Part of my eating healthier, SuperBetter, goals is to avoid the amazing taquitos from El Monterey. It's so hard to abstain! They're really delicious, and it doesn't help that there are two whole boxes in my freezer right now. This is one of my bad guys that I need to fight and to defeat, and today I was the one who was defeated. This one is going to be tough; at least until all the taquitos are gone. Then, it will be easy because all I'll have to do is to stop buying them.
I Have Books to Help Me
Books, books, books! I do have several books that can help me eat better and to do a better job of planning my meals so I don't resort to eating out or microwaving something. One of those books is The China Study Cookbook: Over 120 Whole Food, Plant-Based Recipes (if you're all about books with pictures and short paragraphs, then cookbooks are your style. I don't really have anything to compare this too, but I think this book has a lot of short and easy recipes, with rather easy ingredients to obtain. It also looks like I could easily make meals for one or two people. I have another plant-based diet cookbook, called The Engine 2 Diet: The Texas Firefighter's 28-Day Save-Your-Life Plan That Lowers Cholesterol and Burns Away the Pounds. I do like that it's a 28-day plan, but it's also written by a male firefighter, where one serving for him is really enough to fee four people. I made a lasagna out of this book, which was really good, but was gigantic when I was finished. The recipe said this fed four people, but it looked more like 10 to me. It provided my fiance and I, like, six meals between us and I couldn't even use all the ingredients because they didn't even all fit in the lasagna pan.
Plant-Based Diets
One of the toughest parts of the plant-based diets is getting all the ingredients and having affordable access to some of these foods. The China Study cookbook seems a little bit more helpful in where to get certain ingredients and also uses ingredients that are more accessible. For example, as part of the first week of the Engine 2 diet, you need to have Bragg Liquid Aminos and agave nectar. I don't know what those things are and what they look like, let alone where to get them. The China Study doesn't have anything as unusual. It's also not as strict as the Engine 2 diet, although the China Study doesn't advocate for too much of a diet except whole, plant-based foods.
Another book that I have to help me is the Full-Plate Diet, which isn't at all about having a plant-based diet. It's simply the idea of adding more fiber-rich foods (which are essentially fruits, vegetables, beans, grains, nuts, and seeds). It's called a full plate diet because it encourages you to eat your fill, but to switch out foods that low in fiber with those that are higher in fiber, or even just adding the fiber-rich foods to what you're already eating. Since the foods that are higher in fiber also tend to be those with lower calorie counts, you can easily lose weight without having to restrict yourself or to go hungry. So, instead of not having any ice cream, with this diet you can have the ice cream. It simply suggest to maybe add bananas and/or blueberries to your ice cream. Not a bad trade off. On top of that, this book is very informative about these fiber-rich foods and also offers a lot of tips on how to "power up" your meals and how to switch your foods. I like that it's so helpful.
Well, my poker tournament has started, so I'm going to do that now.