Chia seeds and Beautiful walks

Today was the most beautiful day ever! It was so sunny and warm.. Marie & I went out on an early morning 10 k walk through High Park down to the beach, wayyy out west in the boardwalk to a nature park area built out into the lake, speed walking and back, then shoes off, feet in the sand.. ahhh... mmmana! so Nice! Jacket off, tank top, so sunny and beautiful. Nature heaven, in my beautiful backyard!
(Mom just posted about my backyard also this week here ; )

I had been talking about taking off the 5 or so lbs I had put on last winter - it's not really that big a deal, but even that amount, not being at your ideal weight can make you feel not at your optimal best. I love the feel of a flat stomach, feeling your abs ..and lately I have been on it & feel like I am almost there, feeling the abs again.. and feeling the leg muscles, arms - it's a good, clear, optimal power feeling.

A lot of it is in the mind. Visualization. Seeing your body at it's optimal shape. Feeling like you already have that body. I went to the gym lots last week (such a good feeling), when you work out feel the muscles you are working on, really feel them and the workout will be more effective on those muscles. I got into eating more green! ..have been really conscious of my food choices. Eating the most nutritious foods.. consciously choose everything that you put in. High quality power fuel. & probably my biggest downfall, I stopped my late night eating habits, ..and my main new trick is not just to stop eating at night, but I am eating something with lots of chia seeds around 6 pm, that would totally fill me up so I really only wanted to drink water later. (which is really important if you get onto chia) These little seeds expand and absorb 10 x their weight in water. So you eat them and they expand and you feel really full. & they are so incredibly nutritious.. they have the best ratio of Omega 3, 6 & 9's .They are reported to be even better than flax for their oils and nutritional value - a real Superfood.

Chia seeds used to be a staple in the Aztec diet. The messengers and runners would carry a pouch of them with them and eat when they were doing long distance running. ..and eat them periodically to give them energy. There are stories of other warriors who went to battle and had a ration of chia seeds only which sustained them for long periods of time.
Now apparently what happened is that when the Spanish came over and took over in the 1500's, they made growing chia seeds against the law.. (I heard this was also the case with quinoa) they got everyone to plant their corn and wheat and banned chia, which hey thought was not important. ..and I heard that a few people kept the strains of chia alive and grew them up in the mountains, hidden.. and preserved them ..and it is only recently that they are being discovered as the superfood that they are.

& I have been hearing chia as the ultimate diet food. So I am going to experiment and look up and try out some chia recipes and am going to make them a big part of my diet for the next while.
After our walk Marie and I went to Sprouts and I picked up bottles of E3Live I had ordered from her, lots of sunflower sprouts ( my favorite!!) and even wheatgrass (Oh, I am so on it! - I set up my juicer at James, where I am going to be spending lots of time hanging out with Zoey, while he's in Panama) I even brought my dehydrater over. I'm rearranging his kitchen ; ) Hope that goes over ok! lol ..so, yeah Chia!!!

oh, 1 last thing - I got a newsletter from Matt Monarch's Raw Food World and it had a chia tapioca recipe in it. I deleted the newsletter but I just tried a version (it was very close to this) and it is delicious!!!

Chia Tapioca

1 1/2 c Almond Milk (blend 1/2 c almonds with 1 1/2 c water and then strain)
1/2 c Chia seeds
1/4 c Agave
dash of Cinnamon

Stir all ingredients together in a bowl. He suggested to put in the fridge and eat in the morning..but I ate half of it right away, really incredibly delicious and filling. Matt said he added and stirred in some raisins and more cinnamon in the morning. I may try that..if it lasts that long. My new delicious breakfast-dessert. Thank you Matt!!!

pic of mural of Aztecs harvesting of Chia Seeds ~ Courtesy of Missouri State