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Thursday, January 1, 2015

(New Year's Resolutions) - Plant-Based Eating



I'm big on resolutions. Nearly every day I resolve to eat healthier, exercise more, floss daily, spend less money, not watch tv, use my phone less, return my brother's calls, write more/better, meditate daily, stop picking my face, put away my laundry. You get the picture. So naturally I'm a big fan of making New Year's Resolutions.

For a bit now Alex and I have talked about wanting to "go vegan" again for a month, and I saw that Forks Over Knives came out with a new book about how to transition to a plant-based diet, and with a bunch of recipes. I bought it. When we first did this a couple years ago, Alex reported feeling a whole lot better eliminating meat and dairy and processed foods in general, and while I felt good about our improved diets, I didn't necessarily notice any physiological changes. But this time, while of course I'd love to lose a few pounds, I'm really curious about whether or not I can alter how my taste buds interpret flavor. That's one of those things I always read about, that people who give up fake sweetener eventually find that an orange tastes better to them than it did before. People who eat plant-based diets often report that vegetables taste better, they feel more satiated by the foods, and their "cravings" disappear. We've long been aware that our consumption of milk, cheese and yogurts is out of balance, so January 2015 seems as good of a time as any to transition back to healthier, plant-based eating.

One of the things I like to do, both as a clinician and in my own life, is to collect subjective data as a sort of "snapshot" when making any kind of changes. I like to know if I actually feel like new habits make a difference to how I feel overall. So every so often this month I'm going to make Alex and myself do a quick check-in, rating on a 1-10 scale (10=high) about the following areas:

Alex:
Energy Level = 4
Sleep Quality =  7
Exercise = 1
Time Management = 7
Adherence to F/K Plan = 0
Ease of F/K Plan = n/a
Participation in Cooking = 7
Joy of Cooking = 6
Joy from Food = 6
Self Image = 5
"Life Snapshot" = 8

Jo:
Energy Level = 4 (feel more fatigued than I should, parenting from the couch)
Sleep Quality = 7 (sleep well, but rarely feel rested)
Exercise = 5 (enough on the elliptical to keep my heart healthy, but not enough to be fit)
Time Management = 7 (poor time management is related to laziness and avoidance)
Adherence to F/K Plan = 0 (consume a ton of dairy, dependent on lattes, prefer bars and convenience food, lazy about cooking)
Ease of F/K Plan = n/a
Participation in Cooking = 2 (I occasionally make something in the crockpot)
Joy of Cooking = 2 (every so often I get on a baking kick)
Joy from Food = 5 (I eat because I'm supposed to, but I mostly enjoy junk food)
Self Image = 5 (I'm not exactly a fat-ass, and I feel healthy enough for the dr., but feel overly soft and flabby and un-athletic; I would like to feel fit and strong)
"Life Snapshot" = 5 (could be worse, could be better)

Nerd alert, I know.

But the thing is, if I see progressive improvements in these areas, and I can track it to the numbers week by week, than I am more likely to be sold on making more permanent changes. I'm a tough crowd or behavioral change, even though a lot of my profession requires me to inspire and teach certain kinds of cognitive-behavioral changes in others.

I also know that whenever Alex and I resolve to do something new (e.g. write daily in November, complete a 30-day yoga challenge, meditate nightly, financial overhauls, etc.), we usually quit around the two-week mark. I'm telling myself right now that NO MATTER WHAT, we can't officially "quit" our attempts at a plant-based diet. It's okay if we stumble and fall, but we have to get back up on the horse - or the potato, so to speak - and finish out the month. This is me, writing that here in order to increase my chances of being accountable to myself. So this month it's all fruits, veggies, grains and nuts/seeds. I'm most concerned about how to handle my iced 2% latte addiction ...

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