Aloha.
Here's the story. My boyfriend and I made a joint resolution for 2008. (With the hopes that we'd keep each other in line and actually complete it.) Our overall goal is to 'get fit' in body and mind. On top of that, we each had sort of a personal subgoal. His is to build up to a previous strength level. Mine is to lose 60 to 100 lbs in however long it takes.

Our original plan for the 'body fit plan' was to just cut out a few things from our overall diet, exercise MUCH more, and I was going to try out one of the fad diets to see what it would do. I changed my mind about that last part after I actually started reading up on those things. Thankfully, whilst browsing through 3FC, I stumbled onto the wholefoods bit and read, and read, and read. After a quick chat with my boything, we decided that trying out the wholefoods or macrobiotic diet sounded nifty. If we noticed a big difference in how we felt, we'd try keeping it up for life.

Now here's my question: Where the heck do I start? I have so many amazon windows open to cookbooks and beginners guides about Wholefoods and Macrobiotics that I'm going crazy. I've ended up just confusing myself more than I need to.

Since this 3FC gave me the inspiration in the first place, I thought it'd be a good place to turn. What books did everyone else find helpful? I have an idea of what kind I'd like to find, I just wouldn't know when I'd found it. It'd be lovely if there were something along the lines of a 'why go this way' sort of book. Something that described things in sort of an intelligent way. chemical compounds, nutrition facts, reactions of this on the body, etc. Also! Cookbooks! I'd love to find cookbooks with lots of variety in the dishes. Although, having asked for variety, I guess I'd prefer things that were more alternatives to contemporary dishes than new dishes altogether. (Example: I'd rather make a sandwich with x, y and z, as opposed to a, b, and c than have the cookbook suggest I make a ridiculous dish with hard to find ingredients in it as a lunchtime meal.) But then again, at this point, I'm not too picky. Any suggestion is a good suggestion from where I'm standing. (And that's in a sea of amazon windows, slowly drowning from USERS WHO BOUGHT --- ALSO BOUGHT ---.)

So lend me your comments, suggestions, advice, etc. Anything helps.
What books did you like/dislike? Why? Any websites/cookbooks/plain old single recipes that you find yourself eating quite often?

Thanks!
<3 Vrai

Welcome Vrai. Good for you for making the choice to be healthier this year. Just think of all you can accomplish in the next 365 days!

I may be the anomoly here but I never bought a cookbook or a "diet" book on whole food eating. There is so much available online and I've been able to adapt a lot of recipes to a more whole foods way of eating. The Sonoma and Medieterranean are a bit higher up in the forum has lots of whole foods recipes to use. I personally went this route for my health. After I dropped 80+ pounds, my choles. had dropped 50 points and my glucose whcih was normal before has dropped to optimal so the proof is in the blood tests for me!

Eating the whole foods way is fabulous for health, but even too much of a good thing can make us fat! If weight loss is one of your goals you'll want to also look into a portion control mechanism. For some people, that is doing weight watchers and counting points, for others it is calorie counting, other might want to try the sonoma plate division method. All of these methods can go hand in hand with whole foods way of eating. You have to pick what is right for you. me I calorie count and eat whole foods way. A great a free way to track calories online is something called fitday www.fitday.com. I personally purchased calorie counting software called dietpower that resides on my computer so I don't have to be online to use it. Some people use the old pen and paper method. You just need to find what works for you best.

Don't forget exercise. If you havent worked out in a while, you'll want to start with shorter workouts probably, but again you need to go by how you feel. I started out with 15 minutes of very easy walking in place and now am doing tough 70-90 minute step aerobics sessions. You will improve if you keep at it. Consitency is key.

I get most of my recipes from allrecipies.com and just adapt them to w whole foods way of eating.. leaner meats, sub whole grains for more processed grains, scads more veggies, etc. Under my signature I also have a link to a recipe/review page I have that has lots of rvewis of recipes of tried as well as any healthier revisions! Or course not all the recipes are health but most are.

I hope someone else may come along with a book recommendation for you.

I thought Volumetrics, by Barbara Rolls was a very helpful read. I felt that this book along with Mindless Eating, by Brian Wansink, really helped me get to the heart of what I needed to change about my eating habits. Neither are specifically "whole foods" oriented but they do emphasize methods to control or eliminate junky foods. I view "whole foods" more as an effort to choose foods that are minimally processed, while avoiding trans-fats and high-fructose corn syrup. Heavy emphasis on produce, too, I should add. I think that approach could be applied to any number of food plans...just have to find what works for you.

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll check 'em out.