My Current Diet and Meal Planning

For the last few months I have been following a very predictable diet which makes meal planning quite predictable as well.  This come out to around 2,000 calories a day.

Some days I’m under.  Some days I’m over.  I try to be consistent.

Things I will not eat. 

• Most cheese and dairy.
• Most packaged or prepared foods.
• Most bread especially white bread or pastry.
• Candy, sweets, ice cream.
• White rice.
• Take out food.
• Processed sandwich meat.
• Soda or diet soda.
• Pasta – especially white pasta
• Anything with a lot of sugar in it.

Things I will eat

Fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, eggs, fats, oils, quinoa, nuts, nut milk, whole grains, beans, brown rice, whole rice.

Breakfast:

For breakfast I’ll have one of 3 things.

1. 80-90% of the time I’ll have classic oatmeal. This is not the soak-over-night steel cut oatmeal.   That’s too much work.  It’s a compromise.  It’s better than the soupy ‘Quick Oats’ and I can cook them in 2 minutes in the microwave.

In my oatmeal I put fruit.  My preference is blueberries.  Typically a container of blueberries in the fridge will last the whole week of breakfasts.  I also have a bag of frozen blueberries in the freezer if fresh blueberries are not available.  In a pinch I’ll resort to raisins.

I also put a teaspoon of coconut oil in my oatmeal and depending on my mood maybe a teaspoon of honey or a dash of cinnamon.

I will alternatively use bananas or homemade applesauce if I have some of those on the verge of going bad in inventory.

Applesauce takes some prep but is a good way to use up inventory of overripe apples and takes up a small container in the fridge or freezer.

2. If we have a surfeit of avocados ripening, I will alternatively have avocado toast for breakfast. This only requires a ripe avocado, some olive oil and lemon juice.  Mix that up in a bowl and spread on toast.

This requires no fridge space and cannot be prepped.  It is an opportunistic meal based on the availability of ripe avocados

3. Maybe twice a month I’ll fry up some eggs.

Breakfast Inventory

• Large container classic oats – dry goods cupboard
• 1-pint fresh blueberries – Fridge
• 1-pint frozen blueberries – Freezer
• 1 jar coconut oil
• Honey
• Eggs
• Cinnamon
• Ripe avocado
• Healthy bread

Lunch

For lunch I have a salad.  This salad has vegetables and some sort of protein.  I like to make a batch of these salads, enough for a work week and keep them in the fridge.

The baseline for these salads is nutrient-rich leaf vegetable of some sort.  If it is in season I will get kale, Tuscan kale, red kale or swiss chard.  If those are looking a bit sad, like they are this time year, I’ll grab a bag of Savoy spinach.  If I can’t find any of those I’ll settle for that baby spinach in the box.

I’ll cut up any other veg that looks good or is available that week.

Tomatoes, cucumbers, celery, carrots, cabbage, peppers, green onion, mushrooms or whatever looks good.  I cut all this up, mix it in a big bowl and put it into individual containers for the week.

The protein can be chicken, sardines (but I’ll only eat fish once a week because I’m worried about the mercury), boiled eggs, meat, beans or chickpeas.  I’ll also throw in a ripe avocado, usually instead of meat, if they are available.

The meat , boiled eggs and beans have to be prepped ahead of time.

The chicken or other meat is just a basic sauté.  I cut up 1-2 oz and add it to the salad with the dressing before I head off to work.  This is a basic grab and go in the morning.

I use my own homemade Balsamic vinaigrette that I make a batch of each week.  It’s got olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a dash of Braggs apple cider vinegar for the probiotics.

If we have extra eggs, I’ll boil up a ½ dozen or so and that will give me protein for salads for a week even if someone poaches (pun intended) a couple of my ½ dozen.  However, if someone sees the boiled eggs and decides to whip up a big bowl of egg salad, my prep, and my plans are foiled.

I prefer to make my own beans and chickpeas from dry bagged.  They need to be soaked and rinsed a few times before they are cooked.  This is a batch process and takes a couple days.  I’ll eat any kind of bean.  Lentils are good too.  After they are soaked and rinsed, they go into the rice cooker for day.

This process produces 2 containers of beans.  The beans last a couple days in the fridge.  They are versatile in that I can put them in my salads or eat them with my dinners.

Lunch Inventory

• Veggies to make the salads – Fridge. (Between when I go shopping and when I prep my salads)
• 5 salads in containers – Fridge (After I prep my salads)
• Leftover veggies – Fridge (that didn’t fit into the salads)
• Chicken or Meat – typically one container in Fridge
• Beans Dry bags – in pantry
• Beans cooked – typically 1-2 containers in Fridge
• Eggs
• Ripe avocados

Dinner

Dinner is the trickiest meal for me because I’m typically eating late and exhausted.  I typically don’t have time to cook and have low willpower.  Having something ready to eat really helps.

I try to keep it simple and batch up at least a filling base I can get in right away to keep from making really bad decisions when I’m exhausted.

95% of the time I’m having a ‘dinner bowl’.  I usually rely on some combination of cooked veg, beans, and brown rice with some sort of sauce in it.

• If I have prepped beans, chickpeas or lentils these are great for a filling baseline once or twice a week.
• I try to prep some wild rice or brown rice or quinoa for dinners a couple times a week.
• If I have prepped some meat, I can throw that in as well.
• I will sauté a big skillet of veggies to go with the base of beans, rice, quinoa.

Good veggies for my big iron skillet are, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, squash, peppers or anything else that can be sautéed.

This process requires a dollop of olive oil, garlic and/or onions, fresh ginger and a cup of stock.

Inventory for Dinner:

• Brown rice and wild rice – dry and prepped. If prepped, then 2 containers in fridge.
• Quinoa – if prepped, 2 containers in fridge.
• Beans or lentils, dry in pantry, if prepped 2 containers in fridge.
• Cooked veggies – 1 skillet is 2 meals for me – 1 container of leftovers in fridge.

Note: I don’t freeze any of this stuff because when I do, a) I forget about it and b) it takes too long to defrost.  And I don’t like the taste of frozen vegetables or canned vegetables.  Anything in a can qualifies as packaged food and I try to avoid it.

Snacks and other:

My primary snacks are fruits and nuts.

I eat 4-5 pieces of fruit per day.  These are apples, pears, oranges, grapefruit, plums, peaches or whatever is in season.  I usually store these in the fruit bowl on the counter but if they are ripening too fast, I have to move them into the fridge to make them last.

I eat unsalted peanuts and other nuts just for fun at night.  I love nuts, but they are very calorie dense, so I have to be careful.

If I have time, I will make hummus from chickpeas.  Sometimes I’ll buy premade hummus, but I have my suspicions that they sneak sugar into that.

Occasionally I’ll have rice cakes with peanut butter.  I try to use the brown rice cakes but I have suspicions about those too.  I try to use the healthier brands of chunky peanut butter.

I will also eat celery stalks with peanut butter.  So good and so filling.

Snack inventory

Fruit, nuts, rice cakes, peanut butter, hummus, veggie pieces.

Smoothies

I like to make green or berry smoothies for after my big workouts.

In my green smoothies I put vegan protein powder, yeast, a handful of dark leafy greens (spinach, kale, chard…) frozen banana, other over-ripe fruit, frozen or fresh berries and almond milk.

I make a batch of these in the blender and it makes 3 16 oz servings.  If I can find empty water bottles, I’ll put them in those.  If I can’t I will use old Starbucks cups, which are a logistical nightmare to transport.  These go in the fridge.  I usually have 3 big workouts a week, so one batch of smoothies lasts for a week in the fridge.

Smoothie inventory

Frozen bananas, fruit, berries, green leafy veg and almond milk.

That’s it.  That’s how I’m running strong, healthy, injury free and lean for this year’s Boston Marathon.

Any Questions?