Okay, so I'm not actually posting anything of substance today, just some random thoughts. I haven't exactly sorted everything out, so I'll just do a lengthy, rambly intro.
Here's the deal: I'm a ovo-pescetarian with a nutrition obsession and a desire to live the healthiest life probable. This blog will largely be about my thoughts on various dieting techniques and the best options for leading the healthiest life.
Now, you probably wonder what I mean by ovo-pescetarian. No, it's not that I eat only fish eggs. My diet is primarily vegetables, with the protein focus centered on fish and eggs. Though I am not lactose intolerant, a large proportion of humans have some sort of milk intolerance. I found that my chronic sinusitis diminished when I quit milk, and I felt overall better. Right now I'm only a short while into the experiment, but I hope to have more results in the next few weeks as to what exactly milk does to me. Another reason for quitting milk is that there is little shown benefit - the calcium is important, yes, but some studies say that the protein content, as well as the homogenization issue, make it hard to digest.
I do not eat red meat for mostly ethical reasons, but nutrition wise I find it works out quite well for me. If I could raise and/or kill the creature myself, or know exactly how it went down, I would feel better about it. I don't like feeling so detached from my food that I don't know how it got from the whole thing to the cut up portion on my plate. Fish I allow mostly because straight vegetarian wasn't working for me. I was ovo-lacto for about 3 years, and I find animal protein much more suitable to life.
But the types of food I eat are, in my opinion, less important than the content of the foods I eat. I follow a lite version of CRON as well as low-carb, high fat. Note the 'lite' part. I eat anywhere from 1000-1600 calories a day, depending on exercise. A few weeks ago, 1400 seemed to be my mode, but now 1200 is becoming more prevalent. Protein:carb:fat ratios tend to be around 20-25:45-50:30-35. You'll notice that that's not at all a low carb diet. Well, neither is 1600 calories a CR diet. I'm working on it, and I am honestly getting better.
My current setup in the CRON-o-meter is: 1200 calories, 25% protein, 35% carbs, and 40% fat. In the future I'll probably work on upping the fat and lowering the carbs; protein is already a stretch at 25%, with me consuming something like an egg, a large serving of fish, some nuts or seeds, and a protein shake per day. Fat is easier to increase - nuts are mostly lipids, and it's easy to add oils to things. I'll be working on that.
Hi Rachel-
ReplyDeleteI looked you up from the LC Veg Digest and must say it's refreshing to see others experimenting with their options and educating themselves. I've been doing a series of personal food studies this year, in an attempt to pay more attention to what I'm eating and watch how it effects my body.
I am a 27 yr old lifelong ovo-lacto vegetarian and have read several books on nutrition lately to reinforce my thinking habits, including Pollan's "In Defense of Food", and Freedman and Barnouin's "Skinny Bitch," an excellent, brutally honest, hilarious (yet sometimes horrifying) account of veganism. Earlier this year, I committed to Denise Whichello Brown's 21-day, veggie-adaptable "teach yourself detox." Since then, I have rediscovered the benefits of herbal tea, raw eating, and simple foods without salt, butter, and sugar, and lost 15 lbs by default. I will probably be revisiting the detox again this fall (this helps me re-charge, as I do have my weaknesses like coffee and red wine).
I also noticed relief from sinusitis issues after significantly reducing not only cows milk intake, but gluten products as well this year. I have decided only on special occasion, to eat milk products or grains (other than quinoa or brown rice).
I never heard of the CRON-o-meter until now, and will definitely be checking this out, as well as watch your blog. Keep up the good work, and thanks for the info!
Rebecca Fetter