05.13.05
The basics of my diet
My diet is pretty simple. If you cant hunt it, fish it or farm it, don’t eat it. There are some minor exceptions that I allow such as whole wheat bread, but not many. Whole foods only while keeping the carbs AND fat in check. Quality of calories are important. No simple sugars, save whole friuts, good sources of protein and any veggie I care to eat. One might think that makes for an uninteresting menu but remember that herbs and spices are allowed, and often. I love peppers, not the mild ones either. Ground peppers and spices make much of the flavoring in my dishes.
I eat out fairly often and I can go almost anywhere and get something. Chicken Caesar Salad from Chili’s or most places with dressing on the side. Wendy’s Chili, just watch the sodium. Most places are fine to eat at and you don’t have to eat like a rabbit. Also, I get one day a week for almost anything I care to eat and not that I get full faster, I can’t eat too much of the bad stuff.
Cooking at home I either grill or stir fry most of my meats. I like using a wok because it heats and cooks fast. I do not use any oils in my wok or for marinades, just water. It works just as well and I think gives the real flavor of the food a chance to come out. That coupled with 45 minutes a day, 5 times a week of the exercise cycle at the gym has done it for me.
To keep track of my calories, the first month I recorded everything I ate in a spreadsheet and it calculated the totals for me. If there was no label with nutritional information I would go to Calorie-Count.Com and get the data from there. After the first month I have been able to gauge bout what I am taking in. Something you NEED that first month is a food scale as well. After a while I was able to eyeball it so I could tell about what it was I was eating.
The last thing for me is a good multi-vitamin. I don’t normally endorse taking supplements but when reducing caloric intake I want to be sure I am getting the vitamins I need.
That’s it, just quality whole foods, paying attention to how much I am eating and a bit of exercise has resulted in an average of three pounds a week. One does not want to push it much more than that for health reasons, 30 pounds in 30 days might be able to be done but at what cost?