The Pizza Diet

And then there is the Pizza diet! Pizzeria owner Matt McClellan has set out to show the world that pizza can be good for you. We have just learned to eat it wrong he says, "we're trained to eat it wrong -- we're trained to eat a whole large pizza at midnight with a 2 liter soda and fall asleep". For a month McClellan ate a slice of Pizza every 3 hours and worked out for 1 hour. He claims to have dropped 24 pounds and 5 inches from his waistline. Now he has begun his "Tour de Pizza" a 30-day bike ride from Florida to New York set to arrive in Times Square, New York City on the 4th of July. He hopes to remove the "fast food" stigma from pizza while encouraging a healthier lifestyle. Says Matt, "If I can ride my bike to New York, come on America, you can spend one hour a day getting healthier." Right on dude!

The Pizza Diet - ABC TV

The Food Carnival

 Compulsive Eating and the Food Industry

"We are living in a food Carnival." Dr. David Kessler

"Latest figures show that more than one in three American adults are obese. Former head of America's Food and Drug Administration, David Kessler is concerned about what we are eating today. He tells Carrie Gracie that many of us have a compulsion to overeat because he says processed food has hijacked our brains. Food full of fats, sugars and salts is harming our health and making us obese and Dr Kessler says we have to stop eating them." World BBC, The Interview

 Listen to the BBC Interview: The Interview

Our Lady of Weightloss

Our Lady of Weightloss by Janice Taylor

With whimsy and great collages Janice Taylor motivates with humor and creative projects. No reason to be all heavy about weightloss! Here she shares tips on how to energize yourself in less than a minute.

Yoga for Your Head and Eyes

Mellow out your head in less than 5 minutes
with Rodney Yee and yoga for your head and eyes...

Chef's at the White House

Michelle Obama invites Chefs to the White House lawn to promote healthy eating for kids. That's great but... from this video clip it almost looks like all they are eating is broccoli. I've heard Michelle Obama talk about healthy food and I know her to be more moderate than a pure raw food vegan. As she says... "or the kids won't eat it". I'm almost sure the Obamas could not have give up President Obama's famous dish he makes, the tuna sandwich. Rachel Ray's suggestion of an apple for breakfast makes me hope those kids will also get some... maybe not bacon and eggs and sweet sticky buns but how about a little granola?

Purple Cabbage

 There's a Cabbage in my Scanner...

With a mind set toward including more vegetables in my diet I impulsively purchased a purple cabbage just because it was so beautiful. I didn't know at the time what I would do with it only that its voluptuous yet compact maroon & deep violet folds look like a cross between a brain and an opera singer's dress. Here is part of it in the skillet with an onion.

Steaming Cabbage & Onions

Treading Touchy Territory

You'd Be Pretty If You Lost Weight

 Venus at the Mirror - Peter Paul Rubens

In an earlier post I mentioned how much I hate getting even the most well-intentioned advice regarding my weight. I appreciate direct honesty much more than sideways hinting but still, unless you are my Doctor, if you are talking to me about my weight you are walking on very thin ice.

I probably know more than most people about nutrition and I despise being talked down to but lets dig down deeper into the real “meat” of this topic. When someone gives me weight-loss advice I very rarely hear it as helpful or kind. I hear it as complete rejection of myself as a human being. I hear that I am not OK. I hear that I am not worthy. I hear that I am not loved. Of course I hate it!

When I was younger I was told more than once that I’d be pretty if I lost weight. I never thought, “Gosh really? Maybe I should lose some weight.” What I thought was, “So, I’m not pretty. Fuck you, you fucking asshole.” Maybe I shouldn’t be quite so touchy but this is very touchy territory. This is also just the queasy, icky connection between food and self-loathing that I want to expose to the healing sunlight.

A More Asian Approach to Meat

 Anthony Bourdain

The other night famous, possibly infamous, chef Anthony Bourdain was on the Rachel Maddow show talking about his new book, Medium Raw. He talked about Asian street food, fast food that is actually pretty healthy, suggesting America might be better off with a similar system. One thing he said that stayed with me and followed me into the kitchen today was a suggestion that (although it may be a hard sell for Americans), using meat more like a flavoring than as the central focus of the meal like they do in Asia would be not only healthier but more economical.

Anthony Bourdain on Rachel Maddow

Free Advice

Besides giving up chocolate chip cookies and lattes one of the things I really hate about dieting is the unsolicited advice you always get from well meaning people. They usually suggest something obvious like eating less and getting more exercise. DUH. I kind of want to punch them in the nose and say, “I’m just fat asshole. I’m not stupid”. But, they mean well. Or, they may be sold on a particular diet that worked for them and be convinced it is what you should do too. “UH HUH, thank you for sharing.”

Some scientific types like to count and measure things. Not me. I did break down and get a scale but it is for me not my food. I don’t get along with numbers. With the Mayo plan they compare portion sizes to something visual like a portion of meat is about the size of a deck of cards. This is much easier for a semi dyslexic artsy type like me to relate to.

Some people love to get up early, put on their tennis shoes and go for a brisk run or worse yet to a stinky gym with lots of machines. Not me. Putting on my ipod at night and dancing around the living room is what I enjoy. My point is that we are not all the same. Our bodies and our temperaments differ wildly.  Finding the way that works best for you is critical to success.

The Fat Gene

I'm the pudgy baby on my daddy's knee, 
with sister Sally in the sandbox.

If I inherited a "fat gene" it was from my dear old Dad. As an adult my father struggled with his weight and sadly died of a heart attack at 55. His parents were not overweight. The were ranchers with an active lifestyle. My Dad was active in his youth but it was his generation who, after WWII settled down with desk jobs and put on weight.

My family history supports what I've just read about "fat genes", that variants of the gene FTO contribute risk factors for obesity but do not necessarily condemn a person to weight problems.

"FTO will not be the only gene that influences obesity, and inheriting a particular variant will not necessarily make anyone fat. "This is not a gene for obesity, it is a gene that contributes to risk," Professor McCarthy said."

Time Magazine, Mark Henderson, Science Editor - April 13, 2007

We may have developed these genes as hunter-gatherers whose lives were active and an ability to hold on to fat was a survival strategy that saw us through periods of famine. If our less active lifestyle of plentiful food continues a few more millennium these genetic factors may be selected out. Meanwhile, the good news is that food choices and activity level remain the greater factors determining weight. Some of us may have to work harder to maintain a healthy weight but we are not condemned to a life of obesity by our genes.

Sweet and Creamy

From an article on the Ayurvedic approach to weightloss: “Sweets and oils give us a sense of being nurtured and comforted, both mentally and physically, and robbing ourselves of these is the downfall of most dieters.” In the case study they recommend moderate use of oils and sweets while making fruits, vegetables and whole grains the main part of the diet. This aligns well with the Mayo food pyramid also based on fruits, vegetables and whole grains but with a nice little piece of dark chocolate at its pinnacle. Can't quite pay the rent? Well then, better have a cookie with that.
 

Yep, Nothing like a nice cup of hot chocolate to get the bitter taste of the ashes of failure, loss and a broken heart out of your mouth. It is no wonder I like my sweet and creamy substances.

Paring Down by Carrie Demers, M.D. Yoga International 1999

Women, Food & God - Geneen Roth

Geneen Roth was interviewed last night on New Dimensions. The interview can be downloaded free for the next two weeks. After that it can be purchased for $1.99. Roth's book is based on her workshops. She has created a life's work helping people overcome obsessive relationships with food. I have her new book on hold at my public library. A free excerpt is available on her website where you can also join her online retreat.

"The way you eat is inseparable from your core beliefs about being alive. No matter how sophisticated or wise or enlightened you believe you are, how you eat tells all. The world is on your plate. When you begin to understand what prompts you to use food as a way to numb or distract yourself, the process takes you deeper into realms of spirit and to the bright center of your own life. Rather than getting rid of or instantly changing your conflicted relationship with food, Women Food and God is about welcoming what is already here, and contacting the part of yourself that is already whole—divinity itself." Geneen Roth

Geneen Roth on Women Food and God

Down with Demon Half & Half!

Carrie Nation

Spirited Prohibitionist

Hallelujah! I am free of the demon half & half and agave! Even though I've been on the Mayo Clinic 's 2 week jump-start diet program for over a week, I've been drinking coffee with half & half and agave every day. Enough now! I repent! An image of a desperate alcaholic in a back & white movie lurked in the shadow of my mind as I poured the demon substances down my kitchen sink drain. It was a Carrie Nation moment.

Screen Time & the Mayo Clinic Program

It may have been fortuitous that my computer died (now resurrected, hallelujah!) while I started the Mayo Clinic Weightloss program. One of the rules for the first 2 week jump start of the Mayo program is: No TV while eating and only as much TV time as time you spend exercising. Not that I consider all of my screen time on the computer "TV" but certainly downloading Justified, my favorite TV show, and watching The Rachel Maddow Show, another favorite, count as TV. All too often I have eaten at my desk while online. Exercising while watching is OK. On the program I had to dance through the whole 60 minutes of my Old Crow Medicine Show DVD plus do a 25 minute Yoga set just to watch the movie Crazy Heart. Now, I love the Dude but I'm not quite sure that movie needed to be so long. I've also become pickier about which clips of the Maddow Show I will watch if I have to pay for it with exercise. The good news is I feel more energetic already from all this exercise.

Dancing to Old Crow Medicine Show DVD

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Michael Pollan, well-known author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, has a new book called Food Rules. Says Pollan, "We know there is a deep reservoir of food wisdom out there, or else humans would not have survived to the extent we have, much of this food wisdom is worth preserving and reviving and heeding." In a New York Times interview with Tara Parker-Pope, Pollan explains that through consulting folklorists, anthropologists, doctors, nurses, nutritionists and dieticians "as well as a large number of mothers and grandmothers" he compiled the rules for his book.

Nana Lu

Eat food, not too much, mostly plants, just about says it all and the book is divided into three sections based on this rule. The rules are simple, brief and funny. Like, Don't buy cereals that change the color of the milk. Or one rule that Pollan says is common to both Jewish and Italian grandmothers, The whiter the bread, the sooner you'll be dead, which reflects the cultural wisdom that whole grains are more nutritious.

Use Your Brain!

Woman's Brain

Not only does healthy eating take money and time to shop it also takes time in the kitchen and it takes planning and forethought. This may seem obvious to people who are accustomed to sitting down to three regular planned, prepared meals every day but as a single person I tend to not think about food until I'm hungry and then I just want something good right now. My dining table is completely covered with art projects. I eat at my desk... There are innumerable ways I could bring more mindfulness into my personal food culture.

Olfactory Hypnosis

LimbaSLIM is one way I know I can enlist the use of my mind, imagination and sense of smell as aids to healthy eating. Developed by my friend Rebbecca, LimbaSLIM employs sense of smell along with guided self-hypnosis to tap into the part of the brain associated with memory and emotion. We have all experienced smells that we associate with memories and feelings even decades later. LimbaSLIM works by associating a particular sent with a 10 minute guided journey into our subconscious and our own imagined healthy food experience. Then before shopping or eating or whenever you need to, you can access that positive place by breathing in the scent associated with it.

Limbic System

I know LimbaSLIM works because I've seen the results... (at least in others). I quit using the method when I became a Vegan because I thought being a Vegan would be all I needed to do to lose weight. That was a disappointing mistake in my case. Today I'm celebrating May Day by selecting LimbaSLIM on my ipod and taking that healing deep into my brain.

Pepsi? Fries? Deathwish?

Did I really have a Pepsi, a halibut burger & fries for dinner yesterday? Well, yes I did. Even after listening to Jamie Oliver? Uh, yeah. Am I crazy and trying to commit suicide? Well....

The Suicide Weapon

I've been broke, eating rice and whatever else was hiding in the back corners of the fridge while waiting for pay day. This had me pretty vulnerable to making poor food choices. I'd just worked a long day and was meeting a High School kid at Jimmy's Cafe to talk about a project. That was all it took. Yes, I could have ordered a salad instead of fries but the salads at Jimmy's just don't look that good. I wanted something satisfying... like fries and tarter sauce.

Frida with Parrots by Paula Linares

I think the key here is to not give up. Because really, if I just have fries & tartar sauce a few times a year it might not kill me. Which all leads me to wonder if I'm seemingly magnetized to suicidal eating because I have a subconscious death wish? Meeting as Jimmy's was my idea. I've read that cigarette advertisements tap into the deep, dark, death wish region of our subconscious. Like anyone, I've had moments when I've thought "Oh shit, just shoot me". But no, I think my will to live is strong. I better go do some yoga.

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

Jamie Oliver's TED award Speech

Poverty and Obesity

Poverty Rangers by Jonny Starwind

Studies show that poverty is linked to obesity. In the British study, Poverty and Obesity, from the Social Issues Research Center, Bob Holman, who quit academia to work on projects in socially deprived areas, says... "This is not rocket science. Poor health is a well known feature of deprivation. Mothers are not daft and they do know fat and crisps are bad for children but they can't afford the alternative. The government has to give them means. Initiatives are not going to change anything unless you've got the cash in your pocket. If you buy a salad at Sainsbury's, it's still very expensive."

This is not even to mention the stress and insecurity that effect the emotions of living in poverty. As far as fruits and vegetables go I still have half a tub of spinach and some chard but only half a jar of applesauce, no money, and it is still 3 days till payday. Fruits and vegetables are suppose to be the big fat bottom of my food pyramid. At times like these, which come way too often, I am much more likely to take any food that is offered to me such as left over muffins or birthday cake at work. I have plenty of rice and lentils on hand but fresh fruits and vegetables are perishable and more expensive than starch. Planned diet rules can go out the window at times like this.

The emotional anxiety of poverty also takes its toll. When I did the yoga exercise recently to deal with negative emotions, most of mine, sorrow, rage and fear, relate directly to my seeming inability to make a decent living. Not for lack of education. I have a Masters degree. It's not stupidity. I graduated with highest honors. I'm just working for a low budget non-profit for $10 an hour. Constrained by lack of money I can not live where I want, I can not do what I want, and a few days before pay day, I can not even eat what I want. Plus, if someone offers me a cookie or some Macaroni and cheese at a time like this... I am likely to take it.

The Blue Dress

The Blue Dress

OK, here's the deal. I bought this dress last summer as a possible dress to wear to my nephew's wedding. But, it was a little too snug so I wore something else. I just tried it on. It is still too snug to wear and puckers where it shouldn't. But I really like this dress and would love to wear it with lots of beads to a summer wedding. So, I therefore make it my goal to wear this dress to my friend Sue's daughter's wedding on Lopez this June. That's 2 months from now. Almost exactly.

Yoga and the Emotional Aspects of Weightloss

Yoga DVDs From Ravi Singh and Ana Brett

The Mayo Clinic DVD, Wellness Solutions For Weight Loss, also recommended yoga and part of the DVD features yoga with Rodney Yee. Last night I was too tired to make it all the way through my dance routine so I split the time between two of my chosen activities (see: the President's Fitness Challenge) and got out my yoga DVDs. On the DVD Fat Free Yoga with Ravi Singh & Ana Brett I stumbled into a meditation for healing emotions. "If you can feel it you can heal it" says Ravi as he lead me through feeling sad, fearful, and angry. After feeling each emotion we then cleansed and healed them with the mantra SA TA NA MA primal Sanskrit meaning birth, life, death, rebirth. None of these scary emotions were hard for me to reach.

Emotional Eating

One day last week after an unusually stressful time at work I picked up take-out from the Thai Restaurant in town. It's fairly healthy food. I got rice, veggies and chicken curry. I usually get the double portion so I have both my lunch and my dinner taken care of but that day I went right home and ate the whole thing. I hardly realized it until it was gone. This is the crazy part about the weight issue and it was addressed by the Mayo Clinic as a critical aspect of changing your life and losing weight. Yoga is recommended because it not only heals the physical body but helps to heal stress and other emotional challenges.

Yoga Meditation

Dark Chocolate - The Peak of the Pyramid

In the Mayo Clinic DVD, Wellness Solutions For Weight Loss, the doctor who gave the guided grocery shopping trip, bless him, recommended dark chocolate. This really won me over. Mind, its small amounts only. Sweets are the very tip of the pyramid above oils. Kind of like how the Egyptian pyramids originally had tips of gleaming gold. Here is the pinnacle of our beautiful food pyramid.

Chocolate: The Tip of the Food Pyramid

Dark chocolate has flavanoids and that is the key. White chocolate does not have flavanoids so the darker the chocolate the better. Dark chocolate has been shown to lower high blood pressure and cholesterol and help prevent coronary events.

Agave is the Devil

One possible culprit, or I might even say, Satanic Temptation device, contributing to my recent weight gain may have been this Organic Agave natural wholesome low glycemic sweetener with the whole earth and a pretty cactus on the label. What was not to love? I confess to cavalier use of this substance that sadly turns out to be even worse than corn syrup.

Resource: Agave Good or Bad at Food Renegade

The Troublsome Nature of Female Flesh

First off, wouldn't I love to look like the gorgeous Ashley Graham? Yes, I would. This plus size lingerie commercial featuring Ms. Graham was rejected for the 8:00 time slot by ABC and Fox television on the grounds that it is too racy for the family hour. This is in spite of the fact that they show Victoria Secret commercials at all times. I guess the Television executives are confirming that those skinny Victoria Secret models are not nearly as sexy as a full figured woman with real boobs.

Lane Bryant's Controversial Ad


Model Ashley Graham Addresses the Issue

Sainity From the Mayo Clinic

Searching for a sane way to relate to food I turned to a trusted name in health care, the Mayo Clinic. I got their Wellness Solutions For Weight Loss DVD from Netflix (rated 5 stars) and I do recommend it. It had a friendly Dr. take you shopping in a grocery store, they recommend yoga and meditation, exercise and a food pyramid solidly based on fruits and vegetables, it had interviews with people who are losing weight. It even contains a section of yoga instruction with well known yoga teacher Rodney Yee. There is also a wealth of sound information on weight loss on the Mayo Clinic Website.

Today I looked into my basket at the grocery store and tried to size it up in terms of the Mayo Food Pyramid. A big tub of spinach and a bunch of bananas, an onion. I am getting a little better at moving more veggies and fruits into the pyramid chart of my food consumption but it is still not quite the solid base the Mayo Clinic recommends.

My Presidential Badge

My Presidential Fitness Badge

I'm still dancing. Not every day but often enough to earn my Presidential Fitness Badge. As goofy as it may seem, being responsible to my red star chart on the Presidential Fitness Challenge website really is helping me keep going. I can tell the difference when I don't do it or do "House-hold Tasks" for my activity instead of dancing. House-hold tasks just isn't the same. I've adjusted my playlist of music videos and some nights I dance my way through my music videos alternately watching segments of the Rachel Maddow show... but I'm doing it.

My Red Star Activity Log

It was really hard to get back on track after realizing that I'd gained 15 pounds (see former post). I'm so out of shape I don't even feel like going for a walk. This program and dancing is one thing that is working for me. Thank you Mr. President! Yes we can!

Yes We Can!

Pema Chodron & Working With the Shempa

Pema Chodron - Working With Shempa

Learning that I had gained 15 pounds after my big vegan experiment was a crisis that required some deep breathing. I know this weight thing is a problem I have to face. Vegan or not, this mindless eating that I've been doing all my life is my albatross, my heroin, my big fat fucking problem. And I'm very touchy about it. I hate it when friends give me advice. All I can hear is... "You are fat and we do not approve." This is my sore spot. Yes, I know I need to lose weight. Of course I do. It is not just vanity. It is swollen feet and high blood pressure. It is not being able to hike or even sit comfortably let alone sit cross legged. So I listen to Pema Choron.

Pema Chodron teaches how to work with that thing that hooks you when you do not want to be present. That is the Shempa, the hook. Recognizing it is the first thing then staying present with it and all of its squirmy discomfort. Can I do that? Can I at 58 years old finally learn to eat mindfully?

Eat Fish and Dance

Unlike Dennis Kuchinich I gained weight being Vegan. I was hoping that just being Vegan would be all that was needed to lose weight. I was a good Vegan for two months but then started feeling bloated and was eating too much starch. My favorite "meat substitutes" were for the most part based on gluten, pure starch! So now I've cut way back on wheat and corn and have added seafood, chicken and yogurt. I had a little cheese binge when this all came down. Probably that coconut milk ice cream didn't help.

I still really need to lose weight. More than ever. I'm still working on the President's Fitness Challenge. and am just one filled in red star away from earning a badge. Its pretty easy going at my level but still a challenge. I composed my own aerobic dance half hour set and actually enjoy doing it. Here is my line up... 1) warm up with, Girl From Ipanema by BR6, 2) pick up my 3 lb hand weights and work my arms with Sade's Soldier of Love. 3) Get the aerobic thing going with Madonna's speedy, Ray of Light. Try some hip hop moves with Salt-N-Pepa, R U Ready, Swing it out to Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show, Swing it around the world with Stand By Me, Playing For Change. Then finally, stretch it all out with Diana Krall's Let's Face the Music and Dance. Total time = 32 minutes 13 seconds.

R U Ready ~ Salt-N-Pepa

President's Fitness Challenge

I just signed up for the President's Fitness Challenge. You choose your favorite activities and commit to doing them for at least a half hour per day, five days per week. I choose dance as my activity.

Zorba The Greek - Teach Me to Dance

Vegan Brownies for America

Kucinich on Being Vegan

Captain Kirk & the Killer Instinct

GO VEGAN

2010: Year of the Vegan

Happy New Year 2010!

Welcome the year of the Vegan! My New Year's resolution this year is to really and truly go vegan. That means a plant food diet. As for the finest details like, will I eat honey because it is produced by bees? I will eat Julia's honey because I'm sure her bees love her. Mainly I'm doing this because a vegan diet pretty well addresses any health issue I might have in particular...high blood pressure and being overweight. The fact that a vegan diet will reduce my carbon footprint better than giving up using cars is of course an added plus. And animals like it too.

Welcoming the New Decade with Crackers & Nog

For my first breakfast as a committed (if slightly hung over) vegan I started with a handful of cracked pepper & olive oil Triscuits and a mug of Silk's soy Nog. Next: a banana-peach-oatmilk smoothie and I am on my way to becoming a fruit smoothie connoisseur.