Squished in the middle of two weeks of family time is not the best place to start modifying one’s diet.
Well, unless you need more fat or just more calories in general.
For me, however, the balance has to be tipped towards vegetables (and, to a lesser extent, fruits).
On a whim, I bought Eat to Live, that is, yes, another diet book, but one that doesn’t have bizarre theories about reaching exact numbers of calories/ratios that will somehow work marvelously for everyone.
Eat to Live basically advocates veganism – that’s the main point. Beyond that, it’s a low-fat, low-sodium, low-sugar, no-refined carb diet.
So basically, you eat vegetables, fruits and beans/legumes.
Written that way, it can seem kind of unappealing.
Not to mention daunting. For me, the girl who can drink two or more gallons of milk in a week by herself (though it’s not something I’ve done in years, especially after living in Japan), cutting out dairy products entirely seems impossible.
I’m not sure I’ll be able to ever follow the 6-week plan exactly (I keep sneaking a little white rice here, some cereal there) but I can certainly get close.
I don’t plan on becoming vegan. I don’t feel strongly about the use of animal products morally, and I’m certainly not interested in the political/activist side of the lifestyle. In fact, the latter is why I had never even considered leaning that way in the first place – the label of “vegan” is just too politically charged for a style of eating. (Yes, I’m aware vegans extend that to other products as well.) “Vegetarian” doesn’t convey “no animal products” and is also mildly charged. “Flexitarian” is a new term I ran into a few months ago looking into the Low-GI diet, which seems to indicate the ability/willingness to eat meat, but in a lower ratio.
Nutritionally speaking, vegan doesn’t automatically equal healthy – there are plenty of animal product-free foods that contain fats (from oils), salts and sugars, and therefore contain lots of calories. Sure there are a lot of skinny vegans, probably a lot more than those eating the typical American diet, but turning vegan is not a guarantee of weight loss.
Neither is jumping on the Eat to Live bandwagon, despite how the book makes it sound. Yes, it’s quite unlikely that by stuffing yourself with raw/cooked veggies, fruits and beans that you will gain weight – but you won’t necessarily lose it either. It is still possible to overeat even with high nutrition foods, because calories are calories. If you eat more than you burn, or just as much as you burn, you gain or stay at your weight respectively. It may be annoying to count calories, but if you’re serious about weight loss, it’s a necessary evil.
So, while I’m decidedly Not Vegan, that doesn’t mean I can’t browse vegan websites for recipe ideas. I have found some interesting sounding dishes I’m curious to try out, but there are elements that I’m not entirely comfortable with.
TVP is top of the I’m-not-sure-this-should-be-eaten list. TVP stands for Textured Vegetable Protein, and is used frequently in the production of fake meats (vegan burgers, sausages, etc). You can also buy it dry, and add it to what you’re making – it will absorb the flavor of the food (much like chicken and turkey do) and adds a meat-like chewiness. Doesn’t sound too bad, right? Somehow, it creeps me out. It seems rather processed as a foodstuff, and I don’t really understand it. I’d rather make burgers out of ground beans and nuts than TVP.
Soy products like tofu are also on that list. I understand that tofu’s been used for years, and is supposed to be pretty good for you. Like TVP, it absorbs the flavor of the food it’s put in, and adds a variety of textures in different contexts. I’m definitely more open-minded about foods containing tofu, but until I understand it better, I’m likely to avoid it in my own recipes. I do like edamame though. Soy milk is also confusing, although supposedly not as gross as it sounds. I’ll reserve judgement until I get someone to provide me with a sample of soy milk they think is good (just like cow’s milk, there are good varieties, and not so good varieties…)
Substitutes for refined sugar are also confusing. Agave nectar is one I see listed pretty often, and I even noticed it in my local grocery store recently. I would prefer to just use fruit juices I have on hand, or even raw sugar, over a form of fructose that’s extracted by a mold (or so says wikipedia anyway).
Speaking of fungus, it’ll probably take me a long time to warm up to eating mushrooms. I have not been, and am not, fond of them generally. The only exception is Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup, which, when used in a certain recipe, tastes pretty good. I tend to eat around the chunks, however. Unfortunately most of Campbell’s classic canned soups contain more salt than I should be consuming in a week, so….
In closing, here are a few foods I’ve been eating recently and mostly liked:
hummus (well, I already liked this. I make it without tahini since I don’t like it, and it adds fat anyway. lots of garlic :9)
fruitveg smoothie (spinach/cabbage base with fruits to cover up the taste – rasp/strawberries were last time’s)
pita chips (very little olive oil spray, pepper and garlic powder. eaten with above hummus)
salsa (admittedly from a jar, but I’m looking up a good recipe to make my own so I can reduce the salt content)
things I’ve tried again recently and decided I still don’t like them:
black olives (ugh blech)
avocados (I just… don’t see the appeal.)
