Simplify

Last October, I drastically changed my diet. After about a dozen people recommended Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, I finally read the book. I’m a skeptic of most diet programs and being active, I didn’t have a strong need to lose weight. At the time that I changed my diet, I thought maybe I had 5-10lbs to lose - nothing to write home about. So I wasn’t motivated by weight loss. I finally picked up the book because so many people had told me they never felt better after they switched. Here’s what I liked:

• It’s written by an actual doctor. (Ok, Dr. Atkins was a doctor too, so this reason doesn’t stand on it’s own … keep reading)
• Dr. Fuhrman’s successfully treats heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and stroke patients with nutrition. I have all these diseases in my family history, so this one really won me over.
• Dr. Fuhrman’s diet is simple. The philosophy is increase the ratio of nutrients to calories in your diet. You do this by eating whole plants, the less processed the better.
• What I really liked is that it makes sense and is simple. Eat natural foods. Avoid processed foods. Eat as much as you want, when you want.

So in early October, I went cold turkey. I cut out all refined sugars, processed foods, meat, dairy, salt and oil from my diet. I thought it would drive me crazy. Up until this point, I had subsisted on ice cream, soda, tortilla chips, cheese, crackers and just about anything else that came in a box or a bag. But it was far easier than I had thought. Here’s how I do it:

I eat fruit every day for breakfast. If I have time before work, I’ll also have oatmeal or whole grain toaster waffles. But usually I stick to just fruit and tea.

For lunch, I eat a salad. Every day. I mix it up. There are lots of types of salads. I avoid dressing unless it’s vegan. But I was never a big salad dressing fan, so this one was easy for me. Some of my favorite salads were things I had never had before:

• purple cabbage, carrots and onions with some balsamic vinegar
• green beans and tomatos - simple and delicious
• taco salads are great even without the meat and cheese
• pecans, almonds, walnuts add a whole new world of flavor to mundane salads
• beans also add a lot to salads: garbanzo beans (some call them chick peas), kidney beans, black beans and pinto beans are my favorite salad toppers.

For dinner, I’ve been exploring all kinds of vegetarian/vegan fare:

• soups
• vegan chili
• whole grain pastas and brown rice
• vegetable stir frys
• veggie sandwhiches
• home-made veggie pizza (cheese-less, of course)
• veggie curries

The options are endless. In between meals, I snack on nuts, fruits and veggies.

So what’s the verdict? I love it. I feel great. I sleep well. I have a ton of energy. I both think more and less about food - more about what’s in my food and less about what to eat for each meal (something I used to hate). I enjoy cooking more - turns out adding some constraints really opened up my creativity in the kitchen. I did lose some weight. It turns out I had a little more to lose than I had thought, but not much more.

If you are concerned about what’s in the food you eat or are concerned about health risks associated with diet, I highly recommend Eat to Live.

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Tags: diet, Food, fuhrman, health, vegan, vegetarian, whole plants

This entry was posted on Monday, February 18th, 2008 at 6:27 pm and is filed under Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.