You say potato, I say give it to me.

I have a long and sordid history with food. Ok, maybe not so sordid, but definitely long. Obviously, because everyone has to eat as soon as they're born...this is becoming my worst post to date.

Starting over. Ahem.

I am a foodie. I always have and I continue to be in love with food. I'm definitely more of a salty person than a sweet person (I'll take potato chips over cookies any day), but I pretty much like it all. Certain foods, for example, creme brulee or salt n' vinegar potato chips (Exibit A), bring on what I affectionately refer to as a food orgasm--that rush of adrenaline and pleasure as soon as it touches your tongue. In the last few months I've been on a kind of self-improvement journey. I've decided that in the next year I will get my health on track (not just weight wise, but being consistent with exercising and eating well), and I will get completely out of credit card debt. I don't have as much as many people do, but it's enough that I can't pay it off every month and that's not a good place to be. Anyway, one step of the health branch of my plan, is that I've started seeing a dietician who works for a health program I enrolled in at Northwestern Hospital. The dietician told me that junk food (see Exibit A, above) literally lights up the same pathways in the brain as crack cocain. This is what makes it so insanely difficult to maintain healthy eating habits when there is junk food lying around. It's highly addictive, and it affects nearly everybody. Unlike drugs or alcohol, which you can choose to leave alone, you need food to survive. You have to eat. It's what you choose to eat that makes the difference between a healthy lifestyle and a Dorito-laden one. Mmmmm...Doritos.

I've made several changes in my lifestyle in order to cut down on the amount of junk food I'm eating. I refuse to go on a "diet" because, as I've both been told in this program and experienced on my own, diets are unsustainable. If you truly want to get healthy and remain that way, you have to make lifestyle changes. Notice I'm also using the words "get healthy" instead of "lose weight." If you get healthy, you will naturally fall into the weight you should be. It also takes a lot of pressure off to say you're going to start a healthier lifestyle instead of saying you're going to lose weight. You have no control over whether or not you lose weight. You do have control over becoming healthier. One change I've made is eliminating all junk food and snack food in my apartment. If it's not there, I won't eat it. I can salivate all I want at the thought of Oreos and Doritos, but at the end of the day I'm too lazy to actually leave the house to go to the store and buy them when I have a craving. And you know how many calories are in saliva? Not so many.

I'm also attempting to drink more water, which is apparently much more difficult for me than the average human being. If my body were an ecosystem, I'd be a desert (take THAT, 3rd grade science!). I just don't drink things. Half-filled cans of soda (not "pop"--"pop" is a sound) are constantly lying around my apartment. It's rare that I can finish a whole can (I'm pretty sure they made those little cans they came out with in the last few years specifically for me). I often finish entire meals without having a drop of anything liquid touch my lips. I blame this on elementary school, when we were forced to drink milk every day at snack time. I hated milk. I still hate milk. But I had to drink it. I've decided that, tragically, my aversion to liquids is a direct result of the milk trauma I suffered as a child. Unfortunately for me, I've been told by numerous people, some of whom are actually medically qualified, that I should drink more water. Normally, it can take me all day to get through a regular size bottle of water (one pint). I'm trying to finish two of those while I'm at work now, and I tell you, it is my Everest.

Yet another change I've made is to eat more protein at breakfast. This is more difficult than it sounds. That's because not a lot of breakfast foods have a lot of protein in them. You can eat those foul protein bars, which is the equivalent of eating spackling putty. Or you can eat eggs, some kind of meat, or high-protein cereal. I usually go for the cereal. It's easy and fast (because we all know that it's crucial that I hit the sleep alarm at least six times every morning, thus leaving myself with approximately 13 minutes to get dressed, do my make up and hair, brush my teeth, and take Clara out before I miss my train). And let's face it, I'm just not upper class enough to have steak and eggs for breakfast each morning. Add a piece of fruit to that cereal and you've got yourself a full-blown meal!

Food-wise, these are the big changes. One thing that has helped immensely with this "getting healthy" goal is Lunch Club. What is Lunch Club, you ask? Well, you're just going to have to figure that out on your own.

Ok, fine, it's this idea that some genius that I found on the Internet came up with. The idea is, you get several people, five being the ideal number, to each take a day of the week. On your day, you make lunch for everyone in the group. If you have five people, you only have to bring lunch once a week and on all the other days, lunch is provided for you. The Lunch Club I started at work has a rule that the meals must be generally healthy, and must include a fruit, vegetable, protein, and grain. We've been doing it for well over a month now (two months?) and it's actually turned out to be really fun. We bought special Lunch Club Tupperware, and after eating, each person washes out their containers and gives them to the person in charge of the next day's meal. Not only do you not have to worry about lunch four days a week, but you know that you are getting something healthy, and you get to try out some kick-ass new recipes. One of my recent favorites was the recipe below that Sarah made for us:

Pumpkin Polenta with Chorizo and Black Beans

1 T extra-virgin olive oil (for coating the pan)
3/4 pound chorizo, casing removed, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 pimento peppers or roasted red peppers, chopped
3 c chicken stock or broth
2 T unsalted butter
1 14-oz can pumpkin puree (Sarah accidentally grabbed the wrong one--pumpkin pie filling--and it made the polenta slightly sweet, which was actually delicious)
1 c quick-cooking or instant polenta
1 T chopped fresh thyme
salt and pepper to taste
1 c shredded Manchego or cheddar cheese (3/4 cup + 1/4 cup)
1/4 c fresh flat-leave parsley (a generous handful), chopped

Heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil and the chorizo. Cook for a minute or two, and then add the onions and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add the black beans and pimentos and heat through for another minute or two.

In a large saucepan, bring the chicken stock and butter to a boil and stir in the pumpkin. Add the polenta and stir until it masses, about two minutes. Remove from heat and add the thyme, salt, pepper, and 3/4 of the cheese. Adjust the seasonings. Pour or spoon the polenta onto plates. Top with chorizo and beans, and sprinkle the other 1/4 c cheese on top. Garnish with parsley.

This recipe is delicious. Too bad I don't have a picture of it, because it was also really pretty--bright orange polenta, red peppers, green parsley, black beans. It was such a fall dish.

I also tried making a new dish for Lunch Club, and to my pleasant surprise, it turned out so well that it's become my new favorite recipe of the past five years. Not only is it insanely tasty, but it's also really easy to make. Here it is:

White Chicken Chili

2 medium onions (finely chopped)
2 Tbsp. oil
Bottled green salsa (1-2 cups, as mild or hot as you would like)
2 (15oz.) cans corn, drained
2 (15oz.) cans white beans, drained and rinsed
2 (14oz) cans chicken broth
4 c. chicken, cooked, shredded
2 Tbs. lime juice
1 tsp ground cumin
dash chili poweder (optional)
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
2 c. shredded Monterey Jack cheese

In a large saucepan, cook onion in hot oil over medium heat. After it is carmalized a little bit, add the green salsa. Heat for about 3 minutes. Stir in corn, beans, broth, chicken, lime juice, cumin, chili powder and pepper. Cover and simmer on low for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. (You can also combine all the ingredients, except for the cheese, in a crock pot on high for 4 hours.) About 10 minutes before serving, add the cheese and stir until melted. Serve with crunched up tortilla chips, corn bread, or in a bread bowl.

I think the keys to this recipe are the salsa, the cheese, and the lime juice. I'm telling you, try it out--you won't regret it. The picture above is from the website where I got the recipe. I can't say enough good things about this chili.

Aside from the food thing, I've been working out a lot more consistently. My office building opened a gym, which I immediately joined. So far I've gone three days a week for the past two weeks (since it opened). I also started up Bikram yoga again with my friend Tara. If you haven't heard of it, Bikram yoga is basically like regular yoga on crack. It's a 90-minute class, and you do it in a room that has been heated to 105 degrees. Things sweat that you didn't even know contained sweat glands (your elbows, feet, EYEBALLS...). The beauty of it is that every Bikram yoga class in the world is exactly the same. The same poses for the same length of time in the same order. That means that once you've done it for awhile, you know what to expect. Of course, that still doesn't prevent you from coming out looking like THIS.

I started this journey about two months ago, and to be honest, I'm really starting to notice results. I feel better about myself already. I feel healthier and more confident. I haven't really lost any weight yet, but I think that'll come with time. I think the fact that it's already changing my attitude towards myself is a good indicator that I'm doing something right.

Now, pass the french onion dip.