My Search For the Fountain of Youth

hearlady

Ready for Spring!
Location
N Carolina
I've always been interested in health and nutrition. I think if I wasn't hearlady I would be dieticianlady.
However the last 6 months or so I really delved into the vast world of the YouTube "experts".
I looked at Veganism ( autocorrect had fun with that word), Keto/low carb, intermittent fasting, clean eating, Paleo, and brushed by a few others.
Tried Vegan or more vegetarian for a short while. It felt very healthy but hard to keep up and seemed like I needed a lot of food which meant a lot of food prep. The carbs made me gain weight. Vegan is very much more than what you eat but a whole philosophy and I respect people that follow that but not for me. I learned and adopted several things from that diet though.
Low carb was best for weight loss. I never got full into Keto where you switch from burning sugar to burning fat as fuel. I mainly quit any sugars, breads, and ate lots of veggies, proteins, "healthy" fats. I did lose weight but then plateaued and missed carbs. However, I learned some things and adopted them into my diet.
I tried intermittent fasting but no I'll pass although I've adopted not eating between meals much any more.
I did fall for the "special foods" thing which sometimes translates to expensive foods. Ultra clean, expelled pressed, no natural flavorings (which are apparently not very natural), grass finished. I did however learn to read labels better even though I thought I already did. I've incorporated some different brands of foods from Aldi, Wal-Mart, and others that will become pantry staples.
Then I saw the video on Orthorexia. Even though I hadn't gone that far I could see that I needed to relax. This is what I learned:

There is no perfect diet.
There is no Fountain of Youth.
Genes play a big part in your health.
A variety of simple healthy foods is best (which is where I started).
Keep learning. Things change all the time.
Be happy, enjoy your food, enjoy your life.
 

For me, veganism works very, very well. Since I'm a gourmet vegan chef, a star graduate of L'école des Coups Durs, I enjoy the prep-intensive regimen that goes along with that dietary choice.

Once you get the hang of vegan cooking, things get to be a lot of fun, no lie. Turning "carnivores" on to vegan dishes is rewarding, although I do warn initiates that they should go easy on foods they're not used to.

I recall one fellow in particular, Trey, who came over with his (then) wife, and proceeded to down four plates of my vegan spaghetti, that contained tofu, black olives, mushrooms, toasted walnuts, artichoke hearts, onions, garlic, oregano, rosemary and pureed tomatoes, along with gluten-free spaghetti noodles. His late evening was spent in the smallest room of his house. I had cautioned him, but he chose to ignore me.

As with all major dietary changes, go easy on things, initially.
 

Treeguy I have read many of your posts and am sure you're cooking is awesome!
My husband keeps a small organic garden and I've made a lot of noodle dishes with the yellow squash. I have a hand tool to make the noodles. I use the "guts" in smoothies. It makes them creamy.
The sauce is usually fresh tomato, pepper, onion, garlic, basil and things from the garden.
A sauce I learned on my journey is simply sesame oil, soy sauce (or tamari), and Siracha. I wasn't sure about that but I love it.
 
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Annie, I have settled on a version of the Mind diet.
I've been eating close to a Mediterranean diet for a long time.
Alzheimer's runs in my family so I definitely took notice of the Mind diet.
I'm still not eating refined sugar or much bread but definitely beans and complex carbs.
I started that research partly because there was so much difference in the vegan and keto diets it almost seemed like all out war. Many intelligent people, Drs, and enthusiasts on both sides.
My conclusion is that I think both work but if you follow one you have to stay strictly with it because they are completely different.
I like meat and dairy as in Greek Yogurt, chicken and fish. Some red meat. I'm going to eat what I like.
 
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I don’t know why we didn’t see each other along the way, because I have been trudging along down the same pathways as you have, @hearlady , and pretty much had the same experiences as you have had.
It is still amazing to me that if you look online, there will be people who are total vegans who are healthy and happy , and at the other end of the spectrum are the total carnivores, who also say the same thing about their lifestyle.
I have read Dr. Gregor’s Book ( How Not to Die), Dr. Bruce Fife’s several coconut oil books, Victoria Boutenko Green for Life books and videos, books about keto and intermittent fasting, and tried most of them for a while, and found that almost everything is built around eating a lot of vegetables and greens for health, except for the carnivore people, of course.

Because of my heart medication , which keeps my heart at about 50 bpm, it is hard for me to speed up my metabolism, even with exercise, but the thing that seems to work best for me, is eating whole food and low carb.
Some days, I do OMAD, some days intermittent fasting, and some days, I have a main meal, and a light meal later, or some combination of those .
I had been losing weight and feeling great with the combination of IF and keto, but then I had problems because of changes in heart meds, another heart procedure for the a-fib, and gained it all back again .
So I am back to square one again, but at least I am feeling better and exercising every day again.
Right now, I am mostly vegetarian, minimal meat, and lots of greens and fresh veggies, and some occasional fruit.
I think that there is no fountain of youth, too; but I will keep looking for things that help keep me healthy and able to enjoy life as much as possible.
 
There is probably No perfect diet for everyone....But, everyone should make an attempt to eat properly and get some good exercise...especially as we age. It's pretty hard, for me, to have much sympathy for anyone who spends their days on the couch, eating snacks, and putting on excessive amounts of weight. All they accomplish is to contribute to our nation's health care problems....and making their lives miserable.
 
Yes Happyflowerlady! The common denominator always ends up lots of veggies on any of them (except carnivore) and fruits (except carnivore and keto :rolleyes:).
I'm sure a lot of people are weeding through it all and coming around to what works for them. In fact some posters have recently told me that.
 
"There is no perfect diet.
There is no Fountain of Youth.
Genes play a big part in your health.
A variety of simple healthy foods is best (which is where I started).
Keep learning. Things change all the time.
Be happy, enjoy your food, enjoy your life."


Good advise..... If I may alter ? Genes play the biggest part in our health.....IMHO.
 
Don, my mother lived to be 96 and her physical health was great! She didn't do anything special but we did have home cooked meals that were balanced. We had one car so we walked to town most times for groceries, events, visiting.
No fad diets, just don't eat too much, especially desserts.
Unfortunately she did have advanced dementia when she died. So did my Grandmother so I'm always concerned about that and hoping I can prevent it.
 
rpg you may be right. I'm the youngest of eight and I see signs of dementia in my oldest siblings (don't tell them I said that). They are both healthy and active and have more prevention information.
It's OK. I've decided by the time I get it maybe I can have a robot caregiver who will answer the question "what time is it" 97 times a day and not get annoyed.
 
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Treeguy I have read many of your posts and am sure you're cooking is awesome!
My husband keeps a small organic garden and I've made a lot of noodle dishes with the yellow squash. I have a hand tool to make the noodles. I use the "guts" in smoothies. It makes them creamy.
The sauce is usually fresh tomato, pepper, onion, garlic, basil and things from the garden.
A sauce I learned on my journey is simply sesame oil, soy sauce (or tamari), and Siracha. I wasn't sure about that but I love it.
You can use your sauce, as above, to baste the tofu turkey I posted, a while back. It would give it a real kick. Interesting. I use toasted sesame oil and low-sodium soy sauce. I'm sensitive to hot pepper.
 
I keep my calories to 1400 a day have salad most days and one regular sized dinner, I also take a vitamin supplement and B12 every day, I enjoy a good steak but it’s pretty expensive so it’s a rare treat, our families average life expectancy is the mid late 70’s so we’ll see. I hope I go out fast and not slow like some of my family. That type of lingering is bad news.
 


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