Foodist Page 11

  8. Cook dinner at home on weekdays

  Even I can’t bring myself to cook at home every night, but I make an effort to do it every Sunday through Thursday. The more I succeed, the easier it is to control my weight.

  9. Carry a water bottle

  I drink so much water that it makes me uncomfortable to go out for more than a couple of hours without bringing my own bottle with me. Thirst is often mistaken for hunger, and staying hydrated is an effective way to dampen unconscious eating habits.

  10. Embrace NEAT

  Most people think of treadmills and dumbbells when they think of exercise, but simply moving more throughout the course of the day (also known as nonexercise activity thermogenesis, or NEAT) can burn more calories than a daily gym trip. To keep tabs on your activity levels, invest in a pedometer or activity tracker,* and make sure you meet your daily goal.

  To achieve success like Patrick’s, start your healthstyle upgrade by focusing on eat more habits, rather than eat less habits. These will make it easier to cut back on less healthy foods in the future. Try eating a healthy breakfast every day and adding more vegetables to lunch and dinner. Over time these habits will reduce your need for willpower by eliminating feelings of deprivation and restriction. Other habits that a foodist should develop early include choosing higher-quality foods over those that might be a “better deal,”* eating nutrient-dense foods to help curb cravings, practicing mindful eating, and adding strategic snacking to prevent mealtime overeating.

  When you have built up a few healthy habits and are ready to start cutting less healthy foods out, start with those that you care about the least. Remember, you don’t need to eliminate every last unhealthy habit you have; our goal is to just make sure that there are more healthy ones than unhealthy ones, so that they balance out in your favor. Work-related bad habits are an obvious place to start, since unhealthy indulgences you make at the office are the least likely to be worthwhile. Are those cheap doughnuts really worth the ten pounds they’ve added to your waistline? Probably not. Keep in mind that, even though we try to eat delicious foods whenever possible, circumstances sometimes don’t leave us with the best of choices. If your office cafeteria only offers mediocre, not so healthy sandwiches and lackluster salads, the salad is the better choice, even if it tastes slightly less good than the sandwich. Save your sandwich indulgence for when you can get your hands on one that’s worth it. If your lunch isn’t going to be particularly enjoyable in either case, you might as well go with the healthiest thing you can find.

  WEIGHING IN

  Just as important as tracking your food and activity levels is tracking your body weight. I know this isn’t fun, but it is very effective. And with all the cool new wireless and socially integrated scales on the market, it is actually way less painful than it used to be.

  Though some health professionals recommend not weighing yourself daily, the scientific research actually makes it clear that tracking your weight is an effective way to help people stick to their eating plans. The scale is more than a simple guilt-o-meter, and the benefits of regular weigh-ins are far more profound. First, although some have argued that body weight fluctuates too much during the course of the day for daily weigh-ins to be meaningful, this isn’t true if you weigh yourself at the same time each day in exactly the same outfit. I recommend hopping on the scale butt naked, first thing in the morning, when you’re in a fasted state. This will give you the most consistent results and the kind of accuracy you need to make informed decisions about your eating and exercise habits.

  Just like your food journal, your daily weight is a valuable data source. For instance, if you know you are able to lose a pound and a half from Monday through Friday if you cook four of five dinners at home, you can compare this to a week when you go out most nights, but do your best to order healthy food and not overeat. Some people discover going out isn’t a problem; others find it makes weight loss impossible. The only way you’ll know is if you keep track. Similarly, if you have a tendency to overindulge every weekend, you have that number on the scale glaring back at you Monday morning telling you exactly how much damage was done by that hoagie and those curly fries. You can then make the appropriate adjustments (say, allowing yourself only one pancake at breakfast instead of two) until you find the formula that works. Many people find that gaining a little bit of weight back on weekends is inevitable,* but if you can limit it to one pound instead of three you’ll see and feel the difference at the end of the year.

  Wireless digital scales are particularly useful, because they allow you to track your weight and body fat over time.* They will even plot it out on graphs and allow you to input additional data, like waist size. If you’re brave, you can share this information with your friends and make a friendly competition out of the whole thing, which can be a terrific source of motivation. Having this information keeps you honest with yourself and gives you the knowledge you need to understand what is and is not working. It’s much more difficult to optimize your healthstyle without this kind of dynamic feedback to help you make better decisions and stay on track.

  LET’S GET THIS PARTY STARTED

  A powerful corollary to building a long-term healthstyle rather than going on a temporary diet is that your weight-loss journey begins with your next meal, not on Monday after your friend’s thirtieth birthday weekend. Indulgent moments are part of life, and there is no point in turning a blind eye or pretending that they don’t matter. To become a foodist, you need to get out of the dieter’s habit of scheduling good behavior for when it’s more convenient. So start your food journal today, or tomorrow at the latest, and don’t put it off even if you don’t have a single measuring cup in your entire house. We want a snapshot of the real you, not the ultra-well-behaved-and-eats-perfect-serving-sizes you. This isn’t a test and it isn’t very hard, and the only way to make progress is to jump in with both feet. Don’t worry about what your plans are tonight or this weekend—just grab a pen and start collecting data.

  Consider this your first step in training to party like a foodist, where you can leave your fear and guilt at the door, because you know you can have a good time without doing irreparable damage. Starting your journal today will be lesson number one in learning to be honest with yourself and not hiding from your weaknesses. Eventually you’ll develop a knack for knowing what and how much food you need to feel satisfied without overdoing it. But you’ll never get there without acknowledging where you stand. Remember that we’re going for better eating, not perfect eating. And better starts with habits. And habits take practice. Your healthstyle doesn’t have a pause button, and you won’t get the practice you need by ignoring the times when you aren’t on your best behavior. These are instructive moments, and foodists must learn to celebrate without giving up on any of their goals (including the goal of fun). Life should be awesome, so we should be able to enjoy ourselves without derailing our health or ruining our good time. There’s plenty of room for both.

  SIX

  SHOPPING AND COOKING

  A CRASH COURSE IN BECOMING A KITCHEN NINJA

  “Gold that buys health can never be ill spent.”

  —THOMAS DEKKER, WESTWARD HO

  “My mother gave me a real kick toward cooking, which was that if I wanted to eat, I’d better know how to do it myself.”

  —DANIEL CRAIG, ACTOR WHO PLAYED JAMES BOND

  “In spite of the cost of living, it’s still popular.”

  —KATHLEEN NORRIS, AMERICAN NOVELIST

  Not everyone likes to cook. In fact, few of us even know how—and these days that’s not even weird. I feel fortunate that my parents were at least semidecent cooks, and their lingering 1960s hippie ideology kept me away from too many takeout or overprocessed meals growing up. But for some reason this didn’t translate into my being able to cook for myself when I went away to college.

  I have far too many embarrassing—and hilarious—memories of my freshman attempts at feeding myself. The first time I tried to make pasta
, the pot took so long to boil I forgot about it and literally burned water. I was responsible for five or six egg casualties before successfully hard-boiling one (I was terrified that if I took even one bite of an unset egg yolk, I would get salmonella and die, so runny yolks went straight into the trash). After a few months I pretty much gave up on the kitchen and relied almost exclusively on burritos and café salads for sustenance. Even now, with the food revolution in full swing, I talk to adults every day who have no idea how to do anything more than heat things in the microwave. Apparently cooking is no longer viewed as a skill essential for survival, so most of us never bother to learn. This is a serious problem.

  If you’re shifting a little uncomfortably in your seat right now, relax.* I’m not asking you to become Betty Crocker (nor do I think you should ever use her products). And if you are really, truly incapable of cooking even the bare minimum I recommend here, I will give you some alternatives in this chapter. But at the very least I’d like you to consider the possibility before dismissing it completely. The case for becoming moderately proficient in the kitchen is incredibly strong, and I promise to address all your deepest fears and reservations. Remember, I was the anticook myself before I became a foodist. And if I can learn to fend for myself in the kitchen, so can you.

  10 Reasons You Hate to Cook (and What to Do About Them)

  I don’t like the word “hate” and try not to use it. I especially dislike it when it is applied to any kind of food or cooking. Do you really hate asparagus? Or are you just whining about something you haven’t bothered to learn to appreciate? Yeah, I thought so.

  You don’t have to love cooking, but knowing the basics and feeling competent in the kitchen can open a world of opportunity to improve your quality of life. But sure, go ahead and hate it if you want. For the cautiously curious, here are a few of the obstacles that may be preventing you from getting past your pessimism and what to do to get over them.

  1. You suck at it

  The first thing you need to do is understand the difference between not liking cooking and not liking to be bad at cooking. Big difference. I didn’t like being bad at cooking either, but there is a pretty easy solution: learn how. It’s much easier than you think.

  2. You’re slow

  I know you’re busy. We all have better things to do than slave away over one lousy meal. But when you aren’t experienced in the kitchen, the planning, shopping, chopping, cooking, and cleaning can feel as if they take forever. That’s because they do.

  I can always spot kitchen rookies by how long it takes them to chop an onion (seriously it takes like twenty seconds max). The good news is that with a little practice and some decent knives (see the next reason), you can slash the time you spend making a meal until you barely notice. Ditto for cleaning up. Seriously, put some muscle into it, and it’s over in no time.

  3. You have crappy knives

  I generally don’t advise spending money to solve problems, but knives in the kitchen are an exception. Spending $50 on a halfway decent chef’s knife can do wonders for your kitchen confidence and efficiency. And you probably already know what an inspiration a shiny new toy can be.

  4. You pick complicated recipes

  Some of the best meals I’ve ever eaten had less than five ingredients. If you’ve never cooked anything in your life, cassoulet shouldn’t be the first recipe you try.

  Rather than finding a recipe and deciding to cook it, start with an ingredient that is seasonal and you know you enjoy. It’s hard to mess up kale and garlic (try Sautéed Kale with Pistachios and Garlic). Learn to fly before you jump off a cliff.

  5. You choose out-of-season ingredients

  The main reason people don’t like (fill in the vegetable) is that they have only had it from industrial farms that grow foods out of season. I agree, you’d have to be a masochist to like those clones.

  Farmers markets and dedicated produce stands are your friends. In-season ingredients taste worlds better than the out-of-season stuff shipped from the opposite hemisphere. Your food doesn’t have to be 100 percent local, but at least pick foods that grow in the same season you happen to be living in. This alone could completely change your cooking experience.

  6. Your pantry is inadequate

  It can be really annoying to flip through a recipe book or food blog and realize that you need to make one or many grocery trips in order to make any dish, because you don’t have olive oil, salt, pepper, red wine vinegar, or red chili flakes. A well-stocked pantry and fridge will remove many of the barriers to cooking at home.

  7. You cook everything to death

  Just because your mom cooked broccoli until it was dark gray and could be eaten by an infant doesn’t mean that’s how food is supposed to be prepared. Most vegetables cook quickly and taste better when they haven’t been boiled beyond recognition. When your vegetables turn bright green in the pan, that’s your cue that the cooking is nearly done.

  8. You only cook for large groups

  Your first cooking forays shouldn’t be huge productions. Instead of hosting a big dinner or bringing food to a potluck of thirty people as your cooking debut, start by volunteering to help in the kitchen with someone who knows what he or she is doing. Or make a side dish or a simple one-pot meal for yourself. Practice makes perfect, and you want your first experiences to go smoothly, so your elephant doesn’t get scared away.

  9. You only cook for special occasions

  New cooks don’t need any extra pressure in the kitchen. If you’re just learning your way around the range, maybe you should hold off on cooking for your Valentine’s Day date. It can be stressful to just coordinate a special meal; you don’t need the added pressure of possibly ruining a holiday. Start your real kitchen adventures in the privacy of your own home.

  10. You don’t ask for help

  If you are truly new to cooking, you may as well acknowledge that you will be slow and lack the basic skills and intuition of a seasoned chef. You are definitely capable of getting there, but in the meantime make your experience as pleasant as possible by letting others contribute their expertise and knife skills when you want to cook. It is also nice to have an extra pair of hands for cleanup.

  CONTROLLING YOUR DESTINY

  I’ve never found a more reliable way to lose weight and keep it off than cooking at home. The reasons are pretty straightforward: you can control what’s in your food and how much you serve yourself. Even in San Francisco, which is as close to foodist heaven as it gets, restaurants still use obscene amounts of (pasture-raised, hormone-free) butter, (cold-pressed, single vintage) olive oil, and other rich foods. The portions are also far larger than any human really needs and therefore require willpower to resist overeating (because, damn, that food is good). Eating at home is simpler, and for a foodist’s daily habits, simpler is better. Of course, I have absolutely no problem with eating at restaurants occasionally. My social obligations take me out to eat at least once or twice a week (and that’s when I’m being good). But if you’re eating out every meal, keeping your weight under control is substantially more difficult.

  But let’s face it, cooking is about more than just your weight. It’s a life skill. Even if you’re unlikely to ever be stranded on a desert island and need to feed yourself off the land, there are plenty of real-world reasons you’d be better off with a few kitchen skills. For starters, being able to cook for your date is almost as hot as looking great in those jeans. And gender is completely irrelevant on this one—everyone likes to feel taken care of; it’s a basic human instinct. So turn on the romance and fire up that stove. Cooking at home is also more efficient than going out. It’s faster and costs less, so long as you know what you’re doing (don’t worry, we’ll get to that part in a second). Cooking is also immensely rewarding. There is something innately satisfying about being able to take ingredients and turn them into a nourishing, delicious meal. Being able to feed yourself is one of those basic human skills that no one should be without.

  FEAR
IS THE PATH TO THE DARK SIDE

  I’ve heard a thousand excuses for why people don’t cook more at home. “It takes too long.” “I don’t like cleaning up.” “It’s too expensive.” “I hate cooking.” I know, I’ve been there. But next time you find yourself cringing at the thought of pulling out a cutting board, remember the wise words of Yoda: “Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering.” Instead of grumbling about how much you hate to cook, try asking yourself, “What am I really afraid of?”

  When you don’t know how to handle food, the kitchen can be a scary place. There are fire and sharp objects, and if something goes really badly, you might go hungry. When you aren’t proficient with a knife, cutting and chopping can take forever. If you aren’t familiar with seasoning, adding flavor requires a recipe. When you haven’t learned to judge when a food is “done” cooking, dinner may be ruined. If you make a mistake, you do not know how to fix it. These are not pleasant thoughts.

  Cooking, like any art, requires a baseline level of skill. And like any activity that requires some skill, it will not be enjoyable until you are good at it. Fortunately, cooking isn’t difficult to learn, and a few simple pointers can get you to this basic proficiency. Yes, it will require some practice, but if you go about it the right way, the learning curve should be relatively painless.

  ESSENTIAL GEAR

  It doesn’t take much to get started eating better at home. Basically, you need the ability to cut stuff up, cook it, and serve it. However, since our goal here is to make this as easy and enjoyable as possible for you, it is worth investing in a few pieces of equipment that drastically improve the quality of your time in the kitchen (and with any luck keep all your fingers attached to your body).