Tis the season...

...for cinnamon, apples, and pumpkins oh my!

There's nothing that pleases me more in recent days than taking a stroll through our local fresh food markets and eyeing the seasonal goods. I have two little fresh food markets in the area that I go to when I'm a little looser with the budget and can afford to buy the best of the best. Today was just such a day.

And as it is nearing October, you can bet that the most prominent displays have everything to do with autumnal fruits and veggies and spices, which are, in my humble opinion, decadent.

Before I really started pursuing healthier living, apples were not a daily part of my nutritional makeup. Currently, I strive to not eat more than one apple a day. It is like pulling teeth to get me to stop eating apples. I could live on apples. YUM. And then there's the pretty little pomegranate which can be oh so mysterious when it comes to eating it, and the yummy pear, which is more a winter fruit, but is making appearances now too.

Don't even get me started on the spices. I will start to stroke out when I inhale mulling spices; cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cardamon, and the list goes on. It's just so darn delicious, all of it.

The hardest part about healthy eating and living is when you want to indulge in those seasonal delights like pumpkin creme dessert breads or spice cake with cream cheese apple dumpling frosting. It's just ridiculous the way that a pastry can render you dumbstruck.

I found myself in a difficult situation at the market today. I was really really REALLY struggling with my dietary limitations. I was lapping the store, only to come back each time to the fresh baked desserts, and maybe hoping each time I passed the carrot cake that my body would be able to have a slice this time around. No such luck. I chose my path, and I'm grateful. Because I am able...able...ABLE to say "no." But I'll admit it. Today it was harder than it ever has been. It was harder because this is the time of year I live for. It's the place I'm most comfortable and most in my bliss. It's autumn, and it's apples and allspice, baby. So, it was really hard to not be able to partake of those sugar laden lovelies.

But I digress. Because my point isn't what I'm missing out on. It's what I'm really indulging in. As I stood there salivating over all the things I knew I didn't really want, I started to consider my options. What could I have? What was it that I really wanted?

I wanted a taste of October. I needed a fix of fall.

So, I marched up to the coffee grinder and started grinding out "pumpkin spice" flavored coffee, and bagged it for home. I then proceeded to head to the cereal aisle and grabbed some "low sugar" apple walnut granola. I noticed some baked apple crisps as I headed towards the checkout so I grabbed those too. And to round it out, I bought some canned pumpkin so I can make that recipe of sugar free pumpkin pudding that's been sitting on my desk at home for a week. These are my options, and these are my fixes. And I'm not missing out on anything.

I guess I need to face up to the fact that I always have been and probably always will be dominated by concerns regarding my weight, and food and exercise, and etc. I thought this might change things...you know, having WLS, but in fact it's only intensified my awareness of food. But it's much more beneficial for me in that I finally grasp what I'm putting in my body, and how it affects my health. It's a good thing.

I don't want to live my life, lusting after the perversions of real, true, honest to goodness, whole healthy foods. Stuff that has more ingredients with words I can't pronounce. Like Xanthum gum. What IS that? I want to enjoy the fruits of October without feeling like I'm missing out, and that just means putting in a little extra effort and working a little harder. Kinda like our forefathers did when they made thanksgiving dinner. No boxes. No additives. No preservatives. Okay, except for the meat and pickles. :)

But really, it's going to be a great fall, and a beautiful winter. Because I'm in control of the harvest this time. I'm in control of the bounty. Tis the season, indeed.

*cough, cough.

I've been sick the past three or four days, and have thusly reverted back to the very bad habit of snacking.

Mike really loves his chocolate, and his snack foods, and I have been doing my best to keep them out of the house, but you can only deprive yourself of so much before you start to rebel. Mike was starting to rebel.

Yesterday, while I was holed up and illin', I don't think I had one real meal! It was a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and a whole lotta pretzel sticks. No good.

However, I try to remain positive and remind myself that it's all a learning experience. I saw old wicked habits in those hours of snacking, and it scared me straight. I'm back on schedule with my three meals and three snacks daily. Sticking on this kind of regime will help me meet me goals, and move past this mini-stall I'm experiencing.

Saturday, I worked out so hard that here it is on Tuesday and I'm still hurting! I need to learn to moderate, sister.

On the upside, It's fall time, and this means delicious fall recipes like hearty meat soups, and spices from the pumpkin patches. I'm hoping to try a new recipe each week for a few months to add more variety into my diet. It's become delightful fun to cook more and more varied menu items. I hope Mike is enjoying it, but somehow I don't think he loves it when I bust out the lentils.

Later on, I'll post a DELICIOUS recipe for Lentils and Rice that I've come to adore.

I love food.

Since having surgery, my relationship with food has changed in a lot of interesting ways. In the beginning, food was utilitarian. Because my pouch was so small and so sensitive, I ate what I had to eat in order to survive and had little interest in much else.

Then, I started trepidatiously experimenting with what I could eat rather than what I had to eat. I reintroduced many foods back into my diet that brought me pleasure and foods that were nutritious, but also tasteful.

Now, I am a foodaphile. Funny to me, since I eat a dramatically reduced amount, but I adore food. I LOVE finding new recipes. I have so much fun throwing together new dishes in the kitchen. It's like I finally realized that food was more than just something I did to satisfy an emotional itch or fill a void. Food is meant to be experienced. It's a pleasurable and fabulous world of tastes, smells, and sights.

I think the french have it down. From the preperation, to the inhalation to the taste and touch, they are sensualists who relish in their cuisine. Now, as a woman who finds herself shrinking and eating less and eating healthier, I am SO delighted to say that my cuisine is important to me, but in new and better ways.

I will always always love food. Now, I can say it's not an abusive relationship. We're well on our way to harmonious living.

Up late.

It's almost midnight which is so very late for me (when I'm not experiencing a bout with insomnia) and I'm reflecting over the delightfulness that is the contents of my fridge. It's so clean and healthy and yummy in that cold white box and it's come a long way in a short time.

Gone are the days of sugary sodas. Passe is the processed leftovers of yesteryear. Vanished are the high sodium and salt ridden soups that puckered my arteries.

We live high on the healthy hog now.

I love that our fridge always has fresh produce in it...tomatoes, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, chives, onions, apples, blueberries, watermelon. I adore that our pantry has exchanged refined carbohydrates for complex carbs and multigrain options like brown rice, barley, wheat pastas, 12 grain breads, oatmeal and wheat flour. I feel lighter now that we are snacking on no sugar gelatin, no sugar puddings, frozen juice pops, edamame and hummus and pita.

I check every label. I scan the ingredients. I don't let any artificial additive or sugar filled piece of crap get by my gate anymore.

And as a result, my headaches are fewer. My backaches are gone. I don't drag out of bed, I pop out of bed. I make it through to the end of the day, and then some with energy to spare.

I've decided that it's all true what they say about sugar and processed foods. I'd be lying if I said it was all roses and daisies, this process. But man...you ARE what you eat.

So I'm up late, and I'm not doing anything very special other than feeling mighty content and awfully grateful.

Babies. Guns. and Jesus.

So, one of my favorite photographic muses posted this today, and she is selling these:





All the money goes to support "the candidate that would wear this shirt" as she delicately puts it!

You will soon enough see me sportin' one of these babies in a picture post. Just a few more weeks and we'll all be "rockin' the vote!" See you at the polls!

Kiss me.

I really love garlic. I love it so darn much, that I'm just about out of my gourd excited about learning how to roast garlic. If you've never roasted garlic, then you have no idea about what it means to have pure joy coursing over your tongue. I finally learned how to roast garlic, and it is SO much better than the stuff you get pre-made or out of a jar.

May I share?!

How to Roast Garlic

1. preheat your oven to 400 degrees

2. peel away the outer layers of the garlic bulb skin, leaving the skins of the individual cloves intact. Using a knife, cut off 1/4 to 1/2 inch off the top of the cloves, exposing the individual cloves of garlic.

3. Place the garlic heads in a baking pan; muffin pans work well for this as well. Drizzle a couple teaspoons of olive oil over each head, using your fingers to ensure the head is well coated. Cover with foil.

4. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cloves are soft when pressed.

5. Allow the garlic to cool slightly, and using a small knife, cut the skin around each clove. Use a cocktail fork or your fingers to pull or squeeze the roasted garlic cloves out of their skin.

6. Spread on Italian bread, mix in mashed potatoes, stir into sour cream, add to a thick sauce, use in marinade! Basically, eat it all up!

Garlic has a lot of health benefits, and eating it raw is the best way to extract the benefits from garlic (IE: garlic sauce a la middle eastern food!) Be careful though, and never store raw garlic in oil at room temperature as it is a PRIME breeding ground for botulism. Who knew?

vampyrical.

Today, after eight months, i went and had my blood labs drawn for the first time after surgery.

I am sooooooooooo bad. So so so so so bad. And I know it! I should have gotten them done after six months, but nooooo, I procrastinated and waited EIGHT MONTHS!

Now, I have visions of severe malnourishment going on inside of me, or crazy mineral deficiencies that could have been taken care of eons ago.

Why am I broadcasting this for everyone to see? So I never do it again! I have rebuked myself sufficiently now. :)