Othorexia... Uh Oh

It's a topic that's been flying round the healthy living community for quite some time now. On blogs, in magazines on the news... it's growing.

What started off as people becoming interested in a healthier lifestyle along with the uprising popularity of amazing ancient super foods and a number of celebrities associating their 'perfect bikini body' with a clean eating diet, has now sparked a new age of healthy living.

And that's great, right?

Well...

The beginning of this attraction to simply eat well and rid one's pantry and fridge of 'bad stuff', would have resulted in a happier, healthier and more energetic feeling and in turn a new sense of power and strength. Reaching for an apple instead of a doughnut, going out with friends to a fast food place and managing to order a salad instead of a burger, surviving a whole week without a single. Scrap. Of. Chocolate. Pretty much super hero strength right there.

It feels good, right? If it feels good, if we feel empowered and if we tell ourselves that we are doing what's right for our bodies, then who in their right mind would stop?

Enter Orthorexia Nervosa.

It's all well and good when you first start out on the healthy eating train and make sure you add in a few more salads to your week and begin to take awareness of how many cookies you're really having throughout the day, though things start to become a little sketchy when you find yourself always thinking about stuff like this and only eating salads for lunch everyday. Of course the problem isn't these things per se, it's the anxiety that correlates with these behaviours if something doesn't go to plan.

If you begin to break out in a sweat when you realise the only food available to you is something you deem 'unhealthy', or you purposefully turn down a lunch date with a friend because there is nothing at the restaurant you will let yourself eat, are you truly living healthy?

Health is so much more than just physical. It's so much more than the food that fills (or not) the plate in front of you. It's more than the amount of calories you consume at each meal and the number of spinach leaves present in your salad.

Is it healthy to turn down experiences with your friends and family because of the food available. Is it healthy to constantly worry about your next meal and what you 'can/ can't' have. Is it healthy to be controlled by something so controllable.

If health is actually split into three categories- physical, mental and social, then if you think about it, the health you are trying to obtain is only 33.33% of true health- not even half!

This is where I come in. It's all well and good for me to say things like the above statements. It's easy for me to preach a message I believe so strongly about. It's effortless, really, to write a post that tells you why orthorexia shouldn't control you. What's not so easy?

Admitting that I think it controls me.

When I first came across this unhealthy obsession I was probably at my worst of it. I dreaded going out to restaurants with friends and if we did I would probably end up bringing my own per-packed food from home. Whenever we went anywhere I had my own little lunch box. I never accepted any food made by someone else and got worried whenever I bought a processed item of food (like a pasta sauce or muesli bar) because I wasn't sure what was truly in it. I read about orthorexia and it was pretty much the definition of my life. For some reason I am only now able to see that. Back then I would shrug it off and tell myself I was being healthy, not obsessive, but I know now how wrong I was.

Now this post is getting a bit on the lengthy (and emotional) side so I think I'll start to wrap things up.

In finishing I want to look at my life today. I know I probably still show a number of signs associated with orthorexia. I know this and accept this. I still bring food to places I know won't have vegetarian options and generally to friends houses so they don't have to worry about buying something different for me. I still sometimes freak out a little bit when I read the sugar/ sodium/ ingredients list of some products that I may have used in my dinner moments before.

What's changed? Those moments are less and less frequent. I freak out for a second and then I move on. Life's too short to worry about a few grams of sugar. I can see the bigger picture now and while I'll always be on a quest to live my healthiest life possible, I know now that that also includes fun with friends and family and making sure my mental health is in check. Only then will I ever be able to experience true health.

I guess it's unfortunate I had that whole period of my life where I thought I was being healthy and I thought I was really happy, but like most aspects in life, you live and learn- usually the hard way! Now I've been at that extreme, I will be able to recognise if I ever go back there and that comforts me.

How about you?
Have you ever experienced Orthorexia? Do you experience it now?
What are your thoughts on true health?
Any other thoughts?

Bye for now folks- make sure you have a fabulous day! :D

WEEKEND!

Hi everyone! How's your day going?
Mine's been pretty good so far.
1. It's Sunday- I love Sundays- slow, relaxing
2. It's sunny- I love warm sunny Summer days in Aus
3. I had a glorious loooong run- runs always put me in a good mood
4. I just had one of my favourite breakfasts ever.

So yeh, it's been a good start!
It's also been a pretty good weekend too. For the first time ever (I feel a bit bad about this) the mother and I decided to visit the farmers markets for our grocery shop this week.

Why have I never gone here before? It's so cheap, filled with soooo many veggies and the veggies all look so good too! I love that they're not all perfect and glossy like in the big supermarkets- they look a lot more natural and honestly a lot tastier!

I might have gotten a bit excited:

Mushrooms, apples, peaches, mini striped eggplants, pears, pumpkin, carrots, potatoes, brussels sprouts, mini zucchinis, capsicum, tomatoes, mini zucchinis, avocados, swede, parsnip, beetroot and a massive white sweet potato!

This is going to be a good week on the veggie front!
I also picked up some Rooibos tea after hearing about it's amazing benefits ages ago and telling myself to give it a try ages ago and then only remembering to pick some up.. yesterday. ;)

I've never fully gotten into coffee much at all (I know I'm young- but most of my friends cannot function at school properly without their morning coffee!) so I think I'm growing more and more fond of tea. Time will tell!

As a use it up meal to get rid of all of my leftover vegetables from the past week, I made a big bowl of random:

brown rice and quinoa, grated carrot, steamed sweet potato, chopped capsicum, peas, spinach and chopped garlic tofu, sprinkled with some nutritional yeast and two dried figs on the side:

Dried figs... Mmmm....

My afternoon consisted of a really nice bike ride along all of the bike paths I could find, some reading, a bit of blog work, a few job applications (I am currently searching for some casual work for extra money) aaand a bit of blog reading.

Dinner was also a use- up- the- leftovers meal:

Wholemeal spaghetti with steamed pumpkin and parsnip, roasted eggplant and mushrooms, drained and rinsed four beans, spinach and Sacla tomato and garlic stir-through sauce:

For a quick throw together with random ingredients meal, this was pretty tasty!

And finally onto breakfast- the one that made my Sunday:
This guy:

Plus this guy:

Kiwi fruit fro-yo (1 chopped frozen kiwi fruit whazzed with 3 scoops of greek yoghurt and 1/4 banana)

= Happy Steph.

Does anyone else agree that food tastes 1000x better after a hard workout? I dunno it just seems to taste sooo good!

And that's been my week so far! Tune in for some delicious meals featuring all of my fresh farmers market finds!

Do you enjoy the weekend? Or are you more busy on weekends?
Do you have a use up the leftovers day when you go grocery shopping?
Does food taste better to you after working out?

Bye for now friends! Enjoy your day- whatever it is you are doing, do it smiling! :D

The Colourful Diet

Hi everyone! IT'S SATURDAY! WOOHOO! Ok, caps lock away Steph! Also I'm not too sure why I am excited because I'm still on holidays.. everyday is pretty much Saturday;) And on Saturdays we all have a little bit of extra time to just relaaaxxx.

However I have never been one to simply relaaaxxx. So instead of relaxing, I decided to think.

I think a lot you know! Well, some people might mistake my thinking for day dreaming... but still- there are thoughts running through my noggin as I stare off blankly into space.

Thoughts like diets. Fad diets, well-known diets, ridiculous diets and of course my diet- where I fit into the grand scheme of diets.

 2 soft boiled eggs, with 2 slices of rye bread on top of spinach, with a side of peas and steamed carrots, swede, parsnip and beetroot

Looking through the past few days of my eats in search of what diet I fit into presented some interesting findings:

1. There were lots of wholegrains= not paleo
2. There were a couple of eggs= not vegan
3. There was plenty of fat= not low fat
4. There was bread and hommus and wraps from a packet= not raw

Mashed veggie wrap (mashed pumpkin, swede, parsnip and carrot) with pumpkin falafel and a sun dried tomato veggie sausage with spinach and spread with hommus- then grilled in sandwich press.

And on and on a list similar to this went. I didn't really fit any type of diet. Or so I thought... duh, duh DUH!

Every meal I looked at from the memory card on my camera (which is every meal I've eaten pretty much) revealed one common component, consistent each time.

No, I'm not vegan, or raw or paleo, or low fat, or no fat, or carb free,no.

I faithfully believe in and follow... the colourful diet!

 Grilled veggie sammy

Never heard of that one? No, neither had I until I made it up just then. It's the diet I apparently live by day in day out and I swear by it! People can feed you all kinds of things about eating x amount of calories one day and xy the next, leaving you happy and healthy and a brand new person! But I don't buy it. What I do buy? Eating a big variety of foods filled with bright vibrant colours will leave you happy, healthy and pretty much a super human! (pretty much ;)

 Veggie bowl with roasted sweet potato, potato and beetroot, with roasted tomatoes, spinach, lentils and grilled tempeh

Now, when I simply saying bright, vibrant, colourful foods that does not mean artificial, processed junk. Yep, put down those skittles right now! (I don't care if you can taste the rainbow!) I mean munching on the beautiful vibrant freshness of mother nature.

From vibrant green spinach, to rich ruby red tomatoes, to intense deep purple beetroot and bright pink popping berries!

Now, you can call me crazy and that this diet isn't sustainable for the long run... but you wouldn't, because it is. :D

I do have one confession though...

Today's breakfast- probably the most boring colour known to man! However don't be fooled. It was filled with all the good stuff!

Frozen banana + frozen avocado + greek yoghurt + chia seeds + spinach + kale + raw cacao powder + hazelnut and cacao butter + psyllum husks + splash of almond milk- all whazzed up until smooth! Based off this recipe.

Everyone knows that smoothies should be thick enough to eat with a spoon, right?

Good!

So that's my diet!

How about you?
What diet(s) do you follow?
Do you believe in the colourful diet?
Ever made a smoothie that looks worse than my one above? ;)

Bye for now folks! Enjoy your weekend... RELAAAAXXX! :D



 

Spaghetti Squash... NACHOS!

Hi everyone! Happy Friday!
As you may remember, just recently I stumbled -ever so... ecstatically- over the last spaghetti squash (and first spaghetti squash I've ever seen in Aus) on my super markets shelf! 

So that night for dinner I split it in half (seriously I must have super human strength now or something.. because that was hard!) and roasted it up, wrapping the other half in glad wrap for another day.

Yesterday was another day!

Into an oven set at 180 degrees celsius, on a tray lined with baking paper, rubbed with a bit of olive oil....

Went the other half of my spaghetti squash! Roasted up until nice and tender (around 5-50 minutes)

Then gently broken up into strands with a fork.
I made some 'taco mince' to go in my squash boat with 125g mixed four bean tin, 2 scoops of drained lentils, small handful chopped capsicum, 3-4 chopped cherry tomatoes, a couple of shakes of reduced salt taco seasoning and about 1/3- 1/2 cup water, all stirred together in a fry pan over medium heat until most of the liquid is absorbed. Then I threw in some shredded spinach and coriander:

And topped off my spaghetti squash with it!

Then sort of mushed it into the spaghetti a bit.
The next layer was some vegan cheese that I heated for 30 seconds in the microwave prior to drizzling on my squash.

To finish it all of in typical Mexican flavour style:

Avocado!

Guys, if I could somehow trap the smell from this meal and send it to you all... gaahhh!

Lunch was ready!!

I seriously love the taste of the 'spaghetti from the squash just as is- plain and simple, but I knew I had to make the most of my last half as I'm not sure when/ if I'll ever see one of these spectacular things again!

Of course a Mexican flavoured spaghetti squash is pretty good too ;)

Yes, I would add this to the other 42796 reasons I want to move to America when I'm older. It's just too good!

It's meals like these that make me question how I ever managed to hate avocado. How Steph? How? It adds so much flavour and creaminess and coolness to the spicy beans and is the perfect accompaniment with the flavourful vegan cheese.

Ahh, well I'll just have to make up for lost time by eating ALL of the avocados. And dates. And pesto :)

Now just a second to appreciate the awesome-ness that is spaghetti squash. In all of it's glory:

Well done nature. Well done.:D

Your turn:
Do you like spaghetti squash?
Favourite way to eat it?
Avocados- yay or nay?

That's it from me today! See ya later everyone! Have a great day! Give someone you haven't hugged in a while a hug! :D