I am writing the follow-up piece on portion control for tomorrow, but my wife and children have just returned from a visit with my wife’s parents, so I’m engrossed in hugs and happiness right now (as well as a bunch of wonderful conversation about all of the amazing things I was able to read in the absence of our 1-year old and her older brother - but I missed them like you wouldn’t believe. It is apparent that talking to myself for a week has not improved my conversational ability; it’s just made me sound a little strange(r) than usual, I think. <grin>).

At any rate, I’ll be posting part 2 of this article, tomorrow:

Retrain Yourself on Food Portion Sizes - Part 1

In the mean time, check this article out on one of my current favorite blogs, Whole Food and More - its on the importance of sunlight in fighting (and sometimes helping to reverse) some of our most insidious diseases:

Summer is Coming - Get Sunlight For Better Health

It’s exceptionally informative, and well worth the read.

Also, if you’re interested, I recently wrote a personal article on the benefits of sunlight from an Oregonian’s perspective on my personal blog (Metroknow.com), here:

Escape From Portland! Rickets Runs Rampant!

Thanks for your patience - I’ll be back tomorrow. Time to play with these little ones, who should be in bed right now, but they’re just too much fun.

In fact, here’s the Metroknow article, just to save you the click. Hope you enjoy it. Read the rest of this entry »

Bookmark It

When it comes to our cultural obsession with quantity equaling value, I have a personal story that has helped me to see our portion size problem from a slightly different perspective.

My sister’s close call

My youngest sister was a server and bartender for years at a successful restaurant. She loved the place, but eventually decided that she wanted to get a job at Claim Jumper, a rapidly growing restaurant chain. Claim Jumper paid a little better since the bills for customers were typically a little more, primarily due to their famously oversized portions of American comfort food.

Shortly after she made the job change, disaster struck. Driving home by herself after a concert in Eastern Washington (which is primarily farm country), in the darkness she drifted at high speed into a steep drainage ditch and then bounced through a fence, into a field. She rolled her car end for end 4 times, traveling a couple of hundred feet into the field. Although she had a case of beer in her trunk (she was in the middle of camping for a week with friends), she hadn’t been drinking - she simply fell asleep. When the police arrived, they assumed the worst, considering that the entire crash site smelled like alcohol.

The photo to the right shows what her car looked like after it was retrieved from the field. Read the rest of this entry »

Bookmark It

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, or joining the email mailing list. Thanks.

One of our favorite branches of cuisine is Indian food. Although the traditional foods vary widely from region to region, in my experiences so far nearly all Indian dishes are comfort food for me, and are generally centered around the use of real food as their main ingredients. There are exceptions as always, but I’ve found that the emphasis on the intricate balance of spices combined with basic meats and vegetables leads to dishes that are not only beautiful, but offer an incredibly wide range of sensory experience on the tongue.

This week’s Friday Fit recipe is a variation on the Indian yogurt-based drink, lassi. Mango lassi is probably the most common version served at Indian restaurants here in the States, but this week’s recipe for rose and cardamom lassi is extremely popular when we entertain at home. It might be just a tad bit early in the year to see rose petals in the garden, but I’m excited for summer to arrive - so it doesn’t hurt to indulge the warm weather imagination just a bit. Read the rest of this entry »

Bookmark It

For those who are new to Almost Fit, welcome. Almost Fit focuses on losing weight and improving overall health by doing one primary thing: Eating Real Food in Moderation. If you feel like my experience may be of some help to you, please consider subscribing by either email or RSS. Thanks.

Spring is just beginning to hit its stride here in the Pacific Northwest, as you can tell from this photo of the plum tree in our front yard. I’ve now completed my third month of reworking my dietary habits using the concept of eating real food in moderation, and not unlike this photo, things are really starting to take off.

Here is a short summary of my approach so far:

• Eat only real food. No low fat products, no low carb products, just whole foods that are minimally processed. I’m eating things like whole fat ice cream, chocolate, butter, and quality (read unpreserved) breads, grass fed and free range meats, and lots of fruits and vegetables. On a daily basis this means avoiding fast food, all high fructose corn syrup, and all artificial sweeteners and flavoring chemicals.
• Eat in moderation. I am retraining myself on what it feels like to actually be full.
• Eat with focus. Whenever possible I eat regular meals, slower, at the table, in the company of my family and friends. The biggest change is not eating in front of the television (except for my small portion of ice cream at night - but its dished out in the kitchen where I’m not distracted).
• Eat for quality, not quantity. This is more or less a combination of the first two items, but it stands as a separate category because it is a big change in my approach to food. Its a principle that affects the others, but is a concept I actually have to focus on consciously.
• Do not slip into the dieting mindset, because I’m not dieting. That includes counting calories. I’m purposely not dieting; I’m relearning what it means to eat well, intuitively.
• Do not use negative reinforcement/punishment. If I eat something that I decide was not the right choice, the goal is this: don’t worry about it. This is a life change, not a sprint to reach thinness as quickly as possible. Real life for most of us means occasionally making lesser choices.
• Practice moderate exercise. So far this is my weakest point in my estimation, but as the weather improves (and I get over being sick) I’m inspired to get moving.
• Educate myself on how to eat. This is my passion currently. There is so much that we all take for granted as being truth when it comes to diet, when in fact in some cases there is little basis for it. The more we learn about our assumptions, the more we find our assumptions have been flawed. Margarine is a great example.What are my current sources? In addition to an abundance of supporting advice from places like IowaAvenue and ProHealthBlog, my current reading list includes the writings of Nina Planck, Dr. Will Clower, Michael Pollan, Russ Parsons, and Mireille Guiliano, among many others. There is simply not enough time in the day to read it all.
• Be accountable. That’s what I’m doing here on Almost Fit, in addition to sharing my past experience and my current process. I’m attempting to be accountable to readers who might be curious about losing weight without dieting. Does it work? Is it healthy? I’m finding out and telling everyone about it; for me, that is my public accountability. My private accountability is, well, private.

So how are these changes working out? Read the rest of this entry »

Bookmark It

Ed. note: This is just a post-April Fools Day update: This may be a complete fabrication…I may have completely imagined it…but you be the judge. If you like this story, please consider buying the live Jackalopes I’m selling on eBay Pets, or purchasing the pieces of an alien craft that look remarkably similar to the silver sheathing on rolls of household insulation that I have from our remodel. Or, if that doesn’t interest you, you might consider subscribing to Almost Fit. Its your call.

Anchorage, AK - A newly discovered plant that has been unearthed in the Arctic is proving to be the most effective natural weight loss compound found to date, with no known side effects. Global warming may be having an unexpected benefit: incredibly rapid weight loss, completely naturally.

In a press release issued by the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge, researchers at the North pole have discovered a plant compound that apparently kept dinosaurs lean, and may explain the genetic mystery of the dietary habits of Eskimo cultures who have historically eaten incredibly high levels of saturated fats with little or no negative effects on weight and cholesterol. The new compound is derived from what researchers have named Lactuca Shackliola, or, “Shackleaf lettuce” (pictured).

“We pulled up the core sample, and there it was, stuck to the outside of the coring rod,” Sylette Rivermorelandstein points out, holding a photo of a purplish wilted leaf stuck to a metal rod.

“Most of our samples pull up a lot of silt and occasionally plant matter, but nothing like this. Its a direct result of global thermal incubation,” she said. “For some reason, I just had to taste it. And it was quite good!” Read the rest of this entry »

Bookmark It