Joe Cross states in his book Fully Charged (and this is what I am currently reading, therefore the references to it) that our success has to do with two integral relationships - the one we have with ourselves and the one we have with plants.
At first I was like ... ok. I get the one with ourselves - negative self talk can really bring you down and also when the rubber meets the road it's so easy to neglect that relationship in favor of 'who cares anyway?' and instantly just let it all go because we don't care, no one cares, so why even bother?!
The second relationship was like, ok. Plants. My relationship with plants. It sounds absurd but think about it ... What is our relationship with plants? What is our children's relationship with plants, learned from us? Did anyone watch Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution where most American children thought mac and cheese was a vegetable? In fact even adults did! They viewed it as being wheat pasta, wheat is a plant, so ... ok it's got to be a vegetable dressed up in cheese!
I think Joe hits on a key point here. And I am by no means advocating for becoming vegetarian or vegan, no, this doesn't mean that. Having a healthy relationship with plants means choosing plants over other things that we typically tend to go for. Think about it - fries instead of a salad? A bun instead of a serving of vegetables? What does our typical dinner plate look like when we are not on dietbet?
This also ties in well with the 'lower starch' that I spoke about a short while ago. Plants are plants. Potatoes are roots. Carrots are roots. These are examples of starches. Lower starch means less roots and more plants. Plant based means basing your meal plan on eating actual plants with room for starch and room for lean protein. Whereas there is room on your plate for starch and room for protein, the meals aren't starch or protein based. This is what Joe is getting to the heart of. Our relationship with plants and the choices we make based on this relationship.
Think about how much more success you would have if every plate consisted of 50% plants, 25% starch and 25% lean protein? That would mean out of 3 meals a day, you are eating half of your food intake from plants. The other 1/4 is starch and the other 1/4 is lean protein. Of 1200 calories, that means roughly 300 calories of starch. That comes to maybe 2 small sweet potatoes? Or 1/2 cup cereal and 1 slice ezekial bread? This is lower starch! This is what my trainer talks about ... This is the equivalent of 2 starches on the 21 day fix plan ... In the end this is not bs. It's information touted in many different formats that really comes down to the same thing.
We should be eating more plants!
I spoke to my husband about this. This was the discussion ... We go to Wolfgang Puck and order Pizza. Why? Because white flour, or flour in general which is really ultimately bread, is addictive. That is what we are after. He argues that we could order a salad, but why do we choose not to? Because of our current relationship with plants. We basically had an excavation session on this and the outcome was sad but true, that yes we struggle with the habits formed of being addicted to flour and sugar (refined starches) and that we do not have the best relationship with plants.
On the upside I am currently loving my Produce Box deliveries so much that I'm really getting excited about the possibilities of the growing season exploding. I had a discussion with my kids and we all want to eat better, not just better now or for a little while, but better consistently. We want to cook more, enjoy the growing season more, enjoy the bounty of nature more. Now that the weather is changing my commitment is to actively explore this in more detail as I continue to move forward.
In Joe's own words, any relationship takes work and commitment. And you can let it slide for a little bit, put it on the back burner for a time but eventually put on the back burner for too long to 'get to it later', will cause it to fizz and burn out.