Food Porn and Going Vegetarian (sort of)

While I'm fasting and can't eat, all I can think about is food. Late at night, I can spend 20 minutes just gazing at images of my favorite dishes on Google. I am SUCH a food addict. God help me.

Look at these pictures I've been salivating over. And these are the healthier ones. Some are just too binge-inspiring to share on a health-journey blog.

I've been craving ribeyes, raw oysters, roasted turkey with mashed potatoes and oodles of gravy, pork tenderloin slices awash in pork gravy, hamburger steaks with grilled onions and mushrooms, salmon grilled with a sweet Asian sauce, fried catfish, fried seafood platters, grilled whole flounder topped with lump crabmeat, and catfish courtbouillon (one of my favorite Cajun dishes). My most persistent craving is for bbq brisket.

Meat protein and saturated fat is the theme here. This is not only true for me when I'm fasting but when I'm bingeing. I'm a meat addict. I don't understand the physiology of my addiction, but it is at the root of my eating disorder. I eat way too much protein, protein converts to sugar, and it feeds my diabetes. I can stay away from cinnamon rolls, but not brisket.

Now some of my meat choices are healthy--like salmon or raw oysters. Even the meats would be healthy if they were grass-fed and in small amounts. But they never are. I never can eat that prescribed "palm-sized" cut of meat. When I eat meat, I eat meat.

The other day, however, my craving turned to turnips and onions. My mother used to make this wonderful dish where she cut up turnips in chunks and stir-fried it in onions and oil with chunks of chicken or pork or thin slices of smoked sausage. The sweet turnip and onion cooked down almost into a mush, absorbing the savory flavor of the meat, and it was to die for. Even by itself, without meat, turnips and onions stir-fried then cooked down in a savory butter-base is scrumpdillyicious.

Almost as good as meat.

I liked it that much. That got me thinking. What other vegetarian dishes do you like almost as much as meat? Some of them I can eat completely without meat, some of them I like to add cheese or eggs, and some of them I like to use a small amount of meat, but either way, they are better than bingeing on a pound of meat. I began to list them in my head:

1.   Eggplant parmesan
2.   Okra stir-fried with onion and shrimp
3.   Asparagus with homemade Hollandaise sauce
4.   Ratatouille
5.   Turnips and onion (by itself or with chicken or smoked sausage)
6.   Caesar salad with my homemade superfood Caesar dressing
7.   Avocado salad or guacamole (the way I make it) with cherry tomatoes on the side
8.   Brussel sprouts roasted in the oven with bacon and Balsamic vinegar
9.   Cream of Brocolli Soup
10. Roasted Summer Squash with Balsamic vinegar and pine nuts
11. Smothered cabbage with onions (with chicken or smoked sausage)
12. Bean soups (split pea, red lentil Dal, white beans or red beans with sausage, black bean, etc.)
13. Marinara over spaghetti squash "noodles" with Italian sausage
14. Certain Rastafarian vegetable medleys with their unique seasonsings
15. Vegetable curries
16. Greens and onions (seasoned with a smoked bone or nitrite-free smoked meats)
17. Vietnamese Pho
18. Grilled Mushrooms (especially as a sandwich on gluten-free bread with guacamole, grated carrots, melted swiss cheese and homemade mayonnaise)
19. Squash, onion, pepper mushroom and tomato shish-ka-bobs with small chunks of meat
20. Carrots and onions with Cajun seasoning cooked in butter, served over Jasmine rice
21. Cauliflower crust pizza with veggies and cheese
22. Grilled chicken salad
23. Cheese enchiladas with non-GMO corn tortillas and chunky superfood tomato chili sauce
24. Eggplants stuffed with rice, veggies and shrimp

If I ate those types of meals 5 nights a week and greatly minimized the meat, and only ate "meat-as-a-main-course" two nights a week, that change alone would make a tremendous difference in my  health and weight-loss goals. So that is my plan: to go Vegetarian-Sort-Of.

While I can't eat, I'm planning how I will eat when I come off the fast. This is what I've come up with so far:

Breakfast

High-Protein Pumpkin Spice Muffin made with coconut oil, sprouted amaranth and quinoa flours, pureed pumpkin, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg, pureed apple, organic black strap molasses, eggs, ground flax seeds and walnuts

Coffee with organic half-and-half or coconut cream

Lunch

Caesar Salad with my special superfood Caesar dressing
Cream of Brocolli Soup with grated cheese on top

or

My special superfood "Caterpillar Guacamole" with cherry tomatoes
One tin of tiny two-layer sardines (with the bones) in BPA-free can

Dinner

Choose one of my Vegetarian Sort-of Dishes on the List

On Friday nights, I think I will splurge and let myself have a meaty-meal for dinner (just for dinner), so I might have a grilled ribeye with asparagus and salad. On Saturdays (which is when I celebrate my Sabbath) I will fast from food and water. On Sundays after church, it will be a free day where I try not to binge, but allow myself to eat whatever I've been craving, maybe a bunch of roast turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy and southern-style green beans and bacon.

I'm going to try this plan when I come off my fast. I'm going to combine it with moderate weight-lifting 3 x a week and daily exercise for one hour (walking, swimming or elliptical), taking Saturdays and Sundays off.

It sounds really tasty and really healthy, but the question is: will I lose weight?

We shall see.



P.S. I'll eventually get each of these meals listed turned into links where you can see the recipes for them. Keep coming back to this post for updates.