Lean Habits from Canada

We had the extraordinary fortune to visit my husband's dad and stepmom in Quebec, Canada last week. It was the first time my kids had met Grandpa & Grannie and the first time they had been out of the country. It was beautiful verdant forests and lakes all with French flair. We had an amazing lazy yet adventure filled 5 day family vacay. But a surprising benefit was that I lost 5lbs! I immediately started thinking how did this happen and how can I replicate it here. My suspicion was that I simply ate less, because I was never really "full" and always a little hungry, but never too hungry. Still how did I manage that there when it is so hard for me here. Plus, I enjoyed dessert almost every night (bonjour glace!), including wine,  and even a sweet and sour fried chicken dish-totally unclean;) So what gives? My conclusion is that being bad can actually be good for you. And there are a few small tweaks to make in my kitchen.

First of all, Grannie Bar has some amazing seasonal cooking and eating habits that I must encorporate at home. For breakfast every day, she made us a bowl of fruit (fresh strawberries, blueberries, mango) and had an array of cereals available with almond milk. My particular favorite was called Vector, a Kellogg meal replacement product made specifically for Canadians (and not sold in the US, but I found a site that will ship for free.) It is basically a high protein vitamin fortified cereal (way more sugar than I would normally eat). So this breakfast is deceptively similar to what I eat at home, Kashi cereals with blueberries, but the BIG difference is BOWL SIZE. As I write this my empty cereal bowl is sitting next to me with a large spoon resting most of the way inside the bowl. At Grannie's house the spoons are smaller, the bowls look kid size, and your entire spoon handle would stick out. Also instead of topping the cereal with fruit, we ate a separate and equal sized bowl of fruit & cereal that dramatically changed the ratio of whole to processed foods.

For dinner and lunch, she made a variety of grain/pasta & veggie salads that she pulled out of fridge, ready to go. Through out the week, there was shredded raw beets with lemon juice, pasta spirals with pesto, lentil salad, wild rice salad, potato salad, and (my favorite) bean salad which was a simple store bought salad to which she add more beans from her garden because it was so overdressed. She also had a box of mixed greens to which I topped with the bean salad for some variety. We also made avocado tomato sandwiches & pb&j for the boys of which I had a half. Delicious and inspiring, but I do make a lot of that at home too, so what was different? The way she ran her immaculate kitchen. First for lunches, I noticed she never put the food on the table. It was left on the counter, so if you wanted seconds it was a.) more work to get up and go get it and b.) more conspicuous (probably only something I would worry about). But I felt myself wanting to mirror the actions of the healthy and trim almost 70 year old across from me. And so it cut down on mindlessly refilling my plate. Secondly, as the plates were cleared, she immediately rinsed everything and put it in the dishwasher and wrapped up all the food and put it away. The only thing on her counter (ever) was a cutting board. Even while she cooked there was only one food item and one tool out at a time. My kitchen is cluttered with oils and spices, tools and contraptions. And when I cook, it's an explosion (of creativity, I tell myself). But there was a zen like rhythm to her style that did not detract from efficiency or creativity. And the added benefit was that in between meals, the kitchen looked closed, so there was no snacking. Of course we would have been welcome to anything we wanted, but when its not your house your less likely to go foraging through the cabinets, mindlessly searching for..."what am I feeling like?". We snackaholics brought our own snacks, but they were very limited in both choice and quantity, so we ate them sparingly. So strangely having less choice and less "calling to you" availabity, made for more satisfying days. To achieve this at home, I'm going to try (gulp) buying less snacks at one time. We really don't need pirate booty, pita chips, pretzels & tortilla chips all in the cupboard at once. Nuts and raisins will always be a standby, but when I go to the store at least once a week, I can let go of this fear I will run out.

So the dessert thing though...I try to be so good at home, but at the end of the day I succumb to my wine and dark chocolate-but that's healthy right? Maybe not. Maybe doing something "bad" (guilt free cause its vacation) actually helps you be good more of the time. I had Canadian ice cream twice! I haven't had "real" ice cream in probably a year, but I think I over eat when I indulge in my "fake" treats. (It has dates instead of sugar, so I can have a second helping right?) It was easier to eat just a little of the "bad" stuff and know when to stop and feel satisfied. And I know I over eat anything and everything, when I have wine. I was thinking I would have none on this trip since the Grandparents don't drink, so I when I was offered a glass at a restaurant and again from a cousin, I viewed it as an indulgence to be savored instead of a reward that I had earned after a hard day. Physically these are small changes of habit, but they were big change in perspective which led to a big change on the scale.

Hiking with Preschoolers

It's the absolute best time of year. Even though January came with some crazy hot day curve balls, the cool weather and bright sunshine is perfect for enjoying the amazing wilderness, (literally in our backyard) which at this time of year is green and verdant with flowers and wildlife. I've always enjoyed trail hiking as both a meditative and physical exercise. Initially, I was put off by the halting snail pace that my toddlers made me endure. But fortunately, I soon stopped waiting for my kids to be able to keep up with me and started enjoying the trails at their pace and discovered a whole new wonderous world. Hiking, besides the obvious benefits of fresh air, physical activity, and quality family time, gives the children opportunities to practice patience, self discipline and the delicate and almost forgotten art of self entertainment. It takes patience to navigate a path that you've never been on before, not knowing when you'll get to the end or having to wait your turn to be leader of the trail. It takes self discipline to keep going even though you really want mommy or daddy to carry you. We practice goal setting-("Make it to that next tree then I'll carry you.") and delaying gratification. All these skills carry over into our everyday lives away from the trails and help us see every task in life as an adventure. But the greatest joy for me has been providing my boys with an escape from the modern world- even if its only for 30 min. There are few areas in the world we can practice having fun while being unplugged. Wifi was one of Finn's first sight words and he was quick to enthusiastically let us know which restaurant ,coffee shop or grocery store had it. Even though you can access the internet on the trails in Irvine/Laguna, and we often take advantage of GPS mapping (runkeeper is a great app for that), we make it a point to be otherwise unplugged. We set the purpose of enjoying God's creation and each other. This gives them the chance to rely on their own powers of observation, the chance to enjoy their environment through all their senses, and to find ways to connect to the world on their terms. Not even monkey bars and slides for entertainment out there- its all it all comes from you. What can you discover? At first you may need to model and point these things out to them to keep your child occupied on the trail. There's the obvious observations you can make about plant and wildlife; we learn the names of plants (monkey bush and CA everlasting are easy flowers to identify) and animals; we look at the tracks; we look at the scat; we find funny faces in the rocks. BTW, sage and licorice and great sensory plants to both touch and feel, even as an adult I can't help petting them as I walk by. We have also found it a great adventure to identify the letters on the posts that outline the path. Do you know what happens after you get to the letter Z? You can find out on the Dilley trail. Drive down Laguna Canyon Road (133) and there are 4 or 5 parks with hundreds of trails the whole family can enjoy. We recently celebrated completing a 2+mile loop, about an 1.5hour hike. I never thought my 6 and 4 year old would be able to do that, but after 2 years of just getting out there we slowly and deliberately built up to it. So where to start? Small loops with a nature center are the best. We loved Mary's trail at Laguna Coast Wilderness Park. And while you're there sign up for their newletter and grab a calendar. They have fun tot walks with a ranger as a guide every month. Irvine Regional has 2 small loops and then you can stay and enjoy the train (Feb 22-23 are $2 rides) or the amazing zoo. Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary has an amazing nature center and small hike, worth the drive. When you are ready for a straight hike, I recommend Laurel Canyon Trail; we call it Tunnelly hike. There are fun natural markers that you can steadily work your way up to reaching: The caves,(500ft in) the fault line,(1/4m) the giant tree (1/2m), minecraft monster rock(3/4m) and recently we discovered fossils (1m)- just don't forget you have to walk back. You need nothing more than water, snack and a hat. Get an annual pass, you can use it everywhere from Mason Park to Crystal Cove to Aliso and Wood Canyons. ocparks.com is a good resource too, but don't spend too much time overthinking it. Just get out there! See you on the trails;)