Monday, January 8, 2007

My nutrition plan

As I already mentioned on my About page, the diet plan I followed the first time around was the one by Dr. Peter D'Adamo called The Blood Type Diet. He claims that each one of the four blood type groups members should eat what's best for their body, and that the blood type makes a difference in how the body digests different foods and fights illnesses. My blood type "A" meant I should've followed the recommendation to become full vegetarian. Somehow, it didn't feel right for me, though I gladly gave up red meat at the time, but continued eating chicken, turkey and fish. Most of my protein intake came from soy products. Other than that, I ate lots of veggies and fruit, minimum dairy products, and no "bad white carbs" products.

This time around, I've decided to change the proposed Blood type diet a bit, to suit me better at this stage of my life.

Protein
Breakfast: Yogurt!!! Every morning!
Lunch: I decided to introduce red meat back into my diet, ones a week. The reason is, red meat contains many of the nutrients essential for good health and well-being (like Iron, Zinc, Selenium, Vitamins & Protein) and when it is low in fat (I eat extra lean ground beef) - its bad effect is minimized, and the benefits I get from it are most valuable. So protein wise, I'm having red meat ones a week, fish tree times a week (salmon, tuna/sardines & white fish/Pollock/Sole), and the other 3 days I rotate with baked chicken, chicken dogs & turkey breast.
Dinner: I have turkey pastrami/soy cheese/white cheese/cottage cheese in rotation.

Fruits and vegetables
Fruits: I eat at least three fruits per day. For breakfast I always have pineapple bits in my yogurt. For my afternoon snack I have a fruit, and the third one comes one hour after dinner. I rotate between grapefruit, apples, pears, melon, watermelon, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, plum, peach, nectarine, etc., depends on the season.
Vegetables: With lunch I mostly have at least 3 servings of cooked veggies. Luckily I love a big variety of veggies, among then are cauliflower, broccoli, carrot, Romano green beans, bok choy, leek, tomatoes, Onion, green onion, Cabbage, Celery, parsley, etc. For dinner I have at least 3 servings of raw veggies, like cucumber, radish, green papers, lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, onion, etc.

I use only cold press virgin olive oil for cooking veggies + variety of spices. I don't use any salad dressing for salads. A bit of salt, dill & lemon juice will do the trick and add good taste.

Fiber
I get this important component of my nutrition from raw oats + Kellogg's all-bran buds which I add to my morning yogurt. I also add 1 teaspoon of Flaxseed to the mix.

The good carbs
I don't consume bad white carbs anymore. Instead of sugar, I use Splenda in my coffee. If I need some flour for my cooking, I use 100% whole wheat flour. Instead of regular white bread I eat 100% whole wheat bread, rice cakes or Rye crackers. I still like pasta, so whenever I crave a pasta dish, I use 100% whole wheat pasta.

Next time I'll post an example of my food plan for one day, and try to explain why I don't count calories, nor writing down everything I eat.

Lorien @ 9:20 pm MT

»»»»»»»»»