Tuesday, July 20, 2010
I am a bit annoyed!
But, that is not me! That is also not so many people I know. I do not have the metabolism or physique of a thin person and no amount of exercise or eating stimulating food will change that.
I have very thick blood that doesn't oxygenate very well and my entire family have always had sluggish bowels. There is diabetes, cholesterol and thyroid problems in my family and while I am still in normal range it is because for 40 years of my life I had a weight problem and being in the public eye I was very selfconscious of what I ate and avoided foods that would have blown me up over 300lbs. Also my family for some absurd reason never had to diet, they were and still are all slim. I was the chubby one, so I am sure that my battle with food is what kept me slim.
BUT you should know, you can't name a diet pill, a diet club, a diet plan, a diet supplement, a diet food replacement, appetite suppresant including acupuncture and aroma therapy, fasting, hypnosis and more... that I have not tried!!!
I want to tell you more about the way I think, but the words only come from time to time and I am SO not a writer and that makes it hard for me.
I am going to all this trouble to post on a blog and on Twitter because I want to help. I can't tell you how badly I feel for those that are struggling like I did and I still do struggle a BIT. I want to help because I KNOW I can. I know that I have actually develooped new eating habits. IT IS TRUE. By counting calories and eating whole foods I can't believe how easy this is all getting. Can you imagine it being a habit to not overeat??? Can you imagine it being a HABIT TO NOT EAT JUNK FOOD? Oh my, it's like a miracle. Just from counting calories and avoiding processed crap food like the plague.
I just want to address Food and Eating in this post even though I have intense opinions of how we got lost and what happened to us emotionally, physically and spiritually as a result of our bad eating habits. Still, I do know for a FACT that we need to relearn how to eat.
We need to relearn how to eat, without doing it we are still condemning ourselves to the worthless feelings that come with losing and gaining.
Calorie counting. Why do I place so much importance on it? Because you must eat a certain amount of calories everyday to keep your metabolism going and to lose weight. THAT IS A SCIENTIFIC FACT. Hating to count calories or cooking and planning and preparing food for yourself is the single most destructive thing you are doing to yourself.
Can you imagine if a Mom didn't feed her baby properly, she would be in jail and the child taken away. Well you are not feeding yourself properly because you HATE IT???
Yep, you need to find the time...because you are miserable the way you are.
OK Why Count calories...because YOU have no idea what you are doing!!!!!! If you are like me!
You need to plan healthy meals of food that doesn't convert quickly to sugar in your blood (refined processed food) and count the calories so that you eat properly.
Know when you eat too much one night and the next morning you aren't hungry so you skip breakfast??? Breakfast THE most important meal of the day, YOU skip it! If you ate properly during the day you would look forward to breakfast.
Trying to stay on track, told you I am not a writer so I'm doing the best I can.
Just try counting calories, everyone has a method to do it, but the math- dividing the ounces into the calories, looking up the calories, the scraps of paper to write and add can be a giant PITA. So try http://www.sparkpeople.com it's FREE. It's the best way to track your food and nutrition, they do the math, the breakdown ALL for YOU. I am not affiliated with them in any way. You will not lose weight if you eat just an extra 100-200 calories a day that you do not burn. You can gain weight if you eat just 200 extra cals a day, maybe just 1/2lb a month but that is 30 lbs in FIVE years.
Once you know that you are eating the right amount of the right food you can identify the times that you are wanting to eat for all the wrong reasons. You can know the difference between habitual, emotional desire to eat. Only then can you deal with it. You may fall of a zillion times, but there is at least something to get back on to. There is no diet to blow, no food plan to screw up. There is just old ways to change and go back to proper eating the proper amount of calories.
This is for people who are just like me and are sick and tired of gaining weight and the desperate hopeless feeling that comes with it.
Friday, July 16, 2010
I think that the best is to give you the basic recipe and then list some options. It is so easy. Cauliflower is a very bland veggie so taste it plain, you can always add spices. One thing I have learned about making fresh vegetable soups is that you don't want to complicate the recipe so that you don't lose the pure taste of the vegetables.
I prefer to use Leeks, but onions will do just fine.
Choose your fat/oil depending on how low calorie you want to make the soup.
Also
Here goes:
BASIC Cauliflower soup.
3Leeks or onions
Olive or canola oil, marg, butter, or PAM
1 large Cauliflower
2 chicken flavored bouillon cubes (I use McCormicks Vegan cubes)
*Milk + rice flour to thicken if you desire
1 tsp sweetener optional.
Roughly chop up 3 large leeks or 3 medium onions
In a large soup pot use 3 measured tbsps of olive oil or whatever you want, butter, margarine, veggie oil, Pam will save 300 calories for the whole pot.
Toss in the chopped leeks and on a medium temp saute them till they get translucent and soft, not brown. Stir often
I add little dashes of water if it starts to brown,
When the leeks or onions are soft add 1 whole roughly chopped up cauliflower
Saute for just a couple of minutes then cover the veggies with water. Careful not to add too much water, just enough to cover them (completely) otherwise the soup won't be thick enough.
Ok here is what I use, 3 McCormicks Vegetarian Chicken Flavored Bouillon cube, it adds lots of taste with no distinctive flavor, but you can use any chicken flavored bouillon cube. If you like to use liquid chicken broth then use it but make sure it's just to cover the cauliflower and veggies.
Let it boil, then reduce heat to simmer. It cooks very quickly.
OK that is the basic..
This is EXTRA
You can add garlic, shredded white cabbage ( I love nappa Chinese cabbage) Parsnips, peeled zucchinis...anything white.
Then you can add more water to cover and 1 or more bouillon cubes.
You can add favorite herbs, a bay leaf, grate some fresh nutmeg or make it spicy with cayenne or chilies or even some curry. Some people love a teeny little cumin in it while it's cooking. Of course you can add more herbs or spices after its cooked. AGAIN: Remember that cauliflower is a very bland veggy so use all herbs or flavoring very sparingly so it won't over power the soup
Lets assume you are going for the most basic plain simple cauliflower soup which is delicious. When the cauliflower is soft, use a hand held blender to puree it till its completely smooth...OR...
you can also remove a few pieces of cauliflower before you puree it and add it after to have the occasional whole piece.
I often will add a tsp of sweetener or sometimes a dash of lemon juice and sometimes 1/2 cup of milk. If you want it even richer, not concerned with extra calories, use butter or a dash of cream to make it silky. If it is too watery, I use a tbsp of RICE flour mixed in cold milk to thicken it. Do the same even if you added any of the other white veggies.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Lots of people like it when I add the cumin, makes it sort of middle eastern tasting, but I do like the simplicity of it plain, reminds me of rich vichyssoise, you can top it with chopped chives or a dollop of sour cream. It never lasts long enough to get fancy around here.
*note if you don't want milk products, water is just fine, I make it like that for my lactose intolerant family members and it is just as rich.
Let me know how it turns out.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Is this you? Us?
We spend so much time thinking about food and our bodies and feel so helpless especially when we've made so many efforts to change. Maybe we've lost a few pounds or a 100 pounds, it took so much effort but slowly and surely we made bad food choices and the pounds crept back on.
We can get so muddled in our minds that sometimes we get such a blank spot that we just blindly eat anything when we get the signal "it's ok to eat". Sure when we are really busy or really occupied with other things we can actually forget about eating but as soon as there is a blank space in our lives the first thought is FOOD. All the time you hear people say they don't need to be depressed, lonely or bored to eat, they can crave stuffing food even when they are happy and feeling blessed.
So it must be our emotions, we have a problem with our emotions. YES, without a doubt there are people with serious emotional problems, these people can act out the severity of these problems in many ways not just with food. If you are one of those people, seek professional help.
There are many counselling groups and places to go to talk to people who can help you. You don't just have to go to a psychiatrist or psychologist; in this day and age there are so many sources that are willing to help you. There are even some free groups like A&A or Overeaters Anonymous and many Community centers often organize help groups ...it's up to you to get help.
But maybe you don't have severe emotional problems. Maybe you can see how well you solve all the problems and trauma that is our daily lives. Maybe you know you are actually smart and can function in spite of everything in your life including things that happened to you in your past. Maybe you think there is something the matter with your spirituality,/conscience/emotions there are so many books being written on the subject…yes maybe you can find a spiritual way to lose weight. Maybe you can lose weight when you immediately forgive yourself and learn to love yourself. Maybe you can even lose weight when you forgive everyone else in the whole wide world that you felt responsible for what ails you and the planet Earth in general. Past, present and future.
As long as you realize that the future is unknown and hellish problems can rise up in the future. So you also need skills to not fall into the old patterns when “stuff happens”.
Speaking of patterns here is what I think,
We broke our appestat. As soon as we overate repeatedly for years, we broke our appestat. That means we can go way past the signals that say “STOP! I am full, I can’t eat another bite”. It also means that no amount of work on our emotions will repair our appestat…only chance we have is years of re-programming it and a lot of hard work coping with eating less than we used to.
We have likely screwed up our blood sugar and forced our livers to store so much glycogen as fat that it will also take years to straighten out our metabolisms.
We had a bad habit of trying to starve ourselves after we ate too much. This has nothing to do with emotions or loving ourselves this is a natural logical response to overeating. *Ate too much one meal eat less next meal or don’t eat at all tomorrow.* Years of doing this has totally screwed us up.
I am going to take a break in posting about this just for now because I need you to hear me….you need to change. You do not need a diet. You need to relearn how to eat healthy food in proper portions everyday. You need to reprogram yourself. You need to face that years of screwing up is not because you are a pathetic overweight hopeless person, it’s because you got lost and lost the ability to eat properly. You became a HABITUAL OVEREATER, and it’s unlike any other bad habit, you cannot abstain completely like with cigarettes or drugs and alcohol. You have to eat
So this is about retraining, reprogramming and building new habits, it could take years. You are about to face a giant challenge that has many obstacles, hurdles and steps backwards…but…you first have to believe that a simple plan of eating healthy balanced meals in proper portions will restore you. Now here is where I get fanatical-ish. NO MORE PROCESSED FOOD. Listen, hear, understand…your body does not need one more drop of refined sugars in the form of processed food. NOT ONE DROP. In order to restore your ability to eat properly you have to believe that. This is not just about losing weight; this is about RECOVERING from food obsession and overeating.
*Addendum: I've become aware I should define "Processed Food". In reality just chewing your food is processing it. I am referring to all foods that are so over refined+ manufactured that they convert too quickly to sugar/glycogen in your body. I am not referring to Pre-Prepared healthy food. How to know the difference? Well this is a serious problem if you have to ask, sorry to be so blunt. Probably if you omit foods that are made with Sugar + Flour you will eliminated 90% of the problem processed food out there. Many professionals believe that if you crave a food you are likely addicted to it, and the primary source of food addiction is this quick digesting of food as SUGAR/Glycogen. Yes, processed food is quickly turned to ALCOHOL in your body and like an alcoholic you CRAVE more.
There is also a belief that if flour or sugar is listed after the 5th or 6th ingredient it is a very insignificant amount. Perhaps that is a good way to start eliminating it from your diet
Have a look at this post about insulin and your liver.
http://caloriegirl.blogspot.com/2010/02/good-carbs-vs-bad-carbs.html
I welcome questions on twitter :)
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
OK so I am at my goal NOW WHAT?
Oh boy so many people felt the same way. We related it to everything from climbing a mountain to graduating from University to what happens after the Wedding. You work so hard at something, you achieve it... then what?
In many case the biggest fear was regaining all the weight. The data supports that most people will regain the pounds and the worse part is that all of us are on anywhere from our 2nd to 5th time losing a large amount of excess pounds.
Some people who were overweight all their life were having an identity crisis. Feeling like the same person but being treated differently by people they've known forever is really messing with them. Also having people romantically interested in them is also very confusing.
To be continued.....
JUNE 18th 2010!!!
How amazing to be here 6 weeks later and say I AM DOING IT.
What I am loving the best about this "Maintenance" stuff is that so much understanding is constantly rolling into my mind. Every day I seem to understand something new.
I should have written a lot of it down but seeing I am far from being a writer I will do my best to share my enlightened thoughts with you when I can and hope they make sense. Maybe you are like me and they will ring a bell loud enough to help.
You know those days when you think -"you will never lose it", that "it's too hard"....by the time you have thought - "it will take too long too lose" you've already made the decision to just eat whatever whenever.
I know without any doubt that the problem is that YOU are DIETING! How many successful weight losers have to tell you that DIETING DOESN'T WORK! You have to make a real change in your life. You have to look at your excuses to NOT make those changes square in the eye. AND YOU MUST NOT CHOOSE ANYONE OUTSIDE YOURSELF AS THE CHANGES YOU NEED TO MAKE. For example, get a divorce, leave a job...stuff like that.
The change you have to make is to stop eating the wrong food and too much food! You have to learn how to eat so that you can tell the difference between Emotional Eating, Addictive Eating and Habitual Eating.
What does this have to do with Maintenance? IT WORKS WHEN YOU HAVE REACHED YOUR GOAL.
If you really and truly have retrained your eating habits, retrained your taste buds, retrained yourself to eat proper portions at proper times it will not reverse after you have reached your goal.
Maybe you are thinking that you are happy for me, but that you are different, well maybe you are, but if you think that giving up your cupcake is going to make you feel deprived you need to GROW UP. Help yourself understand that wanting to eat all those processed foods and sugar so you won't be DEPRIVED is nonsense, childish and just plain ridiculous. How can you want sugar, fat and flour more than your health and to attain the one thing you really want more than anything in the world - to get rid of that bulk of excess pounds??? How can you want to deprive yourself of sanity more than deprive yourself of biscuits and bacon gravy???
Note* If your food plan includes a diet of sugary, fried foods and you are able to lose, feel good and can manage it...then you are not like me and I AM HAPPY FOR YOU.
In conclusion:
What I am finding from talking to 100's of people on another chat board about Maintenance is the people who are LOVING their new way of eating (like I am) who have also become acutely aware of the predicament we are in with food are indeed keeping it off.
I am only 90% processed food free, at best 95%, but I can handle that little bit compared to eating over 50% processed food in the past.
I spent over 20 years being fashionably slim just by not eating sugar & flour. When I started to eat it again it was like a dam burst, didn't binge...just ate a bit here and there with extra helpings to gain 60lbs in about 8 years at less than 1 pound a month! Spent the next 5 years trying to lose it the WRONG way:- I could lose 10-15 pounds and gain it all back in 2-3 weeks. Finally went into a true healthy diet and lost the 60 in 2 years painlessly by comparison to (UGH) DIETING.
Going to try to post here more often. Have so many thoughts to share.
Stop struggling, relearn how to eat, learn how to love and enjoy healthy food.
CHECK OUT MY DETOX LIST:
http://caloriegirl.blogspot.com/2009/06/special-foods-for-detox-diet.html
It's a scientific compilation that also rids the body of the most common food allergies.
Retrain - reprogram yourself, get your priorities straight. With all your heart, mind and soul you want to lose weight...learn how to change.
For those that are sure their eating habits are a result of abuse and extreme emotional illness, please find help! You deserve to be helped, you were not born to suffer and carry the burden of injustice for your whole life. Step one: You have to believe that.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Just a thought to ponder about Calorie Counting
In most cases, people who eat too much or eat high calorie low nutrition food will compensate by trying to eat less at another meal or actually starving themselves or telling themselves they won't eat that much later/tomorrow...and without fail they always do eat too much, because they are really hungry.
It's a long story, but in the shortest way: When you don't eat or eat too little your body's metabolism compensates by slowing down, reserving food for energy...but when you DO eat the body doesn't automatically start BURNING food, it is still STORING it as....FAT. (See some of my other blog posts for more on the subject of sugar and fat)
I could write a book, actually that is exactly what I should do...but...then what? LOL
Counting calories might seem like a lot of work, but...it's a gift from the Science World to help us foodies stay in line. Once you start feeling in control, lose that yucky feeling of "why did I eat that" Or "I hate being overweight" you will love counting.
Counting calories, weighing and measuring is more fun, more joy than receiving money every day and figuring out how you have to spend it!!! I promise it is.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Pat Barone
Today I visited her BLOG
http://stoprentingweightloss.com/ where Pat talks about that child in us. I recommend reading the entry. "We All Have to be a Parent Sometime!"
Pat is a professional and a celebrity in her field, I feel that the more light we can shed on this problem the more we can help others. NO ONE UNDERSTANDS this problem except a person who actually has lots of weight to lose and has done it!
This is my personal commentary on her entry.
I agree with Pat, childhood emotions will always come up. Every minute of our formidable years were filled with fear, sadness, loss, frustration, PAIN and much more. For those that think they didn't experience any of those emotions they are only fooling themselves. Unless an adult helped to soothe those feelings, the immature mind most likely had no idea how to deal with them. More likely an adult said "quit your whining, stop crying or worse. Many times a kid is given a cookie or candy to get them to stop and behave.
As an adult anything can trigger those childhood emotions. What is the solution?
Step One (imo) Remember you are the adult now and YOU can give that child the reassurance it needs. You KNOW as an adult that you are very capable so give your child an imaginary hug, love it up... tell your inner child that you can protect her/him .
Help your child it will never leave you it is YOU. Do it, because for love...you can do anything!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Who needs white flour when there are so many alternatives!
This is about food, not exercise.
"Eat about 1,600 calories a day, filling up on whole grains, fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and healthy monounsaturated fats."
That is from a gadzillion sites, it is the way to lose.
________________________________________________________
Lately I am aware that people can vehemently resent anyone telling them what or how to eat, so please read this and take whatever you think can help you, my motive is to help. Why I feel compelled and so passionate about it is a mystery to me because I am so aware of that resentment.
OK here goes:
Make a treat a completely different food source than white flour, it will build your self esteem even more than help with weight loss. Every time you do THE BEST for yourself you feel better in every way. If you want cookies, get whole grain or sprouted-grain cookies sweetened with raisin or dates or even maple syrup, but no snack treat should be over 100 calories. Crazy for chocolate, it can be good for you, eat 70% or more dark chocolate even if it has some sugar content, organic chocolate will at least have organic sugar (no chemicals).Remember the 100 calorie Rule
There are TONS of the most amazing and delicious whole grain and sprouted grain breads out there, make sure you can find the calorie count on the bread. Whole grain Brown Rice pasta comes in every shape and size and I found brands that never get mushy or starchy. Eat Buckwheat, Quinoa, Red and Brown whole grain Rice. Eat Oatmeal, Ezekiel cereals, 12 whole grain cereals, just think 100% whole grain instead of white flour. Also use lactose free milk (no one who is over weight needs lactose sugar which is also mucous forming) Try sugar free natural Almond Milk for cereal.
Nuts and seeds are very high calorie, you could have a giant piece of fish instead of 6 nuts..but walnuts are so good for you, use low fat dressing and toss walnuts into your salad, I chop organic(so tender) RED cabbage into my salads for extra crunch. I toss leftover salad into vegan bouillon broth, chop green onion and if I want it to be hearty add some beans or brown rice, sesame oil, hot chilies (a seasoning example) for an instant soup with lunch or dinner. Leave out the starch and just toss any veggies you have in the fridge then puree it for a thick soup snack with about 50 calories for 2 CUPS and HEALTHY HEALTHY HEALTHY... and.....delicious if seasoned the way you love it. How about two cups of pureed (non starchy)veggie soup with a slice of whole grain bread with 1-TSP natural nut butter and either fruit or unsweetened jam it's under 200C, what a perfect snack at 10 am or 4 pm.
I buy eggwhites at Costco, I get 3 cartons there for the price of one at regular supermarkets...eggwhite omelets are the best thing in the world and 0-mg cholesterol. One white is 15 calories, 1 large whole egg is about 70, you can have 4 eggwhites for 60C. Toss/fill them with anything and everything you can dream off.
I also make pizzas out of the 12 whole grain tortillas right in the toaster oven. I eat potatoes, not often, but they are a whole food filled with nourishment, I like red skinned and eat the skin...it slows down the starch from turning to quickly to sugar...and...anything colored RED or darker is full of antioxidants.
I could go on and on and on. If you saw my FAVORITE list on Sparkpeople it looks like half a supermarket. OH and I try to eat Grapefruit at least 3 times a week, it has AWESOME cholesterol lowering properties.
Anyway, I do feel bad being so pushy about white flour and sugar, I know even the healthiest eat it...but I can guarantee you they do not have MY weight problem, I spent over 20 years not eating it and stayed nice and thin, I only added a wee bit to my diet and gained all that weight...I KNOW I CAN'T EAT EVEN A DROP. I also know that people who have trouble losing and are food USERS need to give up every drop of food that converts too quickly too sugar in their body.
Please keep in mind, I am not perfect, but it's not because I deliberately tell myself it's OK to eat this, it's because I am slipping and not caring about myself at that moment, I just have the BIG LIGHT flashing in my head that says EAT IT, WHO CARES and I CAN JUST RETURN TO NOT EATING IT TOMORROW.
If you take anything from this post..try to just take this: Avoid foods that convert to sugar too quickly, they are depressives because your blood sugar will rise quickly and drop quickly leaving you tired and feeling low. They are addicting, you like the feeling when your blood sugar is UP so you will want to eat more of it. And if you are overweight it will continue to be stored as FAT, please help your liver, it does not need to store more fat on your body.
Also remember once you know the truth about food and your body, everything you do that you are aware is not good for you is one more spike in your self worth.