As quite a few of you may know, I’ve created a new diet. Not “diet” in the sense of “gimmicky way to lose weight” but a full-on life changing process and filter about what and how and when and why I cram food down my gullet.
I started watching TED talks on Hulu, and lemme tell you there are some amazing clips in that list. But there was one that absolutely stopped me in my tracks, William Li’s talk on diet as it relates to cancer. There’s one slide about three minutes in that has diseases down the left and right sides. The left side basically looks like my extended family’s medical history. I watched the rest of the clip and decided I needed to do something different. Eventually.
Not too long after, I was watching Dan Buettner’s talk on centenarian communities that was pretty impressive. And again I had a nagging feeling that I needed to do something different. Soon.
And then I saw Fat Head and I knew I needed to do something. Right now.
So the diet I made up is based largely on these three talks and my discussion a few years back with the most sane vegetarian I’d ever met. It goes something like this…
Rule #1: Eat as much as you want, whenever you want of whatever you want, as long as you obey these rules.
Rule #2: When purchasing food, buy food that is packaged as single ingredients.
Rule #3: Prepare only what you’re about to eat.
Rule #4: Eat off of an 8” or smaller plate with utensils.
Rule #5: Drink tea or wine with every meal.
Rule #6: Eat tons of berries.
Rule #7: Break the rules at least once a week.
It may seem like this is a little over the top, but I’ve found that the majority of my meals take less than 15 minutes to prepare, and around 15 minutes to eat. If I go grab “fast” food, it usually takes longer than a half hour, so I don’t feel like I’m wasting much time.
I can’t find the study any more, but I found something at one point that basically said you should move around some before a meal and relax after, for about 20 minutes in both cases. I usually trim that to 15 minutes give or take. So my meals generally take about 45 minutes and clean up never takes longer than 5.
An example meal is a steak grilled in simmering red wine in a skillet with a half of an onion, a head of broccoli, a half dozen asparagus spears and a couple handfuls of spinach. I’ll eat that with a sliced apple and a dozen or so berries. I usually get 2 or 3 meals in about that size during a day. For a late snack, I’ll throw two or three eggs in the skillet with some green onions, cilantro, and spinach, then when those are done, I’ll slice up a banana in the skillet long enough for it to get a little gooey, then I’ll sprinkle cinnamon on it.
I have tons more to say about it, but I can tell you this much, it’s working. My eczema is nearly gone; it looks better than it has in over 7 years. I’ve been losing weight like crazy, and I’m still losing it, even though I’m never hungry and I don’t work out at all. In fact I saw something somewhere (it’s hard to remember where I’ve read all this crap) that you only burn 1 pound of fat for 50 hours of running. It turns out that our bodies are not calorie converters. I guess it would make sense to count calories if we were made out of fire, but last I checked, we’re not.
One thing that has really made me smile is that there seems to be something in early season fruits and vegetables that makes your body want to shed fat. And there’s something in late season fruits and vegetables (especially grains) that makes your body want to store fat. Whether your God is the creator or random chance, you have to admit that sounds exactly like the sort of thing you’d expect from design/evolution. Get fat when it gets cold, and lose it when there’s work to be done. I’ve just spent the last few decades eating like it’s September, and now I’m spending a lot more time eating like it’s April.
I like those rules. I too have been thinking about doing something about my diet “eventually.”
Or maybe I’ll take up smoking and riding a motorcycle. Still deciding. :)
Posted with : Bare with Me
So, cereal would break the “single ingredient” rule. There goes my breakfasts and Sunday supper!