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Goal: Work produce into half my meals for a week.
Goal met? Not quite... but got results anyway.
Why this experiment?
I do Bountiful Baskets, which is this awesome produce co-op, and so I'm usually incorporate a fair bit of produce into my diet. The other week they'd run out of baskets before I had a chance to order, so I went back to eating whatever else was in my cupboard, which mostly meant tuna fish and pasta. The first day, my energy just crashed. I felt heavy and sick and was not a happy camper. And I figured it had something to do with the food. A week later and I'm okay, but not especially energetic. I sleep 8-9 hours a night and don't function well on less, and have an okay amount of energy during the day with lots of little peaks and crashes. So, a week after my carbs- and fats-heavy diet, I'm switching back to produce. Not a drastic switch: My goal is to work produce into at least half of my meals throughout the week.
(Note on the tallies at the end of each day--I'm being really loose with my numbers here and will count a snack as a meal.)
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Day 1 (March 15)
Breakfast: Skipped. Was late to church.
Lunch: Leftover eggs and ice cream with homemade Magic Shell topping. (Mostly just trying to use up my non-experiment-friendly food.
Dinner: Fried carrots and radishes with ketchup.
Misc. Snackage: A couple of chocolates that were lying around my room.
Produce in: 1/3
Day 2 (March 16)
Breakfast: An apple. I know, part of this complete breakfast, right?
Lunch: Leftover pasta/cheese sauce.
Dinner: Curry soup with yams and radishes and carrots. Yum.
Misc. Snackage: Oreos and milk.
Produce in: 2/4
Day 3 (March 17)
Breakfast: Apple and graham crackers/milk.
Lunch: Egg salad with pickles and tomatoes.
Dinner: Mac and cheese. I was lazy, ok?
Misc. Snackage: Crackers
Produce in: 2/4
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Breakfast: Graham crackers/milk.
Lunch: Scrambled eggs with tomatoes and green pepper.
Dinner: Salad (Romaine with radishes and Italian dressing; so good) and fried potatoes and carrots and peppers and tomatoes.
Misc. Snackage: Ice cream.
Produce in: 2/4
Day 5 (March 19)
Breakfast: Pancakes.
Lunch: Eggs with peppers and tomatoes.
Dinner: Mini crullers and sparkling pomegranate-blueberry juice. 'Cause what healthier way to end your day?
Misc. Snackage: Cadbury hot chocolate. Oh. My. Goodness.
Produce in: 1/4
Day 6 (March 20)
Breakfast: Cantaloupe.
Lunch: Fish sticks.
Dinner: Fried potatoes and peppers.
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Produce in: 2/4
Day 7 (March 21)
Breakfast: Slept through. Bliss. Also good headache cure...
Lunch: Cantaloupe.
Dinner: Tuna sandwiches with tomatoes and pickles.
Misc. Snackage: Homemade peanut butter cups. (SO GOOD.)
Produce in: 2/3
TOTAL: 12/26 (so about 46%)
Conclusions:
I have a horrible diet, as a rule. It's twenty kinds of generic and I eat too much pasta and ice cream. To be honest, though, this probably won't change. I really like pasta and ice cream.
And the main conclusion: Working produce into my diet makes a huge difference in terms of energy and mood. Interestingly, this experiment made my energy levels better--I managed less sleep than usual with no naps and was okay, if not great--but my mood worse--straight carbs and fats tend to keep my body and mind sort of full and dull, whereas this mixed sort of diet made me feel full but not dull, which meant more emotionally sensitivity.
Breakfast: Slept through. Bliss. Also good headache cure...
Lunch: Cantaloupe.
Dinner: Tuna sandwiches with tomatoes and pickles.
Misc. Snackage: Homemade peanut butter cups. (SO GOOD.)
Produce in: 2/3
TOTAL: 12/26 (so about 46%)
Conclusions:
I have a horrible diet, as a rule. It's twenty kinds of generic and I eat too much pasta and ice cream. To be honest, though, this probably won't change. I really like pasta and ice cream.
And the main conclusion: Working produce into my diet makes a huge difference in terms of energy and mood. Interestingly, this experiment made my energy levels better--I managed less sleep than usual with no naps and was okay, if not great--but my mood worse--straight carbs and fats tend to keep my body and mind sort of full and dull, whereas this mixed sort of diet made me feel full but not dull, which meant more emotionally sensitivity.
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This moodiness is something I've heard of happening when you first move to veganism and especially raw foodism, but I hadn't expected to see the difference so pronounced in such a minor diet shift. I mean, I just went from tuna sandwiches to tuna sandwiches with tomatoes in them... but there was a huge change in both energy and mood.
Still... I recommend bumping up one level of produce consumption because a) the energy boost is awesome, and b) veggies are just more healthy than mac and cheese. I'll be keeping this up, and moving more toward a produce-based diet. I may even get as far as one produce basket per week... But we'll see.
Try this:
If you can get it in your area, Bountiful Baskets is amazing. You get a ton of produce for $15. I get one every other week and split with a friend and her husband, because a whole basket will usually last us that long. It's so much cheaper than produce from the store, and there are always cool surprises--a few weeks ago we got okra in our baskets. I always thought I hated okra (word to the wise: DO NOT BOIL IT) but got creative and found that okra pancakes are delicious.
Coming Soon... Being My Own Girlfriend. This one's kinda fun.
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4 comments:
You're making me crave vegetables! Which is probably a good thing. I think I'll go make some stir fry...
That's pretty sweet! I dunno if you're a nacho fan at all (I'm addicted) but nachos with chunks of tart apple on top are an amazing lazy breakfast for summer, and nachos with big chunks of tomato make an excellent lunch/dinner.
(of course, if you like beans that gives you all sorts of lovely combanations, 'cause corn and beans are meant to be eaten together)
Sadly, it doesn't look like bountiful baskets is in maine, but it sounds pretty awesome!
:) ~k
Dory... YUM. You're making me hungry and I just ate.
Kea, that sounds DELICIOUS. Have you ever tried apples in mac and cheese? It's unexpectedly good. No baskets in Maine, but then, Maine has a LOT more co-op farms, which are even better 'cause you get to dig in the dirt yourself. We were part of one in... I don't remember where it was. Somewhere just outside of Auburn? Whatever... It was awesome.
The six months I was vegan were some of the most insanely busy of my life. We worked it out and I literally went an entire semester on 5 hours of sleep a night when everything averaged out. I was on campus twelve hours a day every day, all kinds of busy and stressed, but amazingly I had the energy to do it. I credit my diet. And God. And my diet. Never had any of the moodiness side effects though, thank goodness. I've never heard of that even with hundreds of hours of internet and book reading and researching on the topic... If anything, I was happier and more at peace with myself as a person and with my life, because I was more in tune with my body, and our bodies and spirits are so connected that when you're taking better care of one, the other is automatically lifted as well.
VERY strongly considering going back to vegan in the near future. :)
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