An Evolving Clean Epicurean Locavore

2011 is the year I’m getting healthy.  At least, that was the resolution I made back in January.  I had a similar resolution for 2010 (“get fit!”), yet despite the “eat less, move more” approach, I was still 70 pounds heavier at the start of the year than I weighed at my wedding in 1996.  So this year, I tried a new approach – mindful eating.

I took a 3-week class based partly on the book Women, Food and God  by Geneen Roth (which I feel could have been called Women, Food and Spirituality so as not scare off folks like me).  Anyway, the “guidelines” (not rules) she suggests are:

• Eat when you are hungry
• Eat sitting down in a calm environment – This does not include the car
• Eat without distractions.  Distractions include radio, television, newspapers, books, intense or anxiety-producing conversations or music (difficult for me)
• Eat what your body wants (what your body wants – not what your head/emotions want.   Sometimes hard to distinguish)
• Eat until you are satisfied
• Eat (with the intention of being) in full view of others
• Eat with enjoyment, gusto and pleasure

Along those lines, it was not a weight “loss” class; it was a weight “release” class.  People, it seems, tend to look for, and find, what we “lose.”  You don’t typically go back after what you release.

 Also suggested were: 

• No food after 6 (or 4 hours before bed)
• Putting fork/chopsticks/spoon/etc down between each bite
• Assessing for satisfaction (no longer being hungry) every 5-7 forkfuls.  Stop eating once satisfied

Six months after the end of the class, I’m only consistently following about half of the guidelines, which is a reminder as to why mindfulness is called a “practice.”

After the class finished, I took the suggestion of a friend and read Clean by Alejandro Junger, MD.  It was a life-altering book, and a great continuation of the mind-body connection lessons I had started the month before. 

The premise is simple – our bodies face a daily barrage of toxins that have a devastating effect on our health.  From the air we breathe, the food we eat, the cosmetics we use – all of these contribute to a potentially lethal toxic load that we are not equipped to defend against, and which can lead to an allergic, or inflammatory, systemic response. 

The “prescription,” was a 21-day of elimination diet of some of the biggest, most well known sources of allergic reactions: beef, pork, eggs, shellfish, dairy, gluten, “nightshade” vegetables, soy, corn and alcohol.   I had a liquid breakfast, such as a smoothie, a solid meal for lunch, and a liquid meal for dinner, such as soup or another smoothie.

I won’t lie.  It was tough.  Uber-tough.  And I was not very nice during the first 10 days or so.  I chalk it up to withdrawal.  Luckily, my husband did the cleanse with me, and at the end of the 21 days, I was down 15 pounds, and he’d dropped 25.  Neither of us has put any of the “released” weight back on.

Beyond the weight loss, a new awareness emerged.  We started reading food labels religiously.  We didn’t go back to eating red meat. We found the extra money to buy organic – especially the “dirty dozen.”  And we learned more about eating local.

Until about a year ago, I had never heard of the term “locavore,” and I didn’t think about the importance of eating food grown locally beyond the loss of nutrients.  I figured the industrial canning and freezing of food addressed that problem.  What I didn’t count in the equation was the processing involved in both of those systems – the added preservatives and colorants.  I also didn’t think about the transportation/pollution impacts of buying corn grown in Mexico instead of, say, Illinois.

It wasn’t that it wasn’t on my radar – I didn’t even have that radar.

I’m slowly building that infrastructure, to be able to wrap my head around some of these concerns.  For the next two months, “Green Drinks,” an open education and networking group that meets up at Duke’s Alehouse and Kitchen in Crystal Lake, will help by looking at some of these issues as well.

This Wednesday, July 6^th, Denise Gaskell, of Gaskell Healthy Solutions, will be discussing the “Toxins in Food and Greening Up Your Diet.”  Next month, Emily Zack, Duke’s resident farmer, will speak to the restaurant’s farm project.

We’re also hitting the ever-expanding each Sunday.  More to come on that experience in another post, but it’s been a great tasting epicurean adventure.