The Diet That Works for Me

Photo (not me) by christinenielsen 

I was struck by the idea of the body being not just a “temple” but—ritually— an “altar.”  Not many of us have temples in our homes but most of us spiritual-minded people do have altars, sometimes more than one.  What if we respected our bodies and held them as sacred as we do our altars?

I promised a while ago that I would explain my I-feel-great diet.  It’s not really a diet so much as finding the right foods and processes that work for me. I was on this particular regimen for two months, went off of it because of some situations at the office that didn’t allow me to follow it, and now I’m back on it.  Within a day or two of going off this eating plan, I felt awful again, and within a day or two of re-initiating it, I felt good again, with lots of energy.  My weight has fluctuated, mainly because I’ve dropped fat pounds and replaced them with muscle pounds but rather than let the scales determine my good mood, I’m letting how I feel physically determine my good mood.

I know what works and doesn’t for my metabolism, and my doctor agreed that it was a good plan.  This isn’t dietary advice for anyone else and I’m not here to tell you what to do—it’s just a glimpse into something that works for me and you can decide for yourself if it’s something you want to investigate.

Change in Processes:

1. I eat regularly.  Not regularly as in once every 6 hours but once every 2.5 to 3 hours.  Possibly 4. This keeps my blood sugar even, though my bosses are very unhappy that I can’t sit through a 5-hour meeting without feeding myself something decent (unlike their constant cola-and-candy-bar intake).   I’m much calmer—none of that annoying edginess from sugar ups and downs.  I don’t eat when I’m not hungry, I do eat when I’m hungry, and I stop eating when I’m full but not stuffed.
2. I drink water, including flavored water and vitamin-enriched water.  When my girls were babies, I found that sometimes they were just thirsty, not hungry, and that made me think about whether my snack-attacks were really because I was dehydrated a lot.   I gave up caffeine less than 6 months ago—which was in ALL my favorite drinks—because it was mimicking heart failure symptoms and I kinda like to breathe.  I now drink cold water throughout the day, sometimes as much as 100 ounces a day.  Instead of a Coke with breakfast and half-way through the morning and afternoon as well as iced tea at lunch and dinner, I replaced them all with water.  If I’m at a restaurant where I don’t want the water (for whatever reason), I order skim or very low fat milk (I converted long ago) or possibly orange juice if I don’t see a healthier drink on the menu.  I have a glass of red wine before bedtime, though, as part of my cool-down period in the evening when I do a little online socializing.
3. I found an exercise I like.  I’ve always loved walking and have powerwalked for an hour at a time with Shannon most days over the past few years.  My most effective speed is slow enough that we can carry on an enthusiastic conversation but fast enough that we can’t sing (if we could sing!).   With Shannon’s work and school schedule, the powerwalks aren’t as much fun, so I’ve changed the process a little.  I now take 1-hour powerwalks alone with my digital tape recorder, dictating books to be transcribed later.  I refer to these as my “walkie-talkies.”  Or, I take 1-hour powerwalks on my treadmill while I watch part of a movie or TV series on dvd.  On weekends, I’ll extend the time on the treadmill to watch the entire movie, which I refer to as my movie-move-me-a-thons.  I top off each session with some weight-works, mainly leg extensions for my injured knee. 
4. I allow myself a free day or a cheat day where I can treat myself to dessert or a special dinner  (date night!)  that doesn’t fit my regular eating plan.  This keeps life interesting, keeps my body from getting too accustomed to the foods and therefore plateauing for any weight loss, and it keeps me from feeling that my diet will be a life-sentence of drudgery.  If I have a day planned with the girls, I schedule my cheat day usually on Saturdays from midnight to midnight.  If I have weekend plans out of town or with a date, I may start my cheat day at noon  or 3 PM on Saturday and carry it forward 24 hours to accommodate all the special meals and events better.

 Change in Food:

1. I found the right metabolic mix.  For me, it’s mainly protein and veggies, with occasional fruits and vitamins.  This is very different from my ex’s diet that I followed and put on 30-pounds within VERY quickly.  People are great at telling me what I “should” eat but I gained too much weight eating “shoulds” and felt awful.  We’re not all alike and what is right for one metabolism isn’t necessarily right for another.
2. I aim for at least 2 ounces of protein with every meal, preferrably fish or fowl.  If I can’t have fish, fowl, or eggs, I may substitute egg white protein powder in a flavored drink with a little fruit (this is the breakfast smoothie mentioned in Gifts for the Goddess on a Warm Spring Morn, coming in June.)
3. I cut out the bread.  Forgoing the yeast roll at dinner is not hard. 
4. I also cut out white carbs–white potatoes, rice, most pasta. And drastically reduced corn, which is a favorite.  These were having the same effect on my system as mass quantities of sugar and were equally bad for me.  I will eat rice now if it’s part of my sushi and I’ll occasionally have whole-wheat pasta with my spaghetti, or rice noodles.  Sometimes I’ll substitute spaghetti squash for noodles, which is actually kind of interesting.  The potatoes/rice/pasta fare was what slapped on the extra pounds when I was on my ex’s diet when he lost lots of weight—to me, they’re deadly. 
5. The one time I can have potatoes, rice, bread, or pasta is either an hour before I go work out or an hour after, so that I now earn my carbs and the fuel from them is directly applied to the exercise.
6. I hate veggies, but I found some I like.  This took a little bit of looking and experimenting.  I don’t have to like ALL veggies, though.  All I have to do is pick out 4 or 5 that I can tolerate to love and change up my daily menu accordingly.
7. I respect the fact that I’m busy by making it EASY.  I’m a very busy person.  I need to keep my food simple during the week (I can always splurge on my date night).  My typical breakfast, morning snack, lunch, and afternoon snack are all in the freezer and refridgerator at work or at home.  I buy sandwich meats and frozen pre-cooked microwavable chicken strips, or make crock-potted chicken kept in the fridge for my protein.  For the veggies, I love Green Giant’s healthy mixes and usually have a choice of several veggie/legume mixes (like carrots/zucchini/beans or  beans/edamame/carrots), sweet peas, snap peas, etc.  I try not to repeat the same veggie in a day, if possible, because I like variety.  My breakfast today consisted of 1 small strip of chicken and a cup of English peas and tomorrow may be a few ounces of ham with an apple.  It never takes longer than 5 minutes to prepare any of these meals, I get some variety without thinking much about it, and because it’s quick and easy and available, I don’t run off to the Food Court for a slice of pizza to wolf down before my next meeting.

So there you have it.  That’s the regimen that works for me to feel my best.