Category Archives: weight loss

meditation, weight loss

My eating hobby: Step 2

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I follow diet and nutrition trends as a hobby. I love learning about it and talking about it. I am NOT an expert and am NOT qualified to professionally chat about diet and nutrition (although for 12 weeks and $600 I could be, so should I crowd source that? LMK 😉 )
All this is is me collecting my current personal thoughts into one place. This is not health or nutritional advice, I am not a medical professional, talk to your doctor before starting anything.
If you have ever felt shame when eating, hidden eating (not including a bag of chips when the kids are about), or feel that your body will never be ‘enough’, or ever used food ((or exercise) as a reward or punishment, SEE A DOCTOR to rule out an eating disorder.

Ok, this is step 2. Step 1 is over here, if you are looking for it.

Step two— and this is the single most important thing Noom apparently teaches— Mindfulness.

No, you do not need to pay the cost of a ‘new pair of shoes’ to learn that. Remember last step we talked about just breathing? Yeah this is linked. Just think.

OK, not like that. The idea is that many of us (hi!) consume mindlessly while doing other things. So, the plan is to pay attention to every thing you grab to consume, all water, candy, junk food, vegetables, whatever. If you are going to have a soda as a pick me up in the afternoon, really pay attention to the soda. Do not link food with any judgements (except if you like it or not) and you do not need to record what you eat. Just for a full week, be aware of what you are eating, Explore it with all your senses, and be mindful of how it also makes you physically feel. You do not need to do more than that- no meditation, no yoga (unless you want to).

Some places to learn about mindfulness that are free:
Mayo Clinic
A Free Course
Activities!

Remember, you do not need to do any extra work or study to just be *aware* of what you are eating and how it makes you feel. Just try doing only that for a week and then come back for Step 3.

weight loss, weight loss

My eating hobby: Step 1

Leave a comment

I follow diet and nutrition trends as a hobby. I love learning about it and talking about it. I am NOT an expert and am NOT qualified to professionally chat about diet and nutrition (although for 12 weeks and $600 I could be, so should I crowd source that? LMK 😉 )
All this is is me collecting my current personal thoughts into one place. This is not health or nutritional advice, I am not a medical professional, talk to your doctor before starting anything.
If you have ever felt shame when eating, hidden eating (not including a bag of chips when the kids are about), or feel that your body will never be ‘enough’, or ever used food ((or exercise) as a reward or punishment, SEE A DOCTOR to rule out an eating disorder.

Ok, that is going to start every page of this series of summaries if what I like and I think works for eating plans.

I love reading up on diets and food plans. I love watching the changes over the decades of what is healthy and what is thrown out. And I love all the parts of our diet— not the ‘weight loss diet’ that is what everyone thinks of nowadays rather than ‘diet’ meaning the food you eat as part of your culture and your personal taste. Most ‘diets’ to read about are for weight loss. So, I read about paleo and low carb and keto and all the like just because I get pleasure from it. Most all the ‘diets’ are garbage. I recently read the Noom book, and in discussing it, some people mentioned being interested in a low stress low energy way to look at food to eat healthier. So that’s what spurred this series.

Most (weight loss) diets come down to the same thing: calories in have to be less than calories out. No matter the gimmick, no matter the formula, no matter the way it’s presented, that is the *only* way to lose weight. So many plans dress that up and make it uselessly fancy, but that’s it. There is no magic bullet that will help you lose weight, no one change that will make it work and keep it working except that. So the basic plan for any weight loss program is to help you understand how to eat, and how to think to keep at a healthy weight for a long time.

So here: Step 1 to Gina’s self plan for eating to a healthier weight: breathe.

Breathe. We (yes, I will use the editorial we for this) have this. We have a body that is working for us, doing what it’s supposed to be doing, and we are going to show it the love and care it needs. It’s important to love our bodies because any depression or hate going into this relationship will throw up boundaries.
So we’ll think of three things we love our bodies for RIGHT THIS MINUTE and give our bodies a hug.
It’s a good body. It’s a good home, and it deserves to be praised for all the work it does.

See you on the next step.

Food, health, pulses, Uncategorized, weight loss, weight loss, whole grain

Chick pea Marbella (etc)

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Chick peas Marbella, bulgar, zuchini

Chicken Marbella was a hot and happening dish in the very early 80’s, and swept the country as a company dish. It’s got a complex flavor with some odd seasoning choices that make you go what? when you cook it and mmmm when you eat it. And it is a pretty good company dish.
But when you want a meat free pulse based meal… well, turns out, this works with chick peas.
It’s what we had last night for dinner. And that one change made the meal vegan as well as high fiber.

To about 3 cups (2 cans) of chick peas (garbanzo, ceci, hummus) add

1/4 cup chopped prunes
2T capers
2T red vinegar
2T olive oil
2 T brown sugar
2 T white wine
12 sliced green olives
1/3- 1/2 head garlic chopped
1 crumbled bay leaf
2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt AND pepper

Pour into a shallow pan and bake about 40 minutes.
I assume letting this sit overnight would make a good cold salad for a hot day, but right away, the chick peas were bland.

That’s literally it, for a dish my omnivore family prefers to the meat version.

Last night I also discovered that bulgar cooks on the range in minutes. I always prepped mine for tabouli, by pouring boiling water on it and letting it sit for hours, so I never thought of it as a ‘fast’ starch. But it is, faster than pasta, slower than couscous. Took less time than the zucchini took to prep and cook.
It was 1 cup of medium ground bulgar, 2 cups water, 2 T oil, pinch of salt in the pot together, covered, for about 10 -12 minutes. Then off heat, the last of the water was absorbed.
2 medium zucchini, 3 cloves garlic, 1T oil, salt and black pepper. Cooked with cover on, mostly.