Basic guidelines to get started with

I already mentioned in a previous blog that our family conveniently has two series of birthdays which neatly coincide with the big eating fests in our culture.  Four of us are spread over the Christmas to Australia Day season and the other two occur around Easter.  So that gives me a good excuse to relax dietary rules and enjoy the trappings of the seasons.

Also over the summer/ Christmas period we have an abundance of beautiful fruit.  I love the stone fruit season. In particular we grow our own mangoes (in a good season). This season is a good one for mangoes and our two trees are laden.  There is no way I can pass this up.  If I was a caveman I would be taking full advantage of the bounty, so that is what I intend to do.

So rule #1 apart from the initial 3 day detox, If I grow the fruit I am allowed to eat it.
rule #2 I get to have a break from the low carb regime from my birthday in mid December through to Harry's birthday at the beginning of February and also for about a month around April/May coinciding with Steve and Sarah's birthdays and Easter.

Soymilk
As soymilk is our milk of choice and in reality I use such a small amount of it, a splash or two in my cups of tea throughout the day, I have decided that I can continue to consume it.  The brand we use is made from the whole soybean, is non genetically modified, relatively low in added sugar and has a bit of omega 3 in it.
so rule # 3 I can use small amounts of soymilk in the diet.

I also make soy yoghurt out of the  above soymilk, it is unsweetened and quite nice on it's own or with something else.  That is also permissible.

Grains

Rule # 4 No grains.  Nothing more really needs to be said.

Seeds and nuts

Rule #5 nuts are good, seeds are too in small amounts.

Sweeteners

I haven't decided about whether I will put some stevia in the cupboard or not.  I am not a big fan of artificial sweeteners, but they might be necessary in certain situations.  In the initial phase though, I am retraining my sweet sensors, so artificial sweetness is not needed.  I'm gonna have to get used to things not tasting so sweet.

Rule #6 Dextrose is ok for a little bit of sweetness later in the diet.  Will review the use of stevia then too.  Rice syrup is expensive and suddenly really difficult to find in the supermarket.  Not sure why, I always used to buy it a few years ago.

Vegetables
Rule #7  Apart from potatoes and corn I am not going to be too uptight about vegies.  I'll stick with a variety, more salads in hot weather and soups in cold weather.  I will watch that I don't consume too many goitrogens or excessive vitamin K, given my blood clot history.

Meat and fat

Rule #8  Again, I'm not going to stress too much about meat and its relative fat content.  I am going to eat what tastes good and try my hardest to get grass fed, free range and happy humanely raised animals to eat.  I will cook with coconut oil, olive oil and also use light olive oil in salads.  I will use butter on vegies and eggs.  Cream is ok too, just fresh poured out of the bottle is yum.

Drinks

Rule #9
Water, tea, herbal teas, dandelion coffee, decaf cappuccinos, and chai tea are all allowed.

And just to keep things even, I need a rule #10

Legumes

I'm gonna eat legumes at this point in time.  I need to read up more and find more evidence as to why legumes are no good.  So at this stage they are still on the menu.


It will be interesting to review this set of rules at Easter and see how good my compliance was and whether they need any tweaking.  But this is my starting point, now to take the plunge........