The Most Important Food Lesson I’ve Learned in a Decade of No Meat Athlete
When I first started on this journey, nearly ten years ago (!), it was the advice in Michael Pollan’s classic In Defense of Food that really called out to me, and still does today:
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
In time, that became synonymous with the simpler advice to “just eat whole plants.” On a whole-food, plant-based diet, the “not too much” part becomes almost redundant.
As advice goes, it’s hard to improve on that.
But last night, as I was chopping some broccoli to make dinner for myself and my kids (my wife, Erin, is away visiting family), I was reminded once again of another distinction I’ve learned along the way, a crucial one that made it all click.
While “eat whole plants” is the what to eat, what I had to discover for myself was the how.
It’s what removes almost every last bit of stress from the process of eating and planning meals, and, for me, makes Pollan’s advice sustainable.
Last night, broccoli was a main course, and it was simple. It was what we had in the fridge, so I just steamed until just slightly crunchy, and served with a little whole-wheat pasta (no sauce) and some chickpeas on the side.
Until writing this blog post, it didn’t occur to me that what I served and ate was a grain, a green, and a bean, my favorite formula for a quick, healthy meal.
Actually, it barely occurred to me to call this a “meal.”
What did occur to me was that those were foods we had on hand — and that this “meal” was something I could throw together fast, fast enough to get a fantasy football lineup in before the Sunday night game started.
I still feel a tinge of guilt about meals like this (not the gambling, though!). More so when I serve them to the kids. It’s not that they don’t taste good — honestly, my kids much prefer simple flavors and textures like these to complex meals with rich sauces and lots of spice. (And if you’re a parent, I don’t need to tell you that less stress at meal time = win. Trust me, food being interesting for me is the least of my concerns.)
So why the guilt?
It’s that I still forget what I discovered back in 2013, driving across the country on my DIY book tour for No Meat Athlete.
And that is this: (more…)
