I'm Still Here...

Sorry to be AWOL for so long! And thank you so much for checking in with me and leaving comments... it means so much.

I teach a one unit class at a Junior College- it's shorter than the semester-length courses so usually there are a variety of "start dates" for each section. My schedule this semester looked normal enough, until I realized that from October to middle of November I would be teaching three sections at once! It's not a pretty sight, let me tell you. I haven't had much mental energy for anything other than prep work, lectures and grading, grading grading. The house is a wreck, but I somehow managed to get through my youngest boy's birthday and Halloween with all the attendant baking, school parties, etc. I've even managed to keep up my workout schedule... almost! I missed a couple of days here and there, but I'm very happy to report that it was only a couple of days.

Which leads me to one of the intriguing questions of the GAG challenge for this week: "What makes this weight loss effort different than any previous attempts?" What a great question! Perhaps I like it because this effort is different. Since January, I've lost around 33 pounds. It's been a very slow process-- averaging about a pound a week, with several long periods of seemingly endless plateaus. (Hence the blog name.) I'm not crash dieting, I'm not on "a program," I'm not on any kind of medication... what I'm doing now is the simplest thing in the world: eating mindfully and exercising So why haven't I done it before? I wish I knew. I think this go 'round is successful because of my state of mind. Since I'm not dieting, I can't fail. Since I can't fail, I can't give up and go back to bingeing- if I want to binge I go right ahead, but it's then clear to me that something's amiss, which I'll need to figure out because bingeing is such a ridiculous way to sort out my problems. I still sometimes do it, but in kind of a "mini" way... for example...

Last week I had an overwhelming urge to make some nachos. I threw some Trader Joe's blue corn chips on a plate and grated some light Havarti cheese on the top, then microwaved it, all the while thinking "I wonder what's wrong?" It came to me that I was stressed about my workload and the impossibility of everything getting done by my Thursday night class. I decided to give myself an extra week to grade and concentrate on updating my lecture for the week (it was a week where my students had an assignment that they didn't need back right away). That calmed me down a bit, but I still craved nachos. I made another half-plate. I was getting close to being uncomfortably full, but I felt satisfied. I decided not to eat again until I was hungry. And I didn't. And then I felt fine. I remember reading on someone's blog a Weight Watchers maxim: "You're only one meal away from being on plan." This really resonated with me. In my thirty... oh, man, almost forty years of dieting... I always thought that once I'd binged, all bets were off. I would then "go off" my diet for days, weeks or months- it was almost a relief to binge and go crazy! Then the awful pattern would begin again. So, now the binges are tiny. I try to figure out why I'm feeling binge-y, then I stop when I can. Maybe one day I'll progress to the point where I can skip the binge completely.

The exercise bit is also new. It wasn't until I was a grown-up that I realized I actually liked to exercise, and it's a major part of my life now. I've accepted that this is a long journey... although I would love to be at my goal tomorrow, it's just not going to happen that way. I crash dieted for decades, really, and it took me that long to figure out that it doesn't work. A slow learner, indeed.

GAG Labor Day Challenge

The weekly challenge for the first week focuses on Labor Day parties, or any other outdoor holiday gathering that centers around food (don't they all?). We'll be staying home and watching baseball today, but if we were going somewhere...

Labor Day Game-plan

Part 1:

It's summer, you're probably barbecuing, it's all good! The nice thing about summer holidays is that you've got produce on your side... it's really easy to serve or offer to bring fresh and healthy side dishes. We go to our local farmer's market every week, and this week must have been the peak of the season or something-- everything was absolutely gorgeous. I'm not really a fan of raw tomatoes, but the heirloom varieties are so beautiful! I was knocked out by the beauty of vegetables which makes me feel like a bit of a geek. So, if I were hosting a get-together I would offer the classic barbecue main courses: burgers, hot dogs, perhaps tri-tip and garden burgers as a veggie option but I would make sure that I had plenty of healthy side dishes to make up the bulk of my plate: fruit salad, fresh salsa, roasted broccoli and tomatoes, etc. Roasted corn on the cob isn't the healthiest choice on the planet, but I have to have it! We eat it with the fake butter from Trader Joe's (Balade light butter), fresh lime juice and sea salt. It's about the best thing in the world.

As far as an eating plan goes, my modified Geneen Roth-ian plan basically means that I would choose only what I absolutely craved and eat until I was no longer hungry. In the olden days my mind-set would be something like "Bah! You have to eat everything, who knows when you'll be able to eat that stuff again?! It will be ages before another holiday 'free pass' comes along!" That mind-set, effectively gave me the mental permission to binge... now, as I'm typing and seeing the words typed on the screen it seems like a completely weird notion. I mean, what Authority was I begging this permission from? How and when were these elaborate rules of permission/denial (bingeing/dieting) constructed? Figuring this stuff out is something I feel like I need to do... and, possibly, the mental digging around this issue that's required to figure it out is why I've been avoiding writing the My History of Fat post for so long. At any rate, I'm sorry that I lived for so long with that mind-set, I'm relieved that I don't have that mind-set now and I hope I won't have it ever again. The last element of my game-plan is: don't skip the exercise today!

Part 2:

The recipes- I'm including two as a bonus! Both recipes can be doubled easily. The first is an Asian slaw that I love with burgers- it balances out the richness of a cheeseburger beautifully! (Would also be great with shredded pork, buffalo or a garden burger.) I'm not a huge fan of slaws in general, but this one is terrific. I adapted it from the wonderful, now defunct Savor Wine Country magazine.

Asian Slaw

Serves 6

1/3 c. Thai fish sauce

1/3 c. fresh lime juice (3-4 limes)

1/3 c. sugar

8 garlic cloves, minced

1 2-inch piece of ginger, grated

2 Serrano chiles, minced (don't include the seeds if you you're not a fan of heat)

1 small green cabbage, cored and and sliced very thinly

4 medium carrots, peeled and grated or sliced in thin ribbons

1 small red onion, sliced very thinly

1 cup fresh cilantro leaves, roughly chopped.

1/4 to 1/2 cup roasted or raw peanuts, chopped for garnish.

Combine the fish sauce and lime juice in a small bowl, add the sugar and stir until it's dissolved, Add garlic, ginger and chilies. Cover and refrigerate. 30 minutes before serving, toss thoroughly to combine the veggies in a large bowl and add the dressing. Toss thoroughly again, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. When you're ready to serve the slaw, add half the cilantro, toss again and scatter the rest of the cilantro on top. Throw the peanuts on top, or serve separately so guests can add them to their own taste.

At the market this week, I saw a stall selling nothing but interesting varieties of potatoes: heirlooms, fingerlings, weird/cool colors- they all looked wonderful! It made me think of this great recipe for Greek lemon roasted potatoes I nabbed from Martha Stewart's site and de-fatted a bit:

Greek Lemon Roasted Potatoes

Martha requires 4 russet baking potatoes (8 medium). I translate this to about 2-3 pounds, and we've used this recipe with all kinds of potatoes- probably erring on the starchy side is a good idea. (Although we've made them with small red potatoes and have been perfectly happy with the result!) Martha says to peel and quarter them... we don't do that. First, because the peel is where most of the nutrients live; second, because we're sloppy cooks around here. (Or, as the wonderful Laurie Colwin put it, we practice "la cuisine de la 'slobbe' raffinee or 'the cooking of the refined slob.'") If you're using small potatoes you can leave them whole.

1/3 to 1/4 cup olive oil- depending on how afraid you are of olive oil- or how much you embrace it, Martha says to use 1/2 cup

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about 3 lemons)

1 tablespoon dried oregano, preferably Greek, with extra for garnish

1 tablespoon salt

1/4-1/2 freshly ground pepper

1 cup of water

Heat oven to 500. Place potatoes in a metal roasting pan large enough so that all the potatoes can fit in a single layer. Add the water, olive oil, lemon juice, oregano, salt & pepper. Toss potatoes until well coated. Bake uncovered for 50 about minutes until the potatoes are fork-tender and brown at the edges. If you're using really small potatoes, watch them- they might not need as long. Turn the potatoes half-way through. If the liquid evaporates, add more water and a little more lemon juice before the potatoes fully brown. Garnish with oregano. Yum!

I really hope you'll try these dishes and let me know what you think! Go GAGgers!

GAG Challenge Kickoff!

I've joined the GAG Challenge- today's the first day!

As you can see, I use Wii Fit as a scale. My regular scale is pretty unreliable, but last time I checked it did not chirp "That's overweight!" at me when I stepped on it. Wii Fit does, then slaps that giant "Overweight" label on the right of the scale display for good measure. Thanks, Nintendo.

ToM started today- normally I wouldn't go near a scale, and what do you know... I'm up around .2 of a pound. But that's okay, it's only temporary! (I hope!)

This is a really lousy pic, I know-- I used a borrowed camera and couldn't figure out how to turn off the flash! I'll try again soon, and wear something so that you can actually see what I look like. Really excited about this challenge... I'm hoping it will help everyone sail through the next few (treacherous) months with style.