Loquat I can do!

Its late winter (early Spring really) here in Florida. I am not thrilled to be living here. (For many many reasons i will not get into right now) But one really nice thing about living here is food I have never had growing right in my back yard - literally.

This is a Loquat tree growing behind the house I live in. And it is in fruit right now. I had never heard of these fruits before but they are amazeballs delicious! Escpeially in salad dressings and chutney. However those are the only things i have made so far and both were amazing so i can fairly guess that the other ideas i have for these beauties will be awesome too!

So what is a Loquat?

Its a tree that was imported from asia as (primarily) an ornamental. The trees are self polinating and super resiliant so they are a very good little plant for the yards in the warmer temperate regions of the US. They are found in California too!

The fruit grows in little bunches and the fruits kind-of ripen at the same time so you can just pluck the whole bunch at once. The fruit doesn't give much of a fight when picking and the cluster will come free fairly easily.

Feel free to eat it raw, as is (after washing of course). No need to peel. However, beware the seeds. Each loquat can have up to 5 seeds though most have only 1 or 2. The edible flesh of the fruit is a fairly thin area around the large seeds.

The fruit is about as large as a strawberry. It ranges in color from a yellowy green to orange/peach to a blushed orange color as they ripen. Its better to pick them in the peach stage as the fruit flies love there things and waiting until they are really ripe means you might get some added protein when you bide into one - if you get my drift. Nasty! So get them while they are still a little under ripe. The skin is thin and has some light peach fuzz on it.

Flavor:
Sweet - like a peach or mango but with a slightly sour/tangy flavor like a grapefruit added.

Preparation...

I simply wash off my loquats and slice them lengthwise. Then I remove the pit. I save these because I found a recipe for making amaretto from them, so I'm totally going to try it!

Some of the webpages I came across while learning about this fruit warned of a strong smell associated with the fruit - something akin to bleach apparently. They warned that you might want to blanch the fruit before you handled it, or wear gloves so as to prevent your hands from smelling funny later. I did not find this to be true of the fruits I have but different cultivars likely have different scents.

Loquat, being a fruit and all, is a healthy thing to eat. It is high in fiber nearly 2 grams in a 1/2 cup. In that same 1/2 cup you get about 1/2 a gram of protein. They are also reasonably high in vitamin A.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loquat
Nutritiondata.com

Failure to launch

I'm not having a very productive day.

I made a conscious choice to sleep in. I could have easily gotten up when any of my normal alarms went off...or when my sister knocked on the door...but instead I announced I was sleeping in. I'm not sure why I did that. Given a choice between sleep and not sleep (unless it is after 10pm) I will inevitably choose sleep. I love sleeping. Or perhaps I'm addicted? Or maybe I'm somehow broken. :/ I've had sleep studies. They weren't quite sure what was wrong but prescribed something to help be stay awake. That was years ago. I'm waiting on my insurance company to approve a new study...maybe the new techniques or advances in technology will identify what the hell is wrong with me.

But I did get up today. I was perfectly awake but loath to get out of bed. Its my Sunday. I start my work week tomorrow. I love working - not necessarily my job, mind you - but working. Its important to me to be needed and functional. So I laid in bed for almost an hour. Then I went to the bathroom and weighed in. I always weigh in in the morning after going to the bathroom. I figure this is the point when I will be my lightest all day. 196.6

Not a bad weight...though a full pound heavier than yesterday. There are reasons for this...perhaps I'm retaining water or something...or more likely, yesterday when i got on the scale I didn't notice that one corner of it was on the carpet. My sister pointed this out to me lat night. Its very important that your scale be on a flat hard surface for it to give an accurate reading.

Then I got dressed and ate breakfast...it was still morning - not yet noon. Plenty of time to get a good and productive day in.  I turned on the computer and worked on music for a bit and watched a TED talk on Netflix (Something about making sure that you don't only have one picture of a people. Nothing is nice and neat and able to be put into a small tidy package.)

Then I sat down to get some work done. I was going to blog. I have to write about my failed broccoli soup. The title is going to be "No Soup For You" - get it? But then I didn't. I just swam aimlessly through the unending stream of social media. Just a piece of flotsom in a sea of aphorisms and news snippets.

Around 3 I realized I was lethargic...most likely because i was hungry and went to make the last of that rice side dish...this time with a piece of frozen pollock to accompany (I did make one bag last 4 meals). And while I was away from the sucking void of the internet I managed to go outside and clean out my car ( a much needed weekly task) and start the laundry. Then I ate the meal (not without misadventure however as i broke one of my favorite bowls in the process.) I watched Ze Frank's Ted Talk because i remember liking it and then chased that with his most recent True Facts episode.

And I was right back to where I had been. Fed now but no more productive.

You see...I couldn't go to the gym today. I'm broke. I can't spare the gas to drive the distance there and back. I know that I can exercise here. I am more than able to do it. I have hundreds of exercise classes available at my disposal online and my sister has all the P90X videos (even the most recent ones). I have resistance bands, and medicine balls and balance balls, and free weights. I could run - the weather is nice but not oppressively hot (I currently live in Florida). But I just couldn't get up the motivation.

I love going to the gym. It's the most selfish thing I do. And I revel in it.

Eventually I did the dishes and swapped in the second load of laundry. But without going to the gym my day has felt like a failure.

Weather.... We Want To Or Not

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few months you must certainly have noticed that the weather this year is a bit more extreme than usual.  Polar Vortices...Record Drought...etc.

What does this have to do with food cooking and weight loss? Lots!

There have been some studies into the connection between healthy food costs and obesity. In general its inconclusive. But if you just go by your gut instinct...people will prefer to eat food that is cheaper.

Now, the cost of food is complicated - in no small part due to the U.S. Farm Bill - but if you just look at standard economic principles of supply and demand this winter is really bad news for everyone - even those of us that managed to avoid living in a zone of extreme weather.

Explain how? The extreme drought in California has caused the farms there to let fields they normally plant go fallow. They can't irrigate the thirsty crops many of which won't even be planted. (Personally I think it is ridiculous that we were farming rice in a drought prone area in the first place...but no one asked me).

The ice and cold in the South has most certainly affected the fruit trees that we all associate with Georgia (Peaches) and Florida (Oranges).

All up and down our country the extreme weather had affected the agricultural machine. I can only guess what the repercussions will be. But one thing I know is that the costs of our food is going to go up.

What to do about it....

Well, that is also a complicated question too. It depends on many variables.

Do you feel that the weather is being affected by climate change? Then you can try to pressure lawmakers (Ha!) into drafting stronger legislation to protect the earth. Also though, you can take matters in your own hands (no I don't mean become some crazy eco terrorist). I mean that you can make some real changes to your lifestyle to stop being part of the problem. Sell your old car or trade it in for a new fuel efficient model. Or better yet start car pooling and commuting to work on the bus or even biking to work.  Don't tell me how you can't do it because the time it takes you to commute would be too long - plenty of the "less fortunate" have some seriously long commutes on public transit and the manage. If more people who don't have to commute via bus started doing so out of a feeling of civic duty or whatever, the public transit systems would improve.

Water conservation...it's not just something that concerns farmers. It isn't just for people who live in a drought stricken area. Simple water saving measures help everyone.

Turn off the faucet while you are brushing your teeth (or brush your teeth in the shower - like I do).
Replace your shower head with a low flow head.
Take any unused medicines back to a pharmacy instead of flushing them or throwing them away. (It keeps them out of the sewer system and depending on the meds can sometimes be used to help people who need them)

Do you own your living space? Replace your toilets with low flow ones or better yet...this thing:

If you can afford it, buy water efficient dish washers and laundry machines.
Plant a rain garden to help the aquifers refill instead of having the rain just wash into the sewer system.

While we are on the subject of planting things...plant a garden. You can plant a single pot of herbs for your window or convert your entire yard to non-grass plants. If you plant edible plants you are contributing to your own food security. And as far as non grass plants go - most are more drought resistant than that opulent stuff. Just try to plant things that are native varieties to make the best use of your soil and climate and to prevent invasive species issues. Many urban areas have garden plots available to city dwellers. Some are free or low cost so look into it.

Got additional ideas on what you can do...post 'em. I could go on and on and on....

Spicy Blanched Broccoli

So we know you can eat Broccoli Baked and of course you can eat it raw...How else can you prepare it?!  How about Blanched?

I'm not talking about the Golden Girls here...its a legitimate way to cook vegetables. And its fairly easy.

Blanching is a cooking method where-in you immerse a raw food into boiling water for a brief period of time, draining it and then arresting the cooking process by immersing it in ice water. As mentioned before - broccoli is best only lightly cooked.

You will need:

A Large pot
A Colander
A Container with a tight fitting lid
A small bowl (for mixing the dressing)
A larger bowl (for the ice water bath)

Ingredients needed (for 1 serving):

1 Cup Broccoli, chopped
1-3 tsp Toasted Sesame Oil
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1-3 tsp Hot Chili Paste
1 Tbsp Rice Wine Vinegar
1 tsp Sugar
1 tsp Diced Garlic
1 tsp Ginger Paste
1 dash Salt
2 Tbsp Pine Nuts, toasted

Ice Cubes

Directions.

1. Fill the large pot with slightly salted water. Bring it to a rolling boil.

2. While waiting for the water to boil, chop your broccoli into florets. You can cook the stalks this way too or you can reserve them for a different recipe, or you can toss them. I have even seen grocery stores that offer fresh broccoli crowns without the stalks!

3. Drop the florets into the boiling water. Cook for 5 minutes (you can adjust this time to your own preference on how cooked you like your broccoli)

4. Put the ice cubes in the bowl and add water - so that you have a ice water bath for your broccoli to go into.

5. Drain the broccoli in the colander

6. Put the broccoli into the ice water and chill for a few minutes. You can take the ice bath and put it in the fridge overnight if you like.

7. While your broccoli chills out, mix the remaining ingredients except for the pine nuts. This is your spicy dressing. These amounts are approximate and you should taste it as you make it to adjust it to your personal preferences. Recipes are alot like the Pirates Code - more like guidelines really. (You could even skip this whole step and eat the broccoli plain, or substitute your favorite salad dressing)

8. Drain the broccoli again. Then put it in the container with the tight fitting lid and add the dressing. Close it up and give it a good shake. This distributes your dressing on the broccoli more evenly.

9. Top with the toasted pine nuts and enjoy!

Its great hot or cold!

Inspiration

One of my friends has been losing weight too. She was probably about as heavy as I was/am. And now she is amazingly small!

She is such an inspiration! So I asked her how she did it and she told me what I knew to be true - that she just trimmed down by eating smaller portions and exercising. She specifically said that she uses interval training on the treadmill and she only eats until she is no longer hungry, as opposed to eating until she is full.

It got me thinking about my own diet and exercise plans.

I still haven't broken it down for you all the things that I don't like about the JM.com meal plan, but the size of the meals is one of my problems with it. In general I don't need to eat that much food and being poor I can't afford to eat that much good quality food. It's just too damned expensive. For instance today I went to the store to buy myself some food... I purchased a bag of fresh spinach, a bag of frozen corn, and a 6 pack of eggs. I was not going to buy anything else because I haven't really got the money for anything else...but Knorr brand rice side dishes were on sale buy one get one...so I decided to buy them - even though I can't even pretend they are in any way healthy. I'm trying to cut down on my carbs, but they are filling and so damn cheap. I can't get filled up as efficiently on spinach.

If I am mindful I can make one package of that rice last for 3 or 4 meals easy and I might even be able to spread it farther if I am creative with my food.  It would be difficult to make the spinach last as long and the spinach cost nearly twice what i paid for both bags of rice mix. :/ Granted they were bogo. But that still means that 1 bag of rice for $1.60 = (lets be conservative) 3 meals. A cost of $0.54 per serving where as the bag of spinach cost $2.50 = (being generous) 4 meals. A cost of  $0.63 per serving.... I guess thats not that big of a difference. However I can eat just the rice and fee that not only have I filled my tummy, but that it was a tasty and satisfying way to do that. For the spinach to do that I need to add something tot he meal...a dressing and protein etc. That adds to the cost. It is very difficult for me to eat healthy when I am wondering if I will have enough money get to work (gas/tolls etc).

Sigh.

No one said it would be easy. And if I can work on shrinking my stomach it will make it cheaper to buy groceries, as I can stretch the foods I east.

Here's is today's damage:

Breakfast: Belvita biscuits and red bull

Lunch: 1/3 a Knorr rice bag with added - fresh spinach, frozen corn, frozen mango, diced red pepper, frozen peas, and 4 turkey meat balls

Dinner: Not yet eaten.

Exercise: 50 minutes on the elliptical and 15 min of stretches and random exercises (squats, push ups, chest press)

Weight: 197

Working on goals? 

Not really. I have skipped soda at work the last 2 days I worked. But I ate fried food so it kind of balances ( one step forward - one step back). I have not been logging my food here or anywhere.

(Roughly) 1 Month In

I started this weight loss journey again on January 15th 2014. Though it is only the 12th I suspect I will be too busy on Saturday to write so I will go ahead and check in today.

Hows it going?

Ok.

Food?

Cooking slightly more than I was before. The blog is most definitely helping in that respect. I want to show people new recipes...If I'm going to do that I'm going to have to cook new things. So yeah that's am improvement. I still have some serious road blocks. I want convenience foods to east especially at breakfast. And doubly so on the days I work which was only 3 days a week all of January but starting this week I will be getting 4 days of work each week...for the foreseeable future.

So what am I eating? I have reintroduced myself to oatmeal on my days off...which I do really love. I wish i could easily obtain coconut yogurt as I like Swiss Breakfast even more than oatmeal but I can't eat dairy. My sister found a pin about making your own yogurt...mayhaps I will look into trying that out with coconut milk, which I can get all day long. On my days I work I eat Belvita Breakfast Biscuits.  I like these, they are at least reasonable as far as nutrition and you really cant find argument with their convenience.  Occasionally I will eat a banana on the way to work, or on my days off for that matter.

Lunch is often whatever I can scavenge around work or the house. If i'm at work I'm normally eating a bowl of soup or some noodles with cream soup instead of sauce. Occasionally I will take the time or effort to make a wrap sandwich. Rarely will I eat fries, even though they are available all day - every day I am at work. If I'm home, I will likely eat some convenience protein - frozen meatballs, frozen chicken nuggets - and I will pair that with salsa or frozen vegetables (warmed up of course) and most of the time I will make a starch like a slice of frozen garlic bread or a bundle of noodles.

Unless I have cooked for the blog that day that is what dinner will look like on my days off too. On the days I work I often will eat a dollar menu item from a fast food location on my way home. But Since starting the diet I have not once stopped at Dunkin Donuts on my way home, so that's good right?! My financial situation (only working 3 days a week really bites into your wallet) has prevented me from getting take out except for 2 or 3 times all year. Again that's pretty good, right? I'd like to say I'm not tempted to eat the unhealthy take out Chinese food, but I check my bank balance nearly every day (at least mentally) to check and see if I can buy it.

Liquid calories...

So yeah...I drink Red Bull. But I only have 1 a day. This is not only due to financial concerns, but I am being a responsible person here. I feel like Red Bull is maybe not the best thing to drink. I really should drink more water. It would be easy for me to drink water at work...especially since soon they will be swapping the soda contract at work from Pepsi to Coke. As long as they don't get Mello Yello on the fountain at work I will have no problem switching to water. I can put the MiO back into my purse and I will swap to water...I'm promising myself to make that change this coming month. Also I want to get into drinking more tea. Research has said lots of great things about tea (yeah the link goes to Teavana but the sources cited on the link are to honest to goodness research). I don't care for the tannin taste but I could learn to like it.

Exercise?

Back in December - before I rededicated myself to losing weight - I went to the gym only a single time. I have been averaging 2 times a week this past month. Not bad...Not good... But not bad. I like seeing improvement. And i can see improvement in the coming month as well.

Blogging...

Massive improvement in the blogging front. It had been literally Years since I had written anything. and now I have 5 (counting this one) posts in the last month. I would like to blog at least a brief food journal check-in every day. And I would like to have more articles and more recipes. I want to really become active on this blog. That would be awesome.

Results So far...

Weight 199  from a starting weight of 206 So a total loss of 7 pounds in 4 weeks!

Inches...I only measured my waist anf hips when i started this...Though I feel like I should measure more things and track them here starting this month. But at any rate my Starting waist was 44.5 and is now 42.0 and my Hips were 49.5 and are now 49.0. So I have lost inches.

Dress Size...No change yet. But my size 16s which is what I was wearing at the start of this are getting pretty lose. Probably only a few pounds away from size 14.

Goals.

In the coming month (by March 15th) I will lose an additional 5 pounds, and be wearing a size 14. I will also be able to sustain 30 minutes on the Arc trainer. And I would like to break the 12 minute mile on the elliptical trainer. (I can't seem to get the photo to post facing the right side up...what ever. This is from Feb4 Just over 13 minutes for my mile on the elliptical trainer.)


Plan.

I will eat more protein at breakfast. I will try out and hopefully find an better alternative to the breakfast biscuits for my work morning breakfasts. I will go to work out 3 days every week. I will log my food every day at JM.com and I will also log them here every night.I will write no less than 1 article every week and 1 recipe every week.

Simply Perfect Baked Broccoli

With broccoli being so cheap right now its a good time to eat some! Broccoli benefits from very light cooking. The standard method for this is blanching but I find that baking is even easier and in many ways better. I'm certain that I'm not the only person who intended to lightly blanch/steam/or boil my broccoli and accidently Cooked It To Death!

Also, broccoli really has a delicate- almost mildly sweet- flavor. As such, if you want to savor the broccoli in all of its glory you need to keep you preparations and ingredients reigned in. This recipe is the easierst, cheapest, and best way to showcase the flavor of broccoli

You will need:

A ziplock bag or a container with a tight fitting lid

An oven safe dish large enough to let the broccoli lay on it in a single layer
An oven - set to 350

Ingredients needed (for 1 serving):

1 Cup Broccoli, chopped
1-3 tsp Olive Oil
1 dash Salt




Directions:

1.Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees
2.Place chopped broccoli, oil and salt into the bag/container with a lid.
3.Shake the broccoli until well coated with oil. Add a little more oil if needed.
4.Spread the broccoli on the oven safe dish in a single layer.

5.Bake for 5 minutes, until the broccoli is bright green and tender-crisp.

Nutrition facts created by: http://nutritiondata.self.com

Vegetable of the Week: Broccoli

It is coming up on the end (hopefully) of winter. As such you might disrepair of finding any good fresh vegetables in the market. Well, fear no more! There are many vegetables that are in season now, including broccoli.

The broccoli that you typically see in the store is actually called Calabrese broccoli, a relatively modern cultivar of the Cruciferae/Brassica family of vegetables. Other Cruciferae/Brassica vegetables include the much maligned Kale and Cabbage as well as brussels sprouts and cauliflower. I found some debate as to its exact origin...but most of the articles I read (see references below) agree that the broccoli we are familiar with today was created in what we now call Italy, though it was quite some time ago (perhaps as early as the first century CE). This is still relatively recent in comparison to its original parent vegetable which was eaten over 5000 years ago.

Broccoli gets a bad rap - broccoli farts, anyone? This smell is due to the naturally occurring sulfur compounds in the vegetable. They are worse if you over cook the broccoli or wait too long to eat it (either letting it grow too long in the garden before picking or letting it sit too long after buying before cooking). But those very same sulfurs may be really important to your health! Its a load of complex chemistry...but the end result is that compounds in broccoli (and other Cruciferae/Brassica vegetables) break down into antioxidants known to protect against cancer.

Ever hear of "magic smoke"? I'm not talking about what is now legal in colorado. I'm talking about the joke that is shared between antique vehicle enthusiasts and computer repair people."magic smoke" is what you smell or see right as a component in the machine fails (typically ozone). The joke is that if you let the magic smoke out of the machine it no longer works - as though the smoke was what was powering the item. The same holds true for broccoli - but in this case the magic smoke is the sulfur smell. If you smell the sulfur, you let out the magic and the broccoli is not a nutritionally valuable to you anymore. So don't overcook it!

There is no reason why you can't just eat it raw. It is great this way. There is some discussion as to whether the nutrients in broccoli (or any food for that matter) are more bioavailable if they are lightly cooked. 

I prefer to lightly blanch my broccoli so that it turns bright green. I often don't even place the broccoli into the boiling water. For instance I will take a full sized pasta pot and boil up some lightly salted water...get it to a nice rolling boil. Then I place the raw broccoli into a colander and simply pour the boiling water over the broccoli. 

In addition to the sulfur in broccoli...why should you eat it? Nutritionally it is a powerhouse (superfood is such an annoying term). It (like most vegetables) is low in calories  - only about 30 in a 3 oz serving. In those 3 oz though you get more than 100% of your daily recommended intake of Vitamin C (64.9mg) and over 100% of your Vitamin K (141 mcg), you get about a third of your Vitamin A for a day (1548 IU) and a reasonable amount of Fiber (3.3g) plus lots of other important stuff.

Another reason you should eat it...right now -  its cheap. Its not normally the most expensive of vegetables but now its even cheaper. It is getting to the end of the broccoli season here in the United States. Soon we will have to import it from areas in the southern hemisphere. So take advantage of the discounts and get some broccoli now.

Buying broccoli

If buying it fresh you should look for tight closed and uniformly dark green - almost purple- flower top. The stalk should be firm and pale. Any leaves should be very dark green and not wilted. The cut end should not appear slimy or brown.  Most people prefer the tops of the broccoli to the stalks. It is perfectly acceptable to buy only the tops if you can. 

Frozen broccoli is acceptable for most dishes (not salads of course) and as frozen vegetables are picked at their peak in the season and blanched and frozen right away, the nutritional difference is negligible (though you should still try to cook it as briefly as you can).

Resources.

The world Encyclopedia of Cooking Ingredients, Christine Ingram, 2004

The Wellness Encyclopedia of Food and Nutrition (UC Berkley), Sheldon Margen M.D., 1992

http://www.vegparadise.com/highestperch44.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broccoli

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22303412

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/antioxidants/

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/research_says_boiling/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioavailability

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products

Absolute Beginners

So as I wrote about last week...I have started using the BodyBug activity monitor in conjunction with Jillian Michaels.com (JM.com). I laid out the general info about the site but I only alluded to my personal complaints with the site. Today I'm going to cover my issue with the exercise routine that the website has offered to me as its beginner workout plan.

This...more than anything else...proves to me that Jillian Michaels is not actually involved in the website. In theory, she knows that a beginner would look like (Biggest Loser competitor) however she has this incredibly challenging setup for the workout listed as for the beginner.

First off I want to say that I do not consider myself to be a beginner...I'm more like an out of shape dabbler. I never go for more than a month without going to the gym...but I seldom go more than 3 times a week. When I signed up for the program I was given options for the level of experience I had in the gym. I selected beginner, because I wanted to make sure I had the basics down before I advanced too far. I expected the exercises to be not exactly easy...but I did expect them to be do-able.

I realize that exercise is important for weight loss. It needs to be a part of everyones day-to-day life. But I have difficulty doing an exercise routine everyday (How will I ever get it to be routine if I don't work at it everyday?!) JM.com wants me - the beginner - to work out 5 days out of 7. I'm really not sure this is a possibility for any real beginners either for reasons of lifestyle or ability. For me the big issues here are:

1.) I work 9-12 hour shifts and simply don't have the energy or location I can use at 5 am to exercise before my shift.

2.) I'm really sore the day after I do these exercises and need a rest day between or something as I'm not going to be able to do these exercises every day.

More importantly, I feel. I'm not that much of a beginner. What are these exercise expectations going to look like to a true absolute beginner? If you weigh over 300lbs are you going to do squat presses?! No, of course not! It would fuck your knees up.

Here is an example of one of the circuit training routines you - as a beginner- would be asked to do:

Not a bad routine if you are already in shape but not for a weak ass obese person like me. I do what I can in hopes that by pure stubbornness I will get to the point that I can do all of these exercises.

I think that its terrible that JM.com doesn't have truely begining exercises so I'm going to come up with some truely beginner exercises to share with you all so I can do my part to help everyone get healthy.

Here's is today's damage:

 Breakfast: Nothing I was feeling really sick so I stayed in bed until 11

 Lunch: Ham sandwich with mayo and a red bull

 Dinner: Not yet eaten.

 Exercise: Not yet...But now that I'm feeling better I'm feeling like hitting the gym.

Weight:  201