bag into the size box. The bag obviously does not fit, but she is shoving and shoving chanting “yes it fits see”… the agents aren’t amused and give her the ultimatum again.

It gets dead quiet. She stares them down… they break the stare and calmly begin letting other people on. The other agent turns and prints off her baggage check ticket and turns towards her again. She finds that she has not won, she gives in with a huff a three year old would do when they don’t get their way. She takes the ticket for the bag and stomps her green platforms to the runway while flipping everyone the bird.

So I miss that flight but was sort of happy to… and the small group of us hang out until the next flight to Charlotte. (I can’t make it into Savannah so I rented a car the night before so I could tour the countryside)

The Memphis airport is small – not much to do nor much time to venture out. So I find the only really acceptable eatery on my side of the terminal, a BBQ place called “Jim Neely’s Interstate BBW”. And OMG – surprisingly delicious.

I’m pretty sure I sent my boyfriend numerous texts about how good the beans were (I hate BBQ beans) they put brisket in them. But the ribs, OH THE RIBS, those were the fall off the bone kind of ribs that even us Texans can’t perfect… and I LOVE a good rib.

Paid my dues – back to my gate. Happy and full.

The flight starts boarding… I am not so sure I’ll make this one either. No crazy riders though so I cross my fingers… plus my plans to drive across South Caroline in the daylight and to catch a little hike somewhere along the way are already gone… So I don’t mind, too much.

At this point I’d like to set the stage and tell you that all the surrounding gates are empty. No people, no agents, nothing. Just our gaggle of people pushing to get to their seat first. There are probably five standby riders… They start calling us on – I watch as they board standby flyer number one, number two, number three…. four and I look at each other. I recognize him from missing the earlier flight, we nod knowingly. They call his name…

So I’m left standing there, almost completely alone with the agent and out of no where a woman shows up with a ticket in her hand.

I am doomed.

She approaches the agent right as flyer number four disappears into the walk way and they start talking. I am not paying attention as I don’t want to hear her say she is just late.

Agent types, doesn’t look up, says “Blair”.

My heart jumps out of my chest and I take three large steps forward. I’m now one step away and before I can take that last step the agent looks up, makes eye contact with me and sternly (and little too loudly in my opinion) says “STAND BY”

OooOOoooOoohhh

That’s why they call us that. I snap to attention and take my big three steps backwards and stand there like a cadet. “MA’AM YES MA’AM”

So there I am again, trying not to panic, I didn’t sleep the night before and I’m afraid a drive at midnight would be a bad idea… while I ponder this for a few she repeats my name and tells new flyer number six “you don’t have a seat on this flight”

BUT I DO. I am giddy and I gallop down the runway as if the airplane is going to leave me there.

I get on, I’ve got the last seat in the very back right night to standby flyer number four. He smiles surprised to see me but states he is very happy to see I made it on. It was a nice flight and he was very pleasant, so I didn’t mind the cramped quarters.

Land on the tarmac – depart the plane on the tarmac, which was cool, I always feel like a celebrity when that happens. Letting my hair snap around in the wind, I always want to pause like they make the president do to take his picture.

I didn’t get to pause because I wasn’t the last one off. Next time though.

I grab my bag and march on down to the car rental building.

Things are going smoothly.

I take the elevator up to the car lot and approach the teller station. Standing there is a foreign couple who seamed to have been waiting quite some time.. they do speak English and they move aside so I can get my car.

The lady behind the counter, though pleasant and helpful to me, is rude to just about everyone else. And some man keeps popping in out of no where like Sonic the hedgehog.

As he is flying by he is telling the foreigners “no worries, your car is just now being vacuumed”. He stops once to put a piece of paper behind the couple who are faced away, walks around to the front of them says “sign this” to no one in particular and proceeds to start an argument with the lady who is helping me.

PTSD from a few hours earlier and the terminal fiasco.

This time I jet into action. I get the couples attention, point to the paper, mimic me signing a piece of paper. They look around, no pens.

I spot a bouquet of pens… you know, the ones with the flowers on the end. It’s sitting between the arguing employees. I reach through and barely grab one by its petals and pull it out… this wasn’t easy as you would think as the man was leaned through the window of the tellers box and moving almost violently with each word that was said.

The foreigners laugh, but they laugh in that way that tells me that they are not impressed with America. Scoff would probably be the better word. I want to apologize to them but at this point the lady has thrust keys into my hand and is telling me to go to stall 40.

I find the little Kia Rio. Cute. Economic. Clean. I feel good about it. I sign off and get in.

I start adjusting things… I am lead to believe a very tall very large man was driving this car before me. The seats pushed all the way back and is leaned almost as far back as it will go.

I adjust, adjust, adjust and find the leaver to pull up the seat up so it’s sitting upright.

Nothing happens.

I grab the leaver while grabbing the back of the seat and ppuuuuullllll.

Nothing.

I get out, get behind the seat (not easy as it’s leaned so far back) grab the leaver and push my body into the seat.

Notta.

I walk up to the tellers station.

Everyone is gone.

Time is wasting… so I decide to drive to Georgia in the little car practically lying down, in the dark playing all the gangster music I can find (so maybe people will think the lean back is on purpose) to make the drive more pleasurable.

I made it there and back without issue. But a lot of fun in between!

There are worse things that can happen, right?

Thanks for reading! I’ll post separate blogs about my time in Savannah, Charleston and my stop in Congaree national park soon!