#StapKitchenReno - Update #3

Thought I would pop in and share a bit more progress that has been made on the kitchen.  What a transformation having these new floors in and having the existing ones refinished.  We love how the finish turned out!


A New 30-Day Challenge - Salad Style

One really interesting thing I have learned through all of my joint and inflammation issues (among so many interesting things!!) is to gear my diet to include a lot more alkaline foods and drinks. Apparently the sweet spot is to get 80% alkaline and 20% acidic.  This isn't just for those suffering from inflammation or joint pain, it's actually fascinating to learn all of the things that this type of diet can help with.  If you are interested, I highly suggest doing some research of your own, as I am certainly not an expert!

I have made so many changes with my diet over the past 4 or 5 years (removing meat, dairy, gluten,  & soda, reducing processed foods and sugar, increasing fresh, whole foods) but I have been feeling like I need to make more effort on this front. Switching up my diet to include more alkaline foods is likely to make a big difference in my health overall, including the dreaded inflammation I have suffered from for the past 3 years.  

Now, I love a good salad. Give me a big bed of spinach, kale, lettuce and I will happily pile it high with fresh chopped vegetables (sans dressing).  I am not, however, good at doing this regularly which is strange given how much I love it.  It just hasn't become a habit to include a salad into my daily diet for one reason or another.  Not to mention that it usually involves chopping whatever vegetables happen to be in the fridge and throwing them on top of greens.  Not a whole lot of planning involved.

So I am going to do a little salad challenge (similar to my bikram yoga challenge) to jump start what I hope will result in us incorporating salads several times a week, if not daily.  So I have been trolling through Pinterest to find some new salad recipes just to mix things up and keep it interesting.

Here are some that top my list...

Southwestern Chopped Salad - courtesy of The Garden Grazer