Tags
eating behavior, food rules, intuitive eating, michael pollan, naturally thin, unvegan, what i ate wednesday, wiaw
Today’s “What I Ate Wednesday” post will be slightly different for two reasons. First, I forgot my mobile phone in the car, with a lot more pictures of recent eats, and after listening two hours to an unintended lecture about the Augustus Obelisk in Rome and whether it is a sundial or not I am really not in the mood to get out of my pj’s and back on the street. It’s 11 pm by the way. Second, I wanted to write about another food related topic but my daily intake in pictures: Yesterday I finally updated my “about” page and the update took me quite some soul searching and mindful writing, so I decided to include it in today’s post.
So lets talk food now, and especially about our behavior regarding the topic.
There are quite a few books that inspired my journey to health significantly and that I would love to recommend to everyone:
First of all Michael Pollan’s “In Defense of Food” builds the base of my healthy eating believes – “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” just sums it up best. If you are not such a big fan of reading books as I am, I recommend that you watch the documentary: Hungry for Change, which goes in the same direction and provides a great base of information.
In the beginning of 2011 I stumbled over “The China Study” from Prof. Campbell and it turned my view on health upside down for a while. I chose to eat vegan for about a year and most of the recipes you are going to find on my blog do not include dairy, eggs or meat. Some other great sources regarding the benefits of a vegan diet and amazing recipes are Kris Carr’s “Crazy Sexy Diet” and her recently published “Crazy Sexy Kitchen” (also a great basic cookbook for people who want to learn cooking with vegetables) and Alicia Silverstone’s “The Kind Diet”. Both of this great Ladies have their own blogs (1&2) and are still an inspiration for me, though I made some adjustments to my diet over the last year.
My body started to crave non-vegan foods – starting out with seafood, which I added pretty soon, later followed by eggs and some dairy (I still enjoy my soy milk) and recently even some meat (especially beef and chicken). So I did some soul searching and I admit, I was confused for a while and not sure how to handle these cravings. On the one hand I am still convinced that vegan foods are great for your body and I want to avoid animal cruelty as much as possible, on the other hand my cravings where proofed right by blood tests which showed that I was severely iron deficient, to the point of being anemic. I also did gain quite some weight over the course of 2012. Of course I wrote my bachelor thesis and started my master studies, but I also believe that the uncertainty what to eat and refusing to feed my body what it asks for led me to have unhealthy alternatives as a form of compensation.
Thus I made up my mind and decided to follow a different, quite revolutionary route: If I crave it – I eat it. In my opinion this is the healthiest approach possible. I mean, being unhappy, having cravings and not enjoying the most beautiful thing in the world – F-O-O-D – how healthy can that be? (Leaving aside that it will leave you totally wrinkled up in sorrow, and that’s not too pretty.)
(source: http://www.anktangle.com/)
On related terms I am flirting with intuitive eating again. To loose some of the unwanted, depressing pounds I gained in 2012 I put myself under some harsh calorie restrictions in the beginning of January, and loosened them up a lot after recognizing how wrong this direction was, again. I am still counting calories and I will not say that I believe counting calories is terrible – it helps a lot of people to understand how their body works and which foods are high in energy or low – but it is not the easygoing healthy lifestyle I am aiming for. Currently I am reading Bethenny Frankel’s “Naturally Thin: Unleash Your SkinnyGirl and Free Yourself from a Lifetime of Dieting” after watching her Authors@Google video and must say that I like it so far, though I’ve been skeptic at the beginning. I promise to post a book review after finishing it. And of course a lot of your amazing blogs out there are a great source of inspiration and motivation. I know so many amazing women who made quite similar experience as mine and ended up being healthy, happy and chilled out about their eating. Just needed to mention it at this point: you are truly the BOMB!
And after all of the seriousness and mindfulness I won’t make you read a lot more and just give you a quick glance on what I’ve been eating:
my current breakfast obsession: Greek yogurt with oatmeal, frozen raspberries and almond butter
Ginger Carrot Soup with diced salmon 
Protein Fudge with Greek yogurt, banana, nougat whey protein, coconut flour and dark chocolate chunks
Do you have a set of rules when it comes to food? What or who inspired your healthy lifestyle? What is your opinion about restricting certain food groups?
EDIT: I was so excited when I noticed that this month’s is WIAW “Love Your Veggie’s month”, that I needed to add two pictures of how I sneak veggie’s into my meals!
I used up my remaining ginger carrot soup leftovers to make a quick delicious meal: Ginger Carrot Chicken with brown rice and steamed broccoli
And yesterday I finally whipped up a recipe, that waited in my bookmark-list for a while now: Mini Frittata Muffins (I skipped the prosciutto) filled with spinach, oyster mushrooms and cherry tomatoes. As a side I made a simple sweet potato mash and some salad.
I really loved In Defense of Food… his approach of eating whole foods and not cutting out things like butter, sugar, and grains really made sense to me. Given my past struggles with disordered eating, I don’t like the idea of cutting out any food groups. I was a vegan, and then a vegetarian, for many, many years, and as much as I hate to admit it, I used it as a way to restrict rather than a desire to be healthy. I really wanted to believe that I didn’t need meat and animal products to feel good, but truth be told, I ended up pretty sick and it wasn’t until I started adding animal products back into my diet that I started to feel a lot better. Now, my only rule is that there are no rules. Nothing is off limits. Nothing is bad. I’ve stopped trying to analyze what my perfect diet is and just started going with the flow, and I can honestly say that I’ve never felt better
That is the reason why your blog is one of the afore mentioned inspirations and motivations for me, when it comes to an easygoing healthy lifestyle
!
I’m currently following a mostly plant-based diet. I’ve always had a very sensitive stomach, and after lots of trial and error I’ve learned that I have problems digesting animal products. That means that I’m not even craving meat, fish, or dairy anymore, because I know I will feel horrible after eating those things.
But I’m not as strict as it sounds. When I’m at a party or eating out I may or may not have a piece of non-vegan cake or cheese or a hard boiled egg for breakfast.
‘quite revolutionary route: If I crave it – I eat it. In my opinion this is the healthiest approach possible’ THIS. I see so many people denying themselves of certain foods when they have no real reason to, cutting out gluten/dairy etc or going with current diet trends and are they actually making themselves happy and really living? No. We only get one life…why spend it being miserable. Diet is all about balance, eat what you want, when you want, listen to your hunger, eat healthy but treat yourself for sanity. It shouldn’t take over your everyday thoughts, it’s just a part of life!
As for calorie counting, again, yeah I guess it helps people who need to lose weight but otherwise? Just honour your hunger like we were born to do. Life is too short to be full of numbers and anyway, your body doesn’t know what a flippin calorie is…it just sees food as energy and the different parts, carbs, protein, fats are ALL required by the body for different things.
I was vegan for a time which did help my eating disorder purely because I was terrified of fats, but now that’s not a problem and no food are off limits, I love being vegetarian. I don’t crave meat currently as I only really ate chicken as a child anyway (I used to gag on anything else) but if I did crave it, who am I to deny my body of something it’s asking for? The craving will only get stronger..and the body is a clever thing and knows what it wants
OH and that protein fudge…YUM!!
“your body doesn’t know what a flippin calorie is” LOVE IT! That would make a great topic for a post on it’s own. I can just underline everything you’ve written and I followed your journey for a while now and think it is simply great and inspirational how your attitude towards food and dieting changed. Hope I’ll get there soon, too!
I have In Defense of Food sitting on my shelf, and I really need to read it. I have, however, read Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma, which I loved. It’s hard to get through the scientific corn stuff at the beginning, but the rest is spot on. I already knew most of what he said about GMO, the farming industry, etc. but he does have a few surprising facts. First is he busted my whole belief system of “natural” and “organic.” Especially organic, which, being a Whole Foods lover, kind of put a damper on me for awhile. It’s all just a conspiracy kind of. Don’t get me wrong, I still wholeheartedly believe that organic is better than non-organic, just not as much as we think. And secondly, he made me much more appreciative of grass-fed animals and farmers who practice it. It’s better for the environment, animals, and us. With my health issues we only buy local grass-fed beef, and pasture-raised chickens/eggs from people that we can trust. Same goes for the milk. Somewhat local, and free from all of those hormones and other junk.
As for being vegan, I totally understand and sympathize with the appeal. I’ve dabbled a few days with it myself. But personally, I crave meat. I crave grass-fed beef, and I’m not one to deny my body of food either. And, I would argue, that a grass-fed hamburger, or pasture raised chicken leg is better any day than some “meat-free” substitute. I’m not saying that there aren’t good substitutes out there, but really, if you are craving meat, I think that means that you should eat it.
Sorry if that was banter-ish, or completely off point with what you are saying. But I feel like I get where you are coming from
I hope… Anyways, great post! Haha.
Oh no, your comment wasn’t banter-ish at all and it includes a lot of my own thoughts regarding organic produce. Though I actually did not make it through ” An Omnivores Dilemma” – exactly because of the mentioned long-winded first chapter about corn – I put a focus on sustainability in my master studies. The courses I took during this semester had quite some eye-opening-effects on me and made me deal with terms like green-washing and pseudo-sustainability.
I for myself try to purchase organic only in special stores, which are conscious about the declarations on the organic produce they offer (in Europe exists a wide range of organic seals; some official, some not, and they are more or less strict in their requirements). When possible I buy my eggs from an old couple living in my city, who treat their chicken great and feed them with natural foods.
Glad my comment wasn’t totally off-base
Those courses sound really interesting. I hope you share more!
I already considered making them a topic in my posts. Nice to hear that there are people out there who would like to read about it – so I probably will.
Hello, beautiful Ksenija.
Yummm!
I love your attitude towards the whole dieting nonsense! And I wish you all the best on your journey.
Also I’d kill for those muffins this very moment!
You are too sweat! Those muffins are the easiest thing to make, you should give them a go.
That’s a genius way to use the leftover soup! And I really like your approach to dieting…very smart and healthy. Good luck!
I’ve not read In Defense of Food but from what you have said, I think it sounds like my sort of eating. One thing I dislike about some (and I emphasise some) of the healthy blogging community is this cutting out of perfectly decent food. Eat what you fancy but in moderation. I think it’s the healthiest way for the body and mind.
I guess the problem is that a lot of us food bloggers tend to over-analyze everything. My best friend and I joked recently that we would have straight As in any exams that ask us to calculate something calorie-related. And that’s somehow sad.
I’m also always eating greek yoghurt with outmeal every morning, it’s so delicious.
I love your blog !
You are such a sweetheart, thanks!