by Susan Lobb Porter | Choices, Food, Life |
Three weeks ago the universe slapped me upside the head with the ultimate AHA! moment.
Universe: “Stop eating sugar. And crap. No more junk food. Or processed food. Except for chocolate. Because every girl needs chocolate.”
Me: “Mmm’kay.”
And I began eating like this… Real food. Nom nom. Stuff that grows in the ground or on trees or in a pasture. Lots of good fats. Nothing that came out of a box from a factory. Imagine that! And no grains. Seriously, no grains.
And no weighing. No measuring either. Just eat when I’m hungry, as much as I want. Which is usually quite a bit.
In the beginning, the first week or so, it sucked. I was cranky and out of sorts and all I wanted to do was sleep and take my arguments to the dark side with Mr. Spouse. But that phase passed before one of us could ask for a divorce and soon enough and an interesting thing happened . . . I realized I was . . . relaxed. She who was once the queen of late night found herself going to bed early, falling asleep right away. Without the adrenalin fuel of sugar and simple carbs, she whose heart and mind were always racing found herself settling into a slow easy rhythm. Things that had once been important weren’t that important anymore. Less time online, more time in the studio.
Settling down in the evening with lapdogs instead of laptop.
These are the changes I’ve seen in three weeks. I’m sure there’ll be more:
- My formerly reptilian skin–and I’m not exaggerating when I say reptilian— is now smooth and soft. I mean before this, moisturizers didn’t do a thing. WOOT!
- The mirror shows weight loss–how much, I don’t know. I don’t weigh myself so I can’t say.
- Cheekbones! I has CHEEKBONES!!!
- Better sleep. Much better. OMG, yes!
- Slower heart rate
- Less anxious. In fact, not anxious at all.
- No desire to waste time on email and facebook
- More quality time in the studio
- A general feeling of well being
I know we’re all different and not everyone would find this way of eating right for them. But it works for me, better than anything I’ve ever tried before. Three weeks into a change of lifestyle I never thought I’d do. Now I see it as the most natural way for me to eat, for me to be.
And it’s a good thing.
I’d love to hear your thoughts about this in the comments below. And remember:
by Susan Lobb Porter | Food |
Hello hellooooooo my best beloveds and favorite people everywhere. I have a TREAT for you, my sweetums. Indeed I do! But first, a word from our sponsor…
Today’s blog post is brought to you by the letter G and the color G-R-E-E-N.
TA-DA!!! Now take it away Kermit–
Kermit may be my favorite singing frog friend of all time but folks, he’s got it ALL WRONG.
Because being green is easy-peasy.
Look at that. This is what went into my breakfast this morning. Spinach. Parsley. Cucumber. Celery. Banana. Almond butter. Flax seed. A splash o’juice and a chunk o’ginger root.
Oh, and ice. Mustn’t forget the ice. And sometimes water instead of the juice. Most times, actually.
Toss it all in the blender. And it doesn’t have to be a fancy expensive blender. I have one of those, it lives under the counter. I use this one more often than not, something I picked up at the cheapo store. Works just fine. So don’t let that be your excuse.
If you’re new to green smoothies, start with more fruit. Maybe a 60/40 ratio. And the milder greens like spinach. After awhile, at the point where you begin to CRAVE these suckers, you’ll find you don’t need the added sweetness. I’m at the point where a single piece of fruit—a banana, pear or an apple– is sweet enough. But in the beginning start with more.
You can even add cocoa powder. OMG, yes! The first GS I ever made was bananas, spinach and cocoa powder. It was the color and flavor of a rich dark brownie and I remember Mama trying to lick the inside of her glass, a little old lady sitting there struggling to get every last drop.
I gave her a spoon.
The color in this one isn’t the gorgeous emerald green they usually are because of the cherry juice. Berries will do that too.
One of these in the morning will last me the better part of the day. I make a quart or so and if I have the time, linger over it. If I go to work I take it with me.
Experiment! Try different combinations of greens. Chard. Collards. Mustard. Bok Choy. Mix ’em up. Play around.
Adding the flax seeds will give you your Omega 3s. You can toss in other seeds or nuts. I like a heaping tablespoon of almond or peanut butter, gives a rich and creamy feel to the smoothie. And I’ve read that you need to include fat with your greens for the best absorption of the minerals.
You can read more about green smoothies here. And find all sorts of recipe ideas here. There are testimonials all over the interwebs, too many for me to list but it’s a great way to kill an afternoon on the net and get all inspired.
Better yet, just throw some spinach and a banana into the blender and give it a go.
And if you have a favorite recipe, I’d love for you to share it with the rest of us in the comments below.
xo
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Food |
Scrolling down my FaceBook newsfeed last night I came across a photo that showed half a dozen sculptures carved from bananas. A few of which, on closer inspection, were rather, umm…rude. But cleverly so.
As an artist I could appreciate the skill and the idea so I shared the photo on my wall.
And within minutes I was challenged…CHALLENGED…by FaceBook friend Donna to make my own, specifically, a banana pony.
So I did. I like a challenge. And I like bananas. And if you’ve been reading this blog for any time you know how I feel about ponies.
First I carved.
Then I kissed.
Then I ate it. Yummm…
But I still had more than half a banana left. So I made a self-portrait, complete with coconut hair, saggy boobies and banana seed age spots.
And I ate her too. She was extra delicious. Mmmm…mmmm…coconut.
Now that I am an experienced banana carver I can pass along some advice. The banana should not be too ripe. I think a greener one would allow for a bit more control. And a paring knife is not the best tool, it didn’t allow for any detail. Something along the lines of clay tools. And a word of warning: what you cut off doesn’t want to go back on. It just gets all mushy, which is why the pony had weird ears.
So there you have it, my first adventure into edible sculpture since art school. I think cream cheese was involved in that one.
If any of you peeps want to try your hand at this, send me your photos or include the links in the comments below.
by Susan Lobb Porter | All things Chocolate, Food, Recipes |
OMG!!! I died and went to heaven this week. Really. Here you thought I was taking time off to rebuild the blog–and, as you can see I did do that–but it was a stretch. A strain on my non-tech savy psyche.
And so I called out the old girl in distress helper…tada…comfort food!
Disclaimer # 1: There’s a recipe here somewhere.
Best cookie ev-ah!
In this case, home made chocolate chip cookies. This is the part where heaven comes in. OMG, if they served these instead of communion wafers I’d be in the front row EVERY Sunday. Yes. I. Would. Little nip o’wine, little bite of these babies and I’d be signing up for the altar guild in no time flat.
Because they are THAT good.
Disclaimer # 2: I did NOT eat them all. I took some to work. Held them in front of my co-workers and told them the price for a bite o’heaven was an Arty Life appearance. Really, would you rather see photos of ingredients or appreciation?
Besides, I didn’t want to clean my kitchen for a photo shoot.
Here’s Dieter. She’s strangely...pink in this picture. And Greg lurking in the background like a Calvin Klein commercial.
See what I mean? Romancing the cookie.
And then there was Leland. No one can romance a cookie like he does.
A serious case of tasty bliss. The real deal, or so he said. He SWORE he was not faking. He also promised photos in a pink dress if I would bring in more cookies.
Which is a good time to introduce the newest Arty Life category and regular feature, What Leland Wore Today. Stay tuned for future installments.
Disclaimer # 3: The recipe is down below. Is that a cool recipe card or what? I filled it out as best as I could but when it comes to cooking, I cook like I paint. Which means, umm… by the seat of my pants when it comes to ingredients and measurements. A lot of eyeballing and palm of the hand stuff. To my recollection this is kind of sort of the way these came together.
So print out the card and give them a try if you’re so inclined. And I’m thinking you can review the recipe too, judging from the Write a Review link.
[yumprint-recipe id=’1′]
As always, please share this with your friends if you like what you see. Got those handy dandy social share buttons down below.
And you KNOW how much I live for your comments, they’re even better than cookie batter. Well, almost….
Oh look! An emoticon, imagine that!!!
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Food, Studio |
Oh my sweetums, I am recovering, RECOVERING, from Open Studios…by killing myself with COOKIES.
But they are very GOOD cookies. Filled with things like butter, eggs and flour. Walnuts!!! And oatmeal! Raisins! Cranberries! And CHOCOLATE CHIPS!!!
And I’m storing them for safe keeping in my tummy. Tomorrow they will meander over to my hiney where they will stay until I put on a Village People CD and dance them off.
Unless I exploded before that. BOOM!!! Because there’s only so much sugar and carbs a belly can hold until they take on qualities similar to that of military grade weapons. And if the rumblings are any indication, I’m reaching critical mass right now.
If I survive the night, if the house doesn’t fall down around our ears while we sleep, I. Will. Repent.
But that’s tomorrow. Let me tell you about Open Studios. Which was today and last weekend.
Well, it was my first OS in years and years and YEARS. And it was a pretty good one. Sold a couple of big ticket paintings as well as some little stuff.
'Dunes' by Susan Lobb Porter
'Summer' by Susan Lobb Porter
Crappy photo alert for ‘Summer’. Sorry about that, the good photo is in the other computer and I’m too bloated with cookies to properly fetch it for you.
Back to OS…I raised some money for the local animal shelter with some prints. Met some nice people, got a couple pages of names for my list. In between customers I experimented with my new printer. Found the perfect paper to reproduce my encaustic paintings. Perfection. Absolute Perfection. I would tell you except the notes are out in the studio and I’m not running out there right now. You’ll have to trust me on this. The encaustic is reproduced so well you’ll want to EAT them. I’ll be posting more info on those prints on my FB page. If you haven’t like my FaceBook page yet, oh my goodness, do it RIGHT NOW so you won’t miss out on all the excitement.
Oh, speaking of my FaceBook page, October 15 is the date for the ‘Red Door Challenge’. A couple weeks ago I posted a photo for anyone and everyone to use as inspiration for a painting. If you’ve done anything be sure to post it on my FB page wall (link up above). I’ll be posting my own creation as well. Be sure to share on your own wall, tag and all that stuff. I would love to get lots of people to take part in this.
And be sure to keep your eye out for the next challenge!
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Food, Life |
Chocolate is calling to me. Not the good kind, the 88% full of anti-oxidents it’s-so-damn-healthy-you-can-eat-it-for-breakfast-and-you’re-happy-with-just-a-smidge-of-a-bit kind. Oh nooooooo, I’m hearing the seductive call of it’s evil twin, a well known brand of milk chocolate that tastes like…well, it tastes like my childhood. All sweet and sugary. Laden with fat and chock full of stuff that makes my inner nutritionist cringe. But that doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter at all because even if it glowed in the dark from radiation (and it might) what the hell…I WANT IT! And I WANT. IT. NOW!!!
I could eat a one pound bar All. By. Myself. In fact, I would go all ferrel and snap and snarl and growl threateningly at anyone who even looked at it, much less tried to take it away.
And after that, I would round out the day with potato chips. Salty yummy greasy crunchy chips. YAY!!! Let’s hear it for–
For what? Am I hungry? Umm…no. I just had lunch. A nice chicken tostada with extra guac and greens. To be perfectly honest (which I rarely am when it comes to food) there’s NO vacant real estate in belly land right now.
Then why do I feel the need to eat? Especially something loaded with sugar and fat and salt? Stuff that’s no good for me. That makes me hyper and tired all at the same time. That makes me look like I come from a long line of Sumo wrestlers.
WHY?
I’ll tell you why in a couple of minutes. But first go read a post I wrote back in February. Because even though I’m sounding desperate right now, I’m not. But I was back then.
Before I met AnaLisa Rutstein, MA CHHC. Before I took part in her Jump Start Program. Which was NOT a diet but six 45 minute one-on-one phone calls exploring and clarifying my issues around food. With handout and e-mail support.
That’s a whole lot of AHA! moments, believe me. A whole lot of getting back in touch with myself. Slowing down. Breathing. Meditating. Understanding the emotional triggers that send me scurrying to that bag of chips.
My emotional triggers? The biggest one…stress. But not stress like the car broke down or I had words with DearDaughter. The top hit on my personal Stress O’Meter…creativity. Or the insecurities I have surrounding my creative endeavors.
WTF??? Whack upside the head. My whole life is one big creative endeavor. Painting. Writing. Starting a biz…. No wonder my ass is so big.
Does this mean if I want to wear those skinny jeans again I’m going to chuck it all, get a 9-5 somewhere, a boring 9-5, and call it a day?
No. It means when I’m sitting at the computer searching for the exquisite turn of phrase, the perfect thing to say and I find myself getting all jittery and jumpy as a tweaker and I NEED to stuff my face with the bad bad bad bad BAD stuff so I don’t have to THINK…it means I now have the tools to deal with that. Tools like BEING AWARE of what I’m doing. And why I’m doing it. So I can redirect myself by breathing, by acknowledging the emotion, by any number of little MINDFUL diversions.
The chocolate up there? The stuff I really, really wanted? I had some. But not a lot. It was a choice I made consciously. I didn’t have nearly as much as I would’ve six weeks ago. And honestly? If you’d come by and wanted some, that’d be okay. I wouldn’t have gone all ferrel on you.
I might’ve even shared.
Change of subject: Whoo-hoo! Over here! Be sure to check out my new FaceBook page. There’s art. New art every day. Imagine that!!! And if you click the ‘like’ button at the top of the FB page I will like you forever and be your BFF. Because I likes me those ‘likes’. So go ahead, do that RIGHT NOW because you wouldn’t want to forget or anything, right?
