A typical Weekday Breakfast, Protein and Baby Steps

You might have noticed that my dinners don't always feature things that we consider a protein.  There is usually something starchy like potatoes, bread or rice involved, but no meat since I am eating vegetarian and rarely beans or nuts and such.  Breakfast or lunch is typically where a lot of my traditionally protein rich foods seem to be consumed.  But other plant based foods do contain some proteins and I understand we really don't need as much as we think we do.  I have been more concerned that we are getting enough fruits and vegetables in our diet.

Most weekdays this is it.  Some toast with peanut butter and some fruit.  I prefer crunchy peanut butter, but sadly I am out and decided to dip into the husband's preferred creamy for this breakfast.

Other times it will be a smoothie, with some soaked raw cashews in it.  And if my husband gets up early enough he might cook me an egg with some spinach and onion for breakfast.  I do not cook breakfast, because I am not a morning person and might burn the house own if I tried.

Lunches will either be leftovers from dinner, a peanut butter sandwich, or some sort of quick and easy treat.

I don't have a perfect diet.  I still eat junk food (usually crackers, tortilla chips and home made carob brownies).  I still eat lots of fats, usually in those brownies, my nuts or on my roasted veggies.  But my diet is much better than it was 6 months ago.  I am consuming less sweets, no sodas, no meats, and eating more leafy greens and more vegetables in general.  Small steps seem to be working.  I am loosing weight, and not at a crazy fast rate that would make my doctor worried.  And because of my strange diet restrictions I am eating more home cooked meals which means less sodium, sugar and saturated fats.

I don't think that I need to have a perfect plan right out of the gate.  I needed a plan to make me stop hurting right away.  Which meant no meat, no soy and no dairy.  And even that I took as small steps.  I did my best to cut out the soy a very long time ago, when I realized it was causing many of my migraines, although not all of them.  Turkey got cut out a couple years back when I realized it was causing hives.  I cut out the rest of meat last October.  But for all of 2012, I have been trying to increase my vegetable consumption.  It became easier when I needed the vegetables to replace the meat I wasn't eating.  Dairy got cut in December.  And January I began to make a point of making more home cooked meals.

At the end of this month my doctor should be releasing me from my activity restrictions I have had due to surgery, and I think that adding a regular exercise program will be the next step to my quest for a healthier me.  After that, I will figure out a way to tighten up the healthy lifestyle just a bit more.  Maybe in a year or two I will know what a really healthy lifestyle should look like.  But the one I am living today is looking really healthy compared to the one I was live two years ago or even a year ago.