Found out my oh-so-generous husband "lent" our copy to someone.....and can't remember who it was.
Good thing you can get it used on Amazon for one cent. I also bought the book of shopping lists and recipes for a quarter. Last time we did it, I found I didn't like his recipes as much as I liked my own, but I figured I'd give it a few more chances.
Looks like we're gonna have to push back the start date of this whole thing by two days.....being out of town for a wedding has thrown us off a bit and I wasn't able to get everything ready by today. So we'll be starting on Tuesday, September 25. For realsies.
What I really enjoyed about the Maker's Diet in the past is that, after reading the book, I felt like I completely understood the philosophy of the diet and how it worked. It helped me make much more confident decisions about what we were eating. It's not just a list of do eat this and don't eat that--it's a whole way of looking at things. I also enjoyed that it wasn't about portions. I can eat as much as I want, until I am full. This makes life much easier.
Something else I really enjoyed was how much money we saved. The Maker's Diet more or less takes away your ability to eat out, at least toward the beginning of it. Gone are the quick stops for yogurt or coffee, gone are the "let's just go grab something for lunch instead". As cheesy as it sounds, it also forced us to spend more creative quality time with others. We realized that most often when we were spending time with friends, it was based around meals. Suddenly we couldn't eat those meals, so we had to find other things to do with our friends. It was kinda nice actually.
I suppose I need to put out a disclaimer that I don't plan on following the diet completely. There are a few places where I've chosen to deviate and/or modify based on what's actually realistic and going to work for me and my family (gosh, my family....last time we did this we were childless....should be a tad more fun with a toddler in tow). A few things to point out:
1. I am not hugely dedicated to organics. While I totally understand why they are (in theory) better, I also know that FDA standards are pretty loose and that you can slap an "organic!" sticker on just about anything you want. I fully agree that if something is truly organic, it is better for me. But I also believe that more often than not, people who buy organics are just paying more for pretty much the same product. We will not always be buying organic, sorry to disappoint.
2. We will not be adhering to any of the cleansing, prayer or fasting as outlined in the book. Not that I don't think those things are worthwhile; we just won't be doing them in connection with this diet (OK, so I guess that actually means that I don't think they're worthwhile in this case, doesn't it?).
3. We will be allowing ourselves one "cheat dinner" per week. Most often this defaults to Sunday nights, although it can easily float around to allow us to attend events, accept invitations, etc.
4. I do allow for a teensy, tinsy bit of chemical-ish stuff. As in, Trader Joe's sells a great assortment of pre-marinated meats that are totally great, taste delicious and are quite convenient. They tend to have a few minor ingredients in the marinade that aren't totally what they should be....but I've chosen to overlook that in favor of making my life much easier and giving us much more variety in our meals. So sue me.
Tomorrow is prep day. I'll be cleaning out our fridge and cupboards of everything we can't have.....and lovingly saying goodbye to each item as it goes.
No comments:
Post a Comment