Saturday, January 30, 2010

Eggplant Polenta Quiche

I'm starting Meatless Mondays in February. Breakfast - no problem. Lunch - soup/salad. Dinner - let's try this!
Eggplant Polenta Quiche

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Body Frame

I'm usually moving around and doing stuff. Not often do I just sit and ponder. I should, probably, but when I have the time to sit I prefer reading. I love entering someone else's world. So, I was surprised to find myself out recently, totally sober, and just sitting. I enjoyed it, observing human interaction and expression.

At some point though, maybe I was getting tired, I saw in a moment people for their body frame. And really, how different they all looked. Every one is shaped differently, with different sizes and their body coverings fill their frame. That reminded me of why I wanted to lose weight. My mom used to say I was just big boned. I have always been strong which I like and flexible, which I love, but also big. So when I found out about the HCG diet I thought, "Let's see if I can get my body to match my frame." To really and truly see what I look like. So I did, I lost weight, and then some more and gosh, I weighed less than I thought I could.

So, I'm sitting on the couch observing these frame/body having people and wondering why if that is what I saw in myself before. A frame/body that didn't match? What was I so afraid of?

Now I sit, try to be calm, and think about it. What does my body give me? What do I need to give it? Because we are in a relationship together. A healthy one is my hope.

Monday, January 25, 2010

I've Been Looking Forward

to this all day: http://recipesharepdx.pbworks.com/Mushroom-and-Roasted-Tomato-Pesto-Pizza

Yummy Pesto Pizza!!

Eating

Eating with the fullest pleasure - pleasure, that is, that does not depend on ignorance - is perhaps the profoundest enactment of our connection with the world. In this pleasure we experience and celebrate our dependence and our gratitude, for we are living from mystery, from creatures we did not make and powers we cannot comprehend.

--Wendell Berry

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Fruit Pizza

I've been busy at work creating my recipe wiki cause this blog is proving to be annoying for recipe sharing. I cannot paste text in - cannot paste links so if I make alterations then they won't be with the recipe. Anyway, until it is further along I'll just post the fruit pizza here. Cause I am really excited about it!

http://books.google.com/books?id=mtDolkK41joC&lpg=PA250&ots=y6T1_m8dU4&dq=weil%20optimum%20health%20fruit%20pizza&pg=PA250#v=onepage&q=&f=false

The crust is cooking now. I can't wait until bookclub to eat it!

Plural

of synopsis is synopses. I'm just saying. In case you need it. I've used it twice in the last twelve hours.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Week Four

It has been three weeks now. I am down 1 pound (ohhh, the excitement) and have followed three different modes of eating. The first, vegan, was the most extreme and a really good way to start. As the weeks progressed the food began to normalize and now I pretty much eat the way I have been eating since the diet, only better. I am eating the way I want to eat, really. I am eating good, healthy foods that I enjoy and prepare in healthy way. I am not drinking either which means I get to eat more and I don't have the sugar surges. I am not craving foods at night. My mood is fairly stable and fairly content. So what I'm getting at is that I don't think I'll follow another diet this week. I think I'll eat my whole (real) foods, some of them superfoods and some of them vegan. I think the last piece for me is to eat mindfully. To eat slowly. To enjoy the food I'm eating.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

For some who hated

fish growing up it is interesting that my favorite food right now is salmon. I just grubbed a salmon burger I made the other night and reheated for lunch. I'm not a huge fan of re-heating (kinda like the Brahmans I recently found), but that was just awesome.

My two favorite things to eat right now are tuna and salmon. This fits right in with my eating aesthetic. I no longer eat botton feeders, much to the hubbend's chagrin, but I love the fish! My parents forced salmon on me when I was a teenager and new to Oregon. I HATED it. So I am probably muchmore suprised than you would know that I would like much less love the stuff. Who knew?

Growing up is interesting. If the kid is now in the body stage of development, does that now mean I am in the fish stage of eating? What is next? What is higher up on the food evolution chain?

Monday, January 18, 2010

Dinner, yo

I pulled out an oldie tonight - http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/1018

Yummy and it actually looks good too. Might be a good one for guests as the food I make is always really healthy, pretty damn yummy, but doesn't always look the most aesthetically pleasing.

Obviously more than one ingredient per... That just isn't working. I'm going with a looser definition of whole/natural foods for this week. I'm reading up on nutrition which will lead to next week and integrative nutrition... Then February starts no-meat mondays!

What am I reading now? Finishing Integrative Medicine and will start In Defense of Food next. Then maybe Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran foer.

cool.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Week Three

Food rules for this week:
- No foods with a list of ingredients longer than one item

So, I will combine whole/natural foods to my liking, but I cannot consume anything that has an ingredient list longer than 1.

Should be interesting. :)

I think I've found my set-point

Well, that is interesting. I just did my weekly weigh-in and I am... about the same. Huh. I guess I've found a good set-point weight for me. One that I can eat enough to feel full and still indulge in some bad behaviors occasionally and not gain weight. I still want to be a few pounds lighter when I attempt bikini-age in march, but I can wait on losing that until a few weeks before. Maybe I'll just enjoy the feeling for a bit that my body and I are in a symbiotic relationship and seem to have hit a good stride.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Week Two: FAIL

I'm sitting here with a big ole headache. I used to get headaches multiple times a week, but between yoga and weight loss I have strengthened my back and abs and lessened the stress on my body. The yoga practice has been going on 10 years now and the weight loss is at four months. So why now? Well, the superfoods week is a big ole fail. Why? Cause I just didn't try hard enough. Yes, most days I ate about 7 SFs, but only today have I achieved all 14. Last week was hard as I had to be so mindful of every single thing I put in my mouth, but this week was too easy. You see, I have been eating like this for about a month since I read the SFs book and really liked it. So this week, coming off the highly restrictive vegan diet I just rebounded to big ole crappy eating habits (coupled with my normal 2-3 meals a day of healthy eating). So the headache, you ask, after that long tangent? It's a sugar headache. I don't miss them. No, I do not.

So tomorrow, whole/natural foods week. I'm going to be more mindful about it. I need to. For me.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Tuna Salad

I'm not exactly sure why tuna salad over cabbage and sunflower greens is soooo satsifying, but it really is. Perhaps it is the crunch. It is one of those meals from the diet (HCG) that has become so ingrained in my diet and it never gets old. Other meals have - steak salad, shrimp celery salad or the lemon vinegarette dressing - but tuna salad just stays satisfying. It is nice and comforting to have a food that is not only so nutritious, but fills my soul as well. Food isn't supposed to feel restrictive or marginalizing. When you eat and are satisfied on so many levels then you know you've found something truly "healthy".

Salmon/Spinach

Last nights dinner was superfoodilicious!

http://www.superfoodsrx.com/kitchen/spinach/asian-style-wild-salmon-on-sesame-spinach.html

Although I prefer my preparation of the spinach the other night better, the salmon was awesome.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Pumpkin Yogurt Pancakes

I made Pumpkin Yogurt Pancakes this morning for a 4 SuperFood breakfast (including the blueberries on the side). They were moist, delicious and liked by all. They look a bit like french toast. I think next time I must try replacing egg with tofu just to prove the hubbend wrong (b/c he thinks he would notice). Game on!!

Friday, January 8, 2010

Garlic Sesame Greens

Garlic Sesame Greens

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Week Two

After one week of vegan-ness I have interesting information about substituting to get some of the saturated fats out of my diet (meat and butter). I will probably incorporate more tofu into our diet as well. On the whole the family liked the food. Little man especially likes soy products (will even eat plain soy yogurt, but not plain cow yogurt. I am about the same weight (kind of a bummer considering I haven't been drinking), but feel ok. My sleep is still the same (bad), but I think my mood has been more even.

Week two is superfoods. I know, that is cheating a bit as I have been up on superfoods for a while, but will try to eat as many per day for this week. I need to get some of the grains out of my body (as my digestive system isn't a fan), so will be mindful of the superfood pumpkin & broccoli categories to get some starches and dense veggies in to fill me up instead of grains.

Also, have figured out weeks three and four. Week three will be whole foods. As in non-processed, foods found as they grew. Should be easier for me than the hubbend. Week four will be integrative nutrition based of the book by Dr. Andrew Weil. This is one of the founders of the institute I am planning on attending this fall.

I feel like these four weeks will be interesting and different enough to give me a good feel for some different ways of eating. Probably not long enough on any (I already know I need to try the grains/bok choy breakfast of the vegan), but will try to fit these in later. Plus, I am just done with vegan-ness.

Yah for week two!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

frontpage

After I am finished with my January thing I think I'll try this!

Meatless Mondays... frontpage

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Bulgur Burgers

Making these again tonight - Bulgur Burgers. Think I'll try binding with Tahini.

Last nite I made the vegan lentil soup. I didn't have enough lentils so I added some left over wheatberries. That worked quite well, I thought.

Generally ok. Weight is up which is a bummer. Digestion still jacked. At least I slept last night though...

Monday, January 4, 2010

As the Nice Man

At New Seasons told me. To eat vegan you pretty much have to eat dinner for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Not sure I'm up to bok choy for breakfast, but after starving all day (then chowing on some chips and salsa) I'll have to work on that tomorrow :).

frustrated

what's the point of eating a well if you are going to gain weight? uggh. I think it is a good way to eat for some, but my body does not all the carbs. at all.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

What I've learned so far

Well, I've learned that if you want to make vegan cornbread you have to up the baking powder, use tofu and soymilk and then enjoy. Cause it rocks!

I've learned that all these carbs are making my stomach feel kinda puffy at night, but ok by morning. I also lost a bit of weight yesterday, but that probably is the lack of wine. :)

I've learned that it is pretty easy to make vegan meals for dinner (soup and stirfry tonight), but making breakfast (other than oatmeal and smoothies) is a whole different ball oh wax.

I've learned that being a vegan is hard... and I don't know that I am women enough for the job. but I sure am enjoying finding new recipes and ingredients!

A side note - kinda concerned about the vegan meat replacement patties. The book I'm reading recommends having them, but isn't that taking the natural out of it? I guess I am doing natural foods for week three, but it seems that I shouldn't buy these crazy things that I don't even recognize. (Well, as a healthy vegan I shouldn't.) I'll make bulgur patties Monday night for dinner and that is probably similar to the ingredients in the stores. Must remember to check...

Friday, January 1, 2010

Day One

The great experiment (to me, that is).
Vegan Day One.

morning - It's late so I'll probably just have an apple/peanut butter
The plan for late lunch - wheatberry chili with cornbread (tofu instead of eggs)
Dinner - salad

Weight - high-ish, but acceptable

Thoughts - worried about eating more grains and less protein than I have been for the past four months. Certainly don't want to gain weight, but this experiment isn't about weight, it's about health.