Recipe: Bean and Corn Chili

7 03 2013

I stopped writing recipes awhile ago because I kind of hate writing recipes.  Actually, I loathe writing recipes.  It’s tedious.  I never measure anything and I cook in such a freestyle way, it makes me terrible at writing them.   Since I blog for fun, I don’t care to spend my blogging time doing things I don’t find fun.

I also really want to encourage people to try breaking free of always using a recipe.  Learning to cook for your own specific taste is a great skill to acquire.  Personally, I enjoy my own cooking more than any restaurant I can afford, and I know what went in it.  Because I choose to add or not add ingredients based on one simple factor: how much I like that ingredient.  I like my food spicy, so I make it spicy!

I make chili pretty frequently as a meal I can reheat over and over again all week.  I usually make enough for 6-8 meals.  I would make more, but I need a bigger pot!

I’ve been messing around with adding different things to my chili like sweet potatoes, carrots, or eggplant, all of which have been delightful.  But this week’s chili was so awesome I decided to break my no recipes policy and write it up for you and me too so I won’t forget it!  It was a result of a very empty kitchen.  There are other things I would have added if I had them on hand but I made this on a day when I really should have gone grocery shopping two days before that.

By the way, this recipe is accidentally vegan and gluten free.  If you want to calculate the calories, I recommend entering the recipe (with any edits you make to it) into an app or website like My Fitness Pal.

bean and corn chili

bean and corn chili

Ingredients:

  • about 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 large yellow onion, diced
  • 2 jalapeno peppers and 4 serrano peppers (HOT!  Skip or replace with bell peppers if you don’t like heat), quartered lengthwise then sliced
  • 6 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 cup chopped golden raisins
  • 1/4 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
  • 12 oz can black beans, rinsed
  • 12 oz can kidney beans, rinsed
  • 12 oz can pinto beans, rinsed
  • 2 12 oz cans diced tomatoes (juice as well)
  • about 3 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 bag frozen yellow corn
  • spices: cayenne pepper, chili powder, cumin, cinnamon, salt, pepper

Cooking:

  1. in a large pot, heat olive oil over med heat.
  2. saute onion until it starts to become transparent
  3. add peppers, saute 3-5 more minutes
  4. add garlic, golden raisins, and sun-dried tomatoes
  5. first round of seasoning.  you can add more later, but you can’t take spices out, so if you’re unsure, use less.  in the end, you probably want more than you think.  I use a generous amount of cayenne pepper, chili powder, and cumin, and just a few shakes of cinnamon.  The cinnamon is that hidden “what is that?” flavor and it is so good with the sweetness of the raisins.
  6. this may all be blackening a little on the bottom of your pot now.  that’s good.
  7. add everything else and enough water to cover.  I think I used 4 cups of water.
  8. stir and return to hotness for a few minutes (maybe 5 min, the frozen corn cooled everything down)
  9. reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered for 45 min -1 hour, stirring and adjusting seasoning about every 20 min.

Serve as is or add shredded cheese, sour cream, avocado, or cilantro as a garnish.

Keeps, refrigerated, for about 5 days.  Freezing is also an option.

There, I wrote a recipe!  And it didn’t kill me :)


Comments : 8 Comments »
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Categories : Food

No Packaged Foods, Unwrap Up

1 07 2012

(Yes, I do think I’m being funny with that title.  Har har har.)

If you’d like to read about the rest of the challenge first before reading this wrap up post:

Intro Post

Day 1

Day 10

Day 24

One month of no packaged foods ended up being really fun for me and a lot more educational than I expected.  It never ceases to amaze me how much more there always is to learn no matter what you know.

Probably the biggest thing I learned was that if I cut pretty much everything out of your diet except fruit, veggies, nuts, and whole grains, I can lose weight without counting calories.  If I eat all the veggies and fruit I want, and eat reasonable servings of nuts and grains, it’s pretty much impossible to get to my maintenance level of calories.

I’m not sure I’d recommend this.  Unless you are quite aware of what your calorie needs are, I can see it being easy to under eat on this sort of diet.  It would be wise, I believe, to monitor your intake if switching to this type of diet to ensure you eat enough for your body’s needs.  That’s what I did for the first week of the month so I’d have a general idea of how much I should eat.  It was a lot more than I had been eating in previous months.

There’s nothing magic about this type of eating, it’s just that I eliminated all the high calorie foods from my diet.  Yogurt, tofu, cheese, tortillas, pasta… all high calorie.  Veggies and fruit? Low calorie.  Simple calories in vs. calories out.

I lost 4 lb this month, which is spectacular.  It is the first time my weight has gone on a downward trend for several months.  I think I would be wise to get my weight back to the 165 range I was maintaining before I moved.  I am pretty amazed at how much better I feel like I look from losing this 4 lb.  It does make a difference.  My weight was 172 on the first of the month and 168 on the last day.

This is what weight maintenance is about to me.  I will never be able to just ignore it like a “normal” thin person.  As a formerly obese person, I plan to monitor my weight for the rest of my life.  And obviously, it makes so much more sense to take care of a small gain of 5-10 lb than to let it escalate past that point.  It would be nice to say I will get my weight back down to the 165 range and never regain it, but I do not think that is the case.  I feel that maintaining my weight will be a long term effort of gaining a little here, losing a little there, etc.  Life is not static.  We do not do the same thing every day.  Therefore, I have to constantly steer this ship in the right direction, or risk floating away on the tide.  I am happy to find I am able to do this rationally without freaking out.  Panic helps nothing.

I wrote about the habits I plan to keep in the last post.  I am thinking that adding a few minor packaged items back in will allow me to continue losing weight, perhaps a little more slowly, until I’m back in that comfortable range.

Today is July 1 and so I went shopping for some packaged foods I’d been missing.

Oh how I missed you, Organic Carrot Juice!

Surprisingly, I did not feel the need to buy yogurt, my every day staple breakfast food.  I think I’d rather just keep eating fruit, nuts, and whole grain cereal.  That’s a big change.

And the first meal I made incorporating some of these packaged items was pesto pasta.  I made the pesto from scratch, using hard cheese and packaged pasta.  It was delicious.

Packaged pasta, homemade pesto, with cheese.

Overall it was a great experiment.  I will look for new ways to break out of my comfort zone whenever the opportunity arises.


Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: , , , , , ,
Categories : Food

No Packaged Foods, Day 24

24 06 2012

If you aren’t caught up on the experiment I’m doing and you’d like to be…

Introductory post

Post about first day

Post about tenth day

So, now it’s day 24.  I made it a whole 23 days at I’d say 99% no packaged foods.  I didn’t go out to eat at all, didn’t pick up lunch or breakfast on the way into work.  I made my own coffee every day, except 1 Saturday when I was out of coffee and I did go to Starbucks that day.  1 day out of 24 is amazing for me, by the way.  I’m a Starbucks junkie.  Aside from the coffee that one day, the other possibly “packaged” things I’ve eaten are a little of my boyfriend’s milk in my coffee a few days before I made my own almond milk, bread that I purchased at the farmer’s market, and a hunk of dark chocolate I got at Whole Foods (the kind broken off a big bar wrapped and sold by weight)… hey, it was “that time of the month”, chocolate was not optional.  I checked out a lady selling fudge at the farmers market first and was disappointed to find out she uses hydrogenated oil.

I did notice that I was having a kind of bad week last week.  You know when you just feel kind of grumpy and things don’t seem to be going your way?  Just feeling generally irritable.  There are some other things going on in life that are a bit distressing.  I think that’s when I started to feel a little too much pressure from having to prepare every single thing I eat.  Not really due to doing it, which is kind of fun, but for not having that option of an easy way out on those days where I didn’t feel like making my lunch, I think it was starting to take its toll in stress.

I’m still loving this way of eating and I’ve already decided to continue a lot of the changes that have happened when the month is over.  But I think it is really important to have that release valve.  Sometimes, a person just does not feel like making her own dinner.  Sometimes, I do want to have the option of stopping and grabbing something at Whole Foods on the way to work.  Sometimes, I do want Starbucks to make my coffee for me.  Not often, but once in awhile.  I’ve never been really into doing any type of restrictive eating plan 100%.  I think it’s very important to keep that balance.

So on the 23rd day, I rested.  Last night we ordered delivery pizza and I had a beer.  A Sam Smith’s Organic Apricot to be precise.  It was amazing and today I feel completely ready to finish out the No Packaged month.  By the way, how great is it that there’s a delivery place near me that sells a “mini” sized pizza.  Yep, a pizza that’s small enough to eat the whole thing for dinner without going overboard.  I love that!

Pizza for One

These are the changes I plan to keep after this experiment ends:

  • Eating a lot of fruit.  I have just been loving eating so much fruit.  It’s satisfying in a way other foods are not.  I have found that eating fruit makes me so much less likely to want to eat snacks when I’m not really hungry.  This is perhaps the only way of eating I have ever tried where I can literally eat all I want and not eat more than my calorie needs.
  • Eating a lot less dairy.  I now see that I was kind of keeping myself boxed in by feeling like I had to eat some kind of dairy product for breakfast for the protein.  It’s leftover from my days of worrying about things like that, and I’m happy to be rid of it.  I probably will go back to eating yogurt and cottage cheese occasionally, but no longer every day like I was before this challenge.
  • Making my coffee most days.  I am saving a lot of money this way.
  • Making my own nut butters and hummus.  Mine are better tasting and less expensive than the ones I was buying at the store.
  • Using a lot more bulk items.  It’s inexpensive, easy, and look how cool my kitchen cupboard looks now:

    bulk foods

  • Going to the farmers market twice a week and eating most of my food from there.  Absolutely.  Its the greatest!  I love going, it’s something I really look forward to.  It’s saving me money.  It’s relaxing and my time to myself.  On Saturday mornings, I’ve been going early and sitting outside enjoying the nice weather and chatting with a friend or family member on the phone before doing my shopping.  And on Tuesday, it’s a block away from my gym and I walk there after my workout and then walk home (less than a mile).  It’s a nice walk.  There are a lot of pretty flowers.

Items I will be buying the day this experiment ends:

  • Organic carrot juice.
  • Tofu
  • Soy milk for my coffee (still my preference)
  • A really good block of some type of fancy cheese
  • Farmhouse Cultures kraut
  • Tortillas (I’ve tried a few recipes this month and have not found one I like, plus too labor intensive.)
  • A GT’s Gingerade Kombucha

Oh, and I’ve lost about 4 lb this month so far, which is something I wanted.  This is without counting calories.  I counted for a few days just to get a general idea.  Once I saw the amount of food it took to get to 2000 calories, I stopped counting.  I’ve been eating basically as much fruit and veggies as I want and I know I’m still not making it to my maintenance level of calories (~2500).  There’s nothing magical about eating this way, it just makes it really difficult to eat enough to maintain my weight.  It still comes down to eating less food than I burn, but this is an easy way to do it without counting.  I can see that it would be very easy to undereat if you weren’t careful, so I think it would be a very good idea to count calories if you’re eating this way, just to see where you are and make sure you’re getting enough food.  I couldn’t do it without having some nuts and whole grains in my diet.  It would simply be too much food.

A lot of people have asked me about my digestion.  I think there’s this misconception people have that eating a lot of produce is somehow bad for your digestive system.  That’s backwards.  Eating a lot of produce is what your digestive system is meant to do.  I have no “issues” at this time, though the same could not be said of when I used to eat the Standard American Diet.   Transitioning between ways of eating can cause digestive changes while you get used to it, but overall this really isn’t all that different from how I was eating last month.

So, here’s to the last week of this experiment!  I’m looking forward to it.


Comments : 7 Comments »
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Categories : Food

No Packaged Foods – Day 10

10 06 2012

Wait what?  Day 10 already??  It’s flying by.  In case you aren’t up to speed on what I’m doing with this No Packaged Foods in June Experiment here is:

Introductory post

Post about the first day

I’ve been going to town eating fruit and vegetables to my heart’s content and little else.  I’ve been pretty close to 100% no packaged foods (by my rather arbitrary definition)  The first few days I finished off a bottle of organic carrot juice I had because that stuff is delicious and expensive.  And I am not that wasteful.  Most days I drank my coffee black, but 1 day I snuck some of my boyfriend’s whole milk.  I could say that’s unpackaged because it comes in a glass bottle you return to the store and they reuse it though ;)   It’s been 10 days of not stopping at Starbucks, which is a good streak for me.

Drinking alcohol definitely had me tempted the other night.  I almost decided to pretend the tequila was in the spice cabinet with the other items I said I would use during this experiment (oils and spices).  But in the end I decided that I could skip it.  I had a fruit smoothie that night instead, just fruit.

I bought eggs and bread at the farmer’s market which could be considered “packaged” by someone.  But I decided that for my purposes I would consider them on the table.

Now that I finally got the food processor I ordered from Amazon, have more options for making my own version of packaged things.  That’s kind of the point of this experiment- to get me to try new things.  It’s working!  I am just loving it too.  So much great produce it feels right to focus on that.

Here are some pictures of the types of foods I have been eating:

Color!

You know how they say you should “eat the rainbow”?  Yeah, that’s me.  I am eating every color.

My first day with the food processor resulted in mixed nut butter, date-nut bars, chopped cabbage, and a improvised version of pesto (pumpkin seeds, garlic, lemon basil, lemon zest, salt pepper olive oil)

My new toy

Frankly, I had no clue what I would do with that cabbage, I just wanted to see what it would be like to slice.  It was fun and fast, and I made a huge mess with cabbage bits everywhere… I will get better.

I’m soaking almonds for almond milk right now.  No more thieving my boyfriend’s dairy products.

As far as enjoyment goes, I am loving it.  I love going to the farmer’s market and I’ve been going twice a week, and three times this week!  As far as cost goes, I have to admit I’ve gotten sort of lax about recording it.  But my overall impression is that it is less expensive than before, because the few packaged products I did buy were quite expensive compared to farmer’s market produce.

Appetite-wise, I am finding it is a little bit of a challenge to get enough calories eating mostly fruits and veggies, even with the addition of nuts, beans, and potatoes.  Now that I have made some more higher calorie things, like nut butter, that should be less of an issue.  My weight seems to be down about 2 pounds since 10 days ago, (from 172 to 170) but I find it difficult to say for sure what’s going on with my weight without seeing the trend for several weeks or months, so that may be a premature weigh in.  Time will tell.

It’s nice to not eat the same thing for breakfast every day (fruit and yogurt).  I don’t know why I always get into that habit of repetitive breakfast.  Maybe it’s just that early in the morning, I’m not feeling too creative in the kitchen, and whatever it is it needs to be fast so I can get myself to work.  Since I’m standing around making my coffee anyway (in a french press, the only way I like it) I’ve been using that time to make breakfast.  Different fruit combinations, fruit and nuts, 9 grain cereal and fruit and nuts, this week I’ll be having some date-nut bars in there somewhere.

Overall impression: love it.

Things I miss most: Wine.  Chocolate (although I can buy something at the farmer’s market I have not yet.  I should do that).  Tortilla chips in my chili.  Cheese (in some things- I had beautiful fresh basil and tomato and it would have been divine with some fresh mozzarella)  Carrot juice.


Comments : 6 Comments »
Tags: , , , , ,
Categories : Food

My first day of no packaged foods (pictures)

2 06 2012

I really didn’t expect one day to be such a great change and learning experience.  I know I say this all the time, but you really have to step outside your comfort zone and follow your heart sometimes.  Good things will come.  You will learn.

My plan for yesterday was to attempt to eat all produce.  I didn’t quite make it.  As the day passed by, I realized that I wasn’t getting anywhere near the amount of calories I need, so I added some almonds.  I still ended the day under where I would like to be, despite trying to eat more.  This in itself was a huge learning experience.  I never realized how filling the few packaged foods I do consume are.  I woke up at 5 am absolutely starving.  That’s no fun!  So today I’m working on adding more things in.

Despite that, I felt amazing about what I ate yesterday.  I’ve been taking it easy at the gym due to my back pain flaring up, but I felt very energetic during my workout.  Everything I ate tasted great.  I’m really excited to see how this month is going to unfold.  Here is a collage of everything I ate yesterday.

What I ate June 1

That’s 1570 calories, 57% carbs, 31% fats, 12% protein – if you care about that.  I don’t really.

I’m still waiting on the food processor I ordered to show up, so I can make nut butters and other things I have in mind.  So in the mean time, I decided to buy a loaf of bread and some eggs along with the produce at the farmer’s market this morning.  I also got some potatoes, sweet potatoes, and beets; starchy veggies that will help fill me up.

Kate cannot live on produce alone.

One of the bigger challenges for me doing this is my usual Starbucks coffee trips.  It’s one of those things I sometimes cut back on but creeps back in until I’m going there almost every day.  So even though I take my own cup to Starbucks and technically that means there’s no packaging, I’m taking a month off from Starbucks and making my own coffee.

However, today was Saturday morning and my boyfriend was fast asleep when I got up (as usual).  I had some juice and almonds before I headed to the farmers market and it was gorgeous outside.  So I decided to stop by this little breakfast place and have something light while sitting outside enjoying the beautiful weather.  No packaging here…

enjoying the weather, and a light breakfast

If this experiment gets me to slow down and just enjoy sitting outside under the palm trees listening to the birds, then I’m all for that.  I need to slow down sometimes and everyone can use a little time to herself once in awhile.

I’d say the first day was a huge success and I’m really excited to see what the rest of the month holds for me.  I realize it’s been a long time since I challenged myself to think outside my eating comfort zone, and I forgot how much I enjoy doing that.  I feel like now is a good time for this.  I’m getting settled into my new state and getting comfortable with where I am.  It’s a great time for some more positive change.


Comments : 10 Comments »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Categories : Food

June Experiment: No Packaged Foods

23 05 2012

With farmer’s market bounties like this, do I really need the grocery store?

I live in Northern California and it is the height of the growing season.  Hence, the abundance of fresh produce is truly mind-boggling!  I’ve been hitting up my local farmer’s market twice a week, on Saturday morning and Tuesday evening.  In all seriousness, I can say I eat mostly vegetables and fruit.

There are other things I eat as well.  I eat plain whole milk organic yogurt for breakfast almost every day.  Mmm, with fresh fruit mixed in it is heavenly!  I eat cottage cheese as a snack most afternoons around 3 pm.  Then there are little things, like the kraut I sometimes put in my salads or the canned beans or tomatoes I use in cooking.  I put soy milk in my coffee, which I purchase at Starbucks generally.  I buy tortilla chips and crunch them up in my chili.  I buy Dave’s Killer Bread (so good).  The packaged products I buy are carefully chosen and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with consuming them.

But all this farmer’s marketing got me wondering if I could get by without any labelled food at all- like nothing with a brand name on it.  No boxes, cans or packages.  If I’m going to try it, now is the time- while the farmer’s market is in full swing.  It’s been awhile since I did anything outside my comfort zone and this sounds like a fun thing to try, so here’s what I’m proposing:

No Packaged Food In June

1. No food with a label on it.  This means, I will stick to pretty much all fresh produce, supplemented with some things from the bulk bins at Whole foods (grains, nuts, and dried beans, etc)

2. I will allow myself to use the things in my spice cabinet.  So that means, I will still use my spices, salt and pepper, and oils and vinegar that I already have.  But if I buy more of any of these items, I will find it at the farmer’s market or go without.

3. I will keep track of the cost and take pictures of what I eat.  I’ll do this as thoroughly as possible for my readers.

4. There are some prepared foods at the farmer’s market.  These are on the table, though I will make an attempt to stay away as much as possible :)

5. I reserve the right to take a break from this experiment if I go out to eat, which doesn’t happen more than a few times a month.

I posted about this on my Facebook page and it was pretty interesting to see people’s reactions.  Some said “That’s crazy and sounds like no fun.”  Some said “I eat that way already.”  Then others started naming it “Oh, it’s the 80-10-10 diet!” or “Oh, that’s called Clean Eating” or “Oh, you should do Raw Vegan!”

I’m adamantly anti- Diets With Names.  Why?  Because then there are rules made up by someone else and a whole army of people just waiting to tell me I’m Doing It Wrong.  They almost made me not want to do this by trying to put a name on it.  No, I am not eating frozen chicken and brown rice (I don’t eat meat).  No, I am not eating all fruit.  No, I am not giving up cooking.  No, I am not a vegan.

I’m just doing a little experiment to see how I fare without any packaged foods.

Stay tuned for updates.  Who wants to join me?


Comments : 17 Comments »
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Categories : Food

I don’t pay attention to fat, protein or carbs. I just eat real food.

19 05 2012

It’s been 3 and a half years since I started changing how much and what I ate.  The process has been an evolution as I learned new things, unlearned others, and adjusted accordingly.  I will always continue to do that, because I’m not crazy enough to think I know all the answers, or dogmatic enough about the way I eat to be above questioning and adjusting.

I don’t often write about what I eat or what exercise I do anymore because I don’t want people to think I’m saying this is what they should eat or do.  I think everyone should go on their own journey and learn for themselves what works and why.  You should definitely question everything when it comes to choices, on the one hand, because there is so much contradictory advice and evidence out there.  On the other hand, to become obsessed with the nutritional make-up of your diet is for the most part pointless, and possibly destructive if it interferes with other portions of your life.  There is actually a term for this: orthorexia.

If you’re like me, and you’re not an athlete or a bikini model, you’re just a pretty average person with a mostly sedentary life sitting at a desk and working out 5-6 times a week for about an hour each time, and you’re not ill or allergic to anything, it’s probably not necessary to be that concerned about your Macro-Nutrient Ratios, or the percentage of your diet that comes from protein, fat or carbohydrates.  Eating real food will take care of this naturally.  It took me a long time to arrive at that conclusion and believe me, I’ve been down most of the paths.  I did the whole low fat thing because I thought that was what you had to do to lose weight.  I did the whole high protein thing, because I thought that was what you had to do to gain muscle.

What I learned in the end was to trust myself.  If I eat what I want to eat, without concerning myself with those numbers, I end up with about 40-45% carbohydrates, 40-45% fats, and 10-15% protein.  I used to get concerned that it wasn’t enough protein because protein is so talked about and hyped.    I used to get concerned it was too much fat because that’s another thing you hear.  But at some point, I just let it all go.

It started when I read Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food.

In Defense of Food

In it, he talks about how different cultures have very different diets.  Some eat a lot of fish and little else.  Some eat no meat and a lot of white rice.  Some have a higher fat diet, some lower.   But the diseases we know are often caused by eating habits; like obesity, diabetes and heart disease; are only tied to one culture’s diet: the Standard American Diet.  Also referred to as the Western Diet, this consists of lots of processed food, a ton of refined carbs, an abundance of factory-farmed meat, eggs and dairy, refined sugars and refined flours, all kinds of chemical ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, and too much of everything available in abundance extremely cheaply.

He argues that it isn’t fat or carbs that are making us sick, it’s our nutrition-less diet of processed food-like substances.  Ironically, Americans think about nutrition more than anyone in the world.  And we are the sickest.  I believe this is because we’re so caught up in minimizing the amount of fat or sugar or evil nutrient of the moment in our diets that we forget to read the ingredient list, the most important part of any label.  We end up eating things that aren’t really food.

I’m vegetarian and I eat in a way that some people are now calling “clean”.  Whatever you want to call it, I just call it common sense.  I eat a ton of vegetables and fruits, mostly from my local farmer’s market.  The packaged products I do buy are carefully chosen.  I try to choose products that are organic and have a short ingredient list.  For example, I buy cottage cheese that contains milk and cultures.  Nothing else.  If I don’t know what it is, I don’t buy it.  Other than veggies and fruits, the rest of my diet is mostly nuts, beans including soy, and grains.  I also eat dairy and occasionally eggs.

When I cook, I am not thinking about numbers.  I am thinking about making something beautiful, fresh and delicious.  This is absolutely the most enjoyable and rewarding way to eat for me.  I eat what sounds good to me at the moment and what is in season.  Every time I’ve done any other type of eating, such as trying to get protein with every meal like when I tried Jamie Eason’s LiveFit Trainer, it takes some of the joy out of the way I eat.

My diet has evolved from not thinking about it at all and eating a lot of junk, to thinking about it a lot and scrutinizing numbers, to not thinking about it too much and eating a lot of produce.  I searched for, and found, a way of eating that is satisfying and meaningful to me.  It enhances my life.  It does not interfere with my life.  If I go out to eat, I just let it go.  Other than making sure there’s no meat in what I order, I relinquish control.  It’s okay to relinquish control.

People really like to tell you what they think you should be eating.  Don’t let them.  Do your own learning and make your own choices.  Don’t do what works for me.  Do what works for you.  And I’ll do what works for me, and we can all just let each other be.

I didn’t think about carbs or protein or fats when I  made my dinner last night.

Roast cauliflower, avocado, lettuce, heirloom tomato, balsamic vinegar, olive oil.

A lot of people look at a plate of vegetables and think it can’t possibly be enough food for a meal.  You may be surprised to learn that this picture shows about 500 calories, with 50 g carbohydrates, 26 g fat, and 18 g protein.  That is, if you care about things like that.

Diet Police, please don’t lecture me, I’ve read all the same research and articles you have.  I’ve read an exhaustive amount of material related to nutrition and I’ve come to my own conclusion: it doesn’t really matter what the numbers are, just eat real food, eat a good variety of different produce, and eat reasonable portions.  I feel great, I’ve clearly put on muscle, I’ve lost over 100 lb and kept it off for over a year, all my numbers are great, and most importantly of all:

I’m happy.


Comments : 22 Comments »
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Categories : Food

One Week without Coffee

7 08 2011

Last week I posted a picture blog about what I used to eat vs. what I eat now.  The picture of before and after my lifestyle change were completely different except for one thing: my morning Starbucks iced coffee.

morning ritual

I admit it.  I’m a Starbucks junkie.  Before I started trying to lose weight, I drank iced coffee with whole milk and sugar.  Once I started counting calories, I weened myself off the sugar and started drinking it unsweetened.  Once I started reducing animal products in my diet, I switched from cow’s milk to almond milk.  Calorie wise, my iced coffee is negligible, which is why I never thought about not having it.

Stopping at Starbucks on the way to work (or class) has been a ritual of mine for probably close to 10 years.  I always call it my last vice – I don’t smoke cigarettes anymore, I don’t overeat, I drink rarely and moderately… let me have this one thing.

After I posted the before and after pictures of how I eat, I finally started thinking about that Venti Unsweetened Iced Coffee.  I love the smell of coffee and I love the taste.  But once I thought about it, I realized that the acidity of the coffee wasn’t really all that pleasant when it was sitting in my stomach.  Then there’s the caffeine.  I drank coffee daily out of compulsion.  If I skipped it, or waited too long, I would be treated to a caffeine headache that no amount of caffeine would cure.  This was problematic on days when I wanted to do a lot of things in the morning that didn’t involve coffee- like running or going to the gym.  Finally, there was the cost.  At about $3 per day, Starbucks adds up.  Again, I justified this to myself.  I told me long ago, “If you don’t smoke cigarettes, you can have Starbucks every day.”

Obviously making my own coffee at home would negate the cost issue.  But I’ve never been able to pull off making anything that I found remotely as tasty and satisfying as Starbucks.  I know that’s a point of debate- but to my taste buds, Starbucks iced coffee is king.

I decided last weekend that it was time to try not having it, just to see how it affected things.  Instead, I brewed a light iced green tea.  I figured it would be easier to have something with a lot less caffeine at first than to just quit caffeine cold turkey.  It’s been seven days without Starbucks, and I don’t think I’m going back.

The first few days were pretty miserable.  I had a headache despite the green tea and I felt just kind of weird and off.  After 5 days, I had an iced black tea with lunch and it made my heart race like caffeine hasn’t done to me in many years.  Apparently the tolerance to caffeine wears off very quickly!  I did not like the way that felt.

Iced green tea is good.  It’s easy to make, not acidic, and it’s cheap compared to Starbucks.  Since the switch, I feel I’ve slept better and my stomach has been happier.  Yesterday, I was able to wake up at 6:30 am, go pick up veggies from Bountiful Baskets Food Co-Op, putz around the kitchen, head to the gym for cardio and BodyPump – all without any caffeine or the dreaded caffeine headache.  It’s worth it.  After drinking it daily for so long, I stopped liking the coffee all that much, I guess.

I’m going to let myself get used to the green tea for awhile and then see if there’s something without caffeine to drink.  Herbal mint tea is one suggestion that sounds appealing to me.

Now, I know some of you are reading this and thinking “Oh hell no.  I am not giving up my coffee.  Nope.  Don’t even bother suggesting it.”  Don’t you worry, I’m not suggesting it!  I don’t think coffee hinders weight loss in any way and there are many health benefits to drinking coffee (avoid sweeteners though.)  For me, it was just time to try life without it.  I think it’s a good practice in general to question anything you’ve been doing by habit for a long time to see if it’s still working for you.  When I questioned the coffee, I realized it wasn’t working for me anymore, so I changed.  If I still loved it the way I used to, I wouldn’t even dream of giving it up.


Comments : 15 Comments »
Tags: , , , , , , ,
Categories : Food

Bountiful Baskets Food Co-Op

30 07 2011

A few weeks ago, I googled “food co-op, Phoenix AZ” and discovered Bountiful Baskets Food Co-op.  You contribute at the beginning of the week on Monday and on Saturday, you pick up the produce.  You don’t get to choose anything specific, just organic or traditional.  The traditional basket is $15 and the organic is $25.  I decided to try the organic basket and this is what I got:

Bountiful Basket - Organic 7/30

There are several other things you can get in addition to your basket.  They offer bread, tortillas, and even a whole case of mangoes at a great discount price.  This varies weekly.  I ordered the “mexican pack” because I love those veggies particularly.  This cost and additional $7:

Mexican pack

I arrived at a public park early this morning to pick up my produce at my assigned time of 7:30.  That means getting up a little earlier than usual, but it was completely worth it.  Personally, I love not getting to choose the specifics.  I get to be inspired by the ingredients.  Later in the afternoon, we went grocery shopping at our usual store for non-produce items (and a few more hot peppers because I use them in everything.)  I had the chance to see what produce I got in the basket and plan my shopping accordingly.

First thing I made was salsa:

Extra Hot Green Salsa and Medium Hot Red Salsa

Then I baked some muffins (with the over-ripe bananas from last week):

Vegan Banana Muffins

And finally I made this pasta and chard dish with the beautiful organic chard I got today.  I’ve never seen such enormous chard!  It was delicious.

Pasta with Chard

Tomorrow, I’ll be making enchiladas with the green tomatillo salsa and black bean soup.

Not only did Bountiful Baskets turn out to be a great deal, it also really inspired me in the kitchen.  I’m planning to purchase my produce from BB from now on.


Comments : 9 Comments »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Categories : Cooking, Food

One Day of Food, Then and Now in Pictures

29 07 2011

I got to thinking about how much the way I eat has morphed and changed over the years.  Believe me, I didn’t just wake up one day with good eating habits.  It was a process of metamorphoses and it continues to this day.  So I thought it would be fun to see how things have changed, in pictures.

The first picture is an estimate of what a day of food looked like for me before I started changing my habits.  Some days may have been better and some worse, but this is probably pretty typical of my old way of eating:

The way I used to eat

The second picture is an actual day from the first month I started counting calories.  It represents 1700 calories of food (estimated, because I wasn’t measuring anything then and who knows how many calories are really in a Gyro and fried zucchini!)  Starbucks iced coffee stayed.  I kept the cream and ditched the sugar.

A day of food from January 2009

And finally, this image is representative of the way I eat now.  Yes, the Starbucks is STILL here!  Now it has no sugar and almond milk instead of cream.  Hey, nobody’s perfect!

What I eat today

Keep changing, keep learning, keep evolving, keep growing!  There’s always room for improvement.  Don’t worry if you aren’t sure if you’re eating all the right things at first.  It’s Okay!  I lost quite a bit of weight eating the way that’s represented in the second picture.  You don’t have to be perfect to succeed.


Comments : 11 Comments »
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Categories : Food

« Previous Entries


Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 782 other followers