The other day, I shared what I’m calling the lazy person’s guide to
managing carbs. I thought it might be helpful to share a bit more specifics about what I’m eating.

Well, of course, as the previous post states, I’m pretty leery of (and less-than-compliant with) any diet that requires a lot of work. I’m also much more interested this time in the whole issue of how what you eat makes you feel (considering how much my previous diet was really more like “garbage in, garbage out”).

While channel surfing, I found Edward Taub on QVC. I liked the idea of his “wellness prescription,” which is a holistic approach.

Alas, he only touched on this briefly in the hour or so he was hawking vitamins. After googling a bit, I wound up picking up Taub’s Seven Steps to Self-healing from an Amazon re-seller since it is now out-of-print. I strongly recommend this book for anyone dealing with weight issues.

First of all, the book is published by Dorling Kindersley, the wonderful UK publisher who does the fab Eyewitness Guides. The book is beautifully presented (though DK’s need for nice visuals does cause them to put pics of food in places that aren’t particularly contextually relevant).

And actually, I say it’s a book, though what I really bought was the “pack”, which includes some audio tapes that are included as guided meditations and a few other odds and ends.

Here are the steps the book promotes (picture this in a pyramid format):

Seven Steps to Wellness

Step 7: Rediscovering love

Step 6: Reaching forgiveness

Step 5: Building self-esteem

Step 4: De-addiction

Step 3: Meditation

Step 2: Enjoyable exercise

Step 1: Einstein Energy Diet

Each step is thoroughly discussed in the book. This post deals with step 1, the Einstein Energy Diet. The book notes:

Considering your everyday food as energy brings an entirely different perspective to how you eat. Often we confuse emotional longings for food with the body’s signals that it is time to take in energy — fuel for the body to be able to carry out its work. Advertising shapes our food choices and eating patterns. What true hunger feels like passes us by.

Eating live food — food that grows in the soil, that is fresh and close to its natural form — contributes to the efficient energy system that is your body.

Here’s a brief online blurb about the diet, and here it is in a nutshell:

Einstein Energy Diet

Fruit

Vegetables

Pasta – Rice – Potatoes

Whole Grain Beads – Cereals

Nuts – Avocados – Olive Oil

Fish

Poultry

Beef – Pork – Lamb – Veal

Low Fat Dairy Products

Regular Dairy Products

Eggs

Candy – Sweets

In general, the idea is to eat primarily from the top five “rungs” and avoid foods from the five “rungs” below poultry.

I’m a lifelong meat-eater, and I’m currently doing more red meat than usual because of some perimenopausal-related anemia. But I’m seriously thinking of moving more in a vegetarian direction for a variety of moral and spiritual reasons; I find it interesting that Einstein chose vegetarianism late in his life and seemed to have had a pretty metaphysical view of life.

But it’s clearly not a strong requirement here. There is language about keeping fish and poultry to 2-3x a week, but there are certainly recipes that include chicken and fish.

Another of my fave sources for what to eat is Andrew Weil. His website is really pushing the commerce these days, but I find his books (like 8 Weeks to Optimum Health) pretty useful.