Random things about me:
- I can't whistle.
- I don't play the piano.
- I have never met Lady Gaga.
- I have removed wallpaper.
- I've never waited tables.
- I've ridden in a helicopter.
- I'm afraid of heights.
It would be easy to come up with five versatile bloggers, so I'm not going to. Instead, I'm going to tell you about a few bloggers you may not follow yet, but should.
- Chinle from Spotted Dog Ranch. She can weave a tale, fiction or non-. She has written a couple of books, and from the excerpts she publishes on her blog, they're well worth a read.
- John from Going Gently. He writes about life with his partner in a tiny Welsh village in a way that makes you want to chuck your big city and your overpowering sunshine and join them.
- Old Jules from So Far From Heaven. Despite your best intentions, his gentle, funny stories will make you think. Read with caution.
I'm not going to officially give them my award. But, go take a look as though I had.
(No-)Food update, Day 5:
$61 today for produce. Annie says she feels weak, and we decide to eat more. She has a spoonful of peanut butter. We're both headache-free today. I notice that I don't feel stiff when I get up in the morning.
We continue to eat vegetables and fruits, as well as drink them. Annie made a cabbage and potato soup, as inspired by Lori's.
We've been reading a little bit from Joel Fuhrman's website, Disease Proof. He encourages nuts and seeds more than Dr. Esselstyn does (not at all). If we believe Fuhrman instead of Esselstyn, that will make life easier. Okay guys, which of you is more correct? 'Fess up. I'm hungry.
We're strategizing about what comes next, after the Reboot. We think we will mostly eliminate meat-substitutes. We may add back a little fat and see how that goes. It's tough to get enough Ω-3s to balance out Ω-6's without seriously cutting back on the 6, so I'm wary. Omega-6 is everywhere! Omega-3 is not. That's part of the nut dilemma, because every nut is a step backwards in a healthy 6:3. All nuts are heavily weighted in favor of omega-6. Even the best one, the walnut, is 4:1 in favor of 6. [That sentence is gibberish. Hand me a napkin.]
My friend, Joan, from Ithaca, sent me this article about coffee. If you have no intention of changing your coffee habits, for goodness sake, don't read this. It will just make you mad, and I'm too frail and thin to argue.
Overall, I feel good. Annie says she's not bad - no headache. Her knees are a little achy, but her hip is better. Our heads feel clear. My blood pressure remains on the high side, as always.
If you didn't enter my first-ever giveaway, go over here and do it. If you want the prize. Or, maybe you're one of those people who enters giveaways so someone else doesn't get it. That's cool, go ahead.
Edit: if you're thinking that a low-fat, vegan diet would be spartan, check out Happy Healthy Long Life's blog.
Edit: if you're thinking that a low-fat, vegan diet would be spartan, check out Happy Healthy Long Life's blog.
50 comments:
Wow, I owe it all to my first grade teacher, my best friend Josie, and that gangly boy in 6th grade that I beat out on the high jump and he called me a toothpick (thanks for the motivation, Charlie).
Thanks for the mention and good words. Makes me very well, I dunno, kind of bigheaded for a toothpick (oh, to be that thin again).
Hey, do you have the book Eat to Live? The good doc goes into the omegas and how/what/when. Glad to hear you're doing so well on the greens, keep it up! I'm on the same track, though no juicer, and I'm healing faster, I can tell.
PS thanks for the coffee article, very interesting.
I don't have that book, Chinle, but I guess I should. Dr. Esselstyn doesn't talk at all about WHY, so I've had to deduce it on my own. I'd like to read what Fuhrman has to say on the matter.
Are you serious that you're healing faster, or being facetious? I'd like to hear that something is helping you feel better quicker.
Hey, the book is important and only about 10 bucks on Azon. He has lots of good motivating info. I had a great day yesterday, but a bit of a setback today (picked up a cat), but the PT tells me today maybe I'll be free in a month. Great news, and the nutrition is helping, I feel much more alert and optimistic.
You picked up a cat? Do you need antibiotics for that? It's good to hear that the food is making a difference.
I'll check out the book. For real.
LOL don't make me laugh, it hurts. :)
I don't know, ladies. The food thing is starting to sound like a cult. Have to suffer to reach the nirvana. Hmmm. Does that really make sense?
How did our ancestors ever survive before all these gurus told them how to eat? I've done a lot better since I stopped trying to follow the supposedly "healthy" diet and just eat from my garden, organic as much as I can, get enough protein and avoid all fake food-like substances. Meat and natural fat give me energy and keep the incessant hungries away. Veggies good, fruit good, especially berries. We are omnivores. Variety is good as long as it is real food and doesn't require a whole lot of processing to be edible (like grains and soy do). What I should do and don't manage is fast to simulate periodic famine. So hard to deliberately suffer.
I must say I admire your perseverance, but my steak tonight for dinner sure tasted great. Not a coffee drinker, never, ever.
Ok has anybody read the China Study? I guess I'll have to read up on the 6 vs 3 argument. I'm totally in the dark about omegas.
Why did you Ducks start this thing in the first place? To feel better? Get slimmer? Avoid cancer, heart attack, diabetes. All of the above?? Nuts are vegan right? But they are bad why? Tofu as a meat substitute is a problem?? Sounds like I'm really not up to speed here.
Glad you are both perking up. Wish I had advice on which way to go with the eating, since I am in my own circle of dietary hell right now. Let us know which way you decide to go.
Congrats on your Versatile Blogger Award.
I was going to enter the giveaway until I realized it was the Space Bags and NOT the jackets . . . giggle ;)
Betty, you can have the jackets as far as I'm concerned.
Thanks, Andra. Are you suffering with the gluten-free life, or something else I missed? Frankly, I wish we could all eat whatever we saw, but that's a road to perdition right there.
Sherry: Me! Me! Campbell doesn't talk much about fats at all, and defers to Esselstyn there. Esselstynites :D are very no-oil, no-nut, no-seed, for heart health. Look into omegas, and tell me what you think sometime.
All of the above. I mean, the reboot is an elimination diet, so I'd like to see what about our usual vegan diet makes us feel worse as we add things back in. Nuts are definitely vegan, and that's where our indecision lies. Nuts are all high in omega-6s, amazingly high in some cases. So, it would be important to balance that with omega-3s, but how much flaxseed oil does a Duck want to take? Bleh.
Tofu isn't a problem, as far as I know. I'm thinking of processed TVP, facon, chik'n - that sort of thing. We could probably do without those things.
Sandie, steak ALWAYS tastes good! It's why cows are nervous.
Mary, I think detox is usually unpleasant. That's what all the addicts say. I imagine our ancestors ate what they had and were glad for it, whatever it was. I don't imagine they had such environmental toxicity to counteract. So, you're saying you're eating like we generally eat, you're just also eating animals? I get that - they're delicious.
Now we know that you are very humble, as well as versatile...plus, you have once again revealed a wealth of information about yourself that we never knew! You are so experienced, and well rounded...well, you know what I mean, dontcha?
Hope Annie is going to feel better soon.
Tried smoothies for the first time this week. Fruit ones are delish, the green, not so much. Read the internet, read the books, did all the diets, got the T-shirt. Seems to me that small amounts of most healthy food does the job. Quality, not processed, and portion control. I can't figure out what's good and what's not good.... "they" change it on a daily basis.
Being obsessed with what I eat is as bad as being obsessed with what I don't eat. Don't want to be food-obsessed either way.
Thanks for the updates. Aside from veggies containing urine (loved that) how the um, er, "other" situation?
Russ, my father used to say "My humility is my greatest virtue." And, now you see the vast range of stuff I have managed not to do. Thanks - I hope she is, too!
Blue Moon, I agree about "them." I was most impressed by the evidence from The China Study of anything I've read. The thing about portion control is the "portion" and the "control." I don't want to stop until I'm done, so I need to be eating something that won't finish me before I'm finished.
The "other" situation is as before, only less so.
Blue Moon, someone said they make fruit smoothies, but add a kale leaf, or something else green, and it still tastes good.
Congrats on the award. Those are some good blogs my friends.
I vote for nuts - almonds and walnuts.
Also, I believe coffee is good for me. The "best" academic studies say it helps the liver and HCV patients and besides, I like it. A lot. So I drink it.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/759379
I would, too.
Interesting article. Coffee is a complex brew. In the study where they divided patients into a control group, I wish they had also controlled for fructose consumption. It seems like that would have been important, if they knew fructose's correlation with fatty liver.
Eat what your body wants. Moderation. We will all die eventually.
LOL Merikay, my body wants Swiss Rolls and cinnamon buns. I want to put death off longer than that.
As a Paleo eater I have to agree with Tesaje. With Paleo eating the omegas all balance out as they should. Not what you want to hear though, right?
But this is my thing. I will share, when asked, but really do not like pushing my way of eating on anyone else. This is your journey, not mine. I did the vegetarian thing for a couple of years. In the end I saw no benefit from it. So my journey continued to this point. But who am I to say it's the "one true" diet? Pffftt....do what works for you!!! :)
Congrats on the award! So sorry to hear how frail &thin you are.....if its infectious I will be right over.
Have been vegan, added lacto ovo and now just don't eat meat ( for at least 35 years )!! Dairy okay...since I added vino blanco I am most happy.
I think we all spend way too much time on food...thinking and eating. There is way to much of it out there....but then again most of it is not really food but chemicals. I just finished reading Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollen...My best advice is Don't bring the enemy home! I do buy mostly organic but the price of this re-booting thing seems extra high to me....
I am vegan and it works for me. Just remember, the more highly processed a food is, the worse it is for you.
Sherry - Organic, non-GMO tofu, tempeh and miso are fine. It is the the highly processed soy you should avoid.
Thanks for the links to the other blogs - interesting musings at both.
Chia seeds have omega 3 in them and if you makes smoothies they do not change the taste at all. Or you can just stir them in water and drink. They are super healthy for you as they also clean you out if you let them soak in the water for a bit it makes a geletanous drink that swooshes thru your intestines.
Okay, yes, I am mad about the coffee article but since you are to frail and thin to argue....LOL. I just love coffee. That and wine and the 2 hardest to THINK about giving up for me.
Thanks for the link on your page for green carpet cleaning. I am going to order something as I need to clean my carpets often. I have one dog who drags in lots of dirt, and 3 cats, one of who throws up often.
Brenda, it sounds like that's working out well for you - cool. Would you mind explaining how the omegas all balance out in the paleo plan? I mean, you eat everything I eat, but you also eat meat, right? So, meat is also very high on the omega-6, very low on 3. Where does the extra 3 come in to balance all that out?
As far as not being what I want to hear, not so. From a very basic perspective, I know I don't want to eat animals, so I don't. That's not everyone. I'm glad to know how other people make decisions about nutrition and living the way they want to live. But, I also agree about "one truth." All our beliefs are just the Ego making itself heard.
Ha, Contessa, I'm afraid the thin wouldn't look so much like thin to you. I can give up meat forever, but it's the cheese that gets on my back. Vino makes everything sparklier.
Ain't, I tend to agree. I don't mind spending ten days thinking about food, but chronic food obsession doesn't work for me. It's why I couldn't last long term on any weight loss attempt that wasn't natural - portion control, calories, points, food groups, blah blah. Basic vegan eating is easy for me. Annie likes to think about food, and she makes me something to eat. :D And, since we don't have animal products in the house, there's not much thought involved for me.
I'll do a final accounting of the cost when we're done. It's a little expensive. And, I miss beans.
Thanks, Page. Yes, that makes sense.
Sue, thanks for the tip about chia! I checked them out, and they do have a great omega ratio. Ditto on the coffee. Double-ditto on the yakking cats.
You are not responsible for my mood, but I have to say, coming over here always puts me in a good mood. Thank you for living on the lighter side of life. It's so refreshing.
Aw, thanks Teresa! I'm happy to hear it. I was feeling like I was bringing everyone down with all this food talk.
"So, you're saying you're eating like we generally eat, you're just also eating animals? I get that - they're delicious."
Nah, pretty much the opposite. I go much closer to paleo and low carb. You're doing extra hi carb, lo protein, low fat. When I did that, it was a prescription for gaining weight and pimples. Low carb feels a lot better - less achy and my skin cleared. Plus I'm not hungry much.
Meat is hi omega 6 because they feed the animals an unnatural diet of grains. Grains are hi omega 6. Grass fed beef is much higher in omega 3s and other good fats like CLA. Same for chickens allowed to browse their natural diet of mixed veggies and bugs and pigs fed a wide variety of browse foodstuffs like they would in the wild. We are poisoning ourselves with our mean ag practices. Turns out, if you treat the animals well and feed them their natural diet, their meat is much healthier for us. That's why our paleo ancestors had such a high omega 3 to 6 ratio - the animals they ate also had good balance.
But if vegan works for you, go for it. Just be sure you get enuf Vit B12. That's the big bugaboo for vegetarians. (It just was starting to sound like torture ... ;-)
So, paleo is lots of free-range animal protein, fats, lots of vegetables, no fruit, no grains?
We did Atkins many years ago and found it unsustainable. I'm assuming Paleo is better because of the types and quality of the fats and animal protein? [I ain't doin' it, but I'm curious.]
Yeah, we keep the B12 in mind.
Are you thinking about the way we're eating these ten days, or the way we normally eat? Because a vegan diet doesn't need to be low protein or low fat. It's easier to make it that way, if desired, but it's not inherent in the lifestyle.
Mostly the misery you are in these 10 days. Sounds like blood sugar swings to me. Yep but only that stuff (or close) that was available to hunter-gatherers. Pure paleo has no dairy or very little on the assumption that cavemen only rarely got a lactating female to have some milk. I have trouble with that. I do loves me my cheese.
Vegan takes a lot of attention to be sure you get enuf of the macro nutrients and B vits. You can do it. Most don't and run into trouble over the long run. Plus there's that pesky little fact that they feed lab animals polyunsaturated fats to induce cancer - yikes!
Well seafood, at least some of it, is very high in omega 3's. Also egg yolks (I eat a ridiculous amount of eggs). And another thing that you can have as a vegan is flax seed oil. Drizzle it in your smoothies. And don't be afraid to have plenty of it. Just don't cook with it. It doesn't do well heated up. And keep it refrigerated!
Probably more important than raising omega 3's is to DECREASE omega 6's. Paleo eating discourages the usage of polyunsaturated fats which are a huge source of omega 6's. Polyunsaturated fats = most veg oils, i.e. corn oil, canola oil, safflower oil, crisco, veg oil spreads, etc. My go to cooking oil is coconut oil, one of the healthiest fats out there.
For in depth info on fats, read Eat Fat, Lose Fat by Dr. Mary Enig & Sally Fallon. This book does not promote paleo eating, but does tie in somewhat.I'm suggesting it for the fat info specifically though.
Tesaje, I don't know why you think we eat a lot of carbs, we don't. And we're not having sugar swings at all during this juice fast. I know because I'm hypoglycemic and am all too familiar with sugar crashes. I haven't had a single crash during this reboot, and that's awesome.
Annie
Agreed. Apart from the (painful! OW!) coffee withdrawal, this has been pretty easy. I mean, after the first batch of Double Beet Surprise.
Brenda, thanks for the info. i didn't realize that about seafood. And, I see that grass-fed beef has a decent profile, too. We are about as close to no-oil as we can get, except for the flaxseed; I'm concerned that saturated fats have a problem set all their own.
Also, I'm wanting to ask you this sincerely, but I don't want to be a jackass. If, say, you woke up one morning and thought "Holy crap, I don't want to eat sentient beings anymore!" what would your next dietary move be?
I would not go vegan. I'd at least eat a lot of free range eggs for full protein. I'd also do cheese. Neither of those require even torturing animals. Treating laying hens like the factory farms do make eggs that aren't all that good for us. Letting chickens be their chickeney selves makes eggs that are really good for us and no chickens are harmed in any way. Ditto for goats, sheep, and cows - treat them good and their milk is pretty good for us. I'd also concentrate on eating fermented foods as they tend to have the anti-nutrients in things like beans denatured and less harmful. Few, if any, plant based diets in indigenous cultures eat things like soy without fermenting them.
I thought carbs because you said you were eating fruits and veggies only which means almost all carbs. But that was just a guess. Headaches, weakness, lethargy is often a sign of low blood sugar. I could be wrong. Not like I have any data to base that guess on. :-)
For my part, I want the animals I eat to have had a good, happy, healthy life before they became my dinner. Better for them is better for me.
I thought the same thing before I read The China Study. I am not strongly anti-free-range egg or -milk in an ethical sense.
Because you've already explained how you feel about veganism, I was curious about what Brenda's strategy would be, given those circumstances. If you want to respond, Brenda - this pop quiz is not mandatory!
Oh, I thought you were saying we must eat a ton of bread, rice, and pasta. You have to look at net carbs in fruits and veggies, that's the carb count after the fiber count is subtracted because it's net carbs that impacts blood sugar levels. Net carbs of veggies is quite low, fruit is higher. Our juices have been about 70% veggies, 30% fruits. My headaches were from caffeine withdrawal, the weakness and lethargy were, I think, a combination of clearing the toxins out of my system and just not consuming enough. I started making either roasted vegetables or veggie soup for dinner and that has helped a lot. My energy levels are on the rise, here on day 6 of the reboot.
I think you can successfully argue that free range chickens aren't harmed during their egg producing years but the milk producing animals, even if they seem to have it made on the non-factory farms, have to be bred constantly in order to keep producing milk. Poor bossy gets bred over and over and over again until her body just can't produce calves anymore, then it's off to the slaughterhouse for her. And while she's still being bred, her calves are taken from her early on so that her milk can be harvested (calves are often bottle fed with powdered milk). The farm I grew up on just had cattle but I'm pretty confident the same is true for sheep and goats.
Brenda, I'm not trying to put you on the spot, honest, and my curiosity is real. I've never really been in the position of believing that meat is important to my health, so if I were in that position, but then didn't want to eat meat, what would I do? I don't know.
Coming from having been vegetarian just a few years ago (and I was pretty invested in that), it took one hell of a lot of convincing to end up being a meat eater and believing that it was actually a healthy thing to do. It did not happen overnight for sure.
I was no healthier from eating vegetarian, so I let the "veg for health reasons" go pretty easily. As for the environmental reasons I couldn't deny that there is a huge difference in impact between factory farming and small family farming. And then the same applies to animal cruelty as well. I'm still extremely anti factory farming. The belief that taking an animals life in order to feed myself is wrong, is of course the one last sticking point.
What it came down to was my health and well being. Believe me... I fought against trying this. I read and read and read on the subjects. And one day the science won out (not to mention the historical facts) and I decided to at least give it a try. And its been good for me. Good enough that I'm no longer having any qualms about it.
I "respectfully" eat meat. I think that's important. I don't gloat about it. People who can't shut up about their love of meat while putting down the non meat eaters make me nauseous. I'd rather hang out with the vegans.
:)
Now then...being vegan while eating Paleo is possible from what I've read, but of course difficult. In fact, in the book Why We Get Fat: And What To Do About It by Gary Taubes (another book that is not expressly paleo)he describes cultures that have eaten this way primarily. So I imagine that if a person wanted to do that bad enough they could figure out a way. I would do more research on that specifically if that's how I felt about it.
All this talk about diets has my eyes rolling back in my head! Every time I try some "new" plan, somebody thinks it's bad for me. SO for now, I'm concentrating on eating those things with which humans seem to have an evolutionary relationship (whole foods - fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts, a little meat here and there and lots of water) and trying to cut out the things which we've simply created because we are so darn um smart (processed foods.) I eat when I'm hungry, and drink when I'm thirsty.
Seems to be working out pretty well...so far.
[I never knew you had removed wallpaper. I am in awe.]
Ha Marianne! I never meant it to become so huge, either! When someone starts talking about their diet I want to lay down right away, in case I collapse of boredom. No matter the dietary persuasion, no one defends processed "foods." There seems to be a consensus. It used to kill me to see Food Science grads scooped up by Kraft, and grain breeders taken by Syngenta and Monsanto.
Brenda, thank you for taking the time to explain your process. It does resonate with me.
It makes sense that if it's the cow or me, well, whoever has the pointiest horns wins. I've never been unclear about that. It's not something I would take lightly, or without some remorse, but I would do what kept me healthy.
When we were straight up ovo-lacto, I also could see no health difference from being a conventional omnivore. I felt better at night, but only inside my head. :D
So, your shopping probably looks nothing like the average grocery cart. You must buy your meat and eggs from a co-op or CSA? Are you able to find them locally-raised?
With you on the omnivorous gloaters.
Annie: While its true that factory farms are cruel to cows, I do personally know some farmers who do not treat the animals like that. They are concerned about the cow or goat's health and well being. If the animal is not healthy, it does not get bred and does not go off to the slaughterhouse until it is determined the animal is in serious decline. They make sure that the demise is as painless as possible. They often keep the older animals anyway after they are no longer producing. They get pasture and get to frolic while being protected from predators. The farmers I know do hand feed the babes after a certain time but it is from the mother's milk. Most of the reason for that is to gentle the animal to humans. The milk animals are bred to produce excessive milk so there's no way the babes can eat it all. It really doesn't have to be cruel. What I think is very striking is that the better the animal is treated, the healthier their products or meat is for us. I wish our industrial ag would recognize that and change their ways. I pay a lot extra to be sure what I eat is humanely treated.
Like Brenda, it took a long road for me to come to this along with some appalling realization at how lousy much of the "science" has been to justify what is considered normal. And yeah, my shopping cart looks nothing like the average. I also shop at a co-op who cares as much about the ethical issues as I do and are better able to tell what producers are actually doing. On the road, that is a whole lot harder to do, but the Internet has resources listed to make it possible. Well treated animals do not have nearly the negative impact on the environment as do the factories.
I am in no way meaning to criticize your choices. Vegan can work and can be healthy. There's also a wide variety in humans and how well they do on this or that. I did not do very well on vegan. Our ability to adapt has allowed us to overrun the earth, after all. So if it works for you, go for it.
Heck, you gals got the versatility award!
Congrats on yet another award, ladies!!
Hey, a note about carbs, net carbs and juicing. Don'tcha take the fiber out when you juice? So is all you left with the...like THE carbs when it comes to carbs?
I went to JambaJuice today cause Meggie gave me a sip of her green smoothie a few months ago and this RAW conversation brought up a hankering for it. Also, I have a sore throat and earache cause Gary had to give me his cold (or else it's feline herpes, Necko sneezed in my face last night and this a.m. I wake up with killer sore throat & earache. Coincidence? I don't know) and I thought something cold and liquid would feel really good. I got the monster size cause I knew I'd wanna share it with my boss. Didn't read ALL the info till I'd sucked it all down (except like 6 oz. I gave to Kayla). I got the Apples 'n Greens - only 440 calories in the large (like 24 oz.) - not bad for a meal replacement - but it has 98g carbs!! I had thought that felt like a sugar rush I was experiencing, haha!
Leslie
Ha Leslie! Yeah, that's why we go mostly veggie, to avoid that rush and give our livers a fructose break. Where did you go to get the smoothie? Is there a juice bar around?
Duh, I just read again. Whenever I hear "Jamba Juice" I think of Baby Mama.
I wish I could find a juice bar here that wasn't a chain - hmmm...another business idea, a Juice-mobile :) Well, maybe not a GOOD business idea, at least not in THIS town.
Leslie
Comments on this post are starting to sound like theology discussions at a seminary!
What works for me & makes me happy may not be what works for you. I'm ok with that. LG
Amen, brother!
And, vice versa, all the way around. Just keep on keepin' on.
Post a Comment