“There are no rules to this thing”
.. it’s from The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.. a movie I love, and that quote I remember clearly from the first time I heard it.
I could go off on the fact that there are of course some rules, and cliche.. they are made to be broken.. but in this case I am speaking more generally. I’m talking about food.
Michael Pollan has his “food rules” and I totally agree with them.. but I’d add a couple others ..
Rule X: Enjoy!
Rule Y: Be open minded.
I feel like for so long I attempted to put myself in a box when it comes to my food choices. I’ve always been Alyson the.. picky, healthy, strict, discipline, boring, weird.. eater.
With labels (anywhere in life, but still speaking strictly about food here) come expectations. Even recently, if not even more so than in the past, these labels have left me feeling like there is an expectation on how &/or what I eat. I know part of the pressure I put on myself, but part of the expectation is quite real.. as in the fact that it’s not rare that I get comments about what I’m eating, regardless of what end of the health spectrum it is on (i.e. “eww, that spinach & chicken looks gross” .. or “I can’t believe you are eating that!” as I scarf down a full-fat Chicken Quesadilla).
95% of the time I eat what is generally termed these days as “Clean,” but I am far too adventurous and curious, and love food too much to follow any food rules.. or so I’ve decided.. or perhaps, so I’m exclaiming!
So perhaps this would be a good time to make admissions.. On occasion I like greesy food, cheese, butter, oil, real cookies, sugar in it’s many forms, red meat, sausage, fake cheesy sauce, alcoholic beverages coming in at 1000 calories a pop (why oh why margaritas), late night pizza… the list goes on.
While we’re on it.. Clean Foods sits next to Joy of Cooking and Best Christmas Cookies on my cookbook shelf(ves), and I equally adore both Alice Waters and Anthony Bourdain (currently reading his new book Medium Raw and just read the chapter entitled ‘Ask Alice’ haha), and would be delighted to share a meal with either (yes I would absolute try almost all of the street food Bourdain enjoys).
I think it’s in human nature to want a label.. it makes people feel like they belong, that they have a group, that they have rules to follow.. it’s like a security blanket. For whatever reason, I’ve resisted labeling in some aspects of my life (I don’t think I’ll ever pick a religion but I like learning about different beliefs and enriching my spiritual side, and even though I am quite liberal, especially socially, my voter registration card says ‘independent’.. my grandfather is rolling over in his grave at that), while with my diet I seem to have been looking for the one that suited me best and jumping around from one to the other. The fitness competition stuff, by necessity, promoted such rules & guidelines even further. I don’t think there was anything wrong with that, but perhaps I’ve just grown past the need for those labels, or more likely, realized that it’s time to let it go.
Counting & Scales
This last week I haven’t been counting calories or macros. I also haven’t stepped on a scale, nor do I plan to. I was dieting hard core for a while and my weight wasn’t changing. Sure I looked leaner, but my weight was stable. Now that I’m not dieting, I have no doubt weighing myself would only create needless frustrating, when I have nothing to be frustrated or bothered about. I put on a good amount of muscle/mass/size/whateva in the last 9 months, and that isn’t going to go away over night. Oh.. don’t get me wrong, I have no desire to be a thin-rail.. I <3 my curves and it’s how my bod likes to be.. but I would like to diminish the added size. Doing that will take quite a while, because I have no intention of restricting calories to do so. It will happen naturally, over time, by eating in a balanced and fulfilling way and working out in accordance with my goals.. and not stressing about it!
I’ve also been on a greater than usual cooking & baking kick ever since I started at Nourish. I really like watching the chefs, and I find myself coming home excited to find new recipes and combination to try myself… so lots of new recipes will be posted soon!
Actually.. how about one now..
Scone turned Scuffin
The other day I woke up with Scones on my mind. This is a totally random desire for me as I think I’ve had maybe 2 scones in the last 4 years.. but regardless, I had the ingredients on hand, and decided to attempted Gluten-Free Blueberry Scones. I however, did not do my research and did not account for the additions/changes that come when using Spelt & Gluten-Free Flour instead of All-Purpose. So in my usual way of combining 3 different recipes (though mainly based on this recipe which was originally from Alice Walter’s, The Art of Simple Food), I neglected to add the liquid slowly, and ended up with extremely thin batter that would in no way be able to be shaped into a scone. A waste?… of course not.. into the muffin tins they went, and lovely Scuffins were born! The texture actually turned out much like Scones, and they are in lovely single-serving portions..
Gluten-Free Blueberry Scuffins
2 c Gluten-Free Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 c Stevia in the Raw
1.25 c Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze
1 c fresh Blueberry
Pre-heat oven to 400 F. Mix dry ingredients. Stir in Almond Milk until just blended, then fold in Blueberries. Pour into muffin tins (sprayed or in paper cups) and bake for ~18 minutes.
Perfect as a topper for Goat’s Milk Yogurt..
Even though these turned out great (and they freeze/unfreeze wonderfully), I think I’m going to stick with good old All-Purpose, Whole Wheat and Spelt Flour from here on out.. the gluten-free stuff is just complicated.. I’ll leave it to the experts 
Do you have ‘food rules’? Labels in general.. your thoughts?
And how was your weekend?!
Fun Links
Oh yummy and even better in goats milk yogurt. I can't get enough of that stuff. Really wish that had goats milk cottage cheese, haha.
Can't wait to see more recipes from Nourish inspiration.
Alyson, sometimes you literally take the words right out of my mouth!
Another great post. Reminds me of a friend who likes to constantly remind me how much I USED to love sweets. Um….I still love sweets!! True, I don't crave sweets like I once did, but I'll always love them, it's just that now I only have them on occasion instead of every day. I think when people are struggling with their own diets/nutrition/weight loss or simply don't understand how to change their eating habits for the better, then it's comfortable for them to put labels on other people whose food choices may seem strict or regimented. But to me, there are no hard and fast rules or labels or titles, only choices.
And thank you for your candid confession. I too would like to clear the air…my name is Monica Queen and 90% of the time I eat clean, but I do on occasion eat chocolate, baked treats, bread, full fat cheese, diet soda, and NON protein pancakes! lol. Ahhhhhh, I feel so much better!
P.S. I'm with ya on the gluten free flour. It's tough to work with and frankly, it's not as nutritionally beneficial as grain flours. I just tried a recipe that I'm highly recommending to everyone I know because it turned out so well…..it's Jamie Eason's carrot cake protein bars. Wow…..they are so delicious!!!
I really enjoyed reading this one today. I love your honesty. I am often labeled by what I eat mostly b/c I am a vegetarian. But that's my diet, not ME.
How are the stats on that gluten free flour? Is it similar to regular?
So true about labels! I don't label myself as anything really. I'm kind of an everything-sometime girl!
Twitter: NourishedFit
says:
Yeah it's basically the same. I was just playing with it since a lot of the stuff in the restaurant where I'm working is gf.
AMEN girl.. i love this, live your life. I think weighing stuff on scales all the time is a tad bit ridiculous. I know some ppl do it for goals, which is understandable.. BUT when ppl just do it just cause.. thats kind of crazy!
I want those scones now!!! Scones that seem to be very low fat by your recipe!!! YUM!!!!
I pretty much watch what I eat & the older I get, the more it becomes a necessity & I had to do it when I was young too!
Maybe with age, I will give a little.. time will tell!
My food rules…I'd say, read labels, know what you're eating and avoid sugar in all its forms. Likin' the idea of those scuffins! Mmmmm….
i made these http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2010/07/vegan-g…
and dont use GF flour b/c youre right, they are expensive, taste funky and leave a weird textuer. just stick w/ the tried and trues like oats, or spelt, etc.