Food Choices: Approach and Priorities

My approach to food and my priorities are:

1. Weight Loss
2. Modified Paleo
3. Taste
4. Convenience

Weight Loss

First and foremost I need to lose weight for my general health and well-being.  I use MyFitnessPal to track my daily calories and my exercise.  I try to stay around 1400 calories a day. Some weight loss principals are:

• as little oil as possible (I get my fats from cooking with coconut oil, avocado, nuts (and nut milk)
• as little salt as possible
• portion control!  (I use a digital kitchen scale)
• no snacking!  late-night snacking used to be my worst enemy.  I've managed to curb that.  My test is: If I drink a glass of water will that make me feel fuller?  No?  Then I'm not really hungry, just snacky.

Modified Paleo

There are many many pages dedicated to the Paleo diet but my basic principals are:

• no dairy (except eggs - Paleo allows all full-fat dairy) I will very occasionally allow myself a 0% Chobani as a creamy treat if I feel I need a dessert.
• fish only (Paleo allows all meats, bacon, etc.)
• I follow the rest of the Paleo rules pretty strictly, no legumes, no grains, no potatoes, etc...

Taste

 Flavor, flavor, flavor!  I use fresh herbs, garlic, onion and chiles to spice up my meals.  Anytime I cook I start with coconut oil, onions and garlic.  Its like the tasty base to almost anything.  I love spicy food so I add some minced jalapeno to almost anything I make.  Staples in my fridge are: rosemary, thyme, parsley, cilantro, basil, mint.  Chop some green leafy herbs into salads (not too much!) They add so much flavor.  Add rosemary and thyme to sauteed mushrooms, soups, I even add the stems to my veggie stock.  We have to get creative when losing weight so we don't eat the same bland meal everyday!  How do you spice things up?

Convenience

I have one day a week where I plan/ shop/ prep for the week.   I found out very quickly early in this journey that if I don't have it planned out in advance then I fall off the diet.  My worst is when I come home late or tired form work and can't be bothered doing all the things necessary for dinner.  So I spend one crazy day preparing. I'm not a morning person so I need to have everything done the night before.  I lay out my clothes even so I can walk around like a zombie in the morning.  So at night I:

The little container holds the dressing
and snaps into the lid.

• Make red pepper salsa for my eggs ( I make 2 days worth at a time so some days I don't have to!)  In the morning all I have to do make my coffee, scramble some eggs with some onion and garlic I have already chopped and have in a container in the fridge, and microwave some mushrooms.

• Cut 2 cups of romaine, 1/4 small red onion and 2-3 mushrooms for my salad.  I put it into the coolest container (right) with the dressing and I'm set for the morning.  My soup is already in single serving containers ready for work.  I buy an unsweetened iced tea and have some agave at work.  Done.

• Take out tonight's fish from the freezer.  Tonight I'll have to make the fish topping (usually peach and red pepper salsa).  I also make cauliflower mash (I make 2 night's worth at a time so some days I don't have to do this.)  I have to decide on a side vegetable to go with it.  I love thin asparagus so I trim it (save the ends for stock!) lightly coat it in melted coconut oil, salt and pepper and grill it along side the fish on the grill plate.  Yum!

Meal Planning

It's Sunday which is my meal planning/ grocery shopping/ meal prep day.

One of the ways I'm able to stay on track with my diet is to plan plan plan.  This didn't come easily for me.  there has been a lot of effort put into this in past failed attempts but I think I have the diet solution that works for me.

My typical day looks like this.  There are a few things I have to think about in advance.  They are:

Cauliflower Leek Soup

The first thing I make is Cauliflower Leek Soup.  This was borne out of my love for Potato Leek Soup which I think I may have perfected (OK Martha Stewart perfected and I stole).  In trying to limit my starch intake I was forced to find a substitute.  I use 1 head of cauliflower, 1 rutabaga, 1 parsnip and 1 sweet potato in place of potatoes.  And I omit the milk and cream since I'm trying to limit my calorie intake as well.  Instead of chicken stock I use my homemade vegetable stock (see below) that I made last week and froze.  Don't forget to take the stock out of the freezer the night before, it takes a while to thaw!

Vegetable stock

I keep all my vegetable scraps throughout the week and if they start to get old, I freeze them until I'm ready to make the stock.  I fill a large stock pot with the scraps then add water until the water line is about an inch from the top.  Bring to a boil, then simmer for as long as you can stand to.  The longer the better. Strain out the veggies and throw them away.  (Put your trash out that day because it will start to smell!)  I freeze my stock into old soup containers and I write on the outside in whiteboard marker how many cups it contains and the date I made it.  (I make this after the soup because there are so many scraps from the soup.  Mine doesn't always get made on Sunday.  Sometimes if I'm going to be home one weeknight I'll make so it can sit there a simmer away while I'm watching TV.)  You don't need to go out and buy vegetables for a vegetable stock.  Keep the scraps of absolutely everything you make: mushroom stems, cauliflower leaves and stems, leek tops, the stem and guts of a bell pepper, carrot peels, onion peels, garlic skins, celery leaves, even the seeds and stems of jalapenos if you like a kick.  (Just don't put anymore than the refuse of 2 of them or it may be a bit much!) I also use fruit refuse such as strawberry tops, I use herb refuse like basil stems, cilantro stems, rosemary twigs, etc.  If I have veggies that are getting old and unusable (soft but not moldy) I use those as well.  This week it was green beans.  Get creative! 

Sauteed Mushrooms

I buy a ton of mushrooms.  This week I bought 30 oz. of large white mushrooms (in bulk, not the little packs because they are cheaper.)  I'm saving 5 of them for my salads this week (just under 10 oz.) and making the rest into sauteed mushrooms.  I cut them into quarters (at least, sometimes sixths if they are large and this week they are.)  I add about 1 TBS of coconut oil to a ceramic pan (love my ceramic pan!) and add about 5 oz. of pearl onions and 1 bulb of garlic (broken apart, skins removed) and heat on medium for about 10 minutes.  Then I add the mushrooms.  Cook on low for about another 10 minutes.  (I don't know I never actually look at the clock.) The mushrooms will release their liquid, when it evaporates, you can add some wine if you like, not me I try to keep the calorie count to a minimum.  Add salt and pepper though to taste.  Then I put them in a tupperware and use a little everyday with my eggs in the morning.  I don't incorporate them into the scrambled eggs, I just have them on the side.  Yum.

Fish Marinades

I try to buy at least 1/2 the week worth of fish.  Sometimes I buy the whole week.  I have a simple marinade recipe that I use.  I rinse, trim, cut into portions, take out any pin bones and pat dry the fish with a paper towel.  I then put the fish into zip lock bags with the marinade and freeze all except tonight's.  That way when I leave for work in the morning, I take out tonight's fish and put it in the fridge.  When I get home from work it is thawed and ready to go.

Agave Iced Tea

Every week I make tons of iced tea.  It's my thing now that I'm not drinking soda.  My iced tea has 21 calories per glass (all from the agave).  My husband drinks it unsweetened but I can't seem to get there.  I make it with 2 teabags of regular Lipton tea (English Tea) and 1 teabag of Celestial Seasonings Red Zinger (to give it flavor).  I add the steeped tea to a 64 oz. glass milk bottle I saved and top it up with water.  Into the fridge and I'm set for a couple days.  (I live in the bay area and we are lucky enough to have Strauss Family Creamery here with glass bottle milk and cream.  I saved a couple bottles and they come in handy.)  When it runs out, make more.

Sesame Ginger Salad Dressing

This tastes so good!  I make up a batch every week for my salads.  You can find any homemade salad dressing recipe and make it up in advance.  I like doing this because I control the calories and the fat content this way.  I'll post a few recipes later for you but to start with here's my Sesame Ginger Dressing.  I pour this into my Strauss Family Creamery 16 oz. glass bottle.  1/2 cup EVOO, 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, 2 TBS tamari, 2 cloves garlic, minced, 2 TBS agave nectar, 2 TBS ginger, minced, 1 tsp sesame oil, 2 TBS water.  Makes 16 servings of 2 TBS each.  147 calories per serving.

OK now I have to go make all this stuff! 

1st official Weigh-in

It's Friday!

Which happens to be my official weekly weigh-in day.  I have some aggressive goals and some strategies to meet those goals.  I started this part of my journey at 230 lbs 2 weeks ago.   My first goal is 210 August 3.
 Today I weighed in at 224.8.  That's a 5 pound loss in 2 weeks.  I'm happy with that.  What have been my main contributing factors to this progress so far?  Changed my diet.  I am generally eating Paleo but with modifications based on knowing my own body.

Why did I choose this?

Well, Paleo is a logical way to eat when you think about how our digestive systems have evolved to cope with fuel input (food).  Now Paleo allows a lot of things that I don't.  Full fat cream, bacon, animal fats.  Most importantly, many of the strict Paleo guidelines say don't count your calories or your fat, don't worry about how much you eat, stop when full.  I'm not a cross fit person seeking to change my diet, I'm an overweight person seeking to lose weight.  Therefore, I've amended those guidelines to fit me.

No dairy for me (except eggs which aren't really dairy but protein).  No animal fats for me.  No animal meat for me.  In fact I'm only eating fish right now.  I don't allow myself cheat days but I do cheat once in a while.

For example last weekend we went to brunch with friends.  I had scrambled eggs and bacon (didn't eat the potatoes).  The bacon is technically Paleo but I have banned it so I broke my rule for that. Once. 

Alcohol is the other area I allow myself to cheat.  I generally give myself one night per week (usually on the weekend).  I try not to go overboard.  Tonight I'm going out for drinks with friends and I'll likely only have red wine.  Last weekend I have a blowout day but managed to still lose!

My typical 1400 calorie day looks like this:

Breakfast:

• Almond milk mocha
• Scrambled eggs with red pepper avocado salsa
• Sauteed Mushrooms

AM Snack:

• Morning Berry Smoothie

Lunch:

• Salad with Sesame Ginger Dressing
• Cauliflower, rutabaga, parsnip, sweet potato and leek soup
• Iced Tea sweetened with Agave

PM Snack:

• Afternoon Spinach Berry Smoothie

Dinner:

• Fish with Peach, Red Bell Pepper salsa
• Cauliflower Mash
• Grilled Asparagus
• Iced Tea sweetened with Agave 

Dessert:

• 1 Paleo chocolate chip cookie

Weekly Weight Recap:

Date	Weight	Change
June 8, 2012	230.0	-
June 15, 2012	227.6	-2.4
June 22, 2012	224.8	-2.8

What worked this week:

• Sticking to the diet. 
• Eating out as little as possible

Strategies for next week:

• Stick to the diet!
• Add exercise 4 times this week; walking 30 minutes twice; 60 minutes twice

History, Goals

This blog is about losing weight primarily following the Paleo diet but not sacrificing flavor.  I love to cook.  Sometimes I spend too much time cooking.  Ironically it was not my cooking that led to my weight gain.  I was not heavy when I was younger, in fact I didn't gain the weight until I was about 28.  I'm now 38 and it must go away.  It took only a year to gain (most of) it.  I'm hoping with a lot of hard work and sweat it will take a year to lost (most of) it.

At my highest I tipped the scales at 253.  That was about 5 years ago.  Since then I've lost about 30 pounds.  (Actually I was down to 185 and gained back 45 pounds.)  I had lap-band surgery which accounts for the weight-loss.  It didn't work right away as for some people.  It took quite a while to find the right fill point and the weight began to come off. Then I had gall stones.  I had to have my gall bladder removed and to do so they needed to remove all the liquid in the band.  After the surgery I had fills again but never found that equilibrium.  I gained a lot of weight back.  Although I do have some liquid in the band, I have not been filled in years.  I still get 'stuck' occasionally.  I hope to have the band removed someday as now it mostly an annoyance.  I consider my recent weight loss 'natural' since the band hasn't shown any benefit in years.

My ultimate goal is 153.  (Nice round number (100 lbs lost), healthy weight range for me).  So my new goal is to lose another 70 pounds.  I've divided this into smaller manageable chunks.

My first mini-goal is 210.  (I'm currently around 225.  I haven't been below that number since the gall bladder surgery).  I have a wedding to attend in August.  I know this is an aggressive goal but I'm really hoping to achieve it.  The wedding is August 3, 2012.

My next goal is Onederland. Mid-September.

My next goal is 190 at Halloween.

My next goal is 185 (the lowest I got to prior to the gall bladder surgery).  My goal for this (assuming I hit the above goals) is Thanksgiving.

180.  Christmas.

170. Valentine's Day.

160.  Easter.

153.  Mid-may.  So hopefully by this time next year I will have met my goal and be seen on the beach in a bathing suit!

It's June right now so obviously this road will have speed bumps and I have a bit of a buffer.  I realize this is an 'unhealthy' and 'unrealistic' goal but having healthy and realistic goals has not helped me in the past.  I know I'll hit plateaus and I know I'll make bad food choices occasionally.  But I will endeavor to stay on track as much as possible.

I will have lost this weight before I turn 40 (Late Summer 2013).  Period.