Team Lean: The Ultimate Low-Calorie, Paleo, Vegan Meal

Stop the presses!

I've found the BEST meal ever!

Faux couscous.

Or better yet. Fouscous.

Oh, yes. Fouscous.

Couscous is made from semolina. It's like a noodle, but crumbly, if that makes any sense. It's really yummy, too, but our family is gluten-free, so wheat-based couscous is a no-go for us.

This stuff is made from cauliflower.

Cauliflower is crazy high in vitamin C, magnesium, B-6, and molybdenum. It's GREAT for you. Like most vegetables, it's really low in calories (only about 150 calories per head). I don't know about you, though, but that's not enough to make me eat it raw.

When I saw a similar recipe over at Melanie Johnson's blog, Antiquated Notions, I was torn. I despise raw cauliflower, but out of my love for and deprivation from couscous, I decided to give it a try. I developed this recipe for the stovetop and gave it a Northern African flavor (that's from where couscous originates).

Here we go!

Ingredients

1 head cauliflower
1 large onion
2T fat
1/2 tsp. minced garlic
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cumin
2 tsp. corriander
2 pinches dried basil
1/8 tsp. garam masala

Chop one cauliflower and one large onion into small pieces. Pulse them in the food processor until it resembles small crumbles (couscous). Set aside until all of the cauliflower is crumbly.

Heat 2 T of your choice of fat (olive oil, coconut oil, butter, etc.). When it is melted, add 1 1/2 tsp. minced garlic and the cauliflower/onion mixture. While cooking add 3/4 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. cumin, 2 tsp. ground coriander seed, 2 pinches of dried basil, 1/8 tsp. garam masala (or just cloves, if you don't have garam masala). Cook, stirring occasionally, until nicely browned and fragrant (about 10 minutes).

And that's it.

For an extra punch of nutrients, add a side of collard greens. I found some pre-chopped last week and about did a dance in the store (I despise chopping greens even more than I despise eating raw cauliflower).

For extra protein, throw in some fava beans, or pintos or navy beans, if (like me) you don't have a local source for favas.

One batch of this feeds about 5 people, so for my crew, I make two heads. No one left the table hungry. You can absolutely STUFF yourself on this with minimal caloric impact. Eating a quarter of a batch would be about 80 calories. Add a side of greens, some beans, and you are set for the best low calorie meal ever!

This is a homeschooling blog, so here's the educational bit. Cauliflower is so called because the farmer ties the leaves up over the flower buds (the white part) to make it especially white. The leaves look like a hood, or caul, ergo CAUL-i-FLOWER.

Physical Education Opportunities

Health and weight-loss resolutions are always popular, but let's not forget the kids! One subject homeschoolers sometimes overlook is that of Physical Education and Health.

Here's an opportunity for them:

Nicole McLaughlin is a personal trainer with Body Weight Health and Fitness in Tallahassee. She offers PE classes designed especially for homeschoolers. These can be arranged for a single family or even an entire co-op!

The website says, 'This 12 week Physical Education Series is designed especially for homeschooling families. We will meet one day a week for 1 hour. Each session is divided into 45 minutes of physical activity (exercise) and 15 minutes of course work in exercise science and health. This course is designed to work on balance, flexibility, agility and overall fitness. Children learn how to make healthy choices and develop habits that will serve them for many years to come. Ages 5-13.'

For those of you in Thomasville, Next Level fitness is run by the Copelands, a homeschooling family. In the past, they have offered fitness camps and tennis classes. 

Next Level Facebook Page

COGI website

Thomasville Crossfit has also been very supportive of the homeschooling community. Mr. Sellers was instrumental in helping us carry out Freedom's Heroes day. 

And don't forget the Y! Fit Kids is another really fun opportunity. 

Opportunities abound! Let's get moving!

Team Lean: Mind Games

The new year has been rung in, so it is now time to get ready for Team Lean.

I am more than a number; I am more than my weight. I want to be healthy, to nourish my body, and take care of it. But I am a goal-oriented person, and if I am going to do this, I need to set my weight-loss goal.

I am 5' 5", so the top end of my healthy BMI is 150 pounds (CALCULATE YOURS HERE). Anything more and I'm overweight (and I'm at 163 now). At a minimum, I need to lose the 13 pounds necessary to be at a healthy weight.

I feel most comfortable with myself when I'm in the 130s. 130 lbs is exactly halfway in the green healthy band of BMIs, but I've found 130 nearly impossible to maintain. 138 is much easier for me—a nice size 12. So, that's my goal: 25 pounds of weight loss.

What's also important is that I KNOW I can do this. And that's critical because weight loss is just as much a mind game as it is physical discipline.

I gained weight with every child I had. My fourth pregnancy and birth were the toughest by far. After I had my fourth child, I lost 40 pounds. As such, my fifth pregnancy was much easier. But after my sixth pregnancy—twins—I was very obese, weighing in at 245 pounds the day I left the hospital.

So I worked. HARD. I ate less and exercised more (that's the only way to do it, by the way, excepting radical measures). And I lost 100 pounds, plus 8 more. It was a big deal to me. I got to wear the clothes I wanted to and didn't have to shop in the plus-sized section any more.

But bad habits are hard to shake, and that scale has crept up again. Phooey.

Just knowing I am capable of this, that I've done it before, is very helpful as I attempt to lose weight again. If you are embarking upon a weight-loss journey, try to think of some difficulty you have overcome: a college degree? pregnancy/birth? There is something in your life you have succeeded at. Draw from that and apply it to this.

I'm a visual person. I want to be able to see what I've done, and that's hard when I'm dealing with weight loss. It's hard to get an accurate perception of yourself.

Here's my system: I take two mason jars and place a marble for each pound I need to lose in one jar, leaving the other empty. As I lose weight, I move marbles into the empty jar. When they are all moved over, I have reached my goal. Simple, visual, and effective.

What mental tools do you use when you try to lose weight?

Team Lean!

New Year's Resolutions & Weight Loss. These ideas tend to go together, don't they? Here in Thomasville, our YMCA has a program called TEAM LEAN where people join up on teams and compete against other teams to see who can lose the most weight. I've never done it before, but my scale needles has been creeping up. I'm going to do it this year!

My friends and I have formed a team called '17 Kids and Counting Carbs' (there are 17 kids between the four of us). I'll be posting some of my strategies and telling of my success! I'm thinking positively.

OFFICIAL RULES

Local peeps, are you participating?