April's CR Diary: November 2006 Archives

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November 29, 2006

And You Don't Look A Day Over 32...

That's a line from one of my favorite Bruce Hornsby songs of all time, "Stander on a Mountain" off the "Night on the Town" album. It seems only appropriate to quote a Southerner when describing the Southern girl who came to our house for dinner tonight.

CRS Insider covergirl Laura, from New Orleans, is in town on business. She's a long time friend and blog reader, and we were so excited to meet her in person.

We are shocked that she is forty. She doesn't look a day over 32. And I'd believe, easily, that she was not past thirty.

Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition! I mean, pass the broccoli! Or whatever. It is so encouraging to see real life examples of people whose attention to their diet and nutrition has paid off. Laura looked so young that I almost demanded to see her driver's license.

We had a simple meal: I made a Quorn chili-esque with zucchini, shiitakes, Quorn tenders, Quorn grounds, Muir Glen organic fire roasted tomatoes, no salt veggie broth, and broccoli, to which I added several different kinds of chili powders. On the side was a CR quesadilla with Trader Joe's whole wheat low carb tortilla stuffed with nonfat cheddar and topped with Trader Joe's salsa verde and some of the new chili powder I bought last weekend. Dessert was a parfait of TJ's berries over nonfat ricotta with flax oil, hazelnuts, cinnamon, and Walden Farms chocolate sauce. Sterling pinot noir.

It is so much fun to have our CR sisters and brothers to the house. We talked about a lot of things, some food related and many not. It amazes me how this funny way of living has brought me into contact with so many fascinating people. You know, the kind of people you want to hang around with for a long, long time.

Posted by april at 9:15 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Have A Megamuffin While You Wait

Here's the long awaited re-post of the M2 Megamuffin recipe. This is the version that MR eats and that my friend Susan eats. I eat a smaller, savory version that I'll publish later on. Yes, they take a morning to make. But once you've made them, you freeze them and have 24 muffins ready to eat when you're ready for them.

M2 Megamuffins

Large dry ingredients
2 boxes (454 g/1 lb) Ener-G rice bran
1 C dark rye flour
2 2/3 cup psyllium husk
1 cup wheat bran
3 T sodium-free “baking powder” (Hain Featherweight)
6 x 20 g scoops Jarrow whey protein powder
2/3 cup brewer's yeast
• 89 g raw almonds
• 100 g almond meal

Blender ingredients
1 T NAC (N-acetylcysteine) powder
0.5 T PURE sucralose + 1/8 tsp PURE Neotame; or, 1 T PURE sucralose
5 T Pumpkin Pie Spice (Unsweetened)
45 mg (elemental) zinc (supplement)
3 whole omega-3 eggs (flax-fed preferred over fish oil or other DHA)

3 cups skim milk
• 300 g endive
• 340 g guava
• 240 g canned unsalted plain pumpkin (not pie mix)
• 200 g whole orange
3 T Reconstituted Z-Trim

Large Pot or Bowl Wet ingredients
24 egg whites (750 mL)
5 T High-Oleic Sunflower or olive oil
• 800 Calories’ dried fruit (Eg, the following together:
• 21 g “Just Cranberries”
• 28 g “Just Blueberries”
• 203 g Trader Joe’s organic dried cranberries (610 Calories)

Sprinkle On Top
3/8 T K metabisulfite

Bake for 50 minutes at 325ºF (350ºF in our crummy oven).
.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Mix together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside.

2. Put pumpkin pie spice, sucralose, NAC, Reconstituted Z-Trim, and whole eggs in blender. Cram as much of the endive, cut-up oranges and guava, and pumpkin into the thing as you can at a time and blend until very smooth. Sequentially dump into the separate large pot or bowl (NOT the one containing the dry ingredients!).

3. Throw the remaining Large Pot or Bowl Wet ingredients (egg whites, olive oil or HOSO, and dried fruit) into the wet-ingredient Large Pot or Bowl. Mix thoroughly.

4. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly until you have a uniform mixture. This is hard work for about 5 minutes. Make sure there are no dry spots left.

5. Preheat oven 325F.

6. Quickly distribute the now-rising dough evenly into two 10” x 14” baking pans. For maximal efficiency and minimal hassle, use baker’s parchment.

7. Sprinkle metabisulfite onto the surface of the muffins.

8. “Tent” the muffins: use enough tin foil to cover the sides of the pans, cutting a rectangular hole in the center of the foil to expose all but ~1-2” of the top surface. This minimizes excess browning while allowing for the cooking of the centers.

9. Cook in preheated oven for 50 minutes. If they don’t both fit on one level, swap them top-to-bottom in the oven after 30 minutes since it is always hotter at the top and you want both batches to get the same amount of heat.

12. Remove from oven, invert carefully out of the pan.

13. Using a tape measure, cut into an appropriate number of slices. The analysis assumes 20 muffins, so each pan is cut in half one way and 5 (2.75”) the other. I currently cut a batch into 24, yielding more muffins and fewer Calories each.

14. Pack in zip-loc freezer bags to retain moisture. Keep refrigerated or frozen. I put them straight into the freezer. IMO, they’re best when frozen and then thawed, rather than fresh.

INGREDIENTS NOTES
* You can substitute other dried fruit, of course. I use a mixture of the readily-available oiled, sugared dried cranberries with 'Just Blueberries' and “Just Cranberries,” which are available at Whole Foods and elsewhere & as the name implies are dried berries -- period. This REALLY brings the Cal down, and because these things are at full volume, you would likely have a really hard time if you used these exclusively for 800 Calories. I typically use 21 g (75 Cal) of cranberries, 56 g (100 Cal) with the remainder the regular ones.

* Psyllium husk is not entered in DWIDP or the USDA database. I have seen WILDLY variant nutrition info on the web, some of which is patently wrong. Sherm offered an educated guess as to the truth a couple of years back; I finally got authoritative info via the WUSTL nutritionist, who got the following from a nutrition database from the University of Minnesota, and it matches that guess pretty darned closely:

357.24 g of psyllium seed husks = 179 calories, 1.79 g fat, 288.65 g. carbohydrate, 10.36 g. protein, 125 mg sodium, 257.22 g dietary fiber, 204.3 g soluble fiber.

Note that there is considerable brand-to-brand variation in the weight of a given volume of husk, due to how finely it's ground, so double-check this before scooping into the mixing bowl.

* Spices are a matter of personal preference.

* Other non-caloric sweeteners could be used in place of sucralose, but sucralose APPEARS to be the most well-documentedly safe noncaloric sweetener. NB that this is PURE sucralose, not 'Splenda' (which is 'cut' with maltodextrin). Sucralose is available from Warren Taylor < warren.taylor@earthlink.net >, although he is currently cutting it with cellulose: you’ll have to adjust the volume of sucralose you use accordingly, but at least it adds no empty Calories.

* I use eggs from flax-fed hens, to lower AA, cholesterol, and SaFA relative to what the analysis says. Alas, this DOES mean some extra DHA -- my only dietary source.

* I use commercial liquid egg whites rather than hand-separated egg whites -- MUCH less hassle.

* I used to use Ener-G brand sodium-free baking powder, which is loaded with Ca (this contributes over 500 mg of Ca per serving) without adding Na. K-based products are a good second best. This really is a needlessly high amount, which is why I switched to the Hain Featherweight, which is mostly potassium bicarbonate. Do, in any case, chose some low- to zero-sodium version.

* I use baking parchment, after a tip from John Roberts, which REALLY reduces the hassle of extracting the muffins and cleaning up afterward, & avoids any evil gunk you might get off of the sides of the pan. Environmentally rather a poor option, alas :( -- although it can be re-used for many batches.

* The rice bran is probably the most important ingredient for nutrition, although its phytic acid does mean that the mineral bioavailability is reduced. Buy it in sealed containers if possible, to avoid peroxidation of the fats and loss of the tocotrienols. I buy Ener-G rice bran at a local health food store. You can easily get it by mail from their web site http://www.ener-g.com or 1-800-331-5222. Look under "flours" to find the rice bran product and buy the 8 oz (227g) size which costs less than $2!

* For the protein powder, use plain, unflavored, unsweetened stuff, and (to get the best nutritional bennies) use a concentrate rather than an isolate. I use Jarrow's American Whey (Unflavored/Natural), mostly because it meets the above criteria and I get it on the cheap; other reputable brands will do as well. NB that the scoop that comes with this brand is 23 g, whereas I use a 20 g scoop.

* NAC (N-acetylcysteine) powder is available from Carlson, which can be purchased from the Vitamin Shoppe and elsewhere. K metabisulfite is available in home wine-making hobby stores, where they commonly just know it as “sufites.” Briefly, they reduce the formation of “glycotoxins” (food AGE; see:

http://lists.calorierestriction.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0108&L=crsociety&P=R5769

… and NAC also reduces formation of acrylamide.

* HOSO: High-oleic sunflower oil. Similar fatty acid profile to olive oil, but with a taste more compatible with a muffin. True, pure, unrefined HOS is quite tasty but I haven’t been able to find it for years: some regular grocery stores carry refined HOSO, and Omega Nutrition makes an unrefined, blended oil mixed w/sesame and coconut oil, making the taste & fatty acid profile a little poorer than the real thing. Spectrum Naturals carries a 'naturally refined' HOSO as well. According to the company, they do the extraction with expeller pressing, the bleaching using a clay and diatomaceous earth filtration system, and then a vaccuum-chamber steam deodorization -- ie, no chemical processes at any step. I'd still rather have the phytosterols and (likely) other missing goodies, but it seems that this is less likely to produce evil & more likely to leave fat-soluble antioxidants intact. Now if only they'd produce it in dark glass ...

* Z-Trim: a fat substitute. See: . Gives the mouth feel with negligible Calories. I use it in vegetarian “gravy,” stews, and mixed spiced steamed vegetables. Buy the “Corn Fiber Fat Replacement Powder” (yummy!) at .

Recipe Nutrient Analysis: This is the result of cutting the above recipe into 24 muffins (use a ruler to get equal-sized portions):

===========================================
Nutrition Summary
===========================================

P:C:F 28/36/36

Posted by april at 8:03 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBack

More Soon...

Hi bloggiefriends...

Sorry I've been away... between work speeding back up and a sudden call that my mom had gotten sick at work (mom seems fine now) I've been very busy. I have a good entry written in my head and as soon as I can sit down at the computer and spit it out, it will be there.

I'm also very excited that tonight we're having a CR friend over for dinner! Laura, of CRS newsletter covergirl fame, is in town for a business trip, so she's coming to see us! We are really looking forward to it! We'll post menu and recipes tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Robin has done such a good job of answering questions that I am thinking I should turn over the keys to the blog to her while I'm out. Thanks Robin! It's such a relief to get home from a long trip and find that many questions have been dealt with in my absence!

Posted by april at 7:28 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 26, 2006

Sunday Breakfast With Giant Backyard Scallions

A few years before I met MR, one of the nurses I work with gave me what I think is the best relationship advice I've ever heard. She said that no matter what, no matter how busy you get, always put aside a little bit of time every week to have a date with your partner. She should know... she's been married for thirty years!

Well, now that I have a partner, we've incorporated this wise advice. Every Sunday we spend time together, and while we still spend a considerable part of the day working, we have some things we always do. Sunday breakfast is one of these.

Before he met me, MR created a CR-friendly low-carb pancake by mixing two-thirds buckwheat flour with one-third whey protein powder. He cooks these in a nonstick pan, and we eat them with Walden Farms sugar free syrup and flax oil. We also eat a large eggwhite omlette with a variety of veggies: shiitake mushrooms, green peppers, zucchini, onion, and lately, we've been consuming these giant scallions that we found growing in our backyard. Someone must have at some point planted them, but now they're growing wild in our backyard. We've measured scallions as long as 32 inches, and that's not the largest of them.

So last night after dinner, MR went out in the backyard and picked scallions for our breakfast omlettes. They were so big he had to fold them to get them into the fridge. They're much stronger in flavor than store bought scallions, and they add a real punch to the omlette. On top of the omlette we add avocado, flax oil, salsa and nonfat cheese.

We just finished Sunday breakfast, and now I'm giving the kitchen a much-deserved good clean. With as much as I cook, it seems like the kitchen needs almost constant scrubbing, and with as many hours as I work, it just doesn't get the scrubbing it needs. But tomorrow I'll be back to long days at work, so I'd better get it done now. Even as I write, MR is scrubbing out the difficult stains that require greater physical strength (in addition to running every day, lifting weights and carrying me around whenever I don't feel like walking, MR can also apply quite a bit of physical strength to countertop stains. So much for CR making people weak.) Then it's on to the fun part: putting up my holiday decorations! I love to decorate for the holidays, and Halloween has been up for long enough. I'm wondering though: should I just leave the kitchen in permanent Halloween? It's orange and black, and I'm not sure it's worth fighting the obvious theme. I could use my many Halloween dish towels all year. Would that be an unthinkable breach of taste, or a sensible taking advantage of the natural assets of the kitchen? I am not much of a "house person"... I've never managed to make the time to learn how to decorate other than throwing a few candles here and there and keeping the cat fur to a minimum. So those of you with better taste are welcome to advise. In fact, I've been wondering lately, now that we own a house for the first time, if I could trade CR advice or cooking lessons or something that I do well for some decorating consulting. My step-mother, who is very artistic and good at this stuff, has offered to look at pictures and advise, but she's in North Carolina and can't actually see the place. I could definitely use some help... my decorating style is a cross between on-sale Ikea and college dorm room. We all have our strengths and weaknesses...I wonder if I could trade something I'm good at for help with something I'm not.

If I did, would I have to pay taxes on the transaction?

Posted by april at 7:14 AM | Comments (12) | TrackBack

November 25, 2006

Mustard In The Airport, Etc.

I like mustard on my savory megamuffins (yes, I will post the recipes ASAP, and I apologize to my loyal readers who are waiting for the recipes while I fail to post them! It requires retyping the whole thing, you see, as there are many changes.) My savory muffins are smaller than MR's, and they are made with corn, peas, tomatoes, broccoli, and peppers plus savory spices like cumin, cayenne, paprika and garlic. Oh, and a whole bottle of Whole Foods Organic Hot Sauce per 24 muffin batch. So my muffins go well with mustard, nonfat cheese, or hot sauce.

Megamuffins, as we all know, are the ideal road food. With 10% of the RDA of every essential nutrient per 100 calories, they fit into a ziplock bag and are ready for you when you're ready for them. For lunch today in the airport, MR packed my megamuffin and my salad.

First I ate the salad while sipping a glass of chardonnay at the airport bar (I am a big believer in airport bars... I have met some of the most fascinating people in them, and I attempt to grace the bar in whatever airport I visit. It's just that these days, on CR, I have one glass of wine vs. the pre-CR habit of having more than one vodka cranberry.) My father is a United Methodist minister, and one of his church members had given him a giant bag of homegrown turnip greens that MR and I ate up like we were iguanas. I savored every spicy green in my salad, which went perfectly with a glass of chardonnay, and waited until we were at the gate to eat my megamuffin.

Our flight was delayed. I decided to go hunting for mustard.

Never mind that I had a few packets of emergency mustard stored in my Hello Kitty backpack (that was one of my two year anniversary presents from MR.) I wanted fresh mustard.

I found one restaurant where the waitress had no problem with me lifiting a few packets of Grey Poupon from the condiment counter. But I really wanted to find a pretzel kiosk that would have mustard in a pump. No such luck. Finally, I stopped into a bar/Carolina bbq restaurant that had mustard, ketchup and Tabasco on every table. While no one was paying attention, I unwrapped my muffin, took some mustard from the table, poured it on the muffin, replaced the mustard container, and left.

Ordinarily, I am a very good kid. I have never been stopped for speeding. I have only gotten two parking tickets in my entire life, and neither of them were my fault. I cross the street at crosswalks more than your average person. I wear my seatbelt and throw fits at my best friend when he turns on red. But when it comes to mustard, I am a thief.

The mustard is for all! Or so I tell myself. Why should people who buy cheesesteaks be the only ones to benefit from the free flowing spicy mustard? Why should I support the pretzel economy in order to have a squirt on my megamuffin?

Here are the top three places where I take mustard that arguably does not belong to me:
1. PA Turnpike stops
2. Airports
3. Conference hotels where little leftover glass jars of Grey Poupon liter empty conference rooms.

No one wanted the mustard. No one will love the mustard like I do. It was just sitting there, all lonely and yellow. How could I resist?

I enjoyed my megamuffin, with both yellow mustard and Grey Poupon.

We finally caught our plane, which was about two hours late, and by the time we got home it was about an hour after when we like to have dinner. I threw together a dinner in ten minutes for MR: organic frozen Trader Joe's veggies, garlic, veggie broth, eggwhites for protein, olive oil, baked apples with cinnamon and hazelnuts on the side. Pinot noir. I had so little time that I fell back on eating a South Beach Breakfast wrap (200 cals) with flax oil (40) and hot sauce (0), with a side of Laughing Cow light cheese (35 cals, lots of calcium) on the side. Pinot noir. Not exactly my typical veggie-filled, low cal meal, but even CR girls occasionally get home late after a delayed flight and want to throw something quick in the microwave. Better a protein filled wrap with flax oil and calicum loaded lowfat cheese than ordering a pizza... and I trust that there will be veggies in my life tomorrow.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and I'm happy to be home. The cats howled a lot at first (never mind that I have a cat sitter come to play with them while we're gone... they want mommy!) but now Kieffer is sitting under the dining room table with his paws in the air rejoicing in the presence of all his humans.

Thanks to all my wonderful commenters! We live in a weird world, don't we? Genocide in Africa, war in the middle East, people without health insurance at home, and yet there are people who devote energy to picking on those of us who consume fewer calories. What can you do?

Enjoy your life, put mustard on your megamuffin, work at making the world a better place in whatever sphere you find yourself. In the end, we have no one to blame but ourselves for the choices we make about our health. I'm pretty happy with mine. Hope you are happy with yours too.

Posted by april at 9:04 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

What's Selfish About Self-Control?

My wonderful readers have already answered this one, so I'll just add a few points (even though I think they did a better job than I could!)

Several commenters have referred to the practice of self-control required for CR as selfish. For example, Curious:

Are you working to make the world better, or is this an exercise in selfish self-control that only the wealthy (and those with time on their hands) can afford?

I've already addressed what I am doing in my profession to make the world better, so no need to rehash. And I've addressed the issue of cost (I spend less money on food now that I do CR than I did pre-CR) and time (I spend about half an hour per day cooking, a little more on weekends or holidays. Certainly no more time than anyone who cooks for herself or her family on a regular basis.)

But here's what I find puzzling (do you notice that I spend a lot of time in puzzlement these days?): What's selfish about consuming less food? Did I owe someone else the half an hour a day I spend cooking? In fact, most people spend at least a half an hour a day watching television, something I don't do (I haven't owned a television in my entire adult life. Once "Facts of Life" went off the air, I kinda lost interest.) I have no problem with others choosing to spend their time watching television, but I do find it a bit kermuzzling (that's extremely puzzling) that others are offended by the idea that some people put a little more time into their health and a little less time into, say, television watching.

Since when did self-control become selfish? One would think that exercising self-control and consuming no more food resources than one actually needs would be a *good* thing. Has our capitalist economy so trained us to spend spend spend that self-control is now a sin?

Let's put it the other way: would the world be improved if I were to, say, go out to the Krispy Kreme and eat a donut? Are those who consume excess calories doing so in the service of others? Does it help others to put more food in your body than you need?

It reminds me a lot of how after 9-11, President Bush urged Americans to go shopping. At that time, people who put their extra money into their 401K to save for retirement might have been called selfish. By exercising self-discipline, they were providing for their own future, a future they may never see because they could get hit by a bus tomorrow. Should they have taken that 1, 2, or 3 percent of their salary and gone to the mall instead?

Of course not! By saving for retirement, people are responsibly providing for their own future security. They are less likely to become a burden to the rest of society, and they have greater peace of mind in the here and now. Exercising self-control over what you eat is just like saving for retirement. It's an investment in a future where you are better able to take care of yourself, consume fewer health care resources, and continue to contribute meaningfully to society.

The accounting skills that it takes to monitor nutrition are no more complex than the skills it takes to balance a check book, and it's way simpler than managing an investment portfolio. Yet you don't see angry letters in national magazines directed at people who spend some time managing their investments. Maybe that's because we value money more than we value health.

Not everyone has a lot of money to save for retirement, but by saving a small amount now, you can make a huge improvement in your future quality of life. Nutrition is a lot like that. My initial investment in CR actually saved me money: by cutting down on the money I spent going out and grabbing take-out, I cut my food budget and improved my day to day health. The time I spent cooking was and is no more than the time I spent preparing less healthy food, or standing in line at the office cafeteria waiting to buy a slice of pizza.

The only remaining argument against self-control is that it just might make others question their own choices if they see me, say, passing up the bread basket.

How is this my problem? Shouldn't others take responsibility for their own choices? I don't tell them not to take a slice. It's their choice. How they feel about my choice is also their choice. I eat a lot of meals with a lot of very happy, secure people, who can eat a slice of bread, watch me not eat a slice of bread, and be quite happy. My choice doesn't affect them. If anything, it makes more bread available for those who want it!

People who practice self-control in their dietary practices don't inconvenience others by asking them to step outside to consume a cheeseburger, yet folks are calling us selfish? How does my not eating a cheeseburger hurt you? How would my eating a cheeseburger improve your life?

I eat almost everyday at a table of people who consume foods I no longer choose to eat. And you know what... everybody's okay with it! It's possible that I hang out with a bunch of unusually well-adjusted, sane people, but I'm quite certain that none of them are upset by my habit of eating a large salad with nonfat yogurt and almonds for lunch. In fact, quite a few of them have asked for my recipes, and have even asked for help improving their own diets. Those who aren't interested don't ask. We go about our normal, happy lives, working hard at making the world a better place and enjoying each others' company, including enjoying meals together and sharing bottles of pinot noir. It's just not that big a deal.

Well, we're off to the airport. There are cats to feed, carpets to be vacuumed, and the work week to prepare for. There's laundry to do, dinner to be fixed (which takes a lot less time than the laundry) and friends to catch up with. All in all, our life is pretty normal. But reading the angry reactions of people who just can't stand the fact that we eat less than they do, I have come to suspect that we are a lot happier than a lot of people out there. I hope that the holidays bring them some much needed peace and joy. And maybe health and happiness too.

Posted by april at 6:46 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBack

November 24, 2006

So What Did We Do For Thanksgiving?

Morton, a new commenter, poses a question:

Maybe you bother her because you seem to selfishly value the quantity of your own life over the quality of life shared with others through the ancient custom of feasting.

Thanksgiving is a time when people deliberately overfeed and, traditionally, do so in the company of others. It is among other things a celebration of the conviviality of life through the exaggeration of our common need to eat. When you back away from such a celebration through a miserly accounting of your consumed calories you appear to back away from the larger community, and the community responds by shunning you.

Or maybe I'm wrong. What did you do for Thanksgiving?

First, welcome! Thanks for commenting!

Funny you should ask about Thanksgiving, as yesterday was my *second* Thanksgiving of the year. In October, my partner's parents (both sets!) came to visit from Canada, and we made an elaborate Canadian Thanksgiving for six, complete with low calorie versions of all the traditional favorites. We had turkey breast (which is a very healthy food) cranberry relish with ginger, Jack Daniels sweet potatoes cut with pumpkin to lower the calories and add a nice pumpkiny flavor, cauliflower mashed "potatoes" (a very healthy and delicious alternative to mashed potatoes), turnips (a traditional Canadian Thanksgiving food), low cal stuffing (no bread!), vegetarian gravy, and to top it off, a pumpkin flan made with eggwhites and nonfat yogurt instead of eggs and cream, and stuffed with all the traditional pumpkin pie spices. I sat a beautiful table for six, and we all enjoyed the feast. My partner's mother has been working on losing weight, taking many of her recipes from my blog, so she was very pleased to eat a healthy meal that was both delicious and unlikely to contribute to weight gain. The next day, we took her shopping for new clothes, since she's lost 40 pounds and her old clothes don't fit! She, her husband and I all took great pleasure in finding gorgeous clothes that fit her new thin frame, and that night we enjoyed a delicious tilapia dinner together. We all had a great time. I find that my friends and family are happy to eat the food I serve them... in fact, just last Saturday, a good friend and I had a very enjoyable morning making megamuffins, a low cal, nutrient packed treat that my partner and a friend of his created. We made enough megamuffins for her to put six week's worth of breakfast in her freezer, and we enjoyed a mango shrimp lunch while they were in the oven. She's been eating megamuffin on her way to work every day since, and loves both the taste and the knowledge that she's starting off her day with 30% of every essential nutrient. The pleasures of feasting in community are not lost on us... we just enjoy them in ways that are consistent with our health goals.

Yesterday, we had American Thanksgiving with my father, step-mother, and step-brother. Knowing that I'd want to eat a big meal at lunch, I skipped breakfast (something I almost never do) and sampled all the dishes at the Thanksgiving table. I made some of them (my version of the Jack Daniels sweet potatoes, pumpkin flan, mashed cauliflower "potatoes") and my step-mother made others (including an amazing cranberry relish with pineapple, cilantro and jalepeno, which I'll post to the blog). She uses Splenda instead of sugar in her cooking, and has since long before I started CR, so that cut down on the calories in everything. My dad grilled a turkey on the grill (was that redundant? grilling on the grill?) and we all enjoyed the food and the beautiful North Carolina fall day. I drank one of my dad's excellent Bloody Marys, and then some amazing French wine that he opened for the occasion. I am a huge fan of French reds, and had one more glass that I really needed, as it was quite a spectacular wine. No one can accuse me of failing to appreciate good wine! My step-mother set a beautiful table with a neat little pumpkin fall centerpiece, and we somehow managed not to spill wine on the tablecloth, which is nothing short of a miracle. Every year, the tablecloth goes straight into the washing machine!

I didn't eat any dinner after the holiday lunchtime feast, as I wasn't hungry and didn't need any more calories for the day. It's unusual for me to skip meals, but when saving up for a holiday feast, it makes sense. In fact, I suspect that most folks out there who ate a big Thanksgiving at lunch time skipped dinner. Even though I ate much less than I would have in the old days, and most of the dishes were made in a CR-friendly way since my step-mother is a long time avoider of excess sugar, I still had enough in the meal for my entire day. I wasn't hungry for another bite!

Today it's back to eating three solid meals a day, and I'll soon be having an eggwhite omlette for breakfast. Then we'll be visiting my favorite gourmet store in the world, A Southern Season, where we'll eat lunch. Usually when I eat lunch out, I order a salad with some kind of lean protein, such as chicken, turkey or shrimp. Most menus have excellent variations on the Cobb salad, or their own special salads, and they're happy to omit certain ingredients or even substitute others. It's never a big deal.

So that was my Thanksgiving... or rather, my two Thanksgivings! I am very blessed to have four wonderful families with whom I get to share holidays: my mom, my dad and step-mom, my partner's mom and step-father, and my partner's father and step-mother. For Christmas, we'll be off to Canada to visit his folks, along with my mom whom they've graciously welcomed into the family! Holidays are a time of extreme joy for us... and no one seems unhappy that our "potatoes" are really cauliflower.

Posted by april at 8:41 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

It Won't Help the Starving Children If I Eat More... But It Might Cheer Up Rebecca Traister

Remember that old story about the kid who, when told by his mother that he should clean his plate because there were starving children in Africa, suggested that they box up the leftovers and send them along? I wonder what happened to that kid. Did he go to Africa to work in humanitarian aid? Did he at least avoid the obesity epidemic that is killing an entire generation of plate-cleaners even as we speak?

The kid had a good point. Finishing his food wasn't going to help the starving children one bit.

I'm amazed that once again, there's a wave of articles on how horrible, how offensive, how truly detrimental to the world it is that there are people out there practicing CR. This one from Salon.com really has me puzzled. The author not only has no interest in practicing CR herself (which is all well and good... there are only four people I've ever really wanted to get to practice CR, and they're all people I've actually met!) she has decided that she dislikes anyone who does! The fact that we are living healthier makes her grumpy. Isn't that downright bizarre?

The usual reasons pile up. For instance, she thinks that doing CR is expensive and takes too much time. Never mind that nutritional software is available for free online to anyone who wants it. Cooking most meals in, even if you favor organic produce over regular, is much cheaper than the eating in restaurants and grabbing takeout that most Americans do almost daily. Not to mention that avoiding processed foods and cooking actual vegetables can cut your food budget in half. I spend less money now on food than I did before CR.

You would think that people who are concerned about the world's resources would be glad that there are people consuming less and supporting organic farmers. But no, apparently it is a great offense that we eat fewer calories.

I wonder... was this person happier back in 2003 when I was overweight? Did my overconsumption brighten her day? Would the quality of her life be improved if I ate more? Or better yet, if my medical tests, which she claims to find irritating because they indicate that I am indeed extremely healthy, were to suddenly reveal illness, would that cheer her up?

The logical explanation, of course, is that people who have trouble controlling their own consumption of food dislike a) evidence that their behavior is going to damage their health b) examples of people who can control their consumption, since if we can do it, the implication is that anyone can do it. But I don't know the author of this piece, and I am hesitant to guess at the psychological motivations of my closest friends, much less people I don't know and am unlikely to meet. Therefore, I will hold off on speculation as to why this person has decided that the world would be a better place if I were less healthy and died sooner.

I note, again, we have never met. Not once has she been inconvenienced by a single gram of my organic arugula. I have not served her a single meal that she did not enjoy. I have never received an invitation to her house, nor have I declined to eat anything she may have cooked in goose fat. So why does she care what I eat?

I find it perfectly easy to understand why most people don't want to practice CR. It's a lot like why I don't want to train to be an Olympic gymnast. It looks like it would be fun, on some level, but it's not worth the effort. No problem! We're not trying to get others to join us in living longer, we're just making what we believe are the healthiest choices based on the scientific information available to us right now. Every CR practitioner I know is happier now than he or she was before CR. We savor our food, love our bodies, and enjoy the freedom from illness that CR gives us even in the short term. I'm sorry, but we're not miserable. Why does that make Rebecca Traister so unhappy?

It is quite puzzling to me that someone who has never met me, or as far as I can tell, any other CR practitioner, feels that her pleasure in life is diminished by what we choose to eat or not eat. And it is a bit disturbing to think that someone out there actively wishes me ill because I make food choices that are different from her own. But I try to take the high road on these things, and while I fail a fair amount of the time, I find that with consistent prayer and meditation, it is much easier to wish people well even when I don't understand them. It has never made me happy to harbor resentment towards people who actually did bad things to me, much less towards people I've never met. So I will wish Rebecca a happy Thanksgiving, apologize for any inconvenience that my eating habits may have caused her, and even extend an invitation to our house for dinner should she find herself in Philadelphia. I could cook something other than Quorn. Though you never know... it might surprise her.

Posted by april at 12:38 AM | Comments (12) | TrackBack

November 20, 2006

A Few Thoughts On The Nature of Compulsion

One of the things (among many) that Julian Dibbell got right in his New York Magazine article about CR was the difference between CR and anorexia.

First, quoting me:

"The focus of CR is health. Nobody here is trying to figure out how to eat less and disappear. The constant thought is, ‘How can I pack more nutrition into my calories?’—and that’s not something an anorexic is doing. Anorexia is slow suicide.”

It’s a heartening distinction, but I soon find myself wondering if there isn’t more truth to it than April herself, perhaps, realizes. For if anorexia is suicide, and the opposite of suicide is to fly from death, then what can its complete opposite be but to leave death behind completely?

That's an illuminating way to phrase a concept that is obvious to those of us who practice CR. CR is about life and self-love and health. It is the opposite of anorexia, which thrives on self-loathing and is a slow march towards death.

But there's another, more essential difference that escapes most people who haven't experienced either or both: anorexia is a compulsion. The anorexic feels compelled not to eat. [note: I know that it should be anorectic. I read Marya's book. But I'm going with the culture that has changed the word forever.] While the non-anorexic will sometimes sigh, "Oh, I wish I could have their discipline," the normal person doesn't realize that anorexia has nothing to do with self-discipline at all. In the same way that the overeater feels compelled to eat, the anorexic feels compelled to starve. It is as though an outside force much more powerful than the sufferer's own will has control.

The CR practitioner does not feel a *compulsion* not to eat, or to avoid certain foods, or to eat certain other foods. Rather, the CR practitioner, when faced with a decision of whether to eat this or that, makes a conscious, well-considered choice. Over time, these choices can become habits, just like flossing your teeth or making the bed in the morning. But there's a big difference between good habits that one has chosen to cultivate as a result of thoughtful decision making, and consistently giving into compulsion.

It's not that it never occurs to us to overeat, or to eat something unhelpful. Tonight at a meeting with nurses, I watched them eat pizza, onion rings and fried mozzarella, and I thought to myself, "Pre-CR, I would have found the urge to eat the pizza too much to control. I would have told myself, 'just one bite,' then I would have eaten three slices." I remember the sensation of my brain switching off while I shoveled food into my mouth. It still happens from time to time, but a lot less often, and usually with a pint of sweet grape tomatoes, not a pizza. The difference is that while we may feel a biological urge to consume fat and sugar in this or that package, we make a conscious decision not to. Then we make conscious decisions to eat foods that we enjoy that nourish our bodies. I had dinner (at a restaurant!) between meetings with a co-worker who is working on improving her diet. We asked the waitress not to bring any bread, we split steamed mussels (zinc!), ordered a grilled shrimp appetizer (I took the tails home to MR and Kieffer, since shrimp tails are their favorite treat) and we split an arugula salad. A piece of garlic toast came with the mussels, and I thought about eating it, but decided it wasn't worth the calories. Even up until very recently, I would frequently find the compulsion to eat something like the garlic toast (especially in a good restaurant, especially if I was very hungry, especially if I could rationalize it by saying that I was under a lot of stress, or had been going low on calories for a few days, or wouldn't eat much later, or whatever) too much to bear. But it's gotten so much easier, as I have learned more and consistently made choices that are in line with my long term goals. While I still sometimes eat in resturants, especially if I am on the road for work, I can consistently make better choices now than ever before, and use the opportunity to get some nutrients I am sometimes low on (like zinc) instead of using restaurant eating as an excuse to pig out against my better judgement. It remains alot easier to eat in my own house (and I find my own food tastier, as a rule) but the restaurant meal is no longer the junk fest it once was.

In our culture, making choices instead of living compulsion to compulsion is considered odd, at least where food is concerned. We are expected to eat and eat, regardless of the impact on our health. The idea that we would use food both for genuine pleasure (something very different from shoveling food into one's mouth without savoring the taste) and for nourishment is just weird. Those of us who make conscious choices about what we eat seem to constantly deal with accusations that we have a disorder, even if it's quite obvious that we're both healthy and happy. I wonder why this is.

There are other areas of life where we accept, even insist, that people resist biological compulsion. For example, most of us have a biological drive to have sex. But most of us don't go around jumping into bed with everyone we find attractive. We accept the idea of making conscious choices, even if that means defering gratification or forgoing a pleasure that we might enjoy. No one (or at least very few people) would argue that you should have sex with everyone you happen to fancy. But exercise control in what you put in your mouth food-wise, and you're doing something revolutionary.

I think the world would be a better place if people spent more time having sex and less time eating transfats, but I, like Walford, am willing to trade gluttony for lust. Even so, I make conscious choices. I don't hop into bed with every skinny geek boy I meet because a) I'm too busy b) it's all fun and games until someone's girlfriend sends you death threats over the office fax. Even though I have an extremely attractive and sexually available partner conveniently located in my own home, I can control my desire for him when he has a book deadline looming. (While I know Aubrey de Grey would approve in the abstract, I don't want to delay the dawn of radical anti-aging biomedicine because MR is too busy entertaining me to write the book!) Point being: I don't just do what I feel like doing. I make a choice.

I find that if I don't meditate and engage in the spiritual practices that have brought me great peace and joy, I once again find myself ruled by compulsions. I pour an extra glass of wine, I eat a sample at the Starbucks that I don't really want, I consume gummi worms at my mom's house, even though I've already had my calories for the day and I'm not hungry. Meditation clears the brain, and illuminates the pathways between goals and actions. That's one reason why I suggest some form of meditation, whether it be prayer, yoga, long distance running, or whatever, as part of a total healthy lifestyle. We're constantly urged to do things that aren't in our long term best interest... why not give yourself a chance, everyday, to settle down and focus on what you want? My meditation practice is a little weird (and often includes pacing the floor in circles) but it's effective.

I don't have an answer for now, just an ongoing process of discerning in my own life what I truly desire vs. what I think I want for the moment. What I truly desire is long life and extended youth. What I think I want for the moment is a piece of pizza. Over time, with work and meditation, I learn to choose a over b. Most of the time. Will the world end if I eat a piece of pizza? No. I don't experience fear about the pizza, or self-loathing if I eat it. But I do enjoy the freedom to choose, instead of being ruled by a sense of compulsion. Everyone who has ever overeaten, or eaten something he or she would have preferred, in his or her right mind, not to eat, knows the difference between freely and consciously choosing to eat something (ie, I am in a great French restaurant and have decided to try the creme brulee, so I am splitting one with two friends) vs. feeling an uncontrollable urge to shovel (ie, I am hungry and I know I have a good dinner waiting for me at home but I have to have pizza now and I can't stop the pizza from jumping into my mouth help!) Freedom is a lot more fun.

Lately, it's gotten a lot easier, for reasons that are still a mystery to me. But more on that later... MR and I are about to catch a plane to spend the holiday with my father and step-mother in North Carolina. My access to email may be limited for awhile, so don't be offended if I don't write back for a day or so!

Posted by april at 8:25 PM | Comments (15) | TrackBack

November 19, 2006

People Are Really Attached To Eating In Restaurants.

When someone's reaction seems disproportional to the stimulus, I always think to myself: The issue is not the issue. Whenever someone reacts with far more passion than seems appropriate, you have to ask yourself, "What's really going on here?"

I am always amazed at the sudden rise in blood pressure that some people seem to experience when confronted with the information that MR does not eat in restaurants.

There was a kerfuffle on the CR Society list recently. A long time member who is moderate in his own CR practice opined that MR might have an eating disorder, since he won't eat out in restaurants.

As you might expect, I wrote back, rather sharply. I mean, WTF? Since when is eating in restaurants an essential part of human existence? Excerpt from my message:

that's absurd. MR was never much of a
restaurant eater to begin with, in large part due to
money considerations. Life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is about a lot
more than eating in restaurants. I find eating in
restaurants rather dull these days, compared to the
fun of cooking for myself. Shopping at an organic
farmers' market for all sorts of heirloom varieties of
vegetables, reading cookbooks and online recipes for
new recipe ideas and adapting them in my own cooking,
then cooking a wonderful meal for my friends and
family and serving it on beautiful plates,
well-presented in my own dining room... that's much
more fun than eating in a restaurant. I still do it
from time to time, and I still enjoy it, but what I
really enjoy is the company of the people I'm with.

It's interesting how attached people seem to be to
the idea of eating in restaurants. Why is that so
important? If you enjoy it, by all means, do so. But
I don't see why anyone would consider that a necessary
part of life. Then again, there are people who can't
imagine how I can lead a full and satisfying life
without watching sports on TV.

An eating disorder is a way of eating that is
destructive to your health. Choosing to keep your
calories consistent and your nutrition optimal (not to
mention your costs low) is not an eating disorder. It
may not be your preferred way of living, but smoking
cigars is not our preferred lifestyle. We all make
choices. To quote a commenter I read on a blog
recently, "I prefer not to label things as
pathological just because I don't like them."

This garnered an even more interesting response, including the suggestion that I was simply changing my behavior to accomodate my lover, and that before long, both MR and I would end up only leaving the house every third week to get our hair done.

First, let's make one thing clear. I drive to New Jersey to get my hair done, which is far more intense than simply leaving the house.

Second, what's up with this attachment to restaurant eating? I can understand enjoying an activity so much that it would be difficult to understand why someone else doesn't also enjoy it. For instance, I love going to art museums. I love them by myself, I love them with others... I have long made a trip to the art museum an essential part of my seduction ritual. MR only barely escaped... he fell into the trap long he darkened the door of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. But even he has been treated to a complete tour of the local art museum, complete with furtive kisses in dark corners while the museum guards aren't looking. I can't imagine life, love and the pursuit of skinny boys without art museums.

But I can understand that there are people, lots of people, who don't care for art museums at all. As I wrote back to the list:

It's much simpler than all that: you and I have a
fundamental disagreement. You believe that restaurant
eating is essential to a fulfilled human existence, or
at least a very, very positive part of human
existence, so much so that life would be diminished by
not eating in restaurants. Therefore anyone who
doesn't do it must have some sort of problem
psychological or otherwise that is preventing him or
her from eating in restaurants. I suspect that no
matter what I say, you will create a pop psychology
theory as to why I would be saying it, because you
can't accept the premise that restaurant eating is not
an essential or important part of our lives.

I think restaurants can be fun and can be dull...
depends on the restaurant, the company, the mood I'm
in, etc. But I don't find them that important, and I
certainly don't think there's anything wrong with
people choosing to take their meals at home or at
other people's homes instead of in restaurants.

Now, I can't imagine living without art museums. I
would feel that my life was missing something
essential if I couldn't go to art museums anymore.
But I bet a lot of people can live without them just
fine... and even consider them a waste of time and
money. I could come up with a theory as to why
someone who doesn't want to go to the art museum with
me doesn't want to go: bad experience with art teacher
in third grade... allergy to dust that accumulates on
the art works... agorophobia that makes them afraid of
the large rooms with high ceilings and milling about
crowds. But there's a good chance that some other
people just don't much care for art museums. No
pathology required.

I have a friend who can't imagine giving up going to
the opera... I can't imagine sitting through an opera.
Taste is taste.

And my cooking tastes really good... :)

Point being: if you enjoy going to restaurants, by all means, go to them!

But for those of us who are really serious about our CR, but who also don't want to spend a lot of time in nutrient deficiency inspired wigginess with hunger, we find that eating in restaurants is often a lot more trouble than it's worth. For me, it's still fun to eat out on special occasions... like when in a few weeks I'll be taking my best friend out for his birthday at the best Italian restaurant in Philadelphia. But the fact is, I enjoy eating my own food more than I enjoy most ordinary restaurant food. And the tricks restaurants use to make us enjoy the taste -- salt, fat, sugar -- are all quite counterproductive from a CR perspective.

Now don't get me wrong... I'm not telling you to avoid eating in restaurants. Do what you want to do, and if that's eating in restaurants, by all means, have at. What alarms me is the ferociousness with which those who eat in restaurants attack those who do not. How can this possibly be so important? It reminds me of how my Red Sox-obsessed ex-boyfriend Phil (who later went on to run Bernie Sanders' successful Senate campaign) was existentially distraught at the idea that I just didn't care about baseball. To him, baseball was an essential part of life. If I didn't love baseball, he wasn't sure he could love me.

Food is, as we all know, an extremely emotional issue. Where, how, what and with whom we choose to eat is always going to be a hot button for most. I can understand how someone who was actually in the restaurant business could be very upset by the idea that some people *never* eat in restaurants. If there get to be too many of those people, the restaurant industry would lose profit. But no one really thinks that the ranks of non-restaurant eaters will swell to levels that will threaten the restaurant economy.

I can also understand why people whose social life has revolved around eating in restaurants *with me* could be threatened by the fact that my boyfriend doesn't eat out. If we were the kind of couple who was joined at the hip, refusing to do anything as separate individuals, then MR's infrequent restaurant eating could translate into a dramatic change in my behavior. As it is, I am eating less when I go to restaurants, but I still go out with my friends. And none of that explains why people who don't hang out with us, including people who have never even met us, are very, very upset that MR doesn't eat out.

I could spin a whole lot of pop psychology-inspired theories about why this might be, but I think I'll open the floor to my readers. What do you think is up?

Posted by april at 6:58 PM | Comments (20) | TrackBack

Very Few People Have The Same Rapturous Relationship With Brussels Sprouts That You Do

MR and I were discussing an article by Allister Crowley called "Excited Enthusiasm" today over lunch. I've never read it, but MR informed me that it discusses the uses of alcohol, drugs, and sex to achieve higher (or at least altered) levels of consciousness. As MR was making the list of substances Crowley employed to these purposes, I inserted "brussles sprouts?"

"Very few people have the same rapturous relationship with brussels sprouts that you do," he said.

It's true. I doubt that very many people are having ecstatic experiences with brussels sprouts. But considering the importance of cruciferous vegetables in my diet and the availability of fresh, petite brussels sprouts at the Allentown Farmers' Market, it's no surprise that I've lately reached brussels sprout nirvana. I like them just plain, steamed with a bit of my Austrailian extra virgin olive oil.

Tonight I'm going to make MR a brussels sprout dish, and I can't quite think yet of what to make. If anyone is around and reading before 6:00 pm, send me your favorite low-calorie brussels sprout recipe, and maybe I'll make it for dinner!

Posted by april at 3:13 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

November 18, 2006

And He Thought We Were Weird...

I just heard an interview on NPR's "Fresh Air" with Julian Dibbell, the journalist who wrote the article about CR in New York Magazine.

He did a great job on the interview... after my recent fit of media appearances, I'm developing intense admiration for anyone who can sound reasonable, articulate and charming when dealing with the media. His latest book, Play Money, is about the year he spent making money by selling objects that do not exist to people who want to buy them. Apparently he wins stuff playing an online game, and then sells the stuff (magic rings, lizard skins, etc.) on eBay to other online players who want them.

I think that's pretty cool. I was even inspired to get myself a (free) Second Life account. Maybe I can hang out with Mary there.

I'll have to read Julian's book (after I finish reading MR's book, of course!) Selling objects that don't actually exist... what a creative way to make a living. And I thought my job was unusual.

I wonder if I can score an autographed copy.

Posted by april at 8:01 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Pumpkin Apple Curry

This is one of those pick-your-own-protein dishes. I made mine with Quorn tenders and eggwhites, but you could easily make it with chicken, turkey, tofu, seitan, shrimp, scallops or some other fish. The basic idea is as follows:

-- Make a half cup veggie broth, preferably the no salt added kind.

-- Take a half cup pumpkin (canned, not pumpkin pie mix, no salt) and dissolve it in the broth.

-- Add a medium sized apple, well chopped

-- Add your protein source

-- Cook on medium high until cooked through, allowing the apple juices to seep into the pumpkin and the protein. Add curry powder to taste, garlic if you wish.

-- Add a teaspoon flax oil or olive oil after removing from heat. Serve either alone or with a green side dish such as broccoli, asparagus or cooked brussels sprouts.

Posted by april at 12:52 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

November 16, 2006

Endurance Sports and CR

F asks about the compatibility of endurance sports with CR. Here is a link to a entry I wrote about exercise and CR.

As with everything, it's a matter of degree and your priorities. If your absolute number one priority is maximizing your lifespan, endurance sports are a waste of calories because you have to eat more to do them. While most everyone on CR does some kind of exercise for bone health, cardiovascular health, and stress reduction, doing much more than that *if your number one priority is life-extension* is not a wise use of your calories. However, if you're an endurance athelete but you want to take advantage of the benefits of moderate CR, especially in terms of disease avoidance and increased energy, you could adjust your calories to accomodate your workouts. A friend of mine who is a marathon runner cuts his calories way back during non-training time of the year, and increases them while he's training for his annual marathon. He told me that by learning how to track calories and maximize nutrition while minimizing empty calories, he felt he had improved his running performance. Do others have suggestions?

Since my priority is slowing my aging process, my exercise goals are entirely focused on that. I do light weight lifting for bone health, fast treadmill walking for cardio health and stress reduction, and the occasional run for the bus or subway for public transport effectiveness maximization (aka not missing the bus!) I've never been into sports anyway, so it's no sacrifice. My friend Kenton does very hard core CR while surfing something like two hours a day, but he is extremely careful about both his calories and nutrition and has spent years working up to the level he's at right now.

As with everything, we make different choices based on our different goals and the limitations of our lifestyles. The longer I do CR, the more I find that my choices are based on an estimation of what will help me stay as young as I can for as long as I can. That doesn't mean I don't occasionally make a suboptimal choice, either by design (planned and saved up for high calorie dinner at best restaurant in Philly) or by accident (ate a delicious and CR friendly dinner of lump crab meat and brussels sprouts at my mother's house last night, then was attacked by a gummy worm that demanded I eat it.) But overall, I'm finding the day to day advantages of being low on calories but very high in nutrition to be more than worth forgoing it.

Posted by april at 12:26 PM | Comments (14) | TrackBack

November 14, 2006

Calcium Cravings

A lot of CR folk report that once we start eating right, we find ourselves craving healthy foods when we don't get enough of them. Whether it's awareness, the body getting in tune with its needs, or just delusion, feeling like you really want a food your body needs is great. I definitely find that to be the case. I was low on calcium yesterday because I went out for lunch with my co-workers and so missed my cup of nonfat plain organic yogurt at lunch. Sure enough, today I went calcium crazy.

So far today I've had my quotidian breakfast, my regular salad for lunch with a cup of yogurt, plus 200 calories of almonds and ANOTHER TWO CUPS of yogurt! Oh they tasted so good! Just finished a megamuffin for a quick snack/early dinner before running out to another meeting. I may eat a bit more tonight when I get home late, as I'm under calories (my average is 1300 or so,) but yesterday was a bit high (as restaurant eating days invariably are) so if I go under today, it's fine to balance out.

More answers to comments and questions soon! Been very busy, but will write more when I can.

Today's crunch:

Nutrition Summary for November 14, 2006
General (67%)
Energy 965.6 kcal 48%
Protein 89.1 g 178%
Fat 31.3 g 48%
Carbs 100.1 g 33%
Fiber 24.5 g 98%
Water 1078.1 g 72%
Vitamins (90%)
Vitamin A 7480.2 IU 249%
Folate 375.4 mcg 94%
B1 (Thiamine) 2.3 mg 196%
B2 (Riboflavin) 5.0 mg 383%
B3 (Niacin) 19.6 mg 122%
B5 (Pantothenic Acid) 7.5 mg 150%
B6 (Pyridoxine) 2.1 mg 121%
B12 (Cyanocobalamin) 4.5 mcg 190%
Vitamin C 116.3 mg 129%
Vitamin D 6.2 IU 2%
Vitamin E 12.0 mg 80%
Vitamin K 301.1 mcg 251%
Minerals (96%)
Calcium 1682.6 mg 140%
Copper 2.2 mg 240%
Iron 10.0 mg 126%
Magnesium 447.8 mg 107%
Manganese 3.7 mg 162%
Phosphorus 1785.8 mg 255%
Potassium 4180.7 mg 89%
Selenium 149.4 mcg 272%
Sodium 870.7 mg 67%
Zinc 13.9 mg 126%
Lipids (13%)
Saturated 3.1 g 15%
Cholesterol 31.5 g 10%

Posted by april at 6:06 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

November 12, 2006

Today's Nutrition Report

Energy 1161.0 kcal 58%
Protein 49.7 g 99%
Fat 32.6 g 50%
Carbs 130.1 g 43%
Fiber 36.6 g 146%
Water 1371.1 g 91%
Vitamins (90%)
Vitamin A 14649.8 IU 488%
Folate 636.5 mcg 159%
B1 (Thiamine) 2.0 mg 167%
B2 (Riboflavin) 2.6 mg 201%
B3 (Niacin) 17.3 mg 108%
B5 (Pantothenic Acid) 5.1 mg 103%
B6 (Pyridoxine) 2.2 mg 131%
B12 (Cyanocobalamin) 1.8 mcg 73%
Vitamin C 283.1 mg 315%
Vitamin D 20.6 IU 5%
Vitamin E 15.7 mg 105%
Vitamin K 575.1 mcg 479%
Minerals (95%)
Calcium 948.5 mg 79%
Copper 1.8 mg 199%
Iron 14.7 mg 184%
Magnesium 450.5 mg 107%
Manganese 5.2 mg 225%
Phosphorus 1383.2 mg 198%
Potassium 4312.9 mg 92%
Selenium 59.6 mcg 108%
Sodium 1531.2 mg 118%
Zinc 8.7 mg 80%
Lipids (12%)
Saturated 3.4 g 17%
Cholesterol 22.8 g 8%

A very low calorie day for me... I was feeling exhausted from our whrilwind road trip. Breakfast was an April megamuffin, 209 calories, lunch was supposed to be brussels sprout soup with farmers' market brussels in Trader Joe's nonfat free range organic low sodium chicken broth with 1 tbsp Lewis Labs brewers yeast. (Brewers yeast, btw, is totally different from baking yeast. It has tons of nutrition, and can often be bought in the supplement aisle. Lewis Labs is the only brand that tastes good, IMO.) with a salad of romaine and grape tomatoes and part of my 200 calorie per day almond allowance (look at that Vitamin E!) I only ate half the soup, so I recycled it at dinner and turned it into cream of brussels sprout by mixing a cup of organic nonfat plain yogurt and some flax oil. It was quite delicious that way. I also had a blueberry snack (50 calories) while we were baking megamuffins, and we both had farmers' market apples for dessert, mine plain with Walden Farms calorie-free caramel sauce, MR's in a nonfat ricotta parfait with cinnamon, caramel, hazelnuts, and flax oil. I had an extra small glass of wine with dinner, a Chairman's Selection red that we picked up at the state store. Because the state of Pennsylvania is the largest wholesale buyer of wine in the world, they can get amazing deals on bottles of wine that I shouldn't be able to afford to drink, so I watch the Chairman's selection sales on reds very closely. Hence the excess carbs in the overall very low calorie day... more fruit than usual, and an extra four ounces of really good red wine. To Dr. Sinclair, and his little mice!

For lunch I made MR a cauliflower and kale stems stew with low sodium soy sauce and ginger, plus eggwhites for protein. Since the eggwhites take on the flavor of whatever you put them in, even more so than tofu, you can throw them into anything to up the protein without altering the taste. I especially like to do this with vegetable dishes made with fresh farmers' market veggies, since I want to focus on the vegetable taste in the dish and not have it diluted by meat flavor.

For dinner I made MR an asparagus and shiitake mushroom soup with farmers' market small fresh onions, with my Rapunzel no salt added organic veggie broth as the base. Eggwhites stirred in for protein, apple parfait for dessert.

It's applemania around here, and I'm taking a whole new crop of Farmers' Market apples to work to share with the gang. Later in the week I'll make some kind of nice apple dessert. I'm thinking of an apple dessert baked in the juice of fresh oranges with tons of spices (no nutmeg!) Ricotta "whipped cream" on top. You could call it Apples-n-Oranges. Or maybe I'll buy another bottle of port to bake the apples in with cinnamon, the way you make port poached pears. The possibilities are endless, but apple season, alas, is not, so I'd better eat apples while I can!

Posted by april at 8:07 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Join This Email List And Find The Love Of Your Life*

Heather asks for the email list for the CR Society. I think this will work.

Try here.

*Results not typical.

Posted by april at 9:21 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 11, 2006

Good Nutrition on the Run

Today is a road trip and we don't know what food will be available where, so we're packing our own. I'm going with simple because I don't like to mess with my food a lot when I travel... if I'm not eating something fairly compact, I end up with it all over my sweater. So I'm packing 2 megamuffins, April size and style (that's 209 cals and savory, made with veggies instead of fruit and savory spices instead of sweet), my usual salad but with no toppings (I'll just eat it out of the container) and 200 calories of almonds. I know there's a Starbucks on the way, so I'm going to stop for a nonfat latte to up my calcium and B vitamins (and because I love them, and haven't had one in awhile!) Saving room for a glass of wine at the end of the day.

Here's the crunch for today. Never let it be said that you can't get good nutrition on the run.

Energy 1211.9 kcal 61%
Protein 81.8 g 164%
Fat 40.2 g 62%
Carbs 112.9 g 38%
Fiber 32.6 g 130%
Water 1494.3 g 100%
Vitamins (88%)
Vitamin A 8325.4 IU 278%
Folate 439.0 mcg 110%
B1 (Thiamine) 2.2 mg 182%
B2 (Riboflavin) 3.9 mg 298%
B3 (Niacin) 20.8 mg 130%
B5 (Pantothenic Acid) 6.6 mg 132%
B6 (Pyridoxine) 2.1 mg 122%
B12 (Cyanocobalamin) 1.4 mcg 60%
Vitamin C 121.4 mg 135%
Vitamin D 12.3 IU 3%
Vitamin E 13.9 mg 93%
Vitamin K 300.1 mcg 250%
Minerals (93%)
Calcium 928.8 mg 77%
Copper 2.0 mg 220%
Iron 14.4 mg 180%
Magnesium 504.1 mg 120%
Manganese 6.2 mg 268%
Phosphorus 1657.2 mg 237%
Potassium 3682.1 mg 78%
Selenium 109.4 mcg 199%
Sodium 1016.9 mg 78%
Zinc 10.4 mg 95%
Lipids (19%)
Saturated 4.7 g 23%
Cholesterol 40.8 g 14%

A little low on calcium, so I'll get some extra tomorrow. And of course I supplement.

Posted by april at 8:36 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

November 10, 2006

Stegosaurus Cauliflower

At the Allentown Farmers' Market on Thursday morning, I came across a variety of cauliflower that I'd never seen before. It's called Veronica cauliflower, and you can see it here.
To me, it looks like a stegosaurus. What do you think?

Anyhow, I brought it home and cooked it (I can bring home the cauliflower...) and it was delicious. Last night we ate it with dinner just steamed with flax oil. Tonight, for MR, I made it as the base for a "spaghetti" dish: one where I make a traditional tomato sauce, the kind you would put over pasta, but instead put it over a low calorie vegetable. Here's how to make this one:

-- Take 2 oz dry red wine. Bring 64 grams of onion, or thereabouts, diced, to boil in the wine. Add 60 g shiitake mushrooms. Stir in 50 cals (in this case, using Muir Glen organic, that's one half cup) tomato sauce. Mix and simmer for approx 1/2 hour. Add 1 tablespoon capers.
-- I steamed the cauliflower for 2 mins, plus 260 g eggwhites to bump up the protein. Settled them both into a dish, the added a few dashes of oregano. Then I covered with the tomato sauce, and topped with a fourth cup of nonfat ricotta, separated into four tablespoons. On top of that I placed 100 cals of black olives, artistically arranged. Add 1 teaspoon flax oil. Serve piping hot!

MR loved it, and I loved watching him enjoy it. Cooking, for me, is an art in itself, divorced from eating. I enjoy eating what I cook, and I enjoy cooking things for others that I don't eat. To me, it's like being a painter. I might paint a beautiful picture that I want to hang in my bedroom and look at every morning when I wake up. But I might also paint an amazing picture and sell it, or give it away. The fact that I'm not staring at it doesn't diminish its artistic value, or the pleasure I get from the process of creation.

It often doesn't make sense for me to eat the same thing that MR is eating. I am ten inches shorter than he, and I have different calorie requirements. So I'll frequently make him a dinner and make myself something totally diffterent. Tonight was an example. I made him the dinner I described above, then I ate my salad (that he made this morning) with nonfat plain organic yogurt, salsa, olive and flax oil, and a whole whack of almonds. I loved my dinner, he loved his. They don't have to be identical for us to enjoy the experience of sitting down at a beautiful table to a delicious meal that is satisfying on every level, from the cellular on up.

Here's my nutritional crunch for the day. I realized late that I should have more almonds and cut back on the olive oil, but it was too late! MR had already added my Australian olive oil to my salad. So I'm a bit low in Vitamin E. Will remedy that with more almonds tomorrow. My D is low, but so is everyone's. I supplement with 1000 IU per day.

Nutrition Summary for November 10, 2006
General (71%)
Energy 1050.8 kcal 53%
Protein 66.7 g 133%
Fat 36.7 g 57%
Carbs 86.9 g 29%
Fiber 21.9 g 87%
Water 1580.0 g 105%
Vitamins (85%)
Vitamin A 8851.4 IU 295%
Folate 311.8 mcg 78%
B1 (Thiamine) 1.6 mg 134%
B2 (Riboflavin) 3.5 mg 270%
B3 (Niacin) 15.4 mg 97%
B5 (Pantothenic Acid) 5.6 mg 112%
B6 (Pyridoxine) 1.6 mg 96%
B12 (Cyanocobalamin) 1.8 mcg 74%
Vitamin C 115.7 mg 129%
Vitamin D 6.2 IU 2%
Vitamin E 10.8 mg 72%
Vitamin K 312.8 mcg 261%
Minerals (92%)
Calcium 962.0 mg 80%
Copper 1.6 mg 180%
Iron 11.1 mg 139%
Magnesium 358.6 mg 85%
Manganese 3.8 mg 165%
Phosphorus 1282.8 mg 183%
Potassium 3451.0 mg 73%
Selenium 99.4 mcg 181%
Sodium 1289.1 mg 99%
Zinc 9.4 mg 86%
Lipids (15%)
Saturated 4.3 g 21%
Cholesterol 24.7 g 8%

Here's what I ate:

Usual breakfast of 1 cup eggwhites scrambled and topped with 1 nonfat cheddar single, 1 tbsp brewers yeast, and 1 teaspoon flax oil. coffee.

Lunch: megamuffin, grape tomatoes

Dinner: salad (kale, napa, tomato, green pepper) topped with 50 cals black olives, 1 cup nonfat plain organic yogurt, 20 cals salsa, 1 tsp flax, 1 tsp olive, 17 g hazelnuts on side. 8 oz red wine.

Hmmm... I forgot to add my wheat bran, which has five cals but a ton of fiber. Also, I use a dash of half salt which would put me over the RDA on potassium, as it is made of same.

1050 is low for me, but I'm making up for a high Wednesday night dinner with co-workers. Soon I'll go back in the 1200 neighborhood.

Tomorrow: weekly Whole Foods trip, followed by a road trip to visit some friends in Baltimore. I will be very glad to have my megamuffins to pack for road food!

In other news, I've decided to start mixing organic nonfat milk with my coffee, to add to my B vitamins and calcium. In doing searches for good sources of same, that's what I came up with, and it's easy to buy and store.

Off to bed... more long nights lie ahead!

Posted by april at 8:22 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

A Caution About How To Interpret Evidence

Hi Cori... welcome, glad you're enjoying the blog, and you're invited to post links to articles you find helpful or interesting anytime! Thanks for chiming in. I hope to soon figure out a way to set up reader forums so readers can "talk" with each other more easily and more often.

I wouldn't describe myself as anti-soy: I eat it at least once a month, and often more. But I do have it on my list of caution foods, foods I eat sometimes but not daily, due to concerns about long term brain effects from consuming large amounts. We all make decisions based on our understanding of the evidence and how much risk we're willing to take to consume a certain food. I don't love tofu enough to take the risk for more than once or twice a month. If you don't think there's a risk, or you do, but it's a risk you're willing to take, then by all means, eat up! Just be sure to try my wonderful tomato tofu recipe on at least one occasion! Even non-tofu lovers love it.

Speaking of the Okinawans, it occurred to me that I should post a post that MR made to the CR Society list a few months ago. Not being a scientist, I have often found myself confused by the seemingly contradictory messages we get about what is a healthy diet and what is not. I found this post helpful in considering various kinds of "evidence," especially in getting to the facts behind a big media story.

Here 'tis -- hope the embedded dialogue (it's from a mailing list) isn't too confusing. He was responding to a question about the China Study, which is oft-quoted, and gets into detail about various kinds of evidence further down. Don't take the groucy tone of the message personally... he was responding on-list to someone who had raised this question many times and gotten the same answer many times over the years... if one of my readers asked him such a question, he would answer in a much warmer tone, I promise! So ignore the grouchiness but follow the reasoning because at least I find it very important to how I evaluate things I hear or read.

All typos are MR's!

To reiterate: the China Study was crummy, population-comparison
ecological crap, not proper prospective epidemiology. In a real
prospective epidemiological study, you take a group of individuals and
ask each of them INDIVIDUALLY about hir dietary and other exposures at
time X, and then follow them all up for several years and see their
health outcomes; then, you correlate specific exposures to specific
outcomes. If you see such correelations (eg, people who consumed more
cooked tomato products were less likely to develop aggressive prostate
cancer), then because you have a range of other information about EACH
of these people as INDIVIDUALS, you can double-check for false positives
on an individual-by-individual basis: eg, you can say, "were cooked
tomato product users mostly of Italian descent (possible genetic
influence)? Were they less likely to smoke, or eat a lot of saturated
fat? Did they tend to have their cooked tomato products with salads, or
eat more vegetables generally?" Etc. The combination of a prospective
design and the existence of a range of info about EACH PERSON'S
lifestyle gives such studies great power to test for real causal
connections -- not definitive proof, but strong evidence.

The China study was not prospective epidemiology, but an "ecological"
study, which aggregates entire populations. That is, they looked at how
much meat was consumed in an ENTIRE PROVINCE, and the rates of heart
disease in the province AS A WHOLE, and then compared the two variables
in another province; if provinces with more meat consumption also have
more heart disease, they inferred that meat causes heart disease. As
I've often harped in the past, these kinds of studies are MEANINGLESS.
The Japanese smoke more than the Americans; they also die less of lung
cancer. That doesn't mean that smoking is protective against lung cancer
-- and you can prove this with proper, prospective epidemiology, because
WITHIN *either one* of those populations, INDIVIDUALS who smoke at time
X are more likely to die of lung cancer several years down the road.

I hate to be a grouch, but I've said this many, many times before, and
I''m very tired of repeating myself; it's very frustrating go through
endless iterations of this on the List, as not only newcomers but folks
who have been on the List for YEARS continue to take these kinds of
bullshit studies seriously. One such exchange, slightly edited:

-----------
http://lists.milepost1.com/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0107&L=crsociety&P=R6850

"Name edited out" wrote:
> > > How come [the Okinawans] (who eat lots of
> > > soy) have lower rates of dementia, ...???

and

> I still fail to understand why more Okinawans don't have dementia
> (CR or no CR) if there's a link between it and soy. You say that
> such statistics are meaningless,

MR responded:

Right. Again: your line of reasoning is:

"They" say that soy causes dementia. Yet the Okinawans eat more soy than
the Japanese or North Americans, and have LOWER rates of dementia than
people from those groups. Therefore, clearly, soy does not cause dementia.

But the same logic applies all over the place, in places wehre it
clearly ain't so, as eg:

"They" say that smoking causes lung cancer deaths. Yet the Japanese
smoke more cigarettes than North Americans, and have LOWER rates of lung
cancer death. Therefore, clearly, smoking does not cause lung cancer death.

"They" say that dairy is protective against osteoporosis and fractures.
Yet many Asian cultures consume less dairy than North Americans, and
have LOWER rates of osteoporosis and fractures. Therefore, clearly,
dairy is not protective against osteoporosis and fractures.

The problem is that you CAN'T meaningfully isolate any one such factor
out of 2 aggregated populations and even begin to make causal
connections. Otherwise, you can pick any damned difference you like, and
point to it the factor causing any other damned difference that you
like. Eg: "The Chinese play more ping-pong than North Americans, and
they have a lower rate of heart disease than North Americans. Thus,
ping-pong is highly protective against heart disease." "The Japanese get
more stomach cancer than do North Americans, and they consume more green
tea. Thus, green tea cannot possibly be protective against stomach
cancer, and indeed, may CAUSE stomach cancer." ETC ETC.

You have to look WITHIN a cultural pattern, and see whether, WITHIN that
cultural pattern, INDIVIDUAL PEOPLE who do more X get less Y. If someone
will point me to a study in which individual Okinawans who consume more
soy get no more dementia than individual Okinawans who consume less,
after adjusting for education, income, occupation, age, and other
obvious covariates, then THAT will be interesting data. This just ain't.
----------

The same points are made in more formal fashion a webpage from the FDA,
of which I've appended edited sections at the end of this email; and
also, tho' in inadequate explication, here (note that study designs are
listed in order from strongest to weakest):

http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/courses-jmgay/GlossClinStudy.htm

> the New York Times called it "the
> Grand Prix of Epidemiology."

The NYT is not a source of scientific evidence and shouldn't be treated
as one. And to make an important niggle: I guarantee that "the NYT" did
not say this; rather, some writer who happened to get an article
published IN the NYT said that in hir article. Evidently, the writer was
not a scientist (or perhaps s/he was a chemist, a geologist, or some
other scientist who would have no reason to have an understanding of
epidemiological study design -- cf the citing of "scientists" who don't
believe that anthropogenic C02 emissions are causing climate change who
have no actual background in climatology).

Back to me: rest of the message snipped because it doesn't directly relate to topic at hand.

MR is a lot snippier than I am online (which is odd, because anyone who knows us well -- and you know who you are -- will relate that I am much more snippy in real life and he is much, much sweeter!) but I think his examples make the point pretty well. We can't judge from broad observations about an entire population what we personally should do. We can, however, learn quite a bit from good epidemiology in which individuals were followed over a period of time and confounding factors were controlled for (to the extent possible.) And we can learn even more from clinical trials.

I know that in my intitial year of CR, I found it both frustrating and fun to sift through mountains of information to come up with what I thought was a healthy way of eating that would fit my lifestyle. I hope my readers have more fun than frustration, and please feel free to use the blog as a forum to exchange ideas!

Posted by april at 6:19 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

Eat Almonds For Vitamin E

I just found this page here.

Neato mosquito!

I knew I was onto something with those almonds...

Posted by april at 10:01 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

November 9, 2006

When Great Restaurants Happen To Good People

Yesterday was an example of a day when nearly everything that can go wrong, does go wrong.

I ate my nice eggwhite, flax oil, brewers yeast, nonfat cheese, and hot sauce breakfast in the morning, and set off for Scranton with my co-worker Susan and a megamuffin in my purse. (to be clear, Susan was in the passenger seat of my car, not in my purse.) At lunchish time, we stopped at a PA turnpike stop and I got some mustard at the fixins bar to put on my megamuffin, which I ate in the car. 209 calories, 20.9% of the RDA of everything. Planned to finish my lunch off with a Subway Club salad once we got to our destination.

We pulled up to the gas station with the Subway inside it. Closed. Under construction. No lights, cones blocking off the parking lot.

No salad.

No worries, thought I. I've just had a megamuffin, and we'll have an early dinner at around 4:30 at the Ruby Tuesday's. Besides, Luke had purchased a vegetable tray and a fruit tray to serve at the meetings, so I chowed down on celery, grape tomatoes, melon and blueberries as a snack.

Then Edward announced that we would all be going out after the last meeting for dinner to celebrate the election victories of the night before. Going out to one of my favorite restaurants on earth. Therefore, no one was to eat until after the last meeting, which would end shortly after 8 pm.

Hmmmm. Part of my CR philosophy is to allow space for such celebratory dinners at wonderful restaurants that serve high quality food. I plan for them, and I eat less for a few days in preparation. I'm making these meals out less and less frequent, but I don't think I'd ever want to give them up. So theoretically, I was fine. But I hadn't planned for this surprise celebration by saving up calories, and while I was under from the missing Subway Club at lunch, I wasn't *that* much under.

So here's what I did: I rejoiced in heavenly bliss when the waiter announced that the catch of the day was sea scallops served over steamed seasonal vegetables! I ordered that, with a spinach salad as an appetizer. We shared three desserts between five people, so I had a bit of dessert but not much.

Not a nutritional disaster, but over calories, so I'll be going lower for the next few days to make up for it. It's about the average, in the end, so a night or two out won't kill me... as long as I bounce right back.

Posted by april at 7:05 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 8, 2006

More Photogenic Food

On Monday we did a photo shoot for a UK magazine, Grazia. As always, they wanted to photograph one of our dinners, so I cooked up a variation on my favorite shrimp dish. Here's what I made:

shrimp cooked in white wine with garlic, cilantro, broccoli, grape tomatoes, and mango chunks, topped with avocado slics. pinot noir. 500 calories for total meal for me, 639 for MR.

It was a very beautiful, colorful plate. The trick with these photo shoots, I find, is to put all the food on the same dish. Otherwise, you run the risk of the media editing out a large portion of the meal to make us look a lot weirder than we are. The CNN piece edited out a huge dessert, choosing instead to focus on a small salad. I learned my lesson.

We really enjoyed working with the New York photographer they sent, Christopher McClallen. They even sent a make up artist, Maco (didn't catch her last name) who turned out to be a huge fan both of live cats (and now one of Kieffer's best friends) and of Hello Kitty. Needless to say, we got along quite well.

Here's how you make the shrimp dish:

Take 1.5 oz of a dry white wine and bring it to a low boil in a shallow pot. Add broccoli, stir. Add shrimp and tomatoes. When shrimp are pink and cooked, throw in the mango chunks (frozen is fine) and cilantro. Serve on its own or over a bed of greens, like arugula. I think it's fun to drink red wine with dishes that are cooked in white, so feel free to mix and match, but since you shouldn't be cooking with a wine unless you would drink it, you might just have a glass of the white with the meal.

I didn't put in amounts of the ingredients because that depends on your specific calorie and nutritional needs. I had 150 g shrimp, 107 g broccoli, 133 g tomatoes and 44 g mango. Cilantro should be to taste, as some people want more than others.

For those who have a cilantro problem, this dish can be done without the cilantro, or you could add a fruit or other salsa, like we do when we make Mango Shrimp 625.

If you don't like shrimp, you could do this dish with scallops, chicken, tofu, or even eggwhites!

Posted by april at 5:44 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack

November 7, 2006

A Day In The Life

I am thinking that since I have so many new readers (welcome!) I should go back to posting my food every day, so you get a sense of what a happy, busy CR girl eats.

Today was election day here, and two very exciting things happened:

-- MR and I voted together! It was very cute.

-- I came home to find that MR had made my favorite dish, low carb CR'd Zone perfect pizza!

Here was my day:

pre-breakfast: (upon waking at 5 am)
Shot of unsweetened cranberry juice (the kind that is too tart to drink straight) in cup of Diet Dr. Pepper, to give a glucose push to my morning supplements: Strontium Support, Vegetarian Booster, Cran-UTI (all by AOR)

breakfast:
1 cup eggwhites scrambled topped with 1 teaspoon flax oil, 1 tablespoon Lewis Labs Brewers Yeast, and a dash of Whole Foods Organic Hot Sauce
Starbucks Cafe Estima Fair Trade Coffee
Supplements: Multibasics, I-3C (fights cervical dysplasia) all AOR

between breakfast and lunch:
the Sencha green tea that MR makes me, packed in a giant thermos and iced, so it's kinda Southern green tea
supplements: IP-6, Inositol (I was feeling a bit exhausted from the travel, and this is a little supplement cocktail that MR makes me when I feel like I need an immune boost)

lunch:
salad of green kale, purple kale, napa cabbage, tomatoes, and bell pepper, topped with 3/4 cup Trader Joe's nonfat cottage cheese, plus 1 teaspoon of Trader Joe's awesome Austrailan olive oil, 50 cals (30 g) of black olives, and a tablespoon of Walden Farms sundried tomato Italian salad dressing
Poland Spring seltzer water
supplements: CoQ, folic acid, C (for immune boost)

between lunch and dinner:
Green tea, Tzao brand Zen
more water
supplements: B complex, zinc, C (all immune boosters)
lysine and Vegetarian Booster (normal between meal supplements)

dinner:
MR's CR'd pizza! Two Trader Joe's no transfats low carb low cal whole wheat tortillas topped with no salt tomato paste (organic from Muir Glen), eggplant, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, bell pepper, shiitake mushrooms, and nonfat mozzarella. teaspoon of flax oil added upon removing from heat
8 oz glass of wine
supplements: Orthominerals (contains calcium), vitamin D, Multi-basics AOR multi, C (for immune boost -- I don't normally take much C as my diet is *way* more than adequate)

total calories for the day: 1252

It was so exciting to come home to CR pizza... we've had a very stressful few months, and having my favorite dinner was just the treat I needed.

Tomorrow I'm off to Scranton for a series of meetings. I'll have my regular breakfast at home, then I'm packing one of my savory megamuffins for the car (209 calories, 20.9% of the RDA of every essential nutrient!) Once we get there I should be able to grab a Subway Club salad to round out my lunch (150 in the salad, and I try to eat 350 calories or more for lunch, so perfect!) I should be able to recruit the work gang to go to the RT (that's blog slang for Ruby Tuesday's, a great place to get food on the road and home of both an excellent salad bar and a calorie controlled menu). In addition to the excellent salad, they have some quite decent chicken dishes. I am now recalling that they may even have a tilapia... ever since MR's mom taught me how to cook this fabulous fish, I've been craving another tilapia meal.

Finding road food that is healthy and fits within your calorie budget is a big challenge for many of us who do CR, or those who just want to lose some weight and feel better. I've found that between a megamuffin in my purse and the near ubiquity of Subways, I can do pretty well.

I'm off to bed soon... still tired from our whirlwind weekend in Boston, and my nineteen year old calico kept me up a good deal of the night meowing for more petting. That happens when I've been gone. Since she is about 120 in people years, she gets whatever she wants. I can only hope to do so well at a species-equivalent age.

Posted by april at 8:16 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

How To Start CR

Welcome new readers! With all the press attention CR has been getting lately, this question has come up a lot. Here is a link to an entry I wrote about how to start CR. I hope it's helpful, and I'll write more asap!

Posted by april at 11:46 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

CR on Today!

In the theme of CR publicity, the Today Show did an interview with Paul and Meredith of the CR Society this morning, and their correspondent wrote an excellent article on the topic. Read it here.

One cau