My call to action...from television

Spring is springing, I can just feel it. Felt run down last night. Had some weird-ass dreams. (More on that below for those who care *) Before bed, I watched some TV, including my favorite cooking show, "Good Eats". The show took a left turn, and did an episode on weight loss via nutritional strategy. Usually the show is pretty religious about being about food, the technique and the science behind it. This time it started with a personal message from the host, about realizing that he was porker and set about doing something about it, following the rigor and logic that defines his philosophy. He dropped 50 pounds in 9 months, while producing his show and being a Food Network personality. Makes me pause.

He breaks it down into 4 lists.

• First list is stuff you can eat every day in whatever quantity you want. The usual suspects are here, like fruit, veg, nuts and whole grains.
  
• The second list is stuff that should be eaten a minimum of 3 times a week - oily fish, yogurt, broccoli, sweet potato and avocado.
  
• The third list is stuff allowed only 1 time a week -- unlike the first two lists (more the merrier), this list calls for reduction, not addition - red meat, pasta, dessert, alcohol. Red meat and alcohol no problem, but desert and pasta once a week? Oof.
• The fourth list is forbidden -- fast food, soda pop, processed meals, canned soups and anything "diet", a.k.a. artificially sweetened foods and reduced fat products that always taste crappier than the real thing.
  

I know desert once a week is not a realistic goal for me, but right now I'm hitting dessert 2x a day, the default position for my sweet tooth. It's not an all-or-nothing thing, I think I can adapt Brown's thinking to a workable plan for myself. Cutting dessert to three-times-a-week would probably make a pretty large impact.

Definitely gonna make some of the recipes from this episodes, where he focuses on the nutritional "super foods" that will prop up a diet based on the 4 lists. He roasted some almonds with some funky marinades which I'm quite certain will make B's toes curl (in a good way!) The sardines, I haven't really tried seriously since c-school, and in not very healthful applications, though I think I may have another go. And maybe some fresh mackerel, too...

BREAKFAST: 8:45am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
One of the "ah hah!" moments in the Good Eats episode last night was when Alton advised that making extra breakfast smoothie is recommended as a snack -- simply freeze into pop formation and all the nutrition that is packed into it can be snacked on instead of ice cream at a later point. Duh! I've been tossing a few bits of smoothie out here and there because B doesn't eat berries, and it starts changing colors and getting funky after 30 minutes. I have these bomb-pop molds sitting in the cupboard for years, after freezing some juice and finding them lacking. So today I froze 4 pops using the overrun. Hmmm. Between the banana and the yogurt in this concoction, I wonder if this is the right consistency to make a very healthy ice cream...

LUNCH: 12:30pm, spinach over brown rice, smoothie bomb pop, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Cooked up short grain brown rice in the rice cooker with plenty of chopped dried mushrooms, bay leaves, homemade chicken stock, a little cayenne, a little too much salt, black pepper and butter. Half a bag of frozen chopped spinach sauteed with a little stock, a little olive oil, crushed garlic and a little salt. A meal of whole grains and vegetable -- well within the every-day list. Not low-fat, or low anything, or even vegetarian, but nutritionally powerful...and very tasty.

Tried the frozen smoothie...definitely looses a little sweetness in the freezing, and it grew large crystals, giving it an unpleasant crunch. BUT it was satisfying enough to curb my urge to tuck into the chocolate ice cream in the freezer....

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, three small squares of bar - lemon, cherry jam and brownie

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, handful of pistachios, a few cashews, a handful of popcorn

DINNER: 9:30pm, 2 crab cake sandwiches on whole wheat and whole grain mustard, baby carrots, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
After a Food Coop meeting, hit up the supermarket for some supplies. Trying to put together dinner that met the lists, but would come together fast -- it was getting late. Whole wheat bread, a bag of baby carrots, and some fish cakes out of the fish department. They were ok, but makes me think I should make my own -- it's be a hella lot cheaper, a hella lot more fish and less filler, and probably a lot less salt, and I'll be able to freeze a bunch.

EVENING SNACK: 10:45pm, handful of freshly roasted almonds
Whipped these almonds out, not a big a flavor as I hoped. Smelled good, but missing something.


*I dreamt that Betsy had found some super-8 films of my parents and my family from my youth (which don't exist - my parents did not document anything in the filmic format), and secretly transferred them to DVD. The dream is B presenting them, then I sat down in the living room to watch them. The first footage is early 70s, I'm a baby, my mom has long hair, wearing a 1 piece bathing suit on the beach by the water, wearing garish early 70s makeup. I'm by her feet, looking awfully Edie-like. The second part of the footage is early-mid eighties, mom's hair is short, my hair is afro-like, and she's wearing much more conservative clothing, she's in an office, a little bit heavier.

The final part of the dream is I'm at the SI Ferry, waiting for my mom to come out of the bathroom. I'm now an adult and she's elderly. Instead of mom, my dad come out, and then I remember that my mom had passed away and I was looking after my dad (though in reality, the opposite happened.) As we did in his retired years, we walked off arm-in-arm. He needed the support, and he didn't like using a cane, and I really enjoyed strolling with him like that, like we were to Middle-Eastern best friends. Anyhoo...