16 Jul Go on statins or try to lower your cholesterol naturally with food? I’ll take the later please!
One of my clients with high cholesterol has been advised that they’ll be put on statins if they don’t lower their cholesterol within three months.
Their Dr. has encouraged them to cut way down on meat, fatty and processed foods. Knowing that my diet is mainly pescatarian, they asked me what a day in the life of mostly plant-based eating looks like for me.
I happen to not really care for meat, so I find eating plant based really easy and enjoyable and I think others can too if they branch out and try some easy dishes. It’s all in the flavoring.
So what do I eat in a day with limited meat?
This mornings breakfast started with celery juice – yes I am trying out the celery juice movement. After 30 min I had a bowl of steel cut oats with blueberries and a few walnuts crumbled on top.
As a mid morning snack, I enjoyed a piece of 88% dark chocolate and a brazil nut. I was working in my selenium for the day with the brazil nut. Plus the nut paired well with chocolate and the chocolate is a great source of magnesium. Win win!
Lunch was a garbanzo bean Peasant Pie with some steamed broccoli and half an apple. A Peasant Pie is a little bread pie stuffed with garbanzo beans, curry, tomatoes and spices. They are really delicious, easy to heat up and vegan. I bought it in the fresh section of the grocery store but, Peasant Pies actually has a few storefronts in San Francisco.
Dinner was a cauliflower rice salmon bowl. It was loaded with roasted broccoli, sweet potatoes, cucumber, shredded carrots, avocado, green onions, seaweed salad, lettuce and topped with a piece of pan seared Salmon. To flavor the bowl I used a dressing I found on the skinny taste website made of mirin, rice wine vinegar, tamari, sesame oil and wasabi. Yum! I also had a big piece of whole grain bread on the side.
There are so many tasty non-meat options out there. Including many on the Healthy Eats page of this website. If you are looking to cut down on your meat consumption for health or other reasons try working in a couple of easy vegetarian or vegan recipes into your weekly rotation.
I generally like to have a big salad, a vegetable of some sort like broccoli or brussels sprouts, a protein and a little carbohydrate. The key with the veggies is to spice them up with shallots, garlic, herbs and sauces such as balsamic vinegar.
If I am in the mood to cook, I’ll search for something to make on one of the many websites that offer easy tasty vegetarian or vegan meal ideas. (Minimalist Baker, Cookie and Kate, Cooking Light etc.)
If you’re just starting out choose simple recipes like burrito bowls, Buddha bowls and vegetarian tacos. Once you discover how flavorful vegetarian cooking can be you’ll be more inspired to branch out into the slightly more involved recipes.
If I don’t have time or feel like cooking I just make a salad and steam or sauté vegetables and pair them with something I buy from the store like fresh ravioli or humus and pita, black beans etc. Reducing your meat consumption could be as simple as swapping out the meat in your dinner for a vegetarian source of protein. I think it just boils down to trying new recipes with an open mind.