tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10299641096473996172024-03-05T00:51:32.195-06:00My Mad-Eye Moody DietWhole foods plant-based, with little added salt, oil, and sugar. what?kneecaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03974416387290525978noreply@blogger.comBlogger1334125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029964109647399617.post-13032376168911424092019-12-17T19:58:00.000-06:002019-12-17T19:58:18.195-06:00I don't calorie countIn my last post I said I was counting calories or doing some form of portion control to keep myself from overeating. Well I'm not anymore. I'm just eating LOTRL and letting everything else fall where it falls. I think I explained what LOTRL is in my last post. kneecaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03974416387290525978noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029964109647399617.post-82450506957366922362019-11-21T21:56:00.002-06:002019-11-27T21:32:52.856-06:00I count caloriesI’ve learned a lot in my 14-year vegan food journey and I feel that I am in a good place now. My weight is stable, my eating is stable, my health is good (knock on wood), and I’m focusing my efforts on my passion of body movement in the form of hiking foremost, but also biking, swimming, walking, stretching, yoga, etc. I also enjoy reading. Here is an update of where I’m am food wise. I learned a lot from every group I joined. I’m still in Bright Line Eating though I don’t participate there and may let my membership lapse next year. I feel more at home with my friends in UWL (Chef AJ’s Ultimate Weight Loss Program) and I believe in Whole Food Plant-Based (WFPB), though I don’t agree with everything they say about weight loss and maintenance. Here’s a summary of what I’ve learned from these programs.<br />
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I like UWL’s calorie density approach. Chef AJ recommends eating “Left of the Red Line” which she defines as all foods having calorie density less than some amount. I draw the line just above chickpeas so my “red line” is 750 calories/lb. I try to eat only foods with calorie density less than this, or “left of the red line” (LOTRL). That means I avoid foods with higher calorie density such as sugar (1750 calories/lb), bread (1100), dried fruit (1300), nuts and seeds (2800), chocolate (2600), oil (4000), any combo of sugar, flour and fat; and of course, animal products. The high calorie-dense foods include a lot of WFPB foods such as air popped popcorn, whole grain breads, crackers, nuts and dried fruit. The reason I like avoiding these foods is that they are all very stimulating for me and make me want to eat more. I mean, really, nut butter and dates are sugar and fat. As far as food addiction goes, LOTRL makes more sense to me than just saying no to sugar and flour, because fat is just as addictive for me, and the combinations of all three plus salt are super stimulating (at least for me now, since my brain has adapted to LOTRL foods). Just one of those at a time, in small quantities, I can probably handle, but when you start combining them, watch out! That’s why nuts and dates combined should be outlawed. Haha, just kidding. But I’m staying away from both of them. Jeff Nelson (see Vegsource on Youtube) and Jeff Novick (See Dr. McDougall's discussion forums) have convinced me that I don’t need nuts for health. I get plenty of nutrients and fat from my starches and veggies and fruit. So, to summarize, I think limiting my foods to LOTRL works better for me than the BLE food plan which requires specific amounts of proteins, fat and carbs. That plan may make more sense for meat eaters, but for vegans, all our foods are mixtures of proteins, fat, and carbs in perfectly reasonable amounts. <br />
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However, what UWL leaves off and BLE includes is food portioning. The WFPB crowd loves to say that we can eat as much as we want and still lose weight. And Dr. Lisle says we won’t overeat if we eat only whole natural foods of low calorie density. I disagree. I and many others will binge on LOTRL foods if told I can eat as much as I want. Dr. Lisle says animals don’t overeat in their natural food environment and neither do we. Well, if I had a dog and I allowed him to eat unlimited roasted Japanese sweet potatoes (do dogs like that?) I bet he would eat more than he needs. I’ve tried various methods to portion control with UWL and they all work fine. These are 1) calorie counting. Weigh your food and add it to your calorie counting app. The apps make it easy by letting you enter recipes and copy your food from one day to the next. Yes I am aware of all the inaccuracies of calorie counting, but when you eat similar foods from day to day and you are only comparing to yourself, it’s accurate enough as an estimator of how much to eat, and it’s more accurate than listening to the many voices in my head. 2) Weighing out quantities of food. For me, 3 lbs of starch, 3-4 lbs of veggies, and 1 lb of fruit per day works well. 3) plate method. 1 large plate per meal: half starches, half veggies, and 1 fruit.<br />
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I also weigh myself if I think I need an extra guide to quantities. That helps me adjust how much I eat. I use a Withings scale which is connected to the internet and automatically enters my weight into a website called trendweight.com. This does a running average so I just follow the trend from the past few weeks rather than my day-to-day variation. I actually only look at it occasionally. I pretty much just eat the same amount every day, adjusting for hunger. But I like knowing that the data being collected can be used to adjust my amounts if need be. <br />
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I allow my quantities to vary day-to-day based on hunger. I just like limits to keep me from binging so I avoid snacking between meals (1 or 2 snacks is fine but they are just that: small meals). I've noticed when I calorie count that my calorie intake doesn't vary that much with activity level--just a few hundred calories usually. If I do all-day intense hiking, I am more hungry, especially the following day, so I eat more. But I have to avoid giving myself carte blanche to eat as much as I want every day.kneecaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03974416387290525978noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029964109647399617.post-84604527566217067362018-10-24T17:11:00.000-05:002018-10-24T17:11:24.471-05:00An update on my back-and-forth wishy-washy journey!Here’s a review of my history with Whole Food Plant Based Eating (WFPB) up to my current status:<br />
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I became vegan on July 5, 2005, at the age of 45, because it seemed like a good idea to stop eating animals (and it was!). I waited until after the shrimp boil on July 4 in Biloxi, MS with my family. I didn’t know how to be a vegan so I read a book on vegan nutrition (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Vegan-Comprehensive-Reference-Plant-Base-ebook/dp/B00O98QBX4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1540413588&sr=8-3&keywords=vegan+nutrition">Becoming Vegan</a>, by Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina). I got lucky because that is a really good book. So I accidentally started off by eating a healthy diet. My health improved dramatically and I was shocked because I didn’t think diet had anything to do with health (duh!). I looked around for clues and found <a href="https://www.drmcdougall.com/">Dr. McDougall </a>and <a href="https://www.drfuhrman.com/">Dr. Fuhrman</a> websites. I followed Dr. McDougall for a while and then decide Dr. Fuhrman had the best science backing him up so I joined the Fuhrman forums in 2006. <br />
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After about 5 years following Fuhrman I started going crazy with my eating, first bingeing on smoothies and date-nut desserts and even carrots and soups, and then going off plan altogether and bingeing on vegan junk food. The reason for the binges is that you think it is as a last supper kind of thing and you want to get in everything you can before you have to go back on plan. I think another reason is that I wasn’t eating enough. I got really thin after the first few years. You really need to eat a lot when you stay on plan--not so much when you go off plan a lot (the sugar and flour messes with your hormonal balance--insulin, lepton etc). I was influenced by a friend who decided to go the low-fat route and I joined her and we started following <a href="https://engine2diet.com/">Rip</a> and <a href="http://www.dresselstyn.com/site/" target="_blank">Dr. Esselstyn</a> and <a href="https://www.drmcdougall.com/" target="_blank">Dr. McDougall</a>. Oh what a disaster that was, lol. I binged on low-fat “Whole grain” vegan muffins and cookies. So that didn’t go very well. I figured out I need to stay away from flour and sugar. <br />
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I joined Chef AJ’s <a href="http://chefajwebsite.com/ultimate-weight-loss-program.html" target="_blank">Ultimate Weight Loss</a> program in Jan 2015. This is a low-fat WFPB program that doesn’t include flour and sugar. I did that for a month but I ate tons and tons of Japanese sweet potatoes and it made me very tired and I didn’t lose any weight.<br />
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About that time, <a href="https://brightlineeating.com/" target="_blank">Bright Line Eating</a> came along. I wanted to lose weight for a dream-of-a-lifetime backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon so I joined the BLE bootcamp in Feb. 2015. There are 4 bright lines with BLE: 1) no sugar, 2) no flour, 3) meals (3-4 per day), and 4) quantities (weighed and measured). I hated the 3rd and 4rth bright lines, but I white-knuckled the program and stuck to it (mostly) until after the awesome backpacking trip. In retrospect, the weight loss plan was not a good idea for me, an active tall (albeit older) woman. It was way too little food. No wonder it was so hard. I got to goal weight in about 4 months, but then didn’t realize how much I needed to eat on maintenance, and I started going off plan more and more. After the backpacking trip, I gave up altogether and left BLE and waded through the sugar and flour weeks for a couple of months. <br />
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So now it was January 2017, and I knew again I didn’t want to eat flour and sugar (really didn’t want to), but I didn’t see the need for the 3rd and 4rth bright lines when you follow a WFPB diet. So I re-joined Chef AJ’s <a href="http://chefajwebsite.com/ultimate-weight-loss-program.html" target="_blank">Ultimate Weight Loss</a> program. I didn’t really have much weight to lose, I just wanted to get on track with a WFPB program that doesn’t include flour and sugar--and that’s Chef AJ’s program. I am forever grateful to her and her program because I did get off flour and sugar. I haven’t had any since April 21, 2017 (I had one slip-up after starting her program). So that is 551 days so far. However, guess what, I got really thin again because I wasn’t eating fat, and knew not to binge on Japanese sweet potatoes this time around. The way UWL and also Dr. McDougall’s Maximum Weight Loss program work is that you don’t eat any added fat and you only eat Whole Foods, and the idea is you can eat as much as you like. Well, I love to eat, so I ate a lot. I ate all day long. Then in the Fall, I started getting digestive issues. I think it was the winter squash combined with eating lots of raw veggies all day long (compulsively). I had loose bowels for about 4 months, which interfered with my hiking goals and life in general.<br />
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I started thinking: you know what, I need to reign in quantities and only eat at mealtime. Gee, that sounds like BLE’s 3rd and 4rth lines. So guess what, I rejoined BLE in Feb. 2018. I’ve been doing that since, and as of right now I have 180 days of following my bright lines. I’m happy to follow all four bright lines and I eat tons of food so am not tempted to go off plan.<br />
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In addition I find that I feel best when I eat a lot of beans and veggies and nuts and seeds and not a lot of starches and grains. That sounds like Fuhrman’s plan, so, guess what, I’m back to doing the Fuhrman plan. I eat tons of beans, veggies, some fruit, some starch if I want it, and 3.5 oz of nuts/seeds per day. My digestion is in good shape and I have a lot of energy. And I’m focused on other things in my life besides food. I eat simply and it takes less time that way.<br />
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So that’s where I am now: following BLE and Dr. Fuhrman. It seems to be working for me right now. But stay tuned for my next wishy-washy decision.kneecaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03974416387290525978noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029964109647399617.post-50936473344322588902017-12-01T21:32:00.000-06:002018-09-28T15:48:17.356-05:00LOTRL One-year ChallengeFollowing Chef AJ’s <a href="http://chefajwebsite.com/ultimate-weight-loss-program.html">UWL (Ultimate Weight Loss) program</a> has been really good for me. It seems to be the easiest program I’ve tried. Now this is just me. I think for a lot of people, it would be the hardest because we don't eat flour and sugar. So to each their own, that is for sure. The reason is works for me is because of calorie density. I find that I have a hard time controlling my intake of any foods of high calorie density, even the healthy ones, like whole grain breads, or nuts or dates. In Chef AJ’s program she draws this red line on her calorie density chart and says to eat only foods that are Left of the Red Line (LOTRL). Her line is around 650 calories per pound but since chickpeas are about 700, I use that as my number. i.e., the red line is just to the right of legumes which are the highest calorie density of the “permitted” foods. <br />
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I’ve been successful on the UWL program and have been at my goal weight for about 6 months. I’ve been abstinent from flour, sugar and alcohol for 225 days as of today, and from any added salt for 40 days. I’ve only been LOTRL for about 10 hours. LOL. --Because I occasionally have slip-ups with nuts and dates. After so many days abstinent from flour and sugar I’ve lost my cravings and temptations for it (I hope I don’t jinx myself with that statement!). So I feel so much more at peace around food this holiday season than in the past. I would like to feel that way around nuts and dates, and it seems a good way is to try abstinence from them also. So I’m curious to try an experiment of going LOTRL for one year, with one exception: I will allow up to 1 oz of seeds in a day. I hope they won't be triggering as the whole point of this challenge is to give me peace of mind around food. But I also want the best health for myself and eating 1 T of ground flax/sesame seeds gives me peace of mind around getting some healthy fats in. And there might be times when backpacking or for weight management or some other health reason that I want to include more (up to 1 oz). <br />
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By the way, I keep track of the number of days of abstinence or other countdowns (and ups) with the “T-0” app on the iphone. I don’t pay much attention to it. Every once in a while I think, hey, I wonder how many days I’ve been abstinent, and then I look at the app. So it’s not something I think about much at all. I’m more trying to live my life.<br />
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Kristi asked what I eat in a day (below in the comments). Here's what I'm eating right now: Each meal has a starch, about 1 lb of veggies and a fruit. My typical starches are beans & grain (oat groats, quinoa, etc), sweet potato, squash, or potato. At breakfast I include chopped mushrooms with curry powder and 1 T of ground flax/sesame seeds, sort of as a delicious tasting supplement of healthy foods. Fruits are whatever is in season. Right now that's grapefruit, pomegranate or apple. Veggies are cooked greens from my garden (I have a freezer full), raw carrots, brussels sprouts, beets, cabbage, and other winter type veggies. In summer I like sweet corn and watermelon, in the fall squash, in the spring, fresh greens and berries. <br />
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I’ll post here occasionally to let you (me) know how I’m doing.<br />
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So the challenge is on, Dec. 1, 2017- Dec. 1, 2018.kneecaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03974416387290525978noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029964109647399617.post-26432415502321636162017-09-10T14:29:00.001-05:002017-09-10T14:29:11.885-05:00Walk to Farmer's marketWhile some of my friends are battling hurricanes, others fires, and others are going to church, we're having a beautiful day in Wisconsin and I chose the outdoors as my church, by walking to the Farmer's Market, 2.5 miles away. Part of the route goes through a nature conservancy, which is nice. I took my big backpack because I am not good at moderation in my produce purchases. It weighed 29 lbs when I arrived home, LOL! Here are some pictures of our very enjoyable morning.<div>
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I spied an apple tree in the conservancy and batted a nice juicy apple down with my hiking stick.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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At the market<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha-Yhq1nIltDeXdU6vRwnBINjfuN-WlPiT2HBp03DnXvimnhdA94dzj0KwVpgPTbUZNBTDj99Pg1vR5uk37g62Rp7Prz3_Q8ddNIFGRvZTFW7s00j3Mn0S3xXLreVJl5BIdR8nStSgAAw/s1600/DSCN9675.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha-Yhq1nIltDeXdU6vRwnBINjfuN-WlPiT2HBp03DnXvimnhdA94dzj0KwVpgPTbUZNBTDj99Pg1vR5uk37g62Rp7Prz3_Q8ddNIFGRvZTFW7s00j3Mn0S3xXLreVJl5BIdR8nStSgAAw/s320/DSCN9675.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Heading home, turtles!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoTQxnlKfZgLRWaPqS-AR7NFW63CdS6_cxEmPdYIZkZlL-WxZDJWL3Dh8_4FbVxKGYje4FCZF3TPFJyaz9a3HVFSlbB6d0tlgMyLm3BYW_G8AZxckqd5Sa3FNp6p8WK1YNMNiznNFgWzE/s1600/DSCN9690.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoTQxnlKfZgLRWaPqS-AR7NFW63CdS6_cxEmPdYIZkZlL-WxZDJWL3Dh8_4FbVxKGYje4FCZF3TPFJyaz9a3HVFSlbB6d0tlgMyLm3BYW_G8AZxckqd5Sa3FNp6p8WK1YNMNiznNFgWzE/s320/DSCN9690.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Pack full of produce!<br />
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29 lbs! and this was after going to another farmer's market yesterday, LOL.<br />
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kneecaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03974416387290525978noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029964109647399617.post-32725912461922074412017-09-09T21:42:00.001-05:002017-12-01T21:33:21.045-06:00UWL Live in Las VegasI was at Chef AJ’s <a href="http://www.shop.thinnervention.info/product.sc;jsessionid=C3755EF6655E2741F2978860BA7FE956.p3plqscsfapp004?productId=204&categoryId=1">UWL Live</a> Event in Las Vegas last week, and it was fun, festive and inspiring, as expected. The speakers were Chef AJ, John Pierre (JP), Alan Goldhamer, Doug Lisle and Kerrie Saunders. I’m a big fan of Alan Goldhamer and Doug Lisle so that was great fun hearing them speak. I also learned a lot from JP. I already knew AJ's material but she's very fun to listen to. And Kerry Saunders is very nice. I'm not as interested in her material since I'm not worried about my body numbers. I’ve been following <a href="http://chefajwebsite.com/index.html">UWL</a> since January 2017. Actually I joined back in Jan or Feb 2015 but then I joined Bright Line Eating a month later and ignored UWL for a few years. Then I came back to it after getting tired of the BLE food plan and the weighing and measuring. I like to eat with the seasons and not measure out the same quantities of starches, protein (too much), fruit, and fat every day. <br />
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So I came back to UWL in Jan 2017. Why? Two reasons: 1) I wanted a healthy vegan program that doesn’t include flour and sugar, and this is the only one; and 2) I wanted to try out the calorie density approach. Well, I didn’t realize how great reason #2 would be. I followed AJ’s advice to eat “Left of the Red Line” (LOTRL) or calorie density less than 700 calories/lb. This means no nuts, seeds, or avocados. This was hard at first because I had it drummed into me by almost all the Whole Plant Food experts that you need these high fat foods for your health; and because I was kind of addicted to them. Well, I learned that I tend to overeat anything ROTRL (right of the red line, calorie density greater than 700 calories/lb). So it’s not food addiction so much as it’s the pleasure trap of high calorie foods. I really like to overeat them a lot. So eating LOTRL has made eating a lot easier. I just eat until I’m full, stuffed even (I'm a ways away from mastering the “Hara Hachi Bu” technique) and then I stop. I don’t binge and I’m fine until I get hungry again. I’m combining this with Intermittent Fasting--that is, eating an early dinner and not eating again until breakfast, and that seems to work really well, giving me a break from eating and thinking about food, and resetting my appetite it seems. I'm at my goal weight. Here's an interesting effect of not eating any overt fats: <i>no effects at all. </i> <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">My skin isn't dryer, my nails are fine, my hair is fine. Honestly I'm surprised. I thought at least I'd </span>need more lotion. Most people around me seem to have dryer skin and nails than me. I suspect that's from poor circulation from heart disease, and dryness from excessive salt intake. I'm sure results vary, but I sure don't have any problems from not consuming overt fats.The real test of UWL will be this holiday season. Will I make it through without falling off the deep end of processed eating? I'll report back in January!<br />
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Here are some pictures from Vegas. The program was video streamed and you can purchase it <a href="http://www.shop.thinnervention.info/product.sc;jsessionid=C3755EF6655E2741F2978860BA7FE956.p3plqscsfapp004?productId=204&categoryId=1">here</a>.<br />
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Early Friday morning walk in Las Vegas with Colleen, before it got hot:<br />
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We walked for about 3 hours and probably covered 6 miles (didn't walk fast). After that, I was thrilled to find out there was a lap pool at the hotel. I swam 40 laps, (I'm guessing it was a 25-yard pool, so 36 laps is a mile). Then in the afternoon I spent about 30 minutes the fitness room. That's how you spend a fun day in Vegas when you don't consume sugar, oil, salt, flour, caffeine, or alcohol, LOL. And then we went to the "Meet and Greet" later than afternoon:<br />
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AJ making an announcement:<br />
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had to get a picture with AJ!<br />
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AJ and JP<br />
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There were a few Q&A's and these were quite informative and hilarious. Dr. G always usually held up the "NO" sign and Dr. L the "Maybe". I think they agreed once at the end, I forget what it was about.<br />
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Lovely dinner at Panevino with wonderful companions. <br />
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The testimonials were incredible, just incredible. I am still humbled and floored by them. Here is the amazing Scott family<br />
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Another enjoyable Q&A. I submitted several questions, all of which were answered.<br />
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A summary of the difficulties following this path by Dr. Lisle. He introduced a few new concepts, the Conditioned Cram Circuit, and the Extinction curve for cravings, which includes a burst at the beginning and various spontaneous spikes throughout. He just did a webinar on this which hopefully will be on Youtube soon.<br />
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and of course, slot machines in the terminal at the Las Vegas airport.<br />
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<br />kneecaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03974416387290525978noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029964109647399617.post-57760859225693506032017-05-31T21:51:00.001-05:002017-05-31T21:52:03.618-05:00Eating while travelingHere's how I'm eating on the road. I'm traveling by car with my instant pot so can eat however I want. I don't want to spend much time with food prep while vacationing. Here is the food I prepped for the next 3 days:<br />
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Salad (two large bowls per day): organic greens (1 4 oz box for each day), organic mini-bell peppers, organic cucumber (one for each day). These were the nicest looking organic vegetables in the Safeway grocery store. They also had organic baby carrots and organic sugar snap peas that looked fresh. It was quite a good selection I thought.<br />
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Cooked veggies for breakfast. This was mostly frozen and not organic: onion, sweet potato (this was the one fresh item), collards, spinach, okra, brussels sprouts, corn. This will be a filling breakfast!<br />
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Then I have canned beans in the car to eat as needed. And the hotel sometimes has good-looking bananas at their free breakfast. I didn't see any fruit at the store that made me want it. But I probably just didn't look hard enough. I usually can't resist cut up watermelon.kneecaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03974416387290525978noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029964109647399617.post-21499284747101568022017-05-19T13:00:00.002-05:002017-05-19T13:01:23.377-05:00Food log<a href="https://what.youate.com/dmN2bPT8VHev5dCvlcEvy9OH0YD3/04-0102">T</a><a href="https://what.youate.com/dmN2bPT8VHev5dCvlcEvy9OH0YD3/04-0102">his link</a> seems to work. This is the app I'm using to log food. It's fun. I don't know how long I'll do it, just thought I'd try it out. There's what I'm eating if you want to see it.kneecaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03974416387290525978noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029964109647399617.post-35734885097726475742017-05-18T22:36:00.002-05:002017-05-18T22:36:48.531-05:00Challenge Update, Intermittent Fasting is da bomb, and a new food log1. Challenge Update: I had a bunch of nuts and dates about 5 days ago. Here is how the addict (or crazed eater, whatever you want to call it) mind thinks: I had dates in the house because some of Chef AJ’s UWL recipes call for them. I am obsessed with walking, hiking, the Appalachian Trail and backpacking. I was realizing that walnuts have twice the calorie density of my dehydrated food, so I would save weight and volume if I ate 1-2 oz of walnuts a day while backpacking. So somehow that led to buying nuts and combining them with the dates had at home (no, this doesn’t make sense). That also involved peanut butter which weren’t even in the discussion. I think that’s pretty funny and shows how easy it is for me to break a commitment. I’m not upset, just laughing at myself. I think deep down I’m not convinced that I need to give up nuts. And I’m okay with that. However, I am not really interested in eating them most of the time. I’d rather eat sweet potatoes any day. And I’m curious if eating no high-fat foods affects my health in any way I can observe. So I think I will keep track of time away from nuts and see if I notice any effects of it. I went 50 days in Feb/Mar when I didn’t eat nuts, and noticed no ill effects. I’m not even sure my skin was dryer. My hair was, so I washed it less, not really a problem. I downloaded this app called T-zero which is a timer. So I reset the timer after my delicious nut/date binge and I’ll just see how long I go. I will allow 1 Tbsp of flaxseed whenever I want it and that won’t count as nut consumption.<br />
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I set some other timers too, one for salt and one for UWL abstinence (sugar, flour, alcohol). Salt is another one of those I’m just curious about. I’m used to no added salt, but I usually succumb to the mandate that you need it while backpacking in the desert, so I’ve added small amounts there and I’ve added small amounts in the past here and there. I’m curious to study no-added-salt in the context of exercise this summer. The streak will be broken on rare occasions where I’m eating something someone else prepared that is otherwise compliant and has a small amount of added salt (like at a UWL potluck). And that’s okay with me. UWL abstinence is the one that matters the most to me, no sugar, flour and alcohol. Alcohol isn’t a problem for me but every time I ate sugar and flour in the last 5 years, the result was a binge. So forget that! Right now my abstinence streak is at 27 days, as is my no-salt streak. <br />
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2. Intermittent Fasting (IF): I’ve tried this in the past and HATED it! Hated it I tell you! So why am I doing it now? Well I’ve only been doing it for 5 days so maybe I’ll hate it soon. But I’m kind of liking it now. It just seems like an easy way to control my eating. I only have one off and on switch per day. For some reason that’s easier than being moderate and temperate all day long (that’s hard!) . Plus I like the idea of giving my body a rest from digestion. I listened to Jennifer Marano talk about it in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG5uKDkdP18&list=PLwZsyWf5LbgLomtPEbRVVs-PMCdNSp_1x&index=19">this interview</a> with Chef AJ and she said it’s good for us to get comfortable with discomfort. I read a book a few months about about this topic (discomfort, not IF) by Marc Schoen (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Your-Survival-Instinct-Killing-You/dp/0142180742">Your Survival Instinct is Killing You</a>) and maybe that prepared me for this idea that it’s good to be uncomfortable occasionally.<br />
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I’m trying out different lengths of eating/fasting windows. I think a 6-8 hour eating window is good. I’m sort of pushing the edges and going with 6 hours for a few days but I may back off from that, we’ll see. Today towards the end of my fasting window, my mood was really high. I wonder if that is just self-esteem from accomplishing my goal? I don’t know but that was pretty nice.<br />
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3. <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/youate-food-journal-without-counting-calories/id1164976477?mt=8">This app</a> makes it easy to log food with pictures. And for me, taking a picture pushes me to plate my food and then eat only what I plated, though it's flexible because I can eat more and just take another picture and it will add it to that meal if it's within 30 minutes. I've only been using it for a day but I like it. I'm not sure yet how to share it here. I'll see if I can figure that out. kneecaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03974416387290525978noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029964109647399617.post-83896874124381315272017-05-06T05:45:00.002-05:002017-05-06T05:45:56.985-05:00Day 9I just wanted to update that a few days ago I ate too many pumpkin seeds. That was the day I was without power and didn't have any cooked food so ate lots of fruit, and then started eating the seeds. That wasn't necessary as I had plenty of canned beans. I ate at most 3 oz. So it wasn't a binge. But I could feel the compulsion. It was an out of sorts day food wise--more fruit than I'd like, less veggies. Still I was using that as an excuse to eat more seeds. It's funny, I'll eat anything to excess, so it may as well be LOTRL (left of the red line, that's UWL talk, Chef AJ's program). I threw out the rest of the seeds and am happily eating UWL again.kneecaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03974416387290525978noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029964109647399617.post-14454389832222542492017-05-04T19:43:00.001-05:002017-05-04T19:43:07.523-05:00Day 7 update<div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Today is a weather-imposed rest day so I thought I’d check in. We’ve been traveling for almost a week. I had a great 2-day backpacking trip that I finished yesterday. Today we have a severe windstorm, so the park (Smoky Mountains) is closed and the power is out. It was going to be a cooking day, but that’s not happening yet because the power is out, so my meals have been a little different than usual. I had raw spinach and fruit for breakfast, then a tablespoon of pumpkin and sesame seeds (total) to add some calories and hopefully satiation. Then we went grocery shopping and I bought a bunch of good stuff to cook up: sweet potatoes, and frozen stuff: onion, bell pepper, brussels sprouts, okra, turnip greens, corn and lima beans. That will be delicious! But I can’t cook that until the power goes on. So I ate some fruit from the grocery store and raw carrots. A few hours later I was feeling hungry so I opened a can of black beans and added a banana and some curry powder. It’s pretty good--not as good as chickpeas and banana but good enough. I ate half of it and I’ll probably eat the rest at dinner.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Once I cook up the other stuff, I’m hoping that will last for 3 days. And I have raw spinach and carrots and red bell pepper to go with that--those were the organic veggies that looked best in the grocery store. Raw baby carrots are easy to find and enjoyable for me to eat so I let myself eat quite a lot, since good fresh raw organic veggies are not always easy to find on the road. But frozen (organic or not) veggies are easy to find anywhere and there is usually a good selection.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Hey, the electricity is back on! I knew opening that can of black beans would do it!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Update: here is my delicious food cooked up for the next 3 days!</span></div>
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kneecaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03974416387290525978noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029964109647399617.post-6422624106882701992017-04-29T18:37:00.003-05:002017-04-29T18:37:44.163-05:00My eating and drinking historyI was thinking today that my eating history is like my drinking history. I tended to drink like those around me. For the years I was living with my boyfriend, I drank daily because he did (we also smoked 1-2 cigarettes a day and drank coffee). Then when I lived alone, I drank several days a week, by myself or with others. Then when I lived with Marilyn, she didn't drink so after a while I stopped at home, and when I was out with others I drank (they did too). The worst was at astronomy conferences. My friends drank a lot. I wasn’t used to it and would get really drunk, even on modest amounts, and then really hungover. Sometimes I got excessively drunk and excessively sick and hungover. Then eventually, the obvious hit me and I realized that the drinking culture in astronomy might not be a good thing. I had just assumed it was normal and therefore good by some definition, but it’s not. So I stopped drinking altogether. <div>
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My history with food was kind of similar: I used to eat the SAD diet all the time and I didn’t overeat or binge, I just ate that stuff all the time in normal amounts like everyone else. Then I started eating healthy and stopped eating processed foods most of the time. On the occasions when I ate them they were hyper stimulating, and even eating normal amounts for a day or 2 felt like a binge and made me sick. I’ve done this occasionally for the last 8 years. and it seems to me that it’s time to stop. There’s no good reason to do this. </div>
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I hope my future with processed food is the same as my drinking turned out!</div>
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kneecaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03974416387290525978noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029964109647399617.post-60448125114008157212017-04-28T10:51:00.001-05:002017-04-28T10:51:20.712-05:00walking challengeSince I seem to be in to challenges, I started <a href="http://barbiewalker.blogspot.com/">another blog</a> for my walking challenge. I've really been enjoying walking lately and would love to do it every day. I once logged my <a href="http://barbiebiker.blogspot.com/">daily bike ride</a> for a year and that was fun, so I'm hoping to do the same with walking. ha!kneecaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03974416387290525978noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029964109647399617.post-63390992505385251972017-04-28T10:39:00.003-05:002017-04-28T10:39:46.091-05:00NutsI'm realizing this <a href="http://veganbarbie.blogspot.com/2017/04/and-challenge-is-back-on-lol.html">challenge</a> is really about nuts. All the other things on the list I am always happier doing without no matter what the situation, even if I tell myself differently beforehand. But I've always had an exception for nuts because they are supposed to be healthy. The problem is, they are kind of a "gateway drug" for me. They don't have the same drug-like effects and hangovers that sugar and flour do, but I have a hard time regulating their consumption, especially roasted peanuts and cashews. But even the others: pecans make me want dates (pecans and dates are just like pecan pie!), almond butter makes me want manna bread, raw cashews make me want grapes. And all those combinations are very very hard for me to eat in moderation. Plus after I fill up on this stuff, I get a stomach ache, and despite that, I want to continue to dopamine party so I often move on to the process foods with sugar, flour and oil and salt, and then I'm a goner. <br />
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I'm really curious to know if going without nuts will make me feel deprived. Going a year without them will be a good test of this question! Is life less enjoyable without them? I'd like to find out. Healthwise, I won't deprive myself of the following: flax, chia, sesame, sunflower and pumpkin seeds. So I will get all the healthy benefits--more actually--as nuts, if I feel I need them. kneecaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03974416387290525978noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029964109647399617.post-43019984460176196922017-04-27T22:27:00.000-05:002017-04-28T20:55:01.987-05:00And the Challenge is back on, lol!Well I still want to do this. Like I said in my <a href="http://veganbarbie.blogspot.com/2017/04/my-year-long-ironman-vegan-challenge.html">original post</a>, I'm attracted by the idea of seeing what it's like to get through the variety of situations and holidays and seasons you encounter in a full year. Here's the challenge again and why it's really not that hard.<br />
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<ol>
<li>no nuts. They give me a stomach ache anyway. I'd rather eat every other healthy foods than nuts: beans, starches, veggies, and fruit. Nuts don't taste all that great and they are high calorie and high fat and I tend to overeat them (which is a bit odd, since they don't taste that great, though the combo of fruit and nuts is tasty to me). If I need some omega-3, I'll eat flax and chia seeds. If I feel I need fat, I can add pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds. </li>
<li>almost no added salt. I'm not going to say no added salt because there are rare occasions when I will consume some. For example, at UWL potlucks (UWL is <a href="http://chefajwebsite.com/ultimate-weight-loss-program.html">Chef AJ's Ultimate Weight Loss </a>program, which I'm following. I wish it had a different name because I'm not trying to lose weight), sometimes people use small amounts of condiments in their recipes (e.g., mustard) that have salt in them. And when I backpack in the desert, I might panic and think I need salt (I added 1/8 tsp per day on my Grand Canyon trip but I don't think I needed it). So I will say: no added salt most of the time, but occasionally (once a month or less) a few hundred mg is okay (about 1/8 tsp) in a day. The reasons for very low salt are: salt makes you overeat, it raises my blood pressure, and it masks the taste of food and my taste buds.</li>
<li>no animal products. duh.</li>
<li>no wheat. I don't know if it is a problem for me, but Chef AJ and Alan Goldhamer don't recommend it, so that's fine by me. There are lots of good grains and pseudo grains that I can have instead.</li>
<li>no flour or sugar. This was a hard one for me to say never to, because I realized I had this vegan exception: I still entertained the notion that I would make exceptions at famous vegan restaurants or big veggie festivals or fancy vegan dinner parties when I just want to bond with my awesome vegan friends and the awesome vegan-ness of it all. But I realized I'm just using communal vegan bonding as an excuse to eat sugar, flour, salt, and oil, and I called bullshit on that, haha. Nice try though. So once I realized that, then actually, this is easy too. I avoid these most of the time anyway. I have so many reasons not to eat these foods, mainly that they always come packaged with oil and salt, and the combination of all four of those things just makes me sick when I eat them. Then when I combine that with chocolate and caffeine and alcohol, because I'm celebrating with my friends and I'll want dessert too, right?, then I can't sleep and it just totally messes me up. And then I have cravings for the next few days and want to go off plan again. It's just not worth it. Talk about wasting time feeling sick.</li>
<li>no chocolate or caffeine or alcohol. They are drugs and they keep me from sleeping (I think chocolate is the worst for that), and I get a hangover even with small quantities, and again with the chocolate, it gives me a headache the next day. I don't need any of that. </li>
<li>supplements: only vitamin B12, and nori sheets for iodine--I don't call that a supplement though, that's food. Vitamin D is another controversy and I figure the only way to answer it for myself is to do the experiment on myself. All the studies on vitamin D and nuts are done on people eating the Standard American Diet. I don't think you can extrapolate to our diet. So the only way to answer the question for myself is to not take it and see if there are consequences on my health and how I feel. And I can get my blood tested though I don't know how meaningful the recommended levels are, or how effective supplementation is even if it raises your blood levels.</li>
<li>Oh, and since I am following Chef AJ's program, I will avoid foods with a calorie density more than about 700 calories per pound. So I'll avoid avocados and dried fruit. I'll make an exception for dates that are blended into recipes, like AJ's red lentil chili or bean salad dressings.</li>
</ol>
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Okay, the challenge starts tomorrow April 28. I did say goodbye to nuts today by eating a few pecans and cashews and peanuts (I only bought a small amount so I wouldn't overeat them!). They were not that tasty, I'm glad to say. Carrots and sugar snap peas are much more appealing to me. Okay, now I'm looking forward to this. It's just a fun thing to try. If I change my mind, that's fine. </div>
kneecaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03974416387290525978noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029964109647399617.post-70209349763733050042017-04-20T14:56:00.001-05:002017-04-20T14:56:23.539-05:00The challenge is offWow, that challenge was a huge mistake for me. I was doing perfectly fine before I did this challenge, eating healthy, following UWL. I do have this notion that I want to go a whole year just to see what it's like to go through all the seasons and a myriad of social situations. But I raised the bar too high I guess. I totally went off plan today and I haven't done that in months. I'm tempted to delete all these posts but maybe they are a good reminder to me and anyone else. Just pick a plan, follow it the best you can, and don't raise the bar too high, that's my advice.kneecaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03974416387290525978noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029964109647399617.post-728261442005375662017-04-19T14:02:00.001-05:002017-04-19T14:02:25.723-05:00That challenge is totally stupidI can't believe I set up that stupid challenge publicly. I bet I don't even last a day. Someone was just talking about peanut butter and I thought, shoot, I should have got some peanut butter before starting up this challenge! why am I denying myself nuts? and a little salt occasionally? I'm setting myself up for failure. oh well, so far I'm halfway through the day. it's not hard, I just think it's doomed to failure.kneecaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03974416387290525978noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029964109647399617.post-26962928874646396122017-04-18T20:41:00.001-05:002017-04-27T22:19:10.023-05:00My year-long "ironman" vegan challenge<div class="MsoNormal">
I would like to try the experiment merging Dr. Goldhamer’s
and Chef AJ’s diet and doing it for 1 year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is the most strict diet of all the plant-based diets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is like the ironman of vegan diets:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>no oil, sugar, flour, salt, alcohol,
chocolate, and no nuts and seeds either!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s essentially Chef AJ’s Ultimate Weight Loss program, which I currently
follow, but she recommends full abstinence only from sugar, flour and alcohol
(and probably chocolate), and leaves some wiggle room for the others. Oh, and I'm not going to take any supplements either, besides vitamin B12 and some nori when I feel like it (for iodine). I'm curious to see if I have any adverse effects from lack of supplemental vitamin D and all the others.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Why?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, when I eat
this way, it’s actually super easy, surprisingly, and the food tastes good—my
taste buds really sensitize and I taste so many flavors and sweetness in
vegetables and fruit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And my cravings
disappear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I can eat as much as I
want and my weight doesn’t increase, and if anything I lose weight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I can eat all the potatoes and sweet
potatoes and squash as I want and those are my favorite foods. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But what about the salt?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That is really extreme.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mean,
what if I’m at a WFPB potluck and the food is perfectly compliant except it has
just a little bit of salt?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, it’s
just a year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If it’s too ridiculous, I
can change my mind in a year and allow some salt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What if I’m hiking all day in hot weather in
the Grand Canyon or some other desert?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Well, I’ve done that twice and both times I only added about 1/8 tsp of
salt each day, which is only about 300 mg.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My dehydrated food has celery and other vegetables and probably has
plenty of sodium.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I always bring
salt for emergencies so can use it if I think I need it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But why no nuts and seeds?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Well, sometimes I overeat them and get a stomach ache.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I’m curious to see if I can get all those
omega-3 fatty acids I need with just my veggies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess I can’t help thinking that all those
long-lived healthy blue zone societies didn’t have ready access to daily flax
or chia seeds, so maybe I don’t need them either. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I’m curious if life is easier or harder under these rules.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I’m curious to go a whole year, through
all the seasons and special events and to see if there is ever a good reason to
eat this stuff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d get a good idea
after a year. <o:p></o:p></div>
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What are my chances of success?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, I think it’s higher than my chances of
completing a real ironman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But…I don’t
have a lot of confidence I can do this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Hardly any.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> The salt is going to be the biggest challenge--it means I will have to say no to a lot of people who offer me food. </span>But I do love a
challenge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I’ve always wanted to do
an ironman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So this is my version of an
ironman.<br />
<br />
When should I start?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I guess I’ll start tomorrow, April 19, 2017.</div>
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I know, this is crazy. I shouldn’t even post this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But here goes…</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
kneecaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03974416387290525978noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029964109647399617.post-52043699876471832492016-10-22T20:51:00.000-05:002016-10-22T20:55:09.443-05:00My Grand Canyon Backpacking Trip was Fantastic!The title says it all but here are some pictures too. Everything turned out really well. It was a geology "class" with the <a href="https://www.grandcanyon.org/learn/grand-canyon-association-field-institute">Grand Canyon Field Institute</a>, led by 2 guides and with 8 students. I prepared my food as described in my <a href="http://veganbarbie.blogspot.com/2016/08/using-dehydrated-food-for-travel.html">previous post</a>. I had two 16-oz water bottles that I filled with my dehydrated food (75 g each, or about 2.5 oz) and water. I did this after each meal and then started snacking on the first bottle an hour or two later. I snacked on the bottles and on my seed mixture (hemp, sesame, sunflower, pumpkin and a touch of salt) all day long. I probably ate at most 1/8 tsp of salt in a day from the seeds, but I put so little salt on the entire bag I think it was quite a bit less. So I think most of my salt just came from the natural foods, proving that you don't need to add much, if any salt, even in the desert. Our main guide told us at the beginning that we should eat lots of junk food and salty foods. One of the other students said she wasn't used to all the salt she was eating and I wonder if that's why she had swollen feet during most of the trip. Everyone else ate those packaged backpacking meals where you boil water and then add it to a foil package. They generated so much garbage that they had to pack out. I didn't! Also their food didn't look appetizing. They made fun of me but I'm sure my food tasted better than anyone else's. It was sweet thanks to the butternut squash and sweet potatoes. And it was cool and refreshing with all the water that was added to it. And I didn't have to carry the extra weight of a stove. It was brilliant if I do say so myself. <br />
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And the trip was great and I was in great shape and had no trouble. I was so relieved because I was nervous about how I would do. I practically bounded up the canyon on the last day, in my excitement to reunite with my partner at the top. I'd love to do this again and be more relaxed instead of nervous about whether I'd packed the right things and how my food would turn out and how I would do physically. Here are some pictures:<br />
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Heading down from the North Rim on the North Kaibab Trail:<br />
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Relaxing at Cottonwood Campground on the first night:<br />
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The amazing Ribbon Falls, a sacred site for the Zuni Indians. <br />
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Heading into the box Canyon as we approach Phantom Ranch at the bottom.<br />
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The mighty Colorado River, where I took a bath<br />
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It was cold!</div>
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Hiking out on Day 4. We had an awesome hike on Day 3.</div>
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Our guide's favorite rock in the entire Grand Canyon:<br />
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Our campground on Day 4, the last night. We huddled around the tree after the first rainstorm, then had another huge one that led to beautiful waterfalls off the Redwall cliffs and a flash flood very close to our campsite!</div>
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The start of thunderstorm #2, right when my camera battery died.</div>
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<br />kneecaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03974416387290525978noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029964109647399617.post-78171429504414346962016-08-21T22:08:00.001-05:002018-07-11T21:57:29.051-05:00Using Dehydrated Food for TravelI've used this in a number of ways: 1) for backpacking 2) when visiting friends celebrating a graduation where I didn't have control of the food, didn't have a car, and didn't want to be a bother--it was so much better eating my food than trying to make their food work for me, 3) to visit my family in a similar situation--though there I could have gone to the grocery store and used their kitchen but this was still easier. In all cases, the dehydrated food was perfect: I made my meals easily and I ate them while others ate their food, whether on the trail, at their homes or in restaurants. Here's how I do it:<br />
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I order a bunch of food from <a href="http://www.harmonyhousefoods.com/">Harmony House</a>. I'm sure there are other places too, this is just the first place I found. I started with their <a href="http://www.harmonyhousefoods.com/Backpacking-Kit-18-ZIP-Pouches_p_1866.html">Backpacking kit,</a> and then over time learned which foods I like better than others. Here is what my current supply looks like. My starches:<br />
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These are peas, butternut squash, sweet potato, and sweet corn. The corn is somewhat crunchy even after rehydration. Note I don't have potatoes here. I don't find the dehydrated potatoes to be very tasty, though I suppose I could give it another try.</div>
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Beans:</div>
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Here I have pinto, black, lentils, kidney, split peas, northern and garbanzos.</div>
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Veggies:</div>
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Broccoli, cabbage, onion, spinach, celery, and "vegetable soup" which is a mixture of carrots, bell peppers, onion, and other stuff like that, all veggies.</div>
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I combine them into a big bowl with 1 part (by weight or measuring cup, doesn't matter) starches, 1 part beans, 1 part veggies. I just pick at random what I want from the 3 categories, or add some of all in. It doesn't matter much really, just make sure you have enough sweet potatoes and butternut squash because they make it taste really good. </div>
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Now, how much is a serving? For backpacking I wanted to make sure I'm getting enough calories, so I looked at the nutritional information for all these different dehydrated items. It turns out it's very similar for all of them, from starches to beans to veggies. Why? because all the water is gone. Veggies are mostly water and that's why they are low calorie. When you take out the water, they have a similar calorie density to dehydrated beans. Interesting, huh? So it turns out they are all about 3-4 calories/gram. 150 grams then gives about 525 calories. Or if you prefer ounces, <b>it's about 100 calories per ounce of dried food.</b> So if you want 500 calories per meal, that's 5 oz by weight per meal. </div>
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For my first backpacking trip, I put each meal in a small ziplock back and then packed those in a larger one. I decided that was wasteful, so now I just put all the food into large ziplock bags. </div>
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To rehydrate, add about 3 times as much water. You can use heat or not. If you use heat, bring it to a boil it and it will be ready in 10-15 minutes (I'd let it sit another 15 minutes after that). If you don't use heat, you can let it soak for 1-24 hours. I prefer at least 2 hours--I think it digests better the longer it soaks. Here is how I usually do it, whether backpacking or day hiking or flying somewhere: I put about 75-90 g of food into into each of two 16 oz wide mouth bottles and fill them to the top with water. I've put a mark on the bottle to fill the food so if I don't have a scale, I don't really need it, just fill to the mark and add water. I use a long tea spoon and eat right out of the bottle. It is so refreshing when backpacking because of all the liquid. I don't get dehydrated and thirsty like my companions eating dried fruit and salty snacks.<br />
This is a very filling meal and it tastes surprisingly good--the reason is that the squash and sweet potatoes make it taste sweet. So these are key ingredients you don't want to leave out. And of course you can change the ratio of veggies to starch to beans to whatever you want. You can of course supplement your meal with any fresh fruit or veggies you can get your hands on, and also nuts and seeds and dried fruit if you eat that.kneecaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03974416387290525978noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029964109647399617.post-26725416052932810252016-05-23T17:03:00.003-05:002016-05-23T17:03:54.525-05:00Soy Yogurt in the Instant PotNowadays whenever I make soy yogurt, I do it in the Instant Pot pressure cooker. It's super easy. You take a glass bowl, fill it with soy milk, as little or much as you want, add yogurt starter, whisk to mix well, put the bowl in the Instant Pot. Put on the lid and turn on the yogurt setting. I up the time to 12 hours. How long depends on your tastes and your yogurt starter. I use <a href="http://www.giprohealth.com/yogurtstarter.aspx">this for yogurt starter</a>. Only 1/8 tsp is needed for 1 quart of soy milk. I use <a href="http://www.edenfoods.com/store/unsweetened-edensoy-organic-soymilk.html">Edensoy</a> unsweetened for the soy milk. <a href="http://www.westsoymilk.com/products/organic-unsweetened/organic-unsweetened-plain/">Westsoy </a>also works well, it's just not as thick as Edensoy. The soy milk should be room temperature--no need to boil it first like you have to do with cow's milk (to sterilize it). There are other brands of yogurt starter you can use, or you can use store-bought yogurt for starter. Whatever you choose will affect the flavor of the yogurt, so experiment for yourself to see what you like best. Some are more sour than others. I tend to like a less sour taste.<br />
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<br />kneecaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03974416387290525978noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029964109647399617.post-3238865089185190272016-05-23T12:23:00.000-05:002016-05-23T17:08:26.814-05:00roasted vegetablesThis is as easy as chopping an onion, some broccoli, and cauliflower.<br />
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Ingredients:<br />
an onion<br />
Vegetables: my favorites right now are broccoli and cauliflower, or asparagus (when in season).<br />
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Directions: preheat the oven to 400 F, while chopping the vegetables. Put them in a large glass baking dish. Put them in the oven for 20 minutes. stir. Cook another 20 minutes. Now you decide if you want to cook them longer. This depends on your oven and your preferences. Note that they will continue to cook as they cool. But if you like them softer and sweeter, you can leave them in another 10-20 minutes, or turn off the oven without removing them and let them continue to cook as the oven slowly cools. After a few experiments you'll know what you prefer.<br />
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Note on onions: The vidalias are the most sweet, and the reds are least. They will all sweeten up with roasting.<br />
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Note on not adding liquids. Notice I didn't include oil or water. The onions release water as it cooks. It's possible if you didn't use onions, maybe you'd want 1 T of water. But the veggies release liquid too. Anyway, for this recipe, no added liquids are needed!<br />
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Feel free to add any seasonings or salt if you you'd like. If I'm taking my veggies to a potluck, I'll usually add salt since most people are used to eating a lot of salt. Otherwise, even though I do eat some salt in my diet, I don't find any desire to add salt to these when making for myself, as they are flavorful and sweet all on their own.<br />
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Here are my starting ingredients:<br />
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Pre-baking<br />
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All done:<br />
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<br />kneecaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03974416387290525978noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029964109647399617.post-4430588004086938032016-05-08T22:11:00.002-05:002016-05-08T22:11:59.581-05:00My vacationI just got back from a 9-day trip to the Smoky mountains. It was my first vacation since I started Bright Line Eating 14 months ago. I hadn't appreciated how much I've internalized BLE. Dealing with food was so easy! I just ate simple foods: oatmeal, fruit & veggies for breakfast, beans, veggies & fruit for lunch and dinner, and some nuts with each meal. I used easy veggies, like carrots and romaine lettuce, and fruit is always easy. and measuring the food assures me I'm getting the right amount. I got to focus on fun. The highlight of the trip for me was my overnight backpacking trip. I considered this a practice trip to make sure I had the right equipment and food for my longer trip I have planned in the fall. And it worked beautifully. Here are some pictures:<br />
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Just as I'm leaving, pretending to be confident (scared of the bears):<br />
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My bedroom:</div>
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My dining room:</div>
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Dinner (and breakfast): I ordered a bunch of different dried veggies and beans from Harmony House. You don't even need to cook this stuff. I got a spill-proof pan and added the water before I started my hike and let it soak while hiking. I was amazed at how good this tastes. This will come in handy in other situations where I need to bring my own food.</div>
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The pulley system supplied by the park for hanging your packs to keep them away from the bears. The bears were quite numerous. I was glad not to see any!<br />
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We did lots of other fun stuff, hiking and sight-seeing. It was a great trip!<br />
<br />kneecaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03974416387290525978noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029964109647399617.post-67719763337572500232016-02-16T15:07:00.001-06:002016-02-16T15:07:58.003-06:00Wellness ForumI just joined the <a href="http://wellnessforumhealth.com/">Wellness Forum</a>, led by Pam Popper. I've heard several talks by her and like her. Also Howard Jacobson works there and he's a good researcher I bought the concierge membership so I have access to their medical knowledge and research team. That is my health insurance program. I want to research first before taking any doctor's advice, because nowadays they are just pill and invasive test prescribers. Upon joining, I got this special offer to offer a regular membership to 2 other people for $49.50. I believe at this level of membership, you don't have access to the medical libraries, but you do get lots of information about how to adopt a plant-based diet and improve your health. If you are early on your journey and want a little help transitioning, this might be a good option for you. I don't know. If you are interested, email me: bwhitney (at) chi-squared.org. (I spelled out the "at"-sign to keep down the spammer traffic). If you are a long-time whole-foods plant-based eater, I don't think you need this membership, though you might be interested in the concierge membership. or you can wait and see what I find out about it. I'll update later on how I like it.kneecaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03974416387290525978noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1029964109647399617.post-87102762623451399832016-02-16T14:54:00.001-06:002016-02-16T14:54:53.201-06:00Berry and yogurt salad dressingHere is a super easy salad dressing that I have been making every day.<div>
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Ingredients:</div>
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6 oz berries</div>
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4 oz homemade soy yogurt</div>
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1/2 Tablespoon balsamic or apple cider vinegar (optional)</div>
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1 T flax-chia seeds (optional--actually tastes better without)</div>
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Blend in a blender. Pour on your salad. I make a huge salad for lunch with lettuce, spinach, kale or arugula, maybe a little raw cabbage, mushrooms, onion, red bell pepper, bean sprouts. that's been my winter salad anyway. I fill a big bowl and then dump the dressing on. mmmmm.</div>
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kneecaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03974416387290525978noreply@blogger.com0