One Local Summer: Week 2 - Grilled Snapper

I made a delicious and very simple (and colorful!) dinner last night: grilled snapper, corn on the cob, steamed carrots, and strawberries. The snapper was dressed very, very lightly with lime juice, chili powder, salt and pepper, and grilled on aluminum foil "boats" because we don't have a fish grill pan. It worked out very nicely - the fish was cooked through and had the smoky flavor, and it didn't fall through the grates. Topped with cilantro and served with a lime wedge, this was light and fresh, perfect for a hot day.

Corn on the cob is great grilled, and I served that with lime wedges and dusted them dusted with chili powder. I read the idea on a blog about Indian food and thought it would be a nice change of pace from the standard butter, salt and pepper - boy is it! Tangy, spicy, and sweet, with a smoky grilled background flavor, this was a fantastic way to enjoy fresh sweet corn.

The fish was caught around Half Moon Bay, about 25 miles away. Corn on the cob came from Brentwood, 65 miles away. Carrots and strawberries were grown by my faithful CSA, Full Belly Farm, 128 miles away. And the lime was picked off a neighbor's tree (with permission, of course.) Only the chili powder, salt and pepper were not locally grown.

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Adjustments to My Diet

I met with a dietitian this morning to go over the adjustments I need to make for my not-quite-diabetes elevated blood sugar levels. The biggest change for me is that I'll need to count, weigh, and measure all of my food until the end of my pregnancy (10 more weeks!) I'll also need to eat on a schedule - every 3 hours, and no longer than 10 hours between an evening snack and breakfast.

Since discovering Core, I've learned how to pay attention my body's hunger cues, eating mindfully when hungry and stopping when satisfied. For whatever reason, I am unable to do this while counting Points, carbs, calories, whatever. The mindset is just different for me in a way that I am not sure how to explain. I have worked hard to revoke my Clean Plate Club membership, and counting puts me right back into the mindset of "must eat what's counted" whether or not I'm physically hungry. I'm concerned that eating a prescribed amount on a schedule will not be a positive habit for me to reacquire, but I want to do what is healthiest for the baby, so I'll have to work with these rules to find a balance that works for me.

One Year of Blogging

The blog turned one yesterday without much fanfare, but the past year has brought over 8,000 hits from every continent except Antarctica. I'm grateful to everyone who has commented or e-mailed me support and encouragement over the past year. Thank you for reading! This year has also brought a change in my eating habits that have made me a healthier woman with finding local purveyors of healthy food as a new hobby, and more than 2/3 of the way to a new baby girl! It's been a good year!

And now for the less than great news: my gestational diabetes test came back elevated, and while I don't have GD, I'm supposed to eat as though I do in order to keep blood sugars under control. I'll be meeting with a dietitian soon to find out more about what that means, but it is frustrating and adds another level of things to track for the duration of my pregnancy. I was never good at tracking Points, which is why I switched to Core in the first place; counting carbs doesn't seem like the most positive step to me! Obviously I'll do what I need to for a healthy baby, but I'm not thrilled with this turn of events.

One Local Summer: Week 1

For our first all local meal of the One Local Summer challenge, we had grilled steak, baby new potatoes, glazed carrots, asparagus, and strawberries. The steak (just lightly salted and peppered) was from Chileno Valley Ranch in Petaluma and all of the veggies were from Full Belly Farm in Guinda. I used olive oil and balsamic vinegar from Hare Hollow Ranch in Healdsburg for a light dressing on the asparagus, and Hare Hollow olive oil with parsley on the potatoes, and an orange squeezed over the carrots for a simple glaze. All in all, a very simple supper, but wonderfully flavorful and satisfying.

I'm going in tomorrow morning for a glucose test to see if I have gestational diabetes. I failed the one hour test and am going back for the fasting three hour test tomorrow. It is a bit ironic that with my last pregnancy, I ate junk and had fine glucose levels, and this time I'm eating much healthier, a variety of fresh vegetables and lots of whole grains, and this time there is a chance that I might have gestational diabetes! That orange glucose drink is really awful, and spending the morning in the lab having blood drawn every hour just isn't my idea of a great time. Wish me luck tomorrow.

The veggies are back! The veggies are back!

Full Belly Farm has been on hiatus for the past three weeks, and while they certainly deserve a rest after providing such amazing produce week after week, all year long to over 1000 CSA members, I've been certainly missing my veggie box! I was so excited to pick up our veggies this morning that I squealed a bit when I saw the week's yummy variety, which included:

Cauliflower
Carrots
Salad mix
Leeks
Mandarin oranges
Rutabagas
Tokyo turnips
Butternut squash

It's like Christmas with root vegetables. The Palo Alto Farmer's Market is closed for the winter, so I'm picking up the box at Flea Street Cafe, and there is just a miniature booth of Full Belly goodies - broccoli, kale, root veggies galore, wheat berries, almond butter, dried herbs. So much good stuff! I picked up a bunch of dill and a bunch of cilantro for $2, happy to see the fresh bundles of yummy herbs. ($2 is my current spending for the week. Last week, I spent less than $50 on food, mostly for chicken soup and orange juice!)

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I weighed myself this morning and was 281 lb., for a total of 30.6 lb. lost. I'm updating my goals and current weight loss for the first time in months. I had a bit of a gain, and a set back in my weight loss, and was embarassed to update with higher numbers. I have to get over that and update whether the scale moves up or down, and being pregnant, I anticipate it moving up in the coming months at a reasonable pace. I'm going to keep track, though, so I don't allow myself to get out of control.

I'm also adjusting my goals. I'm expecting to gain weight during my pregnancy, but my doctor has said that it's okay for me to lose as long as I'm eating enough for the baby to grow at a healthy rate. I would like to end my pregnancy no more than 15 lb. from where I started it. I gained 31 lb. with my first pregnancy, when I ate whatever I cared to eat and made no attempts to exercise, so I think that 15 is reasonable while I'm being careful about what I'm eating and am continuing to exercise.

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Jax is feeling much better and is bouncing off the walls while I'm recouperating from my chest cold. I'm still sick, but I'm not feeling quite as much like an elephant is sitting on my chest, and I can breathe through my nose again, so things are improving.