April's CR Diary

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June 3, 2005

Refresher Course

I just had the most fabulous experience... one of the people who works in my office building stopped me and asked what I was doing to have lost so much weight. I said, "Protein. Unsaturated fats. Lowfat dairy. Olive oil." He asked if I had a manual of some kind, and I said not exactly but gave him the address of the blog. So I figured today might be a nice time to go over some of the basic principles of April's Brand of Calorie Restriction.

DISCLAIMER: As always, note that I am not a medical professional, nor a scientist, nor a skinny redhead. Wait, I am a skinny redhead! But not that skinny. Anyway, take my advice with a grain of half salt if you want, but since someone asked, I'll tell what I think works.

I do Calorie Restriction because it's the only known way to slow down biological aging at this point in time. And because I really like to look good in a string bikini. Weight loss is technically a side effect, but a side effect of that side effect is that a lot of people ask me how to lose weight. Here's what I'd recommend, based on a) what I did b) MR's advice, which is largely responsible for what I did/do c) avoiding some mistakes I made.

1) Cut out basically all grains and unnecessary sugar from your diet. Drink red wine instead of mixed drinks. Stop eating bread, pasta, bagels, rice, desserts, candy, potatoes. Obviously do not eat things that are fried.

2) Up your protein, but get it from lowfat, mainly non-meat sources. Don't become one of those people who eats chicken all the time... that has tons of cholesterol and a not insignificant amount of saturated fat. Here are my favorite protein sources:

a) eggwhites. buy them in a carton at the store, scramble them like they're scrambled eggs, top with pepper, salsa, barbeque sauce, whatever you like.

b) lowfat/nonfat dairy. Cottage cheese, yogurt, skim milk.

c) occasional (but try for not every day!) fish, shellfish, chicken, turkey

d) if you can eat more calories than I can, beans are good. for me, they're too high calorie to eat all the time, but I enjoy them as a treat

3) Dramatically increase the amount of vegetables you're eating.
This was less of a big deal for me because I've always eaten a lot of vegetables, and even now, volume is not that important to me for food satisfaction, so I don't fill up on the huge veggie bowls the way some people I know do. However, especially for men, this is often a big step. Make big salads with greens other than just lettuce: kale is one of my favorites and is very filling. Eat tons of tomatoes, bell peppers, squashes, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, asparagus.

4) Eat unsaturated fats, but try not to eat saturated fats. A simple though not technically accurate rule is that unsaturated fats are vegetable fats and saturated fats are from animals. So don't eat steak (this is not Atkins!!!) eat olive oil. Put a little extra virgin olive oil on your salad mixed with balsamic vinegar. Eat hazelnuts and almonds. Nuts make a great snack, but be careful not to eat too many because they're very calorie dense. I like to eat about 10 hazelnuts with my non-fat fruit yogurt cup in the afternoon as a snack. I'm a girl so I have very low calorie requirements: if you're an active male, you'll need more food than I do. But the basic principle remains the same.

For most people who wish to lose a few pounds, just the steps outlined above will lead to significant weight loss, especially if combined with exercise or an active lifestyle (physically demanding work, sports, chasing toddlers around the house.) If you've lost weight and you're happy with where you are, just keep to those habits. You can maintain your weight pretty much indefinitely eating like that.

If you want to extend your youth and health using the only method currently known to science to do anything of the sort, read back issues of the blog and keep following it for advice and examples of how to cut your calories while maintaining excellent flavor, quality of life, social life, and a healthy interest in pop music.

Here are some sample menus that I made up for someone bigger than I am. It's more than I eat, but since the person who asked me about it today is a male with a very active job, I'll make up some stuff that might be do-able for him.

Breakfast:
1 cup of eggwhites, scrambled, with salsa and 1 teaspoon olive oil
10 hazelnuts
1 orange or other fruit
coffee with skim milk (adding a teaspoon of sugar is fine too)

Lunch:
-salad with romaine lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, beets, 1 teaspoon olive oil, vinegar, scoop of chickpeas, half a cup of lowfat cottage cheese (they sell snack packs at Clemens that are the perfect size.)
-cup of some kind of bean soup or chili: basically take a can of beans and mix up with chicken or veggie broth, canned tomatoes, barbeque sauce or salsa, in whatever combinations. this process takes a total of two minutes and can be tupperwared and microwaved.
-water or other non-caloric beverage

Afternoon snack:
-- container of non-fat fruit yogurt
-- 10 hazelnuts

Dinner:
-6 oz turkey, baked or roasted (I like it topped with bbq sauce)
-half a bag of frozen broccoli, cauliflower and carrot mix, topped -with 1 teaspoon of olive oil, lemon juice and pepper, dash of salt
-salad with romaine, tomatoes, green peppers, any other greens or veggies you like, topped with 1 teaspoon olive oil and vinegar and/or salsa to taste
-piece of fruit
-glass of red wine if you like to have a drink with dinner

Note the themes: lots of protein, no grains, lots of vegetables but not hard to prepare ones (I came up with the lunch salad based on the ingredients of my office building's salad bar, though I strongly advise you to pack your own salads cause the office building salad bar is so over-priced that it isn't worth it for every day), frozen veggies that can just be thrown in the microwave for five minutes and won't go bad in your fridge. Easy to prepare soups and stews that you can vary endlessly. I'm all about easy food preparation, so that you can fit being healthy into an active, crazy busy lifestyle.

If you like to cook, check out Mary's Menu Blog for great meal ideas.

Long time blog readers will note that I'm talking about a lot more food than I eat, but I am a very small female whose exercise is limited to walking, treadmilling, light weight lifting, and carrying huge bales of cat liter home from the discount pet supply store. If you have an active lifestyle and you're mostly looking to lose weight, not actively do CR, this should work.

Here are some variations on the theme of easy every day soups and stews to make and tupperware for work:

Black Bean Chili:

1 can of black beans
1 can of diced tomatoes
a few pickled jalepenos from a jar
a little salsa or taco sauce

Mix, heat, eat. How easy was that???

Vaguely Middle Eastern Stew Cause It Has Chickpeas In It:

1 can chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
chicken broth, either from a can, carton or bullion
juice of one lemon
salt or half-salt and pepper to taste

Mix, add 1 teaspoon of olive oil just after heating but before serving. You can add frozen or fresh veggies to this one too.

Easy Vegetable Soup:

Vegetable or chicken broth
1 bag of frozen vegetables, whatever kind you like

Put it in the microwave, add 1 teaspoon of olive oil before serving.

Spaghetti soup:

1 can of fat-free jarred spaghetti sauce, marinara type
1/2 bag of frozen veggies, preferably broccoli or a broccoli blend
broth if you prefer it to be less thick

Heat, add olive oil at the end.

These are all mind-numbingly easy recipes, but the point is that even if you have absolutely no time at all, you can eat healthy. All you have to do is save some jars for a week or so (salsa and spaghetti sauce jars are the best) or use Chinese food soup containers and pack your food in the five minutes before you leave for work. Some people do a few days in advance... I usually don't, I just throw things together at the last minute.

One of my favorite tricks lately is to buy a new variety of salsa every week or so and try it in my favorite recipes. This also yields new and exciting jars.

Hope this helps!

Posted by april at June 3, 2005 7:25 AM

Comments

Posted by: Awake at June 3, 2005 4:23 PM

Posted by: Danielle at June 3, 2005 5:18 PM

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