It's Working

It is nice to be reminded that you DO know how to do this, and all it takes is just DOING IT.

I've been paying more attention to my diet as my New Year's resolution, cutting out all the pre-holiday treats (goodbye cookie dough) and keeping my food journal regularly. I'm making the most of my produce delivery and making lots of veggie-rich meals and fruit-based snacks. I'm trying to drink more water -- though I always need to do better on that. I'm not starving myself - I've even eaten out many times - but I'm trying to eat better things.

And, it's working. In 18 days, I've lost 7.8 pounds. Hooray!!! I know how to do this.

Now, at some point, I'm going to have to confront my nemesis.... exercise. Grumble.

The Plant Challenge

So this past week I tried to eat 10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. I learned a few things. First is that salad is your friend and a great way to get your veggies in. I have an enormous capacity to eat and when you pair that with eating a salad the size of a mixing bowl, then it's a recipe for healthy eating. I can make a salad that equals four servings of vegetables and plow through it easily. The hard thing is eating servings of vegetables that aren't salads. The hard thing is that I can live on salads all day long. The other salad related revelation is to find a good salad dressing. J and I bought this AMAZING strawberry-chipotle balsamic and a kickass fig syrup that makes the most divine salad dressing. Seriously, a salad with that stuff is like candy. Finally, I am learning I really hate cooking greens like kale. I don't know why I can totally love eating salad but hate eating kale but there it is.

Anyway, in terms of results, I consistently ate more than 5 servings a day but dear god, ten was an act of god. I hit ten servings twice, both on weekends when I had the time to go to the farmer's market. The hard part is the fruit because there are only so many carbs I can eat and I am reluctant to eat fruit that have carbs. But that is solely dependent on what fruit is available because a perfectly ripe apple is like candy.

Here's how it shook out:

Day 1 - 8 servings
Day 2 - 9 servings
Day 3 - 10 servings
Day 4 - 10 servings
Day 5 - 6 servings
Day 6 - 7 servings
Day 7 - 6 servings

The Challenge

I work at an organization that promotes healthy living and I get to interview someone on their project to get members of their community to eat 5-10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. It's really fascinating because they are working with a low-literacy, limited English proficient, immigrant population. The learning is very experiential and visual. What I find to be a great success story was the person running the program felt like she had to actually eat 5-10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day so she wasn't spewing hypocriticial bs. And after six months on the program she lost 30 pounds. She didn't do anything else. In fact she was telling me about how she's also be eating nachos and steak. But she was eating a heck of a lot less nachoes and steak because she had to get her 10 servings in. So here's my challenge - eating 10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

Here's a handy guide for those of you who are unfamiliar with serving sizes for fruits and vegetables.

In this challenge I have amended the rules:

1. Canned fruits and veggies don't count (although frozen does as long as it's not packed in syrup)

2. Beans and legumes don't count. They are the great superfood but they are like loaded with carbs. Great if you are a hunter who hunts and forages all day. Bad if you are diabetic.

3. Hell to the no with juice. It's not a fruit, it's sugar.

So here goes. I'll check in weekly about this but I am curious to see how realistic 10 servings is.

Blurgh. Aaargh. Ugggh.

My rough summer is reflecting itself on my scale, just a great way to start a Monday morning. Aargh. I have gained back 8 pounds since my lowest point, and I can feel it. I can feel it in how my clothes fit and how I move, and it just makes me mad... I have gotten off track, for sure, but I haven't been *that* bad. It's amazing to see just how little slips make such a big difference... or, in reverse, I guess it's amazing to see just how much I had cut out of my diet and what a difference that made.

So, because I don't want to give up and because I know I need to get my rhythm back - and that of all people, Dad was the one rooting for me the most - I have to refocus. I even bought a new little notebook so I can start a fresh food journal and don't have to have the empty pages of the old one taunt me.

I learned so much from the nutritionist, I need to keep putting it to work and I need to find my own feelings of accountability to keep me going.

Pavlova – Two Ways (or Damn you Barefoot Contessa!)

It’s been intimated that J and I have some eating restrictions, me with the diabetes and J with dairy allergies as well as an allergy to artificial sweeteners. That makes dessert a huge challenge. I’ve resolved this challenge by making the same desserts two ways – one with Splenda and dairy (for me) and the other with sugar and dairy substitutes (for him). A good example of this is my cobbler recipe. I make a cobbler with almond flour in ramekins. I do a ¼ cup of almond flour with ½ teaspoon of baking powder and 1 tablespoon of sugar and then mix in 1 tablespoon of melted butter, 1 tablespoon of almond milk and a dash of vanilla. Spoon on top of about ½ a cup of chopped fruit (stone fruit like cherries and nectarines work best) and bake for half an hour at 350 degrees. For myself, all I need to do is replace the sugar with the equivalent amount of Splenda and I’m set.

Sunday, J and I were going to Muffin and June’s for a BBQ with Bellisima and West Coast Rebecca. Being summertime in the bay area, I decided to try my hand at pavlova. For those of you who don’t know palvova, it’s a meringue shell that is mashmallowy in the middle. It’s cratered in the middle as well so people traditionally pile it high with fruit and whipped cream. Perfect dessert to highlight summer fruit. Like the cobbler, I decided to make a version for me (whipped cream and splenda) and a version for J (lemon curd and sugar). Because you can freeze the pavlova ahead of time, I tried my hand at pavlova on Friday night. For the first time Ina Garten did me WRONG. I made her Back to Basics it failed. What I got was a gloppy mess of a meringue that was more the consistency of a meringue topping for a lemon meringue pie. Never a waster, I decided to fold in the lemon curb to the failed meringue to lighten the lemon curd.

The next morning I did a little research (Nigella!) and saw that every OTHER cookbook was saying to bake the pavlova at 300 degrees as opposed to the 180 that Ina instructed. I did the whole shebang again using the Barefoot Contessa recipe but using the oven temperature of Nigella Lawson (preheat to 350 and when you put it in, immediately drop temp to 300). It was a huge success. I tried it again using baking Splenda, and another HUGE SUCCESS! So in one pavlova there were raspberries and blackberries over lemon curd and another pavlova there were the same berries over whipped cream sweetened with Splenda. In fact, Muffin, who ate both versions, liked the Splenda version. SCORE!

So here’s my sugar-free version of a pavlova. To make it low-fat, simply use low-fat (or even nonfat cool whip).

• 2 extra-large egg whites, at room temperature
• Pinch kosher salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon white wine vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Place a sheet of parchment paper on a sheet pan. Draw a 5-inch circle on the paper, then turn the paper over so the circle is on the reverse side. (This way you won't get a pencil mark on the meringue.)
Place the egg whites and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Beat the egg whites on high speed until firm, about 2 minutes. With the mixer still on high, slowly add the sugar and beat until it makes firm, shiny peaks, about 2-3 more minutes.
Remove the bowl from the mixer, sift the cornstarch onto the beaten egg whites, add the vinegar and vanilla, and fold in lightly with a rubber spatula. Pile the meringue into the middle of the circle on the parchment paper and smooth it within the circle, making a rough disk. Place in oven, immediately turn down to 300 dgrees and bake for 1 1/2 hours. Turn off the oven, keep the door closed, and allow the meringue to cool completely in the oven, about 1 hour. It will be crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.
Invert the meringue disk onto a plate. There will be a cracked crater of delciciousness that is perfect for lemon curd, whipped cream or just fruit and a dash of some old balsamic.

It must be my month to be right!

Check it. NPR's resident mathematician gives ten reasons why BMI is a big crock.

Eating

It’s been hard trying to write anything about the health stuff. One thing I am learning more and more is how dependent I am to routine. When I was in Phoenix for a conference, my glucose level really fluctuated. While I was working out regularly, I wasn’t eating enough. I never was able to get a late night snack in. For those of you who don’t know, late night snacks are a key part of keep my blood sugar low. It was a great piece of advice my nutritionist aunt gave to me. What happens is if you don’t get a late night snack your body decides to dump even more sugar into your system while you are asleep. That’s definitely one thing The Biggest Loser has right – eating. I love the episodes where Bob or Jillian goes and see what they are making themselves on the ranch and get all preachy about the contestants needing to eat more. It’s totally true. I’m finding the eating part (as opposed to not eating) is as important as the cutting back. Eating means I will have enough energy to run 7 miles. I can’t do morning workouts any more because I need to run longer distances and I don’t have time to eat. It does mean I won’t be burning more calories or building muscle which burns more calories. My nutritionist set a floor of how many carbs I need to eat at minimum. When I’ve gone under it’s really been hell. So lesson learned.

As a tip, I offer up string cheese. It's a great snack to address mid afternoon munchies without going into a sugar crash.

NOT ATKINS - Carbs

I was going to respond in the comments stef but this warrants a full post. I am right there will your nutritionist on watching the carbs. Once again, don't go all Atkins about it because that's just crazy-talk. But making sure you have enough carbs but not too much is a good thing.

For most people, they should have around 180 grams of carbs per day. 45 per meal for 3 meals and 15 per snack for two snacks. So what does 45 grams of carbs look like?

1 cup of white rice or pasta
3 cups of yogurt
3 apples
3 cups of berries
1/2 cup of flour
1/4 cup of white sugar
1 slices of whole wheat bread.
3 corn tortillas
2 flour tortillas (not burrito sized)
1 cup of beans

Looking at the list for me, I've come to love vegetables, yogurt, and corn tortillas. On top of that, whole wheat is awesome because you subtract the fiber content form the number of carbs. What has been surprising to me (and to J) is how easily 1 cup of pasta can fill you up. The thing is, vegetables (aside from root style vegetables like butternut squash) have negligible carb content. When you do a fried rice and even do 2/3 a cup of brown rice but with chopped carrots, tofu, shredded chicken or shrimp, onions, red peppers and bean sprouts, that's a meal that will make you loosen your belt. Last night, I made a great pasta dish from leftover turkey cutlets that I simmered in a tomato sauce. I did 2 cups of cavatappi (2 servings of the dish) and sauteed spinach, carrots and onions and added about four cutlets worth of lean turkey. That was a filling to the brim pasta bowl serving of pasta. With a salad, that was a filling meal.

Like stef's nutritionist said, do eliminate carbs. They are good. But It's useful to be conscious about how much. While I monitor my carb intake through grams of carbs, other diabetics I know do it through glycemic index numbers. If anyone has any advice on how that works, feel free to chime in.

Tweaks

One of the things my nutritionist said I should work on is cutting down on the starches. This isn't Atkins, she's very clear about that, but again it's all about trying to eat the right things at the right times to improve my nutrition and overall health. And the truth is I was eating way too much starch, and that was a major factor in putting on and keeping the pounds.

I used to eat large servings of pasta-based dishes probably 3-5 times a week. And lots of bready sandwiches for lunch, with cookies and chips. Pretty much every meal I had included some starchy element.

So I've been working on this, and I've been making some real improvements. When I am eating pasta, I'm eating less of it and bulking up the sauce with more veggies or adding a side salad to fill me up.

And, I've been making a lot of meals that just don't need a carb at all. That stir fry I make with the beef and sugar snap peas? No rice needed, it's perfectly tasty and filling on its own. One of my usual old dishes - spinach sauteed in olive oil with cannellini beans all over pasta, sometimes with chicken - actually is even better as a soup made with low-sodium chicken broth, no pasta needed.

Tonight, I made a fantastic dinner - a grilled steak with DCFB's recommended sauteed asparagus as a side. In the past, I would've made a potato to go with it, or a boxed version of parmesan couscous or noodles. But the starch is totally not needed, cuz it was a satisfying meal all on its own.

It's all about trying new things, and I'm enjoying these new, less-starchy meals. So is my waistline.

Tangible Outcomes

This blog isn't about dieting or about what's on the scale, it's about a holistic approach to becoming healthier, stronger individuals.

BUT -- the scale remains as one tangible way to measure progress on our overall goals. And, one of my main goals is to actually lose weight.

And I'm happy to report that now, a little over 2 months into my nutritionist adventure, I have passed a major milestone... more than ten pounds lost. Double digits, my friends! :-)

This comes at a good time, cuz I've been feeling a little deflated in the motivation department lately. So this, combined with a sunny day and my plans to take a long walk around my pretty neighborhood this morning, is helping give me a really feel-good boost. Hooray.

Gold Star

I had another visit with my nutritionist today ($300 and counting). It was a good visit, and she was very pleased with my progress. By her scale, it's been another 4 pounds, and she was impressed. After reviewing my food journal and talking things over, she said she thinks things are going really well and that I can keep on doing the same thing.

Sometimes when this method doesn't work, she switches patients to more of a "diet-diet" with stricter rules, like food exchanges and stuff, but she said I don't seem to need that and that this looser method is working for me. That's a good thing, cuz the constraints of a "diet-diet" are not sustainable for me over the long term, I know that from experience. So, yay me! :-)

Today we spent most of the time talking about my lunches at work. I've found that I need to make sure I have a filling lunch, cuz otherwise the afternoon can be dangerous - if I get really hungry and don't have any good snacks left, that's a *red alert* time for bad decision-making.

Today was a good example, actually, cuz it turns out that leftover jambalaya did not sustain me - even though it was a big portion - and by 3 pm I was already having hunger pangs. So we talked that through... I thought maybe it was just cuz it was so much rice, but as we talked about the recipe she said that's only part of it, that it really was that I didn't have enough protein. She recommended I have at least 4 oz (and for me I'd guess closer to 6 oz) of protein at lunch-time, particularly during the week, so that it can get me through 'til evening.

Her assessment was that the jambalaya probably wasn't enough, so she gave me good advice on "fixing" it and I came home and did just that. I opened up the little dishes and started making some changes -- I spooned out some rice from 2 f the remaining dishes into the other 2, then I stuck those with more rice into the freezer. I'll hold onto those for the weekend, when I can eat them as a dinner and have a less-carb-centric soup or salad as my other meal. I have much better snacking options on the weekend, too, so the carb-heavy meal might be better then. After that, I took the 2 remaining dishes that I'll use for lunch this week, and I added about 4 more oz of turkey kielbasa to each one. Sure, the new pieces won't have been cooked in the same way, but once they're nuked at work they should all taste fine. And the added meat will help me get through the long afternoons I have during the week. (Note, she's not ant-carb. In fact, she said "This isn't Atkins!" She said the trick is just learning the right way to space it out during the day.)

These are good tips - and experience as shown I really do need to have a more protein-heavy breakfast and lunch and save some of the carbs for dinner. It's all about learning how your body reacts and what your own natural schedule is during the day. Helpful!

Cinnamon Toast - It's all about moderation

Ok this is my new midnight snack - cinnamon toast. Tasty, tasty cinnamon toast. The point is not necessarily to eliminate things form your diet (i.e. carbs) but to make sure you're not going overboard. Case in point - cinnamon toast. I have two slices of Trader Joe's sprouted wheat bread (30 grams of carbs) and make a paste of 1/2 teaspoon of butter, 1/2 teaspoon of canola oil, 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon of Splenda. The intensity of the cinnamon totally overwhelms any fake flavor you might get from the Splenda. Yes there's butter and you definitely want the flavor of butter but you can get that by using butter and also using canola oil. Eat it but don't go overboard.

The other key about moderation. Get the good stuff. You need a lot of cheap cheese. There's less flavor there. But if you get some awesome cheese (Mt. Tam, I LOOOOOVE you), you don't want to eat more than a couple of ounces. It satisfies you more. There's more flavor and more intensity. Same with chocolate. Artisinal Tome Acu (four bars left (IN THE WORLD!). You can't eat a whole bar yourself. It's hard to eat half a bar just because the flavor is so full. You feel satisfied with less.

I think that's why diet food sucks so hard. One of the few good things that came out of my diabetes management class was the warning to stay far, far away from anything labeled diabetic food. It's chemicals. It's fake food. You will WANT more food because it's not as satisfying.

My Good Report Card

Yayyyy!!!!

Just got home from my 2nd appointment with the nutritionist and it went really well!

She was really happy with my progress so far. We started with a weigh-in first thing (eep) and by her official scale I've lost 4 pounds, which she was very pleased about.

Then we sat down and she went page-by-page through my food journal over the last month. Note to self, she reads all of that closely! I was honest on everything, and she had a lot of good comments and a few constructive tidbits on things I can improve. I already knew the main things she would advise me on -- work on portion control, try to cut back on some of the starch, and try to get more exercise. But overall, she was really complimentary about the changes I've made -- cutting out Starbucks, cooking more, choosing healthy snacks.

What I was really glad about was that she did NOT criticize some of the things that I thought might catch her eye - no comment on the few glasses of wine or margaritas I've had, no comment on the piece of ice cream cake or the birthday cupcake I had at 2 different celebrations, no comment on my occasional Coke Zero habit. She said that once her clients learn how to start losing, she says that when a special occasion or vacation comes up, she realizes they will eat differently and says to focus on at least not gaining at those times. Since I lost weight overall, she really didn't pick at much.

Then we spent a LONG time talking about my potential challenges coming up, as I have a 5-day out-of-town conference soon. She's familiar with the hotel where I will be staying and said there are good restaurants and markets around, but mostly she gave me advice on things to bring along and keep in my hotel room to get me through breakfasts, snacks all day, and "treats" at night. String cheese is a great pack-and-go snack, and I've really come to rely on it as a filling mid-afternoon break. She liked my snack mix, so I'll be packing that. She also okayed oatmeal packets and little cereal packets with soy milk (though she's not a fan of 100-calorie packs in general). So I'll be hunting for fruit and yogurt, but bringing on a stash of things to try and get me through the tough between-meals times while I'm away.

Hooray! I'm so glad this went well -- and I'll be going back again in about a month. Now, to find out if my insurance reimburses for my out-of-pocket costs for these visits....

Checking In

It's day 5 now of life post-nutritionist, and things are going pretty well. I've been following her advice and making all my meals, changing my kinds of snacks, and writing everything down. Today is the last day that I have to fax to her (though I don't know if my building has a fax in our business center so I may not do that until Monday), and then she's going to call to give me her feedback on how I'm doing so far.

I have quickly realized that, with all this cooking and bringing leftovers for lunch, I'm going to get sick of my usual meals VERY soon. So I've been trolling for new healthy recipes and asking friends for their (easy to make) faves. I've gotten a lot of great new ideas, and I think my new plan will be to try to do major cooking of at least 2 big dishes every weekend that can serve as my lunches during the week. That way, I can make new dinners on weeknights and not worry about having to eat the same thing for lunch every day that I'd just had for dinner the night before. I like leftovers, but it can't always be an exact repeat of the previous meal.

A few other updates:

• On my nutritionist's advice, I tried that super-healthy plain Greek yogurt. FAIL. That stuff is disgusting!
• I did go out and buy a whole bunch of new pans, more cutting boards and some utensils (including a better garlic press with the little nubbins like Scotte recommended). So between the nutritionist's fee itself and the new kitchen stuff, I'm making quite a financial investment here.
• I did sneak a peek at the scale this morning. It appears this low-sodium, less-refined-sugar plan may be having a very positive effect...
• I've had no caffeine since Monday! None! (She didn't rule out sodas, but I didn't make any Coke Zero runs during the day this week anyway. That'll probably change next week.)
• I've really cut down on refined sugar, with the exception of a birthday cupcake on Thursday afternoon. I can feel a difference - my afternoon hunger is still there, but the lightheadedness and crash feeling have been noticeably absent.
• While I have been making big changes to what I'm eating, and cutting down on portion sizes especially at dinner, I don't feel like I'm depriving myself like on a usual "diet." Yes, I'm feeling hungry at times but that feels normal and natural, not like the insane starving feelings of being on a 1200 or 1500-calorie-a-day WW plan. So, after years of not really using it anyway, I actually just cancelled my online WW account. I can still access the recipes and exercise info on the site, and I'll save myself the $17 bucks a month since I haven't been using the online journal anyone. My trusty little spiral notebook seems to be doing just fine as a replacement.
• The acidophilus continues to do its trick!

That's all for now - stay tuned for cooking adventures!

Pantry Cooking II - Electric Boogaloo

Whew Stef, it's been a pretty intense month for you health wise. One of the healthiest (both for your body and your wallet) changes you can make I to do home cooked meals. You get to control the fat, salt and carb content. You get to portion things out. It’s great. Like Stef said, the hard part is making sure your pantry has the staples to make healthy food.

Here’s what’s in my pantry:

Starches (bread like starch is made with whole wheat flour):
Almond flour
Pasta
Brown Rice
Bread
Hamburger Buns
Hot Dog Buns
Crackers

Proteins (fast):
Egg beaters
Egg whites
Trader Joe’s Salmon Patties
Turkey Burgers (pre made and frozen)
Chicken sausages (defrosts great)
Tofu

Proteins (remember to defrost in the fridge that morning):
Salmon fillets
Pork chops
Chicken breasts (even better if you have a chance to pound them flatter with a rolling pin)

Vegetables:
Carrots
Onions
Green onions
Collard greens
Zuchinni
Salad greens
Red bell peppers
Cauliflower/Rutabaga/Turnip
Cherry tomatoes
Lemons
Blueberries/raspberries/strawberries

Condiments
Brie
Low fat feta
Cheddar
Parmesan
Silton
EVOO
Balsamic vinegar
Lowfat coconut milk
Say sauce
Fish sauce
Sambal chili sauce
Uncle Brutha’s
Thai curry paste
Dijon Mustard
Ketchup
Cumin
Chili powder
White wine
yogurt

Here are some sample menus

Turkey Burger night
Turkey burger with bun, caramelized onions and mustard
Feta and tomato salad

Breakfast for dinner
Almond meal pancakes with sugar free syrup (or even baked apples with cinnamon)
Chicken sausage
Plain lowfat yogurt (sweetened with Splenda) with berries

Comfort Food
Egg white frittata with sautéed greens, red peppers and cheddar cheese
Cauliflower mash

Asian
Tofu Curry with carrots and red peppers
Brown rice

Elegant dinner
Pan seared pork chops with a dijon/white wine pan sauce
Salad with a balsamic vinaigrette
Roasted carrots

Assignments & Accountability

I had my appointment with the nutritionist tonight... wow. This is a much bigger deal than I thought going in, but it's all good. I had really just planned to ask her how to get past my IBS problems to be able to eat more fruits and veggies as part of my overall approach... turns out she really takes a holistic view and instead is advising me on improving my entire diet and nutrition. It makes sense, and I need it, but this is going to be a much bigger effort and investment than I first intended.

We went over my usual daily routine combined with my own medical issues, and then she talked me through all the changes she'd like me to make. This is the first step, which we both hope will work - she said she waits to see how clients do on his before moving to a more structured approach (which would be similar to the old, old, old WW approach of different carb, protein, grain, etc. exchanges at each meal).

Some of her recommendations? NO STARBUCKS. At least nothing other than herbal teas. And I pretty much need to cut out all the processed, packaged food I have remaining - and I'd already cut out a lot. I need to start bringing my lunch, cuz that's really my downfall. Even when I think I'm buying a healthier lunch, it's still loaded with sodium. I need better snacks (fruit, raisins, unsalted nuts, yogurt, lowfat cheese sticks) and I need a bigger breakfast so I can keep up a better energy/blood sugar level in the morning and not be starving by lunchtime. I've already cut out table salt, but I need to go a step further and stop getting salty snacks and salty restaurant or deli meals.

All of this is very common sense stuff, which I'd done some of during the WW days, but the switch to really trying to cook almost everything is going to be a major change. She reminded me that this is all about planning - which makes me think of Scotte and his AWESOME spreadsheet - and buying and cooking for several meals at a time.

After our appointment, I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a whole lot of produce, some of those healthy snacks, and an imitation spray butter for my toast in the morning. She also recommended I get an air popper, cuz air-popped popcorn is a great snack. Thank you, Target.com.

My assignment? Start making these changes and keep a daily food journal. For the next 5 days, I have to keep the journal on specific sheets and fax them to her, then she'll call to go over it all. Since I mentioned visiting my parents in a few weeks will be full of all kinds of food pitfalls, I'm faxing her those days, too. Then I go back again in a month to see how I did. And she says I should definitely stick with the acidophilus to help me with my IBS.

Here's the thing that I'm hoping makes this work: for once, I am now accountable to someone other than myself. I'm accountable to someone I'm paying a large amount of money to (!!!!) and who can pretty easily see through my crap rationalizations. I usually have no problem justifying things to myself, but now I have a very friendly and supportive drill sergeant watching over me and evaluating what I do. Ouch. This is a totally different approach than anything I've tried before, but I hope that's the trick right there.

Tomorrow morning I start those journals and fax them in to her in 5 days, then I see her again in 3 weeks. I'll need support and encouragement to get over my own tummy and verbal grumblings over these changes. For all of her talk, as well, about how this is a lifestyle and not a diet, it's sure gonna feel like a diet. Wish me luck!!!

Not Counting My Chickens...Yet

So, blog friends, there's one major factor affecting my lifestyle that I haven't really written about much yet, cuz it ain't pretty. But something may - may -be happening that makes me think it may be about time to talk about it. (Long post below- be forewarned!)

After years of trying to diagnose it, I finally figured out a while back that I have IBS. It's that elusive syndrome that is pretty much the "well, you don't have anything else serious, but you've got all kinds of problems so it must be this..." diagnosis. I have a history of GI problems, starting with an early appearance of Dad's hereditary diverticulosis that mostly I've learned how to curb. (Fiber, fiber, and more fiber, mostly in pill form every single day.) But after the worry of that little tic went away, and after the full battery of embarrassing, painful, and uncomfortable medical tests, I still have had chronic "tummy problems" - that's as descriptive as I'll get, but I'm sure you get the idea - for years. Sometimes my tummy probs are strong enough that I've had to miss work, cancel plans with friends, and pretty much wallow in self-pity while being stuck housebound for a day or so.

Don't get me wrong, I've never had the kind of IBS that I read about on message boards where people have lost days, weeks, months of their lives to severe attacks... I feel for them, but thankfully haven't known that kind of suffering from it.

For me, I've just known for years that there are certain trigger scenarios - stress, of course - and trigger foods that set off my pain and probs. Unfortunately, the trigger foods include almost all good, healthy, fiber-rific fruits and veggies. So the more that I try to eat healthy meals and snacks, the more my tummy rebels.

This is the main motivation behind my upcoming appointment with a nutritionist - I want to ask her advice on how to combine a healthy, produce-rich diet with ongoing management of IBS.

BUT.... here's the "not counting chickens yet" part... I may have stumbled upon something. And, of course, it all starts with some offhand advice from my Mom. Cuz Mothers Always Know Best. (It's true!)

I was complaining to her last week during this 3-week cold of mine (that finally seems to be mostly gone) that I couldn't take some of the good cold medicine, especially Mucinex, for more than a day or so in a row cuz it has really bad side effects with my tummy. So she recommended I pick up a supplement at CVS that helps promote intestinal health... something I'd never heard of before... acidophilus. Since Mom always knows, I followed her advice.

Here's the thing. I started taking this supplement as directed about 5 days ago, and it did instantly counteract the bad side effects of the cold medicine. But here's what is surprising me. Ever since I started taking it, I haven't had ANY of my usual tummy problems. This has become really apparent to me this weekend, as I've been eating lots and lots of veggies, beans - the kind of stuff I usually save for weekends just in case I have bad reactions to it. Instead of my usual bad reactions -- I feel fine. Like, normal. Things have been very, very normal -- which started to stick out to me cuz my normal is usually so abnormal. Holy cow! What does this mean?

So I've been doing lots of reading on the Interwebs. And it turns out acidophilus is a very common natural treatment for people with IBS! Acidophilus is a probiotic, the kind of "good bacteria" that helps balance out the flora/fauna in your intestinal tract (I know, it's always so gross to think of it that way!). And IBS symptoms are often a result of an imbalance of the bacteria, for whatever reason. So the bad bacteria react to things to make you sick. But these little supplement pills (which are filled with live cultures just like yogurt) help balance things out and may indeed prevent some of those bad reactions.

Huh.... I'm gonna keep taking this supplement, and I'm gonna talk to my nutritionist about it next week. I don't want to get TOO excited yet, thinking that this might actually be an honest-to-God magic pill that solves my tummy problems. But for the first time in a long time, I actually have some hope that I might be able to have better control over my GI system and actually be able to eat the healthy foods that are good for me and that I actually like! Stay tuned...

BIG Sigh of Relief

Okay, I've been freaking out for the last 12 hours or so. When I had my dr's appt on Wednesday, they did all the usual blood work, and my dr. said she would send a letter with all the results - which is the usual routine for this practice. So, I was very freaked out when I got out of meetings at work yesterday to have messages from my dr. on *both* my phones, saying she wanted to talk about my blood test results. I called back but had missed her for the day, so I needed to wait until this morning to learn what's up. PANIC ENSUES. (And a crazy email to my Dr. Friend at one point.)

Well, I just talked to her. And guess what? She called to tell me that my numbers were GREAT! That this blood test showed great improvements over my last round, which was about 18 months ago or so. My glucose was normal (a concern with Dad's diabetes) and all of the other usual stuff stayed normal. And here's all the really good news:

My cholesterol is good! I brought down my total cholesterol from 229 to 203, from high borderline to just above normal - and your good cholesterol (HDL) should be above 60, mine's 74, and the bad cholesterol (LDL) should be under 100, and I brought it down from 135 to 96! Holla! It wasn't very long ago that number was up in the 170's or more, back before I really started paying attention. (here's a handy link that lays out the optimal ranges)

My triglycerides - something to worry about with a family history of heart disease - are a little high - they should be 150 - but I brought them down from 171 to 163.

So -- I was very nervous about this call, but she actually just wanted to talk through these things before I get the letter so she could tell me I was doing a good job. She said "keep doing what you're doing." It's funny, I was thinking last night that if she called to say something was wrong with my numbers that it would almost feel like I'd failed a test, and I have always hated failing tests. Now, it feels like I got an A!

How 'bout that? Cooking works. Healthy ingredients work. Cutting out lots of snacking works. Ta dah! So, even though I'm still at my heaviest weight (blurgh) and need to drop those numbers in order to improve my blood pressure, overall I think this is the healthiest I've been as an adult. Proof that it is, indeed, a lifestyle, right?? :-)

'Tis the Season of Old Habits

As my co-blogger shared below, the holidays are a great time to revisit -- and learn how to improve upon -- some of those old family habits that helped shape the lifestyles that we live today. Since I'm with the fam now and just salivating smelling the Christmas Eve dinner that's in the works (a ham, sweet potato casserole, homemade mac 'n cheese, followed by sugar cookies and mulled cider), it seems like this is a good time to share a few thoughts on how those family food ties that bind, only if you let them:

I come from a small family, with no real relationships with extended family, so it's always been kinda the 4 of us against the world. Yet, at our mealtimes, you might just guess that we had a family of 10. Portion size was never our strong suit, and I am reminded of this every time I come visit because Mom and Dad still serve our meals on platters instead of plates. PLATTERS. I kinda get that in the psychology of our family, nurturing = nourishment, and abundance = affection, or something like that.

My parents seem to really value being able to provide for us kids, which they've always done very well, and that sometimes manifests itself in the food they make for us. Large, hearty portions, high-quality ingredients, homemade. This is not a microwaving family, and Dad's always been an excellent cook and Mom's a darn good baker. So my whole life, I do believe that a lot of our emotional attachments to each other have been communicated through food. To this day, Dad will start calling (now he even emails!) weeks before I come to visit asking what I want to eat, so he can plan out a lavish menu of my favorite meals every day I'm here.

A few years ago, when Christmas fell at a time when I was being really good about WW, I realized that I just could not handle eating in Dad's usual way while I was here. Literally, after 3-4 days of huge meals of mostly proteins and starches (meat, really good meat, at every meal), I felt sick. My body just wasn't used to those quantities or that kind of rich food, and I finally just had to put my foot down. So, ever since, I talk more clearly with my parents before visiting about what kinds of foods I'd like them to have on hand for me to eat while I'm here, things that I'm a little more used to -- Egg Beaters, soups, veggie sides. And that's worked pretty well for a while.

Then, last summer, my parents' lifestyle changed radically. Mom has been a health food advocate for decades, so she didn't often eat the same big, rich meals -- but a lifetime of doing so led my Dad to the point of a surprise triple bypass, on top of his high cholesterol, diabetes and high blood pressure. Face to face with this crisis, Dad came through with flying colors and radically changed his diet. Heck - he lost somethingl ike 50 pounds and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro! He's doing great!

They now have very different kinds of foods in the house, which means my experience visiting is almost reversed -- in that I'm looking for snacks or some of my usual indulgences and they're no longer here! I'm not quite ready to be just a fruits-and-nuts snacker, sorry. I actually now learn a few new healthy-eating tidbits each time I come visit.

But, it is Christmas, so again my parents are really putting on a full spread for me and my brother, with steaks and lamb and tonight's ham. So it's up to me to enjoy these meals and the love they represent, while still keeping an eye on portion size and making sure I'm getting enough fruits and veggies mixed in there with all the meats and potatoes. Doesn't seem too hard!

So, with that, I'm off to dinner -- happy holidays, everyone!

You Are What You Eat

Sometimes you need little reminders of why it nutrition is important. Or, at least, I do. Take the last week for me, for example.

I was sidelined most of the weekend with tummy troubles -- not sure if it was a bug I caught (there did seem to be something going around the office) or not, but I didn't feel good for 3 days. Then, mid-week, with my defenses already being down and about 1/2 an hour of being caught in the freezing rain to kick it off, I picked up a cold that's been hunting me down for days. Sore throat, earache, coughs, etc.

So what's the point of me sharing this? In thinking about how I've just been feeling like crap lately, I couldn't help but notice that I've also been eating really poorly lately. I wish I could say I've been having as much success as my co-blogger but this has been a rough fall for me in terms of staying power, and I've got to work on the mental end of things.

But, back to the point, I counted back the food I've been eating over the last week and it just makes me mad at myself -- pizza delivery, chicken wings, Chinese food delivery, tuna melts and grilled cheese sandwiches, cookies, brownies, candy (damn holiday treats at work), Starbucks pastries for breakfast, need I say more? A coworker and I were commiserating the other day about having eaten so many treats that we both wished we could just grab a big hunk of iceberg lettuce and chow down, just to feel like we were eating something from nature.

Partially the holiday spirit is to blame, since there's so much bad stuff around, but I've also lost my groove of grocery shopping and home cooking. The worst part is that I've had very little variety lately, and that means very little in the way of fruits and veggies to balance out all the starch and fat. No wonder I've been feeling like hell!!!

So, once I had this little light bulb moment 2 days ago, I've been back to trying to work in the good stuff. And once I'm back from Christmas I'll go shopping again. I'm actually really looking forward to getting back on track with healthy, varied, fresh things to eat.