Recommendations for totally changing my diet

[simon]

Hi there

My diet is something that I want to totally revamp, and I'm looking for good advice from those who are qualified or who have done something similar.

I guess my diet in January has consisted of lots of coffee, water, occasionally smoothies, pasta, pizza, sometimes salmon and rice, sandwiches and thats about it. Looking at it like that makes me kind of ashamed in my diet, but hey, that's why I'm trying to improve it. As a major positive though, I've now quit alcohol after many years of regularly hammering my body with binge drinking.

I would like my diet to serve as the foundation for better mental concentration, an increased sense of well being and a hugely increased level of physical activity. I'm not asking for something amazing, just a good foundation of staple food that I can build on throughout this year.

I work six days a week and would like simple meals to make as I'm currently not a great cook (although maybe later in the year I will take cooking lessons)

Any ideas on vitamins and supplements I can start with on top of this diet would be greatly appreciated. Also any good references on the Internet anyone has because I haven't been able to find anything superb.

Has anyone else had experience in going from a (to be honest) awful diet and relatively mediocore energy levels, to the complete opposite. I'm looking to turn this area of my life totally around.

I will be so appreciative if anyone could offer me advice - if there are any questions that you need to ask, I will answer them!

[DRK]

Wow, congratulations on choosing to make such a positive change. Be prepared for tons of conflicting advice, though.
To start with, read Steve's advice on quitting coffee.
After that, at the very least start adding in lots of vegetables & fruit, and if you keep eating pasta & breads, choose whole grain versions. It's really a very short adjustment to the different taste/texture of whole grain flours.
I prefer being vegan, and find it quite beneficial, but if you choose to keep eating meat/dairy, stick with as low fat as possible, and keep the quantity down. Think of those items as condiments, not the main course. (Like in much Asian cuisine, where the base of the meal is noodles or rice, with very small amounts of meat.)
For nutritional information (again, you'll get tons of different opinions here), I'd look to Dr. John McDougall (he has a website, books, etc. - for inspiration, read the testimonials by "star mcdougallers" on his site) and T. Colin Campbell, author of the China Study (recommended by Steve). Other doctors in the same low-fat vegan arena include Dr. Esseltyne & Dr. Barnard.
Really, you could have a much healthier diet that's very similar to your current one. Drop the coffee. Switch to whole grain pasta, with tons of vegetables. Use as little added fat as possible. Eat a huge salad once a day. Make veggie sandwiches on whole grain bread. Try cheese-less, meat-less pizza on whole grain crust. (It really is much better than it sounds.)
Dr. McDougall's wife, Mary, has written some cookbooks, including ones with super-simple recipes.
For me, I've gone from a really lousy diet (I'd get my ground beef burritos from Taco Bell with extra cheese) to feeling much better following a McDougall-style diet, more or less. I feel even better following a Dr. Graham-style, 80-10-10 raw vegan diet (similar to Steve's 30-day trial), but that's such a radical change that I hesitate to recommend it.
Good luck. One final piece of advice - find a diet that seems right to you, and give it a 100% effort for a few weeks, at least. That will be much easier than trying to find a middle ground between all the possible options. You could spend months reading about all the options, but you'll learn more by focusing on just one approach at a time. If it doesn't work, try something else.

[Jennihul]

I think you could do Natural Hygiene/Fit For Life and be safe from falling into a fad trap.

Been there, done that, did well. But I prefer the blood type diet as it keeps me from accidentally eating foods that are not healthy for me, though they may be healthy for others. The ultimate customized personal diet.


Jennifer

[Keith]

My personal favourite:

1 celery stick (~1 ft long)
1 lebanese cucumber (or 1/2 a continental one)
1 banana
1/2 cup rice milk

Optional (either/or):
* 1 handful baby spinach leaves
* 150g silken tofu (for protein if you're working out).
* 1 tbsp linseed (aka flaxseed) oil (for Omega 3)
* [EDIT] frozen mixed berries are a nice addition.

Throw it all in a blender (maybe chop the celery and cucumber first depending on your blender). Puree. Drink. Doesn't come any easier than that. When I work out in the mornings I have half of it before I go and half when I come back so I'm not too full.

A diet shift like yours is also a lot easier if you have regular small meals, 'cos then you don't get hungry and are less likely to fall back on doughnuts or whatever.

[Thomas H]

Hi Simon

Congrats on wanting to change the state of your health, it takes a lot of courage to make that decision and even more to ask for help so I think you're off to a great start!!

You should create a clear reason of why you want to improve your health. It'll give you something to look back on if you feel like you want to quit because it gets hard, through my experience personal change can be. Think about something specific that you want to achieve with that increased concentration and increased physical activity that you're asking for. I would create a statement like:

I want to be healthy because I want to be able to achieve...X

or

My health is vitally important in helping me achieve...X

Now you have your mantra, your reason and purpose for creating this change.

For your diet my one recommendation is to increase the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables in your diet. What could be simpler than that. By increase I mean as much as you can tolerate at the beginning and as you're able to tolerate more keep adding more. Try eating some fruit before or during your commute to work, or maybe a big salad for dinner. No cooking required!!

I don't use supplements so I will not recommend any to you.

As for going through the experience I have and I can say to this point of in my life, making my health one of my top priorities was the best decision I've ever made.

If there's anything else I can do to help you please post here, or PM me and we can continue the discussion further.

Tom

p.s. You may not be looking for anything amazing but being truly healthy feels amazing!

[simon]

Thank you for taking the time out to give me feedback. I've made some notes and done some of my own research since I last posted.

From my small amount of research, I was astounded to learn how important Vitamin C is to your body. That said, I've created a time management framework in February whereby I can ensure adequate time for preparation of meals. I have three meal times per day and I will improve the quality of these meals whilst using supplements with each (vitamin c, amino acids, multivitamins). For instance, as I write this post I'm having salmon with whole grain rice.

As recommended, I'm taking one step at a time, so I'll do the above for February and then decide what to do in March.

I am interested in going vegan long term, since it sounds so beneficial not only for my health but also since I read that this is better for the planet as well - wasting less energy, etc. Actually, if anyone has information on this aspect of food and its relationship to society and the environment, I'd love to read that too.

I'm also interested in the blood type diet - this sounds sensible so I'll be looking into this as well.

Thanks for the smoothy idea, I will give that a try, currently I bung some bannanas, strawberries, yogurt and milk together - tastes great, but i'm looking for new ideas

In terms of affirmations, I've decided that at my current level of development, they're relatively useless to me- I find that I get stuck in the circle of trying to perfect my visualisations, and its much more rewarding just to get stuck into work rather than thinking about it.

If there's any interest to do so, I will keep people up to date on my progress. I'm expecting some good positive gains, since during January I saw some amazing aspects develop whilst refraining from alcohol.

Thanks again for the feedback, needless to say I've made notes and will be looking into them!

Simon