Did you find yourself sweeter and kinder after Whole30 reintro?

[MeadowLily]

Lower-priced extra-virgin olive oils for cooking

 

These oils are available at supermarkets and/or big box stores and can be found online as well.

• California Olive Ranch “Everyday”
• Corto Olive
• Costco’s Kirkland Signature (Toscano)
• Fairway (N.Y., N.J., Conn.; will ship)
• Monini

 

Premium extra-virgin olive oils for use as condiments

 

Fruity and full-flavored, with a peppery backnote, these oils pair well with potatoes, beans, grilled meats, seafood, and vegetables and are great for finishing soups and tomato-sauced pastas.

• Ravida (Sicily)
• Olio Verde (Sicily)
• Laudemio Frescobaldi (Tuscany)
• Pons Early Harvest (Catalonia)
• Grove 45 (Napa Valley)
• Moulin Jean Marie Cornille (Maussane-les-Alpilles, France)

 

These sharper, more peppery oils also work as a final seasoning for grilled meats and spicy, more assertive foods.

• Castello di Ama (Tuscany)
• Laudemio Poppiano (Tuscany)

 

More rounded, smoother oils shine in milder dishes—simple fish recipes, steamed vegetables, delicate lettuces, salad dressings.

 

• Les Moulins Dorés (France)
• Alziari (France)
• Dauro (Catalonia)
• Terra Medi (Greece)

 

Every summer, I rely on just one olive oil for weekends away and an annual beach vacation. It has to be inexpensive enough to cook with yet have enough character to act as a condiment. My oil of choice this year is Paesano, from Sicily, which is available at Whole Foods.

 

 

Some Favorite Sources

 

Again, this list is far from complete but these are among the sources I know and trust:

• Corti Brothers (Sacramento, Calif.)
• Formaggio Kitchen (Cambridge, Mass., and New York City)
• Katz & Co. (Napa, Calif.)
• Murray’s Cheese (New York City)
• Zingerman’s (Ann Arbor, Mich.)

http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/07/02/further-understanding-olive-oil/

[MeadowLily]

Salad greens: The deeper the color, the better they are for you. The darker lettuces, such as butterhead or romaine types, contain more antioxidants and nutrients than paler, tighter heads such as iceberg. 

If you’re limited to shopping at a supermarket don’t despair. Photosynthesis happens in continuous light (whether daylight or fluorescent) even after spinach and other greens are harvested and on the shelf. After reading this 2010 reportpublished in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, in which researchers found that leaves exposed to retail continuous light had higher levels of all the vitamins except some from the vitamin A family, you’ll want to opt for greens arranged in the front of the produce case; they have more nutrients than the ones underneath or behind them.

[MeadowLily]

Buffaloberry (Shepherdia argentea): A 2013 study in the Journal of Food Science found that bright-red buffaloberries, historically an important food source for Native Americans of the Great Plains, contain large amounts of lycopene and a related acidic compound, methyl-lycopenoate, both important antioxidants. Buffaloberries which are thorny, tough, cold-hardy, and thrive in poor soil.

Elderberry (Sambucus nigra): Although this fruit was long appreciated as a source of food and medicine. Elderberries, which are rich in vitamin C, “contain more phosphorus and potassium than any other temperate fruit crop.” Like other dark-colored fruits, they also contain lots of anthocyanins. They’re a good source of vitamins B1, B2, and B6 and contain the anti-inflammatory agents ursolic and oleanolic acids.

 

[MeadowLily]

Saskatoon Berry : Native to western North America, the saskatoon berry (the Canadian city was named for the fruit, not the other way around) was an ingredient in the Native American food pemmican, and the stems were made into arrow shafts. The fruit resembles the blueberry in size, flavor, and texture, but is far more adaptable, which is why its growth range stretches from Alaska, the Yukon, and Northwest Territories (some varieties are cold-hardy to near –60°F) all the way to California, Arizona, and New Mexico. Botanically speaking, saskatoon fruit is not a true berry, but a pome, like aronia; not only is it packed with antioxidants, but it also contains more protein and fiber than most fruits. According to a 2006 study published in the Journal of Food Science, saskatoons appear to be an excellent source of manganese, magnesium, and iron, and a relatively good source of calcium, potassium, copper, and carotene.

[MeadowLily]

Vision

Eating berries can also keep your eyes healthy, and may help prevent two common aging-related eye diseases—cataracts and macular degeneration—which afflict millions of Americans over age 65.  Lutein and zeaxanthin, in particular, seem protective against cataracts.

A study of over 2,300 Finnish men showed that fruit and vegetables, especially berries, may reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes.

Diabetes

Some research looks specifically at whether individual fruits are associated with risk of type 2 diabetes. 

• In a study of over 66,000 women in the Nurses’ Health Study, 85,104 women from the Nurses’ Health Study II, and 36,173 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study who were free of major chronic diseases, findings suggested that greater consumption of whole fruits – especially blueberries, grapes, and apples – is associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes.
• https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/vegetables-and-fruits/

[MeadowLily]

[MeadowLily]

[MeadowLily]

Type 2 Diabetes

People who binge eat are more likely to get T2 diabetes.

Binge eating can make your blood sugar harder to control.

[MeadowLily]

Stopping a Binge When It Hits

Sit with the emotion.  Identify it, and accept it without judging the emotion or yourself. This will be hard at first. But emotions pass, and as you accept your feelings, you’ll realize you don’t have to binge to get rid of them.

Surf the urge. You may think your desire to binge will just continue to grow. But if you distract yourself with other things and get away from your food triggers, you’ll see that feeling start to go away. Think of the urge as an ocean wave that will grow, but then wash away.

Distract yourself. Find something to take your mind and body away from food. You can, among other things:

• Listen to music
• Go for a walk
• Go for a drive
• Mow the lawn
• Garden
• Walk the dog
• Dance
• Go swimming

Pick up the phone. Here’s where that support system you built comes in. Call your trusted friend or support group member and tell them what you’re going through. Talking it out can help make the urge pass.

Find a therapist or doctor who specializes in working with binge eating disorder.

Find your happy place.

Do whatever makes you feel good about yourself. You can listen to music that boosts your mood, hit the gym, or watch a funny movie.

Think it through. If you do start to eat, try to slow down, pay attention to each bite, and don’t allow yourself to fall into a daze.

Stay in the moment.

[MeadowLily]

Binge Eating is an escape from self-awareness.

People who binge eat are more likely to get T2 diabetes.

[MeadowLily]

Binge eating goes hand in hand with anxiety and depression.

To escape these states, the binge eater narrows their attention to the immediate stimulus of food to avoid broadly meaningful thoughts.

This narrowing of attention disengages normal responses to food.

Binge eating is an escape from self-awareness. It fosters an uncritical acceptance of escapism and thoughts. 

[MeadowLily]

http://psych415.class.uic.edu/Readings/Heatherton, Binge & escape, PsyBull, 1991.pdf

 

Binge eating is part of a motivated attempt to escape from self- awareness.

People find it burdensome and aversive to be aware of themselves, so they seek to escape.

It is difficult to turn off one's awareness of self. The common strategy is to narrow the focus of attention to the present and immediate stimulus environment. This keeps self-awareness at a relatively low level and avoids meaningful thought about ongoing identity and the implications of various events. 

[MeadowLily]

Another binge is not a cure for a food addiction. 

[MeadowLily]

Binge eating is an escape from self- awareness.

More dieting will not prevent a binge eating relapse.

Dieting is another cycle of binge eating.

Recovery from binge eating, food addiction and food disorder is possible.  It may take years of commitment and hard work.

But you can come out of the other side of binge eating.

Sit down with someone.  Face-to-Face.

 

[MeadowLily]

Practice effective listening.

When a parent holds a conversation with a child, the parent should practice effective listening to the child.

Listen closely to how the child speaks about their own world and how they fit it. 

Stories about how it was when the parent was a child should be used very, very sparingly. The parent should not go on about how it looks because looks are deceiving.

Let the child speak about their world. Listen to their words and the tone of their voice.  Out of the mouth of babes... true emotional honesty. 

[MeadowLily]

We have to tear ourselves down to build ourselves back UP again.

Go back to the well and find your true emotional honesty and self-awareness.

There's a huge difference between being childish and being childlike. 

Childish reacts. Always, always reacts. 

Childlike responds with true honesty and self-awareness. 

 

 

[MeadowLily]

When we break down and cry about homeless peoples and situations in the world it's a good thing. Emotions are good medicine.

I've been torn up about a story of an elderly homeless man living on the streets in below zero temps. He walks with a cane. His beard and hair were covered with frost. All he has is a thin blanket and a chair. A couple helped him. They ran and bought him a blanket, a hot drink and gave him a ride to a warming house. He told them his story on the way there.

I love old people. I have always cared about them. I've learned more from them than from peers my own age down through the years. 

Things like this make me feel like a porcupine full of tears. When you barely brush up against one, that's all she wrote. Quills are going to fly in every direction.

Many times, when we have alot of pressures going on or we're trying to put on a brave face for our loved ones, we hold everything inside.  All it takes is a mere handshake or the recounting of someone's true hardship and the tears are going to fly in every direction.

Let them fly.  Tears are the authentic detox.  After you're done crying, you feel weak and worn out.   You put your brave face back on but inside the porcupine has burst. There's nothing but a trail of tears behind you. 

My grandpaw always helped homeless people. He said you'll never know when you've entertained an angel unaware. It's true.

 

[MeadowLily]

I ran into town for some Kombucha and LaCroix. I like to mix the two of them together and stretch the booch. Apricot and Coconut are my go-to flavors. The others seem so acidic...but I've been swilling them like there's no tomorrow.  I like to take one to bed and pop-a-top, again. It's snowing, snowing, snowing.  Riding over the roads is like being in a lumber wagon. They're a tee-total wreck, deeply rutted, throwing you all over the place. I needed to get the fluids in my motor UP to temp.  Mine and the truck's. 

I'm standing by, waiting for a Chinook.  Swillin' and chillin' LaCroix and Booch.

  

 

[MeadowLily]

The Whole 30 Brain.  It's real.

Think about it.  Think, one of my favorite words.

If you've been here any length of time, your brain is expanding.

We're no longer eating our brains away in a brainless, unconscious mode.  No.  We are clicking and clacking down the railroad track. 

We are opening our minds and inserting possibilities.

Is it the fish, fish, fish.  Sure it is.  It's also the other good quality proteins and whopping boatloads of vege and fruits and nuts for decoration.  It is the collective Whole 30.

Clarity. Clearness of thinking.  

I'm here to tell you that it's not bragging if it's true. The flipside is falling back into pizza, bread, pasta. Letting it rain taco chips and allowing potato chips to sweep you off of your feet.

Heckatoot, you really want to go back to that?

I don't and I won't.  

So roll with it, Felicias.  Roll with it.  Roll your bones on over here.

 

 

[MeadowLily]

You think the lizard brain lily livered yellow bellied sapsucker cares about you?

No, he does not.

He doesn't care one iota if you return to the scene of the crime. Eating. All. The. Things. He'll actually help you get there and unwind every day and month and year in a fraction of the time it's taken to get here.

It's called Total Relapse. I will take Total Recall over Total Relapse. 

We are the things we tell ourselves. Don't limit yourself.

Be a Road Tester. Allow the Tools of Titans to find their way into your toolkits. 

Answers. Answers. Answers.

 

It's all about having a GoodWill Bank. Good will towards your fellow Felicias and fellow man. When you don't limit your heart and you give...there's always more to give AND another streetcar coming around the corner.  My Grandmaw always said that.

I pay homage to my forebears, ancestors and elders. We are a reflection of them. Their DNA runs through our veins.
Water seeks its own level.

I remember having a tiny blue ironing board and a small iron that really worked.  Every day, Maw and I would iron clothes in the afternoon. Doll clothes, for me. She would turn on a radio program that was called the Hawaiian Hour.  I loved it so much because we could sway and dance like hula girls, swaying with the warm ocean breezes.  

Then we would take a nap. I would watch Maw sleep. She made puppets out of socks and would dance her feet around to make me sleepy but then she would be out like a light.  I listened to the music keeping watch over Maw.  I didn't really like naps.

I still don't take one.  There's too much to see and I like to keep my eyes wide open. Be a watchman on the wall, keep looking towards the horizon for what's coming. Listen to the craton plates beneath your feet. The sky is not the limit and it never was.   

 

Stay thirsty, my friends. Stay awake, Felicias.  

Much love.  I will swill and chill today.  

  

 

[MeadowLily]

A gift from Stegner. 

"Here's a quote from an interview with Gary Taubes.  I think he's describing the experiment we're all engaged in."  

G.T.: Clearly, the best approach is to learn to live without the obvious sources of sugar, in the sugary beverages, the candies and treats. But you have to do it long enough so that you can really know how you feel without it.

What’s it like to enjoy a meal without a dessert, or to drink water instead of juice or soda, to have a snack of nuts rather than a candy bar? When we try, and we can all do this as an experiment, we have to do it for long enough that we get over the initial cravings and get to the point where we can really experience what life is like without it. Only then can we decide if a healthy life without sugar is worth the apparent sacrifice.

[MeadowLily]

"We have to do it for long... to the point where we can really experience what life is like without it. Only then can we decide if a healthy life without sugar is worth the apparent sacrifice."

 

[MeadowLily]

The binge eater narrows their attention to the immediate stimulus of food to avoid broadly meaningful thoughts.

This narrowing of attention disengages normal responses to food.

Binge eating is an escape from self-awareness. It leads to acceptance of escapism and thoughts. 

[MeadowLily]

The binge eating years are a blur.  An escape from I-can't-fool -myself realism.

I can remember all of the way back to early childhood and up to the the day the music faded away. Binge eating smothered out everything.

Every evening, I would make a run for the mini-mart. The true lalaland where all of the cray cray shizz lives.  Cookies, candy and soda pops.

I would buy a bag of the soft highly engineered to be craved cookies and a carton of chocolate milk.  I would sit down with the TV preachers and wash away my pain and suffering. Don't shout me down while I'm preaching good.  Help me.  Won't you help me. 

My eyes would swell up from all of those chemicals. There was usually some chocolate covered jelly orange slices thrown in there, too. Cinnamon rolls and potato chips to clean my palate. I lived on those things.

I called the prayer lines. Help me. Won't you help me. They were asking for help and I was asking for help. I sang along with the choir and that was my evening routine. 

I did not feel good. Ever. Those were the training years for T2 Diabetes. Diabetes does not suddenly show up on your doorstep. You earn your stripes.

Binge eaters are at the highest risk for developing diabetes. We only have one pancreas and when it gives up the ghost, it's over. For real. 

I had friends but I didn't tell anyone what was going on. I was always in a food shaming spiral.  Good girl. Bad girl. Naughty or Nice.  Black and White thinking = Binge Eating.

So what is this then.  It's the happy place I created while I've been pulling all of the dross out of my head. There's been many aday that I've cried for myself and what I did to myself. So many regrets about what might've been had I sat down with someone...Face-to-Face and faced the music. 

Don't let it go.  Sooner rather than later, Felicias. 

I could've been a contender and probably traveled much more. But I was stuck in my own prison with multi-crap.

 

Shawshank it.  Get yourself free.

 

   

[MeadowLily]

We care about our folkaronies, don't we. We care.

They pull us through the most miserable times of our life. What would we do without them. They're the constant through all of the UP and down times.

When I finish with the daily dross pulling, I run and squeeze everyone tight. Hugs and kisses all around.  I can't help myself.

I call Maw's sisters and tell 'em how much I love them. I have the best aunties in the world and so many of them. We laugh about Grandmaw and how she coped with so many children, grandchildren.

She didn't have it easy. Not until the end of her life. One of the aunties took her in and cared for her in the best of ways. This aunt is my hero.  She is the template that I follow.

She told me that I will never ever have one day of regret...that taking care of our folkaronies is the grandest thing we can do on earth.  Ooooo, Felicias, she's right.

I can't go alot of places and I don't stray very far.  I did all of that and I'm fine. Really. 

I'm here, keeping the home fires burning. Making sure my folks have groceries and my husband is the best cook in the Universe. Everyone would tell you that.  He's southern fried and homespun. 

He runs over every morning to shovel snow, give them their mail and newspaper. He's the best in the west, the host with the most.

I keep you company while you're tooling along with the Whole 30. It Starts With Food and it ends with food. Without food, we'd all be in a world of hurt. 

I'm grateful for every single day. I don't watch the TV preachers as much as I used to.  Every now and again. 

I haven't made a run for the mini-mart in almost 3 years. It's all good. Really. 

Play Ball!  Knock it out of the park today, Felicias. You can cry if you want to. 

 

Have a good cry

Wash out your heart

If you keep it inside

It will tear you apart.