September's Book Giveaway- Vegan Lunchbox!

Congratulations to Jessica Long!  She is the winner of last month's book giveaway, "The Engine 2 Diet" by Rip Esselstyn.  Jessica increased her chances of winning by posting multiple times on my blog.  Each time you post you get your name on a piece of paper to be drawn from a hat by my daughter Anika.  She's my helper :)

This month I am giving away a copy of Jennifer McCann's "Vegan Lunchbox".  Jennifer was a coaching client of mine from over a year ago.  She has since come out with a second book called "Vegan Lunchbox Around the World".  I love her Martha Stewart like creativity.  The recipes are easy to make and will make any child or adult feel special when they open up their lunch!

Good luck and remember to subscribe so you can receive notice in your email when I post a new blog entry!

Dr. Fuhrman's New Nutritarian Food Pyramid

I am excited about Dr. Fuhrman's new colorful Nutritarian Food Pyramid!  It has all the brightly colored pictures of fruits and veggies that we should be centering our diet around.  He has also added the percentage of calories from each category, which was not featured on his previous pyramid.  You can purchase a magnet for your refrigerator at Dr. Fuhrman's website.

Couponing For Health Foods Update

A few months back I posted about how I was saving close to 50% on my groceries by shopping at Publix.  Well, that's when I was able to use two or more competitor coupons from Target, CVS, Family Dollar, Harvey's and Save A Lot. 

Now both Publix stores that are within a 2 mile radius of my home will only allow me to use ONE of those competitor coupons per grocery visit and I can no longer use CVS ($5 off $25 purchase) and Harvey's ($2 off $5 produce) coupons.

I guess the couponing rage has caught on to more shoppers in my area because not only are they tighting policies, they are also getting cleared out of inventory on BOGO's the first two or three days of the sale!

So, now my savings is around 30-40%, still better than what it was when I was not paying attention to sales flyers or using coupons.  And now I am asking myself, do I really need this item even though it is super cheap or free?!  For example, I bought about 20 boxes of the Kashi 7 Whole Grain Flakes and Puffs because they were .50 a box with coupons.  The cereal, though healthier than most, is essentially processed food and not really all that high in nutrients.  My family would be better off eating oatmeal or home made granola in place of the cereal.   Of course the preferred breakfast is the Green Smoothie!

So, now I'm being more careful about what I buy.  Some of the things I have been buying on sale and lightly stocking with coupons are:

-Eden Organic Beans, Tomatoes, tomatoe paste and Pasta Sauces (BPA Free Can)
-Cascadian Farms Frozen Fruit and Vegetables
-Bob's Redmill Whole Oats
-Tinkyada Brown Rice Pasta
-Texas Organic Brown Rice
-Lundberg Farms Organic Rice
-Unsweetened Almond Breeze
-Annie's Natural's Fat Free Dressings
-San-J Organic Low Sodium Tamari
-Nuts and seeds on Amazon.com
-Wildwood Sprouted Tofu
-Wildwood Organic Soy Yogurt and Probiotic Soymilk
-Food for Life Sprouted Whole Grain Breads
-Lightlife Organic Tempeh
-Tribe Organic Hummus
-Organicville Salsa
-Larabars (for the kids :)

And I'm not just shopping at Publix, I am back to shopping at Whole Foods and occasionally Hoover's Essential Health Market when I have a coupon for something I need that never goes on sale at Publix.

Drawing for the Free Book is coming up on the 31st!

Just a reminder that I am giving away a free copy of The Engine 2 Diet on the 31st!  You still have time to increase your chances of winning by posting a comment on my blog between now and the 31st.  I will be using Random.com to select the winner. 

Come on people!  Your post can be as simple as writing "Cool, thanks!".  How easy is that?!!