Where to begin today? On Wednesday evening last week, John and I had a date night. He received an email about coconut shrimp appetizers at Canyon Creek on special for $5, and as we both love coconut shrimp we made plans to go out for dinner. Well, actually we were supposed to go the week before, but when he said he wanted to go get the appetizer I had assumed we were going to go AFTER dinner and have the shrimp and some wine and a lovely chat. Silly me, he meant the whole shebang - apps, dinner, wine etc. So as I had already made dinner that week we decided to postpone. I made some of those yucky prepackaged, frozen chicken fingers for the kids (I don't think I'll ever eat them again myself!) and left my oldest, Matthew in charge! We ordered the coconut shrimp, which apparently is only on special if you order it from the bar section, and I have to say that I was disappointed. It looked awfully greasy and oily. I had difficulty trying to order something for my main dish. Salmon is usually my go to menu item for an entree but I have to be wary now of how much butter and salt it is cooked in. John advised me to order a salad and maybe another order of the shrimp instead. However, I found that after eating 3/5 of the shrimp from the appetizer plate, I didn't want or need the extra order with grease dripping from them so I cancelled the second order of shrimp and ordered just a salad. That together with the bread the waiter brought, and my 3 coconut shrimp was plenty.------------------------big breath here....face scrunched up...........can't believe I'm going to admit this to you all--------------I'm just going to blurt it out ---I ACTUALLY ENJOYED WHAT I ATE WHEN WE WENT OUT FOR SUSHI BETTER ------phew! I admitted to John that my steamed rice, salad, and mango ice cream at Sakai better than my meal at Canyon Creek. The whole experience could have been much improved if I wasn't being pressured to eat things that I didn't want to - John! Now that I've got that out in the open, cyber space, yes, I will willingly go back to Sakai, with friend or foe, for no-sushi. Just let me order my 3 food items in peace and I'll try not to cringe as you ingest the slippery slug-like seafood. I will even show my appreciation for the artistic prowess bestowed in the presentation of these dishes, be they green dragon, white dragon or purple fruit fly (?)
On Thursday I was planning to try my hand at making some French macarons. The recipe called for sifted icing sugar and ground almonds. My sifter (sieve) has served me well over the years but after straining pumpkin, squash and onions through it to make Cinderella soup it has now become an invalid. I went out to Home Sense to purchase a new sifter and was struck by a craving for chocolate. Heading over to Laura Secord, I thought I'd purchase a small chocolate bar but was flabbergasted after reading the nutritional label. I couldn't believe how many fats were in them! What a dilemma - I NEEDED chocolate! I ended up making what I thought was a wise decision - I ordered just one piece of chocolate with an almond in it. Crisis averted, chocolate in hand (well, mouth really!) I was a happy camper! You see, you don't need to gorge on things, just scale down and you can enjoy the foods you love. That one bite of chocolate was enough to satisfy me! Now, I just hope I can use the same logic the next time that Lemon Haagen Dazs goes on sale!! You know what I'm talking about!
Macarons smackarons - I think these are best left for those of true, authentic French lineage. I had a recipe for raspberry macarons I've wanted to try since reading "The Color of Tea" by Hannah Tunnicliffe. Walking through the old streets in Paris in the summer of 2011, I saw grand displays of beautifully coloured macarons in little patisseries and shop fronts but I never did try one. After reading Tunnnicliffe's book and imagining all the flavours Grace makes for her new shop, I've wanted to try making some. Well, my macaroon's ended up looking like crusty, flesh coloured silicone breast implants - they even had nipples! Most of them even seemed to droop and sag - they closely mimicked what you would imagine someone's implants doing if there was no tissue or anything to hold them in place. Sorry for the visual - I need to get it out of my mind too! Inevitably, I am going to stick with cakes! As Gloria Steinem 'burned bras' for the feminist movement, I thus, threw out my crusty 'boobs' in an effort to instigate my personal anti-macaron movement and started on this week's cake order - The Walking Dead.
On Saturday I went to Curves after Jake's soccer game - and I was down to 147.5 lbs!!! My mom came down to stay for the weekend. She usually comes bearing a large brown box emblazoned with the Tim Horton's logo containing a dozen doughnuts of which my kids anxiously anticipate devouring. This time, I was secretly willing the absence of this box, and I was not disappointed. Instead, she had brought some homemade chocolate chip cookies purchased at a bake sale. This worked out much better for me as I was able to limit myself to one cookie which was a lot smaller than my usual 1-2 donuts! For dinner that night I made my coconut chicken.
Sunday morning I whipped up a batch of my fluffy pumpkin pancakes for breakfast! Yummy! We won our soccer game and then I came home to make homemade chicken parmesan burgers for dinner.
Yesterday was day 1 of being Wheat-free for me - and obviously I lived to tell about it and here I am almost through day 2! I'm feeling great! It's not so hard, with proper planning it's quite simple. I had Irish oatmeal (is there any other kind?) for breakfast with some cinnamon and dried cherries. For lunch I ate a left over chicken burger from last night but without the bun, and added a salad. In the afternoon, I finally got round to making that chocolate cake with chick peas instead of wheat. Delicious! Even the kids like it.
Dinner was a tuna casserole that I haven't made for years consisting of brown rice, peas, mushroom soup, tuna and topped with shredded cheddar cheese. I decided to let the eggplant I bought earlier out of the bag (fridge) and investigate it. I peeled it, and found that they aren't purple on the inside but whitish, and full of seeds. I bought a microwave chip maker this week after overhearing someone talking about them at Curves, so I thought I'd test out the eggplant with that, and this was the result,
I can't say they tasted all that good, nor could I tell you they tasted bad - just different. Next, I'll try Jackie's suggestion and roast them in the oven!
Let's talk some more about "Wheat Belly". Did you know that in ancient times, diabetes was detected by tasting one's urine? Yup, tried, tasted and true! The medical term for diabetes is Diabetes Mellitus - 'mellitus' means 'tasting like honey'. Just days ago, my son Jacob was asking me what kind of things I did when I worked at a medical clinic when he was younger. I informed him that one of the things I did was to test patient's urine for things such as glucose, protein, blood, pregnancy and more. He of course thought this was gross! At least I didn't have to taste it! What would he think if I offered him a peanut butter & urine sandwich for lunch! Ok, again, I'm beginning to gross myself out. This is one instance where I am grateful for the advances in technology! Here's some other interesting facts I read this week, "The cost of Americans becoming obese dwarfs the sum spent on cancer. More money will be spent on health consequences of obesity than education". I think this is just plain sad! We are all part of a vicious cycle and I think the knowledge provided in "Wheat Belly" provides an off-ramp, or exit if you will, to take a brighter path towards healthful living. If you close your eyes, try to envision 'wheat' as demon-like, now imagine it as, say, a Dementor from Harry Potter - a black mass looming overhead. This is how I feel when planning to be wheat-free. It can creep up on you in the most unlikely of places - your medication as a filler, deli meats, and as I discovered today - a can of plain old Campbell's tomato soup! I was going to make Porcupine Meatballs for dinner and thought I better just check the can to make sure, and sure enough wheat is an ingredient! Therefore, we are having leftovers tonight! I also had to google my vitamins and prescription medication to make sure there wasn't any wheat products contained.
"Wheat Belly" goes on to discuss your body's pH level. In June of this year, my daughter ended up in the Intensive Care Unit at McMaster Children's Hospital with a diagnosis of metabolic acidosis - metabolic what? I still have lots of questions about this, and it was pretty scary to watch my little girl suffer. What started out looking like a case of a 24 hour flu quickly became much more serious as her blood became dangerously acidic. Once her pH was stable we had another scare - her potassium levels were dangerously low so she was put on bi-carb IV. To see her now, you would never know how sick she was. In fact the day after she was released from hospital I kept her home from school and she begged to go shoe shopping! She was 6 years old at the time! Doctor's told me that they have never seen a child get this sick this fast with the acidosis - our family Dr. has seen it in only one other case and that kid had an underlying issue of diabetes. We may never know for sure why she came down with this, but I do think I understand the mechanics somewhat better from reading Chapter 8 - Dropping Acid: Wheat as the Great pH Disrupter. I think I'm going to try to send a message to Dr. Davis and ask him his opinion - should Kristen avoid eating wheat? Apparently, as I've been told, she is unlikely to get this acidosis again - but how can 'they' know when 'they' can't tell me why this happened in the first place?
I've been doing well eliminating salt from my diet. My friend Lisa, a dietitian had told me that when reading nutrition labels, a rule of thumb is to avoid foods where the numbers are more than 10% of your daily requirement. The DASH diet recommends more like 5% where sodium is concerned. The Dash Diet for Weight Loss" also makes mention of the importance of self-tracking to reinforce your efforts. Check! This blog is my way of keeping track and making myself accountable for my own outcome. Honesty is important too. Remember last time I talked about 'mindful eating', in this book the same concept is covered as 'conscious eating'. The premise being that if you take the time to savour and taste your food, as well as acknowledging when and why you eat certain foods, you can break the cycle of bad eating habits. So, try it - next meal you eat, try eating more slowly. I did it at lunch today and I actually felt fuller and more satisfied. Or try those chopsticks! If you are as inept as I am in using them, you'll probably get fed up trying to get the food to reach your mouth that you'll be heading off to bed before you've finished the meal!
I believe that many facets need to coexist to fully succeed in accomplishing a goal. Not only am I focusing on making physical changes in my life, but also mental and spiritual. We have missed the last two weeks of church due to a birthday party and this weekend we just needed to literally take heed of the Lord's intended day of rest, and rest. Between swimming lessons, choir, piano lessons, more swimming lessons and soccer - Sunday is our most active day of the week! We will also be missing this coming Sunday at church since we'll be getting together with family for an early Christmas celebration brunch. That being said, I have recently finished reading a book called "Dear Deb" by Margaret Terry which can be used as a devotional and I have grasped my spiritual connectedness the past couple of weeks from Margaret's words of wisdom in a series of letters she had written to a friend dying of cancer. I urge you all to read this book, you may laugh and cry while reading some of her stories, but it's the kind of book where you can read a story here or there. She includes a verse of scripture at the end of each letter that very aptly correlates to the story she's written. I will write some more about this book in my next post so keep tuned!
This morning I started working on my Christmas Wish List to pass on to my in-laws who insist on shopping from lists every year. I came up with things ranging from a felt Bono finger puppet to a life-sized cardboard cutout of Colin Firth! Yes, they do exist - I looked it up! I figure, if I manage to complete the whole Colin Firth Diet Club program, I ought to at least have a photo taken with the man himself right? Even if it can only be a cardboard version (of course, I'd much prefer the real deal!!!). I weighed myself when I got to Curves today and I'm down to 146 lbs! I can't believe it! My pants are getting looser - guess I'm in a daze and still believe somewhat that the pants themselves are getting larger, not that I am shrinking! I have to praise both John and Colin Firth - without the two of you I couldn't have done this! Colin, you are my muse, and John, I maintain my stance that your development of the Colin Firth Diet Club incentive program is by far the sweetest and kindest thing you have ever, ever done for me! It was genius of you to come up with the idea, and the fact that it actually does motivate me to succeed amazes me. Sometimes I'm left wondering if even after all this time you really know me, and then you do this and I realize you know me better than I know myself! There are of course some exceptions - like the fact that it took you 16 years of marriage to fully understand that I hate red roses, or most red flowers for that matter! You see, I like things that are different. Red roses for Valentine's Day are so cliche and everyone gets those. But you are one great guy, and I'm lucky to have you leading my cheering squad - so kudos to you! I love you - even if you won't wear one of those Colin Firth masks for me! LOL
