Integrating Vegetables into your Diet: Quick and Easy Recipes

I have a close personal friend who is very much into his body image. He lifts weights at least two hours each day, is extremely lean and has very large, defined muscles. To maintain this shape, he consumes 200 grams of protein each day (1 gram per pound of body weight). This is a combination of animal protein and soy protein found in protein shakes. He eats a small amount of fruit (in his protein shake) and typically has a starch like pasta with each meal. He does not eat vegetables, except salad every once in a while.

Recently, Mr. Lean Body took a blood test for a life insurance exam, and his blood results came back all out of whack. His bad cholesterol was too high, his good cholesterol was too low, and a few of his other panels were out of range. He took his results to his physician, and she directly told him that he needs to reduce his protein intake and up his vegetable intake for the rest of his life. It was then that I received an email asking for help with easy, delicious vegetable recipes. This is what I told him:

1. Baked Sweet Potato with salt/pepper, butter, and a little bit of sour cream. You can bake them in the microwave, one at a time until soft, or all together in the oven, wrapped in foil. Poke holes in it with a fork before cooking.

2. Cut sweet potato into thin slices, toss the slices in a bowl with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Arrange on a baking pan with foil and broil. Turn them over with a fork when the slices get brown and crispy. Read the rest of this entry »

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Live to Eat or Eat to Live?

As we were eating enchiladas, fajitas, rice, beans, guac, watching the game, and getting ready for a serious poker game, my husband made an announcement that he was stuffed to the gills but going back for seconds anyway. He came back to the table with a huge plate, stacked full, and proceeded to take down the second plate with reckless abandon.

Afterwards, he was so uncomfortable and was asking why we let him go back for seconds. I think that this is more typical than not. The food tastes so good that we tend to eat more than our fair share. I am wondering how we get back to the way it used to be, where we eat to live rather than live to eat.

As all this was going on, I was browsing through a book that was a summary of the various diets out there. The book was similar to the book Diets in a Nutshell. It seemed like the secret to diets is to eat things that will make you feel full so you don’t overeat. Read the rest of this entry »

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