food stuff

[superuser]

posting this here because i don't dare open tumblr at work lol


stuff i've done lately that i'm trying to be proud of

* i managed to quit soda after being neigh-addicted to diet dr pepper for *years*. i don't really know how i did it, i just took a week long break from caffeine and now whenever i drink diet soda it tastes kind of nasty. i still get it every so often, but there's not that constant craving for it, and carbonated water in a can hits that craving pretty good now.

* on that same note i think i've mostly got myself off of coffee except when i need it in an emergency to wake me up. i used to drink it all the time, especially when i was working (i bought like a 4 buck iced latte at lenovo basically every DAY since there was a coffee shop on the ground floor). this is part of my larger goal to get more off of caffiene but also because the lattes usually made me sick (i can't usually drink it black, im a weeno. though i was able to drink a cold brew brand from a glass bottle)

* i had a small problem with fruit juice too - again, at lenovo they sold those naked fruit juice things downstairs and they were really good. but idk, now even just plain orange juice tastes TOO sweet to me beyond just like taking a swig, and i'd rather just eat an orange

now i'm mostly drinking tea thanks to ari sending me a ton of it to try out. i could never get into tea when i had it in those bland little packets sold at walmart, but the higher quality stuff has enough taste for me and i'm interested in trying more. and i'm drinking it black, without any sugar or honey or milk. it's still caffeine, so i try to drink only herbal 'tea' towards the end of the day and i'd probably be okay switching primarily to herbal, since i like it better than black/green/mate.

the other reason i can drink tea is because the watercooler at work has an awesome hot water dispenser that means i don't have to wait or do any set up. i just fill my tea ball half way, then fill my mug halfway with hot water, let it sit a while, then top it off with cold water so i don't get burned (another reason i can't get into h most tea/black coffee: i hate hot beverages)

i'm trying to get behind the mentality of why/how i eat. i honestly don't think, day to day, i do that badly. i don't snack a lot or eat a lot of sweets, i almost never eat red meat, etc. but i do end up eating a lot of pasta (because it's cheap) and grabbing fast food because i'm an idiot and i get to the point where i'm starving and completely sapped of willpower. and i can be weak for ice cream, even though it makes me sick lol. so i figured out these strategies and scribbled them down into evernote:

Eating right takes WILLPOWER.

WILLPOWER is a finite resource drained by

Hunger
Decisions
Depression and fatigue

To solve HUNGER:

Eat a big, protracted breakfast in the morning. An apple, banana, bag of nuts, energy bar, etc on the drive to work or at your desk.

Have snacks available. Small indulgences can prevent a huge binge later. Nuts, fruit, granola, yogurt, etc.

That way you won't be starving at lunch, can also take a later lunch.

Later lunch means you won't be starving when you get off work for dinner. Same with the snacks.

Find healthy/relatively nonprocessed food you ENJOY eating. If it doesn't have to be cooked, even better. I like:

-Apples
-Bananas
-Mixed nuts or almonds
-Raw Broccoli, carrots, cauliflower + some kind of dip that won't kill me
-Hardboiled eggs
-Deli meat
-Canned tuna (this is stretching the 'nonprocessed' notion, but)
-Fresh oranges, pineapple and watermelon are really good but a huge pita to prepare/eat without making a mess
-Relatively healthy granola mix, raw without milk might not be a bad idea
-Cottage cheese (again, 'nonprocessed'.. idk, but it might make a good yogurt substitute to mix with the granola. it and kefir don't make me sick, every other yogurty/milky thing seems to, except hard cheeses. even soy and almond milk seem to have this effect, probably psychosomatic or something)

Replacements/substitutes
-Replace (added) salt with pepper where possible
-Replace sandwich cheese, dip, ranch, dressing, etc with avacado/low sodium guac, which i might have to make myself. maybe with mrs dash instead
-Nuts/healthy granola instead of energy/fiber/candybars
-Tea instead of soda/coffee (mostly accomplished)
-Cut way back on bread (hard when i eat so many sandwiches lol ;_;)

To solve DECISIONS

Make/assemble as many breakfast components as possible the night before.

Bring lunch or write down exactly what you're going to get if you eat out (eg write down what sandwich you're going to get at subway, look at a restaurants menu before you're hungry, etc). Bring the list with you and read off of it if necessary.

Pit your bad habits against each other. EG: To prevent myself from going out at night to grab fast food, (once I have my own place) I could take a shower and change into pajamas as soon as I get home. Then I'm too lazy to get it all back on.

Shopping lists are essential for grocery shopping. If it's not in the list I have to think to myself: am I going to be happier or feel better about myself AFTER eating this entire thing by myself?

Comments

[thatsongperson]

I'm glad the tea is still helpful! Especially the herbal teas, I really love herbal a lot and when it comes to keeping away from caffeine but still having something warming and more flavourful than water, herbal teas help a lot, and most of the time I don't even want to add milk or sweetener, I prefer them straight (lol). I was never a bug caffeine fan, but in fourth year when I really, really started drinking a lot of high-caffeine tea and even having coffee, it had a huge effect on me, and substantially cutting that caffeine out again made all the difference. It's the kind of situation where it's not bad to go to caffeine to help you focus or awareness/staying up, but North American culture is seriously caffeine-addicted.

(this is becoming a huge response I'm sorry)

In regards to dealing with juice, have you tried doing your own infused water? It's essentially like vitamin water only without the sugar and other chemicals that companies put in market products, and also without the absurd vitamin level that your body can't even absorb with water or liquid anyway (so it ends up just completely running out without being metabolised, which severely fucks over your liver and kidneys and other organs in the process). It's easy to do, and I just leave mine in a jug or mason jar in the fridge. You can google "home made infused water" and lots of recipes come up, but I like doing a mix of citrus, blueberry, and herbs if you're able to get them. You just clean the fruit, slice it up, and let it infuse in the water overnight, and it adds a lot of nice flavour without sweetness that can be the final trick to cutting out pop and sugary fruit juice. And usually you can infuse the fruits and herbs up to two times, so you don't have to feel too bad about just "soaking" fresh fruit and then throwing it out, unless you do use or eat the fruit after. I wouldn't try it with peaches or apple, but it works really well with citrus fruits and berries.

Switching salt with pepper is also a really good trick; I did that years ago and it's incredible how you can cut back a lot of salt just like that, plus pepper is really healthy for you also. There's a lot of small things like that that you can do that add up to a lot, without making huge sweeping changes like going raw vegan cold turkey.

The breakfast I've discovered recently that's both really easy, really quick, and really healthy, is overnight oats. If you search them you'll find a lot of recipes (I think i09's actually done two listicles on them), but the basic premise is 1:1 ratio of oats to liquid. I use almond milk, but you could also use water. Mix the oats and liquid in a jar and let them sit overnight, and in the morning you'll have creamy oats essentially like a porridge but without having to cook them. You can add all kinds of things too; I add ground chia and flax seeds and add almonds, peanuts, or pecans soak with the oats overnight, and you can also add spices, almond butter, yogurt, honey, etc. You can add fruits too but I usually just add them in the morning, since I don't like fruit getting soggy overnight. My typical recipe is 1/3 cup oats, 1/3 cup almond milk, a teaspoon ground chia seed, a teaspoon ground flax seed, toss in a couple of nuts, cinnamon and maybe cocoa powder, and a bit of honey. I make it all in a small jar and it's a pretty good energy start for the day.

If soy and almond milk still give you the same reaction but khefir doesn't, Idk what else you could try... there's coconut milk and coconut water, and then countless other milk substitutes like hemp and flax and rice, but idk if they'd be any better. :[ I find the same thing, that hard cheeses don't bother me as much as straight up milk and yogurt do (and that's fine with me because I don't like soft cheeses), but if you're looking for a yogurt substitute there's actually some pretty decent brands for soy, coconut, and almond milk yogurt--just cultured. I don't know if that would be helpful, or if it'd just get the same reaction as regular soy or almond milk does.

I'm on my laptop rn but once I get to my desktop tomorrow I can link you to a couple of the more hippie food blogs I follow. A couple of them focus on easy to make, accessible food, which is what I find most helpful right now.

That's a whole lot of hippie word vomit, I'm sorry to go all foodie on you, but I hope at least some of it helps. :[

[superuser]

nooo problem, those are some good ideas! i can't do much involving a fridge right now unfortunately, all i have is a tiny shitty one i don't really trust to do much besides chill water (i'm assuming the oat stuff is kept in the fridge over night? it might be doable if it doesn't have to be refrigerated)

the home made infused water sounds good too. everything here looks amazing. i'd probably just eat the fruit afterwards lol

i probably just need to experiment with different kinds of alternative milks more, since i usually default to soy (i have one brand i like that's just soy and water, no sweeteners or anything) and i got to a point where i couldn't eat cereal anymore. but i can usually deal with a splash of it in coffee or something, so idk if it's something about the combination of sugar+milk-ish things. which doesn't explain why ice cream and yogurt seem to be like a 50/50 chance of fuckin me up. it'd be nice to know what actually does it, sometimes it seems totally random

i like almond and coconut milk too, i should probably switch to using those more anyway since i know soy isn't that great for you and i could be having a reaction to it as WELL as milk

i've noticed a pretty high quality of life improvement after i've mostly cut out caffeine. i get to bed earlier, actually SLEEP, don't get random flashes of anxiety during the day, etc. now i'm only tired during the day if i was a doofus and stayed up too late. having a really high abv beer before bed might help knock me out at night too.

i'm ok with hippie word vomit!! i like looking at food blogs even if i don't really have the resources to cook where i'm at now. one of my favorite's is inspiralized. i really want one of those dumb things and make broccoli or zucchini noodles

[thatsongperson]

ahhh yeah, I'd love to have one of those too; I don't think I'd ever cut out pasta completely but there are definitely a lot of vegetables I'd try to eat with it

I'm sorry I'm so late responding, I do have a list of blogs on my desktop and I'm gonna try to get it to you later today if I can kick this cold in the ass haha

but yeah, typically the oats are left in the fridge overnight so they can chill as well as absorb the liquid, but you can get away with having it out if you use water or a milk substitute that doesn't need to be refrigerated. You could try adding water for them overnight and in the morning add a yogurt, honey, milk substitute, etc. I usually don't add fruit until I'm having it because I don't like the fruit getting mushy haha

what I tried/am trying to do is build up a repertoire of foods and kitchen stuff that I know I can do well and enjoy/that I know I need, and then eventually that will make moving out easier, but I know it still sucks when you can't have the food you want and have to fall back on other things :[ but I promise I will get you the blog list as soon as I can!

[superuser]

nooo don't worry at all, it's all good |D

every thing i read about the paleo diet makes me want to try it, or at least try to eat a lot MORE like that. but it's expensive as hell and involves a lot of cooking and eh :/

that's a good idea honestly. figuring out how the hell to eat was a real challenge when i first moved out, and even after being in/out for almost a decade i still usually fuck up when i have my own place. it's usually way, way too easy to just go through a drive through or buy a bunch of premade food at the grocery store or something. i'm learning that a ton of dealing with eating issues is just like.. planning, trying to make yourself stick to things, not just letting it happen automatically, etc.

the oats thing sounds appealing and i might try it anyway, because breakfast is my biggest challenge. i sooo don't want to stuff anything into my gullet for the first few hours when i wake up, then suddenly i'm weak and starving and woozy at 11. it's weird to think that one of the hardest parts of my 'diet' will be MAKING myself eat at certain times. hopefully eating breakfast / decent snacks like nuts and fruit will have the cascading effect of not leaving me wrecked by the time lunch comes around, so i can eat later and in turn not be wrecked by the time i get home for work, etc.

have you ever looked into making food ahead and freezing it? it's not much of an option for me right now since i don't have a freezer, but it's something i've read a bit about. basically the convenience of microwave dinners, but you prepare them yourself in advance and if you plan right you can easily have a month+ of meals for one person (the books are usually written with cooking for families in mind, so i think for a single person it'd be more than enough). it's appealing since i probably would have enough energy to go on a cooking marathon on sunday or something but probably none during the work week.

[thatsongperson]

Pre-making foods and freezing it sounds like a pretty good idea actually; I usually freeze fruits for smoothies but I don't mind freezing other stuff. I'm with you on Sunday being the cooking marathon, my family does that where we'll bbq meat of some kind on Sunday (sausages or burgers) and then have the unused meat over the week. I find that handier and easier to do than making something new every night tbh.

I'm with you on how making yourself eat at certain regular times is hard to do. I'm really accustomed to skipping breakfast but eating even a little bit when I get it, there's a huge difference in my energy + alertness for the rest of the day, plus it's better for your metabolism and digestion, blood sugar levels, etc. When your blood sugar is more constant and not bouncing all over, that helps a lot with controlling cravings.

Anyway, some sites I really like (finally)

-Oh She Glows, and also her smoothie blog. She does vegan, quick/low-cost stuff.

-Feed Me Rachel, so goes all-out with vegan, non-grain, paleo, raw, gluten-free, AIP recipes, but she doesn't post very often unfortunately

-The Simple Veganista is good for really simple recipes, and I like her granola and smoothie recipes

-Add a Little has a good list of other recipe blogs too

I like the foodie blogosphere a lot, but it's really really full of het women who... quit their careers to become wives/moms, and that bothers me, but at least they're able to make a small business out of it I guess.

[sexyassistant]

ooh i'm adding all these to my rss reader

the ones i have are..

http://www.inspiralized.com
serious eats

i'm subscribed to the kitchn but i end up just marking a lot of stuff they post as read without really looking at it

yeahh i noticed that too. i used to read the pioneer woman's blog since she had some good recipes + awesome food photos but it was all a little too.. eh. i guess i can't really blame them since i'd probably do the same thing given the chance

here's some make ahead stuff:
http://vegangela.com/tag/make-ahead/
http://www.gourmetveggiemama.com/2013/12/04/stocking-the-vegetarian-freezer/
http://onceamonthmeals.com
http://happymoneysaver.com/making-50-freezer-meals-in-one-day/

[sexyassistant]

oh god this is me on my emil account lol

[thatsongperson]

ahaha, it's okay |D that's happened to me lots of times back in the days of LJRP

I really like Serious Eats too, I first found them through their ramen hacks posts but they're a really great place for food info as well as recipes

the thing I actually found food blogs help most with is giving you ideas for stuff. unless I'm baking or there's something I'm really new to, I kinda just get the idea and either futz with it or do what I want (especially with seasoning and spices). it's easy to fall back on "oh, I know how to throw things together", but when it comes to sitting down and making something you get blocked, and that's when browsing blogs can help: just to spark up an idea

there's so much about living that doesn't get taught in schools and some of it you're expected to just learn (because of your gender, race, age, etc) and some is just supposed to be "common knowledge" that you're somehow just to know it automatically

and idk, I like talking about all it and sharing it with friends to help out, because if there's some way to make being an adult any easier, well, I'd rather share it

[superuser]

yeah, i think being able to whip things up just comes with experience/confidence. i got it for a few things after a while (ie, i just kind of figured out how to make mashed potatos and hash browns on my own, but those are pretty hard to mess up). i like cooking and i'm interested in it, but my problem is that when i'm hungry i lose all patience/willpower to do anything but the absolute easiest thing. and naturally i rarely even think about cooking until i'm hungry, unless i immerse myself in it and think of it as an interest/hobby.

yeah, same! being an adult sucks and i'm always happy to help people with shit like that since i have more experience than most of the people i know. (i had to explain to someone recently that you usually need a job before someone will rent an apartment to you.........)

the other thing that's kind of depressing about cooking is just putting that much effort into something for just yourself. i feel like it'd be easier to get excited about cooking for other people.

[thatsongperson]

YEAH, it's definitely easier for me to go all-out with baking or cooking something if I know other people will be eating it. You don't have to worry about halving or cutting down on the recipe to make smaller portions (which is why I also always stick with semi-instant stuff when I cook for myself). Plus it's fun to be with other people and share food. I think that's something sourly missing in a lot of North American food culture, outside of like, specific nuclear family gendered situations. Cooking becomes a fun, social endeavour when you have others to share it with and even help you out, versus something you (perhaps even begrudgingly) need to do as sustenance to stay alive.

I still really wish you me and Kaiya could all be roomies sometimes... :[ I think it'd be fun.

[superuser]

yeah, same :[ everyone's so far apart, sigh