Garden Frittata

(makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, chopped
  
  


• ½ tsp Italian seasoning
  
  


• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
  
  


• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
  
  


• 2 tomatoes, sliced
  
  


• 6 eggs, lightly beaten
  
  


• 1 (10 oz.) package frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
  
  


• ¼ tsp black pepper
  
  


• ½ tsp salt
  
  


• ½ cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
  
  

Preparation:

• Saute onion, tomatoes and garlic in oil until tender.
  
  


• Add Italian seasoning, black pepper and salt to the eggs and add to onion mixture.
  
  


• Stir in spinach and cheese.
  
  


• Cover with a tight fitting lid and reduce heat to low.
  
  


• Cook for 15 minutes and check for firmness.
  
  


• Cut into wedges with spatula and serve warm.
  
  

Make 6 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(164 g): 152 Calories, 10 g Protein, 6 g carbohydrates, 2 g Dietary Fiber, 10 g fat, 4 g saturated fat, 197 mg cholesterol, 347 mg sodium

Obesity and the Fluid-in, Fluid-out Therapy for Edema

I recently attended a lecture by Dr. Arya M. Sharma here at the University of Washington. Dr. Sharma is a Canadian clinician who specializes in the treatment of obesity. He gave the UW Science in Medicine lecture, which is a prestigious invited lecture.

He spent a little bit of time pointing out the fallacy behind conventional obesity treatment. He used the analogy of edema, which is an abnormal accumulation of fluid in the body.

Since we know that the amount of fluid contained in the body depends on the amount of fluid entering the body and the amount of fluid leaving the body, the treatment for edema is obvious: drink less, pee more.

Of course, this makes no sense. It doesn't address the underlying cause of edema and it will not help the patient. Yet we apply that exact same logic to fat loss. Since the amount of energy contained in the body (in the form of fat) depends on the amount entering and the amount leaving, the solution is easy: eat less, move more. Well, yes, if you can stick to that program it will cause fat loss. But that's equivalent to telling someone with edema to drink less water. It will cause a loss of fluid, but it won't correct the underlying problem that caused excessive fluid retention in the first place.

For example, if you have edema because your heart isn't pumping effectively (cardiac insufficiency), the heart is the problem that must be addressed. Any other treatment is purely symptomatic and is not a cure.

The same applies to obesity. If you don't correct the alteration in the system that causes an obese person to 'defend' his elevated fat mass against changes*, anything you do is symptomatic treatment and is unlikely to be very effective in the long term. My goal is to develop a method that goes beyond symptomatic treatment and allows the body to naturally return to a lower fat mass. I've been doing a lot of reading and I have a simple new idea that I feel confident in. It also neatly explains the results of a variety of weight loss diets. I've dropped a few hints here and there, but I'll be formally unveiling it in the next couple of months. Stay tuned.


* The body fat homeostasis system. The core element appears to be a negative feedback loop between body fat (via leptin, and insulin to a lesser degree) and the brain (primarily the hypothalamus, but other regions are involved). There are many other elements in the system, but that one seems to set the 'gain' on all the others and guides long-term fat mass homeostasis. The brain is the gatekeeper of both energy intake and energy expenditure, and unconscious processes strongly suggest appropriate levels for both factors according to the brain's perceived homeostatic needs. Those suggestions can be overridden consciously, but it requires a perpetual high degree of discipline, whereas someone who has been lean all her life doesn't require discipline to remain lean because her brain is suggesting behaviors that naturally defend leanness. I know what I'm saying here may seem controversial to some people reading this, because it's contrary to what they've read on the internet or in the popular press, but it's not particularly controversial in my field. In fact, you'll find most of this stuff in general neuroscience textbooks dating back more than 10 years (e.g., Eric Kandel and colleagues, Principles of Neuroscience).

Fried Rice

(makes 6-8 servings)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups cooked brown or white rice
  
  


• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  
  


• 2 cups fresh vegetables, chopped
  
  


• 1 small onion, minced
  
  


• 2 tsp vegetable oil
  
  


• 1 cup cooked poultry, fish, or meat (optional)
  
  


• 3 tsp soy sauce
  
  

Preparation:

• Heat vegetable oil on medium-high heat in a large-sized pan. Add onion and rice. Stir and cook for about 5 minutes or until onion is soft.
  
  


• Reduce heat to medium and add vegetables and meat to rice mixture.
  
  


• Cook for about 5 to 7 minutes.
  
  


• Spread the mixture out to the sides of the pan, leaving space in the middle for the eggs.
  
  


• Add the eggs, and scramble until cooked firm.
  
  


• Mix the eggs with the rice and vegetables then sprinkle with soy sauce.
  
  

Make 6 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(1/6 of recipe (195 g)): 231 Calories, 1 g Protein, 34 g carbohydrates, 2 g Dietary Fiber, 4 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 82 mg cholesterol, 284 mg sodium

Curried Beef and Rice

(makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. flank steak, trimmed of excess fat
  
  


• ½ cup green onions, chopped
  
  


• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
  
  


• 2 tbsp curry powder
  
  


• ½ tsp salt
  
  


• 2 tomatoes, chopped
  
  


• 2 cups hot cooked rice
  
  


• ¼ tsp turmeric
  
  


• Low-fat cooking spray
  
  

Preparation:

• Cut steak diagonally across the grain into thin slices.
  
  


• In a large-sized skillet, spray low-fat cooking and heat to medium-high. Add green onions, garlic and sauté for about 2 minutes then add curry powder, turmeric, salt and sauté for about 1 minute.
  
  


• Add steak and sauté until done (about 6 to 7 minutes).
  
  


• Stir in tomatoes and reduce heat to low.
  
  


• Cook until heated through (about 3 minutes) and serve over cooked rice.
  
  

Make 4 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(¼ of recipe (268 g)): 295 Calories, 26 g Protein, 26 g carbohydrates, 1 g Dietary Fiber, 9 g fat, 4 g saturated fat, 57 mg cholesterol, 382 mg sodium

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Chicken Picante

(makes 6 servings)

Ingredients:

• 6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut crosswise into ½” wide strips
  
  


• 3 tbsp olive oil
  
  


• 3 (14.5 oz.) cans Mexican-style stewed tomatoes
  
  


• 1 (29.5 oz.) can hominy, drained or 3 cups whole kernel corn
  
  


• ½ cup cilantro, chopped
  
  


• 1 tbsp chili powder to taste
  
  


• Salt and pepper to taste
  
  

Preparation:

• Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat.
  
  


• Add chicken to the skillet and sauté until no longer pink (about 3 minutes.).
  
  


• Add tomatoes, hominy and chili powder and bring to a boil.
  
  


• Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for about 8 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and sauce is slightly thickened, breaking up tomatoes with back of spoon.
  
  


• Mix in cilantro and season to taste with salt and pepper.
  
  

Make 6 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(1/6 of recipe (415 g)): 283 Calories, 30 g Protein, 20 g carbohydrates, 3 g Dietary Fiber, 9 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 68 mg cholesterol, 1,084 mg sodium

The rock climbing experience

 Yes, that's me, climbing the wall today.

I have never gone back and read any of my old posts. Until tonight. I wanted to find the post from the last time I went rock climbing. It was February 6, 2009. Here's the blog post.

It was on my "old" blog. If you don't know the history of my old blog it has to do with an online "fight" I had with a guy named Tony, the Anti-Jared. It was very ugly, and becasue of it, I shut down my blog. The entire incident reminds me of some of the online stuff I see these days between bloggers. Really stupid. Of course I immediately regretted my knee-jerk decision about shutting down my blog in February 2009, so I started a new blog, same title (this one). 

As I was going through my old posts trying find the rock climbing one, I read several of them. I use to put a lot of thought into my posts. I was also very determined to lose weight and be healthy back then. As I read through my posts from 2009 I started wondering what happened to my spark. I was on fire back then and now I barely have an ember of enthusiasm left. I want to recapture that feeling.

I've decided to go back to my very first post on May 13, 2008, and read my history. Maybe I can learn something about  myself. Maybe that girl that was so determined can help this girl that's feeling hopeless.

The Rock Climbing event today
It wasn't as fun as in 2009. Part of it was probably because I was exhausted from the last two weeks of working crazy hours and major stress, but a much larger part of it is my weight. When I did this in February 2009 I weighed 157 pounds (I posted that weight in the rock climbing post). Today I weighed 185 pounds. That's a difference of 28 pounds. The difference in how much harder it was today than it was in 2009 was huge, 28 pounds of huge.

I only climbed one wall today. In 2009 I climbed four walls. It wasn't the toddler wall like in the video from my 2009 post, but it was one of the easier ones. The only things positive about it is that a.) I did get to the top and b) my butt isn't quite as gigantic as I have it pictured in my head. Although the difference in my body from 2009 as seen in the video on my old post, and today, as I saw in pictures of myself, is huge and not in a good way.

Sadness
I'm not sure why, but for some reason I can't pinpoint I feel very sad tonight. Sad that I didn't get to my goal weight when I was so close to it in 2009, sad that I've regained 28 pounds from my February 2009 weight, and sad that I didn't really have a good time today because of my weight.

Something I wrote in my 2009 rock climbing post keeps going through my head:

"That's what it all boils down to: self-care. Do we care enough to take care of our body? Maybe it's just something fun, like climbing a rock wall or opening day at the pool with your kids or riding in a 100-mile bike ride and giving it your best. Or maybe it's some type of critical surgery that your life depends on. Will you be ready? Think about that the next time you want to throw this all out the window. The next time you want to say to hell with counting Points, to hell with the freaking treadmill, to hell with the whole thing. You might as well be saying to hell with your life."

Why didn't I listen to myself back then? Maybe it's not too late. I can still take my own advice, right?