First let me just say that I still don’t know anything about why I feel bad.  Not to freak my American readers out, but when you live in a country with socialized medicine and you are not deathly ill, things can take awhile.  I figure that by the time I get a diagnosis, I will be all better anyway.  That’s fine with me.

And really I am feeling better.  I have heard from many people that there has been lots of stomach stuff “going around” and that it has been worse this year for whatever reason, so probably that’s all it is.  I find it funny (and a bit aggravating) when people say to me “You of all people to get a stomach problem?!” as if I am some paragon of food purity and perfection.  I have never claimed to be that nor do I want the title!  And I am just as capable of catching a bacteria, virus, parasite, whatever, as anyone else.  Remember when many people got e coli from eating spinach??  I rest my case.

I was having a discussion awhile back with Christy about how they sell leeks here in Israel.  Like many vegetables here, the leeks are GIANT.  Here is my son holding both giant leek and giant celery:

So basically, you pay for that entire thing and then the cashier generously offers to whack off the top 1/2 and throw it away for you.  After you have already paid for it, mind you.  Today I asked her to leave it on b/c I wanted it for this picture and she looked at my like I’ve got 3 heads.  Right, I’m strange for wanting to keep the garbage I’ve already paid for.

Here is what the leeks ultimately became:

And you know it’s summer b/c cherries are here!!  I loooooove cherries. 

I had to choose between sending my eldest to college and buying these costly morsels, but you know, college is over-rated.

Lastly, I wanted to report on my fermentation experiment:

Kimchee

1 head cabbage, cut into 2-inch pieces

1 green onion, chopped
5 cups water
2 T sea salt
2 tsp natural sweetener (optional – I didn’t use any)

In a large non-metallic bowl, combine cabbage, water, 1 1/2 T salt, and carrots.  Set aside for 12 hours.  Remove the cabbage and carrots from the soaking liquid and put them into a jar.  To the liquid, add the remaining salt, ginger, garlic, scallions and sweetener is using.  Pour this over the veggies.  Cover the jar with cheesecloth secured with a rubber band and let side 3-7 days.  Eat a little bit as a digestive aid with your meals.

Anyone who has heard me speak, read much on this blog, or worked with me, surely understands that I don’t often worry about calories.  You have seen here recipes for delicious smoothies with coconut, luscious fruits, tahina; my raw brownies and peanut bars resplendant with dates and nuts; creamy banana oats and other carb-heavy dishes.   I personally find that by staying away from processed foods, from sugar, from too much wheat and animal products, I can enjoy a bountiful diet without having to count or watch calories.

But what about what we have been taught:  “Weight is controlled quite simply by calories in versus calories out.” Isn’t this an indisputible Law of Thermodymanics?

Total honesty here:  I don’t know.

I do know that when I was following a 100% Raw Vegan Diet, I ate whatever I wanted as long as it was raw, and I lost weight. I ate loads of fruit, veggies, avocados, as many nuts and seeds as I wanted, agave nectar, raw honey, raw cacao, coconut oil, loads of flaxseed crackers, and gourmet raw dishes and I continued to lose weight. Sometimes, just for fun, I input everything I ate into fitday.com to see where I stood calorie-wise. Not surprisingly, I quite often came in well-over the 1400 calories I had needed to stay below in order to lose the 70 lbs I had lost up to that point. It was pretty clear to me then, that NOT all calories were created equal. Calories from raw, unadulterated sources seemed to be used by the body more efficiently.  (By the way, I lasted as a 100% Raw Vegan for 30 days.  Twice.  It’s not easy).

Then there is the lecture I recently listened to by Marc David, author of The Slow Down Diet, Nourishing Wisdom, and Mind/Body Nutrition, founder of The Institute for the Psychology of Eating, and a graduate of and guest teacher at my alma mater, the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. In the lecture, David discounts the calories in-calories out theory completely. He points out that if that formula really worked, so many of us wouldn’t still be struggling with our weight. David goes on to explain that a meal, eaten under stress, anger, or self-loating isn’t going to be digested the same way as a meal eaten in happiness, joy and calm. He’s got the scientific data to back up his claims.  I personally think he’s on to something.

And what about hormones and their role on weight?  What about toxins in the environment.  What about the thyroid, the master gland that controls our calorie burn rate, the metabolism?

In my own practice, I’ve had plenty of clients keep meticulous records of their intake and output everyday for days on end. Often where there is a calorie-defecit and we would expect them to lose weight, they don’t. Other times, they lose weight when they are clearly eating a surplus of calories. I am pretty convinced that weight loss adds up to quite a bit more than just calories in vs calories out.

The method I try to teach my clients is to follow their hunger. Eat when hungry, don’t eat when not hungry. This takes some practice for many of us, especially those who have not allowed themselves to feel actual hunger for years, but I have a great technique that makes this so simple and easy.

I also advise everyone to eat as natural whole food as possible and to avoid artificial flavors, chemicals, preservatives and other ick. Fruit is your friend people! It is not a high-calorie bomb!! Who came up with that anyway? I so often hear people tell me they are avoiding fruit because it is too many calories and too much sugar, as they chomp on their artificial chemical filled diet bar and their skim latte. Perhaps their snack is fewer calories, but what about nutrition? What about satisfaction? What about fiber?? Will that lower calorie, albeit lower nutrtient snack actually help them lose weight? Will they then be skinny but sick?  This is not an experiment I am willing to take with my health. I am not eating food created in a Lab. I do not believe that those reduced calorie items will keep me slim and healthy. Pass me the peaches.

I also ask my clients to find a form of movement that they love and then get out there and do it regularly. It should be hard enough to make you sweat and breath, but fun enough to make you want to do it again.

BUT, and this is a very big but:  More times than not, I will also ask my clients to submit food logs or to track their calories for a few weeks on http://www.sparkpeople.com/ or http://www.fitday.com/.  Why?  Because it is all too easy to think we are eating great and within reason, but in reality we are eating more than we need.  How many people reading this have been frustated that they did everything “right” and still didn’t lose weight?  Yeah, me too.  Then I logged it all and saw I was overeating enough of the time to undo the lower calorie days and halt any weight loss progress. Food logging and calorie counting can be THE KEY to figure out why your weight is not going in the direction you want it to be going.

So, I am divided on the issue.  I think calories DO count.  I also think there is more to weight loss than just calories.

What do you think?  What has been your experience with calorie counting?

For those of you on SparkPeople, please friend me:  EmilySegal.  Sometimes I track my food there too for all to see.

Yowsa!  I did NOT mean to let 2 weeks go by without blogging.  I was just so busy getting the 21-Day Group Detox underway.  We are now in the midddle of Week One and my participants are beginning to get their Sparkle on!  Yay!  I will report more on that as I am able.

Aside from the Daily 9-5, we have been awfully busy having FUN lately.  Here’s a sample of what’s been on tap:

So for like one glorious, shining moment, my house was spotlessly clean.   Now it’s all crappy again.  I think it was Phyllis Diller who said that “Cleaning your house when you have children is like shoveling the walk while it’s still snowing.” 

Anyhoo, if you want to see all the family pics from the last few days of our vacay, head on over to Facebook.  I’ll be posting them there soonly.  (Friend me up here).

If however, you are here to see what we ate while traipsing around the country, scroll yourselves on down…

Here’s vacation day lunch break Numero Uno at Qumran, the archaeological site where they found the Dead Sea Scrolls.  It’s right across from the Dead Sea.

On to DAY TWO:

Hi Everybody!  How’s it going?  I’m doing great.  I finished my cleanse up before Shabbat and feel absolutely fabulous and very, very energetic.  I had ants in my pants yesterday and my husband and I ended up walking all the way to and then through Moshav Gan Haim!  For those of you who aren’t from around here, basically we were walking for over 2 hours and I could have gone more.  The day before, I easily ran 8K, my longest distance in 3 years!  Guess I really freed up some serious energy by eating so much enzyme-rich, easily-digested smoothies, fresh juices and soups! 


I am going to need all this energy heading into the next couple of days, as indeed, we are in the home-stretch before Passover, which begins on Monday night.  I’m hosting the seder here for 14 of my assorted inlaws.  The meal will not be vegan, or even vegetarian.  I’m serving fish, chicken soup and roast chicken and rumor has it my husband is preparing a lamb leg, but I don’t cook mammals so he’ll be on his own with that.  Of course there will be vegetable-based dishes and I will post them plus recipes. 


And just for the record, I don’t eat the non-vegetarian items, although I will be including eggs and dairy in my diet again for the week of Passover.

I slept 9 hours again last night!  This is some DEEEEP relaxation I’ve gotten myself into, babes.

The daily food began with another food processor “smoothie” which really is not very smooth.  Banana, Orange, Date, Water, Oat Milk, Flax and Tahina.  Did you know that I can’t even say the word “chunky” without feeling like I’m gonna hurl?  It’s a fact, Jack.

Then I biked to the gym for legs, abs and cardio.  It was COLD today!  OK, so not like NY Cold, but colder than the blast furnace of a few days ago.  Came home famished and hit up the rest of the Oat-Date Peanut Balls, yum. 

Lunch was bowl of leftovers:

Then, there was a Double Rainbow which was a lovely omen for what was to happen later on (that’s some literary for-shadowing, credit to my 10th grade English teacher Mr. Mann, may he rest in peace).

Snack was 2 apples, an orange, a pear, a carrot and a pepper = an edible rainbow.  Then I got busy stove-top roasting some peppers and eggplant for the Shabbat salads as part of the cookbook review I keep talking about:

when that darling man I married 15 years ago in a stroke of absolute genius, returned home from work, he was carrying this: