Caffeine or not caffeine?

We've probably all said this at some point, but I was always the girl in high school and college saying "Oh I'll never drink coffee. It tastes terrible!" If it didn't involve copious amounts of ice and sugar and an accompanying lemon poppy seed muffin, count me out.

That is, until I had to join the real world and start my "9-to-5" job each morning at 6am.

A couple years ago, when we moved from our Coral Gables condo to south Miami, the commute got infinitely longer and, as the passenger while my husband usually drove, it got increasingly more difficult for me to not stumble out of the car in front of my office building and shake myself awake in the elevator (thanking God that the office was on the 32nd floor — gave me more time to readjust my disheveled non-hairdo). I had to figure out some way to either emulate my favorite Starbucks drinks at home, providing me with a more tolerable jolt of reality each morning (ie, caffeine), or I'd have to buy stock.

I chose the latter.

For a few months, we made daily Starbucks stops on the way to work. It was right around the corner from my building; how could I resist? The cute barista even knew our drinks and sometimes had them prepped and ready for us before I could even fork over my $8. (We also found ourselves, more often than not, with a daily slice of Marble Loaf.) He didn't comment when I showed up with my clothes on inside out or when I sprinted over midmorning, trying unsuccessfully to avoid the money pit earlier or not being able to find parking outside. Frankly, I think he liked us. I smiled, inhaled the sweet smell of sugar-free vanilla and felt more confident at the start of each work day.

Sometimes, however, after a particularly trying day, we'd stop on the way home, too, at a different branch, for an iced latte or a green tea Frappuccino (and don't you dare put that nasty blackberry syrup up in there).

Sigh.

Shall I continue? Don't you see where this is headed?

Sometimes, on a parTICularly-particularly trying day, we'd even go out for a nice, hot cup of decaf after dinner.

I know! Three times a day?! That's almost $25. A day. ON COFFEE! I think I've blocked out of my memory how long this went on, so I'm not especially ashamed or embarrassed, but it is kind of funny. How had this become such an integral part of my day? Reading an issue of Prevention last week, I learned that a Yale University study reported that clutching a steaming beverage can elicit a flood of positive feelings — perhaps linking emotional warmth to physical warmth — so maybe it's not that surprising that it became a sort of bonding ritual for my husband and me. Long hours and long days left us with little energy to devote to each other. Coffee breaks were our date nights.

But once I calculated all the money I was flushing down the toilet, we laid off a bit on the daily stops and slowed to weekly visits at a more relaxing, less hurried location, also on the way to the office. (Directly or indirectly, there were at least four locations I could pick from on any given day.) Ahhh, the Starbucks on US1. I can still feel the wind in my hair sitting outside across from the University. I remember Monica's soft, golden fur, a cocker spaniel who often frequented with her owner at the same time we did each Friday. I remember the Best Marble Loaf Ever, running into an old friend, the way the barista wrote her Ns like Ws.

Our move from Miami back to Chicago in 2007 changed things even further. I started working from home, so there was no long, tiring commute. We also only have one car, which my husband takes to work every day, so I have no physical means of making an emergency Starbucks run, even if my life depends on it. I immediately scaled back to just one or two small cups of coffee each day, with either skim milk or something-free creamer and sweetener, and in the summers it just got too dang hot to drink a giant latte.

After reading the first installment of Skinny Bitch, I made the switch to tea. That lasted only as long as my box of mango-flavored Harney & Sons, and once the weather got cold it was time to switch back to cafe con leche. Thus my love affair with coffee progressed — hot and cold, on and off, one or two cups, take it or leave it.

Two years passed, and when I started reading up on the blood type diet a few weeks back, I was faced with another expert opinion that caffeine really isn't good for me. Without further adieu, I decided to break up with coffee again. I cut back to making just two cups each day for my husband, and I switched to decaf black tea (which next month will be green — black tea is also bad for Type A-positives, even if it's decaf). It was hard at first — I felt foggy at work, often breaking down and having at least a half cup midmorning — but I persevered. April 21 was my first day sans java, and by May 13-14 I realized, Wait a minute, it's lunchtime and I haven't had my coffee yet! I successfully weaned myself from the devilish beast!

I know there's mixed research out there — one cup is OK, six is too many, make sure you use a filter, don't consume more than two to three servings of sweetener per day — but for me, this felt like an obstacle to overcome and I did it. Of all the diet advice and food plans I've tried, this is something I can actually stick to — I feel just as awake and alive after an invigorating yoga practice or a walk around the park. The fact that it took a few weeks for my body to adjust just serves as an example of willpower that I never knew I had: I tried something new, didn't see immediate results but stuck to it just the same, and after a few weeks I'm a changed woman.

I still check in with myself occasionally to make sure I'm not being too restrictive — after all, I'm trying to form new habits, not break old ones (check two posts back!) — and if I want a venti nonfat cappuccino, I'll have it. But the bottom line is that I had always had a love-hate relationship with caffeine, so it turned out to not be such a big sacrifice for me. Maybe there are other "mini" sacrifices I can make to better my health and fitness. Sometimes coffee is more than just coffee. Perhaps I can use this change as a springboard.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and quote Benjamin Franklin to wrap up today — a few choice words that seem to apply to this story and undoubtedly many others:

"When you're finished changing, you're finished."

I'm not done yet; are you?

Another big hit

This recipe for Goat Cheese & Fig Crostini was another big party hit last weekend. Now I'm addicted to figs!

1 whole-wheat baguette, sliced
3T EVOO
1/2c chopped dried Mission figs
1/4c brown sugar
1c red wine
1/2t fresh thyme leaves, plus more for garnish
Coarse salt
5oz goat cheese

Heat broiler and position oven rack in uppermost row. Brush both sides of each baguette slice with the olive oil and place the slices on a baking sheet or broiler pan. Broil until golden, 2min per side. If you're having trouble getting an even toast across all of the slices on the sheet, remove the toasted pieces and continue to broil the remaining slices as necessary.

In a saucepan, combine the chopped figs, brown sugar, red wine, 1/2t thyme leaves and a pinch of coarse salt. Bring the liquid mixture to a boil, stirring to mix in the brown sugar; reduce to a simmer and cook for 7-9min. Let the liquid mixture cool to room temp before handling.

Smear each piece of toasted baguette with goat cheese, and spoon a few pieces of fig and some of the liquid atop. Drizzle any remaining liquid around the plate and over the dressed toasts; garnish with a few more leaves of thyme.

Enjoy!

Adapted from Everyday Food

Make it or break it

I'm a person with a lot of habits. From how I floss my teeth to the way I wrap a present, there are...ways I like to do things. And usually, in my patented self-deprecating style, I'm constantly listing all the habits I want to break, rather than opening my mind up a bit to perhaps picking up a new habit.

Well, it's time for a change!

I don't want to always be focusing on what I feel I'm doing wrong; I want to open my eyes and heart to the endless possibilities out there and start focusing more on things I'm not doing, things I want to try, things I'd love to learn and master. Making a habit out of something takes a little introspection, however. What is the ultimate goal? Loading up on antioxidants? Getting a daily dose of omega-3s? Waking up an hour early every day in order to ensure plenty of time for daily yoga practice? The possibilities truly are endless, as cliche as it sounds — but it's going to take planning ahead and dedication to make a new habit stick.

Here are some tried-and-true tips to forming a new habit — a good one, that is — rather than always feeling like you have a habit to break.

1. Put it in writing. Not only does writing something down aid in memory recall; it also forces you to commit. Decide on the language you want to use in relation to your goal, and be specific. Are you trying to eat more fresh fruit? Why? To lose weight? To get more fiber in your diet? To try something new, like a loquat or quince? Choose your words carefully, and you may find you need to narrow down or even expand your goal into something larger — for example: I want to find out if it's my junk-food habit that won't let me lose weight. So for 30 days, I'm going to eat a piece of fresh fruit every night for dessert. That's something focused and concrete that I can commit to without question, and without room for backing out because the boundaries are fuzzy or loose.
2. Tell everyone you know. Okay, maybe not everyone. But tell your family and friends, to start. Tell your doctor if it's something that may affect your health, either positively or negatively. If your goal is to start taking a fish oil supplement every day to get your dose of those fantastic omega-3s, it's not a step you should take on your own no matter how benign it may seem. In addition, your friends and family can stand by to help you be more accountable — and to push you when you're being lazy. (And I'm the first to admit I sometimes think of myself as lazy.)
3. Start today. That's right, I said today. Don't say you'll start Monday; don't complain about the impending holiday weekend. In the wise words of Nike, Just [Freaking] Do It. Although I'll admit to making excuses myself, I hate them. There is no inherent goodness in an excuse, no redeeming quality. Search the word for a second in your mind. What does "excuse" conjure up if not guilt, negativity and shame? You're excusing yourself from your responsibility why, because you're tired? Broke? Busy? Get out your calendar, mark today as Day 1, and count ahead 30 days to mark the end of your challenge. That's right, 30 days. It takes no more and no less to form a habit, and let's face it: If you've already completed step 1, there's no backing out now. You've just written yourself into the Contract.
   
4. Set up automatic reminders. Do you have a Palm Pilot or a Treo? A work calendar with all the bells and whistles? Set up a daily reminder, and don't let it stop beeping or ringing until you're on your way to completing your task. (If your yoga alarm goes off during your commute home, breathe deeply but please hit snooze!)
5. Practice visualization. This is another step that may lead you to realize that you need to tweak your ideal habit a bit to better understand your motivations and ultimate goals. Are you hoping to go for a daily bike ride? Take a few moments to imagine the wind through your hair, your iTunes pumping and your adrenaline skyrocketing as you whip through the neighborhood. Sounds good, right? If it doesn't, maybe it's not biking you really enjoy — maybe you'd really rather just walk, but you know you'll burn more calories on the bike. If that's the case and your vision of 30 days of bike-riding is less than ideal, it's time to rethink your goal.
6. Set up a reward system. Don't automatically think "food"! I firmly believe that rewards shouldn't be something you eat, although I've fallen in that trap before. If the habit you're trying to form is drinking a daily cup of green tea, buy yourself a new variety each week. A reward system will encourage you to form your habit with more dedication, and incorporating a variable component will help keep you from getting bored.
7. Keep a journal as you go. Let's say the habit you're trying to form is simply being more kind and cordial to your coworkers each day, regardless of coffee intake and time of the month. At the end of the work day, reflect back on your highs and lows. Did you make a face at the end of a boring conference call, but you were able to keep your snarky remarks to yourself in the mean time? It's worth remembering and patting yourself on the back. Taking stock each week of your previous accomplishments will help you realize that it's all worth it — and recognizing your achievements is another helpful enforcer when motivation is otherwise lacking.
8. Seek out support. Whether it's your sister, your spouse or an online buddy, don't be afraid to ask for help. After all, you probably won't do very well trying to establish a weekly golf game if you've never played before and could use a few lessons. Take a moment to jot down the names of a few people who you know to be skilled in the area you're leaning toward, even if they're people you don't personally know, and do a little investigating. Follow them on twitter; see what their daily routines are like. Ask questions, figure out if this is right for you, admire from afar and adapt their tips to your situation. Even if you're afraid of looking like a novice in front of an expert, remember this: If you don't try, you'll never know.

There really are two issues at hand here — one, to forgive yourself for the nagging, negative voice that is constantly internalizing disappointments from too-high expectations, and two, to expose yourself to the vulnerability and possibility in trying new things and setting goals for yourself that you need to actually work at in order to reach.

I hope that some of these tips will help inspire you to make a habit out of doing something new this month, rather than listening to a self-critical side that perhaps needs to be given the boot. It just might open your mind up a bit, replacing some of those negative tendencies with bright, hopeful, positive ones that can lead you in new directions and make your life just that much more full.

Great vegetarian meal, multipurpose

Just enjoyed my first "real" vegetarian meal, and although I was almost too stressed out to enjoy it (work work work!), it was super good and can be completely modified to your liking!

Bean Griddlecakes

• 1.5c canned cannellini beans
  
• Scant cup organic heavy whipping cream, plus 2T skim milk
  
• 1 egg
• 2T EVOO
• Scant cup whole wheat flour
• Table salt and fresh ground pepper
• PAM Organic Canola Oil Spray
• Toppings of your choice (see below)
  

Heat the oven to 250 degrees.

Spray a large skillet with PAM, and heat over medium-high heat. Mash the beans with a potato masher; stir in cream, milk, egg, oil and flour. Season with salt and pepper. The mixture should look just like pancake batter (maybe a little lumpier), so add more milk if you need to thin it out or more flour if it's too runny.

When the pan is just about smoking hot, drop in the batter in healthy quarter-cup measurements; you can probably cook about three at a time in one skillet. Flip the batter just like you would pancakes — when you start to see a few bubbles rise to the surface. Each cake should cook for about 5 minutes total; keep them warm in a 250-degree oven while you cook the rest of the batter in batches. Makes about 9 cakes; serves 3-4 people.

Here comes the fun part! Are you a pesto fan, perhaps? Have a jar of salsa you're dying to get rid of now that you've given up chips? Break out whatever it is your pretty little heart desires, and dab a little bit on top. My husband even made his into a sandwich! (Looked a little heavy to me, but whatever floats your boat!) If I'd had it in the house, my vision was to plop a few cakes on some mixed organic spring greens and crumble over top an ounce of goat cheese — with or without a delicious, light balsamic vinaigrette.

Enjoy — I know I did.

Adapted from How To Cook Everything Vegetarian

Get what you give

I'm not good at charity. Sure, I leave bags out for the National Children's Cancer Society every month with old clothes, shoes, purses and household goods that I'm no longer (or never was) in love with, but when it comes to parting with bills I'm stingy. I worry about money. I worry about me.

My excuse for not donating blood, for example, was always that "They've already taken too much from me." Being faced with lots of random illnesses and a thyroid condition since childhood, I've watched more than my fair share of little vials fill up with red liquid. But ever since that diet book came out, Eat Right 4 Your Type, I've been intrigued. Could knowing my blood type really help me that much? Get healthy, maybe even drop a few pounds? I had to know, but I wasn't about to make a typing appointment with my doctor for something so vain (pun intended).

So I decided to donate.

I made an appointment and canceled. I made another appointment and showed up at the wrong place. Things weren't looking promising. I started questioning why I was doing this. What if I passed out? What if they found something embarrassingly wrong with me and couldn't take my blood? How long was this going to take? What did I get myself into?

I started thinking back on all of the ways I try to stay healthy. My recent membership at the library, which had me taking out books like How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and exercise DVDs like Yoga for Relaxation and Meditation. My walks in the park with my faithful companions, my dog and my husband. Refusing to buy any bread and/or crackers unless they're 100% whole wheat. So, even though I felt a little silly donating blood just so I could find out my type, I realized that this was just another way to make life a little healthier — for someone else. Blood donation really does save lives. Those TV commercials may be sappy, but they're honest.

And it was (nearly) painless. I just kept top of mind the infamous juice and cookies after, and 20 minutes into Mr. Ed I was done squeezing that little red ball. That was it! I did it! I donated blood! I even got to wear one of those "Be nice to me today" stickers (and believe you me, I wore it all day).

Once it was all over, I actually forgot for a few days that I was supposed to call another office to find out my type. I donated on Sunday, and once Wednesday rolled around it hit me — I looked up the number in Aurora and gave them my stats. Before I could even take one nervous breath, I had my answer: A+! Not only does it look good on paper (I'd take an A over a B any day), I would come to find out that my blood type had the potential to reveal amazing things about my diet destiny.

I quickly checked on line for the characteristics of people with my type — how we handle stress, what types of foods are best for us, what underlying medical conditions we can often be faced with — and I was shocked. Picture the white light of heaven and a 50-person chorus singing "Hallelujah. Hallelujah!" A little over the top? Yes. Maybe buying into it just like we do horoscopes, personality quizzes, the birthday book? Possibly. But suddenly my whole body was at the same time completely relaxed and rampantly tingling with renewed hope. Here, in a nutshell, is what I found I should be feeding my body:

• No red meat — fish and poultry only, 0-4 times a week
• Limited cheeses; eggs and yogurt 1-3 times a week
• 1 cup dry beans or legumes, 3-6 times a week
• 1 cup dry whole grains or pastas, 4-9 times a week
• 2 cups veggies and 3-4 fruits a day

In addition, the book recommends mostly calming exercise as opposed to high-intensity cardio — yoga, walking and low-impact aerobics. It also mentioned that thyroid problems are quite common for type As.

I was grinning ear to ear, and I immediately picked up the phone to share the news with my sister. After all, just weeks before the blood test, I had fallen in love with yoga again. Around the same time, I began contemplating secretly sneaking one vegetarian meal a week into me and my husband's diet. I talked to friends about going veg, I researched meal options on the internet, I took out cookbooks from the library and I added them to my wish list. It was as if my body was preparing my mind for the news — like a two-week drum roll before the big ta-da!

I knew it would be difficult to cut out red meat right away — I still have 2 lbs of ground beef in the freezer; Mother's Day came and went with burgers and brats. But moving forward, I know I can exercise more control as I continue to study vegetarianism. And thus far, I've avoided ham sandwiches, I'm monitoring my yogurt consumption (something I would otherwise eat at least once a day) and not a meal goes by without some sort of fruit or vegetable.

Sure, this may just be another meal plan in a string of meal plans that I've tried, cherry picked and will modify to my liking. But this time it seems different — it's all about my body, my blood. It's based on science, not just common sense. Shouldn't that count for something?

I'll keep you posted on my meatless journey — I do think it's an admirable life choice, and even if my body responds poorly to the challenge at least I know I did a good deed in donating blood. In fact, I'll probably become a regular there, just like my yearly donations to Locks of Love. If you have something you can donate this month, why don't you? What's stopping you? Put it on your to-do list, and don't let it be one of those items that you always look at and never do. Call it luck, call it karma, call it what you may, but I bet that if we all give a little of ourselves, what we get back will manifest itself in countless positive ways.

Healthy appetizer recipe

This was a big hit yesterday at my Derby party, so I wanted to share the recipe. Lots of spinach dips are made with full-fat mayo or sour cream, but this version uses all reduced-fat ingredients and is chock full of vegetables, so you don't have to feel guilty about eating it. Dig in!

1/3c fat-free or reduced-fat mayo
2 small scoops jarred minced garlic
2 8-oz packs reduced-fat cream cheese, softened
2/3c reduced-fat Parmesan cheese, divided
1 14-oz can quartered artichoke hearts, drained and sliced or chopped
1 10-oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained and squeezed dry
Whole wheat bread, toast, crackers or veggies for dipping
Salt and pepper (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 and slowly toast the bread now if you like, checking it occasionally until done to your liking.

Put mayo, garlic and cream cheese in a medium-sized bowl and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until blended and creamy-looking. Stir in 1/2c cheese, artichokes and spinach. Taste and season now with salt and pepper if you wish.

Coat an 11x17" baking dish with cooking spray and spread in the mixture with a spatula. Sprinkle with remaining cheese; bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

That's it!

I should note that if you're not too concerned about the fat content, you can just as easily use full-fat mayo, cream cheese and any sort of grated Parmesan, Pecorino or Grana Padano cheese as a replacement — it's not like you're going to scarf down the whole thing yourself, so whatever cheese or mayo you have on hand is really just fine. But you won't be sacrificing flavor or texture if you go with at least reduced-fat mayo and cream cheese, so that's truly best for your health. Serve a bowl of veggies or your platter of toast along side, and this can serve at least eight people as an appetizer. Reheat the leftovers the next day, or fold them into an omelet. Yum!

Adapted from Cooking Light