Deciding what to eat

Something I struggle with is figuring out what to eat in a way that will meet my nutritional needs, ensure a caloric deficit, and be palatable. All of the general guidelines are out there on the internet, and most of us probably know them by heart. Implementing them in a way that works for our lifestyles and eating preferences, however, is the challenge.

By general guidelines, I'm referring, in part, to the popular credos that we eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, and include sufficient protein, fiber, and fat in every meal. But what is "sufficient?" And what about the warning not to overdo it on fruit as it can be high in sugar, despite the counteracting effects of fiber?

To a certain extent, we all have to find our own way, but reading about what works for other people can give us some ideas on where to start. I like to keep things simple, which means I don't want to spend a lot of time weighing my food and counting calories. What has helped me is eating the same sort of thing for breakfast and lunch every day.

Breakfast

For breakfast, I have a whole-wheat English muffin with two tablespoons of natural peanut butter and two slices of tomato. I eyeball the peanut butter, which is a no-no in some Calorie In Calorie Out (CICO) circles, but I measure a lot when I cook, and it's working for me for now. This comes out to around 300 calories.

My favorite English muffin is Nature's Promise, the organic line from Stop and Shop. The texture is really nice and pillowy, and they're easy to split in half by hand. Runner-up is the regular Stop and Shop store-brand English muffins. The texture is a little less pillowy, and you can still split them in half by hand, but it takes a little more oomph. In third place is Trader Joe's, which is a lot more ... rustic in texture and requires a fork to split in half. The nice thing about Trader Joe's products is that you'd probably recognize everything in the ingredient list as actual food.

Lunch

Lunch is a bit more variable for me, but variations on a theme. I take a salad-size plate and put a small portion of protein on it. This can be one serving of baked tofu from either Trader Joe's or the Nasoya brand. Or it can be salmon sashimi, canned smoked trout from Trader Joe's, or breaded tilapia fillets from Costco. I've also found the canned smoked trout, available online at World Market, under the brand name Appel. It tastes like fish bacon and is superior to the other brands I've tried, including Bumblebee and Cole's, both available through Walmart's website.

One serving of baked tofu is half a package for either of the brands I listed above. It's around 150 calories and about the size of half a deck of playing cards. It's also an entire can of canned smoked trout. I use the "half of a deck of playing cards" sizing reference to eyeball the salmon sashimi and tilapia as well.

The rest of the salad-size plate, I fill with roasted vegetables. Once a week, I spend half the day roasting tray after tray of various vegetables. I'll write more about that in a future post. For lunch, I pick two or more of the vegetables to complete my plate. I don't pile them up high, but you can't see a lot of empty space on my plate after I'm done, other than the rim.

I finish off my lunch with an orange. This can make me feel quite full, which is a thing they tell you to avoid. But if I skip it, I become ravenously hungry throughout the afternoon due to insufficient carbs or sugar. Perhaps this will fade in time, but it works for now, and it's only about 50 additional calories.

In the summer, I'll probably switch to raw, cut vegetables and hummus or a dressing. It gets too hot in my house to roast anything or use the oven. This is because we try not to use the air conditioning and despite multiple repair efforts, our air conditioners have remained mostly non-functional for the past two years.

Snacks

I get peckish around 9:30am and 3pm. At those times, I've been having 12 almonds as a snack, for a total of around 1/4 cup a day. These are the dry roasted and salted almonds from Trader Joe's, and they come out to around 85 calories per snack. Yesterday, I had popcorn with herbs and spices from Trader Joe's as my afternoon snack. I probably had about 200 calories' worth or around 3 cups.

Dinner

Dinner is all over the place, depending on what I cook that day. I make sure that I have some protein, some vegetables, and some fat. Fat is usually not a problem to incorporate since I cook with olive oil. I aim for about 400 calories total.

I don't eat after 8pm. After dinner, I usually don't have any dessert. If I'm still feeling hungry though, I might have part or all of a package of Belvita blueberry bars, which can run up to 230 calories. This weekend, I had a mini chocolate chip cookie from Costco, which is around 50 calories.

I find that having a set framework for breakfast and lunch helps me manage my caloric intake. I know approximately how much I'm ingesting. Then, variation at dinner keeps me from getting stuck in a rut, and also keeps my family from overthrowing me in a coup.