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gardencityvegans · 5 years

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NEDA Week 2019: Sharing Food While Tuning In

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As this week approached, I asked folks on Instagram what recovery topics they’d like to hear about. One of the questions I got was how to eat around others.

The question didn’t specify a stage of recovery, but I think it’s an important conversation for any stage! At the start of recovery, learning to eat socially again can be a hugely healing and meaningful, as well as a challenging, step. Years into recovery, staying tuned into one’s own food hungers and needs while also enjoying the spontaneity and “flow” of social gatherings can be a fine balance. It can be a fine balance even for those who haven’t had eating disorders or disordered eating: separating social pressure from actual cravings is one of the topics I discuss most often in my counseling work.

I’ve gone through phases with social eating in accordance with my own place in the recovery process. At the beginning, I committed to greeting restaurant meals as an opportunity to practice flexibility first and foremost. This meant being open-minded about where I ate, challenging myself not to analyze menus endlessly beforehand, and not freaking out if a meal wasn’t exactly what I wanted.

It was hard work. I’m glad I gave myself a sort of training in going with the flow, but looking back, I wonder if I wasn’t a little too pushy with myself. I was so determined to prove my recovery, to myself and to others, that I sort of forgot that dining out is supposed to be a source of pleasure. I ate meals that I felt lukewarm about in order to prove my non-attachment to food. It may well have been what I needed at the time, but if enjoying restaurant meals was the goal, it didn’t really get me there.

Now that I’m more grounded in my recovery, I have less of a need to use social gatherings as an opportunity to prove my flexibility. I’m more vocal about my likes and dislikes, more confident in voicing preferences. I’m more tuned into what makes me feel good. This, I think, is an important part of having a food thing of my own. What matters is being able to recognize when having preferences will enhance my enjoyment of a meal, versus when it’ll burden me or get in the way of my living in the moment.

The food preferences that matter to me in social settings nowadays are very unlike the ones that used to matter most. I used to worry a lot about how healthful food preparation in restaurants was, which led me to stick to a small spectrum of menu options that felt “safe” (usually salads). It was difficult for me to branch out, try new things, or even to take advantage of cool vegan dining options when they presented themselves.

Today–perhaps ironically, given that history–one of my main priorities when I eat with others is to be honest and real about wanting to feel satisfied. I don’t relish “small plate” dining, which never seems to fill me up. Likewise for vegan dining that’s overtly vegetable-centric, which is trendy right now: I crave grains, beans, and vegan proteins. I’m happy to eat at omnivore spots, but if I have the choice not to eat someplace where I’ll have to cobble together a few salads for a meal, I will. Of course these preferences fluctuate with what’s available, practical, and fair to others. But I’ve become comfortable with acknowledging that satiety matters to me.

Of course “eating with others” isn’t only about eating out. It can apply to family gatherings or meals with friends, or even to one-on-one, intimate dinners. For the most part, I love eating with my loved ones, especially cooking for friends or partners. Eating with strangers can be a mixed bag. I’m sensitive–maybe too sensitive–to how much the people around me take pleasure in food. It’s tough for me to enjoy a meal with those who seem ambivalent about eating, which I know is my issue, not theirs; a craving for validation or permission, maybe. And years out of recovery, I still sometimes bristle when attention is called to my appetite. This happens fairly often, probably because I’m a volume eater (lots of plant-based eaters are). When it happens, it strikes a nerve that runs directly back to my childhood, when my big appetite was often a subject of teasing.

What has guided and helped me the most in finding a pleasurable experience of sharing food has been to “check in” from time to time with my body. When I was at the start of recovery, I treated social meals as a mental/psychological challenge. Sometimes the challenge was so all-consuming that it was all I could focus on, and I spent shared meals in a state of distance from my body and its cues.

Today, I try to be as attuned to my body when I eat in company as I am when I’m on my own. It can be work: social gatherings are distracting, often in a fun way, and it’s not always easy for me to scan my body for hunger cues or take a moment to really consider what would satisfy me. When I do, though, it almost always deepens and enhances the pleasure I take in eating.

As I was writing this post I had the intention to share a few tips about eating together for the sake of those who’ve had eating disorders and are in the long process of recovery. It occurred to me that sharing food can be difficult for many other reasons: for example, if one lives with a health condition that requires management through eating a certain way. A person might also have anxieties around shared meals that have less to do with food than with the circumstances (feeling ill at ease in groups or having group meals evoke difficult past experiences). Being vegan, plant-based, or having food allergies/intolerances can be a social challenge in its own right.

No matter what makes dining with others tricky for you, here are some of the practices that have allowed me to truly savor shared meals while staying tuned into my body and needs.

1. Scan your body before you join others for a meal. Before you enter a social gathering, it can be hugely beneficial to take a quick inventory of how you’re feeling. For me, tuning into how I feel–tired? vulnerable? energized?–always leads me to better understand what I’m craving and what I’d like to eat. I can approach my meal as an opportunity to get grounded, to recharge, or to celebrate, among other possible experiences.

2. Stay tuned into what you want and need. I can’t count the number of times that I’ve showed up to a meal with a clear sense of what I craved, only to have ordered something else because it’s what worked in a group setting. Sometimes this is unavoidable: if I’m eating at someone’s home, for example, I’m happy to enjoy what’s being offered and shared. Likewise for work-related meals and some family gatherings.

Sometimes, though, there’s space to have a meal that’s more in line with what I want, even if it involves speaking up. I’ve often ended up sharing dishes at restaurants because other folks I was eating with wanted them; it hasn’t always been easy for me to verbalize the fact that I’d like something different, but I’m getting better at doing it. Part of my comfort resides in realizing that it’s OK to want what I want and crave what I crave.

3. Contribute. This only applies to homemade gatherings and meals, but one of my favorite ways to bring some of my own food tastes and personality to a shared meal is to contribute a dish! This is an opportunity not only to enjoy something desirable, but also to share it with others. And if I’m eating with omnivores, it’s sometimes an opportunity to encourage a new perception of vegan food.

4. Check in. A body scan before dining is great, but it can be equally important to stay tuned in as a meal goes on. When I’m dining with others I sometimes forget to practice the mindful eating I’m accustomed to doing on my own, which involves eating more slowly than I’m inclined to (left to my own devices, I inhale) and taking moments to check in on my fullness. I’ve learned with time to do this around other people. Even if it feels a bit strange to pause and take a breath in someone else’s presence, a single moment of inward focus can go a long way in helping me to experience a meal more presently.

5. Practice being unashamed. I say “practice” because shame is an experience that tends to cling and linger. Releasing it takes time, patience, and endless self-compassion.

For me, it has taken years and years to become prouder and more self-assured about my food needs, my cravings, and my appetite. I’ve always taken this intention seriously, but it’s been humbling to realize how ongoing and complex the work around it is. Each shared meal is an opportunity for me to let another person bear witness to my commitment to self-nourishment. Some of them are easier than others, and some company is easier than others. Regardless, I do my best to satisfy my hunger and to experience pleasure along the way.

Final thing worth saying? Not every shared meal gives me as much space to check in as I’d like. Sometimes I become sensitive to interpersonal dynamics, and I lose sight of my physical experience. Sometimes I don’t have opportunity to eat something I’m excited about. When this happens, it’s OK. One of the early recovery lessons I learned was to not treat each meal as though it was my last, and this has remained an important truth to me over time. It’s important for me to acknowledge my love of food and do my best to create dining experiences that I’ll enjoy. It’s equally important for me to maintain a sense of perspective and roll with the punches when that’s what the situation calls for.

Hope these tips are useful, and of course I welcome you all to share whatever approaches have allowed you to share food pleasurably.

This is my last NEDA week post of the year, but as always, the conversation doesn’t end here. I’ll still be celebrating recovery through the weekend on Instagram, and as always, I’m here to support and encourage you however I can–even if that means simply sending love from behind my keyboard. You are loved, and you are enough.

[Read More ...] https://www.thefullhelping.com/neda-week-2019-sharing-food-while-tuning-in/

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gardencityvegans · 5 years

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NEDA Week 2019: Having My Own Thing

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There’s always an official NEDA week theme, but most of the time the posts I write for this week end up finding a theme of their own. The National Eating Disorder Association’s theme for 2019 is “Come as You Are,” which emphasizes diversity and inclusivity in our community of those living with EDs, those recovering from them, those who have recovered, and all of the people in the places in between.

I realized as I was drafting this post that my own thought process around “come as you are” centers on the idea of individuality and self-expression in recovery.

Through talking to other men and women who have had eating disorders, I know that certain parts of the recovery process are nearly universal. A lot of the experiences that felt the most isolating for me—weight gain, the loss of a sense of “specialness,” the horror of feeling out-of-control—are actually completely “normal” stages of anorexia recovery. They felt uniquely threatening, but the more I spoke to others, the more I realized that they were part of a shared process.

At the same time, recovery is a deeply personal experience, and we come to understand it on our own terms.

At many times during recovery, I looked frantically around me for an archetype or role model to follow. I had so many questions: how long will this take? Will the weight gain ever stop? Will I ever feel comfortable in my body again? Will I ever truly enjoy eating out, being intimate, or socializing around food? How do you know when you’re “fully recovered”? My hope was that some incredible recovered person, some shining example of the process, would have the answers.

It never worked like that. In fact, my quest to find a recovery guru only took me to problematic places. It made me prescribe to eating styles that weren’t right for me long-term, one of which was raw foodism. It kept me from owning my own cravings and food likes/dislikes (for example: my abiding love of carbs). It muffled the voice of my intuition and kept me from doing the work of tuning into my body and discovering my own hungers.

Over time, I did learn how to do this—to tune in—and it’s what has allowed me to sustain my recovery over time. The answer was never in a book or on a blog; it was within me.

When you’ve been alienated from your body and your appetites for a long time, and especially when you believe that there is a rapacious monster within you that will eat everything in sight if you give it so much as a centimeter of freedom, it’s awful to be told to “listen to your body.” I regarded my body as freakish and insatiable, a delusion that felt all the more real because I’d been starving for years, and my body was insatiable. Recovery revealed the greatness of my appetite to me—an appetite that had been stoked by deprivation—and it was terrifying.

Getting in touch with hunger cues and listening to one’s body could easily be the work of a lifetime. For the record, I’m still learning how to listen and respond! At this point, though, the process is more curious and fun than it is daunting or scary. I’m not always great at being in my body—like many people, I experience anxiety as a kind of dissociation from my physical self. But I’ve spent a lot of time working on this in therapy and in yoga, and the dissociation happens less and less often. The rest of the time, my body is an incredible source of information.

I was reminded of this in the fall, when my body gave me all sorts of helpful signals that a relationship I’d been exploring wasn’t right. It often lets me know—through a pattering heart rate or GI distress—when my actions aren’t aligned with my truth. And it has become very, very good at telling me what food I crave, because I’ve finally invited it to have a voice.

Most importantly, my body has guided me to a place I never thought I’d be: the land of “not having a thing.”

For years and years, I always had a food thing. By “thing,” I mean a self-selected nutritional modification that dictated what I could and couldn’t eat. When I say “thing,” I don’t mean the ethical choice to avoid animals, and importantly, I don’t mean something that I chose freely with my body’s guidance. I mean nutrition parameters that I picked up from experts, gurus, popular diets or eating styles, and so on. In choosing a thing, I always had one of two motivations: becoming or remaining a certain shape, or trying to maintain a sense of control.

I loved having food things, just as I’d loved having food rules and routines when I was anorexic. They were so safe and so bracing. When life was daunting and impossible to understand, there was always one thing I could do that made sense, which to cling to a dietary modification. No matter how much pain I was in, I could avoid something that had been deemed inappropriate for my body by somebody else. It always felt good, even when it meant not eating things I liked and spent a whole lot of time thinking about.

Nowadays, and for the past few years, I’ve come to realize that I don’t have a thing. Or rather, I no longer have somebody else’s thing. As it turns out, nobody knows better how I ought to be eating than I do.

I strive to eat mostly whole foods, plant-based diet, but I eat sugar, salt, oil, and vegan meats, too. I still eat a lot of cashew cheese, nut pate, and salad, but I can’t remember the last time I had any sense of how much of my day’s intake of food had been uncooked. I find a lot of intuitive eating principles to be helpful, but I’m not a completely intuitive eater. If any principle guides me, it’s the focus on macronutrient balance that I wrote about in Power Plates, which is flexible as far as eating prescriptions go, and which I modify plenty.

For a while, it felt strange not to have something I could point to as proof of my own willpower around food. It was odd to have permission to eat everything. Nowadays, it feels pretty great. Avoiding pleasurable foods is a lot of work, and letting go of the need to do that all the time feels like laying a burden down. My work in dietetics and interest in nutrition keep me focused on wholesome foods, but my appetites and tastes guide my choices within that. And for the first extended stretch of time that I can remember, there’s no (vegan) food that’s off limits. Only foods I eat more of or less of.

My experience with anorexia began right before I turned twelve, and my appetites had been critiqued at home or years before that. I don’t have childhood memories of food freedom or permission to eat what I wanted. What a gift it’s been to find these things for the first time in my thirties. And how proud I am—really and truly—to have figured out how I like and need to eat, granting myself the permission I so feared along the way.

In addition to being freed of the need to scour books and the internet for rules, I no longer get worked up about the way other people eat. For so many years—as long as I was fixated on seeking food prescriptions from others—I was judgy and defensive about food. I resented those who ate more restrictively than I did and was discomfited by those who gave themselves more permission. Any exposure to other eating styles was a minefield.

It’s not like that anymore. I don’t have my hackles up all the time when I observe other people eat. I don’t scrutinize other men or women’s eating patterns and choices. Instead of judging, I give everyone the benefit of the doubt; I assume that they’re nourishing themselves as only they can know how to do.

This week, I wish you the courage and support that it takes to create your own eating style, whatever that may be. I don’t mean that you should avoid smart nutrition guidance or research: by all means, dive in! But incorporate what you learn into your life with your body’s guidance.

For the record, I also don’t mean to suggest that eating all foods, within a vegan paradigm or any other, is necessarily the measure of a healed relationship with food. I’ve work with many clients who have discovered, through listening to their own bodies, that certain foods don’t work for them. In that case, choosing not to eat something is the act of self-awareness and freedom that I was just talking about. Elimination and restriction aren’t one-in-the-same, and we’re all different. Inclusion has been my own work in finding a healthful relationship with food; more selectivity might be another person’s work.

It’s also worth saying that this business of eating in alignment with one’s body and soul is fluid. What works for a person today might not work in ten years, or twenty, or thirty. I’m in a deliciously expansive place with food in this decade of my life, but if I got a certain type of diagnosis or was facing a particular health challenge, I might need to make different choices. My cravings and tastes might shift over time, which would change the landscape of my favorite foods and things to eat. That’s fine: if it happens, it’ll be another chapter in having my own thing.

Finally, I want to mention that this process of tuning in—just like the rest of recovery—is a process. It doesn’t happen quickly or overnight, as those of us who have spent decades working on it can attest 🙂 And it doesn’t always, nor should it, happen in isolation. I can’t imagine getting to where I am with food and body awareness without two different therapists, who supported me in different, but equally helpful ways.

If you’re at a point in recovery when the time has come to craft your own relationship with food, but you don’t know where to start, it’s wise and self-loving to solicit some support. Your support system might be a therapist, a dietitian, or another kind of healer; it may be a friend or family member who can listen attentively and help to nurture your intuition. Asking for support and validation isn’t the same as searching for rules; it’s often the added dose of courage it takes to get in touch with one’s own hungers.

I’ll be back on Friday to talk about a reader requested topic, which is eating with others. Till then, I send you ongoing love and ongoing wishes of being in your body. Happy Wednesday, friends.

[Read More ...] https://www.thefullhelping.com/neda-week-2019-having-my-own-thing/

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gardencityvegans · 5 years

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Have a Delicious March.

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You guys! Spring officially starts in a few (hopefully short) weeks. Are you excited?! Personally, I can hardly contain myself. More daylight, buds on the trees, the first crocuses and daffodils—I’m so ready for the winter grays (and dirty city snow/salt everywhere) to fade away and be replaced with happy pops of color and warmer

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gardencityvegans · 5 years

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1-Pan Tempeh Bolognese

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This hearty, 1-pan tempeh bolognese is a plant-based take on a classic that pairs perfectly with pastas, eggplant parmesan, lasagna, and more! Plus, it comes together in just 30 minutes. Let me show you how it’s done.

This bolognese starts with sautéed onion, mushrooms, and garlic for a flavorful base. Then comes finely grated tempeh, which cooks in the pan until seared. It’s important to use a pan large enough that the tempeh has room to sauté.

1-Pan Tempeh Bolognese from Minimalist Baker →

[Read More ...] https://minimalistbaker.com/1-pan-tempeh-bolognese/

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gardencityvegans · 5 years

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NEDA Week 2019: Come as You Are

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Happy Monday, friends! As you probably noticed, I took a pause from weekend reading this week in order to reflect on National Eating Disorder Awareness Week. Each year, I use this week as an opportunity to reflect on my own recovery and to celebrate recovery with all of you.

This year’s NEDA week theme is “Come as You Are.” To quote the National Eating Disorder Association website:

Our 2019 theme, Come as You Are, highlights NEDA’s movement towards inclusivity in the greater eating disorder community and our goal of unifying the field of eating disorders. In particular, Come as You Are sends a message to individuals at all stages of body acceptance and eating disorders recovery that their stories are valid. We invite everyone, especially those whose stories have not been widely recognized, to have the opportunity to speak out, share their experiences, and connect with others….

So this NEDAwareness Week, come as you are, not as you think you should be.

I love this message of inclusivity. A lot of work has been done in recent years to shatter the notion that eating disorders look a certain way or affect only a certain type of individual; we’re coming to recognize that size and shape don’t always reflect eating behaviors, and we’re having a dialog about the fact that EDs impact all races, communities, and gender identities.

For all of the progress we’ve made, we still have a long way to go. In my private counseling practice, where I work with many people who identify as recovered or recovering, I continually hear invalidations of the struggle. “I was never really underweight,” people tell me as a means of explaining why they didn’t seek help sooner. “I didn’t lose my period.” “I only binged every now and then.” And so on. The shadow of a single, popularized eating disorder narrative/stereotype discourages a lot of people who need help from actively seeking it out. It’s time to change that.

I’m having my own reflections on the 2019 theme. I’m thinking about “come as you are” not as it pertains to ED treatment or seeking help, but rather as it pertains to recovery itself.

In the fall, when my DI peers and I had our ED-themed class, it got me thinking about the disjunction between my real-life experience of recovery and the experience I expected to have years ago, when I was at the start of the process in therapy. In short, it’s been a lot messier. In treatment, it’s commonly said that “full recovery” is possible. Treatment providers hold hope of this possibility for their patients, and patients hear the expression many times over, especially when the going is tough.

I’m of two minds about full recovery as an ideal. On the one hand, I believe wholeheartedly that a beautiful, full, and healed life after eating disorders is possible. I’ve experienced it myself: a life that is nothing like the life I could have imagined for myself when I was sick. A life that’s richer than I dared to hope for and full of freedoms that I never thought would be mine. Recovery has unlocked a relationship with food that is pleasurable and rewarding in ways I couldn’t have known were possible when I was eleven, nineteen, or twenty-four years old.

Everything I write and create nowadays is a testament to this relationship and the recovery that created it. In this sense, I hold hope every day, for myself and for others.

At the same time, my recovery is not without complexity, tension, or struggle. I’ve maintained physical health and nourishing food habits for over a decade now, but that maintenance has often felt like active work. I relish eating, but my struggle with body dysmorphia is ongoing, which can complicate my enjoyment and sense of freedom with food. I’ve learned how not to use food to “manage” or “control” my anxiety, but the impulse to control unmanageable feelings is still there, still problematic, and now that food isn’t my outlet, it shows up in other ways (rigid lifestyle routines, arbitrary rules, and hypervigilance about scheduling/time management, to name only a few).

I don’t know if “full recovery” is supposed to suggest a life that’s free of triggers, compulsions that have been rerouted, or pangs of longing for the disorder and the protection it seemed to afford. If it does, then I’m not sure my recovery, such as it is, fits.

I’ve always struggled with this question. Years ago, I asked my therapist why, if EDs were recognized as mental illnesses, the language around them seemed so much more rigid than with other mental illnesses. I’ve never heard an expression as finite-sounding as “fully recovered” when it comes to treatment of depression or anxiety, for example: my understanding is that the aim of treating both is to achieve management that affords for the best quality of life possible.

I wonder if the immediate physical dangers of eating disorders warrant a more aggressive, wholesale approach to treatment and the words we use to describe it. In addition, I’ve heard it said that one of the primary goals of recovery is to help people stop actively identifying with the disease, which would support a before/after language choice. (The opposite, I guess, of a person in AA identifying as an alcoholic whether sober for many years or not.) That makes a lot of sense to me.

Full recovery may also be more possible with EDs than with other mental illnesses because measurable behavior change is such a critical part of recovery. My recovery certainly involved a close examination of familial/psychological factors that predisposed me to anorexia. But at the end of the day, the recovery processes really resided in behavior change: eating balanced meals at regular intervals, increasing my energy intake, learning to rest, and learning to sit with uncomfortable feelings. There were also physical/biological changes—weight restoration, resumed hormone function—that amounted to a firm before and after.

Still. I know well from two relapses that one can be weight restored and abiding by healthful eating patterns without having truly made peace with food, so behavior change isn’t everything. Conversely, I’ve learned that a harmonious relationship with food can accommodate dissonance, which is something that I didn’t know in my early twenties. I believed that, once I was “fully recovered” food would be “just food” (another expression I picked up in treatment) and the struggles around it would vanish entirely, forever.

I wish I’d been better prepared for the non-linearity and ongoing surprises of recovery when I was at the start of the process. The “full recovery” ideal gave me something to strive for, and—just as I believe it’s intended to—it gave me hope. It also contributed to a problematically one-dimensional vision of recovery, a binary between “before” and “after” that couldn’t always accommodate or account for my lived experience. The irony of this is that so much of recovery is about learning to let go of binary thinking altogether, to dwell comfortably in areas of gray.

Today, having made it to the other side of a lasting recovery, I believe that full recovery is possible and that it’s complicated. I believe that recovery looks from person to person, and in spite of the benchmarks we use to define it, its true meaning is created by each individual who lives through it. Most importantly, I believe that being recovered does not mean never struggling again. It means facing struggle—less often with time, if we’re lucky—and handling it in a new, more self-loving way.

A reader and friend articulated this in a way that resonated with me. She said,

I don’t know that we are ever finished with anything. We have growth spurts and setbacks, circle back to something. I think many of us eventually get to a point where some old stuff just can’t hurt us anymore. We won’t let it. And the part that is heartening and reassuring is that we acquire ways of solving problems and dealing with things along the way so that when we find ourselves back in a bad situation that we thought we conquered, we have new ways of dealing with old problems.

If you’re in recovery now or have been recovered for some time, and you feel yourself sometimes struggling to resist the behaviors that made you feel safe for a long time, you’re not alone. Resurgence of struggle or the temptation to flirt with old habits is a part of many peoples’ process, whether publicized or not.

It’s important to use your coping tools—therapy, self-expression, art, friendship, deep breathing, being in nature, or whatever works for you—to resist those familiar, destructive behaviors. It’s also important not to feel like a “failure” if this happens. And what matters most of all is to stay the course. Recovery is every bit as non-linear as it’s said to be, but it gets richer and more beautiful the longer you stick with it.

Given the “come as you are” theme, it also feels important to say that recovery can feel idiosyncratic and personal. The way you experience might be very different from how friends you made in treatment experience it, or people you read about online experience it, or how you were told you’d experience it. The longer I work in this space, the more people I talk to about recovery, the more I realize that there is no archetypal narrative.

The part of my own recovery that registers most differently than others is how important food has remained to me. In spite of several good faith efforts to regard it as “just food”—which didn’t push my recovery forward at all—I ultimately allowed myself to accept that food will always be a big deal to me. A much bigger deal than it is to a lot of other people. The question for me became whether it could be a big deal in a way that was productive and life-giving, rather than destructive and imprisoning.

Today, years later, I can say that it is. Food is a great love of my life. I take outsized pleasure in eating and making and thinking about food. It isn’t “just food,” and it never will be. This isn’t what was advised to me in anything I read about recovery. Yet I believe with all of my heart that transforming my relationship with food, rather than diminishing it, is what has made my recovery possible.

Today, on the first day of NEDA week, I celebrate my own perfectly imperfect recovery, and I celebrate yours, too. One of the many wonderful things about writing this blog is that I’ve gotten to hear about so many recovery stories over the years: through email, conversations had in person, and the green recovery series. I’ve had a chance to witness recovery in all of its incredible, ever-unfolding complexity. I’ve learned to celebrate recovery experiences that look completely different from mine. I’ve learned how to support others in their efforts to make peace with food and their bodies on their own terms. It’s such a gift.

To anyone whose life has been touched by disordered eating: I wish you the “fullness” of recovery and of life. You are loved and supported. You can and will find your own way. It won’t always be easy, and it’s not supposed to be. But it can and will be beautiful.

Thanks for reading today and any day.

[Read More ...] https://www.thefullhelping.com/neda-week-2019-come-as-you-are/

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gardencityvegans · 5 years

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Whole Wheat Rotini with Broccolini and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.pngThis meal will take you 25 minutes to make, start to finish. Prep time included. I felt the need to state that right off the bat. 25 minutes! For a delicious home cooked dinner! One thing I never hear people say is, “You know what I need? I need some complicated recipes that take a lot of time to make. And they should have really long lists of ingredients too!” No, everyone wants easy. Not Taco Bell easy, but who wants to come home from work and spend 2 hours cooking dinner? No one! I’m a food blogger and cooking is kind of my job and even I don’t like spending too much time on one meal. So this recipe is simple. And there aren’t many ingredients either. (Woo hoo!) Although I made this with whole wheat rotini, you can use any kind of pasta you have on hand. If you don’t want to buy broccolini, use a crown of broccoli instead. You can sub out the pine nuts with walnuts or almonds. This recipe is agreeable like that. Are you looking for more 30 minute or less recipes? Well hey, I just happen to have some! Here are 10 [Read More ...] https://ohmyveggies.com/recipe-whole-wheat-rotini-with-broccolini-and-sun-dried-tomatoes/

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gardencityvegans · 5 years

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Recipe | Butternut Squash, Lentil & Kale Salad with Tahini Dressing

http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.pngOn Friday, the weather was beautiful and the sun was shining and I felt excited and hopeful that spring was almost here. I even tweeted this: I know it's mid-February, but it looks like spring outside. Hooray for sun! — Oh My Veggies (@ohmyveggies) February 15, 2013 …and then about 20 minutes later, I got a winter weather alert on my phone. And, indeed, we got about an inch of snow on Saturday. I think Chris and I are now true North Carolinians because, when looking out the window at the (pitiful!) accumulation of snow, we decided it was best to stay off the roads and hunker down for the day. How soon I’ve forgotten the days of schlepping around campus at the University of Wisconsin in blizzard conditions or being unable to open the balcony door in our apartment because several feet of snow had sealed it shut. This Butternut Squash, Lentil & Kale Salad was supposed to be my farewell to winter post. I was going to vow to you that you wouldn’t see another kale or winter squash recipe on my blog until next fall rolls around. But after this weekend, I’m thinking it’s more fitting to [Read More ...] https://ohmyveggies.com/lentil-kale-salad/

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gardencityvegans · 5 years

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Cauliflower Soup

http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.pngThis delicious cream of cauliflower soup will delight the taste buds of even your pickiest child. Eating cauliflower contributes a significant amount of fiber to your diet and is a great food for dieters because it causes a feeling of satiety. [Read More ...] https://ohmyveggies.com/cauliflower-soup/

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gardencityvegans · 5 years

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Vegan Pear Upside Down Cake

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Vegan Pear Upside Down Cake. This amazing Vegan Upside Down Cake needs just 1 Bowl and 40 mins. Use other fruits for variation. Vegan Nutfree Soyfree Recipe. Glutenfree option. Jump to Recipe

I had some pears leftover after entertaining my niece recently and whipped up this upside down cake that she could take along. For some reason hubbs isn’t fond of pears and lately they’ve started giving me headaches if eaten raw. Go figure. But everything works out for everyone in this cake! A gooey caramelized top, soft delicious cake, a dollop of whipped coconut cream.

The pears are sliced and arranged on the bottom of a pan. Maple syrup or brown sugar helps them caramelize during baking. Then a simple vanilla batter on top. Bake until done, then serve with some whipped coconut cream or vanilla ice cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Delish! Use the same method to make pineapple upside down cake or use peaches or apple.

Continue reading: Vegan Pear Upside Down Cake

[Read More ...] http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/yPHzu/~3/PxHKchTyZgs/vegan-pear-upside-down-cake.html

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gardencityvegans · 5 years

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Weekend Reading, 2.24.19

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I’m keeping this weekend reading post short and sweet, mostly because my writing energies have been wrapped up in posts for NEDA week 2019, which begins tomorrow! It won’t be a regular week of recipe-sharing here on the blog, but rather a week in which I take some time to celebrate the recovery process, with all of its challenges and gifts. If you take interest in this topic, perhaps you’ll check in from time to time.

For today, I wanted to share my appreciation for the responses on last Sunday’s post. It’s funny how writing works: when I wrote that post last weekend I thought I was venting about something that had been weighing me down. That was partly true—it felt good to get it off my chest, so to speak—but as is often the case when I write, the experience was healing in unexpected ways.

What I’ve felt most of all since publishing that post is a sense of relief in having articulated what I want without apology. I spend a lot of time yearning for partnership and an equal amount of time telling myself that I shouldn’t want it so much, or shouldn’t talk about the fact that I want it. Not sure what that’s about: I may be afraid to want what I want lest it not happen. And I may be—well, OK, I know I am—a little embarrassed to admit that I’m lonely.

It was powerful to put into words the thing I wanted, without apology. It felt good to stand in my truth, even if that truth involves a craving for what I don’t have right now. It was somehow important to articulate the desire in all of its urgency, rather than trying to pretend it’s not there.

Since last weekend, I’ve felt much more at peace and content in my space. Writing about the yearning didn’t make it go away, but it helped me to release some of the pent up energy that comes from carrying that desire around as privately and tightly as I do. Thank you for listening and for bearing witness.

And now, I’m jumping right into the recipes and articles that caught my eye this week.

Recipes

No matter how long I’ve been vegan, I can’t get enough simple baked tofu recipes. This one looks so crispy and good!

Speaking of tofu, how about an easy homemade ketchup sauce to go with it? I have a pretty intense love of ketchup, and I’m sure I’ll dig this.

I’d never have thought to make pulled sweet potato (the only “pulled” vegan dish I’ve made has been with jackfruit), but Allie is onto something cool with these tacos.

Been a while since I made a good collard wrap. I’m loving the looks of the mushroom walnut filling in Lindsey’s colorful rolls.

Finally, I’ll take all of the homemade vegan cinnamon rolls, please and thank you!

Reads

1. Undark reports on a new program that’s trying to break the taboos surrounding menstruation and female physiology in Afghanistan.

2. A topic that would never have occurred to me, but it’s fun to consider: what will space suits look like in the future?

3. A new study suggests that higher intake of whole grains is linked to a reduced risk of liver cancer.

4. The New York Times profiles Edray Goins, a prominent black mathematician. The piece sensitively portrays Goins’ isolation within his chosen field, as well as the subtle racism and moments of exclusion he’s encountered over the years.

5. Finally, Mashable reports on a pretty hilarious Twitter thread of people sounding off about having forgotten words in public. My favorite?

One of my cleverest and most fabulous friends at university (now PhD in neuroscience) once forgot the word for what she wanted in a restaurant and tried to explain with “like a really REALLY wet salad”.

Soup.

She wanted soup.

Have a wonderful Sunday, friends. I’ll “see” some of you around here for NEDA week! And for those of you for whom ED recovery isn’t of interest, I’ll be back to regularly scheduled programming starting next week 🙂

[Read More ...] https://www.thefullhelping.com/weekend-reading-2-24-19/

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gardencityvegans · 5 years

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Kinespirit Circle – Gyrotonics & Pilates Studio

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The following post is guest-written by Amy, Studio Manager of Kinespirit Circle.

Hello Hosmer Chiropractic Community!

My name is Amy Healy and I am the Studio Manager at Kinespirit Circle: Pilates + Gyrotonic, located one block away from Hosmer Chiropractic Health. I am excited to share why we are so passionate about Pilates + Gyrotonic and how we could be wonderful complement to the services at Hosmer Chiropractic Health. First things first — let’s talk about the basics.

So, what is Gyrotonic?

Gyrotonic is a powerful system of exercise for conditioning, stretching, strength, balance, and flexibility. The exercises build muscular strength and promote stability around the joints, enabling increased range of motion.

What are the benefits of Gyrotonic?

Strong, lean muscles

Increased flexibility, coordination, and balance

Joint mobility and articulation

Release of pain and restrictions of the body

…and so much more!

And Pilates?

Pilates is a non-impact workout that challenges every quadrant of the body, focusing on core muscular stability. It strengthens and tones the body, providing greater stability and less chance for injuries.

What are the benefits of Pilates?

Mobility and flexibility

Strong, lean muscles

Improved balance, centering, and coordination

…and so much more!

Why private sessions/small group classes?

Private sessions allow for a customized experience! Our trainers will get to know your needs/goals and work with you to make it happen. Along with meeting your goals, our trainer will ensure you have proper form, know the Pilates + Gyrotonic lingo, and feel super comfortable with the equipment.

We also offer group classes at Kinespirit Circle. The max number of people in a group equipment class is three people. You heard that right — three! We love that we are able to offer small class sizes and don’t have to compromise on attention to every student.

New Client Intro Pack!

We have an awesome new client special that we hope you’ll take advantage of! We offer three private sessions in either Pilates or Gyrotonic (you can mix and match!) for $165. During your first session you will discuss your goals with one of our certified trainers and get to work!

Interested to learn more? Check us out below:

Web: www.kinespiritcircle.com

Facebook / Instagram: @kinespiritcircle

Phone: 503-235-3556

We look forward to having the Hosmer Community in our studio!

[Read More ...] https://www.hosmerchiropractic.com/blog/kinespirit-circle-gyrotonics-pilates-studio/

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gardencityvegans · 5 years

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Stuffed Acorn Squash with Garlicky Beans & Greens

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There’s no shortage of winter squash in my diet at this time of year (at any time of year, actually), but I tend to eat the same ones over and over again: butternut, delicata, kabocha. I forget about good ‘ole acorn squash, which is actually the first winter squash I ever tried.

This week, I saw some adorable, petite acorn squash—each the perfect size for one person—at my health food store, and I figured it was time to revisit this too-long overlooked vegetable. I’m so glad I did. This stuffed acorn squash with garlicky beans and greens is a new, easy option for wintery weekend batch cooking.

Cooking the squash for the recipe takes a little time: forty-five minutes, give or take. But it’s a totally hands-off process, and while the squash is roasting up nicely, you can prepare the beans and greens, which is really just a matter of minutes.

Once the ingredients are ready, you can stuff the squash and enjoy them right away for a dinner that looks deceptively fancy, given how simply it comes together. Or, if you’re doing the batch cooking thing, you can store the squash and beans separately for instant weeknight meals. I actually stuffed mine on the spot and placed them in a large glasslock container, which worked just fine.

As is the case with most of the recipes I’ve been making during my internship, this one is flexible. I used collards and Great Northern beans, but chickpeas, navy beans, and even lentils would be perfect in the filling, and the greens are variable as well. I can’t wait to try this with broccoli rabe, which is a personal favorite! And while the acorn squash I got were the very ingredient that inspired this dish, it would be pretty awesome with delicata squash, too.

Here’s the recipe.

Stuffed Acorn Squash with Garlicky Beans & Greens

A hearty, nutritious stuffed acorn squash dish that looks fancy, but comes together with minimal work!

vegetable oil spray or a few teaspoons neutral flavored vegetable oil, such as grapeseed or refined avocado

2 large (or 4 small) acorn squash, cut in half from stem to bottom and seeds removed

1 tbsp olive oil

2 large shallots, thinly sliced

4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1 1/2 cups cooked white beans (1 can beans, drained and rinsed)

1 small or medium bunch collard greens, thick stems removed and sliced into ribbons (about 4-5 cups after preparation; substitute another chopped green of choice)

1-2 tbsp lemon juice (to taste)

salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste (I used 1/2 teaspoon salt)

vegan parmesan, for serving (optional)

Preheat your oven to 375 F. Place the squash, cut side up, in a foil or parchment lined baking dish. Spray the squash on both sides with your oil spray, or use your hands to lightly rub/coat the squash with your cooking oil. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the edges of the squash are golden and the squash is tender when pierced with a fork.

While the squash cooks, heat the oil in a large, roomy skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots and garlic. Cook for 3 minutes, or until the shallots are tender and clear. Stir in the beans. Next, stir in the collard greens. Cook, stirring often, until the collard greens are tender (about 5 minutes). Add the lemon juice and salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired.

To serve, stuff each squash half with the bean mixture. Top with a sprinkle of vegan parmesan, if desired.

A lot of my batch cooking amounts to big, one pot dishes, especially soups and stews. I could eat those dishes forever, honestly, but each time I batch cooking something different, I’m relieved to have more variety in my routine. This week so far, I’ve had leftover enchiladas and these stuffed squash halves for my dinners, and it’s a really nice break from bowl after bowl of stew 😉

Enjoy this pretty, yet easy dinner, friends. And thank you so very much for the lovely, wise comments on last Sunday’s post. I’ve been sitting with them and feeling grateful for all of you, which is a pretty excellent place to be in as we head into NEDA week 2019! I don’t have quite as many posts lined up as I did last year (#DIproblems), but as always, I have some words and feelings to share, straight from the heart.

Till soon.

[Read More ...] https://www.thefullhelping.com/stuffed-acorn-squash-garlicky-beans-greens/

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