I am working on becoming a vegetarian. Health reasons. It's good for our hearts and good for diabetes. Now, I'm not a fanatic on it. I'm slowly easing into it. And I'm still allowing cheese, low-fat milk, and eggs. The cheese is, of course, low fat. And the eggs are egg whites. And I'm not beating myself up when I slip. I've spent years eating meat. It will take time to stop. I'm also tapering off bread in general. And all types of sweets.
Things I have learned so far:
- I hadn't eaten a hamburger for a couple of months now. Ate one last week. The meat tasted so greasy. Sorry, Sonic, I think you're losing me.
- Spinach enchiladas and quesadillas are excellent. As are green chile enchiladas.
- Egg white omelets are just as good as regular omelets. Pepper, mushroom, spinach, tomato, and cheese omelets are excellent.
- So-called chef salads aren't that good.
- Restaurant bean burritos aren't good, either. At least not as good as what I make at home.
- Some people are offended or annoyed if they learn you're attempting to become a vegetarian. Now I don't mention it unless I feel "safe" in doing so.
- This is the idea time to become one. All those lovely and delicious veggies at WalMart and the local farmers market. Although I sure wish the farmers market here had more variety: tomatoes, potatoes, onions dominate with a scattering of local honey and melons. Of course, it's not a large farmers market, and I'm sure they stick with what sells for sure.
The most important thing that I'm trying to learn, incorporate, live is to make food less important in my life. Eating to live and not living to eat, to share the old cliche. Well, enough about that for now.
Writers group meeting was Saturday. Good attendance. We gained our 21st member. We're large enough now that we can have a few members missing and still have a good crowd with guests and so on. Eventually we will grow out of our current room in the library. They have larger rooms, so that won't be a problem, but I'm hoping someone else will be president then. I'm reaching my limits of what I feel comfortable with or really feel comfortable in front of.
It's raining here. We needed the rain. I hope Jean gets some. Texas is slowly becoming a desert.
My herbs on the back porch are doing well as are my strawberries and my one cherry tomato plant. I'm hoping my potatoes come up soon. I have more plants this year than I've ever had. I really felt a need this reason to surround myself with green growing things. Embracing life, I guess.
Read a great historical novel this weekend. Hild by Nicola Griffith. It's the early life of Saint Hilda of Whitby. Beautiful writing and a clear grasp of characters and plot. I'm hoping there will be a sequel.
Last week I also read The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Steadfast by Jack Campbell, the latest in his military science fiction series. MSF is a huge sub-genre within science fiction now.
Internet is being weird here. The storm is messing with my provider. So I'd better close.
This week:
- Write on MBTM. Highest priority.
- Chores.
- Exercise.
- Water plants daily!
- Post on varioius blogs.
- Schedule book signings for group.
- Live, laugh, love.
Have a great week.
11 comments:
I have no trouble avoiding Sonic. Anytime I'm tempted to fall for their schtick, I remember what I saw when I looked at the nutritional information page. My heart stopped just READING it and required a direct adrenaline injection to restart it.
That said, I find it very interesting the foods I don't really enjoy eating when I simply pay attention to them while I'm doing so. That makes it very easy to remove them from my list of things I will eat (so far, this has not happened with chocolate). But veggies? Fresh ones? Oh, heaven! You've compiled a wonderful list of things you enjoy eating, and that's tremendous. It's surprising how seldom you really need to mention a vegetarian lifestyle. Just do it.
You've done such a wonderful job with the writer's group. If you haven't already, you'll want to begin "grooming" and teaching people to assume a greater leadership role in the organization. If you have several people willing to accept responsibility, it will be easier to find a new president.
We've had a few sprinkles today. We're supposed to get more later and tomorrow. It looks like most of it will stay well west of us (and that has the nasty stuff, so maybe that's not so bad).
Jean, I just thought of this: have you ever considered writing military science fiction? It's often more military than science fiction. With your years in the military, you know how soldiers and officers think. Your "Twilight" had that flavor. Just a thought.
I wish I had even one person who wants responsibility within the group. My officers would be happy just being members. The last president was stuck with the job for nearly eight years. He just finally quit and told the group he was willing to leave the group if he had to. Which is how I became president. It probably goes without saying that I ran unopposed. Of course, we only had about 5-8 members then. I keep hoping that one of the new members will want to serve, but so far, no interest. My term doesn't officially end until 2016. A lot can happen between now and then.
I mention the vegetarianism because I need support. It's somewhat harder than I expected. And with "safe" people, it helps. I think some people just like other people being fat and unhealthy. I don't know why.
I'm happy you mentioned the vegetarianism here. I meant to be supportive for not needing to mention it out in the wild. Sorry is that came out wrong. I figured you were mentioning it here because it felt safe to do so. Mr. L was definitely not supportive when I was making an effort to be vegetarian. I did it for about a year, but it was too easy to not eat the vegetables and eat more of the black beans and less helpful carby items. It's fairly easy to modify recipes.
I've been concerned about my carb consumption lately -- my fasting glucose has been creeping up. I just got new test strips today (my old ones expired a couple years ago, and I don't think I was getting accurate readings). I'm going to monitor my readings for a few weeks to see what my general status is, but I'd still like to get my fasting measurement down.
I'll have to give military science fiction some thought.
I didn't think you didn't want me to mention it here. I just meant that in general.
Beans have a lot of fiber and are recommended to diabetes.
That's got to be quite a transition. I'm find myself gravitating toward more vegetarian choices, but I don't see myself making the transition altogether. I live with a carnivore, and while he's willing to indulge me in the occasional meal, he's not willing to give up meat altogether. Besides, I really like a nice steak or hunk of chicken.
I'm jealous of your garden! It feels so strange not to be growing anything but flowers here.
It's not that hard, Wendy. Particularly since I will have meat when I want it. I like steak and chicken and fish. But I'm trying to make it not the default. I used to choose my meat and then plan around it. Now I am choosing veggies and only adding meat as an afterthought ... that's not quite right, but it's close.
Glad you're focusing on eating healthy, Stephen.
I tend to focus on carbs (bread, pasta, potatoes, etc) and build out from there, which is expensive on the wallet, but pricey on the waistline. I'd shifted after joining Weight Watchers to more meat and produced based instead of cheap-carb based, but once my stressors started piling up, I shifted right back to my 'comfort zone'. Totally not cool and so, so easy to do.
Anyway, stay focused and congrats on making food choices to help you LIVE!!
As for the writing group, I wish I could be of help. There are people willing to accept responsibility of such things, but alas they're few and far between. I have yet to be in a group when anyone 'wanted' an officer job. We (since I tend to sigh and say okay) tend to get coerced into them. Maybe instead of grooming you should try coercion? ;)
{{hugs}}
Ooh, paradigm shift! I'm with you, Tammy. Gimme the carbs and sugar. Nothing like a big bowl of cheddar mashed potatoes. I need to be more focused on the veggies, but frankly, right now I'm bored with food. My fridge is more bare than it's been in decades (not just because no kids live here). I find myself cooking the same things, the same way, and it's easier to go out, especially since there is so much variety in walking distance. The trouble with that is you hand the control over to a stranger who may or may not focus on healthy food. That's my paradigm shift--taking back the control. Now if I could be more creative with different foods I might be onto something.
Welcome back, BTW! I miss you when you don't post.
Tammy, I've certainly thought about using force! It is a lot of work, and if a person doesn't buy into our mission -- to help writers write more and better -- then it's only a chore. I'm hoping that as we grow, people will join who believe in the mission.
Wendy, my diabetes nutritionist would tell you one word: herbs. She's a great believer in using herbs to brighten limited food choices. Rosemary with grilled chicken, garlic and chives on veggies, etc. I made diabetic French toast using pumpkin pie spice, and it was great. And thanks!
It's amazing what a difference unexpired glucose test strips make in obtaining readings. Since I got my new test strips yesterday, my blood glucose readings have been much more as expected. I'm still concerned about the VA's fasting reading of 117 a couple weeks ago. I'm guessing that bowl of ice cream I had for dinner the night before, even though it was well outside the eight hour window, really caused a spike.
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