Long Break

Here I am again. Very little progress made. Maybe 1 or 2 pounds lost. Blame my inconsistency. In fact, it is hard to be so consistent day after day. It's hard to consciously restrict calories and make time or motivate myself to exercise day after day. It's hard when you haven't yet developed a routine. But then, it would also be hard to have myself get worse. It would be hard to walk up a few flights of stairs slightly winded, while your friend chatters away. It would hurt my "vanity" to see myself in an outfit and not be able to smile at myself.

In all honesty, it's not too bad to not lose much weight. Consciously thinking about the process helps me to make healthier choices. I take the opportunity to walk more, and to choose more nutritious food. Even if my eyes cannot distinguish the difference this makes, my body certainly can. Back in June, I couldn't even run for 5 minutes (though I could walk for hours). Now I can run for more than 20 minutes. I can run two miles without stopping. When I visited an aunt recently, she commented on how nice my complexion was. I attribute that to a diet rich in tomatoes and other colorful fruits and vegetables (and black beans). Conclusion: Don't make the scale your only indication of progress. I think most people know this, but it's hard not to focus on it. Keep track of improvements in fitness- endurance, strength, and flexibility. Keep track of your complexion ;) .


[If actually writing the previous paragraph didn't inspire me to go out for a nice walk, watching all the strong women compete in the Olympics certainly does. They are so incredible! Their strength seems to go underappreciated though. I overheard a foreign guy making a side comment on a girl from Kazakhstan who weightlifted 131 kg (~288 lbs) and broke a world record: "How is she going to find a man?" I almost blew up.]

In the spirit of summer, I think I will make some "Rustic Stuffed Tomatoes" adapted from Ottolenghi's book Plenty. The stuffing is essentially a mix of onions, garlic, LOTS of herbs (preferably fresh-including a bit of mint), olives, capers, and panko bread crumbs. I find it lovely, though some meat-loving family members have just called it interesting. If you have ground meat to include in the stuffing, I'm sure it would also taste wonderful. Since most of these are "pantry items", some people might be able to easily make this for little cost. If you don't have them, the stuffing is pretty flexible, and you could throw in a few things from the fridge.

Hope you all are enjoying the Olympics!

My Beginning

Beginning bloggers tend to lose the popularity contest in the nutrtion/dieting category. I suppose one would have to have advice no one else could give, show somewhat fast results, have awesome recipes, or just be a witty, inspirational character. A poor, unfortunate soul am I.

I don't have much success to report in terms of weight loss. I have been treated one too many times this week to a heavy meal, which screws me up the following week. I think from the scale that I'm just retaining a bit of water. I'll try to be REALLY good for the next few days to see if I've done real damage. This process is all about balance. You'll want to be "good" most of the time. Most of the time= maybe 80% of the time (while making sure the other 20% doesn't actually equal or outweigh the 80%). That's probably a good estimate for long-term (slow) results or weight maintenance.

In other news, I feel I've improved my endurance. I ran another mile in 11 minutes the other day. I suffered less, too. It was only the last minute and a half that were tortuous. But I felt so good about myself I went another minute! Yes, it is pathetic to most, but for me, that's wonderful. You see, I was the chubby girl who usually finished 2nd or 3rd to last in gym (I always wanted to feel like someone was behind me, so I worked a little harder.). I never ran a full mile without stopping. I was amazed and a bit jealous of the middle-school superstar runner who ran the mile in about 6 minutes. How did I know she ran it that quickly? I was a bit "sick" the day we recorded the time, so I was set to record everyone else's time. Yes, that was me. People weren't cruel though. I wasn't made fun of (except by a trio of bullies that really just made fun of everyone), or at least I didn't catch anyone.

I did understand that I was overweight, and that I probably needed to do something. The change came when my mother bought a fancy scale for herself. I just thought it was cool and weighed myself. I was rather shocked when it said I was 190. I think for my height then I would have technically been obese. My mother never put me down, but she introduced me to her weight watchers plan and got me a pedometer. I was definitely more careful. I kept a food journal. I managed to lose 20 pounds that summer, and then another 15 or so over the next few years (eating well in general and staying somewhat active, but not on weight watchers).

So here I am. I've put on some weight again, and am trying to get it off and improve my fitness. Now, I use Sparkpeople to track my nutrition and fitness. I recommend it. It can track various kinds of nutrients and shows you charts of how you ate that day (percentage carb,protein,fat; percentage each food for the day).

I don't have any budget inspiration today. Oatmeal is always a good choice. It's filling and cheap per serving (maybe 12 cents if you buy in bulk), but you really have to watch your portion size here. You could down a half-cup serving (150 calories) easily, and that's just using water. So try to have a fruit and maybe veggies to bulk up the meal, if you need volume. You can also bake your very own breakfast bar using oatmeal. Enjoy!

A Running Success

I also just wanted to report that since I began to run three weeks ago (perhaps an inconsistent two or three times per week), I've managed to bring up the time I can run in a go from 2 minutes to about 12 minutes. I can jog a mile without stopping! I honestly don't know if I've ever been able to do that. It feels great! Next stop: two miles.

A Bad Day

We all have those days. Someone says something particularly insensitive, which hits a nerve. You don't know quite how to react, but you walk away shrugging it off. It doesn't bother you for an hour or so. Then negative thoughts slowly dominate, perhaps completely unrelated to what was said. You begin to feel depressed, even in a positive setting with a significant other. He already knows your insecurities, and you don't want to make the meeting a downer, so you keep it in. You feel like eating more. You give in to large portions of bad food. It doesn't really make you feel better, but you eat it. Your sense of fullness doesn't seem to work as it normally does. You feel bad about it later. And you just feel bad. Unworthy. Unsuccessful. Problematic.

How do you start to feel better? At least for myself, computer searching never helps, whether social or not. One thing that helps is to have a social network of friends, people that you can call and feel secure in venting. However, venting too much may drive friends (who are not as close) away. Another tip is to walk outside. Just being able to breathe fresh air feels good. Plus, you may get a small dose of endorphins to help make you feel better. Find a few inspirational quotes. Write down what you feel. Make a poem. For some people, making lists or plans seems to relax them. Take a bath or shower and take care of your body. Bring out a nice perfume or candle. More importantly, think about your good qualities- your successes, your personality, the people who love you. Tell yourself those good qualities out loud. Smile at yourself when you look in the mirror. Love yourself. Love yourself everyday.

Desensitivity and Eggplant

You know when you've fully taken to a kind of food when you really don't care if it's sub-par. It goes for pizza and tacos. So it should go for fruits and vegetables, but it often doesn't. But are we to blame? Perhaps that artichoke just doesn't taste right, or those grapes are a little mushy. The key is to love the food first by getting the good-quality stuff first, and preparing it well. It may mean pairing it with food you already love. My mom used to make delicious broccoli topped with cheese. I also remember her getting very skimpy on the cheese later on. Now, I just cook broccoli with a little salt and pepper, and it tastes fine to me, whether I get a good piece of broccoli or not. I had created a food desensitivity. So, try buying decent quality fruits or vegetables that you are a little more sensisitive to, and prepare it in ways that you think you might like. Remember, just because you didn't like the eggplant at the restaurant doesn't necessarily mean you don't like eggplant. You probably didn't like the way it was prepared. So peel the bitter skin and cook it with chickpeas and tomato sauce, or roast it and mash the inside with tahini or peanut butter and garlic. Look at ethnic recipes. Keep trying to like a food. And when you do like it, try to create a desensitivity (But don't eat too much and get sick of it!). It's part of a lifestyle change. The difference between the baby food diet and this desensitizing is that the developed eating habits and preferences often stay with you until the end. Baby food should be for when you are a toothless baby or a very old person (You can put it into spaghetti sauce for more concentrated nutrients. This is a good idea. Just don't live off it.).


Roasted Eggplant/Babaganoush:
Preheat oven to 500 F. Let the eggplant roast for about 40 minutes (don't pierce or poke it because you want the eggplant "oil" to stay inside), until you can pierce the skin easily with a knife. Clumsily get the eggplant into a bowl or plate. Cut off the head and take the skin off. Crush two or three cloves of garlic and mash it into the eggplant. Mash in more than one tablespoon of tahini or whatever nut butter you'd like. Tahini is classic, but you could probably get creative or cheap and use peanut butter. Keep mashing. Shake in cumin for a extra roasted flavor, as well as a little salt and pepper. Mash until it really looks like a consistent mush. Ah, eggplant. You can use it as a dip, or a kind of "gravy". I like to eat it with anything and by itself.

Calories: about 275 or 300 for an entire eggplant and two tablespoons of tahini
Cost: well, about 1.75 for an eggplant and the tahini varies, but was free for me as it was a gift (let us say it was about 30 cents for the two tablespoons). So maybe $2 for the whole thing. It should keep well for about five days in the refridgerator, though it is usually gone by day one (the taste improves even more after a day or two).


Okay, there's another eggplant dish, "Egyptian" style, that I don't know how to cook properly, so I will do some research and experimenting for another post, another day.

Pesto Grilled Cheese- Gooey Goodness

I got tired of rice and beans the other night. Though it's a great and cheap meal, and I usually have no problem eating it nearly every night, it's nice to change it up a little bit. I splurged a bit and got pesto the other night. I made a nice little grilled cheese with a small bed of lettuce on the side. I used cheap whole-wheat bread, spread a little bit of pesto on one side, followed by thin slices of tomato, sauteed mushrooms, shredded mozzarella cheese, and a few leaves from the side salad. Then, I heated a pan up with a little spritz of Pam, and made a grilled cheese. Gooey, pesto-ey heaven.
Calories: ~325
Cost: less than $1.50, including the salad (It's a small splurge. Take out the mushrooms for an easier and cheaper sandwich. Or you can have a classic grilled cheese. A classic grilled cheese with 2 slices of bread and one serving of cheese is $0.40)

I'm dividing the price of the food by the amount used. I understand this can be questionable, as food does go bad, and you throw out some. I generally manage to use all of my food before they go bad, with the exception of carrots. For some reason, I can't get rid of them fast enough. But, they are about 75 cents a bag, so that isn't a disaster. I recommend that for perishable food, you limit what you get based on the meals you tend to eat. For some, that means a meal plan where you can effectively use everything in your refridgerator before it goes bad. I don't use meal plans, but I highly recommend them. They make each week much less stressful. When you budget for the meal plans, don't forget to make a little room for slippage. There will be times when someone gets something from a snack or drink machine, or purchase a treat, or go out to eat because something went wrong with the food that you had planned to eat (at work, school, etc). If possible, make room in your budget for those times.

Curry!

In many countries, curried dishes are a poor man's meal. Restaurants in the US charge plenty for it, though. I adore curry powder, and will put some in rice, on fish, on shrimp, on vegetables, and chicken! Cooked, of course. You need a bit to make it noticeable. I wanted to recommend going to ethnic markets with bulk spices. I've managed to find a store with plenty of bulk spices and coffee and olives and cheeses and yadda-yadda-yadda. The point is, in a normal grocery store, it can be $4 for a pathetic 3 ounce container of curry. At this ethnic market, it was about $1.25 for 4 ounces! Granted, they only gave me paper bags to carry it in, so I had to make a run into the dollar store to get some spice containers. For the foods I like to eat, I only get cumin, curry powder, black pepper, and salt. If I feel more creative, I'll get cinnamon and bay leaves. These will run you maybe $10, but they'll last a long time.

Curried Vegetables Recipe
One Red Potato cubed
One Zucchini cut into half moons (or whatever medium-small shape strikes your fancy)
Another optional veggie, maybe zucchini's yellow squash counterpart, or cauliflower
Half can of chickpeas
One Onion chopped
3 Garlic Cloves chopped
chopped or grated Ginger (optional)
Curry powder 2 or 3 tbsp
Salt, Pepper
Chicken stock or bouillon (optional)
water (depends on the room taken up in the pot)
half-can tomato sauce (small)
oil for cooking 1 tbsp

Heat oil in medium/large saucepan/pot. Making sure it is hot (just starts to sizzle), turn the heat down to medium and put the onions in for a few minutes. While you wait, try to bring a small saucepan of water up to a boil. Be sure to put in the chicken stock, curry powder, salt, and pepper into the small saucepan. In the large saucepan, put in the garlic and ginger and let it cook for 30 seconds. Put in the vegetables and tomato sauce and let it sweat for a minute or two. If you feel that the food is starting to stick at the bottom of the pan from lack of oil, go ahead and put the boiling water in. Make sure the water just covers the veggies. Stir it and cover for 30 minutes at medium heat. Taste to see if it is ready. Let it cook more if you feel it needs it. If you can eat it like it is, enjoy! Warning: curry powder may temporary turn your pots or sink yellow.

I apologize for the lack of detail and specification on amounts. I don't have measuring cups or spoons, and prefer to just throw in what seems good at a time that seems right, with some standard guidelines.
So, calories for the entire dish: 750. This is enough for more than one serving, so share with a significant other, friends, or family.
Price: ~$2.30 (without optional extra veggie)
Additional suggestion: Add rice or a hard-boiled egg if you'd like. As always, be aware of calorie intake.