My husband and I are polar opposites when it comes to eating. He was born and raised in South Africa – he’s only been in the US about 15 years and did not grow up eating much besides meat and potatoes. I grew up in Michigan and practically ate 24/7 out of the garden my Grandfather grew. When I talked about Naked Eating (or sometimes called Cleaning Eating) with him and about changing our lifestyle to reflect it, this was the response I got – “I’ll do it but I’m not eating yucky food and I’m not gonna start munching on broccoli.” Ok then!
He’s quite the sport though. He watched as I cleaned our whole house and got rid of any food that wasn’t natural and wholesome and didn’t make a peep. He tried every meal I put out for dinner – granted he doesn’t ask what’s in it – and he never said a word about going back to our old eating ways. He’s lost more than 20 pounds, has gone from borderline diabetic to normal readings and feels better about himself than he ever has.
He normally works from home but on the days he is at a client site he takes his cooler bag with him that contains all his meals. I actually write out a menu on a small sheet of paper so he knows when to have what. Here is a sample of the types of things he eats during the day…
Breakfast:
My husband is a creature of habit. He loves starting his day with cookies. Yes, cookies! These breakfast cookies contain cinnamon (great for lowering blood sugar levels), raisins and cranberries (full of antioxidants) and chopped walnuts (a healthy nut!). He’ll usually have a fruit smoothie or glass of fresh orange juice with his cookies. On chilly mornings he’ll start the day with a bowl of oatmeal, whole grain toast with peanut butter or pancakes. He also has a large glass of ‘green juice’ every morning (it’s a mixture of spinach, kale, apple, pear, banana and a sea vegetable powder).
Lunch:
Did I mention my husband was a creature of habit? He seriously eats the same stuff everyday. It’s boring but it works for him! For lunch he usually has a hamburger and some potato chips. On colder days he likes to have cheesy taco bake or lentil shepard’s pie. I keep a supply of his meals in the freezer so all he has to do each day it pull one out and warm it up.
Snacks:
Grapes are probably one of his favorite snacks. He’s also a fan of pineapple, bananas and apples. If he’s not reaching for a piece of fruit he usually goes for some nuts. I always have some trail mix on hand and in a pinch he’ll gladly grab a handful of almonds. He’s also a fan of Kristy’s peanut butter protein bars. They are perfect for those afternoons when he’s lacking energy and needs a pick me up! Surprisingly, my veggie hating husband loves edamame. He’ll often have some for a snack if he hasn’t already had some for his lunch.
Dinners:
Some of my husbands favorite dinner meals are corn fritters, enchiladas, quinoa loaf, spaghetti and of course our favorite tacos. We usually have pizza once a week and even though he has burgers for lunch almost everyday, we still usually have burgers once every week or so. Most of the time our dinner meals are whatever recipes we are working on at the time. Since every recipe we feature on this site is taste tested it usually ends up being our dinner for the week.
Exercise:
Every night we walk about 3 miles outside. Weekends we tend to walk more, about 5-6 miles a day. We also like to bike with our children around the trails by our house. Our nightly walks are some of the most enjoyable time of our day. No phones, no emails – just fresh air and nature. Our goal is never to finish in a certain time or reach a specific heart rate level. We try to keep exercising from becoming something that is a chore – something you HAVE to do. Because we keep the time so enjoyable we rarely miss a night (when we do it’s because of rain or bad weather – not because we didn’t want to go).
Beverage:
I never thought I would see the day when my husband went from drinking 8-10 cans of diet soda to drinking water. But cold turkey he stopped! I like to add lemon to mine but he’s not a lemon kind of guy. He actually enjoys plain water now. We both drink more than the recommended amount of water per day and it’s one of the areas of our diet that we notice the change in the most.
Extras:
While my husband does get a healthy dose of raw vegetables everyday, he isn’t one to load his plate with anything green. Because of this he takes a raw food vitamin daily. It ends up bringing his total vegetable intake up to the recommended amount. Although we don’t count calories he usually takes in about 1800-2200 calories a day. He eats about 4 times per day, but if he’s hungry he listens to his body and will grab another snack if needed. We also take a b-12 vitamin daily since we eat a strict plant based diet.
One of the questions my husband gets asked the most is how he gets enough protein eating only a plant based diet. My husband needs about 70 grams of protein per day. He easily hits that number each day. Each of his meals usually contains one or more of the following: sprouted grains, quinoa, tofu, lentils or other legumes. There is no lack of protein in our diet!