Stages of Healthy-Style Eating

Over the years, we’ve always been conscious about eating the right things, however, it has become obvious that we weren’t doing all that we could to maintain or even improve our overall health.  When we first decided to eat less red meat and eat more healthy forms of dairy (such as yogurt), as well as more green leafy salads and fruit, then we thought we could surely see and feel the difference.  However, this was not the case.  Although we’ve enjoyed good health, we still weren’t seeing positive improvements – not in weight or in our lab results.  We had continued this same style of eating for years — with exactly the same results — but were in the rut of thinking that we were doing the right thing.

So, in the past several months, we have continued to tweak our style of eating and try vegetarian.  But although I was not cooking meat, I noticed that some of the recipes didn’t make health sense.  Just because one deletes meat, that doesn’t mean cheese is a healthy replacements.  So, from vegetarian, I proceeded to veganism.  Veganism, in short, means no dairy.  Again, just because one does not eat eggs or yogurt does not necessarily mean one’s eating is healthy.  An example of this could be french fries cooked in oil.

Our diet has evolved in the past several months to what is now plant-based.  Plant-based means eating vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. It’s the simplest meal planning and eating I’ve ever done!  I have several plant-based cookbooks that have fabulous, healthy recipes that I’ve used for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Although I still use a few recipes from my vegetarian cookbook, many of the recipes still call for milk, eggs, margarine or butter, oil, sour cream, and nut butters.  All of these ingredients I’ve learned to cook without.  Plant-based means eating veggies and fruits, and a variety of grains such as whole grains, millet, quinoa, and rice.  It also means cooking and baking a variety of foods that are not prepared with oils of any kind.  Although oil (and especially olive oil) has always been touted as heart-healthy, it’s still a FAT.  Foods are water sautéed or steamed with fresh herbs and we never miss the olive oil.