Saturday Superfoods

I have a cookbook in my cupboard entitled Cooking With 4 Ingredients that I haven’t used it for a while. A little suspicious of the idea that I could cook a tasty meal of only four ingredients while staying healthy, I pulled it out for a look.

There was no surprise at all when I turned page after page and found my suspicions were correct. Some recipes were pretty unhealthy. One recipe called for rice-a-roni, another called for a large amount of cream cheese and sour cream. When at last I found a meat recipe containing broccoli, it initially sounded promising—until I noticed that it also called for 2/3 cup of mayonnaise!

Not all the recipes in the cookbook are that bad, but I am suddenly curious to find recipes that are easy and nutritious. And, of course, delicious. Do they exist? Does eating nutritiously mean I have to spend hours in the kitchen each day?

I’d like to have my own compilation of recipes entitled Cooking Healthy and Easy, and I know just where to find them: You! If you have a healthy recipe you’d like to share, send them my way. Your recipe could be featured one Saturday, not to mention that it might end up on my kitchen table.

Does food make a person happy?

My mom recently told me about a speaker she watched who used to be a compulsive eater, and who now counsels people with their out-of-control eating addictions. He pulled a potato chip out from a bag and ate it, acknowledging that potato chips are delicious on many levels—their saltiness, their fatty flavor, and their crispiness. In the end, however, it’s just food. It’s a potato. He plunged a second chip into a glass of water. Within minutes, the chip was soggy and totally unappetizing.

That’s what I’m eating when I have a potato chip, and it’s probably what it looks like in my stomach! Yuck! So why do I eat potato chips? I actually don’t eat them very often, but I eat other things that are probably just as fatty and look just as unappealing once it’s traveled down my gullet.

The truth is, I eat sometimes because it makes me happy. Have you ever sat in front of a banana split and thought, “Life just doesn’t get better than this!” You might be thinking that for the first seven bites or so. What about after 30 bites? Are you feeling happy?

Chances are, happiness has flittered away and feelings of disgust, guilt, and disappointment are in its place. So when does that emotional shift happen? Wouldn’t it be great if we could find the magical place where food stops making us happy, and quit eating just before that point? I am determined to find it. There’s no reason why I can’t have a little food-induced happiness in life, and I don’t want over-eating to ruin it.

Look for Others

I recently saw an interview with an Olympic champion who said that he appreciates his rivals, especially the unfriendly rivals, because they fire him up and make him perform better. I have often wondered how these athletes find the inward motivation to spend months and years getting fit and polished for a two-week competition. I suppose one of the motivating factors is the tough opposition.

Competition is motivating. I remember a few years ago joining a weightloss competition with a few friends. I was very motivated to say no to the temptations, especially when they were around! I trash-talked my way through the competition. The more I boasted that I was going to win, the more fueled I became to do just that. In the end, I didn’t win. In fact I came in 2nd place. But actually, I really did win because I lost 26 pounds in the process. I also had fun with an endeavor that is a lot of hard work.

When there is rivalry involved, I do get motivated. It helps to be surrounded by successful people because their competitive edge usually ignites my competitive edge. When I’m at the gym, if I am working out next to a physical powerhouse, I’m going to get a much better workout than if someone next to me is going at it half-heartedly and reading a book or something.

Social workouts, like aerobics classes, yoga, and jazzercise are great examples of invigorating workouts that feed energy from one person to another. The classes are also a load of fun. (As long as I don’t trip on my two feet, of course!) John Donne once said that no man is an island. I think that profound statement is certainly true for healthy people. We need one another!

Weather to Succeed

In a recent study, researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center found that women burn 10% less calories during winter than they do during summer months. The assumption, of course, is that women are more active during summer than during winter.

As I write this, it is rainy and wet outside. My daily walk certainly isn’t going to happen. What about the little calorie burners, like taking the compost out to the garden or taking out the garbage? Those things probably won’t happen when it’s pouring rain either.

I firmly believe that weather plays a huge role in how I feel and how successful I am at obtaining or maintaining an ideal weight. Weather affects mood and it affects opportunity to exercise.

Keeping a positive mood is very important to succeed in healthy living. If I’m depressed or discouraged, there usually doesn’t seem like much purpose to my working to achieve something. When I let moods and circumstances get the best of me, I want to stop trying. It’s interesting that weather can have such a strong effect on a person. It’s one of the things I can’t control either.

In fact, there are many things in life I can’t control, and weather is just a drop in the bucket. I look at successful people and admire them for having done something to overcome their obstacles. Certainly I can do the same. I can find a way to succeed when I am down, or when I don’t find enough opportunities to take the steps I need. I might not be able to control the weather, but I can control my determination to focus on the brighter days ahead.

Sunshine

I am blessed to live in a climate that is sunny most of the year. I know that I am blessed because I have lived in the rainy northwest for most of my life. Believe me, the dark dreary days get old! Here in Sacramento, winter lasts about 2 ½ months. We’re nearing the end right now, and I am ready for sun! Those few weeks of dreary days are just enough of winter for me.

Of course, there are also days during the heart of summer when I wish I could wake up to the sound of rain. Or sometimes I feel like it would be nice to have a dark, cloudy day where I can light candles and curl up with a book all day. Cloudy weather can be a good excuse to hibernate, which is sometimes exactly what I feel like doing!

But here in Sacramento I usually wake up to a cloudless day. And usually, I am glad the skies are blue and I love the surge of energy a sunny day brings. The sun gives you a swift kick and tells you to keep moving, even when you don’t feel like it. When I wake up to a sunny day, it’s almost hard not to stay active.

There are friends who are much like a motivating sunny day. They say just the right words of encouragement; they check up on me; they bump me out of a gloomy mood. Sometimes when I’m striving alone to accomplish a goal, it’s discouraging. Even overwhelming. A friend’s encouragement can make the difference between whether I have a renewed determination, or give up altogether. I am so glad for those people who bring sunshine to my life.

Planning Time

I have a friend who takes time management very seriously. She reads books about it, sets up calendars and organizers, and schedules every minute of her day it seems. She has a book entitled, Time Power. If I had a book like that, I think it would just sit on my shelf because I’d never find the time to read it!

Everybody has a certain degree of time management. Usually people find time to do the things that are important to them. For some people it might be finding the time to watch their favorite TV show, and they succeed!

Having small children around, I am not exactly free to pursue any goal I want whenever I want. Some days, it seems like I am stuck in an unproductive cycle of cleaning up after the kids and keeping them happy. Hours zoom past and nothing on my to-do list has been done. When someone says that planning will help, I almost laugh. Planning doesn’t always work because children don’t stick to schedules like adults do!

Going to Plan B, C, or even D has become a part of my daily living. I can roll with it. But I do see the merit in planning some things. Planning a meal and thinking ahead is important because if I don’t, it will be much too easy to grab a non-nutritious snack.

Sometimes I am not able to prepare a hearty nutritious meal and I need a good backup plan. I like to have a default nutritious restaurant in mind in these cases—usually Subway. When time doesn’t produce what I’ve hoped and I am not able to prepare the perfect nutritious meal, at least I am not in danger of running to McDonalds. Plan B can be just as nutritious as Plan A.

Saturday Superfoods

I haven’t always been a big salad eater. One of the reasons why I haven’t been crazy about chomping on a mouthful of lettuce is that my teeth are sensitive. Salad is not easy to chew.

I do enjoy eating at Fresh Choice, which is a salad buffet. I have to be careful, even in a healthy restaurant like that, by the way. The pasta, bleu cheese, and salad dressing can make the calories and fat really stack up.

Here is a recipe for a fantastic salad that I have compiled. It’s filling, lighter on the calories, and very tasty. It does take some chewing, but most people seem to differ from me and enjoy that aspect of salad.

Sensible Southwest Salad

1 cup butter lettuce
¼ cup black beans
¼ cup corn
¼ cup salsa
¼ cup finely chopped green bell pepper
2 T sliced olives
½ avocado, cut into 1 inch cubes

Dressing

¼ cup fresh lime juice
3 Tbsp olive oil
¼ cup chopped cilantro
1 fresh jalapeno, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
½ tsp chili powder
½ tsp ground cumin

Arrange salad ingredients in a bowl, except for the avocado. Blend the dressing ingredients in a food processor or blender. Pour over salad. Top with avocado.