Eating for Health Not Weight Loss

I tend to lean toward science driven facts. Let's be a little more specific. I like peer reviewed, unbiased research that follows the scientific method. I don't care much about faith or beliefs or opinions unless there are facts and research to back up whatever faith, beliefs, and/or opinions are presented. I'm skeptical about research conducted by an industry that props up that industry. Anything that can be used as a marketing ploy that was financed by a particular industry always raises my suspicions.

Diets, as we've come to understand them, are created with a beginning and an end even though we all know that if you don't make lifestyle changes, they don't work. A lifestyle is a permanent way of doing something, preferably based on the most relevant scientific research. So even a lifestyle change isn't always that permanent if the science later points in a different direction.

I'm a fan of Dr. Michael Gregor's work because he and his team sort through all that research and figure out what's real versus hype and then they compile the work into short videos and books.

I really enjoyed Dr. Gregor's book, How Not to Die, and I use his cookbook, The How Not to Die Cookbook, along with several others both to cook and to inspire my own recipes. 

When I saw his new book was titled How Not to Diet, I was disappointed. I wasn't interested in weight loss. My weight is healthy. I debated whether or not to read the book. My husband started listening to it on Audiobook, and he started sharing interesting tidbits with me. I soon realized that while Dr. Gregor spends a lot of time talking about weight loss, the book is really about eating healthy and about the problem with so-called diets. As usual, Dr. Gregor does a deep dive into the research and shares what he learned.

He talks about several things that made sense to me, that resonated with me from my own experience, and that made me realize that I could make some changes that would improve my health and therefore my life.

I began to look at how often I eat distracted, which is most of the time. I'm struggling with this one. It's hard for me to eat without doing something else whether reading, watching television, or even working. I have slowed down eating, another suggestion from the book, and noticed as I did that I do feel more satiated at the end of the meal. I'm much less likely to want to snack later. I also started trying to eat before seven in the evening. This one has been a serious struggle for me. I can usually manage to eat by 7:30, but 7:00 eludes me day after day. But I will keep trying because I have discovered that eating earlier means I feel better in the evening and I sleep better when I go to bed.

I've also added a few things to my daily food intake that seem to help.

I haven't incorporated all the ideas he suggested because some of them just didn't seem apropos to my life. I'm not actually trying to lose weight but to be healthier. I'm always trying to be healthier no matter how healthy I am.

As I focused on the changes I wanted to make to my own life, I started thinking about the recipes I share on this blog. I anticipate that some of my recipes will be undergoing some changes in the next few months. I won't delete the old recipes, but at some point I will probably share some updated versions of them that incorporate some of the changes.

As I work to revamp some recipes and to tweak the recipes I had scheduled to post, my posts have gotten a bit less predictable. Also, I've been a bit distracted with preparing to self-isolate and then actually self-isolating to help to flatten the COVID-19 curve. If you're interested I shared a few thoughts about taking the pandemic seriously in my blog post, To Panic or Not to Panic, and a poem about social distancing, Together Alone, on my other blog, Write with TLC.

I apologize for the scattershot posting so far this year. I'd rather share solid recipes with you than recipes I don't have confidence in even if that means gaps in my posting. Thank you for understanding.