Sticky Fingers

My long lost friend Martha has inspired me to write about sticky fingers today. Martha is very much into yoga and follows a yogic diet. The diet is very simple and terribly healthy; no sugar, no salt and no animal products. The theory behind the diet is that one can purify the mind and body and meditate with more focus. No animal products are consumed because of not wanting to harm other living creatures. The other part of this plan is to resist ones desires and to foster determination and will power.
I have what I like to call sticky fingers. Sticky fingers afflicts us all in one form or another throughout our lives. For some it can be debilitating and for others it can be harmless. Sticky fingers is the sensation of loss of control. I have gone from one substance to another. At the age of...for as long as I can remember, I wanted alcohol. After therapy and a good dose of reality my fingers let go of alcohol and then stuck to sugar. Mmmmm, the sweet embrace of sugar. It filled the hole that alcohol left. At the same time as the alcohol and sugar was the nicotine. In order to get my fingers unstuck from the nicotine I had to keep elastic bands around my wrists so that I had something for my hands to do. I had sunflower seeds that I would work in my mouth to keep my mouth busy. It took my awhile to perfect the art of taking the shell off of a sunflower seed without the use of my fingers. Currently I am trying to pry my sticky fingers away from sugar. I am hoping that they will stick to exercise. Generally if you have a craving for sugar it is an indication that you need protein. I try to eat a handful of nuts if I feel sugar calling my name. It seems to work. I think sticky fingers is a biological predisposition. It is also to do with will power; which brings us back to the yogi lifestyle. If you sit and listen to your body, it will tell you what it needs. I find that I have to bind and gag my ego before doing this. The ego will talk over whoever else is talking and get greedy for whatever it wants. In this busy world we have listened to our egos for too long. We have become unhealthy, uncaring, and unbalanced. I would like to suggest that we take time to just simply sit and listen to our bodies for a few minutes a day. It is amazing what they will tell you.

What Kate Ate - 12/21/09

Apple
Oatmeal with walnuts and raisins
Left over solstice dinner
Granola bar
Butternut squash ravioli, salad and sauteed spinach
Dark chocolate

I also ran 2.5 miles yesterday!!! I am so good (thanks Alexis).

Solstice Dinner

My dear and talented friend Annie and I prepared dinner last night to celebrate the Solstice. My husband was rather impressed with the finally results, as he should be! Annie is my soul partner when it comes to food. We drool over recipes and tweak them to spice them up or make them healthier. When it comes to cooking, I really get into the process of making sure the flavors go well together, that the ingredients are holistic, produce is seasonal, and that you can taste the love! Annie and I created a menu fit for the gods. The meal not only tasted divine, but it also looked amazing. The colors of the food were vibrant and juicy. We also found pomegranate wine, which was delicious and complemented the dinner wonderfully. All of the ingredients, with the exception of the green beans, were seasonal. Little fat was used so the cholesterol content was low. We relied upon herbs and the natural flavors of the foods to make the food taste good. Sorry Paula Dean, no stick of butter here! Most importantly you could taste the love. Creating a meal with someone is an intimate process. I put so much of myself into the food that I feel as though I put myself in a place of vulnerability. What if they don't like? Will that mean that they don't like me? Despite my fears Annie and I worked seamlessly in the kitchen to create our masterpiece. It was such a joy to share my love of food and cooking with such a wonderful person.
The next time you cook, may I suggest that you let your taste buds guide you rather than relying upon fat and sugar to make it tasty. There are so many different flavors and flavor combination's out there to explore. Most importantly add in a little love. It make it taste oh so yummy!


What Kate Ate - 12/20/09

Scrambled eggs with avocado on sunflower toast
Tangerine
Bean burrito
Half of a jam and almond butter sandwich on wheat bread (Annie ate the other half!)
Green bean and blood orange salad, fingerling potatoes with rosemary, garlic and thyme, sauteed spinach with garlic, salmon with cherry and pomegranate glaze, sweet potato biscuits, and dark chocolate

I forgot my lunch!!

After preaching yesterday about being prepared for battle, I failed to remember one of my key weapons, a well thought out meal. I was in such a rush this morning that I forgot to get my carefully planned lunch out of the fridge. Luckily I had put my snacks in my bag the night before. What am I do to? First, I must decide where I am going to eat. Almost everything is closed where I work and I can't leave campus because that would take far too long. I must make a decision based upon which dining facility has the healthiest choices. I decided upon the Asian restaurant. Next I must pick something that is relatively healthy. I get online and look at the menu and nutritional information. This is key!!! As we learned the other day reading labels before consumption is a better idea than after you have wolfed down some thing disguised as healthy when in fact it isn't. I decided on a dish that was reasonably healthy. My personal trainer Alexis, who is also a colleague, forgot her lunch too. I am not feeling so bad now!! So both of us bundled up and braved the cold weather to get our lunch. We both got chow mien with steamed veggies; I also got tofu. I am feeling pretty good about things now. If Alexis is eating what I am eating, then I am in good shape.
So, if you find your self lunch-less, it is best to come up with a plan rather than making mindless decisions because the person behind you in line is getting restless. Restaurants generally post nutritional information online. The fat, sodium and sugar content are always good indicators of how healthy something is. Restaurants are also starting to post which items are the more healthier options and are generally a safe bet. One thing to note about restaurants, Asian ones especially, is the use of MSG. MSG is an additive that makes food taste better. Sounds good right? No so good for your brain though. MSG stimulates the neurons in your brain to the point of over excitement. This can lead to the neurons dying. And excess consumption can even lead to death. This takes place after many years of eating MSG laden foods.
Hopefully we have all learnt from my mistakes this week. Read labels and don't forget your lunch!

What Kate Ate - 12/17/09
Tangerine
Oatmeal
Banana
Spinach, black beans, corn bread, and salmon cakes
Salad with avocado and cucumber, steamed broccoli, and baked potato with plain Greek yogurt and salsa

Preparing for battle

Eating healthy is like preparing for battle. You don't just go willy nilly to war without some sort of plan, unless of course you are some World leaders!! You have to put your armor on, have a plan of attack, make sure your weapons are ready and get psyched up for what you are about to endure. The same is true for eating a well balanced diet. You have to plan out what you are going to eat, stock up on healthy ingredients, have an idea of what you are going to do when you go into the damn break room!
If you plan ahead you will ensure your success. You can take on any swiss roll, delicious cookie, decadent cake, greasy chip disaster. I find that packing my breakfast, lunch and snacks the day before to be very helpful. Granted it takes effort and thought, but I don't tend to slip up as much. It is so easy to say "Oh, I will just have lunch out once this week". Before you know it, it has turned into every day and your are spending exorbitant amounts of money on food and goodness knows what you are truly consuming.
I like to make up a big bag of oatmeal for the week. That way I only have to do it once, don't have to think about what I am going to eat for breakfast for the rest of the week, and it saves money. Here is what to do:
1)Put 2 cups of quick cook oat into a ziploc baggy
2)Add in some raw nuts of your choice, about 2/3 cup
3)Add in some dried fruit of your choice, about 2/3 cup
4)4 tbs of brown sugar
5)1tbs of cinnamon or allspice
6)Give the bag a good shake and voila, you now have breakfast for a week.
I take out what I need, add some hot water and stir. Yummy!!

What Kate Ate - 12/16/09
Banana
Bowl of sugar disguised as a bran muffin with pomegranate juice
Clementine
Almond butter and jam sandwich on wheat bread with celery sticks
Rice, bean and veggie stuff with a veggie burger patty
Mushroom ravioli with salad

Damn you break room, damn you!!

The break room at work is like a kitchen at a party. Everyone gravitates towards the kitchen for some reason, like birds migrating to the south for winter. Maybe its the food, company, or just where we as humans connect. Today our boss brought breakfast in for us. The table was spread with muffins, breads, yogurt drinks, fruit and juice. I carefully selected a bran muffin, clementine, and some pomegranate juice. How healthy of me I thought to myself. WRONG!! After I had devoured my oh so delicious muffin, I read the ingredients. To my horror the second ingredient was sugar! A bran muffin with sugar as the second ingredient is no longer healthy. That is the problem with food these days. You are fooled into thinking something is healthy because the manufacture has cleverly titled the product. I had been duped into falling for their evil trick. Now I have sugar on the brain. I must hold myself back from eating more of those tasty treats. My I could tie my hands behind my back and place duct tape over my mouth? Upon going into the break room to retrieve my lunch I was tempted to take just a nibble of the seductive bread. There was a fierce fight between my ego and self. The ego said "You can have just a little. After all you are exercising". The self said "Are you crazy?!! Absolutely not. One small nibble leads to binging." Thankfully the self won. I had to say "NO" out loud so that I didn't partake. I will now have to avoid the break room for the rest of the day.
I guess the take home message is always read the ingredients before consumption rather than after.

What Kate Ate - 12/14/09
Banana
Apple bread
Butternut squash soup with whole wheat toast
Celery with almond butter
Dark chocolate
Salad with avocado, tomato, cucumber, and dressing, rice, bean and veggie stuff, and scallops with garlic and lemon juice
Soy, banana and almond butter shake

Why?

Why blog about holistic nutrition? I will tell you why, because there is much to learn about food and how we interact with it that I just have to share! My friend and personal trainer, Alexis Foy, told me I should start a blog about what I am learning from my graduate classes and my personal journey with food. Most people think that food and exercise aren't related. How wrong they are!! You can't get more holistic than food and exercise. Both are necessary to live a full, happy and healthy life. She is training me to run a 5k. No big deal right?!! A HUGE deal if you haven't run in 14 years. After having two children and turning 30 I decided that I had no more excuses for not being in shape. I have the food thing down, but exercise is another matter. All of this exercise makes me hungry, and not always for the healthy stuff. I have to be creative with how to keep myself in a holistic mind set when trying to stuff my face so that my stomach doesn't eat itself. I make mistakes and fall off the wagon. For the most part though I am good and try to remember what I have learnt from my classes. So, I will share with you this strange and exciting journey of the food that I eat and the things that I learn along the way.