No More Messing Around

I have revised my diet plan and I would like to share it with you all. After having such a bad reaction to the Paleo Trial, I needed to get back to full health so I took several days and concentrated on eating whole foods - including whole grains. It's been one week on healing so far, and I am 95% back to health. I've learned my lesson, I will not be messing around anymore with my diet!

I used to eat 3 meals per day plus 1 or 2 snacks. My meals have always been good whole food creations with loads of vegetables among other yummy healthy foods. My problem was my snacks were not always healthy. I used to grab whatever I could find while I was out - usually breaded foods like croissants or muffins. Although I would choose the better option of these snacks (like whole wheat croissants or multi-grain sandwiches), it was still not a good choice overall.

So I've decided to change the way I think about my meals. Rather than 3 meals and 2 snacks, I will have 5 meals. Since I think of a meal as a source of nutrients, I am far less likely to spoil it by eating less healthy foods. In addition, I can portion my meals since I will be eating more often throughout the day.

I will be eating every 3 hours - 8am, 11am, 2pm, 5pm, 8pm. I will also be focusing on high fiber on at least 2 meals. So a typical day will look like this:

• 8am - oatmeal with raisins, sliced almonds, milled flax seeds, cinnamon, 1tbsp coconut oil/udo's oil, almond milk, and sometimes a protein scoop when I will be doing more intense activity.

• 11am - a banana and some nuts or yogurt and berries

• 2pm - roast chicken with couscous and a ton of mixed veggies (small plate or within inner rim of large plate)

• 5pm - 1/2 bran muffin (my own recipe made with almond flour instead of wheat flour) with butter

• 8pm - small bowl of lentil stew or salad loaded with lots of veggies

Drinks: minimum 8 glasses per day (10-12 on days of higher intensity workouts), green tea at least once per day, unsweetened latte with whole milk 1-2 times per week.

As you can see, my day is very structured. Thus, there is no room for snacks that are less nutrient dense. This will greatly help me control my cravings as well (which is also something I am working on). My  goal is to severely limit refined sugar. So if I really want a cookie, I will have to bake it myself in order to ensure that there is only natural sugars used sparingly (like organic raw honey or maple syrup).

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