The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet (20 page)

SUPERHERO MEALS

You’ll notice that Superhero meals differ from Vegan meals in a couple of interesting ways: first, soup shows up once or twice a day (even at breakfast) and homemade pickles make an appearance every day as well. Here’s a detailed breakdown of your Superhero meals.

The Traditional Superhero Breakfast

Miso soup:
It makes a wonderful start to the day. Helps to gently break the fast of sleeping and prepares your intestines for the rest of the day. Don’t knock it ‘til you try it!

Grain:
Usually leftovers from the night before, see my Breakfast recipes beginning on page
282
.

Leafy greens:
The chlorophyll and nutrients of leafy greens give good energy while helping your body move gently into the day.

Other:
Add a little something to provide variety and flavor—maybe a tablespoon of rice syrup, a handful of toasted sunflower seeds, some almonds, or a little jam.

Building a Superhero Lunch or Dinner

The following are the basic elements of Superhero meals, but they don’t always show up in neat boxes. Just consider this list a guideline for balanced eating. Sometimes you’ll need to assemble several components—a vegetable dish, a grain, and a separate protein—to cover your bases, while other recipes will contain two or even three of the key elements in one fell swoop.

• Grain:
  Start with a grain or grain product. Superheroes eat whole grains in their unrefined forms more often than they do products made from whole grains. Have bread up to twice a week and noodles up to three times a week.
  
• Bean:
  Add a bean or bean product. And make sure to eat a good variety of beans. It’s best to limit tofu and/or tempeh to a couple of servings a week; seitan to one serving a week. Recipes beginning on page
  239
  .
  
• Vegetables:
  Add lots of vegetables. Make sure that you get a good variety of vegetables. Include a sea vegetable dish a couple of times a week.
  
• Soup:
  Have miso soup and some other kind of soup (vegetable, bean, grain, or pureed vegetable) as often as you like. If you have soup twice a day, that’s great! Soup is an essential element of the diet because it relaxes the intestines, preparing them for good digestion.
  
• Pickle:
  Eat about a tablespoon of pickle (homemade if possible and soaked if salty) every day to help strengthen digestion.
  
• Desserts:
  Choose one of the Superhero desserts beginning on page
  277
  .
  

Again, it’s not necessary to get neurotic about it, but if you compose a meal that is one- quarter grain, one-quarter protein, and one-half vegetables, it will feel really balanced and all your nutritional requirements will be met beautifully.

MAKING THE TRANSITION

Here are a few strategies for dealing with some of the challenges you may encounter in your transition to Superhero:

Eat your evening meal early:
Try to avoid eating for at least 3 hours before bed. If you’re full, you spend your night digesting, which is not restful. On an empty stomach, the rest of your body can do its rejuvenation and repair.

Ramp up your chewing skills:
Really good chewing can double the benefits of the Superhero diet by breaking down the foods and making all their nutrients available. The goal is not to swallow as you chew. It may seem weird at first, but closing the back of your mouth lets you use it as the digestive anteroom that it is. Keep adding saliva, which contains an enzyme, ptylin, that breaks carbs into glucose. Hardcore chewers go for 50 to 100 chews per mouthful. When it’s all liquid, go ahead and swallow. You’ll get better—it’s a habit. Do your best. Personally, I’m a lightweight chewer, but I’m trying.

Check in with others online:
You may not be the only Superhero in your neighborhood, so reach out to others who understand your journey. Go to
www.thekindlife.com
and find some online friends to share your story with and get support.

Superhero: Christina Pirello

At 26 years old, Christina was diagnosed with terminal leukemia and told she had a mere 9 months to live. Around the same time, she started dating Robert Pirello (“He had great legs!”), and lucky for her, Robert had been practicing the macrobiotic diet for 10 years and encouraged her to try it. Not only did the diet turn around her health, it cemented their relationship, and now Robert and Christina, married for 25 years, work together producing her Emmy award-winning television show
Christina Cooks
, as well as her amazing cookbooks.

Detox and cravings:
The Superhero diet can be intense. When you start eating such natural, whole food, your body will begin to change quickly. If, for any reason, you feel you need to ease off the diet a little bit to slow down the ride, that’s fine—just don’t regress all the way back to square one. Make a sexy recipe from the Vegan section. When you feel leveled off again, go back to your Superhero ways. That way you are just stretching the boundaries of Superhero as opposed to throwing in the towel. It’s important to give yourself the flexibility to play between the two plans rather than impose rigid rules and unconsciously set yourself up to binge on the bad stuff.

In the first few weeks or even months, expect to experience some degree of detoxing. Your body may clean itself quickly and with some vigor, so consider detox a great adventure. By giving up most of the vegan processed foods, excess fruit, and white sugar—and by centering your diet on whole grains—your body may experience all the effects listed under vegan detox, but with greater intensity. Your menstrual cycle may go a little wonky for a few months as well. But soon you will also experience all of the benefits—giddy moods, smooth elimination, regular periods, the disappearance of old aches and pains, and much more.

Detoxing happens on an emotional level, too, so if you find that you’re angry or sad, get whatever support you need. When I first followed a squeaky clean Superhero diet, I felt grumpy for a week. That’s not unusual. Be sure to take care of yourself as you detoxify.

Variety is especially important on the Superhero diet because a life of only brown rice and broccoli is too limiting and intense, not to mention no fun. So make sure you’re eating a wide variety of foods, using many cooking styles, and if your body is reacting in ways that concern you, please seek the advice of a macrobiotic counselor. It’s actually fun to have a coach who can answer a million questions and who will empower you to continue your practice. After the initial detox, you will feel better than you have in years. Or maybe ever!

You may also find yourself experiencing intense cravings at the beginning of your Superhero journey. It’s not unusual, when people change their diets radically, to experience cravings. They generally fall into one of the following categories:

Good-bye cravings:
As the body discharges certain foods, we can feel a pull toward them. For instance, it’s not unusual for people to crave sugar as they kick it. Same with meat and dairy. All of the nasty foods have addictive elements that can make you want them as you withdraw, but after they’ve really gone bye-bye from your body, you won’t miss them at all. It takes from 3 to 10 days for sugar to release its grip on the body, but it can take a few months for dairy and meat to let go. It actually takes years for the body to release all the excess fats and toxins it’s collected from nasty foods, but strong cravings should disappear much sooner than that.

Low blood sugar cravings:
If your brain seems to flash “EAT!!” all the time, you may be experiencing low blood sugar. When making the transition to a plant-based diet, many people have a hard time absorbing complex carbohydrates and getting what they need from them in order to feel satisfied. Symptoms may also include feeling weak or shaky. Eating regularly and chewing well are the answer. By really breaking down grains and vegetables in your mouth, they convert to glucose right there in your kisser. They are then easily absorbed into the bloodstream and transported to the brain. Glucose in your brain stops the “EAT!!” sign from flashing. So if you find that you’re just craving food all the time, begin to chew more carefully and you should notice a change. Your absorption will improve over time.

Naughtiness cravings:
Sometimes we just feel rebellious, especially when we’re changing something as fundamental as our diet. We bristle against rules and the perfect little boxes we try to shove ourselves into. If you come up against the urge to call it quits—simply out of rebellion—get the most delicious vegan dessert you can find (I recommend the Rice Dream Mint Chocolate Frozen Pie) or make Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups on page
183
and really savor them. Oooh . . . you’re so bad!

It takes a little while to get used to a new way of eating, but it will happen, I promise. When you find you’re craving something that’s not on your food plan:

• Eat:
  It’s helpful to simply eat anything healthy—the yummier, the better. You may be having cravings simply because you’re hungry. As hunger is relieved, cravings tend to be, too. And remember: Chew well. That will help to raise your blood sugar.
  
• Make a substitute:
  If you find you’re not satisfied, make something close to what you’re looking for . . . a piece of toast with soy margarine, brown rice syrup, and cinnamon makes yummy cinnamon toast! Malt-sweetened nondairy chocolate and nondairy ice creams are godsends, too!
  
• Remember your commitment:
  Maybe your commitment is to your health or to the planet. Remind yourself regularly of why you’re following this new way of life. If I’m tempted by cheese or ice cream, all I need to do is think of the poor cow whose miserable life is behind it all. That kills the craving pretty quickly.
  
• Do something satisfying:
  Sometimes we think about food because we’re bored or just stuck in a habit. As you make these big changes in your eating, it’s helpful to have a few activities up your sleeve to give you satisfaction: calling a friend, walking your dog, taking a bath, or reading more about this lifestyle can help occupy a wandering mind.
  

For More

• If you or a loved one is challenged by serious illness, I strongly recommend you read Mina Dobic’s book called
  My Beautiful Life
  and see a macrobiotic counselor. You can use the macrobiotic approach in conjunction with conventional therapies.
  
• For cooking classes, delivery services, and anything else you could possibly want to know, go to
  www.thekindlife.com
  .
  

Leave your drugs in the chemist’s pot if you can heal the patient with food.

—Hippocrates

Reminders for Superheroes:

• Commit to centering your diet on whole grains, vegetables, and clean proteins.
  
• Chew them really well.
  
• Make friends with sea vegetables and other magic foods.
  
• Stay clear of processed foods.
  
• Listen to your body.
  
• Save the world.
  

SUPERHERO MEAL PLAN

DAY 1

Breakfast

Millet and Sweet Vegetable Porridge (good for 2 days) (page
288
)

Steamed kale with Ume-Sesame Dressing (page
259
)

Lunch

Fried Udon Noodles (page
229
)

Dinner

Quinoa with Basil and Pine Nuts (page
224
)

Hijiki-Tofu Croquettes (page
244
)

Scarlet Roasted Vegetables (page
267
)

Steamed greens

Plum Soup (page
280
)

DAY 2

Breakfast

Leftover Millet and Sweet Vegetable Porridge with toasted sunflower seeds (page
215
)

Steamed collard greens with Ume Vinaigrette (page
265
)

Lunch

Leftover Quinoa with Basil and Pine Nuts

Cabbage, Radish, and Cucumber Pressed Salad (page
256
)

Leftover Scarlet Roasted Vegetables

Leftover Hijiki-Tofu Croquettes

Leftover Plum Soup

Dinner

At your favorite sushi restaurant: vegetable roll, vegetable tempura, sushi roll, house salad with dressing

DAY 3

Breakfast

Miso soup

Hot Polenta, Millet, and Corn Cereal (page
289
)

Steamed watercress with Ume-Sesame Dressing (page
259
)

Lunch

Go to a local vegetarian restaurant. Go crazy!