Every time you eat is an opportunity to nourish your body...
A year ago, my diet consisted mainly of carbs, greasy foods, many unhealthy snacks... and instant noodles
When I began my fitness journey I made the same mistake many people do when they decide to lose weight, I went into a very low-calorie diet. It was hard, as you may imagine, to keep it up however I was successful to ignore my hunger while I lasted with this diet. I was impressed with myself because I didn't have such powerful self-control regarding food but here I was strongly ignoring my hunger. I kept this diet for around three months approximately without any professional supervision or advice. Furthermore, my focus was just on the number of calories I had each day, I didn't pay attention to the amount I was having for each macronutrient, which is equally important. It wasn't until reading about the consequences of following this type of diet (as well as beginning to suffer some of them) that I decided to finally seek professional help. I must say it was one of the best decisions I have done so far in my fitness journey and I am thankful, foremost with God and secondly with my dietitian for my current diet.
A year ago, my diet consisted mainly of carbs, greasy foods, many unhealthy snacks (cookies, chocolate, and chips), and instant noodles. Not so healthy, I know. Over the years I tried to change my food choices on more occasions than I can count. But sooner or later I always came back to my old habits for several reasons: lack of time, laziness, no self-control, lack of knowledge on balanced diets, deprivation from my favorite foods, and the list goes on. My mom, who was worried about my weight gain during my teen years, took me to several dieticians around this time and each one of them had something in common: they will give me a meal plan I had to follow and would tell me to eliminate all my favorite treats. These meal plans were mainly like the images below:
Now, these meals are delicious for sure but for my teen self, who was used to eating meals like the ones below, the meals above that were given by dietitians were boring and bland. Click on each image on the left to enlarge them.
I would follow my meal plans for two weeks at most and then I would go back to eating the high carb greasy catracha (a nickname for Honduran people) food I was used to eating. One of the reasons why I couldn't stick to these meal plans is because I don't like to be told what to do (referring to my personal life). I like making my own choices, especially with food. For this reason, I was reluctant to seek a dietitian's help when I began my fitness journey in July last year. However, I found this young lady who focuses on teaching her patients to have a balanced diet without making huge sacrifices. She also focuses more on finding healthier choices for the less healthy food we may like -pizzas, cakes, cookies, hamburgers, pasta, bread- rather than eliminating them from the diet. She provides balanced diets to her patients that include all food groups -grains and cereals, vegetables, fruits, legumes, fat, protein (meat and poultry), and dairy- on at least two mealtimes. And she gives us the freedom of creating our own meal plans by following given parameters for each food group through an app called Nutrimind.
Because of this, I have come to discover many foods that I either didn't know existed or wasn't interested in tasting before, ranging from vegetables to creams such as brussel sprouts, edamame, cottage cheese, hummus, and more. Many of these discoveries are now constantly part of my diet, which is a plant-based one now. I mostly prepare my meals as salad types because vegetables are what I eat the most, including breakfast. I have four mealtimes: breakfast, lunch, evening snack, and dinner. And usually, I eat a combination of savory and sweet meals for breakfasts and snacks. Here are some meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack) I prepared with the parameters given by my dietitian. Click on each image below to enlarge them.
Below I specify some examples of foods I eat per group so you have an idea of my diet.
Grains and Cereals: oatmeal, rice, quinoa, potatoes, yuca, malanga, green banana, legume pasta, noodles
Vegetables: cucumber, radishes, brussel sprouts, okra, broccoli, chives, onions, beet, lorocos
Fruits: apples, strawberries, blueberries, pears, peach, grapes, mango, papaya, tomatoes
Legumes: edamame, green beans, black beans, garbanzos, pinto beans, hummus
Fat: avocados, olives, seeds (chia, sesame, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds), nuts (almonds, peanuts, cashews, pecans), nut butter (almond butter, peanut butter, cashew butter)
Dairy: feta cheese, goat cheese, mozzarella cheese, cottage cheese, natural yogurt, greek yogurt, almond milk, coconut milk, sour cream
Meat and poultry: red meat (in moderation), chicken, seafood (conch meat, shrimps, squid, octopus, tuna, sardines), turkey, eggs
I still eat several of my favorite treats such as cookies. I buy some delicious ones from a local producer that uses natural ingredients to make them (I will share on my Instagram which ones I am referring to in case you are honduran and want to try them out). And I recently discovered options for the unhealthy meals I love (cakes and pizza). Whenever I want a cake, I prepare a mug cake (so far I have tried doing cacao, apple cinnamon, and chocolate mug cakes) and when I want a pizza, I make the dough using corn flour for tortillas and prepare it in the microwave with all the toppings I want (my favorite pizza is the supreme one). Soon, I will try doing a Hawaiian pizza because, and I apologize to those who believe pizza and pineapple shouldn't be together, I love its flavor.
I am quite happy with my diet now. I am not saying it's perfect because it probably isn't but is healthier than how it used to be. I feel my body is getting all the nutrients it needs from several natural (at least the majority) foods as well as discovering and enjoying new ones I haven't had before. I feel more energized to do activities that before was too lazy to do but still forced myself to do because I had to (such as house chores). I enjoy looking for healthy meal ideas on social media to taste new recipes that will nourish my body and help me reach my goals.
I named this post ''My Plant-Based Diet'' but I want to let you know that this is not a diet but a lifestyle for me. I see myself eating this way for the rest of my life and teaching my future children to eat this way too. I am committed to learning more and improving how I am eating to have a healthier balanced diet that will nourish my body. I believe each person should embark on the journey of experimenting and finding out what foods and macronutrient ratios are good for themselves as each body is different and not necessarily what helps one person will help another person. Also, I advise you to try out new foods, recipes, seasonings, whatever... it's fun to discover a delicious flavor and thinking of new recipe ideas to have diverse meal choices for each mealtime. I will be posting meal ideas and recipes that I think you will enjoy trying out. See you in my next post! And remember, moderation not deprivation! It's alright to have a cookie or a piece of cake once in a while... it will not cause you to lose everything you have accomplished. Depriving yourself could backfire, trust me I know because I have been there.
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