Health Metamorphosis

Kitchen Makeover, Part One

2012-02-17T11:00:00.000-06:00

After a few months in our new house and the ongoing frustration with my tiny kitchen, I am finally taking action on making my kitchen work for me. I love to cook and bake and I hate that I have been less than excited about doing those things since moving. It's taken me awhile to accept that my big kitchen collection of stuff just wasn't going to work in my small kitchen and that I didn't need most of it anyway. I used this blog post as inspiration and started over by going through all my over-stuffed cabinets and putting everything on the floor ( some things are missing from this picture, like the giant toaster oven and the cookie sheets):

Gone:
Food processor - didn't use enough to justify keeping
10x14 Pyrex dish - have a 10x13 that's more versatile
4 cake tins - never used square ones, hate my rounds
1 blender - had two
toaster oven - took up too much space and can use broiler
giant lasagne pan with stand - took up too much space
1 stock pot - only need one
1 cutting board - was decoration only
2 serving bowls - have too many
1 serving plate - never used it and have two nicer ones
bread knife - have two
egg separator - that's what fingers are for
adjustable measuring cup - I have a set of 4 metal cups
mandolin
4 muffin pans (2 silicone regular size and 2 mini)
1 sieve (had a set of two and kept larger one)
splatter screen (had a set of three and kept largest one)
2 cookie sheets
Food chooper
1 bread knife
1 microwave cooking bowl (got rid of 1, kept 1)

Kept:
roasting pan
cast iron skillet
deep skillet
2 sauce pans (one stays on stove for coffee water)
French press
electric skillet for pancakes and mega bacon cooking
toaster
blender
magic bullet
food scale
crock pot
sous vide
Food Saver
2 baking dishes, one glass and one stoneware
stoneware loaf pan
2 square baking dishes, one glass and one stoneware
souffle pan
2 baking sheets, one stoneware and one metal
stand mixer
hand mixer
salad spinner
colander
cake stand
Tupperware cake carrier
cooling rack
cutting board
microwave
Some silly but useful gadgets like my zester, lemon/lime juicer, 2 veggie peelers, potato masher, apple corer, cake slicers (one square and one triangle), box grater, flour sifter, 2 spatulas, and a bunch of wooden spoons.

Once I moved all the excess stuff out, I placed everything back into the cabinets. I moved some things around so they were stored closer to where they are used and made sure that nothing that I use more than once a week was stacked with anything else or placed behind anything else in a cabinet.
Missions accomplished. My kitchen was still a mess, though. I moved on to step 2, which I will talk about next: the pantry.

18 Steps to an "Easy" Dinner

2012-02-15T11:00:00.000-06:00

My kitchen shrunk by at least half when we moved into our new home in December. I love my small house but I admit it's been quite a challenge to learn how to use my new kitchen and feel happy while doing it. The old kitchen was big. It had tons of empty cabinets, and entire 4-5 ft. countertop that went unused but for decoration, an island with built in stove, a wall oven, a huge 2-door pantry, and plenty of room for our table for six. Now I have a little box of a kitchen with a range, a microwave on a metal cart in the corner, a range hood that doesn't vent very well and no outside windows (sigh), a tiny pantry, and just enough counter space to cook as long as there is NOTHING on them.

What this looks like in practice:
I decide I want to make an "easy" meal that will cook itself, so I:
1. Walk into the kitchen to cook meal.
2. Realize I can't do anything in there until everything from the last meal is cleaned and put away. I can't even just clean it and leave it to dry on the counter because I need the space.
3. Grumble, complain, curse inside my head as I wash pots, pans, cookie sheets, dishes, and my French press from this morning. I can't put it all in the dishwasher because it hasn't been unloaded yet and is full of clean stuff. Too much for me to handle, apparently.
4. Put away all food containers and garbage left on counter throughout last night and today. Tonight this included an empty doughnut container, two empty plastic candy bags (school project, I swear!), an empty flour canister I left on the counter to remind myself to buy more, and 2 owner's manuals for the new toys I used tonight (Foodsaver and Sous Vide, woot!).
5. Plug in new toys on now-cleaned counter-top.
6. Dig around for cutting board.
7. Unplug Food Saver and move it so I can set down the cutting board.
8. Clean cast iron skillet of egg yolk that broke when I made breakfast YESTERDAY.
9. Prep meat and set in skillet to sear.
10. Clean cutting board and put it away in the 30 seconds before I have to turn the meat.
11. Turn meat.
12. Realize I need cutting board to put meat on when it comes out of cast iron skillet, take it out of cabinet again.
13. Clean spattered grease from cooktop, get Foodsaver and plug it back in.
14. Place meat into FoodSaver bag, try 5 times to vacuum seal bag and finally succeed after taking meat OUT of bag, drying it, drying the entire inside of bag, and putting meat back into bag.
15. Clean cutting board again and put away. Knock over cooling rack that is also in cabinet with cutting board and decide I'll wait until the next time I need to open the cabinet to deal with it.
16. Walk away.
17. 15 minutes later: water in Sous Vide is at 130 degrees, time to place meat in. Realize vacuum sealed bag does not appear to be vacuumed all the way (it's sealed but still has air inside). Cannot face doing anything about it as it means remembering where I stored the Food Saver 20 minutes ago, taking it out, and starting over.
18. Put not quite vacuumed bag of meat in Sous Vide. One tiny corner is above the water. I can live with that. Meat will be ready in 24-48 hours. Hope it's worth it. (It was).

P.S. I got the Sous Vide for Christmas. Andrew and I saw them at Essex and I was SO excited because it was only 160.00 and I've wanted one for quite some time. He went back and got it for me the next day and then lied to me and told me he went back and it was gone. He likes to surprise me. I cooked an arm roast for 24 hours and it cooked perfectly. I can't wait to use it again tonight for chicken breast. BTW, I have seen them since then at Essex. Nobody knows what they are so they don't sell fast.

Small Changes Make a Big Difference, Lesson One

2012-02-08T11:06:00.000-06:00

I am starting a new series about making small changes in my work-at-home life to become a happier, more productive person in 2012. I am the primary caretaker in my home and we have businesses that we run from home, too. We don't have any outside help at home or in our business. I ended 2011 knowing that things had to change because I was miserably trying to do everything and doing a crappy job at it all. I was not feeling productive, I wasn't happy with the quality of my housekeeping or by business work, and I was constantly feeling stressed and inadequate.

I have been slowly working through some goal setting tools and I know that I must make 2012 about doing more of what I love and less of what I don't. It's going to be very hard to make some of these small changes, but I know they will make a huge difference in my daily life. I may actually wake up every morning and not feel dread for all the things I need to find time for but don't really want to do.

The first lesson I am working through is finding more time in my day by scheduling smarter and recognizing time sucks. My daily schedule has changed in what I thought were subtle ways over the past year. I added a boot camp class here and there to accommodate loyal clients, I had to start driving my kids to and from school when we moved, and I have more occasional events like speaking engagements, leading a book club, meeting business contacts, having client meetings, returning phone calls and emails, etc. Over time I became more and more stressed and less able to get anything done, but the changes were so gradual that I didn't realize why I was so miserable. I kept taking things on, thinking I had time for them, and then not doing well at anything!

It slowly dawned on me that I was stretched too thin and don't have enough dedicated blocks of time to do the work that will really make a difference to my businesses and my household. I got caught up in thinking that one little meeting or 2 more hours per week teaching Boot Camp wouldn't make much of a dent at all in my weekly schedule, and over time that attitude led to a dead end. My business is flat, I'm not exercising enough, I don't have enough time to get things done around the house, I don't feel like I am doing well at the things I am responsible for in our businesses, and I certainly never feel justified in sitting down and relaxing. Yet through all of this I felt like I was being lazy and that I should be able to get more done!

All that is to say that I finally see this situation more clearly and I am making hard decisions that make me feel incredibly guilty but that I know I must make. FOr example, I moved a Boot Camp class to a day when I already have class so I can do them back to back and open up Tuesdays to work uninterrupted at home. Before, I would not have more than 4-5 hours at any one time ALL WEEK to get work and household duties done before I had to be somewhere or do something else. I was so burned out on the constant moving from one commitment to another that any time I did spend at home was unproductive spent zoned out in front of the TV or computer. Now I have one day a week that I can work from 8AM-2PM in one place. Not necessarily uninterrupted time, but time where I don't have to be somewhere and time when I feel a bit less rushed and frazzled. I can dig deeper and I can build on ore complicated projects and ideas. I am still working 6 days a week (teaching a class, I mean) but I made a little pocket of time appear by moving things around.

Yesterday was the first Tuesday since I made this change and I was able to spend more time than normal to finish our newsletter and edit it obsessively (so that I was actually proud of it instead of thinking it was just good enough to send out), and I had my apron on TWICE! I got to bake something in the morning AND make homemade pizzas (regular wheat flour and grain free gluten free) for dinner. I also did something I haven't done in a LONG time - I went to a store and browsed. It was pleasurable and leisurely. I wasn't stressed or in a hurry. I wasn't there with my coupon binder, grocery list, and meal plan for the week. I was just a person feeling a bunch of fuzzy bath mats and admiring 30 varieties of salad plates.

In summary, little commitments add up very quickly. Don't make the mistakes I made and think that a little commitment for an hour here and 45 minutes there won't make a huge difference in your life, whether you work from home, work in an office, or are a homemaker. I tried not to multitask from in the moment but didn't realize that my entire life had become one big multitasking nightmare because I never had enough time to do anything well before I was needed somewhere else.

My next small change will be in how I schedule work time and where I do my work (not my teaching but the blogging and behind the scenes business development). More on that next time!

Simple Pleasures

2012-02-01T11:49:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I sat down to blog and this is what came out.

It's exactly noon, and here is what I have enjoyed so far today:

1. My honey left me a love note next to my French press this morning.

2. Ira Glass from This American Life on the Savage Love podcast with Dan Savage! Two awesome people in one podcast, and listening to Ira Glass talk nasty is really hilarious. Reader beware, this is an extremely R-rated podcast.

3. Baking a gluten free yellow cake for my baby girl. Nine years ago today my 3 boys were blessed with a sister. I love, love, love baking, especially when I am home alone and don't have to take care of anyone. Frosting the cake with homemade frosting while watching Star Trek: The Next Generation on Netflix was even more awesome. And eating frosting out of the bowl. Don't worry, I left some for the kids.

4. Getting press in the local paper for the first time, which is funny because we have been in national publications before but nothing local. And yes, I realize that it's ironic that on the day I was in the paper for being primal/paleo, I am home watching TV and eating chocolate frosting.

5. Working out with my client Jane, who is not only a smart, entrepreneurial young woman with an awesome business but also someone who will rant and rave with me about injustice and bigotry in the world and the inanity of the political process.

6. Seeing my daughter's face before school this morning because she was just SO pleased with life on her birthday! The boys act like it's no big deal but she knows a birthday IS a big deal and loves every minute of it!

Life has been challenging lately and I am struggling to make a plan for 2012 that will make it better than 2011, so it's really important to me to gather these moments and enjoy them. Even on a busy day like today, there is a lot for me to be grateful for even before the day is even half over. What are YOU grateful for today?

Books That Make My World Make Sense

2012-01-30T16:36:00.000-06:00

I love reading about the brain and keeping up with the latest in neuroscience. The more I learn about the science behind the mysteries of life, the more life feels enriched to me. I like to know what my brain is doing that makes me feel love for my partner, makes me want to care for babies, eat Kit Kat bars, fight with my partner over our decision-making styles, laugh at certain jokes, enjoy chip-tunes, or belong to the political party I belong to. All of these are a function of the neurons in my brain, and I love to learn exactly what my human machine does, why it was evolved to do it, and what that means for me today in this modern world. Some prefer the mystery, and I get that. Some think that knowing these things takes away from the enjoyment of falling in love or laughing at jokes or enjoying music, since you are always deconstructing what makes jokes funny or how that song is manipulating expectations in the brain to incite pleasure, or that oxytocin is being released through spending time with my partner and having sex because we are a species that has helpless babies that need two parents for approximately 3 years and then the lovey-dovey feelings go away. The more I learn about the brain, the more I feel forgiveness and compassion for myself and others and the more deeply I can enjoy the riches of the senses.

All of this leads me to some books I have recently read that enlightened me a bit more than normal.
The first one is Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength. I think everyone should read this book, especially if you struggle with dieting, procrastination, or lack of motivation. It's highly readable and enlightening, and it gives practical tips on achieving your goals straight from the latest brain research available. You will learn real things you can do every day to help you lose weight and also learn what NOT to do EVER if you want to lose weight.You can also listen to the author talk about this topic here.

The second book is The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies-How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths. This book will probably make you mad. It made me a bit mad because it really challenges ANY kind of junk you might believe about just about anything. It's useful to know the biases we all have toward ideas that run counter to what we already believe. It makes us better citizens and if we can understand ourselves and our weaknesses better. Reading this book helped me better understand people that believe different things than I do. It helps me understand that they are just like me and I think that's a really important thing to think about in our current political climate. This book may not change what you believe, but it will change how you think about your beliefs and make you more tolerant of others.

Next is one of the best books I read in 2011, The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement . Here is an exerpt of the review I wrote for it on Good Reads:
I loved reading how neuroscience is changing our world and how we engage it. Brooks focused on business, politics, and poverty in a way that can really change they way you engage with these huge issues.
The entire book is based on fictional characters living their lives, which allows Brooks to explore all kinds of mega-issues in a small context. It's really priceless in the way it brings neuroscience and social science together. Our future is changing and how we fix our problems will change based on the relatively new field of neuroscience, and this book explores that future in a hopeful, intelligent way.

If you enjoy these kinds of books, want to know what other books I read, or want to recommend books to me, please friend me on GoodReads.

Your Priority List

2012-01-26T12:10:00.000-06:00

I listened to a great podcast recently. It was about women and work and what it takes to be really successful. The author made an important point when she said that you must know what your goals are and what your priorities are. For many women, they conflict. Her goal was to be a CEO or an editor or something (I can't remember), and her priorities, in order, were:
Career
Children
Husband
Friends
Self

That sounds outlandish but I suspect it's partly because she is a woman and women aren't supposed to do that. We are supposed to want it all and have it all. She is successful because she knew what her priorities were and everyone around her knew them as well. Her husband works part time and does more childcare than her, which is true of most highly successful women (and men). There is always a supportive partner behind a very successful person.
This podcast helped me think about my life in a different way, and it was clarifying. My priorities don't match my goals. It's this basic mismatch that has left me feeling off-center and unfocused for well over a year now. My priorities:
Children
Partner
Self
Career
Friends

But I have been acting as if my priorities were:
Career
Kids
Partner
Friends
Self

My jobs (triathlon coach, personal trainer, business owner, landlord) aren't a career to me. My career is being a mom, and it's been that way (happily) for 16 years! It's what I excel at and it's what I enjoy. I enjoy the peripheral things that go along with it: cooking, starting a garden, preparing to get our first chickens, keeping a nice home, being a caretaker. While I can enjoy my jobs and aim to improve in them, they are pretty far down the list of things that should take up my time. It's a shame that it doesn't work like that, but I aim to change that.
Our new home is an opportunity for me to spend more time on things I want to do. I'll be learning to garden, keeping chickens, considering other animals like goats or a cow, and decorating our smaller but wonderful house. I will strive to be more productive at work but not to take on any more work until I feel that I have balanced my goals and priorities. Seems like a good place to start.
Take some time to write down your priorities. Make sure your goals align with your priorities. You might realize that you've been getting in your own way for a long time, but that can end today!

I miss you, blog.

2012-01-24T12:16:00.000-06:00

I don't have time to blog anymore. I don't like this state of affairs and I have decided to spend some serious time with myself thinking about what it is that makes me happy and finding ways to spend more time doing those things.
Blogging makes me happy because I love thinking, learning, and writing. I love ideas, I love reading about new things, I love learning. I spent most of Sunday entertaining my mind with all kinds of cool stuff from the RSA. What was remarkable about the day was that it had been so long since I was able to devote free time to learning (other than reading books) that I had forgotten how exhilarating it was. I do read non-fiction every day, and I enjoy that a lot. In general, I prefer books to the internet. But once in awhile the internet can be a place where you can roam around and find amazing things that you didn't know existed but seem to be made just for you. That's what happened on Sunday when I found the RSA.
Long story short, I miss engaging with material and then finding a way to share knowledge of that material with others. I want to start blogging again, but I feel a bit confined here on this blog as it's supposed to be about health, not my new 3 acre homestead and down-sized house, neuroscience, my or my struggle to find my mojo. But maybe I shouldn't care and should just create some new labels for the blog and keep writing.

Clawing my way out of my grave

2011-11-01T15:57:00.000-05:00

I've been inactive for awhile. I could go into the reasons I tell myself, but it doesn't matter. What DOES matter is that today I ran 15 minutes and it sucked. But I know it will get better and that I will be laughing at how sucky that run was in a few months.
I ran that 15 minutes because I have two clients running the Mardis Gras marathon and one of them was nice enough to:
1. Pressure me to sign up for the half.
2. Let me know about the Saints Victory promotion so I got 55.00 off my entry (you can get a discount of whatever the Saints win by on the day after a game, and we signed up the day after they beat the Colts by 55 points).

I guess a good bargain is enough to get me to sign up for a race! This will be the first race I've signed up and trained for in YEARS. I've done small races that didn't require more than my general level of fitness, but I haven't done more than that as far as endurance exercise goes.

I'm looking forward to this challenge and hope it gently moves me toward spending more time on my own personal development instead of focusing on the development of everyone else. It's easy to hide behind wanting to help other people. I think it's hard for some coaches and trainers to maintain their own exercise at the intensity they worked at before making a living in the field. I miss having a coach and I miss having a teacher. I AM the teacher and the coach now, and there isn't anyone to push ME but myself. I'm not consistently good at that, I'm afraid.

As I was running today I had the image of someone digging their way out of a grave go through my head. That's how I feel. I am trying to slowly claw my way out of my self-imposed grave and dust myself off. I feel creaky and slow and tired right now, but by the time I run that race I will feel light and fast and natural. I'm looking forward to that. I miss that.

Meal Plan Week of Oct.31

2011-10-31T09:15:00.003-05:00

My Boot Camp clients are working on their holiday challenge and we are all weighing every day and keeping a food log. Our goal is to maintain or lose weight through the holidays by being mindful and making plans for when we will indulge and how to avoid unexpected temptations. My meal plans will be affected slightly as I want to eliminate any unnecessary carbs so I can lose weight and have room for holiday baking and treats when I plan for them.
Here is my menu plan for this week:

Dinners:
Monday: Teriyaki Chicken. Never made this last week so it's back on the list for this week. Might not make it tonight, either, depending on kids Halloween plans.
Tuesday: Beef Bourguignon. It's getting cold so I want to cook thus great dish. It's a huge production but Tuesday is a light work day for me so I have more time to cook. I am getting stew meat later this week from my CSA or I might make this earlier in the week with some minute steaks cut into chunks. I will use cornstarch or rice flour instead of regular flour and cooking sherry instead of cognac so I don't have to go to the liquor store. Putting the meat in the marinade today (Monday).
Thursday: Crock Pot Carnitas. I had carnitas at a good Mexican restaurant on Saturday night and am excited to try this at home. Family can eat these with corn tortillas but I will eat them in a bowl or with lettuce wraps.
Friday: Butter chicken and kale. My go-to easy meal. Cut up chicken breast or chicken tenderloins cooked in butter and seasoned salt. Once chicken is cooked, throw chopped kale into pan and cook in the butter until crunchy. I will cook some kind of rice for those who want it and toss it with the leftover butter.
Breakfasts:
Sunday breakfast: Sausage and egg bake and hash browns. I adapt this recipe with sausage instead of chicken and no curry spices.

Hash browns:
3 potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
kosher salt
dried parsley
olive oil
bacon grease
I use a 50/50 mix of bacon grease and olive oil( about 2 Tbs. of each to start). Heat the fats in a cast iron pan and throw in the potatoes. Sprinkle with salt and dried parsley. Stir or flip potatoes every 4-5 minutes or so until browned uniformly, adding more salt and parsley when you flip.

Baking/Desserts:
I think I want to try this custard recipe this week but the Halloween candy might make dessert unnecessary.

Lasagne Without Noodles

2011-10-27T09:49:00.000-05:00

I made an excellent lasagne recently that used sliced zucchini as a substitute for lasagne noodles. I don't know if I have EVER posted a single recipe on here before, but this one is worth it. It was a winner for me because every person in my house ate it: 2 vegetarian teenagers, 2 younger kids, and two adults (one who doesn't much care for zucchini). I was able to make 1/4 of it vegetarian and the rest of it with grass-fed beef in one dish. It had loads of veggies - zucchini, spinach, bell pepper, and tomato. And did I mention that everyone ate it?!?!
Here is my version of the recipe. It is adapted from this one.

Zucchini Noodle Lasagne

Ingredients:

2 large zucchini
1 tablespoon salt
1 pound grass-fed ground beef
1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 small green bell pepper, diced (optional)
1 onion, diced
1 cup tomato paste
1 (14-16 ounce) can tomato sauce
1/4 cup red wine
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil OR 2 tsp. dried
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano OR 1 tsp. dried
hot water as needed
1 egg
1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley )R 2 tsp. dried
12 ounce bag fresh spinach
10 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
4 ounces shredded Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease a deep 9x13 inch baking pan.
Slice zucchini lengthwise into very thin slices. I used a mandoline slicer and it was super easy. You can also use a box cheese grater and use the slicing side. Sprinkle slices lightly with salt and place in single layer on baking sheet. Cook at 350 degrees for 10 minutes and remove to a cooling rack to continue drying.
To prepare the meat sauce, cook and stir ground beef and black pepper in a large skillet over medium high heat for 5 minutes. Add in green pepper (this is the one ingredient my kids picked out so I'm not including it next time)and onion; cook and stir until meat is no longer pink. Stir in tomato paste, tomato sauce, wine, basil, and oregano, adding a small amount of hot water if sauce is too thick. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer sauce for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently. You want this sauce to be pretty thick to avoid a soupy lasagne.
Meanwhile, stir egg, ricotta, and parsley together in a bowl until well combined.
To assemble lasagna, spread 1/2 of the meat sauce into the bottom of prepared pan. Then layer 1/2 the zucchini slices, 1/2 the ricotta mixture, all of the spinach, then 1/2 the mozzarella cheese. Repeat by layering the remaining meat sauce, zucchini slices, ricotta mixture, and mozzarella. Spread Parmesan cheese evenly over the top; cover with foil.
Bake for 45 minutes. Remove foil; raise oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and bake an additional 15 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Meal Planning

2011-10-24T12:30:00.002-05:00

I love being organized. I am not a gifted organizer and it doesn't come naturally to me at ALL. When I manage to become a bit more organized and it becomes a habit rather than something I do for a little bit and give up on, I get so excited and proud of myself! There is hope for me yet!
My new habit is making a weekly meal plan. I've been doing this with some regularity for a couple of months now and I really like it. I can shop for everything I need for the week ONCE (although I still manage to forget things, like today's apple cider), and I don't have to stress about dinner at the last minute. On the weeks that I don't make a menu I end up at the store just about every day and that is a huge waste of time and money, since I can't plan my menu by what is on sale for the week.
I usually plan for 4-5 days a week since 2 days the kids aren't here and Andrew and I might go out or just make ourselves some leftovers. I get my menu planning template at this great blog.

Here is my menu plan for this week:
Monday:
New Orleans Barbeque Shrimp (made with apple cider instead of beer) with Roasted Asparagus with Balsamic Butter Sauce
Tuesday:
Burgers (no bun) with guacamole and roasted sweet potatoes.
Wednesday:
Acorn Squash and Sausage (I'm going to add cranberries)
Thursday:
Mac and Cheese (gluten free pasta), frozen veggies of some kind, and Chicken Nuggets
Friday:
Baked Teriyaki Chicken (use Tamari instead of soy sauce) with frozen rice and veggie blend.

Give it a try for a few weeks and see if it helps you stay on track with healthy eating and with your budget through the holidays.

Where I've Been

2011-10-13T08:34:00.002-05:00

Over the summer I hit a wall with a lot of things in my life and turned around and went in another direction. In one small change, I have taken a position of spending much less time on the internet. I don't use Facebook or Twitter anymore, I don't read or participate in forums, and I don't ~~spend~~ waste time browsing. It started as a one month challenge to stay off Facebook due to feeling like it didn't really have anything positive to offer me (other than using it for my business). It seems there are two ways that a lot of people use Facebook: displays of things in their life that establish status (in other words, they brag about cars of vacations or their brilliant and athletic offspring), or complaints about other people or situations that minimize others' status. I didn't want it in my life anymore. Through that month off Facebook I also stopped visiting the computer as much and things began to change. It's like I went back in time to when my life was more centered in ME and less scattered in technology and "networks".

Anyway, since I wasn't being sucked into the void, I found myself with a lot of extra time on my hands. I began to read books. Since then my reading has not slowed down much and I am averaging 2-3 books a week and still purposefully avoiding the internet.

The biggest benefit to learning through books rather than the internet (where admittedly you can learn about anything) is that you learn a lot about fewer things. I would rather read a book on the history of Beijing than browse the internet on the same subject. Reading a book is more like going to school - you are exposed to ideas you normally wouldn't be interested in. On the internet you tend to read small bits of info until bored and move on to another snippet somewhere else. Reading books leads to a more well-rounded experience than surfing the internet because you still must learn what the author (teacher) deems important rather than only what interests you. You still are choosing books that are of interest to you, of course, but within each book may be ideas you wouldn't normally explore.

The even greater benefit to books is that they end. The internet doesn't end and it's often hard to find a natural stopping point. I find that if I'm tired I sometimes get drawn into web browsing and feel exhausted but unable to unwind. If I pick up a book instead, I can stop at the end of any section or chapter and that allows me to unwind more. It leaves me feeling refreshed rather than drained.

I just joined Goodreads (yes, I recognize the irony of this) to help me keep track of what I want to read and what I've already read since the summer. If you are a member of GoodReads, let's be friends. Especially if you are a non-fiction reader of science for general audiences with an emphasis on the brain, behavior, and psychology!

Back in the Game: Step Two

2011-04-20T13:56:00.001-05:00

Last time we talked about how to begin to confront sabotage in your daily habits. This time, we will talk about how to take action.

Once you have spent some time writing out your feelings, it's time to make sure the practicalities of healthy living are addressed. Sometimes we slack off and allow things to influence us that we know lend themselves to trouble. Is there more junk food in your house lately? Have you lost interest in cooking because you are busy? Have you stopped writing down goals for yourself? Has work or family life become more stressful or demanding lately? These things all prevent us from staying focused on health. Unfortunately, living a healthy life does not come easy in our society and may never be second nature. It does require a certain amount of vigilance and energy, but that's true of anything worth doing.

Stress can take away our ability to maintain the energy needed to live at optimal health. It's not easy to be mindful when you are stressed, but it's when we are stressed that we need to be our most mindful and purposeful. This is HARD and it's ok if you fail sometimes. You must remember that exercise and diet help you deal with stress better, so to the best of your ability you must maintain these habits even when life makes it challenging. This is not a battle we fight against mainstream culture. It's a battle we fight within ourselves. McDonalds is there to be an enabler, but you allow yourself to be influenced. That's where your habits come in.

If you find that things have gotten sloppy, you need to address those things TODAY. There are many habits and rituals that can help, so let's through some out there and see what sticks:

Clean out your house of junk food. Remember, your home MUST be a safe place for you
Make a menu for the week that is easy and consists only of things you have made before and can do on auto-pilot and without a huge trip to the store. Making a plan eliminates the urge to eat outside of meal time.
Or, if it motivates you more to try new things, find something new to make.
Don't go out to eat for 2 weeks.
Re-eastablish your rules, whatever they are. Mine tend to be like this:

no eating after 7pm
no eating before 10am unless very hungry
no sugar at all
no eating out
only seasonal fruit intake

Identify your worst trigger people, situations, or times of day and have a plan in place to AVOID these things.

If you are going out to eat, be the first one to order so you don't get influenced by your friends.
If you have trouble at certain times of day, find ways to be active during those times, like going for a walk or cleaning.
Make a goal for today, for this week, for this month. WRITE THEM DOWN.
At the end of every day, write down 3 ways you made that day a good day. Acknowledge the accomplishment of reaching your goal for that day. If your goal is to avoid chocolate, celebrate if you succeed.
Make sure you aren't trying to force habits that don't work for you.
Imagine eating the food you are having the hardest time resisting. Apparently, imagining in great detail eating a food can actually lower your desire for it by desensitizing you to that stimulus.

We learn more from our failures than from our successes. The successful people around you know this and don't minimize their gains and exaggerate their losses. Don't believe the things you tell yourself that come from fear and feelings of inadequacy. Don't believe that only 100% compliance is acceptable. The effort it takes to fail, to try again, and to fail a little less the next time, moves us forward. Get back in the game!

Talking Yourself Back Into The Game

2011-04-12T11:01:00.000-05:00

When times are tough and you find yourself sliding back into unhealthy habits, what do you do? Well, you probably go further and further into the slide as if you are playing a game of chicken with yourself. It's a battle between who you want to be and who you fear you are. That's a very personal, very difficult journey to fight.

Compare the level of energy it takes to maintain great health versus sliding into "normal" (meaning what most of the people around you are doing, getting fat and impulsively eating their way through life). You may realize that the learning curve to healthy living is short and steep. Once you get back on that horse, it's easy to keep riding. It's getting onto the horse that is the hard part. Throwing away the part of you that wants to keep you buried in fear requires only a short, steep climb back up the top of the hill. From there life becomes easy and healthy again. You know this. You know it's easier to maintain a steady course than to go up and down over and over. It's not as hard as your negative self thinks it is to get back on top, so stop listening to your fears and start listening to the part of you that has led you to prior achievements.

I want to help you find a shortcut back onto the path of who you want to be. I want you to have a go-to series of steps you can take when your fears take over. The first part of this process requires the most powerful tools available for weight loss: a pen and a piece of paper.

Start by finding time and a quiet place to lovingly ask yourself some questions. Everything we do (good and bad) has a reason and serves a purpose. You are self-sabotaging for a reason. What does your destructiveness do for you? Does it help you believe the awful things you think about yourself, or that a loved one thinks about you? Does it make it easier to stop thinking about an issue in your life that is even harder to deal with? Try writing down how you feel when you aren't living up to your expectations, when you have started eating terrible or stopped exercising. How does it make you feel about yourself, about living in your skin? Do you feel out of control, sad, angry, disappointed, embarrassed, ugly?

Now think about how you felt when you were at the top of your game. Did you feel attractive, positive, strong, in control? When did you feel this way? When did this start to go away? Write all this down, including any other things happening in your life that may have made it harder to focus on your healthy habits.

Think about what habits or tricks worked for you when you felt great. I just read a great blog on identifying yourself as either an abstainer or a moderator. I recently experimented with being a moderator and it caused a lot of problems for me that I am still trying to fix, because I do better as an abstainer. It works better FOR ME to give stuff up completely than to try temperance. Don't listen to what the experts say at the expense of ignoring your own wisdom about yourself.

Once you have spent some time talking to yourself about these issues, get in the mindset of being a friend to yourself again. Get excited that you are learning from your failure and that soon you will be implementing what you have learned. You are back on the right path. One of the greatest gifts we have as humans is the ability to define things. You can tell yourself anything you want, and convince yourself it is true. You can tell yourself that you are on the right path again and that the period of unhealthy habits is ending. You can tell yourself that everything happens for a reason and accept it. Your mind is very powerful, so use it to your advantage and tell it what you WANT to be true.

In the next blog we will talk about the practicalities of getting back to your healthy ideal and making use of the lessons you have learned.

Food Baggage and Learning From Failure

2011-04-05T08:09:00.000-05:00

Knowledge is meaningless until you use it to make changes in your life. We can have all the knowledge in the world about why a paleo-inspired diet works, why we should avoid grains and vegetable oils and sugars and modern "food-like" products. Learning all of this isn't challenging. Implementing it isn't that hard, either. It's consistent, life-long practice where we run into trouble.

I have a tendency to be an "All or Nothing" person that chases perfection. I get excited about things and jump in all the way, which is why I can't restart my triathlon habit or even my running habit. I can't seem to do anything just a little bit. I also have had addictions to sugar and cigarettes in the past, and I have a strong history of addiction in my family. Those two traits create the bulk of my "food baggage", as one commenter here called it. They might be the same for you, they might not. But we all have food baggage just like we all have baggage that affects our relationships. It's useful to be aware of your baggage so that you are better able to address it. You can't address what you can't see.

The internet is full of people that do paleo better than I do. I read what they write. And there are even more people on the internet who pretend to do paleo better than I do. I read what they write, too. And maybe that's why I wrote this the other day about not reading paleo blogs so much anymore. It makes me feel like a failure. I AM a failure and it's OK! It's not about who does paleo best. It's about how I do paleo for myself, about how you do paleo for yourself, about how we evolve in our approach to paleo over time. It's about what we do with our knowledge of food over the course of years. Lots of paleo bloggers never talk about their food baggage, and that's fine. But they have it, I promise. They aren't any different than the rest of us, just perhaps more motivated at this particular time and more inclined to share successes rather than failures.

Out of a desire and drive to be perfect, we might push ourselves to be the most paleo person ever, the one that doesn't ever want a giant plate of nachos with cheese and beans, and WHO CARES where the chicken came from I just want to eat at a Mexican restaurant with my boyfriend once in awhile!! (ahem). As a paleo blogger, I wonder if I should also be one that only offers the good side of paleo, not the struggle behind daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly practice. But that wouldn't be an honest portrayal of the daily life of a paleo practitioner in a non-paleo world. In my life, sometimes I am doing really well with diet and exercise and sometimes I am not doing well at all. Instead of shooting for perfection, I prefer to aim for longer periods of "good" and shorter periods of "bad". And that is exactly what I see when I look back over the years I have been using a paleo diet in some form. I used to be able to "do" paleo for a week, then a couple of weeks, then a month, then many months, and now it's the norm. It's the norm because I learned lessons and rules and tricks through all those failures, and now I can offer those guidelines to others.

That perspective helped me turn healthy living from a fad to a habit to a lifestyle. I didn't give up every time I failed, even if that failure lasted months! I got back to my good habits again when I was ready. I was able to do this because eating a paleo diet is the only diet I know of that compels me to come back to it time after time, because it doesn't have to be perfect to work.

7 Things I Learned About Endurance Sports That Aren't True

2011-03-28T10:23:00.001-05:00

There are some things I have learned, believed, or heard as a triathlete and endurance athlete that I have realized aren't true. They held me back, made me feel guilty, and prevented me from reaching my full potential. Some of these may even be part of the reason why I am NOT an endurance athlete anymore.

Sometimes the things we think we should be doing are precisely the things that everyone is else are doing - the mediocre habits of every day people. Rather than helping us improve and evolve, they help us stay busy and maintain the status quo. Do you recognize any of these "truisms"? Are they holding you back or helping you be the best athlete you can be?

7 things I learned as a triathlete and endurance athlete that aren't true:

1. Getting up early is virtuous.
Triathletes are notorious for 5AM spin classes or masters swims. We frequently get up before dawn to get a workout in before work and stay up late at night trying to spend time with our spouses, watching TV, or doing all the stuff that doesn't get done due to 2+hours a day spent exercising.
It's not a virtue to live your life sleep-deprived. It's stupid. It's unhealthy. It makes you a slower athlete. Yet triathletes still feel it's a better use of their time to be swimming at 5AM than to be sleeping 8 hours a night. And their friends will admire them more if survive on 4 hours of sleep.
Want to break through the mediocrity? Put sleep first and exercise at lunch. Ditch your TV habit and got to bed an hour early.

2. HTFU. Ah, the mantra of all "real" triathletes: HTFU. Yes, triathletes need to "harden the fuck up" every now and again. But living your life by that mantra can make you afraid of one extremely vital habit of high achievers: critical thinking. If you are always afraid of being a big wimp, you will never be able to do what's right for your body and mind when it's time to make hard decisions. Taking a rest day when you are worn out, for example, is often MUCH harder for triathletes to accomplish than training through exhaustion. Again, what would your friends say?
Want to break through the mediocrity? Beating yourself to a pulp does not make you a better athlete. Athletic gains come from recovery, period (remember, that means SLEEPING).

3. Calories in/calories out is all you need to know for weight loss, fat-ass. Been there, done that, have the size 10 jeans to show for it. Ok, no I don't. I gave them away a long time ago, when I finally realized my fat ass didn't have anything to due with how many calories I ate. It had to do with my excessive exercise load, high-carbohydrate vegetarian diet, and lack of strength training. Being a triathlete does not mean your diet needs to be 70% carbohydrate. And it doesn't mean that everything you eat gets consumed in a metabolic vacuum with no consequences because you "burned it off".
Want to break through the mediocrity? Treat your regular diet as if you were not an athlete. Eat a balanced diet of whole, unprocessed foods that support your health, not your exercise habit. Add to that diet an "exercise diet" that only occurs right before, right after, and during exercise.

4. More is better (exercise). Triathletes aren't great at moderation. I was (am) no exception: 18 months from first sprint triathlon to first Ironman. We have trouble settling for anything less than EVERYTHING. And we get to thinking that if a little is good, a lot is better. It's not. A lot of exercise makes you injured. A lot of exercise makes it harder to lose weight. A lot of exercise makes you lazy when you aren't exercising because you are tired and "recovering". A lot of exercise makes you boring to a lot of people.
Want to break through the mediocrity? Resist the urge to jump from "some" to "tons". Work on speed before you move up to long distances. Work on diet before you throw more exercise at a weight problem. Honestly evaluate the quality of your training before you decide to adjust the quantity.

5. Sports nutrition can make or break your race. Sports nutrition companies strike fear into our hearts. Without their chocolate-espresso-2X caffeine with amino acids and unicorn blood power gel sustained energy perfection in a easy tear pouch (now with protein), we would surely bonk within 30 minutes of starting our easy mid-week recovery ride. This is very insulting to our bodies. Our bodies are capable of so much more than we give credit for. We are so controlled by the idea of "fueling" our exercise that we totally forget that we HAVE fuel already. It's called body fat. But guess what? If you constantly supply your body with sports nutrition, it will use it to fuel exercise and leave your precious body fat where it is. You may not be burning much body fat at all under those circumstances.
Want to break through the mediocrity? Treat sports nutrition as a luxury, not a necessity. Use it when you want or need a boost - on race day. Train with it only when needed to fuel very hard or very long sessions. Try using food, too. Raisins, bananas, trail mix, or candy can work just as well as sports nutrition.

6. Being a triathlete makes you healthy. I thought I was healthy because I exercised a lot. It didn't matter that I constantly worried about my unbalanced diet, that I spent loads on time lying around on the couch, that I frequently got colds, that I was 10-15 pounds heavier than I should be, that a walk up the stairs left me winded and achy. We triathletes like to believe we are healthier than our friends, our co-workers, our family members. We aren't. We just have better cardiovascular fitness. Take away cardiovascular fitness as a marker of health and what else about being a triathlete makes you healthy?
Want to break through the mediocrity? Don't rest on your laurels. Don't hide behind being an athlete as an excuse to avoid dealing with your unhealthy habits and lifestyle choices. Understand that adding exercise onto an unhealthy life does not make you healthy. Additionally, if you add too much exercise onto that unhealthy life of junk food, sleep deprivation, and stress you will easily make yourself less healthy than you already are. Use your triathlon habit as motivation to become healthier, not an excuse to be less healthy.

7. Triathletes are physically fit. It's such a great feeling to ride your first 100 miler or run your first double digit run. It is amazing to see for the first time what you are capable of and to do things you never dreamed you could accomplish. It is incredibly rewarding and triathlon is certainly a medium for growth in all areas of our lives. While developing endurance does increase cardiovascular fitness, it is by no means the definition of "physically fit". It is only one part of fitness. The other parts are just as important. Can you do a pull up or push up? Can you put your shoes on in transition without sitting down? Can you jump into an aerobics class or weight room and survive a workout there? You don't have to if you don't want to. If you are a serious triathlete, you probably shouldn't. But if you are like me, you liked to believe you were physically fit until the day you went to your first kettlebell class and lasted 3 minutes. Not fun.
Want to break through the mediocrity? Challenge yourself to be the strongest and most resilient triathlete you can be, not just the fastest. Make time for fun activities, make time for balance training, make time for resistance training. Don't ignore the things that help your body function best in daily life in the pursuit of what helps it function best in triathlon - they are frequently not the same things.

What about you? Can you think of any habits or notions that you believe that might be keeping you in the middle of the pack?

Confronting Guilt

2011-03-22T08:48:00.000-05:00

Guilt is a useless emotion if left to hide and fester, but can be a powerful self-improvement tool if confronted. Most of the time, the things we feel guilty for are things we think we should or shouldn't do but that may or may not matter all that much. When I am feeling guilty about something, I try to become really aware of the guilt and take the time to determine whether the guilt is either:

1. telling me something I haven't been able to see yet
or
2. telling me something I see that isn't real

In my never-ending quest to improve the quality of my life and help others do the same, I am always searching for inspiration. I love learning and reading and gathering information. I'm not as good at choosing what I should focus on when it comes to creating information for other people. I changed the name of this blog to "Health Metamorphosis" because I thought I should focus more on the health, nutrition, and exercise, but now I find myself feeling boxed in by that self-imposed niche. I feel guilty that I don't feel like writing about food. That guilt is something I decided to think about some more in order to determine whether it is #1 guilt or #2 guilt (you can flush #2 guilt -it's crap).

The answer to this question came to me when I examined my RSS habits. I have 142 subscriptions in my RSS feed in 20 categories. The largest categories are Health, Paleo, and Exercise. But when I open Google Reader, I don't read those categories. I read Mentors, which is the category I created for the blogs I follow that inspire me to live a life closer to my own ideal. They include:

The Happiness Project
Zen Habits
Marc and Angel Hack Life
Tim Ferriss
The Art of Non-Conformity
Man vs. Debt
Peace and Projects
Becoming Minimalist

So out of 142 subscriptions, the ones I read the most can be counted on 2 hands. I still love all the rest and think are incredibly valuable but I just don't feel inclined to read them right now. And I feel guilty about that. But the thing is, too much information can be really paralyzing. I am in the exercise and nutrition field as a career. I need to be well educated, and I am. But there comes a point where you need to focus on what you already know and learn from the people right in front of you every day (my clients) rather than worrying about what you don't know.

Long story short, my guilt came from thinking I should learn as much as I could about one thing and only blog in that category. I am going to use my analysis of that guilt to inspire change because the guilt showed me something I wasn't yet fully aware of: I want to blog about every aspect of healthy living, from eating paleo to exercising wisely to living debt free to living a life outside the mainstream to creating multiple streams of income. And I will. Because it's my blog.

So what are YOU feeling guilty about? Is it #1 guilt or do you need to flush it?

Spring Purging

2011-03-10T10:35:00.001-06:00

Do this today:

Go into your closet and find 10 winter clothing items that you did not wear all winter. Put them in a bag and bring them to Goodwill. The end.

You: In a Zoo

2011-03-09T10:34:00.001-06:00

Do you have a dog or cat? If so, what do you feed it? Probably mass-market pet food that is partly based on what the animal would eat in the wild and partly based on economic considerations. If money and effort were no issue, what do you think your cat or dog would like to eat every day? Probably not Purina Cat Chow. Unless it was made of live birds and bunnies and mice. It's actually made of the following:

Poultry by-product meal, ground yellow corn, wheat flour, corn gluten meal, soybean meal, brewers rice, beef tallow preserved with mixed-tocopherols (source of vitamin E), fish meal, brewers dried yeast, animal digest, phosphoric acid, potassium chloride, calcium carbonate, tetra sodium pyrophosphate, calcium chloride, choline chloride, dicalcium phosphate, salt, taurine, zinc oxide, ferrous sulfate, vitamin supplements (E, A, B-12, D-3), L-Alanine, riboflavin supplement, niacin, calcium pantothenate, manganese sulfate, biotin, thiamine mononitrate, folic acid, pyridoxine hydrochloride, copper sulfate, citric acid, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of vitamin K activity), calcium iodate.

Now, if you were a human animal in the wild, what do you think you eat? And as a domesticated human animal, do you eat those same things? Or do you eat mass-market human food that is partly based on what you would eat in the wild and partly based on economic considerations? In the wild you might eat a ruminant animal like a cow or bison. Or birds and bunnies and mice, if you had to. But as a domesticated human you might eat a veggie corn dog made with the following:

WATER, ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, FERROUS SULFATE, THIAMINE MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], FOLIC ACID), ENRICHED YELLOW CORN MEAL (YELLOW CORN MEAL, NIACIN, FERROUS SULFATE, THIAMINE MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], FOLIC ACID), SUGAR, WHEAT GLUTEN, CORN OIL, CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, SOYBEAN OIL, YELLOW CORN FLOUR, SALT, METHYLCELLULOSE, DEXTROSE, HYDROLYZED VEGETABLE PROTEIN (CORN PROTEIN, SOY PROTEIN), EGG WHITES, NATURAL FLAVORS, BROWN SUGAR (SUGAR, MOLASSES), SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, NONFAT MILK, POTATO FLOUR, LEAVENING (SODIUM ACID PYROPHOSPHATE, SODIUM BICARBONATE), SOY FLOUR, CARRAGEENAN, MUSTARD FLOUR, ONION POWDER, MALTODEXTRIN, SPICES, XANTHAN GUM, AUTOLYZED YEAST, PAPRIKA (COLOR), GARLIC POWDER, SOYBEANS, DISODIUM GUANYLATE, DISODIUM INOSINATE, HYDROLYZED TORULA AND BREWER'S YEAST, WHEAT, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN AND/OR COTTONSEED OIL†, GUM ARABIC, HYDROLYZED VEGETABLE PROTEIN (CORN GLUTEN, SOY PROTEIN, WHEAT GLUTEN), THIAMIN HYDROCHLORIDE, PAPRIKA EXTRACT (COLOR), AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, LACTIC ACID, RED #40, CITRIC ACID, BLUE #1.

Looks a lot like Purina Cat Chow, doesn't it? Actually, I think I would rather eat the cat food.

This junk might work to keep you alive, but is it what's best for you? Is sustaining life enough for you or do you want to thrive? Try to eat more of what you would eat in the wild and less of what we would be fed if Planet of the Apes was real and we were all kept in zoos.

Because I Said So

2011-03-04T06:26:00.001-06:00

I've ranted before about becoming "food adults" by accepting where our food comes from, that meat is from animals we kill from food, that eating constantly from restaurant menus is infantilizing, and that real change comes from taking charge of your life. While these are critical steps to changing your food life, the opposite principle can also help: treat yourself like a child.

When we were children, we did (or didn't do) a lot of things because there were rules. We didn't think about most of those rules but they certainly allowed us to do the important stuff of childhood like playing and feeling safe and not agonizing over whether it would be ok to eat a bag of doritos at 10:30 at night. The sheer number of food cues and stimuli in our society make it very hard for adults to continually make better choices, and it can help to imagine you have a set of rules to follow like you did in childhood.

Any time you create a rule, you place a protective bubble around yourself. It can save your will power for another fight because the rule takes away the choice, just as it would for a child. Rules that you impose on yourself have the power to be as comforting as the firm hand of parental guidance. It's when we face infinite choice that no choice seems to satisfy us.
People like to believe that obesity is a morality issue that can be fixed by stronger strength of character and more will power. While I do believe that is a dead-end way of thinking for the most part, there is something to be said for will power - but not in the way you think. Will power IS important, but the best way to strengthen it is NOT to use it more often. It's not like a muscle that gets stronger the more you strain it. It's just the opposite: your will power gets stronger when you use it as little as possible. If you can make some changes in your daily life that take the burden off your will power, then your will power will be stronger when you really need it, in those situations where you cannot control the environment.

You can change your environment in two ways: make your home and work as stimulus-free as possible, and create rules. I have 4 children and a partner that eat things I choose not to eat. Some of the things they eat I do not find tempting, such as gluten-containing products, cereal, and popsicles. I can keep those things in the house without spending huge amounts of mental energy resisting them. If I have chocolate in the house, on the other hand, I will think about it all the time.

Rules that I follow that save me a lot of mental theatrics: no eating after 7pm (this saved me from eating junk food at the Predators game on Saturday), no gluten EVER, no snacking (eat a meal if hungry, otherwise snacking is for mental, not physical reasons). Some I have used in the past to address particularly thorny issues: no sugar, no eating out.

You can't fix everything at once. Instead, pick one food issue that you really struggle with and try to create a rule for that issue. Pretend that rule is unbreakable and is as strong as you imagined your parents to be when you were young, because sometimes when your parents said "because I said so", they may have been making life a lot easier for you, and you can do the same for yourself.

Second, make sure your primary environments are not encouraging failure when it comes to your one issue. Is your home a place where you can free your mind of your struggle with this issue? What about your work environment? If not, why? And what can you do about it to stop blaming yourself and start helping yourself?

Upgrading is not always better

2011-02-28T09:33:00.001-06:00

I am incredibly relieved this morning. I feel like things are working better, faster, and simpler for me. Why? Because I finally gave up on the Firebox 4 beta and went back to Firefox 3.96 or whatever it is. I have a four year old Macbook and the Firefox beta was giving pushing it beyond its abilities. I got really used to impatiently staring at the "rainbow wheel of death"and cursing. It was so frustrating, yet I put up with that nonsense for about 2 months in the name of progress.

As soon as I downgraded, I felt better. I also realized that downgrading Firefox is a perfect example of what we all struggle with: doing what we are supposed to do, upgrading to newer and "better" and more expensive and more complicated things that don't actually make our lives any better. In fact, they frequently make our lives more stressful, less enriching, and more defined by the people and things around us than by our own deeply buried passions and motivations.

Do you need that "nicer" car, cell phone, house, television, purse, vacation, or furniture? Is it possible that what you really need is to downgrade all the things in your life that control what you do with your time and money? In the end, you might feel better if you purposefully move down the totem pole and let everyone around you continue to duke it out at the top. It's a lot less stressful, trust me. Even if it's only a web browser.

I won't tell you what to do

2011-02-15T15:23:00.002-06:00

I eat a paleo diet. In one form or another, with modifications, different levels of strictness, carb intake, fasting, and dairy consumption thrown in there from month to month and year to year. It works, I'm happy, I am at peace with food.

When my clients need help with food, I attempt to get them to eat paleo, without calling it paleo. I usually fail. So a few months ago I created a 10-Day Detox Diet, which is totally gluten-free paleo, and I saw much better compliance and willingness to try it than ever before. If I can get someone to do this for 10 days, then that is a seed I have planted. I don't expect most people to try paleo and never look back. I didn't do that, so why would I expect anyone else to? I DO know that once the seed is planted, it at least has a chance to grow. Paleo is a strong seed, a great place to start. It speaks for itself. It may take awhile, but I would rather it take awhile to fully take hold with my clients as they learn more and gain more experience with paleo eating and cooking then see my clients go 100% paleo and then cheat and fall off the wagon totally.

For this reason, I won't ever create a paleo meal plan for anyone. I know some of my clients would like this more hands-on approach and that I could make more money doing it, and I respect the dedication it takes to pick a plan and follow it. But the most important component of healthy eating is personal responsibility and agency. Following a meal plan does not teach you how to care for yourself, how to think for yourself, how to cook for yourself with whatever happens to be in the kitchen, or how to take control of your life. Even if the meal plan is 100% paleo, it is still not teaching you to evaluate or engage or learn about what and how you are eating. I am tired of a society that encourages the infantalizing of eating habits. We are ADULTS. If we don't know how to grocery shop or how to cook or what pan to roast a chicken in, then we need to LEARN. We need to stop looking for people to tell us what to do and start telling ourselves! That is why I believe it's ok for it to take years to go paleo. At least those years are spent learning and growing into someone that can and does take 100% responsibility for their health and can stand on their own two feet. And maybe more than eating real food, eliminating grains and dairy, and eating seasonally, that is what I believe eating paleo is about: ownership and engagement.

My goal as a coach isn't to tell people what to do. It's to help them do the right thing. I help people become better versions of themselves, and blindly doing what I tell you to do isn't going to help you grow into a better person. It's going to PREVENT growth and instead create:

1. Dependence on me to do the right thing on your behalf. This is no different than relying on restaurants to supply you with healthy food instead of learning to cook.

2. Blind faith in a diet that can speak for itself. If you just listen to your body when you try a paleo-based diet, you will learn more in 10-30 days then you would ever learn just following a plan and not taking an active role in the choices you are making.

I can help people make better decisions, and I try to do that every day. If I tell you that every meal you eat should be made up of a protein, a fat, and a vegetable (optional), and that is confusing to you, I can help with that. But I can't tell you which protein or fat or vegetable to eat every day. You have to do that, and learning to take responsibility for that will be the beginning of your own food revolution.

BTW...If you want to read more about paleo/primal eating I recommend the following, which you can buy through my affiliate links below or on your own at the bookstore or Amazon:

A New Way to Evaluate the Year

2010-12-20T15:16:00.000-06:00

It's almost the end of the year. Instead of blogging about what I have accomplished or places I have traveled to this year, I am going to talk about something that makes a greater impact on my happiness and well-being every day: less.
This year has been a year where I focused more and more on having less and less. I read something about a year ago about how misguided and pointless it is to be organized. I had always felt a desire to be more organized until I read that and realized that it wasn't organizational skills I needed. I needed to GET RID OF STUFF, not find a better way to contain it all.
So, I began to sell on Craigslist. I began to bring bags and bags and bags of stuff to Goodwill. And it feels really, really good! I don't regret anything that I have let go of. I can't even remember most of it. The less stuff I have, the less I want. Getting rid of stuff has proven to be as in-the-moment thrilling as buying stuff, but the thrill LASTS longer because that stuff is out of my space and my space is just that - space. Emptiness is much more attractive than I ever imagined. In some strange way, I was afraid of empty space, afraid that it meant my house was not properly decorated if a corner was empty or a wall was bare or if every surface didn't have an accessory.

If you want to try getting rid of stuff and embracing the minimalist in you, perhaps this list of things I got rid of will give you some ideas:

Boxes: TV and computer boxes, iPhone and iPod touch boxes, shoe boxes.
Sporting goods: kids golf set, old sneakers, old triathlon equipment, spare helmets and shoes that were never used.
Furnishings: I had a rug stored in the garage, 2 fake trees, tons of fake greenery, candlesticks, candles, a painting, a mural, and decorative items that I let go of.
Dishes: I have three sets of dishes. I have only succeeded in letting go of one set of mugs and saucers, plus my rag-tag assortment of coffee mugs that weren't in regular rotation.
Cooking utensils: I had two big drawers filled with cooking implements. I got rid of all un-sharp knives and all gadgets that weren't used on a regular basis.
Pantry items: I had 2 grocery bags full of expired canned goods in my pantry. Another way to pare down is to not allow trips to the grocery store for 1-2 weeks while you use up all your frozen foods that get ignored. I was amazed at how many duplicate spices I had! I had 3 jars of sage, 2 full jars of tarragon, 2 basils, 2 oreganos, 2 turmerics, 3 cloves, and about 4 different sea salts. I condensed them when I could. If I had two that were full, I threw one out. Yes, it's wasteful. But the way I see it, I was wasteful when I bought the second one, and am now just dealing with the consequences.
Books: I have given away over half of my books in the last year, mostly fiction. I have kept a few very dear authors and all my non-fiction, work-related books. I love reading but if I know I am not going to re-read something, I don't need to keep a visual record of the fact that I read it.
Clothes: At least half of my wardrobe was given to Goodwill. I got rid of about 80% of my purses, 50% of my shoes, 50% of my t-shirts and pants, and 95% of my race shirts. I took a picture of all my race shirts together before I gave them to Goodwill:

Towels: Got rid of all my old, ratty towels at Andrew's suggestion. He instituted a new towel system: every person in the house has 2 towels of a certain color. That's it.
Socks: Same as towels. All old socks thrown away. Every kid has about 5 pairs of socks that are easily identifiable as belonging to that child.
Holiday decorations: All outdoor decorations were sold this year. I don't care anymore. I love my indoor stuff, so I am choosing to keep that and let go of the other stuff. I also got rid of an entire set of ornaments, tree skirt, garland, and bows for a "red" themed tree that I no longer do every year. I pared down my indoor decorations and got rid of things I didn't LOVE.
We never got around to using any of our Halloween decorations this year so they are getting fired, too. I am not going to take up precious garage space with something that doesn't get used.
Toiletries: all the little hotel soaps, airline freebies like eye masks and disposable toothbrushes, all lotions and soaps and hand cremes that had never or rarely been used. It's fun to get free stuff, but if it takes up space in my house and I never use it, it's time for someone else to enjoy it.
Halloween costumes: My kids don't need all of their old Halloween costumes, so I gave them to a teacher friend.
Picture Frames: I have a big box that holds all of my pictures from "Before the Age of Digital Cameras". Lots of those pictures were in frames but I didn't feel like displaying them, and haven't done so since I have lived in this house. I had one of children take all the pictures out of the frames and I donated the frames to Goodwill. Eventually I will get all of those pictures converted to digital.
Suitcases: How may do I really need? Not as many as I had.
Roomba: It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I hardly ever used it. Easy sell on Craigslist.
Old cameras, cell phones, owner's manuals, and power cords. I had 2 old cameras and 3 old cell phones, plus at least 5 charging cords that were no longer used. Gone!
Knick-Knacks: I let go of an endless amount of knick-knacks and dust collectors. I don't want my house to look like the inside of a Tuesday Morning store anymore. I love beautiful things but it has to be absolutely gorgeous for me to spend money on it and bring it into my house now. I'd rather buy a new kettlebell than a new lamp.
Wrapping Paper and Gift Bags: These are remnants of times past: having younger children that always had birthday parties to go to, and having lots of baby showers to go to. I have no need for baby shower gift bags or birthday wrapping paper and bags. When my kids go to parties these days, they give gift cards or cash.

Tis the season to give and receive. Try being mindful about whether the things you are giving and receiving are treasures or just trivialities.

Just because it's edible doesn't mean it's food

2010-12-18T07:05:00.000-06:00

It's best to eat food. That's about the most basic advice I can give someone who wants to start eating better.

Until about 100 years ago, we didn't have much of a choice. We all ate food because that's all there was. Now it's becoming more and more confusing to understand what is food and what is just edible. The government says that lots of food isn't healthy, stuff our grandparents and those before them ate pretty frequently. The government also says that lots of stuff that our grandparents wouldn't recognize is better for us, like soy milk instead of whole cow's milk or margarine instead of butter or canola oil instead of lard.

Everything we eat is edible, but not all of it is food. And all edible products start out as food. Through processing they become something much less than the whole food from which they began. When people speak of the "whole food" way of eating, this is what they are getting at.

Look in your kitchen now and evaluate whether the things you buy at the store are food or just edible products. Sometimes the simplest thing to ask yourself is "Is this an ingredient or does it have ingredients"? If it's an ingredient, something you would use to make a meal or dish, then it's probably food. If it HAS ingredients, then it might be just an edible product. For example, canned tuna should be an ingredient. You buy it, bring it home, and use it to create something from a recipe, even if that recipe is:

1.open can
2. eat
However, these days if you try to buy tuna at the store, you may be surprised how difficult it can be to find a canned tuna that ONLY has tuna in it. Most have salt, vegetable oil, "natural" flavors, or preservatives in them. That makes them edible rather than true food. In the name of convenience (since it's so inconvenient to put mayo, salt, and pepper in a bowl with my canned tuna), we sacrifice quality food for edible products.

Another example: cottage cheese. The next time you are at the store, try to find a cottage cheese that doesn't contain natural or artificial flavors, stabilizers, guar gum, carageenan, mono and diglycerides, xanthan gum, locust bean gum, or carbon dioxide. It's very difficult to find real food cottage cheese instead of the edible product.

Just because something has food ingredients doesn't make it food in my book. Food provides for OPTIMAL health and wellness while edible products only sustain life. If you want to experience true health and well-being, limit the amount of edible products in your life.

What You Are Up Against and How to Engage It

2010-12-09T08:18:00.001-06:00

Let's talk some more about what it means to live in a "Toxic Environment", which is the term used by some to describe living in the US while attempting to moderate unhealthy food intake. I want to encourage everyone to watch this video by David Kessler,who is a former FDA Commissioner and author of the excellent book "The End of Overeating".

Since the video is an hour long, I know many of you will not be able to find time to watch the whole thing, so here are the good bits:

1. Starting at about the 11:00 mark, Dr. Kessler talks about what foods cause the reward centers in our brain to be activated. He makes it clear that fat alone is not a stimulator. "Sugar is the main driver. Adding fat is synergistic". In other words, eating fat by itself is not an issue, it's the combination or sugar and fat or salt and fat (mmmm, salted butter). He talks about this again at the 50:30 mark, where he re-iterates that fat satiates and stimulates, whereas sugar just stimulates.

2. Dr. Kessler talks about the brain and how we are "wired to focus attention on the most salient stimuli", meaning food a lot of the time. You can't change this in your brain, which makes it impossible to avoid devoting mental energy to all the food cues surrounding you every day: fast food signs, TV and print advertisements, pictures of food, other people bringing food to the office, etc.

3. "Anticipation of food" creates guilt and anxiety, which "amplifies the wanting". This is why weight loss has little to do with willpower in the absence of knowledge and awareness. Every time you are exposed to a food cue, you have to use your willpower "muscle". Over time, that "muscle" gets tired and weakens, making it harder to ignore food cues over the course of a day or week or month. The more food cues (or "salient stimuli" of other kinds) you are exposed to, the more likely you will indulge, whether that means eating a brownie or impulsively buying yourself a new pair of boots.

4. "The food industry has created food to be highly salient stimuli". When you eat at restaurant or buy processed foods, you may be eating food that has been purposefully designed to be highly stimulating to your brain, which causes overeating. "Conditioned hyper-eating is due to the rewiring of the learning, motivational, and memory circuits in our brains". So, the longer you have had a weight issue, the longer you have been eating this junk, the harder it will be to get off it, just like any drug addiction. Your brain has been altered, and to get it back to where it was before the chronic stimulation from artificial sources is a very difficult journey.

5. How do we address this? Knowing what we know allows us to become mindful. Mindfulness is the first step toward not only weight loss, but a healthy lifestyle. Dr. Kessler had a list of what to do and I will take them one at a time:

a. Reduce the chances of being stimulated. Avoid cues, avoid being primed, avoid being deprived.
This means you need to do your best to avoid situation and places where you are exposed to a lot of food imagery and advertising. Being primed means that you are exposed to a food image or idea, or even other emotionally charged images, and then placed in a situation that requires willpower. Lastly, you need to make room in your life to enjoy decadent food to avoid feeling deprived, which has the effect of making food cravings worse.

b. Reduce power of the stimulus. Develop rules. Use structured or planned eating.
I believe very strongly in the power of self-created rules to control eating. My monthly challenges are a perfect example if this. I create a rule that I cannot eat something or some group of things for a month. At that point, I have taken the need for willpower out of the equation, because the decision has already been made for me. I also have rules about not eating grains, industrial vegetable oils, legumes, added fructose, processed foods, soy, etc. That does not mean that I NEVER do that, but it does mean that most of the time I don't. And when I do, it's usually planned and I don't feel like a failure afterward, so I don't give up on myself in defeat.
Similarly, structured eating is a huge part of my success with weight maintenance and weight loss. Some structured eating ideas that work well for me: no eating after 7, 16 hour fast every day with an 8 hour feeding window, no more than 1 serving of fruit a day, choosing at the beginning of each month which days will be my cheat days. Again, I don't do these things all the time. Or all at once. It depends on what my goals are at the time and what I am struggling with. The point is, you can "condition yourself to follow rules", which takes the WORK out of it. It becomes natural, and then you have a lifestyle!

c. Change the value of the stimulus. Make a "critical perceptual shift" and create "alternate rewards".
Dr. Kessler made a useful corollary to the tobacco industry and how people didn't give up cigarettes until the social acceptability was taken away. We need to do the same with highly palatable food. We need to take away the positive emotional association with unhealthy food as best we can, think of restaurant food and processed junk as disgusting, remove the positive association with eating that stuff with others. Like I said in my post on choosing not to participate in food culture, Dr. Kessler suggests that you tell yourself "That's not my friend, that's my enemy" when you are face to face with highly palatable foods. It sounds silly, but it is SO important. Saying that over and over again makes it true over time!
You also need to create alternatives to rewarding yourself and others around you. No more food rewards.

One last suggestion from the video that I would like you all to try: the next time you are eating, or have a craving for something, try to figure out what the cue was. Sometimes it might be that you are very hungry. Sometime it might be the commercial on TV. In doing this myself, I noticed one day that my craving for chocolate was cued by visiting a shopping website that had a bunch of smiling people encouraging me to save 15% on my holiday purchases. I am trying hard to limit my spending this holiday season, and that exposure to the positive emotional association with buying stuff "primed" me to have weakened resistance to something seemingly unrelated.