Although it is snowy, and we are in the spiral of a “Polar Vortex” (what exactly that is, I do not know) it is bright and warm in our studio! Come on in and take a look at the new classes we are offering because it is January Registration time! First up – we have some evening openings just for you:
Also some openings for all you early birds out there:
And the star of our new classes – Say ‘hello’ to the Wunda Chair, Joseph Pilates most dynamic piece of equipment! You will get a full Pilates workout from the Wunda Chair.
Please contact the studio and sign-up for the class or classes of your choice. We will help you make your weekly commitment to yourself the best Resolution of 2014!
Everyone I know is always looking for a tasty way to get more vegetables in their life. My daughter is constantly constipated, and yet refuses to eat anything that is not meat, cheese, ice-cream or dairy in general. So as a mother I’ve been working on being more clever. I let you know when I finally accomplish that. In the meantime, I have exactly ONE recipe that I can give my daughter with vegetables. This is it my trump card, the one thing I can give her that she will eat that is nutritious, and helps her poop. So here you go, here is my secret.
Chocolate-Spinach Smoothie
serves 2-3
8 cups baby spinach
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 banana
1 cup soy milk
2-3 cups frozen blueberries
Blend spinach, cocoa, banana, and soy milk until very smooth. This takes about 3-4 minutes in my blender. Add more soy milk as necessary to keep the blender pulling the spinach down. Once the spinach is very smooth add blueberries. Blend to desired consistency. My daughter and I love this smoothie. I use a sweetened soy milk, but try sweetening it with agave nectar first couple times you try it until you because accustomed to the taste. If you go into thinking it will taste like a milk shake you will disappointed. It tastes almost like chocolate covered blueberries.
On a recent trip to the New England Aquarium with my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Quinn, we came across a learning tank full of tiny river fish. The tank had buttons on either side that controlled the current. Hit one button on the left and the current flowed from that side causing the fish to swim against it. Push the button on the right and the fish turned and swam against the current now flowing from the opposite side.
What does this have to do with Pilates? Bear with me, I’ll get there. Recently, while teaching a client teaser with the push through bar, we were working on the ability to lower the legs all the way to the mat without disturbing the pelvis. I cued her think of tilting her hips back to keep the pelvis steady. After three tries of me saying: “Keep the hips still!” in rapid repetition as she lowered her legs down to the mat, we both began to get a little frustrated. She knew she wasn’t giving me what I was asking for and I knew I wasn’t communicating to her what I meant. Each time she began to move her legs I watched as her front hip joint stayed closed and her legs dragged her pelvis forward with their increasing weight the closer they got to the mat. On the fourth try, I said “PULL BACK WITH YOUR HIPS!” as she lowered her legs and I began to see a bit of separation between what her legs were doing and what her hips were doing. It was halting and incomplete but it was there. As she lay back to the mat I asked her what had changed for her.
Teaser with the Push Through Bar
She told me that on the fourth try it FELT as though she were moving her hips. If you notice, the first three times I cued her into stillness. The fourth try she “moved her hips back” with all her might away from her legs. Now from my standpoint, her hips were not moving in space at all. This is what I call “the moving to not move” concept and it is a fundamental building block of Pilates. Without mastery of this concept, a client’s progression in Pilates will stagnate.
So how does my experience watching the fish relate to this concept? Those tiny fish were swimming in their tiny tank as hard as they could against the current. But those fish were NOT moving in space. As they swam they stayed suspended in water, hovering, in their respective spots. Swim a bit harder and they shot forward, swim less and the current pushed them back.
The fish WERE swimming, yet they were not moving in space. This is a perfect example of “moving to NOT move” and was exactly what I wanted of my client. The perfect balance of muscular effort, with the muscles of her powerhouse counter balancing the weight of the legs so that her legs could lower through space with no effect on the rest of the body. Her legs the current, pulling the hips along and her hips the fish swimming up stream. This falls under a major building block in Pilates, Opposition. And yet that isn’t specific enough because you can be opposing and still moving through space.
Opposition is a concept I never struggled with as a dancer. We use opposition to create length in our limbs, to give the appearance of reaching though we don’t actually grow. Perhaps the ease with which I tucked this tool into my belt as a student of Pilates has hindered my ability to articulate it well to my clients. I never had to struggle, to search and reach and work for this concept, so in many ways I know less about how to get there.
Opposition is everywhere. Our bodies walk through life erect, working in opposition to gravity, every moment of everyday. Our cellular walls work in opposition to atmospheric pressure. Too much work against the atmosphere and we would explode; too little and we would collapse in upon ourselves.
I wonder sometimes if this client had difficulty with this particular concept because she is an avid runner, addicted, in a fashion, to the sensation of moving her body forward through space. Perhaps she has trouble finding the work and balance it takes to remain perfectly still or perhaps it is simply uncomfortable to her. Or perhaps I was simply not communicating well. But each of us should strive to be aware, strive to sense the effort in stillness, the work it takes to stay balanced and poised in our daily lives.
This food blog is one day late and I’ll explain why later in the post. Yesterday started off with a session with Pam as I was lucky enough for her to make an exception and come in on Friday. Quinn and I had our normal breakfast.
Breakfast
Quinn’s Purple Mooshie
See January 1, 2012 Food Blog
Lunch
Becca’s Lunch Salad (Vegan, but as my client Jean reminded me, depending on the dressing)
8oz spinach
40z Arugula
1-2 tablespoons Gorgonzola and White Balsamic Vinaigrette
Dinner
Vegetable Udon Saute
1 ounce dried shiitake mushrooms
2 tablespoons dry sherry or sake
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 cups water
1 medium onion
2 red or yellow bell peppers
1 pound fresh asparagus
2 teaspoons dark sesame oil
2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger root
1/2 pound udon noodles
2 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon cold water
2 0r 3 scallions sliced on the diagonal
In a small sauce pan, combine the shiitake mushrooms sherry or sake, soy sauce and water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Meanwhile bring 3 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot.
While the shiitake simmer and the water heats, peel and thinly slice the onion. Seed the peppers and slice into long thin strips. Snap off and discard tough ends of the asparagus, then diagonally cut the spears into and tender stalks into two inch pieces.
Drain the shiitake and reserve the liquid. Slice off and discard the shiitake stems and thinly slice the caps. In a non-stick skillet, saute the onions in the oil for 5 minutes. Stir in the peppers, shiitake caps, and ginger and cook until vegetables are just tender, 5 to 10 minutes. Stir occasionally, adding some of the reserved shiitake stock if needed.
When the pot of water is boiling, ease in the asparagus and cook until just tender, about 3 minutes. Remove them with a sieve or slotted spoon and set aside. Then cook the udon noodles in the boiling water for 7 to 10 minutes until al dente. Drain an rinse the noodles in cold water to remove the starch.
Add the remaining shiitake stock and the dissolved cornstarch to the vegetables and simmer until sauce thickens. Stir in the asparagus and cooked noodles and gently toss to coat and heat the noodles. Sprinkle with scallions and serve.
Notes. I never use non-stick skillets. They are LOADED with chemicals and if you cook at the proper temperatures with a good pan, things don’t stick. People cook things way to hot.
I failed on this recipe. I started simmering the shiitake mushrooms and boiling the water. I was surprised that even though I turned down my burner to low the mushrooms kept rattling a away at a rapid boil. I was very confused by this because we have an electric ceramic cook-top and one of the things I love about it is its ability to gently simmer like a whisper and to heat without boiling even the most delicate of sauces. Meanwhile, though I had cranked the heat up on the boiling water, it was taking forever. I’m sure you have guessed what I didn’t realize at the time. I had turned up the wrong burner and turner down the other. This lead to an abnormally reduced shiitake stock.
Once that was done I started work on the veggies. Not reading carefully (or perhaps finding the directions unclear) I added olive oil to the skillet and proceeded to simmer the onions. I followed directions as best I could adding the peppers, and ginger. We used dried ginger because we didn’t have fresh. All was going as planned. We cooked the asparagus with no issue and added udon. Meanwhile, I searched frantically in the recipe for where in the hell the sesame oil went. I read it three or four time until I realized the “oil” I was supposed to saute the onions in was the sesame. Fail.
In Quincy, we are lucky enough to have a very large Asian population and therefore an easy abundance of all things Asian in the food store. As such, our local Shaw’s carried FRESH udon noddle in the veggies section. But being a slave to the recipe, I failed to use MY noodle and realize that most likely the recipe authors would be cooking dried udon. (the also say you can use linguine) So I boiled my very fresh udon for 7 minutes. At which point it was a squishy, sticky mess. But I persevered. I finished out the recipe adding the cornstarch to an already pretty thick sauce (remember I way over boiled the shiitake mushrooms) and voila Veggie Udon saute!
The veggies were the best part. They were crisp and yummy. The udon was a mess and even though my husband and sister in law said they liked it, I say this was a fail. 1) I have no interest personally in finishing the left overs. 2) I didn’t quite clean my plate 3) This was, in my opinion, a pain in the ass to cook. I say that for a few reasons.
It used at least three pans, two cutting boards, two knives and a few mixing bowls. Things have to be AWFULLY good when they make that many dishes. I have to clean those up later.
I had no time to think. This was NOT leisurely cooking, where I can relax and do things at my own speed. Hence my many mistakes.
This had 313 calorie a serving. Compare that to my lasagna.
It only made 3-4 servings. Compare that to my lasagna.
For people who don’t want a lot of actual cooking time this might be a great recipe. If you were good at it I think you could whip it up fast. The lasagna and the chili both need minimum of an hour to actually cook. But they are harder to screw up. Last night I was lucky to have my sister-in-law here watching Quinn while I cooked and my husband to help me. And it was still a disaster. Imagine cooking that with a two year old tugging at your pants and demanding things while you try to pay attention to what you are doing. It is easy to see why so many parents just pop something frozen in the microwave.
This makes me understand why I gravitate to my crock-pot. Quinn takes a nap and I use that time to prepare dinner. Sure it takes me a while but it will feed us for a week, its healthy and its ready when you are. Pop the leftover in the freezer and eat them when ready. I’m thinking of my chili, a perfect meal in my mind. So easy. So healthy. Tastes better after marinating in the freezer for a month. The veggies, though cooked, leech their vitamins into the sauce, which you in turn eat. Its hot and fragrant, a little spicy, and no matter how blocked your bowels may be they won’t be by the next morning. But in a pleasant way.
After my udon fail, my spirits were pretty low. I love udon and I wanted to love this recipe. I felt like I blew my whole day. So my husband took me out for a drink at Remick’s, the bar I stared my food blog at. I ordered a Grey Goose cosmo with Cointreau, fresh lime and light on the cranberry. Having been a bartender and having used speed pours, I know that a cosmo is a six count of vodka, three count of triple-sec and a 1 1/2 count pour of lime and cranberry. Well I’m pretty sure, its been a long time since I bar tended. This was more like six counts vodka and Cointreau and a splash of lime and cranberry. It was a Cointreau cosmo. (Have I mentioned that I have abstained from liquor this week?)
So pretty much two sips in I was feeling quite pleasantly tipsy and a little hungry as I didn’t finish my plate of udon. Once I have the drunchies, (thanks Jo for teaching me that word cause I love it) there is pretty much no way of appealing to my rational side and before I knew it a plate of steaming hot wings were ordered and in front of me. Remick’s apparently won best wings from somewhere in 2011, and now I know why. They were pretty amazing; super crunchy and spicy, which I solved by drowning them in the mysteriously amazing blue cheese they were served with. They then brought us a finger bowl of lemon water to wash our dirty wing fingers in. Have I mentioned I like this place? Go give them your money so they can stay open and I can keep eating there.
It’s clear why I was unable to blog last night, right? I was full of wings and vodka which pretty much put me to sleep as soon as I sat down next to our cheerily burning stove in the basement. Also I am incapable of making rational decisions under the influence of Cointreau so my rationale of “oh I’ll just blog that tomorrow” seemed completely reasonable.
So what have I learned from all this? 1) I was very smart to abstain from liquor this week as I make poor food choices under its influence. I will be resuming my abstinence. 2) I just can’t drink the way I used to and think I may now be comfortably classified as a light weight. I think I need to realize and embrace this. 3) I won’t be making that udon again. 4) That I need to go elliptical of the 1000 calories of wings that I consumed last night.
Today was my “off day.” I had to work today so I planned on yanking out a Tupperware of chili from the freezer and that is exactly what I had Josh do. Thursday’s I work very late and often don’t get home until 10 -10:30pm. So its the best day for us to use something pre-made. The phenomenal thing about freezers and pre-making food is that you can make something beautiful and healthy and just have it when you are ready. We are lucky enough to have a large chest freezer in our basement and I’m not sure how we would live without it at this point.
Breakfast
Quinn’s Purple Mooshie
See January 1st, 2012-Food Blog
After Quinn and I ate our smoothies I had a choice in front of me. I was completely out of salad. My goal this week has been to have a salad for lunch everyday. But I also really wanted to elliptical. I knew there was no way I could get both in, and yesterday I sacrificed my work out for food. So today I did the opposite. I let me salad slide and did 45 minutes of elliptical. I put “Elmo’s World” on the TV embraced my flouting of the American Academy of Pediatrics and put some Buffy on my iPhone for me. Sarah Michele’s ass kicking ways kept me going strong and Elmo distracted my child. I think it was a wise decision. I did my 45 minutes of Pilates when I got to work.
Lunch
Lighter Lasagna
See January 4th, 2012- Food Blog
Holy God, this Lasagna tasted BETTER on day two. It’ll be tough to go back to my salad tomorrow. I’ll have to put something fancy in it. Grilled pear perhaps?
Dinner
Becca’s Hot Chipotle Chili
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions (I like sweet onions) coarsely chopped
1 spoonful of minced garlic or 2 fresh cloves minced
2 jalapeño peppers, seeded and finely chopped
4 chipotle chilis
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
3-4 Bell peppers seeded and coarsely chopped. Go for color!
2 cans black beans rinsed
2 cans kidney beans rinsed
2 cans chickpeas rinsed
1 can tomato purée (15oz)
1 cup chicken or veggie broth
1 16 oz package of Frozen corn
Finely mince jalapeños and chipotle chilies. Chipotle chilies are smoked jalapeños. They come canned in adobo sauce and add more flavor than heat. I like to mince my jalpeños and chipotle chilies in my food processor. If you get jalapeño on your hands, it will BURN when you take your contacts out no matter how many times you wash your hands. I learned that the hard way. My husband learned this again making Vietnamese Hot and Sour Soup. Its basically like macing yourself in the eye. So handle with care.
In a skillet heat up olive oil over low to medium heat. Add onions, minced chilies, garlic, spices and saute until onions are translucent. Sometimes I add a dash of water to help soak the spices in.
Add all the ingredients to a crock pot and cook on low for 4 hours or 2 hours on high.
Sometimes I add other things. Sweet potatoes taste amazing in this recipe. Potatoes would also be good. Some people add mushroom, I don’t because I hate their texture. You could also make this recipe with fresh beans. You’d need to cook it longer and add more chicken broth. You could also take the heat out of the recipe by removing the jalapeños. Go crazy!
Yes this is a direct repeat but cooking something new every night seemed like a bit too much of a pain in the ass this week. We served our chili in whole wheat wraps with thinly sliced avocado and quinoa. It was, of course, delicious and filling. I’m waiting to cook a bad recipe so that I can pan it. But honestly everything has been so good. Stick around! Tomorrow is Udon Saute. I LOVE udon.
Day three. My body is starting to feel better. I have more energy. I haven’t been sleeping better but I am hoping that will come. Today I managed to squeak in 45 minutes of elliptical which felt great but was tricky with a two year old trying to get on with me saying “I try it!” I also managed to squeak in about an hour of some good solid Pilates, but my back was a little tweaky today so it wasn’t of the highest quality. I kept looking forward to the beans Josh and I had planned for the end of the evening.
Breakfast
Quinn’s Purple Mooshie (Vegan)
See January 1, 2012-Food blog
Lunch
Becca’s Lunch Salad
8 oz Spinach
4 oz Arugula
1 tablespoon Balsamic Vinaigrette
I was in a huge rush today so I threw my salad in a Tupperware and took it with me to work and ate it when I got there. I didn’t have time to do anything fancy. And I had some snacks. I ate hummus and carrots, and I tried some pre-made kale chips but they were GROSS and not worth the calories. I think it was the nutritional yeast and salt they slathered on them. I have made my own but mine were much better.
Dinner
Barbecue Beans(Vegan) from Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites
2 cups dried navy beans soaked at least 8 hours in water that cover them by two inches.
2 to 4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 cup onions chopped
1/2 cup prepared non-fat barbecue sauce * use a vegan BBQ sauce to ensure vegan-ness
1/4 cup prepared mustard
1/4 cup molasses or pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce to taste.
salt and ground black pepper
Drain the soaked beans and combine with the garlic and onions in a large soup pot. Cover with water at least an inch and bring to a rapid boil. Lower heat, cover, and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours until tender. Add water to the pot as necessary to retain water level.
When the beans are ready, drain them and stir in the barbecue sauce, mustard and molasses or maple syrup and vinegar. Add Tabasco, salt and pepper to taste. To cook the beans on the stove top gently simmer on low heat with a heat diffuser for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring often. To bake them, transfer the beans to a baking dish and bake uncovered at 350 for 20 to 30 minutes stirring once or twice during the baking.
Note: Josh and I used canned navy beans rather than dry as it was just shorter. We sauteed the garlic and onions with beans in a tiny bit of olive oil. We used my favorite brand of barbecue sauce, Sweet Baby Rays; I doubt it was fat free. We used maple syrup and no Tabasco as I hate it.
This was DELICIOUS. It made me wanna bust out the grille, fire up some black bean burgers and invite friends over for beers around the fire pit. I have never really liked baked beans but these were so sweet and yummy that I’m converted. I’ll also always have a dish to bring to summer barbecues. Josh and I served this with sauteed kale. We just sauteed it with a little garlic, olive oil and salt. However, in our haste to eat, we didn’t let the kale soften enough, so it was a bit tough and bitter. I solved the bitter problem by piling my sweet beans atop them and scarfing them down.
Following along? I’ll tackle a Lighter Lasagna (not vegan) tomorrow and I’m flying solo, Josh will be working and this dish is not pre-made. (We had a cook-athon on Sunday) Wish me luck. I’m gonna need it.
Today is the second day of my food blog. Everything has been delicious so far, but just like last year, my body is having a bit of trouble adjusting to the very high fiber content. The same happened to me before, and my body adjusted after a week or so. I’m sure I’ll be feeling squeaky clean and healthy next week.
Breakfast
Quinn’s Purple Mooshie (Vegan)
See yesterday’s blog for details
Lunch
Becca’s Spinach Salad (Vegan)
80z spinach
4oz arugula
1/2 cup snap peas
1/2 one avocado
2 tablespoons bleu cheese dressing
Toss in a large bowl and enjoy!
Dinner
Vietnamese Hot and Sour Soup (Vegan) From Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites
2 cups thinly sliced onions
2 teaspoons olive oil
5 garlic cloves minced or pressed
1 0r 2 fresh chilies seeded and minced
7 cups Southeast Asian Vegetable stock (recipe to follow)
1 1/2 cups canned straw mushrooms (15 once can drained)
3/4 cup canned pineapple chunks (8 oz can undrained) or 1 cup fresh diced pineapple
1 cup chopped fresh tomatoes
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/4 cup soy sauce or Asian fish sauce
1 1/2 cups diced tofu cut into 1/2 inch cubes
In a large soup pot, saute the onions in the oil on low heat for about 5 minutes, until softened. Add garlic and chilies and saute for another minute, stirring to prevent sticking. Stir in the stock, straw mushrooms, pineapple and tomatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add basil and mint, lime juice, soy sauce, and tofu. Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes, until the flavors are well blended. Sprinkle with mung sprouts and basil leaves and accompany each serving with a wedge of lime.
Notes: I used a pre-minced garlic to save time. We minced the straw mushrooms VERY small so that I wouldn’t notice the texture. I bought pineapple chunks not suspended in juice but heavy syrup. So I drained and did not add the liquid. We used fire roasted tomatoes to enhance the flavor. We used soy sauce as we did not have fish sauce. Josh hates tofu so we substituted a very thin brown rice noodle.
Southeast Asian Vegetable Stock (Vegan) From Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites
1 onion, peeled, and sliced
6 garlic cloves, peeled
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
3 inch piece fresh ginger root, sliced
1 fresh lemongrass stalk, chopped
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
1 teaspoon black peppercorn
1 bay leaf
1 star anise (or 1/2 teaspoon anise seed)
9 cups water
Combine all of the ingredients in a large stock pot and bring them to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered for 45 minutes. Strain the stock through a colander or sieve pressing as much liquid as possible out of the vegetables. Discard the vegetables and spices.
Notes: I used a dried lemongrass stalk. Also don’t skip the broth and substitute a chicken stock. This fragrant broth makes the soup.
This soup was again so good. Very different from the comforting feel the tomato bisque had. It was a hot (spicy) soup with a complexity of flavor that I have never experienced before. Josh and I loved the brown rice noodle in the soup, but if you are a tofu fan go for that. This soup warmed you from the inside out heating your blood from the spicy chilies and soothing the palette with the sweetness of the pineapple. Tangy and sweet, it was oh so delicious and will certainly be added to our roster of regulars.
Too many cookies! (not really but that is how I feel)
I’ve decided this year to make my New Years’ resolution public. That way, I am completely accountable if I slack off. I hesitate to say “fail”, because we are always works in progress. I personally think that you should set a goal that seems a little unattainable, as it gives you something to work for. If you set a goal that is a little beyond your reach and you “fail”, you might feel like a loser and lose your momentum, spiral into self doubt and recriminations, wondering why you even tried in the first place. Those emotions aren’t particularly useful, so let’s take away the idea that you can attain your goal and instead think that you are reaching toward it. That way any motion in the right direction is good and “failure” isn’t in the picture.
As many of you may know, my struggle since I’ve had my baby, and quite possible my entire dance career, has been my weight. Last year, I read a book called Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Furhman, so perhaps I should begin there. One year after I had my baby, I realized my baby weight had yet to shed. I tried hard not to worry about my weight her first year, as I was breastfeeding and wanted to be a healthy, strong mommy for her. I figured some pudge must be good for milk production so I didn’t stress too hard, despite the fact that I got married under those circumstances. It was very difficult not to slip into full blown “brideorexia”. Luckily, I have a very loving husband, who I was pretty sure loved me despite my extra weight. Having a baby helps you be pretty sure of that. Now, was I obese? Certainly not. But I gained a solid forty pounds during pregnancy and only lost about fifteen of that after I had her. I was SURE breastfeeding would melt the weight right off, everyone told me it would, but that was NOT the case for me. Breastfeeding seemed to tell my body, “no, no! I need that weight, I’m feeding a baby here!” and I simply couldn’t convince it that it didn’t need ALL of it. I carried that 25lbs around until last January, when I simply decided enough was enough. I didn’t feel like myself with the extra weight. I felt like a shadow, with less energy, less vivacity, less spring in my step, literally weighed down.
Now to top all that off, I was also dealing with pretty debilitating back pain. See my very first blog post for info on that. I just wanted to feel like myself again. So I read Dr. Furhman’s book and started down a path toward veganism. Not on principal, but for health purposes. For six weeks, I cut out all dairy, all meat, all animal by-products. Did I cheat? You bet. But for those six weeks I bet I only cheated three or four times. And what I really liked about this diet was it really that it opened my mind to foods I never would have tried. I became a huge fan of kale, a delicious super food. The same is true of beans, which I LOVE now. I prefer them to meat. They make me feel more full than meat. And at this point if I eat more than 3oz or so or meat I start to get grossed out by it (unless its chicken fingers, not sure why). But Dr. Furhman goes on to recommend that 90% of your total caloric intake should be from vegetables or fruit. Just pause and think about that for a second. That is a LOT of vegetables. He cautions you to use refined sugar, and flour with caution. That means noddles and bread should not be the bulk of your meal.
Following this faithfully, I lost all 25 pounds and a little more. I can’t tell you how much I liked that little more. But I also think its important to note, I didn’t feel like me again. I felt new and better, vivacious again, but like pre-baby me? No. For one thing, I was still in a lot of back pain. For another, weight had shifted on my body into new places and left others.
Like most people, I was pretty smug about my weight loss and as social pressures weighed on me I gradually slipped out of my healthy life style. My salad lunches were replaced by pasta, I added desserts back in, liquor, eggs for breakfast and before I knew it, I was making french toast for my little one every Saturday and having a slice of cake everyday. After this past Christmas I returned from my mother’s cookie-filled house five pounds heavier than when I set out for it, and that was on top of the eight pounds that slowly crept up on me over the year.
So here I am one year later, determined to reclaim that CLEAN feeling my body had when I was eating well. I would like to lose at least fifteen pounds (remember those goals should always be a little further than you think you can get) but mostly I’d like to be able to move without pain, fit in my jeans and bounce around vitally whenever I choose. I don’t want to feel like a shadow of myself. So my New Years’ resolution is to reclaim me!
So I have resolved each week to write a blog about my Pilates experiences. I don’t always have something Pilates related and relevant to say and this is one of those weeks. But I do have a semi-Pilates-related-because-its-related-to-overall-general-health thing to share.
As some of my clients know, I had to change my diet pretty drastically to loose my baby weight. Most of this weight loss was driven purely by vanity, but I also had quite a bit of back pain and extra weight is hard on your joints. So I cut out all meat, dairy, eggs, soda, and refined sugar. I went Vegan. I didn’t go Vegan on principals but for weight loss and general health reasons. I read a book called “Eat to Live” by Dr. Furhman who is a proponent of a “nutritarian” diet. Basically, the stuff that you know isn’t good for you, he reminds you you should not eat but he takes it a step further by suggesting that Americans eat too much filler food. Filler foods (that’s my term not his) are your pastas, breads, and tofu. In my mind pasta is the meal. Dr. Furhman suggests that our veggies should be the main meal. They are packed full of nutrients that are good for your body, so you should be eating mostly them because they are the foods that are best for you. So it isn’t that pasta is bad for you, its that when you eat it, its taking up a lot of room in your stomach that should be full of vegetables. And those vegetables have a much more favorable nutrient to calorie ratio. He supports a 90/10 split. Yes, folks, that is 90% of your diet being vegetables. The first week of this was tough but I lost weight quickly and I felt great.
In the months following, I have gradually let a little meat, dairy and sugar into my diet. But I’m so grateful for my foray into full veganism. It forced me to open my palette to foods I had never liked. Most notably, beans. I’m a firm believer you cannot have enough beans in your diet now. They are great for you, super filling, cheap, easy to cook, packed full of nutrients and help you poop. And they are so versatile! So I plan to begin sharing some of my favorite recipes not only for beans but other yummy, healthy, filling foods. Here is a bean one! Please note you need a high powered food processor for it. I leave out the nuts and add a few semi sweet chocolate chips on top. Also, don’t go in expecting these to taste like a white sugar, egg, white flour and chocolate brownie. Because it will disappoint. Do let it be its own thing. That is how I taught my lactose intolerant husband to like soy milk. I simply explained to him one day that he should not prepare his mouth for cow milk when it was about to drink a plant. Low and behold, my household all drinks soy milk now and loves it. Do the same with these bean brownies.
-Rebecca Garrison
Black Bean Brownies
Serves: 10
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients:
1/2 cup Cocoa
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 can black beans
2 tablespoons ground flax seed
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 cups pitted dates
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup walnuts (optional)
Instructions:
Place first 6 ingredients in a food processor. Start the food processor, then add the dates one at a time until finished. Add the flour until evenly blended. Shut off the food processor and stir in the nuts. Spread into a 13 x 9-inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes. Tastes best chilled in the refrigerator.
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