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Super Secret Snacking Behavior

By Jamie Martin (@jamielmartin) / April 4, 2013

I have a confession to make: I’ve once again reverted to eating too much sugar. And I’ve been doing it in secret. For several months. Ugh.

Take Tuesday, for example: As my two-year-old daughter was enjoying her healthy, balanced lunch, I was in the kitchen sneaking bite-size Snickers, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Starburst jelly beans (all of which came in our Easter baskets, which is a whole other blog post — has anyone else noticed how this religious holiday has morphed into a combo of Halloween and Christmas?!?). Forget lunch. I ate candy.

In an attempt to make up for my super secret snacking behavior (which I shall refer to as SSSB from hence forth), I decided to make a healthy dinner: Martha Stewart’s Kale and White Bean Soup. I doctored it up with some red pepper flakes, a bay leaf and various other seasons to give it a bit more flavor. It was delicious and I felt satisfied.

An hour or so later, the sugar cravings came. I had expected them, and had earlier promised myself that I’d have some fruit with Greek yogurt, chia seeds and a drizzle of honey WHEN that happened. It was a well-intentioned plan.

Instead, I found myself reaching into the candy dish and polishing off a bag of jelly beans (not, mind you, the ones that came in our Easter baskets, but the BAG that I had bought at Target the week prior and hidden). I snuck handfuls as I played with my daughter before bedtime and while my husband walked the dog. At one point, MK did ask, “What you eating, Mama? I have some?” so I gave her two or three beans of her own. I know — how generous of me, right?!

Once the bag was gone (and safely buried in the garbage, to hide the evidence), I proceeded to feel physically and mentally ill for the rest of the evening, which is what always happens post-binge. The guilt about what I’d put into my expectant body (did I mention I’m pregnant?), on top of the physical discomfort, always leaves me with with this heavy feeling of shame and disappointment.

We wrote about SSSB as a type of problem-eating pattern in “Tangled Up in Food” back in January/February 2011:

Secretive eating feeds the shame spiral that perpetuates poor eating habits. “Any behavior that takes place in secret tends to go hand-in-hand with shame,” says Michelle May, MD, a board-certified family physician and author of Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat (Greenleaf Book Group, 2010). “If I eat something ‘bad,’ then I feel guilty, and I feel like a ‘bad’ person for doing it.”

The brain is similarly shackled by joyless eating. Compared with actively savoring food, eating in secret can create stress, which means the release of fewer endorphins, the pleasure chemicals that promote digestion. Endorphins help assimilate nutrients and, ultimately, burn calories. “The chemistry of pleasure is intrinsically designed to fuel metabolism,” says David. “When food comes with a helping of guilt, the nervous system registers only a minimum of pleasurable sensations and we are physiologically driven to eat more. We’re compelled to hunt down the pleasure we never fully receive, even though it’s continually within our grasp.”

Eating furtively easily leads to overeating because it allows you to skirt the emotions at the heart of the issue. Instead of sitting with an uncomfortable situation or emotion, seeking a quick pleasure fix through food becomes a way to change or manage emotions quickly, says May. When the urge strikes to eat behind closed doors, stop and ask yourself what emotion you are trying to escape. “You may think you are overeating ‘just because it tastes good’ or ‘because you lack willpower,’’’ says May, but that’s rarely the case. “The ‘why’ becomes clear only when you explore the feelings that underlie your actions.”

So much of what is written here rings true for me: I’ve been carrying a lot of fear and anxiety over the last few months as we’ve been preparing for the arrival of our second baby. I’m nervous about how I’m going to balance being a good wife and mom with working full-time. Will I be able to do it all? How on earth will ever I love another child like I love my first? How are we going to afford this? How are we going to get all of these projects done before June? Will I be able to get all of these projects at work wrapped up before I go into labor? And the questions and doubts keep coming.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m THRILLED to be having another child. But when I think back to when my SSSB started, it was quite early in my pregnancy, when all of these little niggling thoughts, which have since snowballed, began creeping in. I once again turned to comfort foods from my past to deal with my insecurities.

The good news is, I’m finally addressing my SSSB and holding myself accountable. It’s time to change things up and get real, because let’s be honest, my husband and daughter (soon to be daughters) are going to catch on. I don’t want to be saying one thing and doing the other — my personal food rules can’t and shouldn’t be different than those I set for my family. I need to walk the talk with more integrity, especially when it comes to nutrition.

With that in mind, here are a few strategies I’m putting in place to nip this SSSB in the bud:

Get rid of all the leftover Easter candy, whether I donate it or throw it away. Having that stuff in our home is just too much temptation.
Stop buying sweets and treats known to fuel binges (we don’t keep potato chips in the house, so why would I start buying bags of candy?).
Keep healthy snacks on hand (I just ordered my first Nature Box this morning).
Drink a glass of water when I first have a craving; if I’m still hungry 20–30 minutes later, then have a healthy snack.
Rethink holidays associated with sweets and treats, and share our desire for healthier alternatives with family and friends. An Easter basket doesn’t have to be stocked full of chocolate rabbits and candy.

It feels SO good to finally name this, put it out there and start taking control. Care to join me in tackling a SSSB of your own?

Full Disclosure: I ate a LOT more jelly beans than what’s pictured above.

Photo Credit: http://pixnpix.blogspot.com/2011/04/easter-candy-favorites.html

Behind the Scenes: Heroic Feast

By Stephanie Glaros / March 21, 2013

Betsy preps the lamb before roasting.

Get the Slow-Roasted Lamb Shoulder recipe.
Fresh blackberries, awaiting inclusion in the blackberry and almond crumble.

Get the recipe.
Radishes, washed and ready to be sliced for the snap pea salad.

Get the Sugar Snap Pea Salad recipe.
A sneak peek inside Betsy’s food styling toolbox.
A wide view of the setup for the opening shot on pages 46-47.
Preserved lemons and olive oil glow in the sunlight.

Learn how to make Preserved Lemons!
Betsy squeezes fresh lemon juice on the snap pea salad.

Get the Sugar Snap Pea Salad recipe.
Edible flowers, washed and ready to be added to the snap pea salad.

Get the Sugar Snap Pea Salad recipe.
Various ingredients await inclusion in Betsy’s recipes.
Terry, Betsy, and Lydia take one last look at the setup before Terry starts shooting.
Betsy drizzles broth on the roasted lamb just before Terry takes the shot.

Get the recipes.

The photo shoot for March’s Confident Cook (“Heroic Feast,” page 46) was a bit different than usual. Instead of shooting a handful of different recipes using one ingredient, we featured a complete spring menu. For that reason, the opening shot was meant to resemble a dinner table, including flatware, silverware, and drinking glasses. The natural light in Terry Brennan’s studio lent itself well to the spring-like look and feel we were going for.

As always, thanks to Terry and Betsy Nelson for bringing our pages to life!

Lessons from the Movies: Hungry for Change

By Courtney Opdahl (@clewisopdahl) / February 19, 2013

This weekend, I finally watched the movie Hungry for Change (you’ll notice a few Experience Life friends in this flick, including Kris Carr of CrazySexyLife.com and Thomas McNamee, who wrote, “Hero Foods,” featured in the March issue). Overall, I enjoyed it and recommend it if you haven’t seen it. There are a lot of similar messages in the film that we’ve shared in articles in the magazine, so I’m guessing you’ll find yourself nodding your head frequently as I did.

One of my favorite ideas from the movie — and one that’s worked well for me — is an alternative approach to changing your diet. Far from the restricted-diet approach, the experts in the movie suggest adding in simple, healthy foods at every meal (more veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds and healthy fats). Eventually, as you continue to add more and more nutrient-dense foods, they’ll start to crowd out the unhealthy options, like fried foods and sodas.

Last summer when we were working on a feature story about blood testing, I was profiled in the piece and had the opportunity to speak with Paul Kriegler, RD/LD, at Life Time. He had a similar thought, and suggested I focus on adding in healthy fats to help me feel fuller. I had made dramatic changes to my diet thus far, but I was still feeling hungry and tempted from time to time, so his theory helped me beat the physical cravings. With more healthy fats in my diet, I could distinguish between physical hunger and instead deal with the emotional feelings that were truly driving my cravings.

What I also like so much about this approach: It takes the focus off deprivation, and the foods you “can’t” have. I’ve spent 19 years (yes, I sadly tried my first diet when I was 12 years old) restricting foods and thinking of “diet” in the sense that it was temporary and painful — but eventually I could go back to eating “normally” (welcome to the world of yo-yo dieting!). It’s a cruel thought process, and one that set me up for failure time and again.

Instead, when I think of all the rich, flavorful foods I enjoy, I don’t miss those old temptations as much. I’ve tapped my love of food and transformed it into one of finding the highest quality food, where I know about the farm and how the animals live or how the vegetables are grown. It’s a much more powerful place to live in than one of restriction. And it gives me back the control that I felt I relinquished when following low-calorie, low-fat diets.

What tricks have you used to transform the way you eat? Share in the comments below, or Tweet at us: @ExperienceLife, @RevAct and @clewisopdahl.

Why Every Day Is My Commitment Day

By Courtney Opdahl (@clewisopdahl) / December 28, 2012

This week’s Life Time Fitness newsletter arrived in my inbox yesterday. Subject line: “One new year. 365 chances to commit to who you want to be.” It was the perfect statement to get me out of that “I’ll start Monday” mindset that I’ve long kept.

I’m a new blogger here at Unedited, so I’ll give you a quick background on me: I’ve been working with Experience Life since January 2010 as a fact checker, and also, since November 2011, as multimedia project manager. I graduated from the University of Minnesota’s journalism school, and began full-time employment with a city-regional magazine in the Twin Cities that spring.

The work was interesting and challenging and, being the workaholic that I am, often all-consuming. I’d sit in a desk all day writing and copyediting and proofreading and fact-checking, only getting up briefly to make my lunch that I’d eat at my desk. I’d often feel so tired from reading all day that I didn’t want to engage in any activities, so I’d go straight home to watch TV all night, sometimes working a bit longer before a late bedtime. I would joke that I went straight from my desk chair during the day to a reclining chair at night, but it was my reality.

I had gained 36 pounds going into freshmen year, and never took the time to focus on my health until senior year, when I finally lost the weight. However, I followed an extreme diet and felt horrible throughout it, but I was happy to have the weight off again. Since I never learned any healthy-living skills during that time, I regained the weight again slowly while I was dating my husband, Kyle, and then quickly after our wedding when I settled back into my obsessive work life described above.

At Experience Life, I’ve been submerged in healthy living: reading about nutrition and fitness daily, and surrounded by supportive coworkers who exercise with me or share recipes and cooking tricks. As you know from our content, I’ve learned how healthy people shop, stock their pantry, balance work and life, and live more mindfully. Even though I grew up in a medical family and had struggled through managing health conditions with prescription drugs, it never occurred to me to change my diet first. Or add in more activity. That a daily walk outside could make all the difference. And sadly, my doctors never suggested lifestyle changes. (For more, you can follow my story at my Coming Clean blog, where I share how I’m transforming my formerly unhealthy lifestyle.)

In January 2011, I weighed in at my heaviest: 221 pounds. For most of my teenage years, I weighed anywhere from 120 to 135, so when the scale went into the 200s, I think I went numb. Looking back, I know I disconnected well before that. All that matter throughout college and after graduation was that I was excellent in my work. Kyle was a hard worker, too, and our relationship felt so easy when we met that I figured he wouldn’t mind missing date nights or home-cooked meals or walks together with the dogs. We could both work hard through the remainder of our 20s and meet on the other side. Whenever that would come.

Of course, my life wasn’t going to slow down unless I made it happen. I wasn’t going to lose the 65 pounds I gained after we got married, and the additional 15 when I changed jobs, by some chance. And I wasn’t going to keep off the weight loss unless I chose to commit to a healthy way of life.

Over the past two years, I’ve lost 50 pounds. I workout and actually enjoy it. I lift heavy weights and love the confidence it gives me. I stopped eating processed foods, drinking diet soda and discovered food intolerances to gluten and dairy. With my doctor, I’ve been working to lower body-wide inflammation, proof I could see in blood-test results of high C-reactive protein levels. I also take care of myself through massage, chiropractic treatments and weekly acupuncture sessions that have been helping me re-balance my wonky hormones and inconsistent menstrual cycles. I spend more time with family and friends, and have learned how to have a leisure life outside of watching TV. And on January 1, I’ll be participating in a 5K.

Competing in Life Time’s Alpha Showdown, April 2012.

These were major changes I made, but it happened because of small, everyday actions. It wasn’t easy, and there are still challenging times for me: days when I feel sad or lazy or bored and I don’t want to cook or workout. Times when I put on my oversized sweat pants and feel like nothing’s changed and I’m still fat. Even at Christmas, Kyle’s 93-year-old grandmother was remarking on how good I look (“I didn’t even recognize you!”), and yet it was me that pulled out the picture from his sister’s wedding in 2011 to compare my photos so it could feel real to me. (If this sounds familiar, read “Your Body, Reframed” to get your brain on board with your progress.)

In February 2011, left, at the beginning of my weight-loss journey; after an outdoor Boot Camp workout, right, in March 2012.

I haven’t designated a set period of time to losing weight. I know I could’ve lost it faster, but I may have missed some important lessons along the way. During the Commitment Day 5K on New Year’s Day, I’m walking and running away from that old mindset, the one that says “just this once” or “let’s skip it” or “it doesn’t make that big a difference.” Every day, every choice is important. It’s 365 days of living the life I dream for myself. It’s not something I resolve to do until I reach my goal weight — it’s a lifestyle I commit to every day, and eventually it’ll feel effortless. Like this is the life I’ve always lived.

My motivation tools for Commitment Day and beyond.

The Penny Pincher’s Guide to Eating Cheap (a.k.a. Notes From My Mother)

By Anjula Razdan / March 21, 2012

I’m sitting across the kitchen table from my mother, who was born and raised in India, as she patiently sifts through dried black beans looking for small stones. And, having just been lectured yet again about what my mother considers to be my ungodly grocery-store bill — she visibly blanches when she witnesses my grocery-store process, that is, throwing things, willy-nilly, into the cart with no regard for prices or meal planning — I’ve decided to devote this blog to a few of the thrifty food lessons I’ve learned from my mom:

Use dried beans. I am an inveterate canned-bean lover (so convenient!), but dried legumes are one of the biggest bargains in the grocery store. Bonus: You won’t be exposing yourself to the toxic chemical BPA (bisphenol-A) found in most canned products. Do take the time to sort those dried beans, though; my mom is at eight small stones and counting.
Don’t throw away stalks, stems, and the like. What other people see as compost, my mother sees as dinner. Broccoli stalks, peeled and sliced or diced, add a hearty texture to any dish, as do the stems of dark leafy greens.
Embrace dried spices. Long recipe lists can be both daunting and expensive, but my mother, who cooks almost exclusively with fresh whole foods, achieves great depth of flavor and brightness by simply using what my husband calls “the Indian spice gun” — that is, turmeric, cumin, coriander, fennel, ginger, and asafoetida powder (available at an Indian market). Whatever your favorite flavor profile, dried spices and herbs are a cheap and easy way to jazz up any meal.
Make your own yogurt. It’s better-tasting, better for you, and you can make it in huge batches. Easier than you think, and you don’t need a fancy yogurt maker (just a little yogurt culture, some milk, a big bowl and an oven).
Butcher your own meat. You can save a lot of money by not buying boneless, skinless cuts of meat. Equally important, you get the actual bones, which impart a deep, rich flavor to stews and soups.
Buy in bulk, especially when things go on sale. This one is pretty self-explanatory. Although I have to say, when I opened the door to my mother’s spare refrigerator yesterday and saw six heads of cabbage, I did think that went a little too far and/or seemed to me to be a sign of the apocalypse. My mother’s defense: “Cabbage was only 19 cents a pound because of St. Patrick’s Day!” (I also draw the line at the whole concept of a spare refrigerator, at least until I turn 65).

Pinterest + Sugar Addiction = Trouble

By Jamie Martin (@jamielmartin) / February 28, 2012

I’m an avid Pinterest user, as an individual and on behalf of Experience Life. I love the beautiful photos that people share, and the tips, tricks and recipes that are behind them. I have boards ranging from wedding shower ideas (my only sister is getting married this summer) to home organization (I have big projects for my husband!) to photography (I can’t take enough cute shots of my daughter). I’ve created a series of virtual vision boards for my life.

But I’ve noticed something troubling over the past few weeks that has left me wondering if Pinterest is sabotaging my healthy eating efforts. Let me explain …

I have a sweet tooth — and most likely, a sugar addiction. I grew up eating sweets: Little Debbie snack cakes, cookies, lollipops, pies, you name it. Desserts heavily outweighed salads and veggie-based side dishes at family gatherings (and, to be honest, still do); in high school, I ate full-size Mr. Goodbars two to three times a week.

I have cut back on my excessive consumption of sweets over the last seven years, thanks no doubt to learning everything I have about healthy eating here at Experience Life. I’ve also learned to pay attention to my cravings: Am I really hungry, or is something else triggering my desire to eat?

Lately, it’s been the latter and, call me crazy, but I think Pinterest and all those dessert photos that people keep pinning and repinning — myself included — are to blame. You see, when I see these pictures, I actually start to feel hungry, and I’m not satisfied until I finally cave and eat something, anything. And we all know that the more sugar we eat, the more sugar we want all the time. That was me a few weeks ago: always wondering where my next sugar “fix” was coming from.

Some of my first pins included the mocha cake with mocha icing and cherry chocolate kiss cookies. No wonder I craved sweets.

The more I think about this, the more I am sure that it has something to do with the cephalic phase insulin response, a physiological process that Michael R. Eades, MD, did an amazing job of explaining in a 2007 article about how food advertisements trigger kids’ appetites:

If you walk by a bakery and smell the fresh bread baking, or if you open a box of warm donuts, or if someone sets a plate of cake and ice cream before you (or if you write about these things – it’s happening to me right now), your brain says, Uh oh, sugars coming, better get ready. The brain sends a quick message to the pancreas to start releasing insulin [the cephalic phase insulin response]. Then when the sugar from the fresh baked bread, the warm donuts, or the cake and ice cream hits your bloodstream, insulin is already there waiting for it so that your blood sugar doesn’t go as high as it otherwise would. Once the blood sugar level does start going up (because the cephalic phase doesn’t release enough insulin to handle the whole load of sugar), it sends the signal to the pancreas for more insulin, which is the second phase of insulin secretion.

It’s easy to see what happens if you walk by the bakery and don’t eat the bread, or if you don’t eat the warm donuts or cake and ice cream. Suddenly you’ve got a little squirt of insulin on board without the expected blood sugar increase. What does this excess insulin do? It acts on the blood sugar that’s already there, which may be at a normal level. When it does, the insulin quickly reduces the blood sugar. And, as I’ve written about before, a falling blood sugar makes you hungry almost faster than anything else. That’s why you get hungry when you smell the fresh bread or see and smell the warm donuts or have someone give you a plate of cake and ice cream (or write about it). You get hungry even if you weren’t hungry to begin with because your cephalic phase of insulin release drops your blood sugar. (You can even just sit and think about food and have the same thing happen.)

Interesting stuff. So when I’m scrolling down my Pinterest timeline and viewing desserts and entrees that appeal to me, my body is likely releasing insulin to handle the anticipated sugars from the virtual goodies. The food, naturally, doesn’t arrive, so my blood sugar drops and I’m hungry. And thus, a mad woman on a desperate hunt for food, sweet or otherwise.

This is, of course, only a theory. But knowing what I know about the cephalic insulin response (find more on that in “Poor Substitutes“) and the effects of sugar (especially in terms of inflammation — see “Sugar Shock“), I’m not willing to take any chances. I’ve unfollowed peoples’ boards that are full of sugar-laden treats, and stopped repinning less-than-healthy fare. Most important, though, I’m no longer keeping sweets at the ready (i.e. the bags of semi-sweet chocolate chips that I used to eat by the handful — no joke).

I’m not saying I’m sugar-free, by any means. Rather, I’m consuming it in moderation, and enjoying it a heck of a lot more.

Feeding My Kid (and ALL Kids) Healthy

By Jamie Martin (@jamielmartin) / November 18, 2011

Last week, I had dinner with my close friends Melissa and Jessi, both new(er) moms like me. Considering all three of our daughters were born within five months of each other — CE is 10 months, MK is 13 months and KG is 15 months — it’s not surprising that our conversation centered on their amazing growth and development. As the mom of the one in the middle, it was especially fun to reflect on where MK was just three months ago and get a preview of where she may be in two more.

We talked about our girls’ (and our) favorite children’s books and how quirky and odd some of them are. We chatted about how we’re balancing our personal and professional lives. But we spent the bulk of our time sharing strategies for feeding our growing girls well. The consensus: It’s takes time and effort to put healthy meals and snacks together, but it’s worth every second.

Here are a few of the ideas that got passed around:

Have plenty of beans on hand: black, cannellini, northern, garbanzo, butter, etc.. One of my quick, go-to meals for MK is cannellini beans sauteed in extra-virgin olive oil with finely chopped onions and a little garlic, then seasoned with rosemary. She eats them up, and I love it because beans are a great source of protein.
Serve the beans with rice — together they’re a complete protein.
Serve soups over rice. Jessi’s KG loves black bean soup over rice, while my MK really enjoys tomato basil or pumpkin alphabet soups with rice.
Try sauteing fine-cut greens like spinach and kale in a little olive oil; sprinkle them with nutmeg — the subtle sweetness appeals to the little ones.
Roast broccoli tossed in olive oil and seasoned with sea salt until they start browning. These little trees have a nutty flavor and are a fun way to serve veggies to the kiddos.
Substitute mashed cauliflower for mashed potatoes — with a little butter and milk, these are a more nutritious alternative.
Roast kale tossed in olive to make crispy kale chips (see the Experience Life recipe here) — all three of our girls love this one!
Serve fruit as a dessert: blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, peaches. These all come at the end of our meals (I do have to keep them out of sight until then or MK will refuse to eat any else).
Try alternatives to peanut butter: Jessi’s KG has a peanut allergy so her family is now using sun butter. I personally prefer almond and cashew butters over peanut butter, and MK doesn’t know the difference.
Sometimes you gotta mask the veggies: MK is sometimes hesitant about eating peas and beans by themselves, so I mix them in with Greek yogurt and she gobbles them right up. Tricky? Maybe. But she watches me put the peas in the yogurt, so I don’t feel so bad about it!

Here are a few of the baby/toddler cookbooks we like (keep in mind that many of the recipes in these books can be easily adjusted for the adult palate by sprinkling with a little sea salt before serving):

Cooking for Baby: Wholesome, homemade, delicious foods for 6 to 18 months by Lisa Barnes: Divided up by age-appropriate foods, I’ve made several dishes from this one, including baby’s rice cereal, zucchini puree, sweet pea puree, blueberry sauce (great mixed with baby cereal or yogurt), green beans with mint, whipped cauliflower, baby’s egg yolks, avocado-cheese spread, fruity smoothie, root veggie medley, pumpkin soup with alphabet pasta, pumpkin pancakes and carrot cupcakes (Maddy’s 1st birthday treat!). LOVE THIS BOOK.
Baby Love: Easy, Healthy, Delicious Meals for Your Baby and Toddler by Norah O’Donnell and Chef Geoff Tracy: Jessi’s favorites from this one include the chicken soup, Parmesan risotto, whole-grain pancakes and zucchini muffins.
The Big Book of Recipes for Babies, Toddlers & Children by Bridget Wardley and Judy More: Also a favorite of Jessi’s. Her absolute favorite recipe from this one is chicken with rice and leeks, which I can’t wait to try myself.

What are your favorite strategies for feeding your kids healthy? What are your favorite cookbooks?

Not to Scale

By Heidi Wachter (@wachtergrrl) / October 26, 2011

This blog started because of a conversation I overheard at a coffee shop. I didn’t mean to listen, but the café was crowded and the five women at the table next to me were squished around the tiniest table in the room, discussing their recovery from eating disorders.

It was just then that I opened my work-related TweetDeck feeds, which constantly blip with tweets about the latest diet, fitness and health news.

As you might expect at a healthy living magazine, the topic of what to eat is an ongoing thing. While Experience Life has a firm (but, gentle) stance on what constitutes a healthy diet, we still monitor the latest diet trends, government guidelines and blogs from our favorite slow foodies, non-GMO activists, locavores, and various omnivorous, vegan and paleo-evangelists.

I applaud (and am part of) the ever-growing movement fighting to help make food safer, more accessible and affordable. And, of course, I want more people to get educated on who grows and cares for their food, as well as how and where it’s grown. I’m guessing that most people reading this can probably get down with all that. But there are some things the women at the table next to me reminded me of and made me question.

Are we concerned with what we’re consuming (or don’t), or is it consuming us? Certainly, we’re searching for health and happiness, but I suspect we’re also looking for acceptance. And, I suspect we all have some control and body image issues of our own that we could work on. “Healthy” eaters, let’s face it: We, too, may benefit from a support group. We share many things in common with those women at the table next to me. Just like them, we live in a society that has an unhealthy relationship with food.

We’ve got citizens with growing waistlines and those killing themselves with their desire to achieve “thinness.” We’ve got people who don’t have enough food, yet we waste a lot of food.

We live in a society where people, particularly women, are praised (by strangers and well-meaning loved ones alike) for being thin. We throw the word “fat” around about others and ourselves as though being deemed fat might be the very worst thing you could ever be.

I went to the gym the other day to use the sauna, which has a scale located outside of it. There wasn’t ONE single woman who walked by that didn’t step on that scale — 17 out of 17! These women were of various shapes, races, heights and ages. They were all lovely. Each had presumably finished some kind of workout. Yet, before they left the gym, they were all driven to visit the scale. Each paused prior to stepping on it as though their life depended upon the information they were about to receive. Once they were on they scale, they quickly glanced up at the ceiling where the scale reader is and hurriedly rushed off. The whole process reminded me of how I feel when I take my terrible-tasting vitamin tablets in the morning. Just hold your nose and swallow.

Some time when you’re at the gym, sit near the scale (I’m sure there will be at least one) and try this sociological experiment. Or, better still, next time you’re wondering how much you weigh, instead focus on how you feel and ask yourself why you want to know.

When you’re at the gym, check yourself. Are you looking at other people working out and making comparisons? “Wow, that dude sure can lift a lot of weight.” “Wow, she sure is skinny.” “Oh, man, she or he probably shouldn’t wear spandex until after dropping a few pounds.”

Next time a friend, family member, partner or co-worker loses weight, before you stop and say, “WOW, you LOOK GREEAAAT,” stop and ask why that’s the societal default statement. I know it’s meant to be supportive and a compliment. But, did that individual not look great before? Did you not love them before? Better yet, instead of complimenting other people, look in the mirror and say it to yourself.

Waterlogged

By Jocelyn Stone (@jocelynstone) / October 19, 2011

Last week, after the official launch of the magazine’s new healthy-living app, I decided to use the “101 Ways to Be Healthy” to help me improve my own life. Because the last few weeks have been challenging for me for several reasons, I decided that, rather than using the “Surprise Me!” option, I would consciously choose one of the 101 Ways that would be easy for me to integrate into my life. With that in mind, I figured, what could be easier than #40: Drink a lot of H20?

Or so I thought. The first thing I did was read “How to Hydrate,” from our December 2007 issue, to find out exactly how much was “a lot of water.” The article states that the Institute of Medicine in Washington, D.C., recommends at least 91 ounces a day for women and 125 ounces for men. It sure seemed like a lot, almost 50 percent more than the typical “eight 8-ounce glasses a day” that everybody seems to know. But if an organization as official-sounding as the Institute of Medicine is recommending it, who am I to second-guess? (Note: one of our editors checked their Web site a few weeks ago and, while the original article is four years old, the Institute still stands by those recommendations.)

I’m into my second week, and I have to admit that it’s been difficult. The most that I drank during the first week was 44 ounces. That was on the first day, and the numbers decreased every day from there. And I even like water! It’s really all I drink, and I carry a water bottle with me wherever I go. But I realized that I only reach for that bottle when I feel thirsty, and at that point I’m probably already pretty dehydrated, according to what I’ve been reading. I knew that I would have to make more a conscious effort to drink regularly throughout the day, rather than relying of physical clues.

So, I decided first thing Monday morning to give myself a hydration head start: I drank 24 ounces of water right after I woke up. Within my first hour at work, I had drunk probably another 12 ounces. I was feeling pretty good about my progress so far and continued that way throughout the day. But even by late morning, I was seeing drawbacks from such a drastic spike in my water intake: by 11:15, I had already used the bathroom three times (I joked with my coworkers that I might be more productive if I moved my desk in there), I swear I felt like I had water in my ears, and not only was I not hungry, my stomach was so full that I even felt a little sick. I did nothing but snack all day long.

But I was determined to finish the day out meeting my goal, and I did. By that evening I had reached 91 ounces and, weirdly enough, later that night I felt thirsty and probably drank another six ounces. But yesterday I was practically aquaphobic — I’d be surprised if I drank even eight ounces for the day.

I think I’ve taken away two things from this first revolutionary attempt to be healthy: Lasting change, like many things, is often a lot easier and more manageable in small chunks. For somebody who drinks and average of 24-30 ounces of water a day, 44 ounces last week was a substantial improvement. I need to take the time to celebrate that success instead of pushing myself to double that amount and turn myself off water altogether.

Also, I need to remember to listen to my body more. I tend to take recommended amounts and measurements very literally, never accounting for individual factors. From what I understand, that’s why I’ll never be a fabulous cook, but I could be an amazing baker if I wanted. I find it hard to believe that anything that makes you feel sick is good. Apparently, 91 ounces of water was too much for me, at least at this point. As I increase the amount of water I drink gradually, I need to be cognizant of that tipping point where I go from feeling healthier to feeling nauseated. And if that amount is 91 ounces or more, so be it. But if it’s less, I need to trust that my body is serving me correctly.

If you’ve downloaded the app and have been (or are planning to) use it to make healthy changes, I would love to hear how it’s working for you!

Soul Food, Part II

By Courtney Helgoe / September 27, 2011

Image via Wikipedia

At the threat of the first frost last week, I felt especially noble as I dragged our tomato plants into the garage, under the impression that it might be just warm enough in there to keep them from perishing at the peak of their yield. My nobility turned to humility the next day, though, when I received the letter that comes with our CSA share.

Our friendly farmer, David Van Eeckhout, is a former neighbor of mine. He used to live across the hall in an apartment building at a busy intersection near downtown Minneapolis. Back then he grew a wicked chili pepper in his window boxes, but his profession was graphic designer. In the 14 or so intervening years, he has apprenticed with several organic farms, bought land with his wife Melinda about an hour and a half east of the Twin Cities, and started a successful community shared agriculture farm that grows a huge range of mouthwateringly perfect vegetables– ones that get delivered to us in a box each week all summer long, like it’s nothing.

Meanwhile, the letter that comes with each box serves to remind us that if anything is not nothing, it’s the labor and dedication that it takes to bring a single squash to the table. Consider the following:

I checked the squash at 3 am and they were still a snug 34°, but by 5 am they were down to 32.5° so I turned on some sprinklers we had set up just in case. It may seem odd to use sprinklers to keep things from freezing, but water actually releases a significant amount of heat when it changes phase from water to ice. The real trick to it, however, is to not shut off the sprinklers too early. The water needs the same amount of energy to turn back to a liquid, and if the sun isn’t up enough to provide the BTUs you can accidentally freeze your crop as it takes that energy from whatever the ice is resting on, which in this case is the squash plants.

(The fate of the vines was still undetermined by the time the letter went out. There may or may not be squash next week. Stay tuned.)

Stories like these have really changed the way we eat. I like to think of us as fairly enlightened people regarding food. We buy organics, we make our own stock, hey, we compost. But the truth of the matter is I’m still thoroughly addicted to control and convenience. I decide what I want to make for dinner, and then I go to the co-op and get ingredients. If they don’t have lemongrass, or fresh figs, or a particular kind of greens, I feel a) put out or (again) b) noble, if I’m able to change my plan in midstream.

Last night, thanks to all the workers at Hog’s Back Farm and to David, who has effectively renounced a life of control and convenience in favor of getting up at 3 am to take his squash’s temperature, I had the opportunity to cook a different way. In September, the shares are huge, much more than two people can eat, so the choice is between wasting food (while knowing what it took to get it here) and learning to cook what we get. We opted for the latter, and here was the reward for cooking what the farm gave us: cabbage slaw with red onions and jalapeno peppers, roasted squash and beets, and potato soup with leeks and kale. Not exactly intuitive, maybe, but totally satisfying. It turns out the vegetables themselves make excellent menu planners. Working cooperatively with the farm and the food this way feels both noble and humble. It feeds the ego a little, and it feeds the spirit a lot.

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