Just eat

Everyone knows you need to eat fruits and vegetables. But how many of us really eat the amount we should?

I began this week eating like a nutritarian -- which is Dr. Joel Furhman's prescription for a long, healthy life. If I wanted to, I could eat everything pictured spread through my three daily meals, but of course I would never be able to eat that much food in one day.

But looking at this picture, I bet if I added up all the calories in all that food, it would not reach the amount of calories I once ate daily. In fact, I would bet it would come in at least half the calories of my once daily total.

So here's a paragraph from Furhman's "The End of Dieting" that resonates:

"The bottom line is that you needn't adopt any extreme fad diet; instead, eat lots of natural plant foods. Forget fat. Forget carbohydrates. Don't worry about carbohydrate-to-protein ratios -- and for your own sake -- please ditch the diets. We need to stop the low-fat extremism, high-protein extremism (believe it or not, this is gaining popularity too). None of this is constructive to solving our nation's confusion and dietary quagmire."

Confusion and quagmire can just about sum up my eating life. If I read back over my blog, I find myself grasping at various diet plans, hoping that one will work while all others have failed. I also find myself going back to diets that have failed me in the past: Weight Watchers and Paleo.

I am tired so, so tired of dieting.

We should all follow Dr. Furhman's advice:

"Health is the first consideration; weight  is secondary."

180-degree turn

Yet again, I started searching for a new diet last week.

Although I loved Paleo, I started thinking that meat with every meal -- even if it is organic and grass fed -- or chicken, fish or eggs cannot be good for a body.

And while it made me feel terrific that last time I was on it, this time I felt horrid. No energy. Not sleeping. Cranky. Really craving peanut butter, and honestly that is something I hardly ever eat.

I was avoiding breakfast because I really don't like eggs, and meat in the morning does not cut it for me. I always eat a big salad at lunch, and it was always the chicken I had to include that I ate last. It wasn't appealing anymore. Dinners were amazing, and they should be if you can have great protein, fat and a bunch of wonderful spices. Paleo recipes really do rock, but dinner was so good I was eating too much, which is exactly why I was not losing.

But the main reason I started searching for a new diet plan was that my blood pressure was not going down. In fact, most days it was up.

Enter Joel Fuhrman's latest, "The End of Dieting." I had seen Dr. Furhman on Dr. Oz a few years ago and bought his "Eat To Live." It didn't resonate with me. I was so not ready to become a vegan.

But with the newest iteration of his diet, you can include a little meat, chicken or fish each week. And it fits perfectly with the name of this blog.

So I am giving it a try. and wishing myself luck.