Why I'm Happy to Have Food Allergies

I've had breathing issues my entire life.  I was born with pneumonia.  I was told I was weak and fragile and had bad lungs.  I never participated in sports (although I could somehow play the oboe).  I had childhood allergies (never defined, but treated with prescription medications) and exercise-induced asthma.  And then, as an adult, I smoked cigarettes for nearly a decade.  Not the makings of a cyclist, but somehow, I found myself on the bike.

When I got serious about cycling, I visited the pulmonologist, who confirmed that I'm allergic to just about everything in the world, that I have temperature- and exercise-induced asthma, and early signs of COPD.  But, I wanted to race my bike, so I endured years of allergy shots (treating environmental allergies but not food allergies), allergy medications to counter the symptoms, and an inhaler to clear my lungs.  But never did this doctor recommend that I eliminate allergens from my environment.

A few years ago, I started working with a different allergist, who recommended I remove all allergens from my environment.  This included eliminating certain foods, my dog (I couldn't do it), carpet, and covering my bed and pillows in anti-allergen cases.  I do the best I can.

The foods were the easiest to eliminate (although this takes very conscious decision-making, especially if eating in a restaurant).  My home is as allergen-free as I can make it.  I struggle when traveling (motel rooms are filled with allergens like dust, dust mites, and mold) and mountain biking can aggravate my allergies to grasses and trees.  But all in all, I've been able to relieve my symptoms by making some lifestyle changes.

Interestingly enough, when I removed my food allergens from my diet, amazing things changed in my health.  My immune system seemed to improve, maybe because it wasn't constantly being stressed by my diet.  My lungs were stronger (proven through breathing tests).  I no longer needed to use an inhaler for cycling, except in very cold temperatures.  My weight stabilized.  My energy increased as did my sleep quality and my mood.  I no longer suffered headaches and a stuffy head.  My skin cleared up and the hives that had plagued me for many years disappeared.  And my recovery time on the bike improved dramatically.

So, why am I happy to have food allergies?

• I learned to cook.  My most significant food allergy is wheat.  Wheat is in everything, not only obvious foods like bread and pasta, but also hidden in things like salad dressings and sauces.  To eliminate wheat, I needed to learn how to prepare foods from scratch.

• I learned about great foods I had never tried before.  When I first started eating wheat-free, the gluten-free trend wasn't popular and GF foods were not readily available.  So rather than substituting GF bread or pasta for regular bread or pasta, I substituted other foods.  I discovered corn (tortillas, polenta, chips) and I embraced the humble potato.  

• I became acutely aware of what I'm putting into my body.  I rarely ate pre-packaged foods, but when I did, I learned to read labels and evaluate the ingredients.  I also started to pay attention to how I felt after eating certain foods.  Did my energy level spike or drop after eating?  Did I feel full?  How did I feel the next day?

Because I'm also sensitive to oats (and many times oats are contaminated by wheat), I had to find a substitute for my favorite breakfast food -- oatmeal.  After some research, I decided to experiment with quinoa.  While many consider quinoa a grain, it's actually a seed, very high in micro-nutrients and is a complete protein.  Quinoa is high in calcium, magnesium, and iron, and is a valuable source of fiber.  It can be cooked in much the same way you would cook rice and can be prepared as a cereal, a pasta, or added to other foods (like salad) to give nutritional value and texture.  All hail the super-food quinoa!

I thought I'd share my favorite breakfast.  It's pretty easy and very filling.  It keeps my energy levels super-high and it's really yummy.

Caveat, I like texture foods (and this is no exception).  I like crunchy peanut butter; not creamy.  I prefer a smoothie to juicing.  I like chunky soups.  I like Almond Joy (not Mounds) and peanut M&Ms (not plain).  I'd rather eat food with a crunch than those that are smooth.  And my breakfast is no exception.

I prepare this in the rice cooker but it can also be prepared on the stove.  It takes 20-30 minutes to cook so you can set it and shower or pump up your tires or walk your dog.

Lorri's Happy Morning Crunchy Breakfast Quinoa (approximately 600 calories):

Prep Time:  10 minutes

Cook Time:  20-30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 tsp coconut oil (optional)
1/4 cup quinoa
half an apple (cubed, skin on)
handful of raisins
cinnamon to taste
1 1/2 cup water
coconut milk
raw coconut flakes
chia seed
sunflower seeds

Coat your rice cooker with coconut oil.  Add quinoa, apple, raisins, cinnamon, and water and cook.

When cooked, add coconut milk, coconut flakes, chia seed, and sunflower seeds to taste.

Enjoy your day!

the main ingredients

the toppings

ready to go in the rice cooker

the finished product!

Are You Really Hungry?

I've learned so much about nutrition in the past decade.  But I've learned even more about the power of our mind in the past couple of years.

I recently had an amazing 10-minute conversation that somehow concluded 3 hours later with one of our Velo Girls sponsors, Mae from LadyParts Automotive Services.  Each time we get together, we start out talking about business and end up having deep, meaningful, thought-provoking conversations about feminism, health and fitness, religion, nutrition, dating, philanthropy, empowering women and girls, you name it!  So as our conversation segued naturally from one topic to the next, we started discussing nutrition, lifestyle change, and the influence of emotion on our eating habits.  I thought I'd share some insight with those of you who might have an interest in this topic as well.

I went through a pretty significant weight loss between 2009 and 2012.  This was the second time in the past decade I've had this experience, and I fully intend for it to be the last time in my life I need to lose weight.  I hit my goal weight in July 2012 and have been able to maintain that weight (and lose some body fat) since then.  The last time I went through weight loss, I started gaining it back as soon as I had achieved my goal weight.  As I think about why this time it will "stick," I realize that in addition to transforming my body, this time, I transformed my mind.

As women (and some men, too), many of us struggle with emotional eating.  We use food to self-medicate.  We eat when we're happy.  We eat when we're sad.  We eat when we're stressed.  We eat to celebrate life.  We eat for a plethora of reasons that have little or nothing to do with nutrition.  So, if you find yourself craving food even when you know you're not physically hungry, I suggest you ask yourself these questions:

"Are you hungry, or are you really thirsty?"

"Are you hungry, or are you really bored?"

"Are you hungry, or are you really tired?"

"Are you hungry, or are you really stressed out?"

You could add to this list, but you get the idea.  We often eat, not out of physiological need, but out of emotional desire.  So, if you're trying to maintain healthy nutrition, learn to become mindful of when and what you eat.  Don't go to the refrigerator when what you really need to do is go to the gym or finish that tough work project or take a nap.

I've invested much time in the past couple of years learning about emotional eating and food addiction.  Of course, this leads to learning about other addictions as well.  I read an article recently that outlines the dopamine effect of reward-based behavior.  In short, that positive reaction we have eating, drinking, taking drugs, etc, is a response to the 2nd exposure and there is diminishing return to subsequent exposures, which is why addicts need more exposure to obtain the same initial uplifting effect.  Using food as an example, the first bite does very little for you, but the 2nd bite is the one that satisfies your cravings.  And each bite after that doe not significantly enhance that effect.  In other words, if 2 is good, 3 isn't better.  But, for those people who have addiction, the desire to have 3, 4, 5, or more is overwhelming in their need to feel good.

As Mae and I continued to discuss lifestyle change and nutrition, she told me she was amazed that I seemed to speak of food as such a positive thing.  Many folks who struggle with over-eating, food addition, being overweight, etc, view food as the enemy.  But I view food as fuel.  Food provides the physical and mental energy for me to function:  to think, to ride my bike, to feel strong and healthy.  And quality food, filled with lots of colors and textures, will help me stay healthy and happy.

I referred several times to eating beige food, so Mae asked me what I meant.  In short, we should strive to eat colorful food:  lots of fruits and vegetables.  We should limit the beige foods (breads, pastas, gravies, etc).


So, five tools that may help you shift your thinking about food:

#1 -- Are you hungry?

#2 -- Be mindful of the 2nd bite.

#3 -- Food is energy that allows you to function optimally, both physically and mentally.

#4 -- Fill your plate with lots of color.

#5 -- Food is not the enemy.  Food is a positive and necessary component of life!  Put the good stuff in and you'll get the good stuff out!

our body is an amazing homeostatic organism

we're very efficient at being constant. with this in mind, it's no wonder it's so hard for us to make lasting change in our lives.

like many women, I've had periods when I'm at my "perfect" weight and periods when I'm not. and, of course, there are the transitional periods in between -- yes, times of weight loss and weight gain.

I have a very simple theory about body weight and nutrition.

because our bodies are so darn efficient, it's very easy for most of us to maintain a constant weight. we have physical cravings for just the right amount of calories to sustain our current weight.

we don't over-eat based on physical cravings, but rather because of emotional eating. yes, emotional eating: we're happy, we're sad, we're celebrating, we're lonely, we're rewarding ourselves -- all non-physical reasons for eating.

if we listen to our bodies, and our bodies don't crave more calories than we need, then we won't overeat.

caloric deficit (under-eating) is another ball of wax altogether. it's hard to deficit ourselves. it takes discipline and conscious decision-making. we have to fight the physical cravings and the emotional desires. however, in order to lose weight, we need to create a negative caloric balance (aka a caloric deficit).

so, how do we do that? there are three components to weight loss (or gain or maintenance):

first, you need to know how many calories your body needs everyday (your caloric expenditure). short of lab testing, you can estimate this using a number of on-line calculators. I use a tool called http://www.fitday.com. it's a free online food and activity journal. by entering information about myself, fitday helps me estimate my basal caloric needs and my lifestyle caloric needs. then, I can enter my fitness activities each day for an estimate of my exercise caloric expenditure. voila! I now have a pretty accurate estimate of how many calories my body needs each day.

next, you need to know how many calories you're putting into your body (your caloric intake). to do this, you need to keep a record of your nutrition. I also use fitday for this. in order to accurately enter your food each day, you need to become a label whore (yes, read those labels), weigh, and measure your food. the biggest nutrition mistake I see in my practice is that folks underestimate what they're eating. we've been taught that a "portion" is much larger than it really is so we need to reset that measure. the second most common mistake is that folks insist that they eat "right" meaning they're eating healthy food, but they have no idea how many calories they're eating. so, you need to know what you're putting into your body in order to make positive change.

lastly, you need to make a conscious decision each day to deficit yourself. a safe, healthy rate of weight loss is 1-2 pounds a week, so a deficit of 500 - 1,000 calories would be ideal. this is the hard part, because you're going to feel hungry unless you fill your plate with foods that aren't calorie dense (ie lots of fruits and vegetables to fill your belly).

so, if one of your goals for the coming season is to lose weight, you have the tools that you need to achieve that goal right at your fingertips:

1. caloric expenditure
2. caloric intake
3. caloric deficit

good luck to you in achieving your goals!


(editor's note: while this entry focuses on weight loss, I'm aware that there are also women who struggle with weight gain. the same principals apply.)

I am not a domestic goddess

no, really, I'm not. I know, I've probably been fooling you all along. I do cook most of my own food, but I make a few very simple things over and over and over again -- probably a lot like most of you, right?

so, this year (like every year in the past 7 or 8 or 9 years), I decided to start cooking more. I want to control what I put into my body. I have some pretty inspiring friends, like Flandria! and I'm not as courageous as she is, but I do want to start cooking soup. yup! soup -- the food of gods.

years ago I'd bought a couple of soup cookbooks. and a couple of weeks ago, I actually opened them up and thought about making soup. so, with a sick friend and a sick client in mind, I embarked on my first foray into the world of soup making. you got it -- good old fashioned chicken soup.

rather than trust a good old fashioned cookbook, I got a recipe (and I use that term loosely) from my buddy, Dana. here's what she sent me via email:

• I usually get a chicken breast or two with the bones in
• 1 leek
• 1 white or yellow onion
• 2 or 3 cloves of garlic
• carrots
• celery
• fresh herbs of your choice (my favorite is tarragon, but rosemary and thyme work well too)
• chop the leek, onion and garlic and saute in a little olive oil until the onions are getting clear, then pull the skin off the chicken breasts, throw them in the pot, and cover the whole shebang with H20
• add the herbs--I pull the tarragon leaves off the stems. If I'm using rosemary and thyme usually just throw in a couple of rosemary stalks whole and pull them out at the end. I usually pull the thyme buds off the stems first and let them stay.
• Throw in the carrots and celery and bring to a boil, then turn down the flame and let it simmer and simmer and simmer until the chicken is falling off the bone. You may need to add water.
• Taste it along the way and add salt and pepper as needed. voila! easy homemade chicken soup.

so, I went to the grocery store to buy the ingredients. I realized I didn't really know what a leek is, but I figured it was some type of onion. I found a leek but I wasn't sure which part you used to cook.

home again, I started chopping. once I'd begun, I realized there really wasn't much detail about quantities in Dana's recipe. I'm a very literal person, so quantities are important in my life.

of course, I had a million questions! how does the chicken get cut into little pieces? how much water so I use? how much celery? how many carrots? my friend was working and couldn't access a phone, so I nervously tried to figure it out on my own.

in addition to the above, I added scallions with the onion mixture. I also added baby dutch potatoes with the veggies. and the nice butcher convinced me to use chicken thighs instead of breasts. I also added some whole wheat noodles.



it took a little longer than 15 minutes to prep, but not much, really. I set the soup to simmer, headed to the gym to run and lift, and when I returned the aroma in my condo was incredible! yum!

all in all it was pretty darn good. a bit strong in the celery taste, but I added some fresh pepper and a tiny touch of salt and it balanced out a bit.



so, I'm already thinking about my next creation. since this method of finding a recipe was so successful, why don't you share your favorite soup recipe with me? post your recipes in the comments section of the blog if you'd like to contribute to my culinary goddess training, okay?

bon appetite!

make meaningful resolutions

many folks hire me to change their lives. seriously! sometimes folks are realistic about their goals, expectations, and timeline. and sometimes they're not. whether you're an elite racer, an age-grouper, or a recreational rider, it's important to remember that positive change takes time. change also requires lifestyle modification for most of us. afterall, you didn't become an overweight, beer-drinking, cheetos-eating couch potato overnight and you can't reverse years of bad living in a month or two.

so here are some simple ideas you can implement today that will make long-lasting change in your life. pick one, commit to it for the next month, check it off your list everyday, and just wait to see the positive result on your life!



eat a salad everyday! salads are great because they fill you up but contain very few calories. of course, don't pile on a cup of fatty dressing!

replace one cup of coffee with a glass of water each day.

for any trip under two miles, try to walk or ride your bike instead of driving -- good for you and good for the environment, too!

commit to at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise at least five days a week.

replace a sugary snack with a piece of fruit or a vegetable.

eat breakfast every morning.

replace your sugar-laden breakfast cereal with a whole grain alternative. add some fruit for a bonus!

take a 10-minute mid-day walk or stretch. clear your mind and re-focus your body.

limit yourself to 4 ounces of lean protein a day. chicken, turkey, pork, and fish are great choices!

spend 10 minutes each morning in meditation: clearing your mind, planning your day, and centering your energy.


Happy New Year!

bonk!

another indoor training workout today, this time just with Kim. I put together a really hard workout and even Kim was sweating. unfortunately, between my caloric deficit and her cleanse we both ran out of glycogen after the first hour. oh well, it was good while it lasted.