Eating Green

I've been following an anti-inflammatory diet for over 2 weeks now. I hate the word diet. It sounds so restrictive, temporary and just down right lame. And this has been anything but lame. In fact, I'm sort of loving it. Partly because I look at it from a "look at all the cool things I get to eat" standpoint and partly because I don't kick myself when I eat something outside the diet (like the to-die-for chocolate souffle my husband made for mother's day). I refuse to feel guilty.

What is this all about? Well, despite being on some icky steroids, my inflammation levels are still really high. Pain and inflammation, inflammation and pain. It's a vicious cycle. So, being the cooperative partner I am, I'm helping my body out by eating foods that are anti-inflammatory and well, not eating foods that are inflammatory. Simple as that. Lots of veggies, low-glycemic fruit, fish, nuts, soy, beans and whole grains. Check out Dr. Weil's anti-inflammatory food pyramid for more information.

I can't remember the last time I ate red meat and it has been 8 days since I've eaten any kind of meat. I'm not trying to go vegetarian but it's sort of just evolving into that. I'm seeing all the other options out there and getting creative with my own cooking. A huge plus is going out into the garden and being like "hmmm, what should I eat?" and then picking some incredible spinach, kale and swiss chard.

By the way, isn't it amazing how much the garden has grown (see above). We harvested a bunch of greens the other day and I ran out of room in my fridge. I rinsed each leaf individually (or else we'd be eating slugs), put them through the salad spinner a couple times, then bagged them up. I just love it. Speaking of the garden, I have to go water it now, which is FANTASTIC because that means it's actually not raining for once. :)

Hope you're having a great day.

Kim