It varies, for myself my usual day looks something like this:
Breakfast - smoothie. I've been doing green smoothies lately so it is usually a mix of spinach, apple, ginger, celery & cucumber. Although the other day I did a spinach, banana and berry smoothie and it was really good.
Lunch - Varies, I've been liking salads a lot lately and I don't always put the same stuff in them but the ingredients may include: romaine lettuce, celery, cucumber, mushrooms, chickpeas, kidney beans, black beans, walnuts, pecans, chopped apple, tomato or just any veggies I have around. I either top it with salsa (especially if black beans and tomatoes are involved) or galeo's ginger wasabi dressing.
If it isn't salad, then it is usually a whole grain (like brown basmati), with beans (black eyed peas are a favorite but any cooked bean) with a side of greens (depends, kale, collards, etc). My husband gets that a lot.
Dinner - Dinner is generally a lot like lunch but I try to mix it up so dinner and lunch aren't the same thing.
Snacks - Varies, my husband generally gets soy yogurt with frozen blueberries and an almond butter sandwich on sprouted grain bread every day. Fruit, hummus with cut veggies or other raw veggie dish are also frequent snacks.
Mine varies, too, but here's a typical day for now when the veggies are so abundant.
Breakfast: 1/2 potato (diced and roasted), sauteed veggies, fresh herbs and a scrambled egg
Lunch: great big salad with canned wild Alaskan salmon on top and homemade salad dressing, slice of toast
Afternoon snack: homemade chocolate frozen yogurt with fresh berries
Dinner: this varies even more, but last night I had one grilled chicken thigh, 1 small potato diced and grill-roasted, green bean salad, and cucumber salad
Oh and I should also say, my summer menu generally includes lots of fruits and raw veggies, once it cools down, I tend to eat a lot more hot cereals (oatmeal and other whole grains), winter squash and cooked veggies. So I tend to eat more seasonal because as much as I love and crave salad, eating salad when it is 20 degrees outside doesn't mesh with me plus the salad veggies tend to suck during winter.
I count calories because I gained weight just eating healthy food. An average day looks like this for me:
Oatmeal with nuts, dried fruit and cinnamon and a little brown sugar or honey. Coffee with cream
Lunch is whole grain bread (preferably home made, but not always) vegetables and a protein source like hummus, a hard boiled egg or cottage cheese, and fruit. Afternoon snack varies, but I like popcorn (I make it at home and bring in a baggie of it to eat.)
Dinner is a huge salad with beans of some kind, carrot, spinach, cabbage, kohlrabi, whatever looks good at the grocery store or farmers market. I usually add a protein like tofu, a veggie patty, quinoa with my beans, or occasionally chicken. I use cottage cheese for dressing or a vinagrette my husband makes that is delicious. We always have frozen berries on hand for desserts, or my husband makes kettle corn.
This menu varies, and I make lots of soup in the winter. I still have some processed foods in my diet, like veggie patties and granola bars.
I started by just trying to get more vegetables in and less bread and processed foods out. I cook once a week, so I eat the same three meals for a week, but it doesn't bother me. Salad is pretty variable and I can add or delete things to make it more interesting.
I'm also quite capable of overeating healthy food. I have to count something to keep it under control. At the moment, I'm following the diet in The Complete Beck Diet for Life. This is the third plan I've tried because I plateau every twenty pounds and it seems to help to switch things up.
Many diets will work with whole foods -- diabetic exchange plans, the food pyramid that the government does, calorie counting, Weight Watchers, South Beach, etc.
I have to agree...they all really can work using whole foods regardless of what weight loss program you use. Never thought of it that way..good point :-) Guess it's all about making the right choices.
Does wine fall into the Whole Food categories anywhere??
What about Lite Soy (milk) versus Fat Free Milk, cheeses...what do you think the 'better' choices are for these?
I did go to my pyramid and printed off a grid. They based it on1600 calories for me? Yikes that seems like a lot! It's pretty interesting, though. It tells you what and how much of what you should be taking in.
Last edited by L.J.; 06-29-2010 at 06:28 AM.
Reason: add on
I lost the first forty pounds at 1600 calories or more. I've recently gone closer to 1500 to keep it moving. Try 1600 calories and see!
I drink wine and other alcohol, but only rarely. I would check the ingredients on things like lite beer or wine spritzers, but microbrewed local beer feels like a good choice to me. There are documented health benefits to red wine! I'd rather eat calories than drink them, so this is a treat that I have less than once a month.
I read some stuff about soy that scared me off. Some nutritionists claim that soy is toxic and the only safe way to eat it is fermented -- soy sauce, miso, tempeh. So, I go for fat free milk over soy milk. But others may make a different choice. There are definitely a lot of processed foods that have "soy" in the name. I don't know if soy milk is one of them or not.
There a lot of cheese foods that are processed foods -- so I choose a real honest-to-goodness parmesan or aged cheddar over Laughing Cow or string cheese. And, then, I'm careful with my portion size since it's one of the higher fat foods that I eat.
I lost the first forty pounds at 1600 calories or more. I've recently gone closer to 1500 to keep it moving. Try 1600 calories and see!
I did the same thing a few years back. I stuck with between 1500 and 1600 calories of SuperFoods daily, with no exercise*, and still lost 2 to 3 lbs per week.
*Initially, I was walking in the mornings, but started a new job and it threw my walk schedule out of whack. So, even after stopping my exercise, the pounds still came off with the calorie counting.*