Once again this January, Mike and I sat down to discuss goals for the coming year. Even more than last year, our discussion centered mainly on what the heck we were going to do to become more physically fit. This is because we are both oozing into our forties. Neither of us ever gets carded at the liquor store anymore. Sigh. And lately I have noticed a lot more complaining about our joints (and not in regards to the quality of the ones we’re smokin!…just kiddin mom). There’s aching and creaking all over the place. When we ascend from the comfy chairs in our cockpit we both tend to let out a groan. Jeans don’t fit anymore (stupid dryer). A recent trip to the doc had revealed that my cholesterol was a little on the high side. The doc looked at me and with a sly grin said, “You’re at that age when you are going to have to start to watch your sugar and fat intake.”
“Freakin- since when did I get to be ‘at that age’?!” I asked our 19 year old daughter, Lauren, who was down for Christmas. She said, “You ARE and just think, if I had a baby right now that would make you a GRRAA…..”
“GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY STOP RIGHT NOW!” I yelled, “DON”T EVEN SAY THE ‘G’ WORD- I REALLY MEAN IT!”
While discussing exercise routines and diets, Mike and I eased our depression with a piece of my birthday cake and some Sambuca. I told Mike, “I am so tired of all the trendy diets or the videos that promise I’ll look like Olivia Wilde when I’m finished. I want something sustainable long term. I want a lifestyle change.”
Mike agreed that a lifestyle change was what we needed. I knew that if I saw this diet/exercise thing as an aberration to an otherwise “normal” existence, I would go right back to my bad habits once the program came to an end. This seemed redundant. So we discussed a couple of things we could do, significant but simple, that would create the most impact in our lives. We dared to speak of the gastronomic holy trinity: sugar, coffee, and alcohol. Could we give them up and would it help if we did?
“Should we give up coffee?” I asked. There was a long lull followed by hilarious laughter. As IF.
“Okay then, how about refined sugar and alcohol?”
Many years ago, when our kids were little I did a fair bit of nutritional research. I was all about the responsibility I had as the one who prepared the meals to create good healthy food for my family. I bought a grain grinder and ground my own grain. I experimented with rice syrup and sucanat. Made things like turkey meat loaf. Even toyed with the idea of having a vegetarian Thanksgiving (more hilarious laughter). I did a lot of reading at the time on the evils of refined sugar and for a few years we barely touched the stuff. I remember I felt great during those days. Very few headaches and I kept my weight in check with hardly any effort. Plus, there were great ways to incorporate unrefined sugar, like sucanat (unrefined sugar cane with its nutrients intact) into all my cooking. We made a commitment to cut back on sugar and use only unrefined products from here on out.
Alcohol was an add on. It isn’t like we are alc-ies. But we had noticed lately that having a glass of wine or two at night, even the presumably healthy red, was adding an extra 250 calories onto our day and we didn’t even think about it. So we decided to give that up for a month to cleanse our systems. Yes, I know, it isn’t an extended lifestyle change, but maybe the important lifestyle change here is knowing that you can give it up and you won’t self combust and not only that, but you can give it up any time during the rest of your life for a bit of a cleanse.
So, we are back to counting calories with the help of the app FatSecret that we added on to our cell phones. This is a great way to track your exercise and calories and you can even sync it with pals on the FatSecret website. After a rather lengthy Christmas siesta, we are back to our usual exercise routine: 3 days cardio, 2 days yoga/weight training.
This morning I tried a new recipe for blueberry muffins that were fantastic. I mean, I have high expectations when I’m eating healthy. I want all of the flavor and consistency of the normal high fat, high sugar, food item, with half the calories and fat. These muffins are IT baby. They are a whole grain (mostly), unrefined sugar BOMB! Good consistency and flavor and a fraction of the calories of a normal muffin. So here’s the recipe along with the nutritional info so you can prove these are healthy when your partner says “THESE CAN NOT BE LOW CAL!”
Here’s to your health (I’m raising a glass of healthy water with lemon!)
Blueberry Streusel Muffins-recipe from the All New Complete Cooking Light Cookbook
¾ C all purpose white flour
½ C whole grain flour such as wheat or spelt
½ C quick cooking oats
½ C sucanat or equivalent of some other unrefined sweetener
½ T baking powder
½ t. baking soda
Sprinkle of salt
1 C vanilla non fat yogurt
¼ C reduced fat buttermilk or milk
1 ½ T canola oil
1 t. vanilla and 1 t. almond extract (opt)
1 egg
Approx 1 C blueberries
Streusel:
¼ C flour
¼ C slivered/sliced almonds
1 T sucanat
1 T melted butter
Put all dry ingredients together in a large bowl and stir to incorporate. Make a well in the center and add wet ingredients up to and including the blueberries. Still well and put in greased muffin tin. Mix streusel ingredients together and sprinkle on top. Bake for 15 minutes at 400. Makes 12 muffins. Can double recipe or omit streusel for an even healthier version.
Nutritional info: 123 calories per muffin (Pretty good considering a normal store bought muffin is usually 300 or higher and far less healthy) FAT 3.2, PROTEIN 3.1g, CARB 21.1g FIBER 1.2g CHOL 9mg and CALCIUM 68mg.
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