Bulking Up (Your Food)

I had a very interesting conversation with a friend yesterday afternoon. She has made a lot of positive lifestyle changes. I’m really proud of her! But she readily admits she really needs to tackle her weight. I know her family history – growing up in a family where food isn’t considered food unless it’s fried in fatback and the ultimate sin is to throw food away. It’s hard to overcome our childhood messages about food.

But we can overcome those messages and she is working on it. She said she didn’t want to go to her 300 pound doctor for advice on weight loss (who can blame her?). We talked about different things. I told her so many of the diets today boil down to eating lean protein, loads of fruits & veggies, and limiting carbohydrates to complex ones as much as possible. Eating unprocessed foods. And portion control. That’s when she groaned “how can you survive on that little bit of food!” She doesn’t want to starve (who does?). I mentioned I just finished “Volumetrics”, which I think has some great ideas. Really, it’s all about “bulking up” the food on your plate. I’ve been using this trick for a while. Offer a controlled portion, then bulking up the dish with veggies. Adding a box of frozen spinach to soup or manicotti stuffing for example. She latched on to that idea and I hope she’ll look for the book at the library.

It’s been a busy and somewhat stressful week, but I’ve been holding my own on the food front. On the exercise front, all I did yesterday was a 30 minute walk at lunch. I had planned to run after work, but a nasty stress headache nixed that idea. Today I am doing 2 runs and lifting. I am feeling a little puffy – ick! Maybe some clean eating and plenty of exercise today can help cure that little issue!