What Does Bob Typically Eat In Any Given Day?
Um, I LOVE food and I don't like to get hungry! If you came over to my home you would see that I have a well-stocked pantry, refrigerator, and freezer. I buy foods when they are on sale, and since I live in the Northwest, I go berry picking and freeze extras. I also like to go to farmers markets. Look at Bob's Healthy Kitchen, What's In It? for a description of what kinds of foods I have around.
I take time each week to review my upcoming schedule and check out what's on hand in the refrigerator that needs using up, what I'm running out of, and check the newspaper to see what's on sale. Then armed with a list (or you can print off the food suggestions under Making Quick Dinners: Dinner? What's Quick and Easy?, Quick Vegetarian Main Dish Ideas, Lowfat & Fast Dinner Recipes: Real Food for Busy People, Quick Menu Ideas for Home and On the Go, and Stoveless Meals--I take the list with you to the store.
Since I shop early in the day, there aren't a lot of people in the store and I can get in and out in about 15 minutes! I practice these "lifestyle management strategies"--when I have energy and my brain is thinking well, since I found that if I try to cook and shop when I'm hungry and tired, it never works out.
Many people say that eating healthfully is TOO EXPENSIVE. What I have found that eating in the way I share with you in the Web site, that it costs about $10.50 per day, per person. It is actually cheaper to plan the meals ahead rather that last-minute, frantic shopping or going out to eat because I'm too tired and hungry.
I'm a morning person (get up early) and so I plan shopping trips on either Tuesday or Thursday (I might also go on the weekend for extra items.) immediately after I have gone to the gym. Go to visit The Power of Fun: Celebrate Enjoyable Ways To Be Active! for a description of my workout. Since usually I work afternoons and evenings, I have time during the day to shop and prepare foods. I try cut up fruit or veggies, make salads, or cook a soup or stew when I have time on my schedule.
My favorite category under Making Quick Dinners: Dinner? What's Quick and Easy? is the BAR category: the salad bar, tortilla or burrito bar, potato bar category. I don't do FANCY cooking. I try to keep it simple and delicious. Refer to the Resource section #1 for cookbooks and Web sites.
Now On To Eating! Yum!
What I ate yesterday:
Breakfast:
My typical breakfast is low fat cottage cheese and a variety of fruits (yesterday I had cantaloupe, honeydew, and watermelon cubes), with orange-essence dried plums. I also have a delicious whole wheat, walnut, cinnamon raisin bread (toasted) along with some flax seed oil or healthy fats, and a cup of coffee. I will usually have an assortment of cut up fruits. I also canned fruit for variety. Gander at Breakfasts for additional ideas.
Morning Snack:
I usually have yogurt and fruit one to two times per day. Yesterday I had plain low-fat yogurt, with some sweetener, fresh cut up strawberries and a small banana. Nibble around Nutritious and Yummy Snacks! I may also add some raw walnuts too.
Lunch:
I had Bob's Everything But The Kitchen Salad (see Delicious Dinner Recipes) and marinated cooked vegetables with cooked garbanzo beans on top and a piece of whole wheat bread. Visit as well Lunches for additional ideas.
Afternoon Snack:
One ounce salted peanuts and later I had one cup yogurt with some sweetener, nutmeg and cinnamon, and frozen blueberries. I have this about 4 times per week as my ice cream substitute. Explore Nutritious and Yummy Snacks for many other ideas.
Dinner:
At work, portable in my lunch bag, discover Bob's Strength -Training Food Bag. I brought along a sandwich made with Red Pepper Hummus (a convenience item) that was spread on the bread instead of mayonnaise and also marinated tofu. I also brought along a large container filled with Bob's Salad topped with marinated cooked vegetables. I also had 1/3 cup of Spicy Mexican Dried Soy Beans (from the health-food section bins). I also may top my salad with 2 TB of raw nuts.
Bringing my food with me allows me to eat when I am hungry and to stop eating when I've had just enough. I listen to my body's signals of when I'm satisfied and STOP eating. I always take MORE food with me than I can eat and bring back home any extra foods.
Explore sections: The Grace Of Eating: The Five Contemplations Before Meals, Eating Awareness Training, and Listen to Your Body. It Will Talk to You: Hunger Scale.
Evening Snack:
Right after work, I have 4 dried apricots ( or other dried fruit) halves to keep me until I get home. Then just before bed time I had a fruit-juice bar. There are many delicious ones on the market.
At this time in my life I'm mainly a vegetarian. As you can see, I eat a lot of raw food, perhaps 50% of my food. I eat about 16 - 18 servings of veggies and fruits a day. I eat low fat dairy products and eggs, and fish like salmon, trout, or Albacore tune, and chicken. It took a number of years to gradually begin to eat less meat. The change in eating patterns happened as I found new, delicious vegetarian recipes to use. I share a number of vegetarian recipes and menus on the site. Discover Quick Vegetarian Main Dish Ideas.
So you can see that I eat about every two hours. I keep a LARGE variety of different foods so that I'm not bored. The foods also fueled up my body for my long day. I was up at 4:30 A.M. and didn't get to sleep until 10:00 P.M.
To fuel-up your body in a healthful manner I have found this food pyramid offers wonderful suggestions:
The Healing
Foods Pyramid from the University of Michigan Integrative Medicine:
For a PDF:
Healing
Foods Pyramid.pdf
HEALING FOODS PYRAMID-DESCRIPTION.pdf Explore terrific guideline suggestions to apply the pyramid in your life: There is also a wonderful discussion of the value of nurturing ourselves with these wholesome food choices.
Check out other plans at the FOUNDATION FOOD PLAN SECTION