Food
So I read this great food preparation/planning core list thing provided to me by a wonderful person*, and I’ve come to this weird realization. I am not sure if this is related to my current lot in life, but here’s what I’m thinking with regards to food:
1.) I’m very lazy.
2.) I need to eat “easy” foods.
3.) I have little time to devote to food prep, but a little more time for planning.
To that end, I think I’ve moved away from a lot of the details of foods that are involved in preparation. In fact, I’ve been looking at food more like fuel over the last few months. I eat like this:
Morning: More carbs than protein.
Snack: I have been forgetting my morning snack, but nuts when I remember.
Lunch: salad with a can of drained tuna on top, balsamic vinegar, nuts.
Snack: a cookie or sweet something (fruit would be better)
Dinner: More protein than carbs. Energy bar or sandwich from Trader Joes.
Snack: pb&j without the bread (spoon!)
Kat told me her stomach is shrinking. She’s in her first trimester misery. She said it helped her understand hunger a lot better, though. Talking with her helped me remember a lot I’d read recently about stomachs. They’re about the size of a sandwich bag. (Not a quart). If you eat very slowly, they fill to the edges. If you eat quickly, they stretch beyond their normal size and permit more food. More food means more of it doesn’t process properly. What’s not processed properly becomes fat to hit the storage systems.
ERGO, if I ate meals that were sandwich-bag-sized, and ate them fairly slowly, I should notice a difference.
Another thing, and I read the actual study where the “soundbite” came from, is that consuming a really good dose of calcium a day REALLY works in cutting down belly fat, because there’s a different type of fat that burns away when there’s lots of calcium in one’s system. I’m going to adjust my eating accordingly.
What I’m not going to do anytime soon is follow a really specific diet. I tend to do the following:
*eat very little saturated fats.
*eat little/no white flour products.
*eat little white sugar products (cookie not withstanding).
*eat decent fiber/protein/vegetable content.
*drink 1 gallon of water daily (for weeks now).
I’m going to add some beans back into my diet because I just keep reading more and more about their benefits. Other than that, I’m not really going to focus so much on food. I’m finding that if I stay “relatively” decent on those items, then I can attack things through fitness.
What I *am* going to do differently is I’m going to resume a higher level of fitness efforts than I’ve done over the last little while. I think I’m resigned to the fact that work will be busy as hell forever. Instead, I’m going to accept this and find different times to get my fitness goals met.
Thanks to that special person for sharing the food information. I think it’s really useful and interesting. I actually stole a few things for future consideration.
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Comments
Hey, that list sounds neat. Share, if you can.
I think it is important to take a realistic assesment of your eating patterns. In fact, I think it’s great that you realize you need “easy” foods. I think a lot of us are like this, but are somehow guilted into or beguiled by complicated recipes or the idea that “easy” translates somehow into being weak-willed. It is what it is.
I’ve enjoyed reading your last several posts, as you grapple with some larger, whole-person issues. We are all more than our fitness aspirations, after all.
And now, I’m imagining my stomach as a ziplock baggies. Somehow this is creeping me out…
Beans Beans the musical fruit!!!
As a vegetarian, I have to say, eating more beans is super good for you. I found dried soybeans in BBQ flavor at the store last night and had a couple handfuls of protein today. Yummy!
Work is wreaking havoc with my fitness efforts as well and I wish I knew what to do about it. Time is my enemy….
This is good stuff, Chris. I had heard people talk about the calcium but didn’t understand the reasoning behind it. I know there was a study with calcium fortified chocolate that actually showed weight loss. I just figured it was another reason to eat chocolate.
Oh… You’re welcome! :)
To tell the truth, I thought you’d like that idea of eating smaller amounts, but more often, to avoid “hunger”. Sounds like it might work for you!
xoxo
Mia