Vegetable Crackers with Sunflower Seed Pate
I'm a little perplexed, I can't figure out really why I keep losing weight eating this food. It's working out to a pound a day which is cool in a way as I've lost nearly all my post-marathon gluttony weight but still it baffles me. This food uses so much oil (coconut and hemp for the most part) and leaves me so full (sometimes over full) that I should be packing on the pounds. And my activity levels are way down from marathon training.
All I can think of is inflammation and that this diet is helping that out a lot. Something I probably accumulated from marathon training despite very good nutrition and stacked on afterward with pie eating binges followed by a return to beer and (gasp) whiskey.
Whatever the reason, I'm down to 149 pounds on the morning of day six. I can't report any higher or lower energy levels or feelings of euphoria. Other than vastly more quantities of oil, flaxseed and seaweed than I normally eat this is largely similar to the types of food I eat anyway. I have reduced or eliminated my intake of bread (two slices in a week that I had with the veggie burger), coffee, oatmeal, dried fruit, nut butters, jam, store bought nut milks, crackers and hummus.
Speaking of crackers, the vegetable crackers I eventually made were delicious (pictured above) coupled with the sunflower seed pate. My wife and kid liked them too, however would have liked them more crispy than me. Simply fixed by baking them longer but I liked them right on the border of crispy and soft. I still baked them longer than the recipe suggested and I find a lot of the recipes have conservative baking times so I'd recommend trying to add at least 10 minutes to each recipe.
For breakfast I've also been eating the Banana Ginger Pear Cereal which is fairly quick to make (you just chop up a few things and throw them in a bowl and mix with hemp milk) and absolutely delicious. It's probably the least filling of the breakfasts so far, but perfect on a warm day or when you don't want a heavy breakfast.
As for the past two days, it's become a hodgepodge where I'm using leftovers and recipes I've already done simply to conserve groceries, use food instead of wasting it and avoiding trips to the grocery store. Last night we made the Spicy Black-Eyed Pea Quinoa Pizza and I was the only one that liked it. The taste was right on for me (I'll be eating leftovers for lunch today) but the wife and kid are disappointed the pizza's aren't really the types you pick up by the slice. They are knife and fork pizzas. Plus I had a hard time getting the dough thin enough, it was very sticky probably brought on by a lack of patience on my part in cooking the quinoa last minute and not waiting for it to cool. I did pre-bake the crust for 15 minutes and I found it to be a good idea. I'd recommend that for all the pizzas. The two pizzas we've tried have been very filling.
Two days left and I've been enjoying it. I think once you get past the first couple of days you get in a groove with all the food prep. The dishes are drastically more than usual as the food prep involves lots of use of food processors, blenders and measuring cups/spoons. I did run a trail race on Saturday just for fun and was very curious to see if I felt different performing on this food. I didn't really. I ended up placing 5th overall and 1st in my age category (would have had 4th but went the wrong way on the trail, a story for the fitness page I guess) but since I wasn't really putting in my hardest effort (maybe 85%) and the race being short (under 7km though it was up a mountain) it's hard to tell if the food helped or hindered me. After the race I just ended up eating fruit from the race food table provided and the Vega Sport Recovery Accelerator mixed with water.
Final thoughts on the Thrive Diet in two days, but I can give the spoiler right now that I plan on using a lot of these recipes going forward simply because they taste great.
All I can think of is inflammation and that this diet is helping that out a lot. Something I probably accumulated from marathon training despite very good nutrition and stacked on afterward with pie eating binges followed by a return to beer and (gasp) whiskey.
Whatever the reason, I'm down to 149 pounds on the morning of day six. I can't report any higher or lower energy levels or feelings of euphoria. Other than vastly more quantities of oil, flaxseed and seaweed than I normally eat this is largely similar to the types of food I eat anyway. I have reduced or eliminated my intake of bread (two slices in a week that I had with the veggie burger), coffee, oatmeal, dried fruit, nut butters, jam, store bought nut milks, crackers and hummus.
Speaking of crackers, the vegetable crackers I eventually made were delicious (pictured above) coupled with the sunflower seed pate. My wife and kid liked them too, however would have liked them more crispy than me. Simply fixed by baking them longer but I liked them right on the border of crispy and soft. I still baked them longer than the recipe suggested and I find a lot of the recipes have conservative baking times so I'd recommend trying to add at least 10 minutes to each recipe.
For breakfast I've also been eating the Banana Ginger Pear Cereal which is fairly quick to make (you just chop up a few things and throw them in a bowl and mix with hemp milk) and absolutely delicious. It's probably the least filling of the breakfasts so far, but perfect on a warm day or when you don't want a heavy breakfast.
As for the past two days, it's become a hodgepodge where I'm using leftovers and recipes I've already done simply to conserve groceries, use food instead of wasting it and avoiding trips to the grocery store. Last night we made the Spicy Black-Eyed Pea Quinoa Pizza and I was the only one that liked it. The taste was right on for me (I'll be eating leftovers for lunch today) but the wife and kid are disappointed the pizza's aren't really the types you pick up by the slice. They are knife and fork pizzas. Plus I had a hard time getting the dough thin enough, it was very sticky probably brought on by a lack of patience on my part in cooking the quinoa last minute and not waiting for it to cool. I did pre-bake the crust for 15 minutes and I found it to be a good idea. I'd recommend that for all the pizzas. The two pizzas we've tried have been very filling.
Two days left and I've been enjoying it. I think once you get past the first couple of days you get in a groove with all the food prep. The dishes are drastically more than usual as the food prep involves lots of use of food processors, blenders and measuring cups/spoons. I did run a trail race on Saturday just for fun and was very curious to see if I felt different performing on this food. I didn't really. I ended up placing 5th overall and 1st in my age category (would have had 4th but went the wrong way on the trail, a story for the fitness page I guess) but since I wasn't really putting in my hardest effort (maybe 85%) and the race being short (under 7km though it was up a mountain) it's hard to tell if the food helped or hindered me. After the race I just ended up eating fruit from the race food table provided and the Vega Sport Recovery Accelerator mixed with water.
Final thoughts on the Thrive Diet in two days, but I can give the spoiler right now that I plan on using a lot of these recipes going forward simply because they taste great.
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