This is the first diet where I've had to cook every single meal (okay, minus the two times I ate Taco Bell). When I did Atkins, I cooked more than usual, but it was also easy to just munch on some deli meat.
At this point, I'm trying to decide what food items I will eat often, eat in moderation, eat rarely, and banish forever. Months ago, I came to the conclusion that sugar really has no place in my life. I'm still really young so I can't say what causes me health problems, but I know that just cutting out soda and fruit juice allowed me to go from obese to normal (though, I'd been, in the words of Louis CK's doctor, "cosmetically overweight" for some time). If sugar allowed my weight to skyrocket as a calorie-burning-machine teenager, I'm sure it's not going to get any better for me. Granted, I did consume it in large amounts.
I do not see myself getting rid of wheat, assuming I do not show any signs of inheriting my mother's MS. I do, however, see myself limiting my wheat consumption. I think it'll be worth the extra cost for some Dreamfields pasta and other lower carb specialties. I also intend to use low carb options whenever viable alternatives exist- but I'm not going to get all fanatical Atkins about it. I like bread. I like pasta. I like tortillas. I also like corn, sometimes, but not really...
I don't really like fruit that much. I could go the rest of my life without ever eating a banana again. I love strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries though- and hey! they're low carb- I win. There are some higher carb veggies that I really, really, really like (love, in some cases), particularly pumpkin, squash, and beets. AND I INTEND TO CONTINUE TO EAT THEM.
I really like rice but, unless I'm eating out and it's not an option, brown rice is a-okay with me. I like wild rice too. So I want to continue to eat rice.
I would fucking die for most cheese. Would take a bullet to the FACE for a brick of smoked cheddar. It is non-negotiable. Dairy stays. IDGAF about milk though. Heavy whipping cream is delightful. I'm from the Midwest, so ranch dressing served with ranch dressing is a meal to me. It is the greatest dressing, outside of Western, which I just found a SF recipe for. Fuck yeah, life just got sweeter.
Almost all fast food chains serve unsweetened ice tea, so I'm covered out and about, but I do enjoy the occasional can of "sohda pahp"... don't care for Splenda in general, but will enjoy a few cans of Diet Coke with Splenda or Diet Rite or Diet RC (but probz not Pepsi One because the caffeine content is through the roof and I'm fairly sensitive).
My all time favorite foods and my plans for revamping them are as follows:
- romaine salad with a variety of veggies (especially snap peas when available) topped with ranch dressing and pickled beets hey! it's already low carb, doesn't require tweeking except that pickled beets have a small amount of HFCS.
- pesto-drenched cheese tortellini will attempt to get by with Dreamfields noodz- pesto drenched.
- chiles rellenos probz shouldn't eat it out but it's VERY doable low carb made at home.
- grilled cheese and tomato soup. low carb bread should handle it and some homemade tomato soup.
- pizza-flavored Pepperidge Farm Goldfish crackers. nothing I can do about that shiz.
- vegetarian burritos, filled with avocado, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, rice and beans, topped with some kind of red sauce and covered in melted cheese, served with beans and rice. occasional treat... This is a meal I refuse to shit on with low carb products and it is also something I usually eat when I'm drunk, anyway.
- random Indian food I get at Trader Joe's, particularly punjab choly and palak paneer- served on rice. not inherently high-carb, until you get to the rice. I can't imagine eating palak paneer on cauliflower rice, but I'll try it.
- thai tofu curries on rice. occasional treat, I guess, unless I prove to have no adverse reaction to rice. I will try to ask the lady at the local Thai restaurant if she'll consider using a sugar substitute, provided by me, when she makes the curry.
- lasagna, cheesy, cheesy lasagna. will make at home with Dreamfields.
- tofurkey with wild-rice stuffing and mashed potatoes. shit's only available once a year anyway.
- Cafe Luigi's New York style "special" pizza (ricotta, tomato, spinach, and fucking LSD or something because it's un-fucking-believable and IDGAF about pizza, generally). ok, it's a very particular pizza, at a very particular restaurant that is NOWHERE NEAR my home and is not in a neighborhood that I ever need to go to.
- homemade potato salad. When I see it, I'm eating it.
- veggie scrambles on hashbrowns with ketchup. This is something I order from 24 hour restaurants. If I have the foresight to bring my own ketchup, I will. I have an insanely amazing, gourmet sugar-free ketchup recipe.
- pumpkin pie I'll figure something out.
meat is never my favorite food... most meat is take it or leave it for me, apart from chicken breasts, which I generally can't stand. I like bloody steak (new to me just these last few months! who am i?!) and I like dark chicken meat (mostly in the form of wings because they want to be covered in ranch and it is my duty as an American to see that they get their wish) but I don't really like meat that much. A lot of foods on my list above could contain meat but I think it makes them worse. I do love cheeseburgers and hot dogs though because I am patriotic about being from Chicago and- hey putting ketchup on hot dogs is sacrilege here so no sugar issue there! By the way, I am patriotic within limits, Chicago-style pizza (deep dish) is kind of gross to me- and I like cheese a lot. Anyway, I'm going to try to eat more meat to keep carbs low, but if wheat and rice don't give me too much trouble, and all of my issues lie with sugar, I will probably just go back to being a vegetarian like in the old days. Oh, I do like fish a lot though!
So, if you're at the bottom of this and you read the whole thing, I'm kind of sorry... this is really meant for me to map out what I am and am not willing to live without so that I can plan accordingly with my diet... I can't imagine anyone else would have enjoyed reading that.
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