This year (so far) I’ve been using MyFitnessPal to track what I’ve been eating. Although I’m not dieting (so far), I’m hoping that it will lead to better food choices. In case you missed it, I explored how the app works in this post. I don’t have a fancy phone, camera, lights or set, but I thought it would be instructional or at least interesting to share some more photographs of what’s been going down my gullet. Granted, it’s not going to make me Instagram influencer famous, especially since I still haven’t ever joined Instagram.
I share these knowing full well that it’s a privilege to have enough food to put on the table. Plenty of people are doing with less, or not nearly enough, even before the pandemic. As a kid I got reduced-rate school lunches, and years ago I even received food stamps twice. In lean times (like the pandemic) I’ve not been too proud to go to food pantries. Meanwhile, I still struggle to lose weight and be an athlete instead of a fathlete (fat athlete), due to a combination of factors. Genetics and health challenges I can’t do anything about, but there are things I should be better at, like not eating late. That’s very hard to do, especially after my daily bike ride. I’m doing better about biking earlier, but I still get hungry. It’s a journey and I’m a work in progress.
Cottage cheese w/pineapple; eggs, turkey bacon, purple sweet potato hash 
Yogurt, peanut butter, honey w/protein powder; steel-cut oats w/berries 
Lox on rice cakes, turkey bacon, scrambled eggs w/veggies
Being a late to bed, late to rise unemployed bum starving artist who enjoys the quiet of night-time, first breakfast is usually just my morning chocolate; the dark master and a banana. Ideally after the morning ablutions I eventually get out on a walk and bike and then return for second breakfast, Hobbit-style. For breakfast #2, I tend to alternate between oats and dairy one day, and eggs the next. They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, while some people drink coffee and eat nothing until lunch to do intermittent fasting. When I used to join early morning group bike rides, I’d try to carb up and save the protein for later. Now, I’m just trying to get some healthy calories in me to make it through the day. Food is fuel, but it can be appealing and appetizing, too.
Three years ago, starting January 1, 2018, I gave up almost all flour products. I say almost because food manufacturers sneak it into all kinds of things. Halfway between then and now, I wrote this post, I Eliminated 99% of Flour Products from My Diet for 18 Months, and Guess What Happened? I began with this answer: “Nothing. That’s right: bupkis, nada, niente, zero, zilch. I lost 0 pounds of weight.” I continue that practice to this day, with the same results — at least none that are visible. Eating whole grains is better, I still believe, and I do allow for popcorn, puffed grain, cereal and rice cakes. I don’t know where I found the discipline and dedication to avoid bread, bagels, cake, cookies, naan, (ba)nanner bread, and more. But I somehow did and do, for better or worse. If there’s one thing I’ve missed, it’s pizza.
I recall I scraped the cheese, toppings, and sauce off a few slices once. But otherwise those delicious Italian pies have not crossed this dude’s lips. Until the other night, when I prepared a pizza with, wait for it… an almond flour crust! Yes, ground up almonds with some other stuff that is not from a grain like coconut-something. I applied sauce, pepperoni, onions, olives, and three cheeses, and BAM! I was enjoying the sweet, forbidden taste of ‘za.
Cottage cheese, fresh pineapple and mandarin orange 
All the fixin’s for a flour-free pizza 
The completed pizza, my first in 3 years
It was good, but actually not as great as I remembered, and not because of the crust. It had been so long since I made it verboten that I still felt like maybe I was cheating. And by the time I started eating it it had cooled down. But the good news is I have another crust waiting in the freezer. I may even make a pesto sauce and add some anchovies or something exotic to kick the flavor up a notch. Someday maybe I’ll go back to the real thing and that will be okay, too. Food is fuel, right?
Of course, I still have a long way to go to be eating as healthy as I can. My weakness lately seems to be kettle-cooked potato chips. They’re a whole food, but full of fat, even the low-fat kind. And I also discovered Dove Dark chocolate covered rasberry sorbet bars. Only 150 calories but all kinds of delish. Of course, more vegetables would be the best thing for bulk, fiber, minerals and general nutrition. Somehow I got away from cooking delicious vegan food after trying that diet again and suffering through a bout of anemia. Not having a personal chef or someone else to cook for, I keep it simple and do my best. When I don’t feel like cooking though, I revert to the bicyclist’s habit of portable snacks like protein bars and powered hydration. But I’ve also started making or getting smoothies, and retrieved my old Juiceman Jr from storage. Put an apple and a lemon in with any vegetables and the juice almost comes out as tolerable. I haven’t quite got myself to using it yet since it’s a pain to clean each time, and I believe smoothies with the plant fiber are healthier.
Bam Bam smoothie and tumeric ginger shot from Juiceland 
Low- and no-sugar protein bars, Dove Bar, lemon drink, dark chocolate 
Home-made smoothie with berries, protein powder, yogurt and kale
That’s all for now. For some great recipes, often vegan, or baked goods, check out fellow cyclist blog Sheree, View from the Back The Musette series of posts (not that she is hurting for followers). That link goes to her latest, mac and cheese. (Which I guess part of my brain misses, but then I just eat more cheese and I’m happy.)
A Dude Abikes 
I still haven’t figured out the no flour thing, but you do you. If you grind a whole grain, it becomes flour – pretty much the same as if you chewed it really well. Granted, most commercially-baked products are not made with untreated whole grains, but maybe you should come to my house for pizza – whole wheat, yeast, a bit of sweetener to feed the yeast, salt, olive oil, and stout or porter for liquid and more whole grain;). That’s all that goes into the crust.
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Basically this doctor believes whole grains are ok, but reducing them to flour turns them to sugar which turns to fat and diabetes.
But it hasn’t worked for me I guess due to not eating way less calories and way more fibrous vegetables.
Should I give that up and start eating flour again, I’ll be right over. Thanks.
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It is true that we break down carbohydrates into simple sugars in order to use them in our bodies and it is true that chewing (or grinding) them facilitates that process. As for the rest, allow me to quote a doctor friend of mine, “Just because you’re smart doesn’t mean you can’t be a fuckin’ idiot.” (I’m not referring to you, but possibly to Dr Lustig. Time and science will tell if he knows what he’s talking about or if his dietary theory ends up on the dust heap of history along with countless other fad diets. Some day we will return to eating with friends and food will become the social event it oughta be and not just a way to stuff our bodies with calories.)
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Sugar is the enemy seems to me to be more than a fad and nutritional consensus. I’ve not been able to remove it totally from my diet, but getting rid of processed grains seems logical enough to me. When food is processd it’s probably less healthful than unprocessed food. But what do I know?
The weight loss, pharmaceutical, and medical industries have still not come up with any safe ways to reverse obesity that last. And they won’t because then they’d go out of business. Most diets don’t last and seem to backfire eventually. Maybe surgery works for some. Some people have medical issues that make weight loss unlikely. Environmental factors exist, too.
For me, going back to eating processed grain, as much as I’d like to, is a sure way to add on more weight. I do plan to lose all my excess pounds some day. Hopefully it will happen all at once, when I die in my sleep of old age. Until then it’s a struggle. Thanks for your support.
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His newest book is called Metabolical I’m reading his Fat Chance Cookbook to try to make me sleepy for bed (not working, it’s interesting!). Even it has a few whole wheat flour or cornmeal etc. recipes. I’m just not a baker and think it’s a slippery slope so I am doing the more extreme version. Now that I’m actually looking into making some of the recipes maybe I’ll try some with ingredients I’ve given up and see if anything bad happens. Mostly it’s about fiber which slows the insulin response.
I agree the international epidemic of overweight people has a lot to do with environmental factors as well as the addictive nature of food with added sugar (it has 56 names) and their marketing. I think most of us will lose the battle of the bulge and so just eating better, or slightly less worse, is what we can do realistically. At least coronavirus is making more people learn to cook.
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I’d love for you to actually read one of Dr. Lustig’s books and then tell me what your think is wrong with his science and approach. It seems reasonable to me to emphasize whole grains and non processed foods, but I’m not a pediatric endocrinologist. If you’re never been overweight it would be easy to say just eat one pizza and drink one beer. Not easy for many people to do. That’s why I went cold turkey on the flour. Maybe I should just give up and go back to eating all the bread, etc. that I can. But I haven’t read a book saying processed grain is healthy and good for us.
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I was reminded by my body that it ain’t up for experimentation any longer. I tried . . again, the 16-8 way of doing business. But the sixteen hours of fasting caused me great disturbance and so no . . it’s going to be five reasonable meals a day.
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Reasonable seems like a good goal!
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It’ll woik 😉
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I’m going to have breakfast again…
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Hey, thanks for the shout out! Much appreciated and good luck with eating more healthy meals.
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