Eat Local Omaha

I'm reading a fantastic book called "Plenty" by James Mackinnon and Alisa Smith: a couple in Vancouver who lived one year eating only food produced within 100 miles from their home. This summer I'm trying to shorten my overall food miles and so far I'm doing OK. But the one thing I've had trouble with is visualizing how far my 100-mile reach is. So, I downloaded a map and put in the 100-mile boundary. All of you living in Omaha, the image here shows your limit. Feel free to use it as reference as you hunt and gather!

If you're not in Omaha, go to James and Alisa's site and find your 100-miles.

Diet wrap-up

The first 20 days of my diet are over and I have survived.

I lost 16.8 pounds and 2.55 points off my BMI.

I stuck to the diet the full 20 days, I had trouble on the weekends and evenings when I didn't have fish cooked. Without a set schedule, it's much harder to remember, or even be able to, eat every 2 hours. I ate the most calories on June 6 at 865 and the fewest on June 3 when I had 463.

There were just a few days at the start when I felt like I wasn't eating enough calories, but that feeling went away and I've felt great ever since. I'm happy with the results. I think my metabolism is functioning better and I'm certainly eating better!

The best part is I'm eating primarily local food. All my vegetables, half my fruits and the chicken is semi-local. The fish of course is not from around here.

Now begins the second stage!

The Plateau

It seems I have hit a plateau. They say that the first week or two of a diet is the time you lose the most weight and it's that weight that you tend to gain back very easily. So, I dropped 12 pounds like it was a hot potato, but I don't think I've lost anything in the last week. The only thing different about the last 4 or 5 days is I haven't consistently had my evening protein (fish). I haven't had the desire to make it and so have replaced any evening food with a couple of cheese sticks. This means I've had much fewer calories, but more of those calories have come from fat. Regardless, how it's even possible for someone to eat 500-700 calories each day for a week and lose 0 pounds... well, that's a mystery.

But I am not giving up.

The weight melts off

I've made it half-way through the strictest part of the diet. I'm trying to work out what I'm going to be eating when I'm done dieting. I'm not thrilled about the chicken and fish that I've been eating daily, so I need to work out a good protein source that's easy to cook and low fat, low carb. I'll figure out something.

I've been reading lately about all the GMO crops that are taking over our food supply. Sugar beets are now almost all GMO (thanks monsanto) and they become refined sugar... then I read yesterday that they are about to release GMO wheat. So, on my "do not eat" list is already corn and corn products (high fructose corn syrup, frito-lay chips), plus any animal that eats the GMO feed. Now sugar and everything that's made from it... and soon wheat. This mess is really making it hard to survive in the winter time.

Anyway, that's pondering for another day. The graph indicates my weight loss since the 25th when I started this fun.

The Diet, day 9

I'm almost half-way through with the first phase of my diet. I've lost 8.8 pounds. Yesterday wasn't good, everything I ate tasted horrible. Even the pear tasted odd and I couldn't finish it. Today, on the other hand, went really well.

I'm trying to eat as much local foods as possible. I'm getting a lot of greens from my CSA farmer as that's what's growing right now in this part of the country. Greens. Radishes. Asparagus. Green Onions. That's about it for fresh veggies. There are a few places that grow hot-house vegetables, but they don't have the same earthy, natural flavor that rain-fed veggies have (IMHO). So, twice a day I get 4 oz of vegetables. Have you ever weighed 4 oz of greens? It's a LOT of greens--a BIG Salad.

Fruits in this area consist of berries (ALL berries) and stone fruits. There are apples, of course, and a random pear tree here and there, but those ripen much later in the year. I like berries, but plain and raw hasn't been my favorite way of eating them. Raw, plain blueberries always taste weird to me, tart and bitter, strawberries the same. But I realized that I haven't ever had "real" strawberries; those picked fresh that are less than an inch in diameter (normal sized). So, I bought some from the farmer's market. Picked and eaten on the same day... they were sweet, juicy, a touch of tartness and bright red all the way through! Delicious. It's only fresh strawberries for me from now on. $2 for a pint of those gems is a deal that can't be beaten!