What If?

So yesterday in my walk, I passed McDonalds and the thought jumped into my brain about a new restaurant idea. What if there was a fast food vegan restaurant? Would people flock to it as they do to the fat laden, unhealthly cousin? 

I thought it could be named McDaniels and have roasted potatoes, veggie burgers, and green smoothies. Of course it would have to have quick tossed salads and apple snacks, and could offer carrot and celery (organic of course) sticks. It could also have Seitan bites for the kids and there would only natural juices and water. 

I wonder of such a restaurant could make a go of it. I don't know enough of the restaurant business otherwise I would try. Maybe a food truck at first to test the concept. I suppose if the food tastes good enough people would buy it anyway. If you said it was vegan no one would try because you mention vegan and people simple scowl at you. Gee, I wonder...

Why?

I saw this cartoon on a friends Facebook page a while ago and loved it. It was posted shortly after I went vegan and laughed because I have experienced this attitude often when telling others about the lifestyle. I still laugh everytime someone coils at the idea of not eating meat and dairy.

The other day I heard that a coworker has been diagnosed a while ago with an autoimmune disease which could be helped with a grain free vegan diet. I know it is a very restricted diet, but if it made you get better why would you not try it? This coworker has not even tried it and I keep asking myself why.

I guess one can't force others to immediately take on a direction which is considered so out of mainstream like vegan-ism. I guess even if it makes total sense to me, others still find it too extreme. Oh well, maybe they don't want to get better.

Dressing

One of the challenges I have with the Forks over Knives (FOK) diet is the no oil. I love salads and usually liberally pour over straight olive oil and balsamic vinegar before I tuck in. Yummy. So when I read that oil is considered a no-no on this I was a little taken aback. 

After reading further I understand. Oil, no matter what its form is highly processed and contains just the fat and nothing but the fat. High in calories, which it know because I enter things into the recipe analysis app for the recipes I do I see that to be true. Their research has shown that oil does not  help the reversal of the arteries as the plant based whole foods do.

However, I was happy to find this link:  https://sites.google.com/site/hgkprintablerecipes/big-list-of-no-oil-salad-dressings that has all kinds of dressings. Not all of them are FOK approved, but there are some really good ones. In addition I found an oil free mayo that uses tofu,lemon juice, and some others stuff that sounds good on the blog Cooking With Plants. All of these are well worth the trip.

New Recipes!

I always love doing new things in the kitchen and am constantly on the lookout for new recipes. With this vegan diet, a new world of cooking has opened up for me and I find it really interesting to make something delicious that is also healthy. 

After seeing Forks over Knives I realized I used an awful lot of oil on my cooking. I pour in several tablespoons for practically everything and was wondering about the high fat this causes. The Forks over Knives uses no oil so sautéing things without oil is very foreign to me. But I bought the $4.99 iPad app, which Is basically the book to the lifestyle, and the recipes I have tried so far have been really yummy. My only complaint is that there are no calorie content listed so I have to use the app I found online to determine what the nutritional information is for everything.

All in all, this new road in my journey toward health is becoming more delicious at every turn. I am getting less bothered by not eating cheese and now not using oil - or at least not as much as I have in the past. 

The China Study

Last night I attended a screening of Forks over Knives (check out their site at forksoverknives.com) It is based on a book by T Colin Campbell called The China Study. This book entails the work Dr. Campbell has done, along with data from other like minded researchers, who have discovered that a plant based, whole foods, diet will cure everything from cancer to diabetes and everything in between.  As you may know, these diseases are the major causes of death in this country and it is their findings that show these ailments are caused by eating meat and dairy. "Milk does not do a body good..."

As you may know, I have been following a vegetarian lifestyle in the past few years. As of about six months ago I have tried to increase that to vegan. I have noticed some very interesting changes (see my blog entry for my recent dentist appointment). In addition to the dental improvements, I have finally been losing weight after years of trying unsuccessfully. I thought it was just due to the gluten aspect, but according to this film, the plant based diet's first really noticeable change is weight loss.

I got a copy of the book at the showing and will report more as I read, but this is very exciting to me. I have told many about the lifestyle and some have been interested and others have not. If I had a disease (and I do with the diabetes) and fixing it would be as simple as eating differently why would I not try it? You have nothing to lose but the pounds and bad health.

Something to this Gluten free

So I had a dentist appointment yesterday. I have had to start going every four months because my gums are getting bad. There was inflamation and bleeding even though my home care was good. I had pockets in the gums around my back teeth and things were not liking good. 

So almost a half a year ago I switched to a vegan, gluten free diet and my dentist was pleasantly surprised at things looked. My gums were not inflamed, there was no bleeding, and the pockets had reversed themselves and were much less. One went from a six to a four. They asked me what I had done differently and I told them about the new diet.

So I guess the gluten affects everything including my gums. I had heard that gluten caused inflammation in the body and I guess they are affected as well. This diet can be very demanding but with results like this, it makes it so worth it.

Mindful Eating

Yesterday I had an engaging conversation on Facebook about a product that contained mostly chemicals. My husband had brought the container home because a coworker drinks it and he wanted me to check out the label.  The third ingredient in this powder is propylene glycol.  I looked that up online and found that  which is used as an antifreeze and to absorb water, which I posted online asking the question "Why would anyone in their right mind want to ingest this?"  My Facebook friends and I went back and forth about what people should be eating.

As you know for the last year or so I have been advocating, and trying, to maintain a whole foods diet.  Occasionally I do "fall off the wagon" and eat something that is off the track for that, but generally I am pretty good about processed stuff.  When you think about it, most of what we eat is processed, i.e. cooking, or prepared, even meat is processed to a point as we don't just sink our teeth into the side of a cow or something.  But I am pretty good about staying away from foods that have chemicals in them because I try to read the labels for the foods I buy.

Some of these chemicals that are in the foods on the shelves at the grocery store are really scary when you read about them. Sure they don't generally put a whole lot of the stuff in, but even a small amount can change your internal balance.  The human body is an incredible system with a delicate balance that should be maintained by giving it the fuel it needs.  While I sometimes I would love to just take a pill that supplies all my nutritional needs, purely as a matter of saving time used in food preparation, the body needs to have its fuel delivered the way it was designed.  And while I am not where near the image of ideal health I think I am moving toward that direction rather than away.  The standard American diet is killing us IMHO and it is time to get back to basics.  This means voting with our pocketbook and not buying crap to eat.

Whole Foods

When I was at my last employer, they provided an online course for their employees on the Mediterranean Diet Plan with Dr. Will Clower. If you don't know the program it is a way to lose weight and get healthier by eating better food, also known as the French Don't Diet Plan.  I blogged about this previously. I came across another nutritionist recently named Patrick Quillin, when my mother gave me the book Wisdom of Whole Foods.  I read this over the weekend and fell in love with the premise.

Many of you may know that for a while I have been touting the benefits of eating real foods; those that don't have preservatives in them or at the very least without high fructose corn syrup.  This book really goes into the reasons why those things are so bad for you and also talks about the benefits of certain foods including things to eat to prevent cancer.  For example, I had no idea that pineapple and mushrooms reduce inflammation.  This book is quite detailed on those benefits.

I urge you to read it, or at least review the website.  There is so much in the foods that nature has provided us, rather than ingesting so many chemicals.  Why wouldn't you try something that could extend your life longer and live healthy?  I am so convinced that we are killing ourselves as a nation by all the crap in our food system.  We can vote with our pocketbooks by not buying it and sooner or later the manufacturers of food will realize we no longer want their products. We have the capability to reduce illness in ourselves and I think we owe it to ourselves to try.

Flexitarian

My mother was getting on my case yesterday about my recent decision to live a vegetarian lifestyle.  She remarked that I was probably not getting enough protein and said that all the vegetarians she knew were thin and sickly.  The last part caused me to just look at her and say "do I look thin and sickly?".  Then I went home and ate Chicken Parmigiana because my neighbor cooked us dinner and I would rather eat it than throw it away.  But I did eat it with a wonderful Kale Rainbow Salad that I have made in preparation to go with the veggie burger I was planning to eat.  Rather than feel guilty about doing that, I came across a term for what I am.  A Flexitarian.  

A Flexitarian sticks to a primarily vegetarian lifestyle but occasionally eats meat, which is pretty much what I have become.  At home I cook vegetarian, but if we are out or at a friends house I will eat what's available.  None of my friends or family are vegetarians especially my mother who has been trying to get me to go on this Pealo diet for the longest time because she thinks that will help me lose weight.  I can't seem to get her to understand that my problem is not what I eat or not eat; it's that I eat.  Period.

But I like the idea of the flexitarian lifestyle.  It is simple and available and helps to reduce the stress of what I am eating.  Now I just have to work on the stopping part.

Resolve

I stopped making New Year’s resolutions about three years ago when I realized that every year they are the same thing and every year by the second week, they are gone.  I usually have the top three that everyone has; eat less, exercise more, and be nice to people.  Since the last one is one that I usually try to live my life by, that one is not the problem.  It’s the first two that consistently give me issues.

This year I had a small neighborhood get together on New Year’s Day and there were so many wonderful things to eat that I ate way too much and it really hasn’t stopped.  However, I have been making what I am eating count.  My mother gave me a Nutri Bullet and I have been making green shakes in the morning so I am getting more fruits and veggies in.  I have had only a few cookies so that’s a good thing, and the chocolate that I have eaten has been the semi sweet kind without all those chemicals in it, but it’s is quantity that always gets me. I just like to eat too much.

The Mediterranean Eating Plan that I enrolled in this year helped rid my diet of bad, chemical laden foods.  They don’t call it a diet as it is really a life style change.  It’s not only fresh foods, but it concentrates on eating less.  For the most part I have been okay and I didn’t gain a ton of weight over the holidays has I have in the past so that’s a start. But I had gained a little back from what I lost originally on the plan.  The most important part of this plan is the type of food you should be eating.  It has to be good quality food with fresh ingredients and nothing fake.  To that end I made a pizza from scratch the other night for dinner and it turned out really good. I had never done that before and it was really quite simple albeit it took a little longer than popping a ready-made in the oven.  There are only a few ingredients but the taste is so worth it and you know since you made it there are no bad things in it. So this year rather than resolve to do things that I usually can’t stick to, I am resolving to continue to eat better quality foods. 

Thirty

A few months back, I had to go to the doctor because I was not feeling well.  She percribed blood work and it was reported back to me that my cholesterol was high and of course she wanted to put me on pills because that is what she does.  I refused and decided to approach it the old fashioned way – though diet and exercise.  So for the last two months, I have been eating clean, riding my bike (even in scorching hot weather), and taking a fish oil capsule or two daily.  I had blood drawn a week ago and the office called me yesterday to give me the results.  My cholesterol was down 30 points! 

I really don’t like my doctor because she thinks, as most doctors do, that pills are the only way to fix things.  I suppose that finding the reason for what I came in for is too much of a problem and would be too costly to fix, so she will prescribe a pill for what ails me.  Granted sometimes pills are needed but overall, there are many things that can be fixed by making a change in your life.  I admit that I have been faithfully taking the blood pressure medication because having the symptoms I have been having is very uncomfortable and having my blood pressure totally uncontrolled is dangerous, but I would love to find out the reason why my blood pressure suddenly shot up.  I don’t believe that it is simply because I am getting older.  Yes, I need to lose weight, but I have had a problem with my weight since I hit puberty and my blood pressure has always been low.  But that’s another post.

I am really glad that the clean eating has paid off.  My goal is to get off of the blood pressure medication at some point soon and have it under control.  I am not going to be one of these older people who take 20 pills a day and solely subsidizing the pharmaceutical industry.  Maybe after the next 20 pounds comes off.  For now I am going to continue to eat clean, eat much less animal products, continue to peddle like crazy, and work to find a new doctor.

Happy

When you are on a diet the scale, or your clothes, usually tell you if you are doing okay.  But generally you don’t see much difference from day to day.  Yesterday I ran into a woman at work who I don’t see all that much anymore.  She called me a “shrinking violet”!  She said that it looked like I had lost a lot of weight and that I looked younger.  I have been seeing a slight change in the mirror and on the scale, but it is great to hear a confirmation.  I have only lost about 15 pounds so far and from the amount I have yet to lose it’s easy to think that it will never come off.  I mean after all my fat and I are really good friends.

The new eating lifestyle (notice I didn't say diet) that I have been doing is probably working.  I am staying away from processed foods and all things artificial.  I am also trying to eat less and exercise more.  It’s not a great secret but it was really hard in the beginning.  I have noticed, however, that I have more or less lost the desire for gooey desserts.  The thought of a cheesecake with strawberries on top doesn’t totally turn me off, but it doesn’t leave me salivating either.  I know that if I wanted to eat it I could and I also know that after I had a little I would probably stop (although that hasn’t been tested).  Now I crave fresh food – a crisp green salad or bowl of fruit - more than the sugar laden things I used to crave. Even chocolate doesn’t have the same appeal anymore.

I have also entered a newer phase of eating and that is to eat far less meat.  When I met with my nutritionist I told her that I was drawn to eating even better and we discussed eating more vegetarian.  My initial goal has been to replace 2 meals per week with a vegetarian option.  Last week I replaced six and if we hadn’t gone to dinner at a friend’s house it would have been seven.  I am exploring macrobiotics and all kinds of different foods like sea vegetables and other plant based meals.

So, I am happy that others are starting to notice a difference, whether they tell me or not.  It validates my efforts and helps me move forward.  It is one thing when your husband tells you that you look good, but quite a different thing when an acquaintance tells you; the acquaintance doesn’t have any hidden agenda.

Lifestyle Change

I have been flirting with the idea of going vegetarian again.  I did it once several years ago and it was total failure.  My husband hates vegan and I don’t see any real reason to go there unless I can stop cooking meat altogether so this is going to be a major challenge.  I frankly don’t see the point to trying to eat a plant based diet if I have to cook meat for him. 

At any rate, the other day a coworker, who is vegan, loaned me a book called The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone.  The coworker loaned it to me because I had asked her for a recipe for granola and it is in the book.  Also in the book is a whole narrative of how Silverstone went vegan and why she supports it.  There are medical testimonials in there from various doctors as well touting the benefits of a plant based diet. It seems to make sense so I am willing to "dip my toe in the water", as she says, and learn more about it. 

The last time I did this, I gained a lot of weight because I ate way too much pasta.  Now that I have the vegetable garden going and we have been enjoying wonderful salad greens and some other things maybe things can be a little different.  In addition I have learned to control my eating issues and hold them at bay and eat healthy, natural foods with the Mediterranean Diet Plan.  I had tried to cook Tofu in the past and disguise it from my husband but that didn’t seem to work all that much.  I do cook one or two vegetarian meals a week now but if I can somehow phase in more, that would be great.  I do know that the whole meat production is a huge drain on the planet and by doing one or two meatless meals a week we can help reduce that a little.  The bottom line is that it is all about being healthier and doing my part to treat the earth with respect and love. What can be wrong about that?

Soda

Since I have been on this good foods lifestyle plan (note I didn’t say DIET), I have been really sensitive to what others are eating and drinking.  Here at work I am constantly hearing the sizzle of soda cans opening up.  Knowing what I do now about the dangers of soda I cringe every time I hear it.  Soda has ingredients in it that are actually toxic to the body.

Doing a quick search on Google I found this article.

Soda Pop (or carbonated soft drinks) has an alarming amount of sugar, calories and harmful additives in it that have absolutely no nutritional value. Studies have linked soda to osteoporosis, obesity, tooth decay and heart disease. Despite this, soda accounts for more than one-quarter of all drinks consumed in the United States….and we wonder why we can’t lose weight and why we have health problems.

 I encourage you to think about it, especially giving it to your children.  Personally I am not too concerned about caffeine, but soda has a whopping amount of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which is not only ubiquitous to soda but apparently most processed foods these days and a huge danger. 

I think I may have talked about this before, but one can never say enough about the dangers of HFCS.  Not only is it bad for your teeth, but it is highly linked to diabetes, hypertension, and liver damage.  If that were not bad enough, but now there is a suspicion that it also has toxic levels of mercury in it probably from the pesticides put on the corn during the growing season.  This is especially alarming since mercury exposure can result in irreversible brain and nervous system damage in young people.  Since our kids are the ones that are consuming so much of that stuff, this particular affect is especially alarming. I just wish I would have not given this to my kid when he was growing up, but I didn’t know it then.

So the next time you see the enticing ads for a cold refreshing soda, just dripping with the condensed water from the ice cold liquid in the shiny can, think about the dangers behind that tonic.  Think about the cold icy fingers of illness instead.  Maybe that image will steer your clear.

Fast Food

Several years ago I took my son to McDonald’s for a fast snack.  He ordered the standard hamburger, coke, and fries order.  After we had pulled out of the drive through and down the street, he found that the burger was missing the burger.  All he had was bun.  We were in a rush and really couldn’t take the time to go back so we went on and fortunately he thought it was very funny so didn’t raise too much of a fuss.  My point in relaying this story is that sometime my life reminds me of that order – something key is missing.

I had been going along recently doing what I have always done and feeling as if there is something wrong.  Sure my job could be much more interesting, my home life a little more exciting, and my son a whole lot more better behaved.  This is nothing special and most of us feel this way. What I am talking about is my overall health and well being especially when it comes to my eating.

As you may know I have been working on “eating clean” and I am slowly finding out that this is the thing that has been missing.  The PATH program focuses on loving your food and eating in control.  One learns through the program that there are many factors that cause us to overeat, and more importantly, overeat food that wreaks havoc on your body.  The control aspect has always been a huge problem for me and I have eaten more in response to stress and general malaise than I have because I am hungry.  Identifying when I am hungry and when I am full is key in control.  Identifying why I am eating is even a bigger factor to me being in control.  Furthermore knowing that I am human and mistakes will happen but I have it within me to be able to break the chain of overeating is the icing on the cake, if you will.  All of these things have been missing in my 58 years of existence and I have finally realized that now have the burger.

Real Food

It has been three weeks since I have started the PATH program featuring the Mediterranean diet.  This diet consists of replacing all of the “faux food” in your diet with real, unprocessed foods as well as changing the way you eat.  

The food part is really not my problem.  I don’t go in for sodas and highly processed foods to begin with, so cutting out all the fake stuff was not a problem for me.  The only thing that was processed was the artificial sweeteners, and I had cut that out of my coffee a while ago.   I was drinking Crystal Light, which is loaded with Nutra Sweet, but have stopped since starting this plan.  That was kind of hard as it is left out a key thing that I enjoy drinking.  However, I have replaced it with naturally flavored mineral water which suits me fine. 

The hard part of this plan is changing the way I eat.  I am a fast and an unconscious eater.  I tend to shovel the food in and not pay any attention to the food as I am eating it other that the immediate feel that food is in my mouth.  This plan forces you to take smaller bites, put your fork down between bites, and savor those bites.  That is the most challenging thing for me, and I can’t decide why.  On one hand I don’t like eating hot food warm and I don’t like to waste food. So, I have to visualize smaller portions to put on my plate so I don’t leave food.  That is not easy.  Also eating half a bagel, for example, is a challenge because that other half represents waste.  But I did it this morning until I realized I was hungry later on and took another bite of the second half which turned out to be enough.  It is better than normal though when I would have scarfed down the whole bagel right away and then gone on to get something else when I realized I was hungry again two hours later.  I suppose anything that is good for you is not easy.

New Way of Eating

My place of employment has implemented a variety of health related programs this year that are designed to put money into your health fund to help defray costs for medical coverage if you take advantage of them.  One of the things they are doing is helping one eat properly.  I made an appointment with the nutritionist, but her calendar is very full and my appointment isn’t until the end of this month.  Last month they brought in Dr. Will Clower , author of the book The French Don’t’ Diet Plan.  I just started reading it a few days ago and it is very refreshing.

For years I have been battling my weight which has slowly become much harder to lose.  Things are really different now than they were in college.  I remember crash dieting for a dance eating only lettuce and water for 2 weeks and losing 10 pounds to fit into the most amazing dress I had back then.  Now I get physically ill if I eat that way, not to mention extremely cranky and ready to bite someone’s head off if they approach within 10 feet.  At any rate, dieting now is a challenge for me.  Furthermore, the more I have learned about the foods we eat these days, the more convinced I am that all the stuff they put in the food you buy in the grocery store is design to kill you.  Dr. Clower confirmed that assumption.  According to him high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is practically the invention of the devil and the number one cause for weight gain in America.  Read the labels and you can’t get anything in a bottle, can, or box without ingredients that will make your eyes swim trying to pronounce it.  His favorite saying in the book is “if it doesn’t grow from the ground or have a mommy and daddy, you should not eat it.”

So long story short, I am fully subscribing to ridding my life of processed foods, HFCS, and all the crap that companies use to manufacture our food; it’s fresh or not for me from now on.  Hopefully if his theories are right my health, weight, and disposition, should be drastically improved in no time. 

The Perils of the American Diet

I came across a blog to day called the No Impact Man by a man named Colin Beavan who talks about what each of us can do to end the environmental crisis. I am not sure if anyone follows that blog, but I put it on my reader list because this is an issue that’s important to me. Today I found it through a posting that was reproduced on the Huffington Post blog which talked about what the American diet has done to the health care crisis.

It seems to me that most people, me included, rarely think about what they eat. They eat for taste, convenience, and sometimes for cost. I read an article the other day that talked about the reason Americans overeat is that the food is filled with fat, salt, and sugar and these are triggers that prevent you from stopping. If you think about all the junk food out there, you realize that is so true. Think about all the fast food ads; they are hawking so much fatty foods that you can gain weight just viewing the commercial. No Impact Man’s blog talked about the increase of obesity over the last 30 years and the correlation of the popularity of the foods like hamburgers, French fries, milkshakes, and the like and you can definitely see there is no coincidence. I also read the Atkins Diet book and he said that the correlation of the food pyramid and obesity was striking. He claimed that the same percentages of the food groups are exactly the same as the way they feed the pigs to fatten them on the way to the slaughterhouse. If you listen to my mother, she swears the sugar industry has us by the short and curlies.

He also goes on to say that the Americans have also sabotaged themselves by drastically reducing the amount of exercise we get. Recently, there has been some realization of that as shown by the amount of gyms have sprung up and the attention that seems to be paid to doing various things to help move the body, even Nintendo helped. Seriously, look at the things we do; drive everywhere, sit on the couch for entertainment nightly, take moving stairs everywhere, and sit in an office cubicle all day typing away. Our brains and fingers are getting all the exercise! With obesity comes all manner of illness, and with illness comes the need for healthcare. It seems like a simple solution to me - one that will take a while, but simple in its execution.

I am really a fine one to talk as I had fallen into that same trap being no better than anyone else. But knowledge is a powerful thing. The more I read, the more I am able to control those cravings…well mostly.

Alternatives

It rained today. But I am so addicted to the calorie burn of biking – and maybe to the biking itself – that I decided to ride my stationary bike in the basement. I did this on Tuesday also because of the rain. There is on good thing about this, and that is I can read my latest book while I am riding, which of course I can’t do doing the real thing. The other good thing is that doing this makes me sweat like crazy. There is no wind to keep me cool, there is no water container to cool me down, and there is no stopping. One solid hour of consistent pedaling. I am not sure of the calorie burn, but I think it is comparable to doing the real thing, so that’s what I am going to put it in as on my log.

The log I am talking about is an app on my phone that tracks the amount of food I eat and the calories I burn. It also allows me to enter the weight I am at the time and any blood work results that I have. The later is helpful in tracking the progress that I am making in my A1C reduction and my cholesterol readings, both of which need to come down or in the case of the blood sugar, stay below a certain point. I have not been diagnosed with diabetes yet, and don’t intend to. However, the blood work when I first started this journey was up by a point over what it should be. My doctor called it insulin resistance or pre-diabetes. When my numbers were reviewed in the beginning, I was given the option of starting medication and losing the weight or just losing the weight. I decided to go with the medication. I can always stop that either because I feel I am doing better or because my numbers are down there. The next round of blood work is in two months.

It sucks getting old. But I am not going to let it get the better of me.