New Year's Eve = Lame, New Year Focus = Le Sigh

Now that I have sufficiently complained about New Year's Eve, the truth is: I love this time of year. Everyone is talking about what to eat and the reality of eating. The gym is packed and people actually do the workouts in my spinning classes.

Just moments after I posted yesterday I got an email from The Daily Beast ranking diets in terms of effectiveness. Well, actually the title says they rank diets and you can click to look at their rankings but there is also an article where they quote a nutritionist who reminds you that diets are not effective unless you consider them lifestyle changes (and then they aren't diets at all). Once you click on the ranking pages, however, all bets are off. The first one is essentially a liquid diet. I can barely muster interest in soup as an appetizer. The idea of drinking my meals would definitely be a diet for me, since it wouldn't even last a single meal.

Ellen Tarlin at Slate got in on the act this year when she decided to try some experimental eating, starting with stick to the USDA Food Pyramid. Tarlin is only a few days in and is not shocked to be struggling with some of the requirements, something I've said before. On top of having to measure your food, it is pretty hard to follow the food pyramid. She also mentions that she has done Atkins and Weight Watchers and knows that every time she has tried a new plan she finds that she feels good at the start but quickly, "the hunger sets in". Which, sister I hear you, this is why I constantly change my own plan. Adapting is hard.

Politicians are also taking a dip in the food pool having recently passed a new 'food safety bill'. I put that in quotes because I'm still not totally clear on how safe it will make our food. I've heard that the FDA inspects anything from 1 to 5 percent of the food supply and this new law will increase that number. My issue is that I'm not entirely convinced that increasing that percentage will actually keep us safer. Supposedly one of the goals is to prevent tainted food rather than the current system where the FDA simply reacts to tainted food issues. Also, it sounds like the law wont be very well funded.

Would it not be easier to decrease our consumption of over processed foods? Sure, technology has brought us the opportunity to shop for items made in other countries, but must it include food processed over seas? Our food could include at least fewer items grown or processed on the other side of the world even if we aren't eliminating them. I've heard arguments about how recently recalled organic beef proves that imported food isn't more or less safe. I'm not clear on how organic and local got confused with each other but the reason I like my local butcher is not because his lamb or pork is organic but because I can look the man in the eye or visit his farm and know his practices aren't going to give me food poisoning. When it comes down to it, regardless of organic-ness (shut up, that is a word), the further your food travels the more likely it is to pick up microbes and make you sick. If you took a trip from home to the other side of the world you'd probably have to take multiple planes, trains or automobiles which makes you more likely to pick up germs.

I'm just going to continue to relish this time of year where my news sources are actually talking about one of my favorite topics. Come February every is likely to go back to talking about the weather.

Bah Humbug

Oh, the new year, you old . . . yea whatever.

For some reason I'm not all that excitable about 2011. I'm generally pleased with life. In 2010 I got married, that was awesome, still is awesome. Let's see . . . um, 'bought' another used car? Yea, perhaps the lack of milestones? Again, generally pleased. To be clear, I'm not hating on 2011, per se, more hating on the New Year's Eve concept.

The thing is, I just don't get the excitement about a new year. I was under the impression that the reason new years were celebrated was because back in the day people were excited to have survived another year? Although, I thought that was what Thanksgiving had been all about. Not to mention that real Thanksgiving was apparently in March, or something?

It is possible that my other reason for a total lack of excitement is that I can't get behind resolutions. Anything that relates to improving your life because the year changed clearly sets a person up for failure. If you really want to improve your life or yourself it should have nothing to do with the date. It seems advisable to try to commit yourself to, um, yourself ,everyday, not just on January 1st.

Or maybe my fear of weighing myself after the holidays has something to do with it. But who could say, really?

Deficits Of Many Types

I'm not the only one in love with Michael Pollan. I am also not the only one who likes to hate on soy. I'm also also not the only one who struggles. This is me admitting to struggling. I'm also kind of a cliche. I got married and slipped up. I've got about 15 pounds to lose. 10 of them are from the last 6 months, 5 are pounds I wanted to lose previously and still haven't. My clothes still fit, but I'm not happy.

Every time I reassess the way I handle eating in my life I'm fully aware of the fact that something wasn't working. Sometimes it is as easy as renewing a promise to myself. Sometimes I have to put on my big girl shoes and recalculate my calories entirely. My old system was totally not working. So I reread the article about calorie calculation and decided to actually follow the part about adding in your work out calories instead of eating them as they come. Basically, I wasn't following the calculation their way, I was making up my own way. Now I'm doing it their way. So far I'm feeling pretty good. I'm only weighing myself on Wednesday mornings though so it is hard to be sure how I did this weekend (read: three nights out).

I'm also taking a page from the DUH-book. Well, two pages. The first is that I'm trying to do this veeerrrrry sllllllloooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwly. A 500 calorie deficit is a pound loss a week. I'm alternative between 500 calories and 250. The theory is that the slower you lose it the harder it is to put back on. Reasons for this are many but often vary by person. For me it is that I want to really, actually, totally learn these good habits and stop the back slide that occasionally hits me.

The second is much bigger. This one is pretty major and I'm sure you'll be incredibly shocked. It is that I need to calm the hell down. I just reread a post from this time last year. And boy do I stink at learning obvious lessons. Stop beating myself up, stop caring about things I can't change, start enjoying fun activities (even some that don't involve consuming). Deep breath. I should also probably get around to stopping beating myself up about beating myself up. I bet I'll get around to that one in the new year...

Moving Quick Today, Try to Keep Up

Moving quick is also known as I-am-all-over-the-place-just-let-me-go-about-my-business. At work today I couldn’t sit still so I had to run errands. As in, I spent my lunch hour (lunch-20-minutes) on errands because my desk chair seemed to be throwing me out the door. I blame this on international travel. I have a lot of things to do and none of them get done when I sit in chairs! And yes, you’re probably right, this is a habit that helps with weight loss. Thanks, Mom, for the jittery habit.

I find bridal beauty tips kind of hilarious. And not just because I read the photo credit at the end of slide three as Little Blue Men. The tips imply that you should take really good care of yourself when you’re about to have 600 photos of yourself that span about 10 hours of your life but it also implies that you don’t really need to worry about drinking water when you’re single or after you’re married. In case you were wondering there were about 600 photos at my wedding between 2 pm and midnight. That is one photo per minute. Sure, not all of them are of me but I have never felt so documented. Kind of weird.

In honor of ridiculous lists I’m going to make one of my own. Be you bride or baby daddy, below is a list of ways to keep yourself looking trim and great (if you think I'm serious I have a bridge to sell you), for your reading pleasure.

1) Follow the food pyramid religiously.

Your day should include: One three ounce serving of whole grain (example: piece of toast is around this weight and is about 150 calories); ‘More’ dark green veggies, orange veggies and dry beans and peas (I dunno about you but more is kind of relative and thus useless); A variety of fruit which can be fresh frozen canned or dried and you should go easy on fruit juice (again, How vague can you be government?); Fat from fish, nuts and vegetable oil while limiting solid fats like butter (Did you know butter has fewer calories than olive oil?); Low-fat or fat-free dairy (I have already gotten rowdy about how this is total crap); Low-fat, lean meat and poultry that is not fried and beans should be varied.

Do you feel like you know more about how to eat? No, I didn’t think so.

2) Don’t eat carbs, drink soda or enjoy yourself, ever.

Like toast? Eat some freaking toast. Just don’t eat an entire loaf of bread. Like soda? Have one with lunch. Just don’t drink two liters in an hour. Basically this stuff about not eating certain things and eating other things is completely ridiculous. People who are fit and have healthy habits are people who concern themselves with what they’ve eaten over an entire day, week or even month.

For example, after lunch today I ate a cookie the size of my butt. So my butt doesn’t look like two cookies I’ll eat lots of veggies for dinner. Moderation? Sure. Just don’t hate your life because you’re killing yourself over a soda or a bagel.

3) If you overeat one day, just cleanse the next day.

I’m not sure how some people do those cleanse plans. I know everyone has heard about how Beyonce does the cayenne pepper thing but holy moly on a stick I would freak out. Granted, I struggle if I don’t eat every three hours or so but drinking cayenne pepper in lemon juice? I’d rather die.

The real problem with this kind of behavior is that you’re really just beating yourself up about your poor choices. Do you spend all your time lamenting about how you kissed the nerdy kid at the school dance in 5th grade? No? Well punishing yourself about eating pie last week is just about as useful. Eat something today that makes you feel good. If you screw that up, tomorrow is another day. Learn something from your choices, move on.

4) Don’t eat gluten, dairy, soy or whey.

This is similar to the second one except in #2 I’m more talking about your appreciation for life whereas this is more about this craze with avoiding things because you might possibly have a mild allergy. Look, Crohn’s disease is a real thing. Gluten allergies are real. Lactose intolerance is real. If you think you might possibly be allergic to something but you can’t really say why maybe its time to stop trying to convince yourself of some problem. It’s called a reality check.

The upshot:

Calm yourself. Stop beating yourself up. Stop freaking out about that donut or the extra large whole milk latte. Enjoy life. Take care of yourself.

Happy brides love themselves, fat or not. Unhappy brides can be unhappy for a million reasons which can have nothing to do with being fat or skinny.

Same goes for regular people.

Bridezillas Are Probably Better at Journaling

I up and got myself married, interwebs. For some reason getting married occupies every part of your universe for months beforehand and for sometime afterward (unless you hire a planner, or so I've heard). I have only seven thank you notes left. I will conquer them this weekend.

So my blogging fell by the wayside but so did my eating in some ways and next week I'm off to Greece to relax like crazy. If it is possible to be intense about relaxation, then that is my current emotional status. I am GOING TO BE RELAXING DAMMIT. I'm even kicking off the relaxing with a massage and pedicure on Sunday all thanks to my wonderful co-workers.

Calories, how you bloat me. Really, I just don't know how to analyze how it all fell apart in the last few months. I haven't gained 20 pounds or anything but I don't really deserve a reward for making good choices either. I'm trying a new system, suggested by a friend, from www.freedieting.com. I'm on the fence about its functionality, mostly because I've only been doing it for 1.5 weeks. And, honestly, I don't plan to journal in Greece. Well, not calorie journal. I might still do a food journal. Although, hard to say, what with all the intense relaxing I'll be doing.

Whilst I was missing from this space I discovered a new food read. Now, excuse me while I try to eat something without popping my pants button.

Quality Over Quantity

I'm not going to use the F word or anything but I totally agree with the illegal-pizza-guy on the whole "family farm–killing, exploited illegal immigrant–built, fake cheese–laden, nutritionally void, race-to-the-bottom" food thing. And while he is discussing the value of his product I'd like to highlight the nutritionally void part. Michael Pollan says that you should eat as much junk food as you want as long as you make it yourself.

Again, the problem is the way we talk about the issue. Americans are obsessed with moving as quickly as we can for as cheaply as we can to the detriment of our health. Rather than spend time in the kitchen with our entire family we spend time rushing our family around from place to place and spend a minute with the microwave so our families can eat quickly before we shuttle them somewhere else.

I realize that as a childless adult I can't know all the details. Mothers work their tails off to keep their kids lives moving forward at all let alone making sure their kids eat perfectly all the time. Not that school lunch isn't also to blame for poor child nutrition. I wont discount the work of fathers either. But again, the problem is the way we talk about what we eat, how we eat and when we eat and the fact that we just accept the corporate line about this conversation. The illegal pizza guy highlights a problem that just furthers what I've said in the past. We have to stop supporting food that supports exploiting our farms and our people, even if they are illegal immigrants.

I've never understood Americans who don't live their life in a way that allows their values to shine right through their actions. And, no it isn't possible only because I live in a dual income household and it isn't always easy but damned if I'm going to be one of those people who will shove whatever comes past my nose into my mouth just because. And I agree, if you're willing to let your values stop at the oven door, you deserve your nutritionally void food.

Volume Or Flavor: No Contest

Back when I did Weight Watchers I would thrive on how few points I could consume by the end of the day and still have eaten things like cake. Except all that food was packaged and at the end of the day my stomach was a hot mess. I've learned that my body doesn't enjoy processing things like Yellow 5 or fractionated palm kernel oil. So I've learned to focus on foods that make me enjoy life even if it means eating less of something.

Which is what brought me to making my own bread. The dough here is fuzzy because it is being mixed and kneaded by the bread machine. At this point it already smells like nutty deliciousness.

Then it rises. You're supposed to keep that lid down but I can't usually keep my face out of the machine if I run it when I'm home.

Usually I put the ingredients in the machine before I leave for work.

That way, when it has risen and baked up into the crunchy-on-the-outside-delicious-and-soft-on-the-inside loaf you see here I can slice it up and smother it with something like egg yolks or almond butter and honey.

Each of these slices is a tasty 145 calories and doesn't contain one single bit of maltodextrin or other ingredients I can't spell or pronounce.

As for the crack pumpkin I mentioned yesterday.

I was not kidding when I said it is like crack. There is just a little bit left in our fridge and if it weren't sweet enough that I can't really eat more than a cup at a time it would have been gone before it hit the tupperware.

I warn you not to leave too much of this in your house.

Sam Walton: Ecstacy or Agony?

One of the greatest challenges about making positive choices for me is making sure I have time to cook and actually enjoy what is in the fridge or pantry. If I am bored of those items I am likely to go to the grocery store and buy a piece of cake for dinner. It has happened on a few occasions and it does not help that said grocery store is next door to my building, damn you urban planners.

A great example of this is something fiance made this weekend that we have taken to calling crack pumpkin. I'll post a whole lot more about crack pumpkin tomorrow but suffice it to say this is the tastiest vegetable I have ever consumed. The pumpkin itself was purchased at the farmer's market meaning its flavor was intense and, as is intimated by the name, addictive. The apple cider it was braised with was also from the farmer's market increasing the addictive sugary awesomeness.

The issue of course is that going to the farmer's market is not always convenient. The first two weeks in February were packed full and we couldn't make it to the local market. Instead we went to Whole Foods and tried to be strategic about what we purchased: local apples (they were eh), sustainable salmon, and even local milk. Apparently grocers and outlets across the country are starting to realize that real people actually go in search of this stuff. Event WalMart is getting in on the action and while I am really skilled at hating on them, their model is fascinating.

Let Me Count the Ways

At least once per day my eating habits are discussed. Sometimes it is discussed by me and sometimes by others. Occasionally I will be eating a salad and someone will comment on how 'good' I am (see: last week, rye). Often someone will ask me about teaching at the gym and the conversation will turn to my weight loss of three-ish years ago. Almost always, the conversation ends with someone saying how healthy eating is such a pain or working out is so boring or some other complaint about habits they assume I regularly participate in.

I find this fascinating. First, I don't eat salad because I think it is tastier than fried food. Actually, I don't love salad or fried food. At least not in terms of favorite foods. Salad is a vehicle for things like cheese or the sweet potato salad fiance made last night. Some fried food is okay. I will always eat chili cheese fries and buffalo wings smell good but are largely inedible according to my taste buds, for instance. The reason I find this reaction so interesting is that these choices are only partially about the fact that their healthy. They're really about one thing.

ME!

When I was overweight I thought I felt awesome. I was happy (minus that short period after college graduation where any sane person wants to sit quietly in a dark room for four months), I was active, I had friends and a life. Now, its a whole different world. One that is all about ME. I love me. Selfish? Perhaps. I'm not saying I don't love other people or that I don't ever think about other people. But, really, while I can be a loving family member or friend my life is all about me. Anyone who claims their life isn't about them is lying. Pheobe Buffet made this point very nicely in an episode of Friends were she pointed out that even good deeds are even just slightly about you because they make you feel good.

Elle Woods also put it nicely when she fought tooth and nail for that legal clerkship and came out of the crowd and screamed, "ME".

Yep, me, salad and fried food (and last night's clam linguini and white wine [still not able to get the clam smell off my hands, if you have any tips for that problem I have a comment section for you] which I will be blogging about tomorrow), me, tasty food and also ME.

I Love You Rye

There are some people who make me feel both good and bad about myself simultaneously. This is one of them:








Peter Walsh, of Oprah fame, makes me feel good about my ability to notice that clutter in life clutters my life and not just in my bedroom but also in my brain, and also bad about my ability to actually organize.




This image from the Oprah site is great imagery for how I feel when my life is cluttered. Except that for me I don't feel the need to throw out a hair brush from 1920, instead I have a hard time organizing myself andOhMyGodAnxietyHyperventilate AhhhhHELP.


Fiance regularly gets tired of me being tired of his belongings being 'everywhere' as I call it. Recently I told him I couldn't hear him when his socks were on the floor. While this comment is kind of funny its also oddly true. (I just accidentally typed rye instead of true. Which could be a typing error or could be attributed to the fact that I just spent too much time telling a coworker about my love of all things rye and pumpernickel and then proceeded to scour MarthaStewart.com for bread recipes with caraway seeds.) Socks on the floor, items without a location, items not in their given location, anything being not what it is supposed to be distracts me from everything else. This is also known as clutter in house equals clutter in brain equals unable to focus on goals equals rye bread in the office kitchen nomnomnom.


Peter Walsh is a book selling hack of the variety I regularly moan about but that doesn't make him wrong. I'm still on the fence about his denial of technology since I'm not sure how the parents in those families get anything done at work but he can still be on point. It took me a while to figure out exactly why he is on point. Basically it boils down to the fact that if you are overextended and your life is full of too many things then everything is a distraction from the things you need to do on down to the things you enjoy. You can't clean your house because you worked too many hours this week because you decided you needed to cook a meal for your family because you needed an extra hour of sleep the other night because you had spent too much time reading your favorite blog because. . . the list goes on. Basically, you can't take care of your shit so your shit is everywhere. For me, this extends to my eating habits and hot damn did that apply to this week. Now, where did that rye bread go. Oh right, I ate it.

A Love Letter to Calories

As of the end of this work day I can almost see the wagon there in the distance. This is almost like trying to retrain yourself to do something. I have never lost the ability to walk but I'd bet it is similar. Habits are so easy to break/ruin. And damn are they hard to bring back. Not sure why it is that what amounted to basically a three day weekend totally threw me off but lordy did it.

I spent a majority of my work day trying to remind myself that you are supposed to be hungry before you eat again.

I've also decided that the culprit is snacking. So my goal is whole, true, real, honest to God meals or at the least valuable and comprehensive snacks like yogurt for protein before the gym or some almonds for some enjoyable fat to get me through the morning. The chocolate in the office down the hall has been calling my name all day and my response has been, "YOU ARE NOT A MEAL". ("OR A VALUABLE SNACK". [Love you, call me!])

She Might Be A Felon But Shes a Genius

Despite my future husband's and my mother's hate for her I think Martha Stewart is kind of a freaking genius. Today, in my email inbox, she happened to make a point I've been pondering all week.

"Reversing unhealthy eating habits is not about following hard-and-fast diet rules. Instead, it's about cultivating a new, conscious approach, one that starts with listening to your body."

I know what you're thinking: duh. The reason I have been thinking about this was a conversation fiance and I had the other day when I saw a man walk out of the grocery store with a case of soda. It occurred to me that I haven't had soda in years and in college it is possible that I lived on Diet Coke. Prior to graduate school I would call coffee, 'bean water'. I thought it was weird and gross. Now I have totally switched. I haven't had soda, even in a restaurant, in ages and lamented when my doctor told me it would be best to reduce my coffee consumption.

Basically, I find human habits fascinating and Martha Stewart has hit the nail on the head. In my effort to feed my face less and my soul more it has become clear to me that I am a sensory eater. Although, that should have been clear to me ages ago when I declared jiggly foods gross. I dread the possibility of having children in a hospital that serves me only pudding and jello. Even more fascinating is the concept of actually trying to feed your senses. I don't exactly plan to start eating meals with a blindfold but I am reminded that I need to eat at the television less. Maybe yesterday's plea for help with food boredom can be combated by feeding my senses!

Way Under Par

An excerpt from a conversation heard round the world:

X: My New Year's resolution is to lose weight.

Y: My New Year's resolution is to exercise more.

X: Great, we'll go running together and eat salad together. I'm so excited.

Y: My hangover is raging from New Year's Eve. Want to go get pancakes and some hair of the dog?

X: Oh, God, yes please.

And, scene.

This conversation happens a million times over around the world at the start of each year. If a health resolution isn't broken in a few days its probably broken in hours. There are two reasons for this.

One, New Year's is in the winter. In the winter it is freaking freezing. This past weekend was easily the coldest I've experienced in years. I even wore pants to church on Sunday and I always wear a skirt. Always. Its a Greek lady thing, I can't tell you a good reason, I just do. So you know its really cold when I wear pants to church. Anyway, since its so damn cold your eating is handicapped from the start. It is far easier to get your hands on hot meaty stew and also your body wants to eat hot meaty stew because you're freaking freezing.

Two, no tasty fruit is readily available. Sure you could eat a box of clementines and a few mealy apples but that sounds gross and boring for three freaking months. Even the farmer's market is looking lame right now. The honey crisp apple bin (if you have never had one of these you have not yet lived) looked like the bin of trash produce from your generic grocery store yesterday. It was sad looking to say the least.

By resolving to be healthier in the middle of your area's version of arctic tundra you're combining cold unhappy body with frozen farmland and ending up with cold unhappy and hungry you. See? Stupid.

This is me giving out free passes to be a little lame in the health department during the time of year when your risk of hypothermia is higher.

I said a little lame. Not totally lame. I find myself with a very limited amount of will power. I can't resist a good cookie when its been offered three times. I'm going to give in on the third time if it looks tasty enough. The thing is though, you can totally make resolutions to be better. You just need to not be a moron about it. (I was once/often am a moron about this.) If you try to make a million changes the first day of the year and cram them all into your life at the same time on a frozen day in January when there is no fruit to be had you're trapping yourself in a mealy apple filled hell of your own making.

Make resolutions? Sure. Start small and build up? Yes. Handicap yourself so you fail? No, thanks.

Peck Peck Peck

I know, all you 3 of my readers, one-third of which will be married to me in six months, are thinking: what's with the lack of blog?

Or, not. I'll tell you anyway though. The freaking holidays are what's with the lack of blog. I've never actually seen that movie The Birds but my understanding is that at the end she is pecked to death by birds. This is a good metaphor for the way my life feels right now. I am being slowly pecked to death by various aspects of life. Work? Suddenly busy. Home? Suddenly dirty and needing cleaning and vacuuming. Holidays? Suddenly needing insane attention in the form of cooking for others, tree decorating, traditions needing tradition-ing and various other fun but time consuming items. To top it off my 3rd grade Sunday school class is not only in the Christmas pageant but they are the pageant. As in, no other teacher has a student in this pageant. Since I am the only adult in the community who seems able to put the fear of God in even the worst behaved in the class, I have to attend all their rehearsals. They're cute and some of them are good kids but some of them need straight jackets.

Right, I know, stop complaining. Traditions that you like need attention? Can you not enjoy yourself? Apparently not. Really. I come from a long line of women who stress about parties (for stupid reasons I wont even list), cooking (see: hot jail) and general life needs. The older I get the less capable of having fun I become.

This issue has a lot of implications. Obviously stress is not good for you. That Friends episode with the alterna-world where Pheobe is an attorney and has a heart attack from all the stress clearly taught me that if I get stressed I will not only have a heart attack but probably also take up chain smoking and yelling. Beyond the general effects of stress is that nutrition and health go out the window.

I have two solutions to the problem.

1) I am making a conscious effort not to react to things that don't matter. I am also committing myself to my inside voice. I'm rather enjoying being asked to speak up lately. When a coworker and I disagreed on if this stuff on the wall of the office hallway was spackle or primer the old me would have put my foot down and explained why, duh, it is clearly primer (it has since become clear that it is spackle) but the new me does not care. Cause really? Don't care. Not worth it.

I am apparently so overly relaxed that my father asked if I was okay this weekend. When I told him my new habit he warned me not to seem too relaxed or people might think I'm stoned. It's good to know I live in a world where the choices are spackle/primer-caring-screamer or stoned.

Let me be clear, this is not to say I'm becoming a door mat. Being from a strong combination of rowdy Greeks and equally-though-differently rowdy Southern women, I don't have it in me to become a push over. I'm just choosing my battles extra carefully.

2) I am making a conscious effort to only eat when hungry. This even applies to parties where there is a spread of amazing cheese or cheesy food or food that can have cheese on top with a side of dairy. These are the situations that always get me. I am at a party and have intelligently arrived hungry but not starved. I am planning to have some casual snacks without over doing it. Then there is the dairy bonanza and I convince myself the treats are a one time thing and totally worth it.

I have never, ever, not once, nope, not a single time walked away glad I over indulged. Snacks will exist again in life, these particular snacks might look good but they aren't going to change my life even though that random friend of that friend thinks that particular cheese is so tasty and amazing. They are never life changing. Maybe tasty, but never life changing.

It's two weeks until real resolution time and I've decided these are not those types of resolutions. Those are the kind that are broken before Valentine's Day. These two are the kind that bring down two numbers in particular: blood pressure and waist to hip ratio. Ask me on Valentine's Day if I've forgotten my inside voice.

Not That I Don't Love Mother Earth But . . .

Clearly NPR is following my blog. Or maybe CAFOs are a hot topic, you know, whatever. Regardless, NPR is running what seems like a series on CAFOs dairy farms. Yesterday's story was on New Mexico's dairy farm issues and today's was on an Ohio farmer's efforts to improve the situation.

The part that stuck most with me from the first story was the people who 'knew dairy farms' and said the situation had to change. A lot of the issues surrounding the lack of change in the dairy world is that the farmer's either don't want to change because it costs too much or they actually can't afford it or big Ag cares more about the bottom line (ahem, supported by the federal government, ahem). But in this story, people who grew up in dairy farms, in dairy farm towns and actually understand the way the system works are actively interested in change.

The Ohio farmer's story was interesting to me because he talks about the flavor but not as much about the effects on the cows and what they produce. I've said it before and I'll say it over and over: eating whole foods that are sustainably grown are worth it for the cost and flavor. I'm not saying you should eat organics because they're better for you. I'm not saying you should eat whole foods because your liver likes it or whatever crazy story you read about in the free magazines at Whole Foods' check out line.

Not convinced? A case study from my own life:

I'm half of a two person household. We've used various methods to bring food into our kitchen from straight grocery shopping to produce delivery to almost exclusive farmer's market foods. We used to go to the grocery store two or three times per week (we live in a city and our building is right next to a grocery store) and spent between $150 to $250 per week depending on the time of year. Last weekend we went to the farmer's market and purchased an entire week's worth of fruit, vegetables and meats for $100. Now, we do still go to the grocery store to purchase (whole, organic) milk and things like toilet paper or garlic if we run out but the price of these is pretty nominal. In fact, adding it up we spent about $30 this week at the grocery store on additional items and, um, a portion of that was beer. (When are they going to start selling beer at the farmer's market?!) We also eat out a lot less often. It's hard to be interested in a bar's selection of nacho toppings when you have homemade pizza in your fridge.

This week by shopping at the market we have been able to make beef and barley stew, broccoli crunch, cabbage salad and homemade pizza along with less-recipe required items like roasted lamb sausage, eggs, a chicken to roast and some greens to saute. All of these things, for two people, in one week, for a lot less.

Screw the environment buy whole and sustainable for your wallet.

I Have ESPN Or Something (And Other Random Items)

I am quite prescient, my friends. The blogosphere* is clearly following my lead by discussing orthorexia. Just thought I'd toot my horn there.

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Living in Washington, D.C. I often encounter those who like to argue about the pros and cons of things like defense spending, climate change and of course, the ever popular, health care overhaul. There are a million little pieces of this to discuss. While I'd prefer not to get bogged down in all of them I am interested in the way actual health affects health care. Its no secret that Americans are really quite unhealthy as a generalization. Basically we get fat, poison our hearts and lungs and then we cost everyone else lots of money. But its okay, because almost everyone else does it too.

Imagine my surprise this morning when the news was chock full of stories about how 75% of health care costs in America are due to diseases that could be potentially avoided if Americans weren't obese. That's right, according to the journal Health Affairs, we could potentially be spending close to 75% less as a society if we took care of ourselves. Its true that we'd likely still have some heart disease, diabetes and cancer. You have to admit that we'd likely be able to eliminate a large portion of that spending if we stopped stuffing our faces and got off our butts more. I could argue about the tenants of S 3962 until I was blue in the face but its hard to argue with the fact that a large majority of our problems stem from our personal choices and not with our PPO or HMO choices.

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Going back to yesterday's post where I ranted about Eat This, Not That. I realized I didn't suggest a solution to the problem of not knowing what to eat in fast food situations/on travel/insert problem here. Well, I have a really easy solution: be a pain in the ass. Find a place that is capable of grilling food dry and be annoying about the contents of your sides and sauces. I embarrass people when eating out somewhat regularly but on the flip side, I'm usually one of the healthier people at the table. I order fish grilled dry or chicken and sides of plain vegetables.

You're thinking: that sounds gross and boring. Did you really think the food at fast food establishment x was going to be awesome? Did you go there for the fine dining experience or because you need to eat something while traveling for work? If you went to that strip mall restaurant to have your favorite meal that's one thing. If that's the case, order the fat with extra fat and a dollop of lard on top. If you are going for utilitarian reasons, stop expecting the restaurant to change your life. Instead, get some quality calories and get out.

*Blogger's** spell checker doesn't recognize the word blogosphere!
**It doesn't recognize it's own name in the possessive either. Talk about not being meta***.
***It recognized meta as a word.

Eat Food, Not Junk

Perhaps you have deduced that I love a good food indulgence. What with the inhabitants of my apartment's new obsession with www.smittenkitchen.com. Indulgences aren't just greasy or caloric food in my world. They have to be awesome greasy or caloric food. McDonald's rarely makes the cut. I find it surprising that food critics in an increasingly foodie city like to indulge in items from Chipotle or Krispy Kreme. Mall food? Really? I love a good donut, cheeseburger or foods that come a la mode but Dunkin? Wendy's? Dairy Queen? What a waste of perfectly good indulgence calories. (I am not saying I don't go to Dunkin on occasion, or even Dairy Queen or Chipotle.)

There is a whole movement out there about what indulgences to indulge in. I'm totally against the "Eat This, Not That" concept. First, it teaches nutritionally confused (fat) Americans to choose donuts over bagels instead of understanding the concept that you can eat what you want as long as you think of your calories in terms of the entire day or the entire week along with the nutrition content of the meals. Choosing a bagel for breakfast isn't going to kill you. What matters is if you follow that with a cheeseburger for lunch and so on.

Men's Health came out with a list of the 20 worst restaurant foods in America. Lets go to the tape.

Suppose you follow their replacement suggestions in the lower left hand boxes and for the sake of the argument you've eaten out every meal. Maybe you're on vacation or traveling for work, bear with me.

According to the ETNT ("Eat This, Not That") people your choices for breakfast are Cheesecake Factory or IHOP. On the bad choices list are a Colorado Omelet or french toast with bacon Your 'smart' choices are Cheesecake Factory's create your own omelet where you will choose spinach, tomatoes and mushrooms or IHOP's Garden Scramble For Me. To give them the benefit of the doubt we'll pick the last one since it has fewer calories.

So you've gone to IHOP and eaten the garden scramble and you've probably had something like coffee to drink. Lets say you put two creamers in there (we'll assume you're not putting in sugar, again, benefit of the doubt). Lets also ignore the fact that the online menu for IHOP suggests that the calorie and nutrition of the list is wrong, but whatever. We'll also ignore the fact that if you're human you probably ordered some bacon or sausage and the scramble is made with egg substitute which means you're short changing yourself on the protein which is what you really need out of eggs anyway.

At the end of this meal with the scramble and the creamer (you're annoyed that you didn't get to eat bacon and) you've consumed 430 calories, 4 grams of saturated fat, 1,220 milligrams of sodium and 53 grams of carbohydrates in the food and 30 calories, 2 grams of unsaturated fat and 2 grams of saturated fat in the creamer.

Lets move onto lunch since I'm hoping you're full and didn't need a snack (although with such a crappy amount of protein I'd bet you're starving within an hour or two). Lets assume you skip appetizers entirely (number 18 on the ETNT Men's Health list). There are a number of items they suggest avoiding and lets just say you pick the least caloric one of the entire good choices lunch items list. Lets say you don't want to return to IHOP (it would be way embarrassing to see the same waitress) and that you're not going with the stupid idea that you could eat only a steak with no sides (ahem, good choices in numbers seven and thirteen). In fact, just to throw the ETNT people a bone here, lets pick the only lunch choice that seems like an entire meal. This is number fourteen's Pico Shrimp Tacos with Black Beans and Grilled Veggies from On the Border. Vegetables! Fiber! Omegas! Yes! In this meal, assuming you've consumed the entire thing with only water and no dessert you'll have eaten 490 calories, 5 grams of unsaturated fat, 1 gram of saturated fat and 1,650 milligrams of sodium. Congrats! You've already gone over the daily recommended value of sodium.

Assuming you're capable of holding out until dinner (never in my life have I lived a day without a snack between breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner and I often consume a snack at both times, so kudos to you if you have this kind of insane will power) lets move onto your last and final meal of the day. In this scenario you'll be getting no beers with dinner. Sorry, its only to prove my point (which I am really, actually getting to). But, congrats! You'll be eating dessert! Lets again say that you're not eating the stupidest of suggestions like only steak or a sandwich with nothing else. You're left with a salad. No, seriously. You now must go to Cheesecake Factory and order the Chinese Chicken Salad. Also, you're only allowed to eat half. Which, is probably okay since the portions at that restaurant are gigantic (although you're probably hungry what with the lack of protein). At the end of this meal you've eaten 503 calories, 1.5 grams of saturated fat (no idea how many unsaturated since the restaurant wont tell you), 430 milligrams of sodium and 55 grams of carbohydrates.

Now, for the kicker. Oh, dessert, how you kill us, literally. And yet, we love you. Lets ignore number one on the ETNT Men's Health list entirely. Since they suggest eating cheesecake as a good choice alternative to a giant brownie sundae. You could easily walk your salty self over to Coldstone and purchase the good choice alternative of number 2. A small Strawberry Banana smoothie (because when you walk into Coldstone that's totally what you want to walk out the door with). Hurrah, at dinner you had three fruits. If you can call it that. You ate strawberries and bananas in your smoothie and a mandarin orange garnish in your salad. Congrats to you Men's Health follower. You had dessert for 220 calories, 1.5 grams of unsaturated fat and 34 grams of sugar (we'll count these as carbohydrates).

In total you've eaten 1,673 calories, 8.5 grams of both saturated and unsaturated fat, 142 grams of carbohydrates and 3,300 milligrams of sodium. There are a number of age groups in both genders even in the sedentary lifestyle department where the calorie content is actually okay (if you've read this blog in the past you know that this is 273 calores too many for me, an average sided 20-something female). Although, remember you ate an egg scramble with no sides, half a salad for dinner and ordered a fruit smoothie for dessert. Your fat grams could be worse for just about every group. Even your carbohydrates are probably okay for most. Your sodium content was completely through the roof and the nutritional value of most of these things was pretty low. At least there were a few vegetables in the fajitas (I refuse to count the salad as a vegetable). Although since you packed in so few vitamins you'll feel like crap. You will also enjoy artery hardening and a slew of other complications from overeating sodium (if you do it often enough).

For the record, I don't think Eat This, Not That is saying they'll solve all your dietary problems. Although it is really frustrating that I discovered ETNT's nutrition facts were lower than the actual restaurant's for just about every item. Dumbing down nutritional information allows Americans to dumb themselves down.

Incredible Shrinking Ladies

So I have returned to heavy/serious lifting. I never talked about stopping here but somehow during fiance's rugby season I stopped going to the gym with the good weight lifting equipment because he stopped going. Put away your righteous indignation, feminists. It isn't because I stayed home while he did other things. I still taught all my classes and went to the gym on my own but I just didn't go with the person who usually encourages me to do the heavy lifting and so I got lazy about it.

I also have a new program. It is most awesome and I'd love to explain it to you except I don't understand it. Fiance did some reading and came up with the plan. I'm sure he'd explain it to me if I asked but I haven't. Also it has to do with percentages or something and equations are hard for this liberal arts person. I can budget myself into a corner but I can't seem to divide. I still remember finding it really hard to do long division in the fourth grade. When nasty Mrs. Powell told me she couldn't help me if I didn't get the concept yet. Not only did she not help me but I pretty much gave up on math then and there. In yo' face lady. I hear she is pretty overweight these days. I probably can't help her though if she doesn't get the concept of healthy eating yet. (Ahem, that was a lot of bitterness I had forgotten about, moving on.)

What I do know about the heavy lifting is that it is pretty awesome. Aside from making my back look awesome in my wedding dress it also makes me feel stronger. On top of which, science tells us its great for your bones. I come from a long line of osteopenia-ites and shrinking ladies. Now, bear with me but for those of us who like our calories we know that the taller you are the more you can consume. As you age you have to eat fewer calories because your metabolism slows down. I'm thinking that if I keep up the heavy lifting and avoid the shrinking then maybe I don't have to give up as many calories as I age. So here are my thoughts: lift heavy weights (for example: I deadlifted 115 pounds 9 times on Sunday. Go me.), stay the same height, have strong bones and still eat my favorites.

Speaking of eating: nom nom nom. These were eaten in my house last night, made by fiance. He deserves all the noms.

Mmmmm, Fatty Death.

A coworker and I were innocently walking out of our office building yesterday in search of our afternoon snack when a woman with a camera man and a boom operator approached us. She asked if we'd be willing to answer a few questions and we hesitantly said yes (I hadn't brushed my hair or put on lipstick in hours, this is TV people). She then asked both of us, one at a time how many grams of fat we thought were in movie theater popcorn. My coworker's answer was so perfect, "Since its delicious I bet its a lot." My answer was something stupid about how I hate popcorn and blech yuck, I'm way intelligent, ya'll.

Delicious = fatty death is a really good point, however. My post yesterday is a good example of this. Nachos and lasagna for lunch were awesome. The feeling after was awful. Loads of young-ish people tell me (either with words or funny looks) that they don't really concern themselves with their eating habits. To each his own. I have to say I personally love the feeling that goes with eating well and working out. I'm not saying I'm an asceticist or anything and I certainly go out to eat, cook well and enjoy full fat cheese but I prefer to reduce the feeling of death on toast. There are also plenty of other benefits (no thanks, cancer, you stay over there).

The larger, more important point is that you can eat deliciousness without the fatty death part. The obvious answer is portion control. Yea it might be fun to eat the entire cake but I actually like being able to have one slice per day and enjoy it over time. It takes a load of patience and the habit is not for everyone, I'll admit. The other answer is cooking more healthfully. I'm not saying you should invest in that idiotic cooking spray crap, the price of which is so jacked up its like Tickle Me Elmo at Christmas. I also don't purchase low fat cheese, cause, um, yuck. Have you ever seen that crap melt? It looks like you put Tupperware on your burger. I'm not advocating that you buy lower forms of what you like to eat. I'm just saying - steaming and roasting rather than frying.

Now the final issue here is fitness. Fitness is great. A million things are fitness. Walk for goodness sake, I dunno, pick a habit. The thing is, fitness is a very small part of all this. Apparently you can't just eat all you want and work it off. The culprit for the love handles that you're hating on? Diet. The reason your pants are tight after a weekend of fun? Diet. Why your couch squeals when you sit down? Diet.

Bring it on gratins, cheeseburgers and cookies! I will eat you and not frighten my couch.

Stuff I Read and Feel Like Sharing

Oh, vitamin D, how our bodies love you. So I took an online certification test through one of my gym certifying organizations on vitamin D. Basically what I paid $25 to learn is that D isn't actually a vitamin its a hormone mimicking compound. Basically it turns on 200 genes in the body. Which sounds scary until you read the research about how taking it has almost never, ever shown negative effects. Also, you have to work your ass off to overdose on it. The average pill sold at your local drug store contains anywhere from 400 to 2200 IUs of the stuff. Studies in toxicity showed that people who took 1.6 million IUs per day for 6 months just barely reached toxic levels and there are few examples of death from vitamin D overdose. So basically, that's a damn lot of vitamin D. I'm no Doctor but I'm prescribing myself some serious D. The Mayo Clinic thinks you should get between 800 and 1,000 IUs per day.

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I don't know this Canadian but I sure think shes smart (I want her job). Although she calls herself a Doctor she isn't an MD. Love me some intervals, don't know what ORAC is but I seem to follow it by accident minus the lentils. I'm not sure I can really trust someone who says their biggest weakness is organic popcorn though.