Talking About Food

Posted on Oct 30th, 2007 | 5 comments

Dean and friend, LaSal Mountains, Utah

Hi Steph,
“Drop me an e-mail”…. Ok, then.
Greetings from Poland (the country in Central Europe where the people to tell “polish jokes” about come from!) from a 29 year old physicist who began to climb a little bit too late (2.5 years ago) and weighs a little too much. Well, I’m working on it, I became a vegetarian over five years ago, but this doesn’t help — I eat too much. Chocolate for example… Or strong coffee with too much sugar…

Perhaps the best photos of yours are those taken during your crack climbs. You just do it somehow, and that’s a great thing to look at and try to do something similar, up to 5.10c, maybe, in a distant future… I like cracks, and they don’t seem to like me, sigh…

Oh, and you’re very pretty, too!

I’ve just returned from Provence in France (Orpierre, Verdon and les Calanques), it was great to be there and just climb for two weeks, with some surprises like hail and snow in Verdon. Now it’s time to return to work, and all the “climbing” in winter will be in a gym only : /

I’m planning to buy your book.
And finish my PhD in physics (on gravity, isn’t this ironic?).
I wish you all the best. And your dog, too, she is cute

W. Natorf, Warsaw, Poland.

Dear Wlodek,
Wow, thank you for your very nice email! Fletcher and I are very flattered Your PhD studies sound intriguing–gravity is something I’m always interested in, of course. In fact, I am coming to Poland for the Poland Film Festival on December 8, and I am very excited to make my first visit to your country.

Since you mentioned being vegetarian, and trying to eat more healthfully, I had to tell you that Dean has just started eating vegan. Partly he wants to lose weight and climb better and purify his system for health, but partly he has always felt very bad about contributing to animal suffering, since most of the easily accessible meat in our country comes from factory farming, and this is really torture for the poor creatures. As you can see, he even wants to make friends with tarantulas.

I am like you, and if I eat sugar, I immediately gain weight. So I had to stop eating refined sugar, as well. I think it’s easy to start eating lots of white bread and foods with sugar, especially if you are not eating meat, but that is a sure way to gain lots of weight and to lack nutrition. For me it seems best to avoid any bleached out grains, like white flour and white rice. I like to eat lots of dark green vegetables, and I try to eat only green vegetables at night, rather than a large dinner. So usually for dinner, I will eat some steamed broccoli, or sauteed kale or chard. If I eat a “proper” full dinner, I get an upset stomach and have a hard time sleeping. I try to eat my grains and things like that, throughout the day. Along with nuts and fruit and tofu. Contrary to popular belief, I have no problem getting plenty of protein, and I perform better and am far stronger than I used to be, before I turned vegan.

Dean has commented that after only a month of eating the vegan diet, he feels more healthy, and he wakes up feeling energetic right away. Personally, I think being vegan also makes a person more kind, because every day I feel mindful of the small effort I am making to stop hurting other creatures, and this motivates me to find more ways to be good and compassionate to others. You only have to take one small step, and then it leads to the next and the next….

By the way, Fletcher agrees with none of this, and wants only to chase and eat squirrels and other helpless creatures.

I hope to meet you in Poland, and thank you for sharing your climbing adventures!
xx Steph

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http://www.martyblumen.com Marten Blumen

Hi Steph, do you think honey is a good replacement for refined sugar?
steph

Dear Marten,
I think anything is a good replacement for refined sugar, except corn syrup or artificial sweeteners!
I found that once I quit eating refined sugar, I actually lost the taste for it, and noticed strong sweetness in things like dried bananas (the soft ones, not the chips), raisins, pineapple juice, dried apples, apple juice, etc.
If you are looking to add sweetener to tea or coffee, honey is really good (though strict vegans prefer to avoid it, as it is still an animal product). For cooking, brown rice syrup is excellent, as are overripe mashed bananas and pineapple juice. Dean and I both noticed that since we quit eating refined sugar, we no longer have blood sugar spikes or energy spikes, and no longer bonk. I also lost weight quickly when I quit eating sugar.
I get most of my sweet tastes through fruit, and it seems great (fruit actually has quite a bit of sugar in it, in a different composition), which seems a lot more healthy for my body.
Sweet dreams Marten
xx Steph
Bryan

Steph,

Great blog! Your stories and travels are incredibly inspiring.

Did you quit refined sugar cold turkey or was it gradual? I’m a total sugar addict and it affects my mood and weight. I truly feel like it controls me.

I’d love to know how you went sugar free!
steph

Dear Bryan,
I am a sugar addict too, which is why I needed to stop eating it six years ago. It definitely kept me heavier than I wanted to be, and gave me blood sugar highs and lows. The reason I say I’m a sugar addict, is that when I ate refined sugar, I just wanted to eat more and more! I did a little research, and found a lot of people have this problem, and trying to “reduce” the amount you eat just won’t work. You need to stop eating it completely.

After I quit eating refined sugar and cornsyrup, I found that my tastes changed. I was much more sensitive to the taste of natural sugar. I eat plenty of sweet things, as lots of foods are very sweet. Interestingly enough, on the few occasions now when I find myself tasting something made with refined sugar, I actually don’t like the taste, as it tastes kind of strange to me. Make sure you are eating plenty of sweet things, such as fruit-sweetened food, and things like whole dried bananas, pineapple, raisins and even grain-sweetened carob chips, so that you don’t feel like you are deprived of sweet things. Clif products are great, because they use brown rice syrup, which seems very easy to digest and doesn’t behave like refined sugar in my system.

And just stop eating refined sugar, entirely. For a while, you will have to read labels (for example, even organic tomato soup usually has “evaporated cane juice” i.e., sugar, added to it) to make sure you aren’t eating sugar accidently.

Also watch out for fruit juice, and dried fruit that may have sugar added (cranberries are a real culprit, unless you make sure to get the kind that are made with apple juice instead of sugar). And yes, don’t be tricked by “evaporated cane juice” though it probably won’t kill you once in a while.
Good luck!!
xx Steph
joseph

hey wear did you get that scorpian? The wood pile? Your not going to kill it are you? Remember ansles gallery? Peace dude!

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