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Summer Fun Food

Hi! I did not mean to go this long between posts but I’ve been busy. Last weekend was Memorial Day, which means summertime is here! I love summer, and all that it entails. However, I have noticed that now that the weather is nicer, people are a lot quicker to want to socialize. Memorial Day Weekend must be the number one picnic/barbecue weekend of the year. Personally, I went to a lovely pool party pitch-in. Everyone was instructed to bring one shareable food item and adult beverage.

As I’ve written about, I’ve found that socializing is the hardest obstacle for healthy living. So I knew that for this event I wanted to bring healthy stuff. Full disclosure: I brought one healthy thing (the fruit salad below) and one less healthy thing (a taco salad that would be great for health if not for the half bag of fritos in it…). But the fruit salad was so successful I thought I would pass it along. I’ve made it twice now and both times got rave reviews. It’s super easy, but while I was chopping fruit I thought it would be nice to add some kind of sauce for additional flavor. And here we are.

Summer Fun Fruit Salad

Summer Fun Fruit Salad

The recipe is incredibly easy.

  • 1 Mango, chopped
  • 1.5 cups Pineapple, chopped (approx. 3/4 of a pineapple)
  • 1.5 cups Strawberries, quartered (approx. 12 good sized berries)

Dressing:

  • 1/2 cup Fresh-Squeezed Orange Juice (1 large orange or 1.5 small ones)
  • 1 Tablespoon Honey
  • Juice from 1/2 a lemon

The instructions are easy. Chop all the fruit. Add to a bowl. Pour dressing over the fruit. Mix until dressing is spread over everything and the fruit is mixed well. Obviously variations abound. You could do more or less of any of the three fruits or add in other elements. Kiwi might be good, or papaya if you’re fancy.

It’s very easy and a great healthy option for this year’s cycle of barbecues and pitch ins that are so popular in the warm summer months. I’ve already given the recipe away twice to people who really liked the dressing, especially. Using honey in the dressing is a good way to sweeten the salad (sometimes strawberries can get a little tart) without piling on a cup of refined sugar.

I’ve been using honey quite a bit lately. I realized fairly quickly it was unrealistic to get rid of sweeteners all together. Stevia packets work well for some things, but sometimes it can taste a little…unnatural. I have noticed that Truvia is better about this than the generic brand I’m currently using, but that tells me Truvia is probably more processed. Who knows though?

At any rate, I am finding honey is really useful. It is a lot healthier than sugar, even if, nutritionally speaking, in grams they have the same amount of sugars. Apparently, honey is easier for the body to convert than processed sugar because of some chemistry thing with the fructose and glucose. The two enzymes do not bind together in honey, which is a good thing, apparently. Science!

Honey also has other health benefits. According to this surely unbiased site honey is an antioxidant, it is an anti-carcinogenic, it is a natural energy supplement, and it is good for the immune system. So, I am onboard with honey.

Substitutions are a slippery slope, though. I almost prefer avoidance because then you know you aren’t going to cheat or eat anything you’ll regret later. But sometimes substitutions are successful. For instance, the other salad I made last weekend was a taco salad (the one with the Fritos). Sadly, there is no healthy substitute for chili cheese Fritos, I looked. But the dressing could be easily modified. Originally it called for sour cream and mayo. I used Greek yogurt instead. It was really hard though, not to say, ok I can use the yogurt but still use mayo. Or what if I just used low-fat sour cream and low-fat mayo? Well, none of those options would have had the health benefits of the protein-crazy fat free Greek yogurt. And it turned out that the Greek yogurt worked amazingly well, and I’m glad I made that discovery because I will be using plain yogurt all the time now.

Thus, the moral of the story is twofold: 1. that fruit salad is delicious and I recommend using honey as a natural sweetener. 2. Substituting healthier ingredients works to a degree, but it is important to continue thinking about calorie counting and only eating healthy foods, even throughout this year’s round of weddings, pool parties, barbecues and other fun summer food-heavy festivities.

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Restaurant Review: Seasons 52

Maybe this isn’t true everywhere, but in Indianapolis, where I live, there is a strong green/clean living movement that continues to grow and new restaurants are really reflecting that attitude change. That’s not such a new phenomenon, I guess. Businesses always want to accomodate the current needs of their customers and restaurants are the same. When I worked at TGI Fridays during the summers in college, I remember we had a “diet menu” that was Atkins certified. Have I mentioned I don’t believe in fad diets? I’m sorry but you’ll never convince me it is thebun that is the problem with your bacon cheeseburger.

But this time it feels different. Just like people are becoming more aware of what they put into their bodies, restaurants are becoming more aware of what they are serving. Granted I live in the most hippy-friendly neighborhood in town, but there are at least four restaurants within three blocks that serve food using local ingredients.

Seasons 52 is kind of like that. I say “kind of” because it is a chain, and it’s a little swanky, and I had no indication that anyone on staff smelled like patchouli. But, the menu has a similar appeal.

I went there for dinner last night with my mom who is in town visiting. She does Weight Watchers and is impressively skilled staying on point. So we both wanted somewhere that we could enjoy a nice meal out without any splurging or guilt. I had heard this place was good so we gave it a try.

It was amazing. Their schtick is that everything is seasonal, so the entire menu changes every few months. Additionally every plate on the menu is under 500 calories. My mom, who got a filet mignon with mashed potatoes, thought maybe they were cheating and really meant every piece of food, but the server said it really was per plate. That theory is corroborated by the nutritional chart.

I was so excited by what I was eating that I really wanted to share it on this blog. The whole meal seemed so decadent, but in terms of nutrition it really wasn’t. I was a little bit worried when we went that I would be happy with the healthy quality but sad about how bland and dull all the food was. I was really pleasantly surprised by the rich flavors in all the different things I got. Nothing tasted like “diet food,” which is big for me, because the disappointment of a bad cheat meal seriously bums me out! That was not a problem last night though because this was neither disappointing nor really even a cheat meal, though we certainly tried our best.

As I said, we wanted a nice night out, so we helped ourselves to all the courses. Yep, a four course meal. Generally not super diet-friendly! To start we had a tomato flatbread, which was basically like a margherita pizza with a really thin crust. Then I had a spinach salad with raspberries. I’d recommend getting the dressing on the side because there was too much on it, and in my mind that is just wasted calories. For my entree I had a kind of fish called cobia. I had never heard of it before, and since my animal protein almost always comes from fish I was surprised. Turns out it is a really delicious saltwater based whitefish, but not too flaky or fishy. I wish it was more readily available. It was prepared with a curry sauce, basmati rice and steamed carrots and green beans. And a grilled lemon that smelled so good I wish it was a candle. Then they had little single-serving desserts and I had raspberry-mango cheesecake.

Single-serving mini desserts…I really wanted two.

So, this whole thing sounds really indulgent, right? Well, it felt indulgent. But according to the nutritional chart my whole four course meal was only 1160 calories. Granted, that is way more than I normally eat in one sitting, but still way less than normal restaurants. Last weekend I went out to the old brewery where I used to work and in four hours ate (and drank) 2600 calories. So 1160 is really not so bad, considering.

I know this is different from my normal kind of blog post but I really recommend this place as a healthy alternative if you don’t feel like cooking and do feel like a nice meal out. I love the idea of clean living becoming mainstream enough to garner a chain restaurant. Seasons 52 is on the pricey side but not crazy outrageous. Considering how much organic groceries are, I think it’s okay. I read through the list of locations and they appear to be mostly in neighborhoods that cater wealthy old people. But if you live in Indy or happen to be somewhere near a different location I think it’s worth checking out.

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A Healthy Social Life

I don’t know what it is about our culture, or at least my own personal life, that so much of our social interaction is based around calorie consumption. But almost every interaction I have with people revolves around eating or drinking (or both). It makes sense. People are busy, they work all day, have other obligations, eating and socializing is a way to multi-task. Plus it gives everyone something to do.

I’m a very social person. As an extravert, I get a little stir-crazy if I spend too much time by myself. At first, I was passing on invitations, laying low and just using avoidance as the best option. But that doesn’t work for me AT ALL because being alone stresses me out and stress eating is one of the reasons I am here in the first place! Thus, I find myself in restaurants searching menus for diet-friendly things to eat quite frequently. I have found thus far it is often a difficult task, but not unmanageable.

There are generally two types of meal companions: those who help you cheat and those you help you stay on course. Generally, I think which kind of helper you are dining with depends on what that person’s goals are for him or herself, and what kind of relationship he or she has with you. For instance, I have friends who don’t pay any particular attention to what they eat, and/or have zero nutritional knowledge, and those people generally say things like, “it’s just cheese, you need to get your protein in from somewhere!” or “you really need to give yourself a break once in a while.” Neither of those statements are necessarily untrue, but cheese is not the healthiest (or most efficient) protein choice and I give myself plenty of breaks, I’m not looking for an extra!

The other friends are great. “The grilled salmon looks like it would be pretty good, and I bet it’s fairly low-calorie.” Those are the helpers I like to go out with. Unfortunately, even with those friends around, there is still that pesky laminated card stock of gluttony staring up at me at any restaurant, teasing me with all the foods I want to eat instead of the pickled beet salad. Usually, though, if I’m with the helper friend, the helper will help talk me down. Or (and admittedly this is not the healthiest tactic) I will feel bad about myself for cheating when the person I’m with is really pulling for me. I don’t want to be a disappointment! Nothing like a little neuroses to keep me in check. (Isn’t that the point of this blog, anyway??)

There is a third kind of friend, and that is one that I struggle with for different reasons. That friend is the one who is also dieting, but is on a much more conventional (less strict) diet plan. For instance, last week, a friend made me dinner. I’ll start by saying it was so delicious! And much more nutritious than if we had gone out for Mexican like we used to. But this friend is trying to lose five, maybe ten pounds, if she even has a goal weight at all. And, her weight loss is basically superfluous because I’m sure she already was in a target BMI category. Although, I will never look down on someone for trying to be healthier, so her brand new interest in physical health is great! But I got to her house, and she was so excited she was making a beautiful, very healthy meal for us. Except the very healthy meal was spaghetti. And certainly if this was me six months ago, it would have been the healthiest thing I ate that week. And, I really loved it! But pasta is supposed to be off limits. So is parmesean cheese. So it’s difficult because this is a diet-friendly meal by all accounts, and it is great to have someone who is also working on changing her lifestyle, but I have to make more extreme changes. And how do you say, “thank you so much for being healthy with me but it’s not healthy enough?”

So how do we deal? I’ve started gathering techniques.

  1. I try to look for the healthiest option on the meal that isn’t just going to make me sad. For instance, I’d rather eat a salad, even if it has say, cheese and boiled egg on it, over some depressed, soggy steamed frozen vegetables (that have been marked up 500% from the bulk grocer). But I still definitely stick to as little dressing as possible! And make sure it has more nutrients than an iceberg wedge, too.
  2. I guess this should have been number one, but try to go to places that actually encourage healthy living. I live in Indianapolis, which has not historically been known for its physical fitness, but there are tons of restaurants that specifically market eating fresh, local and healthy. So, if I can pick one of those places to go, we go there.
  3. The to-go box. The to-go box has a downside, which is that there is another unhealthy meal later. But, eating half the meal on Monday night and half of it a couple of days later at least gives your body a chance to balance that small portion of restaurant food with all the green, clean superfoods you are eating in between.
  4. Plan for the meal. If you know where you are going ahead of time, and you can anticipate how much cheating will be involved, it makes it a lot easier to make up the difference. If you know you are going some place where it’s nearly impossible to eat a meal up to super-diet standards, maybe you should plan on that being a cheat meal for the week. If you think you can find something relatively healthy, maybe just have a smoothie and some mixed greens earlier in the day.
  5. DO SOMETHING ELSE!! I have started suggesting to my friends that we catch up by going for walks. Why not burn calories instead of adding on extra? Or, I don’t know why it isn’t more acceptable to just sit and visit. Growing up, my mom and her old lady relatives used to do this all the time. There didn’t need to be a precursor or a crutch like sharing a meal, we could just share each other’s company instead.

But, since I know five is not particularly realistic, I try really hard to follow advice 1-4. Try. Sometimes I institute four retroactively, and decide while I’m eating that that better be a cheat meal. It’s hard, though. I never want to be that girl that says, “oh no, thanks, I’m on a diet.” That girl is boring and uptight.

Except of course usually that girl isn’t making up for 2 decades (on and off) of eating whatever the hell she wants, and thus that girl doesn’t actually NEED to “diet” for health reasons.

Sadly, this girl does. So I am constantly learning to manage my social life in terms of healthy living.

Oops, this was a long one. xo

-lj

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(Un)Comfort Food

I’m having a bad day. Not the worst day ever, but it’s Monday and cloudy and I didn’t get any sleep because I was up all night working on a project for work. So, although today is a much needed day off, where I had a long list of things I needed to accomplish, literally zero sleep and stress and grouchiness have replaced motivation with self-pity.

On that long list of things to do was grocery shop. I’m not completely out of food, but all the good stuff is gone and most of the other stuff is wilty (or simply not edible without the aforementioned good stuff). I already had a rice cake with peanut butter, because I didn’t have enough produce for juice, so I didn’t want that again for lunch.

Basically the entire day was a spiral toward take-out comfort food for lunch (and dinner, let’s be real.) My ultimate comfort food also happens to be the most accessible food in the midwestern United States: the pizza. For particularly raucous pity parties I like to order a cheese pizza topped with extra mozzarella.  I mean, I seriously love this stuff. Sometimes when I am tired of salad and feeling blue I stare at this photo that I keep on my phone:

Image
I assume other people do this with pictures of say, pets or loved ones.

Luckily my favorite pizza joint in town delivers straight to my house, with the added bonus of online ordering so I could stay as clear of society as humanly possible. In a fit of guilt I amended my order to the healthy crust option, which is made from whole grains (I think mostly whole wheat). We’ll get to that in a minute.

I was pretty excited about it when it arrived, but immediately upon eating it I noticed three different evolutionary changes in my relationship with my closest ally, cheese pizza.

1. It is not as delicious anymore. I had an exact taste in my sense memory deposit, but for some reason when I bit into this reality, it just did not live up to expectations. I think, honestly, it is a combination of two things: 1. guilt. 2. I’m just not used to eating any of those foods anymore. Maybe I’m just not used to the taste of bread or cheese anymore. Or maybe the pizza place was having an off day? Today’s version did not look as vibrant as the picture above. But really I think that my heart is just not in it anymore.

2. I have a longstanding feud with my respiratory system. I am well known amongst my circle of friends for being sick almost once a month. I get sinus infections like no one’s business, probably 3 or 4 a year. Since my cleanse last month, I have been cautiously optimistic maybe I had alleviated a lot of these problems through my dietary changes. I don’t wake up congested or with a sore throat very often, whereas before this was literally a daily event. Last week my mom told me I didn’t sound like I had a cold on the phone for the first time in like 25 years. But today eating this thick whole wheat bread, my nose started running immediately. It was nuts! It could also have been exhaustion/outdoor allergies, but I think it was the bread.

3. I did not find comfort. I did not find solace in the warm tasty gooeyness of my lunch. Instead I felt even more tired, which I didn’t think possible, and bad about myself because it was a little early in the week for my cheat meal.

I only made it through 2 pieces, though. Which is a great testament to how well my diet is doing. Normally I could get through four or five of those within two commercial breaks. Now I am more conscious of what and when I am eating, and my stomach is just not prepared for a full capacity adventure like half a large pizza anymore.

So now, I have two obstacles: six pieces of leftover pizza in my fridge and a void where my old comfort food standards used to be. I tried the opposite approach at dinner, but my super green veggie smoothie did not really make me feel better either. (Although I did feel like it was a success getting through it!) So now, the important thing for days like today, is to find something that is delicious but will help my stress, not add to it.

Suggestions are welcome, by the way!

– lj

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Introducing Lydia (Me)

Hi!

I’m Lydia. I’m fat. I hate using that word: it’s gross and mean and ugly. But, I wanted to get your attention. Plus, it’s true. I’m fat. And I don’t mean “I’m fat,” in the insecure sorority sister way, I mean I have to shop in the extended sizes section. One time I had to get a seatbelt extender on an airplane (if you want to face humiliation, experience this).

I’ve struggled with weight pretty much my whole life, like since I figured out which cupboard held the Gerber’s cookies as a toddler. I’ve had ups and downs in the weight department, possibly corresponding with how stressful my life is (but not always). When I’m in a healthy phase, I generally enjoy it. I like the clarity of mind and the sense of accomplishment. Plus, when none of my joints hurt I think working out is fun. But on the other hand I also really enjoy beer and pizza.

In the last two years, things have sort of spiralled, and at the turn of the New Year I was the heaviest I have ever been. I almost didn’t recognize myself in recent photos. So it’s time for a change. What better time than the end of the world to finally get my act together? I assume the slowest runners die first in the Apocalypse, and I am always getting winded early.

I don’t want to portray myself like a lot of other weight loss stories do, though. My body is not a cage. I’m not trapped in a shell of belly weight. I’m out-going, active and I like myself. A lot. But sometimes I wish I had more energy. And there are things that I simply can’t do because of my size and lack of physical fitness. Things like climbing a mountain and buying jeans at True Religion. So my goals are to get physically fit enough to be able to do anything I would like to do, including climbing mountains, wearing designer jeans and surviving any potential Apocalypses.

So this is a blog about how all that’s going.

Full Disclosure: This is approximately my fourth attempt at trying to start this blog (or something similar). But this time I’m telling other people so if I give up on it I’ll get a little nudge of self-shame to keep me going. It won’t be easy, but hopefully it will be educational for you, and successful for me!

I’ll mostly be writing about what techniques I’m using, what works and what doesn’t, and what kind of progress I’m making (there will be progress!) I’ll probably post photos of food a fair amount. I may or may not complain about how much I miss cheese.

Lastly, here is a picture of me for reference:

Before Pic

– lj

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