Exotic Vegetables and Star Fruit Month on February, 2025: What is the best way to decrease my appetite?

February, 2025 is Exotic Vegetables and Star Fruit Month 2025. Fruit Each Month Clubs - Free shipping. Choice of 5 clubs‎ Customize our Monthly Fruit Clubs.

Robin,

Good for you for quitting smoking! Regardless of your weight, you are now reversing the damage done to your body. The longer you avoid cigarettes, the more repair. My mother chewed on a special indestructible stick when she got cravings to smoke, but your concern is cravings for food.

If you are serious about the weight coming off, read on, and you will easily lose the 20 pounds, even more. Use any or all of these tips that I am sharing with you.

1. You make the decisions. You are in control of your mind and body. If food finds its way into your mouth, spit it out.

2. Remove ALL unhealthy or "interfering" foods from your home and workplace: Pastries; potato chips, pretzels, and other salty snacks; soda pop; diet soda pop (the carbonation distends the intestines, allowing more calories to be absorbed); ketchup; ALL processed foods - from spray cheese & spaghetti sauces to fish sticks and burritos; ALL bread products (except Ezekiel or sprouted bread from health food stores - glutens in regular bread and flour products make the blood sluggish and interfere with certain essential absorptions, etc.); anything labeled “diet” or “low-carbs;” margarine; lettuce and other useless pale-green salad leaves; ALL alcoholic liquor; ALL pastas and noodles and packaged meals; any sugar, unless you bake for others -- there are good sweetener alternatives (see below); ALL or MOST dairy products (butter and yogurt are OK); heavy meats (pork, beef, game & lamb); all unnatural or refined supplements, such as artificial sweeteners & vitamins -- you'll get all you need from proper foods. Rule of thumb: If you plant the food in the ground and it grows, eat it; if it turns to mold or rot, don’t eat it. (Markus Rothkranz has an intense motivational video to view free at his own website. He’s a friend whose site gets a million hits a month!)

3. Stock your home with any or all of these great foods (preferably organic, which may cost a little more, but is worth it in the long run!):

Lots of fresh & frozen fruits and vegetables.

Fresh or frozen fish, seafood, & skinless chicken breasts.

Raw (not roasted) nuts & seeds: walnuts, goji berries, etc.

Fresh herbs: basil (lots!), parsley, cilantro, mint, etc.

Spices. Discover some exotic ones on your own.

Fresh coconuts, preferably young ones from Thailand. (You can find online guides for cracking and piercing these tough buggers.)

Rice is OK (in moderation).

Corn is OK (in moderation).

SWEETENERS: Dates, raw honey, maple syrup, raw agave nectar, stevia.

Dark, leafy greens (kale, spinach, etc.). THESE ARE VERY GOOD FOR YOU & HIGH IN IRON & CALCIUM FOR WOMEN ESPECIALLY.

Red apple cider vinegar (Bragg's).

Olive oil.

Pam or other vegetable spray.

Wheatgrass (if you have an auger-type juicer).

Red chili sauce (Asian or Mexican) if you can handle it.

Unroasted nori (the seaweed used for sushi). You can also get the "confetti" kind to sprinkle on salads and soups.

Low-sodium, aged soy sauce.

Brewer's yeast.

Coconut oil (fattening but highly nutritious in moderation).

Low-sodium, plain canned tomatoes and sauce.

Water-packed tuna fish (I find Star-Kist to taste best).

Low-fat (50%) mayonnaise.

4. When the urge to eat overwhelms you, drink some water. (Never gulp down anything.) Move away from the kitchen! Move away from the vending machine. Then go outside and take a walk. Look at the beautiful world that you are a part of. Focus on your breathing. Do you have a staircase? Climb it up & down until you know you don't need the food.

5. Learn to prepare easy, healthy salads, soups & dishes. Chop, grate, slice, or food-process vegetables, the more variety the better. Add chopped apples or oranges, nuts, herbs, or Brewer’s yeast (nutty flavor) to vegetable salads. When using raw kale in salads, marinate the salad for at least one hour in the Fridge. This sweetens and softens the kale, one of the best (and cheapest) foods out there!

6. Have a big plastic container with a lid to collect the scraps from chopping vegetables: carrot tops and optional peelings (I eat the peel), onion skins, beet greens, celery ends (discard the very bottom in the trash or compost it), parsley stems, etc. Keep this in the Fridge to make stocks with cold water, bay leaf, peppercorns & herbs. Boil the stock and simmer at least one hour. Cool and refrigerate. You will always have stock ready for soups and sauces (by boiling down the stock). Freeze in smaller containers or make stock ice cubes and put them in freezer bags. Refrigerated stock should be re-boiled every three days. Robin, this one step encourages you to collect vegetables to eat and creates a wonderful cycle of essential nutrients and proper hydration.

7. Wash all non-organic produce in a clean sink filled with cold water & a capful of household bleach. Let sit for 2 minutes, rinse and drain in the other sink (if you have it). Or wash produce with a mild dish-soap and water solution and rinse well. I do this every time we come back from the market when we cannot afford organic. It can take half and hour or more to do this once a week, but it is a good ritual, and for some reason, I better appreciate what I put into my body.

8. Eat off of smaller plates and bowls. When you want to snack in front of the TV, have a small bowl of nuts, seeds, sliced vegetables or cranberries (which you can buy in bulk now and freeze). Eat as much raw produce as possible, which means lots of chopping and slicing and grating. Here is an easy vinaigrette dressing: equal parts apple cider vinegar, olive oil & soy sauce. Here’s another: equal parts fresh orange juice, olive oil & soy sauce. Add fresh or dried herbs (pinch dry ones first to release their oils), cracked pepper, mustard or a little honey or maple syrup for variety. Many such salads will stay delicious in the Fridge for days.

9. VERY IMPORTANT! Get yourself a juicer. Centrifugal ones are cheapest; auger ones the most expensive, which extract the most enzymes & juice. Get what you can afford. Every morning, after your coffee or tea or whatever, wait a while, then make a juice or skip the coffee altogether. You want to lose weight, so you’ll want the ratio to be more vegetables than fruits. It can take more than you’d expect to make juices, so buy your produce in bulk (you’ll have more room in the Fridge now anyway). I always buy 5-lb. bags of carrots, for I use them constantly in juices. You will soon be happy to know that you look forward very much to this daily ritual! You can certainly make as many juices a day as you desire. ALWAYS soak and wash & rinse very well the juicer components in hot, soapy water and let air dry to avoid accumulation of harmful bacteria.

You can also whip up drinks in your blender and mix them with juicer juices: use peeled fruits (buy pineapples!), frozen fruits, dates, nuts and seeds, freshly ground flax seeds, water from coconuts, etc. Thin the drink with cold water if necessary. It’s best to not keep fresh juices (refrigerated) for longer than a few hours – the nutrients and enzymes dissipate or oxidize). Again: wash and rinse the blender container well and air dry.

10. Exercise time! I didn’t drink coffee before, except the occasional lovely latte from a Mom-and-Pop style café, but now I have a watered-down cup some mornings to give me pep and motivation to exercise. You MUST exercise in addition to the above food tips to lose weight in a good way. Always find ways to increase your metabolism: staircases are excellent because you are always fighting gravity 50% of the time; hearty walks; 25 jumping jacks in front of the bathroom mirror after you use the bathroom; get a Denise Austin exercise video from a library or order one – she has great routines and she can be very funny!; lift hand weights (5-10 lbs) either alone or with some exercises – be sure to bend your knees to avoid stress on your back (lifting weights also controls diabetes in older people). Build up over time until you can go jogging or running or increase your jumping jacks and other aerobic exercises. Always exercise before you eat, not the other way around.

Well, Robin, I’m off to make a lovely, nutritious dinner. I wish you the very best!

Frederic Kahler

Orthorexia- i think i might have it...?

I don't think you have full blown orthorexia, which is considered a mental disorder in its most severe form. It sounds like you are just very very cautious about what you eat, which is a good thing in this day and age.

If you had orthorexia, you would rather starve than eat a bacon and swiss sandwich on white bread, if that was the only food available. As long as you wouldn't choose starvation over a slightly unhealthy meal, I think you're fine,