Posts Tagged ‘comfort food’
Guest Post: Different body, different life?
A guest post by Women’s Health and Lifestyle Expert Shannon Sullivan:
Have you ever thought to yourself, “My life would be different if I had a different body?”
For me, that was the thought process throughout my high school and college years. Almost anything that didn’t go my way — when I didn’t get invited to the party I wanted to, when I didn’t get the attention of the boy I wanted to, and when I didn’t feel right in the clothes I had. I can vividly remember making a loose set of plans with the popular kids in high school and then waiting by the phone at home (this is all b.c.p. — before cell phones) for a call from them. I was showered, hair done, new outfit on and ready to go! As the time ticked by, I started losing hope. I started feeling stupid, lonely and went into this spiral about how no one liked me. So what did I do? Did I call other friends? No. Did I try to salvage the evening and make other plans? No. Did I think of an activity that would improve my mood? No. I bee-lined it for self-sabotage. I went to my “go-to” comfort food: white Wonderbread and Skippy peanut butter. This was the quickest, easiest way to make me feel (slightly) better.
This was emotional eating at it’s finest (or worst, depending on how you look at it). I was hurt and thought if I were only hotter, with a better body I would be out with the popular kids right now. There are a couple funny things about this situation:
1) The lack of phone call was not nearly as malicious as I thought. These loose set of plans were just those, and I didn’t bother calling them to confirm. All of this was in my head.
2) If I thought I wasn’t thin or attractive enough, why on earth would I do something (eat junk) that pushed me even farther away from this goal?
After half the loaf was gone, I felt sick. Slathering creamy, sugary peanut butter onto slice after slice of white bread will do that to you, especially when you’ve already had dinner and you are not the least bit hungry. I was stressed and using food to both ease the stress and punish myself, but I’m not the only one:
Fact: In the past month, 26% of teens say they have overeaten or eaten unhealthy foods because of stress. More than half of these teens (52%) engage in these behaviors weekly or more.
After overeating or eating unhealthy foods, teens report feeling bad about their bodies (41%), disappointed in themselves (40%) and sluggish or lazy (39%).
Unfortunately this kind of repeated behavior not only affected my waistline, but also my mindset — I felt worse about my body, I was disappointed in myself and didn’t feel like moving at all. And that mindset stayed with me for over a decade. Everyday I was in this constant struggle of wanting to change the way I thought about food, the way I used food, and the way I treated my body. And more often than not, my emotional eating would win out over my willpower.
27% percent of adults say they eat to manage stress and 34% of those who report overeating or eating unhealthy foods because of stress say this behavior is a habit.
I stopped volunteering for things, stopped going to parties, just put everything on hold, thinking that as soon as I found the diet that works, or go to the right boot camp I’ll get the body I want. And then (and only then) will I be able to be happy and start living the life I want. But c’mon — that can’t happen without the perfect body, I don’t deserve it until I have that perfect body. Boy was I wrong!
You see the big game changer for me was to actually get out and start living first. I needed to start laughing more, enjoying life more, and figuring out what made me authentically happy. Then, I focused on getting a whole lot more of that in my life, and stopped relying on the food. I had a void that I was trying to fill with food, and, big surprise, it wasn’t working!
Now I relate to so many women who are feeling exactly how I used to feel. I know the frustration and I know the struggle, and now my mission is to do something about it! It took me well over a decade to change my mindset, but I love helping women expedite that process and learn from my own mistakes, learn from my own trial and error. Because I lived it, and it was painful, and if I didn’t make a change I knew it would rule and eventually ruin my life.
So will your life be different if you have a different body? Yes! But it’s so important to put things in the right order, and if you’re someone who IS putting their life on hold, who has tried every diet under the sun and failed, and who is ready for a major change before heading into 2016 — great! There’s no better time than the present!
I’m here to help! Join me at a free virtual summit that will help you understand how to stop putting your life on hold and stop “weighting!” It’s called The Fat Girl Slim Summit: Learn to Love your Body, Release the Weight, and Confidently Live the Life of your Dreams and features interviews with over 20 women’s health and lifestyle experts (including Just Stop Eating So Much’s own Gregg McBride) — each of whom will teach not just the nourishment factors, but also the mindset strategies and emotional components that will allow you to fall in love with your body and release the weight that has been holding you back. If I had access to this sort of expertise all at the same time, I know my past would have looked a lot different! I’m inviting you to make that change possible for you, now, in your own life! Click here to reserve your spot!
For statistics source, please click here.
About the author of this guest post:
Shannon Sullivan is a women’s health and lifestyle expert. Shannon, along with sister Meg, co-founded Whole Food Love, a company dedicated to helping women combine real food and real life.
After working with so many incredible women, it became clear to Shannon that today’s modern woman doesn’t need just meal plans and food education. She needs a way to prioritize herself and her health, learn to love her body and design a lifestyle that works!
Shannon believes that when we view each action as an “act of love” toward our body, we make better decisions about what we put into our bodies, lessen the negative self-talk, and ultimately learn to live life confidently!
Editorial Photo Source: gistsdey.com
Shannon Photo Source: Shannon Sullivan
Recipe: Chicken Noodle Soup — Hawaiian-style
Guest Post By JoAnn Takasaki
For some reason, “comfort food” is something I associate with cold winters, cozy fires and flannel. It’s food you eat to warm you from the inside and that reminds you of all the best parts of being a kid. Living in Houston, even the idea of flannel is making me break out into a sweat! But it is October and, based on all the pictures of friends who live in more northerly climes, it’s cool somewhere. So for those of you who get to enjoy the cooler season, here’s a recipe for Chicken Long Rice, excerpted from my collection of family recipes published in Luau Like a Local: The Easy Way.
Wait…what?
I’m sure you’re confused by now. Why am I writing about a so-called “Hawaiian-style” soup, cold winters, and comfort food from Houston? Well, I actually grew up much like Gregg did. In fact, we went to the same high school in Wiesbaden, Germany. His family was military and mine was civil service. My father hails from Honolulu, HI. And though my mother (and co-author) was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, she learned how to cook from my dad’s mom, who was also born and raised in Hawai’i. So really, I did eat this as a kid in cold climes like Korea, Colorado, Germany. And even in Hawai’i. Because let’s face it: chicken noodle soup is wonderful no matter what time of year!
What started out as an ad hoc effort of collecting as many recipes as possible from my mom for my own use, resulted in me deciding to organize a few of them in some fashion. And I wasn’t sufficiently motivated by merely capturing the recipes, so I promised her that for all the work we were doing to actually measure her “put in some” or “just a skosh” or “to taste,” that I would publish the recipes. That was eight years ago. I finally made good on my promise in March when I self-published Luau Like a Local.
There is a native Hawaiian cuisine but really it has evolved to include the food of the various ethnic groups: Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Portuguese, Spanish, and more. This particular dish is actually Chinese. And while I promise the easy way (you could really just use store bought chicken broth and pre-cooked chicken, shredded), this recipe is how mom makes it. It’s not particularly hard at all. And is perfect for whatever may ail you!
Chicken Long Rice
Chinese-style chicken noodle soup
This is not as soupy as a typical chicken soup. When served, the bowl should be bursting with noodles and chicken.
Prep time: 30 minutes (10 minutes before, 20 minutes during)
Cook time: 1½ hours
Servings: 8 as a side dish (or 2 for dinner, maybe with some leftover for lunch)
Ingredients
½ small chicken
4‒6 cups water or chicken broth
½-inch slice of ginger, crushed
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon Chinese five spice
1 bundle long rice (also know as bean thread or vermicelli), soaked in warm water to soften
4‒5 shiitake mushrooms, sliced thin
½ 8-ounce can bamboo shoots, julienned
½ small round onion, sliced thin
⅛ cup soy sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
2 stalks green onion, sliced 2‒3 inches long diagonally for garnish
Directions
1. Place chicken in large pot with enough water or chicken broth to cover.
2. Add ginger, bay leaves, and five spice.
3. Bring to a boil and simmer about 45 minutes to an hour, or until the meat falls away from the bones.
4. While chicken is cooking, put long rice in a large bowl with hot water to soften.
5. Prepare the shiitake, bamboo shoots, onion, and green onion for garnish.
6. Remove chicken from broth and pull meat from bones, returning meat to broth. Discard bones.
7. Add long rice noodles, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and onion.
8. Simmer until about half of the broth is absorbed. Season with soy sauce, salt, and pepper to taste.
9. Garnish with green onions.
Excerpted from “Luau Like a Local: The Easy Way” by JoAnn and Susanna Takasaki. Used with permission.
About Luau Like a Local: The Easy Way:
Within 24 hours, Luau Like a Local: The Easy Way went to #1 on Amazon in Hawaii cookbooks. The reviews have all been 5-stars with praise for the gorgeous photography (by Toman Imagery), humor, and the well thought-out planning guide and shopping lists. “I found the recipes to be very clear, with options for doing things the traditional way or the more practical way for those of us with small kitchens and no access to exotic food markets. The photos are gorgeous and the shopping list at the end was incredibly helpful!” wrote one Amazon reviewer.
About Guest Blogger JoAnn Takasaki:
JoAnn Takasaki (pictured here, right, with her mom) started writing about food with two columns in the new Midtown Paper back in 2003. She decided to make the jump to full time writing in 2004 in hopes of “being paid to eat and get massages around the world.” While she didn’t exactly realize that dream, she did end up writing the Houston destination guide in AirTran’s “Go!” magazine for three years and her restaurant and bar reviews were syndicated out to many hotel and travel sites including AOL and Yahoo! Travel. She gained enough notoriety to catch the eye of then Executive Producer Geoff Roth of FOX26 Houston News and was the first Houston Food Blogger to be featured on the evening news in the popular segment. In 2011, she decided to focus her efforts on growing her Houston-based copywriting and content development agency, GlobalWrites, but she still has a bit of a foodie following on Facebook and Twitter. You can keep up with the latest developments for “Luau Like a Local” on the Facebook page or by searching #LuauLikeALocal.
Follow
-
