Happy New Year, everyone! Welcome to the first diary under my given name, and the first I've posted in 5 years.
My girlfriend and I decided to start working out together last summer. For various reasons the South Beach diet was not working, so we decided to go with a sort of riff on the Mediterranean, but with more protein because of the exercise regimen. As the cook, I had to confront a small problem: My allowed caloric intake is just north of 3,000 calories. Hers is half that.
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There were some basic conditions I had to observe:
- Austerity was not an option. We had proven that we couldn't sustain it. The food had to be enjoyable.
- Meals had to be able to accommodate both me (I'd been losing weight steadily) and her (she'd been holding, or gaining).
- "Low fat" items would be examined skeptically. The packaging on Twizzlers proudly announces that they have no fat, for instance. I looked at a package of low fat feta and what had replaced the fat? Corn starch.
- There would be a bare minimum of prepared foods, for cost and nutrition reasons. As much as possible would be fresh, local and organic.
The initial substitutions were obvious: olive oil for butter. Whole wheat for white. Steamed for boiled and baked for fried, when possible. Some were not: The cheeses I started getting were strong and savory and yes, high in fat; but the whole point was that a little went a long way. I used them like spices. So, for example, asiago replaced parmesan. I also began to favor more vivid spices: One stew featured the heady, North African-inspired combination of tarragon, cilantro, and lemongrass. Ginger, garlic and curry powder also began to appear frequently.
This worked for me (as had everything, to date), but not for her. So I had to continue thinking. Finally, we made two changes: I ate most of my food at work, so that we could each have a similar size dinner. This way, she would not be tempted to overeat just because I hadn't finished yet. Second—and this was a painful move to make, as an aspiring cook—I started serving everything piecemeal.
So what is a salad now? It's a big bowl of greens (those bagged salads are among my favorite innovations), with only the "free" ingredients mixed in: carrots, parsley, that sort of thing. Everything else, especially high-calorie additions like meat and cheese, gets finely chopped for portion control and put in a side dish. (Tomatoes also are served separately, but that's to keep their acid from wilting the greens.) Salad dressing is the extra virgin olive oil, black pepper and balsamic vinegar on the table. Everything is build your own. Bread is always whole grain, often multigrain, slice your own.
I stopped cooking with salt. Salt is on the table. I stopped using more olive oil for cooking than what's absolutely necessary. Olive oil is on the table. I found out that if I sprinkle the right amount of lemon pepper over brussels sprouts as they're steaming, I can convince myself that I taste butter. There is no butter on the table.
Meat preparation, similarly, became as simple as possible: a bit of olive oil, some pepper or dry rub, onions or apples to keep it moist, a tinfoil hat if necessary, and into the oven it went. I discovered that marinating or sautéeing beef in coffee lends it a smoky flavor. I favor chicken, then beef, then pork. When I can get them (they're both farmed locally, but they're not cheap!) I get buffalo or elk, both of which are richer tasting than beef and lower in fat.
None of these, except for the occasional dinner salad, are the centerpiece of any meal. For that, I went all the way back to simple grains and legumes, which are shockingly versatile: brown rice, wild rice, oats, amaranth, barley, quinoa, lentils, moong dal, chickpeas, whole grain pasta and the like can be made to taste like virtually anything with a judicious application of spices. They provide complex carbs, lots of nutrients, and some protein (quinoa is especially virtuous in this area). They cook easily and (usually) fairly quickly. They are (mostly) cheap, especially if you have a store that sells them in bulk. Most importantly, they are filling. I rotate in squash, turnips and to a lesser degree corn depending on the season.
Green vegetables… well, I don't need to tell anyone about those, right? Lots of them, steamed, served with good and healthy things like almonds. The same with fruit. Apples are particularly good, because the fiber in them slows down the rate at which you process the sugars—functionally, they become like complex carbs.
Dairy intake is mostly whey powder for protein, followed by skim milk, followed by cottage cheese and yoghurt, with eggs taking a distant fifth.
Finally, there's the crock pot. My girlfriend brought one with her. I'd never used one. Now I don't know what I'd do without one. They make it easy for me to add beans into the mix. If I start the meal in the morning, it's ready when I come home, or shortly after. And beans are indispensable. They're also cheap, nutritious, a great source of complex carbs and protein, and a great base for a main course. Cooked with bouillon, onions, maybe some red wine, red pepper, rice, perhaps meat, they're filling and satisfying without being heavy or laden with calories. But they do take forever to cook, and that's when you remember to soak them overnight. (If you soak them overnight and then let them sit in a colander for the entire next day, they will sprout. Sprouted beans, like sprouted grains, synthesize protein from their starches, so they're even healthier to eat.)
The crock pot also got me to try an old idea called the pot-au-feu—literally, pot on the fire. The idea is that you have a big pot which simmers 24 hours a day, and as you eat the contents you add in more, changing the character of the soup (or stew, or ragoût, or however it evolves) over time. It always has the rich, settled character that a stew takes on the day after it's made. Crock pots, it turns out, are perfect for this. I kept my pot-au-feu going for almost two weeks straight, simmering away on the countertop. And it tasted great without butter, without meat (sometimes), without anything especially rich or high calorie. Slow-cooked food has much of the appeal of fatty food. (Slow-cooked fatty food? Don't get me started.)
So, what does this all add up, besides a cluttered table? Well, Googling the caloric content of various raw materials and adding them up, my dinners generally land in the 500-700 calorie range, for a satisfying, foursquare dinner. That gets higher if, like me, you just can't help an extra helping or two of the cheese. We eat until we aren't hungry, not until we're full.
There's no dessert. Drinks are red wine (occasionally), sparkling water, iced tea, hot tea, and coffee. Snacks are generally a mix of peanuts, almonds, and raisins, or Cascadian Farm's granola bars.
The alert among you will have noticed that I don't mention fish anywhere. I grew up in Massachusetts. I love fish. It's nutritious and delicious. I'm good at preparing it. But after discovering how horribly overfished the oceans are, and how heavily pollutants are concentrated in the remaining populations, and how Sun Myung Moon's empire controls the supply of sushi-grade fish, I've given up. I get my omega-3 from flaxseed and other more renewable sources. I encourage you to do the same. If the sea dies or changes dramatically in its character, we'll have much bigger problems than a few extra pounds.
Combined with the exercise regimen that focused on strength training, this has shed 50 pounds from my frame since mid-July, when I started this experiment. My girlfriend reports more modest results, but then she doesn't have as much to lose. Best of all, it's good food, so I do not spend my time waiting for the day I can stop depriving myself and get back to eating "normally."
And here I was worried that I didn't have enough material for a diary! What discoveries have you made in the kitchen?