Discussion Board

One of my favorite expressions is 'less is more'. But in the case of this way of eating, it's better to think 'more is more'. I have to keep reminding myself that, as Dr.Fuhrman says, the more I eat of vegetables and legumes, the better I will do. Starches seem to take care of themselves.

When eating to lose weight, I have a tendency to believe I should cut back on what goes into my mouth. It's difficult to think in the opposite direction.

It's time for another note on the frig door.

More is more.

I've had a great day today. I found some stock in the freezer and made some absolutely yummy veggie soup. I was able to use up a good number of veggies in the fridge - baby bok choi, broccoli, anahiem chile pepper, mushrooms, onions, ... and a bag of chopped spinach, a can of chopped tomatoes, and lots of cooked black beans. They are so pretty. Man, the soup tastes so good. I put it over some cooked grains. There is rye in there, and it is slightly chewy which I really like. I need to buy more of that. And barley.

I decided to go back to eating fewer carbs than I had been - not eliminating, just fewer. I just seem to feel less hungry when I up the veggies at the expense of the grains. So, unless I really want it, no oatmeal for breakfast, and fewer grains for other meals. When I ate oatmeal for breakfast, the rest of the day turned out to be less than optimal eating-wise.. I just seemed more hungry more often. For breakfast I seem to do much better with lots of microwaved 'steamed' veggies over a modest amount of mixed grains, and a bit of non compliant grated romano cheese.

Also snacked on some yummy baby potatoes. They are indeed very filling.

The weather was gorgeous. This afternoon I played my sport and was very sharp. Love when that happens.

I love yard sale and thrift store shopping, and over time have found many wonderful things. It satisfies the 'shopping gene' with not much $. Today I went to shop in a mall that has a grocery store, health food store, and my favorite thift store. And I got good things at each of them. Frozen veggies and apples at the grocery, whole grain rye and barley at the health food store, and at the thrift store, a short, wide - but not too wide - corningware vessel that will be perfect for cooking/reheating my breakfast veggies and rice. I did not know they came in that shape/size. I am tickled pink.

Eating-wise thus far today I've done 8 on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being 'perfect'. That is acceptable to me. (It was the avocado. ) Exercise could have been better too.

Kitty compliance...

Dendra makes her famous 80% compliant veggie soup:

After reading about nut milks here and there, I decided to make some almond milk. It was pretty easy, but sort of messy. Next time should be better. I only use it for 'ice creams' and cocoa, so I may have to freeze portions of it.

I took one cup of almonds and soaked them overnight. Then drained them, put them with 2 cups of water into the vitamix. When blended, I added 2 more cups of water and blended more. Not sure why I did it this way, but it made sense.

I then poured the slurry through a 'gold' coffee filter. That took some time. When mostly filtered, I took another 2 cups of water, put the 'sediment' back in the blender and gave it another ride - till it got slightly warm. I then refiltered this, and added what drained off into the other liquid.

In all, I got about 4.5 cups of 'almond milk'. I intend to dry the remaining pulp and maybe blend it into flour of some sort. Not sure what I'll do with it. I do enjoy making crackers.

Anyway, after all the milk was drained, I washed the blender container, put the milk back, and added 1 tsp of vanilla, and 2 tsp of molasses, and the smallest bit of salt and blended. The resulting milk is very good.

Making this is barely cost effective, and took a moderate amount of time. It costs about $1 for a cup of raw almonds (costco) that yields a generous quart of almond milk. It costs about $3 for 2 quarts premade at Trader Joes.

On the Furhman board, someone was talking about making pepita milk. I might try that next time.

It was kinda fun....
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As to food/eating, now that Thanksgiving is over, I've decided to keep a daily food journal. This might be helpful at least till New Year's. If I remember that long. I'll often just forget about writing in one.

Day 2 of food journal keeping. It's already re-focusing my eating. Besides the food consumed and time of day, I'm also including a column for 'level of true hunger' on a scale of 0 thru 5 (with 6 being unreasonable starved/ravenous).

Years ago when trying to get in touch with and learn to distinguish between real, physical hunger and 'emotional' hunger, I kept a hunger log. I not only could not tell the difference, I did not know there even was a difference. Doing that was very helpful and in the long run, prevented eating when I wasn't truly hungry. But I've gotten lax again. I rarely eat by the clock so it really is better to check in with hunger.

So, this is my hunger scale:

0=over-full/stuffed. Uncomfortable. Avoid this level.

1=very satisfied, not thinking about eating or food.

2=mostly satisfied, mostly comfortable. It's not time yet. Do something else.

3=was that hunger I felt? Not quite sure yet. If you can't tell, you are not hungry enough yet.

4=Ya, I'm definitely hungry, but do I want to stop what I'm doing to eat?

5=feed me now or everyone will suffer.

(6)= past rational hunger into starvation - only rarely used.

I try to eat at just over 4, but before I get dangerous.

Guess I'll also try to slow down eating and judge level of satiety too, though that's always been more difficult.

It's all subjective. The basic idea is from the intuitive eating books such as Geneen Roth et al.

Still plugging away....

I kept a journal for a couple days, and that made me realize I was eating in a rather sloppy way. Not all that much, but not really paying attention to what I was doing.

Then I forgot about it. I think keeping one is a good idea, esp during the holidays, but I need a better, larger notebook in which to do it. My current goal is to get to Dec 31 at at least the same weight as today.

Today has been good thus far. I'm craving a nice salad for dinner. Got some really good lettuce today,

and some avocado.

Hey Dendra -

I like the way you plug - you set goals but you're not too demanding of yourself, mix in a sense of humor, a little adventure, some fun. Great recipe . I enjoy reading your posts.

Donna

Thanks Donna, very nice of you to say. I do find myself in a good spot these days.

Even though I am not following this WOE to the letter, I do believe it has great merit. I keep plugging away because there simply is no acceptable, alternative way of eating for me. Other than for a bit of this and that, I am not even tempted to eat any other way. I don't even consider it a diet, just how I am now eating.

I have had scale issues in the past. Wish I had thought of this back then.

Today is Monday, the start of a new week - the first full week of December.

Yesterday I watched a pbs program on the Mayo Clinic Diet. What was interesting was not the diet per se, as in the foods they recommended, though they did stress fruits, veggies, legumes, starches... It was what they were saying about diet peripherae. The things you do to change habits, keeping a complete journal, etc. I'm going to get the book from the library since I really liked what they had to say about making one's new way of eating into a life-time way. Yes, I've always heard that (who hasn't?), but this time both in practice and core thought, I feel that way about my version of plant-based eating.

So I will implement what I can now, which is to keep a more detailed journal. I don't know what they suggest keeping track of, but I am planning on what I eat, hunger levels and satiety, exercise/movement, moods/boredom, just about anything I want to make note of... but especially every morsel that I eat. That is one of the things that Geneen Roth stressed for years, and I have never been able to do more than a few days. Except for six months of calorie-counting years ago (my first diet ever - lost 50+ pounds, ...gained it all back over a decade, and then some.). I don't think I could keep one before because someone was telling me I 'should' keep a food journal instead of me wanting to do it. Rebel to the end.

Todays brekkie will be a plate of steamed veggies over a small bed of nicely chewy mixed grains. And a cup of almond milk cocoa. Very filling.

Re journaling - I did that until midday Tuesday, then seem to have forgotten again. Think I have to move the notepad to a place where I see it all the time. Like next to the computer perhaps.

I have been paying attention to my level of true hunger more often, and am realizing that while I usually have been waiting for true hunger before eating, it's not always strong true hunger. One is not either 'starving' or 'stuffed', but rather there is a range of levels of hunger in between.

I was raised to believe that being 'hungry' was an undesirable thing. My parents did not have an over-abundance of good food themselves growing up, so when their own kids (us) said we were hungry, they fed us immediately - as if experiencing real hunger was something really bad and needed to be solved asap. Or worse, prevented before it even could happen.

So now as an adult I need to get over that learned underlying belief that 'hungry' is a bad thing that needs to be fixed. It's not bad at all, but rather a desired state of being. It's not starvation, but good, honest, healthy hunger, and something to strive for, not avoid.

So, I will continue to observe my level of hunger when I think I want to eat. If I don't feel true physical hunger, I'll do something more interesting as a distraction. If I have the physical signals that I recognize as 'true hunger' in my own body (stomach rumblings, even growling, definite empty feeling in the mid-section, etc), I'll acknowledge it, and then try to let it mature so that it becomes even more defined. But not let it get so strong that I get ravenous, then eat too much and too fast and over-shoot the satiety mark.

I'll try that and see what happens. Plans 'on paper' about food and eating always seem so doable right after breakfast.

Someone here (pinkrose?) made a comment about true hunger that I found particularly helpful. It was along the lines of, if you're not hungry enough to eat an apple or some plain rice, then you're not truly hungry, you're just wanting to eat. That stuck with me because it seems like an easier test to apply than trying to sort out the physical sensations and locations. I don't much like apples so I add sweet potato to that list. If I'm willing to eat a plain cold sweet potato, then I know I'm really hungry!

Agreed, when I was investigating what true hunger felt like in my own body, I used to use celery as my litmus test. If I didn't want to eat a stick of celery when I thought I might be hungry, I wasn't really hunger.

Another thing that helped was something Geneen Roth said in one of her earlier books - paraphrasing- Hunger is like being in love. If you don't really know, you probably aren't.

I've been doing pretty well today staying with real hunger longer. I even did some cleaning in the garage when food crossed my mind but I knew I wasn't hungry enough. I might end up with a really clean house if this continues.

I do that, too! When I get cravings my house is SPOTLESS.

Just caught up on your journal, looks like you are doing great, and I love that lie-on-the-floor scale trick a few posts above

Isn't it nice to clear out all the veggies in the freezer/refridg?

Nicole