I started keeping track of what I eat using the Prevention website. It's a great site - very informative, great recipes and home of the intriguing Flat Belly Diet. (More on that in a minute.) Keeping track of my daily intake isn't as hard or annoying as I thought it would be. And, knowing that I'll be writing it down has me asking why instead of why not before I indulge.
Because my limited finances aren't allowing me to be as creative as I would like - I have to plan ahead and be very thoughtful about what I buy. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. It keeps me from eating junk. Cutting out the Vitamin Water and sodas (again) have made a big difference. I'm drinking Ionized Water instead. Water I can drink without feeling nauseous and bloated - that is an amazing thing for me. I got these cool water bottles from Costco - they are sleek and leak proof so I can take them pretty much everywhere.
Back to the food... In November, I started reading about the Flat Belly Diet. Their take is that we don't eat enough healthy fats - they have a list of good fats that they call MUFAs that you should try to eat at every meal. Healthy Oils like Sunflower & Olive oils, Olives, Nuts & Seeds, Avocados & Dark Chocolate. Including a small amount with every meal is supposed to help get rid of visceral fat - gut and ab fat.
For once, I felt a twinge of hope because this diet is one I could actually follow - it's filled with things I like - Olives, Nuts and Avocados. Most diet plans are a joke for me. I eat very few vegetables and my favorites are also considered carbs by most diets. Most diets are packed full of all kinds of fruits and veggies that I can't or won't eat.
But this diet turns all of that on it's head. Here is a sample of a lunch suggestion from the book - Meditteranean BLT: Whole wheat English Muffin, Olive Tapenade, Minibel Cheese, Sundried Tomatoes, Romaine & Turkey Bacon. Total Calories = 376 calories. I'd probably leave off the Romaine - just cause that's what I do but the rest of it is totally doable.
Like I said before, I don't have the money to go out and buy all the stuff I'd need to follow this diet. The avocados alone would kill my budget. But it got me thinking. For as long as I can remember, my focus has always been on what I couldn't have. It occured to me that it is a narrow and negative way to think about food. And that led to an interesting question. What if I just started eating the healthy foods that I did like?
I grabbed my book on produce off the shelf and started to make a list. I made 4 different categories - things I like, things I kinda like, things I don't like and things I hate. To my sincere surprise, I found that there are a lot more things on the menu than I gave myself credit for. And my hate list wasn't nearly as long as I thought it would be. I can't stand onions, bell peppers, kale, cauliflower, jicama, celery, eggplant and bitter greens. But the good list included a few different kinds of squash, broccoli, bean sprouts, asparagus, spinach, zucchini, sweet potatoes and a bunch of fruits.
I have narrow filters but there are still more things I can eat than I thought. Texture is king. The secret for me is how things are prepared. I've been pulling my cookbooks off the shelf - How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman is my bedtime reader. I'm thinking that roasting might be my new best friend. I plan to find out - one dish at a time.
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