Healthy is the new skinny

So, you may read my blog, look at my photo and think, "who is this skinny bitch trying to give me advice on how to eat? She's probably never had a weight problem in her life."
Well, you're right, I've never been more than about 15 lbs overweight in my 53 years, but I did and still do have a binge eating problem. No purging, I just overeat. I'm missing some sort of stop mechanism, once I start eating I simply don't want to stop. (I'm kinda the same way with beer.) If I buy cookies, ice cream or chips I will eat the entire package in one or two sittings. I solve that problem for myself by not buying those things. I'm not saying I never buy it, but I don't as a rule. When I do eat "bad stuff" I keep craving it and eating it for days until I am able to break the cycle. It's easier to just stay away.

When I advise about exercising portion control it is a reminder to myself as well; I eat way too much at one sitting. And so, since my 20's I have had to work at maintaining my ideal weight, thus my lifelong interest in fitness and nutrition. I don't like being overweight, it is uncomfortable and I'm too cheap to buy new clothes.

My saving grace is that I never sit still and I like healthy food. And about 4 years ago I had a black cloud in my life that came with a super shiny silver lining. I had throat cancer. Luckily (oh so luckily!!) it was caught early and I'm here to tell you about it. I had 7 weeks of radiation that completely changed the landscape of my mouth and turned it into a science ficton project. After the first week I noticed that grapes tasted really, really bad. Pretty much the rest of the fruit family followed. I lived on mostly Ensure, hot tea, and a little bland food like oats and pasta with butter. Veggies tasted okay, but my mouth hurt and eating was not pleasant. Boy, did Thanksgiving suck that year!

Slowly after the radiation treatment I was able to incorporate food back into my life. Some things were easier to eat than others.  And I was not only fortunate to survive my illness, but also to recover my taste buds! Somehow my bout with cancer turned into an advantage for me because cookies and cake just turned to dough in my mouth and I no longer desired eating them. I did ingest a lot of fatty things at first to recover some of the weight I'd lost, but found that sugary foods wreaked havoc with my mouth, causing a yeasty reaction as well as the corners of my mouth cracking. Never a huge fan of squashes, post radiation they were the friendlest food for my mouth. Now I love all of them and eat them often. Vegetables continue to be one of my most palatable foods and sometimes I'm amazed at how sweet they taste to me. Recovery was a very slow and gradual thing for my taste buds and mouth and I still have trouble with things sticking in my throat, but all in all I'm a very lucky girl.

And so I say, healthy is the new skinny. Don't worry about trying to conform to society's unrealistic ideals on looks and size. Instead eat food that is going to keep your hair, skin and organs healthy.

Chicken and Avocado tacos

Here's another meal you can used your leftover grilled chicken in. 

Chicken and Avocado tacos

This is simple stuff. Sliced chicken breast, sliced avocado and a chunky Pico de Gallo style salad on sprouted corn tortillas.

I actually premeditated making these and bought the tortillas at the health food store a couple days ago. I wanted corn tortillas and I didn't want to eat ones made from GMO crops.

I give these Food for Life sprouted corn tortillas  five stars. They were hearty and chewy without being too tough and had great rustic corn flavor. I wanted them grilled and had a small cast iron skillet so heated them up in that, but if it had been during the day I would have thrown them on the gas grill outside.

But first I made this salsa/salad with some grape tomatoes, a slice of diced red onion, 1 diced fresh jalapeno pepper, a handful of fresh cilantro, chopped and the juice of one lime.* And a pinch of kosher salt. I didn't measure anything- just add ingredient quotients to your personal taste.

*kitchen tip: cut the lime in half and squeeze it between the crotch end of a pair of kitchen tongs.