Monday, January 10, 2005

Well, I seem to be falling into the “every 2 weeks, give or take a day or two” blogging pattern. I don’t really like it, but it doesn’t seem to be changing.

Which sort of brings me to the point of this blog: Sometimes it’s best to live with the changes that you CAN make, that DO work for you, rather than to try to do something that DOESN’T work, no matter how much you wish that it would.

Take my experience with the BTD, for instance, as this is very indicative of this point. When I first started, I threw myself into the diet with everything that I had. I was going to be 100% compliant. I was never going to eat avoids again. I was going to keep bennies the complete focus of my eating, throwing in neutrals here and there for variety.

In fact, I know without question, that if I want to lose weight and feel great, the key – THE KEY – is to eschew all starches completely. I don’t do well with starches. I gain weight when I eat too much of them, they make me lethargic, and eating them puts me into a vicious cycle of wanting more and more. Eating starches – all starches – also makes it easier for me to eat sugar, another item that is very, very difficult for me to handle. I have a sweet tooth, and sugar, in any form, always gets me going for more.

For me, starches and sugars are a problem. And yes, I AM a secretor, however, there is diabetes in my immediate family, and I think that my sugar/starch issues stem from that.

Anyway, to get back to my point, there have been a couple of times where I have decided that I would go at the BTD 100%. I would NEVER eat an avoid again! I would keep my diet to 80% bennies and 20% neutrals! I would give up all starches! Perfection! Perfection! Perfection!

Except….

It didn’t work. I could do it for a while, but on a day-in-day-out basis, for a lifetime, it didn’t work.

After that, I tried to give up completely. Heck, looking back on blogging, maybe that’s one of the reasons that I decided to stop blogging – because I wasn’t able to do it the way that I “thought” it should be done. I am very impressed with fellow blogger Suzanne Graham. Not only does she seem to follow the diet to a great degree of compliance, she blogs every day! Wow! I need to be like THAT.

But I’m not able to be her. I can only be me. I am beginning to find, now that I am in my 40’s, that I can’t do everything. I have to do what I can. Therefore, I have found that, for me, the best approach to the BTD is to, overall, aim for 80% compliance over the process of a week. Sometimes – actually often – I do much better than that, but that is my goal. I find that it is do-able for me on a long-term basis.

And it seems that a blog every week or two is what is working for me, too. I would like to blog more, and perhaps, some weeks I will. But instead of driving myself crazy, I will do what works for me, and I will be happy with that. Like the old adage says, “Happiness is NOT having what you want, but wanting what you have”.

Quick salmon salad recipe:

OK – I like to have snacky stuff in the refridge at all times, so that if I am hungry, I can reach in and get something compliant that works for me. This is one of my staples.

I take 2 large cans (14.75 oz) of wild caught salmon. I usually use “Honey Boy” brand because it is wild caught and available everywhere. I like to use one can of the Fancy Sockeye Red Salmon, and one of their Pink Salmon (I think that it is the “Chum” salmon). I use the sockeye because I figure that a deeper colored fish might have more nutrients. I could be wrong on that, so use whatever you like. Just be sure that it is wild caught.

I refrigerate the cans so that the fish is cold when I make the salad, and I simply drain the salmon and put it in a LARGE, LARGE bowl. To that I add PILES of finely chopped ORGANIC celery (maybe 5 or 6 large stalks with leaves), parsley (I like the flat Italian style – a half of a large bunch, at least, with stems), green onions (5 or 6 with stems and roots), and cilantro (1/2- 1 whole bunch). I really do mean piles of the stuff. I coarsely chop a whole bunch of walnuts (I keep the bag in my freezer, btw) and throw them in the bowl. Finally, if I’m in the mood, I throw in some chopped up hard-boiled eggs (organic, of course). I often chop all of this by hand, but you can use a food processor too. Once the whole thing is in this bowl, I pour on the organic olive oil and either some lemon juice or some apple cider vinegar. I use far more oil than lemon juice or vinegar. As I add them, I keep stirring up the salad until the salad seems the correct “salad” consistency, and I keep tasting to get the right balance of oil and lemon or vinegar. It takes LOTS of olive oil. If you want, you can use mayo (I like the Veganaise Grapeseed oil – no avoids for O-secretors – it’s in the refrigerated section of most HFSs). Sometimes I use the mayo, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I mix it up. When it is a consistency that I like I add some organic flax oil and, my special ingredient, some lemon-flavored grapeseed oil from Salute’ Sante’ (http://www.grapeseedoil.com). It is DELICIOUS (I’ve tried other brands – blech!). I then throw on some Braggs Liquid Aminos, some garlic salt, some Herbamare, some onion powder and some sea salt. I taste all of this as I go along, until I get it JUST RIGHT.

Then I dig in. I eat this either on crisp celery stalks or rice crackers. It keeps VERY well in the fridge, and it gives me SO many things that I need.

Hmmm. I’m hungry for some. I’m going to go make a batch RIGHT THIS MOMENT!!!