More thoughts on thoughtful eating

Saturday, December 12, 2009

I didn't sleep last night for thinking about pecan butter ball cookies.

Now. I have never eaten a cookie called a pecan butter ball - I just heard it in an audio book I was listening to this past week and I began to imagine what a pecan butter ball cookie would taste like. Shortbread full of nuts shaped like a ball? Something more chewy like a brownie, full of pecans? Whatever they are - they danced through my head like Clement Moore's proverbial Christmas sugar plums.

It's no wonder I'm thinking about sugared flakes of buttery flour saturated with pecans - Not only is every scrap of media flooding the world with holiday treats but also my own memories, of childhood and more vividly of my young married life when Christmas involved the magic of a child's anticipation of surprises. They are good memories. I cherish them and pull them out like little gems from the jewellery box of my mind.

so

do you hear?

that "BUT" hanging in the air?

Yeah - I thought so. That but means ... where does eating a pecan butter ball cookie fit into the plans made with such hope in October? Not? A little? Look out here it comes? I just googled pecan butter ball and recipe and got something that logs in at 188 calories for 2 cookies. whew! 1/7 of my day's calories in 2 bites?

Mike Kramer's two articles in today's Best of SP really have me thinking about those goals and how important they are to me. I've never been good at achieving goals except in the most oblique way - a classic ENFP, www.myersbriggs.org/ I don't really feel rewarded by completion - rather I feel abandoned. Since the journey is so important to me I am usually going in several directions at once and completion happens almost unnoticed. ( I do actually complete things, understand - just ... not with triumphant flair but with surprised recognition)

But knowing what my natural preference is doesn't mean I am tied to it, nor am I unable, like the famed old dog, to learn new tricks. I am going to spend the next few days getting all ISTJ detailed and math-like about these goals and see if I can map out a happy, satisfying, but healthy and successful pathway through the next few sugared weeks.

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

URBANLOTUS 12/12/2009 6:33AM

You sound like you have a great plan, and are really tapping into your self-awareness about Christmasses past. It's great to see! I wish you every success L) Report Inappropriate Comment

You better slo-ow that vehicle down - a theme song for portion control

Friday, December 11, 2009

Okay darlings

If you are of a certain age you will remember Sammy Johns' song "Chevy Van" which was enormously popular in the mid-1970's.
popup.lala.com/popup/93703031
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www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/sammy_joh
ns/chevy_van.html
And last night it became my theme song - at least, that single line did - as I became the vehicle - the eating vehicle, that is.

Back story: My husband asked me to cook a family favorite last night - spaghetti with clam sauce. He's been hunched over all week, assembling bicycles for the Salvation Army (his annual Christmas project - I like to brag on him) and I knew he was tired and had earned some extra pampering.

But that recipe!! It's all butter and olive oil with a little garlic thrown in! At least it always seems like that to me. How will I cope!?!

Well - first thing I did was load up the recipe in the nutrition tracker. It's not really my recipe, it came from the Fanny Farmer cookbook though I do cut the butter waaaaay back. (hers uses a stick of butter, I use 2 tbs.) And what do you know - the whole thing only comes to about 800 calories - and it's SUPPOSED to serve 4. And that's when it hit me.

1/4 of 800 calories is only 200 and one cup of spaghetti is about 170 - so one portion of this rich, savory, garlic infused seafood delight is well within my nutritional budget! I can enjoy this fabulous dish with nary a twinge of discomfort - certainly not a pinch of guilt! I just have to milk the pleasure to the max. I took small bites. I set the fork down and chewed every mouthful till the pleasure melted away on my tongue. I took a delicate sip of a crisp white wine and then gave myself a moment to just anticipate the next heady bite. I slo ooowed my eating down and by the time that little teensy tiny pile of clam slick noodles was gone I was completely filled.

I wasn't stuffed. I didn't feel bloated or winded or packed. I was marvelously heavenly energetically filled with perfect spaghetti and clam sauce and crisp white wine. What a joy. What a treat. What fun to know that there really is nothing I can't enjoy ... if I just take lots of time to enjoy it - and stop when I'm done.

"and that's alright with me"

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

HARPER369 12/11/2009 12:08PM

that is fantasic! and what a great idea, it can be so hard to slow down, I have a theme song as well but I adopted it 9 years ago when I quit smoking, great blog Report Inappropriate Comment

CLAIRESML 12/11/2009 10:17AM

I liked this blog topic... portion control is how I am eating these days. very effective. If I had limited foods that I would have had to avoid, I would be gone and done already. But, I have managed to use portion control for six months and lose weight and feel happy. and I love linguine with white clam sauce. Yum! Report Inappropriate Comment

MYFEETHURT 12/11/2009 8:50AM

Two great points...savor the moment...and know when your portion is gone...be satisfied and happy. And by the way...what a great thing your DH is doing. He is helping to make so many kiddos be happy. Report Inappropriate Comment

RITAROSE 12/11/2009 8:38AM

Excellent!! I love to hear about triumphs like yours, they encourage me in my own choices! Keep up the great work! Report Inappropriate Comment

BKWHITE3 12/11/2009 8:00AM

I like this. You gave me a new and different way about eating. Thank you. Report Inappropriate Comment

cold hard truths - it's always better to know them

Thursday, December 10, 2009

In a SP mailer today, over on the side bar, I noticed the following headline:

9 Cold, Hard Weight Loss Truths www.sparkpeople.com/resource/nutriti
on_articles.asp?id=1209

And in line with yesterday's blog about believing things I thought I'd take a look. As usual, it is an excellent article and while all the "truths" are valuable to keep in mind, the first three resonated with me especially.

1. You have to exercise more than you think

Face it - our mechanized, sedantary modern world just doesn't have enough body movement built into it. Period. When I was in my early 20's we lived in a one room cabin with no electricity, no plumbing and a half a mile from a paved road. I had to pull up buckets of water from a well. To take a bath I had to do that about 20 times, heat some of it on a wood stove, and them empty it all out later. Bath night was a Production! If the weather was bad, I had to walk in half a mile carying groceries from the car - and then back out another half to get the rest of them. Or I'd tote a toddler because if I let him walk, he'd dawdle for hours in the woods. I stayed slender and strong. All the time. And ate like a horse - or at least, I'd cook a pan of biscuits and eat them, and then cook another pan for the family .... and stayed tiny.

Well, duh. Of Course I did.

Since I definitely don't live that way any more and don't want to either, I have to accept the fact that:

"exercise for about an hour, every day. "

Interesting that this is what I already figured out a few weeks ago and planned to build into my life over the next month or so.

2. A half-hour walk doesn’t equal a brownie.

I think of how many times have I've said "I've been good today. I worked out" and then eaten empty calories. Or worse yet - said "It's JUST a brownie." I once did the math and figured that if I ate 2 oreos and a cup of coffee with cream and sugar every day I'd gain 10 lbs in one year. I mean ...it's JUST 2 oreos, for goodness sake! There's nothing wrong with a brownie. What's wrong is if you think everything you do deserves to be rewarded with a brownie.

3. You do have time to exercise.

Yup. If I have time to fool around on the internets, if I have time to read a magazine article, watch a movie, pretty much live at all - I have time to exercise. Happily, I like exercise though often enough I let time slip away doing Other Things - some important, some not - and tell myself "oh well. It's just today".

Well. It's always today and I really need to remember that, I brush my teeth every day. I can exercise every day too.

In fact - I think I'll go take my dogs for fast walk right now! Ta.

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

WEDDWT 12/10/2009 1:28PM

Reading it and being in agreement with it is sometimes where I stop. Applying it to my life is the crucial next step. It's those action steps that lead to success. You have obviously been active in the application dept since you just lost two pounds. Congratulations, Bess! Hope you had fun shopping for gifts in the city today. (warning:don't open that center one; looks too much like a bakery box!) Report Inappropriate Comment

MYFEETHURT 12/10/2009 9:48AM

I know all this is true. Seeing it in black and white sure is a better reminder than just thinking about it. I wish I could say I love to exercise...just not the fact. But I will try to add on a little extra each day. Every little bit helps. Report Inappropriate Comment

BKWHITE3 12/10/2009 8:27AM

good thanks for sharing Report Inappropriate Comment

SANDRAFIVE 12/10/2009 8:26AM

This blog sure got me thinking. Thanks. Report Inappropriate Comment

HARPER369 12/10/2009 7:46AM

good one thanks for sharing Report Inappropriate Comment

No Trivial Matter - if you believe it, it's as good as the truth ... and as bad

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Do you take the SP trivia quiz? I'm in love with it. I take it every day. And I don't look up the answer before I make my selection, although I may look up more information about a topic afterwards. I like seeing just what I do know about health, nutrition, fitness, exercise etc. And I love finding out if I've been believing a fallacy - so I can stop believing in it.

Take one of today's questions. It asked if research had shown whether detox diets actually removed toxins from your body - and the answer was "no". So tell me - how often have you been tempted by the promises of detox diets? Yeah... I thought so. Me too.

It's really important to let go of incorrect beliefs because it is our beliefs that underpin every thing else in our lives. Our choices - our actions - our decisions - our thoughts - everything is founded upon what we believe is true. It's why it's so hard to overcome the things we learned as little children. They're the beliefs we have held the longest.

In my case the hardest belief I have to overcome is the one that says "The women in my family are all fat". This belief was based on old photographs, my mother's shape and size, conversations with sisters, family eating patterns.... we had desert at lunch AND dinner every single day of my childhood!!! Guess who doesn't feel like lunch is over without something sweet in her mouth?

Now - I believe that I can knit anything. I haven't knit everything, but I believe there is nothing that can be knitted that I can't knit. I believe this because I have knit many things. I believe it because I understand how things are knitted. I believe that if there is a technique or a project that gives me difficulties - one where I make mistakes - it is only because there are a few things left to learn but I also believe that anything I don't already know - I can learn it. After all, I have learned so much already. Therefore - I believe I could knit ANYTHING.

so

What I need to do is to find ways to believe that I can be a slender, strong, fit and healthy woman. I have some reasons to believe this already - I spent the first 40 years of my life at a healthy weight. I lost half the poundage I put on in my 40's. Once I got down to a BMI of 24 or so and it was not terribly difficult. I didn't stay there but that doesn't mean I can't get back there. There are probably some things left to learn but by golly - I believe I can learn those things too. I can learn to believe that I live my life as a slender strong fit healthy woman. And I believe that .. believing will make it so!

What do you believe?

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

JUSDUCKY 12/9/2009 9:34AM

Not only do we fall for those ads but they lie to us! I saw on Dr. Oz's show that some of those diet ads use photos of people and make up stories and identities for them. One lady logged onto her facebook acct and one of the ads that was showing had her before and after picture for a weight loss drug. She had lost it all the good old-fashioned way: lots of hard work! Report Inappropriate Comment

HARPER369 12/9/2009 9:23AM

good out look, thats what I am striving for everyday I do positive self talk and I notice that I am finding ways to overcome my downfall turning them into uplifts, you are strong so you will make it Report Inappropriate Comment

BLUEANGELLK 12/9/2009 9:03AM

I believe you are a very wise woman!!! Thanks for this food for thought Report Inappropriate Comment

RITAROSE 12/9/2009 9:01AM

Thank you for your blog this morning, it was just what I needed to hear! Report Inappropriate Comment

V8 V-Fusion - A taste discovery

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

I have just become a fan of V8 V-Fusion Light juice. I brought home a bottle yesterday and, well, to steal from their advertising I thought "Wow! I could have had a V8!"

I almost never drink juice. I prefer to chew my calories and I'm always trying to find ways to add fiber to my diet. But I do love me some V8 juice and am even developing an acceptance for the low sodium variety. But a year or so ago I tried one of their fruit/veggie mixtures it was horrible. My trips down the juice aisle in the grocery store have, since then, been utterly focused - it was V8 or nothing.

But not any more. The V-Fusion light is 50 calories for 8 oz. It has only 40 mg of sodium ( ) and 150 mg of potassium - ( ) a nutrient I'm also always trying to add to my diet.

I haven't gotten the final recipe for a delicious green smoothie yet but I do have an okay drink that is giving me an enormous nutritional bang for the .... calories. I'd call this a healthy Green Christmas gift.

So - ever wonder how V8 got started? Well here is this from Wikipedia:

"V8 Vegetable Juice was invented by W.G. Peacock (1896–1948), the founder of the New England Products Company, which manufactured individual vegetable juices under the brand name Vege-min. Having had only mediocre sales success, in 1933 Peacock began blending the Vege-min juices into one product and selling this new concoction as "Vege-min 8." A grocer in Evanston, Illinois recommended that he shorten the name to simply "V-8."

The new V-8 was a success and in 1948 the Campbell Soup Company acquired the brand. It has been in continuous production since."

  

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

HARPER369 12/9/2009 9:27AM

love all brands of V8 . I am actually using it as a filler, when I would normally over eat you know the danger zones after work and boredom, V8 is very filling Report Inappropriate Comment

OPAL50 12/8/2009 7:13PM

I love V-8 and I love Fusion V-8. Great, low cal, low sodium drink. Report Inappropriate Comment

JLITT62 12/8/2009 6:47PM

I've tried the Fusion, but I'm really just not a big juice person. I mainly bought it for my husband, who doesn't eat a lot of veggies & fruits. He likes it, but unless I hand it to him, he won't remember to drink it! Grrr. Report Inappropriate Comment

BKWHITE3 12/8/2009 5:30PM

Love V8, but I've never tried the Fusion. I'll have to give it a try. Report Inappropriate Comment