Update

Some of you may remember that I posted in July about the fact that Jason was starting a new diet at the request of his doctors: a limit of 25 grams of fat a day, and no alcohol.  Thank you to the many many people who have asked me since that time how it's going, how he's doing, and who have given recommendations.

The short end of the story: We're doing great. 

It's amazing how you just adjust your life to roll with things like this.  I was kind of laughing to myself the other day as I bought light coconut milk, non-fat milk, and tofu ice cream sandwiches -- all things I never thought I would bring into this household.  We are not complete non-fat freaks now, by any sense of the imagination.  We have managed to hold to the things that are important to us and not buy anything too overly processed or fake.  We are still mainly eating whole, non-processed foods.  He has cut out cheese, and any red meat he eats is a bite from my plate.

We spent the first 6 weeks or so counting everything, adding up fat grams, and weighing ingredients.  We both kept our diets in a software program and were able to really evaluate what we could cut out and what we were missing.  Through this, we were abe to make some serious adjustments -- the biggest being paying attention to getting enough protein -- it's easy to eat low-fat, but eating low-fat and getting enough protein can involve a little more thought.

Our default cuisine these days is Japanese.  It's mainly what we eat when out, and I have been cooking it quite a bit while at home.  There is a book that I have mentioned before that I just love, and I have grown to appreciate it even more with this diet:  3 Bowls: Vegetarian Recipes from an American Zen Buddhist Monastery.

Between the eat-local month and this diet, we really haven't eaten out since July as much as we used to, but we are starting to a bit more.  We have to choose kind of carefully, but he is pretty much able to find dishes wherever we go.  It is always nice when he gets to have something and make a decision to add fat (ie., a sauce on the side) instead of having to scrape fat off or pick things off of a dish.  We had a great meal the other day at Hayes Street Grill -- naked fish, and a great salad.  He added olive oil to the fish as needed.

One side effect of this diet is that I have been able to have very nice meals by myself.  I know this sounds weird, but when Jason is working late, or I am having a meal alone, I am able to ask myself what I am really craving, and have that.  Instead of my meals alone being an afterthought, they have become nice retreats every once in a while -- a personal celebration of food.  It's not as though I enjoy my times alone more than our times together, but this diet has managed to make those times a little more special than they were prior to the diet.  If that makes any sense at all.

So when we're together, we have dishes like the one featured at the top of this post:  Soba noodles with mushroom dashi, seared ahi tuna, and a cabbage walnut slaw.  When we're not, I have dishes like the one featured at the right: Spaghetti with pancetta and parmesan cheese.  Both terrific and wholly satisfying.  Both celebrations of food, but in different ways.

I am sure that this process wouldn't be as easy with a different partner.  Jason is super easy going.  He's happy to go to a bar and have an orange juice while I have a martini.  He doesn't balk at ordering something fat-free while I have a Caesar salad.  And it doesn't really even bother him on the rare instances when I make a piece of meat for myself while giving him tofu.  I have found that one of the only things that drives him crazy is the smell of lamb cooking.  He was saying the other day that the things he really craves are lamb and avocados.

Healthwise, this change is working.  The doctors are very happy to see that his triglycerides have dropped -- and I mean really dropped.  We are both enough of A-type personalities that the nutritionist is using his reports to encourage other patients. 

Here's my list of things that have been our saviors since this diet:

1.  Steel cut oatmeal.  A low-fat way to start the day and know that he is getting enough nutrition in his breakfast.

2.  Medicine Eatstation.  It opened right next to J's work.  We both love it, and it is a nice place to go and not have to worry about wading through a menu full of fat.

3.  Soba noodles.  A good way to eat a noodle-type product that still has some protein.

4.  My Le Creuset 9 1/2 inch grill.  It's great for making meats and tofu and veggies without any added fat.

5.  Roasted turkey from the Whole Foods Deli counter.  It tastes so much better than the processed meat products, and I am able to make a quick meal with it.

6.  Rotisserie chickens.  Great for at least two meals, and he is able to eat the white meat while I can nosh on the legs and wings.  A lot of the time, we will eat the chicken as sandwiches for one meal and as chicken tacos for the next.

7.  Calorie King.  This is the software program we used, and that I still refer to.  I have tested a few different programs, and this program has a database that fits our wide culinary lifestyle.

8.  A digital scale.  It really helped us, especially in the beginning, to be able to weigh out ingredients.

9.  Out the Door, Slanted Door's take-out & their veggie spring rolls.  A great snack or main part of a meal.  Quick, and reasonably priced relative to the Ferry Building's prices (a meal-sized spring roll for $6 I believe).

10.  Maki restaurant in Japantown.  We go here several times a month, and it has a lot of things that Jason can eat.  We both love the wappas, and he usually gets the chirashi.  If you call ahead, you can get a great takeout meal that they pay loving attention to wrapping up and making presentable.

11.  Our Zojirushi rice cooker.  It's one of the higher end ones, and was a bit of a splurge, but we couldn't get along without it.  The best part about it is that it has a timer, and that it has a porridge setting for oatmeal.  This means that we can have oatmeal ready for us when we wake up, and can have brown rice cooked up even though we've been out all day.

Comments

[Brett]

The great thing about your list of saviors is that many of them are excellent even if fat intake isn't your primary concern. For example, I too love using my Zojirushi to make steel cut oats and I adore Out the Door and Maki. Thanks for demonstrating that reducing fat intake can still be tasty and not all gloom and doom.

[shuna]

I love the long detailed post. But it's not fatty and rich, just depply and soulfully satisfying. Gorgeous.

maybe oneday you'd be inclined to share with your readers step-by-step how you use your rice cooker to have steel cut oats ready in the morning...?

And I adore the beautiful photo of you!

[Beth]

Congratulations on taking control of your health - together! I also did a post about dieting today, ironically. How do you prepare your steel-cut oatmeal? I've always heard such good things about it and I have some in pantry, but I've never found the ideal way to prepare it. Do you add any goodies to it?

[Fatemeh]

Jen, this is a great update, thanks. It's really wonderful to hear how well you guys are doing with this, and how you're valuing food now.

[Janis]

Jen, thanks for the update - and all the great ideas. It's great to see that special dietary requirements needn't limit you to anything less than great food that is also good for you.

I have a similar model rice cooker/steamer/slow cooker - and love to have the rice already cooked and ready to go when I get home from work - all I need to do is to quick-cook some veggies. It also makes a fantastic cherry and almond rice pudding (you can use no-fat milk).

[Jennifer]

Jen,

As I wrote about recently on my blog--we cook rice six days out of seven--I have to check out his rice cooker--sounds great. Glad to hear things are going well--you continue to inspire us all.

[Jamie]

Aren't those software programs the best? I use fitday.com and love it.

If I couldn't eat much fat, I think lamb is what I'd miss most, too. But maybe occasional bison burgers would help make up for it. :-)

[jen]

Brett and Fatemeh - Thanks so much for your words!

Shuna and Beth - I am going to have to talk about the steel cut oats in a separate post. They're great.

Janis - cherry and almond rice pudding? how do I do that?

Jennifer - I read that post. It's odd what those men fixate on, eh?

Jamie - I haven't tried fitday, but have heard good things about it. After reading this post, my vegetarian aunt told me that lamb made her fall off the wagon after being veg for 10 years! (She subsequently became born-again vegetarian and has been for about 20 years.)

[sam]

Jen, jen, jen. I think you should host an event: "ways to spruce up your porridge". I would love to see the food blogging community's take on how to make breakfast a little more exciting.

Kudos to jason - he sounds like a truly incredible person to cope with this so well. I hope I have the honour of meeting him one day.

My rice cooker is the same make as yours but without the fancy settings. Do you think if i just put the oats in on rice setting it might work? Maybe I'll try it. Do you cook up a lrge batch and reheat or make it fresh every day?

ok - too many questions - so I'll just finish by saying thank you for the inspiring post.

[Janis]

Jen, here's how on the rice pudding.