How do you balance your diet for a healthier lifestyle?

[SeManTics]

Please do tell us...how do you diet?

 

[SeManTics]

My diet:

The SAMPLER diet. While not yet in effect for me, the basic, general idea is that, OK, so I go to this mall, to the food court or farmer's market, and all I do is pick a few fruit booths and hot food booths and ice cream stands and take a few samples. That's all. That's all there is to it. That's all that I need. Now, that's just for lunch. What else do I do? Well, believe it or not, I skip breakfast. Also, in addition, every evening I go a few blocks over to the local KFC, get a honey BBQ chicken breast sandwich, with sides of coleslaw and macaronian cheese, and walk next door to blockbuster, go home and have a KFC-version dinner-and-a-movie. Easy. Simple. Healthy. And FUN!

 

[BoulderHead]

What's your favorite tasting movie? :tongue2:

 

[motai]

High complex-carbohydrate diet with protein. Lots of grains and peanut butter to fuel the long-distance runner within . I subsist on the old school peanut & jelly sandwiches and drink mostly water, and occasionally gatorade. For fruits I subsist on bananas, watermelon slices, and the occasional orange. And vegetables, everything is fair game except avocados (euhh), brussel sprouts (eughhh), and raw bean curd (eughehhgh). Tofu is fine, and an excellent substitute for fast food.

Fast food (including most university food) really upsets my system and I can't run a mile without my body going haywire. Tends to produce diarrhea-like symptoms .

 

[jimmy p]

I eat about one meal a day.

 

[Moonbear]

Well, this time of year I'm storing up fat for winter

Actually, now I'm just maintaining my weight rather than dieting. That means coffee for breakfast and sometimes I get around to making toast or a bowl of cereal, begging the women who serve lunch at the faculty center to stop trying to fatten me up (typically, for lunch I eat either half a portion of whatever they are serving as a hot dish, or a sandwich, or a salad with hardboiled egg and cottage cheese or a scoop of tuna for some fat and protein). Dinner is random. Not usually very large portions of anything, just enough to feel satisfied but not full. I avoid fast food and while I haven't completely cut soda out of my diet, I drink maybe one can a week.

When I was dieting (took me about 4 months to lose 15 lbs), I just really counted calories for everything that went into my mouth. I'm on the short side, so took a guess that an 1800 calorie diet was probably healthy for me, so I aimed for 1500 calories knowing if I went over a little I'd be okay, but keeping it low enough to actually lose weight. During that time, I had a slice of whole grain toast with a thin slice of cheese for breakfast, a half sandwich for lunch, a nonfat latte with lunch (gotta count those beverage calories), and then made dinners that included a small piece of meat (any kind), about a 1/4 cup of wild rice, brown rice, or pasta (pre-cooked), and a vegetable. After dinner, I had one small piece of chocolate for dessert. But I didn't get uptight about it, so when I went out for lunch to a buffet with my co-workers for a special ocassion, I would go for a small slice of the cake, but just resisted filling my plate with everything in the buffet line. The most important thing was that I stopped getting take-out food every other night (it was not helpful that my best friend was pregnant last year, so I'd end up eating with her, and, well, I wasn't eating for two or burning calories lactating later). Basically, even though I kept my calories low, I chose my food and the spacing of meals in a way that after a few days of adjusting, I didn't feel hungry. I also wasn't trying to drop a lot of weight quickly, I just wanted to slowly lose it with a diet I could stick with. Once I got used to the smaller portions again, it has been easy to maintain because I just get full faster, so am not tempted to overeat (unless I buy potato chips or ice cream...so I just don't buy them that often).

That's the other trick I've had. I just assume that any junkfood I buy will be a single-serving, so if I don't want to eat that much, I leave it in the store. I have a lot more willpower while in the store than when sitting at home with an open bag of potato chips.

 

[The_Professional]

I spend 40-50 mins on the stairmaster. I try to balance out the protein and the carbs. I've cut down on anything fried. I don't eat two hours before I sleep. No cheese. I'm slowly eliminating diet soda and all the artificial juices from my diet as well. Working on getting that ripped abs heh