This week I’ve started week four of the 6-week Phase 2 part of the Plant Paradox eating plan. My breakfast is a green smoothie most days, lunch is a medium salad with about 3 oz of protein (usually wild-caught salmon or tuna), and dinner is either another salad with another 3 -4 oz of wild-caught fish or the fish with a cooked vegetable like broccoli and cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, spinach, or cooked cabbage. I feel satisfied after every meal and have no cravings for sweets or salty snacks.
My biggest challenge is that my husband continues to eat the foods we’ve always eaten, non-organic chicken, pork, and farm-raised shrimp, and sometimes grassfed beef burgers. The spices he uses smell wonderful and my mind wants to partake even though my body isn’t sending me food cravings. He is a meat-eater, so this meal plan would be challenging for him. Plus, he balks at the cost of buying pastured chicken and 100% pastured beef and pork. We have friends who raise chickens and let them roam their property, but the wife also feeds them grains. So, it might be organic feed, but it’s still corn, soy and other grains that I’m avoiding. They are happy to share eggs with us, but now that I’m following this program, I know not to eat those eggs. I will buy the pastured eggs at Sprouts for my once or twice a week omelet, and let my husband eat those eggs.
But the more I learn about the research and science behind what Dr. Gundry has written, and the experiences his patients have had as I read the book, the more I want my husband to try this plan. He has chronic nasal congestion now and phlegm, and is on medication for diabetes, cholesterol, and high blood pressure. I, too, have high blood pressure and am hoping that with this eating plan I will eventually be off the medication entirely. That happened while I was on the New Wave program.
Still starving the bad gut bugs
My body is still starving out the bad gut bacteria, and I can tell it’s much better. I don’t feel bloated, and rarely have gas unless I’ve eaten something I shouldn’t. For example, we attended a 90th birthday party for a friend, and there was nothing I could eat except, celery, olives, and pickled asparagus. Everything else was foods she loves, Vienna sausages, pasta salad, potato salad, beef ribs in sugary bar-be-cue sauce, and then the cake, cupcakes, and fudge. Tons of sugar and lectin-filled foods. I tasted a piece of fudge and ate 6 dried apricots. I had the runs the next day as my body worked to eliminate the bad gut bugs. When we got home, I had three romaine leaves with ½ an avocado made into guacamole. Then I had a good dinner of wild-caught fish and garlic spinach.
I have found I really enjoy the frozen wild-caught cod from Costco. It’s rarely fishy the way Mahi Mahi sometimes is, and the texture is similar to sea bass. I sauté it in avocado oil after sprinkling both sides with organic garlic powder, Konriko Greek seasoning, and dill. Then I let it cook on one side, getting a little brown before flipping it over and letting that cook for about 3 minutes. Then I squeeze fresh lemon juice on the fish, turn the fire down, cover it, and let it steam for another minute. It comes out moist and flaky, with a little crispiness on the outside. Really tasty. That with garlic spinach or kale, or 4 oz of another cooked vegetable, and my dinner is complete and very satisfying.
I’ll do another update when I get into week 5 of Phase 2. At this point, I’m thinking this will be my eating plan for the rest of my life. My only challenge is eating out and meals with friends….or I just deal with eating the foods my bad gut bacteria loves, and then cleaning myself out for the next 2 days. By the way, I’m down to 178 today and losing about a pound every 2-3 days. The goal of 165 is getting closer every day.