Beware the Beige

Beware Beige Food!

Did you know that some people dedicate their lives and diets to eating only beige food?

And just what what is beige food I hear you say? Those beige food-loving folk,  define it as  anything on your plate that isn’t green. They proudly declare that they love the beige!  So long as the food hues are fawn, pale yellow, cream and well, beige, they will have it.   Along with greenery, there is to be no orange, no red, no purples, no pistachio, no amber, no cerise and no mauve.  Here are some pictorial examples:

Interesting isn’t it, the sorts of foods that are beige?

Some of my favourite foods used to be (are) of the beige variety : Red Rock deli chips, brie, camembert, crackers, cashews, pastry.  So what really is “bad” about beige? Well, beige is a boring colour, and beige foods are well…boring.  The plate looks boring. But above all, the food is boringly bad for you. It’s usually of the deep fried, high fat, high carbohydrate variety.  Ever seen those shows on TV where the weight loss guru spends a week with a plus-sized family and then spreads out their weeks’ worth of food  (my favourite one at the moment is “Fat Family Diet” – watch it just for the presenter’s alliteration: giant jellies, mammoth mummy, large and lard-like, and the way he cheerfully calls his subjects  “Massive Fatties”) and there it is in all its glory – beige chips, beige pizza, beige crumbed things, beige cakes, beige potatoes, beige burgers , beige nuggets, beige gravy, beige custard, beige coffee, beige bread, beige donuts, beige pasta, beige ice cream, beige beer  and beige takeaways.  Check it out, I kid you not – even Jamie Oliver’s done it.

So now, I’m going for the  nutrition rainbow. – and there’s no beige in that baby.  A piece of trivia to note - the compounds that give fruit and vegetables their bright colour also give them their unique health promoting properties – they do more than just provide nutrition! .Some studies have shown that these plant-based chemicals, or phyto-nutrients help prevent one or more chronic, debilitating and often deadly diseases by boosting immunity or ridding the body of damaging free radicals.

The trick is to include as many plant-based foods in your daily diet as possible, always eat the colourful skins that often have the richest sources of protective phyto-nutrients. And don’t peel things like apples and eggplants – that’s where all the good stuff is.

In addition to their low calorie benefits- did you know that purple hued foods (think grapes, eggplants, blueberries, beetroot, and um …red wine) are said to delay the ageing of cells in the body?  Eat your purples – delay Alzheimer’s  and maintain good urinary tract health!!  How about your greens?   Some research says they  help to promote strong bones and teeth, they’re good for your vision and keep your eyes healthy and may lower the risk of some types of cancer.  The reds help fight some cancers and strengthen the lungs!! The benefits go on!! I could run out of exclamation marks!!

Whaddya get from the beige? Heart disease, clogged arteries, diabetes, bowel problems, indigestion, bloating, lethargy, high blood pressure, and even mood disorders such as depression. So now, what is the upshot of all this for me?  Well. I have decided well and truly to all gone, banish the beige - all gone - "good beiges" like tuna and chicken.   Viva the green! The red! The orange! The yellow! The purples!

Banish the Beige!!

Weight Loss and the Demon Drink

  And another thing…

“Oh, here we go again with another excuse…”

Before I let my Critical Voice hog my opening line, I want to jump in and say something fast, before I decide not to say it at all.

Something I haven’t readily admitted to, and this is a blog that is supposed to help me to be accountable, is that have been drinking waaaaaaaayyyy too much in the past year.  What with some of my  dear people popping of their mortal coils, me feeling sorry for myself for having all sorts of difficulties with all sorts of people and things, getting sick and “blah, blah blah”… I have had the odd alcoholic beverage to help me cope, which has sometimes led to the odd episode of being tipsy, tiddled, giggly, sloshed, smashed and so on (I am quite the Euphemism Queen these days, aren’t I?).  Mostly  it hasn’t involved me being raucously, screamingly drunk - it has been a quiet nightly habit after work, while waiting for dinner,  cooking dinner, eating dinner and so on.

I conclude that I have really been putting it away.  Sure I have eaten too much of the wrong thing too often, but I have also drunk a hell of a lot of the wrong thing much too often for my liver’s liking…and that of my stomach, thighs and arms.  If anyone reading this has shares in First Choice Liquor Stores, you may have noticed a dividend rise in 2010…

I do not look like this when I'm on the sauce, unfortunately

Alright, I admit, my food portions have been too big, and once I start on a bag of Red Rock Deli chips it is hard to stop, and I like  good chocolate, but generally I eat pretty well. I don’t eat junk food…honestly I don’t (although I do like Crust pizza), so what else has made me a fatty boomsticks.  Yep, you guessed what’s coming next….Vino, bubbly, a Cosmopolitan here and there…Remember that UB40 song “red, red wine/goes to my head”? yes it goes to your head, but what about your your stomach? We have all heard of beer bellies, well I have a wine belly. I’ve always been a girl who’d prefer to have (another) glass of red than a dessert and eschew nibblies and go for the champers instead, safe in the erroneous belief that I was on to some really clever weight management trick. But to my dismay have found out the following GEMS of information: There are many reasons that alcohol and weight gain go together including

1. Alcohol contains calories
2. Alcohol can lead to overeating
3. Alcohol can affect the body’s ability to burn fat

OK, number 1 I can cope with.  And number 2. Well, case in point: one night very recently I caught up with some good friends for Friday night drinks. It was a nice night, we sat on the back deck, the mood was good and the conversation interesting. I started off well, with a small glass of wine and resisted the brie and crackers, the hommus and the delicious looking dukkha served with lemon olive oil and fresh crusty sour dough.  All was well, one small glass was followed by another. As the laughter roared around the deck the wine began to flow as freely as the talk and before I knew it, I had that damn platter of sourdough in front of me and I was dipping and dunking as if competing in an eating competition! See…alcohol does not make for steely resolve, it lets the voice inside get loud so it ‘s yelling: “You haven’t eaten a thing for hours! One little bit of bread won’t kill you! Olive oil is healthy. Dukkha is delicious. Bugger it, hoe in!”

So that brings me to point number 3. Here is the news:

When we drink alcohol, our bodies convert it into this stuff called acetate,  which is burned BEFORE other calories we have consumed or have stored. So, as I have consumed more calories than my body requires (ie eating too much), then I store the excess as fat. Then when I drink, my body is receiving the bulk of its energy from the acetate in the alcohol, not from my very ample fat stores. Science tells us that alcohol inhibits “lipid oxidation”. This is the body’s ability to burn fat. In other words, when you have alcohol in your system, it is more difficult for your body to burn existing fat stores.

Well then, drinking alcohol delivers a double-whammy as far as weight loss goals are concerned, doesn't it?

What next then?  Easy…

Get off the grog,

So, I have done a lot of thinking about being lean and luscious,

but what to do about getting there?

Well, today I went to have an ultrasound on the hip that has been paining me for years. It’s not that I haven’t done anything about it – half a dozen doctors, radiologists, massage therapists and two sports physicians, and several x-rays and cortisone injections haven’t really helped. The cortisone takes the pain away for a little while but it always returns and lately it’s been back with a vengeance - big time. So another ultrasound, 2 cortisone injections and $450 later, I am sitting here with a throbbing hip and high hopes that in a few days the pain will have abated. In two weeks I begin a physio program that I am assured, by my very expensive medical advisers, that this will quell the inflammation in my gluteus medius (one of the bum muscles) tendons and hip bursa. OK good. So I should be able to exercise soon.

So what else have I learned about myself and why I am so fabulously fat? Recapping the reasons: I eat too late at night, I don’t get enough sleep, I have been ill, I take certain medications that may or may not slow my metabolism and make me portly; I have been under a lot of stress for a long time and therefore produce lots of stress hormones that turn on that pesky flight or flight response; I have an injury that prevents most weight-bearing, on-land exercise; and sure there may be some genetics involved. And you know what?

Being miserable about being round and wobbly doesn’t help a bit!

It is time for some action: Drumroll please....
Here’s what’s going to happen: exercise more, eat less, eat better, drink less alcohol, be accountable. Remember why I am doing this! (Remind me somebody please?)

1. Exercise as able. Begin a weekly yoga class and progress from there. My goal is to be able to start running as soon as my rehab program allows until I can run 5 kms in 30 minutes. Okay, okay…no great shakes there, but I am not training for the New York Marathon

2. Eat less. I will restrict my calorie intake to 1200-1500 per day. I will join an online weight loss program with inbuilt diary, calorie calculator, tips, recipes and on-line support. I will record everything that passes my luscious lips .

Did you know that research shows that people who use food diaries are more likely to stick to their diet/eating plan than those who don’t?

3.I will drink 6-8 glasses of water per day

4. I will not torture myself by weighing myself every day – once a week is enough!

5. I will listen to my Jon Gabriel CD every night before sleep – more on Jon later!

6. I will practice meditation every day to lower my stress arousal levels
7. I will eat my evening meal by 8pm and go to bed before midnight
8. I will now take all my doctors’ advice about health and do everything they say so that I don’t prolong injuries and illness…with a view to getting better and off those metabolism spoiling medicines
9. I am not sure what I can do about genetics, except pooh-pooh the research and ignore my more well-covered relations
10. Keep writing