Reading List/Menu Plan

Due to a combination of books bought by me and bought for me by my parents, these are part of my current reading list:

• The Omnivore's Dilemma - by Michael Pollan (He of the "Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants." credo.)
• The Primal Blueprint - by Mark Sisson
• Good Calories, Bad Calories - by Gary Taubes
• Food, Inc. - by Karl Weber

You'd think with all this planned reading that I were still in grad school, but no, those days are over. I'm researching for my own edification, sneaking in a few paragraphs here and there whenever I can. I'm learning a lot about insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and carbs; about organic v. conventional foods; about human hormonal and neural response to exercise and food; about how the American government subsidizes agriculture.

In short: I'm trying to best understand how our bodies respond to diet and exercise and all of the associated inputs to that dynamic, and bit by bit implementing changes accordingly.

I'll take the output of the last few weeks, too! More energy, and steadier energy levels. Minimized mood swings. And a loss of eleven pounds and counting, finally, after a long postpartum weight loss plateau.

Mr. Grok isn't even doing the same thing officially. But the beauty of it is: since I'm the house "cook" 90% of the time, he's eating mostly like I'm eating, with the exception of the occasional bought sandwich at work. Entirely of his own initiative, he almost completely gave up his caffeinated Barq's root beers (which he used to drink almost daily) - a big change for him. He's losing weight, too.

So I'm inspired. I'm learning a whole lot about new ways to prepare foods, particularly vegetables and seafood. I got over my childhood-associated Brussels sprouts phobia with terrific results - now we eat them about once weekly, we like them so much (even the baby and three-year-old).

I think this week I will try to breach another, bigger childhood-associated veggie phobia - beets. (*Shudder*) I think that perhaps the one and only time I tried beets as a child, they were pickled. Either way I have a bit of a mental gag reflex when beets are even mentioned. So they're the perfect item to tackle next, right? ;-p But this time the ones in my fridge are fresh, and I'm going to slow bake them with some seasoning. Give them one more chance.

Monday:

Breakfast: Banana custards with cacao nibs
Lunch: Bacon cheese miniquiches, salad with cherry tomatoes
Dinner: Baked chicken, roasted beets with feta

Tuesday:
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, watermelon
Lunch: Banana almond butter smoothie
Dinner: Fried lemon tilapia, avocado, salad

Wednesday:
Breakfast: Cottage cheese, watermelon
Lunch: Eggplant French-toast style, sliced cheese
Dinner: Sliced steak over kale salad

Thursday:
Breakfast: Trail mix
Lunch: With a friend - crock pot chicken and veggies, watermelon
Dinner: Leftover chicken, cobb salads

Friday:
Breakfast: Banana coconut smoothies
Lunch: Mushroom onion omelettes
Dinner: BLT salads