After a long and passionate affair with all things delicious and unhealthy, I've decided to try to eat in a healthy manner and make it my lifestyle. It's this last part that's always toughest. The lifestyle thing requires more than just popping things into your mouth (within the diet guidelines) at random. It means I have to make efforts to try new recipes and integrate new things into my diet so that I don't get bored.
I'm a foodie, no doubt. Take me to a restaurant and I can eat anything on the menu and enjoy it. The flavors and textures combine to give me an experience that can only be described as other worldly. My bf doesn't quite understand this. If it were up to him, he'd take a capsule at every meal as long as it contained all his nutritional needs, a la The Jetsons. No lie, these are his words not mine.
I've tried a lower carb diet in the past and found out a few things from the experience. One is that the way that I physically feel after my meals cannot compare to how I feel after one of my "regular" carb-filled meals. I'm light and I have more energy all around. I do go through a carb craving phase but that passes and soon I don't really crave them anymore.
Now here's the second thing I learn, and the downfall to the whole "let's try to make it a lifestyle not a diet" thing. Although I don't miss the carbs themselves (i.e. I don't see a piece of cake and salivate at the mere glance), I do miss the textures. I miss the feel of rice under my chicken and the graininess of bread with a little butter. I've found the solution. I guess I had to learn to actually put some effort into this thing instead of trying to take the lazy route. There are only so many bags of veggies and deli meat rolls a person can handle.
I've taken to the web and to the cookbooks and, most importantly, I've taken to the kitchen. Yes, me, the hater of all things cooking-related. I found recipes for Mock Mashed Potatoes where the spuds are replaced by cauliflower and even a recipe for low carb rice with the same substitution. Not bad. I'm getting the psychological need for these starches met and I'm adhering to the healthy guidelines. Also, just made Flax meal bread which is all fiber and Omega-3 and there's my need for bread-y texture, met.
We'll see how this goes. In the meantime, here are some pictures of a few of my "food creations" so far. For someone who abhorred even making a simple chicken breast on the stove, I think I'm doing alright.
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