Healthy Two Weeks

So........one of the side effects of being in a relationship with an excellent cook and baker who enjoys savoring food as much as I do is....you guessed it, a wee bit of weight gain. Okay, I can't blame him, I just love food and do not love exercise as much. Therefore, in attempt to gain back energy and fight the age-gravity snowball, I am attempting a few lifestyle tweaks (somehow "tweaks" is less scary than "change"?).

I started with the gym. I have a friend who lost a great deal of weight by "promising herself to sweat every day." So, for the last two and half weeks, I've been going to the gym five days a week for an hour at a time. This has boosted my energy incredibly, however it has not automatically made my skirts fit better. That may be because it takes longer than two weeks to show changes, but I'm not a patient person.

So I started reading the Jillian Michaels, Master Your Metabolism book. This book is intended for people who are already working out at the gym and dieting and just need help balancing their hormones and food to reach their body's tip-top potential. I am not in that category. I hate the word diet. It just sounds like deprivation and makes me think of eating carrots foreeeeeeeeevvvver, which the thought of usually drives me to rebel in a very mature manner and reach for the cookie dough. I internally (okay, maybe outloud too) make fun of those gym bunnies who are always counting calories as control freaks who don't know how to really enjoy life...like I do. This is of course because I'm jealous. While I swear I have willpower in a few areas of life, my idea of living life to the fullest means no limits! The thought of not being able to eat something or having to work out to be healthy, makes me angry (as do other parts of growing up and taking care of myself). Of course the endorphins from exercise make me feel good. Of course I don't feel terrific when I eat a bowl of cookie dough....but I love the feeling of being free to do whatever I want. Unfortunately, in the "real world" this freedom (or the choices I have made with the freedom) has consequences. And for the time being I'm willing to face reality and change a few things.

The book really isn't about dieting. It is about eating real food (no corn syrup, low fat chemicals, no styrofoam carb substitutes) in a balanced manner. It also talks intensively about all the chemicals in our food and in our world that mess up our hormones and cause our bodies to not easily digest the food that we eat. Perhaps I will work on reducing those chemicals next month, but beginning on this past Tuesday, I started "following" her two week food plan to help restore my body to it's proper metabolic balance. (food plan sounds better than diet).

She very nicely includes a grocery list for each of the weeks. So on Labor Day evening I took my book and went to Earth Fare. Yes, I bought some organic meat, which I normally think of as excessive, but between watching the movie "Food, Inc" and reading her book, I gave it a try. I also picked up a few Ezekiel items, bread, tortillas...I had no idea there were that many Ezekiel items available. Flax cereal, flax seeds, Greek yogurt....I felt a little physical pain when the checkout guy told me how much it all was. And I hadn't even gotten any produce yet.

Then I went to Ingles to get produce (I bought organic meat, I couldn't do meat and veggies) and canned goods. After two grocery stores, several hours and a lot of decision making, I could not believe how much food was in my trunk. Two dozen eggs? am I training for a wrestling match? I skipped the pork chop, pork tenderloin, special natural sweetener, shrimp, bacon, turkey breast and prawns and I still couldn't imagine how, even with Pat's help, I could eat it all (or how my budget would feel when I told it what I had done!) But even so, I was excited to give this food plan a try and to get to eat a lot of different things than I usually do.

Tuesday morning: up and ready to make my berry smoothie. I chose to make the smoothie with frozen fruit that had been in the freezer for quite a while. So when I put the fruit and the yogurt, flax seeds, honey and milk into the blender, it didn't. blend that is. Then I went outside to start the grill for a couple pieces of grilled chicken. The grill wouldn't start. Now normally I would take these two "signs" to mean this was all a stupid idea and I should just have a pop-tart. But I had invested enough money into this endeavor that I wasn't going to quit. So I poured the smoothie into Pat's mixer, broke it up and then poured it back into the mixer to finish it off. I went outside to give the grill one more try and it started right up. The berry smoothie was great. The grilled chicken on a salad was a good lunch. The snack at 4:00 was carrots and humus. I was famished, I've never eaten so many carrots in my life. Luckily the hummus was strong on garlic, so I enjoyed it vastly.

Then I came home and had Thursday's dinner on Tuesday (crazy!) because Pat was off and might be able to help me make and eat Chipolte-Beef. It actually wasn't that hard, just browning and then simmering. However, I had not pre-read the part of simmering for an HOUR OR TWO. The carrot snack had disappeared somewhere in the middle of spinning class, so I added in a handful of pistachios while the simmering ensued. The end result of spicy meat on salad leaves was very satisfying. Then with the leftovers, Pat helped me de-spice the simmering sauce a bit and put it in the oven over night on low for an even softer meat dinner tonight.

Wednesday: This morning is a gym morning (they alternate between evening and morning workouts dependent on the class schedule). So I saved the Breakfast Burrito for tomorrow and had the second half of the Berry Smoothie. It tasted even better without all the fighting with the blender. I had made lunch of whole-wheat pasta with almond tomato sauce while the meat was simmering last evening. I got to come home and eat with Pat over lunch hour. Two thumbs up. Sausage in the sauce wouldn't have hurt it, but it was good. I'd make it again. Tonight's dinner was supposed to be the (afore mentioned skipped over purchase) pork chop, but we had plenty of softened meat. I had mine with salad, Pat's with rice. While the book doesn't eliminate carbs altogether, it does take them away from dinner so there is no sugar spike during sleep. I'm interested to see if I sleep better because of this.

So, so far: yummy food, cooking new things is fun, lots of planning is needed, but once I get the recipes down, I think it could get easier. I'm not sure how I would have time to do this if I had kids, but I guess "you can do anything if you want it badly enough". I admit, on my way home from work, I felt sad that I wasn't going to have a sugary sweet treat when I got home. Or melt my brain into oblivious calm by diving into a bag of Fritos while watching tv. But dinner was filling and now it's bed time!