There are a lot of things that you can do with the days’ old remains of rustic breads. You can turn them into croĂ»tons (there is nothing like freshly made croĂ»tons with homemade Caesar salad), you can toast them and serve with butter and jam (one of my favorites), or you can cut them into 3″ by 1″ rounds and freeze. For poor man’s hockey pucks.

(I have no doubt that although I say that in jest, there are likely a few Canadian readers out there who upon reading the puck idea had a wintertime Proustian flashback of an impromptu game of shinny.)

Editor’s note: This post is this week’s Friday Fit recipe. The idea is to try “real food” recipes that can be prepared on the weekend. If you enjoy this article, please consider subscribing to my feed. Thanks. Read the rest of this entry »

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Today’s article is part 2 on techniques for shopping for fresh food more often (Part 1 is here: 18 perfect excuses to avoid buying good food). Most of us who follow typical Western dietary practices buy a lot of well-preserved, packaged foods all at once, shopping once every couple of weeks in an effort to save time and money. This means that we typically buy foods that don’t spoil in the first few days. The question is, from a health perspective is that always your best bet?

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In my case, shopping infrequently led to trouble. At that bi-weekly shopping trip I would often buy a few fresh fruits and vegetables, but they were either quickly eaten or, a few days after shopping, on the downward slope of a wilted death march in the primordial “crisping” drawer. That left a week and a half, or longer, without anything particularly fresh. Lots of carbohydrates and salted goods were made to last until the next major shopping trip. And while I enjoyed those salty bags of chips and boxes of cereal, my weight gain suggests that I should have been eating more of the fresh stuff.

The second problem for me is I would wind up at a restaurant or worse, the drive-thru, because I was tired of the food I’d bought weeks ago. I am not a good advanced meal planner (though I’d like to be) - I am able to plan meals for a few days, but when it gets into weeks or a month, my plan always breaks down. I don’t know what I’ll be in the mood for in two weeks, and that led to finding alternatives, and usually bad ones.

The irony? I spent that saved time and money eating out, and eating poorly at that.

Based on suggestions from folks like Michael Pollan and Dr. Will Clower, I have made some changes in how I shop, and they’re working out well. Read the rest of this entry »

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If this is your first time here, welcome to Almost Fit. If you find this article enjoyable, please consider giving it a Digg or a Stumble. If all else fails, subscribing is a nice thought. Thanks.

One of the habits that I am developing is to try to shop for fresh foods more often, but in smaller, well-chosen quantities. I used to try to save time (and in theory, money) by stocking up on one big shopping trip, acquiring everything I might need in the hope that I could stretch that food for a few weeks.

Of course, as was my previous pattern by the time I left the store I was starving, eating whatever salted carbohydrate-in-a-metallic-plastic-bag that jumped off the shelf and into the cart, and having relatively little of anything that could be considered fresh.

I used to have every legitimate (or, not-so-legit) reason in the world to avoid the store. The reasons included things like: Read the rest of this entry »

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Editor’s note: This post is this week’s Friday Fit recipe. The idea is to try “real food” recipes that can be prepared on the weekend. If you enjoy this article, please consider subscribing to my feed. Thanks.

In honor of a comment by Nico over at ProHealthBlog on my article about the terrifying truth of breakfast cereal (that’s a joke, by the way), this week’s recipe is a very simple variation on a traditional favorite - oatmeal. (You can blame my sense of humor on the jokes that I read on the back of the cereal box.)

All kidding aside, for a great article on the value of oatmeal in your diet, check out ProHealthBlog’s article on oatmeal,  Oatmeal is healthy, delicious and can help fat loss.

As I’ve mentioned before, since I’ve begun to eat real food rather than the packaged faux alternatives, I’m creating a meaningful relationship with food now, versus the dysfunctional love/hate/hate-myself-for-loving-it relationship that I used to have. And believe it or not, homemade oatmeal is the perfect example of that change. Read the rest of this entry »

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If this is your first time here, welcome to Almost Fit. If you find this article enjoyable, please consider giving it a Digg or a Stumble. If all else fails, subscribing is a nice thought. Thanks.

As part of my effort to eat more locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables (the “real food” part of Real Food in Moderation), I’ve now changed my pattern to follow what I consider to be a French approach to grocery shopping. Rather than stocking up on tons of food that will keep for weeks, if not months (or for Twinkies, years), I shop every few days for the fresh things that I should be eating, including (gasp!) bread, which should really be eaten fresh, without preservatives. This goes for cheese, milk, and meat as well, and its working - I got on the scale this morning, and I’m now over the 22 lb mark for the year, all while eating what I would have considered indulgences before, like fresh bread, high quality full fat ice cream, and good bacon, all in moderation.

(Little Ed. side note: While you may consider the Twinkie shelf-life thing to be a bit of an urban legend, I had a writing teacher who had a packaged Twinkie in his garage from his time in Vietnam - and after 17 years, it remained mold-free.)

I learned this practice of shopping for less quantity but more often firsthand on a visit to Paris, which I’ve briefly described here, and have since confirmed it time and again with friends who have lived in France for long periods and in different locations. For example, in France it is very common to make a daily stop at the local bakery (boulangerie) on the way home to pick up a freshly baked baguette. In fact, often the neighborhood boulangerie will have a line out the door a little after 5PM, when the evening’s selection is fresh out of the oven.

The best part of this practice? The French have an informal custom of twisting and tearing off le quignon (literally, “the crust”), or what we think of as the heel of the loaf and eating it on the way home, freshly warmed by the baker’s oven. (For a great article on the joy of le quignon, see David Lebovitz’s wonderful description, here.)

So rather than opening that .99 cent oversized “single serving” of Doritos and a 44oz fountain drink of Pepsi, they satiate all of the senses with a bit of bread - incredibly delicious bread, warm and indescribably soft, with a crackle when its is torn off that to me, is the sound of comfort for the centuries of my ancestors literally breaking bread together. When I twist and tear off that heel, and then begin to savor it, I can hear the collective satisfied sigh of hundreds of years of my predecessors who had the same sense of overwhelming satisfaction when eating bread.

Once home, the baguette is generally immediately eaten as part of the evening meal since it is at its peak of freshness. If the whole loaf is not used, the remainder is wrapped in a towel and saved for the following morning to be toasted and spread with butter or soft cheese.

There are few more sumptuous things than a small bit of fresh, crusty baguette with butter, brie, or camembert, accompanied by a warm cup of coffee with cream.

Of course, I can already hear the readerly clamor: “How do you have time to do that? How do you afford it? Do you not have kids? A life? A job?” — All valid questions. To answer those and many more, and to provide suggestions on how you can implement this in your life (and why its important), I’ll be posting a series of articles next week on how to shop for better quality, more often - without breaking the bank.

It is much more possible than you might think, and you may actually save money.

Ed. note: I took these photos this morning of a baguette from Grand Central Bakery in Portland. Grand Central is one of the best local sources of breads and baked goods in the Pacific Northwest, and well worth a visit.

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This post is a personal account of how advertising that is directed at children had a direct impact on me. If you like this article, please consider giving it a Digg or subscribing to my feed. Thanks.

Growing up, I loved cereal. I craved the sweet, satisfying taste; I loved the temperature of the cold milk mingling with the cereal; I savored the crunchy texture; I enjoyed the way the milk absorbed the sweetness and the color of the cereal. I just loved it.

I also liked the assumed feeling of commonality with other kids across the nation who were eating the same thing. It made me feel like I “fit in” in some odd way.

Of course, our Mom insisted on the non-sugary stuff, so products like Cheerios were the staple rather than the sweeter options (more on the effectiveness of that strategy later).

When I moved out on my own lo’ those many years ago, the three things that I had in my “pantry” (the closet in my studio apartment) were: a) One case of macaroni and cheese (thanks Mom), b) One case of ramen packages (complete with those delectable silver packets of MSG and who knows what else), and c) One box of Cap’n Crunch Crunchberries - my personal favorite at the time. Or, Lucky Charms, if I wanted to “get my greens.” Gotta’ cover those food groups.

So when money was tight (as it always was), which food did I choose to replenish? Hand’s down, it was the fun-lovin’ Cap’n, that crazy happy go lucky Leprichaun, or the I-don’t-even-know-what-he-is-but-I-like-it Coo-Coo for Cocoa Puffs dude, who won the priorities crown. When it came down to it, it was pretty obvious who was going home from the scratch-and-dent grocery store.

In fact, when money was really tight, I may have tried to eat cereal with water out of desperation.

I strongly discourage it. Read the rest of this entry »

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Editor’s note: This post is this week’s Friday Fit recipe. The idea is to try “real food” recipes that can be prepared on the weekend. Of course, each recipe can also be prepared during the week (that’s when I’m trying it), but with the hectic schedules of most, a recipe might be easier to try on the weekend when work is generally less of a factor. If you enjoy this article, please consider subscribing to my feed. Thanks.

Today’s recipe is a very satisfying variation on a classic tomato bisque. It is particularly well-suited for blustery late winter and early spring days, such as the ones that a lot of us in northern and central climes have been experiencing lately. That said, we have also had this soup cold as part of a picnic in the summer, and it is equally refreshing, particularly garnished with a few leaves of fresh basil.

Although the ingredients list looks a little long, its actually fairly simple to prepare. It freezes well and is best reheated in a pan rather than a microwave.

You should note that I am not using low-fat alternatives in this soup, which is on purpose. You can substitute light sour cream, for example, with little negative effect. However, the richness of this soup is meant to be enjoyed in smaller portions in line with my approach of eating Real Food in Moderation, so my view is this: go ahead and have the sour cream – just keep it reasonable.

In other words, if you have a few gallons of this at one sitting, your scale may portray your decisions in a slightly negative light. Because after all, no one likes to “peg the needle” on the scale; save that for that rental car. Just kidding, rental car lawyers.

Read the rest of this entry »

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This post is about ways to enrich your life with good food in moderation. If this is your first time here, have a look around - the site focuses on improving your health through eating real food, just less of it. If you enjoy this article, please consider subscribing. Thanks.

It has been said that as long as there has been cooking, there has been soup. Soup is one of the oldest forms of nourishment that we have, and has a long tradition that spans cultures globally. These days most of us in Western cultures think of soup as the optional appetizer, or something that comes out of a can with some oddly preserved noodles, in a peculiar yellow-colored broth.

However, in many cultures, soup fills a central role in daily life, and is often considered vital to good health.

Variations on soups are abundant, but here are some of the more common broad categories:

- Broth, or consommé: These soups start with a clear broth or stock, and are what we think of as soups like chicken noodle soup.

- Bisque or puree: A richer opaque preparation that is often cooked first and then blended and optionally strained (though not always). Bisques and purees often contain cream components. A good example of a puree is classic tomato soup.

- Chowders: generally a seafood base that can be prepared with a wide variety of approaches; For example, New England Clam chowder is typically lighter in color with a cream and potato base, whereas Manhattan clam chowder typically uses a clear broth and is red, colored by tomatoes. Manhattan clam chowder is said to have originated as Italian clam soup. Corn chowder is another common variation.

- Sweet soups: Dessert soups and fruit soups are also popular worldwide, though not as common in North America. Ginataan for example, is an excellent coconut-based soup from the Philippines, and is served hot or cold. Norwegian fruktsuppe is also excellent cold, in hot summer locations in particular.

This is by no means a complete list - its just a quick portrait of the variety of soups that are common in the West. For a great list of dozens of categories of soup, see this Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soup.

21 tips on enjoying soup in moderation

If you are adjusting your dietary habits to move toward eating real food in moderation, soup can be one of your best friends. In fact, in the book, French Women Don’t Get Fat – The Secret of Eating for Pleasure, Mireille Guiliano cites the use of “Magical Leek Soup” as part of the traditional French diet, particularly in the effort to maintain the shape you desire. Read the rest of this entry »

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Welcome to AlmostFit. This entry is a personal note on my progress with improving my health through eating real food in moderation. If you enjoy reading this article, please consider subscribing to my RSS feed. Thanks.

In my history with maintaining a weight loss program, the single greatest contributor to failure has always been one thing:

Stress.

I am decidedly an emotional eater with a particular susceptibility to stress; i tend to overeat, or eat all the wrong things to a fault when the stress starts to mount. In fact, my food-related conversations often go something like this:

“$5.00 Venti Mocha with 4 shots? No problem - I need the caffeine. And the whipped cream makes it go down easier.”

“Would I like fries with that? I’ll leave that decision up to you, my fast food friend.”

“Do you have those bonus Twinkie 3-packs? No no - not the ones with the extra delicious treat - I want the pack of three, of the three packs. Get it?”

So how have I fared this time, so far? My work is currently at its most stressful; I’m working about 70-80 hours a week, working through the weekend. This does not including writing in the evenings and early hours for my own projects (like AlmostFit). We are approaching the release of our product, and the demands are more than just time; there are also significant pressures to uphold my part of the team equation in terms of providing pieces that the other team members need.

That said, the very good news is that by mid-month in March, although my weight loss has slowed slightly, I am still ahead of the game. I am currently at 17.6 lbs down for the year, and I hope to start turning the corner to speed things up just a little in the next few days through exercise. I have successfully added the beginnings of an exercise regime by getting out of the house for an hour between meetings (I generally don’t have time for a lunch break) to start walk/running at the track.

The exercise of course helps somewhat with the stress; but more than anything, since I’m not approaching this from a deprivation perspective, the stress has not resulted in the usual familiar pathways of fast food and a bag of chips. I am intensely interested in Gastronomy right now, reading everything on the cultural relationship with food that I can make time for. I also have an incredible support structure through my wife, who carefully listens to my requests when she prepares the meals, and helps me to improve the meals that I prepare with sound advice. Not to mention the inspiration that I’m finding all over the Web in people with a very similar situation, who are succeeding in changing their lives for the better.

In other words, I consider my slower weight loss a rousing success over the last few weeks, particularly as the stress has mounted. This in many ways is a first for me; and hopefully a good indicator of the lasting effects of the habits I’m both creating and destroying.

In gratitude, here are a handful of links that I’ve found particularly inspiring:
IowaAvenue.com
AndrewIsGettingFit.com
GetFitSlowly.com
ThisMamaCooks.com
CrankyFitness.com

Thank you to every one of you out there who are documenting your process and in turn, inspiring others.

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Editor’s note: This post is this week’s Friday Fit recipe. The idea is to try “real food” recipes that can be prepared on the weekend. Of course, each recipe can also be prepared during the week (that’s when I’m trying it), but with the hectic schedules of most, a recipe might be easier to try on the weekend when work is generally less of a factor. If you enjoy this article, please consider subscribing to my feed. Thanks.

Confessions of a salad hater

[To skip the witty diatribe (just get to the recipe, will ya?), click here. - Ed.]

Full disclosure: For most of my life I must admit that I hated salad - it just took up room on the plate, and it was something I rarely ate unless I was suffering through another short-lived diet fad. I know it sounds hard to believe to the readers who are completely focused on their health (and considering that eating more vegetables is one of the focal points of AlmostFit), but honestly? Eating salad before everything else was like having to go to the dentist before I went to the local burger joint (Any Kow Korner refugees out there?).

That all changed when I met my beautiful and intelligent wife, April.

In fact, when it comes to just about everything, my life changed dramatically for the better when she entered the picture. Among many other things, she completely revolutionized (and improved) my relationship with food - not the food alternatives that I had grown accustomed to, but real, whole food.

And in particular, for this week’s recipe, she has shown me the light of what a salad can be.

C’mon - how can anyone hate salad?

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