Welcome! Morning Oats with Maple Roasted Apples

Welcome to The Whole Beet Kitchen!

My very first post and I could not be more elated!  I’m not going to lie, I had a pretty hard time choosing the most perfect recipe to share.  As the first stepping stone for the future of The Whole Beet Kitchen, which I will now shorten to the WBK for the sake of everyone’s sanity, the first post had to be something that really set an all-encompassing tone for the message of the WBK.  You can ask my husband, we went over different dishes, why they would be perfect or why they wouldn’t be perfect, the pros, the cons, the whole gamut.  And after several conversations I caught myself and thought what am I doing?  I am approaching this from the exact opposite direction of why I set out on this path in the first place!  I felt it was a very foot in mouth internal moment.  Anyway, I was so caught up in the perfection and pressure of beginning this new endeavor, that I got sucked into this thought consuming, frustrating warp hole.  The very thing that a lot of us struggle with when it comes to eating and food in our life.

The dieting saga:

How many times have you wound up in conversations with friends, family, or coworkers where they’re talking about the latest and greatest weight loss plan they’ve tried and swear works?  Have you considered trying the plan too?  How many ads have you seen that say “burn away those holiday calories with our amazing program?”  Did it make you feel crappy for eating those holiday treats?  Or how many social media posts have you seen about a product that promises a change in your physical appearance with a transformational before and after picture?  Have you felt like if they can do it, then maybe I can do it too?  And then commit to your own before and after?  The messages are everywhere! 

We are especially bombarded with this diet and weight chatter this time of year.  For a lot of people December 31^st marks the end of something.  The end of being “bad” during the holidays, the end of a year where a weight goal wasn’t met or the end of a year where they felt bad about their body.  And January 1^st marks the beginning of something new where it’s time to be “good” again and this is the time they’re going to do it right.  Or this is the year they’re going to lose the 10 pounds or they’re going to stick to a workout regimen to get in shape.  How many times have you made these goals?  What’s the difference between this time and the last time?  Is it “I’m going to have more willpower this year?”  Or “I’m more motivated with more self-control?” 

Faulty product:

When you started these new goals or these new beginnings how many times have you also thought, “the last diet or detox or meal plan or workout regimen actually works, but it’s my fault I gained the weight back or I didn’t get the results I wanted because I didn’t continue the plan.”  If something worked why would we have to keep doing it over and over again?  And if something didn’t work, wouldn’t we believe it was faulty and take it back to the store and never trust that product again?   So why do we continue to put our trust into these diets?

Why dieting doesn’t work:

Why is there almost always a beginning and an end to a diet?  And for clarification when I use the term diet I mean food plans, fad diets or food restrictions a person makes in an effort to lose weight.  The reality is dieting fuels a cycle of guilt, then unrealistic eating habits and deprivation, and then on to shame and loss of self-trust.  And then we begin the cycle again with the feeling of guilt and shame and then relying on external sources for redemption such as diet plans and food rules.  

Here’s one example of how that cycle might look for someone:  you feel guilty because you’ve been eating foods you shouldn’t and you feel like you need to lose 10 pounds.  You’ve decided you’re now ready to start a diet plan you’ve heard about to lose the weight and to become healthy.  But maybe before you start the plan you have a last day or weekend to eat and drink all the things you presume you won’t be able to eat or drink again, also known as “the last meal.” 

On day one you’re fired up and motivated for a new beginning and you start following the diet.  The plan may include certain times you eat, certain types of foods to avoid, lists of “good” and “bad” foods, special foods to consume and a limit on others.  Usually the plan has an all or nothing approach.  Depending on how things go the plan may be short lived or it may last awhile.  On the upside you may see some positive results in the numbers.  You then start to feel hungry all the time, frustrated because all you want is some chocolate or some french fries or pizza or in my own personal past experience, Cheetos and rice krispy treats.  And maybe you feel lonely because you’re avoiding social events since you don’t trust yourself to be able to stay in control around non-diet plan food.  Because of a metabolic shift in your body, biology kicks in sending signals about eating sugary and fatty foods to your brain and intense cravings ensue.  I’ll also just say the very act of denying ourselves something makes us crave it even more.  Your body is learning to adapt so it goes into survival mode and your metabolism may slow due to the restriction furthering cravings and irritability.

You’re feeling frustrated because you feel deprived and maybe feeling fatigued at times.  And despite this you keep pushing because you feel you’re being healthy, you feel good about sticking to the plan and you’re seeing results.  Eventually you cave and eat something “bad” or something that you “shouldn’t” which indicates you’ve failed the diet.  This leads to feelings of guilt and you start blaming yourself and food.  And because you’ve failed at following the diet you feel shameful.  You might ask questions like “why don’t I have more willpower” or “what’s wrong with me.”  You go back to the way you were eating before you started the diet and sometimes eating more as a result of the restricting and depriving.  After some time, you notice the weight you had lost is back.  You feel defeated and like an even bigger failure.  After a little time has passed you hear about another promising weight loss solution, which triggers you to start feeling like you’re ready to try again but maybe with a little less trust in yourself and in food.  And so the dieting cycle begins again.   Dieting is flawed.  It sets our minds and our bodies up for failure. 

If something continues to not work and needs to be started over and over again, and the consumer is the one who is the one left with the sense of failure and blame, how good and reliable is that product?  Research is showing diets don’t work long-term and a history of dieting can actually be associated with greater weight gain, as well as other negative health effects. The dieting industry is a booming $65+ billion industry, and that’s per year!  When one diet doesn’t work people tend to look for another solution and move on to the next diet.  So when you have a high failure rate and a market who is vulnerable in their search for the right answer among the countless and everchanging diet options, you make for lifelong consumers and one very successful and wealthy dieting industry.

So if not dieting, then what?

Maybe let’s try looking at a different approach to health.  One that offers trust and freedom, and one that leaves us feeling like we’re not defective.  There is no such thing as perfect eating or a perfect diet, so let’s take away that belief and look for something more sustainable and real.  If you are tired of the dieting chaos in your life, wish to find peace with food so you can live life more fully, and would like to find ways to make changes to improve your health while respecting your body then continue on this road with me.  And remember food is not perfect, healthy eating is not perfect and we as humans are not perfect. And there is nothing wrong with that.

I stopped chasing that perfect recipe and I’m starting with something simple to set the pace for the intention of the WBK.  Accessible, nurturing, delicious food and the message that food and health doesn’t have to be fussy, it doesn’t need to be perfect, it doesn’t need to be stressful, but rather something that makes you feel happy and good and nourished.  And really the message that as humans we need to fulfill the need for nourishment and also the human need to feel satisfied.  It’s about understanding the balance between those two things and trusting ourselves again.  So, let’s get cozy and start with this simple bowl of wintery oats and maple roasted apples. 

This recipe is so simple yet so satisfying.  It completely hits the spot to warm up the bones on the coldest winter mornings.  The toasting of the oats brings on a deeper nutty flavor and the orange zest really brightens it up.  I highly recommend not skipping these steps.  If you haven’t already found the miracle tool that is the microplane zester, I can only say how crucial it has become to my most basic arsenal of kitchen tools.  From grating citrus, to parm, chocolate, ginger, garlic and nutmeg, this thing comes out of its home way more often than I would have ever imagined.  If you don’t have a zester, you could also use a fork, grater box or just finely mince. 

The other great thing about making any kind of porridge or oatmeal is you can make a big batch to last several days, which makes for a great grab and go breakfast.  Because of how simple and easy it is, I usually wind up making it when I don’t have a lot of time to meal prep.   I make a batch to last a few days and individually portion them, so we can just pop em in the microwave.  I love using wide mouth ball jars as individual on-the-go portion containers, but obviously any microwavable container will do.  Add a splash of milk before reheating to prevent a dry and mushy oatmeal.  Also feel free to add other toppings of your choice.  The options are endless! !�

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