Out with the delicious, in with the soy

My doctor gave me a HUGE list of food do's and don'ts based on my cholesterol, accumulated iron in my blood, and my blood type.

It looks something like this:

Never eat your favorite foods again.
Ever.
Don't even think about it.

Ok, so it's not actually that rigid. But if I really want to get my cholesterol down, and keep my iron down at a "safe level" and just be a more fine-tuned machine, I really have to cut out the things on the "avoid" lists and work in more of the things on the "highly beneficial" lists.

What does this mean exactly? It means that I am more-or-less a vegan now. Not for 100% of my meals, but probably for at least 90% of them. The only kinds of cheese I can have on an "infrequent" basis are goat cheese, feta cheese, or mozarella. No more milk, cream, or butter for me. No more yummy French cheeses.

I can not eat sherbet or ice cream anymore, but I may have yogurt and frozen yogurt. 

I am not supposed to eat meat anymore. I can, on an infrequent basis, have chicken, game hen, or turkey, but I can't make it a regular habit.

I must say "goodbye" to fried foods and a list of oils and greasy frying things. I will say "hello" to more things like grapeseed oil (which is excellent for pan-frying, I just found out), and EVOO.

There is a long list of fish that I am allowed to eat (hooray!), however, I can't eat it raw (cause of the iron thing), and most of it is fresh water fish...which is not easy to come by in Hawai'i. So I may as well not get my hopes too far up about that one.

No more of some of my favorites: oysters, clams, squid, crab, or lobster.

Fear not! The list has opened my eyes up to all of these other foods in the world I have a tendency to ignore.

I have learned that attempted taste-alike soy-based "cheeses" are disgusting. If it's the flavor people go for, it would taste just as good to melt plastic over my veggie burger. Totally disgusting. I'd rather just live without cheese all together and use a slice of avocado instead.

Veggie burgers are actually delicious. As is Pad Thai with tofu. Chocolate soy milk is truly amazing, and eating more fresh vegetables and fruits is definitely making me feel better already. Getting my proteins from beans and soy and eggs. (Thank God I can still have eggs!). I love the excuse to have almonds and walnuts nearby at all times, too.

Taking lots of B-vitamins since I'll be eating much less meat.

Going to keep up with my daily workout routine. I may have to be eating double over-time to keep enough protein in my body to keep building muscle, but I guess it's all a learning process.

In 8 weeks, I will get to see if this is all working and making me more healthy! It's a big change, so I really hope there's some pay off for it.