A misconception I have encountered, is that I advocate a vegan diet. Which is true and false. Truth be told it is my belief that diet is something that is very personal. Only you can truly know what it is your body needs or does not need. If you know that dairy and meats are something you require to function on a daily basis, who am I to say otherwise? Understanding the nutritional needs of your body is a personal responsibility.
On the flip side of that coin, I do have opinions about what is labeled as disease and epidemics in our modern day American society. Are obesity, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, something that are considered incurable because we don't have a pill to cure them, or do they exist because of our diets? Could removing the only source of cholesterol in our diets (dairy and meat) possibly help the epidemic of heart disease? I do not have the education to say, but I sure as hell have an opinion about it.
Is it possible that our only defense against cancers, our immune system, is weakened by the physical toll we put on our bodies by consuming animal proteins? I can not say. Is the obesity that is plaguing us and our children fueled by the combination of processed foods, saturated fats, cholesterol, and growth hormones we put in our bodies on a daily basis? Could it be possible that diabetics are put on dialysis because their kidneys can no longer tolerate the amount of meat that we try to digest? These are questions I think about every day.
If you have been plagued by some physical malady, be it weight, depression, acne, lethargy, high blood pressure or high cholesterol, insomnia, anxiety, or even PMS, is it worth waiting around for a pill or could investigating your diets effect on these conditions make a difference? From my personal experience, I can say that it did for me. I was dealing with every single one of these conditions, and each and everyone one was alleviated by a change in diet. Just some food for thought.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
The Subject of Cravings & Comfort Foods
Cravings are such an interesting topic. A craving for comfort food is something that can cause you to throw all of your convictions and will power out the window without ever giving any thought to consequence. How many diets have we been on where we will do well for 2 or 3 weeks and suddenly start justifying the cheat with little to no regard of what we have accomplished and the damage we were about to do. And then we would do the deed and the diet would cease to exist.
So I'm sure you could imagine the question I get quite frequently is what do I do about cravings for meat, cheese, ice cream, chocolate, etc. Or I am told that I need to let myself eat what I want once and a while. And when I answer back that I don't really have cravings for my old foods and I do eat what I want, it catches a lot of people off guard.
I am not a doctor, dietitian, or nutritionist. However, that will not stop me from postulating a theory. Here goes:
It takes 3 weeks for your taste buds to forget and relearn. That is all, 21 days. My choice to change my eating habits to whole foods that were within a vegan diet was fueled by my desire to feel better and the immediate benefits of doing so. This made 3 weeks turn into months without ever feeling sad, deprived, or wanting. These little beneficial changes that were occurring within my health daily, drove me to learn more, be more active, discover new and interesting ways to eat and cook. The positive effects allowed my mind to embrace the lifestyle change with little to no resistance.
During the first few weeks, I began creating new associations with the food I was eating. Comfort food for me went from mac n' cheese to lentils, quinoa, and avocado (all of which are delicious on their own or mixed together). Breakfast went from scramby eggs to steelcut oats and fruit. I accepted these foods for their place in my life. Food went from a source of comfort to a source of fuel. And then I suddenly realized I had all the tools I needed to comfort myself.
Let me supplement this by saying sometimes your body truly does have nutritional based cravings which should not be ignored. It could be for fat, carbohydrates, protein, vitamins, or minerals. These are all important to balanced nutrition and it is our responsibility to ourselves to satisfy those needs by consuming the healthiest, whole food we can get our hands on to maintain balanced nutrition and a stable blood sugar level.
So I'm sure you could imagine the question I get quite frequently is what do I do about cravings for meat, cheese, ice cream, chocolate, etc. Or I am told that I need to let myself eat what I want once and a while. And when I answer back that I don't really have cravings for my old foods and I do eat what I want, it catches a lot of people off guard.
I am not a doctor, dietitian, or nutritionist. However, that will not stop me from postulating a theory. Here goes:
- Cravings for junk and unhealthy foods are relevant to the emotional experiences (personal or social) those foods are linked to. You are not going to crave ice cream, cookies, and fried chicken because your body is crying out for nutrients from them.
It takes 3 weeks for your taste buds to forget and relearn. That is all, 21 days. My choice to change my eating habits to whole foods that were within a vegan diet was fueled by my desire to feel better and the immediate benefits of doing so. This made 3 weeks turn into months without ever feeling sad, deprived, or wanting. These little beneficial changes that were occurring within my health daily, drove me to learn more, be more active, discover new and interesting ways to eat and cook. The positive effects allowed my mind to embrace the lifestyle change with little to no resistance.
During the first few weeks, I began creating new associations with the food I was eating. Comfort food for me went from mac n' cheese to lentils, quinoa, and avocado (all of which are delicious on their own or mixed together). Breakfast went from scramby eggs to steelcut oats and fruit. I accepted these foods for their place in my life. Food went from a source of comfort to a source of fuel. And then I suddenly realized I had all the tools I needed to comfort myself.
Let me supplement this by saying sometimes your body truly does have nutritional based cravings which should not be ignored. It could be for fat, carbohydrates, protein, vitamins, or minerals. These are all important to balanced nutrition and it is our responsibility to ourselves to satisfy those needs by consuming the healthiest, whole food we can get our hands on to maintain balanced nutrition and a stable blood sugar level.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Surveying the Land
I suspect that this weekend may be the weekend we finally get to use our pool. We moved into this home at the beginning of November this past year and I can not express how long the last 5 months have been. It has been calling my name. I have been diligently testing the waters to see how the temperature has been coming and a few weeks ago I became overjoyed that the water no longer took my breath away.
It has been a game of cat and mouse with the warmer weather since then. Just when you think we are going to stay in the 80's it drops to the high 60's. Over and over again for the past 3 weeks. I am beyond extactic that we are going to have 3 days in a row over 85 degrees. I pulled my floaties out that I purchased months ago (off season for the cheaper price of course) and am tempted to blow them up, but I really don't think I have anywhere to store them all blown up.
I came home from work today and sat with my feet in the pool for a few minutes and took a look around the yard. After all the bare bones it was nice to see some greenage.
It has been a game of cat and mouse with the warmer weather since then. Just when you think we are going to stay in the 80's it drops to the high 60's. Over and over again for the past 3 weeks. I am beyond extactic that we are going to have 3 days in a row over 85 degrees. I pulled my floaties out that I purchased months ago (off season for the cheaper price of course) and am tempted to blow them up, but I really don't think I have anywhere to store them all blown up.
I came home from work today and sat with my feet in the pool for a few minutes and took a look around the yard. After all the bare bones it was nice to see some greenage.
 |
| The infamous pool.... |
 | |||
| Trees Have Leaves |
 |
| Dill is Looking Good |
 | ||
| Spinach Has Sprouted |
In honor of the spring and impending summer, I made a salad. I know they are boring, but sometimes it just feels right.
1.5 cups fresh spinach or baby
12oz. chickpeas rinsed
1.5 tomatoes chopped
1 chopped red pepper
2 ribs chopped celery
1 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
1 tbsp brewers yeast (optional)
2 tbsp ground flax seed
1 whole carrot shredded
1/4 cup pistachios
1/4 cup dehydrated red onion
I mixed that bad boy up and put on some dressing I made a week ago. I can't remember quite what it was, since a lot of what I do is on the fly. But I you can use any dressing you like.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Soy, Soy, you nasty little boy...
I know it was bound to happen, the point where I need to take my knowledge and share. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, this profound change in my lifestyle and health is a responsibility to myself and to others. I almost feel as if I'm am in a position to be of service to others because my transition into mindful, healthy eating was very blessed.
I was having a conversation today with someone who transitioned into plant based/vegan diet, about 4 month ago, for health reasons. High cholesterol, elevated blood pressure, fatigue, depression, being over-weight, were some of the symptoms to begin with. Within weeks these issues began to disappear, but recently they have reached a point where they have become bored, complacent, and craving. They have also begun to retain water and gain weight.
The biggest factor in their environment, which absolutely contributes to the urges to eat animal and animal by-products, is that refrigerator and pantry still contain food items (if you want to call them that) from their previous life. This is due to two other adults living in the home who are not on a plant based diet. I believe the boredom, water retention, and weight gain is due to the all to common "Soy Rut".
There are so many soy based replacement options out there. Chicken nuggets, cheese, milk, yougurt, burgers, ribs, sausage pattys, the list is becoming endless. It does make it easy for a person who is reliant on animal and animal by-products to transition into a plant based diet. However, I believe that the biggest misconception is that soy can be relied upon to maintain a healthy, whole, plant based, lifestyle. Processed soy products and un-fermented soy (tofu, soy sauce, etc..) are what I believe to be the main reason individuals fail to thrive on a plant based diet.
Soy and processed soy products are almost like the anti-depressants of the the dietary world. Antidepressants work well at first, but if you fail to address the problem to begin with, they eventually serve no purpose and can possibly cause harm to the individual taking them. If you choose to go the soy based way out of the "Standard American Diet", you must take the time to educate yourself on whole foods, nutrition, dietary needs, and preparing meals to support these. You need to fully comprehend that you made a choice to get healthy because you care for yourself and your well being. You need to know the affect of what you put in your mouth.
I'm not going to go into why I now avoid soy like the plague, I will leave that to you to educate yourself on it. You can figure it out doing research or you can do it with trial and error as I did.
I was having a conversation today with someone who transitioned into plant based/vegan diet, about 4 month ago, for health reasons. High cholesterol, elevated blood pressure, fatigue, depression, being over-weight, were some of the symptoms to begin with. Within weeks these issues began to disappear, but recently they have reached a point where they have become bored, complacent, and craving. They have also begun to retain water and gain weight.
The biggest factor in their environment, which absolutely contributes to the urges to eat animal and animal by-products, is that refrigerator and pantry still contain food items (if you want to call them that) from their previous life. This is due to two other adults living in the home who are not on a plant based diet. I believe the boredom, water retention, and weight gain is due to the all to common "Soy Rut".
There are so many soy based replacement options out there. Chicken nuggets, cheese, milk, yougurt, burgers, ribs, sausage pattys, the list is becoming endless. It does make it easy for a person who is reliant on animal and animal by-products to transition into a plant based diet. However, I believe that the biggest misconception is that soy can be relied upon to maintain a healthy, whole, plant based, lifestyle. Processed soy products and un-fermented soy (tofu, soy sauce, etc..) are what I believe to be the main reason individuals fail to thrive on a plant based diet.
Soy and processed soy products are almost like the anti-depressants of the the dietary world. Antidepressants work well at first, but if you fail to address the problem to begin with, they eventually serve no purpose and can possibly cause harm to the individual taking them. If you choose to go the soy based way out of the "Standard American Diet", you must take the time to educate yourself on whole foods, nutrition, dietary needs, and preparing meals to support these. You need to fully comprehend that you made a choice to get healthy because you care for yourself and your well being. You need to know the affect of what you put in your mouth.
I'm not going to go into why I now avoid soy like the plague, I will leave that to you to educate yourself on it. You can figure it out doing research or you can do it with trial and error as I did.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
It wasn't just fat...
I never chose to be vegan. In fact I will never forget the moment I realized I was. I'm not sure what other experience a person could have in life where their eyes are suddenly open to who they are on a deep personal level, and they are not quite sure how they got there, or even knew that is where they were headed.
It starts with my relationship with red meat. I have never been a big fan. I just can not stand the way red meat sticks in my teeth or the way it sat in my stomach like a big brick of rotting carcass. It made me feel tired and slow. As a child I was raised to eat what was put in front of me, and I did, all of it.
As I got older and more independent, I made a choice not to eat so much red meat, occasionally I would. If I was invited over for dinner or out at a really nice restaurant.
I also realized my distaste for pork. So dry and impersonal. And although bacon tasted so good, I couldn't shake the fact that the smell lingered everywhere for hours and I instantly went greasy. I eventually became dependent on chicken, fish, and dairy for my protein.
Somewhere along the line I had developed an interest for vegetarian cooking. I seemed so fresh and healthy. I even bought a copy of Vegetarian Times, which I still display proudly in my kitchen. I was so under-educated in how important of a role diet plays in our well being that it never really stuck with me. I would pick it up occasionally when I was bored in hopes of finding a new meal to cook, but there was always a mental roadblock of needing to eat animal proteins with every meal.
Ten years and eighty pounds later I find myself one unhappy cookie. Sure I could stand to be more active and yes I ate too much. But why oh why did I feel there was something wrong. Countless diets I had started and failed. I never felt anything changing. There were a few times where I felt like my metabolism was working, but it was short lived. I'd have energy for a day and then all of a sudden I'm back to being tired, withdrawn, depressed. Something had to give. And it did.
Like a lot of people struggling with their weight I often found myself in the cycle of low carb hell. Cranky, tired, unpleasant, surviving on a steady supply of cheese and poultry and fish for as long as I could stand it and then it all exploded into a carb binge that ended in a carb coma. Over and over and over again for years.
I made simple changes over the course of 6 months that accounted for the loss of twelve pounds. These were simple changes I could live with. Eat breakfast each morning, mid-morning snacks, what I believed to be a sensible lunch, and an okay dinner. I started working in foods like cucumbers and bananas and hummus (note...I really do love vegetables, but at this point had now clue how to eat them...seriously). At the end of this time I had lost the twelve pounds but still felt like poo.
I'm not sure at what point it occurred to me to try giving up the swiss cheese, cottage cheese, string cheese, and yogurt. I just decided to do it. Truthfully, it wasn't all that difficult. I had a few moments where I though it sucked, but all in all it wasn't all that bad. Around three weeks into it, my mom suddenly announces she is now a vegan...okay??? We hadn't really discussed they changes I had made, but she informs me that dairy was the worst for her and it was the devil. At this point I was still drinking milk in my coffee, up to 5 times a day (caffeine dependency is another story). I had already broken my dependency on cheese, so what's milk? And that is how it all began.
Three or four days into my freedom from dairy, pardon my language, shit got real. I'm suddenly thinking clearly, my mood is better, my skin is clearing up, I'm sleeping better (before I had a 4-5 advil a night dependence to help me sleep), I have energy, I literally started to deflate and my body was changing. Most amazing was the rapid healing of my ankle that I had injured 4 months prior. I had just finished weeks of physical therapy and was still in pain and now poof it is not?? Truth.
My life became consumed with finding out why dairy had such a huge effect on me. Why on earth did eliminating this one thing change the game? I found my truth, and I was aware. I was aware that what I choose to put into my mouth can alter my being. I started to experiment with other things. First was gluten, knowing my mother has always told me she has a sensitivity to it. Sure as shit, so do I. Gone be gluten from my life (keep in mind that carbs are not my enemy, gluten is...I will save that for another time).
Next came eggs, oh sweet huevos. My staple scrambled breakfast food, my go to hardboiled snack. First to go was the yolk. I had chosen to take advantage of my "icing on the cake" weight loss by monitoring my calories, protein, carbs, and fat, and could not see the value of giving up 80 calories to a little yellow ball that left me hungry. The caloric and protein density of the yolk awakened me and caused me to inadvertently avoid other animal proteins. They just took up too many of my daily calories and I found myself consuming way more protein than my body needed. More than that I began to notice the way that all meat made me feel. It is funny how when you become aware, you notice everything.
Watching the pantry transform into whole, gluten-free grains and the fridge transform into veggies was an amazing process. I'm not one to waste, and my supportive loving fiancee continued to make use of the remaining "offending foods". All these changes around me and I still had not yet realized that I am with out doubt a vegan.
That is correct. I consumed no animal based proteins or products and did not realize I was a vegan. Seems pretty silly. It is pretty simple though, I never thought I could be or would be, so I just did not see myself as one.
It starts with my relationship with red meat. I have never been a big fan. I just can not stand the way red meat sticks in my teeth or the way it sat in my stomach like a big brick of rotting carcass. It made me feel tired and slow. As a child I was raised to eat what was put in front of me, and I did, all of it.
As I got older and more independent, I made a choice not to eat so much red meat, occasionally I would. If I was invited over for dinner or out at a really nice restaurant.
I also realized my distaste for pork. So dry and impersonal. And although bacon tasted so good, I couldn't shake the fact that the smell lingered everywhere for hours and I instantly went greasy. I eventually became dependent on chicken, fish, and dairy for my protein.
Somewhere along the line I had developed an interest for vegetarian cooking. I seemed so fresh and healthy. I even bought a copy of Vegetarian Times, which I still display proudly in my kitchen. I was so under-educated in how important of a role diet plays in our well being that it never really stuck with me. I would pick it up occasionally when I was bored in hopes of finding a new meal to cook, but there was always a mental roadblock of needing to eat animal proteins with every meal.
Ten years and eighty pounds later I find myself one unhappy cookie. Sure I could stand to be more active and yes I ate too much. But why oh why did I feel there was something wrong. Countless diets I had started and failed. I never felt anything changing. There were a few times where I felt like my metabolism was working, but it was short lived. I'd have energy for a day and then all of a sudden I'm back to being tired, withdrawn, depressed. Something had to give. And it did.
Like a lot of people struggling with their weight I often found myself in the cycle of low carb hell. Cranky, tired, unpleasant, surviving on a steady supply of cheese and poultry and fish for as long as I could stand it and then it all exploded into a carb binge that ended in a carb coma. Over and over and over again for years.
I made simple changes over the course of 6 months that accounted for the loss of twelve pounds. These were simple changes I could live with. Eat breakfast each morning, mid-morning snacks, what I believed to be a sensible lunch, and an okay dinner. I started working in foods like cucumbers and bananas and hummus (note...I really do love vegetables, but at this point had now clue how to eat them...seriously). At the end of this time I had lost the twelve pounds but still felt like poo.
I'm not sure at what point it occurred to me to try giving up the swiss cheese, cottage cheese, string cheese, and yogurt. I just decided to do it. Truthfully, it wasn't all that difficult. I had a few moments where I though it sucked, but all in all it wasn't all that bad. Around three weeks into it, my mom suddenly announces she is now a vegan...okay??? We hadn't really discussed they changes I had made, but she informs me that dairy was the worst for her and it was the devil. At this point I was still drinking milk in my coffee, up to 5 times a day (caffeine dependency is another story). I had already broken my dependency on cheese, so what's milk? And that is how it all began.
Three or four days into my freedom from dairy, pardon my language, shit got real. I'm suddenly thinking clearly, my mood is better, my skin is clearing up, I'm sleeping better (before I had a 4-5 advil a night dependence to help me sleep), I have energy, I literally started to deflate and my body was changing. Most amazing was the rapid healing of my ankle that I had injured 4 months prior. I had just finished weeks of physical therapy and was still in pain and now poof it is not?? Truth.
My life became consumed with finding out why dairy had such a huge effect on me. Why on earth did eliminating this one thing change the game? I found my truth, and I was aware. I was aware that what I choose to put into my mouth can alter my being. I started to experiment with other things. First was gluten, knowing my mother has always told me she has a sensitivity to it. Sure as shit, so do I. Gone be gluten from my life (keep in mind that carbs are not my enemy, gluten is...I will save that for another time).
Next came eggs, oh sweet huevos. My staple scrambled breakfast food, my go to hardboiled snack. First to go was the yolk. I had chosen to take advantage of my "icing on the cake" weight loss by monitoring my calories, protein, carbs, and fat, and could not see the value of giving up 80 calories to a little yellow ball that left me hungry. The caloric and protein density of the yolk awakened me and caused me to inadvertently avoid other animal proteins. They just took up too many of my daily calories and I found myself consuming way more protein than my body needed. More than that I began to notice the way that all meat made me feel. It is funny how when you become aware, you notice everything.
Watching the pantry transform into whole, gluten-free grains and the fridge transform into veggies was an amazing process. I'm not one to waste, and my supportive loving fiancee continued to make use of the remaining "offending foods". All these changes around me and I still had not yet realized that I am with out doubt a vegan.
That is correct. I consumed no animal based proteins or products and did not realize I was a vegan. Seems pretty silly. It is pretty simple though, I never thought I could be or would be, so I just did not see myself as one.
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