Foiled by the snow

I'm just going to have to consider this week a wash as far as exercise goes.   Although, maybe I could do Friday and Sunday to get at least two weight training sessions in.  We down here in the ATL have been under house arrest because of the snow.  Oh well. 

One upside is that I made some awesome pasta over the weekend. 

I've had that quinoa pasta sitting in my pantry forever, so I decided to use it up.  I caramalized some onions in real butter, added the kale and sea salt, and then mixed it together with the pasta and a little glug of Amy's Roasted Garlic Olive Oil.  Sprinkled with feta and toasted pine nuts.  YUM.  I would totally make this again, but I think I'd use different pasta and add sun dried tomatoes.  I tried to to a calorie analysis on it, and it came out to approximately 400 calories.  Although I'm not sure if I got the pasta serving size correct - I'm terrible with ounces.  Add an orange and super yummy lunch.

I'm an ostrich, but a Plan is coming together

I was reading Emily's blog this morning and her post about hearing Jonathan Safran Foer struck me: 

His talk delivered a number of points that truly gave me chills.  The most memorable being this one:  if every person reduced the number of meat dishes they consumed each week by just ONE meal (just ONE!), it would be the equivalent environmental impact of taking FIVE MILLION cars off of the roads.

 His point was that we cannot realistically sustain the level of meat that we are currently consuming.  His argument isn’t against eating meat entirely, it’s against the current manner in which our meat is produced – 99% through factory farms.

I'll admit that I haven't read this book or any of the other "biggies" about factory farming.  I've gleaned enough from the snippets I've read or other commentary to make the purposeful choice NOT to read them.  That may sound weird, but let me explain. 

I'm at the first step of what I plan on being a MAJOR, and therefore, lengthy conversion of my diet.  I feel like if I were to read the "biggies" about factory farming, particularly as relates to meat, I would be forced to make sweeping changes for which neither my family or bank account is ready.  So I'm actually sticking my head in the sand for now.  And I'm okay with that.

I haven't really thought about the actual steps per se, but maybe it's time to do that.  First, I wanted to improve the quality of the foods I'm eating.  While my diet is not perfect and nor will it ever be, I can say without a doubt, that it's probably 100% better already.  I've quit the fast foods almost entirely and also quit the frozen dinner lunches.  I think my foods are now fresher, have more nutrients, and are more whole. 

Second, I want to drastically cut down on the amount of meat I'm eating and replace it with plant based proteins.  I've been eating quinoa and beans like no one's business.  Admittedly, my colon complained a little bit at the beginning, but after about a week, it settled down too.  So far, I suspect I've cut down my meat intake by about 40%.    I'm starting to think of meat as more of a garnish, something to be added to soups or other meals for flavoring, but certainly not the star of the meal. 

Circling back to my link to Emily's post, I had begun to get a feeling that our American obsession with meat was a unhealthy in a lot of different ways.  The quantity of meat and the quality of meat that we're eating cannot be good.  I feel confident in that even if I haven't read all the literature.  Yet.  So today when I picked a veggie patty at Subway (hey, sometimes circumstance forces your hand), I felt that I was making a better choice for me, but also for the environment.  It's win-win. 

I think step 3 will be incorporating more vegetarian meals into our family meals.  As part of this, I'd like to cut out some of the admittedly crappy meat we've been feeding the kids.  So my plan is to introduce vegetarian Tuesday dinners.  Hubby cannot cook on Tuesdays, so the menu on these days is pretty much up to me.  Also, he hates to eat a big meal before his soccer games on those nights.  So a light, veggie-concentrated meal would be perfect, no? 

Next steps will include eating better quality meat, better quality cheese, eating locally grown produce, growing my own produce(eek!), better eggs, stricter adherence to the dirty dozen/clean dozen rules and who knows what else.  Or in what order. 

It's a process, baby.

Check the Label

So Hubby is in school right now getting his B.S. in Physical Education and Health.  As part of his practicum hours, he has to teach a high school class.  The lead teacher wanted him to do a lesson on reading food labels.

Hubby is not the world's healthiest eater.  He loves red meat and starches in a box.  One of the first changes I made to my diet was to start looking at the protein and fiber in my foods.  Making sure I get enough of those nutrients is as important and keeping the fat and calories down.

Hubby seldom reads labels himself, so going through and creating the lesson plan has been eye-opening.  I've been telling him for months how there's "no food in your food," but he has just blown me off.  But I swear after this exercise, I can see the wheels turning in his head.

So the first part of his lesson will be taking about the different nutrients and the recommended quanties of each.  Then he has them look at sample food labels and fill out a questionaire about the different foods and their components.

The last part was my idea.  I pulled the following items from our pantry (sorry for the crummy pic):  

 From left to right we have ramen noodles, red lentils, brown rice, Kraft Macaroni dinner, red quinoa, and rice a roni noodles.  The lesson calls for spliting the students into six groups.   Then, as a group they would need to determine whether or not they thought the above was a quality food or not and why. 

I was big on the use of the word "quality" vs. "bad."  I mean, I like some Kraft dinner.  But I know it's not a quality food, so I don't eat as much or as often anymore.  I think we should think about food in its varying levels of quality, rather than "good" or "bad".  "Bad" implies that you should never eat something, but good, REAL nutrition seems to be about making quality choices overall so that you can have some less quality indulges. 

For me, sometimes nothing but a real Dr. Pepper will do.  And you know what?  I indulge because that's what it is.  An indulgence.  Not part of my regular diet.

Perfectly sore, perfect avocado

I love feeling slightly sore the day after weight training.  The soreness makes me feel like I really pushed myself instead of just going through the motions.  Right now my rear is very sore and my stomach is a little sore.  I really thought that my back/trapezius(?) would be too because I upped the weight for one arm dumbbell rows to 20lbs, but I don't really feel anything there. 

After I finished with the weights yesterday, I thought I'd hop on the treadmill and do some toes in/toes out walking for the shin splints.  But apparently I had already worked my calves enough because they rebelled.  They almost immediately started cramping, so I just stretched instead.  They feel fine today though.
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Last night Hubby made burgers which I have to admit were pretty darn tasty.  They certainly weren't lean (85/15 I think), but I had it on an Arnold's whole wheat sandwich thin (love those things - they're so versatile) with a side of homemade vegetable bean soup.  I'm so ready for fall weather so I can make tons of soup.  So easy, so healthy, and so many options.  Especially zuppa toscana.  I bet I could lighten it up a wee bit by subbing turkey sausage and whole milk, no?

Lunch today was kinda blah.  Quinoa with steamed broccoli.  I brought an avocado too but ate that at 10:30 because I never got a chance to have breakfast.  I think I've discovered the key to good avocados - buy them very green and let them ripen at your house.  I bought two the other day and one was green and one was semi-ripe.  The semi-ripe one was all yucky when I did cut it open a few days later, but today's avocado was perfect.  Nothing needed but salt and a spoon.  Yum.

I didn't squeeze in a walk yesterday, so I've got to do it today.  I brought my workout clothes, so maybe I can swing by the park today after work.  I have got to get more disciplined if I'm really going to start training for a half.  But you know what? I'm doing way more than I was a month ago, so I'm not going to beat myself up.
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I'm super excited to write about Hubby's lesson plan.  I helped a good bit and it goes with the theme of this blog. I would write about it today but I left the phone, with the picture on it, at home.

Ew, I was not a healthy girl yesterday.  I definitely overate, but at least it was reasonable food.  I don't think I've had fast food in over 3 weeks now.  Woo hoo.  I did have two real cokes yesterday, but no coffee so that sort of counterbalances, right.  Eh, rationalization, whatever.

Today, I'm finally posting the QUINOA.  How sad that this is the first time?  I made a batch Tuesday night and topped it with sauteed kale and onions.  I had some last night and it's super good.  I make my quinoa with a veggie bouillon cube and YUM.  Those onions may look like a bit much, but I use sweet onions and I think they counterbalance the (somewhat) bitterness of the kale. 

Sadly, I left my gym bag at home, so I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing for working out today.  I ran over to Tarjay just now to pick up a helmet.  I'm still on the self-imposed ban from running.  But I also picked up an inflatable mattress while I was there because we are going camping tomorrow.  Supposedly.  But since we're not at all prepared, I question if it will really happen.  No laundry is done, no bags are packed, no groceries bought...so, we shall see.

Also, no Whole Foods trip today.  Sniff.