Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Wow! Finally a moment when I am not busy or tired – it surely has been a wild week. I could go into the details of Thanksgiving, but no need. I wasn’t very compliant, but I have survived and am back on program. That is the way that works the best for me: I eat food that I cook and prepare at home for probably 85-95% of my meals. When I do this, I am mostly compliant. When I eat out, I do the best to choose foods that will help me to feel good, but if I want something else, I order it. This is almost the exact opposite of where I was before I took my hiatus. At that time I was eating nearly 80% of my meals out or as take-out. I would try to comply when I ordered out, and would then cheat at home. The problem with that way of doing it, is that you just cannot control what other people put in your food. Inevitably, something each day would be a trigger food, and off I would go. It was very depressing. I have come to realize that cooking my own food is more than just saving money, and more than a “job”. It is a choice that allows me to be healthy. I have moved further and further away from avoids, simply by eating food that I cook and that I control. I have spent most of my adult life eating out. The results are always the same: I can’t control my food and I have to deal with cravings continually.

When I eat at home, and when I eat food that I prepare, I find myself wanting to be compliant. I crave foods that are good for me, and avoids for the most part, are small voices in the background.

Part of keeping on track is getting myself off to a good start in the morning. It might surprise you what I often eat for breakfast: A big, HUGE salad. Let me tell you about my breakfast salad. You see, I am a person who is most hungry when I wake up in the morning. My hungriest period of the day is from 6:15 AM when I get up, until about 11 AM. I am hon-gry! I used to take care of my hunger by eating bowls of cereal. That was up until I really started getting into the BTD. The thing that I found works the very best for me on really hungry morning is a huge salad. This is how I make it:

I take a large amount of the organic spring mix, or some other prepared organic salad and I chop it up really, really small…chop, chop, chop! I find that I prefer to eat my salads really chopped up into tiny pieces. I then add – ALWAYS – a big handful of parsley (chop, chop, chop), a big handful of cilantro (chop, chop, chop), 1 or 2 large stalks of organic celery (chop, chop, chop) and sometimes a mix that I get in the store called broccoli slaw, which is slivers of raw broccoli, cabbage and carrots, and even though these are in slivers I still chop, chop, chop. To this I add a big handful of walnuts (chopped, of course), sometimes (if I’m in the mood in the morning) some green onions (chopped fine) and ALWAYS some finely chopped fruit – usually apples and/ or grapes. I always add the fruit because I like some sweetness to my salad and the fruit not only makes it a little sweet, but adds an extra texture. I throw all of this into a huge metal bowl. On top of that I add a good dose of expeller-pressed flaxseed oil, a splash of organic apple cider vinegar with the mother (I have found that I just don’t care for lemon juice as much as I like the ac vinegar), a nice dose of expeller-pressed organic olive oil, usually a little splash of my to-die-for lemon grapeseed oil (http://www.grapeseedoil.com), and, of course, a splash of Bragg’s Liquid Amino Acids. I top it off with organic garlic salt, organic onion powder and a big pinch of sea salt. I then mix that baby up. When it’s mixed, I throw in a finely chopped organic hard-boiled egg. If I’m lucky enough to have some cold steak lying around, in it goes. Then I FEAST! I tell you, I feel like a million bucks after I eat this. I am CHARGED UP. Unlike other breakfasts, which inevitably make me tired, this one gets me going. And I like the fact that I can eat it and eat it and eat it, no matter how hungry I am, and it is all good for me.

While I am doing all this chopping, I usually drink a 3-cup glass of water (I don’t follow the water rules that Dr. D puts out, I am afraid) and a big cup of my special “vitamins in real food form” broth that I always have made. I’ll tell you about THAT little secret tomorrow, and also about the FABULOUS new workout routine that I am doing.

OK – I’m off to bed. Try my SUPER SALAD breakfast someday, all you O’s out there looking for the morning energy. It will make you feel WONDERFUL!