Omnivore

I can honestly say that I "live to eat" intead of "eat to live". Unfortunately I love it all; creamy camemberts, fresh fish tacos, local microbrews, savory saags with homemade paneer, steamed 'sticky rice' and hum bows dipped in a mix of hot chili and soy sauces, singe tall nf mochas-no foam-with whip...I could go on and on. But alas this is not helping my waistline. I've been hitting the gym with as much regularity as one with 4 kids, a p/t job, house full of boxes that still need to be unpacked and a husband with a demanding job can....I've actually been pretty good about it, hey it's a break from the kiddos at the least. But the weight stays on...I do notice a difference in the tone of my arms and legs, but nothing, and I mean, nothing in my abs. Ugh. I guess the approach of work out 4 times a week but still eat whatever I want at 35 isn't working. Okay, ready for a new approach. When I was on my trip to San Fran last week I found a neat little bookstore in Mill Valley (The Depot) and a book I'd been meaning to look at: "The Eat Clean Diet" by Tosca Reno. Besides her cool name and that her book forward was written by make-up guru Bobbi Brown, she has some cool ideas/points that I am willing to try.
Part of the plan makes me cringe (no white flour/white sugar or alcohol)..ouch. But with small steps I am going to try this out on our family over the summer (hoping the kids won't remember that I promised they could each take turns picking out one box of cereal, any kind they wanted, each week this summer...right now it's only shredded mini wheats, cheerios, rice crispies and the occasional cin. toast crunch when dad does the shopping).
Here's her premise for "Clean-Eating Principles" paraphrased by me:
1. Eat 6 small meals each day. Not so hard...kids already eat 1. breakfast. 2. a.m. snack 3. lunch 4. pm. snack (at school) 4. Afterschool snack 5. dinner 6. dessert
Hey, they're already there! BUT, I am sure I'll need to curb the "dessert" into more of a healthy "snack". I'll have to get the reluctant husband on board with this, perhaps packing him a cooler to keep in the car with 3 labeled bags of "meals" and when to eat them (hey, the micro managing control freak teacher is getting excited for this!).
2. Eat every 2 to 3 hours. That's easy.
3. Eat a combo of lean protein and complex carbs at each meal. Ok, lean protein would be fish, chicken, turkey, tofu?, beans? cheese (I hope so!) and complex carbs...not so sure about that, I'll have to look more into....am thinking it means whole grains.
4. Drink 2 to 3 liters a day (and pee every 30 minutes!)...you're supposed to measure it out ahead of time so you see how much it really is and keep track. Note: Buy 1 liter reusable water bottles, I wonder how much our reg. ones hold. I'll have to measure...I drink about 4 to 5 of my reusable bottles a day...I'll be right back, going to measure it out. Ok, 4 of my bottles are 2.5 liters...pretty good. 5 are exactly 3 liters. No wonder I am always going to the bathroom. Jason chides me over it and I thought it was the after effects of 4 kids...guess I am just "eating/drinking clean!".
5. Rely on fresh fruits and veggies for complex carbs, enzymes and fiber. Okay, explains the complex carbs better for above. For some reason I am great about getting 5 servings of fruits/veg.'s into the kids each day but terrible about eating them myself sometimes. Today I've had: 1 cup spinach, 1/8C dried cranberries, 1/2 avocado. Not too shabby I guess.
6. Eat whole grains, not refined, over processed ones. Harder. I LOVE baguettes, corn tortillas (does that count as a whole grain??), bagels, pasta, etc. This is going to be the challenge with the fam. I've already completely switched over to the whole grain Dave's Killer Bread (my 10 yr. old daughter just quit eating bread), but the 5 and 6 yr. old seem ok with it. Jason and I love it! It's going to be harder with the bagels, waffles, pancake mix and pasta though.
7. Choose lean protein from: fish, poultry, wild game, soy products and legumes. It's a challenge to get seafood in once a week (hey, I love it, just don't love to cook it myself or battle my kids over it at dinnertime) and one I am going to take on. I guess it's adios red meat and bacon. Ooh, I'll really miss you bacon. Everything really is "better with bacon".
8. Eat healthy fats EVERYDAY from fish, healthy oils, nuts, seeds and grains. I quit eating peanut butter when my youngest (now 2) got diagnosed with severe food allergies and only give it to family members when she's sleeping or they are at school/work. I will have to give sunflower seed butter a try...
9. Never miss a meal (I usually don't, that's the problem), esp. breakfast. My kids wake up hungry. First question is always "What's for breakfast??"
10. Stick to reasonable portion sizes. This will def. be the hardest of all!!!!!!!!!
Do not eat/avoid:
white flour, white sugar, fake sweeteners, alcohol, sat. and trans fat foods, chemicials/preservatives, etc.

Okay, here's my plan:
*I have AT LEAST two cups of tea a day with 1 TB (I'm being honest at least) of white sugar in it (and 1 T skim milk). So I am going to try and switch to-agave nectar, not sure what it is yet, but have at least heard of it.
*Make my own oatmeal...we rely heavily on the instant packs of oatmeal for the kids...so I will attempt to try making the "morning hot cereal mix" that you can make ahead and keep in a tupperware for weeks. I will serve with brown sugar, cinammon and real maple syrup (we switched to that about 6 years ago, dang it's expensive though!). And fresh fruit as available.
*No more string cheese, enourage more yogurt eating. That's harder since I'm sure she's not referring to Dananinos, Trix yogurt or even Tillamook's Vanilla Bean or Yoplait...hmm...I'll have to look into this. Cheese stix are so handy too.
*Switch white bread to whole grain: Already done, checked off the list (I like to include things I've already done).
*No more processed crackers (Ritz, Goldfish, Club Crackers). This will be VERY hard on the kids. They are processed carb junkies.
*No more fruit jucie...ok, we limit ourselves to 4 oz a day or less easily, I only buy 100% OJ and serve only with breakfast. However, my youngest only cares for Apple and drinks 4 to 6 ounces a day watered down 50%. According to Tosca, it should be a 1 part juice 2 parts water ratio though (is that 1:3?).
*No more soda in house. Already done, except for 7 up in case of sickness.
*No more candy, junk food, etc.
* Buy and try out pumpkin oil
*Eat meals together: already done
*Swtich off tv's, computers, etc. during meals: already done!
*Do not use food as reward or punishment. Hmm...that's hard. I realize I do that more often than I should..."eat up and you can have some ice cream later." "If you do a good job on your chores/HW dad might take you for an ice cream later".
*Include children in your shopping and cooking. Already done, although frankly, it's easier not to with 4 in tow...
..to be continued...