BRING IN THE NEW!

Now that you've cleared all the junk out of your kitchen, it's time to stock up on all the ingredients you need for healthy meals & snacks.

Here's our list of healthful food we love to keep on hand:

1. Fruits & Veggies

You should be buying lots of fresh fruits & veggies every week. Each week buy one new fruit or vegetable that you have never tried, or that you haven't tasted for a long time. Then, do an internet search and find a recipe to use it in.

2. Healthy Snacks

Some of our favorites are: raw, unsalted nuts & seeds; dried fruit such as raisins, prunes or apricots; whole grain crackers such as Ak Mak; popcorn (get real popcorn, not the microwave kind, and pop it in a hot air popper for a low calorie & filling snack); YoKids yogurt tubes; cottage cheese; low-fat string cheese.

You may want to put your snacks such as nuts, seeds, dried fruit & crackers into separate portion-controlled snack bags. Label the number of calories to make journaling easier.

3. Healthy Oils

Keep your pantry well-stocked with healthful oils. Although oils are high in calories, many oils contain healthful unsaturated fats. You can use them for dressings or for cooking. Here are the best oils to use: walnut, flaxseed, canola, olive, peanut, almond, avocado, safflower, sunflower, grapeseed.

4. Herbal Teas

Teas are soothing and delicious, especially in the wintertime. They can also help keep you away from caffeine. Flavored herbal teas such as Vanilla Hazelnut or Good Earth Herbal Tea can even satisfy your sweet tooth!

5. Spices

If you don't have one already, invest in a spice rack and a complete set of spices to flavor your foods without sodium. Look for "salt-free" spice blends.

What did we miss? Post a comment to let us know what other healthful foods you like to keep stocked in your kitchen.

CLEAR OUT THE JUNK!

You want to start the New Year feeling organized & ready to live a healthy lifestyle. A good start is to clear all the junk out of your kitchen so that you don't have tempting treats sitting around, calling your name when you're trying so hard to stay on track.


Follow this simple plan to whip your kitchen into shape!

1. GET RID OF THE JUNK:
Go through the shelves in your pantry, refrigerator & cupboards and pull out any items that no longer fit your healthy lifestyle. Focus especially on processed & prepackaged foods. Look at food labels. If the ingredient list is very long & contains items you don't know how to pronounce, it's dangerous. Toss it! Also look at labels for sugar and sodium content. Most canned foods are high in sodium. And don’t save the junk for your kids, either! If it’s not good for you, it’s worse for them! Make a habit of feeding them healthy, whole foods. They may complain now, but they will thank you later!

2. GET RID OF THE OLD:
Check the expiration dates on packages. Click here for information on the shelf life of the most common pantry items.

3. DONATE OR TRASH:
First, pick out any of your discarded items that are either too old or too toxic to pass on to someone else. Throw those items in the trash. Take everything else to a food bank. Many needy people will appreciate any food that will fulfill their hunger.

4. TELL US ABOUT IT!
Go through your kitchen right now & throw away THE MOST unhealthy, toxic food you find. Then, post a comment to tell us what it was. At the end of the week, we'll give a prize to the person who throws away the WORST food! (Narina will be the judge.)

NARINA ORGANIZES HER GROCERY SHOPPING

Today's entry was written by Narina:

To be efficient with my grocery shopping, I know I need to plan ahead. The easiest way for me to stay on top of what I need from the grocery store is to keep a magnetic note pad on the side of my refrigerator. When I use the last of any item, or better yet, when I see that it's running low, I write it down on the notepad.

When it's time to go grocery shopping, I just tear the sheet off the notepad and I'm almost ready to go. At least, I already know what I absolutely need to replace.

I'll also take a few minutes to think about what I'll be cooking throughout the week. I write out or look up the recipes, and jot down any ingredients that I don't already have.

At the top of my list, I have two columns: Super King and Trader Joe's, which are the two grocery stores I go to on a regular basis. Each time I write an item down, I make sure to put it in the correct column. This speeds up my shopping trip and helps ensure that I don't forget an item at one store.

Right now, my list is fairly short because I'm still spoiled! I cook only three days a week because my mom sends food home with me one day, we eat at my parents house one day, at my in-laws house another day and we eat out once a week.

To get even more organized with my shopping, my next step would be to divide the items into sub-categories. Right now, my list is too short for that....but maybe when I have kids!

Taking a few seconds to update my shopping list daily, and then an additional few minutes to review & add to it before heading out to the grocery store, saves me a lot of time in the long run.

Do you have any other grocery shopping tips to share? Click "comments" below to post your ideas.

ELAINE GETS ORGANIZED

This week's entry was written by Elaine:

Some people are naturally organized. I'm not.

As a kid, I shared a room with two sisters. It was always easy to tell which third of the room was mine. Their beds & desks were always neat & orderly. My area was always a mess!

I liked to think that I was too busy with more important things (sports, studying) that I just did not have the time to clean & organize. This pattern followed me through life. My college roommate complained that I was messy. When I lived in Japan, the Japanese family I lived with made fun of me for being so messy. And when I got married, I nearly drove my husband crazy with my messiness.

Finally, I realized I needed help!

One of our BootCamp members, Beth Ziegler, is a professional organizer, so I decided to hire her about a year ago to help me shape up. What I loved about her was that she made it very easy, moving step by step as we cleared out the clutter and set up new systems.

With anyone else, I would have been embarrassed to allow them to see my messy home, but Beth was so non-judgmental and easy-going that I felt relaxed and open to her suggestions.

As we went through the clutter, we set up boxes labeled: KEEP, TRASH, RECYCLE, DONATE. This made it simple to quickly go through a lot of "stuff" and separate what I really needed or wanted to keep from everything else. It was amazing how much stuff we got rid of and how much lighter I felt afterwards.

Beth used to compare getting organized with losing weight. You can't look for a quick fix. It's a process to retrain yourself to develop new habits. You may slip up every once in a while, but the key is to get back on track and keep working towards your goal.

I'm definitely not 100% organized yet. BUT, I'm much better than I used to be, and now I understand the POWER that being organized gives you. You have more time and peace of mind to choose to do the things you WANT to do, and not just feel overwhelmed by how much you HAVE to do.

Staying organized does not come naturally for me. It's something I have to think about and work on daily. If you have any tips you use for keeping your home, office, or life organized, please post a comment here so that I (and maybe some of our other BootCampers who need help) can learn from you.