Our Diet Journey

Awhile back, my cousin asked me what my 3-5 top recommended diet changes were.  I ended up writing a novel for her, and it made me reflect upon how far we have come in improving our diet.  The now modified list is below:

1) Eliminate processed food

2) Reduce refined sugar and carbohydrate intake

3) Stop consuming vegetable/seed oils, including but not limited to: canola, sunflower, soy, corn, safflower, cottonseed, grapeseed (Good alternatives: butter, lard, and if you must, olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil)

4) Eat pasture-raised, organic, local beef, chicken, and eggs (if you eat animal products)

5) Increase food variety! Try all kinds of vegetables, organ meats, etc.

In addition to these, Alex and I eat organic, locally grown vegetables and unpasteurized,non-homogenized milk from a local farm.  We have salad and usually other vegetables every day.  We also limit our carbohydrate intake, but do still eat potatoes, sweet potatoes, and sometimes rice and Ezekiel bread made from sprouted grains.  Alex notices that without carbohydrates, it's hard for him to get enough to eat, so I think he may eat slightly more than I do.  Furthermore, we aren't afraid of saturated fat and cholesterol.  Our typical Saturday breakfast is bacon and eggs from the farmer's market, with some Ezekiel toast.  Saturated fat and cholesterol actually keep us fuller, requiring us to eat less over time as we get used to it.  It's a great feeling to look in my pantry, and not see ANY cookies, crackers, potato chips, corn chips, cereal, boxed mac & cheese, triscuits, salad dressing with vegetable oils, sugary candies, granola, protein bars...

Roasted vegetables from last week:

However, it can be quite a challenge, and making these changes was a gradual process.  To make all these changes at once would be ridiculously overwhelming.  This kind of diet does require more preparation and planning since you are using whole foods, but the investment is worth it.  There are ways to lighten the burden, too.  At the beginning of the week, I cut up enough vegetables for 7 days of salads, for example.  Also, I cook in bulk and we have no problem eating leftovers.  That being said, there are tons of improvements to make, and we still do indulge!  We will buy some dark chocolate when I'm craving it, and I just cannot stop baking homemade desserts entirely.  Also, last week we ordered pizza even though we looked up Papa John's ingredients and saw that there was vegetable oil...  

Sometimes people ask me what I typically eat in a day.  For this month, we are keeping food diaries in a shared Google document, so here is what I ate yesterday:

Breakfast:

yogurt from raw milk, 1/2 cup

cocoa almonds

Lunch:

taco meat made from grass-fed, pasture-raised, local ground beef

liver from grass-fed, pasture-raised, local farm

cheddar cheese

hot salsa

peach

Snack:

10 carrots

1 pickle

9 dark hershey kisses

Dinner:

BIG salad with 2 kinds of lettuce, 2 hard-boiled eggs, 3-bean salad, red peppers, carrots, green peppers, tomatoes, and a homemade salad dressing of olive oil, vinegar, and some spices

one potato, sliced thinly and cooked with butter and cajun seasoning

raw milk, 1.5 cups

some steamed beet greens

Dessert:

1 cup of homemade chocolate peanut butter ice cream (made with raw milk and half the sugar it recommended)

Yes, so I definitely have a snacking weakness, especially where chocolate and ice cream are concerned.  I'm hoping that keeping the food diary will help with this, as I will be accountable for every piece of food that goes into my mouth.

I'm also excited because recently I had blood work done for a life insurance policy.  Here are some of the results:

Glucose: 82

Cholesterol: 182

HDL: 82

LDL: 91

LDL/HDL ratio: 1.11  <--- awesome!!

Triglycerides: 44

Exciting!  I'm glad to know that my diet in my life up until now hasn't been too detrimental.  I have my mother to thank, who breast-fed exclusively for months and months when we were babies, who always cooked hearty dinners of meat, potatoes, and vegetables, who limited our sugar intake, and didn't let us just snack until our hearts' content, and who made us drink milk instead of giving in to soda.  My blood was drawn back in March, I think, and so I'm really looking forward to see if the numbers change over time as we continue to improve our diet.