It's been two months now that we have incorporated dr.fuhrman's lifestyle eating pattern. It has been a good change , especially deleting meat/animal from my diet. I've lost 12 pounds, still have more to go, but his concept really hit home with us to eat properly to ward off disease, and the weight loss is secondary and more automatic. Anyone else follow this program ?
He is all about a plant based diet to help the body not develop sickness, disease. Anything animal related needs to be deleted, including cheese,fish, and lean meats. I never thought I could possibly do this type of lifestyle change , but my family and I have the last 2 months. We do not miss meat anymore , or refined sugars. The key is to eat 1lb of raw vegetable, and 1lb of steamed vegetable a day , I can say, it's beyond difficult to accomplish, and variety is endless. Expensive and time consuming for my wife to prepare daily, but worth the lifestyle change. He has no limits on eating, no calorie counting, no exercising, no timelines of not eating late at night. Your body will tell when it's hungry and when to eat.His message has really resonated with me , and he is correct. More protein and less carbs is not the answer to weight control and healthy living.
How much protein can you possibly get with it? Can you estimate your calorie intake? I *hate* fad based diets. But, I believe in advancement. I fast everyday from something that was a "radical" diet. So I would love to learn more about this.
His book, Eat to Live, is a quick read. Eat less meat, eat more vegetables. He walks you through the protein thing. I have tried it, but I just don't feel good after working out because I feel like I am not eating enough.
If you are not taking in or absorbing enough protein your body will start to break down your muscles and you will indeed start to lose weight in an impressive manner. It's a simple trick. This is made very evident if you also exercise and much more so if you are doing some serious athletic training. Your muscles will get sore and stay sore. Our bodies are the end results of thousands of years of evolution and natural selection based on an omnivore diet. Someone wishing to go 100% vegetarian isn't going to change that reality overnight. Some individuals may indeed get by on a 100% vegetarian diet but they won't be very physically active. Those people may even live longer than others because they are on a restricted diet but that is mainly because they are reducing their metabolic activity and avoiding the wear and tear of active life. Thin people do tend to live longer. Our bodies are all different and we need to be very careful when catering a diet for our individual needs.
In a nutshell he talks about using food to prevent disease, as North Americans have the highest reported cancer globally, and it's due to our diet. 12 oz of broccoli , or 6oz of spinach is the equivalent of 1oz of steak for protein. Plus the vegetables are better for you than red meat. Out of 21 meals a week, he suggests the 10/90 rule, which means 2 meals a week you can have a small piece of meat, fish, chicken. He talks about keeping the body core temperature cool by eating cantaloupe, water melon. He is all about keeping your metabolism slower as the likely hood of cancer decreases. The myth that increasing your metabolism is needed to lose / burn fat is what all diet books preach, and portion control. You can also gain much protein with all the beans you have to eat, and there is plenty of selection. The idea is big meals full of vegetables, with no portion control, which my wife has now done effectively. We have much more food now, eating much more, but got rid of dairy, meat, cheese, anything with animal content. He also talks about using foods to keep your body out of the acid state which is important. For us, it seems to work, and can live off this lifestyle, we do not miss the meat at all, and thought that would be impossible. For people that hate working out, this is a great lifestyle change, we are active, but I HATE cross training, hard workouts, which made me hungry, and I ate more protein ( chicken/turkey) which made me more hungry. The never ending circle of eating , working out harder, get more hungry and eating more protein meats.Those lifestyle diet plans didn't work for me, it was a circle of endless hunger, with increased workouts to burn more calories. It's worth the read for those that wish to look at a change from all the other fad diets like Paleo, Atkins, weight watchers etc..... His method of eating has helped us the last 3 months, and I see progress in looking at my food for my long term health as opposed to what should I eat to stay slim. The helpful part is he has no limits or time lines on eating, your body will tell you when you are hungry for nutrients, not hungry because of sugar cravings.
I respectfully disagree. Have seen Frank Medrano ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvJHw64fxgQ He's 100% plant based and in pretty damn good shape, and he's not the only one. I think Big Red is on the right track. Bill Clinton and countless others have reversed diseases like Cardiovascular disease (The #1 killer of North Americans by eating plant based) Keep up the good work, Big Red. How's it been progressing ?
Since I started this program I have lost 30lbs to date. I have meat / animal based products 2x a week out of my 20 meals a week ( this includes fish, and milk/cheese products ) Ex- if I have salmon dinner, and the next morning I have yogurt or milk with cereal, the next 18 meals are not meat / animal products again. I do crave the odd donut now and a again, but I have been able to keep away from a blood pressure pill, and blood thinner that my doctor was eager to prescribe back in sept 2014. My goal weight is 180, but still many few pounds away from that,and I have stabilized without weight loss the entire month of March, which is fine. This is a program I think I can follow for the rest of my life,miss nit that difficult if your wife is a good cook at home It's amazing what one can do with beans, vegetables, and fruits on a menu. The key is to continue variety daily, if it wasn't for the large amount of variety I would have gone back to my old ways. You really need to cook a lot of vegetables for evening dinner to avoid hunger and snacking when you see that papa johns pizza commercial I recommend people try it - six months into it, seems this lifestyle modification can work for me for the long term
Joel knows his stuff - his writings reflect all the research and findings of Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D., John McDougall, M.D., Dean Ornish, M.D., Neal Barnard, M.D., William Harris, M.D., Michael Greger, M.D., Mat Lederman, M.D., -- I interviewed him at his clinic two years ago. I've followed the same plan for 15 years and benefited greatly from it.
If quantities are a bit of a problem, try this: * Morning Nutribullet/NutriNinja smoothie - bunch of greens(kale, chard, etc.), maybe a small scoop of protein powder, variety of nuts(almonds, pecans, walnuts, no cashews), some blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, one banana, add enough water so it'll turn into a smoothy and there you go. I make this most mornings, using frozen berries(convenient) and it takes < 10 minutes for all of it. Makes two LARGE glasses, so one in the morning, other later that day or the next morning. To save wear and tear on the NutriXXX gizmo, I run it through an old Vitamix, let it do the heavy lifting, then 20-30 secs in the NutriXXX to obliterate it and that's it. 'bout the most nutritious thing you'll ever consume, too Btw, haven't gotten sick or a whiff of anything in many years, which is quite nice. Most days, later in afternoon or evening, I use a large, cheap, plastic bowl the size of a large mixing bowl to build a hell of a salad: * nuke small red potato in the microwave. * couple heads of leaf lettuce(can mix red with romaine, etc., just avoid head lettuce, as it's crap). * few nuts, as in the smoothie. * bell pepper and tomatoes. * small avocado (this one's a must). * sprouts, if you gots 'em. * dressing, if you want, but don't drown the salad in it. * a little sumpin' crunchy(croutons or whatever). * If you wanna add a bit of egg, that's possible, too, which I sometimes do, but most times don't get around to eggs. Looks huge, but reduces down to quite edible. If I wanna have a more normal meal later in the day, no problem on top of all of this. Leafy greens are probably the most nutritious single food available, believe it or not. Especially if eaten raw. More protein by weight than meat, with no crap. Lots of micro stuff, as listed in Dr. Joel's books. Trick to eating a lot of 'em at first is to either grind 'em in a NutriXXX or chomp 'em in a salad with other stuff in it, so'ze you don't get tired of eating just greens. A key ingredient in the smoothie and salad is that the food is raw. Can't over emphasize that. Takes a while for liver and rest of digestive system to adjust to this kinda stuff, but if you give it a real try, you'll never go back. PLUS, you can go off the reservation and chow down on crap food often enough to kill the cravings. Starting out, do -some- of the above, plus your normal diet. Over time, you'll do more of this stuff and less of the old stuff and it'll all work out, so give yourself time to adjust and adapt. I avoid grains pretty much, eat a small amount of beans(not much), which is somewhat diff than Dr. Joel's writings, but that's another discussion. Diff strokes, diff folks, I guess. Deal here is to make sure you eat the nutritious stuff each day, then any garbage food you nibble will have minimal effects. Just be sure you eat the good stuff at least five days per week and you'll be just fine. That way, if you wanna go bubba style BBQ on weekend a bit, you're ok cuz you lived right the rest of the week.
