The Washington State Diet: The Ingredients

 

Memorial Day, May 30th, was the first day of my newest diet: The Washington State Diet. With a lot of research and a lot of faith that this would be possibly even more successful in terms of weight loss than The Jesus Diet was for six weeks, I began Week 1 with a lot of fish and a lot of berries. I also got sick the first day of the diet, and got progressively worse over the next two days. And let's be honest, when you have a virus the last thing you want to eat is fish. But. I did.  Because once I commit to something, I don't back down.

This diet has been a challenge, for many reasons. Number one, it's limited and therefore I am craving carbs more than ever.  Not that vegetables don't have carbs, it's just that I'm not eating the carbs I'm desiring (pasta, bread, potatoes, etc.).

As previously  mentioned in my other entries, I spent thousands of hours researching these different diets I'm embarking upon to learn about all the different foods which are native to their respective places. I was born and raised in Washington State, and while my original idea was to do country by country, when I started reading about what my home state has to offer naturally, I was sold.

Washington State could quite possibly be the most naturally blessed state in the entire country in terms of food availability. Some might make the argument that it's Florida, or Texas...but honestly, Washington State has got it going on. No surprise, since it's also the most beautiful state in the union too...but I digress...

So what did I learn while researching the land? While it may not seem like there's much to be offered in terms of native fruits, vegetables, animals for hunting meat, and even nuts and oils, Washington State has the most seafood, the best fruits by far, and has lots of plant life that can be used to cure ailments - not that the latter is applicable to this diet.

What I decided to do at the offset of the diet, similarly to The Jesus Diet, was I only wanted to eat things that were indigenous to the specific area of the land 2,000+ years ago. So, my research had to go deep into finding out the names of the different Native American tribes which lived in Washington State before the Europeans came in and took over what we now know today as America.

What were they eating? I mean, they had to eat, right? Clearly they survived on the land, so what was available on the land at that time? Answer: lots of fish and lots of berries. Great! I love fish, and I love berries. But, here's the hitch - who eats fish without any flavoring? Who eats berries and feels fulfilled for the day? Answer: no one. I highly doubt even the Native Americans felt satisfied after catching their halibut or cod and then nibbling on some wild blackberries - and that's when they were in season.

So, because a girl's gotta have some veg in her diet, I did take some liberties on this one. I think they are acceptable liberties, and hey, at the end of the day this is my diet so I can make up the rules however I see fit. Having said that, I did try to stay within some disciplinary reason.

Lemons.  Lemons are not native to Washington State, however,  they were brought to North America in 1493. I feel like that was long enough ago to be considered a staple in the diet. I am using them because I need them for the fish and honestly for my water and also for the berries. I basically use lemons for everything, they are extremely good for you and I can't imagine cooking fish without them.

Asparagus. Asparagus is listed as being native to Washington State but other research suggests its origins are from Siberia/Northern Africa. It doesn't matter though, because it's one of the 3 vegetables I'm eating in this diet and therefore I need them. Asparagus is also extremely good for you, and goes perfectly with the majority of the seafood I am eating on the diet. Again, it may originally be from Washington State, or it may not be. Either way, I'm really not going to lose sleep over it.

Sunflower Oil.  While doing research on each of the respective locations that I will be creating diets from, I had to know beforehand if these places had the primary ingredient in any type of cooking oil. Without the cooking oil, I'd be suffering a lot. There would be almost no flavor to any of my dishes and while asparagus is indeed one of my favorite vegetables - it's not a vegetable I'm interested in experimenting with raw or cooked but with no oil or flavor. So, after learning that sunflowers grow native in Washington State I took the liberty of incorporating sunflower oil to my diet. Yes, yes, I realize the Nooksack Tribe were probably not processing the sunflowers and turning them into cooking oil, but this little Indian is. I mean, not literally, just using it in cooking. And while I'd much rather be using olive oil, sunflower oil is a satisfactory consolation. There is no question a big portion of the recipes I've already made would taste worlds better with olive oil - and as far as I know olive oil is much better for you too - but, sunflower oil isn't all that bad, and it even has a few good health benefits as well.

Garlic. Now, garlic is actually native to Washington State just not the garlic we're used to - i.e. the garlic I am using in this diet. The garlic native to Washington State is called Inchelium Red Garlic. But that is not a garlic that is easy to find. And I have learned that if Whole Foods does not carry something, you probably aren't going to find it anywhere else, depending on how obscure it is. But since garlic does exist naturally in the state of Washington, I have therefore been implementing it, and quite gladly, into my diet. 

Carrots. According to my research wild carrots are said to have been eaten and cultivated by the Nooksack Tribe which spread from Northern Washington State into British Columbia.  But carrots apparently originate from Afghanistan. So, while the carrot may not be native-native to the State of Washington, I'm going out on a limb here and I'm eating them because otherwise, I'll go crazy on butternut squash and salmon alone.

Wine. The Oregon grape grows in Washington State naturally, and so hence...oh who am I fooling? I just want wine. My discretion on this though is that it can only either come from Washington State or Oregon - only Oregon if I'm desperate and cannot find any wine from Washington State. So far, this has not been a problem.

So without further ado...let's get to the next entry, where I will discuss all the fish and berries I ate during week 1 of The Washington State Diet...