Pursuit Of Idle Pleasures: Habitual Nourishment

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Habitual Nourishment - Week 3–becoming habitual

You’ll have to excuse me, but I’ve decided to just post my habitual nourishment posts here and do away with the other blog. I don’t have much to say there, so I might as well say it here. Feel free to skip these posts!

The week started off on a good foot; aside from my (final) encounter with quinoa. That was not fun; I love quinoa and hate to lose it from my diet.

Monday we went into town to purchase a blender that was on sale (Ninja Kitchen System 1500). My current blender was a little gutless for some of the things I wanted to make with it. This one is crazy powerful – it made “icecream” in seconds with just frozen almond milk cubes, a drizzle of liquid almond milk, a frozen banana, 1/2 T peanut butter, and 1 T coco powder. Oh my gosh it was good! The blender should also be able to replace most of the things I used my ancient food processor for; that’s a good thing cause the blender is HUGE, and with all its giant attachments I need to move the old fp out of the kitchen!

Needless to say, Monday I over ate; sure, everything was on point, but there was just too much of it.

Wednesday I went shopping with a friend, but instead of eating out, I brought fresh celery, red pepper, grapes and walnuts. Not as much fun as going out for Pho, but healthier, and hopefully weight loss promoting.

Thursday was another outing, this time to a “ladies night”, with wine… needless to say it wasn’t a perfect green day…

I’ve started to have a chia seed pudding as my bedtime snack. It might be adding too many calories, but it is adding a good dose of omega-3, and calcium, as well as several other benefits:

A standard 2 tbsp (24 g) serving of chia seeds contains:

Calories: 117
Protein: 4 grams
Fat: 7.4 grams
Fibre: 8.3 grams

It contains all eight essential amino acids and a host of trace minerals and micronutrients. To put it in easy comparative terms, each 2 tbsp serving of chia offers:

Five times the omega-3 content of a 1/4-cup serving of walnuts
Twice the iron and magnesium of a cup of spinach
As much calcium as a half-cup of milk
As much potassium as a third of a banana
More than twice the fibre of a cup of oatmeal

My resolve held fast on Saturday morning, even though I was sorely tempted by the smell of Carm’s toast. I usually try to time my smoothie to his toast time, but had let it slip a bit. I sat in my chair wavering a few minutes, and then reminded myself that I don’t feel so great after toast, and that surely, a tasty smoothie would do the trick. So up I got and started the long process of assembling all the ingredients (today was hemp hearts, broccoli, carrot, zucchini, celery, cantaloupe, cranberries, tofu, kale, spinach, frozen apple, frozen banana, frozen almond milk cubes, and finally a few cups of icy water). Whew! What a production! It did hit the spot though, and the desire for toast disappeared.

All in all it was a good week, with only 1 small transgression (two glasses of wine on Thu); if I weren’t trying to lose weight the wine would have been okay. I was down 1 1/2 pounds – not too bad, especially given that I ate and ate – sure it would be good for it to be faster, but this way I’m more likely to fit into my skin ;-)

Note to self: do NOT add raw ginger to smoothie – yuck – perhaps if you are a ginger fan it would be good, but since I barely like it to in the first place…