{"id":149,"date":"2008-10-08T19:37:39","date_gmt":"2008-10-09T00:37:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewannabegourmet.com\/?p=149"},"modified":"2008-10-08T19:39:30","modified_gmt":"2008-10-09T00:39:30","slug":"making-a-clean-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewannabegourmet.com\/?p=149","title":{"rendered":"Making a Clean Start&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style='text-align:left' class='yasr-auto-insert-visitor'><\/div><p><a href=\"https:\/\/thewannabegourmet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/coolclips_vc018121.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-150\" title=\"Washing Dishes\" src=\"https:\/\/thewannabegourmet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/coolclips_vc018121.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"106\" \/><\/a>Well, sometimes making a clean start of things can be beneficial. If you are a regular reader (and I don&#8217;t quite know how many of you there are out there, yet&#8230;as The Wannabe Gourmet is still quite young), you&#8217;ll have noticed that last night, there was no &#8220;Personal with Jonathan&#8221;. That&#8217;s because I had a hard drive crash and while a lot of my stuff was backed up, I know I lost some things. In the process of reconstructing everything (and sending the bloody hard drive off to see if a data recovery service can retreive any of my data), I simply ran out of time and fatigue called me to bed before I could post. The two recipes I posted today, the <em>Escalloped Potatoes<\/em>, and the <em>Healthy Frittata<\/em> are both dishes that I enjoy &#8212; easy, quick cooking that doesn&#8217;t require hours in the kitchen (honestly, I do a good 90% of my cooking on the weekends, and I have a freezer stashed with &#8216;go-to&#8217; meals that I can mix, match, and modify over the course of the week).<\/p>\n<p>Why do I do this? Well, it&#8217;s a matter of my liking my own cooking, and that I&#8217;ve come to realize that it&#8217;s a lot cheaper for me to do this way. I grew tired of spending $$ at the local chinese take-away, or down at the burger hut. Besides, all that fat going in me ended up being fat going ON me. Most of the recipes I post here (and yes, I do take all the photos of the food &#8212; so what you see is what I ate!) have been altered, if at all possible, to make them healither, to lighten up on fat or calories. The thing to remember, however, is that just because there&#8217;s less calories in them does not give you <em>Carte Blanche<\/em> to go and consume 2 or 3 servings. What&#8217;s a serving? The easist thing I&#8217;ve learned over the years is this: each meal should consist of a protien and a carbohydrate. The protein should be no larger than the size of your open palm (no counting fingers here!); the carbohydrate should be no larger than the size of your clinched fist. Add veggies, and you&#8217;ve a well rounded meal. Just don&#8217;t drown it in butter, cheese sauce, or deep fry it.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, and eating every 2-3 hours (about 6 times a day) is advisable. It prevents your blood sugar from spiking or bottoming out. You&#8217;ll find that the protein\/carb (veggies at 2-3 of the meals is suggested), that number of times a day never <em>ever<\/em> leaves you feeling hungry. You&#8217;ll also find out that by eating like that, you&#8217;ll still only be consuming 1800-2000 calories a day. Add in some moderate exercise (even if it&#8217;s just power walking), and watch the pounds start to come off.<\/p>\n<p>The plan I talk about is a modified version of <em>Body For Life<\/em> by Bill Phillips. Pick up a copy of the book, read it, see if it might work for you. After all, it&#8217;s a promise that you can make to yourself, and if you cheat, you know what? You&#8217;re only cheating yourself!<\/p>\n<p>So, like my hard drive, which I am starting over, making a clean start, how about making that clean start yourself? How about making a change in your own life?<\/p>\n<p>It might just be the hardest, but most rewarding challenge you&#8217;ve ever undertaken.<\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p id=\"pvc_stats_149\" class=\"pvc_stats all  \" data-element-id=\"149\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon medium\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" data-prefix=\"far\" data-icon=\"chart-bar\" role=\"img\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\" class=\"svg-inline--fa fa-chart-bar fa-w-16 fa-2x\"><path fill=\"currentColor\" d=\"M396.8 352h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V108.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v230.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm-192 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V140.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v198.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm96 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V204.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v134.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zM496 400H48V80c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16H16C7.16 64 0 71.16 0 80v336c0 17.67 14.33 32 32 32h464c8.84 0 16-7.16 16-16v-16c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16zm-387.2-48h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8v-70.4c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v70.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8z\" class=\"\"><\/path><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/thewannabegourmet.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, sometimes making a clean start of things can be beneficial. If you are a regular reader (and I don&#8217;t quite know how many of you there are out there, yet&#8230;as The Wannabe Gourmet is still quite young), you&#8217;ll have noticed that last night, there was no &#8220;Personal with Jonathan&#8221;. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thewannabegourmet.com\/?p=149\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Making a Clean Start&#8230;<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p id=\"pvc_stats_149\" class=\"pvc_stats all  \" data-element-id=\"149\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon medium\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" data-prefix=\"far\" data-icon=\"chart-bar\" role=\"img\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\" class=\"svg-inline--fa fa-chart-bar fa-w-16 fa-2x\"><path fill=\"currentColor\" d=\"M396.8 352h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V108.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v230.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm-192 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V140.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v198.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zm96 0h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8V204.8c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v134.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8zM496 400H48V80c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16H16C7.16 64 0 71.16 0 80v336c0 17.67 14.33 32 32 32h464c8.84 0 16-7.16 16-16v-16c0-8.84-7.16-16-16-16zm-387.2-48h22.4c6.4 0 12.8-6.4 12.8-12.8v-70.4c0-6.4-6.4-12.8-12.8-12.8h-22.4c-6.4 0-12.8 6.4-12.8 12.8v70.4c0 6.4 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8z\" class=\"\"><\/path><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/thewannabegourmet.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[104,105,19,106,229],"class_list":["post-149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","tag-body-for-life","tag-clean-start","tag-jonathan","tag-nightly-ruminations","tag-personal"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":88,"today_views":0},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":1,"sum_votes":5},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewannabegourmet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewannabegourmet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewannabegourmet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewannabegourmet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewannabegourmet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thewannabegourmet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153,"href":"https:\/\/thewannabegourmet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions\/153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewannabegourmet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewannabegourmet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewannabegourmet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}