Eat to Live--does it get better? Truthfully.

[snickelfritz]

I just got the book and have been reading it. We're at my parents this weekend, so I'm not implementing it in full force until Monday. For this weekend, I'm weaning off of caffeine, adding a big salad to each meal and cutting WAY back on meat. I haven't even fully implemented and I'm already struggling.:001_huh:

 

Will my taste buds really change? I choked down a perfectly lovely salad for dinner last night. Beautiful mixture of different greens. Spinach, romaine, and these lacy looking leaves. It tasted bitter to me. I thought I was going to gag, but it was a dinner I had ordered and that's what I had to eat.

 

Is THAT because I'm used to so much sugar? Did anyone notice their taste for food change?

 

I don't like vegetables. There. I said it. Doesn't make it right and I know that. Is there hope for me doing a vegetarian, much less VEGAN plan? I'm hoping that I can push through and my taste buds will change and I will discover that I am enjoying vegetables.

[LNC]

I had to had skinless chicken breasts and fish to my Eat to Live diet after a few months. I was just too hungry and weak. I'm using the Clean Eating diet for Tosca Reno now also.

[Quiver0f10]

I eat a vegan diet and eat salads only every now and then. I do eat veggies with every meal, just can't stomach salads daily.

 

I follow the McDougall plan, which is another option to look at.

[laylamcb]

Hey there, Snickelfritz--

 

I haven't done Eat to Live, but I LOVE salad. Eat it every day. I'd be happy to ONLY eat a biggie salad every night for dinner, but the DH would freak eventually.

 

Anyhoo, on the bitterness. That's not your sweet tooth--that's the lettuce. Many lettuces, including the mesclun or "spring mix" blends, are bitter; find one that works for you. I'd recommend a butterhead variety like Boston or Bibb; they're much less bitter, IMHO. Also I've found that really, really fresh Romaine or red- or greenleaf lettuces are less bitter; they get more bitter as they sit in the fridge.

 

Another trick is to add sweetness to your salad, which will offset the bitterness. I add fruit--apples, grapes, and berries work especially well, but pears are wonderful in season. Avocado seems to kind of neutralize the bitter flavor, too, as do beans (chickpeas, black beans, pinto beans, even rinsed baked beans).

 

And hey--there are plenty of veggies that I don't like. Unfortunately, leafy greens, which are the best things on the planet for you, top my don't-like-'em list. But I eat fresh spinach almost every day in the form of a SMOOTHIE! Blend berries, a banana, natural yogurt, flax meal, wheat germ, protein powder, milk or water, and/or whatever you want (sometimes the kids want natural peanut butter in there) with a big handful of fresh spinach and a carrot or two. Delicious! (I have a high-power Vita-Mix blender, which I heartily recommend.)

[Deanna in TN]

I have been a mostly vegan for about 4 years, and I usually eat 2 salads a day. I promise that your taste for foods change. At potlucks, I used to be someone who would start with desserts and if I had any room left I would eat regular foods, but never salad. I now truly am excited when I see a good looking salad or brocolli. It makes me laugh because of how much I have changed. Here is a homemade salad dressing that my family likes.

 

Honey Pepper Dressing

 

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 cup apple cider vinegar

3/4-1 cup honey

1 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp pepper

pinch cayenne

3/4 tsp garlic powder

 

It's pretty spicy so you will have to adjust it to your taste.

 

Deanna

[laylamcb]

Thanks for sharing that dressing, Deanna! That looks so good. Here's what I usually make (caution: it's heavy on the garlic):

 

Combine about a tablespoon each of Dijon mustard and fresh pressed garlic in a jar. With a whisk, stir in equal parts Balsamic vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil to taste. Sometimes I also stir in some hummus to make the dressing creamy. Add honey for a sweeter flavor.

[Zelda]

You may never get to the point where you see a pizza and think, "I don't even want that!" But you will get to a point where salads taste great and you crave certain veggies and you think about the other stuff less. And I find I'm way more discerning about indulgence food...if its not something I really really like I won't even bother. Before I'd just eat anything that was close.

[NevadaRabbit]

I just got the book and have been reading it. We're at my parents this weekend, so I'm not implementing it in full force until Monday. For this weekend, I'm weaning off of caffeine, adding a big salad to each meal and cutting WAY back on meat. I haven't even fully implemented and I'm already struggling.:001_huh:

 

Will my taste buds really change? I choked down a perfectly lovely salad for dinner last night. Beautiful mixture of different greens. Spinach, romaine, and these lacy looking leaves. It tasted bitter to me. I thought I was going to gag, but it was a dinner I had ordered and that's what I had to eat.

 

Is THAT because I'm used to so much sugar? Did anyone notice their taste for food change?

 

I don't like vegetables. There. I said it. Doesn't make it right and I know that. Is there hope for me doing a vegetarian, much less VEGAN plan? I'm hoping that I can push through and my taste buds will change and I will discover that I am enjoying vegetables.

 

*Disclaimer: I haven't read Eat To Live

 

Snick, I promise, you can change what you enjoy eating.

 

I have purposely developed a taste for vegetables because I was fat, unhealthy, and setting a ghastly example for my kids. Now I'm hoping to change their tastes as well. But YES, YES, a 100 X YES it can be done!

 

laylamcb gave you great suggestions on salads and I second it all. I love chunks of avocado, some craisins, crunchies like chopped celery/carrot, even lastnight's leftover chicken chopped into a salad. And like Zelda said, you might never dislike pizza but you'll like it less.

 

I just wanted to encourage you - you don't have to do exactly what some book says you have to do - make changes that you LOVE. Changes that make you miserable are changes that will not last. NO offense to the book or its advocates!!

[cillakat]

you might not ever get to the place where you like the produce. but you might.

 

I am a reluctant meat eater but do eat an enormous amount of produce daily. Personally I don't think grain based/legume based vegan diets are an option (ie macdougall or similar) but produce is a fundamentally critical food for everyone, meat eater or not.

 

One thing that may help......loosen his restrictions on free fats....with yummy homemade dressings (made from only olive oil, no other plant oils....too much omega 6) it's a lot more palatable.

 

I followed Fit for Life for several years and had I done it as a moderate meat eater rather than as a vegan, it might kept at bay all of the negative things that ended up happening on my vegan/live/raw foods insane diet:) (ie mental health-wise, vitamin d deficiency, not enough protein for my personal needs, not enough zinc, iron etc)

 

 

 

I eat *way* to much additional junk, but for me, eating clean in an ideal day would be approx:

~DAILY total: 4 oz red meat (iron, zinc, protein...grassfed....for the optimal fat profile and low overall fat) or 4 oz total *wild salmon* (no farmed) and one free range organic egg from pastured hen.

~1/2-1c legumes (dark bright.....small red beans, black beans, french green lentils or red lentils)

~1-2 oz freshly shelled nuts

~80-90% produce every day every meal: dark/bright salad at every meal with variety of veggies.....additional cooked veggies if needed to round things out (ie kale, collards, broccoli, cauliflower) and other produce (fruit, other random veggies)

~additional carbs if needed to fill up (can't imagine having any room left!!!).....from small amounts of sweet potato or winter squash. no grains (remember this is my very own ideal world, not real world;p......humans didn't evolve in an evolutionary environment where grains were available)

~i love to go no 'free' fats. but then i can't always get the salad down. so small amounts of yummy olive oil dressing (with mustard is yum...) to tolerate the veggies that provide too many important benefits to miss.

 

_Fit for Life_ has some awesome recipes if you're doing any free fats. Their second book, iirc, has an avocado dressing recipe that has no additional fat. I'm sure there are others around.

 

Another great option for the produce is soups. There are sooooo many great soup recipes. I love the _Body Ecology Diet_ for it's broccoli fennel soup, carrot cauliflower, cauliflower dill, and salmon kale daikon soups. (as well as other recipes.....millet corn cassserole....mmmmm. lots of goodies there. worth getting from the library)

 

All the best to you,

Katherine

[cillakat]

and whatevever you do, i would strongly urge you to get your 25(OH)D levels tested (pronounced twentyfive hydroxy vitamin d).

 

vitamin d deficiency is epidemic in this country and most. anywhere that people can't get midday sun on most skin (ie sunscreen, clothes, work indoors). There is no evidence that a few minutes of sun on hands and arms, a few times a week has any benefit for maintaining optimal vitamin D levels, yet that's still the advice we keep hearing "sensible sun exposure". The the evidence from that sort of exposure shows it maintains 25(OH)D levels around 11 ng/mL which is severely deficienct. Severely.

 

anything under 32 is deficient but optimal health is associated with levels around 50-55 ng/mL and we should aim to be in that narrow range. for most adults this will be 2000 IU D per day. I know no adult woman who are able to maintain 50-55 ng/mL D on lesser levels of supplementation. I'm currently tracking levels for 37 people who are being treating testing and retesting. I take 2000 IU per day from all sources (ie less from supps when I eat wild salmon.

 

vitamindcouncil.org has mostly impeccable info. He misses it on a few issues (anti vitamin A stance , and some vit D intake levels are really high and the d he recommends may not be very well absorbed/assimilated by a number of people.....which could be why he recs so much....it's taking so much for them to get numbers up when a better form would a low them to go with much less)

 

Anyhoo,

 

all the best,

katherine

[lighthouseacademy]

Your tastesbuds do change depending on what you are eating. For example, I was a sucker for croissants and gingersnap cookies. Last summer I did a 3 month raw experiment. When I ate a croissant after that it tasted like flavorless sponge. I ended up throwing it away and eating the stuff I had put inside it. Same with the cookie- it tasted like a super sweet gummy ball of dough- yuck. I really had no desire for any of those type of things.

 

Use a dressing that has some lemon, lime or apple cider vinegar in it. The acid in those will help to neutralize the bitter in the lettuce. Also, the older the lettuce (usually larger heads or tougher leaves) the more bitter the lettuce.