I've always felt vegetables were basically a waste of time and energy. To me they're not "food", not really.

Bev, this is not so far from where I started off. I had to really force myself to change that mindset. But it really was not nearly as hard as way more satisfying than I thought it would be. I still have to push myself sometimes (and the CSA totally helps with that!) but it's really changed my whole perspective.

And like I said, I haven't given up anything. I'll stop at McD's at the airport or train station, or I'll have a crab rangoon with my lunch or order the steak frites out at a restaurant. But it's the day to day stuff that's changed so dramatically, and it really becomes second nature after a while.

By contrast, when I was starting to think about what to write, I took a look at an lj my sister and I started up to track/encourage our diets a few years back. Here's a couple of days worth of food posts:

3/15 - 22+2

Having a much harder time of it today - I think tonight is going to be rough.

2 waffles - 3 pts

small banana - 2 pts

carrots - 1 pt

subway turkey sub, no cheese - 5 or 6, can't remember

goldfish - 3 pts

yogurt - 1 pt

popcorn - 1 pt

another yogurt - 1 pt

WW meal - 4 pts yay!

piece of toast, probably too much butter. Still calling it 2

3/16

waffle, ww yogurt - 3 pts

ww meal - 6 pts

goldfish - 3 pts

banana - 3 pts

CRAP! Chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen. I had 2. 5 pts. (C'mon, they're weren't very big.)

Most of a bottle of not very good wine (not the new fave, H, something else)

2 pieces toast

3/17

Donut day at work! Fortunately, by the time I got here there was only one left of the kind I like. 4 pts.

Spoke too soon. Add another half-donut. 2 pts.

Um, yeah. Three Guiness lunch at a cajun joint, gumbo and a 1/2 BLFriedGreenT sandwich. That officially ends the count for today.

Who could live like that?

Thanks for those posts, brenda! I'm just starting this process after meeting with the dietician on Thursday and I'm hoping we can develop habits that really do become second nature.

My relationship with veggies is very much Beverly's. I want it to be different.

I can't believe I typed "meating." Oy. In a post about veggies.

I've got to say, the roasted veggies are da bomb.

Cauliflower is probably my favorite. Broccoli heads taste best when they get all ugly and brown. I stopped cooking them together though because Broccoli likes to suck up salt.

Thanks for the kale ideas. We have a really good and easy kale recipe we make all the time, but I made it a week ago, and I want something else now.

Pasta with beans and kale (originally from Moosewood, but with curly endive)
1 small onion
1 mess kale
1 big can whole peeled tomatoes in juice
2 cans white/cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 lemon
salt and pepper

Saute onions until soft, add kale and salt and pepper, cover and cook down.
Add tomatoes and juice (break them up with a wooden spoon or knife), add beans. Cover and cook while the pasta cooks (minumum 15 minutes, but you can let it go on low as long as you like - at this point you're mostly heating it up.)
When pasta is ready, add juice of the lemon, mix, and serve sauce over pasta, with parmesan cheese and more pepper if you like.

brenda, I think that's really amazing, what you did.

My relationship with veggies is very much Beverly's.

Yes, me too.

I want it to be different.

I really don't, but losing weight without switching my diet to mainly vegetables seems impossible. Of course, switching my diet to mainly vegetables also seems impossible.

Hmm, I have all those things. Or, well, I have chard and collards, so close enough. Might try that tonight.

Oh yeah, you have to be super careful with the salt on roasted brocc. And it looks awful, but it's really really tasty.

It's odd--even whole grains like cereal or oatmeal send my blood sugar up, while bacon and eggs keeps it level. But then my cholesterol aims for the sky. It's always a balancing act.

If there's anything I've learned through all this, it's to pay very close attention to what your body (and your taste, and your appetites) are trying to tell you.

Possibly the weirdest thing that's happened to me - several years ago I had a long stint, a year or so, frequent back aches. I wasn't at my heaviest then, so I don't know that it was weight related. But god, it was awful. Advil, tylenol, back cremes, hot pads - I remember borrowing percoset from my dad and getting no relief. It was awful. And somehow after a year or so it gradually stopped. No idea what changed.

But now - if I eat a really high fat meal - 10 minutes later I feel that backache starting up again. It's happened enough times, 6 or 8 or so, and doesn't happen otherwise so I know I'm not imagining it. Freaky. (When I'm more paranoid I think this means I have spine cancer or something. But I'm pretty sure that's not it.)

If my backaches turn out to be caused by eating fat, I'ma shoot myself.

I don't think they are, though. When I was doing Atkins, my back didn't hurt. I think in my case it's stress.

Now, can anyone direct me to an almond meal cookie recipe that is not 1) macaroons (I don't want that egg white airiness) or 2) full of other low-carb, "primal", or "healthy" ingredients I am not likely to have in my house? My goal is to recreate cookies I ate in the village of Aidone in Sicily called Pasta di Mandorle, which were a almond-tasting cookie with the basic texture of American sugar cookies (i.e. not biscotti or macaroons.) But improvisational baking is the fastest route to disaster I know. Could I just make sugar cookies and sub in 50% almond meal?

I'm not exactly sure what I just invented, but it's really good. Started out with a handful of cashews, which I soaked in water for a few hours. I was planning to make cashew creme to put on top of the soup, but I got tired and didn't. So I still had all these soaked cashews. I put them in the food processor with a little of the soaking water, a splash of lemon juice, some agave nectar, and some frozen fruit (the berry and cherry blend from TJ's.) Then blended, a lot. Also put in maybe a tablespoon or two of coconut kefir. I basically ended up with bright purple pudding. Not quite what I was going for, but so good. And really filling -- I ate about half a cup of it, and I am totally full and feel like I won't be able to eat anything else for hours. Plus, yummy and purple.