Month: March 2015

Delicious and Nutritious

Published on by GB2 Comments

I promised that I would share some of the delish food that we’ve had while on the elimination diet. I can’t believe that we are already 1/2 way through. I can say that we have made some great food discoveries and substitutions to make this  feel less like an elimination diet and more like a culinary challenge. Chopped, anyone?

Here in no particular order are my favs.

1) Almond crusted cod with asparagus. The almonds added some texture, and were our substitute for breading.

Almond crusted cod

2) White bean and kale soup. I did not expect this so be such a popular item on the diet, but it is a staple. It’s rich and savory soup goodness. We might never go back to box soup.

3) Almond butter. With everything. Seriously. I ate a whole jar of it in the first week. It’s yum in smoothies, with celery, apples or in a pinch by itself.

4) Bison burger lettuce wraps. When we discovered we could have wild game we decided to try it. Frankly, we were getting a bit chickened out and wanted to mix it up a bit. We sliced the bison burgers and served them with pineapple salsa (garlic, onion, pineapple, lime juice and avocado) in a lettuce wrap. The salsa made a great condiment! I am a massive condiment lover so that has been really hard for me. I was happy to find I didn’t miss my burger being slathered in mayo, mustard, A-1 steak sauce, BBQ sauce, ranch and whatever other saucy goodness I could add.

5) Salads. When I was growing-up I loved salads. Well I loved ranch dressing so maybe the salad was a vehicle for that, but still I was getting my veggies in. As an adult I’ve learned that making your own salad requires slicing, dicing and chopping– not my forte. And ranch dressing really isn’t that good for me. So salads have been a thing of the past. Well, not anymore. I’m learning it’s really not that hard to throw together a salad. I bought a fun dressing maker shaker thingie from Target which probably helps matters. It lists the ingredients for a variety of dressings with measurements on the side of the container so it’s pretty fool proof.

Now that’s what I call living well.

Perception

Published on by GBLeave a comment

I was flipping through the television and came across the Live Well channel. It was my first experience with the channel, and I assumed that it was all about health. Perfect! If I saw that sriracha taco commercial one more time than this diet might be OVER. It seemed like a safe haven from the barrage of commercials urging me to eat this and drink that. None of which are items that I’m currently interested in endorsing. Oddly enough, there aren’t a ton of commercials pimping the virtues of the veggies and fruit that are mainstays of my diet right now. But I guess that’s another topic for another day.

Imagine my surprise when the segment was all about cocktails. While I’m off the wagon for the next 10 days at least, I plan on enjoying a fun drink again so I was excited to learn about living healthy and enjoying a cocktail. And then the hostess proceeded to mix a cocktail made with beer. Not even a light beer, but a dark, smooth, decadent looking stout…Urrrghhh, I do not need to be thinking about beer right now! Humph, so much for living well!

When I mentioned it to Garett his response was spot-on.

Well, sounds like they are living well…

Oh, right.

Who Does That?

Published on by GBLeave a comment

I had to share this because I can’t stop wondering if it’s just me or if the situation I’m describing below is a “who does that?”

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m on an elimination diet. On Monday (my second week of said diet) I walked into work, went into the break room to stash my diet essentials that would get me through the day and immediately noticed a massive baking pan of brownies sitting not so inconspicuously on the table.

I immediately knew who was responsible. With an office of 4, it’s pretty easy to figure out who staged a major temptation, on a MONDAY of all days, to thwart my diet. My lovely coworker who never brought treats for us in over a year suddenly had the impulse over the weekend to go into a major baking frenzy. And then bring it into the office to share. And talk about how she felt kinda weird bringing them in since one of us was on a diet. But not really.

Because seriously if you felt weird about it then the logical thing seems to be to parade it in the public break room versus in your massive corner office where you have plenty of room to host visitors and eat brownies.

So not that I really care, because anyone who knows me knows that I’d be much more tempted by mac n cheese or ruffles and french onion dip, but still who does that??

.

Elimination Diet

Published on by GBLeave a comment

Sooo, remember that time I did a cleanse and it was intense and not really that fun and and I pretty much hated it?? Well, I’ve discovered a different way to torture myself  cleanse my body and reset for the summer. It’s called a 21 day elimination diet and it’s main function is to determine potential food allergies that may cause a myriad of symptoms that really make life kind of a pain. When my doctor suggested that my complaints might be food related, I wasn’t surprised due to a family history of that sort of thing. Not to mention that summer is coming. Call me vain but I want to be in prime form!

It took me awhile to wrap my head around the idea of eliminating gluten, dairy, soy, alcohol and various other fun foods from my diet for an eternity three weeks. My logical side reasoned that it would no doubt help my daily headaches and other random ailments, but my indulgent side screamed for mercy. As a wise thirty year old, reason won out. I am happy to report that we are on day 7 of our elimination diet. Oh yeah, Garett graciously agreed to join me on this food adventure. I like to think of it that way. We are exploring other food types and options in lieu of our normal fare.

While it takes a lot of planning, prep, patience and dedication to follow this program, it’s been quite a learning experience and eye opener. A tasty dressing can be whipped together in a jiffy. Almond butter is a great alternative to peanut butter. I can make soup that rivals the box soup that’s my go to quick meal. I don’t really miss bread. I really miss sushi. My headaches probably are food related. I have been headache free since embarking on this diet which is pretty flippin awesome.

As we settle into a groove it definitely gets easier. Could this be habit forming?? Yes, please! I can actually say that I am not dreading the rest of this experience. I’m looking forward to continued health improvements and discovering what foods are hot buttons in the reintroduction phase. In the meantime, I’ll be tantalizing your taste buds with tales of our delicious and nutritious meals!

I Blame Improv Class

Published on by GBLeave a comment

Lately I have not felt funny. Or maybe funny things aren’t happening to me. This translates to WTH am I supposed to blog about. I’m not sure what is going on, but I need to get my funny back. It’s not like I think I’m hysterically funny, or witty, or sharp; but I normally at least think of myself as a kinda funny, goofy, slapstick person.

So naturally I decided to take an Improv Class. It seemed like a fun, creative outlet that I would enjoy. And that I might actually have a tiny bit of natural aptitude for it. I figured it would be hard work, but did not anticipate how bad I would be at it. I’m talking stage fright, freezing-up and completely overwhelmed by all the funny in the room. Still I  kept it up, figuring at some point it’d click and I’d have an ah-ha moment.

It didn’t. And it stole my funny. Desperate times call for desperate measures. What to do?? Well, I guess I might have to take the course again. What a racket!!!

Pet Peeve Monday

Published on by GBLeave a comment

In honor of Mondays being the absolute pits, I thought I’d post a pet peeve. I know I should probably try to be inspirational and uplifting on today of all days, but it’s Monday and I don’t feel like it.

I have to park in a parking deck for work. Since I’m one of those people that is always running late for work, I’ve historically peeled into the parking lot, jetted out of the car and sprinted into work. Not possible when you are dealing with a parking deck. I can’t seem to get the hang of adding 10 minutes to my commute to deal with navigating the parking deck and getting to the 4th floor where the not very special people without reserved spots are relegated.

My general demeanor upon arriving in the parking deck in the morning is typically pretty dark. I’m not super thrilled about spending my day cooped-up in an office. Sorry people, I am not one of those lucky individuals who can’t wait to get to work and dispense sunshine and rainbows.

My demeanor gets much darker when I see the amount of SUV’s parked in the compact section of the deck taking up more than one space! These spaces are teeny-tiny. I have had to use my passenger side door three times over the past few months to enter my car, because someone was parked so close to my car that I couldn’t access the driver side door.

So parking deck designers who made the spots too small in an effort to squeeze every bit of space outta that towering cement hellhole and SUV owners who insist on parking in the compact spots, thank you for being even more obnoxious than returning to work on a Monday. I wasn’t sure that was possible….