Back On The Nutrition Wagon

After a week of eating out while we were in Pittsburgh, I realized something:  I make horrible food choices in restaurants.  Somehow, I rationalize that "I'm on vacation" and then manage to pick out the fattiest, most decadent menu item to consume.

Or at least it sure feels that way on the back end of the trip when my entire system is craving nothing but fresh veggies and fruits as if it has endured a starvation diet for eons.

Even picking a salad here and there doesn't seem to have made things better this trip.  How do people who have to travel a lot for business manage to stay the least bit healthy?

Although, I have to say, the breakfast buffet at our hotel was really nice, with fresh fruit, steel cut oatmeal, eggs cooked to order and some other options that at least started the day well.

As with all things, though, it is what you do most of the time that matters, right?  So I'm back on the good nutrition wagon as of this morning. 

CH-CH-CH-CH-Changes

Right after a cancer diagnosis, everything gets a little garbled in your brain because sentences and thoughts -- even random, wholly unconnected to this in any way thoughts -- often seem to end with "Uh.  Mah.  Gawd.  I.  Have.  Cancer." for at least a few days if not weeks.  At least, that's how it has worked for me thus far, and I'm told by friends who have gone through similar battles that was true for them as well.

For me, though?  When I'm facing any daunting challenge, the thing I crave most is to know every possible thing about the oncoming hurdle so that when I have to face it, I have pinpointed several avenues of weakness and am more prepared than anyone else in the room to discuss my options and possibilities.  This is, not coincidentally, how I approached my legal practice when I had a hearing -- I knew every possible nuance and all the case law, every argument for or against every issue that I could identify as having any possibility of being raised before I ever entered a courtroom for a hearing...and I had figured out a way to crush each and every one of them before I ever stepped forward for an argument.  Exhaustive but highly effective.

All this to say, I have now entered the research phase of my diagnosis with a vengeance.

Some books and websites I've been reading include:

-- The American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR), which has a fantastic database of recipes available for the searching online.

-- The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen: Nourishing, Big-Flavor Recipes for Cancer Treatment and Recovery by Rebecca Katz

-- One Bite at a Time, Revised: Nourishing Recipes for Cancer Survivors and Their Friends by Rebecca Katz

-- The Anti-Cancer Cookbook by Julia Greer

-- Crazy Sexy Cancer Tips by Kris Carr

Of all of these, the Rebecca Katz books have been a revelation in terms of healthy eating combined with a gourmet sense of taste and flavor -- maximizing both healthy ingredients along with nurturing the pleasure of eating really good food.  And I've also realized this:  all the healthy eating we'd been trying to incorporate from Clean Eating and Eating For Life and South Beach and Sonoma and all the other diet plans that focus on whole foods and lots of fruits and veggies and a reduction of processed crap?

It's all really good and what we ought to be doing, every single meal, every single day.

So it's well past time to pull myself out of my stress eating crapola stupor and to move forward even faster with my "eat better, live better, feel better" plan for the rest of my life.  I'm going to start sharing healthy recipes here more often as I tweak them for my family and find that they work well -- if my veggie-tolerating-but-just-barely-sometimes hubby and my picky eater child can be coaxed into being healthier along with me, then you know yours can be, too.

Here's a thumbnail sketch of what I've found out thus far:

Monday Clear The Clutter Club Check-In

It's early Monday.  And it feels like it here.

Not enough coffee in the entire world to wake me up this morning, I'm afraid.  I blame it on too many episodes of Battlestar Galactica last night.  (No idea how we missed this show the first time around, but it's addictive.)

This week?  The health eating has continued, and we are moving away from Phase One of the South Beach Diet to a quasi-Phase 2 eating style that I hope will become just the way we eat from now on:  healthy whole foods, whole grains, lots of veggies, some fruit, lean proteins, and even more veggies.

Spent part of the weekend going back through some of my healthier cookbook faves:

-- The Eat-Clean Diet Cookbook: Great-Tasting Recipes That Keep You Lean

-- The Best of Clean Eating: Over 200 Mouthwatering Recipes to Keep You Lean and Healthy

-- Eating For Life

-- Mediterranean Light: Delicious Recipes from the World's Healthiest Cuisine

-- Cooking Light Fresh Food Fast: Over 280 Incredibly Flavorful 5-Ingredient 15-Minute Recipes

I have several more that I like as well, but you get the idea:  healthy, whole foods in correct portion sizes that I cook from scratch.

Huzzah!

I found a few websites and blogs with some yummy South Beach Diet recipes on them.  Thought I'd share with all of you, in case you are interested in perusing, too:

-- Kalyn's Kitchen -- some seriously awesome and healthy recipes here.  I can already tell I'm going to enjoy these a lot!

-- Once Upon A Feast -- found a stash of recipes here as well.

-- Century Club -- lots of recipes to peruse.

Dinner Tonight? Easy Veggie Stir-Fry

I'm in the mood for some Chinese food this evening.  Which might be inconvenient, given that we are doing very well thus far on the The South Beach Diet Phase 1.

But I've come up with a plan that will satisfy my urge for a Chinese food fix, and still keep us within the parameters of Phase 1 requirements.

Woo hoo!

I've taken a recipe from Bill Phillips' Eating For Life cookbook, which I absolutely love, btw, because it's chock full of easy, healthy recipes that Mr. ReddHedd will happily eat, and tweaked it.

Originally this was the "Sesame Beef Stir-Fry recipe on page 125 -- but I've modified it a wee bit to make it South Beach Phase 1 friendly.  It took only a little bit of tweaking, and I've managed to add a bit more veggies to the mix for color, fiber and antioxidants while still maintaining a healthy profile.

So, here's what we are having for dinner here this evening:

It's Time To Start Clearing The Clutter!

The little hitch in my resolution giddy-up from my leg burn has finally healed enough that I can confidently say this:  it's time to start clearing the clutter at our house.

Today, we start on Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet.

For breakfast, we'll be having a veggie omelet, loaded with peppers, onions, and for Mr. ReddHedd some mushrooms (not for me, though), a little reduced-fat sharp cheddar, and a bit of salsa on top.  Plus a glass of V-8 juice and copious amounts of coffee, no doubt.  Lunch will be a chef's salad, with some cubed leftover chicken, diced ham, sliced boiled egg, chopped cucumber, tomato, celery, and lettuce topped with a homemade Dijon vinaigrette.  And dinner will be turkey burgers and oven-roasted green beans, cherry tomatoes, and onion. 

UPDATE:  Forgot to say that dessert tonight will be 1/2 cup each of part skim ricotta mixed with cocoa powder, a little vanilla, some natural peanut butter, and a couple of packets of Splenda, and topped with a Tbsp. sugar free whipped topping. 

Phase 1 is the most restrictive part of the diet -- it's designed to clear out the excess ick in your system so that your body can start with a clean slate to eat healthier foods.  It's a bit carbohydrate restricted, but unlike Atkins you have to watch saturated fats and only eat leaner meats and veggies -- it's not a bacon free-for-all, in other words.  We'll stick to this for a couple of weeks to clear out all the holiday sugar rush and then will broaden back out to include whole grains, fruits and other healthy carb choices.

And our hope is that this will not be a "diet" for us for a short period of time, but will instead become the way we eat as a lifestyle for the rest of our lives.

We need this.  The Peanut needs to see us do this and, more importantly, she needs to adopt healthier food choices and understand why it is important for her as well.

My plan?  We go from the first couple of weeks of Phase 1 on South Beach to a broader, liveable and far healthier lifestyle and diet.  I'll be pulling recipes and ideas from the following after this first couple of weeks:

-- The Eat-Clean Diet Cookbook: Great-Tasting Recipes That Keep You Lean

-- Eating For Life

-- The New Sonoma Diet: Trimmer Waist, More Energy in Just 10 Days

-- Mediterranean Light: Delicious Recipes from the World's Healthiest Cuisine

-- The Mediterranean Diabetes Cookbook (ADA)

-- The South Beach Diet Quick and Easy Cookbook: 200 Delicious Recipes Ready in 30 Minutes or Less

There are more, but you get the idea: healthy, whole foods, mostly veggies on the plate, leaner meats, and lots of fiber from beans and grains as well.  The way we ought to have been eating all along.

Hobbling To The Resolution Starting Line

It's time to put all those resolutions into action, gang.

Although I could not have timed my 2nd degree burn any more poorly, I refuse to allow my current state of mobility limitations to prevent me from moving forward on my plans.

Sometimes life throws you a curveball.  The trick for me is figuring out how to move past it without sabotaging my own plans for better health.

And so?  Today will mean that I clean out our fridge so that we can start off Monday with a fresh and healthy set of choices.

Sure, I'll be cleaning things out while sitting on a chair, and Mr. ReddHedd is going to have to help me -- and go shopping for me -- but we will make do.  Then I'll spend some time, still sitting on a kitchen stool, prepping snacks and some other food for tomorrow.

And hopefully, if I can keep moving forward today -- which isn't a given since I've been needing naps as my scalded leg heals -- I'll try to post what my menu plans are for the week.

You Say You Want A Resolution?

'Tis the season for resolutions at year's end. Which, if you are like me, have already been broken and stomped into the dust by mid-February.

This year, though?  I'm vowing to do things differently.  And as I said last week, I'd love it if you all joined in as well because I think there is definite strength in numbers on something like this.

I've been working on an actual, definable plan, with realistic goals that can be worked toward on a week by week basis instead of coming up with meaningless, blobby goals that only sound good in the abstract.  It's the difference between:

"lose some weight"

and

"lose at least 1 pound per week through exercise -- 5 days per week at a minimum -- and following a diet plan that is akin to South Beach diet's good carbs in moderation/healthy proteins/lots of veggies and Clean Eating and Eating For Life's healthier lifestyle choices at every meal, until I reach my goal weight of 140 pounds,"

which is to say there is a huge difference in planning, accountability and execution.  I'm including a requirement for blocking off time each week for meal planning, for going over what worked and what didn't, and for planning my workouts as well.

Because for me?  Having a roadmap to success makes the whole thing easier.  But forcing myself to be accountable for following it?  Makes a world of difference.