weekend review: Sunday night souffle

Figure 1. Friday night's dinner: 15-minute creamy avocado pasta, nut and seed bread and butter, roasted broccoli with hot sauce.

Figure 2. In preparation: tofu korma.

Figure 3. Saturday night's dinner: tofu korma and basmati rice with roasted zucchini and squash with parsley.

Figure 4. Sunday night's dinner: Filet Mignon with red wine-tarragon sauce, spicy roasted cauliflower, a baked sweet potato, and Italian five grain bread.

 Figure 5. Sunday night's dessert: chocolate souffle.

the eating slowly experiment

Background. I spend a large portion of my day thinking about and preparing my meals, ensuring they are both healthy and delicious. After all this contemplation and preparation, I sit down with my plate piled high and, more often then not, end up scarfing the goodness too quickly.

Not only is eating slowly important because it allows you to savor what you have worked so hard to prepare, but it also has health benefits. Studies have shown that eating slowly improves digestion, helps you avoid overeating, and allows you to appreciate food more. In fact, it takes 20 minutes for your brain to register satiety. Certainly, I have 20 minutes to spare for one of my favorite things in life...food.

Objective. To evaluate the effectiveness of 'eating slowly' methods.  

Methods. Implement one eating slowly method (see below) into my daily routine for 21 days*. After this time period has elapsed, report back on how successful the method was at slowing down my speedy eating ways. I will also remark on how easy each method was to implement in daily life. Are you worried about potential confounding? Then read the footnote at the end of this post. If you have no idea what I am talking about, feel free to ignore my nerdy ramble.

*21 days was chosen because this is the amount of time it takes to form a habit.

Eating Slowly Methods

1. Use chop sticks or small utensils for eating
   
2. Put fork down in between bites
   
3. Pause and calm myself before eating
4. Practice mindful eating (thinking carefully about flavors, textures, etc. while eating)
   
5. Time 20 minutes and stretch out meals accordingly 

Do you also struggle with eating too quickly? I have designed this experiment so you can do it with me. At the beginning of each 21 day method testing session, I will upload a brief post to announce the method to be tested, how to do it, and the exact dates for implementation. After the study period has elapsed I will post a full summary of the method and I hope to either have others' feedback as comments on that post or incorporate your feedback (e-mail me as you go @ mylessseriouslife@gmail.com) directly in the post.

In the end, I hope to discover the best method (or combination of methods) to slow down my caveman-like eating ways with the goal of making my stomach happier and appreciating food even more.

Footnote: A note here (for my more academic-minded readers) about potential confounding. If this were a true scientific experiment I would need to carefully consider how one of these methods would then impact the results of the following method. For example, after 3 weeks of putting my fork down between bites I may (and hope to) automatically do this when I begin the next method. And, clearly, this then alters the pure evaluation of each method. Technically, I would need some type of wash-out period (i.e., a period of doing nothing to 'forget' the prior method) to truly evaluate each method on its own. However, when it comes down to it, I WANT to change my eating speed and develop these habits and have decided to simply take each method as it comes while (gasp!) ignoring this confounding. With that said, I have chosen the order of these methods with an attempt to minimize this limitation. If you are a statistician, I deeply apologize for the mild arrhythmia you may be experiencing right now.

(images 1, 2)

what i ate wednesday: issue 20

Today is a big day, folks...

It is my 20th issue of What I Ate Wednesday and Love Your Veggies Month.

So, to celebrate, I ate some vegetables. Oh wait, I do that anyways.

 Figure 1. Pre-run fuel: 1/2 banana and coffee.

Figure 2. Breakfast: a bowl of Kashi GoLean Original mixed with Post Great Grains Raisins, Dates, and Pecans cereal, 1/2 sliced banana, and almond milk.

Figure 3. Lunch: a spinach salad with onions, carrots, broccoli, grape tomatoes, avocado, and leftover crispy tofu strips (AKA a brilliant salad topper). Veggie-tastic.

 Figure 4. Afternoon snack: a Pink Lady apple and peanuts.

Figure 5. Dinner, in preparation: Jenna @ Eat Live Run's balsamic quinoa with eggplant and portabellos.  Mine isn't quite as pretty as hers, but I'd like to think it was just as tasty. I made a big batch of this quinoa (recipe serves 4), ate one serving for dinner and portioned out the remaining three in separate Tupperware. A perfect lunch or dinner on a busy night all ready to go!

Figure 6. Dinner: balsamic quinoa with eggplant and portabellos with steamed broccoli. Vegetables with a side of vegetables? Just how I like it.

 Figure 7. Dessert: German chocolate cake with whipped cream. No, this isn't low calorie cake. Pshaw. This is 1/2 leftover slice of decadent cake from a local restaurant to which I added a healthy squirt of full-fat whip cream. It was gone too soon, my friends. Too soon.

And that concludes another (veggie-filled) What I Ate Wednesday (featuring what I ate Monday, February 6).



my less serious tips: on morning exercise

Call me a bad blogger if you must, but some weeks I do not feel like photographing my outfits or food. I just don't.

For weeks like this one, I have created a new series called my less serious tips to substitute for my photograph-heavy my less serious day posts. Tips that provide slightly sarcastic and slightly thoughtful ideas on (you guessed it): fashion, fitness, or food.

Today's tips: how to exercise in the morning. 

Figure 1. My alarm clock in the dark 5:00 AM hour.

Tip #1. Sleep in your workout clothes (I'm serious). Wash them first, of course. When you wake up after a (albeit slightly uncomfortable) night of rest already in your workout gear - what excuse do you have? Are you really doing to take them off without working out? (The answer is no).

Tip #2. Set your coffee pot on auto-brew. This is a new habit for me, but the sound and smell of my coffee pot at work in the morning is (sometimes) enough to lure me out of bed (Figure 2).

Figure 2. My morning arsenal: coffee (auto-brewed), water, banana.

Tip #3. Peruse Pinterest fitness boards. This tip is mildly pathetic, but surprisingly effective. If I'm not in the mood to workout, I'll spend a few minutes perusing the fitness boards on Pinterest. Seeing rock hard bodies and motivational quotations usually gets my adrenaline going (Figure 3).

Tip #4. Remember it doesn't have to be your best. You don't have to have the best workout of your life. You just have to move. Maybe you'll silently curse the entire time and stop a bit earlier than you intended - but you will have worked out. Sometimes telling yourself this is enough to get you out of your early-morning haze.

Figure 3. A little early-morning fitness Pinterest inspiration and coffee.

Tip #5. Reincarnate as a morning person. Try these tips, do. But, just like I'll never be a night owl, I'm convinced some people just aren't meant to workout in the morning. And that's okay. Just workout.

Now...I should get back to not photographing myself eating cheeseburgers in my sweats.

weekend review: dissertation in the kitchen

Figure 1. Sunday afternoon baking: pumpkin raisin oat bran muffins. Except I used wheat bran and whole wheat flour. They didn't rise and look a bit strange, but are still pretty tasty. My favorite 'healthy' bran muffin recipe, however, is still this one.

 

 Figure 2. I finally found a use for my thesis and dissertation - pressing tofu. My academic advisors would be so proud...

Figure 3. In preparation: crispy breaded tofu strips and sweet potato fries. Fresh out of the oven.

Figure 4. Sunday night's dinner: crispy breaded tofu strips, sweet potato fries, and collard greens. This is the best method for sweet potato fries I have tried yet and these tofu strips were texturally exciting, but in desperate need of a dipping sauce (we used ketchup and bbq sauce).

my less serious day: let the crazy out

Just like the beginning of any healthy relationship, I have been hiding a bit of my crazy from you, dear blog readers, these first couple of months. I think it's time to tell you this:

I always eat my salads in mixing bowls and I often let a coin tell me what to have for dinner.

There...I said it. Do you still love me?

Wearing.

Jeans: GAP; cami: Old Navy; cardigan: J Crew; necklace: gifted via Mom; pumps: Miz Mooz via Piperlime

Doing.

This morning's workout was a 35-minute stationary bike ride (ramp interval) followed by a 15-minute walk with L. I also took L on a 10-minute walk on my lunch break. The day concluded with a 60-minute Body Pump class. This week I increased my squat weight and I.am.sore.

Eating.

Pre-run I had 1/2 banana, 1/2 mug of black coffee, and 1 pint of water. For breakfast I had a (you guessed it) bowl of Kashi GoLean Original mixed with Post Great Grains Raisins, Dates, & Pecans cereals, 1/2 sliced banana, and almond milk.

Lunch was a mixing bowl salad beast with spinach, green cabbage, broccoli, roasted red peppers, onion, dates, peanuts, hummus, and balsamic vinegar.

My afternoon snack was a piece of whole wheat bread with peanut butter and cinnamon.

Heads meant dinner was a massive quantity of roasted Brussels sprouts and eggplant, a Morning star chicken patty, and ketchup.

Dessert was plain Greek yogurt, chocolate sprinkles (which make me happy), and honey.

Note: this post represents what happened in my world on Wednesday, February 1. 

what i ate wednesday: issue 19

Just admit it. You really just want to see pictures of food. So, let's cut to the chase...

 Figure 1. Pre-run fuel: 1/2 banana and coffee.

Figure 2. Breakfast: a bowl of Kashi GoLean Original mixed with Post Great Grains Raisins, Dates, and Pecans cereal, 1/2 sliced banana, and almond milk.

Figure 3. Lunch: a sweet potato topped with plain Greek yogurt, almond butter, and cinnamon. I popped this baby in the crock pot before leaving for work in the morning and returned home on my lunch break to a perfectly cooked potato and a house smelling of warm cinnamon-y goodness. Yum.

 Figure 4. Afternoon snack (my veggie fix): raw carrots and green peppers with hummus.

Figure 5. Dinner: leftover roasted vegetable baked polenta pie and kale salad with walnuts and feta. You can't beat a quick dinner of leftovers after a long day...

Figure 6. Dessert, part 1: a Pink Lady apple with cinnamon.

 Figure 7. Dessert, part 2: a shot glass full of peanuts.

And that concludes another What I Ate Wednesday (featuring what I ate Tuesday, January 31).