Top Ten Links of the Week: 10/1/10 - 10/7/10

Sweet readers! I would have submitted this sooner, by my cat has somewhat forcibly taken up permanent residence on my bosom. What’s the protocol for this?

That aside, we have a solid, fairly diverse link roundup today, including a late #1 entry that might just be the greatest thing in the world. Besides “Fart Barfunkel,” I mean.

1) The Kitchn/Just JENN: Look! A Star Wars Theme Party
If the Death Star watermelon doesn’t reel you in, the Han-Solo-trapped-in-carbonite-jello will snag you for sure. Don’t miss the Leia cupcakes or the Sarnac Dip, either, if you know what’s good for you, Luke. Er, I mean, reader.

2) Eating Rules: October Unprocessed
Blogger Andrew Wilder is going 31 days without eating an iota of processed food. How he’ll handle Halloween, I have no idea (Et tu, mini Snickers?), but I like his moxy. And his updates. He’s already a week in, but feel free to join him in the challenge.

3) Jezebel: Healthy Living Blogs Maybe Not So Healthy
Are food and exercise blogs helping others live healthier, or encouraging extreme eating and exercising? A recent Marie Claire article came out firmly in the latter’s corner, but Jez makes good points on both sides. Promoting disordered diets is something we really try to steer clear of here, while still acknowledging that occasionally, folks might want to drop a few pounds. I hope that’s always clear. If not – crap – please let me know a.s.a.p.

4) Washington Post: Public Health Advocates Worry that Dietary Advice Will Get Lost in Translation
The government is revising its dietary guidelines this year, and many are looking at the new advice as a trial, testing whether the Obama administration is serious about the Let’s Move initiative. Because in the past? The feds have kinda been talking out the sides of their mouths on this one.

5) New York Times: After Growth, Fortunes Turn for Monsanto
Holy moly. Monsanto’s stock dropped 42% since January. Not only are farmers growing fewer specific crops than the company projected, but it’s being outpriced by Chinese competitors and out-PR’d by everybody else. Yowza.

6) HuffPo/Eating well: Food Labels That Lie
Are “natural,” “organic,” and “local” all they’re cracked up to be? You can probably guess the answer, but this piece includes some good explanations as to why.

7) SF Gate: Whole wheat, but not the whole story
Wondering how to choose the best supermarket bread? From Marion Nestle: “Inspect labels to make sure the first ingredient is whole grain, the total number of ingredients is small and devoid of unpronounceable chemicals, the fiber content is at least 2 grams per 1-ounce serving and the label says 100 percent whole wheat.” Word.

8) ReadyMade: Stop Wasting Food
We’ve seen these kind of food saving tips before, but never all together or put so well. Scroll down a little to find ‘em.

9) Money Saving Mom: Are Food Savers Worth the Money?
Speaking of saving food ... the bags are pricey, but if you eat a lot of meat and/or hunt for your dinner,  readers say the vacu-pack machine is well worth the investment.

10) Culinate: The Beauty of the Immersion Blender
A.K.A., Ode to the KitchenAid Stick. Husband Man and I received one for our shower, and it has saved my sanity, not to mention quite a few sleeveless tees.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Consumerist: Hide Lunch from Office Thieves in Healthy Meal Boxes
Want co-workers to lay off your PB&J? Stick it in a Lean Cuisine box. Oddly, people tend not to touch those.

Coupon Sherpa: 20 Things it’s Cheaper to Buy Than DIY
Computers are a given, but homemade olive oil might also be a tad more time-consuming than necessary.

Hulu: Good Eats
Full episodes for free! Go see!

Neatorama: Bacon Costume
Unpictured: His wife, Mrs. Eggs.

Serious Eats: Paula Deen to Launch Line of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
Wait. Is butter a vegetable?

The Stir: Anatomy of a Chicken Nugget
No! Why? Ack. Ew ew ew ew ew.

Surviving and Thriving: Why you need renter’s insurance
My friend D’s apartment was broken into a few years ago. The thief took his laptop, his comb, and his copy of Cool as Ice. (No joke.) If you treasure your own copy of Vanilla Ice's acting debut, renter's insurance is the way to go.

AND ALSO

The Oatmeal: Working from Home
Yep. This about sums it up. Click on the link to see the rest of the comic.

Thank you so much for visiting Cheap Healthy Good! (We appreciate it muchly). If you’d like to further support CHG, subscribe to our RSS feed! Or become a Facebook friend! Or check out our Twitter! Or buy something inexpensive, yet fulfilling via that Amazon store (on the left)! Bookmarking sites and links are nice, too. Viva la France!

Veggie Might: As for Me and My House, We Will Serve the Veggies

Written by the fabulous Leigh, Veggie Might is a weekly Thursday column about all things Vegetarian.

My Fair Readers, this just in: America hates veggies! The Center for Disease Control released the data and the New York Times reported it. Also, the sky is falling.

Credit: NatalieMaynor.

Why are only 26.3% of our fellow Americans eating the recommended three or more vegetable servings a day? A slightly more encouraging 32.5% of us are eating two or more fruit servings, but still. That’s less than a third.

This does not compute. Farmers markets and local, seasonal cooking are all the rage; Michelle Obama is hot on the case with her victory garden and Let’s Move! initiative, and U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s has implemented programs such as Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food. What’s not clicking, America?

Access is a likely culprit; convenience is another. Intimidation and taste are ties for third.

We’ve talked about access before. Food deserts and the high cost of produce send people right for the Hot Pockets. But right next to the Hot Pockets (in your grocer’s freezer) is frozen veg, and that’s the better choice every time.

Luckily, access to fresh produce is getting better. Farmers markets are cropping up (pardon the pun) in underserved areas and, more and more frequently, they accept food stamps and WIC vouchers, but it’s hard to get the word out.

Surprisingly, the CDC data doesn’t show much difference in our vegetable eating habits across income levels, particularly when it comes to fruit. The spread is about 8% for vegetables, while the lowest and highest income brackets are only separated by .7% for fruit, with the middle group coming in .8% below the low bracket.

According to the New York Times article, a market research company, NDP Group, has recently released it’s annual report “Eating Patterns in America.” It’s findings were similar to those of the CDC, but went further into the whys.

“‘The moment you have something fresh you have to schedule your life around using it,’ [Harry] Balzer [analyst for NDP] said.

In the wrong hands, vegetables can taste terrible. And compared with a lot of food at the supermarket, they’re a relatively expensive way to fill a belly.

‘Before we want health, we want taste, we want convenience and we want low cost,’ Mr. Balzer said.”

I know it’s not easy, but the time and financial savings of convenience food is all in the perception. Before we started dating, my Charming Boyfriend ate pizza four out of seven nights at week. Not because he can’t cook, but because he lived upstairs from a pizza joint. In the nine months, we’ve been together--and cooking with lots of seasonal vegetables--he’s lost 10 pounds and seen a real difference in his bank account. Those veggies are easy to sneak in to his favorites--even pizza.

Veggies seem inconvenient because there is a perception that they take ages to prepare. But it’s not true! Just ask Jennifer Rubell, the vegetable butcher. She, along with her friend and mentor Mario Batali, is on a mission to eliminate intimidation and exorcise childhood trauma of bad-tasting veg.

At Eataly, Batali’s Italian-style marketplace in New York City, Rubell shows chops, peels, and advised customers on the best ways to use veggies at home, much like regular butcher would for meat.

“‘The idea is to remove any obstacle from people cooking at home. We’ll trim your beans...we’ll clean your mushrooms,’ says Batali. The whole stand is more or less to give you the information to disarm the vegetable to make it easier to cook. Like anything can be sautéed or even for that matter eaten raw. You can take almost any of the vegetables in this whole area and shave them thin enough and dress them with a little extra virgin olive oil and they’re so good.’”

Rubell hopes the job catches on too. “‘I have a fantasy that people will go into their supermarkets all over America and say let me be a vegetable butcher for a week and see if you sell more vegetables. See if your customers are happier and then it could be a new profession in America.’” Sign me up.

So readers, how do you fit in your fruits and veggies? Do you beat the national average? Take the CDC questionnaire and find out.

The CDC Fruit and Vegetable Consumption Questionnaire
Get out your No. 2 pencils and get ready to do some math. Sample responses are as follows: twice a week, three times a month, ten times a year. Go!

1. How often do you drink fruit juices such as orange, grapefruit, or tomato?
2. Not counting juice, how often do you eat fruit?
3. How often do you eat green salad?
4. How often do you eat potatoes, not including French fries, fried potatoes, or potato chips?
5. How often do you eat carrots?
6. Not counting carrots, potatoes, or salad, how many servings of vegetables do you usually eat?

How to calculate your daily fruit and veg intake: divide by 7 for weekly frequencies, 30 for monthly frequencies, and 365 for yearly frequencies. Add the answers to questions 1-2 for daily consumption of fruit and the answers to questions 3-6 for vegetables.

Okay, so it’s not as fun as the Cosmo Quiz, but it’s much more useful. Let us know your results in the comments. Sing it, choir.

~~~

If you dug this article, you may also dig:

• A Confession and A Prayer to Remain Tailless
• Food Money Matters: Why Eating Healthy Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive
• I Want to Be a Tofu Butcher

When NOT to Eat Cheaply, Healthy, and Good (er, Well)

There comes a time – or several times – in the course of things when eating healthfully and inexpensively goes right out the window. Maybe you’re working on a major project. Maybe you’re having a baby. Maybe you’re quitting your job, finding a new one, marrying, moving, or trying to get over the passing of a loved one. Rightfully, you have other concerns.

And you know what? That’s okay.

The Artist Formerly Known as Husband-Elect and I just wrapped up the busiest and most joyous month of our lives, during which we ate approximately two vegetables. (Wait. Is frosting a vegetable?) Preparing nutritious meals was next-to-dead-last on our list of priorities, just above keeping up with the Mets. (*grumble*) Instead, we were penning vows, seeing to the happiness of 140 loved ones, and entering a state of marital bliss unrivaled, even by a really good pot of macaroni and cheese.

Now, we’re home. The wedding festivities and pasta-packed honeymoon are over. We knew it would happen eventually. And with it done, it’s time to resume dietary normality. And once this time – this busy, emotionally haywire time – passes, you will, too.

Meanwhile, here are a few tips to get you through the rough parts.

Take it easy on yourself.
Order takeout. Choke down your five-minute hospital cafeteria lunch. Scarf that three-year-old bag of Sun Chips from HR’s vending machine. Because right now? At this very second? Keeping a budget and a strict calorie count doesn’t matter. What does matter: getting enough in your body to keep going. Forget the rest.

Remember, it’s only temporary.
Of course this doesn’t go for every situation. Kids are pretty permanent, and there are some jobs in which 70-hour weeks are the norm. But once you complete your task and/or get the hang of your new situation, everyday existence will become easier. I promise. Same goes for that interminable project, your inaugural home ownership, or even the tragedy that might consume your world right now. Time will pass, and there will be a dazzling light and pot of delicious turkey chili at the end of your seemingly endless tunnel.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
There are people who love you, and in pressured times, they will trip over themselves to feed, cook, or otherwise shove food into your mouth. If no one volunteers, go ahead and ask. Whether it’s a friend, a family member, or a benevolent government agency, somebody is going to step up. Never forget that, and try to do the same for others when you can.

Work good food in where you can.
Sporadically, in the midst of chaos, a cheap salad will present itself to you. (I think Confucius said that.) Eat it. A simple, occasional nod to nutrition will fuel you just as well as half a pizza. And if you can easily find a convenient provider of healthy, low-cost meals? Bonus. Food fuels mood, and keeping your spirits up is vital right now.

Do the best you can with what you have.
Forget keeping up with the Joneses. This ain’t the time. Use your available resources as best you can. If that means three weeks of pantry meals, so be it.

Pick a date to get back on the horse.
I don’t know about you, sweet readers, but I would do bupkis without deadlines. During nerve-racking periods, having that red-letter date provides a definitive end point for stress habits (ex: eating fast food), as well as a psychological starting point for new behaviors (ex: eating home-cooked meals). Plus, on a simpler emotional level, it’s just something to look forward to. Real world example: When projects devolved into anarchy at my old job, we repeated this like a mantra: “Think of it. Next Wednesday this will all be over.”

Help others in the same situation.
What goes around comes around. The love you take is equal to the love you make. Quid pro quo, Clarice. In other words: Pitch in, dearies. Somebody out there could use the assistance.

Readers, how do you eat during difficult or stressful periods? Do you agree or disagree with any of this advice? What practices make life easier? How can we best help others? The comment section is way open. Let’s help some brothers and sisters out.

~~~

If you dig this practical touchy-feeliness, you might also enjoy:

• On Splurging
• Relax, Frugal Eater: A Measured Approach to Lifestyle Changes
• What the Great Depression Can Teach Us About Food and Frugality

Ask the Internet: Best Meals to Bring the Laid Up?

Hey folks! Today’s question is inspired by chilly, sneezy weather in the Northeast.

Q: We’ve all had loved ones confined to pregnancy bedrest or a few days of quiet recovery from surgery. And during those times, it’s tough for them to put clothes on, never mind cook.

So, what are your favorite make-ahead or freezer-ready dishes to bring laid up friends and family?

A: Readers, I don’t have much experience in this area, though I’ve made a few chilis that folks seem to appreciate. What are your best all-time healing meals?

Want to ask the interweb a question? Post one in the comment section, or write to Cheaphealthygood@gmail.com. Then, tune in next Tuesday for an answer/several answers from the good people of the World Wide Net.

What I Learned About Food in Italy

Sweet readers! I ain’t got no recipe for you today, and I apologize. I’ve barely had time to go to the bathroom since arriving home, so cooking has been moved to the backburner. (Not literally speaking, because that would imply that I’ve cooked something. You see, here at CHG we try to use “literally” correctly, or we risk being severely pummeled by our mother.)

Anyway, our Italian honeymoon! It was great. Lots of art. And traffic circles. And domes. Boy, do they like domes over there.

The food, of course, was out of this world. Between myself and That Guy That I Married, we scarfed a silo’s worth of pasta, along with every known salami, prosciutto, capicola, and sopressata on the planet. This is to say nothing of the wine, which was plentiful and universally excellent.

Also? We ate horse. More on that in a minute.

First, a few observations, should you embark on your own journey:

1) Meats (cured and cooked), cheeses, pastas, wines, fruits, veggies, desserts, pastries, and sauces are absolutely, completely everything they’re cracked up to be. I gained almost six pounds, 90% of it in Pasta Carbonara.

2) These are three of the best pasta dishes I’ve ever had the pleasure of shoving down my gaping maw:

Rigatoni Carbonara at Dino & Tony's in Rome

Pappardelle with Wild Boar Ragu in Montepulciano

Macaroni, Marscapone Cheese, and Some Kind of Mystery Meat at Al Duomo in Verona

3) At home, we eat 90% vegetarian. Abroad we ate: octopus, boar, horse, donkey, chicken, pork, beef, sardines, anchovies, swordfish, rabbit, shrimp, and all kinds of fish. Regarding the horse and donkey, they’re both traditional meats of the Veneto region. (No, really.) We were a little hesitant at first, but figured it had already been cooked, so what the heck? With apologies to Secretariat, the results were surprisingly delicious.

4) Italian breakfasts are five-minute affairs consisting of espresso, some kind of sweet bread (meaning “chocolate croissant,” not “turkey pancreas”), and the worst fruit juice you’ve ever had in your life. I don’t understand how the same country that created Valpolicella wine could not master a halfway decent OJ. Get on it, Berlusconi!

5) Lunches are 30-to-60-minute affairs consisting of a sandwich, pizza, or some combination of meat, cheese, and bread. Not a bad way to live.

6) Dinners are two-hour affairs consisting of several courses: antipasti (usually cured meat and cheese), primi (some kind of amazing pasta), secondi (some kind of amazing meat), verdure (side veggies), dolci (dessert), and espresso and/or an aperitif to top it all off. At home, we’re pretty good at taking our time during meals. Even so, it took a few days to get used to the long, leisurely Italian suppers.

7) Speaking of those aperitifs, meals are generally ended by one of two beverages: limoncello (pictured) or grappa. We did not partake of the former, but did attempt the latter, which contained enough pure alcohol to strip a car.

8) More on the alcohol: While Italians offer a plethora of excellent regional wines, ordering a beer means you’re getting Peroni, or the occasional Moretti. While both are pretty good, we were craving good ol’ stouts and hefeweizens by Week 3. (In related news, we should be punched.)

9) This is Florence’s Central Market, a.k.a. Kris’ Personal EuroDisney. Picture this stall, multiply it by 100, and fill each with a different kind of food – cheese, tripe, fruit, vegetables, spices, chickens, rabbits, pig skulls, etc. I would have happily stayed there instead of our B&B, even though the owners offered free Nutella.

What heaven looks like in my head

10) Did you know walnuts are found in the middle of squishy tree fruits? Me neither! We discovered this when we locked ourselves out of our mountaintop B&B for 8-1/2 hours and were forced to forage for dinner.

11) During those same 8-1/2 hours, this magnificent chicken took a very real liking to me.

Mah Italian boyfriend

12) His girlfriends retaliated by pecking at our rental car.

Not pictured: a Mercedes Benz with hen dents

13) Italians do not use ice in their drinks. Ever. Hmph.

14) The greatest French fries/roasted potatoes in the world are located at a family-run Osteria in a miniscule town called Villa D’Aiano. It takes about 40 hours to reach, and no one speaks much English, but they must make their tubers with magic and unicorns. It’s the only way to explain them.

15) It is not a myth: Italian people are very fashionable, super tan, and extremely hot. Seriously, it’s like a whole country filled with Monica Belluccis. I have no idea how they are able to shove themselves into Armani pants when so much fresh pasta is available.

That’s all I can think of right now. Expect to see a few Italy-inspired recipes in the coming weeks, though. I promise, if I can find that Marscapone and Macaroni dish, it’ll go up a.s.a.p.

In the meantime, thanks for tolerating this, sweet readers! And if you have any memories of wonderful vacation food, please add ‘em in the comment section. It’s good to be back!

Saturday Throwback: The Incredible Shrinking Dad - How One Guy Lost 108 Pounds (and Kept it Off)

Every Saturday, we post a piece from the CHG archives. This one is from October, 2008. Remember that month? I do. Vaguely. I think there was pizza.

Ed is a 59-year-old father of three from Queens, New York. Though an avid golfer and fisherman, he struggled with his weight most of his life. Then, in the ‘90s, a complete lifestyle overhaul helped him drop almost 110 pounds, sending him from 287 to his current weight of 179. He’s never joined a gym or a diet program. This is his story.

(Incidentally, for transparency’s sake [and so I will not receive a beating from my mother], I will henceforth refer to him as Dad.)

(Also, parts of this interview were edited for length.)

(Also also, that's not his real head in the pictures. But you knew that.)

KRIS: So Dad, when did you weigh the most?

DAD: I weighed 287 pounds in November of 1991.

K: Why do you think you were overweight? What are the reasons?

D: Well, I was always overweight. When I got out of high school I was about 195, and I slowly put on a lot of weight over the years until I got about to 250. It was my steady weight once I was out of the service.

K: And you’re 6-foot-1?

D: I’m 6-foot-1.

K: But you gained more weight after that.

D: I used to smoke. When I was 42, I quit smoking cold turkey and at the time I was about 255. I had trouble once I quit smoking pushing myself away from the dinner table, because there was no cigarette to end the meal. So I would hang around the table and eat just about anything that was left. Whether it was rolls, bread and butter, potatoes, spaghetti, meatballs - anything. And I put on another 32 pounds in that winter of ’91, and wound up at 287.

K: 287 was your top weight.

D: 287 was my top weight.

K: So, you were eating a lot of starches.

D: I was eating everything.

K: Did you have a particular food that you really kind of …

D: All food. I love bread and butters, pastries. Sunday was practically an all-day eating experience. I would go out to the bakery in the morning and pick up a bunch of rolls and pastries and sit down with the paper for an hour-and-a-half or so, eating continually, and then break for a couple of hours and then watch a couple of football games in the afternoon on Sunday and continue eating. So, there was a lot of eating and it was always two large meals, sometimes three.

K: So you’re 42-years-old, you have three wonderful children and a lovely wife. Why do you decide to lose weight at that point? Why do you go on a diet?

D: Well, when I quit smoking I told the doctor I was worried about gaining a lot of weight. And he said, “Don’t worry. If you have the willpower to quit smoking, you can lose weight.” So I kind of took him at his word. And when I got up to 287, I couldn’t fit into most of my clothes anymore. I had outgrown extra large shirts and all my pants. My waistline was between 44 and 46 inches, and I was in XXL shirts. I felt huge. And I decided I had to do something about this, and I started on a diet in early 1992.

K: How did your weight affect your everyday life? Did you have limitations?

D: Well I was still relatively young…

K: Hee. Relatively.

D: Well, when you’re 59, 42 sounds great. I used to work on the car a lot, and it was difficult to get up and down, move around. You lose a lot of agility because you’re carrying this extra person, really. 287 is a good weight for two people. It’s just a huge amount of weight, and you just don’t feel right at all. I still did what I liked. I played some golf. I still went fishing. But everything was an extra burden. It was harder.

K: So what kind of changes did you make in your diet when you decided to start losing weight?

D: Well, I decided I was going to try to get by on 1500 calories a day. So, I was working at [redacted] at the time, and I used to eat practically non-stop all day there. I would come in with a couple of bagels and I’d say, “Well, I don’t have any butter on them, so it’s okay.” And then at break time I’d have something, and then go out for a full lunch. And then I’d have a snack in the afternoon. And then I’d go home and eat a big dinner. I was probably taking in about 5000 calories a day.

K: Wow.

D: I decided I was going to try to cut down to 1500 calories. To do that I cut out my snack in the car on the way to work – I forgot to mention that. And I cut it down to two rice cakes, which comes to 100 calories. And then at break time I’d have two more rice cakes. The caramel kind. Quaker.

K: Delicious.

D: Delicious. As rice cakes go, it doesn’t get much better than that. So, by the time lunch came around, I’d had 200 calories so far for the day. And I’d try to keep lunch between 500 and 600 calories, and then dinner about the same. And at night I’d have 100 calorie snack before I went to bed.

K: What did you have for lunch and dinner?

D: For lunch– maybe if I’d have a hamburger, it would be without cheese. Maybe a couple of hot dogs. No French fries. If I had a sandwich on a bagel, it would be a low-calorie meat like boiled ham. One slice of cheese for flavor, but not loaded up on cheese. Dinner in those days, we always had two vegetables, meat, and usually a piece of bread. And I cut almost all the butter out of my diet. We used to have spaghetti and meatballs every Tuesday night and I’d have two meatballs and some spaghetti, but instead of four or five slices of bread with butter, I cut it down to two slices of Italian bread with no butter. So, cutting back all around.

K: What kind of changes did you make to your exercise plan?

D: I just played golf. I wasn’t into walking for its own sake back then. I lost ten pounds a month for seven months. I went from 287 to 217 in seven months. It felt good.

K: How did you keep track of the calories?

D: I would read the labels on the food, and I also had a little booklet I bought at the checkout at the supermarket. It was a little pocket book that had about 30 or 40 pages, and it had a nice index of foods and calories in it. … Basically I was cutting about 35,000 calories a month out of my diet.

K: That’s a lot.

D: Yeah. Doing the math, I was losing 2-1/2 pounds a week.

K: Hunh.

D: Right. And that’s how I lost the weight. I strictly believe in counting calories and exercising for losing weight. I don’t think there’s any fad diets that work over any length of time.

K: Did you find you were eating less meat or more vegetables? It sounds like you definitely cut out the dairy part of it, but what about those two?

D: Well, I watched the quantities more than the types of food. But one thing I insisted on any diet is I had to have pizza once a week. Any diet I’ve ever been on because I absolutely love pizza. But it would be two slices. My days of three, four, five slices of pizza at a meal are over.

K: So it was a portion control issue.

D: It was portion control. I believe you have to have things you like. You just can’t be continually eating rice cakes. Once in awhile you have to treat yourself.

K: Are there any other big changes you made to your lifestyle? You mentioned you had quit smoking.

D: That was it. It was seven months at ten pounds a month, and it just worked out.

K: At this point, when you were losing 70 pounds, did you ever consider joining a gym or Weight Watchers or anything?

D: No. I’m not a joiner. I don’t like the crowd aspect of joining things. I can’t see myself at a gym.

K: Okay. So you stopped at 217, but you still lost around 40 pounds after that.

D: No. What happened was, over a period of about 12 or 13 years, I slowly put on about 20 pounds. A pound one year, a couple of pounds the next, and when we went on vacation to Spain, when I came back, I was 237.

K: Were you really?

D: Well, I was 217, and over those years I gained 20 pounds. So, I said, “This is not good. I’m well into my 50s, and I’m only 13 pounds from being 250 again.” So I decided it was time to start a diet again. And the first couple of months I lost quit a bit of weight, as you do on most diets. Maybe 15 or 16 pounds. And then I decided … I want to change my lifestyle so I don’t have to constantly be worried about losing all this weight and then putting it back on. … So, I would start losing, get down three pounds a month, two pounds a month. Sometimes there would be something special going on, like a vacation, and I might put on a couple of pounds or only lose a pound or break even that month. But slowly, over the course of a couple of years, I got down to my low weight, which was 179, which is about where I am now.
K: What about your eating habits now?

D: [On] weekends [I eat] two meals a day instead of three. I have brunch and dinner – maybe a light snack during the middle of the day. … And then it’s certainly a more structured environment at the office, and I think it’s easier to lose weight. I bring in some dry cereal in the morning. I like dry cereal because I think you get more flavor out of it, and I think it takes longer to eat. … And then I have a little snack in the middle of the morning. Always 100 calories or less. At lunch I have either a sandwich or soup.

K: But we’re not talking pastrami with mayonnaise.

D: No. … And then in the evening a normal meal. And I have my pizza once a week, and on the weekends I eat two good meals each day. I mean, they’re hearty meals. Sometimes I go for pancakes. Sometimes I go for Polish food. Whatever I feel like – but only two meals. … [Also] I do a lot of walking. I walk about 30, 35 miles a week. So, that helps, too.

K: Whoa.

D: Well, I get off the subway in the morning, about a mile from the office. I leave the house a little earlier to do that. In the afternoon I walk to a different station, and another mile. And then at lunchtime, whenever I can, I walk up to the promenade in Brooklyn, which is almost another mile to and from – a mile each way. So, just in those four things, I’ve already walked four miles for that day. And on the weekend I play golf and I go fishing at night. I always walk a mile or two. And it adds up quickly. It doesn’t have a lot of stress on my joints. At my age, I’m not into – I never was a jogger. I never saw somebody jogging who was smiling, so I figured it can’t be too pleasant an experience. They always look kind of pained. So … it’s kind of a lazy man’s exercise, but what I don’t have in quality, I make up in quantity.

K: Okay. So were your diets difficult to maintain? Did you ever feel deprived or anything?

D: Well … when I’m into a diet, it becomes a way of life. … Once you get used to it, it’s fine. … And this latest one, where I altered my lifestyle and still had big meals when I feel like it - it’s almost a guilty pleasure you don’t have to pay the price for all the time.

K: So it’s easier now.

D: It’s easier in that I kind of changed the way I manage my intake. I don’t go to the bakery and sit at the breakfast table for two hours anymore either. That doesn’t happen. And I don’t eat those massive quantities of pizza. I went from having pizza twice a week to having it once a week. So, it’s definitely a cutback, but that’s okay. I still get my pie.

K: What have been the benefits of the weight loss?

D: Well, I’m a lot more agile. I can, despite my bones starting to creak and stiffen up a little, I can get up and down relatively easily. I have a bad back, and the weight loss certainly helps my agility and my mobility. And of course, with all the walking, I can walk a pretty good distance. I walked to your office tonight from Downtown Brooklyn, which is about four miles. I did that in a little over an hour, so that’s a good pace. Good for someone my age.

K: Okay. So here’s a question: Grandma, your mom, was a big woman.

D: Yes.

K: Did you ever look at her and say to yourself, “That can’t happen to me when I’m that age”? Was that part of it at all?

D: Well, what I did notice – my mother lived to 88.

K: Oh yeah. I missed that.

D: There’s that. But I noticed that you don’t see a lot of big, old fat guys. They tend to die off relatively early. And I’ve been blessed with pretty good blood pressure and a good heart from what I understand, a strong heart. So, I didn’t want to make it any worse. I wanted to have a long, happy, healthy retirement, and part of that was not being overweight.

K: And with Grandma, she lived until 88, but she was not mobile for the last …

D: Listen, if I can get to 83 and suddenly not get too mobile…

K: Good point. So, for the diet and the lifestyle change, what was your support system like? Did anyone help you?

D: No.

K: Oh no.

D: Well, people say positive things. “Oh, you look great.” “Oh, you lost weight.” That’s certainly – that’s supportive. So, it’s a positive thing that you’re doing and people remark on it. And a lot of people have trouble losing weight, [but] you know, I guess for me, it hasn’t been … extremely difficult to do. But for some people it’s a real struggle, and I understand that. Positive feedback is always appreciated.

K: Got it. What are your plans for the future?

D: Retire, fish, golf, sex, drugs, rock and roll. Not necessarily in that order.
~~~

If you liked this post, you might also dig:

• 15 Reasons I Gain(ed) Weight (And Two Reasons I Didn’t)
• Little Meals for One
• Understanding the Childhood Obesity Epidemic Part III: Small-Scale Solutions

Top Ten Links of the Week: 09/24/10 - 09/30/10

Sweet readers! Hi!

Rome, in a nutshell.

It’s me, Kris! I’m back from my Italian honeymoon! And I’m married! To the Husband-Elect! Of course, this means he will henceforth be referred to as … something else … but in the meantime, yay! It’s so good to be home!

How are all of you? Good? Okay, cool. What a relief. I heard about that tornado in Brooklyn and was all like, “Uh oh. I hope the readers and the falafel are okay.”

I’ll have much more about Italy, its stunning proliferation of pasta, and its even stunning-er lack of iced drinks on Monday. But first, three quick things:

1. THANK YOU, LEIGH ANGEL for running CHG while I was out of the country/getting all nuptial. Your last name is not false advertising.
2. Thank you also to Jaime Green, Cindee Weiss, Amy Dickenson, and Michele Laikowski for writing sweet pieces for the site. I give you metaphorical noogies of love, my dearies.
3. Hey! It’s the links! They’re a little abbreviated today, as wading through my Google Reader was much like the first ten minutes of Platoon. They wade a lot during that. If you haven’t seen it, trust me. There’s wading.

And with that, here you go. Yay, marriage! And eating!

1) Politics of the Plate: Aboard the Vegetable Express: Getting Fresh, Organic Produce to the Neighborhoods that Need them Most
Wondering how to transport fresh veggies to neighborhoods lacking ‘em? Take a cue from the ice cream man. Great piece.

2) Food Politics: Colbert on Farm Workers
First, watch the clip of Stephen Colbert’s recent statement to Congress about immigrant farm workers. (“This is America. I don’t want a tomato picked by a Mexican. I want it picked by an American, then sliced by a Guatemalan, and served by a Venezuelan in a spa where a Chilean gives me a Brazilian.”) Then, check out Marion Nestle’s take on it.

3) Yahoo Green: 25 Things Chefs Never Tell You
This will make you alternately gag and celebrate, especially for: “The most unbelievable tale: ‘Someone once ran a steak through a dishwasher after the diner sent it back twice. Ironically, the customer was happy with it then.’”

4) Epi-Log: When to Get Rid of a Cookbook
Short and sweet tips on when to cull your collection. Looking at mine: Daniel Boulud’s Braise, it might be your time.

5) The Atlantic: The Evils of Corn Syrup – How Food Writers Got it Wrong
In which it’s argued that HFCS isn’t so much a problem as is putting some form of sugar in dang near everything.

6) Seattle Times: Save Money, Eat Better by Using Scraps Creatively
Want to bank some extra cash? Use all your food – every part of it – when you cook. Here are tips on how. (Tomato water as fish broth? Genius.)

7) Casual Kitchen: Price is Just a Number
Dan’s running a short series on Understanding the Consumuer Products Industry. This, his first entry, concentrates on how price points are devised. Best line: “Companies love, and will take maximum advantage of, consumer enthusiasm for new popular items. … In some instances, consumer products companies will even go so far as to create real (or imagined) shortages of goods in order to stoke consumer fervor and drive still more perceived value for their products.”

8) Get Rich Slowly: Swapping Convenience for Low Costs
A tenet of frugality: If you have time, you will save money. (Also, if you build it, he will come.)

9) Money Saving Mom: How to Deal with Not-So-Friendly Cashiers
They need to post this at my Key Food. Hell, they need to bronze it.

10) Food Politics: FTC Says No to Wonderful POM Advertising Claims
Oh, thank goodness. While I dig the free drinking glasses we have, POM is pretty much glorified Juicy Juice. And you can punctuate it.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

344 Pounds: Avoid Mistakes When Counting Calories
Re-measuring every so often is a biggie, especially when it comes to liquids

The Atlantic: The Unlikely Way to Fight Obesity
More in the Atlantic’s ongoing series. This one focuses on marketers

Marketplace: Best Celebrity Cookware
Winnahs: Emeril, Giads. Losah: Jamie Oliver.

AND ALSO

It Gets Better
Columnist Dan Savage started the “It Gets Better” initiative after the suicide of Billy Lucas, a 15-year-old gay kid who was finally teased too much. (More about it here.) (Incidentally, three more kids have killed themselves for similar reasons since then.) My friend Michael submitted this video, which is just over the moon with empathy, hilarity, and insight. Enjoy, and send it to a teen who might be having a similarly tough time. (Obligatory bloggy heads up: Rated PG for a few epithets and sexual references.)



Thank you so much for visiting Cheap Healthy Good! (We appreciate it muchly). If you’d like to further support CHG, subscribe to our RSS feed! Or become a Facebook friend! Or check out our Twitter! Or buy something inexpensive, yet fulfilling via that Amazon store (on the left)! Bookmarking sites and links are nice, too. Viva la France!