by Birdy » Fri Aug 19, 2011 12:04 pm
The DVD by Doug Lisle, Losing Weight without Losing Your Mind, is excellent. I've watched it twice and will watch again because he packs a lot of information into his talks. Also a lot of humor - he's a good speaker. I never understood his concept of the pleasure trap, but after listening to the DVD, it makes sense. The book by Alona Pulde, M.D. and Matthew Lederman, M.D., Keep it Simple, Keep it Whole is more for beginners to vegan diets. I already know everything in their book and then some. They were students of Dr. McDougall's who are now practicing his plant-based medicine at their clinic. I plan to pass the book along at our library since it's not in their system. That way a lot of people may read it. You become a bit of an activist for this way of eating after a while don't you?
I made a delicious lentil soup on Wednesday for dinner:
1 1/2 cups brown lentils
1/2 cup brown rice
2 onions (1 red, 1 sweet white)
5-6 cloves garlic
1 bunch collard greens
2 carrots
1 red pepper
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
1 T. dried basil
2 tsp. Italian seasoning
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. dried red chile flakes
salt & pepper to taste
Wash lentils, rice, collard greens, carrots and red pepper. Chop onion, garlic, greens, carrots and red pepper. Saute onions in water for about 10 minutes in a large soup pot. Add lentils, rice, collard greens, carrots, and herbs & red chiles to pot and cover with water to about 1".
Cook, loosely covered on low heat, for 30 minutes stirring about every 10 minutes and adding more water, if needed. Add red pepper, recover and cook another 10 minutes. Add tomato sauce, salt and pepper, recover loosely and cook another 10 minutes. Good served with fresh whole grain bread.
This was very good. We had it for dinner Wednesday, and then I ate it for lunch yesterday and breakfast today. It makes a lot!
A few weeks ago, I finally got my DH to go to Cafe Flora in Seattle, a well known vegetarian restaurant. He was pleasantly surprised by how delicious his meal was. Although he is a meat eating, sushi loving kind of guy, he's now saying to me, "Don't make meat dishes for me at home. I'll just eat what you're eating." YES! I've been concerned about his health as much as my own because he's way overweight. However, this summer he's lost at least 10 pounds and looks/feels better. One thing that Doug Lisle's DVD showed is the calorie density of various foods, with bread and cheese at the same density. I was kind of shocked to see that. It's obvious that eating bread and pasta contributes to me not losing weight, but life without these foods is hard to accept. So it seems reasonable to have one serving of either bread or pasta each day, rather than trying to eliminate these foods completely. I'm not sure I can limit these foods, especially bread which is kind of a comfort food. Any suggestions?
I haven't weighed recently because I need to get another battery for the scales. I have a follow-up appointment in October with the doctor to check labs and blood pressure. Hoping for a good report then.
"The program is essentially cost and risk free." ~ Dr. John McDougall