small things...

WWFED: Good eats

I’m working on bringing back my WWFED posts on the regular.  I’m realizing that I’m totally out of the blog writing habit so it might take me a little while to get the routine a-going.  For example – I’d planned and meant to write/post this back on Sunday and today is absolutely Tuesday instead.  But here goes.

Nearly a year ago I wrote the following:

Can a girl let go of the food dogma that’s been literally and figuratively weighing her down?  I hope so.

I get wrapped up in the “what-is-healthy-eating?” debate frequently (with  myself).  Should I eat more carbs, less carbs, which carbs, and what exactly is a carb again?  heavy protein or low fat.  Should I be a Vegan or a Paleo or a carb-cycler.  A points counter or a calorie counter or full-on intuitive eater.

It’s maddening.  It’s been maddening since I was a teenager, if not before.

Lately,  I try to return as often as possible to the following questions:

• Is it real food (grew out of the ground or came from an animal)?
• Does it make me feel better or worse after eating it?
• Will it make a pretty photograph?  Ha. this is only partially important to me.

Breaking up is never easy, amiright?  Breaking up with food habits and food dogma is also super challenging.  Like a lot of people, especially those who have dieted many times over many years, I can get very confused and worked up about what is the RIGHT WAY to eat.  These days when I feel that stress building I try to shake if off quickly and go back to those first two questions.  Does that mean I only eat something which answers those questions positively?  My diet coke habit says ‘not-so-much’.

The bottom line is that this is all a work in progress for me.  Finding a way to feed myself without judgment, or analysis or second guessing is no longer a natural process in my brain, but I’m hopeful.

Looking back over the last year I can safely say – I’m still completely in the midst of this process.  Spending weeks where I struggle with the question of right/wrong foods.  Weeks where I say fuck it and eat like I’m the leader of an anti-good-food rebellion.  Weeks where I ignore the whole thing.  But very little time where I have felt in the flow of it; where any of it has felt very natural.

So I’m back at it.  Using the blog to return my awareness back to this process of letting go of rules or judgment and just enjoying life.

The plan is to write weekly about food/fitness/good living.  Starting now….!

Some of the good eats from this week:

Salads for lunch this week:

• romaine
• carrots
• cukes
• quinoa
• roasted tofu
• goat cheese
• balsamic dressing

Bacon, mushroom, spinach & feta quiche for breakfast this week.  From this cookbook

Pan seared cheese ravioli with peas, mixed greens and bacon. Adapted from this recipe

Adapted from my mama’s recipe for a mexican layer dip she called “Mexican pile”.

Bean layer:

• 1 can refried beans
• 1/2 tsp each: chili powder and cumin
• Mix ingredients and layer bottom of dish

Guacamole layer:

• 2 ripe medium avocados
• Juice from 1/2 lime (save other half)
• 3 TB pico de gallo
• 1/2 tsp each: celery salt and sugar
• 1/8 tsp of cayenne pepper
• scoop out the flesh of the avocados (discarding the pit) into a small bowl.  Mash avocado to your desired consistency (I like it chunky and just use a fork to separate the avo flesh).  Add in all other ingredients – mix well.  Add layer atop beans

Sour Cream layer:

• 6 TB sour cream
• 4 TB mayonnaise
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp each: garlic powder, chili powder
• 1 tsp paprika
• juice from other half of 1/2 lime
• Mix it all up and add layer atop guacamole

Cheese layer:

• 1 Cup each (grated): Monterey jack, cheddar
• Sprinkle atop sour cream layer

Then I top the whole thing with spoonfuls of the remaining pico de gallo.  Eat it up with chips!

Plot Twist!

A week ago yesterday THIS happened…

(the foot. I’m talking about the foot.  not the chubby kitty goodness to the right.)

There I was, minding my own business, when all of a sudden I got jumped by the sidewalk!  I fought it off with a swift kick and it backed off.  After a trip to the ER and an x-ray with this cool new machine they bring right to your bed(!) I learned that my 5th metatarsal was the real victim of this street crime.  A fracture.

The first couple of days I was a bit of an emotional mess.  Freaked out to be stuck up in my 3rd floor walk-up alone.  Unable to put any weight on my foot and quickly growing tired from hopping around with crutches and a bruised hand.  When my overzealously wrapped leg began to feel seriously itching and red and swollen I made my sister come over to assure me I had not contracted a flesh-eating-virus.  She was right.  I had not.

As a way to lift my spirits, calm my nerves and practice a little of the self-healing I’ve been learning – I have been meditating a lot.  Thanks 60 days of Om!  In particular I’ve been practicing my bright-white-light meditation.  I learned it during my meditation challenge last year as a way to ‘clean out’ emotional/physical/metaphysical debris from my body & spirit. All you do is visualize a bright light travelling to and through different parts of your body filling each area with light rendering the area clean.  And I would feel lit up.  For reals. 

So in an effort to support and maybe increase my healing I’ve been sending this bright light to spend a little time along the gnarly bruise on my hand/wrist and I’ve been seeing it run it’s light slowly up and down my bone healing the bone whole. 

And, well, I think it’s working.  My bruise is gone.  It was black and purple on Tuesday.  It had dramatically faded by Thursday.  It’s gone today.  My doctor gave me a walking boot on Tuesday – I am still in it, but walking completely without crutches or pain.  My bone isn’t healed- I’m sure of that because there is still pain if I try to turn my foot certain ways.  But I am hopeful.  I was told I’d be in the boot for 4-6 weeks.  I’m shooting for 4.  Hell, maybe 3.

Of course the chubby kitty has been vigilant in her watch over my injured foot – so I’m sure that’s helped too.