The "Comfort" of a Relationship

So, I'm getting married. It's slated to happen sometime next year, and yes, I am marrying the best man in the world. We've had a great time together, wining and dining, and wining and dining, and wining and dining, and now it's time to pay the piper. We got happy and comfortable and now we find ourselves chubby but still merry.

I completed a half-marathon last year, and I'm attempting to do the same this year, and it's only in a few months, so I have to stop the gluttony and get my arse moving around, and my lovely fiance has pledged to do the same.

So here we find ourselves gathered around the juicer once again. We've been juicing and eating only vegetables for a few days now, in an effort to detox and to lose weight. The weight is more important for me and the detox is more important for him (eating heavy foods causes his food allergies to fight back with a vengeance, so we are also trying to eradicate those).

We have both been woolly-headed and short on patience for the past few days, and I've had a wicked headache, but I figure that's all part of it, that we'll get used to the change and move on. We're actually really enjoying our food and instead of eating out a lot, I'm trying to get creative once again in the kitchen. I will post recipes, I promise. In fact, here's one from yesterday. It is simple and delicious.  The quantities will depend on how many you want to feed, but I'll approximate what I did.

Roasted Pepper Soup

3 (or more if you have them) peppers - I used red, orange, and yellow
1 poblano or jalapeno pepper (optional)
1 carton vegetable stock (or equivalent homemade)
3 carrots, chopped
1 medium onion or 1/2 large onion, chopped
3-4 stalks celery, chopped
salt to taste
1 bunch cilantro (or parsley), also optional
1 can tomatoes

Sautee the carrots, celery, and onion in olive oil or coconut oil until they start to get soft. Add some salt at the beginning of this. I also added a little garlic powder for good measure, but it's not necessary.

Meanwhile, set your oven to broil and halve the peppers (including the poblano) and scrape out the seeds. Brush the peppers with oil and set them inside side down on a cookie sheet and broil them until the skin blackens and blisters, about 10-15 minutes. When I take them out, I rip the skin off as soon as they are cool enough for me to stand it!

When your veggie mixture is finished sauteeing, transfer it to a big saucepan and add the can of tomatoes and the vegetable stock and the roasted peppers. At this point, add some more salt and a few sprigs of cilantro. Let the soup boil and then simmer long enough for the flavours to combine, about thirty minutes or so.

Then take the best kitchen tool ever (the immersion blender) and blend the soup right in the saucepan. Before you do, you could add a little more cilantro.

I added some chopped cilantro to the top and served with salt and pepper.

This is delicious. You should try it!

Great Resource

Whole Foods Advanced Recipe Search

I have recently discovered this amazing recipe resource. I love the advanced search feature, in which you can specify things like Vegan, or Gluten Free, or Sugar Conscious. This means you don't have to search through irrelevant recipes and you don't have to encounter tempting recipes with ingredients (like dairy or bread) that you're trying to stay away from.

This Puts it all in Perspective

I just ran across this on Huffington Post today. It's about a chef who lost his entire stomach to cancer. In spite of this, he still can eat (although only small meals), and he still works around food. He has found a way to still work in his vocation with passion and to help other people use food to fight cancer:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/28/hans-rueffert-chef-stomach-cookbook_n_1011680.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

ShouldaWouldaCoulda

I started this blog to chronicle my weight-loss and health journey, while focusing too on the environmental aspects of eating and shopping for food. During the past few months, I have done more to further the cause and keep in the spirit of this blog than I did in the previous three years.

To explain, I finally kicked (mostly) some bad habits and have consistently taken responsibility for what I eat, what I buy, for weight loss, and for my impact on the environment.

My best friend in the whole world, Ms. O., got married this summer. She was ridiculously organized about planning her wedding and insisted we order our bridesmaid's dresses in January (for a July wedding). She picked a gorgeous but unforgiving purple pencil-style shiny frock that I ordered in a size a little too optimistic for my own good. The dress came and it didn't fit. I could get in it, but no amount of stomach-suckage and gyrations made it zip, actually I made a tiny rip during these bi-weekly shenanigans.

Nordstrom's sold out of the dress, so even though I was tempted to just order the next size up at one point, by the time I decided to give in, they had sold out. No way out of it now. If I didn't fit in it, she would kill me, stone dead. I had no choice. I had to stop stuffing my face.

I started swimming last year, and have kept this up for over a year now, but I still regularly stuffed my face, so the weight loss (and gain) fluctuated. At one point, I found myself at 70 lbs overweight. You would think this would shock me into doing something, but ultimately, the visions of Ms. O. murdering me (or at least castigating me with a look of disappointment and disapproval) worked wonders for my motivation.

Before the wedding, I managed to lose about 15 pounds through giving up most meat, cutting down on dairy, eliminating bread, most sugar, and fat. I limited myself to 900 calories per day (plus booze calories a couple of days a week) and saw results fast. I knew I couldn't sustain this for the long haul, but the wedding day loomed and I was a desperate woman.

With the help of Spanx, a good strapless bra, and the dedicated work of the other bridesmaids, we managed to tuck me inside the dress (and I could still breathe). Thank goodness gracious.

When I returned home, I decided to continue all the good work and started working out often because I don't teach many classes in summer I had an excess of free time. I also watched a documentary called Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, bought a juicer, and started what the movie calls "a reboot." I juiced for about three days, then started to eat only vegetables for a period of about five weeks or so. I currently have lost about 40 of the 70 pounds and am still going strong. I've introduced myself to all manner of new foods, have gone mostly vegan, and am eating better and feeling more satisfied and happy with what I'm eating than I ever have before.

More to come, folks!

The Blank Page

Hi there. Remember me? I'm the person who used to blog regularly, right here, on this blog. Life has been pretty busy lately. I've been working a full-time job, a traditional 8-5, 40 hour a week job, which is a situation and schedule that never suits me well. I just also started teaching a class once a week, so I've been easing into that. It's not that I haven't had time, it's just that I've felt mentally drained when I got home. I was leaving the house at 7, going to work, swimming after work, and getting home about 7, eating dinner, and going to bed.

Last week, I was informed that my temp job would be ending. I looked forward to working there another week, because I actually liked the people I worked with. I hung out with Mr. J. last weekend, and he managed to give me some kind of sinus/throat infection and I had to call in sick on Wednesday. I really was very ill, went to the doctor on Thursday, got anti-biotics and painkillers and have been recuperating since. It's Sunday and I still feel pretty awful. I know it isn't flu and it isn't strep throat, but whatever caused it is pretty nasty.

The temp agency didn't believe I was sick and the lady became rather suspicious and accusatory with me, and although I am presenting doctor's notes and prescriptions to them, I don't expect they will be in a hurry to find me another job. If you're a temp, you're not allowed to get sick, even though getting sick is on your own dime.

I'm still not feeling well, although I'm much better than a few days ago. My mother is angry with me because I'm not over at her house helping her go through her garage to collect things for a yard sale. So today, I'm a little tired of people being mad at me for being sick. I've already lost my job. I don't need more guilt.

I meant to write this blog about all the wonderful documentaries I watched while laying around the house for the past few days, but I got sidetracked. I do have to say that there are a few entries before this one that also appear on my other blog: Light and Dark, which is mostly about photography, but there are entries I wrote there that also fit here, and I didn't want readers of this blog to have a huge gap in what's been happening to me.

The Amazing Swim

I've been recovering from bronchitis/sinus infection Hell for the past couple of weeks, and rather typically, becoming impatient and frustrated with my body when I don't recover quickly enough. I went swimming on Sunday, did fine, went again on Monday and ached all the way through it and had difficulty breathing, went Tuesday and was miserable - I struggled to breathe, couldn't find any energy and just thoroughly felt defeated. I started to berate myself on the way home because I could only do a lethargic 25 lengths. Of course, I snowballed this self-abuse into me giving up on it entirely and getting tired of things too quickly. I said to a friend to tonight that if I were as mean to anyone else as I am to myself, I probably wouldn't speak to me.

Yesterday, an act of God intervened. I went to the Y and the pool was closed because of thunder and lightening. I didn't want to hang around downtown for it to re-open, so I just headed home and decided to go over to Miss B.'s for dinner and wine spritzers with her and her young though incredibly smart and charming new man-friend.

A night of good food, wine, Scrabble and good old Nashville guitar playing did me the world of good, even though I exceeded my calorie goals (OH NO!) and got a little tipsy and home too late.

Today I braved the pool after my divinely intentioned Day of Rest and knew immediately on dipping myself into the water that I was back! I sailed through the water effortlessly and just rejoiced in the feel of it around my skin and revelled in my ability to glide through it. Today, I managed to swim more than half my lengths front-crawl, and finished 1600 metres in under half an hour. I was actually out of breath when I got out of the pool and felt like I had an incredible workout. I was proud of my body and what it can do.

When I left the Y, I actually felt high on the endorphins. I truly enjoyed my workout. I am glad I have got to the point where it is fun, challenging and a high point in my day, not a chore or just a way to burn calories. I'm actually doing this for my mental as well as physical well-being. Not being able to work out properly until today has left me stressed and frustrated and I am grateful to finally feel like myself again.

More of the Same

Hello dear readers. It seems I haven't written in close to a month, but I just re-read my last blog and I am happy to announce I've continued according to the plan laid out then. I'm still swimming, still eating well, and still going to bed early.

Despite swimming regularly and eating well, I've been plagued with not feeling well for the past month. I had a weird stint of vertigo that lasted about three weeks, followed by a cold that turned into bronchitis and a sinus infection, so it has been difficult to maintain the good habits. I had to take three days off work (for which I did not get paid) and I've had to take a week off from swimming. I'm finally beginning to feel somewhat better, so I plan to swim this afternoon, and I know it will be difficult because I haven't done it for a week. I was getting pretty good there - I even got up to a mile! There's not much else going on really. I'm just eating well, exercising, and am pleased to say I'm losing weight. I'm currently wearing a pair of jeans that haven't fit since last September. I don't feel deprived in the least. I just finished eating a breakfast consisting of coffee with real cream and a whole wheat bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon and capers. I've cut down my portions significantly (I think that comes from not eating for three weeks - I never picked the appetite back up) and I'm trying to eat a lot of fish, fruit, whole grains and vegetables (oh and some chocolate thrown in for good measure).

I've also cut down on drinking. I figure it doesn't do me much good to swill down caloric depressants every night when I'm trying to battle that sort of thing. Also, the swimming makes me feel good and I find I don't really want to drink. This has cut down significantly on the calories I'm ingesting daily, and from what I can see, my efforts are working.