Eating Like Daisy

No wonder I love the Guinea Pig so much ... we have the same diet.

I know at least one person is slightly interested in what I shove in my mouth (Hello Mother Goose) so I will continue to bore the rest of you with my thoughts on a Plant Based Diet.

First a few questions answered.

The beautiful and hard core running Jessica said :
I'm asking you the same question that I ask everyone: is it true that you don't crave the bad stuff? And a new one: when you "mess up" the Diet, why did you? Or how do you avoid messing up?

I am not a big sweets eater. We don't usually have desert after tea and I don't do a lot of home baking (other than all the meals I prepare EVERY day). I am a huge savory fan and I did crave salty foods like potato chips before I started the plan. The salty cravings have disappeared. I imagine the sweet cravings would lesson too. Eating this way fills you up and leaves you feeling very satisfied (low GI?) so its not like being on a diet where all you think about is what your next meal is. Also I think looking back that the preservatives in some of the processed foods I ate made me a bit "addicted" to them. Once I stopped eating them and went through the awful 3 days of withdrawal I didn't crave them anymore. Also fruit tastes really sweet to me now and satisfies the sweet need for me.

Messing up : When I first started eating this way I was consumed (haha) with sticking to the plan and of course it did my head in. Now I stick to it about 85% to 90% of the day and I am very happy with myself for achieving that. I try not to see it as messing up that way and its also more flexible. For example I know my purchased marinated mushroom and salad wrap from our work cafe has butter and egg mayonnaise in it, but it also has lots of great stuff and is so much better for me that the ham and cheese melt I use to have.

Really Messing up: This for me means being unorganised and having to eat something with lots of dairy or meat . This has only happened once when I left my lunch at home and realised at 3pm and the cafe only had a ham sandwich left. I ate it and I didn't die. On that note eating this way makes me look at meals differently (obviously). I can have a fruit and veggie salad for lunch with nuts or sultanas and its enough to fill me up where before I would have to have a sandwich as well and the fruit salad would have been a side dish.

My lovely Mate from High school Matt said:

wow I should try this one .....might drop a few mega kg's...lol....you go girl keep it up....




Firstly Thanks Matt! I think this diet is used for peeps who need to drop weight fast pre surgery for example because you WILL drop the kegs quick sticks. But its not a diet you can dip in and out of (IMO) because once you stop eating lots of crap and go through the annoying withdrawal you wont want to keep eating the stuff that makes you feel crappy. I have lost about 5KG ( most of it off my boobs... such a winner NOT).

Other Very Random Stuff

I'm still nervous about Christmas but hope to keep the 85% method going. We spent last weekend with at my In laws and David's very generous Brother Stevie made a special trip to the cheese shop to get a selection of very expensive cheeses ( truffle pecorino at $150 bucks a keg anyone???). Yeah I didn't say "oh no eating dairy gives me this nasty mucus drip down the back of my throat ... you should read this book..." What I said was "oh yum thank you my Sweetie".

Before the Plan I would make a salad with tea almost every night. I love salad but I actually eat less salad and more veg now.

I have found all milk substitutes way too sweet. So I still have a bit of skim milk in my coffee. Its not killing me.

I have one coffee a day. I think 2011 will see me get off the crack for good. This is a good susbtitute.

If you are thinking of doing this Plan, organisation is the key. Also talking to or emailing other veggie freaks is really useful and helpful. Tips like buying spinach in bulk and freezing it or making up a veggie pizza at the start of the week to grab and go have been invaluable (Thanks again Celia Fae).

I take an Iron supplement (everyday) and a multi vitamin (when I remember). Its probably all in my head but I think I feel better when I take these.

Don't read this if you are my Father or my Father in Law.

Before eating this way the main pmt symptom I would get would be sore boobs. Very Very Very Very Very Very sore. I'd also go up about 2 sizes so my chest would arrive at functions 2 minutes before me. Sore boobs are not really as much fun as they sound and my Dr's advice was panadol. I took a lot of panadol. Since eating this way...no sore boobs. At all. Those last two sentences should be highlighted and in sparkling flashing font... but I do have some class.

Lastly here are some of the food I eat.

Spinach smoothie - I like orange , watermelon and spinach the best. I make up about a litre of if and freeze half so I have a few frozen shakes in the freezer to grab and go. I don't like adding frozen berry's cos the pips get stuck in my teeth! Frozen bananas sweeten the smoothie but make it pretty thick.

Veggie pizza ... Capsicum, olives, marinated artichoke, coriander, onion, mushroom, chilli, anything else in the crisper. Cook in the oven no cheese required I promise.

Vegetable pasta sauce with pasta. If you use a potato peeler to make long peels of carrot for the sauce it is both yummy and crunchy and filling. I also use this sauce with mince meatballs and Dave and the kids eat that with the pasta too.

Wraps with salsa and veggies. Wraps with humus, Wraps with kidney beans and salsa, wraps with salad... I love wraps (obviously).

I have also tried the prepared lentil patties from the shops. Some are ok, some are foul beyond words. I think I am on to a good one now - chickpea and coriander. I did try to make a chickpea patty myself and that was worse than foul!

I keep a nut muesli bar in my handbag (which is no doubt loaded with sugar) and also some fruit just in case I feel like I need to shove more food into my mouth whilst I am running around. I haven't died of hunger or malnutrition yet so I think I am probably doing the Plan ok.