Vegetarian Healthy Eating Plan
Oh the joys of having your kitchen flood... As I'm sitting home waiting for it to get fixed today, I figured I'd do a different kind of "work." I spend so much time at my day job and on my hobbies, that I end up neglecting my health... So my self-imposed work assignment for today is to come up with a plan to be more healthy. Since the gym at work is having a fitness challenge for the next 8 weeks, I figure why not clean up my eating habits at the same time...
Over the years, I spent a lot of time reading up on all kinds of diets (and trying a good many of them!), and I'm coming to realize that they really are totally personal choices. I'm not contesting the results because I saw loads of testimonials and know lots of people who have experience with them working. However, I really struggle with the thoughts behind a lot of them,especially factoring in that I am vegetarian. I started mentally bucketing the types of diets as I went through trying to figure out what could work for me.
The first group focuses on eliminating/minimizing specific food groups. I have a hard time connecting with these for 2 main reasons. First, I feel like it leaves a nutrient void. Second (and more realistically), if I "can't" have something, that's pretty much a guarantee that I'll be thinking about it all day.
The second group feels like they have too many rules. I get so confused trying to understand them and what I am/am not allowed, that there is no way I will stay compliant.
The third groups suggests lowering the daily calorie intake a lot. I understand this from the general idea that "in" should be less that "out" to lose weight. However, I tried to do the math for what you should have in a day based on the USDA recommendations and I just couldn't get it to work. I feel like I'd be undernourished, which I personally think is equally bad.
Finally, in general, I feel like a lot of diets are short-term fixes. I don't know how I'd be able to sustain it. For me, it's so much easier to follow and commit to something when I understand what I'm doing and it find it reasonable. That being said, my "work" today is to plan out menus I can follow with a few main concepts in mind.
Hit all the food groups!
Avoid white sugar, white flour, white rice (and things that they are hidden in)
Decrease bad fats, increase good fats (I feel like fats drew the short straw historically....)
Minimize processed food (Note: not eliminate - it's just not practical for my lifestyle to make everything from scratch)
Eat smaller meals more frequently