I was a fat kid. Even before I was verbal, I could spot the Golden Arches. Then I went from a fat baby to a fat kid and fat teenager. And then a skinny teenager, popping diet pills purchased in Florida with an actual street value up here. I remember, in phases, being fat and sad then skinny and hopped-up and presumably happier. Or I was skinny and starving, or skinny and running and cycling endlessly, then fat and depressed again. This yo-yoing has plagued me my entire life. And at 45, it still does.
I don’t believe in dieting anymore. Most of the experts I listen to say the same thing; “Diets don’t work!” So what does?
Well, it’s a whole lifestyle thing. It’s about getting up and moving. Walking instead of driving. Taking the stairs instead of the escalator. Eating when you’re hungry, but eating well. I like the simplicity of In Defense of Food author Michael Pollan’s advice, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
Sounds easy enough, right? But what is “food”? Well it’s not that processed junk in bags, boxes, and bottles. Pollan suggests this litmus test: if your grand- or great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize it as food, it isn’t food. And she wouldn’t recognize neon yogurt in a tube. Stick to the periphery of the grocery store, that’s where all the unprocessed foods are — the whole foods — the produce, meat, dairy and grains.
Pollan is also a great believer in the Japanese practice of hara hachi bu, eating until the hunger is gone — about 80 per cent full — and not to capacity. If you tune in to Dr. Oz, on TV just about any day of the week, America’s hunky — if slightly too hairy — health guru is giving us the down-low on the latest must-eat super-food. So we got to wondering, besides what we all already know about drinking plenty of water, and avoiding refined sugars, processed and junk foods, what would a perfect day of Dr. Oz and Michael Pollan eating look like?
Breakfast
Never skip breakfast. You need it, and even if you don’t feel hungry, you still need it. Not breaking the fast (that would be your long night’s sleep without food) will wreak havoc with your hormones and blood sugar levels so that by the time coffee break rolls around you’ll find yourself powerless against the pull of the latte and pastry, or worse, you’ll totally pig out at lunch.
Here’s an easy, no-cook, no-excuses breakfast full of immune boosters and antioxidants:
• Pro-biotic yogurt or yogurt drink, organic of course.
• Green tea with a drop of manuka honey. Manuka honey is a proven bacteria-fighter.
• Unsweetened puffed brown rice or whole grain cereal or, if you do have time to cook, oatmeal. Have this with lots of blueberries, a dash of soymilk, real maple syrup, and ground flaxseeds
