Tuesday, October 02, 2012

31 Days of Healthy Eating - General Rules


I sat down on Sunday and wrote a list of topics for each of the 31 days with a heading for day 2 of "General Rules". After that I jotted down:
  • cut out / cut down on bad stuff
  • lots of fruit and veg
  • good drinks
Thinking about it a a bit more I would add a fourth
  • replace the bad stuff with good stuff
That pretty much distils the basic diet rules I picked up from The Forever Young Diet and Lifestyle. I treated the 14 rules given in the book as guidance rather than absolutes and I haven't followed all of them - one recommends whey protein powder, for example, which I haven't used - and some I have followed flexibly. Looking back a year on, the rules that have had most impact on the way I eat are:
  • eat breakfast every morning, no exceptions
  • consume a variety of natural fresh foods each day
  • eat lean protein at least 3 times daily, including breakfast (not so good at including protein in my breakfast, apart from milk or yoghurt)
  • eat at least 9 servings or handfuls of produce daily
  • do not eat white flour, white rice, potatoes and sweets (I don't stick to this absolutely - I still eat potatoes, but rarely any of the others)
  • avoid processed foods containing high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated fats or saturated fats (I mostly did this before anyway, except that I do eat butter and higher fat cheese in modest quantities)
  • drink at least 2 cups of tea daily, preferably green tea
  • drink a moderate amount of alcohol, ideally a glass a day of red wine
  • avoid sugary drinks, fruit juices and diet drinks
  • drink plenty of water
And there you have it ... healthy eating in a nutshell.

1 comment:

Missus Wookie said...

The eating breakfast every morning was one I struggled with for YEARS but have just about got it sorted now.

Don't do tea tho' and struggle with the white flour/potatoes - we get a lot of potatoes in our veggie box.

Interesting list - looking forward to the rest of the posts.