New Lifestyle, New Plans
Yes, you read it right, new lifestyle, that's what I'm living right now and working on it as well. It sounds fancy and most people use the word to look fancy, while they continue what they have been doing. For me, it's really a new lifestyle, one I am adopting and learning to live as it's the only way to break from the old one, with old, unhealthy habits.
As I mentioned in some of my previous posts, I'm working on losing some weight, getting healthy and changing my life as well. Around one third of my goal is achieved and it's not the lifestyle I'm living, but this is not over yet and will not be over even when I'll reach my goal. This is why it's called lifestyle change and not weight loss journey.
During the two months and a half, that I've been doing this, have been thinking of a lot of things, but mostly of how I can shape my diet, to not be boring or repetitive. Usually this is the reason so many can't do it till the end and fail repeatedly.
Find Your Way
For me, lunch usually means soup and main course, but with the diet, my soup can only mean low fat vegetable soup. Doesn't sound interesting, does it? No, it doesn't, but it's not a tragedy either, if you know what to do.
My solution to avoid repetitiveness or eating the same soup every day is to always use different veggies and spices. At the beginning it looked kind of impossible to pull such a stunt, but after two and a half months I can tell you, it's totally doable and it's fun too. Thank God (figure of speech as it's not God who's growing and packing them), today we have frozen veggies, ready to be cooked, so you just take out what you need of each bag, you can use fresh ones too and you have a great variety for your soup.
I said Find Your Way and it's not an accidental wording. Over the years I've read so many diet plans and most, if not all of them are quite boring and excessively restrictive, in order to guarantee quick results. Obviously everyone wants quick results, but no one wants the struggle and suffering that comes with it and most of all, not many have the mental strength to go through with it, which leads to (repeated) failure. Following a plan blindly is what is required of those who want others to decide for them, but this does not have to be the case. Work out what works for you, what you like, how you like it and the rest will be easy.
New Plans
It's winter in my country, so veggies and fruits are not the best as at -18C you can't grow anything outside, this is why fruits are imported and veggies are grown in greenhouses. This makes my job a bit difficult, but it's not going to be like this forever. Till I can get some real veggies grown outside, I'm getting ready with my plan.
I have two books, one bought ages ago, the other swapped not so long ago, that can come in handy now.
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This old book had a lot of recipes focusing on spices to use with different meat types and not only. It's basically to learn what goes with what and in my opinion this can be the key.
We often buy takeaway food or eat at certain restaurants because the flavor they offer is unbeatable. I can't blame anyone for that, but that's not an option for me anymore, so the solution is to create those flavors at home.
Once you try out a few recipes and form an idea about which would be good for you, you can put together the menu and you're safe.
Back in my grandmother's day, you grew your fruits, veggies and spices too and you knew what you were eating as most of the ingredients were home grown. We cot very comfortable and nowadays we buy everything ready, some even buy spiced meat, ready for grill or whatever method you choose to prepare your meat with. Spices of all kinds are mixed and sold in packets, you just have to sprinkle your ingredients with it. Convenient, but it can backfire easily as you don't know what's inside, or you don't know what those added chemicals are for.
For me, this is a learning curve and even though I'm not starting from zero as I've been cooking my own meal for ages, it's like a totally new journey.
At this point I'm not sure if I'm going to share my recipes on Hive, I don't know if anyone would be interested, but you might see a photo or two about the dishes I will be making.
P.S. Don't get fooled by the photos I uploaded in this post as some are neither pat of my diet, nor healthy, but I bet it will make you hungry 😆
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Love this energy, fresh plans and small daily steps can change everything.
you are right, one problem is that things get boring easily when doing a diet or restriction on food... for lunch i get also a soup in winter, i go to a local farmer and buy vegetables, plenty of them but we reach -5° not -18°, so i make it with those, i totally wanna avoid frozen stuff... then after the soup here comes some pasta, max 80gr, daily... it's a must in every italian diet
In my family we always cook cacero, we make our own food, we don't buy anything pre-made or ready-made, except for some special days, and pasta, although we also make homemade pasta. I learned it from my grandmother, there was no money and the cacero was cheaper and it is known that it contains.
I think the only canned food I buy is tuna and something else, but I like to cook my own food... the first dish I'm not sure what it is... but the second is something I have no problem eating for several days. I love fruits and vegetables, more than meat, but there are vegetables like one that I don't like: broccoli. You said it yourself: making a plan that we like and not getting bored in the process is the key.
That wrap looks really amazing! My wife and I have a couple books that we like to reference that has lighter recipes and then she gets a magazine from this lady called "Hungry Girl" that has some great stuff in it as well. I think if I liked fish more I would probably switch to a mostly Mediterranean diet.