Blog post time!

It’s always something, right? If I’m not in Italy, I’m catching up from all the stuff I didn’t do while I was in Italy. And this is the last week of school, so summer not-vacation starts Friday. (School breaks not vacation for stay at home parent.)

But I am excited about the summer. I am looking forward to creating a lot of things. I will be doing more health coach writing, and may even experiment with making some explanatory videos! (This terrifies me)

I am also experiencing a renewal of other creative energy, which is very exciting. This may be that brain clarity energy boost everyone talks about!

I have a new sewing project on the go – recreating a cross-body bag for a friend who has used up her favorite bag over many years and hasn’t found a replacement. And getting back in the sewing room reminds me of projects I had planned and never gotten to – might be time to dust some of those off!

Fabric shopping fun!

And I’ve also done a (very) small amount of gardening. Just putting some flowers in a couple of pots by the front porch makes my house look happy to see me every day. It’s the little things 😊

I got the big white pot a year ago - finally got
something in it!

…..ok, confession: While I am still excited about the health coaching I have made almost zero progress, and I find myself wondering if people are even interested in such a service. I mean, the information is all out there. It’s not like I have invented a wheel of any kind? Plus my own journey is still so in progress – maybe I should wait for a couple of years until I’ve managed maintenance?

I am attempting to not overly engage this not-helpful talk.

More helpful wonderings may be coming your way in the form of an invitation to answer a few survey questions – about how you like to get information on the internet. Reading, videos, etc.

Until then – enjoy what sunshine you can find, and stay hydrated!

Lac Leman (aka Lake Geneva)

I'm back!

Gelato dilemma update!

I went to Italy. I ate food and drank wine.

I indulged in treats, but probably on average less than once a day.

I ate gelato twice, bread a few times. Pizza once, pasta once. Each of those indulgences was amazing!
But I didn't really find myself slipping into bad habits that much.

About a week in, I found myself getting cranky and hungry more than usual, so I went back to more strict food choices. Bread is a slippery slope for me and I could feel it drawing me in.

But it wasn't really hard to go back to what I normally eat. There were almost always easy options for me to chose delicious, low carb foods. Really delicious.

Health Coach update!

Obviously vacation took up a lot of pre-planning attention, and the vacation itself was not the time to be directly working on the coaching plan. But now I'm back and once again engaged in developing a plan that I can use to help people get their shit together.

I am reading a book that I think has some very important ideas to help me with that -- Bright Line Eating by Susan Pierce Thompson.  (brightlineeating.com)

Essentially it articulates part of what I have identified as a benefit of very low carb diets -- if you take the option away entirely, you don't have to make the decision (literally) a hundred times a day. I don't eat carb-rich foods at all.

(OK, clearly if you read the first section, you know that I do indulge from time to time. But every day, no. When not on holiday? No.)

The 'Bright Lines' are rules that you never ever break. Think of it like an addiction (because it is). For people addicted to heroin, there is no 'moderate, healthy dose' of the drug. And the goal is to make the choices around food automatic - so you don't rely on willpower and decisions every day to be healthy (hint: that doesn't work) Rules 1 & 2 are no sugar and no flour. They are highly addictive substances that have negative effects on body and brain. The other unbreakable rules: meals (3 a day, no snacks), and quantities (she prescribs portion sizes and what to eat at each meal - 1 protein, one grain and one fruit for breakfast, for example. With weights/measures for each)

The parts that I don't agree with are:
1) She includes fruit and some grains in the diet.
2) She advocates strict weighing of all food consumed.

The parts I agree with:
1) No sugar and flour. These are uniquely addictive, and trigger self-defeating cravings.
2) No snacks. (She says 3 meals a day every day, I say 1-2 meals works just fine)
3) 'Willpower' is not enough. If our brain and metabolism believes we need more food, our brains will convince us to eat.
4) Exercise is not a part of the plan. Exercise is great for lots of things, but not for weight loss. Her data shows that increasing exercise as part of the weight loss strategies in her program actually decrease its effectiveness.

Her ultimate goal is mine as well. I don't just want to help people lose weight and get healthy - I want free people from the obsession with food, weight and diet. I have personally spent way too much of my energy trying to solve the problem of weight and health in my life. I am tired of having conversations in my head about if I will or won't eat whatever (See last week's post about the gelato dilemma...)

I am developing my own 'bright line' rules, and how to build in flexibility. Earlier this year, I made the rule that I don't choose high carb foods if I am stressed or sad. It was a really easy pattern to see - if I decided to relax my eating 'policies' when I was in a very stressful state, it quickly devolved into weeks or months of out of control eating. So, in February of this year, I was at my sister's birthday party. A possible reason for indulging in a treat. But it had been a really stressful weekend with my daughter, so it was a hard no.

The other key to building in flexibility in an otherwise strict plan, is the return to normal plan. So, when I started feeling cranky and not myself I knew what to do. I deliberately ate more. More fat & healthy proteins STAT.
At an outlet mall in Switzerland I found this:

This is mall food.
Perhaps one of the reasons Americans are fatter than Europeans? 

Rare roast beef with a horseradish cream sauce. And some asparagus salad. Had I noticed it before I paid, I would have added extra olive oil to the salad to really keto it up. That night we ate with friends and I had salad and lamb chops. No bread, no pasta. Already the next day I was less puffy and feeling much better.

Since I've been home, I'm eating more at breakfast -- sausage, eggs, bacon -- to kick me back into the high fat habit.

Indulging is the key to recovering from indulgence.

There are many people who can follow this bright line eating program 100% and have great success. But I balk at measuring everything. I don't especially want that to become my never ending reality. But I understand why it would be helpful for some people. If you have an addictive relationship to food, especially if binge eating has been a problem for you, you should check it out.

OK, that's it for me today - here are a few fun food pics from Europe:

This may be the last pizza with a carb crust I ever eat.
It was amazing and perfect - no reason to eat more.

Anchovies in olive oil, with garlic and herbs.
I ate some of the bread, to get more of the oil.
Amazing.

What I ate from my hotel breakfast.

What I did not eat from my hotel breakfast.

So keto, so good. Veal cheek (tasty fatty cut)
with vegetables cooked in oil.

Gas station snacks. So easy to be low carb!

Best pasta ever. No need to try any more.
Meat filled ravioli (freshly made) with sage butter sauce.

Made from the spoils of an amazing farmers market in Asti.
Total cost of this was maybe a euro.

Fruit wasn't tempting because I am allergic to pit fruits,
but it sure is pretty!

affogato -- gelato plus espresso.
Delicious, but I didn't finish it.
Too sweet.

Burrata and smoked trout. Amaze.

Tiramisu - chose this one at the first place where the menu was all in Italian
(no English translation). It was the correct choice.

Squash blossom stuffed with seasoned ground meat and then fried.
Served on top of an explosively flavored tomato salad.

Beautiful plate. Asparagus, poached egg,
something crunchy and a creamy sauce.

First Italian coffee.
From a gas station.
It was amazing.

The Gelato Dilemma

T minus 2 days...

Until my grand adventure of the year. 10 days in Italy with an intrepid co-adventure-er. 

What does this have to do with my health coach journey?

Everything. 

I love coffee. Italy has coffee.

You see, I am a believer in whole-self health. I am also a believer of a "Food First" approach to health. In this case there may be a bit of a conflict. One I am terming "The Gelato Dilemma".

To me, whole-self health means that watching what you eat won't make you healthy if you aren't also making room for play. Good sleep won't help you if you don't feel good about your work or your relationships.
What good is good health if you don't have a good life?

However, I think if you've got a bunch of crap going wrong in your life, or just not going right enough, it's a good idea to start with food. Food first means that for me, I have found that giving my body the wrong fuel makes it so much harder to engage my energy towards fixing the other things in my life.

This is extra super duper true if you are on the blood sugar roller coaster -- swinging from hyper to hangry every few hours. Energy ups and downs, food cravings, needing to snack all the time -- it just takes up time! Plus my brain works so much better now that I've kicked the bread habit.

So, brings me to my dilemma.

Italy.

Gelato.

Pasta.

Bread.

Life gets crazy.
This is how my son puts the milk away

Who am I kidding? Is there a dilemma here? I will be in italy. I will taste food. If it makes me feel unwell (as it might, according to the low carb folks who have gone before me), I will not taste it again.

On the other hand, I will also listen to my body, to my appetite. I doubt that ice cream will really sound that good. AND one does not need to consume much of it to have tasted. 

And there is an even longer list of wonderful foods available in Italy that offer me no reason to pause -- I can enjoy wine, cheese, meats, vegetables and all the olive oil in the world. These are flavors to be feasted on. 

Life is about balance - feast and fast. And a healthy life is about mindful choices about each. 
Life is made to be tasted. But one can taste - nibble, sample, savor and also indulge.
In fact, I think one must indulge in order to find whole health. In food and in life. 

Summertime tree climbing = best.