I love food, so it makes sense I’d also love little miniature models of food, though I’m not sure why. Brings out the “oh it’s so cute” in me, I guess.
This remarkable demonstration of how to craft Itty Bitty Food takes the cake, especially since it’s edible! I only wish I were so talented.
There are a lot of rules flying around about what you should or shouldn’t eat and what “they” say is right or wrong. But just who exactly the ones known as “they?” When you say you know you should eat X calories, who says? Where did you get the idea you should do anything, let alone eat exactly this number of calories or that many grams of protein? Who is the expert, you, or some guru you saw on TV?
I know what works for me by trial and error and that will work for you as well. Take the rules and bend them to work for your lifestyle. If you don’t feel satisfied at all with the calories you’re getting, then add a little, no matter what “they” said you should eat. If you feel energized after working out but “they” say you should be getting an hour a day, well, tough on them. I say do what feels right for you.
This is especially true with the standard diet list of calories you should have. There is no way a 6′ tall man should have the same calories as a 5’2″ woman, yet restaurants continue to serve the same plates to everyone, and diets tell us men should have so many calories, and woman should have so many; yet, no account for height at all. Ridiculous.
Just when we thought it was safe to toss our moldy leftovers, out comes a study saying food waste (and excessive shopping) contributes to environmental decline. Found at Newsdaily.com British Environment Minister Joan Ruddock suggests Brits do their part and stop wasting food! Leftovers are yummy, says Roddock. (Okay, I made that up–OneMoreBite).
You know some people do not like leftovers! They insist on perfectly new food at every sitting. Who are these people? Personally I love nothing better than finding ready-to-eat food waiting when the hungries strike. I enjoyed the rest of the steak I didn’t eat last night today for lunch and was that a treat!
The “Love Food Hate Waste” program aims to help reduce the tossing out of perfectly good food with ideas for
Use the Add Your Voice link and tell everyone what you think.
It makes sense that if you plan ahead, stop all those quickie trips for fast food and get back to some real home cooking (not take-out eaten at home, but food actually prepared at home) you’ll lose weight in the process. It’s time we all stopped wasting so much food, not to mention money, and ate more responsibly.
Diet and weight loss resource found in Find Articles: Shape magazine’s back issues from Dec 2001 to the present.
I like reading old magazines to see how our thinking and trends about weight loss change from time-to-time. Usually it’s the same thing you’ve always heard, calories in, calories out, but adding healthy nutrition and purposeful movement (exercise) seems to never go out of style. What do you think?
Know your local seasons! If you want to eat more fresh, local produce then get to know the local growing seasons in your area. I live in the Pacific Northwest so here we have:
| Local Grow Season | Fresh Produce |
| May/June (late) | Strawberries |
| June/July (mid) | Raspberries |
| June/July (mid) | Cherries |
| June (Mid) (mid) | Blackberries |
| June/July (Late) | Blueberries |
| June/July (Late) | Apricots, Peaches, Nectarines |
| July/Aug (mid) | Sweet Corn, Apples, Pears, Tomatoes, Pumpkins, Squash, Cucumbers |
Not a comprehensive list but you get the idea! Starting in May find those local growers. We also have the Vancouver Farmer’s Market which is fun just to walk around and see what’s being offered but a weekly visit guarantees you the best produce at the best prices.
The treadmill Bike is BornIn our quest to find more and better crazy exercise gadgets Bicycle Forest’s Treadmill Bike ($2,500 Canadian) was developed. The idea was to avoid being cooped up in the gym and get outside, but wow, this is just, well, different. Find the link for “Sweet Jumps” and watch the Treadmill bike jump a ramp!
Most people start a new “plan” on a Monday. This is to give themselves the chance to get ready, as if they are starting a race. Think instead of starting a new eating plan as beginning a hike or climb – you are going to take one step. It can be today, it can be tomorrow, it can be in the middle of the day (new concept!). You’re taking just one step, not the whole trip.
That first step isn’t so difficult unless you’ve decided you are going to make drastic changes, especially if you are trying to avoid all the things you like the most. That plan won’t work for the long-haul, and can be part of the reason you find it difficult to get started, or you keep “getting started” over and over.
If I’m trying to convince myself I’m never going to do something ever again, I know it’s a lie, and it will be much harder to make the real commitment. Instead take it easier and just choose one habit you’d like to change, one food, one day of the week. Think in terms of small changes; eating three pieces of fudge instead of the whole pan for instance.
Are you sitting in the fence because the holidays are approaching? “I don’t want to be dieting at Thanksgiving.” “I can’t diet now, I have cookies to bake.” Oh, the excuses. They run so fast this time of year, don’t they? Just chase them right out of the room. Excuses are like asses, we all have one, just some are bigger than others.
There’s no better time than right now to get started on the path to lifelong freedom from a weight problem. I enjoy the holidays, I love to bake, I eat all the goodies, and I don’t gain weight. Read how I made the mind-shift one Thanksgiving Day and lost weight without dieting. That was the turning point for me, and all I did was decide I was going to eat until I was satisfied, not gorge myself but eat all I wanted, eating slowly, enjoying every bite.
I was going to make a point to taste what I was eating. The turkey wasn’t going to jump up and run away, I didn’t have to rush and get it over with. I wanted to enjoy the meal and the company fully, instead of groaning in pain a half hour later.
Have you ever been so full you thought you’d burst and just then someone says, “Who wants pie?” “I do!,” most of us say, thankful we wore an elastic waistband. Deciding to enjoy but not overdoing it means when that question arises you know if you want dessert now or would rather wait a bit. It’s not a crime to wait 30 minutes or an hour. The
pie is not going to float away, and if you are worried it will be gone, then you’re eating out of a fear of scarcity, which at my house just is not a problem. We generally have about half a pie per person, easily, not counting all the other goodies.
That one Thanksgiving dinner changed my life. I still remember how awestruck I was when I realized I felt wonderful, satisfied, full, and I’d eaten everything I wanted. I waited until I felt hungry again (hunger returns, yes it does), and then I ate again, and I’ve eaten tens of thousands of times since then including many more Thanksgiving dinners.
The holidays are a great time of year – this year let’s enjoy them more fully.
The holidays can be a time of year fraught with emotional ties. If being with your family distresses you, start now to lessen the emotional intensity and you’ll breeze through the holidays this year. If you know certain people will push your buttons, practice now.
“Even though I hate the holidays, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
“Even though my family makes me crazy, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
“Even though last year Aunt Edna said I looked fat and why didn’t I stop eating, I deeply and completely accept myself”
“Even though I know my husband’s wife Big Bertha is going to give me ugly looks and say mean things and I just wish I could stuff a big sock in her mouth, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
Don’t worry if you have tag-on thoughts while you are tapping. I often do. Things like, “Aunt Edna is a cow,” come to mind. Sometimes things you might think but would never say in polite company are quite appropriate while doing the tapping. These thoughts may make you smile, even laugh out loud, and that’s a good thing. It’s okay.
The main thing is to keep your issue in mind while you tap (that’s why you keep repeating the reminder word or statement). If the emotional intensity is present (even though it may be muted) while you are tapping, then you will release the intensity of the emotion and interrupt that well worn pathway (the path is the regular routine of upset; how just thinking of an event can make you upset for instance). Don’t be afraid to bring up the issue you want to release.
That’s how EFT works.
(These are general ideas – if you can plug in specific names, places, events, it works all the better.)
Now is the right time – start now. Use EFT on your holiday issues. If you need ideas, send me a note. Have fun with it, give it a go and let me know what happens.
An Edible Menu?Apparently I’ve been asleep in a closet somewhere because everyone’s been talking about the edible menu and I’m only just finding out! Chef Homaru Cantu, chef/nerd-in-disguise at Moto restaurant in Chicago is doing more than thinking out of the box; he’s creating the box, as in his “cook at your table” fish plate. Cantu created an ink jet printer that uses organic, edible inks. Now I’ve tried rice paper long ago and wasn’t thrilled. I’m not sure I’d like a piece of melt-in-your-mouth paper that tasted like Kobe beef, but those paying $195 a plate for the 18-course taster menu must think it’s just “crazy man!”
What I’d love to see is Cantu’s “cheese snow,” made by spraying mozzarella dairy stock into liquid nitrogen, garnished with parsley oil. Never satisfied Cantu goes on to create deep fried cotton candy and, ick, hot dog ice cream. Sounds yucky, but hey, if a top chef says it’s good, I’d trust him, at least once.
Kraft gets slammed with a chocolate recall just in time for the 2007 holiday season. Kraft’s Premium White Chocolate the 6 oz sized box, apparently they’ve found salmonella. Yes, it lurks everywhere.
Keeping track of all these recalls isn’t easy, so get their email or RSS reports. It’s getting so we’ve got to wonder if anything is safe to eat any more.
Why we’re too fat. Don’t miss the side angle shots of the bellies.
