7/4/08

Food as reward and more salad..

When you're browsing the net for weight-loss tips, one of the things you'll come across is to never use food as a reward. I disagree. In fact, rewarding yourself with food is possibly one of the most beneficial things you could do!
Now, keep in mind I'm talking about healthy food. If I've been a very good girl (lol) I'll spoil myself with a piece of salmon, or some fresh wild spinach. When I've had a very rough day and feel like shit I'll go shopping for exotic fruit, oils or spices. If I want to treat myself, I'll spend some time in the kitchen preparing the best paleo meals I can manage.

I'm sure you can see that this will not do your healthy goals any harm, but you might be wondering how it's beneficial.. Thing is, when you're using this type of food as a reward you're telling yourself that it's very desirable. Repeat it often enough, and soon you'll be craving salmon with spinach instead of homemade apple pie.

What inspired today's food ramblings? My use of walnut oil in my chicken salad and in today's recipe. Walnut oil isn't exactly a budget-cooking staple item.. It's one of my 'rewards' that turned out very very very well. I am now an addict. Cravings, seriously. So here's the recipe;

Ingredients(for 1);
- 10 small shrimp
- half a bag of salad
- one third of a zucchini
- walnut oil!

Quickly toast the shrimp in a stir-fry pan. Get them slightly crispy and hot. 4 minutes max. Fill your plate with the salad and thin slices of zucchini, put the shrimp on top. Sprinkle with walnut oil and start fighting the addiction. Battles you don't really mind losing are so much fun ;)

10 comments:

s said...

Sounds good! Like the idea. I too recently splurged and bought basil olive oil and macadamia oil!

Lemur said...

That salad looks so good, I never would have thought that up. I like the idea of using high quality ingredients as motivation to eat better. I'd rather have something really delicious & healthy to feel indulgent than something that is damaging.

Orie said...

Walnut oil is a great reward! I just pounced on some toasted sesame oil. I'm not sure what I was rewarding myself for, but I'm sure I'll think of something.

Thanks for the recipes!

Anonymous said...

Hi Naomi. I started today my "Paleo shopping" your blog will be my practical support. Im also a Nutrition student an i know PaleoDiet for a while. Tell me something, u use alout of tomato in your recepies but Dr Cordain says that tomato as lectins and therefore not good for us...did u know this?

Naomi said...

Sarena, what a good way to splurge! Basil olive oil sounds absolutely brilliant, might get that instead of my usual lime flavour next time.

Lemur, stuff in the kitchen just happens doesn't it? I think all of us who cook sometimes look at other people's food and think 'wow, i wouldve never thought of doing that'. I've experienced it looking at your blog!

Orie, you seem like you've got this thing down so good that you don't really need any gimmicks like this to help you along- but you could consider it a reward for starting such a fine blog ;)

Andre, I found out about that recently yea.. saw a video about it. I'm still unsure what I'll do with the information though. Tomatoes are just too good to be true, and they don't really seem to be bothering me. I'll have to try without them at some point and see what happens.
Glad to hear I can provide some support :)

Marc said...

Naomi;

Both Art D. and Mark S. eat tomato.
I try and not worry about it too much. Kind of like, if I eat them cool...if I don't cool ;-)

although......since reading and hearing the info about them myself, I seem to buy them less then I used to.

Have a great day ;-)

Naomi said...

Now that you mention it Marc, I do indeed find myself buying them less. Subconscious things like that are interesting :)

sildenafil said...

I love salads because they are very nutricious! I have heard about many different types of salad, and honestly this is the first time I see shrimps on top of the salad! It looks delicious

viagra online said...

I was thinking in eat a good salad when I found this blog, so I think that I will go to a restaurant and buy something similar, bye-bye.thanks for help me to decide.

www.muebles-en-parla.com said...

To my mind one and all must go through this.