April 2007 Archives

As crazy as it sounds sometimes my goals of being a smaller, healthier person and someone who eats a very natural, healthy, sustainable diet are at direct odds with each other. French Vanilla Splenda for Coffee is a prime example of this struggle. There's nothing natural about vanilla Splenda. Though it may be derived from sugar in some mysterious scientific way it's a chemical sweetener with chemical vanilla flavoring added. It doesn't seem like the kind of product that someone who just switched to organic ketchup because she's trying to cut the copious amounts of high fructose corn syrup we're being fed out of her diet would use does it? But use it and love it I do. I keep track of what's going into my body everyday and I know that every bit of food fuel counts both positively and negatively. Obviously using a natural sweetener for my coffee and tea would be desirable if my only goal was to eat a natural diet. But the extra calories that sugar and other natural sweeteners give me run counter to my goals of weighing less and becoming more fit. For the same calories a natural sweetener would give me in my coffee I can instead have a nice serving a fruit (a blood orange this morning in fact) or vegetables. Like the Splenda the natural sweetener would be giving me no nutritional value but it would be giving me calories. So in this case I choose the chemical alternative over the natural one.

If the French Vanilla Splenda didn't taste so good in my coffee this might be a harder decision for me but it's really, really good. If you've no qualms about chemical sweeteners and like a hint of vanilla in your coffee then I can't recommend the French Vanilla Splenda highly enough.

The base for this recipe comes from Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Cooking. We loved the basic concept but decided it needed a little something. So we've played around with it a few times and finally a couple nights ago came up with the definitive version.

I pound extra-firm tofu
1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves chopped garlic
1 chopped onion
1 teaspoon curry powder
10oz fresh spinach
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 can diced tomatoes with green peppers partially drained

- Drain and press tofu, crumble into small pieces. We typically put the tofu in the fridge to press the night before we plan to make this dish
- Heat oil in skillet over medium heat, add garlic and onion. Cook for a few minutes until onion is soft and the garlic smell starts permeating the kitchen
- Add curry powder, stir well, add tofu
- Cover and cook for 3 minutes until tofu is mostly heated through
- Add spinach, stir to combine it well with the other ingredients
- When spinach has wilted add salt, pepper and tomatoes
- Stir well and cook 2-3 minutes

Notes:
- Add as much or as little liquid from tomatoes depending on how thick or thin you want this dish to be. I don't put very much liquid because I don't want it to be soupy
- You can add more or less curry powder based on your preferences. I find 1 teaspoon to be ample for both flavor and heat because of the peppers added with the tomatoes

Makes 4-6 servings

Serve with a big salad

Nutritional information varies depending on the specific tofu you use but a rough estimate is 4-6 Weight Watchers points per serving. We use a light tofu that is really wonderful but I can't remember the brand name right now. I'll add it to this recipe later. Update: The tofu we use is Nasoya brand.

As of this morning's trip to the scales I've lost 101.6 pounds. That's a pretty staggering number. Of course I've got another 80 to lose to reach my goal weight (though really my goals are more in terms of clothing sizes and being able to accomplish certain physical feats) and probably another 100 or even more to lose should I suddenly want to reach society's/bmi chart's definition of not being overweight. I don't measure my waist or my hips or any of that but I do like to wear men's pants frequently so given that they're sized by waist number I know that as of a few weeks ago, when I bought a new pair of shorts, I've lost about 12-14 inches around my waist.

So 101.6 pounds and at least 12 inches around the waist.

As I said a few weeks ago when I hit the 90 pounds lost mark I don't hate my body anymore. I don't love it, I look forward to it getting smaller, stronger, faster, having more endurance than it does now but I don't hate it. I'm comfortable in my skin. That's really an amazing feeling. I started to say that unless you've been really fat you don't know what it means to hate your body that much and know what a relief it is to not feel that way anymore. However I think that would be an unfair statement because lots and lots of people hate their bodies. It's my natural inclination to say things like "what on earth does she have to be unhappy about? She's 5'10 and weighs 195 pounds. She looks amazing." But you can't discount what someone feels just because you think it's irrational. That doesn't mean that I don't get really irritated when people comment on my weight loss and follow it up with "Oh. My. God. I have to lose these 10 pounds. Jesus I look awful." But I'm trying to be a more considerate, understanding person when it comes to the very individual, very internal, very emotional feelings we all have about our bodies.

I still don't know what to say to people who comment on my weight lost. The other day a neighbor asked me how much I'd lost and I had absolutely no intention of telling her a number. I don't know why but I just wasn't comfortable with that at all. So I said "a little." She laughed and said "A whole lot more than a little." Yes I guess a hundred pounds is a whole lot more than a little.

Even though I'm unemployed (notice how I just slipped that in and neglected to give any details about why I left the job I took a few weeks ago? Smooth I say) I'm going to buy myself the new-ish Gomez CD today. Not so much as a "reward" but just as "I feel really good today and good new music makes even really good days even better." And I really dig Gomez.

I'm also going to Starbucks in a few minutes. I'm going to enjoy my vanilla cappuccino, eat my yogurt, write in my journal and read my book. That's really my favorite way to spend a morning. That reminds me of something. I know I've written before about people who make comments like "oh you must not eat food x or y" and how silly that is right? Well some people are surprised, nay shocked to find out that I don't order non-fat drinks at Starbucks. I do from time to time enjoy a Frappuccino Light but when I have a hot beverage it is full fat, whole milk all the way. Why? Because I really don't enjoy drinks made with skim milk. Why else? I really, really love the taste of a cup of coffee with a couple of tablespoons of half & half and I really, really love the taste of cappuccinos made with whole milk. So when I have coffee I make it work with my food plan for the day. It's really that simple. People have a hard time understanding that. My family, people on the street, people I know are trying to lose weight so often seem to think that becoming healthier is one long exercise in deprivation. It's so not and I wish I could get that point across to people. When you throw out most of the junk you eat then you start eating better, healthier, tastier foods. And because you're eating so much more healthily it's ok to have whole milk cappuccinos or full fat yogurt instead of having everything fat free all the time. You can find ways to make it work and still keep foods and beverages you love. Honest. 101.6 pounds says I'm right on this.