Be honest - how hard is it?

MakePeasNotWar

I recently read ETL and while I was pretty convinced about the efficacy of the plan, both in terms of weight loss and overall health, I am having a hard time imagining following it long term.

For those of you who follow it 100%, how difficult was it to start? Did it get easier? Any tips?

For those who modify - what do you change, and why? How successful have you been at sticking to your modified plan?

I'm already vegetarian, so that isn't a problem, but I find it hard to imagine feeling satisfied without oil, breads, pasta, and the occasional treat.

Mihani

Hi MakePeasNotWar... love that username. I don't know that you will find anyone doing 100% ETL consistently here. I have good runs, but always seem to taper off. I will say that I am probably mostly at 70 to 80%.

I eat a little more in the way of grains than Dr. F recommends. I also have recently started incorporating some oils back into my life, in homemade salad dressings or a tiny bit to saute some veggies for soups, so we're talking a tablespoon of oil in 10 cups of soup there. The main reason for the oil deviation was really dry skin and I am trying it as an experiment to see if my skin improves. I'd also like to start experimenting with using nut butters more to get my healthy fats.

I am vegan so dairy and eggs and meat were all off the table already. Our group was accidentally deleted a couple months ago so we restarted it, but if it hadn't been you would see month after month of new people coming in all gung ho and disappearing after a couple weeks. The people who are still here, we're open minded about things, and striving to eat a primarily plant based diet, but we live in the real world where there is bread and wine and other delicious temptations.

I'm at a total get through the holidays stage right now, but my goal after that is to get back to 100% ETL 6 days a week and give myself some leeway one day a week. I think the reason people find ETL so hard to do is they judge themselves too harshly. Coincidentally, ETL seems to attract the all or nothing mentality, which most of us here freely admit to having. This group keeps me from going too far off the rails though.

So anyway, welcome to the group! Feel free to jump into the monthly threads if you like.

MakePeasNotWar

Thanks! I definitely am going to try some of the recipes (husband is shopping for the squash soup as we speak), and I plan to meaningfully increase my intake of greens and other veggies. I also want to start having more beans. As a lazy vegetarian, I rely far too much on faux meats and protein powder.

I am looking forward to learning from you guys and hopefully can contribute in some way to the discussion

julgwill

I am doing it consistently... well like 99% because I still use organize salad dressings on my salads, and those have oil in them, but I measure them out as part of the 150 discretionary cals he says are okay in the second book. So far, I am on day four and I am doing great! It is hard, and I do crave sugar after I eat meals, and it is hard to break the habit of snacking. If my sugar cravings are really bad, I will eat a few raisins to curb it. But it is so worth it. I am already feeling better and sleeping better at night. and I have lost a pound.

julgwill

organic* haha

Mihani

julgwill, that's awesome 99%! Congrats on your loss and feeling better. Looking forward to hearing about how things are going as you keep on. Welcome to the group!

Sabine_Stroehm

Mihani wrote: »

Hi MakePeasNotWar... love that username. I don't know that you will find anyone doing 100% ETL consistently here. I have good runs, but always seem to taper off. I will say that I am probably mostly at 70 to 80%.

I eat a little more in the way of grains than Dr. F recommends. I also have recently started incorporating some oils back into my life, in homemade salad dressings or a tiny bit to saute some veggies for soups, so we're talking a tablespoon of oil in 10 cups of soup there. The main reason for the oil deviation was really dry skin and I am trying it as an experiment to see if my skin improves. I'd also like to start experimenting with using nut butters more to get my healthy fats.

I am vegan so dairy and eggs and meat were all off the table already. Our group was accidentally deleted a couple months ago so we restarted it, but if it hadn't been you would see month after month of new people coming in all gung ho and disappearing after a couple weeks. The people who are still here, we're open minded about things, and striving to eat a primarily plant based diet, but we live in the real world where there is bread and wine and other delicious temptations.

I'm at a total get through the holidays stage right now, but my goal after that is to get back to 100% ETL 6 days a week and give myself some leeway one day a week. I think the reason people find ETL so hard to do is they judge themselves too harshly. Coincidentally, ETL seems to attract the all or nothing mentality, which most of us here freely admit to having. This group keeps me from going too far off the rails though.

So anyway, welcome to the group! Feel free to jump into the monthly threads if you like.

Great post.

Mihani

Thanks Sabine... that is a very nice compliment from you since I admire your approach to diet and health. I think we see eye to eye on that for the most part, you are just much better at implementation lol.

coueswhitetail

I don't follow ETL strictly, but I have mostly given up dairy and pasta and most bread (used to eat a lot of whole wheat bagels). I have found it very easy to give up pasta, which is really amazing since we used to have it several times a week. Now we love spaghetti squash and actually find that much more filling than regular pasta, so we use that instead and love it. And I recently learned about ricing cauliflower and wow, we love that. You can eat giant quantities of that with stir fried veggies and be very full and everything you ate is super nutritious. And cauliflower is something I never thought was worth eating before, but now we love it as rice or fake mashed potatoes, in soups or dipped in humus. I can't believe how good it is. I riced some cauliflower the other day to add to black bean/chicken soup so that it would be like there was rice in it. loved it!

So I haven't found cutting back or eliminating foods that are high calorie, low nutrient to be very hard. What has surprised me is how much fun I am having creating new recipes with high nutrient, low calorie foods. It's exciting and fun knowing I am improving my health and my husband's!

Beans are something that have helped me a lot with feeling satisfied. We almost never ate beans before and now we eat them all the time. Bean burgers, hummus, bean soup, lentil lettuce wraps, etc.

It did take me awhile to find things that I liked that worked for me. But I think you are way ahead of the game since you are vegetarian already.

My diary is open if you want to check it out. But please DON'T pay attention to what I had for dinner tonight as we went to a party where they were serving almost exclusively smoked meats! YIKES, that was a challenge.....gonna have to do some serious exercise to get those calories from sticking to me and to keep my blood from solidifying from all the saturated fats. Ugh....

Sabine_Stroehm

Mihani wrote: »

Thanks Sabine... that is a very nice compliment from you since I admire your approach to diet and health. I think we see eye to eye on that for the most part, you are just much better at implementation lol.

I may be better at implementing, but if that's true I suspect it's because what I'm trying is easier and I have such a great team (hubs). I think you're good at it too!
I would say I try to eat a lot of vegetables fruits, but I never really became entirely plant based. I don't eat a ton of animal based foods, of course, but definitely some.

cheers

MakePeasNotWar

Thanks for everybody's input and advice. I'm actually finding it much easier than I thought it would be.

lisabinco

I just want to say ETL definitely gets easier the longer you do it. It becomes a habit. I find now, after two years of 90% compliance, that I don't want to "pollute" my body with sugary junk anymore. I also don't want to suffer that "yuck" feeling the next morning after eating crap food. I just feel so much better that I don't want to feel like I used to feel. I also am having a much funner time than anticipated just cooking all sorts of new recipes and creating food that hubby and I can enjoy without remorse. It helps greatly that hubby is on board with eating well and is so good about trying all my recipes. Beans are a mainstay of my eating now, all kinds of beans, as is all sorts of fruits and lots of different veggies. I made a vegetarian shepherd's pie for dinner last night from one of Dr. F's recipes, and it came out very well. It will be lunch today, too. Simply put, this has been the very best lifestyle change I have ever made. I can't imagine going back to my old habits. Ever.