Thoughts on The Pleasure Trap

Many, many weeks ago, the fine people over at Happy Herbivore were doing a book club. The selection was The Pleasure Trap by Doug Lisle, Phd and Alan Goldhamer, D.C. This book happened to have been on my radar for quite some time, and I was inspired to finally read it. I promised that I would share my thoughts as I made my way through the book.

Well, that didn't quite work out. But I bring up The Pleasure Trap again because it is an extremely important book, one that every single reader of HGK should get their hands on.

The basic premise of the book is that humans operate under a basic motivational triad: the pursuit of pleasure, the avoidance of pain, and the conservation energy. There's A LOT more to the book than that, but for our purposes, I want to focus on that.

Here's how that motivational triad operates in our lives: let's say you get home from work, tired and very hungry (sound familiar?). Why is it so hard to start making a healthy dinner, and not start snacking, at that point in the day? Why is it almost impossible to eat celery sticks while you are ravenously hungry? Why do you want to grab something tasty and high in calories (maybe your kids' dinner food or other less desirable food that you have around) as you are getting your dinner together?

Read more �

Did You Catch Dr. Robert Lustig on 60 Minutes Last Night? If You Have a Sugar "Problem," You Don't Want to Miss This

Driving home from New Jersey I caught wind that Dr. Robert Lustig, one of my personal heroes, was going to be on 60 Minutes last night. He's the guy from San Francisco with the really popular YouTube video "Sugar: The Bitter Truth." I wasn't able to tell you about it in time, but lucky for all of us, this amazing segment is already on YouTube.

Read more �

The Pleasure Trap Book Club

Thank you to everyone who left comments on my last post with your food movie recommendations. I have added all of the available movies to my Netflix queue and look forward to watching them all. The first one that I just HAD to see was Rip Esselstyn's Engine 2 Kitchen Rescue, so I watched it this morning at 4:45 am, if you can believe it. I'll save my thoughts on this video for another post. 


Why? Because something interesting kinda popped up on the Internet a few days ago. It seems that Lindsay Nixon (The Happy Herbivore) had the brilliant idea of forming a book club. Our peep Natala Constantine over at The Engine 2 Blog thought it was a great idea and blogged about it too.

The first book Lindsay chose?  The Pleasure Trap, Mastering the Hidden Force that Undermines Health and Happiness by Douglas J. Lisle, PhD. and Alan Goldhamer, D.C.

Well, there you go Lindsay, sucking me in to another project! I've been wanting to read this book for what seems like forever, so I couldn't resist ordering my own copy from Amazon. I was pretty stoked when it arrived unexpectedly the next day. I started reading almost immediately.

As best as I can, I am going to share my experience of reading this book with you. If I start to think that you are getting bored, as sometimes starts to happen with projects like this, I might stop talking about it. But I can't say where this will go, other than I'm starting right now.

The author proposes that people are motivated by three general things: to seek pleasure, to avoid pain and to conserve energy. Why? Because these three things "encourage behaviors that are associated with survival and reproduction." It's all embedded into the design of every living creature.

I'm just guessing here, but I think as the book plays out we will come to understand why those three motivations have conspired against us in the modern age and have caused the epidemic of obesity and poor health. And I'm also going to guess that Dr. Lisle is going to give us coping strategies for modern times so that we don't need to be another statistic.

But I'm getting way ahead of us. 

Back to the beginning. The first thing that really struck me was this sentence in Chapter 2, "Very often, in both human and animal life, the rewards of pleasure are not immediate. Pleasure requires work, effort, skill development, and risky competition."


So motivation cannot be sustained by pleasure seeking alone. We need to know if we are on the right path to achieving pleasure, we need signals. Enter our moods, happiness or unhappiness. Moods "work like the clues in a treasure hunt." They are subtle feelings, but they keep us going (or they stop us) in our hunt for treasure.

For me, and I think all humans, one treasure is achieving and easily maintaining a healthy weight.


But biologically, the treasure of food consumption causes pleasure also. "Pleasure was designed as the unmistakable signal of success for reaching survival and/or reproductive goals." If we don't eat, we are going to starve and if that happens, we won't be surviving, let alone reproducing.

It made me think of how difficult it has been for me over the past year to remain "plant perfect." There was a time when it was very easy. Some might have even labeled me as"orthorexic." A label that I would glad wear today considering how difficult it is for me now to make the best choices day in and day out.

Enter happiness.

"Happiness is not a final destination." You don't get there and stay there forever. But happiness signals to us that we are on the right track. We can get happiness from being productive, from being with friends, from feeling secure, and from feeling relief (amongst others).

At the time when I was really "on it" (and that did last a good, long while) I was very focused on the happiness that I got from eating plant-perfectly, even though the pleasure and the rewards were not immediate ones. I always had in the front of my mind all of the great reasons why I was eating so plant-perfectly. I derived a ton of happiness from making good decisions about food and the thought that someday in the future I would be rewarded with the size body that I wanted and good health.

As time went by, the good happy feeling that I got from saying "no" to the wrong foods faded a little. It didn't fade entirely, but it wasn't front and center. So it became easy to have a bite of this or that, and then a piece of this or that, and then two of this or that. Because the rewards of eating the wrong foods are so immediate (and oh-so-short lived!).

And now I can see how the mindset of happiness of plant-perfection has gotten somewhat away from me. Enough to cause me pain (emotionally). So I want my old plant-perfect, orthorexic-if-you-will, mindset back. It worked very well for me and had no downside other than some wisecracking friends and family. And that is why I'm very interested in reading this book and discussing it with all of you.

If you'd like to read this book along with us, may I suggest that you order a copy here? A teeny weeny bit of the money goes to help support HGK!

Do I sound like a nut case? Am I making any sense here? Thoughts? To leave a comment or see the comments section of this blog, please click on the title of this post (the orange text above).

The Proof is in the Nutritarian Pudding

Nope, there's no yummy recipe here for pudding. Rather, a letter I received from an HGK reader that provides me with a whole lot of good feelings. I wanted to share it with all of you.


"Hi Wendy,
Just wanted to thank you for an awesome, awesome blog. At this point, I don't even remember how I came to find your blog -- the most important part is that I did!

I read 'Eat To Live' back in October, a few months ago. I have high cholesterol (even though I'm 29) and have for most of my life. I hover around a 25 BMI, so I'm not overweight, and at 5'9" I carry it all pretty well. After reading E2L, I starting planning for January when I was going to begin the 6-week aggressive program. So, it was around this time, I started looking for resources, recipes, etc. I found your blog and started reading the backlog of posts, and joined the Yahoo! group for E2L. I used these few months to get prepared, finding recipes or ideas that would work for me.

Finally, on January 3rd, I started the 6-week program. I had gone for blood work the week before. On Saturday, February 11th, I went back for my 40-day blood work and got the results today. I am ecstatic!

December 28, 2011: 
Total Cholesterol - 233
LDL - 149
Triglycerides - 184

February 11, 2012 (after 40 days of Eating to Live):
Total Cholesterol - 159
LDL - 105
Triglycerides - 43

I am also down about 15lbs. in 40 days, too! (with my BMI now below 23) What an added bonus to this healthful way of living!

I just wanted to say thank you for the ideas, the motivation, and the support -- even though you didn't even know I was reading. You are inspirational! I look forward to your blog every day!

Take care,
nicole"


There you have it. The power of real, good food. It's stories like this that keep me inspired to keep eating this way and to keep blogging about it. Thank YOU for sharing Nicole!

"Too Busy to Prepare Homemade Healthy Food" Needs Advice. Let's Help.

Good morning! I hope you all had a restful and fun weekend. I spend a lot of my weekend thinking (while I was cooking, of course!) about this e-mail that I received a few days ago from an HGK reader:


"Just checking back in for a little advice. I wrote you a few weeks ago. I was so enthused and have been eating all plant based food. Unfortunately, a lot of frozen Amy meals, and Whole food stuff that is prepared. So, I am gaining weight. Yikes!! I am bummed. 


I was hoping I could just get 'quick' stuff that I could grab on the run that was plant-based. Well, I see this isn't going to be a quick fix. I really was hoping for quick foods that won't stress me out with constant chopping, and time in the kitchen. 


Does the weight loss only come if you are following a plan and counting portion sizes of grains and starchy vegetables? Probably no pre-packaged tofu dishes from Whole Foods, right? 


I didn't want to have to put even more time into it with cooking AND planning out portion sizes, etc. I am sure it is the increased carbs that are doing it. Easy to grab a Cliff bar or Luna bar for a snack in the afternoon or breakfast on the run. But, lots of carbs. Eating big chunks of raw veggies on the run is not remotely appealing. Ugh. Are there any easy, low maintenance ways to get all I need on the run without all the fat and carbs?


 I could use some motivation. I was so excited. But now it's even more work with my husband wanting me to make sure he has something for almost every meal. And he isn't satisfied with just veggies and rice. I almost don't want him to eat all plant-based with me and go back to normal easy to prepare food for the kids. But, he wants to eat healthy, too. 


I need a chef. ;0) Is it worth it to find a nutritionist? Are the plant-based ones hard to find? If you have a moment, I would love to hear your comments. It sounds like you have been at this awhile with your family."


Here's some more pertinent information about this reader:
She has three children, all of which she home schools. They are age 8, 11 and 14. The reader is never home alone to do quiet meal preparation. About 6-10 hours per week are spent carpooling her kids.


Weekends are very busy with picking up [the house], running errands for school projects, sports events, church, and visiting family every Sunday. Sometimes she goes to the gym with her husband on Saturday morning, or a bike ride with her family. She occasionally gets together with friends, goes to a movie, or shopping. She also runs to the grocery store a few times a week.


What's my advice? Priorities and Healthy Fear


First, the issue of counting or measuring food. I do not count or measure anything on this plan, but I do avoid a long list of foods. Foods like Cliff Bars are on my "do not eat list." I have this expression, "Just because it's vegan doesn't mean it's healthy." I learned how to properly read a nutrition label on packaged foods in the book The Engine 2 Diet by Rip Esselstyn. That was a game changer for me. I saw that almost nothing in a package can be considered healthy. You can read more on that here.


Shopping at Whole Foods is a wonderful thing, but you do need to have a healthy level of skepticism when you go there. Most of what is being sold at Whole Foods is not on this plan. Stick to vegetables, fruit, whole grains, beans and legumes most of the time. Tofu, tempeh and seitan are  fine, but not every day. For me, about once a week with those products is enough. I stick with huge salads, large bowls of soup, oatmeal for breakfast, green smoothies when I am in the mood, and other vegan dishes that are carefully prepared according to plan. 


I make all of our salad dressings from scratch. I only do this once a week. It's fast, easy and much healthier and cheaper than bottled salad dressings. I prepare large volumes of salad at one time so that I don't have to do that every day. I cook a huge pot of soup on the weekend and we eat it throughout the week and freeze some too. Same goes for other cooked vegan food. I have developed a ton of strategies, to lessen my time in the kitchen. I too am never at home without one child or another needing my attention. So it actually takes me twice as long to prepare anything as someone without small children. But I never let that stop me from getting healthy food prepared.


I get the feeling that your children's education is one of the highest priorities in your life. That is a beautiful and commendable thing. But what about their health and the health of you and your husband? How important is it to you that your family lives long and healthy lives? In my mind, that is at least equally as important as your children's education (I happen to take this stuff very seriously). In fact, I would like to propose that teaching your children about truly healthy food and the preparation of it on a day to day basis is more important than almost any traditional school subject. 


Would it be possible to weave this into their education? Do you get to chose the books that they read? Could you and your oldest children read Eat to Live by Dr. Fuhrman? Or Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn? Your 8 year old might be able to read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.


How about engaging your children in the actual food preparation once they have a basic understanding of the importance of avoiding all processed food? Again, is there a way to make it part of their curriculum? Could the kids be responsible for more household chores while you cook? Could your older two do their own laundry and pick-up the house? You are going to have to get creative!


You don't need a nutritionist. But what I think you need is a healthy fear of the future. Read everything you can about plant based nutrition. Make it one of the highest priorities in your life. You will never regret it.


You don't have to do it all at once. Let go of perfection, it is the enemy of the good. Just start by doing one good thing for the health of your family every day. You'll be surprised where that takes you.


I could go on and on, but I have to start making my kid's lunches! HGK reader, I know you can do this! Give it time to become a normal part of your life and NEVER EVER give up.


What's your advice?

How the Family Started to Eat Better-A New System

Hello!

Wow, was last week was a whirlwind week in Healthy Girl's Kitchen. First was the Paula Deen scandal. Then I won the book Wildly Affordable Organic by Linda Watson in a blogger giveaway on the Healthy Slow Cooking blog. This was all topped off with a guest blog post on salad making on  The Engine 2 Blog (thanks to everyone who left some love over there!). And that doesn't even include my first ever culinary attempts at Vegan Mac-n-cheeze and Chik'n Seitan. Phew! I wonder what's in store this week?

Really cool stuff, I'm guessing.

And it starts with this: something to make your life way easier. I don't know if you remember, but my one resolution this New Year is to get organized. Why? Because life is just easier that way.

As everyone knows, feeding kids day in and day out is challenging. Add in two full time working parents, a desire for the food to be healthy AND the need to make meals that are kid friendly. All complicated by the fact that I want to make Vegan meals that are oil-free and very adult centric (curried soups and huge bowls of salad are not exactly high on my 4 and 7 year old's list of favorite foods to eat). You have got yourself an almost impossible situation.

Even I was getting severely fatigued. I resorted to embarrassingly horrid child feeding habits by the end of 2011 (they did not involved fast food or Kraft macaroni and cheese, but it wasn't that far off). Something needed to change.

And then ideas appeared like an angels from heaven.  It all started with this blog post entitled Healthy Eating Tactics in the New Year by the lovely Sarah Matheny over at Peas and Thank You. I highly recommend checking that post out before reading the story of how Sarah's idea impacted me.

Sarah's suggestion is to create lists of healthy food options and post them in the kitchen. Sarah suggested a kid's snack list (it helps if the kids can read, but it's not a must) and a grocery shopping list. Here are mine:

Healthy Snack List

When the kids come home from school. they walk over to the list and choose a snack. Far less dramatic than an adult having to rack their brain for ideas and then having the kids reject them!

The Master/Staples Grocery List

This simply makes it so much easier for the responsible adult to always have the healthy food choices in the house that are necessary for building meals on a day-to-day basis. Again, no more racking your brain trying to figure out what it is you need to get at the grocery store. Just keep an eye out about once a week that the kitchen is stocked with whatever is on your or your family's list. And it works just as well even if you don't have kids or a family.

I created those lists and posted them. I loved these ideas, but I had no idea if it would work magic on my kids' eating habits. So I didn't stop there. I took it two steps further, and here is where the magic happened.

I created a weekly dinner schedule. I did this for me, so that I would not have to go through the daily stress of deciding what to make the littles for dinner all while attempting to prepare some Vegan feast for my husband, myself and my 12 year old daughter, Sophia, who thankfully eats like an almost Plant-strong adult.

Kid's Weekly Dinner Schedule

The pressure is off. The kids helped create the list so all of the dinners are kid approved. No more last minute bad decision making. The kitchen is stocked with the healthiest versions of the ingredients that I need to prepare these meals and nothing is difficult to make.

But the kicker is this: serving the kid's dinner on cafeteria lunch trays. Maybe at this point you are saying, "Duh Wendy." But sometimes I am slow on the uptake! I purchased three of them many years ago at Target but never really put them to use. Somehow, they magically reappeared and the kids are loving them. They are the ones who fill up the compartments every night with fresh fruit and vegetables of their choosing. I think they feel empowered and it's much easier to get them to eat a variety of healthy food that way.

Lunch trays-they key to happiness. Everyone's happiness.

Here's some for sale on Etsy.

And after writing the guest blog post on nutrient dense salad making for The Engine 2 Diet blog, I decided another chart was in order. This one to help ensure that we have a variety of salad ingredients stocked in the fridge and pantry at any given time, but also to remind me on a daily basis of all of the variety of things that can and should go into our salads. Less thought, better salads! It's awesome.

Salad Making/Salad Item Stocking List

Here's what the outside of our beautiful refrigerator looks like right now, but I don't care. My life just got better.

What are your tricks to make grocery shopping and daily meal preparation easier? Please share your strategies!

When You and Your Partner are at Food Odds

Good morning! Today I present to you a guest blog post by the blogger over at Kitchen of Health. Do you know that when I started blogging a little over two years ago there were very few "Nutritarian Bloggers" or "Plant-strong Bloggers?" That's simply not the case today, and it's really hard for me to keep up with the scores of new bloggers in this genre. It's wildly exciting because to me, it's a symbol that the movement is rapidly growing.

The subject is what to do when you and your partner are at food odds, but the advice could apply equally well to children, parents, friends and other relatives.

Here's what Hailey has to say:

Pete Spreet ate only meat

His wife ate only greens

And so between the two of them

They licked the platter clean.

The rhyme would be hilarious if there weren�t a bit of pathetic truth to it for many households. Living with an omnivorous spouse if you are plant-strong can be challenging, if not downright frustrating. I have vacillated between anger and amusement when fixing his and hers menus. If I weren�t frightened for the long-range consequences on his health, I wouldn�t care what he eats. The question that plagues me is, �How do I nourish him when he doesn�t want it?�

Recently, mealtime friction came to a head when my 16-year-old son decided to join me on the quest for greater athletic prowess. At once, my spouse felt betrayed. It was no longer the meat-eating men against the salad-eating women. The strong swimmer was taking sides�and choosing beans!

A shaky truce kept things together until the squash debacle: I served a �family-friendly� meal of stuffed squash with Boca Crumbles (http://www.bocaburger.com/). Revolt was in the air. Hubby took a polite �no-thank-you bite� and headed straight to the store to buy steak and crab�and Polish sausages.

So what have I learned from this?  The biggest lesson is that power is not the same as control.  I empower people when I increase their ability to make decisions that lead to freedom, growth and strength. I control them when I restrict their autonomy and force them down a path of my own choosing. Said another way, when I educate them about nutrition and demonstrate consequences � both positive and negative � I am giving them the power to live a better life. When I manipulate them into eating my way, I am trying to change them against their will. That latter approach works for no one.

What I really mean is leaders pull; tyrants push. Have you ever tried to push a cooked spaghetti noodle across the counter top? It just bunches up without going forward. But take the same noodle and get in front and lead out and it will trail with the gentlest tug. The point is to be an example that others can look to for strength. That brings me to the next lesson:

Exude confidence; spurn fear. Emily Boller recently wrote for Disease Proof that pushy relatives may actually be feeling envy or resentment, turning them into �food bullies.� If we feel threatened by them, we actually exacerbate the problem. Her solution was to be clear in our own determination to eat healthy and not waver when confronted about our choices.

She said, �Bullies have a strong need to control and dominate�.If a food bully�s intended target exhibits a �defeated attitude� in response to the pushiness, then the bullying is likely to continue. However, as in most all cases with bona fide bullies, if the intended target responds with a clear attitude of self-confidence and a strong boundary line, the bully�s attempt to dominate will quickly diminish.�

Dairy	Meat
Fruits Veggies	Grains

After all, whose problem is it that we choose healthy alternatives and they don�t? Of course, we�re making an assumption that our choices actually are healthy ones. 

Next lesson: challenge your assumptions.Science is continually finding new answers. What was �correct� in the 1980s may no longer be valid. For example, I learned at a young age that good health comes from eating three square meals a day. Compare that paradigm with today�s shape of health:

Knowing what�s actually true requires that we keep learning! That�s where community comes in. We should never assume we�re fighting all by ourselves. You are never alone. Whatever roadblock stands in the way, someone else has faced it and is prepared to spot you in your leap across it.

May all your relatives be Nutritarian some day!

Hailey

What has your experience been with your loved ones? Do you and your partner see eye-to-eye about diet? If not, how is it negotiated in your household? 


What do you think of Hailey's advice? Do you have any advice of your own?


Have you seen an evolution in your situation over time or is it at a standstill? Are you witnessing more and more of your loved ones eating more Plant-strong as your time committed to this continues?

How to Lose Weight Without Losing Your Mind

Last Sunday evening Dr. Doug Lisle gave a lecture in Southern California. Many of us were anxiously awaiting the viewing of the lecture online at the Forks over Knives site. But, due to technical difficulties, it was not to be. So we've had to wait until now to see the lecture. And lucky for us, we have the magic of YouTube.

This is a FEEL GOOD LECTURE. I highly recommend it if you are feeling down on yourself right now.The lecture is over an hour long, so open this up and get comfortable, or schedule some time this weekend to watch it. It's worth every minute! And it's only going to be available on the FOK YouTube channel for a limited amount of time, so don't miss out.

Hot Tip! A Don't Miss Live Broadcast Event with Doug Lisle

What Dr. Lisle has to teach us is incredibly compelling. I love this guy and I've written about him before. Don't miss this!

How To Lose Weight Without Losing Your Mind
Live Broadcast with Doug Lisle, Ph.D.
January 8, 7pm EST / 4pm PST

On Sunday January 8, join Forks over Knives on their Facebook page or Livestream page for a live broadcast of psychologist Dr. Doug Lisle in his presentation "How to Lose Weight Without Losing Your Mind." Dr. Lisle, who was featured in FOK, will discuss why our "natural" instincts are making us sicker and fatter, how to harness life-changing tools for healthy living, and more! Begins at 7 pm ET/4pm PT. If you miss the Livestream, you will be able to watch it on their Youtube page by Tuesday, January 10th.

Thank you Forks over Knives!

Will you be there?

Plant-strong vs. Plant-perfect. Welcome to 2012.

I wasn't going to blog today but I couldn't resist.

Happy New Year!

First off, I want to say "Hello" to all of the new folks that are finding their way to HGK. We were mentioned in a big blog posting over here at Fat Free Vegan and I can't thank you enough Susan. I feel like I've just won an academy award. The pressure is on for my next film.

All kidding aside, WELCOME! I love this blog and I love everyone who participates in this very important conversation: How to achieve our best lives and our best selves by incorporating a plant-based diet free of processed oils (not fat, just oils). For those of you that have struggled with your weight or health, like I have, for your entire lives, this subject is probably near and dear to your heart too. Please be an active reader and leave your thoughts in the comments section as much as you can. It's no fun to blog without you.

Second, I'm wondering if you saw this article over at The New York Times entitled "The Fat Trap" and Debby's response over at Happy Healthy Long Life? And if you've got the time, the comments to The Fat Trap article, all over 750 of them, are quite, quite interesting. It makes you wonder whether or not we can control our weight with diet and exercise when the reality is that it is uber challenging to do it. Or not . . .

Then, Susan had to go out and blog about her own personal new year's resolution which is, simply, to be PLANT PERFECT. There you go Susan, just when I had decided that I wasn't making any New Year's resolutions that revolved around food.

But I'm so fickle. And easily swayed. And I love a good challenge. And I've got a lot of reasons this year to strive for plant perfect . . .

But there really is a big difference between plant-strong and plant-perfect. Like today for example, my  middle child's 7th birthday (Happy Birthday my New Year's Girl!). Plant-perfect means no indulging in any birthday treats today. None.

Can I commit?

I think I can.

For today, to be plant-perfect. No Dunkin' Donuts (that's what she wants . . . and I'm not at home to bake her something healthier). A green smoothie for breakfast? Soups, huge salads, sauteed greens. Beans. Ditch the nuts. Ditch the crackers, even those whole wheat ones. Lose the little indulgences here and there into SAD sweets.

One day at a time.

It's a fine line between the two, but one that means the difference between me at my best and me at something close, but no cigar.

I'm not going to be satisfied, really, until I am. My best.

Where is your head at today?


Okay, I know I've given you a lot of reading assignments today, but here's one that you should not miss: Dear 268 Pound Me: A Letter of Weight Loss Advice for the New Year by The Happy Rehab Doc.

When in Doubt, Go to the Local Farmer's Market

If you haven't already, don't miss out on the Everyday Happy Herbivore Cookbook giveaway. Contest ends tonight at 6 pm.

This year, I'm doing more home cooking than I ever have on our annual vacation. I try to make it fun for myself, planning ahead what I want to make and organizing the recipes (which was pretty easy considering I wanted to give a whole bunch of Lindsay Nixon's recipes a try). And I try to make it enjoyable for the people that I'm with, feeding them good healthy food that they have never tried before.

Last winter I saw signs on the side of the road for a Marco Island Farmer's Market. We didn't go, but the image of those signs really stuck out in my brain. So this trip, it made it onto my "must do" list. When you eat a lot of fruits and veggies, farmer's markets can become a regular and welcome part of your life. 

This market did not disappoint: plenty of vendors, a wide open space and a nice variety of products.

There were greens I had never heard of; Kumasuna and Mizuna mixed in with the Swiss Chard, Collard Greens, Dandelion Greens, Broccoli Raab and Mustard Greens.

Along with the standard Plant-weak fare. These were shocking.

Bananas at the farmer's market? Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore!

Strawberries in December? Hold onto your seat belts!

Gorgeous, red, plump tomatoes everywhere, but not an apple in sight. And all of the produce was much less expensive than anything I could get at my Farmer's Market in Cleveland.

Beautiful bags of homemade pasta in a variety of flavors and grains.

I took home a fettuccine made of emmer, a whole grain that I am not familiar with, 

but looking forward to trying . . .

and some seriously great oat bars made with dried fruit and nuts. The Nut Man said they were less than 75 calories per bar, which is very low for a bar like this. I think I'd like the recipe!

Have you done anything fun, new or experimental this week? Are you working or are you chillaxing in your pjs?

Check back tomorrow for the winner of the giveaway and again on Friday for HGK's best recipes of 2011 post!

Portion Control, Schmortion Control

This article, by Jackie Wicks, founder of PEERtrainer, was so great, I had to share it with all of you! And thank you to our peeps at PEERtrainer for allowing their articles to be republished.

Why Portion Control May Be Keeping You Fat 

A Contrarian Take On The Most Popular Weight Loss Technique Of All Time

Decemeber 15th, 2011 


Portion control may be keeping you fat. 

If you are like most people, you are probably thinking "no, it is all the extra food I am eating that is keeping me fat." 

Well, maybe. But I want to share with you the reasons for my controversial assertion. 

First of all, it needs to be said that portion control is a critically important tool. Of course we want to keep an eye on calories, and for people just starting the weight loss process portion control is something people must learn and even master. 

However, the problem with portion control is that people most often use it as their primary weight loss strategy. Because life is busy and most of us have a limited amount of things we can focus on, it often becomes the ONLY strategy that people use. 

This is the simple reality of things. 

We may know darn well that we need to eat more vegetables and more fiber. Likely there is a whole list of things we "should" be doing. But getting to work and doing all the things you need to be doing likely trumps those "shoulds." 

So we are left with a strategy that most of us have been taught-- and one that is not working to well based on every statistic available. 

And it is getting worse. 

So why are we SO focused on something that is not working? Probably because it sounds so "reasonable" and "sensible." Arguing with portion control is like questioning cooking advice from Martha Stuart. 

It is also the advice we are likely to hear from our doctors, as well as those who teach the doctors. 

There are a lot of ways that we get programmed as individuals and as a society, and this is definitely one. 

I'd like to argue that not only is the singular focus on portion control not the answer, but it is likely a root of many of our nutrition problems. 

Not only does it promote the idea that any food is fine as long as it is eaten in limited quantities- but in my experience building and running PEERtrainer, portion control actually discourages people from eating the best foods in beneficial enough quantities. 

Vegetables are a CLASSIC example of this. I work directly with a lot of people, and one thing I have gotten very good at is troubleshooting. When people share their logs with me, I can see a pattern very quickly. 

Many people obviously do not get enough vegetables. But when I probe into this and work to identify the "why" I often see that people are eating several portions of vegetables- but that they are portion controlling the vegetables!! 

Talk about a WTF moment. It is one that I experience so often it is not funny. But the good news is that once I make this observation, and tell people to go NUTS with the vegetables, most make this adjustment with an astonishing degree of success. 

These people just need a small amount of reprogramming! 

On the flip side, people are portion controlling a lot of junk, thinking that is is a "reasonable" strategy. Foods that are high in sugar, low in micronutrients and that often create reactions which throws your system out of whack 

For some people, a small amount of wheat, dairy or eggs can have a big and negative impact. It doesn't matter what the portion of those foods are. They can cause reactions. 

Additionally, people portion control meat and animal protein. Now, based on all the available science, as well as the interpretation of the available research, we hear that we need to keep meat consumption to roughly 10% of calories. 

However, this does not take into account any difference in the quality of the meat source. Would it sound reasonable to you to suggest that a serving of poached Wild Salmon is probably better for you than a hot dog? 

Might it also sound reasonable that regardless of calorie content, you want to avoid the hot dog and that no portion is acceptable? So often it seems that we are given "rules" to follow, and that we often follow them blindly without applying a little common sense. 

Fiber and fat are great example of this. A very popular weight loss concept has been to increase fiber and reduce fat. I don't need to point out who has made that popular. Formulas are created that essentially says that all fiber is good, and all fat is bad. But a little common sense helps us quickly understand that there are certain fats that are good.

Conversely, there are certain sources of fiber which probably are not that great for you, regardless of the portion size. In conclusion, I hope to have made a fairly easy to understand argument here. For those of you who are struggling with weight loss resistance, think about some of this. 

And please share your feedback and questions. What has been your experience in this area? Please leave a comment below!


This information is provided by PEERtrainer.com, the web's leading weight loss community and resource for long term, healthy weight loss success. To sign up for free daily weight loss and motivation tips and more visit http://www.peertrainer.com.

The Most Important Question You Can Ask Yourself

The most important question you can ask yourself when you are hungry or want to eat

is not "What am I in the mood for?"

but rather

"How do I want to feel?"

If you start asking yourself that when you are hungry, it's a game changer.

Do I want to feel energized?

Do I want to feel sluggish?

Do I want to feel comfortably satiated?

Do I want to feel overly full?

Do I want to feel constipated?

Do I want to feel good in my clothes?

Do I want to feel mad?

Do I want to feel happy?

If you can change the question you ask yourself when you are hungry, you have the power to change everything.

How do you want to feel?

Have a great weekend everybody!

So You Just Read Eat to Live and (Fill in the Blank)

You are excited?

Overwhelmed?

Don't know where to begin?

I received the following message just a few days ago, "HELP, Just starting today. I just finished reading Dr. Fuhrman's book, Eat to Live. Kind of overwhelmed! :( I want o be healthy and lose all my weight! Ugh."

Stop. Take a deep breath. The worst thing anyone can do is to let their feelings of being overwhelmed (which are real and totally legitimate) prevent them from making positive changes in their diet.

Know that real change does not happen in a day. It is a process, one that will take years to go through, if you are successful.

The unsuccessful ones give up and go back to their old diet somewhere along the way. The successful ones are always learning, always tweaking, always changing. You know that cliche "It's a journey, not a destination?" Well, that applies very well here.

It seems like you are very much into learning, as evidenced by how much you have already read. (I went on to find out that our questioner also wrote this, "I have been on a reading everything I can get my hands on journey. Just finished Dr. Fuhrman's book Eat to Live. I have read Engine 2 and The China Study (well, most of it) I have also seen multiple documentaries. I have tried so many diets, and I never stay committed. I am sure this is the healthie�")  I commend you on that, because not everyone is willing to put in the time to educate themselves about the health effects of diet. So give yourself a whole lotta credit!

You will be healthy and achieve a healthy weight. It isn't going to happen quickly. You could go on any one of a gazillion fad diets and lose weight quickly. There is no secret to fast weight loss. Just starve yourself (essentially) and drink SlimFast for two meals a day. I guarantee you will get thinner fast.

But could you drink SlimFast shakes for the rest of your life? Would you maintain your weight loss when you went back to eating your regular old diet?

Would you have boundless energy every day?

Would you be healthy?

I hope you are still reading. The following is a list of steps that you can take in this journey. You do not need to take them all today. Pick one. Follow through with it, then pick another. Pretty soon you will be comfortable in your new and improved lifestyle.

1. Give yourself credit for each and every thing that you do "right" from here forward. Say to yourself, "Self, you are fabulous for reading Eat to Live and understanding that diet has a major effect on health. Most people either don't know that or don't want to know that. You are now way ahead of the game!" There is no undervaluing the feeling of positive emotion and energy. Happiness will take you a long way.

2. Collect and read books on this subject. I see you are already doing that. I know the way you feel-that Eat to Live is the healthiest of all of the related diets. But I want to impress upon you that many other doctors and whole-food diet proponents have a lot to add to this conversation. For example, I learned how to really read a nutrition label on packaged food from Rip Esselstyn's Engine 2 Diet. I didn't get that from Eat to Live. Every one of these great people has a lot to teach us. Plus, each book has a variety of recipes in the back which will be very helpful as you change you way of eating.

Here is a list of books that I highly recommend:
The Beck Diet Solution by Dr. Judith S. Beck
Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman
Super Immunity by Dr. Joel Fuhrman
Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn
The Engine 2 Diet by Rip Esselstyn
The China Study by T. Colin Campbell
Breaking the Food Seduction by Dr. Neal Barnard
The Idiot's Guide to Plant Based Nutrition by Julieanna Hever

And that doesn't include all of the cookbooks that I love! Want to shop for books and help support this blog? Click here.

3. Start thinking about what you are going to eat in terms of what vegetables are going to be the stars of your meal. I'm pretty sure that the typical American thinks, "I'm going to have chicken tonight, what will I make to go with that?" Instead, we Nutritarians think of all meals this way, "I'm going to have Swiss Chard for dinner. How will I prepare it?" Makes a big difference!

4. All of the new recipes overwhelming you? Just focus on salads! Dr. Fuhrman has this expression, "The salad is the meal." And that's great, because I'm sure you know how to make a salad. You just need a bunch of no-oil dressing recipes, right? Well, the community at Healthy Girl's Kitchen has that all set for you right here in our Big List of No-oil Salad Dressings.

5. Save the heavier, more creative cooking for the weekend. That's when most of us have the time to prepare really great tasting stuff. I recommend making at least one big pot of soup or stew every weekend that you can enjoy all week. You will have incredible soups, stews and plant-strong side dishes to go with your main course (the salad). You can even freeze portions of soup and over time you will be able to eat a variety of soups and stews throughout the week.

Need plenty of soup options? Look no further than here. My personal favorite to start out with is this recipe for Energy Soup. It's a magical weight loss tool.

6. Clean our your fridge, freezer and pantry. Take a day to really clean our your kitchen. You may have to do this more than once over many, many months. Junk has a way of creeping back in. Read more about this process here.

7. Plan a trip to your local farmer's market. If you haven't been to a Farmer's Market before, you have a lot of fun in store for you. I try to go once a week. It's not necessary to shop for vegetables this way, but it's a pleasure.

There is a lot more I could say on this topic, so I just might have to write a Part II.

What are your suggestions for overwhelmed newcomers to a Nutritarian/ Plant-strong diet? Please share them in the comments section.