earth foods update: post-challenge

I made it. (Mostly.) 28 days eating only foods from the earth.

In the last week or so, I was more lax about mayonnaise, and little things like that. I had two cans of Fresca. And on the 28th night I had a piece of crab rangoon.

I went most of the time without having any bread, before finding a loaf of Pepperidge Farm that satisfied my time. I still haven't had any sort of pasta in over a month. For the Super Bowl, we ordered deep dish pizza from Edwardo's. It was good. But one thing that's surprising, despite how many "foods" became off limits, is that it wasn't that hard to start, and it wasn't that shocking to eat pizza again.

Perhaps, because it was only 28 days, and I knew when it was ending that it wasn't as big of a deal as I expected.

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One side effect that I expected, but wasn't the reason I started, was weight loss. It's true I did lose weight. But not at rates that I would have guessed.

The first week I lost 4.5 pounds.
The second week I lost 2 pounds.
The third week I lost 1 pound.
The fourth week I gained 1 pound.

All told, I lost 6.5 pounds in four weeks. But really it was in the first two weeks, and again really just the first week.

The explanation for the fourth week, is that I really didn't care about portions or limiting calories. I ended up going kind of nuts for roasted plantain chips and sweet/spicy sesame nuts.

The explanation for the first week, is I think mostly my body was burning calories at a high rate from the holiday-eatfest, so it was ready to shed pounds. Plus, I was eating more fruit and less nuts that week, and watching portions more closely.

So losing weight isn't as simple as just eating foods from the earth. You can't forget everything else you know about nutrition. But it is an interesting way to kick start. It could be the motivation you need for cutting out your specific vice whether it's cookies or chips or cheese.

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So what does this mean moving forward?

Well even before I started I knew I wasn't going to quit eating burgers/sandwiches. Or say that I'll never eat another pizza or even candy.

But I have discovered some new foods and plan on making some lasting changes.

• I've converted from eating a processed protein bar to eating natural oatmeal for breakfast, for the same amount of calories.
• I think that I'll continue to use romaine leaves in place of bread when I can.
• I like buying fresh burgers and fresh chicken drumsticks
• Hummus on chicken and burgers, as well as oven fries should be regular items
• And I discovered that making my own squash soup is fantastic, especially paired with some roasted chicken.
  
• And in the snack department, why not reach for dried mango and plantain chips?
  

earth foods update: day 16

I love squash soup.

That's something I didn't learn until a week ago. I made my own using a can of organic puree (added 2 cups of chicken broth, seasoned with cinnamon and cumin and a touch of heavy cream at the end). SO GOOD. Who knew? I paired with some of the chunks from the chicken I roasted earlier in the day, even dunking the chicken in the soup. I wish that I had discovered this before the holidays, as it would be a perfect (and easy to make) addition to a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.

The picture got blurry because I turned the flash off, so I could capture the color.

And last night I ate something that wasn't from the earth for the first time in over two weeks. I had a Fresca. It was after the Saints won and I figured there's no calories, there's just a little bit of Aspartame. Whatever.

So I've been weighing myself once a week through this. The first week I lost 4.5 pounds. Last week I lost 2 pounds.

For the first week, I think it was a combination of how much I was eating prior to this, so my body was used to burning a high number of calories. Plus, there probably was an initial shock of a lack of carbs/sugar/unnatural ingredients.

I guess I'm almost more surprised that I continued losing weight eating ribs and homemade fries, and burgers and nuts and juices. All of those things are natural, yet aren't low-calories.

I think this is probably the easiest "diet" to lose weight. You get to eat foods you like, and I never had to say "I'm out of calories for the day, I can't eat anymore." If I'm hungry at night, I have some nuts or dried fruit or juice. Of course, you do end up eating less just because there aren't that many options. Once pop-tarts and peanut butter and bread are off limits, you just close the cupboard and say, alright that's enough food for now, I don't know what else to eat.

earth foods update: day 14

Halfway there. And I am discovering new foods.

Last time I forget to mention that for the first time in my life I tried squash soup. Now it's not that exotic, but there's just never been a point where I was going to order squash soup or make it myself. So I made it to 26 before trying a spoonful of some from the Whole Foods hot bar on Monday. It was delicious. But perhaps that's just the WF recipe. I bought some squash puree and chicken broth to make my own, so we'll see.

Another new food that I discovered last year in Florence was the red pepper. I suppose I had tasted red pepper before, but I ordered a steak that was served topped with grilled red peppers. I loved them. I wondered why green peppers are so prevalent, as pizza toppings, as fajita ingredients, when red peppers blow them away.

On a related note, my favorite hummus available in America is Sabra. What makes them visually different is they have a bit of oil and toppings on top (nuts or peppers, etc.) But the reason it's so good is the creamy, smooth texture. It just tastes really good. Of course my favorite is the roasted red pepper hummus. So last night I made a fresh grilled burger, put it on a plate, and spread a thick layer of RRP hummus. SO GOOD. You don't need anything else. No bread, no toppings or sauces. Wow.

Also, I can't get enough Dried Mango. I get some from Trader Joe's that come in slices that haven't been sweetened or preserved at all. Just dried. That with their mango smoothie, and orange mango peach juice, and I'm all in on mango. I read it's the world's most popular fruit, North America needs to get a clue!

Today I just roasted a whole chicken, since it was on sale for 88 cents a pound. There's nothing like roasting your own bird. SO GOOD. I would have taken pictures but it looked just like last time.

The other exciting development is...wait for it...oatmeal. Specifically Steel Cut Oats from Trader Joe's. I add just a bit of organic brown sugar and it's a nice, filling breakfast. It's a whole more natural than the high protein cereal bars I used to eat. Plus, a bowl is 13 cents compared to 79 cents per bar. That saves 66 cents a day, or 240 dollars after one year! Minus maybe 6 dollars, for the 3 bags of brown sugar that it uses a year.

earth foods update: day 11

So far, so good. I'm a creature of habit. So I've stuck with the romaine wraps for lunch, lately with organic ham slices. I made hash browns for breakfast last week, and they were good, but it didn't seem to fill me up any better than just having some juice and nuts.

For dinner it's been mostly organic burgers on romaine and oven fries. I did make the ribs on Saturday, and I've had a few chicken & rice dishes.

I've had two meals out: lunch on Monday at the Whole Foods hot bar--I had this amazing beef pepper steak, roasted potatoes and vesuvio chicken wings. So good. It weighed 1.27 pounds, so at 7.99 per pound, it rang up to 10 bucks. I think the container must have weighed a few ounces so that's a ripoff.

And then last night on the way to my writing workshop I had a Chipotle fajita bowl: rice, peppers and onions, barbacoa, salsa and lettuce. No tortilla, no cheese, no sour cream. And I didn't miss it. I mean I sort of did, but the bowl was still delicious.

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It hasn't changed my mental processes yet. Driving home from the workshop at 9:30 last night, I passed a Taco Bell and saw their sign for a beefy 5-layer burrito for 89 cents. If I hadn't been doing this I would have immediately pulled in. So the challenge is a good way to eat healthier, even if my brain is still swayed by processed T-Bell.

earth foods update: day 4

Four days in. I've tried describing what I'm doing to a few people, and "foods from the earth" is apparently a difficult concept to wrap your head around. I guess the best way to describe it is, "no man-made foods." Of course, since I'm not on a farm, everything that gets to me has been touched by man in some way, either via harvesting, or in the case of animals, killing the animal and cleaning the meat for packaging, etc.

Anyways I wanted to show you what I had for dinner last night:


It is sort of amazing to think that all this can be found on the earth naturally. On the left, a leaf of romaine, organic fresh ground beef burger, topped with sauteed onions and assorted bell peppers. On the right, just cut up potatoes tossed in natural olive oil and baked. Delicious.

So far it's been easy and enjoyable. I'm sort of assuming this will get harder by the end of it.

earth foods update: day 2

Day 1 was pretty easy: it was a Sunday and I was home.

Around 10:30 I made eggs with bell peppers and a chipotle pepper sauce.
For dinner I had chicken fajitas: grilled chicken breasts, all natural corn tortillas and all natural salsa. (I really don't like corn tortillas, and love flour ones, but what can you do?)
In between I probably snacked on nuts or dried fruit or something but I can't remember.

Eating dinner at home is easy. The hard parts are breakfast and eating at work. I didn't feel like making eggs this morning and I don't like oatmeal. So I had some Naked juice and then packed some clementines, apple, dried mango, peanuts, and some organic sliced roast beef rolled in a romaine leaf. That list is my breakfast and lunch and has to last me to 6pm.

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Last night I walked through the grocery store, and it was amazing to see how many aisles were filled with things that have been processed to some degree. Once you leave the produce/meat section, there's corn tortillas, rice and that's about it. Walking down the soda aisle was eye-opening, seeing the gallons and gallons of sugar-syrup water. I'm used to drinking about a 12-pack of diet soda a week, so we'll see how that goes by weeks 3 and 4.

earth foods update: pre-challenge

So I went to the store and looked at the bread options. Even the most organic, whole-grain sliced bread is undeniably man-made and not from the earth. This doesn't mean I'm swearing off bread for forever, but for the 4-week challenge: it's off the list. So that really is going to be the hardest challenge, what to eat for lunch without bringing bread to work.

And to answer Niraj's question from the comments...I was referring specifically to Tyson breaded nuggets/patties/dinosaur shapes in the frozen section. Grinding and forming the meat into shapes, even circles is not respectful, and the artificial breading is off the charts.

As for a homemade version, chicken breasts are fine, cage-free eggs would be fine, but the bread crumbs would be a problem. I suppose maybe you could use cornmeal under these rules, but I'm not worried about it. I like grilled chicken and peppers or whatever without needing a breading.

And I'm thinking about doing some eggs for breakfast and I like hot sauce on my eggs. While of course, bottled hot sauce doesn't come from the earth, since it's basically cayenne peppers, I'm thinking a few drops isn't breaking the rules.

(I do read and appreciate any and all comments, so don't be shy.)

foods from the earth

This post is going to be about as contrary to the previous post as possible.

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The problem with words is that we have all these associations with them. So if I want to describe what's going on with me, and I know that religious is not the right word at all, then I'm left with words like spiritual awakening or enlightened or something like that. And by now, just saying one of the phrases conjures up mental imagery that isn't what I want to convey. The best phrase that I've found is the title of a book that I'm reading right now: Wisdom Walk. So that's what I've tagged this post as, and there might be more of these in the future.

I'd rather keep my actual "creator/afterlife" belief system personal, as it's not anything needs to be shared. But what I can share is some of the tangible changes and action items that I'm taking as part of this wisdom walk. (As a background, I'm currently being positively influenced by Native American/Eastern wisdom/beliefs, and meditation is a key part of both of those systems).

The first idea is based on the idea that we get energy from nature, specifically from walking the earth. It wasn't until it was pointed out to me, that I wake indoors, then walk on cement, to ride a steel train, to walk on more cement to work in a concrete building and then repeat the process home. In my everyday life, my feet never touch the earth.

And even when I do, it's in rubber-soled shoes. So one of my favorite new things are these moccasins with the soft, all-leather exterior. It's just about impossible to find moccasins without outer soles, so these were a nice find. Of course, right now in 20 degree, snowy Chicago, I'm not exactly ready to walk the earth just yet.

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So the other action item is: eating foods that come from the earth. Another thing I didn't realize is how much food I eat is man-made, processed, and something people on a historical timeline aren't used to eating.

Side note: one thing that clicked for me was that eating meat is okay. Inspired by indigenous people, they ate the meat of animals, but did so in a respectful way. They always acknowledged the sacrifice of the animal's life that enabled them to survive. In short, being respectful and eating a chicken breast is okay, breaded chicken nuggets not okay.

So what does come from the earth? And what do I like, of that limited set?

Plants and animals. Plants including vegetables, fruits, and nuts. The less processing the better.

The most reasonable thing to do would be to incorporate these foods into my diet as best as I can. But that's not interesting. So I'm going to jump in with a 4-week challenge starting January 10 (which ends on Super Bowl Sunday) to eat nothing but foods from the earth. So I really need to make a list and draw the lines.

When it comes to grains, corn tortillas are fine. Pasta is too man-made. But what about bread? This straddles the line. Yes, it's from flour, which is made from earthly grains, but is it too far removed from the natural state? I think I'll have to look at the ingredients and judge it on a case by case basis.

As for sauces, olive oil is fine. Which means that I could make my own mayo, since eggs are fine too. I can use honey. And when it comes to mustard or anything else, it's just a matter of checking the label to gauge the level of processing.

Most minimally processed meats should be okay--sausage would be off limits.

Starting in January 07, I've started every day with a high protein bar for breakfast. Completely processed. I think I'll switch to nuts, cashews, peanuts, etc.

Of course the best things would be straight up plants: lettuce, peppers, apples, clementines, potatoes, sweet potatoes. And I'm sure that I'll discover new things in the next four weeks.

I'll check back and let you know how it's going.