Healing Through Food - Part I (The Early Years)

Throughout the past year, the way I have thought about food has changed dramatically.  I have been looking at what food will actually do for me and, consequently, what food will do to me.  I've had a long history with food.  When I was 13ish, I came home from figure skating practice and when my mom opened a garage door, there was a skinned deer hanging from the garage ceiling.  My dad had gone hunting and brought that guy home.  I became a vegetarian very soon after that.  I have always been a "save the environment" type girl and this really fit with me.  My parents were very supportive and did their best to make sure I got the protein and nutrients I needed.  My dad has always been awesome at making two batches of supper - one with meat, one without.

That was really the first time I ever really thought about what I ate.  And it pretty much ended there - no meat.  I knew what types of food I needed to eat to be healthy but in junior high and high school, I didn't really care. 

Here's the deal though.  I have been sick on and off for as long as I remember.  From ages 15 (?) - 28, I would go months upon months where I would get sick every time I ate, then get a month off, and it would come back.  I have had recurrent sinus infections my entire life.  I had massive, debilitating migraines in high school.  I was always more tired than everyone else I knew.  I was achy, irritable, and always coming down with the latest cold or flu that was going around (I think I caught every single one!).  Above all, I had major digestive issues.  I gave up even trying to go to dance lessons in the latter part of high school because I had to miss class so much.  Same went for skating.

Early in my 20's, I noticed that dairy products were starting making me sick, so I stopped eating dairy for quite a while.  At some point, I developed an allergy to almonds and I would get sick from eating eggs.

Around the same time, I started noticing that I wasn't able to get enough protein to support myself.  I couldn't build muscles to save my life (something that had never been a problem for me) and my constant tiredness only got worse.  To remedy this, I started eating chicken, turkey, and fish and sadly had to ditch the vegetarian lifestyle (I still eat this way but refuse to touch pork and beef products).  This seemed to help for a little while but my hair was still thinning and I was still getting sick to my stomach every time I ate.

I broke bones easily.  I even broke my arm while out doing field work in Oregon and didn't know it until 6 months later when I had an x-ray to see why that arm was bothering me.  There was obvious remodelling of that break and a couple others that I didn't know about from when I was younger.  I have also broken both legs and several ribs in my life.

About five or six years ago, all these symptoms ramped up a notch, I felt horrible all the time!  I feel like I missed out on so much during this time because I was either sleeping, working, going to school, and/or sick.  When I'd go to the doctor, they always said I had IBS and sent me on my way. 

Happy Summer Suppers!

What is it about hot, sticky summer days that makes me not want to cook anything?  I am currently only stocking my kitchen with fresh produce, organic yogurt, fish, turkey, and chicken so most anything that I was going to eat for supper needed to be cooked tonight!  The oven was off limits because of the heat and so was my usual hot weather go-to: raw tomato sauce and brown rice pasta.  I am down to one last heirloom tomato and I didn't work out today (sorely needed rest day!) so I wanted to stick with protein and veggies only. 

I ended up making turkey burgers and garlic kale.  Yum!  I was able to make it in 20 minutes, it didn't heat up my entire apartment, and it was so healthy!  Here's a (low quality - sorry) photo and the recipe in case you'd like to try it out for yourself! 

Note that the recipes that I post will always be gluten free as I cannot eat gluten (topic for another day!), so you won't see buns in my recipes for items like turkey burgers.  I have yet to find a really decent gluten free bun that is worth the calories and lack of nutrition without actually having to make them myself and  I cannot bake to save my life.  So, no buns it is!



Turkey Burgers

Makes 1 serving

Mix 1/4 lb 98% fat free ground turkey with 1 Tbsp McCormick Grill Mates 25% Less Sodium Montreal Steak Seasoning until combined.  Form two burgers out of the mixture.  In a small skillet, sprayed lightly with olive oil, cook the burgers on medium-high for about 5 minutes on the first side and 3 minutes on the other, or until cooked completely through.  Top with condiments of your choice.

(Yeah, it's that easy!  And so good!)

Garlic Kale

Makes 1 large serving

Ingredients:

1/3 c. sliced baby portobello mushrooms

1/2 small onion, sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp olive oil

1/4 c. chicken -or- vegetable stock

2 large stems -or- 4 small stems curly-leaf kale, large stems removed and chopped into 1.5" pieces

Add the olive oil to a large skillet and add the onion, mushrooms, and garlic to the pan.  Allow the vegetables to sweat over medium heat for 2-3 minutes, or until just starting to soften.  Add the kale and stock to the skillet and stir the ingredients together.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cook on medium until the vegetables are cooked through, the kale is dark green, and most of the liquid is cooked out, about 8-10 minutes.  Do not overcook the kale, it should still have some integrity left to it.  Enjoy!

Challenge Update

I was doing so well running!  Then, my knees starting complaining.  And so did one of my hips.  I'm getting old.  This all sucks.  Majorly.  Even though I haven't been running lately, I have been averaging working out 6 days a week for the past month, though last week I only made it to 5 because of the move.  Either way, my health is good, my weight is heading in the right direction, and I am still working out.  Hopefully when the weather cools a bit I can try running again.  I do miss it!

Until I can get back to running, I am revising my challenge to be "work out six days a week".  Yes, I have been doing this already but I also haven't been teaching these past few weeks.  I start a new class next Monday and it will be tough to keep up this schedule but I am going to challenge myself to do so!  Does anyone want to volunteer to call me every morning at 5am so I get up to workout?  No?  :)

New Apartment, New Routines!

The last 2 weeks of my life have been filled with moving, settling in to my new place, and preparing to teach a 4-credit, 4-week summer course.  I promised a few people that I would share photos, so here we go.  I figured sharing via the blog would be easier than e-mail so that I can narrate.  :)

A little backstory: I was living in a 3-bedroom house in which I had to mow the lawn, shovel the snow, and pay way too much in utilities.  When I was looking to move to this town, it was all I could find that would allow me to have a cat, did not have mold eating through walls, wasn't too expensive, and didn't involve me living right next door to my students.  This house was not good for me though!  It was too big and took too much effort to take care of.   I also think there were hidden mold issues because I always felt horrible when I woke up in the morning.  I was there for nearly 2 years but I finally moved out last week!

My main worry about this move was that I was moving from a large house where I had an office and an exercise room to a 1-bedroom apartment with people living above me.  I am still adjusting.  

There are a whole lot of upsides to this place though!  I can walk to work in under 7 minutes.  I can walk to downtown in about 10 minutes.  Underground parking...I live in Wisconsin, this is a lifesaver in the winter!  Also, I am saving so much money!  The rent is cheaper, I won't be driving so much, and hopefully the utilities will be lower too.  I hope to use these savings to cover buying healthy, fresh food from the local market (which I can walk to) and farmer's market during the summer.

Health-wise, I am seeing a few other upsides to this apartment.  Since I walk to work, I can't just get in my car and drive to the grocery store at the end of the day and buy whatever cravings I am currently having.  I have to first walk home and drop my bag and lunch tote off and then head down to the basement and get my car out.  At the end of a long day, unless I have absolutely nothing to eat, I am not going to do that.  I am making my shopping trips much more deliberate and so far it has been helping me stay on track.

Photos below are of my new place.   I am still trying to figure out how to organize everything and where to shove things when my closets are full so bear that in mind when looking at my messiness.  I'm trying.  Unfortunately, my good camera is still on the fritz so I used my point and shoot,  This camera makes my cat's eyes glow which I find very creepy, so I apologize!  She was pretty comfy on the couch next to the AC.



I think this one's obvious...





Kitchen...my favorite room!

  

Living room.  Sorry for the glowing eyes on the couch.

 

Living room.  I was worried I wouldn't have enough space to workout, but I just move my ottoman and I didn't put my coffee table in this apartment.  I haven't had an issue thus far with any of the workouts I've done since moving here.  Yay! 
My cat, Bella, is hanging out on the couch....but she blends in.  Where's Waldo?

"Dining Room?"  I'm not sure what to call this area.  I had the choice between putting a desk here or my kitchen table.  I figured since I am so close to work and that my table could double as a desk, I would use the table.   It's a tight squeeze but works just fine.



So that's my new place.  I also recently downgraded my cable so I could upgrade my Netflix and watch movies and TV episodes through my Wii.  Why didn't anyone tell me to do this sooner?  It's great!  There were a number of documentaries that I wanted to see but I always forget to return the DVDs to get a new one in the mail.  I'll probably discuss these documentaries in more detail later but I highly recommend seeing Food, Inc. (also on PBS every now and then) and FoodMatters.  Both are great and give you a new perspective on what you eat and where it comes from.  Last night, I watched Killer At Large which is a documentary on obesity in America.  It was worth seeing once but it wasn't that great.