I'm curious too. Do you eat a lot of soy products or mock meats? Or do you stick more to fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes?
Count me as curious as well. That's pretty much exactly the ideal normal diet I'm going for. Other than beans, where do you get your protein?
I generally eat pasta at least once a day. Then I will eat maybe some form of Asian vegetables or curry flavored vegetables. Often times it is mixed with soy to get my protein. I will eat this with a flat bread of some sort. In addition, I eat alot of natural peanut butter and almond butter. Maybe 4 sandwiches a day on whole wheat bread. I make sure not to buy the bread with high fructose corn syrup, b/c alot of wheat and white breads have this additive. Other than that I will snack on rice cakes, almonds and other forms of mixed nuts. I'm not really a big fan of eating salads, which might come as a surprise since I am a vegetarian, but I do eat alot of flat breads. Other days I will make falafel and eat with hummus or couscous. Another meal I eat to treat myself would be a fat free cheese pizza. I either buy frozen dough and buy fat free mozzarella cheese and make my own pizza. It is usually topped with jalapenos and olives. One of things I have been crazing over recently is fat free feta cheese, which is amazing and I consider an grand achievement in food science. I might eat this with some crackers as a snack. I do drink at least two protein shakes a day, since I work out often. The protein shake is Lemonade flavored mixed in with water. Regarding fruits, I sometimes find these too sweet to eat. For example when I eat an orange it is as if someone ate a lemon. I think this is because my sweet taste buds have been deactivated since I rarely eat refined sugar. I eat banana's, pears and pineapples usually like right before a run for some quick energy. Its not that hard to find food with my limited diet. It is difficult to maintain it if I am traveling or out of town. Alot, well actually most of my friends, kind of make fun of me for this diet, but it makes me feel alot better to eat well.
I actually used to be real heavy and wide when I used to eat my junk food diet. I used to go home every day and eat a slice of cheescake after dinner, many years ago. I got to about size 38 waist and over 32% body fat. One day, I decided I couldn't keep going to the tailor to keep getting my clothes widened, and I decided to start eating healthy. At first it was a slow process...like instead of eating a cheesecake..maybe eat a Rice Krispie treat instead. But then after lessening the craving for sugar I could eat less and less forms of sugar and sweets. Also instead of regular cheese products, I switched to fat free products. Yes, you do lose some taste, but it is worth the sacrifice imo. I'm a big fan of Dr. Pepper and Mr. Pibb though. I think it is like liquid crack, but I haven't touched one in so many years. Since being heavy many years ago, I am now currently at under 9% body fat and at 30 inch waist. I do train quite intensively at the gym and at the track as well. I train with some triathletes actually. But I'll be honest that most anybody can be really lean, by just maintaining a proper diet. Exercise isn't even necessary, unless you want to get cut.
There are many layers to Brightside. I hope to some day be an organic long-bearded mandolin player in a folksy indie-band.
When I am Houston, I buy Nature's Own 100% Whole Wheat Bread. This is one of the brands that doesn't have High Fructose Corn Syrup in it. HFCS is one of the leading causes of obesity in this country, and is secretly added to a lot of foods (like ketchup as well as bread). I think Mrs. Bairds is one of the brands that actually adds HFCS to all their breads including their 100% Whole Wheat variety. When I am in NYC, I buy this local brand of bread (called Sullivans) that doesn't use any refined sugar it it, but it is not available in Houston from what I can tell. Maybe available at Whole Foods though. I think the key is to avoid HFCS and refined sugars. You can find alot of alternative foods sweetened with natural sugar (like cane sugar ).
I've been keeping a journal of all my diet and exercise lately. I think it is a good measure to sort of come up with a mission statement (if you will) and label out goals you hope to achieve. I think right now I'm just trying to completely distance myself from the love of food. On Tuesday I only consumed about 800 calories, along with a gallon of water. I didn't mean to eat so few, but it go me thinking that as long as I'm getting enough vitamins and minerals, I don't need to eat large portions of food. This is where I think a lot of diets fail, you want to kind of just use a diet like its some magic potion you can take every until you're in shape and then you can just give it up when you're satisfied. I'm talking about an entire lifestyle change. I feel incredible now. I feel like I've cleansed my system and created an entirely new mindset and body in less than a week.
I'm sorry to inform you that I am now into Scandinavian art rock. We all wear flowing scarves even in the middle of summer.
Well I'll have you know I used to eat Nature's Own Double-Fiber but there are still many preservatives added into it, so now I eat organic bread from whole foods with flax seed.
I'm happy for you, but this sentence made me so sad. I realize you probably didn't mean for it to sound that way, but I actually feel like that's one of America's problems: we don't love food enough. I can't think of any reason why else we would allow ourselves to consume such crap.
We love bad food way too much and it isn't all our fault, we're being brainwashed by the big companies. They've been lying to us and have gone to great lengths to make sure our food quality continues to get worse while their pocketbooks get bigger. This is the biggest tragedy. I guess I should have said I'm falling out of love with the taste of food, and the addiction to food. I don't want food to control my life. I'm trying to return to nature here, buy the organic stuff... eat as nature intended.
I've been on a pretty high diet of Chicken lately. Protein and greens. Whenever I'm broke is when I fall to eating some canned goods. I NEVER eat fast food. Closest thing to fast food that I occasionally eat is SUBWAY. Speaking of which, I'm off to the store to buy me some Chicken Breasts to BBQ.
High five. This is pretty much me in a nutshell. Except for the vegetarian thing. I need muh proteinz.
Congrats. Your overall health, energy and well-being must feel so much better. In my opinion there isn't much worse than fast food. The nutritional value of that processed garbage is nothing that belongs in your body. Our bodies weren't designed to eat like that. I seriously can't believe how many people eat fast food on a regular basis. It will catch up to you eventually and your body will start to break down. Just like putting bad fuel in a vehicle.
This is how I started my transformation about 7 years ago. I had a nutritionist who told me to view food as fuel, view it as something your body needs to function. You get enjoyment out of many many other things in life. Not food. So now before I eat, I think to myself, does my body need this? If I'm just sitting around all day working, I don't need that much. If I'm playing basketball later or hiking the next morning then I'll consume more fuel for my body. Food is fuel for me, not enjoyment. I get enjoyment out of other things in life and now that I'm more healthy and FEEL better, I CAN enjoy these other things in life. The thing with me that complicates things is that I have reactive hypoglycemia so I have some blood sugar issues. Its basically the opposite of diabetes. So I MUST have quality protein with every meal. If my blood sugar is low and I eat only carbs or veggies or pasta then the insulin response from all the carbs will spike my blood sugar too quickly and I'll get dizzy and light headed and will feel awful. If I eat protein with my meals then that slows down the absorption of the carbs to the point where my blood sugar levels and energy are stabalized. And NO. Protein like beans don't do it for me because they break down pretty fast compared to lean chicken, fish, tuna, eggs, or beef. So basically for me, even if I wanted to, I could not become a vegetarian. Also with that insulin spike, your body goes into fat storing mode and this is why you will often see overweight vegetarians.... They don't have enough protein to slow down the absorption of the food they eat for sustained energy levels, so they get the spike and their food immediately gets stored as fat if it isn't used for energy right away.
The past year and a half has been pretty much doing Super Size Me Part 2, West Coast Edition. Absolutely no junk food at all was off limits. The whole "Life's Too Short" thing....ALL fast food and sweets, energy drinks, whatever. I've limited portions to normal things like a modest sandwich during lunch and some grilled chicken with veggies for dinner the past few weeks. Gave myself a DO NOT EAT list of 5 foods (sodas, sweets, fries, fast food burgers, ice cream/shakes) and its already had NOTICEABLE difference on my health, energy level, alertness, bathroom breaks, less headaches, everything. Even my skin's starting to look better. I'm dont think I'm going back. Certainly not to that level but I mean not even to eating junk food. No cheat days, nothing...I already dont miss it... The ONLY thing I did "right" was never smoke or drink much alcohol lol. Or I'd simply "only" eat 1 fatty meal for the entire day. Not like my eating habits were good before that, so I'm sure I've done a bit off irreversible damage to health, gonna have an onset of SOMETHING. So I'll start up on some exercises and recommended supplements and start cooking again..
