Dear Santa

I do realize that Christmas is about eleven months away, but I'd like to put in a request.  In fact, Santa, you could deliver this for my birthday instead of Christmas and we could call it even.  I'd like a CSA membership please, and a cookbook to show me what to do with all my produce goodies!

Yesterday at the library I was picking up my held books, "In defense of Food" and "Food Rules" by Michael Pollan (Reviews coming shortly!)  The kind gentleman who was helping me find my books asked me if I was involved in a CSA.  I was all, "customer service agent?" and he's all "idiot."  But no, I digress.  A CSA is a "Community Supported Agriculture" program.  A local farm extends membership to a community for a price for a season.  Generally, members pay up front for their produce, and over a season, the produce is available for pick-up once weekly.  The produce is FRESH, like right out of the ground fresh.  It's varietal.  Generally this program is not for the picky of heart.  Lots of new and interesting choices.  It's supporting your local agriculture. Why buy from Mexico when you can buy from your neighbor down the road?  Especially in our current economy, supporting local farmers seems increasingly important.  It's organic.  I know this is kind of a hot topic in my family.  My husband is sloooooooowly recognizing the benefit of organic food in some areas.  I'm sloooooowly learning the benefits of choosing organic foods.  These foods are typically pesticide free, for those concerned about that issue.  It's community oriented.  There are frequently options to go pick your own food through out the week (GREAT IDEA FOR FAMILIES WITH KIDDOS! HOW FUN!) or go to a spot to pick up your food, or have it delivered.  OR, in some areas, instead of paying for membership, the option to work the farm itself exists.

This video is a pretty good summary of what a CSA is all about.  I get kind of giddy when I consider how much of a community impact this could/would have on our local farmers if we started to trend more towards this option.  Not only the financial impact it could have on farmers, but the HEALTH impact it could have on me, and my family.

Food is pleasure and community and experience.  God made it that way.  There is pleasure and delight in eating and there is pleasure and delight in the sensory nature of food.  I am overjoyed to rediscover this pleasure and love of food...of GOOD FOOD.  Real food.  Healthy food.  Natural food.

So, Santa.  I think I'm pretty convincing as to why a CSA membership would be an EXCELLENT choice for me this year.  Considering your size, I'm betting you could do with a CSA membership too.

If you're interested, check this site out, and find one in your area!

Convenience

I've noticed that these days, it's all about quick and easy. And that's great! I like things to be quick. I also like things to be easy. But I wonder at what cost am I bypassing all the little steps it takes to arrive at a final product?

As I was grocery shopping today, I was super-mindful of all the ingredients in each package and every item ending up in my cart. I grabbed at a package of wheat "flat-outs" which are essentially whole wheat tortilla wraps. As I perused the ingredient list, I was shocked! How on earth can something as simple as a tortilla contain ingredients that I can't even pronounce? Shouldn't it be something like "flour, water, yeast..." or whatever?

I'll admit I don't know much yet. In this food game, I'm a pretty new player. Still learning about what should and should not be making up my menus. However, I think I'm starting to catch on. In the name of preservation and convenience, food manufacturers have sacrificed simplicity for longevity. We want our food to last more than a day or two before molding or souring or turning. So, we get preservatives and long lists of things that are added to enhance color or shape or texture or life.

I'm not complaining. Please please please don't think I'm complaining. I really enjoy that my bread doesn't mold after a few days. I also like popping in the occasional lean cuisine when I'm feeling too lazy to make a sandwich. What I am doing is becoming aware. The price of convenience is perhaps more complex and costly than I realized. Lays are quick. Lunchables are easy. Campbells soup is tasty. However, if I baked my own chips, sliced my own lunch meat, and simmered my own soup, I'm confident that I would KNOW what I was eating was simple and clean, calorie controlled and fat found. It's so much easier to know your food when you are chopping it up yourself.

So, I'm not attacking convenience. I love it! It's my hope, however, that as I keep my eyes peeled and my mind open, I will become ever more aware of what goes into my food for the sake of being easy and quick. Opportunity cost is about trading this for that. I'm ready to trade a little bit of time for control over my food, I think. Then again, I'm not quite ready to go off the deep end yet and trade my lean cuisine yet. Percentages! If I can manage to have 75 percent fresh and simple whole foods on my plate and 25 percent or less prepackaged and "conveniently" prepared goods on my plate, then I will feel like I'm definitely at a good start.

Keepin' it real

Hi! I'm Lacy. I'm 29 (hurdling at lightspeed towards 30) and have myself a husband, a baby, an apartment and a diet that is desperate need of authenticity. For the first time in my life, I'm attempting to eat a diet (and by "diet" I mean a way of eating) that's primary goal is encouraging health increase rather than weight loss. Let's not fool ourselves. I also really wanna lose some L-B's. BUT, my main goal is to live a healthier lifestyle. This blog is going to be my little spot of the interwebs to blah blah blah all about my journey in that sphere of health and fitness. If you'd like to spy in on me and see how it's going, please do! I'm a natural saleswoman for the things I love. If I try a toothpaste that makes my mouth sparkle, I'm gonna tell you all about it. If I found a pair of socks that insulate my footsies just perfectly, you'll know too. It only makes sense that something as important as food be a part of our daily conversation.

A little background:

From about the ages of 10 to 26, I had a growing weight problem. It started out with just a little chub, and grew and grew and grew until it was clear that I had a serious issue that needed addressing or I may in fact become a statistic of our western diet. Junior high, high school, college and then, post college all were years of failed resolutions, attempts and defeats. I wanted nothing more on earth than to be like everyone else. I wanted to be thin.

It all changed one day when after many years of denial, I looked down at my scale for the first time and saw a number I didn't know I could hit. At my highest weight (oooh, this is hard to admit) I was a grand total of three hundred and forty pounds. (It doesn't look so bad when you write it out!) How on EARTH did I get so heavy? Where did all this weight come from? How could I possibly lose it all? Was there any diet I hadn't tried? Was there a magic pill I could take? I vacillated between panic and acceptance. The panic won over. I knew I was going to die prematurely if I didn't do something. So, I thought about the things I could do to win this weight war I'd been fighting for years. And I made one of the best decisions I've ever ever ever made.

Three years ago, I had weight loss surgery. As a result, I lost over 150 pounds in about two years, making my lowest weight 180.

But this isn't a blog about my surgery. It's a blog about food and health.

I should obviously say WLS helped me shed a lot of weight. I couldn't have done it alone without that tool. It set me up for success. And success I had. But here I am, post baby, post surgery and still the struggle exists. After having my child six months ago, I did not, as anticipated, lose the weight quickly. Breast feeding wasn't the magic answer that some purported. The success I had with surgery and the tools it's given me are still invaluable, but I am now able to eat normal portion sizes (not overeat, however). The surgery was about survival. I HAD to lose weight or else. The health benefits I gained from surgery were a result of the DRASTIC reduction in calories. I also couldn't consume large amounts of sugar or fat due to a condition called (and elegantly so) "dumping" which causes sickness. However now, with the severe restrictions loosened, the sugar and fat effects lightened, many of the choices that were made for me are now more in my own control.

Which leads me to the point. I am finding myself drawn towards the concept of real food and real living. After reading 100daysofrealfood.com (GO THERE!) I knew I had to take my inklings, my late night wandering thoughts, my ponderings and do a little something with them. It's pretty simple really and doesn't need much explanation.

I eat too much fake food. I eat too much food that other people have messed with and fooled with. I eat too much tasteless food. I eat too refined, white, man-made-food-like-imitation-food. I'm gonna start eating real food. Meaning, food that is "whole." Not messed with. Not overly processed. Not refined. Not pretend food. Nothing that has an ingredient list a mile long. Food that is whole and flavorful. To start, I'll be journaling for thirty days about what I'm eating, how I'm feeling, if I'm exercising or not, how hard it is, how easy it is, and any delicious recipes I've tried. Also, let's not lie...cause the theme is "keepin it real," I'll also be watching ye olde friend the scale to see how this effects my weight.

I'm relying on the help of a couple sources for this, and I'll share what I'm learning along the way. I'm gleaning from "The Sonoma diet" but adapting for my own purposes. I'm also doing all this on a pretty tight budget, as I know many of us have concerns about the cost of whole foods and organic vs. the other.

What I hope to have accomplished after 30 days:

1. Not go broke.

2. Be more in control of my food choices and what I put in my body.

3. Be informed about what goes into the food I buy and feed my family.

4. Lose weight.

5. Eat really yummy good food.

6. Get moving too.

And for the numerically minded (and cause it matters to me too) here are my stats:

Highest weight: 340

Lowest weight: 180

Current weight: 210

Goal weight: 160