To Diet For
One of the cool things about the cancer center is that there's a whole continuum of services available in addition to medical care and treatment—I can see a social worker, an art therapist, a complementary and alternative medicine specialist, or a nutritionist anytime I want.
Yesterday, when I went in for my routine check-up with MOSWO, I asked to see the nutritionist. I just wanted to be sure that I was on the right track with the diet portion of my diet-and-exercise plan. While I have had to watch my triglycerides and cholesterol before, I've never had to watch my calories. (And no, that isn't fair. But neither is having cancer twice, so let's call it not-even-close-to-even.)
Turns out that I'm pretty much on the right track, at least as of a week or so ago, when I started to buckle down about what I eat. I'm cutting out the right things and adding in the right things and watching my portion size and all that. I even got the OK to treat myself to a facsimile of my favorite food of all time—ice cream—with some regularity.
The thing I didn't know was how many calories I should be eating (1,500 a day) and how much fiber I should be getting (at least 20 grams a day). I've got to start counting both, which shouldn't be a big deal (since jillions of people seem to manage it every day), but it's just one more good habit to form and one more thing to add to my how-can-I-be-so-overloaded-if-I'm-unemployed-and-not-in-school? schedule.
There are two things that make dieting extra-challenging for me.
The first is that I am now—and I hate to admit this, but the term is probably justified—paranoid about eating meat and dairy products that might have been treated with hormones.
I think everyone who has been through a health crisis probably latches onto at least one thing to be compulsive about, and this is my thing. But after having two different tumors fueled by hormones, it seems like a reasonable and rational compulsion. (The grammar geek in me is now wondering whether "reasonable and rational compulsion" is a contradiction in terms. No, I don't think it is. I think it just sounds like one. OK, moving on.) In any event, I gave the nutritionist an opportunity to disabuse me of my paranoia, and she didn't even try. So either she thought it was legitimate, or she figured I'd had a break with reality and decided that humoring me would be more productive than calling for a straitjacket.
This is all a long way of saying that I had gotten the green light to eat regular ice cream of the Breyer's or Edy's or other traditional supermarket variety because, all things considered, those brands have something like half the calories of the super-premium brands, like Ben & Jerry's and Häagen-Dazs. The problem is that none of those traditional brands come in organic varieties. Or if they do, they aren't available anywhere near us. Breyer's, for instance, does have an organic line (who knew?), but it's not sold within 30 miles of where we live. (In fact, I can't figure out where it is sold. I tried zip codes from all over the country and came up empty every time.) And even though they have an "All Natural" line of ice cream, they explicitly do not have a policy about rBGH.
Stonyfield has organic ice cream, but it's just as caloric as B&J and H-D. But Stonyfield does make organic frozen yogurt, which has only 100 calories per serving, versus 240 or 250 (for their vanilla and chocolate ice creams, respectively). So I now have a couple of pints in my freezer. And even though they are nowhere near as good as their "full-fat" organic cousins, I am making do. (And yes, I know that B&J makes frozen yogurt. But they don't make it in plain flavors—everything has a million extra-sugary, extra-fattening, extra-caloric extra ingredients, which defeats the whole purpose of frozen yogurt. Ditto their "Body & Soul" line. <sigh>)
The second thing (no, I didn't forget) is that, as I think I've already copped to, I am a hugely picky eater. (Much better than I used to be, but that was an incredibly low bar.) So when the nutritionist suggested that I try certain foods, half the time my response was, "That would be great, but I don't like [fill in healthy food choice here]." Yesterday I vetoed peanut butter, walnuts, tofu, bitter salad greens, and oat-bran pretzels. (I have no guilt about vetoing tofu, not only on taste grounds but also because it is a phytoestrogen, which means it mimics estrogen in the body, which means it is Kryptonite for me.) I also don't like other diet-friendly foods, like celery (unless it's cooked in soup or stuffing), raisins, and most healthy cereals.
So I'm trying. I'm giving it my best shot. And I'm mostly happy with how I'm doing on the input end of things. Whether it's making any difference on the residual flab or on my triglyceride levels, I don't know—I want to give the "lifestyle changes" a bit more time before I weigh myself and have my cholesterol checked again. In the meantime, any tips, tricks, or suggestions are very welcome.
Just don't ask me to try your recipe for arugula-and-radicchio salad topped with walnuts, celery, tofu, oat-bran-pretzel croutons, and peanut-butter dressing.
Yesterday, when I went in for my routine check-up with MOSWO, I asked to see the nutritionist. I just wanted to be sure that I was on the right track with the diet portion of my diet-and-exercise plan. While I have had to watch my triglycerides and cholesterol before, I've never had to watch my calories. (And no, that isn't fair. But neither is having cancer twice, so let's call it not-even-close-to-even.)
Turns out that I'm pretty much on the right track, at least as of a week or so ago, when I started to buckle down about what I eat. I'm cutting out the right things and adding in the right things and watching my portion size and all that. I even got the OK to treat myself to a facsimile of my favorite food of all time—ice cream—with some regularity.
The thing I didn't know was how many calories I should be eating (1,500 a day) and how much fiber I should be getting (at least 20 grams a day). I've got to start counting both, which shouldn't be a big deal (since jillions of people seem to manage it every day), but it's just one more good habit to form and one more thing to add to my how-can-I-be-so-overloaded-if-I'm-unemployed-and-not-in-school? schedule.
There are two things that make dieting extra-challenging for me.
The first is that I am now—and I hate to admit this, but the term is probably justified—paranoid about eating meat and dairy products that might have been treated with hormones.
I think everyone who has been through a health crisis probably latches onto at least one thing to be compulsive about, and this is my thing. But after having two different tumors fueled by hormones, it seems like a reasonable and rational compulsion. (The grammar geek in me is now wondering whether "reasonable and rational compulsion" is a contradiction in terms. No, I don't think it is. I think it just sounds like one. OK, moving on.) In any event, I gave the nutritionist an opportunity to disabuse me of my paranoia, and she didn't even try. So either she thought it was legitimate, or she figured I'd had a break with reality and decided that humoring me would be more productive than calling for a straitjacket.
This is all a long way of saying that I had gotten the green light to eat regular ice cream of the Breyer's or Edy's or other traditional supermarket variety because, all things considered, those brands have something like half the calories of the super-premium brands, like Ben & Jerry's and Häagen-Dazs. The problem is that none of those traditional brands come in organic varieties. Or if they do, they aren't available anywhere near us. Breyer's, for instance, does have an organic line (who knew?), but it's not sold within 30 miles of where we live. (In fact, I can't figure out where it is sold. I tried zip codes from all over the country and came up empty every time.) And even though they have an "All Natural" line of ice cream, they explicitly do not have a policy about rBGH.
Stonyfield has organic ice cream, but it's just as caloric as B&J and H-D. But Stonyfield does make organic frozen yogurt, which has only 100 calories per serving, versus 240 or 250 (for their vanilla and chocolate ice creams, respectively). So I now have a couple of pints in my freezer. And even though they are nowhere near as good as their "full-fat" organic cousins, I am making do. (And yes, I know that B&J makes frozen yogurt. But they don't make it in plain flavors—everything has a million extra-sugary, extra-fattening, extra-caloric extra ingredients, which defeats the whole purpose of frozen yogurt. Ditto their "Body & Soul" line. <sigh>)
The second thing (no, I didn't forget) is that, as I think I've already copped to, I am a hugely picky eater. (Much better than I used to be, but that was an incredibly low bar.) So when the nutritionist suggested that I try certain foods, half the time my response was, "That would be great, but I don't like [fill in healthy food choice here]." Yesterday I vetoed peanut butter, walnuts, tofu, bitter salad greens, and oat-bran pretzels. (I have no guilt about vetoing tofu, not only on taste grounds but also because it is a phytoestrogen, which means it mimics estrogen in the body, which means it is Kryptonite for me.) I also don't like other diet-friendly foods, like celery (unless it's cooked in soup or stuffing), raisins, and most healthy cereals.
So I'm trying. I'm giving it my best shot. And I'm mostly happy with how I'm doing on the input end of things. Whether it's making any difference on the residual flab or on my triglyceride levels, I don't know—I want to give the "lifestyle changes" a bit more time before I weigh myself and have my cholesterol checked again. In the meantime, any tips, tricks, or suggestions are very welcome.
Just don't ask me to try your recipe for arugula-and-radicchio salad topped with walnuts, celery, tofu, oat-bran-pretzel croutons, and peanut-butter dressing.
posted by Jody Rosen Knower at 8:57 AM
1 Comments:
Jody, try lobbying FreshDirect to carry the organic Breyers. Alternatively, any time you want to haul on over to Brooklyn Heights I'm happy to whip up a batch of homemade less-caloric-than-more ice cream for you - organic milk and all.
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