“Meal Plan” – Day Old Bread

Nothing to see here. I’m posting my old “Daily Bread” page in order to consign it for posterity. My attitude and diet have changed since I wrote this and the page was getting stale.

(Its long and boring. I’d skip it if I were you)

My Diet

As in:

1 a : food and drink regularly provided or consumed b : habitual nourishment c : the kind and amount of food prescribed for a person or animal for a special reason

Not:

d : a regimen of eating and drinking sparingly so as to reduce one’s weight <going on a diet>

The  Short of It

• No Sugar (this includes ALL sugar, honey, brown rice syrup, agave nectar…etc).

• No Flour (if it has the word “flour” under the ingredients I don’t eat it. Brown rice flour, whole grain wheat flour…etc).

• Weigh and Measure all Food

• 3 meals, 2-3 snacks daily

• Mostly Vegetarian  (lacto-ovo-pescatarian)

• Cheese and eggs but no milk

• The least number of ingredients the better — even better if all of them are recognizable; if it has no label even better.

The Long of It

Two years ago I went to a treatment center for eating disorders,  Milestones in Recovery , where a dietician designed a food plan for me. I fought my way in as an outpatient, though they felt my situation required residential. I’m a stubborn little caterpillar.

The facility’s diet plan is based on Food Addicts Anonymous, which entails absolutely NO SUGAR and NO FLOUR. They don’t believe we need to eat cookies and cake in order to recover from an eating disorder. They believe it’s possible for someone recovering from ED to live the rest of their life without a pop-tart and be still be recovered. I agree.

Hearing this was a HUGE factor in my decision to go- Huge.

Rather than being served, you buy your own food and prepare your own meals — as long as they follow the dictates on your meal plan. It’s a fantastic idea, if you ask me. You learn about nourishing yourself/preparing food/recognizing proper portions and this is invaluable after you leave treatment.

So: No Sugar, No Flour, 3 Meals, 3 Snacks — Specific allotments of protein, veg, carbs, and fat. At first, I was like “I got this! Everything in my apartment is sugar-free and whole grain.”

Then I got home with the list of sugars and realized even my “sugar-free” jelly had sugar. I quickly took the recommendations to eat nothing with sugar higher than the 5th ingredient to extremes. I refused anything with sugar on the label whatsoever. Even if it said less than 1%.

There was hidden sugars in my celestial seasonings tea, my seasonings, nuts – I was surprised. It was everywhere. (And I was no dummy, mind you.)

I’d been on a “sugar-free” diet for ages! I read the nutrition facts (calories, carbs, sugars…etc) and looked for no-sugar added and sugar-free on the packaging. But you really have to look at the ingredients and know all the different names of sugar in order to go sugar free.

I knew about sugar in salad dressing, spaghetti sauce and ketchup, but in Worchestershire sauce? Sugar-free Yogurt? Veggie burgers? Often these products list O g sugar on the label and that is where most sugar-concious Americans look.

Off to my parent’s house where I unload a box full of sugar-free, low-fat, whole grain and other seemingly innocuous food (trail mix (no dried fruit), popcorn (not advised), whole wheat pasta (No Flour). I also told them I had to get a food scale. They were … very uncomfortable. (My daughter is anorexic and you’re putting her on a diet?) but very supportive.

I have yet to follow the meal plan letter-for-letter in terms of quantity (3 snacks say what?). I have certainly relaxed a bit in terms of food combining. It might be okay to eat a meal without fat, you know? Let’s not get obsessed about macronutrients.

(they were so weird about snacks. It had to be fruit and protein or dairy and veggie. I asked, “Can I just have a yogurt with nuts?” “No…you can have yogurt with cucumbers?”  I was seriously underweight…you think they’s tell me to eat the nuts!)

Mind you – the dietician at the time was filling in for the regular dietician, who has a cult-like following among everyone who has crossed her path. You have to give props to any dietician whose eating disorder patients (even anorexics) are in love with. I want to hire her when I save enough money.

After I left Milestones, I started taking so many “liberties” …I eventually began eating erratically and that just ends up bad. Very unbalanced.

Now I am hoping to get back on track — eating regular meals and snacks in proper portions that include fats and carbs.

I have never strayed from the the No Sugar – No Flour idea. For two reasons:

1. I ate this way, educated myself about nutrition, and began to feel so much better. Everything I read made perfect, almost biblical sense. I am a total advocate. I just hate the idea of processed foods. The stuff that is engineered to masquerade as food in this country is responsible for America’s Obesity epidemic and it sickens me.

2. There is most certainly a part of this that appeals to my disordered self.

We shall see.

Vegetarian — Ish

I stopped eating white meat in 6th grade, red meat in 8th…flirted with veganism for a few years in college. My eating choices were absolutely not the cause of my eating disorder, nor were my choices prompted by any sort of eating disorder. (However the two developed a very interesting, almost symbiotic relationship).

I was hospitalized for a week about 6 years ago and was severely malnourished. I agreed to try some animal protein. Anything to avoid the thrice weekly echiocardiograms I was getting. Plus, I was really hungry.

Chicken GROSSES me out (factory farming and disease) so that was a no. I will eat turkey about twice a year (preferably free-range organic). I eat cheese and yogurt but never drank milk after my vegan stint in college. I can’t do the milk thing. I drink soy or almond.

Seafood? Don’t even get me started. LOVE AT FIRST BITE. I can be quoted as saying “I am mostly vegetarian but one of my favorite foods is lobster.” How backwards is that? I know die-hard carnivores that swear Lobster-Meat is cruel. “How Could You eat That and not a Chicken?”

I have enough of a hard time feeding myself as it is, I really can’t handle thinking about cutting out more food right now. Your diet is a personal choice. I really don’t ever get ”preachy”. Eat it if you want. Just know what you are eating. 

Au Naturel – Real Food

Our bodies, minds, and souls are designed to consume food. Not FOOD-LIKE products. When we start adding chemicals, additives, refined corn and flour… it just messes everything up. Our bodies, our earth, our minds.  Messes us up. Period. That’s it. Ends there.

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