My weight loss tips

I'm so excited! I've finally lost 50 pounds. That's almost a small person. I've been through a few wardrobe makeovers (thank you, Goodwill), gone down a shoe size, and significantly changed my appearance. People are starting to notice. I feel like everyone is hoping or trying to do better, but we all know that eating in our culture isn't easy. So I've compiled a few tips which I've gathered over my journey.

1. Only Eat Food that Rots. I believe that this one is from Michael Pollan, and he really encourages people to eat REAL food, minimally processed, natural, nonchemical, normal food.  Not a bad idea.

2. Eat 5 fruits and vegetables a day.  Hard to believe, but I'm a mostly-vegetarian, and I initially had trouble with this one.  It wasn't until I started keeping track that I noticed my omissions.

3. Move, then move more.  I don't think I would have been so successful had I not started exercising.  Check out Couch to 5k.  It's a great start-running plan, which I truly believe that anyone can do.

4. Keep at it.  All of us go-getters like to beat ourselves up when we "fail."  I went out to dinner last night.  I had 2 mojitos, ample olive oil & bread, delicious snapper, and a few bite of dessert.  That would ruin my diet, if I was on one.  But that's life, and I'll eat healthy today.  I'm allowed some splurging, homemade ice cream and sloppy nachos on occassion.  With that in mind, I've lost, on average, 0.6 lbs per week, which I'm statistically more likely to keep off than had I dieted.

Amazing afternoon with a new-ish friend

Ellen is my hero!  What a strong woman...  She's about my mom's age, used to race bikes, is now one of the smartest people working at our hospital, and I could hang out with her all day!

So her most recent crazy story... She was out for a bike ride, somewhere in the middle of the forest, out to get away from the rest of the world, slow down the pace, and commune with nature, when she heard some ATV's speeding her way.  She pulled over to the side of the path and waved her arms, yelling for them to slow down.  Two guys pulled over, one in a four-wheeler and another in a dirt bike.  She never heard the third rider, as the engines were so loud.  She pulled back into the path to pedal on, and a four-wheeler slammed straight into her at about 50 miles an hour.  She was knocked unconscious, flew over him, somehow tucked and rolled, while out cold, and landed head first.  Her shoe was ripped off her, as it stayed in the bike clip.  All of the muscles in her left leg were stretched and should have broken.  And thank God she was wearing a helmet, as she didn't die, merely sustained a traumatic brain injury.

In a nutshell, the guys took off, but some nice hikers called 911 and waited with her while the ambulance personnel wandered the woods looking for them.  She went home and spent 4 days sleeping, only waking a few times to have some sips of water and sit in a mental fog staring at her busted bike shoe.  She's starting to recover, but it'll be a long journey and she's not herself yet.

So I got out of work earlier than expected and went over to hang out for a bit.  We sat by the fireplace, drank tea, and ate fresh gingerbread with lemon curd.  Despite the fact that she's highly distractible, and can't multitask yet, she's thinking incredibly clearly.  Being a numbers person by nature, she's alread looked up what model of ATV hit her, looked at how fast it could go, calculated the force with which it hit her and proved to herself, using physics, just how he hit her based on how far she was thrown.  (Amazing, for someone who can't think straight!)  If she had dismounted from her bike, she would have fallen to the ground and died, instead of flying over him.  If she had not been wearing a helmet, she would have died.  If she had not been so athletic, she could have torn most of the muscles/tendons in her left leg, instead of just stretching them to inhuman proportions.  If she had not lived a healthy lifestyle, eaten calcium, and performed plenty of weight-bearing exercise, her bones would have shattered from the impact.  The ifs are overwhelming.

In general, I'm inspired by her.  She's healthy and fit, and her lifestyle, and a little luck, saved her life.  She's still recovering, but she's doing it with such grace... What a story!  I had to share.

Ride safely.

For the love of pressure cookers...

     Completely random, I know, but I'm just starting this blog, and I'm still trying decide what to write about and how to write it.  And I realized that Pressure Cookers are highly under appreciated.
     Growing up using a crock pot, I've always liked the idea of putting the meal together in the morning, leaving the pot plugged in for the day, and coming home to a ready cooked meal.  But I'm just not that organized, and my firefighter boyfriend isn't too keen on leaving anything hot plugged in all day.  So, I've rediscovered the pressure cooker.  I can cook dried beans in 30ish minutes- without even soaking them!  Turnips, beets, hosts of hard vegetables... they all take no time at all!
    When I was living in Costa Rica, my host mom cooked rice and beans every night.  In contrast to the cooks I met in Haiti, Guatemala, and Honduras, she spent NO time slaving over the stove.  She's a single mom, works cleaning houses all day, and needs to throw together dinner when she gets home.  The black beans (enough for dinner and tomorrow's breakfast and lunch) go in the pressure cooker for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile she puts the rice in the rice cooker for 30 minutes.  As they're both cooking independently, she cuts up vegetables to steam, makes fresh juice (pineapple, tamarind, you name it), and gets the table set.  Her efficiency inspired me.
   Gary was good enough to get me a pressure cooker last Christmas.  For as much cooking as I do do, it's underused, but not under-appreciated.  I cooked a casserole with bulgur wheat one time and added steamed vegetables.  I've cooked many many random soups.   It's fun to experiment, and I'm thrilled that it makes healthy eating easier.  I can actually cook a meal in the time that it would take us to choose a restaurant, drive there, sit down, order, and wait for the food to arrive.
     Part of my goal for eating healthy involves cooking more.  Going through college (dorm food), medical school (whatever-I-could-grab food), and residency (more-of-the-same-grabbed food), I've finally gotten to a point in my life where I've realized that I need to know where my food comes from.  I need to pay attention.  And learning to cook is part of that.  And yes, Gary, someday I'll learn to cook.  :-)

Anyway, for anyone interested in learning more about pressure cookers, here's a really helpful site.
pressure cooker website

A National Eating Disorder

   Having finally started reading Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma, I'm fascinated by his analogies.  His introduction talks about our "national eating disorder."  People just don't know what to eat.  The government feels the need to make food pyramids, because we lack a culture of food to tell is what food is good.  It's a bit humorous if you think about it.  He brings up the French paradox, where American's are confused by the French diet of high fat foods and small waistlines, and he suggests an American paradox instead.  We eat low fat and low carb and empty non-nutritive calories without any regard to portion or quality.  (I say this after I made Rice Krispie treats for Easter yesterday... there's nothing natural in there except the butter.)

   This leads me to reflect on our society's eating and health.  We have all of these diseases, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, all of which I believe are as much disorders of malnutrition, or misnutrition as those you find in developing countries.  In fact, they're starting to see an increase in diabetes in those countries too, as people start munching on chips, white-flour white sugar cookies and other Western garbage.

   Personally, what I've learned is that in order to lose weight and be full/satisfied, I need to eat real food.  The first advice I give patients who want to lose weight is to eat 5 fruits and vegetables a day.  I am amazed how many people eat only one or two!  Noone knows what they're eating, where their food comes from, or what they should eat.  Our society really needs to work on that.

South Beach, Miami- Mini-vacation

I could do it. I could bleach my hair, eat salads all day, buy a pair of high-maintenance-girl sunglasses that would cover half my face, and move down here to join the South Beach crowd of gorgeous waify blondes.... But then what would I do with my time? Talk about who wore what to what party? Spend all day sunbathing and shopping with my rich man-of-the-month's credit card?

I might be able to pull it off, and it might be more fun than 30-hour hospital shifts, but I think I'd get bored. I think I'd rather go running and get all sweaty and gross. Riding on a fire truck after a parade, or commuting in the back of a pick-up truck in a third-world country sounds like much more fun. So, I'm a little different. While finishing my residency in family medicine, I've started running, eating better, living better, and trying to be a better person, while meanwhile trying to set up a program where I can improve access to health care in Haiti.

And this is my first attempt at a blog... let me get started a little, then let me know what you think.