People saying I could never eat that way its too difficult?

[astronaut23]

I always think is it really that difficult to eat a diet of whole grains, beans, vegetables, fruits with no added oils? There is a much greater variety of foods to eat from the plant world than the animal product world. I mean there are lots of vegtables, varieties of beans ect that I never tried before switching to this nutrition plan. There is no need to be sick of the food from lack of variety that is for sure.

It doesn't seem like a big sacrifice to pay to set aside the beef, pork, chicken, fish, eggs, butter, cheese, milk, olive oil, ect. in order to reduce heart attack risk as low as possible. It seems a lot easier to me than one day winding up with crushing chest pain and falling over dead thats for sure.

[plants-and-carbs]

I totally agree!

I just find it so darn easy. I don't see what the big deal is. It was easy for me because I walked into it with a very positive attitude. If you go around thinking about being "deprived" of pizza, rich meats, creamy dressings, yes, you will make yourself crazy.

I never did that. I just focused on the nice, simple, cheap variety at my disposal and how it would be so much easier to lose weight this way and, it has been super easy for me.

[Gweithgar]

My son has largely cleared up his intestinal issues with the McDougall Digestive Tune Up book. He was explaning the plan to a friend, who came back with the "I could never give up my bratwurst and cheese!" My son's reply was "Well, I guess you just aren't in enough pain yet." I consider that a classic come-back line.

[KittyMcKnitty]

It's kind of funny to me when an omnivore who eats basically the same thing every day comments on how restrictive this WOE must be.

[astronaut23]

Yeah, cheeseburgers and grease fries....cheeseburgers and grease fries...cheeseburgers and grease fries...yuck.

I don't see now how people can eat GREASE now that I've havent in a month.

[bbq]

It's always difficult unless they've taken the time to learn. IMHO the really difficult part is to unlearn what we've been told by our parents / friends / teachers / politicians etc.

Whenever we try to talk about this way of life, more than likely it'll trigger cognitive dissonance and the next thing you know is someone greeting us with heavy doses of denial / resistance / shock / skepticism.

The message won't fit into someone's existing paradigm and finally it's simply rejected right away. Until they've found a compelling reason to shift that particular paradigm, both behavior and attitude would remain unchanged.

Sometimes a terminal illness followed by a trip to ER, that's when the potential of death looked someone square in the eye and the choices became severely limited. That long-awaited light bulb moment finally kicked in and the rest was history.

We could actually borrow British cartoonist W. E. Hill's "My Wife and My Mother-in-Law" for explaining different perceptions of foods:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Wife_and_My_Mother-in-Law



http://www.managetrainlearn.com/page/old-hag

http://psylux.psych.tu-dresden.de/i1/kaw/diverses%20Material/www.illusionworks.com/html/perceptual_ambiguity.html

Some of us often get caught up in different parts of that same picture. In the end not everyone is able to tell that both sides of the coin are shown right there. Until we've educated ourselves enough to realize how our minds are tricked by that illusion, we have no way to tell where to find the specifics required and what to focus on.

Ultimately it's just easier to argue what we see in the picture and insist that the opposite side of the argument is wrong. In other words, people will tend to see what they want to see and simply forget about the other possibilities. Fortunately we're already aware of both sides of the spectrum and understand what really makes that difference.

[shell-belle]

I agree it is not difficult. What seems HARD to me is to keep eating the SAD way and become SICK-!


last fall my hubby and i went to see an older friend of his - this guy is
about 75 years old. but what a mess he is. i had not seen him since 2007. he's really gone downhill.
he is now the poster boy for eating the SAD way.
he's arthritic and bent over. he said he had had bladder cancer and prostate cancer. he kept forgetting stuff and repeating himself and
prattling on and on --kept going off topic. he said he smoked up until 4 years ago-! wow-!
i told him did he know smoking was a risk factor for bladder cancer. he did not know that. i think he has
some dementia going on. he said his 21 yr old daughter is a vegetarian and he and his wife are not. he says he does
all the cooking since his wife works full time and it's "very difficult" to cook for a vegetarian because there "aren't that many things to make".
i didn't not argue with him of course but what a crock of crap that statement is. there are TONS of things
to make for vegetarians. so many fabulous vegetables and fruits and you can make soups and curries and
pasta dishes. and of course smoothies, rice, lentils and potatoes!

the common American knows so little, yet when introduced to a diet that could help his health, he cannot see giving up the great variety of foods that
he eats ( actually, this older guy has little variety, just tons of the same stuff ).
he is eating out of HABIT - in an archaic style.
he's a retired engineer who worked for chrysler corp back in michigan.
his wife is about 50 and quite overweight. they both would do well to
become vegetarians like the daughter is.

[Latgerda]

As someone who has been a McDougaller for one month only, I can see why people would say that. Most of us are creatures of habit, and we have a set of foods that we consume all the time. To change that we have to get a new set of foods, new set of recipes or preparation methods, figure out what is allowed and what not. Change our habitual round through the supermarket, read labels, plan what we eat rather than throwing a bunch of pre-made meals in the bag and call it dinner for the week.

Then there is the part where you are constantly the odd one out, have to explain why you are not eating ice cream all of a sudden anymore, inconvenience hosts and waiters and exercise willpower in the transition phase.

You also have to re-learn how your body functions. The entire concept of not starving immediately when the stomach grumbles because you skipped a meal or that indeed, not every meal has to contain protein in abundance is something to get used to.

Don't get me wrong - I don't think that it is "too difficult" as a general rule, but if you combine convenience with the pleasure trap, then you need a relatively strong motivator to get your head round what you are supposed to be doing and to stick to it. Especially in our western society where hedonism is king, you have to be either pretty desperate health or weight wise or you need to have done a lot of thinking in the direction of voluntary simplicity or maybe have some external motivators like ethical veganism or maybe a partner who drags you along, before you get to this point. (at least that is the conclusion I have come to after a lot of musing ... I am sure there will be people who can prove me wrong and who just did it without such a strong motivator!)

Is it worth it anyway? Absolutely! Just probably not for everyone, unless they get to that point.

That being said, it usually gets on my nerves when people dismiss something without thinking it through or giving it a shot. In my mind saying "this requires more effort or more sacrifice than I am willing to invest" (which is how I interpret "I could never eat that way, it's too difficult") is a valid point. Saying something like "this is too expensive - I couldn't afford it" without having done the math or "I would be hungry all the time" without having tried, now that makes me rather impatient.

[miranda2060]

Very well put, Latgerda. Sometimes I am amazed that I was able to do it at all, even though I was never strongly committed to the meat/dairy agenda (I did like fish, though).

How well I remember, after seeing "Forks Over Knives," asking myself whether I COULD do it, and if so, how? What would I eat, and would I have to learn gourmet vegan cooking? That's where McDougall came in; the Dr.'s writings and Mary's easy recipes made the transition understandable and relatively easy, once my partner and I adjusted to the change. But, I can fully understand why people would balk. It can be a steep learning curve. I'm also fortunate to have a partner who was motivated to change. If mine were a SAD-eating family, it would be much more difficult.

[Pumpkin Pete]

People become prisoners of their habits and those that can't imagine eating only plants I think lack imagination.
Instead of looking at the foods that you 'can't eat' I look at all the wonderful foods that I can eat. Once you take the time to look and search you will see fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes provide an enormous range of delicious and healthy choices.
I never eat any plant food that I don't like and look forward to every meal regardless of what people are eating around me.

[shell-belle]

People become prisoners of their habits and those that can't imagine eating only plants I think lack imagination.
Instead of looking at the foods that you 'can't eat' I look at all the wonderful foods that I can eat. Once you take the time to look and search you will see fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes provide an enormous range of delicious and healthy choices.
I never eat any plant food that I don't like and look forward to every meal regardless of what people are eating around me.

Yes--prisoners of habit & lack of imagination is right-!

Eating meat and dairy is ingrained into us from an early age. Most of us ate meat and dairy because our mothers cooked it for us, and our mothers cooked it for us because their mothers cooked it for them, and so on and on back as far as you can go.

The irony is that once this inherited, generational habit is broken, and the search for foods alternative to meat and dairy begins, a whole new food perspective unfolds. Its difficult not to laugh sometimes when people ask, 'You don't eat meat, fish, eggs, milk or cheese, so what DO you eat?'

"Difficult" and "hard" are relative words. Most in the world do not have enough food, so to say only eating plant-based is difficult I find tough to take.

[SecondHalf]

Very well put, Latgerda. Sometimes I am amazed that I was able to do it at all, even though I was never strongly committed to the meat/dairy agenda (I did like fish, though).

How well I remember, after seeing "Forks Over Knives," asking myself whether I COULD do it, and if so, how? What would I eat, and would I have to learn gourmet vegan cooking? That's where McDougall came in; the Dr.'s writings and Mary's easy recipes made the transition understandable and relatively easy, once my partner and I adjusted to the change. But, I can fully understand why people would balk. It can be a steep learning curve. I'm also fortunate to have a partner who was motivated to change. If mine were a SAD-eating family, it would be much more difficult.

I didn't eat that far off the tracks to begin with, other than diary (which is kind of a biggie), but I remember having those same thoughts, Miranda. And the same experience that once you start looking at the McDougall cookbook resources along with other low-fat plants-only cookbooks, you begin to understand that it's an adjustment you can make.

On why some people might think it's too hard, one thing I'm very careful when I'm talking to others (who eat SAD) is not to emphasize how hard it is. I'm very invested emotionally in the health of our three sons, who eat SAD but are beginning to rethink things and make small changes, so whenever they come up with an objection or concern, I try to have an answer ready to go. As in, "Right, you wouldn't want to eat [fill in the blank with SAD food], but you can have [WOE food] instead and it's really good. Want me to make you some?" Instead of emphasizing how restrictive it is, I try to emphasize all the foods I'm discovering or rediscovering. Because there really is a whole lot you can eat on this WOE.

[Katydid]

One of my favorite posts by the magnificent Emily Boller over on Fr. Furhman's diseaseproof.com blog was on just this topic:

http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/in ... -that.html

Favorite quote:

•I could never blow the family budget on unnecessary test strips, insulin, medications, doctor and hospital bills, or bypass surgery.

•I could never carry around expensive medical supplies and meds while traveling.

•I could never ask a loved one to mow the lawn for me due to fatigue and ill health.

•I could never turn a child away from playing a game due to a migraine headache.

•I could never miss out on the joy of a wedding celebration due to obesity and depression.

•I could never ask someone to drive me to kidney dialysis three times a week.

Kate

[SecondHalf]

One of my favorite posts by the magnificent Emily Boller over on Fr. Furhmans's diseaseproof.com blog was on just this topic:

http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/in ... -that.html

Favorite quote:

•I could never blow the family budget on unnecessary test strips, insulin, medications, doctor and hospital bills, or bypass surgery.

•I could never carry around expensive medical supplies and meds while traveling.

•I could never ask a loved one to mow the lawn for me due to fatigue and ill health.

•I could never turn a child away from playing a game due to a migraine headache.

•I could never miss out on the joy of a wedding celebration due to obesity and depression.

•I could never ask someone to drive me to kidney dialysis three times a week.

Kate

Thanks for posting that, Katydid. I think I will print those off and put those on the fridge.