This post has practically nothing to do with travel, and everything to do with food. Now that I've "settled down" for a couple of months, I'd like to take the opportunity to talk about my constant obsession with cooking and food, rather than simply updating you on my travels and tossing in a memorable meal or two every now and then.
As some of you probably know, I embarked on a massive lifestyle overhaul in 2014, with the initial goal of losing a bunch of weight. As the year progressed, I learned more and more about nutrition, dieting, and fitness- more than I ever thought I would, in some ways to the point of obsession. Losing weight became my hobby- I was reading books, articles, and blogs; weighing myself every week, tracking every step I took or workout I completed, and counting every calorie I consumed- for eleven months. It was a pretty crazy journey, and I haven't made the time to reflect on it, so today, with all the time in the world, I figure I'd jump on it.
When I first started out in January, I made a goal of losing 40 pounds in 8 months- it seemed attainable to me, and it meant a long term commitment. I started logging all my meals on MyFitnessPal, bought a Fitbit, and became overly conscious of every morsel I put in my mouth, and every step I took.
In the beginning I was just focused on eating less, not necessarily on what I was eating. So, it was oatmeal with skim milk and brown sugar for breakfast, half a can Progresso soup and a salad with a tablespoon of Annie's dressing for lunch, and a filet of salmon with some peas and soy sauce for dinner, and a Skinnycow ice cream bar for dessert. Or two eggs for breakfast, a bag of baby carrots and a Lund's frozen soup for lunch, and half a chicken breast and quinoa for dinner. I bought a food scale (the first of several, as they kept crapping out on me) and started weighing every single thing I cooked with and ate. I was limiting myself to 1200 calories a day for almost a month. I remember at least one Saturday I ate nothing but chocolate and chocolate pudding all day, but hey, I was within 1200 calories, right? Eventually I added more calories to my days, but in the beginning it was pretty rough.
In February I bought a Fitbit, and started tracking my physical exercise. The cool thing about Fitbit is that it syncs your activity to MyFitnessPal, so I was "earning" calories based on how active I was. I would take "stair breaks" during my work days to walk up and down the eight flights of stairs in my office building, I'd ramble around the block before driving to work, until it got warm enough that I could walk to work (about 3 miles). I was earning more calories, and eating more food (yay!). In March I bought a pair of running shoes, and attempted to jog to the Stone Arch Bridge (about a mile from my apartment). I had to stop about two blocks in and walk, but I kept going- jog, walk, jog, walk- until I made it back. Then, I started jogging a couple of times a week. I bought a Fitbit Aria WiFi scale and started weighing myself every Friday morning, with the results automatically sent to my phone.
In March I visited a nutritionist to make sure I was doing this "right"- she gave me some tips on high and low glycemic foods, and how they affect your hunger throughout the day. At her suggestion, I read about the Volumetrics diet and started incorporating a shit ton of veggies into my meals- the theory there is to eat less calorie dense foods, and larger quantities of food that contained small amounts of calories. Helloooo vegetables. I think this is the part where I started cooking a lot more with fresh produce, making stir frys, or sauteed veggies with chicken. I had also realized that cooking allowed me to be in complete control of what I was eating- I could measure out exactly how much oil or meat or whatnot to use, and know exactly what I was logging instead of guessing, as I did when eating out.
A few weeks later, I read In Defense of Food, and that completely changed my outlook on what I was eating. Author Michael Pollan rails against so-called "nutritionism" and talks about how ultra-processed foods are ruining people's health. His mantra to "eat [real] food, not too much, mostly plants" stuck with me, and I became hyper-aware of processed foods (goodbye anything with more than 5 ingredients in the label)- and tried harder than ever to focus on eating whole foods, which meant a lot more cooking! After reading In Defense of Food, I read An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler, and I think that really sparked my interest in cooking good food. I started roasting vegetables, making soups, experimenting with sauces, and adventuring into the world of "weird" vegetables I had never cooked with before, like eggplant. I found Food52.com, my cooking bible, and started expanding my repertoire of recipes- goodbye, farmed salmon with frozen peas, hello whole-wheat spaghetti with sardines in a fennel tomato sauce.
I read that the World Health Organization recommended that adults only eat 6 teaspoons of sugar a day or, 23g. I started making that a daily goal. At some point in the spring I started cutting out added sugar for occasional weeklong periods. The first time I did it, I felt so cranky and terrible, but the second time was a lot better, and eventually I could do two weeks, no problem. I realized later that the downside of eschewing sugar for a long period of time would lead to binges if I allowed myself a "treat day". I'd eat until I felt terrible, and then get up, dust myself off and start over the next day.
In May, I started going to Yoga Sol for vinyasa once a week, and in the summer I was biking and swimming. Some days I would run in the morning, walk to work, and then bike 20 miles in the evening. I was eating a post-workout breakfast before work, oatmeal at 10am, lunch at noon, a snack at 3:30pm, and then dinner around 7- I never went more than a few hours without eating, so I never really felt properly "hungry", even though I was still eating a net 1500 calories a day (plus whatever I "earned" from working out). I started shopping solely at Whole Foods, farmers markets, and Seward Co-Op, in search of local and/or organic produce.
Looking back, July and August were, frankly, ridiculous. I was working out constantly and not eating enough. I barely lost any weight. At the time I thought I wasn't doing "enough," so I pushed myself harder. Eventually I realized that wasn't working, so I added more calories back into my diet, and the campaign I was working on started heating up a little bit more so I was working out less. I also strained my foot during the St. Paul Classic Bike Tour in early September, but continued to try to run for a couple of weeks, and eventually realized I needed to stop running so I could get better, so I switched to more walking and more yoga.
In September, I read The Omnivore's Dilemma, another Michael Pollan classic, and started lowering my meat consumption. I was almost exclusively shopping at the Seward Coop, so would only buy local chicken there when it was on sale. Otherwise I focused on eating mostly beans, tinned fish, and eggs for protein. I continued to make vegetables the main part of my diet. I split a summer CSA box with my froworker Kyle, so had delicious veggies to work with every week.
By the fall, I felt like I had finally nailed down a normal routine: eat whole, healthy foods; limit processed foods, sugar and alcohol; be active every day. I was still logging everything I ate and wearing my Fitbit obsessively, but I was also worrying less about what was working and what wasn't as I was getting closer to my weight loss goal. I was also beginning to think that my actual weight didn't really matter, as long as I was taking care of myself by exercising regularly and putting good food in my body. I started increasing my net calories every couple of weeks, making my way towards 2000, with the plan to keep counting at 2000 for a little while, and then fade out completely.
One Sunday morning in November of 2014, I woke up and thought: "I think I'm done calorie counting." I hadn't finished my plan to make it up to 2000 calories, but at that point in time, I was pretty sick of logging everything I was eating, and calculating in my head as I was trying to decide what to eat. So before getting out of bed, I deleted MyFitnessPal from my phone, and then I got up and made some oatmeal. By that point, I had lost 35 pounds. I weighed less than I ever had in high school, and I had some kickass muscly arms and legs and a strong core, too.
However, between that time and leaving the country, I still focused on maintaining what I had lost, so I still obsessed over eating and working out. Sometimes I worried that whatever I just ate wouldn't be enough to tide me over, so I ate something else. This would happen a lot at breakfast, before I left for work, or after dinner. I still brought my lunch and a snack every day, and made a promise to myself never to buy anything from the cafeterias at the Capitol. I always took the stairs, even if it meant hauling myself up six floors to the reference library three times in a a day. I bought a new Fitbit with a heart rate monitor, and continued to drink water constantly, like I used to do whenever I felt hungry at my old job.
I think most of the time I was subconsciously worried I was going to be hungry, and I didn't want to limit my eating like I had for 11 months, so I was eating more- even if my body didn't need it, my mind thought I did. These thoughts haunted me for a long time- Was I eating enough? Was I eating too much? Was I stress eating? Did I work out enough this week? I eventually stopped weighing myself so I would stop obsessing over maintaining. During my weight loss period, my weekly weigh-ins would make or break my day. I didn't want to deal with that anymore.
My cooking game was still going strong- Food52 and Tamar Adler's book were my bibles, and I spent hours in the kitchen every Sunday, roasting, toasting, chopping, and stewing, much to my roommates' chagrin. I was continuing to focus on eating tons of vegetables and small amounts of meat, and was constantly open to trying new recipes. Without the confines of calorie counting, I could explore frying falafel (gasp!) or baking desserts with butter (double gasp!).
I was going to yoga at least three or four times a week, sometimes twice a day. I started running and biking again last March, and kept that up right until I left for Europe. At one point I started streaking, and made it 15 days before I went back home to visit my family before going to France. Then I sent back my Fitbit (awesome return policy, and there was no way I was going to let that thing control me while I was in Europe) and packed yoga pants and running shoes.
Looking back, I see 2014 as one of the biggest and longest challenges I have taken in my life, but I had a lot of help from the internet, friends, family, and the ability to log and retain all sorts of data. In hindsight, it's technically awesome I lost that much weight using my willpower, but more importantly that year introduced me to my love of cooking and my affinity for yoga and running. I've become more conscious of what I put in my body and what I do with my energy, and I know those habits will stick with me longer than calorie counting ever did.
Here are my some of biggest personal takeaways from 2014:
1. Calorie counting may give you results, but it will also fuck with you long after you stop.
2. Think you can't run? Keep running. See how you feel in a month. Same goes for yoga.
3. Food is not the enemy. Overly processed "foodlike substances" are the closest thing you have to an enemy.
4. Everything in moderation, including moderation. Otherwise, after weeks of limited sugar, you'll find yourself eating chocolate brownies until you feel sick.
5. Cooking for yourself is awesome. Cooking for others is even better.
6. Weighing yourself while trying to lose weight may encourage you, but it may also lead you to make unhealthy decisions in the name of "losing weight."
7. After a while, people saying "you look great!" will have you wondering, did I not look "great" before?
8. You can never eat enough vegetables.
9. It's okay to take a rest day every once in a while. It's also okay to eat a giant ice cream sundae every once in a while.
10. Remember all the friends who had to deal with you when you were calorie counting, not drinking alcohol, cranky because you weren't eating sugar, running so much that you didn't have the energy to hang out, far too focused on your weight loss goals. (THANK YOU, thankyouthankyouthankyou.)
Wow, I have already written way too much for one blog post. If you made it this far, congratulations. In hindsight I think this post is more meant for me than anyone else, but if you read it I hope you get something out of it!
As some of you probably know, I embarked on a massive lifestyle overhaul in 2014, with the initial goal of losing a bunch of weight. As the year progressed, I learned more and more about nutrition, dieting, and fitness- more than I ever thought I would, in some ways to the point of obsession. Losing weight became my hobby- I was reading books, articles, and blogs; weighing myself every week, tracking every step I took or workout I completed, and counting every calorie I consumed- for eleven months. It was a pretty crazy journey, and I haven't made the time to reflect on it, so today, with all the time in the world, I figure I'd jump on it.
 |
| Me in 2013, off to France |
 |
| In 2015, off to France |
When I first started out in January, I made a goal of losing 40 pounds in 8 months- it seemed attainable to me, and it meant a long term commitment. I started logging all my meals on MyFitnessPal, bought a Fitbit, and became overly conscious of every morsel I put in my mouth, and every step I took.In the beginning I was just focused on eating less, not necessarily on what I was eating. So, it was oatmeal with skim milk and brown sugar for breakfast, half a can Progresso soup and a salad with a tablespoon of Annie's dressing for lunch, and a filet of salmon with some peas and soy sauce for dinner, and a Skinnycow ice cream bar for dessert. Or two eggs for breakfast, a bag of baby carrots and a Lund's frozen soup for lunch, and half a chicken breast and quinoa for dinner. I bought a food scale (the first of several, as they kept crapping out on me) and started weighing every single thing I cooked with and ate. I was limiting myself to 1200 calories a day for almost a month. I remember at least one Saturday I ate nothing but chocolate and chocolate pudding all day, but hey, I was within 1200 calories, right? Eventually I added more calories to my days, but in the beginning it was pretty rough.
In February I bought a Fitbit, and started tracking my physical exercise. The cool thing about Fitbit is that it syncs your activity to MyFitnessPal, so I was "earning" calories based on how active I was. I would take "stair breaks" during my work days to walk up and down the eight flights of stairs in my office building, I'd ramble around the block before driving to work, until it got warm enough that I could walk to work (about 3 miles). I was earning more calories, and eating more food (yay!). In March I bought a pair of running shoes, and attempted to jog to the Stone Arch Bridge (about a mile from my apartment). I had to stop about two blocks in and walk, but I kept going- jog, walk, jog, walk- until I made it back. Then, I started jogging a couple of times a week. I bought a Fitbit Aria WiFi scale and started weighing myself every Friday morning, with the results automatically sent to my phone.
In March I visited a nutritionist to make sure I was doing this "right"- she gave me some tips on high and low glycemic foods, and how they affect your hunger throughout the day. At her suggestion, I read about the Volumetrics diet and started incorporating a shit ton of veggies into my meals- the theory there is to eat less calorie dense foods, and larger quantities of food that contained small amounts of calories. Helloooo vegetables. I think this is the part where I started cooking a lot more with fresh produce, making stir frys, or sauteed veggies with chicken. I had also realized that cooking allowed me to be in complete control of what I was eating- I could measure out exactly how much oil or meat or whatnot to use, and know exactly what I was logging instead of guessing, as I did when eating out.
 |
| A typical "Volumetrics" meal- my original caption lists this as 300 calories |
A few weeks later, I read In Defense of Food, and that completely changed my outlook on what I was eating. Author Michael Pollan rails against so-called "nutritionism" and talks about how ultra-processed foods are ruining people's health. His mantra to "eat [real] food, not too much, mostly plants" stuck with me, and I became hyper-aware of processed foods (goodbye anything with more than 5 ingredients in the label)- and tried harder than ever to focus on eating whole foods, which meant a lot more cooking! After reading In Defense of Food, I read An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler, and I think that really sparked my interest in cooking good food. I started roasting vegetables, making soups, experimenting with sauces, and adventuring into the world of "weird" vegetables I had never cooked with before, like eggplant. I found Food52.com, my cooking bible, and started expanding my repertoire of recipes- goodbye, farmed salmon with frozen peas, hello whole-wheat spaghetti with sardines in a fennel tomato sauce.
 |
| Meal prepping like a boss |
 |
| The enemy. The delicious, delicious enemy. |
 |
| Work lunch after a particularly hefty haul from the farmer's market |
Looking back, July and August were, frankly, ridiculous. I was working out constantly and not eating enough. I barely lost any weight. At the time I thought I wasn't doing "enough," so I pushed myself harder. Eventually I realized that wasn't working, so I added more calories back into my diet, and the campaign I was working on started heating up a little bit more so I was working out less. I also strained my foot during the St. Paul Classic Bike Tour in early September, but continued to try to run for a couple of weeks, and eventually realized I needed to stop running so I could get better, so I switched to more walking and more yoga.
 |
| In August 2014, amidst the craziness- pretty sure I ran that morning, biked to the State Fair, brought my own breakfast and lunch, and allowed myself a caramel apple at the end of the day. |
 |
| Prepping Gazpacho |
By the fall, I felt like I had finally nailed down a normal routine: eat whole, healthy foods; limit processed foods, sugar and alcohol; be active every day. I was still logging everything I ate and wearing my Fitbit obsessively, but I was also worrying less about what was working and what wasn't as I was getting closer to my weight loss goal. I was also beginning to think that my actual weight didn't really matter, as long as I was taking care of myself by exercising regularly and putting good food in my body. I started increasing my net calories every couple of weeks, making my way towards 2000, with the plan to keep counting at 2000 for a little while, and then fade out completely.
 |
| I eventually learned to treat myself, but I think I ran 8 miles before I ate this. |
However, between that time and leaving the country, I still focused on maintaining what I had lost, so I still obsessed over eating and working out. Sometimes I worried that whatever I just ate wouldn't be enough to tide me over, so I ate something else. This would happen a lot at breakfast, before I left for work, or after dinner. I still brought my lunch and a snack every day, and made a promise to myself never to buy anything from the cafeterias at the Capitol. I always took the stairs, even if it meant hauling myself up six floors to the reference library three times in a a day. I bought a new Fitbit with a heart rate monitor, and continued to drink water constantly, like I used to do whenever I felt hungry at my old job.
I think most of the time I was subconsciously worried I was going to be hungry, and I didn't want to limit my eating like I had for 11 months, so I was eating more- even if my body didn't need it, my mind thought I did. These thoughts haunted me for a long time- Was I eating enough? Was I eating too much? Was I stress eating? Did I work out enough this week? I eventually stopped weighing myself so I would stop obsessing over maintaining. During my weight loss period, my weekly weigh-ins would make or break my day. I didn't want to deal with that anymore.
My cooking game was still going strong- Food52 and Tamar Adler's book were my bibles, and I spent hours in the kitchen every Sunday, roasting, toasting, chopping, and stewing, much to my roommates' chagrin. I was continuing to focus on eating tons of vegetables and small amounts of meat, and was constantly open to trying new recipes. Without the confines of calorie counting, I could explore frying falafel (gasp!) or baking desserts with butter (double gasp!).
 |
| Made with butter. No regrets. |
Looking back, I see 2014 as one of the biggest and longest challenges I have taken in my life, but I had a lot of help from the internet, friends, family, and the ability to log and retain all sorts of data. In hindsight, it's technically awesome I lost that much weight using my willpower, but more importantly that year introduced me to my love of cooking and my affinity for yoga and running. I've become more conscious of what I put in my body and what I do with my energy, and I know those habits will stick with me longer than calorie counting ever did.
Here are my some of biggest personal takeaways from 2014:
1. Calorie counting may give you results, but it will also fuck with you long after you stop.
2. Think you can't run? Keep running. See how you feel in a month. Same goes for yoga.
3. Food is not the enemy. Overly processed "foodlike substances" are the closest thing you have to an enemy.
4. Everything in moderation, including moderation. Otherwise, after weeks of limited sugar, you'll find yourself eating chocolate brownies until you feel sick.
5. Cooking for yourself is awesome. Cooking for others is even better.
6. Weighing yourself while trying to lose weight may encourage you, but it may also lead you to make unhealthy decisions in the name of "losing weight."
7. After a while, people saying "you look great!" will have you wondering, did I not look "great" before?
8. You can never eat enough vegetables.
9. It's okay to take a rest day every once in a while. It's also okay to eat a giant ice cream sundae every once in a while.
10. Remember all the friends who had to deal with you when you were calorie counting, not drinking alcohol, cranky because you weren't eating sugar, running so much that you didn't have the energy to hang out, far too focused on your weight loss goals. (THANK YOU, thankyouthankyouthankyou.)
Wow, I have already written way too much for one blog post. If you made it this far, congratulations. In hindsight I think this post is more meant for me than anyone else, but if you read it I hope you get something out of it!
Next week, I'll tackle my food/health life post-United States in a little more detail. It's been an interesting journey, as I'm sure you can guess.
Comments
Post a Comment