By now, no one will be reading this, and yet, I still like blogging even if it's to no one. Plus I don't have the pressure of worrying that I'm wasting people's time, haha. I've been thinking about getting back to this for a while--I've been snapping pictures of food to blog about, and I have more time--and just haven't taken the last step. What got me going this time was a challenge that I thought of after eating a potato yesterday. It was a cold baked potato that I grabbed from the fridge to to hold me over to a late lunch. And it was soooo good. I was thinking, do I like a cold plain baked potato more than my wonderful potato fries topped with seasoning and dipped in home-made soy yogurt (with garden chives and dill) or home-made ketchup? It's possible! And I was reminded of some food I made last week that was just cooked veggies and sweet potatoes and beans. and that was soooo good. The produce I get is so good, it doesn't need to be overly spiced and sugared and salted and all that stuff. A lot of recipes and restaurants include sauces and spices and the 3 favorite additives (SOS: salt, oil, sugar), not to mention chemicals, to make up for what are probably low-quality ingredients. That's true of the food industry, and it was probably true of many traditional recipes, since it's only been recently that high-quality food is available in abundance at low-cost.
Then I was thinking, our plant-based healthy diets contain a lot of recipes that are imitating our previous unhealthy recipes. It's understandable. But often those things make me crave the original unhealthy thing a little too much. What if I came up with a new paradigm for myself, that's not trying to imitate anything, just making up new dishes from my high-quality produce that doesn't need any additives (SOS)?
Another thought for me is that I still have a problem with craving sugar, whether it's the so-called healthy things like dates and turkish figs (love those especially), or okay-to-eat-in-small-amount refined sweeteners (maple syrup, mmmmm), or the really bad stuff (SOS baked goods, vegan ice cream). So what if I dumped the sugar for a while, both refined and dried fruits. Whole fruit is okay, in modest amounts.
Finally, I'm a member at E2X, and haven't been participating for months, and my membership is due to expire and I need to decide if I should renew, and they are doing a 28-day challenge, and the Captain's challenge is pretty much what I'm considering in my new paradigm (they are one step ahead of me) and I really like the coaches there (Natalie and Ami and Char), so why not participate the Captain's challenge? This will help me decide if I should renew.
I'm especially curious about this sugar thing, so I'm tempted to try to go longer than 28 days. I heard it takes 12 weeks to break a sugar addiction, which is 84 days. But I like the number 100. So I'm going to try a 100-day Captain's challenge. Don't worry, I know I won't succeed 100% every day for 100 days. But I am keeping in mind the advice of the E2X coaches: "Will every day be perfect? No. We're not perfect people. What we want to see is that drive and desire to be the healthiest person you can be." The most fun part is that there are several people eating the same as me. Where else am I going to find that? It's lonely out here and it's easy to feel weird and extreme, which is one reason I stopped blogging. But it's okay to be weird and extreme as long as no one is harmed.
Here's the diet plan I've come up with for myself. It's very simple.
When hungry, eat:
- starches and intact whole grains: potatoes, beans, sweet potatoes, oats, rice, corn, quinoa
- non-starch vegetables
- spices
- fruit
How easy is that? I'll try log my food to see what glorious creations can be made from this.
