The Leftovers Mom

I read once that a major contributor to the weight that women gain (or haven't lost) after having kids is due to eating food off of their kids' plates, and I believe it.  I am a victim of it myself!  After reading The Fat Loss Troubleshoot and getting a black and white reminder that I need to weigh, not just measure but WEIGH IN GRAMS, my food to get an accurate picture of calories in versus calories out, I am realizing just how much of a habit this has become for me.

My kid eats healthy food.  I mean, its not like his leftovers are Cocoa Krispies and chicken nuggets.  But, as I've said before, even healthy food has calories.  Even tomatoes have to be burned into fuel and that means they have calories. I keep a food journal, but do you think I write down those blueberries I tossed in my mouth before putting some on his plate?  What's a few blueberries, right? And that spoonful of his oatmeal to make sure it isn't too hot? Pshaw!  Scooping up his uneaten broccoli at dinner to prove a point about how they are sooooo goooood that I just want to eat it allllll day long...well, veggies are "free," right?

Not right.

The more I read about people whose fat loss is sabotaged by these seemingly harmless nibbles, the more I started to do the math in my head and realized that I am likely eating on average 300-500 more calories in an entire day than I realize.  Uh oh. Damn it!

So I pulled that digital kitchen scale out of the cabinet and got to work.  I usually only weigh meat and cheese because they are more calorie dense than fruits and vegetables, and figure I don't need to worry about produce as much.  I was very relieved to find that for the most part, my guesstimated portions were right on the money or close to it, and now that I have nixed the kiddo-plate-nibbles, my actual consumption and my http://www.fitday.com/ profile are a little more in agreement.

But to be sure, I went a little overboard with the ziplocks this week and measured every single morsel. To the gram.  It's always good to get a refresher on reality.

And in the meantime, I am making smaller portions for my picky prince.  Hey, no sense in all that good food going to waist.

Good day! :)

A little pre-weekend finger-wagging

Warning - I'm gonna get all preachy on you for a minute. 

Today its about commercials for food that feature people who can't believe that the item is healthy (it usually isn't) because it actually tastes good. 

"It CAN'T be healthy!  It tastes too good!" 

The one that got my goat this week was a woman eating cereal who was just amazed that the cereal was filled with fiber and nutrients (it's actually not) because all she could taste was honey and brown sugar!  And it reminded me about how fixated we are on how our food tastes, and how we feel entitled to food that tastes good when really we're only entitled to food.

A few years ago, I attended a lunchtime roundtable meeting featuring the incredible Laurel Blackburn, a trainer and business woman who not only inspires me as an athlete but also as a hard-working woman of integrity.

She's awesome. 

Anyway, she mentioned the concept of eating for performance, and it stuck with me.  I loved that idea - eating for function, eating purposefully, actually considering the physiological needs of your body before fueling it to get the most bang for your calorie bucks.  Since that day I can honestly say that functional eating has been a personal priority of mine.  Thanks Laurel for opening my eyes!

Anyway, since I started eating functionally, I started letting go of any expectation I had of food to be anything other than functional.  I no longer needed my food to taste good, it just needed to work.  That didn't happen over night, but gradually I began to appreciate food for its purpose and function, not whether it was something I was craving or felt entitled to.  There are so many ways that this has impacted my personal life that I can't go into them here.  You'll have to buy my book for that. :) 

But there is one thing that really stands out - entitlement.  I see such a feeling of entitlement among my peers concerning food. Seeing that cereal commercial made me wonder: do we even deserve food that tastes good?  I argue no.

You deserve access to food that will nourish your body, period.  You deserve to be loved, cared for, and safe.  You deserve to share a private joke with a friend that no one else gets.  You deserve to go through your day freely and enjoy the world around you, unless you have been convicted of a felony in which case you do not deserve that specific part.  But you don't deserve food that tastes good.  You just deserve food.

I know not many others share this opinion, and I'm not so bold as to say I never eat things just because they taste good or that I exist on some higher intellectual plane where I am immune to the delicious aroma of BBQ.  The food I eat does taste good to me, and I love creating and finding recipes that are highly nutritious and tasty.  But, I am really happy that I have gotten to a point where that is secondary to the function of the food specific to the requirements of my body.  So when I see people eating food and going on and on about how good it tastes, I feel sad.

I just needed to say that.

My Snack Can Beat Up Your Snack

Everywhere I go, people wanna know...

what I'm eating, so I tell 'em....

People always want to know what I am eating, so I am telling you one meal at a time.  Last time it was my yogurt/blueberry/museli afternoon snack, which got so many great review and recipe requests I was floored.  I honestly did not know that many people read this blog. 

Today, it is my morning snack, and this one is pretty easy: fruit and almonds.  My old stand-by.  I eat this all the time, and its great in a pinch.  It is also pretty portable, which is a plus for me. 

There are only two "rules":

1. stick to berries as much as possible (I personally find that apples and pears make me retain water, and melon is a high-glycemic food that I don't have much use for).  I also include peaches and kiwi when I can because I like 'em.

2. eat only whole, natural almonds.  Not roasted.  Not salted.  Not covered in chocolate.  Just plain old boring dry almonds.

Eating clean and healthy doesn't have to be complicated, folks.  In fact, eating from the earth is the most un-complicated thing I do each day. When you follow the basic guidelines of eating fresh veggies, fruit, and lean protein for your meals, it is really, really, really hard to screw up.

Good day!

Hey, you gonna eat all that?

Every day, people comment on how just about every time they see me, I am eating.  I take up more than my share in the office fridge and sometimes even use the one downstairs when I start to feel guilty.  And at least a couple of times week someone peers into my lunchbox as they heat up their Ramen noodles and asks, "okay so what do you eat all day?"

Well, I'll tell you, one meal at a time. Today, my mid-morning snack: plain non-fat Greek-style yogurt, about 1 cup of frozen blueberries, and 1/4 cup of muesli.

Nothing like a delicious meal of yogurt, fruit, nuts, and spreadsheets! Yum!

I love this snack because it is tasty, filling, and chock-full of really great fuel.  The Greek yogurt (I buy either Chobani or Dannon Plain Greek) has the obvious bone-building benefits of calcium but also the digestive-enhancing benefits of probiotics for intestinal health.  In a recent study in the International Journal of Obesity, researchers found that obese adults who ate three servings of fat-free yogurt a day as part of a reduced-calorie diet lost 22% more weight and 61% more body fat than those who just cut calories.  I like it especially because it is nice and thick.  Sometimes I make my own, but by the time I get the consistency the way I like it, I've invested $6.00 and 15 hours of my life into three cups of yogurt.  I could be doing cardio!

The blueberries are great because, according to researchers at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, one-half cup gives you twice as many antioxidant nutrients as most Americans consume in an entire day, says lead researcher Ronald Prior, Ph.D in this AARP article. All with just 40 calories, no fat, some vitamin C, and nearly two grams of fiber.


And the muesli (I buy Bob's Red Mill) is the chew factor.  I am big on the chew factor.  If I don't get to CHEW, I don't count it as eating.  I love muesli because it is made with whole oats, nuts, fruit and sometimes seeds. Since it uses whole grain it has a good amount of fiber, and since it contains fruit and no added sugar, its also relatively low in sugar. Depending upon the amount and type of nuts and/or seeds, it can also be high in protein.  But watch the calories - only 1/4 cup of this good stuff packs 110!
 
It's delicious, good for you, and everyone who pops into my office when I am eating it (chew, chew, chew) wants some.
 
So make your own!

Clean Eating That Won't Clean You Out

I preach to people a lot about the importance of shopping around the perimeter of the grocery store and sticking to clean, fresh, natural food. It's absolutely the best way to eat, and I am a die-hard believer that eating clean is the solution to many of the health, obesity, energy, and stress related problems we face in our society.

But I also hear a lot of grumbling about how eating clean is more expensive, and at times that is a legitimate complaint. It's a real problem, and one that I don't have a quick solution for. It is a shame that some of our most malnourished populations, the ones in most desperate need for education about how to prepare and eat healthy foods, are also those that are often experiencing levels of poverty that exclude them from access to those healthy foods. I want to be part of the solution to this problem, but I don't yet know what that is. If you have any ideas, let me know!

Until then, there's hope for those of us who aren't necessarily in poverty but still don't want to find ourselves at the grocery register paying the equivalent of Harvard education just to eat for a week. Read this article that gives three examples of how to eat clean on a budget. Eating healthy can be expensive, but it doesn't have to be if you are willing to apply a little elbow grease and imagination when you head to the market.

Consider these techniques that I frequently use in preparing my own clean meals:

1. Sacrifice variety to an extent. Remember, food is fuel, not a companion. So, while variety can be important in regulating your metabolism, I choose to standardize my breakfast, snacks, and lunch during the week to allow me to buy in bulk.

• Preparing a cheap egg white casserole large enough for six servings during the week saves time and money


• Baking a turkey breast on the weekend to chop for salads during the week is a lot cheaper than buying lunchmeat or chicken breasts


• Buying a large container of Greek yogurt is less expensive than individual cups, just be sure to measure the quantity when spooning out a serving each day for a snack


• In winter, I'll make a huge pot of vegetable soup and have that for dinner or lunch most days. Its comforting, easy, and incredibly healthy.

For me, standardizing my meals not only saves money and time at the grocery store, it also takes the guesswork out of portion sizes. I have enough to think about in a day, I don't want to also have to think about what to eat.

2. Invest time in food preparation. Yes, chopping and portioning a turkey breast takes time. Spending an hour preparing salads or egg whites or chopping fruit can be a chore. And for busy moms, this seems like just one more thing to do in an already over-scheduled day. Well, get over it. If you want to get healthy and save money, you'll find time to do this, and depending on the age of your children, it can be a fun family activity as well. Personally, I look forward to my time on Sunday afternoon when I can flip on the TV, chat with my son while he plays nearby, and prep all my food for the coming week. It saves loads of time on rushed mornings, as well. You'll be suprised how quickly your kitchen will turn into a mini culinary institute, with a pot of stew on the stove, a loaf of bread in the breadmaker, breakfast scramble in the oven, fruit on the chopping board, and baked turkey waiting to be carved...and your house smells like Thanksgiving every weekend! The hardest part is keeping your family members from nibbling on all your clean eats. I often lose precious turkey to the ninja-like reflexes of my turkey-gobbling husband.

3. Buy seasonal fruits and vegetables. Fruits and veggies are expensive, especially the really nutritious fruits like berries. But by buying produce when it is abundant (and prices are lower) you can enjoy some refreshing variety and avoid paying a premium. When your favorite item is too expensive to buy fresh, consider buying it frozen. I often buy frozen blueberries to mix into my yogurt when fresh are more than I want to pay. They last longer and the unit price is cheaper.

4. Make your own. My breadmaker may be one of the most useful items in my kitchen. Baking a loaf of bread for the week requires 5 minutes of prep time and costs a fraction of the price of lesser-quality store-bought bread. Buying oats, seeds, and dried fruit in bulk to make homemade museli is healthier and cheaper than paying for the marketing of packaged mixes. And while I will never profess to be a gardener, growing your own produce can be rewarding and inexpensive if you have the skill and patience. I'm personally pretty excited about the blooms on my first-ever tomato plant. I doubt my black thumb will ever produce enough food to feed more than the neighborhood squirrels, but it's fun to try!

For my recipes and other clean eating tips, visit the Recipes page of my website.

Eating clean might be expensive, but it doesn't have to be! The hardest part may be deciding how to spend all that money you can save. Hint: get a gym membership. :)

Bon appetit!