Archive for the 'health' Category

Here’s to good health!

Published on 16 January 2008 in health and ruminatin'. 2 Comments

Con and Paco

Originally uploaded by Constance Wiebrands.

I was just reflecting on the fact that it’s been a mere five months since I changed my diet, and how good I’ve been feeling since the change. I hope I’ll still be maintaining such healthy eating this time next year. The chances are pretty good, I think, given that I have already been able to maintain it for this long.

In the past when I’ve tried to change my diet, these efforts never lasted more than a few days. This time I continue to enjoy and even look forward to my fruit breakfasts, raw vegetable lunches and vegetarian dinners. I no longer consume dairy products (although I must admit I do cheat and have the odd ice cream every now and again), I only eat a fraction of the sweets I used to, and have completely weaned myself off fast food. I think I have been lucky in that my cultural heritage does not place a heavy emphasis on dairy, and I don’t have a sweet tooth so I don’t find it hard to avoid dessert. Initially I missed, even craved fast food, but over time I found that when I did give in a couple of times and have some, I found I didn’t enjoy it at all. I’m not sure how to describe the unsatisfactory nature of the experience for me, but it was all grease and salt and well, unsubtle. Now I seem to have lost the desire for it.

What’s been different this time?

  1. Support from my family. M has been very very supportive. I didn’t expect him to change his diet as well, but he did, too, and is eating a lot more fruit and veg than he used to.
  2. Support from the blogosphere. Learning from other people’s experiences has been very valuable and very inspiring. At the moment I am enjoying reading about Steve Pavlina’s 30-day raw food experiment (see his Day 15 post, for example). Kate’s In The Raw blog has been very interesting as well. And then there’s all the vegan and vegetarian recipes people share on their blogs…
  3. Awareness of my own mortality. This was the main impetus for changing. Various members of my family have had health issues - Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol - and over the last couple of years I realised that I wasn’t getting any younger and that unless I started looking after myself the chances of my developing the same health issues were quite high. Also, to put it bluntly, I didn’t like the fact that I seemed to be getting fatter and fatter…
  4. Awareness of environmental issues. I’ve been reading and thinking a lot about the environmental impact of meat production and consumption. In the name of producing “cheap” meat, we are damaging our environment…

Eat to Live Retrospective

Published on 16 November 2007 in health and diet. 4 Comments

Reading through my notebook, I realise that I started to “Eat to Live” three months ago now, on 13 August, to be exact.

In some ways it feels like a long long time ago, because I have gotten so used to the changes in my diet and lifestyle - I feel like I have been doing this forever. On the other hand I can’t quite believe it’s only been three months - because the change in my diet and lifestyle feels so profound.

I took a while to even blog about it, because when I started the diet I wasn’t 100% convinced that I would stick with it. (I hesitate to call it a ‘diet’ because it’s more than that; diets to me speak of deprivation and difficulties; this hasn’t been at all like that. But, ‘diet’ is easier to write and catchier than ‘lifestyle change’, so…) While I was initially reluctant to blog about it, I did write about it, of course. Far easier to admit defeat privately, than to have to suffer public ignominy via blog if I failed…

That first day, I wrote:

Fine clear morning. Cool (3.1°C at 0636hrs). Started ‘Eat to Live’ this morning. Found myself surprisingly anxious at the idea of not eating any animal products for the next 6 weeks. I am determined to try it, though, as I would like to lose some weight - also the idea of eating only plant-based, unrefined foods is appealing.

A week later, on 21 August:

Last week was a tiring and quite disorienting week, especially the first 3 or so days. Tuesday was particularly bad, with headache and generally fuzzyheadedness. I think it was due to giving up caffeine. Wednesday I still had a mild headache but by Thursday was back to normal [i.e. headache was gone]. Also found the salads a bit daunting last week, but I seem to be a bit less put off this week. It is hard in evenings not to be able to have my usual high fat, high salt comfort junk foods. I’d also underestimated the enjoyment M and I derive from sharing such meals together. Still, am determined to stick with this for the whole 6 weeks - I have lost 4 kgs [in one week]!

All the posts and forums I read about this diet warned that the first two weeks would be the hardest part of the whole process. I found this to be true. Once I got through that fortnight it no longer seemed so challenging and I didn’t have to continually tell myself the change was for my own good. By the end of the sixth week I wasn’t even thinking about the fact that the diet was officially over; today I am still mostly eating Eat to Live-type meals.

A typical weekday breakfast for me is usually four different types of fruit: orange, banana, pear, apple, pawpaw, rockmelon, honeydew melon, kiwi fruit, pineapple and so on. I have occasionally also had tropical fruit like starfruit and mangosteen (when they were available in the market from the Ord River). I can’t wait for summer and luscious stone fruit. There are already some in the market now, but I think I’ll wait at least another 3-4 weeks as these early ones tend not to be as sweet and flavoursome.

A typical weekday lunch is usually a large salad: a variety of vegies including English spinach, tomato, cucumber, carrot, chickpeas (or other legumes), mushrooms, capsicum, etc… Occasional small amounts of avocado and/or almonds or cashews. I pack my lunchbox to the brim and try to have a wide variety of vegetables. Only drawback is that the amount of vegies I have usually takes a fair amount of time to actually eat!

Dinner is more varied, but usually something hot. The best thing about this change is that we cook at lot more at home. We eat things like tofu, stirfried choy sum (my favourite vegetable) with rice, chickpeas and tomatoes, a great pasta primavera that M makes and various other vegetarian/vegan meals. Even though M didn’t do the diet with me, he’s now gone vegetarian as well, which has been great, as we can share meals easily. M’s been a wonderful support - in the difficult first stages he continually encouraged me to stick to it. We do eat out and even have takeaway occasionally. Our favourite takeaway place, Goreng2 in Mount Lawley happily does vegetarian versions of most of their dishes.

Weekends I am a bit lax - for example, having a fresh-from-the-oven brioche (ooh la la, tasty, but hardly vegan!) from La Galette in the markets when we do our weekly shopping. I figure the occasional treat isn’t going to hurt, now that my diet is so much improved. I’ve mostly stopped eating snacks like chips and biscuits (cookies) and generally have very little refined sugar. I have never been a chocolate addict (or had that much of a sweet tooth) so I don’t miss this at all. I don’t miss dairy products at all either, luckily. I put this down to coming from a culture for which dairy does not play a big part. (No, cow’s milk is not essential for a good diet. Ask the billion Chinese.)

It’s been very good. I hope to keep making improvements and increasing my awareness about good nutrition.