Eating for My Health One Day at a Time

Nearly ever person who asks me about my “diet” doesn’t believe I don’t feel hungry.  I really don’t.  I stopped feeling hungry a long time ago.

I discovered for myself that the discomfort and the hunger that I felt was really more like with-drawl.  What I felt was more related to the process of detoxification or the healing process.  I learned for myself that healing truly begins when i stop eating.  I realized that eating often made me feel queasy, tired and I might even have a headache.  Some things I ate even made my joints ache… and my gut hurt most of the time.  I needed to make a change… and change I did.

Dr. Joel Fuhrman would call what I was experiencing “toxic hunger.”  From reading his book, End of Dieting (click here to get the book for yourself) I learned that my symptoms were a signal that I was repairing cells and removing toxins.  Thinking I was hungry I tried diets that would have me eat frequent meals… oops.  It didn’t work.  Seriously.  I was eating “healthy” and gaining weight.

When I first started following the principles of End of Dieting I must admit, I did not feel better.  It is safe to say I felt worse.  But I hung on.  I learned to beat my brain at it’s own game.  I ate food… lots and lots of it.  You can’t feel too hungry when you eat over 2 pounds of vegetables in a day.  I eat tons of veggies!  I should do better at eating salads.  I just crave cooked foods now that its colder outside.  I will have to do better in the near future.

Monday I ate stir fried mushrooms, onions and spinach.  I added a few cherry tomatoes because they sounded good.  I ate Cabbage soup for lunch.  Click here for the recipe.  I added a salad too.  For dinner I ate left over Veggie Pot Pie.  Click here for the recipe.

One Tuesday I have a berry smoothie for breakfast.  I have Cabbage soup for lunch.  Tuesday was busy and I didn’t have time to make a dinner and take it to work with me.  My daughter got me a Subway Veggie salad with vinegar for dressing.

Wednesday I sauted spinach, mushrooms and onions for breakfast.  I had a salad and an orange for lunch.  My daughter made a delicious Lentils with Veggies in Peanut Sauce.  Click here for the recipe.

Thursday was another busy day.  I had a berry smoothie for breakfast.  I had a banana and a salad for lunch.  I stopped at Muchas Gracias for dinner and got a veggie burrito with no sour cream or cheese.

Friday was still super busy.  I had sauted spinach, mushrooms and onions for breakfast, a Veggie Burrito from Muchas Gracias for lunch and a salad and an apple for dinner.

I had a chance to slow down on Saturday a bit.  I had Cabbage Soup for breakfast.  For lunch my husband and I made a yummy “Cheesy” Garlic Spaghetti Squash.  Click here for the recipe.  We had a nice salad with that yummy dinner.

For dinner we made a yummy Broccoli Tofu.

I started my Sunday with Cabbage Soup.  For lunch I had a modified version of Pumpkin Soup.  Click here for the recipe. But I didn’t have bamboo shoots or a butternut squash.  I used water chestnuts and a winter squash I had kicking around.  It wasn’t quite the same as the real way to make Pumpkin Soup, but it did the trick.  for dinner I made a detox salad, click here for the recipe, and a Morning Glory Veggie Burger.  We pureed some peaches and froze them as a desert.  We topped them with bananas.  It was yummy!

So, that was my week in food.  Not the best but not the worst.  hopefully this coming week I will be able to make good choices that will lead to more weight loss.  Much has gone, but there is much more to be gone.