The Diet that made me *feel* the best....

[James81]

Of all the things I tried, this basic diet made me feel better than any of them....

Breakfast: A piece of fruit of some kind
Lunch: Apple, Orange, banana, and a bag of carrots (sometime I would add a turkey and swiss with humus on a wheat pita bun)

Supper: Any variation of the following:

Steamed brocolli, carrots, and cauliflower all together with some butter and salt and a potato of some sort (usually "fried" but not like you think...I do a healthy version of fried potatoes that doesn't use grease, but olive oil mostly with a tad of butter).

A 6 inch subway sub (usually turkey or ham)

Grilled Tilapia, garden salad, and a green vegetable (green beans usually)

For snacks I would eat any of the following:

Mixed Nuts
Popcorn
Fruit cereal bars
Granola (oats and honey)

I worked out about 3 to 4 times a week. 2 days of weight training every week (which included a half hour of cardio with it) plus 1 or 2 more days of cardio. And a nice cool down in the swimming pool at the gym.

I never felt better on that diet and I wanna get back to that.

My inspiration for said diet didn't come from anything other than the Food Guide Pyramid.

How about you? What diet from your past made you feel the best?

*Make note that I use the word "diet" here simply as "eating habits" moreso than a weight loss program. Although, I lost about 20 lbs doing above diet.

[Weena]

High protein, no carbs. On a strictly "feel good + high level of energy" point of view.

But... I love rice and pasta so much...

[russianrocket]

Sure don't look like it's inspired from any food guide pyramid I've ever seen

[James81]

Originally Posted by russianrocket

Sure don't look like it's inspired from any food guide pyramid I've ever seen

Yeah, I remember having this conversation with you a long time ago. (I think it was you.) Someone else told me this once, and pointed out that it was a little light on the dairy and the grain part.

Trust me, it was all there. I'm just posting what I was most focused on (fruits and vegetables).

[votoshka]

Originally Posted by James81

Yeah, I remember having this conversation with you a long time ago. (I think it was you.) Someone else told me this once, and pointed out that it was a little light on the dairy and the grain part.

Trust me, it was all there. I'm just posting what I was most focused on (fruits and vegetables).

Yeah, and I think this was rr's point! The food pyramid is very skewed towards grains and cereals. Your version actually looks somewhat better imho!

[russianrocket]

Originally Posted by James81

Yeah, I remember having this conversation with you a long time ago. (I think it was you.) Someone else told me this once, and pointed out that it was a little light on the dairy and the grain part.

Trust me, it was all there. I'm just posting what I was most focused on (fruits and vegetables).

Don't think it was me. Unless I'm having a senior moment

Originally Posted by votoshka

Yeah, and I think this was rr's point! The food pyramid is very skewed towards grains and cereals. Your version actually looks somewhat better imho!

That's correct. James' diet, also iMho, looks much better then the food pyramid. So I wouldn't even use the pyramid as an example. That thing needs to be thrown out. A good question might be... Which came first.

The food pyramid, or government supplementation of certain aspects of the food industry.

[James81]

Originally Posted by russianrocket

Don't think it was me. Unless I'm having a senior moment


That's correct. James' diet, also iMho, looks much better then the food pyramid. So I wouldn't even use the pyramid as an example. That thing needs to be thrown out. A good question might be... Which came first.

The food pyramid, or government supplementation of certain aspects of the food industry.

I appreciate the vote of confidence in my diet. I would, however, urge you to notice that I said it "inspired by" the food pyramid and not rigidly based on it. I looked at the food pyramid for the ratios of the different types of foods to eat on a daily basis, and then I began to adjust those ratios in a way that felt best for me given my lifestyle.

At one time I was taking in the dairy part by drinking two glasses of milk per day. The grains part only called for like 6 oz. (or something like that), and I figured I could get that in the types of bread I was using for my sandwiches (turkey and tuna were my go-to's in that regard, and I used the bread that had the grains in it...that you could physically feel in that bread and chew on it because I thought they were delicious. ).

[joelr]

Yeah, lean protein, some (but not too many) complex carbs, healthy fat and lots of plants.
You're working out so a lot of the carbs are put to good use, the protein is keeping your muscles from shrinking and your calories are low enough to allow for fat loss. Plus the plants keep the vitamins and such coming in.

Can't beat that. The only thing is I don't know how long it took to drop 20 lbs?
Those granola and fruit/nut bars are usually loaded with sugar and play havok with blood sugar. There so small too, like an ipod nano. I'd need one the size of my keyboard. Not my computer keyboard, my Roland piano keyboard.
If I ate one of those while dieting I'd get really hungry suddenly and before I came to my senses I'd have eaten the entire box cardboard and all. And be in the supermarket checkout lane with 6 more cases.

[Gabo]

The best I've ever felt was on my 30 day raw vegan trial. I've never had so much constant energy and mental clarity from waking up until going back to bed every day! I would stick to that diet if only it didn't involve hours of meal preparation and eating a truckload of food every day to maintain my weight.

[quin]

The best I've ever felt was eating mostly alkalinizing foods (lots of fresh produce) and abstaining from dairy.

[firenexx]

In general, I try to include a large variety of nutritionally dense foods.

Breakfast: Smoothie. Usually contains several fruits, raw agave nectar, hemp protein powder, coconut oil, camu berry powder, maca, spinach and/or kale, pinch of sea salt, pinch of ground rooibos, some type of seed like flax or sesame, coconut milk or rice milk

This gives me the nutritional edge I need. I feel great throughout the morning and day because of all the good crap that is in this smoothie. Once in a while I have something different like a pancake or some sort of hot or soaked cereal. But a base of fruit with a small amount of other blended ingredients is very easy for me to digest and get quick energy from.

Lunch:
Salad (with all the fixin's)

This has treated me well, and I rarely deviate from this. I change the type of salad and its ingredients often, and this successfully staves off boredom.

For dinner, I change it up. Sometimes I'll have a soup, rice or quinoa with a stir-fry, or lightly steamed veggies. I try to include important things not covered earlier, like garlic, onions, ginger, turmeric, sea veggies, etc.

If I eat a large, cooked dinner, I feel like crap and it takes forever to digest. Lately I've been leaning towards raw or lightly cooked stuff for dinner. Until I get a juicer or make some preparation changes, it would be hard to eat more raw stuff as I really can't eat too few calories or I'll start dropping the pounds. I'm pretty stable right now which is good.

I would second what quin said. Staying away from acid-forming foods has made me feel a lot better.
I explained my general menu to my girlfriend and she said "boring" to the fact that I have a smoothie and a salad nearly every day. I don't get bored, because I get my variety in the way of many ingredients in a single food versus many foods with fewer ingredients. If I put in any more meal variety I'd be overwhelmed with food prep, which is not where I want to be right now.

[openeyes]

large bowl of ~3-5 cups steamed veggies with a tablespoon or two of butter and sometimes a few ounces of wild salmon

shake with 4 raw whole eggs with a banana or two, a cup of raspberries, teaspoon each of cinnamon and turmeric, and sometimes a cup of a green leafy veggie.

Those are my staples that I have some version of most every day. The rest of my intake is more variable, but it generally adds up to ~1700 calories per day, which is unintentionally low but stable and works for me.

My blood work matches people on caloric restriction, as does my caloric intake, but I don't feel like I'm missing anything, and have no trouble eating things that taste good to me. I just eat slowly and stop once I start feeling satisfied, even if that means only having half what's on my plate, or going back for thirds I consistently feel excellent and am able to do what I want physically and mentally.