In the interest of "What am I buying into?" I am still researching the 'net for information about this very low carbs diet and the eat more fat idea. I came across this post, which I may have overlooked in the past. I would have probably ignored the mentions author Aneli Rufus placed in this quick read; however, today I took a moment to check it out and really think it over.
That's not to say I wasn't hesitant 'cause I was. I think my willingness to listen, though, is a sign that American people are changing how they think about what they eat and who has permission to tell them what to do. I have to admit, I've been a GREENaphobic. I do like recycling. I do try to limit waste. I do care about our planet and how animals are treated. I've just been afraid of the extremist weirdos who get mixed in.
But, maybe I am becoming part weirdo... because I feel like I'm beginning to be okay with how I view life and food and who tells us what to do. Some of what I feel aligns with GREENophiles. Some of what I feel aligns with the Conservative Christian. A lot of what I feel is...just, plain care. For me, for you, for everything.
How about you? Opinions on the story I linked to are welcomed.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Sunday, September 4, 2011
I've got TIME.
Just about to get dinner going... we're grilling burgers (Hopper has veggie burger) & zucchini and having leftover rutabaga mash. I'm tempted to add a small salad, too.
I am slightly euphoric this evening because, like most other Americans, our office is closed tomorrow and I don't have to go to work. I work at the radio station 7 days a week...so a day off is quite precious. I love to be there and I love to be on the radio when I can...but I love that I have a whole entire Monday to spend at home.
I've booked the time with Hopper to get her room picked up (because it is unbelievably cluttered and needs a big, big purge-fest). It may take us the entire day to clean...be worth it, though.
We're walking again tonight because we were lazy buggers on Thursday last week. Back to our normal schedule Tuesday. :)
One cool thing is the amount of time it takes us both to get a mile in is coming down...by just a few minutes right now, but there's promise of a future in this time reduction. That's the kind of motivation I need to keep going. She's doing GREAT on there and I marvel at her power - which she loves.
It's being a pretty nice weekend. I hope yours is, too. Almost burger time here, so I am off to prep zucchini. Love! I've got TIME to just be with my friends and family tomorrow. That is all kinds of nice.
I am slightly euphoric this evening because, like most other Americans, our office is closed tomorrow and I don't have to go to work. I work at the radio station 7 days a week...so a day off is quite precious. I love to be there and I love to be on the radio when I can...but I love that I have a whole entire Monday to spend at home.
I've booked the time with Hopper to get her room picked up (because it is unbelievably cluttered and needs a big, big purge-fest). It may take us the entire day to clean...be worth it, though.
We're walking again tonight because we were lazy buggers on Thursday last week. Back to our normal schedule Tuesday. :)
One cool thing is the amount of time it takes us both to get a mile in is coming down...by just a few minutes right now, but there's promise of a future in this time reduction. That's the kind of motivation I need to keep going. She's doing GREAT on there and I marvel at her power - which she loves.
It's being a pretty nice weekend. I hope yours is, too. Almost burger time here, so I am off to prep zucchini. Love! I've got TIME to just be with my friends and family tomorrow. That is all kinds of nice.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
More Fat? REALLY?
You know I'm reducing carbs in my diet, right? I have been able to keep from breads, pasta, fruits, milk (yes, milk has 12g of carbs per serving) carrots, peas and potatoes for...it's been since Monday. Nearly a week. Wow!!! I'm not tempted by the pantry full of them in the kitchen except for when I'm feeling hungry.
So far, on this food plan, I'm feeling hungry a lot. So, I wrote to Ivana. Do you know what she said? "You are not eating enough fat." WHAT?! My mind rejected the logic immediately. I thought, "Okay, what if Ivana's doing some kind of odd experiment with fat people to see whether they will 'buy' the idea that a diet of high fat, low carbs is going to make them lose weight."
Sorry, Ivana, I do appreciate you and I know you to be an informed, intelligent woman...but my mind went there.
Eat more fat. That can't be real. I didn't believe it. So, I did what any overweight fat-obsessed woman would do. I sought Google for wisdom. Keywords: "EAT FAT TO LOSE WEIGHT" "LOW CARBS HIGH FAT" "IS IVANA STRAIGHT TRIPPIN ME?"
Google spit out a number of opinionated forums and a couple of websites, including the blog of Dr. Michael Eades. I absorbed the information he posted on his website about lowering carbs and increasing fats, increasing water, lowering caffeine... a lot of his opinions made sense when spelled out with metabolic explanations of biochemistry attached. "Huh..." I though to myself. "Huh." and kept reading.
Dr. Eades's blog has become my Cake of the Day - a term my best friend ever (BFE) uses often with me because I find something to love with PASSION and WOW! pretty much every day and I soak up as much as I can about it until exhaust both of us with too much info. Cake of the Day can literally be cakes decorated in some sort of theme or it can be blogs full of info like this.
Dr. Eades says MORE FAT, MORE FAT! and explains the body's process of switching from using carbs for energy to using fat instead... ah! See? This makes sense. And I still feel like I am some sort of whacky experiment, but I'm not willing to let go of this food plan just yet. It's only been about a week.
I do want you to know that while I am not eating grains, I AM getting fiber from the green veggies that I eat. I'm learning to drink more water (this is a tough one for me!) and I can totally eat spaghetti squash with a homemade bolognese sauce and LOVE it.
I had black forest bacon from Whole Foods for breakfast today...which was amazing and so good. I paired it with an egg scramble into which I added: sauteed mushrooms, spinach, yellow pepper, onion and broccoli. The result: a very, very delicious breakfast we all really loved. My daughter, the vegetarian, had fake sausage with her eggs, but the result was the same: deeeelicious.
I'm still not entirely convinced that more fat is the key to dropping pounds; however, in the interest of seeing things through I'd like to go ahead with the plan and give it fair effort. I'll judge later, when I see how my body responds via scale numbers and blood work. That's one thing I wouldn't do this without: the companionship of my own medical records and my physician.
Exercise is a bit slow-going still because I'm not out of the tired rut yet, but that is promised to come. I am; however, walking with Hopper tonight as planned. We have a date to do so at 9:30. :)
But, yeah, can you believe that idea? MORE FAT?! I am a little intimidated.
So far, on this food plan, I'm feeling hungry a lot. So, I wrote to Ivana. Do you know what she said? "You are not eating enough fat." WHAT?! My mind rejected the logic immediately. I thought, "Okay, what if Ivana's doing some kind of odd experiment with fat people to see whether they will 'buy' the idea that a diet of high fat, low carbs is going to make them lose weight."
Sorry, Ivana, I do appreciate you and I know you to be an informed, intelligent woman...but my mind went there.
Eat more fat. That can't be real. I didn't believe it. So, I did what any overweight fat-obsessed woman would do. I sought Google for wisdom. Keywords: "EAT FAT TO LOSE WEIGHT" "LOW CARBS HIGH FAT" "IS IVANA STRAIGHT TRIPPIN ME?"
Google spit out a number of opinionated forums and a couple of websites, including the blog of Dr. Michael Eades. I absorbed the information he posted on his website about lowering carbs and increasing fats, increasing water, lowering caffeine... a lot of his opinions made sense when spelled out with metabolic explanations of biochemistry attached. "Huh..." I though to myself. "Huh." and kept reading.
Dr. Eades's blog has become my Cake of the Day - a term my best friend ever (BFE) uses often with me because I find something to love with PASSION and WOW! pretty much every day and I soak up as much as I can about it until exhaust both of us with too much info. Cake of the Day can literally be cakes decorated in some sort of theme or it can be blogs full of info like this.
Dr. Eades says MORE FAT, MORE FAT! and explains the body's process of switching from using carbs for energy to using fat instead... ah! See? This makes sense. And I still feel like I am some sort of whacky experiment, but I'm not willing to let go of this food plan just yet. It's only been about a week.
I do want you to know that while I am not eating grains, I AM getting fiber from the green veggies that I eat. I'm learning to drink more water (this is a tough one for me!) and I can totally eat spaghetti squash with a homemade bolognese sauce and LOVE it.
I had black forest bacon from Whole Foods for breakfast today...which was amazing and so good. I paired it with an egg scramble into which I added: sauteed mushrooms, spinach, yellow pepper, onion and broccoli. The result: a very, very delicious breakfast we all really loved. My daughter, the vegetarian, had fake sausage with her eggs, but the result was the same: deeeelicious.
I'm still not entirely convinced that more fat is the key to dropping pounds; however, in the interest of seeing things through I'd like to go ahead with the plan and give it fair effort. I'll judge later, when I see how my body responds via scale numbers and blood work. That's one thing I wouldn't do this without: the companionship of my own medical records and my physician.
Exercise is a bit slow-going still because I'm not out of the tired rut yet, but that is promised to come. I am; however, walking with Hopper tonight as planned. We have a date to do so at 9:30. :)
But, yeah, can you believe that idea? MORE FAT?! I am a little intimidated.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Denying the CarbMonster
Do you have any idea how tough it is to stop eating foods you love? I thought it was going to be harder than this. Maybe I am just in a honeymoon phase with my new diet plan, but I'm not having cravings of baked potatoes and dinner rolls or plates full of pasta right now.
I've been attracted to No/Low Carbs bloggers for quite a long time. One of the chicks I follow has lost an enormous amount of weight by cutting out carbs except for her occasional beer and I've watched her weight go down (and I've watched what she puts on her plate because she photographs it)... bacon and avocado are staple foods for her... and low or no carb veggies and, of course, meat.
So, my own choice to go without simple carbs has been on my mind for a very, very long time. I've just been afraid to try it. It has only been three days since letting go of them (or choosing lower carbs options) and I really thought I would miss them.
I am a pasta FIEND. A baked potato lover, too. But, I'm okay right now. I made a meatloaf recipe that turned out amazingly great. Check it out:
Minced fresh mushrooms, minced fresh onion, minced fresh garlic sauteed on med-low heat in part butter, part olive oil til the onions were soft. Let cool. In a separate bowl mix ground beef, 1 egg, a little cream (cream has no carbs. milk has carbs!) and then add your mushroom mixture in. Mush it all together, stick it in a loaf pan, top with uncooked bacon strips - yes, bacon strips - and bake at 350 F for 70 minutes. I drained all the grease out of the pan and let it rest once it was finished baking...and then even gave it a few minutes under the broiler to crisp up the bacon.
We had the meatloaf with a lower-carb option: rutabaga mash instead of potatoes, and steamed fresh green beans. I'm telling you, it was delicious. The meatloaf wasn't missing the bread - the mushroom bits and the egg did all the work.
That was fun to make.
It's been a full day. Dinner has me feeling full, too. I'm really surprised that I'm not ripping open boxes of rice or noodles to satisfy a carbs monster craving...but I'm not. At least not today.
I've been attracted to No/Low Carbs bloggers for quite a long time. One of the chicks I follow has lost an enormous amount of weight by cutting out carbs except for her occasional beer and I've watched her weight go down (and I've watched what she puts on her plate because she photographs it)... bacon and avocado are staple foods for her... and low or no carb veggies and, of course, meat.
So, my own choice to go without simple carbs has been on my mind for a very, very long time. I've just been afraid to try it. It has only been three days since letting go of them (or choosing lower carbs options) and I really thought I would miss them.
I am a pasta FIEND. A baked potato lover, too. But, I'm okay right now. I made a meatloaf recipe that turned out amazingly great. Check it out:
Minced fresh mushrooms, minced fresh onion, minced fresh garlic sauteed on med-low heat in part butter, part olive oil til the onions were soft. Let cool. In a separate bowl mix ground beef, 1 egg, a little cream (cream has no carbs. milk has carbs!) and then add your mushroom mixture in. Mush it all together, stick it in a loaf pan, top with uncooked bacon strips - yes, bacon strips - and bake at 350 F for 70 minutes. I drained all the grease out of the pan and let it rest once it was finished baking...and then even gave it a few minutes under the broiler to crisp up the bacon.
We had the meatloaf with a lower-carb option: rutabaga mash instead of potatoes, and steamed fresh green beans. I'm telling you, it was delicious. The meatloaf wasn't missing the bread - the mushroom bits and the egg did all the work.
That was fun to make.
It's been a full day. Dinner has me feeling full, too. I'm really surprised that I'm not ripping open boxes of rice or noodles to satisfy a carbs monster craving...but I'm not. At least not today.
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