Here is where I am in my eating plan. At the
Health Getaway Dr. Fuhrman talked about different levels of being a "nutritarian", analogous to karate: so white belt, yellow belt, brown belt, black belt. I feel I'm a brown belt but I'm close to being a black belt. I think to get there, I will focus on the simple diet plan in the
Eat to Live book where every day you eat 1 lb of raw vegetables (including lots of leafy greens), 1 lb of cooked (lots of leafy greens), 1 cup of beans, 4-5 servings of fruit, and at least 1 oz of raw nuts and seeds (in my case, that should be 2-4 oz). Okay, I don't think I'm going to count the lbs of veggies, or maybe I might try it once just to see if I'm close. To start off, I'm going to aim for 1 cup of beans, 2-4 oz nuts and seeds, lots of veggies, and some fruit. The 1 cup of beans is the part I have been working on since returning from the Getaway. I find I have to regulate the other quantities in order to get this in comfortably. I now see why people say when you eat this way, you won't be hungry. I also want the beans and nuts&seeds to provide protein to add some bulk to my frame if my body chooses to use it. So that's my plan. I will try to be simple at first because that's easiest. I don't like to prepare more than one dish for a meal because of time constraints, so a main dish + salad is too much food prep for me at lunch (the meal I spend most of my time preparing because of house-mate's schedule). So here's a plan that could work for me:
lunch:
this barbiebeangreens (my new name for beans, greens, nuts&seeds dish; too dumb?) or
this one (my favorite). + sweet corn right now---ooh, I could add it to the main dish. maybe fruit another time. 1 raw carrot while preparing (I love raw carrots).
dinner: leftover barbiebeangreens (or should I call it beangreens?), salad+fruit. 1 raw carrot while preparing
When I'm out, a smoothie + 1/2 cup beans can substitute at lunch or dinner. It satisfies the requirement of the big 4: beans, greens, nuts&seeds, and fruit.
Okay, I'll see if this works and report back...