Loving Whole Foods

I have recently fallen head over heels in L-O-V-E with Whole Foods.  I mean, I had been in there a time or two before, but not with the same drive.  My cousin, Maggie, and I went in there a couple weeks ago looking for a product not sold in other stores, which left us wandering a little.  On top of the wandering, I had read in a few books that purchasing things like nuts are often far cheaper at places like Whole Foods (in their bulk aisle).  So, I decided to check it out.  Oh. My. Goodness.  If they would set up a cot for me, I would live in the bulk food aisle.  Really.  Nuts *are* far cheaper if you purchase them this way…by about *half*…no joke.

Then there is the granola.  Granola…yum!  I have yogurt almost every day.  I typically put a small amount of granola and some walnuts (or pecans…or almonds) on top.  In case you do not already know, though, organic granola at Kroger or Bigg’s is ridiculously expensive!  It runs about $6.00 to $7.00 per pound!  At Whole Foods (in the bulk aisle, of course) granola is $3.99 per pound.  That is *so* much cheaper…and the flavors of granola are amazing!  My favorite is the Vanilla Macaroon.  It is heavenly.

I also switched to buying my eggs from Whole Foods…and my yogurt.  I usually purchase Dannon Light & Fit for $2.99 (32 oz.).  Whole Foods carries an organic vanilla yogurt made with milk from cows without hormones for $2.49 (32 oz.).  Better deal!  I will admit; however, that the eggs are slightly more expensive at Whole Foods.  One dozen eggs runs about $1.60 at WF and about $1.40 at Kroger.  However, the WF eggs are free range, antibiotic-free (which makes me happy to pay the little bit extra).

Another thing I love about WF…they have samples over by the bakery area…and man are they good!  I usually pass right by the sample kiosks at other grocery stores because it is all ucky processed junk.  I feel better about trying the foods at WF because I know they have higher standards about what they will sell/serve.

Ultimately, the purpose of this post is to debunk the whole “Whole Foods (and places like it) is always more expensive than Kroger/Bigg’s (and places like them).”  That is not necessarily true.  Yes, some things are  more expensive, but not everything.  I would say it is definitely worth it to take a stroll through WF and see what you can find to save your family some money.  I bet you will love the bulk aisle, too!

Do you currently shop at Whole Foods (or another store like it)?  If so, are there things you have found to be cheaper there versus a Kroger/Bigg’s/etc?

-Erica

PS) As I was re-reading my post before publishing it occurred to me that you all might think WF is paying/bribing me to say such nice things about them.  I assure you I have been in no way compensated for this post…although they could give me five minutes alone with the bulk food aisle and I would be one happy girl.  🙂

Summer Salad with Vinaigrette

This salad…is amazing!  I had a version of it while on vacation in Indy earlier this month.  Artisan lettuce (no iceberg) with fresh strawberries, mandarin oranges, pecans, crumbled/cubed cheese, and grilled chicken.  Delicious!

Salads are wonderful for a variety of things…you can get seriously creative with them.  Fruits, nuts, cheeses, meats, etc.  Nothing is really “wrong” on a salad…with the exception of dressing.  Some people go crazy with dressing, and drown the flavor (and health value) out of a perfectly good salad.

I have been experimenting with creating everyday food items from scratch.  First up…vinaigrette.  Specifically the vinaigrette that accompanied this salad in Indy.  A poppyseed vinaigrette.  The waitress was nice enough to tell me it had these things included:

-poppyseeds (of course)
-oil
-wine vinegar
-sugar*
-red onion

She followed it up with, “It’s really quite simple to mix up.”  So, I did.  I did; however, switch up the sugar for honey (as noted by the *).  I used two different kinds of oil, olive and canola.  The dressing had a pink hue to it, so I figured she probably meant red wine vinegar.  Putting this dressing together took me all of five minutes…and it is delicious!  Best of all, I know *exactly* what is in it, and I know it is fresh!

What kinds of salads do you enjoy?  Have you ever made your own dressing?

-Erica

Food: Revisited

I know I have talked about this before (and likely will again), but this remains the number one question people ask me:

“What are you eating?”

The truth is, I probably do not eat like many other people losing weight (or trying to lose weight).  I do not count calories.  I do not count grams of anything (protein, fat, salt, etc.).  I do not choose “low-fat” or “no fat” varieties of most foods I eat.

Calories stress me out.  I can never seem to get that right.  I am either eating way too much in order to meet the required number, or I am eating way too little (retricted) and starving.  Either way will lead to failure.  I eat when I feel truly hungry (not bored, angry, lonely, etc.), which just happens to work out to be around every 3 to 4 hours.  I eat until I am no longer hungry.  This is not the equivalent to, “Oh my gosh.  I am so stuffed I can barely move.”  Feeling that way is a clear indicator you ate *way* too much.

Nutrition information is overwhelming (and often conflicting).  Some reputable sources say, “Eat loads of protein!”  Other sources say limit animal proteins to only a few days a week.  Something I have learned over my journey…my body knows what it needs.  I just have to listen.  When my body needs protein, guess what?  I crave it.  When my body needs something else, another craving.  Over time I have figured out how to eat…for *my* body.  I may not; however, be eating enough of one thing or another for *your* body.  We are all different.  We all require different amounts of different things to operate at *our* maximum.

I eat full-fat cheese and sour cream.  I eat bread (100% whole wheat) and pasta (again, whole wheat).  These are things most “dieters” avoid like the plague.  What they do not seem to understand, though, is that *most* “low-fat” or “no fat” products contain many other horrible things (such as an excess of sodium or sugar).  What you are trading in fat (or even reduced calories) is a significant increase in chemicals.  Full-fat cheese is natural.  Natural is good.

I eat fat…and quite a bit of it.  I am willing to bet I consume *far* more fats than the average “dieter.”  My fats come from avocado, nuts, coconut oil, and other healthy (natural) sources.  These are *not* the equivalent of the fat content of a triple decker cheeseburger from McDonald’s, though.  Healthy fats, and our bodies need them.

Recently, another girl came to me with serious inquisition…she wants desperately to lose weight (so she said).  The minute I said, “What you eat is more of the equation than what you do with your body,” was the minute she tuned me out.  It is the truth, though, eating is more than 75% of weight loss.  All the working out I do is more for muscle, endurance, fitness, and hopefully less chance of ever having “saggy skin.”  Food is where the magic really happens.

The biggest pieces of advice I can give anyone with the goal of weight loss are these (in no specific order):

-Ditch as much processed foods as you can.  Avoid trans fat (hydrogenated oils) and high fructose corn syrup.  Read nutrition and ingredient labels (there are millions of products containing these things that you would never suspect).  Eat more raw veggies and fruits.  Stay away from fast food joints.
-Be honest with yourself about your goals and how much work it is *really* going to take to meet them.  I have found people often set *huge* goals with the expectation of little effort.
-Find a way to keep yourself accountable.  This is a *huge* one.  People often turn to friends for support, which is nice.  The problem?  Friends often let you “slip” when you should not because they have an emotional attachment to you. “Oh, girl, I know you needed that brownie after that happened.  I would have eaten two!”  People who are not emotionally invested in your life are far more likely to keep it real…and keep you on track.
-Figure out what (if any) your trigger foods are…then curb it/them.  Almost everyone I know has at least one food that triggers them to overeat.  Find out what yours are, and then be more aware of it.  If you can, avoid eating it/them for a while.  If you cannot, do not allow yourself to overeat.  Stay conscious while you are eating, and force yourself to eat more slowly (which will allow you to feel that sensation of satisfaction *before* you stuff yourself).
-Do not eat while doing other things.  If you eat while watching television – stop.  You are far more likely to overeat simply because you are not paying attention to your body’s signals.
-Keep a food journal.  Seriously.  Write down *every single morsel* that enters your mouth.  When starting out, write down portion sizes, too.  You may be eating *far* more than what you think you are…especially if you are a grazer/snacker.

This is just a short list of things that have helped me in relation to eating/food…and I hope they can help some of you, too.

My goal for this week is to start posting more about what foods I am eating regularly.  I want to also start sharing more recipes as I find/try them.  So, be looking for that.

Do you have any other hints/tips/tricks that have helped you in your journey that I did not mention?  Please share them in the comments below.

-Erica

Weigh Day (week forty-seven)

Alright folks…I am back from vacation (if we can even call it that) and I weighed in for the first time this morning…

That is right – I did not take my scale after all!  After much deliberation, I decided I needed to give myself an opportunity to see what “real life” would be like for me.  I say “real life” because I mean a life in which I am not constantly considering what every little bite of food will mean for the scale (or my waist line).  Now, not that I mean I went hog-wild and ate everything.  I did not.  I still ate sensibly, but certainly “off menu” compared to what I have been eating for the last 47 weeks.

Friday night I ate Moroccan (extremely delicious) – fresh, homemade from this tiny joint called Poccadio in Indy.  Saturday night I ate (what might be *the* best) Mexican food – again, fresh, homemade, mouth-watering Mexican food.  I had this stuffed pablano pepper with chicken and cheese – OH MY!  Sunday the girlies and I ate at a place called Chef Mike’s Charcoal Grill.  Nearly everything on the menu is cooked on a charcoal grill – even the pizza!  We had a pizza for an appetizer, and then I had the most delicious salad I have ever consumed! It was their grilled chicken strawberry salad.  The salad had fresh strawberries and mandarin orange segments paired with charcoal-grilled chicken.  The dressing was a homemade poppy seed vinaigrette…and I fell in love.  Seriously.

Okay, so enough reliving my food frenzy…which, I should note, I only ate out once each day (dinner).  For the other two meals (and snacks) I packed food and prepared in our hotel room.

As for weigh in…

206.4

That is 1.6 pounds down from week 46’s weigh in!  Not too shabby for “off menu vacation eating”!!!  I should also mention I have not worked out since last Wednesday night!  That is a full SIX days of no hard work and sweating…and my body and mind are ready for it!  I am getting right back in to the groove of things starting tomorrow with Denise.  I am *seriously* looking forward to it!

How was your week?

-Erica

Keeping An EYE On Things

Portion control is out of control in our society.  This photo shows what portion sizes *used* to look like, and what they look like today.  There is clearly a very large difference.  This explains many things about our growing obesity epidemic.  People simply do not understand what a *real* portion looks like because they are used to being served two or three times a normal serving.  So, when a doctor asks, “Do you eat a lot?”  Their answer, of course, is no.

I used to fall into that category.  I did not think I ate all that much.  The problem was that my portion sizes were seriously inflated.  I was consuming far too many calories in each sitting.  Despite the fact I was not eating fast food, I was still morbidly obese.  I was always a little confused because I ate  healthy foods.  I cooked my meals at home using very little convenience or pre-packaged foods.  Fruits and vegetables were always a big part of my daily diet.  Yet, the fat was still there (and often times increasing).

Once I realized that it was not so much *what* I was eating as much as the *quantity* things started to improve.  I started purchasing smaller things…fruits especially…to help curb the portion sizes.  I started preparing meals as if I were feeding three people instead of five.  This reduced everyone’s portion sizes and also reduced the amount of leftovers lurking in my fridge.  The interesting thing?  Even though I began cooking less food at each meal, we were all still satisfied and nourished.  Go figure.

I am much more conscious of how much I am eating these days.  Part of that is due to practice, and the other part is due to journaling.  Keeping a food journal helps to keep me accountable.  It prevents me from “letting things slide” and getting carried away with eating.  As an addict, this is very important for me.  In that same vein, as an addict, this was one of the harder things I had to implement.  I was resistant to logging every little thing that entered my mouth.  It is an invaluable tool to my success, though.  I highly recommend everyone keep a food journal.  If you have never kept one, you might be (unpleasantly) surprised at the amount of food you actually consume in a day.

Here is a chart I found while roaming the blogging world.  It is a good visual reference for those looking to control portion sizes without stopping to measure every single thing before eating it (which I find frustrating, by the way).

Looking over this chart, you can probably see portion distortion with many products.  Bagels are a big one.  I cannot remember the last time I saw a bagel in a bakery that was smaller than my palm…can you?  Of course, I have bagels in the house that are about that size, but they are considered “mini” bagels.  The full size bagels are easily double that size.

Do you control your portion sizes using this visual method or some other method?  Are there any foods you still have difficulty with when creating a portion (cheese is my portion weakness)?

-Erica

Healthy VS Real…Wait, What?

I must admit this is a post I have been thinking about for quite a while.  During my journey (of only six and a half months) I have heard countless people refer to eating healthy compared to eating “real” food.  What does that even mean?

What sent me over the edge was watching Ruby last night.  I watch it on Netflix, so I am behind on the seasons, I know.  The episode I watched last night was Ruby having Thanksgiving dinner at her house (with lots of family, friends…and food).  They actually prepared two feasts instead of one…one healthy feast and one “real” feast.  During the episode Ruby said something to this effect, “I don’t want everyone to have to eat healthy when they want real food.”  I ask again, what does that mean?

How is healthy food different from “real” food?  In my opinion (which is worth only as much as I think it is…inside my own head, of course) healthy food *is* real food.  All that deep-fried, heavily processed, over-sugared, mass-produced junk is *not* real food…not to me.  Half of it is not even recognizable as what the food industry is trying to pass it off as anyway.  Insanity.  I mean look at this picture:

If you have not already seen this picture floating around the Web, just guess what it might be. What it actually is…well, they *say* that it is chicken. McDonald’s chicken McNuggets, to be exact. That, folks, is mechanically separated chicken paste. It is absolutely repulsive and looks competely inedible to me. I showed it to my daughters (ages four and seven) and neither said they will ever ask me to swing into McDonald’s ever again.  (To be clear I do not take them to any fast food joints, but my mother does.  Then they hound me to take them on other days.  No more.)

So, I ask…Why would people *choose* to eat that chicken paste over a recognizable chicken breast?  More importantly…Why would people refer to *that* as “real” food and healthy food as something else?  It boggles the mind, really.

I think, on average, people have a serious misconception about healthy food.  I think people assume that healthy food equals bland or boring food.  Which, of course, is certainly not the case.  Some of the best food I have ever eaten was also some of the healthiest food I have ever eaten.  It all depends on how it is prepared/seasoned, I think.

Personally, I love healthy food.  I love fresh food (veggies and fruits are absolutely delicious fresh instead of frozen or canned).  I do not even consider myself to be “on a diet” right now.  The word “diet” (to me) signifies temporary change and that is not what I am after.  I am after a new lifestyle…these changes are forever.  So, it is important that I eat food I love.  Food I do not have to “make” myself “live through” until “better” food is “allowed.”  Maybe that is the difference?  Does the average American think healthy food is strictly designated to those on restricted weight loss diets?  Is that what the negative association is all about?

As a side note about delicious, flavorful, healthy food…I found this gal through one of my other blogger friends (sorry, I cannot remember which…).  She has *all* kinds of great recipes that are also healthy.  Guess what, though, it is all *real* food, too!  How great, right?

So, now I must know…have you encountered this healthy versus “real” food issue in your own life?  How do you feel about healthy food?  Do you hate to eat healthy food?  Would you prefer to eat what majority of Americans obviously consider “real” food?

-Erica

Cryptically Malicious?

…and that is nothing like “magically delicious.”

Christmas is coming…which we all knew already, right?  Christmas, aside from the gift giving and celebration, is laden with food.  Especially desserts.  Lots of desserts.

I have read an abundance of posts from fellow bloggers about their holiday eating plans, and about the ridiculous amounts of food and desserts available throughout this season.  How does one stay focused and on track with so much temptation lurking around?

I was really quite relaxed about the whole thing until…

Each year we head to my mother’s parents’ house for Christmas.  The adults exchange gifts (which actually just migrated into an absurd exchange of gift certificates several years ago) while the children are corralled into a small space in the elegant home of my mother’s parents.  They, of course, are unable to actually touch anything since the pristine home is museum-like in many ways.  It is an uncomfortable gathering, and it has been for many years.  In light of this unbearably tense environment, everyone in the family stays pretty focused on eating/grazing.  After all, if you constantly have food in your mouth, no one can expect to have a conversation.

Traditionally, the entire family is divided by sisters (my mother and her four sisters) as far as food goes.  Their parents would provide the meat (usually a deli tray), and the rest of the meal gets divided up between the five sisters and brought in like a bizarre potluck.  This year is no different, with one tiny exception…

My mother and I are in charge of bringing dessert.  When she told me the news I about jumped through the roof.  Seriously.  My face immediately went red hot and I was saying all sorts of colorful words I will not share here.  Dessert.  Now, the whole family is well aware that I have lost 60+ pounds.  So, why ask *me* to bring dessert?  Is that being somewhat passive agressive?  I think so, personally.  Hence my cryptically malicious title.  I am livid.

In all the flustered chaos in my head, though, I am pretty sure I have developed a cryptically malicious counter attack.  Bring fruit…and nothing else.  So, this year the family will be gathered around the “buffet” on my mother’s parents counter top…in that crazy “picture perfect” kitchen where everyone is afraid to touch or use anything…with fruit as the “grand finale.”  They will be angry (and I am sure that is an understatement) and I will probably get asked at least two dozens times, “Where’s the *real* dessert?”  That is fine with me.

I bet I will not be in charge of dessert next year.

How are you planning to make it through the holiday food season?  Are you going to stick to your regularly scheduled programming or let things slide and have a free-for-all?

-Erica