Aimeeisms.com

It’s been an absurdly busy (but mostly good) few weeks. There’s been new music, a recording opportunity, Birthday awesomeness, and about 1,000 other things… which I’ll probably talk about later… but onto the food.

In my constant quest to improve my health. I’ve started to move toward a raw, mostly vegan, diet. A few weeks ago I began substituting most of my meat with seitan aka ‘Wheat Meat,’ which is gluten that has usually been cooked in a broth of soy sauce, kombu, and sometimes other things.

I’ve gotten pretty used to the taste, and in attempt to lower my salt/sodium intake I’ve taken to just boiling it in water with a pinch of dulce or kombu.

Today I ended up making myself a salad that was reminiscent, in flavor, of Progresso Lentil Soup.

The general recipe is as follows:

- Lettuce (I think I might have used Boston, and I chopped it to get the consistency of shredded iceberg lettuce)
- Seitan
- Lentils
- Short Grain Brown Rice
- Black Eyed Peas
- Soy Sauce

1. Take the Seitan, chop it up and throw it in a bowl with the, Lentils, Rice, and Black Eyed Peas. Shake some soy sauce over it (being careful not to use too much, taste it as you go if you need to). Stir everything around, and then let it sit for 5+ minutes.

2. Chop your lettuce and toss it in with everything else until it’s well mixed, and you’re ready to eat!

Notes:
- Today I used cooked grains/legumes, simply because the raw ones that I’ve been preparing aren’t ready yet… but I should think that raw ones should taste similar, if not the same.
- If you want to use meat, you could probably sub in some ground turkey in place of the seitan.

Happy cooking!

-Aimee

What is Leptin, you ask? Leptin is a hormone manufactured in many parts of the body, including the pituitary gland, the liver, and the stomach. In women, production also occurs in the ovaries and mammary epithelial cells. [1]

Leptin is important because it primarily affects fat metabolism. People who don’t produce any leptin often need to take injections of the hormone in order to metabolize fat properly and loose weight. While people with normal leptin levels usually burn fat efficiently and have less overall body fat.

One thing that most people should understand is that having more leptin doesn’t mean that you’ll be skinnier. In fact, most overweight people have above average levels of leptin. These people are actually leptin resistant. In other words, the body is making so much leptin, that it becomes desensitized to it.

Read the rest of this entry »

This is going to be a short one. I’m tired.

Here’s a pretty in depth article that I found on lowering Leptin:

Leptin and Weight Loss: The Hormonal Key to Fat Reduction and Heart Health

For those who don’t know, research is starting to show that Leptin affects weight gain/weight loss.

I’ll post more about the whole thing later.

-Aimee