Bring on the Water!

I'm finding Alex Jamieson's The Great American Detox Diet a great, super easy read. It's broken up into eight one-week chunks, designed for you to either add or take something out of your diet. I'm extremely trepidatious about the sugar week (you remove it, obviously), but am excited about the (adding) water week, which is the first one.

I'm already a pretty good water drinker, so I'm feeling like I have this one in the bag. I drink at least 72 ounces of water a day, every day. It's not that I'm really that conscientious about it; I just really like water. I cut out sodas a few months ago and found it quite easy to drink more water. I just keep a bottle on my desk that I refill every so often, usually on the way to the bathroom from drinking so much water!

Now that I've read the chapter on water, I'm realizing just how important it is to drink. Not just the recommended amount of 8-10 glasses a day, but more if possible. That 8-10 recommendation only replaces what you've sweated and breathed out in the course of a day, so drinking 10+ is ideal. It aids digestion, keeps the kidneys and liver happily functioning (and the liver processes stored fat, so you can lose weight by drinking more!), and keeps your lovely brain nice and hydrated. We're mostly water anyway, so keeping that balance is ideal.

Not only that, but it can also help in disease prevention. "In a study conducted at the Centre for Human Nutrition at the University of Sheffield, England, researchers concluded that women who stay adequately hydrated reduce their risk of breast cancer by 79%." What?!?! 79%!?! Why don't we know this? Why isn't it being shouted from the rooftops? Why isn't it posted on the nice little breast self-exam card that's hanging in my shower? What's more: "Another study, done at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, found that women who drink more than five glasses of water a day have a 45% reduced risk of colon cancer compared with women who drink two or fewer glasses of water a day." I recognize that these studies have been small-scale, but the findings are very, very interesting. Definitely can't hurt to drink more water, right?

Who's thirsty now?

Hey! I Resemble That Remark!

Our library is so cool! Today it sent me an email to let me know that one of my thousands of on-hold books had come in: The Great American Detox Diet by Alex Jamieson. (Thanks for the recommendation, Tia!) So, I went down the big hill to pick it up, and I'm already hooked.

Alex Jamieson is the fiancee of Morgan Spurlock of Supersize Me and was part of the documentary. After he complete the 30 days, gaining 24.5 pounds and 65 points of cholesterol(!), Alex helped him detox using the principles in this book. I've only read the first two chapters, but I'm already enjoying it. It's easy to read and has just the right amount of information. (I'm finding it really easy to get overwhelmed with this; there's just so much to know!)

In her introduction, she talks about her upbringing in Oregon on mostly organic and whole foods and how she really never paid attention to what she was eating or how it made her feel. It wasn't until she was a young adult and got into some bad eating habits that she noticed how the food she ate made her feel. Her skin changed, she got more bloated and had other intestinal problems, and she dealt with headaches and periods of depression. Morgan also felt much of the same in his shortened experiment with eating McDonald's for every meal.

As I was reading it, every word was resonating with me. After college, my now-husband and I moved in together and set up house. The problem was, I had no idea how to cook for two and ended up making mostly pastas, big casseroles, and pre-packaged convenience foods. I ended up gaining about 45 pounds in 4 years and just felt awful. I had headaches, intestinal problems, and had a 6-month or so period of dealing with depression. Sound familiar? I know now, absolutely, that what I was eating led me to that. It wasn't until I joined Weight Watchers and learned a new way of being that I started to feel more myself again.

Even now, when I'm eating much, much healthier than I did in those earlier days, I can definitely tell when my body isn't happy with what I've been eating. It is usually through my running that I notice it the most: I just feel sluggish and slow in those weeks that I've been eating crap. Doesn't mean I've changed much since noticing that, but at least I have a barometer of sorts.

Some interesting things I learned in the first chapters:
-Studies have been done that demonstrate the negative effects the Standard American Diet (SAD) has had on various cultures once it's been introduced. Literally, bone structures have changed and diseases have increased. No wonder we've created a generation that will have a shorten lifespan than their parents!
-The average American eats more than 50 pounds of food additives a year.
-Americans buy 50% of their food from only 10 companies.

I found a Facebook group on which people are discussing Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. Numerous people like me have started blogs, one of which, Spoonfed, is really great. I've linked it to the right if you have some time. Those of you with kids might be especially interested.

I've also linked to my friend Sarah's blog, Food for Thought. She's a registered dietitian and posts some great recipes with review from her two children. I already want to try several of them!

The Trouble with Schedules

As I mentioned in my first post, one thing I'm worried about is fitting all this in our schedule as a family. Both Jeremy and I work 40 hours a week and we both run in the evenings. I do already cook at home most nights of the week, but I'm worried about the added time of cooking even more fresh foods and the added time for shopping. I'll definitely be trying to find ways to make this easier.

It hit home tonight one consequence of all of this juggling: Lauren is a huge fan of the convenience foods. She needs to eat around 6, which is right around when Jeremy gets home. Usually, one of us is going running in the evening and doesn't eat right away. So, what's happened is that I often feed Lauren before us, and she eats something different than we. I hate to even type this, but her range of foods is really small: pizza, fish sticks, nuggets, eggs, peanut butter and jelly. At first, she'd eat whatever we put in front of her, but now she requests these things. Not only requests, but refuses others. (In my defense, she always has a fruit and vegetable as well, and she always eats those.) Tonight, I made a gorgeous stir-fry and she refused to eat, calling it "yucky." I instantly had flashbacks of the kids on Jamie Oliver's show, the ones that eat pizza for breakfast. I've got to change things now for her before it's too late. Now, toddlers are notoriously picky and I don't expect that she's going to adore tofu and sprouts, but I can improve the range of things she eats and hopefully get her into trying new things.

I get Runner's World daily news in my email and they just sent me a link to the best foods for runners. I had no idea that green garlic existed!

Jamie Oliver's second Food Revolution show is available here. The part with the chicken nuggets was... just... blech.

He also posted a link to a list of the 10 sugariest 'health' foods. What's interesting was that I was going through the cupboards today, trying to prioritize what things I need to replace most. High on my list? Granola bars and cereal, just like on this list. I'm mostly concerned about the use of HFCS, but sugar content will be something I'm paying attention to.

Looking forward to heading to the store and doing some comparison shopping this week!

Thinking about Chickens

Today was pretty business as normal, without much thought on my part about food. I'm waiting until this week to do some good research into food purchasing and how to go about it all. I did, though, think about chickens.

I actually started thinking about this on Friday when one of my coworkers was telling me about a family she knows that has three chickens and how great it is for the kids, how wonderful it is to have fresh eggs. I think chickens are pretty cool, so my interest was piqued.

Then today Kristi posted on here and on Facebook about the law changing here in Edmonds regarding the keeping of chickens in the city limits. Jeremy thinks I'm absolutely nuts, of course, but I do think it would be interesting. Not only would we have fresh eggs from animals that have been treated humanely, but I think it would be a good experience for Lauren. I want her to know where food comes from.

I've been doing some research into my family history for the last couple of weeks, and as far back as I can find, my family were farmers. Literally, every census shows that they farming their own land at least back into the early 1800s. This may sound cheesy, but it's striking how far from the earth we've gotten. I know nothing about farming and little about producing my own food, and I'd like to change that. Again, small changes are in order, but I think I can make some headway here. At least I can work on helping out the farmers here in our community by purchasing from and otherwise supporting them. Still need to do some research into how to do that, but the imperative is there.

Not that I'll ever get my chickens, but I'm at least thinking about it. That's a huge change.

Small Changes

Day 2 of waking up, still wanting to make this work. I think the ultimate outcome of this is that I'm going to end up making a lot of small, but helpful, changes. So, I started today. No day like the present, right?

I must tell you, I have an addiction. A terrible one. Not your traditional vices like smoking or drinking or drugs; I'm addicted to Starbucks' Earl Grey Tea Lattes. I know, I know, how can tea, milk, and a little vanilla flavoring be so powerful? If you're thinking that, you've never smelled the deliciousness first thing in the morning. They're just the right mix of sweet and strong and I just love them. Please let's not talk about how much money I've spent on them in the last year.

The crazy thing is that I've learned how to make them at home and I have all the supplies on hand. I can make about ten of them for the price of one. So why haven't I? Laziness is one reason, and the second is that mine just aren't quite as good. Dumb, I know.

As I was getting ready for work this morning, I was not only thinking about the cost of them, but the fossil fuels I'm helping waste by buying them from a corporation. I mean, I know our Starbucks are only about a mile from each other, but the supply truck probably travels some distance to get to all of them. And how much am I paying per cup for that, not only monetarily, but in pollution? I'm not too worried about the ingredients that Starbucks is using and I like their business model, but I need to be thinking holistically. So, given that, I made my own tea this morning and will from now on. That will be a little harder than I want to admit, but maybe it's a good first change symbolically.

However, I don't want to talk about what I had for dinner. It goes under the column of "Lazy Before Spring Break." Small changes, right? One at a time, right?

I have started doing some reading: I've picked up Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. I'd read about half of it last year but put it down and just didn't pick it back up. I like the premise, though, and I really love her writing, so it's a good read. I'm already learning so much. One interesting thing I've learned is that when you purchase food, $0.85 of every dollar goes into the packaging, marketing, and transportation. Only $0.15 goes to the actual food product. So, why not buy from a local farmer? Yes, you might pay a little more, but more of your dollar is going to support their work. Now I just can't wait to get to the Farmer's Market when it opens in a few weeks!

It Begins

I woke up still on a tear, so that's a good sign. I'm a notorious non-finisher of projects, but this is really interesting and very important to the health of my family. If I can just survive all the scary and gross information...

I'll get to that in a minute, though. I need to do a little before photo-taking. Here is my refrigerator and kitchen pantry in its current state (Yikes! A little messier than I'd like, and why does Lauren have four sippy cups in the fridge?):



You'll note that I have a decent stash of frozen veggies, nestled right up next to the Mickey Mouse Chicken Nuggets. In the fridge, I have two kinds of milk sharing space with a massive container of ranch dip (for the nuggets, of course!) There's low-fat yogurt (which I'm now feeling dubious about) and some string cheese, which according to the ingredients is actually decent. In the pantry, I have all my baking stuff, the granola bars with High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), Gatorade powder and not one but three kinds of oatmeal. Like I said, I'm not starting off horribly, but I can definitely do better.

What you're not seeing is our other pantry downstairs that has most of the canned tomatoes (which I'm also feeling dubious about), broths, pastas, and extra juices for Lauren. We also have a large freezer in the garage: we buy half a cow's worth of meat every year and a half or so and it's all wrapped up in its pretty white paper in there. This is one choice I feel really good about. We buy the meat from a family friend in Idaho and we know exactly where the cow has been. Plus, it's a great deal. We have that, at least.

I just feel like I have a ton of learning to do. I don't know enough about local resources, what sweeteners are best, whether organic is worth it... It's going to be quite a learning process, and I just have to be patient.

I did start my learning today, though all the books I want to read are on hold at the library. Behold the power of the Internet! Without yet picking up a book, I've already learned a bunch of interesting things about the food we eat and the business of food.:

- Half the people that helped to develop the food pyramid had ties to agribusiness.
- 70% of the antibiotics consumed in America are consumed by animal husbandry. Those antibiotics given straight to us through the meats we eat.
- Every American gets the equivalent of a 5 lb. bag of pesticides each year. (That literally made me shiver to write!)
- We spend about $500 a year per student feeding the children in the schools in the United States. Given all the payroll costs and other overhead, it ends up being about $1 a day per child.
- One out of every four meals is eaten in a car. (Are they counting snacks, you think? What about when I'm wolfing down some of the groceries I just bought because I'm starving?)

All of these facts come from a couple of TED talks I listened to today:

Mark Bittman, "What's Wrong with What We Eat"

Ann Cooper, the "Renegade Lunch Lady"

Jamie Oliver's "Food Revolution" page has lots of interesting and disturbing facts and figures here


The good news at the bottom of the page? Congress is looking at creating new standards for all food at schools, including vending machines. $4.5 billion over 10 years is a small payment towards the improved health of our children!
See the story here.

I've Gotten a Wild Hair...

On Facebook tonight, I saw a link to Jamie Oliver's TED talk about childhood obesity and starting a revolution in America for healthier eating, both in schools and at home. I then followed a link to Jamie's "Food Revolution" page based around this premise, which includes a TV show about this topic. His goal is to revolutionize how we eat in America, but his premise is simple: using whole, natural ingredients in our cooking. I was immediately inspired. I have a new goal: to do some learning about nutrition and tweak our family's diet to be healthier.

Now here's my asterisk, my caveat:
I think that, on the scale of things, we actually eat rather healthfully. I cook at home probably 6 out of the 7 nights a week and we pack our leftovers as lunches. I use actual fruits and vegetables in my cooking and I'm trying to teach Lauren to do the same. I plan our meals about a week and a half, two weeks in advance, and do all the shopping at once, so we don't eat on the run much. So, the good news is that we already have a lot of structures in place.

Now the obstacles:
-While I'm the one who does all of this (pretty) healthy shopping and cooking, I'm also kind of a bad influence. I love treats, especially chocolate, and I'm usually the one that decides to go out to eat for dinner. Not that these are bad things, necessarily, but I think I can do better and be more intentional with my decision-making.

-I've let Lauren's (my daughter's) toddler-ness pigeonhole her into some bad eating habits. She was a pretty adventurous baby as far as food was concerned, but she got a little pickier and I got a little busier and she eats chicken nuggets more than I'd like to admit. Again, not a bad thing necessarily, but when it's the one thing she requests while shunning fresher foods, I wonder about the path she's on.

-I work 40 hours a week and have a toddler. Add to that that I'm trying to run about 4 times a week and sleep 8 hours a night, and there's just not enough time. Like I said, I have many structures already in place, but doing more than I'm already doing is going to be a struggle. I'm going to have to get the most bang for my buck.

I'm a goal-oriented person, so here are my goals:
1. Learn more about nutrition and the business of food in the United States so that I can make better decisions for my family.
2. Change the way I purchase and prepare food to implement what I have learned.
3. Work to expand Lauren's diet to include fewer processed foods.
4. Find ways of fueling my body for running and life in general while still enjoying food.

Next steps:
1. Learn more about nutrition - I've placed several books on hold at the library. In the meantime, I'm going to finish Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.
2. Brainstorm sources for healthier foods - I have some ideas, but I know there's more out there that I don't know about.
3. Invite other people on this journey. I need some accountability, and I want others to learn with me.

Well, that's it. I'm jumping off the diving board and into the deepend, and I really hope this makes some change for my family!


Here's the link for Jamie's TED talk:
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jamie_oliver.html

Here's the link to the first episode of Jamie's show:
http://abc.go.com/watch/jamie-olivers-food-revolution/250784/254757/episode-101