There is clearly an obsession with what people eat because all over social media people are sharing what they eat. I even did a “What I Ate Wednesday” on Instagram while I was working toward eating to relieve my digestive issues. People want to know what others are eating, it can be inspiring.
My Diet
To start, when I say diet I’m not talking about that thing people do temporarily to lose weight. Diet is how you eat regularly all the time. So here is how I eat 80-95% of the time.
When I got the news that I needed to change my diet, I looked for recipes and lifestyles that I could just follow (such as Paleo, Vegan, Mediterranean, South Beach, etc.) until I got a hang of cooking outside of my normal ways. Clean Eating seemed to fit the best, but there are a few things I have to sub (the use of cane sugar and too much oil) for my IBS issues. I make much of my food from scratch, so this has been easy for me to follow.
On top of clean eating, I eat mostly plant-based or like a semi-vegetarian/flexitarian. Meat is expensive (adding $1+ per serving) and most of it is produced in a way that has a negative impact on our environment. This not only saves me money and helps the environment, but seems to be gentle on my digestive system. I aim to keep meat consumption for when I go out to eat or family gatherings.
To summarize:
- I eat foods as close to their natural state as possible; whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, legumes, lean meat and seafood, etc.
- I avoid processed foods (boxed/pre-packaged foods, things with more than one ingredient, ingredients I do not know what they are, preservatives, and added sugar).
- I focus on eating whole health fat (avocados, coconuts, olives, nuts, seeds, etc.) without consuming too much added oils since that causes IBS issues for me.
- I drink mostly water, decaffeinated herbal tea and a glass of milk each day.
- I try to eat vegetarian at least 75% of the time, in other words meat only once a day.
What I Ate This Week: August 14th – 21th
Note: I did not specially select what week to do this post, I just picked a date and wrote up what I ate. Also, I did not include any of my recipes since it would have made this a CRAZY long post. Let me know if you would be interested in seeing some of my full recipes and maybe I’ll start posting those one day during the week. I link any recipes I used from external sources, however.
Sunday, August 14th
I had a friend in town and we were trying to eat light this day after doing a local food tour the previous day.
Breakfast: 2 peach zucchini oat bran muffins with 1 cup unsweetened soy milk and an herbal tea
Lunch: 2 cups veggies, 2 falafels, 2 T hummus, 1 cup watermelon, 2 coconut date balls
Snack: 2 T peanut butter, 1 coconut date ball
Dinner: 1/2 an order of vegan nachos, 1/2 an order of sesame kale rice bowl with tempeh
Monday, August 15th
Breakfast: 2 peach zucchini oat bran muffins with 1 cup unsweetened soy milk
AM Snack: 7 Trader Joe’s Mini tacos
Lunch: leftover sesame kale rice bowl with tempeh, 2 cups watermelon
PM Snack: tortilla chips and black bean salsa
Dinner: spicy avocado salad (greens, corn, tomato, red onion, black beans and spicy avocado dressing)
Tuesday – Friday, August 16th – 20th
I typically prepare multiple servings of the same dish to eat throughout the week. I personally do not get bored of the same food. It saves a lot of money and time to eat the same dish all week, especially when you are feeding only one or two people.
For breakfast: savory breakfast quinoa (quinoa with steamed kale, sautéed zucchini, a runny egg and avocado)
AM snack: a packet of beef jerky, on sale at Costco this month.
Lunch: 2 cups of watermelon or cantaloupe chunks and 2 slices of a Bison Brat pizza (whole wheat crust, tomato sauce, bison brat (my mother left this gem behind from her visit), white cheddar, red onion, red bell pepper, sauerkraut and mustard)
PM Snack: 1 1/2 cups of veggies with about 2 T hummus, I basically just cut up a ton of veggies throw them in a bag to eat from all week.
Dinner: spicy avocado salad
Evening Snack: homemade mango puree pop
On Wednesday, I did go to an event in the evening, for dinner I had a SoyBoy veggie dog with mustard and sauerkraut on a poppyseed bun along with bites of everything folks brought to share (hummus and herb bread, chips and salsa, Bollywood popcorn, and dill pickle chips).
Saturday, August 21st
Breakfast: unflavored grass-fed whey protein powder mixed in coconut water, french toast
Lunch: leftover cheese sticks, curtesy of my roommate, dipped in my leftover homemade tomato sauce
Snack: watermelon float with homemade vegan ice cream
Dinner: Mediterranean quinoa bowl (quinoa, eggplant, summer squash, red onion and lemon tahini dressing) – this will be my lunch for the next week
Reasonably Fit Life 
Looks amazing!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you!
LikeLike
Interesting. I think you have some very good ideas on prepping and eating for your “diet” and life style, and one can not argue with that. Everything looks very tasty, however being old and somewhat of a traditional cook, I have a hard time transposing a recipe and the ingredients into a finished product, visually. That being said, I am not opposed to trying new and different items, I just have a hard time getting my head around the idea if I am going to like the recipe once it is prepared, especially considering any number of the ingredients may be outside my normal, traditional, food wheelhouse.
But, in keeping with your idea of eating healthy, and considering all aspects of your health, the environment, and personal likes, it looks like you have it right in line.
You can take me off the list for unsweetened soy milk, but I would really like the recipe for the Spicy Avocado Dressing, that could work for me.
Keep up the posts and good luck.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Mark! I completely know what you mean. It was quite an adjustment cooking without the things that I was use to and changing to all unsweetened products. It was not easy locating unsweetened ketchup or jelly sweetened without cane sugar. Although, I have had some complete fails (especially in baking). I feel like I’ve learned so much about the role ingredients play in the final product, which is really cool! I’m happy to share the Spicy Avocado Dressing recipe 🙂 I love drizzling it on almost everything 🙂
Spicy Avocado Dressing
1 avocado
¼ c. chopped cilantro
¼ c lime juice
⅛ t sea salt
1 t minced garlic
¼ c water
1 t hot sauce sauce (or more if you like it hotter)
Put everything in a blender and blender until smooth or if you like it a little chunky look for the cilantro to be in little bits throughout. I recommend using this within ~5 days.
LikeLike