posted by Amy on Sep 21
A good friend of mine lost over 20 pounds about 5 years ago, and has kept the weight off. When I asked her what she eats, she said, “fish and vegetables.” In addition, although she’s always been active, she ramped up her physical activity, and she has kept doing that.
At the beginning of the summer I decided to get serious about changing my body composition. I wanted to maintain or increase lean body mass, and burn fat. I started off on my friend’s “fish and vegetables” regimen, and it’s a good one, but I got tired of eating so much fish. I decided to change it up, and I expanded it. You could call it “protein and produce.”
I eat enormous quantities of vegetables. I’ve been doing that for several years. It’s a consequence of two related changes in my life. First I more or less accidentally became a semi-vegetarian (i.e. I eat eggs, dairy, and fish, but no mammals or birds). Then, back home in Colorado, I signed up for a weekly delivery from “Door to Door Organics,” which dropped a box of organic produce on my porch every Thursday morning. Even the small box from Door to Door Organics was far more produce than one person would ordinarily consume in a week. (Most people probably don’t eat that much in a month.) I would give some of it away, but for the most part I tried to eat it all before the next shipment came. Somehow this was different from my previous pattern, where I would decide to eat more veggies, buy a bunch of them, and then forget them until they became inedible in the crisper drawer, and I’d have to throw them away. It was as if I put myself in a competition with myself to take advantage of the opportunity presented by all that great food.
Even though I don’t have home veggie delivery anymore, I’m still eating a lot of vegetables. There’s a produce stand in the Reading Terminal Market, near my church, that offers a 10% student discount. Their stuff is already quite inexpensive, and with the discount it’s the lowest price I’ve found. It doesn’t keep very long, though, so, once again, I have to be focused on eating it all before it goes to waste. On the other side of the spectrum, near where I live there’s a Farmers Market every Saturday that sells amazingly fresh produce from farms in Lancaster County. It costs a bit more than at the grocery store, but the flavor and quality are superb.
Several years ago I took to heart some diet advice that said to limit fruit and dairy in order to keep carbohydrates down. This summer I’ve been eating a lot of fruit, in addition to my ridiculous quantities of vegetables. (Somehow a spinach smoothie just doesn’t sound very appealing.) I think fruit plays an important role in my health, and it tastes so good it also contributes to satiety. It may also be that the acid-base balance generated by my high intake of produce affects body composition. I didn’t make that up; I have a well-researched article that says it’s important to eat foods, or food combinations, that have a neutral or alkaline effect on the body. Fruits and vegetables, as well as herbs and spices, will do that. So, for example, to reduce the acidity of a meat meal, one should add herbs, spices, vegetables and fruits. This preserves muscle and assists in fat loss.
The article suggests some other strategies, such as getting enough sleep, avoiding foods that cause insulin to surge, getting enough calcium and Omega-3 fatty acids, and eating frequent small meals. I have incorporated a number of them into my life.
When I started this “project” I didn’t have any obvious places to cut back. I don’t drink pop, or eat candy. I don’t munch on chips. I dislike donuts. I despise white bread. I have long had a reputation as a “health food nut.” At one law firm where I worked, I used to bring my own lunch most days, and I ate it in the lunch room. Almost every day, someone would come into the lunchroom, look at my lunch, and say, “Wow, aren’t you eating healthy food?” or words to that effect. Several things about that, besides its utter predictability, struck me. One thought was always, “Shouldn’t just about everything we put in our mouths be good for us?” Another was, “Boy, it’s rude to pronounce judgment–even a positive judgment–on what someone else is eating.” But, despite a high quality diet, I was getting too much of a good thing.
In June I decided to limit portion sizes and make some other adjustments. I figured out how much fat, protein and carbohydrate should be in each feeding, and I pre-planned some combinations that closely matched those micronutrient targets. That way, I don’t have to count calories. Every “mini-meal” has about the same number of calories, and about the same micronutrient composition (i.e., grams of fat, protein and carbohydrate.) It is high protein and moderate-carb, with the calories calculated at about 20% less than my maintenance level. I aim to stay within those limits most of the time, with the occasional “cheat meal” or treat. (This eating plan was inspired by my favorite fitness and weight management coach, Tom Venuto. His advice is intelligent, scientifically sound, and sane. You can access his blog here.)
The mainstay of the eating plan is “protein and produce.” I have about 22 grams of protein every time I eat, and I have at least one fruit or vegetable every time. I shoot for about 320 calories per feeding, and eat four or five times a day. On the mornings that I do yoga, I have a smoothie afterwards made with buttermilk, protein powder, and fruit. Other mornings I have an omelette made with one whole egg and three egg whites, and a cooked vegetable such as collard greens or broccoli. If I don’t want to cook I have low fat cottage cheese, berries, and coconut oil. Sometimes I have oatmeal, because I really like it, and a smoothie, because oatmeal doesn’t have much protein. One of my favorite lunches is a wrap made with a low-carb whole grain tortilla and tuna salad, or thinly sliced fake turkey, and raw spinach. “Side dishes” are usually steamed vegetables, or raw vegetables such as carrot sticks, celery sticks, peppers, and cucumbers. “Dessert” is usually fruit. For dinner I often have fish and vegetables. At least once a day, I have a big salad. When I’m in a hurry or don’t want to cook lunch or dinner, I have lettuce, cottage cheese, fruit, and pecans or walnuts.
Generally, I try to pay attention to what I’m eating, and mindfully enjoy the flavors, colors and textures. I try to stop eating when I’m no longer hungry, but before I actually get full. It’s not about denial or privation, or “losing” anything. I want to build capacity–strength, endurance, energy, flexibility, balance, and vitality.
It’s working. Some of my clothes are actually a little too baggy. Mostly I’m wearing the same things, but they aren’t as snug, and I look better in them.
I use a heart rate monitor when I exercise, so I know how many calories I burn. It’s getting harder to burn very many calories, because that’s a function of heart rate, and as fitness improves it gets harder to get the heart rate up and keep it up. Doing my favorite power yoga DVD used to burn about 330 calories, and now it’s down to 176, making it close to useless for creating a calorie deficit. Nevertheless, exercise is important for me because it reduces stress, and keeps me from using other stress-management strategies that involve ingesting extra calories.
Human bodies were made for motion. It’s important to move, to get out of breath, to challenge the muscles, and to be in the body and fully present in moments of movement. For me, yoga is an ideal way to keep all those things in my life on a regular basis. The effect on the shape of my body is obvious, but the benefits go far beyond aesthetics. I am more flexible. I am more relaxed. I am calmer. My ability to maintain my physical balance has improved, and so has my emotional balance. These mental and emotional effects make it easy to get back on the mat. One morning last week I thought I couldn’t spare the time for a formal session with the DVD. I thought I’d just do a few sun salutations to wake up my body. But after one sequence I decided I really wanted to do a whole hour, and I did. I don’t think it was wasted time. I didn’t get any less done that day than I would have if I had skipped the workout.