Consequences

Warning: some explicit and gross content - the squeamish should not proceed any further!!!

On July 25th, I went to a baseball game.

I had some wine.

Then I had some more wine.

At this point my judgement was impaired, and I started drinking beer and eating popcorn.

Then I really ruined my day by eating a brownie.

Now for any old person this would be bad enough. But for me, wheat gluten is poison. So, add up the alcohol and the gluten and the sugar and everything else, and you get a whole lot of poison ingested in one day. Let the record show that it took until TODAY, August 4th (10 days) plus a round of laxatives over the weekend for my bowels to return to their normal level of functionality. Last week my belly was so swollen that I actually thought about buying a pregnancy test. The fact that it was the week before my "special woman time" may have also contributed to the bloating, but I don't typically have very serious pre-menstrual symptoms.

Overall, I'm not sure whether I should say 10 days is fast or slow. When you think about what my body does when it comes across gluten, it actually seems pretty fast. My immune system starts attacking my intestines and literally breaking them down, or so I'm led to believe. I'm not sure if this recovery timeframe lends more evidence to the Celiac theory or the gluten intolerant theory (I never really found out which I am) but either way - safe to say that I should stay away from it unless I want to sacrifice over a week of my life to feeling like a bag of cement. When you think of it in those terms - and add in the fact that those 10 days were some of the nicest summer days that Seattle has ever seen - it seems like a very long time indeed.

In other news, I have been tweaking the timing of my Perfectly Produce meal plans in order to accomodate my evening gym sessions. What seems to be working for me right now is a small protein-laden snack first thing in the morning, then "Brunch" at 11:00 AM which is typically whatever the breakfast recipe was. At 4:00 PM I have my regular lunch, and then I have dinner quite late, after the gym, at 8:30 or 9:00.

I've had a bad habit in the past of "saving" all my calories up for the evenings in order to indulge in a fairly large pig-out session before bedtime. I always figured if I "budgeted" enough calories for this time, it would be ok to eat more then. I recently learned, though, that it's not just about calories in / calories out. It's about your blood sugar and all your body has to do to process what you eat, which is why the timing of the Perfectly Produce meal plans is so important. I always thought that yeah, it was probably not a good thing to go to bed with a stomach full of God-knows-what just because it would sit there all night, but that's actually not what happens. It doesn't sit there all night, your body has to digest it. So if you eat a lot right before you go to sleep, your body will spend all night digesting it, and it will never get a chance to do all the things it's supposed to be doing while you're asleep - like oh I dunno, rebuilding itself? Repairing your body at a cellular level? So next time you eat a big meal and go to bed, don't wonder what happened when you wake up looking and feeling like crap. You might as well have stayed up all night.



My parents used to do this thing on Christmas Eve where they'd leave all their gift wrapping until that night - and stay up until 2 AM or some other weird hour of the morning to get everything done. Thus, I imagine, putting a damper on their enjoyment of Christmas Day itself. I never understood that, so why should I do the same thing to my body? It might be a weird analogy, but don't make your body stay up all night digesting when you have a whole day ahead of you the next morning. You won't be able to enjoy it.

I've never been able to sleep if I'm hungry, but again, once you start evenly distributing what you eat and regulating how much you eat to a reasonable portion size, you can eat dinner a couple hours before you hit the sack and not feel hungry. If I - the notorious 900 calorie dinner late night binger - can do it, so can you. I went to bed entirely satisfied last night.

Feast or Famine

Hello all,

I am happy to report that things continue to go well as I follow the basics of the Perfectly Produce plans. I say the basics because I did minimal cooking this week - just a couple of my favorite items from the Spring recipes. I'm watching my cash flow like a hawk lately.

I also sorta freaked out about my weight recently. Broken engagement + friend in town + summer time + lack of discipline = I am now literally AFRAID to weigh myself.

I know it sounds silly but I think a lot of people can relate to that. I know that my approach to weight loss and body image probably isn't the dead spit of normality, but whose is? We all have our comfort zone. For me, mine is anything under 140 lbs. If I go over 140, I flip out. I stop weighing myself and flip the heck out.

Well, all this hit me as soon as a good friend of mine left for home - she stayed with me for over a week and I was kind of in the "ahhh the hell with it" mindset.

So since then, I have been spending 2-ish hours at the gym almost every night and sticking to meal suggestions at all times - NO snacking in between (yes, I am proud of myself, thank you very much). I tend to lose it at night, though. Particularly because it has been so hot here lately and I haven't been sleeping well.

Even that has been petering off, though, and I find myself beginning to swing in the opposite direction.

In college, I had a brief stint with some disordered eating. I won't call it an "Eating Disorder" - it was too short lived for that and it turned out I COULD actually stop when I wanted to, but suffice to say I didn't eat enough, or well, and sometimes didn't even keep it down. Show me a college coed who hasn't at least had one experience with this and I will show you a fibber.

Anyway, weight loss is addictive. I find myself tempted to skip meals, as in "oh, well I had that bowl of ice cream last night so I won't eat breakfast" or "oh, I just got back to from the gym and I'm so tired I could probably just go to bed without eating..."

Not good. The problem is, especially at night, once I start eating I can't seem to stop very easily. I think I just need to eat more slowly and do the "wait 30 minutes before grabbing seconds" thing, but I've always wondered why it's so relatively easy for me to be "good" during the day and such a crazy chow hound at night. I have a thing about trying to sleep on an empty stomach, too, but here's the really nutty part:

I know if I start eating I'll probably overeat, so I'm tempted not to eat at all. Nuts, huh? This is what results in my weight fluxuating up and down within the same 15 - 20 pounds my whole adult life. WTF?

On a positive note, I feel flipping great, and I haven't been giving in to the urges to skip meals - except maybe once or twice. My skin looks good too, I think that's a result of multivitamins plus water, plus healthy eating and exercise (go figure - it's the lifestyle, stupid!)

Now I just have to work on getting more sleep. It is literally the key to having a good tomorrow, if you think about it. It's a little tough right now due to circumstances outside my control (i.e. mother nature), but I have been good lately about making myself go to bed at a fairly reasonable hour (yay me).

We're on the up swing, folks. Also, something occurred to me at the gym today:

I am happy.

I am happier than I have been in a long, long time. I am living almost exactly the way I want to. I have a good job, I eat well, sleep well, exercise regularly, do fun stuff in my time off, have a career goal in sight, and yeah...all is well with the world. The last time I felt this good was college, I think. So this time around, I think I'd like to try a wiser, more balanced version of happy, please and thank you.

Cheers to that, folks. May you find wisdom and balance and happiness.

It's...ALIVE! Summer Week 1

Hello all!

I have been doing so well this last week or so. I worked out every day Sunday - Thursday. I ate only every few hours, and didn't snack in between. I've been having mostly leftovers from Summer - Week 1, which lasted surprisingly long and surprisingly well.

I have also been eating my every day greens, well, every day. I've been ad-libbing some dinners because I'm trying to save my cash and use up what I have stockpiled, so I've been dumping leftover beans on them, too. Tasty. I also recommend Newmans Own Oil and Vinegar salad dressing, if you prefer not to make your own (somehow mine always ends up with gross chunks of salt sneaking up on me).

I have not been so good about not adding in treats with dinner, but I'll work on that.

I want to share a few things I've learned in the last couple weeks with you:

1. Plastic containers that baby spinach comes in are great for storage. Save them. Do NOT put them in the dishwasher, because this happens....


2. The more time you spend making sure your greens are dried before they are stored, the more days you will be able to enjoy them fresh.

3. Canned salmon, while it might sound sketchy, is actually quite tasty.

4. A handy reminder E-Mail from the good folks at Perfectly Produce made me realize that I am storing all my nut butters and oils wrong. They should be refrigerated.

5. Teff flour wraps are a GREAT gluten-free substitute for more traditional wheat wraps. Not bad calorie wise, and decent fiber content. These should also be refrigerated.

6. The pico de gallo recipe for this week / month is FABULOUS and stays fresh forever. Warning: you may want a margarita with this. Fresh tomatos and cilantro with onion and garlic...what could be better???


That's all for now folks - stay fresh.

Keeping up with the Jones-ing

Every work day between 2-3 PM I start getting a hankering for a munch. What's up with that?

Chocolate mainly - I'm taking a multivitamin as of yesterday so we'll see how that affects it if at all. I'm thinking that should take care of it. It's less of an energy drain than just a little nagging voice in my head: LA-LA-LA-LA, MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH....

Although today I feel kind of tired. Probably 'cause I didn't get enough sleep and got up sorta early.

On the upside, I've been pretty decent the last couple of days. Yesterday:

Breakfast: Smoothie
Lunch: Pico de gallo with crackers, greek yogurt with raw honey and 1/2 peach
Dinner: BLT wrap with plums
After dinner snack: gigantic bowl of ice cream with chocolate sauce

Some little miniature chocolates were interspersed throughout, though I have eaten them all at this point so that's that. Also had a cup of coffee. I went to the gym for the first time in weeks, though. I did an hour of cardio and upper body weights (including abs).

So far today has been 100% to plan. I am getting really hungry though, and it's just before 3 PM. I think I might have skimped on the blueberry / grape recipe, I had a lot of celery leftover. This has actually happened to me previously, where I've ended up eating my 5pm snack between 3 - 4 PM. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?

Summer Bulk Cooking - Week 1

The theme of this week (and this month) is COLOR!

I am totally in a summer mood, even though Seattle is having some crummy weather today.

Tip for you: overbuy blueberries, cherries, and grapes. I definitely dipped into these as I was cooking this week! I have some leftover celery sticks to munch on this week, too. Spreading out the greens and produce cleaning helped the prep seem much less daunting, and I ended up breaking the bulk cooking into two days. However, this session was so easy and involved such minimal cooking that I kind of doubt it took 5 hours. Maybe it was that long, but it didn't seem that way.

The only item I couldn't find this week was the miso dijonaise. I asked at a couple different stores (PCC and Whole Foods) with no luck. However, I have plenty of mayo left still and I just bought some dijon mustard, so it should be ok.

Here are some pictures for you. I'll try to post more during the week because the combinations should be really colorful and yummy looking. Check it:

Ummm....

Sorry, we are having technical issues inserting pictures. Autosave is taking longer and I'm getting a werid error code: bX-rmpo7m, so we'll hope this is resolved soon because everythihg looks really, really good!

Month 2 - Week 1

Ok y'alls, pity parties are over, I'm back!!!

I did my shopping for this week and was super excited by all of the fresh fruit on the list, though slightly bummed by the lack of beans, it seems I will be getting plenty o' fiber.

I have a friend coming to visit for the week, so I bought some extra smoothie stuff...and some candy...and some gluten free brownie mix...special occasion stuff, ya know? I also got a little overzealous and bought two bunches of romaine and red leaf lettuce, since I've been trying to avoid spinach. I have plenty o' greens, which is good because I'm eating some now.

The only things I was unable to find were the poppy seeds, the miso dijon stuff, and scallion. I'm embarassed to say I completely forgot what scallions are. My friend Google just hooked me up though, and the key with this one is that they are also known as "green onions". I know, you more experienced chefs are shaking your heads right now - bear with me. This is a scallion, for other kitchen dunces like me:



So I'll pick this stuff up at PCC tomorrow. The shopping list for this week indicated I might not see the dijon miso stuff, but I couldn't find anybody in Whole Foods to ask. I hit the store at a busy time I guess.

All in all, without my additional stuff (I had to get some conditioner, some ice cream...etc.) I would say that I spent around $125 - $150 this week on list items. I overbought greens and I overbought flax and fruit because if I have a guest I want them to be able to snickety snack up on it if they are so inclined.

Take aways from this week



1. The stuff I thought was romaine lettuce is actually green leaf lettuce. Oops. I stand corrected. The bunches of romaine are much bigger too, so I got way more greens out of what I bought.

2. Don't go to the grocery store hungry. For reals. It's bad times. I got distracted in Whole Foods because I was spending like 20 minutes wandering around trying just trying to find samples, I was so hungry. Why? Cause I forgot to eat dinner, cause I'm not on the Perfectly Produce schedule this week. Bad doobie, BAD!

3. If you wash your fruit and stuff as you put it away, it will save you some annoyance. I don't like shopping that much, and sometimes it still takes me more time than a more experienced cook, so I figured I would get all my washing and greens prep out of the way tonight. If you've got a big date Friday night - which I don't - this works too.

4. Tearing lettuce up with your hands gives you green fingernails. Gross.

5. QFC greens are significantly cheaper than Whole foods. By at least 50 cents a bunch. Just saying. They are also not organic, so...pick your battles.

6. QFC always has unflavored Kefir on sale. I guess people don't buy it. And then I swoop in and get two for one, bee-yotch!

7. The checkout person usually makes some sort of comment on my purchases when I am buying according to the Perfectly Produce plan. Tonight I got a "you eat a lot of fruit and vegetables!" Why yes I do, I said smugly (just kidding I smiled and nodded). "You don't eat any meat?" This one I vehemently denied.

8. Very old people in grocery stores who look like they need help make me sad.

9. Google unfamiliar items on your shopping list BEFORE going shopping. Unless you have a sweet iphone.

10. If you wander around the Whole Foods produce section long enough, an employee might offer you a special sample. I scored half a peach today. It was damn good.

Accountability

Hi, kids. In an effort to hold myself more accountable, I'm telling you what I consumed yesterday.

Before I do that, an aside - as you may have gathered from previous comments, I am going through a very difficult breakup right now. That's all I'll say about it, but my method of handling stress (eating, not sleeping, not working out, watching bad television) is not good. I'm trying to change that.

Yesterday was an OK day. I made a smoothie in the morning and had that at work. I had some coffee, but not much. I drank water. All good things. I also had about 5 pills of Aleve because I had a migrane the size of New Jersey. Ended up leaving work early, talking to family, getting emotional, and then having a fairly appropriate lunch / dinner. So, in total:

Breakfast Smoothie (strawberry peach, yums)
3-ish Mini Snickers bars (why do I buy candy for my desk, WHY???)
Southwest Chicken Soup
An entire unidentified melon that has been sitting in my refrigerator for about two weeks (it was a very small unidentified melon)
Some fibrous, wheat free crackers
An apple

And I think that's actually it. While I know this isn't exactly balanced, it's a vast improvement from my eating habits of the last few weeks. I didn't work out, again, my brain was attempting to crawl out my ears and I spent a couple of hours on the phone with family and friends, trying to determine why life is so cruel to an unsuspecting, sometimes-undisciplined-but-overall-good-person such as myself. Boo-frickedy-hoo.

Today, I've started out with a nutritious breakfast of four-ish mini Snickers bars and coffee. Ugh. I did bring my last slice o' breakfast bake with me, though, so I'll have that in oh, 45 minutes or so when the Snickers have settled. I have a lunch date with a girlfriend, which should be pretty healthy. Later, I intend to either work out or clean my apartment, maybe both. We'll see. Wish me luck.