It’s the last day of the first month. I’ll do some numbers and thoughts on how I feel tomorrow, once it’s officially over. But I can make a few observations.
- A radical diet change is just that: radical. But I’ve coped, both with the greater effort required in cooking, and with the absence of quite few things I’d normally eat, including Cheerios, biscuits, cheese, and peanut butter sandwiches.
- The plan that I can do all the good stuff at home, but not worry when I go out, may need some rethinking. I went out eating and drinking several times during the month, including once for a three-day period. I didn’t worry about the diet then. Both the weighing scales, and how I felt, suggest that this isn’t a good idea. I don’t have to act like a monk when I’m out, but I should try to do better. Drink healthier stuff, and less of it, if possible. Chose something sensible off the menu. I did this a couple of times, and it wasn’t that hard.
- The ‘Daily Dozen’ is an aspiration, not a minimum requirement. Some days I wasn’t that hungry, so I didn’t eat much and didn’t tick many boxes. Was that a bad thing? I don’t believe so.
- Anyone doing this needs to try it, and to work out a way of making it work for them. For me, basing my main meals on beans (chickpeas, black beans, lentils, tofu, etc.) is quite palatable and provides enough variety – at the moment. I can get my greens and other vegetables accounted for as an accompaniment, and hide the cruciferous vegetables I don’t like in smoothies and soups.
- There even seem to be a few snacks that work. More on this next month.
- I am going to be able to keep this up if I want to. Cooking stuff from clean, unprocessed ingredients is quite fun, and I’ve got the time and inclination at the moment. I really like the idea of avoiding processed food, and I just think the only issue will be if I continue to consider meat and fish to be ‘processed’. That’s a discussion for another day. A vegan friend reckons that I’ll actually go off meat if I keep this up for a few months. We’ll see.