In this report, I’ll update you on my results following Dr. Fuhrman’s Eat To Live life/maintenance plan during the last few months, share my brother’s experience giving Eat To Live a try, and answer a few common ETL questions that cross my blog. So let’s get started.
My 2015 Q2 Eat To Live Results
To recap where I left off last quarter, after losing 20 pounds in 2014, I regained 7 of it during vacation in February. In addition to vacation eats + drinks, I have a love affair with all things nuts (pistachios and cashews are my favorites). Despite their nutritional benefits, the oil and calories in nuts and seeds add up quickly which is why Dr. Fuhrman recommends limiting consumption to 1 ounce or less per day. Let’s just say I regularly exceed that amount by more than a fair margin.
By the end of last quarter, I dropped 3 of the 7 vacation pounds I had gained. If I had been smart about it, I would have simply jumped back on the weight loss part of the Eat To Live program and dropped all of it quickly. But I’m not that smart. I decided to stay on the maintenance program and slowly let my weight revert to where it was. Because that always works so well for me – procrastinate and do things the long, slow, hard way.
Garbage In. Garbage Out.
This quarter has been a case of “two steps forward, three steps back” for me. My non-blog life became incredibly busy. So busy that I began feeling like an absentee landlord around here because I didn’t have much time to put into recipe development, photography and writing.
I also didn’t have much time to put into our normal food preparation routine. Usually, my husband and I go grocery shopping/farmers’ marketing on Saturday morning and spend 2 or 3 hours prepping food for the week. When the fridge starts looking a little empty mid-week, we make a quick trip to the store to beef up (pun intended – no actual beef involved) our food supplies to finish out the week.
When that routine gets interrupted, I start a slow slide back into old bad habits. “I’ll grab a sandwich from the deli for lunch.” “I’m too tired to cook dinner – let’s go out.” “Let’s grab a salad from the Whole Foods hot/cold bar” (after hitting the 10 snacking stations strategically placed around the store beforehand).
The Result
After two months of neglecting my normal food preparation routine and not paying much attention to what I put in my mouth, I regained 10 of the 20 pounds I lost last year. This result was so predictable that I didn’t even bother getting mad at myself. Just laughed out loud when I got on the scale. No effort in – no results out.
Which got me thinking about…..
My Brother’s Eat To Live Experience
When my brother told me that he and his wife were going to give the Eat To Live program a try, my initial instinct was to become the overbearing, helicopter mom/sister and tell him how to do everything, what to eat, what to avoid, how to….. you get the idea. Instead, I realized that if they had gone to the effort of buying the books, reading them and deciding to give the program a try, it’s best to let them proceed on their own.
When I caught up with them last weekend and asked how it was going, they said they stayed on the program for about 3 weeks. While they really liked the amount of fruit allowed (as opposed to other programs they tried), they ran into a few obstacles:
- The amount of food planning and preparation in advance to keep the fridge stocked with ready-to-eat meals was a challenge
- No salt – and replacing it with Mrs. Dash original flavor didn’t do the trick
- The kids don’t like beans or most of the food on the program
- No olive oil – using water, soy or broth to “steam fry” vegetables left dishes a bit flat
- Hard to get used to no meat (beef, pork, lamb) or fish as the main entrée, and instead substituting it with salad or veggies
- Seemingly limited number of choices for breakfast without eggs or sausage – oatmeal and green smoothies became tiresome
- All of the chewing involved
This last item might sound strange, but it actually makes a lot of sense. When you consider how many greens and beans you eat every day on the program, it’s important to chew your food well so that the greens can be digested and the beans…..well, don’t do what beans do best.
In the end, they found that the foods on the ETL program made weight loss easier and helped them learn how to eat a healthier diet in general. Although they are no longer following the program to the letter, they did find some new foods they like and continue to incorporate into their diet, such as whole wheat pita bread, soybean spaghetti, and tofu shirataki noodles. At the end of the day, they found that giving the ETL program a try helped motivate them to incorporate more vegetables, greens and fruits into their diet, while greatly reducing (though not totally eliminating) their intake of “bad” foods.
And that makes me really happy.
It also makes me realize that I need to get on the ball and create the eBook I’ve been promising (see this post) about the meals I ate on the weight loss plan to hopefully help others navigate the program with a bit more ease.
Trying to Make A Permanent Change
When I first drastically changed my eating habits (see this post and that post), I remember thinking “why is this so hard?” It was about 19 years ago when I started a macrobiotic/vegan diet – long before there was a Whole Foods on every corner (by the way, the Whole Foods of yesteryear was quite different than what you find today – another story for another time, perhaps). It was long before “kale”, “superfood”, “phytonutrients” and other dietary lingo made headlines on every media outlet.
I was lucky to live near a vegetarian restaurant that served a macrobiotic plate, kale, seaweed salad and miso soup. I ate there every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner for weeks while I read books and recipes, and learned how to navigate a natural foods store. I think the hardest thing was looking at everything in my refrigerator and pantry, and realizing it all had to go. In order to reverse my health troubles, I had to accept that big changes needed to be made. And they had to be permanent.
And I did it – with the help and support of my husband.
So when I thought about my brother’s experience with Eat To Live versus my first big dietary change effort, I couldn’t help but note a couple of pretty big differences in our circumstances. First, I changed my diet because I had to. I had major health problems that weren’t improving with pharmaceuticals – and were actually getting worse. Changing my diet was the only hope I had of improving my circumstances. Neither my brother nor his wife have major health problems.
Also, when I dramatically altered my diet, it was just my husband and me – and he was totally game for making the change. My brother and his wife have two young kids. Changing their diet either meant foisting it on the kids as well, or cooking for “them” and “us” at every meal. Not only is that a huge time suck and grocery/logistical nightmare, but it also means there will be things in the fridge that pose a constant temptation or longing for what “I used to be able to eat”.
Preparation & Motivation
Realizing these differences made me wonder what kind of advice I would give to someone if they asked me “should I start the Eat To Live program or any type of big change to my diet?” My gut reaction would be to say “by all means, go for it!”
But in reality, there’s a lot more to it. I think now I would say, “go for it, so long as you have a burning desire (motivation) to make a change, and make sure that you have the time, environment/conditions, and support (preparation) needed to see it through.” Those are what I believe is necessary to make permanent changes to your diet and lifestyle.
I would also add “don’t be concerned about making mistakes because they are bound to happen – learn from them and move on.”
If there was one key to successfully changing old habits for me, it was being prepared. I spent a lot of time researching everything I could find about how food impacts health. The more I read, the more I believed what I was reading because I was personally experiencing the health benefits of a good diet. And the more my health improved, the more that motivated me to stick with the diet – which meant planning my meals in advance, grocery shopping and cooking everything.
For me, preparation and motivation go hand-in-hand. I’m not going to spend time preparing to do something if I’m not motivated to keep up with it. But when I find that motivation, I go full steam ahead with the preparations necessary to keep me barreling down that path of glory. Eating good food makes me feel good, so that motivates me to keep on prepping more good food.
What I lost this quarter was the discipline of preparation. I allowed a busy schedule to overtake my healthy routine. And because I wasn’t doing the food prep and eating things that make me feel great, I felt lethargic and lost the motivation to keep pushing myself forward. And because I didn’t have any good food prepared and ready to grab from the fridge, I was stuck with going to restaurants or eating pre-made deli foods. The result is that I gained weight and am highly disappointed for allowing that to happen – again.
The Bright Side
Despite this quarter’s setback in weight gain, there are a couple of bright spots. First, even though my diet strayed pretty far from the Eat To Live program (I ate on the plan about 65% of the time, the rest was a disaster), I still was able to keep off 10 of the 20 pounds I lost. This is kind of a big deal for me, because so many times in the past, I just did the yo-yo thing and ended up exactly back where I started. So even with deviating from the program pretty significantly, I apparently have made enough permanent changes in my diet that I’ve kept a solid 10 pounds off. I’ll take it!
The other bright spot is that my motivation is back in full force. Seeing that 10 pounds return on the scale really lit a fire under me. So check back next quarter to see what happens!
Answers to Commonly Asked Eat To Live Questions
There have been three questions about the Eat To Live program that have continually come across my blog. Of course, reading Dr. Fuhrman’s books is the best place to find answers to your questions, but I think I can respond to these queries without doing too much damage!
Can I Eat Bananas On The Eat To Live Program?
This is the most frequent question I see. I think there is a perception that bananas are loaded with sugar and therefore should be treated differently than, let’s say, an apple. However, it doesn’t appear that Dr. Fuhrman treats these two any differently, as his advice is to “eat a variety of fruits” and “try to include many of the following: ….. bananas”.
Bananas happen to be my favorite fruit. When I was a kid, my mom told me my skin would turn yellow if I kept eating so many. That wasn’t enough to stop me. I still eat a banana almost every day and it didn’t cause me any problems when I was on the weight loss plan. Test them out on yourself to see if they have any effect on you.
Can I Eat Edamame (Soybeans) On The Eat To Live Program?
Remember back when the media first came out with reports about the evils of soy? Beware – it’s going to turn men into women!!! It causes breast and prostate cancer – run and hide!
Well, here’s a link to an article Dr. Fuhrman wrote, Debunking the Anti-Soy Myth. In it, he discusses the health benefits of minimally processed soy foods (edamame, tofu and tempeh). And in Eat To Live, he advocates eating a wide variety of beans, including soybeans. However, he advises against highly processed soy products such as soy milk and soy nuts. But edamame is just fine, so enjoy fresh, organic soy!
How Many Beans Can I Have On Eat To Live?
Dr. Fuhrman says that beans are among the world’s most perfect foods and should be eaten liberally – at least one cup per day. However, you can eat an unlimited quantity on both the weight loss and life plans, so long as you consume a wide variety of beans including chickpeas, black-eyed peas, black beans, split peas, lima beans, pinto beans, lentils, kidney beans, soybeans and cannellini beans. Just make sure you chew them well to limit…..oh you’ll figure it out.
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