I got really excited in a LEAN management training yesterday. One of the trainers started talking about 5S. (Sidebar: If you know me & know what that is, you’ll know that 5S made me feel inadequate & guilty. It’s all about getting & staying organized. I started to make a list of the areas I should 5S, then realized I should just make a list of areas I don’t need to 5S, then realized there would be nothing on that list.) Anyway, then the guy said something I latched onto – “don’t try to boil the ocean.” He said we could start by 5S-ing a single drawer and go from there. He went on to talk about how once you’ve made the initial improvement, you can go back & find additional improvements to make. I was agape: my general life philosophy and specific diet/lifestyle mantra is also a management style. Yikes.
Speaking of the ocean, I mentioned in my last post that I’m trying to serve more fish at home. I want to elaborate. There seems to be some confusion about fish. Is one better than another? Can you eat too much?
I love fish the same but different.
Fatty fish, such as salmon, are particularly high in Omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3’s are the ones that research shows to be good for your heart. However, it’s good to eat any type of fish is good for this very simple reason: you typically eat it in place of a fattier meat. This is lucky for my family, because my husband will not eat cooked salmon (he will eat sushi, oddly enough). Tilapia is the fish of choice in this house.
There are also concerns about mercury in fish. 3 3-oz servings (the amount recommended per Mediterranean diet guidelines) will not be excessive. (Here is a link I found useful when I was pregnant. If you’re very concerned, take a look - http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancyhealth/fishmercury.htm.)
Another point about fish, shellfish gets a bad rap but deserves a place in a low-fat, heart-healthy diet, so crack away!
A final word on fish (for the day) – since the main benefit of eating fish is the fact that it is lower in fat the meat you would have eaten instead, guess what --- if you batter & fry it, you lose that benefit. Sorry, dad – popcorn shrimp is not health food. And here we come to my improvement upon my previous improvement. Any kind of cooked fish is not my husband’s favorite. It is best received with a bread-crumb & parmesan crust. When I first started back with fish, that crust was very heavy. I have been lightening up on the crust gradually and tonight served it with almost none. It is by no means his favorite meal, and he shared it with our 1-year old daughter, but he ate about 3 oz. Better yet, our daughter devoured her 3 oz!!!
Gah! Who doesn't love fish?! I'd honestly give up red meat forever in lieu of fish. We make a cedar plank salmon covered with sliced lemons that all three of us love!
ReplyDeleteHa, ha. Isn't weird that he will eat sushi, but not cooked fish? He's been quite a sport about eating the cooked tilapia the past few weeks. Although Thursday he accused me of using him as a guinea pig for the blog - I didn't bread it, just lemon pepper & some parm.
ReplyDeleteThe cedar plank sounds fab. I will never get Barry to eat cooked salmon, though he did grill it for me on Mothers Day (with mesquite wood chips ... he had a pork chop!). Perhaps my next small step will be to cook myself salmon & give him similar prep on a chicken breast. I tried that a few years ago and found it no fun.