Pumpkin & Pomegranate

This isn’t so much about recipes as it is about explanation of how I lost 150 lbs. I eat a lot. Most of it is produce. This is how I did it.

I get people asking me all the time how I did it. How I was able to lose the weight, since it seems to be such a difficult task for many. The answer is not really all that exciting. I changed the way I eat. Completely, and forever. The secret to lasting fat loss is finding a nutrition plan that you can stick with for LIFE.  What most people think of as “diets” do not work long term. Not only are they based on deprivation and restriction but they are also not necessarily “good for you”. A “diet” based on allowing for certain amounts of calories, but not taking into consideration where the calories are coming from is just shoddy science. Sure, you may lose weight, but you won’t be healthy. Shedding pounds alone is not an indication of a healthy diet. Certain foods are NEVER “healthy”. I am not saying they cannot be enjoyed on occasion, but don’t fool yourself into thinking that you can eat a portion of them everyday and that they will be “healthy” for you. 100 calories of white flour and sugar is still crap, just in a smaller prettily packaged portion. It may be a “diet” food but it isn’t a “health” food.  I don’t do diets, I do health.

Yes, this seems a tad harsh, but I lived for years deluding myself that I could eat certain foods “in moderation” and be healthy. Poison in moderation is still poison.

I know all the excuses, I used them all myself. Either you want to be healthy or you don’t. It isn’t about shame. It isn’t about anyone but yourself. Until you actually hit the point where you REALLY want to get healthy it just won’t happen. No one can do this for you.

People often ask me:

“what made you want to lose weight?”

Well, ever since I started to gain weight I have always *wanted* to lose it. The right question is actually “what forced you to change your life so you would get healthy?”

My answer is not one I am that proud of.

I fell in love with someone who thought I was too fat.

As a proud feminist it is not an admission that I enjoy sharing, but it is the honest truth. That is what did it for me. I met someone who I believed to be worth the effort. He just so happens to be one of my dearest friends, and is now married to quite a wonderful woman. The interesting thing to me is this, about 70lbs into my weight loss I realized that the person who was “worth the effort” was not him, definitely not him…it was me. I was worth every second of it. I believe I needed an initial push, but that deep down it was always about me. I think perhaps my self esteem wasn’t high enough where I felt like I was worth it though, and so I put my focus into another.

So glad that changed ;-)

I ended up losing 150lbs all by myself. No doctor, no fad diet, no nutritionist, no gastric bypass or lap band. I fully believe almost anyone can do it without medical intervention. All it takes is a proper nutritional plan and determination. The fat loss is the easy part. The mental and emotional part is much more difficult. I had to face facts at a certain point and realize that as I lost weight people treated me differently. Some acquaintances (usually women) were a bit distant once they saw me after the weight loss. Cold even. Others became much more likely to be friendly with me. I saw that I was no longer invisible, and that realization was shocking. I am completely disturbed by the way people in our society treat those who are heavy. I am still not over it, and throughout my fat loss I definitely had many mental hurdles to get over. But the loss itself was easy, it just took TIME!

You will need patience, determination, and a good head on your shoulders when it comes to nutrition. I could give you a plan of action that is the same as mine, but I often hear complaints about not being able to “do it” because of the things I decided were not healthy parts of my diet. To that I say:

Everyone is different, but there are some things that are not healthy for anyone.

I gave up grains…others have been able to lose just as much as me without doing so. If you can do it, then please…go forth. It just isn’t my way. I won’t say grains are healthy because I just don’t believe they are. But they aren’t as unhealthy as other things.

I do highly recommend the book Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman
I lost my first 30 lbs in 3 months with very little exercise following his nutritional guidelines. I think this is an absolutely fantastic jumping off point, and anytime someone asks about my fat loss I recommend it.

After doing that I did tweak things a bit, and I continue to do so because I am not perfect. I just see how things go, research constantly, and check in with my body.

Sugar isn’t healthy. Faux-sugar isn’t healthy either (that diet soda is poison and will not help you lose fat either).

Other than seafood, I don’t eat meat. I am not even going to get into the health aspects of this. I choose not to eat certain things based on personal ethics. If you are interested in the health aspects of eating flesh there are plenty of resources to go to.

I cut out dairy recently. During my weight loss I did consume fat free milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, and Parmesan cheese on occasion. But due to personal ethical reasons I too gave up dairy recently. Again if you are looking for the pluses or minuses of dairy from a health standpoint you will have to go elsewhere as I will not promote dairy consumption while the dairy industry feeds into the beef and veal industry.

I use virgin coconut oil as my oil for nearly everything. On occasion I will use Extra Virgin Olive oil, sesame oil for flavor, and the very occasional grapeseed oil, but overall I stick with my trusty VIRGIN coconut oil. Nut oils (not including peanut) aren’t “bad” per se, but they MUST be kept cold in the fridge at all times.  Olive oil and grapeseed oil also must live in the fridge. Virgin coconut is stable enough to be happy on a shelf though, and I use it daily.

I don’t eat processed foods if I can help it, and really…you can help it.

I eat a TON of vegetables. People actually comment on by huge salads, and how much food I can put away. It sometimes gets annoying especially when I am eating lunch at my desk and hear “wow, that’s a BIG salad” for the 400th time. When I say a lot, I mean I *try* to get in about 1 lb of raw greens and 1 lb of cooked every day. This is the goal, but it doesn’t always happen. Mainly I just try to eat as many vegetables as I can.

I do not eat potatoes, corn or peas. They are all starches and basically do similar things when it comes to fat as grains do because of the carbohydrate content. Plus, when it comes to nutrient density they are not winners. Stick with the other veggies.

I eat fruit. Yes,  I believe carbs are important, but the way I view it fruit has more nutrients per calorie than grains do. I cut out the grains but not the fruit. Dr. Fuhrman also agrees with this but stresses that you must eat fresh fruit (not dried), and that you should still be eating more vegetables than fruit. I do eat dried fruit, but while I was in fat loss mode I only had the occasional raisin snack. If I started to gain fat now the first thing to go would be my dried fruit habit. I know perfectly well that it is a “healthier” treat, but a treat nonetheless.

Now, there are things I eat now that I did not eat while I was losing fat. Like I said I tried many different things to see what worked, and it DID work. If it didn’t work I wouldn’t have done it for long. Dr. Fuhrman recommends some nuts and seeds, but does not recommend them for those trying to lose a lot of weight. I followed his advice on this until I lost almost all the fat that I wanted to. That is when I came across the SCD diet, and began adding nuts and seeds into my eating. I cannot say that if you include them in your daily diet that you will lose fat as quickly as I did, or if you will even lose at a higher rate. Like I have said, all I know is what I did and what worked for me.

My advice here would be to start off without the nuts, and to see how that goes. Then to add them in and see if you plateau or if they work for you. I do know that I could not do it on a fat free diet, nor do I think that is healthy.  I eat breads made from nut meal, but butters, nut spreads and sauces. I adore nuts. I try to keep my nuts raw as they are better for you, but I do enjoy the occasional roasted nut spread  or butter too.

I do not count calories. I repeat, I do NOT count calories. I do not believe that “a calorie is a calorie” any more than I believe “fat is fat”. Calories that come from twinkies are going to do way more damage to your body than calories from almond butter. I am not a scientist, I am not even going to try to explain why a calorie is not a calorie, but basically it boils down to this. There are things in certain foods that do things inside your body. They affect hormones, what your body does with fat, and how your body works. 100 calories of oreos are not the same thing as 100 calories of cherries or 100 calories of broccoli. Just like 20 grans of fat from raw almonds will do you good, and 20 grams of trans fat will do damage inside you. Yes, you can lose weight if you count calories. You can also lose weight by not counting calories and by eating a lot more food that is healthy for you. If you count calories and don’t eat the right foods you could lose muscle and hold on to fat, plateau, or eventually have other problems because of the stuff that is in the unhealthy food.

NOW, ALL THAT BEING SAID…

When I say I “don’t eat” something…the only think I can honestly say I never ever eat is meat that is not seafood (I also do not eat squid or octopus). If you read my “about” section I mention I am a “pescetarian”. This is the only label I am comfortable with when it comes to food. Any other label would not fit at all times in my life.  For the rest of them, I say I “don’t eat” it…but that does not mean that I never eat them. It is just a rule I stick to for the vast majority of the time. I don’t mean once a week either. I cannot even tell you the last time I had a French fry. I have no clue when the last time I had a sandwich was. Or even a slice of bread. Actually I *think* I had an english muffin in March or April of 2008.  When I go out for Thai food I eat spring rolls. Not the fried kind, but the ones with the rice paper wrappers. With rice noodles inside. I eat sushi too. With rice. I occasionally have some super dark chocolate that has sugar in it. But these things are NOT habitual. They are not even close to being a weekly thing. I make them treats. There are other items that I do it with some frequency, or in small amounts, but they are still not habitual. I do not cut anything from my diet entirely (unless for ethical reasons) forever because I will feel deprived. I prefer to look it it this way. I *can* have the cupcake if I like, but I know how it will make me feel after, and I know it isn’t good for me. I usually don’t have the cupcake (but on my birthday I did!).  This is what is the most important.  You again have to do this for you and you alone. You are not proving anything to anyone else. But you have to stop coming up with excuses, because honestly…no one else cares and you are only hurting yourself. Sure people care about your health if they love you, but most people (even those who are thin) do not take proper care of themselves. You are only accountable to yourself. Stop worrying about being “good” or being “bad”, this isn’t a morality issue. It’s just about what will make you healthy.

If you are interested in reading some things on why I eat the way I do please check these out. They are not the only things I have researched, but they are a good sample and sum things up.

If you are wondering why you cannot lose the fat, but believe that you are eating healthily…then you probably aren’t. You will either need to change the foods you are eating or change the amount of foods you are eating. Personally, I prefer to eat as much as I want.

Grains:

Mark’s Definitive Guide to Grains

The Real Truth About Those “Healthy Whole Grains”

Grains and your Thyroid

But again, if you want to eat grains that is completely up to you, but personally I know I lost weight because of cutting them (and other starches) out and I don’t believe they are the most healthful thing you can eat.

Sugar:

Insulin and Sugar

I should also mention that I am NOT “Primal” or “Paleo”. Not because I do not agree with the philosophy behind a lot of it (I do) but because I do not believe that it is ethical to eat meat. I cannot even say that it is ethical to eat seafood. I do my best with where my own personal ethical line is at this point. We all draw ethical lines somewhere. My lines have changed since I was a child, and will continue to as I grow. I am not here to force you to become anything. I know full well that the only way a person will change is if they want to. All I can do is offer up information to those who wish to have it.  I will not ever say that eating the flesh of an animal is “okay”, so don’t ask me to do so. For the most part I ignore meat in a recipe. If a friend mentions how good some piece of meat was I change the subject. Let me explain how it sounds to my ears.

“Last night I had this amazing tasting baby. I mean it was FANTASTIC. I had it cooked rare, and in it’s own juices. I just love eating baby. It was so rare it almost cried!”

So please, do try being sensitive to others. Food can be a very very tricky subject.

But, like I said, I am not here to try to change you, as it never works that way. I do challenge you to be open minded and to seek out information. Question your own ethics and beliefs, and try to do your best to live and eat by your own standards.  Also please be respectful of the choices of others. Making fun of someone for choosing not to eat animal products is tacky and juvenile, not to mention ill-mannered.