Beginnings

I saw this random quote on the web and loved it...

 "You don't judge a book by it's cover. Don't judge change by the beginning. Wait until the end. You'll be surprised at the results."


September had so many nasty little surprises.  I feel like a swimmer who keeps coming to the surface for one more gasping breath of air to sustain me.  I find time for one more walk, one more healthy smoothie, one more hour to cook a decent meal.  But I'm going to just keep at it!

Healthy Snacks

I've been wrestling with this list.  It looks fine on my computer but then messy after I post.  I hate to delete all the information for each snack.  I think I'm just going to leave it messy.  Email me if you want a word document list with Weight Watchers points added!

Favorite Healthy Snacks

Almonds, Blue Diamond (flavored) – ½ ounce (about 14 nuts), 85 cal, 8 fat, 2.5 carb,

3 prot, 1.5 fiber

Almonds, Emerald 100 calorie pack – 1 pack, 100 cal, 9 fat, 4 carb, 4 prot, 2 fiber

Bars, Clif Mini Energy Bars – 1 bar, 100 cal, 2 fat, 18 carb, 4 prot, 2 fiber

Bars, Fiber One – 1 bar, 140 cal, 4 fat, 29 carb, 2 prot, 9 fiber

Bars, Glucerna Mini-Snack – 1 bar, 70 cal, 2 fat, 12 carb, 3 prot, 0.5 fiber

Bars, Kellogg’s Special K, Protein Meal Bar, Chocolate Peanut Butter –

            1 bar, 180 cals, 6 fat, 25 carb, 10 prot, 5 fiber

Cereal, Kelloggs All-Bran Buds – 1/3 cup, 70 cal, 1 fat, 24 carb, 2 prot, 13 fiber

Cereal, Kashi Go Lean Crisp, Toasted Berry Crumble – ¾ cup, 180 cal, 3.5 fat,

35 carb, 9 prot, 8 fiber

Cereal, Kashi Go Lean Crunch – ¾ cup

Cereal, Kashi Heart to Heart – ¾ cup, 120 cal, 1.5 fat, 25 carb, 4 prot, 5 fiber

Cereal, Wheat Chex – ¾ cup, 160 cal, 1 fat, 39 carb, 5 prot, 5 fiber

Cheese, Laughing Cow French Onion

Cheese stick, Trader Joe’s Organic Light String – 1 stick, 60 cal, 2.5 fat, 1 carb, 6 prot,

0 fiber

Chocolate, Scharffen-Berger 70% (3 ounce bar)  -- ¼ bar, 110 cal, 9 fat, 10 carb,

2 prot, 2 fiber

Chocolate, Scharffen-Berger 82% (3 ounce bar) -- ¼ bar, 105 cal, 8.5 fat, 8.5 carb, 2.5

prot, 3 fiber

Chocolate, semi-sweet chips – 1 tablespoon

Edamame, dry roasted (Seapoint Farms, Costco) – ¼ cup, 130 cal, 4 fat, 10 carb,

14 prot, 8 fiber

Edamame, fresh/frozen in pod – ½ cup, 3 fat, 9 carb, 8 prot, 4 fiber

Milk, skim – 8 ounces

Pirate’s Booty Puffs – 1 ounce single serving bag, 130 cal,  5 fat, 19 carb, 2 prot,

0 fiber

Popcorn, air popped – ¼ cup unpopped, about 3 cups popped

Pumpkin seeds, unsalted roasted in shell – ½ cup

Roasted Seaweed Snack strips, Trader Joes – 1 pack

Soup, Progresso Light – ½ can/1 cup, 80 cal, 1 fat, 13 carb, 3 prot, 2 fiber

Veggie patty, MorningStar Farms Chik Patties Original – 1 patty, 140 cal, 5 fat,

16 carb, 8 prot, 2 fiber

Veggie patty, MorningStar Farms Spicy Black Bean Burger – 1 patty, 120 cal, 4 fat,

13 carb, 11 prot, 4 fiber

Veggie patty, MorningStar Farms Garden Veggie Patties – 1 patty, 110 cal, 3.5 fat,

9 carb, 10 prot, 3 fiber

Yogurt, Yoplait Light (6 ounces) – 6 ounces, 100 cal, 0 fat, 19 carb, 5 prot, 0 fiber

Yogurt drops, Gerber Gradulates Melts (1 ounce bag) – 1/2 bag, 60 cal, 0 fat, 10 carb,

2 prot, 0 fiber

Yogurt tubes, Horizon Lowfat Tuberz – 1 tube, 60 cal, 0.5 fat, 11 carb, 2 prot, 0 fiber

Green Smoothies

In two weeks, I lost five and a half pounds without much effort.
Whoa.

Here's what's up...

The same day that I decided my next health step would be increasing my veggie intake, Amazon put out its list of the day's deeply discounted e-books.  One of the titles was Victoria Bourtenko's Green Smoothie Revolution (North Atlantic Books, 2009.  184 pages).  It promised some recipes for veggie smoothies, so I clicked on the "buy now" button.

The book is an easy read.  Bourtenko took some interesting directions such as analyzing the diets of wild chimpanzees since chimps are very close to humans genetically.  She talked a lot about organics and the importance of healthy soil for nutrition content in our produce.  She also explored the balance between healthy Omega-3 oils (found in greens!) and the more common Omega-6 oils.  What genuinely surprised me were her informational charts comparing nutrients in the roots, bulbs, and stems vegetable parts we eat compared with the leaves.  In a lot of cases, we toss out the far more nutritious part to keep the portion of the plant that is higher in natural sugars and therefore more palatable.  And they really are packed with vitamins, minerals, and healthy phytochemicals.

Here's what I didn't like about the book....  Bourtenko is one of those "all or nothing" type of people.  Since raw foods contain more nutrients, she gave up cooked food almost completely.  Since greens are powerhouses of nutrients, she starting ingesting pounds of them a day.  Greens are easiest to digest in smoothie form, so she drinks quarts.  Her way is definitely "revolution," encouraging complete change in diet forever.  Her book focused on miracle stories of lives transformed by super nutrition -- cravings vanishing, warts falling off, arthritis easing up after years.  C'mon.  A little balance, please.  Her approach was pushy enough that I found myself checking her research.  The good news is that even if she goes overboard, her science seems to be sound.

Here's what I love about the book....  I was finishing up Bourtenko's book during a routine check-up visit to my doctor, so I talked to her about it.  If your body isn't used to much raw food or greens, eating a lot of them could give you a tummy ache, but otherwise there wasn't anything to worry about, I was told.  On the plus side, adding more nutrition to your diet helps ward off disease and makes your body run more efficiently.  There is some evidence that good nutrition helps beat food cravings too.  So I stopped by the store on the way home and bought some greens -- spinach and kale.  Later that day I made my first green smoothie using a bag of frozen wild blackberries, some fresh mango, water, and a couple of handfuls of the fresh greens.  It wasn't a very green colored smoothie, but it tasted good.  All week long I made similar smoothies, going a little darker green each time by adding more leaves.  I started to like them more and more.  They also filled me up in the early afternoon so I wasn't hungry for snacks.  After several days I realized I felt a little better than before, had a little more energy and wasn't as hungry at other times of the day either.  And today I discovered I lost over five pounds just by adding one glass of smoothie to my day.

If you want convincing, you might want to read the book.  Otherwise, there's no reason not to jump in and try your own green smoothie.  You really don't need recipes.  Just start by blending some frozen fruit with enough splashes of water to make a milkshake-like consistency and then seeing how much greens you can add before the taste becomes less appealing.  I'm really wishing I had a Vita-Mix blender like they use at Jamba Juice and Planet Smoothie about now, but the old Hamilton-Beach is doing the job even if it takes a good ten minutes to finish a smoothie because of the small motor (and doesn't cost $600).

Bourtenko's Website:  http://greensmoothierevolution.com/
Bourtenko's Green Smoothie Blog:  http://greensmoothiesblog.com/

Next Step...Veggies!

I've been slogging through our family's transition period and feel like I'm finally starting to get a handle on everything.  E did great getting used to preschool and most of my husband's late work nights are drawing to a close.  I got a book review project off my plate and my work as a consultant on a grant is coming together.  And now that E is in preschool three mornings a week, I have consistent work time at home again.  Whew!

I'm itching to get back to reading old journals and draw some conclusions, put together some goals.  In the meantime, though, I don't want to stagnate.  Luckily, I feel sure of what the next step should be -- increasing fruits and veggies!

A month or so ago, I was discussing the Persistent Elephant project with a long-time friend who knew me during that previous period of successful weight loss.  "I remember one of your strategies was eating 8-9 servings of fruits/veggies every day, leaving less room in your diet for junk," she said.  Huh.  I'd forgotten that!  Sure enough, when I started reading old journals, that was one of the strategies I found.  Thank God for good friends and diaries!

Not long ago, I went searching for a pretty fruit basket to put on top of the fridge.  (Thank you, Homegoods!)  Not only will it put the fruit where I can see it constantly, but it also helps the fruit to ripen better.  Seems like some fruits like nectarines and peaches can go from rock hard to wrinkly in the crisper without ever reaching the yummy stage.  I've definitely been eating more fruit since we got the basket.

I don't want to eat just fruit, though.  It still has a lot of sugars even if they are natural ones.  Plus veggies have so much to offer!

Stay tuned...

The Upside Down Fish

My toddler son got two goldfish last winter that he promptly named Scoop and Pour.  Both were wee fry when we brought them home, but have grown considerably.  Pour, the larger of the two, is sturdy.  Unfortunately, Scoop has trouble now and then...

I walked by the tank one day and did a double-take.  Huh?  Yup.  Scoop was floating upside down.

Naturally, I thought Scoop was dead or dying, but he was actually quite active.  I did some online searches and discovered that goldfish are descended from bottom-feeding carp.  These scavengers aren't meant to have overprocessed food flakes that float.  Some fish have more sensitive digestive systems and the air they suck in with the floating food causes them to have too much gas in their bodies.  Their bubble-filled belly rises to the surface, causing them to float upside down until they can digest the food and dispel the air.

 
It's funny to watch poor Scoop rolling around like a hot air balloon in the wind at Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  But it is sad too.  That fish really struggles.  He will sometimes swim into the space under his bridge to keep himself from bobbing to the top, gasping and letting his fins finally be still for a moment.  It looks unnatural and exhausting.

I bought sinking pellet fish food and that really helped.  I also carefully limit how much I put in the tank and drop the food in on the opposite side from wherever Scoop is swimming so it will sink before he sees it.  Still, the sinking food is also overprocessed, so it still causes Scoop occasional trouble when he eats too fast or too much.

Hmmm.

When I'm tempted to get a treat at the gas station when I fill up the car or look over a restaurant menu, sometimes Scoop comes to mind.  Too much overprocessed food...too fast...too much...  Then we're struggling (inwardly or outwardly) to keep our balance.

Getting Back Into Step

My friend Caro responded via the comment link after my last post.  I loved what she said so much that I wanted to move it up to make sure others saw it.    

"Yes, a necessary process, I think, for life to get a bit too busy to practice and then find our way back to the practice (of health eating/living.)  One metaphor, esp for me, is getting out of step in Contra Dancing, and then recovering.  As I got to be a better dancer, I was really getting better at recovering from being out of step.  I feel a bit of out of step in health eating, got to keep practicing, and maybe remind myself of the reasons, find a way to get back into practice, into step.  I also think sometimes in our lives there is just too much going on, as you describe.  Often as work heats up with the start of school, I fall out of practice.  It is mostly in order to "reward" myself after a hard day (well, not compared to miners, but...) and sometimes because not enough time for shopping, cooking, exercise.  So, some of it is for me to change my attitude about work, I just decide I'm not going to let it compromise my health.  Of course, it is a balance.  At Kripalu we made a plan for the week, maybe I'll do that, one week at a time!"

Hanging In There...

It's been a crazy month.  Summer tot music classes and playgroups are over.  My son's nanny share coasted to a close and we started the transition to preschool.  My husband's school year started back with lots to do to settle into teaching and helping new students; he's had a lot of late work nights.  As our weekly family patterns began falling apart, my son started waking up once or twice a night so he can holler for mama.  It's hard for me to fall back asleep.  In short, our house is in a minor uproar.

I'm in a transition period that finds me exhausted and scrambling for time to keep up with Persistent Elephant.  Yet by the end of next week everything should be settling down.  And getting healthy will be a huge priority for me.  Stay tuned!