My diet is pretty bad, please help..

I'm vegetarian (well vegan except for milk and cheese). Currently I live in a hostel with shitty cooking facilities so haven't been making the effort. In fact I can't really blame that, I have rarely cooked for myself ever. My mum and dad always cooked for me when i lived at home, then after than my girlfriend has cooked for me for last 6 years, but now she is in Italy for 8 months.

Anyway, at the moment the only guaranteed meal I have is breakfast which is:

Banana
Bowl of cereal (fruit and fibre)
Cup of tea
+
Multi vits
Flaxseed oil
echinacea

Then I tend to go about my day and seem to forget about eating until i feel hungry, sometimes leaving it to the extreme where I start to feel really weak, shaky, sweating etc..

I would normally buy something like a cheese and onion pasty or a sandwich at about 4 or 5,, then that would be it for the day. Maybe a bowl of cereal again later if I felt hungry again..


Basically, I am eating really badly, and I really need to improve my diet. I wanna come up with some sort of plan I could stick to. But I know what I'm like and it will have to be something relatively easy to cook, or not cook at all would be best option. (Is it vital to eat hot food??)

I recently got clean of all drugs, had a big opiate habit. (5 months clean) My body has taken a battering over the years, at points I wasnt eating at all. I'm 6ft 2" , I was only 145lbs before i got clean, but went up to 190, now in the last month I've managed to somehow lose 14lbs andgone down to 175.

Also this may still be long drawn out w/d symptoms but I still wake up every morning with a sort of light dull ache over my body, mostly legs, not that bad or anything just noticable.

Anyone got any ideas of healthy vege meals i could make. I know what Im like so any suggestions for good healthy meals that are quick and easy to make? And any other suggestions really? I know this is something important I need to look at, but sort of been putting it off really.

Basically just really up for getting into this whole healthy living thing, I think I owe my body it tbh!

Thanks

grains, nuts, legumes. You can sprout all of these things and eat them raw.

hey man you should check out this thread i made a few months ago..
need help making a simple and nutritious diet

ill definitely be interested to hear what people have to say here.

.Lucid., your thread gave some great ideas for maintaining or even gaining weight after a long run.

OP, if you're still in SE Asia, it's pretty easy to find noodle/soup/pilaf dishes that are fully vegan. Likewise, cooking vegan is pretty easy: fruits, veg, grains (rice is awesome and can be bought in many different forms, ie. noodles, rice sheets to make wraps, rice balls in banana or tea leaf on the go, filled with sour plum), nuts, legumes for days.

Legumes are your friend. If you have any bucks to spend on a cookbook that will see you through many countries on few cents and offer you a wide range of meals, check out Yemuna Devi's:

Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking

I am a fairly good cook, having cooked for myself from about age 4. Left alone, had to eat. Plus, a mom and grandma who cooked well, and all from scratch. If they were around. I don't regret my solo childhood because I learned to cook a lot of different things. (Thank you public library.)

Lord Krishna's Cuisine is good because while it offers a really wide range of Indian food you rarely find in the US, it also covers philosophy, methods and ways to find ingredients, whether you're in NYC or Mumbai.

It also features recipes that can be made for pennies even in the most expensive countries. And her focus is on balanced nutrition and ayurvedic eating. And everything I've made from the book has been VERY good. If you love Sag paneer, or any version of Sag, this book will be worth it. Holy shit!

And I'm a picky, snobby bitch about my food (read: I care about how my food tastes, how it's prepared and the quality of the ingredients that make up my meal). Check it out. It will definitely give you some new techniques and ingredients that can be incorporated into many different types of cuisine. Once you grasp the concept of a dish, you'll probably be abel to recreate it with affordable substitutes at your local store.

Have you ever heard of miso? Most supermarkets have it these days. It's a kind of paste made from soybeans that makes excellent vegetarian base for soup. Try this (just off the top of my head):
2 zucchinis
1 carrot
1 onion
(any other veges you have to hand)
garlic, pepper (to taste
margarine/butter

throw the fat into a pot and when hot enough add diced onion and minced garlic. Stir for several minutes then add the carrots and zucchinni. Fry, stirring for several minutes more (ate this stage other flavours and condiments can be added.

Add 2 to 4 cups of water (judge by quantity of veges). While the water heats towards boiliung grab the miso and put a tablespoon worth in a cup with some hot (but not boiling) water. Dissolve it and add to soup at very end (that is, if you feel the veges need some boiling, complete that, turn the heat down, then add the miso.) Miso's enzymes etc get destroyed if you boil it.
I found this to be palatable even when I could eat nothing else.

artaxerxes said:

.Lucid., your thread gave some great ideas for maintaining or even gaining weight after a long run.

OP, if you're still in SE Asia, it's pretty easy to find noodle/soup/pilaf dishes that are fully vegan. Likewise, cooking vegan is pretty easy: fruits, veg, grains (rice is awesome and can be bought in many different forms, ie. noodles, rice sheets to make wraps, rice balls in banana or tea leaf on the go, filled with sour plum), nuts, legumes for days.

Legumes are your friend. If you have any bucks to spend on a cookbook that will see you through many countries on few cents and offer you a wide range of meals, check out Yemuna Devi's:

Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking

I am a fairly good cook, having cooked for myself from about age 4. Left alone, had to eat. Plus, a mom and grandma who cooked well, and all from scratch. If they were around. I don't regret my solo childhood because I learned to cook a lot of different things. (Thank you public library.)

Lord Krishna's Cuisine is good because while it offers a really wide range of Indian food you rarely find in the US, it also covers philosophy, methods and ways to find ingredients, whether you're in NYC or Mumbai.

It also features recipes that can be made for pennies even in the most expensive countries. And her focus is on balanced nutrition and ayurvedic eating. And everything I've made from the book has been VERY good. If you love Sag paneer, or any version of Sag, this book will be worth it. Holy shit!

And I'm a picky, snobby bitch about my food (read: I care about how my food tastes, how it's prepared and the quality of the ingredients that make up my meal). Check it out. It will definitely give you some new techniques and ingredients that can be incorporated into many different types of cuisine. Once you grasp the concept of a dish, you'll probably be abel to recreate it with affordable substitutes at your local store.

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I agree so much. When I was a lacto/ovo vegetarian I found the Krishna cookbooks to be an excellent source of tasty and nutritious meals. And they come with a philosophy that you may or may not be interested in too.

In addition to what others have suggested, if your finances will allow, buy a good blender. Choose three nutrient-dense vegetables, we use organic kale, spinach & carrots, and three nutrient-dense fruits, we use organic blueberries, cranberries & apples. We also add some milled flax seed and oats or granola. Taste, texture and appearance is like dark purple apple sauce.

While this may not add many calories, you are getting a healthy dose of raw, natural vitamins and minerals. Adjust ingredients for your side of the pond, of course.

There are some recipe threads in Second Opinion that might give you more ideas. I believe they are in at least their second round, so theres lots of ideas. TONS of them are vegetarian, and a lot of them are fairly simple and quick.

Get into the raw foods diet. It is the simplest way to be a vegetarian/vegan. Base your diet around raw greens. Add a lot of sprouted stuff like Mehm suggested. Mung beans are a very easy bean to sprout, cheap and a good thing to get started with. Right now I am sprouting organic mung beans and organic french lentils *both very cheap* and that is providing me a good deal of my diet. From there you can add soaked nuts and seeds like sunflower seeds, almonds, brazil nuts *you don't have to soak these*, etc.

Avocado is a huge part of the raw food diet. So is raw coconut. These good fat/nutrient dense foods are very important. Add some flax in there too, which I see you already are doing. If you have a blender try soaking the flax overnight until they are gooey and then blending them up into a paste. My naturopath friend said this is like "lotion for your insides" and VERY healing.

Then of course you have your raw fruits. Make that a big part of your diet. Have apples and banannas handy for whenever you need energy. Pears, pineapple, berries, etc. Just get different things, whenever you can. Variety is key.

So yeah, who needs a stove? Raw food diet will change anyone's life and it is so simple and easy!

^ I'm interested in learning more. Can you elaborate on "raw greens"? I am aware that some are supposedly better cooked than raw. Also curious about soaking nuts and seeds, as this is the first I've heard of the practice.

Would you be able to recommend a book or another resource that I could use to inform myself more thoroughly about raw foods?

I am aware that some are supposedly better cooked than raw.

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I would like to see something on that. Usually I eat them as is raw from my garden. At most I steam greens. Or sometimes sprinkle them with vinegar and wilt them...works well.

TheAppleCore said:

I am aware that some are supposedly better cooked than raw. Also curious about soaking nuts and seeds, as this is the first I've heard of the practice.

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Mehm said:

I would like to see something on that.

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Cooking starts the digestion process, so to speak, so when we eat something that's been cooked (even slightly), it's already broken down that much more for our bodies to be able to obtain the nutrients from it. Our bodies aren't very efficient at breaking down food. Even though a food says we're getting 100 calories from it based on the results of a bomb calorimetry doesn't mean we're getting 100 calories. So, while the package says we're getting 10% vitamin C, our bodies aren't as efficient as the machine used to analyse the data.

I'll elaborate on this more if needed/wanted when I'm more awake and have my text/class notes in front of me. This was just from my tired brain, so do your own research and don't take what I say for fact.

As far as soaking nuts/seeds, visit http://www.raw-food-living.com/soaking-nuts.html

As far as I'm aware, there are only very isolated instances when cooking a food would actually be more beneficial than eating that food raw. Of course nuts/grains are a different story.

I see what you are saying. On the other hand, cooking food destroys enzymes that aid digestion as well as many vitamins (I've read and heard this..don't have any sources in front of me)

I tried soaking some raw almonds overnight. They lost a lot of their "nutty" flavor, and tasted a lot more like a bland sort of bean after the soak. Did I screw up? Too much water? Too long a soak? Or is this to be expected?

I've never sprouted something like almonds before. My guess is keep the soak to about 2 or 3 hours for something that is already moist and soft. Are you using a sprouting jar?

Thank you so much for all your help. I've actually printing all this off and going to make a big effort to make a big change to the way I eat.

With regards to hot/cold food. A few years ago I was experiencing horrible stomach pains constantly and at one point when to one of the Chinese herbal medicine shops to see if they could help me. They gave me some herbal thing and the woman there made a big deal out of saying that I should avoid eating cold foods and try to eat as much hot food as I could.

I soak my almonds about 12 hours and let them dry a bit in some sunlight for a few hours after that. The taste does change a bit. I have a hard time digesting nuts and seeds completely raw so for me, this has made a big difference. I will spare you the gross details, but lets just say I can see that they are digesting now when before... er... yeah. Icky.

But basically I feel that if you have strong digestive fire and can handle them purely raw, just eat them that way if you don't like them soaked. The most important thing with almonds is not to toast or heat them. Almonds contain a lot of good fat but it isn't stable and oxidizes when put through high heat.

On the other hand, cooking food destroys enzymes that aid digestion as well

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Beat me to it.

As far as I'm aware, there are only very isolated instances when cooking a food would actually be more beneficial than eating that food raw. Of course nuts/grains are a different story.

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Yes. There are quite a few things that should not be eaten raw. Broccoli is an example. It contains stuff that isn't so good for the thyroid. Eating raw broccoli once a year isn't an issue but if you love broccoli, it should be cooked if eaten regularly. Gotta take care of that thyroid.

Cooking starts the digestion process, so to speak, so when we eat something that's been cooked (even slightly), it's already broken down that much more for our bodies to be able to obtain the nutrients from it. Our bodies aren't very efficient at breaking down food. Even though a food says we're getting 100 calories from it based on the results of a bomb calorimetry doesn't mean we're getting 100 calories. So, while the package says we're getting 10% vitamin C, our bodies aren't as efficient as the machine used to analyse the data.

Click to expand...

Well.. sort of. Cooking doesn't exactly "start the digestive process", but it does break stuff down that either 1) needs to be broken down for health reasons such as with the broccoli or 2) sometimes makes vitamins more digestible as you mentioned. But everything is a trade off. There are also good things which are destroyed in the cooking process.

I am not the freaky sort of raw foodist who believes its 100% or nothing. That is just weird to me. It's really just about learning what the effects of cooking are on various foods. Everything is different, so you have to see what happens with cooking and then weigh the pros and cons of it. I'd always cook broccoli, I'd never cook an almond. It just depends.

re: Greens. It is true that some greens do contain things that are not so good if you were eating tons of them raw. Spinach for example. Here is a paragraph I found somewhere with a google search that pretty much sums up my view on it, from things I've read before:

"Spinach has only 13 calories per serving and packs a punch for Vitamin A as well as folic Acid (especially important for pregnant women) and is rich in carotenoids and antioxidants. It is also rich in chlorophyll. Debate exists whether it is more beneficial to cook spinach or eat it raw (juice it). Spinach contains oxalic acid. While this cleans our intestinal tract, oxalic acid binds with calcium and diminishes the absorption of calcium in our bodies. Cooking turns the oxalic acid into crystals that could damage kidneys and limit the absorption of iron but cooking also breaks down cell walls and allow us to absorb more nutrients. The answer? Eat spinach in moderation, and eat it raw as well as cooked."

^I've come to the conclusion that there are good and bad things to most things we eat and we have to look at it realistically and decide what is best. I would say more but I am still currently in the process of learning the qualities of various greens and deciding which ones are better steamed and which ones are better raw. But despite some of the scary and disheartening info you might read on the net (I've even seen sites warning to never eat vegetables at all because they would all kill you lol) I can say that I've never felt better or seen more health improvements than I have during the time I have been doing this raw foods diet. My skin is improving, my energy levels are way up, my mind feels clearer, and best of all my teeth are healing. It's just amazing.

This guy who comes into the bar I work at is afraid of raw veggies being unsanitary. Some grape farmers told me that the laborers on their field are fans of shitting in the rows, wiping, and continuing to pick. ...not sure what to make of this other than, "know your farmer" and "rinse your produce" I guess....