Striving for Balance

Balance is something which does not come naturally for me. I admit it -- I'm a freak. Either I'm all in or I'm all out. Finding a happy medium? Hmmm... not usually my style. In many areas of my life, this works well for me. Marriage... all in. Motherhood... all in. Being "all in" on these things creates success.

Dieting... all in. Oops. I lost a bunch of hair. (Pause for a moment of silence.) Became thin! Yea! Success... but -- lost a bunch of muscle, causing me to work harder to get it back. So... go protein!! Ugh. Too much protein causes constipation (TMI, anyone?). Seriously -- when it comes to food issues and exercise, "all in" only works to a point. One needs to have some sort of balance.

So I am, I guess, "all in" for balance. Ha! I'm going to get my personality working for me one way or another.

I love my exercise. I really, really do. But I do not need to run six miles every day. Not only do I not need to do this, it's actually not good for me. So -- I'm trying to run about three times a week. Other days I can ride my bike (which will save my feet), or I can actually have a day where I relax (as much as any mom gets to relax).

When it comes to food, I am eating what is good for me -- along with a few things that admittedly are not. White wine, while good for my soul, is probably not ideal for my body. I still have some. And chocolate... well, who am I kidding. Chocolate is very, very, very good for me. :)

I also realize that I do have certain weaknesses that go along with my "all in" personality. First of all, I know that I am always "all in" for ice cream. Most kinds of ice cream, anyway. So I avoid having it around. My freezer has sherbet in it for the kids (yuck), and had peach ice cream in it for my husband (again, yuck). Vanilla cannot live here. I simply do not have it in me to reject my very favorite-est thing in the world.

So -- a striving for balance. We'll see how it goes. And no more crazy dieting. While I can stand to see the muscle loss for a bit (can always gain it back, right?), I cannot stand to lose any more hair. I really don't want to be the first woman to try the comb over.

Granola

Here's a problem:

Granola.

And don't snicker at me like that. Granola is an enormous problem. At 430 calories per serving, its tasty delightfulness is going to be the death of me. I'm not the only one in my family who likes it, so when I make it I have to make a huge batch. And then there's that much more of it for me to dive into. NOT GOOD.

But for anyone who wants to experience the taste insanity I have come to love, here's what I do:

8 cups rolled oats

1 1/2 cups rolled wheat

1 1/2 cups oat bran

1 1/2 cups wheat germ

1 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup light corn syrup

1 cup oil

1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla

1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon

2 cups nuts (whatever kind you most adore)

2 cups chopped dried cherries

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Mix the dry ingredients together until well blended. Mix the wet ingredients together in a separate dish. Pour the wet over the dry and stir for what feels like forever. Make sure that all the dry ingredients have been at least slightly dampened by the wet. Bake at 325, stirring at 15-20 minute intervals until it's toasted exactly how you like it. I usually end up toasting mine for 30-45 minutes. Allow to cool completely. Store in airtight container (I use a giant tupperware bowl).

After you've tried it and fallen in love, share the amazingness with all those around you. Infect the world with granola!! :)

Calorie Counting

Calorie counting can be a totally addictive practice. Call me exhibit A.

First of all, I use a website called caloriecount.about.com. It's a fairly extensive site -- lots of easy logging of foods, etc. They give you a daily analysis regarding your health choices, and this actually helped to put me on a path to healthier eating, which I consider definitely worth the cost of signing up (which happens to be free, by the way).

When I first began counting my calories, I estimated some. Then I bought a small kitchen scale and started measuring my food. Yes, yes... I know. I have already confessed, but I'll confess again. I have some issues.

But the food measuring actually turned out to be a very good thing for me. I can more easily know if I'm getting enough protein in my diet, for example. Or when I'm weighing my veggies, it amazed me just how much I had to stuff into my stomach in order for me to get a reasonable number of calories off of them.

Going onto a website and logging my food also helped me to see where my calorie weaknesses were. You know, what I was eating that was throwing me over all the time.

Then -- when you log your food, you have the opportunity to log your exercise as well. This was something that was significant for me, too. I mean, if I have to run a full hour at 6 mph in order to work off a piece of cheesecake, I'm going to think twice before eating it. This was a huge incentive for me to watch what I was eating... and, at times, a huge incentive for me to increase my activity level. Talk about a win/win situation.

If you're considering the possibility of getting on a website and logging your foods and your activities, I highly recommend you try it. There are a large number of websites out there to use - most of them free. I will caution you, however, that some of the "health" requirements on these websites can be ridiculous. (Prime example being that my CC website claims two eggs throw you into the unhealthy range.)

Anybody interested in getting started on something like this who would like some help and/or encouragement, feel free to send me a note!

Eating Paleo...lithic

I've been doing some reading, and I've noticed -- there's a difference between eating "Paleo" and eating in a "paleolithic" way. "Paleo" appears to be another fad diet, slightly reminiscent of Adkins, while a paleolithic focus just has to do with eating things naturally and staying away from manufactured foods and junk. Things on a paleolithic diet would generally be found in the produce department, the meat department, and the dairy department of the grocery store. You can count the freezer department as long as you're avoiding all the areas except the frozen veggies and fruits.

The Paleo diet claims that you should eat "in moderation" such things as diet soda... nuts... coffee... tea... wine... beer... Well, okay. I guess moderation in these things is a good thing. After all if you go crazy on the nuts, it becomes a serious high-calorie diet you're on and not a weight loss plan at all. And diet soda is definitely not good for you (not to mention it being completely unpaleolithic in every respect). But then the diet plan goes on to say that there's a laundry list of foods to completely avoid. Included in this list are foods such as: butter, cheese, yogurt, milk, barley, corn, millet, oats, all rice, rye, wheat, quinoa, beans of every variety, potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc... etc... ad nauseum. Included in their list are actually such obviously natural and healthy things like snowpeas and sugar snap peas.

On the other hand, eating in a paleolithic way is simply a common sense approach to foods. An if-God-made-it-I-can-eat-it mentality. This is refreshingly free of rules and restraints and confusion. It causes me to breathe a sigh of relief and say, "I can do THAT forever." How simple. Made in a factory = no. Made by God = yes. Ahhhhhh...

For most people, including myself, this requires a huge adjustment. There are things I am still consuming with some regularity that come out of a manufacturing plant. Greek yogurt, for one. My yogurt has been instrumental in helping me to achieve a stomach that functions without causing me pain and other unfortunate side effects which go along with IBS. (Anybody needing any more information as to what I'm curing will simply have to google it because I refuse to put it on this page.) My yogurt stays, and I don't care how or where it's made. That being said, I can make a shift to plain yogurt rather than the fruited, sweetened varieties and I will be a baby step closer to Paleolithic.

The truth of the matter is that even if I am not whole-hog gone for Paleo, the pieces and parts of it I have come to embrace have made me a better, healthier me. And since that's a step in the right direction, I will keep it.