October 2 Food

Lunch

I wasn't truly hungry for breakfast, so skipped it.  A nice thing about 2 meals per day is it allows for more time for other activities.  There is little doubt my mind that I was used to eating in response to toxic hunger, which occurred when my stomach emptied and had an uncomfortable hollow feeling which would go away with more food.  The word "toxic" does not mean that anything dangerous was happening.  "Toxic Hunger" is a bit of a problematic term for me, although I now understand what Dr. Fuhrman was talking about.  You could probably think of a dozen other things to call it, but by whatever name, I am learning to distinguish it from true hunger, and it is an important concept to understand.  It just makes sense that it will be hard to lose weight if you never give the digestive system a break.

I do want to lose weight.  I will get some updated "before and after" pics up here, but when I was diagnosed with heart disease, I believe that I was pushing 260 pounds at times.  By doing the McDougall/ Esselstyn program, I got down to 190, and then settled around 195.  At 6'0" I felt much better and looked ok.  But my blood sugars are still too high, and Dr. Fuhrman makes a persuasive argument that, within reason, the slimmer the better.  I interpret Jeff to be saying the same thing when he talks about calorie restriction and the relevance of BMI.  I notice that I started last years October challenge at 198.  I am now 187 and have seen 186, so that has been a positive change.  I am hoping to take it further and will be interested to see how I do this month.  I really did not anticipate that I could get below 190, but with some of these new concepts, I have.

Today's lunch started with a large mixture of greens - iceberg lettuce and spinach.  Here is a picture on the chopping block.

Farley made another mostly raw salad.  In it red kidney beans, radishes, zucchini, yellow bell peppers,  celery, and cherry tomatoes.  Very similar to yesterday's lunch.

I top the greens with the salad and add a Japanese sweet potato.  Here is what ours look like.  They are baked in the mid 300's for about an hour and 20 minutes.  They are really delicious, and in effect serve as a salad dressing for me.  A bite of these sweetens up a lot of more bitter greens for a nice taste.  I only had one of the potatoes, LOL.  When there was room in the bowl, I also added a scoop of brown rice.

I also added about half of this fruit mixture - strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries.  The whole thing was topped with about a tablespoon of ground flax seed and maybe 1/2 oz. of walnuts.  A delicious lunch.










For dinner, you and I will be in for a treat.  Farley is making a squash based dish inspired by a meal we ate with our friends f1Jim and wife.  It is nutritious, but a real treat, and more of a "recipe" dish that what I have posted so far.  It is a dish we serve when company comes, and it is very popular, yet completely low calorie density and whole plant food.  I really recommend that you give it a try.