If only there were two of me

I've been taking a hiatus from the Cooler to establish a health-oriented blog (Mike's Health Magazine, you'll find it in the sidebar) with my wife. Currently we're in the beginning throes of taking a stab at South Beach. It seems contrary to what I stand for, typically; every fiber of my being is objecting. I don't respond well to restrictions placed upon my diet, and I think it's usually incumbent upon mature diners everywhere to explore the world around them, not shut it out. But the winter weight is especially heavy this time around, and, being in my mid-forties, a little extra weight is making me feel a lot more tired, sore, and grumpy that it might have ten or twenty years ago. Abbey and I have friends who have indeed lost their extra baggage on this plan, so we are going for it.

And just when Jefferson City finally has a decent (nay, GREAT) full-service bakery! I can't eat any of it. It makes the baby Jesus cry.

If you aren't me or Abbey, you probably don't know me (yet!), but I can tell you this: I do not suffer boring food gladly. Yes, I do have a few comfort food holdovers from childhood that I feel the need to indulge in from time to time (is there anything better than thickly sliced, genuine bologna and sharp cheddar with Miracle Whip on homemade bread with Pepsi from a glass bottle? Not much!), but overall I think I have pretty eclectic tastes, and plenty of opinions to share. I don't intend to hang on a thread eating egg beaters and salad with skinless chicken breast. Check out the spice-heavy ragout we had just tonight. Some of this will spill over from the health blog to the Cooler, inevitably. Stay tuned.

Paleo Girl

I've been reading up on the Paleo diet, mainly through the interesting blogs Free the Animal and Mark's Daily Apple. I'm especially interesting in light of our friend Rob revealing he'd lost 60 lbs following the South Beach diet, which has a lot (mainly no refined carbs) in common with the Paleo diet.

Tonight, it occurred to me maybe my diet guru could come from a closer, unexpected source.

Our six-year old girl, Olivia, mainly subsides on chicken nuggets. We're trying to get her off of the kid chow and into a more eclectic mode, figuring even if the alternatives aren't ultra-healthy, getting her used to variety is more important than any specific nutritional goals right now. So tonight, the parents had spaghetti carbonara with bacon and a lovely green salad. Olivia saw the carbonara and requested its distant cousin, ramen, for her dinner. We made it but it turns out of the two we have in stock, "red" ramen (beef) and "orange" ramen (chicken), she indulges in the orange variety exclusively. As we had only red ramen and are clueless parents, the ramen was red, and she rejected it.

Along with the ramen were several sliced strawberries. Also on the table were extra slices of bacon left over from creating the carbonara. Now, bacon is a provision for which olivia has great fondness. In no time Olivia ate all of the strawberries and all of the bacon, four pieces in total. The perfect Paleo dinner. Mark Sisson would be proud. And her obstinance gives me something to think about, too- what are we doing eating so many carbs at this dinner when Abbey are I were so knocked out about Rob's accomplishment, vowing to do something similar in the new year to shed our extra inches?

Food for thought...

But the carbonara, by the way... was awesome.