Food: Friend and Enemy
I must say one of the things I have had to get used to is eating the right foods.
I love to cook, so fortunately I can pretty much cook the foods we need to eat. Since my restrictions are pretty wide-ranged – no dairy, no glutens/wheat, no meat of color and no sugar – it actually makes it easy to focus on fish, vegetables, fruit, chicken/turkey, eggs, etc. What’s been harder to do is find recipes that fit with these foods. (Recently I discovered a really great recipe for shrimp bisque. Instead of cream or milk, it called for me to cook brown rice and then put it thru a food processor. That takes the place of the dairy and is really good.) I am challenged to be inventive with cooking on the diet. Sometimes when the rest of the family wants red meat, I just cook me up some fish – I love tilapia.
I have always bought the best ingredients – like organic everything I can get my hands on – so I doubt I am saving much money. But that’s O.K.
For breakfast, I have oatmeal (quick 1.5 minutes in the microwave) with fruit on top and soymilk or rice milk. Really good-tasting to me. I also recently found gluten-free frozen waffles, yummy with a boiled egg on top. Protein for breakfast is really important to keep me feeling full through lunch.
I was at an important reception in Washington, DC, and, as is often the case, all of the food being passed by waiters contained cheese or wheat. I just refused them and waited to have a really good dinner of scallops after.
Frankly, it’s not worth cheating on the diet, as it just means I get back my IBS and reflux - AND I have to exercise more to “use” up the calories. Not worth it.
Besides, I like the mantra, “you are what you eat.” Now on to my lunch of egg salad on rice bread – I like that, too.