In 6th grade I spent a great deal of time sitting on the floor of my family’s den playing Super Mario Brothers. And anytime something happened I didn’t like, I pushed the reset button and started over. Anytime. If I forgot to get the ? box, or got downsized by a mushroom man, or lost one of my three lives, boom! RESET.
I am attempting to do the same with my diet.
It is time to RESET.
I didn’t go crazy with food during my pregnancy, but it was in the following weeks I began to eat away the stress, rounding out my curves in a ways unseen since my days in culinary school (Hello butter? OMG, It’s been so long! We should totally hang out!). Now that Ella is bottle feeding, I feel comfortable going on a diet and trying to loose some of this jingly jiggle.
Let me take this opportunity to tell you that I am not a diet person. I generally do not diet. I do not watch my calories, I do not limit my food choices based on any other philosophy except my own- eat in season, eat local and eat sustainable, and eat with compassion. And a cheese danish here and there will not kill you.
Yet, I find myself on the E2 or Engine 2 diet. The gist is this: A big hunk of Austin firefighter decided his firehouse pals needed to get healthy and lower cholesterol rates, so they went beyond vegan- no oil. The diet is plant strong- meaning that protein and fats mostly come from plants. No dairy, no processed foods (except veggie meats), no animal flesh, no fish, no refined oil, and the books 100 odd recipes are heavy on the TexMex. I don’t do TexMex.
It is hard. And I have a serious case of the diet crankies.
But I’m trying. The goal is truly to push my body’s reset button: quit my dependence on refined grains, baked items, and convenience foods and reignite my passion for, whole grains, greens, fruits, and wild seafood.
So far I’ve made it through 5 days of the diet and only strayed from the path once. I’ve got 23 more to go.
It does put an interesting spin on my participation in French Fridays with Dorie. I haven’t decided if I will take a break from January, or modify the recipes to meet the requirements of the diet.
Stay tuned for that.
And now I head to the kitchen for dinner for E2 Black Beans and Rice Extravaganza, yay! #psyche.
Hmmm, and I was wondering what recipe you were going to cook this Friday. Inquiring minds. I think the chicken recipe with the yummy pastry topping is more than interesting. What’s that you say, no meat of any kind, no oil. I guess that means Dorie is out.
Please tell me how the Black Bean Extravaganza was! Was it extravagant??
No. It was pretty sad. Black beans, a lot of them, chopped tomatoes, chopped avocado, and chopped green onions. Blarg.
You write a lovely blog!!! I’m impressed you were able to follow your diet AND cook with Dorie…brava! I know I couldn’t be as disciplined…but it is such a good and healthy way to eat