# You healthy eaters, what do you eat?



## Octavia (Aug 1, 2011)

I know we have several healthy eaters here. I'm not one of them...but I'd like to move in that direction. (How non-committal is that!!??)

There are many comments about foods to avoid, such as processed foods, gluten, etc. But on a more positive-sounding note, what DO you eat?

What are some of the healthy foods and meals that are your favorites? Details, please! 

Thanks!


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## Keba (Aug 11, 2012)

I just started the Slow Carb Diet. I'll let you know in a week how it goes.
I eat pretty healthy only I do get a sweet tooth.

I like to do a variety of salads. My husband is great with reproducing our favorite restaurant salads.


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## webster2 (May 19, 2011)

I love rice and beans, carmelized onions & salsa. I eat an enormous salad every day to get my 5 F/V. I was eating GF Rice Krispies & a banana for breakfast until they disappeared from the shelves.  Now it is GF oatmeal with some PB in it. It is not my favorite but it keeps the snackies away. I eat hard boiled eggs. grilled chicken...kind of basic stuff. I went GF about a year ago and find I choose better options. I like yogurt too. I try to eat food with some staying power so I am not tempted to eat junkfood.....I love candy. It works most of the time.

We grew a garden for the first time in a long time. My husband is on a canning craze. He says that there are too many additives in the food we eat. We'll see how that goes.

Hope it goes well.


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## kris4913 (Aug 2, 2012)

I am definitely not a health food expert, but I have found things that worked for me. I don't eat beef or pork (for ethical reasons, not really diet reasons) so I can sometimes have a hard time having enough variety & not getting bored with eating the same things over & over. I sub ground turkey anywhere you would use ground beef.

In the summer we grill a lot - grilled chicken, salmon fillets (wild caught, never farmed), turkey cutlets, turkey burgers, etc. My husband will sometimes grill a little extra so I can chop it up to add to salads for lunch for the week. During the winter/fall, we make a lot of soups & turkey chili. There are several types of GF pastas, breads, pizza crusts, etc but they really don't taste as good as the "real thing" but sometimes you just need a burger or a sandwich. So my husband doesn't suffer, we will make 2 kinds of pasta noodles at the same time. I don't have celiacs & I just try to reduce my gluten intake so my favorite breads are the ezekiel sprouted grain breads - very hearty breads. My favorite GF cereal is the GF Cinnamon Chex - probably has too much sugar so I only eat it once a week or so. I have never been able to eat much of a breakfast because my IBS is the worst in the morning so I usually just do a yogurt & either a banana or an apple for breakfast.
I don't drink pop, coffee, or alcohol - it is amazing how once you cut out pop for several months is tastes awful if you try it again. I have never been much of a sweets person - not much for cakes, cookies, etc - but my weakness is ice cream & I do spurge on it a couple times a week.
Keeping a food journal helps sometimes especially in the beginning. It is amazing how sometimes you don't think you have eaten a lot until you are staring at a list of everything you ate for the day. And when I have done one, I find myself being too lazy to eat - if I get up and have that snack then I need to turn the computer back on to log it, so I just don't eat it. It is also helpful to see any patterns - after I eat "blank" I always feel like crap.
Go to the store with a shopping list & don't deviate from it to keep yourself from being tempted to buy something "bad". If you don't buy it, you can't eat it. I feel like I have turned into a food snob because sometimes when checking out you see people with cartfulls of junk - not a piece of "real" food in the whole thing! We also try to do only one shopping trip for the week (sometimes have to make 2 trips in a week to get more produce) - I think if you have to stop in to get one or two things after work, you will always end up buying more than you wanted & it's probably junk. I think they say to stay around the perimeter of the store & avoid the middle aisles where all of the processed junk is.


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## webster2 (May 19, 2011)

kris4913 said:


> I am definitely not a health food expert, but I have found things that worked for me. I don't eat beef or pork (for ethical reasons, not really diet reasons) so I can sometimes have a hard time having enough variety & not getting bored with eating the same things over & over. I sub ground turkey anywhere you would use ground beef.
> 
> In the summer we grill a lot - grilled chicken, salmon fillets (wild caught, never farmed), turkey cutlets, turkey burgers, etc. My husband will sometimes grill a little extra so I can chop it up to add to salads for lunch for the week. During the winter/fall, we make a lot of soups & turkey chili. There are several types of GF pastas, breads, pizza crusts, etc but they really don't taste as good as the "real thing" but sometimes you just need a burger or a sandwich. So my husband doesn't suffer, we will make 2 kinds of pasta noodles at the same time. I don't have celiacs & I just try to reduce my gluten intake so my favorite breads are the ezekiel sprouted grain breads - very hearty breads. My favorite GF cereal is the GF Cinnamon Chex - probably has too much sugar so I only eat it once a week or so. I have never been able to eat much of a breakfast because my IBS is the worst in the morning so I usually just do a yogurt & either a banana or an apple for breakfast.
> I don't drink pop, coffee, or alcohol - it is amazing how once you cut out pop for several months is tastes awful if you try it again. I have never been much of a sweets person - not much for cakes, cookies, etc - but my weakness is ice cream & I do spurge on it a couple times a week.
> ...


I cut out soda too. I don't miss it.

I journaled my foods to see what I was eating and when, and found myself to be an afternoon snacker grazer. This gave me the heads up to find something to do in the afternoon.

It helps to know what steps to take to eat better. I find I like foods that fill me up to avoid that snacking urge.

Andros said that most people diagnosed with autoimmune conditions use it as a sign to clean up our act....while mine is not perfect, it sure is a whole lot better than it used to be!


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## Octavia (Aug 1, 2011)

Great ideas & advice!

In the past, I have done a food diary (fooddiary.com as well as an ipod app), and for sure, it's a reality check! I was thinking about starting on that again. When I'm really "religious" about it, my husband and I end up making two separate dinners because he needs high-cal, and I need low. Kind of a pain, but it works.

I had read/heard the "shop the perimeter of the store" advice once...then I completely forgot! So thanks for the reminder.

webster - GF oatmeal with peanut butter? Huh....sounds interesting!


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## joplin1975 (Jul 21, 2011)

My biggest vice is my one diet soda each morning (I don't care for coffee). I know, I know...

Breakfast is always a hard boiled egg and a banana with all natural PB.

I'm a grazer, so I have a 10:00 snack too -- 0% fat Greek yogurt.

Lunch (right after a work out, so I try to each beans or PB for protein) is either a salad & an apple with PB, veggie soup with a side of lentil salad, or -- if I've gone for a run -- a turkey wrap on a whole wheat wrap with chocolate milk (best after run replenishment).

Dinner varies. I like to cook, so most everything is home made. It's not a good habit, but since it's the one meal I share with some one, it's usually heavier. My one rule is we have to have a salad with every dinner. Last night was veggie chili and a salad. Tonight is going to be a crockpot Mexican-flavored chicken and beans over brown rice and a salad. Tomorrow will be venison, broccoli, and a salad. Stuff like that.


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## kris4913 (Aug 2, 2012)

I think you just have to go slow and work up to it & realize you will never be perfect and that's ok. My boss is an ecotoxicologist (studies how contaminates move through the environment & through organisms) and she was pushing me to go all raw, juicing, 100% GF, wheat grass, etc and I decided I just couldn't do it all at once. I think once you start eating a little better, you start to feel better and it becomes more motivation to keep it up and do even more. She did say it should become a hobby for you and I do agree with that - something you enjoy doing, something you want to read & learn more about, etc. I think I have gotten to the point where some things are just not appetizing anymore when you know they will make you feel so bad afterwards.


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## Octavia (Aug 1, 2011)

hobby...that's an interesting way to look at it. I like that "view."


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## webster2 (May 19, 2011)

Hmmm...a hobby?!?!?  The oatmeal and PB is an old WW tip. I think it is an acquired taste but it leaves me very satisified.


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## YorkvilleNewfie (Sep 11, 2012)

We use Cooking Light Recipes, especially from these books:

http://www.amazon.com/Cooking-Light-Fresh-Food-Fast/dp/0848733185

http://www.amazon.com/Cooking-Light-Fresh-Food-Fast/dp/0848732642/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y

http://www.amazon.com/Cooking-Light-Fresh-Food-Superfast/dp/0848734335/ref=pd_sim_b_5

And we try to steer as clear of processed foods as possible, using the blog 100 Days of Real Food as a guide and motivator: http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/


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## Andros (Aug 26, 2009)

Octavia said:


> I know we have several healthy eaters here. I'm not one of them...but I'd like to move in that direction. (How non-committal is that!!??)
> 
> There are many comments about foods to avoid, such as processed foods, gluten, etc. But on a more positive-sounding note, what DO you eat?
> 
> ...


We zero in on all the fresh vegetables we can find and when winter hits, what we can't pull out of our own chest freezer in the garage, we only use frozen. No canned stuff period. Absolutely no glutens.

We do tolerate steel cut oats and barley, however. All grains have glutens. Most folks have trouble with the wheat only. That happens to be us. But...................some cannot tolerate barley and oats.

Lots of dried beans including lentils, split peas and all of that but NO soy!

Eggs, plenty of eggs. Limited cheese.

Brown rice. Yams, reg. potatoes (we measure these items and they are eaten w/o benefit of butter or creamy sauces.

Olive oil is the "only" oil in our cupboard. No butter, no margerine and none of that artificial goo!

Nothing ready made or pre-packaged. No artificial sweetners or sugar. Hubby uses just a bit of honey (1/4 tsp.) in his coffee.

Chicken, turkey and sometimes seafood if it is affordable. Huge salad w/the main meal.

No sweets period. If you have them, it triggers the desire. No sodas including diet soda.

Plenty of water.

Some fruit. I personally eat 3 apples a day. Also we have walnuts and almonds available. Lots of popcorn for me. I pop my own so it is MSG and other chemical-free. I like sea salt. That is what we use at the table. No salt in the cooking. Lots of Tumeric.

We eat yogurt daily.

Portions are also controlled.

I know, this sounds so booooooooooooooooooooooring. But not to us because we feel tip top almost every day!


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## funnyfarm (Sep 2, 2012)

We eat alot of quinoa, in fact we found out recently that we can grow it here in our region! Great news since we hate paying $6-8/lb for it! 
We have a little plot of land that we raise our own chicken and lamb on and we keep a few hens for fresh eggs, we grow our own fruits and veges too. We have bees and maple syrup as well. Our favorite thing is our asparagus patch...we eat it all spring and can the rest of it for the year. We are thinking of growing our own tilapia in a swimming pool next year!
The land keeps us active and engaged in our diet, so its a win-win here. Just wish it was the end all be all and I felt like a normal 45 year old - not an 80 year old!


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## adagio (Jun 25, 2012)

I have a pretty restricted diet (due to food sensitivities), but I've been living this way for six years, and I don't mind at all! Hey, I feel healthier...I don't miss the "junk"!

Here's what my diet consists of:

Eggs - lots of them - I have two every morning, either as an omelet or hard boiled

Ezekiel 4:9 bread - it's sprouted whole grain, and contains absolutely NO white flour. You have to toast it, though, otherwise it's kinda gross.

Natural peanut butter - just peanuts...nothing else on the label!

Granny smith apples - less sugar in them than other apples 

Bananas - I'm a dancer! Gotta keep the muscles happy!

Grains consist of: whole grain spelt flour, brown rice flour, quinoa, and occasionally, blue corn. I haven't touched white flour in six years. It hates me. The feeling is mutual.

Coconut milk, almond milk, or rice milk - no pasteurized dairy for me!

Veggies, veggies, veggies, and more veggies...but no potatoes...and corn isn't a vegetable...I still avoid it, unless it's blue corn in small amounts... Raw veggies + hummus = awesome. 

Chicken, fish, some beef, and turkey...no pork! (Ewwwwww...)

Olive oil, coconut oil...that's it for oils...

Rice protein powder!!! Again, it's a dancer thing...

My diet is primarily protein, with my main source of carbs coming from veggies, and a little bit of Ezekiel 4:9 bread.

Things I don't eat, and avoid like the plague: soda, HFCS, white flour, white sugar, pasteurized dairy, corn (except for blue), food dyes, pork, refined & processed foods.

I shop the perimeter of the grocery store: produce, meat, and organic. It's amazing how fast I can get my shopping done!!!

I hope that helps you out!


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## Texaschick (May 26, 2012)

I have been doing a LOT of turkey...chicken...salmon...(I think I am going to sprout feathers and swim upstream!)...Big salads...and my "treat" Fage yogurt with some fruit thrown in. I use coconut oil to baste turkey breast, salmon, etc. I have not had red meat in a long time - and I thought I would "miss....And I had an addiction to diet dr pepper - some days I have one - some none. I love slicing cucumbers and lemon and tossing some mint leaves in pitcher of water to chill over night and drink the next day...Have some great recipes mainly low carbs a friend gave me...let me know if you want them.


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## Abcdefg (Mar 16, 2012)

Being on the LID has been an eye-opener for me. Not all good of course 

I'm severely Lactose Intolerant, so cutting out the dairy wasn't a big deal (except for margarine and hard cheeses). I haven't eaten a yogurt in 10 years, stay away from pasteurized anything really (sour cream KILLS me), have cereal with Rice Milk etc. What I did notice though, is that I eat a lot of bad carbs to fill me up. Being a busy, working mom, I don't cook as much as I should, and hate making lunches. So.. my habit was to go out for a lunch-usually a taco, pizza or sandwich. I always packed a few snacks though: like cheese/crackers, fruit, cookies.

But, being on LID, I've had to suck it up and make everything myself. The work aside, I'm actually feeling better. I think cutting out all the processed crap and salt content is agreeing with me. Not only that, but I feel full on less food.

Back on topic: for the most part, I've eaten somewhat healthy most of my life, more because I'm picky. I have a chicken aversion which proved problematic on LID as most of the recipes seem to center around it. I prefer extra lean ground beef, turkey, lean fast fry pork chops, lean roasts and t-bone steak. My guilty pleasure is organic thick-cut bacon (which I'm missing!).

Bread is a staple of my diet. I've been baking French loaves daily for the last few months, and only had to eliminate the salt for LID. Yummy. Luckily I don't have Gluten issues.

I do have a huge sweet tooth though. I love muffins, snack breads, cakes, cookies. I bake every weekend, and it's my go-to for breakfast on the way to work. Not a huge cereal eater-except for Shredded Wheat. I hate grainy stuff (seeds, nuts etc in bread). I skipped that entire section in the LID cookbook as I'd never eat it.

Love fruit. Pineapple, bananas, cherries, watermelon, mandarin oranges. I try to eat several per day. So I guess I'm doing ok, but coffee is my vice. This has been the hardest since I'm addicted to flavoured non-dairy creamers. Coconut milk isn't cutting it!

Anyone else find the prep work the biggest pain? As much as I love to eat, finding the time to do this is tough.


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## angel711baby66 (May 7, 2013)

Here goes an example of a typical day for me:
Breakfast:
Multi grain cheerios or Special K with part skim milk, part flax milk (I don't like the taste of the flax milk alone and so I mix the two)
Snack: I will have either an apple, a banana, or 2 small cuties
Lunch: Turkey sandwich on whole grain flat bread with yellow mustard, avocado, lettuce, and a thin slice of sargento cheese, with flax seed mixed in with mustard. Baby carrots with hummus and one small square of dark chocolate and some skim milk ( I have low calcium since my TT so I try to get it in when I can)
Snack (4pm): Almond butter and jelly sandwich on whole grain flat bread with chia seeds. 2 brazil nuts (I use regular smuckers jelly...hey I gotta have some fun!)
Dinner: I'm a big chicken person and so I make chicken at least 4 days a week. I always grill or bake my chicken and if I cook it stove top I use olive oil. Tonight I will have chicken thighs coated in yellow mustard that will be grilled. Sides will include grilled corn and grilled asparagus.
Snack: 1 skinny cow ice cream sandwich yum!! 
Its not much fun but I do splurge at least once a week. And if given the chance I can polish off an entire pizza myself!


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