How to start this blog on the right foot…well, my name is Katie. I’m a 22-year-old psychology student and I believe in eating tasty, healthy food.
I guess I should start at the very beginning. I moved out into my own place with my awesome common-law partner, Adam, two years ago. The biggest change that happened was that I got seriously interested in cooking and baking now that I could control my own meals and not have to eat what my parents were eating. The deliciousness of butter, cream, and cheese were discovered and needless to say, I gained a bit of weight. 10 pounds in a year, in fact. Now this wouldn’t normally be an issue since my new BMI is 21.5 which is still on the lower side of normal, but unfortunately coinciding with the weight gain, I developed very high blood pressure and sleep apnea which indicates that my body does not function as well with this added bit of weight. At the recommendation of my family doctor and my sleep doctor, I decided that I needed to lose weight.
My current goal is to lose 10-15 pounds which has proven to be difficult since I was exposed to the wonderful world of highly-caloric eating and you could say that I don’t have an appetite for bland, tasteless, low-fat, low-calorie dishes. Unfortunately, these are exactly the type of dishes that I see in any exercise or dieting magazine and there is just nothing appetizing about them; usually they tote pictures of a pan-fried chicken breast with no herbs, no sauce, on a bed of plain orzo with a sprig of parsley (how inspiring!). I think that one of the problems with losing weight and keeping weight off is exactly these types of dishes. First of all, it’s impossible to keep eating these foods on a daily basis for months. It’s masochistic. Secondly, they are going to keep you in a diet mentality, they will be foods that you only eat when you’re on a “diet”. Studies have shown that it’s life style changes that lead to long term weight loss and I think the best way to do that is by making dishes that don’t make you feel like you’re on a diet and that they are tasty enough that you would eat them regardless of being on a diet or not. I feel that I have collected quite a repertoire of dishes like this and believe that it has helped me in being successful with my weight loss (and possibly having the metabolism of a 22-year-old as well too….). And thus I was motivated to share my words of wisdom and help others with their attempts at weight loss.
A few things that I should point out:
1. None of the recipes here are extreme in a dieting sense. There is a current diet trend that I think is just unmanageable; it’s expensive and it’s way too restrictive. On an income of $6,000 a year and while living on my own, this is something that is very important to consider. I am talking about the diets where everything is organic (there’s nothing wrong with this but you should be able to cope with foods that aren’t organic), there is not one grain of sugar in it, the only oil used is flaxseed oil, and they make you feel bad for even having most of your grains be whole-wheat (“if it’s not semolina then you’re not being as healthy as you could be!”). You will not find recipes here with millet, wheatgerm, wheatberry, almond butter, rolled oats, or spelt. I have bought ingredients like this and used them once in a dish and never touched them again. With my limited income, I can’t endorse using these if I don’t use them myself. However, you will find recipes with quinoa, barley, and bulgur because I do find these things to be delicious, affordable, and available at most grocery stores. If you have a special diet due to a condition or lifestyle (vegan or vegetarian) and would like me to test out/find some recipes that use any of the aforementioned ingredients, I would be more than happy to.
2. I was a vegetarian for 7 years and due to this, there are some meats that I still have hang ups about and avoid eating. I don’t eat fish, shellfish, veal, rabbit, bison, lamb, or duck. Other non-meat foods that I don’t eat out of preference are sweet potatoes/yams, zuchinni, blue cheese, olives, and melons. I am cognisant of this and if any readers have any great recipes that they would like to give me that incorporate any of these foods, please let me know!! I want to make sure that I’m not offering dishes that are specific to only my preferences.
3. Once a month I’m going to have a splurge recipe, because I believe that if these are going to be permanent life style changes, you have to be realistic. It would be awesome to be able to switch into that person that can eat 300 calories per dish (generally consisting of salad) and only snack on nuts or dried fruit and never eat a muffin/cookie/piece of cake/pie/cheese/butter/cream ever again. I know myself well enough to contend that I wouldn’t be happy if that was me, I don’t want people to think twice before inviting me over to their house for dinner because I most likely won’t eat what they will offer me or criticise them for the lack of any of the ingredients mentioned in point 1.
4. Sometimes I might post things that aren't recipes, but they will almost always have to do with health or weight loss in general.
5. Lastly, I need to point out that not all the recipes are mine. I would like to thank epicurious.com, bbcgoodfood.com, the Whole Foods online recipe section, allrecipes.com, “The Joy of Cooking” Cook Book, and probably my favourite-cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com
Enjoy!
