JLaw Against Gluten-Free

So. I absolutely, 100% adore Jennifer Lawrence. I am not a huge celebrity follower, but I have my favorites - people I think are absolutely talented, gorgeous, quirky and interesting (Jennifer Lawrence and Jared Leto, really! Hahaha, don't judge me.)

 

Anyway.

 

I have been reading a few news articles where Jennifer Lawrence is bashing gluten-free diets as the "new cool eating disorder." And where she is against dieting. She is quoted as saying "I think that people are built the way that they're built" and "There's that Kate Moss quote that's like 'Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels' and... I can name a lot of things that taste better than skinny feels: bread, potatoes... a Philly cheesesteak and fries." And she is LAUDED for eating spaghetti and meatballs for breakfast and a cheesesteak before some awards show.

 

Okay.

 

Well... that's all realllllllllllly easy to say and do when you look how SHE looks. Even when she is slightly "heavier," she is drop dead gorgeous and the perfect American ideal - men and women drool over her, want to be her, want her. She poses almost naked for magazines and in movies, completely unself-conscious. Which, again, is really easy to do when you look like her.

 

I still love her, think she is awesome and funny and, yes, beautiful. But I think she does not get to be on a high horse about people who diet or choose to be gluten free (for their health or their weight or for whatever reason they want to).

 

Would she be against eliminating more carbs if she was 50 pounds overweight? Would she be against eliminating gluten if gluten gave her awful acne and cysts on her face? Would she have eaten a cheesesteak before the awards show if it made her look 4-5 months pregnant in her slinky skin tight dress?

 

It's always been hard for me to hear women with idealized, Hollywood-approved bodies claim that we should all love our bodies exactly how they are, stop dieting, stop trying to change them.

 

And I know she has faced more body bashing than usual for young starlets - she is NOT stick skinny and refuses to GET stick skinny, which I applaud! But even when she weighs a few pounds more than usual and an agent says something unkind about her needing to lose weight, she still is not in the same position as those of us who have been or are obese.

 

No one gets to say others have an eating disorder because of the way they eat when they don't know THEM personally or their struggles or how food affects them. Especially when you are a Hollywood starlet.

 

I don't know - her comments rubbed me the wrong way, I think, BECAUSE I have looked up to her. I loved her strong, athletic body in the Hunger Games (exactly how Katniss should have looked - she was a hunter in the book who ate enough and was super active - not a starving waif). She is curvy and strong and looks extremely healthy. But she doesn't get to tout body positivity at any size, when she is THAT size! She doesn't get to tell us that we should be eating pasta and cheesesteaks and whatever else because SHE does - if I ate the meals she says she eats, I'd be 20 pounds heavier in about a month. I'd feel less energetic, less healthy, and would be more self-conscious about my body - it certainly wouldn't be a body that would pose naked on a magazine (it isn't that way NOW!).

 

I think her comments would rub me wrong even if I didn't love her. There is a weird feeling I get when people who look like models tell us dieting is stupid, or watching what we eat, or choosing not to eat a certain type of food, etc, is wrong. She should walk a mile in 20 year old Jeanette's shoes and THEN tell me that she would eat pasta for breakfast still.

 

That's my rant. Just had to get it off my chest :)

I caved!

I finally bought something at work!

I forgot my pumpkin/flax/banana/spiced smoothie yesterday and was a little hungry - I wasn't DYING or anything (as I still had my salad and meatloaf leftovers) and thought a day with slightly lower calories than usual wouldn't be the worst thing (as I've been trending a little towards the higher end of my range the past few days) but I wanted SOMETHING, so I hit the cafeteria.

But no worries - it was just coffee :) it was actually a treat to go a little caffeine crazy - I have the same exact 3 cups (actual cups, not huge mugs!) a day - staggered through from 8-12. And I am very used to it, so don't get that pleasant caffeine buzz anymore, more like maintenance!

Still, spend $2 on coffee seems lame when 1lb of AMAZING organic coffee beans costs ~$9 at our co-op!!

So a financially dumb choice, even if not a bad food choice.

Also didn't taste as good as home!

I didn't even like GOING into the cafeteria- it was my first time. It smelled strongly like pizza, and had lots of hot, junky food for sale. There was a salad bar, and I went over to look at it, but there was tons of dressings on all of the premade salads. Too many junk toppings.

Ah, well. Staying out of there. Bringing my smoothie this morning!!

I'm glad I went down - I've been curious. Now I know and have NO desire to get my food there. We spend a lot of time, effort and money to get high quality foods into our diet everyday. It would be silly for me to spend money on over priced, processed, low quality food!

In life news - the usual. Financial stress. I finally got my car back, and the bill was insane. We are barely treading water here. It's really hard not to feel stressed and anxious and kind of bad about myself.

Also, right now all my friends are at a point in their life where they are being really successful, making more money than they need, and generally doing really well.

I shouldn't compare myself. But I do, and I feel less then.

Still looking for a better job...

We will see!

Lemon Water

In order to save money, I've stopped buying seltzer so much - and I don't want yet another machine cluttering up my kitchen (my friends all urge me to get the at home seltzer maker machine, but I'm just not into it).

So, instead of carbonation, I've been adding pure lemon juice concentrate to my water in the morning, just a splash! I really like it! 

As an added bonus, I get a little extra citrus in my diet. I'm not actually a huge fan of citrus fruit (oranges, grapefruit, etcetera) though I will eat a little bit now and again so I'm not depriving myself of any vitamins :)

There is also some indication that starting your day with lemon water aids in digestion and digestive health and helps reduce inflammation. Not bad if that's true!

So that's that :)

Otherwise, things are going ok - things are settling down a little and we are calming down too.

Off to work!

Edited to add: I think adding unnatural stuff to water (like Mio or Crystal Light) is about as dysfunctional as you can get and exemplifies the problem in the modern American diet. Taking something as life-giving and pure as water and adding fake sugar and chemicals and food coloring?!? Yikes.

Try lemon juice :)

But also, getting used to normal, plain water daily is best. If you detoxify from sugars and start to love the taste of water, you'll drink more of it!

That's it for now :)

Dental Work and Local Hike

I spent a good portion of the early afternoon at the dentist, getting a temporary crown put on. Not fun. Still numb!!

I reallllllly hate the sound of the drill - my anxiety goes through the roof and it requires all of my effort to stay still and calm so they can work! I can tell I'm going to be sore for a while, lots of work done around my gum line.

I wasn't up for much after that, so Chris and I drove with Koda to a local arboretum that we'd never been to before. I wanted to get outside and get a little activity even though I didn't feel so well.

It was adorable!

Totally worth the effort. Now I'm chilling in bed with my cat, with zero guilt about being lazy now since I got out there earlier :)

Back to work tomorrow!

Crow Pose!

After some years of lightly practicing yoga, I've finally been able to get into crow pose...

Next goal, work on form ;)

But progress!!!

What I Eat (and weigh)

So, it's been a while since I've done a "day in the life of" food post. And as this is a weight-loss, maintenance, health blog, I like to occasionally update you all to what a day of my food looks like.

What inspired me this time, is that I've had a little bit of free time at work, and I'm reading a lot more blogs than usual. I've noticed that an unfortunately high percentage of healthy living bloggers rely on prepackaged, processed, gimmicky, "healthy" foods. And I won't call anyone out, because that's not the type of blog this is, but I've noticed the larger blogs, the monetized blogs, the people getting paid for it or sponsored with products are the ones eating this way. And in a smaller percentage of the blogs I've read that rely on these products, you would be hard-pressed to find even five servings of vegetables in a week of their food.

Crazy.

And I am a small blog, and I don't get paid, and I just want to live a really long time and be as healthy as possible. So that's my angle when it comes to telling you how I eat.

Yesterday (and remember that I do my own version of a diet loosely based on Paleo, but I do have a few items that fit my life and my body that are not Paleo included - i'm not a huge fan of following any prescribed diet to the letter, but making it fit you in a healthy way)

Breakfast:

One serving of lactose free cottage cheese with a serving of frozen, organic blueberries, and sunflower seed butter drizzled on top (mmm I've eaten the same breakfast for about seven months now, it works perfectly to start my day)

Snack:

Smoothie: flax seed milk, banana, pumpkin with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and a dash of honey

Lunch:

Spinach and tomato salad with avocado

Roast sweet potatoes with ground turkey, tomato, onion and mushrooms

Snack:

Roasted beets

One serving of pistachios

One serving of baby carrots

Dinner:

Huge serving of mashed rutabaga!

One grass fed beef burger with raw onion, tomato and lettuce

Dessert:

Half of a bar of organic dark chocolate with almonds

I'm able to eat a TON of food because it is bulked out with fibrous, high nutrition, low calorie veggies and fruit. I eat pretty much every 3ish hours.

I feel sated, energetic and happy eating this way :) it takes time to prep these foods - but it is soooo worth it! I never feel deprived.

Weighed in at the low end of my happy weight range this morning: 122.5

That's all for now <3

How I have spent my first three months at work:

So yesterday actually marked the third month of being at my job.

I remember when I first got the job, I was concerned because it is a desk job and I would be sedentary for more hours than I've ever been sedentary before!

So what have I done?

Three months of:

- bringing my lunch (always homemade food, whole foods, and heavy on the veggies)

- drinking three or more water bottles of water per day 

- not spending even one cent on food available in the cafeteria or vending machines

- getting up early to either walk the dog or to do yoga, when Chris is home to walk the dog

- going for three walks a day during breaks in the parking lot (which is pretty) or the covered parking garage when the weather is bad (which is not pretty)... I take two 15 minute walks a day and one 30 minute walk a day.

My parking lot- I love the trees:

And surprise! I have maintained my weight since day one of my job.

It can be done. It takes effort, it is not always easy, but it is so worth it. My health has not suffered in the slightest since I changed my lifestyle to a desk job.

And onward I will go. Things might change a little in the winter, when my walks are not really feasible anymore because of the harsh Northeast winters but I will let you know what I come up with!!

Namaste <3

500 Sweet Potatoes

We did the math and we figured out that our household consumes between 400 and 500 sweet potatoes a year!

The reason we figured this out was because there appears to be a sweet potato shortage in our area!!! For the past couple of weeks, the grocery store hasn't had any or hardly any sweet potatoes available. And the co-op only has organic sweet potatoes (prohibitively expensive) and not its usual stock of conventional.

It scared me!

Sweet potatoes are a staple in my diet. They are a major source of my carbs and my starch. They fill out a meal. (we also eat other squashes, like acorn or butternut... turnips and rutabaga also fill this role... but sweet potatoes are my absolute favorite!).

So what did I do? Bought up every last sweet potato my store could offer! Hahaha :)

Not really worried about it. But it was amusing to think about how reliant we are on sweet potatoes - they are what bread used to be for us!

Short post today, back to walking on break :)

Weekend Update - city walk, hiking, renovations

Lots done this weekend - lots of house changes (more this week - painting us done, ceiling to be fixed, rearrangement of rooms, etc).

Also spent oodles of quality time with Chris :) we walked around our city on Friday- the weather was gorgeous!!

Did a small hike on Sunday that had to be cut short because I'm a little under the weather - 11 hours of sleep last night rely helped. Sleep is the BEST medicine!!

Some pics from the weekend:

Just a little update to let you know what I'm up to- better posts to come!

<3

No Grains, No Gains: Dealing with Body Shape and Size Changes

NO GRAINS, NO GAINS: A GROUP A OF PRIMAL/PALEO/GRAIN FREE WOMEN WHO BLOG ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCES/LIFE/BENEFITS WITHOUT GRAINS. A GREAT WAY FOR OTHERS (WHO MAY BE WANTING TO LOSE WEIGHT, REVERSE AN ACUTE/CHRONIC HEALTH TREND, AND/OR TRANSITION FROM COMMERCIAL WEIGHT LOSS PROGRAMS) TO READ ABOUT REAL LIFE WOMEN WHO ARE LIVING THE LIFE AND SUCCEEDING!

I skipped out on last month's No Grains, No Gains topic because life was really crazy for me. No surprise, life is still really crazy, but I managed to get my stuff together enough to participate this month!

The topic? How my body shape and size has changed, and how I've dealt with it.

First, I will show you how it has changed.

This is me, circa 2003, before my "awakening" when I got real and dropped some serious pounds (I am also filthy because I am doing archaeology... wow, this is the worst picture of me on earth, seriously):

Here I am after losing the weight, but not getting real about nutrition, so still pretty bloated/inflamed (I am at one of my best friend's weddings here in 2010!):

And here I am AFTER Paleo, after getting real about nutrition and exercise (2014):

I suppose "dealing with it" is the wrong way to phrase it, since all the changes have been incredibly positive, it really has just been a process to STOP thinking of myself the way I used to be (for so long) and learn to accept that I have this new body (and as long as I stick to my plan, it doesn't seem to be going anywhere!)

So, what's changed?

Well, my weight is a big one. Before going paleo and getting real about ditching processed foods and empty carbs, I was still pursuing health and fitness in my own way, but I couldn't seem to break a plateau that was driving me crazy. I had dropped from almost 200 pounds to 135-140 pounds doing a general calorie in-calorie out formula (with little regard to food type or quality - I was still eating processed foods). I felt generally healthy, healthier than before, but I still looked a little pudgy and couldn't seem to get to that next level that I had always dreamed of (I am a big admirer of strong, athletic body types).

I had started to accept it as it was, actually.

But then Paleo started to come on the health and fitness scene. I was interested, and NOT because of the hype around "eating like our ancestors" because I know that that premise is a bit silly, but because giving up grains, white sugar, alcohol and putting in TONS of veggies, fruits, lean protein and healthy fats just made a ton of sense. The idea that QUALITY mattered hit me in the face like a ton of bricks... I don't know how I didn't put the pieces together before.

I did the Whole30 and dropped to 123ish pounds in a just over a month.

I was floored.

I had spent the majority of my life obese. And a small part of it at a healthy weight, but not feeling like I was at my best.

After that first major drop of weight (which I maintained! Here I am, over 2.5 years later and still weighing 123 (though last year I did dip down to 118 for my wedding... I was super skinny and it was not maintainable for my body!)), I did have to stop feeling like I wasn't good enough. I had to get those stupid thoughts out of my mind.

I WAS good enough. I was good enough at all the weights I was.

And then, reaching a really ideal body weight (ideal for health and for fertility and longevity), I really had to face my body dysmorphia demons. Those voices that tell me I am fat and not good enough? They are clearly and logically wrong. It was a lot harder to pretend like I didn't have body dysmorphic issues once I was medically very fit and healthy. It didn't jibe.

My body was healthy and then began the work to get my MIND healthy (look back at years of posts to see how I approached that work). That was the REAL and HARDEST work I did. I wish I had loved my body my whole life.... but my obesity was a symptom of a lot of pain and self-doubt and fear. It probably was impossible for me to love myself then.

But I've talked ad nauseum about that! So back to the topic:

My body shape has changed as well.

Firstly, I was no longer bloated and inflamed from that grain-focused, processed standard American diet. My stomach was flatter than I ever dreamed it could be (still not FLAT, but I am a woman with curves, and had to get out of my head that I would ever look like a model).

Secondly, the Paleo diet really encourages you to strength train and to get your whole body fit. Gone were the days of hours of low intensity cardio! I had always done a LITTLE strength training, but really went whole hog after I went Paleo. I love full body exercising (hiking, swimming, yoga, body-weight training, etc) and engaging my whole body. I focused a lot on my core strength and balance.

And trust me, once you realllllllly get your core in shape, you will notice that you stand straighter, stronger and more confidently, which changes your body shape immensely.

So the takeaway?

Even if you don't eat Paleo or Grain-Free, I do recommend ditching as much of the empty carbs, processed foods, chemicals, antibiotics, preservative, white flours, white sugars, etc as possible. And when you do? Fill up those holes in your diet with more veggies than you think possible, beautiful fruit, lots of lovely protein, nuts, seeds, coconut oils, olive oils, avocados, etc.

You might just see a big change in your body!

Other members of No Grains, No Gains:
Leigh http://poonapalooza.blogspot.com/
Karen http://gardengirlkp.blogspot.com/

Cancer scares me, so I'm doing some crazy rambling!

(Brace yourself for a rambling rant of my crazy brain... but these are typically the thoughts that swirl around in there when I think about these issues!)

 

If you read here often enough, you know I preach a general motto of "processed/chemical/etc foods cause inflammation and inflammation causes disease" around these parts.

 

This morning I was reading an article about the link between obesity and cancer risks (from your predisposition to GET cancer to your ability to recover from it):

 

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/01/health/obesity-cancer-asco/

 

The article can be summed up in these quotes I pulled from it if you don't want to read the whole thing (but I recommend that you do!);

 

"the encompassing explanation seems to be that obesity triggers changes in how the body operates, which can cause harmful cell growth and cell division. Many of these changes may be linked to inflammation. In general, inflammation occurs when your body is reacting to something out of the norm -- say a virus or a splinter in your foot. Obesity seems to cause chronic inflammation, which in turn may promote cancer development."

 

"Obesity can affect a cancer patient's outcome from diagnosis to remission. Obesity-related pain or unbalanced hormone levels may distract patients from the early warning signs of some cancers. Fatty tissue can also make it difficult for doctors to see tumors on imaging scans. And a late diagnosis often means a lower chance for survival. The relationship between cancer and obesity also matters after diagnosis. Cancer treatments, such as radiation or chemotherapy, may be hindered by a patient's size. If the patient needs surgery, studies show excess fat puts them at a higher risk of complications, infections and death."

 

While, of course, we all want to look good and every human has a little (to a lot!) vanity in them, these values I preach are NOT about vanity. They are about your life and your health and your longevity.

 

You can see from my weekend that I do not eat PERFECTLY, I don't know that I ever will (but I know some people and read some blogs of people who do - it is something to aspire towards!). But I eat really, really, really well and moderately most of the time. Even when I have some wine or eat a pancake for breakfast on a vacation, I still eat lots of veggies, drink lots of water, get tons of exercise. It is important to always take care of myself... this isn't a game I am playing here, this is my one and only life I get to have on this earth (well, likely my one and only ... I won't say anything is impossible, but I do doubt reincarnation ;) )

 

I was 200 pounds years ago - I was on that path, I didn't care if my life was shortened. What changed? I am not sure. I think I grew up and realized that I loved it here. This crazy, scary, beautiful world. I didn't want to leave it early.

 

I might leave it early - accidents, crazy diseases, who knows? But if I do, as I lay there dying, I don't want to look back on the years and know that I could have prevented it. No regrets, right?

 

I posted this article because cancer scares me. And I imagine it scares you. CANCER. Damn. It took my mother when I was 10. That fact alone scares me and saddens me beyond belief.

 

I think about the future sometimes when I make choices that are hard for me (the choice NOT to eat the pizza, the choice to wake up early and go for a long walk, the choice to down a few liters of water instead of drinking with friends, the choice to spend my weekend hiking instead of cozy in bed with my cat and a book, etc). I think about the fact that I want to see and do and live and be here as long as possible. And if that means not indulging the child in me who wants comfort and pleasure and distraction and to be numb to the scary things in the world, so be it. It's better that way anyway, since it is the joy AND the pain that makes this life really awesome.

 

Why did I say all this?

 

To those people who maybe need to get real with themselves.

 

Losing weight, getting fit, being healthy - it might seem like a fad or a game or something OTHER people want you to do or to be. But it is for YOU and your life and your family.

 

I did not succeed in weight loss when it was all about vanity and all about fitting in.

 

I succeeded when I focused on doing the things that would keep me here the longest (and keep me here in GOOD CONDITION!).

 

That's my rant. Slow day at work. Scary article. Crazy brain :)

Take care of yourselves today and all days <3