The lament of the diabetic would-be vegan

I've been tweaking my diet a bit recently. I'd been having pretty strong cravings and unstable blood sugar. I did a lot of thinking and realized that in the past the only type of diet to successfully keep these things at bay has been a lower-carb, higher-protein diet.

For the past 3 or 4 weeks, I've been restricting carby foods to lunch only. I've been eating some eggs, cheese, and fish--more than I have in a while, but not huge nasty quantities. I try to make the carbs I eat at lunch have some redeeming value (whole grains, sweet potatoes, etc.).

The difference in the way I feel has really been striking. I no longer walk in the door after work ready to eat anything in sight. I don't have to have a mid-morning and a mid-afternoon snack. I feel more alert and have more energy. After I eat carbs, I feel markedly sluggish and I can feel my heart rate increase. (This happens even if they're healthy carbs, but is most pronounced when I have sugar.)

My grandmother is diabetic and I've always thought I am borderline. I don't know yet how much I can cut down on my intake of animal foods without getting the blood sugar swings I know so well. I feel best after a meal with fish or eggs as the main course. I have been eating a lot of vegan, vegetable-based meals, though, and I try not to have two animal-based meals in a row.

Being a semi-diabetic vegan seems pretty daunting. Especially when I come across sample diabetic vegan menus like this one, with pretzels, white rice, and sugar substitutes. Bleck! I hope I can find more non-animal meals that satisfy me and aren't heavily processed. So far I like beans, tofu, stir-fries and salads, avocadoes, and--anyone have other suggestions?

(Pushups completed: 190)

Headlines I never wanted to see

or, Reason #512 to stay away from meat:

"Inhaling Pig Brains May be Cause of New Illness"

If you think the headline is gross, you should (or maybe you shouldn't) read the rest of the article.

(Pushups completed: 120)

Fit in February

I've decided to set a fitness goal for myself this month. See the picture above? It's a push-up counter. You hit it with your chin on the way down. As shown, it counts up to 999 pushups. Well, that's not enough for me, because in February, I'm going to do 1,001 pushups.

I'm not talking about on-your-knees pseudo-pushups, either. I've been doing about 20 "real" pushups a day for the past several weeks. To make this goal, I need to do 34.5 pushups a day. I'm going to aim for 40 a day in case I need to take a day off. I won't do them in one long set, but probably 2 sets of 10 in the morning and in the evening. Does anyone want to join me?

Give a hand to Hannaford

I read about Hannaford Supermarkets' Guiding Stars program in Adbusters.

The gist of it is that Hannaford is marking products with stars that signify healthiness. Between zero (least healthy) and three stars (healthiest) are awarded.

"Almost eighty percent of the products rated did not receive any stars."

This correlates with my opinion of the modern supermarket. I buy lots of food in the produce section, usually some beans, pasta, oil, canned tomatoes or nuts in the middle aisles, eggs or some cheese every few visits, and sometimes frozen fruit or vegetables. In other words, I skip the bulk of the middle aisles with their food-imposter substances.

Hannaford won't disclose the formula they used to award the stars, but it looks pretty sound to me. This page indicates that "pluses" are fiber and certain vitamins, while "negatives" are saturated fat, cholestrol, and sugar. Here are some other interesting ratings.

High scores: pasta, cereals, seafood, fruits and vegetables (100% of fruits and veggies received three stars!)
Low scores: canned soup, meat, soft drinks, bakery items, flavored yogurts, eggs, butter

I'm impressed that Hannaford pulled this off without a huge corporate outcry. Hooray to them for standing up to highly processed foods that masquerade as health foods. They also don't seem to be biased towards animal products.

"The team also took into account less-than-healthy foods and beverages that are fortified with added vitamins, minerals or fiber to help overcome their nutritional shortcomings.

'We didn't give points for over-fortifying,' said Jeffrey Blumberg, a professor of nutrition at Tufts and a member of the scientific team." (More here.)

My new favorite ingredient

is "vital wheat gluten," which was very instrumental in making the yummy dinner shown above. We tried the chickpea cutlet recipe which has been floating around. (If you google "chickpea cutlets," you'll see lots of other reviews.) I've always been dubious of fake meat; I really hate processed foods and there are some scary ingredients in some of those. But I can get behind the chickpea cutlets as a tasty and satisfying main course. The only change I would make in the future is to replace the thyme and sage with black pepper. I just don't care for the taste of those spices, and I think the recipe calls for too much thyme.

We served them chicken-parmesan style, topped with a spicy mushroom spagetti sauce and parmesan. Yes, that is real parmesan. As I've said before, I can greatly reduce my cheese consumption, but I can't give it up entirely.

Leave a comment if you've tried the cutlet recipe!

PS: The most interesting thing I ate this weekend was probably ginger-eggplant chutney at an Indian restaurant in DC. Strangely, it was red and did not taste strongly of eggplant or ginger. But it was slightly sweet and intriguing. I want to have a chutney-making day before the weather turns warm. Let me know if you have any good recipes!

A Sublime evening

Happy New Year! I'm back and ready to rock in 08.

Things have finally settled down a bit--I sold my condo and moved to a rental while we wait for the housing market to stabilize. However, I'm on a business trip all week and haven't fully unpacked in my new place. I look forward to returning and settling in.

I was waiting for this picture (thanks, Tracy!) to write about our fabulous meal at Sublime, an upscale vegan restaurant in Florida. Oh my Buddha*, was it good. I have been eating pretty lightly for the past month or two and I overdid it at Sublime. I had that "I'll never eat again" feeling for at least 12 hours afterwards. But it was worth it.

We started with the Yin and Yang and Florasian "sushi" (I'm going to stop putting things in quotes to denote vegan-ness). For mains, two of us had the Portabello Tenderloin (shown above with its tower of onion rings), one had the Piccata, and HS had the grilled seitan steak. My portabello was absolutely delicious. The sauce was rich and pepper-y. We shared a piece of coconut cake and a brownie for dessert. HS goes to Sublime every year when he's in Florida and I hope to continue the tradition!

*This is a great expression that Thai people use.

I'm a dip

for not posting in so long. I've been with my family and HS' family over the holidays and, in general, I have been eating someone else's cooking rather than my own. I'm looking forward to getting back into the kitchen when I move into my new place this week!

HS and I are planning a simple New Year's Eve dinner of ravioli, salad, and berries for dessert. We'll start things off with this kickin' dip recipe, which will be served on brown rice crackers.

Green olive and artichoke tapenade
14-oz can of artichoke hearts, drained
1 cup chopped toasted walnuts
1 cup pitted green or Spanish olives
1 garlic clove, pressed or minced
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
4 teaspoons lemon juice
1/3 cup olive oil
black pepper to taste

Put the following in a food processor and mix for a few seconds: artichoke hearts, walnuts, olives, garlic, parsley, lemon peel. Scrape down the sides and add lemon juice and olive oil. Process for a few more seconds. You'll have a rough paste. Add black pepper to taste. Serve at room temperature with crackers.