Effortless Oats

I love having steel-cut oats for breakfast but could never seem to get my act together to cook them.

And then I learned about the quick-soak method on McCann’s Web site.

All you have to do is bring four cups of water to a boil in a pot. Once it is boiling, add 1 cup of steel-cut oats to the water, cover, and turn off the stove. You leave the oats soaking in the pot on the stove overnight. In the morning, they are almost done. All you have to do is bring them to a boil, and cook them for a few minutes until just tender. You can store the leftovers in the fridge for up to 4-5 days.

This was the best oatmeal I’ve ever made — it came out perfectly and was so easy that any stressed out person can manage it.

It all starts with breakfast…

Since the beginning of February, I’ve been having an interesting experience with breakfast.

First, though, a confession: somehow, in the process of starting my own business as a health coach, I fell into the habit of eating gluten-free toast almost every morning for about six months. I used to have it on Saturday as a treat, and, since it never caused me any problems, I didn’t really think about the toast when I wondered why I suddenly gained a few pounds and felt a bit bloated. I thought it was the winter and stress!

And then I had a conversation with a colleague in my BNI group and a light-bulb went off in my head! Could it be the toast?

I’m a great believer in experimenting, and I decided that I would do an experiment: I’d eliminate the toast as a breakfast food and try switching to a whole grain cereal (oatmeal), yogurt, or a smoothie. I realized then how much I had come to depend on my little treat to ease into my day. It was a good thing that I told myself it was only an experiment or I never would have parted with it!

I tried oatmeal for a couple of days, and then I switched to yogurt with nuts, raisins, and coconut. From there I made the plunge to a smoothie.

It was then that interesting things started to happen:

1. My mood lightened.
2. I actually became a little lighter physically – and the bloating went away.
3. I started craving more fruits and vegetables.
4. I felt in touch with my body and what it needed for the first time in months.
5. I had greater mental clarity.

Could all this be from cutting out the toast? I think so. There’s more and more research on how refined carbohydrates* and sugar are linked to inflammation & the diseases of civilization, and, although I liked to rationalize that my China Black Rice Bread was not truly refined (see, even health coaches have their little stories), it is. So that could explain a few pounds and some bloating. How to explain the energetic component? Intuitively, it makes sense to me. My smoothie, that contained fruit, is inherently closer to life than a processed, frozen piece of toast. What I realized from this experiment is that somehow, eating fresh and wholesome foods makes us want more, just as eating more processed food (like toast) can lead us to wanting more processed foods. It explains to me why it can be so hard to break out of a food-rut — our bodies get accustomed to the food we’re eating and we get stuck.

If you want to try a breakfast experiment of your own, here’s a basic smoothie recipe:

• 1 cup frozen berries
• 1/2 frozen banana (optional)
• 1 scoop protein powder (I like Designer Whey, Vanilla)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup almond, rice, or oat milk (unsweetened)

Combine in a blender and mix until smooth.

Enjoy! It’s a nice way to start the spring.

*Note: The carbohydrates referenced here are refined carbohydrates (processed flour (usually white), sugar, high fructose corn syrup, etc.) not whole grains like oatmeal, buckwheat, millet, brown rice, and quinoa.

NY Times: The Fat Pack Wonders if the Party’s Over

Funny coincidence — the food of the month in my newsletter is fats and oils. It’s going out tomorrow, and today, on the front page of the NYTimes Dining Section was The Fat Pack Wonders if the Party’s Over.

This article was interesting. I suspect a little hidden glee among the fat-phobic that the day of reckoning has arrived for those who have been happily feasting on pork butt and other fatty delights. But there’s also some healthy skepticism on the ever-changing nutritional advice (although, unfortunately, the skepticism seems to be used to justify a “anything goes” approach to diet, despite physical and personal evidence to the contrary). There’s also a lesson on weight-loss here.

Here are my thoughts:

1) “Fat is bad” and “Fat is good” are both overly simplistic statements. We all need fat in our diet. We should be more concerned with what kinds of fat we should be eating.

2) While it’s tempting to use the latest nutritional information to justify our over-consumption of anything – I’ll confess, every time I read the latest industry-sponsored research on coffee, I think about getting an espresso – at the end of the day you need to pay attention to your body. For the men in the article, the weight that they were gaining was a warning sign that something was wrong.

3) If you decide to lose weight, it is possible to do it and still LOVE what you eat. Just see those stories of the restaurateurs and foodies in the article.

Why we over-schedule

I’ve been meaning to post this for ages, but perhaps it is a fitting post from my return from a brief vacation/conference in South Beach, Miami….

At last, proof that we don’t really understand why we over-schedule/overbook ourselves (and some of us, our children) — it doesn’t make us happier or healthier, but it does help us avoid the pain of loss. It seems that we will bear almost anything – stress, fatigue, no time for ourselves – if it means that a door doesn’t have to close.

Here’s the New York Times Article, “The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors.”

It’s inspired me to think about my own life in a different way — and also is helping me get through the pain of decision-making as I build a new Web site for my business…