August 20, 2008

Week 2 of Diet: Dieting and Roadtripping Do Not Mix

Week one of dieting left me five pounds lighter and feeling dizzy. Not good.

Week Two I called the doctor to figure out how to not lose more weight on my diet (does this not sound right?). Turns out if you only eat fruits and vegetables you're gonna lose some weight. I ended up adding more calories with hummus and rice cakes for some snacks and more protein. Now I've added a few pounds back.

My mom, the kids and I headed to the suburbs of Portland to see my Grandpa. (I couldn't resist adding the photo of the kids playing with Gramps.)

I packed a cooler in the car and ate from there when the rest of the family was eating at fast food places or mini-marts. You know, road trip food. For our dinners we ate at Heidi's, a fake chalet. I was able to order salad without the croutons or cheese. What a sorry situation, but I am proud to say the only cheat was the Scooby Doo orange sherbet push up pop I ate in an emergency on the car ride back up. Seriously, it was an emergency.

The day after the roadtrip we went to Andy's parent's house for a few meals. I passed up a homemade blackberry pie. How do I have so much will power? I ended the week not happy about dieting but I was feeling so good that I knew I had to keep going. I hit the PCC hard on Sunday so I wouldn't feel deprived for Week 3.

Posted by jana at 8:41 PM | Comments (0)

August 11, 2008

The Sinking Ship with Nothing to Throw Overboard Diet

Not so bad, huh? Fancy flank steak from the PCC (best flank steak ever), blanched green beans with olive oil and garlic. Green leaf lettuce with spicy pumpkin seeds and apples with an apple cider vinegar dressing. Notice the lone glass of wine though.

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As I type this blog post my stomach is wrapped in castor oil, a sheet, towel, plastic bag and heating pad -- as I sip diluted apple cider vinegar and chase down some supplements. I just finished my skin brushing to stimulate the lymph nodes. Doctor's orders!

If you've been reading my blog for a while you probably know this hasn't been the healthiest year for me. Around June I took action and made an appointment with a naturopath to see about getting myself a new immune system. And to get rid of the migraines and skin issues.

The naturopath has me on a 30 day diet to kick my liver back in action (which she thinks probably isn't working as well as it should be.) The diet is called the anti-inflammatory diet. I should have been concerned when she said, "just how far are you willing to go to get healthy?" The diet is mainly this:

no alcohol (notice how I list this first. Bearing bookclub without wine was a true test.)
no wheat or gluten
no dairy
no corn, potatoes, tomatoes or citrus fruit
no sugar
no dried fruit
no shellfish
no caffeine
eat 2 T of ground flax seed every day
eat pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds
drink diluted organic apple cider vinegar before meals
eat one green meal a day (like a salad or steamed vegetables)
get 20 minutes of sunshine a day
stretch every day
no limit on how much I eat
everything must be organic. Any meat must be grass fed.
Lots of weird supplements multiple times a day, some with food, some without.
7-8 hours of sleep every night
laugh every day
don't eat the same thing more than 4x a week
No ice water, only room temperature or warmer. Water should be fancy water but I can't remember what. I'm cheating on the fancy water part.
No liquids with meals. I am supposed to only drink water or green tea for the next 6 weeks.

Yep, pretty much everything I eat is on the list to exclude. As Andy said, "there is nothing worth living for with that diet." I was reminded of a Mark Twain anecdote of a woman who tells her doctor, "I don't drink, smoke, or swear but I feel terrible." The doctor replies, "Lady, you're like a sinking ship with nothing to throw overboard." (I am paraphrasing because I can't remember the quote exactly.

That's me, the sinking ship with nothing to throw overboard. Salt is my new vice for the next 21 days.

Let me know if you can see my bones sticking out. I'm trying to eat enough so I don't look gaunt. As a side effect of my weird diet even Andy is looking too thin. Hopefully some coconut milk I bought today will fatten us up. I tried dieting years ago but just ended up getting fatter. With this diet that will not be a concern.

Wish the whole family luck! Everyone gets to suffer along with me on this one.

Posted by jana at 10:16 PM | Comments (6)

September 19, 2007

Chewey-ooey gooies (yummy and makes a lot)

Emergency! We're out of cookies. I'll share with you readers one of my idiosyncrasies: I am leery of processed food and especially of cookies that have a shelf life. Chips Ahoy in my house? Never.

So now that I'm a mom I bake my own cookies so my kids will never be subjected to cookies made in a factory and packaged in bags with plastic. I've tried out lots of recipes including the one from The Best Recipe but I've never found one better than my mom's. In fact even though I use my mom's recipe I still like hers best. After much research I discovered it is probably because my cookie sheets are insulated.

Enough rambling. Here's the recipe so you never have to eat factory-made cookies either.

Chewey-ooey gooies

Mix:
2 c. flour (I use whole wheat)
1 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
1 t. salt

Cream:
2/3 c. butter
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar

Add:
2 eggs
2 t. vanilla
2 c. rolled oats (in a pinch I've mixed in other cereals)
1 c. chocolate chips

Add:
couple drops of water (1/2 t.)

Mix until blended
Drop on ungreased cookie sheet
Bake at 375 12-15 minutes (sometimes longer -- must be my insulated cookie sheets)

Mine just came out of the oven. YUM.

Posted by jana at 9:03 PM | Comments (1)

February 23, 2007

My favorite potato salad

To tell the truth, I never liked potato salad until I had my mother-in-law's. I finally got my hands on her recipe. Here's my effort in changing the world's potato salad recipe for the better. She doesn't put any of the usual weird things in it like pickles, celery or olives.

Ingredients:
5-6 potatoes
3-4 hard boiled eggs
a few green onions
1/2 c. mayo
squirt of yellow mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Boil potatoes with skin on until tender to fork. Peel potatoes when hot. Cut up and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Spread out to dry. In another bowl combine mayo with a squirt of mustard. Combine all ingredients. Potato salad may need more salt the next day.

Enjoy.

Posted by jana at 8:06 PM | Comments (4)