mizducky's migrations: a weight management blog with attitude

Seaweed: Good eating by any name

For the uninitiated, the mention of "seaweed" conjures up memories of massive tangles of funky-smelling, space-alien-looking vegetation drying in the sun just below the high-tide line of their favorite beach. Or worse, memories of creepy-feeling tangles of space-alien vegetation attempting to wrap itself around your ankles as you wade off your favorite beach. Neither of which memories encourage one to think of said space-alien vegetation as any kind of good eats.

Despite those memories, the odds are strong that you've been eating seaweed for years without knowing it. Derivatives from seaweed have found their ways into all sorts of processed foods in the form of agar-agar, carageenan, and other stabilizers. Admittedly, these highly-refined products don't do much more for seaweeds' image than those childhood beach encouters.

No wonder many propenents of seaweeds as delicious and healthy foods choose to re-style the stuff as "sea vegetables." However, my inner five-year-old is massively attached to keeping the "seaweed" name, if for no other reason than to preserve its great pun-potential (said inner five-year-old, little wiseass that she be, is now lustily singing "I see the weed, the weed sees me ...").

Anyway ... for centuries before giant multinational food conglomerates discovered the stuff, seaweeds were used in much more natural forms as nutritious and great-tasting whole foods. Just about every people who have made their home near bodies of water (salt or fresh) where the stuff grows have used it as a food source. The derivative carageenan, for instance, comes from a seaweed the Irish have been using for centuries under the name Irish moss.

But I think it's safe to say that Japanese cuisine has made itself the champion of creative seaweed use. Thanks to the recent craze for sushi, most Americans are at least familiar with nori, made from varieties of seaweed known as Porphyra that are processed into sheets in a process not unlike paper-making. But wrapping your roll is just the beginning. Strips of kombu make the base of delicious broths and stocks, while kombu tied or knotted into rolls gets simmered in stews. Leafy wakame and threadlike hijiki turn up in salads. And sushi-wrapping is only one of a bazillion uses for nori, which turns up as everything from teriaki-seasoned strips for snacking, to a crumbled condiment flavored with everything from toasted sesame seeds to bits of egg and salmon, to be sprinkled on rice and other foods.

Why bother with seaweeds? Well, first off, the stuff is chockful of nutrition. Seaweeds basically absorb all the nutrients they need for their existence from the waters around them, and then deliver all that to you on the dinner plate. Nutrients found in seaweed can help fight a host of health ills including cancer, inflammation, thyroid problems, birth defects, cardiovascular disease, and menopausal symptoms.

Secondly, they're delicious. And one of the reasons they're delicious is that they are naturally rich in glutamate, the amino acid which is the healthy predecessor of monosodium glutamate. Glutamate is the source of that savory "umami" flavor so highly prized by Japanese cooks; this is why glutamate-rich kombu is an essential ingredient in the classic Japanese soup stock dashi. Plus the many shapes, colors, and textures of all the different seaweed varieties just add to the foods' appeal for the inventive cook.

And oh yes--seaweeds are naturally low in calories. So what's not to love?

For the seaweed novice, perhaps the easiest way to get your feet wet (ow, sorry, my inner five-year-old made me do it) is by way of that crumbled shake-on nori condiment I mentioned earlier. Known collectively as furikake, this stuff comes in an almost-bewildering number of varieties and flavors. Some have compared the profusion of furikakes to that of American breakfast cereals, complete with more colorful varieties meant to appeal to kids, and more sophisticated versions for adult tastes. You can find furikake in just about any Asian market, and sometimes even in the Asian food sections of mainstream supermarkets. Failing that, you can try ordering it online (here is just one such online source), or make your own simple condiment by buying sheets of nori and crumbling them.

Traditionally, furikake is sprinkled over hot steamed rice, but nowadays both Japanese and non-Japanese have gotten majorly inventive with the stuff. Here, for instance, are some suggestions from some of the creative folks on eGullet. Myself, I've gotten really fond of zipping up vegetables with the stuff. Last night, for instance, I sprinkled it all over a combination of chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, and green onions, along with some sesame oil and rice wine vinegar--yummy and refreshing.

For more detailed info about the nutritional joys of seaweed, look here. For cooking tips and links to recipes, look here. With these hints as a starting point, hopefully you too will be able to engage in a seaweed diet--as in "I see weed, I eat it." (And maybe your own inner five-year-old will get a good giggle out of it all as well.)

Weekly weigh-in -- plus: still too damned hot

[Wicked Witch of the West]  I'm melting!!!  [/WWW]

Okay, before my brain totally turns into a puddle, here are the numbers:

• Today's weight: 276.5 lb
• Change since last week: -1.0 lb
• Cumulative weight loss: 57.5 lb

Like I said a couple posts back, I was relatively lenient last week with my food, and I still lost a pound. Trying to calibrate the dynamics of one's weight loss is definitely interesting.

In any case, I think I'm going to tighten my food back up a bit this week, even though my bod is still not 100%, because due to the current heat wave and through-the-roof UV index I am getting minimal exercise right now to offset my food intake. (Yes, not only does my bod not care for heat, but I'm also sun-sensitive--the moreso due to several medications I am on. In other words, I make a helluva unlikely candidate for residency in southern California ... )

Still tankin' on the iced tea. Did a quick dash out to a local produce market today to snag some more fresh fruits and vegetables, things that need minimal or no cooking. Lots of nice Roma tomatoes, some fennel (bargain-priced and beautiful), A big bag of Bing cherries, plus kiwi fruit and more peaches. And a huge bunch of fresh mint--mmmm, herbal air conditioning!

Dealing with the heat

Yikes. Way too hot to cook, the past couple of days. Sometimes, too hot to even deal with standing in the kitchen long enough to chop up some salad. Lots of people resort to takeout or dining out when the weather gets like this. Alas, I have to watch it with doing either of those too much, both for budgetary and dietary reasons. The former: just laid a weekend out of town and an unexpected brake repair on the finances recently. The latter: non-greasebomb takeout can be a little tricky to find. Besides, I'd have to go outside in the heat, even if only long enough to make it to my car's air conditioning. Ick.

So here's what I've been subsisting on under such conditions:

• Iced tea. I've been going through gallons of this stuff. I go through gallons of water on a daily basis anyway, but somehow the tea hits the spot more in the heat. I've got some of the Celestial Seasonings herbal and green teas in various flavors. Pleasant and easy to drink in quantity. I don't sweeten them--in fact, with my long-standing prejudice against overly-sweet things, I prefer them that way.
• Ice-cold fruit. I have had a long run of indifferent luck with supermarket peaches, but I saw some big pretty ones in the local Food-4-Less the other day and decided to take a chance again. They were rock-hard when I bought them; a day in a plastic bag on the kitchen counter got them soft enough to be promising, so I stuck them in the fridge. Had the first of them just an hour ago. Not the tastiest peach in the world--perhaps growing that big watered down its flavor a bit--but it had cold and juicy going for it, which is no small thing. I'm letting another take a little chill off on my desk right now, to see if that helps the flavor a bit.
• Workin' the Foreman Grill. Sometimes you just want to slap some meat on the machine and have done with it. And it's hard to argue with the instant-gratification potential of hot sizzlin' pork chop. Oh yeah, the household cat now worships me--it turned into a real carnivore love-fest in the kitchen there.
• Braindead microwave cookery. I had some mustard greens that needed to be used. The thought of hovering over a hot stove made me cringe. I sliced 'em up and plopped 'em in a glass lidded casserole with a couple of cups of chicken broth, lidded them ... and microwaved the lot. Three bursts of three minutes each on high. Admittedly not as tasty as doing the braise in the proper way, but desperate measures for desperate times, y'know?

Thank god/ess, the weather is supposed to cool down starting tomorrow and I can return to actual cooking as opposed to these guerilla forays into my little oven of a kitchen. But it's nice to know a few more tricks for surviving in such weather, because hey, this is SoCal, the summer is young, and this ain't the last of the heat.

On my own now

Y'know, it's interesting that it's taken me until today for the full impact of this to sink in ... but this past Tuesday was the last official meeting of the weekly weight loss class/support group I was taking through my HMO. There will still be monthly follow-up meetings though December of this year, but for better or worse I am now on my own. Which is not a bad thing at all. In fact it is a very good thing. As long as I do give it the attention it deserves.

On a certain level, I am now on autopilot with regard to the basic disciplines of my regimen. It's all about the daily food diary. The actual form and format of it is immaterial--mine happens to be in an Excel spreadsheet, which really suits my computer-based work style. But the important part is actually using it--writing all my food down, every day, everything that goes in my mouth, without fail. I am not 100% on this, but I'm damn close, enough to make any shrink wonder about OCD. But I have seen in the past how short my memory is about what I eat--and also how long and fiendish is the memory of the Food Jones. For that matter, I have also seen my propensity for eventually slacking off on disciplines, so I do need to keep consciously reminding myself about the importance of disciplines such as the food diary, pounding them into my head over and over. And the moreso now that I've no longer got the class noodging me about them.

Meanwhile, this week has been discouraging for me, though not because of weight issues. While I was humorous in my last post about the little health problem that has been bedeviling me recently, I also have to admit that it's really been bumming me out. It's nasty, it's unpleasant and painful, it's been interfering with my ability to get stuff done, it's made even my gentle little stabs at exercise nigh impossible, and worst of all it's been wrecking my sleep, a surefire way to get me feeling really crappy all over. Thankfully, though, I finally managed to get in to see my doctor, and things are beginning to resolve as a result of the meds she prescribed for me. Not a moment too soon. I'm ready for it to be over already.

I have been a bit more lenient on my food plan this week, mainly as a way of taking it easy on myself when I was feeling crummy, but also because of my suspicion that my recent big weight drops might have had some small part in matters. Frankly, I'd be totally okay if my next weigh-in shows I lost nothing this past week. I think my body just needs a chance to catch up with itself. I'm still doing the diciplines, though--not only writing stuff down, but navigating my day's food choices in a sane and healthy manner. And it feels good, even reassuring, to do so. But there's no denying it's much easier to feel enthused about them when I'm feeling good in general.

Still, this is all part of what it's going to be like from now on. I'm now officially doing this not as part of a class but totally for me, and that means navigating through illness and health, busy times and leisure times, good times and bad--hell, it sounds like marriage vows, doesn't it? But maybe that's apropos. I need my brain to be married to this regimen. Till death do us part and the whole nine yards. That's really the only way I'm going to make it on my own with this. Anything less is simply not gonna cut it.

Weekly weigh-in -- plus: keeping the home fires burning (OW!)

Wow, I didn't mean to be this absent from my blog this past week. However, it appears my bod had a few different plans for me ... but first: the numbers:

• Today's weigh-in: 277.5 lb
• Change since last week's weigh-in: -2.5 lb
• Cumulative weight loss: 56.5 lb

Okay, so about those different plans: well, not to get too graphic, but I'm fearsomely reminded of a musical parody perpetrated by a friend of mine some years ago, involving a "Johnny Cash" impression that sounded rather more like Mister Ed, in a most, erm, flaming rendition of "Ring of Fire." Yeah, it was that bane of computer geeks and other long-sitting workers the world over, a hemorrhoid flare-up.

I debated as to whether to mention this delicate subject here ... until I considered that it wasn't only affecting my ability to sit in front of a computer long enough to type blog entries. I'm now halfway convinced that the flareup might have more than a little to do with my ever-changing physical condition due to my weight loss regimen.

In particular, I wonder if that whopping seven-pound weight loss I reported last week may have discombobulated my body's water retention in some way, resulting in the flareup. Water retention directly influences the performance of the intestines, especially in terms of how much water gets sucked out of the material wending its way out of your bod. Too much water sucked out results in constipation, and constipation causes all the delightful little sensations that those delicate tissues down there really adore (not). Result: OW! OW! OW!

I'm still not sure how or why my bod decided to dump so much weight last week, but I'm glad that this week's loss is a much more reasonable 2.5 pounds. Meanwhile, the fire down below is slowly extinguishing itself again, and I'm tankin' on the water and on the soluble-fiber tablets to make sure everything keeps moving along in a gentle, non-violent fashion. If you get my drift.

In addition to all that, I can't help thinking that my still rather yang-ified (from a macrobiotic standpoint) dietary choices might be at play here too. After all, constipation is a contractive process, and the hemorrhoid flareup itself is hot and inflamed, all yang qualities. Especially now that the serious summer heat has finally arrived in San Diego, I may need to majorly up the yin qualities of my food intake (more raw foods, more fresh fruit and uncooked leafy greens, etc.).

And while I am sneaking more and more exercise into my life, there's no denying that I still spend more time in this danged chair in front of the 'puter than is probably good for me. Kind of hard to avoid when one's gainful employment, as well as one's hobbies, involve cyberspace. But avoidable it is, and my bod's sent some extremely clear signals that I better be seeing about that.

Anyway, I am currently on the mend, and hope to be a little more present as things settle back down. In the meantime, I will be cheerfully singing that "Ring of Fire" ditty, and marveling once again at the unique engineering of the human body. Never a dull moment, eh?

Weekly weigh-in -- whoa!

Hi folks! I'm back from my week of intensive guest-blogging over on eGullet -- follow this link if you'd like to see the finished product -- and back with some rather bodacious weekly weigh-in figures:

• Today's weight: 280.0 lb
• Change since last week's weigh-in: 7.0 lb (!)
• Cumulative weight loss: 54.0 lb

Wow. And that's after a week of intensively playing virtual tourguide to foodie things all around San Diego. Well ... to be sure, for that week I was focusing on illustrating what I do to live and eat my health regimen, so I guess it would have been kind of embarrassing if I had blown the food plan off at any point and ate with abandon. But once again, doing my regimen in public kept me honest. Yeah, it's shamelessly exhibitionistic, but hey, it seems to be working.

Readers of this here blog know that I get a little nervous whenever I experience one of these big weight drops when I haven't done anything different from my usual. But as I continue on with this regimen, I'm beginning to see that this might indeed be a normal pattern for me--cycling between little slowdowns and then big catch-ups. So once again I'm going to make no alterations in my regimen for the time being, and just keep doing what I'm doing. But I will check in with my doctor at my next regularly-scheduled appointment just to make sure everything is cool.

And y'know, I did do a helluva lot of physical activity last week--that could have had something to do with the big weight drop. Or maybe it was sunspots. Hell, I dunno. I just have to keep reminding myself that my real goal has always been, and continues to be, not the number on the scale but general all-over health.

Weekly weigh-in -- plus: this week's action

First, the numbers:

• Today's weight: 287.0 lbs
• Change since last week: minus 2.5 lbs
• Cumulative weight loss: 47.0 lbs

Pretty darn good, especially considering I had not one but two splurge-dinners this week. I also had an episode of stomach distress which meant there were a couple of days in there in which I ate considerably less than my daily allotment, sticking mainly to clear soups and porridges--but that is most definitely not my preferred mode of weight loss!

As I previously mentioned, I'm going to be scarce on this blog all this week through the following Monday (6/12), as I'll be busy doing an intensive one-week foodblog over on eGullet.org. You are all heartily invited to follow my exploits over there: just follow this link. Cheers!

That healthy Mediterranean cuisine thing

The white-coat brigades seem to still be arguing over whether the much-hyped "Mediterranean diet" is provably healthier than other diets, but nobody denies that it's a really appealing opportunity for healthy eating. I say opportunity because, well, of course if you go and tank on huge bowls of pasta at your local Olive Garden, that's not particularly healthy--or particularly Mediterranean, for that matter. But if you exercise some portion control and are treated to authentically light and fresh foods well-prepared in the true Mediterranean way, it is easy to enjoy a meal that is both terrifically yummy and terrifically healthy.

It was my great good fortune to be invited to such a meal this past Saturday, courtesy of a silent auction through the Unitarian Universalist church I belong to. Our hostess J.M. served us a lovely dinner in her garden, during which we made all the typical stops of a rustic Italian dinner: antipasti, salad, pasta course, meat course with vegetables, and dessert ... but in light little servings, spread out over a leisurely couple of hours of chatting and nibbling, so that the dinner was almost more like the many-small-meals pattern I have adopted for my regimen than the heavy experience we usually think of as a "formal dinner." And the foods we nibbled on all fit well within my regimen as well.

Our antipasti included mixed olives, salame, little squares of parmesan annointed with balsamic vinegar, and cubes of canteloupe wrapped in slivers of prosciutto--I stuck mainly with the canteloupe, which was lovely. Next came a refreshing salad of spinach and radicchio, with walnuts and a soft white cheese (I'll need to check with my hostess as to the type of cheese), and a simple olive oil dressing.

The pasta course was a neat little bowlful of bowtie pasta, dressed simply with fresh chopped tomatos and basil, and more olive oil. One of the things the skeptics criticize the Mediterranean diet for is the large amount of fat the diet includes, but when almost all of that is due to olive oil, you know that at least it's a heart-healthy fat. And if you don't succumb to the urge to mop up every last drop of that oil with large amounts of bread, it's one of the gentler indulgences you can allow yourself.

The "meat course" was actually poultry, specifically herbed chicken baked to perfect juiciness, accompanied by asparagus, yellow squash, and onions. I was mightily grateful for the beautiful vegetables--as you all know I have this thing about how veggies so often get short shrift on the standard American dinner plate. In fact, if you've been keeping track, you'll have seen a whole lot of produce go by in this meal, with modest amounts of protein and starch, making for a great balance.

Okay, so I've been really healthy so far. But I'm not completely immune to the joys of little treats--especially when they really are little. Like these nice slices of not-too-sweet lemon tart. Just a little wedge of this with an espresso made a perfect end to the meal, leaving no cravings for anything bigger or richer.

In fact, so much about this meal was majorly different from the idea of the "fancy meal" that I grew up with. Then, it was all about overwhelming the guests with mass quantities of the richest foods you could pile together, because overkill was how you demonstrated it was a special occasion. But here we spent a whole evening eating satisfying and flavorful little servings of gentle, refreshing foods, and I think we all left feeling satisfied, even pampered.

My thanks to my excellent hostess, J.M., and to my fellow guests, for a wonderful evening of great conversation to match the great food.

One week of food frenzy, documented

Well, the cat has officially been let out of the virtual bag, so I am now pleased to reveal that I will be the next "foodblogger of the week" over on eGullet--or to give the site's full and proper name at least once somewhere on this blog, The eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters.

eGullet has evolved this entertaining practice of having members take turns at presenting a week-long blog of their culinary activities. This has turned into a really popular thing, as the foodbloggers have regularly risen to the occasion in all sorts of wonderful ways--documenting major cooking projects, restaurants, markets, dinners, festivals, picnics, and all sorts of other fascinating foodie lore of their lives and locations with copious photos and great joie de vivre.

They're a colorful lot over on eGullet, both pro and dedicated amateur, from all walks of life and many different nations, and they all also seem to share that other common trait of epicures, a devotion to telling great stories. And because it's in forum format, the blogger gets to interact with readers. It's like a virtual dinner conversation--the kind that goes on till way too late because you're having too much fun talking to each other.

I got to do one of these foodblogs back in January, and I had a helluva lotta fun with the thing. Ironically, that blog (and the food excesses it documented) fell just the week before I started my current health regimen. I literally finished the blog late one night, and then at 9:30am the next morning I was sitting in the first meeting of the weekly class my HMO had enrolled me in, being handed a humongous looseleaf notebook and a food plan. So that blog turned out to be my last hurrah for fressing, a week-long mini-Grande Bouffe that, while fun, actually left me relieved to switch to lighter eating. I didn't even plan that, but it sure worked out serendipitously in terms of my psychology.

Doing that blog had another effect--it left me itching to do more blogging about food. And then, as my new regimen began to take off a whole lot better than I could have imagined, it hit me--duh! blog about this whole "regimen" business--and anything and everything else you can think of to keep you on the damn thing! Cheap therapy, and a creativity challenge! And so, here we are.

Meanwhile, back at the eGullet ranch ... I didn't expect to get to do another of their foodblogs so soon, but apparently there was a last-minute hole in the schedule due to a cancellation, and I am massively flattered that I was one of the people asked to fill in. And again this is serendipitous, because now I'll get to go nutz documenting a lot of the really neat local markets and hole-in-the-wall cafes I've found in my quest for interesting and natural healthy food.

By the way, I've sort of avoided going into strictly local-to-San Diego resources in this blog, figuring it wouldn't be quite so interesting to anyone reading this who wasn't near enough to actually get any use out of such resources. But maybe I should rethink that assumption. Opinions, anyone?

Anyway, this special blog will be starting next Tuesday, and I'll be sure to post the link over here once it gets created--because one of the side-effects of doing that blog is that I'll be a little scarce over here for that week. So--y'all come visit me over there, y'hear?