Friday, December 31, 2010

calming the holiday belly is really in the mind

After almost 55 total hours of driving to and from the east coast I am finally nestled back into my cozy apartment. The piles of things that blocked our view of the back windshield is now sitting in the middle of my living room floor, my dining room table, my kitchen counter space, my couch, and scattered in other inconvenient places. It's disorganized (and yes this makes me crazy) but it means that I'm home now and can get things back in order the way I like them. But clutter aside, first and foremost order means FOOD!

My poor empty vegetable drawer and more importantly my poor aching belly. Its been stretched and bloated and tortured mercilessly by none other than yours truly. No one forced holiday food down my throat and no one held me at gun point. I personally made the choice to eat sugar, food with processed white flour, dairy, and eggs. And to be quite honest, I have no regrets. But I do have a tired and grumpy belly.

It's 11:00am and I've already had a light breakfast, some fruit  and another small snack. On a normal day in my life this would suffice,  but today my stretched out tummy is saying "hey! where are all the carb loaded, salty, heavy treats you've been feeding me 5 times a day? I'm hungry here!" And to this, I politely reply: "Belly....you've had your tea and your miso soup and your large green apple and even some brown rice...now it's 11:00am and this is a lot more than I usually feed you by now so you should be thankful and now you will have to wait until lunch." Belly continues to grumble grumpily at me. And I choose to ignore her. She's so cranky sometimes!

But as I said before, I don't regret my holiday choices. I normally don't have much of a sweet tooth, so this is my time where I indulge in Christmas cookies, candy canes, pancakes and french toast, and a myriad of other desserts and chocolates. And it goes further than sweets. In my normally dairy free kitchen, where cheese does not exist I have little temptation and interaction with this joyous treat. But at Christmas I turn into a cheese-freak, seeking it out any chance I get. There's warm brie, and sliced cheddar, and shredded cheese on the nachos we made while watching the Patriots game. And once my taste buds get even just a smidgeon of a taste, I'm hooked for the entire duration of the visit home. I melt it on toast, I eat it with crackers, I steal bites of it in between meals. I eat string cheese, and cream cheese, and smoked cheese, and cheesy pizza. And I eat it knowing that my kitchen back home will not tolerate its presence so it's okay. The insanity will have to stop. Right?

So here I sit. At a total stalemate. Mind craving some peaceful and natural food, body looking for something else entirely. Something that resembles a little more of what I splurged on for so many blessed days in a row. But as I believe in all aspects of life, mind wins. Mind always wins. And my mind says it's time to defrag, decheese, desweet, and reboot!

And your mind can do it too. You can say no to the left over sweets (or you can put them in the freezer and just have a little when the time is right) you can tell your friend that you don't want to go out for that pizza today, you can politely decline the holiday left overs from friends and family! You can say no! Your mind is strong.

I thought I would share with you what I've been eating today. I'm not telling you that these foods will cure your holiday hangover. I don't think they have magical powers and certainly not everyone will enjoy them. But I share them with you so you know that a) you're not alone in your post holiday belly misery and b) you have a friend in me if you're looking to have some natural and tummy soothing treats to get you back on track. So here's the menu for the day....oh boy, mind over belly...mind over belly...mind over belly (just keep saying it!)

Breakfast:
-1 cup of ginger tea (I drink yogi tea but if I'm out you can actually just slice up some pieces of fresh ginger and let them soak in your mug for 5 minutes before spooning them out!)
-1 mug full of miso soup with toasted sunflower seeds (recipe to follow)

Snack #1
Large green apple

Snack #2
1/2 brown rice with 1 tbsp edamame, 1tbsp toasted sunflower seeds, and 1tbsp raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas)

Lunch: Okay this was a tough one. On my first day back when I'm all excited to eat healthy, I'm needing to go on a business lunch. These are normally not a big deal but it can be quite hard to stay natural and healthy in many restaurants! Luckily, it's a sushi place so I just got a couple of sushi rolls and some salad.

Snack#3 more rice, edamame and seeds

Dinner: A sweet potato baked in the oven, Miso soup with sunflower seeds, and for my husband who always needs something sweet after a meal a whole fruit popsicle!

Now this is really not a lot of food. I keep fruit leathers ready and clementines accessible. But I try to remember that I'm not going to starve if I eat lightly for a day or two. Nothing bad will happen. I will not crumble. And really I am happy and excited to be kind to my body once again.

Here are the recipes to the soup and the taosted seeds. If you want to join me I'm happy to help!


Miso:
bring 2 1/2 cups of water to a boil
Add several pieces of wakami (seaweed from the health food store)
Add one bunch of Udon Noodles
Cook on low heat until noodles are cooked all the way through (about 10 minutes)
Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of a light miso (I use yellow) and 1 1/2 teaspoons of dark miso (I use brown rice) to a small cup. Spoon out some of the boiling liquid into the cup and stir until miso has dissolved.
Add the miso mixture into the pot and turn off heat immediately
Stir

Sunflower Seeds:
pour sunflower seeds into a dry frying pan so that none are overlapping. Put pan on medium heat. Seeds will begind to make a popping sounds. Shift them around with a spatula until all are golden brown. Take off heat. Add a couple splashes of soy sauce or tamari (gluten free) and mix around quickly to coat all the seeds. Keep them stored in a jar or container in the refrigerator. They make a good snack or a perfect topping for soup.






So if you feel bad for your poor belly, find some healthy, natural, whole foods that will sooth and make it feel happy again. Your belly can't stay mad at you forever. And let me know what you're doing to combat the holiday hangover! Till next time!

BPositive and BFriendly to your belly!

1 comment:

  1. i know, i love cheese too. ; ) sigh
    but miso is something, i would love to make time, to create.

    thank you for your sweet comment on my blog. it means so very much to me. you made me smile... no beam!
    xo

    ReplyDelete