Hello February, goodbye plastic

One month down, eleven to go.

I have long heard of the horrors of plastic bottles in the ocean, how BPA causes numerous health issues, and how bad bottling water is for the environment.  This month I plan on taking a bit deeper look into how bad plastic really is.

Along the way I have decided to not buy anything that contains plastic.  Goodbye plastic wrapped food, electronics, bottled juices, and plastic bags.  We have tried for a long time to really not use much plastic for shopping bags, but looking around the apartment, we haven't done much to limit the amount of plastic we buy.

This month I am going to really try to not buy anything plastic.  There is a lot of unnecessary waste going on in the world and plastics is a big problem.  At first I thought this would be nearly impossible, but there are a lot of people out there doing really well.  I know its going to be a challenge, but I like those.  I also like doing things a bit more different, so it will be fun along the way.

There will be some exceptions, for now anyway.  We have a lot of plastic containers that I plan on using to take my lunch to work.  We also have a full bottle of shampoo and conditioner that I fully plan on using, and doubt I will use up before the month is over.  It will be interesting when the toothpaste runs out though, as well as my deodorant.

This month I plan to do a better job at blogging more about the harmful effects of plastics on the body, environment, and the wallet.  If any of you have any other information regarding products that don't use plastic, or is an alternative to products that require plastic, I would love to hear about it.

I hope this month goes as well as the last.

The cost of eating healthier

Spring cleaning comes early in the Shelton home this year.  After everything Nicki and I have learned over the past month, we have cleaned out the fridge and the cupboards.  No more food with high fructose corn syrup, preservatives (mostly, I'll get to that in a bit), pastas and flour that aren't whole wheat, all things with aspartame.  We did leave behind our canned fruits and vegetables that didn't have anything but salt/water.  They aren't organic, but once we use them up we will continue to buy all organic when we can.

I know some of you are probably asking if it was worth it.  Undoubtedly, yes.

I started the month weighing in at a slightly sexy 187.5 lbs. and now I'm a slightly sexier 172 lbs.  

Last May we spent 208 dollars on groceries and 552 dollars eating out at restaurants.

This month we spent 599 dollars on food and 101 dollars eating out at restaurants.

I know it seems like a lot of money on groceries, but for us it was cheaper.  We spent $760 on food in may, and $700 on food this past month.  A lot of that money was spent the first week buying the necessary ingredients to cook out meals.  We had to restock olive/canola oils, new pasta, and new canned veggie/fruits.  During one week we spent less than 100 bucks on food. 

I may keep track next month on how much we spend on food and restaurants to have more of a realistic tally of a typical month.

A lot of people ask me if I feel any better.  Truthfully, no.  I never really felt bad though.  Maybe if I had some chronic issue, or got sick more often, it would be a different story.

I also get asked if I got any cravings.  Kind of, but not really.  I really wanted pickles the first week, but I got over that.  I used to leave work and smell the sweet sweet smells of Mi Mexico, but I don't really notice it now.  Before this month I couldn't make myself to not eat out for lunch, now I don't really think about it at all.  After the first 2 weeks I found some apple, pomegranate, and mango juices at the local grocery store, that helped a ton.

All in all, I don't plan to change too much in the upcoming months.  I will slack a bit here and there with the more strict rules like only eating sea salt and not going out to eat, but plan on continuing to have one week where I only eat organic just to make sure I keep on the healthy eating path.  

I probably wont quit blogging about new food information I find, or other recipes, but I will focus more on next months resolution.  Occasionally I will update new recipes that we find delicious. 

So you have seen what can happen when you change the way you eat.  Why not try it for a week and see how you do?

just over a week to go.

This month has gone pretty fast.  I'm still learning quite a bit about food...good and bad.  I'm realizing people really don't know much about food.  Not just people like me, but people that should know a lot about food...like dietitians and nurses.  I have realized that people do really care about what they eat, but just don't really think about thinking about food.

Looking back I was that guy.  I wanted to eat healthy but really didn't know how.  It'a really hard to know what's good for you.  Labels saying "all natural" typically have preservatives.  "Natural flavorings" may mean some chemical compound tastes like chicken.  And stores sell "healthy fruit juice" for toddlers that really contain no real juice.  It's crazy what companies can get away with to trick consumers.

From what I have learned, I fully plan on keeping up with my eating ways...mostly.  It's really not that hard to buy organic, or eat locally, or not eat processed foods.  I'm still up in the air about meat.  My buddy just sent me a link (http://www.nonviolenceunited.org/veganvideo.html) and it makes complete sense to me.  It basically points out that being vegan is very beneficial to the planet, and the people.  I am definitely going to stay mostly vegetarian, but I don't see myself fully giving up meat completely.

From a basic health standpoint I think "vegetarian" options for food can be bad for you also.  Most meat substitutes have some nasty stuff in them.  Boca burgers, imitation meat, ect can be packed with preservatives and a lot of sodium.  I think the general public sees a vegetarian diet as being very healthy.  I definitely think it can be, but it also has some very unhealthy options.

I will avoid factory farmed animals, but I think I'm ok with sustainable grass fed animals. I will mostly just eat fish (sushi is too damned good) but if I ever come across some organic farm with some fantastic meal that has some kind of animal meat in it, I'll give it a go.  I will also eat out every once in a while...its a nice treat (I do miss trying out new restaurants with my wife), but really hard to follow a strict eating diet when you eat out.

I guess it boils down to the more you know, the better decisions you can make.  The hard thing is if you really care about what your eating, you have to do the work.  Each company has a marketing team to make things seem more healthy than they really are.  There is also a lot of great information out there on how to eat healthy that you wont find if you don't look.  I have not once seen anything on cable tv about how to eat healthy, other than when trying to sell a product, or making vague statements like "eat more fruit and vegetables".

So far eating healthy this month has been pretty good to me.  I'm still too lazy to work out, but now have lost 12 pounds in three weeks.  Unfortunately my bald spot isn't filling in, so I guess changing your diet does have some limitations.

Recipes

I thought I would share a couple of our favorite recipes of the past two weeks.  My favorite thus far is definitely the rustic pasta.  I think I could eat this nightly.  Anyway, I hope some of you try it.  If you do, leave a comment let me know what you think.

If any of you have any other good recipes, leave a comment and share.

Rustic Pasta

Serves 4 to 6

-1/4 pound pasta (Nicki and I used whole wheat fettucini)
-2 tbps olive oil
-2 large onions thinly sliced
-2 garlic cloves finely chopped
-2 celery stalks diced
-1/4 cup shoyu (type of soy sauce)
-1/2 tsp fine sea salt
-1/2 tsp garlic powder
-1 head of cabbage thinly sliced
(we used half of a cabbage because I don't like cabbage...turns out cabbage is really good with this recipe.  If you don't like cabbage, I'd still say you should try it and use a half a head of cabbage)
-5-6 tbps marinara sauce

Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the pasta. Salt the water and add the pasta; cook just until al dente. Drain the pasta
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add the onions and cook for 7 minutes until softened, then add the garlic and saute for 3 minutes longer, until the onions are transparent and turning golden.
Add the celery to the skillet and saute for 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the shoyu, salt, and garlic powder, then add the cabbage; saute for 4 minutes. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes longer.
Add the pasta to the skillet with the marinara sauce and toss together. Cook over medium-high heat for a minute or two and serve.


Pecan Crusted Seitan


Note:  I wasn't sure if Seitan would fit into my diet, so we used 2 mahi mahi filets instead. It was fantastic.  Maybe the best fish we've ever made.  I have never had seitan, so I can't really comment on how it tastes.

Marinade3/4 c. tomato paste
1/4 c. umeboshi vinegar (we used ume plum vinegar since we couldn't find the original)
1/4 c. dry red wine (we left this out because we had no organic wine)
1/2 c. freshly squeezed orange juice
1/4 c. shoyu
1/4 c. chopped fresh parsley
2 tbsp. minced fresh tarragon or 1 tbsp. dried tarragon
2 tbsps. minced fresh rosemary (we had no rosemary so substituted oregano)

Combine all the ingredients for the marinade into a blender and blend until smooth.  Transfer the marinade to a shallow dish and add 8-10 pieces of seitan.  Turn to coat on all sides.  Cover and marinate in the refrigerator overnight or at least 3 hours.

When finished marinating, mix together 2 cups of flour, 1/2 tsp sea salt, 1/2 tsp. pepper, 1 cup ground pecans (I ground mind in a mortor and pestle.  A food processor would probably work well too.), and 2 tbsps. finely chopped rosemary in a shallow bowl.  Dredge the seitan in this mixture.

Heat 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil in a pan,  and add the seitan to the pan.  Saute until golden brown on both sides, 2 to 3 minutes per side. 



Another note: I royal suck and breading food and making it stay on.  Anyone have any good ideas.  most of the breading came off the fish when I flipped it.  After I cooked it, I just put it on top of the fish...still really good.




Happy eating kids.

Shocker: Big corporations really just want to make money.

I really don't know where to start.  I have been doing a ton of "research" through the internet and other documentaries.  We even took a eating healthy class at the local co-op, which wasn't very helpful by the way.  The more I read, the more I realize I have been putting a lot of junk in my body.

The more I learn, the more irritated I get at commercials/marketing.  I saw a commercial a while ago with a small happy/healthy family that basically said that new research has shown that real sugar is no different than high fructose corn syrup.  What the hell?  From what I have looked up it has no real nutritional qualities. It's basically a drug.  Your body uses the refined sugar super fast, giving the body a nice little high, then crashes and causes you to want more.  The more you eat of it, the more you want of it, and it actually makes you feel like you need to eat more of it to feel full.

I'm also starting to get really annoyed with the fine line between big corporations and government.  One documentary I was watching talked about how the huge Monsanto corporation (who pretty much owns patents on most genetically modified corn/grains) are making corn seeds that have terminator genes.  So if you are a farmer and plant this particular seed, once the corn is harvested you can't use any remaining seeds for future crops.  Pretty much making a damn monopoly.  Thats all fine and dandy if the big farming companies can afford it, but lets assume this seed gets sold to smaller/third world countries.  These people rely on being able to save their seeds in order to plant future crops.  They can't afford to buy new seeds each year.  If just one seed gets into their land and crosses with the existing crops, that gene could eventually cause those farmers to lose future crops.  Some may say bullshit, but its already happening.  Monsanto has sued many small farmers whose crops had cross pollinated with neighboring crops.  These farmers didn't even want (or plant) monsanto's seeds, but because nature did its thing, these farmers were sued for patent infringement.

It would make sense to the commoner that these small farmers would have a pretty good case.  Turns out the big wigs of Monsanto continually have their big wigs elected to positions at the FDA, Dept. of Agriculture, and top white house aide positions.  It just doesn't seem right.  It's amazing to think about all the technology and money pumped into the food industry.  All this technology is allowing greater crop yields, at the price of costly fertilizers and less nutritious foods.  And to top it off, (I would assume not all) farmers don't make enough money to cover all costs without government subsidies.  So the government is spending billions of dollars to help keep this unsustainable cycle going.  From 1995-2009 the government has spent $246.7 billion in subsidies to farmers.  But I'm sure the big corporations have nothing to do with this.

If you are interested in the crazy shenanigans of big corporations and manipulating the public, check out "Food Matters".  It makes spending the extra few bucks on organic food a little more tolerable.

Another side note: the federal gov't has taken over the process of being certified organic.  They have made it much more expensive and now some smaller local farmers can't afford the certification, yet they do everything necessary to actually grow their produce organically.  I'm sure this isn't a coincidence either.

Sorry for the soap box.  I'm really starting to care about the way things operate now, and my hope is that some of you think twice the next time you reach for a box of food at the grocery store.  Is it really healthy?  Is it really promoting sustainable farming?  Or is this box just some big marketing scheme to trick you into buying something thats harming you/your childs body, putting your local farmers out of business, or destroying farm land?

1 week and 8 pounds later...

I know you have seen/heard it.  There are hundreds of ads and commercials that state you can lose up to 10 pounds in a week, or month.  They really used to irritate me.  Mostly because it seemed that the rest of the medical community says losing 2 pounds a week is the "healthy" way to lose weight.  Although, I don't disagree that super fast weight loss may not be healthy, its probably not a good way to sustain a healthy weight.  

And then I lost 8 pounds this week.  I weighed in last sunday at 187.5 pounds, and now I'm sitting at 179.5.  If it was anyone else, I would probably call their bluff.  Last month I started doing P90X with a buddy from work.  I tried to eat better, mostly trying not to eat out as much and cut back on soda.  I had already gone mostly vegetarian since last Feburary, but I was eating tofurkey and other meat substitutes daily.  I did lose a bit of weight, maybe 4-5 pounds in that month.

Just to make things easier I'll give you a list of the things I did eat.

Any fruit or vegetable at the store that was organic

Whole wheat bread 

Whole wheat pasta

Whole wheat pizza crust

Ezekiel "tortilla" Shells

Raw milk cheese

Other organic canned sauce, beans, and veggies

Sea salt (table salt is refined and really bad for you)

Organic Beer (Bison IPA is really good)

Carrot juice, black tea, and water

Take a look kids.  Think about what you ate last week.  I pretty much ate the same dinners ( 2 nights of pizza, pasta, couscous with vegetables, burritos, and salads with roasted potato/veggies) that we normally do.  All we did was swap out ingredients.  I fully don't expect to lose 8 pounds a week, I really think this week was more of a detox than anything.  

And I don't want this month to be about losing weight either.  I never really felt like I was starving (sometimes at work I wanted a snack, but didn't have anything I could eat), I pretty much ate until I was full, and I didn't skip any meals.  I actually starting eating more for breakfast and snacked in between meals with chia seeds or fruit.  Some of the dinners (especially the couscous) made me feel full after less than a bowl full.  The "experts" would say I felt full because the foods we were eating held much more nutrients...I'd have to agree.

This week has me excited for next week.  I don't really have to be hungry, I can eat pretty much the same meals I ate before, I can wear shirts that were too tight to wear before (super pumped to be wearing my Ray LaMontagne shirt again).  My wife hasn't started to jump my bones daily, but maybe after next week things will change.

Are any of you reading this doing a healthy resolution?  If so, give this a try for a week.  I really think it will work for you.  It takes slightly longer to get through the grocery store, but I think it's worth it in the end.  If you try it (and I hope you do), let me know how I works out for you.

January

It all started with the documentary "No impact man".  Did you know you can live for a full year with nearly no impact on the environment?  I didn't either.  I fully expected this guy to have to give up and wuss out.  Not only did this guy give up electricity (he figured out solar eventually), but he was able to do it with his wife and 2 year old daughter.  After watching his documentary I kind of felt like a shmuck for talking a big game without really doing anything about it.

This lead to an interest in other documentaries which lead me to another..."the beautiful truth".  Pretty much delved into the idea that food can help cure/prevent disease.  Pretty interesting stuff, but pretty extreme.  Regardless of the right vs. wrong, it really got me thinking about what we eat. 

I decided I wanted to see what it would be like if I ate the way people ate hundreds of years ago...no preservatives, no herbicides/pesticides, grown organically in a way to help sustain future crops.  So thats the deal for this month.   I'm not eating anything processed or non organic.  I'm finding out this isn't so black and white.  Pretty much if any foods have ingredients I can't pronounce, or wouldn't be considered food by our great great grandparents...I'm not eating it.  Goodbye Nerds (thanks for the 100 mini boxes you gave me mom, now I get to stare at them and remember how delicious they are), Goodbye Chipotle (although on a scale of not so good for you...you're not doing too bad), Goodbye foods pumped with unnecessary hormones and fertilizers (if you have to wear biohazard clothing to spray the crops we eat, why would/should we eat it?).

I'm looking forward to this month.  It's going to be tough.  I'm excited to see what good will come out of it.

And it starts...a couple of days ago

This past year has been a fun ride with moving, meeting new people, and learning how to be a bit more green.  My wife and I (mostly my wife) have learned new and interesting ways to live, clean, and eat without such a major impact on the environment.  This year I thought I would try to be a bit more extreme in speeding up my learning curve.

After watching a few documentaries about lessening our impact on the world and the crazy shit big corporations do to save a buck, make millions, and stick it to the lesser informed population, I felt it was time to do my small little part to get back to the way things used to be...just to see if it is the way things still could be.

For the last...well every new years resolution has pretty much been a major fail.  My resolution this year is to push myself do the things that I feel are the right things to do, the things that I used to think were too hard to do, or the ones I was just too lazy to try.  I want learn as much as I can about being as healthy as possible, I want to become a more informed consumer (I stole that from my friend Meghann), and I want to see how it impacts our family both financially and physically.  While I'm at it, I thought maybe blogging about it would get some new information out to other people, so that you can make a more informed decision about how you want to live your life.

Each month I am going to try to drastically change my behaviors and be very strict for a full month.  I figure if I do something new each month, I can learn more throughout a year, and I have less chance of giving up on another new years resolution.

I'm not sure how this whole blogging thing is going to go, I don't plan on this whole thing becoming very popular.  I hope to update my on-goings, try to inform others on new information I find through readings/documentaries, and maybe even help other people change their behaviors.  I'm sure I will keep up with some things for the long haul, and slack off on the others, but over all I think I will be a healthier and happier Shelton after this year is over.