Confessions: Weighty Issues

I do not normally talk about personal issues on my blog, and I especially try not to talk about my weight. But I’m feeling compelled to share some recent struggles, so here we go.

Confession: I did not gain the “freshman fifteen” in college, but I have already gained 10 pounds since I’ve graduated. Yikes!  This is pretty significant weight gain for my small frame.

Five of these pounds came on during my running injury so I thought that they would naturally come off after I started running again. Nope….I gained more!!

I don’t ever want to be the girl who freaks out over the number on the scale or whines about gaining a few vanity pounds. But the truth is, I don’t think that my lifestyle has been as healthy as it was in college, and that needs to change. 

Okay, so what has changed to cause this weight gain:

1. I am working out a lot less. Yes, I can now run again, and I am doing pretty well getting back my previous endurance. But I was triathlon training for my last two years of college, which was a lot more exercise than I am doing now. Before triathlon club, I was doing workouts with the rowing team 5 days a week plus running on my own. Actually, this is the first time since before high school that I have not been involved in a competitive sport.
2. My days have no consistent schedule or structure. I thought college was crazy with different class and practice times everyday. But although my schedule was inconsistent, there was always structure — I had very specific windows of time when I had to schedule my meals. Now, I wait tables during normal meal times and have the rest of the day to myself. I’ve been snacking so much and not eating real meals, and this leaves me feeling unsatisfied. I eat more this way, and I also eat less healthfully. Some people can do the “5 or 6 meals a day” thing well. Its not for me.
3. My fridge is in my bedroom. Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous! Can you say night eating temptations??! But I have no choice, I’m living with boys, and the fridge is stuffed full and nasty. I must have my own in my room.
4. I spend a lot of time by myself. I used to live with my best friends. Now they moved, and I’m still here. It’s okay, I’m not too lonely, and I realize that this is a very transitional period in my life. My point is that I do a lot of mindless eating when I’m by myself. 
5. Post-grad depression? I miss college. A lot. And I don’t know what my next step is right now. I’m scared therefore I eat to not think about it.

Alright, I’ve identified some causes, and now I need a plan. This is what I will do:

1. Get a better career/life plan. I have sent out one internship application. That was a huge weight off my back. But I need to do more networking, work on my resume, and most importantly, decide if I need to apply for grad school. If I’m going to go, I want to go in January, and I need to apply ASAP! 
2. Keep exercising. I’m actually not going to change a thing here. I exercise regularly, and I do not need to workout like a crazy person to lose weight! There were times in college when I was probably overdoing it. I’m not going to go there again.
3. Stop snacking. Completely. I eat healthier meals and enjoy them more when I don’t snack during the day. That’s what I know works for me. Night snacking is also a very bad habit that I need to stop immediately. It doesn’t make me feel good before going to bed, and it makes me not hungry for breakfast.
4. Eat more veggies. I love vegetables! I have no excuse to not be eating enough of them, but I’ve been snacking too much to crave them. Salads and roasted veggies, here I come! I’ve missed you!
5. Control the sweets. Oh boy. I can’t give these up completely. What I need to do is buy pre-portioned desserts. (I’m sorry, environment! I will try to recycle the excess packaging!) Earlier this week I ate an entire pint of Ben and Jerry’s within 24 hours. This happens every time I buy ice cream, despite telling myself I will have self control. So now mini ice cream bars and individually wrapped dark chocolates will be my desserts.

NO MORE!! This is me eating ice cream my favorite way last summer...out of the carton.

 This is what I will not do:

1. Become obsessed with the scale. I will occasionally check my weight, but I will mainly judge my success on how I feel. I know what it feels like when I’m treating my body right, and that hasn’t been happening recently.
2. Feel guilty about “splurging.” Maintaining a healthy weight has nothing to do with that one night you enjoyed a decadent meal at a restaurant, had wine and cheese after dinner, went to get pizza with friends on a friday night, or needed to try a piece of homemade cake. Its all about eating healthy 80-90% of the time, and then you can (and should) enjoy yourself guilt-free the rest of the time. This philosophy has worked very well for me in the past. I would never exclude myself from a social situation because of fear of not being able to eat perfectly or deny myself of a treat that is really worth it (i.e. homemade chocolate cake!).
3. Negative self-talk. “I feel fat. I’m a terrible person for eating badly. All my clothes are too tight now and look terrible!” None of that. It makes things worse. If I need to, I will write it down, then tear it up.

Pheww! Sorry about writing a novel (are you still here?!), but it felt really good to write that all down. You all are probably thinking, “This stupid skinny girl is completely nuts/annoying for flipping out over 10 pounds.” But my worries are more about how I’m letting go of my  healthy habits that took so long to form. The weight gained is just the tangible evidence. Yes, I really did eat that much ice cream…the scale doesn’t lie; no more denial.

When I started writing this, I wasn’t sure if I was actually going to publish it or not. My blog is supposed to be about “celebrating good food and fitness,” not stressing out about it. But I appreciate when other bloggers are honest about their imperfections (let’s face it, nobody is perfect!), and I’m hoping you all can relate in some way. I know that most women have had times in their lives when they have not had the healthiest habits, and I would love to hear about your experiences and how you get yourself back on track. 

Thanks for reading,

Tyler

Dried Porcini Mushroom Risotto

For my birthday, my old roommate Danielle who is now in Seattle sent me some organic dried poricini mushrooms she got at a farmer’s market up there along with a recipe for risotto! 

Risotto is such a fun meal to make, especially when you are having people over. It makes a lot of food for not much money. It also usually calls for wine as one of the first ingredients, and once you open the wine, you might as well start drinking it! The key to being patient enough for the 30 minutes of constant stirring required is to drink wine while you do it

This recipe actually didn’t call for any wine, but we had some anyway. What is a weekend dinner gathering without wine??

I served the risotto with chicken cutlets and a spinach salad with cherry tomatoes, goat cheese, and ginger dressing.

Step 1: Take a 1 oz bag of dried porcini mushrooms (1 oz dried = 1/2 pound when rehydrated…I didn’t believe it until I saw it!) and soak in 3 cups of hot water for 20 minutes then remove from water and chop. Save the mushroom water! Warning: The dried mushrooms smell really, really bad. I was worried, but I promise they are delicious in the risotto!

Step 2: Chop 1 onion and 2 cloves garlic. Saute in 2 tbsp butter in large pot until onions are translucent. Meanwhile, heat 3 cups of vegetable or chicken broth in saucepan on low.

Step 3: Add 2 cups of arborio rice and mushrooms to pot and gradually add mushroom water and warm broth while stirring until rice is cooked. Don’t add more liquid until the rice had absorbed what you previously added. You can start adding water if you need more liquid. This should take about 30 minutes. Start drinking wine now!

Step 4: Stir in goat cheese. This is key! The goat cheese goes so well with the porcini mushrooms. We used about half a container (about 2 0z.) and saved the rest for the salad.

Step 5: Prepare any side dishes and eat!

So you are all going to make risotto this weekend now, right? Or at least next time you have a dinner party?

Making risotto is extremely forgiving…if you can’t find dried porcini mushrooms, use portabella! (Or your favorite veggie…it really doesn’t matter!) Add 1/2 cup of chardonnay. Use goat cheese, feta cheese, parmesan, asiago, etc. If you like to mess with recipes, then risotto is for you! It takes a little patience, but it is hard to mess up.

What is your favorite dish to cook for other people?

Post Run Temptations

The neighborhood I live in now is not really a great place to run, so I often drive over to Milledge Ave to run. This is probably the most popular road to run on in Athens as it has about a 2.5 mile stretch of sidewalks shaded by trees that goes past cute shops and huge old Southern homes, which are now fraternity and sorority houses. Also, the road is completely FLAT. Here is my running route this morning:

I veered off on another road to run by the intramural fields instead of heading toward the highway, and the retraced my run. The whole run was about 5.5 miles, which is the longest I’ve run since my injury! Yay!

I park at the Dunkin Donuts to start my run, and this morning I decided to stop in to grab an iced coffee after my run. Normally donuts are not one of the junk foods that tempt me, but this morning, on the top shelf of the donuts, I eyed a pumpkin donut! I LOVE ANYTHING WITH PUMPKIN IN THE FALL. 

Luckily, I had already paid for my coffee by the time I noticed it, and since I had literally stopped running 30 seconds before, I wasn’t hungry yet. 

I went and looked up nutrition facts for Dunkin Donuts to see what the damage would be if I ever decided to indulge.

Pumpkin Donut:

• 320 calories
• 18 grams of fat
• 36 grams carbs
• 17 grams sugar
• 3 grams protein

 

Compare to the multigrain bagel (which also looked really good!):

Multigrain bagel:

• 400 calories
• 9 grams of fat
• 65 grams of carbs
• 2 grams of sugar
• 18 grams of protein

 
Now, something that annoys me about nutrition advice online for eating out (like this website) is that they usually assume that if something had less calories, then it is automatically healthier. I can just see them saying something like, “See, the multigrain bagel has 400 calories, so you might as well go for the donut!” So not true. I’m not saying that the Dunkin Donuts multigrain bagel is necessarily healthy (and how a bagel has 9 grams of fat, I have no idea), but it does have a lot less sugar and a good amount of protein compared to the donut.

If you were to order breakfast at Dunkin Donuts, I would say the egg white turkey sausage flat bread would be your best choice:Egg White Turkey Sausage Flatbread:

• 280 calories
• 6 grams of fat
• 37 grams carbs
• 5 grams sugar (processed bread alert! I bet you there is HFCS) 
• 20 grams protein

The idea of this breakfast sounds pretty good to me. But do I really trust turkey sausage from Dunkin Donut? And could I make one myself that is healthier and tastier? Probably.

Inspired by Dunkin’s egg white flatbread, I decided to make 2 scrambled eggs with spinach (whole eggs, not egg whites. I can’t waste the yolks…especially b/c that’s where most of the nutrients are! I also buy local eggs, and they are delicious!). Then I cooked them in a whole wheat wrap:

Homemade Egg and Spinach Quesadilla

• 250 calories
• 10 grams of fat
• 24 grams of carbs
• 0 grams of sugar
• 16 grams of protein

I didn’t have any turkey sausage (or lean ground turkey, which is probably a better choice) on hand, but if I did, I could have added some to boost the protein above Dunkin’s while still having less carbs and sugar. But nutrition stats don’t tell the whole story, a breakfast you make yourself is going to be much less processed and better for your health in the long run than something you pick up from a fast food place. Also, I know what farm my eggs came from, and who knows where Dunkin gets their egg whites and turkey sausage!

I hope that doesn’t come across as snobby because my diet is not perfect by any means, and I do eat processed foods sometimes! But my goal is definitely to eat as few processed foods as possible and use local ingredients when I can.

I consider my Dunkin inspired breakfast a success! It was delicious and only took 5 minutes to make. Now I just need to make some pumpkin muffins or something to satisfy my pumpkin craving…

Fab Breakfast + Farmer’s Market Galore

This is actually the last part of my Highlands vacation with Mom and my favorite pictures from the trip. It took me a while to put this post up because I decided to try the dietetic internship application thing one more time, and I was frantically trying to get my application mailed. I am only applying to one this time, and that’s all I’m going to say because I’m afraid if I talk about it too much I’ll jinx it and not get in….I’m slightly superstitious

Anyway, Mom and I ended our stay in Highlands by having a relaxing breakfast at Madison’s.

Mom got crabs cake benedict, which is not a surprise since she loves eggs benedict and crab cakes, so the two together = easy choice!

I got an omelet with spinach, mushrooms, and sausage. All the eggs at the restaurant were local and organic :)

On the way back to Atlanta, we stopped at Osage Farms to check out the local produce!

mountains in the background

hello, fall produce!

eggplant!

 

local tomatoes are the best

lots and lots of North Carolina apples

a HUGE heirloom yellow tomato

Notice the purple bell pepper!!! How cool is that?!

Sad story….I was beyond excited to buy my purple pepper, and even more excited to eat it as soon as I got home. However, it was mysteriously absent from all the other produce we bought! I searched the car up and down, but the purple pepper was no where to be found. A few days later, my dad found it on the ground in the garage! My parents saved it for me until the next time I went home, but by the time I got it back to my place, it had gone bad and was no longer edible. So one mystery still remains– what does a purple bell pepper taste like?! Anyone?

Highlands Part 2: From a rainy hike to seriously good ice cream

Adventure of the day for our second day in Highlands, NC was a scenic hike up to what was supposed to be an amazing view. Unfortunately, it was too foggy/cloudy to see anything at the top of our hike, and then we got rained on while walking back. But it was still fun nonetheless.

Since there were no breathtaking views to photograph, I tried my hand at close up photography:

Photography is something I always wished I was good at. I am a total artistic wannabe. I don’t have fancy equipment, and I don’t know anything about editing beyond Picasa, but I have fun attempting to take cool pictures anyway.

After a refreshing and wet hike, we dried off and went to lunch. We ended splitting a sandwich and salad at Oak Street Cafe (which is actually on Main St even though there is an Oak St in Highlands…weird).

spinach salad with goat cheese, pine nuts, red onion, and raspberry lemon dressing

 

grilled chicken sandwich on wheatberry bread with avocado spread, sprouts, tomato, and bacon

Everything was fantastic…including the cantaloupe on the side of the sandwich! I’m very picky about my cantaloupe…I thought I hated it for the longest time until one day, when I was almost 20 years old, I tasted really fresh cantaloupe for the first time. What a difference! I think cantaloupe is either really fresh and really delicious or completely unflavorful and gross. This cantaloupe was the former…yum!

We played around some shops in the rainy weather and eventually grabbed some dinner. Dinner was just ok, but dessert was HOLY YUM! 

[FYI, I am obsessed with ice cream more than anyone should ever be obsessed with any kind of food. Its kinda of weird and almost creepy.]

Check it out. They blend your ice cream with all the flavors you want. Best ice cream you’ve ever had guaranteed or your money back. This is what heaven must be like.

My pick was a vanilla base with coconut, coffee, and fudge. Real coconut flakes, real espresso, and chunks of locally made fudge blended into creamy vanilla ice cream.

picture absolutely doesn't do it justice, but trust me it was GOOD

I know the picture isn’t great, but I was splitting the bowl with my mom (although I could have eaten a gallon by myself…), and I think she would have killed me if I made her wait to eat it while I walked around the restaurant trying to find the best lighting. Plus I was ready to dig in, too .

Looking at the sign, what flavors would you have chosen in your ice cream?

Highlands Foodie Recap Part 1

My mom took me on a mini trip to Highlands, North Carolina as a present for my 22nd birthday. I would much rather do something or go somewhere for my birthday than get a tangible gift (I really don’t need anything!), so this was perfect. Also, my mom doesn’t think I come home enough to see her, so its a sneaky way to make me hang out with her (Love you, Mom!).

This was our room:

Which had a mini-kitchen stocked with coffee and bananas:

First thing we did when we arrived and dropped off our stuff in the room was going to lunch at a restaurant called Wild Thyme Gourmet.

Started off with cold asparagus soup:

Mom got the spinach salad, which was topped with brie, almonds, red onions, cranberries, and a boiled honey and lemon dressing.

I ordered a warm sesame chicken salad that had sauteed bell peppers with a sesame ginger sauce over mixed greens:

Mom proclaimed that her salad was the best spinach salad she’d ever had, and I must say, her salad beat mine.(Do you do have ordering competitions in restaurants to see who picked the best meal? I do…) I think the stand out ingredient was the “boiled honey and lemon” dressing….I must figure out how to make that!

Next stop was going to see the waterfall known as “Dry Falls,” which Mom thought was an oxymoron. I think the name is due to the fact that you can actually walk behind the waterfall and not get wet!

Mom and me at the waterfall

...and behind the waterfall

Then we bought a bottle of wine, and chilled out in the room.

And then ventured off to Pescados for some highly recommended fish tacos with blackened tilapia.

You can’t tell, but there is plenty of guacamole on this taco….don’t think for a second that I would eat Mexican food without guac!

Their “tacos” were more like mini-burritos and were only $3.75! Talk about a great deal for delicious and fresh food!

Part 2 coming up tomorrow. In the meantime check out yet another study on possible health benefits of chocolate because I never get sick of reading that my chocolate addiction might be good for me .

Just a Preview….

I just got back from a trip from Highlands, NC with my mom. Full foodie recap coming at the beginning of next week, but until then, here is a quick preview:

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Please Don’t Stop the Music: Ultimate Running Playlists

I don’t know how people went on long runs without running buddies before i-pods! I have so much fun listening to music on my runs– I’ve been told by several people they have caught me dancing and grinning while running with my i-pod. Maybe I have a little too much fun….

I heart running music

 

When it comes to running, I by no means a music snob…I will listen to anything from Katy Perry to Kings of Leon to Flo Rida. As long as it gets me pumped up, I love it!

I started trying to come up with a “perfect” running playlist, but I realized I get excited about different songs depending on my mood. So I made some random categories of my favorite running songs. Enjoy!

Cheesy 80′s Music: This might be my favorite category for running. These songs are sooo corny, but they have an undeniable power to make you want to dance silly, sing loudly, and (in my opinion) run faster!

1. Life is a Highway- Tom Cochran
2. Take Me Home Tonight- Eddie Money
3. Hurts So Good- John Mellancamp
4. More than a Feeling- Boston
5. Living on a Prayer- Bon Jovi
6. Jump- Van Halen
7. Jessie’s Girl- Rick Springfield
8. Summer of ’69- Bryan Adams
9. Come On Eileen- Dexy’s Midnight Runners
10. And She Was- Talking Heads

Feel Good 90s Music: I was born in the 80s, but I was too young to remember any of it. These songs are my first memories of good music, and they are still some of my favorite songs. Is it just me, or is mainstream music getting really terrible nowadays?

1. Roll to Me- Del Amitri
2. Two Princes- Spin Doctors
3. Run Around- Blue’s Travelers
4. All For You- Sister Hazel
5. Unbelievable- EMF
6. Hey Jealously- Gin Blossoms
7. Hangin’ Around- Counting Crows
8. Semi-Charmed Life- Third Eye Blind
9. Love You Madly-Cake
10. Everlong- Foo Fighters

Just For Fun: I just said that I think today’s mainstream music is terrible, but I will still listen to certain songs that pump me up during my run. Don’t judge me.

1. Party Hard- Andrew W.K
2. I Believe in a Thing Called Love- The Darkness
3. Womanizer- Britney Spears
4. We Belong Together- Kelly Clarkson
5. Shake It- Metro Station
6. Just Dance- Lady Gaga
7. Thanks for the Memories- Fall Out Boy
8. Don’t Trust Me- 3OH!3
9. Stacey’s Mom- Fountains of Wayne
10. Hot N Cold- Katy Perry

Semi-Recent Music That is Not As Mainstream and Lame: These are some good running songs that are also good for car rides, parties, hanging out, etc.  Regardless of whether you like to workout with music, you should look up some of these songs if you haven’t heard them.

1. Time to Pretend- MGMT
2. Sex on Fire- Kings of Leon
3. Love Today- MIKA
4. Rock & Roll- Eric Hutchingson
5. Rebellion- Arcade Fire
6. Love is Gone- David Guetta
7. Trash Unreal- Against Me!
8. Son’s Gonna Rise- Citizen’s Cope
9. Love Generation- Bob Sinclair
10. Wolf Like Me- TV on the Radio

Now you tell me, what are your favorite running/workout songs?

Canola Oil vs. Butter

I see a lot of “healthified” recipes on the internet that use canola oil to replace other fats, usually butter. Let’s think about the logic of this: take out an ingredient made up of naturally occurring fats and replace with a highly processed ingredient, and you have a healthier recipe! Hmm…I’m not convinced.

First of all, saturated fat may not be all that bad for you. Yes, you read that right.  Here is why:

1. Saturated fats are essential in providing the structure to our cell membranes. Our cell membranes are composed of at least 50% saturated fat.
2. They allow calcium to be effectively incorporated into our bones.
3. They allow the absorption of fat soluble vitamins: A, C, D, E, and K. (This means that when you drink skim milk fortified with vitamins A and D, you may just be excreting them.)
4. They help elongated omega-3 fatty acids be retained in our tissues. (How about some grilled salmon with lemon basil butter for optimal omega-3 absorption…yum!)
5. Short-chain and medium chain saturated fatty acids have antimicrobial properties and protect our digestive tract from microorganisms.    
   

   Marilyn Monroe carving made from 100% butter...a little random, but I couldn't resist!

But don’t they clog our arteries??! Not so much — only 26% of fat in arteries is saturated; the rest is unsaturated, of which over half is polyunsaturated.

On to canola oil. Canola is composed of 5% saturated fat, 57% oleic acid, 23% omega-6, and 10% omega-3. The oil comes from rape seed, which must be genetically modified for human consumption because it naturally contains a fatty acid called erucic acid, which can cause heart lesions. During processing, the omega-3 fatty acids in the rape seed are transformed into trans fatty acids. I’ll stop now to avoid boring any non-science nerds, but you can read on here for more in depth info.

If you are trying to eat healthier, you should probably avoid sweets and baked goods, but if you must indulge sometimes (like me!), here are some links to some all natural baking recipes:

• Oatmeal, Coconut, and Sunflower Seed Cookies: This entire recipe only calls for 1/2 cup of sugar for 2 dozen cookies. It also uses whole wheat pastry flour.
• Chocolate Hazelnut Spiced Cookies: This one actually calls for white flour, but there is only 1/2 cup. You can skip the frosting to cut down on sugar. Real butter, roasted hazelnuts, cocoa powder, cinnamon, cloves, orange zest, and Frangelico…yum!
• Niki’s Healthy Cookies @ 101 Cookbooks: This is an amazing recipe. It calls for mashed bananas, coconut oil, rolled oats, and almond meal. There are no added sweeteners or refined flours!

At risk of oversimplifying, processed food = bad; natural food = good. Don’t be afraid to use that stick of butter (or non-processed oil like coconut or grapeseed if you are vegan). Happy baking!

Facts gathered from:

Enig, Mary, PhD and Fallon, Sally. The Skinny on Fats. From: Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats, 2nd Ed. <http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/skinny.html>

Happy Birthday Virgos + Yummy Turkey Burgers

As of September 8th this week, I am 22-years-old. I don’t see any point in getting in older after 21, but what can you do….

Regardless of not wanting to get older (I’m still really young, I know…), I love birthdays! I support any excuse to eat cake and party.

My 19th birthday....what a great year!

Any other September babies out there???

I don’t really buy into astrology much, but just for fun, here are some characteristics of people born in September (from astrostar.com):

• You are intellectual, very critical, picky, and you tend to work too hard (ha! I’m actually very laid back and like to be lazy sometimes) 
• You are a master of communication and the option to become a speaker or great writer is offered to you (does having a food blog count??)
• Some are overwhelmed with health matters and turn themselves into health lunatics (almost, haha)
• Your body and metabolism are both well equipped to deal with all types of food, including red meat (yay! this is true…I like to eat everything and very luckily have no allergies/intolerances)
• If your natural desire for perfection prevails and you eliminate this “red” source of food, you must then substitute it with different red foods such as red wine, hot peppers or other thermogenic foods. (so if I don’t want steak, I can drink red wine instead. I love this horoscope!)
• All souls born in September are accident prone to head trauma and violent death (uh, oh…I am clumsy and accident prone…I better watch out!)

Moving onto some good food! I bought some all natural, vegetarian fed, humanly raised, no hormones, etc. ground turkey meat at the store for turkey burgers. Ground meat sketches me out a little…who knows how many different animals/ parts of different animals go into that blob of meat?? Wow, writing that almost made me want to go vegetarian, but I figured my super organic turkey meat was safe.

I looked up some turkey burger recipes, but then decided I did not feel like following directions or measuring things. So I made up my own very simple recipe.

Tyler’s Quick and Easy Turkey Burgers (because dinner shouldn’t take long to make when you are hungry!)

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 egg, beaten
• Seasoning of choice (I used some cajun seasoning…1/2 tablespoon-ish?)
• 1/2 cup of oats (instead of breadcrumbs)

Mix everything together, form into 5 patties. I cooked my in a pan, but I’m sure they’d be awesome on a grill!

I put mine over a bed of sauteed baby spinach and topped it with sliced asiago cheese and local tomatoes. Mmmmm…..yes!

So I have four more turkey burgers to eat. I need more ways to eat them. Maybe on a sandwich with avocado or covered in taziki sauce served with roasted eggplant…. Any more ideas?? I’d love to hear them!