October 5 food

Yesterday was a busy day.  Sorry for the late posting.

I only ate one meal yesterday and felt great.  I did it again yesterday (Oct 5) and felt great. This morning, I am hungry and will have some oatmeal and fruit.

My meal yesterday was Farley's revised chickpea curry dish.  The recipe will be below.  I get a demerit for a glass of white wine with the meal.  We were happy to host a friend who recently lost her husband, and we had a glass of wine and a toast to his memory.  He was a wonderful guy, but somebody who was not interested in preserving his health, which is the sad part.  He should still be here as I see it, but all we can do at this point is honor his memory and the many great things he did for others, perhaps at his own expense.

My challenge is going great.  I did not expect to be perfect for the month.  But I saw a new low for weight (185.2) and a new recent low for blood sugar (116).  Rising blood sugars (170s typically) were what prompted me to look for a way to lower them.  I was eating a healthy plant based diet already, and I was very interested in Dr. Furhman's thoughts on blood sugar, diabetes, and weight.

Dr. Fuhrman explains that some people are very sensitive to weight.  I knew that I was a bit over the top of the BMI charts, but did not think it important.  At 194 pounds, I did not look fat by present standards.  Neither was my body fat that high - typically about 22%.  But Dr. Furhrman is very firm about the importance of being thin.  I don't think he really differs that much from Jeff and Dr. M about what is ideal.  But he emphasizes this point quite a bit -  especially if blood sugars are a problem.  His book convinced me that it would be worthwhile to work on my weight.  His explanation of toxic hunger was really key for me.  Since working on these ideas, I have lost almost 10 pounds in less than a month - and that is after being stable at 194 for several years.  So my hat is off to Dr. Fuhrman, and my blood sugars are responding well. Dr. Fuhrman believes basically, as I read it, that if your blood sugars are too high, then you need to get thinner.  I plan to test that, and so far so good.  I also feel better at the lighter weight, and look better.

I used to tell people to eat defensively -  to stay satiated all the time so that they would not be tempted by SAD food.  I am not so sure about that advice now - at least for those who eat in response to toxic hunger.  And as Dr. Fuhrman points out, if you are overweight, you are eating in response to toxic hunger.  You can't eat healthy food in response to true hunger and be anything but slim.  It looks like this is true in my case.

Slow-cooked Curried Garbanzo Beans

This is my easy, low labor method of making this dish which takes about 20 – 25 minutes to assemble.   I use mostly canned and packaged products and will list my favorites below.

In a slow-cooker place:

1 24 oz can of No-Salt Roma Tomatoes with juice

(I cut up the tomatoes with scissor right in the pot, you can also use already diced tomatotes)

1 15 oz can of No-Salt Garbanzo Beans, rinsed and drained

1 8 oz package of fresh green beans, chopped bite size

1 fresh orange or yellow bell pepper, chopped bit size

1 heaping TBS Curry Powder

1 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground turmeric

1/8 – ¼ tsp red cayenne pepper

1 C Red wine (may substitute wine for no salt, no oil vegetable broth or water)

I cook this in the slow cooker for about 3 hours on “low” and then let it stay on “warm”  which on my pot is really a simmer, for another 3 hours or longer depending on when I'm serving it.  The longer it simmers the better.  Adjust temp according to your slow cooker.  This also freezes well.  I usually triple this recipe so I can freeze a large portion for another time.

Serve over a mountain of greens and brown rice.  I like to steam broccoli and/or cauliflower to go on top of it all.

What I used:

Trader Joe's No-salt Roma Tomatoes

Trader Joe's Fresh Haricort Vert Green Beans

Canned Garbanzo Beans are a local private label but they are very low in salt and are organic.

Wine:  I typically use a Cabernet or Zinfandel which I will find at Trader Joe's for around $6 a bottle.

Oct. 4 Dinner

No breakfast
No lunch
Since I ate late last night, I was not interested in food this morning at all, and when lunch time came, I could have eaten, but was still not too interested.  I started feeling hungry around 3 p.m., but at that point decided to wait until dinner, which was at 7 pm.  I was not suffering or anything.



Dinner
By now, readers may be bored.  They have seen it before.  Dinner started with the large bowl of greens (salad and spinach).  A scoop of brown rice on top.  Then a typical salad of beans and raw vegetables.  I also had a Japanese Sweet Potato and almost an punch of walnuts on top.  I added some blueberries and strawberries for sweetness.  It tasted great and I'm very satisfied.  Does this type of eating seem fairly simple?  It is, and the unavoidable consequence of such simplicity is health and good appearance.  Sure, cake, ice cream, chips, soda, hot dogs, etc. seem appealing.  But are they worth the price tag that comes with them.  Not just for your personal health and appearance - but for the common good.  Diabetes and heart disease etc. are going to bankrupt this nation if we do not do something.

Teaser for tomorrow
We are having a guest for dinner tomorrow.  Farley is making her curried Chickpea dish.  Actually, I think it is already in this blog elsewhere.  But it is delicious, and we will get some good pics.

Hunger
When I was fat and sick, the thought of missing breakfast and lunch would have been fearful.  Now it is no big deal.  I have talked a bit about Dr. Fuhrman's topic of toxic hunger in his revised "Eat To Live," and find it a very enlightening discussion.  I like it because it goes beyond the theoretical and has a lot of useful ways in which you can recognize and overcome toxic hunger.

But an interest of mine is seeing how great minds approach the same idea from different angles.  Jeff Novick and Dr. Lisle describe the same idea.  Jeff Novick explained it well in one of his posts in his forum on the McDougall Discussion Board:

In response to some comments.. 1) ... 2) Most of what we call hunger, is not true hunger. Like true thirst, true hunger is not an uncomfortable gnawing feeling but a mild pleasant feeling. 3) While I know of no formal name for what this other feeling/experience is, or exact science about it, the experience of 10s of 1000s of people have showed me the same thing that I see being stated here, the cleaner your diet and the more you avoid SAD foods, the less you experience this uncomfortable gnawing feeling. I think Doug gives a great explanation of it in one of his talks and relates to the Pleasure Trap. While not completely part of this discussion, but it was the point of another earlier discussion recently, I do want to point out that this is a problem with many of the foods that may be "approved" but not "recommended". Some of them can be higher in salt, sugar and fat and can keep someone in the Pleasure Trap. As Doug explains, these "symptoms" are similar to those of an addicts withdrawal, and so the best solution is to keep these to a minimum or eliminate them. There is no one answer as to how much of any of them will elicit the Pleasure Trap in anyone, so it is something everyone has to experiment with. 4) . . . In Health Jeff

October 4

Learning from mistakes

Like everybody, I hate making mistakes, and I have made plenty.  I did have good guidance as a child however, and was taught to learn from my mistakes and to not repeat them.  This lesson applies to food as well as life in general.

Last night I made a mistake.  It was late, I was hungry, and I had eaten only 2 meals.  I decided to have some leftovers at about 10 p.m.  When I was eating 3 meals per day, I tried never to eat after dinner.  Last night, I learned that even when hungry, it is a bad idea to eat late.  I did not sleep well and was uncomfortable for most of the night.  My new eating plan does not change my need to fast after dinner.  I plan not to repeat that mistake.

What I see in the real world is many people repeating the same mistakes.  It is most obvious in those with marked health problems like obesity and chronic disease.  It is always least obvious to ourselves.  It is easy to beat ourselves up over mistakes and fail to learn from them.

It is important to stop now and then and look where we are.  If we are not where we would like to be, it is certainly because some mistake is being repeated.  A determined search will usually show the mistake, and a determined effort can avoid the mistake.  This seems so obvious, and yet is so often missed.  I wish to myself, and to everybody, the courage to face up to mistakes and find ways to eliminate them.  That is the goal for me - not perfection, but continuous improvement.  That is the opposite of excuses.

Excuses are much easier than improvement.  Last night I chatted with a friend who now knows about healthy eating, but has been unable to do it.  She lamented that she had three upcoming celebrations to attend, and would not be able to eat well.  I mentioned that she did not have to eat the food served at these occasions, and could eat before hand.  Her look showed that she had already logged her excuse for these occasions.  My friend is a wonderful and intelligent person who is obese with serious medical issues as a result.  Despite her many great personal qualities, she has chosen excuses over improvement.  I hope that will change.

It is sad to see so many people who do not know that the solution is so simple. If you eat whole plant food, like logged here, you are going to get great results.  Period.  It is even more sad to see people who know about healthy eating struggling for years without progress because they are repeating mistakes.  Usually, the mistake involves a food addiction to something like chocolate or junk food that they think they can control and include in an otherwise healthy diet.  At some point, they need to learn from that mistake.

Everybody who knows about people like Drs. Furhrman, McDougall, Novick, Esselstyn, Barnard, etc. should be healthy and trim, or well on their way towards that.  I hope everybody will learn better from their mistakes.  Today, I have still not eaten because I am learning from one of my own.

October 3 Food

Lunch
Again, no breakfast.  If I felt truly hungry at breakfast, I would eat breakfast - but I don't.  Is Lunch looking familiar yet?

I started with a large bowl of mixed salad greens and spinach.






A scoop of brown rice on top.





Topped with last nights roasted squash dish.





Then added some mixed fruit/berries and a few walnuts, crushed.
Simple, quick, and effective.






Dinner

Dinner was fast and simple.  Brown rice with a steamed veggies and beans.  The veggies were carrots, green beans and yellow bell peppers.  As usual, these were placed on top of a large amount of chopped greens (salad greens and spinach)  On top were a few crushed walnuts.  I was hungry and ate quite a bit.

The steamer is a real time saver.  I wrote a review which you can find in this blog.  I also need to write a rice cooker review.  My conclusion - if you can afford it, get an induction model Tiger rice cooker.  If you can't afford it, get something like the Sanyo regular heating model.  It is important to have cookers with timers and a way to keep the food warm.

When I returned from orchestra rehearsal I was still hungry.  The rice was gone, so I warmed a sweet potato and had it with the left over veggies/beans, again with some walnuts on top.

Roasted Banana Squash and Beans

I know Bob gave you a teaser about tonight's dinner.  I invented this a few weeks ago when Bob wanted more beans in his meals.  I had never tasted banana squash until about a year ago and ever since then I've been a big fan of it.  This is my favorite way to enjoy it.  The aroma of the herbs (it's cooking right now...heavenly aroma from the kitchen) will keep you drooling while it cooks for 1 1/2 hours.  I use wine to roast it in rather than of course oil.  The wine caramelizes the vegetables giving them a delicious texture. This recipe is about as "gourmet" as I get.

One note about the squash, most of the time I can only get it already cut into quarters (banana squash is huge) with the seeds cleaned out, which is just fine by me.  (My idea of fast food)  I've bought it whole and it's a chore to clean, much like a pumpkin.  But when you can get it whole, it will last in the fridge for a good week if you have cut into it.  Uncut it lasts for several weeks.

Roasted Banana Squash, Beans and Veggies

Ingredients:
All vegetables to be chopped bite size
1/4 banana squash, washed, peeled and seeded
8 oz Portobello Mushrooms
3 large to medium heirloom tomatoes...but any kind of tomato works
1 large orange or yellow bell pepper
1 14 oz can of No Salt Red Kidney Beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup of red wine (Zin or Cab, but an oil and salt free veggie broth works also, though different flavor)
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried thyme

Toss it all together in a large bowl then pour into a large roasting dish.  It will mound up pretty high, but as it cooks it will shrink some.

Bake/roast at 375 for 1 1/2 hours.


We'll serve this over a pile of fresh raw greens, usually spinach and steamed rice.  The heat of the veggies wilts the spinach just right.

Just before going into the oven.

A cleaned quarter of banana squash.

Squash chopped to bite sized.

Just out of the oven.  The beans are crunchy-chewy and everything else just melts in your mouth.

Bob's bowl with the steamed asparagus added and his walnuts.

You have got to try this.  It was fantastic if I do say so myself!

Bob says:
I have to take a demerit for the wine, even if cooked off.  But it's worth it.  This is a delicious dish, and would easily satisfy and impress guests.  I had mine over a large bed of greens, a scoop of brown rice, topped with fresh steamed asparagus and a few crushed walnuts on top.  With food like this, there is just no excuse to remain sick and fat on a SAD or VAD diet.

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.

October 1 Food

Lunch - October 1

Farley made a wonderful lunch today.  It was a variation on a theme of what has become my standard lunch - a large salad.  It starts with a very large serving of mixed greens - today consisting of salad greens and chopped spinach.


The greens were put into a large bowl, and had to be crunched to fit.






On top of that was a great veggie salad mix that Farley worked hard on for our first day of the challenge.  It seemed like there was some of everything in there.  Orange cherry tomatoes, zucchini, black beans, cauliflower, radish, celery, carrot, & yellow bell pepper.  Lots of chopping - thanks sweetheart.




Here is what one oz. of walnuts look like.  These were added to the mix.






On top  of all this was added a baked Japanese sweet potato.  These are delicious.  No dressing was necessary.  The bites of sweet potato and walnuts provided lots of wonderful taste.






Dinner Oct. 1
Not much to write here.  Went out for a 1 hour kayak paddle on the local lake.  Then I ate the same thing as lunch.  There was just enough and it tasted just as great.  No beverages today but water (that goes without saying in the future.  I'll list anything I drink other than water.)