Thoughts: 9.27.08

We got back from our vacation in Bermuda Thursday night. It was a great trip – Bermuda is so beautiful. We’ll definitely go back! While there I did a lot of swimming and walking and was happy to see I didn’t gain any weight, despite eating 3 large meals per day and dessert with either lunch or dinner. I did eat better than normal. I generally went for salads or fish if it was on the menu, but one night I did get veal. Yum… I’m a sucker for veal dishes. Not very PC, but I don’t give a crap. I grew up on it with my mother making her weiner schnitzel… and I had it almost every day when we honeymooned in Rome 6 years ago. Ahhh… Rome. I miss Rome. That was the one place I cried about leaving and still feel ‘home sick’ for it now. I told my husband we were retiring in Rome – I wasn’t kidding.  =)  I did gain 10lbs in 10 days when we were there, but I had just finished starving myself for our wedding, so no surprise there. And the food is so good… and I think we drank a bottle of wine every night with dinner, where normally we may have a glass or two per week… but I don’t regret it. 

Anyway… I’m just really happy and feel really good about how I ate while on vacation. Probably the first time ever. I normally go hog wild and then feel like complete and total crap when we get home. Not this time!  =D  I just finished working out, too and feel amazing. I’m glad to be back, though. Back to routine, my yoga room, my food. I realized while on vacation that I really do eat a lot less than I used to. And I normally do wait until I’m hungry before eating… and I’ve gotten better about snacking on fruit and nuts inbetween smaller meals. In Bermuda we didn’t snack, and because I did do a lot of swimming, stair-climbing and walking [I have the blisters to prove it!], I was FAMISHED at meal time, I’d eat too fast and get stuffed a lot quicker than I would have expected… even though I was eating healthier – or making healther vacation meal choices – I could have done with less if we were able to snack more between meals. We know next time to get on the bus, go to St. George’s to the little grocery store on York St. and buy some healthy snacks to keep at the hotel in our little fridge. Live and learn, right? That’s what it’s all about.  =)

I took that photo of Tobacco Bay on our way down from Fort St. Catherine’s as we walked back to town. It didn’t rain, thankfully, but we did get the most amazing dark & stormy sky… just gorgeous. Everything was a picture. I took about 400 in the 6 days we were there. I’ll post more here and there.  =)

Thoughts: 9.18.08

I’ve been so busy lately, it’s been tough finding time to do anything, let alone post – but my absence here by no means connotes that I’ve given up! lol… I’m still plucking away, doing what I can, trying to make better choices. I am NOT perfect, and I do slip up, but the difference these days is, the slip ups aren’t as frequent and don’t do any damage to my perfectionist psyche like they use to. I’m relaxing about a lot of things, which I think is part of learning moderation. I don’t have the time or energy for extremes anymore. 

I’m trying to switch my workout time from first thing in the morning to after work, which I think will end up being better. I won’t have to rush, and my muscles are just more loose and flexible in the evenings vs. when I first wake up, so I think takes the chances of injury down a bit. BUT, if I go out after work and get home any later than 10:00 [which happened last night], the likelihood of me getting my butt upstairs to workout are slim to none, whereas working out in the mornings is pretty easy. I rarely sleep too late to get at least a quick workout in. I guess there’s trade-offs either way. But I am realizing that no matter how hard I try, I’m just not capable of going to bed early enough to wake up early enough to have the time to do everything I want to do in the mornings AND get to work on time. And now that we’re ramping up for the holiday selling season I have to get there on time. So I’d rather cut into my TV time in the evenings and workout, stay up as late as I want and make up for it in the morning since all I have to do is roll out of bed, wash up, eat something, pack a lunch and go… vs. working out, showering… and all that other stuff. lol… 

I have continued to lose weight – albeit very slowly – but I’m more concerned about ‘positive trend’ than speed or numbers at this point. It’s more about feeling well and happy than competing with the contestants on ‘biggest loser’ – I find that show inspirational, but also so drastic. I suppose if I could be taken out of my regular life for 5 months and worked out 6 hours a day and ate healthy, low carb meals all the time, the lbs would melt off pretty quickly. I would actually not be a good contestant – I’d run out of weight to lose fairly quickly and they’d vote me off. lol… I do have a decent amount to lose, but it doesn’t seem like THAT much compared to some of those people you see on shows like that. 

We leave for Bermuda on Saturday, so I’ll be off the grid for about a week. I just hope we have decent enough weather so I get to swim each day, and we can walk around and explore the island. I’m bringing my yoga mat with me, and also the videos I just bought. I caved and watched an informercial on “Turbo Jam” – a mixed discipline, high-energy workout that looked like fun. I tried the ‘learn and burn’ workout the other day and it was a lot of fun, and also made me sore in parts of my core that are never sore. I do a decent amount of crunches each week with my regular routine – including swinging crunches for my lower abs and side crunches for my obliques, so I was surprised at how sore I was just doing 15 minutes of this new workout. And I was sweating and panting, which I have learned to LOVE – so the plan is to use those workouts every other day along with my usual circuit so I don’t have to do the bike anymore. I just don’t enjoy it at all. Once I get more familiar with the turbo jam program and have used it a while, I’ll post a review for it if anyone is interested. 

Anyway… so, according to physicsdiet.com, I’ve lost 3.4 lbs since I started keeping track on 8/20. And I just measured myself again and saw some interesting things: In the past 2 weeks I’ve lost another 1/2″ off my chest, only 1/4″ off my waist and nothing off my hips [but the last time I measured I lost a whole inch off my hips, so I guess my body pulls from different areas at different times??? who knows...], but I did lose a full inch off each thigh and 1/4″ off each arm. I’ve definitely noticed my arms looking a little more cut and there’s a lot less ‘excess’ hanging on them, which is great. I’m hoping once I get used to the TJ workouts and I’m doing those regularly, I’ll see a pick up in weightloss, along with just eating better again. With all the birthday celebrations and BBQs & parties we’re hosting this month… and a vacation… I’m looking forward to October just to get a normal routine back with less [fun & tempting] interruptions.  =)

Thoughts: 9.13.08

I haven’t been posting as much this week because I’ve been busier than usual – both at work and also after work. September is a pretty big social month with so many of my closest friends and family members having birthdays… my husband and I have our anniversary on the 22nd, and at the moment I’m just taking a quick break before continuing prep work for a BBQ tomorrow we’re throwing for some friends. I’m making a mostly healthy spread:

Appetizers:
Homemade Hommus with pita bread
Homemade Ranch dip with chips or veggies
Homemade Salsa with chips

Main Dishes:
Beer & Onion Boiled, then grilled Bratwurst
Kayem hot dogs [the best, with natural casings]
Teriyaki Steak Tips
Salmon
Roasted Veggies with Fennel Spice Rub
Roasted Corn on the Cob with just a little olive oil and salt
Greek Pasta Salad with Kalamata Olives, Cukes, Red Peppers, Onions, Parsley and Feta

Dessert:
Whatever anyone decides to bring… but just in case…
Homemade Brownies with vanilla ice cream and homemade chocolate sauce [literally just heavy cream and semi-sweet Ghiradelli chocolate]

It probably sounds like a lot, but there’ll be 12 of us, and people will be hear a while – we start at 2:00, but then the Pats start playing at 4:00, so we could have people here as late as 7:00 or 8:00… so 5 or 6 hours of munching.  =)  Should be a good time. I hope we can be outside for a while before it rains… it would be nice to have everyone eat outside so we don’t have to mess up the house to much with food… we’ll see. 

I didn’t do too badly this week with eating or exercising – but I definitely could have done better, too… According to physicsdiet.com, I have now lost 2.5 lbs, despite actually gaining weight last week [not much... more to do with my cycle than anything else]. I have to keep reminding myself that this is not a race… slow and steady is just fine. I do feel a lot better though in terms of energy. and I’ve noticed that it’s a lot easier to know when I’m hungry and when I’ve had enough. I don’t eat as fast anymore and I’m okay with leaving food on my plate. It’s finally starting to feel a bit more natural. I’m okay with having a taste of chocolate after dinner instead of eating it by the handful. lol… baby steps. I still need to work on getting more sleep, but that’ll be easier too, after this weekend when all the September celebrations are over and there’s less TV to watch [we were watching an entire 10-year series on DVD which became addictive and hard to turn off at night]. 

I’m also excited for next week – We leave for Bermuda on Saturday and are there for 6 dayd [5 nights] to celebrate our wedding anniversary. It’ll be 6 years on the 22nd. I can’t wait – this is our first ‘beach’ vacation ever. We usually either visit relatives in Chicago, Florida or Toronto, or we do city trips that are all walking all the time and kind of exhausting. We’ve never gone somewhere like Bermuda where all we want to do is nothing on the beach.  =)  

Anyway… I do have more recipes to post – hopefully I’ll get to them all this week before we leave!

Recipe: Mexican Egg Scramble

This is a quick and simple way to make eggs in the morning that I’ve been making for years. It’s foolproof if you love Mexican-style flavors. All you need are an egg or two, a slice of pepper jack cheese and some cilantro. This is probably my favorite way to eat scrambled eggs and it never gets old for me. If I’m in the mood, I’ll wrap my Mexican Egg Scramble in a chili flour tortilla and make a sort of breakfast burrito. YUM!

Ingredients for one serving:
1 or 2 eggs  
1 slice Jalapeño Pepper Jack cheese
Handful of fresh Cilantro, chopped
Splash of milk, optional
Salt & pepper to taste 

Method:
- Heat up frying pan over medium heat with a little butter or olive oil
- Crack eggs into a mixing vessel of your choosing
- Chop up cilantro and add to the eggs, along with a small splash of milk if you have it on hand [if you don't, don't worry about it...], and a little salt & pepper, whisk 
- Rip up the slice of cheese into 4 or 5 pieces and drop into hot pan just until it starts to melt
- Add egg mixture and mix around with spatula the way you like making scrambled eggs [I find everyone has their own way of doing it]
- When you’ve reached your desired level of ‘doneness’, slide onto your plate and serve with whatever you’d like – I had it with some sliced mango the other day [pictured]

Notes:
- I was surprised at how well the sliced mango went with the eggs.. normally I don’t like anything sweet associated with eggs, but I think between the freshness of the cilantro and the heat from the cheese, the mango just worked really well – and it’s a great addition to just the eggs when you’re watching what you eat… eating just the eggs makes my plate look lonely, even with all those flavors mixed in!
- You can serve this on toast, or as I mentioned above, in your favorite variety of tortilla if you want some extra carbs added to your breakfast
- If you’re not watching your weight, or just want to indulge, add a little butter to the same pan and drop your breakfast burrito in, seam side down and let it get crisp, flip and do the same on the other side and then serve with some sour cream, quacamole and/or salsa on the side…. to die for!

Thoughts: 9.9.08

I finally got to bed at a reasonable hour last night. And then tossed and turned for a good hour. I only woke up once or twice, which isn’t too bad, but I’m not really ‘refreshed’ this morning. It probably doesn’t help that I have my “.” [as my girlfriend and I call it in email], or that it’s pretty dark and dreary out this morning. So far, I’ve managed to gain 2 lbs and keep it all week. I’m still hoping it’s due to my “.” and not because I’m eating more. In fact, I really haven’t been eating enough this week. I’m not going to let it all deter me, though. Just as with exercise, there will always be ups and downs with eating healthy. This week was not my finest hour. I didn’t eat too badly, I just didn’t eat frequently enough, or get enough protein. I’ve been busy and tired… I think getting more sleep will help everything balance out again. It’ll just take a few days. 

I ordered a new earplug made for sleeping and noise-blocking. Not that my husband snores [we both do occasionally if our necks are craned, but it's light, not chain-saw-like by any means], we live on a main street and our bedroom is on the main floor, so if we need to open a window if it gets warm, I literally wake up every time a motorcycle or truck drives by. It’s amazing how fast people whip down our street in the wee hours… grrrrr… So, the earplugs I ordered are made of all natural stuff – bees wax, sterile cotton and purified lanolin. I used ot use a similar ear plug when I used to swim laps in the mornings. You squish them around in your hands until they’re easily moldable and then you press into your ears, creating a nice seal – and you can get them to fit however you’d like so they’re comfortable – they don’t stick out like foam ones. If I like them, I’ll put up a product review. 

I haven’t been writing as much in the past few days because things have been busy. We saw Kooza – the lastest Cirque du Soleil show that’s touring the US on Saturday and it was EXCELLENT, despite tropical storm Hannah raging through it all. If you like Cirque shows and haven’t see it yet – you should go when it comes to your neck of the woods. The 3 contortionist girls [pictured], who were the first act once the show got going were incredible to watch. I’ve never seen something like that, that got so much astonished reaction from a crowd like those girls did. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a contortionist – I’d spend HOURS stretching. The rest of the show was amazing as well, but they were my favorite. Seeing stuff like that always inspires me – it reminds me of what the human body is capable of…. but I digress…what I was getting at was that I have a bunch of recipes to post, which I’ll try to get to today. 

Okay… time to drag my butt upstairs for a workout. Hopefully that’ll kick start my energy. I’m going to need it. We’re going to a concert tonight at a tiny club in Cambridge, and the band we’re seeing [IAMX] doesn’t go on until 11pm. Oy… it’ll be worth it, though. I can’t wait to finally see them live.  =)

Image Credit: Courtesy of CirqueDuSoleil.com

Thoughts: 9.7.08

The past few days have been challenging for eating healthy, but something has definitely changed with me, because even when faced with crappy choices last night, I didn’t sweat it. We went to see Kooza, the latest Cirque Du Soleil show to come to Boston last night [the best one we've seen live so far!], and I hadn’t eaten dinner, so by the time we got there, I was famished. I got a hot dog, put some mustard on it and called it a night. I could have gotten ice cream, popcorn, candy, a huge pretzel [or all of the above], but I figured of all my choices, a hot dog at least has some protein that will hold me a while. I could have skipped the bun, but I didn’t. When we got home last night we were wired from the show, the traffic, the flooding [former hurricane Hannah, turned tropical storm Hannah... not nearly as bad as they predicted, thank goodness!], so I made some yummy egg drop soup with a little miso, Thai chili sauce, scallions and snow peas. Yum.

Today I didn’t eat enough, but I did have a couple of buckwheat pancakes that I made without the sugar and with an extra egg, and some vanilla added to the batter of a store-bought mix. They came out great, and I put a blop of Greek-style yogurt on top and some sliced kiwi, peach and banana. Normally I would either, a) skip the pancakes or, b) eat 3 or 4 of them with lots of butter and syrup. I’m learning the joys of compromise and moderation, and starting to leave behind my ‘all-or-nothing’ mentality. It’s finally starting to become more natural for me.

I’ve also noticed I’m not as impulsive and I’m slowly shedding my unnecessary perfectionism. I washed my car today – normally I’d be scraping off every little dot of tar on the bottom of my doors with my finger nails and being compulsive about drying every last drop so I don’t get spots, cleaning all the windows inside and out and also all the door frames… nevermind vacuuming, dusting, wiping down every surface… needless to say, it turns washing the car into an event of a few HOURS. Today I just soaped it up, rinsed and sprayed some tire foam on the tires after I scrubbed off my rims. I missed a spot or two here and there and had to stop myself and think, “it doesn’t matter. Leave it…” and I did after a few deep breaths. lol

Now, if only I could get my ass to bed at a reasonable hour, everything else would just be easier… waking up, getting a full workout in before work and actually getting to work on time… I think now that I have my eating habits elevated to higher standards, it’s time to tackle my sleeping standards. 6 hours does not cut it…. [and it's 12:48 am right now on a 'school night'... time to sign off!!!].  ;)

Product Review: Nordic Naturals Arctic Cod Liver Oil

I decided to post about Nordic Naturals Arctic Cod Liver Oil because I’ve tried many different types of oils and pills to get more omega-3 into my diet and this is the first one that’s not only decent-tasting, but doesn’t upset my stomach. It comes in two sizes: 8 fl.oz and 16 fl.oz, and four flavors: Lemon, Orange, Peach & Strawberry.

I buy the 8 oz. size. It comes in a dark blue bottle, which I like – more harmful light-blocking. I also like the fact that I finish it faster. I think if I had a family and wanted all my kids to take it each morning in their O.J., I’d buy the 16 oz. size to save a bit of money, but the savings isn’t big enough to make me buy the larger size now, when it’s just me taking it… [$18.99 vs. $33.99 on average]. I use the orange-flavored one as part of my ‘mud’ in the morning and because I also add unsweetened cranberry juice and orange juice to the mix, I don’t taste the cod liver oil at all. I’ve taken it on it’s own, too, and was surprised at how well the fishy taste is masked by the orange and rosemary they add to it. It’s a far cry from the stuff my mother used to make us take when we were little! lol…

So far the quality has been consistent [I've tried taking gel caps before and it would be hit or miss on quality - some would be fine, other bottles would make me physically ill]. I store my cod liver oil in the fridge and it’s still liquid at that temperature, so it’s still easy to take and I feel better knowing it won’t spoil as quickly. I also take a full tbsp vs. the tsp they recommend and it lasts me about a month – so if you only take the tsp they recommend, it’ll probably last 2-3 months. I don’t think any of us get enough omega-3 from diet alone. I don’t know about you, but I can’t eat cold-water fish at every meal. That would get way too expensive. 

Now that I know there are more flavors out there, I’m going to try them. If any one of the other flavors happens to be repulsive for some reason, I’ll post again and let you know. 

Image credit: SMARTbomb.com

Weight Fluctuation

Now that I’m weighing myself every morning, so I can enter the number on physicsdiet.com, I’m seeing just how much my weight can fluctuate during the end of my cycle [right before my period]. I hit a crazy low on the 30th, that I think was a fluke because I dropped a pound over night and then the next few days it fluctuated back up and down as it regulated… but between yesterday and today I gained almost 2 lbs. Yikes… hopefully it’ll come back down again in a day or two. It is interesting to see what happens – then I’ll know to expect it next time. 

It probably doesn’t help that I’ve been doing more socializing this week – which means meals out at restaurants. I’ve done really well with my food selections and what I eat and don’t eat. I managed to go to an Italian restaurant yesterday and walked out having NOT eaten any bread or pasta. I had the baked haddock and roasted veggies. There was some breadcrumbs as part of the seafood stuffing, which I did eat, but normally when I go to that place I eat the bread with the oil first, then have the cannelloni stuffed with veal that’s smothered in an awesome cream sauce… sometimes we share a basket of the garlic chips that are so ridiculously delicious, but also full of oil and cheese… normally we’re too full to even try dessert- the only saving grace. Yesterday I wasn’t stuffed and could have had a few bits of dessert, but chose to just have a cappucino [no sugar] instead, and I walked away feeling great instead of stuffed and gross. 

I think I need to get more protein, though – lately I’ve been having fruit for breakfast and snacks, only getting some protein with lunch and dinner. So today I’m making eggs for breakfast instead. With tons of fresh herbs and veggies. Yum. I was eating eggs in the mornings the first week and that’s when my weight dropped the fastest. It’ll be interesting to see if that’ll happen again, or if it was just that ‘flushing’ that happens when you begin eating healthier…

Fractionated Oil??

My husband and I were discussing microwave popcorn last night – because he’s trying to cut down on his addiction to it, when I mentioned that the last time I looked, his favorite brand still had hydrogenated vegetable oil in it ["trans fat"]. He said he didn’t think so, so I grabbed the package and read off the ingredients and got mildy scared when I saw “fractionated palm oil” on the list. What the hell is ‘fractionated oil’??? I was also surprised I’d never heard of it before [I don't eat a lot of processed foods, so I just never came across a label that had that on there, I guess...]. I had to wonder if it was the next version of hydrogenated oil, just named cleverly to fool us ‘idiot consumers’ [yes, I'm a bit paranoid, but shouldn't we all be? lol]

Turns out all it means is, palm oil [originating either in Africa or in the US] is a very healthy oil. It’s high in saturated fats, but it’s also high in antioxidants and vitamin E. Great, right? Not so fast… when they fractionate it, they heat it so that the oil separates into 2 parts: oil that has lower and higher melting point. Then they skim off the stuff that has the higher melting point, which is more stable, much like trans fats used to be and discard the rest. They use this oil in a lot of baked goods, confections containing chocolate – and microwave popcorn. Commonly used oils are palm oil, palm kernel oil and coconut oil. Both Palm and coconut oils are very healthy and great to cook with if you can find it [Trader Joe's carries coconut oil which I use in place of vegetable oil - it has very little flavor, so it's perfect when you don't want your oil to interrupt the flavors of whatever you're using it for...]. Palm kernel oil is oil they get from pressing the pit of the palm fruit – which doesn’t really have much nutrition in it to start with, but it’s much harder to get oil from the pit than it is from the fleshy, pulpy fruit itself. 

So, what’s the bottom line? 

The good news: This fractionated variety of oil is NOT half a step away from being straight-up plastic like hyrogenated oils were and does not appear to cause cancer like trans fats do.

The bad news: The fractionation process pretty much strips any health benefits from palm oil, rendering it [pun intended] void of nutrition, and you’re left with just a bunch of saturated fat… which many believe to be one of the causes of heart disease. 

So, if you have to have your popcorn, fractionated palm oil won’t cause cancer, but it could add to your waistline or the walls of your arteries. I, personally don’t think saturated fats are that bad. They’re very stable and they’re a nice, slow source of energy. Too much of anything is bad for you, so I apply the same rule to saturated fats… I also believe that there’s a much higher risk of coronary disease if you have sugar issues. If your blood sugar is too high for too long [unchecked insulin resistance or pre-diabetes to full blown type 2], the sugar corrodes your artery walls, then your body sends in the cholesterol as a sort of spackle, to try and patch the damage so the walls can heal – but cholesterol is sticky and things like saturated fats can stick to it and form a sort of microscopic barricade in your artery as it sticks to itself, as well. If you have normal sugar levels, no need for cholesterol patching, and the increased risk of heart disease from eating saturated fats goes away. All things in moderation… I’m not giving up steak anytime soon, and as long as I keep my sugar nice and balanced, I shouldn’t have to. 

As for fractionated oils – I’m glad they came up with a more natural way of stabilizing oils for processed food, but I won’t be eating it anytime soon. I’m just glad that if my hubby decided to have some microwave popcorn when we watch a movie, he’s not eating a measured dose of cancer-causing plastic. Now, I am by no means a doctor, I just do a LOT of reading on this sort of thing and have come to my own conclusions. I’m not recommending anything, just stating what I think, pertaining to my own diet [and concern for my husband's]. I think we all should know more about what we put into our bodies so we can make our own educated decisions about what we’re willing to subject our bodies too – or at least understand the consequences if we choose to eat something unhealthy anyway…

Photo credit: Novatek Filtration, Sweden

Moment of Zen

I’m stealing John Stewart’s catch phrase for this post because I want to have a place to put a photo I took of one of my favorite places: one of the English walled gardens at the Chicago Botanic Gardens. We’ve gone there almost every July for the past 8-10 years or so and I’ve enjoy seeing this garden year after year and all the little changes as it grows. It’s so peaceful and beautiful – the perfect escape. Enjoy.