Veg-Tastic

First two shout-outs. One to o Britt for telling me how to cook these wild and crazy vegetables in a comment on my last post, and the second to Amie for coming over to help me identify, chop up and cook my gigantic box full of vegetables.  We ate a feast afterward.

Here's what my box actually contained (I miss identified some vegetables yesterday).

Collards

Kale

Onions

Strawberries

Broccoli

Peas

Beets

So we cooked the collards as Britt advised, by sauteeing them with olive oil, onion and garlic.  We went ahead and cooked them all, mostly because I didn't think I would ever be motivated to do it again later in the week. Here's what they looked like after Amie chopped them all up:

Here's what they looked like after we cooked them down.  I've never had a collard green before. They were pretty good. Not nearly as gross as I expected them to be.  They would probably not be my first choice in vegetables, but anything sauteed in olive oil is pretty good in my book.

We also chopped up some kale.  I've never had kale before. I followed a recipe for kale chips that I once saw in a Real Simple magazine that I read in the eye doctor's office. I took a picture of the recipe with my phone in case I ever wanted to make it.  I tossed the chopped up kale with olive oil and put a little salt and pepper on them. Then baked them at 300 degrees for 20 minutes. These guys were delicious.  They got real crispy and tasted like potato chips, except way healthier. I liked these a lot. I still have a lot of kale left, so I'll be making them again later in the week. Here they are about to go in the oven.  

We also boiled the beets.  I've never had a beet before.  There were only a handful and they were very small. They boiled a long time, but finally got soft and Amie peeled off the skin.  Here they are after being cooked, peeled and cut.  They reminded me of cooked carrots and again, were not nearly as gross as I expected them to be.

Here's a shot of the stove, when it was really cooking.  We've got onions in the back left, beets boiling in the back right, collards on the front right and one of my meals for the week, chicken with rice, peas and broccoli in the front right.

We ate a lot of veggies today, but I still have a good bit left.  Some cooked, some left raw, but it is a much more manageable amount.  I tried three new vegetables today!  Three that I've never really even seen in a grocery store before!  I can't wait for next week's shipment.

Have you guys ever had collards, kale or beets?

Delivery Day

Today was CSA delivery day! I was quite nervous.  Here's a shot of my box, packed full of veggies.  It included: broccoli, sugar peas, strawberries, turnips, onions, collard greens, mustard greens and something that I think is possibly kale.

Yes, this is overwhelming.  It's a lot of food.  I've had two different co-workers offer to split the box with me in the future, and I think I will take them up on the offer. I don't want to waste any food.

a real turnip!

a collard green as big as my head!

They included some recipes in the box, but if any of you have recipes or suggestions for collards, turnips and greens, please let me know!

The Amie Outlook on Life

In honor of my friend Amie's birthday today, I'd like to share with you the Amie Outlook on Life.

My great friend Amie has a certain streak in her personality that I would like to adopt. It is difficult to describe. You might call it faith or trust or extreme positivity. This is how it works: she needs something, she believes she will get it or find it or fix it, then she does.  These needs could be big, like finding a new job, or small, like having good weather for a planned hike.

When I first observed this about Amie, it annoyed me a lot.  Everything she wanted or needed just worked out for her.  But then I realized that it's not that she's lucky or more blessed or favored than other people.  It's that she has faith. Faith in God, faith in herself, faith in the universe, really all of the above.  She doesn't worry, she doesn't complain endlessly.  She just trusts.

No, it's not magic.  And no, she doesn't always get everything she wants.  She's just able to enjoy what she has in a way that makes it seem like she's getting what she wants.  Just a couple of months ago her glasses broke and she tried "Oculus Reparo" on them (Harry Potter nerds will get that spell humor...her joke, not mine), and they didn't mend themselves back together.  She had to get new glasses.  The difference is that while that was unfortunate, she just said "Oh well!," got new glasses and moved on with her life. (Maybe not the best illustration, but the most recent one in my mind.)

This ability to trust that things will work out is just one of the many things I'm continually learning from Amie.  She has also taught me to be a more generous and kind-hearted person, more positive in my thinking and more in love with nature.

If you know Amie, what do you love about her? What has she taught you?

The Prescription

The doctor's visit today was not nearly as bad as I feared.  While she was not exactly impressed with my weight loss, she did not make me feel bad for not having lost more, which is really what I feared.

First, she did not notice on her own that I had lost weight, but I didn't really give her time.  She walked in and said, "What's new?" and I said, "I've lost weight," to which she replied "Well look at you," (she, however, was not actually looking at me but at my chart.) That was about as close as I got to a compliment.

Later she asked me if I was having any issues, at which time I said, "Yes, actually, I've been trying to lose the same 10 pounds since October and I can't seem to do it anymore." She recommended the GI Diet, which involves the glycemic index and is the exact same diet she recommended to me almost four years ago, the last time I went to her.  It has to do with your blood sugar levels and eating foods that do not make your blood sugar jump up.  I bought the book back in 2008, the last time I saw her, and tried and failed at that diet then.  I didn't say that to her today, but she's not really the type of person you argue with.  However, I think I will bust out the book and see if can incorporate some of its suggested foods into my current diet, without going fully on the GI diet.

She also brought up the "Eat like a king for breakfast, eat like a queen for lunch and eat like a pauper for dinner" philosophy.  I've heard this before, which is basically all about eating your bigger meals earlier in the day and eating less later.  I can't imagine ever being able to stick to this, as I've never been a great breakfast eater and dinner is more my style.

I also brought up the fact that I was not sure how much I needed to lose in total.  I told her that I'm really striving for 100 pounds, but wanted to know how much further I should go after that.  I said, "I've looked at the BMI height/weight charts online and it says I should weigh X, but that would mean having to lose about fifty more pounds than I have, and I can't imagine being able to do that."  To which she said, "Well, you really are big-boned. Some people just say they're big boned, but you really are. So let's set your goal weight at X+5."  (Seriously?!?) To which I said "It's been so hard to lose weight for almost a year, I just don't think I will ever get to that goal weight. To which she said, "Okay, let's make it  X +15." To which I said, "okay."

X+15 is 35 pounds away from where I am right now and will be a total of about 125 pounds lost.  It kind of frightens me, because I don't want to be continually pressuring myself to lose weight for the rest of my life and 35 pounds seems forever away at the rate I'm going.  She, however, seemed to think that if I would make her simple changes than it would all come off easily. She seems to eat only to fuel her body.  I'm guessing she has never had a weight or food issues, so she would not comprehend that such simple changes are not always simple.

In summary, it was not a horrible experience.  I will reread the GI Diet book, since I already own it and see if I can pick up anything that will help me stay fuller longer or eat calories that will more efficiently fuel my body.

*Also, everything checked out normal and most of my levels like cholesterol and triglycerides and things like that are better than ever because of all of this healthy eating.
 

My CSA is Coming!

This Friday will be my first shipment from the CSA Farm, that I'm supporting.  I'll get a variety of fresh fruits and veggies and I'll never know what I'm getting until it arrives.  Check back on Friday for an analysis of what I received. I'm sure I'll have questions about what to do it with it all and how to cook it, and I'd love your help with that!

PS the Walking Club is on for tomorrow. Hope to see you at the Riverwalk at 5:45 p.m.

The Doctor is In

Wednesday I'll be going to the doctor* for the first time in two and a half years.  I'm nervous.

I've only seen this doctor a handful of times, and every time she has told me that I am severely overweight and I need to change my eating habits and exercise more.  Every time she said this it was true, but sometimes the truth hurts. I would leave thinking, "What does she think I'm stupid? I know I'm overweight, she doesn't have to be so mean about it."

I last went to her in January 2009. When I left I said to myself that I would not go back until I lost 100 pounds, which I never really expected to happen.  I thought that I was just writing off  doctor visits for the rest of my life.

While I haven't lost 100 pounds yet, I have made major changes in my life and have seen great results from that. I'd like to have a conversation with her about the plateau I've been on for the last few months, how I can shake things up to begin losing again, and what my ultimate weight loss goal should be (I suspect it should be more than 100 pounds, but first things first).

I hope that we can have an honest and open conversation that will help me succeed, but I'm still scared.  I'm scared she will say that I am overweight and that I still have a long way to go (according to BMI charts, I should lose 140 pounds total, but that just doesn't seem right for my body type.)  I don't know what I weighed when I last visited her, so the pounds lost may not be quite as impressive (although it will still be a significant amount.)

Anyway, I try to be honest with you blog readers, and that is what I'm thinking/worrying about this week. I'll let you know how it goes.

*No need for concern, it's just for a physical.

This One's For the Girls

So I wrote yesterday that there was a point when I was questioning why I chose to go on this youth mission trip last week, but what I didn't tell you was what happened to turn it around.

I was just hanging out one night when one of the girls asked me if we could talk.  She didn't want anyone to overhear what she had to say, so we decided to take a walk. As soon as we were away from  the others she said, "I hate being fat. What can I do about it?"

This took me by complete surprise. This was a very young girl who I did not know very well and who does not know about my weight loss journey (we just recently met).  Immediately, though, I knew it wasn't an accident that she decided to tell me about her struggle. She didn't know it, but no one understands being unhappy with their weight more than I do.

Oddly, though, as much as I talk about my own weight loss and healthy living on this blog, I was a little unsure of what to say.  She's too young to begin a cycle of dieting; she's really just a kid.  So I started by asking why she thinks she is fat. When she responded that she is bigger than the other girls, I tried to remind her that God made each of our bodies differently, and that I think she is beautiful.

That didn't seem to be enough, so I also told her that as she grows, she'll get taller and her weight will likely stay the same, making her look differently.  But she kept pressing me about what she could do now to change, so I asked her what she eats and what she does after school.  Her food sounded fairly well-balanced, but she doesn't do any activities after school so I suggested going for a walk after school.  Talking about it and having this small plan seemed to be enough to make her feel better right then.

This kind of thing is the reason I work with students, girls especially.  Self esteem and body issues run rampant in middle and high school girls (and adults too).  It's hard to believe you are beautiful and made in God's image when you feel like you look different than the others and the most important thing to you is fitting in. I wish I got to have more frank conversations like this with the girls I work with, but its a difficult subject to have honest conversation about.  So for now I remain open to the conversations when they happen, but mostly just a positive and encouraging friend to these beautiful young ladies the rest of the time.

Body-related self esteem issues suck.