holiday eating

I had an enjoyable holiday season. However, I did go off the healthy eating plan on 3 occasions over the course of 2 days, at a party and at two restaurant meals. I rationalized it as follows: I’m thin and healthy (knock on wood) and Dr. Fuhrman says 90% compliance is enough to maintain health. So I’m well within his parameters. But I have to say, I don’t think it’s worth it! The effect of unhealthy food on a healthy body is too much of a shock. I felt hungover for 3 days after this, and what fun is that? And I didn’t even eat that unhealthy, compared to normal standards. At the party I had small servings of lentil salad, chick pea salad, hummus, tempeh, chocolate pudding (made with tofu), chips & salsa, and a few vegan cookies. I have to admit I enjoyed the salt a lot. But I hardly slept that night from the sugar and chocolate. At one of the restaurant meals I had a tofu scramble burrito, fried potatoes, toast with earth balance (margarine), and a decaff soy latte. At the other restaurant meal, I had hummus & pita bread, a couple of small falafels (deep fried!), and baklava (very sweet! and, yes, good). It all tasted good, but mainly due to the salt—try eating that stuff without salt and it’s bland, I guarantee. Again, I was surprised by my attraction to the salt. But then I paid for it. My hands got uncomfortably swollen, and my nose bled a little. I suspect this is harmful to the body to go from no salt to a ton of salt in one day. And the same goes for a body not used to sugar, caffeine, and chocolate. I’m glad I didn’t try the alcohol.

One thing I noticed is that I am more fun and interesting when I’m on these drugs (sugar, refined grains, caffeine), and I have more fun at the parties. When I went back to healthy eating and went to another party, and I found it dull and I was probably dull too. When you think about it, everyone else is on drugs from the sugar, refined grains, caffeine, chocolate, and alcohol (all at the same time!). So they are all hyped up and I’m not. I come across as boring and tired, and I have to admit, it is kind of boring to stand around and watch everyone else eat and drink.

After going back on plan, I wasn’t very hungry for 2 days, and mainly ate veggies and fruit. I’ve been eating cabbage & apple (no onion or raisins) for brekky. I had my favorite simple salad a couple of times: lettuce and sweat pea dressing. When I ate that I thought it was as good as anything I had on the “splurge”. So why bother?? I was sort of back to normal on day 3. That was today, Christmas Day. I was planning to visit relatives but the weather prevented it, so a friend and I did some volunteering at a local church and Christmas dinner. That was lots of fun. Afterwards I gave my friend the option to go over to another friend’s house for a traditional dinner, or to eat the last of the veggies in my refrigerator. He chose the veggies. I made my usual veggies & beans & seeds dish (had some beans in the freezer), with broccoli, carrots, potato, corn, cabbage, and hemp/sunflower seeds. My friend loved it. That’s such an easy recipe and it’s a hit with SAD (Standard American Diet) eaters. I think the reason is due to the carrot juice in the beans. It gives it a little sweet flavor. The ground seeds are also key because they thicken the cooking water up a bit and make it into a sauce with some fat in it. I made a mango-mandarine-coconut sorbet, which was good (1 cup frozen mangos, 2 small mandarine oranges, 1 Tbsp shaved coconut).

Tomorrow I will have to go grocery shopping, though it would be fun to see how far I can go with what I have in the fridge. It’s now mostly carrots and some cabbage and oranges, and one cup of beans. Hmmm. Well, that combo would probably taste good too!