Taking on a New Challenge

Hello friends. Last night I watched the documentary Forks Over Knives. It is absolutely incredible and everyone should watch this movie. It goes in from a scientific and medical perspective on why all of the illnesses we are facing- heart disease, cancer, diabetes- are all related to the foods we eat. It shows how we falsely believe certain foods are healthy for us and why we've been taught to think that. It shows extensive studies that these doctors have been working on since the 1970s and studying people and their diets from all over the world and it's just a truly amazing movie. It's a huge eye opener. Anyway, I'll definitely try to have an article up about it today or tomorrow.

My friend and I have decided to try to eat the way the movie encourages us- by eating almost entirely plant based foods, and see what it does for us. We're going to do this for 30 days and I'll put up articles on what we are doing and how it's effecting us. I just wanted to let you all know that I'm taking this personal challenge so hopefully that's something you all can look forward to reading. I don't know what I'm gong to call this challenge of mine, something like "the 30 day vegan" but I'm really excited about doing this personal challenge and I encourage you to try it as well. BTW I believe we're officially starting it this weekend.

Good idea, will keep an eye out for your articles on your personal food challenge.

I recommend Michael Pollan's advice on food - Eat food, not too much, mostly plants - as well as his seven rules for eating:

1. Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. "When you pick up that box of portable yogurt tubes, or eat something with 15 ingredients you can't pronounce, ask yourself, "What are those things doing there?" Pollan says.
2. Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can't pronounce.
3. Stay out of the middle of the supermarket; shop on the perimeter of the store. Real food tends to be on the outer edge of the store near the loading docks, where it can be replaced with fresh foods when it goes bad.
4.  Don't eat anything that won't eventually rot. "There are exceptions -- honey -- but as a rule, things like Twinkies that never go bad aren't food," Pollan says.
5. It is not just what you eat but how you eat. "Always leave the table a little hungry," Pollan says. "Many cultures have rules that you stop eating before you are full. In Japan, they say eat until you are four-fifths full. Islamic culture has a similar rule, and in German culture they say, 'Tie off the sack before it's full.'"
6. Families traditionally ate together, around a table and not a TV, at regular meal times. It's a good tradition. Enjoy meals with the people you love. "Remember when eating between meals felt wrong?" Pollan asks.
7. Don't buy food where you buy your gasoline. In the U.S., 20% of food is eaten in the car.

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/news/20090323/7-rules-for-eating

Bravo to you, Kait, on taking up this dietary challenge for yourself. In the past I did something similar and within days noticed many positive differences. Then I got lazy and back into bad eating habits. Thanks for a reminder for me to get back to eating healthier.

just watch Forks Over Knives, it'll make you afraid to fall into old habits LOL

Great tips Rupert! I'll definitely think about those at meal time. That's amazing to me that 20% of food is eaten in the car. I can't eat and drive for the life of me and believe me, I've tried.

I'm going to combine that with the Baggy Pants method which advocates smaller meals and healthy snacks. It also fits with my current diet of protein bars for breakfast and crackers, yogurt and fruit for lunch.

Looking forward to reading your series, which reminds me: once my PESKY AUDITORS have removed themselves from my presence next week, I have had an idea on how to finish up my goal setting challenge series.

I am absolutely with you on that idea Kait, and look forward to your report.

I have been changing my eating ways too, and have seen a positive improvement in overall health.  Young people are so fortunate to have this info and make those changes for a lifetime.  (Read "Grain Brain" or look up Dr. Perlmutter for more good info.)

If I only had to cook for me, the change would be complete faster, but I have picky kids who are not yet wise enough to realize the benefits of eating correctly.

Thank you all for such great support and advice! I'm really excited to try this. I honestly feel like the hardest part of going vegetarian for a month won't be the will power to avoid meat (I pretty much do that already because I don't care for the taste/texture of most meats) but all the anti-support from family. On the plus side, I live alone so I'm not making meals for anyone for me nor going grocery shopping with anyone else, but we often have cook outs or dinners together and they're more likely to laugh at me and force me to eat a hot dog than they are to offer a tomato.

In all fairness, I haven't really mentioned it to them yet but that's because I already know what  their reactions will be, from experience.

I read a worrying article today on the Guardian about one couple's troubles to host a vege/vegan wedding party. Now I have my own suspicions why they had problems (spot the bit where the writer states they were hoping to do their own catering?) but I don't think that catering vegetarian en masse would actually be THAT difficult for people.

I fed my Uni house on vege food for one night a week when it was my turn to cook and my husband and I eat vegetarian foood regularly. I was vege by choice until I met him and I still eat way more veges than he does. It seems that some people are of the idea that vege food does not fill you up. I've actually had more success keeping my weight down with vege food than I do on an omnivorous diet.

I'm looking forward to reading how you go with this.

One thing that I'm going back and forth on is the idea of going totally vegan or simply vegetarian. I think it would be difficult to stay on a vegan diet simply because you might not know if there is animal by-products in food. Vegans stay away from anything animal related -which is pretty much what Forks Over Knives advocates because there are so many processed foods, other than meat, that made from animal by-products and unhealthy.

I ate mostly vegetables, soya-derivative meat substitute ('Quorn' or mushroom protein), eggs and dairy for around 10 years. No meat, no fish. My bones disliked being without the calcium they had come to expect from eggs, milk and cheese, so I had to keep those, but apart from the odd lapse when friends served me something different or I was on holiday in an area which didn't understand the vegetarian ideal, I ate vegetarian throughout.

When a group of us had a BBQ at a friend's house in Belgium recently, he decided the easiest way to feed us all was to take us to the grocery store and tell us to buy what we wanted to eat. We had some Belgian sausage, but the vegetarians in the party were able to buy vege alternatives and request that they were cooked first to avoid meat contamination. This worked really well, and might be an option if you go for a grill with your family?

That's really cool that they were so accommodating. I was surprised at my brother over the weekend. He had a cookout for his sons birthday party and he apologized to me that all he bought was meat. There was other food there and I had stuffed my face with avocados (my favorite veggie everrrr) before I came anyways, but it was nice that he was so sincere about it.