Nutshell Version
I find taking photos of my food the most efficient and effective way of tracking what I'm eating. The impact of a photo of my plate is far greater than keeping a paper or online list somewhere. (You know what they say about how much pictures are worth...) And I know that making this food diary public builds in a certain level of accountability that does not exist if I'm the only one who sees the entries of my food journal. It's a lot easier to make squares of dark chocolate and kettle chips a regular part of your week when no one knows you're eating them!
If you want to read the excruciatingly long-winded version of how I came to the point of making a visual food (b)log, grab a caffeinated beverage and keep reading...
The Unabridged Account
About two years ago I read a life-changing book. (It's not the most life-changing book I've ever read; that would be this one. Please email me if you'd like to talk about that one!) The book I'm talking about that relates to this blog was written by Michael Pollan and is called In Defense of Food. I highly highly highly recommend it! Basically, Pollan opened my eyes to the reality of the North American food situation, and prompted me to question my definition of food, how I look at the purpose of eating, and what I should be doing differently to take care of my body.
Fast forward about a year later, and I had reached what I felt was a crossroads in my health. I needed to lose a significant amount of weight from a combination of genetic makeup, some poor dietary choices (especially while in university!), and side effects from a medication I was on for over a year. I had started a new workout regime with a friend of mine who showed up twice a week to go to the gym with me, help me stay motivated, and push me to work harder than I would have alone. I was in a pretty good groove, and had successfully followed through on my resolution (as in: commitment, not for New Year's!) to become more active, but I was not seeing the weight loss/body transformation results that I wanted. (I did however, and still do, enjoy many other important benefits from having a more active lifestyle).
Throughout that year, I made various (feeble) attempts to eat differently, but as any baker will tell you, it's tough to give up white flour and sugar! And I happen to be married to a foodie who is always up for a decadent meal on date night, or just some good old fried chicken after a long day at work, which does not help matters. So after a few months of battling to get the number on the scale to drop (mostly by pretty intense workouts, counting calories (a reduced number, of course), and logging what I ate), I lost about ten pounds and then gained a few of them back as my discipline waned and I stopped keeping track of everything I was eating.
To say I was a bit frustrated would be an understatement. But in the back of my mind, I knew that the reality I had been avoiding was now so apparent as to be unavoidable: what you eat is the central component for weight loss. I was reluctant to "give up" certain foods because I firmly believe that all foods can and should be enjoyed in moderation (yes, I am looking at you, kettle chips!) and I associated the concept of "going on a diet" with deprivation in all senses of the word. And I love food! I am an avid baker and menu planning and cooking is a highlight of each week for me. Frankly, I did not want to subsist solely on water, carrot sticks, mesclun mix, and chicken breast (much as I do enjoy eating those things sometimes).
However, I went back to that fabulous book I was telling you about above. I started thinking about everything I had already learned about the detrimental effects of refined sugar and highly processed (ie. white) grains that essentially are stripped of all their nutrients and turn into sugar (and then get stored as fat) in our bodies. I started reading other books and articles about food and diets (regional and historic), and then I came across a segment of the Dr. Oz show on T.V. one afternoon. Not something I normally watch, but they were talking about carbohydrates and how to change your metabolism, and I became intrigued. I had always summarily dismissed the idea that you could change or control your metabolism, and I was curious to see what all this hocus-pocus diet stuff was all about.
In the end, I watched the rest of the episode, where Chris Powell explained his carb-cycling diet, and I promptly went online to do more research. A few days later I had downloaded his book and stayed up until about 3 am one night reading it in one sitting. That was Friday, I believe. And on Monday we started carb-cycling.
(At this point, I should mention a few things about the whole carb-cycling system we were following. I quickly got on board with it for a few reasons, the most important of which is that it is NOT AN EXTREME DIET. I will not even consider any food plan that eliminates an entire food group (like no-fat or super low fat or low carb diets) or even, worse, a system like the grapefruit diet which is so extreme (and ridiculous!) as to be completely unsustainable. Another major plus was the concept of a "cheat day" which is actually built into the diet plan and allows you to eat literally whatever food or snack you want. Hellloooo, chocolate ganache torte! Unlike other carb-cycling plans, Powell has created this one with the obese and morbidly obese population in mind. He has a lot of experience working with people who need to lose half their body weight to get down to a healthy size, and since I have a ways to go myself, I found this personally encouraging.)
For one week, we followed the plan and suggested meals absolutely by the book, strictly as written, with very few minor exceptions. (For example, I couldn't bring myself to use "spray butter" so we stuck with a small amount of the real thing instead. Organic trumps aerosol every time!!) As it turns out, in my 3 am stupor, I had accidentally missed an important sentence in the book, which instructs you to scale up the portions sizes as needed, according to your weight/weight loss goals. Oops. No wonder we were hungry!
By week two we had it all sorted out, and I incorporated a few more changes based on my own philosophy about food, such as adding milk back in to my regular diet, and bumping up our fruit consumption by one serving per day. Imagine how thrilled I was to lose almost 6 pounds after one week of this new eating plan, and then steadily drop 2-3 pounds in the following weeks, for a total loss of over 15 pounds from my "starting weight" back when I made my commitment to start working out regularly! I even managed to indulge over Christmas (we took a two week break from carb-cycling) and avoid undoing my progress of the previous six weeks. Score!
But then the new year rolled around, and I had a few setbacks. A couple health complications cropped up (nothing serious), I succumbed to a cold, and before I knew it we were halfway through February and not eating well at all. As a remedy, we found some great food/health documentaries on Netflix, which got us energized to be more disciplined in our eating again (Wilson even bought a juicer!), but good intentions fell by the wayside when the stress of work and other commitments hijacked my time and energy to prepare dinner, and we frequently caved to the lure of the takeout menu and its evil twin, the "Toonie Tuesday" special at our local Popeyes.
In addition, the first six weeks of 2013 had brought about the realization that carb cycling might not be as sustainable as I initially thought it was. Despite the great results (and thus, fantastic motivation to continue!), the reality was that I was spending 3-5 hours per day on food prep, it was significantly more expensive to eat this way, menu plans took hours to prepare and were extremely inflexible, and I was struggling with our limited storage and counter space. If you wonder how this could be possible, consider: 60 minutes to make, eat, and clean up from breakfast, and pack Wilson's lunch + 30 minutes to prep, eat and clean up from my lunch + 20-30 minutes to prep, eat, and clean up from snacks (two per day) + 40-60 minutes to clear space in the kitchen, prep and eat dinner + 30-40 minutes to prep, make, and put away food for the next day (since carb-cycling alternates high and low carb days, and therefore you can't eat most meals on back-to-back days) + 60-120 minutes grocery shopping with no car (a few times a week because our fridge couldn't hold all the veggies we needed for a full seven days!). We filled the dishwasher an average of twice a day and our grocery budget doubled (seriously). I naively thought that after a few weeks of learning what to do, I wouldn't have to devote so much time to the diet, but what I failed to grasp at that time was that the bulk of the time was related to buying, storing, preparing, eating, and cleaning up from our meals, and I didn't suddenly become a grocery-shopping and veggie-chopping Ninja overnight!
I was ready to give up on carb cycling altogether towards the end of January, after one particularly awful trip to the grocery store. That day I was feeling exhausted, had struggled to put together a reasonable meal plan, had dragged myself to the store to make it happen anyways, and then found myself fighting back tears in the poultry section because they don't have any chicken breast, let alone the one that was supposed to be on sale and NOW what am I going to do?!? Granted, I was a little more emotional than usual (I do not normally cry over
(Side note: I was also questioning whether my goal should really be weight loss, or if I should just focus on eating a healthy balanced diet instead - one full of veggies, with modest amounts of healthy fat, protein, and natural, complex carbs, and low in sugar and processed foods in general. I have learned that there is a significant difference between a "weight loss" diet and a "healthy" diet, although the two are not mutually exclusive. I am very motivated to lose weight, but not if that ends up being my primary goal and purpose in life. Plus, isn't being healthy more important than having a lower weight? I say yes, so what's a girl to do?)
After two particularly bad weeks around the middle of February, I was fed up and knew that I had to get back to eating what I knew to be the right kind of fuel for my body. No more sugary snacks and fatty meals! I had noticed changes in my skin, mood, and overall sense of well-being, and I really (really really) wanted to start eating healthily again. At this point, I feel as though I turned another corner in my weight loss/healthy eating journey: I made peace with the fact that if weight loss was my goal (or even a goal), I was going to have to give up the idea that all our meals would taste great.
Now don't get me wrong - I firmly believe that even so-called "diet food" does NOT have to be bland, and unappealing. But my six weeks of overtime in the kitchen taught me that there is a reason overweight celebrities hire personal chefs to help them achieve their weight loss goals. It's because making healthy food (for the purpose of weight loss) taste great is actually a full time job. Literally. Who knew?!
So I am now resigned to the fact that some (maybe even most) of our meals will not be wonders of culinary skill and genius. They may be boring, repetitive, and even (gulp, yes, the B word...) bland. But that's ok, because they will be healthy, full of the vitamins and other nutrients our bodies need to be strong, and they hopefully will not provoke undue stress and fits of crying upon yours truly. And I have taken a more relaxed approach to carb-cycling, recognizing that some days it just doesn't work because my body or schedule is not cooperating. The important thing is to eat well, and if weight loss can be fairly rapid and steady as a result of how and what I'm eating, that's great! I will work towards that goal, but it's not going to define my life. And I will unabashedly enjoy a bag of chips on a cheat day every now and then, and post the picture here to prove it! :)
Which brings us to today (or, to Feb. 25th to be more accurate). Inspired by my friend Erin's food blog, I decided to try my hand at this whole visual food log thing. I tired incorporating a visual food diary into the blog I already write, but quickly realized a dedicated space would be more effective. And that, my friends, is why you're here, reading about the genesis of this blog and how I came to where I am today in terms of my approach and goals relating to food. (I hope you found it at least somewhat interesting!)
Thanks for being here (if you made it this far, you deserve a medal!) and supporting me. I do appreciate it, tremendously. xx
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