Fourth of July Food Fests

First shot with the new camera! Not shabby, huh? It's the Red Quinoa Salad (doctored up a bit) from the back of the box of the Trader Joe's package of Red Quinoa.  I've posted my version of the recipe, which eliminates the oil,  in a prior blog post (http://healthygirlskitchen.blogspot.com/2010/05/day-9-and-red-quinoa-salad.html ) and I'm here to remind you that it's the perfect thing to bring to a big pot luck or back yard 4th of July b-b-q.

How are you all handling all of these summer food fests? I've got three this weekend and I'm not complaining, but anyone who is trying to maintain a healthy weight has to have a strategy for doing it. It won't happen by accident or by wishing it so. One of the big parties is at our house tomorrow night and as we were parked outside of Dairy Queen picking up a big ice cream cake it occurred to me that there's been a fundamental change in the way that I think.

I used to have a battle going on inside my head about whether or not I should eat whatever it was that I was craving at the moment. It was a raging battle and as you might know from being here before, my angel was not winning. She was losing big time, that is, until I read Eat to Live by Dr. Fuhrman.  That was the beginning of the radical change in my thinking.

That book was followed up by some other doozies like The China Study and Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.  And reading these books rewired my brain for the better. It's just not enough in today's day and age of cheap, high calorie, really tasty food to want to be a healthy weight. On their own, too many people will never win against this reality.  You have to understand fundamentally why you are not at that healthy weight and exactly what all of that cheap, high calorie, really tasty food is doing to your body.

Once you arm yourself with the information, saying no to the food that is keeping you overweight becomes, well, easier. Not easy, but easier.