This isn’t so much about creamy avocado. Nor is it about unctuous, oily sardines, crusty toasted bread or even fruity olive oil. This is about weight. My weight, your weight and Alton’s weight.
Have you seen Alton Brown lately? Yes, that’s him. Or half of him. Alton recently dropped 50 pounds, and after circulating rumors of tropical diseases or exotic parasites, Alton revealed his slimming secrets. And actually, it’s not a secret at all.
Cutting down on desserts, exercising often and consuming a steady diet of sardines and avocados helped Alton achieve his svelte new figure. Don’t be surprised, all that fat in avocados is good fat. And sardines have loads of omega-3. But this isn’t a health blog. Instead I’ll tell you it’s delicious, and can easily replace a subpar workday lunch, even if you’re not trying to lose 50 pounds.
People are always asking about my weight, stunned that I stay slim while writing a food blog. It’s genes, they always say. And yes, I have skinny kin (some too skinny–that’s a different story). But when I turned 25, a roll here and a bulge there told me it was time to monitor what I ate. Monitor. What a sour word in the context of food. Counting every crouton in your soup, tracking each morsel of artisanal cheese, carefully placing an exact number of noodles on your plate. I’m sorry, that’s not for me, and honestly, neither is any kind of portion control.
I am not a weight-loss expert or nutrition guru (my opinion on portion control gives that away), but if you want to know how I attempt to keep my 5’6 frame at 128 pounds, here it goes…
I go to the gym, and I work hard. I run under 8 minutes per mile, I pile on the resistance in spin class, and I lift until I can’t in the weight room. I do this because I love to eat (and have pent up aggression, but whatever, leave me alone.) I don’t eat sugar often, but not because it makes you fat. I don’t crave it. I do crave cheese. And wine. And things soaked in olive oil. And so I enjoy these things, accompanied by vegetables, so I don’t overdo it.
I bring lunch to work. Things like this sardine avocado sandwich, but also roasted chickpeas with rice, leftover pasta with vegetables or grilled cheese made in the lunchroom toaster. As my co-workers heat up minuscule low-fat, frozen meals, they comment that I’m lucky–I eat what I want and don’t gain weight. Not true. I eat almost what I want, I exercise to make up for it, and I stay away from things like pre-packaged meals and sugary drinks.
I realize this isn’t feasible for everyone, and who am I to tell you how to live. But if you do want advice? Enjoy what you eat. Appreciate it. Especially if it’s sardines and avocado mashed onto crusty bread and doused with olive oil.
p.s. If you have questions about my diet, ask me in the comments section. I promise to be honest.
For example:
Allison, what do you eat for breakfast?
I don’t really eat breakfast (gasp!). I’m not hungry in the mornings, and why should I eat when I’m not hungry?
Sardine and Avocado Toast
One serving. (Adapted from Alton Brown)
1/2 ripe avovado
1 tin sardines in olive oil
Freshly baked bread
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Brush bread with olive oil and toast until golden. Scoop out avocado into a small bowl and mash with 1 tablespoon lemon juice and a sprinkle of salt.
Mash sardines into another bowl. Spread sardines onto your bread, and top with avocado. Drizzle olive oil and a tad more lemon juice on top. Alternatively, you can top with the leftover oil from the sardine tin.
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Could not have said it better. Wonderful.
Sardines are loaded with vitamins, great taste AND they’re really cheap. I wish I knew about them when I was in college!
Totally looking for dorm friendly foodie food. Im DYING without a place to cook regularly.
Love your dietary approach and focus on intensity at the gym Allison. Like Dana said, couldn’t have said it better myself.
I couldn’t agree with you more! And I will never eat a frozen microwavable meal, even if it says “this box contains the fountain of youth”, have you seen the portion sizes?! Tiny. There’s now way I’m going to be satisfied off one!
Anyways, love your blog, glad I found it. And bring on the avocados! I wish I could plant one of those trees here in the NW.
My husband often says that I only go to gym so that I can maintain my eating habits! I’m glad to be in such good company
Allison, you had me at avocado.
Just can’t live without it, I usually eat also as a spread on my bread of choice or a warm tortilla. I love the addition of healthy, tasty, salty sardines, which matches perfectly with buttery avocado.
ps. what I HATE is exercise but I do *some* yoga/belly dancing just to keep myself fit (I’m also kinda skinny person). And I try to eat healthy (but yummie) everyday (specially during weekdays) so I can allow myself to eat sweet treats (my passion).
I love avocado. It looks delicious to use it as sandwich here. Thanks for sharing.
I’m allergic to avocado but I loved the content of this article. I am like you in the sense that my cravings are often foods in basic forms – cheese, crackers, and honey; red wine; carrots and hummus; and not so much sugary things nor overprocessed things. I think it helps me to feel confident about my food choices by knowing what is in my food.
Very well written. It’s so much better to eat a little real food than all this fake, sugar laden food.
Karla
good post! i agree, except the part on the sugar cravings! if i didn’t love dessert, i’d definitey be a few pounds lighter. oh, and if i didn’t just finish a year in culinary school…..but yes, definitely a gym-goer-to-eat-more-kinda-person
.
A combination I had not though of. Looks good !
It’s sad how distorted most Americans’ ideas about nutrition and health really are. Whenever I see ladies in the lunchroom (and they are almost always ladies) heating up another Lean Cuisine in an endless attempt to lose weight, it becomes too clear just how distorted. Thanks for contributing another voice of sanity to the fray.
so true, amen! I shrill at everyone at my work who eats those lean cuisines, blech. You can eat so much better and it doesnt need to make you fat people! Love this post.
Great post Allison. So real and honest. People always think there is some secret but there isn’t. You are inspiring! (BTW: I invited you to an imaginary potluck on my blog.)
I was one of those women with the tiny frozen mealettes at lunch. It seemed the easiest way to go for the office, but I ended up losing 25 lbs. last year (while working out diligently) and decided I didn’t need those anymore. The workout lets me eat almost all I want. It IS about portion control, but that just means don’t overdo all the time – everything delicious in moderation, and if I indulge a little too much at one meal, I just need to be a little more conscious at the next. and work out. it really works/is working. duck fat still has a place in my kitchen!
Duck fat will always have a place in my kitchen too!
Kudos to you! What a great post!! I to LOVE Sardines and with Avocado’s, totally having this for lunch today! I to am an advocate of REAL FOODS and stay away from processed, prepackaged food. Really, it’s these so called “healthy” foods that are more damaging than anything else.
Allison, you rock!
Love this.
One of my resolutions this year was not to eat anything I don’t love. I love to exercise – the other night my friend and I went to the gym together, and then ate a delicious dinner and (too much) dessert. Which we didn’t feel a bit guilty about – we work out so we can eat what we (mostly) want.
Everything in moderation, including moderation!
In the midst of a thirty hour trip home from Chile via JFK in N. Hemisphere midwinter, I distributed them on crackers from the airport bar–it gave us the strength to press on! Never travel without a can or two.
can I get an AMEN! Perfect post!
You pretty much took the words right out of my mouth. I love to eat, but I also love to eat healthy, and I love be and feel fit and healthy. That’s when the compromise and moderation come in. It’s great to know there are other’s out there like me.
I love Alton Brown and have tried many of his recipes including Pork Wellington. I am definitely going to try this this weekend and am adding sardines and avocados to my shopping list.
Great post. Frankly, a much needed one in the blogosphere (and elsewhere, but that’s another issue entirely). I used to be overweight, but there’s no secret to my weight loss, or how I’ve maintained it. Stay away from processed foods–they are evil and I swear that the stuff in them clings to every molecule to create insta-fat. Like you, I work hard and regularly at the gym/at home/outside; it’s how I compensate for my love of food and drink. Except that I have a HUGE sweet tooth.
Another thing: thank you for your honesty about portion control, or lack thereof. I often cave with my favorite food items (I’m looking at you, homemade pizza!), but whatever, I can’t feel guilty all the time. Mostly moderation, sometimes not.
Thanks for the great comment Marilyn! I absolutely agree about the evils of processed foods. And homemade pizza is definitely I weakness for me too.
amen.
I subscribe to the same philosophy… though, recently, I started to feel my pants tightening. My only concession to weight-loss is cutting back on butter, but that’s not going very well! So I signed up for a half-marathon in April. That should do the trick.
Love avo. Love sardines. Love your blog.
Great post! How did you find out about Alton’s diet?
Hi Ashley. Alton spoke about his diet in a recent episode of Good Eats. if you click on the link next to the recipe it’ll take you there. Serious Eats also did I great piece on it.
This is a great post! Everything you said is so true…I saw this Alton Brown episode and have been craving this ever since. Looks like this will be the week I try it!
I love this post – I completely agree with you! Good thing I love working out!
This looks like a delicious combo!
Lovely post. I’ve always been really curious about sardines, having had them at some tapas restaurants and enjoyed them. I’ve been a little too scared to work up the nerve to try them, but I love avocado so maybe this will push me to just do it already.
Very honest, smart, advice about eating right and working out, by the way. I sadly didn’t learn any of these lessons until I was 23 and weighted 280 pounds. I’ve lost 100 since then, which is lovely, but had I known and been more aware and less…lazy and in college, I maybe could have avoided some of that.
Great post, and GUH have you made me hungry for sardines/avocado/bread (gorgeous photos). I’ve struggled with body and food issues a lot in the past, so now I have to be very careful to eat and exercise healthily to stop them resurfacing. I think you have a great attitude. My question: how often do you go to the gym? Like, every day or once, twice a week? Ta x
Hi Anna, so glad you liked the post! I try to go to the gym 4 times per week. Sometimes I only go for a half hour and do weight training, and other times I’ll go for almost 2 hours if I have the time. On days that I don’t go to the gym, I’ll take my dog on a longer walk or find some way to get in moderate exercise – especially since I work a desk job for 8 hours a day.
what you wrote is exactly how i think about food! i move my body as much as i can so i can eat what i want. in fact, if i don’t workout and am not hungry, i’m so disappointed. i’m glad you tried alton’s avocado/sardines dish and passed on your review because i was looking forward to making this.
I Love it!!!
I eat sardines for lunch also and it makes people giggle. I always have an emergency can in my drawer.
…and, even though I eat all I want, I don’t gain weight. You are so right. Smart portions, exercise. Enjoying food.
Brilliant!
The food, the photos, and the knowledge that if you want to eat you also need to move.
What a great idea! I am having this for lunch right now and it tastes amazing. So easy to prepare as well.
I wish I had some avocado and sardines right now…I will definitely try this. I totally agree with your philosophy…I too eat pretty much what I want, within reason and portion control, and manage to stay pretty thin. I wish I could motivate myself to exercise more so I could eat more!
This was a fantastic lunch today! I had never tried sardines before. I am so glad I did.
Thank you!
I often think it’s the 6 quarts of olive oil and 40 pounds of butter we go through each year that keeps us on the trim side. Oh, and 4000 pounds of produce. You sum it up beautifully.
Thank you for your wise words. I must say it’s a constant struggle to keep slim. People often say to me: ‘It’s alright for you, your so skinny.’ What people don’t realise is that it’s rare for a person to be able to eat without any conrtol. I enjoy my food, but realise I need to do so with the ‘brakes on’ most of the time. The idea of running is beginning to appeal to me, but I need to learn how to get started without messing up my rather ancient knees. Lovely Blog, thank you!
I love sardines and I love avocado, but I have never had them together and never would have thought of the combination. I have both in the house… so come lunchtime they shall meet on my plate. GREG
I’m sold. This is my dinner tonight.
wow! this is one of my all time favorite breakfasts minus the sardines. never thought of it, but will certainly give a try. thanks : )
Love love love sardines. I’ve been buying smoked sardines and putting them over my lentils. Ah, heaven!
i recently came out of the closet about my love of sardines. it’s something i grew up eating with my grandfather and only just this year did i buy my first can of sardines. essentially, from age 11 to 31 i didn’t consume canned sardines. i’m making up for lost time.
i adapted this alton recipe some time ago with wild success, it was such a lovely and decadent meal and one i hope to turn to often.
how often do you eat this? and do you really eat it at work? i can’t imagine my coworkers being ok with the fish smell…
Love your blog, your food philosophy, and this post! And I was starting to wonder about Alton…
I couldn’t agree more. Though I’m not quite as thin as you (137lbs and 5’4″), I love to eat as well. I have some severely overweight relatives, and they always complain that it’s unfair that I eat so much when I’m so skinny. But I work hard at it. I work out 3-4 days a week, I don’t snack except for fruit and the occasional piece of See’s, and I rarely eat anything that either I haven’t made myself or has been heavily processed. If I can’t pronounce the ingredients or it has enough sodium to stave a horse, I won’t eat it. I figure the closer the ingredients are to what they were coming out of the ground, the tastier and healthier it’s going to be for me.
Great post, Allison. I totally agree with your philosophy on food and health. Delicious
I love sardines. I love avocados. I like tasty sourdough. I enjoy working out. I used to put dollops of avocado on sardines topped with mustard in my “poor days” and then wash it all down with a good microbrew. A tasty inexpensive dinner.
Nice post!
That looks simple and stunning.
fabulous! i’d love to add some boquerones instead of the sardines to my sammie. love this combo!
I don’t know how I missed this post. It’s now one of my favorites. Something I noticed at the food bloggers festival…most are slim are medium sized people. This tells me that the love of GOOD, FRESH, REAL food might just be a key as opposed to obese people who almost always include in their diets sodas, sugary foods, fast foods processed foods.
People shriek when I tell them that when we got married my husband was a Dr. Pepper drinker. I told him “that doesn’t work for me, because I can’t be married to a man who drinks soda.” Now I know that sounds funny and controlling, but he said it was the best thing I could do for him. All his joint pain and sugar cravings went away. I went on a boycott of soda and HFCS processed foods years ago, refuse to support those companies or anything with HFCS. Now having said all that, I just don’t know anyone in our area that eats better than us. By eliminating garbage, we appreciate every morsel of broccoli.
Now avocado and sardines…you have me so curious. I am huge proponent of eating fat and skipping sugar, so here goes.