You Are What You Eat

Just a quick update, cause I got a lot of studying to do today.

What week is this now? 4? I'm starting to lose track.

Last week I spent some time thinking about how I wanted to change my diet. Since my motivation for quitting smoking is largely based on economics, I think it follows too that my food choices reflect this as well.

I need to save money and forgo calories. And I suppose it won't kill me to try to eat "healthier."

Simple enough, right? Well, the tricky part is coming up with a game plan that is realistic for a family of four. It can't just be about me and what I eat. I've seen some of my girlfriends try this and it never works and I know me, I won't be satisfied with my rice cake while everybody around me is eating their Big Macs. That's just setting yourself up for failure.

Here's where I think I want to go with the diet thing. I don't have a lot of money, but I do have time lately since I don't have a job right now and my school load is light this semester. Time is a resource and I need to better use it to my advantage. Until now, we've always ate out a lot. We do this out of convenience mostly. But, sometimes because its cheaper than cooking at home. Don't believe me? Check out the prices of chicken breast at the grocery store, then compare it to the dollar menu at McDonalds.

Still with me? Ok. So, I remembered hearing about how Mediterranean cuisine is very healthy. I happen to love Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food and Robby does too, so I decided to see if I could incorporate more of it into our weekly routine. The more I'm cooking the less we're eating out. And I wanted to see if this could be done on the cheap, too. I found a good website with recipes and even monthly menu ideas. What I liked most about the site is that it reminds its visitors that eating Mediterranean style is not just about the food. Its also about the when and how. Its about serving meals in courses, slow and in small, but delicious portions. You take the time to enjoy the food. This is key. And as the cook, you don't compromise on taste for convenience. Ever. You don't rush breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Bottom line; if you cook your meals from scratch or as close to scratch as you can, they will be healthier and they'll taste better.

But will they be cheaper?

Well, that's the real challenge, I think. And, my guess is, yes. If I cook the majority of my meals from scratch, I'll save money because I can cook in bigger batches so that we have quantity and quality. But, it will be a challenge. I will need to clip coupons and hit the farmer's market more often than I'm use to. And I'll need to organize and plan the meals out (and I'm not known for my organizational skills.)

Does every meal need to be taken from a secret Italian recipe? No. I think what I'll do is just work off the basic principles of the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle. They eat lots of veggies. So I will try to add more to our diet. This is a challenge with my kids. We'll see how it goes. But the main principle I think is fresh, basic ingredients. The less the food is processed, the better. If one day a week we would rather have Irish corned beef and cabbage instead of Lebanese Shawarma or Italian linguine in pesto sauce, as long as its homemade, we're doing good.

Will this really help me to not gain weight now that I'm not smoking, and wasn't that the whole point?

Well, yes it was the whole point. I don't know. We'll see. I'll try to keep a record of it. My thoughts on this are that by eating 3 squares a day (something I've never done before) I'll limit how much I want to snack throughout the day. And keep in mind, the food might be from scratch and taste fantastic, but the slowed down pace of eating in courses, ie: salad first, main course, fruit for dessert, should help to keep the portions of the high calorie foods down. That's the theory, anyway.

All I know is, I think its important to be realistic when considering a diet plan. I could never do what I've seen some people do to lose weight. I love food too much. And again, I have to come up with something that will work for my whole family, not just me.

I thought this was supposed to be a quick post? See, there's those organizational skills I need to work on.

I'm off now to start my homemade spaghetti sauce, so it will be ready in about 6 hours and get some studying done.

Here's the recipe if anyone cares to try it.

Maybe later I'll do a cost analysis on this homemade version compared to the price of what I would have normally made with canned sauce.