01302009

Soup and Salad a Mans lunch! Grunt!

Now most places for lunch offer soup and half a sandwich or salad and half a sandwich but I haven't come across many that offer soup and salad. Now the choice of soup are usually chicken noodle (which is mostly noodle and chicken broth), french onion ( basically one whole onion sliced and mixed with olive oil and vegetable broth, and don't forget the pound of cheese they lay on top), or some combination of a vegetable and starch (cream of mushroom, broccoli and cheese, minestrone, etc).

This is where preparing your own food pays dividends. I realized that when done right, soup and salad is a great lunch, hearty and fulfilling. So for today I had a spinach, mushroom, and onion salad along with left over chicken minus the tortilla soup. Now the soups I make are thick and full of vegetables and meats, so in some sense it reminds me of eating chili, thus my brain computes being full.

I bring up the heartiness because I get hassled at work for bringing in soup for lunch. For the most part my fellow lunch enthusiasts expect soup to be an appetizer, a wetting of the palate if you may. Where as in today's' lunchroom, soup is merely skipped over for a piece of bread and butter, since it is deemed "more filling", I am leading the way to make soup a lunch treat that won't cause you to crash in 20 minutes.

Here is a key note about cooking with chili peppers, especially the spicy kind: dry cracked skin + spicy chili oils = very painful stinging sensation. No matter how much milk I drink the burning sensation won't subside (that was a joke, I don't drink milk, and the drinking milk thing is suppose to help if you eat spicy food).


Spinach, mushrooms, onions, garlic, and some olive oil, and lemon juice

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Karney Hatch's Paleo short documentary

01302009

PALEO AND MY BODY

Now I know the title sounds like we are going to talk about the birds and bees and how the body works (well in some sense, yes), but we are not, instead we will be talking about my bodies reaction to a cleaner diet.

Over the last five days I've noticed interesting side effects of the Paleo diet and I'm sure there will be more to come. Here are just a few:
- first off I'm not as hungry as I thought I would be eating mainly vegetables and meats
- Regular visits to the water closet are scheduled almost as if my colon was my personal secretary and for some reason didn't update me on all of my "meetings" for the day.
- I am a guy, and I think farts are hilarious, except when they are from me and can keep a beat
- I've been waking up in the morning without a problem, where as days of old it was a struggle to get up in the morning (I even have time to make breakfast!)

ROB CAN COOK
Speaking of food here is the recipe for dinner last night "Chicken minus the tortilla soup (with vegetables)

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup chopped onions
• 2 teaspoons chopped garlic
• 1 poblano pepper, seeded and chopped, or 1 pasilla or green bell pepper
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 6 cups chicken stock or canned, low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 pound cooked chicken, shredded
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
• 1 avocado, peeled, seeded, and chopped, optional garnish
• 1 yellow squash
• hand full of baby carrots
• hand full of mushrooms
  

Directions

In a Dutch oven or large heavy pot, heat the oil on medium-high heat. Add the onions, garlic, peppers, salt, cumin, and coriander for 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes. Add the chicken and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the cilantro and lime juice, and stir well. Remove from the heat and cover to keep warm.

Slice up the Squash and place in a baking pan, then layer carrots and mushrooms on top. Season with salt and pepper and place in oven for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Once the vegatables are done serve on the side or put them in the soup.

Soup serves 4-6 or two hungry people!

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

01292008

THE NEW (old) FRONTIER
Paleo diet, also known as the hunter gather diet, is my current experiment. And up to this point in my life the only hunting I did was for deals on a new flat screen TV online. As for gathering, I'm not a pack rat, so it has never been a finer point in my dietary need.

So today is day four on the Paleo diet. For the last three nights sleep hasn't come easy as my body comes to terms with the new fuel.

I have noticed a little fatigue and weakness during workouts, but that will pass in a week or two.

The food parameters are simple guidelines to follow: lean meats, vegetables, some fruits, and good fats.

Plain and simple, and I stress the "simple". At first with limited knowledge of cooking rules, meals were bland and rough. I think I got the hang of it now.

More interesting to me us the "not" section of the Paleo diet, such as no dairy. I love cheese and milk (well I loved cheese and milk four days ago) and up to last week I could count some sort of dairy in just about every meal I had during the day (cheese, yogurt, butter, milk, sour cream, etc).

Another no-no is starchy vegetables and carbohydrates. So being a gym rat in my past life this meant getting rid of everything I knew about carbs and sports (eat oatmeal to burn longer, carb loading, potatoes and yams for post work out meals, etc). Not only that, bread just tastes great!

From eating some kind of bread/pasta/rice at every meal for the last 29 years, it's definitely a lot to take in when you stop cold turkey.

All in all, I've read the research, and I've seen the results of the Paleo and no matter how much time and preparation goes into this, I'm worth it!

LIGHT READING


The book that started this adventure is " The Paleo Diet" by Dr. Loren Cordian. Over all it was a great read. I am partial to research and evidence backed claims, and this book packs plenty.

The book is broken up into three parts: Paleolithic man, scientific discoveries, sample recipes.

From Library Journal

Like Ray Audette's Neanderthin (St. Martin's, 1999), this is another "if you can't find it in the wild, don't eat it" diet that takes the germ of a useful idea and runs with it. According to Cordain (health and exercise science, Colorado State Univ.), Paleolithic humans were fit and lean because, as hunter-gatherers, they ate what was available: meats low in saturated fats, fresh fruits, and nonstarchy vegetables. Nor did they suffer from heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, the byproducts of our poor eating habits and lack of exercise. Then again, the average Paleolithic life span was about 30 years, not long enough to develop most chronic illnesses. Still, the author asserts that by eliminating grains, dairy, refined sugars, and processed foods from our diets, we, too, can thrive as our ancestors did. Three levels of diet and six weeks of sample menus, with recipes, are included.

I would recommend this book as an introduction to the Paleo diet, but I would recommend further research and reading if you were to incorporate Paleo into your eating habits.

01282009

Food Education

So here is the first post of many on my experiences with researching and "trying" to stick to what I think were/are great "life styles" of eating.

Through out my many years of interest in fitness the cumbersome counter point to my hours in the gym was diet.

That's me, the cute one in the middle, all 220 lbs of me.

I researched diet/nutrition religiously, and used my self as a guinea pig when it came time to test a "theory" out.

This blog will be a place where I can talk about old methods (which according to my body fat index didn't work) and new theories that I read up on and deem appropriate to share (I'm either testing it out myself or will do in the future).

Don't get me wrong I believe that many methods can get you to the promised land, but 90% of the weight is on "your" shoulders to stick to the plan. You see plans don't work unless you stick to them. Now I must admit, many of times in the past a method would fall short not because of the science but because of my lack of will power to fight of the dancing Hershey kisses in my head (and I'm not talking about just one, think Pringles)


fighting the good fight

I hope this blog gives you insight on systems you might try but also give you a partner in the battle of the bulge.

My eating habits are not perfect and I do have a tendency to shoot out of the gates quick (go strict to the parameters of the system, then fade away into grease bliss). So this would be considered a real life study in one mans eating habits and systems.

-Rob