Store-bought salad dressing is a crime against humanity.
'Ranch', '1000 Island' and other industrial monstrosities are a good way to put yourself underground in a hurry. From bottom-rung oils to artificial preservatives, they contain some of the most frightening ingredients you're likely to see in a grocery store.
Homemade salad dressing is one of the simplest, tastiest and healthiest recipes I know. If made properly, it's creamy, light and flavorful. I consider it my civic duty to spread the word about homemade salad dressing, also known as vinaigrette.
For a medium-sized salad, put two tablespoons of vinegar into your empty salad bowl. Add a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of dijon mustard. Add three tablespoons of olive oil and stir until it's creamy and homogenous. That's it! Add your salad, toss and enjoy. The tossing is essential.
I always use extra-virgin olive oil. My favorite vinegar is unpasteurized, unfiltered apple cider vinegar. You may add garlic, tarragon, mint, basil, green onions or miso to your dressing for extra flavor.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
How tight are you?
Oh man oh man!
I am SO tight today. My band has not been very friendly today AT ALL.
This morning I took my tablets and had a coffee, then on the way to the meeting I ate a banana. It didn't feel too good and I thought I might pb, but I didn't. We had lunch at the hall and I could only eat 1 forkful of food. Went out afterwards for an hour with Janet which was great and when I got home I thought I would try and finish the lunch. Na! I had a coffee and then started on my lunch again and 1 forkful later... I was all over and had to pb. Well strange.
There is not a blockage or anything because I can swallow liquids fine... I don't feel choked or anything and I was feeling hungry, so I thought I would be ok. Obviously I was hungry so goodness knows what was going on in there.
I then took Ds and the girls skating. I was feeling really weak having only had a banana and 2 mouthfuls of food and I succumbed to the torturous mars bar. However, by the time I got back I had to pb on that too! I cannot believe I couldn't even eat the mars bar.
So stuff dinner tonight. Its not worth the effort. I feel a little bit raw to be honest and I am gonna stick with liquids for the rest of the day. I cant face another pb today.
I wonder why I am so tight today? I have absolutely no idea.
I am SO tight today. My band has not been very friendly today AT ALL.
This morning I took my tablets and had a coffee, then on the way to the meeting I ate a banana. It didn't feel too good and I thought I might pb, but I didn't. We had lunch at the hall and I could only eat 1 forkful of food. Went out afterwards for an hour with Janet which was great and when I got home I thought I would try and finish the lunch. Na! I had a coffee and then started on my lunch again and 1 forkful later... I was all over and had to pb. Well strange.
There is not a blockage or anything because I can swallow liquids fine... I don't feel choked or anything and I was feeling hungry, so I thought I would be ok. Obviously I was hungry so goodness knows what was going on in there.
I then took Ds and the girls skating. I was feeling really weak having only had a banana and 2 mouthfuls of food and I succumbed to the torturous mars bar. However, by the time I got back I had to pb on that too! I cannot believe I couldn't even eat the mars bar.
So stuff dinner tonight. Its not worth the effort. I feel a little bit raw to be honest and I am gonna stick with liquids for the rest of the day. I cant face another pb today.
I wonder why I am so tight today? I have absolutely no idea.
Anyway, our Spanish lodgers are fitting right in to family life. DS, Xandra and Maria were all on the sofa watching a film - so cute!
Today's food:
1 banana
2 spoons of couscous
1 olive
1 mars bar
half litre of orange juice
Ho hum.
Coping with Daylight Savings Time
Today most states in North America "sprang forward" advancing our clocks for longer hours of afternoon and evening daylight. If this has you feeling sluggish you are not alone. According to research in "Current Biology" our internal daily rhythms, known as the circadian clocks, get a little testy with this time tinkering. Studies indicate it is light and darkness that keeps our internal clock
How Many Calories Do I Need To Lose Weight?
Tired of Dieting and Losing the Battle?Learn how to increase your metabolismwhile eating pretty much anything you want.Check out our top rated weight loss plan.How Many Calories Do I Need To Lose Weight?That is just exactly what weight watchers and calorie counter diet planners always ask, "How many calories do I need to lose weight?". If you are planning to go on a diet through the calorie
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Power to the Protein
We've been told since before our weight loss surgery that we must follow a high protein diet for life. Recommendations vary from center to center on how much protein is adequate for weight loss and weight maintenance. You will generally hear anything from 70 grams a day to 100 grams a day. High protein intake is particularly important during the early days and weeks following surgery (any surgery
Friday, March 7, 2008
Superstimuli
During the 1940s and 50s, an Austrian psychologist named Konrad Lorenz studied the behavioral patterns of geese.
One of the things he observed was the egg-retrieving behavior of the greylag goose. When an egg rolls out of a goose's nest, it gently uses its bill to roll it back in. However, when Lorenz took an egg from the nest and placed it next to a larger round white object, the goose preferentially rolled the larger object back into its nest while ignoring the real egg. He called this larger object a superstimulus. It was an abnormally strong stimulus that was able to hijack the bird's normal behavioral pattern in a maladaptive way.
Our brains are wired to respond to the stimuli with which they evolved. For example, our natural taste preferences tell us that fruit is good. But what happens when we concentrate that sugar tenfold? We get a superstimulus. Our brains are not designed to process that amount of stimulation constructively, and it often leads to a loss of control over the will, or addiction.
It's a very similar process to drug addiction. Addictive drugs are able to plug directly into the brain's pleasure centers, stimulating them beyond their usual bounds. Food superstimuli do this less directly, by working through the body's taste reward pathways. In fact, sweet liquids are so addictive, rats prefer them to intravenous cocaine. You can't take just one hit of crack, and you can't have just one Hershey's kiss.
Our bodies are finely honed to seek out healthy food, but only in the context of what we knew when our tastes developed during evolution. If all that's available is grass-fed meat, pastured eggs, vegetables, fruit, and nuts, your appetite will naturally guide you to a healthy diet.
If you surround yourself with superstimuli such as sugars, refined grains and MSG, your body will not guide you to a healthy diet. It will take you straight into a nutritional rut because it's not adapted to dealing with unnatural foods.
Your brain is pretty simple in some ways. It has these very basic hard-wired associations, like "sweet is good" and "free glutamate is good". If your brain likes a little bit of sweet, then it really likes a lot of sweet. If it likes a little bit of glutamate from meat, then it really likes a flood of glutamate from MSG. Just like the graylag goose that prefers the big white ball over her own egg, your brain drives you to ignore normal stimuli in favor of more potent superstimuli.
This explains the partially true saying "Everything that tastes good is bad for you". Why would your body deliberately encourage you to damage your health? In our hunter-gatherer state, it didn't. In this age of processed food, our technology has outstripped our ability to adapt.
One of the things he observed was the egg-retrieving behavior of the greylag goose. When an egg rolls out of a goose's nest, it gently uses its bill to roll it back in. However, when Lorenz took an egg from the nest and placed it next to a larger round white object, the goose preferentially rolled the larger object back into its nest while ignoring the real egg. He called this larger object a superstimulus. It was an abnormally strong stimulus that was able to hijack the bird's normal behavioral pattern in a maladaptive way.
Our brains are wired to respond to the stimuli with which they evolved. For example, our natural taste preferences tell us that fruit is good. But what happens when we concentrate that sugar tenfold? We get a superstimulus. Our brains are not designed to process that amount of stimulation constructively, and it often leads to a loss of control over the will, or addiction.
It's a very similar process to drug addiction. Addictive drugs are able to plug directly into the brain's pleasure centers, stimulating them beyond their usual bounds. Food superstimuli do this less directly, by working through the body's taste reward pathways. In fact, sweet liquids are so addictive, rats prefer them to intravenous cocaine. You can't take just one hit of crack, and you can't have just one Hershey's kiss.
Our bodies are finely honed to seek out healthy food, but only in the context of what we knew when our tastes developed during evolution. If all that's available is grass-fed meat, pastured eggs, vegetables, fruit, and nuts, your appetite will naturally guide you to a healthy diet.
If you surround yourself with superstimuli such as sugars, refined grains and MSG, your body will not guide you to a healthy diet. It will take you straight into a nutritional rut because it's not adapted to dealing with unnatural foods.
Your brain is pretty simple in some ways. It has these very basic hard-wired associations, like "sweet is good" and "free glutamate is good". If your brain likes a little bit of sweet, then it really likes a lot of sweet. If it likes a little bit of glutamate from meat, then it really likes a flood of glutamate from MSG. Just like the graylag goose that prefers the big white ball over her own egg, your brain drives you to ignore normal stimuli in favor of more potent superstimuli.
This explains the partially true saying "Everything that tastes good is bad for you". Why would your body deliberately encourage you to damage your health? In our hunter-gatherer state, it didn't. In this age of processed food, our technology has outstripped our ability to adapt.
DH is being made redundant - he has a new job already!
Thankfully DH foresaw the problem's his company was going to get into and knew it would be his head for the chop. He started looking for a new job in November last year, and was about to hand his notice in... But this is even better news! He will get redundancy pay now too! Bonus! Although its always nicer on the ego to think you resigned rather than were pushed out, this give us a nice little next egg to start with.
So I am looking at it that way, and hopefully he will really enjoy his new job. He had gotten really tired and frustrated in the old one.
So I think he will probably be made redundant officially next week some time, and then have his 4 weeks notice to work. Then he starts the new one right away. Yay.
I am also riding high weight wise; I couldn't stand it any longer, and jumped on the scales to reveal...
All Care Animal
OH YEAH, Baby!
Another 3 pounds down the toilet. I think what LBG said on her last comment was correct. I don't need a fill. I have total restriction at the moment. Long may it reign.
I know its not official weigh in day, but I just had to put this one down on the chart because its so cool. Just 2 pounds away from where I was last May! Another 2 pounds and I will be once again surfing into the uncharted waters of my weightloss expedition.
When I reach 15 stone something I think I will cry. In fact, I know I will. I will also take my next photo!!!
So I am looking at it that way, and hopefully he will really enjoy his new job. He had gotten really tired and frustrated in the old one.
So I think he will probably be made redundant officially next week some time, and then have his 4 weeks notice to work. Then he starts the new one right away. Yay.
I am also riding high weight wise; I couldn't stand it any longer, and jumped on the scales to reveal...
All Care Animal
OH YEAH, Baby!
Another 3 pounds down the toilet. I think what LBG said on her last comment was correct. I don't need a fill. I have total restriction at the moment. Long may it reign.
I know its not official weigh in day, but I just had to put this one down on the chart because its so cool. Just 2 pounds away from where I was last May! Another 2 pounds and I will be once again surfing into the uncharted waters of my weightloss expedition.
When I reach 15 stone something I think I will cry. In fact, I know I will. I will also take my next photo!!!
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