Poop Muffin recipe.

I have been a bad, bad blogger.

In the last several weeks, I lost my inspiration to write and blog temporarily, but I am not going anywhere.

As a very appropriate segue to my next blog entry (you’ll see), I have been asked to share my “Poop muffin” recipe, so here it is.

I don’t mean to be crass or juvenile. My friend Angela introduced me to these muffins several years ago, and she had gotten the recipe from her friend Stuart. She had made them on the morning of one of our famous card playing nights at her place. She insisted I try one, and I was hooked immediately. To this day, I have no idea what the real name of this recipe is or where it came from (Angie and Stu don’t seem to know or remember either), but I DO know that they are in fairly regular rotation in our breakfast menu at home, and they are quick, easy, and dee-lish, and yet taste as satisfyingly good and healthy for you as they are. If you are a bran muffin or grain loving kinda person, then you will probably love them...if not, it’s a crap shoot (uhh yes, pun intended), but give them a try. After making them a few times in the beginning, I quipped with Angie one day that “ I love those poop muffins, I’ve made them a few times, etc...” and the name just stuck for me, and that is that. Other than Lee and a select few close friends and family, I never thought I would go public with the name, otherwise, I would have named them something less blatant, like “Don’t-eat-these-and-leave-the-house-too-quick-if-you-know-what-I-mean” Muffins. With a nice hot cup of coffee or tea, all is right with the world when I whip a batch of these up first thing in the morning as our breakfast.

POOP MUFFINS

2 1/4 cups oat-bran

1 tablespoon baking powder

3/4 c Flaxseed Meal

1/2 cup brown sugar (or honey or molasses)

1 cup chopped nuts (optional- pecans, walnuts, or almonds work best)

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1 cup skim or lowfat milk

2 eggs whites

1 cup of 1 or 2 of the following: BANANAS, applesauce, dates, apples, blueberries, raspberries , raisins, currants, cranberries (banana or applesauce makes the muffins moist and is the best main option)

Note: Most of the time, I make these with bananas. I don't measure 1 cup precisely. I usually make them when I have 2 or 3 overripe bananas that didn't get eaten. I throw in other bonus stuff depending on what I have around (chopped dates with the banana is excellent! I usually avoid nuts for calorie purposes, but they also “make” these muffins.)

Preheat oven to 425.

Mix the wet ingredients together and the dry ingredients together and then mix the wet into the dry. Spray a muffin pan (12 count) with whatever cooking spray or oil you prefer ( or you can use those paper baking cups) and fill with batter evenly. Reduce oven to 400 and Bake 15 to 17 minutes. Test for doneness with a toothpick; it should come out moist but not wet. Let cool in the pan for about 10-15 min and then remove from the pan. Makes 12 muffins.

Store in a plastic bag to retain moisture. Keep the muffins in the refrigerator if they will not be consumed within 3 days. They are great out of the oven after cooling for 10 min in the pan, and I love toasting them in the toaster oven after that. An easy layer of butter on them is great, but they are pretty good without it too.

Note: you can adjust the flax meal and oat bran to use a 1/4 or 1/3 of a cup less if you aren’t using banana or applesauce or something moist (I have wanted to try pumpkin, but haven’t yet). Otherwise, they come out kinda dry.

Enjoy!

Rules #6 & 7- K.I.S.S.

I have some catching up to do with rules, and the next two rules are not only similar, but they are also two more ways to help avoid processed food. I feel like I have already blabbed on and on about staying awayfrom the evil packaged food stuff, so I wont go on too much about it. I am glad it is a bit of a repeat of the theme of avoiding processed food, though, because I have been away from this blog a little longer than I expected, and it serves as a bit of a recap/”shot-in-the-arm.”

Rule 6- Avoid food products that contain more than five ingredients.

“The specific number you adopt is arbitrary, but the more ingredients in a packaged food, the more highly processed it probably is. Note 1: A long list of ingredients in a recipe is not the same thing; that’s fine. Note 2: Some products now boast, somewhat deceptively, about their short ingredients list. Haagen-Dazs has a new line of ice cream called “five.” Great-but it’s still ice cream. Same goes for the three-ingredient Tostitos corn chips advertised by Frito-Lay- okay, but they are still corn chips. In such cases, apply rule 60 for dealing with treats and special occasion foods.”

Rule 7- Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce.

“Basically the same idea, different mnemonic. Keep it simple.”

Geez, I can’t even pronounce some ingredients...

All I really want to add, is that although these are both obviously excellent ways/rules to avoid food that is not good stuff, I personally have to be careful, because a lot of things that fall under these two rules can be high in calories (and sugar), regardless of how healthy they are, so I am working hard at eating less of these healthier packaged things, or just not even “going there.” And then, thinking “well hey, this is healthy, so I can eat as much as I want” can really be a problem for me (overeating!). As healthy as avocados and olive oil are for you, slicing a whole one onto some delicious whole grain bread and then drizzling it with olive oil and S&P may be technically healthy (and ridiculously delicious), but eating it almost every day (during our avocado season, especially), also leads to eating it without your pants on, because they won’t fit anymore. The balance between healthy and small portions/calories for me is tricky.

A personal update: I am happy to say my sugar intake is better, and am doing much better with craving it. Another thing that is helping me, whether I like it or not, is that I recently went to my GI doc for a routine follow-up on my Colitis (that has been fairly dormant for a long time) and a few other issues. Aside from kicking me in the ass, and basically telling me that if I lose weight I will have less problems with my digestive system, she asked me to stop eating gluten for a while, because I have been having trouble with symptoms that possibly indicate trouble with digesting gluten (I will spare you the whining, but headaches after I eat and acid reflux are two of the things that have been troublesome for a long time now). She wants me to try this for a few weeks, and see if the symptoms go away. SO, avoiding gluten knocks out battered and fried foods and ANY baked goods, unless they are made with non-gluten flours- PHEW!! Most of these things that are readily available, including BREAD and pasta, are made with gluten flours, ssssooooo...

Thank god I can have oats and potatoes and corn and rice, or I might have to take prisoners.

Most importantly, this time of year, good salads and all kinds of veggies and fruits become not only more available, but more desirable in the warmer weather. If Lee and I try to stick with those (which I already love to eat tons of) and a few lean meats and fishies as our core menu, it rules out all the stuff we shouldn’t be eating anyway! How’s that for trying to “keep it simple!?” I know some stuff will creep in here and there (like ice cream), but we are watching it.

(“Speak of the devil”- That Haagen-Dazs “Five” is really excellent, by the way- there are even flavors like “ginger” and “brown sugar” and “passion fruit”- all dee-lish and homemade tasting! I’m just sayin’...).

Tammy vs." Alice in-wonderland"...

Hello everyone. I am back from putting my blog on the back burner for a while. I have been busy getting our garden planted and building our new company website with Dixie (-business partner, for those of you who don’t know her), as well as prepping a new film. I have had a rough sugar month, and even though we have been eating clean and well in general, my sugar consumption has NOT been at a minimum. Now that Easter is behind me, I vow to be on the ball with this. I have to forgive myself and move forward, but I am very disappointed that I don’t have some progress to report with sugar. I will cover the next two rules next time (in a few days), but for now I need to talk about the bigger picture again, as I bring up an observation I recently had.

Last Friday, something happened that got me all fired up. I started writing this blog entry the next morning. Then I thought I would give it some time, and I would back down a little and maybe not “go there”, but then an article in the newspaper from a week prior was brought to my attention (one that brought up similar commentary). Even more so, as the week has gone on, my feelings only became stronger and I need to get this off my chest. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that what I observed is especially one of the reasons why more people are not on board with eating better, and it really upset me. I know I have been away from my blog for a while, and I am sorry to return with controversy and something that some of you may not like to hear or agree with....but here it goes.

That Friday night, the “Mother” of eating sustainable real food herself, Alice Waters was on “Real Time with Bill Maher.” What she has done and continues to do is good thing, but as Lee and I sat there and watched it, we were stunned and disappointed at how she came across, and how little she resonated with us (and I have had a similar observation before, but it didn’t “click” in my head until now). I cannot imagine that anyone other than the group of people who already know about her and already eat well (a majority of which can afford to eat at her restaurant in Berkeley) were impressed by her.

The people that really need to be moved and changed need to be moved and convinced to change! Going on shows like Bill Maher, are a chance to get the message across. Bill asked “how do you feel about microwaves, and her reply was “I don’t know how to relate to it...I need fire”, in some affected talking style that frankly, came across as condescending. I nearly came unglued. What kind of answer is that? Elaborate a little, “Alice-in-wonderland”, and explain it in a way that makes us want to listen (i.e. the high % of people who cook with microwaves that are watching)!! If she wants people to change their eating habits, which she supposedly does, we need to be able to RELATE to the “messenger” or at the very least, be MOTIVATED, and I cannot possible see how anyone who already hasn’t changed their eating ways, would want to after watching her interview. Sorry to begrudge her accomplishments, but I am even more sorry to say, “that was just too flat, uninspired and ‘out there’ of an interview at this stage of the food crisis that is upon us, especially being in the position that she is to help fix it” -And coming across as an airy-fairy snob isn’t going to help, or impress anyone. I take this very serious and personal, considering the message is IMPORTANT, and I happen to be someone who is trying to contribute to the communication about food in a way that doesn’t make people say an unenthusiastic “yeah... right...whatever.” It makes me wonder what her real M.O. actually is. I mean, someone who actually wants the food revolution to grow and to have an affect on the mindset of the country should actually communicate and INSPIRE that , wouldn’t you say? In fact, seeing interviews like that are what prevent people from caring. Ironically, I know Michael Pollan knows her and is her friend and fan, but HE actually conveys the message about our food crisis in a way that makes sense and even better, makes you want to DO something...(eh-hem, as in “that’s why I created this blog!!”)

Look, I know AW “is who she is”, “everyone plays their part”, yatta, yatta...and you cannot just become someone you are not, personality-wise. Ok, fine. I most certainly respect her and who she is for what she has done, but this country is in crisis with food, and the people that are voicing the changes that need to be made, need to be a little more dynamic and sincere, and RELATABLE for ALL people to want to step up and do it. If her interviews are going to be like that one was, then she shouldn’t bother. I’d be willing to bet an uncomfortably high number of people just forwarded through their recording of that show, to get past her and move on to the next guest. That’s just sad.

So after a necessary absence from this blog, I am BACK, and more wound up than ever...can you tell? With the bad taste Ms. Waters “left in my mouth”, I think it is appropriate for me to re-cap and clarify my intentions in order for me to get my momentum back on track.

I am actually GLAD that my attention was drawn to a lackluster message that night, and it added fuel to my cause. I started this blog to help me and my husband change our eating for the better and to be a positive participant of the the food revolution. HOWEVER, I most definitely also started this blog to BE someone REAL that people can relate to and to contribute to the food revolution by using my abundance of many friends and family as a way to get the word out and help infect others with food consciousness. I happen to make a decent living, and I work long, hard hours when the movie and television industry is busy. Let me really make this clear- I, by no means, am in a position, either financially or mentally or time-wise, to just change over to eating clean and sustainably overnight, and unless I am delirious, I am pretty sure the majority of people aren’t either. I am doing this as a regular person...not someone who makes oodles of money or someone who has a career that focuses on food. Nor do I think it is realistic to think that everyone has the ability, financial, climate and time-wise, to either grow their own vegetables, or to support local farmers, other than the states that have warm enough weather year round (which I am pretty sure is not the majority of the states). I chose to do this, because along with helping myself, I felt a responsibility to get the message across to the people I know, and I will be honest- I hope to gather 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 degrees of separation followers as well, so that this food revolution can actually happen! The regular people actually making positive changes in how they eat can be the spokespeople and pay it forward/spread the word. So I actually thank Ms. Waters’ for leaving me less than impressed the other night. She made it even more clear what my purpose is and she even kicked my goals up a few notches.

PS- Alice Waters has an idea to get the government, via taxpayers, to give every child in school free healthy breakfast lunch and an afternoon snack. I wish her the best of luck with that. Jamie Oliver is grabbing the food revolution by the “you know whats” and has his show “Food Revolution” that focusses on kids and how and what they are eating and learning about food in school. He is a rock star in this food crisis, and I pray that his efforts work. Dealing with children and their nutrition is, of course, a hugely important part of the food epidemic. While I know getting the kids on board and educating them is essential, my angle is with us grown-ups. The way I see it- unless you have little Johnny or Suzy doing the food shopping and driving the car through the drive-thru’s, it is up to us adults to set the example for not only just kids, but our fellow grown ups ! I know it's "easier said than done", but we have to start somewhere, and just chip away at it right?

The bottom line for me: I feel if more and more people jump on the band wagon and put their feet down to bad food and eat healthier, I truly believe the “real food vs. bad food” gap will narrow and bring us closer to delicious, good, healthy food being more readily available and/or affordable...and I’ll throw in having us be a country with less health problems as a result of that, while I’m at it!

PPS. - In case you are interested, here is the link to click on ( LA times article ) about Alice Waters ...it is 4 pages, so make sure you click ahead to all 4 (it mysteriously doesn’t guide you to do so). I hadn't read it when I started this blog entry, but it definitely made me realize I wasn't alone.

FYI- Different names for sugar

This handy little list reveals all the different names for sugar.

• • barley malt
  • beet sugar
  • brown sugar
  • buttered syrup
  • cane-juice crystals
  • cane sugar
  • caramel
  • carob syrup
  • corn syrup
  • corn syrup solids
  • date sugar
  • dextran
  • dextrose
  • diatase
  • diastatic malt
  • ethyl maltol
  • fructose
  • fruit juice
  • fruit juice concentrate
  • glucose
  • glucose solids
  • golden sugar
  • golden syrup
  • grape sugar
  • high-fructose corn syrup
  • honey
  • invert sugar
  • lactose
  • malt syrup
  • maltodextrin
  • maltose
  • mannitol
  • molasses
  • raw sugar
  • refiner's syrup
  • sorbitol
  • sorghum syrup
  • sucrose
  • sugar
  • turbinado sugar
  • yellow sugar

Rule #5- I WANT CANDY!!!!

RULE 5

“Avoid foods that have some form of sugar (or sweetener) listed among the top three ingredients” (Ok, now this is personal)

The rule goes on to state “ labels list ingredients by weight, and any product that has more sugar than other ingredients, is too much sugar.” Fortunately, he then mentions the exception to this rule, which is rule #60, regarding special occasion foods. So, don’t panic like I did. (I will get into this in a minute)

Continuing on, the rule elaborates, “complicating matters is the fact that, thanks to food science, there are now some 40 types of sugar used in processed food (THAT Google search revealed an amazing laundry list- check it out, if you haven’t already).

MP then repeats “sugar is sugar, and organic sugar is sugar too”, implying that just because it is organic doesn’t make it more healthy if it has a lot of sugar. (Rats!)

To me, this rule really has two parts. Part 1- In savory or everyday foods, regardless of what form of sugar it is, there shouldn’t be so much that it is listed in the top 3 (this on top of avoiding HFCS!!). You should have seen the shock on our face when Lee and I read the ingredients on the “whole grain”, supposedly “healthy” cereal that we love, and read sugar listed third! I “get” this part of the rule, and considering my overall concern about my sugar intake, it is mandatory for me to change some of these foods out, or to limit them, BIG time. As much as it is out of the comfort zone to give them up, there are options, and they are reasonable ones, too (price-wise, and choice-wise). So let’s move on to...

Part 2- the “big Magilla”, and what MP is really addressing with this rule- Avoiding sweets and deserts...my main weakness that I struggle with on a daily basis.

A part of me wants to just bury my head in the sand at this point, because I crave sugar over everything else. I admit right here and now that this is a HUGE contributor to my being overweight. A bigger part of me (like the parts that wont fit into my skinny jeans) wants this sugar addiction to stop, so I have to “bite the bullet.” I don’t know why, but I am so weak to the powers of sweets, and the biggest contender, chocolate. I HAVE to win this struggle and get it under control, or the health issues that come along with eating too much sugar are going to win instead. I also know first hand, from WW, that if you can just chill out on sugar, it takes about 2 weeks to get past craving it). I know, I know... this is “easier said than done”, but I also know first hand that having will-power and self control feels REALLY good. I also experienced the WW mantra of “nothing tastes as good as losing weight feels!” So I have to get thoughts of chocolate (in ANY form) OUT of my head and replace it with thoughts of how good I felt every time that scale went down 6 years ago (...um, and then consequently has soared back up, once I stopped paying attention- I call this my “falling in love weight”, not to blame Lee!!).

So, now don’t you love the timing in this sugar rule with Easter Candy Season? Well, this brings me to the good news. I am going to quote a bit of rule #60 here, because MP is not unrealistic or cruel, and he comes across as someone who knows very well that dessert and sweets ARE a part of life...just one that should be limited. Rule #60 is titled “Treat treats as treats.” For now (because I will blog about this rule in more detail, down the line again), I will just quote two sentences from it:

1. “There is nothing wrong with special occasion foods, as long as everyday is not a special occasion.” The danger of calling foods “special occasion” foods, for me, is that it is very easy to find reasons to celebrate and slip into the habit of calling something a “special occasion” when it is really just a way to justify eating something more often than I should (as in, “I paid some bills today, I think some cake is in order”...or “Hey, Lee, it’s the 27 month anniversary of when I got my new car. Let’s have ice cream!!”). I happen to be lucky to have a large family and a lot of friends, so there are enough birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays ( true special occasions) to go around, and in fact , sometimes too many to really justify eating cake at every one (not complaining, here, about my bounty of good people in my life, don’t get me wrong). I hope that just by by writing this, I have “checked” myself on that subject.

2. “Another way [to not deprive yourself] is to limit your consumption of such foods to weekends or social occasions. Some people follow the so-called ‘S-policy’: no snacks no seconds, no sweets-except on days that begin with the letter S.” I think this policy is a good start for me and something I can live with: NO desert during the week, and only on the weekend-unless a special occasion happens on a weekday, so then that leaves one remaining night for the week. And whatever I indulge in is going to be WORTH the calories (ie, homemade or some killer ice cream) and I have promised myself that it will be a small portion. That is IT. For me, this is a MAJOR change, but it just has to be. The good thing is that I also happen to love fruit and dried fruit. We also have the luxury out here in So. Cal of having fresh oranges and other fruit in our yard, as well as Lee’s Mom’s yard. So, if I need a little something sweet during the week, I am going for fruit or a few dates or dried cherries, etc... (dried fruit is expensive, so that will keep the portions down). I also have some good dark chocolate on hand, to fall back on, in case I really feel the need. Dark chocolate is so rich anyway, and I have to say, I have been re-training myself to savor just a few squares at a time, every few days. A few pieces are supposed to have good health benefits (the key word here, of course, is a FEW). Also, I cannot eat it later in the day, or it keeps me up at night (yep, that little amount of caffeine, believe it or not), so that alone limits me!

I know I am not alone in this sweet-tooth-boat, and even if you are not in that same boat, I hope you can understand how challenging this is. Sugar is big business and sugary stuff is not only everywhere, it is in your face where ever you go. Cupcake stores, donut shops, bakery displays and cases (usually in a premium spot in any store or restaurant) and giant candy displays in EVERY store, in addition to the entire isles of candy... just to name a few evil-doers. How about that waiter who literally shoves a dessert menu, or even worse, a sample tray, in your face at the end of a meal? How about the entire truck full of candy and cookies and donuts on a movie set that you can just walk into and grab whatever you want, whenever you want (talk about being like “a kid in a candy shop!!”)?

On that note, I will end with the relieving fact that Easter is on a Sunday, AND a special occasion, so I am vowing to patiently wait for my ration of Cadbury, rather than buying it the minute Easter season starts and continually eating it leading up until Easter like I usually do! And then the @#%!$# “candy” holidays are over for a while... RIGHT?? Don’t think for one second that this Cadbury addict is not avoiding the stores that carry Cadbury like they are the plague (I don’t know why those mini-eggs have to exist, or the caramel filled ones either- they haunt me).

I will be posting more about sugar and updating about my progress. In the meantime, I am especially looking forward to ideas, input and comments on this one- “bring it on!”

Rule #4- High fructose corn syrup

I waited to write this next posting until my Valentine’s day chocolate sugar coma had worn off. I didn’t go too berserk, but I definitely ate chocolate like I wasn’t going to be eating too much of it again for a while...because the time I have been dreading has come-it’s the beginning of sugar control, once and for all.

Rule #4

“Avoid products that contain high-fructose corn syrup”

“Not because high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is any worse for you than sugar, but because it is a reliable marker for food that has been highly processed. Also, HFCS is being added to hundreds of foods that have not traditionally been sweetened- breads, condiments and many snack foods- so if you avoid foods that contain it, you will cut down on your sugar intake.”

This is downright scary!

I don’t know about you, but along with dissecting frogs, I learned in 10th grade biology that excess sugar in our bodies turns to fat, and I spend way too many dessert-eating-moments in denial of this. I have a hard enough time avoiding obvious sweets. Now on top of this, so many foods that are out there are full of sugar, that aren’t supposed to be? How sneaky and wrong is THAT? There is already some awareness about this, out there, and some products are advertising that they don’t have HFCS or promote that they use real cane sugar, etc..., but MP points out not to fall for this either, because bottom line is that “sugar is sugar.”

High-fructose corn syrup is basically cheap sugar. The food industry uses it to replace sugar to keep their costs low and it is supposedly a flavor enhancer. When Lee and I were getting into this in January, and reading labels, the HFCS was the first thing we started focussing on, because we knew “the time was coming.” It is crazy, really, because it involves so many brands that we are used to, like our BBQ sauce, chocolate syrup and ketchup (you know the ones), to name a few, and even worse is that some of these things list HFCS first or second on the list (we all know that ingredients are listed from largest amount first, to smallest amount last, right?). Chocolate syrup lists HFCS, and then corn syrup as the first two ingredients (cocoa is listed 6th on the label)!! Oh great!! That was one of my lower calorie “go to” things that I have around so I can have a little chocolate fix without having to go too crazy, by drizzling it over a little frozen yogurt or ice cream. I’ll find a better alternative, I’m sure, but that one stings a bit, especially because it has been in my life since I was a little kid. At least I can feel somewhat relieved that many of the major offenders aren’t really a staple in my diet anymore, for a while now... like SODA, flavored yogurts, most snack-y foods and fast food, etc... but having HFCS sneaking around and showing up in foods that you would never suspect, as well , like English muffins, crackers, cranberry juice and supposed healthy cereals AND cough syrup....COUGH SYRUP??- what’s up with that??

Seriously, this HFCS epidemic, really has my attention, because sneaking more sugar into foods makes my sugar intake really difficult to control and balance, and my sweet tooth is bad enough without the additional sugar. I have several loved ones and friends who are diabetic or pre-diabetic, and I am sure if I, myself, don’t curb this now, I may be headed in the same direction. This is not ok. Needless to say, Lee and I are DEFinitely cutting out, or at the very least weaning off, the products that have HFCS in them. Other than staying away from really obvious “crapola”, for now, our approach, that I think is pretty doable, is to pay for slightly more expensive alternatives (that don’t have HFCS) for the things that we happen to use that are not everyday items, and to limit how often we use them ...we’ll have to see how expensive this is AND if we can live with less. As tough as it is going to be, that seems to be the best plan for right now...I will keep you posted! We’ve found some good and not overly expensive alternatives to ketchup and BBQ sauce (yes, at Trader Joe’s, but I am sure there are others out there). Other culprits (like the chocolate syrup), are still “works in progress.” I have to wean off of more than just HFCS and having this blog is helping me to have a conscious about it (nothing like a guilty conscious to keep ya honest) and rule #5 addresses sugar as well, and it really narrows the window for eating it in ANY form. I will get more into THAT struggle, then. It's not going to be pretty.

In the meantime, I want to confess about 3 HFCS “foods” that were a part of my life, until very recently, and how I have swapped them out for better:

1. Fake maple syrup! I am embarrassed to say this, but for some bizarre reason, as a kid, I preferred the fake maple syrup over the real stuff, because I never thought real maple syrup was maple-y enough, and the maple flavor was stronger in the fake stuff. Lee introduced me to more flavorful real maple syrup (Grade B), but I still kept the fake stuff on hand, and especially the “lite” kind, due to calories, ever since Weight Watchers (WW), and I use it once in a while when I want to regress. You ready for this?... the word “MAPLE” does not even appear in the ingredient list...AND HFCS is the FIRST ingredient. I yelled at that sweet lady on the front with the big smile - how dare she? Then I yelled at myself and called myself a few “names” too. Looks like it’s the expensive, real stuff only, from now on, but just not as often, for diet and budget reasons (Lee and I love pancakes or waffles on the weekends, so it looks like that’s changing to every other weekend, or so...whether we like it or not!). NOTE: I have not thrown that bottle away, but instead, I have it sitting on the counter, to be a grim reminder to pay attention and to keep me motivated.

2. I also had a very bad fat-free half-and-half problem up until a few weeks before I started blogging. I would drink it in my iced coffees (2-3 per day), every day that it is warm enough in southern California (which is most of the year!). I quit that bad habit, and I had known for a few years already that it had HFCS in it and I STILL used it (I know, I know...what??). I now use real half-and-half, and I am working on drinking one iced coffee a day. That one isn’t too easy, but I am working on it. I also gave up artificial sweetener, and use real sugar or agave now, so it helps keep me drinking less, because I SEE how much sugar I am using. Still...not easy.

3. Fat-free or low-fat ice cream or frozen yogurt - HFCS to the brim!! There is now a 1/2 gallon of regular vanilla ice cream, no HFCS in the freezer, that I am terrified of. Ice cream is a MAJOR vice of mine, and I am challenging myself to eating the real deal, but waaaay less (what’s that word?...oh yeah, moderation. Ice cream + moderation= nnnooooooooooo!!!). Wish me luck with this one, and Lee too, because I have appointed him the "ice cream police." This isn’t too hard right now, with 50-65 degree weather, but once it starts hitting 100+ degrees in a few months, I may lose my mind and/or need to be restrained.

PS: If you haven’t already seen the documentary “King Corn”, I strongly recommend you see it. It is really entertaining and eye opening and will blow you away to see how corn is in almost EVERYthing, especially as HFCS (thanks, Kirk!).

Rule #3- "Can I borrow a cup of Xanthan Gum?"

Rule #3 “Avoid food products containing ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in the pantry.”

This rule is MP’s 3rd way of “driving the point home”, for the most part, that we should stay away from food that has chemical additives and preservatives in it. MP goes on to say “if you wouldn’t cook with them at home, why let others use these ingredients to cook for you?” Of course these “others” are the food scientists that strive for “making old food look fresher and more appetizing than it really is, and getting us to eat more,” MP says (this is true and we know it!).

Wow. This makes “painfully true” sense of this foundational food rule!

I cook and bake, and for anyone else that does too, we all know what we cook and bake with, and cellulose and Xanthan gum and ammonium sulfate aren’t in any of my recipes...how about you?

Ya know, in just this short time of starting to adopt “Food Rules”, I am already feeling pretty grossed out by the food that has all this chemistry added in. I have been turned off by a lot of the really salty (sodium laden) and really fakey stuff for a long time anyway, so fine tuning this and eliminating even more shouldn’t be too hard for me, per se. It isn’t easy to avoid, when I am busy or stressed, and one of my biggest problems is that Lee and I are finding out that a lot of the products that we thought were better alternatives to some of the really horrendous stuff still have some ingredients that are suspect. However, I truly believe, from personal experience, that if you start by paying attention and really try to avoid the seriously mainstream packaged chips and cookies, or fast food, etc... in your daily life, and just set your mind to it, eventually you don’t crave it. Even better...when and IF you do go back to eating it , it doesn’t taste very good (too salty or fake-y, etc...). For example, when I joined Weight Watchers 7 years ago, I stopped eating ANY fast food and cut out a huge amount of junk food. I still don’t really eat fast food very often at all, and a small amount of junk food here and there, but no where near what I used to. When I do, it doesn’t taste that great, and I usually regret that I bothered.

To me, nothing really tastes as good as either “homemade” food, or food in a restaurant where you know they make everything from scratch.... “made-with-stuff-from-your-pantry-kinda-stuff!".

This rule was a good reminder of that for me. Thanks MP!

PS-

Rule #4 ALERT!!- I am purposely waiting until AFTER Valentine’s Day and the 3-day weekend, to blog about Rule #4, because it is BIG, and it involves my biggest enemy...sugar (high fructose corn syrup, to be more specific). I am going to enjoy a rational amount of V-day treats, and I hope everyone does the same...but once Monday rolls around, the gloves are coming off and the first “one” to go down is sugar. FYI, rule #5 continues on about sugar too...so here we goooo!

A real moment.

I will post the next rule later today, but for now, I have had this blog entry in mind for a few days, and I need to catch up first.

I didn’t expect to have almost a week-long absence, so soon, from posting. I had something “come up” that took priority, but ironically, that something was an unexpected surgery that a close friend had to undergo. The irony is that the surgery was a direct result of diet (a large gallstone) and what was supposed to be a simple laparoscopic procedure ended up being full surgery. Even though I didn’t have time to blog throughout her 3 days at the hospital and helping out since she came home on Sunday, it has kept me very focussed on thinking about food and diet and how it affects your health, and more importantly, how we have a hand in preventing certain things from happening to our health.

”Easier said than done”, right?

Needless to say, I felt even more convinced that I am moving in the right direction with adopting Food Rules and blogging about it.

In the meantime, I want to share with everyone about a “moment” I had the other day .

I wasn’t sure I was going to write about this, but then I realized that the whole point of this process is to be honest as I do this, whether it be a good or bad moment. This moment only lasted about 10 minutes.

On Saturday, I started feeling pressure, suddenly thinking that I wasn’t going fast enough with my food make-over, and I had the urge that I wanted to go against everything I have said about taking this process slowly. This happened when I was standing in line at the supermarket buying vegetables for a healthy veggie soup for my friend in the hospital, so I admit I was already extra sensitive about food at the time. A lady in front of me was buying 3 things- 2 giant bottles of regular soda (1 orange and 1 cola) and a gallon of organic milk...I’m not making this up. I have been feeling good about my steady progress thus far even though I have only just started to reform my food, and yet seeing that woman in front of me, set me off into a roller coaster of reactions. I was so struck by this visual and I didn’t want to judge her, but I couldn’t help it. This woman appeared to be leading a double life of someone trying to be food conscious, but still stuck in the rut of bad habits. The scariest part was that it made me realize, that I am in that same tough boat, minus the soda. I happen to already have given up soda, other than on a very rare occasion, for several years now, and I think it is pretty obvious that soda is really a major problem. However, I don’t want to seem like I am above this. That lady’s vice, at that moment, was soda, but I could identify with her (I could name many sugar filled things that I could have been buying that are just as bad) and it made me feel panicky and wanted to run home and get to the next 10 rules right away. I kept thinking “Oh no..I have to do more”... “I am not far enough into this”... “I have to get moving with my blog”... “I have to get to the rules that specifically address sugar...and EVERY other bad and good food habit we need to work on”... “I know I am doing this for me and Lee, but how can I reach more people and get them on board?”, etc... I was “freaking out” a little.

I know it’s good to see things like that, and have the reaction be motivation, but then I “went somewhere” very dim. Intimidation, and then pessimism crept in, especially because I was standing in the type of supermarket that I am used to shopping in, for years, along with millions of people, feeling outnumbered. I knew in the back of my mind, that ultimately I should be shopping there as little as possible, or at least eventually that is the goal. Here came the question...“How am I going to get there???” It felt so impossible and unreachable all of a sudden. I started to doubt that I am going to be able to really DO this and I started to feel really defeated about it, and I have only just begun this uphill battle! All I could feel at that moment was that people like me and Lee, who are trying to implement changes toward better food, are not the majority, and how long will it take before it changes so that we are, and how hard is that going to be? Am I kidding myself to think that Lee and I can change such ingrained food-shopping and eating habits that we have had for so long, especially when you consider the time commitment and the cost of avoiding crap food and putting more healthy and well raised food on your daily menu? I don’t know why I suddenly felt like this was so pointless, as if I was the only one with the burden of trying to do this, but I did.

Boy, that lady buying soda really “stirred it up”. I was bummed out until I got into my car, but fortunately that daunting feeling went away and I snapped out of it. I reminded myself it is for the better to treat this like a new relationship and take it slow and steady, to “get to know each other” so that the commitment lasts. And Lee and I already eat better and have more access to better food than so many others, so I really shouldn't complain. Still, for me and Lee, this is a huge thing we have taken on, and I knew going into this that it will be challenging or frustrating at times..ups and downs...good days and bad days.

Regardless, I have to stay optimistic that awareness about food is increasing, the food revolution is gaining momentum and I have an opportunity to be a part of it and figure it all out and keep going!

End of story.

Thanks for listening.

PS. I promise I wont always go “on and on” this much every time I blog and “stay tuned” for the upcoming more specific rules.

What would Grandma say?

Rule #2 - Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.

I never had a great-grandma (not even a grandma -both were deceased before I was born), but I DID have a great-aunt who assumed that role. MP notes that “if your great grandmother was a terrible cook or eater, you can substitute someone else’s grandma...a Sicilian or French one works particularly well.” I wouldn’t call my great Auntie Anna a great cook, but she wasn’t a bad eater. I remember a lot of fruit and yogurt, and she was always making marmalade. I also remember there not being a whole lot of food in her Greenwich Village apartment, probably because she bought fresher things as she needed them. That’s a luxury to be able to do that nowadays...at least to me, it is. Regardless, the idea with this rule is to eat “old school” meals, with real food, and stay away from anything that would be foreign to Auntie Anna.

The phrase that MP uses for processed foods, which basically your great g’ma wouldn’t recognize, is “edible foodlike substances”, his example being yogurt in a tube, but as you can imagine, that term encompasses WAY too many things . Even though I cannot imagine anyone from my Auntie Anna’s generation even GOING to a modern day supermarket, I am picturing shopping with her and having to explain what all these edible foodlike substances are, which is stressful, especially considering she never had her hearing aide turned up high enough. She would be 116 if she were alive today. I feel embarrassed even imagining all the ‘splaining I would have to do, and I know she would give me a look as if to say “you are messing with me, right?” Maybe we should pretend that someone from two generations ago is with us, next time we shop at a mainstream market, and without even having to think too hard, it will help “keep a lot of bad stuff out of the cart,” as MP says.

It also has me seeing products that are already in my house, that my Auntie Anna is haunting me over. Yesterday, in her honor, I threw out a container of lite chocolate syrup, hot dogs (that were in the freezer leftover over from last summer’s BBQ) and the remaining lo-cal mini cakes and cookies that I had already grown tired of, but had felt the need to hang on to “just in case I want one.” Again, those were easier things to let go of, because when I really thought about it, I didn’t even think tasted all that great to begin with....so who was I kidding?

Rule #1- Eat Food

Rule #1

Eat Food.

How simple is that?! Well, rather than quote all of the text of this first and most fundamental rule, this rule is just the beginning of addressing eating real food and avoiding processed and packaged foods that are full of chemicals and additives. This rule comes across as “setting the stage” and then future rules elaborate on this, so I wont get too far into it other than to say that the first sentence of the paragraph that follows “Eat Food”, says “These days this is easier said than done, especially when 17,000 new products show up in the supermarket each year.”

So how do we begin? What’s the plan? This is how we started gearing up for our focus on real food: Lee and I have been wrapping our minds around doing this for a few weeks, and we have been reading labels like crazy. Every time I take something out of a cabinet or the fridge, I read the label. Several things, that are easier to let go of, have already hit the trash can. For example, the half eaten bag of baked BBQ chips that had about 25 ingredients, and there are several other things that need to go next, like the embarrassing reduced-fat, little, square, orange cheezy crackers that glared at me from the snack cabinet yesterday. Those were blatant offenders, without even getting into the detailed rules that follow, and those kind of things will be the first “to go.” I am aware that there are a lot of better, affordable alternatives to those, like real cheese and the almonds and dried fruit that we already eat a lot of , and we are not major “junk food junkies” anyway. In fact, we eat a lot less of that stuff and a lot more fruits and vegetables, than most, already. BUT, it is eye-opening to see how much food in our kitchen IS in the realm of “no good” and to realize which things are going to be harder to part with than others.

Again, as I mentioned in my first post, I also personally don’t think it is practical to clean out everything all at once and “crash course” it. I think it is smarter for us to get rid of things in waves. Some things we are going to get rid of completely, but there are a lot of things we will just work on substituting with a better version (i.e. organic, if a reasonably priced one exists ...eh hem, at TJs!!) or hopefully a better choice that still satisfies.... a little at a time. This way we can slowly get rid of bad habits while replacing them with good ones, so ideally these changes will last! FYI, sugar is going to be my most challenging thing to wean off. I have a major sweet tooth and my sugar intake is too high, and I need to reduce that to a minimum. I KNOW that will be one of the keys to losing weight , too!

As I mentioned above, the food rules get much more specific, very soon, and I will be too.

For now, Lee and I are identifying the foods in our house that are most likely on their way out, and starting to think of how we will replace them and/or let go of them completely (sigh.....).