Eat to Live

[Pamela H in Texas]

I thought I've seen prior discussion about this, but I couldn't find it in a search. I guess the words themselves are pretty common so I end up with just way too many options to sort through.

 

Anyway, I'm absolutely miserable physically speaking. And I've gained A LOT of weight since trying to move (like more than it seems should be possible). And then the aspartame poisoning thread really caught my eye.

 

So I decided I HAVE to do something. Since I LIKED raw vegan, that was my natural tendency. But we have some changes that made it where I was thinking about how to do it differently than in the past. So I was looking at the 80/10/10 diet. However, I'm not huge on fruit and I thought the amount was going to be difficult and the diet seemed hard to do while working all day.

 

But while searching, I found Eat to Live and it sounds PERFECT. 3 distinct meals is MUCH easier. And what to eat and how to eat it seemed to give a lot more flexibility (sometimes cooking is easier). Other draws it include that it makes sense why we didn't lose much weight on raw but could on this. And I love that people are losing weight but more importantly having significant changes in how they feel physically. And then I like that it is a 90% diet past the first 6 weeks. You have play room for other choices whether you decide to have a "normal" meal once a week or whatever.

 

I joined the yahoo group, but was wondering if other boardies were doing it (or had done it) and your experience.

[cathmom]

My dh and I tried it for about 3 days. I think it's really, really hard to eat that way, and I was hungry all the time.

[Pamela H in Texas]

Thanks cath....

 

I wonder about being hungry with no snacks. However, the fact that you can eat as much as you want of certain foods seems like that would cut down on that.

 

I don't find the diet, at a glance (still working on the book and a menu), extremely restrictive; but that is probably because I planned to go back to raw vegan so dropping the raw really opens up more food, recipes, etc giving me MORE options (though it seems like a lot of people are pretty raw still with green smoothies for breakfast and "taco" salads for lunch and a salad with supper).

 

Thanks for your response though. I want a fair representation. Some people were talking about how much better they felt after a few days and obviously y'all didn't feel so much better as to want to deal with the restrictions. I don't need an overnight miracle (though that would be nice); but I do want to be able to live with the program long enough to get some benefits.

 

ooooh, I just saw the "similar threads" below. I can go check them out :)

[Jumping In Puddles]

I modified the ETL diet and lost a lot of weight and felt great. I added salmon and eggs. Also, I added more olive oil and a touch of butter.

 

I need to get back to that diet, thanks for the reminder! :)

[Renee in NC]

I tried it for a few weeks EXCEPT I would add meat in at dinner. Without that meat, I did not feel well at all. That is just me, though - others may need something different. I quit doing it because.....honestly, I don't remember.:tongue_smilie: Probably too busy (and it was expensive to eat all that fresh produce in January since it was a "cold" winter here.)

 

I think it is doable for me, but I am going about it a different way this time. Instead of *limiting* myself to what he says, I eat what he prescribes FIRST. If I am still hungry after that, then I can eat other things.

 

For example, my meals would look like this:

 

Breakfast - 2 servings fruit, 1/4 cup nuts

Lunch - 1 pound salad, 1 cup beans, 2 servings fruit

Dinner - 1 pound cooked veggies, at least 3 ounces of meat

 

If I was still hungry, then I would add in other things. I need to avoid dairy anyway (I am allergic and my reactions keep getting worse.) At breakfast I might add in something like Kashi Go Lean. Lunch might be a whole grain wrap. Dinner would be more meat.

 

Whatever you do, it has to be something you can live with long term. Otherwise you lose weight, go off the plan, and then you gain all the weight back and then some.

[NicksMama-Zack's Mama Too]

You can have one serving of grains, so I prefer to have it as breakfast....

 

Breakfast

1 cup of FiberOne cereal

1 cup of soy milk

1 T. ground flax seed

coffee w/ non-dairy creamer

 

Mid-morning/Mid-afternoon Snack

1 oz almonds

1 serving of tomato juice (V8)

 

Lunch

Fruit plate (large dinner plate with 4-5 fruits sliced and covering plate)

 

Afternoon snacking: raw carrots, peppers, and celery w/

simple hummus (chickpeas, lemon, garlic and tahinin) or black bean dip (black beans, cumin, chili powder)

 

 

Dinner:

salad with kidney/chick peas sprinkled in

and a steam-fresh/cooked bag of veggies

OR

salad with bean-based/vegan soup/entree

OR

 

 

Desert (helped me stay on track early on in the program)

Low-cal/diet hot chocolate

 

Make sure you get plenty of greens and beans every day. Salads should include spinach/kale if you are not getting a green leafy veggie in your entree.

 

I am never hungry on this diet. The raw veggies I graze on help me get to the 1 lb of raw veggies recommended. I have a harder time incorporating the cooked veggies because I am so darn full after the salad and bean entree. Many times I just give up and skip it.

 

We have company and cook outs all summer. My staple grill meal is grilled portabellos or grilled mixed peppers and red onion. I spray them lightly with olive oil and use a grill basket. I take a wrap/tortilla and spread a little hummus on it and then add the veggies and make a burrito of sorts. It's yummy and satisfying when everyone else is eating meat.

 

I have always been successful on a diet when I know I can cheat. I have one meal a week that doesn't have to be on the plan. As time goes on, I find that I am more than willing to make vegetarian choices even for this meal. When I do cheat, I find I am very satisfied with normal amounts of food and it doesn't set my cravings off, so the next day I feel fine and I'm ready to eat right again.

 

btw, lots of good recipes on fatfreevegan website. Tag: Eat to Live

 

k

 

(lost 14 lbs and loving it!)

Edited June 26, 2010 by NicksMama-Zack's Mama Too

[abbeyej]

I felt *great* eating this way. I've been off the wagon for a while, but working to get back on it. If you're doing EtL the way it's written, you're supposed to be eating a LOT of food. It's hard for me to imagine being truly hungry if you're eating a *pound* of raw veggies and a *pound* of cooked veggies a day. ... I did have some hunger between meals in the first few days and just decided to allow myself raw fruit or veggie snacks if I needed them, and shortly after that, I no longer needed them. But it didn't seem to slow weight loss or provide any problems (and got me *closer* to the veggie quotas -- though those are still hard to meet).

 

My big complaint was the amount of chopping. ;) So much chopping!

 

But this time around I have a good food processor and a VitaMix, so maybe that will help. :)

[Jane Elliot]

I don't always follow ETL, but when I do I feel better and I lose weight. And even when I'm not consciously trying to follow it now, I do eat better because of the time I spent working at eating the ETL way. I learned new recipes and habits on ETL that make healthy eating easier.

 

It would be really hard to be completely vegan around here -- we hunt and we raise angus and sheep and we have a dairy cow and chickens -- a lifestyle not very conducive to veganism :tongue_smilie:. There would be a revolt if I forced ETL on my family. But we eat and enjoy a lot more vegetables now than we used to and I'm a lot more conscious of our choices.

 

A few things that have helped:

www.fatfreevegan.com

www.diseaseproof.com

http://janadrjoel.blogspot.com/ (This is not currently active, but the woman tried and rated all Dr. Fuhrman's recipes.)

Cindy Marsch (an online writing instructor recommended by SWB) was recently blogging about ETL here: http://nutritarianrecipes.blogspot.com/

 

The recipes in Eat for Health (by Dr. Fuhrman) are better than the ones in Eat to Live.

 

Eating this way can be as simple or complicated as you like. A simple day for me looks like this...

 

For breakfast:

Microwave 1 cup frozen blueberries, 1 banana cut up and 1/4 cup rolled oats for 2 minutes. Add a few nuts or seeds.

 

For lunch:

Large salad with hummus or canned beans and salsa.

 

For supper:

Salad, cooked veggies and beans or the meat I fixed my family.

 

When I'm hungry between meals, I snack on fruit or carrots or spinach smoothies (fruit, carrots, spinach, ground flaxseed and water in the vitamix).

 

I always have two bags of PG tips tea with sugar and cream first thing in the morning. I haven't been able to give that up, but I still lose weight.

 

HTH.

[jld]

We're doing McDougall here, which is a little easier than Fuhrman's diet, but the weight loss is slower. Whereas Fuhrman focuses on beans, veggies, and fruit, McDougall recommends whole grains, potatoes, beans, veggies, and fruit. I guess I prefer McDougall because the time I tried to do Fuhrman's diet, I quit just a little bit into it because I felt weak. Dh said I wasn't eating enough on it, though, so maybe that was the problem.

 

Good luck to you with this. I think it's an excellent choice.

[MtnTeaching]

Wow! This looks really healthy!

 

Several of us are ADD/ADHD (in fact, all of us with the exception of my poor dh) and we are in need of protein at every meal. Otherwise, we just can't focus.

 

Do those of you who have been on this diet, do you feel that you get enough protein from the beans? I just don't think it would be very pretty around here if we all had beans for every meal. It would remind me of the campfire scene in "Blazing Saddles".:001_smile:

 

Good luck with this one!! It definitely looks healthy.

[NicksMama-Zack's Mama Too]

Wow! This looks really healthy!

 

Several of us are ADD/ADHD (in fact, all of us with the exception of my poor dh) and we are in need of protein at every meal. Otherwise, we just can't focus.

 

Do those of you who have been on this diet, do you feel that you get enough protein from the beans? I just don't think it would be very pretty around here if we all had beans for every meal. It would remind me of the campfire scene in "Blazing Saddles".:001_smile:

 

Good luck with this one!! It definitely looks healthy.

 

My breakfast contains 12g of protein.

My snack of nuts and tomato juice is 9g of protein

Lunch (fruit plate) 10 -15g (depending on my choices)

Dinner - 1 cup of beans have between 15-20g, plus my green veggie...

 

So, I'm up to 30-50g of protein without counting my final salad or cooked veggie.:D

 

All I can say is I feel great.

 

Sources:

 

http://www.highproteinfoods.net

 

 

http://www.wellsphere.com/healthy-eating-article/veggie-protein-8211-is-broccoli-really-50-protein/1092544

[abbeyej]

Do those of you who have been on this diet, do you feel that you get enough protein from the beans? I just don't think it would be very pretty around here if we all had beans for every meal. It would remind me of the campfire scene in "Blazing Saddles".:001_smile:

 

I think if you follow the diet as written, you won't be wanting for protein. I think being *too* low in fat is actually more of a concern, and it's important to include the nuts, seeds, very minimal oil, and avocados allowed on the diet as well as eating all of the recommended beans for protein. I do know people who have said they were following EtL but who wouldn't eat the full 1C of beans per day or the nuts, seeds, avocados... I worried a lot for those people.

 

After the first two weeks, dh and I allowed ourselves one "cheat" meal a week. We found that what we craved was not pure junk, but more borderline things -- maybe a grilled salmon fillet with asparagus with a little butter and real mashed potatoes, or a big ol' turkey sandwich on whole wheat, or even a small serving of steak with roasted veggies and some ice cream... After six weeks, we began incorporating smaller servings of meat twice a week or the occasional eggs or cheese as a garnish. (Ok, Fuhrman hates cheese, lol. He's really anti-cheese. Meanie.) ;)

 

As Luanne points out, even when we are not following EtL, I find that having done it carefully at times has improved our overall diet when *not* following EtL. One friend refers to it as a "preponderance of produce" and I try to keep that in mind for most of our meals. We still eat other foods -- and sometimes pure junk -- but we eat more fruits and veggies than we ever did before. :) Strangely, even my kids did well when we were doing EtL, though I did include more fats in their diet and made little changes like adding cheese on top of their red beans and brown rice, or parmesan on top of there spaghetti squash with tomato sauce, or added olive oil to their green beans or kept sliced roasted chicken on hand for them... Things like that.

 

As to the Blazing Saddles... I'd recommend investing in some Beano. :) Sounds silly, but it's a great product.

[Alexandra]

Ok I am kidding but honestly I thought eating this way was just awful! Reminded me of the saying "Do you live longer or does it just seem that way". I think that the diet is must be really healthy but I personally was tremedously irritable by mid afternoon. Of the half dozen or so people that I know who have tried the diet - not one has maintained it.

[Sandra in FL]

I tried it for a few weeks EXCEPT I would add meat in at dinner. Without that meat, I did not feel well at all. That is just me, though - others may need something different. I quit doing it because.....honestly, I don't remember.:tongue_smilie: Probably too busy (and it was expensive to eat all that fresh produce in January since it was a "cold" winter here.)

 

I think it is doable for me, but I am going about it a different way this time. Instead of *limiting* myself to what he says, I eat what he prescribes FIRST. If I am still hungry after that, then I can eat other things.

 

For example, my meals would look like this:

 

Breakfast - 2 servings fruit, 1/4 cup nuts

Lunch - 1 pound salad, 1 cup beans, 2 servings fruit

Dinner - 1 pound cooked veggies, at least 3 ounces of meat

 

If I was still hungry, then I would add in other things. I need to avoid dairy anyway (I am allergic and my reactions keep getting worse.) At breakfast I might add in something like Kashi Go Lean. Lunch might be a whole grain wrap. Dinner would be more meat.

 

Whatever you do, it has to be something you can live with long term. Otherwise you lose weight, go off the plan, and then you gain all the weight back and then some.

 

Don't you need to add brown rice or grain to make the beans a complete protein? Maybe that's why you need the meat at night. I know I can't do without some meat. My dd would happily live without meat. Everyone's different.

[abbeyej]

Don't you need to add brown rice or grain to make the beans a complete protein? Maybe that's why you need the meat at night. I know I can't do without some meat. My dd would happily live without meat. Everyone's different.

 

You don't need to pair beans with grains at the same meal (or even on the same day) to get complete proteins. If you're eating enough of both within about three days of each other, your body will have what it needs...

[cathmom]

Ok I am kidding but honestly I thought eating this way was just awful! Reminded me of the saying "Do you live longer or does it just seem that way". I think that the diet is must be really healthy but I personally was tremedously irritable by mid afternoon. Of the half dozen or so people that I know who have tried the diet - not one has maintained it.

 

Yes, even when I ate a LOT of veggies, I still felt hungry. My sister and her dh did a similar diet (Body Ecology) when he was diagnosed with cancer and she was hungry all the time as well. I have the same issue with low carb diets. Apparently it's the carbs that actually make me feel full, and it's just miserable to be hungry all the time.

[Renee in NC]

Don't you need to add brown rice or grain to make the beans a complete protein? Maybe that's why you need the meat at night. I know I can't do without some meat. My dd would happily live without meat. Everyone's different.

 

I am much better not eating any grains - I feel better when I don't. I am not talking low-carb - I feel terrible on a low carb diet (to the point of being sick.) I need to get my carbs from veggies and fruits. Just adding 3 ounces of meat to my evening meal made a huge difference.

[Pamela H in Texas]

Thanks for all the opinions. I'd love to hear more.

 

I got the book Thursday but haven't been able to read enough of it to make a go at it right now. I had wanted to start this weekend before starting my job tomorrow.

 

Instead, I'm going to do a partial and just move that direction as I read along and understand what I'm doing. So we'll start with our green smoothies. That will give me several servings of fruits and veggies. I can't imagine a better start to the day and we LOVE green smoothies. For lunch, I'm going to do pita sandwiches (tuna, greens, hummus, whatever). I'll probably have fruit and/or salad with it. Then suppers we'll do normal which is a pretty wide range anyway. We have veggie burgers planned for one night, "taco" salads (meat is veggie, not from an animal) another, chicken lasagna another, and stir fry another. Not exactly the worst diet on earth.

 

I've also decided NO soda and NO aspartame.

 

I figure that by easing into E2L, I'll also be cutting down on some of the detox which I expect to be awful anyway. Detox would stink while training on a new job (though feeling better would be GREAT!).

 

But I still want experiences and ideas. I really want to do better. We just went crazy with the eating bad as we were moving.

[RamonaQ]

Wow! Thanks for the info. I am going to try this.