Wow, so much great information!
I picked up some nuts...almonds, cashews, macadamia, and soybeans.
What I'm gonig to do is "measure" an 1oz of the mixed first 3 and an oz of the soybeans....a healthy snack?? What'd ya think? Also picked up cherries and strawberries...fruits are tough for me, but these I can handle.
Gardenerjoy...thanks for the info about the soy milk and cheese.
I'm not a beer drinker but I do enjoy a glass of wine on the weekend.

L.J. - Living a Whole Foods life doesn't mean that all your foods are non processed but basically you do the best you can. Even milk goes through a process to be created unless you buy raw milk. I do some almond milk which even though I could make it myself, I don't. If you like wine, I'd say include it (in moderation) in your diet.

I use a blender, right now I have a vitamix but you could use other blenders as well. I've heard of people making green smoothies in magic bullets.

My days vary, but lately my breakfast/lunch/ snacks have been pretty similar:

B: fancied up bowl of oats (add in flax seed, chia seeds, apple, blueberries, strawberries, cinnamon and made with spiced tea instead of water)

snack: 1/4 c. raw cashews

lunch: huge bowl of mixed veggie salad (spinach, greens, mushroom, peppers, snap peas, celery, carrots, tomatoes with lemon juice); slice of sprouted spelt bread, 1 tbs almond butter, 1 c. cantaloupe

snack: (if needed) piece of fruit or 1 oz cheese or 1 tbs cashew butter

Dinner: always varies. last night I had Citrus Couscous and Orange Roughy salad (got the recipe from Clean Eating magazine - I recommend this mag to everyone!!) Broccoli Salad (typical, but I didn't use gross mayonnaise and instead used Greek yogurt and tahini as the base) and some watermelon.

I count calories vigorously and stay right around 1400 calories. I use a kitchen scale. I couldn't live healthfully without it!

Cool! I've got TWO Magic Bullets!!! I rarely use them, but this sounds like as good a reason as any to pull them back out. Thanks!!

I also make green smoothies in a regular blender. It has a smoothie setting on it though.

For breakfast, I eat oatmeal w/ a teaspoon of almond butter mixed it. That is super yummy!.

My snacks are usually almonds or a bit of dried fruit w/ yogurt.

Lunch is a salad or a grilled veggie wrap. Lunch is my biggest meal because I need to feel "full" during the day.

When i crave chocoalte, I have a bit of dark chocoalte to take the edge off.

Dinner is chicken or fish w/ a small potato and a veggie.


I get bored easily so I also like to eat egg whites for breakfast. I make an omlet w/ a little bit of feta and fresh spinach. Super yummy!

I'm still working at this. I'm an all or nothing at all type of person :-(
If I mess up during the day, my whole week suffers.
I'm still a work in progress and love reading all the wonderful ways you all work your day, eating healthy.
Handbags your lunch sounds de-lish...what exactly do you do...I am a BIG veggie person
Today is a new day...even though a Holiday. Just have to do it.
Everyone have a safe and enjoybable day...Happy Birthday America.......
GOD BLESS AMERICA!!

L.J.: I take one of the high carb 100 calorie wraps then pre-grill my veggies. I like onion, mushroom and asparagus. For added flavor I will sometime sprinkle just a bit of parmesean cheese then fold it over like a quesadilla. I pair it with a cup of yogurt and a small fruit. Very filling and delish!

L.J. -- been there in that all or nothing space. I recently lost 40 pounds but it's the same 40 pounds that I had off two years ago. And one of my downfalls was getting into local, organic, homemade foods. For awhile there, I got into a space where if I couldn't have the perfect meal with the perfect ingredients, I might as well eat junk! Obviously, that didn't work very well for me and I put on 40 pounds in a year while eating a lot of local healthy foods AND a lot of junk.

Some books really helped me get back on track.
The End of Overeating by David Kessler got me to cut out the junk food cold turkey. He explains how food is engineered and marketed in ways that are calculated to make it darn near irresistable to those of us who are susceptible to that.

The books by Judith Beck use Cognitive-Behavioral Techniques to help you stick to your food plan. The Beck Diet Solution will help you stick to any diet of your choosing. The Complete Beck Diet for Life has a healthy diet in it. If you read one of the Beck books and like it, we have an active support group going on at 3FC -- join us!

My days also usually vary, but this is a typical day for me:


Vit D and multi-Vit

milk, skim, 1 cup
oatmeal, 1/2 cup
flaxseed, 1 Tbsp
blueberries, 1/4 cup
grapefruit, 1

1 banana

2 cups lentil soup (homemade, with onion, celery, carrots, tomatoes)
1 apple
1 peach

1/2 med squash
2 Tsbp Hummus

2 c roasted beets
1 egg, fried
1 whole wheat muffin

I think I could have had a wider variety of vegetables for dinner...

also, I started roasting pans of vegetables (zucchini, squash, mushrooms, asparagus, peppers, onions, eggplant, etc) on the weekend, and I use the roasted vegetables in sandwiches, on salads, or as a side for dinner.

one thing I'm not so good at is getting enough dairy. I'm working on that though

Handbags....I did the veggie wrap...fantastic! I used fresh zucchini, mushrooms, red and orange peppers, aspargus (all cut up) on a "new" item I found. (I've never seen it before)...Aritsan 100 calorie 5 Grain Flax Fold It flatbread. Totally enjoyed it. Next time I will try the wrap. Thank you for the suggestion.

Question...soy sausage, soy noodles.....a good whole food choice?

I've been following the clean eating principles, which are basically the same as whole foods. I typically eat 6 meals a day.

B- Kashi cereal with fruit or 7 grain pancakes with berries and pure maple syrup, or oatmeal with nuts and fruit or egg white with veggies- I tend to lean towards the sweeter side, so I usually don't have the eggs.
Snack- nuts with fruit or veggies and hummus or a clean bar
Lunch- salad with brocoli, cranberries, sunflower seeds and then a ranch/terryaki dressing (only 1 Tbsp. I know it isn't clean, but I have the hardest time giving up my dressings), or a tuna sandwhich on Ezekial bread/homemade bread or some eggs or just veggies with fruit
Snack- protein shake or nuts or veggies or a small wrap with avacado, sour cream and salsa
Dinner- veggie burger or chick with veggies or another salad with whatever I have on hand or whole wheat pasta with homemade sauce, etc. I can throw anything together cause I'm not picky. As long as I have stuff on hand I'm good.
Snack- typically Kashi cereal with berries. If I haven't had a banana I will put some peanut butter on it (fresh with no additives or sugar) and eat that. But usually it's a bowl of cereal.

I'm pretty active and eat when I'm hungry. I've been eating like this for 7 weeks now and have lost 12 lbs. and a pants size. Hope this helped!

If something comes in a package, it generally isn't a whole food Don't fret though!

My general rule is minimally processed. If something has fewer than 5 ingredients, it is a good sign but still wouldn't consider it whole foods. Also, I wouldn't get too caught up in making sure everything you eat is whole foods, just the majority of things you eat. So I might have a veggie burger or even things like hemp protein powder but as long as the rest of my food is based on things that don't come in packages, then I'm good.

Although still not really whole foods, I've made my own gluten sausages in the past. They are actually really easy to do although if you start from whole wheat flour, it takes a bit of time. (vital wheat gluten is the short cut)

For soy sausage, I make these Tempeh Sausage Crumbles.

My favorite noodle at the moment are buckwheat noodles, or what the Japanese called soba.

Tempeh and soba noodles come in packages. Not so much minimally processed as traditionally processed? Nelie's right. Don't fret. You get to make your own rules at this -- and that's part of the fun!