I am slowly adding to my lexicon of tasty Indian recipes. First there was Dal, then there was Cucumber and Coconut Salad, now there is Eggplant Bharta.

I’ve had The Essential Madhur Jaffrey sitting in my bookshelf untouched since last Christmas - it was a Secret Santa gift from my one of my former coworkers whose name continues to remain a secret until this day. Since I couldn’t figure out who gave it to me, I gushed to all likely suspects how touched I was by the gesture. While everyone else received gag gifts and gift certificates, I received a gift that actually had some thought put into it.

So what took me so long to break out the Jaffrey? When it comes to Indian, I’ve got a few full-proof recipes and it’s tough to break outside the mold and risk a recipe failure. Not only that, but Jaffrey’s book doesn’t have any pictures in it and it’s really hard to be inspired by a recipe if it doesn’t come with a mouth-watering picture attached. Call me fickle, but pretty photos make a difference.

Photo or not, last Thursday I found myself with three eggplants and a hankering for Indian food. Eggplant bharta has always been a favourite of mine at Indian restaurants, and when I saw the recipe in Jaffrey’s book, I thought I’d give it a try.

I had no idea what I was getting into when I started this dish. I didn’t realize that the recipe required I grill the eggplant SLOWLY for 20-25 minutes before getting on with the actual cooking, which takes another 30 minutes or so. When I was finally done, the amount of bharta in the pan look disappointingly small after the effort.

The taste, however, was no where near disappointing.

Eggplant is a SPONGE for flavor. The eggplant and tomato really suck in the spices, and what results is an extraordinary flavor concentration that is sublime with fresh chapati. What seemed like a small amount of food was actually plenty, and there was enough leftover for two days worth of lunches. Next time I make this, I’ll probably double the recipe and freeze half of it, and bake the eggplant to save time (a shortcut, I know, but I wonder if it will make much of a difference after adding all the yummy spices).

I give this recipe a thumbs up. (Tim snapped this while I was leaning over to check on the chapatis. You can see the eggplant cooking on the stove. Do you like my spatula thumb extension?)

In my ongoing effort to be my own boss, I’ve been reading some books on business and marketing. In my latest read, Purple Cow, Seth Godin argues that the only way to sell a product in today’s overcrowded marketplace to be remarkable. I noticed that some of his ideas about business success parallel nicely with fitness success. For those of us trying to improve our physical selves, a cow is probably the last thing we want to be. But trust me, Seth’s “Purple Cow” is a good thing. Give it a chance!

In Seth’s book, a “Purple Cow” is something remarkable, something that gets people talking. Seth argues that Purple Cows are the only way businesses can succeed in a world where television and mass marketing are no longer the most successful ways to reach an audience.

The fitness industry is full of Purple Cows, diets and books that do something remarkable, be it remarkably extreme, cheap, lazy, high energy, or high cost. For example:

• Atkins - Atkins gained widespread popularity in 2003 and is STILL talked about as THE low-carb diet of reference.
• Body for Life - An extreme 12-week diet and fitness regime where the ultimate goal is more than to just lose weight, it’s to be totally transformed into a musclebound badass.
• Spinning - Take a boring exercise bike and add high-energy music and bouncy instructors and you get a workout that fills classes at gyms all over the world.

The cool thing about reading books like Purple Cow is that it gives me some insight into what makes companies like these tick. When you look at it from a business perspective, it’s much easier to understand why diet fads don’t work and why the only true key to fitness success is to be remarkable (i.e. a Purple Cow) as an individual. Yes! Purple Cow ideas apply as much to individuals as they do to businesses, and we can use some the same approaches that made Atkins so great to make ourselves even greater. Here are a few of those ideas that seem especially relevant to us fitness geeks.

Stop following the leader

The reason it’s so hard to follow the leader is this: The leader is the leader because he did something remarkable. And that remarkable thing is now taken - it’s no longer remarkable when you do it.

Anyone who’s been on Atkins or Body for Life will tell you that they are not sustainable diets (so much for the “for life” part). Stop chasing diets that won’t work for the long haul.

Awareness is not the point

People know that they need to eat better and exercise more. If that’s true, then why do so many people struggle with their weight? If diet and exercise isn’t the answer, what is?

The will and the way

What’s missing isn’t the knowledge to know how to get fitter. It’s the will to do so.

Many people will say that they don’t know how. That may or may not be true. The point is - if you have the will you’ll find the way that works for you.

The problem with being a Purple Cow…

… is actually a problem with fear.

If eating well and doing exercise was such an easy and effective way to be fit, why aren’t more people doing it?

Fitness is rare because people are afraid. Seth attributes this fear to criticism from others. With health and fitness, fear is a bit more complex than that, but the effect is the same: we do nothing.

We often respond to our aversion to criticism by hiding, avoiding the negative feedback, and thus (ironically) guarunteeing that we won’t succeed! If the only way to cut through is to be remarkable, and the only way to avoid critciism is to be boring and safe, well, that’s quite a choice, isn’t it?

Being safe is risky

When I was working a desk job, most people I worked with ate lunch at their desks in less than 5 minutes while reading BBC news and then promptly went back to work. They thought this would make them more successful at their jobs. Many of these people also skipped dinner in favor of the pub because that’s the norm for some workplaces.

Playing it safe. Following the rules. Those seem like the best ways to avoid failure…Alas, these rules set a pattern for most people, and that pattern is awfully dangerous. These are the rules that ultimately lead to failure.

Safe is risky. How risky? Diabetes. Heart disease. Metabolic syndrome. Need I say more?

If that’s true, how do we break out of safe patterns and do something different?

The process and the plan

There’s good news and bad news here.

Is there a fool proof way to get fit? Not really.

The eventual slowdown of almost every Purple Cow company indicates that there’s no rule book listing things that always produce. That’s one reason that seeing the insight of the Cow is so difficult.

There is no plan, but there is a process: go for the edges. Challenge yourself to find out what those edges are and test which edge is most likely to deliver results. When running gets boring, try swimming. Sick of egg white omelets? Switch to oatmeal. Fitness is a life-long process of changing and adapting. Don’t be afraid to try something new.

It’s this process that makes The Purple Cow so remarkable.

The power of a slogan

According to Seth, “a slogan that accurately conveys the essence of your Purple Cow is a script.” When it comes to products, the slogan is the product itself - Tiffany’s blue box, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Apple’s industrial design.

What does this have to do with fitness? A slogan can serve as a personal mantra, a credo, a handy catchphrase to remind us what all this health stuff means to us. Look at a few slogans for some cool health bloggers out there:

• Because fitness isn’t about fitting in (MizFit)
• Unleash your inner badass (Fitness Fixation)
• Healthy living for busy people (The Office Diet)

All these slogans do a great job of summing up what that blogger is all about. What’s your health and fitness mantra? What’s your goal? Think about it. Write it down. Put it on the fridge. The is your swift kick in the behind whenever you need a little motivation.

The art of projecting

What if you simply don’t care? Seth talks about marketers who have to sell a product they just can’t get passionate about. But he argues that people who aren’t passionate about what they’re selling won’t do a good job. Similarly, people who aren’t passionate about eating well and doing exercise are going to quit after a few weeks. Is it possible to learn to care?

You don’t need passion to create a Purple Cow. Nor do you need an awful lot of creativity. What you need is the insight to realize that you have no other choice but to grow your business or launch your product with Purple Cow thinking. Nothing else is going to work.

Seth offers two techniques: learn the art of projection, get inside the heads of people who do care deeply and imagine what they’d do. Or, learn the science of projecting. Build a discipline of learning, trying new things, seeing what happens, and doing it again. Chances are you do care about something, you just need to find out what works for you.

Dieters No Longer: Now We are… SmarterFitter?

Seth argues that marketers must now be designers. I argue that dieters must now simply be smarter. There is no script for getting fit, and the only way to do it is to become immersed in the process. Learn. Be critical. Read books about food and physiology. Learn how to cook. Experiment with recipes. Try new exercises until you find something you like. And when that gets boring, learn a few more. Don’t stop until you die. (This is the true body for life!)

Yo body is yo business!

My goal in Purple Cow is to make it clear that it’s safer to be risky - to fortify your desire to do truly amazing things. Once you see that the old ways have nowhere to go but down, it becomes even more imperative to create things worth talking about.

Seth’s book may be all about Aeron chairs and Volkswagon beetles, but there’s a lot here for anyone who has wanted to do something remarkable but was afraid to try. You can even use Seth’s business rules to free yourself from businesses (i.e. faddish diets) themselves. Screw diets, useless products, marketing hype, and other corporate garbage. Be your own fitness guru. Or, as Seth says, be a Purple Cow.

You don’t need a book about creativity or brainstorming or team building…You don’t need more time or even more money. You just need the realization that a brand new business paradigm [a brand new you?] is now in charge, and once you accept the reality of the Cow, finding one suddenly gets much easier.

Moo.

Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable

Wait for it…

Wait for it…

Wait for it…

Wait for it…

Almost done waiting…

And the winner of the Herbivore t-shirt is…

Calimaryn is the blogger at Fearlessly Vegan, a site I only just discovered today. This one went right into the feed reader… it’s a great find! Well, great if your obsessed with tasty vegan food like I am. I was chuffed to see that she’s another laptop lunch user, so if you enjoyed my lunchbox photo above, check out Calimaryn’s blog for more.

Congrats, Calimaryn! Email me your t-shirt size and address and I’ll send you your t-shirt!

Since Vegetarian Awareness Month is all about sharing the joy of veggies with others, here’s a few links to whet your appetite for plant matter.

Going Vegetarian: Progression and the Temptation to Rebel

In a guest post on MizFit, Erin of Zeneriffic uses vegetarianism to illustrate the ups and downs of learning new habits, what she calls “progression and the temptation to rebel”. She suggests an incremental approach, great advice for adapting to any new life change:

With each new habit added you experience that, “Woo hoo a new thing to try!” feeling since you’re not attempting a complete overhaul all at once. I predict building habits securely without feeling repressed and allowing for periodic changes that don’t destroy the previous additions will revolutionize my life.

Dispelling Myths

Evita at Evolving Wellness dispells a few common myths about vegetarianism, including the age old myth that veggies don’t get enough protein.

Brain Blogger gets into this further in Are You Vegetarian? How Do You Get Enough Protein?.

Susan added to this on Grounded Fitness, with her post
Think a vegetarian diet and being an athlete don’t mix? Think again. In addition to protein, she also talks about iron and B-12.

Lower Your Grocery Bill

Maggie at That’s Fit demonstrates how eating more veggies can help save you money and offers a few tips on how to make it happen. I like her suggestion to “make meat stretch” - you don’t have to give it all up, but cut it down and replace it with some filling veggies, beans and grains. The key is to make vegetarian meals more substantial.

Whole-grain spaghetti and salad is a quick and relatively healthy meal. But you can increase the nutrition value and satiety when you add extra veggies to the mix. Saute some chopped bell peppers, onions, mushroom, zucchini, and garlic in a little olive oil and add it to your marinara sauce. And don’t let your salad be boring — add cucumbers, carrots, mushrooms, celery, and tomatoes to your greens.

Stop Reading, Start Eating

This post wouldn’t be complete without a few recipes.

Wise Bread offers 8 Meatless Dishes for Meat-n-Taters Lovers, including Black Bean Soup (YUM), Quesadillas (YUMMIER), and Eggplant Parmesan (YUMMIEST!).

Speaking of filling vegetarian meals, check out this recipe for Vegetarian Shephard’s Pie at Cheap Healthy Good. I must make a heaping mound of mashed potatoes so I can make this SOON.

If you find the phrase “eat your greens” to be daunting, then give Heidi’s Broccoli Crunch a try. Crunchy shallots, candied nuts, slivered red onion - how can you go wrong?

In other green food news, LeisureGuy posted a tasty recipe for Kale made with tahini and lemon juice.

In my never-ending quest to find the perfect veggie burger, I stumbled across a recipe for Millet-Chickpea Burgers at Tasty Pallets. I haven’t tried it yet, but they look incredible.

Kim at Culinate offers a stupid-simple recipe for lentils and veggies that you could easily throw together in less than 30 minutes.

Win a T-Shirt

One last thing… Don’t forget, today is the last day to enter your chance to win an Herbivore t-shirt! To enter, leave a comment on this post: World Vegetarian Day T-Shirt Giveaway!!.

Don’t forget, today is the last day to enter your chance to win an Herbivore t-shirt! To enter, leave a comment on this post: World Vegetarian Day T-Shirt Giveaway!!. Good luck!

A few years ago, after several hits and misses in the fitness department, I started tracking my food calories. I kept it up for a few months and it worked like a charm - the food diary taught me portion control and helped “kick start” the “healthier habits” I have today. But there was a downside.

Counting calories, while a great way to lose weight, is also a great way to become obsessed with numbers and ridden with mixed priorities. I stopped counting calories over two years ago but I’m still getting over the irrational worry that an extra walnut here or splash of cream there is going to instantly undo all of my progress. Cranky Fitness has an excellent post that really sums up the problem with this “data-driven” approach:

You may have all kinds of healthy nutritional goals–eating more whole foods, less processed crap, avoiding transfats or whatever. But it’s hard to track a bunch of different goals, and what most people end up paying attention to at the end of the day is a number. How Many?

When I was counting calories I used to allow myself one free day a week a la Bill Philips’ “Body for Life” advice. This day was usually a Friday and involved lots and lots of beer. Then on Saturday, I was supposed to return to my “diet”, which unfortunately precluded me from indulging in the ultimate hangover cure: a mushroom, onion and cheese omelet with buttered toast, orange juice and coffee. What a dilemma. Fine, I was losing weight, but was I really any healthier? My Friday night beer binges suggest otherwise. And the way I felt on Saturday, both in mind and body, certainly didn’t feel very healthy.

There must be a better way

I’ve since stopped tracking calories, but I haven’t stopped tracking my food. I seem to have replaced my numeric obsessions with an overall obsession with eating (whether this is a good thing is open for debate). My recent food diary efforts have traded numeric trends for other patterns, such as

• Recipes - noting little tweaks and changes, an extra pinch of thyme here, a dash of vinegar there, that sort of thing
• Seasonal trends - it’s fun watching the cabbage and kale of winter slowly replace the cool salads of summer
• Various body patterns - sleep, cycles and all that other fun stuff stuff I should probably keep to myself
• Time of day - Okay, this is a number, but since I’ve been doing yoga in the morning I’ve noticed that my performance is effected by the time I ate dinner the night before. It seems like an early, light dinner is good for yoga in the morning. But if I’m going swimming, I have a much better swim if I pack it in at dinner time.
• Taste changes - Earlier this year, my diet seemed to follow variations on the theme of of bean mush - lentil soup, Indian dal, a pile of puy lentils, veggie chili. I guess we got sick of eating with a spoon all the time and now we’ve been experimenting with more stir fries, pasta dishes and other forkable foods. But the dal will never die!

Since I quit counting calories, I’m enjoying food more than ever, and I love to cook. Taking pictures is part of the process; if I’ve created something in the kitchen, I feel compelled to capture it permanently in a photo. I was chuffed to read about the research that suggested photo diaries may be more effective that traditional journals for helping people lose weight. Sure, the photos are a great way to reinforce ideas of portion control and nutritional balance, but my photos aren’t about weight loss. I simply enjoy the nostalgia of looking back on all the food I’ve eaten and I’m fascinated by the way my tastes evolve over time.

In addition to photos, I’ve also been keeping a very lazy written journal that simply lists meals and exercise. The trouble with both the diary and the photos is that I’m horribly inconsistent. Keeping a food diary is a pain in the ass! Photos can be annoying too, especially when I’ve taken ten pictures of the same salad and impose on myself the necessity to choose one of basically identical photos to upload to Flickr. And Flickr, though great for sharing photos, isn’t as good for taking notes or tracking days of the week.

I am inspired by people like jenna, an AFPA-certified nutritionst and blogger at Eat, Live, Run, who religiously photograph and post every bit of food and drink she consumes, from cocoa to quiche. I love Jenna’s approach to this whole calorie business:

I do not set a certain number of calories for myself per day. I find that too restricting for my active lifestyle. A trend in my life/diet has shown that I intake about 1800 calories or so a day and that’s fine with me. It just seems to usually be within that amount without me regulating it…it just comes naturally I guess–that’s what my body wants.

I’m also trying to listen to what my body wants rather than spend pointless minutes scouring the food database for how many calories are in a prune. I know calorie-counting works for some and it certainly worked for me in some ways, but these days I want something different.

So how do I motivate myself to keep better track of my foods? I took a picture of my breakfast this morning. Will I remember to take a photo at lunch? Will I write any of this down in my journal? I haven’t yet… and I didn’t yesterday. Do I need more motivation or do I just need to let go and give up on all this OCD diary malarky?

What do you think?

How do you feel about food and exercise diaries? Hate em’? Love em’? Do you journal in words or pictures? What would be your ideal way to track all of this stuff? What would you want to measure?

Read more

As I mentioned earlier, Crabby’s post, But I don’t Wanna Write it Down, is a pretty good summation of what sucks about food diaries.

Jenna’s blog, Eat, Live, Run, is fantastic inspiration for any of us who want to to be a food-photo fiend.

Diet Blog has a few good pointers on keeping a food diaries, plus some pretty good reasons to do so that aren’t related to calories.

Want to become a better food photographer? Then check out this recent post from VeganYumYum, Food Photography for Bloggers, which covers everything from plates to lighting.

Sharing means caring

For other Flickr users out there, I’ve created a Flickr group called SmarterFitter. I’m posting my food diary there along with other SmarterFitter-related photos. Feel free to share your own by adding your photos to the group pool!

Working out with a friend is often cited as a great way to stay motivated. Perhaps you’d like to try When Should We, a small and single purpose tool I built with some friends, that makes organising a time or a day to go for a walk or a run effortless.

It’ll also help you arrange all those upcoming holiday season meet-ups.

Please check it out. There’s no log in necessary and you don’t have to give us your contact details.

Thanks,

-Tim

Link

Hey folks, welcome to ROCKTOBER! October 1st is World Vegetarian Day and guess what - we’re giving away a super-stylish “Herbivore” t-shirt (or onesie!) to celebrate!

What is World Vegetarian Day?

World Vegetarian Day is the kick-off of Vegetarian Awareness Month. That’s right, a whole month to veg out in whichever way you choose. Parties, putlucks, presentations, food tasting - whatever suits your fancy.

And it’s not all for veggies. The North American Vegetarian Society, sponsor of the event, encourages meat-eaters to to come along for the party. World Veggie Day is an enticement to ALL to give meatless fare a try.

So where’s the party? Activities are taking place all over the map, and if you can’t find one - host your own. You could win a free trip to Vegetarian Summerfest if you do.

Give me a t-shirt!

The Herbivore t-shirt comes from Able, a design and branding firm outside Philadelphia (who also have some neato posters for sale at their Etsy store).

Each onesie and tee are made by American Apparel, are sweatshop free,
and are hand screened with water-based ink that is friendly to the environment.

The winner can choose from one of the following sizes (but please note that they run small!):

Men: Men, Large
Women: Small, Medium
Baby onesie: 6-12, 12-18
Children’s tee: 2,4,6

To win a t-shirt, all you have to do is leave a comment and I’ll pick a winner at random on Wednesday, October 8th.

The other day I posted a roasted ratatouille recipe I adapted from Chocolate & Zucchini. This prompted Tim to ask: “isn’t that copyright infringement”?

Huh. Call me a crap creative, but that thought had not occurred to me. “Naaaah,” I said. I altered the ingredients and directions slightly, plus I gave credit to C&Z. So what’s the problem?

I brushed it off until today when I wanted to post the Mediterranean Chickpea Salad recipe from the New York Times but couldn’t help but feel haunted by the question…

“Am I stealing this recipe?”

The short answer is “no”. Here’s what U.S. copyright law says about recipes:

Mere listings of ingredients as in recipes, formulas, compounds, or prescriptions are not subject to copyright protection. However, when a recipe or formula is accompanied by substantial literary expression in the form of an explanation or directions, or when there is a combination of recipes, as in a cookbook, there may be a basis for copyright protection.

So a recipe is not an invention unless it accompanies a fair amount of “literary” prose around it. While that may be true, there’s still the matter of etiquette. The International Association of Culinary Professionals focusses on giving credit where credit is due.

The association advises using the words “adapted from,” “based on” or “inspired by,” depending on how much a recipe has been revised. (”Adapted from” is the phrasing favored by The Washington Post and many other newspaper food sections, which, along with culinary instructors, enjoy “fair use” of someone’s creation for the purpose of teaching, news reporting, scholarship or research.) The only time a recipe should be printed without attribution, the association contends, is when it has been changed so substantially that it no longer resembles its source. [Can a Recipe be Stolen?, The Washington Post]

Before I knew any of this, I was already giving credit to my recipe sources. It just feels like the right thing to do. Blogging is sharing, isn’t it? Were someone to post a recipe that I published, I don’t think I’d mind (though I might be a bit cheesed off if they didn’t credit me!). How do you feel about sharing recipes?

Yeah but what about those chickpeas?

Right. So I made the Mediterranean Chickpea Salad recently posted on the New York Times. It’s good. Real good. From the cumin-spiced dressing to the sweet tomatoes to the crunchy red pepper and savory olives. I like to add cucumber because I simply love the combination of chickpeas, cucumber and tomato. I skipped the yogurt from the original recipe which didn’t take away from its goodness. The feta is essential, however. When the salad is tossed, most of the feta dissolves into the dressing, making it super creamy and delicious.

The salad gets better after a day or two of marinating. And for you working-world folks, this salad is great for packed lunches!

Mediterranean Chickpea Salad

Adapted from The New York Times.

Serves 4

- 2 (15-ounce) cans chick peas, drained and rinsed
- 1/4 cucumber, cubed
- 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 1 small red bell pepper, chopped
- 2 medium tomatoes, diced
- 4 green onions, sliced
- 6 kalamata olives, pitted and sliced
- 1 ounce feta cheese, crumbled

To make the dressing:
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1 small garlic clove, minced
- 1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds, lightly toasted and crushed or coarsely ground
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Toss together the salad ingredients. Whisk together the lemon juice, vinegar, garlic, cumin seeds, salt, pepper, olive oil. Toss with the chickpeas.

Per serving: 344 Calories; 13g Protein; 16g fat; 41g Carbohydrate

Way too much coffee.
But if it weren’t for the coffee,
I’d have no identifiable personality whatsoever.
- David Letterman

I never intended for my caffeine-free stint to last forever. I like coffee. I like tea. I especially like chocolate! I simply don’t like being dependent on caffeine.

Yesterday, just one-day shy of my four-week caffeine-free anniversary, Tim and I found ourselves at Rory’s for brunch. Rory makes exceptional coffee. He’s got a super-badass espresso machine but that isn’t what makes the coffee so special. Rory pays loving attention to every cup of coffee he makes, from the roast to the grind (which he does himself) to the tamp to the steamed milk. If I was going to break my caffeine fast, there is no place I’d rather do it that at Rory’s over one of his superb coffees.

Rory’s signature coffee is a “flat white”, a popular beverage in his and Tim’s homeland of New Zealand. A flat white is generally made with 1/3 espresso and 2/3 steamed milk, where “the volumised milk is prepared by folding the top layer into the lower layers”, or so Wikipedia tells me. Rory might have his own method, or he may have written that Wikipedia entry himself. I wouldn’t be surprised!

As the resident American in the room, I opted for an Americano with a splash of milk.

Yes but how did it feel?? At first it felt, well, tasty. Nothing special. Ain’t no thang. But after cycling home I found myself intensely WIRED. I forgot what it feels like to have a caffeine high. I can’t say it felt terrible, but it also didn’t feel great. I found it impossible to concentrate or sit still. I couldn’t get any work done so I went for a walk, then cooked, and finally had a beer and a glass of wine, which seemed to take the edge off.

I could see the odd coffee being a good thing if I were, say, on holiday and were about to spend the day galavanting around town, where concentration wasn’t such an issue. Of course, if I went back on caffeine regularly, the buzz wouldn’t happen because I’d be immune again. But that’s not something I plan to do. Yesterday’s coffee doesn’t have me jonesing for another cup. But it does remind me that it’s okay to enjoy caffeine once in a while. It’s a quality of life thing, and once in a while, especially on a sunny Saturday and with good friends and tasty food, it’s important to enjoy the moment and just be.