I’m impressed with the Mayo Clinic Weight Loss plan. For the next two weeks, vegetables and fruit will be more than half of what I eat each day. Today, Maria and I went to the supermarket together with a foot-long list of vegetables and fruits and whole-grain foods.
I’m eating more vegetables than I’ve ever eaten in my life, and I’m finding ways to enjoy eating them. I mix my salads with barley and brown rice. I washed some barley yesterday and let it soak in water for 24 hours. Then I boiled it for 20 minutes and mixed it with a dozen different vegetables – carrots, whole beans, pomegranate, peppers, tomato, kale, cabbage, carrots, and more, all cut into bits and served as a salad sprinkled with barley.
My afternoon snacks are no longer popcorn and veggie straws; they string beans, blackberries, and carrots. They fill me up too.
Maria is at belly dancing tonight so that I can go wild cooking. I’m going to eat the barley salad, washed down with a protein drink – a cup of protein, banana, strawberries, yogurt, blueberries, and oat milk. I like this food, which is a big surprise, and if I continue to work with it, this will be a change in diet that I want very much.
The first two weeks focus on grains, protein, vegetables, and fruits. Then we broaden out some. If you’d told me a few months ago that I would be making barley and vegetable salads, I would have gotten a huge laugh out of it. Life changes and I’m changing with it.
I appreciate the jolt from the Mayo Clinic Diet Plan. It keeps me motivated and well-informed. And I’m surprised to learn how much I enjoy eating vegetables; it only took me 60 or 70 years to figure it out.
This looks wonderful! By the way the British Worcestershire Sauce contains almost no salt and can add a slash of flovour to.a Lot of vegetabl concoctions,or casseroles.
I have never believed in “dieting”, but rather in changing our relationship with food. Adding more fruits,
vegetables and grains I have always believed is the way to go. You might want to explore, freeka, farro, and quinoa. They are interesting grains.
Barbara, thanks, this is well said, and it mirrors my own feeling. Diets rarely work for long. I’m changing my relationship with food and thinking very differently about. My idea of snacks has changed. I don’t miss the old ones. This will take time, and patience, and some learning. But I quite agree with you.
You might also explore herbs and spices. They “spice” up ones food if you like them. Some dieters give up foods they love temporarily then go back to them when they quit dieting which helps regain the weight. If they still ate their favorite foods in smaller quantities and less frrquently, they might have more success. You seem to have been able to give up sweets and carbohydrates without much trouble.