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| Beautiful Lake Ianthe is on the West Coast of the South Island |
This is the next step in my Makeover
Plan. I wanted to come up with a guideline for controlling food portions,
so I have been looking at English wartime rationing, researching online
information (especially helpful were the NZ Heart Foundation’s portion control
information, and Harvard University’s Healthy Eating Plate webpage), food
pyramids from previous decades (there have been several), and considering my
own personal preferences.
What I ended up with was a list of
portion controls that I thought might work for me, but then during the last 24
hours I have read two things that have really had me thinking.
The first was, in effect, that nothing
in your life will change unless you change what you are doing. The
second was David’s comment on yesterday’s post about eating meals containing
three vegetables and a fruit. It left me wondering what it
would be like to base three meals a day on three vegetables and one
fruit. Being the quixotic creature that I am, I am going to give
this a go.
This is what I think it would look like
for each meal:
o Base the meal on
three different non-starchy vegetables (or sprouts) – quantity at least enough
to fill two cupped hands
o Add one serving of
fruit – an average apple/orange/banana etc., or a daily maximum of 1 Tbsp. of
dried fruit
o One serve of a
protein (meat, nuts, eggs, fish, cheese etc.,) – daily maximums to be the palm
of one hand for meat, the whole hand for white fish, ½ cup of nuts, 2 eggs, or
50g of cheese
o One serve of
carbohydrate (wholemeal bread/toast/pasta, rice, potato, oatmeal, legumes,
scone etc.) – total combined maximum meal amount, the size of one fist
o Add natural flavourings
as desired – herbs, spices, salt, apple cider vinegar, cold pressed oil, seeds
etc.
Each meal would be different so that a
wide variety could be eaten, and the fruit and vegetables could be raw or
cooked. Snacks are to be avoided, but if there is a real need for something then have a piece of fruit or (if really desperate!) one snack-pack of raisins, eating them one at a time.
Basically, the above cuts out the
following:
o All processed meat
and processed food products
o Artificial sweeteners,
flavourings, colours and preservatives
o Refined sugars –
white, brown, syrup
o Dairy milk (which I do
not tolerate well)
o All takeaways and
deep fried foods
o Refined flour
products like pasta, bread, baked goods etc.
The whole idea of eating this way
actually makes me feel very excited – perhaps it is the Universe nudging me in that direction? It is, I feel, a fairly
simple easy-to-follow guide: it is totally different to how I have been eating,
meal preparation should be relatively simple, it offers variety ad infinitum,
and it will hopefully be easy enough to adapt when dining out – it really ticks all the
boxes!
Margaret
Sounds good but for myself I don't think I'd have room left for anything else after eating 3 different veg. and a fruit.
ReplyDeleteI found the best portion control was to purchase a smaller dinner plate, here in UK our Dinner plates are huge, I found a smaller plate, which my mum called a breakfast plate. It's such an easy reminder at each meal.
ReplyDeleteSuch great guidelines.you have done lots of research.
ReplyDeleteI admire that way you have accepted this challenge and the research you are putting in to it. I have little doubt that you are going to succeed.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about the 3 veg idea, it seems very retro/vintage and reminds me of the 3 veg and meat way they use to eat. I personally love veges, sometimes I'll make a big crockpot full of different veges and add a can of tomatoes plus vege stock to it along with different herbs and spices then add some polenta or likewise to a plateful, it can be done just makes it a bit nicer when it's cooked in not so bland way.
ReplyDeleteJust so long as this works for you...if it sounds good to you, you will come nearer sticking to it.
ReplyDelete