22 PPV day (or, How To Eat Like An Angel)

A fellow Weight Watcher asked for a copy of a typical day from my tracker, so I thought I would share here, too. Below is the list of items I would normally eat on a weekday - one of those really good, well-planned, prepared kind of weekdays. This list is only 22 ppv, so there is room for a snack like chips and salsa (4 ppv for the chips, salsa is free) or a beer (5 ppv, so you would use one from your 49 anytime ppv). Just a note, this was an almost 'angelic' day where I had prepared my meals the Sunday before and was all set up. No one is perfect and I have snack-attacks just like everyone else... but this is the kind of typical set up that I prepare myself with on a weekly basis so that I can stay on track. If you take a look at the timestamps I provided, you will notice that I am eating constantly!

8:00 am: Breakfast: yogurt
10:00 am: Snack: Strawberries
12:30 pm: Lunch: Salad with avocado, arugula, feta, onion, raisins, etc (keep it intersting!)
3:00 pm: Snack: Banana, Starbucks latte
5:30 pm: Snack: Apple on the ride home from work
6:00 pm: Dinner: Eggs in a basket with a side of asian veggies
8:00 pm: Snack: add in those tortilla chips and salsa I was talking about!

Most Eggcellent: How I Learned To Poach Eggs

Alton Brown taught me how to poach an egg, so I thought to share with all of you! This is not as vegetable-centric as I usually am, but eggs are so delicious and a really important source of protein for me. Be sure to check out some of the interesting ways I use poached eggs after the video, as the center of a meal and as an awesome addition to add interest to whatever else I happen to be consuming. Here's the video!

Poached eggs are a Weight Watchers power food - plus, without adding any extra oil or butter to cook, a single poached egg is only 2 points plus value (ppv)! I rely on eggs while keeping an eye on my diet as a healthy source of protein. I like to use poached eggs in some of the following ways to help me stay full longer while still eating really well:

• Simply Spicy Sriracha Poached Eggs and Toast: Two poached eggs (4ppv) over one slice of whole grain toast (2ppv) with a sprinkle of salt, pepper, and Sriracha hot sauce. Substitute sriracha for ketchup, chipotle sauce, tobasco, freshly sliced scallions, dill, season-salt, Mrs. Dash or any topping that you think would go well. 6ppv total, and keeps me full for a while. Simple yet spicy does the trick here - this was inspired by my love for 'eggs in a basket' and trying to find a lighter version to cut out the butter when cooking eggs. I think that this easy recipe is simply successful in doing just that!
• Orange Curry Poached Eggs: Two poached eggs (4ppv) over one slice of potato bread toast (2ppv) or your favorite greens with a sprinkle of McKormick's yellow curry powder and a tablespoon of Smucker's sweet orange marmalade (1ppv). 7ppv total, this makes for a really exciting dinner! The curry powder and orange marmalade complement each other so well - it may sound outlandish but it is really good.
• Poached Eggs Arugula Salad: One poach egg (2ppv) over a salad of 2 cups arugula, .25 cup thinly sliced red onion, .25 cup bell pepper, 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts (3 ppv), 2 tablespoons feta (1ppv), 2 tablespoons golden raisins (2 ppv), salt and pepper. 8ppv total, and I don't even use salad dressing because that yolk is so good! 
• Sesame Vegetable Egg Wrap: Add a poached egg (2ppv) to a tortilla wrap (4ppv) with grilled vegetables - onion, pepper, carrot, zucchini tossed in sesame oil (1ppv for sesame oil coating), 2 tablespoons hummus (2ppv), and a dash of Sriracha if you like. This is 9ppv total, and totally worth it because the hummus and egg yolk combination is a match made in taste bud and texture heaven. I don't know how to describe this except as ridiculously yummy. 

I can't wait to try these all again for dinner this week!

Before and After (49 pounds down)

Here is a before and after photo of me - the difference in my body is astonishing to me, and I hadn't realized that I had changed so much until I saw these photos side by side. If you are just starting your weight loss journey, I highly suggest taking a before photo to compare to later!

Before: April 14, 2012 ~around 246 lbs
After: December 17, 2012 ~just under 200 lbs

List it: 10 reasons I want to lose weight

List it: get a pen and paper, and use them to write down 10 reasons you want to lose weight. Even if you never read the list again, the act of writing something out is like a little commitment and will help you be more mindful of your choices and reasons for being healthy.

Here's my list. I want to lost weight to...

1. Boost my self esteem
2. Feel physically confident/strong
3. Live longer, add a few years to my life span
4. Inspire my family and friends
5. Sit comfortably in chairs, on airplanes, on buses
6. Drastically reduce my risk of heart disease
7. Reduce my risk of cancer
8. Treat disease preventatively by eating well
9. Not feel embarrassed about my size
10. Feel comfortable in my own skin

I feel I could write a hundred reasons, so you can definitely expect more lists like this one!

List it: 7 simple techniques to get you started eating vegetables or fruit with every meal

List it: get a pen and paper, and use them to write down 7 ideas to get you started eating vegetables or fruit with every meal. Even if you never read the list again, the act of writing something out is like a little commitment and will help you be more mindful of your choices and reasons for being healthy.

Below are some simple techniques "to eat as close to the sun as possible" that I used to get started. You can try to eat sun for a single day or a week at a time - any way you consume more plant material is a way that you are directly improving your health. I hope that you try it and see success!

1. Breakfast: Add fresh fruit to a breakfast of oatmeal, cereal, yogurt, or even on the side of your egg sandwich. It's a start. Bacon with a side of strawberries is healthier than bacon alone.
2. Elevensies: When I am hungry between meals I just eat a banana. They are like the health-freak Snickers bar: Hungry? Why Wait? Have a BANANA.
3. Lunch in: I pack salads ahead of time so the focused-in-the-morning-me already made the healthful decision before I got stressed out at work and wanted a Baconator. Pack a salad for yourself - it's like morning-you time traveled and brought afternoon-you a super special lunch.
4. Lunch out: When ordering lunch, I ask the server to substitute vegetables in for the macaroni and cheese. I know that is a hard thing to say, but the next time I weigh in I will be thankful for it.
5. Dinner in my control: Try a Meatless Monday dinner - offer to cook for the family and trick them into having a vegetarian meal if they tend to focus on meat. Insert evil laugh here: muahahahaha
6. Dinner in mom's control: At dinner, I pile veggies on my plate before taking any meat. Maybe even try eating them all before even considering the meat - when I do that I am usually full and don't want more to eat.
7. Dinner out: Check out an ethnic restaurant in your town (Indian, Thai, Japanese). They usually have vegetarian friendly options.There is a cool new vegetarian place in Islip, NY called VegeFavor right across from the Starbucks. It's Chinese style fast-food but all meat is substituted with delicious soy! Click this for approximate location. 
8. BONUS Snack Attack! If I want cookies, I eat an apple or some baby carrots first.  I tell myself I will have the cookies only when I finish the serving of fruit/veggie. Chances are I won't need the cookies anymore.

Try one of these! If you try it often enough it just might become a healthy habit.

One Pound Carrots vs. One Pound Bacon

Think about how you feel physically and self consciously if you ate a pound of carrots as compared to if you ate a pound of bacon. Mmm... bacon.

I know that is an extreme amount, but exaggeration is necessary to make my point. In both cases, I would feel overly full but surely like I had enough to eat. In the case of the carrots I would feel like I made a healthier decision mentally, that I am being good to my body, that I can eat more later and not feel guilty. In the case of the bacon I would feel like I accomplished a very manly task, but I would be mentally scolding myself and wondering what my gastrointestinal tract will be making of my bad decision in a few hours.

If I had this foresight at all times in my conscious mind, being thin and healthy would be easy. Unfortunately I am human and lack that filter for impulsive decisions. That is why Eat Sun is so important to me. I am using it to make healthy habits and influence the impulsive decisions I make for the rest of my life.

In the extreme case of one pound of carrots vs. one pound of delicious smoked pork belly it is easy to make a healthful decision, but when I scale it back to the everyday what's-for-lunch-right-now-I'm-starving choices that I make sometimes,  it's easy to get lost. That is where the Eat Sun challenge comes in. It helps give me focus on making the right choices both in preparing my meals and when I have to grab something on the fly. If you want to try it, it doesn't have to be as extreme as my case. I admit that I am a little obsessed with these food challenges but I know that is not the case for everyone else, that not every person can commit to going all out as I have. However, I do know that if you add more vegetables and fruit into your diet in any minute manner, you are going to be healthier. You will feel fuller and more satisfied, and you will feel better about yourself both physically and mentally. You might even feel so great about it you'll buy yourself something pretty.

EAT SUN: A blog about buying yourself something pretty.

A theory on nutritional energy consumption

Disclaimer: If you read below you might think I am one of those 'crazy vegans' trying to indoctrinate you. I'm not. I just feel the need to explain more about why everyone should eat more vegetables. I definitely read about this in the book "Eat to Live" a few years ago, and so all my credit here goes to the author Joel Fuhrman.

One part of the "eat sun" idea is that when I eat plant materials I am eating 'purer' energy. Foods that used 'raw' energy from the sun to grow and develop contain the most pure form of nutritional energy possible. This is different from animal and processed products that are less pure being that an animal is a step further away from the sun: the meat I consume was once a live animal that ate plant matter; the plant matter was once an organism that consumed pure sunlight. The raw energy from the sun was once processed by the plant, twice processed by the animal, and is now being processed again in my belly. The same goes for processed foods, where the processing pushes raw, unadulterated plant matter further away from the sun (or in the case of processed meat, you are and even longer way from home). Why not skip the middle man and get some better, cleaner fuel for my body?

The meaning of EAT SUN

June 6th, 2012: I joined Weight Watchers with my parents. I was very successful. I still am very successful. A huge part of my success is the support of my friends and family, as well as the ability to 'keep it fresh' with interesting challenges. Shout outs to my homies Colleen, Janelle, Kim, Heather, Rich, Seraph, Charlie, Cristel and MamaBear. (There will definitely be more about you folks later)

December 8th, 2012: I started writing down my thoughts about my diet and food choices in a composition notebook. I found this very relieving, like having someone to share all your secrets with. I highly suggest it.

January 1st, 2013: I challenged Colleen and Seraph to try consuming a mostly vegetarian diet with me until Valentine's Day, on which occasion we would celebrate with a hearty, carnivorous meal. I texted them both about how I was going to "make love to a filet mignon" and probably something absurd and crude about duck fat / bacon. Then I promptly went to Best Market and bought bananas, apples, arugula. I am a firm believer that arugula is the bacon of the lettuce family. Operation Eat Sun begins.

The idea for Eat Sun was first inspired from the Weight Watcher meetings I attended, where January's habit to try was "eat a fruit or vegetable with every meal". I thought to take it a step further: instead of using veggies as a supplement to meat/dairy centered meals, *focus* meals around vegetables, effectively becoming a vegetarian for a short period of time. Of course every great challenge needs a catch phrase, and having recently been exploring the musical universe I had a song in mind, Eat Sun, Son by Gobble Gobble. This song has absolutely nothing to do with eating vegetables and the lyrics are actually weird, but hey, it's now the theme song. I also thought it was creepily coincidental that the band is called Gobble Gobble. It was meant to be! I listen to this song way more than any person should and find myself singing "eaaaaaaaaat sunnnnnn, son" to myself on the drive to work and in the shower. I know, you don't have to tell me twice, I'm awesome.

Anyway, what the heck does "Eat sun" mean?
"Eat sun" is the simplification of "eat as close to the sun as possible". The meaning of this is to eat foods that are made directly by the sun: vegetables, fruits, legumes. Anything that grew in the dirt, waved in the wind, was watered by rain and sprinkler, and soaked up the sun's rays is fair game.

EAT SUN: A blog about eating as close to the sun as possible through vegetables, fruits, and legumes.