2019…A new fresh year! A time to let go of the past year and focus on a new beginning. I am not a big fan of resolutions, rather new beginnings and habits are my focus.

I was listening to the radio, they mentioned the biggest google search for the new year was becoming a good person. Close your eyes and see a world filled with Chick-fil-a workers everywhere! How amazing would that be? If that is the top goal for 2019, I see a beautiful year in our future. Even if it is opening the door for someone, smiling to strangers, buying someone coffee, complimenting someone, or not talking about people behind their backs. We get stuck in this gossip world, which is not healthy for the gossiper, the person around them, or the person they are talking about. Let’s step back and think, “Would I want someone gossiping about me?”. The answer is “NO”!

As we all know, weight loss is a huge goal for a new year. Weight loss is not a great goal without setting small goals, giving a realistic number, and doable time frame. The gym starts getting packed and we hear the “regulars” complaining about it being packed. How about this year, we step back and remember our first days at the gym. This time is intimating for new gym goers and they don’t need negative people bringing them down. It is a huge step to join a gym and go, I give them credit for taking this step in their health. It makes me happy to see the full gym as it is showing that people want to start caring for their body. So next time you want to make fun of the overweight new gym-goer, instead send them a smile and encourage them. You don’t know their health or relationship story, so it is not your place to judge them! Treat people as you would like to be treated

With weight loss comes nutrition. Diets all over! Instead of diets, we should be focusing on little goals that can be achieved and continued throughout our life. You often lose weight with diets because you stop eating junk, calories are usually cut down, you are more aware of what you eat, and produce is often increased. Diets often have a time frame, but a healthy lifestyle does not. Start with small goals, for example: losing 1 pound in a week, eating more plant based, adding one more serving of vegetables, or drinking 1 more bottle of water. From there, continue to add to the goals once they become doable.

Here are some habits I want to build up this year:

1. Getting my workouts done in the morning. This will help me feel focused during the day and give me time to work on my blog and school at night. If you have tips to stop hitting the snooze button, I would love to hear some.
2. Celery juice in the morning. I have been drinking celery juice every morning since Dec 1. I heard about the medical medium and have been reading his liver cleansing book. My liver enzymes were elevated on my last lab work. Which resulted in higher rates for my life insurance. As a dietitian, that is upsetting and kind of embarrassing. I eat well, so it may be from the medicine I was on. I will retake the lab work to see. But in the mean time, I think my acne is from my unclean liver. Since doing the celery juice, my acne has gone down a lot!
3. Eating more plant based. I already incorporated this into my lifestyle. Eating meat only one meal a day OR not at all. Incorporating more lentils, beans, nuts, sometimes tofu, and Banza chick pea pasta into my meals. If this is a goal for you, you have to try Banza pasta! (I was not paid to say that, I just love their product) I tell my clients to try it instead of white flour pasta. It provides more fiber and protein compared to regular pasta. This month they are doing a challenge to eat more pasta and create recipes. So here is just one of my recipes! I also made a vegan 5 bean soup with Banza pasta, check it out here.

This is like a vegan mac and cheese, but with my favorite vegetables: sweet potatoes, mushrooms, and brussels sprouts. Sweet potatoes provide the “cream” sauce with nutritional yeast to provide the “cheese” flavor. I didn’t have cashews, which is the base for most vegan “cheese” sauce, but this turned out way better than I thought it would. I look forward to eating the leftovers tomorrow!

Vegan Sweet Potato Cream Pasta

Recipe by Chrissie Bittner, RD

Servings

3

servings

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

40

minutes

Ingredients

• 6 oz dry Banza Pasta

• 1/4 cup pasta water

• 1 shallot, chopped

• 2 mushrooms, sliced

• 1 cup shredded brussel sprouts

• 1 tsp olive oil

• 1 large sweet potato

• 1/2 cup milk (any type: I used flaxmilk)

• 2 tsp tahini

• 1/2 tsp lemon juice

• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast

• 1 garlic clove

• S&P

• Peptides (optional)

Directions

• Bake or microwave sweet potato until soft.
• Once soft, place in food processor with milk, tahini, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, and garlic clove until smooth for the cream sauce.
• In a medium skillet, heat olive oil. Saute shallot, mushrooms, and brussel sprouts until crisp, about 10 min. Sprinkle S&P to liking.
• Cook pasta per box, drain (keep 1/4 cup of the water), rinse with cold water, and place back into pot.
• Fold sweet potato cream sauce into cooked pasta and pasta sauce.
• Top with sauteed vegetables and sprinkle peptides.

If there is another pasta dish that you want me to make, I would love to hear it in the comments!