Recipe of Love ~ Welcoming Children into the Kitchen

How child-friendly is your kitchen?

By child-friendly, I am not referring to filling the cupboards full of toys, or hiding all the knives. I am talking about welcoming your children into the world of food preparation, and inviting them to be a part of all the sights and aromas.

So often, our culture relegates children to the "safe" play areas while adults hurriedly complete the now mundane tasks of making dinner. And yet, there are few things more natural and satisfying than slowing down and including children in the creative process of meal preparation.

Even very young children, three and four years old, can wash lettuce, dump pre-measured ingredients into a bowl, stir batter, and grease pans.


As they get a little older, teach them how to slice fruits or vegetables using knives, carefully stir hot things on the stove, roll out dough, and preheat the oven.

While all my children are welcome in the kitchen, each week one child is assigned specifically to be my helper, beginning around age seven. This is when they receive one on one instruction. I do not set aside extra time in my day to show them how to make one thing from a recipe. Instead, almost every weekday evening, they assist me in creating an entire meal, from start to finish.

This is an important point, because knowing how to make just one dish is quite different from the ability to prepare a full dinner. Seeing and being a part of the the process repeatedly, they slowly become accustomed to knowing how all the parts work together; that the roast needs to go in way ahead of time, when to begin steaming the vegetables, and allowing enough time for the rolls to rise.

Several things can be happening at once; food in the oven, food on the stove, food being chopped, stir the gravy, check the chicken, check the rice, whoops we're out of this ingredient so we'll have to use this instead, how about if we add this, don't you love the smell of this spice, how many 1/4 cups are in one cup, and on and on.

I admit, there are times that the goof-ups during the learning curve can be quite frustrating. Hang in there. It'll pay off, big time. At age nine, my oldest daughter was able to make full meals (for example; salad, roast chicken, rice, vegetables, and homemade bread) completely on her own. Believe me, this was beyond wonderful when I had a newborn baby to tend to.

There are some occasions when I just need to get something quickly accomplished (surprise guests coming!) and do not have the time, or patience, to include them every step of the way. When this happens, they are allowed to remain in the kitchen to watch if they keep quiet and keep their hands to themselves. Usually, I end up asking for their help anyways.

I encourage you to make your children's presence in the kitchen just a regular part of your life. You'll teach them quite a bit, sure. But you'll learn a lot more.

Just One

I've been thinking for a long time about what it is that makes it hard for a person to lose weight.

Most of us know what we have to do. Eat less, exercise more, cut out foods that have more calories than nutrients, and we'll be able to lose and maintain a healthy weight. So why is it so hard for so many?

I think one of the main reasons is forgetfulness. We continue to think that an extra unnecessary little indulgence that we allow ourselves is the only one. (An extra cookie a day can lead to a 3-6 pound weight gain over the course of a year if we don't change something else.)

We have a cookie after lunch. Just one, as part of a balanced diet that's not bad. But mid afternoon we've forgotten all about the cookie as we eat, just one, handful of chips or popcorn. After dinner we have just one glass of wine or beer, with just one or two snacks, maybe a second helping of potatoes that we didn't really need.

All of these just one indulgences that we allow ourselves in the course of a day can add up to several hundred/thousand extra calories that our bodies don't really need. Just one store bought muffin with coffee is 400 calories. It would take an hour of flat out running to burn that much off.

The reason we don't take steps to change as well is because of this just one problem. Just one more day. I'll start eating right tomorrow.

Why do we think that the road to eating well is a long hard one that we must put off, all the while eating just one more candy after dinner?

We are bad at math, and bad at remembering.

I think I've figured out how to turn this just one mentality to an advantage. I got the idea from Alcoholics Anonymous. I've never been to an AA meeting so really I got the idea from the idea I have of AA from the way it's portrayed on TV.

Addicts have to take it one day at a time. If they look at the years and years stretching in front of them and try to face it without another drink it's overwhelming.

Well, we are essentially food addicts, creatures of habit, eating without thought usually. Let's use the same concept for ourselves shall we?

For just one day I will eat only what I need.
For just one day I will stop eating as soon as I'm not hungry.
For just one day I will taste my food and be thankful for every bite, noticing the flavor, smell and texture.
For just one day I will not snack after dinner, or lunch.
For just one day I will be thankful for the body I have, that works as well as it does, and will honor the gift by taking care of it.
For just one day I will move and stretch and enjoy being in my body.
For just one day I will feed my hungry senses with things that aren't food; fresh air, flowers, aromatic lotions, scented candles, etc.


I can do all this for just one day.

You can too.

The pretty cookies above were photographed by Sifu Renka. The photo is used under the terms of a Creative Commons License.

Pantry Basics-Day Four and Gleaning Freegan Style

I'll tell you what we ate today and how much it cost in a minute. First I'm going to tell you all about how I came to have all of these gigantic loaves of artisan bread on my table. It will make more sense perhaps if you go and read this post by No Impact Man called Teach a Man to Dumpster Dive, and Feed Him for Life. Be sure and watch the video too.

The idea of salvaged foods is hardly new to me. I shop at salvage grocery stores, I glean wild growing things, and I used to know people who collected salvage food, which is a euphemism for perfectly good food that would otherwise be tossed in a dumpster, and distribute it through food banks and shelters.

Last night I was walking the baby, and trying to get her to sleep with her cranky cold and happened to be walking past the front of Paniera (which is this great bakery restaurant chain) a little while after they closed. I saw a kid cart 4 gigantic bags to the dumpster and toss them in. Only they didn't look like garbage, they looked like bread. So I went a little bit closer and saw that there were two more bags sitting next to the door. So I asked him. "Is that bread?"

"Yeah."

I eyed the loaves through the double layer of clear plastic bags encasing them.

"Is there anything wrong with it? Is it edible?"

"Oh yeah it's fine, we throw out bread at least three nights a week because it's a day old."

"Do you have to throw it out? Like, will you get into trouble if you don't?"

"No. We used to have someone come and pick it up. But lots of times he doesn't come."

"Well, I'll take it." I said.

And then I tried to pick up a bag of bread to carry home on the stroller and almost broke my back. It was really heavy. There was no way I could get it home.

So I grabbed a smaller bag of pastries and told him I'd be back.

I walked the 6 blocks back to our house and told the GH to grab the car and head over to get some bread. By the time he got there the place was locked up and there were no bags so he checked the dumpster and found a large bag of bread, sealed of course, sitting right on top. So he grabbed it and brought it home.

Those brown loaves in the middle are $8 loaves of bread. They are larger than a newborn, heavier too. Those baguettes are all whole wheat. This bread is made without preservatives and all of the unhealthy additives in most grocery store loaves, which is why they throw it out every few days. Think about how long bread sits on the shelves at the grocery store. Paniera is an artisan bakery that makes top quality stuff. I now have over $100 worth of gourmet bread that was baked fresh yesterday morning in my house. I put as much as would fit in the freezer. We're eating some before it goes bad, and the rest will go to family, friends, and whomever else wants it. The thing is, there were 5 other bags of food that were tossed last night, by that one store. The mind boggles to think of how much food is wasted every day across this nation.

I'm going to do some research and see if there is a place near by that would be willing to distribute it if we were to pick it up, like a Food Bank. Now I wonder what's in the trash behind the grocery store.


Okay today's menu.

Scrambled eggs-We get a dozen large for $1.19 at Trader Joe's. I used 5. $0.50
Whole grain toast-free
butter-$0.30
persimmons-free
apples-$0.70
bananas-$0.39

Breakfast $1.89

Snack-Yogurt with nectarine jam mixed in, about 1 tsp per bowl. $0.60

Lunch



Peanut Butter on thick slabs of bread with spinach and oranges on the side. (That combination is on purpose. The vitamin C in the oranges helps the body absorb the iron and nutrients in the spinach.) After I shot this picture I decided to add sliced bananas on top of the peanut butter.

Bread-free
Peanut butter-$0.40
Spinach leaves-$0.30
1 orange-$0.10
1 banana-$0.15

Total cost of lunch $0.80

For dinner I made corn tortillas, without a tortilla maker. I don't recommend it. It's time consuming and the tortillas don't hold together very well. This is my third attempt and they still aren't turning out well. I'm keeping my eyes open for a thrift store tortilla press, but no luck so far. When I consider that I can get 100 tortillas for less than 5 dollars around here and the bag of flour was about $3, this is one item that I'm not sure is worth it to make at home. Though it did taste wonderful.



I soaked black beans over night and then cooked them all day in the crockpot with onion, garlic, cumin, salt, pepper, habanero sauce, and oregano.

I removed about half of the beans from the pot with a slotted spoon, sliced some mini peppers I found hanging out at the back of the fridge, and added the leftover corn from last night, sprouts, yogurt, instead of sour cream, and salsa. We had vegetarian tacos, and used up leftovers at the same time.

16 corn tortillas-$0.50
black beans cooked from dried-$0.50
yogurt-$.20
sprouts-$0.30
corn-already added up last night
peppers$0.80?
Salsa-$0.30

Total cost of dinner $2.60

Total cost for the day $5.89

No Money? No Problem *Update

***I've added on to this subject over here. I have an idea that I think might help. Check out A Cure for Ignorance?

Every so often I get comments from people that have one recurring theme. They tell me all about how little money they have to spend on food per month, the stretched budget, the cost of fresh produce and conclude that they are just too poor to eat healthy. I think this is a lousy excuse.

You may not be able to afford the $6 a bottle pure fresh squeezed pomegranate juice, but that's hardly an excuse to buy Kool-aid. You may not be able to afford top quality steaks and organic free range chicken, but you don't have to eat potato chips and candy just because they're cheap.

Nowhere else in the world are the poor so overweight, and so undernourished. There is an epidemic of over eating in the US, but very little of what is eaten is real food. Take for example peasant food in eastern Africa. It centers around teff, a highly nutritious hardy grain, and lentils, full of fiber and protein. In addition to this are locally available vegetables. All other things being equal, I would venture that a person eating this diet would be a good deal healthier than the North American peasant diet of mac and cheese and Twinkies.

In India the poor live on lentils, beans and Basmati rice, yogurt, cabbage, spinach, and soft cheese. If there is more money they also eat flat bread made with butter and flour. Their candies and desserts often have lentils ground up and mixed in with them. Even though it's fatty, it's still healthier than here.

The world over people exist solely on rice and beans, vegetables, and the occasional meat dish. This, modern science tells us, is the best way for our bodies to eat.

Now, take a look at your local stores. Bulk grains and beans are about the lowest priced things at the store. Making anything at home from scratch and raw ingredients is cheaper and healthier than buying it pre-made. Now if we consider that the produce in season is usually $1 or less per pound, and that your average family size bag of chips is 1-2 dollars it seems to me that if you can afford to buy junk food, you can afford to eat vegetables. (Of course, this means you have to let go of the idea of eating strawberries year round in exchange for leeks and cabbage, not perhaps as exciting, but excellent nutrition.) If you can afford to buy Mac and cheese, you can afford to eat beans and rice. If you can afford to buy Kool-aid you can drink water and herbal tea instead. Going further, if you can afford to buy milk a few times a month, you can afford to make your own yogurt. If you can afford to buy breakfast cereal, you can afford to purchase the ingredients to make muesli and granola. If you can afford to buy loaves of bread, you can afford to purchase whole wheat flour and make your own. One bag of whole wheat flour costs less than a standard loaf of bread, and makes 10-20 loaves. Then, if you purchase a grain grinder and pay for wheat berries in bulk and grind it fresh, about $0.25/lb you can pay for that grinder in about a year with the money you've saved on bread.

Seed for sprouting is very inexpensive. One package of organic seeds is less than $3 and produces crop after crop of healthy nutritious sprouts. Sprouts are one of the most densely nutritious things you can eat. They are easy to make, with simple homemade equipment and only take a few days. People with limited means have little excuse for not having adequate nutrition when sprouting is such a simple means to add value to your diet.

Instead of focusing on what you can't afford to buy, spend your energy imagining what you can purchase, and what you can make. The need for frugality is rather an opportunity for creativity than an excuse to spend what extra you have available on things that have no nutritional value at all. And yes, every one deserves a treat from time to time. If you can't afford to purchase high quality treats, consider making your own from scratch. This is cheaper and makes for lovely memories for your family as well.

Tea, make it a part of your diet, and your holiday treats

My mother's family is Irish, my dad's, British and Irish. I come from a long line of tea drinkers, a looong line. My mother used to have travel tea cups that coordinated with her wardrobe. If anything happens in her family it's accompanied by the brewing of a strong pot of tea and sitting down at the table. My father's parents like to take their tea very seriously, cream first, then tea, always with the silver, never pour the cream from the carton, always from the pretty cream pitcher. You get the idea.

The reason I bring it up is that tea can be a big help to those who want to curb some automatic eating habits. For example, my grandparents always have tea after dinner, with dessert. There is something about a hot cup of tea that makes people slow down, and pay attention, and eat less. There is something about waiting for the water to boil, and the tea to brew, before sitting down with a pretty plate of dessert that keeps me anyway from gorging myself.

The prospect of the combination keeps me from sneaking extra before hand, and keeps me from sneaking extra after. If I'm thinking about a hot cup of tea and the perfect little cookie, or piece of pie, it actually stops me from tasting it before hand and helps me to keep sweets for only that occasion. Good china helps to create that sense of occasion, as does an uncluttered pretty table. By creating these moments with our food, the atmosphere, the heightened awareness, we can bring ourselves out of the habit of eating at random, grazing while standing, and into a ritualistic enjoyment of our food that keeps us from over eating or mindless snacking. I find that the more I plan what I am going to eat, the more attention I give to menus and shopping and preparation, the less I eat. It's a strange paradox, but anticipation works to keep me from eating on the go or the first moment I feel hungry because I want to wait to enjoy the meal I have planned. This goes for planned snack food too.

So as the holiday season moves closer and those once a year treats start appearing on your table, and sometimes around your middle try this. When someone gives you a box of chocolates, don't open it up and pass it around just yet, or leave it sitting on a credenza so you can pop one in your mouth every time you have occasion to pass. Put it away in a drawer, or cupboard, and save it for after a meal. Brew a steaming cup of tea, the choices are endless you'll find one you like, and put on or two little tastes on pretty plates. Eat slowly, savor the tea, your family and friends around you, and enjoy those treats. And then put them away again, until you have another occasion to enjoy a cup of tea. Or ask for gourmet tea blends, or coffee if you don't like tea, instead of baked treats and chocolates. And enjoy savoring this almost guilt free indulgence year round.

For a middle of the day visit with family, take another tip from the British and add to your tea, sandwiches, and other finger foods that have some protein in them and are good for you to balance out the sugar. Plan to eat more lightly at supper to make up for it.

Here are some of my favorite homemade blends:

Lavender Earl Grey

1 cup hood quality Earl Grey Blend loose tea

2 tsp lavender flowers

Combine and store in an airtight jar. To brew, pour boiling water into a pot with the tea. About 1 tbsp to 1-2 cups water.


Ginger and Fennel Roiboos

This tea is wonderful on a chilly night. The fennel seed is naturally sweet so I find it doesn't need any thing extra. Roiboos (South African red tea) is very high in antioxidants, one of the highest sources in the world.

4-5 slices ginger root

1 tbsp fennel seeds

4 whole cloves

1/4 cup roiboos leaves

Combine, keep in fridge unless the ginger you are using is dried. I fresh cut the ginger before each brewing and keep the rest together in a jar.

Steep in hot water for at least 5 minutes before serving. Try this with dates and mandarin oranges, two winter delights that are fun to eat and set the table with. And perhaps one chocolate truffle too once in a while.

With indulgences like these in store, it almost makes me look forward to colder weather.

Supersize it-American portions sizes are out of control

Indulge me a bit while I rant about portion sizes. Last week was at the store still at 6pm when we like to eat dinner. (Using my coupon to buy 20 lbs of chicken at $0.49 a lb if you must know, and I'm going back tomorrow for another 40lbs and then I won't have to buy chicken for at least two months I expect, maybe longer. I shop the sales and then stock up, it's cheaper.) Anyway, I was feeling very behind and needed to think about dinner for the kids and I. Between the grocery store and home on the route that we walk is a Wendy's, and a Boston Market. (The cheapest thing would have been to turn around and walk back into the store to purchase one of their rotisserie chickens for $6 or so. But I didn't feel like dragging my children all the way to the back of the store and then go through the checkout all over again. But I digress. I went for Boston Market. I figured home style meals with fresh ingredients and things like green beans and mashed potatoes on the menu was a better option than cheeseburgers.

I bought 1/2 of a rotisserie chicken and two sides. While I waited for them to dish up my order I happened to glance at the menu and realized that I had just ordered from the individual meals menu. I worried about there being enough for dinner. Well, when I brought it home and put it all on one of my large serving dishes it filled the dish quite nicely. There was enough food there for me and my children and I still have some leftover chicken in my fridge that we didn't eat.

Which leads to my conclusion, as mentioned in the title.

My in-laws are sometimes this way about dessert. I say I can bring some brownies or make some cookies and they respond, "Okay, we'll get some ice cream and make some fudge sauce too so that there is enough for everyone." Granted there are many teenage boys at that house but I didn't know that dessert came in meal sized portions. It seems to my way of thinking that dessert is for taste and that two cookies or one large brownie is plenty.

Portion sizes are out of control, and so are waistlines, in direct proportion I'll venture. Why are we so afraid of being hungry? We've all done it. We stand in line at a fast food restaurant and we place our order, and then we think to ourselves, "Oh I'll just get some fries too in case I'm still hungry after the burger." Of course we eat all of the fries too, even though we weren't really hungry after all. Healthy eating experts say that we should only eat until we stop feeling hungry, not until we feel stuffed. Most of us don't feel satisfied enough to stop at not hungry. We have trained ourselves and our bodies to need to feel full before it clicks that we are finished eating. Friends, this is MESSED UP! It has to stop.

So I offer a few ideas that help me to rearrange my thinking and how I feel about how much I'm eating. I slip back into this pattern of eating from time to time and these usually work for me.

1.) Remind yourself that it's only one meal, there will be more. So you think you have room to stuff another little bit into your body before you're finished lunch. Dinner is only 5 hours away or so. You don't feel hungry right now, and you don't feel heavy, you can last 5 hours until you eat again. THIS IS NOT YOUR LAST MEAL EVER! YOU WILL BE HUNGRY AGAIN, AND YOU WILL EAT AGAIN! It's that simple. Stop acting like you need to stock up for later or your body will too and you will start to look like a refrigerator.

2.) This is stolen directly from French Women Don't Get Fat (see side bar) ask yourself if you can be satisfied with half of what's on your plate. Put the other half in a doggy bag if you are out or discard it. I've read about people pouring salt all over their leftovers so they aren't tempted to keep eating. I just ask them to take it away as soon as I'm done and take the rest home for later, or for my kids. (I hate to waste food.)

3.) Use a smaller plate. You will eat less and feel satisfied. Or put your food artfully in the very center of the plate and be sure to leave a wide margin around the perimeter.

4.) Use tiny pretty dishes for dessert. This works amazingly well. I have some lovely little bowls that I use for dessert. One tiny scoop of ice cream and a cookie or piece of fruit and it is full. It takes me just as long to eat as a large bowl because I unconsciously go slower and savor it more. My children are learning along with me that desert is just a taste of something yummy as a finish to a meal, not a meal in itself. It's now completely normal for me to eat just a little bit, instead of a giant bowl. I do the same for my husband. If he wants more he can get more later, but when I get dessert for him I give him a small portion. I've noticed since I started that he goes back for seconds less and less frequently, and so now I make it a point to offer to get things for him and I give him what I think is a reasonable portion.

5.) What's your hurry? Eating is not a race. Slow down and enjoy your food. You will feel satisfied sooner with less, simply because you were mindful of your meal. If you have a toddler, most of whom are notoriously slow eaters, try one day matching your eating speed to theirs, just to change your perception and reset your habits. You will find you're not as hungry as you thought.

6.) When you are finished eating get up and do something else to signal to yourself that the meal is definitely over. Brush your teeth, clear the table, have a cup of tea, whatever works for you. This will keep you from continuing to eat when it's time to stop.

Try doing these for a month or two and you will be surprised to find out how much food you were eating that your body didn't really need. You'll feel lighter, have more energy, and your clothes may even fit better. Go on give it a try, and then come back and tell me how it worked.

What Real Food Means to Me

Since the title of this blog is the real food revolution, I obviously have a few opinions on the subject. I was asked to write a post describing what real food means to me by these people here.

Real food can be defined many ways. For some it may mean home grown and cooked from scratch. For others it may be something attached to a nostalgic memory or event that had food involved. Though I do tend to think of real food in those terms I think its gets a bit more basic for me in the end. Real food to me is mostly about ingredients, while to a lesser extent about process.

In my opinion brownies should only ever have chocolate, sugar, butter flour and baking powder in them, unless you want to throw in caramel or fudge chunks, chili peppers, or something else that adds flavor and interest to the basic recipe. We live in a culture were boxes of mass produced snack foods call to us from grocery store shelves and announce in big bold print with exclamation points "Made with REAL chocolate!" Only it's also got "Canola Oil, Palm Oil, Nonfat Milk, Soybean Oil, Corn Syrup, Fructose, Whey, Salt, Modified Cornstarch, Gellan Gum, Sodium Citrate, Soy Lecithin, Natural And Artificial Flavors, Guar Gum, Xanthan Gum, Propylene Glycol Monoesters, Mono- And Diglycerides, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, and Potassium Sorbate (Preservative)." I don't even know what some of those things are.

It shocks me that people ever buy this stuff, it just doesn't taste the way brownies should taste. It tastes sickeningly sweet without any of the fine counterpoint that real butter and chocolate bring to each other and the lovely slightly crisp slightly chewy texture of a real brownie.

Real food is made from real ingredients, not manufactured additives. Real food uses fresh, delicious, simple ingredients and combines those to make something wonderful. Some of the best meals I have ever enjoyed are from the combination of 5 basic ingredients or less, but it is the freshness, the quality, and the treatment of those ingredients that creates a wonderful gastronomical experience. Simplicity in ingredients can be combined with simplicity of preparation, or elaborate and detailed preparations that create something truly special. Cake can be a flat sheet with delicious icing smoothed on top with a butter knife. It may not look like much, but it tastes delicious. That same cake can be arranged in layers and covered with elaborate icing and delicate sugar roses and become the center piece for an event, but what makes it real to me is the ingredients used to make it, not the way it looks.

A few shrimp can be arranged artfully on a skewer atop a carefully made risotto, or the same basic ingredient can be piled high on a plate with corn on the cob and French bread, drenched in buttery sauce. Both are experiences of real food, both memorable in their own way.

Real food is local, and unique, specialties made from the bounty of each region and passed on from generation to generation as an art that makes the act of survival in this place we find ourselves living pleasurable. It has the wisdom of our ancestors in it, and is our heritage.

Real food is made with pride, with an eye to quality and freshness. Real food is what we find the world over when people are in touch with their environment, their food sources, and their kitchens.

I started this blog because I was appalled at how little real food is available where I live. In the grocery stores and fast food chains that abound as I wander the aisles and look for nutritious and delicious things to feed my family, I am constantly disappointed by what I find. This has driven me to write about it, and learn more, to seek out local sources of produce, to start my own garden, and to even try to figure out how to make my own artisan sourdough. It is an exciting and fulfilling journey, and I'm glad that you all have joined me on it.

Thanks.

Kellogg's commits to raising nutrition of kids food

I read this article with great interest the other day. Kellogg's the world's leading cereal producer has caved to public pressure and will be upgrading the nutrition standards of the cereals that it advertises to children under the age of 12. It will be revising the caloric content and salt and sugar content of it's cereals. While I applaud this development and agree that it's a good thing for lobbyists to push for a healthier food standard, I can't help wondering about a lot of issues the article raised for me.

The first thought of course was that they could meet those guidelines just by making the portion sizes smaller, which doesn't change anything but the label.

The other thing that it had me wondering however was why is it necessary to control advertising to children? Why is it the responsibility of the food producers to make kids food healthier instead of the responsibility of parents to make informed choices as consumers? Aren't parents the ones who purchase the breakfast cereal, and aren't they able to say no and explain to their children why they are making that choice?

Perhaps I don't understand because I don't let my kids watch commercial television most of the time. If they want Dora, I'll rent the DVD. They don't watch TV unless I'm there with them. Is Shrek really more of an influence for some children than their parents are? I doubt it but I want to hear your opinion about all of this.

decisions, decisions

Today I want to talk about making choices to eat right, to respect ourselves and our bodies, and to maintain or attain a healthy weight. We all have our triggers, moments when we are sorely tempted to go off of our regular diet and outside of our safe parameters for indulgence. If we give in too often those indulgences become our regular diet and then we are in trouble. My triggers are late night after the kids are asleep, and when I occasionally get to a store without 2 children in tow. The light and easy child free feeling is definitely an occasion for celebration and I find myself eying the candy bars, detouring off of my regular route through the baked goods section, and seriously contemplating food I normally avoid. This is never a problem when I'm out with my children. When I'm with my kids I'm strong, they are watching me, I don't want to give them any because it's not good for them. I've worked hard to get them to the point that they no longer ask for candy, they just look at it like orphans and say mournfully, "I would really like to get some candy but I know that it's not good for me and that we shouldn't eat it, but I would really like to get some." (Direct quote) At which point I make sure to praise them for being so smart and strong and remind them of whatever yummy treat we are planning for our indulgence later or another day and stress that it tastes much better than whatever they are eying. I'm not going to purchase fake food in front of my children, but I think about it when they aren't there. Am I hungry? No. Am I bored and in need of something unusual? Perhaps.

Now we are getting to what I really want to talk about. You see, every decision we make reinforces one behavior or another, every time I choose to raid the fridge at 11pm makes it that much easier to do it the next time, and every time I choose not to makes it that much easier to resist the next time. No moment exists only for itself but builds on past moments and influences future moments. The great thing is that life presents us with many opportunities to change our course and start off in a new direction. Every time to stand in the cookie aisle at the grocery store eying the chocolate covered orange blossom cookies on sale, not because you are planning a special tea with friends later that week and plan to serve them and perhaps taste one yourself, but because you are thinking about eating them on the way home and then hiding the rest of the box in the back of the cupboard and wolfing them down when no one is looking is a chance to change you habits for the better. Just say no this time. You don't have to eat them. Yes it's only one box of cookies, but saying no today helps you to say no tomorrow, and then the next day, and the next. Saying yes makes it harder to say no later. You strengthen yourself or weaken yourself with every response to every temptation. Even on indulgence days, choosing to leave on bite on your plate of the lovely chocolate mousse or ice cream strengthens your resistance your ability to say no when it's in front of you. But it's only one bite you say, what's the big deal? Try it. Can you leave just one bite on the table in front of you and go on without thinking about it, eying it, cutting it in half and eating one half and then cutting it in half again? If you can't, you are not alone, but the practise of leaving it there strengthens your resolve and your ability to be in control of your appetite.

So here are a few tricks that help me get through my tempting times and stick to the plan that I have chosen.

I brush my teeth as soon as I'm finished eating dinner, before I clear the table. I am put off enough by the bother of doing it again before bed that I don't snack, or take bites of my husband's dessert or whatever he brought home with him or eat leftovers that I don't really need if my teeth are already brushed.

I try not to keep snacks in the house that I find hard to resist.

When I go out and want to celebrate I get non food items. Some ideas are:

Fresh flowers, just one or two stems will do, they make me happy to look at them and last a lot longer than a candy bar.
Fruit. I was at the store two days ago and for some reason I could not stop looking at the chocolate brownies. I wanted cherries too but they were more than I wanted to pay, and then I realized that I was about to spend that on chocolate any way and took the cherries home instead.
READ THE LABEL. Nothing puts me off a craving faster than a dose of cold hard reality. Those brownies I was thinking of buying are made out of corn syrup and hydrogenated oils, and dye's and preservatives. I know from experience that that is going to taste disappointing, and I'll want to keep eating because it's not what I really wanted. And, one serving, half a brownie, has more than 200 calories, %50 from fat. It took my whole morning workout to burn that much off, no way walking home from the store is going to make up for it.
Light reading material. I don't normally buy check stand magazines, or any at all for that matter, but I do sometimes if I want to just take a break and relax.
Herbal tea: I like to stop at a coffee shop and get a nice herbal blend, like a citrusy roiboos or something that tastes good without cream or sweetener and sit and savor and enjoy my break.
Water. Stay hydrated and you're less likely to have cravings.

I promise the more you resist the urge to eat mindlessly, and for emotional or habitual reasons, the easier it will be to continue to resist, and pretty soon you will feel better and look better too.

My Personal Weight Loss Plan

So, my postpartum body is kind of squishy. Since this is my third baby, it is predictably squishier than it has been before. Since I am entirely sick of my maternity wardrobe, and I gave away all of my clothes that are larger than a size six the last time I lost the baby weight, and I’m on a limited budget, I’d like to fit into my pre-pregnant wardrobe as soon as I can. I don’t own a scale, but my weight at the last midwife appointment 2 weeks ago was 168. I’m short so that really stacks up on me and even my T-shirts don’t fit. The weight I feel good at is around 130. That’s 38 pounds to lose. If I lose 1 1/2 lbs a week, I’ll look great in my favorite red dress by summer. As added incentive for myself, I hope to extract from the Genius Husband a promise that when said fabulous dress finally fits he will go with me to someplace cool enough to wear said fabulous dress to without any children in tow. (It was imagining myself in a great outfit, which I envisioned in itty-bitty detail, and attending the GH’s company Christmas party in it that kept me sprinting up and down our entrance steps 15 minutes a day to get rid of the last 10 lbs after the Girl was born. I didn’t have a treadmill back then, and stairs use the largest muscle group and so burn the most calories and I didn’t have much time so I needed to move faster and it seemed like the most efficient blahdy blah blah blah… Anyway the very specific goal provided the needed incentive to add exercise to my crazy days. I had many other far more worthy and long term goals, such as good health, strength, teaching my children to take care of their bodies by taking care of mine, and the memory of how much better it feels to move and be when not carrying extra weight around, but it was picturing the outfit that actually got me off of my butt and tying up my shoes. I guess my inner couch potato is shallow like that. Use what motivates you.)

So I have a plan to make this happen. I already do many things that will help me, as you know. I don’t eat processed fats, I eat fruits and vegetables, I eat whole grains, I avoid sugar, white flour, and sinple starches, I don’t drink sweetened beverages, and I drink a lot of water. (Oh yeah, and I’m breastfeeding which takes care of an extra 500 calories a day.)

So here’s what I’m going to add to that because pregnancy has changed my eating habits enough that I need to alter them again now that I’m not.

1.) No snacking/unplanned eating. I will only eat breakfast lunch and dinner if I can. Because I know that my blood sugar will drop and produce cravings if there is too long an interval between these meals, and breastfeeding tends to make me hungry more often, I will also plan what I will do in case that happens. So, I will have on hand things to eat in emergencies. These will be almonds, soy nuts, fruit, and vegetables. I already carry a small bag of soy nuts or almonds in my purse wherever I go. What I want to add to this is portion control. I plan to divide the almonds and soy nuts into individual portion sizes, either in zip lock bags or the reusable mini plastic containers that I use for my kids. This will keep me from eating too much. I will have to think about whether or not I am hungry enough to get myself a second portion. I’ve gotten into the habit of constant snacking in order to meet the pregnant protein requirements and this will help stop it.
2.) No eating while standing, sit down to eat, always.
3.) No eating while reading, watching TV, driving, etc. Only eating at the table during meals, or snacks. I already do this most of the time, though sometimes I find my eyes wandering for reading material during breakfast.
4.) Relearn portion sizes. I’m thinking of buying a scale to measure portions for a while until I remember what a real portion is, instead of the supersize me version. (I got this idea from French Woman Don’t Get Fat.)
5.) Exercise at least 30 minutes every day. My preferred method is to go for a brisk walk outside somewhere pretty, but since I have small children that isn’t always possible, they walk too slow and I don’t usually have help with childcare. So I have alternatives. I have a treadmill, I have exercise videos, I have belly-dancing videos, I have a weighted hula-hoop that’s great for ab muscles; I try not to get bored. My kids often exercise with me. As an addendum to this I want to sit on the floor as often as possible and stretch for a while when sitting. This would be watching shows, talking on the phone, directing my children as they clean up, etc. I’m chronically inflexible, and lot of workout time for me goes to stretching so I’m trying to do that during my regular day so that it doesn’t steal time from other things and keep me from my workout goal.
6.) If I’m still hungry after a meal with my revised portion size, I may have seconds, of salad. I always make too much anyways, this will keep it from going to waste.
7.) This one is entirely unique to myself I expect. I will not eat more Challah bread after the Shabbat meal. I will eat the piece that comes with dinner and not attack the rest of the loaf after dinner and eat it with thick slabs of butter. I’ve been kind of letting myself go on Shabbat but really, extra bread and dessert together is not exactly balanced.

The main goals of my plan of course are to avoid eating more than I need, and to make my body stronger through exercising it. I still plan to eat dessert a couple of times a week even butter every so often and to enjoy my food even more by giving it my full attention instead of mindlessly stuffing it in my mouth while I stand in the kitchen preoccupied by other things. I have found with exercise that it has to be something that I enjoy, not necessarily a “fun” activity, but something that makes it possible for me to take pleasure in the way my body is moving and working. Walking is the best activity for me, though dancing and aerobics come close. When I’m stronger and more fit, I enjoy running too, I like the feel of my strong legs and lungs as I settle into pace. I’m not there right now, but hope to return eventually. Once every week or two I will try on my favorite jeans again to see if I can do them up yet. So far I can get them up, but there is a gap at least 5 inches wide between the buttons, and the thighs are very tight. If I come across a scale I’ll weigh myself, which won’t be very reliable information since it won’t be the same scale but I’ll share anyway. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Kicking the Sweets Addiction

I have been asked by some people to talk about kicking the sugar and caffeine habit. We all know too much sugar is bad for you, we all know too much coffee can be bad for you too. In fact too much of just about anything can be bad for you.

I’m not going to try and convince you that these things are bad in excess, you probably already know. But I will give you a few tidbits to maybe help strengthen someone’s resolve. Sugar affects our body in several ways. It suppresses white blood cell production for up to 3 hours after you eat it, weakening your immune system, it causes insulin spikes in our blood which are then followed by lower blood sugar which can mean anything from headaches to cravings for more sugar to irritability to increased appetite to, in my case, irrational fits of weeping and sometimes vomiting when it gets too low. This becomes a vicious cycle for some people, and can really mess with your quality of life. The average adult female shouldn’t be eating more than 19 grams of sugar a day according to an article I once read in a natural living hippy style magazine, which isn’t much. (I wanted to find it for you, but I don’t even remember the name of the magazine, just that one fact that has followed me around ever since.)

So here are a few things that have helped me along the way to deal with diet excesses. I have gone cold turkey several times, eating absolutely no sugar at all. The benefit of doing this is that after about a week or two I really stopped wanting it, there were no cravings, I lost interest completely. The downfall of this method is that once I allowed myself a little taste again, I had very little control over how much and usually returned to eating sugar somewhat mindlessly in a matter of weeks after the first birthday cake or whatever it was that I allowed myself to have. What has made the most difference over the longest period of time is to become a bit of a snob, or connoisseur when it comes to sweets. I only eat it if it’s really REALLY good. And then I only need a little bit to be satisfied.

So if I was going to try to get rid of a sugar habit this is what I would do.

To start with, go two weeks at least without any kind of processed sugar thing. Don’t eat candy, don’t eat cake, don’t sweeten your coffee, don’t eat candy bars, etc. Do eat lots and lots of fresh fruit. Right now oranges are in season in the stores, get the little Clementine’s that you can peel and eat, get apples; I think the imported pineapples are fresh right now too. Anyway, the point is to satisfy your craving for sweets with fresh fruits, which are sweet and full of water. When you have a sweet craving, drink a glass of water, often re-hydrating makes the craving go away. At the start of this week throw away all of your sweets, don’t give it to someone else or eat it all before you start the week, throw it in the garbage. This might be hard; you may feel wasteful. You need to reprogram your brain to realize that this kind of food is junk and you don’t need it, seeing it at the bottom of the trash bin will help with that.

At the end of the second week go out and buy some really good dark chocolate. It can’t be milk chocolate, and it can’t be made by Hershey or Nestle. Look for dark chocolate, at least 70% solid cocoa mass. If you are near a Trader Joe’s they sell bars of single origin dark chocolate. Just like coffee cocoa beans have different qualities depending on where they’re grown. You can taste a difference. Most chocolate is blended and homogenized so that it all tastes the same, which is very sad. Most Americans have never tasted real chocolate as a result. Instead they have tasted chocolate flavored sugar wax. TJ’s also sells single origin chocolates, from three different countries in individually wrapped squares in gift packets, which is perfect because it’s built in portion control. If you can’t find good chocolate where you live, look online, I’ve seen some really tasty looking chocolate available online.

After you find your chocolate, your indulgence, don’t you dare eat it out of the wrapper on the way home. Make a nice meal; sit down at the table to eat it. Enjoy it. When dinner is over, or lunch, take out one square of chocolate, maybe pour a little glass of 15 year old antique tawny port, (If you have a husband who keeps it stocked, mine does, and it goes so well with chocolate) and slowly eat the chocolate. Pay attention to the texture, the flavor. Let it melt in your mouth, don’t chew it, pay attention to the smell, the look, the flavors. If it is a truly rich dark chocolate, you won’t want to have any more after you eat it as I’ve described. You will be satisfied. Depending on how much sugar you want to allow yourself, have a square a day, or only twice a week, but look forward to it. Plan when you are going to indulge, make sure it is with a meal for the sake of keeping the insulin from spiking and your cravings along with it. Looking forward to the chocolate should keep you from wanting to mindlessly snack on other less satisfying sweets. A candy bar, after a couple of weeks will taste waxy to you and you’ll wonder why you ate them.

After learning to love real chocolate, stick to a few rules. Plan to indulge, to keep yourself looking forward to something to keep you from binging. Only eat sugar after a meal, never by itself. Eat slowly, pay attention to it, and make it an event. Pay attention to the first three bites, give them all of your attention and you may find you are satisfied and don’t need any more. Give yourself permission to leave food on the plate. If the first bite doesn’t taste good, don’t eat any more.

Our whole family keeps Fridays and Sundays for indulgences. On Friday we share the Shabbat meal with family, and there is usually desert, on Sunday evenings it’s usually ice cream. My kids know to expect this treat and look forward to it. If they ask for something in the middle of the week, I tell them we can have it on Sunday, or Friday. We are all learning delayed gratification. When the boy wanted to try candy making thanks to a craft book, we made them and then waited to taste them until Shabbat, when we shared with everyone. When we lived in Canada there was a bakery near us that made the best Nanaimo bars, if you’re not Canadian you’ve probably never even heard of one much less tasted it. Believe me a good one is amazing. For weeks on end my planned Sunday indulgence was a Nanaimo Bar from that bakery. They were closed on Sundays, so every Saturday afternoon I would walk to the bakery and get my one bar and take it home. It would wait on top of the fridge until after lunch on Sunday, and then I would eat my one treat for that week. Anticipation does great things for our eating habits if we can use it to our advantage. I was able to pass up all sorts of temptations by mentally comparing them to my treat and rejecting them because they weren’t as good. If something did catch my eye, I would save it for Sunday and look forward to it instead.

One word about hidden sugar. Sugar is in everything these days, disguised as soup and crackers and bread and peanut butter. Read labels and try to eliminate as much hidden sweetener from your diet as possible, you’ll not only help your waistline, but you’ll keep yourself from the kinds of continued cravings that eating high sugar foods can cause which creates a vicious spiral effect where you eat more sugar and then crave more and then eat more an then crave more and you end up feeling sick.

I am less helpful when it comes to caffeine because I don’t like coffee. Here are a couple of things that may help those that do. Try not to drink it sweet or creamy since the sugar and fat have the opposite effect on your brain and you may need more to keep going. Drink more water!! In the morning before reaching for your cup of coffee try drinking two large glasses of water first. You may find yourself feeling much more alert even before you take your caffeine hit. Try the water thing throughout the day as well. Since I don’t drink caffeinated beverages I have to rely on other things to keep me going, like napsJ, but water does help a lot, as does eating foods high in fiber and protein at regular intervals throughout the day. If you find you still need stimulants there are drinks like Yerba Mate, which is a very strong tea, or matcha, which is powdered green tea from special leaves that my husband claims works as well as coffee. If you just really love the taste think of it the same way as chocolate or another indulgence. Treat yourself to really great coffee less often. Get some really aromatic dark roast espresso or something that you coffee lovers rave about, and enjoy a cup or two a day and stop there.

I hope this helps those who were asking. One last bit of advice is to read French Women Don’t get Fat that is linked in the side bar. She is really interesting and really helpful to those of us with a sweet tooth and a desire to enjoy things in moderation.

Why Eat Real Food?

I never used to think about why I ate the food I ate, beyond whether I liked it or not, or was hungry. My weight fluctuated a lot in my late teen years, though I was never more than 20lbs or so over what would be considered healthy for me, and I considered most of my problem with weight to be an issue of vanity rather than health. I wanted to look better in my clothes, I wanted to wear a size 6 or 4 again, I wanted to be attractive to men. At the same time I rebelled against the idea that people would judge me for what I looked like, rather than who I am, and that I needed to conform to some kind of standard to be accepted. So while I would from time to time try to exercise more regularly, or eat low fat foods, or eat less for dessert, (I was in great shape the year I biked to work everyday) I was never really all that motivated to make any permanent lifestyles changes that were good for me because of this ambivalence.

Then I was pregnant with my first child, and everything changed. One of the first things you read in those pregnancy books is that everything you eat goes to your baby, that the things going into your mouth are the building blocks from which your child’s body is formed. I remember one book that said if I was hungry at 2am I should get up and eat because maybe the baby needed a little something to grow an ear. They talked about peak periods of brain development and muscle and bone development and the kinds of things I should be eating to give the baby the best start possible. Here was a reason to pay attention to my eating that mattered to me, that changed my perception completely. I was eating nothing but healthful food for the first time in my life, consciously aware that food was the building block for life.

After my son was born I continued eating this way as it had become habitual, and to my surprise I was in a size 4 by the time he was 8 months old. (Yes breastfeeding helped a lot.) Losing weight had not been my motive for healthier eating, but it was a definite perk. My wedding dress was too large.

While pregnant I started taking this really great supplement that I still take called JuicePlus+. They have a lot of literature to read and a lot to listen to, and it was here that I began to realize that that not only was what I ate the building block for my baby, but it was the building block for myself as well.

Did you know that red blood cells have a lifespan of about 120 days? That means that every four months your body has completely replaced all of your blood with new blood cells, and that these new blood cells are comprised entirely of what you ate for the last 4 months. The same goes for your soft tissues, your bones and eventually your brain. This means several things; most significantly if you are giving your body inferior material to work with, it will create an inferior product. All food is not created equal. Secondly, if you make a positive change and stick with it for four months, you should feel a significant difference by the end of that time, because all of the blood coursing through your veins will have been affected by this positive change.

Then I heard of this guy named Pottenger, and his experiments with cats. He fed one group of cats processed and cooked food, and another only fresh foods. The cats eating fresh food stayed healthy and strong for several generations, the cats eating processed food got sicker and sicker with each successive generation, showing signs of degenerative diseases that humans get at younger and younger ages until they all died. This process damaged the DNA itself. His experiment also showed that when he fed the surviving cats natural food again the damage was reversed in about the same time.

Did you know that one raw apple has more than 14 000 phytochemical constituents? (Phytochemicals are the things that are good for us, also known as antioxidants, vitamins, etc.) Scientists don’t even know what more than say 50 or 60 of them do, or how they work in our bodies. Did you also know that if you cook that apple, turn it into apple sauce, make a pie, etc. that up to 80% of those life giving phytochemicals are killed in the process? Now remember that all food when it leaves the field is like that, bursting with nutrients and goodness and all that our bodies need to be strong and healthy. And then remember that with each progressive step in processing it to get to our grocery store shelves, more and more of those nutrients are killed.

My point is that God, nature, whomever you like knew what they were doing when they made food, and the less we mess with it the better. So eat fresh, eat it as close to the field as you can find. Eat produce and nuts and seeds raw, eat grains whole, buy from local producers so that you know it is fresh and hasn’t been sitting in a refrigerated warehouse for months before you get it, get vine ripened as the nutrient content triples those last few days on the vine, eat beans and lentils and things that haven’t been messed with by food manufacturers but still have the goodness of the sun and the earth and the water in them.
I sound like a hippy I know, or maybe just a kid who grew up in a farming family and ate my honey raw, my milk unpasteurized from my grandmother’s cow, my eggs fresh from her chickens, my vegetables fresh from the garden. It wasn’t a hard concept for me to adjust to, though it took me long enough to do it, and understand why my parents fed me as they did. Perhaps hearing how I came full circle will help you out as well.

Philosophy of Eating

As I sit and type the Genius Husband and the Boy are making a Death By Chocolate big boy chocolate cake; for the Boy is turning five tomorrow. It smells amazing. This recipe only has 4 Tbsp of flour in it. The rest is eggs and melted dark chocolate, and sugar and cocoa and butter and sour cream. The Genius Husband, who is a phenomenal cook when he finds the time, intends to make several layers of chocolate ganach to put between the cake layers, in different flavors. Why am I telling you this? Well, maybe I just want to make you all jealous, but the truth is you may have the impression that I don’t indulge. While I usually avoid junk food, as in food that isn’t really food, I often enjoy tasty things that some of you may lump together with junk food, like birthday cake.

I grew up a fairly indiscriminate eater. I had my picky moments as a child, but as I approached adulthood I could pretty much choke down anything, irregardless of flavor and texture and I thought that it’s just food and I’m hungry, so I would eat it without thinking much about it. I love reading, I would usually take the precious minutes of lunch at school to catch up on whatever I was reading while I ate my lunch, without tasting it. In university I would eat to deal with boredom and stay awake while studying, and I developed a close relationship with the Pizza Hut Express up the stairs from my practice room. Forgetting everything my dear mother had taught me and abandoning the healthful elements of her cooking expertise, I reasoned that pizza covers all of the food groups, who cares if it’s swimming in grease and nitrates, and I also ate a lot of pasta with cheese. You know where this is going don’t you? I saw a picture of myself in the middle of second year and thought, “Who is that girl, can that really be me? I don’t look like that do I?” I packed it on as I had never done before. (I still have a big soft spot for pizza, sigh. When I was a child my mom would make it at home from scratch, which is a much healthier alternative. Well, I now know that if you soak up all of the grease on top of a slice with a paper towel before you eat it, you can get rid of up to 200 calories per slice. And I make it point to find gourmet pizza places with whole wheat crust options when I do indulge.)

My best friend went to France the year after high school, when she came home she brought French chocolate with her, and French wine, and some recipes that were divine. She was generous with the chocolate that summer, and those little squares were exquisite. Candy and chocolate as a child growing up had always been cheap, inexpensive, and on sale, and I would eat it all, slowly to make it last, because we didn’t get it that often. This was real chocolate. My first taste of a candy bar after her chocolate tasted like wax, not like chocolate. A little part of my brain started to tangle with the question of why that was, and what sort of implications that might have regarding my eating habits. I then started to realize that my extreme mood swings and depressive tendencies seemed to be linked to my diet. (I would feel fine, eat a chocolate egg on an empty stomach while talking on the phone, and find myself lying on the carpet sobbing out of a deep well of sadness that came out of nowhere. Which I thought might be a little bit extreme.) I was finally diagnosed as hypoglycemic and started to learn how to balance my eating to stabilize my blood sugar. It would be many years before this would all come together into the mostly coherent philosophy that I now share with you.

Basically, I won’t eat something unless it’s worth eating. I can only consume so many calories per day without gaining weight. I’m only hungry every so often, and I can only handle so much sugar without going crazy. Now before I put something in my mouth, I ask if it’s worth it, really truly worth it. Is it worth to eat those potato chips, is it worth it to eat those crackers, does that birthday cake really deserve my attention. In essence I’ve become an extremely picky eater, in a good way. For example, yesterday I attended a little boy’s birthday party. First of all it was a morning party, no meal was served, and there was a gigantic sheet cake. Now, to eat the cake breaks several of my personal eating rules, like eating desserts with meals because it changes the way they are digested and the affect they have on my brain, but I considered it anyway because that’s not always a strong motivation for me, though it should be. I accepted a slice, and took a bite, and here is the moment that I am still trying my hardest to remember when it comes to eating, I paid attention to how it tasted, was it good enough to eat a second bite? Some of you may really like white slab cakes with the pudding filling and super sweet colored icing, I don’t. Not really. In the past I would have eaten the whole piece, but I wouldn’t have been satisfied, my brain chemistry would be out of whack for nothing, I would have started craving more sweets, and I’d be at least 200 calories fatter, all for a relatively bland, unexciting, and tasteless piece of birthday cake. Tomorrow I fully intend to eat a small slice of that chocolate cake; it is too rich for anyone to eat a large slice of. I will eat it slowly, after I eat dinner, I will pay attention to each bite, I will savor it. I will fully enjoy every moment of that chocolate cake, and when I am finished, I won’t want anything else, not that I intend to have anything else available.

I am the same with chocolate, with ice cream, with candy, which I just won’t eat anymore because I haven’t found any that is worth it, with cookies, and with breakfast lunch and supper. I later ran into a phrase that some of you might be familiar with, Mindful Eating.

Do you read when you eat? I still do sometimes, though I’m trying to break the habit. Do you eat while watching TV? Do you eat while driving? Do you eat standing up? This is called mindless eating, and most Americans do it. When we eat like this, we tend to overeat, because we are not paying attention to what we are eating, or how much. Have you ever put a lot of time into making yourself something good, some kind of treat, and then sat down to eat it in front of the television, or a book, or your computer? Did you taste it? Did you enjoy it? Did you even notice what was going into your mouth?

When you make an event of eating, when you go to the trouble of preparing something tasty and healthful and then sit down to eat it and the main event is the food, you become a more mindful eater. You eat more slowly, you chew more, you eat less, that is, if you remember to taste those first few bites and not rush through them. I often catch myself, after cooking, getting everything on the table, cutting up food for my children, and jumping up and down a few more times for forgotten items before I eat, frenetically shoveling food into my mouth at the same mad pace as I have been doing everything else. I’ll be halfway through my plate before I stop and think, “Slow down, taste it, you aren’t in a hurry right now.” It’s a little bit lame, but I used to not think of it until I went for seconds to get another taste of whatever I had just mindlessly devoured on my plate. I'm improving. The act of sitting and experiencing food is one of the reasons why family mealtimes are so important to me, and I think contribute to making healthier eaters of our children. This is also why I no longer put my extremely slow and picky eater son in front of a show while he’s eating so that it will distract him from examining every single piece of food before it enters his mouth and he might finish eating today, please. I realized that I don’t want him to become a mindless eater, and knowing that I will be sitting at the table with him for a long time at dinner helps me to slow down as well, though I’m almost always up and loading the dishwasher before he’s finished eating.

When our children get a treat, it’s a real treat. We give them real chocolate; minimum 75% cocoa mass usually single origin organic, I like the beans from Ecuador the best. (Like I said; if you are going to indulge, make it worth it.) You can get the bars at Trader Joe’s, and World Market on occasion. Right now I’m feeding them Double Rainbow Vanilla ice cream. It has only cream, milk, sugar, eggs and vanilla bean in it, and it is the richest, creamiest ice cream. I used to like the original Breyer’s before they started making it “creamier” by adding things that aren’t food to it. It’s still pretty good if you can find the original recipe flavors, and also only has things like cream and eggs and sugar, but it’s a much lighter ice cream, and now it tastes likes I’m eating air, so it’s not worth it, I have to eat too much to be satisfied. We give them small amounts of really tasty stuff, often in the play Ikea dishes so it looks like a full portion. They have never had a regular candy bar, they have had hard candy on a few occasions, but I am hoping that they will learn to be discriminate indulgers as well as I teach them what real tastes like. They also know that sweets are eaten with meals, and not at other times because they need protein to help them to not feel bad after they have eaten them. For the same reason they don’t usually get them after breakfast or lunch because it keeps them from being as alert and cheerful through out the day when they need to be for school, playing together, mommy’s sanity, so it usually happens after dinner, before bed.

The other thing I consider aside from indulgences is the nutrient density of my food. By the same reasoning that I can only eat so much per day, I want to make sure that my body gets what it needs to stay healthy out of the foods I’m eating. If I’m going to eat salad, I’m not going to eat iceberg lettuce, which is mainly water and fiber, I’m going to eat something dark green because it contains much more nutrients. (WITH PRODUCE, THE DARKER THE COLOR, THE GREATER THE AMOUNT OF NUTRIENTS.) If I were going to eat rice, I’d prefer it to be brown rice, because there are more nutrients in it, whole grain pasta and bread instead of white, water or tea instead of soda, etc. This is especially important when feeding little ones because they don’t eat as much. There isn’t room in their diets for empty foods that just fill their tummies without giving them something they need. When I bake cookies, I substitute ground almonds for half of the flour in a rolled cookie recipe, because almonds have more that is good for them than whole-wheat flour. I’ve just upped the calcium protein and healthy essential oil content by 50% by doing that. By avoiding the use of lard and artificial sweeteners, I’ve improved those cookies several more notches, and when my children sit down to drink them with a glass of milk, usually soy or almond, and a piece of fruit, they are getting a snack that they will enjoy, and they are getting nutrients that are essential to their growing bodies. (Credit for the almond idea goes to my friend and former neighbor Queenie, who was a nutritionist before she became a mommy. I learned many things from her that year that we shared a house.)

There are several other very well informed and smart people out there who have written on this subject. I have been reading through French Women Don’t Get Fat recently, because I've been trying to pin down the things about lifestyles and habits that make healthier people for my own benefit. She goes into great detail on the subject of how paying attention to your food and enjoying it leads to healthier bodies and attitudes, and she has several tips on how to do that, as well as a simple weight loss plan for those who are trying to lose. For more on how diet affects children’s brains, eating foods in combinations and glycemic index, subjects I intend to tackle at some future point here, go to Dr. Sears for some great articles. Finally here is an article and book/website about the research behind mindless eating. Mel over at Amazing Shrinking Mom found this first, I’m just following her links.

And with that I say goodnight, I have a kitchen full of chocolate to clean up. Apparently it's my job since the boys did the cooking.