I recently had an appointment with a registered dietitian. I’ve seen them many times before, and never really had a good experience. They never gave me helpful advice — telling me to add brown rice to my meals or become a vegetarian — and I had the added anxiety this time of being a higher weight than I’ve been in over a decade (not counting pregnancy).
I am happy to report that the RD I spoke with was not awful!! He even spoke about Health At Every Size and talked about the disadvantages of weight cycling (basically, the act of losing and gaining weight aka yo-yo dieting messes with your metabolism and makes it harder and harder to lose weight). And Kaiser even had HANDOUTS that talked about these things. I was *shocked*. They’ve clearly come a long way since the last time I spoke to someone there!
I gave him a brief history and also told him about some of the negative experiences I’ve had in the recent past — the keto diet really triggering disordered eating and making me look at all carbs as evil. I also told him my experiences with the diabetes caseworker when I was pregnant with Zoey and how awful that was. It felt good to get it out there and have him be sympathetic. I think it also told him where I was coming from. (aka don’t tell me to go on a diet.)
Anyways. He asked me what my goals were with seeing him. I told him about my diagnosis of an autoimmune disorder and that I was curious about the Autoimmune Protocol Diet. But I was wary because of my past history and cutting out entire food groups are not good for me!
He told me there wasn’t a lot of evidence that that diet did anything for people with autoimmune diseases. Obviously, if certain foods make you feel bad, don’t eat them! But he said there wasn’t hard evidence that this did anything. Instead, he suggested trying something closer to the Mediterranean Diet.
This intrigued me because it’s something I’ve always been kind of interested in trying. It’s not eliminating giant food groups. You get to have a little bit of everything. Carbs aren’t the devil. It seems like a healthier way to live. He shared this food pyramid with me and I wanted to share it too. I like that the base of the pyramid is being active–and not necessarily being a gym rat. Walking, spending time with family and friends and being active in a way you enjoy.
That is something I’ve been working on for a few years now and I’ve made so much progress! Instead of having a rigid workout schedule that I must adhere to and MUST burn a certain amount of calories, I am finding movement in other ways. I walk. I do yoga, I swim, I lift weights, I garden, and most importantly: I don’t try to “earn” my food by working out. This was a LONG journey for me.
I don’t want to use the word “diet” but I am looking at recipes to incorporate into our meal rotation. A lot of the suggestions are things we already do! We eat a lot of fish, especially salmon, and salad. I love feta and olives so anytime I can make a Greek salad, I do.
Here are some really delicious looking recipes.
I LOVE hummus bowls! This one sounds great.
This one looks like a great idea and versatile: could be a salad, sandwich, put it on pita bread or crackers or lettuce wraps.
I love Greek Orzo Salad. It’s easy to make and delicious!
I’ve made this Chickpea Salad Wrap a few times and it was really good.
So I have a list of some recipes that I am going to try out. I will report back! Send me some of your favorite Mediterranean style recipes.
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