Wholefood Plant Based Diet And Health Journey

leftatthetrafficlights

I just ended up eating more scarlett runner beans on Sunday! They're addictive 😂

Served some of the tomato and courgette sauce on wholewheat pasta on Monday along with a salad and yesterday i made tofu in a ginger, garlic, rice wine vinegar, mirin and Chinese five spice marinade which we had with wholewheat noodles and a side of cavolo nero and green beans 

leftatthetrafficlights

Yesterday we had ethiopian lentils and rice for dinner.
I was going to make stuffed courgettes today but its too hot to have the oven on!!

So, I chopped the courgettes, cooked them with onion, garlic, fennel seeds, green olives, preserved lemons and walnuts and I'll add fresh tarragon and lemon rind when I serve it. I've cooked barley groats and rye berries in stock and I'm making a rocket and watercress salad with black grapes and watermelon to serve with it. 

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Having banana blossom and black bean enchiladas tonight - nomnom!! 😋 

Got quite a bit going on over the next few weeks so my presence here will be erratic at best after Wednesday- just wanted to say thanks for popping in to the journey and I'll 'see' you when things go back to normal!! 🙄😂

Retrogamer

It's good this is working out for you.
I'm a little bit skeptical about how healthy a totally plant based diet is, particularly without supplements as D3, B12, and Omega 3's are a bit more tricky with only wholefoods.
My personal view is wholefoods is the way to go with plenty of vegtables and fruit but also with lean meats like chicken or turkey as well as fatty fish.

My scepticism comes from the amount of herbicides and pesticides used on fruits / veggies being bought these days regardless if organic or not. The last couple of decades the amount and types used has changed so i'm not sure how this will impact people over the long term.
A lot of vegans health issues i've read about as well is too much omega 6 and not enough omega 3's due to how poorly Walnuts and Chia Seeds are converted into Omega 3 and the bad ratio of the 2 may cause inflammation in certain people.

I have IBS so although i can have a fair bit of certain fibre based foods, too much causes me issues and it's much better when i stick to a lower fat, high protein, medium to low fibre diet which is virtually impossible on a plant based diet.

But i admire the commitment all the same and enjoy reading the progress.

leftatthetrafficlights

@Retrogamer - thanks for stopping by! 😁

I understand your comments/scepticism regarding herbicides/pesticides but their use in organic produce is very strictly controlled and only natural pesticides are allowed (Under the Soil Association’s organic standards, all weedkillers are banned, and farmers are only able to use a very limited number of naturally-derived pesticides as a last resort (like citronella and clove oil), but only under very restricted circumstances).

The vast majority of feed for livestock is not organic, so the pesticides/herbicides used on the feed is metabolised by the animal and concentrated in the flesh and fat - along with the plethora of antibiotics, growth hormones etc.

As far as fish is concerned, farmed fish are subject to routine antibiotic treatment and wild fish has a massive side order of mercury and PCB's, so even if I hadn't become vegan over 20 years ago due to moral concerns, from a health point of view there's no way that I would be eating animals of any description! 🤢

The evidence for omega 3 from plant sources (flaxseed being the most positive option) is mixed - however, algae supplements are a really good option (it's where the fish get their's from! 😉) if supplementation is desired. Personally, I'm reasonably confident that my diet is providing me with all I need (although I have started to take a B12 supplement recently as I have cut out all the foods I used to buy which were fortified with this, other than nutritional yeast and I eat sea vegetables and mushrooms) 

It's all down to personal choice 😉 

So, food today.... 



Miso soup with home grown courgettes, carrots, cavolo nero, yellow french beans and peas, store bought mushrooms and endamame beans plus hm tofu served over a bed of rye, oat and barley grains, home grown japenese greens and grated radish topped with a bit of pickled ginger  - lush!! 😍 

I've been doing a 3 mile walk and 2 asana practices a day recently but fell over a friends dog yesterday so have knackered my foot and am having to have a couple of days off the excercise to recover 🤦‍♀️ it's very disappointing 😞!! 

leftatthetrafficlights

Dinner tonight was okara burgers in a tomato and basil sauce, harissa baked cauliflower with rose harissa bean puree, millet and buckwheat cooked in stock and a rocket with balsamic salad... very lovely but I feel very stuffed!! 😂😂😂

leftatthetrafficlights

Dinner tonight is mixed grains (barley, oats & rye) with scarlett beans and cabbage 

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I made roasted mediterranean veg, chargrilled sweet potatoes and hm tofu with a chilli, mirin and tamari sauce yesterday. 

This was the first time that I'd made tofu using lemon juice as the coagulant instead of nigari and it was really good - softer in texture but so much more absorbent of the flavouring and obviously lemon juice is much more readily accessible and cheaper, it's definitely the way I'll make it in the future! 

I have tried for the second time now to make tempeh - unfortunately, it was unsuccessful again so I have decided to abandon the idea of making my own; preparing the beans was incredibly time consuming and I don't want the disappointment and waste again...it's not something that I've ever eaten regularly anyway so I'll just buy it if I feel the need for some! 

Tonight is a veggie stew/soup done in the slow cooker- onions, garlic, celery, carrots, parsnips, cavolo nero, porcini mushrooms, potatoes and thyme which I'll serve with steamed broccoli. I have some leftover grains so I may throw them in at the end too 😁

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The veggie soup was lovely and there's enough left for us to have for lunch today along with the wholegrain and buckwheat bread I made yesterday 😊 

I'm hoping to start exercising again today - the foot is improving slowly and I'm really struggling with being this inactive again - doing the walking and asana practice really elevated my mood and I miss it!! 😔 I'm also going to start meditation practice again - I'm not sure why I stopped in the first place tbh 🤔

Tonight I will be making a spaghetti squash dish as we need to harvest them today - I'm not sure what I'll be putting with it yet though as we are harvesting all the remaining summer veg today so it depends on the haul! 😉

I'm making another batch of tofu tomorrow- I'm probably going to do a double batch and then I'll freeze half - I never thought dh would like it as much as he does so it's a real pleasure to make now!! 

leftatthetrafficlights

Change of plan - we decided to have the spaghetti squash later this week so we ended up with scarlett runner beans and baby courgettes in a dijon sauce 😋 Three loads of asana practice yesterday along with gardening and an evening meditation practice- I feel a lot better for it 🙌