Six Changes: Week 4 of Eating Better (Change 1 for 2010)
Earlier steps: maintained, though possibly eating more cultured dairy than I ought to be. On the other hand my energy has been improving so I seem more tolerant of dairy now. I haven't tried uncultured dairy yet.
I'm trying to eat a little more so that I stop losing weight. I'm still maintaining the same ratio of protein and carbohydrates, but nudging the fat up a little while still staying under 30%. That seems to work pretty well and I don't usually get hungry between meals unless I wait too long to eat. I'm going to try gradually dropping the protein, experimenting with a ratio that can be supported by a more vegetarian diet. (It is VERY hard to get that much protein without using animal-based protein, but I do seem to have more energy on all that protein, so it's a tricky balance.) I don't believe that red meat and saturated fats are automatically evil, but I don't want to get all of my protein from animals.
Step 4: This is an incremental change in that we can only eat so much food at once! So far I've cleared out over 3lbs of lamb shoulder, green garbanzos, broccoli, berries, and cherries from last summer. I've also looked over our pantry stock and decided which things not to refresh when they're eaten; I'm trying to focus on lower salt which means not restocking some of the soups and chili. I also got some colored stars to make it easier to color code food by when it expires, but I haven't stuck any of them on yet. The input has been lower: a few cooked things going into the freezer, and only restocking necessary pantry staples that I can't substitute from other staples. I've also made headway on the overly full produce drawers.
Next week: I've been having no trouble eating enough fruit, and in fact have to work to not just eat fruit all day since it's so easy and tasty. If I can't scrounge up enough fresh fruit there's always frozen and dried. I try to eat 2-3 servings a day, but not more than three. Vegetables are harder because of the increased prep; I've been hitting three a day but would like to be more systematic about it. I'd also like to increase Brad's intake of vegetables. (Though actually, with the soup and salad every day, he's doing pretty well.) The batch cooking from this weekend ought to give us a head start on vegetables for the week.
Baby steps for eating better:
1) 1/4-1/10: Eliminate or at least minimize all known allergens; minimize suspected allergens (uncultured dairy.) Complete: eating only minimal amounts of cheese, cottage cheese, and yogurt/kefir. Mostly using non-dairy alternatives. Have eaten no corn incl. starch this month.
2) 1/11-1/17: Cut empty calories to 10% or less of total diet: this consists of all fat over 30% of diet, more than 1/3rd fat being saturated, sweeteners, non-whole grains, potatoes, CAFO meat.
3) 1/18-1/24: Track everything I eat (I'm using Lose It! on the iPod touch.) Also track crashes and probable reactions to food.
4) 1/25-1/31: Start "pantry rotating" i.e. using stockpiled food in the freezer and pantry to replace it with fresh stores.
5) 2/1-2/7: Eat at least "five a day" fruits and vegetables, preferably 2 servings fruit, 3-5 vegetables.
6) 2/8-2/14: At least 1/3rd of all meals should be wholly vegetarian while still containing enough protein for my personal needs (ovo/lacto is allowed.)
7) 2/15-2/21: At least 25g of fiber a day and 8 cups of water.
8) 2/22-2/28: Regularly make soup from scratch. (Enough for at least half the week.)
I'm trying to eat a little more so that I stop losing weight. I'm still maintaining the same ratio of protein and carbohydrates, but nudging the fat up a little while still staying under 30%. That seems to work pretty well and I don't usually get hungry between meals unless I wait too long to eat. I'm going to try gradually dropping the protein, experimenting with a ratio that can be supported by a more vegetarian diet. (It is VERY hard to get that much protein without using animal-based protein, but I do seem to have more energy on all that protein, so it's a tricky balance.) I don't believe that red meat and saturated fats are automatically evil, but I don't want to get all of my protein from animals.
Step 4: This is an incremental change in that we can only eat so much food at once! So far I've cleared out over 3lbs of lamb shoulder, green garbanzos, broccoli, berries, and cherries from last summer. I've also looked over our pantry stock and decided which things not to refresh when they're eaten; I'm trying to focus on lower salt which means not restocking some of the soups and chili. I also got some colored stars to make it easier to color code food by when it expires, but I haven't stuck any of them on yet. The input has been lower: a few cooked things going into the freezer, and only restocking necessary pantry staples that I can't substitute from other staples. I've also made headway on the overly full produce drawers.
Next week: I've been having no trouble eating enough fruit, and in fact have to work to not just eat fruit all day since it's so easy and tasty. If I can't scrounge up enough fresh fruit there's always frozen and dried. I try to eat 2-3 servings a day, but not more than three. Vegetables are harder because of the increased prep; I've been hitting three a day but would like to be more systematic about it. I'd also like to increase Brad's intake of vegetables. (Though actually, with the soup and salad every day, he's doing pretty well.) The batch cooking from this weekend ought to give us a head start on vegetables for the week.
Baby steps for eating better:
1) 1/4-1/10: Eliminate or at least minimize all known allergens; minimize suspected allergens (uncultured dairy.) Complete: eating only minimal amounts of cheese, cottage cheese, and yogurt/kefir. Mostly using non-dairy alternatives. Have eaten no corn incl. starch this month.
2) 1/11-1/17: Cut empty calories to 10% or less of total diet: this consists of all fat over 30% of diet, more than 1/3rd fat being saturated, sweeteners, non-whole grains, potatoes, CAFO meat.
3) 1/18-1/24: Track everything I eat (I'm using Lose It! on the iPod touch.) Also track crashes and probable reactions to food.
4) 1/25-1/31: Start "pantry rotating" i.e. using stockpiled food in the freezer and pantry to replace it with fresh stores.
5) 2/1-2/7: Eat at least "five a day" fruits and vegetables, preferably 2 servings fruit, 3-5 vegetables.
6) 2/8-2/14: At least 1/3rd of all meals should be wholly vegetarian while still containing enough protein for my personal needs (ovo/lacto is allowed.)
7) 2/15-2/21: At least 25g of fiber a day and 8 cups of water.
8) 2/22-2/28: Regularly make soup from scratch. (Enough for at least half the week.)