Since the end of April, Marty and I have been eating clean. What is eating clean, you may ask? Eating clean is following these basic principles. It’s been easy to adapt to, especially since it’s almost summer. I started feeling better immediately.
- Eat breakfast every day within an hour of getting up.
- Eat lean protein and complex carbohydrates at every meal.
- Have two or three servings of healthy fats every day.
- Get fiber, vitamins, nutrients, and enzymes from fresh fruits and vegetables.
- Control your portions.
- Drink 2 to 3 liters of water (about 13 8-ounce cups) daily.
The foods to avoid:
- Overprocessed foods, especially white flour and sugar
- Artificial sweeteners
- Sugary beverages, such as soda and juice
- Alcohol
- Foods with chemical additives like food dyes and sodium nitrite
- Foods with preservatives
- Artificial foods, such as processed cheese slices
- Saturated fats and trans fats
- Anti-foods — foods with no nutritional value, such as Cool Whip.
Eating clean isn’t a diet; it’s a lifestyle choice. Since I stopped drinking alcohol and eating clean, I have lost 16 lbs and have no symptoms of lung disease. For me, clean eating equals feeling healthy and active without restrictions due to lung disease!
I realized we weren’t eating enough fruits and veggies because of laziness. Yup, it’s true. I would prep food for meals for hours, but I didn’t want to cut up fruit and veggies to eat uncooked. Ugh.
After speaking with my pulmonologist a month ago, I learned that to stay feeling this good, I needed to continue losing weight to fall into my BMI (Body Mass Index) range of 117 lbs—129 lbs.
Right now, I am at 130 lbs and motivated as hell. My weight before I had pneumonia was 158 lbs. No wonder why I felt like shit and didn’t feel comfortable in that body. I was miserable at that weight.
My first real love of summertime fruit has been cherries. How could I not love cherries? George Washington loved them!
“The cherry tree myth is one of the oldest and best-known legends about George Washington. In the original story, when Washington was six years old, he received a hatchet as a gift and damaged his father’s cherry tree with it. When his father discovered what George had done, he became angry. Young George bravely said, “I cannot tell a lie…I did cut it with my hatchet.” Washington’s father embraced him and declared that his son’s honesty was worth more than a thousand trees.” The Washington Library.
I love American history, especially the Revolutionary War era. Archeologists found 35 bottles of preserved cherries on Mount Vernon’s property. I guess Washington did love cherries!
I bought a small bag at Aldi for $7.99 and gulped at that price, but I bought them anyway. I washed and removed the stones as soon as I got home. I knew if I didn’t do it right away, they would sit until they rotted in the bag.
Boy, was I surprised by how easy it went and how incredibly delicious they were! I used a large round cake piping tip, a trick I was on a cooking show years ago.
I ate vanilla Greek yogurt with cherries while I was still removing the pits; sometimes, I used the same ingredients and made a parfait topped with granola.
We ate them by the handful, and I made a beautiful salad with them: fresh peaches, lettuce, arugula from my garden, burrata cheese, and a simple vinaigrette. Holy shit, was this good!
The good news after we ran out, Marty picked up a pint at the Troy Farmers Market on Saturday! Yum! I will be searching for more ideas for cherries. I can’t tell you that I am kicking myself for being such a lazy ass for so long.
But…it’s better late than never. 🍒