Thursday, March 28, 2013

Spring Food Chart

So I've been working on my ultimate food chart for realz and might even expand it from four quarterly/seasonal to twelve monthly menus, which already sort of happens with my food planners, always in a state of flux, the ultimate goal of which being, I dunno, maybe a cookbook?

For reference, perhaps not as relevantly now that I'm eating starchy carbs less and less and it's more protein + vegetables across the board:

BEFORE
light protein &
complex carbs

IMMEDIATELY BEFORE & DURING WORKOUT
simple carbs
 
IMMEDIATELY AFTER
light protein &
simple carbs
AFTER
heavy protein &
complex carbs
BETWEEN
heavy protein &
complex carbs

Immediately before/after means within 45 minutes of, before/after means within 1-3 hours of, and between means more than 3 hours before or after workouts.

I'm picturing spring food like this:

  • Before - Dinner - light protein & complex carbs - veganly beans - I'd been thinking this would be veganly beans and quinoa, but I was dragging my feet for some reason and I finally figured out that the idea of quinoa was making me feel too full. Beans is enough food. So anyway, I'm still saving my starchiest proteins to eat before I work out—this might change, though.
  • Immediately Before & During - Workout Drink - simple carbs - CocoCherry2O
  • Immediately After - Post Workout Snack - light protein & simple carbs - greek yogurt and, right now, honey and sliced almonds or honey and peanut butter. Nooo cooking. Sooo easy. Sooo delicious.
  • After - Breakfast - heavy protein & complex carbs - vegetable egg bites, recipes TK
  • Between - Lunch - heavy protein & complex carbs - chicken and vegetable stew, recipes TK - This was supposed to be baked chicken and vegetable stew, but then SQUIRREL! I got interested in chicken stew for some reason. I do like baked chicken and I have some new ideas for vegetable stews, so those might come up later in the season.

If you're following the opera about the bagel, I think I was eating bagels for work breakfasts for a couple months this winter. And for a couple really bad weeks, coke and chex mix for, um, lunch. I think the coke and chex mix happened because of how hectic the first half of home season was, funny that, you're too busy to cook, there's no food. But also, sometimes you just need a break from cooking. I believe in ebb and flow for everything. I sort of believe in being good most of the time, so you build up a comfortable margin to fit in being unequivocally bad now and again. I mean, I don't believe in this for behaviors that affect, like, people. Really my idea of heaven is that you get points for ice cream by being honest and straightforward. NO ICE CREAM FOR FALSE CONSCIOUSNESS. Ha ha, I'm mean.

Of course every time I think things like that, I think if my consciousness was false, would I know? Maybe I don't get ice cream.

Well no, and I'm not just saying this so I can get ice cream, I think you do know when you have false consciousness, i.e., you feel bad. Your head might be doing fantastic tricks, but look down: if you're riding on a wave of anger or sadness or fear, or bagels, or ice cream, all the fish is not happy under the sea.

ETA: Actually, here is a decent article about all that.

But anyway, by the end of February I was done with starch again. So I've tuned it back up, I have a longer piece on nutrition in the works and will have a lot more to say then. In short though, alcohol, sugar, and processed starch—i.e., pasta and bread—limited to once per week, starchy proteins (grains, legumes) and starchy vegetables (potatoes, sweet potatoes) limited to once per day. I should say I don't sweat a spoonful of flour or breadcrumbs here or there, just not front and center on my plate. Actually also cheese, okay as a condiment, but not as a cheese pizza.