On Taylor Swift, Democracy, Eating Well
And one of my favourite easy crowd-pleasing breakfast plates
The trouble with mentally checking out, for whatever reason, is it can lead to missing a lot of cultural touchstones.
After my 2008 back injury, I slowly became consumed with the bitterness and detachment caused by chronic injury. Being in pain all the time is like something stands between you and life. It’s harder to stay plugged in when your body constantly distracts you. Plus, people enjoying life, dancing, laughing — these things make one hyper-focus on their unhappiness and the pain therein.
Or that was my experience of living with chonic pain for nearly 15 years.
I no longer live with that pain — just the usual bullshit of being 50.
[stares in mid-life-crisis]
I am trying to make up for being checked out of the world, specifically in areas like music.
Taylor Swift, as an example.
While back, I was talking shit, saying, “Okay, I listened to a song, she’s not my bag, but she’s a cool person.”
Then she pulls this shit this week – releasing a masterful statement both eloquently worded and strategically timed. Her gambit might pour gas on the momentum for electing Kamala Harris, and, in turn, could change the world.
You know, no big deal. Pop star? Yeah, all right. That’s a bit of a cute way to describe her.
Political Aside: Folks can quote all the polls they like, but what ultimately matters in the election is give-a-shitness, or the amount of oomph a candidate inspires for getting the hell out and voting.
One might be a Trump voter, but come a shitty day of rain or snow in November, a bad back, or any little hiccup, and are they willing to go out and vote? Especially when the guy they wanna vote for has specifically told them not to do mail-in? I mean, they’re falling asleep in his rallies — you do the math.
Meanwhile, the other candidate, Harris, is framing the act of voting as civic duty, a sword wielded against those who would unseat democracy, an ethical act to stop hate. Then throw Taylor Swift’s activism onto that fire, when she’s all about empowering young women… this is what “get out the vote” means. And only one side is focusing on that part.
Anyhoo! Tangents aside…
I’m learning Taylor Swift is a cultural force, not just a pop singer I have overlooked, and I am making a more concerted effort of appreciating her songwriting and lyrics while listening to a couple albums, with Folklore first up later today.
I mean, girl, I hear you: “I'm so sick of running as fast as I can / Wondering if I'd get there quicker / If I was a man.”
In the meantime, I’m rewatching Miss Americana, on Netflix.
I watched it in 2020, which is when I began paying more attention to her in the news, yet not listening to her — because I listened to nearly no music for years.
The difference between 2020-me watching that show and today-me is I’ve radically changed my lifestyle and lost about 40% of my body weight. I’m still on that getting-healthy journey because I was in the hospital in May, so yeah, I’m invested in continuing to live with healthier choices.
So, I love the powerful segment in Miss Americana, around the 30-minute mark, where Taylor Swift addresses her eating disorder from her younger years.
Everything she’s saying there, I live that.
Eat real food. Eat real portions. Don’t worry about becoming thin — worry about becoming strong.
Yeah, easy to say when I’ve lost 130 pounds, but I lost that from not drinking a bottle of wine every single day. I lost it from changing the nature of how I eat — more protein, fewer carbs (but carbs are still probably 30% or more of every meal), a lot less sugar, healthier fats, and it took four years.
My newfound health comes from listening to my body.
I was really fucking sick, y’all.
So sick. If my body said, “don’t eat that,” I listened because not listening became too hard. It’s a LOT easier to make healthy changes when your body’s forcing your hand, trust me.
Everything had consequences. I was tired, sick, bloated, in pain — constantly, for over a decade. I made slow, small changes from 2020 on. Each bit of success induced me to adopt more.
In the beginning, I made conscious choices.
Like, “This is a big pizza. I should make a smaller dough portion.” So, I went from 300 grams of dough to 200 grams. Instead of a 14” pizza, it was 11-12”. I still ate pizza, I still ate cheese. It’s not like I starved myself.
Thinking about the money, too, was helpful. I realized healthier portion sizes also literally saved money. On that pizza, that’s 30% less cheese, fewer meats, and that all adds up at the cash register and in the bank.
Over time, though, what happened when I started getting healthy, or reducing my triggers for what made me feel terrible, is that a healthier baseline became a catalyst for recognizing other things my body couldn’t handle.
It’s like renovating a home. Every time you dig further, you find more problems affecting your home – like dry rot, or electrical issues – but there’s only so much that can go wrong, and ultimately, as you keep finding those issues and addressing them, you get closer to the home you need. One day, there’s nothing else to fix, you just have to keep maintaining the home you’ve created.
I’m getting to the “maintaining” stage now and I like it.
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I think Taylor’s message is so important because so many people just have the wrong notion of health as being a shape or ideal. It’s not.
Taylor says body image cannot be the way we judge ourselves, because we’ll never meet everyone’s standard of beauty.
Paraphrasing her: Too thin, you’ve got no ass. Get an ass, your belly’s not flat enough.
Self-image must be about strength. It must be about energy. It must be about what you can do and how you feel after it. That’s how to judge yourself.
DO YOU FEEL GOOD?
That’s the metric! For me, I’m still not there yet – my digestive system still hasn’t completely resolved after my hospital stay, so I’m still making small tweaks here and there.
Today, I maked smarter choices by revisiting foods I once loved and have been avoiding, so I can make them slightly healthier and indulge in them without inflaming my body.
For example, an eggs benny I made recently, after swearing off them for months. I thought “I can make this healthier, but still experience butter and joy!”
I started with a homemade gluten-free biscuit, then topped it with pico de gallo, black beans, and avocado. It was delicious. I didn’t get acne or feel gross, but I still had three glorious tablespoons of buttah.
In the old days, I’d have hashbrown potatoes, bacon, and other sides, which aren’t horrible, but they’re horrible for me when eaten with other oily things, because I break out and feel ill after.
But I love Hollandaise sauce, and eating it this way won’t hurt me. That’s what “listening to your body” means – finding a way to enjoy life while not hurting yourself. For me, that means recognizing I can have a butter-based sauce but not with something else that is comprised of saturated fat, like bacon — not at the same time. It’s about that balance. So, I have the bacon later.
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The good news is, my health is turning a corner after my surgery, and things continue improving.
We were talking breakfasts online yesterday and I shared my favourite meal of late — shown below — and someone asked, “How many calories?” I replied, “I have no clue.”
So, in the spirit of Taylor Swift and the Miss Americana documentary:
Please, people, getting healthy is not about calories.
It’s not about obsessing about everything you eat. It’s not even about being thin! I am still over 200 pounds. I’m “large.” Solid! But I am a powerful, strong woman, I look happy, healthy, and 15 years younger than I am. My skin and eyes are clear. These are the results I seek!
Health is about cutting out processed food, eating real ingredients, cooking for yourself, reducing sugar, not drinking calories, and understanding how much protein and fibre you should be eating for your body weight/size.
Sugar, protein, fibre — those are criteria I care about, not calories. It’s not rocket science.
Did someone grow it? Good. Was it made in a lab or a factory? Bad.
I will never be a size 4, and I don’t want to be. I don’t weigh myself more than once every 2-3 weeks. It’s not about that.
Today, I believe in eating delicious, healthy food so I can be a smug, lucky woman eating better than all y’all are, so I never ever feel like I’m dieting or depriving myself.
If you don’t love what you eat, it catches up with you. I love what I eat. I feel arrogant about what I eat. I brag about my meals. But I work hard to make it delicious. I don’t go to the gym, I just walk around listening to music, then I eat tasty stuff. Not a bad life.
One of the best protein-heavy meals I make, which I usually have for breakfast but have had for dinner to, is a nod to Mexico’s huevos rancheros.
Huevos-Kinda-Rancheros, For Bad-Ass Bitches
This’ll keep you full all day. Have an apple and some peanut butter when you get hungry, then a big-ass (healthy) dinner, and then you’re flying Air Steff, baby.
First up, you need:
½ cup of refried beans [1]
1 - 8-inch flour tortilla (I use gluten-free)
I take a frozen tortilla out, schmear half with the beans, plop it into a pan with neutral oil over medium heat. Once the tortilla warms and softens, I fold it over the beans so it’s a half-tortilla-sized bean quesadilla. Keep cooking until golden & crispy on both sides.
Meanwhile, on your plate, put a dollop of full-fat Greek yogurt, a dollop of tomato salsa, and half an avocado mashed with a bit of salt. (I make my salsa from scratch every week or two with canned tomatoes.)
When the tortilla is crisped, set it next to the accoutrements, and make the egg(s). I prefer two eggs, because protein, but, also — yolky sauce!
I cook my eggs in the same pan, same neutral oil, and once the whites start to cook, I throw 2-3 tablespoons of water in, and cover with a lid. Takes a minute or so to steam the top so they’re perfectly cooked.
Once they’re done, put the eggs on top of your crispy tortilla.
I like to garnish with a teaspoon of chili oil, and maybe green onions or chives.
That’s close to 30 grams of protein in that meal. It’s healthy carbs, and got everything from calcium to vitamin C. Couldn’t tell you the first clue how many calories it is, besides 140 for the eggs alone.
But I don’t care, because I feel great, I’m strong, and I keep losing weight slowly and steadily, without focusing on that, for what’s my fifth year of getting to a better place.
Be strong. Be bad-ass. Fuck calories. Learn how to eat intelligently and mindfully.
And for the love of God, don’t get rid of carbs. Just be mindful of them. That’s all.
Remember: Success is a moving goal post, in that what you consider “healthy” today may not fit that bill for you in 2-3 years, as you grow and learn and change your body. That’s okay! That’s how progress happens! Just keep improving. I’m far more informed, and healthy, than I was just a year ago. I was healthier then than a year prior to that. We change. Good for us!
Eat tasty, healthy food, folks. Satisfy yourself in every sense of the word, okay?
Food feeds the soul and fuels your life. Focus on doing those two things with a healthy, balanced diet, and good things will happen. Sometimes, it’s really that simple, but it unfolds slowly. Patience and consistency, grasshopper.
Steff Note: I am getting some physio for a couple recent injuries and it’s getting in the way of this writing, but the good news is, I have a plan, and I’m getting rehabbed, and JUST YOU WAIT, bucko — big things coming. Watch this space!
[1] PINTO BEAN VOODOO, My Way: I like pinto beans and I start from dry – I cook ‘em in an Instant Pot, usually after soaking overnight, and I add a couple cloves garlic, a chilli pepper or two (jalapeno or thai bird’s eye, usually, but “hot and what I got”) and half an onion, a bay leaf, and a tablespoon or so of salt.
Once cooked, I take the mushy cooked onion, garlic, and peppers out of the beans, then mash up them together. Remember the other half of the onion? Finely chop that, throw it in a pan over medium heat with oil. Let get translucent, add the mashed aromat paste, throw in a bunch of cumin, coriander, maybe some chili powder. Cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the beans, some pot liquor. Season with salt. Let simmer. Mash as much of the beans as you like — I do about 50% mashed but some people like to throw it in a blender. Add more liquor as needed.
When you think it’s happy and cooked, add just a teaspoon or two of maple syrup and apple cider vinegar. Taste it again. Season if necessary. I usually freeze it in ½-cup portions for this breakfast specifically.
Ever think of writing a cookbook?
You feed my soul.